Community Preservation Committee Meeting

Meeting date: 
Thursday, May 14, 2015

Approved 7.9.15

HARWICH Community Preservation Committee Meeting Minutes 

May 14, 2015, at the Harwich Town Hall, Griffin Meeting Room

 

Present: Chairman Bob MacCready, Vice Chair Kathy Green, Dave Purdy, Cindi Maule, Walter Diggs, and Daniel Tworek Absent: Peter de Bakker, Robert Bradley, and Jan Bowers

Guest: Michael Lach, Harwich Conservation Trust

 

Called to order at 7:03 PM by Chair Bob MacCready.  

 

A motion was made by Kathy Green, and seconded to approve the minutes of the March 12, 2015 CPC meeting. 

Vote: 6 Yes.  Motion carried unanimously.

 

A motion was made by Kathy Green, and seconded to approve the Executive Session minutes of the March 12, 2015 CPC meeting.  Vote: 6 Yes. Motion carried unanimously.

 

New Business: 

Michael Lach, Executive Director of the Harwich Conservation Trust thanked the committee for their supporting the Hall property purchase.  This meeting he requested funding to support the Hall property purchase’s state land grant request; a potential of a $327,000 grant, 52% of the purchase price.  The grant process requires multiple steps:

  1. $3,000 for the Compact to prepare the grant application.
  2. $2,000 for grant compliance requirements which includes a management plan among other things.
  3. $5,000 for administration funds
  4. $600 for a required updated land appraisal

The CPC traditionally does not include these additional costs associated with the land grant process in the warrant article of land acquisitions.  In the past these costs have been allocated from the committee’s Admin Fund (from the unrestricted undesignated reserve).  The warrant article does say the town will fund whatever monies are necessary for acquisition costs.  

 

A motion was made by Kathy Green, and seconded to support up to $10,000 from Admin Fund for purposes of the Hall property land grant, to use the Compact for land purchase, the follow-up land grant application, deed transfer, and an updated appraisal.  Vote: 6 Yes. Motion carried unanimously.

 

Post Town Meeting wrap-up:

  • All the CPC supported funding articles passed. 
  • The warrant article wording for the Hall land purchase was changed from the CPC approved formula.  So during town meeting Chairman MacCready had the moderator make the article motion with the correct formula that any funds would be returned to the allocating reserve buckets.  
  • Handler property purchase is currently on hold.

 

Public Hearing Plans: 

  • Discussed how other near-by towns handle their public hearings. Chatham gets public input prior to their town meeting on their proposed projects.  Other towns take in applications now for a fall town meeting vote.
  • CPC agreed to hold the Public Hearing July 9th 6:30 PM, followed by Regular Meeting.
  • The updated CPC Application will soon be posted on the town’s website. 
  • Kathy will email all the board and department heads to announce the public hearing with an RSVP if they are interested in attending.
  • To announce the Public Hearing the committee clerk will request it posted on the town website and send a PSA to the local newspapers, local TV station.
  • The committee will revisit advertising the public hearing with a paid ad.

 

Review of Updated CPC Application: 

  • Kathy emailed copies to the committee for review prior to this meeting.  Corrections were made following committee input.  Completion date benchmark has been changed to three years.  Kathy will email the corrected application to the committee prior to it being posted on town website.

Approved 7.9.15

Page 2

  • Maybe next year the format will be changed to make items stand out more.  Not all submitters enter the required

information.  Last year the committee had planned to return any incomplete applications but didn’t follow through.

 

Old Business:

Follow-up to the outstanding articles’ monies: Chair MacCready went over the general ledger with the town, updating and corrections were made.  The updated figures will soon be provided, and then the CPC will know the corrected reserve amounts.

 

Other:

A motion was made by Cindi Maule, and seconded to pay the committee clerk the submitted March 2.8 hours and the April 2.8 hours. Vote: 6 Yes. Motion carried unanimously.

 

Brooks Academy Museum Commission’s report was provided at the last meeting.  Questions arose concerning if they will spend their allocated funds for the approved town meeting articles projects vs. how they want to spend the funds now.   Vice Chair Kathy Green will again invite Chair Jeremy Gingras to the next CPC meeting to provide clarification. 

 

Recreation Bus Tour is set for Saturday, May 30th.  From this meeting - MacCready, Green, and Tworek plan to attend.

 

Meeting adjourned at 8:15 PM by Chair MacCready.

 

Next Meeting: June 11th, 2015.