[Roberta Cameron]: I think that we can call the meeting to order now. It is about 634. This is the meeting of the Community Preservation Committee at the Medford High School Media Center. This is the first evening of presentations for the second round of Community Preservation Act projects for this year. Before we get started, I wanted to remind everyone that there are materials outside the door. We welcome public comment on the projects that are presented both this week and next week. And those comments can be submitted on index cards that are provided outside the door. We have posters that you can write on, as well, to sign your name or write some comments. And if people are watching this recorded from home, we welcome emails to be sent to our coordinator, Danielle Evans. The community preservation coordinator, you can find her information on the community preservation committee's website, either the city website or preservemedford.org. I think that is it for the reminders for this evening. The first item in our agenda is to review and accept the minutes from July 10 and August 14 meetings. Is there a motion to accept the minutes?
[_ywkXQwBNaw_SPEAKER_07]: I just want to note that I did send Danielle an email about a typo.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'll make a motion to approve both minutes. Second.
[Roberta Cameron]: All in favor? Aye. The minutes are approved. And so next on the agenda is to invite our first applicant to come up and you can stand at the podium and we will have some images so that we can see your project as you're presenting. The first applicant is the Mystic River Watershed Association. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_16]: Can you clarify what the people at home are seeing? Are they seeing what's on the screen?
[Roberta Cameron]: I believe that they are seeing what's on the screen. I think that that's at the discretion of the recording, but they should be able to see what's on the screen. Sorry, just one moment. Our format will be to give you about five to ten minutes to present, explain your project, and then committee members We'll ask questions, and then we can entertain questions from the members of the public as well. Thank you. So, introduce yourself, please. Okay.
[SPEAKER_13]: Hi, everyone. My name is Amber Christopherson. I'm the Greenways Director at the Mystic River Watershed Association. I'm not sure I'm supposed to address you guys or the audience, but I'll try to kind of do both. Great, so thanks for getting me first on the agenda. I appreciate that. And we'll kick off the presentations for the next two days, I guess. So a little bit about our organization. The Mystic River Watershed Association has been around since 1972. We work to protect, enhance, and restore the Mystic River, the tributaries, and the watershed lands within the Mystic River Watershed, which is 21 cities and towns, about 600,000 people. And so we work with thousands of volunteers a year. I myself am a landscape architect, and I lead our participatory design and public outreach components at MIRA related to the Greenways Initiative. So this map summarizes the scope of our work and our vision, which is for 25 miles of connected linear parks from the Mystic Lakes down to Boston Harbor. And that's what I'm here to talk about today, is an effort to improve the shoreline linear park for the Mystic Lakes. So how many folks here have been to the Mystic Lakes? I assume most folks, if you live in Medford, I hope you've experienced them. And we do a lot of work there related to the herring migration every year. We do a lot of activity at the dam. And so maybe we'll go to the next slide. There we go. So this kind of shows the scope of our work, which on the map on the left is showing a one mile segment along Mystic Valley Parkway. That right now is a series of kind of desire lines. So it's dirt paths where you can see people have run, walk, maybe bike on the dirt part, I'm not sure. I think most bikers tend to use the shoulder there to move up and down that length of road. And so our proposal is to create or take on a feasibility and concept design for the shared use path, looking at how to make it a more accessible path for people walking, biking, anything on wheels. along this one mile road, and also to look at potential overlooks and vistas so people can interact with the lakes a little bit better. The map I'm showing on the right is relevant in the sense, if you look up here, Actually three years now, DCR took on something called the Urban Path and Parkways Study, which the scope is shown there. And it was looking at parkways that DCR owns that lack the appropriate biking and pedestrian accommodation. So this segment is actually part of that study, which is being released later this fall. So it's good timing in the sense that DCR has looked at very high-level recommendations for how these parkways can better accommodate walking and biking, and this would be a follow-up to those recommendations to move towards implementation. So let me see what I have in my notes here. A little bit about the community process. One thing that our organization has been doing is utilizing CPA and other communities to move our Greenways vision forward. So to date we've received $450,000 between Arlington and Somerville CPA to do very similar work where we're taking Kind of what's been studied very high level in some sort of master plan that the state or city has taken on and say, let's take this idea and recommendation to study this area more and move it forward. And so we're using a similar model here where we're proposing a $60,000 proposal to kind of take the first chunk. of this longer-term capital project and start to build a vision, do community outreach, and that's really what we lead with in all communities. So this will be built on robust engagement with the community that includes site walks, public workshops, online surveys, kind of a range of different community outreach that reaches, you know, in some ways we target at Butters, the people that live right there, and then also just broadly the Medford community. And then just for a side note, I'll show a couple images, then I'll talk about DCR. There's just an image of people running in the road. I think some people like to run on dirt, but not everyone does. And that's one thing that this first phase of design will take on is, what will the surface be? Will it be stone dust? You have to think about erosion, slopes, things like that. and what can accommodate the wheel components. I think that's really what's lacking here is it's hard to get strollers, wheelchairs, bikes close to the lakes. And then the next slide shows just, oh. Oh, you did? Oh, that's okay. There was just one other image of sort of what could be further leverage, which was a tiny view through the trees of the sailboats, and not exactly a place where you can physically get to the water's edge. So I think that's something that this would look at, hence why we're calling it a linear park, because it's more than just a walking and biking trail. It also includes that open space component. So as far as working with DCR, this is something that we've been building a relationship for I've been at Myra doing this work for two and a half years, and so typically what we do is say, hey, DCR, we have a chance to get some local funding. We'll take this on. We work with DCR. We include them on the steering committee. We help them draft the RFP to select the consultant and kind of push them that way and add to their capacity of what they're able to do. I know that there were some questions sent to me earlier about, like, are there matching funds? How are we going to handle construction in the future? Because it is a longer-term process, a project like this. And typically what has kicked it off in other communities is always the CPA funding. And it's that seed funding that really allows us to understand the technical issues, understand the community needs and ideas and potentially roadblocks, and then move it forward. What we've been doing with DCR is laying out, OK, for the next three to five years, where can we fit this project in the capital, your capital plan? And the other thing that's recently happened that's really great is Governor Baker has committed to the recreational trails program. And the funding for that has doubled in the last few years. And so kind of getting in on that state funding could be huge. And what we found is For example, in Arlington, we have CPA funding to do a linear park and park redesign process that we were at schematic design in the spring and then the state MVP funding came out and we jumped on that and we got $400,000 to build a part of the park because there were flooding issues, so we tied it in with climate resiliency. You kind of never know where the funding might come from. I think the city kind of has to be a key player in saying we're committed to this and trying to get the state to come along. The fact that it is part of the state's priority in some way, in this case related to the parkway, is a good thing. DCR has also committed to this Mystic Greenways effort. I don't know if you guys have heard of the Clipper Ship Connector, I hope you have. We've been working with the city and the state on that project to build a gap in the network right near Medford Square so that people can stay along the river and continuously run, walk, bike. the Mystic, Alewife, Mystic Lakes, all the way to the Malden River. So that's what that regional map was showing that this is a part of. So I think that's it in a nutshell. There was a question maybe about DEP stormwater requirements. I don't know if I should just jump into that. So in this case, there's no specific outfalls that we'll be addressing, but there are inherent stormwater issues, and because this is likely in, well, it's in the floodplain, it'll be subject to the Wetlands and Riverfront Act. And we'll be working closely with the Conservation Commission in Medford to look at what requirements we need to meet for that. There are existing erosion issues that we hope this path can solve, actually, as far as stormwater is concerned. And we will be looking at, again, surface treatments around what's better for runoff, but what can withstand the sort of use levels that we anticipate. And what will come out of this first phase is identifying all the permitting that will be necessary in future. as the project moves through the design phase. So, I think that's it. Hopefully I didn't go too far over my time. That's fine, thank you.
[Roberta Cameron]: Yeah. Are there questions from the committee?
[_ywkXQwBNaw_SPEAKER_07]: Sure. Since you just spoke to stormwater, I'll just jump right in there. Are you planning to have impervious or pervious pavement?
[SPEAKER_13]: Well, that's what I was just saying. I think we haven't decided what the surface would be. I got a couple estimates from engineering firms who have done similar types of projects, and they basically walked the site once, and were like, I could see stone dust being a nice alternative, because what DCR is doing a lot of now is the paths that are closest to the river are a little bit more natural, so there's stone dust, they're slightly pervious. You just have to be wary of where rutting out might happen.
[_ywkXQwBNaw_SPEAKER_07]: But there is a... There is something between stone dust and pavement. There is porous pavement.
[SPEAKER_13]: Yeah, and then there's also porous pavement. So there's a spectrum, which I would also say every year there's new technologies that DCR has been employing. In fact, one of the engineering firms, Hatch, that gave us an estimate is working on the path that's on top of the MBTA seawall on the Mystic River, like the lower Mystic River connecting Boston and Somerville. And that's using a porous pavement, also because there might be some shifting with the seawall, so they're working on the latest technologies related to that. So I think that's something that this phase would kind of look at and say you know in some ways the the desire lines that people have carved out are showing where the path should probably go but you know it's still worth looking at what's the best alignment.
[_ywkXQwBNaw_SPEAKER_07]: So it's not just new outfalls that need to meet stormwater standards it's any new impervious surfaces. Right. Though I think for pedestrian pathways there's There's some kind of exemption. I can't remember the width. It might be a six-foot width.
[SPEAKER_13]: Yeah. And I was working on this with another project with niche along the river, and there was a long list of the different permitting. And in that case, it was more about, is it Chapter 91 DEP? But here, it's not titled.
[_ywkXQwBNaw_SPEAKER_07]: This would clearly need to go before the commission. Yeah.
[SPEAKER_13]: And it's really laying out, what are all the permitting issues? Is there any kind of Army Corps? Because it's in navigable waters. I don't think so here. just laying that out and knowing what's ahead of us. And that's also the reason, we've had the question, why not just apply for all the design mending you might need now? But we found it's helpful to take it in chunks and then understand where you are to get to the next phase. So, thank you. Yes, Doug?
[qIvMl_-GSJQ_SPEAKER_17]: A couple of quick questions. You mentioned the path between Whole Foods and Winthrop Street, recently constructed, has been, I think, extremely popular and well used. I actually walked it this morning to Medford Square. I passed through 200 Canadian geese on the way, which has been, I felt like I was going through Jurassic Park when I did it. I don't know if that informs the surface, but it's kind of a... That's about the vegetation around the path, the plantings.
[SPEAKER_13]: That's a lot of lawn there. It's a lawn and path at the very edge of the river. It is mostly lawn.
[qIvMl_-GSJQ_SPEAKER_17]: That's right. It's very popular with the geese. But you mentioned about a three to five year potential cycle for construction as a ballpark.
[SPEAKER_13]: Towards implementation, yeah. So again, it's informed by how we're working with DCR and CPA projects now, and it seems like it's Taking, you know, two to three years to design and that includes getting through permitting and during that time It's continuing to look for capital funding and for the projects like this Are they typically funded with a mix of city and state funds? Yeah.
[qIvMl_-GSJQ_SPEAKER_17]: Okay, so your sometimes we'll find private funders if they exist in that area what would you expect Medford to put up as their percentage if you will if you had to just give an estimate based on experience and
[SPEAKER_13]: Frankly we're trying to get the state to pay for more Particularly because we can say look how much the city's already committed from CPA funding, right? My guess is and I feel like you just never know what these projects with what the soil comes up with and other challenges, but this will probably be like a million, a million and a half capital funding. And the goal would be to try to get that in the state, the state's capital plan.
[qIvMl_-GSJQ_SPEAKER_17]: I don't think this land was ever built on in Medford's history. I believe originally the original 50 acres were actually donated by the Brooks Estate family, which is why it was undeveloped for more than 100 years, I think, at the time. So I guess I'm not expecting what you might find in a lot of urban sites.
[SPEAKER_13]: Yeah, I don't think so.
[qIvMl_-GSJQ_SPEAKER_17]: Any issues with soil or mitigation or anything like that, I don't believe.
[SPEAKER_13]: Right. And the state typically doesn't do soil testing for contamination. They just pay over parts of it. Okay. So they're very wary of that. Good to know.
[qIvMl_-GSJQ_SPEAKER_17]: Okay.
[Roberta Cameron]: Thank you. Other questions from the committee? I have a question for you. So I think that there's a very clear case that this is actually a linear park and not a sidewalk. That's something that we're cognizant that CPA has gotten in trouble in the past for communities that claim that sidewalks are or a recreation feature. So I just wonder if you can elaborate a little bit more on what is the separation from the roadway and what is the distinction between this project and a sidewalk?
[SPEAKER_13]: Right, well I think a very obvious one would be the land ownership there and it being part of the Mystic River Reservation and actually designated as DCR publicly owned land. And even the roadway is owned by DCR. So if you consider the cross section all the way from the existing sidewalk in Medford, which I, along those communities there, I would assume is owned by the city of Medford. And then as soon as you hit the road, which is the parkway, it's owned by DCR and all the way through to the resource area. is public land. I mean, you could also get into, I mean, I think that might be more compelling than the fact that it's recreation and walking and biking and a path with benches, because a sidewalk could have that, I guess, as well. But I think it's a pretty clear-cut situation.
[Roberta Cameron]: OK. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_13]: And the other thing I'll say, not to open up a can of worms, but I do know that crosswalks also get, you can't really include crosswalks. I think we can't ignore crosswalks that need to happen because of this path, particularly at High Street and some other, I was gonna say mid-block, mid-lake crossings. But I think we could throw out recommendations for that and not have any issues with is it eligible for CPA funding.
[Roberta Cameron]: Yeah, I imagine that their inclusion in the design is a different level than actually construction.
[SPEAKER_13]: Yeah, the same thing's happening in Somerville. We're redesigning Blessing of the Bay Park where the boathouse is in Somerville, and that shore drive, well, was owned by DCR, now it's kind of owned by the city of Somerville, so there's a lot of ownership discussions, but it's a similar thing where we're not looking at the crosswalks there, but we did include crosswalks in our design to think about how the community connects to the park.
[Roberta Cameron]: Okay. Thank you. Any other questions?
[SPEAKER_12]: Yes. Hold on one second. Your name for the record? Okay. Yeah. Yeah, and it's really the town boundary the city boundary as I understand you can't go outside city boundary for this funding however I
[SPEAKER_13]: There is, albeit old, but there is paving that starts in Winchester. You can tell where the line is. What we've also found is once we start initiating this project and we're looking at ... It would be great if we could connect up to Shannon Beach and say, Shannon Beach to High Street. But bringing Winchester on board, like this is what we're doing right here. And once we improve this path, now your path is gonna be old and outdated. So we're hoping that it'll kind of spark connections beyond that. But that's really the line. So it's right above the dam. To High Street. To 60, yeah. And again, there's some improvements that need to happen on that other part of the river coming up to that. But then it's also in Arlington on the other side. So dealing with the municipal boundaries can be difficult. OK.
[Roberta Cameron]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_13]: Thank you. All right. Thanks. I also did bring a card and some maps if anybody wants one. Anyone? Here, you can take one and pass if you want. But that's like the same map that was shown on the first screen. Thank you. And I do have to head to another meeting in Arlington for CPAP. So I'm sorry to leave early. Thank you.
[Roberta Cameron]: Good luck.
[Unidentified]: Thank you very much.
[Roberta Cameron]: All right, so we'll invite the Medford Historical Commission to take the podium next.
[SPEAKER_11]: Hi, everybody. I'm Jennifer Keenan. I'm the co-chair of the Medford Historical Commission. And, you know, our job at the commission is to, you know, help preserve and protect our history here in Medford. And, you know, when we were thinking about an application for CPA, we tossed around a few ideas. And one of the projects that had been on our wish list for some time was the slave wall, which is on Grove Street. And, you know, the project kind of evolved from just looking at the wall to looking at the entire park in and of itself. So, I think we can start with the wall kind of as the problem child, for some lack of a better way to describe it. You know, it's a beautiful site here. The wall was part of Thomas Brooks' house. It was built by his slave. The clay for the bricks was used from the shore of the lake there. The worst thing about the wall is that you have to stand in the middle of Grove Street to admire the wall and actually read the marker. And anybody who knows Grove Street, I live on Grove Street, so I walk by this every day. And you're trying to stand there to read it, and there's an incline up there, so if you're trying to get close to the marker, if you have bad eyesight like me, you're kind of on this hilly terrain. there's no sidewalk there and there are cars whizzing by you behind you coming up Grove Street and so you know I just think as a resident of Grove Street as somebody who lives in the neighborhood that the wall just gets lost amongst you know it just looks like a big brushy piece of woods there and you know if you're on the sidewalk across the street you may or may not pay a lot of attention to it you might think it's part of the commuter rail fence and whatnot. So when I started to dig into the application and the project and I did some more research on the wall itself and really discovered that there's a six acre park here that was all of the land that Thomas Brooks owned himself. And the park is part of, it's one of the 15 sites of the Brooks estate and all of their influences here in Medford. And so as the project evolved, it just made more sense to look at the park in its entirety and not just the wall itself and the marker. I'll be, I think we can agree that these are probably the most important parts of it. But there is a larger, I don't know if you have a picture of the site. Okay, yeah. There is actually, I don't know if you can see it in your packet. Towards the end, I included some photos. You can see there's a, you know, kind of a really nice wedge of green space here that, again, just gets lost amongst Grove Street as Nothing. And there's some makeshift foot trails in there, and there's this beautiful kind of open field that, you know, when you take a step back and kind of look at the whole site, it just made more sense to come up with a master plan to actually develop the entire site. And what could this park be? It could have some beautiful seating arrangements. It could have a water element. Certainly an interpretive panel on Mr. Brooks and his family and his contributions to the city of Medford. And one of the main goals of the park itself would be to turn the marker around so that you're accessing it from the inside and not on the road. Be able to get up close to the wall, really investigate it, move some of the brush away, and just get in there and enjoy it. And so again, when we're looking at the whole park in and of itself, it just made more sense to come up with perhaps a parking area. And so really the application evolved from there and now we're looking at it as an entire master plan for the park and having a design concept created for the park and how could this space be used. Thank you. Sorry, I feel like I rambled. Not at all.
[Roberta Cameron]: That's perfect. Questions from the committee?
[Bm5-jrZInBw_SPEAKER_07]: This is a really stupid question. Which one is the wall, the brick or the stones? Yes, this side.
[SPEAKER_11]: So this is the actual slave wall itself. And then the marker on the left is a piece of granite with a bronze placard on it, which is the marker explaining what the wall is. It's funny they just put a speed bump on Grove Street kind of down a little bit so it you know now the cars don't come whizzing by quite as fast but literally the day I was there taking photos you know I'm like kind of standing on the wall trying to take photos and there's cars coming behind me and you know it's just kind of one of those moments where you think to yourself who put this here and why did nobody think to turn it around so that you're not standing in the middle of the road to be able to read it.
[_Zabvvh8vxM_SPEAKER_18]: Yes. Could you talk a little bit about how the property will be Could you talk a little bit about how the property could be accessed or would be accessed?
[SPEAKER_11]: Yeah Sure, so there's actually kind of a makeshift area now that Because the they do go in and there's a kind of a big grassy area and the city I assume it's the city goes in and they mow the grass every once in a while. So there's a makeshift kind of like road that goes in there and And so one of the things that I talked to the landscape architect about, I had a representative from Shadley and Associates out of Lexington, they had done some projects around Medford and other communities, kind of some of these larger park concepts. So I had Pam Shadley come out with me, we walked the site, and we do envision some sort of maybe a little mini driveway and a couple of parking spots there so that if somebody wants to come from a different part of town to enjoy the park, especially any residents or any visitors to the main Shepherds Brooks Manor. And I think it's important to try to tie the two sites together because our goal, I'm also on the Brooks Estate Committee, I am the liaison from the Historical Commission to the Brooks Estate Committee, And, you know, our goal is to get more visitors up to the manor and to make that a functioning space and, you know, generating revenue for the city. And this is such a short walk away, you know, it would be great to be able to let people realize that, you know, they're tied together and that they could, you know, not only go to the main manor, but go down the street just a little bit to, you know, another family members and read about them and learn about them as well. So, whether it's somebody coming from out of town who parks and, you know, visits the manor and they want to drive down and park at the Thomas Brooks Park. So, we do envision, you know, perhaps a couple of parking spots there at some point and a little area to pull in. Yeah, I think the access would be, you know, it makes more sense to come in that way. You know, I don't know if it's ultimately going to be, you know, probably towards the lower end of the park. I think probably right by where the little speed bump is now or at the other end where there's almost a little makeshift driveway right now. There isn't a curb cut there. So, you know, I think we'd have to work with the city to figure that that out. Yeah, there'd be some sightline issues there because that's again that road it's very tough there it curves It's not straight and I think when you're coming over the bridge I don't know that necessarily having the the entryway right there would be feasible because Someone's gonna fly over the bridge and not realize someone stopped I suspect it's further south as you said, but that's again That's part of the study right is to figure out where could it go?
[qIvMl_-GSJQ_SPEAKER_17]: Where should it go? It probably wants to align without the streets that you create an intersection obviously not offset right and we also
[SPEAKER_11]: The landscape architect and myself, we were talking about access from the neighborhoods across. There's beautiful residential neighborhood across. And, you know, a couple of crosswalks there, perhaps some lighting there at some point too could be amenable to get foot traffic there. Because I think right now, again, like I mentioned, the space just gets lost. And I don't even know that the residents who live almost across the street even realize what's there. And so I think if there's an obvious way to access it and, you know, some nice ways to pull in and say, oh, this is actually something we should pay attention to, would make a lot of sense.
[_ywkXQwBNaw_SPEAKER_07]: Apologies for not knowing the answer to this, but is there an invasive species management portion of the project?
[SPEAKER_11]: Not at this time. I don't think that we at this point realize kind of what's in there. I know we've just done some invasive species management up at the manor itself, that we did some CPA for the Brooks Estates last round. But we haven't quite figured out what's in here yet, so I think that's something that we could definitely look into.
[_ywkXQwBNaw_SPEAKER_07]: I used to ride my bike through there, but there's so much poison ivy.
[SPEAKER_11]: Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if there's some naughty stuff in there.
[_ywkXQwBNaw_SPEAKER_07]: A lot of Norway maple and a lot of frozen ivy. Yes.
[SPEAKER_11]: And I guess at one point, and I'll be looking to my fellow commissioners and the folks at the Brooks Estate to research this a little bit more, there was a bank of elm trees that was quite beautiful and very visible from that park. which clearly have all been grown in, and so I think if there's a way to make those elms visible again, and you know, it could be quite beautiful if we could bring those back to life and make them purposeful there, that they were purposely planted and meant as kind of an access way and a, you know, eye point of contact for visitors.
[SPEAKER_18]: Is part of the thought to restore the slave or just preserve what's there?
[SPEAKER_11]: I think just preserve what's there. I think we would also make sure that if there is any deterioration, perhaps we need to look at that in the future. Right now, you can't even get to it, so I think it would be hard to answer that fully. But once we clear the brush all away, if there is any repointing that needs to happen or The wall, if you look at it from kind of, you know, the end and you're looking, it definitely kind of canters a little bit, but that could be purposeful. I'm not 100% sure that it wasn't always that way. I'm sure it wasn't, you know, they didn't have a level when it was built.
[qIvMl_-GSJQ_SPEAKER_17]: I do worry about it tumbling into Grove Street. That's what I fear when I drive by that thing every time because it's clearly No one's really taking care of it, right? I mean, I haven't seen anybody working that on that that wall in at least 20 years that I can remember And I think it can't be emphasized enough, because I know you mentioned at the beginning, but this and the Royal House are the two most prominent pieces talking about slavery in Medford. And this is absolutely critical that people know what this is, understand it, along with the Royal House. The Royal House has reinvented itself, obviously, in the last 20 years to refocus their whole mission. And I think a similar thing can start to happen here to make this site and the story behind it which we really don't know a lot about. I know some of it. You've done some research as well. But there's definitely more out there. The history of slavery in Medford is just not well documented. And this is an opportunity to re-engage that whole issue on a beautiful piece of property that is wildly underutilized right now.
[SPEAKER_11]: Right. And you know, and it is, I would think my personal opinion is that it's, it's in really good shape, considering it hasn't been taken care of. But I, you know, we want to maintain it, we don't want it to crumble into the street. And I and again, I think just the opportunity to make the space all around a beautiful and a welcoming place would be, you know, a great use of CPA funds.
[_Zabvvh8vxM_SPEAKER_18]: And I'm sorry, if I should know this, but the The city owns the property?
[SPEAKER_11]: Yes.
[_Zabvvh8vxM_SPEAKER_18]: And will be, the idea is that it would be maintained by the city?
[SPEAKER_11]: Yeah, I think once it's a fully functioning park, I would imagine that it would fall under DPW purview and whatever their rounds of maintenance are and grass cutting and whatnot, it would fall under them.
[_Zabvvh8vxM_SPEAKER_18]: Are there any other archeological resources on the site?
[SPEAKER_11]: You know, that's a good question. I think that that, when we, if we're able to clear it away and, you know, certainly if there's any digging that's gonna be happening, if we decide to do some other elements of the park and, you know, grading has to happen and digging that, you know, certainly if there's anything there that we can find and preserve, we would include that in the proposal.
[SPEAKER_01]: You had a question? My question was about maintenance and who owns the property.
[SPEAKER_11]: Yeah. Okay. Yeah, the city owns it for sure.
[Roberta Cameron]: What do you see as the next step after this master plan is completed, then what happens?
[SPEAKER_11]: So my envision is, my thought is that, you know, well, it'll be, this is almost a phased approach, so the first part is the actual, you know, some sort of master plan, and then, you know, I think working with the Historical Commission and MBELT, does the rendering of whatever the landscape architect provided, does that work with our vision and what we want to do and how we see it? Does any tweaking need to take place? Do we need to go broader, wider, bring in other vendors? And then I think it would be a phased approach to actually implementation. And what does that look like? Is it focusing on the wall and the marker first? Is it a larger green space? Is it an access point for parking? I think depending on what it turns out to be or what some of the ideas are, Then we can start to look at at phases and certainly we would want to bring the community into it as well You know the the butters and the neighbors what do the folks in that could access it by foot? What would they want to see? How would they like to use the space? Are they looking for green space to go sit and read a book? Are they looking for a place for their kids to play? I think it could be a myriad of things, you know, we have a really beautiful jungle gym over at play said Park, which is not a that far behind, you know, down Bustle. It's a little bit of an easy walk from all of us over there. So maybe the park, maybe the Brooks Park is something different, you know. Maybe it's just a nice quiet place to sit, have a picnic, read a little bit, learn some history. So I think we need to figure some of those things out.
[Roberta Cameron]: Actually, that was gonna be my next question was what do you envision for public input in the process?
[SPEAKER_11]: Yeah, we would definitely want the neighbors involved for sure And then I and anybody really, you know, this is a green space in Medford It could be my hope is that it's accessed by the whole town. You know, there's part there's parking there And people would come and enjoy it. So what do you know? We have a lot of beautiful parks in Medford and I think thinking of what needs are being addressed in certain parks and what are the holes and can we fill in some of those holes here.
[qIvMl_-GSJQ_SPEAKER_17]: I think it's probably comparable to the road design at the Brooks Estate in terms of its process that we looked at in phase one, I'm sorry, round one of the CPA because there's clearly dozens of stakeholders who would need to be involved, engineering, even historical society, the abutters, OCD, engineering. I mean, there's so many people who need to be part of this discussion about what that park becomes. It's quite a shopping list of people from what I gather. Because we're just starting to think that through right now on the road.
[SPEAKER_11]: On the road, right.
[qIvMl_-GSJQ_SPEAKER_17]: And it's comparable. It's almost the same size. The driveway. That's right. Thank you for correcting.
[SPEAKER_11]: The driveway. Yeah, and I think, you know, there could be some elements there that once, for example, once the driveway is designed and we know what's going to be happening up at the manor, then perhaps some ideas for the park fall out of that. If X, Y, and Z is happening over here, a mile down the road can be X, Y, and Z over here. So I think that the timing of this while we're kind of thinking of both sites and actively pursuing money and projects for both sites, the timing is good where we can all work together to make them work together.
[Unidentified]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_01]: How involved is the Community Development Office with this? I mean, besides the obvious preservation of the wall, it seems a little bit beyond the scope of the Historical Commission on its own.
[SPEAKER_11]: Yeah, I mean, to my knowledge, they haven't been involved in this at all. And, you know, when creating the proposal, I did not reach out to them. You know, our thought at the Historical Commission is that, you know, this is something that we wanted to implement and start. And I think, you know, us and EMBELT working together, I think, is a really good place to start. And then, you know, as Doug mentioned, we'll pull in other folks as needed. You know, we have seven members on the Historical Commission. I think we're a really great body, and we all come from all walks of life and professional backgrounds. And I think, you know, when we were discussing this and kind of reviewing our final application, we all thought that this is something that, as a group, we could manage together and at least, you know, get the ball rolling as far down the road as possible. And, you know, we can just do it on our end.
[Roberta Cameron]: Thank you. All right. Thank you. Thank you guys.
[Unidentified]: Thank you.
[Roberta Cameron]: The next project is Oak Grove Cemetery historic landscape rehabilitation.
[SPEAKER_12]: Hi there. Introduce yourself please. I'm Abigail Salerno. I'm also from the Historical Commission. And this application comes from the Historical Commission working with the cemetery trustees and the Medford tree warden. Were you able to include pictures from this afternoon? No. Okay, I have some recent pictures. Three sets of trees. A stump, a tree that's already been removed. Some trees that are clearly sort of truncated and dead in front of a mausoleum. They are obviously marked to be removed and partially removed. Their limbs are missing. And then the third photo is trees marked to be removed that still have their limbs but are clearly unhealthy and dying. The trees in the photos and the trees in the application are all located over here in the in the rock garden portion of the cemetery. That's the original land that was set aside. It was designed by a landscape architect in the Victorian period to be a public park, to be a place where people walked, where people enjoyed outdoor space in a very sort of manicured, a relatively manicured type landscape. It's not the fells, it's not a ball field, it's not a playground, it's a quiet and somewhat formal space. And right now there are 20 trees in there that are sort of in various states as shown in the photographs. either they've recently been removed, they're slated for removal, or they're obviously unhealthy. So the application is applying for money to replace those trees and also to install in the cemetery an informational kiosk that can focus and capitalize on what the Historical Commission thinks is sort of significant community interest in using this space. Obviously, local historians, genealogists visit the cemetery, people visiting, graves of family members visit the cemetery, but the cemetery also hosts joggers, people with strollers. It is plowed all winter, so people enjoy using it in the winter. people learn to drive in the Elk Grove Cemetery. Or at least they remember fondly having learned to drive or having learned to ride their bicycles. So there's a really strong sentimental attachment to the cemetery as a whole. People learn to ride their bikes. Seniors take prom pictures there because it's one of Medford's only formal gardens. in some ways. It has flowering plants and then it has trees that are intentionally placed in a designed landscape that creates beautiful views and vistas as you walk the paths in the rock garden section. Boulders, sort of these picturesque points of interest that were designed by the original planners. It's a space a lot like Mount Auburn or Forest Hills. It has that feel. And it could have some of the same uses and some of the same popularity that those places have. So the informational kiosk is pulled together. It would have a guest book. Hopefully it would set out some of the guidelines for using the space, make people feel welcome, let them know that by being there and using the space, they were following the rules. People often feel like they're trespassing if they go in the cemetery. We want to dispel that while at the same time telling them, yeah, don't leave a mess. Stuff like that. So two parts. replacing about 20 trees, and then erecting an informational kiosk.
[Roberta Cameron]: Thank you. Any questions from the committee?
[Bm5-jrZInBw_SPEAKER_07]: So is it all in that area on the Winchester line down here?
[SPEAKER_12]: There are 20 trees in that area that are in the process of being removed. There are same type of trees throughout the rest of the cemetery that are in trouble, but there are much far fewer trees in the rest of the cemetery. It's sunnier, it's more open, so there might be like five or six in the cemetery as a whole. on the larger part of the cemetery. It's sort of disproportionately over here that the trees exist. Right.
[Bm5-jrZInBw_SPEAKER_07]: Does that fountain work? What? Does the fountain work? Does the fountain work? I see a fountain, or maybe it's just Fountain Road around us.
[SPEAKER_12]: There is a fountain. There's beautiful sculptures in the cemetery. There's a fountain. There's a beautiful set of stone steps that lead down to Winthrop Street. These are huge projects. Cemetery, if it developed friends of the cemetery group, or if it continued to engage the public, should and could work on, that is not where we are starting. We are starting with replacing some stumps. It's such a beautiful place. I've never been to that area. And it does, at this point, take knowing about it and intentionally going to it. You can drive into the cemetery and immediately head to the more contemporary area on the left without noticing that we have this historic landscape over in the corner. And I think, as Jen was saying, it really is a kind of space that we don't have a lot of in Medford. We have beautiful parks and playgrounds, and we have the fells, but this is historic and it's formal in a way that isn't something you'd find in other parts of Medford's sort of greenscape map.
[_Zabvvh8vxM_SPEAKER_18]: And who does the maintenance now and who will do this project?
[SPEAKER_12]: DPW is happy to replant the trees that we can fund. They currently do the raking and the maintenance of what's there. They were the ones that gave us the price for replacing the trees. I do think that they could be helped and supported by, again, an ongoing friends group, especially if we wanted them to do more in terms of maintaining the historic quality.
[_Zabvvh8vxM_SPEAKER_18]: And there's no friends group right now?
[SPEAKER_12]: Nope. And in fact, I think they They have a trustees group of three. They would like to have more trustees. They lost a trustee. They gained a trustee. There's still a trustee short. I think that there's a lot of work to be done in getting people to understand that the cemetery is something that if we value, we can contribute.
[Roberta Cameron]: Other questions? I had a couple of questions. One of them was the kiosks. The kiosks, I understand, are kind of a capital investment in building the structures themselves, but they will be populated with materials that are more transient in nature. Can the cost of the materials be another source of funding be used for those transient materials so that the CPA funds are focused on the capital improvements? Do you understand what I'm asking?
[SPEAKER_12]: Yeah, I do understand what you're asking. It's going to be a kind of maintenance of the kiosk, just in terms of keeping it up to date and stocked. Who can take charge of ensuring that the materials are kept up to date? Well, the Historical Commission is making this application and is willing to consider either investing that kind of work and funds to it or, again, finding a group of friends to raise that money and keep it viable.
[Roberta Cameron]: And I was also, in reading the application, I'm trying to make sure that I understand the relationship between the Historical Commission, the tree warden, the DPW, of who's managing the project and who's, you know, actually carrying it out.
[SPEAKER_12]: The Historical Commission would be managing the project. It would be me. So far, Dee Morris, the cemetery trustee, has been the person who's given me sort of the most guidance in terms of what she thinks is needed in the cemetery and who she thinks we can work with to get the work done. So it would probably be me and her and Aggie Toon, the tree warden, researching what kind of trees should replace these trees because there's, I think, a case to be made for the same trees. That's what was historically there. Or maybe something that isn't. quite as susceptible to disease because the trees are really unhealthy so making those decisions it would be the three of us and working with the cemetery superintendent who is a DPW employee once we've made those decisions to have them carry out the replanting which
[qIvMl_-GSJQ_SPEAKER_17]: Okay, what are the trees now? What type of trees are they right now? The ones that didn't?
[SPEAKER_12]: I don't know. The tree warden needs to take a trip out and help me make a definitive decision. It's an oak tree, but I don't know like, sure, what kind. And I don't know whether it's something we would want to use as a replacement or not.
[qIvMl_-GSJQ_SPEAKER_17]: Right, I guess part of that is why did they fail?
[SPEAKER_12]: I guess, you know, it's the obvious counter question. No, I think that working on that is something that me and the trustee and the tree warden will be.
[qIvMl_-GSJQ_SPEAKER_17]: I think your comparison to Mount Auburn is interesting because obviously they're of the same vintage when that oldest part of the cemetery was designed and built. Obviously Mount Auburn has a lot more marquee famous people buried there, but if you go there on a fall weekend there are hundreds if not more people. It's like a destination. It's because there's maps and there's information and I know Dee has done tours of the cemetery and they've been really well received. Just to show some of the hidden gems that she knows about, I'm sure there's more to be uncovered.
[SPEAKER_12]: I mean, obviously, the sort of civic ancestors that she's invested in and that people are interested in are one of the reasons people go, but I mean, you have, I would say, maybe 70% of the people who go aren't there to find a specific historic gravesite. They're there because it's a beautiful place. And I was sort of hoping that was sort of the second thing that I wanted the photographs to show, not just sort of state of the trees, but also each of those photographs should sort of give you a sense of how intentional the landscape is, that the missing trees contribute to a very sort of specific view that you get when you're standing like at a particular crossroad of paths or when you're standing looking at a hillside and you can sort of see these arches running through the photographs. You can see in this one, right, this missing tree is part of a line of trees that lines this particular drive. And then here, the drive arches this way, and then there should be an arch of trees going this way, but they're missing their leaves. And then on this one, again, there's sort of an arch of the path going this way, and I'm not sure which is going this way. And yeah, the chair of the historical commission is convinced that the same landscape architect designed Mount Auburn, Forest Hills, and the rock garden part of the cemetery. The historical research that I included in the application doesn't quite make that claim. They're of the same vintage. They're from the same school of thought. They're part of a related movement, but the research from the Historical Society doesn't quite make the claim that it's the same exact individual who designed them. But again, I mean, you look at those photos and they could have come from any really beautiful Victorian garden cemetery of the period.
[Roberta Cameron]: Great. Thank you very much. Great presentations. And so we'll invite you to present on the Hickey Park improvement.
[Cheryl Rodriguez]: I'm Cheryl Rodriguez. I'm here to present the small grant application for the Hickey Park canopy project. I submitted this application through our PTO in cooperation with Brian Kearns, the head of the Medford DPW. I've been a resident about four houses away from this park for more than a decade. I walk there every day with my dog. I bring my daughter there to play and I look at this canopy and I say this is a This is an opportunity to be something. It's like a promise that wasn't quite fulfilled. And pretty much as soon as I moved in there, I started trying to find out a way to make this something. Why is there a canopy over a holy hard mound of dirt and nothing else? And so I found that this canopy was actually donated to the city. This structure is solid and will last us for decades to come. So what we really need to make this a community gathering space, this park is so well loved and used, we could put the canopy right on top of there, put a couple of picnic tables underneath, and we have a community gathering space. We have so many people using this park. We have the Roberts Elementary uses this. The PTO uses it for kindergarten playdates. The MFN is down there. There's at least two daycares that I see walking with the little tow lines down to this park almost daily. We had a pickleball league of seniors this summer that was there that had brought their own folding chairs to sit under the canopy, and they could have sat at a couple of picnic tables and chatted and had a light lunch. The baseball field, the softball field, the tennis court, almost every day there's people there, the basketball courts. This is a well-loved park, and what it's lacking is a place to gather in the shade and just be in your community. a small change that would make such a huge difference in this park and it would be amazing for us. I did check in with the city, Lauren DiLorenzo and community development, the mayor's office and Brian Kearns and the DPW. There are no current projects to on line to change this park. But Brian stressed that if there were suddenly to be some grand plan that he would, this is such a strong canopy structure, that this is something they would uninstall and reinstall either here or somewhere else because this It's just an amazing structure. It's very large. If we put two picnic tables under here, there would still be room for someone to lay out a blanket or for kids to run around. This is just such a huge area that I would love to see more people enjoy. It's kind of a small project, so I don't really know any other questions that you have. The DPW would be installing this. They would be purchasing the materials just through a catalog that we purchased. They would be installed. They would be loved and used by the community.
[_Zabvvh8vxM_SPEAKER_18]: Yes. Would they be, so would they be like regrading or putting any new soil in or doing anything to the surface?
[Cheryl Rodriguez]: Yes, the DPW would be making that a better area.
[_Zabvvh8vxM_SPEAKER_18]: And what would be under there, still grass or?
[Cheryl Rodriguez]: I know they have to cement in the The tables, but there's not a plan to cement the whole area. But they do realize that they'll have to break that up.
[_Zabvvh8vxM_SPEAKER_18]: And would they have to uninstall it and reinstall it, or can they do the work around?
[Cheryl Rodriguez]: There was no indications that they would uninstall it to do this work. Does the canopy need to be replaced? The canopy's got some significant holes. The amazing thing about it is if it's had some holes for 10 years and it's still retained this much. So this is a canvas that pretty much the warranty is about 10 years. But if it's kept well, the DPW thinks it'll last much longer. This one... Had holes in it a decade ago. So it's probably 15 or more years old. So it holds up pretty well It's a durable, you know heavy canvas
[Roberta Cameron]: I have a question. This is something that I'm not really entirely sure myself how the process works here in Medford, but in selecting the picnic table or whatever the furniture is that you put under the canopy, Will the Commission on Disabilities be consulted or is there a process to ensure that handicap accessibility is taken into consideration in the selection of the furniture? I can't answer that question.
[Cheryl Rodriguez]: I know that this park underwent some updates to make it more ADA compliant. Actually, behind that area is where the handicap crosswalk is. They redid some of the pathways, extended them because you couldn't get from Park Street right into the park. You couldn't cross from Brogan to get to the other side for the park. It was harder to access the baseball field. So they did do some changes there already. There is right in front of this is pavement. So I imagine if they had if they needed to put a short jaunt, that could be something that they would achieve. They hadn't really thought that far just What can we put here to make this usable space? Because I wouldn't want to sit under there now. I've seen people put folding tables there and try to jockey them because it's not flat. But right now, it's pretty much unusable. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you. Thank you, Renee.
[Unidentified]: Thank you.
[Roberta Cameron]: All right, that concludes our presentations for this evening. We had one more presentation originally scheduled, but that's been rescheduled for next week, October 2nd. We'll have the second evening of candidate presentations. So we have a couple of other items left on our agenda this evening, mainly to talk about the wrap-up and the next steps for the committee. Is there any comment before we move on? All right. Thank you. You can be excused if you want. You can stay. You're welcome to stay if you wish.
[Unidentified]: Yeah, go celebrate your birthday. Thank you.
[Roberta Cameron]: So I'll give a moment to clear, and then I'll resume. Good night. Thank you. Thank you all. So I wanted to actually just talk about the next steps for now, because we have a little bit of time this evening. We have a shorter set of presentations. So this evening, we could take advantage of that to make sure that we have scheduled the meetings. And I think it would be a good idea to schedule meetings through the rest of the year. I just want to pull out my calendar for a moment. So I have listed what I think are the meetings that we need for the rest of the year. It's not as easy as one meeting per month, unfortunately. We need to have two meetings for deliberation after the presentations are completed. And then I see at least two meetings after that, one of which will be a preliminary discussion about the application process and priorities and criteria review. And then the other meeting is a hearing, public hearing to collect public input on those things. Then we'll also, I think, need a second meeting to finalize to accept our final revision of the priorities and criteria and application process, but that can go into January if we need to. So I'd like to schedule the four meetings, minimum of four meetings, or possibly five through the end of the year. Do we want to meet twice in October, or do we want to have a meeting in October? Do we want to continue with Tuesday evenings? I put some meetings on my calendar, but I don't know whether we had actually talked about those meetings. I have on my calendar October 9th and October 23rd, but I can't find in our minutes that we've talked about that together, so I might have made that up. I have the 9th. You have the 9th?
[SPEAKER_15]: I have the 23rd as a placeholder to be confirmed tonight.
[Roberta Cameron]: Okay.
[Bm5-jrZInBw_SPEAKER_07]: I can do the 9th, but not the 23rd.
[Roberta Cameron]: Okay.
[_ywkXQwBNaw_SPEAKER_07]: I can do both. Andre?
[_Zabvvh8vxM_SPEAKER_18]: I think I can't do that. I'll just double check.
[_ywkXQwBNaw_SPEAKER_07]: And are we meeting on the 2nd also? The 2nd, yes. So that'll be three meetings in October.
[Roberta Cameron]: That would be. Yeah, it is a five. There are five Tuesdays in October. So it's three and five.
[Unidentified]: Mom really wants to see us in October.
[Roberta Cameron]: I'm flexible. Because if we go to the 30th, we're still in October.
[Bm5-jrZInBw_SPEAKER_07]: Can we confirm the 9th? The 9th?
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, the 9th. So the second is obviously the presentations. The 9th we're going to discuss all the presentations.
[Roberta Cameron]: Yes, we're going to discuss them and take a preliminary vote on whether to recommend them. And then the second meeting is going to be to finalize the language and the recommendations before we send it to City Council.
[_Zabvvh8vxM_SPEAKER_18]: I might not be able to do the 23rd.
[Roberta Cameron]: Okay, so ninth, we can confirm a yes. But the 23rd looks like it doesn't work for a few people. And we're missing a few people. So we don't know whether they would be able to make that or not. How about the 30th? 30th? Okay, good here. Alright, so let's cross out the 23rd and put the 30th for the second meeting.
[Bm5-jrZInBw_SPEAKER_07]: and that's for crafting recommendations to the city council?
[Roberta Cameron]: Yes.
[_Zabvvh8vxM_SPEAKER_18]: Just to be clear, we have October 2nd, 9th, and 30th, is that right?
[Bm5-jrZInBw_SPEAKER_07]: Yes. Because there's five. I know.
[SPEAKER_15]: And the 9th and 30th will be at the DPW, not here.
[Bm5-jrZInBw_SPEAKER_07]: Yes. Assuming we get that room right.
[Danielle Evans]: We evicted him one time. We were the first ones to have the idea.
[Unidentified]: Danielle, you have the inside track.
[Roberta Cameron]: City Hall do Then the following meeting or meetings can be in November December we could do one meeting in November and one in December if we wanted Probably preferable to have our preliminary meeting first and then have the public hearing and for the public hearing We need a quorum, but it's something that you can probably watch a video or read the minutes and We can have discussion about it afterward if everyone's not able to attend the hearing It's really a chance to at the City Council No, this is, we're required under the CPA legislation to have a hearing once a year. And I think that, they don't spell it out exactly, but I think that the purpose of that hearing is to let the public tell us what the priorities are.
[Bm5-jrZInBw_SPEAKER_07]: After the round?
[Roberta Cameron]: After the round is completed, before the next application process, we'll collect public input so that we can tell the applicants what the criteria are for, that we're looking for, for the following round. So then we will be able to launch the next round of funding in January. So we need to meet one more time after the, to approve the final application process and update of our criteria before we launch the round. So we could make that approval in early to mid-January and then launch the funding round in later January.
[Danielle Evans]: Another thing to keep in mind is I reached out to the Chevalier Theater folks, and they intend to submit an off-cycle application in November, probably.
[Danielle Evans]: And they still anticipate a mid-January deadline with Mass Cultural Council. So we would have to build in.
[SPEAKER_04]: So if we plan a meeting in December sometime, then that would.
[Danielle Evans]: It looks like it would have to be December.
[Roberta Cameron]: Yeah. So we would.
[Danielle Evans]: So I don't know if we have to schedule another meeting, or if you could just include that. in the hearing? We can include it.
[SPEAKER_04]: I think we could include it if we do a December date, as long as, you know, it's on the agenda. I think we're okay.
[Danielle Evans]: But that's one more item of business.
[Roberta Cameron]: Do we want to have that item of business at the same time as the hearing, or do we want the hearing to be?
[_Zabvvh8vxM_SPEAKER_18]: Although I'm just wondering, I mean, I don't think, I'm not expecting there to be a lot of feedback at the hearing right now that we've done this a couple of times. It's not like we're creating a new plan. It's really just, Right. You know, any course corrections. I can't imagine that's going to be super interesting to a lot of people.
[Roberta Cameron]: Actually, where I expect to get more input is we also would like to have a meeting during the daytime that city staff can come to and invite the staff people to provide feedback on the process. And I think that the people who have been involved particularly in So, managing the projects and helping to get the applications across the table to us will have a lot to say. So, I think we'll probably get more feedback on the application process than necessarily the criteria and priorities.
[Bm5-jrZInBw_SPEAKER_07]: So there's one thing that we need to also be mindful of is that after we have crafted our recommendations we need to set up a Coordinated committee of the whole meeting to discuss remember like we did last year before the City Council meeting.
[Roberta Cameron]: Yes so That's a separate so our timeline is what we've just laid out for what meetings we need to have coming up but in addition to that We will, once we have approved the final language of our recommendations, we will immediately submit those to city council and the city council will want to have a committee of the whole meeting where they'll probably invite the applicants to present again for the city council's benefit. And so there will be, meeting with the Committee of the Whole and then a City Council meeting to approve. So there are two City Council meetings that committee members would be invited to attend, although it's not necessary if you aren't able to make it. And so those will likely take place in November.
[Bm5-jrZInBw_SPEAKER_07]: and captain because our recommendation meeting is on the 30th of October.
[Unidentified]: Yes.
[qIvMl_-GSJQ_SPEAKER_17]: If we stick to Tuesdays, there aren't a lot of Tuesdays in November that there's election day, which is a bad day to do anything.
[Bm5-jrZInBw_SPEAKER_07]: We wouldn't do election day.
[qIvMl_-GSJQ_SPEAKER_17]: There's a week right after there are meetings.
[Bm5-jrZInBw_SPEAKER_07]: You have one week and then it's Thanksgiving week.
[Roberta Cameron]: So, November 13 is probably the date that we need to aim for our November meeting.
[qIvMl_-GSJQ_SPEAKER_17]: I would agree with that. I was also going to ask, we had talked in previous meetings about revising our application process, incorporating that feedback into, after a few rounds, what were the questions raised, clarifications we know about, refining our process, not just what our goals are. are procedural things that would make it better and more understandable for candidates. Yeah. About what's in, what's out, you know, kind of FAQs, that kind of thing that would help the next round.
[Roberta Cameron]: Eligibility corner. What's that? The eligibility corner. Yes. Yeah, so that's what we'll be talking about in November. So, we have our discussion about what we'd like to update, and then we'll have the public hearing, and also a meeting, a stakeholder meeting, and then Danielle and I will work on drafting the revisions, and the committee will approve the final revisions likely in January.
[qIvMl_-GSJQ_SPEAKER_17]: So, is there a December meeting or not?
[Roberta Cameron]: Yes, well the December meeting then will be the hearing and that will also likely be when we would be asked to approve or make a recommendation for the off-cycle application for the Chevalier Theatre.
[Unidentified]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_03]: December 11.
[Roberta Cameron]: December 11th.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's second Tuesday. It's about four weeks.
[Bm5-jrZInBw_SPEAKER_07]: You know, yeah, it's not too crazy to December 11th is for which one for the hearing and the annual Chevalier.
[Roberta Cameron]: Yeah, the annual hearing and the Chevalier theater.
[SPEAKER_02]: So are we thinking will we hold that here or do we hold that at the DPW?
[Roberta Cameron]: The hearing here might be a good idea. What about the fire station? Well, here is beneficial if we want to have it recorded. This is the easiest place for us to have a meeting recorded. And I feel as though it's good to use our cable media when we have something that is explicitly for the public's benefit. Mm-hmm. And we may be able to at that point, since we will have already had a discussion about what we see as potential revisions to the application process and criteria, we might be able to give a little bit of a presentation about what we did this year, what changes we're talking about, and then invite people to provide some input. So we'll give them information as well as asking them for input.
[Bm5-jrZInBw_SPEAKER_07]: um all right great i think that that so we've got i think that over to october 9 october 30 November 13 possible committee the whole meeting and then they'll have to schedule us We'll have to go to some their council meeting their next council meeting likely which may be the 20th may not Yes week of Thanksgiving. I don't have anything scheduled on the 27th of November
[Roberta Cameron]: So none of the projects right now are in a hurry to get going. So if the city council needs to take their time because the holidays get in the way, We can, you know, it may not happen right away.
[Bm5-jrZInBw_SPEAKER_07]: Right. I'm trying to remember also, didn't Ann Marie say there was a sweet spot time of the year for us to be granting stuff? Was it November after the CPA funding was?
[Danielle Evans]: Oh, yeah. Like late October, early November is when DOR certifies the funds. So best to make the awards after that. So we're using known numbers instead of estimates.
[_Zabvvh8vxM_SPEAKER_18]: What was the date, after what date?
[Roberta Cameron]: It was approximate.
[Bm5-jrZInBw_SPEAKER_07]: It's approximate, November something.
[Roberta Cameron]: However, since our requests for this round are so far below the available funding, I think that the margin of error is probably well within what we can do. Right.
[_Zabvvh8vxM_SPEAKER_18]: Which leads me to my question, which is, on October 9th and 30th, do we think we need two meetings to do this? I think we could make decisions and then finalize the language on the same meeting.
[qIvMl_-GSJQ_SPEAKER_17]: Because there are fewer and simpler summaries?
[Bm5-jrZInBw_SPEAKER_07]: Well, we can try. And if we can't, then we'll just keep the other meeting.
[Roberta Cameron]: That's a good point. We can try and see what we do.
[Unidentified]: If Andre makes his magic motion in the first 30 seconds, we'll be out of there in seven minutes. I'm going to have an omnibus.
[qIvMl_-GSJQ_SPEAKER_17]: A proposed language, look at this. shortest meeting in history.
[Roberta Cameron]: It was helpful the last time even though we had the second meeting because of the error that we made in the approvals, but it was also helpful to actually have written out what the language was going to be so that we Because in writing it out, Danielle and I remembered some of the discussion and made sure that we incorporated the discussion about what were the important things that we wanted the projects to include. in that agreement. So we might be able to do it, but we might be able to have two short meetings instead of one long meeting where we try to perfect it, possibly. But we'll see what we can do. Perhaps you might be able to use a doodle poll to confirm everyone's availability, since not everyone is here this evening, to make sure that we can have a quorum for each of the nights that we've spelled out. For now, we'll just include the nights that we've already discussed in that poll. So I think that concludes what we needed to cover this evening. Is there a motion to close the meeting?
[Bm5-jrZInBw_SPEAKER_07]: Motion to close the meeting?
[Roberta Cameron]: Second. All in favor? Aye. Meeting is adjourned.