enact legislation to limit the transfer of licenses for the sale of alcoholic beverages not to be drunk on the premises substantially a set forth in order for two of the ward for this town meeting and that the selection be authorized for approved minutes of the bill before next week by the general court which shall be within the scope of the general public objectives of the petition as article one there this is the correct russian ability provisions that should come back to the licensee board which is the board of selectmen to make a determination on miss olson she will present the amendment under article two we will then discuss the amendment under article two and then the main motion under article t and ten and from the proposed section one day of chapter fifteen of the acts of twenty fourteen the phrase quote to any other location or unquote and by inserting at the end of each of those proposed sections the phrase quote for you said any other location unquote so that the proposed section one a chapter three eighty eight of the acts of twenty ten would read as precinct seven plain old citizen i want to clarify one point that i think is important for you to consider as you think about this particular article our restaurants and government have never had any limits on their transfer ability of licenses we still have thirteen available out of twenty six so when you consider this think about the impact of the owner of savina is a severe nose who has been hurt and crushed by the coaching village in cushing square construction think about those business owners and those restaurant owners as you vote for this because they've never had any reason not to not be able to transfer their liquor license to a new b or that's it thank you mr moderator thank you open for discussion now on the amendment under article t yes ma'am natalie lino precinct eight my question actually relates somewhat to miss libyan's comment this article clearly came about as a result of things related to retail licenses and i noticed on the earlier  that a number of the restaurant licenses are still outstanding so just curious is there actually an economic value in the licenses that our current businesses have and i'm also just curious in general in terms of the number of outstanding do people apply for them and they don't get them they're just not a step you know current demand for right now and wondering i'd love to hear the selectmen view of kind of you know if the argument in correct there are a number of issued licenses we haven't had up locutions for them so therefore we have not issued them i think the point of the board of selectmen least my point of view is that at some point time they won't be licenses and once we issue them again will be the same situation as we are today because of these licenses perhaps become more marketable and i think the whole point is just for consistency purposes that they really are now since they just licenses and therefore there should be no transferable as well yes or jeff ozment precinct five  meeting member i stand in support of this amendment to this article i think the discussion has definitely clouded the difference between the two articles this article references restaurants  provide great benefit to the town of belmont you know it seems clear that the original intent of the licenses that were issued was that the licenses would be transferable this represents a pretty signal you can change to that that was never discussed previously it's in reaction to a transfer of a an all liquor for sale license not a restaurant license that this issue came up and viciously if all the liquor license the poor licenses for restaurants discussion along those lines with this one particular articles because we're not the issuing body what we do very simply is oversee the appropriateness of the business as far as the individuals running it and as far as the cleanliness and you know appropriate use of the establishment itself but we don't fet people that apply for licenses that's these folks up here so i guess the short answer is i have no concern about it because i trust them to do their job and then we'll do ours a second question but if the license was transferred and not gone through the board of selectmen then it would not have the ability to do that well again the background of the license is not underneath my purview so if i remove myself as a citizen and simply take as myself as a board a health member i would say that's not my job now what we do do is to issue your food license we fetch you quite a bit but we're going to do that whether you have a liquor license or not so that doesn't change the way that we approach you if you want to buy an establishment or open an establishment you're still going to go through the process to make sure that we feel you are appropriate to run a food establishment and now whether or not the liquor license transferred or not as they say we have no say over who gets a liquor license so if they come to us and say we're giving them the liquor license that's fine we're going to figure out whether you should be running a restaurant or a food establishment  the transfer that any transfer would come before the board of selectmen and we would apply the rules that are established by town meeting so in other words just because  it's possible to transfer a license doesn't mean that it wouldn't come before the board and we wouldn't follow the rules that that town meeting establishes for the transfer which as aaron explained requires all the different checks and balances so there is a process even if you if you allow a current holder of a license to change the location or if you allow a transfer to to another owner in the david i think it's also true that the detail meeting does not have discretion on what you do with regard to restaurants is that correct aren't you guided by statute well that's correct i mean ok so in this case then the question is why aren't liquor licenses guided by statute you know why are they discretionary could do you have any ideas along those lines i have absolutely no idea i  i i do have an idea why and i think it's it has to do with the appreciation for the business aspect of liquor licenses either for retail or for hour i would actually respectfully disagree i think the reason that people want folks to be able to come up in order to get a license would be to have them fed it for the appropriateness of owning a license i think that's the reason otherwise you could just open up a remember large i mean the point of this with the restaurants is while the issue may have come up with regard to the retail there was a very real issue with the restaurants for instance and i willing gauge an extreme hyperbole  i wanted to sell to hooters let's say there's just no no casting aspersions just bear with me that select then if the amendment passes there changing ownership staying in the same location they have to come to the board of selectmen but our ability to say no is very curtailed as long as they meet the criteria and they're not you know and have a criminal record violation you know i don't know what their background is but i mean if they if they wanted to do that we wouldn't be able to say no likewise if you'll casale wanted to move zoning permitted next to your house right that's a very big difference i think from where it currently is located so i think in those scenarios restaurant only i would like to see the town have some control over where these licenses go and who was operating them in the way that i described before and i will not go through again because there are licenses there not restaurants licenses so i think that the  amendment is important and again as with article one i say no on the amendment and yes on the main article yes helen golding town meeting member precinct one i think that really all of the rationale that supported the restriction i think that all of the rationale that supported the first the first article without the amendment pertains here as well i also think that it's really a bit of a red herring to go back to this stuff about original intent i mean we're here to make the policy decision now and if we decided you know a number of years ago would that we wanted these that it was ok to have these licenses transfer going after experience we've decided that there are reasons not to have them transferred then that should be sufficient and it shouldn't be an excuse  yes the original town meeting x to adopt alcohol in restaurants in belmont was enacted in one thousand nine hundred seventy but the first licenses were issued until two thousand because it took us that long first for the act to go through the legislature but then for us to form the advisory committee who in turn formed all the rules for the town of belmont and so those licenses were thousand those first licenses were for restaurants and one of the core values at that time was non transfer ability now whether it shows up in legislation or not that was long discussions they were public there in minutes somewhere archived to somewhere but nontransferable that he was one of our core values and so to suggest that it wasn't or to suggest that this somehow material lies only in two thousand and six isn't accurate and i just want to clarify that because i was there at the time signing my name to those first licenses seeing no further discussion will throw it on the amendment under article two if you support mr wilson's amendment vote yes if you oppose it vote amendment is defeated twenty seven yes to eleven no we now turn to the article to an amended of course is there any further discussion under article two there does not sorry there is one asked earlier this evening and george hall if he cares to speak he can but the war isn't what the war is today that means they're all transferable so until that point in time till the legislature would in fact approve the whole petition at that point becomes water but up until that point time all these license a transferrable the correct term council can't enact any special law that pertains only to one town without that town requesting it so what you're what you have voted on your article wanted what you're about to vote for article two is simply a request to change the law the law isn't changed until the legislature changes it thank we need a motion now mr williams to dissolve the special town meeting right here on the s ron article six and we've had the presentations in the votes so now it's open to discussion on the scope of the article let me just be clear we are not debating the pros and cons or help with facts of marijuana in effect through july one twenty nineteen i want to change from twenty eighteen to twenty nineteen that that's a substantive amendment i cannot accept that will invite a much longer discussion and people should have advance notice of that yeah i know it's only one year one number but it is substantive so i cannot accept that i don't agree with you know many people here the law up to now judge i don't think they have gotten to it yet and we still have an opportunity to opt out while we do so quickly thank you mister i george forth about what the process specified in question for actually should be it talks about adoption of a bylaw by a vote of the voters there is no provision in the general was in massachusetts byelaws to be enacted by referendum and there are you know i believe the elections divisions position is that you know any any question under current law that would ask the voters to approve a bylaw would not be valid we could go forward on that basis and we could litigate that issue if that's what comes up it seems to me i know that secretary galvin in the elections division have testified before the joint committee on marijuana policy they've made it abundantly clear that it is of vital importance that this process be clarified the legislature has said that they intend to to get legislation on this topic out by the end of this summer and i think there's going to be time to do it and do it the right way as opposed to selling a lot of confusion by putting a question on the ballot of dubious legality so i think we're better off taking the prudent step of the moratorium and seeing what happens over the next couple of months and then doing it in the way that the legislature specifies if we're talking about both marijuana and alcohol tonight so i'm going to mix the topics a little bit but if if the ten were to would have accepted chapter one thirty eight the statute actually says these are the questions that get but on the ballot the one thing the legislature does not want to trust local authorities to do is draft questions to be placed to be put before the voters  secretary galvin's bill will do the same thing for marijuana it will actually be his piss proposed bill has the specific wording of the questions that need to be included on the ballot it wouldn't be an ordinance or a byelaw it would just simply be the decision of the town to opt in or was oppose no motion is adopted unanimously article seven be the final one tonight look we have heard people to be quick mr treasure preservation committee one hundred thirty thousand for acquisition creation preservation of open space and for recreation use two hundred thirty thousand for acquisition preservation rehabilitation and restoration of historic resources three hundred thirty thousand for creation preservation and support of community housing four hundred fifty five thousand to the budget of reserve and five fifty five thousand to be appropriated for the administrative expenses and all of the necessary proper expenses of the community preservation committee for fiscal year eighteen the board of selectmen have a  warren committee did not take a vote on this motion ok thank you and then five projects that are going to be funded and i think toward committee you do the same is that correct that's correct yes ok great thank you ok th really chair of the community preservation committee so this is the fifth year that the committees become coming before you with projects in the last four years you've approved twenty eight c p a projects so three of the most recently completed projects are the p q tennis courts belmont village the interior electrical wiring their belmont villages are assisted family and veterans housing and it has one hundred two and three bedroom units that were completed in are built in one thousand nine hundred nine and this project replaced all the original wiring and added additional outlets and then the third one i'll mention is the belmont historic resources survey which has lauren meyer report on monday this was initiated by the belmont historical commission and that it updates and expands on the one nine hundred eighty two survey of historical resources in belmont so for those of you that are new to town meeting members this community preservation act is a massachusetts law that allows towns to establish a local fund to be spent on three things open space which includes outdoor recreation historic resources and the third is community housing so both local and state money go into our fund and the local is a surcharge on our property taxes of one point five percent so in fiscal year seventeen this this fiscal year we're in we should generate just over one million dollars the second comes from the state and that's a partial match on what we generate and that comes from the twenty dollars real state transactional fees that are collected at the registry of deeds additionally three out of the last four years the state has had a surplus and some of that money has gone into the state fund so only towns that have passed the c p a get that money and about half not quite half the towns have passed the c p a today so belmont has received just over one point five million from the state since we passed  a back in two thousand and ten so our projects are community generated and each september we hold a public meeting at the beginning of the annual process preliminary applications are due a few weeks after that and final applications are due of around december first so some of the things we are looking for is the community in support of the project is the project consistent with other belmont planning documents are all the necessary parties in groups and belmont involved and on board with the project this year we received six out locations and five of them are being recommended to you for funding tonight so the first motion that floyd just read is for preserving and allocating next year's that's fiscal year two thousand and eight teams anticipate receipts to that general categories and then the next five motions are for the five projects we're recommending for funding so the projects total all five of them in total come to just under one point two million dollars and as of july first we will have just over two point one million in available funds about one point three million that we're estimating will w we will collect this year in fiscal year two thousand and seventeen and about eight hundred fifty thousand that's rollover from previous years so town meeting at has the final vote on funding the projects and at this time town meeting can approve or reject funding for each project so floyd carman will read the motions and then after he reads the motions the sponsors of the five projects will very briefly explain their projects and then be available for questions thank you unanimously so now we'll go through the five projects one by one mr car and mary mahoney chairman the capital budget committee capital budget committee unanimously recommends favorable action mr tom meaning is aware of the chancery middle school tennis courts have been removed to replace what michael classrooms the belmont high school building committee project is well underway and within a calendar year two thousand eight hundred recommendations will be made keeping in mind those recommendations will involve building in or rehabbing the existing site with an active student population that being said the tennis court to depend on high school will probably be taken offline the question the c p a committee asked is what last two tennis athletes do that was a no brainer the choice was easy we recommend every play seeing the grocery tennis courts one hundred seventy three thousand two hundred be appropriated from the fund balance reserved for community housing of the community preservation fund to pick your an assessment of the feasibility of an expansion of community housing at the sherman hello my name's gloria leipzig and i'm a member of the board of commissioners at the belmont housing authority belmont housing authorities requesting one hundred seventy three thousand dollars in c p a funds to complete an assessment project redevelopment of sherman garden this is testament in redevelopment plan will focus on the feasibility of a new construction elevator building for the elderly and disabled residents of belmont as well as creating additional affordable housing on the site sherman gardens is a state assisted public housing development located near waverly square in this comprised of eighty one bedroom apartments in six buildings the apartments are intended for seniors sixty and over and the disabled however forty  eighty units require the residents to climb one set of stairs to access their apartments and there are no eighty eight compliant handicapped accessible partment on the site redeveloping the site to include an elevator building would bring many long term benefits to the town and its residents according to the most comprehensive plan the number of seniors fifty five to seventy four will make up twenty six percent of delmas population by twenty thirty the plan also that housing suitable for the needs of the elderly is insufficient and that as thing you're slow to downsize but remain in belmont there are few opportunities for them to do so on a modest fixed by a new housing suitable to this population is essential conducting a comprehensive evaluation of the strip sherman gardens site will determine the feasibility of adding in the elevator building that will provide accessible apartments as well as different apartment configurations not currently possible for example to better apartments for married couples that may might require separate bedrooms for medical reasons or for personal care attendant the planning process will also determine the type and number of additional hartm that can be created on the site the c p a funds would be used to hire redevelopment consultant and an architectural team would expect the redevelopment consultant to complete a site assessment evaluate various development strategies research the availability of funding for affordable housing and financing options for the new development the architectural team will complete an analysis of existing conditions submit conceptual design solutions for the site looking at construction cost and phasing completed we have secured the support of the residents the neighbors in the town we will be in a strong position to approach various funders and nonprofit developers interested in this type of project the state and other funding agencies will contribute money and resources to new developments to preserve an expanded affordable housing but they first want to see that we have community support and that we have done some of the initial legwork in the planning process before they commit funds the site assessment and we development planning for sherman gardens will be the first step in this process thank you who's the chairman of the culture and historical commission for the sons of italy from massachusetts there are six thousand members of the sons of italy in massachusetts in our headquarters of proud to say is on right around the corner at ninety three concord and have right here in belmont our plan is to create a mini museum that will tell the story of immigration and assimilation of an important part of our population telling immigrants here was a problem we had thousands of and effects that had been given to us by families over the last hundred years and they're stored at our headquarters out of facts pictures diaries immigration paperwork photographs paintings all sorts of things they're deteriorat they should be available for belmont residents especially students for viewing in educational purposes because they tell that story of the immigration and assimilation our goals to tell the story the growth of this population over the last over the twenty twentieth and twenty first centuries and to document that immigrant experience for bell so the future generations will learn about the contributions of italian american families here at belmore we'd like to also share these stories with communities throughout the commonwealth we want this to be long lasting we want it we've research what we need to do to create this many museums we have talked to vendors and we've located vendors that especially one particular vendor who has just finished the ross perot museum in residents and other belmont residents who will work alongside these professionals to create this museum will purchase high quality archival support supplies and cabinet to house this collection and by the way this collection would be available from nine to five monday through friday evenings and weekends point appointment right here in bell logical centers throughout the world in fact the new england historic genial logical society has excited about this project has given us a letter of support as has the database where oh come will be able to share these archives in the stories of our stories of immigration and assimilation with students and residents of belmont through visits to our museum it is open to the public and through presentations at the library and at the school system we met with them lisa fiore last week chairman of the school committee and she's very excited about this project  we again will be hooked to the new england geological society so that people can hear from belmont can not only use this these artifacts for research but can't through this through this many museum link software again we will share it not only our what our holdings are but also we will prepare a video of the preservation process which is very interesting and we can show that video to residents at the library we plan to do that and also to students in the high school so that they might get excited about going into museums studies and call the consul general of italy is very excited about this project i have a representative from the consul general so i have a sitting right here the consul general a bit early lives in belmont and his children are in the belmont school system and he's very interested in in the teaching of the italian language and he has made made available funds for setting up language programs telling him language programs and school systems and least a few henri was excited about an opportunity to perhaps begin teaching italians to preschoolers to k through twelve into adults in the evening through a grant from the italian government with this museum we can excite our residents and general's office we can begin teaching italian in our school system and our our grant also will have additional funding from a new entity called the friends of a to the italian cultural center which comes from of the consul general's office we've asked for an additional ten thousand dollars to increase the beyond and the technology of our museum so as you approach the museum in the head quite as you go through the front door  o go in to see our museum better lighting better rugs and better technology the earphones that you can put on the tell the story in the videos that should be included with this kind of  ok the budget is under twenty five thousand dollars thank you very much i was the no vote and i just thought it would be worthwhile for me to get up and tell you why i actually like the project i mean i think it's a good one that the story that the are trying to tell is the story of italian immigrants coming here and building a life many of my ancestors actually spent a year or two in in lawrence working in the mills when they arrived here to work off an obligation to their sponsors if they were fund raising effort and if i were approached as a private citizen i would almost certainly donate money and i could almost certainly give even more photographs to deal with so you know i'm not a you know i like the project so you know just to reiterate the sons of italy are asking for twenty five thousand dollars to preserve historical artifacts  over six thousand members for the regional organization and the national organization is over sixty thousand members so you know i talk about you know liking the project so why was i opposed my problem is this the this is really the state headquarters for a private organization this is not primarily a belmont organization although there are members in town and the archival materials to the best of my to the best of my understanding are not primarily documenting the lives of current and former belmont residents and because of that i really don't believe that belmont c p a funding is the right venue for this i think it sets an unfortunate precedent because you know once you allow this you kind of have to allow everything the organization is an advocacy group in absolutely the best sense of that  word you know that they're promoting understanding of the teaching of tally american culture and our contributions to society i support that fully but i think there are other ways of doing this there could be a fund raising effort and i would point out that with six thousand members they could pay for this with about four dollars twenty five cent charge to their members i would like to leave you with one thing we did ask on the c p c for the for a letter of support from the belmont historic district commission they declined and this is straight off their minutes consensus of the commission is that is important to convey that the commission does support the project in the effort but that don't want community preservation act funds are not the appropriate energy for this venture i agree with historic district commission and so unfortunately i'm asking you to join voted against this in the previous speaker just said just about everything that i was going to say let me just emphasize it love the project absolute i love history and it should be preserved but why should belmont citizens pay for this dominant has a in our pockets and we do it and it is previous speaker just said four dollars a person six thousand they certainly can reason can raise it and do it themselves and we will applaud them and i hope they will share their museum in their interaction with the school system and so forth just as they said but they should be the ones that pay for it and on the president the c p a i don't know how you're going to turn down any other ethnic group that comes in with their pet bread project that they can squeeze into the guidelines  question and comment at the questions which will be the square feet of the exhibit area didn't i didn't see that in the presentation have a plan for the space that would be occupied by the museum yes it's it's several thousand square feet yes it's a large building thank you i guess my feeling in general i'm supportive of  the earlier comments but my feeling in particular is mr mclachlan just said i think we have one history ultimately of belmont and i would like to see proposals of this type brought forward through the library or the belmont historical society the historical societies and not a public institution but of course they occupy space in the library in our partners with the library i think that would have the advantage that we would have the expertise and the resources that the library which for example has just completed its own large scale scanning project brought to bear on these kind of projects and that kind of professional evaluation of how to organize them and execute them that a high level this might be bringing in more foot traffic to the local businesses local community and so i do see the comments about the president zation by i also wonder if this might also be a benefit to the town long term by making it a lot of different a tight americans and maybe watertown or other places would come here to see this wonderful hopefully wonderful archive as for one reason might be a bigger benefit than just looking at as a a cultural center but also it might be bringing more people and maybe press more on the map  warren committee and tammany member precinct six i wanted to say what mr pilot just said that c p a money is about to be used for private property private projects within the word committee this issue as you another cultural center or were even if there was another cultural center this is a resource where they are putting in a significant amount of their own money i think the speaker misspoke at the end it's not one hundred twenty five thousand dollars it's twenty five thousand dollars so it's about third of a tennis court and the organization itself is contributing about ten thousand dollars and the result is that we'll have a little museum and and all sorts of small but potentially valuable cultural advantages and it doesn't obligate us in any way to do anything similar in the future and even if there was another cultural organization that came down the line if the if the president is that we're willing to stake twenty five thousand dollars for an unusual cultural opportunity i think that's actually money was totally within the bounds for c p i this is not some we're not building some gigantic project this is actually something quite private organization it's that it's a private organization that is a regional private organization and happens to have their headquarters in belmont it's it if they could have their headquarters any place in new england and so i agree with the comments of mr frenzy essentially and i i do think this sets a precedent i don't mean to disagree with  think i think it sets a president but not about the private that a private organization can apply but it's the nature of the organisation which is regional organization that coincidentally has its  headquarters here and that it doesn't quite have the connection to belmont although the presentation emphasizes that it really isn't a belmont organisation particularly so a little i think this is a very rich wonderful use of historic preservation i worked very hard on getting c p a passed in this community took a long time and we have it and i think all of its aspects and richie belmont making it better and this is example that i really do support while i was initially very sympathetic to the view that this is a private organization seeking public money i am also struck by the fact that the source of funding seems to have greatly influenced the presentation of the project and their efforts to make the facilities available to the public and to belmont and  i guess i find myself more in support for that reason because it does seem to me that the source of the money being public money has influenced the organization to do a lot of outreach to belmont and to bring forth resources about immigration which of course in these times there is sorely needed thank you quali precinct eight member of the warrant committee i'm a supporter of this investment initially i i had many of the kinds of questions that have been raised about it about its appropriateness about its value to the town but overall i think i think my assessment is that this is an important cultural institution it's an important resource for the town and we can only benefit from what in essence is a very very small investment so i'd urge or support  motion is adopted taxpayers twelve thousand one hundred dollars a year just thought it would pass that on the thirty five thousand be appropriated from the budget budgeted reserve of community preservation fund for the grocery part integration working paths light pla you good evening i'm donna ruffalo i am a town meeting member in precinct seven and a member of the friends of group street park thank you for your consideration of the proposal for a site plan to make grove street the town's largest sports field and park a more accessible welcoming inverting destination for belmont residents in twenty fourteen the board of selectmen approved funds for a master plan for the park and in two thousand and fifteen professional landscape architect firm us presented their designs at public meetings following these meetings a group of belmont neighbors and residents came together to form the friends of grove street park with charge of reviewing the various options and to prioritize the most critical and sustainable elements for potential c p a funding next slide please go back so this is us is option one as you can see the plan maintains the high used sports fields and the current playground next slide please in reviewing all of the elements between the current conditions and the activity plan the friends group identified the limited and accessibility of the park as the biggest concerns and i'm just going to move to the next slide you can see some of these in action you can see in some of the in in the photos on the screen that it's very difficult to enter the park with a wheelchair or a stroller or even with a cane or a walking impairment point to the upper left hand corner that is it's foster sorry foster it is the erosion is continuously at the between the trees and the erosion it's it's pretty rough but there is also limited access ability in the park there is one small path by the by the playground but in addition to the small to the limited pathways there's not even a sidewalk around the park except for on the busy grove street side it's just very difficult to get in and out of the park and the other the other issue is if you look in the upper left hand corner that's the fields and of course most much of the park is sports fields which will be maintained but there is very limited landscaping in the park and there's limited landscaping and limiting shade for both visitors and sports spectators and in fact if huge trees have combusted in prepay in recent years so there's even less shade than previous and virtually no seating areas besides a few police chairs i'm going to turn the presentation over to my thank you donna steve pinkerton tell me to remember precinct seven and a group three park neighbor to address the issues donna just outlined the activity to us master plan to laid out an extensive network of asphalt paths and seating plazas an exercise station and landscaping but acting on neighborhood consensus friends or groups to park or proposing to develop an intergenerational path but tonight proposing to develop a construction plan for a simple  simpler more affordable and more sustainable path what we envision is something that would be made of crust stone crust aggregate similar to the one approved last year for  site plan to also include landscaping in seating along the way and the result will provide a clearly defined under strict access to the park and enhanced connections to all the activities within the park it's very difficult to even get across the park  from from one end to the other with a say with a child stroller to the top lot you have to go all the way around it's a several block walk to get there if you're going to do it on paved surface this is with parents with strollers and seniors with walkers etc so next line so the action plan here is basically tonight we're asking town meeting to approve thirty five thousand and c p a funds to pay for the construction site plan and if it's approved the town will engage a professional design firm to develop the plan within foot from all the stakeholders including the rectory mission school department youth sports and the neighborhood if all goes well will apply for c p a construction for next fall and will be back for stan instanced and tami member precinct three i haven't followed this closely mr moderator i just want to be sure that i understand we appropriated money for a  comprehensive assessment of and planned for at the grocery playground we hired a firm called activity they delivered a plan we didn't like that we're now that's not the appropriate another thirty five thousand for that i guess i'm asking for that's the impression that i'm getting from i'm sorry correct please it's not correct we accepted option one there was  considerable discussion about option want to mung the neighbors but we have been working very hard to get to a consensus about which elements of the overall master plan would be could be implemented under at c funding other elements include replacing the fencing that's a capital budget process repairing the tennis court which you proved earlier tonight there are elements for use in youth baseball involved we don't i mean you baseball can address those plan from it active task that had a lot of elements but it's not a blueprint that we could hand to a b c construction firm to come in and say this is where the grading needs to be this is exactly where the path needs to be activists toss this plan was it over of the it but it was not a site planned and i'm slurring all of this is well got you so these are designed we go back to previous so this is this plan which is what we are asking for the funding for was and was developed on steve's computer but it reflects exercise of course is to determine what the cost will be and to filter through all the options but ballpark figure based on octave you tell us numbers sort of adjusted since we're not looking at asphalt paving and  stone wall features is say three fifty to four hundred thousand that's a very rough estimate at this point yes ma'am catherine bond precinct for time remember i just have to voice concern paying paving and installing these gravel paths which you know i would think would be really valuable but when i look at areas like these that have a lot of uninterrupted sidewalk and are very acce why are we taking away green space particularly on playing fields with these kinds of i appreciate intergenerational walking past the accessibility and i've observed wheelchair users in our own neighborhood and the fields are about the  clear as a group and we were very diverse group of neighbors that came to the table was to preserve open space so this is the lowest common denominator of baking the park more accessible and making it compliant and i will say that it there is no there's very few bells and whistles in our proposal we are looking to make the park accessible to for example grandparents who have to sit in their car to watch a little league game people who you know my elderly mom can't get into the park and what we want to do is to make the park accessible more people but absolutely preserving the concept of open space just a related question for those people trying to get into the park yes can you say we're going to the microphone is sure to getting getting into the park so not part of the c p a grant i just add one comment of caution p q we've had gravel dumped in the entrance ways and the gravel migrates really quickly our whole fields now are covered with these big rocks member i'm just have a little bit of a concern that as you're talking about it i'm not against doing the parks and it all but just seems a little excessive to go through you know  study plan and then have an estimated ballpark of maybe four hundred thousand dollars to read we do that so we can hear you say we got to the park i as someone suggested when you're talking about a walking park with an open field a sports field and as a woman said i agree with her about the open space but the other part of that is coming from precinct four at p q par they've been doing quite a bit they wanted to redo the park but it's been a month the neighborhood you know there was a website and you know bring your own ideas and it's pretty much all done within the residents of the area so i just find it to be a little bit of you know excessive to put all that effort into something like an awful lot of money i think that could be spent well in other areas of the skating rink is an eyesore i mean it's a problem and that's always last on the list where you know i don't think i don't i just feel that it's excessive i don't like to say i'm not against we doing it making and it says will for people i think that's very important but  goes on just to address some of that we actually at the c p see insist that people go and get proper construction documents and so that they can go get proper beds it's an important part of the process we don't want to happen as are planning process in fact you'll hear later about another group that we asked to go go back and come up with a planning proposal first so i think it's actually important to do that and i will also  support what i've done and steve been saying the park really isn't accessible right now it should be the reason they can't put that in their c p a proposal is things like street paving parking these things can't be addressed under c p a funding highly in support of it i believe that we have a lot of recreational assets in the town that over the years have not gotten the attention that they need to be maintained or to be restored and so we have been using our c p a funds over the course the years in order to repair and restore a lot of these facilities joeys park the butler playground we have a proposal tonight for p q park and i think that the grove street park is another one we have invested in a master plan i think this is the next step in moving that forward and i think it's really important that we that we use the c p a funds to take care of these problems all over town and not just pick and choose which ones that we're going to focus on we have vested last year we dedicated money to do a walking path around clay pit pond this is very similar although in deadlock at precinct seven and neighbor of the grove street park i stand in support this this plan and the appropriation of this money for a couple of reasons  the first is that for many of us with parents young children of all ages and all abilities this is a really really busy athletic complex that many people cannot go and enjoy their family members in their great fine years to watch them and and it's complicated with some erosion some basic just upkeep and we are not compliant we're not compliant for this park and that's really complicated and we've done some other work in this park before where we haven't really paid attention to it where we should have so we really do need to pay attention to that  the second point on this is that as time has gone by it has become unclear whether it we are maintaining a certain percentage of open space or if it's really going down the path of you know eighty five percent of this open space now is all for athletics by not being able to come and go very easily then the open space is really diminished while we allow for a path to walk on we actually are increasing our open space for all users and so i wanted to make sure that everybody understood also those points thank you thank you any further discussion motion saying no park i will keep my comments brief so we can hopefully get a vote in before the night's out in front of this board this time last year requesting twenty five thousand dollars for p q park and that money was used to hire design firm that the firm developed construction documents and also held a robust public outreach process getting input from neighbors users p w we developed an r f p to hire the designer and shepherded that process through to a final design plan much to what grocery will be doing now with their pa the plan really replaces old and decrepit playground equipment at p q park it's been in place since the one nine hundred ninety s there's also been drainage problems at the at the playground area especially  this project will address those drainage issues so i had shade trees to the to the area picnic benches just make it a more inviting space it will expand there's a small tr park now much beloved but it will expand that tract that was a big put point by the neighbors to have more walking paths and not just for for a try schools but also  for more of an intergenerational path so that has been added to the design as well the project cost for construction is six hundred fifty thousand dollars we are requesting six hundred fifteen thousand dollars tonight the friends of p q park is how we will raise thirty five thousand dollars we have we are in the process incorporating as a five a one c three and we are collecting donations as we start that process but in our meetings with the c p c that was part of the requirement of the approval that we be able to fundraise for a portion of the project on our own so without open realizing that this is my forty first spring town meeting here the children three children who were dedicated to the high school with the rest of the town are now in their late forty's in mid fifty's i am a member of the historic district commission and the traffic advisory committee and serving there realize that this is really a historic asset for the town i won't go into a lot of it but over the years it has been used for many purposes even a town carnival used to come in or year by year to entertain the folks who lived nearby or who could come there as a traffic advisory committee member i am well aware of the neighborhood it is full of busy streets and indorsed and closed by the area north of belmont street and south of propel the road from cushing square to waverly square the area predominately two family homes densely populated with smaller yards than in most areas of the town it's heavily used for recreational green space that serves a wide demographic and it's a multicultural international area the new plan better utilizes the current space that children use for play and includes areas where older folks can also use various machinery that is there for walking jogging biking and scootering which will only get better when the park is up and running i'm very pleased with the design of the project and particularly impressed that the consulting firm listened to input from the entire community and considered the needs of seniors while it will be great to have new play space for the children it will also be wonderful to have walking spaces outdoor exercise equipment for those of us who are no longer children so i urge your vote on this it will be a wonderful place to kind of round out all the things that we're planning on for the town why in the parks and recreation area thank you mister preston i'm wondering if someone did the gentleman who made the presentation or someone else could describe the fund raising for this park and compare it to the fund raising for butler and for jellies park and maybe what those differences forming ourselves as a for a one c three and we are in the process of starting a fund raising really we're in the initial stages now we have five or six hundred dollars right now and we've  we've actually been in contact with auto weiss who is with toll brothers doing the cushions where development so we're hoping to have them as a source as well so like i said we're in the initial fund i've spoken with fund raisers from some of the other parks and trying to get a  and help with the fundraising that they're doing and make sure that they can learn from what has come before the other thing i wanted to say is that the c p a was brand new when we did joey's park we got one of the grants in the very first year of it so the whole experience was very different but the playground was the year before that and so the bulk of the but the playground was built without c p a funds the phase two came in and got some money from the c p a so the whole  environment that we came into was the assumption was that we were raising all of the money and the c p a did actually add to that but now we have the c p a to help with projects like this thank you i'll take these  comments and then we're going to your vote or reconvene monday yes catherine bowen precinct four i'm going to bother to this park project so it impacts me directly i provided the pictures of the flooding regularly floods my question is if we get donors to raise money what is the commitment to taking care of a project that's partially c p a funded partially private and what's the commitment on the part of the town and social contracts are sort of a hot topic so i'd like to know it that was it forty five fifty five thousand dollars that's going to go towards a portion of the project is still is still going to be the town property townhouse that they would have the main thing if you have one other question i have another one question is is the design final is there any changes i mean that's possible this point the design is final it's just got to go out a bit for construction so i just want to add one comment that i feel like many of the issues we had q park were simply to do with maintenance and i know there's has been concerns over c p a funds that they get used for this kind of a larger scale project when really if we were maintaining things and considering our parks in a more holistic way in an ongoing manner we wouldn't be doing these heavy price type projects so i just need to put that out there for the record because i certainly was a neighbor asking for trees and simple meat and tissues thank you  with a lot of help from constituencies from schools that the p q park doesn't have those constituencies so i think that it's unfair to compare the two so i support this project and i hope that other