--------- This meeting is being recorded by the community preservation committee. If any other persons are doing the same, you must notify the chairperson at this time. Anyone recording? Okay, seeing none, we can move on. Okay, I'm going to call this
meeting to order and I'm going to do a roll call of the members. Um, Donna is not here. Wisty here. Sarah here. Peter is not here. G is not here. Becky here.
Travis here. Jack here. Okay, we have a quorum so we can move ahead on this. [Music] Um, approval of the minutes. I move that they be approved as written.
Do I have a second? Second. Second from Becky. Okay. Any discussion? Seeing none, I will call the roll once yet. Um, Wisy, yes. Sarah, yes. Becky,
yes. Travis, yes. Jack, yes. And I'm a yes. Okay, moving on. Um, all right. Um under new business um where
um we um we had a number of processes and documents and things that came up during the course of our deliberations that we put off until now. Um so I'm kind of going to go through um a couple of those things that we can make decisions on them or table them whatever
makes sense. Okay. The first thing was that one of the things that was brought up to us is the idea of limiting the ability of applicants to apply annually. So saying, you know, you can't apply you you can only apply every three years, that kind of thing. Um and um that was
brought up by by Ryan. Um and the the question is, is this something we want to do? Um in theory, it opens up, you know, the options to a lot more people, a lot more organizations. Um and um so it's it's it's it's a it's
a valid question and it also if someone has applied and received money is different than someone who applied and didn't and wants to reapply. So I would think we would allow reapplications when someone didn't get
money. Okay. All right. For sure. And then I don't know if you want to have a time limit on how many sequence applications can occur. Oh god. So go ahead. Um I I was thinking a
couple things. Um, one, if it seems like if they're going to reapply, I would like for them to have known why it wasn't accepted before. So, it's not just a fool's errand, right? And so I would like there to be
some responsibility on our part to be able to um let people know and and if it was about their application, if they're going to reapply, I would like them to have addressed some of those things.
Okay, it's fair. Okay. Yeah. What about you do that? We don't tell. We do. We do tell them. Yeah, we do. But but it would be good to have have that discuss make sure that that discussion has happened. Um in terms of applications where we have somebody
that we have funded previous years. Um I have an opinion but I'd like to hear other op people's opinions before I voice mine. So you mean even if they even if they've applied even if they've applied and received money do we
do we allow for folks to apply the next year or are we going uh Jack? So I just have two comments. The the first one originally I thought about this when it's the same project. So we funded
again one of the pickle ball um courts and or we did an original 50,000 for the study and then again this year. So that kind of raised some questions for me about trying to spread the funds a
little bit more. But I will say coming from an agency that we need to demonstrate local support to receive funds from the state and some of the other grant and funding opportunities.
That's one of the reasons why the housing authority submitted a very small request of 8,000 for our um Conway Street development project because we need to show a local commitment. And so
if the housing authority and agencies like Pioneer Habitat is limited from applying again for a different project, it will theoretically inhibit our ability to
show local commitment. And so, you know, a letter from the mayor isn't a significant commitment. It needs to be something financial. So, I just wanted to bring that up for other committee members to hear from that point of view.
That being said though, if I have a ongoing project or an applicant has an ongoing project and every single year we're coming back for the max we can request from and I know there's not a max but you know if if the committee
ends up coming up with something um I do feel like that sort of is taken away from other applicants but I also see if we started a project and we gave due diligence funds for a project and now they're coming
back to actually do the project. It kind of I don't feel like it would make sense for us to limit someone to come back depending on what they originally requested. That's all. Travis, you wanted to say something? Oh,
yeah. I I was um kind of thinking the opposite of what Becky said earlier, which is like if someone applied and received funds for a project, they could apply again, but if they didn't receive funds, maybe there's a reason they didn't receive it and they have to wait in order to try for that project again
because, you know, some projects people are just maybe not maybe they wouldn't get as far enough into the process of like developing what the project is before applying. And if they really had to think about it, like, okay, we got to make sure this is like really nailed
down before we apply because then if it doesn't go through, we have to wait three years to apply. Is that what it is now? You have to wait three years. No, no, no, no. Now, now there's no no waiting at all. This is the question. But I kind of feel I think in general I feel that we shouldn't have like anyone
should be able to apply any year like even if they didn't get funded they could apply again or if they did get funded and especially like an organization you know Habitat for Humanity like we want them to apply every year probably so I wouldn't want to limit them even if it was the same
project or a different project or so in general I think I'm for keeping it how it is and letting people just apply every year you know we don't have to fund it, you know. But I also think going back to what Wisty said, um maybe on our application it should say, have
you applied for this before and didn't receive funding? If so, why should you be funded now when you weren't funded then? Like what's different now or what? Yeah. Did you address the issues for your that cause you to not be funded? That could be part of the application
process. And and I guess like again I'm gonna think about I'm going to talk about pickable project. So when they came to us the first time, it looked like the final amount was going to be X. And when they came to us the second time, the final amount was like hugely
more. And I guess um um I I guess we could for me if that kind of thing happened again, you know, knowing that like you know I I would want to know what is the project. You
know how some people come um you know and they say you know this project is going to cost $5 million and we're just asking you for this much. Um what I'm trying to say is I don't want people to come back and
and sort of keep making it bigger and bigger and bigger and because we've invested this much we're going to invest more. But I guess that's part of our discussion that we could say let's cut it off. Yep. Okay. So this is really this is really in the category of us to
not throw good money after bad. I can't hear you. Say say it again. I think that's just on us to not throw good money after bad. Right. What are your thoughts beyond that? You know just sort of like you know
every year like a we don't have to spend everything. So, if we're like I mean we have to date but like we could be like you know what that's not actually a super good project and we'd you know we'd rather not like dump money in it.
Let's roll over the money so we have more for next year, right? We're we're dealing with pretty limited funds anyway, right? Many other towns have like millions of dollars to work with. We're looking at like quarter million total.
um you know so I'd be I'd be inclined to say like people can keep coming back but they have to make a good case and right if they've come back three times in a row and we're like no it's still we don't think this is a good
use of the funds um like I mean you know I don't want to like stop them from coming back yet again but also we're probably not going to fund it wouldn't that maybe come up also in the when we're hearing the applications for
the first time and discussing it with them that might be it might help them. Yeah, I I think I think the idea behind this is that we have funded the same organization several times um not
necessarily for the same project. I guess I don't I don't have a problem with that in general like right obviously the like housing like the wreck department gets little to no funding from the town right there's
there's a bunch of of chunks that don't get like this is their only chance for funding sources other than capital which is kind of shot as well. [Music] Um, so you know, I don't feel like we
should be like, "Oh, well, this is another recreation department. We can't have that." No, I I I I agree with you. I the the um the thing that struck me is I was thinking of Habitat in particular. We
have funded three different projects for Habitat every single year that we have done funding. um I would hate to put a limit on their ability to apply um just because they got money last year. And it seems to me that if we I think the
discussion that we've had has said we can work this out you know within our structure if we think a project is not is not going to be good or if we think that there's something that you know is is a miss or we if we just have large
questions but I don't think we should have a you can only apply apply every three years thing because I think that limits certain very worthwhile projects. Go ahead. So there there are two different issues. One is like both what G the example that G gave he was talking
about the wreck department and the one that you gave you're talking about habitat but the project is to build this house or to do this specific thing right and so that's different than thinking about the you know like like the
fairgrounds we've done them twice but it was for this project and then it was for this project right but it wasn't just the fairgrounds Right. Right. Right. And that and we've we've never, you know, we can we can narrow that as much as we can within our deliberations. I just don't
think we should say the fairgrounds can't come back to us ever ever again for another 3 years. I that I find if there's something that's worthwhile that has to be done, then we can and we can make the determination. We can say in our deliberations, you know, we've
funded them twice now. We've got these other projects that we think are more worthwhile. this is what we're going to do. Yeah. You know, and you know, so that's my thought. Um say Oh, go ahead. Go ahead, Jack. I just I may have missed it. Did Christian
ask if any of the other CPCs have a time limit or a number of um applications that they have incorporated into their committees? I don't I have not reached out about
that. I just was curious if there's any other municipalities, any other committees that have done something like this and established um just curious. Yeah. Yeah. somewhat
tangential, but I have my um uh community preservation committee coordinators group that meets monthly and what one of the topics they were talking about when even a topic just came up naturally was that um some of them based on what town they're in certain categories, specifically
housing, they're actually struggling to find projects in that category. So for them to I don't think they'd even consider the idea of limiting people from coming back when they can't even find people in the first place. So there there are places that are struggling in general. Um so they offer to have them
build their housing here. I mean if it's close to Greenfield we can do that. We can do that on Frank. Yeah. French King Highway. People have done that before um in other towns actually. Um okay. So do we feel we've you know
kind of run through our thoughts on this? Do we want to take a vote on it or what do you want to do? I'm not sure what we're saying. Just wanted to say one more thing which is uh kind of I think Wy is kind of saying if the same project is coming back maybe not allowing them to do it again but I would
even say we should let them because for example let's say the pickle ball you know we gave the money to do the site assessment let's say they did get you know $300,000 from city council and then they came back to us and they're like oh we can finish off if you give us this much more. So, I wouldn't want to limit
them on the same project either because it could work out great. You know, or, you know, next year they could say, "Oh, we raised $800,000. Can you give us $50,000 more and we'll finish it off, you know, I don't think that's going to happen necessarily, but that's a good
point. So, I wouldn't I wouldn't want to limit the same project either." Yeah. So, yeah. So, we don't limit now. So, if we don't do anything, everything stays Yes. Everything stays the same. We don't have to make We don't have to We don't have to have a We don't have to have a vote on it. Okay. So, is there any
interest in having a vote on it? Go ahead, Car. So, moved. So, moved. There's no vote. So, so moved to not do anything. Okay. All right. Then, let's unless anybody Does anyone have any difference of opinion? Let's
I realized that I skipped something in going to the new business. Um, we do have one person who is not a member of this committee who is on this. Um, and uh, we can be open for public comment. Um, Kennedy, is there anything you would
like to say in regard to anything that we've been doing or not just this this recent discussion, but anything else? She's a reporter. Ah, okay, Kennedy. Then we we're moving right along then. Okay. Then we don't have any public comment. Okay.
um uh more robust signage for um our projects. Um I don't know if anybody has gone down Well Street, but the banner for um is up on the side of the building for the um the Well Street
Shelter and it's our banner that says, you know, and I'm just wondering if you've seen it, if you think it's adequate or it's what is it about four feet long? Uh like I think they're two by four. Two I think. Yeah, I think it's it's it's four feet long, two feet
wide. Yeah, that's about right. So um is that enough? Do we want to have something bigger? Do we want you know is there you know what what would you all like? I think the the other aspect is if there should be required permanent signage maybe even depending on the uh
the cost of a project or even just specifically whatever kind of project it is if it's relevant for there to be permanent signage. Okay. So there are two things. One is is what we have now adequate and let's talk about that one and then we can go to do we want permanent signage um for certain things
and if so how do we want that to be dealt with? Um the the one thing so what's in the um agreement that all um applicants uh sign um after it's been approved by city council is that the
um uh the temporary signage is required we and we will provide them with the temporary sign. If they do install permanent sign that lists the funders for the project, the CPC is required to be listed, but they're not required to create that sign or any other permanent
sign. Um, it's just if they do, we have to be on the list. Yeah. I would not think the people who move into a Habitat for Humanity house want a little side back out front necessarily. So, but I like the
temporary. I think temporary is important. I haven't seen the Wild Street. I mean, I I see I see the one on the garden all the time and I haven't noticed it and I walk by it all the time. Am I just being down
from like I was going to say I drive by and I see Yeah. It's it's it's up fairly high um because of the way the building is. Yeah. I think everyone most people that walk when you're walking in it's pretty hard to miss though which is so everyone that's going to the movie theater right now is seeing
um Yeah. I mean I know I don't know what size they are but I think like Northampton has pretty big signs like pretty big CPC signs. Um so I yeah I don't and I know we talked about this initially which um you
know is like do we have like um you know like signs that you you know push into the ground like have some of those and have some banners because different projects like different things might work better. So, I don't it's kind of hard. Like, I don't know how we could do
it on a project by project basis. Like, if we talked about it in our deliberations, like we could have different categories of signs. We could have like giant signs, the signs we have now, then like small signs and say like, "Oh, well, that's a category A sign, that's category Based on what it is." I
don't know. Yeah. So yeah, um I'm just remembering when I used to live in the Ozark Mountains, when I would come across a surveyor sign, you know, and it would just be hidden in the woods and there it would be this metal sign it that would be so
exciting to me. So even with a habitat house historically I think it'd be so cool to have some kind of a permanent thing you know that historically you know and I don't know exactly what it would say but just to know that the
community loved and supported this idea you know it's kind of a compliment in a lot of ways that go yeah I was going to say um I have noticed the well well street um banner sign. There's been so much other
construction and JS Ray in the way on Main Street that I've not noticed anything other than just trying to not get killed um when passing through in front of the garden cinema. Um but I I believe they have something something
there. Um, and I I know when we sort of like the the first year we were talking about like, oh, what if we like have little like, you know, little brass plaques that like get set in for like, you know, actual construction projects
that say like partially funded by, you know, Greenfield Greenfield C CPA um funds. uh you know so I I could certainly see you know as I think Travis mentioned sort of the different levels of things
right if you're doing something in the in Highland Park like oh this trail work supported by like that's sort of like a stick it in the ground you know political lawn sign thing you know some of the the smaller construction things
or you know we're doing under 50% you know it's just a banner while it's happening things some of the like the larger things, you know, I think it it it would be cool to have like a little, you know, little disc or a little plaque that gets, you know, stuck in the the
sidewalk or the, you know, in the, you know, the doorway thing or something like that that says, you know, this is a C CPA fund funded, uh, partially CPA funded project kind of thing. Christian was just looking at something
and I was looking over his shoulder. Yeah. At the Somerville one. Yeah. This is what um has So is that is that is that a child? That's cool. I'm not
exactly sure. That's what I was thinking. Okay. Um, do we want to explore this a little bit more? That that's what I'm hearing. Is that Does that make sense? That, you
know, um I I you know, if that's a tile that goes into, you know, um a sidewalk near something that that that sounds pretty cool to me. But why don't we um why don't we explore this a little bit more
and um come back to it uh next meeting. Does that make sense? See what some other towns are doing. Yeah. Does to me that does kind of look like a metal sign that you know like a boundary marker sign sort of thing to a tree. Yeah. Kind of looks like that. Um even
so we can get something made in like you know those concrete things that people will make. We could literally have it installed in like a garden in the corner of a housing lot or you know in like the garden when they were redoing the sidewalks they could have put it in their sidewalk like a tile of that kind you know will last a long time if it's
not damaged and it would be cool if we could put the year in there too just for the historical aspect of it for people in the future. There you go. Okay. So, let's let's I'd like to if if it's all right with everybody to table this and maybe get some more information from
other communities and come back to it next month. Okay. Excellent. All right. Now, on um the how did you hear about the project survey? We had that as part of our um discussion when we were doing
our our analysis of of the programs and I wanted to take a look at it because we've gone through this we've really tried to do some community outreach stuff which has had moderate success um in terms of doing face-toface stuff but I'd like to take a
look at that in relation to what the what people are telling us about how they've learned about things. Okay, so 23% was word of mouth. The largest number was Facebook and Instagram, which
is I guess not not surprising, but always amazes me. Um, email to some extent. Um, the flyer was only was only 2% and that's why that's part of what I'm wondering about is we spent a lot of
time trying to get those flyers out and then the recorder the articles in the recorder that we put in and then other I don't know what the other would be but you know um yeah it was like really just like like super random stuff like that
really didn't fit into anything else. My cousin my cousin heard about it in their town, you know, that kind of stuff like that. Yeah. Um, okay. So, I'd like to know what people think. What does this tell us? You know, what do what do we want to do in the future for next year?
Do we do anything on radio? Anybody have interviews? One year I got interviewed. That's right. One Yeah, I remember that one year you got to you um we had done things like we went down to the Green River and you know, unfortunately it was during the drought and so there weren't
a whole lot of people there. I mean, we've we've hit number of things that have not necessarily worked partially because of random things that we had no control over. And then, you know, things like um I know whisy, we had a table at
the farmers market which was which was pretty successful. So, um, what if we did a, um, like for $500, we support the stone soup thing for a weekend and flyers go in every bag about that. I
mean, again, it's flyers, but it doesn't need to be an 8 and 1 half by 11. It could be something smaller and a banner outside on that weekend. That kind of, you know, there's already so many public events that we just kind of tag into and support, right? Actually, we could put something maybe
with the permission of the library in or near the Greenfield history room or their CPC project anyway and enough people visit the library on a regular. We could do something. Has anybody ever sat in the library for one of those information sessions that we haven't done anything in the library? Have done
that. Not like a meeting, but like sat all day at a table, right? No, we haven't done anything like that. I I'd be willing to do something like that. So once I know more, you know, part of advertising it is advertising the point of the
committee and the work that we do. So like I I wonder if if either like the um chamber of commerce or like the schools, you know, would even would be willing to put a little message in, you know, to to
employees or something. Hey, you know, there's this thing that goes on, you know, that sort of explains just a little bit, but just to say it would be helpful if you look and see what people have said and give your opinion, you know, instead of just trying to contact people, you know,
and and it seems like the schools would be a really neat kind of place and like the rec department maybe would be, you know, you know, to put it on their site because people are tuning am um what were you going to say say like
the tech school how they can do a bunch of wide reaching programs like they could help with like habitat you know like I'm thinking even you know notes go home to kids you know about this and that you know and I don't know if they can legally just put something in about
you might want to look and see what people in your community want or you know different things that our tax money could go to. Have we had a follow-up with any of the people that we've we've the projects that we've funded? Like could we have people from
the garden, you know, do a little thing like before the movies they had commercials and say, "Hey, we got this project done by the CPC." And we have people talk about like us talk about the projects that that go on or, you know, like actually follow up with the recorder and be like, "How was the process, you know, how was it like
working with the CPC? What kind of application process is it?" have them tell each other. That's kind of what it's like. Um, alternatively, are we allowed to have our own Facebook page as a subsidiary of the city Facebook page? Because we could publish things or like
using the city's Facebook page. We could publish events on our, you know, on our own behalf and be like, hey, the CPC is going to be doing this this year, etc., etc., without going into, you know, crossing into like if I post about it, it's kind of it's a little less formal,
a little less okay. I mean, 90 respondents. Exactly. And I'm thinking like if we if we have our own page or we use the city's page and we promote ourselves, you know, rather than having people talk about certainly we could certainly talk with Matthew about doing more on the city's Facebook page, right?
I'd rather have it on the city page than on everything we do. Um, one of the things we could ask is if Matt could come to our next meeting to talk about that. Yeah, I I will say he he probably does more Facebook posts for this committee than almost any other
committee out there already. Um, there's definitely a higher bar to clear if we are so inclined. Maybe he has some other ideas about things we could do. Yeah, that's a great idea. One thought I have is maybe we need to do more like paid advertising, too. Like we could buy ads
on Facebook. Like we could buy an ad in the recorder. We could pay for an ad to show before movies at the garden. Like we have this, you know, we have funding to be able to get the word out. And maybe we have to go that route to get or
another thought I had was like I know you can get um lists of like um you know like mailing lists of people in a town or whatever and do like a random sample of uh postcards to go out like send out
a thousand postcards to a thousand random households and greet you. You know we could do we just have to spend some more money. Yeah, we we have to spend some more money to do it and we have and I think we have to decide, you know, it is, you know, I think there's a question of how what is the
benefit in relation to doing this and I'm not saying no to any of this. I'm just saying that I think we need to think through, you know, um is this something where we need to talk to considering that we're often looking at organized people as opposed
to individuals. Does it make sense and to go to the Elks, to go to the, you know, to go to the Kuanas, to go to wherever and talk with them more than doing postcards? And I don't know the answer to that question, but um but I think maybe we
have to think through a little bit more, you know, a plan to be able to to do this. I mean, we tried some stuff and they've moderately worked and but it shows that Facebook stuff has been
the, you know, the most effective in in terms of people who have responded to any of our our pieces at this point. So, I think that we have to look at that, right? Well, fa Facebook ads are certainly cheap. you know, for 20 bucks,
you can probably hit most of Greenfield. Um, GC it's it's it's a quirky thing because you you want to hit people who actually have viable projects. You know, everybody's got an opinion on
like where the money should be spent, but in fact, very few people have the like the connections and the like and the actual
like, you know, con control of an area to be able to do a project on that area, right? Right? A gazillion people come to Christy and be like, "Oh, we want to do X, Y, and Z at this thing." Right? And like some of them she's like,
"Yeah, sure. Go ahead." Um, you know, and some and some of them are, you know, she they you know, the rec department doesn't actually have capacity to help shepherd any of that through. I think I was going to say I think these
are people who were ranking the projects, not the people doing the projects. Right. Right. It's kind of two different two different groups of people. Right. Right. Right. I don't even think enough people really
know what the community preservation commission does. I I didn't know until I sat down at this table. And so it's still a matter of it's only three years, right? It might take 10. We're in our fourth actually first year. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
No, I it certainly it certainly is going to take a while. So, um we're going to be planning I I guess mostly what I'm thinking about is we're going to be planning for next year starting next month I believe. Um
so think about if there's a different kind of outreach. And I, you know, I we've got a lot of ideas here, but think about if there's something in specific that strikes you that we want to try. We don't have to do it all at one time because that'll probably drive us all a little bit crazy, but um but we could do
something that we haven't done before. We've always had ads. We've al always had articles in the newspaper. We've had these leaflets that we've used. We've done a little bit of face-to-face outreach. Um the most successful being
at the farmers market. Um, and you know, I mean, you know, the library thing sounds to me like it might be interesting, but I'm, you know, but in any case that we, you know, we can look at maybe two or three things that we want to do over the course of the
summer, early fall to be able to get ourselves into a position to be able to uh, you know, to to let people know about about about the applications and when when they're due and all of that kind of stuff. I want to say one other thing. Sure. um if if we think that um just
visibility because I agree with you that what I think you're saying you know that a lot of people just don't know about the committee and all that. Okay. So if you know if we had some kind of folders with pictures and with words you don't like that somebody can take in and put on a table that somebody can pass by
like that would have really even helped at the farmers market and that stuff all takes time to develop right and um you know if we could just do a couple of presentation boards or something that people could take to different places it
would be easier for us to do that kind of thing. Okay, let's think about that. Yeah, and I really like what you were saying about getting people who've already been funded, a variety of people, you know, even like, you know, John McGee and his
bike racks, so and so with their, you know, Isaac, he's running for sure. You know, do do um do we have photos of any of the things that have already been completed?
Yeah, we do. Okay. Oh, here's an idea. Not to do the thought. What if we had a booth at the be at the fairgrounds during the county fair like in the front where people are walking in? That's county. Yeah. So, it's Yeah. But
but I but I like the idea might have share the staffing. Fourth of July. You could do Junth. Oh, June Junth. Yeah. Junth fireworks. Junth is going to be on a Saturday this year. It's going to be the 21st. Oh, cool. And that gives people enough time to have
pre-applications if they want. Yeah. Yeah. Junth might be a possibility. Um I'm going to be there anyway selling soap, but that's beside my guess soap soap and CPC. Um okay. So, um, again, I think let's think about it
next month when we start really planning the summer stuff. Come with specific ideas of things that you want to do because it's really June, July, and August. And after that, we're in super. So, it's it's a that's the other thing. It's summer time. We do all a lot of
this. So, that makes it a heart. Anyway, okay. Onward. having some uh adding money to the request for the project application. You had some information. Yeah. So, that was a question that occurred during the voting meeting. Um I
was asked to reach out to Stuart at the Community Preservation Coalition to ask that specific question. Um so what I had asked him was um can a CPC grant more funds to a project than an applicant is requesting? Um and I use Jack's project as an
example. For example, if a housing authority is requesting 15,000 for a rental assistance program, could the CPC grant the housing authority 30,000 even though the application is for 15K? Um, another way of framing the question is, is there anything in the CPA law or do guidelines that would prohibit a CPC
from granting additional funds beyond what is requested? Um, and what Stuart said was that the CPA legis legislation doesn't mention anything about applications nor the rules surrounding them. That's completely determined locally. So there's no requirement to
adhere to the details in an application. CPC has complete control to change anything they want about the project so long as they are specific in their final recommendation bill. So the CPC can absolutely award more money than is listed in the application and specify what that money is for. If there is
time, amending the application to reflect the changes is definitely a good paper trail. But even if the application was not amended, the project scope would follow what is decided in the minutes of the CPC meeting. the specific wording on the recommendation vote and specific wording in the city council
appropriation vote. Um so the answer is yes. Um but the motion that you make for that project would have to be much more specific than what we've done the last couple years because the last couple years we're just approving the application as written and it's that's the clause you have to say with with this scenario. You have to be very
specific. Um but yeah, it's a pretty specific application though, right? But we'd have to say why we are awarding more than was requested. But that would have to be part of the motion. Yeah. Um I I think if this is if there's a desire motion to boost the funding for the
rental you know rental assistance to 30,000 because we think it should get more than the requested amount because the need is I I I think if there is a desire amongst anyone on the committee to boost funding
for something I think it should be expressed um at some point prior to the final voting meeting if at all possible and then we can go to the applicant and make sure that they're going to accept it and then also then at that point they could amend their application because I think it's just very confusing that even if you do the proper wording of the vote
and submit it to city council someone looking at the application it's not reflected in the application so even that disconnect is allowable it's it's still a disconnect that could cause a lot of confusion um but yeah it's we could do it if we so desire so I guess unless anybody wants
desperately to do this right now um which would require ire some major work. Um, this is for future reference and we know about it. What What kind of major work would it require? Well, I I think because we we
we're not sure, but we think everything's going to be going over the council this month. Yes. Yes. The first round. Yeah. Um, we would have to, you know, do the rewrite, connect up, you know, we could, you know, considering what we're talking about is Jack's project, connect up with Jack, have have
some kind of rewrite. get that into city council and get that um and get them to approve it. We could approve it in June, I mean, and ask for it to be, you know, to have, you know, um something special done in June, but it would be in midst the budget process. It would be hell at
this point. If you are talking about that very specifically, it it's far enough along now that I would consider it a separate appropriation. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah. Yeah. I would I wouldn't try to do it for anything that's in already. Okay. So it would just be like if if in
the future we want to do something, we could do it. But Okay. Yeah. I think I plan on this being a very successful fund and coming back to the committee because there will be a good need a great need for it. Um, you
know, Susan, we were talking um about potentially some like foreclosure stuff. And so, right, that could also be, you know, a fund for a mortgage payment if they can't or have already gone to raft. And so, these are things that, you know,
I think we do as a committee have the ability to look at a project outside of our normal funding round, right? And so if if we exhaust the funds that are given, you know, within three months of the receipt of them and the committee was willing to receive an application
and review it and and ask, um, I think that makes more sense than trying to interrupt everything that's already been sent to city council. Okay. So for future reference I just to give you an idea what we were talking about is I'm talking with a bunch of people about the question of if we go
into recession which as we all know is somewhat likely um then we've got raft for um for renters and raft is available for homeowners but you know very it doesn't go very far. Um, so the question of is there a way we can find out
information ahead of time so that we can help help someone who is going into foreclosure in any number of ways if we can, you know, that kind of thing. So, we're trying to figure that out right now. Now, that would be done outside of the city council budget. I mean, we our
money is separate from the city council. So, right in September, we could Jack might have used all the 15,000. He could say, "We we need more." We could say yes and and make we could we could it's going to require it'll have to require some we'll have to figure out a special
application process for it because it'll be outside of our regular application but we could do that we could do that certainly we could do that we could develop like an emergency application like something like that I mean at this point you really you could make a this meeting right now if someone had come to
us two days ago and said I need this money for this emergency and if the committee felt it was relevant enough and Right. You could just go for it because some communities they don't have a specific they just whenever they come in they vote on them and then it goes forward. Yeah. So we we could do that
and we could have that flexibility. So okay I think those are usually like smaller communities that are are struggling to get enough applications to to to do housing. Yeah. Right. So like anytime they come in. Okay. So I think we've got now an understanding of what
we can do which is helpful for both emergency applications and for regular applications as we move forward. Cool. Well, all right. Old business. Old business. Uh updates to prior year
projects. Um I have four updates for various projects. Um the agricultural society barn rehabilitation. um that has the or the order that the from the mayor to the city council has been submitted for the preservation restriction. Um so
that should be going before city council maybe next month or May the budget. Um so that'll be interesting. Um the uh historical society document preservation um the bulk of that payment has been made to them and the volunteers are
finishing that up this spring. Um, they're finally able to I think I might have told this update before, but they're having a hard time getting into the building during the winter because they don't have heat. So, so this is this is something we did in 2023. This is not the thing that we we just voted
on. Okay. Y um and then for fiscal year 2024, the final payment was made for the Tim Greater Franklin and Maine LLC downtown housing predevelopment work. Um so that project is complete. Um they finished all their pre-development work and are moving forward towards
construction and the Habitat for Humanity uh the 90% payment has been made to them and we'll make the final payment when the uh family or individual moves into the house uh in a couple months. Yes. Um just on Habitat just so
you know and any of you should be feel free to come um on uh May 12th I believe it is. It's the Saturday. Um, there is at 4:00 at the Habitat building, the new Habitat house, not the the new new one,
but the one from last year that we put through, which which is over on Petty Plane Road. They will be having a 4:00 a little um opening um and celebration. And um you are all invited. It's 4:00 um
at the Petty Ping Roadhouse. it. You would park in the um the area where the uh where you park for the fairgrounds and it's right across the street from fairgrounds. May 12th is a Saturday because I'm wait for the 11th which is
Sunday, right? May 12th is a Monday. So it's May 10th then that's Saturday. Um so take pictures. Yeah. So yeah, I'm going to I'm going to do a a quick and dirty. We're we're really pleased that
that this is happening and we glad that we give you the money and um so it you know, but everybody should come. Um I was there for when they started when they did the basically the uh one of the wall raisings is what they did and it was very nice. It was a very very nice
event. So everyone should feel free to come to that because you're all part of it. Cool. Okay. Um All right. So, that's what we have. Okay. Is there anything else that anybody would like to bring up for
discussion? Uh just remember that in July will be the the public hearing on the plan. The city the committee is required to have a public hearing every year um to update its plan. So, that would be okay. So we need to presumably the the
regular committee meeting date put in July right 20 something. So we need to have a public hearing on that. So people should look at the plan if we have to have um changes in it. We should have those that discussion happen in June.
Can we um back to the outreach piece, if we're thinking about things that we might want to do or want to bring to the group to think about, can we send that send emails in advance so that or do we have to just talk bring it and talk about it? No, we the way it works is you
send an you would send an email to Christian. Christian will share it with everybody. Yep. Yeah. I if if people are thinking of ideas on who who and where to share information with, we can um I'll make a list. Um, so whoever has any ideas, I'll make the list and send it out with the agenda packet for the next
meeting. Okay. So, um, you were saying we should do the updates. We should do the past. We did the public hearing and then we did the updates, right? Okay. Banks on the public hearing. Yeah, I was thinking of the way. Okay, we have the public hearing in June because that it's
always been like a tight turnaround where because we want to release the pre-applications in August, right? So, we could have it in June if so desire. June with the public hearing. The public hearing we could have that as part of our meeting. Um we we don't have to have it as a full meeting. We can just have a
public hearing as part of our discussion. Yeah. So why don't we have that for the June meeting then? And we have to have it once every year, not once every fiscal year. Right. Right. Because Oh yeah, correct. Yeah, we have been doing it in July. Yeah, I believe the wording is just once every annually.
Yeah. Okay. So, and it's just that people will come and talk about how they like it, whatever they Yeah. Whatever. Yeah. Things that they think we should be doing. So, we need to do a press release for that. Then press release and it um will be noticed in the the paper um two weeks in advance. Okay.
And that and that's where we could like try to get a lot more public feedback on like just in general like what types of projects are you interested in? Yeah. It doesn't have to be just about the the plan and we could all class about the outreach stuff. Yeah. And like I know I
know we talked about like some communities do like I don't know like more fun like a more fun thing for that and like you know we could like have pizzas and say like free pizza come tell us you know what what to do about our plan or whatever.
Always always a draw. I mean, so we could we could really like bulk it up like that and try to get people to come and that would get people to know what we're actually doing. Yeah, we at the green pool when they have all those table set up and dog grill or something.
We could have a meeting there like our meeting could be somewhere. It would either Oh, it has to be recorded. It has to be it doesn't it only has to be recorded if it's a hybrid meeting. Hybrid meeting, right? But we have to have we have to have committee
is one of the few that's at the John Zan with which is what we've done in the past. We've done it at the Johnson. Yeah. Well, do they have a grill? We could do it all through the parking lot. They're very fussy about their Mhm. Anyway,
well the question is this is the May meeting. This is the May meeting. If we're going to do it in June, we need to talk about it now. Um, if we want to wait until July, we can talk about it next meeting. Well, no, next meeting. The next meeting is in May. Right.
Right. Right. Next meeting is in May, right? So, we have we have another month to to figure this out. Okay, cool. I just feel like it's May already. Okay. Life has been moving too quickly.
Okay. So, all right. So, let's plan to have this as a discussion in May. Um that we and thinking about a June public hearing as opposed to a July public hearing. Um and think about whether we want to do something like do we want to
have it to see if we can move it to the Johnson to see if we can do something like pizza. I have been in meetings there where they've had pizza. It did it's possible we can do it. Um and um or you know or something like that. Um, and if we do, do we want people to pre-register so that we know we have
enough or you know that kind of thing. Anyway, so yeah, I already have a hold on the John's on for vote June and July. Oh, I actually I have it recurring where both this this spy and the John's on is for us and I delete whatever one we don't need.
Right. So, we love him. So, so then why don't we why don't we plan to to have it there in June and then and we can figure out what that constitutes next um in in May. Does that make sense to folks?
Okay. Sure. Uh anything else for us to discuss? Then I will entertain a motion. Sure. I move that we adjourn this meeting. Second. Uh all those in favor.
Okay. Thank you very much. See you on May 22nd at [Music] Part: 2
All right, it's 5:31. We'll call the meeting to the order. David Rollston, the chairs Walters, our second official meeting and uh our first annual organizational meeting. So glad we could finally get
this underway. The first item on the agenda is public comment which we know that this med this uh proposal was created at the behest of some people that were had discovered this in the state statutes and uh wanted
to uh bring it to uh Grafield. So I'd like to open the meeting. Who wants to go? [Music] We have some stuff to to present help the committee deal with some issues
about eligibility and all the rules, but I'd rather wait till after a chance to talk about it. Some of the things that we had is some stuff that Mitch Jones found from Newton, Massachusetts, which is
program that I think will be useful to you as you design this program, which is what you have to do. Fortunately, the good news is that you can design it from scratch. stated very few rules about what a city or town does to implement this program. Um, so but that's I could
present it now if you want, but I'd rather let the committee go on a bit and then you can ask us um to present what materials we have. David, is that Yeah, I mean I was thinking that that you could give us an overview of what your your thinking is on uh where this
committee when when you when you were trying to get it created, what your thinking was as to uh what role it. So I I'll just mention a couple of very quick comments and then we have some more to say later. But um this program which as David said is
is something that we found when we were looking in the uh lawyers guide to some of the elderly and disabled tax credits exemptions that are available. You want to hold that John? Yes. If you haven't seen this
um association of voters name real estate whatever put together by lawyers the state general law and we found in a program that had been enacted in the
late 90s and u said to ourselves well this is interesting I wonder if greenfield has something found out from inquiring around. Nobody had heard of it. The idea of an elderly tax fund that people could elderly and disabled tax
fund that people could contribute to $1. The statute actually $1 or higher. Um so uh we thought well there's two there's two parties that win here. One is the consumer who's not in trouble paying and
the other is because it means you get more collectiveness. So if we give a money if we give money to uh someone who's struggling to pay their taxes the money really fast. So it it'll leave you on
Sunday in it's a increase they might have to get in more. So, it's a win-win for those those people. And it also gives frankly some taxpayers in town who might feel that they have a an obligation. You know, I'm
talking about big businesses that are making some nice rewards to this being located in the town profits that they take away from from being here that they might want to give back. So, we're hoping that we can uh do see on a
number of fronts u the benefits to the consumer and to the city from this program. Now, Al, I'm familiar with the fact that Newton has it and Lexington has it, but there's several other towns. Oh, yeah. There we know we think there's at least
30 or 40 towns, but the the interesting thing is nobody had the data. The reason for that is that the uh the commission of revenue, the the department of revenue which supposedly oversees these projects and and is approves them. They they are
notoriously because they they approve them and they file them and they're not kept anywhere online. You can go online and look for you'll get a little narrative on what it is, but you won't see any data about which towns have them and don't. Uh so
we found them just by trial and error by looking at if you go to some of these towns like present they'll have they'll have a section about how many they say the flex fund and how it works and how you can
apply the eligibility which pretty important um but we counted over communities that had this program but I suspect it could be significantly higher but there's also a lot communities like
anyone in Sanford County. So, the reason the reason for that is that the award is not overseas program. It's your program. As long as you have a board that's composed like the one they have, they don't they don't come in and tell you
who should be eligible. There's a few simple guidelines about something a notice on the tax bill and so forth, but other than that state involvement, it's really a local program which I think
we don't know anything about how much money they don't. Yeah, some of the towns will tell you that, you know, I forget hundreds of thousands of dollars. They would like to hear from someone from the assessor department
to discuss some of those tools and this is okay suspicion that Newton's receipts are going to be higher than ours place. Well, but they but they've been around as well. That's true. West Phar and Dan
as well. But I what I found is that not a whole lot of outreach to for example the business community which is a very large rather than other taxpayers which I'd
rather give to something businesses you know the business associations they individual businesses we got some large corporations get some good PR out of it as properties and back.
Yeah. What I was asking is what are your thoughts about getting involved in getting contributions from the uh owners of the exempt properties the tax exempts? Yeah, absolutely.
Absolutely. But keep in mind, as you know, a lot of those properties are city owned. There's a there's a very large segment DPW properties. There's a lot of money that's tied up in the city's business that is is exempt from
taxation. But yeah, I'm I'm I very much think that if you've got large business or nonprofit that's making millions of dollars, but any uh the the tax exempt prop properties that actually you think this
number 5.4 million and tax exempt property is 8.5 I think. beautiful. But as I say, at least a third of it is the city city at home. But yeah, absolutely thinking that they that that contribution from exempt properties will
be one, but they're not the only one. You got you have, you know, corporations that uh sure are DJs, you know, companies that are making a lot of money. I think we should look at this from a community also. model I would
look at as known CPI cooperate as well as partnership as well as the individual. I mean I don't want to exclude anyone in participating in this program and contribute. Yes. Yeah. Even
Starbucks. Yeah. discussion there stay and I don't I don't doubt that they've opened it know do we know what the level of you know because I mean it's going
into our our agenda you know we're going to be looking at what other people have done what other towns have done I'm I'm thinking and trying to collect as much information as possible then develop our own Do we know what the level of um approval
or the process of approval of whatever we come up is? Approval of what uh you know we come up with with we come up with guidelines and programs and maybe want to do some pilot work you know taxes that kind of stuff. Um, do we do
we I mean obviously we have to get the city on board, but I mean beyond that it's dependent revenue or is there some other hiring member of the state that we're going to have to respond to. They don't they don't really care who you get your money from. I suppose if you I like for
example I wouldn't call anything a pilot in in this payment. No, I know what it is. I I wouldn't use that terminology for this because that I don't I don't want this to be the a quit proquo is that you're giving us because of the land you own
versus taxable you're giving us something you that's another program that's a state program does have but I think this for something like this day that you could just create your own approach say to a
company that we think you could get a lot of well out of this and be helping community make money being here which is great and we're happy to have you etc. I think a lot of them will depending on who asks a lot of these companies be
interested and I thought that recommended later that we approach and we have some of the make a list of some of the gems and predictions that you know have high value because I think a lot of those properties my opinion very
attractive value of those companies they may have some of those companies don't want to be taxed at all I'm not sure we spend as much time on making sure their valuations are appropriate because you know we don't get any
benefit from but you know my suspicion is that because we have the cyclical review every 10 years that um you know they ought to be reviewed at least to make sure we get closed in market value. But
of course, you know, what's a church for? How many churches turn over? That's right. And some churches will give, some churches won't. Some, you know, some of the local businesses will give, some won't. Yeah. I think by by trial and error, the more people who give and the
more visible that giving is, the better for the people. Absolutely. Yeah. So, I had a question. If let's say some of these businesses are contributing, what is one way we can ensure that we make that visible like
would that be something that you put on a city website like oh these are contributors or how how do we go about acknowledge that? There are people who when when they donate they probably be should be a question. Do you wish to be on a
mission because some people don't want to be they don't want to start getting phone calls. [Music] So I think that should be part of the forum when Cindy contributes is that I would like to remain uh
I'd like to come back to the question that David raised that I think is important and how does this fit into the legal framework of the city? Joe, could you speak louder? We can't. Oh, sorry. Um the question is how does this
committee fit within the legal structure you know the the legal minations of the city you know does you know we approve and then recommend to the council uh or is it totally independent and uh you
know you know we're jurisdiction unto ourselves or something like that I don't know that yeah statute doesn't really say much about it very bare bones they create
read clause 18 that's very bare bones and the question I think is really u important question to get information on because for example the community preservation board that was passed
um this the CPA was they voted voted by probably language on this, but everything they recommend is that it's a recommendation that goes to the city council and the city council then takes their their recommendation of who gets
money. So that could happen here, too. I mean, the only difference is that we're talking about individuals, you know, that you you come up with a list of 18 individuals this year that are going to get an award. Uh the town might argue that we don't want to expose those
people to being um uh seen as somehow taking advantage of the situation and oh they we know them and they don't um but that fits into public records request. Yeah. Yes. So, we we're going to have to I think uh
Jim, what I would do is is I think that the committee should make a note to to ask Scott, Kathy Scott, how this board should relate to the city council and to public records because um uh they will
they will have to make a decision about whether they want over who you name. The city council could may be able to simply vote. Some of these other talents when you talk to them they can tell us no we you know we as a board make up we make our award and we don't even show them
for the board or we don't show them to the same we we're entrusting you to run this program we should find out how others are doing it because in all the literature I've seen I didn't see any reference to who oversees I can tell you that a this is a public body therefore
it's treated like the public state they because public record of it should be on should be eventually on GCTV or YouTube all these meetings and you follow all the comment period to a lot of the rules
that that affect the board but I think Kathy would probably be the best source to tell you she she probably won't know she'll probably have to talk to it seems though because the money so in there's no city money being spent here Well,
there's time or do you have staff? There's staff time. There is staff time. But so it seems to me that that would be relatively autonomous um in terms of the statute in terms of we get money in we create criteria
uh lot and in looking over a few of the uh documents from other towns. Some towns do a much better job than others in terms of being very very meticulous around criteria which I would recommend and then following that criteria that's
how grants are made depending on you know what's in the pie. Yeah. And we and we need ultimately as depending we're just at the beginning of this road. So I'll be the ones that are going to be deciding grant applications
or we just set the criteria and then somehow it's done within the city government. No, you you this committee is expected to come up with recommendations of beneficiaries by beneficiaries. Yes. Yeah. They you you will have a review session
at the appropriate time where you look at the 12 applications or application that you received and votable for them. which is why it meets criteria. It may be admit I think the salt con is a committee or bail because we have
committees in the works of the town unless it is committing board statute but the u okay so so yeah would you would you mind and in terms So in terms of
uh okay there is there any other public comments so we can move through the agenda because we only have the room till 6:30 basis and get ready for the next meeting any other public cont where I live is exactly where three
locomotives park and The rule is since since the EPA state law, they can't park for more than half an hour. Well, they park for six hours on Tuesday and an hour and a half the next day and then at
night another almost two hours. So, they keep breaking the law and getting away with it. This should be And so what I was told by Natalie Blice and the mayor's office to copy down the names of the locomotives, the numbers. Yeah. So I do that because I can just
walk right across the street and they are three locomotives. The Amtrak are freight. They're freight. They're always free. The Amtrak just goes right by freight and it's always three local and they're always parked right across from my place. And so after a while you get
the fumes and diesel fumes and then I have to leave I have to leave my house because I don't want to get cancer. I don't know that's I think that's beyond the kin of our committee. It's a state it's a state law it's the health it's probably the health department. Guess
what? Well I called them. They said oh there's nothing you can do about I said don't you think that's a health for somebody to live right next to three local sitting here? I think the have you talked to they said don't call us. I called 911 and it it was like it was
3:00 a.m. They parked at 3:00 am, right? And by 5:00 a.m. I'm not sleeping. I called 911. They said, "Please don't call us. Nothing you can do about spoken counsel." Yeah. Well, the Dal
Street, but anyway, it's a $5,000 fine for exceeding the half hour. It's never been enforced. And it's an EPA rule. It's an EPA rule. Here it is. State I can't see it. Oh, you can't follow us. I I several I'm sure you're right. Uh but
I mean state keep department of environmental protection DP or EPA single associate because I can direct you to the right place. Natalie BL said copy down locomotives and I did and I called her today. I
called her Tuesday. That sounds like it sounds like you know two ways to this isn't related to our to maybe get that money from them for operating a train in Greenfield.
Yeah, you know there is taxes on on tarantine property. I mean you got the Deerfield train. Why don't they just confine it? The locomotives idling there. But I would say potentially if it came to the city popular that would be a more yeah appropriate and a bigger
platform maybe some get on top. But this this goes on every week now. There was a pause in February and March. But now they're they're doing it again. They did it all last summer and all last fall. And
nobody listened to me. You know, 911, please don't call us. It's not emergency. Well, hey, your phone number said, and I'll probably try to contact the health department. Well, they told me it's not they they said we can uh help, you know,
they agreed, but there's nothing they can do. Are you documenting? Oh, especially the times the followers. Oh, yeah. I am I I look at the clock and I go, I mean, it's my video.
Oh, I got to get video. I got a little said. All right, we have to move on. This is what we're here for. Sorry. Okay, that was my complaint. Thanks. Okay, thanks. Any any other first and
foremost. Whoa. Before you take off, what's your name? Oh, John. John. Yep. Okay, great. Thank you, Jonathan. Franklin County my whole life. Not yet. Go ahead. First and foremost, I'd like to thank S
Es. Yeah. First and foremost, I'd like to thank Councilman Large Menas for pushing this this through. He saw merit in it. I think it's been way too long. Uh this program has been in existence
for over a quarter of a century since 1998 and Greenfield has never opted to take advantage of it. So I think we should get past the doubt of how effective this program could benefit
elders and seniors and let's try to make it work. uh I think that's when we should be focused on and again I don't want to exclude any entity or individual out of the process right this is a tax
deductible these contributions and so on and so forth many of these entities in this county are dependent these are inelastic businesses that are thriving on the welfare and downfall of a lot of
seniors either. So I think they will step up to the plate if we articulate our value to answer questions. It's called the committee should be helping. You are the you are
committee board. It's a committee. Okay. It's like division committee. It has it's a committee status and official public by subject. So okay committee you need we need to check the public records
issue with cath. I think they would consider them to be confidential. I I think you're right. Although we're not sure because it's like somebody applies to the program there's their name. We'll have to see on the others. [Music]
From what I've come across is I haven't seen where the bureau is saying by the CPU going through the city council and the city council debates it and then approves their I haven't seen that happen with this committee happening
other towns. it kind of operates autonomously and you once you set the criteria within that criteria you can just do it out because you're all it's also not like you were saying using city funds so it's not coming up with like
any revol budget or anything like that so but again it would be safe to check in it sounds like you know what we want to do is look at as you know at least a representative sample of all the times
that I've been doing this and trying to figure out practices what we can determine would be the best a fair agenda item for next next month. Sure. But who's going to do the work? I did.
I started it. Okay. Okay. I said in the very beginning when we had almost a meeting. Yeah. And I would what materials I do have. from Westboro, Danvers, and a few other places. I tried to pull out language that I thought made the most sense. Now,
I've only gone partway with that, but I certainly would be perfectly willing to produce a draft, legal iss at the next meeting. If that would be helpful in moving things forward, I think it might be. I think it' be
absolutely helpful. Okay, I will do. And if you want me to help you if you want to do any like through these documents to kind of pick something up because it sounded like you know I mean it sounds like it's an open field in fact just because Newton and Dan Middle
or whoever else is doing it. We're not necessarily confined to that. And one of the things we're talking about just randomly in this initial meeting is trying to solicit funds uh and how we going to go about that. So may I don't know if they the material
you're getting is indicating that they're picking up local businesses or you know I don't have any of that. Yeah. What I have is the don't the two two different documents on levels of document documents of what's the criteria in process and what is the
application. Okay. That's those are the two documents that I have information on and that's what I'd be willing to to do the work on. I don't have anything because I'd be interested and I'd be willing to follow it up if I can figure
out who the contact people contacting several towns. How do you get your funds? because you're talking about how you administer the funds and I'm I'm thinking about how do we get we would need to get the money before
you know I I'd be happy to come back next next meeting and say I talked to you know four or five towns and discovered their contactless and said how are you obtaining the write offs on on tax bills like the good neighbors
electric company That's what I I have heard is they put it on their like tax bills with like a box to check if you want to tax bill statement. Yeah. one of the members of
the so but that just gives you how they kind of [Music] analy you'll digest policies and procedures for administering the funds. Yeah. And I if the if the committee
agrees I'll take some time and credit dedicate half a dozen pounds and find out how they're soliciting. That'd be great. Uh they many of the municipalities that I reached out to they they
market this flood aggressively. They're interested in protecting their seniors as do you have contacts? I I have contact with the department doesn't say she yeah rude I mean if you have like
officials that I can contact sure it'd be more than if you're going to act on them. Sure. Yeah, I'm not going to keep spinning on wheels. I think we're past that. This has been in existence since 1998. Let's focus on making it happen.
Um, how much is this for 55 or 65 or older or something? Yeah, that's part of what we see. That's a good question. 55 years needs to get younger and
younger. Newton uses an age of 60 in terms of healthcare. They also a more um obscure question is is it elderly and disabled or is it elderly and disabled?
Um the town of Newton for example has category elderly or disabled. So in other words, somebody comes in and they're not 60, but they're on some of the disability programs, they're eligible as well. So you could have a 40 year old getting some of this. It's not
just for eligible. Let me pass this one out. These are the guides. These are the new guidelines program. I don't think it's it's not particularly mysterious what they tell them. They just tell you that we tell people in our channel that you can donate to this fund and we give it to
people through the club. members. I don't think there's much I I haven't seen any example of a community that's really done an aggressive help business community and said we want we want you to be a sure and that's what and I'll
suggest in a few minutes some part of things that like using CPA on community preservation act that are I think more aggressive we could be more aggressive than I think many towns are cities are and probably raise more money because I don't think a lot of these towns are
They're just sort of doing it by the book and it's not a particularly exciting or innovative approach to how you get money but anybody who's tried to raise money you can be very creative hiring publish people who yeah I know
some business people who who this is this is again more research that has you can look at this as another example of what it does the uh the the panel Newton has have an eligibility
issue. Uh you have to own real estate in in the town as your primary end. You have to have had a least one year. The second the second thing you live on that property at least a year. The third is that you're over. The
fourth is the same eligibility for certain disability veterans administration workers compensation. Okay. Number four, you're you have a gross household income. They're using community
development block eligibility income. The fifth is the doicile has to be assessed at at or below the median assess value which is interesting. The sixth one is other household assets can be looked at. for
example, stocks, bonds, C areated. I don't know. You know, you can create an application process that's so intimidating, nobody wants to apply. Right? So, I would be careful about number six. Number seven is extraordinary circumstances versus a way of saying anything that's out of the
ordinary unhelp that you had this year. So um the what they don't have just like to see interviews is elders or disabled people who are at risk of tax title. That's my particular interest
having benefit tax title issue in this in this city and some of the negative consequences for what it would mean for both the city and the homeowner. I don't want to sue people on house because they can't pay their taxes. He should have what I've been calling the zero
foreclosure program and just not to bore you with this but I'll stop that but I sent the mayor last August sent this order on one page me zero uh and I told her that
uh one reform law we can't take home equity we should have a goal uh to try to reduce the number of foreclosures was taking place annually in the city to as low a number as possible. He said coordinated activity between the
assessors and the collector's office and I told that five or six categories actually I don't know how to parse what you're just handing out. Yeah. It says it says you got to be this. This is
easy. I'm certain this success. No no no that's you're not addressing my question. It says something or something and and and is that which one do you get?
The first two say applicant must own and disable. That's an or. It's either or. What follows are ands. And do the ands attach to disabled as they are presented
or does that apply to own or and then those sent you talk about because I'm not clear where you were just just read it to me. Look this says or right and these are
all ands. So my question is here are the two or yes and the question is when you have and does and apply to this only because it follows or does it apply to the set
where you come in the door this way or this way and then these other things can't so you have to meet all these criteria and it says the following requirements apply to both elderly and that's where I You
better if your income is too high, you don't get it. You might all the other got it. If you haven't lived in here for a year, so that brings up the other agenda item, employer agenda. point. Um yeah, I I feel a need to have an
overview of the current um tax relief mechanisms that BS office understand where we fit. So that plus all the other abatements, the
exemptions, things like that and how do we get that? Do we get that from the assessor's office, the tax collector's office? Where do we where we get that? Is it all? Yes.
that tax that that law 2023 and this is actually where they are here the assess what the exception may be of the circuit breaker which is a state program not it's not administered but right the
circuit breakers in that yeah I think you can also take into consideration uh to prevent possibly double dipping one attempting to gain consistent um is tax deferrals which Greenfield has
never according to the last tax collector. That's correct. You never did. That's going to have prevented many people keeping people in their homes. Okay. As well as you know you're using this program is
a hardship program. I think all of these things come into play. So if you qualify for hardship, you can't be applying for tax deferral, you can't be applying for elderly taxes. I I think one I I
basically agree with you. The hardship stuff, whether it's 41D, it's 18lies for three years only. At the end of the three years, you can renew if you pay off the lean.
But you put somebody into hardship and they're struggling to meet their bills and they will never be self-sufficient. They will lose their that's just the way that game is played and it's not a game. Well, say that's
the way that thing is with tax deferral. Now most of the wealthy communities encourage that and if you do your research you will see many of those interest rates are less than 3% depending on what the
treasury but it is you know uh I can you give me please okay uh with tax deferral we'll use a model of someone's 70 years old and they live to 90 and they deferred their taxes is
their estate is going to be taxed x amount of dollars. However, that property has appreciated my research just show millions of dollars. Okay. So, that's a I think we should be utilizing all the available
tools and vehicles to keep and protect seniors in there. There's there's no question about Well, why are we doing one this year? Have we done that? No. No, we we have we have not done any far
as 18 or 18A. 18 is as far as I can tell nothing because it's a a one paragraph in the law. 18A gets into the details which says it's three years and you got to apply every year and at the
end of the three years you got to you have you need a five-year plan to pay it off, right? But that's paying off the deferral plus paying your current taxes. And the then
the issue becomes if a person can't pay their current taxes, are they going to be in a position to pay their then current taxes three years down the road plus one of whatever bill they've racked
up? And if the answer is no, then foreclosure happens. Okay. You you folks are clearly far ahead of me in knowledge of you know these this this mosaic of of what might be available. I would benefit
now maybe the committee as a whole doesn't need this because you're further ahead than I but I I would like to know the mosaic of these various possibilities. I mean I can follow just what you just said. That's fine. But I need that you know have a sense of what
do veterans get? What a bl I know what people get. You know, you know the there are a variety of these things that are used to ailate the fact correct and I think as a group we would benefit from
sort of a summary at at our next meeting from there. I think we have that and and I'll just shoot it around. Right. Okay. Because you know I don't I you know I'm not I'm not a dumb man. That's just ignorant. By the way, that book is
available on this John. Is it that's also bear wax society and I'll pick up are they are they grass like you know
[Music] you'd have to ask if they have [Music] Um, okay. So, you can email that step. Okay, great. Okay. And, um, What's the
other agenda? Okay, so we've got next next meeting we will have a summary of um the sort of policies and procedures of of variety of towns. A draft a yes a draft summary and I will reach out to a
half a dozen towns and find out how they're doing their fundraising. It may all just be check offs on on property tax. Maybe David some may be more original or or aggressive in pursuing just to note that David Westboro,
Danders and Easton besides Newton. That's the information we have in front of you. Just to make your burden lighter. Uh we want to find out who administers this thing. Oh yeah. Yeah. Because Yeah.
I mean, do we do is it administered within the town of Newton or is the committee itself actually doing administer? That's part of the question you would ask. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I assume that any funds we collect just go into the city coffers. I be careful
about that. Okay. I think it would be segregated. Yes. It goes into a certain separate. Yeah. But the treasure goes in. Yeah. So we will have like a finite amount of
depending contribution. It's just called a special account in the general treasure. It shall be investigated in funds. We we tear up as Bitcoin. [Music]
If you like fiat currency, you'll love Bitcoin. The other the other thing I did mention the community preservation um one of the people on the community preservation board did approach me. They said I think this would be a great
program for CPA learning. Um this year the TPA [Music] gave $18,000 to the Greenfield housing authority to pay people's first month and last month rent the people who are
moving to housing. So in other words, the person was saying to me there's precedent for funds going directly to Greenfield residents. I'd like to see his committee sponsored something like
that request to be that board because I think it's got certainly as much value as I'm not against some people helping money because I'm all of us here
at this table residents of the town we repay that so I'd like to see some of that money This person said she she'll be willing to speak on behalf of
I just didn't want to lose that in the show because that that day that's another example of sources of funding that are probably not seen too often in this program across the state. Yeah. They're playing it pretty much by the book. Yeah. And that seems like preserving
community, you know, in this literal sense. You have if there's people who are potentially at risk of losing their home, their residence or their living community, right? Um it could potentially be one of the things, but also that's something that could
be, you know, decided by the CPA committee. Like they can they they'll have to check the merits of that. I think that would be they made the decision and that's their problem. Yeah. But it be it would be a grant to us that
we administer protocols procedures that we develop. Um I'd actually I'd actually like to see this committee approach half a dozen bases to make proceed to this. So that
you'd be able to come out voting sometime in the summer by saying all the way disabled tax fund announced that they raised 30,000 bucks. Exactly. That that's a story. I think the experience of of of the
towns, how did they get started is an important ingredient in understanding this because okay, so we raised $5,000. What are we doing? $5,000 doesn't go very far. You know, when you're up to 10, is
that when they start doing it in 200 stuff? We have to decide. Yeah. You need to find out, right? And make your own decision, right? Define a prudent reserve before we actually open up the application. Yeah.
And those are those are I think this is going to be interesting. Is there other agenda items that we need to discuss? In summary, do we do we do we take minutes? Do we produce minutes? What
what do we produce minutes? Yeah. We have minutes by law. Yes. Yeah. Okay. How are we going to do? You know, and I have I have a
summary of I've been taking some notes and I had to produce what will at least look like minutes if that's if that's acceptable. There there there are products that you can use with Zoom that will um
record all everything we're talking about and then you can show them through some AI tools that'll summarize the key points. Okay. And is that those are available off the shelf currently? Yeah. I mean, you know, closed captioning is
is available. Uh, because we haven't like taken a formal vote yet. No, that's right. You know, there will be times formal votes. Mhm. Yeah. But that's all that's all that's all on the transcript.
Yeah. What we just did there transcript for this on usually I get them on YouTube before GCTV. They're just a little bit slow. But you can whenever this gets posted I don't even know, but they're usually up in a few
days and you can get the transcript. Is there a transcript on it? That's what I'm looking for. Yeah. Closed captions. Yeah. turn. You can go you can go on when when this is on and you can go on and you can look for the transcript and it'll it'll
it'll go along with the the meeting as it's going or you can go ahead. You can also copy the transcript. Can I ask a question just occurred to me? So earlier we talked about the fact that we would not be using any city
funds if we got money from CPA. Isn't that city funds? Yes. It's technically taxpayers contributions, but it it goes to the city. Well, all city funds is tax is taxpayers, right? I mean, that's where
the money comes from. The point the point I'm asking is is that we said before because this is an a body that does not use city money that we would be relatively autonomous. If in fact we're talking about using any city
money, does that change that? That's my question. Not not the CPA. Does that need a grant to this board to this committee? But by the CPA, does can the CPA uh grant money to other city organizations that are more system than
D1? We feel the authority is one they got individual. Yeah. They I see. Okay. In fact, I think that's an advantage because the council feel that they these are our people. These are part of our government. But you're you're not part of the city
public, right? And and that they a lot lot of CPA money, you know, traditionally has gone to city governments coming foreign. Mr. Is there an expressive for one
committee granting to another committee? I I believe that the CPA can get the money to this committee to make you to make two nails that the bridge will
either cross or not cross in next few months. Yeah. I'm glad we could finally get this. Maybe you might want to ask somebody to be secretary. Yeah. To keep notes. Yeah. Does somebody willing to be secretary? Okay.
once my name would be a good idea. Um, and did did I get the contact information of people that I think you did. Yeah, you signed it. I'm afraid you took your notes on top of our
Okay. Well, I was just trying to get the committee members sign, you know, names and preferred contact information. All I've got right now is your names. I can [Music] try with that circulating. Is there any
other business that we need to conduct? Next meeting is the 22nd of May. 22nd of May which is the 4th [Music] and the location for that is it will be care. Oh it will be
thank you for thank you thank you for showing up. Thank you for you guys for the public comment. This is a good start. I want to thank everybody watching. [Music]