 All right. This is the CPA committee meeting of September 10th, 2020 meeting by zoom and the meeting is being recorded and will be put on the town's YouTube channel for later, later viewing. So we have a quorum. I suppose we may yet see who might we. Oh, there's Kathy Shane. Hi Kathy. Hi, we know Fletcher is not attending. We do not seem to have Dr. Williams at the moment. So can we have a minute taker. You don't even have to take minutes now you could watch it all again, and take minutes then. I'll take minutes. Thank you Robin. In a while. But seriously, I think we could, if you wanted to just sit back and then watch it again later time. Oh, no, I'd rather take minutes. Okay, nothing personal. That's all right. Okay. Thanks Robin. So we all have the agenda Anthony. Oh, okay. There it is. There it is. Thank you for putting that up. So the next next item is to elect a chair and vice chair, which we certainly can do. We are short and at large member and a planning board member. So I think we could wait. If we want to, we could perhaps just appoint chairs pro tem to carry us along. I don't have an opinion about that. Anyone have a thought about whether we should go ahead and. I like that idea. Of pro 10 and wait till we're a little more up to number. I think we can do our full compliment. I believe the planning board is fully. Has a full membership now. So I think they just. Just need to appoint somebody. I'm sorry. Can I ask for the explanation of what pro 10 means? I'm not. I've heard it. I don't know what it means. Means for the moment for the time. Okay. So I think that's a good idea. Okay. Anyone else have an opinion? So there should be. Good idea. I think I also think. Sarah. Okay. Yeah. Can I just ask a procedural question? I don't see a chat function. Do we not have a chat function? And that's fine. I just. Wanted to know. Are we in like webinar mode or I don't know. We are in webinar mode. Yes. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Okay. So, um, So we won't elect a chair and vice chair, but if we're going to just. Do that on a temporary basis, maybe we should do that now and just decide who will fill those roles for the next. Me for the next meeting. Whenever that is. So. All right. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know what the next meeting. Whenever that is. So. All right. So I. You to be the chair pro 10. That's Diana nominating me. I really need a formal vote. I mean. I'm happy to do it. Anyone have an opinion. Okay. I was thinking ahead to the next meeting. Or I will just remain the vice chair and, you know, until we elect somebody else. Okay. All right. Let's just do it that way. So I'll continue as vice chair until I am. Either reelected or replaced. And hopefully we'll have full membership. The next time. We'll have full membership. And decide on budget amount for new projects in the coming fiscal year. Thank you, Anthony. So maybe you could walk us through. And when, so when we say the next, the coming fiscal year, we're talking about. Fiscal 2022. Right. Right. With funds. Those funds becoming available July 1st. 2021. Correct. Correct. Okay. I'm going to go through the financials for you. Okay. So. So 21 is still estimated. Because until we, until we set the tax rate. It will continue. It will be estimated. The only actual number on here is the beginning balance for fiscal year 21. Because we closed out 20. And we know what that beginning balance is going to be. We're estimating our assessment to be about 950,000. And we just got something. I think I forwarded it to the committee from the state saying that they're matching share right now for us to use. Percent 17.7%. That's for the 21. So I. So I updated that. Somebody asked me a question. Sonia, can I ask? I don't, I didn't look back at our previous financials. Is that represented increased the decrease in the state match or they hadn't. It's an increase in their projected percentage. So it's an increase, but it's. Things could still change. Okay. Okay. So for fiscal year 21, we had a little over 2 million. We, we voted appropriations. For your microphone. If you're going to talk. Excuse me, Dave, I, Dave, I think you must have some other microphone operating. Or, or mute. Mute your voice. I believe I just muted him. He'll need to unmute himself. Okay. All right. I'm sorry, Sonia. That's okay. Thank you. So we voted 1.256 million. For the fiscal year 21 process. And we voted a budgeted reserve of 377,000. So that's available now. Even. Once the tax rate is set, we could spend that money. For the. Being the budget and reserve. Right. For the 21. Budget period at the end of fiscal year 21 that. We would have a budgeted reserve. And then the fiscal year. For the budget and reserve. In the budgeted reserve. We would have a budgeted reserve for the fiscal year. That would be cash. So. Normally I would add back, but because of the timing and the estimates, you would add back any unused portion of the budgeted reserve. But it's too early to add it back. Too early in the fiscal year. And then there was the historical. We voted 50,000 for the historical preservation, doesn't go away. That carries over from year to year until you spend it because it's a designated reserve. That brings us to an estimated beginning balance for fiscal year 22 of 416,000. We increased the local tax estimate. We've been coming in a little higher so it's safe to increase it to the million. And then we always stick with our 11% state match until we hear differently from the state. So for fiscal year 22, we have a 1,526,951 available. We have to subtract our debt service because that's already an obligation, which will leave us a 1,138. Also you have that 50,000. It doesn't go back into the pile, but we just know it's there if we need to add it to any historic thing. Anything else, anything that closes from the budgeted reserve could also be added to that 1.1 million dollars. So did I confuse everybody with that? Just took me a moment to find the one point. I was just doing it in my head, but I see it's okay. So and you're saying of that 1.14, 50,000 is reserved specifically for historical preservation, but otherwise. The 1.1, yes. It's not included in the 1.14. Oh, it is? So that's set aside. It's a different pot of money to spend, but you can't spend it. Sonya, I have a question. Can you hear me? Yeah. Okay. So let's say we have a project that's 50,000 for historic preservation, but that counts sort of for last year. Do we have to have sort of 100,000, let's say, for this year, so that we account for historic preservation for last year and for this year? Well, yeah, that 50,000 just helped us. It counts towards our last year, 10% obligation. So it could be spent three years from now, but it's appropriated from that 10%. For fiscal year 22, you still need to spend 10%. Okay. I just wanted to be sure. Yeah, got it. Thank you. Okay. Can you explain the budgeted reserve what that is? Last year, you didn't have enough projects to spend all the money on this. So you decided to put the 377 in a budgeted reserve. And the reason we do it in budgeted reserve is because once the tax rate is set, you can't go back and spend this money unless it was voted as a reserve. Okay. So if you remember the year before with the North Amherst Community Farm, they wanted more money for their windows, we couldn't give it to them because we didn't budget a reserve and the tax rate was already set. Okay. This will prevent that from happening. Okay. So projects could come up for the fiscal year 21 that we could fund with this 377. And I'm pretty sure the town is looking at bringing the front steps of town hall at some point, whether they're going to do it for fiscal year 21 or 22. They're just that's coming. Excuse me. I'm confused. So that 377 is still available, but only until the tax rates are set. Is that what you said? No, it is available for the whole fiscal year, even after the tax rate is set because we budgeted it. I'm sorry, as a 2021 fiscal year 2021, you said they might bring it in for 2021. The stairs? Yeah. Or did I mishear you? I thought you said they might bring in the stairs as a 20. They might bring the project of the stairs that would come out of this 377 in the fiscal year 2021 if they wanted to start early spring. They're supposed to get back to me on that within the next week, so we'll figure that one out. Okay. Okay. And once I hear, I'll let everybody know. Presumably that's something we vote on, right? They've somebody come and present that to us? Yes, it would be. Okay. Full submittal. Yeah. Can you? Also, I want you to note that in the fiscal year 21 box up here, you'll see returned appropriations in fiscal year 21. So we closed out 94,000 in open project funds. So in your packet, you also have a report on outstanding balances. And in there, if you see the highlighted ones, the highlighted yellow with the red writing, and it says close right next to it, if you were to add all those up, it would add up to that 94,000. So that those are being returned to the pot. Right. And is that happening pursuant to this letter that Anthony sent out to everyone? Yes, everybody came back and said we're done with this. We're done with this. So and there's little notes on the side there to tell you what's still going on. So this is in place of that letter this year. And I haven't really had a whole lot of chance to dive into that letter. That was that's ready to go out the whole instructions that stuff that Robin and Sarah sent me. Right. I haven't had a real chance to discuss that with other staff members and everything. But if we send that out, once all your projects are approved or recommended, and once they're approved by the town council, we can send out a letter letting them know that and letting them know that they have this reporting requirement. The only thing the only thing that I'm kind of questioning right off the top is do we really need to do it twice a year? So that's something I want to discuss with the committee before that all goes out. So I guess I'm lost now. Well, it's great. We have $94,000 to put in the pot. Right. But you said or the agenda item includes deciding on the budget amount for new projects. What what is it we need to decide? That part I don't understand. Maybe I shouldn't use the word decide. But basically what we have right now is 1.14. Right. Can you Sonia? If more projects close or the budget reserve comes back in, then it'll be more. Can anyone hear me? Yes. Okay. Sonia, can you revisit your comment on the 377 budgeted reserve listed under the 2021? I heard two different comments and I just want to confirm my understanding as to that availability. My understanding is that it was voted because had it not been it wouldn't have been available should the need arise. But is that limited towards 2021 or is it available supplemental to the 1138 1.4 in other words? No, what happens is at the end of the fiscal year that closes out to the fund balance. You can't it's like a free cash. It has to be recertified every year. So you'd have to revote it every year. So when you're going through the 2022 budget process and you realize you haven't really spent any of the 377, you might want to vote it 350 in and just keep 350 in there every year. So there's always money available. I mean, that's that's an option for the committee. So it could be supplemental if needed for some reason. If you voted in, yes. Okay, very good. So but it doesn't get used unless we specifically vote to fund something from that reserve. It's totally just a funding source. So if anybody wanted to use it for anything, you'd have to go through the whole process of presenting the project and the committee would have to vote the recommendation. Right. Thank you. Okay. And I think that's it for me. Okay, so we there's nothing for us to decide at this point. We're just aware of the funds that may be available in this next round. Yes. Okay. Great. Maybe Sarah, this is a point where I could ask the question that's that I alluded to before the meeting started, which is when do we ever get to see the written reports, the so-called annual reports on where people are on the project that CPAC has funded? Okay, so I just got those about three weeks ago. So we haven't had a chance to implement those and send those out. We figured we would implement that process with this fiscal year 22 budget process. So when the people got approved for these and the town council voted it, they would get a letter of approval and we would send out the report requirement that they would have to fill out. Okay. What I was, what I was, I'll just throw it out there. What I was thinking is that when we send the letters out, we tell them that they have to give us an update by June 30. That way I would have, we would have all those reports and get them to you before we start our process in September. That sounds good. What were you alluding to when you said you didn't want to ask them twice or ask for reports twice? The report, the letter is requiring a report being submitted twice a year. So the letter would have to go out and everybody would have to report on that on their projects twice a year. That was as Robin and Sarah had proposed, right, their draft. Yes. Yeah, I don't think we're wedded to that. I think we had some thinking about it, but I'm happy to discuss that, you know. Yeah, I'm thinking we should just try it for the, for the year, each year and then if we get good use out of it and we think we need more often, there's no reason why we can require twice a year. Subsequently. It's certainly a nice step in the right direction. Right. Any other questions? Sonia, there is actually, the return to appropriation is actually about $107,000. There were some other articles we had closed out prior to the ones you gave me this week. Okay, that's great. So that's going to be a little slightly different in the number, about another 13,000. Wonderful. Always good. War is definitely good. I didn't know Holly was there. Thank you for, okay, giving us more money. Are we ready to move on then? Any more questions about the debt service? It looks like we're making final payments on, well, one project. Yeah, that's great. And it looks, and you'll probably see Valley CDC come on in fiscal year 23 for the SROs. Okay. So that's 18 months away. More than 18 months. Okay. All right. Should we move on then to the proposal letter? Okay. Okay, I have some comments about the proposal letter, which I don't know if I can get to. Let me see. How do I get there? I need to, I've written them out if I can reduce what I'm seeing up here or I can try to do it by memory. I was, I know for starters that I thought it would be good to have a catchier title before the subtitle of propose a community preservation act project. I was thinking something like you need money to do something good for the town or something that asks the question and then propose a community preservation act project would be how they do it. Like I said, I can't see my notes. So I'm kind of, how can I reduce this, the size of what I'm looking at? I'm not sure you can. We're looking at Anthony's screen. You can click on view in the upper right hand corner and it might exit you out of full screen at which point you could access documents on your desktop. All right. Let me see. In the upper right. Well, that's where it appears on my screen. In the upper right there's view and there's full screen or exit full screen. If you're able to exit full screen from a desktop, you're likely able to then view your own desktop documents that Sonia sent to us. You can't, you cannot manipulate and navigate the screen that Anthony is displaying. He would have to do it for you. Well, I see you guys over to one side, but what I can't see is my notes, which is. Diana? Yeah. You use a Mac or a Windows computer? Mac. You should just be able to minimize this like any other program and call up your notes. Oh, I see. Well, yes, if I see the little If up on top you have a dagger that says view options with the down arrow, one of them is exit full screen also. Way up. Yeah, I see where it says view and that doesn't work. And oh, here, maybe under meeting. There we go. Okay, great. All right. Give me a second. I'll pull up my notes here. Perhaps I can interject a question while you're, you're getting that. Anthony, is this, is this, does this letter simply appear on the CPA committee website or is this actually mailed out to somebody? So that was going to be my, that was going to be my next point, which is we're calling out a letter, but as of right now, the only plan is to put it on the website. So it's an announcement. Yeah. Okay. So, okay. So what I had was a need to grant to, to benefit Amherst quest mark and then go into the proposal community preservation act project sort of get them thinking before this is confronting them. So I, I would suggest that that is probably a really good idea for the social media side of this push when, when Brianna puts it out on the, on the front page and on Twitter and Facebook. Probably leading with that on the social media push is probably a good idea. Okay. Well, okay. Then my next point was to, instead of please submit proposals to say proposals are due Monday, October 12, 2020, they should be submitted at the link below. I think you need to be dogmatic there. Okay. I would suggest highlighting that as well. Pardon. I would suggest also highlighting the due date, not just in the top, but in the letter proposals, submit proposals to us by Monday at the due date. Okay. And then under available funding, the order in which I would do it, it was, would be like this. Other funding sources, question, possibility of multiple funding sources, question mark, need for additional funding in future years, question mark, it sort of builds a natural progression in my mind. So anyway, that's a thought. And then you have a number four under the submission process. I have, and first I tell you right now, there's a conflict between the form and the date. But let's assume that the date on this is correct. In October and or November, applicants will present their project proposals for CPAC and the public. I think it's a little clearer what is being expected. And then you have to decide do you want it in January or February? Because the form says that and the letter says October, November. The form would be out of date. So, all right. Remind me, when we get to the form, remind me of that. All right. And the last point is just submits their recommendations to town council. It's spell out the fact that we're talking about recommendations. So, those were my comments that I... You're referring to number five under submission process, Diana? Yeah, that's a good edit. Okay. All right. That's it. I'm done with that. I have a follow-up comment on your initial comment, Diana, regarding the proposal community preservation act project. In light of what you said, adding how to or the timetable of steps would describe it. We could potentially add that to that header. How to propose a community or the timetable steps to propose. I'm indifferent whether or not that should be added, but that was my understanding of an interpretation of what you were asking. Well, the point really is it sort of proposed a community preservation act project. I don't think it'll catch people as much as either iterating the fact that these are multiple steps or something a little bit less dry. Anyway, I will be quiet about this and go back to the full screen. So, on the main page of the CPA website, there is a button that says propose a project and that leads you right into this. It's the same wording. It's the very first option at the top of the sidebar of the CPA page. Okay. Yeah, this isn't like a publicity piece. This isn't the press release that will go on the front page where it says they're now available. Click here and then it brings you into the CPA page where the very first option is propose a project. Right, Anthony? That's exactly correct. That's good to know. Anyone else have comments or suggestions? Yeah, I have one thing. This is Sarah. I guess on the front page, Anthony, it might be helpful to break up these sections. I don't know with some headers about the first paragraph. It's just a lot to read. I would sort of be like, why are we like background? I just have some headers to guide people. Okay. Do you want me to specifically give you headers or can you? No, I think we do one for the first paragraph, which is basically about the CPA. Yeah. One for the second, which is the committee. Yeah, exactly. And then the third header above at this time that says how to propose or something like that. Great. And then in the first paragraph, I might either bullet or bold the quote because it really explains what we're supporting for the acquisition, creation, preservation of open space, bullet for the acquisition, preservation, historic. Those are, that's like key. That's like the heart of what we're doing. Yeah. So putting it as an indented quote is a perfectly appropriate thing to do. Yeah, sure. Exactly. Yeah. Sorry, I'm sort of sorry. I didn't mean to. Yeah, I can make, I think I can make that into a block. Micromanage the formatting, but yes, would be helpful. Anyone else before I throw out my own? All right. A couple things. I think not everybody, hard to believe this for all you who do this for a living. Not everybody knows when a fiscal year starts or ends or what that means. So I think it would be helpful to say perhaps near the end of the first paragraph when it refers to approximately $1 million for fiscal year 2021 to add like 12 months beginning July 1st. Oh, and it should be 22. 22. Yes. Okay. Okay. So beginning July 1st, 2021. Okay. So folks know exactly when that year begins, when the funds become available. Get at it. And I forget if it's clear, do we are all do submissions? Do we only want submissions online through the form? If so, I think we should say that. And under submission process, complete the application, you know, maybe include a link or something, or maybe near the end of that page, it says apply here. Is that a link or? Yeah. The thought had been that we wanted to at least encourage people to read the whole thing before they blindly click to apply somewhere else. They would have not that everyone is going to read everything here, but if we had to put big, it would make it easier to bypass everything. Well, then can under submission process item one say complete the online application? I mean, if you don't want people to be mailing in things or printing out forms, or if we don't care, you know, if they can mail it in, then state that and give an address. I mean, every last year, everyone did it online, except for the North Amherst Library people. Right. I mean, if someone mail and when they mailed it, you know, I didn't, I didn't give them a hard time about it. I just scanned it. But yeah, we can make that clear. I have an additional comment if you're don't have further ones, Sarah ahead, Sam. I just want to reiterate because your comment got me reading the where to apply and the reference of the end of invitation, Sarah, and it seems to me the paragraph on the first page that begins at this time, we invite you to submit projects appropriate to the provisions of the act, et cetera, et cetera. Please submit proposals by Monday, whatever. I think it's worth highlighting that. So it will stand out. And this kind of goes in line with what Sarah, Sarah E was mentioning about having headers to the key point. So it'd be easy for someone to navigate it. But I think at this time we invite is significant. That's my opinion. I have, how would you want it? Do you want to just bold? I would, I would bold from at this time to the end where we say at the link below and perhaps have that link highlighted. Okay, because you, because you also wanted me to highlight the date. So I'll have a highlight and a highlight. Perhaps. Yeah. I think the dates, the most crucial factor for anyone who's submitting anything, that's the first thing they're going to go to. What's the deadline? But just to make clear, regardless of all the background information, the proposal evaluation criteria will be important, but the fact that it's an invitation and a dead, dead due date for me, that's my opinion, stand out. Well, it is right at the very top. Yeah, I'm not, I'm not sure. I mean, if people are already looking at this, they need further encouragement. I mean, I'll, if everyone thinks that needs to be, well, we could eliminate it if we wanted then where it says at this time, but if it's in there, I think it's significant because it's an announcement or not. I mean, it's not critical. I agree. I mean, we're kind of parsing minor things at this point. If anyone else thinks it makes sense, speak up, otherwise we can just retain the highlight for the please submit proposals by. I don't think it needs to be highlighted twice, but I feel strongly. So Diana's points about the bullet points under Craig's hearing three reordering them. If I want a favor of that. Is that okay? Can you clarify? So I believe Diana, I'm just curious about, I'm curious if there's consensus for that. I think I assume the reason they were there is that they were in order of our preference that we seem to prefer proposals that have that have sought funding elsewhere and well, maybe not, but maybe that's not maybe my assumptions. I think it sort of gets there anyway, but anyhow, whatever the committee wants is fine. Can you describe the proposed edit? Go back to it. All right. I have to shrink. Wait a minute. I have to get back to it. I believe you wanted to make it first lack of other funding. Second, second future years, third multiple sources. It was slightly different. I'll try to get to it. Remind me, view options. Let's do 50%. No, that doesn't do it. Diane, this doesn't seem to me a priority. This just seems like, so I don't feel like we need to reorder it. It's just, well, I, I honestly felt it made more sense, but okay. Hey, I mean, I'll do whatever you guys want, obviously. You mean you feel like it's, it sounds, it's a prioritized list and it's the wrong priorities. All right. What I had was other funding sources. So that's a question, a general question, possibility of multiple funding sources question need for additional funding in future years question. That's kind of a broader issue that concerns our committee because we don't want people coming back year after year asking for another $300,000 or whatever. So I was going to the more complicated about just say funding plan, you know, available funding such as I mean, they're all relevant. All right. I'll defer to the committee. I'm indifferent. Okay. So I've been on the website just making those changes right away. So you were to go to the project site. It should reflect all the changes right now. You are fast. It was just, it was just the easiest way was just to get right in the website. So, so Anthony, while everyone was discussing that, what came to my mind is it might be good to have a link to the chart that shows the allowable uses. When this goes out, everybody can click on that and make sure that it's within the scope of CPA. That's a good thought. I'll have to, I'll have to cut that allowable uses chart out and put it somewhere, but I can do that. Okay. Actually, it wouldn't even need to be a link. I should just put the image right in the, in the letter. Yeah, that would work. Just before I forget, I'll forget tomorrow. So I had to bring it. Yeah. Well, and it's recorded now for posterity. So there we go. Okay. So is, are we, if we're good with the letter, then we can move on to the form. Yeah, I didn't have anything except the conflict of the dates. I thought a form was fine. People don't expect much literary to think to a form. A form is a form. So long as it's clear, and I thought it was, I didn't have any changes except for the conflict. Except for the conflict? What did? Was the date conflict? Oh, yeah. Where is the date? Where is the date on the form? I have to find the form. Give me one. Oh, I see. Instructing. Okay. Yep. I see what you're saying. That's the proposals by Mondays, October 12th. Okay. For CPAP. No, not that one. It's the Project 2012 in January or February. That's the conflict. Yeah, I got it. I think in light of the timeframe reference of 430, I think we need to add the 430 p.m. to the instructions submit proposals by Monday, October 12th, 2020. If 430 p.m. is in fact the deadline that we have, it should mirror the letter. I don't know how strict we are on that or not, but for some types of submissions, whether it be the state of Wisconsin or Arizona, 10 minutes makes a crucial difference, as we've seen. So I recommend we add the 430 p.m. under the submit proposals by Monday, October 12th, 2020, and add the time deadline. That's, I can do that. The form is, the time is strict just because that's how our website works. But of course, I can make it any time. I just set it for the end of my workday. Let's just reference it in there so it mirrors whatever the letter is. Yep, good change. Any other comments on the form? I have one, the affirmation. There are some projects such as Valley CDC, I don't know, would they be, in fact, be able to spend it all in three years? Is there a way to kind of qualify that, you know, will typically have maximum of three years or, you know, if more time is, I'm sorry? It's the dance we're doing between trying to set expectations and but not shackling ourselves to not allowing exceptions. We're planning, if people can't get it done in three years for legitimate reasons, then they would just go to the committee and ask for an extension. Right, that's what I was going to suggest to some sort of language about extension that that would be the process to go beyond the three years. Extension request. If extension, if an extension is needed, you know, that needs to be approved by the committee or something. Right, and if we're going to send out the reports that they're going to fill out every year, then that form could probably address that issue. Okay. I believe we also left the word May in there so that it was not, it's absolutely going away in three years. But they're acknowledging the fact that they, the expectation is they only have three years. Right. I just wonder is it, would anyone be deterred? Like, oh, I, you know, I don't think it's, I can get it done in three years. So now I shouldn't apply or. Can you put a short statement at the end of the May statement about extension? You know, just something simple to suggest that, because it says at the time May return and use money, extensions would be considered on a case-by-case basis or something like that. It seems to boil down to our motivation and how significant we think it is to set the expectations of three years or not. Right. I mean, I got the feeling from the committee that they wanted to make sure that there wasn't all these old projects hanging out there. Right. I mean, I think the, absolutely true. Yeah. The expectation of three years is what we want to set forward. And then just a simple clause to state that, you know, there is an extension process. I mean, that's kind of standard, I think with grants, you know, that you can't make it. You ask for an extension, but to have just a tiny bit of language in there so that if somebody was looking at this, at this application and they saw that, you know, if they anticipated that something might not finish in three years, they wouldn't be deterred. I think it would be fine to add that. My opinion, something that indicates they could request an extension. Sure. It may not be granted. I think that would be fine from my opinion. So you could put at the end, after June 30th, 2024, the town may return any unused money to the CPA fund for new appropriation unless an extension is granted ahead of time or approved by a timely manner. Yeah. Yeah. And in the grant agreement letter, there's probably language around the extension opportunity. So this is just a nod to that. But what we don't want to see is people going, well, you know, we didn't know that. So we're making sure that they all know that up front in there, acknowledging that when they submit. I think that's right. These aren't big enough grants for people to be like, I want a five-year grant for, you know, but that's, I think it's fine to have this small nod to the extension. Anything further on the form? Not for me. Okay. In that case, we'll put it live tomorrow morning. And I'll, I haven't told, I don't think I, we haven't told Breanna yet that this is coming. So it might take a day or two for her to get it up. But the form that we'll, we'll have, I'll have the form itself live sometime tomorrow morning then. Okay. Super. So now to the schedule, our schedule, which Sean made for us. You're all here. So you must have read it. It means our, our October and November are busy, but I'm assuming everybody's okay with that. Obviously we haven't, we don't know who are new at large and planning board members are yet. Hopefully they will have seen this in advance. So they'll, they won't agree to be on the committee if they can't do it. Does anyone want to raise any objections or concerns? The only thought I had, which I communicated to Sonia and to you, I believe, Sarah, was that there's always the potential later on in November. If we have extended discussions, such as happened last spring, it's conceivable we might need another week in there. I know there's another week listed. As long as, you know, I assume this is our desired schedule, but there's the opportunity if something comes up where we could add greater deliberation. Hopefully that wouldn't occur, but I do think it's, it's important that we understand there may be the potential for it. That's my only comment. It's not a suggestion to edit anything. Right. Yeah, I think because this is so aggressive, there is room to grow if we have to. And it will so depend on how many proposals are submitted. Right. Some years it's, you know, 30. And some years it's 10. I thought that last year's process we accomplished quite a lot in the spring in terms of the ratings, but I also thought it was compressed a bit, which, you know, might have been just my perception, but if we just retain, as Sonia indicated, the capacity if needed, it's a good thing to just keep in the back of our heads. Yep. All right. Then I guess this is our schedule and seeing a lot of each other. And before we end this meeting, there is a meeting on the 24th. That's if needed. So if there's something you want to talk about on the 24th, we can schedule that or we can cross that off tonight. I leave that up to the committee. I just wanted to bring it up before the end of the meeting. So how would we decide that if people think they have items that we should discuss? Should they send those suggestions just to me or to me and Anthony? And then we just... Sure. That works. Sure. Okay. Either way, as long as it gets to Anthony or me. Right. Can we get this as a recurring meeting in our calendars and the Zoom link so we have it ready to go? Sure, if I can figure out how to do that. Sorry to make whatever... To do what, Sarah? Invite... Have a counterhold with the recurring Zoom link. I think we can figure that out. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. I'm reminded to... We should all be pruning our email list and be careful of replying all and not sending out messages to people who are no longer on the committee. All right. So I think we're done with that. Next is update on signage and I'll ask Sam to give us an update on that. Okay. So there's been a few things in terms of thoughts from our kind last spring. I had had conversations or email communications with a few members of the board and Nate provided his feedback prior to departing as well. We tried to identify locations that could be priorities for signs if we want to peck away at them in a prioritized basis. Essentially, we identified the bigger ones as the more important ones, Plum Brook, the new ones, Dodd Park, Mill Valley, Graw Park, North Hampton Road, depending, Kendrick Park, and there's a listing here. Not all of them. We also thought that it might make sense and the committee will need as we go forward to decide what to do, but we thought it probably made sense to have two different types of signage assuming we go that route. One that would be for the historical or recreation and a different type of sign for the open space areas just because they're existing right now. I did have a conversation with some members of the town staff, Sonia, Dave, who I see is here now, trying to identify what types of things could be done. No decisions were made, it was just brainstorming for the purpose of informing the committee. The thought was that it makes sense for to have plaques if we go that route, small, non-intrusive, without a simple statement such as funded your CPA, MR CPA dollars at work, something along those lines, and a small, unintrusive ones for those that are structures and that for the open space trails, it would make sense to add signage beneath or as an adjunct to existing signage. I did some review in terms of how this might get funded. Initially, I was thinking it needed to be a project submittal, but in talking with the state CPA coalition and also Sonia's suggestion, it seems that the administrative expenses would be the route to utilize for retroactive signage if we go that route, and new projects could have either a request within the project or could be administrative, so the funding mechanisms are most likely would be administrative. I did speak with and request and Dave, I don't know if you have any feedback on it or not, the thought is that it's a priority for the committee to come up with a mock-up of a logo and or a statement that would go on any signs that we chose to proceed with, and maybe we could come up with a few examples to choose or to talk about to brainstorm over time so that the committee could consider, because I believe it makes sense for us to come up with a logo of some sort that could be placed on signs. If there is any additional feedback, Dave, it'd be great if you could speak. I see that your hand is up. Do you have the ability, Anthony, to respond to Dave's raised hand? He should be able to unmute himself. Can you hear me? Yep. Great, yeah. Very quickly and not to rehash everything that Sam said, but yeah, I think we've had a good discussion about some of the different applications and if you can visualize a kiosk on a trail as one application, the dug park, a similar application, so kind of recreation and conservation we saw is very similar and again, to save money, I think if we came up with a template and a type of sign that could be simply attached to existing kiosks or new kiosks each time there's a new addition to Groth Park, for instance, as we opened the spray park a few weeks ago and the playground a couple of months ago, something could be attached to a kiosk there that's as funded by Amherst CPA dollars or whatever you all decide and then as Sam noted, indoors, there clearly would be something that might be a little nicer if you will and more appropriate for, for instance, viewing inside the JCA for the steeple improvement or the UU for the stained glass window or the Jones Library for some of the work that has been done there. So I know Sam, you came up, you did a little Google searching and came up with some examples of what other communities are doing. I don't know if you sent those out to the whole group or not. I have not. If Anthony has the ability to share my screen, I could show them quickly for viewing. We can also send them out. The question was how do we go about creating an example for discussion? Does it make sense to, would it be created by the town staff first where we could talk about it as a group or, you know, do we go external to a sign company? So we mocked up a couple very simple things just for tonight and again, I apologize, we didn't have a lot of time, but Angela Mills in the town manager's office and I think Anthony has them, if he can share them. This is what you just emailed to me, right? Yes. Yeah. And also these are just simple ideas. I'd also like to give Holly credit who was on that previous call for recommending a short comment as a statement as opposed to a long sentence on any sign. Thank you. And I believe Anthony, you assisted as well. Thanks, Dave. Again, these just kind of follow what other communities have done. We thought they should have the town seal on them. And again, these are very, you know, we could work these further. You know, I think it's something that could be done in the house. I really don't think we need to hire a designer. No, I can't see. I can see PDFs, but I can make it bigger. There's nothing to see yet. I don't think it's it says I'm sharing my screen right now. Yeah, but we just see your mail, your inbox or your message or something. This is what you're talking about. It's too small. I don't know. The documents are not open yet. Anthony, it's because you sometimes you have to reshare your screen if you've opened a new thing. Okay, let's try again. Like you've opened it and you can see it on your screen, but it's still back at your email. There we go. Okay, great. Thank you, Sarah. There's three just quick little mockups using the town seal. That was one. That was another. Cool. And then this is again, nothing unique here. We're kind of copying what's already been done out there. Did we put the year on? I was thinking that would be a nice thing to do. You know, so great. I like this. I like this one in particular, but for all of them, I would strike the word committee. Just Community Preservation Act, Amherst, Mass in any order, I think. I mean, it's not a, right, it's up to town council, right? We don't really get. Yeah, no, I agree. This project funded by the town of Amherst Community Preservation Act funds or something like that. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So 2020, 2021. So if you're comfortable, why don't I have Angela work up? We might work up five, six of these different things using slightly different language, and we can get them to Anthony to share with you before your next meeting. Could I, can I make one mock-up that just had the seal in color and black and white for the other might be more striking? I don't know. It's just a thought. And I offer a radical idea, which is that could we, we've, so I feel like we've sort of expressed what we want. Can we just complete this? Do we have to vote on six? I just feel like that's not a good use of the collective time. So what are you saying, Sarah? I think we've said that we love this language, that this project was funded by the town of Amherst Community Preservation Act funds with the year on it. And then the town can just wrap the wrap. I just, I don't need to vote and I don't need to waste the town, Angie's time making six options for me to vote on. I think it would be beneficial to see two different possible phraseologies, whatever they might be, because the signs are going to be up for a very long time. And there's, there's the chance that we might want a distinct type of statement for external outdoor signage versus a plaque. And for the plaques, you know, I believe it's likely we would need permission from the occupants or owners of the structures of historical projects if we're going to have a plaque. I would, my preference would be to just have a cup, you know, just a little bit of deliberation external to a meeting of two or three different commentaries. I'm pleased to hear that you, Sarah, and others are, you know, in line favorable, view it favorably, because I think it'll be a good thing for us to move forward. And I like the idea of doing it quick. But Sam, Sam, why don't you and I, who are, we've lost Nate, but why don't you and I pursue this with any town staff and we can just come back with some very specific plan and that sounds great to say yes or no, or, you know, we don't like it. That sounds great. One other comment is that in looking at other towns and in speaking with the state coalition, the recommendation was made that we might also, for long-term construction projects such as Valley CDC, we might want to have a banner or something that is temporary that can be placed in or during the construction process. It could mirror whatever signage and logo exists. It's something to consider. The thought is that signage can get worked on according to whatever schedule works for the town and it doesn't necessarily need to be immediate, but over the course of time, over the course of the next year and as we go forward, this will be a good thing. So thank you for your suggestion, Sarah, and that sounds great. Okay. So Sam, did you say you had some examples to show as well? Are you still wanting to show those? Oh, no, no, I think these look great. I love that logo. I think your idea is a great idea to when something is being built and a construction project is going on, like the Valley CDC, this project partially funded by town of Amherst CPA funds. I think that's a great thing to have that we could move around to other projects. The only thing if we could change the word funding and funds, it would be a little more interesting. I don't have a suggestion on the movement, but I'll think about it. You're also going to have to have one that says it's been partially funded, because they're not all 100% funded. So you're going to have to come up with a wording for that, which is just simply adding partially. I think the bigger long-term issue that we'll have to face since Sarah and brought this to my attention, and also by the state folks, is we'll have to consider how to approach private property plaques. I believe it's achievable according to the status occurred all over the place, and Dave suggested a letter, a nice letter from the committee. That's something that in time, but immediately the town, certainly for the properties owned by the town with internal decision making could move forward. So these look really nice. Thank you so much Dave. Can I maybe suggest one thing about, so I think we could, it's quite easy as Sam, you just suggested to go back in time and we can do open space projects, we can do recreation projects and get those up as soon as we have these. I think we could approach previous awardees, organizations that have gotten CPA and simply asked them and I think it would be difficult for them to say no. I also think you can simply require as part of your contract discussions and contracting with future private entities who might receive funding that it's a requirement. There has to be a plan. Grant funders do this all the time. So we simply say private entity X, nonprofit Y, we require that you put up this black at the conclusion of your project. It's another thing that we should put in the grant agreement letter. Yeah, it's pretty standard stuff. The question that Sarah had is, is that something that's doable or should we review it further? I think it is wise to review to make sure that there are complications affiliated with that. I'm certainly in favor with our placing such a statement in grants. I'm less concerned about the immediate year as opposed to the long term for the CPA and whatever the collective wisdom is on that makes sense for me. Well, we have quite a few months till any contracts are going to be stopped, right? So off the top of my head, I can think of 25 or 30 projects that have been funded in the last 10 years that these plaque signs could go up on immediately. So it'll get, I think, good coverage. Great. Okay. Moving on then. Thank you, Sam. I think we have already addressed the next agenda item update on prior year project balances. Yes. So anything more that Holly or Sonia want to say about that? No, we're all set. Okay. So you'll get, you'll have even more money for us next time, right, Holly? It's great. Just a tiny bit more, yep. Okay. All right. Discuss any policy additions or changes? I don't know anybody. I do think, and we're not going to do it tonight, obviously, but I don't think we've quite put to bed that CPA plan. I think we're very close. So that's just something for the future. Great. And it needs posting too. Right. When it's done. So I don't know. Was anyone thinking of some particular policy additions or changes? I was not. I think if we have an updated plan, even in a partial form, recognizing it may be edited further, it would be a better listing than the current plan if we've changed it significantly, even in its current form. Well, I think the only outstanding issue was some language around the reporting, and I think we're basically there. Because people are going to start making submitting projects, they will be referring to that document. Any applicant who's not familiar with it will be reviewing what we say in there. Yes. Well, the fundamental requirements have not changed. So I don't think there'll be a lettuce stray even if it's a little out of date. Right. All right. So we have no outstanding minutes. We will. We will hopefully for next time have two sets. Are there any members of the public watching us who might wish to make a comment? There are no attendees other than the panelists. Anthony, for note's purposes, I see three Sonya Aldriches. Is there any way we can on the other two? So I don't know who they are. They have not connected audio or video. I actually think it might be David Williams. I think he might have connected multiple times. I don't know. He's there now. He is. Are you hearing us, David? Okay, that's fine. So I don't know who they are. Okay. And I don't know why they're coming up with Sonya. About half of you came in as Sonya and I renamed you. That's interesting. So that's something else for IT to figure out tomorrow, I guess. Can we just say, well, those who came in as Sonya, was that like Apple or Mac versus PC or a phone versus something else? I have no clue. I have not seen that before in a Zoom meeting. Okay. All right then. I have no topics that I should have couldn't possibly have anticipated. Does anyone have any suggestion for business for next time, whenever that is? I don't. I have a comment which is that I should have mentioned with the signage. We did and I was able to acquire the previously existing Facebook page for the Amherst CPAC set up by Paris years ago and I see that there's a link on the site to it. I'll send that to the various members so that they can also click like or whatever it would, you know, wouldn't be harmful to expand awareness of the fact that there's a CPA in Amherst. As I recall, Anthony wanted to kind of bring that into that IT. Yeah, we did. There was a form to get filled out and that's been taken care of with Brianna. So it's within the town requirements of what we have to do in terms of who's the administrator. And as a committee, we have the ability to make edits. At present, I'm the administrator of it and I can add another editor and I also indicated to Brianna that it would be she's welcome to be an editor or have access as well. The main key there just with any Facebook page obviously is it's got to be professional and the motivation here is just simply to as a committee, you know, if we have an invitation going out, we can put that and maybe add a few pictures. It's just a presence that over time will, you know, the more awareness we get of what we do, the better I think for the town. So just FYI. Indeed, great. Yeah, I look forward to seeing that. Okay. All right. Any other comments? No, it says that we could use it to review ongoing projects but we're not at a stage where we could do that, am I correct? That's what it says on the information right. And I'm not sure what maybe Sonia could say that would be for projects that are in progress but they're still working at spending their money. Is that what is meant by ongoing projects or our own internal projects like signage and stuff? I assume is Sonia there? I am. I'm trying to figure out what exactly you're talking about the Facebook meeting. September 24th. Oh, I thought you were talking about Facebook and I'm like, you know, we switched. So I don't think there's stuff for us to look at, am I correct Sonia? Right, right. I just put that there in case there was something from this meeting that you wanted to carry over to the next meeting. No, I'm only interested in what people have been doing and how far along they are. And we're not at the point to look at that. Right. And I don't know that we'll really need to talk about it. Okay, well, Kathy has her hand. Oh, I'm sorry, Kathy. You're muted. Yeah. Yeah, no, I didn't want to break in but it just occurred to me we have a council meeting on Monday night and Lynn often begins it with announcements. She could announce that the CPA proposal period is now open. It goes up on an agenda piece and if there's a way we can have Athena work with able to, with Anthony, a link to, you know, with instructions on how to so that you would get an announcement out. I think that's a great idea. Can you affect it or how do we get it going? Does Anthony do it or what? You're muted, Kathy. You're muted again, Kathy. Sorry. I will email Lynn right after I get off this that the agenda always has kind of announcements and it's often the next meeting, but so she can just put a line in there. Council is getting kind of used to the agenda changes multiple times before Monday morning, you know, with one more thing. And then it's just a question of whether that link can show up and I'm sure Athena can figure out whether that's possible or I'll check in with Athena. Okay. All right. Thank you. Great idea. Wonderful. All right. Then if there is nothing else, I will take a motion to adjourn. Dave Zomek has his hand up. I'm sorry. I don't see, I don't see everybody. Okay. Dave, I'm sorry. I think that was from earlier. So I did not mean to raise my hand again. I think it was from earlier. Can we confirm that we're not meeting the 24th, correct? Unless something burning comes up that needs to be dealt with. Yes. Yes. I moved to adjourn. Here's a second. Second. Sam and Sarah. Okay. Robin. All in favor of adjourning. Just, I don't know, raise your hand. I can't see everyone anyway, but I don't think anyone. Hi. Hi. Anyone opposed? All right. Thank you. This meeting is adjourned. Thank you so much. Thanks everybody. Bye.