All right, welcome everybody. It is uh a little after 7 o'clock, April 22nd. We're here for the community preservation committee meeting. We're in hybrid. Uh with us tonight, we have Tom Wally, Dennis Clark, Chris Pratt, Rick Harman,
Dunan. Welcome everybody. Uh is there anybody for public comment? I don't see anybody online or do I see a couple of people online but no hands up. I think anybody in the crowd is here for the
application. Then we will go into our application. Tonight we have an application uh the community track at the schools to 10 year resurfacing and preventive repairs
project. And welcome you guys to come on up. Well, good evening. Good evening. Russell Fox. I'm a member of the South Talon Grand Regional School District Committee. and I'm here with our brand new director of uh finance and
operations, Nick Brener. First thing I was told to do is to thank you for having this emergency meeting. There have been some sort of mixup. I hope you understand we have a brand new guy here and our director of
buildings and grounds left last month. So, we have uh we're we're juggling things. Uh, Superintendent Willard wanted to be here tonight. She's out of state. Uh, Chairman Stevenson wanted to be here. Unfortunately, he's trying to
become a deacon and he couldn't miss that part of the thing tonight. I think you understand why. Um, so we're going to try to do the best we can. I tried to get a hold of our former director of
building and grounds to get more information, but Nick has and you have the proposal in front of you. Uh this is a very important restoration project, not only for for the school system, but I think everybody here is aware of the
use by the community at large. And like Nick and I were talking before, you know how Special Olympics trains on on the facility and many other organizations that uh take advantage of this. And for anybody that went to South Lake High
before it became regional, you know that the track we had was from the 60s. And because of the voters approving $150,000 of community preservation funds and the very generous donation from
Steve and Elizabeth Neielen of a half a million dollars, we went from the 60s to the 21st century and we have an asset uh for the town of South and uh unfortunately uh there's some structural
issues that need to be corrected. um particularly the drainage and and what it's doing underneath. So with that, we will try to answer any questions, Mr. Chair. All right. Anybody have any questions,
comments, concerns? I I just have I have probably the biggest question is how is this not a uh maintenance project? I would think I I would answer it by by
saying that the scope of it goes beyond what would be considered just regular maintenance. Um uh Mr. Fox mentioned some drainage issues when he was talking and um that's led to some unevenness in lane number one of the track. Um you
know which obviously could create safety issues over time and you know get to the point where the tracks can be rendered unusable. Um, from what I was told from our prior uh facilities director, there's some cracks in the base layer
that need to be repaired as well. Um, and doing these things will prolong the useful life of the track. I mean, if we don't do this, you know, what could happen a couple years down the road is is, you know, the track might not be usable anymore and then you're looking
at massive repairs needed. And, you know, it is a big asset to the community. And, you know, we figure doing this restoration project now will it'll add between 10 to 15 years to the life of the track. And obviously a lot
of folks in the community as well as various running clubs and organizations and our student athletes use it. So um because the track itself was partially funded with CPA funds when it was built um you know we feel that
requesting these funds to prolong the useful life of it and protect the town's asset is you know something we wanted to do. Didn't you address material problems back in the day? They tried. They tried
but they weren't successful. Yeah, it's you know how things worked and it's over time you know they they patched it thinking okay yeah we got the problem solve but the playground was part of that right the playground area.
Well, if if I'm going to tell you a lot of the the parking cuz I remember well your brother one night I was standing there talking to him. He was on one side of the fence. I was on the other side of the fence. All of a sudden he disappeared. Sinkhole, you know, and uh
we got him out of got him out of the hole. But that that whole area in the front was a major drainage problem, you know, and we we still have issues u on that section closest to uh power. Mhm.
Well, I think that track is a great thing. Don't get me wrong. Just the way it was presented come in late and it was, you know, kind of being rushed in front of us now would it does be appear to be a a maintenance issue. So all these factors involved. They hate
bringing it to town meeting and without being prepared properly. Well, I mean I the reason I see it as a maintenance is because it's a 10ear cycle. It's repetitive. It it needs to be done every 10 years and there's only a one-year
warranty on the work. Um which is also concerning. Well, anything like that needs maintenance. I mean that's saying that's the nature of the feast and you know has to be maintained. We did have Yeah. And that's part of its life expectancy. You know, it's it's
um because it's repetitive, it's foreseeable. Should have budgeted for perhaps um for these repairs. Was there another funding source for this or we did put it forward in our proposed budget that we'll be, you know, meetings in the next
month. Um with the understanding that if the CPA funds are not available for it, it will remain there. If the CPA funds fund a portion or all of the project, then we would just amend the capital article on the town meeting floors to
reflect that. See, it become a bonding issue for for the regional school district. And one of the reasons why we're here, because we do think it's a restoration project and not a a maintenance issue, is that we have to replace two boilers in the next few
years. So, we're going to be bonding for multi-million dollars. You know, so this is going to have a serious impact on on the school system. Is the membrane itself intact or do you have to replace the membrane? The whole resurfacing of that. You got
the resurfacing of that, but it's it's the damage underneath. You know, we you have to remove that to get to the underneath part, right? Example. Yeah. This one. I think this is pretty helpful. I mean that's just self
I don't know need you do anything like that but these are figures about maybe how to budget for a track it's you know this is pretty much a major plan of what it cost to run a
track like that plugged it out year by and and some of these things that you're talking about are part of that budget since we get from Steuart. We did not get anything from Stuart yet.
He hasn't responded. No, not yet. And I know we're talking about capital improvement or capital expenditure, but that's a one time uh thing, which it's already been one time. um expended through CPA. So to do it again would
conflict with that is the way I see it. But well, doesn't this kind of I mean if I'm looking at the definition, right? Sure. Um it says that under rehabilitation restoration, which I think we're talking about, it also make capital improvements. Yep. Or make
extraordinary repairs. This tire here, you know, 10 $15,000 a year maintenance, right? Right. you know, uh, repainting the lines and people have been doing very well that kind of maintenance plan where I think this is obviously $160 million that's an
extraordinary repair I think. Well, I think we're re we're rebuilding the entire track is what we're doing. Yeah. Effective. Yes. That that's not me, right? But I, you know, as far as maintaining it, it's a thing that happens over and over again. This is going to happen again in 10 more years.
Extraordinary repair. Yes. So what has been maintained in the past 10 years is this tracking but it's a one-time thing is my point for capital expenditure has to be also part of that capital expenditure which is not recurring.
I don't read that that way. You don't you don't extraordinary repair is something that could happen again. It says that reconstruction alteration to materially prolong the life of the
useful life of the property. I see it as analogous to Yeah. When you buy a car, you're going to have to put tires on every once in a while. You're going to have to put new brake pads on every once in a while. Every couple hundred thousand miles, you got to tear the whole engine apart, put it all back together again if you want to put it on the road. That's an extraordinary
repair. I also think that um and I don't think the question's been answered yet, but had there been regular routine maintenance to the track and I'm not arguing I'm not I don't know yet, right? We we haven't directly asked the
question where we did. It just hasn't answered yet because we're talking amongst ourselves. If that maintenance had been done, many of these extraordinary repairs would still need to be done because there's nothing you can do through maintenance to stop some of the erosion that's happening on the ground and things like that. So that's
kind of I think that's the area we're in right now. Well, how are those problems going to be corrected? Basically, this restoration project is going to be taking off the top and a water problem. How is that going to be corrected or are we going to be the same
boat again? No. No. Well, there's no guarantee in life on anything. I don't think anybody can guarantee, especially on drainage issues, but at least they understand now. All right. they tried to repair it that whatever they did did not work. So obviously
they're going to have to do something different but but this is a major major project. Uh I can't emphasize again the importance I I know I know you're looking at some of the technical aspects of this but I mean the
taxpayers have already invested $150,000 in this. Uh the use is unquestionable, you know, and it's not just the school system, it's a whole whole community. Um I would hope that the voters would have another bite at the apple and and make
sure that they want to or not u support this going forward. You considered sharing the costs? I I mean look I I was asked on short notice to be here but I I am a member of the
finance committee subcommittee of the school and uh I would be open to that. I I don't think there'd be any problem with that because you know I I think if we can come to some reasonable uh thing I think it's a it benefits the whole
community. how it sweetens the pot a little bit when he's money coming in the supplement projects. I like it. We split it. I listen, there's no doubt that this is a community treasure. I remember when it
first went in. Yeah. I mean, we all was a unanimous vote. EPA unanimous vote. I'm just saying it's a it's a it's a huge community thing and for the school right now my understanding I could be corrected is that for
competition they can't even use anyone right now. It's it's a problem. Yeah. It's a safety issue and it's a it's a it's an issue with records and things like that. Right. So they don't use it and it's it's just going to get worse if we don't the erosion is going to continue to penetrate deep years old. Is
that 14 years old? 14 years. 14 years old. man implies. How long has it been? So, they're not able to use a track and disre track one. I couldn't say for sure. Yeah, our lane one. I couldn't say for sure, Dennis. It happened gradually.
That's why I was trying to get a hold of our former building. They said no bueno. Can't can't uneven. Correct. Yeah. Is it sunken or is it I think it's sunken. I think it's it's doing this, right? It's got cracks and it's shifting.
Yeah. So, what maintenance has been done in the past 10 years? I I think it's just the general maintenance, cleaning, uh deep cleaning, repairing any or things of that nature, but again, I apologize. I tried to get all of our former
director of building and grounds. He's apparently in where is he? He's in Key West. Key West. No. And you know, of course, we will continue to do those routine maintenance pieces going forward. Um, including an
annual inspection of the track as well, which our former facilities director was religious about getting things inspected. I've got records all over the place of, you know, I'm concerned about getting that drainage right off. That's the big thing. That's the big thing. I
would like to make a phone. All right. We contribute $100,000 towards this project because a lot of it is reconstruction. Okay. Motion made. Sorry. How much? $100,000 from recreation. $100,000 and they're asking
for $192,000. The general fund. Yeah. Okay. Also that motion. Okay. 100 though I guess open more or I I think that uh some of it is just
maintenance but some of it is reconstruction. So I figure if we split it I feel good about using CTC funds for reconstruction but not so good about maintenance. Partner up with the with
you guys with the lift. Thank you. We have a motion in a second. I will double the vote. I Dennis I Chris I D I chairman I gr I Okay.
Thank you very much. Thank you so much. Thank you again for having this special meeting. We very much appreciate that. He just got his first bite of the apple. There you go. Started on February 3rd. It's one week baptism. Oh yeah. Meet
him. They'll have a lot more questions there for you. They will. Yeah. We'll also have uh be prepared. It'll be nice. Everybody conspiracy theories. Do we have anything
again? Make a motion to close the hearing. D second. All in favor? Hi I can hear