 You are now recording. Hello, everyone. Welcome to this meeting on Thursday, May 11th, 2023 of the Community Preservation Act committee. This mean is being conducted via zoom as. Accorded by the town and state. It is being recorded and will appear at a later point in time on the town. I'm going to call on members of the committee now to make sure that they can be heard and that they can hear me. So when I call your name just to confirm Katie. Yes, here we can hear Katie Robin. Tim. Yes, I'm here Sam, you I see you from your eyes up. I'm not able to see myself on the screen. I'm not able to see myself. Can you tell me when it's correct? Well, is it a better half? Push it the other direction. Push it in the other direction. We're seeing the top of your head. I won't know. Keep going. Yeah. Perfect. Wow. Okay. I'm going to do one other adjustment here. Thank you. It seems to have been good. Is it still good? Wonderful. Hello, everybody. Welcome to our technology. Outtakes. So, Katie Robin, Tim. Matt. I'm here. Michelle. David. So those are our members, I believe. I'm not seeing everyone on the screen. I see. Six members. And I think that's everyone. Sean, I also see us here. He is. Occupied currently doing. Double duty with a child at home. Due to. Availability issues. Jen is here to assist if we need. So thank you all for being able to attend the meeting on relative short-term. Hopefully it'll be a relatively quick meeting. The intent is just to take care of a few items that remain. For our current cycle. The first item on the agenda is to approve minutes. There were two sets of minutes sent to you all. I didn't receive any further edits. One was from December 15th and the other was from December 15th. If, so I'm going to make a motion. Unless I. Hear from someone. To the contrary. Well, let me start this way. Does anyone have any additional edits? They'd like to make to the December 15th minutes. Sam. One of them, I don't have them from me. One of them didn't have the author of the minutes. Okay. Do you recall which one? No, I don't. Okay. That might. I'm looking at them right now. December 15th. December 15th. So we will make that edit. Tim accordingly. And we can proceed thereafter. Anyone else? Okay. So I'm going to make a motion that we approve the minutes. The minute drafts for December 15th, 20, 22 has provided. Is there a second? A second. We have a motion and we have a second. I'm going to go ahead with a roll call vote to. I or yes is approved. No. Or nay or abstain. Okay. So I'm going to make a motion that we approve the minutes. The minute drafts for December 15th. Okay. No. No. Or nay or abstain. I call your name. Please respond. Tim. Aye. Matt. Aye. Michelle. Aye. David. Aye. Katie. Aye. Robin. Aye. And I will vote. Aye as well. So that is seven to zero. I realized I did not include one thing here, which is we need to have a minute taker for this evening's meeting. It's probably a short meeting. No takers. I'll volunteer, but I'll warn everyone. It took me six months to do my last. Do you think these might be able to respond a little bit. If they're short. All right. If not, we can talk later and get them on. So okay, great. So this one approves by a vote of seven to zero. The meeting, the minutes of December 22nd, 2022. Any edits that weren't already sent to either Michelle or myself. No comments. Okay. So that means they're fine. I'd like to make a motion that we approve the minutes of December. 22nd, 22nd, 2022 as provided. Second. We have a second. I'm going to do a roll call vote. Okay. Tim. Hi. Matt. Hi. Michelle. Hi. David. Hi, Katie. Hi, Robin. Hi. And I will vote I as well. That is a. Pass by a motion of seven to zero. Very good. So. Public comment is next on the agenda. I'm not able to see myself the. Panelists or attendees here, Jen. But if you see someone raising their hand, could you communicate? I'd like to ask if there is any individual who wishes to make a public comment. In the audience. I see Michelle, you're speaking, but we can't. I don't see any attendees. Okay. Given that there are no attendees seeking to make a public comment. We will move on. So the primary issue related to calling of a meeting is to get us through the current cycle. We have a current fiscal year 23 cash balance. In the amount of 164,463 dollars that we did not take action on. When we last met in December, there was a tabled project that we had held off on and Sonya had indicated that we would want to take action. Will we to wish to have that in the current. Cycle by March. The applicant got spoken with town staff who has been in communication with the applicant. They've been ready in a position to move forward. They've been interacting with town staff on a greater plan and seeking to get additional estimates. Therefore. Given that I think it's in our committee's interest to retain the capacity to make decisions in the fiscal year 24 cycle. So that the cash is available if need be, if they come back with a. If they come back with a budgeted reserve. Whether it be another project or whether these folks come back with some more clarity for us. So. I'm going to make a motion. Which is that we move to recommend the establishment of a budgeted reserve. For fiscal year 2024. In the amount of 164,463 dollars. Second. We have a second. I think Michelle got in there first. Discussion. Katie. I just have a couple of. Clarifying questions, Sam, about the 164 just because I. I wasn't sure that wasn't the total amount for that one project. Is that correct? It was not. That one project. Which is distinct from this motion. Had an initial request for a very large dollar amount. Then they came in with a lower amount. There was an estimate that was. Committee members wanted to see a bit more clarity. And. Their committee members also wanted to see a greater level of overall long-term planning. But. We set aside as a committee that dollar amount, which would have been. That. Kind of soft estimate, I guess. Would be my phrase for it. Along with an additional 500,000. Excuse me. 5,000 for. HPR. Restrict. Historic preservation restrictions. Right. So it did align essentially. With what we were considering. The range for that private project. Okay. But we were awaiting. Additional information, more clarity. And there's not readiness at this point in time. Yeah, that's no, that's helpful. I looked quickly at the minutes and I. Remember the discussion, but I just was looking for the amount. And we're not aligning the reserve with this now. What we're saying is we want to have a reserve for fiscal year 24. With this vote. And that allows us the chance to make. To have discussion and vote on that for whatever purpose. For whatever purpose. I had spoken with Sean. On a number of occasions regarding this. And he concurred. And. I also initiated this meeting and recognition with Sonya's comments. Towards the end of last year, which was that we really. Choices of either doing nothing with the funds. And if we don't allocate them, then they kick into. 2025 fiscal year 2025. But by making this motion, it gives us the flexibility to decide what we wish to do. So this is a. Essentially a retention. Of the funds for our own flexible. Usage come the new fiscal year cycle. And I also have concerns about. Later on this cycle with. Members not always being available and the town council not being able to make determinations in the near term to. For any budget and decision. It's. It's time for us to take action. So. Any additional comments? Sam. So when we put this into FY 20. If the applicant comes back and we decide to move forward with them, when can they access the funds? Because we're. Moving them. Excuse me. We're making the recommendation. To move them. It's a town council decision, of course. So we're. Getting ahead of that. We make the recommendation. But if they are moved into fiscal year 2024. Fiscal year 2024 commences. On July 1st. So these funds are available. If they are. Appropriated through our vote and through the. Finance committee and town council from July. Potentially from July 2nd through. June 30th. Next year. If we weren't to do anything, they wouldn't be available. Until the next cycle commencing. July 1st of 20. 24. Hopefully that was clear. Matt. So I have just a couple of general questions. I didn't receive an agenda. Is this the only agenda item or the other things we're going to discuss? There's one other item on the agenda. It is in the packet. I'm sorry that they weren't sent out from the standard processes. The other items. On the agenda is looking at the fiscal year. 24 application. Date. Excuse me. Considering the dates we wish to open the fiscal year. 24 application. And also looking at the. Previous. Applications so we can consider any changes we. Want to make. Okay. I have another, I have another process question. What's the status with, has the town council already voted on. Our recommendations for. 2024. Yes. The report was put together. By myself and Sonia last. January and sent out to all members. And I included the comments from other members as well. Hopefully you all received that. And then subsequent to that, I had to present to the. Finance committee. This would have been in. Early to mid-February. And soon thereafter, there was a vote by the town council to confirm. So all of those. Recommended recommendations that we made were confirmed. So that was approved. And the. I could send, I could look up the. Maybe for future in the future, probably we should have just put this in budgeted reserve back in December. And then. Cause then we wouldn't have to re go through this process. It's open for discussion. It was suggested. And the question was whether or not there would have been a timely. A follow-up from. Which we could have considered it. Some members wanted to proceed in a. In a more current fashion. And we didn't have a decision at that time. So we tabled it. But I hear what you're saying, Matt. And in retrospect, given what transpired from. Last December or early January until now. Yes, that's, that's the outcome. Okay. Any other comments? Questions. So we have a motion. And we have a second. I'll read the motion again, move to recommend the establishment of a budgeted reserve for fiscal year 2024. In the amount of $164,463. I do have a question. Sorry. Yes, Tim. Where did we have a zero? I can't remember to be honest with you. Did we have a zero reserve? And then this is going to be the total reserve or did we have a dollar figure reserve? And this is added to that. So it's a bigger number. I don't recall. At present. We have not set aside any funds. Into fiscal year 2024. In fiscal year 2023. Which was this previous cycle through. In the year 2020. In the year 2020. And in 30th of this year. There was this dollar amount of 164,463. But given that it's, and it must be spent or utilized. Fiscal year 2023, which is six weeks. So. Given that. That timeframe, nothing's going to transpire. We now have a decision to make, which is do we wish to keep it? Potentially usable in fiscal year 2024. and then it becomes available only in fiscal year 2025, which is a full year away. Yes, Matt. And so there's been no updates to the projections. So the 164,000 is the same as what it was back in December. This number was provided by the Tenant Finance Department by Sean. So yes, that's correct. It's the same number as we were considering before. There's no update. There's no update. That's correct. There's no change in the expected. Well, Sean McGonaugh now has his hand up. Hi, is okay with Sam with that? Yes, Sean. I can't talk a lot. Sorry, again, my wife's got her wisdom teeth out. That's why I'm nursing that tonight. But this is what wasn't spent from the FY23 Reserve. So you allocated part of the FY23 Reserve to support FY24 projects. This is the balance of what wasn't allocated to support FY24 projects. Okay. And there's not anticipated to be any additional funds. This is the maximum we could put aside. Again, there might be, when we close out the year, there might be a little bit more that we could do if we do this in the fall. But what we've been discussing is what do we want to do with the FY23 Reserve? Not if receipts come in a little bit better. If receipts come in a little bit better, we usually put that towards the next round of awards, which would be FY25. Okay, perfect. Thanks. Not able to see everyone here, but are there, Sean, I assume you're done. Your hand is still up here. Any other comments from anyone? Okay. So we have a motion and we have a second. I think it makes sense to proceed to a vote. I'm going to go ahead and call on members. In the, say higher, no. Again, it's to move to recommend the establishment of a budgeted reserve for the fiscal year 2024 in the amount of $164,463. Tim. Aye. Matt. Aye. Michelle. Aye. David. Aye. Katie. Aye. Robin. Aye. I will vote aye as well. So the motion passes seven to zero. The only other item I have on the agenda relates to our application and dates. I think it may sense that there's two different things here. I guess the first question is when would we wish to open the cycle for applicants to submit proposals? Last year, the cycle was from September 1st through September 30th. The committee had discussed the previous summer that we might wish to have a greater window of time for applicants to submit proposals. That is to say a greater time might be beneficial. And I had spoken with town staff and the recommendation was that the existing cycle in the fall works quite well for the town staff. But perhaps an earlier opening of the cycle, we could move a week or two in advance. Yes, Robin. Oh yeah, I just wanted to speak in favor of moving it up between two and four weeks just for the historic preservation projects. It seems like once somebody gets, usually what happens is somebody gets windowed the fact that the application process is opening. They know nothing about it. They don't have time to get consultants or estimates in hand. They may not understand the process. They don't have a lot of time to consult with the historical commission. So if we could move that opening date up sooner, that would be great for my perspective. Michelle. Yeah, I agree with what Robin said. And I'm wondering is there any downside opening it up more than two weeks just for people to get a consultant and get their foot in the door? Like what's the downside or pros and cons of even three weeks, four weeks prior to the fiscal year for the town? Good question. I don't know with certainty regarding the town. One question is, would we be in position to have a general information session for the community, even if the application process has opened, I don't see why we couldn't. And the other question would be from a town standpoint. Yes, David. You have raised the question or concern that I had about the informational session. Okay. At least about 30 days before proposals are the proposal opening up the period, but the opportunity for those individuals who may need additional information or have questions before they start writing. Okay. I understand your comment, David. We've spoken of that in the past. I do have some thoughts. Yes, Robin, your hand is up, Robin. Yeah, yep, I'm here. Yeah, I think we'd also talk about the possibility of a pre-announcement, you know, not necessarily opening the application period but announcing in, say, August 1st, so that people could get in touch with the respective commissions that they've been working with if there could be another opportunity if the time for some reason more reservations about opening the application period earlier. That certainly seems like a good idea to me. That is to say that the more information or notice is better than less. In the past, the town has sent emails out. Sean, I have a question for you if you're able to hear me. Can you hear me, Sean? I see Sean's hand is up. Can you unmute Sean, please? Okay. Yeah, I can hear you, Sam. So from your perspective, is there any issue regardless of what date we sent for the application opening for the town to be able to send out or place on the website, notices regarding the timeframe for the application cycle? I know we have the proposed a project on the website and we will show that display in a little bit here but what are your thoughts about notification to the public regarding in advance of the opening of the application cycle? We can notify people two weeks or a month ahead of the application opening. When I talked about this with Sam a little bit, the length of the application window isn't necessarily the issue because people can start working on their application before the window opens and the committee doesn't get the projects until the application window closes and then we send them all out to the committee. So depending on if you want committees to have more time with them, in some ways you have to decide, does it go to your individual committees before it's submitted to CPA or after they're done and after the application window closes and then we send them over but the length of the window we could extend a couple of weeks or a month if that's what's needed but again, that might not necessarily give people more time. That's just gonna mean the window's open longer but again, we can notify people that the window's coming up and we can have the sample application on the web so people can know what questions are gonna be asked. Great, that's good to hear, Sean. I had mentioned previously and we talked about this before that it would be beneficial I think and Sean has agreed for us to have a sample application form on the website, that is to say the town site under the CPA page as a resource so that potential applicants could see what it is they need to do right now the only way to locate it is under the once the cycle opens or under prior years projects which are filled with data so that's one thing we can do we can seek to have additional notifications on our own external to the town although the town communications is by far and away the most effective way of getting the word out at least that's been my observation there are many people in town who receive the automatic emails that the town communication director sends out we could also look to placing something in the newspaper and on our Facebook page, et cetera but the determinations that are at present I see are twofold one is determining the general timeframe for when we wanna open up the application cycle willingness which we've heard affirmatively from the town to send out notifications in advance and probably two notifications maybe a month in two weeks and then the third item for discussion distinct from the dates would be taking a look at what the proposal project form looks like which we'll do in a little bit here Robin, your hand is up Yep, I'm here Yeah, I would just responding to Sean's comment I would suggest that a pre-application notification just direct people with questions I mean, I'm just speaking for the historical commission here but if we have the month of August where that information goes out into the public people start thinking about it and that notification says contact the historical commission that would be a huge help, I think to get people to us in that August meeting we could even push our August meeting towards later to accommodate being able to meet with applicants that would be, I think that would be a big improvement over what usually happens is everybody hears about it September 1st there's one meeting there's no opportunity to go over anything so thanks I concur Robin of the benefit of having visible contact information for the various representative committees and commissions I did take a look on the various town sites to identify who's listed at present and the contact information and there's multiple avenues one is to refer potential applicants to the town CPA and the town excuse me, the various commission sites it could be go to the rec commission go to the CPA town boards and committees and find your relative appropriate committee there and some of the committees have contact information emails some of them don't have any names but we can find an avenue to communicate this and I understand your comments Robin both in terms of pragmatism past experience Matt so I'm just trying to understand the process here like what new information is provided when the application opens is this just a question of letting people know or is there some new information that people have to act on when the application opens if the application has changed is it does it change from year to year? Slightly, not necessarily this year but probably not this year in past years there have been some significant changes not major from a timeframe but there have been adjustments in terms of the fields of what was your question what's to stop someone like why wouldn't someone stop preparing now for the application? I would but we have a very large community some individuals and groups may not have it may not have entered their radar as a possibility yeah I think I'm sorry to jump in but I think that I mean from my committee's perspective that's the major issue people hear about it people hear about CPA funding for historic reservation projects on September 1st they don't know about it beforehand we don't do anything to publicize it and so that's what makes the short time frame so problematic some people some people know about it ahead of time and come prepared I mean maybe that's the degree I think a pre-announcement then makes a lot of sense where we say you know this is what and we can even wrap it into you know what we approve for the the cycle that's just starting you know CPA approved all this stuff if you have a project you know get ready to find out more is it the CPA website is it the committees but has you know you know these are the categories these are the committees for each category get in touch with them correct and I think also on the CPA page having one or two examples of successful applications would be helpful too at present the applications are all listed on the left hand side under fiscal years year by year every application lives on those that were accepted and those that weren't and there's also a report for each year that indicates the outcomes for every application but my observations have been just in my own search the item that I found that could be improved let's say is a specific reference to the contact information for the relevant commissions and committees that many of you are representing right now the rec commission the conservation commission housing historic commission those are the four really and right now in the CPA plan there's a reference to go to the go to the town website under board and committees and find your contact information there I think we could place something on the primary page and then a communication as you suggest, Matt and Robin I mean, I'm sorry I'm just looking at I'm just looking at the CPA page on the town website there's at the top there's a proposal community preservation act project which is a good page I think if we just like add some more information to that in terms of what we said the committees and that explicitly say the committees and also explicitly maybe give an example of a successful project so Matt, your comment is timely because one of the two items under this it's application dates we have to select and I want to show the current page that you're talking about I think it may make sense and I see your hand, Michelle I'll call you in a moment I think it may make sense for us if we recognize that there's a desire and an interest in notifications in advance if we operate on the assumption that we will be providing advance notifications through a few avenues if we do that, when would we want to open up the cycle currently it's been the 30th excuse me the first through the 30th of September busy month of course August is busy it aligns with the town's processes for us to conduct these application cycle ending at the end of September we could go slightly earlier if we want are there any opinions from members on that it may not be the most significant issue as Matt has alluded to I see hands up and I'm going to call on Michelle thanks Sam just to bring some good points together I like the pre announcement idea of the month headway and the contacts for all the relevant agent commissions, whatever and I like reaching out on different avenues not just the town website because a lot of people just don't go it's kind of clunky honestly and hard to find information on the town website so in any other way you can get it to sort of different people that are using different information sources all the better I like the idea of a template I think successful applications are great but if we could determine what we want to see and what is easiest for us to review getting something in a template form for people to sort of converge on providing information would be much easier to review quickly so we talked about providing successful applications that a lot of the times those are not successful because of the application format but that's all for other reasons so templates are great for people I think it just cuts down hours of works on applicants ends as far as the opening date with the town know what the funding opportunity is before the normal time that we do it I mean that's the only consideration that I have for that one Sean can you respond to that or are you in a position to I know last year in prior years Michelle we were able to confirm the funding sometime in August my understanding was that town staff is extremely busy wrapping up prior year and initiating new year budgeting cycles and that July is a difficult month to arrive at those numbers and we also have to hear from matching funds from state Sean do you have any comment regarding when typically our committee is aware of what our expected funds are there's a chance he's occupied here I'm not seeing that here Jen do you have any comment on that I know Sean handles it not able to hear you can we can hear you now I think that is a busy time of year with wrapping up end of fiscal year and starting the new fiscal year but I would definitely run that by Sean as well and I can make a comment to ask him if he didn't hear okay and we can also Michelle we know the approximate range that the funds we won't know the exact but for applicants sake they will have an idea from prior year awards and there aren't too many I guess my comment would be yes it's a good idea but if I was an applicant I would apply regardless of what that overall available funds was and any information we can provide would be beneficial but it's a good thing to include if we were to know it my guess is that comes a little bit later yes Robin Katie I'm not sure if you were first or not I was just gonna say fit 91 to 930 pardon keep the dates 91 to 930 that's my feeling okay Katie well Robin you were saying earlier though you wanted you thought a little bit longer opening two weeks before or did you mean if that if that if we have an announcement in August maybe one or two then it's really there was the earlier opening was just to allow for people to know about it but we do an effective job letting people know and directing them to the historical commission and that meets that goal so got it yeah I I would I I would agree with that and what Michelle was saying sort of making sure that we do that outreach is important and I'm not sure how that happens and who does that if we need to be supportive of the town and doing that I'm happy to try to be helpful with that so I'm in favor of 91 to 930 if we can get that you know announcement out early in August if we could with all of what everyone else has said about you know having the application information so people at a template or any of those things so people know what they're possibly having to gather or do or meet and one question I had is about the end well two questions one was we did an info session at the end of August last year and I think my recommendation would be to have an info session soon after the application opens so that people are actually in it and doing it and instead and also you know feeling like people are back from vacations and other places and have a chance to understand what questions they might have about it but the other question I had was around the require I know is my recollection is that people aren't required to go to each of the commissions or committees to get approval in order to submit and so there's a little bit of confusion about we recommend we highly I think we use language like we highly recommend and so I think last time we talked about this which maybe was two summers ago I was saying that is confusing to folks like it feels like it should it's been helpful to have the commission say hey this is a good thing or it's not a good thing or we think you need extra support or to do it take it an extra step so I kind of lean in the direction of having it be required and I know in the conversation that felt like it was a hurdle and a barrier to folks which I also understand but I wondered if highly recommend was enough to say that you get sort of maybe in the application we give people sort of an extra consideration or something that really motivates people to go to those commissions and committees versus saying it's not required because I think that we highly recommend it twice I yes it's quite different so I just throwing that out there it is clearly in the interest of some applicants to it's in the interest of all applicants to meet with their respective committees or commissions some applicants truly need information and the concern with mandating it is if somebody has the potential for a very good proposal and the meeting times may not be exist I wouldn't want to exclude their capacity to submit an application on September 28th but we could consider a phraseology both in announcements and otherwise I do believe that making the relevant representative committees and commissions contact information more readily available will assist it won't assist everyone of course and there will be applicants who here at the last minute it may not be able to get it together if I were seeking to apply I would certainly try to identify who to speak to and I think having that information on the site would be helpful Robin Oh I'm just having a bunch of thoughts in my head I mean one thought is that you know the historical commission could specifically schedule their August meeting to have an agenda item for applicants I mean if we can get again get sort of ahead of the ahead of the wave there any language that you know would go out in the announcements to say that we're that we're dedicating a portion of the meeting specifically to that I think might be useful Kim Yes let me come back to the requirement for me I really think less highly of an application if a group has not gone through a committee so I almost favor saying it's required because I think they start out with a handicap and I don't know how others feel but I'm not quite sure the reason why we would say how they recommend as opposed to require maybe just to raise that question My response would be that there have been times where there have been strong applications will put together that have come in later in the application cycle without the timeframe for the various committees and it is a state funded it's a town funded tax dollars and it would be my own opinion one person would be hesitant to exclude the capacity for applicants to be able to submit something and the committee always has the ability to not approve funding for any application and certainly an incomplete or improperly vetted internally within their own would be a reason and we could say something accordingly that it strongly recommended it is considered and it is referenced in the term in our descriptions and we could highlight that in greater underlining or otherwise so that would be my thought I just have a I have a natural inherent mindset of not adding not preventing not not having a barrier to a potentially good applicant but we also can easily and we have done so in this past cycle not moved on a proposal that may not have been appropriately put together I do and it may be that there are certain categories and historic preservation is one of them where there's greater even greater impact I think potentially because of the materials component that people may not consider that's just my opinion so a couple of things here we're talking about the dates and we're and we're merging that with the general description I'd like to get us back to the dates for the moment on the assumption that we have at least two notifications earlier well in advanced at least a month from the town distinct from anything our committee might do does anyone have an interest in changing the general application cycle of the first of September through the 30th of September would anyone want to make it any earlier does everyone think that that's a raise your hand if you think that application cycle of the first through the 30th of September is a good one with notification okay so that's a good discussion then so the real issue is not the date and I will communicate with Sean regarding that so that we will add that to the process now I'm going to share my screen if I'm able to Jen I'd like to display what Matt was referring to previously on the and I've got to find it forgive me I've got to I want to display the town CPA site and just bear with me while I navigate through my computer screen which has all kinds of stuff going on I'm going to go to the town website I'm there I'm not sharing my screen yet I don't believe I'm going to go to boards and committees as soon as this pops up stay with me please your government boards and committees A through M scroll down community preservation act committee it's on my screen I'm going to share my screen I won't be able to see you I don't think but let's proceed accordingly almost there share screen let's see if this works can everyone see the community preservation act page someone raise a hand I see Matt going up so I'm going to assume that's a yes we can also see ourselves there so this is the current page and I had looked at it over the last couple of weeks and I had my own thoughts I want to identify a few things that exist in case we haven't looked at it in some time on the left hand side we see each fiscal year where all the applications exist so I'm going to click quickly on last year's proposals CPA proposals for 2024 and they are listed in order all the details that we receive public information by category so anyone can click on a given project and see exactly what was included in the application it's certainly quite it would be helpful to me to see this if I was an applicant but it is populated with a different project so that's one thing to note that this exists I'm going to back out of this if I'm able uh how do I shrink this on my screen too many things open okay I lost it so I'm going to go back again stay with me that took me to the forum center so we'll go here no I don't want that I want the CPA back to the forum page how do I shrink this if anyone sees the back button use the back thank you one more time great thank you Matt on the top here actually before I click on that let's go back one more time when they first arrive at our page we have this information here which is referencing last year currently we can add and I can communicate with Sean that will include both the appropriate application cycle information we don't have a regular meeting we can discuss when we want to have an information session and it might be as Katie suggested during applications I'm not sure but this is information that we need to change right here in addition on the site we do have a Facebook page which by the way I encourage everyone to share uh when we click on it it brings us to we can announce this way but there's really not a lot of individuals on here right now we have 116 followers we can have multiple notifications this way I don't know that it would reach sufficient individuals but we can do so um let me go back Sam can I jump in in the towns I'm on the town Facebook page do they send out CPA is open yes okay they have done that as a part of the announcement cycle and we can request that they do so again um so yes they do and it's a very worthwhile idea I think that any any method that gets the word out is the objective it's a community community preservation act committee and so I'm I for one I'm in favor of whatever we can do to uh make raise awareness I've been trying to do so that I think we've received some uh inquiries that we might not have otherwise but there's a step by step progress in the right direction and uh learning curve uh right now when individuals come to the site we perhaps could highlight this slightly differently propose a project but this is what they see um this is last year's uh fiscal year CPA window it says is closed but we will have a link that appears here that goes to an application uh so when the application opens this is where that link would also be found there's a lot of information here on the site and when I went through this which has the evaluation criteria submission process this is something that everyone would look at the one thing that I noted uh that would be worth including and highlighting is what Robin referenced earlier uh which is that we highlight in the submission process applicants are highly encouraged to contact and consult with the relevant boards commissions and committees in advance of the application submittal as referenced above but we can include information in terms of how to reach them here I realize this is kind of a clumsy way to look at it at this meeting but we have done a lot in the past to have a lot of information here and we can highlight in multiple locations uh in bold if need be the need for applicants to consider uh contacting the relevant committees we have the types of information but we don't reference we don't reference any specific contact information we allude to it but we don't highlight it so that's something that we can add in very visible um font on this site here I'm assuming the town would go along with that uh but the proposal project is something that Sean had put together last year uh based on our input uh or added to the site based on our input to describe for new applicants and we alluded to this in our information session uh about what all the what they all need so um my thoughts are that we on the CPA homepage and under proposal project we have a section that highlights the contact information for the applicants there's a lot of information on here it may be difficult to uh change it dramatically but I think if we highlight uh the process and if we have a sample application on the website that they can look at um but those are the two main things as I see it a sample application that they can review and the contact information for the relevant boards um but I wanted to to show this to individuals so they can see how applicants what they look at when they're trying to apply and they're looking at this essentially it's not perfectly clear at least as I as I see it they have to arrive and we will send the link out but they have to arrive at the CPA page and then within here they have to find uh there will be something highlighted on the top here but it's not the most uh intuitive process um I don't know if my showing this is helping or just adding some confusion to folks but I wanted everyone to be aware that we have year by year references to previous applications propose a hot project we could potentially change that to propose slash apply for a proposal uh we can change the dates um ultimately I think the key is simply are getting the words out that the cycle opens and having uh information available to applicants um yes robin you're muted do you have something to say robin thank you okay um well only brief comment is yes I would like to see uh apply for CPA funds as opposed to propose a CPA project funds was kind of more active apply for CPA funds slash project or something to propose we refer to the term proposal in many other locations okay that makes sense and tim yeah I would put in fy 2025 yes uh makes a lot of sense now that that can be confusing to some not everyone understands the distinction between calendar year and fiscal year oh I know and I'm not sure uh if someone looked at that despite having gone through all kinds of accounting classes and everything else my my mindset when I see 2024 I think 2024 uh or current years as opposed to fiscal year 25 meaning that's when it's available but you really need to apply now so I'm not sure how to phrase that uh propose a CPA funds uh apply for CPA funds slash project this cycle this cycle well so one way that I've dealt with this is put in the fy and then in parentheses next to it put in the year range so okay just maybe hard to fit all this but we can I'm sure we can find something uh it seems like there's an agreement that a different phraseology might be beneficial I don't like funds yes I agree and apply is active that propose I would suggest putting that the fy i when you when you click on that and you get to the next page it says fy 24 is closed and so presumably would be updated to say fy 25 and like Michelle said with the dates um is open or whatever this site is of course a the town site so it's not one that we edit we make recommend requests and recommendations the town has been quite uh accommodating to date in terms of improvements that have occurred so far compared to say three years ago I think there's a lot of additional information that has been added but and we can make these requests and hopefully uh some of them could be heard um and let me see our panel screen I I don't know if you can hear me Sean or not I'm curious if uh these comments that we're making regarding phraseology if you believe they would be amenable I'm not able to see the entire screen here if there's like a town website administrator these aren't huge things to correct right so it's just not our uh we don't have the authority to specifically make the changes on the town site but I but I think the uh the desire is clear so can I ask a question though um and this maybe doesn't have an answer right at this moment but does anybody know what how other towns distribute information about CPA funding opportunities sometimes it's just interesting to see if there's any like sort of more progressive ways to do it or successful ways to do it but sort of just keep your eye out or something but um you know there's a lot of other people learn from out there too I would uh say that a good place to uh research is the CPA coalition site which is the statewide organization and they have a specific charter to recruit new towns and to support existing CPA communities and they're quite responsive given the volume of activity that they do they've had some good suggestions in the past and uh Stuart who runs and they have another individual have been and you can also see on that site uh examples of differing communities and what they have done so I think that's a good place to go um but uh what I'm you know there's a few things here one is the date cycle I believe we've confirmed I believe we've confirmed that we wish to send out notifications uh multiple times in advance I believe we uh have agreed that there is a desire to both highlight the apply for CPA funds as opposed to propose a project if we're able uh and that we would like to highlight contact information for the relative committees I'd like to show the committee members uh what is displayed on the varying committees for contact information currently uh in case they have thoughts so I'm going to go ahead and click on and I had written them down in a spreadsheet uh and I'm not sure what the best route is for what we would use for this contact information uh whether it's just referring them to this uh or even if we had a central CPA representative who would then forward it but uh under the conservation commission uh Michelle uh when individuals come here they see uh Aaron Jock, Dave Zomek and a phone number so um at present these would be individuals who would be seen as contact information and would refer these are the town liaisons for the various committees and they would communicate uh let me go to the next one under recreation actually that's in the second if we go A through M here historical commission uh Robin you're familiar with this site I assume uh it has Nate and Lois contact yes Robin I don't think we're seeing yeah we're not seeing your your pages I have a um you're we're still all on the CPA page but I have a question interesting I don't think we have the right town representative but I would short circuit this conversation to ask the town if it's possible to have an alias uh email address like CPA FY 25 at commerce.gov that would be part of it would just be a tech question so you'd have one email address that people could write to and whoever that was directed to in the town would just shoot the email off to the respective committee um that's a good way of doing it um if we in the past had done so although the town did have a lot of the questions that came in were accounting based but we can inquire yeah just some just some section where it says for for for more information or questions and that email address highlighted I mean that's what anybody who's looking I mean is somebody you know I'm sure of any of us have found your website and said okay just show me who I can write to I understand and and that might be the easiest way somebody in town who could refer them uh but I just wanted you to see everyone what's there right now uh so that you have an idea of the uh the fact that it's not always as clear as it might be can you see it now now my screen historical commission uh you're not sharing I still just superpose the cpa okay so I'm going to stop doing that it's a waste of time um but the the the thought is that there are differing uh methods of communication and I think that's something that could be improved that a minimum we can seek we can try to uh add on our own cpa page some method of having easier communication process um let me try see if I can get a hold of Sean one last time he's our primary uh folk uh Sean are you able to hear us at the moment I know he indicated he would not be available throughout the meeting and Jen perhaps you could relay that inquiry I'm sorry Sam what did you say I'm back I can talk great so we're we're looking at the site and we've we as a committee have come up with some thoughts on terms of what might make the navigation process easier for applicants and a couple of them one would be to the phraseology where it says propose a project instead indicate apply for cpa funds cpa funds slash project current cycle there's pretty much unanimity the other main thing that committee members have agreed on is that it would be helpful for us to have a listing on the site of the specific contacts for any of the representation any of the uh coordinate committees rec commission historical commission um housing authority and um which one am I missing one of these conservation commission conservation commission um when we click on the various boards there and go to the landing pages there's different information there are town staff listed but I don't know if there would be uh what would be the most efficient route to have an applicant seek to get referred to the differing committees because we want applicants who are proposing projects to contact and advance these representative committees um on our home cpa page at present it indicates let's go there can I can I go to the left I believe it I can't see it can anyone on their own page see the homepage contact information forgive me well I can't see it Sam but to your point I mean we can certainly highlight who we can highlight the different contacts for each of the boards okay I did hear the conversation about having a central cpa email I want let me talk to the liaisons for each committee first um my only concern is who at town hall is going to manage it and if there's only one and and they're getting emails for all different um types of projects it's just they might slow it down versus oh we've got Holly's name on here currently uh should replace Sonja okay yeah um so this is a question I don't know the answer and I can find out if nobody else knows is is there a is there a recreation commission email is there a conservation commission sort of general email like was mentioned for cpa um so I can talk to the liaisons and see what would be the best route for getting people directly connected with those boards um would the liaisons be the best they might be I'm thinking you know you know if we can put something where if it is an accounting or you know a general process question then maybe that does come to accounting but if it's a sort of eligibility question that might go to the liaison or so yeah we can improve that this year great that's that's good to hear I think those steps although they are not large I think they would have an impact um so let me reiterate application data is confirmed communications will be accomplished in multiple avenues from the town and from whatever means we can do we have a couple of suggestions for input improving the applicant process in terms of apply for cpa funds on the submit a project and contact liaisons the one thing we haven't talked about here aside from any informational templates that we might put together and if we do we could send them out in a communication but last year and Dave had brought this up earlier we had an information session it was on august 25th does anyone have a thought I'm curious on the committee members thoughts in terms of that time frame when we might seek and if it's beneficial to have an information session for potential applicants we did it just before the cycle last year we do sometimes have difficulty in july based on membership and turnovers that occur in the various representative boards I did confirm with the town that if we lack quorum in july we still can meet with existing members if they're willing to show but does anyone have a thought in terms of the time frame if we wanted to have an informational session for potential applicants Michelle um I think maybe Robin or Katie said before like once or in the application that's often when like they're very relevant questions come up so we did have a maybe have like a second way for people to contact once they're working on it how is that participation in the first information session was it there were a few there weren't a lot but one of the ones that came in was a major proposal that we wound up approving although that applicant had already it was already on their radar I'm referring to the for fields project they had already added in their mindset to apply I had gone to districts I was only successful in making arrangements with district two and district five trying to and it was the counselors were kind enough to give me the opportunity to present about CPA and so I think that's something we didn't do it this spring that we might have but that is an advanced notification this spring that led to someone coming to that meeting Michelle prepared with questions so we had a couple of attendees with thorough questions really they just we referred them to the CPA plan the CPA application and we asked that they contact the appropriate representative committees now they had already done so so it wasn't that large participation to my recollection does anyone have a differing recollection who was there so it didn't seem to be highly attended and it may well be that during the application cycle might be a good idea any other thoughts on that does anyone think that having a informational session during the application cycle would not be a good idea or be a good idea and just pulling the committee based on what you said it sounds like it could have been email not a not a meeting and then focus in on like the actual application session when you say the application session what do you mean I guess what we had said about once people are actually working on the applications and then they have questions about it okay and that also could occur in contact if they receive the committee liaisons or the committee representatives contact information that might be the most significant thing if they are a historic preservation contact and are able and get into communication with the historic preservation representative similarly with the other committees yes matt are you are you proposing that the information session is actually a CPA committee meeting or something different we had it as a CPA committee meeting previously last august we had a specific it was a regular CPA meeting but on the agenda we had an information session for those who might have interest and in that session in case there we didn't know who might attend in case there were those who were interested but didn't know about it we talked about the application cycle we talked about the evaluation criteria we talked about the categories and we talked about our review process so it wouldn't it be wouldn't it be simpler to rather than have a full committee meeting just have a couple of people from the town a couple of people from the committee run an information session um we don't need we don't need quorum to to provide that information if we're not going to actually decide anything there were some requests when we proposed that in the past matt that it was desirable if any individuals from the committee were going to be meeting that we had the whole committee there i'm just saying what popped up in the past we could i can inquire further regarding that uh i when we proposed it a few years ago the request was made by some that we any such type of representation would be done as a quorum however subsequent to that i did try to go to the individual districts with information so it's a reasonable concept to have a meeting with four individuals but whether it's four individuals or whether it's a uh full committee the question remains what would be an adequate time frame for information um it wasn't highly attended uh i'm not hearing strong opinions one way or another from anyone a poll on just to raise raise of hands for after the application offense does anyone think that having a uh informational session after the application opens is worthwhile and if and if we weren't to do that what would be the alternative just contact information emails perhaps uh so robin your hand is up does anyone else think that after the application is a desirable time period to have a meeting we could also discuss this i suppose um as the fall cycles open i'm seeing two individuals who i'm seeing three uh yes tim yeah i i would amend your i would agree with that and i'm looking particularly at the calendar uh people in august versus labor day september but i would do it early like at least first few days of the application cycle so all right that sounds fine so we can consider that as a possibility we're likely to meet as a committee in advance of that time period maybe maybe it wouldn't be and we could discuss uh um i i could add it as an agenda item i don't think we need to decide it at this moment but it sounds like there's um interest from committee members in having some form of session or communication ability for applicants at that time does that make sense did i say that correctly in terms of what i'm seeing fatigue okay so uh i think we've we've covered the items that i had uh for calling this meeting which was i wanted to make sure we retain the capacity in fiscal year 2024 to allocate our cash and we put it into reserves i wanted to discuss the application date cycle which we have concluded and i wanted to raise the discussion of how we communicate um two applicants on the website specifically the proposed project the contact information for the various representative committees and and adding a sample application to the website so that anyone who is interested in applying will have a in advance be able to see what the information is so i don't have any um additional topics that i did not anticipate before this meeting um so does anyone else have anything they would like to add at this moment and you certainly can email me after the fact was at any time with additional thoughts and comments and we can plan accordingly okay so uh i'd like to it's good to see everyone again and matt how's your uh how's your light doing there last meeting i believe you had just gone skiing and had a lot of fun um my leg is improving but it's still an issue i can walk but i can't run okay oh no walking is uncomfortable wow yikes sorry to hear that well there's other exercise avenues i suppose uh biking is good oh cool cool and there are memorial pool there are competitions in biking as well um so good to see you all thank you for attending on relative short notice here i believe we've gotten ourselves to where we need to be at this point in time uh in anticipation of the next cycle i'm not sure which members will seek to continue on with the committee um that's to be determined i would like to recommend to any members who are on their individual representative committees the four commit the five committees of planning rec conservation commission historic commission and housing that they initiate communications with their membership and speak with the uh town manager's office because there's a bit of a cycle i know that our committee is i've been contacted regarding an interview process for some vacancies that are occurring but it takes a little bit of time so the sooner that that is initiated the easier we do have the slight flexibility for anyone who's staying on according to the town office to be able to meet in july if we haven't had turnovers or anything so any other comments from anyone okay i'm going to call this meeting to a conclusion an adjourn at 7 24 p.m thank you all for your time thank you thanks Sam good to see everybody hey guys thanks bye