##VIDEO ID:zH2He0EI2c0## so I opened the meeting of the open space committee town of Newbury on October the 15th yes and um what's our first order of business I guess first of all we should find out who's here shouldn't we so present David pow bman Mike Haron Jim ding not an official member still CHR you're finding it difficult to find your way to town the daytime a lot of yeah right it will right well I'll send you a map the space Comm at least we can do so um should we do the minutes first of the meeting that first on our agenda you have say I didn't print it out right well we don't have any citizens queries we do not unless you have a query Jim no queries okay um so uh so then it's um review and approve the minutes from the last meeting right some one extra I I don't I I do in here but I don't have a okay uh right okay would somebody like to propose that we accept the minutes I propos to accepted minutes okay somebody like to second that seconded okay so how do we vote on that all I the three of us I think vote I right I okay great um has the uh like format and everything for the minutes been okay anything I should be trying to do different with those or anything [Music] looks great no I think everything is fine and and thank you for doing it because it's you know in many ways a thankless talk say thank you um yeah um and uh so um our our current agenda seems to look to you for a report on whether we are in FA with the state yeah so put that as an item on the agenda thinking I would have heard something by now and I haven't which is unusual because they generally have made their Awards by the end of September so I thought 15th gives them a little tone so nobody's been awarded it I haven't heard anything yeah I both there's definitely has not been an official announcement and I haven't heard anything unofficially yet either so um if we about the grant when does it need the monies need to be spent back do it say I think those are fiscal year monies yeah so it's June 30th yeah and um you haven't had much experience with these either I guess I was wondering if they have no cost extensions um just if it yeah much longer I'm not sure um I have some experience with state grants that are you know annual fiscal cycle and um they're pretty strict about it yeah if you you know are still working on it in July but pretty much particularly if you've hired a contractor they really try to keep you to okay um yeah so I didn't even again I had news one way or another I thought it would have been helpful to like go back through the proposal and just remind ourselves because I haven't missed at it in a few months either but um I mean I think we structured it thinking by the time you contract like even if they told us in September might be November by the time we contract with it so I think we're you know we're still on task what we were setting out to do with that which was essentially to help us complete the plan but using the assistance of marac Valley Planning Commission um they have by the way hired a new environmental program manager can't remember if we talked about that at this meeting or not um Adrien Lennon who is great she's got a lot of experience um on the she lives in Asbury she's been on the open space committee I think she's on the city council but she's also part of a lot of the regional environmental groups and um previously was working as a environmental consultant with one of the big engineering firms like TI and bond or BHB I'm not sure she was the cluster agent for a little while too years ago yeah very interested in climate resiliency and Coastal issues and I think she'll be a great so she'll she's taking cce's position and Hannah um is still mogenson is still part of the environmental team and they have a new they're three of them now there's also a new hire um who's mostly focusing on the energy stuff so I haven't again I'm crossing my fingers about the grant but I figured I should wait before circling up with Adrian and sort of talking to her about what we envisioned you know how we envisioned working with them so so she would be if if pardon me still behind it doing the kinds of things that we talked about when we had the zoom meeting right right that's what you're talking about which now I happen to be going well you may be going are you going to Thursday's I am thing okay yes maybe we can back her cuz I'm going too maybe we can back her into a corner yeah yeah yeah you know I mean it might be an appropriate opportunity yeah so that she gets to know that there something you know real and active and going on yeah great yeah that's a great idea mbbc are having a 65th is it yes 65th anniversary thing and I'm as a former commissioner I get to go you know eat canipe orer right yeah I've never been to one Martha said I can't believe it's been five years I said oh did they have a 60th party did you attend that one they had a 50th um 60th she said they had some nice dinner know well they I'm trying to think they had it I think it was Northern essic anyway this time we're going to theth golf club or something which I guess in the past we've had them at hail Golf Club okay uh but people people complained about the bar prices a bit tacky yes anyway yeah right I will certainly send an email as soon as I we hear anything about the grant if that's in advance of our next meeting what do you expect to hear just I mean how do they do you is this a new kind of thing or do they have a pattern in the sense that they say initially yes but don't tell you any money amount or do you get everything or or um I I have not seen a community one stop award so I don't know but I'm assuming they'll say this we're giving you an award and this is what it is and so we'll get an amount so we'll be able to sort of plan if we get it to plan from day one yeah okay and I assume the way it works and is the town has a mechanism to take the monies and put it into some account and then we can travel through okay yeah yeah now it would be accepted by the select board put into fund under and Open Spaces under planning so it be somehow under the planning department and then we could Rec contract out with Mar valy is there indirect associated with that like the state has indirect charges or universities if they take money they'll take a cut for managing money no no the town yeah probably should I don't think so okay no the town has unless we budgeted yeah the town has another unfortunate habit which is to put it in the general fund oh which means it disappears but in this case they can't yeah it's s the specific yeah okay right that's great I you say they can't I'm pretty sure they go M okay do anyone object if I call Ella she's ready great he curious yeah great hi hi yes she is can you see us or I'm not doing the camera very well so you can't see us but the the I'm pointing the wrong way hang on see this you can tell often I do this there you go keep going what's the next item uh we have uh public Outreach and opportunities yeah um so last time we met we looked at bunch of questions that were emailed out um everybody thought they look good I haven't looked at them since um I know that they could be sharpened up a little bit but they were pretty um do five or six questions pretty quick um it's good way stand I think what we were going to do um my thoughts were if everybody's good with those and we think we could hit everything then um we could even probably Christine I'll take one more look at it and sharpen them on and then send them out to the group we had a list of people that we would be speaking to so that would be included and then we can start um going out and talking to the different organizations I thought is that we create some type of like a simple master table um once we get feedback so if you went and talked to an organization whether however you want to record the information the data is fine but if you can type it up in some Word document or use the table and then at some point we can combine those comments and they I mean they don't have to be huge you know multi- paragraph answers it could just be um to the point and then at least that way when we move forward we'll have that document ready to go um I assume once we start this document there would be some type of folder or is there like a Google drive or something that we could access um we contribute that would be good it's a little bit um I mean there isn't one that exists the there is a committee or two that uses a Dropbox um so I know that that is possible um but there's always if you're actually you can't deliberate even on technology so you can't like actively have discussions through the document so there's a little bit of funkiness around the um so if I put in like open meeting law track changes and stuff like that that doesn't INF float yeah um let me talk to our technology guy and see I mean Google Drives would be great I think we're going in the direction of like SharePoint or Google drive but yeah haven't gotten there yet and I don't know if it extends within Town staff versus volunteer committees I just haven't really heard how they're envisioning that okay that would be interesting I some point put to paper I hope yeah yeah how I'm obiously techn you know technically um innocent here how do you sort of envisage that in terms of its you know input and involvement CU I'm I'm a bit confused that you may be talking across one another because if it's a tool and we use it as a tool that's not open that's not covered by the open meaning law as I understand it well what do you mean by a tool using it as a tool well um okay um using it to um think about uh let's say developing priorities okay now if you if you go into there and and you look at it and use it as a tool to inform your own thinking right or are you thinking about using it in a in a more active way yeah I mean you know being new to it I'm not clear exactly how this is going to go down and what role Valley is going to play like we could just be like here you go do it and then they come back us with a a draft and be like how's this look or are we going to be depends on the funding I suppose we say okay we're going to work on these sections we're going to give all the mapping and stuff to marac Valley and so then we would have a a working document that we could actually go in and be like yeah this is all updated this and then you can highlight it and put it a comment saying this needs to be updated like we were just skimming through it and there's a lot of like there's really good information in there but there's some stuff that's certainly stated and like okay this is be highlight and then whether we're the ones that do some of the editing for others to review so we be like here here's and then you and you say yeah I yeah but that's right so so that's not a decision making process that is a process of sharing up updates on material and then when you would have the meeting then you would review you see what I'm trying to say wondering in the sense that if we're drafting something that's let's just say notes and so on but that it gets to a point where it's versioned for a meeting yeah that becomes shared by an email or whatever yeah you know is that good enough yeah it's a question right we have to we got to work together on a document it doesn't make sense for us to come in and stay here till midnight work on together you can all go home work on something we're all working on the same document the exact same time because it's in cloud and a drive so then we just do our sections and then we can come back say okay we can go buzz through our changes so it's all done be really efficient and make that the official me so we don't yeah actually Rie it and approve it through that process but through this process is what I'm saying is is seems like that's what we have to do yeah yeah um because otherwise um well that's okay that's one of the reasons why very often committees like this have gone off and hired Consultants because then the consultant does all of that and it takes the the public meeting law thing is is often used as a weapon rather than rather than something that actually helps you um well I mean I I think in most cases in my experience working with Town committees there's a point person it's either staff or it's one person and if switch there was one Committee Member who was like in charge of the update so everybody one one just here here you go you know and then there's a compiling with one person and then it goes back out it's obviously more cumbersome than group you know one document that we can all see and you don't have to like email it to each other and worry if it's some draft and all that kind of well wait a minute wait a minute wait a minute okay I I I think we maybe just have to sort of St doing it and see how it works but um if if you're making it accessible to anyone on the committee or anyone else you want to have look at it that's not like emailing it no I'm saying that's how it was done oh like previously now we're talking about is there a better way that yeah yeah making improving keeping up with technology yeah right well exactly yeah yeah so for the short term like can we go back to because I think we're talking about the whole plan right now right but can we go back to this Outreach piece because maybe right if we have the questions right and we all have either Google Sheets or Excel on a computer at home if we keep the questions in the same organization at a minimum for now not ideal we can each do our thing and then one person and I'm happy to you know be the point person if that makes sense you just send it in and then you merge it right so then we can put it all together and think about it right sure use a Google form as the input you could yeah yeah Google so a Google form is like made like set up you probably use it like with the blanks already created and for each question and then and then it does it itself puts it into a spreadsheet yeah and each person has question one through six and yeah yeah we can s on the questions and that would work like it I think and I think that we fall in yeah yeah I mean I assume you have whoever the author is of the form I haven't actually used Google forms recently um but is that how it works it just like okay so was that something that um someone wants to create in Google form I'm happy to do it if I'm allowed to or I don't know Ella you you yeah yeah okay so if the questions get finessed and you know in shape we can provide them get email um and maybe yours do we have we should always have each other's emails well you should be on it when you get great okay if I don't have l get that one yeah sure just on agenda too okay not to jump too far ahead on actually when when we speak to the to the Outreach itself or is that something then that could we want to share the questions ahead of time like is everyone going to I don't want D I want to jump ahead like to how we're going to do Outreach but is it like phone calls is it right yeah can you share the questions ahead of time give people time to think right right ince it set it up and so on yeah but that's puty the cart for do so yeah well no I mean we should talk about that right because we're close to wanting to start this so I think uh it depends how well you know the person I me if you need to reach out through email then say these are the type of things and feel free to send it out um I mean me a lot of people I just I know really well I work with every day so be like I'll just sit down for you know 10 minutes or whatever it takes and just goes wrong right um so I guess I just handle it Case by case whatever you're most comfortable with yeah that's what I fig I I guess I have uh well okay I I have a problem with matching the two organizations that I'm opposite in the list okay which is um the recreation department and the taxpayer Association right um and okay the trust the trustees of reservations was the other one which doesn't actually show up with my name against it but probably should but um I wouldn't get anywhere with the four questions with the trustees simply because it's a huge organization and and you're asking for a statement that you can sort of get off their website in a sense you know in other words Newbury doesn't figure specifically on their radar um and I think to answer any one of these question questions the people who know about Newbury from my experience are going to say oh we can't speak for the organization so you're sort of screwed put it bloodly um uh I so I I'm what I'm wondering here is is the match between the the questions and the organizations because then if you move to the recreation department they really have they're circumscribed in terms of what they can do so um uh I don't think they can answer how could they answer these four questions it's kind of tough um I don't have the questions right in front of me can you just like really quickly oh okay what is your organization's biggest priority when it comes to open space or recreational space planning for the next one to 5 years 10 years they could probably answer that question okay um is that specific to Newberry or no just your organization yeah I wasn't and when I was ready I was thinking not specific especially we're talking talking about a big organization like trustees which all over all over the place yeah okay so um all right so for a minute let's stick with the recreation guys um what do you think the town and Yu's priorities should be for open space or recreational planning they have just lodged a plan with the town which the Town's beginning to work on all right so just write it down yeah so just put it in there that's the answer that's the answer and how would the town y's plan influence or impact your organization's planning or operations that's almost impossible for them to answer because they don't know what the plan is and that's that's true of a lot of organizations isn't it you'll say the town of new PL plan what well first of all what plan presumably open space plan right um I I okay so the last one um how does your organization fund long-term protection of Open Spaces they don't in the case of the recreation guys um what are the pros and cons of your organization's funding plan um does that relate to just open space or I that that's least what I was thinking they're involved yeah and some of these are they going to say na yeah definely right you yeah you ask the ad Community the fun things DNA I would um you know these are just so we can like kind of compare apples to apples but if they have something else like comments or something else to offer then definitely great information and maybe we can record that um so check those boxes and then if they're like but let me just tell you our organization open space or something like that then we can jot those notes down right right okay um so maybe add other com General comments question five type of thing you know that's give space to just free answer whoever what I was wondering was whether it's something a little bit more like feedback specific to this organization you see what I mean in other words you may get comments which only the recreation committee would make yeah absolutely um I think that's going to be true for almost everything outside of maybe the local government side of things right right going have their own kind of specific agenda Y and so that gets to be an interesting cross comparison potentially that if if people do have stuff that comes up in in talking to somebody then you get an idea of of what's on their mind you know in in the front of their mind or near the front um based on having to think about these questions and I just wondered whether that was an area we need to sort of think about that that um it's what um either issues by or or feedback raised by the whatever the four or five initial questions are um and that's why I think with a large organization that's almost that probably doesn't doesn't doesn't work um if we can get Fe back outside of those questions and then we see a Common Thread through them that's going be extremely helpful if we can find a common theme through some of these questions and we're like okay people are on board about supporting open space and this is how we can maybe incorporate that into the plan at least when we're writing the plan keep that in mind right okay that's kind of purpose of this I think to see what the big the higher level the organizations think about open space and approach it and then when we drill down to the individuals um the citizens and then the public then then we'll have that you know I think this is all just going to make M MC Valley's job so much easier or ours it depends we some surprises yeah yeah it's sort of I well I was just thinking like it's sort of interesting to have given ourselves the ones we know the best because it's actually like then the job is bringing it back to the other people like you know the trustees well I know the trustees well me not Jim I don't know you know so it's sort of interesting anyway like currently what are the trustees up to I don't know could be different than it was two years ago so that that will be a sharing component will be important well of course my answer to that would be I don't think the trustees know but that's changes a lot yeah um no I I guess I guess what I'm thinking in relation to to the organization like that uh or anything that's that's Statewide is it's better to try and focus on the region that we're in because that makes more sense than than the sort of the big picture okay um and yeah I mean it it it okay I I I just the other thing is I have absolutely no idea um uh the pal Island taxpayers Association could be very interesting uh could be quite unprintable too but anyway yeah um okay you can ask if it's on the record or off the record yes uh I well I'm I'm you know I'm sure they talk to me but I'm not sure um you know the other thing it did strike me and I guess you know I don't want to make too much of a sort of meal out of this is we have to be a little careful that we're not appearing to ask about priorities which they don't want to publicly either discuss or or share with you know um that's that's okay if they decline answer the question it's it's it's pretty light in my mind we're just trying to start the communication flow between these organizations and us so they're aware of what we're doing and right there's a committee and so they're not blind like here's our plan this is what we think it's we start just creating awareness as much is just get trying to get a feel for how you feel about these things social I mean I'm kind of NES PTA you know it's on I think my name was on that one and you know so I'm kind of curious about that because I think there's potential there to for families and others yeah exactly Aon I think it's the other one you know that'd be kind of interesting in the sense that since that is countywide let's say right that folks there there may be people there that are very aware of the open space plan yeah for other towns right and just have some maybe there yeah yeah so that's just my sort of very high level without think about too much yeah yeah right we have an abundance of Partners yeah we do and some were pretty connected with like just even you guys around the table all of us around the table um but you know yeah it's good to be um kind of to articulate like this we're working on us like come come join us yeah yeah we're still looking at this separately from like Community kind of Outreach resident type situation like I know I know OB it's a whole different set of questions I me but we're kind of like we're not kind of ready to go asking with that kind of survey like stuff yeah I was just scanning the West newb open space plan and their survey in the back there there just the way they had it set up with graphs and questions and went not but that's different than um us kind of doing this first organizational Outreach yes but this does strike me that this might inform what's in our residents Outreach right definitely um because among other things we might be able to provide people with a a better picture of you know this where the town is in terms of um you know as we've said before one of the things I think that quite a lot of people who've come to this town in the last decade or so have no idea that it's one of what is it three or four towns in the whole state that has more land that can't be built on and that is dedicated to some kind of you know preservation coner ation Wildlife whatever that that makes this place you know very different in in a whole number of ways and Until you realize that I think you don't understand well I think a lot of people think oh well what do we need open space for this a sort of standard reaction as being um why do we need an open space committee we have all that open space yeah mhm and I think that's part of what one needs to to be able to address too yeah okay okay great all right so we have um next on agenda to review Public Access and hiking trails map that might give us our version two yep so I took everybody's comments from our last meeting and Incorporated it into this draft um I just threw out the newbur recreational properties title I think the previous one was the open space and we had that conversation about I had Public Access properties which uh on the original draft so I made that edit I labeled everything on the map I don't know how folks feel I mean it's obviously tough when it's dropped down to an 8 and 1 half by 11 but you know how folks maybe feel feel about is it too cluttered is it missing some things uh I added both the upper and lower green uh David based on your observation there um yeah looking for feedback there are two minor little things yes uh okay the trustees property that you show on route one has a little chip in the top left corner Corner yeah that should be pink like the rest of it um because it is trustee property the reion reason why it may not have occurred in some listings is because it had a 21-year lease on it when it was given to trustees and that lease is now run out and it appears in the assessor uh records as trusty property as it always did and the other thing is on okay uh Plum Island uh the interface between the Refuge and the town we sold that see there's a little tiny triangle in pink at the bottom yeah right at the border with the Refuge yeah yeah right there there a little tiny triangle which goes back to um let me get the big it goes back to the street and down to the beach well we sold that for a rather large sum of money and somebody built a house on it which been there for quite a long time so yeah that just came from the state open States layer yeah right well which was true probably when they did it yeah okay I didn't I can look at I can put the uh accessory stuff on but there be a surprise to people who live there to find out it was public property is this the area you're talking about yeah right right right there see that oh so that's been sold yeah yeah there it is oh yeah right there okay you guys want to see the up to dat tax it ABS the no through way which I can't never remember the name of what's the name that something that that shows up on on um uh the map here is having a break in it because it doesn't you can't drive through a temple temple Bard right Temple is the through streets and nobody seems to know why except well it's funny I mean it's one of those things where you say oh well how come and they say well because you can't which is like um mhm but how come you can't that's quite a house they build that isn't it oh it is yeah right yes it's it's monstrous I mean piece of property they they well they paid a lot of money for it yes I can't remember how we you know there was something of an outcry because people wanted to it to the Refuge because they didn't want another house built there and all stuff yeah okay otherwise I think it's it's it's really good Mike I I think if we can hold the if this is going to be sort of a base for for a lot of things then if we can hold at this detail level as the Baseline and then later on maybe introduce other things which would drop out some of this information you know what I'm saying in other words depending what you're using it for um I did take a quick look at old Trails which is getting even more annoying but anyway um because you can't get into some of the layers now without painting which is irritating um but all Trails see seems to think that Newbury has Trails coming out of its ears which um I have your M we probably do well it depends I mean if they're social yes but if they're um you know actually Trails on property which is the property of either a nonprofit or the town or somebody else then it's an interesting question and it will be as time goes on as to how legit those are and whether we should make that legit because that's one of the things I would like to talk about under any other business if we have an item like that yeah and like you know I I I wouldn't add a Trails layer to a map at this scale I think it would get lost pretty quickly and would really provide you with much usable info um that's why I think I was thinking that you know uh there be links to these individual properties on the web on the website that would bring you to whatever organization's map of that property themselves you know instead of Reinventing the wheel you know um you would just be able to click a link for Fieldstone woods and be taken to Green belt's map of Fieldstone Woods typ type of thing for the web what we do for like a more uh physical resource that's that's yep good oh cool the seal shows up perfectly fine on my PDF um so that you know quality wise was was legible when I when I did that when I exported it and everything um but I can easily drop a more high res one in if one comes up yeah so let me know if the sign that we're working on is the one on scy and across from you the newb Port newb property yeah what what sign sorry U going back to a previous conversation about the seal um the Newport consultant who was working on doing new signage for the city had contacted me and I believe that coffins Island was the one he wanted the seal for gotcha yeah for that part see a new sign there check out this deal and see if like the sign well it's funny you know why thought it was I went I went straight there pulled right into the gates I was like I my flashlight out I was like what's he looking at but I understand why now I thought it was because it says conservation land and it's about the same scale and Sid absolutely as green belt SIDS and I guess I had applied the logo out of my own head and having gone through that well I think I mentioned to you all before I went through that whole process right uh which was very frustrating because it wasn't didn't become clear that it was a essentially a financial exercise was what it was about it was attack right off um and and we put a lot of hard work into trying to make that a real plan because they thought they really wanted to build they didn't gotta yeah well thanks for all your work on that no problem and and you again going back to the title I didn't want to like confuse this as being like all the protected open space in town or anything like that I just wanted to want to be able to call out yeah places you can recreate of a wide variety right you know um but still open to any suggestions on more appropriate uh title for for the sue if if anybody has any ideas as well yeah I I think it looks good cool um it's yeah it's definitely a nice high level look at this stuff um so I forgot is the idea that we can put this on the website right away well so I was just just trying to use the technological part of my brain to think about the idea of if this is a PDF can you have a bunch of live links on a PDF I I'm the wrong person for that sure yeah if I have ever done that you know so you like you're saying like you I know how to upload a PDF to the town website and Al's a pro at our website too now so we can figure it out um but just getting the document there and then I'm not sure howfs have a hyperlink of each parcel I'm sure Adobe has ways to do stuff like that but acat is the offering yeah yeah I've just actually been through that and you can have have links in a PDF copy but they will not link to all kinds of files they link to photos quite well to to um jpegs uh they obviously link to to other PDFs but they don't link the word files right so in other words if well so what I did was I took a word file that had a lot of links in it made a PD PDF and to my great surprise the links visibly stayed I didn't expect them to I thought they they they sort of go into The Ether they stayed and when I hit the ones that were links to jpegs they were fine but I when I hit the ones that were links to Word files what happened was it was going to have to go to another part of my resources in my computer and therefore if I sent this to somebody as um the thumb drive they so I had to make all I had to make everything into PDS which is kind of a little strange it's it's the example we're talking about that if this is viewed on the web page you click on a property to jump down to the blur section or are we talking about something are you thinking something I don't know was going off Mike's comment about like going to the green Bel map field but um Ella I heard you have an idea okay and L it it and then it's that's good point so I can go through and add numbers in front of all the different names so the text would be on that file or like the text with the numbers oh yeah you put numbers on the file andex oh yeah yeah right that's what I was thinking like you'd scroll down you'd find where it says wet Meadows then you then you click on that as opposed to the map itself so that would just be an image on your page on your web page on the web page this would be like you wouldn't be able to you would have any like zoom in Wonder play around with us we're not going to figure out zoom in to show I'm not sure how um just like if it was an image on like here's your recreational properties map click and you go to it and there's the picture and then below it there's text that has hyperlinks to the trail maps yep but the image like we're looking at right here would just be whatever size fits into your screen for that web page right like any other yeah you could if you did zoom in like tension Zoom how you can do yeah you would still have res enough right there exactly yeah on this so you know to the point that that this won't do it anymore one of the iritating things about iPads is you can get it really big and then it freaks well I'm just saying you'd want the text on the same thing you're looking at with the map right like if you open up the document and then you zoom in like that and you're like oh the one's there and then you have to go back to the other okay yeah well it could be a scroll we can figure it out web designer yes I just I guess there's I'm just aware of the limitations of our website but sure yeah we got it I'm confident so you think add numbers then in front of the individual name just make a table like of the properties right Y in alphabetical orders and those you can on and those are active so you just go right down say I want to learn more about wet Meadows you go down to the bottom in your table wet Meadows c i not that many you're just scrolling by doing a click on the map that's I think that's the easiest way and maybe we can figure out how to make that pop up and you can click right on the map but and you should be able I mean if you do that and you open up a detailed map you have't close where you start the process so you can still if you've got for example two monitors going you can do it opens it yeah you can be looking at both at the same time right I mean the other option would be too that you know I mean every organization on here's maps are public yeah so you know we could literally just have the actual map of Park River Wildlife Refuge on the web page you know Martin Burns Oldtown hill whatever it is we can just have those on the page too instead of you know jumping to a another organization's website or something the only ones that won't would be the municiple properties wouldn't have yeah right unless we created them I think it's a good point because frankly some organizations are very irritating to try and find the map of the property yeah some are buried and it's it's yeah it's hard to other thing is I I guess what I've learned um is that this is what people use particularly if they're out somewhere and and they want to update or find out which where's for example one of the things about green Bel properties which I always enjoy is okay where the hell is the parking lot right because there are often more than one there are sometimes one where there's only one car you can get in all the rest of it and that sometimes is really tough to find on on a phone and so I think we have to simp think of the simplest way you can get there without having to go through lots of layers right yeah because the more layers you are down the more certainly speaking of myself the more vulnerable you are to losing where you are you know what I'm saying um there's nothing worse than having found the map and then it for it to go because an ad comes across yeah we could even I mean on the web page with the list our page yeah we could even after the couple senses you could have this suggested parking spot or something but I don't think we have to figure that one out let's take a look at what we have cuz it it was actually pretty pretty good so if we just update this I don't know if your map can use the same letters for or new ones but this is already in there I think Ella did a great job just kind of cleaning this up a little but you can also um so it has and then down here it has that's how you can get to a bigger right yeah but that page I was like this page when I was in before how tiny the maap is yeah like you can't I can't do anything with this it's just there like I can like I don't know right like if I was on I I could probably go like that but I can't make it bigger are we restricted to that kind of size there or is that like something just stock in the to website it might be it might be okay how did you get to the bigger version there down here there's just a link I know that figured a lot of the stuff out so so so I don't know I think maybe that just whatever structure there is for like a page probably has some kind of limitation on the size of that graphic right there um but it's very easy to have that link I mean just even moving that up but it should be yeah but it should be possible because if you get a feed from the newspaper and there's a photograph embedded in the article very often you can hit the photograph and you get a bigger version but there are times when that version is limited and what I learned is that some sometimes it's not limited by technology but by license um in other words you you can't see a bigger version because they won't release a big yeah yeah yeah that wouldn't be the case here um right but that was all pulled off original files that were done to print out something to make a little brochure threefold brochure right it's good though I mean it's this is pretty good content just going back to the phone because the map shows up right away you know people are going to probably want to say how do I right there yeah so yeah I wonder if there is in the operating system the contact management system you where there ways to there may be ways to show an image that also allows it to be opened up yeah you know as own file and make it a little more yeah better resolution right yeah so you can just but maybe we maybe like instead of letters across the board here maybe we should just organize it by organization you know like it's you know town of Newbury great met Mantic field upper lower green whatever you know the trustees Town Hill yeah you know like cuz some organizations have multiple properties in town um I'm just thinking it would match up to the legend on the existing map too MH or I could change it with a lettering system you know and we just are you know what if we just kept it broad then we don't have to worry about letters and if an organization does a new yeah project or the town does something it's just falling under that heading of of of each each group yeah except are you saying like how would you know if you want like if you were looking at the list of brain Properties or whatever how would you know which one is well it's to be labeled on the map so if you're like okay I want to check out Martin Burns you know and you see that that's Mass wildlife on the legend you scroll down there's Mass wildlife's a heading it has Martin Burns and Bill Ford and cran Pond you know yeah well the reason was because it was black and white not color yeah right right right okay couldn't use color that's right because that we were able to you know just print it in the office kind of thing and even put it up on the website before the town website was any kind of sophisticated thing could only really cope yeah in fact we tried it with color and it it collapsed yeah it wasn't enough um you know memory I think available on the website or something I can't remember where is that by the way um open space committee there's a there's a drop down on the left there's a yeah so okay it's well so what I went interesting of course under maps and directions which is one of the ones on the homepage you don't get that so somebody was asleep in the switch the home page of the website yeah go to the home yeah and and hit maps and directions you get map of Newbury map of historic Newbury you don't get a map that that that frankly is much use at all yeah I'm sure that hasn't nobody's I don't know who has nobody the there's nobody attention on that particular button but I mean I now that you've told me about that button I certainly can get the open space map linked to that yeah I mean it's already there so because the the map of New that they use is not a good one anyway if you hit view larger map it it's you know it's it's not good yeah you're so over picking up where we are big brother is watching okay is any of that useful mik for the next no no it definitely is it definitely is I like the idea of like using the color that we have and bundling it that way yeah yeah organizing it that way and um so Mike's going to reorganize that map and then um are you Chris going to look at how to get on the website or look into that a little bit yes just the capabilities of the website okay minutes I'm sorry about the agenda edit I have minutes on there twice that's fine I moved it up and forgot to take it out fine yeah all right all right um so we're doing pretty good here um we just had other items not recently anticipated um I so in when I was well so you gave us that nice little slideshow of all the how poor the access points were I was thinking about that and then while I was doing that um I get the um uh EA like updates on funding and so there was a lot of there was one about um open space and how that the state has like five to seven grants that they put out it's on their web page I think it's probably happened for a while now they put $27 million into the into the Commonwealth into cities and and towns different municipalities funding projects for open space Lake Parks and stuff so and the the dollar mous was from $100,000 up to $500,000 so the cities like Brighton places like that they got like $500,000 but some of the suburb City the smaller and it's broken down by how big the population is in the town they got up to $100,000 so I just it was really interesting and I'm like this is um in my mind like why we are doing this plan because that's the next step we talk about it and stuff but then I was like Wow here it is this is really real money so when I talked to um other towns that have open space committees and I was talking to some of their chairs they're like there's a lot of money out there if you know how to go get it and if you want to go get it and then I was like oh this is what he's talking about so I can forward you that it's on their website but I'll forward it to the group um just it's a press release and it has a little bit of information and then it talks then you can go and drill down a lot deeper into individual grants that become available I haven't done that yet it's something that um once we get this uh you know finalized and we get rolling this this is this it was just exciting to me it's like wow this a lot of money out there you have if you can go get it to be used in ways Beyond yeah like a variety of ways I assume yeah for sure verus yeah I mean they're talking about you know Public Access or handicap access to Parks or something like that but there was purchasing for land and like your access example you gave I'm like wow I bet this would be a perfect example of way to improve these Public Access sites right through signage and Define parking or something so now how you get it from like we identify we get the Grant and how do you actually put that into motion I'm not sure yet but we what we'll work on those are decent dollars yeah oh yeah there's so many grants I it's one of the things that is like a little bit highly stressful to me because I just see them and I never have enough time right it's just like so that's why I appreciate all of you so much because I do think just getting these plans planner I like plans but the the point is to get it up there and then just be like we want to do this we want to do this we want to do this and you've got them all laid out and then you just like go get it done right and you have more ability to be reactive but the the most you know with grants you you got to know what you want ahead of time um and you have to have all the partners on board meaning even internally right like different committees and that's why the Outreach to the rec committee is so important because of this you know we're not just preserving Forever Wild properties we have this broader public interest of recreational access of all kinds agriculture could be Trails all sorts of stuff tons out there yeah yeah so one of the ones that I just saw today that's like right now it's available is um the municipal vulnerability program has action grants and that is um every Town's eligible they just continue to fund that that program really significantly and they just want people who haven't gotten one of those grants in a while to get back in and I think it's been three years since Newberry got an MVP Grant um we previously did the planning we got a grant to do the municipal vulnerability plan which is a climate resiliency assessment Community planning process um I think that was back 2018 maybe were you part of that maybe anywh no um and then there have been some action grants that have primarily been focused on Plum Island resiliency kind of stuff um but for instance I was talking to a resident who lives on Pine Island Road when the town was recently Paving it repaving it and you know it was like why aren't we doing some high Marsh culs and I was like yeah like you you know yes because that Road's going to keep flooding and we're going to keep throwing pavement on it and there are other ways you know there are other causeways that are doing different kinds of resiliency and blah blah so um that mvp the way it's kind of a long process right now they're just looking for letters of interest um so you can just kind of do a really preliminary like paragraph or two about something um so so that would be even if there's an early idea I mean I again it's capacity like right now we're focusing on like getting the plan created but you know even if they're smaller things um it's not a bad idea many of the grants do have matching funds required like MVP has a 25% match I think so like right now on FY 25 I'm not sure Newberry has a match for for it but that's part of the funding discussion as well um it'd be fun or interesting I guess if cuz we're small right and the town would be very small and we're just getting started but if we could like at least one year one a year or something like drill down and get the partners cuz that's like CU I do grants too and we I whenever I apply for a grant I try to make include as many people or people that are affected by it or have like some type of influence or whatever and bring them in on board and so then once you have letters of support you put that in a packet that's really powerful that works really well yeah you can show a document to them already you have everything set up ready to go we just need to get approved to get the fs and usually so would it be would an example be then for the resilience piece because we've identified that in the plan as something that wasn't in the previous version right yeah and it's the new thing right so if from there in the I'm going forget the name of the section but the action you know the goals and the action items whatever it's labeled like if like having it very explicit there would then obviously be very referenceable all guess power right even if it is coming from the plan planning side not the open space right you're still yeah able yeah and to identify the benefits and say that it's a priority of the community as was identified through the survey you know all of that um I'm I was thinking actually one of the MVP action grants that Newber got was for cart Creek which is the Culvert work that's being done on Middle Road right now that's causing the yeah yeah on or sorry confusion yeah yeah better name yeah it's you saw that we all yeah yeah so vulnerability though is does have a a focus in in other words it it tends to be focused on Transportation you know threats to transportation to um communication that kind of stuff I it's pretty broad because I know a town that got a big MVP grant for land acquisition on M basis yeah yeah so what what did they um part of the acquisition was related to water supply protection yeah I think that was the primary oh but it also had recreational and you know obviously habitat and right so even like heat island stuff like it's they're pretty Broad with MVP yeah but still there we're talking about infrastructure right I mean water water protection is part of you know the whole infrastructure that you need even though it doesn't have necessarily infrastructure on it but you know it's in other it's part of the L as it were that's all I'm I'm just wondering I mean I'm trying to think of something that wouldn't have some component like I don't think they'd fund um and it they would not find an accessible playground on a park like it's not the park funding that's right it's well so it's not for a tennis court because that makes people healthier I mean it's not that kind of thinking right yeah so that might play into what I wanted to bring up if we sort of um through with talking about this okay um so I was out at Great Meadow just the other day and one of the things struck me about Great Meadow is that it is a underutilized resource for a couple of reasons one is um because of the way it happened on um it never really emerged onto the open space radar very fully at first okay uh which is just a story you don't need to sort of go into but basically it was again a tax issue essentially uh it made a lot of sense but right now it has inadequate parking right um and it has no real Trail structure except for social Trails it also has a couple of areas which really are very interesting from a trail perspective in terms of developing one um and coincidentally the day that I was there when I met I don't know whether you know that the specific place um I think maybe built you know Orchard Street at all there's a very sharp Bend and on the corner there's a very dark house is it bre no it's it's it's um okay oh I know exactly which one it is right well it used to be a Tavern okay originally um and it became a farm and a bunch of things and it's currently owned by some people I know quite well um who are how shall I say um both quite Newberry quote unquote and and also interesting folk was Neil's an artist and his wife is very much involved in the art she's worked places like the wer Art Museum and so on anyway I met him and his dog and the dog went off and it got us talking about sort of the potentials and how you not so much advertise but but how you create the profile of a recreational property in other words is a place like that very suited to exercising dogs well one of the things we sort of decided you know casually was that yes if they're well trained frankly like retrievers Gun Dogs Etc but not if they your typical Pooch who runs madly off into the distance you know pursued by the owner saying you know Harry come back as it were um point about this led me to thinking one of the things that happens classically in small towns and new is no exception fact it might be the rule and that is we acquire resources and just let them kind of sit there and I think I think in many ways Great Meadow is and that was farther or further triggered because I happen to bump into a bunch of trustee employees who were working at Oldtown Hill and lo and behold news to me the Northeast region now employs somebody who is quote unquote a trail expert now um I don't know whether he actually used the word expert but anyway he's clearly a has professional training in developing Trails okay so there's a potential resource that that I had no idea existed um but it got me thinking that the whole pattern here is and and what Bill mentioned about the Plum Island thing in relation to the grants and so on is of Newber sort of taking a step and then just kind of not remembering that it did um and and currently uh gra Meadow is very accessible because someone is quite productively hanging it but I think if somebody wasn't productively hanging it my guess is it would be overgrown and for the classic example I'm you know I know I brought it up before but I will again is the property across the street from me which the town acquired for a quarter of a million dollars okay with the idea of putting I think basketball courts and various things yeah there are actually some plans out there I think actually sort of sketch plans anyway well now it's classic you know the beginnings of second growth forest with um you know it looks as though somebody had a sort of a go at a Christmas tree farm um and yet it's what I I TR remember how many acres it is two 2 3 acres something like that yeah um and rather strategically located in that it's right next to the library in the ball field but I don't think any anyone really knows it's there um well the wreck committee does but yeah well have their hands full with lots of things and that's not their top priority I think right well part of the reason is that it's it has a an issue that if you're going to use it as formal Recreation you need parking right witness Manfield I mean this what two 3 acres devoted to parking there right and right now if you have a a an you know an exciting popular ball game uh you can't go to the library because the whole parking lot for the library is taken up by the ball game and there are people on Lun Street and so that's an issue that's there that uh and I don't know again that there's been really sensible discussion about whether that even though it was quote bought for recreation M it was done with with frankly no it wasn't to say in any any substantive way no nobody went and really looked at it um and they didn't discover that there were significant Wetlands between kentway and the major part of the property until well it was kind of weird until after they bought it so your point is that we need people to maintain Town own properties I think we need two things we need to have an active essentially you know maintenance and development program for all the properties that we own that needs to be in the hands not of the Department of Public Works but I think a a different kind of group um and I think we need to look at what the potential is for the properties which the to town does own and did acquire either for Passive Recreation or with some idea that it was for former Recreation and in a way to me unless we do that kind of thing then anything that might be bigger really is is kind of you know running before we can walk because I have to say that the day that I drove down Northern Boulevard looking for beach access was depressing I mean I know it was pouring with rain but I I mean I've never seen such a sort of Municipal abandonment of what could be a a really delightful attractive functional um you know way yeah resource and and you know and also frankly it would bring to the for an issue which a lot of people don't want to talk about I'm not saying us but and that is the town has consistently for decades walked away from the parking issue on PL 11 and and continues to do because it's not very easy to kind of figure out what to do about it but at the same time it's fascinating other communities manage to um and so why we don't I'm not quite sure anyway um so to me we have a lot of stuff which we're not really using at the level that it could be used because one and I think what we've been talking about earlier is people are not aware of it they don't how to get to it there's not a decent Map There's etc etc but also I think too um There Are Places which are not inviting um and and essentially I don't think people feel that that it's there quote unquote you if you know what I mean it's some how it's not public yeah well I think I mean if you take Great Meadow and you take the back part of man where the Boy Scouts had the trail which used to be you know a pretty a good little Loop to do while the kids are warming up for the so game or whatever yeah you know you and but now it's got the the failing walkway or Bo whatever you want to that right can't really and it's overgrown Etc right so like I think between that and Great Meadow which you know on the that bar to I think hot Premier Properties right a cent that um you know something along the lines of what you're talking about with maybe those the connection low level stewardship right and maybe you know the green belt and others you know have ideas on how the town can approach that or something because I'm sure you guys think right you think bodies and Equipment yeah I know exactly this is the hardest it's the hardest thing it's the hardest thing it doesn't take very long to lose control exactly if you're trying to maintain control so yeah I mean dedicated resources yeah maybe there's a minimalist thing like even just so you take great meow not to prolong the conversation about it but when you show up in the the three or four sort of the parking area that is a rectangle spot that you really don't know what to do there like and they probably aren probably AR more than three or four cars coming in in an entire day you can't you can't get more than three and if one person parks in a weird way forget it's all screwed up but then you know when you either make your way around the gate or through the little uh R where the trees are and you see sort of a trail then you immediately I imagine you hit mud and a wet spot there right so it's like depending on just the starting point is kind of suspect so maybe there are things in the long run we can think about with regards to this without turning we buy all this property with all I grant money abely you know you know I mean the town could you know budget for you know routine maintenance of some of the stuff too it doesn't have to be you know weekly as much as maybe we might want a trail to be mowe weekly or something like that but I mean you know even greenb we we've had to move in that direction yeah just because of volume you know um and it's not it's not a lot to pay somebody with a tractor in a brush hog to you know mow lollipop Trail through a field or something like that but that might be kind of the solution for exactly you know that upkeep if it can't be handled you know in house I would almost say our town is people love to kind of sometimes yeah if if they know it's there somebody might even step up and just do they sure I and we've had that experience too where uh neighbors have said hey you know I see over here at mowing B I have a mower and I like to use this all the time and I can cut this for you and I'll call you when I'm on vacation and let you know that I'm not going to be able to do it and you know we've had that situation that's worked out really well too yeah ownership to it such a sense of Pride to it too you know well the other the other area which is classic and i' forgotten is the connection quote unquote between frighten and the Manta fields which has all kinds of wetland problems except it's sort of there and it's sort of used If it freezes over you can use it and if it dries out you can use it but in Spring and fall you perhaps can't whatever but that would be a major you know I mean it would expand because the whole idea eventually is that it uh hooks up with the Farms of course on the other side of things um and so then you would have essentially a whole Trail Network along the valley the the river there would be a sort of Parker River yeah right um which is very possible because among other people you know several years ago now I talked to um uh you know the what they call the the the religious Place yeah ad and Ruth and they were very much in favor of being part of uh not only offering because they wanted to do that but also they felt that it was something that they could encourage their people to feel that there was a sort of a larger you know place that you could go and walk and find meditation spaces and things and so on um you know so in so in a way it's that kind of level of stuff where you don't have to have you know a major project but doing little things to link stuff up that already exists yeah is probably more important it's not as glamorous you know but I think it's it's it's important in the sense of really using what we have yeah there'll be challenge something that we'll have to address down Road I'm sure right figure out how that gets paid for Yeah Yeah well yeah I mean but that's okay that's the whole other issue of course which we probably we need to get our ducks in a row before we address that and that is does the town want to pay for things and and what does that mean who who is who is that person yeah yeah great well okay we're winding down try to keep this a little shorter to me to an hour and a half we're over that a little bit now but but um we need to set the next meeting dates yes so we're going to be coming up against the holidays pretty soon I think we go a month it's going to get pretty close to Thanksgiving and I would hope we'd hear back by then yeah fine well my calendar automatic thing plunked us down on the 19th of November I think we've been trying for the third Tuesdays right yeah and that is the third Tuesday okay the week before Thanksgiving right and it's yeah I mean it's well clear of Thanksgiving uh and we might still all be here because it's a number of days after the election Etc or not this case may be uh but yo is that does that look good I on my calendar does I can't speak for Christina that far out although she does give me all our dates and right now it looks okay um so we could pencil that in and then and actually I could do the 26 too for some reason that did work so I'll pretty flexible there I probably could too yeah you could do a backup Maybe okay well let's um towards the aim of keeping on a somewhat consistent schedule we try for the 19th but um yeah Happy Thanksgiving over there in Canada I came much earlier what what do what did you do to celebrate um actually went out to dinner most people went home so oh is there a classic like meal though for Canadian Thanksgiving um I think they do the same they do yeah oh a commercial opportunity not to be missed lots of turkeys up there too well thanks for tuning in Ella good to see you thank you bye by okay to adjourn I guess there a motion tojn I make motion to adjourn the October 15th meeting all in favor say I yes we are don't all rush to the door at the