[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to the Bedford Brooks Estate Land Trust board meeting, October 17th, with some of us in attendance and some of us to join soon. Usually we start off by reviewing the secretary's minutes, but this evening we are not because we don't have a copy of that at the moment with our secretary traveling. But luckily, we have Mark filling in for us as secretary this evening. So Mark, thank you so much for capturing tonight's notes so we can review them next time.
[W1Pcx_tDASA_SPEAKER_13]: No problem at all.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have a packed agenda, and I would like to keep us on track to finish by 830 if we can. But, of course, I want to create space for adequate conversation for each of these items. There are some that I think will warrant some deeper conversation as well. So I'm going to keep us moving along where I see fit, but unfortunately we will need to dig into some of these things. So we are going to cover the police call box donation that Medford or arts collaborative Medford has requested of us. We chatted about that by email, but we will make a formal motion to donate that today and then submit the terms for that. We're also going to chat a little bit about our support from the city of Medford. We had a call yesterday. Doug and I had a call with the mayor and we have some updates for you all after that phone call. We will share our financial update. I have a snapshot that I will distribute after this meeting by email as well, but I'd like to give you an understanding of where we are with our finances. We have an update to the manor caretaker resolution that we're working through, and we'll also be talking about the admin position that we've been seeking an admin for, so welcome, Alba, for that. We have a couple of upcoming projects that I would like us to take a look at. This was originally the intention of this board meetings focus area was for us to dig into where the money is coming from for upcoming projects, especially the access drive. So I'd like to spend a little bit more time working on that. That's why that's highlighted. Doug just texted me. All right. And Zoom. And I'm going to call him on his cell and see if we can get him in here as well. And then we will have. A little bit of an update for you on the winter prep on the manner work that we went in front of city council for last week and ask them for a little bit of money there. So I'll have an update. So packed agenda. Is there anything else that immediately needs to be talked about?
[Jennifer Keenan]: Not immediate Carly, but we might want to add a standing item to the agenda for like grant updates, just because I know we'll be doing more on that. So I know at our historical commission meeting, we kind of have like standing, we have like new business and then we have old business that kind of is the same every month. So just an idea.
[SPEAKER_00]: That sounds awesome, and I think that's perfect timing to bring that up because we did actually just bring on a new volunteer. Nancy Carbone is helping us with grant research, and I see she's already been creating a spreadsheet and putting some things in there. So I think it would be great to have her come to some of our meetings and share what she's been finding as well. And then any things we've applied for that we're seeking status on and then executing projects against.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Love it. Okay. So let's talk about that police call box donation. We do have the request from the arts collaborative Medford crew. They would like to have the call box that is in the carriage house currently at the Brooks estate. Yes, he is here. Wonderful. Great. So they made the request, they would like to refurbish it and turn it into an installation where you can sit in the call box, pick up the phone and listen to stories from history, which we think is just really lovely. And of course, from what we've heard from you all on email so far, everyone thinks that's a wonderful idea. And Mark came up with the especially great idea that we should tell them a yes, as long as they include Brooks' estate history in their stories. So we would like to put forward a motion to officially say yes to donating that call box over to Art Collaborative Medford. So can somebody make a motion please?
[Jennifer Keenan]: I'll make a motion to support the project. And one thing I want to just point out in reading the, you know, since I was working on the grants for ourselves last week, I noticed that any project that is somebody is putting in and there's like support from somebody else, they're probably going to be looking for a letter from us an official letter of support. So we might just want to prepare that in like a brief letter of support of the project and send it to them. So they have it for their grant application.
[SPEAKER_00]: That sounds great. We can definitely do that and. John, do you feel like that's something you can draft and run by the rest of the board? Yeah, I can probably start it. And then even if we add to it, that's fine, but just even having someone get it started would be great. Thank you. So, okay, John made the motion. Do I have a 2nd 2nd? Wonderful all in favor. Hi. Great. Doug, it's great to hear your voice. Thank you so much for troubleshooting well at 1 o'clock in the morning, 1.20 in the morning. Hi, Doug.
[Doug Carr]: Good morning, everyone.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hello. Good morning. I hope you're having so much more fun than the rest of us in LA. We have not yet reached our new agenda item of the update of support from the City of Medford. We, of course, just knocked out the police call box item, so we're ready to move on to that. I'm going to provide a little context, Doug, but I would love to have you fill in anything that I missed. Does that sound okay?
[Doug Carr]: Good. Sounds good to me. Thanks.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, so this meeting that Doug and I had yesterday came about on the heels of conversations that we've been having via email about the manor caretaker and our efforts to make sure that we transition him to his next home well in joint collaboration between M-Belt and the city. We have been working via email with the mayor and with her attorneys. KP Law is the law firm that has been advising the mayor on the work from the city side, and we have been looking to them to help us with some legal guidance for how to proceed with this. We've been asking them for meetings to talk about this as it has continued to be Not progressing, unfortunately, in the way that we had hoped, and we hadn't gotten a chance to meet with KP law, but we did get a request from them earlier this week. KP law reached out to us by email and said, mayor has requested a meeting. With M belt and KP law so that we can clarify. what we're all doing. So I was on that call. I asked for that call also to include Doug. So luckily Doug was able to join me for that. And essentially what we learned during that meeting is KP Law is retained, of course, by the city of Medford and they represent Medford. We as MBELT are a separate entity, nonprofit entity that we do not have representation support from KP Law. And KP Law also feels as though The agreement that was signed by the caretakers seven years ago under which they originally entered the property and their work was not signed by somebody at the city of Medford. So Medford feels as though they do not have involvement in the caretaker issue that we are facing. And they advise us to seek our own counsel and find our own routing for solving that. What we learned during that meeting was there's a distinction being made by the City of Medford between what the City of Medford needs to do and what we as Medford Brooks Estate Land Trust needs to do. They believe the caretaker issue that we are working through right now is solely an M-Belt issue and not a City of Medford issue. And with that, they have also opened the conversation for us to be separate entities, and they have reminded us of some of the things that stand in the original 1997 agreement when Medford Brooks Estate Land Trust was founded and named as managers of the estate, that they feel like we are in need of doing more things like being a landlord for the estate and paying utilities and taking care of the estate in a deeper way and paying for maintenance. So I'm going to pause there for Doug to fill in anything that I might have missed in that general overview of our call.
[Doug Carr]: Yeah, I can only say that this call was stunning, is the only word I can use, because it flew in the face of the last 25 years, basically, of what we've been doing. And Carly and I were texting during this call, like, this sounds surreal. The city is clearly trying to use the lawyer legalese to get themselves out of a situation with the caretaker. And they're essentially trying to divorce themselves from Ambelt over this one issue, which is insane, obviously, on its face. And we have to push hard back on this, obviously, as much as we can, because there's There's no way M-Bell can function if they think that we're a separate identity and we have our own insurance and our own, you know, like a separate system that has simply not been true for the last quarter century. So we push back on this, you know, and it's clearly become a political issue for the mayor. She doesn't want to be seen, and she said this on the call, she doesn't want to be seen evicting a 70 plus year old man out of a city-owned property. Politically for her, that's a bad look, and we understand that. I think we can deal with her political concerns without actually blowing up the larger relationship, which we're trying to get closer to the city of Medford, and now they're using this to try to draw a hard line between. It's not in the spirit or the letter of the original agreement. I think there's a lot of proof to that. I was thinking about this, in the last day or so since the call. And if they're going to go down that route, we're going to have to basically revisit the agreement. I think that's our only other than applying political pressure to alter the original agreement and get them back in line because it's just what they're proposing is politically unacceptable and unacceptable on many levels because we simply don't have the resources that the city of Medford does and the partnership that we've done for the last 25 years has been something and now they're basically saying it's basically nothing. I don't know if there's any other way to say that, Carly.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, no, it's true that I think you used the word divorcing themselves from us and it's true. They feel as though this is our problem and they have nothing to do with it and they are trying to just remove themselves, so.
[Doug Carr]: And if you think about it, they still, I mean, Mark Rumley from the city that solicited at the time, he wrote the agreement, you know, the idea that they have nothing to do with this just because they did not sign it. And Tom Lincoln signed it on behalf of M-Belt, which is, yes, the acting landlord for a city-owned property. I just don't even think it stands up on the legal front very well. Again, given the history here, KP Law signed the letter that Carly and I delivered to Stephen back in July.
[W1Pcx_tDASA_SPEAKER_13]: Is KP Law formerly known as Koppelman and Page? Not sure, actually. I may know one. I could find out. Do you know the name of the attorney who was dealing with this?
[SPEAKER_00]: Nicole Costanza is her name.
[W1Pcx_tDASA_SPEAKER_13]: No, I don't know her. I used to know several of them. See, after working at the city's law department, it's not unheard of for people to shift over to Koppelman and Page. They're standing in-house counsel to a lot of cities and towns. And I used to know quite a few people there. But I don't know Nicole.
[SPEAKER_06]: What's her last name? I'm looking this up. Estanza. Estanza.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes. Yeah, thank you for doing that. I know I've been sitting on this information for what's that Audrey? Costanza?
[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah. Nicole Costanza. It's under KP law, but I searched it as Koppelman. Wait a minute.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've been sitting on this information. Okay. So yeah, this has been about 24 hours that I've been processing all of this and it still feels fresh and it still feels, I have some severe emotional reactions to all of this, of course, and I'm sure you all might as well. I would like, the way that we left it yesterday with the mayor and her attorneys, we said, we're not solving anything today. I would like to review our agreements, especially the original 1997 document that they referenced to draw the hard line that they felt they needed to draw. And I want to review that, and I would like for us to consider how we're going to fight this, because we cannot just roll over and
[Jennifer Keenan]: I think we have to look at this as two separate things. I think the first and foremost is the caretaker situation. Absolutely. I think maybe we do, you know, get counsel and deal with that ourselves. And then once Steven is out, then we have that because then there's no risk for the mayor. Right. Like if he's out and we've done it, then then it's a win that we've delivered. Yeah, and it's it's less liability for her. And then, you know, if that takes, I mean, it could take a year. I mean, this time next year, she's either running for another term, or she's not. Right. And then so like our why are we going to waste our time with her when she might not even be in office a year from now or deciding not to run and then we have to deal with the next You know, I think if we kind of let it lie a little bit on the city's part, like, I think we just might need to deal with the caretaker situation separately. Okay. That would be my take, because I think it's too much of a big... Like, she's obviously got a lot on her plate dealing with these questions and the political ramifications of all that. Obviously, from a budget standpoint, we have big issues in this city that I think, you know, it's easy for her to say, I can't support you guys at all. I don't have the money. I don't have the legal resources. And I feel that might just be like a gut reaction until we know where the city falls on some of this stuff that will obviously take, we'll know in three, four weeks what's going on. So I don't know. That's my take on it.
[Doug Carr]: I 100% I appreciate that Jim, but I 100% disagree because I think This is the beginning of the end of them belt, but we don't have the resources to fight this, right? We just don't and to accept their report. We can take Steven off the plate and deal with this separately. Steven can stay there for 6 to 12 months. It won't be. We can manage that, right? But we can't manage the city. walking away from this. And I think we can walk the line with the mayor and saying, look, we're going to deal with Stephen just as we can, but we cannot allow what I believe is a complete abdication of their responsibility, even more than they've done since the beginning of MBEL. They're literally trying to, they're shutting us down, essentially. If they refuse to help us, if they refuse to deal with something that they helped create, And we can prove that, you know, we're going to have to, I think we need to re-engage them, but take Steven off the plate and just focus on the relationship. Because if we accept their, their thesis, we're cooked if we don't have the ability to do this. And I don't think it's fair for them to do this. Like legally, I know if KP got involved in this and they looked purely at the agreement, you know, and look, no, I haven't read the Ministers Agreement in more than a decade, right? And I'm sure there's language in there that is vague and unclear, right, about what exactly the relationship between the M-Belt is and whose responsibility this is. But we can clarify that and, if necessary, change that relationship based on the last 25 years of precedent. You know, if the city has been paying for giving us legal advice and legal support for 25 years and suddenly decide not to, that's a precedent that they cannot, no matter what the agreement says, I don't think they can walk away from. And politically, I mean, I don't know what Zach said, but we'll get the call to start dealing with this. But the political, if she thinks she has a political problem with evicting one man, You know, out of the—the political problem of undoing a quarter century of Imbecile's commitment is going to be a bigger political problem for her. I don't want to say that to her face, but that's the reality of it. I don't want that to be the case.
[SPEAKER_00]: And without M-Belt as an entity, the conservation land is still conservation land no matter if we're here or not as a nonprofit entity. So without M-Belt, the conservation piece of it falls to the city. And so we're relieving a burden. We provide value in our structure and what we bring. And I think the strongest argument that we can make to provide value for ourselves or to show our own value is to be able to build up this core of what we do and take the burden off the city, which is what we've been meaning to do all along and have done in so many ways, but really showing that concrete value so that it's not seen us. We're on opposite sides.
[W1Pcx_tDASA_SPEAKER_13]: One thing I'd like to point out is they're asking, the city's asking us to be a landlord for their property. They're not telling us that they own it. So what happens this winter when we don't pay the utilities? Stephen gets cold, he goes to housing court and he sues the school and belt of the city. Good question.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and this is actually part of the conversation we had yesterday with KP, as they said in the original managers agreement, it is required that the managers hold your own insurance and then list the city as an additional insured under our insurance, which is the first that I had heard of that. Of course, I know I'm new, so I'm hearing a lot of things for the first time, but that was surprising based on what I know our precedents as well. I didn't know how to fight it in the moment. So this is part of the processing that we're gonna have to really delineate and come back with.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Where are we at with, I'm assuming we're getting $0 for the manor maintenance that's needed.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the manor maintenance that's coming up for winter, the $55,000 that we went in front of city council and asked for, the resolution was approved out of appropriations. I haven't connected with Zach yet to see what the distribution and disbursement of that money actually looks like, but that is promising for that particular set of projects. However, the utilities is another piece because we... They've stopped paying the security fee. They've stopped paying ADT. We got a notice from ADT that they're about to shut off security because the bill hasn't been paid by the city, even though the city has always paid the bill on security. We have never paid the bill. The electricity and the oil and the telephone. We're paying the telephone right now. We're playing electricity right now. We don't have another oil delivery scheduled, but when we do, we will need to pay for that as well, probably. We got a... that the mayor has allocated some of the departments of building, part of his budget will be dedicated to paying for utilities in fiscal year 25, which is next calendar year. However, that does not cover anything for us until the end of the year. So that's a tiny bit of a concession, but that still means the security, who knows, is probably going to get shut off. I would let it get shut off.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Yeah, I would let it get shut off. Yeah, just cancel it.
[Doug Carr]: Yeah. Yeah, I think we need to again, I think, take a step back here. Think about, you know, what's. We've been trying to reengage the city and say, you need to do more. You need to give us a budget for the building. You need to stop kind of. trying to push this entire 50-acre property onto a bunch of volunteers who don't own the property and are expected now to pay for it and somehow maintain it with money that we raise from grants and foundations. No one pays for maintenance. It doesn't stand on its face legally for two seconds by anyone looking at it beyond the precedent. So I think, again, I don't want to play into their hands and accept their, and we told them this on the call, this is simply not the way it's been done. And if we get a lawyer involved, it's not going to be to solve a Steven problem, it's to go after the city of Medford for what they're trying to do. I think there's It's just not a path forward for us if they're starting to wall themselves off from us and wash their hands of the estate and inbound. It's politically unacceptable and they have to be told that in some fashion. I don't know the right tool and I'm not looking to throw sand in the mayor's face at all, but this is something we have to reject in the strongest legal language possible. Maybe Mark, you could, and all of us should take a look at the original agreement.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, Mark, I was curious if you might be able to point us in a direction of where we should go with this. I'm not asking you for your professional time, but I think it would be helpful for you and your skills to at least let us know what your thoughts are.
[W1Pcx_tDASA_SPEAKER_13]: Yeah, I've got an attorney in mind if we do decide to go that route. But first, could somebody give me a copy of that 97 agreement? Absolutely. And I'll read it over first.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Doug, we might, maybe Ed Weiss can help us with a read of it as well. He's pretty good.
[Doug Carr]: Yeah, I was thinking that too, on the commission.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Yeah, we can ask Ed to help us. He's on the historical commission with us. And just a lovely human. and smart as a whip attorney.
[SPEAKER_06]: Can I ask, this might sound naive, but did you feel like the city is trying to bully us out of business? Do they have other plans?
[Doug Carr]: No, it's not that. I don't think it's that complicated. Okay.
[SPEAKER_06]: Because they own the property. They're just trying to run. They have to have some responsibility for it. Right.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right. And they said multiple times during that call that they were coming to us in the spirit of collaboration and in partnership and in teamwork. Not necessarily what I felt, but that's what they said. So I'd like to remind them that they said that in future conversations. And I would like to approach this from, we have joint interests. We are going to take care of certain things so that you don't have to worry about it, but we cannot do this in the way that you think we are going to do this.
[Jennifer Keenan]: I think this is kind of a knee-jerk reaction, and I think, again, I— I hear you, Doug. I don't disagree with you after hearing what you've said. I do think that we need to divest to the caretaker situation from this other piece of it. And I think if we can, maybe if we can separate out and go back to her and say, listen, we're gonna deal with this. We're not asking you to, we're not asking you for any fallout of that. But we do need continued support over here. Maybe that's the way to go.
[SPEAKER_00]: My initial intention, sorry, go ahead, Doug.
[Doug Carr]: No, you go ahead, Carmen.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I've been thinking about this anyway, and now I'm especially thinking about this maybe in a more narrowly focused way. I've been wanting to go to the mayor with a budget that we've created for ourselves, with a fundraising plan that we have for the next fiscal year, with a set of laid out projects that we know we're going to accomplish over the next 12 months. I want to go to the table having those things in hand so that we can highlight, here's what we know we can do. Here's the gap of what we know we can't do. And those things would be the maintenance of the building. City-owned property, what do you do for other city-owned properties? Let's take that precedence, let's apply it here, and let's make sure it's all-encompassing taken care of with delineation of who is responsible for what. That's what I hope to go to the mayor with in January, maybe, I don't know, as soon as we can get it.
[Jennifer Keenan]: I think that's good, because I think that if we can show what the, and my prediction is that those kind of monthly things are much less than they think it might be.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right. We're not asking for $60,000 a month. Right. We're asking for 200, maybe. Yeah.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Yeah, I think that's a good plan. I think that if you're right, if we can show some action and progress and like, listen, hey, we're like, it's a new group here. We're a new path forward. We're like super excited. And this is what we're going to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think there's a little hesitance for me in saying, we're new, we're going to, we're going to, we're going to. I need to have a firmer plan, especially for her and her legal brain, that she feels like it's actually accomplishable. And it's not just pipe dreams. Because I think that's one thing that I'm worried about, even for my own perception of coming in as this young, energetic, new president, whatever, that it's like, oh, isn't that cute? Like, no, we're actually doing this shit. This is really important.
[W1Pcx_tDASA_SPEAKER_13]: What does the city do for, say, the library? Do they, you know, put it on the friends of the Bloomberg Library to, you know, pay the utilities?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a great question. I think it's a great question.
[Doug Carr]: No, we brought that up in the call. We seem to be held to a different standard than every other Manfred property that we can think of, you know, but I think again, the legal language here about, you know, it was the language of the agreement that the city helped write specifically said, this is not a tenant landlord situation. And it was written by the city, you know, and the fact that the inbound agreement from 97 says inbound should act as a landlord. we're not acting as a landlord independent of the city, we are the city, where they're acting on their behalf. I think that's, again, why I think there's a bunch of lawyers here trying to split hairs to get them out of a political problem, but they're creating a bigger one. Ultimately, we're going to have to amend the legislation, which will not be easy because the conservation restriction will be unchanged, but the manager's agreement with the city, It's something we have to get Zach and the subcommittee working on as soon as we can to start fixing this problem to clarify exactly who does what so that this vagueness cannot be used against us, which is what's presently happening, obviously.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right. Having something firm to continue our next conversation with a little bit more Room for clarity, obviously, is what's needed so that we don't get caught off guard with the things that they think are our responsibility.
[W1Pcx_tDASA_SPEAKER_13]: As a matter of contract law, I don't think the city can get away with saying, well, this agreement doesn't mean anything because we didn't sign it, but they drafted it. That's a very important distinction. Thank you for saying that.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's a good way to say that.
[W1Pcx_tDASA_SPEAKER_13]: Yeah, it's very different than, you know, an insurance contract that isn't signed by the, you know, the policyholder. You know, it's, we may have signed it, but they draft, we sign their document.
[Doug Carr]: Correct. And the next one we'll have. a line on it for the City of Medford to sign as an example.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Oh, lesson learned on that one. And then for nothing, like, this brings up a whole, like, if they really try to do this, what about CPC projects? What about, like, Tom has always worked with procurement on things. It's like, okay, so if we're not part of the city, then we don't have to follow any of those other rules? That doesn't even make sense.
[Doug Carr]: Of course not. Jen, when I had to go to, we had an issue when we designed and built the accessible lift in the manor, right? We had to get a variance because it was technically not an elevator, right? So I had to go before the State Board of Appeals at the elevator guy, essentially. Guess who was sitting right next to me? Mark Romilly was sitting right next to me because they were the owners of the property, right? You know, the precedence here is overwhelming for responsibility and ownership. Ownership is everything when it comes to any of these issues. We can't write a grant without the city signing off on it because you don't own the property. So again, legally, it falls apart. It's a house of cards. It falls apart as soon as you start digging an inch beneath the surface. And again, for the last 20 plus years, But the whole thing of this year was to start to reengage the city and say, the way we've been doing things the last 25 years has not been great. We need to improve it. We're going in full reverse right now. We're not moving forward. They've got it full reverse going 100 miles an hour. That's not what we're looking for and not sustainable.
[Jennifer Keenan]: All right. So what are our next steps? Reading the manager's agreement.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, I just sent that to all the board members. And I have included Zach on that. Unfortunately, Zach and I haven't been able to connect. We've been trying since yesterday and today. And I'm not sure how much of this he knows. And I'm bummed he's not here tonight for this conversation. I would like to talk with him soon to get his perspective. But we do know that we need to have a conversation with the city. we need to clarify our stance and what we know we can achieve and what we know we have to offer. I think it would also be great if we could go into that next conversation with examples of precedents. Doug, you mentioned some great ones already. I would like to have those down on paper so that we can take those and make them uncontestable.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Yeah, I think we almost need some sort of like not a legal response, but a legal response. Like, we heard you. We have done some research on our end. And our position is X, Y, and Z, you know, backed up by these legal arguments that I think Mark and maybe Ed and whoever else can help us.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. That's great.
[Doug Carr]: I think that's right.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, dropping some seeds in there of like we have some resources that we can tap, that we are not going into this just making stuff up. So Mark, do you think you can help us kind of shore up some of those details and figure out how we can have that conversation?
[W1Pcx_tDASA_SPEAKER_13]: Yeah, yeah. I just want to review that agreement first.
[SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely. And I don't know the timing of all of this. I absolutely will keep you updated as things progress. But you're right that there's a there's a separation between what we're doing with Stephen and what we're doing with the city. Those are two separate issues. with different priorities and different approaches. So it's all happening.
[Doug Carr]: Just one final comment. Remember from six, seven years ago, we had the last caretakers that might be before some people's time on this board, but we had some, you know, we had, we got into a situation there that was difficult because the woman, the couple there who were in there, the woman was in her early forties, she became pregnant. And we didn't have anything in our agreement about no children in the manor because we had always basically looked for people who we felt were probably not of childbearing age when we were looking for caretakers. So they had to buy them out. The city of Medford got deeply involved and we had to buy them out $25,000 to leave the manor. That led directly to the caretaker agreement that Rumley put together with Tom's assistance. Tom had a pretty good legal mind too on some of these things for the current agreement. I'll start pulling together the precedent list that I can think of over the last couple decades of direct City of Medford interaction with us on these type of issues to help bolster our case that this is just not the right way forward.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you. And I think one thing that needs to land on that precedence list is our most recent, which is the notice to quit, which was drafted by K.P. Law and signed by the mayor and delivered to Stephen.
[Doug Carr]: Absolutely.
[SPEAKER_00]: Wonderful, so Mark and Doug, I would love you guys to work together on drafting that, and if anyone has anything to contribute, we would love to hear it, but I want to go into that next conversation, and I'd like to lead that next conversation with the mayor, but Doug, you've been extremely valuable in all this, so I'd like you to be there as well.
[Doug Carr]: Yeah, I'm assuming we need about a week's worth of time to kind of pull this all together and really come up with a game plan.
[SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely. That sounds great. And I hope to connect with Zach in the meantime and figure out what his perspective is and if he has any recommendations on how we should move forward, because I'd like to include him as well. Alba, we keep talking about Zach. Zach is Zach Bares. He's the president of city council. So that's why he's also helpful to us from the city's perspective of having him sit on our board.
[SPEAKER_01]: I have not met him, but I know who he is.
[SPEAKER_00]: OK. Sounds good. You'll meet him, I'm sure. All right. Well, that was something I've been really dreading talking to you all about, because it's just such a crappy place for us to be. But thank you for your honest response and your
[Jennifer Keenan]: We'll be fine. We'll be fine. We just got to work through it. The mayor is not unreasonable. I think she's just, again, I think it's a knee-jerk reaction. There's so much bad juju out there right now. We just got to get through the election and let things calm down a little bit. And we'll figure it out. We're a bunch of smart people. And we all want good things. And she does too. We'll get there.
[SPEAKER_00]: I agree. Yeah, that's a good way to say that. And I just appreciate this group so much for, you know, you're right, we are all smart people and you all are caring people who really give a lot to this and give a lot of time and attention. So thank you for being part of this problem solving and making sure that this doesn't just disappear into the other. Okay, are we ready to talk about something great?
[Jennifer Keenan]: Yeah, what's next on the agenda?
[SPEAKER_00]: Finances! Yay! Well, it's actually not too bad. So Mike Oliver, of course, our treasurer, has updated our financial snapshot. Right now we've got, between our checking and savings, about $82,000 in the bank. The anticipated CPC reimbursement, I still need to check in with him on because that's the interior and the electrical grants from last year, which I don't think we're actually seeking a reimbursement on still, but I need to just clarify that. We do expect to be reimbursed for the 1099 position that is covering Alba's time with us as well in the amount of $5,000. So Alba is being paid for a five-month contract between now and the end of February at the rate of $1,000 a month. And that is going to be reimbursed, paid out of our bank account and then reimbursed by the city with the 1099 grant funding. We also expect to pay our annual dues for Massachusetts Land Trust Coalition in the amount of $100. and the P.O. box six-month payment, which I just paid and will be reimbursed for at about $450. So that $5,000 will even itself out, and then $250 is coming out of this $82,000. And those are the known expenses, and this does not include, of course, the utilities that I'm trying to figure out how to include and record that.
[Jennifer Keenan]: I was just going to say, should we, like, kind of make a line item for just, you know, anticipated expenses over the next six months?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, yes. And actually, I'm sitting down with Mike Oliver on Sunday morning, and we are taking a look at our past expenses and estimated future expenses so we can start to form that budget. And I will be able to bring that to you soon and kind of be your long snapshot.
[SPEAKER_06]: Should we also add a chunk in there for possible legal fees?
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's cross that bridge when we come to it, but yes.
[Jennifer Keenan]: It's probably not a bad idea because we might need to get somebody just from the caretaker perspective. And I don't, unless we can find an attorney that will help us pro bono.
[SPEAKER_06]: Well, I just think we should expect the plan for the worst, but expect hope for the best or whatever. Yeah. You know what I mean? Be ready for it, just in case.
[Doug Carr]: If memory serves from what Cheryl told us that when you add up the oil, all the utilities, it's at least a thousand bucks a month for utilities in that building over the course of a year.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it depends on the oils are the biggest expense line. The delivery of oil is obviously more frequent in the winter, which yes means we're about $500 every three weeks for oil deliveries. Historically, from what I saw, and then
[Jennifer Keenan]: But the oil is also down from last year a little bit. So, you know, it varies based on the price of oil and gas. So, but yeah, I mean, I would probably put 1500 aside a month and, because we also don't know what he's gonna put the thermostat at. And if it gets cold, he could turn it up more and burn it quicker.
[Doug Carr]: Remember to at least 3 radios are not functioning, so they've been using electrical heaters. That's so that they're just transferring it to electricity as. You know, at the moment, which we're obviously working on the.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Yeah, okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, so I'll just distribute a copy of this after as well. So if you want to. Take a look, you sure can, but going back to our agenda to talk about the manor caretaker. Obviously, we've been talking a little bit about this, but the latest with Stephen's situation is that he is still in the manor. We do not have a hard out timeline for him yet. I have been contacted by his caseworker with Mystic Valley Elder Services, who is working with him to figure out what his next step is. And the caseworker, who seems like he's a really great guy who is doing what he can with what he has, has asked for us to avoid housing court if we can come to an agreement for a timeline that Stephen can be out of the manor at a specific date. I told him we were open to hearing about that, and he came back with the ask of giving Stephen 10 to 12 months to vacate. This would, if we agreed to the 10 to 12 months, Stephen would waive his right to go to housing court and we would settle everything out of court and get him out by that date with the hope that public housing would be available to him at that point with his status on a priority list. From what I hear from the city, he has already been put on a list for public housing. So that is in motion. But of course, we know that public housing lists are very long. And we don't even know if 10 to 12 months is actually the right timeline. So is he a veteran?
[Doug Carr]: No.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, good question, Andre. So yeah, and I haven't gone back to the caseworker yet, because of course, I was waiting until after I talked with the city. And now we are needing to go back to the caseworker and kind of give an update, but I would like to counter their offer of 10 to 12 months. I wonder, but the thing that Doug and I are stuck on, because Doug and I have talked separately about this, the thing that Doug and I are stuck on is the fact that Steven has family nearby. Why is he on public housing lists? And we've asked Steven about his family as an option. He said, it's a no-go and we don't, We're trying to figure out how to navigate whether we contact the family, whether we verify that he's contacted his family, or whether we just take his word for it. So that's a point of undecided. That's an open-ended point for us right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: But Carly, question, what happens if, for example, let's say we agree that he can stay there for nine more months, and then nine months come and nothing's available for him, does he just continue to stay?
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's part of what needs to be written into the agreement with the caseworker, is the caseworker indicated that he has some precedence for this of having a hard out, but I don't know the what if on that hard out, and I would need to see what that agreement says. So you're exactly right, there's that open-ended possibility.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because then we're just dragging
[SPEAKER_00]: Exactly, just kicking the can down the road. And part of what KP Law was discussing with us yesterday, which they offered some advice and they clarified that they are not our counsel, so that is not legal advice that they are offering to us, or however they said it. They essentially think that the notice to quit might be enough to get an eviction notice granted, or at least started. So I'm going to talk that through with the caseworker and see if he's been aware of that in the past and see if the process of formal eviction can be kickstarted at the date that the notice to quit was delivered.
[Jennifer Keenan]: It is my understanding that a notice to quit is the start of that, but I have not really been involved in too much on that. My suggestion for a date would be the end of the fiscal year, so June 30th. If we're going to counter. Another thought was, you know, at the end of the heating season. You know, March 31, April 30. But, you know, obviously it's a delicate situation.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay. Good thoughts. Doug, what were you going to say?
[Doug Carr]: Well, the longer he's in there, obviously, the longer there's no utility payment of any kind, which is more of a financial burden, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: The city has agreed to pay during fiscal year 25.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Which starts July 1st.
[W1Pcx_tDASA_SPEAKER_13]: Are we in fiscal year 25 now?
[Jennifer Keenan]: Oh, wait.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, we're already in the fiscal year. So why are they not paying utilities? I would love to remind Paul Reggie of that then. Great. I thought the fiscal year started the calendar year. It's July 1st. Great. To June 30th. I'll work with Zach to remind Paul of that.
[W1Pcx_tDASA_SPEAKER_13]: Yeah, and this coming July 1st will be the start of fiscal year 26.
[SPEAKER_00]: Great. So we're currently in fiscal year 25. Correct.
[Doug Carr]: Wonderful. Carly, is there any kind of legal motion or anything from the council meeting we just had about this so we can, wouldn't that be the answer to Paul Riggie's email about the utilities?
[SPEAKER_00]: So the, I'm going to stop sharing for a second so I don't, you know, speak out of turn here, but starred emails, Zach Bears, great. Let's share my screen for full transparency from the mayor on September 26th. We have paper before you for the 10-12-2 meeting. That was for the repairs of 55,000. Paul Riggi will cover the 5,000 in yearly bills, and that was the estimate we provided them for utilities for fiscal year 25 in his budget as well as $1,000 per month until we get a new tenant. And then she mentioned the hope that new tenant can cover in rent, which I asked Zach about, and he said that's a hope of hers. So we're counting that as irrelevant for the time being. But the important piece is this. And Paul has his seat on that.
[Doug Carr]: One possible end game is the city of Medford is going to have to buy out Stephen just like they did the last one. To get him to go, cut him a check, get him a room to leave, and give him a date certain, because he could be there for years. This housing option, the odds of this coming through are very small.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Doug, I think in order for them to write a check, they would need to feel some sense of involvement and we would need to climb that hill to get them to feel that way. So I don't think we're close to that either.
[W1Pcx_tDASA_SPEAKER_13]: The city would want us to cut a check because they see us as the landlord. That's exactly what would happen.
[Jennifer Keenan]: What if we cut a check and then fought for reimbursement later on? I'm not saying that we're going to agree to that right now. I'm just throwing it out there as a
[W1Pcx_tDASA_SPEAKER_13]: We got a check. I wouldn't expect to see it again.
[SPEAKER_06]: We'd never see it.
[W1Pcx_tDASA_SPEAKER_13]: Never money again. And we've got the precedents that the city bought out the last people. So that's in our favor.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right, right. So I would like to go back to the caseworker and talk this through a little bit more. I think at the most, I would like to propose that Steven is out by June 30th of next year. So that means that is fiscal year 25, utilities are covered by the city. We get a new tenant, maybe there's a gap of a couple of months where we're turning it over and finding new caretakers, but that at least is minimized. Is that June 30th date okay with everyone?
[Jennifer Keenan]: I mean, that's... I think it's okay with them. Yeah. I mean, because we originally gave him October 1. And September 1 on paper.
[W1Pcx_tDASA_SPEAKER_13]: So that's another nine months. Should we move to extend the deadline to get him out by June 30th?
[SPEAKER_00]: Doug, what were you...
[SPEAKER_02]: From previous caretaker searches to do the repairs we need to get them completed, advertise for caretakers, interview caretakers and sign them is going to be at least a six month process.
[Doug Carr]: So June 30th is not unreasonable.
[Unidentified]: Yeah.
[Doug Carr]: Yeah, it's going to take a while. We haven't even started construction yet and we'll get to that obviously later in the agenda, but. We have a long way to go to get that place. Um. Stop I can't take it would want to, but there.
[Jennifer Keenan]: We would want somebody in there by September. We don't want to wait until January of the following year to get somebody in there. So what if we backed up and said April 30th, knowing that we might have to also extend another 60 days after that as a last minute? Because if he can be out by the end of April, let's say, that gives us May, June, July, August, September, that gives us five months in the height of rental season. when people are looking for housing and when the best people are looking for housing. And I know it's different, you know, we're not, they're not tenants, we're not landlords, that's a whole nother thing we have to figure out. But the time that people turn over their housing is late spring and summer. And I think it's gonna be really important for us to try to match up our folks that we're looking for during that time period. Because after September one, people are in leases, people are committed to housing. And frankly, the quality of tenants goes down significantly.
[SPEAKER_06]: Great point. Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so then are we moving our date up April 30? Instead of June 30?
[Jennifer Keenan]: I mean, that's still, you know.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's still six months from right now.
[Jennifer Keenan]: From right now. That's a long time. Maybe it's not long enough, but I think we should try.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right. And the counter or the pushback that I'm going to get from the caseworker is that it's not going to be long enough for public housing, but neither is 10 or 12 months in my mind. So I don't know what difference it makes.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Right. If it's an emergency case, it's an emergency case no matter what. And at least we're saying we're committing to housing him through the winter. Yes. Yeah, sorry. And we're paying the heat.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. And he's, he's there for free. Okay, April 30. Okay, I'll connect with the caseworker. I don't think I'm going to make any firm decisions with the caseworker. But I will explore that. And any firm decisions that need to be made, I'll bring them to the board before they're made.
[Jennifer Keenan]: I would also reiterate Carly that he has known about this since Cheryl decided to leave, right? So, or probably longer, let's be honest. Like they were probably, you know, like, and then he's already, he already had 60 days with the first deadline. So by the time it's all said and done, it will, it will have been 10 to 12 months. from kind of the first decision that sparked this whole thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: That could be a good way to phrase that for sure if we're getting pushback. Right. Okay, I'll explore that and I'll come back with any updates on that so that we can make a decision accordingly as a group. Great.
[W1Pcx_tDASA_SPEAKER_13]: Okay, thanks.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you all for your thoughts on that. I'm glad it's not just me sitting in it. Trying to figure out the right thing to do, because it's such a hard answer. Okay, next item on the agenda. Admin physician. Oh, we do actually get to celebrate this one. This is my favorite item on the agenda, because we are joined by our new admin today. This is Alba. Alba has joined us as of... about a week ago, I guess we made it official. So she will be with us until the end of February, working on some distinct projects as our admin. And those distinct projects are three core areas of work. The first is organization of our online files. Of course, this transition from Tom to myself means a transition of information and systems. And Alba is helping us make sure that all of the information is where it needs to be, and it's easy for us to find and access as a group. So that'll be a big project for us. Another big project for us is making sure we have an accurate representation of our membership. So ALBA is establishing a membership list. and making sure it's accurate, making sure it also is livable so that as we bring on new members, we can add them to our ongoing list and always know who our members are, when they need to pay their dues, where they live, how to contact them, how they prefer to be contacted, all of those important things we need to know about our members. The third body of work is Alba will be working on a handbook for us as a nonprofit entity that is in charge of keeping ourselves organized and having our own processes and procedures, having them all written down in one place in case all of us get hit by a bus at the same time, the next person can come up and take over. some big projects that we're so grateful for you to help out with. So Alba, do you want to just let us know a little bit about you and whatever you want us to know?
[SPEAKER_01]: Sure. As Carly said, I'm Alba. I've been living in Medford for 25 years. I grew up in Europe, moved to the States actually as a refugee during the war in Kosovo in the late 90s. So Medford holds a warm place in my heart because I've been here most of the time in this country. I am a mom of three boys. I took some time off to stay home with them for a little bit and now back to work. Along with this position, I actually started a part-time position at Harvard as well. That's awesome. Thank you. It's good to be back. you know, to work and do things. I've worked in the financial industry, I've worked in the nutrition side, I've been in a lot of different management roles, and I've done some consulting as well with the car industry. So it's been good. And I'm really, really happy to work with all of you guys.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jen and I are so excited about Alba being a doer, and everything we've seen so far has just been really promising. And we're thinking Alba's going to work about 10 hours a week on these projects. We're hoping it's not too much of a lift, but over the course of five months, we'll continue to have some great conversations and figure out what direction we want to go. So you'll see Alba at future board meetings, of course, as well. And I'm just glad you're here. Thank you so much. Yes, so glad.
[SPEAKER_01]: Happy to be here.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right. Anything before I move to our next topic, anything on this admin piece?
[SPEAKER_01]: Nope. Just bring us some chocolate from Europe, OK?
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, she knows the good stuff too, I mean. I do what I can. We have some big upcoming projects that we're hoping to tackle. One that we just got a little bit of resolution on was our winter prep manor work. Doug found some quotes or some estimates for us on some roof repairs, radiator repairs, painting and plastering. So the tune of $55,000. So that was put in front of city council last week, maybe two weeks ago. Time is blurring together right now. And it was grouped together with other asks from other parts of the city. And the entire resolution was passed through city council. So I need to connect with Zach, to see what next steps are for us using and spending that money. But Doug, do you have any updates on your side on the Winter Prep Manor work side?
[Doug Carr]: Yeah, I had direct conversations with the contractor for the slate and copper. Before I left from here, they were supposed to swing by the manor and take the drawings I put together, which showed the last board meeting. and present a quote. I have not heard from them, so I'll follow up with them as soon as I get back. I did talk directly to the gentleman who's done the boiler work in the manor. He would be the one that would connect the radiators to kind of get us more functioning on the heating system and the caretaker areas. He also, well, in the last week and a half, was supposed to connect. He knows the building well. He's supposed to go there. I don't think he has yet, but I'll call him. It sounds like he's a very mom-and-pop organization. But we'll get them over there, and that work can proceed as quickly as possible. Now that we have approval, we can just start, you know, as stuff becomes available, we'll just start doing it, the roof being the top priority, the radiator is the second most.
[SPEAKER_00]: Great. So something I'll clarify with the City then, Doug, is whether we are sending them the invoices from these contractors or whether we're paying them and expecting reimbursement. Do you have any indication from your knowledge on that?
[Doug Carr]: No, but I think if the City Council just approved, you know, we have an estimate that was part of that package that you presented to the City Council, right? So we can In my opinion, they've basically given us the money and we just need to get the quotes, submit them, and that money, because I don't think we have $55,000 in the bank, right? Exactly. We can't deplete everything. I'm not sure the exact machinations of the reimbursement and how that happens. I think it would be exactly somebody in procurement. Yeah, exactly. We can sort that out. Sure.
[SPEAKER_00]: Great. Well, I'm grateful that that's getting done, especially as the colder months are upon us. So Doug, do you feel confident about a timeline for that happening before we get hit by snow or anything?
[Doug Carr]: I'm not sure about that one because they have not been very responsive so far. I think the boy guy would definitely be in the next few weeks, the slate and copper one. I don't know exactly how that's going to work out, but hopefully the snow will hold off at least until the end of the year, the heavy stuff, and we can get that done in hopefully the month of November.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, and then the paint and plastering I know is another piece of that, and we're planning to do that while Stephen's still in there. Is that a fair assumption?
[Doug Carr]: Oh, absolutely. And I don't think that's going to be a problem. I think Stephen is mostly in the one big room above the kitchen at the end of the manor. A lot of the work is in the two or three other rooms. So we can coordinate that. I'm not expecting that to be an issue of construction coordination.
[SPEAKER_00]: Great. Super. So that's the manor work that's coming up, and that's our most immediate project. The other piece that I'm not going to have quite the extended conversation that I originally planned on having, because I wanted to have the space for the city conversation. So this is the start of a conversation that I plan to continue. But we do have $250,000 as earmarked funds from the state, so the Commonwealth, through ARPA. And that is true funds that we do need to spend by June 30th of 2025. So services rendered need to fall before that time. The $250,000 is reimbursement money that we can seek. However, I have spoken with somebody through the Office of Economic Development with the state, and they have talked about ways that we can do reimbursement in sections. As we spend money, we can reimburse money immediately, seek reimbursement immediately. And it sounds like it's a matter of just a few business days turnaround time. So at least we won't be waiting too long. And it also sounds like we have the option of reimbursing against invoices instead of money spent, which is a great option for us as well. So that $250,000 earmark was written in with some specifications around being used specifically on the access drive work. However, the designs that we have seen on the access drive so far, the price tag expected on that is, of course, more than $250,000. Part of what we need to do is understand what we can accomplish before June of next year to spend those ARPA funds in a meaningful way. And that's what I wanted to bring to you today. I've drafted some thoughts around What we can do, how we can do this, something I'd like to propose and kind of get your feedback on it. So I'm going to show you now. I'm going to send this to you to digest and process. And then I'd like for us to talk about at our next board meeting, really, the details of how this could or would not work. So. I'm going to pull up a sheet that I will send with you later, but essentially we know that we need to spend the designated ARPA funds by June 30th of 2025. So it's important that we identify some focus areas of our Access Drive project as a whole, and then we figure out the budget needs of those focus areas. And that's what I'll show you in just a moment. But I want us to also identify, while we're identifying those focus areas, I want us to figure out funding sources. We know we have the ARPA sources or the ARPA funds as one source, but I also want to factor in some thinking around how we can engage our members, how we can seek out community partners in specific actions, and how we can seek grants in specific areas as well. So those are the short-term focus areas that I have. I also know that long-term, this all needs to help us build momentum for the future project phases, because we don't want to start and then stop and then have nowhere to go. And all along the way, I need to make sure that we maintain the trust of our members first and foremost, the neighbors of the Brooks Estate, and of course, the city. So those are the objectives that I'm approaching this with, and I've sketched out a couple of some projects. Parking lot preparation is one piece that I think is going to be core of this, and that will be the $250,000 allotment. that I hope will go towards some tree clearing, some grading, and some stone pack. And this will be in the future parking lot area that's up near the carriage house. We're essentially preparing the land to have the full parking lot installation. But at least we're starting with a proof of concept, so to speak, of here's where a parking lot will be. Let's use it a little bit. Let's make sure that it's actually becoming real. And I'm not sure if bearing utilities will need to be a part of that. So the $250,000 budget that I've estimated here, Doug, I've actually gone in and pulled out the document from Banesh and kind of taken a look at whether it's possible that we can do some of this, but I'm a little cloudy right now about that particular area because it's all kind of lumped into the same quote. So Doug, you specifically, I would love your help in understanding if this $250,000 number is anywhere near reality for that particular set of work.
[Doug Carr]: Yeah, this is a tough one because we're doing kind of a proof of concept. I don't think you know, we can do like lighting and major utility work, because that money would like that money would evaporate very quickly.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right, exactly.
[Doug Carr]: And the question I have for you, Carly, because this is a great start, by the way, this is really helpful for me to kind of get my arms around this. Because we have the final drawings, which we haven't seen for the whole design. But I wondered if the upper money would pay for a few $1,000 for the next time to create something that is kind of a standalone, like, But one document we can give to someone who's going to be clearing the trees and grading. Because we don't have, we're out of funds with them. We don't like, we literally have no money left and that project is closed. But I don't think what we have can be used right now in a package to support this limited but important concept of Grading and clearing of the trees, which is an issue, but creating a partial parking lot up there that is functional, but is not anywhere near the full final project. Do you think we can get maybe $5,000 to throw Ganesh's way to create a scope of work that I can work with him on that we could then price out and get that done in the spring?
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to look at that ARPA document, the agreement that we signed, because we might be able to take that $5,000 out of there and we might be able to say this is part of the overall package of making this work happen. So let me take a look. And I think that's so what I'm hearing from you is that we kind of need to go back to Banesh and say give us a new package.
[Doug Carr]: It's really going to be one or two drawings. It's just taking what they've done and narrowly focusing it on the parking lot, existing grading, new grading, tree removal. It's just a couple of drawings. There's almost nothing there. The parking lot we create is not for night events. It would just be for during the daytime so we can avoid those costs. If we can get the accessible walking path carved out, I think that would be great too. I think it's a great idea. So I think this is an excellent start to getting that ball rolling.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay. Let's start there. I'll check out the document. We do have some CPA funding as well. I found a memorandum of understanding from earlier this year that applies to access drive things. So I will share that. I'm going to kind of share this all together as a package. But I think we could apply some CPA funds to this as well to boost the $250,000 from ARPA.
[Doug Carr]: That sounds right.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay. Specifically for the parking lot preparation. I also think it's very important that as we're tearing down trees and as we're grading the land. We need to be replanting trees, or we need to be showing people the overall plan so that we can restore and preserve their faith that yes, this is conservation land and we want to make sure that we're caring for it. So part of what I'm proposing here as well is tree replanting almost in congruence with the parking lot preparation. Obviously, the timing of that is going to be a little bit offset, but I think it would be great for us to have a project sign up there that describes our overall plan and what we'll be doing. So anyone walking by sees the jarring removal of trees and can see the larger project. But I would like to then take the tree replanting phase and establish a capital campaign for us to take to our membership base and our banks in the area and any businesses that want to sponsor things and ask them to sponsor individual trees and make it something tangible that we can fundraise against.
[SPEAKER_06]: Probably that's also the group trees Medford. I don't know. They might want to join us partnership and they probably already have a membership, or at least a friends database or something that they might want to join in on that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Great idea and I know I reached out to me to grab coffee. She's the tree warden for the city of Medford and I haven't gotten coffee with her yet, but I really want to so that I can talk about this with her and see what her thoughts are. So we'll see. So tree replanting, go ahead.
[Doug Carr]: Yeah, one final thought. You're right about the CPC funds. The way we shoehorned this request in was built all around accessibility. So we have to... The accessible path and parking spaces are what's driving it. That's the only way we got that money. So we have to... We what even the budget is limited, we have to at least do that part of it to make sure that we have proof of concept for them on the accessible parking and drive walkway path to the manor and carriage house. So I'll make sure that's part of the deal.
[SPEAKER_00]: That sounds great because that's the other piece of what I wanted to propose was in addition to the tree planting, which is its own capital campaign. I would like to see a capital campaign for. It's almost like a walk bike, join us sort of feel where we have the walking paths from the parking lot to the manor. We have some walkways ADA walkway along the manor and the carriage house. Maybe this is where we install some. Lights some I saw some of the shorter lights, not some of the larger, but like the pathway walkway lights and maybe we can put a bike rack up there and a bench. Some of these things that make it seem like this is a welcoming community space to help people feel invited. That could be something that we could apply these CPC funds to as well.
[Jennifer Keenan]: I love that I love that. I think we could do like. You know, just like they did at the library, they sold pavers, you know, name the pavers, name the benches, name the trees. We should definitely reach out to the folks at the library who did their capital campaigns, because they did a really good job.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I plan to, because I think capital campaign is an angle that hits a lot of what I'm trying to do in this initial phase of my time here as well, is we're trying to invite visibility. We're trying to give people, sorry, one second, tangible ways to support us. Tangible ways to support us so that we can make them feel like they're part of this, and this is a good way for us to raise money and activate people. Yeah.
[Jennifer Keenan]: And I think it's an easy ask for like the business community, and some of our businesses in town. I don't know, it should be an easy ask, I feel like.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm hoping. I mean, and this is exactly the research, the grant research that we're doing right now too. I'm sorry, guys, I just got joined by a toddler. This is the grant research that we have to see what even opportunities. So that's the direction that I'm going is, and I wanna figure out what distinct projects we can give ourselves that are bite-sized parts of this access drive, because we know we're gonna do the access drive. So how do we make it happen in chunks?
[Jennifer Keenan]: I love it. This is great.
[SPEAKER_00]: Wonderful. Give me one moment to talk about yourselves for just one.
[SPEAKER_01]: They always want to make an appearance. Right.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, he's he's living his best life. I gave him pizza and he's getting to stay up past his bedtime. So we're all happy over here.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's always exciting.
[SPEAKER_00]: So As I mentioned, I'll be sharing this document. I do have a greater breakdown in Excel for anyone who's interested about. Jen, I think especially you, I was giving some thought to what would the benefits be? Could we do little tree tags and how much would that cost and how much are we really fundraising? I'll share what I have. I would love for you all to digest it, take a look. Let me know if there's any other things that we should be factoring into this, how we should be accomplishing this, because we got to spend that 250. But I don't want to, yeah, it's not going to work. I don't want to just let it go.
[Jennifer Keenan]: We might want to come up with a targeted list of businesses in town that we can go after. just to have a working list, and not just for this, but for anything in the future that we want to ask for money for, whether it's a picnic or whatever, you know. In fact, Carly, I was going to ask you because I'm going to send the newsletter out next week. And I know on there we had my mock one had a grant researcher as the volunteer focus. So I was just thinking like, what do we want our volunteer focus to be our ask for the newsletter to try to get somebody to help?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, no, that's kind of been on my mind too, is like the volunteer form we have right now, I need to update it because it has the fall cleanup on it. It's got the grant research volunteer. We filled that, has a social media volunteer. So it's time to talk about our next volunteer opportunities. So I'm not sure I'm going to identify those at this moment, because I think I would like to hear that via email if anyone has ideas. But I agree that it's a good something for us to think about.
[Jennifer Keenan]: I started I started a list. I think it's in the drive somewhere of kind of like the top 10. So my thought would probably be like, somebody to be a liaison with the business community or somebody to be a liaison with the schools. So we can get some more volunteer bodies, but I don't remember what else they put on that list, but.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was a partnerships one that I think was a really good idea. So I think if we start with the partnerships one for the newsletter, we already have identified that one. It's already listed on our form. So go ahead and stick that one in there for this month and then we'll come up with some more for next month. Perfect.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Sounds good.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, so on this, the idea of the access drive work and all of the funding sources, I want to just kind of open the space for any funding sources that we're not considering any project focus areas that we're not considering.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Immediately hit on most of it. Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, and I know it's 830, so I do want us to wrap up so that we can all enjoy our mornings in Italy. And I just want to. Again, reiterate that I would, I would love for you to think about this to think this through and to send me some thoughts and we'll discuss it more in depth at our next board meeting as well. Great. Wonderful so our next meeting is November 21st. it's already on the calendar, of course, with a zoom. Invite that hopefully will work without a hitch next time and that is the Thursday before Thanksgiving. So, luckily, we're avoiding the holiday by a week. So we'll dedicate some time to talking about the access drive. Excuse me, during that November meeting, we'll add a new standing agenda item of the grants and I would maybe let's invite Nancy to see what kind of grants she's found and think about what we need to apply for. Um, some action items from this particular meeting, uh, Janet, you're going to help us draft a little something a letter basically saying, yes, we're donating the police call box to arts collaborative Medford with a stipulation that we'd like to see some Brooks estate history included. Uh, Jen, once you have that, if you could distribute it to the board to see if we have any additions, make sure to finalize that and get that sent to them. Probably in the next week or so, is that reasonable? Yeah. great. And then I am going to have a conversation with Zach about what's going on with the city, but Mark, you and Doug are going to work together to see what kind of legal nuggets we can share in our next conversation, especially as it relates to precedence. That will be extremely helpful. Manor caretaker, I am going to work with the caseworker to make sure that we propose an April 30th out date for Stephen. and see what kind of thoughts he has on that and bring whatever action back to you all. And Alba's going to keep doing great work on the admin, but yay, we've hired someone. Doug, you're going to move forward on the manor work once you get those quotes back from everyone, once you get back in the States. And then I will review some of the CPA documents, the ARPA documents, and we'll move forward with thinking about how to activate the mesh in identifying a smaller version of the parking lot installation projects.
[SPEAKER_06]: Did I miss anything? I just thought of a little something, kind of an aside. I am going to participate in Allentown Open Studios on November 9th. Hi, Sam. Is there a general, like, flyer that either you or Jen have that just, like, just something, a little blurb about the Brooks Estate with the website address on it that I could have at my table? Good question.
[Jennifer Keenan]: We can make something people.
[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah. That would be awesome.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay. I love that idea. Thank you. I just thought of it. I will say, when I went to the farmer's market, I took the monopoly board with me and it was a hit. People want to stop by and like seeing it. So if you have one, if you want to borrow mine, I'd be happy to lend it.
[SPEAKER_06]: It might not have room for that, but I would have room for a pile of lyre.
[Jennifer Keenan]: That might be good to have on our sale list, fundraiser list for part of the capital campaign. Like if they don't want to buy a tree or donate a paver, maybe they'll buy a Monopoly board.
[SPEAKER_06]: Sounds good.
[SPEAKER_02]: Related to what Audrey just said,
[Doug Carr]: I'm involved with the NAACP in Medford and they have a freedom of breakfast on the Sunday before the election.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think it's the 2nd of November. And I was going to donate $500 just out of my pocket, but I wanted to use that to put an ad in the program for M-Belt. So I just need
[Doug Carr]: kind of a graphic blurb that we could be a full page, you know, thing, saying, you know, join the Brooks Estate, come to the Brooks Estate. Here's who we are. So it's kind of the same thing, Jen, that Audrey's looking for. So that can be used double duty.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'll just forward that to those guys with a check. And then we'll just get it.
[Doug Carr]: And hopefully that will bring some new folks in.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Do you have a size requirement on that, Doug? Like I know a lot of times for program ads, there's like certain dimensions.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I'll get it for you. I think it's usually an eight and a half, 11 and a half size, you know, kind of all over is usually what it is. Okay.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Just let me, let me know.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. I like all these creative visibility things that you guys are coming up with.
[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, just so you know, for the future, I know time's an element here, but just for the future, maybe we're all in different organizations and whether it's leisure or business organizations. So, yeah, if we have like a big gathering that we're going to, we should just have like a generic type of like a half a page flyer. Like six by eight or something, just something that we can hand out like a business card. Here, this is about the Brooks Estate. Come check it out.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Yep, we can make those and then Carly have them sit in Canva and then we can just print them as we need them.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jen, we could ask Ava to help us if you want. Ava?
[Jennifer Keenan]: Oh, yeah, totally. Our new little intern.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have a social media volunteer. She's a 17-year-old. We have a 17-year-old young woman from the Groton School who is so smart and so passionate about history. And she is going to help us with some social media stuff, but she's also really interested in graphic design. So we might be activating her in other ways. Yeah.
[Unidentified]: Like a logo, Doug.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know. I had to say that. Go get some sleep. I'll do my best. Thank you all for your time tonight, Doug. Thank you, thank you, thank you for dialing in. This was a really big deal. So we will talk soon, and you'll see some emails from me. Always. I'll be seeing you in your inbox. Have a great night, everyone.