##VIDEO ID:ix7kYBxVhWs## I pledge allegiance to the flag FL United States America States of America and to the Republic one nation one nation under God under God Liberty and jce for all okay so I will make an announcement because this is a um meeting a zoom meeting this meeting is being held remotely in accordance with the governor of Massachusetts March 12 2020 order suspending certain provisions of the open meeting law GL chapter 38 section 20 and on March 2923 Governor Healey signed a supplemental 2023 budget Bill allowing remote and hybrid meeting options for public bodies through March 31st 2025 this meeting meeting is being recorded so I'm opening the um the regular meeting and the first item on the agenda is to welcome uh Deborah choli as the Westport historical commission representative to the committee hi everyone hi Deborah hi Deborah hi there I'm replacing Garrett stuck hi Deborah hi welcome thank you I think you know most who know most the people on the committee Deborah you will begin to to know them more I think um so the first the second item on the agenda is the approval of the minutes of September 12 2024 do I have a motion I'll make that motion John Bell to approve the minutes John Bell moves to approve is there a second Bale Weber will say Dale Weber the second is there any discussion any corrections I call for a vote roll call V vote Tim Kon say your name please Tim I'm sorry Tim kton John Bell Tim glasp you're muted you're muted Tim deorah I think I have to abstain because I wasn't a member at the time that meeting Debra March mid I Tim gasp put your hand up T I'll believe you Tim Betty Betty I I think that's unanimous with one well I didn't get to vote Dale we I oh okay sorry D it's still unanimous okay so as unusual Betty Betty I think Tim was trying to abstain because he wasn't at the meeting Timmy are you unable to get sound that's interesting yeah he might have his uh computer mic off Tim have you read the minutes yes or no yes he can vote he read the minutes okay okay okay so we're ready to um this is difficult if Tim can't get sound it's very important Tim glesby have sound so we'll let him work on it um gonna check out first oh sorry just heard him you heard me yes yes now really now we can hear you that's crazy okay huh okay so it's unusual but this year all of the applications have come in it for one month we normally start getting them in October and November but it it didn't work out that way this uh year so we will have all of them together in some ways that's good because we can do comparisons I just wanted to start out that um there's about 1.2 million which is being requested um we actually have two million available um some of it is uh the new and I will give you a table on this uh next before next month uh the the um estimated fund revenues for the next year the interest we received um on those funds which are at deposited rating to be used and the reserves um and the state match uh so that's one thing you don't have to worry about that there uh isn't enough money uh to cover this um but okay so would you rather I not have a presentation on I think this is pretty good I can see everyone there yeah this works out pretty well okay um we'll see how what what um people want to be put up there but I think it's okay to leave that up there for now does everybody agree yes yes okay all right so the first uh project is the um Westport affordable housing trust um which is the category of community housing um and they would like I've asked they have their application and I ask them to also put in the RFP so who is going to present I think this will be tag team between Bob bab Bozer and myself okay who's starting I I will start because then Bob is g to fill in all the BL so CR Dutra okay first of all we're asking for $300,000 uh the biggest item is going to be $200,000 for land acquisition as anyone who knows anything about the real estate market uh is that the right now land acquisition is the um the the most significant barrier to create affordable housing and uh it's important for us to continue to build our reserves um so that we can uh keep Pace with the marketplace in terms of land uh and this one is a RFP that we issued a month or so ago uh to get uh Realtors developers and private property owners to uh who may be interested in selling land uh and uh making it available to us uh to purchase we have done that um uh the due date is uh not until next week so we can't give you any progress report in terms of where we stand in that regard but we should uh be um have more information about what the proposals look like in a in a highlevel way uh at your next meeting in January um the uh we also asked for affordable $40,000 for the affordable housing office uh that uh serves several Function One it assists um people that uh looking for affordable housing opportunities in the community to get some information about where to find them how to take advantage of them they're also where people looking to take a advantage of our program uh most significantly the prehab program and the prehab program is in is uh designed to preserve affordable housing that may be falling into disrepair or need updates and Renovations in order to keep its status as uh quality housing and in the category of affordable and to get money from the prehab program you have to commit to keeping even having the house in uh uh a category of affordable or um the property or uh classifying it as such Bob um what fill in what I we don't have any uh responses yet to the RFP but we will be able to consider them until next June and uh there was some discussion at the last meeting that we be extending that uh consideration deadline even further and we also discussed going from a more of a passive advertise the RFP to being more assertive in terms of doing Outreach and looking for people that are lenders as well as developers on the committee uh to reach out to their colleagues in the field that might have a a a sense of opportunities that we don't have as committee members Yeah so basically this is the second half of the two-year plan that we submitted last year for um programs and activities uh with the fy2 CPA funding will have $600,000 in that land acquisition account and of course we're seeking another 200,000 so we'll have a balance of 8 800 um hopefully by this time next year okay do are there any questions uh I have a question on the prehab um it's requested that there be 60,000 for the prehab is there already monies set aside for prehab uh we have a small balance about 40,00 ,000 left in that account with the uh with the rehab uh application we just approved and funded so the the grant so would be 100 then if you get the 60 then it would be 100 that you'd have available for that sort of work yeah the grants we have now are for a maximum of $21,000 and so we're looking to fund three of those per year Tim can just leave that and and can you just take us through I mean I'm sorry if I'm asking questions already know the answers to this but I just want to understand on the prehab is there a a grant um uh application process that folks go through who are in an inventory of this type of housing that's already been built yeah there's two there's two basic tenants of it you have to be income and asset qualified meaning you have to be uh either moderate or lowincome household um those numbers are on the website it's not a heck of a lot of money these days your assets have to be limited but the big sticking point is your house has to be assessed at $325,000 or less to be considered uh an affordable home and those are be com few and far between in Westport or anywhere else these days is is that 300,000 adjusted for inflation in any way or is that a stated number that doesn't change uh it was it's been the same for the last few years we've been running the program we're going to consider increasing it just because the house values are just Rising so fast as we're limiting our pool of applicants pretty serious and then I just had another question on the um land acquisition fund if you get this 200 then you'd have a total of 800 and that corre that could be even for just one single property the 800 you don't have any limitations about um that aggregation or you have to split it up to some number what how does that work no the RFP is asking for proposals to um sell eight Acres or more that would be suitable for 20 or 20 30 30 units yeah 30 30 units so it would be a substantial piece of property like um NOA choke Village is basically what we're aiming to try to reproduce so the idea challeng aggregate enough funds so that you could get you know a substantial por parcel to develop 30 units correct okay got it thank you just the point when we did a nooch choke Village we uh had use of a tax title property that the town had seized earlier and so the land acquisition cost was not a major factor in terms of putting together the uh the the development plan for NOA choke Village uh we don't have those types of opportunities in front of us right now so we're going to have to be in a position to purchase and acquire the property Craig I think we paid $750,000 for that property we might have at some point but when they counted yes it was a CPA Grant 750,000 it the the part that was um seized was the other part that now is owned and by the land trust okay so it was two different parts it's about it was about seven acres I mean it is wasn't a large parcel and we got 50 units on that isn't that right uh Bob 50 acres yeah so I mean Seven Acres so you could get quite a few house you know places on it the the issue with this one is um finding the land at a price that that you can afford correct one of the things I noticed was that you um uh talked about it would be nice if there were the amenities near it but it's not required that sort of surprised me I thought that you when you looked at property you were looking for them to be close to shops and um transportation and all of that so it's not required is that right it's not absolutely required but if you look at a point system or desirability all those things you know come into any large scale project has to be funded with um state tax credits right lowincome housing tax credits and they're all scored on points for things like um you know proximity to public transit or shopping or those kind of things John John you had a question yeah my question is so you're going to have uh if we go through with this it'll be 800,000 does that mean you're coming back next year for more yes mostely is is the so the duplexes like you built on Sodom Road no longer a feasable thing well it it was input from the CPC that actually prompted us to pursue this route because you said that you would prefer that we more bang for our buck I don't like that I don't like that phrase more bang for your buck because we're going to add 30 to 50 units in a town that supposedly in a structural deficit with its budgets and you know departments in this town are being stretched to the Max and we're going to add another 30 to 50 units on there that means that's going to put more stress on on departments it's not really more bang for your buck if the people already live in Westport or plan to live in Westport and they have their children in school already then you don't add to it John but I know what you're saying if you have people from outside the community come in um because we have a lottery but otherwise it would be our policemen firemen teachers um that's something that we've been trying to get the uh trust to let us know sort of what is the or if you're able the composition of people who live I mean where are they from who live at uh noo Village just keep in mind that when we use state tax credits and state funding um it's nice for us to be able to to give preference to Westport residents but there's broader criteria in terms of uh residency and and that that would apply to that something you try to negotiate with a developer when you seek proposals to develop a project you ask them to give you a local preference and in um in the application stage for nooke we had a lot of Westport people applying Mark apply but did I get in yeah Mark yes so the RFP if I understand is um you're asking people who who are uh who might have a parcel of land to uh who are willing who might be willing to sell it to you is this correct correct and uh most people obviously trying to sell land are interested in getting the highest price not the lowest price and you want the lowest price to to pay the lowest price does if a if a property owners can let let's say as prop property worth uh just 500,000 and he agrees to sell it to you for 300,000 can he is he eligible to take a uh some kind of a tax credit for the 200,000 as a h I forget that there's a term for the distress sale or it's not that's not the right term but there is a term it's a good question for an attorney I don't know the answer Deborah do you know you know I don't think that's um something you can get on your tax return to take a donation for reduction in value off of the fair market value usually they want to see something tangible or cash that's been donated I mean maybe you could do an appraisal and get the difference I don't know I think you'd want to get a ruling or um somebody who's going to be filing that return would want to be really comfortable with taking that deduction I haven't seen that but I don't do tax returns anymore and I think you want to get check that out with land TR yeah there may be I know when you give land without restriction you do conservation easements and you get deductions for that based on appraisals and all that but this property would then get developed so I'm not sure unless maybe you took a piece of it and did a conservation easement for part of it and then you could get the this does get a restriction it gets an affordable housing restriction which is similar to conservation or preser hous correct preservation so it does get a restri a restriction on it that would be subject to you know lowering of the tax yeah that's possible yeah yeah so the the what they're asking for is um what they are asking for does anybody have any other comments about it John are you opposed to it is I'm opposed to the I'm not opposed to the the duplexes in the small projects I'm I'm opposed I don't I don't agree with the mega project the uh the more bang for your buck project because I just think the hidden cost we don't take that into account when we build when we build the large scale development I think that the um that's something the affordable toing Trust might look into do you think we could get Bob orza could you look into that that whole question and see what around the state what people say what what's happened NOA choke I mean they are paying taxes yeah but I think it's no different than any other kind of development look at Sodom Road there's been 20 houses built there in the past year what are are the property taxes for those houses covering you know Municipal cost Public Safety service School costs it's not much different whether you build 50 houses and put 50 families in them or build 50 apartments and put 50 families in how how is there a difference is there a difference in the tax on the property I don't think so but I don't know uh Tim gaspie yeah I just know my time on the planning board when we were talking about uh development and the impact on the town the the the people that ran the finance committee at the time were saying new housing is what we need so that we get more taxes and we were always saying that on average development costs the town money it doesn't bring in extra money certain commercial developments bring in extra money but when you have housing that includes particularly includes children the services you have to provide far outweighs the tax revenues you collect so that's sort of a general rule right um and affordable housing is likely to attract more children and so it it isn't it isn't a a boon for the community but what it is is a balancing of the community so that you just don't end up with a town full of old people you want to have a healthy diverse community so I don't think you can weigh the pros and cons strictly on the basis of what it costs the town to have new development um I think a healthy town has a mix of families and children and people that draw more in the way of services than others but that's kind of the way a healthy Community is and if we try to discourage that I don't see that we're heading in the right direction well I'm the one who answers the phones every day from people who are looking for housing and most of them honestly are senior citizens I'd say 60 70% of them they're not uh young parents parents with young children and if you go visit nooke Village you'll see that most of those people are uh I would guess 55 and over and there's very few young families there that's interesting that makes a difference and you can just just a point to raise on Mark's question um I just looked it up and yes you are you potentially are eligible for tax deduction if the difference between what you are receiving for selling your home or land versus what it would otherwise be worth with this uh affordable housing deed restriction the difference can can be a deduction yes Mark you have your hand up uh yeah well and by the way Deborah thank you for that um well the other point I was going to make um relative to uh Bob's observation that it's mostly elderly people um that's one reason that the current planning board would like to promote the development and we're I think there's a new bylaw coming out for uh adus accessory dwelling units because there is an opportunity for people somebody to build an accessory dwelling unit on their property and they can move into it because it's a smaller 900 square foot unit and either their children who uh can move in and and live there um at an affordable rate or or uh they can arrange toh some other way to get some to rent that house the the larger house that is but in any event the a lot of States like Vermont and other places are trying to promote the uh accessory dwelling unit uh because of the uh the options that it affords I think it's by right in Massachusetts now you can add one with a permit any property Bob can I ask you uh um what about John has mentioned um uh things with habitat with for Humanity we any of those in the works or are you like you did on Sodom Road you did the two uh dwellings anything in the works have you heard of anything going on do you have to pursue it or are you pursuing it we look at the real estate listings all the times for suitable pieces of property but um the focus is really been this year I'm looking for a larger piece because everyone's seems to be uh you know expressing a preference for going that way rather than it took us almost three years to get the habitat project done and we spent you know less than $100,000 but we only got two two uh affordable units out of it it's isn't it also true though that by adding 200,000 you need to put your hand up please oh sorry okay I'll I'll use oh sorry did I jump the line sorry yeah um there was somebody else I don't know who I didn't see any hands up go ahead okay I just wanted to make a point that just because you have either 600 or 800,000 doesn't necessarily mean you'll use it all on one property it's really just a reserve that you're creating so that you have the latitude to be able to act quickly if a property presents itself and you're able to then put a real offer together so it's not that you'll spend all 800 necessarily you don't even know what has uh what's going to come across your desk from the RFP so this to me looks more like a reserve that you're trying to just create so that you can be nimble in a market that's usually pretty competitive and you need to be able to act if something comes available whether it's larger or smaller is that fair that's correct Deborah that's exactly the argument that has been used to date that they need to have a reserve available and they are you know qualified to get a certain amount each year from CPC uh we don't make decisions at this uh at this uh hearing we go into the public Hearing in January before we make a decision um and are there any other uh statement questions anybody from outside the um CPC want to say anything on this topic okay so the question now is should we forward this to the January meeting to be considered in the public hearing for financing do we want to reduce the amount or to go forward with the 300,000 does anybody have a suggestion on that or a motion I would move the project forward to our public hearing meeting Betty I I'll second that because I I I'll second it John Bell because I do believe it should go to town meeting and let the town people be the ultimate uh voters on this I so I will second that thank you uh are there any comments further comments okay let's take a vot Tim Kon Tim Kon may we lost him uh John John Bell ey dale dale whoever I Tim gespi Tim glesby I Deborah Deborah chi I Mark Mark Schmid I Betty Slade I um Tim katton are you there huh all right uh so eight in favor and one was unable to vote so we will move this project to uh the January public hearing and Craig and Bob we hope you will come then uh so that you can answer any questions that we may have thank you very much see you then thank you okay thank you uh the next project is the Westport bike and P pedestrian uh committee it's a recreation project for 12,000 we have Gail Rodricks here I believe she's going to speak and I don't know if anyone else is here um I I just I I don't think so I I invited a few people in they said they're going to try to chime in but they're not okay go ahead okay so we are um let me just get this up here we put in a uh request for a review uh for uh a project we're calling the South Coast Northern route scen uh route feasibility study and this is uh including Dartmouth and New Bedford and but this uh request is only the Westport share um we also uh Betty asked that we had uh the rec committee to um review it and so Tim at any time you can chime in on that meeting was Monday um if that was uh acceptable and this is uh Tim if I could go through the presentation would that be good right now I know you have the PDF the slideshow you mean he can take it down this there we go yes so in August uh 12th we presented to the uh Westport Select board if we can go to the next page um might have skipped one I'm not sure that right oh there we go yeah so then um so the Westport bike group has been together for uh about seven years and uh Steve was the person that started the uh committee and this past uh may we got awarded $65,900 [Applause] quarter from the city line to um actually it's not going far to Sanford road but it's going to uh just go to the route six uh section and uh we that Grant includes a local match of $10,000 which 5,000 of that came from the south coast Bikeway Alliance and additional in kind services and we can go ahead to the next slide uh so this grant we're asking for is to fill the Gap from Westport to New Bedford uh it'll be uh the whole route is 50 miles continuous bite system multi-use path and bike Lanes connecting routes that will go into Rhode Island and Cape Cod and we can go to the next slide um so the the process that we're thinking about is we're looking to connect connecting communities uh so in addition to the mass Trail Grant the which up a connector uh we want to consider this request which will be the portion of the northern route which will be a 2.1 mile shared use path along the rail quarter from uh The Click Shan rail trail terminus to Sanford Road into o Bedford Road and we can go on to the next one so uh the scene at Greenway since 2012 South Coast uh Bikeway Alliance Westport Dartmouth and New Bedford committees and sered had uh designed a mission statement with one shared Vision connecting our communities with share use paths the um Ben benefits is Rec Recreation exploration exercise and transportation and we can go on to the next slide um so we call this closing the Gap feasibility study which we did get uh if you remember Keith McDonald made this request I think that was completed in September 2020 um and let's see so that was phase one and the feasibility Phase 2 was completed in 2022 with funding from Mass Trails Grant um and we can go on to this uh next slide so these are maps of the um proposed and potential future routing so we did a feasibility study and we and we had surad identify the best route and we did this Northern route we did our our they also reviewed Route Six and then they also reviewed a route that would go oak county down to Pam and come up to New Bedford from the southern part and uh this Northern route uh with a lot of open meetings became the preferred route um Route Six there was a lot of wetlands that uh prohibited some of the uh rail along the the train uh route which is active um and then the on the map on the right is it's hard to see but it it's current heat map of the of usage of bikes and we can go on to the next slide um based on our analysis we had the input and Regional mun municipalities and they decided on the Northern route which is the one in purple there we can go on to the next slide then we got funding we were able to secure a funding for B BOS Grant uh bank which uh the reward we went went to uh landscape architect to take this Northern route and do concept drawing so uh this be three drawings one's on Old bford Road the other one's old Far River I'm sorry in Westport it'll go Sanford to O Bedford Road and then Dartmouth o Fall River to New planville Road in New Bedford we can go on the next slide this is the first concept draw drawing we got uh this is Westport Sanford Road north of Route 6 so this design here you'll see um the top one is a original photo of the where we're talking talking about and then the overlay is the drawing uh and so that would show you where a pedestrian would be the cars and then the bike path as will be on the right we can go on the next one the second one is O Bedford South of 195 and uh we switched the side of the bike path um to compensate when people off of 195 they're going 60 M 65 miles an hour we didn't want the bike riders uh putting them Harm's Way so we put it on the right hand side if we're looking North and then we can go to the next slide and then this is O Bedford Road uh oh I guess that was the uh 195 yes yeah I'm sorry I made a mistake there but but you can see how the how the bike path come goes from the uh one side to the other and we can go on to the second one uh the next one um so we have supporting documents complete streets identifies four priorities in the northern section with its own funding which we plan to uh weave into this whole process um in the uh to make our case about why we should do this for the town and 2018 the master plan Westport seeks to engage Regional decision making increase Regional uh and work work more with sured enhance um some forgot I can't hardly read what that is but uh and the benefits to the bike way in Westport will provide safe Crossing at Route Six and a connection to retail hotel and Regional um employers what's also to important to mention here we're on the tip for Sanford Road intersection so they'll put a a safe cross crossing light and that's that's a state funded project okay we can go thank you um the benefits would the Bikeway would offer safe connection from rural areas proposed uh to propose higher density areas along Route 6 and uh Route 6 has a currently has a high crash intersection at Sanford road and it will continue down o Bedford Road um access to it'll have uh benefit access to the hotels like LEF Fran's uh uh visitors could access this uh as a bike and walking uh opportunity let's see uh connecting to employers to provide safe and direct rout for local employer employer uh employees uh and for work uh option for workers uh to reduce the Reliance on their car with their cars we can go on to the next one this one is M when we got the mass TRS Grant this is a uh if you go on to the mask do. site they have priorities that that they uh that they map out we realized that Westport quick aan portion was left out so that's why we got the mass Trail Grant uh so the support comes from our Westport bike walking path committee so I'm the bike chair um we have the town of Westport we've got the board of Selectmen to sign off the South Coast Bikeway Alliance um then the dnrt is a organization in Dartmouth which is uh Open Spaces um dmouth pathway committee uh their select board their CPC uh approved of their funding uh and neighbors and feasibility study with Community engagement we can go on to the next uh let's see we so we already talked about the mass Trails Grant and then the September 10th of 2004 select board approved of their their uh CPC uh request their portion is larger than ours so they they asked for more we we took the three cities and towns and and mapped it out by the mileage and what our portions would be and then New Bedford uh had a meeting earlier this month and they got the approval for CPC we can go on to the next so uh the ask for us was asking the Board of Health to support uh development of preliminary design a regional approach would be the ideal but don't let the ideal stand the way of the possible uh Westport section would be a benefit for users as Standalone encourage neighboring projects bringing people to our town for com Commerce and supporting our Town's stated goals uh so we uh the first we got the uh approval from the board of Selectmen next we'll seek uh funding for for the engineering plans and then finally Westport seeks funding for construction so that'll be Mass Trails application part two and then construction would be Mass Trails um application part three those would be funded by the state and I think is that the end Tim I it's quite a presentation that was the last slide yeah I think it's the last one so um and then the application I submitted I worked with um Mike burus Our Town planner and um he's Betty we talked about this one part which was uh project manager yes and the uh so Mike burus is going to be uh responsible in the official person contact for um our Westport portion but we did get uh some exciting news uh the South Coast Bikeway Alliance uh presented to sered this Monday and they asked for assist on managing the three Community Northern route Greenway and this will be a mass Trail grant that we're going to be applying for so these funds are going to help with the match and the meeting went well and the comprehensive unit of sured is interested in helping us write the grant manage the project and comprehensive management would be uh written as part of the Grant and Jack Jackie Jones for those of you know from sered uh is offering assistance in her department for grant writing and public Outreach um there so to our answer Betty we do have a project manager so that will be South Coast Bikeway uh that would be sured which will give us more weight when that Grant application goes to the to the mass trails and uh okay I think that's it and I'll take any question people want to know how long it is I have the amount of miles it is if they're interested or let's see um does anyone have a comment or question mark uh yeah just a couple of questions Gail so make sure I understand all the these costs here yeah you're saying in this excuse me in this proposal that the total budget of $300,000 covers the feasibility study for the entire Northern route and of that 300,000 Westport share is 60,000 yes and you're asked of that 60,000 you're seeking 12,000 from CPA if I got it right yeah that's correct okay well it and then somehow um let's see I've got the thing in here okay it does get a little confusing so yeah so the total cost would be for this portion of of this Pro process 12,000 uh then the uh we have the tip for the safe Crossing for the road which the state's going to pay we're going to also uh include uh complete streets to Sanford road now that would be heading south but there'll be a connection we'll be able to make with the complete streets with its own funding and uh uh actually I'm sorry I said South Coast bike White Lines gave us 5,000 it's I think they gave us $3,000 and um let's see we we're asking for 15 but somehow the 3,000 extra dollars was going to be like almost like a you called it a a reserve um and so what what's happening with with sured taking a portion of 10% of the grant um that money May fold into our portion of of contributing to having sured do that um but so um basically you're asking for 12,000 you don't see any further requests coming to CPC is that right that's at this point um it is lucid they had the meeting with sured uh Monday and Keith McDonald which you know is a civil engineer he's on our committee he was mentioning something about um and this was just an email we didn't decide on anything but he he said it was something like uh let's see uh he was mentioning that um I think the community planners should be able to credit some of their time as a match and uh we have the additional 3,000 from CPC so we might not need extra cash which would pay for uh the sured having uh their portion that they're going to put in the grant writing just a moment Gail uh Tim Tim glasby um I would like to report that the Recreation Commission did go over this plan and unanimously uh recommended uh advancing it to the community preservation committee and the town thank you for that thank you appreciate it are there any other comments or questions from the CP I would move this project forward to the public hearing just one second anybody in the public want to say anything okay Timothy Tim trp I move that we uh Advance this project to the public hearing for further discussion ,000 for $12,000 yes Dale Weber will second is there a second please dale Weber seconds it okay is there any discussion okay Tim Kon yes Tim Kon yes John John bellik dale dale we I Tim gesp Tim GES I Deborah debor chi I Mark Mark Schmid I Betty Slade I that's unanimous we'll see you in January for the public hearing thank you Gail okay thank you everybody okay have a nice holiday you too okay we have the gra project um historic preservation 8,775 Cindy Wilson I believe is here I don't know if anyone else is but um Cindy will just give us an overview of this project um since the project was submitted uh there's one change I don't know if it changes the financial aspect of it but um we are fortunate that the uh family search people uh from the Mormon Church uh come in and they do digitization and uh they have agreed to digitize uh a lot of the um documents at the Grange um as well as they today we worked on getting it ready for them to digitize uh all of the marriage death and birth data for Westport that we have um the advantage to using first of it's free is one thing but they also provide a an external hard drive with all the information uh on it they keep it in the cloud forever as they say uh and then they they make it so it's more searchable because they're interested in in connecting names with the data so when we do this digitization to date we just have flat digitize and no uh connections but now we'll have connections of names and that will be of great help to the um to the town clerk as she was saying today uh because they asked often for information about births deaths and marriages and it goes back way back so and also for Cemetery certificates so all of this is very helpful to them anyway let's get to Cindy yes thank you thank you for considering this project I am the director of the food pantry which is housed in the basement of the Grange but I am now also the secretary of the gra and have been helping them with this archival project um uh where we I'm part of a a group a Comm summer community and I'm involved with the history house there and have some experience in archiving documents and photographs and displaying them um appropriately so that they don't deteriorate further um exposed to the elements The Grange current collection is being housed in a closet off the kitchen um and there was some insect damage and some moisture damage that was happening to the documents they and the framed images are hanging in the wall in the sunlight behind unprotected glass um so we are looking to um purchase archival boxes and storage appropriate storage um material to house the 70 or so books that we have that date back to 1890 that include the original minute handwritten minutes and financial documents of the grain from 1890 to the current day and then to reproduce and store the original um images like the charter and several of the um important documents that are framed and on display that have detated because of their exposure to sunlight so we would be um using a professional service to uh make a digital version of that have it cleaned up reprint a better digital version and um display that behind archival glass um and then store the original in archive safe space uh the and I spoke to several I spoke to the West Westport historical society and to the Dartmouth Grange and to the UMass Dartmouth and some of the people that I've done archival stuff with in Pennsylvania to find out the best practices and this was our proposal of what it would take to store it it's not an excessively large amount it takes up most of one closet and it would be able to once it's in properly stored in the boxes I would expect it would take up one to two shelf space um and we would keep digital copies and make them accessible through the Grange website and share that information with the community and other granges that's great so Cindy um in this price um in this request are you including any digitization of documents I do not think I think we originally had put in there and I we put in a purchasing a scanner of the documents before we knew that and I don't have my glasses on I didn't I um didn't grab them with me when they come upstairs I was late logging in because I didn't realize the meeting was tonight so um but I had put in the purchase of digitizing a fa using a face up Scanner thinking that we would do it based on volunteers and that we could then possibly if the CPC allowed us to purchase it they could then utilize it for other organizations if the Mormon group actually does that digitization that could be backed out of that expense I wanted to say that uh and I've I think it's included in your packet today CPC members that we that the CPC purchased the scanner and the reason this is coming up so often now this whole question question and that we can find volunteers who do the scanning the question is having the equipment so um later on I've asked that um CPC approve us uh a personing scanner for from administrative funds basically that's about $4 to $500 but it would save us a lot of money I think in the long run save CPA funding a lot of money so basically I'd take out that 500 from this if you did that so it' be like 82 25 that they'd be asking for are there any questions no questions do I have a motion I'll make a motion that we move uh this to the uh the meeting what is it the January meeting okay second who is second thing please Tim Kon Tim Kon second thing okay and John Bell made the motion any discussion uh so Tim Tim kton Tim Kon I John John Bell I dale dale Weber I Tim Gillespie Tim Gillespie I Deborah Deborah chi I mark Mar Mark Schmid I Betty Betty Slade I that's unanimous thank you very much Sydney thank you very much in January January second Thursday in January I believe okay I will put it on my calendar good night thank you good night okay the um next project number six is the Westport Point United Methodist Church um restoration basically historic res it's under the historic uh preservation uh category of 450,000 um so I just you the the committee has the information that I will be talking about uh you've seen it already but I'd like to just go over the issue that is with churches um in 2018 the um Supreme Court of Massachusetts basically struck down a project uh for stained glass windows in a church and they were stained glass windows which had religious symbols on them basically um and since that time there's been um reluctance reluctance to um bring churches projects for churches before cpcs around the state however I checked today and saw that since or yesterday saw that since 2018 there have been 225 projects that have been approved by CPA for church related activities and they are very diverse and you anyone who wants to could look into go to the community preservation Coalition go to the database for projects put in historic pre put in um historic preservation uh for every town since 2018 and put church and up they pop so if you have any questions about that you can look at that so that's one thing the second is that um I asked Jim hartnet if we could get a a uh a discussion or an opinion from the Town Council and of course it's a lawyerly dependent uh lawyerly result uh basically saying you could always be sued however uh if you do a few things it might might help you if you were sued um so one of them was that you should have a grant agreement um and the answer is we always have Grant agreements for private projects so we definitely would have a grant agreement the second is that the uh restoration should follow the Secretary of the Interior standards and um this has gone through the historical commission and they do follow those standards um and we always look at them uh before the um projects is approved um so that has been required has been done uh the third is that the historical commission has met twice on this project the first was to look at the entire project and make a decision on whether it should be given a certificate of appropriateness and it was unanimously then the Town Council suggested that not only should they do that but they should also make a different statement which is actually part of the first one but anyway that the uh Pro that the buildings concerned are significant the historical commission made that determination unanimously that the buildings are significant for history culture archaeology uh of the Town um and the historical commission has sent two letters to us uh one telling about the certificate and the second about the significance and recommending to us that we um look favorably uh at this project um so given all that um I felt comfortable with bringing it before CPC I remember you remember last year that the St John the Baptist um came before CPC but we had a letter a strict letter from Town Council saying it was not a legal project so we could not make that decision now we're saying they're saying this particular project looks like a could be legal and it's up to I spoke with Jim haret uh and he said that it's up to CPC to determine whether or not they want to go ahead with this project and put it before the um town meeting so given that background and I think that covers most of things unless somebody else can think of any other things I'd like a presentation I don't know who is going to be giving it I think kit wi joined us didn't he here kit we don't see you I saw that he had are there and I'm here as well Betty Buzz brown Le hi Buzz didn't I saw you earlier but I don't see kit Betty can I just point out this this is actually howand Hall and not just the church it's how I know it'll be clear once okay could give a quick summary if you like it's the property we have to look at it as a property on the in the historic district which is uh on the national register and the whole property is the church and the Helen Hall the Helen Hall was built in 167 16 in 1967 so it's a newer building yeah Betty I don't understand that that's that's my issue with this is it was built in 1967 like the church yes by all means historical by all means but just because it's connected to Howland Hall how does that make it historical uh it isn't age does not determine history but anything if you look at the um all and I can send this to you all the information National register if anything is 50 years or older it can be it can be considered historic um but it's that I'm over pardon me I don't like that because I'm over 50 you're very sted John Bell so it isn't a matter of age it is a matter of matter of how how the building has been used how it's contributed to it is this going to open the door now for other properties in town to come come before us see John it also has has to be on the historic inventory so the the howood hall itself not the church how Hall is on the national register of historic historic places right the whole property it's the whole property is on the national register I I checked on that all right all right I'll take that then for okay also um basically it's on the the the Massachusetts state Register of assets and for CPC see to there is if you look at our website our web page on the town website you'll see what determines whether something is historic and one of them is that the that the local historical commission has determined that it is historic that's it and but here it's clear that National register it's in the historic district Etc so okay it is it is legally historic okay all right you just put me at ease okay thank you significance is another question but anyway we're I buzz if you want to begin certainly thank you and I appreciate everybody considering this uh this application on behalf of the church I I act before you here just a quick summary here um and and start with saying that uh our application is based on a on a single to date and our uh larger Church conference requires additional estimates and we are actively pursuing additional at least two additional estimates for this project uh the hall is historic in a sense that's been discussed a little bit here uh because of it's a a value to the community and I while the church was built in ' 67 uh since its uh onset uh it has been used by the community in fact the the the plans which I I saw some time ago and dug out again say that it's Howland Community Center it's not the church's Community Center it's Howland Community Center and so in in the application you can see the long list of organizations and groups which have used this for a variety reason uh activities from from dancing to quilting to bell ringing and you name it a couple jumped out at me as being of interest uh and that was 1970s the the town had a shortage of of classroom space and so the portions of the building uh H and Hall were used for for uh several grades of school and in fact I know two people who attended School in Howland hall for a couple of years and said that that was back in the 1970s uh most most recently one of the more interesting uses we've had uh uh is by the Westport rowers have during the winter held practices in Howland Hall they have rowing machines which very nicely fold into almost nothing and were lined up against one wall of the hall and used by the rowers on a regular basis through the winter and and lastly I I think of this as a community center uh you in the sense that you've seen uh you've seen the the various activities that are broadcast well is the clam bakes over the years uh most recently just last Saturday we had one of our annual uh occurrences there in the hall with with our Holly fair for preparation of the of the coming holiday season and that Hall from 9 to two was really packed uh with people and sure they were there sensibly to to you know buy some Greenery or some decorations for for the holiday season but on the other hand what really struck me was the number of conversations going on people would stop and say well I haven't seen you now and I don't know how long and they'd start a conversation so it it became as many of these occasions in Howen Hall uh become a community activity and people look forward to them yeah I think in in that respect as well as for this the more stated obvious uh reasons for the activity uh so our goal in in this project is to make H and Hall uh better usable for the community uh we want to rehabilitate the exterior we want to improve accessibility we want to improve Energy Efficiency and it's going to be divided really into two phases we're looking for funding for phase one which uh would probably be the the significant portion of it we're looking to replace this these seeder shingles which are falling off the sides any kind of a a blow that we have uh you find all kinds of these uh shingles on pieces of them on the ground and they're just they're just falling off literally uh the windows are 1960s awning style they the frames and the Sash and many of them are just rotted and number of them inoperable they're single pain with no storms and they're a great heat gain and heat loss depending on the season which makes the the uh the the room less than comfortable especially in the summertime uh for people like the square dancers who who just have limited the square dancing because they the hall gets too hot in the summertime uh we want to improve the accessibility uh the entrance doors on the outside are are old metal doors which are rusting but they don't meet ADA requirements by any means uh the the thresholds are too too high and so we're going to uh put in a a modest addition to the building hopefully uh which will house a lift and that will uh be an accessible entry and in the second in the next step we would we would then install a list to provide uh accessible Roots within howand Hall at the present time we have a lift uh which which can get somebody from the first floor excuse me from the middle area where the entrance is to the second floor but if somebody with a disability you can't get from the second floor to the first floor within the building and so it the lift would would solve that problem for us uh then on the interior in addition to the lift we want to improve uh the the restroom situation because we have four restrooms in the in the building none of which is accessible to people with disabilities so those are things we want to undertake inside along with uh some air conditioning so that we can get to get the hall better usable for people in the summertime uh that's the gist of phase one we've got some additional you know line items that you can see for instance that that modest addition to the building that's going to be for the lift unfortunately is going to sit right on top of our existing well so we're going to have to move the well to a slightly different position and so that's that'll be a cost that we didn't anticipate certain initially on the inside in phase two we need to improve the lighting and the sound the decor and and like to put in a modest kitchen so that people who are coming for a gathering uh can can fix some food if if they wish but that's that's in in the second phase of this and we're primarily addressing tonight the first phase kid is there something you want to add um I I yes can can you all hear me yes yes yes yeah I I was on a previous computer which was having a bad connection and I've got a different computer now that's working better for me thank you um uh we've broken this application for phase one work into into really really six different phases but the four primary ones uh include much of what Buzz is described the the principle first one is the restoration of the exterior of the building with reciting and new windows um the second part of it is the accessible entry the new small Edition that would include a Stairway and a lift it would provide access to both the lower and upper levels of Howland Hall uh it would also get rid of the very ugly concrete stair that presently provides entry to the top level of Howland Hall um the the third the third part would be creating an accessible toilet room on the uh main floor of Howland Hall and the fourth part which which has always seemed a little in favor of the church usage of the pro of the property is creating ramps that will make it possible to get from the church Sanctuary itself to Howland Hall um by inaccessible interior route and um we've separated that piece out in case the CPC might think that it was too um dare I say too churchy to be included in in in in the grant but it isn't an integral part of the whole um problem of creating ex accessibility into and throughout the building um uh and then the other two little parts are are well the the other are the parts um which I think I've called uh d and E uh on my plans are the air conditioning of Holland Hall itself to make it more usable in the summertime and the relocation of the well and we're we're hoping that the CPC will see its way to to helping fund all of these parts of the project um but we've separated them out into individual parts so that the CPC might be able to pick and choose if they want to which parts of the project they might fund uh buz you wanted just add yes I could just add a a word to Kit mention of of the ramps between the church and the hall it might sound churchy on the on the face of it but on the other hand uh the there are public events in the church the the Acoustics are wonderful and so we have things like concerts at the point at the church and I we we know that certainly the some of the musicians often will warm up our practice before the uh the performance in Howland Hall and yet to get there um you have to get down some steep uh steps that look as if you're going into somebody's sell you have to duck your head and then get to the middle landing and then go up another set of steps to get the H and Hall and and it's not just concerts at the point there are other concerts that we we've had there and we and we we've had uh various uh things like funerals for people who are not at the members of the church uh and yet they might want to have a reception in in Holland Hall so it's very difficult for a person with a Mobility impairment thanks Deborah could I ask you um to say something about the appropriateness of the um changes and what you think the impact will be the external changes sure um as you know we don't have any call on what happens on the interior of the buildings but we did a review of this proposal when kit wise came to the whc in November at our meeting and presented the plan so we looked at all of the exterior changes also the accessibility and entrance sequence um features that that kit pointed out to us and we um we had a lot of discussion about you know the windows the fenestration patterns the the significance of of the building itself the uh the um appropriateness of the design based on the uh existing historical district on the point and and other uh buildings on the point does it fit in is it is it consistent and all those kinds of things that were discussed there was some discussion about one particular window where we felt there could be one more window along that um fenestration to make it more more uniform kit agreed to put that in to the final plan that was eventually um approved by the whc there was a lot of discussion about how you see that building as you walk up the point because the cemetery is right next to it there's a lot of open space so it's a very significant building on the point because you you see it so clearly from many many different perspectives as you walk up and down you know the point so um the the design appeared to the historic commission to be very appropriate for for the um uh for the point for the continuity of the buildings on the point this would be a huge Improvement to what's there now especially there was going to be uh I think some cladding along the uh basement uh wall I think kit could maybe describe that a little bit that would really improve the exterior texture of the building uh the windows certainly need to be improved they are very dated and they're not they don't fit with what the building is or with any other buildings on the point so we all we thought it was a very a very good plan and and it we got a lot of good discussion about it and I think it was very well received by all the Commissioners on the Westport historical commission Garrett stuck the chair of the commission wrote a letter I'll point you to that at the end of the uh uh packet that uh was distributed to the members for tonight's meeting there is a copy of that letter that Garrett wrote it's it's short but it's very um very uh succinct about and and concise about what what the elements are that we're trying to preserve that he and I'll just read this into the record the building itself while not particularly significant architecturally is near the center of the point historic district and is highly visible due to its location next to the church and across the street from the cemetery it's seen from quite a distance and it's an important contributor to the character of the historic district so as John Bell pointed out it may not be what you think of as a historic building it's very important to the Westport Point um it's been on and it's on the register of historic places since 1991 so it meets the criteria uh and then Howland Hall itself is cult and I'm quoting from Garrett's letter is culturally significant because it's one of the only meeting spaces in southwestport and it's within easy walking distance of the entire Point regularly used for lots of different activities as as uh Buzz just talked about um and if it's renovated and this is the conclusion if it's renovated and made more accessible and comfortable as proposed its value as an architectural cultural and historical asset will be much enhanced and we therefore prove um the uh the application for certificate of appropriateness and uh recommend it to the CPC thank you Tim gespi Tim glaspie Tim yeah can you hear me now yeah all right um the number $450,000 is a big chunk but I know that the one bid you've got um if you get a couple of more bids I suspect that the big number is going to come down um at least I would hope that that would be the case but anyways we're going to require at least two more bids anyways the CPC will and I know Buzz mentioned that you're going to go after two more Tim they will have to do well we're hoping that could happen before January if we pass this on but they will have to do an RFP uh at any rate for this kind of uh funding uh so the question of um the amount is a is a big question um and it seems to me I mean I I have um been working uh with them uh to some extent and um they understood that that asking for this amount of money was probably a far reach I encouraged it in order to look at the various components and to see um what it is you think that um would help um make this building more useful um and also uh more attractive in the historic district uh so we don't have to approve every part of this we can pick and choose um we could do that uh either at this meeting or the next meeting um but there are things that seem to be very common around the state and I'd really like for some of you to look at the different projects if possible the community preservation Coalition website one of them is uh accessible accessibility accessibility is such a key aim of the state one thing and an aim of restoration um is to also make it accessible and the accessibility part of this is very expensive I mean if you if you look at it I mean how much was it the just the accessibility 207 207,000 itself um and I'm I'm not clear what uh kit said about how if this is separating out what is this separating out as far as accessibility is concerned um is this just to get people to the second floor um if yes um there there are really two parts to the accessibility the one part the principal part uh which I think I've called Part B in in the application is the small addition that will include a new stairway from grade um up to um the top floor of Howland Hall and the lift which will provide access to both the upper level of Howland Hall and the lower level of Howland Hall um that that's the principal accessibility for Howland Hall itself the second part of accessibility for the whole building is the revision of the main stairway and the link and the ramps that will allow full accessibility between the church itself and Howland Hall um uh uh to speak uh for a moment to Tim Tim Tim's comment about the uh additional estimates bringing the price down I think he knows as well as I do that preliminary estimates based on schematic drawings which is all that these are are never high enough so if we did a complete set of construction documents for this building and put it out to bid um which is a is a very large project to do from an architect's point of view uh we'd get a variety of bids probably none of which would be below the estimates that we've provided at this point because these estimates are based really on only schematic drawings and some some very limited specifications um and as far as getting additional estimates between now and January um we can try to find somebody who can do it on the basis of The Limited drawings that we have but to get to get accurate estimates um is an enormous enormous amount of work um in preparing um drawings and specifications which we haven't had the time um to do up to this point so John I'm just wondering if this project gets moved if if we can get a walk through down there before the next meeting certainly yes yes or no yes yes from the church yes okay yes you can uh some uh Mark uh yeah Betty thank you Tim I'll get back sorry go ahead Mark okay so um couple of observations one is that um the uh the plans and the schematic design has presented seem to satisfy the you know the needs the programmatic needs of the church and uh two as to the costs um I I would agree with kit that uh you have to be cautious that the numbers you're seeing at this stage of the game can very likely be um optimistic and uh so um if if you Betty and the rest of the committee feels that this for the all the reasons you outlined uh qualifies for CPC funding I don't see any problem with the stated request of $450,000 uh given that uh a chunk of that will go toward the exterior restoration and preservation and uh and the it'll cover a portion of the accessibility although uh not the entire all of the accessible elements that are are included so uh it seems to me uh if if indeed we you say that this project would qualify that this level of funding is not unreasonable Tim uh Kayon yes Betty um when they when they do an estimate based on a on these prelimin drawings they do it on a like a square footage a general contractor will come in and do whatever it is you know so much a square foot but then afterwards when they get when when the architect fine tunes it and starts putting everything in pages of whatever subcontractors and whatever everybody else is responsible you might get into a fire alarm issue because it's got to be brought up to code so what I'm getting at is that price could go much higher but my question is and I'm new on the board so it might sound foolish but if the CDC gives 450,000 and this project turns into 850 or n or whatever that's that's just what they're going to get for the CDC is that correct yes and the next question I have which is probably none of my business um the the the terms of like um any public events there whether it's a band or whoever the case may be it was a funeral service or something um for for somebody to to use the hall does the church get paid for that those Services buz yes the the church the church has a very modest Fe which essentially just covers the the Heat and the cleaning if you will various events like like that yeah so there's not much budgeting for ex stuff maintenance and that kind of stuff for the church no no okay thank you uh I I am concerned about the four the total of 450,000 um being given to town meeting in one year um what I what I've been thinking of is this being a two maybe a two-year project so that we that you do certain parts of it this year um and then certain parts next year we can't guarantee that but um off we have in the past done two-year projects isn't that true Tim Gillespie we've done we've said yeah we've done that um the only the reason the reasons I now I'll say that is that one I think the question of history is I mean that John immediately said is this building really historical so we have to considered historic we have to sell that uh is one thing um and secondly it's a church as a and there we last year we were unable to do St John the Baptist this year they I've been trying to get them to come in and they haven't they finally wrote and said we can't come in this year so I I was worried about um kind of people's attitudes will we now having this church and not the other one and at such a large amount because I know that the other the St John the Baptist was asking for a large amounts too but both internal and external so I would would I I would I have talked to a couple of people at the point uh about getting some other kind of help um that would possibly reduce the cost of this I mean not reduce the co cost of this to the church besides the fact that they have to raise the money um for example um help in kind um I talked about a a value estimator I spoke with Deborah chaly about that um because one of the questions is can you reduce some of the cost by not doing some of the things that you plan to do and I the only thing I could see in that was moving the um the bathrooms in the kitchen to the other side will that reduce the price significantly and I understand that can be estimated what the the cost of doing that so that I I I think maybe we should think of this as a two-year project and in the mean time look at what our other sources what your other sources can be and let people understand the why this is in it's in the historic district it's on the national register it serves a very important Community role all of these things it's been really um quite supported by the historical commission so all of those things makes it a good project but 450 is a lot Deborah um just one thing I think what you were referring to was value engineering where you look at program change try to reduce scope to get some savings and that's something that kit would have to run that process with the estimators but that's that's very detailed and not that's not going to be available by January for sure that's just going to be a really you know tough tough Roo to get it to by January but one thought I had was since we have a I mean the CPC has a mandate to do historic acquisition preservation Rehabilitation restoration that seems to be within the cpc's purview right so if we restricted our piece to just the things that are covered under that so say the exterior um renovation or exterior restoration certainly accessibility is something that I think you you said the CPC does care about so we rehabil the rehabilit so if we just did those two pieces the exterior and the HP um the Ada stuff then we can you know make that case the Optics are probably better over that two-year period to fund just those things and and the other things they have to be ra that money has to be raised elsewhere not through CPC so it's almost like a matching kind of Grant isn't it we're we're saying we'll we'll put this much up but other sources of funding would be um required to do the things that are not in our purview is that the way to frame this well if you for rehabilitation you also have the question of accessible bathroom I mean if they're going to do restoration and spend this money kid I don't you can tell me if this is true or not I think aren't you required in a public space like this to have A Accessible bathroom uh you know I can't answer that directly yeah but generally generally yes yeah so it would be you're T you're talking about 234 and um one what are the first two one 132 and 234 well actually three things 132 207 and 23484 it's it's really everything except the AC and um the well no it's still quite high but over two years over two years you're saying yeah yeah um I think that Tim glassby had to I don't know who was first but Tim I've had it up for a while um the tricky thing about dividing a project like this into phases is usually that means it's going to ultimately cost more in the long run it's going to cost more not less and it's really tough to break to start attacking a building like this and start the work that you want to do to make all these improvements and additions without having a dramatic impact on the interior of the building and making the building pretty much nonfunctional for a while so it really makes more sense to throw yourself at a at a phase so that you can get through it and the building is fully functional at the end of that process that's right and and dividing it up is really hard to do yeah Mark um well I was going to suggest something but I I think Tim has a point but I would uh I was going to suggest and and I would defer of course to the the the church and their wisdom about this but if following the application if they did uh under phase one if they did part A which is the uh the exterior restoration essentially and Part B which is the um excessive portions and added part the the bathrooms Part B I guess second floor bathrooms uh if you did those pieces you'd have following the estimates we have uh $423,000 um now whether that makes sense and it would mean that you have to come back to do the internal ramps and stairway uh in the link I guess and and in part of the church if that's you know if that makes no sense because of a double disruption to the church's activities Etc I can understand that but that is one way if if you people were reluctant to fund the entire um as requested so you could you could do the pieces I just said exterior restoration and the accessible entryway and and uh lift and the accessible bathrooms on the second floor all with for the the Howland Hall portion um that is probably a budget of you know it's 423,000 let's round it to 500,000 and if the CPC wanted to fund half of that for 250 or something like that in the first year that's I'm just offering this as a uh sort of a compromise route can I yeah yeah you're you're very close Mark and and in fact it's the part C uh the stairways and ramps that link the church to the Holland hole that could be left out at this point but uh part A and Part B as Tim pointed out would almost have to be done together because yeah um they're they're integral to the exterior skin of the building um if you did those two pieces um uh and you included the the the the restrooms on the main level I think the estimate of $84,000 for that is is extraordinarily high and in fact the way we had it estimated indicates to me that that that it is High um uh you would have to you would have to move the well um and um as Betty has and maybe the air conditioning could go to a second round of funding um but Parts A and B uh ab and D um really would go hand inand and um uh if the if the committee could um uh contribute 250,000 to that and the church already has 50,000 uh imagine if we got that going the church might well be able to raise raise the additional to to complete that part of the project and then that would leave really only um the uh the connection of the stairway and the ramps of part C uh to be done uh in a in a second application for next year and that could be done um as a separate pro project so K you're saying uh a which is 132 and C no B which is 207 yes and f f the well you can't do the bathrooms without the well so that's almost 450 and so you're saying 250 250 well two two so 450 so if if if that comes to 450 um and the CPC provides 250 and the church has 50 um uh the churches need to raise another $150,000 one yeah for Laura hi everyone I'm I'm Laura Ola I'm from The Point Church um the other part is we have left as a fundraising goal the interior components of H and Hall which are not in front of you and that is you know renovating the hall as Betty mentioned a small catering kitchen um some AV possibly the AC so that was the piece that the church had intended to do a fundraising campaign for and that's why it wasn't included with this phase one buz yes said I I it's it's been touched on I did want to point out that that if that the the well is foremost that's probably the first thing that's going to have to be done uh if if in fact we undertake A and B and and [Music] D oh okay Laura do you have another question another Point um so um between now and January I know that it's um almost January now um is there any chance of talking to some people in the neighborhood um and around the town about doing some in kind work I mean or people who could Supply some of the uh materials at Cost uh things of that nature I mean I've already approached one person who is willing to help but um we got to know that you're going to be able to raise These funds yeah and and we need some before we would we we don't we don't always do that but with the Historical Society basically um we assume they rais the funds and they rais them um it's easier for them of course but um do you think you could raise the funds you think you could get in kind help does that work kit I mean I'm not thinking of people to come in and volunteer labor I'm talking about somebody who dig the well for a reduced price or somebody who supplies materials at a reduced price is it the materials that cost so much or the labor both I know I know both but if you if you had you know some contributions would it make a significant difference kit um I I have you know the one thing that comes to mind immediately would be the windows uh which which are a big portion and I have done work with um Pella Windows on uh other nonprofit projects where they have given significant discounts on their prices um so that's that's one source um could you get the local well drillers to um give an advantageous price I don't know um I think that's that's a job that the the the church uh the church would have to have to go after um uh would local contractors be willing to uh help out with something Mr Gillespie um I'm retired you're retired yeah well um L's too busy yeah I know um uh so where it is it is something the church is gonna have to pursue there's no okay so definitely we're talking about part A which 132 or so um the question of the bathroom do you have to have two bathrooms or can you deal with one and can you leave it where it is well let let me let me try to explain what happened on that in in the original estimates we got from Volo we were going to do uh two accessible uh toilet rooms in the basement of Howland Hall and uh the estimate that they gave us was based on that and that involved a lot of Jack Harring jackhammering up concrete slabs and putting in new trains and so forth and so forth and so on um and at the very last minute um we we changed that to creating one accessible uh unisex handicap toilet on the main floor of Holland Hall and I just jiggered Boo's original estimate for the two basements in the two bathrooms in the basement to one one handicaps accessible bathroom and another non-accessible bathroom um on the on the on the second floor and just threw a number at it quite honestly and that's where the $84,000 came from and I'm I'm pretty sure that number is awfully High okay so um uh it's it's it's a matter of the time we had to to put these estimates together um so we're talking about 132 207 and 84 which is 323 and 15 and 15 15 well yeah okay if you use these numbers those are the four categories a b d and f categories and then and then the other ones are the stairs and the AC which is 234 plus 35 so it's about 270 so you got 270 on one side and then you got all the rest on phase one and I guess my question Betty not to jump the line here um but is this so that we can do a a grant we have to have confidence that the Delta the difference between what is needed and what CPC could fund that it there's a level of confidence that it can be raised or brought in kind before we could consider it or is that just something we have to just trust might happen they have 50,000 in hand right now but um it's a question of um if they were to do the outside that could be that's independent I mean in the sense nothing else the if they were to do the lift and I really believe there's a possibility of finding a lift a used lift which the staford school has done they're veterans but they're are lifts all over Boston that are being taken out and they're in good condition to be put in something like that there are these things that could be done but there's going to have to be a real strong move to do that yeah and um I am going to ask Susan Montgomery who is here she's chair of the neighborhood association I just like her opinion because she usually has an opinion and you need to open your we can't hear you Susan what do you think about the importance of this and the fundraising possibilities Etc um I I will um say two things um but I'll tell you ahead of time I don't know enough about the church process or the church itself to comment on uh their fundraising capacity the two things I will say are um when I first moved into this community and I'm not a member of the church and I never have been when I first moved into this community 53 years ago I met the community in how Hall yes and the events I attended were community events um that's how I got to know many people and they Church drew me into various activities there was a a a quot making group that operated in Howen hall for more than 20 years um that was not only church members um and it's very much to me how and Hall is a community building it is the only place in the area where you can meet it is used by organizations that other than the church and that are not affiliated with the church and that's been my experience personally over a long period of time so I I think that is true and I think people can talk to that and you can get and they'll be people from other parts of town who have had at least some of that experience oh um the other thing I would say however and I I I'm not sure where you're heading on what you're going to ask for a motion Betty so you're stuck with what I say here um I think it's premature I think you need tighter numbers and push some numbers down before you go public and although clearly the building needs some work done so I I feel bad saying that I fear that if you go and you ask and you get turned down you will have lost your shot and it would be better to do some of the things Betty's suggested which is I don't know maybe there's not time for Value engineering but you know Finding about in kind taking a second look is it possible to do this without D drilling a new well can the the addition be located in a different place on the South Wall um but this conversation and listening to you and hearing people thinking out loud about this if you do that in a public meeting you've lost us so I I in you know my heart is with you and I want to see it happen and I wasn't G to say anything to Betty asked so I'm telling you what it is so what about the the fundraising Betty you know I'm not a member of the church um well I know I think I think you know you're you can speak to this as well as I can I mean I think clearly um there's a great case to be made um we know that as opposed to 53 years ago when I moved here um there's more private wealth on the point than there used to be um and if people but people have to be brought along the kitchen hasn't worked for a long time hasn't been there a lot of the events that used to happen weekly haven't been happening so they have to understand how this is going to revive that and um I'm not a professional fundraiser and I'm not a member of the church um in I do know from my years of attending things at the church I do know in the past there have been families who at various and Buzz knows better at various times have provided significant support but Susan over the years have you not worked on the stained glass windows and other things of the church as volunteer oh yes but I wasn't raising the funds no but you were volunteering my qu you know I'm I'm just wondering if there's that kind of volunteer information anyway thank you very much I got a lot of other questions out there uh Tim I think you were next gie yeah I was just thinking um that I I think I think it would be good to move this thing to the public hearing and I think that um there's a in my mind I think 250 might be putting too much pressure on the church for fundraising I would push it more like 300 that we would provide and give them a little less that they would have to raise because it would it would a struggle I know that fundraising is one of the more painful processes that one can go through and some people are really good at it and really successful at it but Westport Point is populated by a lot of people that that are clever that uh and also have money and I know that Boy Scout Troops have gone through that building for decades my son included both of my sons so that the the church has spread a fairly broad net across this town in the services that it has provided to the town and I think a public Outreach could be successful if it's done well okay people like gay Gillespie who's uh been involved in a lot of fundraising with the wat Alliance I mean there are people that are really good at this stuff yeah and if you engage them I think you could easily get the rest of that money but I'd like to reduce the burden on the church a little bit Tim Kon Tim Kon yeah I I think Tim gaski I think he's really on to something and I I kind of agree with his statement but but you know not to pour any salt in the wound either but has the town uh has anybody found out from the town does the septic system have to be upgraded when you start moving around bathrooms and things such as that that's enough question I would have have you looked at that kit um there doesn't there would not be any impact on the septic system we' have the same number of toilet rooms um uh I mean if if howand Hall got more heavily used there might be more flow to it but I I can't really answer that question um it's what kind of system is there now uh Buzz Buzz would have to answer that if you do certain valuation a certain amount of uh change doesn't that SP cause a need to upgrade septic system that's a question you all need to look at um if you put a bedroom in you'd be in trouble but they're not putting a bedroom in that's something you should look at I think that Mark had his hand I'll get back to you buzz Mark yeah thanks Betty I don't think we should spend any more time trying to figure out how to fund raise I mean that's not the reason that's not the purpose of this committee I think what we should decide is what scope of work we're comfortable um advoca or accepting a proposal for and and how much we want to allocate to that and uh right now I it it sort of sounds like just if we accept as the scope of work Parts a b d which is the bathrooms and F which is the the U well there's a total of $450,000 and I think I'm hearing that the committee might be uh amenable to uh funding 300,000 of that is that a fair summary um Deborah as a member um I I have some I have a suggestion along the lines that Mark is saying if if the ask is around 450 and you think the Optics are a little bit difficult to get the town to Rally around such a big number what if we did something like 300 outright and 150 matching that would help them get to the next level of what they really need to do the whole project because we know if you just do it partially it's not going to really accomplish what they're trying to do to recreate how and Hall as a functional space so why not do an outright grant for an amount that people feel comfortable like 300 and then the other 150 is out there with some Community Support as a matching so then then they have more than 450 to get to the number they need to do the whole project and they've already reached 50 uh they already have 50 in hand toward that mat yeah buz yes well you touched on on a good point there I I have to remind folks that this is Phase One of a two-phase project and just doing a phase one isn't going to fully accomplish uh the goals of making Holland Hall a really Pleasant uh you know climate controlled uh space with with good sound the place is so so reverberant now that 10 people in there talking at once you can't you can't hear anybody it makes the back Edie look pale in that respect uh so there there's lots more to be done which we you know know knew from the outset was going to be on the horizon where we just split it into two phases so I'm personally I'm not a professional fundraiser either but I'm I am concerned about the ability of this small church congregation to to be able to pull off a significant chunk of phase one plus phase two so I what I was saying earlier is a two-year project and I think that um what Deborah is saying maybe the first year should be 300,000 and we'll see how it goes yeah but at least you could get the the part that's most important to is the historical Comm Mission um saying it is a historic it will help in historic preservation and Rehabilitation John Bell hey do we need a number to move it to the next meeting um we could move the 450 but get you know suggest that it be less I mean that they try to come down to 300 uh we could do that we could do what we want Dale let's Dale hasn't said anything go ahead I I guess I just um I keep feeling like there's more information that we need in order to I I feel like yes it should be moved to the next meeting for sure um I'm not so sure about making necessarily a recommendation on it though yet because it sounds to me like there is more information that we need in order to make any kind of proposal at the next meeting say what it is we are going to recommend as as our share what we're willing to um to Pony up with so I I don't know I it it just I feel a little uncomfortable with it because it feels kind of could there aren't necessarily def there isn't necessarily definite information here there's a lot of supposition and a lot of we hope it would be less money or maybe we don't need to do this part or what will what will the effect be on the septic system is there any that just feels to me like a lot of questions yeah Phil didn't unfortun maybe I'm the only person that feels that way I don't know but well that that's a interesting it's important question though timoth Tim gby I'd like to make a motion that we move this to our public hearing and move it with the number that's attached to the thing and in the meantime we can try to educate ourselves we can pick Kit's brain and maybe arrive at a more reasonable number and talk to buzz in the congregation and see what they think is realistic and by the time we recommend something at town meeting maybe we'll all feel well informed and able to support this project at the level that makes sense yes so I'm moving it for the 450 to the to the you're moving the project as is but are requesting that we need further information particularly on uh how much How likely the church is able to raise the other funds is there any reduction in funds that may happen what's about the septic system these are things you have to think about okay um is there a second to that motion I second Deborah GI Alie seconds is there any discussion about the motion uh yes Betty I just so to be clear although we on this motion for the 450,000 we're not I guess what you're saying Tim is we're not committing it to that at this point we're we're gonna wait for the the uh the public hearing correct and and uh and make a final decision at that point so if that's the understanding then I'm ready to move ahead on the vote any other comments anybody from outside one other thing I want to mention Betty is that there was talk earlier about there's this is there's other interior Renovations that also need to be made as part of this total project and I don't think anyone has floated a number at all about what that total is going to look like and I think that's one of the like what percentage of the total project are we even funding and that may help the Optics of this that you know CPC is not funding 100% of this there's there's a lot of other things that will be done and we didn't even do we even know what that Pie in the Sky number is do we know at all kit wise yes we do know what that number is because Balo provided a an estimate for uh what we're calling here phase one and phase two which is the complete renovation of howand Hall uh a whole new kitchen um and um two new accessible bathrooms and so forth and acoustical treatment and um better decor and better lighting and HVAC and the the total number for phase one and phase two came to about $950,000 okay yeah that's helpful but um Laura um Deborah I think it's important to note that the church trustees are already looking at reducing the scope of phase 2 it includes moving some plumbing and we're just looking at getting the costs of that phase as low as possible but I think understood understood but just so we can have a sense of like what is CPC signing up for as a percentage of the total project I just think it's useful to see what our role is Visa the whole project absolutely thank you see the the reason we're having this long discussion is because it's a church uh and it's better we had this discussion now and try to figure it out because there is one time in the past years ago and Tim gese may remember this when there was a project to paint the outside of um the meeting house two people came and opposed it and said this is a church why are we giving public fun to the church and the result of the meeting was two people voted against it I mean it didn't carry a lot of weight but this may come up and so we should be as fully prepared and confident in this project more than probably any other because because we're gonna have to go through it again probably with St John the Baptist um but um there's this because they have a clearly historic building the first town hall which we would like to preserve at least the exterior so I would really advise I know it's Christmas time and everything but I would advise the church if possible to look into some of these questions um I can ask Phil wiberg who's on CPC but who didn't come I can ask him about the septic I'll do that for you um and I also will communicate with another person who I've already communicated with who's offered I believe substantial help um and let's see how that goes um but it will be something where the rest of the community not just the point should have interest in this because the church itself has been made up of people from all over Laura doesn't live at the point buzzle is over uh at Mascus and kid is now at the point but um I think we need other people to weigh in on it also Mark can't hear you mark as long as we focus on U exterior restoration and accessibility I think the CPC is on pretty Solid Ground we could sell it to the town on that basis any other issues that the church wants to undertake um you know that's their their prerogative they can do that but um I I think we're in good you know we're in Good Grounds to to move uh or to approve any monies that will go toward those two purposes and uh with that I think we should move the question okay we have a motion before us for this uh project as is to go to town hall to to to public heing god um so I'm calling for a vote uh Tim Kon Tim Kon I John John Bell dale dale w i Tim gpie Tim gesp I debah Deb chaly I Mark Mark Schmid I Betty Slade I that's unanimous this will go to the um public hearing January 9th okay thank you very much the next project um sorry to keep you guys so long but the recreation committee I believe Tim Tim glesby are you going to be um presenting yes all right um we're this is the f focusing on Bicentennial Park out off of gford Road near the mamber school we are already in the process of replacing the playground that is there we're negotiating with three different playground companies trying to get a design that we like we pretty much have the money already in place for that project but what we see is that whole area the the playground area is part of a bigger open space there's a there are two basketball courts there there is a skate park in the back and things are getting a little ratty around that and we see that there could be improvements over time and what this particular application is focusing on is just a number of Fairly straightforward things we want to remove the skate park it's in Fairly terrible shape we'd like to prep that area for some future recreational use which could be a new skate park we we want to engage the community in some public meetings and workshops to try and identify what the town would like to see there it could be pickle ball could be skate park it could be botchy ball it could be simply an open space with a pavilion that people could picnic in something like that um speaking of pavilions a pavilion is another thing we're thinking about uh I would like to design a woodf frame timber frame Pavilion and it could either be a community project where members of the community help build it or we could put it out to bid and get some uh some contractors to build it um the pathways that get people in and out of it are in terrible shape we want to pave them we want to make it easily accessible for handicap so we're going to improve the pathways around the area we're going to improve the basketball courts um which may involve repaving them and putting in new new uh facilities in terms of basketball hoops and all that stuff the fence along gford road is terrible we want to replace that fence and we want to improve the parking one of the concepts we thought about is maybe removing one of the basketball courts and expanding the parking into that area but anyways that is sort of the scope of what we're thinking about and we've got bigger plans for down the road but we're going to engage the community and trying to figure out what it is we exactly would like to do um we are asking for $250,000 for this particular project we've assigned um we've assigned numbers to to these specific phases these numbers may be high I think they probably are high but we're trying to go worst case so we're asking for 250,000 for these improvements and adjustments to BU sentennial part so Tim the other funding you have are in the future sometime yeah you're asking for other funding in the future you're not will eventually yes you're not asking you know we don't have that locked in yet some things cost more than other things right and you will see what the public wants what about safety there about what safety I mean in the sense that I remember we allocate some funds up there and there was a lot of damage done is it's better now than it used to be do you remember I I I really don't have enough information to give you a solid answer on that I know that there have been people concerned that the skate park was attracting kids from out of town that would do drugs and smoke and drink in that area I think less of that's going on now if we remove the skate park and turn it into a more attractive area um I think it's going to get more use and it'll be be less likely to track that kind of use but I think I don't I I haven't heard a lot of complaints lately about that kind of stuff John John's policeman what do you say John John Bell well the most most of the complaints were from the skate park but now it seems the kids have moved on to a nicer skate park in ident so we really don't see the issues like we used to over there my question to Tim Tim what is the maintenance program I know we got a new uh playground uh at the Town Hall Annex so is is do you guys have a maintenance program to uh well one of the one of the the benefits of these new playgrounds is that they're far less maintenance what with the old playgrounds we had wood chips that were the base for the whole thing and they had to be replaced and rejuvenated every couple of years which is expensive these new playgrounds have a a rub surface that does not need that kind of Maintenance um so they go then the components of them are built in such a way that they last longer the old Annex playground was pressure treated lumber and it deteriorated the playground at the Bicentennial Park right now has elements that are rusted and delaminating and things and we think that the way they're building them these days they they have more longevity in terms of how they last but we do have to uh get more proactive in re in checking the playgrounds out and maintaining them and I think the way the Recreation Commission is currently formed and with a director that we have we're going to be more able to do that years pass we didn't really have a functional Recreation Commission we who's cut one now sorry who's going to cut the grass is it still the well the the highway department used to cut the grass um and maybe we can get them to do it again they've been cutting it once in a while uh but you know if we can't get get the town to do it which I think they really should do um we may have to figure out a way to hire somebody to cut the grass out there you know it's it really deserves it because it's a it's a valuable asset these recreational areas are few and far between and these ones are going to end up being really attractive and so we need to maintain them and take good care of them so I think it's incumbent on Recreation and the town to make sure that that that maintenance happens yeah with the skate park they the kids used to take the fence apart just so they could what was I don't know what they that term they use what grinding on the fences and stuff it really that's what wrecked a lot of the uh the old playground yeah yeah um will you have security cameras uh not a bad idea we haven't thought very expensive actually no they're not you might want to so one of the things is um we have give we've given you $700,000 already and this is$ 250,000 we're million dollars into recre into Recreation uh we're very grateful I think it's Recreation extremely popular um and I guess one of the arguments is for years and years and years we get there was nothing done and all of a sudden with the new director um who is doing it and with if you have a maintenance program and security cameras it kind of makes it um you know I think people will like it we have to think of what people the to meeting thing any anything else any other questions anybody NOP okay may I have a motion please from yeah John B I make a motion we move it to the January meeting for the $250,000 okay is there a second Dale Weber Dale Weber second is there any other are there any other comments okay so Tim Kon Tim Kon I John John B B Weber I Tim GES Tim galesby I Deborah Deborah chi I Mark Schmid I Betty Slade I that's unanimous it goes to um the public hearing so Maria will advertise uh before the next uh public hearing um and um put these two c two projects in um it's not on the agenda but um it's it's within the 48 hours we suddenly got a completely new project um which I believe uh Tim will speak to and I believe there are a couple of others here who've been waiting for hours to is here Ken Sullivan I don't know if Jimmy Potter is here he was um yeah he's here I'm sorry to kept you waiting but these for first time in a long time all our projects came and you all came very late so who's going to present and explain to us what's going on here is the project in front of you everybody well I can start off Betty okay Ken so we um myself and Jim parter started working on a grant this summer um with uh the company Jim works for where they uh they give out big money significant money for projects like ours um and baseball obviously has benefited from CPC in the past years um with the two new fields and then two new fields for softball so with this grant that Jim had un covered um we started applying in August and heard back from the company in the end of September that um they would like to see uh some type of confirmed match um and right away I didn't think of CPC so Jim and I kind of went back and forth and then um you know kind of my fault I'll I'll take the heat on this one all of a sudden it was December 11th and it it it you know it occurred to me that CPC discusses this stuff in December and I said well we've taken a lot from CPC it it can't hurt to ask because it's a match situation and I know CPC likes match situation so I said Jim let's just give it a shot he put together the concept plan this week and we've got it submitted so that's kind of where we stand right now uh the Senior League field will benefit all the older age kids who have aged out of uh the traditional little leaks um and you know we're uh we're we're using space that Brad Sports had already leveled for us um we're much further into the project than having to clear new land all of a sudden so it won't be the full bite like we experienced with the old Fields as far as the cost goes so the everybody this is Ken Sullivan you're still president of the um sadly IA volunteer uh and CPA funds have been used very popular with the town to develop the playing fields on Route 177 and if anybody wants to go and look at them I'm sure Ken would be glad to show them around show you around absolutely so this is a the whole process has been very expensive in 20 years 22 years 22 years just about that yeah from one volunteer group to another volunteer as their kids all grew up so now we have Jimmy Potter who's growing up so um they're asking for 150,000 uh they have a 100,000 Grant and they're asking for 150,000 which they believe will cover uh everything that's correct isn't it um Ken because I you know you you came back for electricity and water and irrigation and dugouts will this cover this the 250,000 total Jim you want to speak to that yes yeah Y no no not a problem so yep so I'm Jim Potter um again I'm I'm with the uh the wport bab Ruth league but also the rep for the wa as well um yes the 250,000 um well 250,000 let me let me break this down a little bit better so like Ken mentioned before uh my company has a uh like a my support my cause um type large grant funding um it goes up to 100,000 um we requested that during the summertime that's something that we've been working on to to match for this um as far as an estimate um as you can see the concept plan that that's that's on there now um there is no clearing um we walked through and did um an a conceptual estimate based on this um the biggest thing for us is that the grass field is already there um we actually have our corporation which is Keith McDonald um already on board that just also provided a uh provided to us a a a proposal um to do the Engineering Services so we've already kind of working hand inand with them in order to get this in um where the cost really lies is how it's going to be oriented and tied into the existing grading um it's basically you know a flat surface right now that's there um and how far out into the Outfield we actually need to grade out into uh we believe right now that after during you know once we can do the survey in the springtime that the cost really depends on how far out we can we really need to go to take into the field it it's a pretty level area I just want to make sure that drains properly um I think the cost is also down in the sense of the other fields were all clay we're proposing a blue stone dust field along with um very simple you know chain link fence and back you know back stop we're not doing fencing all the way around the outside in order to maintain the space that's out in the outfield for other sports during like the fall right now they have flag football there's other areas that used out there similar to like we're doing at the old what we have at the old high school right now and um yeah I'm we're confident that that cost will cover um this this whole thing yes you're not having dugouts so dugouts are going to be very simple it's going to be enclosed concrete pad metal benches we're not doing anything that's that's special outside of what's already there at the um what you're seeing right now at the existing wi field so irrigation electricity already there already there it's all clear okay uh tib gaspie yeah I talked to Jim about this he called me and he told me that what they were gonna ask was 100 to 120,000 and I encouraged him to put a contingency on it that's why it's 150 appreciate that Tim I'm sorry oh we can't hear you I heard sorry I heard Mr suan say at the beginning that there was a $100,000 Grant and they like applications which are a match suppose we uh suppose we match that for a 100 it's a good question um as as Jim was saying we'll we'll know a little bit more once we get into the survey how far they have to go out with the field uh as Tim mentioned there is a little play in our number so it's possible yes well no I mean you you'd have to go up we we would give you a 100 you get a grant for 100 and whatever additional funds you would you would be responsible for but right you know we we have funded this extensively and um I don't know what senior uh means whether they're shorter base uh you know dur is it a shorter run the first place and say something here The Senior League fields um you know is kind of smacks of when we were trying to get the fields done because the new school was the new um uh Middle High School was being built and those fields weren't going to be used any longer and this kind of ties into what's going on with the high school because if we ever come to a decision in this town to sell the high school and sell the property off then the major league fields are gone and then the older kids won't have anywhere to play so they're they're kind of hanging on to the high school property now and if that goes away then there will be nowhere for them to play yeah no I was I just being factious about the whether the field was smaller or something for seniors it's a bigger field yeah but uh but I still think the the best way to sell this is if you announce that you have a grant for 100 and uh you're looking for a match for an identical amount that I think that would uh probably go over in town meeting a little bit but that's just my opinion Jim understood Jim poter yeah no I thank you I um I just wanted to uh just just kind of elaborate on that as well so so being part of of the of the baseball board that is running it so there is concern and we've been following what's been going on with the existing um fields at the old high school and yes we we you know the town built the Westport Middle High School with one Senior League field which means you know 90 foot base paths you know you know 60 foot Mound um it's it's anyone for kids who are 13 plus so it's basically like a major league size field um but that Westport Middle School High School only has one of them but they have three teams that play there as well so you have the Middle School the JV and the varsity team those teams right now there's two teams Varsity uh the JV and the middle school that actually go over to the old high school and play there if the town sells that now we're squeezed down to the one field and this at least allows you know and then for instructional for us for the waa now we're squeezed down even further because we don't have a field for any kids who are 13 plus to be able to actually practice on and then we're going to have to be fighting for time on those field so we're looking at this as as really kind of um you know pre-planning in case there is something where the high school uh is sold for development um the old high school and we have a field that's in place almost similar to what um soccer has done on Sanford Road as well where you can see that I don't know how familiar everybody is but like you'll see that the JV team has been playing there as well and they're able to utilize those fields as part of the town I I think that could be a very similar situation here as well um I think it's a full benefit for everybody to kind of get on board and help with this John Bell yeah bet I I coach for quite a while I I see the need for for fields for for the kids even with the all high school they still don't have enough Fields so if if it's possible I would move this with the amount requested to the to the uh uh public meeting next month is there a second to that yes we'll we'll discuss it we'll I'm just he's he's put a motion on the floor if there's a second and then we'll discuss it I will second that Del we okay so now for discussion um my f my point is I guess what you've done is you've said that um you want a matching Grant you shouldn't really have use that term um in a sense and I think Mark has jumped on that um basically what you want is 50,000 added to your Grant in order to be able to pay for this field so that's a better way to approach it we wouldn't approach it as a matching Grant because it isn't a matching Grant that's one concept uh anybody else have any comments anybody from outside okay so there's a motion on the floor um all those in favor please Jim Kon titim Kon question on the motion oh are we are we doing what what's what's the amount 150 150 okay okay Tim Kate and I John John Bell ey dale dale Weber I Tim Tim gesp ey Deborah deborra chi I Mark Mark Mark is he mad at me uh Betty Slade I uh unanimous let's say one two two three four five six six votes and Mark are you gone he got maybe got cut off anyway so uh we will see you in January great um Jim I wanted I to tell the people that I met you when you were very young do you remember you and your cousin did the work for us trying to move those stones into different cemeteries I do I very well my cousin father your father donated the truck and the trailer and his family absolutely yep of course so thank you very much I haven't thanked you it was 20 years ago not a problem and always appreciate it thank you so much for fitting Us in today and and Tim for answering your phone yes Betty I apologize for leaving I quickly but I had to take my uh dinner out of the oven for the the third time tonight voted we voted except for you to pass it on to at 150 well I I approve okay so that is unanimous thank you very much for waiting everybody thank thank you all for your time and if I could say one last thing Tim you mentioned during the recreation presentation um possible pickle pickle ball courts in the future we have lots of space for you at our fields we're gonna start working on that I we got to get together with you on the property and look at it whenever you want this is Town land this is Town property this is town space and we have the space for you so come talk to me or I'll come talk to playgrounds what's that skateboard skate parks we have space something to look into and you're protected a little bit better right absolutely okay well thank you all thank you wonderful appreciate it all right thanks a lot night everyone bye bye late isn't it boy we've never had a Mee almost pass my bedtime Betty I know I know so I was wondering if uh so number eight is purchase of scanner by cpcs anybody I make a motion we approve it John Bell John bye Tim glesby second Tim gie I'm sorry I have to do this guys the law requires it Tim Kon Tim Kate and I John John B I dale dale I Tim gpie Tim Gillespie I Deborah Deborah t i Mark Mark Schmid I bety Slade I that is unanimous okay number nine um and Mark this can this is uh Rel as you all know we all agreed that Eric Dr would come in and do a preserv restriction on the Bell school as soon as it was finished uh Jenny has said it's ready and so uh Mark uh uh Eric will start in January he will come down and we've got the contract everything's all done I just am announcing this and announcing it to you okay yes great you you will communicate with him I hope you will take this on it shouldn't be much work I mean he'll do the work well yeah it's fine I'm I'm happy to do that and I don't uh if he knows how to reach me I presume so on once he has a draft he can send it to me yes and I'll keep it okay the number 10 is um we I've redone the um the webs the web page for the website by um changing some things taking some stuff out because it was duplicated and adding the um um adding newer the later date so they're up to date I like you all to use that they're going they're designing a new website for the town Carol freedus is doing that actually so um we wanted to get this done before that happened I'd like for you to take a look at that and see if there's anything else you think we should be putting in and then volunt in to do it uh um or if there are any mistakes so I don't have any correspondents um list of bills Maria I think there they are do I have to go you want to look through all I think you've seen all of them um do you want me to go through each one of them no no they're all they're all have been um approved um John I keep in touch with John Bell and I go through these um for the projects I have to get a second from the leaon so all of these have been approved and I'd like a motion for the town for the CPC to approve these bills as Tim gie makes that motion Dale Weber seconds at motion all right Tim any discussion any questions uh Tim Kon Tim Kon I dale dale we I John John B ey Tim Tim glesby I Deborah Deborah choli I Mark Mark Schmid I myself Betty Slade I that's unanimous um the next any any other business anything no just one really quick thing God the sanon road Schoolhouse is is the construction there is going well they want to put a historic plaque up on the front of in the front like a historic marker and Tony had asked me should he talk with the historical commission to for the wording on that yes you know I I think there's a procedure for doing that for plaques there's a specific there's some language about what you're supposed to do when there's a plaque involved I can look into that John but we you have a you the historical commission there's a form that you fill out yeah there a procedure do you want to put it on the wall or do you want to put it he wants to put it like a mocker next to the road like a standalone mock that's a whole different thing I thought it was a plaque I thought on the build he wants to work with someone on a specific Warden explaining the significance of that school and where it was originally located oh oh that's more Historical Society isn't it no noal commission the information is on the um Westport historic inventory the macas um I'll I'll dig it up but they're very expensive those yeah he knows that he knows that I mean like $1,200 I know I ended up that one on Sodom Road and that was about 1,200 wow yeah it's it's they're expensive so um but the macas I'll I'll send you the macas I hope I remember all right if I don't let me know okay so the next meeting is January 9th um and I'm hoping everybody will attend it's very important because that's our big meeting uh it will be advertised we may have people come will have the s some of the same people come um and if you have any questions about the projects I think you should not hesitate to ask the people who proposed them um we will be hearing from the church I'm sure um but thank you very much have a very happy merry Christmas and a happy New Year and next meeting I will be in Texas all right travel safe travel sa have safe travel we adjourn oh I second all in favor