so yeah welcome to open space committe meeting and um maybe let's just go around for Alice Jim okay I'm David po do we have to you want more that's okay yeah okay all right well I should say I've been on open spacing for years maybe it's yeah and um so we live over on the other end of town over toward it's on the Parker river near the lower green and this is open space is all new to us although we have participated on the master plan committee way back a different town different town State and I'm Christine and we're married so um yeah happy to be here great to meet you ell Mike carbon over on Scotland roadside to awesome and I'm Christ um and yeah so I reach out um to see if we could need some help around planning office CU she's interested in planning I'll let you introduce yourself by where I at that we all I sorry that's okay we're just Weir just doing introduction um but yeah just having college students who were like thinking about like really exciting ways and you know and and I was like great so we're just starting to talk about what that'll look like and how much time have and what kinds of projects but um knowing that her dad was going to be here was like well come to our open committe meeting which is just getting again so yeah so it's great to thank you for joining us to be here I'm Ella um just finished my first year of college I'm actually in Canada I went to University of Toronto um yeah I decided to learn more about what's on lived your M life never thought about it more than hous here now I learn more about planning [Music] hi do you want to introduce yourself that's Martha has been director of planning for how many years um I've been here for 15 and a half 15 years and also as a resident which is kind of cool yeah and I worked on both the first and second open space plan as of volteer and and also yeah volunteer stuff um so that was our call to order and welcome um C queries last time we had a citizen but not today um and um we we put him off do you think I don't know well lives in cwell farm I discovered um and he used to live in Lindfield was on the school committee for I think he said 20 years but I can't know maybe I'm wrong anyway um he said simply to mean he had interesting experience of local government so I don't know whether we were part of that or not but that's what little I know anyway and I hope actually he might come back because he I thought said some rather interesting things at the end yeah I agree and um Martha mentioned that as a cell Farm resident he was involved in some of the discussions around the conservation restriction and Trail that's on that property which is um one of the things that we've been talking about recently of getting sorted out and actually created established as a public Trail um so that would be a great obviously great like resource to have someone who lives on the property um and just SP effort so I think that's that effort is sort of going to be chart L by um the conservation agent and since it's the Conservation Commission that is has care and control of that conservation restriction property but um with the expertise at this table I think Sean who's our new agent would be really interested and like maybe we could invite him to our next meeting just to talk about that and if there's things that can move forward we got some trail expertise and some lots of other expertise so well I will confess I have a track record so we made a mistake I think some years go and the then chairman of the planning board John Weiss yes um we all went and marched around over there and John essentially backed off right he sort of let them understand the they have a an association and they have a board of directors or whatever I think yes trustees yeah and I think they came away from that with the idea somehow that the town really wasn't going to pursue it um and I don't know whether that was John's intention but that was certainly the feedback I got from a couple of people I know who were living there at the time and um bad bad news not the way to play it I think there's been progress since then yeah that was not not the intention we got them to agree to a trail layout um while he was still here and then we did work through a trail basically Trail use agreement which bar was part of part of that process negotiating that so but so where did it I mean the is one of the things that I found a little irritating is they have disguised the public parking well yeah according to them there was not ever any intention for public parking so that was they need to look at the the plan anyway okay yeah there's been some progress on it but um it needs to move forward but I think there is some energy now to do that um so I I personally as a near neighbor like think it's interesting and in terms of like the purview of this committee and the open space re plan I think it's great to sort of pull back and think about how it fits in with some other you know there's some trails nearby and thinking about future connections and that kind of thing so um yeah so that would be great if Barry is like interested I'm still being involved um so the last meeting we talked of a about um The W plan um and there's like a workbook for updating the plan I wanted to share that um we did Martha and I did submit a expression of interest to the state's um OneStop grant program and um it was a very short form the expression of interest and they immediately send feedback and let you know whether like yeah this sounds like a good one and um they they said that yes seems like a good project and this is the um sort of Pathway to the kind of funding it's um their recommendation was through the rural um Rural Development Fund just look here exactly what it's called um they have they have sort of a whole Continuum that's channeled through this one stock um and then they tell you like where to actually apply so it's the rural development fun fund as underneath the Planning and Zoning Community planning fund so anyway none of that's particularly relevant other than they are supportive of an application so um we I think think it makes sense to try to get a little funding to assist with this committee's work over the year ahead um so that'll be something that Grant proposal it's not too honorous but it's more than the short form we filled out so that's due early June um so I think I'm probably going to take the lead on that but I would cly love to talk that through with all of you because one of the um uh one of the items they identify as important is the public engagement process and um timeline uh you know some specificity around goals and then also um uh the progress and commitment to date so I think it's really it will really be in our interest that we've sort of recently reated a committee and have a lot of interest and I'll you know I'd love to just talk you guys all up um in the grant proposal and um and I think we have a really good chance at getting some fun so I don't remember the the deadline for the proposals is early June I don't remember but I'll check how long they say they give when they give responses by but I think it's over the summer and then you know maybe by early fall you know we'd know what the award might be and setep forth a process to hire a consultant so so it's a little bit like I I sort of Welcome discussion on like what what do we want to move forward with over that period of time you know knowing that we would have the support of a consultant hopefully by the fall but not before then so just kind of thinking through the timeline of um you know starting to do some of the work to update but or you know do we kind of hold on things a little bit and focus on some other projects knowing that the actual update of the plan would start enforced in the fall I don't I haven't really thought that through exactly do you have to specify or allude to what area you might be looking for support in other words is it you know you know just the whole thing or part of it right good question um what I filled out for the expression of Interest was just we want to update our open space inter Rec plan right we think we're going to good position to do that and we need some support I think I said something about we imagine some of the public engagement and the mapping being priority areas um but it was not we will need to be more specific about that right right so um well that's exciting know it sounds like it it's a it's a little step forward and yeah we're happy to you know review and consider like participate in drafting up the language that they're looking for I feel like we you know identified those test it sounds like you touched on them already but in terms of like where we would want support on you know the maps and doing and data pools in terms of the land use and doing interviews of key people that might have answers to kind of like updates from the old plan MH um yeah did we also say they could do help with the data pull from the assessor's office for those partials that are protecting um and I think we should talk about the survey and whether we want to wait until they come on board or if it's something that we can tackle I but like you you've done a little digging also and I know we want to like look through in detail the survey that um David that he put together MH um to take a look at it so we can maybe decide if we want to wait for them or do that ourselves this summer is that like something that we could tackle ourselves right and then give them the results right there's tools out there that if you know where to look it's not as daunting I think formulating the the questions is important and perhaps together we collectively come up with appropriate questions um but to come up with a survey and how to get it out to the public is a lot easier now and it doesn't involve paper and and I mean mailings and stuff like that it's anybody can come up with a survey using like Google forms and on the back end of that it just populates in columns automatically a spreadsheet and so your data your data your table of information and data is already done for you and so there's your first flush of how to you know how to get the data and access it um and then what we you know how it's used after that then you know that's important to know so that that informs how you design the form and ask the questions I but it's it's you know I don't know what the capabilities are with the town um but if there is like some type of you know social media obviously is the first and biggest thing these days that's how everybody gets their news and stuff so if we can if there's somebody that does the town social media that's one way that we could get it out to the public um it's really simple making posters and stuff with QR codes now you just go and shoot your phone and automatically just brings you to a page that's really handy and easy and just standing in line at at brunies or someplace and you can the survey while you're waiting to check out so I think that by doing that I think we'd be and if we really advertise it well we think we could get a really good response and that's pretty easy that's something that we might be able to take on ourselves yeah and actually when you think of Summer like you sort of think there's probably a lot of places we could each sign up for like an hour slot like you're saying like I like stand at the beach parking lot bathroom old Hill Cod yeah old Hill yeah I mean that would be kind of fun to brainstorm and I do think people are out about so kind of good people are a little more relaxed in the summer right everyone's on their phone so yeah take David's questions and roll them to online well yeah I since we met last I've had um some how should I say negative thoughts um and and that has to do with the fact that um I think we're all surveyed to death um I have made the mistake over time of contributing to various organizations um who clearly have sold me on if you know what I mean okay other words um if you contribute to um a a green organization they will sell you on to all the other people um as a member of for example Mass order bomb National order bomb doesn't seem to have any idea that I might not want to join them because I'm member of a mass order bom right so I get constant mailings from National mass or orom which is in Washington DC and also surveys I also get surveys from uh the southern poy Law Center ACLU uh unic okay now I have no idea whether that's based on my giving track record but I have a feeling that part that's part of it but I think what it is frankly is that there's some know I have to put this there's some idea in the revenue world of nonprofits that sending people surveys is the way to get them to open the envelope because they're oversized for one thing nobody has anyone gotten one from Mass uh from the arbor right okay well they come and they're oversized envelopes um and they say you know reply within 10 days you don't know whether that's a threat or promise um usually it's neither it's both in the sense um so cut long story short I began to think okay unsolicited surveys meaning that why you people citizens in y didn't ask for them are negatives so somehow the survey needs to be something that does off you something and I'm not entirely sure what that is two things occur to me one is that probably I think we should offer with the survey a map of what we know about properties with trailers because my guess is a lot of people who we might be surveying really don't know how many trails there are in town uh and also one of the other things is that even if you get online to all Trails or something like that uh that's a a very unreliable app in many ways unless you Pony up money and you get be a premium user um so I think one of the things we need to do is to reward people we also need to identify who the survey comes from that it doesn't come you know just these just my thoughts that doesn't come from well okay um I'm from the government and I'm here to help you right the famous Reagan Comet right I think there's quite a lot of people I can think of I've met over the years in Newbury who have a very poor opinion of town government in terms of their intentions and unfortunately we are going to look if we're not careful like town government so all of those things are things we are yeah right let's change their mind like we're yes um hopefully we will not drive up people's driveways and you know say here's a survey we do it but anyway those are some things to think about in terms of how how we as it were move I think need to move ourselves out of the world of the ARA people and the Southern Poverty Law Center and um southwest Indian foundation and you name it um and there has to be I think from the GetGo some sort of reward um I'm afraid you know it's a bit cynical I know but I'm afraid we live in the Society where that tends to be how it works you know you tend to get a discount if you do it now I don't know that we can do that but um and the other thing is that I'm not sure I've also thought because Christina had mentioned um new days and one of the images that came to my mind about that was if the presentation's right that's really great but if it's not we're going to look like somebody standing outside the Market Basket asking for who knows what anything from support your triple P to how are you going to vote and you know so those are some of the public hazards which I think tend to end up influencing the response pattern you get um which is one of the reasons one of the questions I had in here may seem a bit odd and that is did you do this as a family as opposed to an individual cuz I thought that was an interesting if we could get people to be honest if you have you know people sitting around talking about it as to somebody saying oh I'll do it um so those are some of the issues that I've thought about the last couple of weeks yeah I think they are good questions I certainly uh your comment about how many things you get in this nail nail that are service when you're like I never sign up for that right it's a sort of the spread of content or whatever but um I mean I guess so to me that s of observation which I think is very apt aligns with actually being a face who's a neighbor you know location that's local cuz I feel like people are more inclined to support their neighbor you know the local that's the benefit of being a small town is we can like know each other or recognize each other or be open to having a conversation so if if there's some kind of you know Workforce capacity among all of us to like actually stand in front of the library on a Saturday morning you know the people there are Newberry residents already who are using a public resource already you know finding the ways to not have those barriers to participation right that makes sense I the reward thing is kind of interesting cuz I'm immediately like maybe can get somebody to donate something right like and then if you fill out the survey and give your email then you're entered into the raffle for I don't know what like what I don't know not just a greenv membership but I don't know maybe White Rose P would like donate a like I don't know just a gift certificate or something like you know maybe we can leverage some of the partners who who are in support of open space I don't know I'm just that's a new thought and do we need to do that I don't know maybe maybe people would fill it out anyway would that help more people being to fill it out and I mean this is different from say the aror day survey because it's a direct impact on your town and helping to shape your town and and you know I think we found the master plan survey a lot of people engaged we got a good had plenty of opinions what were the some of the Avenues that were used for that um we did a lot of what bill is talking about was Survey Monkey we had a QR code we actually did do a we mailed postcards to you know all the household I should know but I and we tried to hit everybody sure we did play um and that actually um caught the attention of a surprising number of people because you think people don't really you know they get mail and they throw it in the trash basket these days but a lot of people when they we asked how they heard about the survey and the work and a lot of them said we got the postcard in the mail so I think it's really kind of a multipronged approach to to to do it just out of curiosity how many people completed the survey in that do you remember I think we had was a third or something of responses it was pretty it was pretty good you know our consultant our consultant was the one who did it Emily inis who lives in town actually is a a professional planner and she thought that um the return was pretty good you are you talking about the master plan yeah yeah it was 6% was it that of the house yeah it was 100 more than that just over 100 apparently according to the numbers which based on the fact we have something like 2700 households ain't very good I'm afraid I hate to be negative but yeah and I do think that was um we flyed and we QR coded and we did postcards but there wasn't we did not stand at Newberry days or stand at the beach and that I feel like you know whatever we're all busy so like if you catch someone at the right time they're more in cents other then it goes so yeah you can always do more but maybe we have some like a little more capacity yeah love the idea of May the transfer station the library right Island you know I me they're definitely yeah like maybe Triton little games that be kind of cool that's where the survey design I feel like um just spending some time to make sure we're capturing and I haven't really looked at what they tell us we need to make sure we capture but I think that's an important thing in terms of like do you have to ask what someone's age is right yeah cuz if so then we need to Target where we do they get the bu stop at Triton I don't know like do they get that specific I don't I don't remember I don't think so yeah I I think you have to have a reasonable profile of your population both of the response and what you asked one are the things that strikes me in this connection is yeah organizations the parents the you know there's an active very active uh PTA at the at the round school right yeah um interestingly uh my wife always reminds me that it's noticeable that we don't have a League of Women Voters group in youber never have had and so we've never had anybody something sorry I thought there was like a I thought there was one no well why if there is one they would have been sponsoring what happened just recently we have to have the government sponsor the the candidates night in terms of where it is okay together with that's the reason I believe you I just if you'd ask me I think I would but there are there are fraternal is that the organizations which would that exist specific to Newbury and and and maybe they're willing to get involved I would certainly think that a PTA type organization should be because after all that involves just the kind of people it seems to me we're serving toward the future right yeah yeah and would you go I mean here we like the Council on agent capture you know yeah how do you use it now yeah one of the goals would be to you mentioned matching the profile of residents in the town right so you certainly want to right take the measures to get the proper spread right just looking quickly at the previous survey in the uh 2010 uh plan there do do anybody call well it says that you did a that you did a straw po we had 18 it says there's about 18 responses per question I know there wasn't 18 of us on the committee and I I just I don't remember oh well where like how we did that back then I I do because I read it it was my head shame I did it we had a meeting yeah and and we invited people in about about 18 people okay and I did the do Pony show about the plan and we asked questions at the beginning and then we asked questions at the end and we tried to measure you know whether they mov from A to B or or what it was it was frankly a bit pathetic um in all honesty um but we needed to do it yeah because we needed to check the box which said right um and um I'm trying to think at that point we were having an issue or two on the planning board which spilled over into the open space committee I think yeah but anyway it was a bit perfunctory yeah I couldn't remember I I pulled it out and I read D pal presented this not there no cameras on this back then white yeah can we I mean can we utilize the the town website too and you know I mean I know like like on the homepage more so than the Open Space page you know something that everybody's got everybody's got to pass yeah exactly you see that news headline or you know it's not buried anywhere yeah on Facebook and all all of that stuff we've got all those social media tools that we can use yeah so like you know and if maybe if there's a way like you know I I I automatically get agendas for you know the the kcom and the SLP board and the planning board and whatnot you know can can that be piggybacked in that too so kind of people that subscribe to those things can kind of automatically be scented M you know if you're already wanting you know the info coming from town you know going just show up in your inbox as well yeah I think if you subscribe to news you'll you'll get those things when they come up cool not 100% sure but we could and I and open space Comm has it um boxs to check but that's um I don't know how many people are on there right that's combination of people who choose in and then also people who like yeah haven't thought anything about open space right right and could somehow you know when it's ready get tacked to you know the planning board agenda that goes out so so it hits maybe more people than you know might be checking the open space you know wanting that info tab box and there's another thing like so it's good we have Facebook and Instagram or access to it ability post but um in our experience my experience you work and stuff if you have groups Facebook groups that will repost or post information about the survey so for example I'm looking here and I just this is some stuff I follow and it's here's Newberry Byfield news it's got 3,000 members nice people of Newberry 2,000 members kind people of Newberry me people F you know daily news of Newport um Newberry Port I mean there's and people link that there's really quick you can get a q code and if you have just like a three bullet thing that just quick cuz people that's the thing you got 20 seconds to sell it but if it's like you know put important to you open space save the world Talent whatever whatever how message we want to Brand it you get them to just get sucked in for that minute to click on if you go it goes to our website fill out the survey here and we're off the Run yeah yeah awesome do we do these kinds of surveys always stay Anonymous or do you ask enough to at least playing into the profile what part of town are you from things along those lines so you can cluster we've done the demographics which are interesting but it's it's Anonymous unless people want to provide say their email address at the end if they're get more information so we'll ask for that yeah is it worth sending out like um you know because people have the option to op in is it worth like making an announcement under the new section that just says the like the open space committee is working on the open space and Recreation plan if you'd like updates click here just so that we can like start to get some traffic and start to maybe get some people to click yes for open space before we're ready to send out they um the survey right to we craft a little note that says Hi everybody hi to it's not a newsletter sign up but it's yeah like hey if you want any updates click here you know so that's um yes definitely I love that and um sort of a good segue to something I wanted to make sure we talked about which is um so and I think we talked about this at one of the earlier meetings but now here we are in May and the fiscal year um appointments to committees will be coming around the annual process comes around this time of year so the select board will be um making their whole slate of fiscal year 25 appointments at their June meeting which I think is June 11th so what Marth and I talked about briefly earlier was um now's a great time to start messaging about this committee right because we can have more members um so that's good like I think in general the select board with staff will be going through all the Committees and identifying which ones have vacancies and sort of doing like a general overview but if we want to do a more specific thing like even a press release so the daily whatever we want to do now is good timing to um invite people to participate give them a heads up that there's you know already a newly reinvigorated committee specifically for all of you if you're interested in officially being a member for fiscal year 25 will pass those names up um and just to say I would would prefer as staff to support the committee but not be a member so that's something I intend to express um personally because I feel as though it's good to have the volun the committee be made up of all volunteers and have all the seats that are available I will be supportive and participate anyway so why not open up the seat for a resident um so anyway so that that's all kind of coming ahead in the next weeks you know up until that mid June date when the appointments get made people can get appointed at other times as well but it's just sort of an opportunity that um so what officially have everyone on the list on the website you know sign in with the Clark all that has to happen again sorry now you know it's I miss to vote on that but so my chance would be next month yeah okay yeah yeah Ella you can join or you could just be a guest for the summer anyone's open to participating but off on they I don't think there is one for the open space some you know some are by by law or whatever but yeah so sort of a general like a announcement of that is something I think would be good also wanted to quickly say we talked previously about um the other Town Committees of the Conservation Commission and the rec committee and I um have sent an invitation to the rec committee chair saying we're starting to do this work we'd love to um connect with you and if there's a liaison from that committee who wants to either official be a member of this appointed committee or just participate as we on that's you know I think that can happen in different ways there are flexible ways for that to happen um but I think it's important I haven't connected with David yet but um the chair of the rec committee but I I think we will and um Mike uh did his homework did and reached out to the Conservation Commission and I've also talked to Sean our conservation agent and so he's opening up that um you know invitation to the Conservation Commission so hopefully there will be someone from that group willing to also on yeah sounded like Sean himself was interested if we could adjust the days that we we meet on just it conflicts with yeah their schedule so yeah he was um and I talked to him a little because again just kind of I think there's an openness to being staff and serving on a committee but I think you can also be staff and support the committee without necessarily like being an appointed member so however he is interested in that um he's definitely has a good open space background and so anyway so two other potential members from each of those committees I think would be would be great yeah I feel like we did have we sort of agreed on who on our last meeting and like who is going to be like our representative to go there or go to their meetings and talk about it but I don't remember it and for some reason I didn't write it down or and maybe I'm misremembering but it sounds like you you got the Conservation Commission to reach out to them I didn't see it in the meeting notes either so I was like didn't we say that we were going to do something and all agreed on it because I'm honestly trying to remember if I volunteered for something and I don't have it on my so if I did and anybody can remember please remind me but I I don't remember but I know that I did reach out to thee so maybe I volunteer I'm going to put it there um but yeah following through and making sure um that's a great idea if anybody want to actually attend on anything so I don't know I can look when I next meeting us which could help us with that question so anyway and then the other thing just to like I put it on the agenda but just when we're all like reappointed we have a new like us for fiscal year 25 it's great to if people might start thinking now if they'd be interested in being a chair of the committee or a vice chair or a scribe um helping with minutes I think in June like maybe we could shoot for talking about that if anyone's interested in can you give a little description of how you envision like what you think the roles and duties would be of those positions I think I got the scbe but what about the other mon yeah you enion that um well I don't know maybe I'll turn to David and Martha like been on this commor like like did you have a chair before yeah yeah yes sure and well sort of working working with staff to call the meeting and set the agenda and just kind of doing a lot of talking yeah I don't it seemed to me that it was Dan right yeah that was Dan and then Dan and I were co-chairs for when before I was actually working here yeah um and then I think it was Dan after after yeah it was yeah yeah who uh at that point importantly was on the Conservation Commission um yes he was was he on a w committee at that was he on a Rec committee at that point well yeah he was yeah you're right yeah because um oh boy I mean it was the days of manta Fields before it was Manta Fields okay when it was going to be a 45 House Development anyway um yeah so he was in the key position I my memory is that he ched the meeting in the sense of opening it and closing it and that it was the sort of group process as to how I I I I don't think he drew up agendas I think we drew up agendas at the close of a meeting and then added to it um it was a pretty small group and of course it was very much I hate to say this cuz I was so fond of her but it was in many ways quite dominated by marene schroer who none of you probably know except Martha certainly did who was a a wonderful activist who sat regard of cancer several years ago and she she used to come with her husband nor um who is a delightful guy but but quite different um very quiet and then would suddenly open up and and you would discover that in fact he'd been sort of mentally annotating the whole meeting and then summed it up in a paragraph um but she was tapped into all kinds of stuff and and very much an advocate for conservation and particularly um in fact there's a trail out of uh in New Port at the end of kby Farm Lane you know where that is there a there's a composting area in Newport which is off low Street go down kobby Farm Lane and that trail in the woods there is is dedicated to her name yeah yeah and she was really good in the sense that she was able to pull in information and people and so on uh she's a pip Piper of of a important sort um and I think gave us all a run for our money in the sense that she would come and and well rev up what have you been doing she was a force of nature yes yeah very good and she always came with Oreo cookies well there you go great I don't um see the rec committee I don't see their next meeting currently on the town calendar but we can find out one of this I think they usually meet on Mondays and I did see it's says um must me uh no no less than corly and strives to meet once a month so that's in the recommend I think the important thing about them is they have the ear of the select board m in my estimation because they've come up with a fully fledged plan they have their own budget and they're looking I don't know whether you've seen the plan but it's it's it's extensive and it's press pushed out what 10 years maybe something like that I guess and it does incorporate a trail around the whole area sort of incorporating stuff that kind of exists there are are social Trails now but things like a connection to Triton and stuff like that um and they got a very good reception when they did I happened to be there the night they I guess I was appearing to be questioned and grilled by and they um they got a very good reception I think for that the master plan for right and you know I mean it's comprehensive and impressive and they had a budget and that's one of the things which I think is interesting that they're an independent agent because there are self-funding issue they don't have to well they can go get grants and things but but essentially they charge money and so you know they have an income string for the use right yeah which of course we don't yeah um if we you know and maybe we end up not going this way but maybe we should also make the decision at least this meeting or next meeting on the survey um because I agree that there could be some ways of questions or questions that we want to ask that a consultant might be able to help us with so that we don't kind of miss the boat on anything but I also remember there being conversation that Mar ma Valley Planning Commission might also be able to like step in and give us a little bit of time so I just wonder if that would be feasible in the next month or two to get some help from them on this using some hours under the existing contract or like the usual contract while we wait to see if we get money this fall so at least we could kind of move forward with that but getting some professional opinion on it too yeah I was I went to my first time meeting the other day and I was really impressed with M mik valy he stood up he really knew stuff and uh presented well spoke well and so I was like wow what a great resource and I just I don't really have a total grasp of what they can do for us I don't know if it's possible to have them at a meeting or or if you have better resources I guess the direct us to I mean I think there are options they they could you know potentially be be our consultant for the open space Plan update if that's what we wanted to do um we can issue an RFP for a consultant there a lot of people out there who do it um because we've been talking about having a consultant be you know sort of very heavily involved in the public engagement there there's part of me that's thinking you know could be appropriate to have the survey as part of that public engagement process rather than our trying to jump again but can we ask them actually maybe to come briefly and present to us what they can do for a committee like this because it seems to me well be blunt about it the rest of you don't know I do and so does Martha within a range of things cuz Mar is currently the representative of the town to the nvpc and I was for 10 years and I think you know I my guess is that Gerard would be willing to ask one of his young folk to come for maybe 10 15 minutes lay out the kind of range of stuff so we as a group can hear it would that be helpful cuz I hear you asking that sort of question yeah I think it would be helpful if they're willing to do it I think it would be helpful you know we were sort of rattling off on the last meeting all the sections that needed to be updated you know they were all highlighted and annotated and you know I think that mayor M was on them oh yeah they could do a lot of that so yeah yeah hearing from them might be interesting yeah I forget which town theyve most recently been working with on their open space um and Recreation plan you can certainly find that out and ask the question okay part of me wonders so going back is if like putting something on a news item on the homepage and some kind of sign up or something maybe there's something about like a pulse survey or something that's just a little way to get this summertime engagement yeah you know interest I don't know if it's it's not the survey but it's a survey it's a way to collect a list of interested people to maybe you still do offer some kind of incentive even to answer the poll survey you know and get emails and again not create necessarily a newsletter sign up we really don't have that right now but but something that it's going to create aess like most people in the town have no idea about open space committees or even open space in general exactly introduce ourselves why are we different than the r committee like you know things those lines without but it is three bullets or something just enough and then you know give us your email address and you'll be entered to get a town hat or whatever it is you know something along those lines I I can't help but think because you were saying what about the summertime and a survey if we do hire a consultant probably would not come out for a while right great so can there is there more than one the way and again I regret I didn't reread this before the meeting but I think you were saying like you pulled them at the beginning and then pulled them at the end like is there in terms of the whole process is there like which is what you're saying but like something we could do now knowing that at a later date when we have have a consultant on board we're doing something bigger which fits into the whole process like like here's I mean I don't know what it is now like something pretty open-ended right what do you think here blah blah blah and then like at a midpoint it's like how to prioritize and then at the end of it it's like what do you think of these priorities like you're getting feedback on the actual plan that's sort of the process of other plans like the hazard mitigation plan or the housing production plan or sort of discret points along the way where you're getting input on whatever you've done to date yeah different stages yeah yeah you can seems to me have a deliberate process whereby you have an initial survey yeah which is almost like cold calling in a sense it used to be called um and then after you've probably when you've got your final you know zingy plan you then go to either a subset that's why I think encouraging people to actually share their identity perhaps just electronically is good because then you can go back to people who've been willing to do that and say okay this is what you know we've produced what do you think about it um and then I think you it's possible maybe to draw some conclusions as to whether what you've done have moved people from maybe where they were you know if you have I think I've seen surveys that do this you basically have what three four questions which you repeat to the select group and you see if it's moved mhm and one of those things things yeah who did this somebody that this conquered maybe somebody who was some community that was trying to do the CPA the you know what that is right Community pres yeah the community preservation uh uh act um they did it and it was very interesting because what happened was their information clearly moved a whole lot of people because suddenly from where BG just said people do know what open space is all of a sudden realized that it that actually it's fundable now I know you know and I did well I think I told you I took the opportunity of my appearance my Inquisition appearance before the select board to encourage them to think about the CPA because we really should and you know because I people do not understand it's a sliding scale most people think it's you know like 2 3 4% which is not I mean it could be but it's not going to be it could be you know 0.01 if you wanted it to be I think there's actually a lower limit but anyway um that kind of thing right yeah yeah okay so how about um we can reach out to mvpc and also it could be helpful I think to reach out to Emily inis who's our local resident consultant who helped with the master plan and also does a lot of Consulting with for communities and just get either are you willing to come to the next meeting and talk for 10 minutes about like what services you've provided or what you think could be helpful for anybody um both um and um we are they two different does Emily work for mvpc or Emily her own consultant she's her own consultant so she helped us with the Master Plan update um did they ever work together also mvpc also worked on it they they actually did coordinate because MPC did uh several sections of the Master Plan update as well as the mapping so so could you envision a scenario where we get some grant money and we can hire both of them for certain spes for this plan might be possible especially you especially having mvpc do the mapping because they've already got so many maps of the community and they've done the maps for the previous open space plan and a lot of things like the official geology doesn't change um things like that so yeah I think it would beig do a great job El to the most efficient were you at to eting the other night I was away well the the current director of NBC mvpc lives on Plum Island he's actually a good friend of mine he stood up and spoke to the the MV the you know the well MB BTA thing yeah and so you know to some degree we're lucky here and that we have yeah that was what bill was saying he said he was really impressed by what he said and that's kind of what prompted the conversation of can they come talk to us because he was impressed by him the other night and so that's what yeah well J lived here a long time and he started as the gis guy at NPC MH that's what when I first got to know him that's what he was doing and he's a wiiz of that kind of stuff too he's and his he has now two people yeah at least two maybe three um yes they got three right I mean used to be you know Gerard and and two computers right you know right other staff as their staff is strong and they have very strong on data and then and they can answer almost any question pretty quickly does the town have any requirements where in order to you know sign a agreement with a consultant or mvpc that they have to go out for multiple bids and take the lowest better there are procurement requirements that depends on the dollar value of the um okay of the contract and based on what you're feeling like do you have a sense as to whether we you know which which rules will apply it depends I mean if we're looking at $60,000 I think we would have to go out go out to bid if it's 30 um we don't so okay is fall one of the breaking points um 5,000 for something like I think I'm not I'm not sure I mean at this point we could get consulting services or or um Engineering Services for up to 30 that yeah I think that's one of the sort of points but you're right there was five five at one point but I think they changed a little right and you can't play games with it by the way you can do twoo but they shouldn't be the same year but MPC has a couple of people who are you know specifically in their Environmental Group and been CC and bber and you know they're both very energetic great I mean they've got a fabulous staff right now so great I was wondering you know since they did not complete the open space map for the master plan I think in hopes that this committee was going to reform and and update this I mean I going to say this the right way but today owe us a map still for the master plan that is it is that map it's the same map that's needed for this plan like is that you know wasn't completed you know so like is that still you know like in the budget of the master plan work that got done or is that kind of that book closed yeah I think that book is pretty much closed but you know the basis basis is still there so probably not not a tremendously heavy lift [Music] okay yeah I mean I also wonder you know how you know we can support both the consultant and VPC too to help you know maybe limit some of the costs as well you know I mean the consultant is going to you know go to the assessor and they're going to call me at Green Bel and they're going to you know compile all the sources that you know we might be able to take on some of that to be like okay you know here's this data set for this section like you don't have to spend 4 hours working on that you know what I mean like we we we've given this to you to help you know keep that number down a little bit a lot of that I think we did before any you know information that we could get in housee like the assessors records and things like that I think actually you and Dan pulled a lot of that stuff for one of the iterations of the plan so I think you know that's something you're absolutely right we don't need to spend consultant funds on but actually Newber is a little different in that uh via my map which is this mapping program which is available on the town website you can get all kinds of information um it's a little you can't survey it but the interesting thing is the Baseline for that is mpc's files and so they're the guys who can ask you the very specific you know who who you can ask for a very specific readout from that data yeah and so actually the unfortunate thing is where it falls down most often is our assesses records and that's not necessarily the fault of the assessors it's the fault of the records over time um but yeah I that's that's why I suggested we need to maybe sort of interrogate what they can do and and um to have a sort of live thing I think might be helpful because I can think of a lot of dumb questions I've asked them over time and sometimes they've said oh yeah you know it's afternoon and sometimes they've said no D can't do that you know oh so certainly some it would be helpful to help us craft a scoop of work you know cost to well that's yeah so yeah like all we need to do this because we need a budget for the grant proposal so we need to know if we're ask to P for 60,000 or maybe we don't need that much you know um the advice I've heard about One Stop is ask for more than you need cuz they're probably going to cut you down a little and like you end up with what you actually um so I don't know you know how competitive this particular Grant fund is I think we should ask for what we reasonably need and just make a good proposal do they publish what they do in other words can you find a list of the grants they've given yeah I looked at that's how we got to the 60 which was in the expression of Interest was looking at what other towns have received for open space Rec plan updat mhm it's pretty there's not a lot of detail around you can't see the actual scope of work but you can see the project and the fund the funds that gave so I mean it helps you to tailor range your yeah so the request has to be does it have to do with population Serve by any chance um I don't I don't remember probably yet how much capacity is like I mean bigger towns sometimes have more staff to do more stuff like if switch has an open space program manager in their planning office so it doesn't necessarily I think correlate with population total cuz sometimes bigger towns that you might think would need more money um actually need less because they have more staff capacity so I think it depends what you put in 60 is the number though that you in we need we looking for 60 Grand I said okay yeah yeah but we need a actual budget and that can change there's no commitment that we have to have at State at 16 yeah but we have to give like in the next three weeks though we have to come up with some nine items we'll be coming yeah yes okay yes okay all right I don't think it's um again it's a pretty there's not a lot of complicatedness around and doing an open space and W update so think it won't be um it won't need a lot of detail because they understand what that project means yeah that funders yeah and I wondered too just I mean with the woman in town that worked in the master plan was the consultant of Master Plan master plan is so new you know is the update for like if she were to be awarded this you know I mean is is it truly a super heavy lift to bring some of that info that just got published a year ago you know into this plan I mean I just printed out like the natural resources section of the master plan I mean so many of the so many of the goals that are in that seem to be like natural goals for the open space plan too you know that was actually the the hope that we would get that section done in the master plan and that would be the spring spring board for the update of the open space and Recreation plan and actually um you can see was um very heavily involved in in writing that section gotcha okay they you wondered about some of the questionnaire stuff you know just the was that um it's not super old cah or was that prev oh no C okay yeah primar Su I think okay yeah in fact we went to them back in 20067 to nvpc and said help we needed the environmentals you know that whole section which deals with what do you got and what is it and and they had they C basically why I was think making the suggest I did is that this was the planning board's master plan okay and okay without they were sort of treading water and so um David Mountain who was the then chair and I put our heads together and I went and invited the essentially the the you know the the natural environment conservation program director from mdpc and the gis guy who was Gerard who I mentioned earlier and I asked them to come to the planning board and it was wonderful because what it turned out was that that all of our queries were things that they could relate to and talk about their potential and suddenly they were having a conversation within nvpc that hadn't happened before because what was happening before is the requests were going down one tube and another tube and they were in the silos and they didn't know I mean they knew vaguely but and so that's that's what can happen and so to you know get to M thing a lot of what has to be an open space plan in terms of the base data is already in the monster plan except you you know I mean you change a wood or two here and there but the data doesn't change okay so what I'm thinking is um I'm looking at the calendar and thinking if we are able to set our next meeting date um that will be a good deadline for [Music] having well so let's think about the proposals are due June 6th which is very soon actually um so so let's uh so maybe we need a meeting earlier than June 4th which is what I was like looking at thinking we could have a I could have a draft of a proposal we could um but what we're talking about is getting more discreet information from mvpc in advance so that we can more carefully like describe what we actually need funding for so here we are um May 7th um the 28th is the day after Memorial Day that's also a Tuesday yeah there's a select board meeting that night um which I would most likely be at but is there also did mvpc and Emily did they give us proposals for the master plan that we could say oh yeah they're going to do similar things to this like there might be a little tally of things that we don't have to recreate the words because they've already told us what they did for that plan and we want them to do some of the same stuff for this plan right that might help us write our proposal because it has some categories of work that they do yeah they kind of came into a process that was partly done so it's not really Apples to Apples but we need go back and look at the support see even if we steal like a couple categories of words then we don't have to make them up yeah yeah from scat so if we could um what about the 21st there's a lot of stuff on there but it's Board of assessors three CL Board of Trustees and con consom that's two weeks from now which is maybe a lot but we could even I'm thinking if they can come to that meeting and help answer our questions having it a little earlier would be helpful so if they might be available we can also how do you guys feel about Zoom it's I prefer this but if CC could only zoom in or something maybe we could do something think that would work right yeah I was even asked if the capabilities for you guys had a projector we could even if we were together you could do a mix or something like that but or we just all do Zo that's fun yeah we do it every day all the time every day all day yeah we have a meeting with c um she's the town's consultant who helps with the green communities program which is Energy Efficiency which yay if you haven't heard new has just been designated a green Community we're last one to get there for like in the NorthShore I think or maybe there's a couple other couple others so it's great there's been a lot of work leading up to getting us that's exciting so anyway we're meaning to talk about the first grant that that program provides for Newbury um on Thursday but we can I can reach out charge tomorrow okay yeah the 21st works for me I know there was some traffic I didn't totally follow it all about this meeting being on the 21st and I wasn't sure if there was a conflict that pushed us to today but I'm the 21st right now is fine for me yeah I never I didn't go back I just reason room wasn't available um and then I had the dates confused about when game night was you want to come to game night that night here but if we're doing this on Zoom um yeah then that go away okay so maybe generally Jo first okay yeah just I have ball right before them so I'm was like I can I can do both but I mean if it goes Zoom then it's easy going the game with yeah okay be able jump on that so well let if that works sort for everybody let's let's St it up cross our fingers if CCE is available and are we thinking CeCe comes like for the first part and Emily comes to the second part we going to try and get both of them you guys think we have to maybe we should just stick with them okay how does that sound follow your Le y sure if we I yeah we can take them about that a little bit but yeah that would be awkward if but whatever they're both Consultants they're used to that right so yeah well that's what I was trying to figure out if like they already know that they do different things and so they wouldn't be bidding on the same work so I you guys have a sense of that it's too tight and close yeah we'll look into that and figure out the best the what seems the best good good question sens to that okay cool [Applause] else um just thinking if nothing else maybe you know want to both of them be willing to you know send us a a scope that they've done for another [Music] yeah that would be easy to ask for both of them yeah again that's a pretty straightforward a lot of complicated pieces about completing the open State like if they've done it before they know what the work for says and what's required so they have some expertise on that so okay um the last thing on the agenda was acceptance of the minutes and items otherwise not reasonably anticipated or anything else anyone wants to check 10:00 that was awesome I was like and I just added a couple things to make it consistent with how they looked before so it was it was awesome um did everyone get a chance to read I want to make a motion to accept the April 16th open space committee meeting I make the motion to accept aome there second no second thank you all in favor I should have said any discussion great okay it's great to see those populating our committee page just filling in for so it's current activity I think that's that's good yeah um great any other topics no but I think if we want to I guess the only other thing is for the agenda for next time do we want to try and like nail down what is going to be our like next or first you know next step for like that pushing out hey open space committee is reinvigorated and we're working on a plan if you're interested you know click go here to our website and ask for you know meeting dates or something so at least we start getting people geared up for that yes and that's actually like thank you for saying that cuz I was when you were talking about how at the meeting you set the agenda for the next meeting that would actually be helpful if we want to just do that right now I would love that conversation and let's just set it now um so we hopefully have a presentation by Honor two Consultants um we have um finalizing what we were just saying Public Announcement announcement yeah toach Outreach step number one um if there if someone's going to click well maybe I don't want on the already but if someone's going to enter their email we just have to figure out how that's going to work who's going to track that like it's got to go someplace on a forum someplace okay so it's just that's to back thing yeah so let's think about that a little more though like do we want to gather emails if people are willing to and what would we use them for and then also the like do we need a reward think of a carrot yeah so wait are we talking about the survey now or are we talking about the like just kind of Public Service Announcement came right I guess I don't I don't have a mental picture in my head of how I signed up so that I get the agendas for the Conservation Commission and planning board but are you saying that somebody can choose to get the agenda for these meetings yes okay so I feel like our Public Announcement would be like hey open space plan committee you know uh getting ready to do this we want to know where the towns people think if you want to like keep track of our progress click on this website and choose open space committee so that you at least are notified which is like a start yeah maybe like a soft start as opposed to asking for people's email addresses at this point m is that does that seem like a anyway we can talk about it next time I guess cuz it's really on the agenda for next time but yeah no I'm not yes I'm not sure yeah all right well maybe we'll test it out maybe we'll test it out on Research why don't we all like do a little research I was referring to the newsletter signup because that's always the first thing you trying to do on say eom or organization's website right just get the name and get the email address and maybe it's couch as a newsletter but you're you're saying the same thing it's just about getting meeting anouncements right and maybe it's a little more than just what you get currently on the town website to sign up for the auto notification you know just a little more colorful or something I'm not sure I'd have to go back and look at what the town house soon though do we need to do that cuz it's you know okay if you start that you got to keep it rolling otherwise you blow all the energy you put into it other words if you're going to have a marketing campaign you got to have the long ging in mind yeah you got to have the date lines as it were already set up and I'm just wondering at this point oh we're not really you know we're not really ready for prime time uh it would seem to me personally anyway um but at the same time I do think that some maybe well discreet is not the right word perhaps but informed reaching out might help us because um how do you find the people who've sort of replaced the Molly and schroers and the the dance treaters because those are some of the people we need and I was just thinking today driving past where they count the fish at the fish ladder at The Falls right and there were a couple of people there and I almost stopped but it's God all place to St and you know left out to to grab them and say know GE you know because I think yeah a couple of people like that would really we should stick a QR code on right right um but now who's uh is it is it the waterers share Association still doing that or parer is Parker River because Parker River's gotten absorbed into oh here he is yeah fisheries and we have a electronic fish counter there so it's not the guys um I I help them it's not my project it's different project is there a citizen counting not there volunteer counting big thing not not there no not so when you see cars and people it's just people who it's either staff like doing the monitoring or checking yep we got a big jve F250 F350 with a cap so otherwise it's just people who are kind of interested to check it out yeah y Fishman yeah fisherman us me yeah I'm there with my phone yeah yeah cool it's cool y yeah yeah it's is it interesting how a lot of people know about that and they stop and they look yeah it is it's very the very scary how D well it's a very public kind of thing in a in in a way you know I mean among other things I've had total strangers relatively speaking say what are these people doing peering into have no idea because and the a couple of years ago more than that you know there were people out that whole fish land had some problems right and I some he fell in there at some point oh yes a headline Daily News count fish for anyway yeah but other things like now I'm wondering would would uh places like for example um The Wildlife Refuge be willing to share their Newbury database supporters database with us something like that because I bet you people who are interested is a volunteer get involved in from Newbury in that all you know or at least like like send out our our release with the Q code once get I'm sure and again that is the most effective way to get people to do it because just coming straight from us to your point oh you know it's the to whatever but if you have something for a group or organization ation that someone is already following that they they trust and then if they come in and send an email to you saying hey check out the open space committee and is what they're trying to do you're going to get a great response that way yeah I think yeah right so um I think what we're talking about for the next agenda is the first like soft like Hey we're a thing and we're getting activated and are you interested and sign up right okay right that's agenda number two discussing well a group confirming a group that's just done it to think about it all the right poys in group right they from okay um oh we yes we're on camera I can't say this anyway three delightful ladies got together one of whom is a doctor okay and with great enthusiasm and I don't know whether it was just knocking on doors my guess is it was some of that and all of a sudden like fungus in town all of those things began to appear and then now according to one of them I spoke to the other day planning to go State One MH right taking this but very successful because they had more signs out yeah right um and interesting they had a very it was really strange had a very slick yeah I'll say slick and good website but it was totally Anonymous so I wrote them an email and I said wow guys you know this is really good but you really need to say who you are because in these days you could be you know anyone and you're talking about you know something that has some legal other kind of implications and so on um and but maybe they be willing to share their secret yeah in fact I asked them whether they join a committee yeah we voted for it as a community right first the selectman did nothing on town properties and now we voted as a community that you can't use it on your own land yeah right certain category of them yeah yeah y that did it passed right and it passed handily right and they're very nice I have to say I ched with a couple of them so they might I know they they yeah they they been did their work they were in here meeting with r casner they've attended multiple SLI board meetings I think Mass Aon has a campaign around that project too but I don't think they want yeah it was impressive um okay what else is on the agenda besides the normal like up late minutes that's maybe that's enough yeah between the presentation the minutes on the proposal which that's [Music] yeah okay May 21st if it's in person um will it can do a room not sure and um if not it will be on and if it's on Zoom or if if it's in person where we thinking for time we thinking 7 oh we good [Music] 7:00 yeah I know what works for you is it uh yeah I get out4 7 so oh yeah so 5:45 and 64 are you no no but just yes yes yes it's important maybe a little in coing helping out whever needed awesome yeah it's very excited so fun awesome so what do you think the possibilities of actually pulling together something that would be a a you know a good proposal uh and by that I'm what I'm thinking is depending how hard no they are could we reverse engineer this could we find a figure that we think would be successful and then figure out what we need what we would like to buy for that amount of money and just get that done in the four weeks we have and if they say yay you have it then we say oh well we'd like to tweak it a little yeah I mean is well I think that's I mean it's common to like like talk with Consultants about what would work for them a little give and take on on the budget um ahead of time so that you know that you're putting in something that you get the result of but I mean that's how we came up with the 60 was based on what other towns have done for that got funded based upon what we think is reasonable relative to the work that's been done recently and moving it forward so that was a ballpark number um maybe it's going to be that number right now we're dealing with a different division of guys within the state right not the same kind of people who look at master plan proposals um it's I mean there's a Planning and Zoning category but then from there they direct you towards which one and since we're we're under 7,000 uh population we're we are eligible only towns under 7,000 population are eligible for this particular fund yeah but you could get money I think from the same fund for our master plan we could have it is the same category yeah I'm just wondering on what basis you see they just they make whether we can Cy out at all sort of what kind of decision making process pardon me they're in um because yeah one of the reactions I get living in newb oh my God you have more open space than and we do we're I can't remember we're in the top 10 in the state relative yeah relative to the size of the Town um you know we do we have all the major players we have green belt you on and on and on right and I've always had a long argument with mvpc about the fact that they quote our uh population um per square mile okay and don't take into account the fact that you can't live on you know X number of percentage of our land okay so they compare I think we have a incredibly low per square mile supposed which is crazy yeah no the open space plan says that the old one says it right there it's like if you take out all the salt marsh then we're just like an average town we don't we're not low density right at all in fact we're we're up there with some of the other communities in the marac valley that you know are are very different anyway my point being that it's possible that we may be we we can perhaps use it to our advantage that we have the presence of all these good people because it's such a it's an already educ educated community that needs to save more of the kind of land it's already you know yeah you know what I'm saying yeah I think the state has already said every town should have an updated plan every seven years so I don't think we need to like we we won't need to sell that just the basic gist of it but we will need to make the case that we are ready to do this we're you know in a good position um we're you know the Readiness element a clear time line um other things they there's so much emphasis Statewide on housing right now so I think to the extent we can make that reality clear that good planning for open space aligns with good planning for development and priority development areas priority protection areas how all of that is important for Community planning um I think those will be the things they're looking for so I don't think we'll be docked for having too much open space like they want us to update our plan so hopefully that will you know be pretty we'll be able to articulate that pretty clearly I think okay um but yeah it's I mean to your point it'll be fun to do this update to really think about the places we want to be doing more proactively right like because we have what is on paper or on the map and abundance of open space okay is it you know what does it need right like what is what we have need and what are what are our opportunities for the future conservation so yeah have you heard anything that's interesting that you know has jumped out of you during the meeting tonight that you might want to like be interested how are you proposals no just wondering you all the things you're talking about in the it's a lot to take in sry to yeah I kind of feel that I told you software sort of tech business and there's a lot just to get used to yeah it's almost the discovery process so yeah it's good I think what's cool I've thought about is you all live in different parts of town and I know I've talked with Sally M's mom about like you know connections right like you guys have to if you want to go running or walking you have to walk on Orchard Street which is not the greatest safest place to be a pedestrian to get down the middle Street which is such an amazing you know attractive place to be a pedestrian um but like like Trail connections a right with nice job so I was on playing board when that our went which was cool so anyway just yeah and growing up in town I think you'll you have a unique perspective like on like where do you like to go or just you know thinking about um and next time Martha bringing the Oreos yeah we should talk about because you know we can try to keep these GES to an hour or hour and a half for sure if that anyway just open to trying to um make this a reasonable commitment for everybody with everybody's busy time and lives and families and all the rest um so great anyone want to um make a motion to adjourn a meeting a motion to adjourn second great um all in favor great 842 all right