[Music] you want to Goan we're ready we you want to start I was wondering if Park was ready usually okay good evening Littleton welcome to the select board meeting for uh February 12th uh you want to start with the
pledge uh sure why not it's tradition I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank
you so this meeting is um solely devoted to um talking about the leasing of the orchard to the bransfield tree company um we um had meetings last October with uh through the orchard working group and
the select board where we picked um the tree the bransfield tree company as the um uh the candidate we'd like to negotiate the lease with from the rfps uh we've been negotiating in good faith since then and are fairly close to
finalizing an agreement um and this is the opportunity that we promised everyone to come and question uh Mr bransfield on his proposal um or us or US um the everything has been posted in the packet online for everyone to view
um as we said this is about the bransfield proposal we're and bransfield we're not rehashing retiga which proposal we picked this is a opportunity to um question um Mr bransfield on what
his plans are we have a um meeting scheduled for March 6th with through mapc um the nagog hill Orchard community meeting it will be at Thursday March 6th at 6:30 in the sturs room um I have a
flyer that will be posted online um and that will talk about uh the whole process whole process how we got here with the steps going forward what's included in the lease what's not including in the lease steps going forward for what's not in the lease we have a followup meeting scheduled for
April 14th which will be further steps outside of the APR land potentially or um things going forward so looking for forward to people at that meeting um I've asked Mr Gard here to act as our moderator for this meeting to make sure
that we're staying on track and on subject so he's going to be uh assisting us so thank you very much thank you yeah and we'll turn it over to Mr bransfield to introduce himself and his proposal and before we open it up for questions
hello uh thank you everybody I appreciate this opportunity and I'm very grateful for the privilege to talk to you um what we're proposing primarily is a native tree farm so we're looking to produce native
trees they are listed in the proposal um these are trees that are required and needed for ecological Restoration in the state and in the area they're often not available able um they're not available at any particular size um so I'm looking
to fill that need um the standard Nursery production is a rather industrial and violent Affair for the trees meaning that a lot of the more sensitive trees that we would like to have are not available except for very
very small sizes so I've been working with uh new container technology for the last 5 years and have come to some good outcomes using these air pots specifically um so that when we produce
our trees they don't have to be stabbed out of the ground with Machinery um the entire root system is included in the tree so their survivability is much better and their their their their overall growth is much healthier so this
is a need that's out there in the community and this is one that I see as a great um opportunity to help with Wetland restoration as well as um construction projects you know meeting
the needs of the native trees we can get as many red Maples and you know dog Woods as we like you know cousa dog woods but there's a real need for um better healthier trees and these are trees that won't require pesticides
won't require uh fertilizers at least not the standard chemical fertilizers so I think the alignment is really nice with the land um in my perspective land is sacred soil is sacred water is sacred
and I want nothing to do with harvesting harming Distributing or toxifying those elements so that's the goal is to produce these trees in that way and as far as me I've been working with plants
as early as age 8 in my grandfather's greenhouse and when I was in my mid-20s I moved over to Arbor culture where I was an arborist I'm still an arborist um we primarily focus on preservation not necessarily a big removal company like
uh Newland tree Masters or such um so I want to move deeper into that direction of preservation restoration U and away from kind of commercial residential um you know arbic
culture so I see this as a great opportunity to do that locally as well as producing trees um I would like to share all that I've learned about nature wildlife and um crafting working with
plant material Fiber Arts basket weaving um all of that this is a long Um passion of mine um I like the idea I love the idea of creating a space that brings in more people forms alliances with more
people people to get in line with this goals of getting People Back To Nature getting people in touch with the Earth in touch with plants and in touch with the food and the medicine that's produced by plants in our area and we'd
hope to bring in other people from other places people who know things um experts as well as people from all walks of life that have knowledge and interest in this in addition to that that a lot of the land will be put to the use of trying to
create more resilient species of our native trees so Elms chestnuts now beach trees American Beach ash trees you know these are all trees that are potentially on the brink of extinction because of
how we live so what we need is space to hybridize cross-pollinate find alternative ways non-chemical ways to preserve these trees so having the space nearby close to a lot of you know very
intelligent people um that can help to find alternative ways to preserve these species is another goal um in addition to that I want to produce food chestnuts American chestnuts hybrid chestnuts red Mal
berries pawpaw um blueberries you know all of all the all the all of the um food producing plants that I've indicated on the proposal are ones that are not pesticide intensive or at all as opposed to the apples that are there now
you we all know apples require tremendous amount of chemical inputs and I have very little tolerance for that anymore in my life I've had enough exposure to Diesel and gasoline and mione and fungicides and all the above
so this is a mission in my life to find new ways more harmonious ways to preserve these plants to propagate these plants to disperse these plants without those inputs and uh that's that's the main
thrust of it okay thank you all right any of the board members have any comments they'd like to make at the outset before we I don't open it up no thanks okay we're now going to open
the Forum up to uh questions that folks may have and if I could ask ask uh ask you to uh raise your hand or and identify that you wanted to speak and please come to the microphone identify yourself and then make whatever comment or ask any question you have of the
board or of of Mr bransfield and keeping in mind of course that he's the reason we're here tonight to hear about his philosophy and his proposal particularly his management plan you know for the orchard so if we could confine our our questions and
comments to that that's uh that' be great and and I hope I don't have to remind anyone to you know kind of keep within the within the bombs of those uh structures but we'll see how things go and I I see someone lined up already to
uh speak so if you'd identify yourself and uh ask your question I'm Christine nous I need no introduction I'm sorry um I have two very quick questions for the select board actually um but first I just
wanted to say thank you to Mr bransfield for this proposal um your holistic approach to farming and Land Management is an inspiration to me I'm kind of a tree nerd myself and um thank you I really hope that your operation will
serve as a model to Littleton and beyond for what farming can and should be so thank you very much for that thank you um my questions to the select board is you know several years ago when I was on agom um the old select board was not
monitoring or enforcing the lease at all is there a detailed plan in place for monitoring this lease and reporting to voters like annually and if not can you create one before signing the lease
to make sure it's reasonable for Mr bransfield and guarantees that your successors will follow it because that's the big one so I'll I'll take the first pass of this Matthew can fill in um my understanding is the old lease also had
requirements for annual reporting um with u Mr auger um and the select board um frankly isn't very good at making sure we follow up in all the reports that we um are supposed to receive um it's there's a lot of them
and it's hard to remember what's supposed to come in when um it's a lousy excuse but it is the way it is so what I've been what I've done is I've reached out to the agricultural commission and asked if they would oversee the
management plan and the lease the terms of the lease to making sure that Mr bransfield is fulfilling the obligations as he outlined in the management plan and as we're expecting in the lease and that they report back to us um the select board in some kind of a joint
meeting going forward so there is a plan to do the monitoring um um but probably more actively from the Adcom reporting back to the select board they have much more expertise in this than the S board
does not really not not really but um really they don't and I think that that's a serious issue I think that you know for conservation restriction monitoring we have professional conservation restriction monitors come to the property
and and produce a report yeah it's a really easy way relatively speaking to have a true expert in the subject matter so I'll I'll take that up to find could help us more actively do this m dark can
help you so I I think I would be uh inclined to bring to the board a proposal to actually fund some annual monitoring to make sure it's done properly yeah um and then my second question I guess that wasn't quick this one is sorry does the lease contain a
timeline of the town's expectations for invasives management and old apple tree removal and if not can it the lease doesn't or what the management plan could I'm going actually let John answer
that yeah I would imagine this is at least a three-year process usually five to really eradicate some of the most recalcitrant invasive plants so I would hope to get that much time we would start right away as far as Apple
removal um I certainly have the means in terms of men and machines to get through that within the first year might take two but I would I I would also like to have some space to be patient oh yeah with with with some of the
apples hoping that maybe some of them prove that they'll produce fruit without a lot of inputs and maybe allow them to to stay on board right if they do their job if they do their job as far like with you know the areas that I would want to plant with paa you know they
like to start in the shade so it's kind of a nice opportunity is leave them in place interplant and then come back later and take the apples out after um but as far as in the management plan of identified areas that are the level ground which are most suitable for
container plant production those areas i' want to clear out right away leave the margins that are indicated for permaculture for a slower process and to keep the deer out maybe yeah thank you that's a big
question thank you anyone else wish to uh just first then you'll be next yeah thank you uh Vince sto through Sarah dublet um
I wanted to uh ask because there's been some confusion at least on my end um about the the structures that uh around the property primarily the um the house and the barn um and there's been some back and forth about um are they being
sold are they being part of are they being incorporated into the lease um I come down on the side of uh if if we're leasing the property um it makes sense to me to also relase the buildings rather than sell them because I believe
that you're creating a potential serious issue down the road should the lease uh should the leasee not uh be able to um effectively work the land and and you know pull out but then still
maintains control over the the buildings um you know I I don't see getting another agricultural uh entity in without access to those so I just I just wanted to find out sort of where that stood so I I can answer that so the
house is not part of the lease and never was um the house the disposition of the house has not been decided yet the upper Barn is on a parcel small parcel about 1.5 Acres which is not part of the APR but which we are including in the lease
with John at this time the lower barn and the cottage are also included in in the lease in this case those two sit on land which is not in the APR and is entirely separate it's part of a 20 acre parcel so those would be like structures
only I'm not exactly sure how legally that works I I assume Mr bransfield has every right to come and go through those properties as he needs to but he would have no like other access to that that parcel so the The Proposal as it's being negotiated right now does not include
the sale of any property that's correct okay thank you nor nor can it well no without a town meeting vote we cannot sell any of this property yes you're next yes you Joan de from Harwood Avenue thank
you for coming to speak with us Mr BR brenfield so I had um looked at your plan there's a partial blant list and I noticed that it does have a number of um shrubs and there's a bunch of shrubs
that it doesn't have and I just wonder is this is this a complete list or okay so like by burnhams or if they're native nber yeah if they're native then yeah if if if they're widely available in other forms and it doesn't
make a tremendous amount of sense I'm really trying to Target plants that are not readily available okay but um and I wondered can you confirm that your plan does doesn't require the town to remove the apple trees at $10,000 an
acre yeah I don't we can do better than that and looking through the plan I see that for Parcels 10 11 12 13 14 you seem to be like kind of a nebulous plan for those like you weren't really sure what you
would do with those would you be open to um leasing this land not including those Parcels or do would you need to include those parcels 10 11 12 13 and 14 I think it's all or nothing I don't I don't think it dided
up if well you mean from from a legal point of view we could okay but but but if you know so it it's partially it's it's largely what your preference is if it's you know you have plans for the entire APR land um and that's where you
want to be with the least that that's what we're going to proceed yeah those those areas are nebul nebulous um because of their proximity to is it 91 91 nag the home the home right so I was leaving that open to receive comment and
information from that owner and the town as to what sounds the best okay okay um so it's it's open yeah and I'm I'm just to say like I am open to alliances with
other people okay there are people who want to uh work on this land within the guidelines that I've indicated in terms of my disposition against chemicals um that's I'm open to that okay um of
course anybody who would want to sub would need to provide would have to have a legal entity that could they could buy their own liability insurance and if they're going to have workers make sure they have comp and all of that so it's not I'm not open to sublining to anybody who just wants to come and hang out do
their thing you know drink beer or whatever right um but if someone is serious and if someone's serious and they have you know the the means to to be legal then it's yeah I'm open so I I had heard
that um you might be suting part of it and I just I didn't looking in the map in the plan that what you submitted I didn't see which part you thought might be suad or yeah it's not been indicated okay um and then my only other question
really is field nine the field that's kind of adjacent to you know the house where the pipes have burst and so on um is that one really integral to your business plan okay all right thank
you okay very good anyone else um yes sir right there no behind you then you'll be next y evening uh Brian bilsbury 46 neog Hill Road um we live right across the street
from the beautiful wiard um my concern question to you is I know there's going to be a lot of chipping um the chips being brought in are you going to be doing that on site chips are brought in all of them yeah so there there's chipping to be done with the apples y to
do Apple REM but that's it for that so once that's done yeah concerned about it's not a wood processing yeah it's not a wood proc in facility right okay so chainsaws yeah I mean I I I would like to sell some firewood off the site um but we have a
hydraulic Uh Wood firewood processor it's not a two-stroke you know giant chainsaw that's running okay it's a lot quieter than that okay um but no silence quietude okay very important to me all right and then the chips are going to be stored kind of by the barn yeah okay yep
that's what I read um yeah it sounds good I mean we'd love to see something go on over there it's it's been very quiet um you know it's beautiful beautiful land and I just one thing to add if there is any way that there could be a peace given
back to the Native Americans to the Indian PR I think that would be a nice gesture for the town to try and work that in into this that's all I have thank you thank you thank you do you want to talk a little bit about you bring you were bringing in chips to make soil so you
weren't removing soil from yeah yeah the IDE the the idea of a container based Farm Tree Farm a normal Tree Farm harvest the soil with the tree so over the course of you know tens of years we
really deplete the soil so we want to make our own soil in part we want to make soil because importing soil importing compost opens you up to importing disease and pest factors and the big one right now that I'm on a
working group about is Asian jumping worms Oh and these worms pose a dramatic threat to our watersheds so the last thing I want to do is buy a load of compost from some producer that has a bunch of worm eggs in it and now next
thing you know that whole property is polluted and every plant that I sell is you know a demon seed of environmental destruction so can we rep you on that sure wood chips are readily available
every arborist at the end of every day is looking for a place to get rid of their wood chips and it's a great way to utilize uh an inexpensive industry byproduct just compost it yourself for a while and you have a pretty decent soil
substrate a question let her go back did do you have a followup SW yeah thanks sorry um Joan Deary from Harvard Avenue the wood chips like are they a risk for the Asian longhorn beetle because we're not meant to move
wood around like yeah we don't have Asian longhorn beetle in the area so they they've been they've been well eradicated and where the wood chips are coming from they land it there too I mean it's it's going to be somebody who's within 20 minutes right if they have to drive more than that they're we're going to find somewhere else to go
so they'll be local the trees that are already in the area they're certainly not coming from out of state okay right thank you no one wants to haul chips like that you yes sir uh Mark fry 75 Vel uh just two two quick questions do you belong to the
Farm Bureau no okay um on the site here in Littleton how's it going to compare to your site and stout as far as the appearance they're they're nothing like each other okay yeah in fact if I could say my site and Stow you know as you know probably
every Farm has its armpit you know where it puts all its junk and it's broken down trucks and all that stuff I have that far away from here right I have a place where I can do engine work any mechanical work Hydraulics all that
happens elsewhere and the farm I work on is it it's at two Farms one's the industrial part the other one is the farm yeah right um the uh and we were talking about uh look looking at the at the trees for apples that may be viable
there's also a large group of peach trees that I know are viable mhm uh and they're down in that corner behind the barn um I just wanted I don't know if you were aware of those or not no and I'd be happy to have you show me around yeah yeah it's great I walk that at
Orchard constantly just for my own exercise I haven't gone on the property much because as I understand I'm you know it's not open to the public and I'm not from this town so I've only had a small handful of opportunities to really walk around and be with it yeah so and
that's going to come as a surprise to a lot of the citizens here in Littleton because they they're you look to now there's Cross Country Skis all over the place they're skiing in there constantly yeah well I've been trying to be respectful of oh no no and and it's going to be if you certainly if the
lease is uh comes to fruition it's going to be your property yeah if you look at the proposal I've indicated uh around the edges of the prop Wonder great so that's it for me thank you great thank you anyone else like to
offer a comment or a question yes ma'am hi Christen kazok kage way hi John um yes first I do want to say thank you for your proposal thank you for wanting to um come to Littleton to give us this
option to consider um I have a couple of questions with the chips and the processing does that mean you'll be bringing in a screener for compost for composting screening to it's a very small volume okay right so there's
really like compact ones that I would only I don't I can't own one of those they're too expensive so I'd imagine renting one for a period of a couple weeks screen and then it goes away right and it's not one of those giant trls that you see in the you know the big
industrial soil producing facilities it's a there they're small items I mean we're talking something in the order of like a few hundred yards a year okay you know not thousands so will you be looking to sell any excess or are you planning to use all of it yourself no I
don't I don't see it doesn't Mak sense to me that that property should be any kind of a bulk material Depot you know it's not it's not what I want I have that like I I have that I already have a site where I can do all that kind of bowling and jamming high volume you know
beastly stuff yeah right this is this is a very separate special thing to me um can you also speak to um I know that you've spoken about your containers but can you describe a little bit more about
what that entails because I think all of us have different ideas of what that means BAS upon of our experiences what containers and I'm also curious about the fertilizing the watering and winterizing mhm and the size size size
of containers size of containers the containers range anywhere from uh 10 L all the way up to like 1,500 L okay so like the size of a large bathtub okay um what it means is uh sheets of landscape
fabric and strips for weed compression and then the containers are placed on top and the containers are just a plastic base and a plastic wrap around they have these finger like protrusions all the way around with a little hole in the end so that when the roots go
looking out they get guided out to the hole they hit the air the the the end of the roote terminates and it causes the root to Branch further back and that repeats over and over and over again so that when you harvest you just strip that pot fabric off and you have this
root ball with a completely distributed root system through the volume of the of the pot as opposed to you know you buy a tree from an orch I mean from a nurser now you have like three or four big roots that got severed you know what I mean 12 in from the edge of the of the of the of the of the base the plant just
lost half to 3/4s of its root system then you get into that sleep creep leap you know where they they just sit there and languish for a year they start to get going the second year and the third year they're they start to grow like normal these plants you put them in the ground they just take right off okay so
it's um so it's like plastic you know small all the way up to these large tubs that are up on the surface um some of it's going to have to be in ground so like pot in pot which is when you just sink a regular plastic pot in the ground
and then the U pot slips inside that's how you winterize the the the base of the tree so you get it down Subterranean okay so you'll be doing that for all your hots for the winter no only the ones that are sensitive to Winter kill so we have like a ton of river I mean
Yellow Birch right now like you can you leave them anywhere and they just keep growing you know there's there's a handful of trees that that work like that um sourwood is a tree that really has a lot of demand that you can't get met those are more sensitive they're a little further south so those would be
in ground okay so it would mean digging a hole you know cutting a hole in the sheet plast in the in the plcape fabric you sink your pot in there and then they just those pot stay permanently in the ground for the duration and then you put your smaller pot inside of that and
that's how they stay and then what about watering watering I imagine we're have to put 5 to 10,000 gallons of tank so that we can pump and fill and then distribute so yeah there's a network of irrigation cell drip
irrigation so you run a main line and then you Branch off down your rows and you have these have these little emitters these circular emitters to go on top and then they just emit down through so there's no there's no spray head irrigation no overhead irrigation it's all drip okay yeah um and then the
other um component I know that you're building your own soil um but given that these are in containers and not getting nutrients from um the soil around that's in the earth will you have to be doing additional fertilizing for them yeah the
the the fertilizer that I've been working with that works for us is compost te mhm so that is pardon it's a large bat of water highly air rated you put a sock of compost that's also air rated down in so that you start blowing
out the microbes that are in there and then you feed those microbes fish hyate kelp humate right and then those all those microbes digest those those nutrients that you put in and then you water that up okay so so all the
nutrients are contained within the bodies of the bacteria and the fungi and the flugum and all that so there's no loose nitrogen phosphorus potassium it's all contained within the biology in the tank and you water with that okay um can
I keep going yes yes you can yes questions um the select board has indicated that you'll be financing a lot of this
operation um through bransfield tree and so because you have bransfield tree that the company that I know and then you're creating this one how much is your existing bransfield tree company participating in the financing of this
operation um I think not much at all I think I'll be using bransfield tree to do the heavy work the like some of the labor that has that has um you know comp risks so running chippers and chainsaws for the clear stum grinding right um but
at this point I'm looking at forming a 501c3 I've already started a conversation with a couple sponsors so we can form a nonprofit okay to help Finance some of the parts but branchfield tree itself we're using at the outset because it has all the
insurance and all the protections but that will phase out we would hope to transfer over to a new organization that is separate because I I don't think the liabilities should be mixed between the two organizations except maybe to hire
brandfield tree to come in and do any kind of like again any kind of heavy lifting any kind of heavy machinery work that needs to be done in the future so then this leads to a couple different other questions um select board since
you're relying on um his finances of the tree company are you doing anything in regards to safeguarding our risk with relying on this company as being the financing in terms of auditing or reviewing Financial records or of that
process so as part of the the lease in the management plan still have to be reports coming back to us about the like what he sold and what's uh what was produced on on the property and like um
both from like volume and uh cost not cost but um like um sale price that type of thing that was part of the release with uh Mr auger too that you know he had to report how many bushels of apples they harvested and things like that so that will be coming back we're not
auditing his finances per se as far as field goes um and and there's no plans necessarily you know uh we don't need to go through and audit his books necessarily unless we don't trust what he's doing what he says he's doing and
if we're in that situ we already have problems so um and and the select board is okay with him forming another entity right um going forward we discussed this at a meeting of sometime last month that he
he mentioned that he doesn't want to operate the orchard longterm as bransfield tree and would like to uh have another entity but doesn't want to go through the overhead of creating a new entity until there is a lease right
it's the Chicken and the Egg part on some of this stuff yeah I understand that just um and back to you John in terms of your initial proposal you you know made it a real indication that you had the tree company all set up ready to
go and um I'm curious as to of your existing sales that you have um how much of it is pertaining to the work that you're hoping to do on the farm currently now I don't the question of your sales of
bransfield tree now how much of it is selling native trees that you grow customer hard to say it's really hard to say you know and if I may um this represents great risk to me
right like at my age and state of life like I probably should be just buying houses and renting them or something like that right um so um you know this is not like some uh you know Mega Buck Financial Boon for
me this is this is my mission this is my passion right um how much branfield tree will buy from the the the tree farm I don't know you know I don't know I mean it may turn out that that it just makes the most sense to let them continue to
prune and cut trees and and that a separate organization has to will be the one to do the planting I'm kind of leaning that way that there ought to be that this organization really ought to be its own thing have its own staff if it's going to go plant trees on someone's property
it's going to be the people that work with those trees right so hope that ansers your question I was curious currently because in your proposal it it sounded like that oh how much money do I do now in
landscape installation yeah that not installation but it was led to believe that you had an existing um tree growing company mhm and so I'm just curious I have a couple acres that I'm using to learn that I've
been using to learn okay and it's it's there's there's successes and failures with that okay and I feel like I've learned enough and that I'm ready to to scale up okay but in terms of like having enough plant material to like put a shingle out and start advertising to
people and planting on their properties it's it's it's really small okay and you don't so therefore you don't have any existing contracts or anything for the species that you're growing I didn't want to get into any big contracts until I knew I had and it's going to take three years to even get to the point where I have something to sell right so
okay and um please forgive me part of the reason why I'm asking you this is because from the select board we've been told or I have been told in different conversations that that you know um that you're not going to cost the town any money that you're a good resource this
is why we should go with you da da well that's all great to hear that up front but it doesn't seem like well we're this due diligence to make sure that things don't fall apart and then we as a town have to then invest back into the land
and we're right back where we are so these are the things that have come up in the town meeting whether to sell or to lease you know so these are the types of questions that I think folks in the town are wondering in terms of I I would
think that if if if I fall flat on my face in two years the town still has gotten the land cleared and a major head start on the invasive Management on the property okay so and anything that's there in terms of the pots and you know
the irrigation like that's all stuff that I would want to get out of the way and try to sell okay so the idea that I'm going to like you this giant Tangled mess I think is not realistic and that you are the town will get value in my
presence for even a short period of time and if you get a chance to look at the lease you'll see that the town has multiple Avenues to yank me out of there if if I'm not performing okay so and I am again taking great risk to scrape up
everything I've saved because this is like looking like a half million dollar proposal right so everything I've managed to put together in terms of free money to do this to do something like this like I said I probably should go buy houses right so back to the um
apples the trees and the invasives uh I believe Joan's question was $10,000 an acre and you said you you could do less than that does that mean the T like what I'm not Char I'm not charging anything the town pays nothing he's doing it as part of what he
needs to do to satisfy his business needs right he's clearing the he's effectively clearing the orchard for for free and we as a town have decided that that's what we need to do you want to M well I mean the the the
apples are not viable commercially they're past the point where pick your own is really a worthwhile Endeavor so they're it's not they're not doing anything I mean we could we don't need to take them out but anybody who takes that land I think and wants to use it for some other purpose is going to need
them removed sooner or later and so um John's proposal didn't ask the town to to clear the land and the other proposals did to some degree and so because when I originally spoke to you you said that you didn't need to clear the apple trees so that's
changed for you I don't know what conversation that is there's they've always need to be cleared okay cuz I thought you were planting in between the rows for the shade in places like I said with the Popa okay yeah you utilizing existing shade were necessary okay but for the if you look at the plan
the the red areas that are intended for for for uh container production those need to be cleared okay and it's three years that you'll be up and running before you'll even be able to sell anything I think the first year is just going to be getting infrastructure in place and then second
year is getting the getting populated and then you know there there are there are with the smaller plants you can plant Liners in the spring sell them in the fall okay so hopefully by the second year by the fall of the second year I'm selling plants and then in the third year things should really start booming
okay um I just have two other questions um is there anything in the lease for safeguards if for some reason the town decides that you need to go or that you decide that you need to go and terms of the condition of the land yes like a
non-adherence to the management plan essentially is one of the outs okay so but given everything that John has just described in terms of what he's needed to do with the land is there like he's responsible for remediating the land back to a certain
point if like he's doing these container trees and is he pulling all his container his trees out when he goes like yeah there's Provisions in the Le has there is there Provisions that spell all that out yes so okay so there's not going to be a great deal of cost to the town if we decide we want and Lease to
have them leave correct okay yeah okay um then my last question is about the NOA praying Indians how do you feel about the nishoba praying Indians and you being on their ancestrial land them
wanting to be back upon their land and many folks of us in town wanting to be on their land and how is that relate to to um you and how that your perception or how you feel about
that um so I was invited to generate a proposal which is what I've done okay um but to answer directly your question
um I just spent a month in Colombia okay meeting with people down there spending a lot of time there um spending time alone on the mountain and I met an elder named Amika from the
tuu nation and he shared with us that now is the time that the people with the heart of the Earth get together and make changes and imagine a new future and
create the new future okay that's what animates me that's how I fit into this that's my mission that's what I believe okay so I'm open to alliances with anybody who wants to be a part of
creating that new Future Okay um so whoever wants to be there with me and work in that direction I'm open to in the prophecy that Amica shared with us several thousand years
old the genetics the history is not what matters what matters is what's in the heart okay these people that they saw would be coming from all around the planet to come learn from them learn their ways
learn how to cleanse themselves learn how to make offerings learn how to be at peace with the Earth they have blue eyes they have blonde hair they have brown eyes they come in all shapes and sizes so that's that's the prophecy see that I believe that's what I that's where I fit in and that's what I'm offering I'm
offering an opportunity to create a space where people who have the Earth Madre Tia in their heart and who want to do the right thing by her can come work with me to create that so
again I'm open to alliances with everybody with anybody so long as you know they're there for those reasons and that's how I think about it and feel about it okay
um and I appreciate you sharing that I also believe that there is ancestrial connections to land and um I appreciate hearing that perspective but the ancestral sacred land to our dishop of
praying Indians I feel is important to us as well in the community so thank you thank you anyone else yes come up the microphone and tell us who you are ask your
question hi I'm very short I'm Erin Jade I live on Foster Street um some years ago I started growing um native plants to support declining species of bumblebees following the work of Dr jigar and have become very passionate
about what I consider conservation gardening um and and and I feel that that is part of my mission here um and so I just read your proposal today actually I haven't had a chance to I didn't wasn't able to see it before and
I felt very excited about a lot of parts of it including the educational piece the mayow forest the permaculture Papa trees a lot of it um make is really resonant with what I believe we should
be doing with land have this the same time my heart is heavy with concern for NPI being united reunited rematriate with their as Kristen said their ancestral
land um as part of a as somebody on the board of the conservation trust we um boundary this property with the Sarah dublet land and I don't really know what um my direct questions are other than
just to express my concern that um we just do due diligence to figure out how to create Harmony around these missions I see your mission as really beautiful and really important right now and
MPI perhaps this could be an amazing Alliance and I I would hope that we could maybe even give them some of the parcels that are not APR designated right now that perhaps we can literally
give it back to them um so I'm just here to share really share share my concern around this and thank you all for being here I know this has been a long process and I just hope we can make this
beautiful piece of land work for everyone thank you thank you yes sir I'm uh John Mitchell and I live on Beaverbrook Road um I just want to back up where where
she left off um I think this is a great great idea terrific what you're doing I'm all for it I just wonder if this is the right place um and just to put it in context um well when the native people were here
they were growing apples on that land in that 16 40 1650 and as far as I can determine nobody ever stopped growing apples there uh so what is that 400 years 400 years
of Apple grow and I I think this statement is more for the for the board but I'm just I'm in defense of the apple orchard and as it's been pointed out was native L they were they were the Apple
Growers there for well who I don't I don't think they're growing apples before um the Colonials arrive but anyway I just I hate to see the orchard go and the thing about it is this is one
of the most aesthetically pleasing landscapes in the town you know you got the got the orchards in Spring and the sweeping Hills going down to the reservoir and you know I think I know
Aesthetics doesn't fit into economic decisions but maybe they should and uh so I I just think we should do everything possible here to save the orchard even if you let it go wild I
mean that's I've argued that before very ecologically diverse ecosystem Old Orchards are rich in and Wildlife so that's it thank you thank you I I really like this I mean I just
there's a lot of Farmland here that make them up for sale I'm afraid thank so just for clarification the land going down to the water is not part of the lease negotiations it's not included in anything yeah I knew I knew
that yeah but the flowering Hills all right anyone else like to offer a comment or a question or don't see anyone okay yes sir wa over there Rob Browns 25 June Ro you don't
know me but they all do and I kind of talk long so I apologize in advance first first I'll say aren't we all a bit shocked at the demeanor and the interaction tonight cuz this is not the meeting that I thought it was going to
be based on the last several weeks I just want to say that in a positive way I think it's really great um with that regard um I do have a series of questions so hearing about your three-year transition with regard to
sale and aware that recently emed our notice of the second year of non-compliance comes in with a piddly $3,500 calculation of sales required with regard to meeting you know staving off mdar with regard to the APR
requirement Etc so I just want to hear you're going to be able to meet that for the 2025 growing season such that nobody's asking the question of you seem like you're the Savior right now and I
share I I've really been turned around now seeing your full management plan I didn't really know I read back when you submitted your Simple Plan Etc but now seeing the more expansive plan night and
day in terms of my awareness of what your intentions are in addition to you being here um so I appreciate all that but I still would like to ask the question just to kind of check off the box that I'm not falsely you know thinking that you're the the Savior when
in fact wait a minute not doing due diligence to know in fact you're going to meet those compliant you know you're going to save off the mdar you know I don't want them to come back and say you still didn't meet the compliance you know the requirements I think uh if I need to
produce evidence of $3,500 worth of sales within 2025 we'll find a way to do that okay so also just so everyone's aware we have sent his management plan off to mdar they haven't got us comments back they were excited that we were making good
progress on a lease um so they mdar is aware of what the current situation is no I I know but my gut and I appreciate that Mark I genuinely do I think that you three they they haven't commented on you know is he producing going to
produce enough or anything like that and mdar has will have negotiations as well I'm I'm sure you will I I just recognized three of you have certain on the working group or are or were s on the working group you're more in depth in my opinion than anybody else except for some of those working group members
and possibly John now Etc but I I still it seems like mdar starting to surface whereas I think Matthew recently said I think that we thought there wasn't going to be any concerns with regard to really mdar taking over and now all of a sudden
they're emerging seemingly a bigger threat and I am concerned about that just it could be that they are you know publicly staking out a claim in order to start a process I do believe that if we signed a lease and they looked at the management plan they would tell us in
advance of the end of this season whether or not they felt that you know missing the $3,500 was going to put us at risk my gut says if we signed the lease and they looked at the management plan they would wave that for 2025 with
the you know requirement that 2026 and forward there would be act um you know real agriculture on the site and I agree with I think I often look for reasonable you know solutions from reasonable people it's just that in the last several weeks maybe we're not
considering everybody's as reasonable as we'd like them to be I'll just make that comment and move on um you mentioned personal risk and I I must admit I was surprised by that L your you know process and the way you're coming about
this but I find myself curious as how risky you know do you I think you're being very open very honest I appreciate that but with regard to and I didn't take this you're coming in with the expectation of success I hope that for
you m you with that you made just a slight comment with regard to if a two years you know it's a problem Etc so that me Le you know opening me up to a question I never anticipated asking which is how risky do you think that
this is like as you evaluated your business plan how much of a do you do you feel really heartened by your opportunity to be successful or do you really feel like it's somewhat of uh no
I feel I feel very confident in the demand for these plants right risk to me is this is a least property with a lot of politics involved right so that's the risk that I see the other risk is I could get cancer you know I could get
run over by a bus like those kinds of things so risk in terms of not leaving everything that I have to my children but leaving a significant portion of my wealth and effort on the table here in Littleton should I God forbid fall out
yeah so that actually is one that leads to a question that I did have written down in advance and that's because of who I am and with regard to the last le e I think the town and the last Les e that's where it fell apart if you will
everything in the first X years seemingly I've only learned from the good work of the working group but it seems like the first X years I'll say good the guy was the manager Morrison's good positive Etc but then is
the person started to age out and realizing transition not necessarily happening the way it's been explain to me or is the way as I understand it is you start to see the declining you know invest in the future because you're not going to be there to reap the future Etc
so you just pose the question of let's hope not an illness yeah but from a town perspective I'm of the personal opinion that myself and many residents in town feel really you know caught off guard by
the select board's lack of foresight lack of monitoring I don't want to really I'll I'll Embrace yours history isn't so much what's about but like you said about the future Etc so so how do
we um gauge with regard to the future with regard to you know you you haven't been able to sign the lease and seemingly the political process would seem like darts and arrows are coming your way you know and yet I'm already
trying to say I think it's a 20 year leas that you're negotiating and yet I'm already saying what happens after 20 years because I feel like we just unfortunately had a negative experience with regard to that sort of concept that didn't already have
the the future site so if you could just yeah attempt to address that I would think that um apples in the 80s and '90s and 2010s became an increasingly less profitable and more difficult difficult
business to perform as the pests kept increasing the diseases became more resistant the costs of the IPM programs kept going up the cost of the labor kept going up um you see all of the Orchards all the all the ones that can have turned towards like I said in the
proposal you know dut circuses and goat rodeos right to try to make it work and that particular property was not amendable to that that that those other revenues right so it would make sense to me that whoever was sitting on that that
horse toward the end of its run was you know losing ground with every year okay um you know could there be like a 5year drought and the Watershed dries up and there's no water to water the trees yeah
you know that's another one of those risks right um will I be putting trees in pots that will come to fruition in 10 to 15 years you know and worth $4,000 a piece as opposed to $400 a piece yes so
there's an investment in the future that happens just by what I'm putting in place that can be reaped 10 15 20 years into the future um you know will I create a business that will be so valuable that I could sell it to
somebody else who wants to continue with it I hope so you know but I think that the the move towards conservation gardening the move away from people having Acres of lawn and looking to
create residential commercial properties that are in line with the local ecosystem to create habitat instead of just aesthetic you know Yahoo right I think that's a trend that hopefully is only going to continue to rise but you
know it's farming on some level it's an Act of Faith right so again another extension of of that with regard to the monitoring and I'm not at the least bit trying to saddle to
select board or more importantly you with this concept but I do think that that as you just stated an example some trees that are going to be grown with regard to having a life of 8 10 15 years
that's really a positive thing I think with res who want to see long-term success and Longevity having said that I wouldn't want to saddle you with any part of a provision in a lease that you know gets into monitoring that sort of progress
that sort of thing but I do want to come back to where I think Christine first spoke about it and Matthew I think you responded the way I'd like I would like the select board to dig in I do think there are Professional Services that can
be uh engaged to perform the proper monitor professional monitoring and I do it not to be throwing shade at you but rather to ensure that the past
non-performance is not repeated not from a concern but from a just let's continue to make sure that we're doing the right things in that regard I don't know I question how many people even know about an a commission and how many people have
attended whereas I think more people here have attended select board meetings and so I'm very much interested in the the physical presentation if you will during a select board future agenda on almost an annual basis I think this Orchard
experience of the last several years has been a challenging one for the town and I would like it to be something that's dealt with very effectively and not be a well person wasn't paying taxes nobody
knew about it things weren't being done nobody knew about somehow this this is already now surfaced to be somewhat crisis likee in my opinion and I'd like that to rest for you and us that sort of thing so if we could get into within the
lease or the March 6 meeting not going to try to stray there too far but get into some aspect of really ensuring the residents with regard to and let's let's applaud what you're doing for the success that it can
be but with that comes a responsibility to more or less not be a just trust us we got it because that trust was you know squandered yeah thank you no I mean
I'm I'm trying not to be throwing darts I'm just trying it was a it was a colossal failure on on our part to like let the things get as bad as they did I think one of the advantages of hiring someone to do a a monitoring report is they present a report to the select
board in an open meeting and everyone comes to look at it and I think to your other point you know that person isn't going to be counting which trees are how old you know they're going to be saying how much water are you drawing out of the well how much you know is the is the barn and good condition like let me see
your that they're going to know exactly what to look for for the health of the for the health of the land and the health of the operation and give us some real reports and it's important that that's an independent person not a select board member correct yeah and to
your other point I would hope that when you're sitting up here on the slick board in 10 years and I'm not that someone's talking to bransfield about you know what's happening at the end of your 20 years is there a succession plan what are we doing because I think that's one of the things
that the select board failed at last time with the Orchard lease with uh and and it needs to be much more proactive but um asking what a succession plan is for 20 years away is a little premature
at this point completely couldn't couldn't agree more with that but I would like that um as you just stated the Public Presentation and and the commitment from the select board in order to do that separately I saw your
brochure or newsletter newsletter thank you and terrific thank you I think as as somebody just mentioned apologize for not knowing who um aspects with regard to um the success with regard to the
tree removal I'm one of those people that could have recited the 10K per acre estimate for Ryan Ferrara and 5,000 trees half a million dollars that you're going to eat or you're not going to pay but that outside firm you'll do it for less but none
this is a significant removal of a liability um on the town that's going to and all likely it as Matthew I think said earlier if not you then who and US probably having to fund it Etc so I
would just encourage whereas it's not in the contract from what I can tell I don't think the lease that's being negotiated is available for public review it's kind of been referred to and I wouldn't at least is in the packet current oh I missed that okay then or
should be in I believe it's in the packet okay then I then I I glazed over because I was so interested in the fields review and and your comments you know that sort of thing but I do think from a newsletter standpoint that whether it's because we start to some of
us start to know you Etc but different aspects with regard to what's the public interested that's outside of the lease that might be worthwhile from a newsletter perspective where it just a you have a meet and greet as opposed to a public Hearing in order to just share
here's what I've been able to do here's where I feel like I'm On Target here's where I'm my problems you know all of those sorts of things I think that could again heal simp so I I'll take a little bit of this um so we've actually had
conversations about the management plan and um and there needs to be more of a timeline in there on some of the things like like removal of the trees within three or majority of the trees and the invasa under control within 3 years 5 years 10 years whatever we decide is
reasonable on his part and our part for what we want um so that's still being negotiated and then that will be monitored by Adcom or this independent group um but we need to come up with I I mean we generally support everything in
this plan we just need to fine tunes some of these things good and again I appreciate you folks coming together tonight to allow for this it's very very helpful I want to dip it a little bit into the nooba praying Indians um just
to a little bit extent I've recently learned about something that I never knew about and we have to look at my notes in order to to get it correctly but the concept of a uh and somebody out there can correct me if I'm saying it
wrong uh cultural restriction easement I never even heard of a thing uh and yet it's seems to give uh it seems to be like a CR that's known as a c and allows for indigenous people to have access and
recognition with regard to property and it's something that I would encourage the select board to consider as well as the public to consider because I don't think we I think there is recognition that land is so sacred in some cases
that even the the possibly well intentioned is becomes a negative because it exposes uh ancestral sacred ground to scrutiny and curiosity that can lead to
damage so as much as I'm throwing it out I'm throwing it out well intentioned and I encourage select board and you to ponder aspects of how it might be some aspect of what you've heard with regard
to NP with regard to our history of the past in the positive way not I agree with the comments I was impressed by what you said with regard to history but I think there's something there that if there's I think we all come to be with CRS and
things that think that those are positive things I just want to make sure that my mentioning C in fact is a positive thing as opposed to not leading to unintended negative consequences but I don't think that sort of thing should be overlooked
um moving on with regard to the house I from the working group I came to have a great appreciation with some of the working group members who really connected the future of farming not necessarily what you doing with the
property you seem to be threading the needle for the town with regard to having a great solution with regard to a really damaged problematic property um but should
you something negative befall you the town needs to have in my opinion that what I learned from the working group and the aspect of an association of the structures because they're otherwise not going to be able to be constructed
around that property in a meaningful way a farmer needing access to housing a farmer needing access to a barn you know those sorts of things which that background leads to to this question there's because the house is not part of
the lease because it's not available to be sold the select board and the town residents are still going to be probably confronted with the non APR land that you are you know Leasing and the aspects of these structures and
so time time will pass maybe it won't be a red hot issue you know a year from now who knows but some point it's going to Bubble Up with regard to the house and the non APR lands and so I find myself because of this believing I've learned
from the working group The Connection of the housing and the barn structures with really a farmer and somebody in the land working the land has to be there experiencing it Etc there's that connection and so I'm
looking for is there a are you open I heard your openness applaud it but are you open with regard to the contiguous land the abing land not all of it but aspects that somebody might influence at
the subsequent meetings before the lease is finalized open to having pathway of property that might yes it's included in APR it might be even subject to your negotiations right now that transition
is expected to be able be include in the police but I'd make the argument that if there can be a sliver of the land or some portion that's reasonable to you and to the town that might provide a
pathway for whomever is in that house has like a natural they're not just so isolated like an island but rather there's a natural flow if you will with regard to a future purposing of the land with regard to farming or with regard to
really making it vital Etc so sorry if I lost you in that you kind of lost me in that but are you asking if are you asking like the house is on a little over an acre are you asking would he be willing to carve out
more of the acreage around the house yes that's specifically or at least that's what I would encourage the select board so all of the H all of the acreage immediately surrounding the house except that one acre is APR land and that's why I'm saying so so here's where I come at
it mdar compliance APR compliance you have to do 50% of the APR okay so I think you're negotiating for roughly 49 plus acres Etc however from an mdar and AP compliance all that's legally
required is 25 acres uh 50% of the APR so it seems to me like within that and around the house might be some of APR property that if not needed as a musthave within your lease to have you
be successful might it be removed from the lease such that there's a flow if you will from the house to other properties because some of the properties aren't part of it's what 100 Acre parcel or more and only 49
to 53 are within APR right so I'll so we have had conversations with mdar Karen and I talk to them last week if we want to carve off APR Parcels the minimum size is 5 Acres right that you have to put in an mdar will allow us to
subdivide the parcels but they have to be at least 5 Acres so that would be basically taking half of that parcel and if and if if John was amable and we wanted to do that we would have to go through a negotiation to change the
terms of the lease um and you know you can comment whether you'd be I don't know if you know whether you'd be amenable to that or not depending on you know what his current uh production and requirements are so so I'll just back off the question a little bit because
I'm not trying to do any gotchas here but I'm trying to provoke thoughtful considerations as you're still negotiating list B on what I'm looking for to you to do as a resident of Littleton and also use the potential Les e with regard to being responsive to
that 3 to five minutes background that I gave before I got to a vague question that you helped me correct um so there's also a bunch of you said there's 100 roughly close to 100 acres there there's 20 acres behind
the lower Barn roughly um Seven Acres that we're talking about putting an article at mayt time meeting the Conservation Commission wants to take control of there's another 13 acres that is General Municipal land behind that Barn there's another like six AC and
that's not under negotiation we're not doing anything with that it's wooded staying that way um there's no talk of doing anything with that there is there's behind the upper Barn there's another chunk and then there's a big chunk down the hill from that long um
field along ngog so so to to say there's like the a the non APR land is tends to be on the margins but some of it is pretty good stuff and um none of that's going to be included in the lease so so so I'm not going to speak
for there's there's the self-held parcels that we may or may not include um they're not integral to his plan um so um it's more he's doing us a favor if we include them if we want something done with the trees I think so so I I
get the aspect of the trees I hope what's not lost in my I'm not trying to be vague but I'm also I'm far from expert you know far I'm nothing you guys are um but the concept of being allowing
for the house not to be an island I think is something that place on both of you with regard to if you can give it consideration and there's people in the audience that are far better than me to articulate what might be desirable and might not be desirable with regard to
what property around that house might be advantageous to not have in the lease so that the town who does have the house has something that is manageable and viable to present to somebody in the
future as a disposition of the hous is undertak so so I think the challenge there is that all the land around the house is under APR and we would have to go through the state and change the APR and the lease in order to change that section but there are nearby chunks of
land which are not in the APR I understand your contention of like having it contiguous the problem with it is that contiguous land is much more difficult to remove from the existing APR parcel so and I promise I'll give
this up in a moment um I think you're I think the select board and the town residents are concerned with regard to staving off mdar takeover I do think think in particularly a night like this you're doing an awful lot to gain back trust
with regard to the management of the property and the responsibility you have for that property in that regard the way I read the mdar boogeyman so to speak is you
got to do the 50% of the APR so it's not all I know you're in interest and I think you come in with this political Firestorm of sorts and and so I'm just trying to
carve out if there's a way I understand the process could be very complicated but the fact that there's complicated doesn't negate so in my opinion the the approach that I'm bringing to you of don't give up on it
just because it's complicated think in terms of the long term with regard the house connection and if you're open to it I'm not trying to sabotage your success far from it but if I am then I
apologize I'm just recognizing there's a there should be a value to the house and whoever that future homeowner is and I think that would be a loss for the town and the future homeowner from a farming standpoint from a utilization of the
land if it's hastily tied up for 20 years cuz you're not going to be on the the select board in 20 years you may be into a succession scenario yeah I'm you so again okay understood so thank you all right thank you very much for all your time and thank you for doing this
thank you okay okay yes go ahead hi there Dustin Neil 17 Lakeshore Drive I'm currently the president of Litton conservation trust as well thank you Mr branville for being here tonight thank you to the board for putting the
meeting together I know um took a lot of work and effort um and appreciate that um I want to start by commending your vision to bring back native trees and support the wildlife that supports them um excuse me that depends on them that's
really important to us it's really important to everyone who's uh interested in this land um as has been mentioned uh probably too much um I'm sure you're aware of the public sentiment and this land's connection to the indigenous people that live there uh for a long time um and the strong public
opinion for that to be returned to them in whole or in part in any way that um is possible um I'm sure from what you've said tonight that you and allies um of the nooba pray Indian share a lot in common
actually um and that we have a mutual respect for the indigenous history of that land um as Rob uh tried to get to there's definitely still very strong demand for for Creative Solutions right
just to be able to um Farm more around the house doesn't necessarily for example require it to be subdivided off it could be sublet off different things and I don't at all want to sort of be in the middle of negotiating between the parties that deserve to be negotiating
but if you're open to the collaboration that it sounds like you are I would just encourage you and the board to embrace those Creative Solutions work together work together with any other interested part to find where it is that that middle ground uh can be reached because
I do think that there's um some there and then uh Kristen stole my thunder a little bit earlier um but if you are granted a ten a tency have you thought about how you can honor that indigenous history and perhaps engage directly as partners with the NPI to you know work together if you have any thoughts on
that we'd love to hear yeah I'll just restate that I mean I think I've made it clear like you said you know I'm I'm you know I'm in agreement right um so I don't know what
that shape is I don't I haven't met anybody from NPI I I did reach out to try to meet somebody and it didn't happen um so you know I'm I'm open to to talk you know and and I filled out a proposal that
includes all of the APR land because that's what was required sure okay but if somebody else wants to take some chunk of it to do something else with it that fits in with the with the requirements of APR and as I've stated before they have legal Insurance you
know requirements met yeah let's let's let's make an alliance makes sense good to hear it thank you okay thank you anyone else that uh wanted to offer something here
tonight we've had a good discussion well I I one yeah how about one question yeah you're losing them you're losing them it's the um if you're talking about um making arrangements with the APR land um
maybe even a memorandum of understanding might work um amongst groups but there's the parcel um there's the Sarah dublet parking lot area and then there's a small APR parcel at the end
there it would almost seem if maybe that could be either let go or whoever is going to be in charge of or maintaining the parking lot if that parcel could be I haven't looked at completely your plan
so I don't know if that little section is Major to you so if that's something that could be let go then it could give some opportunity for um other avenues and how that property so I think that was one of the nebulous ones that um who
was who was Joanne was talking about and it's actually APR self-help land APR exactly so I believe that Charlie had a maintenance agreement with the town for that self-help land and he did have fruit trees on it yes in the past okay
and if I can say a a little bird told me that number 91 is maybe going to be for sale look at that yeah so I don't know how much juice is out there because that's a pretty high price on that
property right but that property which is adjacent to all that land on there right is for sale so that's wonderful okay that's all thank you thank you anyone else we haven't heard from tonight
uh if not I think a lot of good questions here tonight I think we've all learned a lot do any of the board members want to offer anything uh by way of wrapping things up Karen do you have anything uh take no I really apprciate you coming appreciate your time
appreciate everybody who came in tonight such thoughtful questions thank you um I think that Mr bransfield proposal is the best one I've seen for the orchard so far and I'm enthusiastically
in favor of it so I um I love the vision and everything that's been talked about and I was involved in the last least negotiations for the orchard two years ago and um this process and this vision
and this plan is so much better than what we would have gotten with Stormalong when we were negotiating with them the least negotiations have been very cordial and pleasant and um I'm hoping we can uh come up with a solution
that makes everyone happy and then the orchard will be beautiful or in better shape you know going forward so and thank everyone for coming and I appreciate the questions as I said we're going to have the meeting on March 6th in the in the library where we'll talk
more about this and another one on April 14th um which will be more focused on the house and future things so looking forward to seeing everyone there thank you all thank you motion to adjourn motion second all in favor I
thank you okay