so are these are these on or do we push to put them on no they're usually on you just push yeah when you want to mute you push hold okay hello and welcome everyone to the community preservation committee annual public hearing being held uh today Wednesday June 12th 2024 at the armouth Town Hall hearing room this is to formally advise that as required by General Law chapter 30A sections 18- 25 and pursuant to chapter 22 of the acts of 2022 and an act relative to extending certain state of emergency accommodations signed into law on July 16 2022 the Yarmouth Community preservation committee will hold a public meeting at the date and time noted the public is welcomed to attend either in person or via the alternative Public Access provided and I'll turn it over to Gary Ellis chairman of the community preservation committee okay so per our Zoom uh uh parameters I have to take a roll call vote of our attendance today so we have at the far left Judy wichinsky here uh Joan Crowley present Lee Hamilton present Gary Ellis present George Slama present PA Huggin present so the only we're just missing Christine correct and Debbie and maryan and Debbie debb Debbie okay okay good afternoon and thank you for participating in the annual community preservation public hearing my name is Gary Ellis I am chairman of the community preservation committee we are eager to provide you an update on all the exciting projects that we have going around town we have a brief presentation for you and then we would like to hear from you on new projects that would you like to see funded in our community I will start our presentation with an overview of the community preservation act how the town reviews and approves projects for CPA funding in the upcoming application process in the end we seek your ideas either orally or via email for a new projects and how best to meet the needs and goals of the residents and taxpayers of Yarmouth first of all um our community preservation act the community preservation acts was signed into law in Massachusetts in 2000 with a special aversion version called the modifi modified pre CPA which was approved in 2005 for Cape card communities that had previously adopted the land bank program back in 1998 which we were a member of here in Yarmouth the adoption of the modified CPA explain the U replace the Cape Cod landbank program with expanded areas of operation as you know the community preservation act or CPA allows any town in the Commonwealth to adopt a property tax search charge of up to 3% the revenues in any state matching funds give yth a dedicated funding source to improve our community in four categories community housing historic resources open space and Recreation while the annual impact is not substantial on individual homeowners the accumulation of the search charge across the town's taxpayers both homeowners and businesses and has brought in approximately $1.8 million annually for CPA purposes though this figure has been slightly reduced as a result of the recent town meeting action at the November 2020 town meeting voters approved an article to adopt a $100,000 exemption to the CPA search charge to adopt a corresponding sir charge of 78% to fund the new water infrastructure investment fund to fund clean water initiatives Town town townwide the exemption which is to commonplace off Cape translates to a reduction of approximately 500,000 in CPA local revenues by adopting the exemption instead of a reduction in search charge rate the maximum State match amount is preserved to the fullest extent possible this change was voted at the 2021 annual Town election and took effect in fisal year 2022 a nine member committee the community preservation committee oversees the fund this committee reviews applications for funding meets with applicants to discuss their proposals and then make recommendations to town meeting our recommendations are based on um many factors including the overall benefit to the residents of Yarmouth and the ability to meet Comm committee goals as outlined in our community preservation plan we also monitor all of the projects to ensure that the funds are spent in accordance with the application and town meeting I would also add something we put a high precedent on is getting matching funds we love being seed money so perhaps if you're going to propose a $1 million project you're asking three $300,000 from us we it's a big part of our application process that maybe you get matching funds to match that so we end up being seed money it's been a big part of what we've done over the past 20 years at this time I'll introduce the members as I stated earlier I am Gary 's committee chair and one of the two at large members appointed by the board of Selectmen I'd like to introduce our newest member Judy can't pronounce that last name Linsky who is uh second at large member Christine can't pronounce her second name who is not here today cuz she had to attend something off Cape but she's been a a great Vice chairman and a great help to me uh Debbie Clark represents the Recreation Commission who is not here today Joanne Crowley is the representative from the planning board Paul Huggins represents the Conservation Commission George Slammer represents the historical commission Lee ham Hamilton is a representative from the community housing committee Maryanne Walsh represents the yth Housing Authority next I would like to talk about the community preservation plan this plan represents a description of the community preservation act a definition of CPA goals guidelines and instructions for applicants seeking Project funding and guidance for the committee to review applications and to make recommendations to town meeting CPA funds are a dedicated funding source to improve our community for future Generations this plan is updated annually and the committee is currently seeking public comment on our plan copies of the draft plan are available on the table and we be be posted online later this week public comments will be taken until August 18th at 12: noon and can be mailed to Yarmouth Community Development Department 1146 r28 South Yarmouth or emailed to dlat yth mass. us until June 21st and that is Don Mar's email and it is actually until August 18th that's fine sorry okay as noted CPA funds may be used on four types of projects open space historic Recreation and housing the allowable uses chart that shows on the slide there shown on the screen is helpful to determining if a project is eligible for CPA funds the chart shows each Target area area and the perfect purpose for which funds may be allocated this draft should be used by anyone considering an application for CPA funds and is available for Community preservation plan in on the website anybody uh thinking about a project who has any questions I'd encourage them to contact Don and if there's some things aren't black and white but you can always contact us and we can help guide you through that so next I'm going to go to Paul hoggins who is going to talk about our spending okay thank you total spent in our community over the 19 years the Yarmouth CPA program has been in place substantial funds and Investments have been made you see from the table on the screen that CPA revenues and state matches combined have generated more than 39 million since 2005 with over 20 8 million raised locally and more than $1 million coming in from the state CPA grants are also stimulate matching funds from many sources and have provided over 48 million $48 million in additional funding bringing total investments in Yarmouth to more than $80 million Investments of this magnitude would likely not happen without CPA funding continue yeah appropriation by category the next slide shows how the town has appropriated CPA funds since 2005 by by the four categories of allowable spending there's been 13.7 million for community housing 8.9 million for historic preservation 6.2 million for open space Acquisitions and 15.2 million for recreation Projects please note that the recreation figure included the full amount of 3 million in bond authorization this spending will occur over 10 years a breakdown of the spending by applicant and project is available in the community preservation plan and on the CPC [Applause] website she keep going right we have we are excited to am I good or no no no good all right I'm still going all right we are excited to inform you that today we have helped to create or preserve more than 280 affordable homes we have also helped 137 households with rental assistance to keep our families in town we have rehabilitated 29 historic properties completed 20 Recreation projects and project protected approximately 72 Acres of open space George Slama from the historic commission will provide an update on some of the historic projects thank you recent projects are itemized excuse me on the screen I'd like to highlight a few of them tayor Bray Farm CPA funds leverage significant Federal funding to install a new Foundation under the bond at the Taylor Bray Farm in yarmouthport these efforts will help to preserve this important 200-year Old Town historic structure it will also improve Safety Storage and functionality for the tayor BR Farm preservation Association which oversees the day-to-day operations at the farm the completed work also has improved the visibility of the site ancient Cemetery preservation ancient cemetery is the oldest of yamas seven Municipal burial sites the volunteers of the friends of ancient Cemetery formed in 2018 Contin do their work of cleaning documenting and preserving the historic grave markers at ancient Cemetery in yarmouthport this has been a tremendous undertaking and the effort and work product is preserving an important historic resource excuse me resource in our community the historic Memorial Arch and town water pump located at the junction of Summer Street and Route 6A was originally installed in 1928 in memory of nathanial Stone Simkins Jr by his wife Mabel jenx Simpkins and donated to the town over the last 95 years the cape weather has contributed to the deterioration of this beautiful outdoor sculpture which was in need of excessive extensive restoration the arch was removed in November 2023 for restoration by dataless Inc of Watertown the arch Town Pump and 1886 trough will be rededicated at thatcha Hall on September 8th 2024 96 years to the day it was donated to the town hey Lee Hamilton from the community housing committee will provide an update on some of the housing projects as representative of the community housing committee I presented the warrant requesting $200,000 for the yoth municipal affordable housing trust at the annual town meeting on April 30th 2024 These funds support affordable housing added below 80% of the area Med median income and are used to support various home ownership and Rental housing housing efforts including acquisition and Rehabilitation as well as supporting efforts of private developers of affordable housing and this warrant was approved housing trust funds have been used to support the development of two substantial Motel conversions to develop affordable housing affordable rental housing in the joint oh she did send you pictures okay uh I'm sorry Mary if I doubted you thank you um develop of affordable rental housing in the joint effort with the community preservation funds yam common 69 units of affordable housing developed in 2020 20 at 8 881 Route 28 yth and yth Gardens 40 units of affordable housing developed in 20123 at 497 Route 28 West yoth if that somebody reme remember some of those dilapitated motels that were in really bad condition so this is quite an improvement plus it's apply providing housing I'm now I shut my watch off sorry it's beeping to me some of community um preservation committee funded projects include the cap and islands and I think some of this shows the diversity of how these funds are used um Capen Island's veterans Outreach Center they developed a home for veterans at risk of homelessness are homeless but they couldn't use the word chronic homelessness because the ab others did not like that so um and that provides a Veterans Home in Dennis provides uh a house a house five veterans and forward Incorporated uh to support the development of housing for adults with Autism and Related disabilities this has been a joint effort with the town of Dennis and other Community Development Committee towns contributing to these projects forward at the Rock Phase 1 2019 application was awarded 120,000 for the original development of eight one-bedroom apartments on town own land in Dennis forward at the Rock Phase 2 the 2023 application was awarded $18,000 so to expand the project to provide an additional eight one-bedroom apartments um to be developed in the same site inhabitat for Humanity six homes funded in 2015 and completed in 2017 on Virginia Street yoth how check medical Council for the homeless the home repair assistance for the residents of yth who are Income eligible and this is provided uh repairs for 32 homes and this was the continuation of a CPC funded home repair program administered by housing assistance corporation which in total repaired 11 homes there other works in progress and are under consideration a new habitat a Humanity neighborhood with five to six affordable homes a buy down program to purchase existing real property I think it's I don't know what real property means but real estate property um and convert to aable rental housing a pre-development fund where up to $40,000 per address is available to cover the soft cost for redevelopment of underutilized or blighted properties into mixed use multif family housing with an aable housing component and um I think the um the photographs show I think the first one that photograph is the yth commin am I correct Mary that's Yarmouth Commons the lower no that's actually Yarmouth Gardens oh it is the m so everybody can uh see hear me so my name is Mary wagan I work from the town that's that it it's a little deceiving that's Yarmouth Gardens at 497 Roe 28 the reason why that's deceiving is that's not the street view so the the lot is narrow at Route 28 and it goes back it's narrow and long and so that's the side view so if you ever drive in there that's what you see from the driveway um and I know it's Yarmouth Gardens cuz it's colorful the other one's all blue and white okay thank you okay that's my presentation thank you and am I turning it over to turning it over to Joanne who's going to talk about open space and Recreation I turn it off this it was working a minute ago another batteries oh I'm pointing at the ceiling maybe you just want to go to the yeah there we go uh uh we skipped one I think yeah I thought reacted to the click art and the oh no maybe not okay that's 11 number 12 okay great all right okay sounds good I have an extra one in my packet here Karen are we allowed to use our funding to get batteries for the [Laughter] remote buy a big put that on the [Music] agenda open space projects open space is an important category that we dedicate CPA funding for uh and building on the preservation efforts of the Cape Cod land bank which started this CPA's predecessor the town has utilized CPA funds to acquire additional open space and improve open space um in areas throughout the town most recently the town acquired the former Yankee Village Motel on Route 28 a $400,000 Grant through the Commonwealth's Parkland Acquisitions and recre Renovations for communities the Park ACT program was secured to offset acquisition costs for this particular piece of property a conceptual master plan has been developed and the project continues uh to move forward we expect completion of this project in 2026 I note that um recently I think we've sent in um to the state EPA Karen if I'm not mistaken on on this the the the the two par the two parks that this is between we are in process of filing uh an e NF Y and an e right so that paperwork is moving that permitting um is moving forward um uh next up are uh Recreation projects and updates um while the recreation category isn't uh separated you know distinct uh it doesn't have its own designated Reserve fund the CP CPC has been very supportive of recre Rec Recreation projects a couple of highlights include the inclus playground and splash deck at Sandy Pond recreation area which was opened on schedule uh last June uh next up we have the Riverwalk Park and Boardwalk Loop very excited about this and all of the positive activities that's going on here um I believe some contracts have been awarded um the Riverwalk Park and Boardwalk Loop the first Construction contract has been awarded and construction will begin next week uh the second Construction contract consisting of the restrooms separate building there on site will be bid in July and awarded in August or September and we're hoping that both phases will be completed uh by August of next year 2025 the drive-in utilization Drive-In site utilization committee will be giving an update to the board of the select board on June 25th um on this particular project they have been so so instrumental in making this project happen as has our town planner Kathy Williams um who has essentially been the project manager for this in addition to everything else she does um which I'm very familiar with as chair of the planning board I live I I feel like I live with Kathy sometimes um she's terrific um and now Karen there was a piece here for you to do I can do it if you want um on available funds I can do this why don't you give it a try I'll TR sure great um on this particular slide um we're showing the projected available funding uh for CPA uh for the FED for the um fiscal year 20 2026 annual town meeting historically as required by law the CPC has set aside 10% of annual revenues into a housing reserve and an open space Reserve uh and a historic Reserve those three categories the gaining funds are called undesignated and we essentially can move them around um and they may be spent on any of the three categories plus Recreation we are currently estimating almost 2 million in revenue for fiscal year 2026 this amount will be reduced by approximately 450,000 for the previously authorized uh Bond uh uh authorization for the Riverwalk Park um and I'd like to turn it back to our chair uh Mr G Alis how come there's nothing under the housing Reserve okay I could go on with the script but I'd like to I think it would be a good time to seeing Rick Bishop is here to have him give us a update because it's an open space for our creation project for for the friends of Bass River the huge project that they have planned and also which was instrumental to us they I'd like to have Rick talk about the amount of matching funds that you were granted recently over what we had planned for you so thank you Gary again Rick Bishop I'm executive director for the fener Bass River and over the last four years thanks in part to the uh support of yarma CPC we've been working on the upper Bass River Headwaters restoration project it's a very significant project that will take uh impaired water quality in Bass River and improved that pretty dramatically uh mil Pond which is the very end of Bass River requires a 73% reduction in nitrogen and the rest of Bass River requires about a 46% reduction in nitrogen without question the the wastewater treatment plant will go a long way to helping that but we'll do that organically uh the the upper bass rivver project is 57.2 Acres of retired Cranberry Bogs it will turn back into their historic Wetlands we'll take the failed Culvert on Weir Road that has collapsed totally and the uh undersized Culvert at North Dennis Road it's 6x6 will replace that with a 60 foot wide bridge but I can't tell you and explain to you how critical it has been for the yarma CPC to support these projects and this coming this past year the Dennis CPC when I present to the federal government uh czm and Noah and I present to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Mass de and they are so thrilled and so supportive of our project as a result of the support the town of yth and I can't thank the CPC board enough and the and the voters of the town of Yarmouth have been so supportive of our project this past year we received $4.7 million from czm that we passed directly through to the town of Yarmouth for construction prior to that we had $600,000 from nrcs we've received about $300,000 from Mass deer and this is all a result of us illustrating to these organizations that the town of Yarmouth and the town of Dennis is behind this project has been really tremendous so this past year at town meeting we were fortunate enough for the voters uh to support uh our next project and I'm very excited about this because I've handed off the upper Bass River Project to the town of Yarmouth but some of you may know the pond directly across the street from the bass rer Bridge as as when I was young it was run pond on the maps it's croll Pond and internally we refer to it as stinky pond because it's really the most impaired body of water in all the town so this coming Friday we kick it off with all the engineering firms all the state organizations we're going to begin to develop a study for solving that inunda that problem of it being so impaired so we're very excited and again thanks to CPC thanks to the Y voters for the support because it it's really been critical and it's really gone a long way thanks very much thanks Rick thanks Rick I will always feel and have for years that when it comes to water quality and preserving our our beaches um not closing beaches and keeping our water quality up obviously we have to do our sewer project but these projects that we've supported are the low hanging fruit that will significantly reduce the nitrogen load to the water going into our our obviously the aquifer but into the public water and the beaches and we've been a big part of that and I'm very proud of that so on that note I would like to say um we're going to the applications now Don yeah that's our timeline there you have to go back I think right sorry okay oh yeah it's been modified if you have the old um slide thing hey abs applications are due September 20th 2004 at noon this is for the next funding round the committee will review the applications and conduct interviews with applicants during November and December we will make a presentation to the select board in January and we'll make recommendations in keeping with town meeting schedules we strongly encourage potential applicants to reach out with any questions applications must include cost estimat to back up any request if you have questions that are specific to only you or to your application feel free to speak with any of us oneon-one or by phone or through Don's office I would also say if you're going to do that Don can give you what we're trying to do is get anybody who has an application for something whatever other committees in town perhaps conservation planning that you get Recreation get a letter of approval and go through them first before you come to us but Don could guide you through what we'd be asking for on any particular project Karen yeah Karen y hi everybody I'm Karen green I'm the director of Community Development and I just want to um while we're talking about the application process one thing um the town has number of other funding programs going on one of which is capital budget um and so the capital budget process starts it it will start earlier this year it'll start sometime probably in July and so any projects that are utilizing uh Town resources or town staff that type of thing will need to go Administration would like those projects to also go through the capital budget process so what um D maray and I were talking about doing is we'll you know be able to double check on that as part of the capital budget process but will include uh an item on the application where applicants can indicate that they've done so or not okay thanks Karen so again anybody with any questions or anything feel free to contact Don or Karen and with any questions to get through the process more easily than you may be intimidated by it's not that hard but we'll help guide you through that so next it i' like to open the floor to anyone in the audience who would like to make a public comment in particular we are eager to eager to hear your comments on the CPA plan and on your thoughts for projects for the future if you are joining us via Zoom please raise your hand to speak once recognized please state your name address as well as any organizational affiliation speak please speak loudly so that we can hear you and lastly I'd like to say thank you all for attending the hearing and for your valuable comments if you have any questions about the community preservation program please contact Don marray flet in the Department of community housing or Community Development so I'm not closing the meeting now I'd like to open it to any comments or uh questions or anything from anybody in the audience okay if you come up to the mic and just give us your name and your any affiliation you might have that would be great good afternoon my name is Joseph Manning I'm resident of yth a member of the community Economic Development Committee uh also on the board of the friends of Bass River and a member of the cultural center of Cape cot um I just wanted to um couple of our favorite projects and that's what I'm here to talk about so I just wanted to Echo what Rick had uh said recently about the support that the committee has given the friends of Bass River um I believe in the mission um I one of I'm the only board member of the friends of Bass River that doesn't own a boat you can always buy a kayak I do have a kayak yes so I I I appreciate the r from a different perspective for sure and I think that that's why Rick brought me onto the board to begin with um I I also appreciate the good work that uh is done by the cultural Center of Cape Cod uh as a longtime resident of yth I had a much different perspective of the organization than I do now having been immersed in in what they are and what they do for the community um many many classes and many programs and events and it's a it's a beautiful facility and I know this committee has supported um the restoration projects that they've they've applied for I expected that we'll have additional asks I know that Molly wanted to be here but she is not avail able she's on vacation so she asked me to surrogate in herstead so I'm here to do that um I also have an intimate connection to the the town's Open Spaces I'm a I'm a consumer of those services and I appreciate the support that all those facilities get I spent a lot of time on the bike path I've spent a lot of time on the Little League fields and in one capacity or another since since a very early age and U my dad was one of the instrumental um founders of the basketball Recreation program uh when we were a kid it used to be called Yi I think there's some shirts in my brother's attic somewhere um so not to take up too much of your time I I know that um there are many many things that we all could be doing I I do want to the note that I am in full agreement of the amplification of these funds I think that that um from my perspective as a member of the economic development committee there's a there's an opportunity to to amplify the money that we each get allocated as as a part of the budget process so we're always looking for ways to to match and to to be a part of that pulling on the same rope that other committees are are are a part of so um Steve O'Neal our chair uh is very very adamant about the stuff that we choose to recommend support for be a part of a larger plan so I think that goes uh akin to what what this process is all about so again I I just wanted to take a few minutes of your time I appreciate it it's good to see you thank you go Celtics thanks Joe no we appreciate your time in your comments because we don't always get a lot of um good comments I remember going back with the cultural center when they first came to us was it 20 years ago but I was here there were a lot of people opposed to that and going how could you give money to a private organization like that now it would be hard to find somebody in town who would take that same opinion it's been great for the town of yth would you prefer the cultural center being in Yarmouth or be in dunis just think what it's done for the revitalization of that whole area and how how many people here have not been to something at the cultural center yeah I don't I don't disagree I I um as as I said I had a much different perspective of of what was going on there um than I do now I think it's a it's an anchor institution you know there there's there's not an institution like it in Yarmouth and um you know the the dynamic amount of programming that exists there and additionally that it's also a part of of what happens in town they make themselves available and they make their space available for organizations that want to meet and want to gather uh in a place whether be um School administrators that need a place off campus where they they want to meet um by anually or it's other nonprofits that don't necessarily have the facilities available to them you know there's there's a huge culinary aspect of the cultural center which makes it very unique on Cape Cod um and I do think that you know to your point supporting nonprofits is vital you know there's a lot of missions that are in line with with what the town is um is trying to get done and furthermore to your point the the nonprofits can Avail themselves of different funding sources that then the CPC and other organization other committees like the the one that I serve on can then be a part of amplifying um so it's it's it's a symbiotic process and a symbiotic relationship I think that uh only stands to provide you know each and every one of us a place where we want we want to live and we want to play and we want to work and we want to stay so again thanks for the time thank you okay next if you want to give me your introduce your name and your comments or any affiliation you might have my name is Deborah Neil um I'm an architect and I also Sit On The Board of Trustees for South Young with United Methodist Church some of you may know that we thought of making an application last fall and realized that we were too new at it and probably not well prepared and since that time we've done a lot of research on seeking funds through other Grant programs so that our matching and our seed funds are more in line with your program but you had a slide up there that I have a question about and that was the breakdown for 2025 in each of the categories um it was about half further back to the front further forward yeah that one does that mean that the fund reserve for historic Reserve is gone down for 20 FY 26 yeah yeah no it just it any you can stay right there it just means that um we loaded into this uh Slide the sum total estimate for all of the revenue so once we're further along in the process the committee generally deliberates historically they've put 10% into the um dedicated reserves so it's likely I didn't want we didn't want to speak for the committee because they haven't voted on it yet um that it would be um you know 195,000 $881 in addition would go into the historic Reserve but as I think Gary mentioned the important thing is that the undesignated funds um can be spent on any category I I didn't mentioned that but that thank thank you for that someone did thank you for that clarification it was in our application so yes the we have the minimum you would obviously fall under historic but we can always tap into project that we are intending to prepare for this false no we've done projects with you before no you haven't we're very grateful for the support you've offered to our church and it's made a big difference in the historic preservation of that facility oh you have to be very careful that no funding goes towards anything that would be considered a religious aspect exactly but even when we went through that before you know our committee has always been we're preserving a historic structure really doesn't matter to us who's in there you're the ones who are going to maintain the building and I understand that clar part of historic communities to me I mean the first time when you go anywhere and you go into a historic town what's the first thing you see is a steeple right and and we have a nice steeple now we have a nice steeple the next step of our exterior restoration for historic purposes is the sanctuary which was Captain vinyl many years ago to help preserve or stop painting I'm not sure we've looked at it it's pretty and underneath it has lead paint on the wood Clapper we assume we have to test everywhere for it to know but it makes it a very big project because of the environmental impact taking the vinyl off and where we dispose of the vinyl and so we're aware of many of these issues that are costing us well and above what it normally cost a pain a church so it would be advantageous to you to get a letter of support from the historical people saying that they don't support the vinyl right so that's one of the things we might ask for ahead of time that you get that and put that with your application right if we wait much longer the vinyl will fall off by itself so we don't want to wait that long because we want to do this properly and with environmental concerns about what's underneath so thank you for listening thank you any more comments input is anybody there's nobody on Zoom that I see okay Mary are you going to make a comment or you just going to stand there and I have some I have my written comments that I'll I'll give to you thank you just finished them thank you Mary thank you I will give one to Don thank you you welcome I have some extras great thanks I needed this okay I made enough copy so my name again is Mary wagan I work for the town of Yarmouth as the affordable housing uh program administrator I also administer a small Grant from us HUD under the Community Development block grant program and um when you had the slide up about matching funds I have to make sure that I remember to give Don Marie the most recent uh leveraging because a lot of our community development block rant money is used for affordable housing and that LE you know that that's possible because we have CPA money as a foundation for these um uh activities and then Community Development block rent money can you know match those um we only get an entitlement of about $125,000 a year so we definitely have a uh for other sources for uh subsidizing and creating preserving affordable housing um anyways it was a it's been a busy week for me for meetings um our community housing committee me met on Monday uh our affordable housing trusts met yesterday on Tuesday and here I am talking about their comments on your program and your plan with you today on Wednesday so thank you very much for allowing us to have this uh public input for you um um again the community housing committee met on June 10th um and they reviewed the draft uh plan I have I want to just compliment you all the plan looks great it's I know it's been revised and tightened up and it it's not clunky I think it was a little bit clunky before and I think it's it's great and I like how it how it refers to other plans that the town um has already finished for example the production plan so thank you very much for that that works out well for us um the one thing they recommended was a small section on major accomplishments uh that the pro that Comm under community housing um and so that would my suggestion is yarm with Commons Yarmouth Gardens the buy down program home repairs and rental assistance program so those are our uh most successful most Su significant uh uh activities um the ne so okay so that's that's Monday so Tuesday the affordable housing trust met and they yes they looked at the plan but they spent most of their time looking at their budget now most of the money that comes to the affordable housing trust um it comes from Community preservation um the community preservation program um they do get some money if there's uh a buyout of affordable housing on site for a larger development they get those funds um they've received about 400 ,000 in total from that but so the vast majority of money I think it's up to $12 million they've received or administered uh uh because of your program so um anyways so right now we've been we we I have this budget for them for fiscal year 2024 2025 right now in their bank account uh in our munus general ledger program uh program they have access to about $2 million of General funds General dep deposit funds so you'll see our annual request comes into the community preservation uh program without an address without a specific activity it's just it's it's for General deposit um into the trust for to create and preserve affordable housing so we looked at the budget and um we're ready to spend 1.9 million almost the whole uh total available uh amount um so on with that 1.9 it's almost $2 million um funds will be expended on affordable housing planning home ownership repairs hopefully um another affordable housing acquisition of real property um several affordable housing preservations and staff salary now I'm not a major part of that percentage of that $2 million don't worry um but um the trust did note that um coming here today you're talking to f your applicants just want to give you a heads up we've usually been asking for about $200,000 a year we might be asking for more this round um and then I reviewed um the the plan and I have kind of more technical stuff that that last paragraph is really for Don Marie was some missing uh there was some blanks in uh the plan that I'm filling in and of course um the state's office the housing office is now a c cinet it has a Cabinet member so it's now the executive office of Housing and livable communities so just update that um so I don't know if you have any questions for me or want to save them for our application but I just want to thank you for all your work it really makes a big difference you know I've been tallying all the calls that come into all the emails visits and calls that come into my office and I tallied it up and I was scared I I think there was 500 people that contacted me um in the last year so um you know it's it's in demand and um having um empowering me to work here full-time to assist these people is just wonderful thanks Mary and believe me everybody here appreciat what you do and do for the town and it's well worth the investment thank you so the other thing is if you're going to be asking for more money more entitles a lot of leeway so well I'll just I'll just let you know last year we always support Community he you know we do so so last year so I always draft up the application and bring it to the trust and um what the number that I the figure I put in last year was 500,000 they said no no no no no just go with the 200,000 that you normally do so I'm going to start the negotiations at 500,000 and see where they go good idea to start it now yes again thanks for all you do and we appreciate all your projects they've been my opinion they've all come out great great so is there anybody else who wants to comment or ask any questions if not I guess at this point we can close out right Don have somebody up there I I have I have just one I'm sorry Paul no I was wondering if you had somebody on the on Zoom I don't think so okay I can't see too well says Greg Wheeler is he trying to comment I don't know may ask if they want to raise their is there anybody uh on Zoom who would like to make a comment please raise your hand D there are no hands raised is that TR TR okay John a Greg Wheeler right John okay okay well uh thanks for joining us and I hope uh you enjoyed the presentation I have I just have one one one going back to what Mary had um suggested I'd like to uh just get this kind of the sense of the board here um the committee I think adding um a c you know a paragraph or a a section on major accomplishments is a really good idea Mary um and why not you know toot our horn so that would mean for you Don Marie more work but maybe we should have for each of the categories um a listing of our major accomplishments and have it as a as a section I'd like to suggest that Mr chairman yeah and we do have a master list of projects right Don maray would which is which is the if you ever read it it's very I'm shocked about how much we've done and especially looking at the pie chart today the amount of matching funds actually exceeds what we've awarded yeah yeah it's aing as Paul had mentioned these projects wouldn't have happened without CPA and you know we had to fight on our part to keep this when the sewer project came into the window and we put a lot of time into this Karen get into the 100 out to save CPA and I think it's valuable to the community to preserve it and yet go ahead with our water projects well if I could add Mary did the work for me for the community housing committee so and I want to thank Don Marie for all the work she put into this yeah very welcome yes Don puts together this entire program for us without hardly any other input because we don't need to she does such a great job with it and she's great at answering questions and she'll refer to me if she has to but she pretty much knows the act and what we do and how we do it in the process as well as anybody so with that I guess if there's anybody else has any more comments I can conclude the meeting and I want to thank everybody who's here for coming and your comments are appreciated don't be afraid to submit via email or anything any other comments or suggestions you might have and with that I will close the meeting I don't have to do a roll call to close this do I don't um no but we do need a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn second the motion to adjourn he we just do all in favor the old way I all in favor of adjournment I I any opposed okay great thank you all