[Roberta Cameron]: And here we are. I'm going to call to order the meeting of Medford's Community Preservation Committee. It is Tuesday, October 22nd, 2024. Meeting is 6.30 p.m. to 8 p.m., and it's close enough to 6.30 p.m. right now. I will begin, as always, with a little bit of a preamble Um, to explain the process, do we have other participants in the meeting besides committee?
[Theresa Dupont]: No, the other folks that are on there are Tim and Vicki, just to follow on.
[Roberta Cameron]: Okay. So, for those who have not been a part of this process before the way that that the community preservation committees application cycle works is that we will be having a series of presentations by applicants. This is the 2nd or 2 meetings. when we, this is our chance to gather all of the input on all of the applications for funding. And then beginning next month, the committee is going to start deliberating to make its decisions about what projects to recommend for funding and how much. So there won't be any deliberation this evening, but we look forward to hearing what all of the applicants have to share with us this evening. Anything else that we need to kick us off before we get going? To members of the committee, I know that Teresa prepared helpful templates for us to take notes. So we'll be able to hopefully provide Teresa with some notes to keep on file so that we can remember how we arrived at the decisions this funding round. So with that, do we have our first applicant here? That is Kevin Bailey. Thank you for having me tonight.
[Theresa Dupont]: Our application that we're presenting today is to have
[Kevin Bailey]: uh lights installed over at the common shell uh just to kind of give a brief overview of the common shell area um it is dcr property but it is um with an agreement to the city that the city is going to operate it um we actually have an agreement that just recently expired and we're working with dcr right now uh their proposal is just an automatic renewal for the next 10 years um the city of effort might want to make some changes to that contract But again, it looks good that DCR wants to just basically renew it for another 10 years. If you haven't been to the Con and Show, it is a great location. It's where the farmers market's located on Thursdays. We have city concerts, and we have a whole bunch of concerts that are put on there a lot from Method Art Collaborative that help support that. But it is a really great gathering location. One thing that I hear routinely from people who are performing there is, especially at nighttime, we want to have night concerts. Even after 8, 8.30 at night, concerts want to go until 9, 10 o'clock at night, and it becomes too dark. I am one that I can contest going to different concerts, and even with our movie nights at the end of the movie, it's always that challenge of what are we going to do with the lighting situation. The lights that are currently there, if you have seen it, it's no longer operational. We have looked into trying to get those replaced or repaired. It doesn't seem like that is actually feasible. So what I did do was reach out to a company called Musco. Musco is a field light company that you might be familiar with. All of our recent builds with field lights have actually been with Musco. Carr Park, Gillis Park, behind the high school, Field of Dreams, those are all Musco Lighting Center. I think there's a reason why the city continuously does the biggest thing, and one of the reasons why I would like to propose this at the comment show is because it can be run through an app. And this is another issue that we run into a lot with operational with the rec department is it doesn't make feasible sense of having one of the four recreation staff members to be there for every concert and every event. But what we can do is turn on the lights right from our app or right from home, or we can program the lights to go on and off at a certain time. So that's one of the nice things that Musco Lights does. The second one is the spillover lighting. If you've been to, like, the Pickleball Pool, it's a car park. It's a perfect example where you can see that the lights are directly shining onto the Pickleball Pools, but it's not being shined into the residence. And seeing that the condo shelves right across from the river, from the condos that are across the street have these types of lights, we'll really make sure that the lights are being concentrated on the field or on the stage, but not necessarily out to the existing area. I believe you have all my proposal for the fees. It would cost us about $98,000 to do a full install. And this is to get everything that we would like, including the request that the CPA came back with of asking for lighting between the walkway area of the field and over to the parking lot. So for everything, it'll be 98,000. This also includes a full install of not using the existing poles that are in front of the conch shell. Even though the lights don't work, the original hope is that we can use those light poles. But after talking with different performers, one of their concerns is having, instead of a stage lighting, having a field light. They're afraid of a bright light going into their eyes. did say that they can raise the pole a little bit higher, use a new pole so that it's shining more above them versus directly on them. And then there's also going to be a setting that I can dim the lights so if someone feels that it's too bright shining in the eyes, we can also dim the lights as well.
[Unidentified]: Thank you.
[Roberta Cameron]: Are there questions from committee members?
[Joan Cyr]: Trying to find my mute button. So, I'm just curious is the is the quote that you got is it similar to other similar projects that we had in the city.
[Kevin Bailey]: Price-wise? Yeah, price-wise. Yeah. I don't have the full details, but I did have certain quotes for different fields. For example, if we were going to do Tufts Park, that quote was almost $250,000. That is to baseball fields, and that would be using existing labels. I also have another one at Hormel Stadium that was, I want to say it was $350,000, but again, a little bit more a lot more lighting that would have to be done. They would be using the whole amount of light poles, but they would have to change all the light fixing. Obviously, a football stadium has more lights than what we're looking for.
[Joan Cyr]: My other question is, have you done any, or were you planning to do any reach out to the surrounding community about the additional performance time? I know I've heard a couple of comments about, you know, if you put lights up, that means they'll play longer and it might be disturbing the piece. So, I don't know if you've done any reach out to the surrounding community.
[Kevin Bailey]: I have not reached out to them, but we don't allow music to go past nine o'clock at night. So I'm not planning on extending it to a longer period of time, 10, 11 o'clock at night. But the second thing is right now, a lot of the concerts that we are having, the performers are actually coming in with their own set of lights that are not really adequate enough, but they are going past sunset and bringing their own spotlights.
[Roberta Cameron]: Yeah, my concern was not so much the lights it was the noise, but yeah, I would, I would second that because actually I live in a neighborhood. I'm not bothered by the sound of music in the neighborhood, but I know that some people are concerned about it. And you can hear it all the way down to Whole Foods. So I wonder whether we are looking at the volume. So maybe it's not necessarily the schedule of when the music is playing, but whether we're considering the volume of the music, the amplification. if maybe that's something that we could look into to make sure that it doesn't become more of an issue.
[Kevin Bailey]: Yeah. And that's right on the application we do put in that it has to be at a reasonable level and that it is a neighborhood. So that's kind of already put out there as the warning, but if there's... Because the sound travels up the river.
[Roberta Cameron]: And it kind of reflects off of the bridges and the riverbanks. So there's kind of like a sound tunnel that projects it pretty far. Those are my questions.
[Unidentified]: Thanks. Thank you for bringing that up. Thanks. Oh, and look at that cute baby. Does baby Foley have any questions?
[Doug Carr]: Just one quick question. Are there existing light poles coming down from this project, or are they just being left in place? Yes.
[Kevin Bailey]: They'll be taken down and they'll put new ones up.
[Doug Carr]: Thank you.
[Unidentified]: Great. Um, well, thank you. Thank you very much. I guess. Thank you. That was the affordable housing trust.
[Roberta Cameron]: Do we have anyone here from the affordable housing trust? Oh, I'm sorry. I'm just thinking our. We have our own affordable housing trust. When I think of affordable housing, I'm thinking of those people out there, not these people here. So yeah, I would invite you both to come to the table as well. And we'll introduce everyone.
[Moogoor]: Good evening. Thank you, CPC, for this opportunity. And thank you, Teresa, for guiding the trust with the application process. I'm Aditi Mughal, staff planner for housing with the city's planning department. I'm here on behalf of the Medford Affordable Housing Trust. Along with me, board of trustees here present are Lisa Ann Davidson, who's the chair. Penelope or Penny Taylor, the Vice Chair, and we have five other Board of Trustees and Governor Campbell, who needs no introduction. And the rest of them are not in here today. A quick overview of the Affordable Housing Trust. It's a fairly newly established entity, and the Board of Trustees were appointed in July. Since then, we've had three public meetings, and by end of the year, we hope to have the declaration of trust ready. This would allow the trust to purchase, sell, or transfer real property, and by end of May next year, We hope to have a final action plan that would outline the trust goals and mission for the next five years. Currently, the trust has two working groups. One is working on the declaration of trust. The legal counsel is reviewing a draft of the declaration of trust. And as mentioned earlier, we hope to have that completed by end of the year. The second working group is the action plan group. And this working group is organizing focus group discussions to receive inputs from stakeholders. And then the group is also reviewing housing data that would inform the action plan. Early next year, the trust plans to have two community meetings. And then by end of May, the trust plans to have a final action plan, which will be presented to the city council. There are a few potential projects that the trust is considering. I'd like to clarify that these are project examples and the trust is open for discussion. Nothing is concrete and we are reviewing this project examples. The first one is to develop affordable housing on city-owned lots. This is a key strategy that was outlined in the city's housing production plan as well. The trust approach would be to identify potential municipal lots for housing and then do site feasibility pre-development work and then prepare RFPs to solve this for development. The trust would ideally take two different approaches. One approach would be to apply for Mass Housing's grant program, which would provide technical assistance to do site feasibility and pre-development work. This would require the trust to provide a local cash match of 10% value of the grant. So far, Mass Housing has provided grants ranging from $50,000 to $100,000. A second approach would be if the trust is not successful in receiving this grant, then the trust would require to use CPA funds to hire a consultant, do the site feasibility and redevelopment work, and prepare RFPs to solve the bids. Here are some of the potential city-owned lots that the Trust would like to consider. One is along Fulton Street lots, which is about 39,000 square feet. There's been some pre-development work or study done by graduate students, and a mission-driven developer has expressed interest to develop 100% affordable home ownership on the city-owned lot. The second one is along Riverside Ave. It's a small city-owned lot, which is landlocked and inaccessible. The pertaining property owner has expressed interest to acquire this lot and build housing development and provide 25% affordable housing units. Another potential city-owned lots are along Bailey Street and Scott Street. There's a private property between the two city-owned lots, which was on sale a couple of months ago. So the property owner has expressed interest to sell this lot. So the trust could explore acquiring this property to form a contiguous city-owned lot to develop housing. There are also smaller lots along Rand Street. These are very small lots, but could form a larger, contiguous lot. And this is something that Trust could explore acquiring as well. I'm sorry, it is under the city, but explore developing affordable housing. A second example would be for the trust to support construction of new affordable housing, potential projects, proposals from Medford Housing Authority or CDCs, Community Land Trust, Community Housing Development Organization, and comprehensive permit projects are something that the trust would support. Currently, City of Medford doesn't have a Community Land Trust, but the city is doing a feasibility study see if Medford could have a community land trust by end of the study. We are hoping that community members would take initiative to establish one. Third example of a potential project would be to build a fund to purchase land when it becomes available. As mentioned earlier, there are some private properties abutting city-owned lots. This could be a potential opportunity for the trust to acquire these slots and build affordable housing. Another opportunity would be to purchase existing affordable housing units. The fourth project example is to provide financial assistance to first-time home buyers. This would support households whose income is at or below 100% AMI. Currently, the city does have a down payment assistance loan, which is funded through the North Suburban Consortium using home funds. This program provides financial assistance up to $10,000 for households whose income is at or below 80% AMI. it's a zero percent interest loan with a five-year default loan. The consortium has set the purchase price limit of $606,000 for the property. The trust could review the existing program and then see how a new Versailles home buyers program would supplement the existing one. Lastly, this trust could provide rental assistance program. We understand that currently CPC is supporting few rental assistance programs. So the trust in the future could review these existing programs, identify opportunities and barriers, and then probably provide a new proposal that would strengthen the current programs. Some of these rental assistance programs could include rental vouchers, moving costs, and assistance, remediation, referrals, and legal services. Currently, the trust doesn't have active funds, but the trust is looking at potential funding sources, CPA being the first one. We're hoping that will apply for mass housing grant of roughly about $80,000 is what we would apply for. The trust is also anticipating a development payment of $250,000. A memorandum of understanding is in the process, and we hope that we'll receive these funds in a couple of months. The city has an inclusionary housing ordinance, but the ordinance does not have a cash-in-due or fractional payment at this point. We are hoping to update this ordinance, and this could be one of the income sources. for the trust. Lastly, the city does have a linkage program, but unfortunately, affordable housing linkage is not part of the program. The city and the trust is looking for funds to do a nexus study, which would enable the city to include affordable housing linkage, which could be a potential funding source for the trust. In terms of the CPA budget breakdown, as mentioned earlier, if we do receive the mass housing grant, then roughly about $8,000 of CPA funds would be used as a local cash match. And then the remaining $242,000 could be used for acquisition, construction, and support initiatives. If not, the trust would use roughly about $80,000 feasibility or pre-development work of CQN loss, and then the remaining $107,000 would be used for acquisition, construction and support. In total, the trust is requesting $250,000 from CPC. Thank you. Thank you very much. If the Board of Trustees have anything to add to the presentation, I'd like to welcome them.
[MCM00001821_SPEAKER_02]: I would actually like to talk a little bit about how adding on to the down payment assistance program actually would maybe expand the pool of eligible participants receiving funds, because the income, as you know, CPC, you go up to 100% AMI. So it would be, I would like to see that. Great job.
[Unidentified]: Questions from committee members?
[Joan Cyr]: No questions. This has been a long time coming, so thanks for your presentation.
[Doug Carr]: I guess I have a couple of questions. I know that this board, this committee has been very supportive of affordable housing since its inception. So I know that there's strong support in a broad sense for these type of initiatives. I agree with Joan. This has been in the works for years. We want to see it. I guess my concern, my question is, what's the best use of the $250,000? Because obviously, Construction-wise, that doesn't even get you, I don't think, even one unit. What's the best way to leverage the money, whether it's planning or analysis or assistance or closing costs to get the most people the most housing? That would be my general question because I don't feel like construction would be the best use, just broad general state of the statement.
[Roberta Cameron]: Great question. Um, and one that I thought of myself when I was thinking about asking like $250,000, there's not a lot of money. How are we going to best serve everybody there? It is. At least something to add. And I, at the currently you're right. Development might not be the right place, but it's the 250,000, these were just examples of what we could use, what we could use towards. I think when we're done doing the five-year planning, hopefully by mid-May, we'll have a better understanding of what the need is within the community so we could offer a better answer or a more direct answer.
[Doug Carr]: Thank you. Does that mean that we're kind of we're putting this down as an act of faith and you're gonna find, you're gonna do your analysis with this money, because we're not actually voting on any specific project. We're voting on an idea more than anything else. Isn't that correct?
[Roberta Cameron]: Correct. Correct right now. And there are, as Aditi was saying, there are costs there. We could enhance the assistance already being provided by other programs. The down payment assistance, I think that could be the best way, because if you're doing the 250 and you're trying to do it and you set something very similar up to what already exists, so you're not recreating the wheel, you're just taking what you already have, enhancing it a little bit, and it gives more people, people with slightly higher incomes, to an opportunity to purchase a home in here in Medford.
[Doug Carr]: The last question is, is the developer memorandum of understanding, is that public knowledge? Is it about what project, what developer that is, or is that still kind of like in the works?
[Moogoor]: It's still in the works, and it's not public knowledge yet.
[Doug Carr]: OK.
[Moogoor]: And if we were to convey CTO logs, we would issue an RFP to allow different mission-driven developers to bid for it. OK.
[Doug Carr]: Thank you.
[Penelope Taylor]: If I might add kind of to both of those points, you kind of need some money to get more money. So kind of having that match in the bank to be able to apply for opportunities that require things like that, especially when we're just getting started is super important. So I would just add that piece as well.
[Joan Cyr]: That's typically what we've been doing. We would give the first tranche of money to say the city is behind this project, whatever it is, and that allows you to go out and get more money. So been there. I thought it was interesting, but I didn't remember about Ram Street. That was interesting. You got to kick the coyotes out if you go that route, but that's me.
[Unidentified]: I'd like to invite Kaylene here.
[MCM00001830_SPEAKER_05]: Hi, thank you for your presentation. Yeah, not honestly, what Doug said, I'm just going to sort of reiterate. So I work for the Lexington Housing Authority. So I have the housing authority experience with AHTs and Lexington very newly just implemented there. So I think they're like the second funding cycle. They applied to their, to Lexington CPC for a similar sort of idea, like sort of like we're funding the pot here, but they do have other matching sources, you know, whether it's the fee, like, I'm gonna go up to the slide back up, but yeah, similar to Doug, you know, my concern is 250 is like pennies. in the grand scheme of things here. My concern is I have no problem, good faith, giving you the money. I would even say you could ask for more on the housing side of things because we don't have that many applications. You answered my question. If you have a five-year plan that you're still working through, that's great. I would just definitely pick the silo that I think you want to focus on. I don't know, that was really, yeah, my concern is just the 250 is not a lot of money here and that I think we should like think bigger. Housing trusts are like awesome opportunities for agencies, you know, I'm just thinking as a housing authority to off-cycle, you know, request funding, you know, whether it's for schematic, design, feasibility, whatever it is, you guys are there to support agencies like that. So if you have more money, I think that's even better, so. I guess I don't really have a question anymore because Doug sort of asked them and you guys answered them. But yeah, just reiterating those concerns that he outlined, definitely.
[Roberta Cameron]: And I just wanted to take a moment to comment to acknowledge that I'm thrilled to be working with the talent that we've brought together for the affordable housing trust team. Maybe each of you could just you know, give your background in a sentence or two. And you have a sample of our trust board, although we have great people who aren't able to be here with us this evening as well. Elevator pitch. My name is Lisa Day, at least to end and we can prefer Lisa. I have been working in the housing industry for a long time since before the turn of the century. I worked for the city of Somerville. I worked with the nonprofit communities and the in-house communities. I started by permanent supportive housing programs while I was at that nonprofit. And back at the City of Somerville, I sat on the City of Somerville's Affordable Housing Trust Fund. I made commitments, looked at a development, asked for funding opportunities through using CPA as well as using non-CPA funds.
[Penelope Taylor]: I'm Penny Taylor. For about the past 10 years, I've done community organizing around anti-displacement initiatives and strategic planning. And I have done rental assistance advocacy and running housing programs, anti-displacement programs and policy advocacy for the city of Somerville as well. And also just want to echo, we really have an amazing team, the people who can't be here tonight bring so much skills and knowledge to the team. We're all learning a lot from each other and it is really exciting to have this group together working on this project for the city.
[Roberta Cameron]: Thank you all.
[MCM00001830_SPEAKER_05]: Thank you. You guys, you guys clearly know what you're doing and have the experience of that. And that's incredible. You know, so I just want to see this succeed and obviously money is the way to do that. So I think just go big or go home and your requests. So with that being said, yeah. Yeah, no problem.
[Theresa Dupont]: That's awesome. Thank you all.
[MCM00001830_SPEAKER_05]: Wonderful. Thank you.
[Unidentified]: Thank you so much. We'll wait a moment for a media switch. Do we have someone here from agency B? Are you Ellie? Oh, okay. We've got a chance. Phone number, you can text her.
[Roberta Cameron]: All right, I can move on to the next thing and then come back to that.
[Unidentified]: We will carry on our talks. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
[Roberta Cameron]: So in the meantime, we have, are you Cindy? No, Cindy was going to be coming. Ruby. Okay. I thought that you, I've got an email saying that you couldn't come. So I was looking for you. Thank you. Good. Good. And you were here for the housing presentation. So good. Good. Thank you for joining us. Um, all right.
[Theresa Dupont]: Do we have Cindy from, so I did have, I had told her about seven because she had a commitment. So maybe we could go to Tim. Yes. I'm sure. Would you mind going?
[Unidentified]: No, that's fine. Yeah. What did you guys want to do? Thank you very much.
[Tim McGivern]: I think most of you know me, Tim McGibbon, the DBW commissioner. And thank you for the opportunity tonight. I'm here to talk to you about two projects. If it doesn't order the agenda, I think Playset Park Tennis Courts Reservicing is first, excuse me, and then the Cemetery Buildings Preservation Design Project. So we'll start with the Playset Park Tennis Courts Reservicing. Can I share my screen? I just want to do some pictures real quick.
[Unidentified]: I should be able to share. Okay. I'm going to pick the right window.
[Roberta Cameron]: Welcome. Thank you for joining us. We just took things out of order because we had a lot of fun time. So we'll get to your application in a few minutes. Thank you.
[Tim McGivern]: Is that the one that was specifically for me? Yes. You can go. You wanted to start.
[Roberta Cameron]: Um, if you want to take a moment, uh, yeah, if you don't mind. Yeah. Why don't we switch back to the, to the order of the agenda? And so have St. Francis, um, just started.
[Unidentified]: So you guys are late. I'm sorry to be here. All right. Nice to meet you all.
[Theresa Dupont]: We do have committee members joining us remotely. We are fully hybrid. Great.
[Roberta Cameron]: So if you will introduce yourselves and introduce the project.
[Cindy Watson]: Sure. Okay. Cindy Watson, first generations in a franchise. That's the New York Queen of Peace. We combined with two parishes. Oh, this time we're applying for money for St.
[Roberta Cameron]: Chris.
[SPEAKER_12]: Okay. I'm Reverend Timothy Hines. I'm the pastor of Mary Queen of Peace. of St.
[Cindy Watson]: Joseph's below. Thank you. Okay, I just want to preface this by saying she has been a tremendous help since I'm a novice at this, has taken the lead, I've been a recipient with other folks at the Chevalier, things like that. Anyway, we did a lot of work and research. We have many, many windows over at St. Francis. They're in dire need of repair. So we're asking for $150,000 for window restoration. When it rains, it leaks through the windows. We have a big formation room downstairs that gets soaked. The more climate weather we have, we're at high risk for electrical fires. The outside of the windows are all boarded up with blue tape. Some of them are not able to be even opened. So that's kind of a brief synopsis. We've been around for like 103 years. And the parishioners of St. Francis are very involved. Obviously, she was a force of strength and a beacon of hope. So, we put the heat on this winter, and like everybody, it's literally going out the window.
[Unidentified]: Thank you. Are there any other questions?
[Joan Cyr]: I have a question. Oh, sorry. I was reading the quote that you got from Burnham and I'm confused. Is this replacing the windows and the framing or is it just the framing or what is this for? So 47 new bronze aluminum double glazed window frames. Is that not the window or is that just a frame or what is it? It's the frames to the 300 series double glazed window frames.
[SPEAKER_12]: Yeah, so. The windows themselves are not intended to be replaced because they're stained glass windows. So the idea is that they will be removed and that new frames will be put in. So part of the problem is that the frames themselves are at issue. They're warped or they're old, right? They're no longer the same size they were when they were put in 100 years ago. And then secondarily, a double pane of glass would be added as well. So right now it's just the stained glass window, which doesn't provide obviously really any insulation. So the thought would be the panes themselves, the stained glass windows would be removed along with their frames. New frames would be placed in, stained glass windows, I forget if the double pane window goes first, I think the double pane window goes second. So I think the stained glass windows go in and then the double pane window goes on the outside and protect the stained glass from the elements.
[Roberta Cameron]: That is very helpful to explain all of this context. It's really actually helpful when there are photos accompanying the application so that we can get a visual of what we're talking about.
[Cindy Watson]: I've got several pictures on my phone that somehow we can get and submit them.
[Roberta Cameron]: Yeah, that would be helpful if you can submit some pictures that we can have when we have our deliberation.
[Theresa Dupont]: I would also like just to share that Cindy has been doing incredible work with trying to get multiple quotes from vendors. And I don't know if it's just the season for historic window restoration, but she was having a difficult time trying to get responses back. So luckily, Burnham and LaRoche being a local vendor here just up the street, you can always walk down to the job site, not that they would. But just to add that they're trying to put together a more robust estimate there. But just wanted to share that story there. I sent you a list of four or five vendors and they didn't get back to you. They told you that they're not available. So just to provide that clarity.
[Roberta Cameron]: So if you do get any more information, pass it along and we'll add that to our packet when we deliver it. More questions?
[MCM00001830_SPEAKER_05]: Hayley? Does the Archdiocese have any responsibility here in helping you foot the bill or like what's their role here?
[SPEAKER_12]: No, I would love it if the Archdiocese would assist us in that way. Generally speaking, we pay the Archdiocese. We are, every parish in the Archdiocese of Boston is, I like to call it a tribute, but they will call it a tax or a some other term. Anyway, we have to contribute to the central ministries, right? So there's no giant parish in the middle of the Archdiocese that gets income from offertory. Our offertory helps pay for that. So generally speaking, these are certainly building repairs and things like that would not be something that the Archdiocese would assist with. They might assist in terms of offering us a good rate on a loan, but they don't offer funds, unfortunately.
[Roberta Cameron]: So, if they are on record as the owner of the building, do they need to be a signatory on contracts?
[SPEAKER_12]: I have power of attorney over all of them.
[Roberta Cameron]: Okay.
[Theresa Dupont]: I think Haley froze, but I hope she can still hear us and I answered her question. She's very still.
[Unidentified]: Questions, Doug?
[Doug Carr]: Yes. This is an odd one, I think, for me, because when I've seen window restoration projects, they've usually kept the windows or try to recreate the windows. This is kind of a weird hybrid where we're building essentially a modern window outside of it, which I understand why, because of the fragility of the stained glass. But it's a different aesthetic. I guess I'm looking for more detail. I don't know if the contractor or maybe the preservation architect could do like a little section through a typical window, because if you're getting rid of the frame for the stained glass, because it's rotted metal, and it's single pane, what's holding the stained glass together?
[SPEAKER_12]: It's a fair question. I initially didn't understand where you're getting at, but it's a fair question because it's true when you're generally thinking about stained glass window, you're thinking about individual panes that form an image. And for the most part, that is what we have at the upper church. The lower church is actually just stained glass. It's just stained glass panes for the most part. It's not figures. So really, it's just the frame that's holding in these stained glass themselves. I recently came from a parish in Norwood, and they had a number of their their stained glass windows repaired. Also, again, it takes forever for these companies to get back to people, and the project was delayed itself, I think, by about 18 months overall. But that was a project where they did actually have to remove the individual panes and then recreate the stained glass frames for that. It was very interesting what they ended up doing. In fact, at least this company would take pictures of these stained glass windows, and they created laminates. So when they removed the stained glass windows, they actually put temporary windows in. because it was going to take 18 months, and they actually put these laminates on it. So it made it look like the windows still had the stained glass in them. The pastor, I was not the pastor of that parish, but he actually wishes that they hadn't done that, because from the perspective of many of the parishioners, because many of the windows weren't close up, many of the parishioners didn't even realize the windows had been removed. So there's many different processes that are involved, depending on what kind of stained glass. These ones are fairly simple, and they're really just colored glass in some respects.
[Doug Carr]: Um, I can't remember from my historical commission records if this building, um, is on the, is it on any state or national register? If anything, it hasn't been found significant by the Medford historic commission, I don't believe, but I'm not sure.
[Roberta Cameron]: Doug, maybe while we're talking, could you do a quick search to see if it's on Macris?
[Doug Carr]: Yeah, I can do that. That's fine. I just, again, the- I think it's on Form B down here. Form B doesn't make it on Macris. Yeah, I will do that because it's a weird hybrid. It's a new window, it's an existing window. I don't think it's what's recommended from the national standards for restoration for windows, just typically. But I don't want to I think we need photos, we need a little bit more detail to evaluate, because when I was doing the math, I'm like, okay, it's $3,000 a window. That's a lot. But now that I see what's happening here, it kind of makes sense. There's a brand new window, there's a removal, there's a frame, but it's a big number per window. How big the windows are obviously factors into that as well.
[Roberta Cameron]: So that brings to mind perhaps something that our committee should consider the need for some technical support, if need be, because we have limited historic preservation capacity within the city. Maybe the Historical Commission would be able to provide the answer. I'm not sure. but we are required for CPA funds to meet the Secretary of Interior Standards for Historic Preservation. So we would need to make sure that the proposed treatment of these windows complies with that standard. There's someone in the waiting room. So what might be helpful for us would be to I don't know, like either the historical commission or we could hire an outside consultant to collaborate on a treatment plan together with your contractor so that everybody is, so that there's a consensus about what, to make sure that the treatment complies with the standards that were required.
[Doug Carr]: Sure, I agree. I agree. That's what I'm that's what I'm getting towards. It's we just need a little more detail. I think the commission is probably a good idea to consult just to kind of kick the tires on this and do our due diligence on the building and make sure we understand what's going on. But you're right. The standards are the standards, but this is. This is a treatment I actually haven't seen before. It's usually something that is either restored, because you're not restoring the windows, you're really replacing the windows with these things.
[SPEAKER_12]: The glass remains, the outer glass is really to protect the rest of it from the elements, from what I understand, but the company would be able to do it much better. This is what I've seen, certainly on the windows of the previous parish that I was at, their stained glass windows were also covered by an additional a pane of plain glass that I believe was also double-walled. It had a bend in it to prevent it from fogging. So I think that's the standard way to protect stained glass after it's been restored.
[Roberta Cameron]: Yeah, it's like adding storms. And that's a common thing that happens with historic windows, is to add storms to the outside to protect the historic windows.
[Doug Carr]: Yes, it's sometimes the outside and sometimes it's the inside depending on what the nature of the window is because the aesthetic. It's not so critical here, but in a 19th century building or early 19th century, the profile of those mullions would be very different. If there was a full window in front of it with two panes of glass, it just wouldn't look the same. And I don't think that would pass muster for those national standards we're talking about. But I think the contractors that have done this before, they may have a detail off the shelf they can provide to us. So I think there's some opportunity here to kind of just work through a few more details. Conceptually, it makes a lot of sense, this project. So I just want to try to get a path to success here.
[Roberta Cameron]: In my other community where I am the staff to the Community Preservation Committee, we have a procedure where all historic preservation projects are required to have what we call an advisory review. with the historical commission before the CPC makes its recommendation. And the purpose for that advisory review is exactly what we're talking about here, to make sure that whatever is being proposed is compliant with the standards. And then you can make sure that your budget fits the scope that we can approve. So there might be a need to do a little bit more negotiation and research to make sure that we get to what the best figure is, the best scope and budget that the CPC can deliberate about.
[Joan Cyr]: Am I showing the right windows? Is it these windows down here?
[SPEAKER_12]: The low, yes, the low ones.
[Joan Cyr]: Not these windows, but the ones that are behind the rail.
[SPEAKER_12]: Exactly, that's correct. The ones that are the lowest set of those three sets of windows. And you prefer that as the lower church? That is so, yes. So it's not quite clear because you see three sets of windows, but the middle and then the upper church, it only has two floors. But yeah, all of those, those would all be the lower church windows. So one of the things unfortunately that ends up happening is that over the years, snow has been plowed into it and it creates additional so there would be, we want to make sure that that was not the problem going forward.
[Cindy Watson]: And this contractor that we've had some inroads with, he's done approximately 25 years of work on this church. So he does know a little bit about the windows of the church. Yeah. In that respect.
[Theresa Dupont]: Yeah, that's that's helpful. And there was some contingency money built into the budget for 152. So to your point about going back to the historical commission, if they have some suggestions, we did have that budget to have contingency.
[Roberta Cameron]: I don't know if I missed it. I didn't see a like a budget summary. in the application? You're right. OK. Yes. So I had questions about the budget myself, which was, so I saw the estimate. And in the application, I read that you were doing a capital campaign. So I wanted to understand what is the scope of the capital campaign, and then How does that relate to the budget for this project? So what is each of those addressing?
[SPEAKER_12]: I can speak a little bit to that. I've, I've only been the pastor here at this parish for four months. So much of this, all pretty much all of this predates me. Uh, so my finance manager would be able to better speak to that. And my understanding is that I, uh, I think about five years ago, they ran five, three or five years ago. I forget exactly what the term was. We're nearing the end of it. This was the last year of our, what we called our increased hope, uh, capital campaign. Yeah. Inspiring. And so, um, We haven't received, so there are a number of pledges that have come in for that. We haven't received all of the pledges made full quite yet. The thought was if we needed any additional funds to help assist with this project to reach completion, we would use some of those funds. So that's what that campaign was earmarked for. It was for capital. projects.
[Roberta Cameron]: And so were there other capital projects that the church has undertaken?
[SPEAKER_12]: So at least there was a roof that was repaired, that our parish center, I know that that was done. There were other things, but I can't speak. The boiler is part of it. Yeah, sure. The boiler in St. Francis, unfortunately, died not long ago. So we used some of the money for that as well. I can't speak to what the other monies might have been here much for, I just don't know.
[Roberta Cameron]: So what might be helpful is if you were to prepare the budget summary worksheet that we have and to show how much of that capital campaign money remains. Maybe what is the potential to raise capital funds from your own community to match the CPA grant? That would also be, I think, really helpful information for us. You know, Doug was wondering how you were getting to $3,000 per window, or yeah, how you were getting to that amount, to the $150,000 to repair all of these windows. And I was wondering, why is it only $150,000 to repair? What you must have, like the capital needs must be just related to that alone. I'd like to have some context and understand how does this project relate to the whole project that you're trying to address and what resources you're plugging in just so that we know how our resources fit that picture.
[Cindy Watson]: Getting back to the historic mission, so you're suggesting that, what was it, John Hennison?
[Theresa Dupont]: So he's a historical society. We have like three different entities that are involved with history. So the historical commission would be Ryan Hayward, Jen Keenan, and I can happily facilitate conversations with them about that. I talk to Ryan daily. Okay, great. Thank you. Yeah. And also, we can work on that budget summary as well. Thank you. Of course.
[Unidentified]: Other questions? All right.
[Roberta Cameron]: Well, thank you very much. It's been very helpful.
[Cindy Watson]: Well, thank you. And with my hat on my sleeve, I just hide my soul in a month I can't control. We're going to get her out of here. That's a great tagline.
[Unidentified]: I'll give you a call tomorrow. Thank you for your patience, Tim. Yeah, no problem.
[Theresa Dupont]: We had a anonymous person join that I didn't recognize, so I didn't want to have it open for everybody to be able to share. I hear you. But I trust you, so.
[Tim McGivern]: There's still shenanigans happening. No Zoom bombs or anything. Well, hello again, everybody. Thank you for having me. All right, so we'll do Placeset first. And this was... So this is a $526,000 request for the resurfacing of the Placeset Park tennis courts. And as far as the DPW asset management goes, we'll see the next one in line for resurfacing. Right now we're queuing up Tufts and Capon basketball courts, which CPC has funded. So those should be happening imminently. And this is the next one in queue. The estimate is based off of recent bids, the ones that I just talked about, Tufts and Capon, and just discussions with So it's a larger, much larger court than the other ones. And I'll just run through some pictures.
[Unidentified]: Just so you can understand. All right, this is the first one. I just have to move this screen out of the way so you can see the arrows. There's another one.
[Tim McGivern]: There's another one. So you can see how the cracks are at the point now where things are growing in between and the surface is starting to peel off. That acrylic surface is starting to peel. This is one of the newer cracks that I noticed actually has gotten wider recently. This is part of that same crack system.
[Unidentified]: So as you can see, it needs to be
[Tim McGivern]: resurfaced. So pretty straightforward, very similar project to similar ones that we've done with this board previous years.
[Unidentified]: Are there questions from committee members?
[Reggie Graham]: Can't see anyone.
[Tim McGivern]: No, we have not. But this is an estimate based off of the basically last three bids that we got. Yeah, we wouldn't put it up to bid until, you know, the end of Monday. but knew what the funding path was.
[Joan Cyr]: So how does this surface compare to the other ones? Is this in better shape, worse shape, same shape?
[Tim McGivern]: Compared to the other ones that we've resurfaced?
[Joan Cyr]: Yeah. I mean, those cracks, which I wonder, can they be repaired versus redoing the whole thing? The rest of the port looks okay, but I can't tell from pictures, yeah.
[Tim McGivern]: Yeah, so the problem with repairing surfaces like this is you can see on some of those deeper cracks, the cracks actually go all the way down to the base of the pavement. So at Hickey Park, what was it, Barry, I'm sorry, Barry Park, there was a project that just did a skim resurfacing and a crack repair. And within a year and a half, I think, that started opening up again. And now if you go out there, um, I've actually put it back on the list for a capital project because it needs to be, um, rebuilt from the base up basically, or the cracks has come through the next year. So it's, um, really a good, not a good use of money to do that. Um, what you could do is seal the cracks for a very short amount of time, you know, between a year or two before they'll start opening up again. But we should plan to, um, do this to every court when it begins to show cracking like that, deep cracks that go all the way to the base, basically.
[Unidentified]: Thanks.
[Roberta Cameron]: How long do the courts typically last before they get to that condition? Can that be prolonged?
[Tim McGivern]: It's a good question. So they're just made of asphalt. Asphalt, if it's placed properly to spec, you should get 30 years out of it. The coating on the top should make it last a little bit longer and it's not vehicular loaded. But it all depends on the quality of the workmanship when you're down, really. We've had roads that are paved and start unraveling, they call it, or deteriorating within five years because they got the spec wrong on the mix. But then we've had roads that 40 years later, they still look fine. So it's kind of hard to give you an exact number, but we plan 20 to 30-year zone, usually for asphalt pavements around there. So I don't know in places it was built. That's the next question. I just know that those those types of facts, basically, it's like they don't get smaller. So I think within the next couple of years, we should probably replace that.
[Theresa Dupont]: Yeah.
[Unidentified]: Yeah.
[Theresa Dupont]: I have a strange question, I'm sorry, I'm stealing it out to something. What kind of warranty or guarantee of work might come with this? I think it's safe to say that some of our courts out there were not put down correctly. And it's a shame that we can't go back to those vendors for work. I just don't know what type of warranty there is.
[Tim McGivern]: It's typically a year. And if we buy a product, then it's whatever the warranty of the product is, like a basketball hoop or something like that. But for the actual asphalt work and the treatment, it's one year. And that's tough to get around. So basically, to prevent or to not prevent, but to minimize risk, you do things like inspect the base, inspect the compaction, test the temperature of the mixture when putting it down. So there's things that you can do to mitigate that risk of the long-term failure issues.
[Roberta Cameron]: Very well.
[Tim McGivern]: Thank you.
[Roberta Cameron]: Thank you. Ari?
[Ari Fishman]: This might be a controversial question, but I know there's been a high demand for pickleball courts. Is there any consideration of dual lining it for multi-use?
[Tim McGivern]: Yes, as always. So I think when it comes time to make the decision for the final striping, we can request X number of pickleball courts. put some striking down there, for example. So this at this point in time, knowing the popularity of that sport, I would say we would plan on doing that.
[Unidentified]: Thank you.
[Tim McGivern]: As a retrofit, sorry, not as dedicated to the ball courts.
[Unidentified]: Yeah, exactly. Like a thugger. Yeah, tennis courts. You could also use a ball.
[Roberta Cameron]: I just had to comment that I know there's been a lot of talk lately about the need for skate parks in Medford. And I work in Somerville, one of the parks that I stopped at recently, I caught a picture, I was just five minutes too late to catch them actively playing pickleball with a skateboarder using the skate, like the benches that were made for skateboarders. around them. So sharing pickleball and skateboarding in the same fort, it could be done.
[Tim McGivern]: That's pretty interesting. There's a young gentleman who's very interested in building a skate park in Medford in Basin Park. So I've been helping him out.
[Roberta Cameron]: I would love to see just incorporating more skate-friendly amenities in any parks anywhere, because there's no reason why we have to segregate all of the people who like to use skateboards over in one part of the city. We can accommodate them anywhere. So just a plug for that. I had one more question. Oh, the basis for prioritizing playstead. ahead of any other parks? Like what else is needed in the city in terms of courts? And how did we arrive at this one this year?
[Tim McGivern]: Well, we arrived at this one this year because we feel that it's the one that is deteriorating the most and at a rate that we have been affecting the play, that we need to do something about that. And there are other ones for sure. But these are the ones that we feel are the ones that need to be addressed sooner rather than later. And we try to do one court or field improvement every year.
[Unidentified]: Actually, we ended up doing a little bit of work on the varsity baseball field this past year. But in general, that's what I want to do, try to do one year.
[Ada Gunning]: Is there any analysis of like, which courts get more play around the city? I think I feel like I always hear of things happening at Placestead? So I'm like, is this our most popular court? Or do we even know?
[Tim McGivern]: Yeah, I mean, I probably have, from my observations, I'm sure Reggie has some of his observations as far as permits and things like that. As far as non-programmatic, just public general use, Placestead is one of our more popular parks. So the Placestead courts, if you go on a weekend, they're basically filled out. Sometimes there's people waiting in line for tennis at those courts. I don't know, Reggie, if you've seen that too.
[Reggie Graham]: One of the things is USTA has a specific their tennis lessons. Okay. And so I'm sure that last year we had a young citizen come by and say that she was very disappointed in the amount of time that she had to wait to get on the court because the USTA had a permit from like 9 to 12 or something like that and that was the only time that she could really get on it was on the weekends and so I know the place that gets a lot of usage primarily because they have free courts yeah um and and um you know most of the courts that we have around the city are Maximum two courts. Yeah, okay. And so, you know, you can go to place that you carry you Barry Yeah, the berries like you said kind of beat up. It's a little bit beat up. It doesn't get nearly as much use soon But you know, so we have a pretty good idea who's playing where? but quite quite frankly, I think placed it it's probably USTA still gonna utilize that and They've actually come to us. I don't know if you saw the minutes from our meeting or what have you. No, but they they've committed to put lights at the wrong tennis court.
[Unidentified]: Oh, all right.
[Reggie Graham]: Well, that was what the call was for. So, you know, it's something that we would probably So then give them two opportunities to have their tennis lessons, et cetera, et cetera. Because I think it's a little collaboration with the rec department and the city that we can probably work some good things out of it. Yeah, let's do it. Good.
[Roberta Cameron]: And I've been trying to talk to me if we could find an extra 10 or so thousand dollars in the city's budget somewhere could be really helpful to have like a. An athletic feel of utilization studies so that we knew what was like, or a park utilization study so that we knew what was going on where in all of our parks all the time and. Like, how much demand is there for all the activities?
[Ada Gunning]: I mean, the Logan courts are like always empty once you're in the house.
[Unidentified]: Sure, sure, sure.
[Ada Gunning]: So I'm like, why doesn't Medford Rec do more programming? You know what I mean? Like, if ferry and plays are deteriorating, it feels like, yeah, it'd be really interesting to see where people are always playing.
[Tim McGivern]: Yeah, we haven't done anything formal like that. I'm sure that something like that would be incredibly informative. I mean, it would help me too, I think.
[Ada Gunning]: Like I said, Logan, I met Morrison.
[Tim McGivern]: Morrison, yeah, yep. Morrison doesn't see a lot of action. No. So, but we, you know, like I said, it's informal, but we have a pretty good idea. The parks division of the DPW is out at these parks every single day. They kind of see what's going on. So we have a pretty good feeling in-house of what gets used, what doesn't get used. We also follow a program around and prep the fields for whatever, maybe a little league or whatever. So we know, You know, we know, just like, you know, Kevin Bailey in the Parks Commission, the intensity of use during certain times of the year and then how to maintain the spaces with that intensity that varies throughout the year. So you may see Morris and Park. maybe sees no action for years. And then one year, we're doing work over here. We had car park under construction at the same time as Gillis in the past year. So we were juggling things around and trying to figure out, well, we can use this field for that and that field for this. And that should happen every single year. Because every single year, we should really have something under construction or something fallow or whatever.
[Reggie Graham]: I will say this, Tim, you know, we got a lot of compliments on your staff, your park staff this year. To be honest with you, they did a really excellent job of preparing the fields and making our constituents very happy. Nice.
[Tim McGivern]: Well, it's a team effort between Kevin Bailey's office and us. So it's a team effort. Because sometimes in previous years, if that communication isn't happening seamlessly, we may be prepping the wrong field, or we may not be giving it enough attention, or miss it all together, or whatever. So yeah.
[Roberta Cameron]: I appreciate it. So I think you're also up for the cemetery. Sure.
[Tim McGivern]: All right, so the cemetery, it's a little bit of a different ask, and I'm going to share the screen here. So just to recap, I'm sure folks remember a little bit of the history here, but we requested some money early on to just get a handle on the situation and do some conceptual work. This is a budget summary for design. So basically, we saw costs associated with the project. The project goal would be to preserve Through renovation to buildings and cemetery. We have a conceptual estimate for that project, which would be about 8 and a half million dollars or so. So that's obviously a very large sum of money, and I'm not coming here asking for that. But what we do know now, because of the early money that this committee invested in the project, we know how much it's going to cost, and we started design. So right now, we're in design development. We're in contract with Foster Architecture to get to the next milestone of design, which would be design development. From design development, that's where we can do really fun stuff, where we can start showing plans to agencies and start thinking about the best way to bid it out, fund it, break it apart, and how to basically purchase the product and how to fund it. So that's why design development is fun. The ask tonight is, can we take that $200,000 and now that we know what it's going to cost to design, can we round up the design to bring us all the way through construction documents for both buildings? So the minimum that we would need to fill that gap is in red there on this chart. So I'll just explain this real quick. The two buildings are on the left, maintenance building, office and caretaker's quarters, and the preliminary design costs right at the top there, 50K, design development, these are all proposed costs to bring both buildings through DT. There's a site survey in there which I'm recommending that happen during the early phase because I believe there's some exterior work that should be done. Now that exterior work is an add alternate, so over on the right, there are add alternate design costs that could be added in. Right now, that red number in the CD design phase does not include it, that $84,550. That's just the baseline to get us the construction documents. The study phase is completed, so that's the next column over. design phase breakdown. So we're here now in DD design phase. The cost, the total cost for both buildings is $134,000. This board granted us $200,000 in last round. So that is going towards that DD cost. We'll have some leftover for construction documents. which that total cost is $150,000 shown here. And if we give this project $84,550, that brings us right up to construction, basically shelf-ready, ready to bid. And we believe that will help leverage the project into construction phase, as it always does. So shelf-ready projects are really what folks want to see to fund. If we can demonstrate that we're ready to go, then we should be able to successfully fund it. That's the idea anyway. Um, the add alternates over to the right. If this board chose and you had extra money and you wanted to give it to this project, then we could take all the way up to an additional $67,540. And that would include the exterior, the landscape architecture and the site design, which would include things like a small parking area, um, and, uh, improving the entryways to the buildings, things like that. So.
[Roberta Cameron]: Just a quick question of that sure site design entryways would that be what's needed for accessible entry to the building.
[Tim McGivern]: So, the cost for the building does include accessible entry and accessible public area area. but it wouldn't include any portion of the building on the site that has some gray area overlap is any sort of ramp structure or accessible entrance that's needed. So that would be part of the building costs. But say if there was accessible handicap parking spaces that we needed to bring to the building, we'll bring the people from the parking spaces to the building, that would be a part of the site design. So that would be included on this right, this add alternate. Okay.
[Roberta Cameron]: So site design, add alternative site design, landscaping, and... That would be really it.
[Tim McGivern]: Yeah. And there's some opportunities there that we've identified. Like, for example, if there is bathroom space that could be for the public in the maintenance building, then does that need a parking space closer example, things like that may impact a site design. So that's also something that could be funded separately, which is why I've listed it separately. But my main primary goal would be to get this project into construction document level.
[Roberta Cameron]: I see Kaylene has her hand raised.
[MCM00001830_SPEAKER_05]: Hi, thanks. It's going to be a silly question, So who's funding the construction of this? So this is all design, right?
[Tim McGivern]: This is all design. We do not have construction funding at the moment. But there's opportunities. We're trying to work with the historic commission, although I don't know how much we've done quite yet. But we really need to have design development drawings to do much of anything. But the idea would be to get on the state list for funding a construction project with historic preservation needs. So that's an opportunity. I think the city should probably pony up some money. I think that the perpetual care fund maybe could be looked at for some potential funding. And then potentially this board too. I don't think any entity is going to fully fund the project. I don't think anybody has. $8.5 million to send our way, unless we get some amazing grant or something. So the idea is to take the design development drawings and to peel off, so to speak, biddable projects. It may be windows. It may be plumbing. It may be accessible entrance. It may be things like that. So you get the idea. We're not asking the public or any single entity to say, hey, buy this all. We have $8.5 million worth of work, and it's the only way to do it. We very much see this.
[MCM00001830_SPEAKER_05]: So that 8.5, you keep on saying, is that the estimated amount?
[Tim McGivern]: That is the estimated construction cost value.
[MCM00001830_SPEAKER_05]: OK. OK.
[Tim McGivern]: Today. Today. Correct. You got it. Today's dollars. All of the estimates that everybody any every year is on construction projects are today's dollars.
[Unidentified]: Other questions.
[Doug Carr]: Yeah, just a couple. I thought when I read the construction costs, it was a typo. I guess I'd like to see the copy of the Didi drawings when they're done, just because $8.5 million, that's like eight houses being built from scratch. The scale of it just doesn't feel right to me. The buildings are being restored. They're being renovated. the cost per square foot must be in the thousands of dollars per square foot to get to that amount of money. I can't see where there's $8 million of construction. Just for reference, the Embel Carriage House is about a $3 million project, and that's rebuilding a building that is missing a third of its roof and all new systems and gutting it down to the walls. The number just seems crazy high to me, but that's why I need to see the drawings. I need to understand it better.
[Tim McGivern]: Yeah, so I think, Teresa, you have the conceptual estimate. So you guys have the conceptual estimate from last round. It's two buildings, not just one. And one is a stone building with extensive work associated with it. And then the wood-framed building also has extensive work. not electrical systems, plumbing systems, window systems, exterior siding systems, all problematic that we believe there's water damage in the building. We're talking pretty big projects here, Doug. So we did share the conceptual estimates and the conceptual study with this group. So you guys have that on file. You can always resend it if needed. And some of the earlier studies we shared as well. I hope you are right. I hope it is more like a couple million dollars per building or something like that. I always like to see conservative estimates on the start of a project. I'd like to see design development costs quite a bit lower. But again, we don't even have a schematic design estimate right now. We have a conceptual estimate based off of study work and just visits by architects. And I would say that I was told that a lot of the costs for the maintenance building are associated with the stone construction.
[Doug Carr]: Okay. I mean, that's, that's helpful. I just, I just, the more detailed the better, just, I mean, trying to find $8 million is, is, is, I mean, even the preservation projects fund, they, you know, the most we ever got as a city was about a quarter million dollars. You know, the, the, the whole total amount is, is only about four or $5 million. And then I'm, you know, I want to try to see, getting that amount of money is going to be, as you know, will be, will be very challenging and you don't want to phase it over 30 years either, you know?
[Tim McGivern]: No, no. And yeah, that's why, and we know that it's large sum of money. So that's why we're trying to see if we can split this up into biddable projects right now. Uh, it's embarrassing to tell you the truth, the conditions that we have city employees, uh, working out of at both the maintenance building and the, uh, the, the guests, I'm sorry, the, um, the, the, the office building. I encourage folks to visit. Not a lot of folks do. And a lot of this is deferred maintenance. And I feel like the asset management has gone wrong at this point. So I'm hoping to at least get this place respectable. If we don't do the entire project and do the full preservation, I'm okay with that. I know a lot of other people won't, it's from a historic standpoint, but I just, one of the things I really need to happen is have an accessible and appropriate experience for people visiting the cemetery in the office that's modern and not like it's, you know, from the past, and an employee muster area that is safe, healthy, and appealing to come to work to. Those are really my goals. Now we have historic buildings that we're dealing with, so that is obviously something that is important and we're gonna contend with. But at some point we have to come to the realization that these folks that work here and the public need better spaces for their solemn business.
[Roberta Cameron]: It could be a nice idea to have a CPC field trip to the cemetery and see all the work that's either done or needed at the cemetery, Reggie says no.
[Cindy Watson]: I feel like he'll spend enough time there in the future.
[Roberta Cameron]: He doesn't plan to ever go there. I'm happy to give a tour if anybody would like to stop by.
[Tim McGivern]: Talking about potentially
[Roberta Cameron]: breaking this down into phases in the future. First of all, I'd really be interested in seeing a list of potential funding sources that you're aware of. Sure. I am always collecting these ideas because I, there are so many municipal buildings that need so much work. I would love to know where the money comes from to do it, but also. You too.
[Ada Gunning]: National appropriation works for the hunger. Yeah. Good.
[Roberta Cameron]: the so when you have your construction documents would you be able to perhaps identify what some of the the phases are that you could break it into and the order of operations because obviously you don't want to repair all of the windows when everything else needs to still get ripped out like you're you know you can't do things in in order where they're going to have to be disturbed again so i wonder if there's a way to show how to possibly tackle this in phases?
[Tim McGivern]: Sure. So we've had a plan in place that basically The discussion has been through the design development process, our architect would do that work. Basically, what can be done independently, what can be spun off and bid out and done without causing an excessive cost implication to some other phase down the line, reopening walls or whatnot. One of the things I know that we've talked about as one of the more immediate needs is electric. That's a kind of a can of worms because once you, from what I understand, once you start opening the walls to replace electric and you put it back together, you probably want to put it back together correctly. So that becomes one project. And when you are built, the walls open well, probably should upgrade plumbing if it needs to be upgraded as well. Um, but for something like that, you don't necessarily need to do the windows.
[Roberta Cameron]: So there's, um, yeah, you want to do things in the order that they need to be done and in groups. So just for scale, because I've worked a lot with CPA funding, and our annual funding allocation is in the range of $2 million for Medford. And most projects that fit within our budget are in the $100,000 to $500,000 range, something in that range. is comfortable like you've done with the athletic fields to handle one at a time. So I don't know if you're able to identify phasing in that range in a few years, you can tackle a lot of the needs of those buildings.
[Tim McGivern]: I think so. That's what I'm hoping. Yeah, I'm hoping to Doug's point, if it truly is this very expensive Personally, I may not be interested in executing it soup to nuts. I may only be interested in executing it to a point where it's a successful job. We've done some preservation work, but you know what? Maybe a big chunk of that can be deferred even a little bit longer without causing excessive damage. That's another reason why we want to take a look at it from this approach. What can we break off? What can we do now? What can we do later? is complete design development and see what we can begin to peel off the construction and what those costs look like. So we can say to this committee or the mayor or a grant funding source, hey, we want you to fund this piece and this piece costs $500,000 or $1 million or whatever.
[Roberta Cameron]: And given that the cemetery's role in the community It seems like a kind of facility where it would make sense to invite maybe community donations to this major capital improvement. And I wonder, so the cemetery must already have a revolving fund. Is there any way to create a capital improvement fund that like people could get a a plate in honor of their loved one installed in the building if they will donate to the improvement of the building.
[Unidentified]: Yeah, a brick or a plaque type of program. I think that's a great idea.
[Roberta Cameron]: Especially since a lot of people nowadays are cremating and probably not burying, but they might still like to have a marker and they could purchase a marker to put it on the building.
[Tim McGivern]: Yeah, yeah, I mean that's a great idea. To address the revolving fund idea that you were bringing up, the cemetery has revenue sources, perpetual care, it provides revenue to our operational fund. That happens basically off the interest so we don't tap into it for capital needs. The city's capital program capital improvement plan does have projects this is one of them on that plan as well so the city also funds capital commission and do the operations of the property. And then we also have revenue from sale of lots. So sale of lots can go to feed the perpetual care fund, but it also goes to feed the operational expenses of the cemetery. Those funds are managed by the cemetery trust.
[Roberta Cameron]: Okay, so I don't know whether what I'm thinking of fits within that framework or if there's like potential to create a new kind of account that would invite people to make memorial donations to the restoration of the buildings.
[Tim McGivern]: Yeah, I think it would be something different because a perpetual care doesn't wouldn't be able, I don't think, to provide for the capital improvement entirely. to like what they did with the library. And I think, yeah, some sort of donor program is, I think, is a really good idea, Roberta. So I'm making a note of that.
[Unidentified]: I'll keep it on a list of potential funding sources. Thank you. Yeah. Any other questions, comments?
[Roberta Cameron]: Well, thank you very much. I think that concludes everyone we have with us today. And we will have to see if we can find another date to reschedule our other applicant.
[Tim McGivern]: All right, well, thank you very much for your time. Good luck on this round of funding.
[Unidentified]: Thank you.
[Reggie Graham]: Oh, okay. All right. Sounds good. Thanks.
[Roberta Cameron]: Well, thank you to Ruby, tough student who's here to observe and learn about affordable housing and funding.
[Unidentified]: Yeah. Any, any comments yet?
[Reggie Graham]: ahead. First things first.
[Roberta Cameron]: Yeah.
[Reggie Graham]: Can we get a breakdown of what we got left over from the preceding year? Us, what we have available for 2024?
[Theresa Dupont]: Yes, I can share that right now. It was in the Dropbox that there's kind of like a financials snapshot.
[Reggie Graham]: I'm having a problem getting into my Dropbox for some reason. I'm not exactly sure. And I'm totally technically illiterate.
[Theresa Dupont]: Sorry. Sorry for the
[Reggie Graham]: Not really, not illiterate.
[Ada Gunning]: I feel like we reviewed this at the end of our last webinar. We did. It was pretty close. Yeah.
[Theresa Dupont]: One question I was going to ask, hold on one second. One thing I had meant to ask Tim, I think The largest app we have is for those playstead tennis courts. It represents 28% of our entire budget is just in that one project. A question I was going to have for Tim was if he were to prioritize, since he represents two projects as one single applicant, if you were to prioritize those projects, as well as he had also, I don't know if you all caught it, he had also said, if you guys feel willing to give us an additional 67,000 or so, If we were to forego the place said, for budgetary reasons, could we add that additional 67 into his 85 ask? I think it was 85. So that was a question I can ask him, because I think that might be, I'm not trying to put thoughts into anybody. One particular person said, it's just, this is a big ask.
[Ada Gunning]: I feel like we can't forego it though. I mean, when we talked about that number before seeing the pictures and stuff, I was like, yeah, it's a lot. But those are the courts everyone plays at, and they're non-functional. How could we not fund that? I used to deliberate.
[Roberta Cameron]: I don't know. I walked across those courts last week, and I thought, boy, if I had to choose between having tennis courts without cracks in them versus having a functional men's room, in City Hall. Be careful now. Be careful.
[Reggie Graham]: You're on candid camera.
[Roberta Cameron]: We'll be deliberating next week. One of the things I think we want to think about is strategize. How do we want to think about our deliberations so that we can make these choices?
[Ada Gunning]: What would the alternative funding stream be for these projects? If the reparation type things are primarily turning to us, but like City Hall might be able to get the cash like that.
[Reggie Graham]: You said 23% of our budget? 23% of our budget would be for the place that? Give or take.
[Theresa Dupont]: Again, I'm not trying to sway anybody. Well, don't shoot me.
[Joan Cyr]: That's why I asked about the cracks, because aside from the cracks, those courts look pretty nice.
[Roberta Cameron]: You know? Yeah. I mean, I don't play tennis, so I don't know what that's like.
[Reggie Graham]: Right. I will say this. I will say this. I do believe that either the boys' high school or the girls' high school used this place as an alternative to Duggar. At one point in time, several years back before Duggar was resurfaced, they were disqualified from using Duggar as a place to hold tournament games because of the cracks and so on and so forth. Now, having said that, playset is not one of the places that we would use for that type of a situation. But I've seen some of the repairs that they've done on these courts, and yes, they are temporary. We've had some good weather lately. For the past four or five years, we haven't had an awful lot of snow and not a lot of ice and so on and so forth. So I don't think that the cracks have gotten exponentially worse. But who knows what this winter's going to give. We just don't know. So it's tough. and we'll give you X amount to fix the cracks, probably. Because if you just send somebody down from the DBW office to fill in the cracks, that's probably not optimal.
[Roberta Cameron]: But that's not a CPA grant. They can't do that. Yeah. Yeah, maintenance is. So the question is whether they're coming to us to replace them rather than actually going to their own budget to maintain them. So because it's easier to get money to replace then I wonder if that's an inappropriate use of our funding.
[Ada Gunning]: Can you compel them to do that study that you keep mentioning? It does seem really problematic that there's tennis courts around the city that don't get any play. Of course, certain tennis courts are going to get effed up really fast. They're going to get all the play.
[Roberta Cameron]: Well, I want to respect everyone's time we have. And yeah, we have, we'll be deliberating next week or next month. So we'll have a chance to like really go through all of these. I think what worked the last time was to rank everything in terms of high, medium, low priority, in our opinion. And then compare that prioritization so that we could figure out which are the projects that are first in line for the funding and which in the end might be projects that we have to ask to come back later. Or we might be able to look at the projects and think whether any of them could be broken into smaller pieces.
[Doug Carr]: It wasn't there about a roughly $600,000 delta between what we have and what the requests added up to? Is it more than a half million dollars difference? Do I have that wrong?
[Ada Gunning]: I think we narrowed the gap, yeah, because there was carryover money from last year.
[Doug Carr]: Correct.
[Theresa Dupont]: So our asks are $2.4, the budget of $1.9 million. And then we carried over about $675,000. So right now, if we were to award everything that was asked, we do have the funding available. That would leave us with roughly $120,000 left in our coffers. We had agreed as a committee that we'd like to keep $225,000 in our coffers. So if we were to award all of the applications, we do have the money to cover it, but it would leave us with only $125,000. 20-ish in our bank.
[Doug Carr]: That's good. That's not a bad position to be in.
[Roberta Cameron]: Yeah. All right.
[Theresa Dupont]: So we'll have, yeah, we'll come back next time. And in the meantime, if anybody has any specific questions on any of the applications, I can certainly, yes, I have some homework to meet with all the applicants on, but if you have any questions that pop into your head, feel free to send them to me and I'll work on getting answers.
[Joan Cyr]: So just to recap- Do you know what the total of the ABCD has been so far?
[Theresa Dupont]: In terms of, they don't have any more money left, they've used up what we've already awarded in the past.
[Joan Cyr]: Right, so my questions are really about how much have we given them so far? And have we gotten reports from them as to how that money was spent and what Medford residents benefited from that money?
[Theresa Dupont]: I have that information and I can provide that. Yeah, that would be really helpful.
[MCM00001830_SPEAKER_05]: I feel like I'm having deja vu. Of that last year, didn't we ask them to prepare that? And I didn't, I don't know.
[Theresa Dupont]: I don't know. Our other program, which is housing families. Oh, sorry. It's almost identical. Yeah.
[MCM00001830_SPEAKER_05]: Same question. I'm allowed to say stuff like that.
[Theresa Dupont]: That's a good point.
[Joan Cyr]: So we still have to hear from them and from Shiloh. Are those the last two?
[Roberta Cameron]: We already heard from Shiloh. We told them that their presentation to us in September would serve as their presentation. But we'll just add them to the regular funding stream when we deliberate.
[Reggie Graham]: With additional information, right?
[Theresa Dupont]: So did Shiloh owe us additional information?
[Reggie Graham]: I think they did.
[Theresa Dupont]: They did send me something this morning that I haven't been able to fully digest. There's a new architect on their team that still with the same architectural firm. It's just I have to understand their communication style. But there was some information provided since this wasn't an agenda item. I didn't really.
[Roberta Cameron]: So what we'll be looking forward to help us the next time is hopefully to hear from the from ABCD about the movement assistance program. St. Francis is going to do some homework and give and hopefully meet with the historical commission and work out a treatment plan that's compliant and then give us a very clear scope and budget for their project. kind of fill in the things that were made. And any more new information that we get from Shiloh or that we get from any other applicants, we'll add that new information. And then what do we need? So we have the accounting of how much money was carried over, how much money is available this year. So all of that, you've been clearly giving us a statement of Is there anything else that we need from Teresa to help us with our deliberation process? So, okay.
[Joan Cyr]: I think- I had some notes from last time about the City Hall bathroom updates and the Heckner Center that there was no quote or something like that.
[Theresa Dupont]: Yes, they have reached out to their on-call architects to put together formal estimates. Those are a work in progress.
[Joan Cyr]: Okay. And there was the possibility of putting a third sail over the performance space at Riverside. Did they give you a new estimate for that?
[Theresa Dupont]: I do not have that. I went on vacation very shortly after our last meeting, and then Amanda, we had one day back together where she then went on her honeymoon. Yes, so feel free to graduate. So, we mentioned passing the night, but she is back Thursday and I've already got a. A hot date on her calendar to meet on a couple of things. This is. Okay, the 4th time.
[Joan Cyr]: Okay, so we'll already speaks for all of us. Okay.
[Roberta Cameron]: Well, we'll make sure that we have all this follow up and maybe Teresa and I can pregame before the next meeting so we can rapid fire, share all that information that we gather. We might possibly have one more presentation at the next meeting and then we can start the deliberating. So if our next meeting is in November, November 12th, which is the day after that day, We might put together a general plan for what we think we're going to fund at the next meeting and then the following meeting actually vote on the recommendations. So we'll give Teresa a little bit of time to prepare the recommendation letters and we can review them and know what our Um. Conditions are going to be and everything and in December. So I think that. Should be a plan to get us through the end of the year. Any I got to call the roll. Reg?
[Reggie Graham]: Yes.
[Roberta Cameron]: John? Yes. Doug?
[Unidentified]: Yes.
[Roberta Cameron]: Kaylene? And Ari? Yes. Thank you, everyone. Oh, and before you all go, at our next meeting, we may have a new committee member who we're just trying to get on the council agenda as soon as possible. Yes. We'll be a full team. We'll have a new friend. All right. Good night, everybody. Thank you. Good night.