 Okay. For recording. All right, welcome everyone to this meeting of the community preservation at committee. On June the second 2022. Calling the meeting to order at 6.02 PM. Pursuant to to the direct or the decision of the count of Amherst, which is permitted by the state. We are meeting remotely. So I'm going to call on people just so. We all know that you can hear and be heard. All right, so I'll just go around the order I see in my screen. I'm Sarah Marshall. I'm here for the recreation commission. Sam McLeod. Here. Okay, you're at large, right? I'm a large correct. Dave Williams. Hi, I'm here representing the Amherst historical commission. Thank you. Andrew McGoogle. I'm here. I'm representing the planning board. Sarah Eisner. I'm here. I'm an at large member. This is my last meeting. Thank you. Unless we have to meet next week. Tell me. All right. Katie Allen. Here I'm an at large member. Wonderful. Thank you, everyone. Yes. Several of us will be leaving the committee at the end of this month. So. So I appreciate them. Everyone making time to be here to reconsider. The revised track. Proposal. Before we launch into the agenda, we need somebody to take minutes. So somebody who will still be on the committee in the fall, I think would be. Would be best. You know who you are. I think. Sam, thank you. Thanks so much. All right. So on the agenda, we. Yes. Sonia, the recording for this will be accessible to members relatively soon because. I'll need to rely on that for minutes. Yeah, we post them every Friday now, but I'll, I'll get it out to you. No urgency. Just. Thank you. Sorry, Sarah. Great. Thank you. And I see Kathy Shane or town counselor. Who is our council liaison is also present. Thank you. All right. So next in the agenda, financial updates. If there are any. All right. There is no financial updates at this point in the year. And so it's going to take a while to get, to get there. The only thing I can report. I think that the funding was returned from one of the projects from Amherst community connections. Over 200,000. So that'll be in the balance for next year. That's great. And we don't have to vote to reserve it or recommend that it be reserved. It's already. No, we have a big enough reserve in that. And there now. So we can add it to next year if we don't spend it. But we don't, we don't lose it. No, you don't lose it. Okay. Okay. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. Okay. Coalition. Sent out another announcement about, you know, increases in state match, but we don't know yet what that will mean for Amherst. Is that true? That's true. I think we're being told to use around 30, 30 to 35%. For estimates next year. But that might change by the time. Get there. Right. Or I'll meet again. Okay. Thank you. I would like to move up. Yeah. I'm sorry. The quick question. So relative to that give back. I know the last time we met, we had kind of a budget in mind for the project for the year. Should we consider that money? That's being given back as available for tonight's proposal, if need be. No. No. No. I believe this is going to be a borrowing. Okay. But it'll be in the pot. It'll be in the pot. It'll be in the pot. It'll be in the pot. It'll be in the pot. From which debt payments are, are made. Yeah. So it is kind of available just for a different mechanism. Right. It'll just fall to the regular fund balance. And I'll be part of what we calculate next year. Thanks. You're welcome. Okay. But, and that reminds me. Is it the case that. All the approved. Projects will be getting requests for updates. If we do it in June or in the fall, you know, tell us how much you've spent and what's left. And remember that annual reporting. Yeah. That usually comes just before right at the very beginning of our meetings. I gather that information and send it out. Yeah. I think last year we, we created an online. Form format that we will send out. Probably in. In July or August, we might guess, but to let them wrap up the fiscal year. And then I think we'll report on those at the beginning of our, the first meeting in the fall. Like Sonia said. Okay. Great. I just, I didn't remember when that happened. Okay. Well, I then I would like to take public comment. If there is anyone. I cannot see who might be, or maybe I can, I don't know who might be attending. Who might wish to. Speak. So there's two attendees and if either of them want to speak, just raise your hand and I'll bring in. Neither are raising their hand at this time. Okay. We did, however, get this afternoon, one written public comment. I hope everyone had a chance to read it. And if not, maybe we can put it up on the screen at the appropriate. Time because it was about the track. Proposal. Okay. All right, then let's move into the track proposal. I will just say for anyone watching or refresh our own memory that we. Took up this proposal. In last last November, I think early November. I think it was about the, I think it was about the master plan that had been done for the recreational fields. And we, so we declined to take any action at that time because Doug slaughter on behalf of the. Regional schools said that. They would get more information and we submit. So he has done that. They've done that. And here we are. So thank you, Doug. Maybe you can bring us up to date on. What you've learned. If it would be all right, I, I, I have a little slide deck that I, I like to share. Help guide me through the conversation. So I'm going to. Attempt to share my screen and see if that behaves itself. Let's go. If it doesn't let you, Doug, just let me know, I'll make you a co-host. I think it's going to, let me see. Yeah, you're good. And what I'm not sure of is whether or not it will, if I actually go into slide deck mode, it'll. Presentation mode, it'll, it'll work or not, but we'll see. Where's the one. Present. Often I do this. There we go. That's from the beginning. Perfect. That's what I wanted to see. So, you know, there's a few things that have changed since we last spoke. You know, the, the overall concept of, of what we're trying to do is, is really in place and hasn't changed really materially since then. But we've gotten a little better about some aspects of, of how we are, are hoping to, to finance this. And so I just, I'll take you through a little bit of it. I'll do a quick review on the, on the project itself. So there's really sort of two, two avenues that we, we've looked at. And part of this is just by virtue of, of, you know, trying to hit timing cycles for action by, by both the regional school committee and the town meetings and the town council, as well as, you know, to, to get the project moving forward because the, the track is really rather significant. You know, it's, we haven't had a home, we haven't hosted a home meet since I think 2018. And so it's really in, in, in bad shape. And so there's really sort of two options that are under consideration. One is, is basically shown here, which is to, to replace the track in its current location and, and just resurface it and some humidity work around it. We're only just, we're only seeing the title page. I don't know. Yeah, it's not switching with them. Okay. It might be on your other screen too. I don't know if you've got it on two screens. I've got the dual monitors going, but it might be, you might be sharing the other screen. Right. Possibly just clicking on slide number two might display it for us. Yeah, he's, he's not on slide show yet. Here we go. Right. Let me try stopping the share and then resharing. If I can get to come up. What it's worth, I could see it just fine, not in the presentation. Maybe the, are you able to see me changing slides at this point? No, it's still just showing the, the regular. I think you're fine just to click through the slides. Doug, it's large enough, I think, for everybody to see. If you want to just to click on the slides. Okay. So are you currently seeing that. It's an election one. Yep. Okay. So again, just sort of reiterate this is, this is where the track says currently the option one, which is really just about getting the track repaired and, and some of the new work around ADA compliance and that sort of thing. Is, is. Sort of one option that, that we, we are exploring the other option. Which is. Interestingly titled. That change for you guys or no. Yes. Okay. So the other option, it says option two and three partly because two and three were, were a difference of, of field material in interior to the track. But really option three is the one that's, that's the, the larger price option, but a preferable solution that fits more with the master planning that we did a few years ago relative to, to playing fields and, and recreation spaces in the downtown. I will point out, you probably can't see us on the slide very well, but, but on the left lower left corners is it shows us sort of softball field baseball field softball field is what it is. And the key word there is it's future that's not part of the price that we're talking about today that just gives an indication of that ongoing and future planning that we'd like to do. There will be, there will, would be some, some dirt work and some preparatory work in that area. Which would make it a usable space, but it wouldn't be a, it wouldn't be a formally a softball field just yet. That's a, that's a next phase kind of project we'd like to do. But nonetheless, you get a sense from this, from this slide a little bit of what the reoriented track would look like. There's, you know, the ADA access to the locations is decidedly much, much better. Go with an artificial surface interior to get the most playing time, the amount of playing time on an artificial surface is, is much, much higher over the total life of the, of the, of that type of surface. The total cost is, is comparable if not less expensive when you get the most amount of playing time you get. But it does have most of that cost on the upfront side. It does have maintenance costs a year over year. But those are fairly modest relative to like a grass interior field. And so this is, this is really this, this option three is, is actually preferred by the school committee, but the price tag's pretty, pretty steep. It's about $4.7 million. And we, when we last spoke, I don't think we had a, as precise a number, it's a little better now, of course, but it's, you know, inflation being what it is that, that number's probably still fluid in some ways, but, but when we're working with the folks that had helped us with the master playing process, Western Samson, they gave us some refined numbers with a more focused project scope. And so we were able to, to kind of have this target of about $4.7 million as a, as a total cost of, of project. And so, you know, what we opted to do with this by virtue of the, the need of, of definitely taking some action relative to the track is to, is to ask, you know, the school committee to take some action. And, and what that involved was they voted to authorize debt, which means, you know, we can, that the regional school district would take on this debt, and we would assess the four member towns, according to our, our, what's called our regional agreement method for capital to, to pay that back. And when we asked the poor towns about whether or not they could take on, you know, the entirety of the project, they, every town said, no, that's, that's too big a, too big a ask to do in one fell swoop that way. And so we, we knew that that would probably be the answer, but we formally asked the question and they, they all clearly said, we can't do it through that mechanism of just the usual capital debt assessment of the, of the regional schools. So what the school committee did was vote an authorization of 1.5 million, and that will effectively would, would be able to, to accomplish the option one. That's roughly what it would take to resurface that track in its current location, make the ADA compliance, and that's where things, however, you know, everyone's aspiring to a much better and more well suited and, and higher performing space and, and, and project. And so what that did was say, you know, what, what that allowed for was a starting point for some funding, but then recognizing that, that we may want to take on this other project. And so the authorization itself had this rather lengthy structure to it that allowed for a, the reorientated track as an option. So when, when you go to borrow money from, you know, as a regional school district, there's very, you have to articulate specifically the project in order to get to do the authorization, but then also to actually borrow the money to do the project. And so what we did with the authorization was we had a a second option available. And so it has this contingency language in there. And what the school committee voted was that if, and the contingency was if an additional 2.2 million dollars worth of funds could be raised through various other means, and that was left, you know, to be figured out. And that can be identified and secured by January of 2023, then they would be comfortable moving ahead with with the larger option three project. And so that, that sort of sets the frame of the ability to do either of the objects, but it also gives the opportunity to make a commitment to doing something with the, with the regional schools taking on that debt of a million and a half dollars and then provide some clear direction to to us as far as other amounts of money and and potential sources that can be secured or might possibly be secured. So it gave some some and I think for fundraising purposes. So one one aspect that's been discussed at length this is is private fundraising. And I think the letter that that you received today with with some support from the the Hurricane Boosters Club is is trying to do that and it started that fundraising and by having the commitment of of the regional schools to say we've got a piece of the funding in place now we can, you know, more actively do some fundraising and then these efforts by reaching out to you guys in the CPA and the other three communities for other other sources of funds we can potentially get enough of the project funded in in in order to do the larger project which is what we'd like to do. But I think the key thing to keep here is regional school district, you know, authorized and the four towns voted to to allow the authorization of debt for a million and a half. So all the all four communities were willing to allow the school district to take on that debt and and start this project in some form. I think I don't know that I've met anyone or spoken to anyone whether it be in Amherst or otherwise that that doesn't like the the larger project as as the the end goal I think the hard part for any community is is you know can we can we get the funding secured and so you know in cooperation with with Sean we talked about some different ways to potentially fund this and and and so this is a proposal you know we kind of put together this spring to talk about other ways to fund it and and how else to apportion those costs and so at the top there you have the debt authorization that's part I just went on about and so we use what's called a regional agreement method which is uses equalized values equalized property values the new numbers for 2022 they do it every other year and so those numbers literally came out like yesterday and I happened to look them up and found them so so when we get into some of the detail of this how that one and a half million dollars is a portion of each of the four communities is a little different because the percentages that each town owns is their share of that regional agreement it's shifted a little bit but we would we'd use that regional agreement method to apportion those costs that's a standard thing that we have in our regional agreement we talked about and so other mechanisms for funding this would be CPA and so we set a target of about $1,000,000 overall each of the four communities has CPA funds available and we thought well how about we do $1,000,000 in CPA funds as a target we'll use that regional agreement to sort of slice it to each of the different towns and see if they have that capacity or that willingness to use their CPA funds in that way I will say this and just because I'm thinking of it as a reminder is that it's eligible for CPA funds not all of it an artificial surface field interior would not be an eligible cost but that cost of that field is roughly one and a half million dollars so it sort of fits nicely with what we've already got in hand relative to the debt authorization but that is one of those things that CPA funds are used whether it be by Amherst or the other three communities we would have to keep an eye on making sure it gets expended for eligible expenses but a fair amount of the project is eligible for CPA funds so the sort of next area of potential funding from the four communities would be grants and other we talked about one of the sources that came to mind is ARPA funds Amherst being a sort of regional resource has a higher level of funding than the other three communities as far as the ARPA funds are concerned and so that target of using ARPA funds which are grants or other funds from the town whether it be reserves or their own capital process or cash capital processes or whatever we based it on the proportion each town has of ARPA funds and so in that circumstance Amherst has a little higher percentage than is the case with the regional agreement method but again we are creating a regional resource here with this and so that's part of the rationale for using that to sort of divvy up that cost but again about a million dollars is the target there and then it's been discussed in chatting with our friends and colleagues at the boosters that they think a million dollars is a target that they can get to hopefully it can raise more than that and so we would essentially in sort of thinking about how to apportion that we would use that regional agreement method it's not that it would really be apportioned each town it just sort of serves that purpose of holding each of the four communities you know sort of donation progress towards this but the idea being that we can use these different sources of funds to try to achieve the full funding of the project I think the key thing to keep in mind is the combination of CPA funds and grants and other which would be reserves, cash capital any of those mechanisms that a town may have are entirely up to each community as to how they choose to do it one of the four towns I can't remember whatever it shoots they only have instead of the 3% CPA value they only have it at 1.5% so their resource for CPA funds may be a lot less you know there are some some other projects in their queue in some towns for utilization of their CPA funds likewise their utilization of their ARPA funds are also potentially identified already or in use and so I think it's going to be for each community a unique conversation about how to try to hit those targets with us and my conversations in the ensuing few weeks and months are going to be this one being the first one to reach out to each of the four member towns and see what and how they might support this project and what resources they have available and how they might be able to meet their target so these are not rigid in any way is or is not the way Amherst wants to support the project or how much they want to support the project is entirely up to you and obviously decisions of the council but this was a frame of reference for trying to use different sources to try to raise the funds to utilize or to create this really significant asset and resource for the community of Amherst but also the regional school students and the region because you know a lot of people use these spaces and a lot of them are younger kids from those three other communities and so you know it's I think reasonable for each of the communities to kind of chip in and help out in helping fund this in this project. Can I add something real quick? Just for the just everyone is aware so this project you see there so the 4.7 million that gets the region a six lane track there I know there's interest in going to an eight lane track I think for competition reasons and other reasons if you have an eight lane track I think it allows you to do more we did get an updated cost estimate for what it would take to get to an eight lane track and it would be about $150,000 more there so that would have to come out of one of these other funding sources I think you know we'd hope it would come out of the if we can fundraise more it's sort of a tangible thing to fundraise for to get to that eight lane track but just so everyone's aware this gets a six lanes as a town if we want to go for the eight lane it would be a little bit more. Yeah and I think to that point I mean that's a detail and I think there are other details as we go through the actual line phase if we get to that place I mean I think this gives us the right order of magnitude and the right neighborhood of price range of the 4.7 but it's you know we'll have some decisions we're going to have to make relative to what I include or not include and if we can include something like two more lanes that can be really a valuable thing to this resource from the standpoint of some of the economic potential of a resource like that to be able to host certain kinds of events and create revenue that way is a real positive but you know comes with a price tag and so we have to you know sort of trade those off against each other and see what each community is willing to do and how much they want to support those kinds of things and just sort of look more specifically at each of the four communities and sort of what those costs are and if you've been watching this around over the last few months you know the local taxation piece of that. That local taxation is you know a million and a half dollars split out using the regional agreement method and again this is utilizing as the first time it's been publicly seen the new EQV values because we use the EQV values that are in place at the time we borrow which now the new numbers have come out you know we would potentially do some borrowing you know basically early in the next calendar year and so that would change the numbers a little bit and so that shifted things a little bit. Amherst number went down just a little bit from what had maybe previously been seen by you folks if you've been watching this closely. Not a huge amount but some Leverett was the one that took the biggest hit as far as an increase I think there's one up about 20 grand but it also impacts the other ones the thing I will say previously there was some design work we've come to you right at the beginning of the pandemic just before the pandemic hit and you were generous enough to support some some funding for some design work relative to the option three type project so you've actually sort of committed some resources about $157,000 the town of Kalem also did that Leverett and Schuetsbury we had gone to them at the same time and asked and then you know in Demekit we said hey just hold off they held off and so they didn't actually vote to fund in any way at this point so they've not funded anything from their CPA so in hand we already have the sort of target for CPA funds for Amherst a little over $940,000 we've already put $157,000 into the into the into the pot as it were and so what Leverett is about $783,000 in a sort of purely defined way the request that we came to you with earlier in the year was about $800,000 so it by coincidence really basically is the same number so that's not a change but I think the real key thing to take away here is the ask of CPA from the town of Amherst at this point is sort of in keeping with what we've asked to date the school committee is very strongly in favor of that option three they think that's the smart choice but they also recognize the need for some action relative to this track and so we're hopeful to have your support in getting some more funding secured for this project and that'll send a good message out to the other communities as well as the people doing fundraising that the town of Amherst is committed and wanting to see this project move ahead and move ahead with that for significant changes to the existing circumstances so that's sort of the update on where we're at I'm happy to take any questions anyone has thank you Doug yes so please committee members please throw up the yellow hand if you have a question so I think Tim was first but in any case I'll call on him first alright okay my sound is still on great Doug do you have the cost breakdown of the 4.7 those slides were the request for funding for the 4.7 but what's the cost breakdown of the project I do I didn't share that with you but I certainly can I meant to actually I'm sorry I didn't I can share the memo that was created in early February that it doesn't have the more recent number I just spoke about 8 lanes versus 6 but I'm happy to share that with the committee school committee had it right around Valentine's day in their packet of materials but I'm certainly happy to share that with you guys and it has the breakdown roughly the it's broken out by some of the amenities the dirt work the field itself the track sort of set up so it has some detail to it not it's by no means a bit of a level of detail but nonetheless it sort of articulates the kind of costs that are coming with the various aspects of the project so I'm happy to share that with everyone I say if anyone can lay hands on that tonight it would be really good to see that one page or whatever it is I'll email it to Sean and Sonya basically when I hang up with you guys okay great thank you Sarah yeah Doug thanks for the presentation I had a question about the other towns maybe you said this so forgive me but the other towns and the CPA it sounds like and the grants those were both targets but do we know the timing or the interest of those CPA committees in receiving this request and are they those towns meeting simultaneously do you know so the CPA process for the other towns I did speak briefly with the just to update the Palom Community Preservation Committee a little bit about this a few weeks ago typically their cycles are like yours they sort of take on and review projects in the sort of late fall early winter review them and then offer recommendations for their town beings which happen in the spring however they certainly can and potentially would entertain if they were having a fall town meeting they could take something off cycle if they chose to and had resources so I know that at least one of the communities is definitely looking at a fall town meeting so that would be again an opportunity for us to get them to commit in more than just CPA potentially other ways to help support this project that would be helpful as far as just kind of putting formal agreements in place for financing but yeah they typically their CPAs in particular are on a similar schedule to you guys would probably something we have to take off cycle but it could also be a circumstance where they might as a Community Preservation Committee take and make recommendations in advance of their typical schedule and then the action by town meeting would be in the spring but we'll have to work on how firm that would be and whether that's enough of a commitment for the school committee in order for them to move the project forward and I think the other funds you know ARPA funds are ones that you know are I think technically under the select board control in those towns so they the select board I think can can authorize they typically like to run those things through their town meetings and have varying processes I've connected with one or two towns on that topic a little bit some of committed their ARPA funds to something entirely and so they don't have ARPA funds so they're they're looking at use of reserves or something else would be their sources for funding and again if they had a full town meeting they could actually take action and appropriate at that time it may be something where we seek some recommendations and request from their select boards and finance committees in advance of them formally making an appropriation in a town meeting next spring I can follow up on that it's unclear to me the significance of this January 16th deadline does the regional schools authorization evaporate if all these pieces are not lined up or or it doesn't but at January 16th either we have all the commitment or they have all the commitments which would require fall town meetings or they don't and if they don't then we default to option one and option one doesn't require any CPA funds is that am I also correct that if you're asking if the school region is asking MRS for I think still 800,000 but it's unclear to me if that's the amount you're requesting that is specifically for option three and if that cannot be done then the grant does not happen so I guess that's two questions yeah I'll take the I'll take them in order so the the school committee will have to make a decision by January 16th which is probably their first meeting in the new year in order to and they we originally said they were 31st they're like oh a lot of people do donations late in the year and so why don't we move it to the beginning of January and it won't materially make a difference but they will have to make a decision about which one they're going to pursue if they feel and so the there was a level of funding needed $2.2 million that's not the entirety of what's necessary to do the project that gets us a good part of the way to 4.7 but it leaves us about a million dollars short of the total cost so needless to say the school committee is going to exercise some judgment about whether they have the funding at a sufficient level of security to move ahead by that date so they'll make a choice either option one or option three come January they're going to have to and so that being said you know the other piece of the puzzle here is that you know the independent of what we wish for if we don't have the resources we can't borrow the money or we can't take action so you can't do anything without sufficient resources to complete the project and so if there aren't when we go to actually borrow the money and secure the work with folks if the actual resources aren't appropriated at that point we can't take the action that's going to be you know that type of thing then you know we will be in anticipation of those things if however it doesn't materialize we raise you know the fundraising is there CPA you guys vote for it I think it's entirely reasonable and appropriate to put contingency language into that vote that if if the other option three is not being explored then it wouldn't be an actual award from CPA I think that's perfectly fine and appropriate the authorization we currently have in hand is enough to cover option one and so you know the request of CPA funds would be basically returned to you if we didn't pursue that I think putting contingency language in would be good and yes the actual fee would be in conjunction with the previous appropriation that you guys made to kind of complete the piece that we were targeting for CPA from Amherst thank you Katie thank you thanks Doug for this I really appreciate all the detail I did have a question about and you if you cover this again my apologies but it's I'm seeing you know two million for grants and donations but the 2.2 is what you're saying has to be raised by the January 16th right and so what the other 200,000 is so it's you know the 2.2 million is any sources so it's excluding the you know the death authorization it's independent of that 2.2 so the one and a half of the death authorization leaves another 3.5 that I'm sorry 3.2 that needs to be raised the target that the school community felt was a comfortable enough level to fill it was 2.2 from whatever source any source got it okay they get 2.2 million donations then they'll feel comfortable that we can potentially get others matter what source it's just the timing that you were describing got it right thank you yes thanks Doug for the presentation and the charts they're quite helpful to understand the general discussion I have a few questions one is a follow-up to Tim's question the question is what's what was the source of the cost estimates a year ago it was comparing what frontier regional had done to come up with a you know a guess a well thought out guess for what a replacement over the existing track is this one based on Wesley and Samson's estimates it is Weston Samson we re-engaged with him and asked them to do some refinement of what they had originally produced back I want to say it's 2016 or 2017 I think it was Dave Zomenkin may be correct on that but Weston Samson did the original master planning and had set a very broad range of numbers we went back to them and asked them to do some additional work with a little more detail to get us a little more refined set of numbers so that's and when I share the that they prepared for us you know you'll see a little more of that detail and you'll see how they constructed that estimate Sam they did this right after Doug came and presented the first time to CPA so they're you know they're very up to date very good thanks and also I got two other questions based on the comments you mentioned that they must the RSC the regional school committee must decide by January 2016 what's I'm curious why that's such a date of definition so there's a couple of pieces one is that in order to you know the the debt authorization needed to have some parameters and there's a couple of rationales for that one is is so that the timing of the project in other words to move ahead in a timely way it was necessary it also puts formal language in that when we go to the state and submit paperwork to borrow money it's defined in a way that is clear and not open-ended and so that's a helpful aspect and a kind of requirement of the Department of Revenue to do that I think the third you know idea is that by setting a date like that it's sort of you know like I said you know for fundraising it sort of sets the frame in particular you know they moved it into January from the end of December just because a lot of people do some end of year gift giving and for the tech purposes and whatever so it gave them a little more time to you know for the people doing fundraising to kind of you know potentially get that last little blush from the end of December but I think that you know there's some requirements for the borrowing that it required something some language of that sort I think also setting that frame and setting a clear target date is helpful in activating you know the fundraising as well as the action by the various communities as far as decision-making. It focuses people's minds. I appreciate it and I got one more than I'll defer to others but since I'm on the floor I'll continue from what I heard you're referencing the other towns and what the presentation indicates are going to be asked to contribute some funds but they also have timeframes which is the fall and maybe not authorization to the spring obviously the sooner they can be move to move one direction or another the better but that's a precursor to my question is what's your confidence what level of confidence do you have in some of these other sources of funds? There's two categories. Sarah E had inquired about this sort of as the first question but the grants that are potentially coming from other towns as well as Amherst I believe and the fundraising I'm curious because there's a large magnitude there in a short timeframe and the ask currently of CPA is about 800,000 it's certainly a wonderful project from my perspective having attended all of the sessions that Dave had led in the original planning and I recognize the value to the generation long term of actually being able to accomplish things but in that light having concerns over being able to accomplish it one factor is what's your guess on the likelihood of these other sources of funds? Maybe that's not in your purview but it's a factor as someone on the CPA would consider in terms of what might be the appropriate authorization on them. Yeah I think it's I'll give my opinion about this in looking at and talking with those other the other communities about their resources so there's a lot of things that are available for use by virtue of some portion of support from the federal government that sort of thing and some lower costs last fiscal year for the regional schools we came in sitting under budget and as a result we had less need there's a limit on how much reserves this school district can carry so we were able to give that back to the communities and so we did that this spring and so there's a resource right there for each of the communities it's not huge huge numbers but at the same time it's in a way sort of found money they were expecting to spend it on education so I think that it's logical to me that that sort of found resource could be something they could apply toward this type of capital project that has kind of come back to them so I think there's a few different options in each of the communities I have a sense that they a fair amount if not all of what we've got sort of articulated there is available to them it's a question of are they comfortable enough with this project as a choice of how they want to spend their money I think we can convince them that's a good direction for them to go and that it's a resource that they can bring to their community as well as the regional schools and so I think I'd say that the resources exist it's a question of communities Any word from the fundraising group? I haven't spoken to them recently I don't know if Sean or Dave's over We just got an email from before this meeting I think that was the email that was sent out to the committee expressing support and sort of their intentions I'll go ahead Sean I was just going to say Sarah, Kathy found the cost estimate sheet so I have it if you want me to bring it up now or wait until after her hands go down I can bring it up after Why don't you bring it up now? And while you're doing that about the fundraising I'm not sure why I think this may be unimagining maybe I heard it that they may be I mean because this is a CPA money from Amherst would be a big piece of it and I don't know it would be much harder to raise money if we weren't even going to contribute I think that's the conundrum I've been in for a while now is this chicken and eggs The fundraisers could raise funds then we could convince the towns that they should invest in this way and vice versa I think the initial commitment of the one and a half million of debt authorization is a significant step to say this is a project that's really got some likes and it's going to move in some way and it's now in everyone's best interest if they like the larger project to start preparing and committing to the other funds So Dave can you just or somebody walk us through this or do you want me to just go through it real quick I mean so Doug and I aren't the engineers to put this together but I can just quickly go through the category so you've got site preparation and demolition and you can see the different is this large enough for everybody to see on your screen you can see what they've considered there you have earthwork in three as well site improvements so this would be things like fences and gates to get in you can see Doug was talking about that the turf field was roughly the one and a half million and so this is that portion that would be specifically the turf field we have the running track excuse me a moment Dave Williams can you mute yes I can background noise thank you so you've got the running track portion electrical and lighting because I believe this would put some new lighting up Doug so that comes up with a total estimated program cost of 3.5 mobilization over ahead of profits that would be you know it goes to the general contractor who takes this on is a 12% estimate there's a 10% contingency in this and the construction numbers to get to 4.2 and then to get to the rest of the way to the 4.7 there's a 12% design fee estimate which would still have to be negotiated so 4.2 times with 12% added on to get you to that 4.7 any questions on the cost estimates while they're up these are recent numbers I mean because inflation has been I will say you can never account for the inflation that we've had recently so we think they you know they we hope that they include sufficient inflation you know inflationary contingencies but as we've seen recently it's just it continues to go beyond expectations does anyone so I see several hands up um if hopefully that's specific to this cost estimate that we're looking at if not please put your hand down and we'll just come back okay um Andrew yeah I just I wanted so I thought I'd heard something different that this would not include the lighting so this is this is fully operational lighting um we can run events and evening with this 4.7 I believe that is the case let me just see if this shows it um Doug is that you're understanding this includes new um track lighting as well yes yeah so you know it's lighting you know so we'll repurpose existing lighting we'll add new as needed to to sort of uh to make sure the fields available for for day and night use um I think the one big thing and and you know we did not include at this point a significant input for for uh seating and you know it's kind of by design that we did that we got some seating we can bring in I think that that's a you know a sort of future fundraising or for uh sort of potential project that we might take on more importantly is to get to the project uh the facility itself in good working order and and uh available to us to use and and the seating is the next tier uh you know uh aspect to add uh let's see both Dave but give Dave Joe my hand shot thanks sir can you all hear me yes so no this is this is great um yeah just a couple of quick comments um you know I I guess I just wanted to put it out there that you know as staff we all recognize you know the financial demands on on Amherst but also you know our regional towns so I just wanted to put that out there we we realize that given everything that is being asked of all of us with capital projects this is not an easy lift um but having said that I think we all believe it's a transformative project I mean this is a generational project you know not only have we been dealing with this track for years and and I just walked out there with my family with my daughter and my and my wife about 10 days ago and and I was struck yet again by just um what a poor resource it is so it's a transformative project I wanted to also emphasize that ADA is a huge component of what we're trying to do out there um even if you you could snap your fingers and put that track down and put a brand new track where it is today um there's all the associated ADA work that needs to happen that track is not ADA the bleachers are on the track for goodness sake we need to get people down from the parking which is up near the high school in a in a fully accessible way you cannot invest this kind of money we cannot invest this kind of money without making the entire facility ADA um I would say this and I'll be pretty frank there's no sense doing either option A or option 3 if you will option 2 without doing an 8 lane track I have talked to a number of the boosters I have talked to a number of people who represent the track and field community doing a 6 lane track in 2023 24 whenever this would happen is is a non-starter I think and I think we will lose a lot of support I do not think we will we will reach our fundraising goal with a 6 lane track so it's an 8 lane track or bust in my opinion um you know in my also as I look at this I'm not sure what we have to lose frankly a lot of this rest yes on the other towns the other three towns but perhaps more importantly a lot of the pressures on the boosters and the community to raise the money so we have this January deadline I'm in touch with some of the boosters as as as is dug um and I think they're raring to go and I think somebody brought up the point um earlier have they been waiting and I think the the short answer is yes they've been waiting because really the gap is too large uh without the CPA funding but getting the CPA funding gets them what they think is within within um within range of of making the the the leap here they're very committed in fact there's a booster event tonight that I know they're going to talk about this project the booster event tonight is not specifically about this project but it will be it will be mentioned and raised and I think this plan gives them a chance gives the community a chance to raise the money I guess I would ask us all what do we really have to lose because the track isn't going to be you know if we if we say no we're not going to give give the communities a chance to do this now the track is still not going to be operational in 23 we can't build it and open it for the track season in 23 so January mid-January seems reasonable and frankly I look at it as if the if the boosters in the community don't make it then we've done our very best to to try to get us there and the fallback is a wonderful new track for 1.5 million or or so but I think I think we owe it to the to the all four communities to to give everybody a shot to do this and hopefully all of us will be part of that energy of raising that money to do it so anyway this is going to do something transformative thank you Tim yes I'm assuming the scope of the project is very similar to the interior of the stands at the Amherst college field that one I'm very familiar with but interior just so I have a sense it's the track and interiors an artificial field and basically we aren't talking about much beyond the interior of the track is that fair I mean that's the work that you're going to notice I think the reality is that there is you know a fair amount of you know earth work that will get done relative to the surroundings you know as you look at the the documents that I'll send along here in a little bit you know you'll see that some of the field events are exterior on the sort of north end of the track I think the ADA is a non-trivial significant amount of work that brings it around and then even where that software field ultimately will go there will be some preparatory work there as well so that the next project's got a smaller lift to get to it and then one other piece that's again sort of out of out of sight sort of out of mind is is the tan brook is culprited and runs underneath a portion of appeal and so we'll have to do that. I don't know if I'm taking care of and attended to it in the right way I don't know that it'll be necessarily a significant thing we need to do there but it's one thing we'll keep an eye on and if we had to do anything no one would ever see the work right because it's completely you know underground but nonetheless we will and I want to make sure to assure people that we'll do our due diligence and proper care around that as well so I think that's an important component of the project seems to me and in terms of the marketing and the fundraising it probably was very helpful in having that sort of stand out so it's not just doing like what Amherst College did it's a very it's including some ADA etc etc so I think that's helpful. Okay. Sarah if I could if I could just add that the boosters are not shooting for 1.2 the goal of the boosters is really 2 million plus so they are thinking they're thinking of contingencies they're thinking of cost escalation there to be honest my conversations have even included their consideration of an endowment for the track so I think that's helpful. I think that's the consideration of an endowment for the track so they're aiming very high again kudos to them they have had organizing meetings on this and again who's to say whether they are going to succeed but they're they're aiming very high and they don't just want to make it to a million dollars or 1.2 they would like to be much higher than that and make the project happen and I think we'll look at we'll also look at the public sidewalk which is on Mattoon Street which I believe is off the regional land as well so that is part of the ADA access to to this potential new facility and then sorry I have the one final question I was a little surprised that the backup would be to spend 1.5 million on a non reoriented track I thought that was inconsistent with the master plan for the whole fields and I was surprised that that would be a backup it is in I will say it is inconsistent with the master plan but Doug can speak from the school side but I believe the school committee and the superintendent feel the necessity to get something done and that would be the fallback is to just get the track redone in the orientation that it currently is in I think it is no one's preferred option but it is the reality of where that track is its current state of repair which is at best and the fact that we really can't host track meets but it is also becoming unsafe to do PE classes and for kids to train so it is really the unfortunate circumstance where it is at this point we waited a little too long pandemic didn't do anybody any favors relative to this a couple years ago really and anything that was a delayed conversation I think from what we all have preferred at the school committee meeting we were discussing the data authorization the student representative at the time spoke of an injury a full year or two before the conversation we were having so there is a need there to do something fairly soon and I don't want to overemphasize the urgency but at the same time recognize that it is real Andrew Thanks and I just wanted to add I know we mentioned this the first go around but we talk about this as the track project but as option 3 that artificial turf will have a lot of important value to all of the outdoor sports so I coach the girls across the high school we have had four games that have been postponed because of field conditions and to be able to have a consistent field which is lit would allow us to run that would impact six to eight sports in the spring probably another four or so in the fall it impacts all of athletics so I just reminder we shouldn't think of this as just getting track back on board but adding that consistency for all of the outdoor sports I want to thank you I just want to see if there are any more questions specifically for Doug because when he's answered all our questions we'll just talk amongst ourselves we'll talk about what we've heard and we don't need to keep him here for that so anyone have any questions for Doug? looks like the answer is no obviously you're welcome to spend the rest of the evening with us but no need to thank you for your presentation and I appreciate making effort to get this updated information into the school committee for working on this plan I appreciate your time tonight and I thank you for letting us come before you and to entertain the idea of this and hopefully we'll find a way to get there from here and I may stay on I'll cut my camera off just to listen to your discussion just to hear it because it may be helpful to me as I go to talk to these other four communities and the kind of things that people can ask I'll probably listen in and if you think it's something in the next few days feel free to reach out to me and I'm happy to answer any questions anyone has if you have any questions if you don't if you don't if you don't I think now our task is clear we've been presented with this revised request and we are going to have a vote hopefully tonight but if not then next week but I think there is some urgency in resolving the matter this month and everybody needs an answer I don't understand the council I don't know the council's calendar that's not really I mean someone will tell us if we need to know so Sam couple things I'm wondering if Sean or if Doug is still listening if the costs can be emailed to the committee members so that we can actually look at it we can have we can have I believe the western samson report is finalized now Dave right to where we could we could post that information either on the school website so we will or just that summary that was presented to us in case as we're yeah no absolutely we can do that do you mean you want it emailed to you in the next minute so you can look at it while we're talking I think it would be a helpful piece of information for people to have as we're talking about it if Sean had it just leave it on the screen Sean I just emailed you and Sonia that memo from western and you have no issue Doug with that going out to the committee right I will forward that to the committee as we speak it's already been made public that page I have a follow up to Andy's comment regarding the impact to the school I've got two kids in school I coached the kids who were the senior soccer team this year I played on the field and you know haven't grown up in town as Dave and others very involved with athletics and I am on the board of directors of the Emerson Youth Soccer Association where they currently play at Plumbrook and I'd like to reiterate that it's not just the track that the capacity of having a field a turf field or even reorienting and giving the option for the future for a turf field is huge I heard Andy's comments about the teams having to miss games and that's hard to hear I understand the importance for kids in high school for being on sports teams having done it and having played on that exact field it really is significant and it's not just the athletes if you go to watch any of the games the whole school shows and it's not just the school it's the community everybody is involved it really is significant and you know Andy's comment about the teams not being able to play at home resonated with me because that's their chance these are the seniors and so in the future down the road Dave's indicating this is generational opportunity meaning take it or don't it really is and you know when Dave started this project I don't know what was it five years ago Dave maybe started gathering information through a whole process I mean it was there was a lot of involvement so I underscore based on my own experience and awareness what Andy has said about this being more than just the track of the team you're muted you need to unmute sorry I just heard that the attachment was set and I was trying to print it sorry about that oh well your hands up do you mean I know I know I'm sorry I would like to I think we need a discussion as to what actually this committee is going to be funding we were told earlier and frankly I don't recall why is the artificial turf field not eligible and if that's true what component of the project are we talking about that this committee would approve funds for so I think we need to understand that Sean pop this hand right up so it's not eligible because categorically it's not eligible there's a ruling from the CPA coalition and others that track is not artificial turf is not eligible use for CPA so it's just that's the rule technically like what about the under surface I think the way we thought about the CPA portion is that you know it's not one-for-one but that more or less the CPA portion would go towards the track because walking tracks are eligible for CPA funds so I think again it's not going to in reality it may not be one-for-one like that but what I would suggest is that we identify the track portion as being the CPA portion I see Dave you have something to add to that yeah just a quick update if I'm not mistaken what happened is when communities began to sign on to the CPA across the Commonwealth communities immediately started to fund track excuse me turf fields with CPA and it got a little bit frankly out of control so they changed the legislation and it clamped down as Sean said you can no longer use CPA dollars for the turf field but you can use it for all the other pieces so essentially we would bring these different funding sources together and basically it would be up to Sean and Doug to not use if you choose you and the town council recommend and authorizes funding to not use that funding for the field itself but as you look at the budget there's lots of other associated costs with this so it could go toward the track toward earth work but it just can't pay for the nuts and bolts of the synthetic field and Sonia would never let us so you can all press assure that she will not let us violate that that are we prepared has the town staff prepared the revised CPA budget allocation so we could look at how this project fits into our overall budget and allocations going forward yeah so I think what we prepared is in the PAC since this is being proposed is that authorization what you'll see in the packet is estimated debt from this project and what it does to the the debt the ongoing debt that comes out of CPA each year it's the very last page I believe okay do we look at that as a group or we're not ready to do that you too certain if somebody can share it yeah I'm happy to I wouldn't why don't we do that right now well while we're picking that up so technically we are approving funds to handle the debt you are off you're recommending the project is what you're doing to be funded from debt I know so how do we finance so how does that relate to the $800,000 request basically you're just approving that you will pay the debt in future years for this project you're approving the project you won't see any this hit our budget until debt service actually shows up it'll be part of that debt service that we actually appropriate that we actually will be paying that year so you really don't see anything in the budget this year and probably not next year probably put it on our credit card we put it on our credit card mortgage payment will not come do for a couple of years we'll see we'll see with somebody going to share that I was going to we were almost there I had minutes that's out there it is okay I got it so these you'll see what's already authorized so these ones at the top here already have been bonded and so these debt schedules are fixed for these six projects one of them has come completely in FY 22 then we have a couple projects that are being funded with bond anticipation notes and will either be paid off that way or be eventually converted to a bond and then there are some that have been approved by CPA that we haven't quite started making payments on yet Jones library special collections that one we didn't have an estimate yet because it's project is still always away but we can get you an estimate for what that will be we will start paying next year and you can see our estimate for that and then the high school track so the project that's being proposed tonight an authorization for about 800,000 would translate to these estimates in the first few years and this would be a declining debt schedule so the maximum would be in year one and then it would reduce each year after that so really the difficult year would be FY 24 because you have this sort of this new debt coming on and this peak and then there's a large project that gets paid off and that year graph part comes off so it drops down for FY 25 and then rolling gets paid off in FY 25 and it will drop off again in FY 26 so there would be a couple years where your debt might be higher than it's been you know a little bit higher than where it's been but it would catch up pretty quickly when those other projects are paid off and our typical CPA budget is a little bit over a million is that right like one yeah it's been a little bit higher than that the last couple years with Sonya yeah and we have that if we don't spend any of that budget in reserve that we just appropriated and that falls back to so it becomes part of the budget plus I don't know if you heard me at the beginning we had one of the projects return $200,000 I heard right our total the FY 23 request was $2.9 million so including the debt service that's where we already Dave you're unmuted it's difficult so there should still we would still be able to fund some projects with cash right but there would be there would be a tough year or two especially when the library borrowing comes on right at that peak but it looks like most of the borrowing is just falling off in about three years so that's going to be great Tim yeah I just had a suggestion in terms of what we are approving I have some difficulty approving just the high school track I would like the language to be more like the high school track and or other site improvements something like that so that the ADA stuff and the other than the artificial turf I just would feel more comfortable in approving funds for that purpose rather than just for the track and I'm not quite sure how to word it but that would be a suggestion I think we were told that we're being asked to contribute $800,000 towards option three right specifically and if there's some you know it's improvements to the track and fields okay you know infrastructure but we don't I mean Sonia and team will know exactly what can be paid for and what can't be paid for but if we say it's to contributed towards funding option project option three and they don't raise the money then they don't get the CDA funds and they don't have to be overly right we would just rescind the debt authorization and not borrow so we just go away now I was just more concerned about like from the newspaper to other things what did the CPA just approve and it did not approve funds just for the high school track and approved it for the overall project which is option three the language and when you have like a spreadsheet and Sean spreadsheet said high school track and that's misleading so I would suggest that we are careful in the wording we use as to what we're proving that was my sort of editorial if you will track and fields improvements that would be much more acceptable to me thank you um Andrew I want to echo or agree with Tim I think that's a really good suggestion for optics to tweak the name on that Katie Sean you mentioned that the library is a few years out and I just that I think it's FY24 where it's 500,000 do you think it could start then because it would probably be the debt service might be 150 so the so the estimate for the library so this the earliest the library that would start would be FY24 it could be later than that that could be a tight year that will be the tight year if it does start so the estimate for library debt hold on I've got it here in the first year it would be about 115,000 so and then it would it would stay around that level and trickle down a little bit but so yeah it potentially could be another 115,000 on top of that 120,000 on top of that FY24 number if it starts in FY24 it's very possible it might be one year later which would line up better with some of the other debt obligations dropping off so Sean that could possibly change too if it's part of all borrowing authorization for the library wouldn't that be over more years um because I think we've had that before you mean borrowing over more than 10 years it's part of the main bond it might go over more years and less debt yeah I think we still have options in terms of how long we structure it over so the number could change a little bit um Sam following up on Tim's comment about the fact that it's referencing the larger project option three it might be in our interest to put a comma there and say not not for the purchase of artificial turf as and in compliance with CPA regulations or something on those lines in other words we're going with option three exclusive I think you can just say for the eligible CPA costs of option three and that would give us the latitude we need in other projects we don't yeah that's a wonderful way we pay for what we pay for we're allowed to pay for but in terms of the optics of it I think that taking Tim's comment and also saying for the eligible CPA items would be there'd be no harm in saying that let's put it that way Sean and Sonya the 10 year funding I saw the interest rate at 5% I'm like wow that adds an extra couple hundred grand over the course of the 10 years is there um I'm wondering what your thought process is in selecting a 10 year bond timeframe as opposed to any other alternatives yeah I mean 10 years so I think two things the 5% yeah that's higher than where we've been but interest rates are headed that way unfortunately so we're I think our conservative estimate before was around three and that was conservative a year ago and now it's no longer there so so 5% is sort of back to where our old conservative number was in terms of 10 years I mean we could go a little bit longer you balance paying more interest costs if you extend it out longer and you also got to be mindful of the life of the asset because you can't borrow longer than the life of whatever it is now a track should be good for more than 10 years so you theoretically could stretch it out more but we like to pay off debt as fast as we can let's put it that way I think if we can pay it off quicker we want to but not shorter than 10 years we sometimes go shorter than 10 years but I think when it's a larger project like this then we you know 10 years is sort of our minimum okay it's not up to us anyway yeah I mean we could we could do it so 5 years it would take a bigger bite out of your you know the annual amount that you have available okay so we have not heard from a couple people Dave and Hedy and I just want to make sure you have a chance to say anything you want to hi hi I was just curious to know what would be legitimate CPA funded eligible pieces of this project not just to ask the sort of most obvious question if it's not the actual artificial track what could it be for just as a for instance it is for the track not the turf not the fake grass in the middle not the field and it could not be used for permanent seating but they haven't even proposed that so as far as I can tell the only thing in that cost list that is not eligible is the installation of the turf the artificial turf field all the design work would be covered all the preparation there's a lot in that list well out of 4.7 million dollars or whatever it is I think easily can accommodate or even $957 so I don't think there's a problem there and one more sort of more procedural question so given that the funding is sort of elastic from what I can barely understand of the sort of finance end of all of this just sort of envisioning the actual project would the project be phased in any way that would help funding all of the components of funding or does it have to all sort of come together at one point that's my question I can tell you Dave you can hop on so I don't know if you can phase this it's sort of a project it's sort of contained in a way that you're going to do it all together but I think Doug hop on if you're still there and if I say anything incorrectly but even if this is approved and we get the funding by the January timeline this is probably not a project it's not a project that's going to be ready next summer it's probably the year after next summer so it's still a ways away in terms of when this project would be complete and ready to go is that your understanding too Doug we're looking at summer of this might be ready some time in there yeah I think in talking both with the folks at Western and Samson as well it's just kind of the general understanding of the timelines for things that it would be nice to start design next summer but actual construction would probably start in a perfect world it would be some preliminary work in the fall of next year but I think that's really optimistic it's more likely it will be probably the spring and summer of 24 where the actual construction occurs can I play devil's advocate for a minute so presumably between now and when this project comes to fruition there have to be contingency plans for the people who want to be able to access athletic facilities, high school and whoever else they are working with can you imagine someone coming along and saying oh well you've managed all these years with this contingency plan why would we vote all this money for something else given that there are and I'm being really devil's advocate for the purposes of just this question because clearly people are both not being able to access the things that they've signed up to do so far and also it's going to keep going for a while by the time line I can go ahead Dave yeah so no I think it's a great question and I would jump back to something Andrew said a few minutes ago which is I think we've only heard we in staff and you as a volunteer committee we've only heard from a very small percentage of very frustrated residents of all four towns and athletes but they're out there and we've gotten letters through the years I mean this is really kind of a ten year effort to do this project and I think Andrew's comments reminded me because I've been in this project for so long that it's more than the track it is that field it is that multi-purpose field where you serve young men young women and all of those sports teams including baseball even though it's not a baseball diamond baseball can't get out on fields early because they're too wet so it's lacrosse it's field hockey it's soccer it's ultimate every every sport will take advantage of that multi-purpose field and those athletes are are raring to go I think the key is if we have a plan and we have financial goals I hope and I'm trusting the community that if we have a plan and we reach our fundraising goals as the four communities that they will have the patience to say there is a light at the end of the tunnel if and I trust that will be true and again if the community doesn't reach the goal then the fallback is to do the track and I think that's the key but so be it just on the phasing question to how do you had a great question there which I think occurs to all of us a big part of a project like this is mobilization you want once a contractor mobilizes you want to go because mobilization is a huge cost of this is an earth moving project deep down and fundamentally and then building on that site so once they mobilize you want to go and you want to just you want to get through the whole project so it would be thousand tens of thousands of dollars if not hundreds of thousands of dollars to remobilize for one phase or another so that's very helpful thank you and I'll just quickly add we've been losing a lot of economic activity in town as well just because not being able to hold the tournaments we hold every year at least one of them I know had to be moved to McDuffie and Granby I'm sure Cindy's driving out there loves it they probably get tons of you know walkovers when the ultimate imitational is going on but that used to be held here and it was brought a ton of people into the town so getting back to that as soon as we can I think it's good for the whole town I think also that it's such a wonderful resource if you include the pool the memorial pool and the fact that it's near other walking areas of town you know I use it and I you know I I think there was a way to have it feel like you know people can walk there you know as well as run there or whatever it is they're doing you know for sports you know all all the better you know for it to be seen as that kind of thing you know I often see people just just walking you know just or doing sprints you know and they're clearly not associated with the high school necessarily they're just there for because it's a really nice place to be and you're really really close to town remind everybody this is part you know this was phase one of a multi-phase plan which included like you just described walking trails that would go through the middle school through the high school area and make a nice walking circuit and then you also mentioned War Memorial that would be sort of the next you know it's a phase I know Dave's already been working on this then how do you transform War Memorial and then you've got a really nice center of activity for everybody to use I still want to have that court for the game thank you I'm still voting for that Dave would be happy to sit and talk with you after this about the location the town council already voted that funding so we're working on pickleball but where I think Hedy's saying she'd really love it if it were I wanted you want it in central town not up at Mill River well we're working on that I love Mill River and I totally get it but it would be there too but some day we'll have pickleball all three parts Dave Williams I want to ask Dave Williams if you want to say anything about or the first thing I want to say is I have been listening to the entire conversation I don't know why my computer is behaving the way it is I don't want you to think that I am ignoring what is happening and very interesting conversation and I guess there was one question raised by Tim and I believe that David Zome responded but I guess last it may have been last year in the discussion and David Zome talked about the track and field being a part of the revitalization of the town of Amherst and our focus should not be just that we are looking at athletics for Amherst High School or the junior high school or what have you done given what we have done or we are doing in the towns common all of these things are connected and the field the track and field would also be a part of that to enhance our town and so the challenge now is I have listened very carefully I support the direction we are headed but unfortunately my computer has decided it did not want to be bothered and included me so that is it. We know you are out there computers have minds of their own so Dave? I wanted to thank David for that comment and it was a good reminder but people know how enthusiastic I am about all things Amherst and these projects really get me excited but David your comments were very poignant because a couple of years ago we were saying what is a playground going to do at Kendrick Park frankly we all were like I don't know is it going to be a good thing every day when you go buy that playground at Kendrick Park it is used on to dusk and people are out there it is a family gathering place it is good for economic development likewise that project frankly almost killed me it took so long and staff were amazing but I went down there the other day and lo and behold I couldn't drive down the parking lot because it was so full on one of those hot days but it is transformative for South Amherst and for the people who live on East Hadley Road and everybody who uses that park and again I think Dave Williams mentioned here we want to revitalize War Memorial Pool War Memorial Pool itself is a magnet for a lot of families and folks who maybe can't get away during the summer or can't afford to go somewhere like the Cape or Maine and it is critical for our camps through Amherst Recreation so I just think the investment we are going to make is a generational investment and again if we can make it toward the fundraising goal great if we can't then I think we fall back to a project that will be good it won't be super but we will give it our best shot so thank you David for those comments about the broader community Sarah I would like the record to reflect that Dave the parents of people who spend hours at Kendrick Park would really just have a coffee cart that's my next request every time people would like something to drink that's part of the economic development I know there is a partake of all the coffee shops we need another food we need a coffee cart we need a mobile coffee truck well I think we are ready to vote so I don't know if song is filling one more column in that spreadsheet or we are just going to wing it without the spreadsheet you are muted I don't know what you are saying I can just make I would wing it without the spreadsheet because I don't think I am muted then I am going to move that we approve the regional schools request for $800,000 to be contributed towards funding of option 3 for track and fields improvements including accessibility improvements is there a second second Tim all right second yes was that clear enough anybody Sam you have your hand I tried to make it clear through the years and I am an advocate of this project that Dave has championed and aside from the CPA I really hope and the school committee and Doug and everyone in the boosters are successful in achieving their goals I would not want to see the town revert to option 1 because I recognize the benefit value transfer formative nature in many different ways of reaching option 3 and the key is the reorientation once it's reoriented things will fall into place having said that and having heard the presentations of the uncertainties of funding I wonder if we want to increase the $800,000 to a different amount and if we could even if it were just $50,000 to give an indication that's my mindset I would say that's very generous impulse I wouldn't I don't agree with that I would note that $800,000 is several tens of thousands of dollars in excess of what their current estimated the CPA cost to Amherst is if I remember that the table was like $7,000 extra I thought it was it was $784,000 which was exclusive of the $150,000 already committed that was the number that was given to us $784,000 is the $941,000 less the $157,000 $600,000 okay if I may the regional schools could always come back again if there's a reserve in place next year and there was a shortage of funding or they theoretically could come back again if they wanted to I think it would be best I think it would be better to let that happen because they might need another $20,000 to add the two lanes you know or whatever there might be almost but not quite there I just like the thought of the committee spurring other communities and other sources in my backfire Sam I would say we should all just support the fundraising any other comments on the motion are we then ready to vote I think so so this will be a roll call vote so Sam I'm a yes Katie yes Tim Patty yes Andrew I Dave yes Sarah yes and I am a yes so it is unanimous awesome 8 to 0 that's great yes that is great wonderful I suppose that means there will be a very brief special report to council I doubt we don't need to have any further meetings about it I think it will be very easily accomplished right we have to send it on to council and they'll act on it when it works we can update you on their timeline once we know exactly how they'll slot it they'll have to do a hearing and things like that like they do for the other CPA recommendations so we'll let you know as soon as we know alright well someone else might have to present it so they want someone in person we'll make sure we get it done in time oh thank you okay well Doug looks very happy so yeah I really appreciate it thank you everybody well thank you thank you all for yes for coming and it's what a wonderful way to end the year and thank you again to all the people who are going off the committee who's going off Sarah thank you so much for your service Sarah I love that I'm going to miss you I love Doug and uh heavy you said you're going to that's still the plan the plan is for Robin to come back on yes what I officially am saying is that I've kept the seat warm for her we just had dinner together here she was actually on the call for a little while and we just need to put it to a vote with the historical commission members so just some what's it called you know in-house business that needs to happen so Robin will be back with you in the fall well thank you so much for I've learned a lot and I love this group it's taking care of the heart of the town as far as I'm concerned you know and Anna obviously already stepped off and we're waiting for her to come back but she has made its choice but that has yet to make it through council so there's no one that's been appointed yet and I am rotating off so no what you are I'm done wow Sarah that's a big news you could re-up at large Sarah well yes I could but I think it is but it has been hugely enjoyable it really has this is the best committee we get to give money away and make people happy it's excellent so yeah so Sarah she's an at-large member so you all can encourage folks to apply to be an at-large member otherwise the boards and commissions so thank you so much Sarah Marshall thank you everyone good night meeting is adjourned thank you goodbye everyone thank you Sarah and Sarah thank you Sonia and Sean good night