i'd like to call the second resume session of the two thousand and fifteen annual town meeting of the town of belmont to water let's rise for the pledge turning to the logistics in addition to the committees and individuals i mentioned on monday night and like to admit to the floor of the community preservation committee margaret the lee j moore market kevin ryan susan smart kathleen kohain emilio morrow donna hamilton the presenters of the c p a articles emotions library new director assistant director the belmont housing trust is there anybody else that i have missed who requests and mission to the floor i've covered the superintendent and school committee and so forth the other night thank you if a newly you re elected member of town meeting a real liked and member our newly elected member was not able to be here monday could he or she they rise for the oath of office if there is any one saying none will proceed in terms of the rules just to remind people five minutes max a mum one question and a follow up question reconsideration of article not mine that will be done you'll see in the order of articles that it's listed after one and eight for june but we haven't determined w in the june meeting that would take place we haven't determined the sequence of articles for the june meeting had we'll be having prepared tory meeting next week to do that but it will be considered the reconsideration at one of the june meetings and to remind you it's june one three eight and ten i do think it's likely will need three nights i hope we won't need four yes rachel berger precinct two i almost hate to ask this question but if for reconsidering the motion does it mean that it's part of that next june meeting so we still can add amendments to that but their base amendments still so no no because the reconsideration is a motion unto itself so no there wouldn't be any to the opportunity to add amendments the other item i wanted to come back to from monday night and i've heard from a number of you and helen as well and others and i guess it's fair to say i was just as stunned as many of you were that we ended up reciting the lord's prayer we have a very careful process here we invite on a rotating basis local clergy from all faiths to come and give the invocation and were very careful in the instructions to them that it be secular and non denominational clergyman we did not even know that he was coming because we had made the arrangements with the first individual and so as a result he had not read received the instructions so i think that we can say pretty much and it's certainly important that that was the exception and that this will not happen again and it certainly hope it won't happen again the issue of course is not the lord's prayer it's a beautiful prayer as our prayers of all religions the issue is a separation of church and state and that's a hallowed principle of our american democracy and american constitution and so it's absolutely critical that we adhere to that and i just want to reassure everybody that we believe strongly in the separation of church and state and the constitutional guarantees and we will continue to adhere to that so thank you good evening hi ellen o'brien cushman town clerk due here by certify that i gave notice of the adjourned session of the annual town meeting held monday may fourth two thousand and fifteen by posting in a tested copy of a notice of injury adjournment on the town court's official bulletin board in the town hall and at least five other places in town giving notice that the annual town meeting had not been completed had been adjourned to meet again today wednesday may sixth two thousand and fifteen at the belmont high school auditorium at seven pm briefly stating the business to be acted upon all in accordance with the representative town meeting acts of one nine hundred twenty six as amended and section thirty dash one one zero c of the general bylaws of the town of belmont thank you on it is now it's become customary over the last three or four years for us to recognize long serving town meeting members who have stepped down long serving as a nine years or more so tonight i would like to recognize those individuals we can put their names up on the on the slide maria murphy and the honor for the longest and swift twenty nine years so those of you who are being honored who are here today could you stand mr leavitt and your associates thank you so much for allowing us to do this brief presentation will be ten minutes or less i promise i want to dedicate this first to two people who recently passed away two conservationists in the town of belmont on whose shoulders we stand and alan and dick's campbell they were both tremendous conservationists who spent many decades helping to make this town in as green and beautiful as it is also want to thank the many many sponsors of the waverly trail who have made this presentation possible the belmont land trust the belmont savings bank has to stephanie brothers dozens of others i jump in private citizens and local businesses who have helped to fund the trail and want to make it clear that we received no public funds to build the trail the entire thing has been done charitably and we are tremendously proud of the opportunity that you gave us to do so we're here tonight to tell retell a very brief story you can get the longer version on the waverly trail itself it's a story that several of you have heard before and which is being told again to every second grader in belmont so that they have a chance to understand that history was made by here in this town history that has had an impact believe it or not in more than one hundred countries around the world that is that a grove of beautiful oak trees that grew on the moraine just beyond what is today the spray park inspired a young man named charles elliot to propose the creation of the world's first land trust and the nation's first metropolitan parks commission it's that story that we tell of the children of belmont to have them understand that for one hundred twenty years there have been stewards of that open space that have made it available to them and that they may want to have that responsibility themselves we want to recognize the trail tonight because we have enjoyed recently a special recognition the united states department of interior represented by the  and the united states national park service represented by john jarvis who is a wrecker have recognized the waverley trail as a national recreation trail that's a special designation given to community trails of national significance with this designation we join a very special club that includes the freedom trail in downtown boston accordingly when the sidewalks are finished entre polo road we will install these brass medallions next to the plaques that already stand there so that the children and adults who travel the trail well understand that this is something of special significance now to share this story with you tonight we have some people who represent a cross section of belmont let me quickly tell you who they are hannah jacoby a second grader at the wynn brook school representing the second graders who traversed the trail her teacher jean grae across carol moyles a member of the board of the belmont land trust nathan white the operations my manager at city side subaru who was very generous in supporting the construction of the trail as were many other businesses in boma paul moscow a member of the belmont d p w highway division who very carefully very artfully painted that beautiful green line on the sidewalk which will reappear when we get our sidewalks back  who you all know former selectman an original member of the waverly trail advisory committee of the belmont land trust that's the official sponsor of the trail and ron geiger a member of town meeting who is the chief guide of the waverly trail he's in charge of the group of people who are taking all the second graders down the trail this weekend and two weeks in belmont so with no further ado hannah will read to you from of matter an editorial pardon me come on up written in the magazine garden and forest on february nineteenth eight hundred ninety and then she will the age of which these trees have attained and the vicissitudes they have survived entitle them to respect and the people of massachusetts might eisley secure their preservation through the purchase and dedication to public use of the land on which they  stand thank you so in reply to this editorial that suggested that we might act to preserve this beautiful piece of open space with these gorgeous oak trees charles elliott who happened to be the son of the president of harvard wrote this letter in reply in the march fifth edition eight hundred ninety of garden in forest sir your recent editorial on the waverley oaks prompts me to lay before you an imperfect outline of a scheme by which not only the scene at waverley oaks but others of finest bits of natural scenery near boston might perhaps be saved to delight future generations might be attained by an incorporated association composed of citizens of all boston towns and empowered by state to hold small and well distributed parcels of land free from tax lovely natural scenery supplies and education of the love of beauty and the means of human enjoyment at least as valuable as that afforded by pictures and cast as boston's lovers of art united to found the art museum so her lovers of nature should now rally to preserve for themselves and for all pinball as many as possible of these scenes at natural beauty which by great good fortune still exist near their doors now as a result of these editorials the state chartered the trustees of reservations in eight hundred ninety one and the metropolitan parks commission in one thousand nine hundred two and it is because of the foresight of these people more than one hundred twenty years ago that our kids can go to the spray park and enjoy themselves in the summer and the dogs can run in the park and we can enjoy the one surviving waverly oak that we use today so with that i want to introduce nancy nelson nancy is the superintendent of the minuteman national historic park in lexington and concord and she will present the certificate that we were sent by the department of interior to the town you jim have to show the hat it gives me a great deal of pride to be presenting representing the national park service tonight as we present this certificate it's also very special for me you to be able to remind all of you that next year in two thousand and sixteen the national park service will be celebrating one hundred years  stewardship on behalf of the american people so we hope to see you in your national parks next year and all of us this is a particularly important and historic trail which is being commemorated it  represents the birth of the land trust movement about one hundred twenty five years ago the land trust movement which has protected nearly fifty million acres of open space during its history in the united states is a critical important partner with the public sector in the conservation work of the twenty first century as a matter of fact in this century public private civic and academic sectors must collaborate if we are to pass on our heritage to future generations i understand that most of the second graders in belmont will have the opportunity to walk the waverley trail spring to learn of this wonderful heritage as well as of their responsibility as story it's on behalf of future generations we depend on these kids for their future so i'd like to present my congratulations to all of you tonight for building this wonderful three quarter mile national recreation trail in your town and in the adjacent town of  here by designates the waverley trail as a national recreation trail in the national trail system is signed by the secretary of the department of the interior and john charges director of the national park service so ok thank you nancy thank you jim as chair of the board of selectmen on behalf of the board of selectmen this town meeting and the residents of belmont you know i want to thank the belmont land trust and the waverly trail advisory i myself grew up in waverly and i actually played among the waverly all costs and swam at the waverly also it was then a kiddie pool now it's a spray pool but at the time it was a kid so this this recognition and award is especially meaningful to me that's all i wanted to say thank you all thank you jim and thank you nancy well now turn to the order of the articles mr baghdadi do you want to read the motion on the order of the articles sammy baghdad a chair of the board of selectmen moved that the town meeting here the motions in the following order one eight article nine reconsideration ten eleven twelve thirteen fourteen fifteen sixteen seventeen eighteen nineteen twenty twenty one twenty two twenty three and twenty four motion be taken from the table all in favor please say i oppose no saddam did and at this point i would like to introduce him palmer general manager of the belmont in the spotlight department for an update on the substation mr palmer hello my name is jim palmer and the general manager for belmont light i'm here tonight to give you an update on the progress of the belmont substation transmission line project as you may recall the reasons go light is doing this project that we have maxed out on capacity will be unable to meet our future electrical needs we have an aging infrastructure has become expensive to maintain and repair and we have public quality issues associated with our  grid connection it alway after months of discussion research analysis and projections delmon light every source i saw in new england and d p you all agree the most efficient least costly solution is the construction of a new substation a new one fifteen transmission line to service belmont the decades to come in of course he recall that this town meeting in february two thousand and twelve approve fifty three point seven million dollars bonding to complete this project see but when you do a great job as you see by the slide tremendous progress has been made and we are well on our way to a new dependable power supply for the town of belmont as you see the percentage of effort at this stage of the project all permanent is ninety five percent complete all engineering is ninety percent complete all contracts and to kill me is eight percent complete completed and construction which is just getting underway is ten percent completed and that report that with all this progress the original  sixteen is still achievable while most of the general project areas have a very high percentage of completion as i just showed you the following are just some of many specific steps have been taken and project tasks that have been completed not going to read all of them but you can you can take a look as it's quite a few check boxes there are a lot of accomplishments and fact a substation building contractor has mobilized their operations and will be staging some equipment on site this week and once they get their final permit signed off from the town to those dock instruction which we expect probably sometime by june with all that's been accomplished to date be a poised to move forward full speed into construction of the project transmission like destruction contract has been advertised in his schedule to be wanted in july of this year substation electrical contract installation of watchable components as opposed to the construction of the substation building all the interior build out if you will for the transformers and switch gears such will be a water in september of this year on a substation construction will be completed in december of two thousand and fifteen the transmission line if a structure construction will be completed the first quarter of two thousand and sixteen a transmission line installation and testing is scheduled for the second quarter of two thousand sixteen in the commercial operation date is holding at june of two thousand and sixteen how we doing on budget two thousand and thirteen we took a long term bond in the amount of twenty six point one million in april of two thousand and fifteen just a week ago we took a shot term tax with the amount of twenty six point four million to date we've spent seventeen million which is approximately a third of the bonding limit we do not expect to exceed the approved fifty three point seven million dollar are still a little year away from completion of this critical project and while so much is already been accomplished and completed of course there are the challenges ahead we must be mindful of these outstanding challenges include managing several complex construction contracts we also must coordinate with the n p t and commuter rail operations for property access and logistics along the fitchburg commuter rail and as on any large project there remains a significant amount of extra in a stakeholder inter facing and coordination for which we control but one side of the equation so in summary i'm happy to report that the belmont substation transmission line product is on schedule so on budget and the commercial operation date remains summer of two thousand and sixteen i'd like to take this opportunity as i conclude to thank all the belmont light employees board members committee members town officials tom chloe's in town meeting members both past and present that contributed to the success of this project come next summer the town of belmont will be well position for an efficient and adequate power supply for the next generation  unanimously well now we have a brief recess for the special town meeting at which will consider two articles but first i'd like to have a step if you have your electronic devices could we just do in attendance check as we did last monday night just press either one or two and hold until you see the green light on your device and  i mean if you press the device in your name is not there then but is now all right thank you glenn i will now move to our special town meeting called the special town meeting of may sixth two thousand and fifteen two order and then mr today may six two thousand and fifteen i l n o brian cushman town clerk due here by certify that i gave notice of said meeting and by posting in a tested copy of the warrant on the town clerk's official boughten board in the town hall and at least five other places in town fourteen days before the meeting the date of this meeting in accordance with chapter thirty nine section ten of the general laws and section thirty dash one one zero a of the general bylaws of the town of belmont furthermore i do hereby certify that i gave notice of the special town meeting of may sixth two thousand and fifteen by causing a copy of the warrant to be sent to town meeting members at least fourteen days before the date of this meeting and by causing copies of the warrant to be made available at the public library and the town clerk's office all in accordance with section thirty dash one one zero b of the general bylaws of the town of belmont and the representative town meeting acts of nine hundred twenty six as amended thank you ice deficit to meet this transfer seven hundred forty thousand be transferred from free cash to set forth under article one in the warrant for this meeting is moderate it obviously is for the historic winter but the time machine thousand and fifteen snowfall amount exceeded over one hundred inches with this extraordinary snow fall came increased cost in fiscal fifteen six hundred five thousand dollars was budgeted for snow removal the final cost for the season was one million three hundred fifty three thousand leaving a shortfall seven hundred forty eight thousand dollars we are requesting a transfer from free cash to cover the shortfall as illustrated on the slide behind me there are there are available resources from free cash to cover this appropriation ok it should be noted that our the first storm that we experience the blizzard that occurred at the end of january has received federal disaster declaration from the president and the related storm costs are eligible for federal reimbursement this reimbursement will come in the tune of seventy five percent and is estimated to yield the reimbursement to the town of between two hundred fifty thousand and two hundred seventy five thousand we attended a meeting this week to review the process of filing our reimbursement requests with fema and forms will be submitted by the town by the middle of may however it is unlikely that the time will receive reimbursement prior to the close of the fiscal year which is why we are questioning the full amount of the shortfall of seven hundred forty eight thousand dollars if funds are received prior to june thirtieth the reimbursement revenue will fall to cash we respectfully request your support for this article thank you ms koch i'm just a moderator is it within the scope to just ask for a quick report on how the town handled the sidewalk by  during the storm what it was like for our residents and whether there was compliance or not very brief response that is on to this question generally a compliance was very good we did do in forcemeat this year and the number of overall citations that were issued which i think were over one hundred last year was down in this fiscal year in generally the compliance was good and he further discussion saying now on all those in favor please say  mister laurie slap a member of precinct six and chair of the belmont school committee article to transfer for a special education stabilization fund two hundred fifty thousand dollars moot that the town transfer the sum of two hundred fifty thousand dollars in a special education stabilization to the school general fund budget as set forth under article two in the warrant for this meeting and it is this requires a two thirds vote and you have a presentation ye will recall three years ago in may of two thousand and twelve the town meeting passed the article behind me article five of the special town meeting move that the town approved pursuant to section five b of chapter forty of the generalize the creation of a stabilization fund for the purpose of funding special education services as defined by section one of chapter seventy one b of the generalized and to appropriate to said find by transfer from free cash to the sum of two hundred fifty thousand special education expenses especially those that are related to out of district tuition and the corresponding transportation costs the find has not been touched if it was established in two thousand and twelve but this year has truly been an extraordinary here one of the years for which this special ed stabilization fund was created we've seen a large increase in the number of out of district students this year and out of district tuitions and transportation costs in fact even with the very tight toscan cost controls and spending freezes that were implemented mid year and have resulted in approximately four hundred thousand dollars in savings there still remains an overall projected deficit of five hundred thirty five thousand dollars facing the school district fiscal two thousand and fifteen so we're here tonight to request a two hundred fifty thousand dollars withdraw from the sped spent stabilization fund this was sensually deplete the fund and we have submitted a formal request of the warrant reserve fund transfer of the remaining two hundred eighty five thousand dollars and i now asked superintendent failing to provide a few details of the challenges we face this year failing thank you laurie good evening my name is john fail one of the very proud superintendent of the belmore public schools i'm headed to humbler eat request and demonstrate the need that we have seen this year  for the fun transfer in the special education stabilization fund as you can see from the slide behind me we have seen an increase in the amount of students who have needed by law and by our  cost to provide this services outside the district and it increased to ninety seven students this year and just as of last week will go up to ninety eight we have seen that and have the history but the town knows and understands that these costs to our budget line by average about sixty thousand dollars per student in can range from anywhere from sixty five thousand dollars all the way up to almost one hundred fifty thousand per child this graph represents the budgeted in expended amounts in this budget line over the last few school fiscal years and as you can see in the budget and expended line for auditors out of district tuitions that in two thousand and twelve thirteen in fourteenth we were within range to be able to support the expended funds beyond our budget means in charlie in the school budget however there was a substantial increase in that budget line item fiscal fifteen the corresponding effect of having students leave the district for their services means that they have to be transported so when we look at the next slide we see that we have also had an increase understandably in how we transport our students in the costs related to that so again in several years prior in fiscal twelve thirteen fourteen the funds that were budgeted in expended were in range that we were able to work with within our budget bottom line but the lodger increase in the amount needed this year to be expended has been one in which we were in need of support i would like to make sure that town meeting  respectfully is aware that when we became aware of this deficit in november we came to the warren committee of the board of selectmen in the school committee and demonstrated our first quarter update and show that we were concerned about this projected deficit at the end of quarter two on january twenty first of two thousand and fifteen we gave our update the quarter two to the warrant we did the board of selectmen in the school committee continuing to see despite the fact that we had made some very very real reductions in our costs not filling vacancies not issuing over time not buying supplies that we were still five hundred thousand dollars short and just recently on april twenty ninth we project that deficit by june thirtieth to be five hundred thirty five thousand dollars despite those saving measures the school department respectfully seeks relief to this deficit during fiscal fifteen first of all by making sure that we were true to our expectation of attempting to come in on budget by implementing the reduction measures we did during  fifteen second by seeking this special education transfer of two hundred fifty thousand dollars and as chairman slap pointed out eventually requesting from the warren committee two hundred eighty five thousand dollars whether the superintendent or the chair of the school committee thinks that this is a change in the steady state or circumstances or this represents a kind of fluctuating annual pattern that w and return to the number of special education students that we had just a few years ago as to found sure we consistently see a variation in the amount of students we have during a fiscal year or doing  school year example by just in f y fifteen we have gone from ninety one in september to ninety three up to ninety seven in alaska a year the range of students out of district has gone from eighty three in october  of the fiscal fourteen year down to seventy seven in january but then back up to eighty seven my my professional opinion is that we are seeing an overall aggregate increase in our roman that is above four hundred over the last four years we also see a projected one hundred or so students coming to the district in the next five years and to some degree this is a  corresponding increase in our special education services for those students who are part of that increase in our overall roman combined with the fact that these costs are also mandated by the state but also regulated by the states of the t involved are not set by the district but set by the state in conjunction with some of these school going is asians that provide these services can i ask a follow up mr munder please to to what extent does the school department have any flexibility in making a build versus buy decision meaning put in place additional programs in belmont that would fulfill the needs of these students versus having to send them outside the district at great expense mr failing as a superintendent i would i would very much like to bring students to receive this education outside the belmont boundaries back to belmont public schools to several reasons first of all i would prefer to have the children go to school in their hometown and get on the bus with their neighbors in and play who they play soccer with and come to have their education in the same school the secondary gain would be that there would be a financial advantage so that it may cost more money too in our internal budget for special education costs but just the the transportation alone would be the savings that we would be able to achieve several issues challenges which one is which that we don't have sufficient space at the moment we're actually facing a very serious space situation at all three levels of our school district due to the increase in rome and so if we did have space we would take more actionable steps to bring programs back the second challenge is that when you see cohorts of students who have like needs you can then take that opportunity to make a program and provide that in house and that usually starts with our pre k students  gross through your system so i am very much planning on trying to grow those programs we are testing one hour at the high school next year we will try to do that at the pre k to kindergarten level  hopefully grow programs within to bring that ninety seven down each year as best we can by providing in house services further discussion saying now on all those in favor of the motion under article two please say i was oppose nay the motion is adopted since it doesn't require two thirds let's just take one minute and  make it official by taking an electronic vote and so press one for  to thirty three to eleven the motion is adopted thank you very much thank you very much mr baghdadi a motion to dissolve the special town meeting sammy baghdad article will will reconvene the any old town meeting and will move to article eight community preservation budget and projects and i will introduce margaret  to make a brief present taishan and then we as he's chair of the committee we land will have seven separate most present asians under which of the seven seven separate projects that are being recommended under article eight and will do those one by one they'll be the presentation and then discussion on that particular motion so they'll be seven motions but this is by way of an irish introduction t thank you my name's margaret delia on the chair of the c p c the community preservation committee and this is the third year that the c p c is submitting projects to town meeting fund and tonight we're recommending six projects totaling just over one million dollars two years ago in may of two thousand and thirteen you may recall that town meeting approved nine projects totaling eight hundred seventy two thousand  and joey's park and the next one is the town hall door restoration were two of those projects last year town meeting approved seven projects totaling two point seven million dollars and they included the underwood pool and the wind brookfield renovation and details of all those projects from the last two years are included on the last page of the packet that we sent to you the very last page so just as background for those of you that are new to the c p a the c p a is a state law and it allows towns to establish a local fund mainly to acquire and preserve three things the first is open space and that includes outdoor recreation the second is historic buildings and resources and the third is affordable for community housing to date almost half about forty five percent of the towns in massachusetts have adopted the c p a so belmont c p a has two sources of funds the first is locally generated and that's a surcharge on our property taxes the c p a allows a surcharge of up to three percent and belmont voted for a one point five percent surcharge in november of two thousand and ten and the second a source of money that goes into our fund is the estate generated and those are from real estate transaction fees that are collected at the registry of deeds additionally in the last two years the state has transferred surplus funds from the state budget at the end of its fiscal year to the c p a and is distributed to the towns that have passed the c p a belmont has received a total of just over a million dollars from the state in the last three years so these funds are completely separate from the town's operating and capital budgets the funds can only be spent on those three items open space including outdoor recreation historic resources or community housing so the six projects that you're going to see from here from tonight were all community generated we received a preliminary applications in september and a public meeting was held in november where the sponsors presented their projects seven final applications were received and this year the c p c is recommending six of those projects to town meeting for funding town meeting has the final vote on funding the projects and town meeting can approve or reject each proposal so article eight will take up the projects that we've recommended and floyd harmon the town treasurer and a c p c member will read the motions for each project and then the sponsors will give a brief description and be available for questions thank you thank you  resurface the forecourts this work was originally estimated to be about twelve thousand dollars but due to the conditions the end results was about twenty four thousand dollars this work that the work that was done you can and some minor and abnormalities this type of work typically extends a useful life one to three years but to the conditions the contractor would not guarantee the work because of the compromise s each corps is estimates sixty thousand dollars ten percent for construction contingency and thirty one thousand for design specifications estimated time frame to finish this or could be thirty to sixty or king days and this the estimated expect to see of this asset would be about twenty to twenty five years let me take committee unanimously recommends favorable action in the capital budget committee capital budget committee unanimously recommends favorable action is there any discussion  one being but it's simply cheaper materials for construction but potentially more expensive materials for of the vs more expensive materials for construction and that future reduced maintenance expenses and there is maintenance costs associated with that is just the extended life of the actual asset is all about ten years further out but the upfront cost is from the original quote that they gave us was about ten to twelve percent higher than asphalt so and that was the last year that the upfront cost is it's kind of a balancing act it's not really the jury's out there as to how well your maintenance is and how well you upkeep it opposed to the x the actual length of the project or the asset but so has a decision  is it would be a bit alternate would be something that we put in as a bit also and see what the prices come back as we're not going to know the actual cost of this job and so it goes up it ok thank you thank you mr page jennifer page precinct three i have two questions the first is does this take care of all the tennis courts in town no just for a peek you care for and how many are there altogether altogether there are twenty two years of all courts are they in good condition from my point of view it is already a stretch to call this a open space and it seems to me to be a huge amount of money so i have reservations about this even though i can see that the courts need fixing i think this falls under the c p a as as a recreation yes i understand that is a further discussion town meeting them from freezing to back in one nine hundred seventy i went out with de baets and looked at the tennis courts there were in horrible condition and one by one year by year all the courts with fest and i hope this is the plea and it's going to happen now i'm not only for tennis ladies and gentlemen and for any sport that don one has and town and i think we have to maintain what we have unfortunately jennifer to answer your question it looks like they can't do any more i don't want to see twenty four thousand dollars done every year to paint the fix them let's build it correctly and let up last a while and then we'll have some nice tennis courts so i hope you support it yes or richard hanson creasing five i'm a former competitive tennis player myself going travelling out of state tournaments i learn to play on public or excited to daughters i hope to teach on public courts as well and i i have two questions so i thought through back channels i think they've been answered a little bit but i think would also help the audience here one is we mentioned this takes care for the twenty two courts i'd like you to elucidate a little bit on why these four in particular were chosen might based on location there or whatever mr mark that well it's a different question but yes it's one i think that makes a lot of sense to this might actually be a very tricky question to answer and i haven't and i'm sorry to put whoever answer this on the spot but as far as kind of marginal utility how much money we spend on other recreational activities and the amount of people who use the tennis courts i guess that this is a sport that's fun in my heart but having said that this is a lot of money and that i've seen compared to some of the other activities that we do can we quantify relative to you know baseball or bike trails or whatever or is this per capita ballpark series i understand the question i don't know if anybody hears has information or not if not i'm sure they can get mr car housing open space recreation this particular it falls under the recreation umbrella this is to repair and preserve a tennis court terms of what we spent on recreation i don't know whether we have statistics for you utilization of the various sports i think it's a probably an interesting idea or idea because then we measure up puts and i think we are moving towards programatic budgeting one of the things that we don't do as well as we should not that any community really does it is measure the outputs of the of the the programs that we sponsor so that's an interesting point but need to separate the two one is operating want  yes i understand i had and i understand it's difficult question so i i think i think it's a fair question i think it's an interesting one to think it's one we should consider from a budget perspective i'm each year in conjunction with the warrant committee and school committee we really pride ourselves in trying to enhance and expand what a budget looks like on the budget book study group a number of years ago and i think i'll put in utilization of programs that we sponsor in town is an important fact that we need to continue to tr to look at you know from a c p a perspective all of the recreational sort of activities that happen in the town this is a little bit related but it's more around i don't know if it makes sense you spent two hundred ninety five thousand on a tennis court looking solely at p s u needs reserves as opposed to looking broadly at all the different types of maintenance and upkeep that needs to happen across all of our recreational facilities mr carmen do you want to i course like when tommy number at large good question as part of the financial task force we looked at major building projects one of which was the ice skating rink i think what we need to continue consider chose our recreational assets now we built a new pool which is wonderful right you see it being built by skater it's nice to be replaced we're looking at that from a probably more of a public private partnership perspective and other recreation assets which are fields one of the recommendations within the financial taskforce was to consider from a revenue perspective increase realisation of a recreational assets we're going to take very seriously as a financial taskforce and look at you know the possibilities around that as well so i think within all of that within that context if in fact we try to utilize more recreational assets and they will be doing a mentor in terms of it the capacity capability of each of them that helpful yeah it's just it's around the idea that we spent or ninety five thousand now and then we do some type of comprehensive review of all of our recreational bellies and it turns out our well now we're stuck with these four tennis courts because we've already invested tonight five thousand in them even though from the grand scheme of things maybe it doesn't make sense to have to this court here versus well this probably precinct seven i'm as an avid tennis player and so enjoy playing on the limber course of recently been renovated and also a pro st it's great to play there however it's frustrating when you're playing when you balls through the fence rather than against it back so i guess i would hope that the holes or the fencing would be included in this high number because it's one thing to resurface just the surface but it's another thing to please complete seven i just want to follow up i stand in support of this expenditure and it is a large amount of money and i had to say even as a sort of tennis supporter here in town i had to think about it and i've thought about it and i do stand in support of it i do want to sort of just take a second and and dovetail on what marian scully said earlier when we had some of you may remember the grove street playground tennis courts were slated to be removed and at the time we were looking at the tennis courts and to see if they could be patched and salvage when there was a small group of mostly town meeting members led by a number of people here in the room but we when we met with when we met with the contractors they looked at that this is the grove street course but when they looked at the courts they said that when they were put in in the one nine hundred seventy s marion and you might back me up when they were put it in the seventy's they were well designed and graded and they weren't just slapped in they were good courts and those courts lasted at least grove street lasted until about the mid to thousands let's say two thousand and five so they went in with the thirty year lifespan and they did last for about thirty years and now we're still using them with a twenty four twenty five thousand dollars patch up so i just want us to take a look at that three hundred thousand dollar expenditure which does seem extreme and to just break that out over thirty years with ongoing routine maintenance so it's a big chunk of change right now but i think it's something that our families will use and it is a multigenerational sport and i think it's very important for us to consider that when looking at this large expense and and support this expense thank you park and the tennis courts are enjoyed by the day's school belmont day school and a number of other apparently non residential groups and organizations that are playing on the courts and i'm wondering if there is any opportunity to have some joy and financial obligation as to market art mr kale  became a minister at the war committee meeting where we discussed that we schedule a meeting with some of the outside use to see if we can maybe get some contributions so that's in the works yes sir anthony ferrante town meeting member precinct date a member of the wreck commission i'm also a member of the media preservation committee so as you're probably not surprised to hear i'm in favor of this article if i could just take one minute to make a couple of comments that i think will address a number of the questions commission the commission is of course looking at recreation throughout the town we intend to beef up programs when it comes to using c p c funds for that you have to remember even though we're talking about these broad buckets we're very limited into what aspects of things we can fund for example c p c can't fund a building so if you're talking about hockey for example we can't do anything about that because the tennis court is an open sort of an open space we can do that so any of these projects has to fit within these very tightly defined rules for the c p c as far as the overall tennis uses in town one of the reasons i got up is the recreation commission is going to set up a working group to look at the tennis court utilization and come up with a plan overall i see people in here who are passionate about tennis i personally haven't played in years it would be really helpful to have people who are really into tennis participating is part of that so if you want to do that please see me after this the plan is to determine how many courts we need in this town and over time find a way to way to rebuild them the other aspect of that if you want support for these things we need additional programming and again having people from the community coming coming and helping out with development programming would ensure that and one final comment i'm a huge huge fan of getting outside support for these projects personally as a c b c member i'd like pride projects that have a mix of public and private funding i definitely think we should take a look at who uses the courts and figure out if we can get some private belmore veterans memorial project and botha the board of selectmen board of selectmen unanimously recommends favorable action and the warrant committee the working committee unanimously recommends favorable action capital budget capital budget committee unanimously recommends favorable action and i believe kevin ryan will have a great present asian mr right thank you good evening i'm kevin ryan i'm president of the belmont veterans memorial committee a group dedicated to recognizing fellow belmont's citizens as serve the nation and the armed forces our committee seeks your approval to commit community preservation act funds to restore and preserve the monument the concord street concord avenue and common street dedicated to belmont teens who died in fighting in world war one the great war the existing memorial and try corner of land on which the six accra vied a place for reflection and education each year the town holds a ceremony at the site honor belmont veterans as we approach the one hundredth anniversary of the great war that's in twenty seventeen at least america's entry into it the lessons of this first great conflict of the modern era still important to us but the monument needs cleaning restoration the monuments paint is peeling the stone is stained by carbon from traffic restoring the memorial is a project that preserves what the belmont historical society calls and historic park honoring military service the belmont better and memorial committee has briefed the belmont board of selectmen the school board the community preservation committee  committee and the belmont historical society on the details of the initiative a preliminary estimate that we have arranged for tells us that the restoration and preservation work can be initiated and completed in advance of this year's veterans day in november if the project is approved at this town meeting the total amount of money requested from c p a to restore and preserve the monument is sixty thousand that money would cover items such as removal of paint restoring the restoration playing paver resetting and so on you can see on the chart any costs in excess of the sixty thousand dollars c p a grat would be covered by the veterans committee with private donations any funds remaining after the completion of the restoration work would be returned to the top and we on the veterans memorial committee encourage you to vote yes to use some of the c p a s funding this year to restore preserve this monument to those belmont's citizens who gave their lives almost a hundred years ago for our town of our country thank governor ryan who we did not include in the estimate or the or the discussion with the over stores any plans to get no we did not my understanding is that right now that's done my question is the mr ryan mentioned that if the cost exceeded the estimate that the town would not be responsible for paying at difference and if the cost was lower than the asked of it and the funds would be returned is that a restoration is there a vote of the board of selectmen board of selectmen unanimous unanimously recommends favorable action on the warrant committee the work committee unanimously recommends favorable action in the good evening time awfully short my name is susan smart and i'm here tonight representing the belmont women's club where a five zero one three three all volunteer nonprofit organization here in belmont and we're here tonight to ask for your support for c p a funding for rehabilitation and restoration work on belmont eight hundred fifty three home or house which is located at six sixty one pleasant street our category is historic  may know the house is on the state register of historic places it's on the national register of historic places it's part of the pleasant street historic district and i believe that has potential to be designated as a national historic landmark in the future based on its association with the great american artists winslow homer with of course was a resident of belmont the homer house is one of only two sites nationwide associated with homer that still exist and are open to the public and for the last ninety years just under ninety years it has been largely the mission mission of the woman's club to preserve this belmont landmark tonight we seek your approval for funding for the restoration of the houses tupelo and its three wooden porches all of the work will benefit the safety of visitors which include annual visits by belmont schoolchildren the second graders cultural programs open to the public and five months of educational tours with a winslow homer theme which begin their third season this month with the new exhibit at winslow homer as women we hope you all stop by the proposed work is based on the emergency recommendations as described in the two thousand and thirteen home warehouse building survey investigation by wolf architects boston which was approved by town meeting in the first round of c p a grant funding in two thousand and thirteen after one hundred sixty two years the brick and stucco houses sturdy but its wooden elements are deteriorated badly is the winter of two thousand and fourteen severe weather that brings us back so soon to us to you tonight those storms in wind sent rotted wood britain boards and metal slashing flying off the cooper roof this dangerous situation required an emergency stabilization with a temporary netted bonnet which you can see today driving down pleasant street now the netting prevent additional debris debris from falling but the cooper roof remains vulnerable to the elements and the porches are in terrible condition with two of them completely unusable in summary this project is a critical step in addressing a priority restoration project evidence of community support tonight with your vote would help us lay the foundation for broader support from state private and perhaps even federal funding funding sources and act as seed capital for the house in this regard we hope you will vote to support the house not just for it contribution to the character of development which is considerable not even for its historic significance which is considerable but also with an eye to its potential to attract economic value through cultural tourism winslow homer tourism to belmont and to belmont center in particular as an example of this potential i'd like to tell you about our exciting day yesterday at the homer house when a national television program came to film for four hours and it's they were producing a feature that will be broadcast in the fall the t v crew loved the house they admired its architectural beauty its association with with winslow homer and when i was talking with the t v s host off camera i remarked to him that in  seven the belmont women's club had saved this house from demolition he replied and may i quote from demolition thank god for those dames indeed thank god sees me thank goodness for th that and for the men and women who today are joining as new friends of the home or house and for those of you tonight who come and support us in saving this wonderful landmark thank you for your consideration congratulations on trying to preserve and historic building certainly seems that the need it represents deferred maintenance over the years and i think one of the criteria that the c p a was looking at  to funding projects was ensuring that the funding of those the recipients of those fundings would have adequate funds in order to preserve the investment is there anything about these projects the work that you're doing that increases the amount of maintenance and preventive maintenance that you need to do and if so is there a strategy or source of funds to ensure that the dollars spent now will be adequately maintained miss smart if i understand your question i just want to say that i think it's extraordinary that in one hundred sixty two years basically i believe  there was roofing work that was done in the one nine hundred ninety s you know the house is extremely starting it is these wooden elements that over one hundred sixty two years have have just deteriorated we are hoping that with the rehabilitation of restoration it's going to increase the spaces of the house that can be used for educational purposes and tourism purposes i i guess i can't answer your exact question i don't believe so if you'd like to explain a little further why i'm just wondering if it's spending money now in genders any increase in the maintenance budget in order to maintain and preserve those things that the money is being spent on and if so is there a source of funds for that or are we going to see this money kind of gradually lead to deferred maintenance down the road and a need for additional capital do seems to me that in addition to making a capital investment we ought to ensure that there is an adequate source of money to adequately maintain that capital investment mr polow that when we want to chat about that is can we look for additional ways to raise funds as a tax exempt organization for the same purpose you just discussed i think there's more that we can do with this wonderful jewel in their town i think is underutilized going to think that as a member of the board hopefully i can bring some ideas toward to the board in terms of doing additional things to raise funds through the tax it organization to take care of some of these needs  home to make it more accessible to the community at large and that by fixing these things it makes the home even more desirable to people who do rentals and desirable to things like t v crews historical television networks being willing to come and look at the house and film the house so i can say honestly that this kind of work engender is more funds coming in and eases our efforts to raise the funds to maintain the home on our own is there any further discussion i would just like to miss just to point out that belmont savings bank partnered with us to do the  hoopla and that part of of this project involves ten thousand dollars in private donations that have come in for this project mr white was saying for there is no true that if as i understand to see these young ladies and gentleman could come before us again at another date and ask for maintenance money to maintain what we are giving them money floyd cabin town treasurer every resident of the town a billboard can put forth a project the woman's club could put forth another project the veterans could put forth a to town treasurer and member of the c p a committee for historic preservation projects did that seventy thousand nine hundred twenty three dollars and twenty four cents be appropriated for the favorable action by a vote of eleven to zero with two abstentions and i'll add very briefly that in the case of any c p c project that comes before this body of work me looks at not only the one time impact but whether or not there is any type of ongoing impact i suspect that you may hear this again when the group gets up but it is useful to know that there is an ongoing three thousand dollar cost associated with this investment so that the ongoing hosting of the of the the digitization will cost at three thousand dollars and it's expected to be funded through the library budget so they want to be understood that and voted as a good cup of budget capital budget committee unanimously recommends favorable action as mentioned hall talk a little bit about what we're trying to do y and then and then address some of the cost considerations so in terms of what we're looking to convert the newspapers five newspapers over this fixed period of electronic access and so here is our attempt to move forward into that medium the information is on digital on pardon me on microfilm today we want to move it to electronic media records and here are looking for some in the newspapers for the period from one thousand nine hundred ninety and two thousand and three so a couple of things that might get triggered here are why just this time period these are the records that we have access to that are in public domain would we like to do more than that yes we would but for now we only have access to in this period of time in terms of cost i think as the warren committee noted there is the can total cost of seventeen thousand nine hundred dollars included in that is three thousand dollars for the hosting the first year of these records being online and available ongoing there is a thirty thousand dollar cost for hosting we had to pause about that as well we got over four quotes specifically about this work to digitize index and host and the cost of three thousand dollars was by far in the least expensive that we received we've also done outreach to other libraries in the area and are again finding that the cost that we have is the lowest i know that a lane works in the library industry and can speak to what's happening throughout the library world in terms of electronic media and hosting we belmont is not alone in wanting to digitize its historic  newspapers many towns across the entire country are doing the same thing there are and there's a project that is headquartered actually in boston at the boston public library called the digital public library of america it's been  in action since time twenty twelve when it was created the boston public library has is actually renovating and creating a larger digitization lab to do projects like this so that three thousand dollars a year is really for this year and possibly one or one or two more years at the most our goal is to make it accessible along with other content from other towns in this digital public library where all of this access all of the content rather is accessible to the entire country and the world in fact right now you can go to their website and see pictures of a number of the historic states and  are records there that are available in no place else so it's a collaborative project really across the entire united states to preserve our history in a digital format that can go across the years and so we're basically jumping on the bandwagon to get it done now and to get it done with all the proper standards so that it can be maintained outside of the one or two three years of hosting that we're planning on paying for and it is history it's literally in an old format microfilm is very old technology as most of you know who've done work in libraries and scrolling those microfilm reels that content is not indexed you have to look for it in another kind of index and then go look it up on microphone this will eliminate that issue making all the words accessible and searchable it's really goes to the heart of the meaning of historic preservation and the community preservation act because it's our belmont history that we're preserving thank you mr mercier on a mercy pushing jerry is on is this also going to be put on some h we were able to store ourselves taken off the market from put on a hard disk there might be a time when there's i don't know if when you're digitize this if there's any way for you to keep track of how many of our people access  if as an example if let's say three people a year access this for three thousand dollars and might decide it's not worth worth of that we should have it on a hard disk in our own files from microfilm to the hard disk to the digital miss so yes we will and we will have access to the information it may mean may not be hard desk and might be a newer technology or in a cloud and but we will have access and we'll be able to track you sent an example in winchester where they over the last year they've had over thirty thirty seven thousand i hit on their pages of digitized materials if you decide in the future as costs go up and other things go up and somebody gets the digitized information we would have it that kind of disk with the content on it so in a format that is current and that can be transferred to newer formats as a way of a sort of a second storage component as well as having it digitized in the cloud hosted by an outside vendor when they have it it will be indexed so that you can search it using search terms and free tax further they will keep track of how much access there is how many users as kathy mentioned winchester public library had over thirty thousand access accesses of their stored content so we would be able to have that kind of information and it well as preserving the digitized contents mr mercer of had your of more than two questions so i'm going to turn to michelle for thank you and schaefer penelope schaefer precinct seven i have a two part question let me start by saying i'm very clerk actually we have progressed pretty far we have a couple of surprises that have come up we actually have already done our conservation survey of every single piece within our vaults which was five hundred books i showed it to me a couple  years ago instead of three hundred sixty which we thought we had there were five hundred so when i did my a item a conservation survey has been done we have the full report we had our vaults evaluated by the national the state archive folks and in fact instead of having to use each one of those books to digitize those into images we actually were able to search that kind of crazy archives that the town sometimes has and found microfilm images ourselves that increase and wilson in her great foresight was able to do through in four all of those have been digitized and transferred over into digital images and they are already on a searchable database they are being indexed like these folks are talking about we're talking about hundreds and hundreds of thousands of images so we're actually doing pretty well  expect it done by summer so so is the report that not accurate but it says that you're only a quarter of the way through in terms of remember the volume of what we're talking about after we get done with all the digitizing in the indexing the next thing is to attack each one of those books some of which have iron oxide i guess it is in their ink to preserve each one of those pages and we already know what those are so it's we're just trying to go slowly enough so we're not spending money too quickly and we're doing it thoughtfully but you hope to have it done this summer the first the whole digitizing part yes indeed up through at least one thousand for two thousand yes and then we'll turn towards individual books ok well that's good those and the library is going to do theirs i n a couple of months we have the new director of the library joining us here tonight peter's through narrow and we can make sure and then if we are lucky enough to be awarded this funding that we will move forward very quickly with this project thank you you thank yes i do because you directed through me please mr roberts that i directed through you yes please oh so my final question was on the three thousand dollar component for hosting is that her year three thousand dollars and you mentioned one t thousand is incorporated in the grant after that it will come out of our day our operating budget ok might i just say three thousands when you know at amazon web services you can get a gigabyte of redundant hosting for about one kenny three thousand sounds like a tremendous number and i'm wondering what joe well it's actually the lowest of some of the others that we have the quotes that we got but as i said our our hope is that the boston public libraries teachers ization lab and in there there a hub for the digital public library where i will then take it on and post it as part of that one hundred digitize you could then move it over to boston public library ok that's our that's our expectation it's a changing landscape as is all of technology understood tha mr white joy percent for a comment i would appreciate as a tommy member that we're more traditional in the two question it seems like one side of the floor gets any questions on a number of questions point that we want to preserve this before it turns to dust thanks that's there any further discussion all in favor please say i was opposed now a motion is adopted unanimously mr carm capital budget the capital budget committee unanimously recommends favorable action and mr morrow have a brief presentation thank you thank you mr moderator good evening my name is amelia margin here i'm the president of the belmont historical society i'd like to thank you all for allowing me to be here tonight to discuss our project with you historic site as a five hundred one c three nonprofit organization that is dedicated to preserving delmon history and educating our community about local history we have members in approximate two hundred households within belmont some of whom are here tonight our headquarters is located in the clapham of the belmont public library and we are the owners of the wellington hill station a historic structure that is located on town parkland a two common street in the common street historic district is about wellington station i am here to speak to you tonight in our  we are requesting twenty six thousand three hundred dollars of c p a funding to replace the current roof of the station and a historically responsible manner and we are basing that figure on an estimate from buttonwood renovations this project has been endorsed by several organizations in our community the belmont historic district commission has also endorsed this project and it will be overseen by joe cornish who is the co chair of the commission and has many years of landmark and it is visible to those who travel to and from belmont center using common street in concord have the building can be visually enjoyed by the public and who you the public members of the public who use the town park in which it is located and the garden club uses the land surrounding its walkways for plantings the station is definitely a candidate for historic preservation under the c p c the station was built in eight hundred forty near its current location it first served this a private school it was then moved to the location of the old municipal light department building on concord have it to be used as a railroad station for for many years about the eight the eight hundred fifty two to eight hundred seventy nine before end being moved to the underwood a state where was used as a summer house in an artist's studio studio in one nine hundred seventy four the belmont historical society acquired the wellington station as a gift and restored it the following year one thousand nine hundred eighty the board of selectmen was kind enough to allow us to relocate the station to its current site to allow greater public access to it and to allow it to serve and more public purpose the belmont historical society has maintained the station and we per article open it to the building to the public and it is also available by appointment without cost the wellington station links us to our railroad origins as a town and serves as a museum to those earlier times it has become a much loved and photographed landmark in our town the existing wood roof is reaching the end of its useful life and it is important that we act before the roof deteriorates and threatens the future of the structure if we receive c p a funding tonight we will have the resources to strip the existing roof repair deteriorated roof sheathing boards and install a new new wood six shingle roof we will also replace some of the roofs wooden trim and touch up the exterior paint along the trim his location on public parkland makes the station a great local place for the public to relax and learn about local history the structure is not only important to them on historical society but is important to our community architecturally the station is a rare example of octagonal gothic revival architecture and it is recognised on the state register of historic homes and is eligible for the national register the structures historically intact and its roof is a major part of its architectural style for building the building is a publicly accessible historic and educational resource on public park land and it is a resource that allows us to understand the early history of our town and it is actually stood in the town of longer than there has been a town of belmont which when one chooses to visit our wellington station they can sit and enjoy the scenic views of the belmont center area and visitors can watch the center belmont go about its life and business in the same way that was possible when it was a railroad station in belmont center in the nineteenth century as the wellington station is a historic structure the roof must be repaired in a historically respectful as well as architecturally competent manner this fact makes replacing the roof of the one station more costly than a standard roof replacement would would be as a small nonprofit organization it is difficult for the bomb a historic sidey to raise the money for projects using our own resources i hope that you will vote tonight to assist us in for filling our mission to preserve this historic structure and allow future generations to enjoy this building by supporting the c p c's recommendation to provide us the funding that we will need to complete this project thank you for your consideration and i'll be happy to respond  questions or concert you may have is there any discussion layment will be used in this roof reconstruction so that the integrity of the building isn't dependent on the wooden shingles but there's actually a layer of protection underneath that might also increase the life  come to the microphone yes we'll get an answer to that place and th i'm joe cornish i'm the wellington station master for the historical society there will be an underlayment probably it's called cedar breather and it's a mesh material that will allow air circulation so the will be preserved there will also be ice and water a layer of ice and water shield pit at the lower parts of the roof to help keep water infiltration you had a process question with yes and yes that is when the c p a committee is entertaining applications from private nonprofit organisations does it consider does it put any conditions on those on the application of public funds to those projects and does it consider the financial where with all the financial resources of the one hundred thousand dollars with the quite modest annual budget in relation to that amount of money so this might be a project where they could share part of the the cost and anyway the question for  the c p a committee is whether they'd consider they look into those sorts of factors in deciding whether that something should be recommended for full funding or  floyd common town treasurer that's a good question at this particular project we did not look for shared funding we looked at the over project that fell into the historical preservation the general feeling of the committee was this was a crown jewel of belmont it's a building that all of us hit one time or another touch and feel and pictures taken there so the community  general felt that this was a good project to move forward with as you have a follow up comment and the second yet the you didn't answer the other question whether when public funds are being expended for buildings that are owned by private of course nonprofit organizations does the committee seek to preserve its investment if you like in any way it is trying to answering that question that is always under our consideration we didn't move forward at this time because we were waiting for this body to make a decision whether to approve and not approve you've approved a home a house we will be working with the home a house wanted to rectus along with our town council to come up tomorrow first of all just as a quick follow up to the question that was before that i didn't the the wellington station is on parkland in a historic district so i think that if the town meeting voted tonight to support the replacement of the roof it is a commitment that would be definitely not at risk because we could not move the station off the park land as it's in the historic district of common street  even if at some point it were sold it would not be able to be altered or moved and it would have to continue to be in that park most likely that would be the situation that the historic historic district problem as well potentially to have signage it would have to be carefully explored i'm not sure if joe is the chair of the historic district commission as what signing is signage on a building in the historic district be a place why would you introduce yourself joe cornish from the historic commission and historical society we would need to make sure that the contractor who is doing the work is adequately experienced with historic preservation so there is going to have to be a screening process involved with that we did talk to the north into the street school a while back and it wasn't going to fit into their work schedule to be able to work on this project mr cohen martin cohen precinct three and a past president of the belmont historical society like to make two comments on this one is octagonal building was a fairly rare and should be preserved i know of two others one in newton is or was because i haven't checked recently somewhere off route sixteen and another one somewhat larger because it started life as a tool room school house where the gnome one room schoolhouse is a few miles off the cornell campus in central new york state the other comment i would like to make is that wellington station will be opened for town day and i will be there in costume or a bra and plans are being made to have the wellington station opened on sunday sunday afternoons but the summer if we can manage to find enough  thank you mr cohen on that note are we ready for a vote i think so all those in favor please say i was opposed no motion is adopted thank you more mr c will be out here before eleven for cleary housing projects moved the five hundred twenty two thousand five hundred be appropriated for a lot electrical upgrade project for the balmoral housing authority board of selectmen board of selectmen unanimously recommends favorable action in the warrant committee the work committee unanimously recommends favorable action and the capital budget committee the capital budget committee unanimously recommends favorable action to donna hamilton of the belmont housing authority of the league will have a presentation thank you very much i'm donna hamilton and the director of belmont housing authority where basically here tonight as a continuation of our project that we had for last year which was the interior housing authority requested binding of one hundred sixty five thousand dollars for six buildings their share we are requesting funding for the remaining nineteen buildings and that funding would be five hundred twenty two thousand five hundred dollars the project the basic part of the project would be to replace all the interior wiring electrical panels and some of the g f i eyes since it is the original wiring that was put in the development in one thousand nine hundred forty nine we feel that it's a safety issue and we thank you for your consideration of this project pamphlet that was provided hundred sixty five thousand dollars is appropriated last year it's shown is being zero percent completed and so i guess the question is what's the status hamilton the housing authority right now as part of a preliminary measure to try to address the project before we do all of the units we have taken two apartments offline right now we are advertising for beds the bids will be due actually on may twenty first that will be sort of our trial to see how that project goes he'll give us a basis to know the approximate cost and it will also give us the basis for the work so we are advertising for the first two units now there will be the bits of we do may twenty first and as soon as we have the specifications in the plans are ready we will be also ready to go forward with the remainder of the project mr weiss jack weiss precinct one i asked some questions at the warren committee briefing and i just i think it's worth at least in my mind repeating that in confirming that i had some reservations about this project given the size of it as well as when you aggregate this and the amount of money that we have spent over the last two years it's now a million dollars and that's about twenty five percent of our total c p a investment over the past three years so it's a sizable commitment my concern was twofold and i guess i'd like to just get confirmation of the answers that i heard at the the league of women voters one is the amount of deferred maintenance in these units is water and so is there another project on the horizon after we get on the electric well we've moved to plumbing or lighting or or whatever and secondly instance in removing a relieving the state of their capital funding obligation are we setting a precedent that what we're really doing is subsidizing the state and they'll take capital dollars and put it to some other towns project and the answers that i received illegal in voters and i just like a confirmation our to the first one is no the a committee thinks about electric and the life safety impact of that as fundamentally different than other sorts of deferred maintenance like plumbing and so this is not likely to be the continuation of in endless series of projects and to that the states approach to capital funding for housing projects is basically formulaic and by spending five hundred thousand we're not really depriving our community of the ability to spend money on other projects and i think it's worth getting a confirmation that both of those answers are correct ms hamad yes donna hamilton and those are are both correct the or lose it system where we are required to spend all of the money that were allocated in that given year otherwise we have to return it to the state so we will be using that funding for other projects and the the project that we're questing tonight would be a separate project we also have a number of other projects that the state has worked on over or has given us funding for over the last three years they've given us approximately eight hundred thousand dollars for new groups at sherman gardens waverly oaks and clark lane we have also a project with them right now that's renovating stops at sherman gardens our elderly housing development so this would be a completely separate project from any formula funding that we have right now like you yes ma'am yes norman maserati precinct five two questions please so relative to the phased approach phase one last year phase two this year was the intent to complete phase one this year and take the learnings from that for any adjustments for phase two and if that's the case is it better to proceed with phase one even if it's delayed and delayed phase two to next  year right now the two apartments that we have offline basically will tell us what we need to know so those are our sort of our demo units our trial units if you want to say that but that will give us a it's it's very common for the housing authority to use that approach to do one or two or three or four units so that that way we can essentially look at the specifications again and see if we need to make any other adjustments and that will also give us and a more accurate estimate of what we plan to bed so it's just those two units and then i think we could safely say i would be ready to proceed with all of the rest of the  i i know this may appear like a third question but so is there risk to this five twenty two based on findings from phase one either positive or negative about i don't think it's really a risk i think it's just basically we're forming up what we need to do in phase one so there should be no changes from the phase one to phase two and many of our homes mine included are built before nine more at risk than the average home in belmont or comparable well i would be hard for me to say the average house and the mine but the concern that we had for belmont village was because of wiring was one nine hundred forty nine it's old and brittle so we basically have two concerns one the wiring being all to brittle and two we really need to upgrade the systems to accommodate a lot of appliances and electronics that just weren't available in  forty nine so we have a lot of families right now that are running extra cords and wires and things to try to provide more outlets so that's a problem let me let me raise a here normally we have a break around nine o'clock i was hoping we could we could finish we've got a couple more people here one more motion do we want to hang in there all right fine let's see if we can focus tess all right very quickly mr moderator elizabeth hugh town meeting member precinct two my main concern is for the safety of people who are living in a building with the original sixty two year old  hiring i have friends and family members who live in the veterans projects and i worry about them all the time and i'm really concerned and hope we can get this going muskoka chris coke on time remember precinct eight a year ago you came to us and said that we really needed to do this for safety but here it is a year later and you haven't done anything it's just shocking to me i mean this and when will the two units be done and when the five if we approve the five hundred twenty thousand when do you expect all of the buildings will be done so they'll be safe project one of the issues that we had was if we had done the project in the winter we would have to bring in generators and other things for people because again it's a family housing development to move when have we when really leave people without power so we really didn't want to have to bring in generators we had to essentially come up with a good plan i think that i don't want to speak for the board but i think i can say we would rather have a good plan than precinct three i have a question that i just came up in my mind just looking at the size of this expenditure but the question i have pertains to really all of these these projects and that is  folks that are running the project thank you mr mercier not a mercy precinct hey did you have an employee of the town a licensed master electrician check these back i was electrical so i invest in wiring to a reasonable amount you know i'm all that licensed in that area and that's why i would like to know they mentioned before that we gave you money last year to do some of this work that has been done now you're going to start experimenting with that money plus this money then you're going to start looking testing out a couple yawners i would think that on a license master would go in there and specifically tell you what is not up to code and what what is in the air safety you know if you have a woman wiring in there there's no question in my mind that has to go it was never didn't answer the first question we had actually an engineering pharmac ritchie engineering they came in and looked at the wiring and actually they're the same engineering time the same to sign firm that they've done the plants and specifications for the project on the second question i'm sorry i don't know about the box engineering and master electricians are two different things engineering may be what they'd like to see in a new unit but it may mean when will the two units that are off line right now that are empty when will the work be done on those and is it your goal to do on one thousand buildings by next may yes it is the pits for on our state representative in our state senator to work with the legislator because this is something that's happening in towns across the state of massachusetts where they're having to use fines that could be used towards other things or open spaces more historic  funds in this manner mr begg mr baghdadi sami baghdad the chair of the board of selectmen sylvia the board of selectmen had the same discussion and reached the same conclusion and we are drafting and sending a letter to the state expressing that that concern and if i if i may mr moderator it's it's a hard decision it's a lot of money there are other things we could be using this money on because this is state on property but at the same time this is housing hundred units hundred units for the elderly and disabled that couldn't otherwise afford to live in belmont it's a sector that we really need to you know help and address and although the state should be funding this if there were ever one fire in that complex these are very vulnerable people and it's just not worth that risk so for that reason we voted to recommend approval but at the same time we are going to make our concerns known to the state thank you  correct them grants that we get from the residence from the tenants are basically put into operating reserves and for operating expenses i think i have one of my poor members here who wants to yes please address that identify yourself please my name is gloria lives ago a member of the board of the housing authority a member of the community preservation committee the b h a receives its operating funds for all routine that includes all routine maintenance management salaries admin costs and utilities from two sources one is on the set is resident rents that are fixed at thirty percent of income approx one three percent in income that's about three hundred sixty six dollars on average per month from each resident the state also contributes subsidy of about one hundred and sixty dollars per unit per month so all together chain handles all the operations the routine operations of the three developments for products will be five hundred dollars per unit per month we cannot raise the tenant rents except that because they are set by state regulation at a percentage of their income the state subsidy has been level funded for the last three years and we're hoping as level level funded and not cut going into the new year so that's what we're dealing with in terms of maintaining those three properties thank you so i guess and obvious to the income you receive from that sentence doesn't cover what you need so that's why you come here and ask for absolutely absolutely the state gives us as donna said formula funded capital improvements budget of about two hundred twenty thousand dollars a year for more capital improvements like the roofs we did but really the it's a bare minimum in terms of what they give us for operating money all right thank you mask one more one more mr way thank you if if i if you were on a shortfall and you're in your revenue can you do you request for major maintenance such as this to the state no no no and so you haven't asked them to do what you're asking us to do  actually the what we're asking the town for funding for would not come under our hood team maintenance it would be under something that's considered extraordinary maintenance so th mr white i think we've bought five questions here now or of the board of commissioners the state as we said does give us a fixed amount of money that it's called formula funding for capital improvements this would be a capital improvement it would take over three years that we would have to set aside i understand much unlike most i understand any further discussion saying now on all those in favor place a i was opposed no the motion is adopted we'll now turn to the follow up and follow up a clarification and so forth it's exposes illustrates the problem that we're trying to deal with as a town meeting and we are facing in june a budget with a long list of different departments and then accounts within those departments and then we have a long list of capital projects one by one a truck here and this sort of ambulance there and so forth and then people asking well how long we had to laugh when was the last ambulance and bob block the point is many of these questions not all and he certainly have a right at town meeting to ask questions and some of them relate to important policy issues but i would say at least three quarters of the questions that were asked by town meeting members tonight could have been answered in advance if you either went to the league night or picked up the phone or emailed or whatever and i honestly think as town meeting members out of respect to your fellow town meeting members that if you're going to ask a series of questions that you do your best to get them answered in advance recognizing there will always be some questions that you want to raise and then part of the discussion an idea comes and so will that question didn't get answered so far so that's with a gentleman but i would really urge you all because it's we've got a major we have an override we've got a series of very important questions issues that you're going to vote on in june and i would play with you do take advantage of the league night and the time between now and then to get as many questions you have answered in advance and thank you very much their fifty six thousand two hundred fear perpetrated from fiscal year sixteen estimate of receipts for the administrative expenses and all other necessary proper expenses after budget capital budget to many actually only weighed in on the six individual items up and did not weigh in on this particular course thank you  town meeting members the second item is i reached out to a couple of town leading members to a writing and i'm going to call them precinct meetings like precinct seven or precinct eight  and i will once again say from a c p a perspective if you have those meetings i will be more than happy to attend and answer any questions i attended one last year  belmont is there any discussion on this final motion yes ma'am body feet make precinct three i was wondering if you could just explain why the administrative costs went up about fifty percent compared to last year so mr land and housing inventory study i would like to call on margaret vili she could give you a little bit of an update on what that particular study would be to all of about t market really c p c member and chair so the c p c allows us to put aside five percent towards administrative expenses and that's what we've done every year and then you can see on page thirteen at the bottom so the first year we appropriated fifty four thousand dollars and then we turned back at the very bottom forty two thousand dollars in fiscal year fourteen we appropriated fifty eight thousand dollars and we have the we have the study that year so that year the act itself requires the committee to study the needs of the possibilities and the resources of the town of belmont with respect to actually all three  items open space community housing and historic but the very first year the historic was done under one of our projects if you go to the last page the comprehensive culture resources survey of belmont was funded back in fiscal year fourteen so that covered the historic portion but the open space and community housing portions we had not studied so that's what that's studies in draft form right now but that's what that was for that year and then this past year we appropriated fifty or last year we appropriated fifty six thousand and thirty nine thousand were turned back so we don't spend even though we appropriate the the five percent we don't usually  haven't spent nearly all of it so follow yes sorry i got my notes now i was really actually referring to the administrative salaries which were eighty three hundred thirteen eighty nine hundred  fourteen and then twelve thousand in this year and that's where it went up i thought a little bit more substantially than anything else thanks to carm a lot i can just say as it's gone on it's gotten much more complicated the first year we had no projects so and you know the first then the the next year we had nine projects we had to keep track of the next year we had sixteen projects we have to keep track of so it's getting it's getting more complicated and more time consuming as we go on mr carmen did you want to head thirty months to complete the projects that they do like complete the project the money revert back to the c p a bucket so this isn't a situation where it goes on and on forever thirty months if it please don't forget to turn in your devices when you're late thank you surveyed daddy sammy baghdad e chairman of the board of selectmen moved at the annual town meeting be adjourned and continued to seven pm on june one two thousand