Community Preservation Committee - Regular Meeting

76ish. We need to move along because we have several people that are um two here and a couple are going to be late, but we do have five right now. So, we'll get started. Um minutes. Does do I have a motion? Do I have any questions, comments on the minutes? I move we accept the minutes. Second. Okay.

All those in favor? I All those opposed declare the motion carried unanimously. We don't have uh audio visual here today, right? Um is I don't know how to make that work. Is do we have Are we being videotaped? We should be. I sent it to Bo. But is there some I don't Is there I heard someone back there. I mean, it's hard. Oh, yeah. I I saw a wave. [laughter] This This room is the hardest to see.

I thought you just plugged it into the little connectors. That's what I'm going to do this time. But and then there are remotes somewhere that you use to turn on and I don't know where that is. Okay, it thinks there's something here. Does anybody see a Oh, you've got it.

Now, if it's the right one, I don't know. Does the audio booth know how to turn on the TVs? I see theirs are coming on. Theirs are coming, but not ours.

Okay, I think we may just need to boot up. There we go. There we go. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. So, Ken, um, if you want to do the, uh, treasur report.

Okay. The treasur's report differs only trivially from, uh, what we showed last month. And the, uh, inc the the new items are, uh, the uh, the two grants that we applications we know of are have placeholders in there. Courier Knives prints for $10,000 and the Blackstone Greenway for $15,000 came in this afternoon. So that's $25,000 of grants. In addition to that, we have the two bond payments and uh potentially the transfer to the affordable housing. And that's it. Uh that leaves us with uh given the estimated 2027 revenue, it gives us uh 1,200 a little bit over a million2 in uh funds available to grant. Next, that's it. Okay. Are there any questions? We have um we have 1.2 2 million available to grant and that

um includes funding the courier knives and funding the Blackstone Valley and the and the bond payments and the affordable housing trust. Should we transfer? Why am I thinking that there's another application? A third one. We didn't ever go Baptist of the Baptist church is supposed to have one. That's what it is. I they never

I'm not sure if they're working on um getting estimates. So that's a third one. And I would say you know that what the part that project is um the front of the church there's only right under the right behind the columns is the only part of the church that is still

collaborates. And um they used a rhino shield type product before that didn't work. The company went bankrupt. Same company that worked I believe for the congregational church. And so what they wanted to do was replace all of that with new wood and I said we can't pay for that. Right. So, so I said if you can do and I got clearance from [snorts]

um the coalition that to remove leaded paint lead paint that isn't approved like one time because that's restoration because you're preserving as I said if you're putting on new wood you're not preserving you're creating something brand new you know it's not just a board here or a board there it's the whole thing is coming off just to make it easier to do the work you're renovating almost right. So the he was I don't know where he is with going back to get because the numbers that he had were for replacement not um stripping. Yeah. Restoration. Yeah.

Right. So um I would just say as a placeholder I would just say $100,000. I know it's not going to be that much or $50,000. Well, but just so that you we all kind of have a it's going to be more than $5,000. It's going to be a large amount of money though it's not a large amount of square footage, but for the nature of the work um with lead paint and there all kinds of restrictions and safety requirements. So that that could be a you know easily a $50,000 job. Okay. So uh from the from the point of view of the finances in the treasury there's more than enough to cover that.

Good. Okay. So I will reach out to him. So available funds will not be an issue in deciding whether or not to do that. Okay. That's it. Um any Thank you for coming. I didn't know for sure Chris we were going to [laughter] have five. So yeah how it worked out. I got out a little early. Okay good. Um, and we're going to be through by 8. That's the goal. Um, do I have a motion for the um, treasures report? So moved. Second. Have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor?

All those opposed? Clear. The motion carried unanimously. Um, project applications. Um, so we have two in hand, one on the way. Um, we're still not formally, next month is when we formally review these, but at least we have a head start. Um the uh Grafton fire station number two is um proposing to do um conservation work for um some courier and I prints that they have in the station in North Grafton. Um did you talk to him or not? I mean I know you said you'd like to do that but

I'm willing to help out with it. Um no I haven't spoken to him. Okay. Um, I don't know if anybody had any questions from the application. I was just curious the ownership of it. How did they end up with it? I don't I fire department bought them original. Oh, okay. A long long time. They just And they've been there and nobody been hanging there for like 70 twice about them. They've just been there, you know, their background. Yep. You know, [laughter] they're beautiful pieces. I looked at all the photos. Definitely. So that that what they're asking for to get them makes sense. Not a whole lot.

So um and then you have a hard copy if you want to quickly I don't know do you know about this which this mass trails grant. Yeah. So if you want to you can give us the two minute. I had one question about it. [clears throat] Those properties that we just recently um provided some funding for. Are those the properties they mentioned as being part of Those are the ones mentioned. So they are I just surprised they didn't bring that up before. That would have maybe helped us. They're [clears throat] just naming all the all the properties they know about that sort of between the start, you know, between end points. Okay. And saying that it might be here and it might be here and it might be there. Okay.

So what I know about the greenway is that uh they're seeking a you know For decades there's been talk about connecting uh Wester to Providence uh down the Blackstone River decades and some of these some of the segments have been built uh but there are gaps and there's a big gap through Grafton essentially I don't know Grafton and Milbury and maybe Northbridge and uh so now uh there there is there are grants to be had to investigate how to do that you know how to make the connections Uh they're going to have to do some, you know, riding on some roads. They're going to be some roads, but uh the land trust has a piece of property on it just south of Depot Street uh that goes along the canal on the river. And then the town just bought the property south south of that that goes along the canal on the river. And so there it's there's a potential to uh utilizing either or both of those properties to somehow thread a trail uh from wherever it ends. And I don't even know where it ends. Milbury.

Uh yeah, I forget. I used to know it, but I don't. Yeah, there is a section in Milbury. Yeah. Okay. Milbury. Uh and somehow route it down to into North Bridge and say, "Okay, now it's [laughter] someone else can take it from there. So anyway, so Fiona is seeking some grants to uh study and uh so this says and build such a trail. Yeah. Quickly reading through some of these. These are recommendation letters that you guys do not have. It's for feasibility study basically. Um and it's substantially uh covered by grants other than beyond other than the CP CPC application pretty the percentage is pretty low. Yeah,

I've ridden the trail in Rhode Island, the sections that are completed there, and it's nice. Is it? Yeah, it's very nice. There's some interesting things to see along the way. If they were going to go through Grafton, I wonder, you know, it's possible they might build some bridges across the river. Well, that's there's a pony bridge if that means anything to anybody. It used to be the bridge over um right here. This What's the side street that we You have to drive to get on um to get in. No, just to get in the municipal center. Oh, I don't have a look at that. I just

Brigham Hill Road. It was It's right there by the mill. the the little mill that was replaced in Millie Bean a 100 years ago fought and got that saved and it's at Dolphin Park in South Grafton. It may have rusted to dust at this point, but that was supposed to be used for Gra a part of Grafton's whenever Grafton got around to it. So, if that's still around,

that could be that was that was the intent of of keeping that to make it one of a the bicycle Well, and there are other examples all over the state of bridges for, you know, for trails, trail bridges. There are a lot of them across the the Charles River, you know, in the uh Newton to Boston rain. They're just bike only bridges and there, you know, it's a thing if there's enough money to pay for them, right? That's that's the key part. They're not cheap. So, no, not at all.

Okay. All right. Um, so those are the product uh project applications. Um, next item, sunset extensions. The current church is hopeful but needs to kind of hedge the bet that the work that will that they have will be completed and the warrant article um uh that was approved at May 2024 town meeting um expires June 30th of this year. And so, um, yeah, we should extend that.

And we get to now extend the sunset. We don't have to go back to town meeting for that. So, um, if I can entertain a motion that they're they're hopeful that it will be done. If not, you know, June or July, I'm sorry, July or August. Which church is that? The congregation, which is the exterior work that we originally funded. Do do we want to extend it for another two years? Um it's the original $120,000 from um May of 2024. Yeah, I was just going to ask Paul, do they have any timeline as to when they're they're hoping that it will be done by the end of June. But if it weren't, they that's the they don't want to get hung up with just a year. Sure. So, let's just do it.

Give them another year. Yeah, let's just do it. Okay. I move we extend the sunset provision for the congregational church by one calendar year. Second for discussion. Uh the I would say that the secondary the second grant that they got uh is uh ends on that June 30th 2027 that you just extended this one to. So that's makes sense. sinks them up. I assume they've already spent the money.

I don't think they've spent ink because they haven't because the that's what the project got defi was um they got started on doing they didn't actually start the work. I mean you could probably speak a little more. They lost their the contractor that was going to do all the steeple work and stuff backed out and so they had to get another one and it was more expensive because there was more rod up there. Okay. I had anticipated. So that's why they got the additional funding last year and um and why [clears throat] they didn't get any work done last year, but they have somebody in place now and they're ready to go as soon as the weather gets uh good for construction.

So it's they didn't start because they didn't want to get started then get stuck. Mhm. Um, but they do have the same contractor that did the work at the Unitarian Church Society and they did a really nice job. So, so I have a motion and a second. Any other discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? I.

All those opposed? Clear. The motion carried unanimously. Um, so that's that. um how many word articles you kind of addressed that um earlier when you um went over your treasures report. Um and you'll put the the language together for those for the next meeting. Okay. Okay. And so as far as we know, it's these two and plus the potential whatever we're going to do about the uh affordable housing trust,

right? Okay. Um um the next item kind of blindsided me. Um I don't know how much you guys know. I read it.

The selectman put it on their agenda at the last meeting last Tuesday to withdraw from CPA because they think that the $750,000 um sir charge pot of money if we don't have the search charge can soften the blow of an override. And I was not notified of this. I Um, oh, I was looking at you. It's It was um Justin emailed me on Friday. It was too late. I couldn't call a meeting for us because the meeting was on Tuesday. Monday was a holiday. So, I just went just to be there and I wasn't going to speak other than to say I'll be happy to speak at the next meeting, but I'm not prepared to speak today. But then I went up a second time and kind of my bottom line was don't kill the goose that laid the golden egg. And that's going to be to me if we have to have a campaign is don't kill the goose. I said it's more than $750,000 because we leverage dollars. When people come to us for grants, we they also get grants. help them get grants. um that it's

you have to get m not matching but you have to get people typically don't just and give them examples about projects like this that maybe but and I and I don't know enough about it was voted in by a town vote right so it's a two and so I've since talked to the coalition y um Steuart was out so I talked to Chase Mack who's like the assistant and this has only been attempted four times it's failed all four times times he said they would support us in any way, but it has to go back out to a town. It has to go to town meeting and then it has to go to vote. Okay, that's what I thought. You can't have a vote and it's only 51%. Yeah, it's majority.

It's a simple majority because that's it. And [clears throat] I looked at the language, you know, all this that it it's however it was created. So, it was that's the way it was created. So, you do it the same way it was created. That was when I read about it. No, I didn't know about it. They [clears throat] read it afterwards. The good news is is that there were well there were only four selectmen out of five, but Emory was on the phone for part of it, but they did not vote to to move it forward. Um, and at the next meeting, hopefully she'll be there and then they can actually vote and and it's most likely to fail three to two.

Well, right, that there are three people on this. Well, there might be more than three, but three for sure that it at that two two for sure said only five of them. Right. Right. Definitely said no. So that's two. And Marie said no. And Amory would be a no. Um Matt was kind of on the f not for sure that he had a a definitive answer. And um Andy, I don't know if he's the one that put it on the agenda and I don't know if it was just as a discussion item, right? Not that this is what I want to do, but this is an option. Oh, this came up and we should discuss it. I mean, there's nothing wrong with that. [clears throat] So, so hopefully

I think Andy Jefferson put it on the agenda. We were hopeful that it would end last Tuesday. Okay. Unfortunately, um, social media like it loves to do has made this into a thing and there people that are wanting now not to rely on the selectman but to have their own citizen petition. It seemed like the idea behind it there are two main ideas behind it and the way it's being perceived obviously there's a social media caught of it. There's some people who think that t getting rid of the CPC the town will just get that money now and that quickly was like that's not how any of this works.

Plus plus the search waste too. Exactly. guessing

the the leading idea behind it. I've had some conversations was if the town does this, there's so much there's such a little understanding as to why we're in this override cycle and there's all these ideas thrown out that are just wrong that the idea was if it looks like the town is doing something to save people money, they may be more likely to vote for this override that would, you know, if not voted for would be pretty terrible. But I think I guess aside from the Golden Goose argument, how much money this generates in other places, you're still just trusting that people see it that way and don't just go, "Well, I don't care. I, you know, when it comes to override, there are a lot of I would say a majority of people want a perfect solution where nothing goes wrong and there's no sacrifices and the town just figures it out." And that's never how it's going to work. So, I think when trying to please that audience, something like this is just gonna Okay, what else? What else can you do?

They don't Some folks, I think I I agree with you. They're not going to spend the time to kind of, you know, be responsible and do the due diligence to figure out what you should be doing. And it doesn't matter which way you pick. It just matter they're not quite informed. Yeah. And stuff and they don't really want to be. And even if this if all of this went the way that the people that are proposing that it be with that we withdraw from CPA, we still have two bonds that we have to pay, right?

That if we can pay that with the money that we have then then it's that takes care of it. But the money that remains in our pots still have to be spent either by us if if they still keep us to spend it or the selectmen then have to spend it still for whatever the pots are and then the remainder however within the categories. It cannot be used to balance the budget anywhere else. So the money that we have in the pot, if it were if the CPA did not go forward this year, it would cover about half of a little less than half the bonds that are outstanding. So it would still we would have at least another year responsible for the rest of that, right?

So this is not going to solve their their problem this year. And I think that's make it worse. They're looking for very short a shortterm fix. And then also um just like the grant that we have in front of us, the only reason that this is in front of us is because the selectman wanted us and we did spend half a million dollars$450 for the land along the Blackstone. You know, and that's what I said. These are things that CPA buys things for the town that the town cannot otherwise afford. And you're using other people's money. We're using our money, but we're also using other people's money and the state match. Well, that's what I mean. That's what I brought up. State match, the interest, all these other things.

Yeah, the state match percentage has gone down substantially from what it was the first few years. But the absolute amount that we get each year has been very constant in the $140,000 $150,000 range, right? And so we're, you know, it's still coming in even though the percentage isn't what it used to And if they they totally step away from being part of a CPA and just abolishing it, all that money goes away. Right. Right. Goes to someone else.

And and then the bond repayments are no longer because we no longer get a match because that's that stops. So we're 100% funding those bond payments, not 80% funding. Right. Um, so and I saw one comment Paul very nicely forwarded me some of these that oh well we can um readopt it later. I honestly don't think that that will ever happen. I think

you can't bank on that and I just I just it was we when we did this 20 plus years ago, we didn't go 3% because we were afraid the town would not go for 3%. which we should have done because then we would have gotten a lot more money. But we were we were trying to again hedge our bet. We wanted to have something

and we kind of met halfway because 3% to the max 1% I think that you might even can go as low as a half percent. But um it's not worth your while if you have such little amount of money if you're only doing that small of a match or search charge. I think the problem we're going to run into is like I said, this is being done as kind of like an olive branch, but you're reaching out to someone who or a group or someone who doesn't necessarily want to play that game, who isn't interested in saying, "Okay, we'll take this and we'll yes on the override." Understood. That's not necessarily how it's going to shake out. It It's two separate issues, right?

And it's two different pots of money that Yeah, that never crossed paths. So, so um I don't know if anybody has any other comments. I mean, this hopefully by the next meeting we'll have a lot better idea of of what's going on. Hopefully, this will have Yeah. Is it this coming Tuesday? Um I have no idea because I've not heard I've never been officially notified by anybody. It's always the first and third Tuesdays.

Yeah. Yeah. So, [clears throat] when I first heard about this, it was before the Tuesday meeting. I put together a uh [snorts] a uh a defense of the CPA in the sense that it was explaining what's good what good it has done and it goes through the points that some of the you know points that we've mentioned here and I should have made some copies of it just Beth went out to make some copies of it but uh what it focuses on in on is all the big projects that have been done with the CPA that are valuable to the town

it goes through the the you know the infrastructure things it's done you know one graft in common you know they spent the committee spent I don't know I the papers out there I say a million two on it alto together but it leveraged a huge you know leveraged more than that uh of outside money uh and it's now we've got a beautiful common it's not all our it's not parks are now handicap accessible yeah it did it did all the parks The comments's been redone. It did the library, playgrounds. It did Yeah. It did uh um Lions Club. It did a huge amount of really good things. Yeah. With the playgrounds, you never know when you're going to have an enforcement order to say make it handicap accessible.

And that's all money that the recck department didn't have to spend. But they didn't they didn't have that. That's they wouldn't have that kind of money. It wouldn't didn't have to and couldn't have. And any grant that they want to apply for, they need to come up with a match. Where are we going to get matches from? if we don't have money like this to access, right? And we've used this for the circle commission for matches for studies, but you know, they're small, $15,000, but again, it's like you have to have to have the match to be able to do these projects. So, um hopefully and then how would we fund the housing authority like the Well, that's the we're sole source of money. that goes away, how are they going to they said that they would try to get a line item from the town and again that's then you're taking making that budget even

so that really needs to be emphasized too. So because if they're short money if they have to you know infuse them with thank you cash that's going to add to the to the issue

deficit. Yeah. I will just say uh when you're talking about being you know defending the CPC and CPA as someone who's obviously the young one here but who's worked in this town and environment for a long time you're going to have to bring more than here are all the ways we help you because there are a lot of people who like we said earlier who are going to be like I don't care like like they kind of need that recognition and it goes back to If there was a concrete like if you got rid of this CPA, I would be in favor of this and this and this and to like an actual fullon, you know, vote and agreement. Then it would make a little more sense. But this is like a gamble almost, but the gamble is not in the hands of elected and appointed officials. It's whoever shows up to town meeting. And I've never liked gambling or trusting in that ever.

Well, hopefully people smarter or wiser minds will prevail and those people will attend that meeting. Um I think I don't think anybody can deny the good things that we have done. you I can understand because I am in the same boat of where's the money going to come from for all the things that we need when everything is getting more and more expensive. Um, but I think this adds so much more than just the search charge that we would be and that was another I said pennywise pound foolish you know that we're going to we're going to lose

the math doesn't work right I mean that's the bottom line and you [clears throat] can fight all you want the math doesn't work yeah what and what are they going to do next year but but even this year it's not going to help no it won't help for two years anyway based on

the money that we have in the I think and I did check with um Evan. I said just I I want to be prudent and I want to be responsible. We've got a couple warn articles that or projects that are going to be potential warrant articles. You said proceed as planned, you know, because you don't know how this is. So, this is going to be a twotrack thing. If that just goes away, that's fine. So, we continue to do our work as though we're going to be here next year and the year after that. John, did you uh determine what needs to be done for this to get uh to get on the on the warrant?

The either the selectman to put it on the warrant or and there were some comments about um having a citizen's petition to put it on the warrant. What's that's like 50 or 100 or I don't know what the number is that you have to have if you want anything. If you wanted your road paved, if you wanted to do whatever, you could get a CI citizens petition that you then get put on the warrant, but you have to have a certain number of certified signatures of Grafton voters. I don't know what that number is. Yeah. The question is, how hard is it for how hard? It's somewhere between 75 and like 200.

I wouldn't say it's a huge number, insurmountable, but it's more than 10. It's not like, oh, like I'm going to run for office and get 20 names. Yeah. And so this would be one of the warrants at the end of the rather one of the articles on the end of the warrant. And again, I don't know how where they would place it. Usually at the end, the citizen stuff goes at the end. Usually it depends. I mean, sometimes though, they want that they want people to be there. This this is something you don't because people will leave after they get their thing done. And if if the selectmen want this kept, they will put it up front so that everybody is there and that you hope all the people that will vote for it are still there. Well, yeah. I'm pretty sure that the select board won't do it. So because there's three solid votes against it,

there's another avenue is the citizens then it goes to town meeting and then does it take effect that for the following fiscal year at as as soon as the vote is taken like the second the the ballot at the bottom. It's the ballot. It's effective at that point. But yeah, you have to voted in it has to get voted up.

The text would be get reported immediately. Um, well, I take that back. I need to talk to Stuart because I I again, I read this stuff last Tuesday night when I was sitting [clears throat] in the audience. Um, it may have to go through this cycle because of what's already been done financially and then it would be effective next fiscal year. That I can I can ask. Um, but it's it's at that point it's [snorts] we we can no longer we couldn't meet in October to give more money. Um, but I don't know that we'd be disbanded at that point. The other thing about the system position is the language would have to be legal. They'd have to get it right.

Right. Because they can get it ruled out that's done happens very often. They don't. Um, also just to say like like you said on the not having the votes front, I'm not sure if this was put on as just discussion or like this is something we should do. If it was just like an like I said an idea, maybe this will convince some people. I've been hearing rumblings of people trying to do this for months and never went anywhere. Well, they tried uh during COVID on the football field. Yeah. People stood up and said we should get rid of CPA. I mean, it didn't go anywhere, but at that point there because I think there were financial concerns even.

I'd be curious how it impacts the individual like homeowners. I mean, I I would have to do my math because I was curious without my tax bill, which is sitting waiting to be paid. I want to say it's my it's like a $100, right? So when you put it in that perspective, would saving that $100 benefit you as an individual to not have any of these projects happen in town? And that's what it comes down to.

What I've talked to a couple different people and that's what one person said that there's all the other things that people are, you know, upset about financially with the town right now in terms of there's not enough money for this or that. But for CPA, even if you don't have kids in school, you go to the library and we've done money. We helped make that handicap accessible. We've done the Koopa. Um, we've done the common. So, we we've done Hasset Woods. We've done affordable housing. We've done the accessibility for the playgrounds. So, we've done stuff all over town in every facet of town. So, you may have been touched by C. you pro you you everybody's been touched by CPA in some way that they've benefited whether they go on a concert on the common you know that that benefits them that the common now is is been redone

some people's mentality is well yeah you know that's already done I'm not going to I don't care about anything in the future I mean it it's just a narrow kind of view of of things and and it's driven by certain things whereas if you're just worried about schools and so I don't have any kids in the school it's like so that that doesn't impact you so much CP impacts everybody because we really have been pretty good about doing projects in every part of town and in all the subject areas. So, um we're we're second to the choir here. Okay.

In the meeting packet uh for this meeting, there is a u the the um project database Excel spreadsheet is included in that. And if you look at that, that's quite easy to search for all the different projects that are in there. You can search many different ways. And so I would encourage you guys to take a look at that and perhaps uh make a note of the projects that you think might be res might resonate the most with the different people in the town that this committee could highlight. If it comes down to it as simple as just having a map of all those locations,

right? as part of the spreadsheet. There is a list of locations on one of the work one of the worksheets and and so each project shows you has a has a location and there and there is a uh a workbook in the in that in that file that shows the list of all the places that it is. Yeah, but I'm thinking it's not mapped but it could I mean that's so easy to do. They could be easily done easily done of of very simply indicate to John's point that it's not not all around the common as right but you can see all the organizations that sponsor the grants uh all the locations where the grants are and the all the different categories

and you know quite a bit of information about everything is in that spreadsheet. I'm just thinking of different ways to communicate information about the matching funds and so forth. So when you have an overall project at $10, you know, yeah, $6 came from CPA and $4 came from someplace else or $2 came from CPA and $8 came from someplace else. That's really powerful because the point that we talked about before, it's all the other co- benefits that you're getting and not just the that one and a half%.

Do we know when warrant articles have to be um submitted by? Um it's 45 days before which is basically March 1st is kind of the rough date but let's see that's it's not it's not even that time meeting is the 11th so if it of May if there is a warrant article that gets placed then the onus is going to be on us to defend CPA. Like I said, it's not going to be as convincing just being like

don't don't worry about a small majority that has a very, you know, you know, very focused agenda. You got to talk to everyone and let democracy take its path. And if you don't do a good job of informing everyone and people don't feel it's um valuable to them to show up, then that's a whole different issue and it is what it is. But hopefully

that we will have a really easy campaign because of all the people that we have funded, all the groups that we have funded if they can get and they're from every walk of that, like I just said, every walk of life in Grafton. If we can get even a small percentage of those people to come because it's in their best interest because they'll probably come back for another grant and to say thank you for the grant that they received to come to town meeting and to tell their neighbors and it's like and that's something we can do um easily and and the coalition will help us do that. I I and that's just it. Don't concentrate on concentrate on the folks. Get out the positive vote

because you know there no matter what there always gonna people be people that don't support what you do and that's okay and that's part of democracy. I mean that's, you know, but we can get get the uh we just need all the joy of music and get the uh get the Lions Club out there, right? And all the people that play soccer on the fields and there all the fields that that were funded, right? And the people that use the pool, the the lake, and you know, just there's just so many we've done so many good things. You just like the more you think about it, it's like, wow, we really have done a whole lot of good for this town. Yeah. And it's just and it's not we did it, the town did it. We just put it to the town and the town approved these things. So

yeah, it's it's more just, you know, you know, basically energize the people who have benefited and let the process take place. And if they don't show up, then they don't show up. Got them in the Y. All right. I'm confident that that it would prevail. So if it if it gets to I wouldn't make that assumption either. I'd work towards that, right? I mean it it we need to work for it but it will prevail. Y okay moving on because I know Ken needs to to go um town records archival project. So uh [clears throat] oh we already have money for that. So but

there's money already there and she um reached out to me. She had a book that was you got me sidetracked at this whole conversation. Um let me forgotten what book it was. It's a historic record. So it's a um a book on the pore an adhesive file restoration of the binding and some page conver conservation excuse me three maps on artist board to be removed from the boards and conserved place in myars manuscript map in a folio with additional map materials, Civil War enrollment scroll, and then annual town reports. They wanted to do too, but she um she is finding funding for that elsewhere. So, it's just the historic documents that I just read. So one of [clears throat] them the book of the poor is 800 three maps are 600 manuscript is 700 and then the civil war enrollment scroll is 1,200 so there's adequate funding in her um her account for it she's going to end up with about just shy of 1300 bucks left after those fun

okay um historic gravestones. I finally reached somebody at Mass Historical. That lady said, "Oh, no. You don't have to worry about us. We don't have to do any approvals, but maybe you should talk to somebody in the archaeology department." Next week, I get an email from archaeology. Oh, but you do. [laughter] So, um, if we did go that route to replace it, we have to go through mass historical. Um, it it's on a no. It's just another step. So, at least we got a little more information on that. Um 95 North Street. So, they're they're in the punch list thing. There's they now have a sign out there. I saw that. I saw that.

Yeah. So, um and I could forward this and so forth. That's awesome. So, it was just Yeah, [clears throat] because um the invoices come in, I got to approve them and stuff and um I was just looking at, you know, did you check with CPC on this? It's got the the on the bottom funded by and all that kind of good stuff. So that the original plan was for two loops. One was the accessible one and then there was a bigger one. Are they doing both still or um No, I don't believe they're doing the larger one, but I let me let me before I say that. Um let me check. Yeah, because I think the larger one was just really going to be a it's it's it's a much easier than the accessible one,

but the accessible one is what they were concentrating on as that was the difference. But let me check before that. It might have been just the they went back and got the second quote. I thought they were going to be able to do everything. We also they also and again I should be following this a little bit closer but they also got um the DPW has been fabulous in supporting this. So let me double check with Leia to make sure that that was done. Looking forward to that for my dog walking. There you go. You can see over there but then it's buried in snow. You can't you can see the outlines of where the the wooden fencing is and things, but um

now you can't. Even if you wanted to sneak in, you can't. But you'll be able to use it for cross country skiing, snowshoeing, whatever. Be awesome. Um there was a question about that. I think that some I don't know if that asking we we paid for the improvements. the land was given to us because that was a question about buying it. It's like we didn't buy that. It was donated that came in front of Kong and and then it ended up here and and so forth and it was you know and and the town spent money to clean up, right? Um any old orchard is going to have certain contaminations and stuff but everyone did it with their own eyes open, right?

So it was the family was fabulous. I mean we don't get to do that in crime. we don't get to like this is this was cool and the whole idea of it was you know and that was just because of the family and you know and honoring and even if the family had given that if we didn't have CPC that couldn't have happened because there's there really is none money there's not a funding source outside of us yep to do that kind of work so um Craftton Housing Authority

I have one small update Uh we have one first month's rent that we're going to request for February. Um and we do have some more people that are going to be moving in next month. So if any of them have struggles there, then we can support. But other than that, smooth sail. I'm still in the process of trying to get people at state, at Matt Housing Partnership, at CPA to help flesh this out and spread it around. But starting to think it might have to just be a oneman show. just going around. Hey, look at this cool thing we have. Maybe you should try it.

Okay. Um Cisco Homestead. I'll give a quick update. Um I need um Justin because I don't know if he talked to Ry Ray Gold emailed both of us um that there they are doing work and so they are starting to get bills. So she wanted to know how that was supposed to be handled. So, I need to follow up with him to see what kind of communications he's had with her. So, that that finally is now moving forward. Um, [snorts] and then the congregational church, we extended the um sunset on that. um for the affordable housing trust. I'm I don't know if anybody knows anything about what's going on with them, but I know the apartments on 17 and 27 Upton Street, they did that selectman did approve whatever for the PNS. I don't know if the PNS has been signed, but they approved a couple more documents.

Oh, that's good news. So, that's moving along. They changed the design of it in a in a good way. There's no more building like right on the street, so it's going to be like open when you drive past, which is nice.

So, um and um Colleen had a meeting with her daughter tonight, so at school, so she I won't make it because I don't think they're going to be through till 8 or 8:30. Um so, she can update us next time. Um, project signs. I still need to work on that with the I think her name was Leah at the um, Sunshine Sign because I was going to try to get back filled some of the signs that didn't get done and replace the sign that was stolen at South Craftton. And then Lake Wildwood, no update. That's and I'm sure I don't know in the spring if that will move. I don't know. It's a legal matter that's the family is kind of disputing value and what is going to push that along. So if there's nothing else

move to have a motion to adjurnn. Second motion and a second. All those in favor I we are adjourned. Thank