Oak Grove Cemetery Board of Trustees 10/06/26

AI-generated summary. Written by gemini-3-flash-preview from the transcript below, which is the record. It may be incomplete or wrong; it does not report votes. Every item links to the moment it began.

The board reviewed schematic designs for World War I Memorial accessibility and discussed layout revisions for the Seven Acre cemetery expansion. Key discussions focused on balancing burial plot density with environmental preservation and addressing maintenance failures at the World War II memorial fountain.

0:17 Approval of Minutes — Approved the minutes from the September meeting.
1:35 World War I Memorial Accessibility Designs — Reviewed schematic options for ADA-compliant pathways and parking at the memorial hill, with the board favoring a hybrid layout estimated between $140,000 and $150,000.
43:23 Seven Acre Expansion Project — Discussed compromising between burial plot maximization and aesthetic buffers to address stakeholder concerns regarding trail connectivity and the proposed maintenance yard. The project will proceed toward a public-facing process involving the Mayor and community stakeholders.
1:17:38 Operational and Signage Updates — Noted the installation of dog prohibition signs at Salem Street and received updates on soil hauling, the service building project, and departmental staffing shortages.
1:19:29 World War II Memorial Fountain Maintenance — Discussed persistent issues with duck waste and the lack of a proper vacuuming system, resulting in the decision to keep the fountain shut down until a maintenance plan is established.

[Clayton]: Awesome. Well, thank you. Heidi, take your time to get settled. I'm going to bring the meeting to order and just start with... We're just going to start with the minutes. Has everyone gotten a chance to review the minutes?

[Clayton]: It's nothing. All right. Wonderful. Thank you, Darlene. Okay. All right. Since we've all had a moment to review it, and there are no questions, I'll put it up for a vote. Can someone make a motion to approve the minutes as written?

[Clayton]: Second. Okay. Moved by Chris and seconded by Dee. Thank you. If there's no further discussion, please indicate that you're approving the minutes by saying aye. Aye. Okay, wonderful. Thank you. The minutes are approved. Awesome. So we'll start with old business. Well, actually, DJ, you fall under old business, but we'll actually start with you because you have some, he has some information to share about the progress that's been made now with a couple of the projects that we've been working on for a while. So, DJ, I'll let you go ahead and get started.

[SPEAKER_04]: I would be happy to. So the first is the World War I Memorial, I think was the first item on your agenda of those, and CBA has been looking at this. As folks recall, our current task is to come up with the appropriate schematic designs. We wait a few options and if I can, I will, looks like I can, which is great. I'm going to share my screen and pull up the other window here. Is everyone seeing a pair of plans?

[Clayton]: I don't see that at all. You don't see anything, Danny? No, I see the plants.

[SPEAKER_04]: I do. It just took it a while. I will zoom in as much as I can here, but this is two options side-by-side. I'm going to see. Let's see. Do I have annotate tools? It looks like I don't, and that's okay, so I can just annotate in Acrobat. To orient everyone, I didn't provide it, but the World War I monument is at the top of the hill. If you can see the hand, these are the rows of markers that are starting to cascade down the hill and the stairs, the broad platform at the bottom, and then the plaza around The monument itself, which is accessed by a set of steps from each side. And so the goal was to get an accessible parking area. And pathway that could connect down and provide. Um, 80, a compliant access. That'll let, you know, folks with mobility devices or other mobility limitations get to the. Both the pedestal level around the base of the statue and also the lower level in case there's a gathering. Um, you know, wants to set up chairs down there or whatever and while we're at it, we'll hit 1 of the benches along the way. Coming in from the back of the hill vehicular access. So, there'd be drop off if people need it and a few parking spaces, emphasizing accessible parking. So what we've got are sort of two schemes and two arrangements that I would say, consider these to be kind of a menu of options. And it may be that we end up saying, everyone likes the parking idea of this one, that sort of parking layout, but the path works better on the other. And we like the access from the side. We'll get back to all that in a moment, but to sort of walk through them briefly and the differences.

We've got a few areas, there's one of the large trees that's along the entry drive there. That's actually pretty badly girdled by the current entry rope. And is starting to noticeably decline higher up. So, in an effort to keep as many trees as possible, we're recommending that that 1 come out and then we figure out some other scheme for having an entry gate or something else. If you feel there's a need for 1, but maybe if we formalize the space up here, we don't need an entry gate anymore. That's a. That's a question for the board.

And that lets us pull the path just a little further away from the large tree that's directly opposite it so that we can at least save 1 of them. So, a drive comes in and we could either get 6 parallel spaces along 1 side with 2 ADA aisles. and a pathway that sort of picks up along all of those. Or we could get a slightly different configuration, six spaces, that has the benefit of getting a pathway on the downhill side already, instead of being on the upper side, just the way the geometry weighs out. But on the other hand, you'd end up losing more of the real estate of that flat area, and it's a little more awkward in some other ways. So there's pros and cons to the two parking layouts. And then there's the question of, do we take the path down as you're looking down the hill at it? It needs to curve a little to the left and then curve downward to be able to get us to the right grades to get an accessible entrance on this side.

And then a loop down below, and there's a large oak down here that has lost its central leader and is in pretty bad decline. I would recommend taking that out as part of this project also, whichever way we go. Or we can kind of curve down the other way to get down to the level entry, and then further down to get down to the plaza area. And so there's sort of two different approaches on this one as I sort of zoom in on it a little bit. Is everyone seeing it a little larger?

[SPEAKER_04]: Yes, okay, cool. So we're trying to work with the existing grades, but in order to keep from creating a deep depression right at the back of the wall or having to grade into the, The existing wall there, we do end up with a little a little curb to sort of retain the edge, but also provide some roll off protection for someone that's going down it in a wheelchair. In this scheme, and then we do need a little bit because we're effectively eliminating the set of steps on 1 side or the other. To have an entrance.

[SPEAKER_04]: I'll let him get that or that or whatever he needs to we end up with a little low spot on the inside. We'll pick it up.

[Clayton]: With a little sorry, I was coughing. I didn't hear that you end up with.

[SPEAKER_04]: Because of the way the grades work, we have to get down. The grade at the base of the steps right now is lower than. The grade that we need to come in that so we'll probably end up with a little low spot that'll have a little catch basin and a pipe across to a little daylight. It should be minimal impact on landscape and minimal cost. We don't really need to connect to drainage. We just need to get any water that would get trapped here. Out and partway down the hill.

And then from there, so in this version, the path sort of wants to keep flowing down the hill, and it could come out toward the end here, near the steps, although the flagpole is a bit in the way. It could loop back and sort of point inward. You could approach the bench from the back or from the front. There's a number of options, and we'll look at both plans and then sort of circle back. But the gist is you sort of make a little loop and then traipse down on this side, which is tucked nicely against the tree line and leaves this space more open for use if people want to sit there and picnic or something.

Or the other option ends up with a path that feels much more like it comes straight into the plaza area and then has a secondary path to get you to the side, leaves this whole area more open if that's where people sit and use the space or could. The edge on this one is drawn up as a little field stone or similar low wall. We have a little bit more grade change that we have to make up to avoid creating problems going into the into the plaza from above, having erosion and runoff issues. And again, we end up with a little sump, and we get our grade down around. That's all fine.

So to come down on the left side, the wall is a little bit more pronounced. And we end up over in this area, which is nicely under trees. It gets a more direct access, which we don't have room to do on the right side. But it eats up some more of the space. Cost wise, the, the two options are about the same. The scheme a, which was the one without the stone wall. Sorry. So scheme a is on the left is a little bit cheaper than scheme B to the tune of like, we're looking at a.

we're estimating, call it $140,000 versus $150,000. It's not big differences. I don't remember what budget for construction you folks got approved by CPA. Do you know offhand?

[Clayton]: I don't have it on me. OK, let me see. It was like $130-something, but I will have to double check that. I didn't bring that out with me. But I'll double check and get back to you.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, and just to give a sense of how they are, my colleague put together, this isn't, you know, what the path would look like, but it gives you a sense of the flow of the path in scheme A. You're standing at the top of the hill looking down and it kind of loops left a little, gets down the hill, loops down and gets to the entrance. Or scheme B comes in a little bit from the left and is a much more, you know, single flow curve down that really points you straight in. I think they both have pros and cons. The grading is definitely more difficult on scheme B, which is why we end up with the wall instead of the concrete curb. It's possible, I don't know, Stephen, how many rocks you dig up in the process of things. There may be materials laying around that we could use for those boulder edges to try to reduce cost or something like that.

It's possible that cemetery crew might be able to do some of the clearing and grubbing if we're trying to bring these numbers down. Or we try to look at, do we go to a, I think these are drawn up at a five foot wide path. Let me see if I can tell. It doesn't say it's six inch curb along path. She didn't write it in, but that's the same width as our handicap dial. Yeah, this is a five foot wide path. Hypothetically, we could cut it down to a 4 foot wide path and. Save some square footage of asphalt and additional costs. We might be able to get it down under that 130.

But it's all dependent on where bid prices come back and with the way. The way costs have been going and diesel prices and everything else and the smaller project gets, I will be honest, the more unpredictable costs get. So.

[SPEAKER_04]: I'm just trying to look up what we've got here. Pull these out of the way, but. Okay, so when we did our initial estimate, we sort of guessed it at about anywhere between 105 to 170 was sort of the guess for the construction.

[Clayton]: I think we were approved for a little bit more than what we had put in. Okay, if I remember correctly.

[SPEAKER_04]: I'm skimming the proposal I wrote you because that was after you had gotten notification back. Well, no, I don't know that it was. I think we wrote the proposal Guessing out a construction budget of 150 to 175. so fortunately. We're within what we were guessing, but I don't know what you got approved. Um, but I guess our big question to the board at this point. Is a, if we know the budget, we can keep trying to. To trim things down. And then is there a sense of, you know, a preference for which of the two approaches you all prefer, aesthetically or operationally or anything else?

[2kAt0v9zwyw_SPEAKER_00]: What is the most cost out of this? What is costing too much?

[SPEAKER_04]: In terms of what's pushing the number up? Yeah. Yeah, the biggest ticket item is the asphalt, particularly vehicular asphalt and paving, are definitely the largest cost driver there. That's 50 some thousand of the total cost. That's before the overhead and profit. It's probably about almost half the cost is the paving between between the parking lot and the path down. I don't know. Do you guys do any paving in-house?

[SPEAKER_04]: Not to that extent. Okay. That's fine. Unfortunately, the oil and diesel prices being what they are, asphalt prices are on the high side lately. Whereas sometimes I'd say 10 square foot for Uh, you know, low use vehicular driveway and and parking lot is not. Is is conservative and hopefully it's less than that. I think in the current bidding climate, it's actually probably about right. Um, who knows what it will be like by the time we're into construction, but. Lately, it isn't getting better.

[Clayton]: Yeah, to your question, I actually prefer, aesthetically speaking, the path that is easier, which is plan B, which is just slightly more expensive. But I don't have a concept of that wall that you're talking about. Is it like the rock wall that we see at like the cross street area? I mean, what do you call it? Yeah, that's what you call it, right? Cross street, that area that had um what's his name ryan ryan is working on is it like that type of wall you're talking about the one that encircles that cross street area that ryan is working on you know i'm not i'm not familiar with the cross are you talking a regular stone wall or some riprap to hold the banking no it'd be i mean

[SPEAKER_04]: I think aesthetically you'd want a stone wall, low, light mortar. We're only talking, looking at it two and a half, three feet high, so it's low enough. I think we could keep it to 30 inches or less of exposed height, so it doesn't need major footings or anything. But you're piling old field stone or other salvaged stone up. I think we'd want it to tie in aesthetically with what's going on around it. You could do it with a unit block wall, like the nice precast concrete blocks, if we need to, to save some money, although it doesn't save a ton.

We could get something that sort of ties in with the stone color of the monument and the pedestal that way. There are definitely areas that we can trim it down, but as a sort of starting point, we were assuming a nice, you know, field stone wall typically, but with deep raked joints done with a dark mortar so that it looks kind of like a nice old dry laid wall. Let's see.

[Clayton]: And how high would it be? Would it be like above If somebody were sitting in a wheelchair, how far up would it be?

[SPEAKER_04]: The wall actually is on the downhill side of the path. I think we'd have it come up four to six inches above the path height so that it's there as a detectable for someone using a cane, or it's there as a wheel stop to If there's a wheel stop, if a wheelchair is trying to turn the corner and gets a little out of control, I mean, it shouldn't be difficult for a wheelchair because we're keeping it to a relatively shallow grade.

[Clayton]: Right. But if they needed to stop themselves, they could hold on to it kind of thing.

[SPEAKER_04]: And it would be it would be low for that. I think if you if you made it tall enough to do that, Honestly, I think it would start to interfere with the sight lines and the way the hill feels.

[SPEAKER_04]: If there's a concern, you could look into doing a railing on the downhill side to give someone something to hold on to, but it's not as steep as a wheelchair ramp. Okay.

[2kAt0v9zwyw_SPEAKER_00]: Now, to build a stone wall would cost quite a bit. Was there any thought of coming in through the other road that comes out into there?

[SPEAKER_04]: I was. Let me take a look at where that is, because I'll be honest, I didn't even know. I think we had talked about it initially the other way. I hadn't even realized that that was.

[2kAt0v9zwyw_SPEAKER_00]: You'd come out right at the level of where the steps are.

[SPEAKER_04]: Okay. There's not a good clearing there to provide parking that I'm aware of.

[2kAt0v9zwyw_SPEAKER_00]: If you're looking at your drawing to the left of the top steps.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yes. I hear you say you can come in from this way, off the top left and in. I'll be honest, there hadn't been any thought to, because I didn't know that was even an option. When we got sent out there, we got asked to look at it coming in from above.

[2kAt0v9zwyw_SPEAKER_00]: I'm just thinking that a cost of a stone wall might, where if you went the other way, you would need to.

[SPEAKER_04]: I think it wasn't envisioned as all that massive a stone wall, but I do hear you. You could possibly do it with just a precast curb too that stuck up a little bit above. We can look at that. What I wanna see is how far our survey got in that direction. Because we did have the surveyors get a little bit more space, but mostly it was off toward the, yeah. we don't have that topographic info that way. Because that's all woods right there in that spot. Is it pretty heavily wooded?

[2kAt0v9zwyw_SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. I drive down with my pickup truck and we have trucks go down there when we need to access up there. Sometimes we just do that rather than dropping the cable where that tree is that you're talking about.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah. I can certainly go and take a look at that and see Whether it feels like that would be feasible. You'd still be a few feet lower than the actual pedestal, which would mean we'd end up needing to build up and I think you'd lose the. Assuming we were trying to put parking down there, you'd lose the several large trees that you've got down in that space. Whereas up here, you've got a clearing already.

[2kAt0v9zwyw_SPEAKER_00]: I don't think they're all that healthy anyway. They might not the only area needs to be checked out by the tree to buy and buy an arborist. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I actually just happened to have a tree warden that just started yesterday.

[2kAt0v9zwyw_SPEAKER_00]: The city does. What's that new tree warden for the city? Yes, he just started yesterday. Okay, all right.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yes, I, I. Let me put it this way. I know that the, the city's forestry department was having some issues previously. The kind way of phrasing it. Okay, well, we can certainly explore that and see if that's something the board wants us also to look at. Um, and we can try to work on cost wise, seeing what we can do to bring things down. I think that the, the path is easier to navigate going down the left side here as talked about. Um, the grading actually works easier coming down the right side, coming down the scheme, a version.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah. Yeah. The beginning of the path is more choppy. I do think. I'm looking at it and sort of trying to eyeball. Hypothetically, we could look at. You know, could you come in? More like this. and then put this path onto it and kind of curve down a little more gently to get down so that it's not quite such a switchback. Get more like this sort of start that gets us down. Trying to look at the grades here for trying to get down one or two gets us to about they're coming off that path, which is that's way in front of that tree now to get down. We're able to get down lower because we're coming from the side is what's going on. Okay.

[Clayton]: What what I think of is for somebody who is disabled, you know, it's just a longer much longer. you know, takes them a longer time to get to that landing.

[Clayton]: You know, I just feels like, you know, it might be a little harder for them to get there with the with the first one. And I did find the information. So we we had requested this is just the phase four exploring the plans for the design. We had asked for 12,850, but they had approved 35,000 for this phase. The next phase would be to actually give them the proposal. That's where we're at. We are funded then,

[SPEAKER_04]: PB, David Ensign — He-Him, He-Him. He-Him. He-Him. PB, David Ensign — He-Him. He-Him. Tight and detailed cost estimate and make sure we understand the drainage. And put that proposal in front of your, your funding sources and see if they're able to fund the whole. You know, 150, maybe we ask for a bit more. So we have some construction contingency that we can hopefully give back. Um, project.

[Clayton]: And maybe we need to give, did Tim, did you discuss this with Tim as well? Did he get to see the two different schemas?

[SPEAKER_04]: I don't recall. I think he saw an early draft of them, but I, I'm not 100% sure. Cause we were expecting that he was going to be here tonight. We certainly would have him review and weigh in as well.

[Clayton]: And Steve, I don't know if I missed when I was going back to get the information. Did you have any preference? I didn't hear if you weighed in at all.

[SPEAKER_04]: No, not on any of these plans, no. OK. Not aesthetically. He did have the suggestion that maybe we want to look at the other route coming in from the bottom that uses the dirt path. I'm not sure where we'd put parking there unless we put it simply right on this side.

[Clayton]: And that would mean that the disabled person would have to ride uphill, right?

[SPEAKER_04]: No. I mean, a little bit uphill because you'd be that the landing here where those 2 trees are is. 2 ish feet lower than the, the monument level. So, you'd end up coming upward a little bit. Um, we would have room to do that. But it's, they would be going uphill rather than down, but.

[2kAt0v9zwyw_SPEAKER_00]: I think it would be in the parking area, so you can bring it up to grade to those steps.

[2kAt0v9zwyw_SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. Go beyond those two trees. I know which ones you're talking about. Yeah. More straight. You're pretty close.

[SPEAKER_04]: You are very much on the level of the lower plaza. Yes. Then it would be getting up to the upper. Yeah.

[SPEAKER_04]: Pretty much you could probably do it without it. Yeah, you could probably do it with a sloped walk rather than a ramp. You just come out further. And we could look at you know how it fits in. It's. It's feasible. I do worry aesthetically, you know, thinking about. Well, are you going to see it from? From place said road down below Winthrop Street. If you're looking up at it, maybe not so much.

[2kAt0v9zwyw_SPEAKER_00]: Depends on how far out you are. You'd see cars parked, but.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, but it's pretty not a whole lot of use. Yeah, you would see it up there because I, you do see the ground top of this. You do see the ground from the. From below, so we're talking about seeing cars parked basically up here where those tree trunks are.

[SPEAKER_04]: Whereas, in the other scheme, they'd be tucked back further into the woods and it wouldn't really. I see see them as much from behind, which I think. You know, the impact from this this corner. It's definitely more pronounced to have the. To have the cars in this front area, but. Well, I mean, maybe that's sort of our fallback option if they look at our cost proposal and say, go back to the drawing board. Right, right.

[Clayton]: Yeah, I think I like them being able to go through the cemetery because, you know, the cemetery is kind of scenic as well, rather than coming from the road.

[SPEAKER_04]: If if they won't be coming from being through the cemetery, I just don't know where the path comes from in the. It's sort of back here, right?

[2kAt0v9zwyw_SPEAKER_00]: No. Well, it's actually right off the road that you got near that tree that has the cable wrapped around it.

[SPEAKER_04]: Okay. Yeah, I wish I had that. I'll tell you what, I'll go back to the aerial if I can. What do I do with that?

[SPEAKER_04]: This is that and you're saying that it comes in, there's also a path that runs along the tree line here?

[2kAt0v9zwyw_SPEAKER_00]: Okay, you'll come out, move your cursor to the right. Okay, right down towards the right there. Yeah, yeah, it comes out there.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yes, from under all these trees and it must come from, like, the end of this over here.

[2kAt0v9zwyw_SPEAKER_00]: No, over keep going. Go where you think the tree is that. It has a rope tied around it. That's here. Yes, and there is a road that's right there that goes through the. It doesn't go through the woods. This tree canopy looks a lot thicker than it actually is because I believe there is a mausoleum right at the beginning of the road you're going in. One to the right. There's a road that goes along that tree line, right along there, and now it goes into the woods and comes out. Okay, it comes out there.

[SPEAKER_04]: Interesting. Okay. Well, we can go, I'll certainly go back and take a look at that. Cause if that jumps out as definitely the obvious way to go, then we, then we for sure, for sure explore that a little bit more. But in terms of general preference, if we're up top coming down on this sort of angle makes sense to you all. And that sounds great. Do we have a preference between the, the single loaded Parking where everyone's on 1 side, and it just rolls down the hill. You know, that would look like this for the path basically.

[Clayton]: I actually must say, if it's for people with disabilities, I would think that the 1st, the 1st proposal parking. I actually prefer that to the turning it the other way where they're parking on both sides, because I can just imagine somebody with a wheelchair coming out on 1 side and then. And having to get it easier to for somebody to get an accident if they're backing out someone wheelchair. I don't know, does anybody so we end up.

[SPEAKER_04]: We end up with sort of a hybrid looking at it that way, but that's okay. We're just sort of sketching this out a little bit. Does anyone else have have thoughts preferences?

[2kAt0v9zwyw_SPEAKER_00]: What is when you do this parking area? Is it going to be a raised curb or are you going to be able to drive right off of it?

[SPEAKER_04]: I think that our assumption had been well, you tell us what you want, but our assumption would have been you do either a rolled bituminous curb or something like that to keep the costs down. Or you don't do a curb at all so that you could drive right off, but then we put some precast concrete wheel stops or rubber wheel stops on it.

[2kAt0v9zwyw_SPEAKER_00]: The, the reason why I'm asking is there, because there is another pathway to the right of that when you pull in. That goes up and comes right down into the backyard of my house.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yes. You don't want anyone driving at the back of your house as, you know, but we're going to need access to that. Oh, I see. So you'd rather not have it have a big old curb.

[2kAt0v9zwyw_SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I want to be able to get in and out of that. If we have to win for the fire department, whoever needs to get up.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah. Okay. So we leave that accessible. That's easy. Yeah. All right. I mean, there'll be, there'd be an 8 foot gap at the. The anyway, we can, we can use wheel stops. We could make it wider. Yeah, I think that less curbing is probably better.

[2kAt0v9zwyw_SPEAKER_00]: Because sometimes we get machinery down through that yard, like a bucket truck or something and.

[SPEAKER_04]: That makes sense. I'm sort of trying to sketch in that first bit of path there. So you'd be looking at sort of if you mush the two plans together, something kind of like this for the path instead of the longer one. Yeah.

[SPEAKER_04]: which actually kind of helps the feeling of that arc, too. Yeah, I like that much better. Yeah, I like that. And there's a T that'll get you to the lower level. Yeah. OK, that makes perfect sense. I think that's workable. We'll look at whether we can hug that bit of ledge outcrop tighter. To reduce the wall height a little bit to bring the cost down, or if there's another solution that makes more sense. Keep exploring that we'll do a hybrid of the 2. Plans and then in terms of the access to the lower level, I think it does make sense to have a paved. Way to get to that lower level, right?

Probably I don't know what what events happen here. Does everyone just gather up by the statue or do you end up with seating? Down below, or does not much happen there?

[2kAt0v9zwyw_SPEAKER_00]: We haven't had anything up there since the bicentennial.

[SPEAKER_04]: That's what I was going to say is like nothing's happened because it hasn't been restored and there's not accessibility yet.

[Clayton]: And it just hasn't seemed like a fee, something that's feasible, but I actually do. I mean, it's a little exciting. I don't want to get too excited because I don't know if it would be funded because it's, it's not, you know, necessarily necessary, you know, but it would be great if people would have an opportunity to be able to, you know, just sit in, you know, somewhere in the cemetery on the grounds to enjoy it?

[SPEAKER_04]: Well, I mean, it's historic preservation and access, and it's open space, and it's, I mean, having seen CPA applications for my role on Somerville's historic commission, it's a great candidate. Providing accessibility to this feature that otherwise the community isn't really experiencing is just the sort of thing that I love to see, anyway. OK. And then down bottom, we can pull the path in front of the bench that looks out over the monuments and down the hill. Or we can pull it behind. We can kind of come in on an angle. We can come in flat so that you're more brought to the front.

We're happy to simply look at both of those and make a recommendation. But if you guys have a strong feeling, we're happy to work with that as well.

[Clayton]: I don't have a strong feeling. I'm not quite sure I understand all of that. So Steve, you weigh in on that if you have a strong feeling. All right.

[SPEAKER_04]: We'll take a look at it and see what feels better in terms of the flow of the path and kind of walk the landscape and see. It's a question of- Well, the path would be better.

[2kAt0v9zwyw_SPEAKER_00]: It looks like you got it running right in front of the benches, which would be ideal.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I think you run it either to one side of the bench or the other right and the benches face out and down the hill. Currently, for a nice overlook, and so you could bring it so that it passes in front of the bench. And you sit on the bench with your feet at the path looking out over the hill, or you can pull the path behind the bench. And somebody just sort of walks around and sits on the bench looking out, but the path is behind them. Probably it's more.

[2kAt0v9zwyw_SPEAKER_00]: If you put the path in front of the bench towards the street side, there's a pretty quick drop off there.

[Clayton]: So I, I feel like. If I were sitting down, I would probably want the past people passing by behind me. I'm not sure, but it's not a strong preference, but.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, passing by behind you. Yeah, you know, there's 2, 2 versions of that. 1 is. you hear people walking by behind you and there's that moment of what's going on behind me. Yeah, that's true. But this is a pretty peaceful space.

[2kAt0v9zwyw_SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I don't think. Not a lot of foot traffic. It gets out, but it's not a lot.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah. And you're going to know someone's coming and you're pretty darn visible. So I think from a security feeling point of view, you're not going to feel like you're getting snuck up on from behind when people will see you. So yeah. OK. Yeah, that makes sense. I mean, having it. Having the bench be more meditative because it's facing away from the path makes a lot of sense. OK.

[Clayton]: And I think, DJ, I think that Darlene, correct me if I'm wrong, is not able to see all of these images. So if you wouldn't mind, can you send her all the images that you used tonight? Yes, absolutely. Thank you.

[SPEAKER_04]: I will send all that along for the record. So it's not popping up for you at all, Darlene? I'm getting like it's tiny.

[SPEAKER_05]: Yep. Yeah. You might be able to change the view options to make it bigger, Darlene. That's what I did. I mean, it's.

[SPEAKER_04]: I can also switch if it's helpful to read mode, which theoretically would put my... That's okay.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah. Okay. Well, so that then pretty well summarizes what's going on with the World War I Memorial. And I think we've got the next steps in direction and we will work on our next steps from our proposal, which are to pull together Um, I want to make sure I know where I'm at. Yeah. To pull together the, you know, I don't think we're running into anything permitting wise here, which is nice. I'll double check with Tim, but we're nowhere near any conservation areas. Does, um, Medford historic commission or mass historical commission have any purview over the, the monument itself that you're aware of? No. No, okay, that's always good. So, if it's not a designated historic site in any way, then I think we're good from that regard. Yeah, we'll wrap up the preferred design plan, double check the permitting and do the more detailed cost estimate and early construction documents and not take it too far on that regard to enable you to put in for a CPA application to try to get funding to get it constructed.

[SPEAKER_04]: We have bid phase services and construction admin and finishing up those CDs already funded. So we should be good to go. If it takes long enough that it runs into the end of our as needed services contract with the city that could complicate things, but we're hopeful that we'll do well in the next round of applications for that anyway.

[Clayton]: Awesome. Anybody else have any questions with regard to the World War One monument before he ends with that?

[SPEAKER_04]: Go ahead, DJ. I was going to say the other project I have. Tim and I have been going back and forth a little bit on the seven acre project. I have been trying to get in touch with him to get. Clarity on if you all had a strong preference in terms of the rectilinearity versus sort of more curvilinear one that fit fewer. Fewer monuments, fewer memorials, but. Tied into the topography a little bit better if that makes sense.

[Clayton]: So, um, I know we had a discussion in our meeting and I know Steve's preference is to get, of course, the most burial plots as possible so that we can have, um, the ability to service the most, um, residents, you know, need. Um, so I, but I think you or someone else, no, I think it was, um, Tim was mentioning that, you know, there might be some. nudging that can be done like kind of like a hybrid in between where the corners, we can still have the corners, but maybe have them slightly rounded a little bit. So it looks a little bit, it's more aesthetically pleasing or something like that. But basically in terms of our purview, it's more important, I guess, to make sure that we can maximize the amount of space that we have to extend the life of the cemetery, basically. Okay. what I would guess, but I have other commissioners to weigh in. Chris or Dee, or even Stephen, do you have anything to say about that? Would you prefer the curvature for the aesthetic piece or would you prefer to prioritize the number of burial spaces?

[SPEAKER_05]: But I thought when we talked about it, though, we kind of came to the consensus with Steve that the best idea was to maximize the amount of aerial spaces. But I do like the idea of we could curve it. We could soften it some, yeah. Yeah, soften the edges, the curves.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah. So fit a bit more in. but less rectilinear to the extent that we can do so.

[Clayton]: Okay. So there are a few things that I wanted to just touch bases with you anyway, because we've been getting some feedback as you might have been informed from residents around, you know, being worried about the habitat that's there, the vegetation and so on. We got a request from Trees Medford. They're struggling to kind of maintain them on a canopy that is in the city. So they just wanted to make sure that we have a plan for like a buffer of trees along growth street and preserving individual mature native trees if possible. as well as a concerted effort to kind of put back trees in the cemetery, in other places that are lost. So I just wanted to, you know, make sure that you are aware of that being an issue. That being said, you know, like I do appreciate the, you know, that, you know, over time, since this has not been used for burial, people have really gotten accustomed to having the vegetation there, and that's not the purpose for the land. And I do know that our responsibility is to extend the life of the cemetery for as long as possible. And I'm pretty, I pretty much feel that if it's at all possible to accommodate, you know, trees in other parts of the, of the cemetery so that whatever migration can happen with the birds that are there now, that will be because there's so many trees there. I think that's a possibility. But if you can, when you're doing your proposal, kind of speak to what if any is being done to, you know, create the same type of curvature with the trees on that brook side.

And whatever preservation that there is happening, if you can highlight that in the proposal. So that we can, yeah.

[SPEAKER_04]: Okay, sure. Yeah. Um, I mean, to speak to that briefly, so that at least you all know where we're coming from on it. We are definitely Obviously preserving the mandated buffer zone that's along Grove Street. I'll pull the plans up just to have them, because it's a whole lot easier to visualize when you can see something. Um, so let me know when you can see the, the screen. Yeah, this is the, this is the overversion that we don't want to, we don't want to go this Kirby. Um, but we probably don't want to go quite this rectilinear either. So somewhere in between, but even in the most rectilinear, we've got the, the buffer zone from Grove street through the Hill and then wherever.

Wherever you have a mature tree canopy like this, even if it's all secondary successional growth, which this is, there are almost all of that woodland from what I saw is invasive Norway maple that has come in afterwards. I don't recall seeing, and I would have been surprised if there were, any mature old growth stuff. When was it, that aerial photograph that Tim had found from, was it the 1950s? Just after World War II, when this was veterans housing.

Obviously it was all cleared then. So all of these trees are in the 50 year old range of the outside, which is a mature tree, but in that era, And the way the forest is developed, it looks like it really is a lot of Norway maple, black cherry, things like that that grow up first. And they don't provide no habitat value, but it's certainly less than old growth forest would have been.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I can put together sort of a memo about it. Yeah, but it's not a native forest. It's all secondary growth largely of invasive trees, not entirely, and black locust and things like that, which, yeah. So anyway, but in any case, it's still, when you cut down the mature tree canopy that's there to clear space, You've probably seen at the edges of residential developments, you know, if you cut down existing forest, you end up with sheer looking trees because all of the understory isn't there. And so you don't have lower branches and so on. And the best strategy is to replant right along the edge, which is sort of what we're doing here, with smaller trees that will fill out as if they're at the edges of forest again, as well as understory shrubs and evergreens and things like that. So that'll create from grove a pretty strong Back edge to the woodland that will help with that visual buffer that people are worried about there. Okay, and we can continue that up the edge to make sure it continues even past the roadways.

The same thing I think along the drive into the Brooks Estate would be very important there to keep that visual buffer and just let the entry channel coming in be your window looking into this particular planting lawn. We definitely want to screen the heck out of the maintenance yard so that nobody needs to see them making a mess back there. Fortunately, the idea of cutting it into the hillside and doing a large block Retaining wall to make bays for mulch and. Soil and gravel and whatever operationally you need Steven and crew.

Helps to tuck that in and screen it anyway, so that shouldn't be a big visual impact from the Brooks estate from the from the road from the woodland behind. And so on and we can. provide trails back in to connect to all the other trails that exist as much as we can. And then since we have so many grade breaks that it'd be difficult to plant on, we kind of end up with, in either version of the scheme, sort of a lot of stretches of planting that'll help break the areas of lots up visually and provide some canopy again as those get bigger over time that should really help this remain feeling wooded, get it back somewhat to that garden cemetery aesthetic that I think people are looking for. Because if I remember right, this is all part of the agreement is no vertical markers, that it's all in grade. So, I mean, if you get rolling lawn with sort of hedgerows of trees between the fields and flattened areas, it'll look pretty pastoral, which is nice. And you can plant, we can intermix native shrubs into those hedgerows, for lack of a better term, to kind of rebuild some of that character as well, which will help with the habitat value quite a bit. Um, as far as planting in the rest of the cemetery. You know, that's certainly something that you all could explore. I do not know enough about the rest of the cemetery. Probably Stephen's the best judge of whether there are places you can plant trees. That aren't there yet.

Honestly, anywhere you could plant a tree, you could, um. you could inter someone, most likely, unless it's on a slope. So my guess is that most of the spaces that could have trees have burial sites under them, which at that point, I don't think you want to put a tree there.

[Clayton]: Right, right. I know that there has, over the years, been a plan for cutting down the rotted tree stumps and replanting that Aggie was working on. Steve, you had mentioned that some time ago. But I don't know where they are in that process and whether or not that's going to be integrated into what we're doing.

[SPEAKER_04]: And it's definitely not integrated into the scope I was asked to look at for the seven acres because our scope is pretty focused on that. But on the flip side, we're Available to the city on call generally, and I am, I am happy. Even outside of official contract to answer quick questions about. If we were planting trees, what sorts of species would we recommend, but you also have a new tree warden. So.

[SPEAKER_04]: Okay. So I think I have a sense then of sort of aesthetically what you're, what you're going for in that space and the concerns that have been raised by the neighborhood, which we'll take to heart as we go into that and try to soften the effect and be able to speak to what we're doing with the tree canopy and all the rest of that.

[Clayton]: Yeah. And I'm going to be, um, we're trying to get a meeting together with myself and Tim and the mayor to have further conversations about the seven acre project and both with regards to funding but also with regards to doing a more public facing

[SPEAKER_04]: session where people can ask questions and you know make their voices be heard in one one place kind of that sounds great yeah hearing of some kind public hearing keep me posted on that meeting i'm happy to provide materials that we've already produced or if you need a particular sort of sketch reach out um all right if you if if for whatever reason you know you and tim would like me at that meeting with the mayor as well i'm happy to

[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you. We have enough in the Seven Acres project for public process, and I think that definitely constitutes part of that, even if it's the early conversations with the mayor about what she wants the public process to look like.

[Clayton]: Right, right. Okay. All right. Sounds good. Yeah. She's pretty committed to making sure that there's a public process in place.

[Clayton]: Oh, okay. All right. Well, thank you so much, DJ. That was very, very helpful. And I'm glad we got a chance to see that.

[SPEAKER_04]: Do you have a question before DJ leaves though? I was going to say, is it a question for me?

[Doug Carr]: A little bit. There's a couple of questions. Doug Carr with the Brooks Bay Land Trust, obviously, directed by her, obviously, around this. I heard conversation earlier about the choices between the more orthogonal and the more curvilinear schemes. Is it your takeaway from tonight that you're going with your orthogonal scheme, right? Because that's what I heard.

[SPEAKER_04]: My takeaway from tonight is that The way that the orthogonal scheme prioritizes the need for the cemetery for the interments was preferable, but that the more curvilinear character of the other. scheme was aesthetically better and sort of fit into the landscape more. And we definitely want to respect that as well. And I think my goal would be sort of to thread the needle between the two versions that popped up on screen and have something that is softer, that fits the topography better than the strictly orthogonal original does, but not, not quite as far as that curvilinear version had gone. So.

I mean, expect another plan to be coming around that is... There is no decision on either way. Right, that is softer than the rectilinear version and much less rectilinear, but not quite as wiggly as the curvilinear version that had been up.

[Doug Carr]: What is the delta of the number of grades between the curvilinear and the orthogonal scheme?

[SPEAKER_04]: Sure. The curvilinear one fits, as best we can tell, currently about 1,810. And the very rectilinear orthogonal that's squeezed in No, as many as we could fit really is about 2,380. So it's not quite 600. So it's about a 30% increase in size between the two. And I bet that if we're sort of hybridizing the two, we'll end up in, uh, in the middle, 2,100, 2,200, which is still. I think that that orthogonal scheme will be enough harder to execute that we would lose more around the edges than we anticipated we would anyway. There are some spots where we know we've got relatively shallow ledge that we're going to have to work around that we didn't know when we drew up the orthogonal version and so on. So I think realistically, you know, the delta is more likely to hit somewhere in the middle of those two numbers, between the almost 2,400 and the slightly more than 1,800. Thank you. 2,100 maybe? 2,200 if we can fit them.

[Doug Carr]: Yeah. In earlier versions of conversations that we've had about this scheme going back to, I think, might have been the end of last year, there was a strong desire which I'm sure the Brooks Estate folks would concur with to connect the estate walking paths with the seven acres and have it be feel integrated. I didn't see that in either scheme. Is that something that's not possible or not considered?

[SPEAKER_04]: I think it's the intent is to have them relatively connected. We don't have them surveyed out because that was really hard to do. So I think that as we went into actual construction, it would be some field adjustments of the existing trails where we needed to. But I think that we have talked at least in the past with the board and with Stephen and Tim about having those trails Connect back in and we don't we obviously don't want it to simply end. And some of them right now go through where the maintenance yard. Is likely to end up moving uphill from the stump dump. Um, so we, we didn't end up having to adjust and bend around that anyway to make.

You know, trails that didn't interfere with operations and connected nicely. So I think there are, there are definitely points in either version of the plan. Where we would reconnect to that trail network. I don't at the moment know exactly where those fall. And I think some of that will be getting out there and again. And looking around and sort of. Better establishing now that we've got, you know. we've got a grid of former test pits that we can look at and we can say, oh, okay, we're between test pit 17 and 18 where the trail is coming towards the edge of the area here. So now we know where the trail comes out and we can figure out how to tie that back in better.

[Doug Carr]: Thank you. Yeah, I think someone said it earlier quite eloquently that I think with the flathead stones and the way they might have been used or that there's a way that this can feel, it could feel integrated, it can feel connected, it can feel like more of a meadow, not, you know, it has a different aesthetic than most of the Oak Grove Cemetery does, because they don't have flat headstones, right? So there's an opportunity, a design opportunity, an aesthetic opportunity, and I think that's important. And I think the trails that go through that area, whatever walking trails they are, some are more defined than others, but I think there's, I wouldn't want to kind of have it be an afterthought because going across it means that it doesn't just dump into the road system. Like the trails, if they're going to be, they would not be where they are now because that wouldn't go with your design. I respect that. But I think there's an opportunity there to feel like, make it feel like it doesn't end and begin. And then there's this thing in the middle. like that's the integration piece that I'm talking about is that if we design this right, it will, you could walk through the cemetery and some people might not even know it's a cemetery, depending on the time of year, the snow on the ground, you know, like, I don't know how high the grass is going to get, but there's, I think there's, there's a couple of opportunities here to have it be a net benefit for the environmental and the wildlife that is obviously part of this and connected to the Winchester Town Forest, which is another 22 acres, not that far away from this.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, I mean, I think that aesthetically, when we have as much topography as we've got, when we end up with those sort of hedgerows between the small, between the areas of lawns, when we have the flat grave markers in the grass, because that's what the agreement is, as I understand it, the end result is that it's going to be more of a memorial garden slash garden cemetery type aesthetic than the more traditional cemetery that the more recent part of the rest of Oak Grove has, and a different character than the sort of you know, formal garden cemetery like Mount Auburn character that the older portion has. So it's going to end up having its own sense of place that's different from the other side of the Brooks Estate access road there, just by the way this develops, which is good. And I think it's, To some extent, the way it works out, it's likely to end up harking back to when this was part of the Brooks Estates farm fields, right, or garden fields around it. If I remember right from looking at old plans of the Brooks Estate, this was all cleared on the way, you know, it was the area between the current estate and Point of Rocks, right?

[Doug Carr]: It was, yeah, it was mostly open fields back until World War II. Right, and then I got clear shots from Pointer Rocks down to the ponds. That wouldn't happen here because of the setbacks. But I get your point. I think there's a diversity of ecosystems that this project will create, which is positive, I think, for the estate. So I think that's a good thing. There are two, for lack of a better term, pain points that I want to bring up. I'm not looking to start.

a hard conversation here, but there's, there's just no way around it. One is the, you know, obviously the maintenance yard, which is very intrusive, you know, and I think a lot of people on the Brooks Estate obviously would like to not see that there at all, frankly, especially for a lawn and an expansion that was probably have what is a 10, 12, 15 year lifespan before it's done. And I think that's a conversation we're going to continue to have. And I think it will, you know, it's, you could fit more graves if you didn't have that yard for lack of a better term. But I know the operational, you want it needed. So I don't question the request. I just, the impact I think is with the retaining walls and the way it impacts the landscape and the grades is not insignificant in terms of its impact. And I think that's something that obviously we're gonna be focusing on. I don't need a response to that unless you want to. I know that's a real sore point and we can just agree to disagree for now for lack of a better term. Harmon Zuckerman, PB – He, Him, His): Sure, I also still see that secondary road of Austin that is, of course, symmetric does not control as a as an exit to this to this expansion. Harmon Zuckerman, PB – He, Him, His.: : that's part of the setback we've talked about this in previous meetings, I you know I. Harmon Zuckerman, PB – He, Him, His.: : I just I understand again the functional need for it, but it's always it's. This was the seven acres was one way in, one way out. So with, you know, that's what it was. That's how it was conceived in 1997 back in the day.

[2kAt0v9zwyw_SPEAKER_00]: Were there plans with that showing the one way in and out?

[Doug Carr]: There were on the Brooks Estate, the plan that the Child Associates drew there was. But all it was was a diagram. It was just a literally a loop road. It wasn't It was not nearly as far along.

[SPEAKER_04]: It's just been a boundary line, right? Sorry? It's just been a boundary line. Yes. And you are correct that that secondary entry exit point crosses over the boundary line and the bit of buffer zone in that corner.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah. We can, yeah, we can certainly have further conversations about whether that's acceptable to M-BELT and how we work with it if it isn't and so forth, and what the legal requirements and agreements on it all are. And I'm sure that'll come up with the mayor as Stacey, Tim and I are talking to her. We'll get there, we'll figure out where it goes.

[Doug Carr]: And honestly, somebody, I think Councilor Bears, who's raised on the M-BELT board, probably should be at that meeting. I think, because he wears many hats, and I would request that he represent him both on that, because he understands better than any elected city official that we've had in the 30 plus years at the Brooksville State. He understands the mission and the goals, and he obviously represents the whole city. I think he's someone who's a a reasonable person to speak to all the issues related to this project?

[Clayton]: He is a part of the reporting process. I have seen email that indicates that he is gonna be informed and he's gonna be having conversations with Tim. Tim will report to him what our conversations have been with the mayor as well.

[Doug Carr]: I guess, Mrs. Clayton, I respectfully think he should be in the room when things are being discussed, not informed after there's a difference. Because the millions of dollars that's going to be required to do this project, I don't know how much it is. I just don't think we want to have what I call a finished design that doesn't have, I think, the proper amount of input from the community and other stakeholders, maybe all people on Grove Street and others who have concerns.

[Clayton]: Yeah, it's likely that he could be in that meeting. I'm just saying that a part of the process is that he needs to be informed in any event. And so Tim would have to let him know that we're even having this discussion. I'm not, we haven't actually, the meeting date and everybody in the meeting. I'm not privy to all the people that are in the meeting, but I do know that I saw an email that indicated that he was going to be looped into everything.

[Doug Carr]: Thank you, Ms. Klein. Appreciate it. I think those are all my questions. I appreciate your time.

[Clayton]: If anyone has any comments or things, I'd like to... Doug, I just wanted to ask you, were you there when DJ was mentioning from the picture what they were planning to do to kind of buffer that area that you're worried about?

[Doug Carr]: And by the way, the World War I project you guys have is fantastic, I think. Thank you. I'm a big supporter. I'm on the CPC. We funded numerous studies and other things, and this is just the next step, I think. I want to Thank you for that excellent effort, because that is an underserved area that deserves more attention. I think it's a good project. I think I can speak for the whole CPC that when the time comes that they will back that up with dollars. There's always a challenge right now. We used to have There's more competition than ever with CPC funds. But we try to make sure everybody gets something as much as we can to make sure the money is spread over as many products as we can. And this is a great project for what it's worth.

[SPEAKER_04]: It did occur to me, Ms. Clayton, just as a point of clarification. Doug, the secondary access where it comes out currently is where the road back to the current stump dump is. It's not a new connection or anything, but I understand that that is in fact currently crossing the buffer into the seven acres there.

[Doug Carr]: I'm aware of that. Okay. But the purpose of the setbacks is frankly, is to hide the symmetry as much as possible. And maybe that's the wrong approach. Again, I'd be more interested in hiding rectilinear design than I would in curvilinear design, because I feel it would be more... That curvilinear design, by the way, is excellent. I think that's about 75% of what I would have designed if I designed it myself. It's really good. I'm sorry it doesn't satisfy the needs, but it does do a lot of positive things for the estate. If there's any way to get more graves in there, again, all the creativity on the geometry would go a long way. I think that would help.

[SPEAKER_04]: Excellent. Well, we'll keep that in mind as we move forward. My understanding is that the goal of the meeting with the mayor is to talk about what the public facing process looks like and when we start that. I'm sure it's the beginning, not the end of the conversations.

[Doug Carr]: I understood completely. Do you have any kind of, I know obviously everything is based on funding and availability, but in an ideal world, if the money was available, say June of next year, is there a sense of when this could start? For the seven acres? Yes, the seven acres. No?

[SPEAKER_04]: I mean, well, I would say with clear direction, Depending on how the public process goes and how quickly that can move. Say we spend the winter digging into this and doing public process. We'd be looking at spending the spring wrapping up construction drawings, and I would say we could theoretically be bidding things out by summer of this coming year. When that means construction would start and so forth and how much of it were doing it at any one time would all have to remain to be seen, I think. And that's the bigger conversations about funding and about process and all of that. But yeah. I mean, realistically, if we got told there's no public process, go, here's the design we want you to roll with, could it happen sooner? Probably, but there's still a lot of design time to make sure we've got the drainage and stormwater right and all that.

environmental considerations and all that jazz. Realistically, we could be in construction as soon as the end of next summer, but that would be a push to do. But if the stars align, it's doable.

[Doug Carr]: It feels to me like it's three or four months of construction, something along those lines, order of magnitude. Of construction? Actual construction. Yeah, probably. That sounds about right. Okay. Well, thank you for your time. I appreciate it all. I look forward to continuing the conversation.

[Clayton]: Awesome. Any other questions for DJ? Thank you so much for staying with us for such a long time, DJ.

[SPEAKER_04]: Not a problem. All right. Still shorter than the historic commission meeting I would have had to be on if they hadn't found somebody to make quorum without me.

[Clayton]: Okay. Well, thank you so much again. Have a great evening and we'll be in touch. I'm sure very soon. That sounds great.

[Clayton]: All right. Bye now. All right. Wonderful. The other if there are no other questions for on the seven acre expansion project, I don't see any we can talk about. I just want to say thank you, Steve. Steve, like right away, was able to get us those signs for Salem Street, the Salem Street burial ground, the no dog signs, and they're up. Have they made any difference? I don't know yet, but at least they're there. They're there to let people know that they're not allowed to.

So if there's a problem with with something happening there, the enforcement is at least possible because there's signage there that is very clear and visible. So thank you so much for getting that done so quickly, Steve.

[Clayton]: All right. And Steve, I didn't know if you had any other old business to report. I know you were talking about the loading and hauling of soil the last time. I don't know if that ended up happening.

[2kAt0v9zwyw_SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, we're getting closer. Maybe the end of this month, we'll start hauling. Okay, if everything lines up, but that's what Tim was saying today.

[Clayton]: Okay. And so the soil, when you got it tested, it was good enough to just.

[2kAt0v9zwyw_SPEAKER_00]: I haven't heard anything back that it wasn't, and they pretty much deal directly with Tim with that portion.

[Clayton]: Okay. All right. Sounds good. Any word on the service building at all?

[2kAt0v9zwyw_SPEAKER_00]: Um, no, uh, we met with, um. Another, you know, the. Just getting ideas of what another building would look like built right across from us. So, um, they're waiting to find out what that cost would be, what the building would look like. And so that's still a ways out.

[Clayton]: All right, sounds good. And the World War II memorial water feature, did you guys find a solution for the ducks?

[2kAt0v9zwyw_SPEAKER_00]: No. There's some issues with this. And if they're not corrected, we're not going to be able to run that fountain all the time. We'll have to shut it down again. One is actually vacuuming it, keeping it clean. So the company is looking into different ways about that. So I haven't heard back from them on that yet. There was some issues where the winterization for the first time and then the opening was taken off the bid. And I didn't know that until I called them and asked them to come and show us how to winterize it.

So we'll kind of, I guess, Veronica is supposed to be dealing with that. I haven't heard much about that either, but I'm gonna make a phone call to someone tomorrow and see where we're at.

[Clayton]: Okay. And any of the solutions that you tried for the duck poop, you know, preventing them from getting in there, did they work?

[2kAt0v9zwyw_SPEAKER_00]: No, well, no one's actually gotten back to me about it, all the stuff that I chose. But I called the people that used to chase the geese. They have this chemical, and I used it before. It's pretty good. It's like a grape. flavored thing that makes the geese stomach upset. You spray it around the area and they come, they eat it, and then they get their stomach upset, and then they don't come back no more.

[Clayton]: But wouldn't they be pooping a lot if their stomachs, I'm just kidding. They won't be around.

[2kAt0v9zwyw_SPEAKER_00]: geese control company. And like I said, I've used it before and then we started using the dogs and I don't like the dogs cause it's to me, that's a waste of money. So this guy is going to come up with a plan for me and give me some numbers and then I'm going to present it to Veronica and Tim and they're going to have to come up with a plan.

[2kAt0v9zwyw_SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. It's a shame, though. They did a great job out there.

[Clayton]: If it stops, you know, and I don't get to see it, oh my goodness. But you're still turning it on at night?

[Clayton]: Oh, okay. All right, and what was needed for it to be started back again? Just the managing the problem with the goose poop in it.

[2kAt0v9zwyw_SPEAKER_00]: The geese, they need to come up with a system for us to vacuum it. And pretty much, you know, that's it. The geese and a vacuum system.

[Clayton]: Okay. All right. I wonder if But any other place has a fountain like that that we could ask what they do? I don't know.

[2kAt0v9zwyw_SPEAKER_00]: Well, we do at the Crystal Campbell Fountain. Then this guy sprays this grape stuff around that fountain.

[2kAt0v9zwyw_SPEAKER_00]: And some other areas throughout the city keep the geese out. OK.

[Clayton]: All right. OK. Any other old business? I didn't have anything else that I thought there was. Anything new to report on? If not, we can move on to new business. And I'll open the floor to you, Steve.

[2kAt0v9zwyw_SPEAKER_00]: About the new businesses, we're getting near the end of mowing season. And in November, we'll be picking up the leaves. As long as I still have no issues with this landscaper. That's a story in itself. I got a new guy yesterday, started yesterday work.

[Clayton]: Oh, congrats. Yeah. That's helpful. So now you're just one person down?

[2kAt0v9zwyw_SPEAKER_00]: Two. They just transferred two more, two out. So that left me down to three. They just hired one.

[Clayton]: So what happens if you have a high incidence month where you have a lot of people?

[2kAt0v9zwyw_SPEAKER_00]: I just call Scott, and Scott gets me people from other departments to come up and help.

[2kAt0v9zwyw_SPEAKER_00]: I'll remember after the meeting, I'll probably have questions.

[Clayton]: They can email us if you remember something. Did Chris or Dee, did you have any questions or Darlene for Steve for any of the new business that he shared? All right. Well, it looks like we have come to the end of this meeting. Well, thank you guys.

[Clayton]: Is that is that I mean, I think we've had it on election day before. Is that okay? Yeah. Is everybody available for that day? Yep. All right. So well, let's just lock it in.

[Clayton]: All right, great. Well, I can entertain a motion now for adjourning the meeting. Oh, you're muted. Chris Andy, you're muted.

[Clayton]: adjourn. Okay, it's been moved. Do we have a second? Seconded by Chris. If there is no other question, all in favor, say aye.

[Clayton]: All right. Thank you guys. Recording stopped. Thank you. The next time we see each other, is there, no, there's not a significant holiday, just one day, but next time we'll be right around the corner. Oh yeah, that's true. That's true.

[Clayton]: All right, everybody, stay safe until we meet again. Thank you very much. Feel better, Stacy. Yes, thank you. Appreciate that. All right. Thanks, everyone. Take care. Bye-bye, guys. I'll let you guys know how the meeting, once we get the meeting scheduled with the mayor, I'll let you guys know. Oh, cool. Oh, yeah. Thank you. Okay, thanks. Yep. All right, talk to you guys. Bye.