##VIDEO ID:NODkRryqeIw## call to order we are calling the meeting to order at 6:14 p.m. present BK Bracken I'm not going to say you go ahead bar bra present Michaela Michaela early present Mary car Pres Ellen Dy present Ryan Kelly present Robin La present uh the first thing on the agenda which is is approve September 30th meeting minutes which we I believe we all can do yes so that I will and Ellen you and I can talk about this in terms of whose responsibility it is going forward but since I have a direct lent to Gan who is our town clerk I will send these okay the meeting minutes to her for posting on the town website and we can change that going for a bit but it's no big deal for me to do it uh okay so the September meeting minutes are approved uh all in favor the third item on our agenda is checking on access to MCC grants management system and the process for Grant application review and the date for the voting meeting which we just did hello Barb uh so I wanted to check with everybody we all have access to the grants management system you should have been an email yes MH I think they send a password and then you change your password so everyone has his or her own personal access to the MCC Grant okay so what the what did the happened uh we should have I'm not sure I have mine either but I'm not going to say I don't okay because I may have missed it all right let me just tell you what the process is so I went into the grants management system several weeks ago and even though some of you had not yet signed the book I took a leap of faith that you would and I entered you so now everyone's official m in the MCC Grant system whether or not you on the town website I don't know not that's not Le much less important but Gretchen is going to update the town website with all our names but that is completely separate from the grants management system which is what we really need and I hope I'm really sorry about confusing everybody I'm not confusing you you no so so you so you everybody ctively challenged Among Us actually it really is very confusing because there's you got the state and you got the town right and they're two really separate entities yeah anyway but you have so all right anyway so I I everybody all of you for several weeks have been on listed as official members of the newb cultural council with your email addresses pursuant to that it's automated you should have gotten an automated email from MC City to with giving you access to the smart simple that's what it's called app the state and so all please at some point check and make sure that you so does it come as MCC does it come as I I don't I don't remember because I didn't get one because I've been so U and bar bar doesn't remember either I don't remember it might be LCC is what I'm thinking but um you should be able to find it um and you can probably just search smart we've been getting stuff from Greg teralis yes he he but I think his does it come from him I don't think it does so Greg Greg is the local cultural Council liaison for us I don't know what region his is but so we we have questions he's our go-to back the access to Smart simple would have been automated from the smart simple grants application system I can't tell you any more details than that but um uh but if you please check that and let me know because if you didn't get it then I'll probably have to go back to Greg and say can you please Ryan you got one R there's a r Ryan and I had to go back and forth I haven't I haven't checked in and signed in but I know you and I had multiple emails back so it's on my listed to-do and I think maybe we just everybody can check on their own time yeah yeah for sure um but I want to just but I want to just walk through what is going to happen next so once you have access you'll log in and you will see something called the panel book the panel book is all the applications that came to new I haven't looked yet myself but it's all the applications for a grant from the town of Newber that we all need to review and and think about before our grant voting meeting which we have just scheduled bar for December 2nd okay and we come to that meeting prepared having reviewed the grants and people who really really prepared will have opinions about it and people who just aren't will say well because it's a discussion Among Us right so some people come with already formed opinions and some people come thinking that it's an open discussion which of course is f okay does anybody put any questions on process is it worth maybe just taking probably it's worth just taking a second um having done this a number of times now uh first off it comes as a PDF and so you would just download it as a PDF and you can read it right from your computer you know some people so are so inclined you can print it just an awful lot of pages of a lot of extraneous information um what I have found to be useful um the first thing is and what we'll probably do is we'll download all the applications so we'll have it as a spreadsheet um for the voting um meeting so it'll be pretty simple to look at the numbers and all that but what I do is I kind of have in my mind key criteria as uh for evaluation you know things like is it local you know as opposed to Regional um do they do a good job really focusing on you know um you know art in our community or is it something general is it something just you know they they um are asking for something that is just not reasonable um or we're a very small part of something very big or very big as a part of something that would be important for our community I mean I just have a list of criteria well excuse me for interrupting B this is really helpful I think also we have our priorities listed did on the website that we painstakingly wrote and that's right yeah and it and the the the applications the the approvals all should reflect those priorities which is really what B it's basically what I'm saying and so you just kind of go through them and then you essentially evaluate each one um I think there are 25 oh are they 25 I think they're 25 I think I looked at it that's about the average yeah so I think about 25 and what we'll do is we'll add it up and typically it's you know a bit more than how much money we have to on Dual out usually a lot more yeah sometimes it's a lot more because sometimes you get some people are asking for quite a bit of money um but the um you know and that way when we come in and we talk about them it can go fairly quickly because some people have some strong opinions about some of the applicants and all that and it's usually a pretty quick meeting usually usually it's an hour and a half yeah it's an hour and a half we get we get through them all pretty pretty with with discussion but I would highly recommend at least familiarizing yourself with each of the grants before you come in because sometimes not everybody has and that requires us to wait while they read it um while we've discussing it so plus it's it's just fun actually so you know we've had some pretty spirited discussions in the past I remember one in particular from last year which was the uh the gingerbread and and it was a brand new thing and some of us thought well I mean gingerbread has is really some of us thought well geez it's a brand new thing maybe we should have help it get off the off the ground so it was it was a a spirited discussion and we actually we ended up um funing it so was that helpful for everybody yeah where are those um criterial listed that you mentioned are they there on the website yeah you go to you go to uh local lccs then you you find Nu which is in the middle because it starts with N and then you open that when you'll see our page and that's where the priorities are so that's but that's different from the grants application app that's on the public website because people who apply for Grants read that on the public website okay so they can their applications will reflected but the the uh so the smart Simple app you know it it it's all it's all uh it's it's I I started to say it's backend it's not back end it's just a separate application okay make sense yeah okay so if if we um end up with more than we have money for do we ever um partially fun things absolutely okay yeah absolutely you think about that before to do we do the money it's not it's not a yes no it's it can be 100% on this one 50% on this one zero on this one that's where the discussion comes in where they're like I really think this is so great and they're only asking us for money so why don't we take 50 bucks from here 100 bucks from here why don't we really make this happen and then they they're asking everybody else around here so we'll just give them 100 bucks of that not the 500 bucks they ask exactly or it's like sand and barrels kind of so yeah so no a spreadsheet up for that we all can see and fill it with the numbers and then we come up you can always you can kind of do a rough one like when I was on report one we do like a quick pass where it's like stuff that we absolutely do every year like their Staples that we call them like the pillars of the community and then it was like we got five bucks left over 5050 50 50 50 75 75 75 and just it sounds familiar doesn't it bar very turns out it's it's a good method it's like literally putting little it's like a little you know advoc slide them over it's really very fun yeah it is it's exciting because at the end of the day you're realizing that things are happening in our community because we're saying yes to 3 in box and it's like you really realize like the value that yeah yeah and and then and then we go to our own funded events and see it for you know the library at the at the modle state park at um training room and far okay excellent any further discussion on that okay um now I have an update a real update on the email and we now have cultural council at Town ofy.org now be careful cultural. counsel is it yeah that's good to know I think the one you're you're talking about it's actually a porn site you really got that periodes a big difference real the operative principle is that we now have an email address so this is something else we're going to take offline does not need to be discussed tonight but again but the what are the administrative aspects of it are we going to dump the Gmail address I'm the only one with access because it's multiactor authentication it has to do with security which is one of the reasons it took so long to get it so we but we're not going to talk about that now what I wanted to Bart and I can figure that out because that's backand stuff however I wanted you all to know we had it ultimately sooner than later we will transition over I won't be using my email anymore and you can obviously if you want to pop me a note but that'll be our goto and then um because it took so long unfortunately the um the the I'll also change the information online I will go into the nas cultural Council LCC page we were just talking about and I'll up I'll update the email address but all the applic all the applicants for this year 2024 will of course all have the Gmail address it's going to take us a while to make the transition I haven't Barton I haven't talked about it because he has the only access to the Gmail account so we have it worked out the logistics of it but the good news is we have it okay that's it for that cultural Council cultural do council at the town of newborg at Town of newborg yeah how did I not even how did I not do that well I I forwarded I set I set up a forwarding you have to go in and approve it but um I I just happened to notice it well that's not what I asked for but do just fine okay so uh uh the next uh item on the agenda understanding that you have fuzzy vision is treasurers report do we have a treasur report yeah no it'sing distance so but it's it is a little fuzzy um yes I do I do um I'm going to pass this out there we go um so there's two things uh we're going to talk about one is just an update as to where we stand in 20124 um I do have one more applicant I need a signature from you um and uh we now have nine people uh who have submitted and um payment has been um sent with the exception of this one which um I'll get out today or tomorrow uh for so we have $2,600 that has has been um paid uh there's still outstanding 4150 some of these things I think have actually happened um wasn't I'm not sure which one it was but I think one what didn't the Chamber Of Music Festival happen I think so yeah so for fun um why don't we have everybody so you can just kind of see what we've told you about but you've actually never seen the physical thing this is the uh reimbursement oh okay that they send us and it's in a multifaceted so but it needs talked about this last time it needs two signatures we can be any of us but we live you know 3 minutes from each other and um and then it gets he bar because he's the treasurer submits it to uh the town who gets the town gets money from the state and then even who's our town accountant will cut a check and send it to the organization yes yes and uh works pretty well um so there are a couple I think will be expecting what happens here uh just to kind of give you a sense is that um many of these people um wait till the very last minute to submit it has to be submitted by the end of the year um at that point the money kind of goes away so uh I start and I'll probably start soon maybe even tomorrow sending them all a little notes saying don't forget to submit and inevitably I work um with the people to get the final submission in um uh you know just in time and we made it just in time last we uh so uh it it tends to be a little frustrating but everybody really tries hard and it's just sometimes you know there's been a lot of turnover with volunteers uh and so it gets a little difficult um so so we still have a fair amount of money outstanding it's all been appropriate so it's just say you're waiting I put in here uh TW under 2025 um what we submitted um for how much we're uh we we submitted to the state uh the this is the amount of money that says that we have available to us and I don't think it's right uh and what it was happening and if you remember in the last meeting um I think Rob was saying you know U the report was due at the end of August but I always knew it was it was October 13th um and and Ava who is the town accountant gives me her accounting of everything um what it I found these forms the way they've done them they've tried to make them very very simple so they say that there's a lot of self-c calculating um sections but that don't self- calculate um so I don't know if there were erors I'm not sure what it was but I could not get it uh to work where I was comfortable but I still submitted I did it did exactly like we did it the previous years um I did it using their instructions what I believe the difference is is that um we had um Plum Plum Fest um which had we had given them we had um you know granted them money for 2023 they were unable to do it because of the weather we agreed that they could carry it over to 2024 I don't believe those forms and that methodology allows for that is what I'm thinking and so what AA gave to me probably wasn't fully reflective of that and therefore it's almost $11,000 if I remember right I can't remember the exact number off the top of my head so I'm thinking that that's a little bit more what I'm showing here is a little bit more than what we really do have so I have to get that clarified and fixed uh before um this but it so it we got $5,600 for our allotment for our allotment 2025 yeah and I don't think there's any other carryovers the only other carryover that would occur is if somebody who we did grant money to did not do the program and they're not going to we then take that money and we put it into the next year's pot um so that that's what we're going to try to figure out and I could come back in I say say no everything is right but um sometimes when you simplify these things it gets more complicated uh cuz there's so many unique circumstances here so anyway that's my treasur report any questions thank you bar um there's one item that I left off the agenda and is to discuss the calendar of events that put together my uh suggestion is that we go directly to update on Plage in initiative and then we'll talk about that calendar element and then we we discuss our action plan which is the last item on the agenda because that's going to take the longest okay so update on signage initiative so this has been we've made some progress and finding out what is going on Ryan Heidi the last few weeks so Ryan where are we so um I got a PO box from some organization and I asked an email back with some of those CC people for the exx County Sportsman Club if there's any other way to contact them is that's PO Box because I don't know how to call or send an email to PO Box because we kind of need like maybe a better way to communicate or like a live phone call with like one of the people involved before I'm going to start typing out a letter and printing photos of what we're trying to do what was Heidi's last email on that I think she yesterday um she she was the one that was trying to check in uh and poke around and then the assessor responded back to me um and attached what parcel and exactly where it is physically located if we ever had to use that in the uh Proposal with the town and sent that forward for the actual sign location and then the historical commission um was having a meeting the week of 108 and it was going to come back up so I need to check in back on that cuz they've obviously had it oh just kidding they already did Eva Jackman forwarded that information which again was the PO Box So I responded back on the 21st asking if there's any possible way to contact them that is not a PO Box um which I have not got in response uh in a week so hopefully I will check in again um but either way we did have a conversation with the assessor we did have a conversation with the historical person and Heidi also obviously has been hooking around trying to find some information we learned about the Hao and kind of figuring out some of the other things potentially put on it but I think right now unfortunately we just need to actually get contacted with this Sportsman's group to hear yay or nay or nothing or something about um anything feedback so we can actually move forward so so Heidi had said at the last meeting that she didn't think they existed any longer correct and then her email said I thought if I understood it correctly she was referring to the Hast Stacks as she called them and that she did she didn't know who had put those together but she didn't think it was them meaning the Sportsman Club but I don't think she answered whether she found anybody that was still a member or around so because I think that's one of the questions is do they even still exist right I think they still exist right because they have a PO box and we also learned that there was some work done out in the uh packs just a few weeks ago in August or September and um that it seems as though they spearheaded they're all piled up there like three of them somebody did that and and um I think the the the question would be I mean to me the main question is someone is doing that there's someone involved there and that's not the cunninghams that she mentioned they were the people always that did that she said that verbally at the meeting too not around oh she said the Cunningham family are the people who always did that both father and son died okay yeah I'm not sure Janice from the new hostal commission when she sent the contact of the Sportsman's Association um Janice was giving them credit that they just restored one of the hay stacks at the site so apparently they potentially are still active in a way at least of some letters or something to the PO box that they can make a plan to put some hay on some wood so we can follow back up I can check back in after another email um um or maybe I can get um maybe Janice has Eva Jackman's um contact who was the one that forwarded the be box so I don't I know the name Eva ja I thought she's local I think the name sounds familiar to me too I think she went to high school below me yeah I'm not sure is it the is it the league of Essex County Sportsman's Club or this is the Essex County Sportsman's Association is the is the true Essex County Sportsman's Association is at least what apparently on their P box so I'm assuming that's so I think I think the question is this and correct me if you disagree there's a sign on Route One about the hyex that is dilapidated and needs to be replaced we the cultural council is willing to take the initiative to replace it so what we want to find out from the Sportsman are would they turn this initiative over to us and would they want to participate because we're talking about doing something that's really I think different from what but updated as you said from yeah and I took a picture of it I actually drove up that way today so I could see it it's actually not about the Hy Stacks or the ha coock or whatever we want to call them it's about the Newbery salt marsh itself so and it's it's about salt Marsters are found in coastal areas it's part of the Great Marsh 177,000 Acres um it's more like biological it's about the low tide and the high tide and how many marshes have been destroyed by filling dredging and developing Upland areas it's it's very biologically focused versus this you know anything about Newbury frankly other than the salt marsh is in Newbury so as it's County Sportsman's Association right so my take from that is that they're that makes sense that they're talking about salt marshes that are all over ex the whole great Y and it says eight towns and the bay Committee of Massachusetts Bay program is also on the bottom of it y next to who it's erected and maintained by which is F6 County Sportsman Association now I see it so so I didn't know this so when I was suggesting that we you know talk about the land and where it came from or even that what you're looking at out there with the straddles and all that that's all new to this because this is literally about the salt marsh yeah which is which is not to say that we could so the other thing is there's a tiny little sign next to it that's completely dilapidated yeah I don't know so I don't know if um oh if we could even put maybe a second little thing up that talked about the the people part of the salt marsh which is you know this is this is salt pay and this is how long it's been ha for and and these are called straddles and you know that sort of thing I think best case scenario is we redo the original one and either have a top and bottom and have two that way or we do side by side and do two that way but certainly culturally replacing this and talking about culture is the environment culture is all that stuff so getting the salt marsh which we Nu is known for is the most of the salt marsh area is one thing but then in that particular location commenting on the hay things which people are like oh my gosh they put the hay back up oh my gosh it's like such a big deal but there's nothing about that on the original one so I think it's either keeping everything pretty much the same on that one and just redoing it and adding the second one or we do a new one Al together and combine them yeah I AG but I think something like that is and I'm guessing this thing was a map down at the bottom at one point okay it looks like totally crackled and you damaged I would assume it's actually like the highway and this area is the salt marsh right now and here's the river but again we have no way to tell cuz it's completely destroyed so is there any place to pull off and read it you can completely stop I mean you can you just pull over on the side of the state highway and and you do in 55 and there not no got the hill right up really to really pull over and read it properly is quite dangerous right now so we could also consider moving it into a place where you at least have a little ramp to pull over and I don't know that makes sense if you think of any place else in the world where you go to see a historic marker yeah there's a pull off yeah I mean technically you can if it was even not even right next to the hill I would argue that it was somewhere near the middle people pull off on the southbound side all the time right there because they're taking pictures of the sunset and there's trucks that are broken down and all that I think right before the hill is actually a total pain in the butt and I would say if we can pull that back 200t 300 ft towards between the hill and the bridge that at least it is a full width breakdown so you can have I mean my full truck with a trailer I was P pulled over and then I just had to go right up the so all this it's horrible all this I just want to say one thing all this said and then B sorry for interrupting you does it make sense for us to have what us to have a separate initiative and they have you know not try to redo that sign but to come up with another sign that's in a better place and just move forward on it with other approval entities which is who's going to pay for it and the state is a state highway Etc rather than try to muck around with the with the Sportsman people we can't even get a hold I mean I I would like to give it a better try of contacting them because I do think redoing both is probably in our best interest because it will look the best and function the best but it should be moved I would say if possible we yeah I that's another conversation because we've been talking about redoing it so we will just have to check with the assessor and all the other stuff yeah yeah because if you're going to if best scenario we move at 200 ft South exactly and we this part of the whole proposal frankly it's dangerous so we want we want to tackle this from all sorts of different angles and then and and so that time I mean that makes makes sense but at the same time we we really want to move forward to this and these people only have a PO Box yeah so you know how can we they can have I I can see if there's a better contact through Janice for Eva if there's even a phone call or I I I don't mind sending emails and calling people I do it while I'm driving all the time so it's um I'm happy to do it I stops and takes pictures of signs that's I pulled away I pulled aside legally in in my big truck and trailer um yeah can it's just you're right it's just getting out of there it's getting up up the hill right away little dangerous I believe going south further down there is a place that looks like a parking lot and I think it says something like Plum Island maintenance oh the white building yeah there's a white building but right next to it is a place that does look like it's a parking lot and I don't know if there's access to some type of a trail there or what there's hunting back there and then there's also how you get to the old nuber um like you can get the old old new golf club that way but it actually connects back I don't think you get to the old Newbury Country Club there but it I know the road you're talking about it's like a hunting Road was just right after the old Newberry golf course there yeah uh and I do believe that there's parking and if you could put you know um the signs there cuz that's parking off the road right on the marsh right I mean that would have to be a conversation with whatever that entity is I guess it's a Plum Island it's a Plum Island something but I know they just recently redid the exterior of that building they had some trees that they removed that were dying along the front um they do have the parking lot area then there's like a radio tower or something in the in the back house up just a little bit from there no that's the big one they have a small one Parker River that's not the it's there's a building along there that's associated with Parker River I think it's not that building no the national Reserve I mean it's it's them yeah I I it it says something about Plum Island yeah but I think which would be I think it's the reserves building yeah which yeah we can check next time because we put up some very nice signs and it would be safer to park there to be fair absolutely cost to to make these new signs they're a few thousand PC probably a few thousand probably with installation you probably have to have a CD worker to legally do it so it's it's a it's a project and then we have to figure out legally there's any way we they have to be designed and obviously this film used on this one the coding was not good because it deteriorated so I don't know if we end up making it in the way that they make the new signs and it just has to be the UV vinyl with the clear coat kind of like they make road signs um but then you definitely want to have a place that you can pull off and safely read it because be pretty small I think if your question was going to how are we going to pay for this um I think that that was hard Fe yeah I think that we discussed it before that there may be some funding sources including the city um it it's obviously we would not be able to do it out of our a lot there's just simply not enough money there to Warrant I think that type of signage but um I'm sure we would you know if this is an idea that people feel is a good idea it really supports our town then we could try to see if we can find yeah and there MCC has grant money available there's all sorts of Mone there's other ways we can go through the through the town there may individuals in the town that want toate to the signage there may people that you know obviously these people donated in some capacity to create the sign right um maybe not 100% the best way to do it but it's been there for what a decade at least I mean i' I remember being there a long time it's been a long time long enough for it to deteriorate so I'd say at least 10 years I think it's a good idea to at least and then we can kind of move on I think it's a good idea to notice that it's kind of too actual things if you think about it it's that sign and all it stands for which is the science aspect the community environmental aspect and then it's more the cultural aspect which are the the ha coock next to it so I think maybe it's a two-part sign or one big sign and ideally either move it a little more south or potentially we can check and see what institution or entity owns that place because I totally know that part you're talking about it's right before you get to that bridge right before um where the the salt marsh is but either way it's kind of a two-part and then the location is like a part C at that point mhm and and I'm going to jump ahead yeah just if they are wedded to this sign and they feel it doesn't need to be redone the only thing that really is terrible is the map correct the rest of it is legible they could do a screw on map right there if they really had to it could last for a little bit longer and then we could go off and just do a cultural sign to your point sure if they really want to keep it and then theirs a look so bad they have to Red do that then they'll come keeping up with the Joneses of cultural signs just looking here um for what it's worth a sign like this which is a trustee sign look at all the information that's on that there's are very well done trustees I think even it's not a drive green belt green belt does a nice job absolutely but I think it's a similar sign this wouldn't be a drive by though no no no right no no is that trust it's a really slow drive just break right in the middle of one right as you're going up the hill with me and my John truck behind you so it almost seems like that to do the signage great and we need to move it even if it's 200 feet to towards the Middle where it's just not right there I do feel like it is safe plenty of people pull off on the side of one I will say there is more room on the southbound side I will say that maybe that's a conversation if we can't move it down maybe we move it over not just south but there is a wider breakdown there on the southbound side where fullon 18 wheelers have pulled over and often sto there the National Grid workers stop there when they're plowing and all that so maybe that's an option and you're facing the sunset and the small Marsh right there you're not facing up a giant Hill so yeah maybe know there's only going to be as we can see in your report with the Antiquated pedestrian bike Lanes all there's only going to be more traffic so it come in in the future right so my thinking is this is a great opportunity to say we've got to sign on rout one it's actually dangerous we can do a whole lot better and if we need to work with the town obviously we need to with the town and the state we already started right we already gave tra blaza heads up then that's what we do and it becomes an initiative to think for and the Sportsman Association think forward about safety on Route One as a corollary to what we're already and show off the beauty of Route One and the fact that we have the salt marer driving over 16,000 cars a day drive on rout one fun fact wow look at you I'll put that right in notes so that and that was a step that was a stat based on before four years ago when they were putting in the storage units so it's probably more probably more yeah I would say 18,000 so then that's like an average across whatever however long they did it but it's a lot of cars you can safely save thousands of cars a day so that many cars going past the sign and some are local some are not and how great would it would be to appreciate the culture and the history that we have here a little bit better um and safer because it is a big deal and it seems like you know new just a pass through you're just going from wherever to Newport but there's a lot happening on rep which is why we're doing what we're doing right okay and Ellen so moving on to our next topic and J not top topic item that is not on the agenda because I forgot to put it on the agenda is Ellen's effort at putting together the calendar we talked about at our last meeting so Ellen take it yeah well just as I said in the note I didn't find a lot um there's there's more than what I put down there but just to sampling there'd probably be five to eight to 10 things listed per month um and all of them have all of them came from a site that already lists dates so the other option would be rather than worrying about trying to keep dates updated we could have a little section with the websites that go to um the bcac and go to the autobot and go to Parker River um because they all have an events listing on their little Pages which is another way of maybe doing it that would be easier for them but I do think no matter what like we talked about last time it needs to be static it needs to just sit there and we update it either monthly or quarterly um and now that we a web uh now that we have an email address we could ask people if you have something you'd like to see listed in the future on this contact blah blah BL I don't just don't think there's that much I don't think there's like a plethora of missing things that I mean we a small little place so I don't think it's going to be that big but you could word it in such a way that it's not like we're definitely going to put it on there within a week yeah no or something like that right if you'd like it uh contact us and we'll see what we can do or something yeah yeah so I mean I don't I don't know we did a deep dive on it you did yeah thank you for that yeah so I I don't know I don't know if it's like B said it's probably not a priority for us right now it's certainly not something we want to automate um but it does I I think our town site doesn't have a lot of information information if people want to find out what's going on so that maybe we could fill that gap for now we wanted to try I got a thought here um I kind of like what you did here on on this one email is you listed those places that actually list events right with links yep is that maybe what we should just be putting out yeah that's one of the things I think we might do all we do is list say here are all the sites that have a events here the links just click on here that way we're only adding or maybe modifying them once in a while calls and says hey I have a whole calendar you didn't put me on here we just add their link yeah I agree I think that's a great idea yeah me too it just keeps everything in one place which makes it easy for people so and you don't have to keep it up a great idea yeah yeah so where would we be able to put it do we know I don't know okay I don't know figure that out yeah okay so in the next so thinking about next steps John Temple who was our Intrepid IT director um I believe reports to Tracy BL so my thinking would be to start with Tracy and tell her that this is our idea what does she think because John has is handsful as we all know and which what does Tracy think where does Tracy think it might live on the website and would she be willing to you know ask John to take it on because obviously you know she's her she's his boss does that make sense mhm okay um and he would just literally have to do this like a one time thing and then we could agree we'll send you updates so where where where it could have a prominent place right on the town website right just that would involve another navigation link on the website creating another navigation link com out on the website right well not necessar because there a town calendar which is theal Council meets on a I I don't know I I really that's suggestion it makes sense okay all right so I'll tell you what since I can since if I call grae she'll call me back because she knows me why don't I do that and then um and it I'll let you know how that conversation goes um and uh then then we'll take it from there we'll see what she says I think that's a much lighter lift to ask for right now rather than creating a new tab yeah to just say let's put let's put it I can't remember what it's called but yeah I think it says events I used to go there all the time naively thinking there might actually be events that I could participate in not that it would be a listing of town meetings so I don't think that they would I mean maybe we look at what the language is and see if we want to just change the nomenclature of that tab but um again I don't know we don't necessarily need to take up time now can all look at it and send you a note if we want to okay well the town just and I know I've said this before but the town is very supportive of our efforts it with given limited resources the town wants to support us so I'll make that call I'll let you know what happens okay all right so the next thing on our agenda is the uh Newbery Town days I believe sorry can I just go back one more thing on the calendar if anybody knows of anything that should be listed that I didn't list because I know there were a couple things like the fireman's muster I didn't I didn't do an exhaustive list if you know of any anything that we want to add to the list of email of addresses please let us know too I'll I'll look through one more time I did that just kind of quickly as an example um like a Triton information I didn't really I couldn't find anything but again I don't have kids so I probably wasn't looking in the right places okay uh the the library I believe has an existing link on the town website it's a link from I think I forget but the library there's a lot going on at the library yeah I yes I did see their link on the town website no I went to the library so it's a separate website website but I think that anyway but this is all speculation okay I'll look to okay good yep all right thank you Al really thank you Alan this is a huge amount of work absolutely um uh okay so now we're going to discuss the action plan for uh for Town activities and um I would like to begin this discussion by saying that at our last meeting I said historically newu Town day has been decentralized and I've been thinking about it ever since September 30th and I see no reason why it should be that way in perpetuity because there are us Mary's already agreed to take on one activity and what we could feasibly do I'm just throwing this the floor up it because because when you do it that way it's there's a lot of hurting of cats a lot of meetings a lot of you know a lot of coordination since it's a slim down initiative anyway each of us could feasibly suggestion take charge of one thing you're in charge of Open Studios you work with Heidi on that because she's done it before you're in charge of um I don't know kids activities you're I'm just making sense and that way we're not put it's a completely different structure from what we've we've had before because I and Bart made a very good point when we talked about this last time it certainly shouldn't be two people who are you know at the top of the heat trying to coordinate everything no and and so um so it's and and and it's going to be time permitting in other words if I say if you say I just Robin I new C I really don't have time to take on an Initiative for newb Town Days that's okay um but but they're we're only going to have what if we only had you know five activities because they group together absolutely so what does everybody think about that yes yeah like that okay I I also think that we'll um somebody needs to be overseeing whatever the smaller groups themselves are doing and so even if somebody doesn't have a lot of time to come up with any IDE is if we get somebody like I'm making it up too but you guys hooked me up with the dunk tech tech people then I can at least keep them organized and moving forward and giving us information when we need it even if I don't do anything um or if I want to do something because I've seen great dun tanks and I want to make recommendations to all them we can do that too that works that works for me is everybody agree with that all right then it's going to be grossly simplified this way so then the next conversation of course not tonight but going forward is uh what activity do you does everybody want to have have an interest in it what and then we'll solidify it say may maybe we'll have an an interim meeting before our voting meeting which is a whole different meeting and we say all right now we're going to we're going to agree on the actual activities and events for deg ree Town day so I know I show this to you before we could just kind of do a check off list you know what do we do last time that we want to repeat does anybody have a new idea so there you go M um and I would send it to the website but the website's down because we didn't pay for it because all of this all of this was listed on the obviously all of the stuff was listed on the uh on the website so and this I brought this along just for fun this was the U original flyer for the original thean day in 2022 that was just a figment of our imaginations but those were some of the ideas that that we had that some which came to fruition some of them some of which didn't but that's just open for discussion you we're going to have a chili cook off okay you know who wants to do a chili cook off so um something I think that might be super helpful and it doesn't have to be right the second but um we can pass around or scan or email or take a picture and text or whatever um if there's like a right off the cuff gut check feeling of like this thing sucked this thing was amazing we should do this like I feel like that might simplify it for a lot of us that this seems like an overwhelming list and maybe if it's like people that were involved you kind of already know what was good or bad so yeah I think I think we almost did that in the herd so so there are 12 things on there right are there well these are the locations that's not 12 things oh it's that's what I'm saying that's 12 things and each one has this one has all the way up to J of of activities that happens so what I was thinking was not right now right we go through this and and you say or you you know whoever is just like y amazing amazing suck suck suck suck suck amazing amazing horrible failed so call the list immediately before we even go because then somebody might be like oh you know Open studio that's already done that's checked off or like car show that a Touch a Truck kind of thing like oh that's easy I I like trucks I do that so it's like I think this seems like an overwhelming list and I think we should definitely call it down I agree so my I why are you laughing because he said it's an overwhelming list yeah and I know it probably started five times that length when she knows that right so I'm and I'm not trying to belittle anything not at all no no structurally we do a lot of new blood it actually happen but but no I I totally agree with everything you're saying here's what I think we ought to do I think we ought to have to do that and we'll another that is specifically about this where we've all had time to think about it and we'll go through this list exactly what Ryan just said and figure who's going to do what what's going to happen but then now if you look at my my discuss action plan you will see there are some things that are just logistically necessary at some point we need to kind of clue in the town that we're doing this I also wanted to um I also wanted to make a point to everybody I'm going to try to simplify this um when Newbury Town day what happened was last year somebody a lawyer or someone said hey folks if the town is funding this which the town has for two years it really can't be this like ad hoc committee it needs to be an official Town appointed committee that's doing your tempet you with me not just Robin and Heidi doing it right that's what really happened it's you're not just so it doesn't happen that I'm sorry what so that it doesn't end up no I'm not explaining myself well can I can I clarify what you're saying please I actually it's a question with else a lawyer made that statement but was that an official position because I can argue against that no here's what happen legally when an entity when a town funds something like what we're doing that needs to be open it's about transparency right even even though it really was it really was but it needed to be more official and so need the people need to be just let me finish this I'm going someplace on this so it needs to be an officially appointed committee to run New Town day the good news is that we are an officially that's what I wanted to tell you okay so we are all blessed all right we are official okay the real deal we were the real deal exactly now whether the town the select board wants to open it up and say Newbery Town day is open to all and if you want to be involved with this go for it yes but we are official okay so that's a very important Point okay so but the reason I'm talking about this is because we need to announce our plans for newb Town days to the S cour now we can do that through b channels like I call up I I send a text to wish or she watches this recording but at some point one of us is going to go meet to go to a select board meeting and make a proposal and get on the agenda and make a proposal and then then and very very important we need to get approval to use the upper brain on August 16th because until this stuff is approved we're going to be spending kind money and we want to be TR transparent which of course would have been throughout when this whole thing started way back in 2021 the first thing we did was go to this Blackboard so that everybody knows what we're doing so we need the same thing again and then believe me it'll be everyone will be very happy so that uh we already the determined organizational structure we did that already so the next steps in my mind are to come up with a plan for getting getting this blessed and getting approval to use the ever okay so just and I just want to make another Point here and that is that in the past as you guys know Heidi and I have been the face of Newber Town day it's time to turn the page on that so whoever goes to I'm happy to go to the select board meeting but somebody else in this group needs to be the spokesperson and when we go to town meeting in April somebody else needs to make the presentation not hone in me because it needs to be very clear that newy town day is official and being it really is being run by the by the new cultural Council as opposed to kind of dotted line which it was before because I was the chair of the cultural councel okay does this make sense yeah okay so the next steps are at what point who is available to go who wants to do this who wants to be the face of and we all will be the face of it this I'm talking about the actual spokes person to speak at the select board meeting which is going to be ell did you have the website open it's it's Tuesday nights and it's usually every other week and then of course town meeting is when we is like the official kickoff to the town and then we start all our publicity and stuff that's going to be in April okay I'll do it thank you Ryan I was hoping you would mostly because I just want to stick it to the two people that said not for me joining here so what what what we'll talk about that take that one offline there's you know what whoever wasn't recorded cuz I couldn't even hear what you said I did it'll cost you 20 though so um and it doesn't have to be the next select board meeting because we have to get on the agenda takes a but it should happen it should happen soon and I don't know what's involved it any of you know you might Ryan know what's involved in actually putting in an official request that for for the use of the upper grein oh I I've never done it okay that's that needs to go on the select board agenda it needs to be really all the stuff has to be transparent which is why we're being recorded So I believe that what happens is it goes onto the select board agenda which will probably be the next one or maybe it's the same one I don't know because the first thing that has to happen is oh by the way s board the cultural council is planning to revive new down day and we're doing it in a slightly different well actually very different form and then um as a car that we want to make sure we can use the upper green so it needs to go on the selectboard agenda meeting agenda is there any way to check a calendar with the town to see if there's anything planned for Town green before we go through all your guess is as good as mine I I only a more concise thing to do because that that that's an easier question is just is the town green available and then obviously we request use of it in our official proposal my my best I can't imagine that the town green is is reserved on August August 16 well I know but I doubt it but anyhow no this the greatest this is small town so the shortest distance between two points is just to ask somebody so but um if and if if it's something is it should officially be on the town calendar but you know as people in the who work for the town are very very busy and stuff doesn't always happen right Barton right so Robin um do you have documents uh that you could share with us um that would be like plans that you would put together in the past budgets anything like that fny you should ask no because in preparation for this meeting yeah I looked at all my old files I have reams of information and it's it's it's in my head but if what and I there's nothing really to share with you that would be yeah well the the budget I'm just thinking of the budget in particular because last uh two years ago um you asked for $55,000 No actually that's not what happened no I mean how far back do you want to go because that's actually we didn't ask for anything when you went to town meeting yeah and asked for $5,000 right okay that's not what actually happen but you're right you're right but I need to give you a little history um you know what let's uh let's do this um well let me ask you why I was asking the question um because when we go and we're going to ask for um access to the upper green on this particular date we're going to ask for approval question is do we also say that we would like some funding that this I would actually like to take this offline if it's okay sure okay because there's a lot behind it and there's a lot of history to it that I we I don't that we can talk about that doesn't need to be I'm thinking of things like you know having police you know there there there's cost associated with this and so I just want to make sure we get that done earlier than later absolutely good point and so yeah and so well you know what I I'll tell you the short very short official version what really happened was that I made a presentation to the select board and Mar March of 2021 and at that point the town immediately was behind our plans and um and and told us that they would support us when we went to we didn't ask for it we actually didn't ask for the money the town volunteered the money okay when we went to town meeting which was what you're referring to and asked the town meeting to vote to approve that money that's what you're talking about what I'm what I'm saying to you is we actually never asked for the money the child wanted to support us okay Heidi and I actually went through other other sources we didn't even think that the town would funded it never even occurred to us so we actually got funding elsewhere believe it or not and then and so but this okay so that's why I wanted I wanted to take it offline because it's stuff that happened what the okay I'll tell you later okay that's fine and but the other thing that is drama to this conversation that's being recorded is that you would be amazed at how little the costs actually were MH because it was it was an all volunteer effort most of the costs were uh and police actually we Ved a great deal of money for police detail because we went and sat down with John Loy MH and he gave us a number Patty Fisher volunteers her time so we never even had to make that transfer of funds and potties that P potties website right website rental promotion but printing printing you know this stuff but this did not add add up to to a lot um and uh and there's no reason that it should uh going forward either so we we were well within our budget okay but that I mean I don't it's not that it isn't a good question is that there's a lot of history to it I think it I think his point though is tying it in is the way that we get access to the green thinking of other overhead related things and Necessities I think is great to start early because we'd rather have answers for them then get a list of questions and have to find answers well the other thing is it's a state highway and there are signs on the on rout 1A that say no partner right so we have to we have was a nonissue Spencer Pier little farm right right and so and they might say forget it guys because we're there's too many cars along the upper green I what they do with the fire Buster I don't know but that could happen and we need to be prepared for that in which case then we need to reserve Spencer Pierce little farm again which is another Ro another Ro or someplace else or just bust people from someplace where they can go park oh shoot me down I know oral or they park or they park down uh I would love it on Central because I can just walk that so anyway so but this is why we have to go through the official channels at this point and we also need to let everybody know that the money that's allotted for Town celebrations yeah is going to be tapped because we're going to have you were just talking about bar I would actually not to change the whole plan I would actually put a potential caveat in that we can ask about the green but I think actually think logistically with the Fieldhouse having the bathrooms and all the parking at the Central Street Fields I actually think that is a personally better more favorable spot for us because it's answering some of the questions that we know are going to be asked we're not worried about the state highway parking there's in and out they can have a cop right in the beginning in the middle which they do every time there's an event there we have the Fieldhouse which can be open that everybody complains about never gets used with the bathrooms right there with indoor things in case it rains or whatever it else I think actually personally it's a better space and better use of the space that exists in our town that we have the basketball court right there we could do activities right on the basketball court that's new it's easier to get to you can park there's easily 200 parking spots and it's it's Central relative big it's very it's to the street that would be I I could be wrong but that's a Parks connection that's a Parks question right but that's where Recreation Comm but isn't I I I've never went to it but I heard that that's where it used to be what used to be the Newberry town no that's where the bfield Performing Arts uh that's where the bfield um jeez what is it name Music Festival the Music Festival that's where that used to be held bfield days was right down here yeah bfield days was like a parade and downtown that was right they Clos the street yeah so the music festival used to be there when it was manters and that was before they did the expansion of the Fieldhouse I like that idea I think that's right I think it's much much better and there's actually nice walking areas back there yes plenty of parking plenty of field space they have again the brand new basketball area if depending on any of the activities which obviously we could still p through that list I I would say it makes it more favorable for us because it's a Parks question not a state highway question they are very amenable to working with everybody the cops could park right there I mean I was my dad was involved and I was involved when it was the backfield um the music festival and everything and I think it's just very centrally located easy to park handicap spots already there everything's right on the grass or in the building or in the area right behind it I think I think it would be as big as we want it to be or small because we could have a bunch of activities that just go further out to the grass or it could be everything right tight to the parking lot all the food vendors can park right along the front MH okay here's what I'd like to do since we're now really changing what we the original plan let's all go away and think about it and with a reference to the list as you were saying a few minutes ago R look at the list see what worked does it work does the things that we want to do work at Central speed field or should it work really be down in in old time I don't know the answer I'm just saying that before we just make a decision now about oh let's use uh Central Fields let's think it through with and I I'll send this to you guys yes what's the official name of the venue is it called C it's the Central Street Fields Central Street field it used to be called man Fields but it's been renamed Central Street Central Street Fields where the helicopters or sea planes used to be or something yeah it's legally a helicopter L about and it used to be actually a a Runway was it my neighbor um who passed away was the head of the aviation at the Beverly um airport and he actually had a small plane and would literally take off and land at a and that's what the long driveway that goes to the back section towards those paths and everything which my parents used to walk with our dog um you you legally can land a small plane there but it's technically decommission because they don't do it anymore neat and once the old name manterfield manter m n t e r and the manters were the ones that um lived at the front of Father farm and they actually owned all that whole thing and sold it so they could develop it it's a great it's a great field easy to access right near the school all the parking all the access I like it's nearby let's let's think about it because it really sh it's a big shift from what we originally planned and what what people think about I'm not saying it's a bad idea I'm saying it's a great idea I just want to think about it and I want to pross reference with this list and make sure that the stuff that we're doing isn't really isn't Old Town Centric the one that's true one thing that we can't do yet is that we need somebody who's been involved in Newber Town Bay to go through that and do the quick list of what was successful what was not any feedback refer I know somebody who'll be really to do that but yeah I would I would say before we go through the list we need that com no no no I never meant that I never me that when I meant you can refer to this and see if anything on this list is is location centered yes right or I can but I'm not I'm not the boss of this you know I'm not you know which things were really historical yeah to tell you the truth almost everything did yeah but anyhow but we'll do this in our next meeting because we are getting close to our our witching hour here and I want to make sure that we cover everything and um uh so one of the things that we need to do is figure out so let me ask you this we're going to have separate meeting which will be our official meeting um about new about new town is and um at that point we can lock down on which activities we want to include yeah I'll tell you later and uh so the question I have for all of you is does it make sense to have that meeting first or to think about getting on the board agenda first now I have my opinion about that but I will let opine I think that we just I've only been to select board meetings a few times but um that I've presented I think that it makes sense for us to have our ducks in a row a little bit before we go and ask permission to do we don't know what exactly okay and we want to know where we want to know okay everybody agree with that yeah okay good so but we now we need to now we really need to know now I'm sorry now we know what we need to which is I'm going actually desent a little okay I I think that makes sense and I think that's right however I don't think we're going to know what all our activities are going to be no no no we don't have and I I think it's I I would be more comfortable saying these are some of our general ideas that we're thinking of and um and then you know kind of work on that over time because I'm not sure I'm not sure we know exactly okay I will be a devil's advocate on that first of all when we first presented this to the select board three years ago we didn't know not anything and everybody on the sled board knows what newb Town days is there no going to be no surprise to anybody so I think I'm agreeing with Ellen in that before we go to the select board I think most importantly we need to know where we where we are proposing because field versus talking about and I don't think I don't think that the which activities are we don't have to have that locked down before we talk to the how you presented no no I'm sorry that spoke what I meant was we we we have a general idea about what we want to do which we already have and we alert the select board that this is you know happening but to Ellen's point I think that we not activities I think we need to know where we're proposing that it happen and and I think in general I I will just add to that I I think we want to have a sense of what we think the day looks like yeah we're gonna have six activities not 16 we're gonna um have some crafts with some art stuff we're going to have some music we're going to have some food because otherwise what I having done events my whole life that's right everyone will jump in with their ideas about what this should be and what it should look like or what worst case scenario it will be which is happening another off yeah so so I think as much as we have as much as we can be ready to your point we're not going to nail ourselves down with anything but I think an outline of what the day looks like and why we think it needs to look like that and why it can't be in for settlers Cemetery you know all the stuff because everybody's going to get excited to your point which is wonderful but I think we should just have an outline of what what are we proposing and sooner than later what is there any reason to get to the select board select him board sooner than later no no there isn't okay no so and I think we I think we actually are all agreeing tell you the truth yeah I I do I I yes I think that's right um I I think we go in though with the theme that this is not about entertainment necessarily this is about culture and kind of focus on that but but but I completely agree with you but all I'm really saying is that Newbery Town day is a known entity we're not this is not brand new anymore it's what we're doing is we're doing a re reimagined Newbury Town with xxy and they they've already bought into it okay we're already an official committee I will say it's it's better for us having the model even if it's a changed model The Entity and the idea of it already existing it's not a hard thing to sell because it's not a huge change from the original if anything it's just a distilled simpler easier thing than the original hopefully absolutely so I I do think that it's not like we're trying to reinvent a wheel here and make something new it's just like here's this thing we did you're familiar with it but we're actually doing roughly to your point this is roughly what we're doing doing it's about culture we're going to have to your point several offerings of this and this we're trying to get the ball rolling obviously they always extend things and they're always going to have questions coming back and forth but this is just to get the ball rolling and again I do think it is better with the centraly fields having to just deal with the parks committee yeah okay and but but something else that's important too is we need to tell the select board that we have decided collectively as the official appointed committee that we're changing the organizational structure as well that's key we're not going to put it out there and and U ask for ideas that we are going to exercise more among us even though this is recorded I'll use the word control because ultimately I mean it's not as though we didn't control it we absolutely controlled it but we're exercising more control now because it's going to be much logistically a lot easier for it to pull off and it's a cultural council members that are helping to precisely my point all right so what we need to do now in our few minutes left is is to um agree on a date for a meeting that is specifically about Newbery Town days and then and then once we have it solidified more it's written up and it's ready to be presented then we figure out when we're going to get on the select board agenda and I'm calling Tracy about what you're calling Tracy about um please oh yeah the yeah oh yeah yeah okay thank you on the website all listening is this meeting before our December 2nd because it August will come around of course Ellen is this even doable mus yeah yeah yeah but what what strikes fear in my heart is you know everybody trying to get involved speaking from experience trying to manage that that's what holds speaking from experience I'm it hasn't happened in the past yeah yeah for better for better at Works actually yeah yeah okay so um is Mondays uh pretty good for everybody Barb um um sure um nobody works for you really I hear all right so I'm going to propose even though we just set our date for and keep in mind that this is going to be um our December 2nd meeting is handing the availability of this room okay did we do did we do the projection of this of the um spreadsheet here we did all right um I'm going to propose uh November 25th although that's the um that's the wait a second oh that is the it doesn't matter to me uh it's the week of it's the week Monday will be the 25th Thanksgiving okay so I I'll just throw out here for discussion um we stick with Mondays the 18th yeah the 18th yeah at night yeah yeah same time same station um I don't know I might be booked up but I love to see okay yeah all right so we'll say if if we can all right so we'll say for our gr storming meeting we're going to shoot for November 18 18th all right and then I need to I will take responsibility for checking with Heidi and that she actually Heidi really really does need to be involved as my partner in crime on new right so if she's not available yeah we'll have to we'll have to switch it up all right we're going to shoot for the 18th of November yes and are you checking with the town on availability of the room for both of those meetings yes okay uh I think we can adjourn the meeting unless anybody has any other business to discuss right on the nose wonderful awesome MH