1.4.2023 LWCF Public Hearing and Park Board Meeting

I opened this uh public hearing up for the FY 23 land in water conservation fund uh great information we have our grant writer can you give the Ozzy here and I'm going to turn it over to her thank you thank you for having me and let me just say I'm so sorry that I have it back to you but at any point if you have questions just please let me know I'd be happy to

respond excuse me can you just have the mic over thank you I think is it is it this one Alex once we figure out which one it is n't here yeah there's nothing for in here no that's just for the camera itself oh okay yeah it's just flipping cameras I'll move closer

and I'll try to speak loudly that's good right there okay good because I know I don't have a loud voice but I will make an effort okay we're here today to talk about the land water conservation fund Grant and it's an opportunity that the city has to obtain funding for some Park Renovations and this is a list of what we're going to be talking about today I'm going to give an overview of the

grant the funding opportunity as well as the timetable for the grant and we'll talk about some of fall River's previous and our proposed land water conservation fund projects we'll also have an opportunity for people to ask questions and offer comments

the land water conservation fund is a federal program that the division of conservation Services administers on behalf of the National Park Service that's an agency of the Department of the interior and the state agency that manages the program is the executive office of energy and environmental affairs the grant offers financial assistance to develop new parks to renovate existing parks to develop trails in existing

conservation and Recreation areas or to acquire Park land or conservation land so there are two types of projects that applicants can request funding for the first type is a conservation project whereby we would receive funding to purchase land or to purchase a conservation restriction on land the other type of conservation project is that land would be under the care and control of the Conservation Commission

I'm sorry that's not another type that's just another characteristic of a conservation project that the land would be under the care and control of the Conservation Commission Recreation projects offer the opportunity for applicants to receive funding to purchase Recreation land to develop new recreational facilities to renovate existing parks and um all of the land must be dedicated as

Parkland for any of those Recreation projects States and local governments are eligible for this funding and we're going to be talking later about which type of project we're going to be applying for eligible project costs if we were to receive funding could be if we were interested in applying for an acquisition project to purchase land the eligible project cost would be the acquisition cost which would be based on

the purchase price or the appraised value whichever is less for renovation and development projects the funding would be for engineering and design and construction and construction supervision those are all eligible project costs if we're doing a renovation or development project for trail projects the funding would allow us to develop and Mark trails and then also support features such as

creating a Trailhead an Overlook or a turnout in all cases with this funding we must have 100 percent of the total project cost appropriated from the municipal budget or we go before the city council and ask them to appropriate the 100 of the total project cost because this is a reimbursement Grant and we can all only receive from the state or the federal government 50 percent of the total project cost

so the state wants to see and the federal government wants to see that we have the full amount in hand because they wouldn't want to fund half a project to get through half a project and we run out of money so they ask that we have 100 of the total project cost allocated or appropriated the minimum Grant request that we could ask for would be fifty thousand dollars the maximum Grant request is a million

dollars as I mentioned these are called reimbursement grants and the most that we can request reimbursement for is 50 of the total project cost and it's actually based on the percent of the grant the percent that the grant award is of the total project cost so it Remains the Same for each reimbursement request so throughout the period of performance of the grant we submit requests for reimbursement and they

provide us with 50 of the total cost this is just an example to kind of illustrate how they calculate what the reimbursement rate will be if we had a project that the total project cost was four million dollars and we received a one million dollar Grant award because that's the max that you can receive then um one million dollars is 25 of the total project cost in this example so therefore each

request for funding is going to be only 25 of the total project cost for each request so if we submit one million dollars worth of invoices and we're being reimbursed at 25 percent then that's 250 000 so that's just an illustration of How It's calculated foreign applications we do so by in response to what the funding source is looking for there's almost always an evaluation or rating system of some sort they tell us

what they're looking for they tell us that if you respond to certain elements of this application you'll receive points and then when the all of the applications are reviewed a point system is assigned and the applicants each applicant receives points based on what they've put into their application or how responsive their application is so in the case of this particular Grant the land water and conservation fund

Grant these are some of the things that they're looking for now these are this this is a goal it doesn't mean that in all cases we always will meet every single item or that we would receive the maximum amount of points in each item or in each category but this is what our goal is we're shooting for this we're trying to hit as many of these points as we can when we're developing our

proposal in hopes that we can get a hiring rating because we don't know what the rest of the application feel looks like so we want to be as competitive as we possibly possibly can as responsive as we possibly can so the state Staff first are the look at the all of the applications and they rate and rank them according to their system that's described for us in the application package

so the first item that they look at is is our proposed project relevant to this strange word that's called the scorp it stands for the Statewide comprehensive outdoor recreation plan the state is required to have this plan and the state's plan has four different goals in mind the first one is access for underserved populations and by that they give examples of like teenagers who

may not typically use a park facility so that would be an underserved population or it could be senior citizens who may not typically use a park park setting so that's the first goal access for underserved populations the second is to support Statewide Trails initiatives the third is to increase availability of water-based Recreation and the fourth is to support creation and renovation of

neighborhood parks so in this case we would we would Target the first and the fourth goals access for underserved populations and then also to support renovation of neighborhood parks so in our narrative we will explain how we are meeting that that particular item for ranking also the second thing we look to do is to show the relevance to What's called the open space and Recreation plan the

city is required to have an open space and Recreation plan and our open space and Recreation plan has four different goals the first is to improve the quality of parks and park systems the second is to continue to enhance the network of Greenway facilities the third is to preserve protect and add to the open space assets of the city and the fourth is to implement the goals objectives and

actions that are recommended in our open space and Recreation plan the plan I believe is good for a seven year period I think ours is going to be expiring and will need to be renewed in I believe it's 2025. foreign so excuse me so we will be pointing out which of the goals that we're meeting in our um you know our proposed project how it meets the goals of our open space and

Recreation plan there are several objectives that are under our goals such as improving maintenance in the Parks improving infrastructure in the Parks and by that we mean sidewalks walkways play areas addressing the needs that are in the city's Ada transition plan so we also received a few years ago a grant to develop a transition plan for accessibility a consulting firm came in and they assessed every single

municipally owned property Parks polling places the Veterans Center this building and they gave us a very elaborate plan and they prioritized certain things that should take place to make sure that we are meeting ADA compliance to make sure that our buildings and Facilities are accessible to people of varying abilities so we will be looking to explain how our proposed project fits into the Ada

transition plan for Lafayette Park because there is one so we look at that also and we pull out some of those elements to make sure that we're addressing like walkways that are no longer impassable or maybe walkways that don't go fully up to some of the park amenities or maybe there aren't handrails that stair you know stairs so we look at incorporating all of those things into our project

also another objective is to address security and safety concerns and that means like installing and improving tree plantings and Lighting and the last objective is to maintain trees and to plant new trees and we always try to do that and and we happen to have our qualified tree Warden here and he may talk a little bit more about that later we also try to include information about

our environmental justice populations and I'm going to be talking a little bit more in depth about that on the next slide explaining what that is in case people aren't familiar with that we also want to explain how our project is making more recreational opportunities available for our residents we need to include access for people with disabilities in our project Environmental Education if that's a fit

for our project climate resiliency is a focus of this year's Grant round the state has told us that so with in the project design we'll be looking to incorporate some elements of climate resiliency such as tree planting which I just mentioned solar trash cans permeable surfaces rain Gardens those are all elements that will come into play during project design we also need to explain how we are good

stewards of our properties our Parks our Recreation facilities if possible we try to include water access some Parks get you know a spray a spray park feature um or there may be a water feature that's available like at britland Park there's the the river there the quick Shin River we also try to explain and we want to look at making sure that the park facility is accessible via different

modes of transportation walking biking public transit so we include that in our project design and then lastly overall the state will be looking at the quality of our project and the quality of our application and then recommend recommendations are approved by the state and then also it the there's a two-tiered process with this particular Grant because there is federal funding involved so once the

state reviews everything and forwards applications to the National Park Service they have a review process and they also make recommendations and give the final approval now I mentioned environmental justice and I'm just going to read this this definition just because it'll be more complete that way environmental justice is a goal of the EPA it is the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of

all people regardless of race color national origin or income with respect to the development implementation and enforcement of our environmental laws regulations and policies it will be achieved when everyone enjoys the same degree of protection from environmental and health hazards and equal access to the decision-making process to have a healthy environment in which to live learn and work

so our goal is to ensure that our residents no matter who they are no matter what their race color national origin that they have the opportunity to weigh in on what's happening in their community and particularly in their specific neighborhoods so that's one of the reasons that we have this publicly available meeting I've tweaked my what I'm going to say a little bit from what's on the slide

based on the 2019 census data and according to the Massachusetts office of energy and environmental Affairs Fall River contains one or more neighborhoods that meet the following environmental justice policy criteria of low-income minority and English language isolation um so according to um the and so the environmental justice criteria include an annual median household income that is 65 or less of

the Statewide annual median household income that minorities are 40 or more of residents belong to a minority group fits us into the environmental justice category and that 25 or more of our households identify as speaking English less than very well so there's English language isolation so Fall River actually meets all three of those State defined environmental justice categories foreign

this is the grant timetable the applications are due January 23rd at 3 pm so even Beyond tonight's meeting we will still be collecting information from people people have the opportunity to comment and we will certainly review all the information that people provide and I think that we'll have some information shared later with what we've collected so far from people on a survey

that was available on the city's website but the conversation can extend beyond tonight's meeting for sure the anticipated State Grant decision announcement will be in late spring of 2023. as I mentioned this is like a two-tiered process so following that the federal government would make an award announcement in the fall of 2023. and successful applications must have a City Council

vote before a contract is signed with the grantee so we have a little bit of time to actually go to the council to get their vote and to appropriate the 100 percent of the total project cost but if we receive a grant award we have to set that process in motion the project or construction would begin in the spring of 2024 and the project would have to be completed by December 2025.

I just wanted to mention some of fall River's past land water conservation fund um Grant funded projects and some of these projects are quite old as Mr denmead knows so I don't have a whole lot of information I have some information on them but not a whole lot North Park was a very recent application and I actually worked on that application back in 2013.

the North Park inclusion playground was put in with the land water conservation fund grant that we got that year the other Parks as I said the kind of go back a ways Bicentennial Park ruggerio tennis courts which is now Central Park the Abbott Court playground Griffin Park and Turner playground

so we have talked internally you know we've talked with the mayor we've talked with Mr denmead and his staff we've we're collecting information from the public and we actually went out and did a site visit to Lafayette Park to look at the conditions there to look at the amenities that are there to look at what appears to be needed there in terms of Renovations and this is what we've come up with so far

we are planning that we would renovate the skate park and the basketball court that are there we're planning that we would install some lighting and some picnic tables and benches there are some benches there but they're not in great shape and I don't believe there are any picnic tables I don't believe we saw any picnic tables there we want to improve accessibility within the park

and to the amenities there for example a route to the skate park I don't know if you're you're probably all familiar with the park but there's a road that cuts sort of towards you know through the middle of the park but it ends and is very like the asphalt is broken up so if you were in a wheelchair or if you had difficulty walking or maybe using a cane or a walker or something you would

probably you would come to that spot in the road and that you'd have to navigate your way across that you know crumpled asphalt to get to where the skate park is um there's also a problem with access to some of the benches that are there to the ball field to the playground we would probably look at installing some wheelchair seating at the sideline areas and the benches near the playground and

the ball field we would also repair some sidewalks as I just mentioned and maybe add some ramps or handrails at the stairways we also think that we it would be a good idea to remove the old fencing along the park perimeter which is on the Mason Street side the fence is in pretty bad shape and it's collecting plastic bags and it's collecting some brush you know brush type of plants that are growing

through the fence and it's just kind of unsightly and we would install new fencing around the baseball field because if we took that fence down people might be concerned that balls would be rolling out into the street even though there's a pretty good distance from the ball field to Mason Street but by putting a fence around the baseball field hopefully it would you know the balls

would be caught there and they would be going out into Mason Street we would plant some trees and we would remove the old backstop there's a ball field that doesn't look like it's being used at all but there's a backstop that's rusted and kind of you know the fencing is not great so we would probably take that down we would take out the old unused splash pad and the tennis court

those are some of the items that we've talked about so far and as I said we can share some information about survey results and what the public has said about each of those elements that I just covered we certainly would be happy to take questions or comments at this point and Chris did you want to do you want to share this now is that a good time sure okay so I printed this yesterday right after lunch

there were 28 responses to the survey we're close to 40 now so there's been more responses to this point and I have paper surveys if anyone hasn't had the opportunity to fill it out but we asked people to rank um or provide a number rating to the different repair options you can see here based off of the results so far yes the camera's over here okay

that's right um So based off the results so far um lighting swings and Pathways as well as the benches seem to be the most popular repair requests um the idea of the roadway either being repaired or removed deals with its condition if it's removed it removes an impervious surface helps us gain traction on the environmental impact and land conservation part of the Grant and then also the repair or the removal of

the fence removing the fence we think has the potential to increase access to the park instead of having to find a gate all of Mason Street is an easy walk into the park versus finding one of those openings so this is what we've gained so far again the Grant application isn't due until January 23rd so we'll continue to have the grant um survey available both online and a paper copy and we can send out that link

to any interested members of the public to gain some additional feedback on these different elements so I think we can open to questions questions can you uh just uh yeah introduce yourself uh Joe Cavallo uh vice president of the Flint neighborhood association uh so if I heard you correctly this has to go in by the 23rd of this month yes so today's the fifth fourth so 19 days and we're Counting just business days

it doesn't and I'm glad that you've gotten 40 I mean Carlos is the president of the Flint neighborhood and and we put the the survey out um so we're and and we have a meeting this month but it's the 25th so that's already Beyond uh because that we were gonna I was gonna ask for a bunch of the paper copies sure we have elderly people who don't have computers and um that that really was something I

wanted to address too uh that given the short amount of time when when were these even available they were just recently available so that the time frames are tight because the state and the federal government released the grant applications and all the requirements and set pretty tight deadlines on these things I mean we started talking about the potential of applying for this grant after knowing it was available

um just during that holiday season so it's not like we have a huge window of time to develop unfortunately okay obviously public feedback's important I'm happy to give you I've got probably 35 copies of uh the survey there I'm happy to leave in with you and if people fill them out and either they're collected by you or Carlos I'm happy to meet and pick them up to make sure we get as much public

feedback as we can so when you talk about the grant becoming available and the federal government and the state government so the time frame of that when when did we first learn about the availability I'm not sure when did Jane might know when the uh to be honest let me check and see if I might have that indeed and while Jane is doing that so the meeting got posted somewhere

on December the 19th yes which then of course fulfills the time frame that you're supposed to give these notices out about uh where would I find that the posting where would I find the posting for this meeting you mean no for the the for December 19th December 19th this meeting or this presentation I should say was publicized was publicized correct where it was always in the farmer Herald News

yeah which raise your hand if you get the paper yeah I didn't think so on the cities all public hearings are required to be published so that is the route that we have to take whenever we post public hearings Mike Dion's here he has a public hearing this evening as well he posts his public hearing notices in The Herald News they're posted on the city website in City Hall if if someone at some point and I'll

give you my email address sure and tell me where on the city's website which is an Abomination to try to maneuver through that notice I can find it somewhere so if you go on the calendar of events it's posted right there so as soon as the meeting was scheduled which it was scheduled by December 19th that was posted on the city website if you go right on the home page they have all of the City events

upcoming events and you click on them so there were two locations on the city website two agendas where this hearing was published the first was this specific public hearing and it was also published on the park boards agenda so if someone looked at the park board's agenda it also noted that there was a public hearing today at 5 30 for this grant for Lafayette Park and that the

park board meeting would meet subsequent to that public hearing so I had I had emailed the park board maybe a week and a half ago I'm not even sure exactly when uh about trying to get more time for people to participate I mean Carlos can mention and and I know as well that the Flint is one of the most heavily populated neighborhoods in the in the city of Fall River

so 40 is great you know and I and I have to say that's because of Carlos uh I first saw it on the reporter the former reporter and and uh I'm probably gonna bag somebody here but uh so I contacted Dan aguiar uh and asked where the questionnaire is and and he he had just gotten it the day before uh and then he emailed it to me I emailed it to Carlos and that's how we

were able to get it out to folks so and and I know that that state and federal grants uh my good friend was at the late Alima uh who was an unbelievable uh grant writer and uh urban planner not that he could ever work for the city of Fall River but that's a story for another day uh that they're tight because they want to see how fast you can go through the hoops

but one thing so I have worked or I no longer work there but I was working for the housing authority and I was the director of finance and I would apply for Grants they come out and they only give you anywhere from 45 to 60 days to get your presentation in and everything needs to be signed off on by all of the people in charge and then it needs to be

returned back you also need the time to plan as well so honestly to be completely upfront I think if there's any issues that you have with timing it would have to be directly to the people who come out with these grants because the city of Fall River we have no say in how long we have to get everything together we also don't want to rush it so unfortunately we only got 40 of them

but that's the most that we could get with the timing that we were giving I'm going to come up with the time the other results the other thing to take into consideration too is while Lafayette was selected as the potential location for this Grant application these things weren't just selected out of random they are they were selected based off of other public hearings that have taken place for our

open space and Recreation plan taken from the capital Improvement plan that was put together by um I'm not remembering the uh the group that did the capital Improvement plan for the parks but they identified they went through all of our Parks identified the top priorities or repairs and different means that needed to be addressed in all of the parks again I think they solicited public

feedback during that process as well the American Disabilities Act and the transition plans those all have elements that we are using to develop this Grant application so it's not that you know these options or ideas were pulled at random they were good we went through we've gone through various public processes to understand what needs to be addressed and the elements that we hope to address with this Grant

application were identified in those plans and look I I couldn't agree more with what you're saying yes it I I totally understand the grant process believe me I'm still the president of the Coalition for responsible citing of LNG facilities for God's sakes among a whole bunch of other things uh so so I get that I guess what um and this isn't the criticism of anybody really however on the 19th

when the notice was posted on the city's website uh the Lafayette Park is is in our neighborhood we and this isn't on the Park Board this is on the current Administration never got a courtesy call to say guess what we're applying for a grant Philadelphia Park and we'd like to let you know so that given given the scrunch of time that's available to to get comments from the public or a whole host of other

things uh if we had been able to be aware of that that would have given us some time to get the word out to folks uh and and we didn't get it and that's that's a that's a complaint I have with the administration I went to Park Board always over the planner or or you know the grant writer none of that no but gee you know uh and and I don't

think I I would be contradicted to say that the most active neighborhood association in the city of Fall River is the one that I belong to and Carlos is the president of the Flint neighborhood association we even gave the city money for cameras to the police department we we had carnivals we've had a whole bunch of other money makers that we've contributed we we give scholarships every year uh to kids from

uh Durfee and and diamond and Kathy Assad's name so you know it's kind I don't know you know if if maybe some of you folks can can let that word get out that that we'd like to be notified I mean I wouldn't blame the administration for that it was a tight turnaround it's probably something that I should have you know made sure happens as well and moving forward will make sure that when we do

these types of programs in specific neighborhoods that we reach out to those neighborhood associations so I'm not trying to argue that public input is not important it's very important we wanted to do this um it was a shortfall and I apologize that we didn't reach out to you and Carlos and the neighborhood association directly thank you we tried to publish it as best we could in the time frame we

had I appreciate it thank you and I'm sure it's being on recorded now on TV and everything so I'm sure the administration and everybody else will hear your comments yeah yeah um already I want to load but uh okay um Carlos Caesar 367 for us a couple of questions couple of questions I have with the project um I agreed which you that we are we have a limit time to go through in the process

uh maybe what the city needs to to take notice is how we the city are putting those posts are not reaching out to people maybe it's something that the city needs to stop considerating 20 years ago everybody got the paper eight o'clock in the morning at the door that doesn't happen no more not even on online they could they read the papers so moving forward and that's an example how we got notified

was by somebody that have a media on on internet so but we have to realize too that our neighborhood is the neighborhood they have the most all the league residents in Fall River we have Mills filled with 200 apartments with elderly people now they all are familiar with computers now they all got the paper so that's something I need to sit in it and that's January so let's plan for the future starting in January

how we're going to start announcing people agendas and stuff like that make sure the people got reached with that another thing I would like to say is our neighborhood 54th streets we have 14 000 addresses will be ashamed that we end up with the survey with 40.

people answering it doesn't make sense to me that we don't reach out at least to a thousand people um now moving moving forward um I lived on 85 Mason Street for 12 years since I got here in 1988 old way 12 years after when I purchased my first house then I moved out of so I lived right across from Lafayette Park I heard about the removing the fence on Mason Street I think that

what because I don't know you know you're familiar with Mason Street Mason Street and one has sidewalk in one side the other side has no sidewalk it's only grass and the only thing that preventing people from double parking on that street is that fit now we're reopening is a reason for people to park on top of the grass and will become another problem but that's just just to touch on that issue

um the thought process and this is why we want to have this conversation is remove the fence there is a sidewalk inside the fence there that is a bad shape so we're leveraging resources additional resources other funding mechanisms I think cdas the CDA office is looking at funding uh the repair of that sidewalk and instead of fencing we would do a treatment of tree planting along the

along the edge of the road and the start of the sidewalk versus a fence we're looking at applying for a street tree plant a planting a tree planting Grant through DCR as well that we would be able to incorporate into Lafayette Park and then if I can on the survey the survey is not a requirement of the grant the survey was discussed and deployed as a way to gain more feedback from people

who can't attend this meeting so it's not a requirement I think 40 people while not sufficient to get you know a true understanding of everyone's ideas in the flip it's a lot better than the turnout we have here this evening and it allows more people to participate and again the deadline is not tonight we still have a few more weeks and like I said before I'm willing to

meet you in the play no I mean I'll go through take the senior center with those applications certainly get more respondents I will get that means we can we have 60 people eating breakfast at senior in Center two days a week so I'll be glad to go by with the applications and people fill them up for me that would be no problem it's in and I understand that's not a requirement the sense that we looking for

the the you know the I the the public I think it's just since we are opening that road that we can get as much possible um coming back to the uh coming back to the fence I believe that the sidewalk that you're talking about it's actually just a a walk pack not a sidewalk because it's it's at least five or six feet into the Curve yes okay so so to me that's not a

sidewalk to me it's a it's a walking path it doesn't have to go back in that same exact location so I would anticipate that I would move closer to the room so it becomes more of a dual use and there is there is curving between between the edge of the road there's Grant curbing there and then the brass inset and then the walkway um so I'm I'm just I'm just are worried because believe it or not

people walking animals they right now the way it is people walking animals they walk on the sidewalk and then cross on the opening to get into the park they actually don't walk along the fence because it's not enough for them to walk along the fence it's safer to get across from the the opening fence and cross from the sidewalk there so what I'm concerning now is that we're removing

the fence now people are going to be parked in top of the sidewalk now I'm walking my dog I'm gonna come to the street and then go around the car and go back again you know what I'm saying so it's like a safety concern that I have probably it's just me but you know I mean I'm just trying to picture the the fence being removed from from there and having the cars both ways if

if this if the the street was only one way I'd probably not be this much concerned but because it's parking on one side and it's a two-way street that's what I I get more concerned with the move of the of the feds um another thing that I I believe you I you said that you will be removing the basketball courts or renewing the basketball court what we talked about when we went on the

tour to look at the elements of the park is that the basketball court would be moved to the location of the tennis court so the basketball court would be redone okay and fenced in instead of being open as an Israeli yeah okay because believe it or not it it's it's very old but people still use especially from the Saint Joseph's apartments and everything over there so um I mean for now it's

just the the few notes that I have and um you know I mean I'm looking for it it's just like my vice president said it's it's because we have a so much active neighborhoods that we actually have a board with seven members that meets every Wednesday every last Wednesday of every month we try to bring guests every month it it I think it's a concern that we we don't have at least a a courtesy call

you know don't even have to be me I have seven people on the board somebody on the board got a call and say you know we are moving forward with having this plan and you know we need to reach out to people and they'd only contacted me every two years to reach out to people after that no more take responsibility for that you know no I I think it's I think you I think you've been too

nice and I appreciate you and I appreciate but um I I think that the earlier we say the captain that every ship has a captain and the captain it's always a responsible for the ship so um with that being said I think that's that's all the notes I have thank you again for your attention and thank you guys I know every board deserves appreciation because we all volunteers

we all love the city and we all work for the same thing to benefit a city so thank you for the board anybody else have any questions I had just uh it said about uh the removal of the backstop and that we're replacing that by yourself no I think that one would would just come down it doesn't I don't believe that that okay well we can we'll follow up with with them do not feel

they're a traveling team foreign

there's no playing field left there it's an old back stop sorry all right no problem and the other position I had is I know we gave approval a few months back for uh it was sneaking with Donald they just did fundraisers that they were going to do like a dedication then that's right it'd be kind of weird to put a dedication and not have baseball field okay okay I close this public yeah before I

close this public here and I just want to introduce the commission is uh if they can use to put a record for this public directly just simply to uh everybody knows who we are the popular with Amber Burns Victor barrius Joseph D Silva and uh we had uh Cheryl taking our minutes tonight we're going to close this public hearing at 6 18.

foreign

room

it's me as being uh

citizen is submitted by the park board being file noon 1 4 23. we don't get any kids

free to open me no more for students to the open even more any person may make any audio or video recording of this public meeting when they transmit the meeting through any meetings attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or Transmissions are being made whether perceived or unperceived by those present in our deemed acknowledged and commencement hey we'll call our commissioners

Victor prarius Joseph de Solo commissioner Sylvia and conditioner Regal of both absolutely citizen input there is no citizen input new business election of offices big nominations for chairman I am Emily Joseph Solo or chair I accept uh all in favor say aye aye aye nominations for vice chairman aye nominate Victor Ferries all except all in favor say aye aye nominations of secretary

not me uh amber Branch for secretary my second I accept all in favor say aye aye congratulations for the 2023 calendar uh um public hearing presentation information we just heard that police this on file for the record

aye item c a bid award for the July 4th firework display 2023 make a motion to accept it okay what would you want to read see give me one second you have any questions on that commissioner I mean um we have a suggestion is um you can see the two vendors that bid on this and uh one of them is the one we were looking to go to was uh that offered more fireworks and they're

using a local vendor for with the barge and uh they under a pass um we use them for multiple years was um pyrotechnico so he was the one that we would decide to go to they were both great vendors and the other one that we used uh came in and helped us out when we uh came up short on the uh a fireworks company but it was uh the local vendor

in using uh more of the money that we're spending on the fireworks on actual fireworks rather than barge we decided to what this would be the preferred blender to use um I make a motion to accept the bid or award the bid to pyrotechnical fireworks Inc out of Jackson New Hampshire second now motion commissioner has made that motion seconded by commissioner fires all in favor say aye all right

item d 'etats a bit award replacement of the ball field lighting at Maplewood Park Babe Ruth field Stafford Road pandemic yes and uh with this dude this was a rebid the first bid that went out was uh it came back it was very few uh vendors bid on it and uh this one was suggested and uh we agree uh to go with the island lighting and Power Systems Incorporated so um they came up with the uh

the preferred uh they would come up as the preferred vendor and so I set this uh you know what this uh contract I make a motion to award the bid to Island lighting and Power Systems Inc out of Norfolk Mass so secondhand motion commissioner Burns made that motion seconded by the commission of various all in favor say aye thank you

um pot board support uh the letter of the board's support to submit an application to the community preservation committee for the funding to complete the repair and restoration of the gates burial grounds not Main Street hello everyone so uh we intend to submit a funding application um it's gone through eligibility already to complete the Gatehouse project that has already been started at North burial ground

um due to Rising construction costs and just the overall condition of the building when we were doing that we did have a shortfall in available available funding so we're submitting an application to fill out the remaining necessary funding to finish the uh The Pedestrian gate and the vehicular gate on North Main Street so that way that will be done as well as the exterior of the Gatehouse

so I'm just looking for a letter of support to submit with the application

seconded by commissioner fire is all in favor say aye aye um um I know I had asked before the holidays and then after we still have to ask any updates on the cemetery projects yes so that would be the public know so the expansion is just about done in the spring we have to re-pour a couple of the walkways that didn't come out too well just because of the weather before Thanksgiving so those will be

replaced the obelisks are in The Niche Wall is in and all the tree planting and grass seed and plantings are done so with the exception of those those few sidewalks that will be done in the spring the expansion is done we've been selling lots and Performing burials in that space so budget no we are under budget not on time unfortunately just because of covid uh supply chain issues but

um considering the covet issues being under budget is huge so um we'll be under budget by uh a couple thousand dollars when it's all said and done and then um just wanted uh I know I told Mr uh about it and he said yes it was done uh concern I had was and we sent it off the bid the Locust Street Gates have been repaired oh yes correct so that is all backed up original status

right okay and the master plan is underway we've done GIS mapping we're working through that process and then we'll schedule another public hearing to get some feedback on the cemetery master plan are you yes anything on trees not right now okay thank you uh commissioner inquiries hey just want to welcome back commissioner Burns to the Blackboard glad to have you back I'm glad to be back

and I want to uh send well wishes to uh two Commissioners uh commissioner Rigo who's filling under the weather today and commissioner Sylvia who's uh been feeling uh a little under the weather for a little bit so we wish them both speedy recoveries and Happy New Years to everybody I want to thank Cheryl for taking our minutes today for last minute notice and uh do I have a motion to adjust motion to

adjourn second thank you commissioner Ferraris made that motion second night commissioner is all in favor say aye aye