Community Preservation Committee - Regular Meeting

[Music] meeting to order at 7:04. Um, welcome. We have a couple people that are out uh ill and we couldn't do a last minute Zoom today because um Beth started her new job and she's not here to do the logistics of making it all happen. So hopefully we'll be ready for the next time when we have to we'll be able to zig when we need to zigg at the last minute. I only congratulations. I was actually planning on zooming from another place. Well, that's just it to get a either we know who Zoom account we can use because I know their passwords and all those kind of things and all that and you I'm not real sure anyway. But I made it clear. Yeah, I was early too. So, okay. So, Ken, you're up. Treasury report. Uh two only two trivial changes. One is the uh the date. This is April. The other change I made was uh uh I put the article numbers from the you know FINCOM from the FINCOM meeting on the uh grant uh of rather the grant warrants that we had. So that's it. So, uh, just to summarize where we're at, uh, let's see. Uh, you know, we the grant we've had $130,000 worth of bond payments, $447,000 worth of grants, uh, including the ones that were going up for this meeting, and $24,000, uh, uh, you know, that we set aside for expenses. So if everything gets approved that we uh submitted for for you know for which we

submitted articles we will have $718,000 left to use in October. Okay. With one good caveat is that uh by October uh we'll start to see the results from accounting of the closure of fiscal 2025. And so we'll get the estimates we made for revenue will be uh exchanged for uh well they'll be corrected for reality and that has always been you know you know actually a material improvement over how much that we estimated. Uh it's ranged from like $75,000 to $200,000. and the average of over the five-year running average of the uh uh upticks are about 120. So, we can expect to have some material improvements on that for uh that we'll see by October. So, uh we're in good shape. Uh we can do anything that comes in front of us. Relatedly, did Fincom yet vote on approving on supporting any of these warrant articles from us? Uh, actually we they all they seem very receptive and really didn't have questions, right? They were all like these were pretty standard. They didn't, you know, yeah, the questions were minor and the, you know, they accepted the answers then we continued on. There was no uh negative oriented questions. Okay. Yeah, they were okay with that. I mean, I explained the congregational church and that this was a continuation that didn't throw a wrench in the works. Um, and then the park, it seems like they did ask a question about that, but it wasn't, you know, relating to the validity of it,

but just more maybe more explanation. Um, but again, just describe what the project was. Oh, yeah. That's great. You know, because I think, you know, how long has it been there? We said, well, I think they said it's way past its serviceable life kind of. It's it's a a park that needs to be um structures need to be re replaced. Um and then all the others were just our standard war typical warles. Yep. Right. Which are formulaic. Okay. I'll move that we approve the treasures report. Second. I have a motion and a second. Um motion uh to approve the treasures report. I I in favor all those opposed to go the motion carried unanimously. Another casualty of the transition is we weren't able to get the minutes done and try to get the logistics of getting her to be able to print out this copier here. So um we'll do those at the next meeting. Um the next item and this should be there were in the packet um the um affordable housing trust had a um draft of the agreement and then Ken found a couple of typos and there were a couple other things that he had questions about. So Ken, I'll let you Okay. So, uh, I guess I'll just, uh, did I just Where did I have that? Uh, while he's pulling that up. Oh, here it is. Yeah. Here we go. While he's pulling that, can I ask a quick question? Were you able to purchase any of the equipment we Yes. Oh, looks nice. And a printer. Excellent. Okay, cool. And a docking station. Okay. So, this is the grant

agreement uh that we received from uh I guess we received from the affordable housing trust. So, uh it looked pretty good, but as in scanning through it, I noticed that right here there was a typographical error. Uh there's an extra period in there. It probably shall be submitted purpose. Well, anyway, that isn't Yeah, it's missing something. And there's a t a t miss missing on this word here. So, that's uh easily uh explained. Then moving down, I notice two errors of which I think are of substance. And this one here, there's the the word and is missing. And it says here, yes. Oh, no, excuse me. This is when we're talk you're talking about the trust agrees to meet from time to time with the CPC and it when we sent it approved it and sent it to the uh back to the AHT we had a phrase in here called no less than annually and in this version here that was omitted. So the the substitute instead of to meet from time to time to be to meet no less than annually. Yeah. No, excuse me. From time to time. And then in addition to that phrase, we said, "Oh, but no less than annually." Okay. But no less than. Yeah. The but is implied. Is it okay to so you are you not okay with how it's worded there from time to time with the CPC or its designate upon reasonable request and we just request it annually because we might want it more than annually. You know it doesn't it says uh well I what are your thoughts everyone? I I will say I vaguely remember us

discussing this in the past and I I thought our takeaway was especially this if the federal house just will be submitting a application every year as well. We'll have that annual chance anyway and from time to time and upon reason request was enough to cover that. That was my memory of our past discussion. I could be misremembering that entirely but that's what I thought we said. Yeah. Yeah. And just one question, if we add that in there and we don't meet, what does that void this agreement? So, I've already I don't think No, I I don't I don't think that terminates the agreement. There's nothing, but I I I mean, I don't know that there's other things in this agreement that are going to be very difficult to achieve as well that we've already said won't be voided, the agreement. This is really just to dot an eye, cross a tea. Um, I'll say the first two are Scrier's errors that I feel comfortable, you know, changing without bringing it back to the trust. But if if we do a bigger change like this, it would have to go back to the trust and they already voted on this. So, if we can live with this one, I would prefer that. But I don't have a problem bringing it back to the trust. Uh, I could live with it. I think it's I don't have a problem with it. I'm just Okay. But the next one I think is more important. And it's it's small but important. Right here. This here. I this right here there's a missing word and and that changes the meaning without that word. What without that word the uh it means that the approvals are for ensuring the permanent re enforcement uh with the word and in it they have to get approvals for the those from the EHOC as well as is you have to approve the AHR and also you need to ensure the

enforcement. Now, ensuring the enforcement isn't an isn't an EOHLC issue. And also with the wording being like this, it makes it seem as though to enforce it, you have to get approval. It makes it seem like one, right? They're not They're not You don't have to go to them to approve the enforcement, you have to go there to approve it, and you have to enforce it. Yeah, I think that does make a because it it implies that EOHLC is if they get the approvals from them, then they've done everything because they're the ones holding all the cards and they're only holding once one Yeah. card in the hand. Missing the end changes the meaning to being something that it doesn't mean. So my looking at this, I think I agree with what everyone said so far that end is important here. It also feels like that was probably just a typographical error, but it does change the meaning. So, it is important. So, I have two. We've had so many versions of this grant agreement. I have two in my hands. One with the and one without. So, one that is draft. No, no, no. I know. I'm just saying these are these could have even been from the affordable housing. The one we sent them has the and right. So, the one I can I know that for a fact and this one's Yeah. So, it's it's been there with and without it. It first these two in my hand. So, um I'm not sure when it was without it. What it was without this this in this one right here, this phrase, this was changed by our first by the thing we sent them. Let me see if I can find that. It's hard to tell which document is owned by us and which and that's that's all because they look the same on the front, right? There's there have been so many versions of this and and my hope when we all met together was to make sure this all got ironed out and the fact that it keeps finding these um I will say this much the trust doesn't

really give as much input as as Ken has been given. So um Ken if there's any way you can lost call did you know I did not Oh okay I was like well but Ken could you maybe just attend one of the affordable housing trust meetings so we can just be all on the same page and get the first We only got two things. We have two things that are truly typos and one that may be a typo. Right. And so the only thing that on that that needs any kind of discussion is on item 11 that after EO HLC to add the word and that's the only discrepancy between the two agreements that we can live with and and then the two typos. Yeah. For sure. No big deal. Yeah, but that's um and on paragraph 11 is the only thing that we need to hammer out and and then that's it. Yeah, this is the one that we sent them. Where was that? 11. So, do we want do we want We discuss this a little bit more if we need to, but do we want to Yeah, there we Yeah, we said Yeah, we said put that end in there. That's what we said when we sent them. and we said put that and in there and they didn't put it in. Do we want to approve this with the and if we approve approve with the and and then that way it's once you guys I don't want to do that and here's why I don't want to do that you want it coming back right because the the trust has already approved one version that's now being sent back so let's not approve it yet cuz we really thought we had the clean great version that we approved at the trust which clearly wasn't the case I don't see the trust having an issue or you know they really aren't giving this level of input at all So I think it should be no problem but I I don't want to guarantee that and vote here. Sure. Gotcha. Okay. So right wouldn't just I'm

happy to defer to your opinion calling on this but wouldn't it be just simpler if we're happy with this with the end and it's basically almost the exact same agreement just to vote yes so that when it goes to the trust that's the end of it rather than having to come back here another time. I don't know anymore. I've I've lost my mind when it comes to this grand agreement to be honest with you. That might you know that could Let's vote on it. That's fine. So, I move ahead. We accept any further discussion. Anybody else? Okay. I move that we accept the community preservation committee grant agreement with the town of Grafton affordable housing trust as amended with the but we will you know we'll we'll accept we'll give up the uh we'll as amended and discussed as amended. Yeah. Number number eight isn't included in that amendment. It is not there right there. So that's fine. So the the scrier's error is in the earlier one and then number 11 specifically to include and okay. Right. So we can say with the changes in uh the the se the third and fourth whereas and item 11. Okay. Okay. So I have a motion and a second. Second. Any further discussion? All those in favor? I. All those opposed declare the motion and carried unanimously. So to go forward with this, Colleen, what should we do? You uh this document that we're tabbing through right now is in the uh the distribution. Yeah. Uh so there's there's two in the distribution, right? I believe you know. So the question you want to make sure we know what the comments are. Yep. So, I'm I'm totally good with that, but can you just go to the packet and show me which one you want? Because there's a grant agreement and then there's grant agreement. Grant agreement. Grant agreement. That's the one I should open. That's the one I will Okay. I'm going to download that to my computer right now and make sure that that's draft. It says

what it says. Yeah. But all I'm saying is see in we can version one. Version two. Yeah, I usually whatever it is idea. Yes. Yep. No initials. I yell at people that use their own initials. I'm going to make the next one pink and then everybody's going to know. Yeah. The successful one is Rainbow. I think if you open the first one that is this one, I think. No, the second one. It is the second one. The second one is is the one with the comments because you can see that it was supposed to I'll just jump to 11 it did whatever. So there is no and in 11 in here. But if you go to this one, grant grant agreement, it has the yellow. That's Ken. Can I simple suggestion? I love that. Can we take this one that we just agreed on and voted on and instead of renaming it multiple things, put a date on it, today's date and this is the one that can be brought to. Would you would uh would it be okay if I did that and I sent you one with a different name on it? Yeah. That was clear. Yeah. And okay, I'll do that. And then I'll be able to forward it off and Yeah. Okay. I'll do that. And and I'll omit the comment to the one that we're omitting. Even on the bottom, too, right? Version 424, whatever today's date is. Well, that's what we'll just start now. Yeah. Just to a date. Then everyone knows you're supposed to be looking at the latest one. Yeah. That's how we'll know. None of them will have dates on. So, I'll change the file name and I'll change the actual headings. I'll change the tops and bottoms so that it's clear when you're looking at the piece of paper. Yeah. Okay. I'll do that. And then I'll forward that. I'll just send that to the whole committee, including yourself. Yep. Okay. Yep. Love that. Okay. Good. All right. Moving on. And you'll attend the next October housing trust, so that if there's any questions, you can go back and forth with them. Yeah. Invite me. I'll come. Yeah. Yep.

Everybody's invited, by the way. If I can, I'll come. Okay. And your meetings are the It's usually the second generally the second Thursday at 7 7:30. No, always 7:00. It used to be later, but we've bumped into seven. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I'm probably going to guess it's going to be May 8th. It'll be somewhere in there. So, don't hold me to it. I'm not the chair, but that's my guess. Okay. Here's that. Okay. Everyone has a hard copy of the um the flyer. I'm not exactly sure. This was done several years ago. Um, the first comment that I had, well, first of all, the flip isn't right, so we'll fix that. Um, but the the photograph um something was impressive. Well, you know, it is. Colleen said there's probably a better picture of a playground or something that people can relate to. There should also be two different photos instead of the same thing twice. I think this maybe was just started as a a draft and just kind of state never got because if you look our address is address. Yeah. So I think this was started but never finished. Um playground on the front maybe the Koopa on the inside. That's a that's a recent new one that everybody uses the library or should a shot of the common if you could. Oh yeah, that works. Oh, you know what? Spent $651,000 on that. Sure did. Um, Evan gets good drone shots. He might have one or could get one for us to use. That would be nice just upight with all the spring stuff popping. That might be good. My other suggestion, upcoming projects, either strike affordable housing and replace it with the Jim

Gallagher. Yeah. Or at least add the Jim Gallagher fund. It is. And as far as like some of these graphics kind of blurry. Oh, no. It's not. Yeah. And I'm not sure that's the printed out. I think that this was probably last updated around 2019 because that's the year chart was last. Yeah. I'm just thinking that it's just we could update that graphic things. We could update that chart. We have a we have a in the spreadsheet. The project summary. We'll print that out. It has it in the bottom. So, projects before town meetings in two spots on here. Do we want to do that? I think one of them is specific to open space and recreation projects and the other one is all but it still shouldn't probably be the place duplicate. Now I have a comment about the uh the green bar where it talks about what is and not that it no objection to what it says but I think that we we might add at the bottom that Grafton uses does one and a half%. Oh yeah. Do you think that we should have this be an abridged version rather than what seems to be a just like copy and paste of the actual text? So, it's pretty it's pretty accurate. It's not wordy. I'm just thinking for like readability, but it's not wordy. You might if you can make it worried better. That's one thing. But I think it's succinct. So, I have one thought on this. Seems like there was a at least more than a couple changes to make to this flyer there. We did initially mention we wanted this flyer to be ready and available for town meeting. We don't have another meeting of CPC before town meeting. I would suggest that at least one person but at most less than a quorum communicate with Beth directly and amongst themselves as

well to help finalize this based on the concerns we talked about today to make a final one bill for for town meeting and I'm so you can you can uh move to charter certain a few people basically a subcommittee yes a subcommittee to do it and in the and we accept what they come up with. The committee the committee will accept what they come up with for our for this town meeting. Yeah, that's a good that's a good way to doing it. Um just to go back to that that green bar, I I do think having like a little um explanation of what CPA is important, but if we're going to make a distinction with that 3%, we really should with that 100% as well. We haven't seen a 100% match in Oh, right. We haven't seen that in years ages, right? So, um, again, I think there's probably something right on the preservation website that we can get, uh, and then we just make it more like Grafton or just provides a match and then not without going into percentages. So, don't even say 20%. Yeah. Don't say any percent. Just says, you know, provides a match of the prior year search charge. So, that kind of implies 100%. Does it? Okay. No, it provides a weasel words. But, I mean, you're right. because it's a a percent of the prior year search charge, right? So, yeah, I think though that we should say at the bottom that Grafton chose to uh a search charge of one and a half%. Simply Grafton chose a search charge of one and a half%. Right. But this did get brought up so people don't go away thinking it's three three. This this was brought up on social media recently about the 100% and some people are really looking at the percentages and while we're only getting 15% now if you look back at the numbers 15% dollar-wise today is more than the 100% we received yeah so but that's too much for a handout. Um, so I don't know how we want to word that, but I definitely think

that 100% needs to be reorked. The state provide currently the state provides an approximate 15% match or or you leave it silent and say for more information go to the website. Yeah. Because the percentage is always going to be subject to change, right, at some point. Yeah. Or just stop it at that's what they recreation and don't say in addition to none of that is important. In addition to what you said is not exactly true. This is that that's why we're doing it. It's not just our money. It's the state money that if you didn't pass CPA, you're leaving money on the table. And this is the money that's on the table that people need to know. We wouldn't get that extra 15%. I have possible word that could be useful. Okay. In addition to the revenue generated from the search charge, the state provides additional funds based on our raised funds. You know, raise amounts prior year. The other thing that you can do is just put for example 2024 this is how much it is and then every year we're going to have to update this. the state contributes funding which I don't previously that's why I think it should be and I don't want to put too much work on the potential new subcommittee but that's why I think it should be a blurb rather than trying to fit it all on there right yeah just I'm just trying to say what I'm trying to do is get rid of the second half and just put in ah what does that say like that together we can get rid sentence I'm a big graphic person and just like saying maybe some of this stuff we should be more graphical and then people don't it is what it is. You can still interpret it still have questions but go someplace to have those questions answered. This isn't supposed to be your one stop and you've got it

all. So we can be a little bit vague or not vague but try and cover. No, be have a a broad summary of what's going on. An overview. That's a good an overview. You know, if you want to name the match in in uh 2025, last year's match was $122,000. We need a schedule. So, is there anything more we want to talk to this as a group tonight? Yeah, I think we should talk all of it out tonight because we're not a meeting before town meeting. We're going to have to schedule special meeting for this. What I had suggested earlier is we basically create a subgroup that's not a full quorum to hash this out and finalize it, you know, authorize them to do that and to make that decision to have the for town meeting copy. Okay. Give them the authority to help a person persons or whatever. Yes. Lesson quorum. But if you're people if if you're not that person or persons, if you want to give input, right now is the time. Yeah. So that's what I'm getting at. Yes. To say I really like this or please don't include this again. I just would like the people who are going to volunteer and support them as much as I can. The Are you running for something? God, no. The open space resources map. Is that was that uh Dave Robbins or did where did that get generated from? likely David Robbins because is there a chance that that could be updated as well? Most likely. I would that I mean we've done a bunch of projects since 2019. So I imagine that that that has a a newer version and I would say we've specifically done a lot of open space and recreation projects. Yeah. I boost that. Do we make the assumption he has time to update it for us or should we It's on the Google I was the not Google

the Excel like project list that we have that's there's a pie chart there's a difference the print out the picture we have right now is the open space resources in graft you're talking the projects I think the up-to-date resource graph is also the map is also in the open space report that we have that that was just final Fiona would have this. Okay. Just just to make sure that that's I mean you can't actually read it that well. I suspect Dave Robins has it easily available for us if Fiona can't find it easily or get it. It needs to be legible. It needs to be out. Yeah. But if we're going to bump this down and make it over here, this could really take up a whole side and just be its own thing. Making it bigger and and maybe not call it the open space resource. Or is it just open space that's on there? Oh, yeah, it's all just open space. I believe the parks are on there, too. Yep. I think Dave made a map of all of our CPC projects, like where they are throughout the town. I've seen that before. I think that might also this time for real beyond that. Okay. That would be a cool one to have. So, because it it encompasses all of what CPA does, not just open space. Yeah. And I agree having a larger scale and I also agree that if you can't read it, don't have it. Yeah. Yeah. I Who's going to be on this committee that who's interested? Who's a tech? Um I will PR person. I will volunteer. Okay. I'll buy you a coffee the next next like a 700 p.m. coffee. Don't worry about it. Let me know. Maybe those I can Yeah. numbers and stuff. Yeah. Yep. So we have We can do it too. Ken and Jack and then I'll be official and unofficial whichever it needs to be. Ken, Jack, and John. No, we got just to

just to ask a question. Uh some of the wording is here. List of active projects before town meeting. That sounds like current. It's implying that one. I I think doing upcoming is is putting ourselves in a bad spot because of the necessary constant update. Let's let's say recent or I think we should do I think we should do current that are like lawnstanding and maybe past like big time projects like the common like some like parts of the library like we should yeah you know the greatest hits those are things that we don't have to constantly be updating right in fact I think the it would be a good idea to make this you know work for several years updated every meeting oh I was going to say the previous year like 2024 project so we will be updating it annually but it highlights things like the Eagle Scout project, you know, we don't have to just do the big ones like and it reminds people, oh, they can fund something like that, not just, you know, all of our really big ones. The little ones are important, too, so that it it gets people thinking. I agree. But then I would ask right now, is this something we're going to be updating yearly or is this something we're going to like I think that's the decision we have to make before we start. And if you're going to update it yearly, then make it really easy to update it. Meaning like you have a very specific thing on that way. I would say like projects projects approved at the previous town meeting. Correct. And then you could just fill it and empty it. Previous town meetings. Yes. I would I would ask actually for not a real vote, but like do we want to make this updated every year or do we want to make this five years? But do we want to hand it out at every town meeting? That's like the first question asked because this hasn't been handed out at a town meeting in quite some time. And I think I mean I think it's nice to have it, but I think most people are not going to be rolled. Well, they don't have to pick it up. People don't have to pick it up if they don't want to. They don't I I'm a fan of updating

it every year and handing it out at the annual town meeting. So to do it every year to do it every year because it it's a lot of work that and a lot of money that's going out there. And I think bare minimum of updating something like this is going to get updated and it's going to look great and then each year just switch a couple spots. Yeah, it just shows that that's how invested we are and and what your what your money is going towards. And there are going to be be people that pick it up. It might be three, but like it's going to pick it up. So, I hate to be semantic at each town meeting. No, the annual or the annual. The annual. Yeah. Okay. So, yeah. Then we would have a like projects previous or approved at the previous town meeting and then there would be a current tab and then maybe a greatest. So, if we're going to do it in May, I like May 25. I would say 2024 is project and then you do May and October of 2024 and then next May we'll do May and October of 2025 and just do that each year going forward. Calendar year or fiscal year. Come on, Beth. That be said, this is going up. would have to be calendar year because cuz if it was fiscal, it would only include and then then it's what fiscal year you're talking. I know it's a town, but then they're going to throw right that the town report is bifurcated. We talk about Oh, I see what you what we did in a fiscal year, but the numbers are calendar. I also think the subcommittee should be able to make those decisions. If you're doing the work, you get to decide. Yeah. So I I move that the the CPC committee authorize Jack, Ken, and John to work together along with staff on finalizing this flyer based on discussions tonight and any new appropriate decisions they

may make along with the flyer to be presented at May town meeting this year. Second. I have a motion and a second um to create the committee. All those in favor? Uh any discussion? My one question is so we're not going to view it before town meeting. We're just going to let the subcommittee handle it. Um we can I don't know is going to be on it. I can there's a you kind of do, but I have so much on my plate. I I'd like to delegate that responsibility if Well, John No, I'm just I'm just saying that I need to ask need clarification for you to put it in a a packet or for us to see it, there has to be an agenda, right? I for everybody. Yeah. The way the way I envision this, the way I envision this working is once a subcommittee says this is the one we want to do. It can go up on the town website. It everyone can have an a link to it. Everyone can see it even before town meeting, but it's also completely public at that point. Yep. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Okay. That's only two people. And if and if you want me to be on it, Colleen, I can amend my motion. Even you don't have the No, no, no, no. I got I got a lot going. So, we will on the CPC website like as a Yeah. I think or whenever you blue side. Yeah, that'd be cool. Whatever you Okay. Um, any other questions? All those in favor? I all those opposed declare the motion carry unanimously. Okay. Um project updates actually you did mention that I didn't write that on there. you um as a

or Beth purchased with the assistant help of our IT John Jonathan Jonathan um recommended a laptop and the printer and got it set up last week. So big ones still working out the bugs. So but I think it's Is everything working okay? I mean it is. And even though he told me the printer could not become wireless, it is I thought everything was wireless. That's what I asked for and I asked for a smaller one, not the one with the long cartridges. Got a I ended up with a pretty good size. Can it at least do everything? It can do everything. It can even talk to you. In fact, it did talk to me. I was in bed one night and Oh, that's getting I'm like I laughed, my wife laughed, the toaster laughed. Yeah. I'm like, okay. Okay. So, that's Well, that's exciting. So, we're up to speed with um with Beth and getting that equipment situation settled. Um um Paul is not here and he's sick and I did not ask him when he said he couldn't come if he had an update. So my I would think that he does not have an update because he's usually pretty good about sharing if he had something. I think he would have have sent me something. Um uh historic gravestones. I actually have there's a wrinkle that uh I was in at the Cape this weekend and in Chadam on their town warrant they had that they're going to use CPC money to do some historic gravestone. So I've reached out to their person to see to give me

another option to try to see if we can't chase down somebody that can get this done this summer. Um that'd be nice. So, and also um reached out to Haritch, which is where the sign is. So, those two I'm kind of waiting to see if I can get some information, but they were spending I don't know, $50,000, $100,000 to do a lot of Well, it's it's for the grave the the whole graveyard to do some addition, you know, significant work. Um, did you go to their town meeting? No, no, they send a book. It's this thick. It was so I was like so impressed, you know, that it's up. It's like our town report. Yeah. Only it's their warrant. That's all. It's just for warrants that it's they have the money to spend, you know. Um but it was very very nice, very impressive and it has in there the votes as each committee like how the selectman voted on it, how F because everybody gets to vote I guess there whereas our selectman don't vote on articles, right? It's only finance committee that makes recommendations, but it has all the three votes CPC, selectment, and finance committee for each Warren article or at least, you know, uh, CBC ones. I thought that was pretty and it gives you, you know, all the narrative of why it's important and, you know, quite a bit of information. So, um, 95 North Street, Kristen's not here. I haven't I haven't had to approve a invoice for a little while. Anything new? Yeah. Yeah. I I I was I actually read the agenda ahead of time said, "Oh, I'll I'll reach out to Leah." That did not happen. Yeah. Yeah. So, well intentioned. Yeah. I looked at it at least. It made me happy I looked at it. Grafton Housing Authority um Gallagher rental assistance. I have a couple

updates. All of the requested funds from last month have been received because I think there were two four and we got all of those checks in. Um this coming month there are going to be several emergency moveins made possible by this fund. Good because previously you'd get to the top of the list be approved but they've been staying in a shelter. They don't have the first months but now we have a program to make sure that that doesn't happen. So, we're actually able to lessen our emergency list, which is good. And also, I am currently working with the state. We just put out our they make us do a T or a year report every single year, and it's like 95% format. there's very little input information, but they keep track of past policies and they don't it's past policies that the state recognizes. So although we passed a town gha policy regarding how the housing authority is to work with the Jim Gallagher rental assistance funds, they didn't really recognize it. So, I'm working with the state to get it officially recognized, which would make it a program that other towns could more easily adopt themselves. If they have a housing authority, which almost all do, and a CPC, they could just copy the language and throw it on their own and go to town meeting with it. Very cool. That's good. Would other towns get to have to call it Gallagher's? Sure. Would that be something? See, that's he would like that. He would. Oh, yeah. He'd be very happy that this is uh being utilized. Y um Cisco Homestead. So yes, I reached out to Ry and short answer, the material that we that we've seen is for another project.

It's not for ours. Okay. They do have a contractor that they've identified through the bidding process. Cornerstone Construct Constructure Mike Ba Batson is how she wrote it. B A T S O N but the work won't begin until sometime in June and that she'll let she told me she'll make a note to update us when when work begins. Good. Good. Because I know Beth keeps saying, "Oh, I see trucks there. See?" Well, I won't anymore. Now I'm dropped that way. So that there was activity. Um this next one is also um Paul, but but that's on hold until right. Nothing's happened on that yet. Uh the lift again is that's Paul and I haven't heard anything. He hasn't said anything more about where they stand. Um on that and then baseline Ken uh up street working on it. Okay. Yeah, they'll Oh, actually, uh the uh land trust is uh trying you is working on the conservation restriction as well. Okay. Which is not a funded thing, but uh they're trying to uh combine the three into one. There's three properties that are all adjacent that happened in slightly different years that all came from the same place and they're all pretty much the same. They're trying to combine the conservation restriction into one for all for all of them. But the baseline's still appropriate before the new purchase. Well, that should be pretty easy. You would think so, wouldn't you? Should be easy. I I should be easy. Yes. This lines on a plan. Should be easy. Uh it really depends on that uh fiveletter acronym organization that we

just EOH actually not the Eagle Aquarian policy, but the the uh conservation version of it. So, if it's easy, we'll do it. Okay. Um, how about an update from the housing trust? So, they voted on the grant agreement and uh, we're close. We're so close. So close. Um, they we had a somebody come in from 25 Wester Street and gave a uh, an update. Andy Howorth, I believe his name was. I know it's Andy for sure. Sorry if I got your last name wrong. He's he's super into it. It's he it's just he's just fun to listen to. He's he's really into it. It's going to take a while. That project has to go before the state a couple times before it gets approved, but he seems very optimistic. Um and specifically saying that they really like what Grafton's doing with their affordable housing. Um so that's good. We had an update for 1727 Upton and they seem to think that they're going to be doing a groundbreaking ceremony um pretty soon and they want to potentially adjust the grant agreement which that kind of I don't know I can't speak for the trust but I can speak for myself that surprised me to hear. So, we'll we'll see where that goes. That But you have an agreement with them in terms of how you're funding you're providing the dollars that Right. They they might be asking for more than the $1.8 million. So, um they still haven't used all that $1.8 million. So, that's confusing to me why they'd even ask for more. Yes. Yeah. Yes. They've got all that money, but we haven't seen them break ground yet. Right. So, the the trust um didn't really weigh in on it. It it kind of just kind of slid in. And so that's going to be going forward. But I can tell you myself as as a member, I was surprised to hear that. So I don't really have any more update on that. But I guess we'll just obviously I'll keep you guys informed. So 1.8 just soft cost

or is it that's what it's for? Soft cost. Yeah. So a question. Um I seem to remember that there was some kind of important agreement that hadn't quite been signed yet like the purchase and Yes. Uh and so all this money, you know, we're, you know, certainly people have commented before that all this money has been spent, but that one agreement that hasn't been signed yet. The It's not a grant agreement. It's it's the purchase and sale agreement, right? The grant agreement is going to come later with them, but uh No, it's no, the grant agreement is active and going. Oh, okay. There my mistake. Withdrew probably about half of the 1.8. So, but the question is the question is about the purchase and sale agreement, right? And that's before the select board. That's not really anything gave them a one-year extension. They did not. Yes. Very rec. And when's that you know when was was that a year ago or was that No, no, the one year extension happened in March. Just Oh, in March. Okay. So just curiosity do they uh do they submit certain information so based on you know what they're you know getting the amount of money they're using is associated with a level of design and investigation and is there like check-ins on when they hit SD CDs and permitting thresholds? So, every draw request comes with information of what that funding is going towards. And then the most recent meeting we had um I mean I could pull it up on my phone, but like a a timeline of what they're thinking is going to be happening if that's I guess what my sort of I'm thinking of is usually you get documents and those documents are the design documents or the No, I have not seen any design documents. And I'm only saying this only because I know how we typically work that you know it's a budget you get you know as a uh as a design team goes we all have our

own schedules but we have to basically prepare information at each level that you go through. Right. So and maybe I misspoke a little bit. I have seen designs but I saw them presented the planning board hearings. Okay. Right. So so they they exist. Gotcha. Um, but I haven't I'm just wondering to document the p the the what's being done that you're getting something. I'm just curious. I I think what I'm hearing me say, which is what I'm agreeing in curiosity, is besides them telling you what they're using the funds for, have they given you any evidence that the funds have been used toward that actual endeavor and act and and giving a result? Not that I've seen. I mean a simple one is you would be doing a geotech report and that's going to cost you 150,000 or whatever it is and then you get a copy of that report. You get a copy of that stamped report, right? That's where the picky stuff comes in that you want it endorsed by a professional engineer, right? The same thing with especially if they're going to be asking you for more money than what you already agree to be able to explain. probably want to have the evidence that what you've already paid out that they've said they're using money for, right? Is having the outcomes that you're saying and that you have it in hand that if something happens, you can use it again. Yep. Because once it's complete, it's it's it's a document that can be used. Yeah. And stuff. I'm just curious just because I'm not familiar with that process. They may, you know, it' be nice to also if they can, you know, add more value to what they what is being purchased. Right. Right. Yeah. if they can sweeten the value that the town gets. Did they say that like we're if we ask for more money, we're going to do this. They didn't. No, it wasn't stated that way. So, they found contamination, right? And that wasn't in the initial RFP, but it was kind of like an So, Right. And we kind of knew contamination at the DPW, but they knew that for conservation, right? So, so there's a little bit of that going on. So, there's

a number of $230,000 that kind of got floated out there. And so again, there's there's way further discussions that have to happen. They didn't say we want $230,000 because of contamination, but they did say we found this. It's going to cost us this. And by the way, we're thinking about and it was kind of what that information that that information's wreck that's, right? So, um, if they try to say they need money because of contamination, I would suggest a a review of the Plwood minutes and or videos because I'm pretty sure that Bob Passenger made a point to say this is likely to have contamination. This is this a problem for you guys. That's what our studies are going to do. We're taking on that risk. We understand it. I'm pretty sure something like that was said. Yeah. that I think I believe even the RFP that they replied to originally it stated that the site was an old highway barn and that you know testing hadn't been done but this was an old highway but it's been identified under 21E but the full uh testing program hadn't been done they hadn't identifi Yeah yeah that's pretty standard you usually know and you usually have a good idea based on the use and such just not to scare you but we probably spend at least a million cleaning up what was supposed to be pretty clean, the library. Oh, I know. Because you guys found a bunch of tanks that didn't Well, they found tanks, but then it was also we couldn't dewater it and it kept raining. It was in April and we had all that rain and there was nowhere to dewater it, so you had to pay the full freight for you were paying for water that we had to haul to Western Mass to dump. And it was like, you know, there's three different levels of contamination and there wasn't much of the bad, maybe none, but it just because it was there's equipment on the site now. And that wasn't really We were very fortunate. We had $2 million under what

we were given by the town. Yeah. That cut quickly. Not by just that. Yeah. It's just that right now all the costs, all the construction costs are going nuts. Yeah. I mean, no one knows what's happening. Yeah. and interest too, you know, it's still it's higher than Yeah, I that's the best way I say. Uncertainty and and Yeah. And labor costs, everything's going up. Yeah. It's Yeah. Supply chain availability, where something's coming from, it's all over the place. Anything else? I feel like that was a good amount. Good. Okay. um if the signs reaching out for Harwitch uh for the CPA signs to get um to get more information from them on vendors um and because I have seen and I did see other places that had the the vinyl signs that you put in a stake and invariably those things are crooked and wobbly and they just it looks bad, you know, you can't read them. So these little that aren't too terribly big, but to me they made a good impact. Um and then the last is the Lake Wildwood still um it's kind of in limbo until the the legal uh issues get resolved with the uh the family members. Um so on here, but just kind of an update for town meeting. I did reach out and to ask and I said I would send her the updated uh Don the version of this because she'll want to most likely see it. Yep. And then um I said two minutes to speak. I would speak two minutes. Fly. It's never two minutes is never enough time. Okay. Move to adjurnn. I have a motion to adjurnn. Second. All

those in favor? I. All those opposed? Nay. And it's still Do you have more to say? I said no. I don't have any more to say. I don't want to leave. Oh, it's cuz it's early. It's still Well, you're voted down. 52 42. Patriots on the clock.