##VIDEO ID:EUmz9r0clU0## e e e e e hello good evening e e who is shutesbury host oh Mark Rivers [Music] oh e e e Mato do you think I should put all of those um emails in the minutes about the uh disposition of unused funds I don't think you need to put the the whole email but in the list of documents at the end you could just say email from from so and so regarding this grant just in case somebody's looking for for okay and and those emails are in the CPC email folder yep yeah okay but I think just having them identified in the minute so if somebody wanted to know what it is we're talking about when we make reference to them they can ask it yep all right cliff and Allen you guys both there yes I'm here you didn't do anything no I can hear you no there you go good job okay you're on every so we have a quorum it is 601 so I'm going to call this meeting of the shutesbury CPC to order welcome everybody um we'll get started with the first item on the agenda which is review and vote on the minutes of December 19th um turn sound up a little bit yes I can can you hear us alen yeah just turning it up okay yeah is there a motion for the minutes of December 19th so moved Beth you're muted still I think C said something okay yes I move that we accept the minutes as as written is there a second second any discussion all right seeing none I call the rooll pulo hi Wilson hi Hanson hi Reed I and Gallow I um Henry's not here I know Rita was not going to be able to make it um but I thought hry would be here but right all right so the next item on the agenda is questions from potential applicants are there any potential applicants who have questions for the committee um this is Mark is here hi Mark go ahead hi this a bit so um yeah you I'm involved with with elwak and um and so we've been kind of you know pushing the issue of getting of taking care of the dam it's one of our responsibilities and um uh over the years the dam goes through an inspection every two years and the past couple inspection reports have uh have indicated problems that that with the dam it needs just maintenance it's nothing serious the Dam's still safe for you know for the most part um and uh we used to have a dam engineer uh named Morris root and Morris would do the inspections and but he didn't really do a whole lot more beyond that and Morris retired and um so we hired a or the town hired um engineering company called GZA engineering and U their one of their some of their responsibil is were to uh uh work on the permits to uh do the our annual draw down which we lower the lake 2 feet to protect the dam this is an earth and Dam and we don't want the ice to do damage to it um they are also working on permits for chapter 91 licenses so the becomes you know so we can legally control the level of the lake um uh and one of the other one of the other projects that they're working on is to take the historical um um maintenance requirements or or repair requirements and come up with some cost uh and and so we can Outsource it to a company who's um you know who can actually do the repairs on the dam uh so I was we were at a select board meeting last week and brought this stuff up and you know trying to you see if we can get into the budget for next year just it's all came up relatively quickly and so Rita suggested that uh we approach the CPC to see if we could use uh your funding to to do some of the work on the dam and some of the design work um GZA the engineering company is going to apply for a grant uh through the um what's it called here the uh office of dam safety uh and so there be a dam repair and seaw wall Grant they they're going to apply for um which would cover 75% of the costs on the assumption that the town kicks in 25% of the costs we're not sure if we're going to get that funding but we're they're going to try uh so Rita suggested I approach you uh uh your group and see if uh what what would be involved and is this a possibility the costs that we're looking at for the design work just to give you some ideas about numbers for the design and permitting process they're talking about around $55,000 um and so C the town would be required to with about $144,000 uh the dam actual repairs is about $150,000 is there is the current estimate and so that would be about $37,000 that has to come from the town um so that's where we are okay get so this so what you're talking about here would be in the form of uh two different grants correct over two different year like the first year Grant would be the study and the second year Grant would be the the construction work um that's one option the other option is that U you know we could all be done in one year uh they both the design and the uh uh and the construction work so it's possibility work get spaced out do we know if what GZA is applying for this year to the dam and seall are they applying for the whole thing for Construction and design or are they just do we know you um they're they're going to I don't know the answer to that they're going to first apply for the gra for the design and permitting part of it and then once if they get that um then they'll then they'll apply for the the actual repair cost but do you know if that would all happen within uh one year so that you would know whether you should be applying for both of them in this year or just one again I don't have an answer to that question there's nothing technically that would prevent us from getting it all done in one year um uh it's just a matter whether it makes more sense to space without suspending I mean the the problems with the dam um you know they need to be fixed but it's they're not urgent problems so we there's you know we could conceivably push the off the the repairs till the following year um uh so it's it's not like the you know the Dam's going to fall apart it's really just you know good routine maintenance um part of it is is to repair the the spillways and and so in theory if we had a really really bad storm um that that push the the the the water level above the the gate house or at the gate house level there could be some substantial damage to the dam but the odds of that are really I think very very slim so I would say we could do the we could it would we could push the repairs off to next year well yeah I think that the dam and seaw wall uh is a yearly Grant so if this year they decided to apply for it for the you know design and permitting then maybe the idea GC has is that next year they'd apply for the construction funds um that would probably be what they're thinking unless they're thinking of another Grant on top of that one for this year that my I was gonna ask that question Beth about what the line is for that for that other Grant because that's probably gonna that would then dictate the timeline for any matching funding that comes out of CPA yeah damn and SE wall is is the applications probably due February marchish but it's an annual thing so um depending on what they're applying for this year if they're just applying for design and permitting then the match would be the smaller amount which it sounds like is probably what their plan is gcas I I can check into that I mean the other the other thing is so our our calendar has the um uh Grant applications due in in February we did this year adopt a um uh off-cycle Grant process so if something comes up and it's impossible to wait till February if let's say they did the study and found there really was an emergency that needed to be addressed right away um you know there are ways it would involve eventually having a special town meeting um because it's town meeting that that Awards the CPA money ultimately um but if it is possible to do it over you know if the plan is is for GZA to do it over two years anyway because of the nature of the of the uh uh Dam SE wall Grant then it would make sense to also just sort of align the CPA applications with that um I guess the the the questions are about eligibility and um about this issue of sort of contingency I did email the um Community preservation Coalition for a little guidance on this I haven't heard back yet um you know as I indicated Mark in my email to you I you know the um the dam seems to me pretty clearly to fall under the category of open space um it it it actually says Pond you know ponds and lakes and and Shoreline and Waterfront and preserving open space is an allowable um project for for CPA funding Rita pointed out it's also the dam is also listed as an historic resource on the um in the community preservation plan so I'm assuming at some point the historical commission made a a determination that you know that it's an historical resource so it would qualify under that as well I I would have unless the Coalition came back and said something um that I'm completely missing I don't have many doubts about eligibility um the other the other question is the is this matter of contingency because the damn and seaw wall Grant project wants a commitment of that matching funding so if we were to act on an application and present an article to town meeting then it would it would have to be in the form of saying like um that you know this this award is provisional on the dam and SE wall grant money being awarded as well yeah which is a little different from what we normally do normally we require the um normally we require the match in advance but it sounds like in this case we would have to defer to the state um because they would be kicking in a much larger portion of the project I don't know if anybody else in the committee has thoughts about this I well definitely I've seen that done in ammer they use CPA funding for mats for a lot of Grants um and it's that kind of thing where you apply to the CPA with sort of this provisional thing that as long as we get the grant this money will be used for this project if you don't get the grant then the town keeps some money but so I guess the next step mark would be to for lwac to prepare the um the Grant application to us is that complicated no we've we've worked pretty hard to try to make the application uh more streamlined um and and straightforward it's on the community preservation committee's website um and uh it just basically asks for some descriptions of the project where the resources located um what uh sort of what CPA categories it falls under how it meets the goals that are described in the Community preservation plan which is also up on the website you can just sort of almost copy and paste the specific bullet points that it meets into the into the application so we can see that and um um a budget Community Support so if there are other Town boards or Community groups that are supporting it um all that information would would go into the application and then you would submit it a hard copy in town hall and then um by email to the committee and the deadline for that is uh February 6th and then we have a couple of meetings after that for us to ask questions based on that application um we have a meeting to vote on the applications March 20th and then that would go to town meeting for approval so basic what we're doing is recommending to town meeting to approve a particular Grant okay um but if you have if you're working on that application you have questions about any of the sections in it you can you know certainly email me and let me know okay it'll probably come down to me doing it and I've never done one before so um if it would I mean if it if it would be helpful to you I can also look for some I mean obviously we don't have any exactly comparable past applications but I can also send you some of the past applications we've received that we recommended so you can have those as models to work for well that' be great I checked in the data CPC database and um you know they don't really have much details they have a lot of pretty easy Mark pardon I said it's pretty easy okay well I do but they don't have I was hoping to be able to cut and paste something out of other Dam applications and uh they really don't have that much detail there I did notice that a lot of the applications had Dual Purpose you know like 25% for historical and 75% for U for open space and so I would probably do something like that if that makes sense yeah or it doesn't matter I mean I think it it definitely helps to do that it shows that you're checking off two boxes with this project which is added value I guess to use a terrible phrase um and then eventually it'll be up to the committee to decide how we want to a portion where the money's going to come from um those are both categories that we use a lot so those funds are constantly being drawn down we probably end up going into the um uh additional funding pot at some point but that's something the committee has to worry about you wouldn't worry about that okay any other questions for us no no I just I got my homework okay I I'll send you those examples um okay that'd be great just let me know if you have any questions about the application or anything in the preservation plan okay very good thank you very much all right um well there are no other applicants potential applicants here um I will say so the historical commission we're going to have at least one application coming to the CPA uh CPC for that cement Foundation um we were expecting a second application as well for the roof piece of the guide board um but we haven't received the proposal from Williamstown from the Conservation Center yet so we don't have any idea what that's going to cost or the work that's going to be involved so um I know the cemetery commission is going to be sending us one for that West Cemetery project and I told you that Rec committee is not going to be putting in the application for the trail from uh the school to the library because it was going to be a little too much work and uh for me at this point and I think I need to build the library first and then work on the trail because it it meant getting um probably surveying people's property and getting right of way agreements put into their um their documents and that was just a little too much to be working on at this time but and ALS needs to go uh the path that it was going to be taking was going to end up going through the UMass property which is um the back property where there's going to be work um on remediation of the property in the back part of the the um lot 32 and so we're just not going to get into it yet yeah all right um well since there are no other questions from potential applicants we can move on to item three on the agenda which is dealing with these um CPA Grant funds um so I think the last time we spoke I had mentioned the town accountant had told me that we could simply vote um to close that particular account and the funds would be returned to whichever one of the the accounts it came out of um I sent some a link to the community preservation coalition's guidance which was not extremely helpful because it said you can do all of these things it didn't really clarify which is best um but then we received the emails from Donna McNichol um who suggested that the best course of action would be to follow the essentially the intention that we as a committee came up with in the um Grant termination policy that we adopted a couple of years ago um and that we've used once for that North Cove dredging project in Lake wyola um which is um go back to town meeting and and Donna did recommend that each of the projects should be a separate article at town meeting rather than a lump article because somebody might want to vote for one resending one but not resending another um so she said a more granular approach would make sense um so we had four four projects we had identified as being kind of left over um the buildings committee is indicated they're not going forward with what was proposed in the 2019 Oldtown Hall project um and they not and they're not going to use the funds so that's pretty straightforward we can prepare a warrant article I think to resend that Grant and return the 34,000 to the historic resource fund and the budgeted re uh Reserve um should we vote on this as a committee or or do we want to vote I mean we're going to end up voting on the draft warrant articles for all of the applicants this year should we just do all the Articles as one on one day and vote on this one and then that one and that one and that one or do you want to vote today on it I think when we see the warrant articles I think we know we know what we're OB I doubt that any of us is going to say no let's leave that money in there bucket with no use for it but uh I would say that we draft the warrant articles and then just vote on those it would seem more final at that point you know like the final thing read yeah okay um all right well there are three other projects um and I'll just sort of describe what I've been able to work out about them I'll go backwards in time uh starting with the 2021 South Brook Conservation Area Trails consultant project in all three of these instances the um the applicants have indicated they would like to use the remaining funding but in all three of them the um purpose for which they would like to use the funding doesn't really align with what the Grant application said or the um in one case what the town meeting um warrant article said um so for the for the trails project there's $1,000 left and Beth you had indicated that the Conservation Commission would like to use that for trail maintenance and improvements right right yeah would if we could it would it was the original was for a consultant to look at the trails there and and come up with a plan and we did that and now you know the trails could certainly use uh bog bridging and then some of the bigger Bridges could could use some work too so the Thousand could certainly be used on the same trails and almost sort of implementing the plan that that the consultant put together um I think that was the idea of trying to keep the money I guess I could I mean my my concerns are about it this is the one that the war article specifically used the L used language from the application so town meeting voted on language and said to hire an experienced Trail consultant to conduct an ecological evaluation of current trails in the South Brook Conservation Area and provide rerooting suggestions and plans [Music] um so does it seem like we would be contradicting what town meeting voted for if we use if that was that money was used for something else I mean should this be us a new application from the Conservation Commission for specifically for the cost of doing the work well I think it is a different sort of use even though it's the same area and it would I think um in general that people would support that and agree to it but because it is something different than what was voted on specifically The Language by town meeting um I I think um it makesense to to come back with a clear indication about what that um funding would be used for I I don't want to make more work for everybody but I think that if there is some objection to that for some reason that um just to have things clear and up front and um not come back later to have somebody raise an issue um uh that things weren't done the proper way yeah know I think that that Mak makes a lot of sense in that way too we can really you know figure out what we want to do and come back and we may be asking for more than the Thousand you know we may need more than that anyway so it's may be kind of silly to try to just grab that last bit of money and that that not even cover what really what we want to do anyway so yeah so in that case what would happen we would do the same thing of just give Warren article would say we're giving the $ thousand doll back and then probably next year maybe after we uh or maybe we could do an off cycle application I don't know we'll see have to talk to the commission but based off of what Scott was saying about what he saw there um it seemed to me like it would certainly be more than $ thousand dollars worth of work yeah so the larger ask would probably make make more sense and you know again if the determination was it's really bad and if we don't do something soon like snowmobile season comes and you know who knows what's going to happen there um that maybe that justifies an off-cycle you know request but it does seem like it's going to be more than a thousand yeah I think so too that makes sense um so some somewhat similar situation with the 2015 canoe launch project uh Penny had asked about using the remaining $360 to pay for a consultant um for managing the buckthorne um this one the Warren article said to create a recreation area with a canoe kayak launch on Town owned land uh as detailed in the project proposal and the project proposal doesn't say it does say appropriate plantings of native shrubs and trees but it doesn't say anything about mitigating invasive species so I have some reservations about using the money for that reason also because this was a recreation project and and mitigating invasive species is not an allowable criteria in Recreation so I feel bad about this because it sounds like work that really needs to be done but again I feel like it needs to be done with a new a new Grant like fresh from the start um to hire somebody and then also pay for the work that's my sense so did Penny say I know I thought I saw the sea but I can't remember what it said um did she want to use the money to remove invasives and re plant where the invasives were taken out or or did she want to pay someone to come and evaluate the invasives I can't remember she wanted to pay someone to come and um I think develop a plan for managing them ah okay yeah that is a little different than just planting native plantings okay uh yeah to get a consultant to assess the site and give us a recommendation for managing the Buckthorn I mean work that should be done but it's not as the project was described when it was awarded yeah um and so the last of the four is the 2013 hear house project I had some I had more difficulty figuring this one out because I I don't have the um um the project proposal the Grant application it's just not in the files that um uh were left to me um I do have the scope of work which called for the removal of lead paint and for the building to be recoded in a color to be determined in two codes um the waren article is no help it just says to rehabilitate the cemetery hsh house as detailed in the hsh house project proposal so it's impossible for me to say whether the the painting that the buildings committee would like to do on the project fits with what the original Grant said I also know there were some lingering questions about whether the original work and I suppose by implication in any new work is actually in keeping with the Secretary of the Interior standards um I know there were some questions about that if we went too far but I'm kind of without a map on this one because I don't have the application I don't know if any of you were involved or remember it or I was involved but boy do you remember Alan you were there too yeah I was there too but one thing that hasn't stood up with me as my memory I just don't remember Linda Scott was taking our minutes at that time and did you did you receive Mato did you receive all of her files yeah those are probably look through my files and see if I can find anything I was just looking through mine and I don't see anything yeah mine are in my office what year was that one done 2013 no I only go back to 2017 on my files um I did not go back to check the minutes I was just looking through the files for the application itself I don't know if question about the question of painting or not I could go back to the minutes you got stuff there I got everything here well we have Joe taking a quick look through her stuff I don't have a clue no don't wait for me so our meeting to vote on the on the warrant articles would be April 3D so we do have some time to try to do some more research into this and see what we can find out about it but I I suppose we should leave this one open for now and just say we're not sure how we want to act on it again based based on I have which is just that scope of work document it does describe repainting it so I would assume that it it's in keeping with the original application but I don't know uh any other thought any other thoughts about these unused CPA grants or remaining funds I do think this one though um even if we can't find it is in keeping with it because of the paint it's painting and it wasn't applied appropriately in the beginning or there was something about the prep um so it's kind of hard to to not want to uh put that forward for painting because it is still painting yeah prematurely deteriorating that's what they said I think they they meant that it was um obviously it hadn't been prepped well or something all right we'll we'll do some more research into it and see what we can find I guess I'll look see what I can find anything to that um the next item on the agenda is unless there are any other comments about the un used funds uh the next item was the annual report did anybody have any revisions or feedback on the draft I sent out was a pretty uneventful year was pretty good it looked good when I first wrote it I put in this whole section about the track and field project and I was like oh wait a minute wrong Year I hope you save it for next year there I feel like this coming year will be good next two years we got a lot of good things lined up it sounds like yeah request four pages of uh of space to report on a little book um all right so I will I will then submit that report do we need to vote on the report no no just by the chair I'm looking at the minutes from March 2 2st of 2013 um and it does have the um the proposal um and it's just talks about the color and funding to use um for the purpose of restoration and repairs and that it would be painted so so I'm inclined to leave that funding available to the buildings committee then yeah yep I agree makes sense all right so I do want to say on the annual report thank you for writing it Matteo oh I mean thank you that once I had the previous years written it's largely just duplicative and updating and refreshing things no no no it was days worth of work that's what you need to say hours and he was so inspired he began working on next years's too I'm also I just Beth knows I've been doing the concom one and the zba the zba was great it was really quick the planning board oh my God I'm gonna be working on that for the next 12 years um anyway uh the last item on the agenda is unanticipated business the only thing I wanted to bring up um based off of this experience dealing with the unused uh CPA grants um I I would like to include an appendix in the community preservation plan that is the the the grant agreement language that we use um so after we after town meeting approves a CPA Grant we are now in the practice of having the recipient sign a grant agreement which details things like the can like the grant termination policy and the three-year window and all that stuff I'd like to include that in the community preservation plan because it's no it's not available to potential applicants right now and I think it's important information for them to have just so that we're being completely transparent with them yeah no I think that's great idea I spent some time looking through it trying to find the section that talked about you know getting um putting money back in and I I really couldn't find too much so that'll be good there any other um items of unanticipated Business by the committee from the committee no no all right seeing none I will entertain a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn second second beat you to it you did yes I will call any discussion seeing none I will call the role poo hi Wilson hi Hansen hi Reed hi and Gallow I it is 6:37 and we are adjourned all right good night everybody thank you very much everyone the evening