e
e e
e
to order we'll start with the roll call Brian Payne here Alex Alexander Graham here K Pike here Linda aasta here D McFarland here just in time for call come say your name and say you're here Suzanne Hagerty
here thank you this meeting is being recorded by pack TV anyone intended to make an audio or video recording of this meeting should notify the chair at at this [Music] time okay we are going to start today with a discussion of the jackberry boat house roof application at our last meeting we had a brief conversation about whether or not the uh repair to
the Bo house roof would qualify under historic preservation um in the interim uh I took the liberty to reach out to the community preservation Coalition uh which we are a member of to seek advice and the response I got I'll read to you uh to the committee and to the public the response I got from uh the Coalition um quote it
is generally understood that the preservation verb of the CPA allowable uses chart applies to the work that is done directly to the historic resource the phrase directly to the historic resource is underlined so your original project that sent CPA funds on the actual historic boat was allowable once you move away from directed work to the historic asset you are in definite Gray Zone with
CPA how many degrees of separation from the actual work on the historic item would be allowable what if the applicant asked for funding to ensure the boat what about building entirely new boat house from scratch would installing a security alarm system qualify you can see the slippery slope of anything that isn't working directly on the historic asset end quote uh the uh representative went on to say uh a little bit farther
in the email quote but C PA is a local program and the decision is up to your local CPC so I'll open it to comments or questions from the committee I never like um doing items that are in a gray area was this also the one that the roof repair was going to be done by somebody on
the committee's husband or something yes that is correct okay so I I still I felt that at that meeting and I still feel that that's a absolute conflict of interest so now when we add this on um I have some concerns about the viability or the um goodness of us spending money on it any other comments from the committee um there
is a Poss possible conflict of interest there but um the carpenter Ray is very a very good Carpenter with really Exquisite Talent and if you went to the barn or the house you could see what he's done he's a carent with love of what he's doing and love for the Bradford house and everything that goes with it yes it's a conflict of interest but um we just have to hire somebody else
who do the same thing and he's not to rip rip us off and I say that because I'm I'm a member of the um Jon Village Historical Society so I would I would set that conflict aside I I guess my response to that would be that I would not automatically rule him out from doing the job but I at the very least would like to see a few bids that you know to make sure that you
know there is some open compe I and um based upon the results there we never have to necessarily take the low bidder but we at least you know do some due diligence to see that it's being handled in a professional non-conflict way that's a that's a possibility I'll talk to Carol about it other comments related to the information we received from the
Coalition regarding the uh eligibility of the project not being a historical asset I also feel like this applies to the two Cemetery preservation projects as well the tree removal projects I'm having increasing concerns about those as well for the same reasons I mean the term slippery the term slippery slope um could potentially I mean basically when I think of slippery slope we're going towards something that's going to
lead to other incidents or instances where the same type of uh Provisions are going to be asked for going forward so it's true it's always dangerous to go down a slippery so slope however when I think of uh preservation and I think about you know weather conditions that could impact a historical object it's not directly relate it's not work being done directly to the boat but it's something that need could be put in place to prevent
it from further degradation so I agree it's a gray area and I think we as a committee are going to have to make a decision on that um as it relates to the cemetery projects I feel like those trees are potentially directly directly impacting and and harming historical um objects in the town so there might be a little bit of a difference there because you're you're removing something that is would otherwise damage it you know but obviously we'll get to that later and
have that disc discussion um but it's not an easy decision I think we we have a right as a as a committee to make that decision on the local level um but I also am a bit cautious to go down a slippery slope because it's true what could what could follow and if you're going to be trying to review every sort of possibility for every item you know you could you'll always be able to find something and we should also consider the language that we're we have to abide by do we have a
anybody representing this project yeah I'll ask for the public to speak in a second too but I wanted to give the committee an opportunity to ask questions first okay um I guess I had a question from the representative is that you know y do you are you a nonprofit status do you raise money so really I think what Brian's getting at is that yes I mean the money is for the house itself but since this is a new
structure I I would agree with Brian to a certain extent and that your operating cost for the not profit probably should cover anything that's outside of the scope of the actual property itself um I do think that you know that you're right Brian I do since you've like raised that and we are being a lot more conscientious lately about the how we the projects we are supporting and where the
money is going to um I do think unfortunately based on that I agree with you to open the floor to the public or representatives from the project as well is that yeah just please use Podium and state your uh name and make sure the mic is turned on too should be a green light it is on okay Gan Landis nen I'm currently serving as the vice president for Jones River Village Historic Society which is
the organization bringing forward this request we're asking to replace a temporary faulty roof from the boat house that shelters the historic catboat back leou CPC and town meeting approved spending $5,000 to restore this boat as well as 2,800 recently for a new sale the current roof allows birds and weather elements to damage the boat during
the storage season which runs from September to May in a review of the CPA legislative text general laws chapter 44b section two the definition for preservation States protection of personal or real property from injury harm or destruction a review of CPA projects approved throughout the Commonwealth finds several examples of roof
repair or replacement for the preservation protection of historic artifacts housed within that building I further researched to see what the what the common understanding is of preservation it's the ACT process or result of preserving something such as the activity or process of keeping something valued alive intact or free from damage or Decay we firmly believe that the intent
of the CPA legislation was to cover this exact situation especially where significant CPA funds were used to restore this historic boat or artifact the taxpayers I think would certainly expect that appropriate action be taken to protect and preserve an historic item receiving that much CPA funding this committee uh within the last couple of years did approve an alarm
to be placed in the boat house to further protect this artifact um so I ask that you consider the true meaning of preservation as put in the general law legislation to protect the property from injury harm or destruction and I think that's the key on a separate note I understand your concern about the who we have
do the actual work what we submitted to you was an estimate of the cost of that work there's been no contract signed uh we can certainly put it out to bid find you know the right person to do the work that was simply an estimate from someone who is in the business of doing this type of work be happy to answer any questions
you have Carol and Ray were unable to come tonight they are both homesick questions from the committee nothing from me thank you for your presentation it's much appreciated okay thank you any other public comment okay hearing now we'll move on to the public hearing to review and discuss CPC projects to be recommended to the town meeting for fiscal
year year 26 pursuant Massachusetts General Law chapter 44b Section 5 B1 of Massachusetts Community preservation act the Kingston Community preservation committee will hold a public me hearing to review and discuss Community preservation projects to be recommended to the town meeting for the fisal year 2026 Community preservation committee is also seeking input from the community Town boards commissions and other Town committees on the needs possibilities and resources of the Town
regarding Community preservation possibilities and resources and as to ideas and suggestions for future projects as well all right I move to open the public hearing second uh we will do a roll call vote Brian Payne I Alexander Graham I Suzanne Hagerty I Kyle Pike I Linda Rasta I don I thank you first project to be considered will actually
be the Bates Pond accessibility Trail project amount requests $ 68,276 180 we have representative Matt you want to make a little presentation all or you feel like you have already U that's up to you guys I was sick at the last one so I assume nobody presented anything I did what I could I guess if nobody has questions I don't
have to get up I think D and Brian did proud at that meeting but if you want to present does anyone on the committee have questions that they would like to present to the uh Town's conservation agent who is the formal submitter of the applicant I don't have any questions and I'll just reiterate what I said the last time I find uh this a lot of money to spend for Access for a limited number
of people mayam make a comment yes St please do I was am most likely the the person um who started this whole thing I used to do nature walks when I worked at the Nature Center in Norwell and um when I retired and went started going to the senior center someone asked me if I could do those nature walks around the senior center so I took a look at what was available and literally there is nothing available around the townhouse or anything in
that particular area and seniors have difficulty with bumps uh with holes with u tripping things I'm a senior I can tell you I can't walk most normal Trails so having a trail that is close to the senior center that is accessible that has a lookout on the on the pond uh all of the good things that are going to come from this it's it's just wonderful and because I've already been asked
can we do can I do such a thing I know this interest the seniors there are very active um they go there because there are things to do and there's a lot of exercise classes even for those with diff have difficulties you can do chair exercises for for um arthritis Etc so those classes are always full I know there's interest and not only at the senior center but when this is available uh and people hear
about it it's going to be even more popular I am looking forward amazingly a lot to to start doing nature walks or just walk myself thank you dot uh I'll I'll say uh two things and directly to Carl's uh statement which I I hear in respect um I'm not terribly concerned of spending money on a project that might only be used by a small percentage of of
the community I think that's fairly true for nearly everything we spend money on for the CBC um and we're also talking about a demographic that has not received the benefits of open space or conservation land to the extent that others so uh adding additional funds to that to me uh creates an equity that that we need to address uh the second uh point I would make that is in the open space uh report
or plan uh one of the major agenda items was uh accessibility Trail uh and if we have any hope of achieving that this is it if I could ask just a clarifying question uh this initial request for funds is uh just for the design of the project now at the end of this design period would would there be a set of uh ready for permit plans after it or would it just be conceptual at that point no this should be full
design with permits in hand at the end of this okay and I was going to tell Carl we might even come and ask for more money next year so what this is is we have uh funding in hand from the Samson memorial fund and this would give us the rest of the money we would need to have all the design and permitting work done and at the same time we just submitted a grant for implementation from the mass Trails program but much like this the
construction costs way more money than I would have anticipated so we still are going to have big gaps in actually trying to implement this project so I wouldn't be surprised if we came back next year asking to kind of split the difference there with more CPC funding but I do think uh Dot's exactly right she was the Genesis of this and I think it is a great opportunity for people who would like to go to the senior center to get out and join nature get all the benefits of that in a safe space
it also opens up a decent sized Conservation Area that has not been open to the public before um there are existing overgrown fire fire roads out there that function as Trails um so it does that as well it opens up a property that didn't have access to all of the existing parking you have here at Town Hall and at the senior center so and and once we do this we spend $70,000 here and for round numbers another 130,000 to construct it so we have a 200 ,000
asset out there do we have to spend money continuously to maintain it or and if we don't then does it kind of go down the drain it will need maintenance over time um not in any short time frame I mean over time no matter what you build it with you're going to have boards that you know pop up or need to be replaced um I would expect a pretty decent life out of it before it would have to be replaced or have any major repairs to it
but we do have sections of boardwalk in town on conservation areas that need repair that haven't happened because they're expensive um but this one being as close to this building in the senior center would definitely be easier to keep an eye on and it would have more of an impetus to keep it perfect because you don't want to have those tripping hazards but no I don't think there's going to be a long I'm not coming to CPC every year asking for 10 or $20,000 for maintenance on something like this well better coming from CPC than the general
fund budget well actually I have to jump in there you wouldn't be it wouldn't qualify for CPC funding general maintenance would not qualify you'd have to work it into your operational budget that that that's my concern but I think these types of projects really don't need a ton of regular maintenance yeah what's the expected timeline for design do we know couple months so
funding be available July 1st uh we have an engineer already um waiting he's done a couple of projects with us and with wreck successfully um and he also came out cheaper than the other uh quotes we got in for this so we expect a couple months for design the only permits we expect to need are from the Conservation Commission um who was sort of sponsoring the project anyways so we don't expect a long turnaround there and then it's a matter of can we put enough grants
in and private funding together to actually build it or do we need to phase it you know and if I needed to come back next year and ask for more CPC funds that would be phasing so thank you Matt any other questions from the committee any questions or comments from the public would anyone on the committee be prepared to make a motion to for the community preservation committee to seek um to submit this uh application
to town meeting for fiscal year 202 so moved and a second seconded I'll take a roll vote uh yes you're going to need to say where the money's coming from oh right you gave me language right last year you reviewed all the applications then you reviewed your budget then you voted thank you you don't have you can do it any way you want but that's the way I ordered it in those notes
I just don't do the one at a time doesn't matter to me I moved to recommend to town meeting the project of Bates Pond accessible Trail in the sum of $ 68,276 80 from the available Community preservation act uh
historic conservation the conservation uh fund open space that's why we're going to R budget after not all the buckets have enough money to cover a full project so if you're going to use open space you're going to have to split it between open space and un let's let's go with your your original plan that was clearly the right way to go so we will we will deny that motion this time Carl uh thank you I'll withdraw it thank you uh
let us move to the next applications was affordable housing project I I don't understand sorry doc go ahead so he would do it are you going to do it again later yes yeah oh okay yeah we're going to review all the plans then we're going to review our available budgets to figure out how much money we have to spend okay and then we will have to designate funds from um open space
and and and UN undesignated in order to uh fund that so we'll have to do some math all right so let's move on to affordable housing uh my understanding this is just a transfer of the available funds that are marked for affordable housing uh which is somewhere around $40,000 $3,236 uh over into the affordable housing trust which is maintaining
the available funds and they have something like $900,000 at this point questions or comments from the committee I'd ask the question if the affordable housing people are any closer to spending any of this money on a project is there a representative from affordable housing here
Carl thank you for asking that question yes I can't I'm not able to disclose what it is um the town we're working with the board of Selectmen uh the conservation agent uh and there's a large piece of property in town that's for sale um we're in the process of um having it appraised and um they will be
a significant um number of housing units uh which we hope to um put our money towards the purchase of the property and then find a developer who will buy it and do the housing as we request um there's a possibility that it'll be age targeted um that we're very very excited that we finally have a project coming up as you know I I
was talking with um Alexander before the meeting and there are no projects coming forward because of the water moratorium uh so it's been very difficult to um have a developer approach us about including affordable housing uh we are also in working with Habitat for Humanity trying to find an existing property with water in Kingston uh that's
for sale uh as you know Carl we have scrutinized the tax title uh list several times um the properties that we thought might be feasible are have so many incumbrances on them there's a lot of legal issues to be resolved and of course now with the new ruling that when the town takes
a piece of the property for not paying taxes and then resells the property the equity in that property has to go to the original owner which means that the opportunities we had before to use basically town-owned land has now disappeared uh with that ruling on tax title so um I anticipate that probably within the next I don't know 18 months um not knowing how
long it's going to take to finalize a sale of the property to to the town and then to find the developer um we'll be using every penny that we have and probably have to go out and borrow in order to make that purchase so I would appreciate uh consideration for helping us to continue to build our fund and I think the intent was for something just like this where there's going
to be a an opportunity for a very large housing project that we can control a lot of what is built there because we'll be in the driver's seat so to speak um and say this is what we want now are you willing to do it as a developer thank you okay any questions while I'm up here I know you said you can't speak directly about the project is there an estimated
number of units uh 30 plus thank you I have a question yes um does any is any of this money available for Adu units uh Adu units are not technically affordable housing uh the official definition of affordable housing is that there is a Perpetual restriction on the sale of the property it always has to
be sold at the lower rate that's considered affordable by Hud um we are hoping to we are supporting uh the adus uh we supported the original Warren article uh town meeting to change zoning and because the state has now issued their own rules that became effective uh the beginning of this month um our town planers is in the process of of
rewriting some of those um the the article in the zoning uh to comply with the state mandates and that will be presented at the annual town meeting uh they're having a public hearing on that in March 10th um if anyone is interested in uh the rewrite of that zoning um so I wish they would be considered but because they're not not officially
uh affordable units in the technical definition we could not use any of our money for that thank you any other comments or questions thank you now move on to the next proposal which is to replace a temporary roof The jackberry Boat House in the amount of $6,350 um when I joined
the committee a number of years ago the committee was in the process of changing its application process and redoing the forms because there was a sense that there was a little irregularity in in how the CPC functioned in a general fear that was becoming a bit of a rubber stamp um I just feel like we need to spend a little bit more time and be a little bit more diligent in how we receive applications uh and do
a little bit more work to assess whether or not they qualify for CBC funds earlier in the process um we did initially vote that our initial belief was that the application qualified but in hindsight I'm doubtful of that I don't deny that the roof needs to be replaced and that the good roof is essential for the preservation of the object what I deny is that that responsibility falls to the CPC and taxpayers to
provide the CPC with his funds so I'll be voting against this project and I tend to agree with you and and especially when when I see a cost of approximately 6K you know it's not like it's a huge ask to find for the people to somehow find that money through fundraising or uh some other resource than coming coming to us right I
have a comment thank you dot U the the major funding for the Bradford House comes from the summer breakfast and because of Co there were no breakfasts for 3 years so we don't have a surplus at this moment any other comments okay
move on to the next application the Kingston Evergreen Cemetery historic historic Cemetery preservation requesting $24,000 for some tree clearing um I assume everyone has seen the uh statement made by the town's conservation agent everyone of the committee has seen that statement it's considered a submission of a public statement on behalf of a town Commission
Matt had to leave but um this this being a public hearing I think it might be a good idea to read this letter into the record you make me read the whole thing all right to the CPC chair and membership understand you asked the conservation agent comments reason the two applications requesting CPC funds for tree removal apologies I missed that meeting due to catching the flu I was present for the project assessment presentation was surprised to hear the
scope of the request I question several aspects of the request and imagine many Kingston residents will question in retro once they see the clearing occur or see the results for starters I would question whether removing trees could be considered Community preservation understand the issue caused by shading or or branches tree falling but wonder if that's truly an allowable use of funds or whether there is at least precedent understand arborists have looked at both properties if I were the CPC
I would want to see full report by a certified Arborist and I'd want all trees to be clearly marked so that the committee members or concerned abutters residents could see and appreciate the scale of the work the comined request proposed removing up to 98 mature trees as these properties are adjacent and in the center of Kingston the work will be quite visible speaking on the Evergreen Cemetery it's like an arbor itum in there it has beautiful mature trees
I would suggest exploring whether CPA funds could be used to treat any trees in order to prevent decline that would clearly be preservation and beneficial for the community though treatment is often expensive mature trees are of tremendous importance particularly in developed areas to provide cleaner air to breathe reduce heat island effects mitigate climate change and produce much needed habitat and forage for wildlife we live in trying times there are many diseases and insect pest for
our trees to contend with so I'm not saying removal should be prevented only confirm that it's necessary and that this is an appropriate use of the town's limited CPA funds signed by Matt penali Kingston conservation agent any questions from the committee I have a comment thank you dot you live long enough in Kingston and and you can comment on almost everything but
my folks are buried in the in Evergreen Cemetery and shortly after uh they were both put there a very large tree fell nearby smashing um one of the monuments and the beautiful mature shrub just smashed to Pieces granted they are mature they're gorgeous I I agree every with everything that Matt said um but we have weather now that
is off the charts with wind and constant changes and those trees some of those trees I will say and parts of some of those trees are susceptible so I think um that uh we we would have to listen to the arists and what they say um and how we could limit the number that I removed it's a beautiful Cemetery it is like an aerum it's it's a joy to walk through except for the fact
that the everybody's going there but um I don't I don't see um a problem with using the money if if it's defined as Matt says it does get me thinking as a committee if we in fact did our due diligence or you know made as much effort as we could have made to understand better like even go I never
went down to the cemetery to with anybody to see what trees were coming down and what was next to the ones that weren't coming down and what we were trying to protect Etc um so I don't really know what to say on this except I'm a little bit concerned that you know the conservation agent has these kinds of concerns I'd like to speak on behalf of this
Chris Rock a member of the Board of Trustees Evergreen Cemetery so we had an arus come in assess the trees uh there's 28 trees that need to be addressed out of the 28 seven we're looking at is total tree removals and that's due to Decay Beyond repair the other 21 trees uh the arra says that if we take action now we should be able to cut off the dead limbs to cut the disease out of the tree to save the tree I think two of the trees are
looking to come down they're large overgrowth trees that are impinging on uh tombstones you know old marble stones that are costly to repair we did secure a significant um amount of CPC money to restore those stones that were damaged and now we're trying to be proactive so we're not into that same situation again we do understand and appreciate the way that that cemetery is hence the name Evergreen Cemetery that is what is our pride and joy is the the trees the growth the atmosphere that's in there uh
and we're trying to stay proactive in the sense to preserve what we have there as dot mentioned to not have stones that are damaged U we just had a not that long ago a tree that came down and really decimated a a real beautiful marble stone that took you know a substantial amount of money to repair it back to its original state or there thereabouts so that's what this is all about is to try to be prre we don't want to cut down any more trees than we need to most of the trees are in the oldest section almost directly across in the town
hall here in the old the older part and um lot them along the wood line the perimeter um the trees we didn't mark the trees as we went through we have a map with those trees did a catalog um so just so you get a clear understanding for you we're not looking for a total cut down of trees we're not going we we don't want to cut trees to the ground if we don't have to so we're just trying to avoid damaging the existing Stones does anybody have any questions no thank you for that clarification of the quantity of trees that will actually be removed
could you repeat those numbers I'm sorry I missed them what how many trees are being cut down and what percentage of the whole of the tree coverage is being cut down or there's out of the whole Cemetery there's 28 trees that need to be addressed most of them are just limming off dead limbs to cut Decay out okay there's a lot of um I can't remember the name of the there's a beetle that's been in there that's been killing the trees and they when they get into the tree they kill the tree from the top down so the AA says you know some of them you can cut the tops off and you can try saving the bottom
half of the tree sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't so that's what we're going to try with a number of the trees to try and preserve the trees to maintain that beauty that we have in there thank you my primary concern was the quantity of trees that are being removed and we have a project that's asking for similar activity and I I beg the you know it makes me wonder if this is a a larger problem across all of Kingston um how many other trees that maybe aren't
near historical cemeteries are affected by this issue and will it continue to present itself in in other areas and is there any plan to assess that in the future not that it's our responsibility on this committee um it's just something to think about I generally don't like the idea of REM removing trees that we don't have to and I'm glad that the applicant is coming up with a plan that doesn't necessarily lead right to the removal of everything um and
I for one I'm supportive of this I can attest to U trees coming down because there was a mature Pine behind my house that part of it came down and landed on my roof and um I called an Aris to check it out and he said to cut it down I was afraid that the rest of it would hit my house and he said after he cut it that it yes it needed to come down it was in a dangerous spot and it was riddled with carent dur ants and just up the street
from me about four houses up uh another tree came down on a woman's house and she had to move out while they did the repairs because it's smashed right through the roof so it's a it's a it's a townwide problem because Kingston is old and the trees that were planted a 100 years ago um are reaching the end of their life or maybe they can live a lot longer but again with the with the weather we're having um it is
a problem and not just Kingston but everywhere I will not both applicants did submit arborous reports to the application um the reports indicate what trees are coming down I think what the conservation agent might have been referring to is the lack of report on the disease element of the of the trees but there there is an arborous report in the application and and both have maps
that indicate which trees are coming down uh any other questions or comments regarding the Evergreen Cemetery project no now move to the old bearing ground tree removal restoration which request $65,000 along the same lines any questions or comments from the committee commission sorry any questions or
comments from the public okay thank you uh we will now uh does that close the yes we need to make a motion to close the public hearing I move to close the public hearing I have you not heard the last one yeah I called I called I just called it there was no questions or comments was there questions from the somebody want to
speak to it yes um do you want us to talk about it or are you all set with that uh a reminder of how many trees we're talking about here okay yeah I had I had asked for public commentary but no one rais out I'm sorry compos go ahead okay go up to the podium and I did do that right yes yeah sorry Craig Dalton chair of the historical Commission and we were just um we
wanted to reiterate the why we're doing this over there and basically it's the protection of the uh historic Graves the gravestones tombs the vaults and actually the burials there themselves in the old burying ground um as you know uh from the packet that I we sent to you um the Barr ground originated as a gift by Major John Bradford in 1777 many of the town's founding fathers the state and the countries important historic figures are buried in that
Cemetery it's on the national register of historic places um I did want to mention that uh within that we've been having a lot of damage and I've sent some pictures included with the uh application packet about the damage from the trees that have been falling uh the branches that have been falling there and these Stones go back to 1717 or um many of them are very fragile Stones we've been spending money on uh
the preservation of the Revolutionary War soldiers the um also the Civil War soldiers there too um why why is Preservation of those important why is this protection of them important well it's it's basically and remind me if I forgive me I have to put on my glasses here B I made some notes um as I say it contains the graves of many historically important people in the community it provides our community with connection
to the town's past provides information on the history of our town and their forefathers and offers an opportunity to increase our knowledge of our past and I'd just like one of the members um Tom vendetti historical commission member here just to speak about what we've been doing with this with the uh Cemetery as far as knowledge goes Tom you want to mention that to them just as a me a way to show you how important this cemetery is to us yeah first first
I'll I'll talk about what I did in a uh in a school I taught for 40 years in Brockton they can't keep me out of a classroom and I haven't been in a classroom for about eight years and um well I decided to put together a little lesson plan about the old burying ground so I I did kind of like a trial run with some sixth graders around Halloween and you know they love Halloween of course and and Graves graveyards and I had many photographs of of the old Baran ground
and the church that's there and I told them about the history and the Art of the old Barian ground and the parts of the styles of the gravestones and so what we what what they did one of the projects they did was they did some writing which is very important you know both creative writing and critical writing which is you know that used to be when we had mcast that was a very important standard that we had to do um and they did artwork too so you know I
I just got you know you know it's hard for you to kind of see them but some of the artwork was really kind of cool and some of the stories were too and uh that's something that I I could really um really uh publish and get into the uh into the school system and we could do more advanced things with High School junior high school and high school students remember 2026 is coming up the 300th anniversary of the town and this is ideal opportunity uh and that by the
way is one of our things that we're doing at the uh at the Historical commission and one of the things that we're supposed to be doing is enhancing educational opportunities for people doing tours of the of the graveyard which I've done many tours already for individuals and during the um during 2026 I'll be doing more but there's a couple of other things can I talk about a couple of other things here why we want to be taken down these stre very quick all right I'll be very quick
um um the original old burying ground it was a churchyard it was not meant to have trees in it and um it's been described uh by one of the 18th century ministers as a elevated plane from which you could see the ocean I have drawings of the old burying ground from around 1830 showing no trees at all the problem with trees is this it stops the
air from circulating amongst the stones okay it stops the Sun from getting in and drying up water and snow off of the stones the stones are made out of slate and slate I just brought a little piece of for you to take a look at it's in it's in little layers thin little layers the water gets in between the layers freezes at night and it expands and it causes a thing called delamination if you go into the old burying ground you'll see many
stones they're going to be gone unless we can stop this delamination and repair some of the ones that have already been destroyed and and we've already had grants to take care of the Revolutionary War soldiers so it is important and the next thing I just want to say is we do have an Abus report from the master plan which you can look at and the trees are all identified that we wish to uh take down thank you sorry quick question so that's from the
M the you have a portion of that in the master plan this is on the ground no the master plan yeah so that's this this CPC is part of the origin the master plan that was put out a couple this was this was that you you the U citizens paid for that I remember seeing this okay can you confirm how many trees are being cut it's it's close to to um 70 70
trees most of the trees within there will go um so you said the most of the trees there will go so you most of them will they're mostly um overmature uh spruce trees and that's the problem we have a lot of those trees are are split at the top um which weakens them up there at the notch um many of them have been infected with this Beetle that's causing damage and I'm facing it my own
yard right across the street basically we've had oh three or four come down over the last 10 15 years one just last year broke off 20 ft up it was 11,000 lb trunk and that tree broke in half came slit 20 ft off landed in my yard and I'm looking at the one behind my house which is even bigger which we're going to be taking down soon but um and it's just because of this threat they've reached the end of their lives and um especially esally in this location where if they
come up an uproot they're going to disturb the graves below them if they drop branches the tops come off they're going to destroy numerous of these fragile grave uh markers if the whole tree comes down without uprooting it's going to destroy even more of them I gave you a few pictures in the application I had some tonight for PowerPoint but we're not showing it um of some of the how we lucked out on some of these trees because the branches have come
down in between the rows um so it's a question of well you could take down a few and I've walked the yard with uh well three or four now um companies looking at these trees and talking about them there's no yes or no this tree is going to survive the next Windstorm and it's not like saying yeah this a healthy tree but who knows if it's going to come over the next time is the wind going to be strong enough is it going to have ice on it um but it is a a tree
and is being weakened and we know that so we're trying to get ahead of it ahead of the destruction of the graves by being proactive and asking for these trees to come down if you take down half of them and leave a couple standing individually they're more likely to come down by themselves even if they were fully healthy so although I love L love the trees too and we like to keep them up even in our yard um some of them that are most threatening uh do have to come down and as
Tom related and did a very good uh talk about this Cemetery was built and I had a picture um and you've probably seen it we might even have it out here a drawing of the old um meeting house showing the cemetery in the back and there's no trees on it there's another picture here in 18 1925 basically showing basically the star of those trees there's nothing out there so it's not like we're
taking down a forest our ancestors did that before us um to clear that land but we feel it has to be done um to protect these things and now is the time to do it as the storms are increasing the bugs are increasing um we're we're going to try to save a few of the good specimens out there make sure they're good we did get several estimates um believe me it's hard to get estimates
these days but um I recently received one and they range from this year's estimates range from uh 37,000 to 65,000 and based on our application the 65,000 Mark that we put into you was based upon last year's estimate from a company who predicted about $50,000 and we up that based upon inflation cost of all this other stuff going up at as 65,000 now if
we can do a better deal as the um admin Town Administrator has suggested working with um The Evergreen Cemetery project on it and the project can come in under the bidding level then that that's a possibility um and if we have companies are below that level that's probably the way we'll go but we have to be careful because if we don't have those companies we need enough to um to cover what we expect will be the true cost under a
bid so that's why we're requesting that much that's why we're requesting that these trees be allowed to come down and help protect this historic Cemetery thank you so I have a couple questions for you um so it looks like this is part of the your preservation master plan so I was I want to just clarify that I thought this was part of the Town master plan this is your preservation master plan so I just want to clarify that and then but um it looks like when you did this assessment this is
from 2020 and it's a few trees but now it looks like it's almost all the trees is that correct cor correct it's different from that that was a um that's the cemetery historic preservation plan for the mass plan for the cemetery it's not the historical commission's preservation plan okay so quick question so if this was done in 2020 why now or like why are you putting in for now and why didn't
you ask for the money prior to now well last year we did ask for the money but we were too late asking for the money okay um we missed the deadline by a week or so and we didn't feel it was that critical to go and ask for the extra favor to try to get in last year so that was a one-year delay we had been looking at it and trying to figure out what we're do and in researching the trees um and working with the highway super um Paul boset before um it was almost like well we
take one down here keep one here and it didn't make much sense so now after the tree guys came in and we walked around with them um they were saying well we could leave a tree here or there but you're more likely to lose that tree if it's alone so there are more trees that we're proposing to be removed than that proposal there that plan the trees that they're saying um that the person said you know are good
specimens and should be kept if we can keep them those are the ones that were are on our plan and I think I indicated on your on my application to you that those will be preserved should they still be in good condition so the ones that were in Fair or poor are the ones that are being taken down and also the ones that were in um in that case some some of the ones that are in good condition on there that should be watched um are coming down too because some of those would be left standing
alone and some of those now are infected with this Beetle and they didn't see that Beetle then back when they took that survey thank you MH I have a question too um will the root systems be addressed of all the trees that come down so I would think they're problematic with the graves as well in both in Evergreen as well as the old burial ground will The Roots be addressed when will The Roots will the
root systems be you know taken out too or how are you going to deal with that since they're U it's a good question the uh The Roots themselves probably won't be addressed in fact that's one of one of the damage damaging items that's happening now with these Big Trees Too is the roots are getting so big they're uprooting the gravestones and getting into the tombs so it's another reason why I want to take the tree down but there's a lot of um I wouldn't say controversy there's
discussion amongst people whether you should um try to um trunk yeah was it uh stump Trump the trunks after they're cut down or just cut the tree flat to the ground and um that's something we can talk about with these uh the biders for the project uh some may be able to get inside the grave line to stump CH up a little bit others may not but essentially the I guess the uh least
Dam least work that would be involved would be to cut the tree level to the ground and leave the uh stump flat on the ground The Roots would stay where they are is there any way to determine if any of those roots have already been impeding on the graves without disturbing anything or is it kind of like it's in the ground there's no way to know about it what do you mean imp no I mean I mean like cuz this obviously the root system remains I mean how do we know if it's already like made its way into some of the tombs is there a way
to not like or some of the grave sites that are there is there any way to like uncover that it's really just no not really not really right no and um as far as the stones go you know on the surface it's visible what they're they're affecting already yeah um we just trying to stop that from going further now with the delamination of the stones is there any plan to I guess try to like recover from that because once there's delamination no regardless
if you cut down any trees it's still going to be exposed to elements right right the thing the benefit though without having the trees there Low cover is that it can dry out quicker to prevent the moisture from staying in there and freezing um we do have there are there are ways to um stop or delay de elimination and we've done that with some of the stones we've preserved and that's something we'll continue to do over over the
years so that that is our proposal and we hope um you know we we'll go with the lowest person that we can get to do the job and um try to protect that historic historic U graveyard sure y first of all let me just say I
am fully supportive of the work that they're doing but I also want to point out that this work is to preserve the artifacts just like the roof on the boat house is to preserve the artifact the artifacts are the graves um so if there's a ruling in favor of this project which I hope there is I hope you see that we're talking about the same type of
activity to be covered by the CPC thank you any other comments okay I guess one more time I'm tend to be different on this committee from most of the members I have never been a lover of trees that we can never cut down a tree I kind of equate a tree with life that uh I I believe that most trees are
going to have a limited life just like I probably have a limited life so that um I um am am not um opposed to these projects just because we're cutting down trees also might note that I I love the cities I'm a city guy and uh I will uh defer to the cemetery experts here the historical people who uh working to you know as much as I dislike going against
Matt penella when I hear you know the work that's being done um when I hear that we have a lot of history that says that one of these cemeteries never had trees so that uh that that means a lot to me too so that from a historical perspective but uh thank you all for the work that you do and continue to um make these things important many people in Kingston even if they're
not important to me thank you I do have concerns about whether or not this qualifies for preservation funds I don't deny that the work needs to be done I question whether or not the CPC has the authority to pay for it yeah I think that's a good point okay any other questions before we close out the public hearing for the second time I move to close
the public hearing second okay thank you uh Brian Payne I Alexander gr I Suzanne hackery I Kyle Pike I Linda Rasta I do mcfar I noon I thank you um we'll now move to a review and vote on Project Closeouts you have the Excel sheet in front of
you these are projects are currently open ones are highlighted in yellow are ones that can be closed out we have specific language we need and I'm happy to do all of them uh but before I do that I'll open it to uh questions from the committee
none will move through um I I have one I think um know I actually have more too go ahead um I just have a question about item number uh the extended Joan Rivers quarter um from pathway preserve looks like the original amount was 35,000 there's
a balance of 22 almost 23,000 um but the property was sold so wondering if the property was sold was there an assessment done or where was the what was the money used for that that original request was for the assessment so I don't know if there was a down payment made on the assessment I remember signing it and then we came very very close the purchasing the property probably we had an agreement we
being the town I'll say had an agreement with the owner and literally hours and they went and sold it to another person yeah okay so it was about as close as you can get we they had actually secured grant money for it too State grant money for it the question I have is it on the long spreadsheet the very last last one there $8,800 76 and in the
packet I saw that there was a report back June 13th of 22 to hold the current amount this has to do with the hall property um Native Indian U things that we were finding and I I just wonder how long we want to keep this open that you know we're um three plus years or getting close to
three plus years since the money's been sitting there my understand the only thing is left is a signage no that's not sorry the money was distributed in fiscal year 2015 Carl in 22 I asked they said they'd spend it in the year I have an email from 2024 which they said they'd spend in the year so I'm going to suggest that this one should be you know if we want to leave $500 for a sign or 800 nothing
was done on the project I believe that's the original amount okay so we can close it I think that's another one that should be closed sure happy to add that to the list Mr chairman can I speak to that for a second sure since I'm the one that wrote that letter um I received an email from uh Trisha here a few weeks ago I guess it was without closing out that account that amount
and it was the hall property and I I just haven't got got to do that but we have to vote it at at our meeting that actually relates to a project that we wanted to do and we're progressing on was approved by your committee it was a booklet for printing a booklet up but yet um after it was approved the chairman I don't remember if it was you or not but uh wrote us and said no they considered it wasn't eligible for CPA
funding so that project died and that money as far as we're concerned goes back to you anyway so we just have to vote send you a letter thank you thank you sounds like something might said all right any other questions all right I'll start with the um the Motions here I move the close the project purchase off wi
through win street winr street uh account number 92122 72610 and return money to the undesignated bucket second Brian pay I Alexander gry Suzanne Hecker i k Pike ey Linda Rasta I not
I no I thank you I move to close the project extend Jones River corridor from halfway preserved cor land whopping Road number 92122 72616 and return money to undesignated bucket second Brian pay I Alexander gry suzan ha I ky Pike I Linda aasta I not McFarland I no I sorry uh I
move to close the project Jones River quarter purchase Korea bog property number 92171 72624 return the money to the undesignated bucket second Brian pay I Alexander Graham I suzan ha I K bike I Linda aasta I not McFarland I noon ey I move to close the project
Municipal bat ramp number 92295 72616 and return the money to the undesignated bucket excuse me this is the one if we could save some money for the sign so all let me amend that this is okay I uh let me amend that I move to close the project we're not closing the project though right I guess you could just say transfer all except
I move the transfer 92,7 4697 from the project Municipal Bol ramp number 92292 72616 to the undesignated bucket leaving a remainder of $1,000 to cover the cost of signage second oh Brian pay ey sorry everybody Alexander Graham I Suzanne heer i k
Pike I Linda Ora i d McFarland ion I I move the close the project playground grave Beach bench grav Beach fence number 92630 72587 and return the money to undesignated bucket second Brian pay I Alexander gry suzan haer ey K Pike ey Linda Ora i
m i i i move to close the project oeni Rose Field number 92630 72604 and return the funds return the money to undesignated bucket second Brian Payne I Alexander Graham I Suzanne Hagerty I Kyle Pike I Linda Rasta I not mcfar and I I I move the close the project obuni walkways 9 number 92630 72606
return the money to the undesignated bucket second Brian Payne I Alexander Graham I Suzanne Hagerty I Kyle Pike I Linda Ora I not mcfar and I Yan I I move to close the project Hall archaeology number 92691 7882 and return the money to undesignated bucket second Brian Payne I
Alexander Graham I Suzanne Hagerty i k Pike IA I sorry domic Paro I think we got everybody on that one right okay thank you all right now we turn our attention to our budget uh open space has 39,2 63 designated funds community housing has 39263
in designated funds hisor has $4,189 in designated funds leaving undesignated $384,950 any questions on the budget when will the budget reflect everything that we just voted on next fiscal year next fiscal year okay no for the money we just voted on whenever the accountant transfers okay just couple weeks probably we have we
have enough money to cover everything that's before us if we want to yeah um Trisha correct me if I'm wrong there we can't use that money until fiscal year 26 is that correct you don't um even if it's transferred in this no I I think you can't okay um you can't nothing would be spent till July 1st but regardless the current budget would cover all the projects if
you voted them tonight okay thank you it's a decent Surplus for everything okay thank you um the last meeting we talked about signage this has been an ongoing issue for the committee um I'd like to get it taken care of if we can um you received the uh I'm assuming everyone's received and reviewed the folder that was sent that indicated some of the signage that we've seen um I'll only add I saw a few
others um there were some signage done for some conservation land that had the community reservation Coalition symbol on it so I I told Matt he was going to fix it and change it but um the Coalition is this uh nonprofit that we belong to that helps us answer questions and things like that so it was a wrong wrong image um I would like us to vote on accepting a sort of designated CPC sign as
I mentioned last time I think this is important for community relations so that people understand what the CPC is and does and um maybe help the image a little bit statement yeah so Brian I did take um your inquiry to my board the recreation board and during our conversations they said that um there's uh I forget who we use but they have a copy of the that we use um so that um do you remember who it is Trisha do you know
who it I think it might be um this one which was sorama Sor yeah sign has that template for anybody that might use it so we could just as part of the application process with that maybe you need to a line item account for this in your listing and work with Sama to get this when the project is complet I'm not sure if we could designate a particular company company that's right but we provide the template that they would have to use um did you
guys see look at this I don't know if it jives with this but I know that um the town for several other another group that I'm working with the town is looking at having a consistent form and style and look of all signs around town and I wonder if this would also come under that that would be I know it's Rob downstairs and the highway department folks are collaborating on
they've come up with some designs already that some of them are posted on Rob's bulletin board downstairs but um but something maybe to look into I I think the sinama people said that no one else can use their template oh thank you well I think that what I'm saying is I think the town is already looking at I didn't know that template I didn't know that that's really good information to have and I think if that's true we should probably wait see what the town does or yeah go to them and ask this is we're
thinking about doing this requiring signage which we should any funding organization does it's already in there and they are required to put signage but we don't indicate any specifics on that signage so they vary and we can specify the language and everything but we should talk with them about what the overall plan is I agree with that 100% thank you for the that I think it might be best for us to wait on that I had some comments on on the language that I didn't like but I'll hold off until
until we thank you any other discussion on that point not where I wanted this to end but it's still really important we don't want to be out of step with the town all right let's move on the next item bu is to vote I've been doing some math here so um there are there is specific language as you can see I move to recommend to the town meeting the project of give the project title and the sum of the number that they're requesting or less or
more as you see fit from a Val Comm Community preservation act and then you have to designate whether it's coming from open space community housing historic or undesignated um for all but the community housing projects that we have before us will'll have to draw from the undesignated so I can give you those numbers if someone wants to make the motion I can tell you where they would come from um but uh I
don't want to be the only one making uh motions but I can uh I can get a started with the affordable housing one so I think that's uh fairly straightforward so I can move to recommend to town meeting the project of affordable housing in the sum of $3 39,239 from the available Community preservation act community housing fund second Brian Payne I Alexander
Graham I Suzanne Hagerty I cike I Linda aasta I do McFarland I yon I thank you I will also move to recommend to the town meeting the project of the Bates Pond's accessible Trail and the sum of $ 68,276 180 39,00 2236 to come
from the open space budget $28,988 to come from the undesignated funds second Brian pay I Alexander Graham I Suzanne Hagerty I ky Pike opposed Linda Ora i d mfin i Shon I okay motion passes I'm afraid I don't support the remaining three projects but I
did do the mass someone does support it I can give you the numbers that you will need to insert I move to recommend to town meeting the project of replacing the temporary roof on the jackberry boat house for in in the sum of $6,350 from the available Community preservation act second which you're coming from the
historic I assume from the historic uh bucket okay second uh Brian Payne no Alexander gry Suzanne Hagerty no K Pike no Linda Rasta I not mcin i y v I what was
that total I miss I three NOS three Nos and four yeses yeah motion passes um let's see we have the um I have to redo my math but uh someone wants to support the um Kingston Evergreen I move to recommend to town meeting the project of the
Kingston Evergreen Cemetery historic Cemetery preservation in the sum of $24,000 from the available Community preservation act historic historic bucket second Brian pay not Alexander Graham I San Hager KY Pike yes
Linda I not i y i okay just give me one second to do some math here okay if someone wants to support the old bearing ground they'll pull 9,681 from historic and 55319 from uh undesignated I'll say that again
$9,600 K thereabouts there is no shortage of funds I move to recommend to town meeting the project of old bearing ground tree removal and rest Restoration in the sum of
$65,000 9,681 from historic 9,681 from historic 55319 55319 from undesignated funds from the available Community preservation act I say that close second uh Brian pay no Alexander Graham I suzan I Kyle Pike I Linder aasta I not
M and I I motion passes um all applicants [Applause] passed all right what do we need to do now Trish so the next one is the budget which also goes on the town meeting warrant so you do have to those amounts will be added to the bucket July 1st the 42 so that needs to be read and then there's a motion to approve the operating budget
below I'm sorry can you say that again I think it's in the packet it's the budget and the it's the operating budget for CPC okay that is that this wording will go in the town meeting warrant so you will need to vote this okay yeah so those are the the funds that will go in the bucket on July 1st as well as the operating budget which is uh any expenses in and then my salary do I have to read all that I just read to make the motion at at the bottom
here um you could make the motion as present as noted in the just one comment on the U between the three of them there is it just rounding see the total says 526 but all three of them are 175 so it would add up to 525 I don't know maybe rounding I don't know what we're looking at oh 4,175 what is what was your question if you look at all three of them they'd add up to 126 525 oh
they may be rounding pennies pennies there I don't know did you just do that man fin over here with my phone I just want to find the email from the accountant
sorry yeah that that I don't believe that total is correct at all all right let's get our calculators out 42000 it's just a 3 = 126 525 yeah it's closed1 off6 is $1
off so I think Carl's assumption is that there's some pennies involved mayen May that it dropped I I'm all right with the gray area I I move that the CPC um allocate the funds between open space at 42175 historic preservation at
42175 community housing 42175 for a total of 126 525 furthermore that the budgeted expenses for the year be appropriated at personal services of $88,000 expenses $1,775 for a total of 9,775 $5 total
reserves and expenses $146,300 I'll second uh Brian Payne I Alexander Graham I Suzanne hag I Kyle Pike I Linda aasta I do McFarland I Elon I thank you move on to the minutes yeah I added them last minute but the this should be a copy in your yeah I I read them real quick CU we sitting here I didn't
see anything out of order I move that the meeting minutes for January 9th 2025 as presented be approved second Brian pay I Alexander Graham I suzan hag ey K Pike ey Linda Rasta i d McFarland ion I any other business for the committee no all right well thank you
all for your time thank you to the public for their commentary and I make a motion to adjourn second Brian pay I Alexander gr I suzan call Pike I Linda Rasta I not McFarlin ion I thank you everyone have a good night
e e