November 19, 2025 – Community Preservation Committee – Video & Transcript
November 19, 2025 - Community Preservation Committee
A minute to set up.
Well, greetings, everyone. Today, I believe, is November 19th, 2025. And we are here at the Wayland Town Building for a meeting of the Community Preservation Committee of Wayland. I'm your host, Susan Weinstein. And we have the presence of a forum. So, yay us.
The Community Preservation Committee is, like, now kicking into gear because we have 10 applications before us that we need to learn about and discuss and decide in order to get all of our decisions made and our articles drafted before they're due, which I assume is December 15th, unless it's changed. So, note to self, check due date. Why don't we just go around and everybody say their name. We'll do it in turn rather than all at once. Doug, why don't you start? Hi, Doug Stotz, a select board appointee. Maureen Cavanaugh, select board appointee. Diego Nereska, historical commission appointee. Leslie Stewart, recreation commission. Yidhi Wang, board of public works, liaison. Yidhi Wang, board of public works, liaison, or is it a point to your member? You are a member. Member.
Murray Kiernan, planning board member. Thank you very much. All right. And just for the record, Sean Fair is also on the Community Preservation Committee. He is at a conservation commission meeting and is trying to finish up there so he can join here.
And on the agenda, oh, I'm sorry, I should review the agenda for the public. We will call to order. We will have public comments. This is the only opportunity to comment during this meeting. We will not be having wild discussions while we're talking about the articles. I mean, about the applications. Then we will meet with applicants and discuss their applications.
We've designated approximate times for people. But we know, like, for example, Linda Hanson is in a conservation meeting. Once we're finished with that, then we'll talk about our finances and funded projects and proposed projects. And we'll also have a little follow-up on Stone's Bridge with regard to Eversource wires and bridge closed sign. Then we will review and vote on the minutes that Doug so wonderfully did for October 8th. And I am not aware of any topics that I have not reasonably anticipated. So then we will adjourn.
Just in terms of, like, not following the agenda, Larry, since your time is finite for this meeting, are there things that you want discussed sooner rather than later?
Oh, not at the moment, no. Well, in that case, hello. Is there any public comments?
We don't want to worry about it yet. Well, swell. Okie dokie. All right. So then, look at us go. Meet with applicants and discuss project applications. We decided we would adopt a procedure that we're going to limit each one to 15 minutes unless I decide otherwise. And the applicant can, you know, use time to make their presentation. Sorry, that's a little cursed. Who's not? So, even though we have a list of the order in which they are likely to be considered, we will go with the ones where people are actually here. So, Abby, you were here first. I am. I was going to run out and drive my daughter at Longfellow Tennis Club in a couple of minutes. Ok. I could be after 7.15. That would be great. Ok. Well, if we're still here. I like that one. I like that one. Hi. Mark and Julie are more expected to go around closer to 8 o'clock, I think I said. That's fine. I just wanted to give you the opportunity. Thank you. Appreciate it. All right. So, we'll go ahead and start with the housing production plan.
As you all know, I believe, for the most part, plans are supposed to be used, are supposed to be funded with administrative funds. We have the option of funding them otherwise, but Town Council has advised us to use administrative funds. And the administrative funds, the plans are to, like, inform the Community Preservation Committee on making decisions and making plans for how to use community preservation funds. So, it would be my thought that we would fund the, if we choose to, which I think we would, the housing production plan, we would use administrative funds. However, it's too much money for me to feel comfortable to, like, just do it outright. Like, using administrative funds does not have to wait for town meeting. So, assuming there's enough money in the administrative fund.
So, this is asking for 60 and we have, like, 71 or something? Yeah. 60 is a lot of money, a lot of administrative funds. So, I'm not sure how I feel about it.
How much is it? It's a five-year plan. Yep. So, if you amortize, no, just kidding, you would rather treat it as a project application or just wait until after town meeting and put the money in the administrative funds? Well, I'm not sure how I feel about it, but, you know, I think if we take 60 out of the fund, we're running on fumes. Right. Which is why I would say we wouldn't do it before town meeting. Yeah. And so, if we're going to do it until town meeting, we might as well put it in the housing article. I don't know that we're going to have a housing article. That would take the housing funds out of the fund, the truck one. Yeah. I would also, how much is it? It's 60,000. Right.
Go ahead, Maureen. Could we review what's, at our last, at our meeting a year ago, we reviewed what's in each fund before we started talking or do you want to do that later? Just so we have an understanding of where we're at with each of the funds. We can do it now. I'm not sure. I mean, like a quick overview? Sure. You do that. Are you prepared to do that? I'm not prepared to do that. Okay. All right. Then, all right. Never mind. But that was a question I was wondering, too. How much money is in the community service? But I think one of the reasons I was unprepared was I did do a back of the envelope of how much money is being requested by use, and the requests from open space, community housing, and the third one, historical preservation, of course. Oh, that. For this year, it seemed to fit well within the incoming revenues that will be dedicated each fund. So, while that's often a major consideration, this year may be the exception. All right. Great. Thank you, Doug. I didn't mean to put you on the spot. I probably have it somewhere. And we found out just this week that we're getting $202,000 from the state community preservation fund, of which 10% will go to each of the three funds. The rest will go into uncommitted unless we'll suggest otherwise, and less whatever we put into administrative. The purpose of this meeting is to talk about the merits of the applications as opposed to the plumbing of where the money comes from. So, if you want to say more about this, what are you? The housing production plan is important for, well, one, to comply with the state requirements, but also to assess where we should be focusing our energy. I think that there will probably be a lot of, you know, I think that it will be somewhat different than the last one with the changes to the accessory dwelling unit. And also, I think some things have settled with regard to the MBTA communities legislation, and we adopted bilas with regard to that. So, I think that that will be important as well. It requires substantial public input opportunities, and it is something that is not done by town staff. It's always used a consultant for me. We use the consultant for the data. So, are there questions or comments or thoughts? What is the deadline? I'm sorry. Oh, no, go ahead. What is the deadline for having an updated? May 9th, 2027. 2027. January 2027? No, I'm sorry. The current housing production plan expires on May 9th, 2027. So, do we need to do this now in 2020? So, this would be for 2026 to be done by May 2027. So, the funds would be available July 1st. So, that should be an uptime. Okay. Yeah.
And it's a question over here. And it's actually good that he's asking early, because very often it's like, oh, shoot kind of situation. Maureen? Is this something that the town needs to seek multiple bids? Yes. So, there's that timing also. Just a concern. How long does it typically take for a consultant to prepare? Feels like forever. Yeah. Because of the many drafts. So, it gets approved. If we approve transfer funds of admin funds in May, early May, then an RFP goes out? Is that what happens? Yeah. So, presumably, you could issue the RFP the Monday after that meeting. Yeah. And, you know, just can't pay invoices until July. Yeah. Okay. Thank you.
All right. So, to me, I believe that this is an appropriate use of community preservation funds. Yes, Judy? So, I just heard that there's over $200,000 that's coming from the state, CPC, I think. And, therefore, the $71,000 would be going up. I certainly... Only if we, at town meeting, ask for part of the money to be set aside for administrative funds. Okay. Is there a reason why we would not? Because I'm not thinking if you're worried about it being depleted. For example, this year, I believe it was this year, we did not include a request to add to the administrative fund because we had ample funds. Because we had $71,000. And I even put in the notes that we were not asking for administrative funds, which meant that people called me, like, where's the request for administrative funds? Yes. Thanks for reading. And I think this year, as they went to doing more things on, you know, what it's called a consent calendar. You talked about enough people here. As they put more things in the consent calendar and were passed as a group, I think, our standard article with the admin funds request and the 10% set-asides was in that. So, yeah, they're, they're really looking to do consent calendar and they've asked us to consider one article for all of our projects. And I think they're basically like, can you make a chart that says what it's for and, and how much it's going to be and what funds it's coming from? And, you know, we don't have to stand up and talk. That's okay, too. Because I know everybody reads their warrant anyway.
So we don't necessarily have to vote on things right now. Yes. Are there any other questions or thoughts about this? Okay.
You guys okay with skipping to the ones where we get to hear from Gretchen? All right. Gretchen Schuller, come on down. Are you expecting anybody else? Am I? No. Come on down. I think that gang was here. So this is the application from the Wayland Museum and Historical Society with regard to work to be done at the Grouse Hurt House at 12th Contituate Road. I'm Gretchen Schuller, 126 Old Connecticut Path. We could have all said that along. I know. And I'm a member of the Wayland Museum and Historical Society. I'll come just a smidge. Oh, okay. I'm a member of the Wayland Historical Society, Wayland Museum and Historical Society, and chair of membership, but on the long-range planning. And that's why I'm here for the long-range planning committee. And our application is for several things that we know we have to do at the house, preservation of the house. The first is drainage. We do have dampness in the basement, old house, if things happen. And so we have to have that taken care of. We have found that the post on the northwest corner, the farthest one closest to the road, is definitely undersized. Just look at it. It's this big instead of that big. And it was replaced partway up. The same... The post? I'm sorry? You said post? Post. Yes. Yeah. The post is the structural member that holds up the corner of the house. So it's a place of floating? Historical post and beamed construction, largely. Yes. Right. Because it's a 1740. That part is 1740. And then the sill into which it sits or falls has been replaced about 12 feet of it with two by four boards that are, I guess, glued together. But that's not an appropriate way to do it at all. It's not a glue lamp, is it? No. It could be. Oh, I never thought of that. We should go and look it up to see how long it's lasted. Anyway, it definitely needs to be fixed. And then the final thing is there are signs of some leaks. And we definitely knew we'd have to fix the flashing around the chimney, the main center chimney. So for your last project, you guys were able to score some funds from the state? Yes. Is there any possibility of funding for this? We have applied for a $10,000 grant. Okay.
I don't think we're probably going to get it. But, you know, we try. Yeah. And then if there are other grants that come to mind or come to our attention between now and May, we will definitely apply for them. And if that happens, as we did last year, we went ahead and voted on the full $52,000 or whatever it was, $1,000. And then we only used half of it. And the rest was put back into the fund. And this project's ready to go. That project was ready to go. So that within six months, we knew that we weren't going to use all the money. So we put the $27,000 back into the, I guess, the historic preservation fund. I think that's from when it came. And so we would certainly do the same. And nothing, as you all know, the money doesn't come out of the CPA, or the CP fund, until it's spent and proven to be spent and paid.
And you define effervescence since you used it in a sentence. What did I? Oh. Effervescence. Oh, it's the picture there. Yes. It's that sort of white.
Little stuff. Yeah. On the, Maureen can probably give you a better definition. But anyway, it's. Like dampness residue. Yes, exactly. That's a good one. I should have done something to that. It's evidence of dampness and moisture. Some mineral something. Yeah.
People have any? Maureen. I'm hidden by, I can't be seen by the. A looming presence. Who evaluated the building to come up with this list? Well, we had, we've had two studies done by different architects. The second one was done by Spencer Preservation Group. And then we had contractors come and give us estimates. And the one for the structural part was done by Culinary Restorations. And they were unimpressed with some of the things that had been brought up. Unimpressed by whatever. We had a whole list of things that Spencer Group had identified and they were not. And they said, you know, just think about the structural stuff. And don't worry about the other little joists that are disconnected. We can always fix those in different ways. So we're, we're not worrying about the, the little bits. Um, and so we had a roofer come, we had a, uh, colonial restoration and a drainage person come. I'm like, I don't know the name of the drainage person. So we know that there's moisture in the back. We know that there's water coming into the basement. So the estimate is based on the roofer. Yes. Colonial restoration and the drainage person. Yes. And then when that, then those will have to go out to bid. Yes. I mean, we don't really have to because we're a private nonprofit, but we will to some extent now.
Thank you. And, um, how does the historical commission feel about it? Uh, the historical commission, uh, supports this as a project that would say the 1740 house that is, uh, in the center of the historic, uh, district in downtown. Thank you. Larry.
Is the building owned by the town? No, no, it's not. It's owned by the historical society. Um, it's a regular, uh, deed. Uh, and it, uh, it was given to the historical society by the people who owned it. The town owned the land for some period of time. And then that was, uh, given over to the, to the historical society with the condition that if we no longer use it, it revert, the land reverts to the town. Land and the building are, uh, part of the, your nonprofit. Yes. Uh, good. I understand. Thanks. The land and the building are actually titled separately or whatever the term is. Uh, that's a tough one. I forget. There, there is a complication. I've seen them. Yes. But I'm sorry. I can't remember. What was the question? Uh, the, the land was owned by the town and the building was owned by someone else. So it was privately owned, but the building came to the historical society long before it got moved back because it's been moved twice. Oh, okay. Yeah. And so it came back to, so the building was owned and it was up near, um, those stone piers on, um, old Sudbury road. Uh, on the, um, uh, Adagia Brayman estate before it became Raytheon. Then it was Raytheon and Raytheon said, we don't want this. Do you want it? And it can't, it was given back to the historical society and it stayed there, uh, until 1962 when they finally raised the money to bring it back. And so at some point in that time, they, uh, acquired the land from the town. So I guess it is two separate deeds. Uh, is it two separate deeds? I'm sorry. I believe it is. Yeah. Or, or do you have a deed on a building? No, it's something I should note, but I don't. Well, then we're very, it's more general interest though. Anything to do with the application. Is it a killer? Does the building have a trailer hitch? Sure. Leslie. Um, I remember there was significant flooding in the area about 15 years ago. Did, did the card house have damage that needed to be repaired at that time? Um, remember when. Yes, I do. I mean, the library was underwater. Um, I don't think so. I don't think we, we are in the aquifer protection district, but I don't think so because we are, um, substantially higher than the library. That's excellent. Um, I think, uh, the, the drainage issues are just the way the house is built and the way the land that slopes to the house. So, it just needs to be sloping away. Yeah. All the water went to the basement of a library. Yes, it does. That's right. It's taken it all off for you. I saved the herd, the red herd house. That's the reason the town hall was there prior is because they wanted land that was higher that would not flood. And they moved the house from that location up to Old Sudbury Road. So, there was no flooding then, as far as I know. So, the house is back to where it came. And then it's back to where it started. Wow. That's a good story. Busy. Right. It gets around, as we say.
It's been around the block. If you come to visit us, you could even see the pictures of the moon. Well, come to the Holiday Open House on Sunday, December 7th from 2 to 5. And you can see the pictures. Thanks for the advert. Yep. All right. Does anybody else have questions or comments that Gretchen may be able to help with?
I have a question. Did he? Yeah. I saw that you're posted for tomorrow night. That's for your discussion. And do I have to be here? No. Oh, okay. And it's also posted for two nights in case it runs over. We're hoping to grab that tonight. But, yes, you will not be here. No, I will not be here. Will you sign in? I'm sorry. I need a very informal sign-in. I put one over there, too. Over where? On the chair. Oh, I didn't see it. But no one else has signed it. So, Abby signed that one. Oh, okay. Good. Well, so what do you want to add? I mean, just who you represent. I know. I know. That's fine. Okay. We never find you. One, two, six, little Connecticut path. That's right. Okay. Thank you very much for coming. Oh, by the way, there is a seat open.
You don't have to be chair. Who says you can't come home again? Exactly. Come back, Gretchen. Hey, if that house can make it back. Thank you, Gretchen. That's right. Thank you so much. You'll be like the Grover Eats. I do have a TV wall. I really see off the CPC on the CPC, just like the Grover Eats. There's a couple comments sometime. There you go. And then say what? You guys are doing a great job. Okay. Okay. I can do that. Almost as good as when I was chair. No. It was terrific. All right. Well, thank you very much. Thank you. You guys are waiting for Julie? No? Okay.
I didn't do this. I don't know. I was wondering where that came from. All right. Well, the people for, oh, my God, why did I get these out of order? Sorry. Eliza's part are here. So why don't we go ahead and do that one? Come on down. Thanks. Julie would have loved to be here, but we have a child. We're moving. Yeah. But thank you. So you guys should introduce yourselves because not everybody here knows you. And sign in if you haven't already. I'm one of the many science sheets.
Hey, you can sign in on one.
You want to introduce yourself and then I'll give kind of the background. Steve Schamberg, three to catering, six years road, co-chair of the Eliza J. Norton Foundation. I'm also on the Recreation Commission. I'm here today in the capacity of the foundation. You hear? Barely. Speak up. Do you want to move? I can move. Will one space be better? I can move. Don't need to move. I'm sorry to take up so much time. No, that's okay. Why don't you and I switch? We need to hear. There's a secret here. Let's do it right here. No, I've tried over there before. I can speak up for you. Okay. My daughter yells at me that I speak too loudly. Well, now's your opportunity. I mean, so we're here today. I'll give some background on the history. So three years ago, we lost our 10-year-old daughter, Eliza. Her older sister, Jenna, and Teddy are still, obviously, in the Wayland community. Um, at that time, uh, my family was overwhelmed with the community support, um, and just showing kind of the strength and character of this community that we, um, we're just so thankful for, uh, as, you know, as we started to stand up ourselves, uh, with the help of the community, um, you know, it was really important for us to start a foundation for Eliza, um, to carry on and kind of the strengths that she brought to the world and all that we learned about, um, how she influenced people and, you know, helped empower her friends, um, and, you know, that also dovetailing with how she taught us about the strength of this community, um, gave us, uh, uh, kind of a, we wanted to get back to Wayland. Um, the first step with that was, uh, Conchituate Ballpark has been a place that is very important to our family. Uh, we brought Eliza there, uh, you know, she was born, um, and we were over on Shawmanab extension at the time, which is, you know, a dutiful way to come into the town. Uh, we spent a lot of time at Conchituate Park with her and Jenna. Um, we spent a lot of time there, uh, coaching and playing and, um, it really is a special place, not just us, but the community. It's also where, um, we had an initial celebration after we lost her there. I lost her, um, and there were, you know, well over a couple thousand people that showed up to front of that first celebration for her, um, so we really wanted to invest in the park. Uh, it's the front door to Wayland and, um, we want to do our best to help, um, just make it a place we all can be very proud of. So with that, um, our first step was to go to the town and say, we'd like to help build dugouts there, um, and so we committed $175,000 to the town to, to, you know, construct those new dugouts. Um, and then we ended up investing another $100,000 into the dugout. So we're $275,000 of Eliza's foundation has been invested into the park already. Um, we then, uh, came to you all. Um, and, uh, we're very thankful to start the process, working with the town in partnership. Um, and we were, um, you know, we all worked together, were awarded, I believe it was $154,000 at the time for, uh, creating, I got it, it's $154,000. There's, we worked hard on that. Um, and so, uh, now the next step was, part of that was to do a study. Um, and to finish, um, the backstops so that the night's dugouts were cleanly finished with the backstops. Um, we've continued to work with Catherine Brenna and, uh, the recreation department to, um, develop conceptual plans. We've got that work underway. Um, I think we actually probably put those into the package. Um, and so what we're, we're really trying to advance and complete the work that we want to start out with you all, um, the foundation is intending to continue to invest in the community alongside of the community. Um, and just to kind of show the work that, you know, we've continued to do, um, in the request from you all, we are now not with the concept plans done. Um, we are scoping out, um, and this is working with Catherine, uh, an RFP to finish the backstops. Now that, um, the reason we waited until now is we wanted to know what the concept plan would look like so that we weren't putting storage in areas that was going to encumber the overall. Um, I think that was the, that was the ask before is like, can you plan rather than just going ahead? Um, and so that's where we're at, um, and that RFP, uh, we'll work on and have completed through December. Um, and then we'll seek, uh, you know, to have fulfilled in January and then completed for the spring, which brings us to this ask, which is now that we are along the way, um, you know, advancing the ball, um, it's, it's an appropriate time to work with you all again, um, to complete the work. Uh, I think an important advancement that Catherine wanted to be here, but, um, she was double booked. There's other meetings in town going on right now. Uh, but yeah, um, but one thing of note is that, uh, the park is now inside of the five year capital plan for the playgrounds as well. Um, so with that, I'll pause. I wanted to give you just the history and the thank you and the work that we've, uh, continue to do in alignment with the ask.
I, that's a really silly question. I don't know what a backstop is. What is it? What is it back? I've seen, I've seen, you know, the picture of the gate and, and, and every, that, is it? Um, the, the, the, the fence behind the home plate, that big, tall fence is there to stop the ball from rolling into the street. I got it. It should be, it should be a ball stop. Um, yeah, it's that ball. That, that, it's the, it's the, when we went through the dugout process, everyone agreed that based on the space, um, we didn't want to move the backstops or, and, and that they have at least resistance was to just give them a nice clean refurbishment to match the fencing that we've put there with the dugouts. And when, and they were falling, I mean, they were kind of rusted and falling apart to begin with, so they just kind of haven't really been maintained for. And part of that process, uh, the foundation is going to invest $20,000 into storage units, so we don't need to have that pod sitting out there that you're probably all familiar with, unless we like the pod, we can.
So, um, there's, there are a lot of pieces to this project. Um, we're trying to be thoughtful about what will have the most impact immediately for the most people. Um, just, let's go back to the dugouts for a minute. So as soon as those dugouts were filled within a day, there were children, parents, the senior men's softball league that uses those fields, probably more than anyone potentially in Wayland. Um, the, the excitement and the feedback that we received was overwhelming. Like, it really was like, or something that obviously we put a lot of effort into and time and money, but, um, it has already gone a very long way to just start making that part look a little bit more like a Wayland part should be, especially this, this particular part. Yeah. And I just anecdotally, um, although my daughter wasn't on the JV softball team last year, I coached it and, um, that was a great experience and it was, um, we had to play our games there and, um, the other coaches and kids from other towns didn't know who I was, but it was pretty awesome to have other towns coming and being like JV kids be like, this is cool. Like, um, uh, so it's, it's been a really rewarding project. Great. So, um, how is the, other than the funding, how's the proposal different than previously? So the. I mean, and it has a planning basis. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So one, one, we have, we have an idea now that we've got, based on your feedback, we've got, you know, we were, we've got drawings, we've got a good idea of what a kind of high low end budget could be work to, to completion. Um, and on top of that, I'll say a couple of years later, we've, we've continued to fundraise. So you'll see that the ask from the last time we were here is half of what it was, um, based on also sometimes the delay is actually helping us, even if the cost of materials may end up going, going up, planning this and being able to use the resources that we've already received from the CPA funds. Plus, um, Catherine had a while back received, uh, I think it was 150,000 for the basketball courts. And at the time that that was going to be placed up a bid was around the same time that we started with the dugout project in KTU with the very first fund. So we have those funds as well to, to plan this and think about how not to spend twice as much or three times as much mobilizing on three different projects and three different times. Um, so all, all of that said, we've, uh, we also have, we, we were anticipating a significant donation as well. Um, so we, we shouldn't, we should not need to come back for additional CPA funds or, or by budget elsewhere from the town. Um, plus, like Mark mentioned, the capital plan, right? We can now, we can now start to rely on that. Whereas the last time we were here, we didn't know if that, you know, that was something that we were hoping for, but it couldn't necessarily, um, bank on. Susan, I have a question. Um, I'm looking at the project description scope or concept page and that's, has the map. So are you doing all that area or just one piece of that area? I'm not sure I understand what part you're involved with. So we are, um, I'll let you talk more to it, but the intention is in the next phase. Yeah. Um, so the intention is in this next phase to do the playgrounds, um, the bulk work. Um, and then there's other amenities that, uh, depending on how budgeting works out, we'd like to create the trail around the park. So folks, folks are always walking around the park. Um, but giving them a kind of manicured pathway with, uh, measurements as well. So if you're walking in, I mean, we all have, I don't, I don't do an Apple watch, but I know people do. Um, but if you don't have it knowing that if you walk around, it's, it's this distance. Um, but right now the, the first focus would be the playgrounds. And the ball. That's in the center. That's of the three. That's the centerpiece. Lower right hand corner. Yeah. Lower right hand corner. This piece, rather than that piece. The two of them together. Those two, that's the basketball court. And then right above it is the plate, the current playground area, but revamping the entire playground area. And the third little great square at the top part. Sorry. Even at the bottom. Well, at the bottom. Yeah. At the top. The bottom. That's the basketball court. So. Oh, I thought this was the best. No, that's the correct. That's existing part. That's parking. Yeah. So this is going to have a possible hockey. It, we could love it in the winter. Well, that would be, I would love to. Um, we want to have it as versatile as possible to accommodate basketball, soccer, hockey. Um, in the event that we, we could get into a cold winter, that would be pretty fun. And then that's the court that had an appropriation for three years back. Correct. Wasn't it also supposed to have pickleball? Oh, I don't touch pickleball. We, we. Yes. I was just saying. Yeah. The idea was brought up. I do ask. I think Katherine is questionable about wanting, about bringing the, I guess the noise of pickleball, I think this is maybe the comment. That was the hockey. I, I, I think. Or, or maybe it was, or that there's enough pickleball represented. Yeah. We, we did bring up pickleball in our last restoration goals meeting. And the pickleball community is quite happy. And there's no needs. Nice. That we've heard. Nice. So just to, how often does that happen? I know. Yeah. So that, that bottom left area is where the other parking lot, that's kind of. Down here. Okay. Yeah. Okay. That, that, so as you can see, we're, we're still, we're going back and forth with a designer to work now on kind of ideas for that space of whether we can, we're, you can kind of see we're, we're on the bottom right next to the basketball courts. We're, we're adding additional parking, parking at that park is when it gets busy. It's very difficult to come by. So we're trying to be thoughtful about adding parking as much as we can, while also making as much space as we can, you know, accessible and, you know, useful for, for things other than just parking. So the actual playground area is the same design that you brought forth last time? It's, that's, that's the same design that we, the same design structure. Yes. Well, I have the same concern that I had last time, which it, it doesn't really allow much for handicapped children other than banging the chimes. And here's a perfect opportunity to make an ADA acceptable playground to, to make it a star of Wayland and of the Metro West area. Yeah. And I just say that again, that's. I, yeah, I would love. Um, if, if follow up is helpful, the, the playground designer that we use, uh, or that has provided that, presented that to us as the most, as a very ADA, I can't speak to it. I'd love for them to come and do it justice because I, it is very important for us to maintain the focus on empowerment and accessibility and community. Yeah. I know. I read that. Yeah. And, and so I'd love for them to talk to it. Cause my understanding is it's about giving all the kids interactivity. And so it's not like, you know, there's one space or. No, I agree. Yeah. You said inclusive and all, and it has to do with that, but I don't see how climbing isn't necessarily helpful. Yeah. There's no wheelchair swings. No. Um, so we, you could add maybe one of something to make it a little bit more. Yeah. We are inclusive. Yeah. So if I could add two, two things. One, um, in the packet, if you look like, uh, it's, I think it's, I don't have a page chart, but it says the project purpose. You don't need to read it right now, but this is directly from the people that provided us and how they thought about the design. And when we talked to them, they respectively would not agree that this is not wheelchair accessible, not just ADA accessible, but wheelchair accessible. Um, obviously, depending on the ability of a child or anyone in a wheelchair, they can get onto the structure and still move about the structure. They can, but on top of that, even if they can't, the structure itself has a lot of things in and around it that are accessible. We're also, to your point, looking, we've gone back and we took, we took what you said the last time, you know, and we've looked at the like wheelchair zip lines and we're going to try to see if we can accommodate that. Obviously space. I noticed you spoke about a quiet place for them and I appreciated that. I noticed that right away. Um, so, so it's kind of hard to see everything that's being proposed in here and what they've showed to us, but, uh, Catherine also, Catherine helped in one of the designs. There was a gaga. I don't know if anyone knows what gaga ball is. You don't need to know. You don't need to know, but apparently it's very popular with the low kids. Oh, she was very happy to see that being proposed. There were a number of different things that were being proposed, not just the structure, but also, so currently the, the only thing that's there right now for a wheelchair, wheelchair accessible is one strip that goes to a swing that a child can find into or be helped into and then switch. We want, we want to get it right. Yeah. I mean, we're, we're working towards it and we, we, we hear you. Well, I guess there was an improvement. Yeah. Yeah. I guess, I guess what I would say is thank you. Thank you. And if given, if, if we receive the money to be able to move forward with this project, I have no doubt that we will not make this the most inclusive park in the Metro West area. Yeah. Yeah. That's the entire. Pardon me? Yeah. We will make it. Sorry. All right. Yeah. So we're going to work on wrapping it up. But Judy. So this is, I know nothing about sports. So whatever you tell me is a wee. Yeah. So this is baseball, right? Does it allow you to play any other sports? It does. So it's. That already exists. There's softball sized diamonds. So there's softball sized diamonds. So it's little league, baseball, little league, softball. Um, and then they have other softball leagues of all ages that play there. And then in the field, um, sometimes I think football will use the grass in the, um, football, lacrosse, soccer. Soccer too. Yeah. If, if everyone's competing, everyone's competing for fields, but there are, it's, it has the, the field itself has the ability to be used for any of those sports. Larry. Yes. Just having, I have seen, uh, frisbee matches going on there. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. So, um, in terms of recreation, last league priorities and the schedule of playground rehabs, how does this fit in? Or Mark, you can answer to it. Cool. Yeah. This, this one is being, um, in the, in the next five year cycle, it will be the next one we plan on doing. Um, do you know, I know you spoke with Catherine about timing. Um, do you, did you mention this two year or the next four years? Uh, you know, we'll get her to, I want her to speak for herself. Um, but she was supportive. She is supportive. We've worked with her on the drawings, so she knows this. I mean, she sets up the meetings, we show up, it's, uh, and so she is excited about the prospect of, of this, you know, coming together as we finish the planning through this kind of winter season and then, um, getting in a place to execute after coming in. Yeah. Unfortunately, poor Catherine was on vacation this week. Or she had. Of course. Yeah. I know. Yeah. So our meeting that was to happen did not happen. Um, but I'm glad that she took a break, but this is so high on our prayer. We'll be next week. What's the story with the playground here? So, um, it did go out to bed and, um, see if I have that note. Um, it's in progress. It is in progress. Okay. She definitely made a comic without the playground here. For some reason. I can't remember. You have to ask her that it was either decided that it couldn't be done or. Oh, it's on hold depending DPW review of wastewater remediation plan. Yes. It could possibly move the playground across the road to get off the wetlands. Um, uh, uh, but, but moving it across the road would, would be double the cost. So. There's a few. So why did the playground cross to the river? Yeah. I think for that. This is the one. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Which is, yeah, used by. So it's on the river side. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Next to the beavers. Yeah. So not good luck for the town building and the school here, but I think that. So. That kind of helps us. I mean, that, that could be something where the, where the recreation commission says, this is not a project we're going to do. So we'll turn this money back. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Maureen and then Kay. Um, so in the past, we gave funds for a master plan for the park, but this sounds like it's a plan for the place structure. Is there a master plan for the park? That's the master plan for the park. Yeah. Um, and that was done by Meridian associates and commissioned by Catherine. That's okay. And just a couple of follow-ups. Yeah. On the playground. Is there shade there for the children at all? I don't. Yeah. Yeah. To be honest with you. Um, there. Yeah. That little triangle thing on the bottom right. I don't think we see it very well, but there's a, there's an octagon thing. Yeah. The second thing was, um, it noted that that's constituent school is housing for seniors. So is there a place where seniors should sit or play chess or checkers or something you want to. Yeah. So. And that's located in the playground. No. No. Not necessarily. Again, the plans right now are still a work in progress to figure out exactly what and placement of everything. But the proposal, but the proposal is you have chest, a place with chest, you know, concrete, concrete, let's say called concrete chess boards. Yes. Right. Um, benches throughout the park, benches around the playground area as well. So parents can watch kids. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. So in my mind, we would have maybe a couple of different places for chess boards in less than noisy parts of the park, as well as potentially if you want to sit next to them. Maybe. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Um, we want, we're focused on maintaining or expanding the number of parking spaces available, but also there's space over there that can be taken advantage of, um, or, or these types of, you know, the chess boards or picnic tables, or, you know, there's been a receivo concept thrown out there. Um, and so we're still working with Catherine, um, in order to figure out, you know, place them properly. So that it's. So you're running out of land to get your guy. Oh, we're maximizing. There's that whole field in the middle. No, um, as someone who does stuff with the housing authority, I would just ask that you all be really mindful about drainage because it's already an issue for the housing authority with Bradford street running off into the building. It honestly was, um, that was my first question too. And so we have the town engineer at the first meeting. Um, if that, I've been on since 1992. It's been an issue. I wasn't aware of that, but that is the first thing that topic was in our first review session with Meridian was, I didn't know anything about it. And he spent a lot of time talking about the town engineer being there. I'm glad it's on the radar. He's been working with Meridian for like, I guess, what sounds like months having these conversations to be really thoughtful about not doing anything in that area. Yep. And then we're gonna wrap up. Yeah. Are all these little round green things trees? Yeah. Yes. Yes. Um, so there are existing trees there throughout the lighting, lighting the playground and the park and the entire park. Um, not in the field, not in the field. Well, some of them are all right. Um, and, but the proposal, part of this budget is also landscaping. So. Would you do adding trees? That is. We're just preserving. Oh. Okay. Thank you. Well, I'm sorry. Presuming we're done. So. Yes. Thank you all so much. Thank you. Um, you've done a tremendous amount of work and we appreciate it. Thanks. And, uh, if we have any questions, we know where to go. We are here. And yeah. Thank you. I will. I will. Great. Thank you. Thank you. Oh, actually. One more question. So when the, if the money comes through, what is the relationship between, I'm sorry, who's gonna be responsible for, is this a rec department? Is this a facilities thing? Is it that you guys are doing it? No. Great question. Thank you. Recreation. Finally. Yeah. Recre, it is a town project. Uh, the recreation department will take lead. Uh, there will be involvement by, I would presume, a project manager for DPW. Um, but it would be sourced out to a third party. Um, and we obviously would continue to be supportive. Which, which is what we already went through with the dugout space. Effectively the same concept. Well, appreciate your opportunity. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. All right. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Abby, you ready now? No. Sorry. Now we're gonna go to the back of the pile. Yep. The number nine. Number nine. Right? Yep. That was number two. Do you want me to come in on some of those other projects? Which ones? Speak up, Abby. Yeah. Yeah. I don't make any comments on anything other than my own proposal. Just to say that going forward with recreation, we want to make sure that the DPW continues our comprehensive relationship. And sometimes the drawings coming out of recreation can be more schematic. We want to make sure that they end up being engineered, um, including the stormwater and being mindful of long-term operation and maintenance and where that budget for. Not just during construction, construction management would be, but the long-term. Oh, I know. I'm coming back. Can we just start with you introducing yourself? Oh, sure. And signing in. Oh, sure. She did. Oh, you did. Okay. Okay. Hi, I'm Abby Shrest. I'm the town engineer, uh, with DPW. Um, so just advocating for, uh, engineering and plans and long-term operation and maintenance. How long have you been here? I've been here just about two years. Okay. Yeah. Um, we obviously have not an area that I have anything to do with. I've looked at the stormwater housing issue. Um, we fixed the stormwater in the street. There's a driveway issue I've proposed and given them a design for, um, but that's outside of the town property. But, um, I think that that would fix that issue. Yeah. I think we were gonna try and see if we can do something about the money. Okay. Because we have our capital plan and it's not on it. I gotcha. Okay. Well, if you need any more questions about that. Thank you. Appreciate it. Well, let me know. But overall, I'm here to talk about the Dudley Pond water quality improvement study. I think we're all aware that Dudley Pond is a great resource for this town. Um, not just the 86 acres of the open space of the water, but also the almost 400 acres of the watershed around it, which includes several town parcels. And don't forget the Dudley Chateau. And the, an important resource in the Dudley Chateau. Of course. The storage at this point. That's right. It's many things. Uh, is it on the national register? Not yet. Not yet. Not yet. Um. The FBI's maybe. Um, and the areas had water quality issues for over 50 years. Uh, the town has done many things to try to address some of the issues, uh, including the overall O and M of the DPW for the structures in the area. But I would like to do a more comprehensive assessment where I look at all the past studies, aggregate the work of the health department, recreation department. Um, and look at some of the past projects that have been outside of the DPW. We have some issues with the surface water quality committee, did a project, um, in the 80s. But, um, unfortunately there aren't easements in those areas and they're not on the DPW radar. So they don't get maintained. So I'd like to take in all of that, um, and look at it really as a whole to address the water quality issues in the area. Um, we have many issues with stormwater. Uh, just the nutrient loading that ends up happening in the pond, but, uh, additional flooding issues in the area. So looking at what we can do with maybe some of the town parcels that we have, um, and coming up with options for stormwater control measures. Um, I'm proposing sort of several different pieces to a large project here. Um, but one of the things that I would like to start with is a whole drone assessment. Um, the entire watershed. I was able to, um, secure a grant about $70,000 where we just purchased a brand new drone. Um, laser lidar for the area. We got a new pilot's license, and we were able to aggregate some of our GIS data with the, um, data from the drone. Um, unfortunately, once you get one grant, you might create a different problem. So the, the drone brings in so much data that we're having trouble processing with the existing computer. So, uh, we need a much, uh, heftier computer with much more processing, uh, ability, which is what's in there. So that we can look at all that data, um, as a whole. Uh, but the ability that it gives us is just amazing. Just yesterday, I'd asked about the Dudley outlet. Um, so Tom Lashman, the surveyor, went out with the drone just yesterday. And by this afternoon, he was able to give me, um, a plan set that had current elevations. Um, so it actually can do basically surveying from the sky. It can. It can. It can. Uh. It is now. Yeah. We were part of that grant paid for pilot's licenses. Uh, and we've been able to help the board of health and recreation. And, um, I think we're going to have plans to do some of the historic, um, properties as well. Um, he's just thrilled and having a great time with the, with the, with the, uh, drone. But in order to look at, um, this is a watershed study for Dudley Pond, we'd need to get, um, more processing power for that data. Additionally, we'd like to add a thermal hammer to the drone so that we would able to do things specifically for this project, like, uh, find, um, stormwater outfalls that aren't in the town system. Or, um, might be town, but not in the DPW system so that we can find, uh, those outfalls or even illicit discharges. And we can do that with the thermal camera. Um, outside of this, we would be able to help with search and rescue missions. We would be able to investigate, um, properties to see if there are, um, uh, people or animals inside buildings. Yeah. Um, we're able to do some, uh, Tom's been looking about doing some historic cemetery, uh, investigations with the thermal camera, uh, water main breaks, et cetera, et cetera. Do the police know about this? We've been working with the police, Tom. I have a neighbor with memory issues and this would be incredibly helpful. Yes. Yes. Yes. We, um, did some of the training with the police department. We're back and forth with them, um, working on it. So, um, and so that would be sort of the first data assessment, data gathering component of it. Uh, we would like to, again, look at those, find the outfalls and then assess them and come up with plans for the future for those. Uh, we would like to find the old surface water quality, uh, infiltration basins, um, investigate them, hopefully improve them, and then bring them into the DPW regular O&M process. Um, we would then also like to look at, uh, walking path case study of some of the area. Um, I'm not sure if all the roads in the area, I'll be able to make them town roads. But I've been looking at options for what are essentially structural walking paths where, um, emergency vehicles would be able to get over them. Um, and things like that. So looking at if there's other potential options for, um, walking paths. Uh, additionally. With the town properties that we have in the area because of the stormwater permit that we have for the entire town from the EPA and DEP, they have to come up with, uh, stormwater O&M plans for all town parcels. Um, I have them for the DPW, but Recreation for instance needs to get them, uh, for things like the Dudley, um, walking, walking path parts that they have there. And we'd be able to come up with plans for all of the town properties. Um, and then look at them and assess them. Could I get some stormwater structures on them? Can we need some viewing areas? Um, what can we do with some of those town parcels that we have? Um, this would be a start to all the water quality issues. It wouldn't solve all water quality issues in the pond, but it would set us up for future, um, capital improvement projects. I think it would also put us in a better place to apply for additional grants. Um, I've tried applying to the MVP program for, uh, two years in order to secure funding for this project, but we haven't been awarded it. But I think the data coming out of this kind of a study would line us up better for grants in the future. And so, uh, the 145,000, is that investing in EW's capabilities? Or is it hiring outside consultants? Or is it a mix of both? It's a mix of both. It's a mix of both. Um, so it would be, uh, engineering for me, um, Brendan Decker, GIS coordinator. Yeah. He'd be working at Tom Lashmitt, um, as the town surveyor. Cause the investment in capabilities, um, appeals to me because it sounds like, you know, we, we get, we get the technology and we use this as a test case, but it seems so deployable elsewhere in town as well. Right. Exactly. I don't think it could be funded with community preservation funds. Okay. Like computers and cameras and stuff. So I think we would need to look at all of the components, um, closely just to see what we could fund, assuming that we can make the case that this is preservation activity, um, uh, for open space. Because we can't do rehabilitation of open space because it's not an asset that we acquired with community preservation funds. Okay. Um, and if funds for this were going to come out of any of the 10% sleeves, which one would be most likely in your mind? For me, I think most things would fit most neatly within the open space. Yeah. That we would be working at preserving open space in the same way that we take the hedgerows out. Yeah. Yeah. The land to create more habitat there. Yeah. And, and the, the set of capabilities clearly seems to, should be appealed with conservation. Yeah. But maybe we could shift some of this from CPC, like not have it line up like this. Sorry. I'm looking at here. Okay. I'm looking at this page. Appendix C, I believe. Um, you know, just shift some of the money. So that the things that are fundable with community preservation funds, we would fund maybe more of. And then the things that we can't, would never shift to other funding. Yeah. Some, some of it, I'm not sure how much more we can do. Like because of the step one is the, the data assessment and the processing, um, in terms of preservation, outlying and identifying the existing conditions that we have there, um, in order to preserve that. I really believe that the computer and the, uh, heat, the heat sensing camera allows us to do the open space preservation in the area. I totally understand that. Okay. Okay. It's just like, you can't find the way the statute is written. Um, uh, if I hired an outside consultant to do it as part of the plan, would it be funded? Um, so if the outside consultant needed to acquire something, let's say the outside consultant says, I'm gonna be, it's gonna be a hundred thousand dollars. Can that include like capital purchases under that? I don't think so. If it's just sort of a lump sum consultant and we don't, we don't know where that money's going to. I don't know. I don't know. I mean, how far do we, how deep do we go into a consultant's proposal? We have to make sure that what the money is being spent on is a legitimate expense under. Yeah. You know, we, we could also consult with town council. Yeah. Assuming we could get permission. Um. Yeah. Oh, not too hard. I know. Um, but, uh. That's true. But if I was going to hire a consultant to do that planning study, they would have that computer processing and they would spend the money on the computer processing. And then we wouldn't be left with it. Yeah. Um, to continue it for other, other processes. Right. But if I hire, I've been hiring a time bond or ECT. Yeah. They have the thermal camera and the capabilities to do that. They can do it. But I would rather that the town. Um, for the five year capital plan, capital improvement plan that the town does. Yes. Is there a threshold amount to be put on the plan? Like, would they fund something? Would you need to put something as low as $13,000 on that plan or $15,000? It would be in the, in the plan. Yeah. It would be in there. Um, it might not be a separate item. Maybe it would come under equipment, but it would be all a part of that. Yes. I was also trying to think whether there could be, um, multiple funding sources within the same article, but it would, it couldn't be, I don't think it could be a community preservation article. I think it would have to be like a capital improvement article, but that some of the funding for that could be from community, community preservation. Okay. So that would make it so that the whole thing could be covered, but that only certain things would be. Yes. Funded by three preservation. I, I wrote an article like similar to that last year, where I'd received a grant for, um, culvert assessment. And, um, some of it, we had to appropriate all the grant money, but some of it had to also come from the capital. So it was written that way. And that was sort of that. You know, the other thing that I believe I have mentioned was that for the most part studies and plans kinds of things are funded with administrative funds, but this is so much money that. Yes. I, I think it has to stand on its own as a project. Right. I don't think we ever adopted anything that said, you know, a limit, but, but I think this is enough to make us a lot of our cares that we wouldn't do it. The spirit of it was 5,000 here and 7,000 there. Okay. I mean, we could easily spend $15,000 on a, you know, on a, uh, appraisal or more, but yeah. Yeah. Um, people have other questions. Is this something that the board of public works supports? Yes. Of course. But, um, I, I guess what I'm hearing you say is because it involves equipment and it is, it doesn't fit with, uh, elements. There are parts that fit and parts that don't. Right. So we could split out parts that we would theoretically be able to support with, um, with, uh, I think we can, you know, split this up. Yeah. I mean, I think we should, we can't do capital purchases. Yeah. We can do playground equipment. Um, well, there's the thing about them being rooted to the ground. Um, but yes, I think capital is the wrong word. I apologize. If you let us pile it. Um, so yeah, I think that, uh, we'll, we'll have to look through this and just see what we can. Okay. We can do. In general, I think that it's an important project. We will try to find a way here. I mean, I also, I also don't know, um, you know, when you come up with whatever the plan of work is, I don't know whether the town would fund it or not, but, um, cross that bridge when we come to it. I've been trying for two years to get funding for this project. So I'll just keep trying whatever way I can. Uh, it's definitely an area of the town that needs to be addressed. So, uh, if you have ideas, I'm willing to, uh, do whatever I need to, uh, to get the project going. Yeah. I mean, we may. The set of capabilities we're developing more broadly. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We'll look and see what we can. Okay. What we can fund. I mean, I think most of it we can make a case for. Okay. Well, I can also move buckets within that too. Right. Right. Right. I mean, I think we could, we could get back to you with like, you know, these things, no. So if you took that money and put it elsewhere, how would that work? Okay. Well, whatever I can do to help out. Who's my daughter? I thought about that. All right. All right. Thank you so much for coming. We appreciate it. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. I especially like the thermal thing where you can find people. Right. Find people or find who's got a, you know, like not connected to a second system. Yeah. I would, I would, I would like that for recreation. Yes. We have a lot of squatters on some of our fields that we serve our feet. Really? Yeah. We had a, we had a football team from a local town with their heavy equipment. Big, big, big, big, big, big people with big, heavy, please. Pushing. What do you got against big people? What was that? What do you got against big people? No. Jen looking it up. Not, not little feet, not little dents, big dents. But we were outside of the fields where so we made it and then come to find out we find a team of, of 20 year old football players. A heat map would be nice to read. Yeah. Are they missing? They're missing kids. Do we? Yeah. Yeah. Do we know what we need to know about the water quality, the herd fun thing? Abby, do you have anything to do with that? No. Okay, good. I mean, that was, was, you know, a good qualifying question. Is it allowed or not? Mm-hmm. But I read what you said right now makes me doubt it. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I mean, that was, was, you know, a good qualifying question. I think, is it allowed or not? Mm-hmm. But I read what you said right now makes me doubt it. Mm-hmm. How many times have they come? Are you talking about the bittersweet removal? No. I was talking about the third time water quality treatment. What are we talking about now? Are we moving down the list? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I didn't, it didn't know. It just reminded me that since it was water quality, I wanted to see a few. Sure. So let's just go back up to the top. The next one is the housing consultant, which is project titled RHSO, Housing Service. Yep. Yep. Uh, it's not terribly different than what we've seen in the past. Sure. Uh, we used to fund it with uncommitted funds. We've since, uh, migrated to wanting it to be funded with community housing funds. And so my suggestion is that we, um, direct them to the affordable housing trust fund because they are the holders of the community housing funds. They're great. They're great. What is the dollar amount? 40,000. 40,000. I mean, it's the 40,000 for two years. Yes. Yeah. So last year it was for 10,000 for one year. No. Or was last year a pop-up for one year? Last year it was an additional $10,000 because the year before was supposed to cover two years. Yeah. I see. I was like, what are you doing here? But yeah. Um, so, uh, is there a motion to, um, not include the RHSO housing service in the town meeting articles and to direct them to the, uh, affordable housing trust fund? I so move. Thank you. Is there a second? Second. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Anybody opposed? Okay. Just so you know. Larry? Larry left. Larry left. Okay. I was just going to say, Larry left. We don't have to Google. Yep. I have a question. Yes. We recommended the same thing last year. So why do they keep submitting? Because we keep telling them this is the last time. Well, I guess we gave them that 10,000 last year. Well, look, last year we recommended they went to the, I thought they went to, I thought they got it from the trust fund. That's what, that's what the note, that's what the minutes from last year. Right. So I don't, I don't know why they keep coming here. It seems like it'd just be a quicker to go right to the fire. Yep. All right. I'll breathe. Thank you. Thank you. Halfway done. But who's counting? Sorry. I'm just making myself a note. Okay. Herd pond water quality treatment, herbicide treatment on herd pond is how they call it. Did people have a chance to see the information from Stuart Saginaw from the community preservation coalition? Yeah. I mean, do we consider this to be maintenance or do we consider it to be preservation? How often do they have to do it? Yeah. I think if you have to do it again in two years, it's maintenance. Yeah. Is that the way everybody else reads this to be? That it's not an enduring approach? Yeah. It seems like this is the one, sorry. It's going to have to go back for the next two to five years. Correct? Is that what it said? I think so. Yeah. And that's confusing. There were so many herd, um, Dudley, Dudley, um, I got lost. It's like a Venn diagram. Yeah. Um, yeah. My impression was that it is not sort of a enduring. Yes. One and done or even like one and done for a while. So I, I don't feel like we can fund it. Uh, the other concern I heard from a informal conversation with a conservation administrator is that during peak water levels heard upon conjoins with Sudbury river, which then means you're introducing, you know, essentially herbicides into a nationally protected river. They could use it. Yeah. It's got things that could use some herbicide in there. Yeah. But yes. But not me. That's where my big water comes from. Your water comes from. Yeah. Um, all right. So is there a motion that we find this not eligible for funding through the Community Preservation Act? So moved. Thank you. Is there a second? Second. Uh, any further discussion? All in favor? Aye. Aye. Anybody opposed? Before on Zoom, do we have to individually vote? Huh? Before on Zoom, do we have to individually vote? Only if someone's remote. Oh, only if someone's remote. Right. The number is remote. Correct. It's so confusing. I know. Okay. Next. Heard Farm Large Tree Preservation to preserve the large, majestic trees at Heard Farm. It's cheaper if we just take the garden clove out there in the holiday season and let them cut off the bit of sweet primes. If they want to practice, they'd come to my house. I can bring my tractor over for the table. Um, again, this is sort of maintenance, right? Don't these things grow back? This is sweet. In my experience, if you do a really good job, it doesn't come back. No. They also showed in the application areas where they had done it and the trees had come back. So, I guess you could say those trees have been preserved. Mm-hmm. Yes. Well, and the habitat is preserved. Do people have any questions that they want me to take to Linda? Well, it's, again, I thought, is this a maintenance problem that should be budgeted by the town? Yeah. I mean, it's one of those things that it could go either way. But what Doug was just saying is that if you can, if you're thorough, it will eradicate it. If you're thorough and pull out the roots. And then are pretty scrupulous about mowing around the area. Mm-hmm. You know, after two or three times of getting cut, this stuff gives up and dies. And I've done plenty of this. Don't need those goats in that goat house. We need the goats. We need the goats. You're sorry, what? We need goats. Oh, yes. I'm told there is a goat house. But we don't have somebody to watch the goat on the weekend. But it would be a benefit to the family. There are goats at the boathouse? What? I hear that we have a goat house near Sherman Dredge. Can't do it? But no goats. A place that we could potentially house goats, but we do not have somebody to feed the goats and mine the goats on the weekends. But it could be a good community tool at some point. Do the people on Lincoln Road still have goats? Mm-hmm. North of Waltham Road? Just north of Waltham Road? Anyway. Can we rent some goats or something? Anyway. So are people inclined to consider this as a not maintenance project? I'm inclined to consider it as non maintenance. Can we put in a caveat? Like you said, you have to pull out the roots. It's not just cutting it down. Yes. You pull out the roots. Because if it's just cutting it down, they're coming back. Yeah. You pull out the roots and then you mow or bush hog. Or have goats. So that the baby plants get nipped in the bud. Or have goats. All right. We're not making decisions about funding or not funding. We're just ruling out the ones that we can't fund. Can we say that this is a one-time project? Yes. So they don't come back in three years or something? But it has hundreds of trees. I don't know. I mean, you know, let's say they pick five trees. To say it's a one-time project is... I mean, we put other money into... We recommended the town fund to other projects. Clearly, we heard farm is a priority for the conservation department. Yeah. After reading the email you sent out, I question maybe we weren't supposed to do that. Because it seems we keep paying to remove the same weeds and... I don't know. I don't think we're doing the same in places. Yeah, we'd be doing... We want to do each tree once. Yeah. Is there a period of time that is considered not repetitive? Like, is it ten years or...? I think we have some discretion. Yeah. All right. Are you guys okay with moving to the boardwalk? Are we keeping this in? We're keeping this in for now. Okay. I'm on the boardwalk. I'm on the boardwalk. Um... Hanlon Woods Boardwalk. Project Head of Conservation Properties Boardwalks. Uh... I think this is more recreation. Yeah. This is the one that falls under conservation department sponsorship, but counts for recreation. So, if you're going to draw money from a sleeve, it has to be recreation. Right. I agree with that. Um... Anybody have any questions? Concerns? I just couldn't tell from the figure where it was. Is it just that little... the very beginning? I... I... I... I... I... I... I... I... I... I... I... I... I... I... I... I... I... I... I... I... I... I think the... Um... I... I... I... I... I... This part right here from the parking to the... to the orange. Yeah. Just that... I couldn't tell... Color wise. Oh, where the heavy red is? Yeah. The heavier red. Yeah. Oh, you have to... Is it heavier? Yeah. I think so. Oh, eyes part next to the parking. So, is it just that? Cause then it seems like it's sort of... The coloring of the red is kind of weird on this. Yeah. Cause it seems like... Is it just... Is it... Is it this? And this? And this? And there? Well, you probably don't need a boardwalk over some of that other stuff because it's not... Pretty wet, isn't there? I mean, you could put a boardwalk around the entire pod. Yeah. Yeah. Walk a depth along the side. Oh, I think that is the proposed walk. It's the same color as the key, the top right. So... Yeah. Right. But it seems like there's a lot of red in here. So... Oh, I see. So is it... Is it orange rather than red here? Sorry. It looks to be like an L shape on its side. Okay. All right. Maybe I don't need to figure it out. No. Well, it's only 216 foot long. Yes. Mm-hmm. So that's not terribly long. That's not terribly long. It's not terribly long. It's not terribly long. Okay. Other than that, any questions we need to take to Linda? Yeah. The... The only thing that we have is like the kiosk is digging down into the ground. So again, we just need an observer for the archaeology. Yes. Or we may decide that the land has been farmed so heavily that it doesn't, but because it's wet and boggy there, it's less likely that the farmer use that land and more likely that indigenous people may have used it. So we should put in another, what amount? What? What amount? I don't know at this point. Okay. So is that something that you can look into? I will ask. Because last time we, for the Sherman's Bridge, we did 15, right? 15,000. In the Hedge Roads last year, too. Yeah. I mean... Maybe that was the one I'm... You're watching someone install two posts up a place. Yeah. I think, not to be devil's advocate, but if they're putting the posts in and just using a post digger, I don't know if there's anything for an archaeologist to monitor. Well, what they do is when they bring the dirt up and they put it in the pile, that's where they can go through it and see what's in there. Right. Right. And, yeah. And if that's an area where they could have gone to get water or do many things, like fish bones are there or... I don't know. I don't understand it all myself. But... All right. All right. So, we'll come up with some number. Yep. All right. Cow common purple loosestrife. Manage and control the invasive purple loosestrife is so pretty. Now, this does come back, right? Yeah. What was being controlled by the beetles? What were they... This was... Same thing. Yeah. A weed cow common. That was cow common too, wasn't it? Yeah. It was. For the state, stop the beetle program. And so this might, in fact, be buying the beetles commercially. I thought it said that they were going to take five yards of dirt and grow beetles somewhere off-site and then reintroduce the beetles. So, I apologize. I forgot that. Well, this says... Oh, and that's in 23. And they were going to remove... Wow. So, in 23, they brought in the beetles. Right. So, they're going to choke out the loosestrife by covering it with affected areas with a fabric to smother and bake the plants. This is... They're adding a five by five foot area. Oh, that's not very big. Oh. Soil compost mix to re-seed the area. How much money do they want? $8,000. Almost $9,000. $8,900. $4. Yeah. So, they're removing five by five foot area. Yeah. They're going to re-seed it and then they're going to take the soil to the greenhouse and incubate it to grow beetles, which lay their eggs on their root system. And then they'll re-release... They'll release them back into Calcommon. It's just... And that's just initial to evaluate the effectiveness of the different methods. I think that sounds really cool. Yeah. Yeah. Sounds like... Sounds like a needle in a haystack. Five square feet of... Well, you know, I mean, you grow a lot of beetles in five by five, and they proliferate throughout the site. How many? Don't we know that? Beetles are small. I mean, I couldn't tell you how many eggs are in a 25 square foot area. Is this the first time they've tried this approach? I think they piloted it before and they ran out of beetles. They did beetles... Wait. They did in 23. They did beetles. In 23, they were given money for beetles. Right. I wonder if they've seen any results from the beetles, from the 23 beetles. You know, I think for the amount of money and it's coming out of their sleeve, I think it's also a pilot program. Yeah. That's what they said it is. Yeah. Or initial phase, which I guess is... Yeah. And cow common is not a place that we've purchased with community preservation funds. So it would need to be considered preservation. The Sedge Meadow Find Diversity Initiative. I added in the Sedge Meadow so that people had a site reference. Did you ask? No. Oh, sorry. We're only like $2,000. I had a hard time figuring out, though, because when you look at the cost proposal they included, I didn't see where they came up with $2,000. Well, $400, $400? No, I see that. I was looking at if you go further down. You can have a... So there's some mesh. And then there's watering bags. Oh, I... And then there's an invoice for the little plants is $400. It looks like $352. Where do you see that? I'm on the page. It starts with three quarters of the way down. It's green. And the second page? Yeah. $1,200 for mine. And then there's a lot of information. And then there's an invoice for the little plants is $400. It looks like $352. Where do you see that? I'm on the page. It starts with three quarters of the way down. It's green. On the second page? Yeah. Yeah. $1,200 for vines, for seedlings. Mm-hmm. $400 a month. Yeah. But if you go further down, they included invoice. They included cost estimates for the mesh. On page five. For the watering bags, $209. The mesh is $61. And then the seedlings are $352. But we don't know the quantities, right? It says 20. It says 20 seedlings. I meant a better. All right. I just wonder how they came up with the cost. Well, they said they have 35 seedlings, not 25. I'm just thinking. I don't need the cost estimate to be included with the seedlings. For $2,000, I'm willing to trust them. Okay. Thought I'd read it thoroughly and question the numbers. That's all. And I'm with you. And the chatechisis. Well, the question is, does it fit, right? I think it does. Is this going throughout town? Or just on Sedgmeadow? Or just? They throw them at Sedgmeadow and transplant them as needed. Is that the nursery of the town? Sedgmeadow? I don't know if it's a nursery per se, but what do you believe they can try? I'm having trouble. I mean, I like the project, but I don't know that it fits. I mean. The statutory language. The purpose of the, of the statute is the open space is about acquisition of open space. Oh. And this is not. Yes. Yeah. But so I've, I can, I can look at it, but I don't think it's eligible. So let's refer to the next meeting and yeah, the eligibility. Maybe from the admin fund or something. Right? No, because it doesn't meet those criteria either. Okay. I'm going to play stupid and ask if open space is acquisition, then how can we fund these others that are? Well, I mean, preservation. Okay. But if the land. And you don't. Or the trees. They being the land that they're planted in is preservation. Do some more to beautify rather than. Right. I mean, I know trees prevent erosion and all of that. Right. But the, but, but the purpose, I'm sorry. Maureen. I said the way they presented it was it's, um, preserving the, um. The biodiversity. Biodiversity. Biodiversity. I mean. I need to look at it. The beetles. The beetles aren't. Might be a question for. It should be a question. The same thing about the beetles in terms of. Going on. Preservation. So, I mean, they start saying. But it's, but it's like. Reclaiming habitat. And preserving it. You know, putting it in a, in a condition that it can be. Protected in the future. Right. So this is, it starts out. The implementation of this initiative would advance the town's goals of preserving diverse plant and wildlife habitats. Which is exciting how they, how they couch it. So it is preservation. Mm-hmm. Personal or real property from injury, harm or, or destruction. But goes on to say that due to historical disturbance of the porous and stressors from human intervention, we become an era of low conifer diversity. Lands are severely underrepresented. The open space includes, but it's not limited to, land to protect existing and future well fields, aquifers, and recharge areas, watershed land, agriculture land, grasslands, fields, forest land. Forest. Forest. But it's the land. Fresh and salt water, marshes, and other wetlands, ocean, river, stream, lake, and on frontage, beaches, dunes, other coastal lands, lands to protect scenic vistas, land for wildlife and nature preserve, land for recreational use. Trees are not land. We're investing, we're investing in the trees. But it helps to preserve the land. But. Right. Yeah. But this is about. It's like filling your loose. Diversity of the. We'll look into it. I am not entirely sold, obviously. Yeah. Why don't you look into it? Yep. Um, in trying to figure that out, I just came across a little known codicil in the Massachusetts general laws. And that is the admin and operating expense cut out cannot be more than 5% of the annual revenues in the community preservation fund. I mean, a hard time hearing you. I hear. The legislation says that the administration expenses cannot be more than 5% of revenues for a year. Which in our case would be about $70,000, which would seem to constrain. So we want to make the $60,000 an article rather than admin funding. Uh, yeah. And, you know, doing the whole BPW study, for instance. Yeah. Might, uh. Yeah. Might bind a bit. Right. Okay. Thank you for reminding me of that. I just learned it right now. Okay. All right. All right. Reports and discussion of finances and funding proposed projects, including the not limited Stones Bridge follow up. Let's start with Stones Bridge. Let's start about Stones Bridge. Um, I went to Stone Bridge, uh, not long ago. I think it was after a delightful lunch at Sijuan Verme in Framingham, which I recommend to everyone. Um, and decided to take the back way and see Stones Bridge. Um, my wife is in the garden club, so she was part of the group of volunteers that, uh, did the lovely plantings and stuff. But I wanted to see her work. And you get there, and it's magnificent. And glad that we saw this one through. Um, except there's a, uh, telephone pole there, which is sort of not in the middle of the former road that you approach it on. But there are a couple of guy wires there right in the middle. And I'd like to, and, and there's also a old, very old road and closed sign, which would look great on the inside of my barn. Um, if I could get the DPW to bring it to me. Um, so I wanted to propose that we ask the select board to, uh, well, a, perhaps our DPW representative could see about having the road close sign removed. I mean, I forget whether it's on the pole or next door, but also asked the select board to send a letter to Eversource and Verizon governmental relations saying, hey, the town of Weyland just spent over a million dollars to maintain this historic structure where General Knox brought the cannons over and everything else. And, you know, the public's enjoyment is diminished by your guide, guy wire. A guy wire, you know, is one of those diagonal steel wires that you keep poles from falling over in the wind with. And, and since it is a utility guy wire, it's not just the wire itself, but it has a 10 foot long bright yellow surround, which prevents yourself from, you know, clothes lining yourself on it. It's not that attractive. Yeah. Kids running and playing in the park next to the bridge or even going onto the bridge. Yeah. It's yeah. Where's the park next to the bridge? Just the open space. Oh, just, just beyond it. Yeah. The water. Oh, here's the picture. I was like, I was there the other day. I was trying to find my picture. Yeah. Okay. Well, let's see. Credit, credit to Doug. Yes. Yeah. Finer details. Why would you move the bridge close sign? Because you want them in your barn? Or because of them? No. No. It should, it should be fairly obvious by that. Yeah. Why would you move the bridge close sign? Because you want them in your barn? Or because of them? No. No. It should, it should be fairly obvious by now that the bridge is closed since there's nothing but dirt and grass before it. Is there a way to get a car over there? I'm not certain, but my primary interest is the guy wires. You might have some drunk person say, oh, I'm a drunk person. Thank you. I didn't want you to feel left out. No. Oh, Rob, do you want to say that? I can argue the opposite, that the bridge closed sign might deter visitors from enjoying this resource. Well. But there's nothing across the bridge that would prevent them from. Yeah. Forget if there's like, you know, sawed up telephone poles. Well, no, they're, you know, these are massive rocks. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Right. So you can't drive over them. So you can't drive through there. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Well, if you really. Yeah. You have your monster, you have your monster truck down there. I was going to say, have you seen the trucks going over there? Yeah. That's true. It's like the penny in your suit from somewhere in time and he realizes he's back in the 20th century. Yeah. It takes you out from where you are during that historic space. I would be fine with asking the select board to advocate for removal of those wires. I move that we ask our chair to send a letter to the select board to ask them to advocate for the removal of the wires and the vice chair will volunteer to help the chair draft that letter. Yeah. That's an awfully long motion. Got it, Maureen? Close enough. Just such a pressing issue. All right. Is there a second to this? Second. Is there any further discussion? All in favor? Aye. Anybody opposed? All right. Thank you, Doug. Do people have any other project updates we should know? The contract for the cemetery has been terminated officially. That is. 60% of priority one, which were the most damaged stones, have been completed. Only 6% of the priority two stones have been completed. What percent? 6%. 33% of priority three, which is basically just cleaning the stones, have been completed. Both sides were willing to terminate with no penalty or anything for either side. So that leaves. And one of the problems besides the health of the primary owner was they woefully underbid the project. So whatever money is left, we'll have to cover at least the 40% left on priority one, which would be our first choice. And it would mean it has to go out to RFP again to get a response. What is the amount that is remaining? I don't have that. It was not reported Monday. I think there were two outstanding invoices and that's why we didn't have the amount. Okay. Is this the person featured in the police plotter? In the police plotter? I don't know. Did you see that this week? No. In the post, somebody called the police that somebody was interfering. Oh, yes. That was not the owner, but that was someone they hired to clean the stones. They, um, this person was smart, you know, it was observant enough to see someone in the cemetery. He had a shovel out. She was afraid he was, uh, digging up a tombstone or stealing it or something. So instead of, you know, just ignoring it, they decided that they would. Drop a dime. Drop a dime. Notify the police. Uh, he went out and double checked and yes, it was the gentleman who was cleaning. They, the contract was over the end of October and this was in October that that happened. So, uh, in a way I'm glad somebody wasn't observing. Yeah. And I mean, what if somebody had been doing that? Yeah. Of course that's, they should have been doing it in North and Lakeview, which is a little bit more hidden than on South Cemetery, which is a busy street. But maybe because it's busy, they thought nobody would notice it anyway. Um, I was great. And I called her and I explained to her, she said the police also called her. She was glad that she was appreciated that she had spoken up, even though it turned out to be nothing really great. So. Yeah. Better to call and have it be nothing. All right. Uh, we're ready to move to the minutes of October 8th. Any comments, corrections? Uh, I have two comments. One, I think I already changed it. Um, I think it said, instead of priorities, it said priority. The eyes are going. And the first phase. Uh, I don't know. I think I already corrected it. I have to, let me see. Hold on. I have a highlighter. Oh, please. Yeah. Everything's open here. Yeah. Hey, Gardner, Westcott reviewed the forthcoming historical commission. Prior rates. Prior rates. Right. So that's, uh, one, two, three, four. Report down in public informational hearing. Right. First sentence. And then I noticed also in the minutes. Under in the review of the minutes from September. Where, Susan Weinstein requested that Robin Ford be named as opposed to zoom admin. Uh, which I made those changes to the September ones, but then it says zoom admin again on the top here. So it seems like we want to change that. Oh, I'm going to change that. Yes. I'm sorry. Um, well, so I don't know where zoom admin came because I would never put that in there. But anyhow. So you did not, I copied it in the September minutes. So. That's so weird. Anyhow. Well, give me your credit, Robbie, for being here. Uh, you should need evidence for your time. Uh, or an alibi. Any other? Or is there a motion to approve as amended? So moved. So moved. Yes. Uh, second. Thank you. Any, all in favor? Aye. Anybody opposed? Is there a motion to adjourn at 826 PM? Any questions? So are we discussing these tomorrow? Huh? Are we meeting tomorrow? No. So when are we discussing these? What's our schedule? December 8th or something. Questions. Um, but let me go back to the September minutes because they will tell me. Well, I mean, there, there are questions that we have. We're not going to have answers for tomorrow anyway. Yes. Yeah. No, I wasn't. I wasn't sure. Cause Gretchen seemed to think that tomorrow was going to be when we would discuss it. And I was like, I didn't know that either. No. No. The intention was that would be the overflow date for. Got it. Okay. For all the people that showed up tonight. Our next date is December 3rd. December 3rd. Yeah. Yeah. At one time. It says 6.30. I think. 6.30. Not six. We were 6.30. I think we're 6.30, right? Mm-hmm. We were 6.30. Yeah. We were just going to do six tomorrow night. Cause it was requested. I have December 3rd. Also January 7th and January 14th. Yep. Yep. And then TBD. Well, there's a TBD for a planning meeting if we need it. Right. Okay. January 7th, January 14th. December 3th. 7th? Did you say 7th for January? And 14th. 7th and 14th. Yep. 2026. All right. Is there now a motion to adjourn at 8.28 PM? So moved. So moved. Is there a second? All in favor? Aye. Anybody opposed? Great work, guys. Thank you. All right. Great work. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Bye. Bye. Bye. Also- Thank you. Bye. Bye.
Well, greetings, everyone. Today, I believe, is November 19th, 2025. And we are here at the Wayland Town Building for a meeting of the Community Preservation Committee of Wayland. I'm your host, Susan Weinstein. And we have the presence of a forum. So, yay us.
The Community Preservation Committee is, like, now kicking into gear because we have 10 applications before us that we need to learn about and discuss and decide in order to get all of our decisions made and our articles drafted before they're due, which I assume is December 15th, unless it's changed. So, note to self, check due date. Why don't we just go around and everybody say their name. We'll do it in turn rather than all at once. Doug, why don't you start? Hi, Doug Stotz, a select board appointee. Maureen Cavanaugh, select board appointee. Diego Nereska, historical commission appointee. Leslie Stewart, recreation commission. Yidhi Wang, board of public works, liaison. Yidhi Wang, board of public works, liaison, or is it a point to your member? You are a member. Member.
Murray Kiernan, planning board member. Thank you very much. All right. And just for the record, Sean Fair is also on the Community Preservation Committee. He is at a conservation commission meeting and is trying to finish up there so he can join here.
And on the agenda, oh, I'm sorry, I should review the agenda for the public. We will call to order. We will have public comments. This is the only opportunity to comment during this meeting. We will not be having wild discussions while we're talking about the articles. I mean, about the applications. Then we will meet with applicants and discuss their applications.
We've designated approximate times for people. But we know, like, for example, Linda Hanson is in a conservation meeting. Once we're finished with that, then we'll talk about our finances and funded projects and proposed projects. And we'll also have a little follow-up on Stone's Bridge with regard to Eversource wires and bridge closed sign. Then we will review and vote on the minutes that Doug so wonderfully did for October 8th. And I am not aware of any topics that I have not reasonably anticipated. So then we will adjourn.
Just in terms of, like, not following the agenda, Larry, since your time is finite for this meeting, are there things that you want discussed sooner rather than later?
Oh, not at the moment, no. Well, in that case, hello. Is there any public comments?
We don't want to worry about it yet. Well, swell. Okie dokie. All right. So then, look at us go. Meet with applicants and discuss project applications. We decided we would adopt a procedure that we're going to limit each one to 15 minutes unless I decide otherwise. And the applicant can, you know, use time to make their presentation. Sorry, that's a little cursed. Who's not? So, even though we have a list of the order in which they are likely to be considered, we will go with the ones where people are actually here. So, Abby, you were here first. I am. I was going to run out and drive my daughter at Longfellow Tennis Club in a couple of minutes. Ok. I could be after 7.15. That would be great. Ok. Well, if we're still here. I like that one. I like that one. Hi. Mark and Julie are more expected to go around closer to 8 o'clock, I think I said. That's fine. I just wanted to give you the opportunity. Thank you. Appreciate it. All right. So, we'll go ahead and start with the housing production plan.
As you all know, I believe, for the most part, plans are supposed to be used, are supposed to be funded with administrative funds. We have the option of funding them otherwise, but Town Council has advised us to use administrative funds. And the administrative funds, the plans are to, like, inform the Community Preservation Committee on making decisions and making plans for how to use community preservation funds. So, it would be my thought that we would fund the, if we choose to, which I think we would, the housing production plan, we would use administrative funds. However, it's too much money for me to feel comfortable to, like, just do it outright. Like, using administrative funds does not have to wait for town meeting. So, assuming there's enough money in the administrative fund.
So, this is asking for 60 and we have, like, 71 or something? Yeah. 60 is a lot of money, a lot of administrative funds. So, I'm not sure how I feel about it.
How much is it? It's a five-year plan. Yep. So, if you amortize, no, just kidding, you would rather treat it as a project application or just wait until after town meeting and put the money in the administrative funds? Well, I'm not sure how I feel about it, but, you know, I think if we take 60 out of the fund, we're running on fumes. Right. Which is why I would say we wouldn't do it before town meeting. Yeah. And so, if we're going to do it until town meeting, we might as well put it in the housing article. I don't know that we're going to have a housing article. That would take the housing funds out of the fund, the truck one. Yeah. I would also, how much is it? It's 60,000. Right.
Go ahead, Maureen. Could we review what's, at our last, at our meeting a year ago, we reviewed what's in each fund before we started talking or do you want to do that later? Just so we have an understanding of where we're at with each of the funds. We can do it now. I'm not sure. I mean, like a quick overview? Sure. You do that. Are you prepared to do that? I'm not prepared to do that. Okay. All right. Then, all right. Never mind. But that was a question I was wondering, too. How much money is in the community service? But I think one of the reasons I was unprepared was I did do a back of the envelope of how much money is being requested by use, and the requests from open space, community housing, and the third one, historical preservation, of course. Oh, that. For this year, it seemed to fit well within the incoming revenues that will be dedicated each fund. So, while that's often a major consideration, this year may be the exception. All right. Great. Thank you, Doug. I didn't mean to put you on the spot. I probably have it somewhere. And we found out just this week that we're getting $202,000 from the state community preservation fund, of which 10% will go to each of the three funds. The rest will go into uncommitted unless we'll suggest otherwise, and less whatever we put into administrative. The purpose of this meeting is to talk about the merits of the applications as opposed to the plumbing of where the money comes from. So, if you want to say more about this, what are you? The housing production plan is important for, well, one, to comply with the state requirements, but also to assess where we should be focusing our energy. I think that there will probably be a lot of, you know, I think that it will be somewhat different than the last one with the changes to the accessory dwelling unit. And also, I think some things have settled with regard to the MBTA communities legislation, and we adopted bilas with regard to that. So, I think that that will be important as well. It requires substantial public input opportunities, and it is something that is not done by town staff. It's always used a consultant for me. We use the consultant for the data. So, are there questions or comments or thoughts? What is the deadline? I'm sorry. Oh, no, go ahead. What is the deadline for having an updated? May 9th, 2027. 2027. January 2027? No, I'm sorry. The current housing production plan expires on May 9th, 2027. So, do we need to do this now in 2020? So, this would be for 2026 to be done by May 2027. So, the funds would be available July 1st. So, that should be an uptime. Okay. Yeah.
And it's a question over here. And it's actually good that he's asking early, because very often it's like, oh, shoot kind of situation. Maureen? Is this something that the town needs to seek multiple bids? Yes. So, there's that timing also. Just a concern. How long does it typically take for a consultant to prepare? Feels like forever. Yeah. Because of the many drafts. So, it gets approved. If we approve transfer funds of admin funds in May, early May, then an RFP goes out? Is that what happens? Yeah. So, presumably, you could issue the RFP the Monday after that meeting. Yeah. And, you know, just can't pay invoices until July. Yeah. Okay. Thank you.
All right. So, to me, I believe that this is an appropriate use of community preservation funds. Yes, Judy? So, I just heard that there's over $200,000 that's coming from the state, CPC, I think. And, therefore, the $71,000 would be going up. I certainly... Only if we, at town meeting, ask for part of the money to be set aside for administrative funds. Okay. Is there a reason why we would not? Because I'm not thinking if you're worried about it being depleted. For example, this year, I believe it was this year, we did not include a request to add to the administrative fund because we had ample funds. Because we had $71,000. And I even put in the notes that we were not asking for administrative funds, which meant that people called me, like, where's the request for administrative funds? Yes. Thanks for reading. And I think this year, as they went to doing more things on, you know, what it's called a consent calendar. You talked about enough people here. As they put more things in the consent calendar and were passed as a group, I think, our standard article with the admin funds request and the 10% set-asides was in that. So, yeah, they're, they're really looking to do consent calendar and they've asked us to consider one article for all of our projects. And I think they're basically like, can you make a chart that says what it's for and, and how much it's going to be and what funds it's coming from? And, you know, we don't have to stand up and talk. That's okay, too. Because I know everybody reads their warrant anyway.
So we don't necessarily have to vote on things right now. Yes. Are there any other questions or thoughts about this? Okay.
You guys okay with skipping to the ones where we get to hear from Gretchen? All right. Gretchen Schuller, come on down. Are you expecting anybody else? Am I? No. Come on down. I think that gang was here. So this is the application from the Wayland Museum and Historical Society with regard to work to be done at the Grouse Hurt House at 12th Contituate Road. I'm Gretchen Schuller, 126 Old Connecticut Path. We could have all said that along. I know. And I'm a member of the Wayland Museum and Historical Society. I'll come just a smidge. Oh, okay. I'm a member of the Wayland Historical Society, Wayland Museum and Historical Society, and chair of membership, but on the long-range planning. And that's why I'm here for the long-range planning committee. And our application is for several things that we know we have to do at the house, preservation of the house. The first is drainage. We do have dampness in the basement, old house, if things happen. And so we have to have that taken care of. We have found that the post on the northwest corner, the farthest one closest to the road, is definitely undersized. Just look at it. It's this big instead of that big. And it was replaced partway up. The same... The post? I'm sorry? You said post? Post. Yes. Yeah. The post is the structural member that holds up the corner of the house. So it's a place of floating? Historical post and beamed construction, largely. Yes. Right. Because it's a 1740. That part is 1740. And then the sill into which it sits or falls has been replaced about 12 feet of it with two by four boards that are, I guess, glued together. But that's not an appropriate way to do it at all. It's not a glue lamp, is it? No. It could be. Oh, I never thought of that. We should go and look it up to see how long it's lasted. Anyway, it definitely needs to be fixed. And then the final thing is there are signs of some leaks. And we definitely knew we'd have to fix the flashing around the chimney, the main center chimney. So for your last project, you guys were able to score some funds from the state? Yes. Is there any possibility of funding for this? We have applied for a $10,000 grant. Okay.
I don't think we're probably going to get it. But, you know, we try. Yeah. And then if there are other grants that come to mind or come to our attention between now and May, we will definitely apply for them. And if that happens, as we did last year, we went ahead and voted on the full $52,000 or whatever it was, $1,000. And then we only used half of it. And the rest was put back into the fund. And this project's ready to go. That project was ready to go. So that within six months, we knew that we weren't going to use all the money. So we put the $27,000 back into the, I guess, the historic preservation fund. I think that's from when it came. And so we would certainly do the same. And nothing, as you all know, the money doesn't come out of the CPA, or the CP fund, until it's spent and proven to be spent and paid.
And you define effervescence since you used it in a sentence. What did I? Oh. Effervescence. Oh, it's the picture there. Yes. It's that sort of white.
Little stuff. Yeah. On the, Maureen can probably give you a better definition. But anyway, it's. Like dampness residue. Yes, exactly. That's a good one. I should have done something to that. It's evidence of dampness and moisture. Some mineral something. Yeah.
People have any? Maureen. I'm hidden by, I can't be seen by the. A looming presence. Who evaluated the building to come up with this list? Well, we had, we've had two studies done by different architects. The second one was done by Spencer Preservation Group. And then we had contractors come and give us estimates. And the one for the structural part was done by Culinary Restorations. And they were unimpressed with some of the things that had been brought up. Unimpressed by whatever. We had a whole list of things that Spencer Group had identified and they were not. And they said, you know, just think about the structural stuff. And don't worry about the other little joists that are disconnected. We can always fix those in different ways. So we're, we're not worrying about the, the little bits. Um, and so we had a roofer come, we had a, uh, colonial restoration and a drainage person come. I'm like, I don't know the name of the drainage person. So we know that there's moisture in the back. We know that there's water coming into the basement. So the estimate is based on the roofer. Yes. Colonial restoration and the drainage person. Yes. And then when that, then those will have to go out to bid. Yes. I mean, we don't really have to because we're a private nonprofit, but we will to some extent now.
Thank you. And, um, how does the historical commission feel about it? Uh, the historical commission, uh, supports this as a project that would say the 1740 house that is, uh, in the center of the historic, uh, district in downtown. Thank you. Larry.
Is the building owned by the town? No, no, it's not. It's owned by the historical society. Um, it's a regular, uh, deed. Uh, and it, uh, it was given to the historical society by the people who owned it. The town owned the land for some period of time. And then that was, uh, given over to the, to the historical society with the condition that if we no longer use it, it revert, the land reverts to the town. Land and the building are, uh, part of the, your nonprofit. Yes. Uh, good. I understand. Thanks. The land and the building are actually titled separately or whatever the term is. Uh, that's a tough one. I forget. There, there is a complication. I've seen them. Yes. But I'm sorry. I can't remember. What was the question? Uh, the, the land was owned by the town and the building was owned by someone else. So it was privately owned, but the building came to the historical society long before it got moved back because it's been moved twice. Oh, okay. Yeah. And so it came back to, so the building was owned and it was up near, um, those stone piers on, um, old Sudbury road. Uh, on the, um, uh, Adagia Brayman estate before it became Raytheon. Then it was Raytheon and Raytheon said, we don't want this. Do you want it? And it can't, it was given back to the historical society and it stayed there, uh, until 1962 when they finally raised the money to bring it back. And so at some point in that time, they, uh, acquired the land from the town. So I guess it is two separate deeds. Uh, is it two separate deeds? I'm sorry. I believe it is. Yeah. Or, or do you have a deed on a building? No, it's something I should note, but I don't. Well, then we're very, it's more general interest though. Anything to do with the application. Is it a killer? Does the building have a trailer hitch? Sure. Leslie. Um, I remember there was significant flooding in the area about 15 years ago. Did, did the card house have damage that needed to be repaired at that time? Um, remember when. Yes, I do. I mean, the library was underwater. Um, I don't think so. I don't think we, we are in the aquifer protection district, but I don't think so because we are, um, substantially higher than the library. That's excellent. Um, I think, uh, the, the drainage issues are just the way the house is built and the way the land that slopes to the house. So, it just needs to be sloping away. Yeah. All the water went to the basement of a library. Yes, it does. That's right. It's taken it all off for you. I saved the herd, the red herd house. That's the reason the town hall was there prior is because they wanted land that was higher that would not flood. And they moved the house from that location up to Old Sudbury Road. So, there was no flooding then, as far as I know. So, the house is back to where it came. And then it's back to where it started. Wow. That's a good story. Busy. Right. It gets around, as we say.
It's been around the block. If you come to visit us, you could even see the pictures of the moon. Well, come to the Holiday Open House on Sunday, December 7th from 2 to 5. And you can see the pictures. Thanks for the advert. Yep. All right. Does anybody else have questions or comments that Gretchen may be able to help with?
I have a question. Did he? Yeah. I saw that you're posted for tomorrow night. That's for your discussion. And do I have to be here? No. Oh, okay. And it's also posted for two nights in case it runs over. We're hoping to grab that tonight. But, yes, you will not be here. No, I will not be here. Will you sign in? I'm sorry. I need a very informal sign-in. I put one over there, too. Over where? On the chair. Oh, I didn't see it. But no one else has signed it. So, Abby signed that one. Oh, okay. Good. Well, so what do you want to add? I mean, just who you represent. I know. I know. That's fine. Okay. We never find you. One, two, six, little Connecticut path. That's right. Okay. Thank you very much for coming. Oh, by the way, there is a seat open.
You don't have to be chair. Who says you can't come home again? Exactly. Come back, Gretchen. Hey, if that house can make it back. Thank you, Gretchen. That's right. Thank you so much. You'll be like the Grover Eats. I do have a TV wall. I really see off the CPC on the CPC, just like the Grover Eats. There's a couple comments sometime. There you go. And then say what? You guys are doing a great job. Okay. Okay. I can do that. Almost as good as when I was chair. No. It was terrific. All right. Well, thank you very much. Thank you. You guys are waiting for Julie? No? Okay.
I didn't do this. I don't know. I was wondering where that came from. All right. Well, the people for, oh, my God, why did I get these out of order? Sorry. Eliza's part are here. So why don't we go ahead and do that one? Come on down. Thanks. Julie would have loved to be here, but we have a child. We're moving. Yeah. But thank you. So you guys should introduce yourselves because not everybody here knows you. And sign in if you haven't already. I'm one of the many science sheets.
Hey, you can sign in on one.
You want to introduce yourself and then I'll give kind of the background. Steve Schamberg, three to catering, six years road, co-chair of the Eliza J. Norton Foundation. I'm also on the Recreation Commission. I'm here today in the capacity of the foundation. You hear? Barely. Speak up. Do you want to move? I can move. Will one space be better? I can move. Don't need to move. I'm sorry to take up so much time. No, that's okay. Why don't you and I switch? We need to hear. There's a secret here. Let's do it right here. No, I've tried over there before. I can speak up for you. Okay. My daughter yells at me that I speak too loudly. Well, now's your opportunity. I mean, so we're here today. I'll give some background on the history. So three years ago, we lost our 10-year-old daughter, Eliza. Her older sister, Jenna, and Teddy are still, obviously, in the Wayland community. Um, at that time, uh, my family was overwhelmed with the community support, um, and just showing kind of the strength and character of this community that we, um, we're just so thankful for, uh, as, you know, as we started to stand up ourselves, uh, with the help of the community, um, you know, it was really important for us to start a foundation for Eliza, um, to carry on and kind of the strengths that she brought to the world and all that we learned about, um, how she influenced people and, you know, helped empower her friends, um, and, you know, that also dovetailing with how she taught us about the strength of this community, um, gave us, uh, uh, kind of a, we wanted to get back to Wayland. Um, the first step with that was, uh, Conchituate Ballpark has been a place that is very important to our family. Uh, we brought Eliza there, uh, you know, she was born, um, and we were over on Shawmanab extension at the time, which is, you know, a dutiful way to come into the town. Uh, we spent a lot of time at Conchituate Park with her and Jenna. Um, we spent a lot of time there, uh, coaching and playing and, um, it really is a special place, not just us, but the community. It's also where, um, we had an initial celebration after we lost her there. I lost her, um, and there were, you know, well over a couple thousand people that showed up to front of that first celebration for her, um, so we really wanted to invest in the park. Uh, it's the front door to Wayland and, um, we want to do our best to help, um, just make it a place we all can be very proud of. So with that, um, our first step was to go to the town and say, we'd like to help build dugouts there, um, and so we committed $175,000 to the town to, to, you know, construct those new dugouts. Um, and then we ended up investing another $100,000 into the dugout. So we're $275,000 of Eliza's foundation has been invested into the park already. Um, we then, uh, came to you all. Um, and, uh, we're very thankful to start the process, working with the town in partnership. Um, and we were, um, you know, we all worked together, were awarded, I believe it was $154,000 at the time for, uh, creating, I got it, it's $154,000. There's, we worked hard on that. Um, and so, uh, now the next step was, part of that was to do a study. Um, and to finish, um, the backstops so that the night's dugouts were cleanly finished with the backstops. Um, we've continued to work with Catherine Brenna and, uh, the recreation department to, um, develop conceptual plans. We've got that work underway. Um, I think we actually probably put those into the package. Um, and so what we're, we're really trying to advance and complete the work that we want to start out with you all, um, the foundation is intending to continue to invest in the community alongside of the community. Um, and just to kind of show the work that, you know, we've continued to do, um, in the request from you all, we are now not with the concept plans done. Um, we are scoping out, um, and this is working with Catherine, uh, an RFP to finish the backstops. Now that, um, the reason we waited until now is we wanted to know what the concept plan would look like so that we weren't putting storage in areas that was going to encumber the overall. Um, I think that was the, that was the ask before is like, can you plan rather than just going ahead? Um, and so that's where we're at, um, and that RFP, uh, we'll work on and have completed through December. Um, and then we'll seek, uh, you know, to have fulfilled in January and then completed for the spring, which brings us to this ask, which is now that we are along the way, um, you know, advancing the ball, um, it's, it's an appropriate time to work with you all again, um, to complete the work. Uh, I think an important advancement that Catherine wanted to be here, but, um, she was double booked. There's other meetings in town going on right now. Uh, but yeah, um, but one thing of note is that, uh, the park is now inside of the five year capital plan for the playgrounds as well. Um, so with that, I'll pause. I wanted to give you just the history and the thank you and the work that we've, uh, continue to do in alignment with the ask.
I, that's a really silly question. I don't know what a backstop is. What is it? What is it back? I've seen, I've seen, you know, the picture of the gate and, and, and every, that, is it? Um, the, the, the, the fence behind the home plate, that big, tall fence is there to stop the ball from rolling into the street. I got it. It should be, it should be a ball stop. Um, yeah, it's that ball. That, that, it's the, it's the, when we went through the dugout process, everyone agreed that based on the space, um, we didn't want to move the backstops or, and, and that they have at least resistance was to just give them a nice clean refurbishment to match the fencing that we've put there with the dugouts. And when, and they were falling, I mean, they were kind of rusted and falling apart to begin with, so they just kind of haven't really been maintained for. And part of that process, uh, the foundation is going to invest $20,000 into storage units, so we don't need to have that pod sitting out there that you're probably all familiar with, unless we like the pod, we can.
So, um, there's, there are a lot of pieces to this project. Um, we're trying to be thoughtful about what will have the most impact immediately for the most people. Um, just, let's go back to the dugouts for a minute. So as soon as those dugouts were filled within a day, there were children, parents, the senior men's softball league that uses those fields, probably more than anyone potentially in Wayland. Um, the, the excitement and the feedback that we received was overwhelming. Like, it really was like, or something that obviously we put a lot of effort into and time and money, but, um, it has already gone a very long way to just start making that part look a little bit more like a Wayland part should be, especially this, this particular part. Yeah. And I just anecdotally, um, although my daughter wasn't on the JV softball team last year, I coached it and, um, that was a great experience and it was, um, we had to play our games there and, um, the other coaches and kids from other towns didn't know who I was, but it was pretty awesome to have other towns coming and being like JV kids be like, this is cool. Like, um, uh, so it's, it's been a really rewarding project. Great. So, um, how is the, other than the funding, how's the proposal different than previously? So the. I mean, and it has a planning basis. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So one, one, we have, we have an idea now that we've got, based on your feedback, we've got, you know, we were, we've got drawings, we've got a good idea of what a kind of high low end budget could be work to, to completion. Um, and on top of that, I'll say a couple of years later, we've, we've continued to fundraise. So you'll see that the ask from the last time we were here is half of what it was, um, based on also sometimes the delay is actually helping us, even if the cost of materials may end up going, going up, planning this and being able to use the resources that we've already received from the CPA funds. Plus, um, Catherine had a while back received, uh, I think it was 150,000 for the basketball courts. And at the time that that was going to be placed up a bid was around the same time that we started with the dugout project in KTU with the very first fund. So we have those funds as well to, to plan this and think about how not to spend twice as much or three times as much mobilizing on three different projects and three different times. Um, so all, all of that said, we've, uh, we also have, we, we were anticipating a significant donation as well. Um, so we, we shouldn't, we should not need to come back for additional CPA funds or, or by budget elsewhere from the town. Um, plus, like Mark mentioned, the capital plan, right? We can now, we can now start to rely on that. Whereas the last time we were here, we didn't know if that, you know, that was something that we were hoping for, but it couldn't necessarily, um, bank on. Susan, I have a question. Um, I'm looking at the project description scope or concept page and that's, has the map. So are you doing all that area or just one piece of that area? I'm not sure I understand what part you're involved with. So we are, um, I'll let you talk more to it, but the intention is in the next phase. Yeah. Um, so the intention is in this next phase to do the playgrounds, um, the bulk work. Um, and then there's other amenities that, uh, depending on how budgeting works out, we'd like to create the trail around the park. So folks, folks are always walking around the park. Um, but giving them a kind of manicured pathway with, uh, measurements as well. So if you're walking in, I mean, we all have, I don't, I don't do an Apple watch, but I know people do. Um, but if you don't have it knowing that if you walk around, it's, it's this distance. Um, but right now the, the first focus would be the playgrounds. And the ball. That's in the center. That's of the three. That's the centerpiece. Lower right hand corner. Yeah. Lower right hand corner. This piece, rather than that piece. The two of them together. Those two, that's the basketball court. And then right above it is the plate, the current playground area, but revamping the entire playground area. And the third little great square at the top part. Sorry. Even at the bottom. Well, at the bottom. Yeah. At the top. The bottom. That's the basketball court. So. Oh, I thought this was the best. No, that's the correct. That's existing part. That's parking. Yeah. So this is going to have a possible hockey. It, we could love it in the winter. Well, that would be, I would love to. Um, we want to have it as versatile as possible to accommodate basketball, soccer, hockey. Um, in the event that we, we could get into a cold winter, that would be pretty fun. And then that's the court that had an appropriation for three years back. Correct. Wasn't it also supposed to have pickleball? Oh, I don't touch pickleball. We, we. Yes. I was just saying. Yeah. The idea was brought up. I do ask. I think Katherine is questionable about wanting, about bringing the, I guess the noise of pickleball, I think this is maybe the comment. That was the hockey. I, I, I think. Or, or maybe it was, or that there's enough pickleball represented. Yeah. We, we did bring up pickleball in our last restoration goals meeting. And the pickleball community is quite happy. And there's no needs. Nice. That we've heard. Nice. So just to, how often does that happen? I know. Yeah. So that, that bottom left area is where the other parking lot, that's kind of. Down here. Okay. Yeah. Okay. That, that, so as you can see, we're, we're still, we're going back and forth with a designer to work now on kind of ideas for that space of whether we can, we're, you can kind of see we're, we're on the bottom right next to the basketball courts. We're, we're adding additional parking, parking at that park is when it gets busy. It's very difficult to come by. So we're trying to be thoughtful about adding parking as much as we can, while also making as much space as we can, you know, accessible and, you know, useful for, for things other than just parking. So the actual playground area is the same design that you brought forth last time? It's, that's, that's the same design that we, the same design structure. Yes. Well, I have the same concern that I had last time, which it, it doesn't really allow much for handicapped children other than banging the chimes. And here's a perfect opportunity to make an ADA acceptable playground to, to make it a star of Wayland and of the Metro West area. Yeah. And I just say that again, that's. I, yeah, I would love. Um, if, if follow up is helpful, the, the playground designer that we use, uh, or that has provided that, presented that to us as the most, as a very ADA, I can't speak to it. I'd love for them to come and do it justice because I, it is very important for us to maintain the focus on empowerment and accessibility and community. Yeah. I know. I read that. Yeah. And, and so I'd love for them to talk to it. Cause my understanding is it's about giving all the kids interactivity. And so it's not like, you know, there's one space or. No, I agree. Yeah. You said inclusive and all, and it has to do with that, but I don't see how climbing isn't necessarily helpful. Yeah. There's no wheelchair swings. No. Um, so we, you could add maybe one of something to make it a little bit more. Yeah. We are inclusive. Yeah. So if I could add two, two things. One, um, in the packet, if you look like, uh, it's, I think it's, I don't have a page chart, but it says the project purpose. You don't need to read it right now, but this is directly from the people that provided us and how they thought about the design. And when we talked to them, they respectively would not agree that this is not wheelchair accessible, not just ADA accessible, but wheelchair accessible. Um, obviously, depending on the ability of a child or anyone in a wheelchair, they can get onto the structure and still move about the structure. They can, but on top of that, even if they can't, the structure itself has a lot of things in and around it that are accessible. We're also, to your point, looking, we've gone back and we took, we took what you said the last time, you know, and we've looked at the like wheelchair zip lines and we're going to try to see if we can accommodate that. Obviously space. I noticed you spoke about a quiet place for them and I appreciated that. I noticed that right away. Um, so, so it's kind of hard to see everything that's being proposed in here and what they've showed to us, but, uh, Catherine also, Catherine helped in one of the designs. There was a gaga. I don't know if anyone knows what gaga ball is. You don't need to know. You don't need to know, but apparently it's very popular with the low kids. Oh, she was very happy to see that being proposed. There were a number of different things that were being proposed, not just the structure, but also, so currently the, the only thing that's there right now for a wheelchair, wheelchair accessible is one strip that goes to a swing that a child can find into or be helped into and then switch. We want, we want to get it right. Yeah. I mean, we're, we're working towards it and we, we, we hear you. Well, I guess there was an improvement. Yeah. Yeah. I guess, I guess what I would say is thank you. Thank you. And if given, if, if we receive the money to be able to move forward with this project, I have no doubt that we will not make this the most inclusive park in the Metro West area. Yeah. Yeah. That's the entire. Pardon me? Yeah. We will make it. Sorry. All right. Yeah. So we're going to work on wrapping it up. But Judy. So this is, I know nothing about sports. So whatever you tell me is a wee. Yeah. So this is baseball, right? Does it allow you to play any other sports? It does. So it's. That already exists. There's softball sized diamonds. So there's softball sized diamonds. So it's little league, baseball, little league, softball. Um, and then they have other softball leagues of all ages that play there. And then in the field, um, sometimes I think football will use the grass in the, um, football, lacrosse, soccer. Soccer too. Yeah. If, if everyone's competing, everyone's competing for fields, but there are, it's, it has the, the field itself has the ability to be used for any of those sports. Larry. Yes. Just having, I have seen, uh, frisbee matches going on there. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. So, um, in terms of recreation, last league priorities and the schedule of playground rehabs, how does this fit in? Or Mark, you can answer to it. Cool. Yeah. This, this one is being, um, in the, in the next five year cycle, it will be the next one we plan on doing. Um, do you know, I know you spoke with Catherine about timing. Um, do you, did you mention this two year or the next four years? Uh, you know, we'll get her to, I want her to speak for herself. Um, but she was supportive. She is supportive. We've worked with her on the drawings, so she knows this. I mean, she sets up the meetings, we show up, it's, uh, and so she is excited about the prospect of, of this, you know, coming together as we finish the planning through this kind of winter season and then, um, getting in a place to execute after coming in. Yeah. Unfortunately, poor Catherine was on vacation this week. Or she had. Of course. Yeah. I know. Yeah. So our meeting that was to happen did not happen. Um, but I'm glad that she took a break, but this is so high on our prayer. We'll be next week. What's the story with the playground here? So, um, it did go out to bed and, um, see if I have that note. Um, it's in progress. It is in progress. Okay. She definitely made a comic without the playground here. For some reason. I can't remember. You have to ask her that it was either decided that it couldn't be done or. Oh, it's on hold depending DPW review of wastewater remediation plan. Yes. It could possibly move the playground across the road to get off the wetlands. Um, uh, uh, but, but moving it across the road would, would be double the cost. So. There's a few. So why did the playground cross to the river? Yeah. I think for that. This is the one. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Which is, yeah, used by. So it's on the river side. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Next to the beavers. Yeah. So not good luck for the town building and the school here, but I think that. So. That kind of helps us. I mean, that, that could be something where the, where the recreation commission says, this is not a project we're going to do. So we'll turn this money back. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Maureen and then Kay. Um, so in the past, we gave funds for a master plan for the park, but this sounds like it's a plan for the place structure. Is there a master plan for the park? That's the master plan for the park. Yeah. Um, and that was done by Meridian associates and commissioned by Catherine. That's okay. And just a couple of follow-ups. Yeah. On the playground. Is there shade there for the children at all? I don't. Yeah. Yeah. To be honest with you. Um, there. Yeah. That little triangle thing on the bottom right. I don't think we see it very well, but there's a, there's an octagon thing. Yeah. The second thing was, um, it noted that that's constituent school is housing for seniors. So is there a place where seniors should sit or play chess or checkers or something you want to. Yeah. So. And that's located in the playground. No. No. Not necessarily. Again, the plans right now are still a work in progress to figure out exactly what and placement of everything. But the proposal, but the proposal is you have chest, a place with chest, you know, concrete, concrete, let's say called concrete chess boards. Yes. Right. Um, benches throughout the park, benches around the playground area as well. So parents can watch kids. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. So in my mind, we would have maybe a couple of different places for chess boards in less than noisy parts of the park, as well as potentially if you want to sit next to them. Maybe. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Um, we want, we're focused on maintaining or expanding the number of parking spaces available, but also there's space over there that can be taken advantage of, um, or, or these types of, you know, the chess boards or picnic tables, or, you know, there's been a receivo concept thrown out there. Um, and so we're still working with Catherine, um, in order to figure out, you know, place them properly. So that it's. So you're running out of land to get your guy. Oh, we're maximizing. There's that whole field in the middle. No, um, as someone who does stuff with the housing authority, I would just ask that you all be really mindful about drainage because it's already an issue for the housing authority with Bradford street running off into the building. It honestly was, um, that was my first question too. And so we have the town engineer at the first meeting. Um, if that, I've been on since 1992. It's been an issue. I wasn't aware of that, but that is the first thing that topic was in our first review session with Meridian was, I didn't know anything about it. And he spent a lot of time talking about the town engineer being there. I'm glad it's on the radar. He's been working with Meridian for like, I guess, what sounds like months having these conversations to be really thoughtful about not doing anything in that area. Yep. And then we're gonna wrap up. Yeah. Are all these little round green things trees? Yeah. Yes. Yes. Um, so there are existing trees there throughout the lighting, lighting the playground and the park and the entire park. Um, not in the field, not in the field. Well, some of them are all right. Um, and, but the proposal, part of this budget is also landscaping. So. Would you do adding trees? That is. We're just preserving. Oh. Okay. Thank you. Well, I'm sorry. Presuming we're done. So. Yes. Thank you all so much. Thank you. Um, you've done a tremendous amount of work and we appreciate it. Thanks. And, uh, if we have any questions, we know where to go. We are here. And yeah. Thank you. I will. I will. Great. Thank you. Thank you. Oh, actually. One more question. So when the, if the money comes through, what is the relationship between, I'm sorry, who's gonna be responsible for, is this a rec department? Is this a facilities thing? Is it that you guys are doing it? No. Great question. Thank you. Recreation. Finally. Yeah. Recre, it is a town project. Uh, the recreation department will take lead. Uh, there will be involvement by, I would presume, a project manager for DPW. Um, but it would be sourced out to a third party. Um, and we obviously would continue to be supportive. Which, which is what we already went through with the dugout space. Effectively the same concept. Well, appreciate your opportunity. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. All right. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Abby, you ready now? No. Sorry. Now we're gonna go to the back of the pile. Yep. The number nine. Number nine. Right? Yep. That was number two. Do you want me to come in on some of those other projects? Which ones? Speak up, Abby. Yeah. Yeah. I don't make any comments on anything other than my own proposal. Just to say that going forward with recreation, we want to make sure that the DPW continues our comprehensive relationship. And sometimes the drawings coming out of recreation can be more schematic. We want to make sure that they end up being engineered, um, including the stormwater and being mindful of long-term operation and maintenance and where that budget for. Not just during construction, construction management would be, but the long-term. Oh, I know. I'm coming back. Can we just start with you introducing yourself? Oh, sure. And signing in. Oh, sure. She did. Oh, you did. Okay. Okay. Hi, I'm Abby Shrest. I'm the town engineer, uh, with DPW. Um, so just advocating for, uh, engineering and plans and long-term operation and maintenance. How long have you been here? I've been here just about two years. Okay. Yeah. Um, we obviously have not an area that I have anything to do with. I've looked at the stormwater housing issue. Um, we fixed the stormwater in the street. There's a driveway issue I've proposed and given them a design for, um, but that's outside of the town property. But, um, I think that that would fix that issue. Yeah. I think we were gonna try and see if we can do something about the money. Okay. Because we have our capital plan and it's not on it. I gotcha. Okay. Well, if you need any more questions about that. Thank you. Appreciate it. Well, let me know. But overall, I'm here to talk about the Dudley Pond water quality improvement study. I think we're all aware that Dudley Pond is a great resource for this town. Um, not just the 86 acres of the open space of the water, but also the almost 400 acres of the watershed around it, which includes several town parcels. And don't forget the Dudley Chateau. And the, an important resource in the Dudley Chateau. Of course. The storage at this point. That's right. It's many things. Uh, is it on the national register? Not yet. Not yet. Not yet. Um. The FBI's maybe. Um, and the areas had water quality issues for over 50 years. Uh, the town has done many things to try to address some of the issues, uh, including the overall O and M of the DPW for the structures in the area. But I would like to do a more comprehensive assessment where I look at all the past studies, aggregate the work of the health department, recreation department. Um, and look at some of the past projects that have been outside of the DPW. We have some issues with the surface water quality committee, did a project, um, in the 80s. But, um, unfortunately there aren't easements in those areas and they're not on the DPW radar. So they don't get maintained. So I'd like to take in all of that, um, and look at it really as a whole to address the water quality issues in the area. Um, we have many issues with stormwater. Uh, just the nutrient loading that ends up happening in the pond, but, uh, additional flooding issues in the area. So looking at what we can do with maybe some of the town parcels that we have, um, and coming up with options for stormwater control measures. Um, I'm proposing sort of several different pieces to a large project here. Um, but one of the things that I would like to start with is a whole drone assessment. Um, the entire watershed. I was able to, um, secure a grant about $70,000 where we just purchased a brand new drone. Um, laser lidar for the area. We got a new pilot's license, and we were able to aggregate some of our GIS data with the, um, data from the drone. Um, unfortunately, once you get one grant, you might create a different problem. So the, the drone brings in so much data that we're having trouble processing with the existing computer. So, uh, we need a much, uh, heftier computer with much more processing, uh, ability, which is what's in there. So that we can look at all that data, um, as a whole. Uh, but the ability that it gives us is just amazing. Just yesterday, I'd asked about the Dudley outlet. Um, so Tom Lashman, the surveyor, went out with the drone just yesterday. And by this afternoon, he was able to give me, um, a plan set that had current elevations. Um, so it actually can do basically surveying from the sky. It can. It can. It can. Uh. It is now. Yeah. We were part of that grant paid for pilot's licenses. Uh, and we've been able to help the board of health and recreation. And, um, I think we're going to have plans to do some of the historic, um, properties as well. Um, he's just thrilled and having a great time with the, with the, with the, uh, drone. But in order to look at, um, this is a watershed study for Dudley Pond, we'd need to get, um, more processing power for that data. Additionally, we'd like to add a thermal hammer to the drone so that we would able to do things specifically for this project, like, uh, find, um, stormwater outfalls that aren't in the town system. Or, um, might be town, but not in the DPW system so that we can find, uh, those outfalls or even illicit discharges. And we can do that with the thermal camera. Um, outside of this, we would be able to help with search and rescue missions. We would be able to investigate, um, properties to see if there are, um, uh, people or animals inside buildings. Yeah. Um, we're able to do some, uh, Tom's been looking about doing some historic cemetery, uh, investigations with the thermal camera, uh, water main breaks, et cetera, et cetera. Do the police know about this? We've been working with the police, Tom. I have a neighbor with memory issues and this would be incredibly helpful. Yes. Yes. Yes. We, um, did some of the training with the police department. We're back and forth with them, um, working on it. So, um, and so that would be sort of the first data assessment, data gathering component of it. Uh, we would like to, again, look at those, find the outfalls and then assess them and come up with plans for the future for those. Uh, we would like to find the old surface water quality, uh, infiltration basins, um, investigate them, hopefully improve them, and then bring them into the DPW regular O&M process. Um, we would then also like to look at, uh, walking path case study of some of the area. Um, I'm not sure if all the roads in the area, I'll be able to make them town roads. But I've been looking at options for what are essentially structural walking paths where, um, emergency vehicles would be able to get over them. Um, and things like that. So looking at if there's other potential options for, um, walking paths. Uh, additionally. With the town properties that we have in the area because of the stormwater permit that we have for the entire town from the EPA and DEP, they have to come up with, uh, stormwater O&M plans for all town parcels. Um, I have them for the DPW, but Recreation for instance needs to get them, uh, for things like the Dudley, um, walking, walking path parts that they have there. And we'd be able to come up with plans for all of the town properties. Um, and then look at them and assess them. Could I get some stormwater structures on them? Can we need some viewing areas? Um, what can we do with some of those town parcels that we have? Um, this would be a start to all the water quality issues. It wouldn't solve all water quality issues in the pond, but it would set us up for future, um, capital improvement projects. I think it would also put us in a better place to apply for additional grants. Um, I've tried applying to the MVP program for, uh, two years in order to secure funding for this project, but we haven't been awarded it. But I think the data coming out of this kind of a study would line us up better for grants in the future. And so, uh, the 145,000, is that investing in EW's capabilities? Or is it hiring outside consultants? Or is it a mix of both? It's a mix of both. It's a mix of both. Um, so it would be, uh, engineering for me, um, Brendan Decker, GIS coordinator. Yeah. He'd be working at Tom Lashmitt, um, as the town surveyor. Cause the investment in capabilities, um, appeals to me because it sounds like, you know, we, we get, we get the technology and we use this as a test case, but it seems so deployable elsewhere in town as well. Right. Exactly. I don't think it could be funded with community preservation funds. Okay. Like computers and cameras and stuff. So I think we would need to look at all of the components, um, closely just to see what we could fund, assuming that we can make the case that this is preservation activity, um, uh, for open space. Because we can't do rehabilitation of open space because it's not an asset that we acquired with community preservation funds. Okay. Um, and if funds for this were going to come out of any of the 10% sleeves, which one would be most likely in your mind? For me, I think most things would fit most neatly within the open space. Yeah. That we would be working at preserving open space in the same way that we take the hedgerows out. Yeah. Yeah. The land to create more habitat there. Yeah. And, and the, the set of capabilities clearly seems to, should be appealed with conservation. Yeah. But maybe we could shift some of this from CPC, like not have it line up like this. Sorry. I'm looking at here. Okay. I'm looking at this page. Appendix C, I believe. Um, you know, just shift some of the money. So that the things that are fundable with community preservation funds, we would fund maybe more of. And then the things that we can't, would never shift to other funding. Yeah. Some, some of it, I'm not sure how much more we can do. Like because of the step one is the, the data assessment and the processing, um, in terms of preservation, outlying and identifying the existing conditions that we have there, um, in order to preserve that. I really believe that the computer and the, uh, heat, the heat sensing camera allows us to do the open space preservation in the area. I totally understand that. Okay. Okay. It's just like, you can't find the way the statute is written. Um, uh, if I hired an outside consultant to do it as part of the plan, would it be funded? Um, so if the outside consultant needed to acquire something, let's say the outside consultant says, I'm gonna be, it's gonna be a hundred thousand dollars. Can that include like capital purchases under that? I don't think so. If it's just sort of a lump sum consultant and we don't, we don't know where that money's going to. I don't know. I don't know. I mean, how far do we, how deep do we go into a consultant's proposal? We have to make sure that what the money is being spent on is a legitimate expense under. Yeah. You know, we, we could also consult with town council. Yeah. Assuming we could get permission. Um. Yeah. Oh, not too hard. I know. Um, but, uh. That's true. But if I was going to hire a consultant to do that planning study, they would have that computer processing and they would spend the money on the computer processing. And then we wouldn't be left with it. Yeah. Um, to continue it for other, other processes. Right. But if I hire, I've been hiring a time bond or ECT. Yeah. They have the thermal camera and the capabilities to do that. They can do it. But I would rather that the town. Um, for the five year capital plan, capital improvement plan that the town does. Yes. Is there a threshold amount to be put on the plan? Like, would they fund something? Would you need to put something as low as $13,000 on that plan or $15,000? It would be in the, in the plan. Yeah. It would be in there. Um, it might not be a separate item. Maybe it would come under equipment, but it would be all a part of that. Yes. I was also trying to think whether there could be, um, multiple funding sources within the same article, but it would, it couldn't be, I don't think it could be a community preservation article. I think it would have to be like a capital improvement article, but that some of the funding for that could be from community, community preservation. Okay. So that would make it so that the whole thing could be covered, but that only certain things would be. Yes. Funded by three preservation. I, I wrote an article like similar to that last year, where I'd received a grant for, um, culvert assessment. And, um, some of it, we had to appropriate all the grant money, but some of it had to also come from the capital. So it was written that way. And that was sort of that. You know, the other thing that I believe I have mentioned was that for the most part studies and plans kinds of things are funded with administrative funds, but this is so much money that. Yes. I, I think it has to stand on its own as a project. Right. I don't think we ever adopted anything that said, you know, a limit, but, but I think this is enough to make us a lot of our cares that we wouldn't do it. The spirit of it was 5,000 here and 7,000 there. Okay. I mean, we could easily spend $15,000 on a, you know, on a, uh, appraisal or more, but yeah. Yeah. Um, people have other questions. Is this something that the board of public works supports? Yes. Of course. But, um, I, I guess what I'm hearing you say is because it involves equipment and it is, it doesn't fit with, uh, elements. There are parts that fit and parts that don't. Right. So we could split out parts that we would theoretically be able to support with, um, with, uh, I think we can, you know, split this up. Yeah. I mean, I think we should, we can't do capital purchases. Yeah. We can do playground equipment. Um, well, there's the thing about them being rooted to the ground. Um, but yes, I think capital is the wrong word. I apologize. If you let us pile it. Um, so yeah, I think that, uh, we'll, we'll have to look through this and just see what we can. Okay. We can do. In general, I think that it's an important project. We will try to find a way here. I mean, I also, I also don't know, um, you know, when you come up with whatever the plan of work is, I don't know whether the town would fund it or not, but, um, cross that bridge when we come to it. I've been trying for two years to get funding for this project. So I'll just keep trying whatever way I can. Uh, it's definitely an area of the town that needs to be addressed. So, uh, if you have ideas, I'm willing to, uh, do whatever I need to, uh, to get the project going. Yeah. I mean, we may. The set of capabilities we're developing more broadly. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We'll look and see what we can. Okay. What we can fund. I mean, I think most of it we can make a case for. Okay. Well, I can also move buckets within that too. Right. Right. Right. I mean, I think we could, we could get back to you with like, you know, these things, no. So if you took that money and put it elsewhere, how would that work? Okay. Well, whatever I can do to help out. Who's my daughter? I thought about that. All right. All right. Thank you so much for coming. We appreciate it. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. I especially like the thermal thing where you can find people. Right. Find people or find who's got a, you know, like not connected to a second system. Yeah. I would, I would, I would like that for recreation. Yes. We have a lot of squatters on some of our fields that we serve our feet. Really? Yeah. We had a, we had a football team from a local town with their heavy equipment. Big, big, big, big, big, big people with big, heavy, please. Pushing. What do you got against big people? What was that? What do you got against big people? No. Jen looking it up. Not, not little feet, not little dents, big dents. But we were outside of the fields where so we made it and then come to find out we find a team of, of 20 year old football players. A heat map would be nice to read. Yeah. Are they missing? They're missing kids. Do we? Yeah. Yeah. Do we know what we need to know about the water quality, the herd fun thing? Abby, do you have anything to do with that? No. Okay, good. I mean, that was, was, you know, a good qualifying question. Is it allowed or not? Mm-hmm. But I read what you said right now makes me doubt it. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I mean, that was, was, you know, a good qualifying question. I think, is it allowed or not? Mm-hmm. But I read what you said right now makes me doubt it. Mm-hmm. How many times have they come? Are you talking about the bittersweet removal? No. I was talking about the third time water quality treatment. What are we talking about now? Are we moving down the list? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I didn't, it didn't know. It just reminded me that since it was water quality, I wanted to see a few. Sure. So let's just go back up to the top. The next one is the housing consultant, which is project titled RHSO, Housing Service. Yep. Yep. Uh, it's not terribly different than what we've seen in the past. Sure. Uh, we used to fund it with uncommitted funds. We've since, uh, migrated to wanting it to be funded with community housing funds. And so my suggestion is that we, um, direct them to the affordable housing trust fund because they are the holders of the community housing funds. They're great. They're great. What is the dollar amount? 40,000. 40,000. I mean, it's the 40,000 for two years. Yes. Yeah. So last year it was for 10,000 for one year. No. Or was last year a pop-up for one year? Last year it was an additional $10,000 because the year before was supposed to cover two years. Yeah. I see. I was like, what are you doing here? But yeah. Um, so, uh, is there a motion to, um, not include the RHSO housing service in the town meeting articles and to direct them to the, uh, affordable housing trust fund? I so move. Thank you. Is there a second? Second. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Anybody opposed? Okay. Just so you know. Larry? Larry left. Larry left. Okay. I was just going to say, Larry left. We don't have to Google. Yep. I have a question. Yes. We recommended the same thing last year. So why do they keep submitting? Because we keep telling them this is the last time. Well, I guess we gave them that 10,000 last year. Well, look, last year we recommended they went to the, I thought they went to, I thought they got it from the trust fund. That's what, that's what the note, that's what the minutes from last year. Right. So I don't, I don't know why they keep coming here. It seems like it'd just be a quicker to go right to the fire. Yep. All right. I'll breathe. Thank you. Thank you. Halfway done. But who's counting? Sorry. I'm just making myself a note. Okay. Herd pond water quality treatment, herbicide treatment on herd pond is how they call it. Did people have a chance to see the information from Stuart Saginaw from the community preservation coalition? Yeah. I mean, do we consider this to be maintenance or do we consider it to be preservation? How often do they have to do it? Yeah. I think if you have to do it again in two years, it's maintenance. Yeah. Is that the way everybody else reads this to be? That it's not an enduring approach? Yeah. It seems like this is the one, sorry. It's going to have to go back for the next two to five years. Correct? Is that what it said? I think so. Yeah. And that's confusing. There were so many herd, um, Dudley, Dudley, um, I got lost. It's like a Venn diagram. Yeah. Um, yeah. My impression was that it is not sort of a enduring. Yes. One and done or even like one and done for a while. So I, I don't feel like we can fund it. Uh, the other concern I heard from a informal conversation with a conservation administrator is that during peak water levels heard upon conjoins with Sudbury river, which then means you're introducing, you know, essentially herbicides into a nationally protected river. They could use it. Yeah. It's got things that could use some herbicide in there. Yeah. But yes. But not me. That's where my big water comes from. Your water comes from. Yeah. Um, all right. So is there a motion that we find this not eligible for funding through the Community Preservation Act? So moved. Thank you. Is there a second? Second. Uh, any further discussion? All in favor? Aye. Aye. Anybody opposed? Before on Zoom, do we have to individually vote? Huh? Before on Zoom, do we have to individually vote? Only if someone's remote. Oh, only if someone's remote. Right. The number is remote. Correct. It's so confusing. I know. Okay. Next. Heard Farm Large Tree Preservation to preserve the large, majestic trees at Heard Farm. It's cheaper if we just take the garden clove out there in the holiday season and let them cut off the bit of sweet primes. If they want to practice, they'd come to my house. I can bring my tractor over for the table. Um, again, this is sort of maintenance, right? Don't these things grow back? This is sweet. In my experience, if you do a really good job, it doesn't come back. No. They also showed in the application areas where they had done it and the trees had come back. So, I guess you could say those trees have been preserved. Mm-hmm. Yes. Well, and the habitat is preserved. Do people have any questions that they want me to take to Linda? Well, it's, again, I thought, is this a maintenance problem that should be budgeted by the town? Yeah. I mean, it's one of those things that it could go either way. But what Doug was just saying is that if you can, if you're thorough, it will eradicate it. If you're thorough and pull out the roots. And then are pretty scrupulous about mowing around the area. Mm-hmm. You know, after two or three times of getting cut, this stuff gives up and dies. And I've done plenty of this. Don't need those goats in that goat house. We need the goats. We need the goats. You're sorry, what? We need goats. Oh, yes. I'm told there is a goat house. But we don't have somebody to watch the goat on the weekend. But it would be a benefit to the family. There are goats at the boathouse? What? I hear that we have a goat house near Sherman Dredge. Can't do it? But no goats. A place that we could potentially house goats, but we do not have somebody to feed the goats and mine the goats on the weekends. But it could be a good community tool at some point. Do the people on Lincoln Road still have goats? Mm-hmm. North of Waltham Road? Just north of Waltham Road? Anyway. Can we rent some goats or something? Anyway. So are people inclined to consider this as a not maintenance project? I'm inclined to consider it as non maintenance. Can we put in a caveat? Like you said, you have to pull out the roots. It's not just cutting it down. Yes. You pull out the roots. Because if it's just cutting it down, they're coming back. Yeah. You pull out the roots and then you mow or bush hog. Or have goats. So that the baby plants get nipped in the bud. Or have goats. All right. We're not making decisions about funding or not funding. We're just ruling out the ones that we can't fund. Can we say that this is a one-time project? Yes. So they don't come back in three years or something? But it has hundreds of trees. I don't know. I mean, you know, let's say they pick five trees. To say it's a one-time project is... I mean, we put other money into... We recommended the town fund to other projects. Clearly, we heard farm is a priority for the conservation department. Yeah. After reading the email you sent out, I question maybe we weren't supposed to do that. Because it seems we keep paying to remove the same weeds and... I don't know. I don't think we're doing the same in places. Yeah, we'd be doing... We want to do each tree once. Yeah. Is there a period of time that is considered not repetitive? Like, is it ten years or...? I think we have some discretion. Yeah. All right. Are you guys okay with moving to the boardwalk? Are we keeping this in? We're keeping this in for now. Okay. I'm on the boardwalk. I'm on the boardwalk. Um... Hanlon Woods Boardwalk. Project Head of Conservation Properties Boardwalks. Uh... I think this is more recreation. Yeah. This is the one that falls under conservation department sponsorship, but counts for recreation. So, if you're going to draw money from a sleeve, it has to be recreation. Right. I agree with that. Um... Anybody have any questions? Concerns? I just couldn't tell from the figure where it was. Is it just that little... the very beginning? I... I... I... I... I... I... I... I... I... I... I... I... I... I... I... I... I... I... I... I... I... I think the... Um... I... I... I... I... I... This part right here from the parking to the... to the orange. Yeah. Just that... I couldn't tell... Color wise. Oh, where the heavy red is? Yeah. The heavier red. Yeah. Oh, you have to... Is it heavier? Yeah. I think so. Oh, eyes part next to the parking. So, is it just that? Cause then it seems like it's sort of... The coloring of the red is kind of weird on this. Yeah. Cause it seems like... Is it just... Is it... Is it this? And this? And this? And there? Well, you probably don't need a boardwalk over some of that other stuff because it's not... Pretty wet, isn't there? I mean, you could put a boardwalk around the entire pod. Yeah. Yeah. Walk a depth along the side. Oh, I think that is the proposed walk. It's the same color as the key, the top right. So... Yeah. Right. But it seems like there's a lot of red in here. So... Oh, I see. So is it... Is it orange rather than red here? Sorry. It looks to be like an L shape on its side. Okay. All right. Maybe I don't need to figure it out. No. Well, it's only 216 foot long. Yes. Mm-hmm. So that's not terribly long. That's not terribly long. It's not terribly long. It's not terribly long. Okay. Other than that, any questions we need to take to Linda? Yeah. The... The only thing that we have is like the kiosk is digging down into the ground. So again, we just need an observer for the archaeology. Yes. Or we may decide that the land has been farmed so heavily that it doesn't, but because it's wet and boggy there, it's less likely that the farmer use that land and more likely that indigenous people may have used it. So we should put in another, what amount? What? What amount? I don't know at this point. Okay. So is that something that you can look into? I will ask. Because last time we, for the Sherman's Bridge, we did 15, right? 15,000. In the Hedge Roads last year, too. Yeah. I mean... Maybe that was the one I'm... You're watching someone install two posts up a place. Yeah. I think, not to be devil's advocate, but if they're putting the posts in and just using a post digger, I don't know if there's anything for an archaeologist to monitor. Well, what they do is when they bring the dirt up and they put it in the pile, that's where they can go through it and see what's in there. Right. Right. And, yeah. And if that's an area where they could have gone to get water or do many things, like fish bones are there or... I don't know. I don't understand it all myself. But... All right. All right. So, we'll come up with some number. Yep. All right. Cow common purple loosestrife. Manage and control the invasive purple loosestrife is so pretty. Now, this does come back, right? Yeah. What was being controlled by the beetles? What were they... This was... Same thing. Yeah. A weed cow common. That was cow common too, wasn't it? Yeah. It was. For the state, stop the beetle program. And so this might, in fact, be buying the beetles commercially. I thought it said that they were going to take five yards of dirt and grow beetles somewhere off-site and then reintroduce the beetles. So, I apologize. I forgot that. Well, this says... Oh, and that's in 23. And they were going to remove... Wow. So, in 23, they brought in the beetles. Right. So, they're going to choke out the loosestrife by covering it with affected areas with a fabric to smother and bake the plants. This is... They're adding a five by five foot area. Oh, that's not very big. Oh. Soil compost mix to re-seed the area. How much money do they want? $8,000. Almost $9,000. $8,900. $4. Yeah. So, they're removing five by five foot area. Yeah. They're going to re-seed it and then they're going to take the soil to the greenhouse and incubate it to grow beetles, which lay their eggs on their root system. And then they'll re-release... They'll release them back into Calcommon. It's just... And that's just initial to evaluate the effectiveness of the different methods. I think that sounds really cool. Yeah. Yeah. Sounds like... Sounds like a needle in a haystack. Five square feet of... Well, you know, I mean, you grow a lot of beetles in five by five, and they proliferate throughout the site. How many? Don't we know that? Beetles are small. I mean, I couldn't tell you how many eggs are in a 25 square foot area. Is this the first time they've tried this approach? I think they piloted it before and they ran out of beetles. They did beetles... Wait. They did in 23. They did beetles. In 23, they were given money for beetles. Right. I wonder if they've seen any results from the beetles, from the 23 beetles. You know, I think for the amount of money and it's coming out of their sleeve, I think it's also a pilot program. Yeah. That's what they said it is. Yeah. Or initial phase, which I guess is... Yeah. And cow common is not a place that we've purchased with community preservation funds. So it would need to be considered preservation. The Sedge Meadow Find Diversity Initiative. I added in the Sedge Meadow so that people had a site reference. Did you ask? No. Oh, sorry. We're only like $2,000. I had a hard time figuring out, though, because when you look at the cost proposal they included, I didn't see where they came up with $2,000. Well, $400, $400? No, I see that. I was looking at if you go further down. You can have a... So there's some mesh. And then there's watering bags. Oh, I... And then there's an invoice for the little plants is $400. It looks like $352. Where do you see that? I'm on the page. It starts with three quarters of the way down. It's green. And the second page? Yeah. $1,200 for mine. And then there's a lot of information. And then there's an invoice for the little plants is $400. It looks like $352. Where do you see that? I'm on the page. It starts with three quarters of the way down. It's green. On the second page? Yeah. Yeah. $1,200 for vines, for seedlings. Mm-hmm. $400 a month. Yeah. But if you go further down, they included invoice. They included cost estimates for the mesh. On page five. For the watering bags, $209. The mesh is $61. And then the seedlings are $352. But we don't know the quantities, right? It says 20. It says 20 seedlings. I meant a better. All right. I just wonder how they came up with the cost. Well, they said they have 35 seedlings, not 25. I'm just thinking. I don't need the cost estimate to be included with the seedlings. For $2,000, I'm willing to trust them. Okay. Thought I'd read it thoroughly and question the numbers. That's all. And I'm with you. And the chatechisis. Well, the question is, does it fit, right? I think it does. Is this going throughout town? Or just on Sedgmeadow? Or just? They throw them at Sedgmeadow and transplant them as needed. Is that the nursery of the town? Sedgmeadow? I don't know if it's a nursery per se, but what do you believe they can try? I'm having trouble. I mean, I like the project, but I don't know that it fits. I mean. The statutory language. The purpose of the, of the statute is the open space is about acquisition of open space. Oh. And this is not. Yes. Yeah. But so I've, I can, I can look at it, but I don't think it's eligible. So let's refer to the next meeting and yeah, the eligibility. Maybe from the admin fund or something. Right? No, because it doesn't meet those criteria either. Okay. I'm going to play stupid and ask if open space is acquisition, then how can we fund these others that are? Well, I mean, preservation. Okay. But if the land. And you don't. Or the trees. They being the land that they're planted in is preservation. Do some more to beautify rather than. Right. I mean, I know trees prevent erosion and all of that. Right. But the, but, but the purpose, I'm sorry. Maureen. I said the way they presented it was it's, um, preserving the, um. The biodiversity. Biodiversity. Biodiversity. I mean. I need to look at it. The beetles. The beetles aren't. Might be a question for. It should be a question. The same thing about the beetles in terms of. Going on. Preservation. So, I mean, they start saying. But it's, but it's like. Reclaiming habitat. And preserving it. You know, putting it in a, in a condition that it can be. Protected in the future. Right. So this is, it starts out. The implementation of this initiative would advance the town's goals of preserving diverse plant and wildlife habitats. Which is exciting how they, how they couch it. So it is preservation. Mm-hmm. Personal or real property from injury, harm or, or destruction. But goes on to say that due to historical disturbance of the porous and stressors from human intervention, we become an era of low conifer diversity. Lands are severely underrepresented. The open space includes, but it's not limited to, land to protect existing and future well fields, aquifers, and recharge areas, watershed land, agriculture land, grasslands, fields, forest land. Forest. Forest. But it's the land. Fresh and salt water, marshes, and other wetlands, ocean, river, stream, lake, and on frontage, beaches, dunes, other coastal lands, lands to protect scenic vistas, land for wildlife and nature preserve, land for recreational use. Trees are not land. We're investing, we're investing in the trees. But it helps to preserve the land. But. Right. Yeah. But this is about. It's like filling your loose. Diversity of the. We'll look into it. I am not entirely sold, obviously. Yeah. Why don't you look into it? Yep. Um, in trying to figure that out, I just came across a little known codicil in the Massachusetts general laws. And that is the admin and operating expense cut out cannot be more than 5% of the annual revenues in the community preservation fund. I mean, a hard time hearing you. I hear. The legislation says that the administration expenses cannot be more than 5% of revenues for a year. Which in our case would be about $70,000, which would seem to constrain. So we want to make the $60,000 an article rather than admin funding. Uh, yeah. And, you know, doing the whole BPW study, for instance. Yeah. Might, uh. Yeah. Might bind a bit. Right. Okay. Thank you for reminding me of that. I just learned it right now. Okay. All right. All right. Reports and discussion of finances and funding proposed projects, including the not limited Stones Bridge follow up. Let's start with Stones Bridge. Let's start about Stones Bridge. Um, I went to Stone Bridge, uh, not long ago. I think it was after a delightful lunch at Sijuan Verme in Framingham, which I recommend to everyone. Um, and decided to take the back way and see Stones Bridge. Um, my wife is in the garden club, so she was part of the group of volunteers that, uh, did the lovely plantings and stuff. But I wanted to see her work. And you get there, and it's magnificent. And glad that we saw this one through. Um, except there's a, uh, telephone pole there, which is sort of not in the middle of the former road that you approach it on. But there are a couple of guy wires there right in the middle. And I'd like to, and, and there's also a old, very old road and closed sign, which would look great on the inside of my barn. Um, if I could get the DPW to bring it to me. Um, so I wanted to propose that we ask the select board to, uh, well, a, perhaps our DPW representative could see about having the road close sign removed. I mean, I forget whether it's on the pole or next door, but also asked the select board to send a letter to Eversource and Verizon governmental relations saying, hey, the town of Weyland just spent over a million dollars to maintain this historic structure where General Knox brought the cannons over and everything else. And, you know, the public's enjoyment is diminished by your guide, guy wire. A guy wire, you know, is one of those diagonal steel wires that you keep poles from falling over in the wind with. And, and since it is a utility guy wire, it's not just the wire itself, but it has a 10 foot long bright yellow surround, which prevents yourself from, you know, clothes lining yourself on it. It's not that attractive. Yeah. Kids running and playing in the park next to the bridge or even going onto the bridge. Yeah. It's yeah. Where's the park next to the bridge? Just the open space. Oh, just, just beyond it. Yeah. The water. Oh, here's the picture. I was like, I was there the other day. I was trying to find my picture. Yeah. Okay. Well, let's see. Credit, credit to Doug. Yes. Yeah. Finer details. Why would you move the bridge close sign? Because you want them in your barn? Or because of them? No. No. It should, it should be fairly obvious by that. Yeah. Why would you move the bridge close sign? Because you want them in your barn? Or because of them? No. No. It should, it should be fairly obvious by now that the bridge is closed since there's nothing but dirt and grass before it. Is there a way to get a car over there? I'm not certain, but my primary interest is the guy wires. You might have some drunk person say, oh, I'm a drunk person. Thank you. I didn't want you to feel left out. No. Oh, Rob, do you want to say that? I can argue the opposite, that the bridge closed sign might deter visitors from enjoying this resource. Well. But there's nothing across the bridge that would prevent them from. Yeah. Forget if there's like, you know, sawed up telephone poles. Well, no, they're, you know, these are massive rocks. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Right. So you can't drive over them. So you can't drive through there. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Well, if you really. Yeah. You have your monster, you have your monster truck down there. I was going to say, have you seen the trucks going over there? Yeah. That's true. It's like the penny in your suit from somewhere in time and he realizes he's back in the 20th century. Yeah. It takes you out from where you are during that historic space. I would be fine with asking the select board to advocate for removal of those wires. I move that we ask our chair to send a letter to the select board to ask them to advocate for the removal of the wires and the vice chair will volunteer to help the chair draft that letter. Yeah. That's an awfully long motion. Got it, Maureen? Close enough. Just such a pressing issue. All right. Is there a second to this? Second. Is there any further discussion? All in favor? Aye. Anybody opposed? All right. Thank you, Doug. Do people have any other project updates we should know? The contract for the cemetery has been terminated officially. That is. 60% of priority one, which were the most damaged stones, have been completed. Only 6% of the priority two stones have been completed. What percent? 6%. 33% of priority three, which is basically just cleaning the stones, have been completed. Both sides were willing to terminate with no penalty or anything for either side. So that leaves. And one of the problems besides the health of the primary owner was they woefully underbid the project. So whatever money is left, we'll have to cover at least the 40% left on priority one, which would be our first choice. And it would mean it has to go out to RFP again to get a response. What is the amount that is remaining? I don't have that. It was not reported Monday. I think there were two outstanding invoices and that's why we didn't have the amount. Okay. Is this the person featured in the police plotter? In the police plotter? I don't know. Did you see that this week? No. In the post, somebody called the police that somebody was interfering. Oh, yes. That was not the owner, but that was someone they hired to clean the stones. They, um, this person was smart, you know, it was observant enough to see someone in the cemetery. He had a shovel out. She was afraid he was, uh, digging up a tombstone or stealing it or something. So instead of, you know, just ignoring it, they decided that they would. Drop a dime. Drop a dime. Notify the police. Uh, he went out and double checked and yes, it was the gentleman who was cleaning. They, the contract was over the end of October and this was in October that that happened. So, uh, in a way I'm glad somebody wasn't observing. Yeah. And I mean, what if somebody had been doing that? Yeah. Of course that's, they should have been doing it in North and Lakeview, which is a little bit more hidden than on South Cemetery, which is a busy street. But maybe because it's busy, they thought nobody would notice it anyway. Um, I was great. And I called her and I explained to her, she said the police also called her. She was glad that she was appreciated that she had spoken up, even though it turned out to be nothing really great. So. Yeah. Better to call and have it be nothing. All right. Uh, we're ready to move to the minutes of October 8th. Any comments, corrections? Uh, I have two comments. One, I think I already changed it. Um, I think it said, instead of priorities, it said priority. The eyes are going. And the first phase. Uh, I don't know. I think I already corrected it. I have to, let me see. Hold on. I have a highlighter. Oh, please. Yeah. Everything's open here. Yeah. Hey, Gardner, Westcott reviewed the forthcoming historical commission. Prior rates. Prior rates. Right. So that's, uh, one, two, three, four. Report down in public informational hearing. Right. First sentence. And then I noticed also in the minutes. Under in the review of the minutes from September. Where, Susan Weinstein requested that Robin Ford be named as opposed to zoom admin. Uh, which I made those changes to the September ones, but then it says zoom admin again on the top here. So it seems like we want to change that. Oh, I'm going to change that. Yes. I'm sorry. Um, well, so I don't know where zoom admin came because I would never put that in there. But anyhow. So you did not, I copied it in the September minutes. So. That's so weird. Anyhow. Well, give me your credit, Robbie, for being here. Uh, you should need evidence for your time. Uh, or an alibi. Any other? Or is there a motion to approve as amended? So moved. So moved. Yes. Uh, second. Thank you. Any, all in favor? Aye. Anybody opposed? Is there a motion to adjourn at 826 PM? Any questions? So are we discussing these tomorrow? Huh? Are we meeting tomorrow? No. So when are we discussing these? What's our schedule? December 8th or something. Questions. Um, but let me go back to the September minutes because they will tell me. Well, I mean, there, there are questions that we have. We're not going to have answers for tomorrow anyway. Yes. Yeah. No, I wasn't. I wasn't sure. Cause Gretchen seemed to think that tomorrow was going to be when we would discuss it. And I was like, I didn't know that either. No. No. The intention was that would be the overflow date for. Got it. Okay. For all the people that showed up tonight. Our next date is December 3rd. December 3rd. Yeah. Yeah. At one time. It says 6.30. I think. 6.30. Not six. We were 6.30. I think we're 6.30, right? Mm-hmm. We were 6.30. Yeah. We were just going to do six tomorrow night. Cause it was requested. I have December 3rd. Also January 7th and January 14th. Yep. Yep. And then TBD. Well, there's a TBD for a planning meeting if we need it. Right. Okay. January 7th, January 14th. December 3th. 7th? Did you say 7th for January? And 14th. 7th and 14th. Yep. 2026. All right. Is there now a motion to adjourn at 8.28 PM? So moved. So moved. Is there a second? All in favor? Aye. Anybody opposed? Great work, guys. Thank you. All right. Great work. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Bye. Bye. Bye. Also- Thank you. Bye. Bye.