[hsUGO5ihrRw_SPEAKER_31]: Good evening, everyone. This is the November 18th meeting of the Medford Historical Commission. I'm going to call the meeting to order at 7.01 p.m. I'm going to read the governor's statement, and then we'll jump right into our agenda. On March 29, 2023, Governor Healey signed into law a supplemental budget bill which, among other things, extends the temporary provisions pertaining to the open meeting law to March 31, 2025. Specifically, this further extension allows public bodies to continue holding meetings without a quorum of the public body physically present at a meeting location and to provide adequate alternative access to remote meetings. The language does not make substantive changes to the open meeting law other than extending the expiration date of the temporary provisions regarding remote meetings from March 31st, 2023 to March 31st, 2025. So for everybody following along, this meeting is gonna be recorded, usually it's posted to Medford Community Media a couple of days after the meeting, sometimes it's being broadcast live. And if anybody wants to follow along, we publish our information along with our agenda on our website, www.medfordhistoricalcommission.org. You can go to the news section and see the latest information that we posted there for tonight's meeting. All right, tonight we are going to start off with 110 Brooks Street. Motion on the subcommittee recommends to lift the demolition delay. So I posted on the website for all to see the new design that the owners have worked with us on. The subcommittee met with the owners. They made multiple changes to the design. We'll see if I can bring those up right now real quick, just so we have an opportunity to see them. Does everybody can see my screen? So we made just very simple changes. There's a great line here, just so you don't get confused. This is Stone Foundation. We provided trim around all the windows, changed the window designs up. We maintained this pediment window on the third level, made changes surrounding the doors to more traditional design. And then we reverted back to more traditional windows and more traditional materials on the, mainly the front facade, but it carries through for the rest of the project. And overall, I think the subcommittee was entirely happy with the way that this project is proposed now. And I think the subcommittee is comfortable with recommending that the commission lift the delay. Any questions, comments from commissioners? So Ed, you're moving to release the delay on the building.
[MCM00001222_SPEAKER_04]: you know, subject to the plan submitted to the building department.
[hsUGO5ihrRw_SPEAKER_31]: Okay. Do I hear a second?
[SPEAKER_05]: Second. Okay, Eleni.
[hsUGO5ihrRw_SPEAKER_31]: Eleni, got it. Okay. Motion's been made and seconded. I'll just go around as I see you on my screen. Doug?
[Doug Carr]: Yes.
[hsUGO5ihrRw_SPEAKER_31]: And Eleni? Yes. And Peter?
[SPEAKER_05]: Yes.
[hsUGO5ihrRw_SPEAKER_31]: And Ed?
[SPEAKER_05]: Yes.
[hsUGO5ihrRw_SPEAKER_31]: And Kit? Yes. All right, motion passes five zero. All right, so I will tonight, the owners have already uploaded this to the permit system. So I will pull together my letter and I will upload it to the permit system and then I will release the permit. So tomorrow morning they can contact the building department. And if there's anything further on the building department side, they will take care of that and take care of the permit. Thank you, Adriana and Chris for working with us. Good luck on your project.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, thank you so much.
[hsUGO5ihrRw_SPEAKER_31]: Good luck.
[SPEAKER_05]: Good luck. Thank you.
[hsUGO5ihrRw_SPEAKER_31]: Can't wait to see the finished design.
[SPEAKER_05]: Me too. All right. Have a good night. Thank you.
[hsUGO5ihrRw_SPEAKER_31]: You too. Thank you. OK. Next up on the agenda, 20 Harvard Ave. I sent around a section 106 review. We often receive these little documents that are for cell phone tower additions, alterations. This is a cell phone tower on a building that is already loaded with cell phone towers. Doug and I reviewed this as the section 106 committee. We didn't think it was necessary to comment. We just will send them that we have no comment, provided that the commission has no comment. So our recommendation is that the commission has no comment. Any questions, comments, concerns?
[SPEAKER_05]: Agreed.
[MCM00001222_SPEAKER_04]: Move that the MHC expressly have no comment on the Harvard Avenue project.
[hsUGO5ihrRw_SPEAKER_31]: And a second? I'll second. Who was that? Was that Kit?
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, that was Kit.
[hsUGO5ihrRw_SPEAKER_31]: All right, motion's been made and seconded. I'll go around. Doug?
[SPEAKER_05]: Yes.
[hsUGO5ihrRw_SPEAKER_31]: Eleni? Yes. Peter?
[SPEAKER_05]: Yes.
[hsUGO5ihrRw_SPEAKER_31]: Ed?
[MCM00001222_SPEAKER_04]: Yes. Yeah, yes, get it there.
[hsUGO5ihrRw_SPEAKER_31]: Kit? Yes. Okay, great. Motion passes five to zero. Okay, next. Preservation ordinance discussion. We received some information that Redding has a really robust ordinance geared towards their existing historic properties that is specific in the sense that it it helps non-conforming buildings, helps the zoning board and community development board in those communities grant relief to non-conforming buildings when historic preservation is in play. And so I sent around the ordinance for the commissioners to review because I think it's It might be something that the city of Medford might want to consider. And so I think we should first give it a review. And if we think that it's something worthwhile to support, I think we should also that approach the zoning board and the community development board here. And, of course, the Department of planning, sustainability and development and. get them involved to see if we might work together to bring that to the City Council for review and approval. And of course along the way there'll be a robust community participation and feedback sessions that we want to educate the community as to why we might want to appropriate something like that. But it would be a really good tool for all those projects in Medford that, like our borderline, require some very minor variances and that sort of thing for dimensional requirements, slot size, etc. That would give all boards, including ourselves, a few more tools in their arsenal to help support projects, to help things move along in the city. I don't know if anybody had a chance to review the Information I sent out this afternoon already, but if you haven't, we can just kind of get it on the table now and spend the next 30 days reviewing it.
[SPEAKER_05]: If that makes sense, I took a quick look at it. Is it only for residential projects.
[hsUGO5ihrRw_SPEAKER_31]: I think that's how they worded it, but I haven't dug into it too much. I mean, we could make it for more than, we have, I think our community is a little bit more, has more commercial buildings than theirs does. And their center may be in a historic district, I'm not exactly sure. But I think the majority of their community is residential. But we could certainly tailor it to.
[MCM00001222_SPEAKER_04]: You know, when I did a very quick scan a minute ago, one thing which caught me was that it would be required that any project benefiting from the North Reading Ordinance would have to agree to historical preservation easements, which is fine in principle. But the whole problem I see is who becomes the enforcing party. We've been talking here about whether the MHC can become the holder of the easement or not, and I'm not sure that's, you know, whether that's, you know, that is what you're looking for, what they're looking for there.
[hsUGO5ihrRw_SPEAKER_31]: Yeah, I think the path of least resistance there may actually just be that they agree instead of saying preservation easements, which is a strong form of enforcement, that it may just be more beneficial to put the project in a local historic district in that particular instance where Most of the concern for additions and repairs and whatnot is the exterior. So really, the only thing we would concern ourselves with in a historic preservation project of that nature is the exterior of the building. Therefore, you don't need a preservation easement to accomplish it. You could put it in the district. You can abolish a district. So I can see why they might use the language for preservation easements, which are a little bit more difficult to abolish. But we could maybe put something in writing that says, you're not going to. The agreement is that they're not going to try to approach city council or whatever to try to abolish the district for a certain period of time. And if they do, then it's in writing.
[MCM00001222_SPEAKER_04]: I mean, that to me is the one problem with, again, whatever your view of even single home districts are in principle, they do have to go to the city council, which has shown signs of never being a rubber stamp on such issues.
[hsUGO5ihrRw_SPEAKER_31]: Yeah, I mean, they just passed a local historic district with something like 15 properties in it. So I think the current council supports districts, but I don't know about future endeavors. So we'll have to see.
[Doug Carr]: Ryan, you emailed this earlier today, is that correct?
[hsUGO5ihrRw_SPEAKER_31]: Yeah, yeah, with the agenda. Okay, yeah, I just if you want to take time, I think if we review it over the next 30 days and provide initial feedback over email, and then let's take those thoughts and see how we might craft something. And then there are. Key pieces, right? Like, we've got to approach Alicia and community development and all those boards to get their sign on. KP law would need to take a look at it at least there and then we have to have a. uh, you know, a community input process. I think it's important anytime you're doing this, you might want to start with what is the community think of it right off the bat.
[Doug Carr]: What problem are we trying to solve with this legislation without getting too deeply into it?
[hsUGO5ihrRw_SPEAKER_31]: I think there are a lot of buildings that are on the borderline of being able to, uh, pass, um, past muster in front of a, for variances and historic preservation is not currently in their tool of arsenals. They can say, you know, they can't really say, you know, it's good for the community. This kind of clears the way for that and gives them just one more thing that they can use as a positive for the community, you know. Well, and especially if if those projects are like really, really close to like being sufficient, but like what stands between them is say 5 feet, right? And they need a 5 foot variance or something like that because they almost have the square foot. Apparently it's really easy to challenge variances in the community. This would kind of further solidify and give more ammunition to preventing any sort of. small and minor variances that really will help push a project. It's never going to stop somebody completely from challenging it, but I think that's also a help. Go ahead, Ed.
[MCM00001222_SPEAKER_04]: The other thing I saw was it did provide, in effect, subdivision relief in some cases that would permit you to carve out a lot. And the issue there is, again, I'm not going to express a marriage view, but the grandfather's house situation where the lot which was carved out did not look, you know, did not look anything like grandfather's house, even though they did preserve grandmother's house.
[hsUGO5ihrRw_SPEAKER_31]: Yeah, I think we would want to avoid somebody here, I think it might have been on this board, called them fork chop lots, where they're just carved out with any sort of space and size to meet the dimensional requirements of the code, but they clearly don't meet the spirit of the code. So I think that we could certainly, and I think since city council has changed some of their zoning, it's possible that that has been rectified and we don't have to tackle that portion in this proposed code relief. We can really craft it for anything that we need it to do or not do. And of course, we have to make sure that we're not stepping on anything else.
[SPEAKER_01]: It would be really interesting to talk to somebody at the Reading, assuming they have a historic commission, which they apparently do, and just get a sense of how it's worked and what it's been used for.
[hsUGO5ihrRw_SPEAKER_31]: Okay, I can reach out to Virginia. There's a Virginia that has come to our board before that we talked about, because they had a six-month demo delay, and they were able to establish a local historic district in their town for a building that they wanted to save. And I can see if she's still on the board. If not, you can try to get somebody else and have a joint afternoon meeting or something like that, just to have a discussion saying, we're interested in your bylaw. What works? What doesn't? have you changed anything what sort of process did you go through to get it what problems were you trying to solve that sort of thing yeah they've got 19 years since 2005 it passed so this should be a track record there that's pretty substantial by this point i would think okay all right i'll ask them uh to set up a maybe we can set up a zoom meeting and um certainly try to get them to come to the you know if not the next meeting, maybe we can have a special meeting some afternoon. I just have to, you know, if we're all going to be in the same room, even if it's an informational meeting, just for safety sake, I should post it. So, you know, if there's just a subcommittee and just a few of us interested in that sort of thing, then I don't have to post it. But I think out of the spirit of things, we should just post the meeting whenever we get it set up. So because the public might be interested to and learning more about it. So Okay, anybody else? Any other questions? All right, hearing none, you have the link, so we can certainly review that over the next 30 days. I'll work on that meeting, and you guys can send comments around, and we'll go from there. Next up is officer's positions. So I put this on here because Jen expressed to me that she might want to shake up her position here at MHC. And I told her that was fine. I am willing to step up as chair for next year for the 2025 season. But I wanted to put it in all the commissioner's minds, those who I've asked and who I haven't yet asked. If anybody wants to be vice chair, I'm certainly open to it. It certainly would express their help. Peter will be secretary for next year. He's already claimed that role. So if you're thinking about jumping out of secretary's shoes, you can't do it. But we will also have, you're muted, Peter.
[MCM00001222_SPEAKER_04]: Two points on that. One would be that I want to express my thanks to the commission for the kind gift after the bereavement last week. It did mean a lot. It's sitting on the kitchen table right now. The second thing is in terms of my future service, I am unlikely to seek reappointment at the end of whatever my term is. I don't think I'm going to be living in the city in two years. It may be less than that. The nest is emptied and we're probably turning over the custodianship of the house to somebody else with the full intent to be preserved. But in terms of a combination of emptiness and desire to no longer deal with two stories, it's likely not going to be our house in now what I would have to call foreseeable future. And probably if we are out of the city, I would probably resign subject to appointment of successor at that point.
[hsUGO5ihrRw_SPEAKER_31]: Okay. Yeah. Your term is good until 12-21-2030. So no, I'm just kidding. I saw Doug's face. It's, um... What is this?
[Doug Carr]: Is this a Soviet election year? What is this?
[hsUGO5ihrRw_SPEAKER_31]: It's called Ball and Chain Organization, where once you join, you can't unjoin. No, Ed, you're good until 2025, December 1st.
[MCM00001222_SPEAKER_04]: So if you'd like to serve out the rest of your term, I think that's... No, I think at that point, I would not want to make a commitment beyond that point. but I did want to give people fair notes from a recruiting point of view.
[hsUGO5ihrRw_SPEAKER_31]: All right, so add his chair next year.
[Doug Carr]: We're gonna need a sharp legal mind to replace him because he's been very good on a lot of these tough issues.
[hsUGO5ihrRw_SPEAKER_31]: Yes, there's definitely no replacing him, but we will put a call out maybe somewhere at the six month mark or so, saying that we're looking for volunteers and then see if we can get a suitable replacement. Ed, any thoughts on turning your house into a single house historic district to make sure it's preserved?
[MCM00001222_SPEAKER_04]: That is, you, I started getting into this when you first posed this question to me about 15 years ago. My tip is going to be that, you know, and we've had this discussion, you know, and we went through this actually my father-in-law's house, which did not merit preservation legally in Belmont. But we, you know, you know, if we had a choice between uh, choice between the flip, you know, the, the flippers with the bulldozers and somebody would take the, take a mid-century modern house as it was, we sold to the person who would take the mid-century modern house. And, you know, we, we have talked to people already because as Jen will tell you, uh, whatever, however they price the house, that pricing includes an assumption there's going to be a lot of interior work to be done, uh, at that point. But I think we do want to, again, we've been custodians for 36, 37 odd years and, we would intend to sell to another custodian.
[hsUGO5ihrRw_SPEAKER_31]: All right. Well, thank you for the notice.
[MCM00001222_SPEAKER_04]: And since at a full disclosure, I'd be telling you, you'd be waiting three and a half years to tear the place down anyway, while your mortgage is being paid. I don't think we're going to see that.
[hsUGO5ihrRw_SPEAKER_31]: No, I think it's already been moved once. I think it has enough of its own legacy between being moved and being cared for by people who really like it, that it's a no brainer. And you're right across the street from the royal house. It itself is kind of a good pair side by side. So I don't think it'll be any question that somebody will try to develop it. So. All right, and then Doug, I don't know, when does your CPC term expire?
[Doug Carr]: Not sure, let me look into it, hold on a second.
[hsUGO5ihrRw_SPEAKER_31]: Okay. Just because if we're rattling everything, we might as well just rattle everything and just see if somebody else might want to just grab your position on CPC, but I don't think they will.
[Doug Carr]: If somebody wants to have an extra 12 meetings every year, call me.
[hsUGO5ihrRw_SPEAKER_31]: Yeah, well, I know you, I know you're on the Brooks Estate and I know Jen is on the Brooks Estate. So we're just trying to, you know, kind of like spread various workloads around because I know the Brooks Estate is going to spend a good amount of time trying to get up and running as a venue and, you know, working on reinventing themselves. So I want you guys to, you know, I think the entire historical commission wants to see the M-Belt succeed in their role as custodians for the building with the city of Medford. So I want to make sure that we you know, don't take up a huge amount of the time away from that belt.
[Doug Carr]: Sure.
[hsUGO5ihrRw_SPEAKER_31]: So good.
[Doug Carr]: Yeah. The new president's been been a jolt of fresh air and some new ideas and some new energy, which is exactly what we were looking for.
[hsUGO5ihrRw_SPEAKER_31]: Okay. All right. So you have 30 days. If anybody is interested in, you know, vice chairing the board for 2025. And I will send around the list of subcommittees that we have. Those work very well. So I just want to make sure that we establish them for next year, just so we can keep on I as chair and whoever is in the vice chair position just keeps on rolling right on with being able to call upon those people and do the work as it comes in. So very great. Let's go. Is there any other new business that I didn't bring up? I do have old business. All right, for old business, let's jump into properties currently under demo delay. Yale and said, we're asked to come here because there was a subcommittee meeting schedule, but there was an issue with zoom. So, I think. The subcommittee is just simply, I think that the best thing is going to be that the subcommittee wants to set up a meeting with them this coming week just to go over the design issues. But the bottom line is that I think the entire commission reviewed the progress where it stands and didn't feel confident in where the design is at this point, that it wasn't successfully preserving enough of the building, but that the design details need to be worked out by the subcommittee still.
[Doug Carr]: Let me just jump in here. Ryan thought process was I talked to any and. Peter, earlier tonight, we were trying to set up a subcommittee meeting for tomorrow night at seven o'clock, if that works for you, Yale, and your client, to try to move this along. I apologize for not setting up last week. I dropped the ball there, I apologize. We're gonna try to have a quick meeting tomorrow night to see if we can come up with something that can close the loop and then bring it back to this group. I mean, I'm okay with that. Yael, are you available?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, 7 is a little tight. I mean, I may be stuck in traffic coming back. I mean, can we do 7.30 maybe?
[Doug Carr]: I can do 7.30, absolutely.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, 7.30 is probably easier for me to commit to, yeah.
[Doug Carr]: Alina, you're good. I see. Peter, are you good too? Yeah. Okay. Uh, let me send out that meeting right now. So I don't don't forget it again. And I'll send it to both of you guys and we'll meet tomorrow night at 7.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.
[Doug Carr]: Thank you.
[hsUGO5ihrRw_SPEAKER_31]: Be great. Um, the only other project that we have on the table right now is 27 street. I want to get back to, uh, try to circle them back to us. So, Doug, why don't I. why don't I email them and see if they're available tomorrow to come talk to you guys about while you're meeting to see if you're available to just talk to them about the existing design and where they stand on it. And if they have no plans, get a direction to them. I think we were pretty clear we wanted to see the preservation of the forward mass of the house, but if they've done nothing yet to date, then let's try to get them on their way to now. And if not, we can try to set up a meeting relatively soon between now and that next meeting to try to get something out of them. Okay, does that make sense? Can you just send me the link so I can send it to them as well?
[Doug Carr]: Yes.
[hsUGO5ihrRw_SPEAKER_31]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_05]: I'll copy you on the link. Have we seen any design from them at all?
[hsUGO5ihrRw_SPEAKER_31]: No they did like when we first started talking with them they did like a sketch that basically said they wanted to try to put three units on that site in an L shape and they only wanted to preserve the forward block but and not even the full forward block they only wanted to preserve like the forward third of the building so and that It was too schematic for us to really understand what they were trying to do, so we asked them to come up with some more concrete plans that at least give us a footprint or a unit layout or something basic. It doesn't have to be a crazy investment, but we wanted to see something a little bit more concrete. you know, kind of shut up. So we want to kind of, you know, open the door again and say, hey, we're meeting, you know, we've got nothing but you guys on this, on the table. So we want to try to at least get you guys going so that you don't have to wait out the full 18 months because they're, they're under demo delay for an entire number of years. So, you know, they've already waited eight months. And so we don't want to, we don't want to see them continue to waste time.
[Unidentified]: Okay, good.
[hsUGO5ihrRw_SPEAKER_31]: All right, I'll work on that. Uh, Form Bs for projects. This is just normal. These are just normal updates that are following this now. I don't have any projects that I've seen that will require documentation by Form Bs, but you know, as you know, there's a standing order to just have John and Claire prepare them as needed by the commission. We've only gone through like a third of our budget. So if anybody sees properties that are up for sale, that look like they're being advertised to developers or they look like they might be heading in the direction of demolition by neglect, you know, feel free to send an email. I'm happy to at least look at it and we can certainly order a preemptive form B for it.
[MCM00001222_SPEAKER_04]: We have the budget for it. There are now three properties between the river and George Street on Main Street up for sale, one of which I've walked through clearly is not going to, you know, is being sold as a two-unit, two-bedroom, which has been completely renovated. It's not going anywhere. There's another one which has got signs on it saying, you know, being sold as if it were two condos. It looks like, again, they're not going to do major exterior work on it to get it done that way, but at least I will send you the street number on that. Third, I don't recall, made no impression on me whatsoever, so I can't tell you yet, but I will send you the street numbers.
[hsUGO5ihrRw_SPEAKER_31]: I looked today, is one of the Manning Street, because it looked like a big Victorian that went up for sale that would easily pass for a two-family. I'll be curious to see if that's one of them.
[Unidentified]: Okay.
[hsUGO5ihrRw_SPEAKER_31]: Anybody else? All right, hearing nobody, I'll move forward. Jen's been working on keeping the permit system clear for us. There's a few permits that we have to go through this week, but it's been going relatively smoothly. I think the building department, they had a good meeting the last time Jen met with all the building, the commissioner and all the inspectors. They have a good, they said there was a good vibe that came out of that meeting. They enjoy the collaboration. So I just want to keep up working with the building department and keep that going forward. Okay, Cross Street Cemetery. I have a couple of big project updates on this. So project update number one, the consultants are working on the assessment still. They're wrapping up work. They're hoping to have the assessment to the cemetery trustees by the end of the year, which is good because that works with the grant that we got for their work. So that all. alliance well and that will pave the way for understanding how much that project's going to cost and who's going to end up doing the work. There are a couple of people who were interested in bidding those projects when it comes out, including the current consultants, but there are other consultants that do that type of work as well. There's no reason why we can't have more more than one consultant working provided they all share the same qualifications and basic gravestone technique preservation techniques. So I did have somebody look at the wall at Cross Street. It's in relatively good condition. It's surrounded by a sort of field stone in concrete wall that's kind of like rustic and it's in really good condition. It's just covered with moss so they just recommended that it be pressure washed and then the hair, few, very few hairline cracks that it has will get patched and it will be as good as it was in 1958 when it was completed. On the other end of the site, the former Cross Street Cemetery site, we hired an archaeologist, it's PAL, and we're in the process of hiring an excavator and if all the stars align, and we get the green light from Mass Historical, we may be in the ground this year doing investigations at that site. If not, and the winter sets in sooner than later, then we will have to wait until the ground unfreezes, and that will be sometime April, May, unfortunately. So I'm really trying hard to get the city to move and to get everybody to move, but we're at the will of MHC now because it's a project that most certainly will require a permit. So that's in process. CPA, we had a good meeting. I posted the meeting recording that MCM is currently hosting up on our website and with the meeting slides. And we occasionally, still after about two weeks, are still getting trickle-in feedback from the community. I think a lot of the residents are concerned what happens there but um you know once we dispelled the fact that we were not putting in community gardens nor trying to um build the bridge over the railroad tracks that everybody was on board with the tree work and uh other various work that has to has to take place in order to make the park safe um so that's um that's up online if you haven't had a chance to see the recording and see the meeting and Peter's presentation uh feel free to go watch it it is um It is there, it's about an hour long in total, including public feedback, so should be, it's a good watch. And then the last thing that's up on the table is that we have a project out to bid. It's the Sagamore Vale Community Survey. So we have a little neighborhood north of Medford Square by City Hall. That's a little development called Sagamore Vale that was laid out in the middle of the 19th century. We have some of our regular budget that we normally apply to SMP projects. We went out to bid. We got two proposals in the process of reviewing them and should, once the reference checks come back, we should be able to award the project, but I just have to check it. Check the procedure with Fiona procurement and once that's good, then we'll get that get a consultant underway and we can start survey work on that in December, January. Okay. And then I put in. for an MHC survey and planning grant for 2025. So within a relatively short amount of time, I would expect sometime in the next week or two, we should get notice whether or not we're going to get invited back to the long app. Even though it's a survey and planning grant, this particular year's project was more focused on both like preservation plans and long-term plans, but because we're a CPC, we're usually guaranteed 10% of the state funding. So it's possible we'll get, we'll definitely get invited back. We're usually invited back. And even if then the funding pool becomes very competitive, then, you know, they may just simply diminish the amount of money coming our way. So, but I'm hopeful for a 50-50 match from MHC, which will take our normal $15,000 and turn it into a nice $30,000 project. So, that's it for old business. Did I miss anything? Anything happening at the Perks Estate?
[Doug Carr]: There's always stuff happening at the Brooks Estate. I did check the CPC site. I'm listed as my term expires on April of next year. If somebody really wants it, this is the chance to jump in. Otherwise, I'll continue if that's the will of the board. We are having some struggles with the city of Brooks Estate in terms of alignments on things like maintenance and utilities and other things that are in a gray zone right now. We're in a transition between caretakers and we're working on that. Also some repairs and we're trying to figure out what the next step is for the manor building, about what we're going to do. We've completed the access drive, but, you know, it's a multimillion dollar. Project we're trying to figure out if we can do some kind of phasing to get a temporary parking lot. At the state, you know, the manner without doing the whole 3 plus million dollar rebuild from the Grove street to. Parking lot, which is a half more than a half mile in distance. So it's a. We're getting on our feet with the new president. She's doing a great job. She's got some great ideas. And we also got a small grant for an admin to assist the president that we got from the city, which was really helpful. I think it was about $5,000. So that'll help. Just anything we can get to assist and take membership and other things off the president's played is a good one. So that's the Brooksville State update.
[hsUGO5ihrRw_SPEAKER_31]: Great. Well, it's, you know, anything that we can do to support EMBO, you know, we have a permanent position on the board that Jen currently sits at, I believe, so, or you could sit in it if you really wanted to, but I, you know, whoever sits, we just need to make sure that there's some representative And, you know, to make sure that we continue to support that I think the people who originally put forth the preservation efforts to save it from becoming more cemetery space, you know, would really get justice so to speak and seeing it. sort of opened up as a venue, and I would like to see that in my lifetime. I did send to Carly and Jen, and I forgot to CC you on it, but you may like this. I sent around, and I'll make sure I send it to you, Hingham Historical Society built for their caretaker. They have a caretaker in the historic museum. They built a net zero house immediately adjacent to their historic building. in the same general vibe. So I thought that might be a neat idea if in the future you guys decided you needed a caretaker but don't necessarily want them in the house or you could build an environmentally friendly house faster and cheaper than in the estate building that you might be able to cleverly disguise it as the little cottage that was across the way with where partially where the parking lot's going, but you know.
[Doug Carr]: No, it's actually not in the footprint of the parking lot. It does not expect the caretaker's ruins from, not caretaker, the Hamlet building from the 1900, I think. But I don't think the preservation restriction allows additional structures of that new structure. I don't think that's actually allowed, if I remember the legislation correctly.
[hsUGO5ihrRw_SPEAKER_31]: Interesting. All right, well, I mean, there's enough building that you certainly don't need to add anything.
[Doug Carr]: We have more than enough building at 10,000 square feet, which is what the manor is, if you add it all up. But I like the creativity, and we're trying to think outside the box. If anyone does have a landscape architect or someone who is a preservation architect or has those skills or is willing to learn, we do need to start bringing the next generation of those two skill sets into the MBEL board.
[hsUGO5ihrRw_SPEAKER_31]: Peter Edlund. He just did the other Brooks Park, right? And he lives over in Arlington, so he's not too far distant. So you might ask him if he might consider serving on a board in the city. There's nothing that would, because you guys are a separate organization, there's nothing that would prevent him from working with us later. But he's also really, he's really no-nonsense, he's very smart.
[Doug Carr]: He's very sharp, I like his designs.
[hsUGO5ihrRw_SPEAKER_31]: So, thank you. Yeah, I think he'd be a, I think he'd be a good one. But, you know, there's maybe other landscape architects in Medford. So, if you have Carly post something on your blog, we can certainly blast it around to various sites on our website or social media.
[Unidentified]: So, okay. Thank you.
[hsUGO5ihrRw_SPEAKER_31]: Good. Great. I think that's it other than meeting minutes. Did anybody else have old business? All right, hearing none, Peter sent around meeting minutes. Can I get a motion to preserve? Yeah, to preserve. A motion to approve.
[Unidentified]: All moved.
[hsUGO5ihrRw_SPEAKER_31]: Got a second? None? Okay. Sorry, Andrew. Seconds, no, Doug got it this time. All right, go around the room, Eleni.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
[hsUGO5ihrRw_SPEAKER_31]: Ed. Aye. Kit. Yes. Doug. Yes. Peter. Yes. All right, 5-0 approved. All right, motion to adjourn.
[Doug Carr]: So moved.
[hsUGO5ihrRw_SPEAKER_31]: Second. Thank you, Lenny. Yes. Ed. Yes. Kit. Yes. Doug.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yes.
[hsUGO5ihrRw_SPEAKER_31]: Peter.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yes.
[hsUGO5ihrRw_SPEAKER_31]: All right. Five zero. We passed. All right. Thank you all. So next meeting is December. December 9th, so it would be relatively quick. So we will see you all then. Doug, I'll look forward to that. And I'll let you know if 27-0-BOT's going to join you tomorrow.
[Doug Carr]: Okay, you got the meeting invite?
[hsUGO5ihrRw_SPEAKER_31]: I'll take a look at it in a minute, but I'm sure I did.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, we need to be there, right? Yeah, I got it.
[hsUGO5ihrRw_SPEAKER_31]: I got it. Thank you all. Thanks, everyone.
[Unidentified]: Have a good night. Bye, everyone.