##VIDEO ID:HtdeGZPpr8o## all right so today is January 21 1st uh 2025 and this is the open space committee um calling the meeting uh to order um so we have a agenda um the first item is citizen inqueries there is none and so the next would be to review the meeting minutes that Mike did a excellent job typing up that was a lot a lot of material this time and you got it out quick trying yeah trying doing a great job yeah I wanted to add my compliments because I thought you know given what happened and uh Etc that you really did a great job uh of not getting lost in the weeds which was yeah I tried to you know keep it as concise as I could and yeah get the high points right and I think we're actually sort of kind to to the whole of that beginning discussion because it it was a little ragged in a number of ways you know anyway but it was a great job because I didn't Envy you having to do it yeah thank you Mike great job I didn't see any needed edits myself I didn't did a good job right so I propose that we accept the minutes as submitted we second it there and everybody's in favor including mik I am okay flying through this one so yeah yeah next is uh the open space Recreation Plan update to review the previous plan and set action items so yeah so this I just we just kind of put on there as a general item to welcome s Woodward um who's going to be helping the committee and the town out with the open space r Plan update started today um we've had a little bit of a the transition period we're all upstairs now all our offices are down the hall and technology is still there's still some glitches but we're getting there um so we have a workstation for interns and Martha when she's working on zoning you know special projects um and any other future sort of parttime or temporary staff so it's really nice to have a little more space and great to have you here so what's going on downstairs they hbac means they have no heat or something there's been no heat downstairs yeah oh okay I I just you know saw the thing on the website uh and I guess today it isn't operating either I think that they got the part and it's working again but they wanted to have it run a day before moving everybody back right smart so it's been c yeah yeah so um anyway we've had issues with the eating at our house as well so glad that'll all be set up again but yeah in general it's great we have um Daniel has an assistant planner has an office I have an office I have a meeting table in the office um we have some other meeting rooms up here so it's and all of land use is up here or health and building conservation zoning planning Town Administrator um it's a lot so has been a s General reset from what was in the past to what I'm trying to figure out why this is or is it just that you you cuz you were downstairs right all those offices I just named moved up here oh okay yeah yeah to be to have more space and better setup space basically okay just one yeah um so anyway it's been a busy week but um things are good and just super excited to have stie I think her sort of regular day in the office will be Tuesdays we think might be flexible and then some time left over to do site visits or get outside for meetings with mvpc or other meetings um as needed so so I kind of like we've started done the basic overview but I haven't really haven't really dived into like all right here we go so hoping we can just get you know consensus and input tonight on sort of helping s she sort of like get in the lay of the land and I'll you know I'll let you sort of talk about you know your thoughts so far but um just kind of looking at the workbook and all the work that's been done before and just go yeah so yeah yeah yeah um I was looking at some of the old meeting um minutes and it seemed like he do had talked about everyone's responsibilities a long time ago is that still does that still hold what was talked about a while ago in my mind it does we basically started it was it was ways back and we all kind of carved it up um the old plan and volunteer to do sections um so that was actually going to be one of my right off the bat sections is go back and I I was looking for the minutes and I need to really make one foldo for all our minutes CU they're getting a little bit scattered but maybe in the minutes we said who was going to do what look back and check that yeah CU I think we found that right I yeah I was able to find one instance where people were kind of like I'll do this I'll do this um I think it said that Mike would do to section five um which is um the inventory inventory of lens of conservation and recreational interest and then um David had already started working on a survey draft right right which yeah um and then Bill and Christina would do four which is the Environmental inventory and Analysis does that all sound yeah like where we left off yep okay I know that for us any right I went back to my four for us which one was David's try to incorporate that the public survey which is doesn't really have a doesn't but it's just that's right and then I think J heads her for section three which I forget what that it's the community setting section okay is that like just descriptive I think so um Regional context history which I was talking to about like population characteristics growth and development patterns got it yeah and then like the sports and recreation section as well okay I know last meeting was uh a little chaotic coming out of the the big public discussion and whatnot but I I know I mentioned that you know between uh the recent master plan um the um Hazard mitigation thank you the hazard mitigation plan the housing plan all that stuff you know that section especially there might be a lot of info already that can just be plucked you know and and U maybe even in some of the other just you know um sections as well too so it' be good to see what we can kind of pull yeah and I've been working today on um I was just started on section three of looking at what could just be like the history of the community isn't really changed in 20 years so I just was starting to look at what could just be plucked from the old plan um but you you were saying the um the master plan yeah cuz that's pretty recent too yeah yeah so that should have a lot of that updated like yeah maybe growth and development patterns prob yeah demographic stuff probably going to find in that yeah so we don't have to go and and re discover that information so to speak sense so in terms of the like the sections that are sort of just a lot of text that need updating I don't know if you guys like maybe say you could reach out individually with each of you or we could talk a little about the best way to move forward on that you know like I gave her the word document of the old plan so we can just chunk out section four and then just have a document that gets you know shared or worked on if we did Google Docs I think it's I think I'm not going to suggest we go towards Google Docs although that would make things a lot easier but I think it might be better if like each of you kind of like work one onone with s her email is going to be planning. intern at Town of Newbury so it's a town email and so just working back and forth in terms of like just edits you know like that seems like low hanging fruit so that's a good place to start to kind of get um get some action um you have access to you have our email addresses from being in the oh I can make sure yeah oh right yeah and some of the um the agenda emails and stuff well she just got her email today so I make sure she like s here in the town do you use a Microsoft platform or Google platform or Microsoft and so but like a SharePoint document you think it'd be easier just to go word um we don't have a SharePoint or anything we don't have shared documents yeah except for everyone accessing the folders internally but um yeah so then it's it's really going to be up to see just Fe back and for us yeah so I mean we'll send you at us we'll we'll let you maintain a master document that sounds good and then in terms of sections so I was thinking if everybody has their sections and as you're starting to go through there's questions like we're supposed to be the experts although yeah you know more or less that may be true but I mean then you will have you'll know what SE and you'll have a list of who to go to and then we can either work separately and then I guess then get together and I'm I'm more available I don't have to only work Tuesdays too so it's like you were working I don't know are you only going to work on this on Tuesdays or um well Tuesday is my definite plan right now but I'm going to work here and there other days for during the week so I'm SCH okay so we could work on our section and send you some edits and you can start putting them in sounds good yeah do you want just to like clear next steps but do you want s to like start like make a a file that's like section three section four 2025 and then work on it and then send it to you or do you guys have anything that you've already started well we have edits for sure way back when we started this I know you spent some time yeah we crank through it um but there I mean there's a lot of just like circle like is it still true like it's so it's going to take work on our part to go back and really update these I'm fine at taking like a first crack at it on our section and then giving that to you and you can review it um or we all can review it maybe yeah and then go that way um so she could get you the word dock with all that text in it and you can just Redline it yep yeah yeah we're going to go in we'll do track changes and uh probably go that way sounds good yeah that would be great and then also in the meantime there's plenty in here that um you could start going through there's like cables and stuff that could be updated yeah um and the other big thing is um right working with marac Valley cuz when we were we wrote the scope of work I think we called out some things that they might be useful that'd be a great resource for yeah so where does that stand in terms of our use or not of mvpc at this point um so I saw Adrian lenon at a meeting last week and said we're getting going like we're ready to you know connect with you again so I there isn't there haven't been any other meetings because we've been waiting for sa to start so I think it would be helpful tonight to you know updating the con the text that we have is like one bucket but I feel like the other buckets are maps that's big and then um the public input right the public survey because we know that's a process that the state pays a fair amount of attention to so that's what we need to get our heads around the first steps in terms of what the public Outreach process is going to be does the survey need to be done before we really start doing a lot of writing because is that the survey intent to help inform form I see like so yeah well okay that was a question I had because I was looking at um I think this was I'm trying to figure out what document this is actually I can't remember whether this is something that we got yeah did we get this from them as a sample of what they' sent to Georgetown does this ring a bell well we submitted a timeline with our application y this is I don't know which one you have in your hands but I think he's looking at it says yeah it's mvpc anticipates working on the DC whatever it is s recommended timeline for this plan update I think I think it's in here though I think it's from the workbook yeah is this from the workbook or is this from nvpc mvpc took it from the workbook oh that explains it um um it's just the process of the the the actual um I don't know if I've seen I have a feeling that's document actually that came from mvpc it's the same what I'm saying is it's in the workbook and they used it okay all right so if I can back thank you okay uh what puzzles me about this is it's just I you you might as well learn right out of the box I have a very low opinion of the workbook and how it's put together and and we point out once again that they have not revised it in the last decade and it's much like it was if they have frankly not much to it and it actually is 1990s okay and even actually before that because a lot of it was cried from the Metropolitan from mapsi okay because they had done this stuff earlier so okay what puzzles me is that if you look that Down Under the analyzing the data okay they show the public survey being conducted in August which is 8 months after the process began and I I I you know I mean that doesn't make any sense to me because a great deal of what you're looking at in terms of analysis in terms of need developing analysis of needs doesn't have to have all of the correct data inputs first particularly where you are essentially revising an existing plan because communities like ours don't change that much in the course of even a decade and actually in our case probably in the course of two or three uh so I do think there's some public input stuff right in starting in January though develop the public participation program schedule events publicize the project early and often so they are identifying that right there's some component of public participation that starts right at the get-go but then that's survey is but that's yeah I say public participation is one thing survey is something to my head anyway something very different yeah or potentially very different put it that way um and so both of those things sort of tie together but they're so separated plus right not saying we're using this necessarily as a template I I I really wouldn't um in in in many ways but I guess where are my thoughts is going is that we need in fact fairly quickly to get something together ready to go and a way to do it and do it because otherwise the direction in which we go the kinds of data that we find is really gerain to the issues it's like going out and you know holding your hands out and hoping the bra will hit them kind of thing in the sense that you have all this data and and where should you be focused in the data and I think the survey in many ways serves as the in a sense the template for for the kind of data that now we need to scrutinize and in many cases we may find that it's much the same but also I think the other thing which has struck me um I had gone through the uh oh boy okay the sections in the the one that was done in 2010 okay and there are section 78 which is the analysis of needs um and what comes up goals objectives okay the goals and objectives and then in the actual um action plan okay okay and if you go through that one of the things that stands out is okay given knowing what's happened in the community in the last decade or so which those of us who live there do okay um one of the things you find out is what stuff is really gerain to Newbery whereas a lot of the other stuff really isn't okay if that makes any sense yeah um and I've pulled out a bunch of things which clearly we planned to do and we either didn't do in fact most of them we didn't do um or some something else happened and Etc in other words I reviewed that on the basis of in 201 what what were the goals and one of the a number of things stand out and I I know um this will sound like a squeaky door to to Christine but one of the things that stands out is there are a number of uh I shouldn't say Community groups government groups okay meaning the Conservation Commission the select board Etc who were designated in that plan as being active players if not initiators and so many of those items didn't happen partly because those groups didn't get involved in the plan in fact some of them probably don't even know what they're supposed to be doing in relation to the plan um so to me where this goes is if we look at what kind of data we expect to be looking to get through a survey and then we look at what happened it's more than 10 years ago now is almost 15 years ago in fact the survey I think was actually done did I see a date on something in 1999 for God's sake some of well some of the survey numbers they quoted yeah yeah so those are I think are the kind of um what shall I call them uh well they they're the items which will change over time as you get to learn more about what the community thought about itself 15 years ago and as we get the data what the community thinks about itself or doesn't as the case may be because that's another thing is to find out you know that there weren't that many responses um and in fact the and I could say this because I embarrassingly remembered here that I chair at the last meeting where they had this um post plan what was it essentially it was the the plan was presented and we had a public meeting and then we went through and I got stuck with the job of cheering that meeting and it's all in some minutes somewhere it makes my fles crawl but anyway they call them listening sessions yes something something like that yeah yeah I don't know who was listening to who yeah right anyway um but I guess what I'm concerned about is that we understand that some of these things are very Dynamic and will probably change your focus a little bit as things evolve right and other stuff it really hasn't I mean you know it had not that much has changed the major change I think is thing that's continues to trouble me and I don't know how we tackle this and that is we now have a recreation area that didn't exist in 2010 essental it didn't existed as a place but there was nothing there the man field it happened in terms of acquiring it but not in terms of of putting stuff there um and so that's one thing that has spoed a much more active and responsible Recreation committee that has a very considerable budget when you think about it which is totally independent of the Town budget in other words they generate their own funds we it doesn't come out of the taxes um however the fields right they've been blessed right with um covid money right with the playground for the kids this quarter of a million top lot all I can say is you know we better have a bunch of bright tots after all that kind of money anyway um they I don't know what what's your impression of of well that issue I would just um uh mention that I ran into David Ro who's either chair or co-chair of the W committee um a week and a half ago and just mentioned to him and I think he might have missed the meeting that you attended with them yeah he wasn't there yeah so but he knew about it and had you know heard whatever knew that this was in Works updating the plan but I was letting him know that we were hiring some assistance and going to move forward and so he's very receptive to like just making sure the rec committee stays involved however that makes sense um they are busy with a lot of just sort of ongoing activities and work but I think they're you know very interested in getting the plan updated because it does enable the town to be eligible for Grants and you know just in general provides more Direction um for some of their bigger projects moving forward but they've been very focused on that one property and I think you know they're interested in partnering with the open space committee to just make sure the action items that are set forward cover Recreation and you know open space activities so we just kind of touch base about things they meet monthly they might even I think they're meeting tomorrow possibly um so yeah all your points are good David I think that is there's static things and then there's this sort of evolution and creation of what's really we should be focusing on which is the action plan um based on community input I think one thing back to your other question about how may ma Valley plan commission is involved I do think we should try to get a meeting with Adrien set up soon who's the director of the environmental program because she has done this work with a lot of towns and so just to like get her guidance on the the public Outreach in particular and then the maps like those are the two areas of work that I see marac Valley planning being most um critical and helpful um so you set up that meeting um I don't know if we we can attend too but I wouldn't mind be involved because I really don't know a lot about just um we had CC K come give was a a talk a presentation right so um so if if it helps even yeah be part of that okay car some time out in my week I I'm sure we could invite her to come to a meeting here um that would probably take longer to right that'll be at least a month we could try it for earlier um so let me yeah thank you I think it would definitely be helpful and I'm sure it would be helpful for S and me to have just to have us there not have to like report back up well yeah practically speaking okay discuss we have just finished a master plan right yeah the major data in the master plan in terms of you know all the number stuff came from M I can't say came from mvpc most of it right yeah yeah okay so isn't it doesn't it make sense since they are familiar with Master plans open space plans Newbury to think about saying to them given now and not necessarily just her but like I think um you know the data the data crunching people given what they know most of the data probably that is currently necessary for an open space plan mhm okay is in in almost in the right form in their files for it just to drop right into the plan and also in all probability they know where there has been any kind of significant change right yeah I mean they didn't help the town with the last open space plan so they don't they don't have some format to just up put updates no but wait wait wait where did the consultant get all the data from she didn't for the maps but she also got it from them from their records I just wasn't sure which data you were talking about well all all the stuff that's about Community profiles and all those kinds of things which is made up of data which they have they have to have yeah all the demographics and all yeah right yeah and we're we have a final housing production plan that we're about to approve tomorrow night so right yeah so all in different pieces like we've said it's Hazard mitigation open space yeah so what I'm suggesting is that one of the ways of so that you're not ending up waiting through lots of data to find out whether it's changed much since those questions are essentially very easy to answer because essentially the data that is was in the master plan of yesterday meaning last year um will be the data you're going to use yeah I think that that's consistent right like these plans that we've just finished we can just grab the stuff and put it in right from there right okay um it's all pretty much 2023 data which is the most recent like 2024 they haven't um you know it hasn't all been aggregated yet so I think that is fine to use that data that we have for the recent plans right so that data is probably in a form that if you need to to what I'm trying to get at is if you need to get their records and their information not out of our master plan but from their files what I see is she needs a relationship with them MH okay so that yeah they don't get me wrong but they get to recognize your Bona feed days and also at the same time you know who to talk to yeah right doesn't that mean I'm not yeah no that's why we're going to set up a meeting with ad yeah yeah yeah yeah to kick that off but it may be Adrien plus yeah yeah right yep Steve is their GIS person he knows this is coming and we'll make sure that yeah yeah absolutely I agree with you um yeah but I think if I'm following you a little bit there's some stuff that we should not have to pay for because we already paid for it correct yeah right should be able essentially to if not download it simply send a request please send files that and that shouldn't we're not looking at Big you're absolutely right give me a single PDF of the water resource map that you've already done for us my experience with them right and and you should know that I was the commissioner for 10 years so MPC is sort of a world I I'm very familiar with though the staff have all lost about 20 years of Peace time but that that's great they're really neat group of people and that's they're not interested most of the time in in or nitpicking about time and hours and so on what they like to do is to sort of which I think you want to meet with them for is to sort of say well we see you got this and we could do that you know to have and then there's not somebody there with a stopwatch no no yeah they'll be very supportive yeah I think this the sooner the better because I think it'll give you a really good idea of where they can help you and and and provide stuff that that you know you may need some questions and with yeah um I was I mentioned I was trying to find documents that the committee you all have worked on over the last year so um one thing is we had talked about different um partner organizations that are around and like a lot of us either currently work or used to work or are very important volunteer for Etc so um so we' sort of started some initial Outreach but just to kind of say that you know for your s sa which is there are tons of partner organizations that support open space efforts in Newbery and almost all of them we have some kind of personal connection to so that'll be good as you know as we move forward just to be like you know if we need to understand something about Fisheries you know we can make those connections um with people but I don't know if any of you have had conversations with any of the partner organizations maybe just feel free to like start sending we had sort of um these guys had set up questions for just starting to engage the stakeholders and have some conversations so I can't remember if I gave you this one or not I'm not sure I did yeah so um so that's another piece of like who the players are about pulling all those together right so that um I I think that that fall kind of under develop public participation program that's schedule events but I mean that's kind of the concept because it's not a survey so to speak but it's engaging in the public yeah in organization so we get make them aware of what we're doing but also get their input so those questions are I've used them and um they're great but it you don't have to follow those either so yeah yeah I think um May I think it's valuable and we should probably continue to do that and maybe we we did set some tenative deadlines to have them done by but those behind us so maybe we get more serious about it now that we're getting because I think before we were like well maybe we'll get MPC to write this thing for us and now we're like well it's in back in our laps so now we got to probably get a little bit more active and take that more seriously so we can set that as a and I think a lot of the um the stuff the state does ask you is to like document your process very clearly and thoroughly so that's something I think we should you know this is a great tool and we're doing it and we'll tell them all the good ways we're doing it so that'll be part of what you're saying like the the program the outreach program or participation program I do um I don't know if it's tonight but it is helpful I think to kind of think through this time frame and we sort of you know at least setting forth the schedule for six months are there places that we know about or can think about where we want to go to get public awareness and engagement like as was I mean there's town meeting but that's not really I was trying to think of like when are we going to have like is there an Earth Day event or you know Byfield days well that didn't happen last summer what are the places like someday I don't know I couldn't it's sort of a downtime January not a lot of community events going on that I could think of but I'm just kind of posing that as if there are I mean when people need signatures because they're running for election they go to the dump on a Saturday morning so you know maybe that's a place they used to I think they're not permitted to anymore are they oh oh I think they were there think they were there there last we went through a period where it was no no and now it's yes yes maybe but used to be much more informal when we were piling up our big pile yeah I don't know well okay I mean come on this is this is PR this is um all you have to do is look at um what they do well green does okay events what trustees do what what any organization that wants to okay this is now what this this Wonder engagement that's that's the wonderful world right uh of Engagement well you know we can either choose to do that in a very active way or we can choose to uh piggyback on stuff that happens EX except I think both is often the best yeah but except frankly not much stuff happens in that's couldn't really think anything at least coming up in the short term yeah I mean um it's we're we're very much a sort of summer beach kind of place yeah in in a way yeah uh we have you whenever they all new days when are they I can't remember June July something one year June year was August but yeah no in fact that's why okay sorry to do this guys but that's why I would like to see somebody here regularly from the recreation committee because they are the connection point that exists think about it think about it easy for the public you mean yes connection to the public now admittedly a lot of the people who end up with their feet on man field are not from Newbury correct okay but a lot of them are and the committee is okay so that's one of the you know that's the ongoing activity plus that's the place where people go to shoot hoops or whatever they do play tennis or something yeah right so for this public interaction or engagement then are we envisioning like standing next to a poster with a QR code saying and because it's it's going to be quick right people going to come in and be like we're the open space committee this is what we're trying to do this is why open space is important please click here and take the survey is that like what we're trying to accomplish I mean certainly for the survey that's yeah that seems like it would be the best approach yeah cuz I mean we could go out and stand at the dump or I'm thinking tender crop or The Butchery or and just ask people when they walk by hey are you do you like open your face or whatever you like go hi try to engage people everyone's got their phone right there so that's a really good yeah well it seems to me you can do both yeah um you you know that's that's a bit like the the veterans outside the supermarket isn't it and I think that's an unfortunate image in a way I don't mean the veterans but um uh but I know what you're was saying yeah okay I would I don't know I mean I would think yeah I don't know yeah my my head isn't I part of the problem for me sorry just take up time but part of the problem for me is my whole approach to this I have realized is totally different my approach to this is based on essentially finding out how to achieve a good open space activity in this town based on a reasonably comprehensive and active plan and we have never done that we have just chewed our way through this monstrosity and nothing has happened of any significance with the exception of the recreation area but in all the other areas we've done nothing but why is it because the members of the open space committee haven't taken action once the plan was in place or the people that are supposed to use it haven't referenced it like why can't if we get I'm thinking I mean I understand like we want a good plan so if if someone says oh we need to do this in the town we can say well people in the town might want a different land here it is in the plan or um um well it's because uh how long do you have no in part in part in my estimation you know okay Mike you should jump in here because you've been involved in this a long time but okay many many other towns have conservation commissions who are involved in conservation our Conservation Commission is largely involved in licensing stuff on Wetlands or not as the case may be and they have never shown any really positive active interest in in open space and conservation and and that sort of area and part of it is because this town crawls with those kind of organizations the trustees the green belt um you know you name it we' we've got more than most towns have and so a lot of people don't feel that there's any I think I I why new opinion and so hasn't been involved in the Conservation Commission the recreation committee has had a handsful running programs for people and therefore hasn't reached out very much beyond that I can understand that the select board has shown absolutely zero leadership in this regard um Etc that's why okay and the one thing that would help to underpin this okay by creating money which is what is kind of the dirty word here is every time you mention the CPA okay everybody kind of pretend they didn't hear it or looks the other way because some how there is this this this what this confirmed belief along among people who know that Newbury won't go for that well it would strike me that the recent vote on the MBTA necessary zoning has maybe raised the question as maybe Newbury would go for that because it's because it's a broad tool do you know much about CPA we can move talk more about it's a um it's a funding program that towns opt into by voting and there's funding that comes from the state to support um three things conservation open space um housing and historic preservation projects so the town there's like a whole process between how that money comes in and then what the town can do with it but basically is a revenue stream for projects but it's a Reven taxes yeah importantly it's a revenue stream the town chooses how strong it is and there are some towns where the C it's essentially an override I mean an overcharge as it were on your taxes and there are some towns that started off with half a percent because you could actually do that there were other towns a couple I can think of who started off with four or 5% and panicked after 2 years because they got a very negative feedback from a lot of people but at the same time ended up with a quite a lot of money and not a whole much of a plan as to what they were going to do with it and so they lost ground because people were able to point out well now you have all this money but you know if I was doing this one of the things that aggravated me is this town has been happily setting aside considerable some millions of dollar a million dollar bu basically a year into a fund for Capital purposes okay and we haven't been able to agree on building a new town hall and so we keep putting the money aside and we keep doing zero with it you know so we're making a Levy of a different kind to to do something that twice the town meeting and and twice the town meeting has once accepted it once no didn't want to do it and each time they went to the ballot it got thrown out by a very substantial margin so okay that's why I think nothing has happened is is because essentially I think that people haven't gotten engage because they are quite unaware of what opportunities exist and what the town could be doing and I think the way you do that is you have to run up fairly big flag up a fairly big Pole or engagement may be geared more towards you know the other organizations that are already operating ating in town that might be garnering more of the Public's interest than thinking of it from a town SL resident perspective you know like you volunteer with the trustees or something like that right you're already doing a lot of active you know open space work in that realm you know you're not you're not thinking about like how can not you personally but you're not thinking about how you know how can I do that from a more resident town-owned property perspective of things you know like you said we're a little bit BL and uh with with the amount of you know open space that we have through multiple organizations working in town you know it might hinder us from the open space committee's stance you know cuz you're not starving for that you know what I mean like the town's not starving for the open space like some towns were or are you know no you're right that you know that might have worked against us a little bit you know we got we got a very unfortunate letter after we did this plan update from then committees and boards that frankly told us that we they felt we had enough in town and didn't see the point in supporting our plan or you know the goals and recommendations in it you know so I mean that you know was a little bit of a knife to the chest kind of thing you know you do all this work and it's like well from a town board uh yeah yeah I got it in my email somewhere here I found it I was like oh this it still in there um you know so there's been a lot of things that have affected CPA former Town attitudes don't know if that's still the attitude today like you said you know people passed the U zoning right zoning thing so maybe attitudes have shifted a bit um St but anyway that's you know to me that's that's the essentially you know that would be my sort of determining principle in in looking at this that it has to come I I quite honestly don't give a damn about any of that because most of it okay most of the data stuff is is isn't changing the nature of what we are able to do or not to do and it until perhaps that is you know every time well the very fact you got that kind of we response yeah we all got that letter yeah I mean just just un unbelievable um and so that's you know that's it's a major area I think however not to make this you know a fruitless task cuz I don't think it is but I I just think that um Kristen says so so how do we get visibility how do we get people to plug in well I think we we need to think about doing things that are perhaps Invitational becoming something that offers programs yeah like something like the like the cwell trail you know like yeah obviously timing wasn't going to work for where we were at as the committee and and when the town wanted to do it but you know that type of thing could have been an opportunity for us to engage the public to go and build that trail you know with us you know like the planning board members of the committee took the initial steps up yeah you know have it prepped and ready right and then you know that could have been a a community engagement kind of project I think it still can yeah because sure yeah I mean that's that's I was actually thinking there are three trails in the last like over the last bunch of months then going forward there's um C Farm trail which is begun to be built but doesn't have signage yet we haven't sort of formally opened it yet um and then the um Field Stone right off of pman Road why I always forget the name fields way is that what that's called fi it's Fieldstone Way Fieldstone Fieldstone wood is the prop Woods the property okay so there's a new trail that was that project was a part of a planing board subdivision um as well and then um Seagate which is across from um tender crop the condos the cateo where is that it's um cuz you were I don't say you but I think there was a little bit of going on with the well they're finalizing the the conservation restriction and the um uh Baseline documentation but they built the boardwalks they built the trail they I think have established the parking area I don't I don't know where it is now they're not closed the project isn't completed yet but it's pretty close to being open and available but we haven't had like well now we should be celebrating all this and having like a big party three parts of town that's pretty Co yeah right so is new conservation person I can't remember whether he's a Dan or yours is a Dan there is a Mason Mason Y is he involved in that um yep yep he has I mean in the yeah okay yep Karm and seate yeah the other one happened before him it's interesting is that that it's come out of a a a building a development project yeah well I guess that's part of newberry's story now I mean with you know the lack of a direct funding source it's you know it's still a way of right you know protecting spaces yeah through the planning yeah exact the process and it's also a quit Pro qu kind of thing and that everybody gets a little more if they are willing to give up a little more L you know other words they get an extra unit process yeah it's okay yeah okay so well maybe maybe this spring we do I going to say maybe that's maybe it's Earth Day people yeah right that would be fun right yes yeah work with our partners maybe we've got it right there kick off yeah right go yeah that be right it might before everything grows up and is covered with poison I that's need to everything up yeah but that's that's part of the process too it is isn't it I mean is is to say to people get outside like even when you have to protect you don't have to be frightened because if you understand what you do and tuck your pants into your socks and yeah I mean all that right in fact I mean the whole and we could all in a redo of Great Meadow y because Great Meadow is totally you know I should get you over there and we should March around that because there are some real I haven't been in there in a long time possibil there just Min things sure that would make it a much more interesting area okay so yeah see we got there right you we did we did a we did a thing at work uh you know we we we called it the green Bel goetter Challenge and basically it was like how many how many properties and trails can you get to and and hike and you kind of submitted your thing and and can't remember if it was more of just like a a pride prize type thing or if we actually like gave some swag to whoever the top you whoever completed all the properties or something like that but you know from a town owned side we're not obviously we're not don't have that kind of inventory but it could be you know stretched across other organizations as well and spaces in town that you know have you you know can you get to these 10 places in in Newbury and you know whatever it is type of thing yeah I mean the some of the state and federal stuff have perfectly good pedestrian kinds and yeah you could build we got a lot of response to it you know like it was just something they came up with one day it was like oh let's see if you know people want to go charge around the county and you know check these check off these places you know so one of the other things I thought about um okay um our young lady who's up there in Toronto now or she is um she did some stuff with the photos on the website right um why not do I don't know Green Belt does but trustees certainly do is open of the website photo to people submitting photos yeah again because that that that's a kids love well in fact families love that kind of thing because it doesn't just have to be um you know what shall I say poetic shots of of the marshes or whatever but it can be shots of people outside doing you know things which they enjoy doing as because that's just as much the open space area as anything else I think yeah great you're trying to change my M do yeah yeah let's make I mean let's make it ours you know the because then that feeds into what Bill asked the question about and that is if You' got that sort of thing going on rather than it being the veteran with the table outside of the supermarket it now makes much more sense to people who come to to baptize a trail as it were to ask them well what do you think about and and if it's we could do a very brief kind of thing you know uh not not a survey survey but but you know three key questions or whatever you know how did you find out about it why did you come today and what do you think and can we have your name and email please right right yeah yeah you know could be fun you could get to do this on weekends no yeah I mean well no but the other thing is I have no idea whether you have an interest in this but there is an active side doing this which I I think you know presents itself as an opportunity for you if you're interested yeah um which uh you know is also a great learning kind of experience too frankly yeah yeah we starting I'm aware I'm talking too much and it's 810 already I think I think the weight of the plan also you know hinders the aspirations a bit you know we want to go do all that stuff but I feel like we also feel like we got to get this off of our our plates to you know what I mean like it's right that's how I feel yeah totally you know right I just want to get this thing out of the way otherwise we should just be like the friends of like newy open space or something like that you know right type of right you know what I mean like and just be like oh we're not we're not going this direction and looking for this that right or just an active based group or something you know yeah I went through this because we drew up a management plan for Oldtown Hill three years ago uh with the trustee staff with some key players including Mary Rimer for example as a as a resident rather than cuz she wasn't I think on the Conservation Commission at that point but okay she was no trying to think David David her husband was working for you guys so actually the the tie wasn't there anyway and that took I think three meetings who we met of all places at the orom place because it was a sort of neutral territory in a public place we could meet and we committed to the fact that once it was done that was it in the sense that we weren't going to go through a sort of laborious thing of trying to figure out whether we were right or wrong in five years what we were going to do is do what we planned now unfortunately of course life changed as all does and the administration changed and their priorities changed but at the same time that that plan is there as the same kind of base level in terms of what you need to plan for and they've never done that before and that's what this kind of stuff is I think yeah yeah you want open space there's open space went away yeah I got it where is that that's amazing that's pretty where is that that is the Lake District in England yes that's far with uh I think one of my nieces or nephews and niece standing there yes about to plunge off a crab I think were you taking the picture I hope uh no sadly not no no I haven't been there many moons but part the world I know very well so we had a discussion should we make some action items for next meeting um maybe come up with a a little bit of strategy to help stie move forward with what she wants to do yeah did you you wanted to send your edits that you made you can start going over text I'd be happy to do that for us um and then to clarify were you going to send us the sections individually I can if that would be most yeah yeah if you said yeah if you want to email us okay I'm just for her in formatting and stuff like that too like yeah if she's just given us the original to uh red line and and comment on you know at least that way we're not giving her something in different fonts and different this and different that you know sure okay section we'll work off of that um I think uh what I would find really helpful to if you could would be to block account who's doing what essentially you know like a little walk diagram that here are you and and his us and the task so that I can know to some degree who's who's doing what um so that if we find something that really belongs in terms of information with someone else or someone else's thing we can share it both with you and with with my bill orever yeah okay that sounds good yeah I was thinking the same thing a table but a flowchart however you know however your mind works it's fine then that's exactly what I was thinking as long as we have like you can go back and I do like you know oh Mike's working on this section here yeah right yeah but I was just thinking too because then we can see how those play out as time goes by and then you know and where they come together and my that's how it works graic anyway whatever works for you to play with and yeah send it to us and see what we think and we can you know but I I I think it will be helpful that sounds good I'll do that yeah and then um meeting with mayor M Val um yeah we'll work I'll work on that okay and say um if we could we uh I don't have the list of what organizations we said we were going to interview um yeah I saw I have that one yeah yeah I if you can share should we try to I can also share that we can work on these right like we still think at this point in time this is still an appropriate process I think I do yeah I was I mean I started it and I was planning to um you want to check them out email us also yeah open space so and then we did start a Google form for entering if we did answer if we asked those questions oh yeah there was a Google form for filling it in that I tested out and then Jim C way he not quite done yet I don't know where that stands so I don't know if we want to continue to use that um it worked for me but people like to kind of go well there is a I think there's a comment section where you can add more text so at least it would create a table Perce and everything's right there and then you can pull from that I think I would probably be great to keep using that because it is it does document it right in a way that we can make sure we grab for just for what we submit then would that go like in the dependencies um or would we just incorporate that as text into our section I don't no yeah cuz it's we want to document maybe yeah okay well we it's a good start and it's going to be in a really easy format to draw from so Jim started that yeah Ellie did okay so we can I can connect with Jim and Ella and Luke s in and then once we get a link to that Google Farm we can share it you guys so this is a Google form for it's for these questions oh okay so when you're when any one of us is like you know talking to the person at the Conservation Commission or At the trustees and you're going through these questions you can input your answer and so then it just feeds it all into one big document so we're not like transcribing our own notes for some else I think emailed us a link to it yeah CU I used it okay yeah I got here um great November 17th okay great from J to CCS um that's pretty good that's I think that's pile yeah I mean January's and February's month to do it right yeah this so um usually there a meeting the third Tuesday right yeah that's we have some travel coming on so I think that is the day after President's Day so that might be school vacation week the 18th of February I don't know when school vacation week is yeah it's the President's Day week week yeah all right so Christina way the 11th to the 19th so that that's again the day after holiday cuz President's day is the 17th all right can people want to either we can do it before those two two Tuesdays I might not be here on the 4th or you guys can meet on 18 just be so well I mean we could we could just pen in that third Tuesday to keep it there I mean there's a lot of kind of individual work on the agenda too so I mean if you know a physical meeting doesn't necessarily make sense yeah I think you know what I'm trying to say there you know like just just not I mean not have all of it done by 18 no it's possible consum it but yeah but if you're on vacation yeah yeah be yeah a something so maybe the we just go the 25th we'll zoom in wherever you are 25th yeah I think I mean unfortunately we should still try to recruit some more members so you're not as tied to but you do still need three three members to be a quum to hold a meeting to two people can meet but what happened to Jim um not an official member yet right yeah yeah did I mean I it's puzzling to me why he comes but won't sign up yeah but U maybe I should just call him up and have on lock his arm up his back side I don't know anyway um what about the two guys who turned up out of the blue yeah last week last meeting yes one was named Bill Sergeant he used to be in West newy he was on their open space committee I think I remember him saying that I don't remember the other gentleman's name I don't think it was Bill Sergeant no isn't he the beach guy right about erosion um I have their names yeah somewhere well I you know I mean I don't know was it was it a weird coincidence they they came because of the corwell thing or not I mean did they come because of the cwell people who stayed after the most of the C people left one was a resident cwell he was I think the guy who used to live in West Newbury and he talked about how he moved there of open space the other guy I um have connected with about Trails oh yes and I invited him to the open space committee he had nothing to do with the cwell we were China out border to Boston other stuff um so he contacted you about Trails I seem to yes yes yes we what sort of Frain border to Boston oh we wanted to know what we've just had several conversations about different things and I said maybe you're interested in coming to an open space committee and he came so we can Circle back and say you know hey we're looking for I mean is is he somebody who has a shovel in mind as it were you know and wants to work on Trails or does he want to sit and pontificate just like me about Trails I don't know okay well I mean so maybe we need to ask him if you give me his name and information I'm happy to do that sure okay um I don't have it right here okay but why don't you send me that um I'll you know because on the pretext that I was the chair of the to see Etc and yeah oh okay but I think we we need is Mary chair of the Conservation Commission no uh no um Vice chair um BL say chair oh okay all right um um well I need to look at the list and think but I yeah you know um they they need somebody we need somebody from that Commission because it would make it's ridiculous really is I mean I was embarrassed when I went to this open space thing that green Bel put on okay um to find out that nearly every open space committee represented there had a mandatory list of people who were on the committee and they all had someone from the Conservation Commission some of them for the and and they they served they they came MH well we I mean I don't know if that conversation's ever been had but it certainly can be revisit with the current Conservation Commission I feel like I the planning board does that like the planning board has a member who also serves on the commission on the Conservation Commission yeah and it's it's a lot it's like two meetings every two weeks a big commitment and it's I think it's hard to get people to do one committee let alone too I'm not I'm not disagreeing with you no no no I know what you're saying but we meet once a month for God sake and I'm not suggesting they have to be but yeah connected outside of Staff other connections yeah you know and if they were if that person is deputized to be knowledgeable about what they're doing what we are doing yeah so that when it comes time you know and if they can come to a meeting every so often it's you know yeah because you know yeah it's one of those things where people want to serve on committees and they want all the you know whatever it is the you know the whatever it is you have from being a member of committee and they don't want to do any work yeah yeah well let's keep thinking um it' be good to have some you know Geographic diversity gender diversity talk to Mary and see what she thinks does it make sense to at least forward someone on the conservation committee app Point person have a point person so they don't even have to attend but at least we send them meeting minutes and stuff say hey this is what we've been working on right just to keep them so they're aware yeah and they and vice versa so if it's something comes up in the conservation committee that we should be aware of and maybe have an opinion about or input little input to you know it's just that they don't if a committee doesn't think in those terms they don't Shi yeah yeah um well Mason's great I'm happy to talk to Mason but I would not be opposed to anyone reaching out to the chair or vice chair well also one of you like peer to peer volunteer to volunteer kind of thing yeah I think I can reach out to Mary to kind of sound her out okay um I know Mary too friends with yeah so what um and she's actually she's good because she sort of um she will hold her cards to her chest and and and and you know but at the same time will I think be very honest about looking at that difficulty yeah CU it is a difficulty yeah the one person that we lost is Dan stre unfortunately because he's no longer on the commission and um because he was very instrumental in the past I think we said the 25th right for the next meeting unless we pending Avail space availabilities or anything I'm sure to check on right okay yes you think the 25th's not the 18th I think that you would not have a quum on the 18th that's what I heard all right and that's yeah that actually would be better because we have our we have public hearings on February 19th so anyway it's just doesn't matter it's all good Monday holidays sometimes everything fils up they do yes it does okay so um we're good all right what else so Community member updates we hit we hit that gu everybody agree yeah I'd like to move to a Jour second on all 8:32 okay