December 3, 2025 – Community Preservation Committee – Video & Transcript

December 3, 2025 - Community Preservation Committee

Autoscroll:

good to go well hello everybody it is 6 35 on wednesday december 3rd 2025 and we are here for a meeting of the whalen reservation committee oh sorry um i'm susan weinstein uh i'm chairing the meeting and i will note the presence of a forum can we bring over judy ling if she's there oh and kat brenna i don't see judy but you can bring um catherine all right do do we someone from conservation who's that um we won't have somebody from conservation tonight except for they had offered oh right emily something emily the assistant administrator yes i'm sure that's her name on the oh there you go emily emily needs to come over too okay yeah she's different conservation then you should know i suppose for the record we should have everybody say who they are uh from the committee uh jug studs by select board appointee kagan new westcott historical commission i'm just an observer from the historical commission tanya larvey tanya larvey marine camera um but the t-o-n-y-a yeah um with the board of selectman appointee yeah lovely stewart from the recreation commission awesome and there's judy judy judy judy ling word of public works all right thank you everybody um day today uh because we have people here uh well let's do public comment first is there any public comment hearing none we'll move along uh we had asked catherine to come and spend time with us who it's out right where's where's catherine and emily well catherine emily brought over emily emily brought it ready as catherine raised her hand emily's already over oh scared she's definitely there she's there but camera audio is off but she's uh oh so it's not showing people whose videos off gotcha looks like she's raising her hand she is she is hopefully she's not just raising her finger but driving like me even i heard that
all right red rover red rovers and catherine on over definitely clicked it when it comes she's over turn on your mic well hello there she is hi everybody uh thank you town people for town employee people for being here appreciate you uh taking the time um since we asked catherine to come we should probably start with her uh we had asked catherine to come because we wanted to find out more about the schedule for the playgrounds and where this eliza's park fit in and what else do we want to know uh that is pretty much it and if there is oh we want to know about the status of the things that have already been granted yes yes the projects and because we were probably over counting them before so that's a good thing to do that sound good catherine i'm ready when you are madam chair we're ready go for it all right say that again no go ahead okay i have a quick update just status update on some of the open projects that we have with the cpc that we've requested over the years um and then i can happy to opine on some of the open up or the requests that are before you tonight as well um the first one on my list of open projects goes back to fy 2016 actually it predates my time in wayland um but it was related to the dudley woods walking trails project which is complete the trails are done and we reserved about 2500 in that account the historical commission was interested in using that money to place signs on the property um the rec department slash commission doesn't have any interest in spending that 2500 and would recommend it be turned back unless there is a plan from the historical folks to spend it and use it there is can i can i answer you on that catherine that'd be great yeah uh so we have sent the text in the photographs to carol holtz who has been contracted to design the signs there are two of them and then we um which we hope to have done by the design done by the end of the end of the month the town has already contracted to have the signs made and has contacted to pay carol holtz the 2500 will be used to put in this event foundation to put the signs in and that's it the two signs one of the either entrance of the dudley woods yeah so the money is going to be spent awesome perfect and that one will be put to bed um the next project that is open uh back in fyi 22 the rec commission petition the cpa for 50 000 for some design work at the middle school at the time there was a bigger project um and part of the town's capital plan that was being dovetailed with the work to be on the done on the fields behind the middle school but potentially also uh the 195 main street property which has since been held up with some environmental issues um so my recommendation would be to return that money back to the cpa um and potentially we come back and ask for it as part of a bigger ass related to the renovation of the middle school field when that comes up on the capital plan um but right now it's not in the current five-year capital plan okay hold your breath for a minute anybody's here for the planning board you're going to want to be in the large hearing room which you go down and turn left and go down and then you have to go down the ramp but you're pretty much the other side of the building we'd love to have you but you know i understand we're always interesting no i was i was excited i was like oh my god public discourse i like it yeah please please please carry out he dies in darkness well that's why they're going to the place exactly yeah bigger fish to provide their hot topic tonight uh the church on rice road and school what's all right back to you catherine thank you thanks um the next two projects were both fy 2024 we the rec department petitioned through the cpa uh together one was for the renovation of the constituent basketball court for 150 000 and the other was for the beach entry and improvements um for 147.5 the balance of the constituent basketball court has not been spent we we actually bid that project late that year that it was awarded the bids came back very high much higher than 150 000 that we had and so we had to go back and revisit the specs and and see what we could do in the time that we began revisiting that project is when some of these eliza j norton foundation projects kind of surfaced and so we uh or the town manager's office or you know the team has decided to kind of hold on to that until we figure out um the best plan and so as you know um from one of the applications that the constituent ballpark did um have some design and site planning that happened uh you know over the last year and it does include the renovation of the basketball court so this 150 000 is incorporated into one of the applications before you tonight um so my my goal and my preference is to still renovate that basketball court and we the rec department and commission are uh totally okay incorporating that into a larger project of the constituent ballpark um 150 what's that they were just saying a number 150 150 150 yep um the beach entry project um we did most of the work there the fence is up we are thrilled with it we had one of the best summers we've ever had at the town beach uh we got a new playground as well um the weather obviously helped with that too um but we're super excited about that project there are a few things that we ran out of time at the end of the season for that we plan to do this spring um it's kind of small potatoes so there's an 85 000 balance on that i envision that we might be able to return probably another 50 000 back to the cpa on that um honestly with sincere appreciation um well i'm sure that i'm sure you had such a good year at the beach because everyone wanted to come see the new entry they did i think they did um no it was really the the beach um and and all of the rec department has one of the smallest budgets sorry catherine um more people are coming in for the planning board i i can see it yeah maybe you can let us know when somebody's just let them know yeah really no i was just going to say a project like that that the rec department has um the one of the smallest budgets in terms of tax dollars from the town less than one percent of the entire town's budget is goes to the rec department and so we heavily rely on different sources like cpa funds or grants to do what we do um and so we really appreciate the ability to have done that project well lucky for you um recreation is one of the purposes of allowed i know that we love that can i ask sure what's up tanya um catherine where on the town beach are you talking about the entry you know on the beach the main entrance where patrons first you know they park in the parking lot and then enter into the beach through the main gate we replaced um some of the fencing already on the front side of that um i don't know how you call it it's not the property line it runs through the property line but it's um i can i can send you a diagram and show you exactly what what was done no further down toward the water right down no and actually that property is state property down closer towards the water it's not rec property okay okay i hear you i hear you tanya though um the next project oh sorry go ahead the next project on our list that is open um was an application that was submitted from the eliza j norton foundation to complete the site plan and some backstops and some other improvements that could to a ballpark it was 154 000 um because it was petitioned by a prime you know private group in town um it got approved a town meeting and then this part of it was assigned uh to the rec department and so we worked with the nortons and a consultant and worked through some site plans that were just completed this fall they furnished three conceptual designs with cost estimates um those designs and costumes are also incorporated into the application that's before you again this year um i do envision that the balance of those funds will either be incorporated into this bigger project um there is hope that some leg of this project like refurbishing the backstops at constituent ballpark would be done on this spring there are some concerns in the town management office about bandwidth and resources and project management oversight uh to be able to get it done on the timeline that we we would like to get it done um but that is still to be determined uh so that project is ongoing um the cho the town building children's way playground was awarded last year at town meeting four hundred thousand dollars we had the design was complete it was about to go to bid uh in november so a couple of weeks ago and at the same time the town engineer had been working on a project with tie and bond related to storm water and um different storm water initiatives in weyland and one of their recommendations of many you know the town does not have to accept this recommendation but was to move the children's way playground out of the wetlands and so before we bid it we decided that we would take a step back and look at whether we should just forge ahead and replace it right where it is or we should look at options about moving it and um another piece to that puzzle is since that since that project has been paused also in front of you the application tonight from ej and foundation one of the lines um in their funding sources is four hundred thousand dollars for a playground and so that the request from that group would be to essentially use the money for our playground plan includes four hundred thousand dollars every other year to refurbish playgrounds and so potentially today the request is to reorder some of the playgrounds um in the cycle um it is possible i think we need to have conversations with all the stakeholders some of the playgrounds that wayland has 12 playgrounds six of them are at schools and six of them are not are not so we would have to talk to the local school and the clay pit hill school obviously the school committee and all the stakeholders involved before we start reordering projects but it is doable um but i do think the earliest that we could move the constituent playground renovation which is currently slotted in fy 32 uh would be fy 28.
but like i said that involves uh some kind of community conversation with all the different playgrounds that we have when's the last time that one was done so i don't have that in front of me but what happened is we created a um i just had you know a cycle and it was based off uh in playground inspector certified playground inspector came and inspected all 12 playgrounds we ordered them based on their their age of the structures and the condition that they were in um the next three that are kind of in the pipeline uh the children's way playground the local school the clay pit hills kindergarten playground and the cotija ballpark playground are all very similar ages and conditions so i have no real objection to reordering them um but there was we were thoughtful about uh putting them in the order that we did when we created this cycle um but that's not to say 10 years later that we couldn't go and look at how correctly the earliest the co-chituate playground would get done with the basketball court and the playground structures etc would be fiscal year 28. well isn't the basketball court separate the basketball court is funded the backstops are funded but but but the actual work would not begin until fiscal year 28. couldn't you go ahead and do the basketball court if you had bids that were yes were within the parameters right and and we one of the as we went through these site plans with the consultant this fall um we just wanted to make sure that you know the the ultimate plan that everybody was happy with included the basketball court where it is and how it will be used um before we started refurbishing it so it got held up but i think the plan is to go forward with that and spend that money you know as part of this bigger phased park renovation but that would be um phase one the backstop money that got approved with the site planning would also go forward ahead um the playground money is a little tricky i think the earliest we could move it in the current cycle is fy 28 doug to answer your question but if there was if there was an appetite to switch it with the already approved children's way money that happened at last town meeting then it could be fy 26 we could we could do that work but there's some like work that we need to do there as well so otherwise it's loker and then uh play pit hill kindergarten kindergarten and what's what was the third one and then considerate ballpark in 32. okay okay okay and that's that's just the 24-year playground capital plan cycle that we had and published and they've been working through since uh about 2019 um but like i said we can go back to the drawing board and talk to stakeholders if the town wants to do something else what the plan says and i i just want to make sure that i'm hearing you the the money for the basketball court has already been appropriated the bids came back and you couldn't do everything you wanted to do within the money that had been appropriated and is it do you feel like you have to wait for the other stuff with the park in order to do the basketball court that was apparently in bad condition when you came here a few years ago no and it's still certainly in bad condition um what we learned through the process and why the bids came in high is because it wasn't the project had to expand beyond the footprint of the basketball court so they had to take down chambered fences and move sidewalks and do those other pieces and so if those pieces are going to happen as part of a bigger project then we could move forward and the bigger projects probably not likely before fiscal year 28. just the playground piece um which abuts the the basketball court wouldn't be till 28 unless we can do some kind of swap with the children's way could there be a twofer of the uh best small court and dugouts before 28. uh the dugouts are done backstops they wanted to get that done in the spring yeah yeah and actually a lot of the work that happens at the basketball court is fencing work so we did think that if we bid it it could be the same contractor that takes that on so yes those two projects could be paired together and done now okay so that's one potential module of money already allocated which could get done but the playground itself play structures is more of a fiscal year 28 thing unless it were swapped with the children's way that has already been appropriated which may require town meeting action at this point because the town meeting already approved that four hundred thousand dollars for the children's way playground and it also requires agreement from you know the children's way in the school committee because that school that playground is in disrepair and they are eager to get that project done so i i don't know if they're willing to wait till fyi 28. yeah and um go ahead sorry when um when mark norton was attended our meeting a couple weeks ago he seemed to indicate from my notes uh that he was they were going to be wrapped up as one project it was going to be the playground and the court with what he was presenting as a concept so i mean that would be ideal as opposed to how the steps get executed right
yeah i mean ideally if there was time and money where no object we would do this all at once um but i think the way that the appropriations happen and the approvals that need to happen at town meeting you know if it was private property yeah this would have been done in two years ago so we're waiting on the basketball court also or are you going to go ahead and do that and then they have to work their plan around the basketball court so the the way that the site plan the consultant that we use for the site plan we could phase it where we do the basketball court and the playground separate we could do that without even interrupting the general use of the constitutional ballpark because they're kind of off to the side um but yeah but there but what i'm hearing from the town manager's office is that there is concern about the bandwidth to manage the procurement and project management of this for example part of the dugout project was not assigned to the rec department assigned to the dpw and a dpw project manager managed that leg of the project um and sometimes um the both the clay pit hill playground and the happy hollow playground that was partially funded by this group um that project was managed by the facilities department because as it relates to school so i i can't necessarily make those judgment calls on behalf of the rec department when it might not be a rec department project yes okay okay um and uh the recreation commission is meeting tomorrow what did you say no they met this morning and they talked about two different applications that are before you they talked about um the the ejn application that's before you now and voted in favor to support it and they also voted in favor to support the the dudley pond uh water quality application that's before you which i believe are the two ones two applications that touch recreation um i think the hamlin woods boardwalks would be would be classified as you're like i have no idea what that is i i wasn't aware of that one but we could put it before the rec commission if they wanted it's it's not a huge commitment um what is it 216 feet of boardwalk uh yes but with the need for york road that's going to increase uh right uh we there may be a need for more boardwalk at york road so um there may be an amendment to that and it was submitted as conservation property boardwalks something like that yes so that they made it much broader than i had categorized yes all right are we finished with katherine yeah i'm still confused because when i look at the um when i look at the capital plan cycle that you provided us it says uh that was provided to recreation today and i just happen to have it here so as you're taking notes so um constituent ballpark is listed as 2032 right and we're in 2025 but what she said was it was possible to move it up as close as 2020 right okay but that would but they wouldn't have it sooner than that unless it swapped out with children's way okay is that accurate close yes yes yes so is she going to comment on um the uh the playground at constituent ballpark that's what all this was just that's what this was what we just talked about that with the basketball court and all of that oh no i know we talked about the basketball court but i didn't think we had talked well it's in the context yeah playground well i mean this new one that's coming up yeah the playground was was was that they it's possible that they could take the money that may not be used right now oh i understand that for that and use it there instead and at present course and speed the work on the playground is scheduled for 2032 i understand might be brought forward to 2028 all right so instead of us jumping up the early why don't you ask your question that's what i'm doing um okay i'm asking about the application for the playground itself and the activities and and what they propose is this in in your plans is this acceptable is there public input for this for the design of the playground structure yeah is that correct yes right um yes so i think once approved um a lot of projects especially in the municipal world go through like a pretty hefty design and permitting process and then even sometimes construction is approved and appropriated separately in the playground world it's kind of a turnkey process where the design and the build happen together it's usually the same contractor um they are ultimately responsible to um to make sure the playground meets all of the codes and accessibility requirements that go along with playgrounds um and so through the planning process or the bidding process yes the town would be involved in um you know what that playground looks like feels like and it's you know how it comports with the codes that it needs to comply well the reason i'm asking catherine is that this is an opportunity for wayland to excel in having a playground that's handicapped accessible and having actual equipment that they can use and not sit and observe other people using right and that's what my concern is because i haven't seen that in their proposal
the first proposal they put in or in the second proposal that they offered so what i do know of their proposal is that um accessibility and inclusivity are a big tenant to what they're they're they're aiming for here so i would say that that wouldn't be lost on this project and like i said these playground designers and company and equipment now um almost universally build that way so that people uh they are accessible to folks in wheelchairs or which is really large and takes up most of the park is for children that are not handicapped there's no suing for somebody in a wheelchair there's no accessibility they they have chimes that they can roll up and they can hit but you know how long is that going to entertain anybody uh unless they're musically and can play a tune or something you're specifically concerned about like users with mobility limitations it's not um geared for people who are handicapped and here is a perfect opportunity to have a handicapped uh playground available not only to wayland but you know other communities that have children with handicaps we can be the star of this and uh we're passing it over just to be another handicap with a special looking piece of equipment in the middle of the playgrounds i think i think i think their design is is meant to be the most current inclusive and it may be maybe the picture that you saw doesn't really show how accessible it could be but but it should be reviewed to make sure recreation agrees that this plan is will there happen will there be for i would think that recreation would look further into what the actual playground is so that we can guarantee that that model right is meeting yeah like it it is on town property and so if this is approved through a you know a funding request from a private group in town it still ultimately is the town's responsibility to ensure that the town gets what they want and we did a with a lot of this actually at the clepit hill school playground there are requirements for minimum standards of accessibility um and even especially mobility you know people with mobility handicaps there was a whole myriad of handicaps that playgrounds can serve and the mobility one is is a tough one on playgrounds it almost requires uh the important place surface so that somebody in a wheelchair can get to all of the spaces that someone uh who can walk uh can get to um and i think we we did better than the the minimum at the clepit hill school so let's say the minimum is that 20 is accessible to somebody in a wheelchair we did better than that we got um a specific um element called the the we go around where someone in a wheelchair can go into it and write it like a like a merry-go-round but also not alone they can do it with people who aren't in wheelchairs and so there is actually a video online where you can see the specific uh structure that they have an interest in it's called the quantis and it's um by a specific provider and you can see you know it's like a commercial for the actual playground and it can show all of the different ways that people with you know whatever access or mobility issues they have would be able to use including like sensory and you know other issues well it sounds like we're doing the minimum and what i'm saying is you have an opportunity to do more than the minimum here and i would appreciate maybe you could send me the link to the video absolutely yeah everything that i've heard so far does not assure me that there is going to be real accessibility for people who have limited mobile activity you know we can we can look at it of the motion i mean historically wayland has done more than the minimum um it was particularly important at the school playgrounds to do uh port like the actual minimum standard when you do that poured in place rubber surface is to create a pathway from the outside of the playground to a certain number of elements um but we chose at both happy hollow and and the clippin hill school to do a complete poured in place surface so that that people uh in with mobility issues or wheelchair devices or walking devices wouldn't be relegated just to pathways um but also it's not just about access and access in the different structures it's what what happens when you get to the structure um thank you and so right and so these playgrounds are designed to accommodate that i i would have to go back and review the the quantus to make sure but um i actually the first time i saw this about a year ago when they submitted this application i was perfectly comfortable with having a quantus in wayland so i appreciate learning more about it thank you sure i will send everybody all the things that i learned a long time ago was that when you go to town meeting for funding something you're not necessarily funding the picture that you're being shown that after the money is approved there's a design process that has to happen and i know that happens with buildings i don't know what the process is but playgrounds but i think we can make very clear that we're we would be funding a playground that would you know accommodate uh children with disabilities to the most possible you know with with activities um and that we really need to make clear that it that the vote of town meeting is not committing to this particular structure yeah yes yes you would be okay with that yes i mean i got so much yeah i mean what more can we do i got so much black when we did the public safety building that yes now i know but there are kinds of disabilities yeah not just wheelchair right right no we understand no and that's and also it's not just children with disabilities that use playgrounds sometimes grandparents need to bring their you know you know caretakers that that might have even temporary mobility issues you know kids you know break legs or need crutches and it's much easier for them to get out and use playgrounds that are built and designed for them right i believe they mentioned they had a quiet corner for those children that get overstimulated at a playground which i applaud them for that if if it works i don't know how that works but anyway no i mean these these playgrounds have come a long way from i'm sorry what katherine i was just the playground designs um have come a long way and they're really thoughtful um to kind of accommodate any any type of child no matter no matter what they're should i mean we even have like something as simple as what they call a buddy bench it's just a regular bench you call it the buddy bench and if you're feeling like you don't have anyone to play with you sit on the buddy bench and if someone sees somebody on the buddy they go join them and so like just little thoughtful things like that that change the culture of a playground um can go a long way so um it's not always about you know handicaps and disabilities it's just about the socialization of play well i'm glad to hear that because it really isn't being sold that way at least i didn't hear it be sold that way so i need to see and hear more about that all right before we let you go i just want to make sure that judy doesn't have anything that you want to bring up i'm good good to hear i didn't want you to feel neglected everybody good yes thank you so much thank you thank you thanks katherine thank you have a good night thanks oh we will we always do hi emily thank you so much for being here hello i'm just here to answer any questions that you might have about the applications we submitted for this application cycle sure um doug did you have some things you want to talk about uh well yeah i mean not so much question for emily but uh you know last year money was appropriated for uh building a new path with the assistance of the appalachian mountain club to link the trout brook conservation area and the new property at 27 sherman's bridge road bought the cpa funds a few years ago uh through to york road um which there's a couple things i mean the entire conservation complex there is about a hundred acres north of sherman's bridge road and another hundred acres between sherman's bridge road and more road so it's really quite extensive parcel of preserved land um this creates access for the entire neighborhood to the north to that off the ark road um furthermore it would be the relocation of wayland's portion of the bay circuit trail um which takes a considerable portion of that off of being on uh oxbow road um it also allows lincoln to rewrite their portion of the bay circuit trail for about half mile longer along the south side of ferrar pond which is a pretty neat thing so uh you know working with amc and sunday really trustees on this since a portion is on their land um it turns out that probably more boardwalk is required than than uh that originally thought and the estimate from amc is that would require 44 000 but it could be prudent at 55 000 for contingency which would you know if we were to properly would be there as contingency for both the hamlin woods and the uh the trout park boardwalks just drop work sorry how much is the hamlin woods hamlin woods i think today is the ass is 23 000 it's uh i've discovered the rule of thumb is about a hundred dollars per foot for boardwalks well what was the amc that you reference uh the appalachian mountain club what are they doing they're building uh they are have designed it and potentially would provide work crews to build it next summer and when did this come up uh no about two weeks ago uh this literally came up in the last two weeks i was trampling through the woods with uh with uh the guy from svt and uh amber stearns from amc in the last couple of weeks and you were walking through the woods and amc said oh we need fifty five thousand dollars no it was this part of the trail is boggier than we initially thought therefore we may need to put more boardwalk and bogg bridging in so this is this sort of back of the envelope i mean it doesn't sound like much i know it's more than back about the envelope i mean there's gps uh maps with you know the additional sections marked off and so yeah i mean and i i've been back there um it's it's you know pretty well established in fact and they're amending their request uh no the so we don't lose a year i think the possibility here is to amend the hamlet woods request to also cover uh trout brook and increase the size and i do admit that i had made it more specific in my abbreviating it but it does say conservation properties boardwalks yes we had a big conversation about uh the loose strife about whether that was going to be a maintenance or a uh for uh preservation and we landed on preservation and then we also had a thing about the vines the vines and the condition was that they needed to be cut cut and and pulled out what something was five feet what was it yeah that uh and it's not just cutting so they could grow back but you know pulling out by the roots right and mowing them until they don't come back anymore and i forget whether herbicide was mentioned or not right i think they're but you know we're talking about the canopy protection thing okay yeah a large reservation yes we didn't talk about uh herbicides there right i don't think so they're going to put it in a greenhouse weren't they that was a cow common oh that's a cow common
the herd farm we can definitely um pull the or try to pull the bittersweet to create a def a more permanent eradication of the invasives in that area well if you need to practice feel free to come over to my place all right i'll let brian know got plenty to bring a whole group um but we had conversations about all of them and we've we've made it but we would we would recommend all of them yes our preliminary consensus was so i think this is where tanya has questions oh right um we do have some questions about soil disturbance okay i'm sorry i couldn't hear you i said we have some questions about soil disturbance you have questions about soil disturbance we have a question about soil disturbance there are a lot of native american sites sprinkled here and there and we have the whole record in the archaeology lab um and um before or during a lot of soil disturbance it would be good to have a monitor there to eyeball if something comes up artifacts and that sort of thing um which we have done a lot of in the past since 1978 when we started the wayland archaeology group and a lot of people don't even know about us um but we we have a record in the lab of where all the sites are so if town boards would get in touch with us uh k is our chair you know we could be helpful when it comes to disturbing this oil so that's my main concern because i'm the archaeologist and has to pay attention to those sorts of things if it's on public land yep um i mean for the herd project at least if we wanted to avoid disturbing soils um i could talk to linda and brian about maybe doing some sort of cut and dab herbicide application method to just reduce the soil disturbance in that area um and i'm not sure there would be other any of the other projects would involve so a bunch of earth moving like that and also it also doesn't mean that you can't do the project in the way that you intend we just we just try to make it a habit of appropriating money so that there's coordination on you know monitoring for uh archaeological items of interest yeah and also i mean it would make sense before you started to yeah to check in and see how close you are to already identified sites okay yeah i mean tanya you would be able to give an opinion if you knew where the specific trees to be saved were you could give an opinion if you knew exactly where they were working as to whether or not it's near a site yes yeah okay yeah if it's registered if it's registered if it's registered right right and if it's registered does that mean that they can't do their work or that you want to have somebody there or what means that somebody ought to monitor or an archaeologist should be hired if it's one of our really important ones yeah sides and so tanya that includes putting up um chaos or boardwalks or uh any kind of disturbance it's not just um you might say oh we're only going a foot down but does that require that as well i mean but so often we have put in that it's required that we give it you notified and we're not yes and so we really need to be clear about the what's what's needed to know so they know when to notify us and not just arbitrarily go ahead and do something and then say oh whoops we forgot about you you know make that a stipulation happens yeah that doesn't necessarily guarantee anything that's right because as we've had as we've found from experience yes not necessarily solely with good no right for the sherman bridge road project um i forget was it catherine who's who sat here and said there will be no disturbance of ground for that project none but it was linda linda linda um but i i mean i would think putting in a boardwalk disturbs disturbs i think it was that it was in places where there already was prior disturbance i think she was well she was describing the trail and saying we're not going outside that's right she did yeah so so this new extension of boardwalk it's it's wet it's on the previously planned trail it's just lifting it up previous planned trail so so it's the same so there's a trail there yeah there's a trail yeah but is it i just want to make sure tanya has the opportunity to review it if there's a wetland there i should be there when they deserve on the trail yeah i mean i could i could do some monitoring myself with no cost okay and it wouldn't change the timeline of a project being completed yeah especially if we're notified not the day of but in advance so that schedules could be adjusted to fit each other's schedule and uh yeah and and in this case if the amc does the work with their trail crews they'll be booked months in advance so there'll be great visibility as to when the work is being done right did you hear that i didn't hear all if the amc does the work their trail crews which is the proposal right now we'll know when they're coming several months in advance and who is this the appalachian mountain club has professional trail building crews that would be doing this and i'm sure they've run into this before then oh god yes the question is who is going to say to the amc crew or to the crew that's digging the post for the kiosk who's going to say to them there needs to be an archaeology mode like who's going who's going to well it's a it's a contractual provision who's going to put it in the contract that's i think what i'm hearing is that these things slip through the crack yeah the conservation departments and we can make that condition of the funding is responsible and what happens if they don't report to us well something's in breach yeah yeah all right well um maybe this is not the kind of thing that i would be good at but maybe someone here would be that or maybe it's just whoever our liaisons are you know our representatives from those committees is that you know it's on them to be saying before we start we need to do this and at the next meeting before we start we need to do this it seems like it goes to more granular level if if the conservation department has a checklist of all things that i've done archaeology should be on that checklist it shouldn't be something people think of as an afterthought or was that in the article we have requested we have submitted to the town manager such a thing yeah not just for groundbreaking but for unbuildings historical buildings and other things and it sits in his office for a year now because when he first came we submitted it and nothing has occurred since then um i'm not sure that it's our responsibility to keep checking in every week to see whether they have a schedule it seems to me that the person who is presenting the project it's their responsibility to notify the people involved i understand that but we thought that on some other things too and that did not happen so i'm just trying to think of how to make it so that it stays in the forefront i'm no longer chairs i also have to do it
all right um have we uh kept emily long enough well emily do you understand about the notification yeah definitely i can try to make sure that that doesn't fall through the cracks anymore or do my best my new best friend emma
you didn't know you needed one but now you got one you want her or not exactly thank you so much for coming really appreciate your time have a good night good night good night all right where are we now building i know yeah i'm thinking uh we'll just go through the project application
yeah um given that we have rick and tanya here are there any things you want to talk about in particular in terms of the order yeah okay do you want to be here for the archaeology stuff on the soil disturbances and does that include the um herd farm large tree preservation where they're planting trees and so forth no that's the uh sedge meadow meadow pine diversity right exactly is that that's conservation isn't it yes it is and that's a very sensitive site right sedge meadow well sedge meadow that whole watertown dairy property has about six registered sites on it so it's okay some of them are behind sedge meadow yep so i guess we'll just go through these and you will weigh in on the ones okay i just wanted to be sure that everybody understood that she's not talking about just one of the conservation projects she's talking about all of them soil disturbance right yep all right um housing production plan robert got back to me and said that the estimates that he was getting were between 45 and 60 000 so we wanted to leave it at 60 000 um and uh previous our previous one in 2020 was 30 000 um and it was funded through uncommitted funds so it's a it's within the purview of you know the community preservation act it's helpful for our planning purposes and so i would hope that we would support it with uncommitted funds
how much do we have in uncommitted funds didn't we say 70 last time no that's administrative yeah uh we've got a lot that's where the 70 percent goes every year yeah so we and and i hesitate to give a precise figure because the last figure i saw on the spreadsheet i'm not sure whether that included fiscal year 26 year to date or not but the net inflow to uncommitted funds this year is going to be on the order of 640 000 on top of money already there wow okay so 640 000 is coming in 640 000 it's crazy
okay um so so we have money right there there is money in the uncommitted funds plus that this is coming in yeah all right so i don't ordinarily like to make motions so i move thank you that uh we recommend get funding uh the housing production plan through administrative no uncommitted uncommitted funds so it will be an article or you know included in the article yes at sixty thousand dollars yeah sixty thousand dollars uh is there a second to that second thank you uh because judy is not in the room we need to do roll call yes so dub hi okay hi judy hi maureen yes hi leslie hi and i'm an i as well all right so that's good um we had already uh decided i believe about um referring the housing consultant services to the trust and that's been communicated to him so yeah we don't need to do anything more with that the herd on herbicide treatment we determined was not eligible and that has been communicated as well the water chestnut test the tom plums article right the service water quality commission yep um okay rehabilitation at groud herd house and museum 56 155 dollars and i'm sure some cents but whatever i move that we approve that using historical preservation funds okay okay okay um any discussion leslie how do you vote oh i'm sorry maureen what's your discussion tanya had questions about archaeology at the groud herd house and i couldn't remember i think all the work is in the building isn't there a drainage thing there's a possibility of a french drain kind of yeah going around so tanya do you want to speak to the archaeology at groud herd house well you know i've got these two hearing aids and it's really hard for me to keep up what are we talking about the grout herd house
and what is your question about that you had said before the meeting you had concerns about archaeology at the grout herd house there's some digging going on around the house we interested in no i think you said she has said before let me see if i'm correct that there's been enough disturbance at the house that perhaps there wouldn't be any reason for archaeologists to be observing any digging there is that correct well lee swanson and sudberry and i were walking up the driveway to the herd house and he saw something he stopped and picked it up and he said this is from an old studebaker car i haven't seen it well i don't know what things look like in a studebaker car but i mean it was sitting on top of the driveway um was that when the driveway was dirt or when the driveway was it was just a regular paved okay yeah unpaved oh unpaved okay yes it was paved now yeah but see nobody told us that we're going to oh no i know they didn't know so the proposal is that they are going to be digging around the building in order to put some drains some drainage away from the building is that something for which we should add money for archaeology well if it's not a very expensive extensive project i could monitor okay well the question is do you want that and you have to be notified and so i know i would have to have to be notified okay somebody would have to say hey we're doing this yeah well if you can't get that from the historical society we are completely yeah you can use your own word there i can all that correction now
and scarlet yeah whose name is on the application all right it's the curator what do i know exactly all right so um the rehabilitation project at crowd heard house and museum subject to archaeological monitoring without appropriation on that so total of 56 155. moved as amended thank you thank you any other discussion i'm going to again and say that i work for the ground heard house or the uh wayland museum and historical society so i'm going to abstain whatever the vote is okay well when i get to you you can say i will i'm just notifying people all right um okay ready to vote judy i leslie hi leslie hi doug hi maureen hi kay i'm saying and i have an eye um okay uh thank you so look at us go uh herd farm large tree preservation for 12 000 would be open space fund do we we said yeah okay um question when we go through different projects and they come from different trenches of the money do we need to say how much is in that trench and that we're taking x out we don't okay no we just assume there's enough we've already calculated okay if there wasn't enough we'd be having a different conversation all right all right all right sorry where so the herd farm large tree preservation susan yeah there's a question about the herd farm wouldn't it be subject to archaea archaeological monitoring yeah depending on where it is yeah it says the large majestic trees i don't know if there's the large trees well if they're large they haven't been bothered in a long time so there's probably stuff there herd farm has a lot of trees a lot of large a lot of large trees there's a bunch that's considered more majestic than the rest uh tanya will you tell why the removal of tree roots is so important from pine ridge road um you know where pine ridge road is next to where mahoney's used to be yes there was a gentleman about 20 maybe 25 years ago who was planting a tree in his yard by pine brook and he found something and he called up paul gardescu who was the coordinator at the time and he showed it to paul and it could be one of our oldest artifacts very very uh special i showed it to duncan and he said i don't know where this stone came from and if he didn't know where it came from it's pretty exotic and so we have it in the lab it's on our website if anybody wants to see it okay it's a picture of it on the website and um that just came out of planting a small tree on the man's yard so there's precedent for planting trees on i know it's yeah i mean this particular one we're talking is this for the bittersweet no the one yeah the one we're talking about right now is the bittersweet uh removal so it'd be subject to archaeological observation and removal of roots all right so i have a map from their application if you want to see the map she has a map of it if you want to see the map okay can i see it later or no sure yeah no you're asking where well what if you want it added that there has to be archaeology of servants you better see it now so we know whether why don't we why don't we just plan to put it in everything and then if it if they come to us you know if they go to the archaeologist and say we want to do this and the artist says no don't worry about it but you know at least they've gone through the process okay well all right well we're that's all right it doesn't need to be decided right now right as long as it's in the article right now no if we if we include that so they have a green line here a blue one and a yellow one but they don't really stand too sad they don't be moving them they don't explain so yeah so i am not my point is that they're not doing anything the colors right that's the river that's the waterway that's slippery river ideally pulling out and it's going to be in this area the roots the roots which are three inches on the ground it's pretty green and that's two or three inches right so that's my point right not trees but probably not that are choking the trees okay well the bittersweet i don't know how far down it goes an inch or two an inch or two i pulled plenty of bittersweet in my time i know we all have yeah okay so if you say it's deep enough yeah when you were saying two or three inches so if it's only two or three inches you probably don't need to be there i didn't hear you it's only two to three inches deep oh that's all yeah so you probably don't need to be there no say um not unless you find an old bittersweet vine oh they're pretty premature but i don't know i've never celebrated birthday i mean you either have to decide you're going to be there or you're not because they're not going to stop and say oh wait a minute let's call tanya because this is six inches deep all right when i'm going to do this work it's not even approved yet not approved yet you have to go through town meeting first after july 1st in a while it'll be a while it'll be a while right potential so stay healthy okay i do want to point out that um this is based on tanya's availability yes but i'm also saying that we put in money yeah that's what i'm for some of these things i think you should in case we have to call them um all right so can i make one comment the herd farm has had a lot of disturbance over time and some of that stuff settles in if there's any artifacts there and even pulling up something a few inches is going to bring it up well i mean that's why i would still include subject to you know archaeological observation and then it can always be declined do you have any idea how much that would cost i have no idea no i think it's time that we find out how much this costs well previously we had put in 15 000 for something 15 000 and you think that's enough to pay an observation i like that for how long that's what it's left to do no you don't but if what if we have to call duncan to come and do it or something that's what i'm saying i can definitely get you an estimate for what an archaeological yeah we should do that it would be so nice
you know i mean pal goes out and monitors you know you can only projects for months at a time so i i can find out what a like a day would be i mean i don't again we don't know based on this how long i forget what group is going to do it or is it going to happen over a day happen over you know but there's we don't have any context so right and and we can't provide that context so right let's figure out how to word the article and i agree if we need to amend it at the next meeting we do so all right i have a story i can tell can we can we hold off on that and let us get the logical story i understand but we got a whole bunch of articles there's a motion on the table is it i don't think so no yeah all right i'll put one i move that we approve the herd farm large tree preservation provisionally for the amount of twelve thousand dollars with the potential to amend it at our next meeting given you can amend any of them yeah you don't have to say that okay i second that i mean we could also say with an amount to be allocated pursuant to what we've learned you know between now and town meeting or you know now and i mean submit the warrant articles anyway whatever you said is fine madam chair i have a question please do are the motions that we approve the application or that we will recommend that we recommend my poor choice of words no no i'm sorry i just i um and i know how we've written the motions in the past so i stand corrected all right so i'm i have an alhague conflicts that we that we recommend uh the herd farm large tree preservation project the amount of twelve thousand dollars with an additional sum for archaeological observation and with the condition that the roots be removed and i second it thank you any other discussion on that all right okay vote oh yes yes yes yes maureen yes and i'm a yes okay all right concert do you want to come back to the conservation property boardwalk yes okay all right the what did they call it they call it cow common purple loo stripe yeah for eight thousand nine hundred and five dollars from the open space fund is that something that would require is this where they're digging you duck no this is where they're raising the beetles to attack it right but weren't they digging they're doing two things they're covering it with a geotextile fabric yeah and they're removing the loose dry from a five foot by five foot area so they're digging yes so they're digging a 20 25 square feet 25 square feet five by five a little chunk of land i mean i think we just should get in that in the monitor that too okay it's not in zero weather well no it won't be it won't be okay um all right uh recommend i'm sorry somebody else should do this but you know subject to archaeological observation so i move that we recommend to tell meeting the sedge meadow pine diversity initiative no no no cow common purple oh you know what you're right no common uh i'm sorry how common purple loose stripe eradication or eight thousand nine hundred five dollars oh well from the open space fund with a provision for archaeological observation awesome in areas of soil disturbance i second that
any other okay uh doug hi leslie hi maureen hi judy hi okay i'm here i was ready to say yes right away i'm keeping everybody on their toes uh was yours a guess yes okay and i'm a yes as well all right uh pine diversity initiative uh subject to archaeological observation in areas of servile so servile wall soil disturbance um what they say uh two thousand dollar all right so i move that we recommend town meeting allocating two thousand dollars from the open states based fund to purchase and cultivate underrepresented native pine species at sedge meadow conservation area subject to archaeological monitoring second just out of curiosity is there a difference between archaeological monitoring and archaeological observation which one is that she wants to know the difference between archaeological monitoring and archaeological observation i don't know that there's a huge difference in that if you're observing you're looking for disturbance and artifact so we should just pick one term and use it consistently yes okay that would be good and what would you suggest monitoring okay that's that way you can stop you know the digging to go in and look in the hole or whatever yeah that makes more sense story i was going to tell all right that was the story she was going to tell okay uh there's a motion was it seconded good job judy all right uh any other discussion okay judy yes awesome okay yes leslie yes doug hi maureen yes susan yes okay look at us go um i would say we skip the deadly pond resiliency for the moment well maybe not why don't we go back you guys after talking about the boardwalks sure let's talk about the board yes let's talk about the boardwalk that's not that susan yes so the proposal is 216 feet a boardwalk at the beginning of the hamlin woods trail for the amount of 23 039
but so it was submitted as the project title is conservation properties boardwalks so we could consider whether we wanted to add other boardwalks to this do you want doug to make a motion and then we can talk about it was that what or do you want to talk and then make a motion i'll make a motion and we'll talk about it okay go for it i vote that we move i move that we recommend the town meeting approval of the conservation area boardwalks amending the original proposal to make the total ask 75 000 which would comprise approximately six to seven hundred feet of new boardwalks and or bog bridges at the hamlin woods trout brook and other conservation areas where are the other locations um you'd be determined but if we're going to broaden it we might as well give some running room what yeah but i mean are you still talking about uh we're basically talking about hamlin woods but not boardwalks someplace else in the town uh also the additional boardwalk required to complete the trout brook to york road connector okay why don't we just leave it to that okay plus the kiosk is yes oh yeah and a kiosk needs to be in the motion well it's the whatever was proposed in the yeah yeah yeah it was so many of you mending the mouth and it's just a question for the event with the scope okay uh is there a second on i find the water this revised is it's all wetland but log uh it should include archaeological monitoring yeah where there's soil disturbance so it is ground disturbance if it's all mud off ground disturbance where's the board law okay well they had initially said i'm sorry did i hear a second there but now they're standing there thank you to other locations uh so people have comments concerns my only comment would be and maybe we will have this in the future is to have something a little more formal than a discussion with the amc folks so we can provide additional documentation right now okay did you hear what he said no said we can provide additional documentation before the next meeting or at the next meeting yes just to make sure that that the amount is a good amount i did hear that okay sorry didn't want to assume thank you uh okay well all that having been said let's take a vote this is on the conservation properties boardwalks which specifically include uh hamlin woods and trout brook to york road not hamlin woods to york road yes
which would be a lot too far exactly too long at least we'd be getting it wholesale for 75 000 uh all right um doug hi okay all right okay all right leslie maureen hi judy yes me yes great look at this step okay the deadly pond resiliency and water quality improvements i have not yet gotten um the information that i need from the community preservation coalition uh abigail very much believes that everything in there is tied to community preservation whatever um i have significant concerns about the technology i don't think that those are covered by the community preservation act um my analogy is recreation equipment that volleyballs yeah that you know or even um what do you say swimming platforms that get removed you know that that those are not fundable with community preservation funds by the other so there's the portability it's not tied to the land and um we don't know that it will only be used for community preservation purposes right so i'm thinking that that part is not going to make it through um i also was struggling with what is preservation and what is rehabilitation which we would not be able to do and what is maintenance which we would also not be able to do um but i do think that whatever parts of the project are fundable we should try and fund you know that we should recommend that to town meeting because it's a i think it's an important project i think that it is very much about preservation of open space and doing something with recreation and doing something for those historical folks yes and i don't believe that community housing is involved yeah i think that's a very good synopsis and share your views on on the overall value of the project and but also concerns about how it fits with the legislation so what i can do is i can draft something that reflects um you know i'm sorry i can draft
the comments for the article um that that i would then you know make sure reflected what i heard from stewart yes um and then we can vote it up or down and we can vote whatever the amount is so we can not vote on it now unless you want to just say hell no and we just don't no i i my thinking is we should defer to our next meeting and yes yeah i agree i think i think and well i'm in support of it so yeah philosophically in support but so um but i agree here are the chairs concerns coalition feedback tenant and i i don't know whether we would use open space or uncommitted so we can resolve that then as well yes um and this is not actually we use both you said you're not sure if you would use open space or uncommitted can you can we use both yes yes whereas i feel that this is a preservation of the pond i think they chose the wrong word when they said respiration and so i would offer them the opportunity to correct their selection of words yeah did we confirm that the equipment they were looking for is not permissible we're waiting for the yeah and so i mean we can also take it to town council but um yeah we haven't we haven't confirmed that but i am very um uh white would be case law from very very suspicious uh or very pessimistic about funding that however we when we talked to abigail when she was here we said that we could shift money around so that if we weren't going to fund that then we would be able to take up more of some other piece where they were going to match so i don't know that it would necessarily change the bottom line for us yeah um uh it's just a question of you know okay so let's just defer that to next meeting if everybody's okay with that yes it's oh and um i i'm not under the impression that they're going to be doing any like work on the ground where they would be moving soil at this point we could always throw it in as a protection but weren't they talking about putting in um uh i thought they were putting something in not until after the study drains and things not until after the study okay this is just funny this study we've got it okay um okay eliza's park yes is this the last one is it the only one we have discussed that's the last one and then we have minutes still i think where did i book my agenda nice well somebody's got that agenda here it is yes don't remember that i just hit let me just double check i do it yeah um then i think there's some reports uh on projects and then we'll do the minutes and then we'll be able to wrap it up all right so eliza's park project uh so now we have the information that it wasn't uh going to be next in line it wasn't going to be the next one after that yes so i developed a clear point of view on it to share and that is what makes this year different from other years is if we don't know other years if we well it is the season right um if we do not vote to fund it the money does not go to another project if it's lost forever it's available next year where there's more clarity um and more and also more click more clarity about the details of the project but also more clarity about whether the project can be moved forward to fiscal year 28 remains at fiscal year 32 or somewhere in between so you know i think we limit our flexibility and potentially risk our credibility at town meeting by funding this project before its logical time and you know it's not to say we won't fund it it's not to say that the funds disappear so we can't fund it it's just you know why fund it yet until there's more clarity i mean we we could well decide next year based on a brilliant plan to fund 891,000 instead of 500,000 so what about the thing with the um taking over the money that's been appropriated for here for that town building well my problem with that is town meeting voted on 400,000 for a playground at this building right we would have to take it to town meeting yeah um and i don't think there's going to be clarity on that by the time the articles need to be submitted i just got the sense that there has to be a lot more conversations yeah that are bigger than us like she was saying yes we have to we have to talk to children's way and we need to talk to the town like it's it's just it's a it's a concept but yeah but it's it's a they need to come to us and request that not it's a ginger power of hypotheticals at this point i would also say i when they when the mark and steve steve were here steve said that they're working on they're they're anticipating a large donation so we anticipate a large grant or influx of funds you know in the near future so i'd be interested to see how that plays out also like if we wait a year and see what they're yeah i think that's part of the 500 000 that's already part of the remaining amount that they need to get there i think they pre-counted it yeah okay yeah but we're not foreclosing anything right we're not you know taking money that we'd like to see go to this for to some other use the money will still still be there next year at this time i think they've been very careful with you know i mean i've appreciated how they received the basketball funds previously um and learned new information about how it would be more you know wise to see it as part of a larger project um and and i'm you know i'm appreciative that they really are looking at it as a whole and and and are not trying to storm through i mean in my opinion i don't think they're they're outside of the timeline that um they're proposing um it it i do worry that the opportunity could pass us by um and then and then and then nothing has done and we have a partially completed park here in the space um whereas there's a lot of focus on it now and it could be completed and and in a reasonable amount of time i i think they're looking at you know a year or so but yeah i mean i don't know how it will be completed if if the town doesn't have the capacity to do it yeah yeah and that's that's the issue is i mean honestly i have heard from members of the board of the select board that they have a lot of concerns about approving a lot of projects because there's not the capacity within the town to execute those but i also for this i don't necessarily i'm not necessarily opposed to um setting aside the money i think we can make mental note that this would be a great use for this money and it will be there 12 months from now which seldom would have been able to say that and if we set it aside would that be are there is that a binding set aside or how i mean i don't know how that would work or when would i finish how it would um how you could then unset it aside right so i mean if you recommend the town meeting to set it aside one of two things happen they vote to set it aside and then it takes a subsequent vote of town meeting to unset it aside or it becomes a discussion item a town meeting where you know why are we dedicating money to a project that is going to start anywhere from two to five years from now or two to six years from now whatever the math is what's your i'm sorry i don't have a sense of the i've forgotten what the timeline is that they envision so they said that the what she said is that currently the larger work at constituent park including the playground is slaughtered for fiscal year 32 and that there's the possibility it may be brought forward to fiscal year 28. no i got that part but but the the applicants what was the timeline they envisioned um i don't remember a hard timeline but no
before um for hamlin farm or that conservation restriction you know we that was sort of we were we were we knew it was a worthy cause and you know you know long before me mainstone farm mainstone farm um i'm thinking of i'm thinking my blank i'm thinking of a deb hamlin exactly yes exactly um uh for years and years with the conservation you know that the the kitty got built up to to do that without any vote being taken at town meeting without anything in writing well yeah because i think that was because you know first i remember when we were being sold on cpa right it was for that for that that this was one of the one of the stated prime reasons for do it but and so the money was allowed i think the money was allowed to build up in the fund without being specifically allocated to other projects which makes the town meeting well yeah there was there were actually votes at town meeting to set aside more than the 10 percent uh and put it in the open space fund with the intention that it be allowed to accumulate yeah yeah okay so this is sort of an honest this is in the uncommitted fund so it wouldn't wouldn't matter like i can't set any more aside to it as we take it from community housing
um well they do talk about a timeline here in their proposal right just having to finish their first the first thing they want to do is the backstop yeah and then that and that's separate i mean that's already funny yeah that's already funded so they so their schedule has them convinced commit commencing in summer fall of 2026 and ready for play by all by spring of 27th yeah i'm told the playground is the air project yeah so that's that's even earlier than right that's inconsistent with what we heard about the schedule two years earlier so no one has told them that there's no project manager to do this definitely what but perhaps the phrasing is they have not heard that there's no project management available well maybe they want to hire their own project manager
well that's not going to happen because it's a town project i i still find it very vague yeah and so i find it hard to concept wise yes i agree and it'd be wonderful to have even if it doesn't work with handicapped children just because they need a nice and oh a park uh playground for older children i mean they have hannah williams but that's tends to be for younger children uh but it's still too vague in my mind the concept and the money's not going anywhere else okay so can we say something like pending uh availability of project management or i mean how do you no i don't think i don't think we have to get into that deep though okay it's not it unless there's some deal with taking the money from here right children's way right then but that wouldn't even that wouldn't fund a project manager that's the whole other right everything just bring up writing at the project manager i'm just saying the project i see that that it's not supposed to happen until 2032 there's a there's a there's the potential for it to be done in fy 2028 which still gives us time to approve it in another year i mean the other thing is like it's our it's our habit to approve 400 000 so you know this gives us a chance to you know build up to the you know yeah to justify why it's more for this one location in town yeah i mean we could vote next year to spend a million on this it gives them another year to firm up what they can do and and how they're going to do it and working with the other town departments the school department the recreation and so forth it seems to me it's all very loosey-goosey i mean yes we all agree that it's needed and that we want it but they don't have the details we find i mean this is this is a problem is when is it that you make the details yeah well because if it has to go i mean i don't know that there's a like with some things there's the design review whatever um well i don't know at the risk of always being alliterating it's both the details and the doability and and the doability is you know if a lot of things fall into place fiscal year 28 which means you know december 26 is a fine time to vote on something with with more detail around it that can start in in july of 2027. so we want we want there to be like a public process about development of the particular structure yes that will be the main structure yes the structure in terms of inclusivity the playground yeah and the 500 000 they're requesting and more will be available at this time next year then they still have all these town departments i have to go through they're making the assumption that they'll it'll sail through but they don't know yeah who else do they have to go through who else do they have well katherine said they have to talk to the school department and the um and other departments to coordinate everything to to move it forward yeah and that's and we're assuming it'll be 28 because we think it'll go forward but we don't know that for sure why would the school department have to weigh in on this one um because they would have to give up one of their slots oh i see their spot in order to move it forward i thought yeah i thought we're talking about the design okay sorry multiple conversations all right well it's complex it is i will say i think what they've done so far has been a real jewel to the town and i appreciate you know their the effort they're bringing um and and what they're personally out of their pockets bringing through their friend communities to um you know if you if you aren't venturing through could you chew it you know go watch a sunday morning game with those um the the gentle new play in the morning it's an excellent it's an excellent it's an excellent day and i think you know they're just continually chipping away with the right spirit um and everybody benefits and you know i'll be disappointed to move this forward a year um i i do think you know that it is their intention whether it's if it's whether it's brought forward you know visually or not to make it the most inclusive playground that is currently acceptable in in in you know industry standards and that is i know at the forefront of their uh desires but it might not be you know shown in these packages yeah i mean i also have to say that our conversation about it has changed in a year yes i mean there was not a whole lot of enthusiasm for funding it and now it seems like we're mostly on board with funding it there's some details and there's timing yeah so and we're not saying we're not supportive of it at all like the fact that we continue to talk about it and trying to gel it into a real possibility shows our support but as anybody knows it takes time for things to go through town and then and the fact that this year is very unusual because it's not in contention for uncommitted funding with other projects gives us the opportunity to be prudent here i just worry that where they are it really looks like a quarter of the way through and a beautiful design and i don't know the obstacles ahead and i worry the opportunity to pass them by um not knowing what is going to happen next year it sounds like they're very dedicated though and i don't know that they will give up quite so easily yeah but also it can't happen i mean yeah that's it it can't happen based on the schedule of the capital plan and the recreation department so yeah it's unlike so it can't happen this year anyway which is too clear perfectly and think about i think it was four years ago where both launch our way of 27 chairman's bridge proposals were before the committee and both thought were were thought after an executive session so i won't hurt you to them but i think you were were found to be worth funding and uh you know the uh the committee was willing to propose to town meeting that debt be taken on to do that and in the case next year that there's this project which is magnificent and wants a million dollars and something else surfaces we have that flexibility i mean by not completing it or at least a portion of it is are are we terminating the project in any way is there anything that they could we ask them if is there anything of a lesser amount that must be done to keep the design in the flux i don't think so because our funding in this committee is not the binding constraint the binding constraint is the willingness of the town to place it up on the on the project schedule fantastic yes i also think if they they do have a half a million committed and they're and they're only essentially what they need the money for up front planning and design they have the money for like they the bulk of the money is for the construction and they don't need they don't need that money right now to keep inching forward um and they they can actually when you look at your schedule they can they can go through the public input and the design they can go through all that so that once they have the money in hand and it fits within the schedules and the talent staffing they can use it but right now if they came to us and said we need this money so we can we can design and plan it that's a different story we already gave them the construction money right all right um
so uh shall we just move uh shall i have motion to uh vote as existed well there's a procedural question i'll ask our chair to apply on since she's much more experienced do you think would be better for the long-term prospects of the project to where the committee simply not to take a vote vote or to take a vote uh either for or against funding it um i think that we can say we can this year yeah without a formal vote uh i think we need to i think we need to take action on it we had to vote but i but i think we could rate that didn't qualify that's right right i mean i think we could phrase the motion so that um you know that while we're supportive of the project at this point it's it's premature premature to pursue funding for it and for that reason we will not recommend it to town meeting this year this year yes okay we wouldn't just list it as it's as it's listed or vote for the motion as it's listed and just either yay or nay it well i was trying to make it sound like we're supportive yeah yeah i think what she just suggested better reflects the sense of the committee and and positions the project better going forward okay so yeah not rape not right yes
yes so if somebody wants to you know as i said that's fine you're so moved whatever did you get something like that can you read it back first oh let's see um we'll work it out i'll paraphrase if that's all i have down right now uh um that while that the cpc is supportive of the project it's premature to pursue funding and therefore it will not be recommended for funding at 2026 at atm yeah so the word premature is not in there i said premature to pursue funding yes sorry okay we want to insert the word philosophically no i think it's also i mean i know you're you are in contact with them either through the commission or through the department to let them know that we're very supportive of it yeah but there's other barriers yeah that are bigger than us yeah so is that the motion yes is there a second second thank you who made the motion okay uh any further discussion okay doug hi judy hi maureen hi kay all right leslie nay frank frank i'm an i do you want to still about that okay um just i hope that'd be great to do a note yeah it's talking so fast but i know i was realizing she was gonna did she did kathleen give you this handout or response maybe she was just her it was her update that she provided she sent it here yeah nice um you know what maybe maybe she sent it i didn't see it in my email but i have not checked which project is that um it's the schedule for the if she sent it to you then we put a pen it to the minutes and i wouldn't have to write it on
but leslie while you have your uh yeah thing open but you should send her an email asking her to send the yeah be great all right sorry send the document to laureen and presumably me or the whole community either way or just you where you can you'll get it okay fine put the burden on me
all right um yay let's move to reports and discussion of finances and funded and proposed projects okay you had something for us yes on the um epoch gravestone conservation project the final status as of november 2025 the total amount was two thousand three hundred ninety thousand nine hundred twenty two dollars the percentage of the work that was completed was 35 the amount invoice was eighty four thousand five hundred twenty two which happens to be 35 of the amount and um so the remaining amount is one hundred and fifty five thousand four hundred i can give this to you later right um the breakdown by work of priority priority one was just the most damaged uh markers uh 69 percent completed of the 91 gravestones 63 are completed priority two which are damage and need repair is six percent uh complete of 170 there are 11 that are completed there was uh 11 in like you know four were done in lakeview out of eleven uh two were done out of the north cemetery but there were a hundred five were done in in the stony brook section of the north cemetery 68 were located in that section in south cemetery there are 28 and none were done there the priority three which is basically cleaning the the stones of the 639 gravestones 244 complete but once you look at those and you look at the ones next to them you realize that there are more than what they originally chose to do 17 were in the south 188 in the north and 41 in lakeview uh so at this point we're talking with kelsey about going out for another rfp to finish the project and um that's where we stand at the moment now and gordon who was and brad uh carver were in charge of this project and ann as the end of this month will be leaving the historical commission so we will have to find someone to work with brad on this but this is where we are is there a new chair for the historic commission yet or is that they are doing three months at a time they're rotating like a hockey game who's up first who's on the first line sherry ann bryant is doing the first three months of the year yes and uh and gordon we just had a meeting this afternoon uh retired as chair we let her be chair the last meeting she's had yes and then um so good it can go on her resume that's right she can out to the world that she retired as chair the historical tuition um i do not know who has signed up for the next three months after that all i know is i was told i didn't have to be chair again until 2027 so i'm happy
unless somebody steps up and stays chair this is what it is all right oh and uh tanya announced that she may she's seriously considering leaving um this is why i was trying to say politely we can't depend on free services i had not intended for us to do that no i know it's just um she's running out of energy and we want to keep her as long as we can so anyway uh put her in the lab yes she's going to be work she will continue working in the lab but she won't be on the commission so we will be looking for new commissioners um also you heard me say to um catherine that the two signs are in the design process at the moment for the deadly woods and is there any money left for the um the castle gate road things i think there's eight hundred dollars left on that is the last we heard and that too is in the design process and uh our big concern is is that enough to pay the contractor to put down the cement base because dpw is not doing that they are going out for contract on that so okay okay i have a question um you mentioned the um the signposts that are going to go into the dudley pond conservation area um are the signpost restrictions that are happening on the rail trail through dcr is separate issue to these signposts yes it is
we are using the same designer so that there will be sort of a continuity of designs across the town um but with this dcr the problem is the color that they chose the amount of text that they chose uh how many pictures they can put on we're not limited by that okay but we will have a similar style of how we present the information that we present and this will be true when um they do the stonebridge sign as well okay and so stonebridge is is just our that's being done by facilities so i don't have any i mean they've asked me for information about the bridge but that's about it and then there was something about the signs that were to go along the rail trail for the oh my god the resting post the rail posts the rail post um there are three rail posts currently that were given to us um we are lacking two more sets and uh but rick is hoping is he can he was able to give the free negotiate to get the free ones for us he's still contacting lots of railroad groups and trying to continue that free uh yes so i thought i thought we gave him maybe thousand dollars last year well you gave the money because if we can't find them for free now we have a contractor that we will um contract to create new ones that look like the old ones right okay um but also for signs there was something about uh delaying putting in the signs until after everything is paved for the rail trail so you're going to get everything from everything east of route 126 and 27 will the signs will be going in and uh not only signs but benches will be going in everything you sure have a science what you sure about the science that he didn't want to that he wasn't going to suggest doing them all at once oh it's moving out i don't think so because because because west uh of 27 they have a stone dust packed path and they're not planning on doing the paving it for another two or three years and they're also going to fix the trestle that goes across the river so that people can walk on that and because that isn't going to be finished the signs are not going to be going up until after the paving okay um i did suggest that uh we get something from him or the commission about why this won't be completed within three years yeah i think the the whole point i think it's fine that's why we're we don't want to wait three years to put the signs east of them to intersection but let's get them up now and get people interested and then these are also signs that will be going by the um turntable and they where we want to get archaeology work done and other things so that science will be going up as soon as that is even though we may not be doing the archaeology right away but um that that's what we're doing hey maureen how are those rail posts they're great they're right behind my house exactly they weigh a ton apparently they weigh 350 pounds each he asked me today he goes are they still there i go they haven't moved nobody's picked him up
does it look like something that somebody would want to move no no they look like you know their shapes are like like this like a ball yeah if you ever drive down the turnpike and you you go under a bridge you'll see exactly what they look like because they're just bigger ones that hold up the bridge okay yeah that'd be hard to put the rail on if it was that big i wouldn't want to if the rails themselves weigh so much money wait i wouldn't want to have to move them off of that right all right uh any other project updates that we should know okay um minutes of november 19. i have one comment good and uh salute maureen for recurring to doing her master job and then the paragraph under the community preservation fund applications for 2026 annual town meeting when i provide a brief overview community preservation act balances uh would like to insert after the town will receive two hundred thousand two hundred two thousand dollars uh for total funding of about 1.45 million dollars with 10 percent going to each of the three funds can you say that again my computer just died i don't have the energy to find it out but uh after two hundred two thousand dollars from the state added to the property tax surcharge will generate revenues of about 1.45 million we'll send that to him sorry what you said the first time and second time i will just email me that would be great sorry that's fine um there was something that said that i had made a motion and i tend not to i tend not to do that so i changed it okay that's fine i heard you making the motion i was like oh that's weird i changed it to k
and she's not objecting so whatever
k or somebody all right any other uh amendments is there a motion to approve as amended yes thank you motion to approve is there a second second all right uh let's take a vote leslie hi maureen yes judy yes okay yes doug hi susan yes we went in order oh my god i know well you know you can't um i don't have any topics that i have not reasonably anticipated so i would welcome a um motion to adjourn with the understanding that we will meet again on january 9th is that right a third seven seven seven seven seven and before then i will circulate draft
there was some input from the select board that they wanted us to be doing like a chart um with the projects and stuff so i'm not sure how much town meeting or for all projects for for the ones going to town meeting okay i wasn't searching that like all the ones that are funded also no no no no just the ones that instead of doing you know one article for the historic ones and one for the recreation ones that that there was the suggestion that we try and put it all in one article and that it and that it designate like the source of funding and stuff so i'm going to see what what we can work out i think it's going to be unwieldy so i think that there will eventually be some division i i've talked to a number of people about that and all i got was oh my god no what if somebody doesn't like the project you vote everything down yeah it would it would be a mess they go quickly i know i know all right um i mean of course it's not up to us anyway we submit them the way we think they should be but right the select board ultimately has authority all right so that's the other thing that i had to say which was not reasonably insistent all right uh i make a motion return thank you at uh 8 34 p.m second there all right uh doug uh i maureen i judy yes okay yes leslie yep yes thank you guys very much