Community Preservation Committee - Regular Meeting

this is the uh Community preservation committee meeting of Wednesday February 19th 2025 um we are being recorded so just a reminder if you don't want your likeness on TV and um anything you say will be recorded also um we have a few projects to get through tonight and then just some other miscellanous things um anyone have any this M's not here with minutes uh I didn't check from mail are there any updates got a couple of things oh first of all wanted to um just acknowledge Amy green our retiring conservation agent at the end of the the month she's been so helpful to this committee over the years um getting you know grants for for projects and working with the open space you know helping us through those hurdles so I just want to say thank you to Amy um for everything that she has done and we look forward to working with Tim Pearson going forward um there was also one other thing I thought was interesting I was looking at something on the um Coalition website uh they're talking about outdoor the outdoor recreation category um and they were saying that the land if you're if you're doing a CPA project on a piece of land it should be restricted for recreational use um there's articles 97 me know um which is a declaration of conservation or open space land that's not to be used by other purposes but they was saying Municipal land usually doesn't fall under the that article um so they're saying if you're using funds I was thinking of the tennis project it was on a you know on a

municipal piece of property which was not designated as open space um we really should have it restricted so then there was a question well what if we use CPA funds for that of course you know how gray CPA is it says you know if the improvements like if in 15 years the tennis courts crumble and they decide to just get rid of them I thought well gez are we going to have to pay back is there it just said that you know your CPA dollars have been was Ed so it doesn't sound like there's any penalties for it it's you should do this but if you don't oh well um typical you know CPA legislature so but I thought it was interesting something we should think about going forward um when we have projects like that I I found out that there's this CPA rule that I didn't know about that if you buy a piece of property um with BC money you have to use them use it for affordable housing and you cannot have any housing on it that is more than 100% of Ami very immediate income so you can't have we can't do a mix of market and affordable units oh for like jerky right this is for jerky right so so I didn't know that we we um I had assumed that you know the conditions of the donation were that it was affordable housing which meant all of it but the other members of my board said no we to make it Market to make it you know feasible we have to have you know half market rate units there turns that we can't so interesting we're gonna we're going to have half at market rate and half at 80% or something like that or up it's it's up to 100% it's not 100%

or over so there's so many nuances to it and they're not well easily spelled out like you can't just go to something and look at all these things so interesting um somebody hasn't challenged it before asked a question before well that's it and it's not in the available right and and again there doesn't seem to be a penalty for it it's just you know you get you the shame waged at you but I I don't know it's just like I say going forward something that we should at least kind of think about um I have public input next but we can do that as we go along unless there's something different other than the agenda items um Conservation Commission Conservation Commission here yes so uh for tonight um I do have an eligibility request and funny application in hand uh for the Long Lake Frog Pond inv basis plant control project I did bring a couple of hard copies if anybody would like to take a look at them I did send uh in out electronically last week I think yeah um so uh so essentially the Conservation Commission is looking for $30,000 uh to fund an invasive plant control uh effort at the Frog Pond um are you guys familiar with the Frog Pond site of Long Lake so if you go down Beach or Lake Drive um off Goldsmith um at the very end of the road youve got lak Shore Drive that runs along side of the the lake there's a little 1.3 acre uh fra Pond uh detention Basin that's been there for about 20 five years I'd say um so anyway it's um it's needed quite a bit of work for a

number of years now um and over the next couple of years we're hoping to address actually hopefully the summer we're hoping to have the highway department dredge the Frog Pond basins and uh with that effort we're hoping to do some invasive plant control and potentially improve the walking path on site which is uh in really rough shape and a second haard for anybody walking through but for sight's purposes this is kind of one of the segments of the overall projects um in Bas of plant control portion um so essentially what we're looking to do is to find a multiphase um effort to um essentially tackle that side of the um the overall project um so the way that it would work would be uh for phase one uh this upcoming summer if approved by the committee tonight and a town meeting and of course going through permitting with concom uh we would do a sight sorry a sight assessment of um the Frog Pond area U basically taking inventory of any invasive plants on site and then from there coming up with a an invasive management plan uh to tackle uh or to basically guide future efforts for removal and then with that first phase we would have um an initial uh cutting and dabbing potentially or mechanical removal of um the invasive plants on site um and again that would all have to go through concom through either a notice of intent or request for Det determination of applicability um on site Rob can certainly attest and test can as well uh that we have a number really bad plants uh Bittersweet Japanese knotweeds uh burning bush plusy Buck for and some really evil plants are out there around the Frog Pond and so we're hoping to really address all of the um the land surrounding the two basins that make up the Frog Pond site

within the 1.3 Acres um and then phase two of course um would include more um kind of follow-up mechanical and perhaps cutting dab cutting dab uh uh with the plants on site and then um this would actually fund two more phases of follow-up treatments as well um so overall this is really aimed to you know clean up this uh town on property and to get it uh back in a really great she you know state so that the public can enjoy it and really uh uh make good use of it and to improve uh life for the need of plants and Wildlife so yeah and that's is here and Rob is here as well from the neighborhood and uh you know uh was really excited to get this moving and uh next month not to jump too far ahead but I hoping like I said to bring another project for the walkway portion of the project in um but uh for tonight we're just focusing on the invasive PL side you're lucky you don't have poison ivy on there yeah oh it's there it's there does it count as an inv that's ative plan perfect and um and so we do have the endorsement of the Long Lake neighbor Association as well so hello my name is Tess I'm on Birch Road and I'm the president of the Long Lake neighborhood association um I sent out a request for comment to the group and um it was overwhelmingly affirmative and supportive of Andrew's um application for funding for this particular project for the uh invasive vegetation management control last year in the spring for our um spring cleanup project Alan and a brought together 22 people and we took a stab at it just the

community removing some of the invasives in there and we had truck loads come out of there it was unwill so Step One is kind of done you can so you're going to step two three four and five yes um and uh we are incredibly excited and eager to start this as soon as possible long El has always discussed the state of this particular U the Wetland Park is what it was called but Frog Pond is very common uh use now and um we've been discussing it for ever since I joined five years ago uh so the dredging is welcome the invasive management is welome the walkway needs to be addressed very urgently um people walk there every day all all day children dogs and it's pretty much impassible it's very dangerous there's uh lots of stones that are out of alignment and it's if you go you will notice right away um so we look forward to that also um yeah and there was one comment uh that was mentioned by the people that had been there from the in so I'm a new Resident but they have been here for 30 years and were there when it was first created that they uh caution me to mention that this is an ongoing issue and the maintenance and the dredging need to have future planning for funding application and the maintenance of the walkway and of course the invasives and the disposal of the invasive should be included in that absolutely and um along with permitting of this particular um and actually all three phases of um this project we will have um removal included guidance uh essentially from the commission on what to do with the

invasive plants once they're removed so that they're not uh infecting any other areas that they're contained um yeah we're really looking forward to get getting this going and the walking path is extremely hazardous not to get too far ahead but Taste of next month's meeting I'll be back thank you you had some questions so is this Frog Pond part of Long Lake it's um it's owned by the Conservation Commission and it's it's kind of like a it's not part of the lake but it's part of the lake if that makes any sense because water yeah water that's not by Open Water not by Open Water open water but water that goes into it does eventually go into the lake um I see so um I guess my question is if other areas of Long Lake which are not being treated what if those invasive but what if they're invasive plants there can they get into this frog pond so luckily um oh and Rob did you want to make a quick point before no please um so essentially um the invasive plants that we're going to be dealing with this time around are mainly terrestrial um like ly Buck Thorn um there is a patch of um oh my gosh uh not purple loose strife what am I looking for here uh my mind is like fried today it's purple loose strife and uh oh my gosh oh I know what you mean the other Aquatic invive um it's like the oh what is it mil foil not mil foil it's um it's greedy fragm oh we should know that there there are fgm's present there and those could potentially be addressed in this application um they have been on

other sites in the town such as CL deal in the past um actually through grant money from this board um so it's all in an we try to make it a holistic you know invasive PL control effort and this is just a stepping stone in what potentially could be done um I mean they're invasives throughout the town and every little bit that we remove certainly helps um but yeah this is uh one piece of the puzzle but important piece for sure so if you understand my question my question is if you do this treatment or clean out the invasives and then a nearby area of Long Lake has invasives and that just immediately bring back the invasive potentially over time but that's why we're really going to have a a magnifying glass on this site in particular um and I mean seed banks and the soil from existing plants now and birds I mean there are a lot of potential threats um spreading when it comes to spreading invasives um so we um will certainly be keeping aen eye on the site to uh to make sure that is that going to be concom or the neighborhood or so it is a concom property and we are yeah we will be um monitoring uh these phases of work not only because we will be permanent it but because I mean it is ultimately a conom property and we will be partnering with you know DPW and uh the neighborhood association to really keep a close watch and keep the site nice one Rob did you yeah I just dra I think I saw an earlier draft I assume it's still the final one that your proposal has a two to three year to hit it first first year and then come back and you know review it again Etc and I think we who are involved in this belief

pretty strongly that when something like this gets done with proper review you should be go searching the area fortunately I Envision some of us gathering around and seeing where and what they you know take out in order to inspect it and then do the cleanup there has been I mean Tess mentioned last year but it was the year before that that there was a pretty big effort right in the outer area of the Frog Bond so but the reality is as Andrew said is that the birds in the seed bank it's very capable of coming back in and just a different detail point the purpose I think it was 2002 or 2003 was to create to receive 22% of the storm of all the water that goes in through to Long Lake to trap it here through a sucession of two Wetland basins that then contain it and then you dredge that out period ically in order to prevent it from seeking it thank you thank you rob that was my next question comment about the DT DP because when it was built it was uh promoted as a storm water um control thing with a very nice benefit of the walkway um and then I I would say that over years of batt Japanese not weed it's tough you really have to keep at it oh yes however across the street from me and the Northern Bank property was huge amount of not weed that they had a crew come in with something from England and it worked I was shocked yeah I mean they're very Innovative now and how they treat it because I mean in England it's a huge problem I've heard that you actually have to have like something put

on your if you have it on your property you can't get a mortgage if you have it on your property yeah it's that serious but yeah they're very Innovative now and uh the techniques of removing it are just incredible so we're hoping to have uh that same success here you at the Frog ponds as you're aware after the this initial repair the maintenance can't come from here yeah I had a question on that too so essentially you mean the followup treatments no no do these projects but then after that maintenance is not we can't support maintenance from here so this s wouldn't necessarily be maintenance just as this initial or no I'm not saying this but after this whole this initial project is done absolutely maintenance cannot come from here oh no absolutely and that's why when we're looking to basically replace the um the walkway that'll be replacing it and then maintenance will have to come through the town yeah well even like the ongoing there will need to be ongoing dring if we don't want to get back to the same place we are oh yes absolutely that also is probably maintenance yeah so that um we wouldn't be able to fund through CPA anyway and and Rob can probably point out um yeah so I spoken with Steve yanley about the San Bond did a was approved for a 93,000 and change contract several months ago by select board and I I asked DPW director yanley and her definitely that the whole aspect of um the the basins the water valves all of that sort of thing is going to be corrected if you will maintained and then in addition part of the uh 93,000 contract is to provide for recommendations with the with the

ongoing frequency and what needs to be done Etc so the the things are in place to set up not to say that they won't need funding at some point to revisit those but at least they have awareness now something that it seems like when it was created in 2002 or 2003 it was somewhat of a celebration of the event and its creation but not aspects and hopefully the plan that will come out of the tie and bond contract will allow for some real awareness and not let it slip away as it did over the last couple of decades and the followup treatments are those how do we say those are not M maintenance so yeah it's all technically preserving open space by removing these invasive plants just as the initial treatments would be or the initial uh control measures so as you're going through it um I mean these invasive plants are a real threat to our open space here in town and uh we have in the past used them to remove plants so it's one of those things where it's never really maintenance but always an ongoing battle if that makes any sense I I would say in this case it's more of a this is a three step process multistage multi-e because it takes a number of years to eradicate three vaccine theoretically if they're never complet completely eliminated right then it's a continuation of the effort I mean there's it's such a huge problem in town and I and I drive by and I see

properties with giant you know things on them so I mean if anything it might be a um you know sort of an educational thing and I would maybe there should be effort to you know have a little get together and I me you've probably already done that with your neighborhood things but if the town wide would understand the nature of these threats it would be good yeah and we're lucky in that um in the last couple of years we we've had Tim Pearson and Amy green out training actually a number of years um so that's been a really great Outreach piece to get people educated and toach them how to properly address and remove these plans uh I'll just go out that Town Administrator jim dougen I've spoken for several times several months and he's very supportive I don't know if he was able to get Amy before she's retiring um but things like uh the transfer station there's no signage advising you know residents don't bring these things here Etc so that's just one example the newsletter there's there's been several aspects with regard to getting something going with regard to townwide awareness and and instruction if you will and opportunities and you basically making reference the we Warriors so I I think there's identification that it needs to be addressed also there's identification that we need a disposal solution because right now that is retarding some of the volunteer efforts because we don't have like two years ago I paid $400 I ultimately got reimbursed by L Anda but to bag it and yet the real solution isn't to bag it and put it into plastic bags and put

it in a landfill we'd like to degrade it but I can't I can't or won't bring to my property all of these invasives that have the you know creation and just leave them there become a Mucky M can you burn them or no sometimes you can it's just dangerous because certainly plants like multi Rose uh the seeds are very hearty and they're good in the ground for 15 20 years um and if you move them to burn them you run the risk of knocking the seeds off depending on the season I mean if you can get them early enough before they go to seed sometimes you can get them together and let them dry out on like rocks and that'll sometimes kill them but they're resilient they're they're invasive for a reason for sure so the only thing I'm thinking you know when we had clean lakes in we were warning them about M you know what when does it become maintenance so if we say well this is multi-year we're going to have to you know say no one and not to the other I think what you said it originally and then s picked up on it's it's a m this sort of Grant is for multiphase that's you know and don't don't necessarily tie it to year yeah just say multiphase and the site assessment who who's going to do that that so that would be so that would actually be the same company that we wind up hiring toh complete all the work so they would do the assessment of the site see what we have um in terms of invasives um terrestrial and perhaps Aquatic and then they would come up with a management plan on what exactly needs to be done on the entire 1.3 Acre Site surrounding the uh the basins and then they would begin that initial uh control work and then the additional

phases so if you get this money at meeting then you go to bid or you have in mind so um we would have to gather quotes and go through the process and then it would of course have to go to concom either through notice of intent or request for determination of applicability just for this one project and then any other projects like the dredging will have to go through the same uh permitting ultimately if we bring a walkway forward and get that um approved at this committee then town meeting they'll also have to get permitting through concom as well so it'll um it'll be multi uh it'll have a lot of rings to jump through but we're really um ambitious and we're hoping to get this uh underway fairly soon questions for Andrew I'll make a motion that you approve 0,000 eligibility for eligibility I second it okay we have a motion by Bartlett and the second by Linda to this is for the Frog pun eligibility request and we're all in attendance so all in favor post seven nothing okay and then um funding request the only question I don't have on that is how did you come for $3,000 so I did get a quote to basically have all of this um performed I did put a little bit of padding in certain categories just in case you know for like a contingency and uh just in case things run over a little bit with permitting

but uh I think uh this number should be sufficient and uh if need be if this wasn't enough to complete all the phases the Conservation Commission would certainly figure out a way to get this done either through grants other grants or uh know other private groups that we worked with and we we approve the application for funding for the long l frog fond and Basit plant control in the amount of $30,000 second uh we have motion by Jeff a second by Bartlett for the funding application on fav please say I I thank you everybody send to recommend to town meeting and than nice work thank you um Lind if you don't mind Marin tle is on the line to do the um affordable housing trust she had another meeting so I stuck her at the end but maybe we can jump ahead to that Marin if you're all set thank you very much um actually um I'm just here to support Bartlett whenever he's ready to present so are you ready to present this is for the um affordable housing rental assistance for fiscal year 26 yes rental assistance um we the Housing Trust has um increased both the number of slots or positions that we're willing to support and the amount of the grant each

month um so um we've gone from 15 to 20 possible people on board and from $250 to $500 a month payable to the pable to the landlord so if we have a full load of people um at the at the $500 a month rate for 12 months that's where the $120,000 comes from that is the cost of this project we have approximately $144,000 left over from the $90,000 that was appropriated a year ago and that 14,000 is going to be part of the 12 120,000 which leaves 106,000 that we're asking for um the reasons that we um increased the numbers we got the message from Elder Human Services that their um the number of requests for housing assistance has gone up dramatically both in Littleton and in the region and nationally um sort of um where's the percentages I I have it somewhere if I recall the discussion at the planning or the affordable housing trust meeting last night EHS uh show showed a 31% increase in the number of assistance questions for housing and it's about 20% regionally so we feel like there's a real possibility that we will be serving 20 or more people during the course of the year so um we feel it's a very successful program it's kept people in their

homes it's the Elder Human Service does a great job of vetting people they're all there a point system they connections to Littleton um the money goes directly to the landlords so there's no monkey business and um we think it's a great program and we we want to fund it absolutely so I guess I'm not really sure that this $116,000 in the housing um cookie jar here but well we will be allocating more we will be allocating more so if we can you know this is a 12mth program it starts in July so um we can there there's opportunities to get more okay later yeah I should have gotten some updated balances well we have 20% for community housing and the revenue that we have is 821 328 so that would be of a cover and we had and then 15% of the state match right so I mean this what I'm just saying is that if it doesn't all come tonight then you know it can go back through the next well I think we can all in you just we would have to do from the allocation rather than from the reserve okay but we can um you have $14,000 to start right

and that's proper that you can transfer go from one year to the next right yeah okay oh okay here you have Reserve for community housing 91 558 okay so as of 117 2025 that's before the next those before yeah I should have got they might clear you clean out that but um well we could uh that's the I if that's the balance or now is then we are adding more for the next fiscal year so right program run both the sear charge and the state match right so you'll have we've got the money significantly more than what you're asking yeah I should add that we we've I think um helped 35 families in the last since the program started I think 15 in in this current year so what is the duration of the help is it indefinite or it's it's started off um as being for a year with two renewals possible so maximum of three years but we've run into a couple of situations where the recipient is elderly and infirm and there's really not much Prospect or any Prospect of of of them increasing their income so we've kind of let those few examples continue beyond the three years

there's been a lot of debate about it but couldn't see you know supporting somebody in a minimal way for three years and then cutting them off um when there's you know they're older than more feble than I am and we don't we don't spend the $500 on every single person there are people from um the trailer park out there where the rents are sometimes less than $500 so then pay only the exact rental amount so there maybe some change left over that the remaining 14 is that from paying less than 500 no it's from just not having not having as many not having a full load of people and people who gone for part of a year you know that kind of thing so it's just money that has been there but we haven't had to spend spend it any questions Mar do you have anything to add here to answer any questions if you should you have any it's a great program it's helped a lot of people and should definitely keep going so we have a eligibility requests which I think we've kind of gone over before but we haven't voted on but we haven't voted on this one no I'll make a motion to approve the eligibility request for the affordable housing Trust um rental assistance application for fiscal year 26 second we have a motion by Linda second

by Andrew all in favor please say I I oppos okay 7 Z and application for funding I'll make a motion that the uh committee approve the funding application uh from the affordable housing TR for the affordable housing trust rental assistance program for FY 26 um do we want to say partially from the reserve with um the remainder to be applied by the allocation we need to the oh it's already allotted yeah sorry so yes I'll just let that stand from the community housing the community housing bucket second second we have a motion by Andrew a second by Saul all in favor please say I I okay so those are all set great can I add one one more thing that the the Housing Trust the town has gotten a grant from the state um to operate a a mini grant program for home repairs for um for Aging in place alterations to houses and for repairs that are necess um saying in the house and um that just started February 1 and there's a was a limit of $7,500 per Grant um and we funded the first one this week so great um that's a program that we're looking forward to very much it's not Town money it's state money but it's we expect that to be very helpful to people that's great and that goes through EHS as well so someone wants to

apply same very much similar things application um EHS vets it the Building Commissioner I mean they have to get bids from I think minimum three contractors and then the Building Commissioner reviews that those in you know they work something out together and he's chart he's the Building Commissioner monitors construction and approves the payments so it's it's a multi um is this state money or federal money state there is no federal money well that's all right well thank you I those we all set thank you Marin great thank you very much uh so we can go back to Linda historical commission we have a couple of funding applications that we had approved eligibility for um I guess I'll do the dirky one first um as Carolyn just said I think um last month uh this committee approved or recommended the eligibility application so now we're doing the funding application um so for The derky Farmhouse and barn project um we're looking to hire a historic preservation consultant to assist the historical commission develop an RFP and histor and a historic preservation restriction probably just one we might need two but probably just one um the affordable housing trust owns the property the derky property at 260 Foster Street uh the the focus of the property will be affordable housing and Bartlet saying it'll be all affordable housing right

um and so we've talked preliminarily about having joint affordable affordable housing and historic preservation on the site um I don't know if the town's done this before I'm not aware of it being done before um so it's kind of exciting we also don't know how it's going to work exactly um we've done some research um I found an RFP in Westford that's done exactly that um you know obviously it's a little different the site's different but um they RFP was really good and I've shared it with the affordable housing trust and we you know depending on how we go forward it may be a useful model for us um so um we're asking for $648 to hire a um preservation consultant um here or she would help the the historical commission write uh the RFP um we're sort of starting out looking at the 12 Robinson Road RFP but there are differences there will be differences um and the the RFP um in for Westford and for 12 Robinson includes a preservation restriction which is takes a while to develop now we've developed one we know what's involved but we would like to use the historic preservation consultant to help us write the preservation restriction um so that's what we're looking for and um the application CPC application would also include two site visits by the consultant and follow-up consultations by the consultant with the historical commission the affordable housing trust the select board and

Architects to talk about historic preservation options that are feasible and it's we don't know exactly when the buildings were built but the estimates that we've gotten are the house was built sometime um you know from American Revolution up to 1825 sometime in that period And The Barn was built um in the first half of the 19th century so before 1850 so there's some age there there um the barn is quite interesting structurally and um the house structure is unknown because has nobody done any you know poking holes in the wall to see what's there or you know sticking knives in the sill to see how bad they are but they're they are old and and um I think having some historic preservation is a good idea I think it can be done but I think it'll be like the Robinson house you know sort of the surface on on the on on one side more than the whole thing we're not being there's some fireplaces that might be saved and you know some the room layout is I think pretty original but um so I don't I don't know how it's going to turn out but was the Western project built did they do anything I haven't called them yet I haven't seen online that it's been built they hired it they hired a nonprofit group to do it mhm um but I haven't seen any evidence online that it has been done I will I do plan to call them and find out what what the status is do you wear the house with the food bank in it yeah yeah I I I drove by there and they were several months ago and they

were um I were Carpenters all over the place wow where about is this town it's called the town Farm 35 Town Farm Road Maybe oh okay I think I have to look it up it's I think it's little park and wre building right brick building remember think so you don't think so I don't think it's no it wouldn't be if it's old I mean um is it over where they Park all the school buses maybe I'm thinking of a different road I don't think so I [Music] supports the request that was my fa question in the historical commission is working closely with affordable housing trust absolutely we know that we'll have to be flexible the you know the priorities affordable housing we'll work with them you know what is the the former Park and wreck building at the end farm it says 35 Town Farm Road I don't know what was there before yeah it's a great bit Yeah the town Farm um you all of the school buses um all right any other questions Belinda that aad

TR the fire station the number very specific is that the exact quote amount or for for what we're requesting yeah yeah the reason we have these exact Amounts is because our the consultant that we might use that we've used in the past she lives in Rhode Island and so she charges for travel for mileage so that's why it get so specific that is her quote so we have at the last meeting we approved the eligibility for both of these or okay so now we're just doing funding correct I just I I would just suggest in the future based on other projects that always seem to come back the short of money or people go digging for money in other places just add a% contingency or put some padding on it yeah put a little patting on it I we could do that now if you really want to but I think it it's a good idea it makes sense and is normal practice for any kind of project a little see that's true because it's easy enough to pay back yeah right if you don't use it we we take it back but at least then you don't have to come begging for pennies yeah we're good digging in some other pocket do you want to propose a round number I don't remember that with well one 68 one was 6823 one was 64 something this one is 648 do we want to just say 7500 or yeah are we allowed to do that Ved it through fine with me well she may change your rates by the time yeah time we're ready to move forward you want to make a motion I'll make a motion that the committee approved the funny application for the

historic preservation consultant to write an RFP for the rehabilitation in preservation restriction the jerky Farmhouse at 260 Foster Street and barn and barn to be taken out of the historic Reserve at $7,500 at $7500 sorry second sorry motion by Andrew second by Saul all in favor please say iOS done so the second uh again second funding application tonight from the historical commission is for the um God Hill Orchard um I just want to point out that the agend title is is a little bit different than the actual title on the application so um it's a little different so I'm going to read the title from the application um ngog Hill Orchard historic preservation consultant to survey two barns for MHC macers inclusion and develop three historic preservation restrictions for the main house and two barns so basically so I just I'll be brief on the background you all know probably at least as much as me on what's going on um a lease is in the process of uh being prepared by the town of Littleton for the APR lands at the orchard agriculture preservation restriction lands um the the all none of the buildings at the orchard are part of the APR so they're totally separate um they are not protected by APR there is no protection for the buildings right

now um my understanding is the person who may lease it is interested in possibly leasing the two barns and possibly the cottage but you know I don't know for sure um in any case that still doesn't protect the buildings from being demolished from being altered significantly so um in my mind and in the historical commission's mind regardless of what happens at the orchard whether it leas sold down the road whatever we would like the building at least some of the buildings to be protected we don't necessarily have to protect the little shed and maybe not the cottage we're interested in the main house and the two big barns pretty much um we've gone ahead on our own own and um initiated sort of not protection but a steps toward protection for the main house with our own historical commission budget our consultant and I have um done a survey of the main house um we she's researched the history we didn't go inside because there's some issues in the inside but um she's researched the history of the house she's done a survey around the ex interior of the house for the historical historic architectural elements features of the house we've written up um the documentation of that and we've submitted it to the state macis database and so it's in there now so at least that's it's it's there as a historic building so that's good we want to do something similar for the two barns we want to survey the barns uh have our consultant preservation consultant

survey the barns hopefully the exterior and the interior we would then she'd research the history we would submit uh the documentation into the macro system and then it's recorded it the barns would be recorded as historic properties that's kind of the first step in moving forward for protection um then the second part of this project would be to also write preservation restrictions for the main house and the barn and the two barns that identifies what features exterior and possibly interior are of historic significance and what features should be protected going forward so um that's what this application is for and it's for um 600 $ 6,823 maybe we you should do the same thing yeah say both 75 7500 fine with me 7500 um four for consultant to help the historical commission uh conduct this work and again there these are the steps involved in getting towards preserving and rehabilitating the the buildings themselves do you have a guess as to the age of the buildings um we do oh yeah so for the main house we were surprised um main house isn't part of this except for the preservation restriction would be with the main house we thought it would be older the main it looks old the building looks pretty old but when we started research I think Carolyn was bounc this information um there was a fire in 1922 and the whole thing burned down so we believe it's from

1923 w wow which is much newer than we thought we still would like to pres you know move towards preservation it's a beautiful building it's part of the landscape landcape part of the landscape absolutely it's part of the orchard but that was a surprise I mean there's some advantage to you know using it if it was built in 1923 and the barns we don't know because we haven't surveyed the bar sometimes they're lot less old than true barns were sort of provisional and they brought it and rebuilt and true we don't know we will know once she does the survey and does the history research yeah the barn you know the white barn that's sort of down the hill slightly is really nice Barn um the other Barn is you know not so nice but it's huge and would be interesting to find the history of that and take a look at it architecturally so I move that we approve the application for funding for the neog Hill Orchard historic preservation consultant to survey two barns um Etc uh for in the amount of 7500 from this historic preservation bucket Reserve second we have a motion by um Jeff a second by Andrew all in favor please say I iOS all right um I had that the track project but I have not heard anything about it yet and the other one is the docks for Long Lake I've forgotten about that um I haven't spoken to Alicia so we'll have to do

those I guess in March if those are still coming second or I'll send blanked on that till tonight yes based on the budget meeting expect that's yeah um so the big thing is the allocation so this is voting on The the percentages for fiscal year 26 which gets um comes from a property tax SE charge for the next year um last year we did 40% open space 18 historic 20 community housing 21 Recreation and 1% Administration was it 20% Recreation uh 20% housing and 21 for recreation what did we use the 1% Administration for we didn't use it for anything Coalition dues oh Coalition dues yeah it's um they're very expensive are they really S7 it's like $1,700 so we have to pay for them to tell us we can't do things Yes actually we we do use them a lot I've been using him more this year this past year yeah it's really worth it and then what happens is the ad Administration fees that aren't used go into um every year get dumped into the undesignated fund so you're putting it there as kind of a where does it get Place UND designated oh oh oh so it's kind of like a a safety insurance insurance in case we need that need something to be done so we were used to do 2% and we knocked it down to one because we really haven't haven't needed them yeah in future I know a lot of

communties are kind of you know when it comes to minutes looking for ways to to do them so that could be you know hire someone although shouldn't the town do I mean you know it occurs to me that you know there's a where we have a $3.5 million fund balance and they're just letting us you know do whatever in terms of I don't know it seems like there's a town interest in administrative I mean I you I was on the board of appeals for years and we would write our own decisions and these were legally binding things filed in the you know registry of deeds and here I'm you know it's crazy yeah we can also use them like if we want to do due diligence on a property for in you know somebody brings a project to us and we're like we we could always hire someone ourselves that's what there's a very finite thing that you you know that you can use for the administrative funds due diligence is a good idea though yeah probably will come up yeah we should see what other people use it for but I mean it's kind of it's just a little little bit but so anybody here want to speak up for your team I think that the numbers last year amazing I'm just going to say it right now open space I just question whether we should well we we we uh load up undesignated from the state match yeah but otherwise we have

no um you know bucket for that in the regular sear charge but we do have a a pretty substantial balance and that and that makes me feel good because it means that you can you know approve a Project based on several buckets if you need to so um anyway and money gets put in that um any any little fees that come in through the the the search charge like back taxes it looks like they put that into the undesignated there was some fun I can't remember um there was some something else that gets put in there oh we found out last year yeah that was on the tip of my tongue i' lost it so that gets funded by other things other than what we vote to put in so did did we all look at this the Carol and Sun around did I um I don't know it says is that the the fund balance it's yeah it's for 225 as of 17 2025 so we have roughly 400,000 for open space 785,000 for historic resource 92,000 for community housing 6 80,000 for recreation and then the undesignated is over 1 and a half million oh or a total of three and A5 million it's pretty good amount for designated wow and the one thing I forgot to ask about is The Debt Service focusing on it yeah right but the debt service is

fairly low because every year it goes down um2 I we didn't add any for the no web land no because we that out right so so I guess the question would be for the people here who represent these buckets like Saul 678 th000 for recreation is that enough is that post all of this year's projects or is that I don't know let's see well because the uh I guess we're not funding the track correct it has it own funding yeah but yeah because it was the what did we end up paying for the tennis courts or S something yeah so that's the only thing we'd have Debt Service for did we end up I don't no I did we pay that I think we did yeah oh did we yeah believe was that because we had to resend and something like and it was close enough we approved it at an earlier phase right but then there was a transfer from the light water yeah and right I that went into um yeah I yeah there have been have been and are some large Recreation projects um I believe that the the ramp

improvements at Law at spectacle will also become the outo recreation which we have't well they're not AED by to meeting so there are there quite a 30,000 and next month when I do come back with that walkway that's technically a recreational project but I will be kind of seeking undesignated to not dip into that uh so I me you know I I make an argument that we could replenish that a bit but I think if we have a have a if we keep the the allocations similar to where they are are we have a large underated fund if we have projects come inable with that that works yeah um I'm you know I'm okay with the at% we have fair amount in our bucket it's more than we usually have 7 785,000 that's good um you know in the past we haven't used it for huge amounts however going forward we may be using a chunk of that 785 for the derky rehabilitation possibly and possibly for rehabilitation of the main house at the orchard in the interior so those are both pretty big ticket items and we may be using a lot of our um bucket so I certainly wouldn't want to reduce it Beyond 18 at this point and Barta what do you feel about the housing um and then over time we could always use more but I'm happy to leave it the way it is

for right now I'm stepping on car no five good okay and then to uh to advocate for the open space uh portion of the bucket uh 40% I think is a pretty healthy amount for us uh as we've seen with the Webster property uh we bought that out right and did wipe quite a bit of the reserve um but you never know when the next big land purchase will come up and when the town will be in a position uh to acquire a piece of property that the times people want to preserve so it's great to to kind of build that up and to uh to really um have they ready to go if a property does appear because unfortunately in the land business it's reactive for the most part and yeah to have that healthy amount I think would be really key in the future in the state match you feel about the same I mean that's like we say we put we've been putting a quarter of it into undesignated which really helps um and the state match is getting smaller and smaller right yeah it's 150,000 right but we're with the finance committee putting money in there right Bob and Beyond the search charge we're getting like a total back not percentage wise getting blended yeah cuz when I saw that search of 821 I thought that can't be right but they really still seems they doubled right because they matched us 1% so I like I like the idea that our undesignated is so high because we can all use that it really gives us more flexibility so and that's why a lot of towns dump a lot more into that but we've always kind of had the philosophy of yeah allocating I like the fact that we each of our categories have that money that we can point to and say okay for historic if we really need it it's right there communities that tend to put

it all in undesignated it's like a fight over the money at that point you don't have that security so I think it's good the way that we do it and dividing it but at the same time having that large undesignated Reserve so if you know Recreation or historic or any you know category needs additional funding it's it's at the ready so separate question one you've said or implied that the town would possibly be renovating the jerky house and possibly the neon house and then who would benefit from them Ian who's going to live there or well right I mean we'd have to we wouldn't put money in until we knew okay what you know how that would work out I mean maybe renovate you know derky we know the story is going to be affordable housing or yeah but maybe the house well so benefit the affordable housing in some way that's I mean the house the house may get sold separately just because that would make it easier to deal with as a project but it that was purchased with CPC money so it has to stay affordable okay so we just have to have find somebody with no income and million dollars to stand on the store house oh wow and be olderly and easy no problem so but for the for the orchard we you know we would have conversations with the select board and figure it you know what's what um since that is a town property it is a town property correct so you know depends what the town would want to do with at least it sell it it can't I my understanding is it can't be sold or possibly even least I don't know it can't be leased in the

condition it could be sold could be sold right so we would have discussion with the select board and see what they would like to do with it I guess if the if the town wants to keep it and release it then the town will have to renovate it if Town wants to sell it it probably makes more sense to sell it as is put your historical restriction on it and let somebody else figure it out right yeah right so I I'll make a motion that uh the committee allocate for FY 26 uh the following allocations um out of the 1% property search charge uh 40% for open space 18% for historic uh 20% for housing 21% for recreation and 1% for administrative I'll second that uh we have a motion by Andrew and second by Bartlett all in favor please say I opposed great thank you that was easy you want to do do we need a motion for the state oh oh yeah oh yeah yeah yeah Blended funds and blend yeah the Blended fund well let's do the state match first and we'll talk about so this 848 includes abundant FS right yes so it's basically yeah that's oh in fact I it should say search charge and Blended funds but I I didn't I need to um so amended add that to the previous one no I don't think oh be yeah because we have to vote on specific blonding funds but I need I I lost the spacing in my report there so statement

match I move that we allocate the state match uh open space 30% historic 15% community housing 15% Recreation 15% Administration zero and undesignated 25% and this is State match on FY 25 Revenue second we have a motion by Jeff a second by Solan all in favor please say IED um Blended funds um there's a couple of different places it's coming from so they're going to be giving us in toal $441,500 th000 so I guess we're going to get the the track fund stuff this year so $40,000 will be coming from the school department for the track so that will be open that would be Recreation um 120,000 will be coming from the school department from their own budget for track renovation so that will also have to go to Recreation then 28184 is coming from the town and I meant to ask if we didn't get an answer on whether they are earmarking that or if it's if we just want to put it into undesignated or if we want to wait I should have I I didn't apologize I

didn't ask again so so how could we do emotion with percentages we know this would be have to do specific yeah maybe we should wait because what if they wanted it to go to well can we just put it in undesignated if and then if it's if it's designated later we can designate it yeah I mean it could sit in undesignated with a caveat with it yes well you could say to be placed and undesignated with these provisos you know the I forget what you said but well we could I mean unless the ones that are earmarked we allocate now know what's not ear marked we just go to undesignated yeah and maybe maybe there is no nothing that they have in in um in mind for it because they didn't mention it and like I said I did ask and they kind of skipped over that question so maybe it's just ours to I think it's ours yay well I know he's got his foot in two buckets now fight with them twice as hard um do we want to do that then just vote it into undesignated sounds good so it would be 160,000 um from the school well I guess we should do this on each I'll hand this to someone who wants to read it I don't think you need to say from the school board you just say from the town yeah how does that work isn't it Old Town money or so technically I mean that's money with strings on it though from the school department for the track specifically other money is coming from

out the 40 is coming from outside so that's the club he he calls it a transfer from the FY 26 budget we should probably just say it just like this yeah the school the I actually maybe just coming from the school is that right yeah the school department is holding that that they got from the right the gift fund yeah so money's been passed around a lot but I can hand this to someone who wants to make a motion Andrew sure so let's see here um this here so I'll make a motion that the committee um accepts uh the available Blended funds um with $40,000 uh being transfer from the school department to be placed in the recreation category for the track um another $120,000 to be transferred from the school department again uh for the track um $281,000 being transferred in uh through the FY 26 budget to be placed in undesignated and let's see I think that's it yeah perfect I second we have a motion by Andrew a second by Linda all in favor please say I opposed okay great let them now we like that all right so there's our budget for the next year um anything else interesting um the next meeting I I will not be able to be here Andrew is going to sit in what's the date on that March 19th March 19th already oh my go be March 19th we will'll be in this room if oh follows okay and

um hopefully Park and wreck will be here and um the other one uh conom will have hopefully the uh walkway for the front Pond yes and maybe the track people but I'm not sure that that's a if they're rushing that through I'll talk to Mark ronacher about that he's the one that approached us all right so March 19th is our next meeting before I move we adjourn second that we have a motion to adjourn all in favor please say say I I oppos all right thank you everyone thank you nin