Hey Alan, how are you? Hey Rita Alan, you're still muted. Hello. Uh oh. I'm just looking for my um I think they're somewhere over there.
Michael, no. Are they on the bookshelf? >> Just shake out that blanket >> floor. How about now, Matteo? Can you hear me? >> Yep. >> Oh, okay. Good. must hit the wrong button. >> How you doing, Ellen?
>> Okay, you >> good? We're down on the Cape in the rain. >> Oh, are you? >> Well, it's raining here if it's any consolation. Or at least it was a little while ago. I don't know if it is now. >> I know. >> It was great. >> Happy for the rain, though.
>> Where are you? >> Uh we're in Orleans. >> Oh, >> yeah. But we've had some breaks in the rain. So that's >> You've been there for long or >> Yeah, just for a few days. >> Oh, >> since Tuesday,
>> coming home tomorrow. >> Sorry, Mike. >> Hi, Henry. Hi, Cliff. >> Hi, everybody. Hi, Rita. Who is Jeremy? >> I don't know. Oh, they're gone. >> He's gone. I had that last
>> meeting. >> It's an AI of some sort. >> No, seriously, it is. >> It It popped up with a thing asking to record the meeting and I was like, decline because it's already >> Oh, >> so
>> yeah, it's something new. I had that last night as well. >> Did you Was it the same name? >> Same thing. >> Oh, really? Oh. Hm. Okay, that's weird. >> All right. Well, uh, thank you all for
coming this evening. Um, Elaine and Beth can't make it. So, uh, this is, I believe, all of us. We have a quorum, so I'm going to call this meeting of the Shootsbury CPC to order at 7:03 p.m. This meeting is being recorded and all members are
participating remotely. And, uh, thank you all for coming to the first uh, CPC meeting of our fiscal year. Uh, all right. Most of the things I think on tonight's agenda we can get through pretty quickly. Uh, the first item is to review
and vote on the minutes from June 5th, 2025, which was the last time we met. Oh, is there somebody that would in Elaine's absence mind taking minutes? >> Cliff, I saw your hand go up. >> Thanks, Cliff.
>> Yeah. Thank you, Cliff. >> Sorry, I was on mute that whole time. I didn't realize that. So, okay. Yes, I will do it. >> I'm a terrible note taker, so I don't I don't volunteer much. >> Okay. Uh, so we called the order at 703
and the first item is to review and approve the minutes of June 5th, 2025. Is there a motion? >> So moved. >> Second. No. Uh any discussion on the minutes? >> Okay. Seeing none, we'll proceed to a
vote. Uh Hansen >> I. >> Carol >> I. >> Reed >> I. >> Gettys >> I. >> Angelo I. All right. Uh update on current CPA
projects. So, um Shannon Bernachia, who is the director of finance for the um school district, sent me in August, um an update about the uh track. It sounds like everything is is proceeding on schedule, at least
when she emailed me in August, um that they were expecting to have it completed by the end of October 2025. Um, and it seems like most of the work is completed and they're just sort of waiting on the finishing of the surfacing of the track.
Um, putting in the irrigation piping and so forth. But this was again an update from August 16th. So, I'm not sure if there's anything that has changed in the month plus since then. Um, and the Cemetery Commission,
uh, I don't know if any of you noticed, but, um, uh, their contractor has been out in the West Cemetery doing work already. Um I'm not sure if they are completed yet, but again in late August um
>> confirmed that everything is on schedule as indicated in the grant report. >> And as far as this concom uh we had a lot of CPA projects this year. >> Yeah. As far as the two from the concom
um the um remediation or the the removal of the invasive buckthornne um that permitting process has pretty much wrapped up um and the contract is going out
>> and so the first phase the removal is going to happen this fall um and then the second phase in the spring. Everything's on schedule with that. the um South Brook Trail project is a little bit behind schedule. Um
Scott um Kahan, the the commissioner who is taking the lead on it was out of the state for a while um and is working to get the contract issued for the trail work um as soon as possible, but that
hasn't quite started yet. Um, but the West Quabin Conservation Area parking lot project from a few years back is done. >> Yeah, looks good. >> Said it looks good. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Is there a trail um connected to that
parking area or is that just the parking area is done, but >> I was curious about if there were any trails in there. >> Do you said that there weren't trails yet that they was probably going to come back with a request for CPA money to do trail development? Oh, okay.
>> And better signage as well. >> Good. >> Um, and the concom is probably also going to be coming back for >> um the whole boat ramp area on Randall Road. Um, the boat ramp itself is pretty bad. Um, and there's also a lot of uh vegetation work that needs to be done.
So, they may be coming back to us this year for funding for that. Um, also I'm assuming you all heard, but the Lake Wyola Dam grant um the the matching funding that we provided from the CPA um leverage that state grant that we
successfully we got that damn money. >> Um, and they will probably be back asking for a larger sum this year, I think. Right. Well, I think that the um so that was the the money to do engineering and so
implementation is the sort of next the next phase after they get this work done. >> Uh Henry, do you have any updates on the on the guide board? Yeah, we uh are now
negotiating the date for um ex excavation and and and uh application of the cement for this uh foundation it's going to sit on. Um it
was hard to get a uh a bidder on this as as Mattail can attest, but we have one. Yeah. >> Who's gonna do it? Um, Henry. >> Um, at this point this is called Dean Excavation.
They're out of Bernardston. >> Uh-huh. Okay. And how will they do it this fall? >> Oh, yeah. >> Yeah. Okay. >> Yeah. Yeah. Are they a local company or >> Bernardston?
>> Berneston. >> Yeah, that's pretty pretty local. Local enough. >> Close enough. Just curious. Yeah, >> I I I'm still wondering if the guide board will be back in the same month that the library opens.
>> Yeah, I haven't have not have not heard back from uh the Williamstown people, >> but I imagine it's in progress. We've paid them already. So >> Uhhuh. >> Well, will we need to add another line
there? New library and pointing down road down Main Street. Be wonderful if they both came in the same time. >> Celebration. >> Yeah. >> All right. Uh, thank you, Henry.
Um, okay. So, the next item on the agenda is discussion of the October 16th public hearing and hearing notice. Um, I sent a draft of the hearing notice, which is essentially the same as what we used uh last year. Um
we so last year we did a hybrid meeting. Those you remember we we most of us I think a couple one or two people were remote but most of us met in town hall. We only had one person um attend the hearing. So I think rather than sort of
um go through the inconvenience of of setting up and doing the hybrid meeting again, we'll just do it remotely um this year. Um, but I would, my plan is to again obviously put this in the newspaper at the time required by the uh
um the CPA by statute and post it on flyers in the same places I posted last year in hopes that maybe some people will come talk. >> Um, any any thoughts about the about the
hearing process? No, I'm wondering if um if you could make an announcement at town meeting when we have it on September 30th. It might be a good time just to mention that that hearing is going to happen on the 16th. >> All right. I will put in a word with the
moderator. >> Okay. >> I understand. Yeah. Maybe announcements at the beginning of the there any announcements. Okay, that's a good idea. >> Okay. Well, if there do we need to vote
on that? I don't think we need to vote on it. Right. It was on our calendar. We voted on the calendar. So, all right. We'll move on to item four. Uh discussion of postwork guidelines and revising application instructions. So these are these are two things um regarding our process that I wanted to
just float to the committee um and we can decide on it tonight or we can sort of sit on it and think about it and come back to it. So, the first of these, the post award guidelines, um, is a suggestion uh, from one of our recipients um, this past year who suggested it
would be helpful to have just a like a one-page here's what you you've got CPA money, here's what you do next. Um, because they were unclear about who they went to in town hall, what the what the process was for accessing the money, how to do reimbursements, all that stuff.
like the very sort of nitty-gritty details about making it work. And I'm happy to to sort of put together a handout like that and bring it back to the committee for your approval to make sure I didn't like miss any steps or mischaracterize anything. And then we could also fold that into the community
preservation plan so people know in advance what they're sort of signing up for after the fact if they get funding. >> Yeah, that's a great idea. >> Yeah, sounds good to me. >> Yeah. Yeah, we all be glad to help you
probably >> if you draft something and want any comments then we could >> Yeah, I will I will do that. Um I'll send it I'll So I'll email it to the committee and then if you guys could send me comments individually instead of reply
all so that we stay on the on the windy side of the law. Um and the other item here was revising the application instructions. Um you know obviously when we after we hold the hearing we'll update the community
preservation plan, the grant application and the DOE if we need to and I'll make small changes to like deadlines and stuff. But I I did want to bring an idea to the committee about um you know, one of our requirements right now is about
having paper copies of applications. And at least twice in the past couple of years, this has created some some confusion and running around >> um from folks. And I I would like to raise the idea of no
longer requiring the paper application one because it's creating a lot of paper for me to carry around but but also more practically I think it's removing a one step in the process and therefore making things a little bit easier for
applicants. So, if we have just the electronic electronic application, then committee members can print it if they want on paper or we can print it at town hall and give it to committee members if we want. But then it's not going to be on the applicants shoulders to have to, you know, make sure that they've timed
the submission to town hall at the same time that they've timed the submission to us. So, it's something I guess to think about. I don't know if there are comments or >> Yeah, I mean, I think that would be fine. I think the the biggest issue is just
making sure that when whenever I mean this would have held for a paper submission or an electronic submission that there's an acknowledgement when it's received so that whoever's submitting
knows that it's been re that there's an acknowledgement back you know we have received your application. So for example with the select board now what we do with all correspondents is you
automatically get an email back saying we've received your inquiry or your letter. We can't respond you know individual you know we can't respond outside of a meeting to your but
at least it indicates to somebody that yes it's been it's been received. It's just a way of >> Yeah. >> making sure that that gets covered. >> Yeah. And I think because we're going to ask people to send it to the CPC email
address, >> Yeah. >> we wouldn't be able to do a um a generic automatic response like that. I think it would have to be on the shoulders of the chair to send >> right >> sort of >> an acknowledgement >> and that's probably better than an
automatic that so that it gets recorded this you know it was received date and time because we do have deadlines that we set. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. I I agree. I mean, people will
submit at different times. You'll have to be going to the town to pick up applications. I mean, >> all online. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. I think it makes sense. More paper. >> Yep. >> Agreed.
>> Okay. Um, if there aren't any other comments on that one, we can move on to the next item, which is So, this is a item five on the agenda is a uh this is following up on something that I've been talking about for a while about uh using CPA
funding for um affordable housing purposes. And um you know as Rita knows I I came to the select board and and asked about this and I I have since talked with Stuart Sagenar at the at the community
preservation coalition and he pointed out that in some way so I was incorrect about something. I I had assumed that we as a committee couldn't request to use CPA money for things. And so if the town was
going to share hiring a um a furcog based affordable housing coordinator, that was something that would have to come from the select board presumably. And Stuart pointed out that the CPC can, you know, if it wants to can present an article to to town meeting to this
effect. So, I had a a conversation um with the staffer at Furcog about this and she offered to come and speak to the CPC in our October meeting which is now also our public hearing. Um
but essentially where things stand, the idea is um Leverett Shootsbury and I think Shelurn Falls was the other town she mentioned were inquiring about having affordable housing. an affordable
housing coordinator at Furcog on staff um funded with CPA money from those towns and um essentially it would be like a a cost share arrangement. And so each town would get x number of hours from this
person per week um in shared services and they would assist with advocacy, uh research, grant writing, um legislation tracking, essentially helping us um
pursue affordable housing goals. >> Approves. and she would also be willing to help us um as a committee prepare an article for Springtown meeting if this is something we wanted to ask to use >> of our CPA money for as a committee if
we wanted to apply for it. Um in addition to that um they FKCO has applied for a major grant >> um that would help to fund this position. So the amount of money that we
would actually be kicking in for it is less if they get this grant is less than what it actually would cost. Um she's going to find out about the grant on September 30th. So >> Oh, that's great. Who is the grant through? Do you know? Um,
I did not write that down. >> Oh, okay. >> Told me actually the state. Maybe not. >> They submitted it in June for piloting a regional coordinator and they'll find out September 30th. It's a it's a two-year grant for research and research
and planning for housing. Um, so that's where that stands. Um, if we were to sort of buy in on this, obviously we would have some say in what the >> job responsibilities would be for this person,
>> priorities would be for us. >> Um, doesn't sound like we'd be sharing them with a lot of other people, a lot of other towns. Um >> yeah, you know, um I I like that it
would be three towns. Um because I think the kind of the you know, learning from one another and that it's not just us and and lever, but that um you know, having Shelurn Falls in there is would be
great. So, and especially if if they can if they can get money from somewhere else too to to augment our contribution, >> that would be wonderful. >> That' be great.
>> Yeah, I looked at the job description. I guess that that's a a draft as it says that would eventually include our town, right? I mean it it only mentions Lever then in there. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. Lever is the only one that's
committed to it. And Lever also has its own affordable housing committee. So they have a certain something that is sort of dedicated specifically to this. >> I guess they don't meet that often. >> Who's the staff person at Perk Hug? Matteo. >> Um Mariah Curts or Maria? I think it's
Mariah Curts. >> Mariah Curts. Okay. I don't know her. Thank you. >> Um, and I did I did ask her if we if Shootsbury should be thinking about setting up its own housing committee or affordable housing committee, and she seemed to think that might not
necessarily be it might not make sense. It might make more sense to just do it through the CPC or like a subcommittee, the CPC or something. >> It might be more work than it's worth to try to get people to serve on a committee. >> I agree.
really, >> you know, at this at this juncture, yeah, having a housing committee that doesn't have a whole lot to do um I don't think makes a lot of sense. But if there was something substantial that
kind of came out of this um this effort, then maybe yeah, finding having some sort of housing partnership or a housing trust would make some sense. But at this point, I don't think it does.
>> So maybe that's a question to revisit at the end of the two-year. >> Yeah. >> If we decide to go this way >> or even during the course of it. Yeah. >> Yeah. All right, >> that's great. So September 30th is not very far off. >> Five days special town meeting.
>> Yeah, >> could be a big night. >> Um, so yeah, I guess >> what do they So she would come to the our meeting >> on the our here and the 16th. >> She said she could come on October 16th.
>> Okay. The 16th is both the hearing and a regular meeting for us. >> Right. Right. >> So I mean given the fact that we had one person come to the like this is not a wetlands regulation hearing kind of thing like I suspect that our public hearing will be pretty short. So I might
just do the general business meeting um after the hearing. >> Okay. And then uh and that would include first, you know, her report and talking with us and then any updates we want to make to the preservation plan based on the hearing.
>> Okay, >> great. Um All right. Any other any thoughts on this or comments or >> any unanticipated business? Item six. >> Seeing none, um I guess Oh, Alan, were
you gonna say something? >> Oh, I was just shaking my head. I don't have anything. Uh I'll entertain a motion to adjurnn I guess unless there is a >> um no the only other thing I was going to say is um just in terms of our
schedule um you know the select board is talking about making town meeting um later. So we have an article on the special town meeting warrant to have annual town meeting not that last
Saturday in April but I think it's the second Saturday in May. So, it gives us a little bit more time in the spring. And um just looking ahead um you know, one of
the one of the things that um I've been thinking about and and we have a a committee that um Henry actually just volunteered for and had its first meeting last week and is going to be meeting again next week is um a
committee to look at the reuse of the MN Spear Library building which is a historic building. Um, and so, you know, it could be a candidate for CPA funds. So, having town meeting a little
bit later, um, will be a good thing because I think we're going to need some a little bit of time to figure out um, you know, what if there's if there's an an article that we want to a project that we we want to put together, an
application we want to put in for CPA funds for that for that building. So, um, >> just I just put it out there because it's something that's been on my mind. >> Is there any talk about what it might be
might incur? No, that's part part of what the committee is is putting together is a um a brief survey for town um departments and committees to ask about their um space needs so that um we
can get a a sense of um what what kinds of needs folks have. And then we'll be able to see a summary of what what everybody needs. >> Yeah, that's the idea. Okay. >> And then based based on that and based
on what the building committee has already put together about that we know um some things that we know immediately need to have to to happen with that building. >> Yeah. Sure. >> That front porch is in terrible shape.
You know, we know there's some some work that has to be that has to be done, but it's some of it would be CPA eligible. We hope. >> When when when the when the the um library building is shut down, is the town
making sure that the furnaces are running and the pipe? >> Yeah, we we have to we the building has to be kept in sort of continuous use in order to keep it insured. >> So, our insurance So, who's responsible for upkeep?
>> Uh, the town is. So, our custodian, you know, we have to figure that out. We fortunately we don't have any plumbing in there. So, we don't have to worry about pipes freezing, but we just have to worry about security and we just have to make sure that the building is um
>> it's not getting broken into and right. somebody needs to be checking on it and um making sure that yeah, there aren't any problems with it. But yes, the insurance company doesn't want us uh will not insure buildings that are kind
of abandoned, >> right? >> So, >> Rita, is that committee also looking into other funding sources beyond CPA and money? >> Yes. Yes. That's part of our part of our charge is to say what other what other
sources are there which you know I had already done a little bit of research and um thought I had found something but it turns out it wasn't um yeah it wasn't going to be possible
um unless it was some sort of a mixeduse building. Um but I think it's a strict strictly municipal building. Yeah. you know, I think we might be coming to town meeting. Um, and it might not it might be that we don't need a whole lot of
money. Um, it will depend upon what what use we end up >> uh deciding upon. >> If you need some help, Rita, I'd be glad to help out somewhere. >> Okay, great. Thanks. Thanks, Alan. That's great.
>> Stay so stay tuned. Yeah. >> Well, you know where I live. >> Yeah. Okay. When is that next meeting? >> The next meeting is um it's a week from today, Henry, at 10:30. >> So, next Thursday. It's posted. It's a
public meeting. >> Um we are doing them in person at town hall. >> And I know we just got your we just got your um >> yeah, your request and we were looking for representation from the historic commission. So, um yeah, I see if we can
get you um appointed before, um before that meeting. >> Uh select select board is meeting before town meeting. So, um >> think we can get that on the agenda. >> Should I come to that meeting then? >> Yes. >> Yes.
>> Yes. >> Next select board meeting. Yeah. >> The select board is meeting uh at 6:00. So town meeting I think is at 6:30 and the select board will meet at 6 o'clock on Tuesday evening. >> Okay. >> So right before town meeting.
>> Sorry Rex. >> Are you meeting at the school? >> Yeah. Yeah. We meet right at the school >> during open house. >> Whatever. Open house. Open meeting. Yeah. >> All right. Um Okay. Thanks.
>> Okay. Great. Do you want a motion to adjurnn? >> Yeah, that'd be great. >> Okay, I'll make a motion to adjurnn. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> Seeing none, we'll put it to a vote. Hansen >> I >> Carol
>> I >> uh Reed >> I [Music] >> All right. Thank you all very much. >> Thank you. Good night everybody. >> Thanks. >> Good night. Can I?