I'm going to go ahead and call this special meeting of the community preservation committee to order when we read the uh remote participation text in accordance with chapter 2 of the acts of 2023 suspending certain provisions of the open meeting Law Public bodies otherwise governed by the oml are temporarily relieved from the requirement that meetings be held in public places open and physically accessible to the public so long as measures are taken to ensure public access to the body's deliberations through adequate and alternative means this meeting will be live on Zoom the public May participate remotely by joining Zoom with meeting ID number of 84 877 2826 or by calling 929 20205 6099 for additional information about remote participation please contact C Carly antonellis assistant town manager at ATM a.m. us or 978 77282 to0 extenstion 100 prior to the meeting during business hours right on the agenda next item is the approval of the agenda does anybody have any corrections or updates that they would want on this agenda so we're not doing minutes or committee reports or this is just going to be a special meeting and then we'll find out whether or not we will have a meeting in April or you know we'll talk about next week exactly next week yeah or we want to wait until after you know the um Tom meeting um so so with that I mean unless someone else you know no that's fine okay all right so can I have a motion to approve the agenda so moved all right and colen second all right so let's go through the roll call I've got uh Jess hi Colleen hi Beth yes and Cher says I so it's unanimous okay next is correspondence I put this one on there because Alicia quickly asked me if the CPC would be willing to write a letter to express a support for their um uh C DB Grant uh program and um I I told him definitely I can't see you know um why that wouldn't you know happen so um but I need to let you guys know it's um pretty much a form letter just saying that we express their support for the efforts of the Department of community and economic development we voted on that at our last meeting did we okay okay okay okay so that got that got done great all right that's the only correspondence that I have okay moving on um the review of the Town warrant articles um again we had the discussion the last time with regards to article number 21 which is the dispersement and the reason behind it was um with regards to the percentage breakdown um and Beth thank you so much again I know I said it in the email and I've said it to a couple people for looking back at the old warrant article with regards to the 40b project for Noah um the dollar amounts were not written in that warrant article so I know that probably should have been caught so I had a meeting with um Town accountant with Carrie and with Robert and with with um their research and such what we ended up um having the 400,000 is being broken up by 10,000 being in community housing while 390,000 would be out of the budgetary reserve and with that that I have the I have the spreadsheet if you guys want me to to share it um hold on so that puts our house housing category back into the positive exactly yeah and that would be reflecting the budget that would have been present at the time that that vote occurred for housing so it would be utilizing all of the housing budget and then drawing the rest from the undesignated basically almost not all of I mean it we had a few dollars okay and then it got you know funded again um yep okay right so this now would be our balance for community housing we have a positive $ 29,6 58 so again um lesson learned with um making sure that dollar amounts are in those warrant articles instead of saying it will come from both but have a dollar amount associated with it um so with that we can do the 10% like we wanted to do and that's the breakdown that is in that warrant article 96,9 and then the 5% not to exceed the 48,000 um 454 now just to throw something back at the the group we have the remaining sum of that 70% per se less the administration instead of putting in an undesignated fund balance I was under the impression that the undesignated is where the uh sear charge gets put I found out from Carrie today that this is where the interest gets put I'm show I'm pointing to the screen where the budget where the categories are the search charge amounts get put into the budgetary reserve and that's pretty much where the money is held so instead of throwing it into undesignated undesignated is mostly like I say the interest and because the fund earns the interest it is an undesignated amount and Carrie I I asked TR to to the meeting today just in case you've got questions um with regards to this but I think I'm describing it where since it's the interest it doesn't have a set category and that's why there is an undesignated Reserve amount so any type of balance really should go into the budgetary reserve to be dispersed so again we've been putting it in undesignated because of my um um um understanding that I thought that's where um the the undesignated is where the money first goes in and then it gets broken up so um I'm learning as I'm going along so what I'm ask go ahead you want to change the wording in article 21 for that amount to go to the budgetary reserve correct okay so that is what I'm asking so um that one sentence and the remainder sum of $629,950 less the administrative 70% less administrative expenses for Budget Reserve balance or take any action there on or there or in relation there to do I have um any discussion it kind of is the opposite of what I would have thought same thing here so what you're saying is the I just want to clarify because we've always used undesignated fun language I think right exactly War so we always have but it looks as if the monies really go into the budgetary reserve and then is broken up between the other three categories Carrie am I speaking correctly about that yeah Janet you got that actually correct so what happens is basically that what is going into your budgetary reserve right now is all of your CPA SE charges every all of the 3% sear charges that you that and your match for the state that is going into your budgetary res ve the only Revenue that is going into your undesignated fund right now is any interest of um late fee uh like or tax title any of the interest is going in there so basically what's happening is when we rent the pass written the warrant it basically is saying the undesignated funds so what's happening is it's technically it's just the wording honestly [Music] um I'm sorry go ahead so basically it is basically your 70% should be in your budgetary reserve and 10% in each of your uh categories because my understanding was that when action hadn't been taken on an amount it was basically in that Reserve right everything comes to us and goes in the reserve interest comes to us goes to the reserve but once it's voted upon that's when it's actually in undesignated then that makes it the undesignated category and then the other things that are voted on you know whether it's historic housing open space then those are voted on and they're no longer in the reserve either but interest would still come into the reserve and things like that but once motion is made on an item I don't think we keep it in the same bin as like interest right we do not the budgetary reserve is kept the revenue that goes into your budgetary reserve is kept separate from your undesignated right and undes always voted on moving things from budgetary Reserve to undesignated in town meeting right and that's what we've been doing in the past but what I understand that Janet prakas would like to do excuse me one moment I do not know what happened what I understand um I'm sorry about that um what I guess Janet would like to do is to keep the 70% minus the administrative expenses in the budgetary reserve and the other 10% in open space historic and Community Janet yeah it is but it it doesn't have to be I mean I was just trying to you know again trying to yeah I think we have to vote to put it in an undesignated location right to like yeah I don't know conf by this okay are you saying because of the way that the fund is held if it's undesignated then we can put it anywhere we want if it's in budgetary reserve it may get limited like you just said there's a difference between things that were received like interest right which go not subject to the 10% rule for the three categories and so it seems like we would want to keep it separate right to know what we've voted on at town meeting because there's things we have voted on and there's going to be interest money and things like that we haven't voted on at town meeting we can go ahead and keep it the way it is undesignated I just wanted to throw that out at you guys that's all see whether or not anyone else yeah I just don't know it seems like it's a way to document what town meeting has taken action on and keep it separate from things that come in like as more of a financial financial transaction I don't know guess you know I have to say I just don't understand why we have the two we have to have the two budgets in the first this is not my strong category so I'm going to go with what's the best advice of everybody else this might help a little bit easier um consider your your um budgetary Reserve as your um deferred revenue basically we've already build for your 3% CPA s charges and basically so kind of like a commitment knowing that this is what the allocations of the estimated revenues that you will be receiving in so that's kind of like take that into the uh scenario that's what your budgetary reserve is and then your undesignated any of the extra Revenue coming in in acre like your interest and your tax leans and so [Music] forth so which way makes the best sense from an accounting perspective Ive that's honestly I I would recommend that you would do it as you have in the past just for as Beth indicated it it keeps track of the revenue a little bit easier but it's it's the community's decision yeah I I would be fine with that too okay then we'll keep it the way it's been sounds good to me all right all right just to review them we're doing the 10% to the three categories and then the remainder minus the administrative expenses to the undesignated fund correct okay all right no problem right that works out good um so can I can I ask one question that I'm going to ask eventually anyways is I notice um our balance on the um administrative unused administrative expenses from the last year is around I think 45,000 something where do where do the and we're putting another 45 into it this year where do the unused administrative expenses from a previous fiscal year where do they go if we're when we put in new in a new fiscal year we put in 45 something I'm not getting the figures right but what happens to the old administrative expenses I I'm going to say I believe since we don't use it it just automatically gets thrown back in back in where undesignated funds okay okay all right because again if you don't use it it goes back to the so we're not we're not building up a balance from previous years unfortunately you cannot you only can have 5% in allocated to that fund okay no that that was just I was just wondering where is it and that now I know thank you you're welcome no one's taking off for alap Poco or anything like that all right okay all right so um can I have a let's have a vote to accept article 21 the dispersement as written because that's exactly go ahead col I'll make a motion to accept the warrant article as written right I'll second I Colleen makes the motion just seconds let's do the roll call um We got Jess hi Colleen hi Beth yes and the chair says I all right so article 21 looks good article 22 this is the transfer of a unexpended funds with regards to the old fire station project that was the $190,000 that did not get used 150 of it was from community housing 40 of it was from 40,000 was from the historic resources so all that will be thrown back into their um appropriate categories the 150 to community housing and 40,000 to Historic resource funds makees sense makes sense all right can I have a motion to accept article 22 as written so moved can I hear a second second okay colen seconds justess makes the motion all right I'm going to do roll call Beth yes Colleen hi Jess I and the chair says I so article 22 looks good um will someone sorry go ahead Jess I was just GNA say uh I noticed we then skipped article 24 was there an article we have no oh it was supposed to be 23 yeah it should be article number 23 is article 24 should be 23 okay and 25 should be [Music] 24 because we did have um another one in there which we didn't need because that was the one for due diligence that we don't use all right so article 23 is for Habitat for Humanity looking for pardon sorry I just wanted to ask a question on 22 um will someone be prepared to kind of explain that in case questions come up um because especially with the fire station I think people might wonder what stat is and what was spent and what wasn't and those sorts of things so just a head that you know we just need to understand who's going to be prepared to speak to that I'll have that okay I don't know whether or not we need a are these going to be moved as consent calendar items and potentially pulled off are these um going to be taken up they're they're SE I'm going to say Robert can answer that but I think they're all separate yeah they're not going to be my understanding they're not going to be by consent okay right all right so article 23 Habitat for Humanity this is the one requesting $150,000 for the from the community housing category um one question on the wording there it refers to um to support construction of a house do we want to say duplex instead it I don't see the word I'm sorry house I think it would make sense to put in that it's a duplex that's going to be constructed because that'll be two additional okay so instead instead of Habitat for Humanity home you want okay okay and do we have 150,000 in housing assuming 22 passes then we do it goes right in out because if 22 when 22 passes we're throwing 150 in and now this 150 comes out so it's all it it'll be a wash so we definitely assume that that will pass but if it doesn't then can we amend I would think we could amend on the floor not the amount but the category the category to undesignated correct Robert yep y not the amount the category yeah yeah okay makes sense there is a hand up Janet okay sorry I'm trying to move it all right um hold on did me just make sure everybody on the committee any other questions oh just one other do we want to just say located on Newton Street or Lo located on at 12 Newton Street do we want to put the specific Street number we can put specific okay it's it makes sense for people to know where it's going to be so yeah well I'll have the the PowerPoint I mean again I'll I'll have the PowerPoint presentation so that we can show what the duplex is going to look like as well yeah I would just put in the the number because you know when you go back and look at a warrant five years later you know exactly you know not that there's going to be another Newton Street project but never can tell you never know okay good good good call all right okay that sounds good so we'll have it amended to say the Habitat for Humanity duplex look to be located at 12 Newton Street yep okay I anything else from the committee all right um Pauline thank you Janet and madam share I would suggest say two Habitat for Humanity homes so that you don't limit them to a duplex or a townhouse or whatever because they are still in negotiation um but if there are two Habitat homes that encompasses everything I think they do call it a duplex on their application and they may I I don't have it in front of me and I defer to you if that's what they say I would rather keep it duplex because there is not any room on that lot for two separate houses agreed absolutely and it is intended to be Town Homes um but I don't know if it's intended to be duplex under the state of uh under the Massachusetts criteria so that's all I'm suggesting but I'm sure Carolyn will be happy to elaborate but that was just my thought thank you all I think whatever was in the the language of the application is what we should y That's what I'm looking yeah that's what I'm looking at right now while while that's being looked up I just wanted to ask about um information that'll be available in advance we currently have the PowerPoint presentations from the hearings available on our website or would they and would they be listed as a link in the like online page of the warrant articles as well that you could just like directly thank you I'm see head shaking there but that's great because I really think it's helpful to have as much information as possible you know at the at the click of a mouse for you know people to look at prior to the evening at town meeting so thank you for everybody Cindy and all who do that Organization for us all right and to answer the question on the site habitat will build two three bedroom 1,100 square foot affordable homes the homes will be built in a duplex style and will meet the stretch energy code through all so they've use both two affordable home but they say dle homes duplex style duplex homes yeah thank you thank you for clarifying okay so the wording will be for the construction of a habitat for all right it's not going to be a to support the construction of two no that doesn't make sense yeah I'd say to I'd say just a duplex townhouse style duplex you can't say you can't say two duplexes because then that's four so Jess how would you word it I would my own opinion would be duplex I will to everybody else okay people know is the language in the applications say duplex style home and maybe if we leave it at that that leaves oh flexibility in case you know as they are doing the for the construction of a duplex style home okay just use Colleen's right okay so it's going to be uh to support the construction of a Habitat Humanity duplex style home M all right okay and the same thing will go on the explanatory note as well so we've got the changes to include the 12 Newton Street address well the changes it's be article 23 and the construction of a Habitat for Humanity duplex style home at 12 Newton Street got it okay is it do we need to say anything about like owner occupancy or anything like that um I mean I know the habitat model is sort of known but you know just clarifying that it's owner it's an own to be owned and not rented or anything like that maybe it's just far too much detail than we need yeah I think a little bit too much I think that can be explained with the presentation of the article correct yeah okay right okay so um let me get a vote make motion to approve article uh the draft article 24 as amended to rename it article 23 to specify 12 Newton Street and to use the language of a duplex style home okay second that's second I uh Jess makes the motion Beth seconds right let's do roll call Jess hi Colleen hi Beth yes and the chair says I excellent okay the next one um it would be now article 24 is the acquisition purchase of 71 Sandy Pond Road this one here um is requesting $350,000 from uh CPA funds on the open space category for a um to to go ahead and have it for open space and Recreation purposes and because this is a all inclusive uh purchase plus funding if you notice this is a 2/3 vote required on on this article normally ours are just majority vote but because this is a purchase it has to be a 2/3 any um any discussion on this article can I ask a quick question the first sentence where it says um to acquire by gift purchase or eminent domain a parcel of land I thought this was already sort of agreed to be purchased that we then providing half of the funds for so I wondered about that so Madam that was something that needed to be in there from a legal perspec all right Madam chair go ahead Robert so these are are are written by Town Council as far as to legal form calling so that is what Town Council um prefers as the legal sentence it has all of the options but when the board moves the article at town meeting it's the motion that is the key piece it'll be moved to be purchased so it's sort of a legal term of art we're obviously not taking it by eminent domain and unfortunately it's it's not a gift but um it is a purchase so you'll see the acquisition articles often have that legal language okay thank you for clarifying I I wonder about including the udag and arpa funds statement because that almost seems like it should be more in the explanatory note and that you keep this clean about the allocation of CPA funds and other Town funds and then certainly you know to to have the move well move to um to act on it you know I guess that you know is certainly may make sense but it seems to me this article is doing two things one that that are linked together the CPC Grant and also authorizing the select board to use the udag and arpa and if they have to be linked because if the CPC Grant doesn't go through then the other goes away but if the um cbcc Grant goes through then the select board has to have the means to complete the negotiation but there's no vote required at town meeting for arpa and udag funds so that doesn't need to be part of it yeah so Madam chair may I yes go ahead Robert so this article this combined article you're correct Jess it does two things and it was recommended by Town Council that wrote this whole article the two pieces and think of the warrant article as providing the voters with the maximum amount of notification on the issue the first thing is in the two-thirds piece is specific to the acquisition of the land so the first part of the article as you all know authorizes the the town to proceed with the purchase and sale and then the second function of the article is it authorizes subject to town meeting the commun community preservation fund uh 350,000 from open um space of course the question we know the land is 700,000 um Town Council felt that the article should indicate where the other piece of the the funding would be coming from the Opera in the udeg there's going to be a whole presentation on this neither the OPA funds or the udag funds require town meeting approval in fact the select board already voted on March 19th to authorize um to use um the maximum amount of remaining arpa and then whatever the balance is to use for udag now you know respectfully the the CPC doesn't have to get you know concerned with with that piece the piece is whether or not um the authorization for the 350,000 from CPC passes town meeting because the other way to do it would be to have a separate article for the authorization um and then another article for the um CPC portion of the funding um Town Council felt that there was an opportunity to combine everything into to one article um with the appropriate um um presentation at town meeting and you'll you'll have that Robert correct oh yeah in fact there's going to be a whole after to Beth's point after after April 2nd when the warrants approved there'll be as she mentioned everything organized on a town meeting you know web page and linked um Dan Van shck came up with an idea that we're going to have a whole page with all of the documents um for this for all the information for this and there will be a presentation at town meeting right this is just an aside but I had a a thought the other day that if this passes which personally I hope it does um one of the I was wondering if it was feasible to consider moving the basketball court across the street and uh using some of that area to create uh canoe and kayak access to Sandy Pond that was that occurred to me so I just thought I'd throw that into the potential uses talk to Dan yeah I like that idea yeah all right see that's why yeah that's that's why you're on this committee [Laughter] Jess all right well we still have to first buy it first so right okay um any other discussion there been none can I have a vote to go ahead and um have this article which is now article 24 um so I'll make a motion to approve draft article 25 with the amendment to change it to article 24 and otherwise as written second Jess makes the motion Colleen seconds let's do roll call Beth yes colen hi Jess hi and the chair says I excellent okay that is got that all cleaned up um any other I think that's it Robert looks like the those warrant articles I'll get those corrections to you um so that you can have that y right and thank you um with help with the Town Council Carrie thank you as well with the help on um that cleaning out that that one um $400,000 getting that all squared away so I appreciate you know the assistance um next on the agenda I'm moving on is public participant ATI um anything comments questions concerns from the public all right here in crickets I think I'm going to move on and I'm just about 13 minutes shy of my 7:30 adjournment can I hear motion to adjourn oh wait a minute before we do that um I'm going to ask Beth Colleen Jess with regards to the April meeting I know that I'll have to get in touch with um the mark from Mark Gallagher from the firehouse as well as Irv Rock um from Sandy Pond uh school um and if we don't have the April meeting and instead move it to a May meeting um April meeting would have been uh or I mean right now we have one scheduled on the 3D of April we can hold off until after town meeting and it would be May 1st Mayday One and Only May Day I'd vote for going to May 1 but I'll do whatever I would also if you don't think there's any pressing um I mean I know the present if you think it's okay to push those conversations till May I think that probably makes sense I know Irv wants to invite us to the may open house over at Sandy Pond and I know um Mark is looking to see what type of funding may be available for the firehouse because I told him that everything's going back to its categories and he'll have to go ahead and um apply separately so he wants to go ahead and speak with CPC um so with that it's not going to be anything until fall town meeting so um so there's nothing pressing you have the actual date of the schoolhouse No I um okay not at the top of my head I don't um it can't be any earlier than May 1 well that's the whole thing it's not it's like May 15th around there yeah um so okay and it seems like you know if we get these more articles taken care of then we can start to think about the next batch of funding so right it's good to wait until May 1 and then I think also too at the May one I can have the um Grant agreement done up as well for these two articles yeah I can have the grant agreements done Beth your comments May no have comment it's um the open house is for Sandy Pon Schoolhouse is on May 18th all right that's why we got you Cindy hey I can Google okay oh you know what yeah I do she was if I open up my calendar I would see Sandy Pond School open house 18th do you know what time um hold on no I wrote down all day a daytime thing yeah didn't say yeah graduation we all got we all got the invitation didn't we did we yeah I think so 10 AM to 3 pm to 3 like I say that's the reason why we have you even on a retirement basis all right so I think we should be fine um I'll go ahead and so um Beth you don't no no concern about not having the April meeting make it to me okay all right so um right now we'll go ahead and um I'll send out the email to everybody that we will not have the April meeting and we'll move everything to May excellent okay all right um that's about all that I have um can there's nothing else I'll make a motion to adjourn right Jess makes the motion and Colleen seconds all in favor I don't think we have to do but does I all right thank you thank you so much for everything and thank you everybody else for your help