[Tom Lincoln]: Go ahead, Tom. At any rate, we'll come to order, and Doug has sent the Secretary's Minutes. As usual, I don't have any comments. If anybody else does, then we'll get a motion to approve them. Corrections? Deletions? Okay, I'll take a motion to approve the Secretary's Minutes.
[Zac Bears]: Motion approved.
[Tom Lincoln]: Second. All in favor? Okay. Aye. So financial report, and I want to talk about Mike Oliver very briefly. I sent the usual based on information from him on the balances, I sent the usual snapshot, which hasn't changed much since the last time around. The net is we're about taking away the obligations and the money that's sequestered for the CPA, we're about somewhere over $36,000, which is usually about where we are. Actually takes time to spend money. Doug has just sent me the Banesh invoice. So I'm not sure the numbers here are exactly right in terms of the access drive project. But I'll talk to you about that Doug offline there. I just got it 25 seconds ago. Yeah, so there's a couple things. We'll talk about it very briefly on the CPI. I don't want to get hung up too much on the CPC because we've got a lot on the agenda. So any questions about this? I put down some obligations, minor obligations coming up fairly soon.
[Doug Carr]: Tom, there was really just one is that we've had, I don't know, is it $4,000 or $5,000 that had been set aside back when we were putting the bond together? It seems like that money is never going to go in that direction. Can we legally just put that in our general fund and close out that that whole thing?
[Tom Lincoln]: Oh, I think so. The account is just an ordinary account. I mean, it's our definition. You know, we started that at a time where we're hoping to support the the bond money with our own capital. money, and that obviously didn't happen. So it's just kind of been sitting there. And I mentioned this because I think I sent around a copy of the April statement, which comes to my address and has May Markabrek's name on it at Brookline Bank. So that, you know, that would be a pretty good piece of housekeeping, I think, in terms of integrating that, because one can always do that again if the need, well, the need's there, obviously, but if the timing arrives.
[Doug Carr]: Right, so it sounds like we're gonna consolidate the counts and put them on, obviously, under another name that is not named Marker-Barker as part of this transition.
[Tom Lincoln]: So I just wanted to mention, I did send an email to the board, but Carly didn't hear this yet. Mike Oliver, with whom we've worked, has been very good to us as the assistant treasurer. He handles the banking deposits, handles the, excuse me, paying and sending checks for various vendors, reimburses people, mostly myself, for a number of expenses on behalf of Enbelt. He has said that, I'm happy to hear this, actually, that he'll continue till the end of this fiscal year, which is the end of 2024. So that gives you a little breathing room there. And I had suggested, and you can make this part of a longer conversation. If you want, I'm happy to continue checking the P.O. box for an indeterminate time, because we have a good system set up for that. The P.O. box is you know, the kind of thing where you, you know, you physically got to go there. So, you know, we do, we do, we do get a certain percentage of, of increasing percentage of money on the PayPal. If you have questions, I talk too much, as you already know, cause we spent too much.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to listen first, but I'll let you know any questions later.
[Tom Lincoln]: At any rate, so let's, I'll take a motion to approve the financial report.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Motion to approve financials.
[Tom Lincoln]: Second. Second. Second. All in favor, okay.
[Unidentified]: Aye.
[Tom Lincoln]: Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.
[Unidentified]: Aye.
[Tom Lincoln]: So we can briefly talk about the CPA projects. Doug told me we had a conversation today that the memoranda, that's plural, right? Memoranda of understanding, which have been delayed for months and months, are now forthcoming. So we'll be able to proceed on these projects. Just a brief review, so Carly also knows what's on the list. In no particular order, one is the Grove Street landscaping project, which if people want, I'm happy to carry forward. The second thing is the phase two of the invasives removal, which is going to require some, because so much time has gone by, some further investigation as to where the best place to spend that money in terms of the physical landscape. of parts consolidated from two grants work on the east elevation of the manor, which also includes what we're calling the ADA entrance end of things. Like we've done before with the manor projects, it makes a lot of sense. Doug would agree with this, makes a lot of sense to put those together to get some, one hopes a little better bidding efficiency. There's also, yeah, I'll get to that. I don't think I'm missing any others. I'm sorry, the interior project, which involved, I know this has been going on for ages, involved the lighting and the drapes, et cetera. That's still hung up. There's still about $7,000 sitting that we, It's been an escrow for trying to finish that. We've had no luck at all getting anybody to bid on the other pieces of it and have not found the very rare red French marble for the fireplace. So that'll need some attention, but we've done the majority of that. Anything else I missed? Doug, you want to talk about the access drive? or not?
[Doug Carr]: Yeah, I do. We received the final drawings today. They've completed it. They have the renderings. I can share my screen briefly and show you guys what it looks like to see if you can get a sense of it. I think it looks good. Remember, they had to go back and incorporate a bunch of city input over the last six or eight months. We're dealing with the potential future Oak Grove expansion. We're dealing with just coordination between how Oak Grove would cross the access drive, some of the comments this board made about lighting and other things. Let me share this screen briefly and I'll try to get this. Let's see. These are the drawings that we received today. What's happened is we started to incorporate the seven acres of the estate that is not part of the Brooks Estate, it's part of the future cemetery expansion, and what that means for how to connect them on the drives, which we didn't have originally because we actually weren't sure this was ever going to happen, so we didn't spend the time to design it. So we've done that. There's been some edits up here on the... I'm going to jump to the end because those are the prettier drawings, if you will, that have the renderings of the entry and the landscaping. This is the entry here off of Grove Street. Coming in here, this is the sweep that gets you connected to the Oak Grove Cemetery. You go a little further up, we ended up moving the gate. The gate used to be here. Gate got pushed further back because we needed to allow the Oak Grove and the cemetery expansion to connect across. It's a complete redesign of this portion of the road. Then we have our gate which closes off from dawn to dusk, which is what this area is here. The next drawing is the final revised one showing the manor carriage house, the drive going back here sweeping along to the parking lot, which now has the loop road built into it, and this ADA path that meanders down to the carriage house and manor, which has been extended. This now has bollards along it rather than light poles, so it's a lot less intrusive. Remember, you'll never see this parking lot from the manor or carriage house because it's screened by It's below grade. It doesn't have any sight lines. It's well screened by a berm and these trees and plantings. So all these cars, there's fewer spaces than we had. We used to have 50. We now have 44 because we made some changes. We consolidated things. We needed this drive, which took out a few spaces. And 44, we still think, is enough to get what we need. But this is the final design now. This is what they're pricing. I have final pricing, but it was so high that I hesitate to share it in any detail with you right now, because it's literally millions of dollars higher than, I guess, even my worst case scenario thought it was. So I want to put it out there. I feel like they're They still have contingency of 10%, which for drawings this detailed, I think should be more like two. So that's adding like over 700,000 to that estimate. So I don't want to put this out to the public until I feel like we've picked the tires and pushed back on things.
[Unidentified]: Yeah.
[Tom Lincoln]: Defensible number, yeah. Can I ask a question, Doug? Maybe this will collide in the next item. The actual physical footprint of the parking, is that now less than it was in the original 50 parking area?
[Doug Carr]: It is. Yeah, we lost a few at the end to make the geometry. This road back here didn't exist. We used to have dead end parking. So when we built this road,
[Tom Lincoln]: It's a one-way system.
[Doug Carr]: Yeah, it's supposed to be one way in and one way out. Obviously, the fire department, this was their insistence. It's a good design. It's not a bad idea to have two lanes out for any parking lot. However, we added almost 500 linear feet of road, which is not cheap along here. We know that it's more expensive, Again, we're looking at right now north of 4Million dollars for this whole thing and I'm trying to get this. You know, I was hoping to get it in the 3 something range right now, but right now I'm not having much success. You know, this is not my area of expertise landscape. And civil engineering X, you know, cost per square foot or per linear for it or. for a cubic yard is I don't have any areas of expertise in that.
[Zac Bears]: And that's the full access drive with utilities?
[Doug Carr]: Yes, everything, including the parking lot access drive and utilities. It's literally between two and three times what it was even 10 years ago, which still seems high to me, even with inflation for the last 11 years and COVID. It's just a lot of money right now, and I don't want to scare the city to death by having the cost of this road be something that's unachievable even with a bond. I mean, that's a much bigger bond than we even asked for 10, 14 years ago. Is the parking lot the stone pack? They have an estimate. I just haven't been able to go into the details, Tom. I think they gave us the cost estimate for the final, but I haven't had time. I literally started opening it about an hour and a half ago, and I just haven't been able to get into all the numbers.
[Tom Lincoln]: So maybe I'll suggest that we use that as a segue to the next item, which is the...
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_06]: I have a question. I'm sorry. Doug, can you go back to the slide of the beginning of the road? Did you say the gate is going to be moved from Grove Street?
[Doug Carr]: Well, the gate was always in from Grove Street. It was actually never right at Grove Street because you need to allow cars to come into the space. If the gate's there, they need to be able to do a three-point turn and get out. You can't have a gate at the end of that Grove Street because It's unsafe. It's unique.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_06]: So that will be going away?
[Doug Carr]: Yeah. The gate is just further in than it is. I can open up that drawing again. Hold on a second.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_00]: And then I've got a question after we're done answering this one as well.
[Doug Carr]: Yeah. So this is the entrance here. Here's Grove Street. Here's the entrance. That's the gate, yeah. The gate used to be where my cursor is right here.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_06]: Wait a minute.
[Doug Carr]: It was always that you came in. If the gate was closed, you could do a three-point turn here.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_06]: I thought the gate was at the very beginning at the left.
[Zac Bears]: It's not going to be right now. Right now it's there, but it's going to go away. Yeah, and right now it's back here.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_06]: Okay, so there's an indentation there that is different.
[Tom Lincoln]: Right there, that's the stub over to the potential cemetery expansion.
[Doug Carr]: Yeah, I think that is part of the Brooks estate, the creation of the Brooks estate. We could not get the entire estate, so we had to put aside seven acres of expansion, essentially where the stump dump is, and a little bit closer to Grove Street, but it's still buffered by 100 feet of setback in Grove Street, so you'll never see it. But that is something that is a back of life.
[Tom Lincoln]: Sorry. Can I make one other point about moving the gate, and that is, It's not just the turnaround, but it's on a bad curve there on Grove Street. And I think we can all say that Grove Street has certainly gotten a lot busier, as Jen knows, in the last five, 10 years.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_06]: Oh, it's like a speedway.
[Tom Lincoln]: Yeah, it's a speedway, and it's almost, the site distance is not, but this is much, much safer. And I think, you know, we'll, but we'll still give us what we want in terms of control of the site and nighttime security, et cetera. Carly had a question.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. Audrey, were you finished with yours before I jump in? Yes. Yes. Thank you. Okay. On the cost piece of it, I don't want to belabor this too much because I think it might have its own conversation later, but I'm curious about if this is coming from one quote right now and if we've shopped around or what that process has looked like so far.
[Doug Carr]: Good question. This has done an in-house cost estimate from Benesh Engineering, the people who are doing the drawings. They're telling me they're pulling data from their current projects and mass dot and other things for each of the categories. But I've still got to drill down. I feel that it's just too conservative right now. If we can skim off some of the contingency, but the reality is this, say it was 4 million or 3.5, we're not going to build this road today, right? Exactly. Now, it'll go up 100 and 200,000 a year, it will get to that point very quickly with, if we don't build it immediately. It's always more expensive to build tomorrow than it is today. And the further tomorrow is, the bigger that delta is, as everyone knows, who's tried it.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_00]: And Benesch Engineering is our definite builder of this. Is there any
[Doug Carr]: They're the designers. They're not going to build it.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_00]: We would have to bid it out. Ah, that makes sense. OK. Yeah.
[Doug Carr]: And there's also a landscape architect who did this rendering, and they have historic experience. That's why they got this job as a consultant. So Binesh is a city consultant. They use a lot of civil engineering in the city. But I still have a sticker shot because I just think it's crazy.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_00]: I can see why. Yeah. Okay. That makes more sense.
[Unidentified]: Thank you.
[Zac Bears]: Hold on.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Zach has some comments.
[Zac Bears]: Just wanted to throw something in about the expansion. Tim McGivern did bring it up in his budget hearing last night as something that is a priority for them. It may be happening. There was no timeline or anything, but it was raised in a public meeting.
[Jennifer Keenan]: What was that?
[Zac Bears]: The expansion, the Parcel B cemetery expansion.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Oh yes, I've heard that the cemetery is quickly talking about making that reality. Chomping at the bit. That's gonna be horrible.
[Zac Bears]: They're running out of space.
[Jennifer Keenan]: They're out of space.
[Doug Carr]: Yeah, and this was true a couple years ago too. It's not like... We've seen this coming for a while.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_06]: There's several huge pieces of land that they haven't used yet.
[Doug Carr]: Where?
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_06]: I see it all the time. There's big lawns that haven't been done yet.
[Doug Carr]: But I think there's more to it than not. I've heard that there's some unmarked graves in a bunch of sites. I don't think they're going to go here because this is going to be this outline of a seven-acre parcel. is going to be incredibly expensive to develop.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_06]: Isn't that all ledge? Isn't it all?
[Doug Carr]: There's a lot of ledge there. And they should build a mausoleum. They should be smart about it. But I don't know if they're going to be. But if they're just going to do more of the same, they're not going to get many graves here. They're just not.
[Tom Lincoln]: You know, the fact is, because we talked about it with them, you know, yea, these many years, is that when they did the last major lawn expansion there, on the other side of the pond, that was an ideal place. In fact, they looked at it to do a mausoleum, which is what modern cemeteries are doing, but they didn't wanna do it. I think there's probably, as there was with the original battle to preserve the Berks estate, there's definitely a monument lobby out there, let's just put it that way. And the mausoleum doesn't do much for the monument business.
[Doug Carr]: I would agree with that, but I think we are talking 25 years later, and I think those people have a lot less influence. Oh, no, no. I've been first to say it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And we also made the case that, just for historical reference here, we were open, we preferred to do flat headstones to try to keep the open landscape and the open feel of things, because that's a much different look than a bunch of, you know, stone. going as far as the eye can see. So it's, I think there's design opportunities that should be worth revisiting 20 plus years later when this is developed. They need to, it needs to be kind of a reset. And I think the city needs to look at it with the mausoleum, with flat headstones and any, any other possibilities that would make this much more integrated and not feel like an alien ship has landed in this part of the estate. Yeah. So that's a good conversation with McGivern and frankly, the planning department. This is a planning project. It's not just a cemetery. This is part, Brooks Estate literally surrounds this, right? So I feel like we have more political will now than we had. We didn't even exist when this deal was made. We were still a nonprofit that was on the outside looking in. We've got 25 years of managing this property and doing things. I think we need to be at the table for this design.
[Tom Lincoln]: Absolutely. So perhaps we can move just to the, because it's one of the grants. Remember, we have the money from the earmark plus 100,000 or 99 something grant in the last, it's the same, it's the most recent CPA grants. Because we've been told we have those were awarded because they voted on them at the council. Am I right there? Yeah, I know. Yeah, I'm right. I know. I'm right. I haven't read about something. So, so the question becomes what that number looks like vis-a-vis the numbers that we just because we're because my understanding is that we're going to we're going to try the stone pack and because we've been very happy with it at the manor and and you know use use that for use that for the parking lot rather than, because I think there'd probably be some serious money saving there. But remember that whole thing had a, but we were going to take 150 from the earmark, which has to be used by 2026 and combined with a CPA. So we'd have 250 for sort of what we're calling phase one of the parking lot. But my question becomes obviously, and as Carly explained, there's also going to be a bidding process here. for cost estimating. But, you know, does that grant look like it's blown out of the water because of higher costs from what we just got from Benesh?
[Doug Carr]: I'm not saying, well. The parking lot as a standalone project and pricing, I'm looking at it, sorry, I'm not sharing the screen, but it was $264,000 and $53,000 of contingency. It was 315, 318. And that's asphalt? Is that asphalt, though? Let's see.
[Tom Lincoln]: We should not use asphalt unless we absolutely have to.
[Zac Bears]: No, I'm just wondering if that's what the bid was, and maybe the stone pack might be cheaper.
[Doug Carr]: I think this is final design. I don't see a line item here that says stone pack, so I don't think I've got that yet.
[Zac Bears]: Okay. So final design, I think if I was reading that diagram correctly, looked like asphalt to me or bituminous something, I don't know.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_00]: But maybe that's okay for us because if it's priced at asphalt.
[Tom Lincoln]: Right, exactly. It's environmentally much preferable to use the stone back. Right. If this is a conservation project, it should be consistent with that. Now, if the stone pack, you know, turns out, everybody uses it. You know, I've been making this argument for a long time. You know, if it turns out, you know, this is not a parking lot, you know, next to Home Depot that has 50,000 cars a day on it.
[Doug Carr]: That's just not what's designed. So let me get more information so we can make an informed decision.
[Tom Lincoln]: And so what's interesting about it is if that's an asphalt price and it's $250, is that for the whole thing, including the loop road there? I'm sorry, I'm just asking.
[Doug Carr]: No, the loop road is actually in the road number. I confirmed that because I did my own estimate of the length of the road. And it's a lot longer. It's almost 6 tenths of a mile when you add up all the length of the road from Rose Street to the loop road around the parking lot. It used to be a lot shorter, but it's not anymore.
[Tom Lincoln]: We'll get a backed out number for the stone pack, and then we'll be able to decide how far our $250,000 will go. We weren't planning in this phase to do the whole parking lot anyway.
[Doug Carr]: No, we weren't. But remember, the stone pack doesn't live in a vacuum, right? You need to put the stone pack down. Oh, absolutely. You have to actually tear out the tree.
[Zac Bears]: The main thing is, yeah, we need to get from the manor to the parking lot location. That would be my priority, would be grading, tree removal, and setting up the road to the parking lot. Even if we only get a couple of spots, great, 5, 10 spots braided of the parking lot, right? That's really the estimate. It's like a piece of the road estimate and a piece of the lot estimate, and then a stone pack instead of whatever other material.
[Doug Carr]: Correct, and I will pursue that exact.
[Tom Lincoln]: We were smart when we did, I think, when we did the budget for the grant because a chunk of the budget in the grant is for the grading because we had a discussion about you can't grade five feet and it's not efficient to grade 10 feet. you know, I'm talking about the basic grading and then we have considerable funds in there for replacing trees and the landscaping, you know, so it's, I mean, I'm an optimist on this because I think it's so critical and, you know, but I think Zach is right. I think if you get, you got no parking now virtually except for handicapped parking at the manor, if you get ahead, you know, X number of spaces, because the parking lot is not supporting the, carriage house, because the carriage house is in fact, you know.
[Doug Carr]: No, that's right. We don't need a fraction of the space.
[Tom Lincoln]: I'm sorry, go ahead.
[Doug Carr]: Yeah, well, let me just take another pass at these guys. Yeah, okay, I've said enough. We can, I think we can move on. We clearly have some flexibility here, you know. Yeah. With the money we have, we can do something. I think it can be meaningful. That's what I like to hear.
[Tom Lincoln]: So I put the administrative, funding on here. I don't know much about what the picture looks like there, because other people have been pursuing it. So maybe somebody can educate us and see what we think, where we are.
[Zac Bears]: You wrote a grant? I could share some stuff. Yeah, I mean, I think the general picture, and then Doug and Jen certainly have some additional knowledge. It's just that we're pursuing administrative funding, you know, we've had the conversations with the conversations with the city about what their capacity might be. Right now, we're looking at the fund, the city grants to community fund from, I believe, from casino mitigation fund. What grants the nonprofit and. that's my my knowledge basis as far as it goes. Okay, thank you.
[Doug Carr]: So that was intended to be the admin to support Carly and the whole organization so that she can delegate everything possible to the person and focus on.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_00]: The PO box and the, yes. Okay.
[Tom Lincoln]: Okay, so I think we need to have a formal vote on the date of the, what I'm calling the special annual meeting, or we just called the annual meeting, So that will be on the record. I've circulated the usual language on the notice and the proxy. I've also said that I would like to, I'd be happy to You can reject the offer if you wish, but I'd be happy to handle the USPS part of this. It was also my intention to put some personal notes into some members that I've known for a long time, not that I'm going away, but dropping dead, I don't think. We're trying to avoid that, yeah. mentioned, we've also used this as an opportunity to get some renewals, which have been slow, mainly because of lack of mailings and that sort of thing. I think you can hit on several points with this. The date of June 6th, which is Thursday. And we also need to set a time because last year we switched to 6.30, but that's because it was in the dark of winter, et cetera.
[Jennifer Keenan]: So I- I had already asked Dennis at City Hall to reserve the Zoom for us on the sixth at seven o'clock.
[Tom Lincoln]: Okay, so we'll keep the seven. So I'd like to get a motion to officially establish the date.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Motion to have the 2024 annual meeting on June 6th at 7 p.m.
[Tom Lincoln]: Take a second. Second. All in favor? Aye.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Tom, I don't know that from an optics standpoint, should the proxies go to somebody else? Or should they be mailed to the PO, to one of us? I don't know.
[Tom Lincoln]: There are two questions there. I took out, traditionally, and this language came from our advisors way, way back. I took out the, you know, I name blank or the current president. I took the last part out of it. So the proxies just come back to the organization, they always go to the PO box, or people can send them in, and then we gather them. And as I've said, you know, the annual meeting isn't on top of everybody's social calendar, you know. So the percentage of, you know, you need, at least technically, and it's not like there's you know, some oversight, somebody counting things here. You need the proxies so you're at least confident that you've established a quorum. And there are a lot of people that have sent proxies for years. It's just a habit. Maybe it's the same habit as sending a check for renewal, but you know, habits are not bad ideas and those sorts of things. So I don't think there's, I think it's just as official always would be the only difference is that, you know, in the in the future, you have a different have a different president, you can put their name on it or not, you know, and and, you know, so that I think that. So June 6, that is the 80th anniversary of D-Day, somehow symbolic. The That sort of thing.
[Jennifer Keenan]: And Tom, there's no, like, there's no, like, operating manual for M-Belts. I mean, I have the articles or the nonprofit thing, but there's no, like, this is everything we need to do every year. Document anything written down.
[Tom Lincoln]: Well, it's... It's all written down. It's not all written in one place. And I think, and you can tell me, but the memo I send about what the president does is, and I know that's gonna change, obviously, but it kind of encapsulates that. But if you want, and I'd be happy to do this, if you want, I'm not gonna do something elaborate, frankly, but if you want at least a check, maybe we call it a checklist, things that have to be done every year.
[Jennifer Keenan]: I think that would be super helpful because I'm saving the emails that you're sending about the filings and this and I'm like, we need to make sure that that knowledge gets written down.
[Tom Lincoln]: I appreciate it. I will do that. The thing I would say to people is that, And I'm probably the wrong person to ask about this, because it's kind of like falling out of bed for me, you know, this this kind of stuff is, is that it's, it's, you know, it's the kind of thing you do it once. You know, it shouldn't be a problem. Like, like, just make an example of the Attorney General's PC annual annual filing. You know, they're not like the IRS, where if you if you miss it by a week, you know, all of a sudden you owe them five grand, you know, I'm being funny, but you know, a kind of thing. And, you know, I'll give an example, the corporate, you know, we're, we're a corporation. So we also have to send, you know, the annual registration of $35 or whatever it is to them. But you know, since a lot of things have changed since COVID, since COVID, they don't, they don't harass you for that, you know, you're supposed to do it. But you know, if you're a little, you're three months late, they're not going to take away your corporate corpus. I'm not saying you're deliberately, you know, shilly-shally around, but that kind of thing.
[Jennifer Keenan]: So because we're a nonprofit, we only have to pay $35?
[Tom Lincoln]: No, it depends on your receipts. $35 is the minimum. Two things, the attorney general thing is if you're under, I'm sorry, I don't remember the number off the top of my head, if you're under $50,000, it's $35. In those years where we've gotten, Considerable more money. We paid like 70 dollars. You know there's a cap there. It doesn't go to five million dollars. It's it's it's. But the other thing the other thing has changed about that. And frankly I think it's a little clunky is that is it. You can't do it by paper anymore. You have to do it online. So
[Jennifer Keenan]: Right, like I have to do my LLC filing every year online. But I have to pay $500 a year. So we don't pay $500 a year.
[Tom Lincoln]: No, no, no, no. We pay much cheaper than that, yeah. That's because they're making so much money on the LLCs. I had an LLC once years ago with a partner in New Jersey. And it was remarkable how much New Jersey extracted every year from it. So Tom. Yeah, I'm sorry.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_00]: You mentioned that you're going to get that stuff together. How about you and I do that together as kind of.
[Tom Lincoln]: I'd be delighted to do that.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. And then I can kind of create it in some sort of format. Jen was so proactive today and sent me some examples of what other nonprofits use. So thank you, Jen, for giving us some examples of that. And we'll just kind of plug in the knowledge where we can and I'll lean on the board for filling in the gaps.
[Tom Lincoln]: And I do want to mention just just as we're being recorded for the record that that we have We're now clear, I sent this around, we're now clear with the IRS in terms of that snafu, which is a huge relief to me, frankly.
[Doug Carr]: I'm glad, Tom, you're off the FBI's top 10 most wanted list.
[Tom Lincoln]: At least for that. So I put on here, and really, you guys should drive it at this point, other I think that what we just did falls under transition issues in terms of the checklist. Here's what I would say. I would just throw this out. And I've got to meet with Jen next week about some of the technicalities of the Google registration. There's some things that I don't think have to be done immediately. I mean, one thing I never mentioned, I have a phone line with the Brooks Estate number, which is sitting three feet from me here. And what you want to do with that. The phone line is a real, well, I don't know, it's a kind of a headache.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_00]: How often does it ring?
[Tom Lincoln]: Well, not very often, and you get all kinds of junk calls. Like all organizations, we have tried, and Jen's going to laugh when she hears this, but we have tried to push people towards towards the website and towards the email. One mostly gets our strange calls about, I don't know, movie sets and things. So people, and then you make an arrangement, and then they call back and say, you're not really what we're thinking about, that kind of thing. So that's, and it costs us $26 a month or something. That sort of thing. So I'm going to leave this agenda item open for other things that you want from me, or you think are transition issues. And I don't think we have to decide everything right now, but.
[Jennifer Keenan]: So go ahead. Tom, you mentioned at some point there's a thumb drive that you made.
[Tom Lincoln]: Yes, I will give you that. Yes.
[Jennifer Keenan]: OK.
[Tom Lincoln]: OK. I've been slow on that. No, it's fine. Yeah, I actually.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Carly, I'm going to take it, and then you and I will get together. Sounds good. And Tom?
[Tom Lincoln]: You're going to be amazed how much is on it.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_00]: I'm excited. It'll be a treasure trove of information. Tom, I think it might be helpful if you and I, just over the next little while after things become official, just set up a time regularly to meet just so we can keep it. Oh, sure, sure, sure, sure. So I'll connect with you offline about that, but I think it'd be nice to go.
[Tom Lincoln]: And I'll bring my toy truck collection for Sam.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_06]: Watch out, he might get you involved in the kitchen remodel.
[Tom Lincoln]: Do you know anything about marmolium floors?
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_00]: I actually do, of course not. Better than I look, actually.
[Tom Lincoln]: Another item that's not on the agenda, but I think we can be flexible here, is the caretakers. Am I right? Yes. Here's the summary of the caretaker situation. please correct me if I'm incorrect. We have two caretakers. Carly's met at least one of them. You maybe met both, I don't know, I wasn't there. Cheryl and Steven. We've had them for six years. They are operating on a sort of automatically extended agreement that was drafted by yours truly and Mark Rumley, who was then the city solicitor when we had a city solicitor. Cheryl is leaving, is moving out by July 1st. She has secured a job that includes housing. I don't know what the situation is. It's really kind of none of our business, I suppose. Oh, man. Yeah. you know, this needs, is gonna need some attention in terms of, we have always felt, and I think we're right here, that having a couple of people there is essential in terms of coverage, you know, in terms of security, that sort of thing. The caretakers are also, have always been, and particularly in the last four, five, six years, have always been, you know, ambassadors, if that's the right word, for our cause. So there are two pieces to this, and I'm hoping to be involved as little as possible in it. One is the nature of the agreement and the financial side, and I know there's been some discussion about that. And the other is, you know, the process for a transition there, and I'll just leave it at that. The only other thing I would say is that this is somewhat complicated in terms of some of the history and sort of the general situation. So I don't know if somebody else wants to I can jump in here.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_06]: It makes me very sad because Cheryl has been the greatest ambassador as far as I can take her.
[Doug Carr]: She has. She's been great. And Stephen, they appear to be splitting as a couple for whatever. It's, again, none of our business. But we know that Stephen can't do the job, and he's not a great ambassador either. But Cheryl's the one who does 99% of the work. So it's a chance for us. It's really living there rent free. You're paying utilities which is about five grand a year and you're providing maintenance around the manor and doing all these things to keep the building running obviously. But we think it's an opportunity now with the work from home and a new opportunity to actually raise a little bit of funds but still not have a tenancy. And there's a way to do that, we think, legally to do that. So we have a few more dollars out of it. And we think possibly more than two people could live there. And it's a nice situation where they'd have probably half of market rate rent. And again, picking them for people who could be ambassadors, who might have some skill sets that we could use as an organization. With events or event planning, that may be part of the job. We can redefine their job, I think, a little bit to get a little bit more both financially and participation. I think we're going to let Stephen live there probably to the end of the year, but we will start. It's going to take a few months to figure out what we want to do, advertise, interview us, plus the city would be there as well. I think the guy in the building department participated last time, and will again, it was Moki then, it would be the new one now, and have somebody in place by the end of the year. That's kind of what we're thinking as the broad outline. I don't know if you want to add anything to that, Jen.
[Jennifer Keenan]: My well, my we, you know, my thought was that we might be able to spend this as an affordable. Not officially affordable, but a affordable housing opportunity for somebody. But I think we have to be, you know, we have to kind of be careful with the language that we choose, but, um. Yeah, I think that there's a huge opportunity here and I think Doug shared with me the caretaker's agreements. I took a look at it and I think that maybe having two couples or three people or something where it allows them to take a vacation and there's a backup person and just having redundancies there might help us You know, and then like, say, two people want to leave and one person stays and then, I don't know, there just might be opportunities there to rotate people in and out.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_00]: What does the living space look like inside there?
[Jennifer Keenan]: I think we should go look at it. Whoa, she needs to have a tour. I haven't been in there for a while.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_00]: Well, I definitely have been in the kitchen area, but as far as I'm thinking about the bedroom.
[Tom Lincoln]: I hope you like the kitchen because we did it ourselves.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_00]: You didn't.
[Tom Lincoln]: I did the floor with my nephew. I've heard of that. I did most of the work.
[Doug Carr]: There's three rooms upstairs. Essentially, it's the room above the dining room. That's one of the rooms. The room above the kitchen, which is quite large because it's got windows on three sides and it's bigger than the kitchen because it includes all those storage rooms and the bathroom. above. That's kind of their bedroom, but it could be a living room depending on their arrangement. And then there's a room above the office on the front of the house, which is also, so it's kind of three rooms connected in the bathroom. So there's a possibility. I can send a floor plan around that would explain that. We obviously would should go look at it as a group and figure things out. As Tom mentioned, he and Rumway, the solicitor back in the day, put together the agreement. It grew out of unfortunately a rather difficult situation where the previous caretakers who were both in their 40s. The woman became pregnant and we had a real legal situation on our hand with lead paint. Tell me about this. And yeah that's a disaster. Messy messy again. But it was really difficult things to walk a fine line because you can't Discriminate, of course. But you want to work from home. Right now, there's a work from home potential that didn't exist six years ago. So the coverage could actually be a lot easier than it was then, because no one worked from home six years ago. And now, 25% of the United States does on a daily basis.
[Tom Lincoln]: Just to make a couple other obvious points, just in terms of background. One is that, and I think, Doug, you know, when we first got caretakers in there, the mansion, the manor isn't perfect, but it's a heck of a lot, more than a heck of a lot better place to live than it was.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_00]: Not unsafe now. Yeah.
[Tom Lincoln]: Yeah. Yeah. In that, well, the other thing that's changed the course is the overall housing market, but the manor is still, you know, it's still, what it is in terms of conditions. The other thing that to think about here, obviously, is that, you know, just before we got this news, we were actively working on a test basis to start using, you know, having donation-based rentals, so to speak, of rooms for meetings. We're going to talk with the arts groups and things. And you need And that's another reason you need at least two people there is you need somebody there that can open and close. You know, it's a little vague, because we hadn't even thought about that in the current agreement. And that has to be thought out. And, you know, the other obvious big picture, which I think I talked to Carly about is that, you know, at some point, once Doug finds the three and a half million dollars for the road, etc. I'm just joking. At some point, you know, you're going to need some active management for the function. It doesn't mean somebody has to be on site, but Most of those places have somebody on site. They may not be full-time manager, et cetera, but you know, it's a real, make a cliche, it's a real hands-on job. So lots to think about in terms of, and it's also a very, you know, we've been very careful and I think done a very good job, because we've had four or five caretakers in there over the last quarter century, in terms of making this a very above board process. You know, it's, it's, it's, it's a scarce good, you know, it's, it's, and it's also, it's, it's also, it's the perfect thing for some people and absolutely the wrong thing for others. And, and, and, and sorting those two things out in the interview process and the application process is really, is really critical. Cause I can recall, we had people, you don't mention any names, et cetera, but you know, people that said, I'd like to move there with my 93-year-old mother. You know, from, you know, four states away.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_00]: Change the name to the Bates Motel.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_06]: Can I ask a question? So more immediately, has Steve been spoken with by anybody and has he agreed to stay till the end of the year? Because that might, we're assuming, are we assuming he'll stay?
[Doug Carr]: I've talked to Cheryl, not Steve, directly about this, and he doesn't want to leave. I think he's comfortable there. But I think we'll get there. Once we figure things out, we want to give him a lot of time. I don't want to show him the door. He's been a good guy all along, even though he hasn't done most of the work. He's not been a negative. So we just want to give him plenty of time. we really need to have a different structure and a different group in place, because he just can't do that.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_06]: I mean, could he maybe be the third person if we go that route?
[Doug Carr]: We don't think that group needs to come together as a group, whether it's two or three or whatever it is. We don't want to force roommates on people. That's a disaster. Yeah. You know, we need the flexibility, we need to work from home, we need coverage, we need people who have the skills to do it, and both the people skills, in some ways the facilities management skills to work on the building.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_00]: Right. Has there been any discussion, and I know these things are kind of disjointed time-wise, but has there been any discussion around combining the caretaker search and the administrator search?
[Doug Carr]: No, not yet. The administrator was on a track starting in January. The caretaker week is about 30 days ago or so. So they could be combined, but I do see them as having, I'd be surprised if we could find the same group. It would be definitely a unicorn.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_00]: Caretaker, that would be great. Yeah, yeah, that would be nice if we could kind of combine some responsibilities and add some funding for them. I don't know.
[Tom Lincoln]: Well, you know, here's the thing, the reality of the caretaker thing is, is that it's a pretty, it's a pretty long list of responsibilities. You know, it's not necessarily, you know, you have to be doing it 24 seven, but you know, there's an on call basis. They've been very, very useful for opening and closing when we have onsite projects. you know, so that yours truly, et cetera, wouldn't have to go up there every morning at seven o'clock, that kind of thing. The other thing, you know, the number of people that walk by there has certainly increased in the last while. And the ambassador and the visibility side of it, you know, you can probably spend a whole three more hours talking about this. But the other thing, and I said this, earlier, I think is that, you know, we've been strict. I think we've been right about the number of vehicles there. You know, you don't want a situation where you have a manor with five cars parked in front of it every day, you know, in terms of that sort of thing. So it's, you know, there's clearly, as Doug and other people have mentioned, and Jen, there's clearly a real balancing act here. So, Oh, to be determined, as they say. So picnic coming up in less than two months. I think I saw, I didn't open it, but I think I saw a document floating around about planning, or am I fantasizing about it?
[Doug Carr]: I am. I think I circulated something that had the usual list of tasks, and I know it's, I popped it in the Google Drive, Carly and Jen, but I don't know, did I send it to everyone or not?
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_00]: Was this in preparation for the spring cleanup? For the picnic.
[Doug Carr]: The picnic.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so this is separate. In July. Yeah. Yeah, I just wasn't sure if the tasks were kind of like... I know there were some like clean the tables and chairs, but we've got some more stuff.
[Doug Carr]: Yeah, we have another, well, we obviously have the annual meeting, we'll talk about it, but we actually have a board meeting in June too, right on the 20th, I think, is that correct?
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_00]: I think you're right.
[Doug Carr]: Yes. That was meant to be the actual detailed planning, but really finalized planning. I think we should circulate that document in the Google Drive to everyone, refine it a little bit. There's definitely some things on there about, you know, who's bringing what, who's doing what for the, for the, uh, for the raffle and all that stuff. And there's some fairly well played things we've done for many years that we can just revive, I think pretty quickly with that list.
[Tom Lincoln]: I would say is, is, is that it hasn't been huge money, but it's been steady money. We've most years we make a profit of, you know, two, three, $4,000 on, on the picnic. We've done sponsorships. If you're gonna solicit those, you need to do it before June 20th, I would say, and that kind of thing. The other issue is, and I'm sorry to bring this up, but the other issue is that, and I'm sure you saw it when you were up there for the spring spruce supper, is the mountain of logs sitting across there and the down telephone wire, which you absolutely can't have, for many reasons at the picnic. So something that needs to be addressed.
[Doug Carr]: Yeah, I think Zach, you were gonna talk to someone in the city hall about the tree.
[Zac Bears]: Yes, I haven't done it. I need to do it.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Okay. Sorry, this is a sidebar, but there's also a tree down across the wall that I saw today when I- It must be new. It's not sticking out, but it's definitely down. It's probably in the Terrier Road area.
[Tom Lincoln]: On the northern, okay.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Yeah. But you can see it, it's definitely sticking out a little bit, but it's a tree that's down.
[Doug Carr]: Got it.
[Tom Lincoln]: Well, we've always had, two people that we've known for years to handle the grills, which is something that's not easy to do. And I don't know the, yeah, it is a big job. And I happen to know one lives on my street. I'm not sure what the situation is there. So I think you need to think about that.
[Doug Carr]: Is that true for both of them? I know that John Bull was struggling a little bit. Is Scott MIA these days?
[Tom Lincoln]: I don't know. Scott is somewhat of a mystery. And the two of them come as a unit. And I have not talked to John Bull, but I don't think he's well. I don't like saying that. And because Scott's been concerned about that. And it's always a, oh, there we go.
[Doug Carr]: This is the shopping list that's on the Google Drive that Carly, I think, created. Just listing, you know, supplies. I asked Cheryl to take a look on supplies, the setup, who's doing what, raffle prizes, which I think Roger, you used to do that mostly, I think.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_06]: Well, people would just send me the list of raffle prizes so I could get it on time. But I think that might be an extra step. So maybe we can just send them to whoever's going to consolidate the list.
[Tom Lincoln]: I will contribute money, but I'm not going to do anything else.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_06]: Can we convince Cheryl to help us at this, even though she'll be moved out?
[Doug Carr]: I don't think she's going to be there physically. I can ask, but I don't think we can count on that.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_06]: Is she moving out of state?
[Doug Carr]: No.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_06]: No.
[Tom Lincoln]: No, no, no. I don't know where, but it's definitely not out of state.
[Unidentified]: Oh, man.
[Tom Lincoln]: I think it's the company that she's worked part-time for. It's a big real estate. I think she said to us that she's got a job probably managing a big apartment complex, I think. He's had a tremendous amount of experience doing that. So that's, you know, on that thumb drive is, you know, every year there's a folder for each year's picnic, you know, so. And I'm, you know, and I'm happy to kick in some, certainly some cash for sponsorship. And Doug will pay for the, Doug always provides the, very, very gourmet hot dogs.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_00]: Doug told me he's getting a sash for you this year too.
[Tom Lincoln]: Oh, what?
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_00]: Something. So how would we get in touch with Scott? I think that... Yeah, that's a good question.
[Tom Lincoln]: I'll ask him about it.
[Doug Carr]: He takes my calls once a year.
[Jennifer Keenan]: And it's a charcoal grill that we use?
[Tom Lincoln]: It is.
[Doug Carr]: We use two grills.
[Tom Lincoln]: We use a charcoal grill and we have a gas grill. And there's always been propane. You can't keep it in the house, but it's been in the carriage house.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_00]: We don't care if that blows up.
[Tom Lincoln]: It already blew up. I'd rather have it there than sitting outdoors someplace. Yeah, absolutely. That's, that's the picnic, you know, sooner rather than later.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_00]: We'll start working on that. What's our general attendance on the picnic?
[Tom Lincoln]: You know, it varies. And people can help me out here. But it's probably the max. There's sort of there's a bit of a physical, you know, we don't let people drive up to the park at the manor unless they have handicap parking. And Most years, Doug or somebody else has provided a little shuttle up and down the road with his electric car. But, you know, it's probably been from about 90 to 150 people someplace in there.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_06]: We've had a lot of new people in the last few years. It's been very noticeable.
[Tom Lincoln]: But yeah, it's a fabulous thing.
[Doug Carr]: The number of people who attend and just fill the place and they have, you know, we give two or three tours. It's actually quite amazing to see that. That's really fun. And Carly, now that you have quartered the market in South Medford.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_00]: South Medford.
[Doug Carr]: Who wants your posse there? Bring your whole posse down there, get a little shuttle bus going, and we'll work it out.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_00]: I've already invited some people. I'm like, save the date. It's going to happen. I'll send you more information later. So we're going to fill it out this year.
[Tom Lincoln]: The other good thing about the picnic is you don't have to go for three hours. A lot of people say, I'm just going to come for an hour, and then you see they're still there. But the last thing is, if it's really, really hot, It's, you know, walking up the road for some people is, you know, you can understand that is a schlep. And, you know, we've been, we're very careful about cars on the road and in that area, et cetera, because the last thing you need is something to happen. I think, and then I'll shut up about this, but I think that having a few more, younger folk on the setup and the physical side, you know, because when the picnic's over, everybody's wasted, not wasted, wasted.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_00]: What kind of picnic is this? No, no, it isn't.
[Tom Lincoln]: No alcohol. Petty property, no alcohol. But no, but it's, you know, there's a lot, setting up is a lot of work. We've got it down to a science, but it's still, And we've got the chair, you know, years ago, we used to have to drag the chair from somebody's church or something.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_00]: Well, let me help with that piece, then I'm going to nominate myself to be in charge of the physical labor aspect in the setup and take down. OK, great. As my dad would call him, strong backs, weak minds. That's all we need.
[Tom Lincoln]: Which is a dangerous expression in the history of Massachusetts.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_00]: Well, it's nice to know this context. I don't have an idea, guys.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_06]: Go ahead, Audrey. Yeah. The new Medford Arts Collaborative, the Medford Arts Center on Mystic Ave. Perhaps, I don't know how big we want to get with the picnic, but perhaps we just make a little flyer. and throw it on there. They have like a community table. If we want to get new faces in there, just a thought. And then on the flyer we could say, you know, we are looking for volunteers for the picnic specifically. I don't know, just a thought.
[Jennifer Keenan]: And the cachet newsletter too. And I can't say this too loud. I might
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_06]: Oh, I like that. I did not hear that.
[Doug Carr]: She's got a secret gorilla that she's got. And no one else heard it either.
[Jennifer Keenan]: You guys can talk about it. I can't talk about it.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_00]: We're in your ear, so you're okay.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_06]: You're volunteering him to grill?
[Jennifer Keenan]: Yes.
[Tom Lincoln]: Potentially.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_06]: Maybe. I'll work on that.
[Tom Lincoln]: Let's see if our regulars can come. Among other things, I have to live with my neighbors here.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Yes, keep me posted and I'll get the sodas like I've gotten the past few years and I'm happy to do the shuttle. My car can seat like five or six people.
[Doug Carr]: Mine can seat one.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_06]: And I'm always kind of in charge of the layout of the tents and the tables. So I'll do that and I'll do something else. I just can't think right now.
[Doug Carr]: We've had live music in the past. Remember on the part on the van?
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_06]: Anybody have anybody they they want to watch fest is coming up. Maybe we can solicit somebody I'll be working.
[Tom Lincoln]: They just had somebody else in Somerville.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_00]: I'm coordinating my neighbor's porch for PorchFest. So I'm talking to a lot of bands right now. And if we have a certain preference on Big Jon Short, I don't know if anyone knows who Big Jon Short is.
[Jennifer Keenan]: So a few years ago, Carly, we had just like they kind of just did covers of like, you know, mid tempo pop songs. And yeah, you know, pretty general. Oh, yeah. A crowd pleaser, you know? Yeah, exactly.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_06]: They plugged in, right? Did they plug in?
[Jennifer Keenan]: They did. They had like a small little lamp.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_06]: And we did it on the veranda. It was nice.
[Jennifer Keenan]: It was right. It was really lovely. Okay. Yeah. And I think we I thought we threw them a tiny teeny bit of money. Yes, we did.
[Tom Lincoln]: We gave them a couple hundred bucks.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Yeah.
[Tom Lincoln]: Which is, we're perfectly happy to fund that.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_06]: It was my friend Christian, yeah, but I'd like to get something else if we could.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, I'd be happy to be on that search as well. Yeah. I'm already doing it another way. Perfect.
[Tom Lincoln]: You know, and they don't have to play for three hours. You know, we basically, you know, get rolling and then you have, you start the tours about one o'clock usually, et cetera. But you know, and I won't say this again, but it's remarkably weather dependent. You know, there have been times when it's really, really hot. At any rate, on the picnic, it sounds like it's in good hands. I'll just send lots of money and that'll... This is recorded.
[Doug Carr]: One final comment about the picnic totem. This will be our chance for what I call the Tom Lincoln roast.
[Unidentified]: You know, this is the time to bring it up.
[Doug Carr]: It's the passing of the flame, you know, the turning of the generations. I feel like this is a great opportunity, Tom.
[Tom Lincoln]: Somebody is not far behind.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_00]: I'm excited. I'm excited.
[Tom Lincoln]: I'll promise to be there at least for an hour.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_06]: It's a goofy idea. Would cornhole be? Is it cornhole?
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_00]: Oh yeah. Some lawn games? Do we have some lawn games? I can bring some. I've got nothing elaborate but just something. Cornhole is super fun. Can jam. There's like the sweetest lawn game.
[Tom Lincoln]: I play that cornhole game and it's 50 times harder than it looks. Apparently, apparently it's the national sport of New Hampshire, the state sport in New Hampshire. And you know, it's clearly they practice all winter in order to the other the other game that's a lot of fun is is is croquet. Because it brings out the viciousness in people that otherwise are not vicious.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_06]: I don't know if we have enough lawn for that, though, because we put the tables out on the lawn.
[Tom Lincoln]: Well, yeah, but the whole back lawn is not used down below.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_06]: Well, that's true, yeah.
[Tom Lincoln]: Yeah, that sounds great. That's a great idea. Audrey has often brought, you know, sort of some stuff for kids, crayons and that.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_06]: Oh, the crafts bag. Yeah, we have a little crafts table, Carly. Oh, that's fun. It's just simple crafts with ribbons and sticks. And Audrey, you said you usually do that? Yeah, I have a whole bag of stuff. Wonderful.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_00]: Okay. I'm editing a document right now.
[Tom Lincoln]: Oh, gosh, we know who can bring 5000 toy trucks. I do.
[Zac Bears]: I have an update on the Community Fund Committee, which is that they're meeting next Wednesday. And they got more requests than they have funding available, which is different from the past. But that folks could maybe, if they know anyone on the committee, put in a word for the Brooks Estate, and that may well help us get at least something. So I will put the link in the chat. I know several, and I will do what I can.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_06]: Take him to Alta Cuba for a drink or two.
[Jennifer Keenan]: The names from the committee are on the city website.
[Zac Bears]: Yeah, I just put a link in the chat. It's the mayor, Justin Fang, Melanie McLaughlin, Aaron Rafferty.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_00]: Melanie's daughter lives right next to me.
[Zac Bears]: If anyone knows Aaron Rafferty. And then I actually don't know the other, well, maybe I do, but I'm, you know, I'd have to think about who the other people are.
[Doug Carr]: Zach, if we don't get to both 25, 15 or 20 would go a long way, so.
[Zac Bears]: I mentioned that. I think, I think, you know, still if people want to send it, if they know anyone on here, send a text, send an email, let them know.
[Tom Lincoln]: Justin owes me big time, so.
[Zac Bears]: Good.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Do we need to order a croquet set or do we have one? Cause I'm looking on Amazon right now. I can just order them.
[Tom Lincoln]: Is it handmade in France?
[Jennifer Keenan]: No, there's like, like there's a couple of decent ones that come with like the mallets, the spikes, then they come with like a little bag so you can keep it all. There's also big yard dice.
[Tom Lincoln]: What's that thing that you fling the things in it? It's like a, like a rack.
[Jennifer Keenan]: The one with the thing with the balls? The golf balls?
[Tom Lincoln]: Yeah, there's one on each end, and you go like this. I don't know anything about that.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Golf ladder or something like that. Yeah, I don't know that game. I've seen it, but it's not really flat enough for bocce, right?
[Tom Lincoln]: I don't know. I have a bocce set. I'll bring it. I love bocce, because I know how to make all those side bets, you know? I'm from Medford. I understand how to make it tight. Oh, boy.
[Jennifer Keenan]: All right. I'm just going to order a couple sets of yard games and call it a donation. Thank you. Thank you.
[Doug Carr]: I think we're done with the agenda. I just have one last item.
[Jennifer Keenan]: The Girl Scout thing, Doug.
[Doug Carr]: Oh, yeah. That's right. Let's do that first, Jen. I talked to Tom about this earlier today. We think what she put down for the mustard removal is the best one because it's easy. There's no chemicals involved. There's no phasing involved. And I think that's an easy one to say yes to. It's along the road, right, Tom? Do you know what you mean? It's everywhere. They're looking for a project at the high school.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_06]: It's everywhere.
[Doug Carr]: It's a great, yeah, exactly. So they just want permission to come to the estate and do it. And like, we're just going to point them in the right direction. And we'll be done.
[Tom Lincoln]: Yeah. But I told Doug that the only condition is that because this Garlic mustard is a delicacy, and Doug is a famous salad eater.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_06]: We're going to make pesto and sell it.
[Tom Lincoln]: No, we're going to make Doug a big salad and see if he can eat it.
[Doug Carr]: He's going to charge us $100 a head to watch me eat that mustard from the state.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_06]: It cannot be composted. It has to be put in trash bags so it won't spread.
[Tom Lincoln]: Maybe we can provide the trash bags.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_06]: It's everywhere this year, everywhere. Oh, by the way, guys, I was up there birding a couple of times. Oh, there was one day there was this huge 18-wheeler that came up to the stump dump and took a bunch of stumps away. Because I asked the guys, are you removing stuff from the stump dump? And they said, yeah. And then two other days, there were smaller trucks that were bringing stuff in and dumping it. So I don't get it.
[Tom Lincoln]: I'll tell you what's happening there. This has been a long, I don't want to extend the meeting here, but this has been a long thorn. And we've had a number of discussions with Tim McGibbon and promises have been made. Basically, the city did a good job with that, and then they dropped the ball for about five or six years in a huge mountain. I mean, there's no other word for it.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_06]: But it's gone now, a lot of it.
[Tom Lincoln]: And we've talked about this. I think our beef is that in doing that, they've messed up other parts of that whole area. And Tim McGivern said that they would fix that. And I don't think they've fixed that yet. And this was, I talked to him a year ago, October. I know it distinctly.
[Doug Carr]: But the cemetery expansion is the opportunity. It will force the issue to fix all this stuff.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_06]: You can't build that without it. That's not their land, though, is it?
[Doug Carr]: It overlaps part of it. I know it does.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_06]: You're kidding me. That is like prime birding area. Prime bird area. That's horrible.
[Doug Carr]: It is what it is. That's a line on the map that we don't own. It's not our land. All we can do is have it.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_06]: I thought it was down more towards the road for some reason.
[Tom Lincoln]: It's a matter of design. The fact is that, setting that aside for a second, the stump dump is both a lot better and a lot worse than it's ever been. It's better because they used to chip there and they were gradually chipping and chipping and chipping and just covering the whole area. So we got them years ago to stop doing that. And it was really, there was a pretty good stasis going on there where they would, it would come once or twice a year and clear it out. And then they stopped doing that. And just like everything else, like the tree stumps around Medford, they got way behind the eight ball, the proverbial eight ball. And you know, they've been, they've been trying to get the reason you saw the trucks there recently is because they ran out of money. earlier and they've found some more money to get more of it done. That's how things work. And the fact is, the DPW needs not to be there. Setting aside whether there'll be cemetery expansion, et cetera, it's been a convenience for them, but not a necessity. There's other ways to manage this. You know, they completely ignored the issue when they built the new DPW yard and didn't provide for this on that acreage because they've always done it that way. And it's always been really convenient also for the cemetery. You know, this is stuff from the, but there's stuff from the cemetery. And we finally got them to stop dumping plastic flowers and all that stuff. You know, there's 60 or 70 years of, less than ideal behavior going on, you know, on the whole property. And so, you know, we've made a lot of progress, but we haven't solved this particular issue.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_06]: And I ask one more simple thing. Just briefly, there's a bunch of little green signs that say conservation land boundary.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_06]: For the reservation, right? Everybody's asking me about them. And a lot of people are.
[Tom Lincoln]: That is that we talked about. It took years to get that. Under the conservation preservation restriction, you need to mark the boundaries. And finally, we got the DCR, found some money, and did the surveying and marked those, which is very useful, I think. I don't think, you know, you'll see some along the grocery side too. And when we discussed it, they put in a lot, you know, there's no real rule of thumb about how many, you don't, Obviously, you don't put them every five feet, but also, you know, there's a reasonable number there is all I'm going to say in terms of how that's worked out. The thing with the DCR is it's, you know, it takes them years, years to get anything done.
[Unidentified]: Yes, like everybody else.
[Tom Lincoln]: So what else do we have here before I disappear into the twilight?
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_00]: I just have one other small thing that I don't think Audrey has heard about yet. Everyone else has been on this email chain, but our representation at the Medford farmers market. Audrey, I'm not sure if you're familiar with the community table that they have at the farmers market. Yeah, I think so. Yeah, so they basically offer signups. Every week, there's a new organization, nonprofit entity that sits there. So I signed us up for a week to have mbelt representation there. And that will be July 29. Now, August 29, 29. That's why it's easy to remember. Yeah, it's a Thursday before Labor Day. And it's, as john mentioned, the last concert series evening for the summer, which is really nice. Hopefully that means we get a nice turnout. So, Audrey will include you on the planning for that now that I have your email address. I'm just going to collect some ideas about what sorts of things we want to have at the table. Obviously, some of those postcards would be great. the banner.
[Tom Lincoln]: I'm going to unload all those.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_00]: I love it. Give it all to me, Tom. That's perfect. And then we'll see if we can come up with some volunteer opportunities that we can get people to sign up for on the spot there as well. So we can have them on the hook.
[Tom Lincoln]: One thing that's that's sitting up at the manor in a couple versions are is a tabletop display. Yeah. It's probably needs some updating. Yeah. And etc. But The times that we've done this, that's worked really well. It weighs more than five pounds, but it's not like setting up a huge canopy or something.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_00]: No, that's great. And right now I'm planning on Jen and I definitely being there from three to seven. I know Doug's not available. Zach, you said if it works out, you'll swing by. So that offer is still absolutely open. Tom, if it works out for you, I know that if somebody asked me about the history, I'm going to make up as much as I can and sound convincing, but I'm not going to be as good as you are.
[Tom Lincoln]: I'll be taking birthday contributions. You see Doug at the market a lot over by where they sell the fruits and vegetables.
[Jennifer Keenan]: No, see, the reason you go when there's the concerts is because they have the beer tent. They do. That's right. That I haven't seen. Yes, because I sponsor the concerts. I know Doug, you do too. And it's the best, the best nights of the summer to go. They're so fun.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_00]: They are. And they just like we go with all our daycare friends and all the kids run around and it's just this wonderful environment. So I think it's going to be a nice way for us to be in the kind of demographic that we want of like young, active Medford residents who love their city.
[Tom Lincoln]: The, what does it cost to sponsor a concert?
[Jennifer Keenan]: I do the whole season and I think it's $500. Ah, chump change.
[Tom Lincoln]: That's like five salads.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Yeah. The money just goes to cachet, so. And they use it to like pay the band and get the band's time.
[Tom Lincoln]: Oh yeah, yeah.
[Jennifer Keenan]: So yeah.
[Tom Lincoln]: Nothing happens without money.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Yeah. Right. And that's like the top level.
[Tom Lincoln]: That's like, I get my, I wouldn't expect you to be anywhere but the top level.
[Doug Carr]: The last thing I have, if anyone, if we're done is I just want to, first of all, thank Tom, obviously for it. We'll do this a picnic as well for an infinite amount of work over the time, over the years, over the decades. And we do want to take you and your selfless wife, Donna, out to dinner at some point. So we can apologize for making your life so difficult the last three decades with the Brooks Estate. And have a nice celebration and a nice dinner somewhere. We'll circulate dates during the summer.
[Tom Lincoln]: That would be great. I appreciate it.
[Doug Carr]: I really like that. I think that's the least we can do for all you've done.
[Tom Lincoln]: Thank you.
[Jennifer Keenan]: with that uh in the offing uh we'll uh be in touch uh we'll get the notices out on on the uh annual meeting uh and yes and all these other things so tom check with dennis because you're gonna need the meeting number it should be the same but i just you know we'll confirm that and then will you email me the final
[Tom Lincoln]: Oh yes, yes, absolutely.
[Jennifer Keenan]: I will email it out as well.
[Tom Lincoln]: Yes, exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll do that probably, probably by the middle of next week at the latest.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Yeah, because you said we have to have them out two weeks prior.
[Tom Lincoln]: Two weeks prior, yeah.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Yeah, a week from today is two weeks prior, so that's perfect.
[Tom Lincoln]: So next week is You know, I have to take a break from the kitchen job once in a while. Okay, so I wanna thank everybody for all their help over all this time, new and old members of the board. I look forward to trying to contribute further in the future based on items of my choosing, of course. No, I'm just joking. And then go from there. And Carly, we'll look forward to your participation and more. And you and I, certainly, I'm generally around, not always next to my phone, which I mostly can't find, but you know where to find it, as it were. And we'll see everybody soon.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_00]: Love it. Thank you, everyone. Great to see all of you. Thank you. Good night.
[Tom Lincoln]: Thank you. Have a great evening. Good night, everyone.
[MCM00001627_SPEAKER_00]: Bye.
[Tom Lincoln]: Bye.
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