Let me uh call to order the meeting of the climate resilience committee. Um and uh we don't have a quorum, but we can still meet to discuss progress on the report. >> We just can't uh make uh decisions. And
um I think we've gotten into the practice of saluting the flag. So let's start that. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation
under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Now, uh I thank you Michael and Dia for sending out uh a lot of material and uh
to authors of that uh material. Uh people should have gotten an agenda. Uh anybody didn't get an agenda? >> Okay, people have the agenda and uh they've got the minutes which I thought
were excellent, but we can't vote on those. So, we'll put that off to the next meeting. Uh, I did talk with Jeff, Michael, and Dia about when the next meeting should be because I'm going to be uh away when we normally meet and it
would either be April 2nd or 30th and I thought the 30th would be better because really April 2nd's just a couple of weeks away and we won't make much progress in that. So, if you can put down that that's another Thursday at
5:00, April 30th would be when we'd next get together. Um and so really uh like uh uh the last few meetings uh Jeff is uh editor-inchief and has been
collecting and uh and assembling uh the report from a whole bunch of different sources. and uh you want to take some time to run us through where we are and to solicit
comments and uh if we do have six weeks between now and the next meeting uh and there is uh any tasks you want to give to the subcommittees uh six weeks is a lot of time so they
could have a meeting of health or or water and so on. Uh so you want to take it from there Jeff? >> Sure. Thanks John. Um last time we met we uh had distributed copies of the kind of intro chapters and
te up this report and uh discuss them. Um some of the comments we got were that it would be appropriate to incorporate some information about climate risks up front into this section. So D and I worked to put together um a subsection there called Westport and extreme
weather and it talks about Westport's history with with extreme weather um principally in the timeline of hurricanes and big nor eers and things like that but there are other climate threats that are out there that are the focus of this reporting committee. Um so
we incorporated those into a table that lists um I think all of these threats are ones that are addressed uh by the subcommittee reports provide a description and um also uh some of the potential impacts of those uh threats.
So that is uh that's how we've addressed that in the intro here. Um I don't know if there are any comments on on that and how that reads right now. Have you had a chance to look at it? I I would urge people if you uh comments are welcome
today, but uh if you haven't had a chance to read it, read through it and send comments to Jeff and Dia and uh they'll do their best to incorporate them. Uh so these cover all the
subcommittees, water, etc. Uh so take a look at them. Make sure that we're accurately reflecting your work and and uh if you do have comments, please get them in because that's the only way that
the report will reflect uh all the work that's taking place today. >> So I go ahead. No, go ahead. >> No, go ahead. >> All right, Phil, you go ahead. I I um so I just read it shortly before um I got
here and so um so one of so I was wondering whether or not the comments in the part that you that you guys wrote um
reflected what some of the projections were or the um at the re at the Cape South Coast and Island numbers, you know, like the N and the one that popped out of me which I didn't compare. >> Are you talking about the section from
UMass? >> Yeah. >> Okay. We're not talking about >> Oh, okay. You're talking about this part of it. >> Yeah. Got the first part, not >> right there's a material in the UMass report that relates to what Jeff just talked about about Westport and extreme
weather. >> Okay. Ah. Okay. Okay. Just because this had >> Yeah. >> I got this some similar material. >> Yeah. Yeah. We just got this. >> Okay. Well, then I um
>> then I hold off then. Yeah. It's more relevant to this than the other. Yeah. >> Never mind. >> Never mind. >> Okay. Mike Park. >> Yeah. I just looked at it quickly as well and I I don't think I would suggest is that the either prioritize
or group the um items listed under summary of climate related threats relevant to Westport. Group them in such a way uh as maybe we have what we think are the top priority or top risks first. It's kind of alphabetic but not really.
It's, you know, so >> there's no rhyme or reason to order. >> And and like for example, I since we have two sort of conflicting, you know, on the surface conflicting items here, drought and flooding, I would just put
them under changes in precipitation that include, you know, extended periods of drought as well as, you know, excessive rainfall, whatever, just so it doesn't look like there's two things fighting each other. And I I just I would just organize >> weather.
>> Yeah. I would just put in fact I would make sure we put you know the risk of hurricanes at the top. That's all. >> Okay. >> Yeah. And I'll what I'll do is this this is on the the actual word documents here. I'll just maybe sort of reshuffle
them and suggest. >> Yeah. Because it sounds like you have some other thoughts. If you want to >> sketch something out that would be welcome. >> Thank you for doing this. >> Okay. >> So it would be great. So now this maybe provokes a slightly related thing which also related to the
conversation that you and Bob and I had as to whether or not the ranking is within a category. So I'm saying this is
the most important health issue. you would say this is the most important weather issue or whether we're going to try to say of all the issues hurricane is the number one >> I don't I don't think we want to do that
and I I think that in this listing we're talking about apples and oranges how do you rank the importance of hurricanes versus extreme heat And why
would you bother trying to elevate one of those? They're very different. >> I agree. So I was I was so that that's why I was asking that because maybe I didn't hear Mike's comment >> at the end. They were saying, "Well, hurricane should be at the top of the list."
>> Well, I'm talking about >> That's what I meant. >> Yeah. No, let me clarify. Good point, Bill. Okay. Yeah, what I this this is a list of sort of the drivers from what's actually global warming, right? We have localized climate change that comes from
that. We have sea level rise. We have all these things and all we're doing is listing them here. And as Jeff said, it's in no particular order. But as far as a public facing document, I think you want to you want to put what you think. Now your drivers, for example, under
localized climate change, we have temp extreme temperatures. We're not trying to rank within that all the things that come from that what's most important. All we're doing is presenting the reader with the list of problems that we've considered as we as a backdrop to
Westport. >> Okay. >> But I I think the ranking uh personally I don't care what the order is because they're different and uh this is not where we're prioritizing. where we're prioritizing
is a different chapter and we we've agreed I think to get away from scoring you know 0 to 100 to just low medium and high uh so that it's more qualitative
uh and that two things can be high and it doesn't really matter whether one is higher than the other they they're both high uh the key is getting uh the correct assignment of low,
medium, and high to each of of the threats. But uh you raised another point, Mike, uh on drought and flooding and when you uh increase the hydraological cycle, which means you get
more evaporation because warm atmosphere holds more water. Then you get this perverse uh occurrence of both more droughts because the evaporation sucks water out of land and ocean and then
because it's up there it's got to come down. So you also get more floods. So what that takes is some text that explains these are not contradictory. These are both impacts of speeding up the hydraological cycle. You get them
both. And in the UMass Dartmouth one, they do, I think, a better job of explaining in the summer we're going to have more droughts and in the spring and the fall we're going to have more floods. Uh, but they're both caused by
the same thing, which is accelerating. >> Well, I I don't want to I'm not trying to debate whether it's real or not. I'm saying that on a public facing document like that when you list here are your problems. drought and too much rain. >> Yeah, >> it just it doesn't read well.
>> I know. Well, it's true though. So, the question is, do you not put it there? Uh because it may take a little bit of explanation. >> What I'm suggesting is is that if this is a true thing, then it is it then it's caption should be changes in
precipitation. >> Okay? So that you can then you can list the things underneath it. You shouldn't have two fighting categories. That's all. I mean, a perfect example of that right now and it's its current event right now is look at the drought monitor for the, you know, Commonwealth of Massachusetts. We're in a moderate
drought. We got 36 inches of snow and that doesn't compute in a lot of people's heads. >> Um, I was reading that specifically yesterday. Um, you know, no one can really understand that. So, I think your point is you're going to have extreme events, but those extreme events don't
take away from the fact that the water table is not getting that water that it needs in whatever fashion that is. So, I don't I don't think it's as farfetched as Mike as you think from an explanation standpoint. I I think it's there. I mean, >> it's a style thing. It's not really >> Yeah. But I I do believe that that's
probably one of the higher priorities. The water the water for Westport I think at the end of the day I mean even for take a look at that reservoir when you drive by it now. It's not very high compared to where it should be at this time of year. So I think there are water issues and we'll continue to have those and I think that's probably the number
one priority >> in an agricultural community is uh huge. Um I I think the uh way to solve the problem is uh not to I was going to say to water down the word but uh that would
be bad. Not not to make the wording more bland but to explain how you can get both flooding and drought and how they will happen in different seasons. But that belongs in the
>> so mass chapter. >> Yeah. So it it seems that if that if um that you could my proposed solution to that the way that Mike characterized it is
um it's it's not so much flooding from pre precipitation but it's really these um like extreme storm events. I mean that is I think that people realize that sometimes you have >> big storms that come along and cause
flooding. >> Um and you and it's the intensity. It's like storm intensity that causes flooding. If you wanted to clarify the semantics between drought and precipitation. I don't know. You mean versus co meaning
versus coastal? I don't know. Anyway, I think we should work it through and I don't care. I'm fine. The the point I made about where hurricanes fit was only that um I don't
uh I'm not definitely not wedded to health being first as long as the exercise doesn't get into trying to rank them the biggest across. That's all I was saying. So >> yeah um you know so you and you know so
that the last one isn't considered the least. Yeah. >> to worry about. >> Well, I think Mike makes a good point that people come into reading this report with their own understanding, which will vary in terms of
completeness, >> right? >> But most people will if you say what is the danger of climate change, you're going to say hurricanes. >> Yeah. >> And so if the first one we list is hurricanes and people are saying, "Oh, okay. That's kind of what I think." So
I'm I'm on board so far, you know. >> Uh so I think there is an advantage to starting where >> that's fine. Yeah. I mean >> you want to present no particular order but in some logical order. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. Yeah. Right. Exactly. I mean it Yeah.
>> Does this generally address the goal of having more about the threats up front? >> I think so. >> I think so. I think I think it I I I think that I think that makes sense. I mean, you're reticent to quantify them, >> but it's too early for that because we
haven't even discussed the methodology and how we do that. It takes >> takes a few pages to get there. >> Yeah. >> Okay, good. Well, feel free to review it and provide any more comments. >> Yeah. So, the And does the UMass part
precede this or what's the order? >> No, this is this is the first couple of chapters. >> Okay. So, >> seven, right? >> Yes. >> Okay. Okay. Okay. >> Between there and between those sections, we have this I'll call it profile of the five
>> resource areas, asset areas, the people in health, the water, the, uh, infrastructure. So, um, those have been, you know, pretty well described for a while, but we've had some kind of a wish
list of things that we'd like to try and get in there. and Dia has gone through and identified some of the gaps. Um, and I thought it would be worthwhile just at this table to put them out there and see if anybody has suggestions of where to look or who to talk to.
>> Yeah, go ahead. >> So, um, one thing we have is, you know, people in health, we have the general, what is Westport's population, what is the trend in population? And um we've noted that obviously summer population goes up. Is
there any way of quantifying that? >> So yeah, I can follow up with kind of like census data, but if anyone has any other resources that can indicate summer population total or we're also looking for any kind of charts that can show the change in summer populations. Um and
then somebody was also asking for predictive populations for the time horizons of 2030, 2015, 2070, which are the horizons of the resilient mass another state. um documents uh follow. So >> So there's there's nothing like the
census which measures year round population uh for summer. >> We we have the board of selectman has used the same figures for a long time. It's all anecdotal basically >> and that is that we add 10,000 people in the summer.
>> And the reason we do that I think is becau well because there's some number right who knows but >> if you get to 25,000 and you divide it by 5,000 that means you can have five liquor stores in town. >> Okay.
>> I think there was some reasoning there. That's but but I don't I've never seen any proper accounting of our change in population throughout the summer. >> So is there a way to capture that? >> So okay my question for y'all is if there is a way to capture that I can
look into that. Do we feel like we want these reflection these populations reflected um in the report the summer population. >> I I think that's significant. if we could find that number. Now, Mike said, "Okay, be careful because there's a trigger here that has policy
implications." >> But if there were a way to capture uh summer population, >> this is a different town in the summer, >> right? And it's how do you describe the winter town and how do you describe the
summer town? >> And I think it's going to be important from the standpoint of when hurricanes hit the area, right? Yeah, >> it's only an August, September time frame where the most powerful ones are coming up. >> So, >> as a town, we need to be ready and prepared to deal with another 10 or
15,000 residents or whatever that >> because we're a much bigger town uh during the early part of hurricane. That's a really good point. So I so our >> I just asked my phone what the answer to the question was >> and uh and I don't know who puts this
out and it says it increases by uh uh 25%. By summer re summer population is nearly increased by one quarter >> by summer residents. >> That's 4,000. >> Yeah. And that comes from the town's website actually. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. Sing from the town's website.
Let's just I saw that too. Let's just use >> Yeah. >> 25%. >> You could look at You could do that. You could look at the non resident tax role. >> I was going to ask, are there some kinds of metrics that could go? >> So, we have we have we know who the residents are because they they respond to the census, but we have the
non-resident tax role >> and you could just multiply the number of households by two. >> It's on Yeah, it's on their website >> and see if how that works, you know, >> for an estimate. Yeah. >> Um I was going to ask if like beach permits would give me any indication to us or No, >> because that's only Well, that could No,
that's summer residents and that's anybody that owns property. >> So, would that give us, you know, all the beach permits like you could take from our population estimates in the winter, subtract and get another kind of >> Well, if you looked at the beach permits that were non-resident, you could make a
guess as to, but not not everybody gets a beach permit. Some people go to Baker's Beach, they don't need a beach permit. >> Well, and just just a side note, I know we have members from 37 states. >> Okay. >> Wow. we can get to approximations and then we'll have a more
>> educated guess instead of just what the AI says. So, I'm looking into both those um the non-resident tax rule and non-resident beach permits just for estimates. >> Yeah. Well, I think it would be good to see if we >> through whatever, but I think Mike's
suggestion on tax roles, you know, which is everybody versus census, which is some people >> try to find occupancy data and um >> you got to figure out for house. >> I don't know if the >> ask please.
>> Yeah. >> No, not not in building. I mean, I just, you know, maybe you could send an email over to if someone has a contact at any of the hotels, see what their typical summer occupancy rate is. They'll respond.
>> Well, from the census, you get number of parcels and number of people, >> right? So, from that you get average number of people per parcel and then, >> right? >> Yeah. average household size
>> or average household size and then you might make an assumption that that would be similar in the summer >> although summer might be bigger because it's family together and stuff. Uh but then
you could get from the tax roles the uh uh summer population and then you could apply, you know, if it's 2.5 people per house, then you'd multiply times 2.5 and you'd get summer population. But but I
think what we're saying is that gives you one source for summer population. And if we had three sources for summer population, we'd probably get a more accurate figure. >> And I don't know if you know of any
other um town planners or administrators and any other communities on the Cape. I'm sure from an economic standpoint they've done similar sorts of modeling or how they were able to address that either outside of the tax rules, but I mean I'm sure the you go out to whatever sandwich or any of those communities
were born and I'm sure they've probably done something because it was beneficial to them in the government standpoint. >> Let's just keep we've got a lot of gaps and the report doesn't live or die on this one. So, >> um don't go to the end of the earth. >> We can ask some people though. I mean we can ask the >> keep going then we were just talking
last year. >> Do you mention population projections and and yes the the climate projections go out 2030 2050 2070 is there value to us having projections for for Westport in terms of population and if so what
are those? I found one projection in the housing report which shows actually population declining from 2020 16 339 down to 15468 by 2035. That's almost a thousand people lost. I'm not sure
what's driving that. >> Um because it seems to me 2020 was just before CO co facilitated a lot of work from home. CO facilitated a lot of people transitioning to permanent residency in Westport and deciding Westport would be a nice place to work
from home. So I don't know if we're going to see population decline, >> but I don't know of any other projections or ways to >> make projections. >> Projection was pulling from the denial census. So um the American Community Survey
released five year estimates just I think last year. So maybe you could do a uh projection analysis with the ACS survey data, although it's not as fine grained as the the destinial census. So,
we can we can look into it, but there may be a way to get get a a more refined number for you. >> And again, I don't think the report lives or dies by >> Sure. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> What's next to you?
>> Well, the last population little figure that I still haven't gotten is households in the flood zone. properties in the flood zone. I think that's so important. So I GIS estimate >> just put the flood zone over the parcels and just >> can the GIS spit out those counts.
>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And we can even use it as a map if we wanted to, but um that can be something. Yeah. But that's on me too. >> Okay, great. >> And then >> that I think is important. >> Um the next section that I thought there's a gap is vulnerable populations and neighborhoods. This is kind of a
subsection of the people in health chapter and what's at stake. Um, so Kim Patella brings up a good point for this section. Are we going to focus just on the EJ population or on vulnerable populations present in Westport including veterans and the older aging population? What basically happened in
this part of the report is we talked about the EJ population and then it ends with a section on elders and Kim's like, I feel like this doesn't flow with the report. I feel like it should just focus on EJ. So, that's up to what the committee. Um, should that vulnerable populations and neighborhoods section
kind of just be an EJ population subsection or should we highlight what the committee thinks are other vulnerable populations in Westport? >> I think in the current draft it starts this section certain populations in Westport maybe >> elderly low income. Right.
>> Right. So it it talks about vulnerable population then specifically talks about how the state identifies >> EJ >> EJ populations and that we have one. Um but I think for purposes of the report we're going to be going back to you know is this a threat that affects
particularly the elderly or young >> Yeah. Right. Pregnant women like the very young the very old. Well I thought our EJ area is only EJ based on income. >> Right. right? Which is then
which um whereas the other categories that we're talking about, you know, span the whole income range, but not not to say that people in lower incomes, you know, might be more vulnerable because of access to healthcare or other things, but just in terms
>> Yeah. Well, I think it's everyone in the EJ area is vulnerable because there it is as you say poverty and that is a big disability. >> Yeah. >> But then you want to add to that
>> uh as Westport is an aging population uh elderly and uh when you're talking about being able to escape or risk disabled uh people. the Commission on Disabilities might have
a um a list or population of that. Um and you obviously you find uh seniors all over the uh town, >> right?
>> Same with people with uh disabilities. So you would try and figure out do you add those things together? And then you might get duplication because there are elders in the EJ area,
you know, that kind of thing. >> But I don't think we should just restrict it to the EJ. >> Okay. >> And I can edit that section to flow a little better. So it's not like every older people, EJ back to older people. We'll make it flow better.
>> Reach out to commission on disabilities, too. And I think that the the issue you have, as John pointed out, you have such a the demographic you're dealing with is spread out throughout the entire town. And we've saw it with this last storm. We have people that were on down
private lanes that either couldn't access health care or get their medicines or various other. And that was all throughout the town, you know, Pine Hill, main north end, south end. So it's difficult to figure out where those vulnerable people are because it is so spread out and there are people that are
in so many different areas. But the perfect example was what we just kind of experienced and sort of just kind of firsthand. So um you know I think of the vulnerable with respect to their location, but I know we're talking about from their demographic standpoint. I
mean obviously the vulnerability is with the larger storms closest to the closest to the ocean but um with so you pointing out it's going to be difficult to kind of pinpoint because it's spread out throughout all areas of >> town
>> what's next for you >> how many miles of shoreline you >> there just a couple things I think we could add to water related one there's this whole issue 45 and 35 miles of shoreline Somebody called us out that we had two
things. So, we have to address that. I thought if anyone from the water subcommittee and I can also do this, too. I thought it might be helpful to just have a line or two about our cold water streams and um a paragraph on Deval Forge and Allen's pond. Um so,
that that can be just super minimal. It's it's just setting the scene of Westport. So, I felt like those were the two features that weren't included. >> Yeah, we included ponds. Yeah, >> in fact on the ponds is one of our risks. But yeah, that'd be great. >> But in terms of describing them, >> yeah,
>> where we can find something like pond, right? >> So we'll take that out. >> So just the volen forge. >> So dia, I have a suggested answer for some of these things based on my experience. Mhm.
>> Uh when I had to get a fishery resource disaster uh enacted, they said, "You have to provide an economic report." I was working at the Commerce Department. I said, "Great. The Census Bureau's right downstairs. I'll just go to the Census
Bureau." And I go down, get somebody said, "How many fishermen are there in the bedroom?" He said, "200." So I go back to the assistant secretary saying, "The census is not going to be helpful." and he said, "All right, well, if you're having a hard time getting information,
uh, then here's my advice. Guess." >> Now, another word for guess is estimate. >> And you are a government official. >> So, when you guess estimate, it's an official government estimate, which
sounds a hell of a lot better than guess. >> Yeah. So sometimes you're going to like the miles of shoreline. >> Yeah. >> I thought that's where the word guesstimate came from. >> This might apply to the shellfishing
too. We might need slightly updated shellfishing. I think I reached out to DMF and they didn't see anything as >> well. Well, they count. >> Yeah. >> Our guys should know. >> Yeah. >> So just going back to So we're talking about describing these resource areas, right? We've got a discussion of the
river. We've got a discussion of the the 8 miles of ocean shoreline. Uh we we don't have anything currently talking about the cold water streams. Um and they're significant. So you the question is where could we turn to for some information about that? Does anybody
>> Well, we can we can >> we know >> Yeah, we know we we know which we know which streams have been designated callers. We know why they >> what the significance of them are and Maybe if I reach out to you template, you'd be able to like populate it. I can put it back in. >> Yeah.
>> Okay. >> Can't AI look at a chart or a map of Westport with the river and the shore and then you say how many miles of shoreline? >> You I think uh I can I can confirm with the watershed alliance too, but AI can
probably >> well >> do that as well. There's a number. It's not. It's that number is in a number of places and it's not important that it be precise. >> The shoreline number is not important at all. >> The shoreline is not >> consistent. Yeah, >> it is.
>> But you say for for cold water fisheries, you just go up and talk to Chris Capone. >> Gotcha. He has >> I thought it was just Angeline and Cornell. I'm wrong. There are more than >> No, it's about seven. and it's half of the more than half of
the cold water streams in southeastern mass. >> Then the last thing for water is uh I just saw there was some really key information in the infrastructures groundwater section that I thought um we could reflect in the existing chapter. There's already kind of a lot. So I don't want to over or over inundate the
section with too much information but since we're still in the draft phase I'm like okay bring in what's relevant Chris and we can pair it down make it better. So we can do that part two. Now on to the infrastructure section here where here's where I'm struggling filling the gaps. Um I'm working on something with
the dance with Jeff. So I'm going to leave that out of this discussion. But I do for Eversource and National Grid. I got the National Grid customer but not the Eversource. So I'm like do we want to reflect just one half, not the other? Do we want to make a guesstimate based off the National Grid numbers?
>> What's the what's the context deal with the >> This is the infrastructure chapter. We're just kind of laying out who services what for utilities in town. So I have customer accounts for national grid but not >> Yeah. public utilities. >> Best ever.
>> You have the number of accounts. Is that what you're saying? >> Or I have like the customer count for the n for national grid westport national grid customers. It's 993 households. >> But don't we don't we as a like conglomerate buy our energy? Doesn't
everyone have to opt out of that? Couldn't you use the like the constellation energy that or whatever it is that we do every year? >> You okay? Wait. Um I will need direction the con. >> So right now Westport kind of aggregates all their power uh customers no matter
if they're in Eversource or if they're in National Grid. So the letter goes out every year and you actually have to opt out of that. >> So the majority of the people I would think probably stay in it because it is actually ends up here cheaper. >> Uh so I just don't know. I probably should, but I don't know exactly who
puts that out or who controls that. But I mean, I'm sure whoever we have the contract with, they send a letter out every year. They could tell you specifically how many have opted into it and or haven't opted out of it. They're they're going to know the numbers because they know who opted out and know who who's in it, right? >> So that'll give you the total number
across both Eversource and National Grid. Um, would I be contacting this third party who we're contracting with or is this somebody >> or the others with the green communities designation? Can't remember. >> That's who does it or could do it.
>> Who should have that? >> Okay, that's probably your reason is because you never you never big utilities right now. >> The green communities designation. >> Yeah, I I have I have her contacted. I'll just have to make >> I want to go backwards for a sec. Back to water.
>> Yeah. Um I I don't remember the exact percentage, but I've heard from the Buzzard Bay coalition that Westport has half of the marsh land in Buzzard's Bay. And as that is one of the things that
threat uh I I think that information about uh you know that's amazing that one town has half of 1 1,000 acres. >> Yeah. >> Yes. So, >> and and so uh Buzzard's Bay is may be
the uh source for that kind of and who knows they may have information on miles. >> I think that's you're on to something there because maybe a call to them to see what Westport specific data or >> anything that they have just about Westport
>> we wouldn't find in other streams. I mean they've got that >> well we've published the watersheds published these numbers thousand acres of watershed I mean of salt marsh x number of miles and I don't know what our source is but that's what we've been using for a long time. Wow,
repetition. >> You guys got it. Must be good. >> Back to infrastructure. I think we need the in infrastructure committee to maybe expand a little bit on natural gas in town and a little bit on Wi-Fi telecoms in town. We don't really have much for
those two subsections. >> I don't the natural gas like I ask people, do you have natural gas? Right. They don't, you know. So, and the the pro part of the problem here again is you have the private lanes. So nobody's running natural gas down most of those private lanes. Okay. >> So I don't I don't even know where it
>> it comes down from the north and it stops it stops someplace on drift road. It stopped some place on >> people with propane tanks. So is that natural gas? >> But what are you trying to what are you trying to accomplish with that statement? >> I was just going to ask actually are these even numbers that we want reflected in the report? How many people
are relying on different kinds of utilities? I think I think you probably only care on the utility point if you have a major storm like we did where people have out of utilities and how long that would impact them from. >> So my thinking is if we know where it is and let people know where it is. I
presumably if you have access to it you have you're tapped into it but maybe not. Um so there may be people who don't know that they have access to natural gas which could allow them to feed an emergency generator. So that I think that's the driver for wanting to know
about where the lines are, how far they go, how many people are tapped in, how many people are located along the line but not tapped in >> and that that would the utility should be able to provide. >> They have tried.
>> Yeah, we've tried. They're very uh >> that's Liberty, right? That doesn't >> a full river. Yeah, but you but you also have propane and we're really talking about interruption of service whether it's electricity or anything else. >> Propane's accessible to anybody who wants to pay for it.
>> Except that when you get a storm like we had >> I know I get a call saying we're not servicing you with propane unless you shovel out to your propane tanks. >> And so if you can't shovel out, you know, there's a potential for
interruption of service. >> Yeah. But I think the point is there may be there may be people in town who don't know that they have access to natural gas and could put in an emergency generator. >> So find out where the natural gas where the connection points are
>> and where they right but then in terms of propane it feels like we might not be able to get data. But maybe we can include a line about what to do if you're a propane user. >> Propane is everything else. >> Oh, okay. Everything. So, >> I mean, they're going to have some homes that have actually gone all electric
with some of the new technology, but everywhere else is propane. And you they should be able to provide you with a map and it it's pretty much comes down from the north. It stops somewhere here. It stops somewhere on G Road, stops somewhere on Horsenneck Road >> and f it's further up north on the
Sanford side. But there is a there is a map and they should as as a town entity, we are entitled to know where our utilities are. So, we should be able to obtain that. And just from emergency response perspective, we need to know that >> it may be easier if I know the private
entities that do the consulting for the dig safe that are always coming out and marking. Maybe that's an opportunity for you to reach out to them and they might have an easy map easily available >> since you are government agency. You can reach out to them and see what they say.
>> Good idea. >> And then how about Wi-Fi telecoms? Do we feel like the infrastructure committee would be able to maybe give a paragraph on that or do we want to maybe take that from the >> Well, we had a committee on uh Wi-Fi and
internet. >> I I don't know when the last time was they met. They must have collected some information and it was a town committee. >> So there there is highspeed fiber optic running around town here. We don't
>> looking for some description of that system. >> Actually, the more I think about this project, it seems to be it would be a huge benefit obviously to the community finding out all these >> uh you know, it's always been anecdotal as what's where, what's that? Do we have
natural gas, do we have that, what's so >> appreciate putting the effort in on this. >> So, so a description of the highspeed fiber optic system, which >> Yeah. And is that uninterruptible? Is that continued despite electrical power
loss or >> the problem with that is we're probably mostly spectrum or chart or whatever they call spectrum now. I mean if line goes down, right, if your electricity goes out they run along the power lines. >> Yeah. But if you lose the power then you lose your modems. So that's part of the
problem. >> Who who else would I connect with that? Uh besides the Wi-Fi committee, um who's who who's the who's the provider? name call was >> uh Spectrum. >> Good luck with that. >> Okay. Yeah, I'm assuming it's going to be the same as reaching out to these
other guys. Not >> that might be worse. >> It's probably they would consider that proprietary information like how many households are you? >> But there's no competition for them to lose. >> I know. But still just as a matter of you know >> but do you the cable committee would
have a contact that they deal with to to do the contract each >> year whatever however often. >> Okay. connect with them as well. Um, public buildings, I've requested a followup, um, which, uh, they just got
back to me after, so I'll put plug that in. Um, chapter six, >> we're talking about an inventory of town buildings and properties. >> I've got that. Um, I'll skip chapter six for now because that's the chapter. Uh once we review chapter six, I'm
wondering how our chapter 7 as it exists kind of can combine or be absorbed into the new chapter because that talks about how we and west can be interacted which um I'm pretty sure chapter six and chapter 7 have like the same intention just how what is westb facing what are
we expecting? I think everything's being folded into the US chapter, >> right? Then there's another, you know, now's our convention is getting a little out of hand. It's again listed as chapter 7, but this is assessing risk to Westport. Um, we need an introduction to the risk assessment methodology if we
feel like that's relevant for people to know kind of how we approach ranking these. Um, we want to clean up 7.1 as to not repeat with the UMD chapter. And then I need I believe this is the beginnings of the health chapter. We need the aerial allergens and mold subsection.
So I don't know Phil if you >> subsection written. >> Yeah, there's nothing written for aerero allergens and mold. It goes in from extreme heat vector transmitted disease and then just that one section just didn't have anything. So >> not in the report that I wrote. >> Oh yeah, I'll go back and check.
>> I just noticed it. It wasn't in the report that was drafted, but it's in the report that I wrote. >> Yeah, I'll go back and check. Yeah. Okay, >> but I'll reach out if I don't see it there cuz I'm >> Yeah, because it's I think it's the third one there and I have data on asthma >> admissions and
um >> it would just be on asthma the asthma. Well, it's it what what they there's an air quality they separate I'm talking about the state regional report separates air quality
um you know looking at pollutants and then they have a separate section on uh allergens and mold and that's also how I broke out the risk part of it when I did the risk assessment.
So, and uh I can loan you my my version. >> I'm sorry. >> But I think you should have electronic version of it. >> Yeah, >> this is good. And then the rest of chapter 7 needs to be um completed by
the subcommittees using the template just created. >> Okay. >> And then the last thing before we move on to that template and chapter 6 UFD is just the chapters eight and n are about strategies to reduce risk and goals and actions. So just like you know what's
identifier and what the difference between eight and n is. >> Yes. So um let's talk about item five here. So this is a template for the write up on assessing the risks and
we've gone through the scoring and I think we have all the scoring now. Now we have to present the results in the report and I don't think it needs to be really long. Uh we have a brief introduction. How did we do it? Uh it's
about 10 lines, three bullet points. Uh and then it goes section by section. People in health, infrastructure, water, etc. So the people in health, you know, Westport residents, including visitors and non-residents working in Westport may be at risk from a range of climate related threats, the primary threats
evaluated shown in table X along with the CRC's assessment of the risk. So that is these tables that we've kind of mocked up, right? Yeah. with each of these risks and the rating and it'll be colorcoded.
>> So, um so what I see is in health, uh there are about 10 or so climate impacts which are rated high, medium, and low. And then water there's 15 to 20, but I don't see
the ratings for that yet. >> No. And I I didn't really want to get into the ratings themselves here before how we present the results. So each of the subcommittees has the ratings as they stand. >> Yeah. >> I think we need a brief discussion of each of these impacts. So for health there's
>> 10 say 10 a brief discussion why it's rated the way there some kind of justification. All right. And I think we >> we have that. >> I think I tried to give that to you. >> Yes, you have. >> Yeah. Yeah. Um, and I'm just asking if
we send this template around to each of the five subcommittees, if they could take the ratings and drop them in here and then pull together that justification that >> one sentence or two on >> whatever it takes. But that would really help us, you know, having to go through and do it for each of those five
sections. >> Yeah. and and do we have the impacts on agriculture and infrastructure and historic sites? We've got all those. So, uh it's just a question of dropping in the high, medium, and lows.
>> Yes. >> And then explaining each one. >> Yes. >> Okay. So I when I did mine um I had a comment on um the categories of coordination
and government resources and um and I've left those blank in mind because >> everyone >> there just should be one. Yeah. I mean, I put something in because just from
being on a bunch of different things, you know, but particularly with the board of health, I think there's really good coordination among that. >> But in terms of the government resources part of it, I just think if we were going to try to describe that as a committee, it should be a a committee
because that's all about the money really in part. But I just didn't think that it made sense for the different communities, different subcommittees on the resources is if this threat >> could impact town resources either by
taking properties off the tax roles or due to damage or loss or by requiring, you know, a major outpouring of resources to respond to respond and recover. Right. >> Right. And then the coordination is do
we have uh adequate uh skill set in town? Do we have enough coordination with uh the state state resources and among the other departments? >> Right. >> So if there are gaps there >> I think
you know significant ones ought to be flagged. >> Yeah. I I I am just I was just um so to speak admitting I don't feel personally competent to
answer those questions. But if you put together um like some of the criteria that like I I would never think of taking taxpayers I mean I wouldn't even know how to get there without the D. I mean to actually come up with okay let's assume that a
certain number of people died in you know in a hurricane or I mean it would seem to really get to that kind of quantitative analysis. I mean I would not not know how to do that. >> I think we should only elevate it you know from >> average to high if it if there's an obvious
>> Yeah. Well, anyway, I was just trying to pass the buck and just say, you know, anything I put down would just be purely speculative, except for my experience, you know, which is I know the board of health coordinates really well with
police and fire and those kinds of things which you would think of. uh and generally speaking, you know, the town administration and the planning board and I mean, so there's a lot of communication that goes on. So I feel really comfortable about that part in
saying that at least as far as border health and con those you know people who work in this building and but in terms of um analyzing the resource part of it which I think is really important um you know I just I don't have a handle on that
>> but to contrast that maybe something like groundwater saline intrusion is something that is kind of on the horizon we haven't really dealt with it a lot we we don't know what other people are doing we don't know how we would address that. That may be a bigger gap. >> Well, I did enter I won't go I so I I
did enter an opinion about that which I didn't know whether water or infrastructure necessarily agreed with but I had my own opinion about it um as to you know you know as to where that
>> you know where that ranked. So, >> but uh Jeff I'm uh maybe not understanding this take uh extreme heat uh the impact from extreme heat is individuals die but is there an impact on the town? Well, you got to send an
ambulance. Um and but doesn't affect property values and it's an extreme impact but it may not be an extreme impact on the town. So, uh, so what are we after here? Only if it affects the
town because somebody dying of heat stroke doesn't really affect the town that much. >> But hey, it sure as hell affects the person who dies of heat stroke, >> right? I mean, if we went forward and said, "Yeah, we need to, you know, create an emergency shelter in, you
know, in, you know, in three or four sections of the town and have that, you know, uh, have that ready to be manned and, well, we, you know, we need more emergency response vehicles and all that." I mean, you could pick out, you
know, you could pick out um, you know, certain things. who just was given the timeline and I don't know it's uh which is why I thought okay well
anyway so I I would need some guidance to go ahead and get something that would be responsive to what you were looking for by way of criteria >> description of what these two >> well just yeah yeah because it's a to me it was just a very open-ended topic and
if you would say even if uh >> okay >> I'll send out some guidance. I just think it was like okay well how would we respond to uh how much would it would cost to for us to respond to X if you really wanted quantitative data uh about that that
kind of thing >> should uh should these two the more demand for government service and more need for policy coordination which is if it isn't in every single one of the categories it's in several of them >> it's in each of the five
>> yeah so should should they be taken out of five groups and just handled separately. So you're only writing about coordination a and uh more demand once you're not writing about a five. >> I think it makes sense.
>> I think the nature of that is going to change depending on the threat. You know, if you look at wildfire, for example, if we didn't have the ability to, if we had a big wildfire, we didn't have the ability right now, just hypothetically, to call in mutual support from other towns,
>> we would identify that as a policy coordination gap perhaps, >> but we have that. So maybe that's not as elevated as it would be otherwise. Well, I'm still wondering,
you know, when we finish this report, the first question is going to be how are you going to implement that? How's the town going to implement it? How are individuals going to implement it? And one of the answers to that question, how
are you going to implement it is uh well, there has to be policy coordination which this report has attempted to do right because this report has agriculture, water, forest,
fire, etc., etc. So, it has tried to integrate all those things and there has to be a way that the town uses that report to help coordinate policy. >> Yeah. >> Does that make sense?
>> Yes. Um, I'm just saying that in in these sections, we're trying to identify if if there is a fiscal threat to the town or if there is a threat that is due to a lack of well-developed policy coordination. >> You know, are we going to be sitting
here twiddling our thumbs because we don't know what to do when one of these threats arises, or are we reasonably prepared? we've connected with other resources. We kind of know what to do. And I would say unless there's an
obvious gap there, let's not make everything high high. Donna, >> just um as a resident um at looking at the coordination using the um snowstorm
as an example of that and what resources were used and what was maybe missing. I I think that if we use that as an example that will help us sort of formulate and and instruct the select board, the powers that be on how they
need to prepare. So I would have a conversation with whoever was on the team, the disaster team at the time. I think it was the the chief of >> Yeah. The emergency management study that just got published, right? >> Yeah.
>> Right. And then and then talked to the the new um town administrator who helped orchestrate everything and and you know worked with his communication to get supplies that were needed. So I think that would be a good example to use as
we're formulating um that coordination of service piece um so that we can then guide the select order what to do and not do in the future. Well, maybe you know we we talked about how
there are three reports that are related. Uh the hazard mitigation report, the emergency management report, both those are done right. uh and our report and and so
could you say that the emergency management report actually lays out how you the town does policy coordination >> and we refer to that in climate resil as the >> yeah so we don't have to reinvent that
we say policy coordination is >> is the justification for that for the emergency mergency management report, >> right? >> We don't need to duplicate it. >> And if those reports identify gaps, then we can report those together as well. >> Exactly.
>> And I think they did a great job of coordinating. Um and and certainly if people in the community felt otherwise, we want to take their feedback and look at that as a way to proceed to fill in some of those those gaps that you're
talking about. >> All right. I just had a something we covered before and this is for Dia and Michael. >> The Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities might be your one-stop shop for both the natural gas and electricity. And I'm not saying just
call them directly. Maybe reach out to Senator Robert's office. >> I'm sure they'd have a uh someone that can communicate with you in contact with directly and it may take care of natural gas and electricity all at once so you're not chasing all that stuff. But
>> I would start with Senator Robert's office. they'll they'll direct you. We'll probably have a good contact there for you. >> Here are the questions we have and we think DPU might answer them, but if you could forward these questions uh to DPU, we'd
probably get quicker and better answers. >> Yeah, >> it may save you time. >> Yeah, >> sounds good. and and looking at this and as a resident um sometimes the things that we put in here
as a resource are no longer a resource. So I'm just looking at um are in health that we identified the are you okay program and my understanding is the sheriff's department is now removing
funds from that so that won't be available. So I I also think that that's one of the things that and that's recent. It was just recently um uh posted. So >> um for us to also be aware before we go to publish this to make sure those
resources we're identifying are still funded. >> Yeah, I think you saw it should be done by local police department. So this conversation reminded me of of the point I make is distinguished from
the example maybe that I that that I gave which is the activities that would require for from a a health perspective like just more infrastructure like heating
like you know cooling centers um or vehicles. But then the staffing part of it in terms of resources, just again speaking from the board of health's perspective,
you know, which is that if we were really going to take climate change >> as a priority for us to plan it and implement it. There just simply is not enough. you would have to have a
dedicated person, you know, depending to say, "Yeah, this is this is your job, you know, this is your responsibility to do this >> or, you know, to work with other people in the town, you know, to implement these things." And um so
>> but this this is this is addressing the baseline level of the threat. >> Yes. Is does it have the potential to significantly impact resources? >> Okay. Not all right. >> Not do we have the funds to go forward. >> Okay. I see. Okay. All right. Okay.
>> So, just going back to the Yes. Let's finalize the rankings. >> Yeah. >> And let's ask each of the This is the ask between now and April 30th. >> Yeah. >> For each of the subcommittees to use this template, >> drop in the threats
>> here and their assessment and then to write a brief justification of why this is high, why this is medium, and why this is >> Okay. >> All right. Mhm. >> We'll send out a reminder email with the template and the rankings. So, >> okay. >> Yep.
>> Mike, >> so with a number of the committees like infrastructure, Bob D is going to write down his thing and then he's going to talk to himself about whether he thinks they're right. >> Sounds like it. >> Right. And same with Wendy Nicholas on historic sites and structure. She's
going to write it down and then talk to herself about it. you've got a really active and larger committee. So, I don't know whether you're going to uh put a draft ranking and then send it out to people by email and say what do you
think or how or whether you want to have a meeting. >> That's what you're looking for is a is a ranking of our issues from our committee. >> Not I wouldn't say it's a ranking because high, medium, and low. So, there might be several highs and so I'm not
Yeah. Yeah. >> We don't care about among two highs. We want more. >> Okay. >> So, if you already have your rankings and you've >> Oh, we had our rankings, but we we added a couple at the end, but then we got
that never got addressed and and we we used to use a numerical approach that really wasn't didn't distinguish >> didn't have demarcations for high, medium, and low. We'll do that. >> Okay. Fantastic. Okay.
All right. So, that brings us to the latest piece that we've gotten. This chapter five, climate change impacts in the town of Westport, Mass, prepared by our friends at UMass. And this is about uh believe it's nine pages with some
charts. Um eight. >> Has anybody had a chance to go through this? >> Yeah. I had one of the same comments you did on the paragraph
on uh temperature predictions where it was confusing the bottom of that page. Uh coastal areas are expected to have between 25 to 30% days per year which doesn't make any sense. Is it 25
number 25% and days per year of what and by when? Uh, but you had a bunch of other comments too that I thought were really good. >> I did >> on this. I think their charts are good,
but like you I think if it could be made a little bigger, they'd be more informative. The flood zone stuff, for example, you need a microscope. for a better color to really see what the uh what
they're saying. >> Yeah, that was um this is where I think we either don't use these exact charts, but we take some of the numbers and make them more graphically appealing and intuitive um because these are very scientific
seems to me. Well, I think you know we we've talked about how when you do projections, we can get there's one on whatever page it is temperature predictions observed and projected
temperature change that shows, you know, 1900 to the present and then it projects out to 2100. And so you can see in the orange dashed line actual readings and then you can
see lower emission scenarios and higher emission scenarios. And where we've gotten bogged down in the past is people arguing about whether we should use a higher emission ratio or a lower emission one. >> Yeah. But this chart, you know, when you
look at the orange line of actual data, it seems to track more with the higher emissions than it does with the lower. But, you know, people different people can look at that chart and see and draw their own conclusions. But it's useful
because it marries historical data with uh with projections. And I I just uh you and I have talked a lot, Jeff. We we don't want to get bogged down on debates like that. But I think this chart, you know,
>> the chart's excellent. You know what the problem is? We can't do that chart for sea level rise. >> Yeah. Oh, yeah. >> Why is that? >> Because we haven't had much sea level rise >> because it would it would show that the sea level rise is not even on the low projection. >> Yeah. So I would suggest that quite
separate from this report that uh maybe you John as the chairman of this committee reach out to um I don't know if it's energy and environment that that puts this stuff out Jeff and just ask the question respectfully when will we
get an update because 2030 is only 40 four years away >> and that is we're 80% into a foot and a third expectation of sea level rise. And we have actually onetenth of that. >> So what should we be using? >> Maybe we could ask Nefelli and you know
through her everyone at UMD because we've got a lot of smart people there. Is there a counterpart on sea level rise to this uh temperature change chart? >> If if we did the we we could write that
chart today. We could do that chart today except without the bands, but we could show the the and I've done it. We can show the prediction which is 20 from 2007 to 2030, 2050, 2070. >> It's not tracking at all. And so we
can't show that chart because it would it we that's why I'm suggesting that we we respectfully ask the state if and when they will be providing us with more a more updated projection. Well, you know, just on on that point, there is uh
they're doing that they're planning to do that in 2026. Update the 2022 23 reports. >> But but this is a this is this is a report that is from 2008,
>> 2007. They're still using that projection. If they're going to change if they're going to change to a different model, it would be wonderful to know that. I I think uh >> I see >> um because uh UNMD is basing so much of
their information on state stuff, >> it may I think I'm going to write Nelli and say when is the next update and >> perfect >> and everybody likes the chart on temperature change it, you know, is
there something similar on on sea level because on The temperature change just shows facts and two projections and people can look at the chart, make up their own mind where it's at. Do we have something like that on sea level?
>> Yeah. And and because they're plugged into the state being a state institution, they may say here's what the chart looks like and there's an anomaly or they may say we got an update coming in six months or whatever. But I
I'll I'll ask That's awesome. >> Just to go back to the temperature piece, which is why which is what I mentioned before out of out of sequence, you know, is that um and it relates, you
know, to what um the paragraph that you were talking about and how my question related to um the uh the regional numbers because the wherever it is like the second page
Yeah. No. Yeah. On this. Yeah. But I was just looking uh because the regional report um you know for those days over >> um 90 has you know in 2030 there are
four days and in 2050 there are nine days and uh you know in 2070 you know. So they actually they have real numbers AC from 90 95 and above 100 and it certainly doesn't translate you know
into um you know the the numbers that are reflected here. So it seems that it is worth asking them how that how that correlates. Phil, if you if you
want to provide a comment on that and link to the state coast and island report, we can we can find out. >> Yeah, because you know they have that um uh what do they call dashboard. So these are the dashboard numbers when you plug
in for Westport. This is what comes up. This this thing that I put in mine >> and I think this is um anyway. Yeah. So, >> so >> and then it raised me, well, should I
put this in the report if they're going to how much, you know, how much between what I have in the report for things like this and >> which is more an editorial kind of thing. >> So, John and I have already got some comments and questions and please please review this and if you have others,
let's get them in as well. She's indicated they're willing to try and address them. >> So, maybe it's semantics. >> Yeah. >> Okay. It's a funny story about this chart which I won't bother to bore you with
now, but it had me calling the head of the EA uh and telling them that there's two reports were just was contradictory about this chart. They had to change it. I don't think they ever did though. They admitted that
they told me that they were going to change it. And I'll I'll just ask too, are there other charts or illustrations like what is sea level rise? How does that >> Mhm. >> you know, how does that impact us? Um
that we we would like to have in here because there's still time to get some charts generated or illustrations drawn. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> People want to see pictures. I included a
historic sea level chart in the my pre my pre- report of my problem statement which basically showed sea level rise over many thousands of years but it leveled off till very recently
in this interglacial period. So but that's that's a that's not going to help you. It's a good chart, but I'm not going to help you with your this chapter. >> All right. What else you got, Jeff? >> Um, >> is that it? >> I think we talked about uh a lot of the
gaps and I think the GIS stuff is going to be really helpful. Um, should we send out a recap of the the gaps we still have? And >> Sure, I can send that out because I just sent that to Jeff a couple hours before the meeting. I can follow up with
everyone on kind of what the subcommittee next tasks are before April 30th, the existing gaps and kind of mostly with me, but like if there are some subcommittee help that I need um and the UMD chapter I can send out. >> If there were actions we identified here on those gaps, let's put them down so we don't forget.
>> Yep. Yep. Um, in terms of graphics and images, I feel like um, we don't, my personal opinion is it doesn't seem like we would need to. I I feel like we have time to get the right selection of graphics and charts for this. I I don't feel like we're on a time crunch is my
impression. Would you agree or would you feel like there's a crunch? Because we haven't we don't even we haven't set up for our final formatting or anything. So, I feel like once we're setting up for final formatting, that's when that feels more relevant. We want the final images and graphics to be included, but we're not really close to
that step right now. So, to me, I I feel like that's one thing we can take a breath on. >> So, it's uh tables, uh graphs, and photographs as well. >> Photographs, yeah, we started, we have a drive um with them, but um I would
definitely like to see more um either from committee members or just members of the public really. So I know um I I don't remember when I read the latest iteration of agriculture. If you could send me that I appreciate it. >> Okay.
>> But when Joseph did his uh presentation at the graange >> um he had various recommendations and like one of them was don't leave fields uhow over the winter. plant a
cover crop to reduce erosion. That's just one recommendation. But what he also did, which I thought was really important, was he then had photographs of farms that are doing that in Westport. Uh and so sometimes when you
have recommendations, people's first reaction is, "Oh, we can't do that." And so when you get to that, if we have photographs of actually it's being done here already, it it boosts people's confidence. Oh, we
can do this because other people are already doing it, >> right? So just do so so you so you all know um the watershed embarked on a program two years ago with the land trust and we are paying for the seed and
a partial payment for the uh install or the application of the seed for winter crops >> on farms that are approximate to the river and and and and where they would otherwise not plant a a cover crop.
>> And that program is somewhere around 70 or 80 acres that we're involved with right now. >> So, it might be worth mentioning. It's it's it is >> I mean, people do some people do this because it makes sense for them. Some people don't because it's expensive and it doesn't make sense to them. And for
those that don't, we we sort of jumped in with the land trust and um and try to, you know, try to little bit of a push and and make it happen. And then when you do stuff like that and it ends up in a report like that, then it allows you to go to some local foundations or
pay ghost or something say, "Hey, we did 70 acres for this. Just think what we could do if we had, you know, 3x or 4x in terms of resources to buy seed." The to answer your question more directly about when a good deadline would be for
this. I think this is going to give a lot of lead time so don't procrastinate but I think by December of this year it would be nice to have this finished because we're going to restart um the master plan process. >> Yeah, the master plan is going to be over 10 years old.
>> Um it was started in 2014. So when you say I I agree with you know be nice for this >> knowing that the master plan process which going to consume a huge amount of your time >> about two years. >> Yeah. And during that two years it's
going to consume a high percentage of your capacity. Uh so we want to report signed, sealed and delivered, which also means that we I can't remember the order we did this
on whether we send it to the select board first and then have public hearings and then take the feedback or whether we have the public hearings first, get the feedback and then submit a more final thing to the select. But
but all of that would have to be done by December too >> cuz that that's the only way you get the final report >> ideally. Yeah. Cuz the way that we're looking at developing the master plan is with assistance through grant funds and where the grant cycle would begin would be
probably January 2020. >> Yeah. Okay. Well, that's something to keep in mind. Imagine that a hard deadline. after four years. It's been four three years. >> Was it Samuel Johnson who said, "There's
nothing that focuses the mind like the prospect of being shot in the morning." >> All right. >> I think that's all we got. >> Okay. All right. We're journed until uh the 30th.