##VIDEO ID:DJLa9cZmWyA## [Music] well good morning everyone we're going to we'll get started with our meeting we have good to do this morning uh people that don't who know who I am I'm Ken Venton running the Triad going out into my 12th year so I think I'm doing pretty good so far and then uh then I just I just made 80 I'm sorry I just made 90 years old so so I think between the 12 years in the 90 and that I got maybe 10 years more to go and then somebody else can take over anyway uh because of a special meeting this morning uh which involves the town individuals I'm I'm going to give you a future guest speaker and then turn the rest of the meeting over to Jean Clint and uh then you'll get going with the uh presentation I just want to let you know that our speaker for the month of October which will be on the 1st we're having a fellow that uh knows the world about butterflies and he's going to do his presentation the life of the butterflies and what's happening to them to now and what's going to be on to the future with them because of where the environment is going that is uh October 1st November that's November will be on the 5th and this meeting will be done by the Halifax fire department and right now I think that Captain Kazo he is going to be doing the U the work uh with probably the EMTs and so forth but that's for November 5th uh our last meeting for the year is going to be on December 3rd uh which we do not have speakers for because we have election of offices and then we have a small Christmas party with uh everybody that comes and that ends it for the year and now he found up this morning that starting in January our speaker will be Kathy latra who is the state rep as you know so that is the what's happening coming up uh the rest of the year so right now I'll ask Jean cling to take over and she can introduce the people that will be explaining the uh program this morning and um we will get it and I it's being recorded because I thought if we get this recorded then we can be play over a 58 Channel then a lot of people at home that uh cannot sometimes get here they can see it so Jean it's it's all yours for hi everyone um we're the Halifax hope committee we call ourselves hope and that stands for Halifax opportunity to preserve and enhance and what we we're doing is we're a volunteer committee and we're gaining information about the community preservation Act and the community preservation act comes on the ballot in November so I'm going to turn it over to Candy niffin she's our chair and she's going to start the presentation good morning I I just want to start by saying I'm very bad with a microphone so I'm going to try not to use it or do I need to use it up all right but if if you can't hear me just say say so I um I am candy nin I am chairman of the Hope committee um and we have been hopefully you've seen some of this we've been putting out information about the community preservation act which Halifax will be voting on on November 5th and it's question six on the ballot and we formed as a committee because we were realizing how little anyone knew about the community preservation act it's never been on the ballot in Halifax we'll talk more about it in a minute excuse me but I would like to have the members of the committee um introduce themselves you may know some of us you may not um so I'm going to start with John SE league and we'll go right down the road and and they'll introduce themselves as members of Hope how are you my name is Jonathan celik uh I got introduced to the community preservation act through my work with the uh friends of hops which is our playground here in town uh about 10 years ago now which is crazy um I was trying to get a new playground built and I would talk to local communities and say how can we do this and would say well just use your CPA money and I said what is that and they said no it's the community preservation act you know doesn't your town do CPA and I unfortunately looked up and you'll see the map we're one of the only towns in the area that does it so uh I found it was a great program to to invest in Halifax and to help maintain Halifax so that kind of sparked my interest and I definitely think it's something that we should consider uh in November that's how I get on here is Shirley grath he go for it I'm Charlie gra I've lived in town since 1983 and um I'm a retired bookkeeper accountant for small businesses uh when I wasn't a bookkeeping I was either biking or walking or kaying so my interest in the CPA day is to either have access to the the open space that we already have for instance um there when I when my kids were little there was a path through the woods behind Halifax Elementary School that doesn't exist anymore um that's just one thing and the other thing that will be brought up later but um I I is the other thing is historic preservation we have this amazing Assa of in town the uh blacksmith shop when I was a kid I went to the Mystic Seaport and there's a blacksmith shop there and when I was like8 or nine I got to do the Bellows and that was just so I mean I still remember that as like a one of my favorite memories as a kid and and when my kids are little um with the holidays and Halifax that blacksmith ship was shop blacksmith's shop was open and people could go in and see the the blacksmith shop operating right now it's structually un sound so you can't go in um CPA funds if we pass that that would be one another case of um where where those funds could go that's John I'm John Shay I brought my wife with me she doesn't want she want to be recognized but I brought my wife with me uh I uh I'm the barber in town I I was on the school committee here I was on baseball uh commissioner for baseball here for about 30 years and uh I'm on the historical district commission and uh I heard about the CPA and I've known about it anyway for a long time but like the previous speaker was saying that she already talked about the blacksmith shop and how it needs repairs and if we had the money we could have done it uh the blacksmith shop goes more than just an old building with artifacts in it in Old history the blacksmith was the first he was a deacon in the church here he was the first fire chief in town he uh his wife was the first elected School Committee Member in the town of Halifax before women had the right to vote about 1912 and their son wrote the history of Halifax so there's more history to that building than just a building with artifacts in it so it needs to be preserved right now we're in a process hopefully we're going to get some money to do that if we had the uh if we had the funds from the CPA we could have done it we also had to replace the Chimneys in the um Pop's tabin windows in the Pop's tabin uh we had Windows all installed here over the years all this could have been with that plus funds and everything else could have could have been used that that kind of money could have been used for those kind of projects we also have a Brockton store that needs some repairs so these funds rather than go to the town meeting all the time and ask for money this money is set aside by the four you know by the people the next one is Bob nin thank you John my name is uh Bob nifin I've been a resident of Halifax since uh my wife and I have been residents of Halifax since uh 1986 I uh 76 sorry um raised our children here they all went through the school system and had a wonderful education here in Halifax I served on the school committee for 13 years back in w back in the 80s um and uh I was very proud to be a member of that school committee um and I came across the CPA uh through candi's research um I look at it as an investment in the future of Halifax it's kind of like a savings account um except with a savings account you might get 5% interest on it with the CPA funds you invest a certain amount of money and probably could get between 20 30% uh back on your money uh it's an investment in the future of Halifax in projects that probably couldn't be covered uh by the general budget as John said um but it's a great investment uh in many different aspects of the town and we'll talk about that uh in a few minutes but um I got interested in it it's just it's it's it's just a great program that I think the the the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages if any uh so I hope you'll support the CPA in uh November so thank you very much and uh next is uh oh Jean I'm sorry I am Jean cing I've been a resident of halif effect since 1998 my house when Brian and I have raised our children here and I used to be a teacher in Hanover for 34 years and I can remember one of our favorite field trips with third graders was to go to all the historical um it they had a CH a Schoolhouse they also had a blacksmith shop they had um a few other things monuments and whatnot that the third graders could visit and see it was part of the curriculum and I thought that you know the children seemed to think that was about one of the best things they could do is find out more about their time so I know um C C PA money can help with preserving and I think you know I hear a lot about wanting to preserve the character of our small town and I think this is one way that we can do it seems like a great program I'm learning more every day so I'm kind of feeling more and more excited about the possibility turn it over to my husband Brian good morning everybody Brian clang also a resident at Halifax my lovely wife Jean um uh just real quick so we can get into the rest of the program here uh so as Jee mentioned we've been residents since 1998 so um a while ago which she did not mention we had considered trying to move out of town to because we didn't like the direction of the town and didn't like what was happening here we started seeing CH thing seeing things change and decided that we wanted to be a part of the long-term success here of the T of Halifax too so uh we think that CPA I don't want to speak for every we think CPA is one way to do that and we're fully uh engaged and really hopeful that this is going to pass so thanks for your time we do have a presentation coming up here and I think we're going back to you now candy all right so thanks for your time so I I think you can see that we are all longtime residents of Halifax um I will say that we have all uh served on various committees or boards over the years some of us still do and um uh we we did see a comment uh or someone mentioned to one of us that there's four couples on this committee which is true and I would say that or what I said to the committee is those who play together stay together so we are very proud of this committee um we're primarily informational but full disclosure we are a certified ballot support committee and as I think Jean mentioned we are very very unanimous in our support of the CPA and we're hoping that we will be able to convince you to support question six in uh no on November 5th the CPA is 20 years old so we're not um we're not exactly Trend Setters there are uh we have never put it before the town in the form of a ballot question um there are 196 communities that have already signed on that have signed on to the CPA program uh this year in November there are 11 more that we'll be voting on and one of which is Halifax of all the communities that have signed on not one has ever resented their vote um so I think you'll be able to see at the end of our presentation why we feel this is a good program for Halifax and what we can do with it so we have a PowerPoint that credit goes to Jonathan the baby on our committee for for putting this together and we're going to walk through it with you and then we hope to have some time at the end for uh some questions and answers the community preservation act allows communities to set aside uh a sum of money or to assess money that can only be specifically spent on historic preservation open space Recreation and affordable housing the funds are collected as a 1.5% annual contribution over the over our prop based on our property taxes but there are some generous abatements in this program one everyone gets $100,000 taken off the value of their home so the CPA assessment is based on if your home is valued at 500,000 it will be based on 400,000 and you also will see as we go forward that there are some senior um moderate income senior abatement and there's um lowi income abatements so we'll cover that shortly uh we expect the average home in Halifax um average homeowner in HX will pay $88 per year for this program over $244 payments the information that we're giving you today is also I I want to stress based on the most recent information we have and we'll we'll explain that a little bit later but we're working with the most current figures that are available to us at this time okay um this is a sample for you to see how it's computed um if you the current value and this is this is the current year and actually this is a new figure that was is just being released the current single family home in Halifax is assessed the average is assessed at $51,988 uh the tax rate which is also a new figure is $14.20 per thousand that's down a little from last year uh so if you take these two and multiply them this is what your property tax bill will be would be with the CPA $100,000 residential exemption this is aside from any other exemptions or baits the taxable value will be $4,240 if the search charge is 1.5% on that figure which amounts to $888 uh per average home in Halifax uh so the your tax bill would go from 735 $7,300 55 to $738 63 ready yep exemptions I'm sure that's one of this is one of the most important um portions for today's presentation um you do have a sheet that we distributed when you came in that shows you the exemptions these figures are based on figures that are given to us from um the uh Committee of uh HUD Department of HUD Housing and Urban Development and they're based on the average income for this area that we've been assigned to so if you look if you uh you and your husband are the only ones in your household and you're under you're over 60 only one of you has to be over 60 the oldest person in the home needs to be over 60 if you make less than $76,900 [Music] $30 you will have a full abatement from this charge Yes actually can it would be for two I'm sorry I'm sorry for a household of two thank you you can make up to $87,900 $20 if you make less than that your the charge is abated so you you don't have to pay this assessment um if you're single living in one house living in a house with one person you're the only resident and perhaps you're under 60 you can make up to $61,000 5 $61,500 anything less than that and you don't have to pay um so we think this is exp self-explanatory but we will have questions at the end um if you have any questions about the abatements but all you have to do is look at your family size the age of the oldest resident and you can determine what the abatements what the income maximum is for you uh in order to be not assessed this charge and Candy really quick and a and a good part about that guys is you're exempt from the program you don't have to pay into the program you can still reap the benefits of the program let's say we you know we do a project that creates a space in Halifax these folks that are exempt you still get to use it you don't have to pay for it you still get to enjoy the benefits of it so we think that's a huge thing too right okay uh a short version is there are currently or 2,800 tax bills mailed out in Halifax if you multiply that by 88 $88 per tax bill the estimate and this is only based on the average home price some will be less some will be more um the estimated money that we will collect is 246,000 plus we receive an annual percentage of matching funds from the state's Community preservation trust fund that varies from year to year depending on the number of towns that are enrolled in the CPA uh and also the amount of money in the trust fund I'll just diverge for one minute the money that goes into the trust fund is interest but also it's all of the fees that are assessed by the um registry of deeds so if you buy a home where someone buys a home and they have to register it there is a fee for that and that fee goes right into into the CPA trust fund um if if there's a lean put on a piece of property there's a fee for that all of this these monies that come in to the registry of deeds goes into all the fees go into the states Community preservation trust fund and that's where the money comes from that they give the towns good sure this map is is pretty telling so we wanted to share it with you all of this is the communities this are communi south of Boston all of the ones in green are CPA communities you'll see Hala right here in yellow and you'll see Brockton the city of Brockton and East Bridgewater and I haven't Avon Avon and Avon and I have I'm not positive but I heard that East Bridgewater is one of the communities that has this on the ballot this year I don't know if that that's true or not but um it would be nice to see more green on this map okay all right this is what these communities have received in total from just the state since they s since they enrolled in CPA so just looking at I'll I'll mention Carver because Carver's been in it for quite a while and they are assessing at a rate of 3% we're requesting 1.5% but they H are are assessing at 3% and they've received over $4 million from the state since they signed on and the projects that they are completing are so impressive um Kingston is another one Kingston has received over $3 million from the state funding not local in addition to their local funding and honestly they started out at 3% and they went through the whole process again and reduced the figure to one because they had so much money and they were getting so much cooperation from the town that they thought it would be a a reasonable thing to do to reduce the rate of assessment so Kingston now my understanding is Kingston now assesses at 1% and they too have done amazing things with the money that they've had um you can you can see this pinook has received received over a million dollars in addition to what they collected at the local level and this is all money that it can only be spent on those four areas which are very often not funded or underfunded or we put off important projects and kick it down the road because we don't have enough money in our own budgets to do them um but we all value our town greatly and its assets and so this is an opportunity that the state has given us to do that the average the average over the last five years from the state has been 26.6% uh now some people have said well used to be 100% when this program started it was 100% and Kingston was one of the communities that got in right away um but over the years more towns have joined uh we've gone through covid and the real estate market has suffered our anticipation is that that's going to improve we may never get back to 100% but our question is where can you get 26.6 return on your money um and this so we we'll take this we'll take whatever they they deem is reasonable that year CPA is different than our taxes the first thing is because we get uh a percentage of matching funds from the state uh we get none of that for our taxes we're on our own um it can be used this is another thing the CPA funds many federal and state grants require matching funds uh CPA monies can be used for matching funds that are required by the community so if we apply for a grant that's in one of those four areas we can use CPA funds for our matching funds we don't have to come up with it from our taxes um as I said these are typically unfunded or seriously underfunded departments um there also is no requirement to spend any money in any one year if the money if we don't have a project that we want we can keep the money in one of wherever it belongs in one of those they're actually we call them three buckets uh housing uh open space and Recreation and historic preservation so we can we do have to put 10% of the money that we receive each year both locally and from the state in each of those three buckets the other 70% we can spend on any project in that area we can put it into one bucket we can decide where the other 70% goes but there's no requirement that we spend any money in any year and if we don't it continues to acur interest uh and also I will say one other thing the residents totally control this fund um and that's an important point no money from the CPA funds can be spent without town meeting approval uh and we'll get into that we'll get into that just a little later but but it's totally us that decides where we spend our CPA money and that's that I've been involved in town government for many many years and that's probably the best pro this is probably the best program I've ever seen uh it's not I mean I'm not I don't want to cast any aspersions because we have so many great Volunteers in town but but this isn't decided by a committee it's you know a finance committee you can go to them and they have a a fund for emergency and unforeseen this no one committee decides how we spend our money it's strictly the voters at town meeting okay okay because we're optimists we're going to say that the CPA question passes on the ballot what's next okay the next thing after the ballot question is the board of Selectmen and whoever whatever committee they emplo will draft a bylaw establishing a community preservation committee this is required um and the community preservation bylaw is then brought to town meeting and and what that does that bylaw establishes the community preservation committee it's brought to town meeting town meeting votes and hopefully adopts the bylaw after that the selectman uh draft a community U preservation committee and I'll explain what that committee has made up of in a moment uh and that committee's first charge is to draft a community preservation plan they will then our first assessment will occur in November 2025 you ready for me I'm ready for you all right sorry or you all right um do we have that two of this side and they were both different two this is the only one we have that says how our funds managed and dispersed okay okay um the way the funds are managed is the community preservation committee receives and reviews and facilitates all of the applications for funding annually uh again 10% they they have to place 10% of the funds and we have to maintain 10% at all times of the funds in those three buckets um but then they bring their Reser their their recommendations to town meeting and they're reviewed as an article on the town meeting warrant and we vote again we have total control over what we choose to fund this is the community preservation committee and that this is this is a requirement these committees have to be represented on or boards have to be represented on the community preservation committee I think we can see why the Conservation Commission the histor commission Housing Authority Park commissioner and the planning board those committees are the ones most closely in touch with these buckets they they understand so they require one member of each of those committees be on the community preservation committee and up to four members at large which can be from other committees it can be you or me people in the in the town that have an interest in this um if if we don't have uh say a housing author Authority the selectman can appoint someone to represent the interest of the Housing Authority onto that committee so I would say the committee is required to have some expertise in the area of community preservation yeah that's the second one I think uh we covered this okay open space okay now we're going to just give you a little information about the three buckets and for that I'm I'm going to sit down and for open space I'm going to introduce Brian cing who has done some work on this in this area Thanks Candy uh good morning again uh so I'm here to talk to you about Open Spaces and what does Open Spaces mean so I'm curious to to see what anybody has to say about that if anything so what exactly would you guys consider to be open spaces all right good enough so a lot of great ideas the actual definition I thought that this was important that we do this because it helps to know what we can Define as Open Spaces open space shall include but not be limited to land to protect existing and future well fields aquafers and recharge areas Watershed land agricultural land grasslands Fields Forest land fresh and saltwater marshes and other Wetlands ocean River stream Lake and pond Frontage beaches dunes and and other Coastal lands lands to protect Scenic Vistas land for wildlife or Nature Preserve and land for recreational use so we can use this a lot of different ways I would say so some examples I've got for you some what some other towns have done this might be helpful to understand how we could use this too Plimpton they purchase and preservation for open space and Recreation of several hundred acres the Church Hill Park two Brooks preserve and Turkey Swamp Hansen they purchased a Nathaniel Mill I think you guys know that on Route 58 including complete control that's complete control over the flow of water from Indian Indian Head River portion of the site including the construction of dams flows dkes and as well as the diversion of the water flow think we've had a problem with diversion of water flow from I think a couple of areas here Hanover to acquire the clli property the premium piece of large open space remaining in the town of Hanover approximately half of this property is highquality open Farmland which would provide Le Recreation space the back area is ideal for walking trails so we can use this here similar Bridge of the Summer Street project involving acquiring 46 Summer Street which is an abandoned Mobile station you guys have driven by that many times probably kind of an iore Bridgewater Summer Street project involving a uh excuse me Carver the Carver Community Gardens to acquire a community garden for the people at Carver and savory Meadows to acquire 33 Acres as savory Meadows uh just two more and then we'll move on uh and Whitman when Peaceful Meadows went up for sale the town prepared to exercise Its Right of first refusal which we can do and CPA funds became the obvious solution luckily John hornstra purchased the property and is keeping it as a working farm but this is the one I really wanted to touch on and this is the town of Middleboro and this is how the T town of Middleboro used it to fund the conservation commission's proposal to acquire and preserve the lion's head property which consists of 103 Acres on the nascet river but wait there's more purchase the peone farm so if you guys don't know the pone Farm let me explain what the rest of that is the pone Farm on Thompson Street for agricultural reasons the town will own 93 Acres outright and hold an agricultural restriction on the remaining 96 Acres a developer we want to keep palax the way it is right a developer sought to build a 55 over Community with 378 homes on the site thanks to the CPA U funds they were able to stop that the town intends to use its portion of land for uh trails and Community Gardens to combat food insecurity according to Cassidy uh who's a member potential Halifax uses so how can we use this any Fields Woods Waterfront areas marshes Etc to be saved in their current state or develop for recreational uses open spaces can be combined with any or all of the other three categories on a larger project so some ideas the town beach at lingan Street walking trails behind the Halifax Elementary School including the one in the woods behind the school which used to exist creation of trails and parking at the Randall helard Conservation Area and working with the water department uh to the walking trails at the camp oaan so that's open spaces and just some of the things that we could do who I'm going to and I'll talk thank you Brian I'm going to talk about wreck um you know some of the recreational areas that we have that we could have use this stuff for so obviously the big one that got me involved was hops um that was $250,000 that's a quarter of a million dollar playground right there um so uh we could have used CPA money instead of waiting seven years it took our committee s years to to fundraise we had chops for hops hop for hops we had if it rhymed with hops we did it right so it took took us s years to raise that money if we're a CPA community that playground is built in a year a year and a half um and and we have a generation of kids it's funny my kids always complain dad the playground's finally built we're too old to play on it now my kids are all at Middle School by the time it was done so um so that's what it can help with uh the walking trail I don't know if you folks have D walked around our walking trail around the park there that's in some rough shape um and then we just built a GaGa ball pit which is if you don't don't know ask the young kids to all their age uh that could have been one as well and then other future projects that could qualify if Halifax would like to build a community garden that's a CPA project if Halifax wants to build a dog park that's a CPA project um for those that have been down to the tennis and basketball courts it it looks rough it looks rough to say the least so that's eventually going to need to get completely redone that as a CPA project uh and again fixing that walking trail um could be a project as well uh and then other ones that could uh include as well as Brian said uh the lingan street beach down on lingan Street uh that is a that's a hidden Jewel in Halifax that could be even better so we could use that there the other issue that we're running into guys is the American Disabilities Act uh the Ada which is a a mandate from the state that says all of your town areas have to be handicap accessible right so a lot of the areas in our town were put together before that came into play so the state is giving us a deadline to say okay Halifax you got to make these Ada accessible so right now we're working on making our beach accessible to everybody um so Ada you'll see the you'll see here in town guys they just redid I don't know if you saw the cruise over at the school you saw the cruise at the library that's all part of ADA to make those buildings accessible there's going to be a project again over at um at the COA so Ada is a huge part it's a big draw on our money I'll be honest for Halifax so the CPA program can help get us ADA Compliant which is huge uh and then Brian touched on land acquisition uh as well as the purchase of right of first refusal um as he said you know we we want to keep open space open and and if we have a developer that comes in that that wants to build a giant uh structure we could have CPA money to say you know what we're going to take that land and we're going to keep it open so that to me is some of the huge Parts about it uh all right next and now we're going to the Grand Pua here Mr John Shay would you like to talk about some historic preservation John um about 20 what 1997 we moved the blacksmith shop to its present location and uh we had to go to the town meeting and ask for funds to save the building a lot of people looked at it and said it's almost not worth saving but uh we convinced them and and because of the history of it we spent the money for it we also did the same thing with the Brockton store we went back a few years later and asked for it and again 20 25 years ago there was a different attitude different people that came you know forward and was excited about it because they had the history of the the buildings themselves and uh so they we used Tom money to buy purchase and move these buildings with tremendous amount of volunteer help it took us two 2 and 1/2 years to open the blacksmith shop or at least have it there anyway and it took another two years for to put a seal in it which is now Rotten we have to toot the front and back anyway uh and uh to be able to shingle it we got people that volunteered to shingle the side we got the the shingles for nothing we had a gentleman in town was a was a uh Craftsman he did all the the trim boards and everything else made him in his his uh his shop which now we can't even buy those things anymore cuz they're they're wide material Rockton store the same thing all this all these things here were donated by a by a person here on Old ply stre the the deck again we had uh volunteers that shingled it we've had volunteers that did the inside the building was structurally you know uh compromised we had to have a company come in with um turnbuckles and bring the walls in then we had to put um uh columns not columns but the post downstairs to support the first floor and the second floor cuz this was all that construction at all one huge uh 2x4 that uh and it was kind of wobbly so between the town spent a lot of money buying these buildings with an interest to save the history of the time we had uh we uh we we uh end the volunteer help and by the way uh there was a gentleman I I went to a gentleman if I can use his name Mr PE I went to see him and we needed to put a foundation into the into this uh uh Brockton store he came he had whoever he had came in and dug the hole then we had a a a company come in and uh put the foundation and and he gave us a cost price which we still had to pay and and he had them back fill it the same thing with a foundation on uh uh blacksmith shop it's a 4T foundation and solid and the same thing we just happened to have we dug the hole got the sand out of there and then we needed to have the back fill they happen to be putting a u the train station down in Kingston and they needed to get rid of some of the sand that was there so the right place of the right time they came down with truck loads and for nothing put it in so you know that there was a lot of volunteer help along with the towns now if this was a CPA we could have taken some of these funds or all these funds to move this this building to move this building down was $6,500 doesn't sound like much but we had to raise the money to have that done so and I neglected to tell you that my wife's name is Judy she was born and brought up here her father was born and brought up here and her grandfather was the blacksmith in town Judy's also the one that that uh puts on Facebook all the history pictures and stories and stuff like that and her grandfather was also 22 years selectman here in this town also I forget I forgot to mention that earlier but these are just a couple of the projects that uh that we have undertaken and there's more to more going on to so so I'm I'm all for the cfp all right and then and then just to touch on what John was saying um in addition to the restoration a lot of towns are using this to digitize their historic documents you know you have a historic document that's 200 years old and eventually it's going to fall apart right so so a lot of communities Ed CPA money to get them digitized to get them scanned to get them on the worldwide web so that they'll live forever right so that's another CPA thing we could do any of you been in the museum so much history in there that we could preserve on the web so that it never dies so there's that and then um our we have great historic cemeteries here in town as well um that are in shape just thanks to Mother Nature so uh we could use if the town decided we could use CPA funding to help our cemeteries again that's the great part guys we decide what we want to spend on these projects just to jump on that real quick um I'll just point out that we one of the highlights of our town year is holidays and Halifax in December and that takes place almost entirely in our historic district the church is a historic building as as well and um we people are able to go into the buildings to the extent that they are um the blacksmith shop we have to look at from outside but um it's it people bring their families from other towns to holidays and Halifax because I would say primarily of the treasures that we have that night um on display uh the next ready for the next I think right the next is affordable housing um which which is not a bad word does not need to be a bad word um so far over 29,000 affordable housing units have been created and supported by the CPA um this money can also be used some some communities have used this money for rental assistance programs um others have hired uh housing coordinator to study the housing needs in that town and make recommendations um other and and I will site one in northand or other communities have uh employed what's called adaptive reuse and in North Handover they purchased an abandoned nursing home uh and renovated it into um affordable housing apartments for eligible families um a lot of towns aren't there yet with affordable housing or land they want to purchase but they have have established what's called an affordable housing trust fund which it and there's also an opportunity for a conservation trust fund similarly because um just briefly the way that works is they put money in this trust fund from the affordable housing bucket and when land becomes available for either open space or conservation or um housing a lot that we might want to put um a housing project on for seniors or for veterans um or for disabled residents Um this can this money has already been authorized for that expenditure expenditure so we don't have to go back to town meeting we have to present it to town meeting so they can if they choose to establish a trust fund but if land becomes available and it's deemed something we want to exercise our right to First refusal on we can go ahead and purchase that or the the CPA committee can go ahead and purchase that land so we don't lose it uh because we know how fast properties are going whenever they go on the M on the market the other thing is we can buy empty buildings um empty homes and refurbish them and keep them as affordable housing within our community um so there's a lot of opportunity to uh did I cover everything up there okay we can go to the next slide um so there's just so many choices and there all our choices um on what we want to do with this money that that we acquire we also have a 5year capital plan and that we have um adopted and these are all items on that plan that would qualify for CPA funding um the exterior of this town hall needs some serious work um the recation courts Jonathan mentioned them the tennis courts I I'll go one step further and say that I think they're already a liability to the town um if they're not it's just a matter of time if you take a ride down the other side of the elementary school you'll see the tennis courts the Nets are gone because it's not safe to play on that could be totally refurbished and become tennis courts pickle ball courts or both um and but I think the liability issue on that is significant and that's fundable by CPA funds um there is an open space and Recreation plan um which we could fund through CPA funds and then of course the blacksmith shop we're focusing on the blacksmith shop because it's such a gem and we can't get in there so we're we really want that to happen um so just to summarize we are doing everything we possibly can to get as much information out so that when you go to vote on November 5th you know what you're voting for and we're convinced that many people did not um if you have a question uh that we don't get to today which is very possible we have 3x5 cards write it down and write down your email address if you have one or the best way to contact you and we'll get you an answer um our website we have a website that has all the information we've collected is on our website the address is in this brochure that you have all these addresses are in your brochure um you can email questions to us with one of the first things we do is establish an email address for questions specifically uh and then we our we our um Facebook page is uh oh well we have a Facebook page you can just start typing Community um halif what is it B hope for hope uh hope for Halifax and the Facebook page will come up and we would love it if you you have it it's in your brochure it's in your brochure which I should have read more carefully um we answer we post all the answers to all of the questions that we receive on Facebook and on our website um so we welcome questions because that's what we want to do and what we would welcome perhaps a little more is your support on question 6 on November 5th thank you so much for letting us present this information you're our first presentation and we plan to do two more before November 5th so this was great for us thank you very [Applause] much I will just I I um I don't know if there's time for a few questions um but we would be happy to answer if anyone has a question yes I had a couple of quick ones Tom I for 12 years um has $100,000 reduction um is that state regulated or is that Al's idea no that's one of the abatements that's offered in the legislation and we've chosen to adopt that and has that number ever changed given the increase and pricing or that 100,000 beening for CPA started CPA started so in 24 years $100,000 has not changed despite the fact that homes have appreciated more assessment than that no it hasn't changed um when I know this is beyond your control but when the CP when it passes and I hope it does for you folks thank you for all your time and effort um when their committee is set up is it possible because housing is such a hot button topic these days and I think that might be one of the biggest obstacles you face uh in this pass uh given the mdta zoning s so forth lot of balls moving at one time is it possible that when you set aside the 10% in that bucket that the zoning bylaw be written or suggested it could be written to cap that 10% and to spend it at least every 2 years so that in your example $24,000 in this year's budget 24,000 will get put in that bucket is it possible to appease some fears about housing to not allow that to accumulate over more than a 2-year period so no time is there more than $50,000 in that buck in other words you collect 25 you collect 25,000 a year is it possible to be written out of the bylaw that that money is spent on a biannual basis so it doesn't accumulate hundreds of thousands of dollars to allow for the purchase of land that could then be put into a housing bucket which could change the scope of Halifax which is I think the biggest concern that some people face I'm simply asking is it possible to put write that in so that that money never exceeds 50,000 so that it's the land acquisition is not possible I mean well I I just want to say that we don't know the answer to that question we we know that we have to keep 10% of the funds that we have in that bucket um as to what the figure that we might be able to cap it at um we we will look into that I suspect no I I know I know that the state requires us to keep 10% in it you know at all times Tom right um but I want to make sure we understand too when people hear housing they think of housing units and development and all that stuff there's also great plans for our veterans right for for housing assistance for our disabled people for housing so so I think when people hear housing instantly the fur goes up right right that was my that was my first right and and I understand and given the MBTA situation AB understand but I want to make sure we know this has to be voted by the people right whatever we decide housing or otherwise in any of these buckets it's going to be a town meeting vote so I don't want to speak for the committee I would like to see our our veterans taking care of are disabled you know for housing money I would like to see it go in that direction um so I hope we don't I hope we don't cut off our nose despite our face and cap it if we find a good program that you know what shoot we'd like to really invest in our veterans or to say you know what I'm saying so I hope we don't short sight it um but I see what you're saying too about people getting nervous about the housing part of that's that's nervous is a good word for it $225,000 it's still a lot of money yeah but it's not going to purchase 50 acres of land and then be turned into something that sure is not what sure but if we have a if we find a vacant land and we then the town wants to buy it for our Disabled Vets you know we we've just cut that off you know what I'm saying I that but different because you're not asking people to contribute un the purchase of land the town already has ability to do that it does but we would get money from the state towards right I I if I can just jump into if we purchase land as an example if we purchase land for housing it can only be used for that we can't or open space we have to know what the land is going to be used for before we purchase the land um the other thing I will say is speaking of housing being hot button item the first thing people see is these tall structures multif floors um densely populated um there are no requirements for that in other words we don't have to build multistory buildings if if we don't but I will say one thing how and I I hope I'm not stepping on toes here but when I was involved in in the um interviewing of potential town administrators and at the time one of the questions we asked them was what do you know about Halifax because they were all from out of town and without exception every one of them said to us I know that you have a very outof date master plan we really don't have a master plan it's so out of date and that is a top priority we can fund that with CPA funds when I say a master plan we many of us don't don't want a half a dozen pizza shops we really don't have a lot of control over that or another coffee shop some of us don't want that we don't have control right now over what happens in town because we don't have a master plan I think that your question could be addressed in the master plan I think most of our questions could be addressed and that can be funded with CPA funding so I think we we have to move slowly but efficiently and be aware of what people's concerns are and answer the questions if we can get answers to them yes I think the uh CPA is a great tool to rebuild the communities and to keep money invested in the community that's where we're going like we're all investing in our community for aging as well the whole thing with the NBTA and you know it's that time year two that there everybody's looking at the mpta option as well to town whether or not they're for it or not um but they're multi-purpose of the MBTA is the zoning part of it next or close to a um you know a the the trains um the train systems or any of the systems going through town so it's a little bit different I think the CPA is a little softer approach to building the community you know it's not there to comp you know take over and you know uh take over and build the multi-generational abilities and so on but the point is cre softer approach to supporting the communities to build the communities to um look for other ways a gateway to a fund it other than you know um a continuation of not having it done and you know it's unfortunate that certain towns have Let It Go only because of the fact maybe they wanted to preserve the uh traditional things but we also have to put to different buildings within the community too a can find um buildings are a necessity today they're open to all people within the community not just some so that's our Council of AG loud and I want to be able to support that so I think it's a great soft approach to uh funding can I just say too I know in in reading some of the comments and stuff and hearing from folks for some reason they're lumping CPA with this MBTA stuff has nothing to do whatsoever with MBTA I want to just get that on record this is a 24 year-old program that's been around well before any sort of MBTA you know uh issues from the state so so we have to make that clear guys you're going to hear a lot of talk MBTA and rightfully so it's a hot button topic right now this has nothing to do with the cbaa I'm sorry with the MBTA so I just want to make sure we we get that that separation there I'll just jump in one last time and that is um we will be voting on the MBTA at town meeting in December um I think a lot of it is a knee-jerk reaction for a lot of people uh I think one thing that I will mention just informationally is that CPA funding cannot be used for litigation uh so we can't come back and say well let's vot no and we'll just if they sue us we'll take it out of the housing bucket um that they're pretty adamant about the fact that it cannot be used any of the buckets for litigation yes um I was just going to speak a little bit from the town perspective I was just going to speak a little bit from the Pim broke Town perspective um as a Pim broke resident we've had CPA for a lot of years the one thing I've seen um in town budgets over the years is that we spend every cent we have right so when a town has 2 and 1/2% it spends that 2 and 1/2% um extra money every year and it needs more usually the funny thing that I've seen over the years with CPA is that people are very um deliberate about sometimes saving some of that money in a fund so that when they know that someone's getting older and getting ready to sell property out of 6 q1a for agricultural use people will say okay well let's try to save up and CPA money over the year so when that comes up for a right of first refusal we can keep it as open space or we can repurpose it or in in pem we had one case where a family um donated their land to the town but we didn't have the money in our budget to actually um create a trail or create a parking space or to just make it accessible to people so sometimes when you get donated land it actually cost you money to take care of that land is a town and that's where CPA money really came in handy because like every other town we never had the extra money to do these things that would preserve the character of our community and you know we have a lot of open space in pem and we've been able to do things like buy a cranberry bog or things like that and sometimes it's because of that advanced thinking that this kind of um savings account or planned savings um allows you to do in a way that you really can't do with the town budget because there's so many demands on the town budget so that's just perspective from a neighboring town thank you thank you we um we'll take one more question and then um we're going to wrap it up because we have gone well over our allotment and we don't want to VI you I just yeah my follow I just want to be pretty clear I think it's a terrific program a terrific idea my suggestion about the housing which I know is separate from the zoning with the MBTA is I just think you can alleviate some fears by mitigating some of the housing issues uh and I think that's probably your biggest obstacle but a you're leaving money in the table and you had you have for 24 years by not passing the CPA the only downside is you're you're surcharging the taxpayer and things are already tight so I think if they have any concerns alleviating some of those and I think the big one for my conversations is the housing aspect I think that would be productive uh for your cause um but again I think it's a great idea on paper hard to hard to say no on paper but there's just some obstacles I think you face that's all and I agree Tom and I think the more we educate folks as to the the breath of this plan as to all the different things we can do um I think people will understand and get behind it so but I agree I agree on the housing thing that is a Bugaboo so we'll try and educate people on that aspect as much as we can and we'll look into that bylaw that you suggested yeah I I we will get information on that uh regarding the capping it because it's a excellent question that we would like to know as well thank you all um if you have questions and you didn't have a chance to ask we have card just fill out out with your contact information and your question and we will get back to you thank you again for your time thank you [Music] [Applause] [Music]