Hello. >> Hi Elaine. Hi Alan. I'm Matt. How are you? >> Hello everybody. >> Good. >> I gotta get my uh Where the hell is my Can I ask a question before we start the meeting? Um, the minutes from
um September, were they accepted without uh changes? >> Uh, we haven't voted on the September minutes. The June >> the June minutes were >> the June minutes I meant. Sorry.
They were accepted without changes. >> Uh, correct. >> Okay. So, I'll send them in or I'll post them the way they're supposed to. >> It's on us to post them now. >> Right. Right. I know how to do that, so I'll do it.
>> Thanks, Elaine. >> Yep. Did you come here a minute? >> All right, it is 7 o'clock. >> It's seven o'clock. We have a quorum of the CPC. Um I haven't heard from Henry whether or not he can join us. I know um Cliff was unable to join us because he's
traveling. Um but we have enough people so I'm calling this meeting to order and >> this meeting is being recorded and all members of the CPC are participating remotely. >> All right. Thanks. >> And Henry has joined us. All right. Uh
the first item on the agenda is to review and vote on the minutes of September 25th, 2025. Uh which Cliff took for us. >> Any comments on those minutes? >> No. No, they were great.
>> No, okay. >> Is there a motion? >> I'll move to approve the minutes of September 25th. Is there a second? >> Sure. Second. >> All right. Any further discussion on
those minutes? >> Seeing none, we'll proceed to a vote. Uh, Frell, >> I >> abstain. >> Hansen, >> I. >> Wilson, >> abstain.
>> Gettys, hi. >> Pangalo. I All right. That is enough to approve. The next item on the agenda is our hearing. It is 7:02. I will open the public
hearing uh for the CPC for fiscal year 26. Good evening everybody. Welcome. And um just as a reminder, we do this because section 5B1 of the Community Preservation Act requires that um CPCs in every town hold a publicformational
hearing at least once a year on the um needs, possibilities, and resources of the town uh regarding community preservation. Um so this is an opportunity for us to sort of reflect together on our preservation objectives. It's really geared at our annual update
of the community preservation plan. Um, so our meeting today is not a deliberation about past or potential future CPA projects, though I know the committee welcomes questions um about the CPA and the committee itself and the grant process. Uh but really what we are
interested in doing is um updating uh accordingly the community preservation plan that the committee uses to sort of help guide our decision- making about grant applications. Um so I encourage members of the public tonight to indicate as specifically as
possible the part of the plan u that they're commenting on just to ensure that we are all um quite literally on the same page. Um, I'll ask that you use the um raised hand response in Zoom to indicate that you'd like to speak. Um, and and I would also ask that any
members of the public identify themselves, stating their name and whether they're a resident of Shootsbury before they make their comments. Uh, if you have comments to make, please try to keep them uh focused on the plan limited to a few minutes. When no further members of the public want to speak or
when a total of 30 minutes has elapsed, uh, whichever's first, then, uh, we'll entertain a motion to close the hearing. Um, are there any questions at this time about the purpose of the hearing, what we're doing? All right. Well, seeing none, I'll open
the floor to any members of the public who would like to indicate if they would like to comment on the uh preservation plan and our update of it. >> Uh go ahead, Tom. >> Hi, thanks. Um I just had a really quick question. I think not really about the
content of the plan. Um, but just about the membership, when I was reading, um, I guess it was in 2020 at the annual town meeting, there was kind of a revised membership. And is it a fiscal year or a calendar year appointment?
That was the only confusing thing to me. Um, because I guess if it if uh, you know, I guess the appointments are made on the fiscal year cycle, but it wasn't clear to me when it said each person serves for a year at a time if it was a fiscal year or a calendar year.
Please. >> I mine is that it has been by by fiscal year I think. Is that that correct Rita? That's the way it >> Yes. I believe it's a fiscal year. >> Yes. >> Yeah. >> I think that's largely because the grant
schedule that we follow I mean voluntarily the committee has followed is on the fiscal year schedule. So the idea is that everybody's on the committee when the process starts and sees it through to the end. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Thanks. >> Are there any other uh comments or
questions from members of the public? >> Okay. Um, I have I've done what the teacher in me says to do. I've waited the proper amount of time. There's been no response. So, I'll entertain a motion to close the hearing.
>> Make a motion to close the public hearing. >> There a second. >> Second. >> Second. >> All right. Um, we'll put it to a vote. Frell >> I >> Gettys >> I >> Wilson
>> I >> Hansen >> I >> Leo >> I >> Pang Gallalo I All right the hearing is closed at 7:06. >> Wow. So um >> the you know as part of this process you
know we did publicize the hearing as as we did last year in terms of putting up flyers and um putting it in the paper as required and um part of the process also is reaching out to other boards and committees um to solicit their feedback
which we did and heard nothing back from them. So, um, what I have sent to you are some proposed revisions to the plan. Um, and I can just for the sake of transparency put this up on the
on the screen as well. Uh, most of the um proposed revisions are along the lines of sort of typographic fixes um, and updates. Uh, but what I'll do, I think I did this last year too, is just sort of I'll just go through it and if
there are places where members of the committee have questions or concerns or other suggestions, you know, we can talk about those sections as as I scroll through them. Um, and then at the end sort of make a uh take a vote on on
improving this plan on the plan. Does that make sense? >> Yeah. >> All right. Um, >> can I just say that I think you did a great job. >> Oh, thank you. >> Starting out. I think that's great.
>> Um, feel like every year I look through this thing and I catch a couple of more things. >> Yeah. >> So, again, most of these, you know, the only sub only changes really in the introduction section were fixing some wording. Um, I changed this just because
technically speaking, somebody could apply without having been found eligible or not. Um, I don't know why they would want to. It seems like a risk. Um, but I just wanted to remove that language. Um, just to be clear about that. Uh one of the changes that I've made
here and then also below in the um in the section on historic resources is I've changed historic preservation to historic resources because preservation implies a particular activity whereas resources refers to the you know the thing that is being um
served by the CPA funds which is kind of in line with um the language that's actually used in the CPA statute as Well, um, so I've just changed that to resources. It doesn't change the eligible uses. Actually, this is still all the same. Um, but it's just to make
it a little bit more consistent. Uh, open space, no real changes. recreation. Unless again if committee members have had their own thoughts or um I have not checked to see if these numbers are correct or up to date. I
don't know how old these are. Uh, nothing really changed here in the recreation profile and goals. Again, the change to the historic preservation and historic resources. I added the library building, the sorry,
the spear library building. >> Um, I was kind of surprised we didn't catch that last year. Um, >> not sure why it wasn't there, but uh, clearly that should be included. >> Um,
more formatting. I've tried to add out some more detail in the community housing section. Um, this is an area where I think it it's helpful to be as specific as possible. We'll be talking a little bit more about affordable housing activities uh after this, but I wanted
to provide just provide a little more detail about some of the constraints and some of the um some of the rationale for why we might choose to start implementing those funds a bit more. Uh most of this is just fixing grammar.
We're trying to be more specific with grammar. You can just shout at me if you see something you want me to stop because um I've added water to the open space thing up here even though we do talk about water in I um
>> quite a bit. Um >> uh this is all just mainly trying to change grammar to maintain the list format. Um English professor hat coming on. So this is one place where I did have a
question. Hopefully you had a chance to to look at this question and think about it. and it's about the um we have this sort of specific section in the historic resources section on the use of CPA funds for private own private property
which is allowed. >> Um my my comment in the in the margin here was essentially strictly speaking this is applicable not just to historic resources. It it's applicable to to
other forms of private property. Do we want to move it out of historic resources and into the general criteria so that it's applicable to all those sections? I mean, I don't I don't understand. >> Give us an example of where it would not
be the historical. >> So, there's nothing in this. There's nothing in the statute that I saw that would say, for example, that somebody who has a compelling um public use of an open space property couldn't apply for
CPA funding with the same sort of constraints on eligibility if if it weren't sort of there's no reason why it would need to be publicly owned property to be. So, so for instance,
if the athletic club wanted money to uh fix their fields up to make a really good playground and their um volleyball court, is that something that would be
under recreation and applicable? I I mean I don't I mean it's speculative so I don't know that I would be able to say that it's applicable. I don't know that it I mean the open space has to have been
acquired with CPA funds to be used for um rehabilitation or restoration >> for recreation. You can use CPA funds for preserving or creating or acquiring open space, but you can't use it for rehabilitating or
restoring. Um, for recreation, you don't have that constraint, >> but you still do have the constraint of of it needs to be publicly accessible. >> So then I guess we would have a discussion about is the Shootsbury Athletic Club publicly accessible? It's
a members club, right? They do make themselves available to the public. But you know where is that line drawn? We can also we can also simp if we're not comfortable with moving it, we can leave this text simply in the historic
resources section. Again, I don't I don't it's hard for me to imagine a scenario in Shootsbury where >> private property owner would be seeking to use these funds for anything, though I know that there has been there have been inquiries about historic resources in the past.
I would personally prefer to keep it under um this area historic resources and not open that can of worms. >> Okay, >> that's me. >> Yeah, I guess I agree.
Yeah, my s my sense was that the historic was the the exception, but you know, I'd be willing to entertain the uh the other option. >> It seems like with the restrictions that
like if it was a privatelyowned open space, it would be hard to get it to qualify. I feel like with the public access and other things. So historical just does seem a little different and it seems to apply more to that. >> Mhm.
>> Okay, >> that works for me. >> Um, in the specific criteria for community housing projects, I've added the new item sort of in light of our conversation today. Um, and not just because of our
conversation today, but also because it's clear that Shootsbury on its own might not have the resources, sufficient resources to make a difference with community housing uh, funding. So, regionalization might be something we have to consider. Um, all right.
Appendix. So the big change in the application um I've updated the deadlines obviously um tried to tighten this language. We have the special process for offcycle
applications that we adopted last year. Um the big change in the application was as we discussed at our previous meeting um for both the determination of eligibility and the application omitting the um printed copy the
physical copy and simply having the digital version that we can all circulate and then if somebody on the committee would like a physical copy then I can you know provide that at town hall but essentially just removing one additional barrier in the application process to make things a little easier for potential applicants.
>> Mhm. >> And in the past, we've had some confusion about when is it considered delivered. >> Um same thing with the application itself. Other than that, no changes um on the application or the determination
of eligibility form from last year. This is all the same. grant agreement is largely the same one typo. Um so this is the other sort of significant change was the addition of this appendex that um this was based off
of feedback again that that I got from a couple of other a couple of folks in town who' received CPA funding and didn't know what to do next. Um and so I put down put together sort of my best guess of what would be effective useful guidelines. Um, I did send this to um,
Haley to the town administrator and I sent it to our town accountant to make sure I didn't like miss anything or misrepresent anything and I haven't gotten any changes from them. So, I think that I mostly got it correct. Um, >> did a great job.
>> Yeah. If there were if if if you felt there was anything here that might have be more clearly explained or if I missed a step, you know, we want to make sure this is in here. And I believe um the finance committee does not vote on
these articles, right? They don't. >> That's correct. They do not. >> Correct. >> Yes. Right. >> Good. Fewer steps. All right. um updating all of us. And then this is just the history of the
Warren articles, including I'm going to just jump down to the bottom. A lot of blue text um is reflecting our extremely busy year last year between special town meeting and then all of the articles at annual town meeting. Um,
is there anything in here that that I have missed that you guys would like to see changed, revised? >> Looks good. >> No, I think this looks great. >> Yeah, it does look great. Thank you, Matteo. I think especially that the instructions for the
>> for the grantees is really um very helpful. >> Put a lot of work into this. That was great. >> Um yeah, the guidelines for grantees will be useful because it will prevent them from coming to me asking for checks. [Laughter]
>> All right. Are there so I guess at this point I'll take a um I'll entertain a motion to approve the community preservation plan for FY26 the determination of eligibility form and application form. >> So moved.
>> Second. >> Is there any other discussion? >> All right. Seeing none, we'll put it to a vote. Uh Wilson >> I. >> Hansen. >> Hi. >> Gettys. >> Lao. I
>> Carol >> I >> Pangalo I All right. And I will um I will advertise it. Our grant cycle has started and it's open. And my understanding is that we are probably looking at least at least at two uh I
think grants this year potentially probably more. I mean the Lake Wyola one um I imagine they're going to be moving forward on that dam. >> Yeah. So Okay. >> Um, where did my agenda go?
Next item on our agenda, discussion with Mariah Curts on hiring a regional affordable housing coordinator. Hi. >> Hi, everybody. >> Hi. >> Thank you for having me. >> Um, do you want to just tell us a bit
about um what you're what you're doing? um the idea like the idea of partnering with Leverage and how things stand. I know that there was also the open question about that grant and where that stands. >> Yeah, absolutely. Um so I'm Mariah Curts. I work at Furkog. Um I'm the
livability planner. Um it's just me and my supervisor who kind of work on housing right now, but in the past there have been other people who have kind of dabbled in it and it's definitely become a larger part of Furcog's work in recent years. Um, I think there's been a lot of
attention that many of you are probably aware of on the housing crisis and kind of what that looks like in Western Mass. Um, we did a regional housing study last year. Um, that was completed just around the time that I started at the COG in January. Um, and so we've been doing a
lot of presentations for people on what the state of housing in Franklin County looks like. Um, it's probably no surprise that there's not enough of it and it's very expensive. um and out of reach for a lot of people. Um and so kind of I've been spending a lot of time
looking at okay, we have this kind of depressing information. What can we do with it to make it better? Um and one of the things that I learned as I came into this job and it's been about 10 months now um was that there was a 2016 study
done um for the feasibility of creating a housing coordinator position that would be shared amongst towns. Um and the idea was towns that have adopted community preservation act have funding that they you know have set aside for working on housing issues. Um that's an
easy pot of money to kind of convince people to use to put towards some kind of a position that would work on this. Um and so there was a whole study that was done um and several towns were interested and Leverit was one of them and um they've maintained that they're
they're pretty interested in this and so um Barbara Kuli had actually reached out to me when I started renewing my interest or renewing the COGS uh kind of interest in this and and prompted me to look into kind of what would be possible. Um, and so I've been looking
at what that original feasibility study looked at. I've looked at what other areas have done in terms of shared housing services. Um, larger cities or larger towns sometimes have designated housing coordinators. I know um our area
there there aren't any. Um, and so and there's most towns don't have a town planner. Um, I was the town planner in Irving before I started here at FKOG. Um, I worked on a lot of housing projects, but I was also working on coverts and sidewalks and 10,000 other
things. Um, and so having someone who is really focused on housing just isn't really a thing that happens around here unless you work for a developer. Um and so one of the things that actually happened after that feasibility study
was completed was um Alyssa Lar Rose who worked at Furcog who had kind of started working on housing projects and helping towns navigate some of the like feasibility studies and housing plans actually um left to work at Rural
Development Inc. which is a nonprofit housing developer based out of Monagu. They're kind of the development arm of the housing authority. um they created a position to build their pipeline so that they would continue to build new housing
in Franklin County and that was in response to some of the things that were found in that feasibility study, the kind of the gaps that were happening that were preventing more housing from being built. So that was really great. That was a huge success. Like that position has been funded for multiple years now. She's doing really great
work. Um they're actually building a project in Irving that I helped facilitate. um and they have other projects on the horizon um including some in downtown Greenfield. So that's been a huge success. So there's already been movement that's happened since 2016
um when we kind of started talking about this. Um the thing that I'm here to talk to you all about today is the idea of having multiple towns with CPA partnering to fund kind of a more cohesive housing coordination effort.
Um, so like I said, Barbara had reached out from Leverett um, and she had talked to Matteo and um, I've been talking with some folks in Shelurn who are on their CPC and they're very interested in some of this work. So there's enough interest that I think um now's the time to kind
of have these conversations. And at the same time, um, Furcog applied for a state grant to do, um, some work under what is called, it's a thrive framework, which is essentially, uh, kind of an economic development framework that is
focused on the needs of rural areas that's been used across the country in various places that we've been looking at using in our work, kind of multiddisciplinary work. Um, and so we received the grant, which is really good news, and it was fully funded, so I
think the state really sees the potential in what we're trying to do out here and sees that we need help doing it. Um, >> could you explain what was the Thrive Grant? I'm sorry, I missed. >> That's okay. Yeah, I I'm kind of I'll
get into more of the details, but basically the the Thrive Grant is this framework for rural economic development um and planning. And so um it's there's kind of multiple sections. There's kind of the economic development and then
we've part of that is housing. And so, um, as part of that grant, we asked for funding to research and potentially create a housing coordination service and then have seed money to pay for part
of that time. And so, the idea is we can put in I've been playing with the number of $10,000. Um, I have to get that fully approved, but we have money in the budget of my time to basically have $10,000
uh until uh June 30, 2027 um to work on housing coordination services for towns. And if towns that have CPA money were willing to put in a chunk of funding, um
then I could work specifically on issues with their town. And then because there is um a restriction on um CPA funds can only be used for projects that are focused on less than 100% of the area median income. It can kind of limit what
time is spent on which projects. So having this seed money match in the Thrive grant would free up the time of the coordination to work on any housing project which I know in Shootsbury and Leverett and Shelburn you often don't
know what projects are going to end up being affordable until kind of after the fact and that there's very few truly affordable projects that happen at all never mind new housing being built at all. So having both sources of income
would be really important to I think making something like this work. Um so that's kind of the context of all of this. Uh I have been pulling together um a scope of services a draft scope of
services um which I've looked at what other shared planner shared housing planning um coordinators have been doing for other areas. I know that the uh Worcester County had one for a little while that was like five towns. Um Sturbridge was part of that for a little
while and liked it so much that they ended up hiring their own housing coordinator part-time. Um and then a few other regional planning agencies across the state have had shared housing coordinators. So I've looked at those job descriptions and pulled kind of what tasks they've worked on as well as
talking with um Barbara and Levit about what she's been doing as the chair of their CPC. Um, and the way that we're envisioning this could work right now, and all of this is open to feedback and interpretation and what you're all
interested or not interested in participating in. Um, would be uh a a shared service agreement, which um would be kind of a fee for service, which can look a few different ways, but it
wouldn't be creating a new position. um it would be funding my time or the livability planner's time which is me right now. Um and so basically I work my 40 hours a week, it would be paying for a chunk of time per pay period um or per
quarter, however we want to break it up. And so if I have, you know, whatever 30 hours per quarter that's funded amongst multiple towns and this grant money, then um I can bill bill based off of
kind of how much time I'm spending on projects for each town. Um and those goals and priorities would be identified ahead of time with all of you. Um so that I know that I would be working on things that are useful to you all. Um,
and some of what might come out of that is identifying other larger projects that wouldn't be funded through that time. If there was like a housing production plan that wanted to be done, that would be bigger than kind of what this role could work on. Um, but part of the work would be identifying what other
needs there are. So, that was a lot. Um, are there questions? I guess are are people interested in that? Um, I can explain more about kind of how the logistics might work, but I think conceptually I'm interested to to hear
people's thoughts. >> How many towns do do you think you would be covering >> right now? It would be three. It would be um Shootbury, Leverett, and Shelburn are the ones who are interested in starting as soon as possible.
and Mariah. Um, what does does Shelburn have any housing partnership or any housing organization right now? >> So, they adopted CPA last year. I think
I think this was their first full year having CPA. Um, and so they have kind of they're calling it a subcommittee, but it's two people who are on the CPC who are focused on housing issues, but beyond that, they don't have a housing committee or a housing trust. >> Okay. I think one of, you know, one of
the challenges for and and my background is in affordable housing. So that's what I did for um for the bulk of my my career. um and and worked with rural communities as well as as um you know
larger cities. But you know what the what we've found is that the the challenges for for small towns is that um without without infrastructure um and without um
you know without really good developable land it's it's very difficult to do any kind of new development. Um and so and
and without a you know a significant amount of CPA money. So, I I can't remember what our um our housing uh set aside is at this point, even though we've had CPA for, you know, quite a few
years now and and have it at 1 and a half%, but um you know, so we don't have a large amount of money um well, we have a large amount of CPA money kind of reserved, not not specifically the
housing housing money um But always and and we did one housing development through Habitat for Humanity. So we put you know money towards uh and and we would be happily I think do another Habitat house should should that come to
pass. But um you know other housing opportunities in rural communities is really tough. And so I think that's, you know, part of what um we really need to explore. And I I
know you know Matteo and I had talked to Barbara and a couple of other people from from lever about um the position and kind of what you know would this what a person would do and so
I don't know if you have given any thought to you know how would how would you approach that in in Irving they're doing a new development right it's senior housing. Yeah. Um, so a few things. One, I should say that my other hat is that
I'm president of Habitat. So, thank you for funding us. Um, and I know that we'd love to build again Shootsbury, too. But again, like you said, without infrastructure and without a lot of buildable lots that make sense to build on, um, it's really
tough. Um, I know. So over the summer in August um FRCOG hosted an advocacy event uh where we invited the all of the funders at the state level um and the housing secretary and the lieutenant
governor to come out and do a presentation on why building housing specifically in Franklin County which is rural and has a weak housing market is different than the struggles that cities are seeing. Even in Western Mass, like
like the Springfield and Hoyok and Westfield and Pittsfield, they all have their own struggles with housing, but what we're seeing in Franklin County and the Hilltowns and some of the northern Birkshars and North Quabin are very
different. Like we just are our our rents are not high enough to justify the cost of new construction most of the time. Um, and so we've made that case to the state and which I think is part of why they funded this because they want us to be creative and they want to see
what we can do. Um, if we have some some resources and and if we can be creative. So, one of the things that I've I've talked to Lever about their buy down program that they created, which I think they funded a couple projects maybe, but
ultimately the housing stock and lever is so small and the prices are so high that the idea of helping someone affordably own a seven or $800,000 house is absurd. Um, and so are there ways that we can rework that program? I'm not
sure, but one of the first tasks would be could we look at leverage model and see if we could apply it to other towns in a way that maybe would work. Um, are there properties in town that are publicly or privately owned that would
be suitable for new development? Um, are there people in town who are open to having those conversations? Um, are there other types of programs that can help convert existing housing into affordable housing? Um, and what would
that look like and are people interested in that? Um and then also um helping a develop helping create the tools and contact with and like relationships with developers and real estate agents in the
area so that if someone does come to town and wants to build a duplex, >> it's clear what that process is. or if there was a larger project to have it be more streamlined and having a contact person and having real estate agents know who the contact people are and
having a consistent liaison so that they're not like oh it's not worth the trouble you know um and I know every town has their own system and own people that you know are are working on things like that um and I went through that experience in Irving but like just
having the right forms and knowing where to direct people to can be really helpful even if it is a single family home helping people understand that process. >> Um so I think there's there's creative options out there. Um I've been going to some conferences lately trying to understand more about um community land
trusts and how they can be used in rural areas. I know they're they've been doing a lot of work for decades in Franklin County. Um and they're they're having a bit of a resurgence when it comes to building housing, especially in Greenfield right now. Um, so exploring those creative options and how they
might work for places like Shootsbury. >> Okay, good. Thank you. >> Let's jump in with uh in response to Rita's uh question about money. Uh, at the end of the last this
fast past fiscal year, we had 55,453 in the community housing account. So, not lever. Yeah. And I recognize that every town's a bit different in terms of what resources you do or don't have and what
you're willing to put towards certain things. And each agreement, if if you chose to move forward with this, each agreement would be by town. And so if you said, "We can put $3,000 next year towards this, we can figure out what's
doable with that amount of money." Um, for context, for budgeting purposes, I've been using $5,000 for next fiscal year as my placeholder for each town and then $10,000 for Furcog's match over the next year and a half. But that's been my
placeholder. Um, and I think I did the math and $5,000 was less than 10% of your 2024 um, aotment for housing. Um,
which was kind of how I based that number off of um yeah, I mean my my sense is is making some investment in in having, you know, having somebody who would
spend some time looking at housing and and particularly um from a regional perspective makes a lot of sense. >> Um and and one thing Matteo I just wanted to make sure because I know this way back when this was you know had
become an issue um uh and that the community preservation coalition was was looking at. you you you had spoken with Stuart Sagenor at the uh at the coalition, right, to make
sure that this was an eligible CPA cost that it was not um kind of under the under the the planning. >> I did have a um let's see here
did have a discussion with him at some point about this. >> Okay. My understanding is that housing coordination services can be paid. They have a page on their website of examples of towns that have done this. >> And then there's also you can have up to
5% allotted for um general CPA uh administration, which this wouldn't be that, but um they kind of allow for different services like that, >> right? I I know. I mean, we we can do
that. Um Right. right? We can do that in our in our budget. And I think we typically put just $2,500 into into admin. It was just it was just at at some point the department of revenue
which which oversees um CPA was um making some noise about um staffing positions versus actual
you using of of CPA money for for staffing versus actual production. So, I just want to make sure we're it's that, you know, we don't get into a situation where that's that's a that's a problem because, you know, we could put more
money into our kind of admin line to cover it, >> right? So, one of the things that I need to do is after having conversations with all three towns that are interested, if folks are interested in moving forward, um, is have a conversation with Stuart
about specifically which tasks are and are not eligible. Yeah. >> Because when I do my billing for this, >> I will be billing each town and I will be billing the grant that we have through the state. And so I just need to be very clear about which items I can
build to which things, right? >> And then part of that will also be making I know that different towns will have different goals. And so making sure that whatever goals you all have because realistically this is this is a pilot program. It would only be until 2027.
And you all could choose if you wanted to extend your time with me or with whoever is in this position um and increase the hours or not do it at all or decrease the hours or whatever you chose to do. Um but if there's not the
match money, it might change what I can work on. And so, >> um, yeah, I just need to be very clear about what that is and also be very clear with you all that realistically at the end of 2027, you're probably not going to have
20 new houses. >> You probably won't have one new affordable house. And so making clear like which goals are realistic of maybe we have, you know, new information that we've collected or new properties identified or whatever those might look like,
>> right? >> So we're we're talking about the next next fiscal year. Is that correct? >> We're not talking about this current year, >> I guess. So that was one of my questions for you all is like you're all starting your process right now, correct? of of
looking at projects for next fiscal year which would be 2026 to 2027 >> that yes >> so and are you allow I I think you guys can do things offcycle in terms of like the mass policies but I don't know if
you have your own policies of doing approving projects offcycle or not >> we do have we do have an offcycle policy now because we ran into we had an experience with an offcycle request last year so we now have adoped did one. Um the challenge with it is that that means a special town meeting,
>> right? >> Because everything has to wait until town meeting for >> Does Shootsbury have a special usually in the fall or winter? >> Yes, >> we just had one. >> Um so yeah, but the typical schedule uh
that we're following now is uh the grant applications come in February and then we vote on them for that Springtown meeting. >> Yeah. So, the funding that I have through the grant will likely, it was just announced, so it probably won't be contracted until January. Um, and so
I'll be able to start working on this um come January. So, what I need to talk to my supervisors about what that looks like if I don't have service agreements with the towns, just kind of general work overall. Um, but if you if you all
were interested and you wanted to try to approve money off cycle to contribute, obviously you're welcome to do that. My assumption is that the Shelurn and Shootsbury don't have a housing trust. So that your contributions would be
starting in July 1, 2026. Um, Leverett has a housing trust and they are chomping at the bit to do this. And so I expect that if all goes well, they'll probably try to start sooner >> and they have more flexibility with their funding to do that.
>> Right. >> Um are there other questions from the committee? Rita, I will say that in in response to your question about Stuart, he so I did communicate with him early in September about I mean and I I did specifically say that
this was, you know, about hiring a regional affordable housing coordinator. My questions were along the lines of, you know, is this something that comes from the select board or can the CPC put this before town meeting? Um, so I didn't specifically ask him is this, you know, is this eligible in your view or
not? But he also didn't say, you know, you can't do that. >> Yeah. >> His response was, here are the ways you here are the ways you could present it to town meeting, >> right? Okay. >> Does it if the select board does it, but I can also more directly inquire with them um >> if the committee would like me to so we
can get an answer on that. >> Yeah, it sounds like Mariah's talking to them, too. So, >> yeah, if you want, I can send an email and CC you on that, Matteo, so that you're in the loop. Um because you're all three towns are going to well I guess you and Shelurn at least would have to go to town meeting
>> um to use the funding. So it's not just you all that will have to figure out the who who the request comes from and what the wording is of the vote, >> right? >> Yeah. And and it would be an issue for um you know it' be an issue for
leverage. I mean they're using CPA money with their trust. So, um, so they they need to make sure that that they're not running a foul of any of the CPA,
um, statute. >> Yeah. >> But overall, you know, I think it it makes it makes sense. So, um I think we would just have some some work to do
thinking through what the um what the tasks are that um what the focus is that you know we would want you to have. Um >> yeah, and I have a list of examples that I'm happy to send over um and that you
know hopefully that will kind of get things percolating and you can add on from there. >> Yep. Okay, great. Good. I have a pretty busy next tomorrow and next few days, so I probably won't get that out until the end of next week, but I'll make sure it's on my to-do
list. >> Is this the um the list of job responsibilities that that you and Barbara had developed or that? >> Yeah. And I don't remember, Matteo, if I had sent you a copy of that, but if I did, it's changed slightly since then. >> Okay. Yeah, you send me an early earlier
one, but if you have one, that would be great. >> Um because we would want to use that if we ended up >> putting in a request at town meeting for for the funding. >> Yeah. >> Any other questions from the committee? >> All right. Thanks, Maria.
>> Thank you all. Thanks, Mariah. >> Yeah. Nice to meet you all. Have a good night. >> Thank you. You too. >> Um, all right. Item five on the agenda, unanticipated business. Does anybody have anything that is
unanticipated? Henry. >> Yes. Um, here to report. I met with the buildings committee about the uh the guide board. >> Wow. >> And uh uh should have met with them sooner.
uh and we are deferring to their expertise on these things. Um specifically the the guide board won't be returned until next year. >> Wow. Why? >> So well there's a delay. They say
they're backed up. I don't know. Uh but uh it it's all just as well because you know as as far as that concrete pad is concerned you know the one that we're going to set it on
um it it from the advice uh from the buildings committee should have the guideboard back to do some measuring to do various kinds of things uh before we build the pad. So the pad is kind of on hold. Moreover,
they uh they had suggestions uh for contractors who will do small jobs. This is a very small job you to be mixing cement for, you know, 4x4 foot piece of concrete. So anyway, that's
just the update um on that. So, was there a delay by Williamstown? By the Williamstown file? >> Yes. Yes. >> Oh, okay. So, they're not done. >> They're not done. And they're backed up, apparently.
>> Oh, okay. >> All right. Well, that's disappointing. >> A lot of people are lost in the center. >> I know. You're just standing there wandering around. >> All those bicyclists going, "Wait a
minute. Where are we?" >> Yeah. >> All right. Well, thanks for letting us know. >> Um, any other unanticipated business? >> I make a motion to adjurnn. >> A second.
Enthusiastic seconds. Any discussion? Seeing none, we'll take a vote. Wilson, >> I. >> Hansen, >> hi. >> Eddies, >> I. >> Lao, >> I. >> Frell, >> I.
>> Pangalo. I. That's it. We are adjourned at 7:53. Thank you all very much. Have a good night. >> Good night, everybody. >> Good night, everybody. >> Night. >> Good night.