Community Preservation Committee - Regular Meeting

703 call the meeting to order um we have uh the three of us here in person and two other members attending remotely first up in the agenda we have two projects ready for a final application review and ideally uh uh a vote um the first of those two projects is the town common railing and Pence post restoration project um any uh questions comments thoughts on that project uh things you might like to see you know get uh conditioned on or perhaps things to appear in the article that we haven't already spoken about uh one thing for me um I know that we talked we're trying to revise our process for um actually approving applications and we talked about potentially revising applications as yes as um as they go forward uh I was taking another look at it and the memo that bill contemp includes includes the other two options that we're not going with so just in terms of process should we ask or request that they remove or revise um or make clear that we're going up with option three yes and um so because that's something here's how I envisioned that happening I thought about that too because we' already discussed uh you know the preferential option um we you know our our vote this evening can be contingent on um uh a couple of different things you know depending on the project but one of them being that the application uh will be updated um uh to reflect the discussions that we had during the process um and that update will be submitted to us uh um prior to uh have to look at the calendar here but somewhere around mid-February um uh just P my calendar here uh we are

aiming to have our warrant articles written by March 1 and that really sort of sets the schedule for us right there so I think we'd be looking to have applications updated by February 17th would give us time I believe okay so essentially we would vote tonight potentially and then yes contingent that they would do it and then yes just make sure that they actually do it fully but the war article or correct okay yep Y and we have to vote of course on the actual warrant article language um as part of it uh other than that I don't think I have anything I think it was a strong application and we didn't really have many questions from the start so um um I would agree with that I think I'm par from I don't think we had any outstanding questions for them think everything was answered over the course of our meetings and so yeah I appreciate you bringing up about revising application otherwise yeah great thank you uh Lisa just um again I also think this was a great application and I I think with the T and tenal coming that that you know this is important to get this done but Freddy had had mentioned Ben uh adding a little extra for a historical appraiser is that something that we want to include in our Vote or is that something sorry you want to discuss during the final application you know I think we can discuss it during the final application having looked through the um uh the application itself that third estimate for the I want to say it's around $130,000 uh that had input from this historical preservationist in in

determining the materials and so forth to be used so um uh you know for my part I feel uh I feel com With You Know Much Greater comfort with that than for instance with the uh the Water Tower um I think you know we we absolutely need the the services of a preservationist okay agreed so I'm definitely in support of this thank you br any questions comments uh about the railing and fence restoration no I think like as everyone said I think this one's great and I I'm in support fastic thank you so one more question so um I was going through the minutes that you sent great minutes by the way uh and at the October 23rd meeting set minutes you had um suggested maybe putting language in the warrant um to preserve the railing from future um disturbance you know thinking about something like the Main Street project coming through or yesing over the town common one day or something like that so I was just wondering about um uh to that kind of slipped off my radar but um I would be interested in something like that if it's possible I I seem to recall our discussion was was something along the lines that we would include in the warrant article um uh somehow the town's intention to uh um you know to preserve the railing in the future that was a commitment that was made here you know to the committee so we would um we would put right in the warrant article um you know after just describing the scope of work put something into the the warrant the effective um uh Town commits to um maintain the railing and its present location and configuration um you know yeah I think that would be good to would that be something in our

vote tonight or just in contingent or something like that or be so because it was part of our previous discussions um I I think we could you know that would of course be part of updating the application uh and also part of drafting the warrant AR okay so I think um I think we can I think it is wrapped into that okay that's for me I I thought I said that last time but now so uh looking for a uh a motion to uh recommend um uh to town meeting the funding of the Town common uh railing and fence poost uh Rehabilitation project I believe that the the title correct um uh contingent upon the applicant um uh revising the application to reflect the discussions that took place during the review process uh and having those revisions to us um actually I'm going to say uh give us two full weeks February 10th and that will give us two weeks to get the warrant articles drafted so by February 10th is there a a motion to that effect moved thank you and is there a second second thank you uh uh let's see all those in favor excuse me I uh yeah we're HRI here so I have to call the role um uh Lisa braio hi but can I ask a question B of course sorry should we have included the amount in the motion or do we just approve the project itself and then as we go further in and drafting the warrant put the amount in at that point yeah as we go further uh we we start

talking about the amount uh the amount of contingency that's fine and thank you you bet you bet um okay so Lisa you were a yes yes okay uh Brett Peters yes thank you uh Grant farington yes Ellen Maria yes Ben Smith is a yes fantastic okay so next up uh engine 25 refurbishment got Nate here this evening thank you for joining us Nate um so uh yeah Grant you gave me a call earlier today we spoke a little bit about this um so I think you probably have some some comments to make uh yeah I have a few things um so let's see the first thing that I would be interest so uh I guess one of my lingering concerns is uh kind of the public funds for private use um concern which often happens with historical uh conservation projects um I would be interested to see some sort of if not you know guarantee but some sort of legal language that would um guarantee access for the town or or um even a conveyance I know that Ben talked about um Town might not actually want the truck because it's upkeep and that kind of thing but um my concern and this is not just specific to the association but just in general if you give somebody $300,000 and they don't um you know there's no kind of guarantee that uh there has you know the the public has to see that um the item or uh you know that the association can't dissolve or sell the truck for a profit or something like that and then you know the town could lose its investment and um essentially waste $300,000 or

whatever that the the cost is um so I would like to see something to that effect I know that Ben you mentioned um coordinating with Town Council on some sort of a davit uh but that's that's one thing that you know I would be interested in before um being ready to v on it another concern that I have just um and maybe Nate you might be able to speak to this is regarding the cost I know that at one of our previous meetings he had said that you had found an engine for uh like a a donor engine and that um just good news but I was wondering what does that do if you have any sense for the overall cost of the project but um does it reduce it because you don't know you no longer have time so me and the chief actually did a little road a road trip to the shop that will'll be doing the work we discussed it with the shop owner um and he would like to keep the the the quote as is um he kind of reminded us that that quote is something he made up back in July uh when this work starts to when we actually finally start doing the work it's going to be July of this year so it's this is a whole year of him guaranteeing that price uh he has to deal with material costs that have changed already labor costs on his end that's already changed already um and he's kind of being pretty good about not actually changing the number not raising it um and he's kind of taking into consideration that we do have that engine um but he he still wants a buffer he doesn't if he reduces the price he's reducing his buffer and could potentially get himself into a little spot where you know he's going to get you know he potentially could not be proving he could be in the negative so it was discussed with the three of us and we said it's was probably best we just leave it alone especially if he's got a lot of he's got a lot of factors that we didn't even think about especially with the material costs so we thought it was just best to just leave

the Lo okay that's helpful thanks um yeah invoices of course will come across the the desk of CPC as the project goes along and we'll have an idea where things are and uh of course there are any funds left over those get uh at the end of the project get returned to the community preservation trust fund for you know reuse for others that's that's pretty much what he said said if there was something left over it's easier just to get it back than to try to come back another year and ask for oh yeah because that's a whole another time meeting cycle so I guess um where I'm at right now is concerns about essentially the public benefit of what we're getting for in terms of preserving access but also just in terms of the cost um you know we only have 700 something thousand I believe the historic bucket is already maxed out right so this would just comeing from the general um sorry unreserved EXC uh fund balance and you know I'm just it's a significant chunk of money and I guess I'm not at least right now this could change but I'm not convinced at public benefit that we'd be getting for it necessarily um not to say that there's no public benefit but and also in terms of you know what if I know that you presented two different options kind of minimal $100,000 versus the full restoration and you know kind of what are we getting for the extra 200,000 what's the value add there so those are some of the concerns I have um and just trying to you know balance uh the other pending applications that we got so um those my thought thank you so I just want to touch on the the public benefit aspect of it so you know uh we are required to to um make sure that we don't run a follow the 8 Amendment um which which regulates the use of the public funds um being spent on a private project like this so the way we've dealt with it in

the past um for instance with the the buck family civil war flag restoration was with uh in that case it was an affidavit uh that uh basically said that in the event that the the society historical society was going to dispose of the flag you know sell it or or transfer ownership of it uh it would go to the town and also in the event of like a solution the society would go to the town um so we would we would absolutely have something like that here if you know if the firefighters Association for some reason dissolved the the ownership would go to the town uh or you know if the the association could no longer maintain ownership of it um you know the town would get it would be offered first to be given to the town before any other kind of disposition and then when Grant and I chatted this afternoon um you know Grant had a a concern um so the real public benefit from the restoration will be some of the great uses that you talked about you know um the two that I that I call are um a number of them um first appearan grades and where look fantastic and be really interesting um uh I would anticipate visits from next door the school um and mentioned even um use in funeral sessions and so forth um and in a number of other public uses and Grant you know posed the question what if those public uses just just stopped you know but where does that leave the town um so we would want to work with you to find some way to sort of address that and I'll just thr an idea out there that occurred to me while Grant I were talking was you know if some period of

time elapsed where where there was no public sort of interaction with with the engine like if a year went F or something like that um then we would you know talk about the disposition of of the engine but what are your thoughts on that or if you think of a better way to address it by all means I really don't see any future laps of um the use of the truck I we always have the praise right um we always have Heritage day we're always doing something for summer nights we're always at the schools doing clubic education whatnot if anything it actually opens up the door for us to do a little bit more right to get out there and you know to show it off yeah um there's not just in town too it's also sort of preservation for the the truck itself and it's a there's a big following for antique fire apparatus know certain manufacturers the manufacturer of this truck was a a a Massachusetts based manufacturer there's not many of these trucks right out there to begin with and it's preserving it for everybody to kind of enjoy it's you know um you know it's nice to just have it around a lot of the stuff just just like anything else if it gets lost or destroyed it's gone forever right thank you yeah I I guess from my perspective I would be comfortable including language in the atavic that that uh um simply lists uh in a general way like these intentions so the truck is you know going to be you know exhibited uh you know

publicly and and you know these types of programs and and uh just so that it's you know the goal is is Spilled Out clearly in the affidavit I would be comfortable with but I don't know Grant if that would necessarily satisfy service yeah I mean I'm just thinking about an extreme scenario you know in which let's just say this Association is in a pinch with their finances or so I I have no idea what your revenues expenditures are for a year and you need some cash quick or something like that and you decide you have this asset that's now worth $300,000 and it's time to sell it to a collector or something to preserve the future of this the association then that might be great for the association but it's not great for the town which will have lost and it goes to another um you know another state who knows but but I would absolutely foresee you know language in there talking about you know disposition of the fire truck if it if it's not owned by the Association then the ownership transfers to the town regardless of the cause of that you know that I should have said that up front like that that would be you know really the primary thrust that we have to D it but also listing in the uh you know the goals of the project and how the public good is is achieved yeah I mean and I'd like to let others speak as well but in terms of the public benefit I was trying to compare it to other large ticket um items or um things that have come before CPC and I was comparing it in my mind to the Bernette property which I think was what 900,000 or a million was it a million okay so this is essentially third of that just say roughly and I guess I'm still not convinced about what the like that's one of the most important properties in town I there's been some I guess controversy

about whether or not that was a good investment but same with the St Mark's um the Bell Tower Bell Tower Library like these are prominent buildings that get seen every every day um large amounts of money were spent on them but they're also like part of the fabric of the community and I guess in terms of the public aspect aspect of this um public ass access aspect of this sorry I can't speak um you know I've seen the truck it's I think it's very cool but it's sitting in the corner of the garage this is something that we would see two days a year maybe one day a year school might see it more often but they could see it now as well I think um and so I don't know for such a large investment I guess I'm not totally there on what we're getting for it um and comp putting in comparison for you know some other things that done for large amounts of money understood I want to make sure that uh Lisa and Brett get a chance to speak also so you guys have been uh listening in um uh thoughts on on this the app David so I I think Grant I hear what you're saying but I also think with the tur Centennial coming and everything and you start looking at the history of Southboro and you know what's transpired over time and how important this is I I I think this fire truck plays a huge role in this in you know the history that Nate has provided of you know going into the fire was it Nate the quiny I'm trying to remember what fire it was Chelsea no yeah okay so going you know going into the fire but not only that I think think it's it's a I think it's an important historical um Relic if I can use that word but I think there is a way to leave your concerns Grant and I think Ben you

address it I agree addressing it through the um an affidavit you know and just making sure that we cover bases that we're comfortable with and that the association is comfortable with as well uh it is a big investment but you know to lose an opportunity like this we're losing history every single day and to lose an opportunity here on something that you know means a lot to a lot of people you know um it's it's not about specifically whether you support the the the fire department or not but it's just about it's a piece of history that we have within our grasp that we can do something to help preserve so for for me I'm supportive of the project and I I think there's a path to get there um you know to um to make this happen thank you Ben thanks uh Bret yeah I guess I'd just like to mostly Echo what Lisa said I think it's a a pretty valuable project and I I guess I would lean towards uh thinking it's worthwhile uh and then the only hesitation I might have I kind of temper with the fact that I think it's for me it's obviously good enough to put in front of the town to decide I think it's a worthwhile project and I think it's worthwhile to get on the ballot and see what everybody thinks and get up for a vote so that's where I i' lean towards even if I have a few questions I'd still lean towards getting it up there and voting a yes from us okay thank you thank you and uh I guess I will say it's also you know with any questions it's important for us to to Heir them uh during the application process even for for projects we support because you know we have to anticipate what will get asked at Town meetings so we we've you know had time to to think of of the answer to that so um you know the any questions only only serve to help strengthen a project is my opinion just you know I know alen has G here but um Christ Lal has her hand first let's finish with the committee first and then and then Kristen will

will'll call on you I'm sorry Ellen no no um yeah I would agree with what um BR was saying that I really appreciate you raising those concerns um I think everything you laid out in terms of the affidavit um makes a lot of sense in terms of ensuring that both the disposition if that never had to come up in the access as well um it is a lot of money from the general fund and but I feel like that's a a town meeting um decision I feel like the history that you've showed us over the course of the application process um the photos the tool on these important fires in our history and the Chelsea fire um it meets kind of all of the requirements that I was looking for um to really show the value to the town um and I know that con turn with something like the brunette house and I feel like this would be a different level of access um and potentially been more than something like that I feel like you know we can all drive by the Bernette house every day but we can't go inside and and this is something that we could interact with I know um kinder group does a field trip to the fired house every year that's one of the most popular things that's done and the opportunity for kids to run around there you know climb on it I'm do all those things I feel like it's it's always a favorite so and this is something that that I support thank you thank you um okay uh I just yeah have concerns uh from day one uh the association's main goal was to be the the mechanism to get the truck back to store um and the original goal was to turn it over to the town either before or after the project was completed um but it was after the year after you know taking a year to look at

the project figure out things really kind of look uh look at the best options um the association decided to go down the road we're going now with keeping ownership um with 100% intent of if ever anything ever happen with the association like you said that we can't handle we can't afford the upkeep the association somehow dissolved it was we were 100% ready to just hand it over to the town and we were ready to work with the town lawyer to create some sort of conveyance that that's going to happen we don't want the truck to leave we don't want it to end up in some private collection because it could end up in the condition it's in now we just we want it to stay here for the rest of its life that was the whole intent of this project um and I think the the other concern with the access I know you you guys touched on the Bernett house it's you said you can drive by it looks great it's private property though we you can just sit on the sidewalk and look at it um chief bontin he said that this truck is going to be stored here this a public building at any time anybody can come in here and say I want to see the truck it's it'll be sitting in the corner and anybody here we'll bring you right over and you can go sit in there you can go look at it that was kind of the whole intent is to having it in keeping it in the station as anybody at any time can come here to look at it I would anticipate you know for instance parades I would suspect any parade that the fire department takes part it this week so you know Veterans Day Fourth of July then we have you know a number of Southborough uh uh special events you know down at the uh the ner school um Heritage day um day summer nights yeah summer nights um so I I think the the public would have many opportunities through the year to to see and uh it to see up close uh the fire Tru um but but Grant to your

point you're correct it wouldn't be you know it wouldn't be an everyday thing for sure um there would be there would be some necessary limitations regarding the ownership I think the association this is my feeling maintaining ownership uh may be um looked upon favorably you know at at town meeting because you know questions will come up about the cost of Maintenance insurance and so forth um and this would you know sort of take that off the table put town so I that was one of the other things we we had looked into was um making sure there wasn't any more burden to the taxpayer part of that is we we keep the ownership insurance is on us upkeep is on us um the other thing too is ensuring it through municipality we didn't realize it's not cut and dry there actually a lot of insurance companies I won't even touch it if it's on by spell oh we I that was something I learned um there is some insurance companies that will that will do it but you have to jump through a bunch of Hoops to even get it done because it's doesn't qualify it's not a your everyday piece of apparatus and then they also require certain drivers if we take ownership of it then we can we can decide who drives it yeah it's it opens up the window for a lot more people uh on the insurance policy that can drive it's a municipality a lot of times there's only like two or people that are allowed to even drive it so we want to keep that open also for the membership to make sure our side also have the availability to say if know we have multiple drivers not just one right so so uh these are the kind of answers to have prepared for potential future town meeting presentation honestly this is fantastic um all right so uh uh Christen Lal um first welcome uh what are your your thoughts the engine 25

refurbishment thanks Ben can you hear me okay yes so I think my question is more procedural um and and for everybody on the committee um personal feelings aside there's nothing about this application that doesn't or I guess my question is does anyone doubt that there's anything about this application that makes it CPA fund eligible because if not that that's the answer right it goes to town meeting then everyone can reflect on the importance they put in the historical aspect and and value of this project actually Kristen I would um I think our role is more than just a you know to sign off and whether or not it's eligible we actually have some decision- making power in terms of whether not it's a good investment of funds and that kind of thing um you know I know that we've talked about this internally before I think Kathy Cook had mentioned something similar in the past about um you know essentially once we make a determination that all but we have to have to forward it to town meeting and I know that we've disputed that in the past so I think we do actually have a responsibility to make sure that um it's a good use of funds that there's enough funds in the budget to support it um and other other aspects of it at least that's what I would I would say yeah thanks Grant I and I I I I I agree with your your description there I think that uh uh you know by Statute we we are required to uh exercise some discretion um we we talked before about you know our dream of uh getting to the point where potential applicants get in touch with us you know years beforehand we put together a Five-Year Plan where we start budgeting out for projects in the future um uh where we'd be in a situation where we'd say well we can't fund this project because we are saving up for this one that's going to come to us in three years you know that kind of discretion so um um yeah you know and you know I

actually agree with that um I think the situation you mentioned with Kathy was a little bit different in terms of the applications in front of us at that time um so thank you that that's exactly what I was looking for for just that clarification thank you very much um I know there's one other person who has joined us remotely from the public if you'd like to uh ask a question or make a comment please use the raise hand function and we will uh we'd love to hear from you well Kristen still has her hand up with a few other guests but oh she just put it down okay um all right no hands are going up actually do you mind if I a couple please yeah just follow up um so I guess for me just understanding so I know that you put in the application for 300,000 you mentioned there's kind of two options within 300,000 a base 100,000 make sure it doesn't fall apart uh versus a 300,000 fly restorage it can drive on the road um I guess I'm trying to kind of debate myself about what is the I think I've mentioned earlier what is the added value of going all the way to 300,000 from 100,000 could you maybe explain what what would the town get for the extra 200,000 investment that it's not getting for um I think it's about 100,000 for a base um you know make sure it doesn't resolve uh ends up being an actual cost savings um the work that the process of going in and making the truck mechanically sound like we want to uh involves taking axles apart taking brakes apart taking pretty much the chassis apart um fixing that up and putting it back together if we did it in a stages we're now paying almost

twice as much for labor because we had to take the truck apart virtually once put back together for $100,000 and if we came back for a second stage to get the rest of it done we'd have to blow that truck apart again which is the bulk of the cost is actually physically taking the truck apart it's the labor of taking it apart looking at everything putting it all back togethers you take it apart once it's already apart you clean it you do whatever you got to do you repair you paint then you put it back there okay so it's just it's a we didn't actually run the numbers and because when we met with the the gentleman that's going to do the work it was it was a it's going to cost astronomically a lot more money if you did this in stages and all three people that we had or all three companies that we had discussed with all said the same thing like this is a project that you do once they don't do it in stages because it just it's going to take twice as much time for them twice as much money for us it's just not wor it's not worth it not a lot of people that okay it's just it's labor cost it's a it's a weird thing to say that hey we're going to spend money up front to save money um and has the association done any fundraising or anything pursued other funds and um in order to kind of offset the cost of this like have you pursued public donations from people who support the so we going to we the the association only meets once a uh once a year right now um trying to get the guys in one spot for meeting is a little tough um so we've we tried to explore it a lot of them wanted to see how this would all play out first and if it didn't go well then we would start to put on Avenue of fundraising okay um it seems to me like we're likely to support this project if it were me I would probably

pursue the lower cost option and hope that the you know Association might be able to have some zealous supporters out there and perhaps offset the cost and maybe um I don't know but I guess for me I'm kind of hung up on seems like we're giving you a lot of value your $300,000 that you don't have to raise elsewhere um and I'm not sure what the town if the value I think the value that you're getting exceeds the value that the town is getting in terms of um seeing it and parade few days a year school children you know accessing it a few days a year you know there are other fire trucks that school children can access that kind of thing even though is preserving a historic asset um I don't know not not sure if I'm convinced sorry understood I I think to that point I I would view the um uh Southboro firefighters Association as as uh being the town's agent in um maintaining and manag man in this historic asset um as well the funds would be spent on behalf of the fire creds Association the the future benefit that the association would see from having the fire truck I I don't uh see the association actually acing a ton of benefit other than the physical truck itself um because you know really you're taking on the work of uh you know managing the insurance and the upkeep and keeping drivers trained on it and um I'm sure there's some periodic maintenance duties that you have to do to keep the thing you know uh operational um so I I would view

the association as sort of acting as the to agent um this this historic asset but that's you know reasonable Minds you can absolutely disagree on this um are there any other questions comments or or concerns about the engine 25 refurbishment either here or remotely not for me okay nobody in the audience that I see great all right uh so at this time I am looking for a motion to uh um recommend the engine 25 refurbishment project to uh town meeting um contingent on uh the the application being updated to reflect uh the discussions that have taken place during the review process and that updated application to be submitted to uh the committee prior to February 10th we'll we'll work with you on that um and also uh um contingent upon uh uh the uh uh working together putting together in affidavit uh to to guarantee that the the if if the firefighters Association uh disposes of the fire truck in anyway then ownership transfers to uh the town uh and also that the aav contain uh a list of the uh um the goals in providing benefit to uh to Southport we have gotten all the contingencies on that um uh would somebody like to make a motion to that effect so thank you alen and is there a second second

second Thank you Lisa you got in there first uh I will call the role Lisa braio yes uh Brett Peters yes Grant barington no no Ellen Maria yes and Ben Smith is a yes so uh these next couple uh are not quite ready for a vote um uh first up the rural cemetery water tower restoration we had spoken um thanks mate we had spoken here uh amongst ourselves about um uh asking applicant to secure the services of a historical preservationist with expertise in in in particular on Roofing um and we realized that we hadn't actually had that discussion with the applicant so I actually uh uh last week uh had a wonderful conversation with Kevin Miller um and uh we talked at length about the the water tower and he was uh fully on board with the with the idea uh of you know securing those those Services um when we discussed this with the community preservation Coalition Stuart sagor forwarded us a list of uh qualified historical preservationists and it's interesting that I would guess about two-thirds of those are also uh historic preservation contractors um so you sort of could do One-Stop shopping uh I got an email from Kevin uh today that uh can't recall the cced everybody on it or not but uh he had spoken with Bill Kiff the co- applicant here um and uh about it and and Bill also was fully on board with the idea and he in

fact has a contact who is a a contractor with historical preservation expertise specifically in rofin that he was going to reach out to uh and and talk to about getting a an estimate um uh so that we would have a uh you know a figure before us when we ultimately conduct a vote on the project um so with that uh questions or comments about the rural cemetery water tower restoration so in the room here first Ellen I think so um yeah I appreciate that connection being made um Kevin reaching out I will just know he is in the audience great so in case after we all go through that if there's anything wanted to add but I think that would be really helpful to have that information to help us make a decision yeah thanks Grant um yeah just a couple things one was I know that we had a pretty extensive discussion about the cemetery trust fund and whether not um funds were available yes with that based on the lack of update I'm assuming that that didn't pan out um but I just thought I'd ask about it uh when we are done with the committee's comments uh I think I we can ask Kevin that question if he was able to reach out okay um and then also uh I know in previous meetings and I think it was in the minutes that you have so helpfully put together Ben great great prep for this meeting uh that we had talked about um ways to preserve the water tower I know we've talked about a PR that was probably unlikely but um you know is there some sort of way that we can uh make it less likely that a future you know secetary director DW superintendent would knock down the building um again I

don't know be an affidavit or something in the warrant article or you know not everyone reads warrant articles when right decisions in their day-to-day but um something to actually preserve not just the town's investment the asset itself so with that we we actually run into the problem we had last year um where uh we can't enter into that kind of an agreement with a town body can't do a contract or it uh with a town body unfortunately uh and I think just because of the difficulty I think merging on impossibility of getting somebody to hold the preservation restriction yeah on that structure uh I think our our sole Avenue would be to to include language in a warrant article um about the intention of the town to maintain the water tower is a permanent feature of the little summiter I interested and I think that would that would satisfy me I mean yeah obviously PR is in a perfect world but um yeah I would and historical commission recently put a a bronze plaque which should last a long time on it so hopefully people will read that before getting ideas about miling it down but um so you know I don't think it's an imminent danger but just thought i' ask about it so that's it for me thank you oh and I as a member of historical we voted for originally I am will be support great uh Lisa thank you um I actually had some of the same questions that Grant had so um other than again I think this is an important asset to the town so um I am supportive of it but you know I think there's additional information that's required thank you thanks uh Brett um yeah in general I'm also supportive

of it and I didn't have any other you know additional questions to other than the outstanding thanks good great thank you um all right so uh Kevin if you're listening in um excuse me Ben yes um I don't think Ellen gave her feedback yet I did but thank you Lisa okay I'm sorry no thank you um Kevin are you listening in oh he oh he does have his hand up Kevin you should be unmuted I think or okay yeah yeah hi guys can you hear me we can good evening uh hello and and thanks I I don't really have much to add I think Ben represented um what we discussed um quite excellently um yeah uh bill has a very good contact in Historic Roofing he's reaching out he's going to try to get um that gentleman out in the next week or so and hopefully we'll have a a good answer about um you know getting a roof on there that's um very high quality and historically accurate um I think you know the initial um proposal I had brought forward you know included a kind of compromise on a on a a architectural um shingle um but the the indication um are that the original roof was Cedar Shakes and so um you know with Ben's encouragement that's what we're going to look at um and that may add some amount to the cost but I think relatively modest and to get something that would comport with the um Secretary of the interior's you know standards for historic preservation also provide a long lifespan and a lot of beauty to that structure it's well worth the expenditure so I hope to have um some

good information you from you um with Bill's help um hopefully by the time of your next meeting and and very and by the way I just want to say really appreciate the support and the encouragement on this point and the willingness um that CP CPC has sort of suggested about wanting to do the project the right way which obviously is very much appreciated and and just with regard to um you know that question of PRS and and protection the building in the long term which I certainly appreciate um I I I I've always had the feeling that this is a structure that in essence by its location and its nature um is protected has very little threat posed to it but I would point out that um the historical commission will be keeping a sharp eye on this and there is a provision of demolition by neglect um even in the demolition delay bylaw that we administer and that will be keeping a very close eye to make sure um that this structure is you know it is protected in perpetuity as well as hopefully myself and um future chairs and members of historical can see that's done but in any case thank you for um allowing me to talk well thank you and Kevin just one last question have you had any luck in in reaching out to the uh uh the cemetery uh trust fund or the commissioners of trust rather yeah you know Ben I actually had to went back and looked at that um meeting that I appeared before you folks and um I actually think that um you had indicated that that you were going to try to talk to to Sam I'm happy to to do it this Cemetery trust fund people I what I think I had put forward and I I I still

um stand by the thought is that I I appreciate um the idea of let's say trying to get the cemetery trust fund to sort of extend a hand toward this project and if you recall um the tower is surrounded by a raised planting bed that's um you know stone with a a mortar uh kind of cap and there's a a plaque if I believe it's a new any W Trust um and I had in you know inquired whether that trust covered the Tower and the answer was no um however I don't think it would be unreasonable and I think it might be a nice compromise um to ask the cemetery trust fund people because I if you remember my presentation that night I mentioned that um there's some need for repair to that raised um flower bed it extends off the um South End of the tower it kind of like runs up into the side of the tower on the south end and then extends out maybe I don't know 15 ft um again a a raised a stone bed with a a cement cap and there's um damage to that weather damage kind of thing you can lift off pieces of this Stone cap and I thought for a relatively modest amount that perhaps the SE trust fund people could be prevailed upon to undertake that repair themselves so that in other words you know there would be some contribution from Cemetary trust fund toward the overall look of that particular

um spot in the cemetery if that makes sense okay thank you very much Kevin Ben I don't know not to put him on the spot but Sam STS is in the audience um so I don't know if we have any question Sam are you listening in um yes you just ra hand oh great Hi Sam good evening um I actually talked with Kevin about this previously and um you folks are welcome toh bring it to the Board of Commissioners of trust funds um uh there's not a huge huge amount of money that goes out of there for the spend each year they try to spend two three% of the of the asset value typically and there's some other things that are pending in terms of a stone wall at the rear of the cemetery that is going to be a substantial expense so I think that there's certainly competition for that money but you're certainly welcome to bring it to the Commissioners and I'm sure we would be willing to talk about it okay thank you Sam thank you very much um okay so uh yeah so um Kevin if there's any way that we we could have a uh an estimate for our next uh meeting which we've not scheduled yet um that's something we require in order to conduct the vote and uh we are uh approaching pretty rapidly uh um uh you know the end of our ability to uh TimeWise uh to conduct a vote we have to have our our warant article prepared really by by March 1st so um time is time is drawn close so anything that can be done to to get that asate is is much appreciated um and with that uh anything

else from the the committee on the rural cemetery water tower restoration okay and are there any hands up in the audience okays uh okay so next uh I had um uh I think on the first draft of the uh agenda uh I had I had the affordable housing trust fund application up under uh um the prior agenda item for review and vote I got an email from uh Al Hamilton a couple of days ago just read it really quickly as you know the state just approved the revised affordable housing trust fund by law on Tuesday January 7 this Le board appointed four out of the five members of the Board of Trustees of the affordable housing trust fund not trying to organize our first meeting which will not happen before CPC meets on the 16th given that members of the CPC wish to understand more detail about the strategy and intended uses of the CPA funds I believe that it would be appropriate to delay the vote on the trust's application till such time as trustees can meet and formulate a response to your questions I'm sure this will be done promptly uh I would suggest that a meeting in February would be uh the time to meet and vote on the trustees application um it seemed like a reasonable request there's some discussion there about perhaps um um formulating a strategy as as we had asked and it seemed uh appropriate to to to put the vote off uh you know at least until our our next meeting um but uh I just want to see if there are questions or comments or concerns about that from the committee um I think that sounds reasonable just terms of the logistics question um I don't know when we're planning on meeting again next but if we wait until let you say mid February or we might be meeting well before that but will there be enough time to both consider right the application and

formal word article on do all the other things that we need to do by March 1st or um I yeah a um we are we are approaching a time crunch uh we haven't scheduled the next meeting yet but that's that's later on in our agenda uh um I feel pretty aable we can at least extend it for one meeting um you know and and and we'll take things from great uh Lisa Brett questions comments nothing for me on that one no Ben just that I think it's it's it's reasonable and I'm glad that you know they're they're gonna come back with some of the things that we were concerned about as far as you know a strategy moving forward so uh I'm I I appreciate that okay yeah I was just going to add I think they posted a meeting for tonight um so I think that they're meeting and yeah forward to seeing fantastic um hopefully they can designate because they have to designate a member uh to sit on um CPC and then that member has to then be appointed by the select board and hopeful be done rejoin us uh okay oh we have a hand oh we have a hand Chris yes Christian hi can you hear me okay yes so uh just Ben on that last point it's an interesting point does the select board have to appoint anymore now that the most recent bylaw change passed um and this is applicable to me as well um you know wreck has already voted me uh post town meeting to be the CP representative so we're just wondering procedurally do I just need to go into the town clerk or does the select board

actually have to now uh do they have a role in improving uh so so your appartment first congratulations Kristen look forward to uhh to working with you again yes I can't wait to be there yeah so for for in terms of your appointment uh I think Recreation just has to uh notify uh Mr hegy um he may ask he may ask for a copy of minutes just you know demonstrating the vote um and then you are all set uh the reason why uh let me see the trying to think of the best way to explain this uh at special town meeting there was an article that dissolved shopsy right an article that created the affordable housing trust fund committee uh our our article uh changed the language at the end of the list of of all of the designating bodies um as folks might recall you know one member of the planning board uh as we change it from designated to as appointed by the planning board well the select board removed because the shopsy is no longer there it uh it falls back on there's other language existing within the article that says if one of these bodies uh is dissolved the select board chooses who the new appointing authority will be ah got it got it it defaults back to the old way uh for that one that one uh uh chair so the two at large plus the the member of presumably the

affordable housing trust fund committee will still be appointed by select board uh the other six six members will be appointed by their contributing companies got it thank you for the explanation I feel like I could have explained it in one sentence instead of no actually that was really for someone who kind of knows the process a little bit that was that was good thank you thanks going forward not that this would be our job but it seems like it would be a good idea to clean up the to code with any references to chopsy and move them over to for housing prust yeah obviously that would be wor AR but um that I think that would apply to ours as well but we should update that yeah I I agree I agree um okay so I believe that's it on the uh affordable housing trust fund committee's application uh next up I have a item on there uh under active project update and discussion uh Jim hegerty got in touch with me about the town clerk records restoration project which has been going very well um there are two parallel tracks going on one is uh document preservation by uh an archivist uh Jeremy who last name is GES who's done incredible work I got to see something uh and then for some of the really complicated stuff um uh material are sent off to New England Document conservation company or some such yeah and um yeah they and they uh sort of take a first glance at the batch of products and the back the batch of of of documents and say okay you know we estimate this is going to cost X dollar uh but then as they go through they may they may find that it takes either more or less work than originally anticipated at and the final bill comes in a little bit different

apparently the last couple of years every bill that came in was always a little bit less than the rest of for the very first time it was a little bit more this is the very last bill from any DCC uh that will come in under this project and that $200 actually pushed them over the budget and Jim is asking if we would approve the use of $200 out of the agcy funds um to pay that that exra $200 on the bill he he provided uh a copy of their invoice um and uh and gave that description um and and sent an email sort of sort of documenting everything uh I told him I would uh uh bring it to the the committee this evening uh I suspected it wouldn't be uh um real heavy lift for us but uh if there's any uh um uh questions or comments this is something we craft the warrant articles to require a vote of the committee to use any contingency funds so we would have to conduct to vote but before we do that does anyone have any questions or comments about this nope thank you my only question is I can't remember exactly but how big was the contingency on this more it was y so I'm glad we glad we did that yeah absolutely um okay so if there are no further any hands up on this one um okay thank you so with that just looking for uh a motion to approve the expenditure of $200 from the uh uh the, contingency for the uh uh town clerk uh document uh restoration project so mov thank you and is there a second second

thank you uh Lisa brachio yes Brett Peters yes Grant barington yes Ellen Mario yes and Ben Smith is yes okay timeline to annual town meeting we've been sort of hitting on this throughout our discussion tonight um we are aiming for our warrant articles to be complete by March 1st uh in order for that to happen we need to have updated applications um and uh uh we need to have at least started our discussions with the applicants where appropriate because here we're speaking mostly about the fir Fred Association about putting an affidavit together and what the contents of that will look like just so that there there are no surprises at kind meeting uh ideally we'll have that affid together prior to town meeting but once we get the warrant articles together uh they have to go to for legal review we then have to go talk to advisory occasionally select board will want to talk to us as well about some of the Articles um so that's the schedule we're looking at for in April 8th Annual town meeting uh let's see so project close out in signage update uh Freddy of course couldn't make it this evening and she's been handling a lot of the uh uh a lot of the tasks on that so we'll be looking to her for an update um uh at our next meeting um uh as we've spoken about in the past there's a historical society project uh that appears to be complete uh reached out to the society uh to let them know that the be uh seeking to just return unspent funds uh Mr Yan um got back to me uh with a question um he Lees

it some may still be owed to the society so I'm uh going through and doing some research on that when I get it all sorted out I'll report back in um other than that I think we really do have to wait for Freddy to be here for the uh for further details on Project POS but that that project is uh it's still chugging away a lot of details to be Tred uh okay so next up the chair report uh so we all received an email from Debbie deia uh um about uh applications for historic preservation of the flag school and the South Union School um our last discussion of this um we you know we talked about the applications um because they they don't have um you know a demonstration of site control by the applicant the the applications were uh incomplete and that uh we haven't were unable to act on them because it's not a a complete application um part of that I just um I was going through our handbook our application handbook and I had forgotten the exact language here and I I refreshed myself uh section 2.4 property owner permission I'm just going to read it real quickly if the applicant is not the owner of the property for which they are seeking CPA funds is required that they receive permission from the owner or owners of the property building before applying for a CPA Grant to do work there for instance if a project is requesting funds to do work on a building or land owned by the town the applicant must show written permission from the select board the project is to be done on grounds of one of South bro schools written permission from the school committee is required alternatively if

funds are being petitioned for a project done on private property permission must be given by the owner or Board of the organization um so I think um it does you know spell out that this is this is a requirement for the application um I I want to get a feeling from the the committee here we can't if it's the committee's will to conduct a vote on this uh we can't do it tonight um I'd have to put that on on the our next agenda um my original intention was not to conduct a vote because the applications are are incomplete um but uh um it sounds like uh Debbie is is looking for some uh you know offic some official action on this and I'm I just want to sound out the committee and what your feelings are do you feel that we should conduct a vote uh should we reply to the email that we're unable to act um should we conduct a vote to you know approve or to should we conduct a vote to declare the application uh incomplete and not actionable I got a whole universe of of possibilities and I'd love to hear uh opinions so Ellen I'll start with the com sure so I had a question to kind of add to the list of options um so the email also mentions um kind of asking to keep the CPC applications open um and I'm just wondering what effect that has um what does that mean in terms of us taking one of the votes you offered and these applications potentially coming back um in the future you know I don't there's no kind of place in line that's lost um so I'm just wondering and of do we have a a definition or kind of what does that mean in terms of keeping an application open from our

perspective uh we don't have any official policy on that um but you know if it's not acted on um you know we would seek a new application next year uh if by this won't be the case but if the application form itself hasn't changed you know obviously the same application could be submitted we've already talked I think at a couple of meetings about some changes we might make to the application itself sure um so you know nothing would stop any applicant uh from you know updating with new required information in in resubmitting it um is that yes yeah thank you um yeah I would personally say I wouldn't be comfortable taking a vote on it at this point I think I appreciate the spirit of these applications and the value of the assets um that are seeking to be reserved here I think the process is important and this isn't process for the sake of process this is a really essential piece of this it's spelled out as you just read um and I yeah I don't feel it's appropriate TR to take a vote when kind of one of the core pieces of the application hasn't been met in terms of that side control thank you uh Grant um I think Brett wants to speak oh I'm sorry gret go go right ahead sure yeah I guess the thing I was going to say is like I kind of agree that there's no great vote to take the the vote like if I had to suggest a vote I might vote say that we could vote that we all agree that the The Proposal we we approve of the merits of the proposal and we like it and we vote to you know we could vote to say we'll continue working with the

applicant and trying to polish it off uh and polish it up till it is in a state when it can be voted on but or just kind of a vote of a a thumbs up and we'd like to continue working with it not Mo but not officially approve it thank you uh uh Grant uh yes so as I had mentioned at the beginning of this process I'll be OB understanding from any vote that we might take on it um just in terms of process generally I think we should probably have some sort of official action whether or not to vote or um reading to send a letter explaining why the will noo or whatever it is I think um just yeah not not just with these applications but other ones yeah it's fair to the applicant to let them know we won't be acting on it or we will be acting on it um that kind of thing so uh I think probably some sort of official action whether it be a letter or voting I guess they'll be voting to send a letter yeah or actually having a vote um okay in terms of what form that takes I guess I'm kind of open but I think so thank you rather than just letting of no um I had thought it um Lisa so I'm I'm I'm kind of torn on this one um I worry about leaving applications open going into the next application season I I I agree I don't know that we necessarily need to vote no I mean it incomplete is incomplete but I I agree with Grant that that at Le the least action we should take is to let the applicant know that it is is incomplete and that we can't act on it at this time and that you know that doesn't reflect on the merits or the support that the committee may have on that um but I I I do think it's

important for us to kind of close that out um again I just worry about applications hanging out there because you know one day you could have 50 applications that have you know great intention that we support but then suddenly they get lost in all of the new applications that come in so I'm just trying to figure out a cleaner process Ben and and maybe yeah without taking a vote which which Ellen I completely agree with but gr I think at least sending a letter letting them know that we aren't acting on it and they're welcome to bring it back um is is probably for me a cleaner process in starting the new application process this summer thank you thank you Lisa so uh a couple of things just to touch on real quickly um uh this is something we we this is came from a recommendation from the community preservation Coalition and it's a really good one we talked about it a previous meeting our technical review meeting that we have every September or October should be renamed the uh technical appc application and uh eligibility review where we you know we we go through and do our technical comments but also determine uh um if it's actually eligible for funding and it's interesting uh when I was going through putting the uh the first draft of the manual together I looked at a whole bunch of different municipalities and especially in larger cities and towns it's really common to have a two-step application process in fact the first step is you put together a project description and it gets submitted for an eligibility review and only if you pass that review are you then allowed to submit a formal application um we're a smaller municipality um um you know this is for many of us our second uh appointment um

it's tough to you know to meet too many times over the year uh so I think having it in one meeting would be entirely appropriate but just to sort of uh add to our process we are determining eligibility and I think in this particular case that would have um we would have addressed this earlier in in in a way that would have caused a lot less confusion um uh I like the idea I don't well yeah um I think we could act to uh uh see I think it would be better if we postponed a vote on sending a letter until the next meeting um let me think on that actually it wouldn't I don't think that' necessarily be uh we would necessarily have to do that we could we could absolutely vote this evening to uh um to send a letter to the applicant um uh saying I think to a person we've all expressed uh support for the historic preservation of these two buildings uh but that the the application is is incomplete without a demonstration of site control um and we are unable to act on it um we would U welcome a complete application our next uh funding cycle words to that effect I think that's great Ben yeah great if you I know so are we able because I'm looking at the agenda like um does that just fall under application review and update even if it's not formally listed like pay you know I think to be as clean as possible we probably ought to put it off until the next meeting now that you say that Grant and just get an actual agenda item

on there uh and then and then conduct that vote that sound good to folks and if others think that we're okay I'm just I don't want to have help the me violation yeah no I think we we should we should hair on the side of you know being careful with public meeting obviously we conv be okay let's let's handle it that way then sorry oh no no thank you for I don't want to be that guy no it's it's it's the right thing to do gr so thank you all right uh next up next meeting dates um see here think it's the 16th uh First St jumps out at me is is February 6 just three weeks from tonight so Ben I'm not sure um whether I can do the sixth only because I'm having surgery on my wrist on the 31st and oh gosh yeah so I I I tentatively I could say Yes um but again I I don't know um yeah I'm trying to keep that week open because I don't know what's what's going to happen sorry understood understood um you know and whenever we schedule a meeting like this it is always somewhat tentatively that we do it and you know we we coordinate in the the days leading up just to make sure everyone can attend um uh are others able to uh think they'd be able to make it on the 6th or another alternative would be the 30th the week before um both are free for me um if Lisa can

attend the 30th and not I can do either one as well maybe that would be my preference I guess maybe would we have enough to on yeah I'm the reason I suggested the six was to make sure there's enough time for uh Kevin and and Bill Kiff to to get an estimate together yeah um uh for the the water tower Ben if I had to have a choice between the two the Third the night before my surgery and I have to be there early in the morning so that that wouldn't work so let's let's tentatively schedule it for the sixth um you know if that doesn't work yeah we can push it to the next week if that doesn't work you know we'll just play I mean hopefully everything's G to be good you know yeah um so but you just never know what you never know okay so we'll we'll pencil it in then for uh February 6 at seven at seven calendar great all right so next up uh I emailed everybody a stack of minutes uh only a few hours before the meeting so I I know folks would not have been able to uh to get through them um I've been getting uh some some reminders from town clk's office because we are uh we are quite a bit behind on minutes so this will um with the exception of tonight make us make us current um I haven't put together all of the uh the documents that were used at the meetings I don't have those those together yet um one thing that I could

do is uh submit these as draft minutes which will bring us into compliance and we can then uh at our at our next meeting um do the actual edits or perhaps we could uh if folks are able to maybe go through one or or more this evening um because I prepared the minutes and we likely be taking care of any nits we just we can't do that outside of a public meeting because we would rapidly hit a warm VI so we kind of have to do the editing in person on these um are people comfortable spending uh you know 10 minutes at least get one of these knocked out um so I can get that submitted I am I am Ben thank you for doing this I I want to say I think you did a great job I I again I just skimmed through them and I didn't see any any edits so but thank you thank you for taking the time to do this I will say Grant told me about uh an AI service that apparently does a great job at summarizing uh um YouTube videos that he has some experience with and I'm eager to try it it sounds uh I'll you [Laughter] sounds so then let's get a try let's see how quickly it goes with the minutes from October 23rd 2024 I have some Ed pretty light ones I haven't read them yet um okay so I'll just go through that all right uh let's see um first paragraph uh Bill Cundiff I think we should give his title as DPW superintendent or not first paragraph and the committee attendant non Committee in attendance here we go yes director public groups yeah

that um okay I let's see page two um to Common railing and fence that one yes uh so it's the fourth paragraph down y Andrew dennington um I think it's three scope and budget options instead of Alternatives okay yeah because not an alternative to thing I think it's one of it again um um okay and then last page or no yeah last page would just the ums it's not necessary but I don't think we need to say um Grant barington requested that a typographic error be fixed because I think if we say minutes as amended then then but that's just preference uh another thing adjournment um and I only know this because I had the video up while doing this but I'm pretty sure Doug voted yes to the Jour um oh yes he did I copi and pasted from above and I missed that thank you no worries and the only reason I thought to look at that because I thought it'd be strange to stay my um and then I did look uh mainly just by scrolling through the video just to see kind of what was shared on the screen for documents used yes at this meeting I'm pretty sure it was just the um Nate had a Eng 25 refurbishment presentation and um having shared photos at the condition of the rural cemetery water tower yes so those are I think maybe we should just put that down because I know that clerk's office wants to to say um what's their so they can they want on the minutes yeah they want it so that they they can verify essentially whether or not they have all

the documents which is especially now the new bylaw um yes so so the engine 25 yeah typically I'll just do used at the meeting at the very end okay and I'll just list um Eng 25 presentation and I don't know if we're gonna get the photos from then Kevin but photos of the water tower that's it for me they were excellent oh thank you okay does anyone else have any uh comments or edits or changes we do over here oh yes Christen oh yes Kristen should be on I'm sorry my my comment isn't about the minutes so please continue with that I I have an unrelated comment okay no comments on the minutes so great thank you thank you L Brad are you still going through one more yeah no comments for me ni emotion wait Lisa she said she's still looking no I'm all set then you are oh okay uh then with that is there a motion to accept the minutes as

amended uh GRE do you want to be the second sure second okay uh I'll call the role uh Lisa braio yes re Peters yes Grant barington yes Le uhen Min yes and Ben Smith is yes um I mean that took five minutes you mind does anyone mind if we do uh another set okay let's do it which one are we picking next uh oh I'm sorry the uh Thursday November 21st okay um I also have some light edits here yes please um bit more than the last one but not too many so okay um maybe Kristen can verify this if we need to but I'm pretty sure she spells her name the capital v um non-committee in attendance that's correct thank you oh thanks chrisen my apologies I forgot Christen with an Kristen with an i and last name with capital V that's everyone gets that wrong thank you and then also I don't think we need her address um just uh I think we're required to uh right if somebody's not a town official um just like they have to announce their address um before giving their first comment is that right okay yeah um all right hey let's see um okay so 2024 review applications uh foral housing trust funds one two three paragraphs down starting Lisa braio yeah the second line um Al Hamilton said that should just be a lower case yeah he had not

um and then also in that paragraph I would add the word erroneously in front of emailed oh the letter was erroneously emailed to Al Hamilton's daughter who has a similar email address make I mean I guess maybe that's matter but um yeah no it's it's correct that's that's what happened that's what okay um see what else do I have uh so okay the next page I think it's still the same section uh one two three so four paragraphs down Grant barington yes uh I think I'd prefer to say Grant said you think the need for specificity is necessary due to the amount of funding requested I think that's oh okay cleaner necessary do okay so I guess be replacing tide to um yeah so instead of Tide I'll replace with necessary do okay yeah uh bottom of that or second from the bottom again Kristen um with the capital v um next page by school on 21 Highland Street yes um all throughout this paragraph deia As a capital the cap the capital the middle of the name yeah so so there's three in that yes one two on fourth line yeah uh splitting errors but if we want to do it a project closeout update um on the next page yes I think can correct me if I'm wrong but facade

has a CID on the wow we want to do that know that was oh on the seat yeah uh that's really gonna tax my voice uh and then finally um documents us the meeting I I scrolled to video I think it was the draft um FY 26 draft budget and the close out list and I have like pictures of both of those that I took um remember I don't remember but I Freddy had it in person and I yes screenshoted it whatever and shared it so um I can provide those oh that would be great um so yeah I just said FY 26 draft Community preservation budget and then project close out list for the doc used perfect that's it theone else doing I have nothing further Ben thank you yeah and nothing also for me thank you is okay uh with that is there a motion to accept the minutes of November 21st as

amended thank you and is there a second second thank you uh Lisa braio yes Brett Peters yes Grant farington yes Ellen Maria wait sorry I do okay just because it is important I it lists Doug is absent but then he speaks her good okay uh Ive him up thank you good catch gosh um okay and and yes and you are yes okay thank you very much all right so you know what the ask it's only two pages the the shortest of the lot and but we can knock out just a couple minutes I had two very minor things and then just the documents used as well um let's see second page um Mass Housing Partnership seminar yes uh third paragraph down share details there should be an O and yeah yeah and then similarly in the next paragraph uh Shelly Goring also has an po before the oh it does okay yeah I love to help and then the only other thing is documents use at the meeting technically we shared on the screen I I don't even know how much we talked about it but we had the CPA completed project the turn forum for the golf course committee um and I have copy of that

you well I think maybe Freddy said sent it out or something but if you need I can put you for perfect and um I'll talk to you after the meeting Grant about submitting minutes to P just haven't done that before oh okay yeah I oh very minor yes I'm on the second page under Mass Housing Partnership seminar where it starts with Lisa Rio Harbor Light homes there's no s on the lights and it's one word oh okay and I only used the name once yeah good hey anybody else with any edits or changes I'm all set D I'm all set okay uh so with that is there a motion to accept the minutes of December 10th as amended so move and is there a

second second Thank you Lisa braio yes Peters yes gr barington yes Ellen Mario yes and Ben Smith is a yes uh thank you everyone my God we're up to date on minutes thank you first time in a year it's a lot of work uh Kristen thank you for your patience I'm sorry you had your hand up yes can you hear me okay you can yes yes I'm sorry okay great Sor no it's okay um so obviously this is public comment Christ laal 12 Southwood Drive speaking as a a private citizen um but I do want to call to your attention that I again as a private citizen I was at last week's select board meeting on January 7th um under scheduled appointments their third item on the agenda there was uh Item B capital Improvement and planning committee fiscal year 26 Capital recommendations I just wanted to make make sure in case you weren't aware that um there was a lengthy discussion brought up um I think rather unexpectedly about uh cho cho which is Woodward uh fields and possible Turf there which is something that the Recreation Commission which I am a member of um has been exploring for years um this is not new project so both the CPC and the Recreation Commission were heavily referenced in the January 7th discussion despite having no representation so I was there just as a citizen I had no idea and but as a Rec member um I can suggest that there were facts misrepresented um so I asked just that everyone on this committee perhaps should watch that meeting because again the CPC was

heavily focused on um in terms of positions as well as um process where Mr Hamilton suggested again the idea of application deadlines might be um something that should be challenged and I also just want to mention that I believe a meeting is being planned between the select board and either advisor or Capital I'm not sure and Rec to further discuss this in the next week or next week and of course our CPA process application process is closed given the proximity of town meeting um but based on Mr Hamilton's comment coments in the January 7th meeting I just suggest that we may need to be prepared for further discussion personally like I'm on recck I doubt about you know trying to push through something for Turf but again those discussions are to be held but certainly I think about our process and the application process and deadline so again I just wanted to highlight that to you in case you weren't aware and encourage you to go back and watch that session on YouTube Kristen thank you so much I I meant to so I'm I'm moving us back to chair the chair report item I meant to mention this and I forgot um uh Lisa flagged it to my attention and uh uh we both I believe I know I watched the meeting and uh uh the recording I we Lisa did too uh and and Kristen of course you you described it accurately um there was quite a bit of discussion about Community preservation um uh I uh I think part of it was sort of a you know a game of of telephone where I had a conversation with uh um a very friendly conversation with Travis who reached out to me with Travis Farley um about uh choke field and about the fundability of uh an artificial turf field um and

really the the emphasis of our conversation was that um our funding capacity is especially in the budgeted Reserve is exhausted we've you know we um in fulks remember from last year um you know the entire historical bucket goes towards Bond payments and then 75% of uh our budget budgeted Reserve goes towards uh Bond payments and and we just don't have any more bonding capacity in the budget of Reserve so that means we're left with uh uh the the recreation bucket and I think the most we would be able to contribute towards a bond payment is you know we could only Bond against 75% of that uh which would bring us somewhere in the neighborhood I think a little less than $30,000 um for a bond towards um uh what it sounds like is they they would be seeking something like $2 million from you preservation and we simply don't have that bonding capacity so I told that to Trevor and I think uh you know so he talked to somebody and somebody talked to Capital planning and I think like I said a little bit of a game of telepon where things kind of evolved um so uh uh because of that some other you know Kristen you you you mentioned that uh Mr Hamilton was was uh upset about you know us having a filing deadline um there was also some discussion of uh I think a misunderstanding of how much money we have on hand with all of that uh I put together a letter that that Lisa was good enough

to to to help with uh that I it was an email that I addressed to Kathy just to to clear up some confusion on this where where I addressed each of these issues and uh uh and and tried to correct the record um I meant to put it in my notes for the chair report and I completely forgot so thank you Kristen for um uh reminding well no thank you Ben again I this is not an attack like what unfortunately what it could come across as from just a citizen not involved was a bit of an well I guess some not so friendly comments about CPC and the Recreation Commission and I just again with neither being represented that was um unfortunate so I thank you so much for addressing that and I thank you chrisan for uh so you attended that meeting uh remotely I believe and and you spoke up about it and uh and I appreciated your words um you know you uh what what you said was correct they were discussing these two Town bodies uh with with no notice of it that it was going to be taking place and uh um uh given the general tone of the discussion we really should have been a part of it and it would have been much more productive had we been you know it's yeah that we get things correct you know misconceptions um um to sort of build on each other and can create a mess um thank you for speaking I yes Lisa so I also want to thank you Kristen um uh little shocking to watch um I I do suggest then um that obviously there's things in the pipeline and I know you have repeatedly asked over the years we we ask everybody and I I would ask that we see if the capital committee is available for our meeting on the 6th

and I'd like to know if they have anything that we should be aware of you know that's coming in the pipeline whether you know they have a 10-year plan let's let's see if there's anything in there that as we forecast ourselves and we look at how money's you know you may be getting less from the state going forward how can we best budget what's in there you know to best benefit the citizens of self grow so either for for that meeting or the meeting you know any meeting after but I really think we should have Capital come in and bring bring anything that they believe could potentially be CPC funded so we can we can do our job effectively absolutely and you know every every year we uh well this year Lisa you you led a huge PR effort for our um our annual form which which is one of the primary goals of that is for for you know Town departments and and Boards committees and commissions to share their future outlook regard the CPA projects and um uh even with that tremendous public Outreach well you know what we did get we did get a few um we we were uh Mr Miller from historical uh um reached out and and discussed a couple of potential projects uh I believe Nate Kendall uh attended the Forum and and told us a little bit about his hopes for a engine 25 restoration so a couple of folks did and it was really helpful to us now if we could get a copy of their 10-year plan so we we can start looking out beyond the next funding cycle that would be fantastic um there may well be things that we want to start budgeting for um because right now you know the as we all know our budgeted Reserve is is it's shrinking um with every year uh potentially if the town meeting agrees GNA be sh some more

this so I'm sorry ahead oh so um just to respond to Kristen thanks Kristen I didn't know anything about that um you said that there's going to be a meeting upcoming uh with advisory and capital is it do you know when that is or no I was I was honestly I was um just texting with Jen our chair today Jen Hansen and in that meeting um I know the selectman um I know Andrew and then I forget whom from the selectman maybe Kathy agreed to meet with wreck because again there was a lot of facts that were well no I shouldn't say that there were lot of statements being made that were not fact um I think it's going to be a um like an offline meeting I didn't get the sense it was going to be a public meeting um I did want to suggest that CPC should be there um so that maybe that's something we should discuss that CPC might want to have a representative there as well because it seems like there's a lot of I love your characterization there's a lot of telephone going on yeah thank you thank you very much Christ yeah so uh uh so that's that's the news there um uh I you know just one last comment on it um I I think and it's sort of be expected there is a um how do I describe this uh a little bit of resentment I think still lingers uh uh after special town meeting and our citizens petition warrant that I that I think just my opinion it appears to me that it that it it colors the perceptions of some other folks in town government their perceptions of seeing um and I hope that slowly

dissipates over time um the glad we did what we did was the right thing to do uh but that doesn't mean that we don't want to absolutely work together um with the select board and every other Town body absolute productive way so with that um anyone have anything else that they uh uh they want to bring up this evening um just to kind of P back about what you were saying about kind of long-term planning I know that I talked about this previously must been over a year ago now I think but um the master plan planning board wel master plan impation committee and planning board which put forward the master plan um has like 200 goals for the town over the next 10 years but it does include penal or it did include potential funding sources and I believe was one of them okay so it could be worthwhile either for us to check it out or to reach out to plan implementation committee which disclosure my mom and chairs or we planning Bo to be honest with you um to get a sense of what they thought at that time were was CPA fund and maybe get a sense for heading into the next cycle um yeah what kind of projects might be here back okay yeah um uh you know Lisa mentioned the uh capital plannings you know they have a 10-year plan just one thing that was a little bit tough for me was it's pretty clear that discussions have been going on about choke field I suspect you know even predating our uh public forum last year and then um you know the first that I heard about it was it was the last week in November that uh uh that Travis he got in touch with me by email asked if if if we could have a chat by phone

um and you know that's when we had that discussion um you know months after our application window had closed and if somebody had just you know kind of reached out given us an idea this was coming down the road I would have known to reach out to uh to Travis um you know understanding he was still sort of getting his feet under him as the new director or whatever but but could have helped them hey let some help put in an application together uh and and we could have done so so Ben can I jump in real quick there and and I don't mean it be Qui but but that's that's what's kind of frustrating both for you like I feel frustrated for you and for Travis because remember we did not have this Recreation did not have the turf field in our Capital plan this year it was it was Capital who reproached wreck given the ner project to say maybe we should bring this project in so yeah you have Travis coming in new and now I think and I I'm not going to get the timeline correct but I'm not even sure when Capital approached Travis to say hey can we bring this project in and Jen if it was probably even past the application deadline so okay there's so much complexity to this project like we have been looking at this for five six years probably and so you are not to blame Travis is not to blame like no one's to blame but I just don't want anyone getting the wrong idea like no one did something wrong here like but in some ways I'm sorry but in that meeting it was portrayed that perhaps people did so that's that's just what we have to address yep yep no I think you put that very well Chris thank you thank very well said Kristen and my I have to say my experience with you know Travis has some

big shoes to Phil Tim was Tim was a superstar and uh Travis is off to a running start it seems like a fantastic guy in all my interactions with absolutely all right with that if there's nothing else uh there's one last motion to make if somebody would like the honors make a motion to adjourn thank you and is there a second second uh Lisa braio yes BR Peters yes gr Maran yes Helen Mario yes Ben Smith is a yes thank you very much everybody thank you take care everybody thanks thank you