##VIDEO ID:9lkR5kmOTlU## so oh well first um Allison I think maybe it's your turn for minutes oh okay we'll do and then the next item on the agenda is approving the minutes of August 5th which Susan did and which I don't think anybody had any comments on at our unofficial meeting last time so they looked good I want a meeting baby company so does anybody have any comments about the minutes if not I'll accept a motion to approve I'll second that motion all in favor I I okay thank you Susan sure next is the update on the center school project and I'm sorry to report that the state Grant did not come through we didn't get any funding oh which is a blow wow we we just found out last week um and I don't yet have any feedback on it but they said there was a enormous demand I think well let me re recap we did get a 14,000 Grant from The National Trust for a feasibility study had I reported that I think maybe I did yeah and that will require 100% match and that's on the agenda for special town meeting on November 12th it's got moved to the 12th so I hope people will show up and vote for that um that's I'm sorry Judy that that 14,000 is for what it's a feas ility study right okay thank you and the feasibility study is to find out to hire professional to look at best uses of the building um I think what I have deducing is the more housing units you can have more affordable housing units you can have in a building the better off you'll be for grant money I mean even the even that round of Grants everything asked about housing and and now all the new housing grant money is coming out one there are two two significant things about this process I think one The National Trust obviously thinks this building is historically significant it that was a national Grant we got the full amount we asked for which floored me I didn't expect to get anything hang out of that one it's it's ironic um and that will be very helpful I think in getting preservation tax credits from the state I think the fact that the National Trust was willing to invest in this building would be will be very useful so that's one good thing I think the feasibility study will be helpful too because we can say you know we had professionals to do to analyze this for the next round and I'm assuming that there will be a next round it's obviously up to the select board to decide what to do but and next round of what you you list I'm sorry I didn't I'm I'm taking for granted the the next round of Grant applications I'm assuming we go back for the same state grants Again State Grant so your committee intends to reapply I we haven't met but I would assume so that's assuming that's I think first step is the select board has to decide what they think appropriate you know if if they want to still leave it in the hands of the committee or if they want to try for an RFP on their own again or something but but yeah I think the committee would reapply we're in the process of getting estimates the other learning two learnings one the roof needs replacement rather than repair and there synthetic roof substitute that that mass historical will accept that's eligible for the secretary Secretary of the Interior standards so I think we've learned a lot in the process or some good things it hasn't resulted in as much money as we would like but we still are in the process of getting estimates the committee for the roof replacement with the synthetic and for the for the struct we still don't have the structural engineering report that the CPA approved do you know when that's likely to happen can't get a hold of anybody everybody is so backed up and good people anyway so no I don't um wish I did first people are on vacation and then people are recovering from vacation so that's the update and that's what I have to report I should also say that the windows Hardware has been installed at the church um Ash the the church got a CPA grant for window restoration we putting dual pain glass in the old window frames and started out with a bang and then we had great difficulty getting a hold of the contractor and delay after delay so all it needs to be done now is to insulate the old sash cord pockets and that's a nice side trim it's a really nice upgrade for them yeah it looks really good the church is in the process now of ordering the storm windows to protect those which was the church's part of the project and the exterior painting is being done now so you drive by these this huge lift they're repairing the steeple base which is separate from the whole project so that's what I know there so if anybody has any advice or comments or knows anybody who's interested in being on the housing committee I think that's one big problem with going forward with affordable units here there's no really act active housing committee at the moment Katherine woit has resigned from the committee and they haven't met in she was the chair so there's no chair there's no chair she was also the representative to the CPC so that's a that's another hole but so I wish there were better news but I think having the feasibility study will will be good in many ways I I think it will help the town coales around it too hopefully we'll see yeah I feel like if there are some um very obvious or firm things that people can Envision yeah I think that gives a better story for the use of it huge because that was true the town hall nobody was interested in in do or there was huge opposition till all of a sudden there was a set of drawings and then people could see it and they could Envision it and they could imagine it and and the opposition I I won't say it evaporated but it certainly dwindled so the next item that I had is is CPA applications are due on the second Tuesday in December and I didn't know if anybody had heard of any any historical projects I haven't um yeah because ideally if there is something cooking we should encourage people to come and talk to us about it so we can be supportive and and guide the process a little bit if anybody needs it but well more money for the Sund school maybe no competitors next project uh next thing I had was where we had left over is membership um I haven't response from the scoop ad well we excuse me but didn't we kind of we we lost our thread when we started to talk about the uh uh spy camera size of the ad as it appeared in the scoop the last time yeah ad was sort of that that was not particularly useful yeah I agree what I'm wondering if we could put that ad up on the town Facebook page and the town website and post it at the library and the library and at Town Offices and I think it at um town hall because that's our official residence and if we can do it soon we'll catch everybody coming in for early voting and then voting in November yep and also we could send it to Chris laraby and could put it in the um South County notebook and the other thing I think we could do is if we send it to people we know who we think might be you know we all have contacts whether they're email or text or whatever but if we could send send alert out to people we know and say if they know anybody who might be interested do you want me to um take that ad and fit it on an 8 and 1 half by 11 piece of paper and somehow get it around to be posted do you want me to send it to you email it to you guys and you can print it out and put it where you want to put it yeah yeah yeah I think it's a good idea to make it a flyer style you could do a um if you yeah and even even a then also in a format that's that they could post on the Facebook page at Town Facebook page well they can post that file on I mean they can't make it any smaller than it was in the scoop I can't I can't believe she did that I know and what I guess what I'm really asking is is there any value in asking her to run it again and point out that it would be useful if it was a readable size well if we don't hear anything by the time of the December scoop I would do that but I mean you can't yeah okay there needs to be some kind of conversation with Joyce about size yeah and if it and if she you know if she says well I I don't have that much room then we need to um edit our copy down so that it doesn't take so much room I just assumed when we made that thing that we had sort of free reign to make it a reasonable like a quarter page size yeah I think it you must have too okay yeah we might have to make it business card size okay well then someone needs to edit it yeah I mean it was business card size yeah or we could pay first let's work on posting okay yeah if we're successful with that then it's mot in terms of getting it for the scoop yeah if we the scoop is a November meeting problem yeah it's a problem for future us [Music] so I didn't have anything else um we talk any more about the um 250th um in 2026 happy to I haven't made any progress with with anything I offered to do which I guess was send something to list I've been trying to figure out how to do that are you all on the list Serve by the way yeah Ashley did you do some Scouting Around I think we talked about did you I did too what did you what I did well 250th site I went on the master 250th site was not super um thrilled about it well it looks like they hadn't really gotten it going yet that is what it looked like I did find um a most of the colonial states have these 250th commissions and there was something that North Carolina had put out which was really nice it was kind of like this this PDF that they seemed to send out to community saying here are the things that you can do like here are the themes that we're trying to highlight which was very I thought it was very helpful I'm happy to share that that yeah what did it say well sorry my cat is now on my notes rubarb of course um one of the things that they talked about was um this idea of uh the ongoing work of democracy so we're celebrating you know the signing of the Declaration um but it doesn't necessarily have to be historic in nature everything that we are celebrating it's this idea of um how democracy has built from that time which I thought was an interesting way to look at it so it doesn't necessarily have to be anchored in um the late 1700s um and they had a lot of things about voices from past and present um and this idea of um carrying stories through and what linked that in terms of like for us is this idea of um place and the stories that we hold in different places um so I thought that there might be an interesting thing to do about like learning your story or understanding how to find out more about your your neighborhood or where you live or some of the weightly stories or something like that um whether we do something in the scoop or we provide information about how to do some of your own research or something like that um that was one of the ideas that I came up with while I was scouting that stuff but I'm happy to share that document from North Carolina because I thought it was really helpful um but I really kind of like the idea around storytelling anyway we did a workshop once on how to research weight your house and your neighborhood and it's up it's there's a link on our web page yeah but you know that I I think there is nothing but value in even reiterating that well that's that's representing that wanted to think about redoing that there was some work that we did for the uh hidden history thing actually don't know I had a chance to see that look the history of some of the neighborhoods and I think that is something that we might there might be fodder there to work with the idea of the different neighborhoods in town and their histories that all go back quite far and um um and and bringing just finding a new way to bring that out to share with the public how how however that happens whether that's featuring them one at a time through over the course of a couple of years even you know this 250th thing is going to go on and on for a while because the War lasted a long time yeah um uh right we have the scoop as a place where we could have you know guest articles or something one thing that I saw mentioned there that it's not in our control was the idea of doing a like a book club through your local library um to I know but again it's storytelling and I'm like that would be really I no and and so I was at a meeting this morning at nine o'clock with the uh Historical Society folks because they they're um coming to the end of their current exhibit about childhood and now thinking about oh what are we doing next and they have a couple of ideas and uh and some of them more fully thought out than others but there was a suggestion from somewhere oh May maybe it should be something about the American Revolution and that's as far as the suggestion went pretty much so I was giving that some thought because I know that we had talked about this same thing and I feel like if we're going if if something is going to happen in this town really the strongest presentation would be if it was a conjoined effort from whatever entities we can muster down to the Brownie troop if we have to you know but I'm thinking the society the Library the schools whoever else you know the fire department I don't care whoever it is we can kind of bring together to do a thing it has more strength and if each of those entities does their own deal so in when I saw this agenda ITA about we should do something about the revolution um and then a lot of blank faces about it because mostly what people try to conjure is some guns and ammo you know event that has to do with guys and guns and going off to literally fight that there's so much more around that that that we could talk about and so one of the ideas I had I'm just going to throw it out here for you guys see what you think was the whole topic of um uh maple sugar and it going tracing it right back to the Sugar Act of 1764 which was a restriction that the British put on the import of molasses and sugar from the Caribbean to the colonies thereby restricting sugar that came into this country and it sparked what is sounds familiar you know an effort uh to liberate ourselves from foreign made goods and make it ourselves here and so that you know you can see modern parallels to that you know um and so maple sugar not be it was elevated into a kind of political Zone it was you know instead of just being a food source now it became a patriotic act to be create making your own sugar and thereby screw the British make it ourselves and um and and carry on so it to me that was and so in weightly we actually have a sugar industry uh multiple people do still doing sugar and um I started and so it gives you this it gave me a vision of how we could kind of broaden this out there's nobody that hates the idea of maple sugar it's just it's just a happy thought and there's all kinds of programming and all kinds of layers of history that we could be doing from Native Americans through this revolutionary moment there was a moment after that where Maple sugaring became an Abolitionist Movement because uh Thomas Jefferson among others got very interested in um even though we own slaves sort of uh the whole slavery issue in the Caribbean and and trying to maneuver away from that but then even contemporary sugars face environmental issues now you know that we could discuss it's it it has its current climate change threads that could go all kinds of places so we could have a whole College seminar on Maple Sugar and um and involve some people in town that don't normally get asked to participate sounds great I love that idea absolutely love that and it's rooted in Freedom which you know what's more 1776 than that well and homemade you know and doing it yourself and yes yes I liked a lot of the elements of it I'm not sure this historical society they had some other ideas that I think were further developed and they wanted to move ahead with they like the idea but then they're all kind of I think looking at me like well are you going to do it all I'm like I'm not going to do it myself so I think the like the events that you could have around that topic are so great and they're so familyfriendly exactly like my kids would be so into celebrating maple syrup in whatever way shape or form they could right I can't think of any unhappiness that goes with this the schools would love it too I think well you want to just that's just one idea I had that I was trying to find some nugget in that whole lead up to the revolution why the revolution happened I mean this is you know this is why the revolution happened because the British started putting the screws you know tighten the screws on people until they got too pissed off and said that's it we're done I a lot of people can relate to that yeah I think this is great I think we should pursue it I I've a little bit been thinking about the topic you mentioned last time about people talking in taverns and how word got around and I was Wonder this year or 250 years ago 250 years ago because it's still happening Judy well yeah and that's my that's that was what my point was I was I don't know I I grew up as great Kenneth Roberts yeah he wrote historical novels and one of his is called AR Rundle and it opens with a it's about the Revolution and opens with a scene in a Tavern and they're all scaming and and it's it's great fun but you could take that from and work on how information was communicated then how people got news how it's evolved over time how how um I don't know if you wanted to deal about democracy in terms of there there was an oped this week in the paper about all it was Andrea aasian U talking about all the threats to democracy that have happened over the years here's the Sedition Act this that and the other thing and about how but I think you could also do some of the same thing about how how things have evolved and how much they're the same but how they're different um I might have a lecture already on that from one of my communication classes quite honestly great I don't think it's as good as the maple sugar one but it's it's another possible approach I guess the thing about the maple sugar one and it could be something else too is that it it offers an opportunity to bring in all parts of this town and even people from other towns okay because that's an option too we can actually you know broaden it if we wanted to but it but it it it presents good programming ideas and a physical see what Judy's talking about is interesting it's hard to draw a picture of what Judy just said though you know hard to make a poster of that but maple sugar we can do I feel like people will turn out for things if it's fun for their kids or fun for them I don't care if different constituencies know I'm not gonna go because it's fun for Ashley's kids I'm fun for me we have to appeal to all levels everything we don't usually reach that that's my point it's not to the exclusion of others but it involves people who are not necessarily engaged with you lectures that we have at town hall or that the Historical Society has a town hall or other events um here's a I would ask that maybe you guys can answer then is um so there is funding as I understand it some funding floating around in in the cloud someplace I don't really understand Judy where that comes from or how it works but how would we tailor an idea like this so that we actually could get funding because that would be important and wonderful if if we could craft this so that it is funded with some of the state money well I have to go back and see if I can find the the grant notice that went around is it on that M 250 website must be I didn't see it there but it was not a very well I'll see what I can find I guess that would be a first I just found it here Donna sent it hold on I remember reading it and thinking it didn't fit anything we were talking about at the time I'd have to go back and see and you're right what you do is try and tailor to it rather than the other way around but partly tailor part of what we do to it yeah well the the online application deadline was August 26 okay well that's simple there'll be another there'll be another there'll be another yeah sure yeah I'm sure they will Mass Humanities also does Mass Humanity seems to be devoting a lot of their stuff to diversity and um untold history from groups that have been ignored yes but I think that's hard for us to do yes I like what I like about the maple syrup one is it's so hyper local and relevant um to the town and some of the industry in the town yeah and an industry that we've had for ages no I wonder if the town has money and it's threatened you know it's threatened by years like this you know winters like we've had and all kinds of reasons that threatened I don't think it's forever there's a mass Maple Association they wonder if they if we want Town money I mean the finance cycle begins at the beginning of the year so we should consider if we want to ask for a budget line yeah budget item yep why don't we all just think about this you know yeah we can't decide tonight right but just just think about it and maybe there's some other topic that you feel like would relate in the same kind of way to we don't have to limit ourselves to one we could have one sort of broad topic that we work on over several years or or and then one or two other smaller events if if they cropped up or if somebody asked us to par want to buy us more than we can handle there's start with one idea and then see if we can how broad we can make it I because you could you could related it to as I say to all kinds of other issues slavery you know environmentalism Farming Farming yeah I mean it could go anywhere really I mean it's six degrees of SE preparation almost Kevin Bacon and maple syrup as far as look looking at multiple projects I'm suddenly realizing I have PTSD from R 250th I'm like one thing my man are going like oh we can do a maple syrup like crawl and we can have this I'm like sorry I'm I'm excited about it I think it sounds fun that's still all grounded in the maple syrup concept but I can think of several and I think you were saying the same thing like several different ideas about what ages are your kid what it is is is it we have a we have this sweet vehicle to deliver deliver an educ you know a way to deliver an educational message we're not just trying to fatten up the town you know it's not just having fun it's it's Gathering people and getting their attention so that we can impart some message and we got to decide what that is some some ideas and some sense of history and some learning from that topic yeah and revisiting it that way I I I I bet you a lot of people don't really think about uh going back that far with they don't I doubt it it's just what you put on your pancakes right Judy my kids are 11 and seven so well they I'm sure they know where maple syrup comes from no it's I was I was working back from there to what context you have at the school unfortunately we don't go to the public school I was afraid of that um I but I do we can't get there we I I do know I do have friends who are at the public school and we are we do Play The Wreck Sports in town so I do know some people but I don't know like the teachers and stuff yeah um because but I think they would be there used to be one teacher who was very anxious to get her kids involved with the historical society and yeah they did projects like uh the kids all made jugs one year and designed their own jugs and um or they'd come and do a tour of the Historical Society every year and I don't even know if that I'm assuming it was like a fifth or sixth grade teacher but I I don't even know if that person I don't know who it was and I don't know if they're still there my my kids go to the Greenfield Center School and my daughter is in an outdoor program and they actually make make their own maple syrup every year they tap trees like in their classroom and boil it down and share it with the school they would love this old thing be right up their alley it would be a great thing at the Spring Festival to haul out and do somehow you know make it part of those well both of them well let's just think shall we think about it and see rles around yeah stop typing now damn it all right good ideas as usual Alison keep them up well maybe we should just I didn't want to see more blank faces at the all right they think they think in terms of objects and they also you tell people oh we're going to do something about the revolution they see guys with guns crouching behind stone walls and gun powder going off that's or Bonnets and gowns or I don't even see that but and if this was Lexington then we'd have a whole bunch of different ideas different we'd say we'd say everything's been done I think we go it's a story it's a story that weight Ley has yeah to share y love it good all right shall I stop taking minutes anything else on our agenda hold on when's our next meeting no that's it's just the next meeting I think the next meeting November 18th yeah okay that should go in the minut anything else JY I don't have anything else so I guess I have to go make dinner no oh okay we ate so CH ate lunch I don't think we're have dinner and that was us yesterday good up Ashley I intend to after I I'm actually going to the soccer field now though because my I'm gonna has practice on all right guys nice to see you