 First order of business is the minutes which were sent out by you mean a little while ago. Do I have any corrections? Okay well Peter, I think there's one thing under article 45 going down the left-hand side to the line just above Tosti where it says request 15-4-50. At the 2-1 meeting APA requested 1500. I think they requested 15,000. Thank you. Okay are there any other corrections? Do I have a motion? Second. Okay any further discussion on the minutes? Okay all those in favor please say aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay. Okay Liz am I the only one who got a minute man or did everybody? That just came in the mail with the, I don't know they left it before me for the. Okay but it was just one. Okay so on our calendar next Monday minute man will be in at 7.45 so they emailed out all of the budgets to you. You know please review them and we don't print out whatever you desire for the meeting. Okay Larson do you have all your people here? We were told 7.45 so they'll be here they'll sort of, we can start absolutely. Okay tell you what why don't you do. Scenic byway first. Scenic byways. Okay the scenic byway this has nothing to do with community preservation committee. There is a scenic byway committee that used to consist of the economic development director and we now have Allie Carter who was just doing a terrific job and Angela Olioski who can't come to many meetings which is too bad and Howard Winkler who's just retired from the committee. We represent Arlington we're one of the four towns of the scenic byway and the scenic byway when we started working on it I guess about 7 years ago was a federal designation for a scenic byway there's seven of them in western Massachusetts there's one up in Essex you've probably seen the brown signs up there and a scenic byway is a way of getting federal money eventually we have gotten state money to start this and we are now in a branding campaign and you can tell, this is, send these around can you tell how, but this is what it's supposed to look like you just hold it up okay I think it's much better I'm supposed to speak into the microphone this is what we did in the last several years for the contributions that the town put towards it we are now in the process of working on a website which will again have more of the branding that we worked on before the website itself and I've got for anybody that's interested we've got the beginning of the content but it's going to be talking about the historic resources in all four towns Arlington Lexington Concord and Lincoln and the National Park but it's also going to be talking from our point of view something very important which is where you should eat, where you should stay where you should go to the theater and where you should shop and that's something that again we are working with a graphic designer website designer on the request that I think Adam chaplain put through the ATED group is for $2,000 for next year Lexington will also be putting that amount of money through the National Park Service doesn't know yet because they're being told they're going to be cut by 10% in the past they've put about $500 a year towards the work that we're doing so the $2,000 is to continue the work to start manufacturing some of the signs honestly the signs need to go be much more shown throughout of Arlington but since I've sort of been the only active member and I have a lot of other things on my plate I'm hoping to give it to Allie Carter but you will see in the next year some of these signs popping up in Lexington along the bikeway sort of talking about where the scenic byway is the scenic byway is Massachusetts Avenue so it goes all the way out to the park and it's got all four towns most historic resources along the way so any questions? Peter? I'm curious on why you called it a byway and is that the highway? That's the way the program started and it's a national program and they're called byways all over the country Thank you So where does it start? Does it start coming up Midford Street or does it start on Mansav at the Cambridge border? Yes, at Mansav and at the Cambridge border and it goes all along Massachusetts Avenue it can take a detour along Paul Revere Road you know there are other detours in other places but it's the root of Paul Revere which is why he's shown so prominently in this Okay so Mansav goes through Arlington goes through Lexington and then comes down on two-way right across from Minimune Correct Okay and then does it continue out two-way? Yeah, it continues out two-way and the National Park Service has been very active actively involved in working with us they're part of the group that we meet that meets every month as is MassDOT so that the signs that are being done meet the standard MassDOT requirements and they won't be very expensive but they'll be eye-catching Any questions, Troy? Of course in Lexington by the monument there and they have a little information booth and they have docents there I think I think that's what you call it people who give a little speech about it Do we have something like that planned per se for the Jason Russell House? Well I could turn to these gentlemen from the Jason Russell House We're thinking about it for sure In my opinion there is a bigger richer story to be told about Arlington's history particularly in Revolutionary War and its connection on the battle road all the way out to Old North Bridge and we're thinking about this and we're looking for ways that we can put this story together and raise money from matching grants from the state possibly the National Park Service despite potential budget cuts You go to the National Park Service Visitors Center there are wonderful maps and everything around and the pointers Jason Russell House is monotony We only changed the word monotony that's all part of history but we're going to link Arlington to monotony as part of this bigger story and I think this is this is a good thing to endorse and we in the Historical Society will be working to help tell the story better and more compelling I think it's important one of the things that I've done because I think Arlington's been sort of the poor sister in terms of our historic recognition one of the accomplishments that Arlington contingent made was to put an insert in the National Park Service map to show the Jason Russell House which hadn't been shown in the past and I think the more we do that the better, the more we're going to get I have a practical question strategically, how are we going to solve the parking time when the busload of Chinese visitors comes and you want to stop and see the Jason Russell House and then spend some money in the old restaurant they have to park the bus somewhere they're going to have to park it on Man's Avenue because they can't take that left on Jason's street but you can there are ways around this you can have the bus and offload the people offload the people and go to some offside parking lot not on Man's Avenue and then come back and pick up the people when their tours are done the bus doesn't have to park on Man's Avenue it just needs to offload the people I'm just asking where can we park the bus very practical question it's important David? During the Bison County years they put signage on it for the battle road they used the two routes and the Medford street some of those signs are still there the question is are those signs going to come down and will these signs replace that? Hopefully they will but I think one of the things about signage as you all know there are a lot of people that have to sign off on it and we've had a MassDOT woman a great woman Connie Raphael from the district be at our meetings there's a whole process of signage because it's a state road we have to get their permission we also have to get permission from our historic district commissions and the Arlington Historical Commission in some areas where we want to put up signs so we're sort of at the beginning of the process and Lexington is ahead of Arlington and I did go to the Selectman and show them the signage but I haven't done much more than that and now that we have the energetic Allie Carter I'm going to try to offload her because she's got a lot of energy and is very enthusiastic but they're in terrible shape those other ones and when you have your meetings you're talking about the whole district yes the whole district my meetings once a month the last Thursday of the month is with a representative from Arlington and there are four of us but we have one vote and same for Lexington Concord and Lincoln we meet in Lincoln town hall will they all be paying $2,000 each? they will not and that's one of the one of the bones of contention with me is the Lexington who has been as much of a contributor as we are did a Richard Cannelly who was the head of their planning commission did a population survey and he showed of course that we had more population than anybody else and I said I don't think we can base it on population let's base it on business percentage of tax rate but Lincoln has 7,000 people any more than that they're all rich so we're we're arguing that point because he thought it was you know it was a slam dunk he was giving me the 48,000 I said no you know our business tax rate is 4-6% of our tax base and it's a single rate and when you can show me that you have a similar problem so we're arguing about it but Lexington has been our partner they they're the fiscal agent which is really helpful they offered to be that in a way because they have a good planning department and they take the money and they watch it carefully they've done the procurement for both graphic design you know procurement that we've done so I think we're lucky to have them but Conquered and Lincoln I would not say is we're paying their fair share I'm not sure they're paying nobody paid anything last year they're looking at their budgets and they're going to be discussing it next time you know I can understand if we were checking in you know a half a million dollars each but $2,000 Lexington's budget is twice ours yes it is don't worry about Lexington they will certainly come up with the same amount of money that we do and if you want to make the $2,000 contribution from Arlington contingent on a Lincoln and a Conquered contribution that would help me so I think it's a worthy cause we're slowly getting the word out I think it I think this is really good signage and I think it will help okay other questions okay do you have a word of people here now I guess I have as many as I'm going to have some more looking for parking okay that's why we moved down here so we can get some parking I apologize about the chairs hopefully they moved us into the new place they just there's no chairs okay there's one chair there if somebody comes in from the fin problem they'll have to stand okay can the committee and our guests introduce ourselves I'm Clarissa Rowe the chair of the community presentation committee Eric Helmuth who put together this presentation is home with pneumonia and we're very lucky we have staff helping us this year Amy who is at a class tonight and Jim Feeney who is the assistant town manager I can't tell you how wonderfully hopefully they've both been and Jim is going to help with the financial part tonight okay rest of the committee so Mr. Chairman I'm going to so I'm going to deal with my chair I actually heard this he could go home he could sit in the back somebody wants to sit over here what's your order for us 50, 49 I think 49, 60 49 Leslie can you introduce yourself Leslie there I am the state president of the nation act representative from the parking recreation commission I'm David David I'm Joanne Robinson and we have Nate you want to introduce yourself Matt Strasberg senior plan I was going to talk about one of these two gentlemen Mr. Finley and Mr. Parsons have been extraordinarily helpful to the committee in the last couple of years because they've helped us put together some of the historic preservation projects and there are guardian angels and I'm really glad they're here but they really have been incredibly helpful oh wow can you tell our wives that I have told your wives that how about my wings then both the wives say keep them busy Clarissa okay so we can go through this our point Chuck Turoni unfortunately has to be at a budget hearing in Reading where he works and Richard I thought Richard is the the housing authority and Ken Lau is the redevelopment board and I already talked to you about poor Eric Helmuth the next couple of slides on the next page are ones that we've talked ad nauseam about but basically the CPA is about historic preservation open space and recreation and community or affordable housing and every year we hold public meetings we track the local and state receipts we receive applications this year because it was a more relaxed schedule we had a two-part application process we still are doing a lot of help with the applicants because this is a new process and a new program and there's a lot of people don't know what they should be doing we have sent out examples of past work we then were in the number four which is consulting with the board of selectmen we went to see Charlie's committee last week and the board of selectmen have told me that they don't need to see me which is fine we have taken preliminary votes you'll see as we go through this but what we wanted to do was take a look at the application process and capital planning and just sort of vet the projects with you before we take our final votes most of the projects except for Whittemore park are in final form and we're proud of them we had ten applicants we now have shows how we have to spend our money ten percent of it has to be on housing ten percent of it on open space or recreation and ten percent of it on historic preservation there is we can spend three to five percent on administrative expenses last year we did five percent and we're saying that we'd like to do five percent again into this new year what that does is pay part of the salary for Jim and Amy and also although we haven't had to use it that way if all of a sudden there was a project that needed some sort of a legal assessment or something like that we would be able to use that money to hire somebody to do the kind of work that we don't have the expertise on the committee you'll see at the bottom what we're doing is we have two million one hundred and eighty two thousand dollars worth of money and actually that figure has changed as of today it's gone up fifteen thousand dollars but it was at three fifteen this afternoon so it didn't get added and then we're reserving six forty one nine hundred for later appropriations this is an unusual year because last year we spent one year's worth of money but the way the law's written the first year you can't spend the money until the second year so we're actually spending money this year the money collected in year one and the money collected this year so it's a little confusing we have more money to spend this year than any other time and that's why we have so much money going back to the reserve it goes into the community preservation reserve and you'll see as we get into it that there's some big projects that are going to be happening this year and we expect they will come back to us with some hefty construction requests and you'll see we put in the five percent again for the administrative expenses one of the things that we did was ask to have more of Jim Feeney's time this year than we did last because he's been so instrumental in really tracking the projects that are under construction and really helping out the committee in a way that we really need and Amy as capital planning people know is a wonderful financial manager and great help so on the next page and if you're my age and I have trouble seeing it the top box shows the amount of money that we're getting that we got last year or the first year which was 1.311 512 the next figure is an estimate and the estimate is really just a guess at our part we don't get the final figure until the end of March and as you know the third quarter is the time when abatements are happening so we don't we have an accurate figure from the treasurer's office but we're making an estimate at this point we also you'll see in the next line the state match in September they were saying it was going to be 19 percent which diskay called this past week and they were saying 15 percent so we've our estimates are conservative and that's the way we like them to be and then you can see the unspent money in the past and then the budgeted reserve accounts Jim do you want to add anything to that? I think the only thing I would add that may be not shown here on this chart is though we budgeted conservatively and rightfully so to make sure we don't have any shortfalls that any revenues that we get that exceed what we budgeted will just become part of the community preservation fund balance will be certified at year end and available for appropriation during the following cycle Should that be fiscal 17 second one down the official 16 all surcharge so you have that exact figure but then it says fiscal 18 so should that be 17? annual town meeting this past spring the current six projects underway were funded with estimated FY 17 17 it's very confusing we'll stop being as confusing as we are now next year and Paul? so in fiscal 17 we're currently spending fiscal 17 money in fiscal 18 we'll spend fiscal 16 and fiscal 18 money because you couldn't spend the money the first few years did you repeat that three? he explains it much better than I did thanks Paul and below that there's a chart of the projects that we're doing and you'll see the name of the project who the applicant is who the awardee is and one of the big things that we've been talking about a lot this year is who's going to have the maintenance oversight this is something that's very near and dear to the committee members and so we have put that in for your consideration and what the funding recommendations are for instance Downing Square came in with a request for $500,000 we didn't think that that was ready for $500,000 this year it's a project that's going to be a multi-year project and so we're giving them $100,000 towards hard costs in the hopes that that will generate more state and federal money one of the things that we're trying to do with this program is generate other money from other sources whether they're state or federal and I think you may or may not remember what we did something like $3.5 million more for the Arlington Housing Authorities work last year with some of the funding that we did for their windows so what I'm going to do we can go through the chart but I'm going to really go into the projects carefully so I don't think we need to look at the chart when you say maintenance oversight you mean oversight of the physical maintenance when the project is completed one of the things that the capital planning people have worked on is maintenance for buildings and one of the things that's coming up in sort of bubbling up with these CPA projects is that we need maintenance for site resources too and the DPW is in charge of that and they're overstretched so poor Jim is now responsible for most of it no and so out of our conversations Adam and Sandy and Jim have decided to put together a task force to look into the maintenance of these items one of the things that concerns us say you look at the Robbins town garden water feature we want to make sure that if we're going to put as much money as we're putting into it that when it's done that it's taken care of so that we're not having to come back in 25 years or 20 years and we're doing it again so that's one of the things that we're really trying very hard to to ask a lot of difficult questions you can see on the side also the total project costs for all the projects so with our $2 million contribution we're going to be getting $17 million worth of contribution there are also a couple of projects that are applying for grants and so we're actually hoping to bring down the town's contribution in the future but we don't know about those grants yet the next page will show you where the projects are for this year and Andrew also did want to combine one that shows where the projects were last year and I think what it shows a lot of them are along our scenic highway but there are a lot that are they're different parks but they're mostly ones that can be enjoyed by all Arlingtonians okay so now we'll talk about the projects themselves and I will get some of my friends here to help me and David Levy is here to talk to help me with Downed Square and Westminster and I believe Jonathan can help with this too these are both projects that were recommended by the housing corporation of Arlington Downing Square is a multi-year project that's at its beginning it's both of them are near each other right across the street from each other and like all affordable housing projects this one will require a lot of different funding sources and we're hoping with our $100,000 contribution early that that will help qualify it for more state funds 20 Westminster is about to go into construction Downing Square has 34 affordable units and 20 Westminster is going to have nine and I'm sure you know the building it's a very prominent building and it's about to go into construction. Would you like to talk about the projects and ask questions about the projects or go where we through everything? No actually it might be good to go through a project by project and take questions so let's take Downing Square questions from the committee Dean so when we talk about the affordable housing projects last year we talked about how these come with a company de-restriction. Absolutely so just to make sure I understand so on Downing Square this project is in the early stages and I think you said the project is at the beginning of a multi-year process of getting approval and total funding so in this situation money gets put aside nothing really happens with it until it gets approved if it gets approved the money then goes towards the project I'm assuming you have some thoughts putting more money towards it you get the accompanying de-restrictions and things like that is that right? And the town also puts CBDG money towards this both of these projects and has so and they're more flexible they're apt to do some soft costs we're not at that stage yet we're really trying to do hard costs only but we have grant agreements with all of grantees and we will be more and more specific with the grantees with our agreements so the reverse of this is if the project for some reason does not get approved and does not happen the money is never expended it goes back into the CPA fund and you would probably based on the calculation go to another affordable housing project so the first statement just to wrap it is even though the project is early even though you've appropriated there is no CPA money at risk here there's no scenario by which the money gets spent and the project doesn't happen okay the housing corporation of Arlington and I believe one of your members sits on the board there is tremendously reliable and their people and somebody on my committee is to be the executive director so we know that this will probably go forward how long it will take we don't know and there was one member of our committee who voted against it because she felt that it was too early in the process okay other questions on down Stephen what is the time paid for if everything right now sit here today not the most optimistic estimate so these are very different projects Westminster and Downing Westminster is funded with a lot of local money particularly and not a lot of state money which allows it to move more quickly which is why it's going to be going into construction this year and why we're recommending a much more significant investment Downing Square is looking for state financing and quite a bit of it which means that it's going to go into competitive rounds for that money and it will likely take them 2 to 3 years just to get a commitment and then another 6 months or so after that to close so it's going to be a while but that's standard for projects like that they all go through the same process and they usually have 7 to 9 different funding sources so it's I think it's and we thought it would be worth putting this commitment online to show a local interest so that DHCD would be more willing to hand over money to the town Charlie when you have such a long lead time on the contribution from the CBA Committee does the funds that you set aside do they still count towards the allocation of funding to affordable housing and open space etc or does it only count when the money is actually spent? That's a good question I don't really know the answer and I'll try to find out a real answer because I don't know if I ask and get back to you with that answer I think it's once town meeting is voted on it that it becomes real but I know in this case I would like to get a real answer on it Okay, anybody else? Is this rental housing? Yes Okay and is this like all affordable standards or is there some market rate? No market rate and the Westminster one they're going to be working with the Somerville Homeless Coalition to provide extra services to the people that live there they will most likely be Arlington residents but the Somerville Homeless Coalition is a wonderful group of people and they're going to be helping out Okay, are there any questions either on Downing or Westminster? Does the Westminster does the Housing Corporation own that now? Yes and they've been through all their permitting One of the things about the Downing Square is there is some potential hazardous waste there so that's why it's more more iffy it's not more iffy it's just going to take longer Okay Gold Bearing Ground and Mount Pleasant Cemetery this came to us as two separate projects we asked to put them together the original price tag was a million dollars and we have as you can see reduced it substantially to 64 920 and this is where my guardian angels helped out we had the Cemetery Commission Historical Commission working and the Arlington Historical Society also helped put the proposal together the crypts in both places they're both historic sites and the crypts are in bad shape and if you go and look in the Old Bearing Ground you can see the back wall is falling down and the one in Mount Pleasant is likewise in bad shape we thought it would be best to have a team of professionals, a structural engineer a preservation professional an arborist and Ivan Major who is the person that did the original Old Bearing Ground study he's a world famous stone restorer and have a real group of professional people put together a preservation plan instead of having money actually spent on the construction without a dollar amount and without some real looking at the cost and coming up with a phasing plan and we think this is one of the two projects that will be quite expensive going forward I don't know if you all have seen it but there is a retaining wall between Allen's Church and the nursery school that is falling into the Bearing Ground and it's a real public hazard Jim Joanne, you want to have anything? No, I just wanted to say that Ivan Major had initially I'll just explain that a little bit put together a survey of the Old Bearing Ground which identified each stone and its needs and that was done and that was funded by the Massachusetts Historical Commission the in-ground crypts and the walls were really not costed out and understood in terms of what the repairs were so this goes to the next stage and also produces a plan for what has to be done first and when it needs to be executed what the immediate problems and dangers are that and immediate needs for restoration Now the Old Bearing Ground is a town property Is it under the Cemetery Commission? It's under jointly the Cemetery Commission and the Historical Commission holds preservation restriction on the Old Bearing Ground and has watched over how we were the people that worked with the Cemetery First Commission to do the first step Can more people be buried there or is it closed? It's closed It's pretty closed There might be some room on the crypts The only things that I've been aware of in the Old Bearing Ground changes are a family that has already got a plot there and has had an expectation of being buried there and I think that was probably 30 years ago or something like that I would just add for the group maybe everyone knows maybe some don't but Jason Russell is buried in the Old Bearing Ground and the patriots who died with him at that battle are buried there and also the 40 or so unnamed British soldiers who died in that battle are buried there in an unmarked grave So this burial ground is two blocks away from the Jason Russell house and connecting these kind of sites is part of what I call the bigger, more dramatic story about Arlington's history that goes back to the beginning of the Revolutionary War He's going to be the docent I think Questions on the burial ground? Just for curiosity when they were buried back then did they have crypts or was it caskets? Just caskets, wooden caskets Wooden caskets Jason Russell Jason Russell in those contemporaries if you go to the Old Burial Ground which I would recommend all of you do if you're in and around the library walking around along the walls are also crypts that contain the remains of some of the famous names around the town Whitmore Robin So there must be a problem with as the caskets deteriorate and collapse in on themselves with the land dipping into the thing That's right If you go to Wikipedia and put in Arlington, Massachusetts the first photo that you will see is the Patriots Monument where Jason Russell and his the Patriots are buried as the first entry So we think we can make it more of a tourist attraction It's right I see it the same category as the Old Granary Burial Ground on the Freedom Trail It's not Benjamin Franklin, John Hancock and so forth but for the battle of Lexington and Carter it's that caliber and just letting it sort of be very inconspicuous then And we're very grateful that Jim also did some of the coordination and we'll talk about that during the construction case One of the things that happened last year was with the Whitmore Robin's carriage house that property is overseen by the Health and Human Services Department and obviously they have a lot of things on their plate and that running a construction project isn't the best possible use of their time The reasons that Jim's job title is helping us is to actually look and manage these projects and make sure that the public money is spent the way it should be Okay Robin's Town Hall Garden This one again is an historic property It's part of the Town Hall complex The landscape work around it was designed by Frederick Law Olmstead's two sons from the Olmstead brothers firm and the reflecting basin needs completely new mechanical system and the concrete is all spalled and falling apart. It has to be completely redone This feature is probably one of the most, if not the most significant one of the gardens and as you know we have weddings there and ceremonies there and the town charges money for these ceremonies and it's very important that what we're charging money for looks as first rate as it possibly could and one of the things that the town manager's office has said is that the income from these ceremonies will be used to maintain this reflecting pool going forward a portion of them and that is something that was very important during our discussions about maintenance When this was first brought up I have a lot of experience working with the friends of the public garden in Boston Common The amount that was in the capital planning report was way way way too low because I've been involved with them for a long time. I know how much it cost to take an historic fountain and I said, you know, don't take my word for it. Make sure you get an engineer that does this kind of work so they did go out and get Weston and Thompson that's done a lot of municipal work for us. They do a very good job They've done a lot of work for other municipalities and they've done work in Boston on similar fountains and pools and that's why the 643 213 although it may seem to you like a very large amount of money is not in the George White fountain was just repaired in the Boston garden and it was $180,000 so our money includes the engineering and it includes the landscape historian that will oversee it the design money, obviously we're not really redesigning anything we're restoring it to its former glory so I think that there's a really good group of consultants working on this. The friends of the town garden brought this forward which we really appreciate but it will be a town project and will be run by the town and not by the friends group. Joanne, anything else? No, I'm just going to answer your question. Are you going to take care of the statue then? Yeah, that was actually part of the initial project and then there was already money in the budget and you managed helping to repair the statue. Thank you. The statue is really critical you can't repair the water feature without having the statue look really good too. Yes. The statue will be repaired by a firm that my son works for and the reason he became a sculptor is because of that statue so I know it will be repaired well and if you don't think it was, let me know. Okay. Okay, other questions? Okay, does now that grotto, I think it's a grotto a round statue was repaired by an Italian stone mason oh I don't know, 15, 20 years ago so will that be disturbed? That's part of the project is to realign the two if you look at those two pools that are below the statues there's a line that's peeled off of the edging and so those will both be repaired and stones that have fallen into the pools will be resemmended and put back and this will be done by an Italian stone mason? I'm not sure if he's going to be Italian but that would be the guy who did the last time We want quality of work he did a wonderful job he did a wonderful job so we should find it we should find it again If I could ask what's the timing on when you expect this to be finished both for the bearing ground and for the garden both within the year and if you're all Jim gives us updates on our construction projects would there be an interest in having sort of a report on the past projects? We'll go, we'll walk by make sure you're doing it Any other questions? Okay other Nathaniel you want to come and talk about the historic Sure, yeah resources this young man is in charge of this part of it and he's from the planning office we're very lucky to have him still on the way from Ashland Yes This is one of the things like many of these projects these projects sort of come out of the master plan that we've just done there are almost always recommendations that come from the master plan and so what now you can take it away Good evening everybody I'm Dr. Osberg senior planner in the planning department so the historic resources inventory is really a list of the historic resources that we have in the community it could be structures, tones a whole bunch of different types of resources are on this list and it's really a critical list it's very important as we move into the future and as we want to preserve all of the historic resources that the community has to understand what we have currently so that's really what the purpose of the list is there's also a lot of new development in town and it's not a bad thing to have a list to understand what resources exist currently a review of the list has shown that a significant number of the entries need to be updated there are a number of different errors and so the goal here really is to update the significant portion we've counted 100 entries that are in need of update on the total of over 1100 entries that we really have to take a closer look at and so the first part of this project main part of this project is really updating that inventory to get a better understanding of what's out there there are two other important parts of the project it's important also to understand resources that have not been included that we don't have in mind we need to take a better look at the community different parts of the community that maybe we haven't taken examined well previously and maybe there are new resources to add to the inventory so the second part of this project is really beginning to take a closer look at other areas of the community to understand what's out there to understand what has to be added to the inventory and the third part of this project specifically has to do with the high school building and it regards the production of a historic structures report for the high school building and what that really does of course is it examines the historical development of the building the important architectural historical features that are in need of preservation and it also issues a series of recommendations that are key for moving forward as you think about the future of the high school building so those are really the three components of what's here things about the high school if in the feasibility study they decided that they wanted to keep the older part of the high school will have this historic structures report to talk about what kind of shape it's in and also if they decide they want to go ahead with it then that part of the construction could be possibly funded with CPA funds because it's historic we've got the background, we've got the historic structures report and we've got it would have to be done in the Department of Interior standards but I don't think that would be a problem I understand that that's the only part of the high school that's really in good shape I don't know what's going to be decided but I think it gives the talent option which I think is good but this won't put any interference if the challenge decides to build a new building and turn this all down it's just giving you a tool if you need it questions? what's the criteria for defining a historic resource? historic resource can be a number of different items it could be a home it could be a historic object it could be a burial ground it could be a structure like the water tower for example so there are a number of different criteria that would be used to add to all this what would make them historic? what would make them historic it has to be older than 50 years and also it has to go before the historical commission and and the process of going before the historical commission and being evaluated but also it can be that a building might have significance because of its design it could be and its age it could be that a building that is associated with a particular individual who was in some way significant in Arlington's history could be designated it could be that a building that is of an unusual style for example more modern and I mean early 20th century modern not contemporary modern houses could be designated because of their unique design no even I'm saying older it has to still be older and then the other kind of thing is that we have set aside in the past some neighborhoods where their historic neighborhoods in effect in the neighborhood itself has a consistency of design and was built at the same time so for example Kensington Park which was developed all those buildings were developed at the same time and they have a historical consistency we look at those houses as forming a neighborhood that is important those kinds of things well the newer houses we include because they're next door to the older houses but there's a difference of how you work with those other questions the high school has a historic aspect to it but you wouldn't stand in the way of it being torn down once it's torn down it would no longer have a historic designation in my personal opinion I'm not going to be making this decision I think that the high school is a visual visually an important landmark along the Massachusetts Avenue and it's been there for a long time and it has significance because of both of its age and its function but that's not something I'm not going to make the final decision about what the town is going to do with that but I would like to have the building documented just because of its importance and also to be able to if in fact if there is a decision to preserve it then you can use either CPA funds or other state funding tax credits to keep it happening there are other historic preservation sources for funds to preserve buildings like that one more wrinkle on that if you by chance had to tear the whole building down rebuild one it would no longer qualify for CPA funds that's correct and one of the things we're also talking about is the land in front of the high school because if you talk about character defining features that open space in front of the high school is a very important thing but you know money talks nobody walks we'll see what happens okay you're talking just about the low building right? yeah okay, other questions now how does this oh Charlie so with respect to the part of high school that has potentially historical significance if the town were to take it we move historical buildings all over the town and put them in different places so if the town were to take it apart and then reassemble it would it still be historic? I wouldn't just say masonry buildings are really difficult to move difficult to move masonry buildings are very I'd say take it apart I'm a little bit of a purist so you probably don't want to hear it from me I don't think that we should be moving historic buildings to other parts of the town and putting them in vacant lots but that's I'm trained in history I don't believe in it lots of preservation people do so don't listen to me okay you have it in the face and we remain friends how does this reweight if it does there is a bylaw in the town that gives the historic commission the ability to delay demolition of a building for one year and better be nice to her well how does this relate to that list? doing the survey of the building doesn't necessarily mean that it goes on the inventory and so the list that you have on your just within just thinking even if it worked on the inventory we worked with closely with the redevelopment board when the Sims building was torn down and we worked with the school committee or the school reconstruction and when they're really of we didn't stand in the way of the change in the use of the land hospitals so we don't have to enforce the one year we can vote to not preferably preserve a building now if a building is torn down does it come off your list? it does okay any other questions? thank you the next one is the spy pond edge and erosion project it's it's phase two we funded the study last year and this is for the public edges of spy pond and we're actually going to do finish drawings the engineering and then build it and the price tag is one of our highest ones at $552 $900 this is a project that's put forward by the conservation commission and you'll see later there's one in the reservoir that's the park and recreation commission project with the conservation commission they're both commissions are working together the engineering for both projects is going to be similar so these are cooperative projects and this is a project that one of the conservation commission alternates is putting in a land and water conservation grant next week to hopefully pay for about $80,000 of this fund we don't know that we'll get it but at least we're going to try any questions the property along spy pond park the park there is all rebuilt that needs to be rebuilt sort of again no the park was rebuilt this moves further into the pond and it takes care of some of the erosion think about the park work was almost a first phase of getting stable and now we're going to stabilize the shoreline itself hopefully this project will also be something that the other spy pond of butters who have erosion problems can use this is a very standard construction practice now you can see those logs the core fiber logs we're hoping that the private citizens will also use it if they have erosion problems the techniques will be made available to any of the butters to spy pond so that they can themselves okay are there any questions okay what's the timing on these is the fiscal year of 17 is it that short how long are you you're longer the first update would be would be for this coming fiscal year okay and then the shore they say they can do it in a year that may go into yeah I would be surprised I would be surprised that it doesn't lapse okay widemore park revitalization study this is coming out of our park and recreation planning and community development group and I know you all are familiar with it it's supposed to be our town common but nobody ever uses it so we're there was some initial work done as part of the mass avenue mass dot work but Jenny rate wants to really rethink the park and come up with a schematic design that solves a lot of the problems that are there that it's very dark there are too many trees some of them should be cut down because they're not in good shape there are lots of signs the railing is falling apart but what she wants to do is hire somebody to do an overall plan to work with the community to work with the historical commission to come up with a plan that there's consensus on it's a very important part of town and this is one this is the one that they initially asked for $50,000 and they asked today to have it up to $65,000 I think one of the things that we did in our review was talk about the project notification form and some of the historic preservation work that needs to go along with it this is also on the national register so that there was a request for another $15,000 the full committee hasn't we just got this request this afternoon we will be taking formal votes later what is your timing on the formal votes because we have to if I remember correctly our job is just to recommend yes or no we can't substitute or do anything like that so I think we want your final votes before we take our vote okay we were trying to be respectful I don't think that our final votes will change from our initial votes but we were trying to be respectful and our next meeting will take our final votes which is how did we did this last year we did it in a real hurry yeah we just voted the finance committee supports all the project recommended by the community preservation act we're not getting into details on that so one of the reasons the committee wanted to wait for final votes was to see if there was any input that needed to be incorporated because we haven't finalized the conditions that we're going to put on the projects we will have conditions that we put on the projects and you know this is one we might have some conditions I believe we asked for a project notification form that wasn't part of the initial package and so we work very carefully with people that are asking for the money to make sure that the projects are as comprehensive as possible but also realistic now who has jurisdiction over this the select now that's why there's a pet rock there the redevelopment board also has some jurisdiction are there any questions Alan there was the walk shop last summer with VHB that partially addressed us as a continuation of that or is that informed us at all yes it did there was, they did an initial design but the initial design set off fireworks under some people's minds and so they were shown here and I believe John Wharton said he would lie down in the middle of the tracks because they were not shown in the VHB design so that's why that's where we've got a picture so the tracks will stay I believe so there will be a lot of people lying down or we'll have a John Wharton as part of the project maybe we should have a statue of Don Marquis pointing at the track that he took up in the middle of the night other questions now how does this relate to the study that Alan mentioned I mean different groups working to do something here this is a the original study was a mastod study the mastod study won't pay for this kind of work the mastod study will pay for roads and roadway improvements and bike lanes but they don't pay for this kind of work either the study they did an initial study but they won't do preliminary design they won't do construction drawings so we expect this project to come back next year with a request for construction and construction documents because it wouldn't be compliant with the mastod so the 65,000 is for actual work or for study more detailed study other questions and the study will be for next year Melbrook linear park pilot project again this came out of the master plan but also I don't know if any of you have seen the Melbrook study that was done by people on the development board a couple of years ago really excellent looking at a water body that's been very much part of our history and goes parallel to the minivan bike trail this is an initial study right near the Grove street area that's owned by the park and recreation commission the idea is to look at a possible linear park along there and there is a bridge there that goes into a condo association and try to work with them this is a really beginning project and it's the mystic river watershed that wants to do it with us and with input obviously from the park and recreation commission okay so again this is planning to get the process going questions Alan what's the range of this portion of the study Braille Street to Grove Street Braille Street to Grove Street potential looking at the potential to connect Braille and Grove with some sort of access that would be the beginning of this notion of a linear park they also because they have scientists on staff they've done some water testing in the Melbrook all for a number of years they are going to make the water testing part of this project and sort of get it out to the public so the public has an idea of what the water quality is like there which I think is a good thing to know I remember correctly what was rated D yeah we have a lot of D's our little water bodies and why it broke no river A's questions for feedback no feedback it's fine with me oh this will be again in Fiskel-Severchin yes please and this next one possibly not because there may be part of what's here within the parking recreation capital plan I think if you look out to about 2020 or somewhere around there there's an entry for Wellington from the Park and Recreation Commission so this study may inform that capital project but it may not happen until that but the study will happen in this the study will happen in the fiscal year but it may not construction may not happen and this is another really great project Arlington Reservoir Master Plan and Survey this has been on the capital plan and they're asking for $100,000 this is I would like to say that the Park and Recreation Commission the second year produced the best proposal that we got they did last year and they did this year and we assume that's because they've had to go to capital plan for so many years they're very well versed in it this is a wonderful project this is a tremendous asset for the town and they're going to have a very good engineering company and an ecologist for an ecological firm looking at the reservoir and they're also going to be doing a survey because that information has been missing from the town records so once again this is for planning soon to come back I believe is money for construction what do you foresee for construction our very preliminary assessment would get it probably a millionth plus no but what would you do to do the work what construction what are the elements of it well very similar to what's happening along the shorelines at spy pond to stop the erosion to do over the beach completely mechanicals and any of the a few years back we did a survey of the beach goers and there are a number of items on that list of things that need to be done as far as improving the quality of the water the parking parking lot is a mess we're putting together band-aids and bubblegum to keep the mechanicals running this year there's a request for 25,000 I think for the pump that's just to keep it going but if you look at the bath house and the buildings they're in rough shape very rough shape the filtering systems are used haven't been updated in many years including the ADA accessibility for the site there's a lot of work that needs to be done this would really be helped if you give her the geese and ducks well we've always been hopeful that we find a way the coyote is getting tired Charlie you had a I think the town's been about $150,000 maybe more with matching funds on the dam reconstruction of the dam a couple of years ago probably five or eight years ago now are you planning any changes to that infrastructure? if you go down there that's actually one of the nicer sections of the area we're hoping to that what exists and the work that was done that we leverage off of that continue the pathway all the way around because that's been stabilized and when that work was completed it really opens that area up to a lot more use we're seeing a lot more people burders and walkers and a lot more passive recreation use beyond the beach area so we're not the dam itself is stable and done there's a little bit of an erosion that we're probably going to deal with coming off of the dam area down toward Herd Field where the pathways didn't get put in well but that was more recreational than dam safety they continue to be you know they continue to be to be and we continue to work with them the water bodies fund works to get rid of them I don't think that there's a permanent solution to get rid of them but that's part of the ecological ecological assessment that will be done in looking at the water quality and what other invasives there are and working to see if there are other techniques that could be used it's possible to drain the pond get rid of that invasive stuff and refill it we're not supposed to be paying for maintenance CPA funds are not supposed to be paying for maintenance which is why we've had such a conversation about it because as you can tell what reservoir needs to be repaired and restored the the town hall fountain is another thing we've had long arguments about whether this is maintenance or preservation we think of them as preservation of natural resources and that's one of the reasons Charlie that we wanted to do this in collaboration with the conservation commission what's been on the capital plan for the park and recreation commission really has been looking at just the beach but that recreation area is more than just the beach not as that over the past several years that we could enhance the beach but that doesn't address the greater area and we want to make sure that we look at all aspects of it as a gem that we have in town still wow okay Leslie can you just tell me again what you anticipate including in the ecological assessment really water quality water quality do an inventory of the flora and fauna look at the erosion shoreline erosion with the civil they look at the drainage the inflows there are inflows to that there are not sewer well not sewer but storm water inflows so the ecological assessment is about a third of what we're going to do um and the survey to make sure we understand the boundaries that belong to the town because even though much of the land is in Lexington Arlington owns the property and so we want to get a clear understanding of where our boundary lines are so you want all that property around the reservoir? yes just try to understand the scope of the survey so obviously we've talked about the body of water the reservoir the beach the accompanying parking lot and things like that so then if I look at the picture I see all this other shaded green stuff is that just shaded green or is that part of the survey we are going to look to see how much exactly what the town owns in entirety around the edge of the reservoir whether it's in physically in the municipality of Arlington or Lexington we own land we own the pathways around there I think it's up to the property line but we don't own for example Ridge Park that's a town of Lexington property but how far Arlington's property ownership goes in that particular area is unclear so we do have ownership around all the way to the edge of the booze farm land we want to see how much if any encroachment has happened over the years with the farm and we want to make sure that we have a good clean clear understanding of that so that we can put in a good walking path all the way around okay and then you're not I'm going to assume you're not going to push down into the the plain fields I would just add that this the coloring is tough the key will tell you that those green shaded regions are just open space property being indicated on the map you're not defining the scope of the project no if the boundaries are unclear how do we figure out the at this time how do you figure out the allocation of responsibility for property maintenance and management that's exactly why this is such an important project because the town really hasn't known for a long time it's part of my land trust work I looked into I actually went and talked to the when I was a select but I went and talked to the Selectman in Lexington to say can't we have some sort of agreement and she said no she wasn't interested in it but we don't really know what we own and so with this property line survey we'll get a much better idea I don't like many surveys property line surveys we're going to find that there are areas that are I would imagine under contention that both towns will think that they own them but this is the beginning of a conversation and then we'll have a much better idea of what they should be doing and what we should be doing my question is more basic what happens today nothing needs to be done nothing happens so it's just not maintained it's not maintained that's why if you walk around there you're going to see a jumble of tree roots and brush and falling trees branches that haven't been collected in years we are lucky to have residents who form committees so there isn't a reservoir committee and for many years they've gone out and they've done some of the most obvious work that needs to be done we've seen down wood chips at times or cleaning brush and litter but there is no town response from either entity unless we're talking there have been conversations around the water chestnuts and the issue of getting rid of those water chestnuts is there a lexington reservoir committee? yes no reservoir committee there are some lexical residents in great meadows and there are some lexington residents that do participate with the vision 2020 efforts can you join me what's that well it's sort of related regardless of where the boundaries end up lexington is still going to own like half of it and it's been a problem with the water bodies and water chestnuts so the reservoir is like this side is clean and this side is green can we realistically do a master plan without solving the lexington issue is that a totally unsolvable problem? no I think it is there are a bunch of advocates that have been working in great meadows and are very they love the great meadows and the reservoir but the town mothers and fathers haven't seen that it's necessary to put any money into it I think once we do a survey it will become more of a priority when we can go to them and say we own this right now I think it's a matter of status nobody's doing anything but we're spending money on it as we have spent in the past with the water chestnuts this is a way to try to get them involved I mean at least in like when you cross an Arlington road or a Belmont road you can tell I guess in the path around it you can tell it's an Arlington path or a lexington path but the water goes back and forth but we own that land in lexington it is the town of Arlington property in lexington great meadows around the reservoir yes yes and so it's determining how much of that correct it's going to be a very complicated survey we own the land that goes back to the original purpose back in the 1800s preparing rates how we were using the great meadows the great meadows and the reservoir so we do own we have ownership of the land we're selling a little a little slice of great meadow for the rest of the water how do we just take it by eminent domain I don't think you can draw water off of the reservoir did lexington ever draw water off the reservoir like Arlington did I don't think anyone ever actually ended up I think that everyone joined the water resource before they actually drew it that was originally the purpose but I don't know that they actually the black hydrants are connected there fire hydrants have been using the water that part I don't know about it'll be interesting project just the black ones ok you'll get your engineers to look at the black hydrants ok christine do we know that lexington has not conducted a survey yes they have conducted a survey they have not conducted a survey they don't see any reason to change what they've done which is nothing because they don't see us as a threat there was at one point a long while ago a proposal to put a golf course there and then they were a little worried about the rest about the rest and lexington has not done a survey so if we wanted to put a shopping mall there they would probably become interested Peter Leslie there was a small support by the town to doing the wood chip spreading they delivered an enormous pile of wood chip they did they did they stayed away from the pond they went to the edge and we took it down a while ago there was going to be maybe in building the dam or rebuilding the dam they wanted to take all the trees down from along the berm correct has that been finished? yes the work that was done to rehab the dam included the planting of many trees and many of those went around the reservoir and completed the volunteer committee has also created a habitat garden there all the volunteer labor so there's been attention and there's been work that was done so that those trees have been that issue has been resolved there are still trees and there were trees any trees that were removed were replanted okay, other questions anything else? we have general questions sure maybe it's not a question I guess it's a comment so going back to the unrestricted amount of 640,000 I think we talked about this briefly last year I guess my unsolicited suggestion for that money would be not to spend it at any point in either the short and near or short water in the future in the sense that I think we all have that you always have that sneaking suspicion that you're going to want it and you're going to want it quickly at some point and if it goes away it's not there anymore right we've had both sides of that argument given to us some people said why aren't you spending all your money I feel the way you do which I think we've got some big projects coming along certainly in this year we do and I think that we should be really using our money wisely and it's one of the reasons when the initial request came in from the cemetery commission for a million dollars and they hadn't done any kind of study work we said no we really need to step back get some professionals in to tell you how much it's really going to cost and then we'll look at a construction budget not now and I think it's being conservative about how we're spending money I think we were talking about last year at some point I think it's always nice to have that it's like a targeted reserve amount I don't know what that would be at this amount you add to it over the years and just in the event that something comes along you have that one moment and you wish you had I'm going to make it up a million dollars to just acquire something not there it's not there alright we get it Charlie yes I wonder if you could just address the various methods that you have in place to monitor these projects and ensure that they're executed with some degree of quality assurance in a properly managed given that some of the work is inside the town some is outside etc right and you mean outside the town being the housing corporation of Arlington and the Mystic River watershed we've done a lot of talking about that Charlie and I think one of the things that we were concerned and especially now having Jim and Amy both helping us with the work having Jim's ability to go out and he's gone out and looked at the Jason Russell House work that's been going on full time and another job we need to have somebody in the town's hierarchy that's really looking at these projects carefully and know something about construction which Jim does and is reviewing the invoices carefully to know to make sure that they're really valid and one of the things that we were concerned about with this by pond project to begin with was they have lost their conservation agent and they're so they're now Nathaniel Stevens is being the agent he's doing everything and I told him not to come tonight but I think there is a proposal in the works for an environmental planner for the planning and community development department that would become the conservation agent and also would be more able to write grants and water grant that's being done by again a volunteer to have the ability to help Jim go out and monitor work that's going on with the two ecological projects and we think we were worried about it we asked a lot of difficult questions and we had actually pushed back on the conservation commission saying why don't you break this project instead of one year they were pretty adamant that they wanted to keep it as one year and I think part of that is there's you know both the conservation people and the historic preservation people haven't had money to do projects and so they want to get them all in under the wire to make sure that they still get their money that's why I think this by pond project will probably take two years we're lucky because we don't have time limits on our money and that makes a tremendous difference it's just going to sit there they won't get the money until they met the milestones everybody has a milestone and one of the thing a milestone of how their projects are going to be spending their money we are asking everybody to do a maintenance plan that becomes part of the overall work so that when the project is done there is a maintenance plan that goes back to the town with the Mystic River watershed association they have had a long history with the town they actually are rent payers to the town because they're in the central school and the park and recreation commission had looked at it very carefully Jim's going to look at it carefully we don't know yet because they haven't talked to the condo association and whether they're going to be in favor of this idea and so one of the conditions we're putting on the grant is that they do some initial work reach out to the condo association before they get any money whatsoever because we don't want to waste money on something that's not going to work out so Jim is going to oversight management from all these parties? I think to a certain extent but I think it's worth adding as a case study maybe the Kimball Farmer Housing before I was supporting the committee I believe as part of the grant agreement you're placing contingencies that before that money's awarded you receive your certificate of occupancy so ensuring then that the builder in the project is going through the existing framework for any construction project to ensure that the appropriate sign-offs are given along the way through inspection services and park and recreation has a tradition of running construction projects they have John Marshall who's the recreation director and he'll be overseeing it so what we're trying to do the kind of structure that parks and recreation has in place is what we're looking for for all of these projects we want some staff member from the town of Arlington to be having eyes on this with Jim coming in at different times to oversee it but that's we want to make sure that somebody that has construction as part of their base that's why the Chester engineering that's been working on the project on Spike Pond they will continue their work they'll do the working drawings but they'll also do construction observation during construction so we're making sure that there is real oversight of the projects as they go forward okay John and then Paul just follow up on Dean's comment with a question are there any restrictions under the law that might limit the size of the reserve fund or require the committee to grant a certain percentage of the money? No the only restriction is that we spend 10% of our money on the three sort of four uses and so far that hasn't been a problem we've I'm sorry Eric's not here because he has wonderful charts that I'm sure he'll have for town meeting but no there is no regulatory Paul? Can you give a brief discussion of the projects that people asked for that you did not approve especially like your top two that you wish you could have No we we combined the cemetery projects into one the other one was Minami Rocks Park which really wasn't ready for us to fund it yet it came to us sort of half-baked we couldn't get anybody in the town structure to go on as a sponsor because the DPW is over committed and the park and recreation commission is over committed and again it's one of those ones that part of what needs to be done is restoring a water an ecological system that was put in place only 23 years ago so we need all the players need to work on that some of the work that was wanted to do the friends group there have paid for there was dredging of the stilling basin and then there's a lot of work that still needs to happen with the well that's there and the failure of the electricity so we're hoping maybe next year they'll come forward I believe that was the only project application that was not funded this year Any other questions? How are your projects doing this year? Well, as you know the Kimball Farmer House project was completed shortly after being awarded the funding I did the walkthrough We speak for The one up on Mass Ave towards the height The corner of Forest Forest So then the housing authorities window project I think the bid opening is tonight which is why Richard's not here but I think that's on track he has a job to keep them on track Robins we've had our community input meetings all of the design work is being done we should be going out for bid within a month or so So that's Robins Farm Park Robins Farm Park project The spy pond phase 1 has been completed that's what informed the application for phase 2 and the Wittemore Robins carriage house construction bid opening was today and we expect to begin construction in the spring You're going to restore the table inside the No Just solely an exterior renovation I want that restored too This is the inside of the carriage house There used to have a turntable so that the Robins sisters didn't have to turn their car around they just drove in and then the turntable turned the car around but it was filled in with concrete One of our ad alternates was though to restore the historic Dove Kubola to the top of the property that exists like on the main house Do you know if that made it? It looks like it will Are there any other comments? I just wanted to tell you that we had a 90% completion report on the engineering survey for the Jason Russell house and it's very, very good news the bowing of that wall on the mass side turns out to be insect damage to a wooden wall and not the stone foundation below We have some very detailed drawings from Patrick Guthrie project and it lays out what needs to be done year by year over the next 10 years to preserve the Jason Russell house So I think we're going to be able to show you the engineering survey being done in the next month or so and then we have some work identified to preserve the Jason Russell house that will involve rebuilding that north wall and putting the gutters back up on the house I'd also say that turned a million dollar project into a hundred thousand dollar project and it was very good news I'd also say because we were able to complete the 90% review on the project with special invited guests from the Massachusetts Historical Commission who gave us very, very positive feedback on it We think we have enough time to apply for what's called a development grant but it's more construction work so that we think we can get the Massachusetts Historical Commission to provide money that will allow us to do what I would call the top two or three near term things that need to be done including the wood structures for the bowing That proposal application is due March 24th so we have three weeks but we've learned a lot in the last year so I'm optimistic we're going to get a grant application put in and more matching funds from the state which is what we're trying to do is leverage what we have from the community preservation Just as a reminder that Engineering Survey was 15,000 from CPA and 15,000 from Mass Historic so we're getting money from the state to do this already and we're looking for more as possible And we're really pleased that they go after the grants because really there's no grant writer that we have on staff in the town to go after this kind of grant so it's the volunteers that are making the money double and we really appreciate their help That's great Are there any other questions from the committee comments on the project that's other proposal that's been put before Okay so you're going to vote on the 24th, that's a Friday Are we going Fridays? No We don't And the only ones that still have a little It's the 14th Oh it's the 14th I'm trying That's Tuesday Tuesday Okay so March 14th Okay Do you anticipate that when you vote on March 14th that it's going to be substantially what you've presented to us? Yes I do I think it will be 100% whatever you've presented to you We were trying to be respectful both to you and capital planning and maybe next time we'll just take some vote but that's what we're supposed to do in consideration Okay Charlie I move that we support this in its current state and that the CPA committee can inform us if there's any substantial changes I move that we vote positive favorable action on this today and the CPA committee can come back and give us any negative feedback if there's a change at the time of their final vote Is there a second to that motion? Second Okay discussion Motion is favorable action to support the recommendations of the Community Preservation Act Committee and that if there's any changes that you'll let us know about that Is there any other discussion? Grant How would we sort of address the Conscript Lincoln not paying their share? That's a different thing Okay So it's moved and seconded for favorable action on Article 49 Any further discussion? All those in favor please say Aye Opposed? Thank you so much, I really appreciate it Thank you That was easy I've already got a text message from Eric saying How did it go? I think next year it might be nice if you have like one page that just gives us the status of like these projects I'd be helpful And maybe the television this year will report status to all Yeah, I think that would be great for the first six I think that would be great Thank all of you for free to work I have a wonderful committee I did most of the talking but that's not usually the case They really have spoken about what they believe in which is very helpful Thanks so much Thanks Exactly Sorry, we'll try to get more chairs Next time Yeah I'm going to take care of it That's good Now What's new seeing it by way since we heard that earlier today they're requesting $2,000 and I guess I would suggest that if the committee is favorably disposed towards this that we authorize or appropriate $2,000 to be spent under the if they look at the wording provided however that these money shall after figure out the wording these money shall not be spent concurrent payments by the other three towns I suppose they could take it for Okay Is this an article? No this would be in article 45 it's the commissions and committees So we'll make up some more and it basically says the expenditures specifically contingent upon contributions by the other three towns Boy, Lexington's got a lot of nerve they've got a budget literally twice our size So they're supporting it Yeah Okay, so is there a motion? Okay, so the motion has been made and seconded by the appropriation of $2,000 to the by walk by walk committee contingent upon the contributions from the other three towns Any other discussion? Oh, sorry I'm missing is it in article 45? What does it say? Is that the historic commission? I keep missing up this article Yeah, article 45 is appropriation of the other committees and commissions Does it need to be listed? Well the last line says any other committees or commissions Okay, any other questions? All those in favor of the appropriation of $2,000 with the appropriate contingency Please say aye Opposed? Okay action Okay, we've got a half hour Paul I assume this is the inspections Yes The big highlight first off of how their revenue is going it their FY 2016 actual revenue ended up taking a big jump FY 15 was $1.3 million and FY 16 was $1.7 million The current estimate for 2017 is $1.65 million so the $1.65 million for 2017 is the estimated revenue So they continue to see a very robust construction industry going on in Arlington right now and they are estimating the same $1.65 million for fiscal 2018 The biggest issue coming up is has to do with the articles 11 through 14 in this year's annual town meeting the bylaw changes proposed by the residential study group and these are interestingly enough these are regular bylaws not zoning bylaws the bylaws on construction excavation demolition activity regulations and because of that they've been working on I guess the whole committee has been working on a document they've put together which once it all gets approved will require builders to fill out a new agreement and that has listed all the things that are implied by these these four articles in terms of what they have to do with building materials and dumpsters and excavation and demolition and how much they have to inform the neighbors in the area about what's going on and so because of what they see as additional work and because actually of pushing from the manager on the directive and the directions is they are requesting an additional building inspector starting this coming fiscal year so looking at their budget that's what the big jump is 20% in the salaries and wages is adding another local building inspector Mike Byrne the director says that because of all the work he hasn't taken a vacation in a number of years and we encouraged him to take a vacation by April 30 otherwise it goes away he was mentioning the regret of the April 30th date so everything we discussed with him was that while he's increasing the salaries and wages are going up on the first line as the budget has printed here is eliminating the temp money that he has in here and that money has been used in the past to cover some of these some of the work that he and the building inspectors have not been able to do because they just don't have the time they've been able to bring in an experienced and certified inspector to fill in however he also has used temp to cover vacations and people being out including the assistant who mans the desk and the wiring and plumbing inspectors and we believe Daryl and I are talking with him that he will in fact still need some amount of money for temp workers and we would like to therefore amend what is in the book by adding back $4,000 for salaries and wages temp on line 5102 and with that change the total inspection salaries comes out to be $480,000 066 and the inspection total then is $492,000 and that's what we are recommending to the committee okay now this is because of the proposed new bylaws and just the level of work sorry to interrupt, I just need to know what time will this be concluded about 10, 10.05, something like that 10.05, okay, that be okay there's a large crane of 500,000 pound transformer coming down Mystic Street and a lot of those cars are going to have to be moved so it's okay for now but if we have to, I'll let you know and we can move the cars okay so what happens if these bylaws don't pass we should discuss that with the manager if we want to back this out or we could continue the bylaws okay questions Jeff on expenses 5241 and 5260 what are those uniform badges and clothes clean cloth trains I assume that it's just the when the inspectors go on site and actually do an inspection that they will have certainly for 5260 cleaning expenses from time to time because of how they have to get in there as far as uniforms, badges and gloves, I don't know specifically but I assume Charlie yeah certain of the unions in town have negotiated a uniform badge and gloves subsidy years I forget the exact right word but supplemental income and it shows up in different departments because those people are in the union even though it may not be directly applicable actually it's an old term uniform gloves gloves at one time used to be white gloves for police officers so they've kind of kept this term and basically now what is like Charlie pointed out in the union contracts they have clothing allowance, uniform allowance and they also now they have identification badges so if you're the wire inspector and you go to someone with a piece of property they have an identification that means the badge and that's what it is other questions okay do I have a motion second second moved and seconded any further discussion all those in favor please say aye aye opposed okay unanimous 492066 492066 tell you what so I should inform both Sandy Poehler and the comptroller about the change that we're proposing here probably if you inform Sandy we can ask him to inform do it however way you wish but if we make any changes from the book we need to keep those two officials in mind now also I appreciate asking Sandy what happens if these bylaws don't pass and we still need this you know additional person okay the next meeting is on Monday it is on Minuteman any further business