 Go live. I was going to share the screen with the. The legal notice. Thanks everyone for meeting. I know it was a little odd with all the. The uncertainty around how we're meeting. Open it off, Nate. Well, the governor, I think. You have a lot of pull and Boston, I guess. Actually, it's really funny when I was talking with staff the other day, and they're like, you know, all the things we concerned about is like, well, he's going to have alcohol to go, but you know, it really matters. Like open meeting a lot. It just, it wasn't happening. So we have some people here. The, you know, this is a, I'm just everyone's listening. This is, you know, through zoom, the governor just extended. And they've extended legislation allowing remote participation and meetings. As of, you know, back, I guess, two days. So it continued from them, state of emergency and it's ongoing now. So. We're holding this through zoom and we will. All future block grant meetings for the 21 process, you know, the next few months will all be by zoom too, just. So there's no, you know, it shouldn't happen like it did today with, with a parallel notice and maybe a in person or not, but it's not going to happen. I think this is it, Gail. So when you're ready, we have, if I introduce the committee and. Okay. We have five members now. Okay. And because it's being recorded, we don't have, are you taking, still taking notes? I think, yeah, we still have to type minutes for this. I think Ben might be or use the transcript. Oh, then subscribe. Okay. All right. Well, welcome to our public hearing. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I want to discuss the community priorities for the 2021 application process. For the CD BG funds and the whole allocation process. So we were going to begin to talk about social services first. And how do we want to go about with participation from those in attendance? Nate. Yeah. I'm going to start with the committee. We'll go down. I'll start at the top. I'll introduce myself first. I'm Gail Lansky. I'm the chair of this committee and above me is Becky, who can introduce herself. Hi, everybody. I'm Becky Michaels. This is my first round of. Reviewing applications on the committee, but I'm really happy to be here. Okay. Yes. Hello, I'm Nat Larson. I've been on the committee for a couple of years and looking forward to this new round. And Rika. Hi, I'm Rika Clement. I'm also new to the committee. So this is my first round and look forward to it. Thank you. And Lucas. Yes. Hi, Lucas Hanscom. Also new. And I will announce that Paul Goldstein, who's been a member of the committee for maybe four or five years submitted his resignation today. And we'll discuss the implications of that later on. And just for everyone listening, I'm Nate Malloy, a staff person, planner with the town. And then there's Ben Breger, who's also a planner helping to staff the committee. And this hearing is being held as part of the 2021 grant process to hear community priorities for funding. The committee held a hearing a few weeks ago that also had this discussion. So it is somewhat repetitive, but it's just a chance to get everyone else. And I think it's a great opportunity to speak if they didn't. You know, I think we've emailed everyone, but just to give a quick update, the state, you know, at first was not going to hold this 21 process. And then they decided to have one somewhat abbreviated during the summer. So it's June through September. So we have, you know, we're having outreach tonight. We're trying to get the request for proposals out and do by the end of July. The committee will review and make recommendations in August. And then we have to submit the town has to submit its application to DHCD by September 10. So it's a pretty quick process this year. And then, you know, the 22 process, which usually starts in the fall with applications doing the spring, I think may happen at that time. The state's considering maybe pushing the 22 process back into the summer, like it is now. But for now, it may just be, you know, you apply this funding becomes available earlier than usual. And then, or at the same time, and then we apply for the 22 process. So it might be a quick turnaround between two applications. But for now it's the 21 priorities for the 21 process. So are we going to hear from participants in the, in the audience regarding social services? Yeah, I think, yeah, we could, if you, if anyone raises their hand, I think, you know, the order they raise their hand and they just populate. And we can go down the list. Gail and then, you know, we can provide opportunities that way. All right. And then somebody named Marta Alvarez is in the chat and she is a part-time volunteer at Olympia Oaks and Caitlin invited her to the meeting. So I'm not sure where we fit her into the list of speakers. I think she could speak just, you know, to any, if she's asking about, you know, discussing social services or any priorities, I think she could speak to any of those. Okay. But in, as far as where she is in the queue, I guess that's my question. I don't, you know, if she raises her hand to speak Marta, that's fine. I mean, otherwise, you know, unless there's a reason she has to leave early, but. Okay. And there's, you know, there's 17, well, I think it's actually, there's 17 people in attendance. So it's a good turnout. All right. Okay. Can I ask a question before we get started? Yes. I just want to clarify. So what we're doing tonight is determining what priorities. We're going to list in the social services section. And then which. Priorities are going to list in the non-social services section. Correct. So what the public would be speaking to is the priority, not to what their own agencies do tonight, but to the public. I would say yes, correct. And then I guess I wondered if maybe it would be helpful if there are people on who are not, um, who haven't done applications before if we just went over what they have been in the past and we're the last round. Um, Nate, can you put up, do you have the opportunity? Not the opportunity, but can you put up what our priorities were for the last round? Um, I'm not sure. Is it that viewable right now? So we can, I'll do a new share and I can show the, um, the previous, uh, social service priorities. If that's what we're speaking about. Suggestion, Becky. Thank you. And so, you know, and then, you know, after the public hearing, just everyone listening, the committee, um, hopefully we can finalize the, uh, the request for proposals and they can be. You know, they can be finalized by the end of the week. So these are the, you know, the, uh, number five, those were the, uh, those were the priorities that we had discussed, you know, had last in the fall, you know, when we thought we were doing our 21 process. And I guess I would just say, I don't know if the rest of the committee would agree, but what I'd be most interested in hearing. Um, is whether people believe, whether anybody members of the public believe that any of these shouldn't be on this list or whether there are any other categories that they think should be added to this list. I think probably we all agree that all of these are really important and don't necessarily need to hear. Why these particular ones are important. Yes. Yes. I think that makes that makes a lot of sense. Um, Nate, given the number of people do you want to limit the amount of time we let them speak so, you know, we can kind of get through the list fairly quickly. I mean, like three minutes, right? That should be enough. Okay. I don't know. I mean, I guess we have to do a rough time, but. Okay. So Laura, uh, just, you can say your name and then, um, if you have any other information and then you can share your comments. Okay. Hello. My name is Laura Reichsman. I'm the director of family outreach of Amherst. Uh, we are an agency that, uh, provides support and stabilization to families on all sorts of different ways. Uh, we've, through CDBG in the past, we've had our housing support, um, program, uh, that's been very successful and been, um, a, uh, a huge need for families, particularly in the last year and a half. Uh, we, uh, while we were still waiting for funding, we were, we were able to continue the work, uh, because so many families were in crisis. Um, The, there's an eviction moratorium by the CDC that's supposed to be lifted at the end of June. We don't know if that will happen, but if it does, we will have record numbers of people who are, we'll have, uh, housing challenges. So, um, we have gotten all through the pandemic. We, um, we've been doing three to five calls a week from people we had never heard from before. And, you know, sometimes Amherst can feel like a small town. So for us, after 30 years of doing this work to, to meet so many new people in this last year speaks to what might happen in this next year. And I think will happen in this next year where lots of people who never needed help before will need help. And so I would urge the committee to make, um, that we can do, um, We can make sure that we have the ability to do that. And, um, I think it's a good thing, as well as just basic family stabilization. A priority family and individual because so much goes into housing. It's, um, it's finding a job. It's applying for benefits. It's figuring out what to do because the camps aren't taking So many things that go into it and, and they need our help and we need, we need CDBG funds to support these Amherst residents. So that would be my that those are my two cents. And I hope I was under three minutes. I think so. Thanks, Laura. All right, thank you. Thanks Lord does anybody have any questions for Laura. I'm going to ask, I just want to throw a question out we have household stabilization and nowhere and all of these do we use the word housing and I'm just going to throw that out maybe that's something you want to think about. If we're going to be. I don't necessarily setting new priorities but maybe renaming these priorities. So it's something to think about. All right. Thank you Amherst community connections you can unmute and you're able to speak. Thank you so much, Mr. Lansky and the committee members. Thank you for having me here today. I would like to discuss the homelessness facing the participants in our town. Every year we see about 700 unique individuals, and half of them, they are either homeless, or they are facing eviction. 80% of these people are from Amherst. So therefore we know our neighbors, and we know the resources in the area, whether it's family outreach of Amherst, or Amherst survival center or not but alone. So our work is to connect all these services based on their needs, make them available, help them navigating through the system. And our goals are twofold. One is to help them secure subsidized affordable housing or housing stability stabilization purpose. And the second goal we have is to help them achieve financial self sufficiency in the way that we know how by getting a job by applying for disability income and or by applying for all those public benefits that they are entitled to. So through this work, we believe that everybody should have a roof over their head. In the spirit of housing that our agency has just been awarded recently by the town of Amherst through the CPA funding for a three year, six vouchers to support people who have experienced chronic homelessness in our town. So that's doubling our capacity. We have been receiving for the past six years, three vouchers each year. Now the town of Amherst has recognized the work we are able to do and the accomplishment that we have made in making the lives of the homeless much easier. So we have been granted over $230,000 for a three year grant put together for the past five years, we have received over half a million dollars of great money to create housing for people who experienced chronic homelessness. And yet in those five years, we have no money to do the support service. That's so crucial in order to help the chronic homeless achieve the housing stabilization in financial self sufficiency. And we had to do hard work, but thanks to your support for the past two rounds, we were able to receive CDBG social service funding to support the men and women in our housing programs. In addition to the housing first program. Also, we have a rapid rehousing. Wailing you have one minute left. Okay, thank you. So today I would like to bring to your attention that we have the money to help pay for housing for people who are currently homeless. But we need your support by providing service dollars to hire case workers to help the homeless navigate through the housing system to help them get a job. I really appreciate that you are past support. And today I bear good news to you, with your support, we would be able to accept our $237,000 funding from the town of Amherst for housing, if we can secure the support service dollars, or that part of our program. Thank you very much. I hope I also stay within the three minutes. Thanks we like anybody have questions. I was just going to ask, I'm waiting, do you think that the services that you need are, or would be applying for are covered by the list of activities. It sounds like they are I just want to make sure that since that's our topic tonight. I think I just able to talk about I think you're available to talk. Okay. Thank you, Miss Michaels for your question. Actually, our request will cover three areas here. One is the individual stabilization. That's the area because we help them stabilize their housing situation and their living situation. And our service will also help them provide service to those who experience homelessness. And the third but not the last is we help them achieve the economic self sufficiency by helping them to a secure employment or offer them opportunity to get certificates to get a better job. So these are three areas, our support service that we are applying will cover. And I want to remind you that many things here such as food and nutrition, helping people apply for food stamps, navigating through the meal programs in Amherst or in Northampton or in the surrounding areas, or help them apply for health services insurance. Those are things that we can provide in our service. So I'm sorry to interrupt. I guess my question was just to make sure that that you saw things on this list that you're that you would be applying within and it sounds like what you do meets a lot of these things but Yes, I want to thank you for your insight. Many of these services are really covered under the input in a benefit specialist we have in house to help them apply, receive the benefits, such as health insurance, or contacting the elder services to help them for the seniors. So it's a one stop resource center that you are funding for cover several of these areas. Thank you. Thank you. All right, there's Michael. You can unmute yourself. Thank you very much. My name is Michael turn off and I want to speak for a minute about the literacy project, which has a site one of its five sites in Amherst, and Judith Roberts our executive director would have liked to have been here tonight but she could. I've been a board member at the literacy project for about eight or nine years I kind of lost track. And I also have been a math tutor at the Amherst site. The literacy project provides adult education so I think both the economic self sufficiency and the household stabilization criteria on your list are applicable to the literacy project, our ultimate goal is to get people their high school equivalency but also to provide basic literacy services we have people who basically will say things like I remember very distinctly a woman saying, I just want to be able to read a story to my grandson and as far as the high school diploma goes. If you think about it, there's so many avenues or so many doors that are closed to people without a high school diploma in terms of getting into college or community college, applying to proprietary schools getting advanced at their jobs even getting some jobs require a high school diploma so this is an important free service to our students. And, you know, our Amherst site typically has 40 to 50 students at any given time about 60 to 65% of them are residents of Amherst so we're serving the entire area. The program has sites in Franklin and Hampshire counties, but in Amherst about about two thirds or a little bit under two thirds of our students are Amherst residents. We also work with a lot of immigrants who are in Amherst for one reason or another, typically graduates of the Jones ESOL program or the Center for New American so they come to us, basically speaking English, and these are people that need access to work, and without a high school diploma they're really really handicapped in that regard. So I think it speaks obviously to adult education and economic self sufficiency but also, I mean, a job is an important stabilization force for any individual or, or his or her family. But even more important or perhaps as important as the fact that we do a good job I think of giving people a sense of agency a sense of self esteem a sense of control in their own lives as they graduate from the program, get that equivalency diploma, and these are people that did not have success in school and for whatever reason they were not able to continue their education and that's our job is to, you know help them finish that process. We have a budget of about $1 million a year. The State Education Department funds about 65% of that but it's been a decreasing percentage year to year. And so we are increasingly dependent on grants from, you know, towns and cities we get grants from most of the other towns in which we operate like Northampton and where and Michael your time is about 30 seconds left. Okay. So, I don't also the one thing I would say is that at a time and we're very conscious of inequities and in our society, I think the literacy project is trying to address that by giving people some agency and the skills to advance themselves in life. Thanks, sorry. I wasn't watching my watch. Thank you, Michael anybody have questions for Michael. Thanks Michael. Okay, you bet. Thank you. All right, we have Lori. Hi Lori if you unmute yourself you can speak. Lori Milman. Okay hi thank you for giving me the opportunity it took me a minute to find the unmute button. So I want to talk to the economic self sufficiency standard because it actually names adult education and job training, as a way to help people attain independence. And I feel like that's what we do and have been doing with CDBG funding and other funding. And so we teach English and we teach navigating skills and we teach confidence and we connect people to resources, and we have advisors who help people look for and apply for jobs. And we've been remarkably successful. We actually have one former student working in the Musanti health center, and it looks like the health center might be about to hire another one of our students. We also train people to be nursed AIDS and personal care attendance, and these people get jobs almost immediately. We have been working throughout the pandemic like I'm sure everybody else here to bridge the digital divide, and have purchased and delivered hotspots and tablets to keep people connected. And we help people connect with all the other social service agencies that are providing a safety net, whether it's family outreach of Amherst or the survival center. We actually sort of link arms around all of our students. There are a lot of refugees and immigrants living in Amherst if you look at the Amherst public school demographics. You will see that English language learners continue to outpace the state. So you've supported this program we think it's a shrewd investment. It leverages funding from the Massachusetts Department of elementary and secondary education, and people stay in our classes and then they go on and go to Greenfield Community College. And they're, and they're working the folks we work with are the original entrepreneurs right they've left everything they own and started fresh and tend to be successful. So, thank you. Thank you Laurie anybody have questions for her. I'm going to ask essentially the same question that I asked Bailey, Lori. It sounds like what you're saying is that what you're the work you do falls directly into the economic self-sufficiency. Are you is there anything missing from this list that you think would be appropriate to add as a priority for us. Since tonight we're not considering the specific program we're looking at what priorities should be listed. Well, it looks to me like you've listed most of them you listed food and health and housing and I, you know that that feels to me like a lot of, of what people need to thrive in Amherst so I, it's, I'm not seeing anything that's that's clearly missing. Thank you. Thanks for. I'm just going to say thank you to the other big sister. You should you should be able to unmute yourself. Hi there this is Jesse Cooley, and I'm the director of big brothers big sisters and Pimpshire County and we're based in Amherst. So we have a couple other people that wanted to share their experience with the program so I will try not to take the full three minutes here. I'm going to be advocating really for the priority area of youth services, which perhaps goes without saying but just to really reiterate that because it's something that sometimes can go. It can be put aside and in in the same for the sake of other priorities and while all of the things on this list are really important and they do impact the people that we work with and many in the community. But this past year in particular has been incredibly difficult for young people in Amherst and everywhere. If you have a young person in your life you, you probably know this. All of the back and forth with remote learning and the isolation from all the important people in a young person's life has been incredibly difficult and we know that the need for connection is greater than ever and this is partly evidenced by the continuing referrals that we get every week from our schools with whom we work very closely. So we're doing our best at our program to continue matching young people with mentors that's what we do. And we just want to really thank you for your support and advocate for youth services to continue to be a priority in the coming year. So I'm going to cede my time and I don't know if the other BBBS speakers are next I know that Ryan Kyle is one of ours so I'll just point her out and Christina Sharpa as well. Okay Ryan you're able to speak and then we'll move on. Good evening. My name is Ryan Kyle and I am a rising junior at Amherst College, who has had the great privilege of being a mentor or big for big brothers big sisters for almost a year now. My mentee or little and I were matched this past September at the height of the pandemic. I know how well my match would work out virtually, but my little and I have been able to build a strong friendship that has helped sustain me during these difficult times. Over the past nine months or so I've learned that there's nothing more enjoyable and rewarding than getting to spend time with a fun loving energetic and thoughtful nine year old once a week. Every week my little's positivity and energy lifts my spirits inspiring me to be a similarly positive and energetic presence in the lives of those around me. I've learned that my consistent caring presence and eagerness to indulge my little's love of Fort building tick tock dances and fashion shows has also helped her feel more supported during this difficult time. This Saturday night I will be meeting my little in person for the very first time, and I couldn't be more excited to tell her face to face, how much I appreciate her and the connection that we share. The story after news story detailing the millions of children feeling isolated socially anxious and unmotivated throughout the pandemic have firmly convinced me that all children now more than ever would benefit from the support of a mentor who consistently shows up for them and deeply cares about their well being every child deserves to look forward to the epic evening that my little and I are going to enjoy together this Saturday and all the weekly virtual chats that preceded it. My little deserves to forge the kind of connection with a mentor that my little and I share. Therefore I urge you all to support the ongoing efforts made by big brothers big sisters and other youth organizations to bring the magic of mentorship into many more children's lives. Thank you. Thank you Ryan. And then Jesse was there anyone else you had mentioned. Am I able to speak still. Yes. Great. So I'm not sure that everyone will will still need to I understand that you're trying to keep it brief. So I'm okay I'm getting one text about that so Christina char by was one of our staff members and I think she's on. Sure, Christina you can unmute yourself. Hi I'm Christina char by and I'm a case manager, and my work involves creating the matches. And what I want to say is that so much manpower goes into creating those matches, and that we have a long list of waiting lists of children, and where we're recruiting loads of students and people in the community to match them to littles, and by having. The support of case managers at this time, and by having an I'm part time and by having the, the, the work power, the workers power that we need, we can create more matches. There won't be anybody left on a waiting list. If we can continue doing this work to the capacity that it needs to be done. That's basically what I want. My perspective of it is the funding helps us to do the work that we have to do we do wrap around support, not just matches. We, we have to contact every family. Once a month, once a month, we help our families we even this week took food from the pantry to the families that cannot leave their home, because their children are small. And they have to be out at school and remotely so they can't leave their house so we do a host of things to support the families. Thank you Christina. You're welcome. I'm going to. Thanks for seeing a Ryan and Jesse I'm going to mute you and then we'll go to the next person. Thank you so much. Thanks. Hi, Caitlin, you can unmute yourself. Hi me and hi to the rest of the committee. Thanks so much for having this hearing tonight. I'm Caitlin marquee with, excuse me with healthy Hampshire. I want to talk about the Amherst mobile market again but I know that you heard from me very recently. And I actually have a couple of folks who are here tonight, representing the Amherst mobile market, who work on behalf and volunteer on behalf of the market and on behalf of their communities. And one of those who you mentioned Gail. And so yeah I'd love to just turn it over to Marta Alvarez and Nathan Chung, and maybe you could have Marta go first Nate. All right. Hi Marta you can speak and meet yourself and speak, and then Nathan you can, I'll give you a minute. Hi, I'm Marta Alvarez. I'm like I said before and I'm attending a volunteer for the farmers market in my community. And it's been a year that I've been doing that. And it's the tenants, my neighbors, they appreciate and they love all the service that the farmers market is giving us. A lot of compliments from the group at the farmers market and they're very happy. And I'm glad that we have the privilege and the blessing to receive this. Great, thanks. Nathan, you can unmute yourself too and speak. Hey, thank you for having me here. I'm my name is Nathan Chung. I'm Amherst resident and I worked last summer as one of the mobile market managers selling produce and of course setting up the sites this year. My role changed a little bit. I focus more as the delivery driver. I pick up the produce from different local farms. And in addition to the produce we get from many hands farms, which is the main operator of the Amherst mobile market. And then I help set up the sites. I think this has just made a lot of emotional difference in the lives of people around the area. The unfortunate thing about Amherst is it's a very large town with not many grocery stores in the area. The neighborhoods we target tend to be lower income and also a lot of people of color live in our neighborhoods. We target four different sites and they also don't have any fresh grocery stores nearby. They tend to be flooded with convenience stores that don't sell any fresh food. So I think just having our tent there, even though it's two hours per week at each of the four sites, I think it sort of makes a lot of different statements about what we can do with our community and also what is lacking in our community. So I would really appreciate you supporting us in different ways. I hope we can keep engaging different dialogues and keep improving and keep addressing this interesting issue Amherst is facing where many people live without cars yet they don't have access to a grocery store nearby. So even getting a head of lettuce can be a big hassle. So I thank you for your support and time and yeah, I hope we can move forward. Thank you. Thank you, Nathan. All right, if there are no questions or Caitlin, do you have anything to wrap up with or are you all set. Thank you so much. And I know Becky you've been diligently asking about the priorities so I'll just name, you know, food and nutrition obviously is a huge priority for us. Last year I was really appreciative to, I mean, sorry, last meeting I was really appreciative to hear you raise the issue of racial justice and how that should perhaps be a priority on this list. That's also a huge priority for us with the Amherst mobile market we have worked really hard to support folks of color who are up against, you know, a lot of disparities in their communities to take on leadership positions within the market you've heard from two of those folks tonight. And that continues to be a huge priority for us so I would really lift that up to and would encourage the addition of that priority on this list. Thank you. I'm just going to disable talking for Caitlin for you and Nathan and Marta and then just go down the list. I love you can unmute yourself. Great. Thank you so much. Thank you to the committee for having from hearing from all of us. I spoke at the last CDBG hearing that we had about priorities that I was really seeing an Amherst including temporary housing shelter and other supports for people experiencing homelessness, youth development and family support and certainly my strong opinion that food and nutrition needs to be a top priority for the upcoming CDBG application project process. I want to reiterate the comments that I made last time about the really significant ongoing food insecurity need, and I won't speak specifically to the Amherst survival center services, but I did want to add a layer and considering these priorities that I would encourage the community throughout all of these priority areas to seek a strong focus on equity on racial justice on accessibility for our diverse commit, commit communities, sorry. And also on quality and impact, whether it's numbers of people serve the depths of services provided and meaningful impact. I have those demonstrated results over time and while a number of speakers tonight have acknowledged their programs fitting into several different priorities. I think to me specifically it feels like shifting our thinking and making sure that focuses on equity or accessibility or racial justice isn't just a separate thing but something that we're weaving throughout whatever other things that we're doing so that we're not upholding harm and perpetuating harmful systems. But so yes with that said I think that this list has some really excellent priorities outlined. And the other comment that I wanted to make was in response around the priorities was in response to something that the committee shared last meeting which was the possibility of rotating through different priorities on different years and really having fewer priorities, perhaps I misunderstood the comment but that was what I took from it. And I wanted to respond to that today by saying that from a community impact standpoint, I think that having those kinds of rotating priorities or priorities that are rapidly coming on or off the list separate from needs really changing in a meaningful community could result in significant instability in key organizations, which could have the potential, or I think would almost guarantee reducing the impact of those programs, and that I believe a key aspect of social service impact, and long term change has to do with ongoing presence relationship building really meaningful engagement of communities and responsiveness of shifting needs rather than resources coming and going and people not being able to rely on them. Certainly I can say more about details around needs regarding food and nutrition but I felt like I covered that last time, and certainly food and nutrition is on that list so I hope that this was an okay time to share some of those other thoughts about the ways that the committee is considering these priorities. Thank you so much for your consideration and work on the creation of this RFP. Thank you so much for your input it was nice to hear comments referring to what we discussed at the last meeting and, especially around rotating priorities it's a question we seem to have from year to year and just kind of keep going forth but having you weigh in as a community member and the director of an organization is very helpful. Any questions for lab. I don't have any questions but I just wanted to say thank you so much for those comments that was really helpful. Thank you so much. Jim, you can meet yourself. Jim from Amherst media are you doing a comment or you. Yeah, absolutely. Great. Thank you I just had to shut off the air conditioner because you wouldn't hear me. I want to thank the committee for having this opportunity for the community. Thank you. I've really enjoyed listening to the, the directors and the people involved with so many of the great community organizations in Amherst. My point of calling in tonight is trying to get a handle on on what the priorities are. And I appreciate everyone's intent on looking at those. Many of them have already been addressed as being interrelated and I totally agree with that. It's not one thing if you're dealing with a household you're dealing with you if you're dealing with, you know, it's it's obvious, but it's a difficult situation for everyone with such limited resources. In the media, you know, we've been haven't been the community not for 45 years as a nonprofit community independent media center, where the oldest nonprofit access center in the country. And I've been director executive director for 14 years and never have we applied to a CDBG grant. And because I believe that everyone really needed every dollar that's out there. There'll be submitting an application this year. Because we've lost so much funding, and I'll be honest with you, it's the impact of that has been cutting back on our coverage of the public and of the training of our, our youth the training of our citizens and, and it just can't continue. A lot is demanded of us to cover government, which we do, but our contract also covers, we're supposed to be doing a lot for the community and we just don't have the finances to do that at the moment. So I'm just making that comment today. I do really believe that we can be exceptionally helpful, we do a lot for all the organizations that are willing to be helped and getting their messages out. And more importantly is that I think there's a lot of families that can benefit from what we're going to be able to offer so I just wanted to take this moment to, to let you know that we will be coming in with an application. And as far as I know that the meeting tonight was specifically supposed to be looking at your designated areas of interest and it's so difficult. It really is. It's just being honest with you and having a long history of being in community organizing and it's everything is interrelated and it's only been compounded as we all know so if we can think of any other ways to work. I mean I'm looking at your, your type of activity and I love the one that says other please explain I'm not sure how to do that so thank you, and I appreciate the opportunity to speak to you briefly and I really enjoyed hearing everybody who spoke so far. And I look forward to talking to you later. Thank you. Thank you, Jim. Questions. Anyone for Jim. I have one. Sorry, Jim, I wonder if you what what you would, what activity you would put on this list that embers media would fall within. It sort of sounded like you're kicking other please explain back to us, but I think I would ask from you whether there's a particular activity or priority that you would ask to have beyond this list that would cover what it is that embers media does for the community. Well, I thank you for the question it. It's a combination of youth services, economic self sufficiency as they exist, which also impacts the household but I mean I've been pushing broadband for quite a while, and and minstrel the owned broadband. I don't know what this application will be about. But I think there's a need to educate and those community families that over 100 families and they had to have hotspots and done is that we have to get them trained as a family as a individuals to to learn how to utilize that to be able to utilize the important aspects of their life, whether it be health employment. So it's a combination of that I mean I don't want to. I don't know it's like splitting hairs right it's, it's a common, as I said everything has kind of interrelated. So I don't have a clear answer to you but thank you for the question. Thank you. Thanks Jim, I'm going to say we're talking and then keep moving down a list. You can meet yourself. Thank you, Nate, and thank you for putting a word in the governor's here about having the zoom meeting rather than come in. It's such a lovely night I'm sitting out in front of my house. It's nice to be able to hear what has Jim Leskau said it's nice to be able to hear everyone spoken before me talk about the, there are so many needs in our community and the sad part about that is there's never enough resources to go around. That's always unfortunate. And as Laura Reichsman said that with the eviction moratorium going away and there are roughly 2000 evictions in progress right now in western Massachusetts. And that's, that's going to have a huge impact, not not all of them are individuals many of them are families as well probably the majority are families but they're still a lot of individuals who are going to be just losing their housing. And this is unprecedented and this, this pandemic is going to result in economic downturn for generations it seems. Plus we don't know whether this, this, this pandemic is over everybody. I just have to think it's, it's done. I heard someone say on the radio early on in the pandemic that Americans are built for sprinting not for marathons. This is clearly going to be a marathon. So, as a result of this pandemic we had to double our output or double our numbers and we were able to do that in three sites we were able to rebound from the loss of one site to finding a new site at the Unitarian Universalist meeting and we were able to house 14 individuals. We then opened a site at the University Lodge, where we can house around 2022 people right now we have 24, actually 26 or at that site. And because we've had a higher vaccination rate as well. It's been about 50%, which isn't great but it's certainly better than most. And then we had the, had the Econolodge which actually, if it's eight o'clock we're in about eight minutes we're closing the Econolodge. And that's unfortunate but that's, you know, with the with the ending of the state of emergency. We no longer have access to the FEMA dollars. So we cannot bill for those, even though FEMA is still saying to the country, you can still bill for Motel rooms. Until the 30th of September, which is the end of the federal fiscal year. You know, by the governor's removal of the state of emergency, it makes us ineligible to ask them for, for support in terms of these motels. Fortunately, the motel that we have remaining the University Lodge we can keep that going through emergency service, solutions grant funding through June of 2022. So it's going to be a shuffle, but right now we're housing about 40 people down there now that we're closing the Econolodge. And the other the other alarming thing for us is that we're looking at as the Unitarian Universalist congregation reconvene and begins to use its meeting house. We will, there won't be room for us. So we're going to have to find a site we're essentially homeless after the 31st of July, in terms of any kind of congregate site. And that's a concern. I think that's one of the members of that committee, along with myself and others, and Mary Beth of the levels is doing a great job with that. But we're just getting started and we're trying to identify a site. And of course, as usual, the numbers come up as well how many is this enough, you know, so we're, we're actively seeking a site for 30 people. A site that has showers that has space for case management that has place to prepare food and a place to, you know, relax in a setting that's that's safe, you know that's that's socially distance because this, but these variants we don't we have no idea what we're about to face. You know, we'd like to believe that we're done. But, you know, done with the pandemic but you know it remains to be seen that this Delta variant is going to reach us. And that's that will be a big problem. So, and of course, key to this, getting people through the system and into housing is the case management piece. So we will be asking for help with that. To get people into housing and it's of course, a very, very difficult situation when no landlords are asking for, for people to be earning in a week, what the cost of the rent is and of course, a one bedroom and Amherst can go for $900 or, you know, 875 it's Kevin you have one. Sure, thank you. Anyway, I don't really have that much more just wanted to say that we're going to need your help. And we thank the committee for taking the time and, and I guess in anticipation of someone's going to ask me, the first priority household individuals, and then supporting people who are homeless, and then economic self sufficiency, food and nutrition health services and transportation are all things that we're working on with our population. And it's, it's going to be an uphill battle and as as the, as the state of emergency is going to make it more difficult to access resources also makes it more difficult for people who we serve to get an extended unemployment, that's gone now. And people are going to have a very difficult time in our community so we appreciate everything that you're going to do. And we thank you for your time tonight. Thank you, Kevin, any questions. Thanks Kevin. I'm going to see. Any connections you have your hand raised again. Yes. Thank you so much for the discussion that I wasn't a preview on last time because I was away about rotation idea. And that's an idea I have been thinking about for quite a few years in the past ever into the committee about, you know, making this a little bit broader to cover more agencies. And I have three reasons that I would like to support the idea of rotations. And the first reason is that to cover more needs that experience in different sectors. For example, that Jim from the embers media talking about his agencies needs. Normally, in the past, we have done a quick study out of the agencies apply your agencies apply 10 times get funded 10 times. So the constituents are covered by the agency who never get funded, therefore not be taking care of. So by rotating your grant, you might be able to cover reach out to more people who have needs are now those top five. And the second reason is that country to live thought in my experience that if there's a rotation that five agencies know this is a given year, for example, they will be receiving the grant. I need ahead of time. Next year I know, for example, that our agency will not be covered. So therefore, I can go ahead and apply for other fundings because of the anticipation. So therefore, in my experience, you'll be more stability contracts, contrasting what live experience. So that's my own experience. And the third reason I want to mention the reason I would prefer the rotation is really encourages more innovation, creativity, and more willingness to go out try something different try something new. And I will not be uncomfortable to talk about the innovation that we have for every dollar that you give us $37,000. I calculated, we reach out to the community. We bring in $7. And those $7. If warm because the seed money you give, I wouldn't have that innovation to go out get them. But during the years when your agency when you're funding doesn't come through, I was able to build on those innovative methods. I know how to cover the needs of the population we are working. So therefore the innovation is built into the system, because I know we still need to help people who experience housing crisis, and we are not willing to give that up. So therefore my method of dealing with that is by being innovative. So I seek out interns in colleges in the area, and they are so savvy technology wise. So they are able to meet the constant demand for technology innovation, especially in the pandemic. Everything is done online. Everything's done remotely. How do you apply for housing by using the Adobe reader. Well, I don't know how, but they know how. So that's the innovation part. I feel the rotation system will help to create. These three reasons to help more needs being covered and to provide more stability because of the predictability you afford as a rotation and third, encourage more innovation creativity. So I would urge the committee to consider the idea of rotating the funding that way everybody's needs can be met, not just for you, five of them every single year. Thank you. Thank you, Wailing. All right, I think it looks like for social services. Yeah, there's no other hands raised the. We could move on to non social services that committee would like I'm just going to share the screen a new share the. The town is only allowed to fund just for the audience to, you know, up to five a maximum of five social service activities, not just programs or activities in a grand year. And it can only be up to 20% of the application amount so there's a, you know, a pretty strict cap on that the number for social services or non social service activities, we have to target to specific areas in in a town that are also areas where the communities has other projects whether it's, you know, public infrastructure or where things are happening so, you know, in a few years, can can ever see the map of the, of the, of the community so that you know the, the few areas we've had are the town center outlined in red the East Amherst Village Center and orange and then Pomeroy Village Center, which is pretty, you know, relatively new and I guess that's like purple or magenta, I'm not sure what it looks like. And so that's about, you know, we, I think that's, you know, we can have two or three target areas at most. I think the state would love it if we only have one but our social, our non social service priority for the past few years has just been to implement the goals of the master plan in these target areas, and it's been pretty broad in terms of infrastructure housing. And, you know, that's kind of what, I mean, those are the priorities of the HCD is housing and public infrastructure. You know, and some, you know, some very removal economic development but I don't, I'm not, I don't have a comment. So I just wanted to orient everyone to what, what we look at when we have non social services. So I guess, you know, Jim, you have your hand raised, is there anyone else who want to comment on the non social service piece? Jim, you can unmute yourself. Yeah, I had it turned down the air conditioner again. So, yeah, I'm not clear on my bird's eye view of the map. But so I'm not clear on which districts exist where the streets are and whatnot but just one quick comment about your priorities. I went on the state site in what was eligible. And I noticed that there was an eligibility for public and community facilities. And I'm just putting this out there it's very obvious that Amherst media has been trying to build a new facility because of our eviction of our existing location. I don't know whether you've ever had that as one of your priorities, but it would definitely help people like us, trying to build a public community facility to get some community development block grant assistance. So I just wanted to put that out there to you. Is there any feedback that I should get or I can just leave that as a message to you. Yeah, I think that's a. Yeah, I don't I think the committee takes, you know, like we've probably seen in the social services kind of a broader approach to priorities only say public infrastructure I guess we could say public facilities it's not, you know, I think that's a good comment, you know some communities for instance are very specific in their priorities. You know they might just say like paving Main Street. And so it's like okay well we're only going to get one proposal to pay Main Street, whereas you know we have a town has a little broader, and we try to have it based on these target areas so I think what you said, you know we could when we look at I might just do a new share to show the language. So what we've said is if the community members in the public can see it we usually say you know the goal is to meet the community's master plan in these target areas so we don't really, we're not I think I think it's actually pretty inclusive, rather than exclusive. What DC then does, sorry just to go down there with me for the scrolling. They have these categories so we then define rehabilitation acquisition demolition infrastructure public facility which is so that's there then architectural barrier removal. So then these are the categories that they like to see an activity be included within so I think you know we do have that ability there. If I could just ask so, are you saying that the that one the target area does we are part of the downtown catchment area if you will. Right, I think. You know you might have to look into the eligibility of. You know I guess we did we could, we can discuss more what Amherst media would be applying for and how that would be eligible. You know there's a difference between a social service and the programmatic activity and then a physical, you know, you know what that means but as a. That's why I'm bringing that up and I'm asking whether that is something that's been either used utilized in the past or being considered this year as it's been used in the past but then typically the beneficiaries of the facility have to be a majority lower moderate income so for instance we've used the block grant money to help fund affordable housing or you know a daycare center where half the participants have been income documented to be lower moderate, you know income to be eligible so it has been used in the past it's just a matter of kind of the details of how it can be a national objective of the block grant program. I understand that I appreciate that, and you know maybe we should pursue that to see whether that's a reality in this application or not. Right. Thank you. I don't see any other hands raised. That's the case I guess we could we could close the hearing and then just go on to the public meeting to discuss what we've heard tonight in the previous meeting and then you know go over the request for proposals. That's, that's what the committee like to do I'm just going to share the agenda again just so everyone can see we have the, you know discuss priorities and then target areas, and then the public meeting piece so I don't. Do we need a motion to close the public hearing. We would yes. I would like to make a motion to close. I'll make a motion to close the public hearing. I will second the motion. Then the vote I see by roll call since it's through zoom so yeah you just want to call out the numbers and we can. Okay. All present and accounted for our Becky are you here. Yes. Rika Clement are you here. Yes. Larsen. I am. I am here. And so all would all five of you like to close the hearing I guess that's the. Yes. Any discussion or anybody opposed. All right, great. So I think, you know, for the committee, you know, I don't know if you want to, if it's easier to start with the non social service. If there's not as much a discussion or sit, you know what you want to what you'd like to do first. I didn't get any comments. I think previously said there had been a few comments about the documents and I think those were trying to be incorporated so I didn't really get too many comments in terms of what to change. I think, you know, my thought listening tonight. You know what Lev said about. You know, it's like the accessibility of programs and the impact and the equity piece. You know, there is a criteria about impact and so we could. We could add, you know, the racial equity piece or, you know, something about, you know, having in that description, you know what how the, how the organization have the impact, you know, meets that one piece. And so as opposed to having it be a separate priority, it becomes part of the review criteria. So, you know, it becomes something different. You know, it gets interwoven that way as opposed to being its own priority. So that was something I was thinking when that was speaking. So I'm sorry, Nate, are you talking about the non social service or the social service right now. Both, you know, so I think let me just, if we go back to the social services. So I'm just going to scroll a little bit so when we ask, you know, so these, you know, all these categories are a local decision and then also a lot of this mimics what we have to submit to the state, you know, so they review proposals. And so we have a product description need community involvement and support feasibility is a big one and an impact. So my thought is under this impact or one of these we could write, we could we could ask the question about, you know, how does the program how is the program accessible to, you know, you say diverse populations or something and what and how, let's try to see what we actually say. So I mean, I'm just throwing that out there as a possibility, if for the committee, I was just saying that one level saying that about how to make it integral to every proposal. Because I would, I would advocate for listening as a separate type of activity, just to show it can be a standalone activity and to emphasize the importance of it. And just looking at the various categories that we have in the ranking criteria, they're all very, you know, kind of neutral with respect to any of the types of activities. So I'm not sure it'd be that helpful to add a ranking criteria item. That is, you know, more of a substantive goal, as opposed to more of a kind of a neutral ranking of the project that you know meet the goal. Excuse me. Is it possible to not screen share so we can see each other. Okay, I just find it difficult. I would, I would prefer to have it be a criteria by which all agencies that all agencies speak to the racial equity because I believe it should be integrated into what we're doing in all in all parts of our life as opposed to a stand alone. I like your proposal me. I think it could actually be both. I mean we could add it as a type of activity, so that if there's an organization that specifically does that it's there and then we also I agree we could that it should be in every application should address it. And so it should be in that list. So no, so as opposed to coming under impact, it would be its own item to be as part of the application, I'm talking about as the application process as a priority we're saying now that it would be a priority. Yeah. Okay. And possibly a criteria review criteria. I think that's a discussion the committee can have. I think it seems like most of the categories we have people spoke to so you know I don't, you know I think we go there was one that we did mention at the last meeting which may have been. I was going to have another, I have a lot of documents open but one was, I think it was just like social services in general or I forget how you were. I wrote a tent was mental health services. At the last meeting a couple of different people talked about mental health services, particularly for children. Right. But nobody raised it tonight so maybe I mean, I don't know. You know and then also like, I'm not sure that anybody raised health services and insurance navigation tonight as a topic so I don't know whether we take that off for the year, you know. Or if it still seems, I think whaling sort of mentioned health services I mean I think kind of what animals community connections does. They talked about wrap around. Yeah I mean this is like a multiple choice quiz and so usually when we submit an application we can only select one. They might be able to select many for the town but when we submit to the state can only be one, you know so for instance, you know like, if it's community connections. I think the state, they have a category that says support service for homeless. And you know whether or not it has other pieces you know they they'll try to identify what they think it is to so sometimes there's a back and forth over when the town applies and what they want to categorize an activity as so I think the what's nice about having them at least locally it helps the committee decide when reviewing proposals okay you know are we hitting a number of priorities if you want to and how you know how does the agency want to categorize the proposal. So, yeah I think the health service director actually one point spoke with me and said that the health navigation is still a really big issue, you know and within the Sandy Health Center kind of that's you know one of the reasons it came to town but I feel like with the other category we're not closing the door on someone. I guess the question is, you know, do would we elevate, say for instance like racial equity or advancing equity as a priority just to call it out. I guess people could be aware of it as something that's available. I think that's what was, you know discussed last time. I think it should be added. Do we have to have a majority vote to add it or it's just, maybe we should talk about what exactly it would be. I mean whether it's advancing equity or addressing racial disparities, or just racial justice as a topic. I mean there are so many different ways of phrasing it. I would think as broad as possible, because you never know what kind of proposals might come in so just simply racial equity and justice would be a very, you know, big 10th. I mean I guess that we don't have to have a vote but if we think racial equity and justice is kind of an agreement by consensus is not your head. I think we should just clarify for the notes and minutes is this for a new active or priority activity or for a review criteria. Activity. Activity. And then I think we'll talk about review criteria separately. Right. So I guess we're on the social service. Social service proposal so that's you know so we've added one. Priority. You know I was looking at the state guidelines today and what I usually like to do is try to update the request for proposals to align with their criteria so you know they put out their one year plan pretty recently and they have. I haven't done a exact comparison but I just want to make sure that what we have in there under say feasibility is a big one for them lately just because I think a lot of grants. They're trying to really stick to a 12 to 18 month implementation period. You know so I may change some of those individual questions under feasibility just to make sure we're in line with what the state's asking so I didn't do that for tonight I look quickly and it seems like they're the same I just want to make sure we're not missing anything so there may be like an administrative thing that Ben and I do just to make sure we're capturing everything the state wants just so we're not you know we don't have to ask an applicant after the fact. I'm just wondering up. Is there. I mean when I read household family and individuals stable stabilization. I mean everybody's talking about housing housing housing housing, and I'm not sure household stabilization to be a lot of things could fall under that and I'm proposing we call it housing stabilization and then put the parentheses afterward stabilization family and individual. I just think it feels more to the point, and I think household. I don't know I feel like it's kind of redundant the way I just don't think it's clear enough the way that it is now and I think you just tweak it just a tiny bit to make it clear. I would say housing stabilization, then parenthetically, how family and individual or something right. Yeah, I think that was a really good point that you may feel about the homelessness. The other. What I liked about about household stabilization I was trying to figure out where housing goes in there too. But I guess my concern is that just to take family outreach for example, when Laura was talking about all the things that they do. Yes housing is a very, very big part of it but there's so much else that they do, whether it's like helping kids with like homework or other types of, you know, services social services. There's a lot that's not housing and I would not like to leave that out by just mentioning housing. Good point. I mean, maybe addressing issues of houselessness is its own category. I was curious about that, just that whether addressing homelessness and how and just providing housing or that I mean they seem to overlap. So when so adding homelessness or houselessness as a as a separate priority and continuing to have household stabilization, but it is there it is there it's the second one. This is for those experiencing homelessness is comes right under household stabilization. Yeah. And so why do we feel like what's missing this housing stabilization housing, homelessness housing housing stabilization. Again, please Lucas. So I see it's almost like a flow chart homelessness, housing stabilization or how finding housing and housing stabilization. That's, you know, sort of the flow into from, you know, a tent into an apartment. I don't know, but it just seems like that's all connected. I guess I don't read support services for those experiencing homelessness as housing. That seems like it's a very, and it's a very distinct piece of the work that organizations do. I mean, maybe it's enough all semantics that every organization has obviously been able to apply in the past and figure out how to make it work so it may not be necessary that seems like this homelessness is housing. And sort of what you're trying to do generally when dealing with somebody who's homeless is find somewhere. I mean there's, you know, making sure they're fed and getting mental health care and health care and all that but I mean eventually that's sort of what the idea is right. I mean, I don't know maybe I'm missing something. I'm offered to weigh in. So we're going to let her unmute her. Sure. Yeah, I was going to say quickly I think that that's your question I don't know if it is a man between household and housing stabilization I feel like, you know, we're not. I feel like we wouldn't be excluding something like I feel like family outreach could say that they're under housing stabilization and offer. I mean, how can you narrowly define housing stabilization is it just specifically, you know, a mortgage support or is it everything that goes into keeping someone housed and so I, I tend to think the latter so. But you can speak and thanks for offering. I just wanted to, there's a couple of layers that you're sort of referring to and so I think that housing stabilization generally refers to either providing housing for someone who is currently homeless or its umbrella that it also refers to something that essentially keeps someone who's stabilizing their housing. When I think of support services for individuals experiencing homelessness that's or families that's referring to like the other wraparound things that Mr. Handscom you are just referring to like the medical care and mental health and transportation and help getting access to documents and all those other things those that tend to be what like sort of within supportive services we refer to as support services for someone who's already experiencing homelessness. Family stabilization family or individual stabilization is a much broader array of things that's where all the things that you were just talking about that family outreach of Amherst does in addition to housing stabilization could fit. I think I would actually agree that the two clearly organizations have figured out good ways to check the boxes and make it work but in terms of this landscape what you were just getting at and kind of honing in on the housing piece. I guess from my sort of service standpoint I would say that that isn't particularly well identified with those two pieces, though obviously organizations have found ways to put it in. Well, thanks. Well, maybe adding housing stabilization as a category, then fixes that doesn't make us have too many priorities. That's a lot. And I think if we chose or we changed house households, household stabilization said housing stabilization. And, you know, you can say parenthetically family or individual I think, I think it's fine I think that, you know, for instance, I think, you know, Laura is not here but I think family outreach or others could still figure out. I think, you know, I got, I think there's a number of categories of priorities activities they still will be able to meet her, you know, to say they are and I think then it becomes. I don't I think that's fine I feel like if we add too many more it just, you know, we could because we can only fun fun five activities, and then we have to narrow down with the state I think, I think these categories are helpful for the community, and the committee to understand, you know how to review proposals right so we said before in the past like what if we have five proposals that are all under food and nutrition, then it might help say okay, you know how do we review those comparatively if we have you know a number that are doing the same thing it just it I mean we could add another one I just I, I mean I, I feel like you know economic self sufficiency that you know there's a number there's a few categories that that you know wrap around service services could, could say they do so I don't. Yeah, I mean my inclination would I'm generally a joiner, I tend to group things just personally so I would I would generally try to put things as homelessness and and housing as one. One, one general umbrella item, but again I'm new so. Yeah, I don't see I don't see how that's a detriment I mean where if we, if we have the categories as we said earlier be broad and inclusive, as opposed to pinpointing things. And I just want to throw it out there just just for discussion. I mean support services for seniors do we have anybody who's spoken to that at all tonight anything that can fall under that and then you take one off the table for this year and then if we add one it feels like we're still maintaining the same number. I think I would almost say that like transportation and the health services insurance piece like those are all part of the wrap around services. So if we start defining it as what a person who's experiencing homelessness needs is are all those things that are listed more toward the bottom. But also specific housing stabilization so. And then, I mean I think you could get rid of some of the more detailed ones are the more specific ones because they're going to be included in these other areas of support services and so if household stabilization household household stabilization comma family and individual is going to include seniors, as well as a family. Right. And then it just makes everything that much broader. I agree. Yeah, that makes sense. And we still have the other category. So we're not, we're not intentionally excluding any, any program or any nonprofit from applying because we always have other. So what I've heard so far is we're adding a category racial equity and justice. We would change household stabilization to read housing stabilization, and then, you know, a parenthetical family and individual and possibly eliminating the health services support services for seniors and transportation. Those are the bottom three because they're somewhat. They're kind of run with some of the other services they're kind of folded into the other services we've is that we can do that is that is that fair affair is that I think that's right but I think we still need the category of of household or family stabilization. I got it I think we're we're not deleting that entirely I mean love was making that distinction between housing. I guess some of would be how, how detailed are we getting, you know, I kind of understand the difference but I think I think if we're going to do that then I think we'd want to change. You know they're both are so similar someone say really what's the difference between housing stabilization and household stabilization. I mean is it semantics or is it so I would want to clarify one of the terms or I just did was sort of clarify that right like my understanding of what you just said was housing is housing, right and providing housing or keeping a person housed is housing stabilization. And then the support services are the things that we're getting rid of at the bottom, and then there's also family stabilization, which you could also call household stabilization that is for a family where maybe housing isn't the issue but all the other supports like the family outreach provides. That was my understanding of that. Yeah, I just feel like there's most organizations I think probably overlap a little bit. You know I feel like if you're helping someone with other things, even though it's not directly say a housing piece that keeps them in their housing right because if they're, it helps them with employment or certain things and it. There's no benefit of helping them stay out in their stay house I just seems really amalgamous. They get fine. It's like is it food and nutrition is a mental health is it health care. Is it. So I've suggested in the chat having what the category household stabilization, parenthetically including housing stabilization family and individuals so it becomes still one category it's pretty include it's pretty broad that way. I think that works. Yeah, I think that works. Yeah. That way we're not. I yeah that way we're not splitting hairs and some agencies not confused as to what it's talking about. Did you have a semi colon after housing stabilization including housing stabilization semi colon family and individual. I think semi colon then maybe just I think the commas are semi colon family, including household stabilization including housing stabilization. semi colon family and individual. Yeah. Are there any grammarians out there that would like to weigh in on that. I'm not a grammarian. Family and individual doesn't just apply to housing that applies to the household right. Right. So I think it would be including housing stabilization comma family comma and individual. Okay, so comma after family. Right. Yeah. Yes, I believe strongly in the Oxford comma. Thank you love for that. That's really helpful. Yeah, that sounds good and then, you know, and then so I'm just going to walk through the proposal, you know they have to meet a national objective and be consistent with community priorities so they describe that we asked for a project budget. So we, we tweak the language and try to be a little bit more specific about what we're asking so I'm you know, I think that is helpful. And we also have a chance. We did this last year I think for the first time that the committee would send questions in to staff and then we would ask applicants to respond so there's this two week period where there's a lot of work on the committee to review proposals and then get questions to staff and then before we the committee meets to review proposals we'd have applicants answer some clarifying questions so I think that was actually a really helpful step last year. You know project description is something that we're looking at forward the product need community involvement and support and then product feasibility has like a number of sub points, and that's a big one for the state. And then we have product impact and so I think that's the review criteria I just want to make sure that you know we still think we're adding something in product impact, or you know changing any of those is there something else we think we may want to add. And along the lines of the racial equity and justice accessibility. Yeah, that or if there were you know if if committee members looked at the documents and just had some other questions or comments in general. They could be useful to put something in that project impact list of bullet points. So the general question, what would be the impact of the proposed project program, but we could add something like how, how will the proposed project program effect, you know racial equity and justice, for example. We can just leave it kind of broad and. Yeah, I'd like to see that in that section. I mean, is it really like what NASA just something a kind of a broad question that, you know, any, anyone making a proposal can respond to they can you know tailor their response. So Caitlin just posted that she's requesting, if there's if it's possible to remove some of the bullet points from the application given the short number, the small number of pages. Yeah, that's just the reality. Most of, so yeah, I don't, there's not much room to. Like I said, usually we try to go, you know, I think, you know, the was like five major categories that the committee looks at you know and then there's always some questions so I don't think there's too much. I can look again but I really do think that if any of these need to come out of the three page limit but that's me this is kind of what we what the town needs to then in turn supply to the state in three pages. But there's not too much to take out. I know what Caitlin saying it is a lot to pack in there. We're not asking for more pages though. Are you just asking or dictating me. Well, no, I think that up to this point we're pretty consistent on the number of pages that we asked for and that we limit application to. Yeah, right. Yeah, I think, yeah, I mean I think it's hard because the state does ask all these questions, all these questions. I bet and I can look again and for instance if some of these, some of these parts of these categories are not the state hasn't put their formal application that's the hard part yet. But we can I can look at last year's and we can just verify so if you know for instance, if part of project need or something doesn't need to be within the three page limit will pull it out. I think that's something we can do before this goes live. I wonder if the. No, I think that's something we can do I think the difficulty is, you know, state has changed their application a little bit last year but, like I said those categories that's necessarily what they have the town fill out when we then in turn apply. So it's not, you know, accessibility, product description product impact and we have to then write to all those points within three pages ourselves so it's not, you know, I think, yeah, what we're going to say back to you. I was going to say that that maybe the piece about addressing racial disparities and accessibility for diverse communities could go in the section where we asked for a demonstration of consistency with community priorities. And then the project impact, which I guess the section a six a. I said you're saying so, right put, put that, put that piece in there instead of in. I think that makes sense if we're saying if now that we added racial equity and justice as a priority it makes sense to have followed through with the description. Yeah, that's a good idea that also then takes it out of the three page limit so it. You know and then when we answer that it really isn't part of the that that. Yeah, I'm okay with that I think it's, it will help an agency so they don't have to try to explain too much in a short short number of pages. It's everybody else okay with that. Sounds good. I may have. We're moving something then from each to a. Yeah, I think, you know, a is consistency with community priorities. And so I think if we have this as a priority we can have this be one of the sub bills under a and then it's also not part of the three page limit so we're not asking an agency to spend, you know, they can explain they can they can describe it. Okay, so instead of putting it in each we're putting it in a. Yes. Okay, yeah, that's great. Yeah, I mean, I think Ben and I will just look to make sure so for instance like a product impact this year isn't part of the three page limit in the state we can just put it we can reorder this just so then it's you know, just to make sure we're not and we give agencies enough room. I think if there aren't if there aren't any other questions about the social service priority I think we go on to the non social service one. So I have, I have one suggestion for the list of type of activity. And that's a member being confused last year when we had the application for and we ended up funding the Valley CDC for the micro enterprise assistance program, because we don't have economic development on this list of type of activity. Is this is for social service not or non social service. Non social service. Yeah. So is there some reason we shouldn't add economic development to the list of activities. Actually, probably is a good one. And maybe I'd say economic development and then tech slash technical assistance which is something like that. Is that fair. Oh, you know I just want to make sure that. Yeah, as long as that's part of what the state will allow for non social service. They will yeah it's ironic but that type if it's under economic development. Then it isn't a social service. It's actually considered a non social service. Right. So, I didn't know that before last year. I didn't either actually the state had. It's actually it's a it's a like 10 or 11 categories of activities and this is like economic developments considered. So, you know, it's a category five and they haven't really funded those a lot and so with COVID though it became a bigger priority and so when we applied I, they were like just, you know, they were like, oh wow we don't have it they didn't have it in their system to say what activity it was. They hadn't, they hadn't funded it in so many years so I think a lot of communities were surprised. All right and then what do we think about the target areas, you know there's the three they're pretty big. You know I think we can explain that their areas that the town is putting other resources into, you know into those areas in terms of public infrastructure and new sidewalks or utilities or intersection work. And they have to be consistent with the master plan, the target areas. No I think what we're trying to say with that is that the activities that will be funded would be consistent with the mass the town's master plan. And then we would just come to the target areas so isn't that sort of saying the same thing. Yeah, so I think we would say we change this to we'd add economic development here, like Matt suggested. That's if I'm sharing that, and then for the priority. Maybe I go pay service. Where am I lost my. Yeah, so here we are right here. Yeah, what, sorry, what were you saying that we don't have much leeway with the target areas because aren't the target areas. Are we considering the target areas as part of what the town semester plan is working on, and you said no the projects have to be according to the town semester plan but isn't that kind of like a two way relationship to a three do you know what I mean. Yeah yeah I guess a little bit. And the bigger reality is that all the non social service activities have to be within a target area, so I think that's the kind of the biggest restriction. For that piece. So, you know, you know, I think I know you're saying I just I think it's harder. I'm trying to try to think of a way to explain it because you know I think we've had it we've had the instance where someone said oh I'd like to do a project in North Amherst and we're like well, that's not in a target area and it's almost categorically excluded because of that. So if I don't know if you like this language here to continue meeting the goals of the community master plan and community priorities. You know, does that, is that broad enough and then we have the activities below, you know we have like the five activities like acquisition demolition, economic development that they that an agency will check off. In terms of the, the three area the target areas, those were selected whenever that I don't know how long those have been the selected areas, does anything change it so that one of them shouldn't be there anymore or that some other area should be. I think the, you know one point North Amherst was for a number of years when you walk right money up there to do a few things and so then it you know it came off the came off as a target area. You know the green is representing, it may need to be updated the new census data isn't quite available but the green is showing income eligible block groups so where a majority of the population is lower moderate income. I think you know the Pomeroy village is actually a newer one, you know the town's been doing work we did East Howley Road and then graph park and we're looking at the intersection down here with the town, looking at purchasing Hickory Ridge so this is kind of a, you know a new one. East Amherst has been on there for a little bit but we're still trying to do work, the town has acquired property there to put in affordable housing and there's a few infrastructure projects. In terms of, I was also going to say that if, if there are a few proposals that come in and the committee, you know we will hold the second public hearing to review recommendations and let the public know at the end of August and it's because it's a public hearing that we could also then vote to change a target area. It's kind of like the chicken and egg thing but so for instance what if, what if we, there's a few proposals and say wow North Amherst really needs to be a target area again. Then the committee could vote to change and make North Amherst a target area and remove say for instance East Amherst if nothing came in for that area. So this year that would could be implemented right away. Right. So I think I think for now the target areas are fine. You know, I think, you know, some of it's what staff has, you know what, you know what the town is doing and if you know the committee or anyone has any, any ideas but I don't. So for instance like in town, in the town center it goes north, quite a bit because that captures Olympia Oaks, and a few years ago you know we funded Olympia Oaks, when it was under construction and we, you know, we end up making these target areas pretty big, geographically. We can always do that to expand a target area boundary if we need to capture something if it's just outside. I think they're, I think they're pretty good they kind of align with the village centers in the master plan as well so we have you know seven bills centers in town. But back into your point could be right right in a few years what if Cushman up here if everyone can see where my cursor is you know what if also in the town spending money up there. There could be some new housing and there's a lot going on you know Cushman could become a target area. Right. Right. But for now I don't know. I think then we should maybe stick with what we've got, particularly given that we had some proposals last time around which clearly didn't get funded because we didn't do funding. Right. So, I guess I would, whether it's voting or just suggesting that we just keep them as is. Yeah, they seem consistent with what we've heard tonight and the past proposal so yeah, they look good to me. All right. I mean if we're, if we're okay with the request for proposals themselves I guess we could just go through the schedule. I mean, so you know embedded in that review and the proposals are the review criteria so it seems like we're okay with that as well that you know those categories impact feasibility and everything. You know, I think at some point we talk about, you know, rotating priorities that what we've just discussed tonight or waiting, you know, priority so somehow when we're reviewing proposals, there may, you know, different criteria might have different weights and I think, you know, that happens. I think individually, you know, committee members will kind of place different importance on things as they're making their comparative criteria. So every year, almost every year the committee kind of discusses, you know, do we do something different with how we review proposals so you know we have our little matrix with the proposals and then the you know seven criteria and do we want to do any type of waiting or something different and so I just, you know, that can be part of the discussion. I guess I see that there are views on both sides I guess the the one sort of major structural issue I see was trying to have a specific rotation is that one of the requirements is that this be a new activity. Any proposal be a new activity or a continuation of an old activity. If you know one of the major categories is to continue activities so just say for example the food pantry at the survival center. If we have a rotation that, you know, one year food is not a priority and we have decided in advance we're not going to give to a food proposal, then that we're not able to continue that activity anymore. So just as part of the process that we go through that seems, it would really kind of be an impediment to, you know, kind of continue existing successful programs whatever they are. And I think that's what love was saying she said you know, an ongoing presence is important when she spoke about not advocating for rotating priorities. Yeah I was intrigued by what wayling was saying but I also think that it's something that should that requires more thought and a lot of, I mean that I guess my biggest thought around it was not in a year when there's been a pandemic. Just not be here to sort of try and figuring out what those priority areas should be, and automatically excluding anything. Yeah, I was impressed with the way Lynn's willingness to be innovative and look for other sources of funding and you know ultimately for comment about it being a more stable funding when you've got more diverse sources but yeah this doesn't seem the moment to do that. Great. Yeah I think the, you know, because we asked for a documented need and proposals. You know, I think that helps agencies make the claim that you know, and you know they can illustrate that the needs not going away so you know for instance like I don't think we've like, you know, we've paid our way out of food security yet, you know so it's like maybe at some point like if we are no longer have food insecurity was okay that's not a priority but I feel like we haven't, we haven't done that and so the state doesn't require us to rotate priorities or wait them differently. You know the Amherst is a mini entitlement because of our documented need low income population and a few metrics so I think that yeah it is interesting I think I agree with Matt there is a I think if we don't fund an agency for one year it could I think it could be difficult then for them to get back into the cycle just because the way our funding doesn't overlap the local fiscal years very well. You know so I think an agency there could be some trouble there. I think that is interesting. I guess my only thought that was, you know, we also have a capacity question in block grant program does want to know that a community agency can meet all these requirements I mean there's, you know, quite a bit to follow up with you know an agency has to do income verification and reporting and so I don't think innovation is a bad thing. I just I'm not sure the block grant program has kept up with how fast agencies can change so you know they're not. In terms of their infrastructure programs you know they're still like housing and roadways which isn't necessarily the same as what some agencies might do or what we think is as as non social service but you know the program regulations are still quite old and so you know if they, if they get updated and are more flexible I would be willing to change that but for now I yeah I think it could be something that is worthwhile to consider for future years, but maybe not this year. Is everybody in agreement with, with Nate. Yes, this is the right year to change things. Yes when we review proposals you know each committee member I think what we what we had done in the past was, or will do this year is, we have our review matrix, and then each committee member would, for instance if there's five non social service proposals would provide we have the questions that would go to the applicants if there are any and then they would respond and then the committee meets and reviews proposals and comes up with a general ranking and during that meeting. Before that meeting committee members would send me their, their order of non social service and social service. priority so you would you would individually rank, you know, from one to five or one to 10 whatever the order is then staff comes up with a composite ranking. And then that's the basis for discussion. And so what happens there is then, you know, individuals have already kind of determine what they think are the stronger proposals based on all the comparative criteria. And sometimes you know a few agencies are clear, you know clearly have the top few votes and then you know then there's a discussion about how to fund the remainder. And does that seem like that you know that works, I think they're, you know, that you are here and gay I'm not sure if the new members since we didn't really do that, but that seemed like it work has been working. Yeah, I think it's worked. I think it's worked pretty well. Yeah, so I think we've, we've ranked kind of one through four, and then you've aggregated everything and then that's important but really the most important thing is then discussing because, you know, things may come up. So even, even if, let's say there are two very highly ranked proposals but they're kind of doing the same thing. You don't necessarily want to fund those if there's not enough money to fund some of the other things so. But just as an initial step, you know having the, the rankings and kind of seeing what other people thought about various proposals and how they were ranked, I think that's worked really well. I think we kind of have a system to for like looking at what's on the far right what's on the far left and then figuring out like you know what do we do with the middles like we can get rid of low scores get you know we advocate for the high scores, and then it's the middle it's that middle ground that we're always kind of stuck with but we seem to work it out. Right. So I think, you know for me that unless there's any other changes to the request for proposals I feel like we've had a few comments on both of them I think I have them Ben. Are you comfortable with that, and I would just go then on to, it's almost nine o'clock we just go on to the next schedule the meeting dates and everything and just see what happens. So, you know there is a training tomorrow just for staff for municipal staff with the city on the block grant program so, you know, I don't think we're ahead of the game but you know if there's anything that they say tomorrow that needs to change what we need to do I'll email the committee. Yeah, I feel like they're always throwing sometimes putting new things out there. So I was going to just share a screen just you know I emailed with proposed dates I just want to we can just go over those to make sure that's feasible and you know, I think today's the 16th so the idea would be to try to get the request for proposals issued by Friday on Friday, you know by Friday, you know it's a holiday but I don't mind just getting them online and emailing them out so you know we have a day, day and a half to finalize those documents and get those out. You know I just had these dates down you know they're due on the 18th. So it's plenty of time and especially with the holiday for I'm hoping for agencies to get proposals in. Committee would have questions to staff by August 6 so it's kind of a quick turnaround for committee to do a review of proposals and have questions. Yeah, we would get those to if we if committee had questions to us by like Friday at noon, we could get those to the applicants by close of day Friday, and then they would have applicants would have until August 12 to respond. And then we would have a public meeting on August 17, which I think is a Tuesday. And at that public meeting that would be when the proposals would be, you know, the committee would come up with the draft recommendations to the town manager. And then we can have later we'd have a public hearing, and you know at that date we'd actually have, you know, could have discussed this with the town manager's office and then allow the public to comment on the recommended activities. And then the, the applications are due by by September 10 so it doesn't give too much turnaround time for staff but I think that works within the timeframe. So are those, I guess the important thing now that since you have five members you know does the end of July to August 6 work for committee members to review those proposals and generate questions and then, you know, August 16 17 and 26, you know, we could move dates, you know a few days here and there but not by like a week or two but if we think the 17 and 26 are generally good at this time we could just keep those and then, you know if we need to change as we get closer. We could but does that kind of work. It works for me. Sounds fine. I think it's fine. I do have a question if we go to in person meetings would there be a hybrid opportunity for those of us who couldn't be at the meeting. So I think you know because of the extension that was signed were the town manager said that at least in through September or into September, all meetings will be through zoom or remote so I think this whole schedule is going to be remote. And so there's not going to be any in person or hybrid at this time. I think actually the, the, I think it was December 15 is actually the extension of the order was my understanding. Yeah yeah so this or the state may have extended it longer but I think the town is going to consider in the fall if we could do something different. You know, you know, we were allowed to do it remotely but maybe the town still might want to have in person for some boards or committees but I think through August at least it's still going to be zoom, you know so I think we're, it'll all be remote. So that's a question from Caitlin Nate. Yeah, so Caitlin asked when would the fiscal year start and good question, you know the state asked for a 12 to 18 month implementation. And yeah I don't know when they're going to get the awards out so you know my usually we apply in March and we, we get the contract started in like by November 1. But now we're applying September and my thought is maybe the money will come in in January, and it'll run through the calendar year. And that's just my guess so I don't know, you know, I think that's probably probably I thought that the press release they put on the website said that all activities must be completed between January 1, 2022 and June 30 2023. Yeah, that's what they're guessing so I think we'll learn more tomorrow. It just seems like a really fast turnaround, you know, usually if it takes six to six to eight months to get to apply and get a contract and now they're going to do it in four months. I'll see. Yeah, right. But my guess is right probably yeah what now you said is probably what they're trying to do. Gail you're muted sorry. If there's any earthshattering news tomorrow we share that with the committee. Yeah, you know they put out their one year plan and I just read they put out their one year plan and they're a draft action plan. I looked at those today and I didn't see anything that really, I feel like we're meeting with what they need you know we need to hold public hearing do community outreach. So, you know unless there's something that they haven't put in there's those draft plans I feel like we're in line with what they're, you know, their guidelines. So these dates look good you know the RFPs will be due on the 27. The six and everything you know I could put up a calendar people want to look at that or looks good and you'll deliver us hard copies if we'd like again. Yes. Thank you. Let me just make a note to myself yeah I think. Yeah it was great actually now we you know, town hall you can town hall will be open or we could deliver them so yeah I think that's actually a lot easier than what it would have been in the spring where we would have to have like met in the back alley and they did that with Lucas I did like the drive by through it there was. Yeah no that's fine. Also is that back alley. Yes. Yeah I think I don't think anyone's up for a reappointment Rika you may have been I am I am June 30 at this end of my appointment. Yeah, and so if you're willing to serve again you I don't know if you have to do anything maybe you'll be contacted or maybe you I don't know if you if you email me or I can forward it on to the. The right staff, it's a, you know, I email you what to ask to ask or, I guess if you say you're willing if you're willing to serve another term or something and then I could just forward it on. Okay, sure. And as far as replacing Paul we're kind of just kind of wait through we finished complete this cycle and then try to bring somebody on when this when we're you know well into the fall. Yeah email the town manager's office and the town clerk's office his resignation and they knew about Andrew leaving a few, you know he notified us well in advance so they. I think the town, I put out a notice that they're looking for a board and committee members on a number of boards and committees. And so applications are coming in so I think you know I can just reach out to the town manager's office and just see if there's been any. Anyone interested and maybe you know maybe if there's someone and they could get appointed quickly otherwise it might just be the five year after this process. How long is the term five years. It's one to three years and so I think you were on for a five that'd be pretty great. Yeah, I'm not wasn't sure about that. On a one year term and then, then you then it's a then it's a three year term so you know you might be appointed for a one two or three at the first term and then you would be asked to serve for three. And Paul has to submit a formal resignation to Paul Buckleman. No, I think his email suffices now. Okay. Yeah, yeah, sometimes you just actually have to have a letter with the original signature to resign from a committee. I think an email now is okay. Yeah. All right and I think so if the schedule looks good and the request for proposals I don't know if there's any other comments or. I think there's an option. I wondered if there's what the reasoning is or if there's any way to change it to for the people who are presenting that we could see them. Is there a reason why we can't. Yeah, that's a town has recommended that through zoom we use a webinar format, so that attendees don't have the ability to like zoom bomb a meeting. So the committee. I guess we could promote someone to a panelist. While they speak so I guess there's a way to do that. I think it would be nice to do that. Yeah, I think that would be nice. Yeah, I do too. Usually if there's an applicant for a public hearing and they have a lot longer presentation we do that. But I think it would be nice to do that. I think it would be nice to do that. And I think both is if once someone's a panelist they can then control the screen. You know, and show, you know, if they want to show inappropriate material, it'd be harder for staff to stop that whereas if they stay as an attendee, we can quickly. You know, prevent that from happening. So. But I think in the future, we, let me just make a note, we could do that. I think the next slide. The next slide is about the candidates in school committee meetings and things. Can the panelists and can the attendees see whose, who the other attendees are? No, I think what, all we can do is. I think what I've done is I have to check my settings. The only thing we can do is allow attendees to see the number of other attendees. I don't think they can see who, who they are. other attendees but they can't see the names of those individuals. And why is that? Is that just a Zoom setting or is that a decision made? That's a Zoom setting. Can it be a different Zoom setting? No, the most we can do is have them see the number of attendees. Yeah, so that's been that's been asked and you know maybe you zoom is gonna come up with an update or something but for now they can't. And does everyone have access to the chat feature? I think so I opened it so you know a few people use the chat tonight. I think I've said it so it's open to everyone. You know so you know someone types in. Yeah it says to all panelists. Yeah. So does that mean all participants? No that means that they're sending it means like when Caitlin sent her message to all panelists. We're the panelists so all of us but instead of her setting like a private message to just one of us. And actually you can do all panelists and attendees. Yeah you can choose that. So yeah I think that's available to anyone. Yeah and I think the Zoom you know we've heard a few times about being able to see everyone but that you know that they don't allow that in the webinar format and we're not we're not it's not recommended that we have a meeting. So you know there's a meeting format where everyone is visible but then anyone could then can take control of the screen at any time. That's not how we you know we're told to set up our meetings. And as far as I don't know how to ask this you know some people brought agency constituents tonight and some didn't. Is there you know if somebody brings like six constituents and somebody only doesn't bring any are we allowed to just say you know you can present that means that somebody gets 18 minutes as opposed to an organization that gets three. I'm just throwing that out of the time. A lot of is three minutes. Is there a way to do we want a lot time per agency instead of per person? Yeah I think you know as chair you know I think depending on right how the conversations going at the meetings going we may need to say okay if it's repetitive can we you know move on or something. I think yeah it's difficult sometimes to know right who is speaking to what. Well especially when you can't I didn't I couldn't see who was so I'm not saying I but you know oftentimes agencies bring a lot of a lot of constituents and it is repetitive and it takes up time. Yeah I think yeah I think we could be clear like at the next meeting when we're reviewing proposals that if people have comments or you know in the public hearing I think one time Gail sometimes we say okay let's just speak to one proposal or one priority and then we see how many people raise their hands and then we could try to find a way to navigate it yeah a little differently. Or we can just have a time limit you know you get five minutes and then you want to throw five people in for one minute or you don't have one person speak for five minutes but you don't get three minutes then three minutes and then three minutes and three minutes. Yeah we can do something like that that's like yeah. I should just to clarify though the August 17th that's a public meeting not a public hearing but there will be opportunity for public comment. Yeah there's always opportunity for public comment but at a public meeting it's not necessary to it's not required to have to take public comment you know they're available to attend and listen and then if they have questions they can raise their hand and you know the chair can call on them but the public hearing is when you know we it's required and you know we you know we hope that they provide comment or questions but right the public meeting is really a chance for the committee to hash out internally but in a public setting what what proposals you want to recommend. Right so Gail Gail has full discretion and she doesn't have to allow any public comment if she doesn't want to. Right. Yeah but if people like the idea of having a time limit for agency that we tell them I guess upfront I mean I don't know exactly what upfront means so they so they understand what it's going to happen before the meeting that seems like it would be more helpful than doing it on the fly to me. That's a great idea like to decide right now that it's yeah five minutes or whatever so that they can plan. Right. All right well we're saying it I think in the agenda or my notice that goes out to people we could say you know roughly five six minutes we could say five to seven minutes or something. If you say five to seven minutes it's seven minutes. Yeah okay. I like five because we're always hearing what we've already read. Yes exactly. Never any I mean I shouldn't say never but in frequently is there new information dispersed orally that you haven't already seen visually. I think that's to the public hearing on the 26th and we could say we can even put it as part of the notice you know approximately five minutes per proposal or something. I mean we don't we can't I don't think actually limit it into hearing but I think as a chair we can make that decision Gail and then you know we can also see right how many how many attendees there are and how long that could go. Can we also say you know feel confident that I'm just thinking like in court the judge will often say I've read your papers so don't repeat what you've you know you don't need to repeat what you've submitted. I'm happy to hear more argument about something that you didn't say. Can we say that and upfront or even on the agenda that we would love to hear from people but not what's already there they can know that we've read it really carefully and I don't know if we're gonna have the gavel but I could bring one. That would depend on the meeting though right I mean if it's a meeting to talk about a specific piece of paper that's been put in and yeah I would say that you could probably do that right but it's sort of an open hearing to talk about priorities it's that's hard to do. I agree. I think we saw tonight it was very hard for people to speak to the agenda as we described it right so that's why I think the limiting the time is really our best move. Yeah I think we could do that I think Becky we could reiterate just you know add new information or clarifying information I think the question and answer that we implemented last year and during this year where the committee asked questions and then we get them to applicants and then that can become public we could get that online you know maybe the day before the meeting and I'll definitely be there before the hearing I think that really helps with any questions or what people are asking but I think we could ask you know to you know maybe summarize quickly the proposal and then provide new information if necessary. I don't think I even need to summarize the proposal right. No they do not. I mean I think that's where we get into trouble. I only say that because I think we all probably are really busy all day long and want to have fresh brains to be able to talk and it's now you know I've been going non-stop since 8 30 this morning and I definitely start getting tired so I would love to just be able to keep our. Yeah I think one thing that can be clear too is we don't we don't ask presentations of applicants so you know at one point we actually asked applicants to make presentations to the committee and now we don't it's actually just a public hearing for people to comment on their funding recommendations and I think that that's different I think what the committee had said at some point was that the difficulty there is yeah sometimes the presentations were just repetitive and then sometimes people would speak to things that weren't at all in the proposal and then it became confusing like are you just making with someone just making a good presentation and not really being accurate in terms of what the funding was I also would say that sometimes you know we're trying to follow up a curament process that meets you know state and town guidelines and so presentations aren't necessarily part of it and I usually we would just review proposals based on a written submission and so that's how we do it with the block grant so we no longer have you know presentations by applicants but during the public hearing you know we allow comments so we could say you know please provide you know five minutes to provide comments on a specific proposal and you know new information or some things we could have some language so yeah and Lev just asked will the committee committee's funding recommendations be made public and usually we do try to make them public beforehand you know so everyone can have a chance to know what you know what's being recommended there's not a lot of time if we meet on the 17th and then the hearings on the 26th but I think we could have at least a few days you know if the committee comes up with draft recommendations on the 17th those could become public pretty quickly a lot of good work done tonight thanks everybody yeah any other questions or comments I think I just want to go back and I don't mean to make this meeting go any longer and I'm just getting my notes what did we decide and maybe I linked for a minute about mental health services as a priority did we did we discuss that and decide to include it or where do we leave it I think that we said that nobody raised it tonight and I think for mental health services for for youth would fall within the youth okay okay yeah it's interesting I yeah I feel like if there was someone doing you know something they could they could probably be could include it as a few other categories you know or they it's other I don't you know so at least we have the other the way so if someone's saying oh I'm offering mental health services it's really not related to housing it's this then they have the ability to explain how it fits in great all right I guess we can have a vote to adjourn and then we'll be upset thanks everyone for attending there's still a few attendees left I'll make a motion to adjourn I second any discussion of the ones in favor I'm in favor