##VIDEO ID:UoxsYDtym_M## call meting order at 4:03 uh as this meeting is being recorded uh by the chair and uh if anyone else is recording ask them to notify the chair at this time I'm not seeing we're there um and uh I'm not seeing is there someone from the public who's joining now or [Music] okay uh so move on to introduction of committee members um I'm I'll start I'm George tumis I'm the planning board representative to this committee and the vice chair of the committee and also at the chair's beest I facilitate these meetings and go on to you Mary hi I'm Mary chman I'm chair of the sustainable Greenfield implantation committee um and I will hand it on to Jonah hi I'm Jonah Keen I am a public member I'll pass it to Amy hi all Amy Kain I'm director of community and economic development for the city and the planning board or planning department design I will pass it on to Nancy hello I'm I'm Nancy Hazard a member at Lar and there's some background noise I don't know who's not muted I'm sorry I just to say I'm passing it on to um rosw hi I'm Marie franu hat and I'm a public member passing it on to Mike hello Mike bu director of facilities for Greenfield Public Schools and I don't know if there's anybody else I'll TR in I'm EJ Baker I'm a public [Music] member you're you're muted George George you're a member of the public EJ yes you're very welcome uh I was just just the confusion because when we say a me a public member we're talking about members of the committee oh gotcha sorry I'm just a member of the public just a person no no no not just I just wanted to just for clarification uh because some uh members on this committee are designated uh either representing Town Council or planning board Etc uh or other departments as folks said and some are appointees of the mayor so they're public members so just to be clear thank you for the clarification you're welcome and I see Hannah has joined us just at the end of introductions hannnah Hannah can you hear yeah you were just at the end of introduction so you're next sorry I'm having major technical difficulties can you hear me yes great um I'm Hannah member at [Music] large on to the next agenda item which is approval of the October 2024 meeting minutes with note that we had no meeting in November George I Mike I think it's Mike who where the white noise is coming I don't know if Mike could mute there's like a little background noise it's making it kind of hard oh perfect yeah it's helpful to hear that because sometimes you don't realize that I've been guilty of that myself um so is there a motion to approve the October m so moved and a second second thank you any discussion hearing seeing none all uh board members in favor of approving the minutes hi hi thank you Mike and that's everybody but me and I shall abstain because I wasn't there thank you all right the next item is it's a big one uh 2024 Master Plan update next steps uh we didn't have people listed as who was leading these items Mary I'm assuming you were GNA start us off sure great thanks and can you say what the first item is since I'm not looking at the agenda thanks sure yeah I can just run through the steps it says uh vote to forward the draft recommendation to the planning board for uh their adoption SL approval process uh process for any changes to the master plan in the future review the draft story map and discuss process finishing putting it together also discuss ongoing maintenance of the story map if needed and where the story map will reside in the city's website and lastly sharing with the public determine next EX publicizing once planning board has adopted possible public meeting and other so that's the scope of this item for which we have 20 minutes so first vote to send the draft recommendations forward yeah so I'll take this one um as we all probably remember we've been working on the uh recommendations that the Conway School develop for us um during the first part of the year um and my hope is that we will uh vote to move these forward to uh the planning board um for their adoption Andor approval whatever that process is um and I would like to make a motion to move forward with or I would like to make a motion to approve the recommendations to send to the planning board and I do have a discussion item after this thank you is there a second to that motion I second thank you so is there a discussion of that motion sorry who seconded for the minutes I'm so sorry Fran Fran um yeah so I just wanted to mention that uh Nancy had sent me a very long email of uh changes that she had hoped to see to the recommendations that we had um finished going through um upon on reading through her email several more times I determined that it's possible to distill that request down to just a couple of small changes to the recommendations um and so if others are okay with revisiting I have some reservations about re visiting the recommendations but if others are okay with that we could take a quick look and see if we can um make these small changes to the recommendations so you're asking if there's any objection to that process I think so yeah okay I'm not seeing any okay so um is there a second we hide a second yes okay y okay so I'm going to share my screen um and go to the recommendations okay and so the recommendations that Nancy made and obviously Nancy can chime in I wasn't expecting her to be here so I did this on her behalf um involve the uh natural resources chapter and specifically just two items so the first is um just toggle back here the first one is natural resources goal number two which is increase Urban Tree canopy and expand Urban GRE Green Space and under that the proposal is to add a third strategy which is as follows where possible plant and maintain land around municipal buildings with native plants to support biodiversity and then you can see there's two uh action items the first is when adding new planting areas or replanting existing areas use native plants to the extent possible and remove any invasive plant species and then the second action item would be to provide training for staff with the skills needed to maintain native plant species on Municipal land any comments concerns I'm just trying to um I'm looking at the uh 2.2 um strategy and seeing how that um seeing how that compares or if that's the one just above it yeah if it's a seems like a very specific iteration because that certainly also emphasizes native trees and uh the one above talks about coordinate Tre planning efforts um you're scrolling so I can't see it anymore oh sorry thought you above that one no I'm sorry I'm looking at the one above the new recommendation if you could have 2.2 and two there you go thank you um so coordinate tree planning efforts by the city in ways that are strategic and sustainable planning primarily native trees I don't see why 2.3 isn't kind of Incorporated in 2.2 um it seems like um if it's coordinated by the city and emphasis on native trees that would apply to um municipal buildings well I think that the if I if I might share I think that the thing about the 2.2 talks about tree planting which does occur throughout the city so on tree belts and Parks um and I think that this other item is specific to you know municipal buildings and properties around those buildings y we're not suggesting necessarily although I'm sure people would love some people would love to plant all of our tree belt with pollinator Gardens but this is specific to um municipal buildings yeah I'm just offering that it seems like it's already essentially covered in 2.2 but I'll I've made my point I'll stop there and hear from other and if people could just speak up because I can't see most people with the screen share um this is Hannah I just wanted to say I think the main difference is that 2.2 is specific to trees and 2.3 expands to plan so I think having them separate is fine and we could also synthesize and have it be have 2 point2 be more General but I think this is helpful thank you anybody else again I can't see everybody so just speak up I guess is there any other objection or concern about adding that okay should we go on to the other one yes give me just a moment will I scroll down to it um the other one simply asked that we add a phrase about uh essentially preserving 100 as Nancy said 100% far of the Farmland that we currently have or no net loss however you want to say it but I've simply added this phrase at the end of 6.1 that talks about conservation of Farmland so continue to work with land owners to conser conserve Prime farmland and work working Farms aiming to prevent any loss of Farmland in Greenfield thank you any uh comment from the committee on that recommended addition making the hope of retaining 100% explicit say that again church I I said it's making the hope to retain 100% of the existing Farmland explicit y any uh thoughts on that does it look great to people or any hesitation about it I struck silent because it's a great idea this is Hannah again um I don't know I I I feel a little torn about saying that the hope is to prevent any loss of farmland and perpetuity I know this isn't like a binding document but I just think it's we have a lot more complicated stuff coming down the pike but a statement around maintaining as little loss as possible I don't know it just it feels very like hopeful but not necessarily realistic I guess I also like Farmland but I just I don't know the housing conversations feel so intense and I just I don't want to put anything out there that seems unrealistic I'd rather put something out there that is sort of aligned with what we really hope the hope it is which is as little touching of Farmland as possible yeah I think I would um when I see that I think okay if any Farmland is lost uh this this has failed um and I uh would hesitate to put that high a bar I think the the spirit is already there to um preserve um so I would be yeah I I think that's unnecessary and perhaps a little um like I say sets up for um you know some success of preservation being seen as a failure because some wasn't preserved so I I would I would might my inclination would be not anyone else want to weigh maybe uh maybe if we were to remove the red and say something like continue to work with land owners to maximize conservation of prime of prime F like some other emphasis of how we want to do as much as possible because without without the red it does just say work with them to conserve so we could add a little more oomph to it so maximize conservation yeah something like that [Music] I'm I'm more comfortable with that I'll just respond same same here that would be just adding one word and changing from conserv oh you're working on it okay is there anyone who is not comfortable with that adjustment I'm sensing Ascent did that change see no one else wishing to speak that I can tell um okay so those are the only two uh last minute adjustments Mary okay and so your your motion essentially is to send forward the recommendations including the ones we just made the adjustments we just made okay got okay thank you Mary and uh so now discussion on the the motion to forward this to the planning board is there any before we take a vote hearing or seeing none all in favor of the motion sending this forward hi hi if you could Mary if you could take the sharing down it would help to I think that was unanimous but I'm not sure all in I'll ask again all in favor of sending this forward and I think Mike said I Yep looks like that's unanimous excellent that's the first step on that agenda item uh since Nancy I just want to thank you all for considering those last minute um edit and Mary thank you for word smithing it thank you thank you Mary Nancy for your persistance um so the next portion of this agenda item is process for any changes to the master plan in the future Church um before we move on would you be able to just tell us what what your process is with the planning board now once I send this off to the planning board what you anticipate that might look like yeah um we don't do this very often so okay um obviously uh and uh I wasn't on the planning board when happen last time okay but um I I believe the planning board would essentially essentially in its simplest form the planning board could vote to accept this as an addition to the master plan what happened last time is that uh there were um uh you know attempt to get a lot of Buy in by having some public forums and um and this is obviously before the sgic existed and uh having public forums and um uh having it uh I think endorsed uh by the council and the mayor again the only formal vote is of the planning board yes um but there were some well attended uh public forums regarding it as well to just again to not essential to the process but to try to you know do the kind of things you know this committee has been doing to try to engage the public around does that help is that clear enough and I see Jonah's hands just I think it's just worth noting maybe when it's shared it's worth noting that um you know there there were two public engagement uh meetings as a part of creation of this which is different than the final sharing the final product but I think you know there there has been public input which is important to knowe and and if I can add to that want to thank you um there was uh as we moveed toward approval of the uh initial master plan there was uh as Nancy going ATT test there was a lot of public input um preliminary to that as well and then there was some subsequent to the the um approval so just to give that Contex great I'll make sure I include that in the letter that I send off to the planning board thank you sure is there anything more on this um because this is processed for any changes to the master plan in the future this is the the portion of this agenda item yeah I put that on there just because Nancy had sent in these changes and I wasn't sure if we would want to entertain them as part of this thing we just did or if they would have to be separate moving forward but it seems like we've been able to accept those in um I thought you were talking about in the future well well I I kind of am but perhaps that perhaps that can be folded into the story map part of the discussion a little bit later on unless anyone else has anything that they want to say about making changes to the recommendations moving forward no I'll just say I mean we had a distinct opportunity with the Conway School uh to do this and uh I think being alert to other possibilities for refreshing or updating pors of the master plan would be wise yeah yeah I don't know if that would be through maybe UMass I think we've you know doing the land use and the natural resources chapter sort of exhausted the Conway schools area Focus so then any other chapters would have to probably if we could get you know a nice I mean honestly we got a nice deal with the Conway school doing these couple of chapters in terms of the cost and the the amount of time they spent on the on the project and I don't know if there's something similar uh you know through UMass or other area colleges that might be a good fit the other the other thing I wonder about is we have a lot of collaboration it's based on certain contracts for um consultation with Perot and I don't know if they you know might for a chapter or something like that that might be something consider y so every year the city gets to um ask for local technical assistance so every year the furog gets a chunk of change to provide technical assistance to all of its towns and um that's one way that they could perhaps do a chapter probably not more than that but that could possibly fit within that funding something I'll just offer sorry I'll just offer for uh EJ and other members of the public who may be listening to this recording who aren't familiar fog is the Franklin Regional Council of governments um which when the county system was abandoned in the State uh they basically for rural areas uh Council of governments replaced um them as far as having a regional support function we say it so often we assume everybody knows what it means great and then so we're moving on oh yes N I have a question so Mary are you asking or suggesting that this group might want to U update one other chapter one more chapter in the master plan and that we might seek funding to be able to do that absolutely I mean now that you've got we've got two updated chapters it would be great to have the other ones updated in close proximity because right now we have this sort of situation where we have the old we have the 2014 plan we've got this new update that we're going to still have to figure out sort of how it resides alongside the old plan um and wouldn't it be nice if all the chapters could be updated and somehow put together as the new master plan do you have a thought of um what chapter is in greatest need of updating I feel like others probably have a better idea than I do of that like you NY or or others who have been involved longer in the process well I think it's a you've raised an interesting question which I hadn't really thought about like to put it on the agenda for some future meeting to have that discussion when we have all thought about it and I'll jump in that uh I don't have a you know off the top of my head an idea of Which chapter would beg the most for updating but I think our next agenda item um you know the focus for 2025 could speak to that you know this committee could take some of the um uh workload of trying to uh brainstorm about that and you know offer that to the planning board both about uh prioritization and possible uh resources okay the next is is okay next portion of this is about the the story map yeah so um I agree to put together a mockup of the of portions of both of the chapter's recommendations just so folks could see what it looked like I don't know who's had a chance to see it and who hasn't I know a couple people replied I'm going to share my screen again um give you take a [Music] look so for anyone who doesn't know story map is a um an arcgis product an online product um in its simplest form it can be free a person can just make a an account and go online and and uh put together uh fairly easily um you know a visual presentation of as the name would imply it often includes Maps but it doesn't have to include Maps it can include you know photos and text and things like that um so this is just something I made on my own personal account but it could be transferred to somebody else if you all are interested in um having a product so I'm going to just page down a little bit to show you what it looks like um I've provided a little bit of background which uh came from the 2014 plan and then the Conway School update it's a very brief uh synopsis of what the plan is about and just a couple quick mentions of how the Conway school was [Music] involved and then it talks about which chapters were updated and then once the this is essentially jumping into the recommendations here so I include the vision for the land use chapter and then each goal has a an Associated photo which could be replaced I just used photos that I had of my own and then you can see underneath are the strategies and then the action [Music] items so here's another example and essentially I did try to use the table form of the implementation table that we were just looking at but it uh story map did not like that it just the layout was terrible so I went with this with this layout so that's just a couple of the recommendations I'm going to I'm just quickly going down to the next section I guess I did more than I realized oh so here's land use sorry popped into land use here so this is essentially a way that we could share the information with the public it would be easy for them to um you know page through and find things that they're interested in in some cases there there's [Music] links and so that's about as far as I got I think um I didn't want to go any further unless I knew that there was interest in you know using this format and then if if there is we would need to figure out who would be the keeper moving forward um since I won't be on sustainable Green Field okay thank you Mary any uh reactions people have to this yeah this is fris um I really like this I think it's attractive and makes it easy to read and see you know everything that the group has come up with um having said that I don't know how to do this so I'm not volunteering in to continue it um I'm hoping somebody is well I'm volunteering uh to create the whole story map because it wouldn't take that long to finish you know populating all those goals and recommendations into a story [Music] map I'll I'll call myself that uh I think it's great I think um I think uh story Maps was wise to reject the table um because it's so unesthetic and and you know it's it it has a purpose to have information framed that way but it's not user friendly or readily accessible and this is so I think it's great to have this as one means of disseminating and making available information about this CCH on people's interest in imagination um so then like you say the question would be the nuts and bolts of you know um thank you very much Mary for initiating this and being able to you know add more to it and um and the question is it mentions in the notes where to put this how to maintain it and stuff like that I do wanted to uh in service to the do a time check uh we're about five minutes over for this uh agenda item I know important it is but I just wanted to point that out n SC any other oh good oh please um I just would totally agree with both of you and for me the uh I'm person I love the photographs I love the possibility of I don't know what this would look like exactly if we could find them but if there was a possibility of finding some photographs that might U sort of um convey what we're talking about in a in a positive way rather than just what we have just off the top of my head so anyway I love it all right enthusiastic support of this going forward is there anything more from this that was also the you know further public engagement question I don't know me um I know we've touched on this generally please n um yeah I I feel strongly that we need to do that and why don't we put that to again to next week's agenda next month's agenda because OB we've run out of time okay Mary was there anything else as the lead on this agenda item you want to bring up or um I I think Carol said that it could the story map could reside either on there's a sustainable Greenfield page that I don't know if it's really being updated but it could also just reside on the um uh sustainable greenfields homepage under you know committee boards and committees on the website it it's it's simply a leak link so it's not going to really take up space um and in terms of maintaining it I mean only if somebody discovered a you know highly embarrassing typo or something like that you know it wouldn't need to be nothing would really need to be done with it once it's out there um and it's not rocket um as as Bill and I would say it's not rocket surgery so it would you know it's just knowing how to type and things like that so um but I would need to get a you know a firm I don't want to do this just because I like doing stuff like this I want to know that it's actually going to go somewhere so maybe that can be discussed at the next full meeting can let me know okay very good uh okay uh without objection move on to the next agenda item which is sustainable sdic Focus for 2025 was the suggesting of reviewing the charter for the purpose and goals and discussion [Music] of coming here George do you have a um like a mic on a stand or something thing there's just a lot of noise around your microphone I don't want to shut you off I just wanted to make you aware yeah no thank you very much I'll I'll mute for the moment so I feel you I'll just ask M were you gonna share the charter to promp this what what do folks think I mean this is really 2025 so it's really up to you all to say what you how you would like this conversation to go well I'll just say I think reviewing the charter refreshing our excuse me our um what our mandate is is always a good thing to do on an annual [Music] basis and we could do that today or we could do that next month did you have that handy mary to was that your idea to from this it was just a it was a suggestion sadly I did not remember that I suggested that so I don't have it but I could find it you didn't realize what a good suggestion it was here it is do you want me to share this uh anyone uh disagree it seems like that would be helpful to review I'm seeing some nods sure all right okay so this is just the um just the purpose part of the um sustainable Green Field Implement implementation Committee in the city's Charter should we read silently or does anyone feel like reading this or reading parts of it if someone could read it out loud be great it's so tiny on my screen I can hardly see it the sustainable Greenfield implementation committee shall be the entity responsible for coordinating the implementation of sustainable Greenfield the town's master plan Additionally the committee's purpose is to assist the town in meeting its Green community obligations and 2050 goals by identifying recommending and implementing programs that Foster a vital sustainable and resilient Community by addressing the oil depletion and climate change crisis and the three interlocking aspects of sustainability the economy the environment and society and then it goes on to list uh a bunch of purposes so to achieve its purpose the community will work toward and it's a list of um several things Community self-sufficiency economic vitality and resilience with living wage jobs quality energy efficient housing for diverse people in needs energy reduction and development of clean energy sources responsible use of Natural Resources such as land and water food security sustainable Transportation options zero waste excellent quality of life for all ecosystem health and other matters as the mayor or Town Council or the sustainable Greenfield implementation committee deems necessary well that's all okay uh yeah that sounds easy enough thank you so much Mary uh it's nice to have it come to life by hearing hearing it red any uh comments or Reflections for [Music] anyone seeing this again so this is Hannah um it is really helpful to hear it read and to think about it and I think in light of sort of beginning a process of updating chapters of the master plan which I think is really helpful it feels like there's also an opportunity to kind of update and check in with where we are and we've gone about that in a couple different ways in recent years when we were having guest speakers more going back through our priorities going through this chapter update process um and so I I wonder if in 2025 um in lie of kind of doing a whole new master plan which I know as i' have certainly said before I think is not super necessary though I love that we're updating chapters I wonder if we do want to do a sort of checkin because not only looking at where we are certainly what we've accomplished which I know that Nancy and others have been really diligent about keeping track of what we've accomplished from um the plan it's a very different world than it was and and I just it makes me wonder what is not in the master plan at all or if there's anything that feels like a top priority that in 2014 did not feel like a top priority relatedly um so if I don't know starting a conversation about looking at 2025 as an update year even if we're not updating chapter updating the whole thing um kind of updating the overarching I don't know something I I feel like I want to wrap my head around like where we are especially like for instance I use the economic development ch chapter a lot but I Greenfield is in a very different place from an economic development perspective and I think the drivers of Economic Development have changed a lot in the last decade and so there are some things that I would add to that chapter though I wouldn't necessarily throw the whole baby out so that's just one example because that chapter is kind of in my day-to-day I don't know if that made any sense yes that made a lot of sense thank you any anyone else Reflections on this yes FR yeah reading this I'm there's one thing that jumps at me and that's the word implementing implementing programs right that what I'm seeing and I'm you know I still feel new here and I'm wondering do do we actually Implement anything can we can we I mean can we pick projects and work on them ourselves I'll just say that's been um part of the discussion since this committee started a decade ago um and if you if Mary could you just move up a little bit on that screen the um the purpose um because I did see um the first thing it says is um coordinating um and I think I think of that as more uh our primary function rather than implementing uh anything in particular it's more about the focus is more about coordinating and uh so that's my and facilitating things rather than directly uh implementing because also talks this just before implementing it says identifying or recommending so um I think you know just the way that um this has become so um so integrated into you know budgeting for departments every year you know to reference the master plan I think it's been uh indicative of how it has been um utilized that way I think this committee has tried to you know Foster that awareness and that prioritization so that's my experience is the implementation of things is not is is not a primary focus yes M um I had two thoughts one was um in response to what Hannah said around uh Economic Development and when we were touching on this a little bit earlier on possibly updating other chapters I was thinking you know right now we have Amy and we have Hannah as two really vital resources on this committee and we also with the Franklin Regional Council of governments we have a planning director um who is was also you know the E economic development person for for the furog so um I would be I mean I'm not I'm not going to be a member anymore but I would support that idea especially given what Hannah said about there being things that are no longer relevant or things that need to be updated that's just an observation um my other observation is it feels like this committee has had an an identity crisis since I've been on the committee we're always asking ourselves what we're doing and in some ways not to not to be disagreeable with George but to say I believe that perhaps the committee if it did find an item or you know a project that it could really put itself behind it might help with that feeling of oh what are we doing you know it doesn't feel like we have a real Focus so um I I think if I were staying on that would be something I would be looking for is there an is there a particular project or initiative that we could be helpful with either in supporting or even leading uh moving forward uh thanks I I'll just say I'm a big fan of disagreeing without being disagreeable I think I saw I see Jonas hand but I think ny's was up before that I'm scrolling around here but right Nancy did you um yeah um L doesn't I I like your thoughts Mary and but what I was going to say was back to this thing about uh implementation I I think the committee committee's position really is to ensure that the sustainable Greenfield master plan is implementing so that's too passive but that's what I think we do or have done thank you Jonah uh yeah well I I do think it's important to distinguish between what we have done and what we can do um in that this document does map out what theoretically we can do um so it does give us an opportunity to expand on what we have done um but I just say in my time here as being one of the mo the more vocal what are we doing here uh members um I do think our two bus biggest successes for me personally have been updating these chapters and the creation of the open space task force which are two things that were uh taking advantage of opportunities that were present which you know GE you joked around about the scope of this being totally manageable which obviously it's totally not manageable right it's hu it's a huge scope and I think that's part of the problem as far as this group's identity is like Whoa We have this incredible breth of work that's covered in this uh and that maybe what we do in an opportunity like this where we say Okay 2025 is the year ahead where are the opportunities I like Mary's idea of saying well Amy and is currently the most engaged but and Carol is as well out sick but uh the most engaged City staff that are involved maybe we take advantage of that as working with the folks that are present um or where other opportunity where we see the opportunity ities or the passions I feel like the open space task force has arisen because we have folks that are passionate about that and likewise we have Hannah passionate about the the business development side I feel like rolling with where the passion is and where the opportunities are make a lot of sense to me you can actually do something thanks any other voices want to chime in this is Amy I'll just chime in um to say I of course would love to see the economic development section of the master plan um updated we have as a department been um keeping an eye out for funding to allow us to do an economic development strategic plan so maybe there's a way of of bringing those two things together and doing one thing as opposed to two separate things that reach the same goal and there's a way this committee can help help make that happen that would be [Music] great thank you Mary I think I see you searching for something oh the screen oh am I still sharing ly lucky I'm searching for something related to what we're talking about and not like what restaurants are open tonight none of them that was a close one I have feel I'm not gonna find the answer but Amy you or Hannah could reach out to the furog and find out what the uh funding is for DTA the direct local technical assistance I just don't remember anymore when that comes around so um that would be it you know it might fund a chapter I just don't remember anymore I'm G to stop sharing too it um we should be getting a a request in January to put in for our priorities okay the coming cycle good okay so we're about at time for this item to be will feel covered it sufficiently and have thoughts were going forward I just wanted to say um one other thing on this topic that um has always been a sort of question for me since joining the committee which has been a long time um which is how this committee and the master plan is sort of viewed externally um in particular by the mayor's office and by other department heads I think the I've always felt like the makeup of the committee was just really intelligent to have you know Carol and Marlo and Amy and so much buying you know planning board presence and um green and Green Field and now the businesses all of that but there are departments that were missing um part in particular the rec department um and others that I feel like we don't hear from as much we don't really integrate with as much the CPA we sort of had a moment there where we were like oh let's get more involved with the CPA but that didn't really happen so um when I think about implementation and I think about encouraging use of the master plan I've always felt like it is really effective with the folks that are in the room at least the conversation is there um but then with the Departments that aren't there we don't really have that same main line and and I don't know kind of what the mayor's office's take on it is but when I think about sort of priorities implementation um I feel like it would be helpful to sort of recheck in with how we could be most effective maybe we're the committee that does have an update from every single Department over the course of the year so that we're always as connected as possible to all of these Municipal entities that are the ones that are actually implementing work on the ground related to the master plan so that we make sure that there is a touch Point everywhere and not just a touch point with the ones that were sort of lucky to have in the room um because of the initial structure so that I would love to see us in this coming year maybe increase the touch points that we have um at least with municiple departments if not with every entity like the library or GCC or for any of these bigger players that are doing work on the ground every day um that I'm not sure if all of them use the master plan so G put that out there thank you any further thoughts I mean obviously ongoing discussion will'll continue next month sure well I like that idea a lot from Hannah I think that's a really good idea and it seems like a way that we could really help be a meaningful part of the conversation so I think that's great and just and while we're here just to give a shout out to Mary as we're wrapping this up and thanks for your work on this team welcome very much so okay speaking of something concrete uh we're moving on to uh Jonah's uh update from the open space task force yeah so we we have our open space task force with uh with well currently Mary and franois and me from this team um we Mary is moving on from this team and therefore from her official role in the in the open space task force so we are looking for another member from this crew to join just putting that out there right now um no need to discuss it at the moment but we are we are going to need another uh another representative uh we also have uh Emily from the Conservation Commission and then the way we've started managing this is because we have interest from other members of the public we have a few other folks who are we call them non voting members they're not members of sgic uh but they participate in the conversation and help move things forward but they're not official um voting members and the first number of meetings we've had two meetings in the summer uh and then this fall we've been meeting we've been really focusing in on what we're going to do uh We've us we taken the open space plan the open space and Recreation plan and gone through all of the action steps there's the the end of that osrp has a seven-year action plan with a ton of steps and we've gone through that and honed in on what were priorities for our team and uh we have right now a few we have a few top priorities that we're focused on uh the first one being a real emphasis and really I what I see as my main goal for our team right now of increasing conservation land in Greenfield um it's a project that we have not actively worked on as a city in a while it's been more um as opportunities have come to us land has been protected for conservation but it hasn't had hasn't uh been pursued proactively um so we're working on great a a map of prioritization of parcels to protect uh together with our new we have a new conservation agent in the city Jessica um so we're going to be working with her to create a a new a new map that helps us prioritize parcels and then we see the role of this uh Team towards this goal of um facilitating new protection of land so either through potentially acquisition I of land by the city which there are there's some funding opportunities that you know the mayor and Eric have said very clearly we don't have we don't really have money for for land acquisition uh but there are funding sources that are available for municipalities um including the CPA uh but also State funds that have that are not being accessed and haven't been but by greenfield so uh we see working to proactively protect some land that potentially could be acquisition also could be through partnership with land trusts uh and conservation restrictions put on on land in in the city um as being a real Focus for what we can do so so mapping and then actively working to protect that land in collaboration with various entities um so that's that's really the the big the big one and then a couple of the other priorities that we've taken away from the osrp are helping with the city trails which I have have met with chrisy and the rec department and talked a bit about this and we're just trying to figure out how we can how we can be helpful um and then the third of from the third action from the osrp that we want to see move forward it's a little more challenging is uh helping the city to move move forward an analysis of impervious surfaces and storm water management um so that's another thing that's the osrp but uh is not currently moving forward so those three goals of mapping and conserving new land improving trails and impervious surface analysis those are sort of the three that we honed in on from the osrp that we want to focus on there are tons of good action steps in there obviously the lots that we would love to implement but that's what we are focusing on right now and we've broken that into some concrete next steps and that we're all starting to to work on um one of which is starting to build some relationships including our our next meeting we're hoping to have Franklin Land Trust attend and start to build our relationship with some naal land trust so that when opportunities arise we're ready to roll with them so yeah that's that's where we're at uh I think we're we're just the first many months we're organizing and so now we're just starting to hit the ground I'm really starting to move things forward thank you J and and I I'll just comment I think that sounds fantastic and I think this is a a wonderful example as as people were talking about what this committee can do if something doesn't have a home I know that's that's an idea that ncy came up with years ago if uh and this is something there was a recommendation by an open space committee it has happened via you know getting Comm start of that and so I think this has been a wonderful creative initiative members of this committee uh to create this to move this important work forward it's so essential to parts of the master plan I'll just make one technical comment that I think it's important to identify this I I came across a a video about a meeting and said sustainable being for implementation committee and then I realized oh it's the open space so I would suggest when it's named list first open space task force then parenthetically a subcommittee of the sgic Just So to avoid confusion so yeah I guess I should because I don't have anything to do with those I should let uh gctv know I guess to list them that way right because we don't read those titles yeah great thanks anybody else NY you're muted n trying to unmute myself okay um the question I have is um that has the committee been defined as uh having to that you have to have a me be a member of sgic in order to participate and if so why was that created well so it's a task force of sgic which is language that's you know that's written out uh that says that we we're allowed in sgic to create task force so it is to be an official member um without some other um you know creation of a new of a new committee Standalone committee separate of sjsc that we are supposed to we we consider I mean Emily is a member of the Conservation Commission not sgic but we since it is sort of a co- in some ways a co- committee between the two commissions two groups um we see it as as her being an active member so we are we have a few other people that if you came to a meeting it would seem like they were they were just members of the committee that's the way we're treating it but they are not appointed members they are members of the public uh that are participating in the conversation thank you that's helpful yeah so anyone if you know anybody they're welcome to attend and we're we welcome folks that want to come be but it also sounds like as long as it's a person who has been officially appointed to a city committee they potentially could be well if the topic overlaps could could become a voting member like Emily for example right and we and we did invite someone from the rec commission as well but nobody um was able to so if somebody on the rec commission raised their hand they could become a voting member that would be wonderful we yeah we okay invited that but um nobody took us up on it thanks for that Clarity any other comments thank you so much great work uh nothing else on that um we're moving on to public comment what I think we just lost our public here um um okay uh well we have 10 minutes set aside for that then we have opportunity for uh announcements so announcements related to sustainability um any any announcements [Music] yes n this is maybe an announcement but a report just I was thrilled that um recently uh Greening Greenfield um as you know an sgic was the co-sponsor of it an En and I was thrilled to see the number of people that were interested in learning more about how they could find the money in order to uh decarbonize get off of fossil fuels and um it's huge change from you know eight or 10 years or even five years ago when if when green and Greenfield held that kind of a meeting in we were lucky to get 12 people and they were not enthusiastic or forthcoming the way the people were at this meeting so it was really heartening and thank you so much sgic thank you Amy and your staff they were amazing and fog was amazing also Alison Gage did a line share of the uh pulling together the resources um having them in one place NG gctv was great filming the presentation part um just I guess really it's the first time all Alo that we've been able to have people vendors in the room who actually offer services well it's not the first time second time because we did get Community Action last year who could sign people up right then um but this year it's partly the structure of mass safe has changed so there are a lot more players there are a lot more people that can handle who can sign people up and who can shepher people through the process I guess that's the other side of it is feel more optic people can actually follow through with being you know if they want to do something it actually can happen and that has certainly been a struggle for many years people sign up and nothing happens nothing happens nothing Happ so fingers crossed the things are changing and I'm really excited that Carol Collins is not here but that she has applied for a grant which would give Greenfield a uh a person a real live human being who would do promotion around this issue and would also answer questions and be proactive and I'm I'm Dreaming now but reaching the landlords boy that is such a challenge that is so difficult and since 50% of the people in this city are renters and they're likely the people that are most struggling with their paying their energy bills we absolutely need to get those landlords to step up to the plate and to take action so um I'm hopeful that this new staff person will um take the lead on on doing that and green grii looks forward to partnering with them and being relieved of being the lead thank you very much ncy I I'll just rip on that for a minute in the sense that you know one one thing I think is so because we were talking about you know Town departments which are essential but I'm also have always been struck at not just the individual volunteers but the volunteer organizations in this town and the uh wonderful collaboration uh between those organizations and more official ones Greening Greenfield is one Greenfield tree committee is one there used to be an official tree committee I was I when I first moved to town that was the first thing I joined I went before the select board just before the change over to the mayoral system to get not you know approved be on the the Town Street committee but since then it's been you know a volunteer organization and it's wonderfully you know uh effective at uh implementing uh the kind of things that are contain within the master plan and I'll I'll say too that uh people probably wouldn't have been aware of this the um initial draft of the complete streets uh ordinance was drafted by the Greenfield Bicycle Coalition which is a volunteer group that was no longer active was sent through this committee then was sent through the planning board and then was approved by uh the council so um just thinking of this uh wonderful Synergy of efforts from various uh various just wanted to PO in my head when I heard you talking so much it sounds like a wonderful event thank you any other not Mary please just since we're in the riffing mode um something popped into my head when Jonah was presenting which is that um and when Nancy I think mentioned Alison Gage who is a l use planner for the Franklin Regional Council of governments and she uh attended the last open space task force meeting and I don't know what the makeup of this committee is going to be going forward it sounded like maybe there was a replacement already identified for me but if not perhaps Allison would want to serve on this committee I mean I think you know along with what George was just saying about you know the the value of the um you know independent organizations the nonprofits whatever in town also being more connected with the the car I think um is something that Greenfield hasn't always excelled at but I think this could be a way that you know um the Cod could get connected to Greenfield so just a thought thanks any other announcements or riffs um I'll just share a couple sort of related um things that the GBA is working on that feel connected to everything we're talking about um I think I actually think this kind of came out of Amy reconnecting um with chrisy I'm your last name from the center for ECOT technology but I had a great meeting um with her this past week to talk more about how we can get Greenfield businesses um involved in some of their assessments and on a path towards um different um uh interventions that can save businesses a lot of money around Waste Management Energy Management um and I was both really excited to hear how the GBA could help and really Leverage What C already does and also to hear um she said about 30 to 40 businesses in Greenfield were already on their list for different kinds of Assessments either having gone through them already or getting ready to and it just reminded me how many businesses in Greenfield specifically already have a lot of this work on their radar and so um the GBA can just be even more encouraging and and helping businesses who don't have that work on their radar get connected with c and Community Action and other organizations um and then we also are um continuing we we sort of quickly formed a group this year called blooming Greenfield that put out some flower barrels just to sort of see what the reception of it was um and while it was fun and a little disorganized we are going through a process now of officialize that group a little bit more Under the Umbrella of the GBA um to have blooming Greenfield be an ongoing um sort of Club Under The Business Association header um that's focused on beautification and St Forefront Improvement and you know making first downtown and then other business areas just look a little better feel a little better be more inclusive um and so I'm excited to George's point to have a sort of little volunteer engine of our own that's looking at some of these surface things that make people feel really good about coming out and frequenting businesses so that's something we have uh forming for 2025 so more to come on that I'm sure sure yes ncy I'm thrilled to hear that and it reminds me I'm hasn't happened yet but I'm so excited that there's somebody looking at purchasing the um Old Country jewelry store that that would be so huge if that became both housing and well it's certainly not all boarded up and have pieces of paper all over the front windows so fingers crossed that good happens with that to to briefly continue my riff um I'm thinking too when we're talking about downtown those metal benches uh I can't remember the name of the group but it was a uh it was a volunteer group and that those are repurposed uh materials that they used to make those so rejuvenators I think was our name thank you you were part of it nice thank you I great okay so the next thing is uh next meeting date and topics and discuss who will create the agenda and leave the January meeting we'll take one more opportunity Mary to thank you so much for your service on the committee and your you know leadership in the uh rooll chair thanks George I hope you notice the Applause that was going on Sil yes NY so I have a question about that so is the is the main agenda item in January to um to to whoose the chair well we're due for reorganization so every yeah every um uh officer role would be uh reflection that you know and so it' be good to for people to be thinking about if they would be interesting serving or if they who they might want to [Music] nominate and I'd like to thank also add my thanks to yours George for Marry everything that you've done and being such a fabulous chair and creating um you know moving us into doing something that was great thanks Nancy I thought you were praising George and I just would be remiss if I didn't thank George for running the meetings I really appreciate that huge huge asset for the group so thank you thanks and for your serving as as clerk oh yeah it was all kind of it all worked out although today Amy's taking notes so thank you Amy nice so in answer your question answer yes that will be an agenda item hope won't be spending an hour and a half decid as uh as Vice chair would you be the one filling in until new new [Music] um appointments sure um it seems you know because you have you have the person who chair won't be here the next time rather than typically the chair would created it for the next uh and then you decide who's going to be the chair going forward uh I'm willing to do that I would appreciate Mary if you and I could collaborate R the nuts and bolts because I haven't been involved um you know exactly how to put one of the agendas together um but in getting getting access to the minutes Amy uh soon as possible be great um just to be able to you know Refresh on some of the points that were made and things people want to carry on with next month so I would be willing in in my role as Vice chair to take that on y thanks I'm happy to take minutes next time to save a arm wrestling at the start of the meeting [Music] weed we have been depending upon Eric to be the clerk but then he is no longer really in this group so I don't know was doing that in the sense of the the um the the zoom aspect right yeah and setting up the setting up the meetings uh posting posting the minutes posting the agenda that kind of stuff um and so I've been working directly with Matt which is you know Matt's fabulous um but I don't know what will happen moving forward how this will work itself out okay that would be helpful for me to get a sense of how that's been working okay that's something I was referring to sure just thank you so much you do that overtime work absolutely all right any uh so that sounds sounds like that's okay with every any last thoughts before we adjourn for 2024 [Music] okay I can't believe it's not we haven't run over time we even have a few minutes thank you for all of you it's been fun working with you this year thank you everybody it's a very rich rich Gathering uh is there motion to weour the meeting all right all in favor hi hi take care everybody thank you happy Holidays happy holidays [Music]