Ogunquit Marginal Way Committee Reviews Path Repairs, Approves Protocols

[0:17] Louisa Gillespie: Good afternoon, everyone. This is the Marginal Way Committee meeting for Monday, October the 5th. We're in the Dunaway Center for the first time. And because we have some people on who will be on Zoom, we'll take a roll call of the committee. If our Vice Chair Lane, if you'd start. We'll take alternates as we're going around the table. [0:47] Becky Danner: Becky Danner, first alternate. Amy Pakot, second alternate. Yale Brother, treasurer. Jane Green. [0:54] Louisa Gillespie: member joan griswold chair louisa gillespie member right thank you do we have anybody they're on okay both very good and so we have joining us by zoom we have joyce fletcher and susan driscoll good to see you both hi from a distance thanks for being present the first thing we'll do is approve the minutes from september the 8th and if anyone has any edits changes they would like to make i think i think choice made all the changes that were requested if not i'll have a motion please and to accept The minutes. I'll second. And can we have a hand vote to approve? Thank you for everyone. All right, very good, thank you. These were very good minutes. Thank you, Joyce. Excellent. From Gail, the, your numbers reports, please. [2:04] Becky Danner: What? I don't know that it didn't print out. Yeah, I thought I printed it and I have a new printer. [2:11] Louisa Gillespie: I did not, it's okay, I did not print your, I have those. Oh, do you want those numbers? [2:17] Becky Danner: Well, people counter, I don't think that's what she's asking for. I have, asking for your. [2:22] Louisa Gillespie: Financial numbers, but I don't think, if anybody's got her email, I didn't bring my. [2:29] Becky Danner: I've got my phone, I do have, I don't have my, where I wrote it out, but I do. Okay, all right. Of our $67,400 annual budget, we have used $11,102.99, leaving a balance of $56,297.01. [2:54] Louisa Gillespie: Okay. And in addition to that, we're still, I was hoping that we'd have our liaison with us from the Select Board to ask some questions of, but in lieu of that, and because we have some new rules or procedures they would like us to follow, I will just let you know. And you can approve if you wish to, but it's already been spent. We have the invoices from our groundskeeper from September for $1,560. So I'm not sure whether I need to now have a vote every time we're having an expense that I have no idea. Do we want to start doing that? [3:41] Speaker C (unidentified): Should, just to cover us, because we don't know where they're going with this. [3:44] Louisa Gillespie: All right. So it's already been spent. He has done the work. He has completed all of this. And these are for the five days and the hours that he put in. So if I can have a motion then to approve one thousand five hundred and sixty dollars for work by Mike Allaire on the marginally in September. So moved. Second. And hands showing approval. Thank you very much. OK. Okay. That's something that we'll discuss further on in the meeting. Okay. Gail, the rest of your [4:17] Becky Danner: numbers, please. All right. So volunteer hours for the month of September totaled 241 for dollar value of $9,590. This brings the total hours for 2026 to 1,840 for a dollar value of $76,000. [4:41] Speaker C (unidentified): 208. People counter. Can I just ask you a question? Sure. Do you know what that is in [4:48] Becky Danner: relation to last year? I was just going to say. No, but I can bring that to the next meeting for you. I can actually send it to you so you have it before then, but I can bring the previous years. [4:58] Louisa Gillespie: It almost sounds like a lot already. If you're up to in value $70,000, and this past year we totaled just under a hundred thousand or we came calendar year. Yes. Okay. [5:14] Becky Danner: So we have pod day in here and we have the most worked months. Remember, we're going into where there's going to be less weeding. Right. There's going to be less people out. [5:25] Louisa Gillespie: But then we'll hit again high months in the spring. [5:29] Becky Danner: Well, that's another year. [5:31] Louisa Gillespie: Not until the end of June. [5:33] Becky Danner: No,, no. You had me do this calendar year. [5:36] Louisa Gillespie: Oh, okay. This is your calendar year. Okay. all right fine that's fine yeah so that's what it is it's because we're nearing where it's not [5:43] Becky Danner: going to go up that much higher okay perfect all right that makes sense thank you and the people calendar we were average at 61,073 people passing by the counter and we did have our highest recorded day in this month which was labor day of 4,747 people passing and if I remember in our last meeting Joan mentioned how many people she saw on that particular day and was interested in seeing these numbers and there are only three days in the last nine years that it's gone over 4 000 really yes over 4 000 that's amazing well [6:36] Louisa Gillespie: that was this sunday that peter and i tried to take our own photographs of some of the trouble spots and it was we were being pushed off the path it was that crowded i'd never seen anything like it. So that sort of validates the way we were feeling. And I just want to note that [6:55] Becky Danner: In the past, I always highlighted Labor Day weekend in yellow, but we have two other events that are happening annually that do add traffic to the Marginal Way. One of them is Plein Air, so I marked that in blue, and the other one is Ritz Roost. Now the first two years they had it, in 24 and 25, it was on Labor Day weekend, so I couldn't note that, but that will be noted now in green, and I assume that they realized it's better to not have it Labor Day. [7:30] Louisa Gillespie: So, and that may be just a function of, you know, how they get their homeowners to agree in the time of the year or something like that. Yeah, they're a different section of the town, right? [7:42] Becky Danner: Right, it was a cove. [7:44] Louisa Gillespie: Yes, it was a cove in the southern end of the Marginal Way. [7:47] Becky Danner: A lot of people, I think, still walked to get there and get back. [7:51] Louisa Gillespie: Yeah, all right, I'm glad you're keeping, I like that we keep track and sort of see these different holidays, too, and to see whether it's climbing, no matter what the holiday or event is, if it's growing. Good job, very good, thank you very much for keeping track of all this. All right. I have a fairly brief report because I've been fairly incapacitated for the last month now, so I'm getting a lot of my stuff from hearsay from everybody else, pictures being sent to me and sending out my sort of emissary as Peter to take pictures so that we can see what's going on, but I sent Ben a lot of the new documents, the current documents, so he replaced older ones on the town web page for the Marginal Way Committee so that all of that has been updated. We have since moved over all of the centennial talks were the first thing that you hit when you came onto that page. They have been moved over, there's a column on the left-hand side which only had on it the tree survey, so now all the five talks are on there and we're just, they're staying on permanently so that there have the same links, as soon as they hit the line of the title then the whole little picture blurb comes up and they see and they click on that and they go right into the video, so that's all good, and so we're at least trying to keep all of those documents updated. And then as we update our documents over the next couple of months, those new ones will continue to go up onto the town website. We put in new plantings, I'd say, just over a month ago at Bench 8, which is the first bench north of the lighthouse. And this is the second try of trying to get on this sandy hillside sumacs established there. So in the springtime, we tried the inexpensive way of just having bare-rooted little sticks in the ground. And as soon as we put them in, within two or three weeks, we had a nor'easter, and that took care of them. They pretty much all died off. So then we tried this, and of course, you know, we had, we just finished having a nor'easter. But before that, again, I sent out Peter with Wilt Proof, which is a product that you can put on plants primarily for the winter time, and it gives them a waxy coating and protects them from being burnt or getting too dried out by wind and salt. So he sprayed the sumacs with the Will Proof. And I'll say this, there are dead leaves on them, but for the most part, they are still green, except for the very top row, which got the most wind and the salt. But I am hopeful that maybe by this springtime, they will have survived, and we will give them another coating of Will Proof maybe in November to get them through the winter months too. But I think it did help. Otherwise, I think they would have been goners as well. So we're having trouble with that site because it is so exposed and it just gets smashed by the wind. And there's nothing on it except a sandy hillside. And apparently that is also where I incurred my injury. So that is that Bench 8 is a bit of a disaster. I'm not too happy with that. So we then, the town, the DPW did a first cutting of the grasses. They removed the snow fence in front of the Beach Mirror Hotel. Then they cut, but they only cut part of the hillside. So then Peter and Mike went in and they cut the rest and they really recut the whole hillside to bring it down and neaten it up. And then I had a fence installation taken care of by my committee, and perhaps my vice chair would like to speak to that experience. [12:15] Speaker C (unidentified): Well, there continued on that day to be tons of people also. So every time you bent over, you had to watch out. And we had Amy, myself, my partner Ian, and a house guest Denise, poor house guest, all went and worked on it. We had our drill bits and different size drill bits and hammers and everything else, and we managed to get 21 of the 28 stakes in. And at about 11 I called Joan and said this is impossible, it's all ledge and we can't get in very well. So she called the DPW and they said they would be there after lunch. So we managed to get another bunch in before they got there, and they came and they had a an instrument that is a crowbar with a plunger on the top of it, and all they did was go and they were in. And so in a few minutes they helped us put in the final seven, right. So and then we strung them and everything, it's all nice and tight standing, ending up Amy checked it the other day and it's all still standing and the beach is very grateful, thank you. And it was within the week of taking the fence, the snow fence out, people were walking up and making a path on the hillside, so it was not too soon that we got it in because there would have been no grass left where they were walking, right. But my friend Denise almost beheaded at least six people swinging the bar that we set to measure every 10 feet [13:52] Speaker D (unidentified): They need to get out of the way, I said no, this is the marginal way, you need to get out of the way [13:57] Becky Danner: Anyway it got done. Are you covered by town insurance if anything should happen [14:02] Louisa Gillespie: You know no, we all sign a waiver where nobody's responsible, the town is responsible for any of us who does anything to ourselves. And there were really when we yes when we were [14:15] Speaker C (unidentified): pulling our wagon of the stakes and these stakes are cedar and they're heavy, they were this is a heavy load, they're one and a quarter by one inch. So we started up the little hill and all of a sudden the whole bunch of them as a group slid off and every single visitor that was around immediately turned around and picked them up and put them back in the wagon and helped us get up [14:36] Louisa Gillespie: the hill. So that was nice. Well we are indebted to you and Denise and Annie, yeah, and Amy, well done [14:45] Becky Danner: Well done, yeah. But what would happen if one of them would get injured or if say one of the stakes [14:51] Louisa Gillespie: had hit a person walking on the marginal way. That's a liability. I have no idea. I think it says on the sign walk at your own risk, so we just assume and everybody signs. I mean, I'm pretty sure one time or another, at least the people that have worked on the path, we have all signed a waiver. I may not be current right as of this year, but we've all signed a waiver at one time or another, and in every way that disclaims anything that happens to you, even death. And we [15:23] Speaker C (unidentified): did not hit anybody. She was just walking with it and moving. I'm saying there are people on the [15:28] Becky Danner: revisit that with the town. Well, good try. We'll give it a try. We'll see what I'm, you know, [15:35] Speaker D (unidentified): committee members, we are not. Hey, they do cover you in Wells. They do. How is that? What's the process? [15:43] Louisa Gillespie: Maybe you could bring a copy of, if you have signed something, I think that. And maybe we should now check with some other towns and see what their policies are, because this is, it doesn't matter what happens to you, don't try to sue us because we're not responsible. So I think, and that's the difference, I think. But let's find out. Can you, would you be willing to do that? And maybe even check, could you call up Kenny Bunk, or Kenny Bunk? Well, we have the, a couple of the people from other towns in Mipsy Smipsy, York, and Kenny Bunk. We could ask them. I think we should. That's something we should check on, because you're correct, this, somebody could have just, well, you could have heard a wrist in drilling, you know, you twist when that drill goes and it hits rock. I know, because I've tried it when planting. Yeah, I know you can get injured. I think we need to work on that. [16:52] Becky Danner: Or you could go to somebody else. Right. I think more important than us getting injured is injuring a tourist. All right. Well, we'll work. That's the big thing, is if we're working and we hurt somebody. Okay. [17:08] Speaker C (unidentified): Okay. We try to keep everything up on the hillside. And we pull our wagons to the edge and everything. [17:16] Becky Danner: I'm totally sure. [17:17] Louisa Gillespie: We will now add that to our to-do list. Do list. All right, next, swallow wart. You know that on one, the one morning we collected 540 pounds. We have now added another 236 pounds, where total is of this year. And I think we're kind of done, except for a couple handfuls that people might throw in a bin. 803 pounds, 1 million 200 plus seeds. We're still collecting this year, still collect. Why did you get another, other bag, do you think, time? Yeah, well, I collected yours from last time, a couple pounds. All right, a [17:54] Becky Danner: Couple more pounds. Okay. Still yes. How does this year compare to previous years, do you know? I'll [18:00] Louisa Gillespie: have that at the next meeting, but yes, I know she is. I know that it is at least 100 to 150 pounds more than last year. Last year was, for some reason, a low year, even though we're always collecting. [18:15] Becky Danner: I think that you've collected more after this year than any other year, and I think that might be why it's higher. [18:22] Louisa Gillespie: But I will bring my chart. I've got a spreadsheet, and I will bring that to the next meeting. [18:28] Speaker C (unidentified): Okay. One year we did 1,000, and another year we did 800 and something. [18:31] Louisa Gillespie: So I think this is probably close to the top. In the beginning, we had a couple years of at least three years close to 1,000 pounds. [18:37] Speaker E (unidentified): Joan, can I just clarify? So we last time you reported that we had an additional 236 pounds, and now you're saying an additional 803 turn up. [18:50] Speaker C (unidentified): No total choice. [18:53] Louisa Gillespie: Did she turn up? Can you turn up your volume? [18:57] Speaker E (unidentified): Can you hear? I can hear you. I've got my volume up as high as it will go. Maybe I need to get. [19:04] Speaker C (unidentified): She was asking, I think, if you met, if you were saying an additional 803 pounds, but I think, Joyce, we're saying a total of that, even though the two numbers, the 540 and the 236, don't add up [19:16] Louisa Gillespie: to 803. They don't. No, I forgot. What do they add up to? 773. 776. Yeah. No. Okay. I'll bring my thing next time. I know that it's, we're over 800 when the ladies, I think there was another. Okay. All [19:33] Speaker E (unidentified): All right, Joan, just shoot me an email with the number that you have. 19 pounds. Joan, can you just shoot me an email with the total number you have so it'll be accurate? [19:41] Speaker C (unidentified): An email with the total. Okay. Will do. Okay. Email total. [19:49] Louisa Gillespie: Okay. I think this was before I had added you or someone left off another couple of bags, another 19 pounds. And I think that's the difference. Okay. Okay. Helene and I met two weeks ago with the CEO to talk through, all of this relates, the CEO is the code enforcement officer, okay, to prepare him and eventually everybody in town down with the added repairs that are going to need to take place on the margin away. And all of this, and we'll get to this at the state of the margin away report in new business, all of this comes from Gail prodding me to say that there's a lot she's been having company. She walks with them and looks at the path with different eyes as an outsider and sees all the places that need work and repairs and that are hazards for our tourists if we're only talking about our tourists. And so we decided to meet with Tyler to start with the north end of the path because of the bottlenecks there. And so we showed him pictures at the Sparhawk with the condition of the path there we showed him and of the least of them, if we can engage the help of the anchorage to keep their perimeters trimmed down because they are also now getting swallowwort along their whole fence line. And then we have the beach mirror with the narrowness. And we've talked about this for eight to 10 years about widening the path where you've got the steepest hill where now we have, again the rope and stake fence and also we're going to have to talk about the hedge being cut back because that's too narrow there. And so we started with these three projects we said as we are advisory committee it really is up to the town to deal with this with the property owners. He has spoken with the anchorage I don't have the results of that. He is engaging with the spar hawk people but as yet i don't think they have actually spoken or he's they haven't met out there to look at their fence their fence their hedge is probably at least a foot and a half to almost two feet out into the path instead of 60 inches wide because we have a five foot wide path the whole length in places it's in 35 31 inches so it's going to need an extreme and unfortunately an ugly kind of a cutback. So he's going to talk with them about that. I know. And so that's the start of this. And then I'm going to show you later some pictures that are going to show us a preview of what Gail's report is. Jackie. Yes, I'm sorry. And Jackie, correct. So we've started on that, and that's going to lead to talking with town manager, DPW, and then figuring out when we do this and the costs. And I've already made a list of prioritizing the order in which all these repairs should happen. And I'm going to be getting new survey estimates for Tyler from different companies so that he can then take this to town and see about getting finally a survey to figure out our boundaries and what we, the types of deeds and the wording of them for the right of ways and the gifts to the town. So that all has to be done. So that's my effort [23:47] Becky Danner: So far. Yes, please. Is there a reason that you're not going to the preservation fund, or do you go to the town and then they go to the preservation fund? Yes, I think at that point. [23:58] Louisa Gillespie: Yes, we do. So what I want to do is get a very quick monitor update, because you're nearly [24:06] Speaker C (unidentified): finished, correct? Are you done? We just finished our sixth month. I think we have 10 walks left. We did 22 walks in September, 28 and three quarter hours of time, and only 14 and a half gallons of trash. That's nothing. We are way below again last year. And just a funny little story. One of the monitors the other day was out trying to pick things up over the fences down on the rocks and couldn't reach with their little picker and a volunteer was going by he jumped over the fence picked up everything and then she said oh look at that container down there he jumped back over the fence and got this big container out and brought it back up yeah wow so volunteers are willing to help and he had no problems jumping the fence above and beyond that is that most [24:52] Louisa Gillespie: definitely is that's fantastic okay do we have susan on yes i'm here i'll put on my video [25:02] Susan Driscoll: i just didn't feel like you needed to be looking at my face all this time there you are okay hi we had about 40 almost 42 hours of weeding work in september it is slowing down because it's that time of year jackie did you all go yesterday to the seaside garden or today no we went today how'd that go to how many people came today we had three of us okay good [25:30] Louisa Gillespie: and the garden looked all right the garden looks fantastic yeah elise did the vetch across the whole garden and ann gallagher and i did the north the south end over This other side of the fence picked up all the, picked out all the smart weed and the Queen Anne's lace and a couple of little things. Some swallow wore it in there too. We got a lot done, but it looks fantastic. [25:59] Susan Driscoll: Okay. So I'm in California right now. I'm heading to Australia tomorrow. So Jackie helped me today with my weed warriors. But for the season, we have a little over 390 hours of weeding time. and I think all the gardens look really well better than they ever have and especially seaside is looking great and so is the O'Leary garden and I'm sure we'll be talking at some point about what kind of planting we might be doing in the fall and we'll gather volunteers at that point if we're going to actually do any okay everybody has been asking very good what to [26:36] Louisa Gillespie: to do what you're doing okay well yeah we'll see if i could get out there and look at it i would and then we'd go and we'll sort of we'll play it by ear but thank you that i mean they're these teams have really worked susan it's been fantastic and the results show i mean the gardens look spectacular and it's really the whole path looks quite marvelous but i think the fall is one of the most beautiful times because now the colors are out and everything's changing and it's, it's quite impressive. So it's been a great effort. [27:13] Susan Driscoll: Yeah. Right. And I do want to mention, we did host a, excuse me. Go ahead, Susan. Oh, I was going to say that I was going to say Lindsay, my husband Lindsay and I sponsored a potluck at our house again to thank all the volunteers. And it was really fun. It was, it was good to see everybody. [27:35] Louisa Gillespie: not everybody but a lot of people it was it's a marvelous occasion for everybody to get together and the two different groups who may not all know each other it's a great way to get everybody sort of all together to just you know enjoy each other's company and right thank you very [27:55] Susan Driscoll: much for doing you're welcome so i'm going to take my giant face off and but i'm still here [27:58] Speaker C (unidentified): you're listening okay all of the leftover food was packaged up frozen and brought to the benefit food pantry on thursday oh excellent so we had five huge family meals nice good [28:13] Louisa Gillespie: were from the party well done very good that's becoming an annual thing too a tradition to put the leftovers to good work we had mike did trim up serenity point i hope it worked well And Louisa, do you want to talk about the dedication? [28:31] Becky Danner: Yeah, it was a beautiful day. There must have been 35 people. I didn't see any of the committee members. But they have dedicated plaque nine, and there are only two plaques left that have spaces that are each half full. So they're getting there. Getting there, yeah. And the people were very appreciative. if they spoke stories of their family members spoke of you know why the marginal way meant so much money so much to them and then the preservation fund has printed a booklet of their of the stories of the people that have bought plaques and so they get their they get the plaque which allison said but they were going to find a way to clean it because theirs is also getting all less shiny they're not shiny yeah and so each person also gets a just a ribbon plaque of what there's they make a duplicate so they can give them give the family off their name played sort of right and then there was a party up at Barbara Leary's, a lunch party, which was very nice, again the town board was there, some of them, and the people who had just [30:11] Louisa Gillespie: been put on the new plaque, right, and oh nice, so you know it was [30:17] Becky Danner: beautiful day and Barbara was not there. I'm not sure how much longer she's going to be coming to Gunquit. [30:26] Louisa Gillespie: Anyway, it's a beautiful location and the gardens were great. It's a gorgeous setting to have it. [30:34] Speaker E (unidentified): Lisa, can you say something again about the booklet? Are you saying there's a booklet with all the stories from members of or anybody's name who's on there? There's a booklet of all the stories or just the new people she's asking about the booklet maybe okay maybe you can [30:53] Louisa Gillespie: email her is everybody who's on a plaque do they have a little part in the booklet [31:01] Becky Danner: no just Joyce probably about 50 people don't so they're they're from all the plaques [31:09] Louisa Gillespie: had provided stories to Allison okay just a selection of stories of people that you know volunteered wanted to have their story okay that's all I need thank you all right okay [31:23] Becky Danner: all right very good I can get some extra booklets if we I can try to get some that'd be nice yeah [31:30] Louisa Gillespie: okay all right in the last thing in old business is to have everybody I guess I hope you've had a chance to look over the protocols I made two or three new additions to this mainly I decided that if this is going forward and at some day there's a completely new whole new board of people I wanted this to encompass everything as much as possible about the way we manage a restoration site and so we had never, I'd never written anything in here about irrigation and that I think it's important to know that if there is no, you have to think of irrigation before you, if you are even considering a new site for restoration, you have to figure out whether or not you will be able to have irrigation there one way or another. Can people bring it in? is there an abutting property where there is a source of water and can you have an agreement with that particular those private homeowners or property owners but you have to have that in place before you begin otherwise you really can't do anything yes under that same section where you have the determined water needs you have the four options for the trees down below yes. Take out black locusts. That's an invasive in me. You're right. I know. I will delete that. Joan, should we say that the irrigation needs to be provided for two years? It says that. Oh, it does. Does it say? Okay. Oh, good. Good. At least for the first two years after planting. Right. And if they're larger trees, they do need additional. Now, we've never planted. Well, we have planted, I think, on Israelhead, we put in some extra large viburnums and the beach plums, and we, I think, watered them for almost three years. So I think that's something that we can negotiate with the person or how, whatever system that we're doing to get water. But I wanted to put that in. And the other thing that I felt that it was important to add was, where is it now? Okay, so it wasn't in the definitions. It was about, now I've sort of lost it because I had it in writing, that none of this is maintenance free, that you cannot walk away from this because it's on the first page that I added. Because I was trying to figure out where to put this so that people, too many people think that, okay, you've thrown in these native plants and they can take drought, therefore we're going to put them in and they're going, well, the sign of that is what's happening to the sumacs, which are as tough as nails, but what are dying because they haven't had time to establish the root system. So I wanted that in here, that there is always going to be some kind of maintenance management you're going to have to take care of them. You just can't plan them, walk away and say, and I know this because when we spoke, I spoke with somebody in town government a couple of years ago, and it was, I think three years ago, we had a rainy summer, but we were still irrigating and they were surprised because they said, well, it's rained so much, you don't need to irrigate. But yet that was the site that was one of the best and most well-established sites. And it showed me that these plants need even more water than we think they do and that we think that we're giving them. I'm trying to be careful. And if I'm using the water from an abutting property, I don't want to overuse because they are giving this as a donation to the town. So I'm being conservative and cautious about using it, but I saw in this one summer that actually these plants, there's never too much water, that's true, and so I just wanted to get in the part about the maintenance free. [36:00] Becky Danner: So yes, go ahead to the irrigation point. This was such a dry summer, and it didn't always appear to be dry summer because it would rain a little bit, but right, things were drying out. Yes, and I found that my irrigation system over Mayfair was not working. It was the, it was about 10 years old, and it was the kind with just the holes, perforated pipe. Yeah, but what really worked was my new irrigation system, which was the pop-up heads, was being much better. Right, and so whatever we do with irrigation we should make sure it's the latest and greatest irrigation, most efficient. [36:41] Louisa Gillespie: Exactly. And I mean, we're still going to be dealing with at some point, if we ever get to phase two and the extensive planting plan in phase two, I don't see how it can go forward. And I believe that our engineer agrees with me until we or the town or somebody figures out how all these plantings will be irrigated. We're just throwing money away unless that happens. But we have yet to deal with that whole issue, so this is a start. I mean, we can, I can give everybody another month or so if you want to really comb through this further, if you are satisfied with it now, except I'll take out black locust. I read the whole thing, I liked it except for black locust. That was the only thing. Where's [37:32] Speaker D (unidentified): is black locust on what page is it on? It's undetermined what it needs on the second page [37:38] Louisa Gillespie: at the last sentence. Yeah, on mine it's on, did you download this from the town website? I couldn't [37:45] Becky Danner: find mine, I'm trying to find this. No, this was Jones. Yeah, this was part of the attachments [37:52] Louisa Gillespie: from before. I can, okay, oh the one before, okay, I'll go back and find it, no problem. The other though too, yeah, that's an email from two days ago, depending on how print you're printing. I was thinking, I'm wondering if we should go back, we went to bullet points, should we go back to one, two, three, four on the when we're talking about the protocols, that way we could say in point five or six, that's where the black locust star or something, if you're writing it for the next generation, that's yeah, that's a good idea. Yeah, all right, I'll go back and we'll change these to numbers then. Yeah, all right. I did read the stuff where you said about perennial, the perennials, I don't remember what section was where perennials leaving for the for the ecosystem. Yes, these and for the birds and everything, and I think we need to follow that a little bit better with cutting too many heads off some plants. Well, all right, okay, but in the sense that okay, that's for, let's say, further... [38:55] Speaker E (unidentified): We were going to leave it, and then we didn't leave it, you know? [38:57] Louisa Gillespie: So, like, I'm just saying we should leave a little more. Well, the plants that we cut heads off were plants like, which that's a seaside goldenrod, which is going to explode and just spread exponentially, therefore taking over the whole garden again. And I think in that case, we're all right to make those kinds of choices, and they are. We're making like an edict and saying you plant we're not going to let you spread because we want you plants to be able to spread so we are making sort of decisions from on high instead of just letting it go and do its own thing because we saw what happened we took out almost a truckload didn't we last year of goldenrod out of that garden alone and you cut off heads not use per se but the volunteers weed wars cut off heads of all those golden rinds that are still existing in there so there's More than enough I don't know whether Susan what you would like I'm here [40:00] Susan Driscoll: Commented on this point no I talked I talked to Jackie about it we did cut off the heads after they browned up and were going to seed and it turned out that one I forget what Monday we were there in, September that we did that work. Yeah. But we could have left some of them up, but they would have been to seed. And they were, they were, I know there's different kinds of goldenrod in there. I'm not sure which, it was the one that has the heavier blooms and seeds versus the one that looks like firecrackers, which were still blooming two weeks ago. And we didn't, hadn't cut those yet because they were still yellow. But what I implemented was if the seed had if the plant had already died back and now it was producing seeds we cut it back because I don't I thought we didn't want seeds so I don't know I think next year we'll just take a look at it together with Jackie and you and decide because we only go every two weeks I didn't want to let those that were already going to seed go another two weeks because I figured they would have already started blowing their seeds everywhere and we wanted to not have That happen. [41:14] Louisa Gillespie: And I'm just saying that we should think about the bees because, I mean, they're still looking for something at this time. And they still use it even after it's brown. They still use it. I know. We should maybe keep it a little bit longer is what I was thinking. We can negotiate that next year. And we can watch. And maybe we need to do some pollinator studies. Maybe we need to sit and do, like many of the gardens, like Mount Cuba does for their studies of plants as to which ones are the best drawers of pollinators, just sit and watch. I'd like to. Okay, I'd like to know personally, are you going to really get pollinators once it has browned and turned to seed? I'm not sure you are. In my garden, in my yard, I'm, you are, I'm like, because I was going to cut them myself and I was like, and I went out and the bee was on and I'm like, okay, I'll leave it, you know, and i'm like yeah i think i think i think so for me i which is browned out but they're still going i don't have well my joe pie the wind took all the heads off they're bare there's nothing at all i have nothing left so i think i think when we stop disturbing the soil i think we'll have less of the golden rod taking you know taking over if we don't disturb as much but we are still disturbing the area so it invites any seeds that come in all right at least it's good stuff we will be analyzing we'll have to figure it out to see what happens, that's all. Well, there's different types of golden [42:51] Susan Driscoll: rod well there's different types of golden rod i feel a little i agree with what jackie is saying I also felt that since we weren't going to be back for a couple of weeks by the time we got back, even if there were still even if a bloom was mostly seeds but had a few little flowers left for the bees to be on, that by the time I got back the seeds would have already started to disperse and we had a bunch of aster and the native liatris whose name just escaped from me and we had the joe pie weed and all of those we've just been letting go to seed because those we want and they're less aggressive. It's the goldenrod that's so aggressive. At this point I think we've thinned it out enough that maybe we could let some of it stay to seed and then try to get it before it blows away. All right, okay, well, this is still for, because we had talked [43:46] Louisa Gillespie: about putting some other kinds of goldenrods in and i had done a little bit of research on that and if we went to the bluestem goldenrod that one forms the clumps right and it doesn't spread very fast so we want the most the most non-aggressive yeah clumping non-spreading golden rot right yeah okay blue stem all right all right okay so we'll work on that we will we can conference during the winter and start and figuring out where we need to add more okay very good so am i re-editing this any further, or, and I think you did a great job, and I [44:27] Speaker C (unidentified): I really like the definitions and everything, so I would recommend it, or I will make a motion that we accept with taking out the black locust and putting numbers where the bullets are, and then you don't have to come back with it. All right, so we know that's happening. [44:45] Susan Driscoll: Okay, I'll second that motion. [44:47] Louisa Gillespie: So you're making, are you making a motion? Yes, I did. And Susan just seconded it. Susan is seconding. Yeah. All right. Show of hands to approve. All right. Very good folks, one down, okay, one down, that's good. All right, on to new business. I'd like, and I don't know whether everybody has brought their sheet. Louisa, here's after mine, okay. I'd like to go through the four sections of this, and if you have, we're just going to start with public safety, and I want anybody to comment. Are we adding, deleting? Is there any changes that we have to make? We're just talking about the public safety column. [45:43] Speaker C (unidentified): I know some of it. Joan, I'll wait if other people do. [45:47] Speaker E (unidentified): Joyce, I had a question. I had a question on the professional monitoring evaluations. Yes. Is that, are we overseeing professionals who are doing that monitoring? I was unclear what that meant about the paving and the condition of the stairs. Are we just alerting people to issues? [46:13] Louisa Gillespie: No, I think we notify, we're the first people to notice if there is an issue or a problem. And so we would, in some cases like two or three years ago, when the stairs at Auntie Away were again crumbling, I just had the stonemason come in and remortar all of them. But if this is a bigger issue, if there's a major repair and either we see that the town has not noticed it, 's our job to advise them and say, look, this is an issue. You need to bring in an engineer or we need new fencing here or something. Thing, it's, I think for us to be the first eyes and ears to notify the town, and then they will be the ones who would do paving or all of these bigger projects that we can't handle, but we can [47:15] Speaker E (unidentified): tell people this is a problem, you need to deal with it. Right, so that's really my question is about the way it's labeled, because it sounds like we're the, we're doing the professional evaluation, so I don't know if maybe just taking the word professional out, or just we're making [47:34] Speaker D (unidentified): We're advising. What do you want to say? What you just said? So the idea is that we're not doing the professional monitoring. We are notifying. Okay, we are, we are notifying the professionals or, I don't know, of, we are monitoring and notifying the town potential of issues. I mean, we're not doing the evaluation either. You're right, Joyce. [48:05] Speaker E (unidentified): It's really just way it's titled. That's all. I understand what we're doing, but it was just the title of it made it sound like we were. [48:12] Louisa Gillespie: Do you want to say monitor and advise? [48:15] Becky Danner: Yes. Yes. Yeah, advise is good. All [48:26] Louisa Gillespie: right, so we're advised, we advise the town, we're just putting that, and really it goes to the town manager and he takes it, you know, the next steps to who to be contact. Now we also have a lot of professional contacts, so I mean, and we have developed for the Marginal Way like having Walsh Engineering and other types of people, so they're probably the first people that would be called in, but we just have to say what we think needs to happen or that there's a problem so that they know and take it correct, because they'll have to all right get a budget, okay, good [49:04] Speaker C (unidentified): anything else? I just wanted to add a couple of things. Yes, and I know we have storm drains, but I think we should have storm water next to that, because storm water doesn't necessarily go to the storm drains, right, and it does cause erosion and everything, but it also causes ice and other issues like that, so I think that should be a separate heading, storm drains, storm water, storm [49:30] Speaker D (unidentified): the effects of storm water, I mean, what are we, yeah, the effects of storm water, yes, that would be right, like if there's a gully or a storm water runoff [49:43] Louisa Gillespie: do you want to say that right so we're going to say runoff because one of the things that is going to have to be dealt with and this we're getting into in the bigger picture of the margin way repairs is there are at least three serious issues of ice in the winter time in and stormwater runoff two of them in the north end of the path the other one is really in front of the fletchers there's a steep hill tiny little crooked cherry tree crab apple and that is always a sheet of ice there's a sheet Of ice from water that drains out of the hillside, the beach mirror where you have Locust Grove joining and right north of that water drains, that's a sheet of ice. And there's another one as you come the other side of Antio, down in front of the Winklers, another sheet of ice. And so before anybody paves this path again, they have to deal with that kind of runoff. It has to be, they have to put these pillow things that they call them, where there's gravel under the path, so the water is supposed to drain. Before it gets to the path, and then the path stays dry and safe. Friend strains, friend strains, something, whatever, but they're talking, they call them pillows now. I don't know why, but they fill up something or other underneath the whole path, so the water hits that, goes down, goes under, and never gets onto the path. So those kinds of things, so we'll put in here the runoff. That's going to be hard because there's so much water that comes off that hill, and there's granite too, it's coming off the ledges. Yeah. And so it stays on top. [51:30] Becky Danner: Down at Beechmere, parallel to the Marginal Way, Locust Grove, underground are two 10-inch pipes that the DPW gave us permission to go, and they go under the path, out into those rocks at the head of that little Beechmere beach. So you don't see where they, we hid them, but- They're there. I know. But one wasn't enough, so we put in two, so let's hope they can come up with something all. [52:03] Louisa Gillespie: This is going to have to be figured out engineering wise before they go to all the expense of repaving and DPW. Right. Exactly. All right, anything else, Elaine? What else is going to have, Steve? So I think tree damage should be added, but that should be under horticulture though, right? Yeah, but this. [52:25] Speaker C (unidentified): This is going to the professionals to do the work. I'm talking about trees that fall into the path. Okay. DPW sometimes. [52:35] Louisa Gillespie: Okay, tree damage. Well, actually, we may have three dead trees at the south end, and we're going to have to decide how safe they are. I'm going to have Steve look at them and evaluate whether they can stand a little bit longer, or and that's going to be a problem because I don't know how they're going to get a machinery in there. They're going to have to have a very agile guy come and cut and lower, and how do we get it off? Professional company. And in the past, before you had Steve, there was a company that the town dealt with on the Marginal Way for trees. I know, but no longer, right? [53:12] Speaker C (unidentified): Yeah, and then I think fencing, and I don't mean the stakes entwine, no, I know the other fencing that is dangerous, like at Cedar Grove. Yes, it's just that pipe and then it's a sharp drop. We would like them to put chain link on that so that someday you don't have somebody, so they don't fall through. And there's a couple of other places that we may need that kind of fencing because [53:36] Louisa Gillespie: there's some precipitous all right do we want to do you want to give this a different name for this kind of fencing all right permanent or i don't know dangerous hazardous precipitous edges or something i don't know all right but i'll put permanent for now [Becky Danner: All] right, because we cover under the voluntary we are doing all the rest kind of looking and checking, so the professional is the paving, the staircases, retaining rolls, revetments, the footbridge itself, erosion, storm drains, tree damage, and then fencing. I think that covers everything outside of our purview but that we can certainly say folks start looking at this, we have an issue. All right, and then we talk about we want photographic records on everything and all right, I think that covers that on public safety. Is that fine with everyone? One, okay. Horticulture, is anything that you want to add to any of this? We are using both the green book and the protocols, and that's going to go into the this town report we're going to have to do because that's what we're following as far as the on the horticulture side of taking care of the path, and we now have the groundskeeper, and hopefully that's something that is a permanent assist in everything that we do. I think we were following everything else we have calendars, action plans, summary reports, we've got our arborists who takes care of letting us know what needs to be done there. I think [55:38] Speaker C (unidentified): that's pretty extensive. Janet, John, I don't think we need to write anything [55:41] Louisa Gillespie: else, okay, everything is current because we do it. All right, all right, then on to outreach education. Is there anything you want to change here, add to? Yes, I voice is speaking, okay. [56:00] Speaker E (unidentified): Can you hear, can you hear me? Just barely. I don't know what, I don't, I guess I don't really understand where my mic is. I don't know where I should be speaking on my computer. I haven't [56:10] Becky Danner: I think it's here that I think maybe Ben can fix it. I'll go ask him. Okay, Joyce, on your [56:18] Speaker E (unidentified): Actual computer, can you turn up the volume? I've got it up as high, so it's, I can hear you like really loud. So I think that's what I'm turning up is my speakers. And what I can't find is where my microphone is. You know what I mean? [56:37] Louisa Gillespie: All right. Well, we can go ahead. We can. All right. [56:41] Speaker E (unidentified): I can also send you just an email on this, but under the outreach and education, I would, I'd rather say, I don't like that. We're saying that we're creating a brand as if we're marketing ourselves. And I think all the things under there really are part of education, that what we're trying to do with our newsletter, the website, I mean, yeah, the Facebook, the website, is educate people about what's on the Marginal Way. We're not trying to promote ourselves or, you know, get credit for this or whatever. So I would just move those things under education. Instead of having a topic that says brand, you know what I mean? Oh, thank you, we can hear you now. [57:30] Louisa Gillespie: Oh, that was Ben, he fixed it. Oh, so it wasn't like we did it on our, on our end. Great. Okay. [57:40] Speaker D (unidentified): thank you so joyce are you saying take the all the things under marginal weight committee brand and take that word up take everything and put it under the education for volunteers in the public yes i just want to make sure i got it right yeah that's what i'm that's what [58:02] Speaker E (unidentified): I'm suggesting. It might, you know, we might need to word it a little differently. Yeah, you know, like why we don't need a logo for education except that it's nice to have a consistent logo that means the Marginal Way Committee. But I think it's the word brand that I'm reacting to, because that's really like a marketing term where people are trying to promote themselves and get their name out there. And I don't think that's what we're trying to do. We're trying to educate people about the Marginal Way, about, you know, the newsletter is very informative about the birds and whatever. whatever and so I think that's my reaction is really to the word branding that 's not one of our goals is to is to develop a brand don't you think don't you agree is identity is when I [58:54] Louisa Gillespie: say identity, is that the same thing to your mind? Well, [59:00] Speaker E (unidentified): maybe I'm misunderstanding what that means. I didn't think we were trying to do that. I thought we were trying to educate people about the Marginal Way path, not about like, look at us, what we're doing, you know, so [59:19] Louisa Gillespie: that's why I thought putting it all to, right, it is all to, for educational purposes, so we can roll them into the same thing. I [59:33] Speaker E (unidentified): mean if everybody else agrees that was just my reaction to it but well [59:40] Louisa Gillespie: we're just, well, we can just, we don't, education, we can just put education and, well, it is the outreach and that we're trying to get to the public, [59:52] Becky Danner: marginal weight committee or educating the public on the marginal weight committee's goals but are we doing that's we're doing it by our website and we're doing it by the newsletter so if you just take out the word brand and put in what we're actually trying to do it's sort of our mission and what [1:00:16] Speaker D (unidentified): we do, right, yeah, and that, I mean, because it is tools, you know, the website, the social media, there are tools to help educate, to get our, to help educate people as to what we do, yeah, it could be the mission, I mean, I understand, I understand what you're saying about not promoting ourselves, I really hear you on that, and I, but I think the logo and everything is more of an, I, it's more of a, of a tool, and the purpose is educating the public, right, I mean, we're not really trying to do [1:00:50] Louisa Gillespie: all ecology and every, we're just trying to say what we do to take care of the path. And it encompasses a lot of general information, but it's also specific to what we do for this particular 12 acres of land in Maine. [1:01:13] Speaker C (unidentified): What about just Marginal Way Committee media? [1:01:16] Speaker E (unidentified): Yeah, I mean, I'm not, I don't know who sees this document and whether it makes any difference. [1:01:21] Louisa Gillespie: Nobody really does. I mean, I think it's probably, I'm not even sure that this whole spreadsheet, I don't think it's on the town website. Yeah, all right. Because this is really an internal document for us. [1:01:35] Speaker E (unidentified): In that way, it's probably a non-issue, Joan. It was just my, you know, I had a gut reaction to the word, like we're trying to brand ourselves with a logo. [1:01:45] Louisa Gillespie: Go, I think that's valid, that's valid, so it's either to that we're trying to not educate, sounds so kind of, I don't know, promote, pompous, promote, [1:02:01] Speaker E (unidentified): but I do think we're trying to educate, you know, like marginally, if you read the newsletter, it's all, it's all inform, information about the wildlife, about the plants, about what's happening on the Marginal Way, and it's not like tooting our own horn about, you know, look, yay, look what we did, kind of thing, it's more we want the public to know and appreciate this beautiful place and what it is and, you know, that it's being taken care of, education, so just put outreach above that. [1:02:33] Becky Danner: One right, so all right, I'm not sure how much we want to get involved into tracking social media, Facebook and Instagram. Those are things that the Marginal Way Preservation Fund does. They have, they have somebody they pay to do that, and so I think maybe that might be down, move down under partners, partner or partnering organizations, although we've got some, we've got [1:03:06] Louisa Gillespie: not our own page, we just have a lack of an administrator at the moment. We're trying to get [1:03:13] Becky Danner: a new one. It's not easy and it's expensive, Joan. I mean, how much do we want to pay? Oh well, we don't [1:03:20] Louisa Gillespie: pay all those years. Yeah, Louisa, all right, so we'll just, how about if we just call, just call it outreach and these are the things we do by having a newsletter, you know. Well, we don't even have a website, we have a web page, I mean that's as much as we can do, but if we just call it outreach, that is, that even encompasses the t-shirts and the hats, because people recognize the person, they talk to them, and then it's more outreach every time they talk to the public work for it, so would that work? And we just, we can leave it, 's not so much, I mean, the education down that I'm doing is more real education. If we have a class or a speaker, that's active education. This is just outreach. I see you, see me, I, you know, I see your sweatshirt and I say oh, [1:04:16] Speaker E (unidentified): I can ask them a question. Will that work for you? For me the outreach sounds fine, much better than [1:04:25] Louisa Gillespie: brand. Yeah, okay, all right, that's fine, we'll, we'll just take everything else out and just put under outreach and that'll be, and so you know if we don't have a Marginal Way website, we should [1:04:36] Becky Danner: put down Marginal Way page. Yeah, correct. [1:04:42] Louisa Gillespie: Bluehost, yes, because that's the only way we can have keep the name for the newsletter. So that is the domain name. And I had to do is at a.com and a.org to protect the whole thing. Yes, so we pay that every year. Okay, so with the Marginal Way page on the town website. [1:05:09] Becky Danner: Okay, and under the host, just a typo, you have a gunquit.org [1:05:16] Louisa Gillespie: and calm and dot com, there's a dot com because I had to, you know, take the ampersand away. No, she's, no, there's two different things there too. I had to buy, what we're protecting is the, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I understand. Yeah, so we have both of those for the time being, and when we don't, somebody else will do it and they'll, you know, be running around and [1:05:46] Speaker D (unidentified): they'll have sale marijuana under dot com and i have to say also that the town pays for the it's 21 a month yeah for the mail chimp for mail chimp and they cover that 23 [1:05:59] Becky Danner: It's 23 a month. It's going up. Mine says 21 when I get it to me because we're being charged 23 a [1:06:08] Speaker D (unidentified): month. Yes. Oh, maybe I'm wrong. I don't know. Okay. Well, and then the other thing under that, [1:06:15] Speaker E (unidentified): the outreach education thing, I think we decided we weren't going to move forward with the goats because they eat poison ivy, but they don't eat any of the invasive plants that we care about, [1:06:26] Becky Danner: like swallowwort. Goats? Yeah, under PR events. Yeah. Not only that, but they, [1:06:34] Louisa Gillespie: where are they? Their business. Okay. Under PR events. PR events. Yeah, I guess we're never ever going to do that. Where's the caterpillar? [1:06:47] Becky Danner: And we're not going to have goats. And didn't we just say we couldn't do goats? Right. [1:07:01] Louisa Gillespie: The goats really aren't. Well, I actually am going to ask somebody to contact the caterpillar lab and find out whether they would ever consider coming for one day upon day. Would anybody like to? No, they usually go to places for two to three days and set up, but I'm wondering if we could even get something that just deals all has to deal with the monarchs, just the whole monarch story, and find out if they would come because one day even if it's not pod day. Yeah, I suppose we'd have to be hard day. We can find out. We'll just see what kind of events they come. This hopefully would be outdoor. A lot of times they set up indoor. So we can all go to Mexico and see them. [1:07:56] Speaker C (unidentified): Speaking of, I don't think the town's gonna sponsor me not Mexico. I just read a report what if there's been a 64 increase in the number of monarchs that are down in Mexico. [1:08:08] Becky Danner: No, that's real. That's great. And why is that 's that's a happy certain logging. [1:08:18] Speaker C (unidentified): Oh, and they stopped doing some other things, so the acreage at which they go has increased. Really, at one point they used to go to 44 acres and they just went up over four acres I think. [1:08:33] Louisa Gillespie: They're about 11 now, so they have they're very compressed. Yeah, there's hardly any, but there's [1:08:39] Becky Danner: an increase in that 's exciting. Yeah, I've sold them down there. They're up at 9,000 feet. [1:08:45] Louisa Gillespie: You have to climb up a mile on it. Did you do that? No, I've never done that. You know, it must be [1:08:50] Becky Danner: fantastic. Yeah, you can't see the trees. They're just covered with things, and then you're [1:08:56] Louisa Gillespie: walking on dead ones. All right, I've taken out the goats. I am gonna correct the caterpillar lab. I don't know why I don't have that on my printout because I think you added that. I think I'm using [1:09:11] Becky Danner: an old one is what I think I'm doing. Okay, enough about Elaine's education of the [1:09:22] Louisa Gillespie: volunteers. We'll get to administration. No. Okay. All right. I don't want. Okay, one other thing. [1:09:28] Speaker C (unidentified): Yes, since it's now in our comp plan and we are going to deal with it, should we put the historical [1:09:36] Louisa Gillespie: Marginal Way walking tour that we're developing? All right, wait a minute. Are we into the administration or what? You want it here, outreach and education? Because we already have walking [1:09:48] Speaker C (unidentified): tours about those things, and now they want us to develop a historical walking tour. Well, all we can [1:09:54] Louisa Gillespie: do is say we're developing. We can't say we're doing it because we've got a long way to go. Oh, all right. That's fine. Developing, what do you want to term this? [1:10:06] Speaker C (unidentified): Marginal Way Historical Walking Tour. [1:10:11] Louisa Gillespie: But you're going to, don't you want to mean a virtual? Isn't this in a sense a virtual tour? [1:10:19] Speaker C (unidentified): It's going to be controlled by virtual. You're going to get your information virtually, but you're actually going to be walking on the margin. I know, but. Okay. [1:10:27] Louisa Gillespie: A walking virtual guide. [1:10:30] Becky Danner: Will be an app. Yes, just a walking app. It's not going to be an actual app because it costs over [1:10:38] Speaker C (unidentified): a hundred thousand dollars just to get into an app. All right, this is going to be a specialized [1:10:43] Louisa Gillespie: web page, red page, web page. Yeah, Marginal Way walking virtual tour web page. Okay, [1:10:57] Speaker E (unidentified): that's definitely the language they use on the in the Marginal Way committee. The other document is self-guided tour, so that what does it say? It's a self-guided tour, which indicates that you'd be, you know, you'd have QR codes or something when you, but you'd be on a self, you'd be walking, but there'd be some sort of a guide, either virtual. We haven't said anything [1:11:22] Becky Danner: anything about education about the geology? It's down there. [1:11:27] Speaker C (unidentified): It says special speakers relevant to the Margin Way, geology, ecology, etc. That's it. [1:11:39] Louisa Gillespie: Covered that base. All right. I think we've covered as much on the outreach part that we're doing. If something else comes along, well, fine. We don't have to specify every speaker and every type of and every field that we're interested in. No, let's hit administration. Mine seems to be I don't know whether I can add anything else to mine. The vice chair probably needs to double purpose. [1:12:11] Speaker C (unidentified): I would say rather than take on special projects, assume special projects. Say that again. Under the vice chair on the bottom it says take on. I would just change it to assume. Okay, [1:12:30] Louisa Gillespie: then down with liaisons. Oh, I think we have to add to. Okay. All right, wait a sec. The thing I did change, all right, is the treasurer happy with her description of all the other jobs that [1:12:46] Becky Danner: you're doing? Okay. [1:12:51] Speaker C (unidentified): You were saying after the treasurer duties go down a couple of lines, liaisons with town committees, ConCom, sustainability. I think we should add a new watershed committee that is okay, chaired by Jane. Yeah, cool, new wood, the watershed committee. We don't want to leave. [1:13:11] Louisa Gillespie: View out, she's getting aspirational, a strategic plan. All right, so we do that, we coordinate, yes. [1:13:23] Speaker C (unidentified): The groundskeeper, and then my other thing under administration would be assess and update every five years the resolutions, the bylaws, the standards, and the protocols. [1:13:35] Louisa Gillespie: Okay. Is there a line somewhere already for that, or do we need to? I say the strategic plan we assess annually. [1:13:44] Speaker C (unidentified): That one, but I'm adding a new line. Yes. Every five years, it's resolutions, bylaws, standards, and protocols. [1:13:52] Louisa Gillespie: As if we don't have enough to do. It's five years? Because we've been almost doing this more frequently than five years. The last time we did it was 21. Last time the select board voted on the news 21. Okay, so tell me again, so by law, oh the resolution. [1:14:06] Susan Driscoll: Resolutions, bylaws, standards, and protocols, should it say at least every five years in case there's one that comes up that we think we should revise sooner than five years? Yeah, that's fine, we can say that at least. [1:14:26] Becky Danner: If you show this to any prospective new members, they're going to faint. [1:14:34] Louisa Gillespie: Are you two headed to the door now? [1:14:38] Speaker E (unidentified): Well this makes a good case for why we need two more members, right? [1:14:43] Louisa Gillespie: It's pretty impressive. It sort of keeps you all busy. I mean you didn't want to be sitting around playing bridge and mahjong all the time. OK, and I listed every consultant we've ever used just in case, because also I'm going to put together a list, comb through all the myriad contacts that I made over the years and put together a list of everybody, which is even more than this. So that what we are also going to hope to do, this is aspirational, is that we go to the town, we go to the town clerk, and we figure out how we can store this in on the website virtually, that it is findable, realistically, that we can say to a new member, here's the packet you need to read and know everything that's on the committee. But you want anything else, history, contacts and all, there is a marginal way somewhere that you can go that lists everything, whether it's contacts or projects or timelines or just a general history. I don't want this to get lost in some ether. And apparently they're doing a lot of scanning, and we have things to give them, but they don't have it, so we say catalog. So if we give it to them, it's just going to be, I don't know, somewhere out there, and we'll never find it again. So a new committee coming on is going to lose, I mean, there will always be turnover, but unless you have a place that you can go back in to say, okay, this is how this was done, or this is where this happened, or something for some past history, it's going to be gone. And unless we figure out a [1:16:39] Speaker D (unidentified): system from the town to store all this can it be within the website i think it can be right there i don't know oh it can i mean i'm sure on the web page right no i'm sure it can there but i mean a [1:16:54] Louisa Gillespie: lot of this is even more, I know it, I mean, I would like to have this all there, but I don't know. I think they have to figure it out with our, you know, work it out with them. [1:17:06] Speaker E (unidentified): Yeah. The only thing I'll say, Joan, is that GIS mapping is on there twice. Eric Lima, Basswood Environment. [1:17:16] Speaker D (unidentified): GIS mapping is twice. [1:17:18] Becky Danner: That's twice, Joan. See, it's here. [1:17:22] Louisa Gillespie: I see it on the bottom. Where else? Oh, okay. Yes,, yes. Yep. Okay. I'll take him out there. All right. Is this good? Is this covers everything? I'll make these corrections and then this is it for the next year or two, at least. Okay. All right. Wonderful. Thanks, everybody. Yes, go ahead. Okay. Back to public safety where you brought up the fencing, safety fencing. That's really what we want is more is better fencing for safety purposes. Okay, so you know that not just having a railing instead of permanent, what safety, yeah, permanent safety fencing. Okay, all right. [1:18:13] Becky Danner: We'll [1:18:16] Susan Driscoll: do what you're doing it for do we need to do we need to do what we did with the last document stakes entwined but right is that it's it's susan hold on i'll put my video on so you can see me do we need to do the same thing we did with the last document and just move that we approve this document with changes so that we don't have to have you bring it back to the committee [1:18:40] Louisa Gillespie: All right, if you, or do you want me to make the changes and then to go ahead? Okay, I think it's fine. All right, fine. Okay, so if I can entertain a motion. [1:18:50] Susan Driscoll: I'll make a motion that [1:18:52] Speaker E (unidentified): is this a document that's going to be available to everybody? [1:18:57] Louisa Gillespie: It's our internal working [1:18:59] Speaker E (unidentified): I wonder if we have to approve it and have it be in the minutes. [1:19:04] Speaker C (unidentified): It's not an official document, it's just our working plan. [1:19:10] Speaker E (unidentified): I don't want to attach it to the minutes or anything, that's what I mean. [1:19:14] Becky Danner: Can we date it down here? [1:19:16] Louisa Gillespie: We can just date it. [1:19:18] Susan Driscoll: Because I have so many things that are not dated. Yep. Okay, so we don't need to make a motion to approve it. Just we're having a discussion and agreeing today, and it's ever evolving, you know. [1:19:31] Speaker E (unidentified): It's going to add, maybe add things, take things out, so okay. What is today, the fifth? [1:19:39] Becky Danner: Yes. Okay. [1:19:42] Louisa Gillespie: We'll do. All right. So that's out of the way. All right. Thank you. All right. What I want to quickly show you, and Gail, you can explain, Ben, if you can put up the first slide of that PowerPoint. This is what Gail and Jackie have worked on, and maybe you want to quickly describe the amount of time and effort this has taken you. Oh, go back to my volunteer hours to slide work, just so you know. I just help with, yeah. Well, I've taken, can we go to, when you show this Ben, can you make it be the full screen? Okay, perfect. Okay. So I've taken what Gail and Jackie put together and I've condensed this because they've done two reports. They are enormous. The major one, which is all the priorities, Gail put together 140 slides with a description and a location. And then you have a condensed version of immediate critical repairs that we're going to give to the town and the Department of Public Works that we would hope that will be taken care of this fall because there have been so many accidents and near accidents that we need to take care of these now. But what I've done in this is take their slides and condense some of these into an area, one area at a time, just to say, here's a section and this is what's wrong. Here's another section and here's what's wrong. Because otherwise, I think people are going to be almost overwhelmed. They're not going to grasp that this, we are really in a bit of a mess here. We've been spending our time, I have been spending time on restoring a habitat and over these last few years because we have not been able to do the repairs on phase two and there were issues that happened with phase one with heavy equipment at all and over just time and little storms here and little things there the path is has a lot of problems with it and it is now time for the I think this committee to shift the emphasis of what we want the town to start paying attention to correct. Absolutely. All right. So Ben, you can just go through to the next slide. So this is the Sparhawk. This is number one. So you come in at the entrance. So here is your entrance for a huge number of people on the marginal way. And you are jammed in to 30 plus inches instead of 60 inches. is the spar hawk has said that they will deal with their little block wall here which is loose no mortar or anything and everybody walks on it primarily kids but even adults have to get off onto it and so it's a major hazard they're going to take care of this and oh i guess what we should do is move the i can get the flag that would be good i think tyler wrote that [1:23:28] Speaker C (unidentified): Spa Hawk agreed to mortar those, they're going to reset them. Thank you Jane, thank you. Are they [1:23:35] Louisa Gillespie: going to put back the hood there? Well, that's what the code officer will negotiate with the Spar. But you can see, and I'd say my line is conservative. It probably needs to at least be a foot and a half. It's going to look absolutely awful, but there's no recourse. It's come out. It's wider at this end, but when you're at the street side, it's very narrow. But it's still, they may discuss the trunk there. Yes, huge, I know that is heaving the pavement. They've been up as well, it was worse before they took the trail. Okay, this is, this is just the entrance, next slide. So now you come to, you're out to the bridge and you're headed down toward the water, and this whole section, if you have walked it, first of all, it is highly crowned, so you're, They're walking almost on an angle. That's why most people walk on their grass as well. And the entire path has 17 major, big, wide cracks in it. Any one of them, if you are not paying attention to where you're walking, and if you're looking at the flower garden or something, or ahead at the wonderful scene of the ocean, you're going to go flat on your face and trip there. [Speaker E (unidentified): Next. Okay.] And what we want also is for the Sparhawk, now that we have dealt with and spent a lot of money, we're not finished doing the knotweed on the hotel revetment, which stretches from here all the way to the beach there. They have not tackled the knotweed and the swallowwort that's in their little corner on this most Southern piece of their property. And that is going to spread. I mean, those routes do not stop at the fence line. And so another thing I think that we really have to begin to talk about with all of the abutting properties, if we're dealing with things on town land, but it's on the private property a foot away, we have to come to some agreements about managing this and that they take part in this same effort. So that's that corner. Okay, next. Okay, the Anchorage fence line is minimal, but you can see in the springtime on the top right how heavily overgrown it is. And now, even though the grass is clipped, there is swallowwort the entire length growing in there. So we have been pretty successful in containing the swallow ward on the outside, on the revetment, only to have it grow. And if it starts having seed pods there in another year or two, that defeats the whole purpose. So we've got to get everybody working together on the same issue. Next. Here we have the bottleneck and the lower fence. That's the beach mirror. And so we've tackled the grassy hillside, but we are going to have to cut back severely. And it isn't going to look nice to start with, but it is privet, I believe, the whole fence. [1:27:04] Becky Danner: That's what privet grows like. Right. [1:27:06] Louisa Gillespie: And so we're going to have to really do a major cut back there, probably another foot and a half on that one. And I'm just showing there's nothing we can do about the paving now, but you've got all these dimples, so when they do the repaving, they're going to have to put in hopefully an improved base layer so that we don't have all this collapsed bits of asphalt and everywhere, and then the entire length of the whole path needs to have fill in on the gravel shoulders. And the main thing is, and you can go to the next one, Ben. This is the hillside. So this is what it looked like with the snow fence on the left. It got cut. And here is the grate. It's not as sharp as we can see. You can almost see better on the other screens over here, that's better color, but it's not, it's pretty far away for us. Is that the fence at least will keep people for the time being, and I think we just have to negotiate maybe with the beach veer and the DPW as to who will keep the hillside clipped next year. That'll be something to talk about over the wintertime. Okay, next. This spot, which is right at the left-hand picture where the person is standing, that's the Stillman Cedar Tree. That's what that's called. You come down a really steep slope towards the, going north toward the beach there. We've had two this summer, two wheelchairs go over with people crashing off the edge. Whether the slope is so steep, the speed gets away from them, we don't know. But they've had two. And my Peter just saw another near accident with a man who could barely hold on to his wife's wheelchair. And nearly the two of them went over the side before he righted himself. So we're going to have to put some kind of a barrier there. Whether it's rock, whether it's a wall, a fence, I don't know, but obviously this is really a major hazard and we've got to deal with it before somebody gets killed. That's all I can say. It's a real problem here. This, the last picture shows how there is this natural runoff from the hill because everything on the marginal way is lower than the landscape on the inward side. So the whole town, the whole hillside from Israel had and everything is draining down here. But this is one of the places where instead of going under the path, where it flows over and one of the ice winter hazards. Okay, next slide, please. Okay, and this just shows that where that little rise, the hummock in the path is where one of the drainage pipes, one of the little conduits has raised up the path, which goes from the rocky hillside at the O'Leary property across to the gully between benches four and five. And that will get lowered down, but that is obviously a hazard that people have to watch out for as they're walking along. Okay, next one. And the entire length, you've got areas where it's not just one or two inches off the shoulder, it's four and five inches, so and people instead of being able to walk and talk and look at the view, if they don't watch out, they are just toppling over and I've taken enough falls on this path that I know that, you know, it's just really getting dangerous and I think the only solution in talking with Tyler, he agreed with us, the next repaving. And we're going to need an entire repaving after we get through with phase two. We have to take it all out and go back down to ground level. We cannot keep adding because there's no way to hold the gravel in place on the shoulders. So this all has to be lowered back down again. So in showing you this, and then you go to another one, this is the staircase at Antu. Now, this has been repaired twice, the mortar. It's loosening again. And I only put this other picture in is you can either keep the, and we can make a decision, sort of the picturesque, these are the original stones from many, from decades ago, or do we scrap that and go to solid, big, wide treads of massive granite where you don't have to worry about the mortar, you've got to get it set right to bring it down to the margin away. way, but maybe it's a less picturesque but more practical way of having stairs, so we don't have to keep maintaining and remortaring every couple of years. So that's why I put this in, but the staircase definitely needs some help because, again, it's the mortars all breaking apart. Why is there, why is there a chain ring fence there at that, on those railings? It's always, it's always been there, right? I think maybe that, maybe that was newly put in when the chain link was put around Little Beach when they put the new wall in. That could be when that happened, because it's the same kind of material almost as that fencing before you. There's chain link before you get to the black fencing that leads down to Briar Bank. I don't know. Yeah, but that's the kind of fencing we almost need at Cedar Grove. Yes, exactly. Okay, next, spend a locust now to right or that. This is another problem that has never been resolved. They have two tiny little storm drains at the base on either side of Briar Bank, and they tend to either fill up or get covered, and we're constantly scraping away the sand and debris that moves in there. But if we don't get it, that is always flooded as well. So that is just a standing puddle sometimes after storms, and there are a couple other places along the path that hold water like this for, it can be a day or two before it rains out next. So we ought to have a fence standard, you know, when we can use [1:34:07] Becky Danner: chain link and when we can use something else. But there's chain links are the toughest of the fencing options, and for a long time it was a special exception for the Marginal Way because it was not in the town ordinance or something or nuts. You couldn't use chain link. [1:34:26] Louisa Gillespie: can tell you couldn't use it on your property. Well, we'll have to see whether, I mean, obviously they have put it in since then, but I don't, but then they put in this black fencing, but it gets scraped off and people write their names and all the graffiti, and so it doesn't last because it's hollow. That's right. Yeah, so I mean, I would say that the whole rest of the way, I'm just going to take this to the lighthouse, but this is those from Antio Way to Israel Head. It's just drop out after drop off Briar. Bank to Israel head. Oh okay right well this I think is before you're getting the first picture is before you're getting all right well whatever it's it's just tripping a mess one place after another okay and I think maybe there's one more which on the on the next one okay this is lighthouse yes and we think that the one on the far right is probably is certainly likely where the poor woman who broke her wrist in three places where she took her fall somewhere around there and so we could go on The whole way that's why Gail and Jackie have a 140 spots that's yes Jackie's feet very nice shoes very good and so I think that's all we need to see but this is going to have to go to all three town manager code officer DPW and say and what do you want to do line vertical goes in the town well that is going to be for them to figure out because when I prioritize the repairs to the marginal way I think it looks like this you have the DPW take care of the immediate hazards that you have put the List of like 12 or 13 that should be done now we need the survey of the marginal way done that should be done immediately then at some point [1:36:39] Becky Danner: We've been asking for that for at least five years that is correct no a lot longer than that [1:36:44] Louisa Gillespie: 10 years pardon you have to get I 'm going to again get new estimates from surveyors I gave the town some estimates of what it would cost back in 2024 and they accepted them and that was it. And so I'm going to go back to the surveyor companies and say, give me a fresh estimate of what it would cost today to do this survey. And then we'll just present it again and say, this has to be done like now. Phase two. And in phase two, I believe, I don't know whether they'll accept this, you're going to have to add that wheelchair barrier that is north of Locust Grove. On that downward hill. You're going to have to do something now before we have a really a major accident. Then in the spring, you have the DPW take care of all the rest of the places unless they have a plan sooner than that to deal with repaving. We have the Sparhawk taking care of their issues. We negotiate with the anchorage with the town CEO for they're going to maintain their thing. We talk to the beach mirror about widening there and we figure out is there a timeline about doing the project to widen the path, which is that wall, some kind of a retaining wall coming back in and the most narrow part so that it slants in. We have talked about a wall that slants in so you don't have people who walk on the wall, but that it would just blend in and it widens the path permanently there so that you're not having this narrowing all the time. And then before you do any repaving, and maybe you could take repaving in sections, you have to deal with the drainage, the water runoff, the substrate of this whole thing. We have to fill in gaps in all the revetments so that the gravel doesn't run back out again. And then you have to take down the path down to the ground level, put a new base in there, and that all has to be done almost by hand because you can't get large equipment on the path. So that's why that's going to be one very expensive project in itself, as will I believe widening and building a wall or some kind of a surface at the beach mirror as well. We've never done the whole marginal way paving at once. No, I know it's all been piecemeal, but it needs it now, the whole thing. They may be able to, I can see you could take a section. We talked two years ago with DPW about just taking from Shore Road down to the water and the start of the real marginal way and said, just do that. Flatten it, get the drainage right, get rid of the cracks, and nothing's happened. So we're going to have to, either that or people are going to start really complaining. Maybe it is going to take the people that fall and break. [1:40:06] Speaker D (unidentified): That's what I was saying already. We got that email of that woman that broke her. I mean that was very alarming and I feel like the town, they need to fix those places first, right, I [1:40:17] Louisa Gillespie: mean I agree with you, Jane, well that if that spot was the spot that had that was washed out the most, that washes out, they could fill that tomorrow and if we have a big rainstorm that will be gone the next day again. Until they finish, until they do in phase two, the whole redo of the pavement, grazed pavement with curbing at the bottom of sterns so the water goes into the storm drain instead of across the path, that's not going to change. And so all these things are linked to the [1:40:54] Speaker D (unidentified): Next thing to the next thing. Right. I just feel there's a sense of urgency about the woman that at broker risks and the wheelchairs that went off the side. I mean, if I, you know, the town, I don't think they want a lawsuit. You know what I'm saying? Yep. It's one thing to say, you know, walk at your own risk, of course, but if I was... [1:41:17] Becky Danner: The town is only liable up to, I don't know, it was 25,000 about five years ago. That's their limit. But if it's on your property, they can sue you for millions. That's right yeah I mean we had a woman that walked across the lawn at Beach Mirror and she slipped she had plastic based shoes on she sued us for three million because we didn't tell her it was a hazard walking across the lawn and no kidding I mean you know these things take time and money to defend and she happened to work for a pediatric surgeon so she knew she knew what [1:41:54] Speaker D (unidentified): She was doing right I just feel like Joan can you repeat property I mean Joan can I ask you [1:42:00] Speaker E (unidentified): Jane you're right all right Joyce I'm sorry go ahead you said these that you were going to send these powerpoints to three places the DPW to the town manager and where else well we've [1:42:15] Louisa Gillespie: Already given both presentations to the code officer code officer okay yes that was the start [1:42:23] Speaker E (unidentified): All right and we would want these powerpoints attached to the minutes [1:42:29] Louisa Gillespie: No you can't I mean you they're enormous I think you can just make note that there is this report and who we're giving it to be and then we'll just keep following through as to the next steps okay as to how this how the town decides to deal with it and the timing I mean all of this is all predicated on funding too a large part of it some of it well I think the DPW if they have the time they can handle it and the rest is going to be a matter of finding [1:43:08] Speaker D (unidentified): Funding to do any of this was Joyce asking if she you could embed the powerpoint in the minutes yes is that what she was asking yes you can do that no oh this is huge though yeah oh I think let's maybe just the powerpoint just what we saw oh why couldn't we you can [1:43:29] Susan Driscoll: You can embed it as a PDF file it won't be very big that way just a link to get to it if you put [1:43:36] Speaker E (unidentified): It someplace, I guess the question is, do we want it here, I think, or do we, is it better to say that there is this PowerPoint, it's going to be sent to the DPW, the town manager, and the code officer, and then when there's presentations, it will be available to people who are interested, they can see it there, you know, I'm not sure that we want it embedded in here even if we could, that's the [1:44:02] Louisa Gillespie: question I was asking. Okay, all right, so let's just say we're sending this to a town officials, [1:44:09] Speaker C (unidentified): officials. Yeah, I would think it would be better until it may be that at some point the town wants you to make a presentation at the select board, yeah, or planning board, or wherever they want, and [1:44:20] Becky Danner: that's when, and why don't we plan to do that, the report's there, so when is it going to go to its [1:44:28] Louisa Gillespie: next stage? Well, we need to then have the next thing would be a meeting probably with a town [1:44:35] Becky Danner: manager arranging that. Hey, is any of this interface with each town's MOU for phase two? [1:44:42] Louisa Gillespie: no it's i have no idea no it's it's the other end of the right from way yeah well it's the whole it's the whole length from cove to right but in it doesn't really only in a few places is there any crossover or anything duplicating this is all nothing is duplicated i accept let's say one or two the pipe the conduit at the o'leary tree you mentioned that 's phase two and part of that hillside the wheelchair hillside is being dealt with some revetment rocks but that was down below, not up on the edge of the path where there is the danger. [1:45:32] Speaker C (unidentified): Most of phase two, Louisa, deals with the ocean side and the rocks going down. Most of this deals with the path inward. [1:45:40] Becky Danner: I just didn't want to confuse the budget committee. [1:45:43] Louisa Gillespie: No,, they'll get confused trying to find the money. [1:45:47] Becky Danner: I don't understand why they don't just put a fence in that area where the wheelchairs fall over. Yeah. I mean, just put a fence in now. Right. Yeah. [1:45:55] Speaker C (unidentified): What I would say on fencing, no matter what they decide, they should paint the fences all the same color so they would blend better with the whole thing, I mean, we've got black, we've got green, we've [1:46:08] Louisa Gillespie: got silver, that's right, they should all be the same color, all right, well, we can work on, work on fencing, that's for another, that's for another time, we have plenty of things that have to be done, Donna. I just wanted to say that this report is phenomenal. It's major. You did a really great job, and now we have to just push it and get it to actual work. All right. To make it work. Yes. [1:46:36] Speaker E (unidentified): Yeah. Kudos to you. It's great. It's perfect. Yeah. Yeah. And especially you, because you [1:46:43] Louisa Gillespie: pushed and pushed and pushed me. And I knew that I wanted to do this. I didn't think that actually that I, you know, that you'd be willing to take it on because it was huge. I was the one that [1:46:53] Becky Danner: complained the most. So I thought it was my obligation to do that. And if anybody actually wants to see all 100 and however many slides, I'd be happy to come over and stick my little [1:47:09] Speaker C (unidentified): card into your computer. [1:47:12] Louisa Gillespie: Okay. On to the next thing. We'll, I'll keep everybody posted. As we try to get an arrangement to talk with the town manager about this thing. Okay. I want to deal with one issue that is of concern. And I want to do this very carefully and very delicately. But I have to ask you, Louisa, this goes to the report that you gave us last time that you presented to the Preservation Fund. Do you do a report like this for every quarterly meeting when you are the as the liaison for no the thing so this was like a special report that you did to them because it concerns me on two fronts it concerns me that some of the information is not correct and I've gotten some feedback from people that I guess have learned about this who like questioned that we were spraying trees when we don't spray trees when you talked here about in spraying for emerald ash borer when in fact they just get injected and somebody thought we were doing aerial spraying and they thought that was a terrible thing and I had to sit and explain we don't do that 's not our policy and it I just worry that this creates misinformation where we don't want it when we're trying to be careful and specific about what we do well please make corrections to [1:48:54] Becky Danner: that and this report is only for the committees it's not supposed to go out to the general public [1:48:59] Louisa Gillespie: well I mean it's an internal it's an internal document right but okay it's internal document but I think the problem is that it went beyond there to my mind there is almost a problem of conflict of interest and I went through and actually I haven't gone through it in a very long time this committee well I didn't even know about the handbook until last week but I went through some other our ethics codes and things like this and I worry because you're talking about almost arriving at policies here when you haven't come to the committee first and given us the courtesy of saying that i'm going to be suggesting that we have meetings and i'm suggesting this and that and you're talking to another body and speaking as if the whole committee is doing the speaking and i think you were speaking for it but it came across and you're saying here the margin weight committee suggests the workshop but we haven't even discussed that and so i think these kinds of things need to go through the committee and have the committee's approval before you. Oh yeah, that's important. Okay, but you sort of jumped ahead, you went ahead and you spoke to another committee or the board that you are also a member of, talking about our work, but not getting, not notifying us or letting us know that you were going to do that. And I don't think that a member of a committee should take that initiative unless they have notified and talked to the board and had a discussion about it first. Well, we did have a [1:50:59] Becky Danner: discussion last time. I mean, I think it's up for the reason I wrote that was that both committees appeared to be pulling apart from each other, and there was actions on both sides that were not displaying any kind of partnership, which is what I perceived that the committee should do, and it was had to do with the respect for each other, and it had to do with things that were being said in outside the committee, in other, you know, in other places. But my point was that the committees need to get along with each other and encourage each other and talk about each other in town and with their friends so that people realize outside, externally, we do all kinds of things, and people think that the path looks great, and it, you know, it does, the garden's beautiful, and the work that goes in is incredible, but that's on both sides. And I just feel that we need to have dialogue with each other in a positive way and try to prevent these misunderstandings that come from talk about the internal machinations of these two committees. I mean, this was not for just the Marginal Way. This was what I perceived as the liaison of both committees. The Marginal Way Preservation Fund holds their cards very close to their chest, and they don't talk about what they're doing a lot of time. That's correct. And our committee is pretty much up front, but our information is a different sort of information that's given for our hands-on thing. So I wish that the committee would not take this as a... This was just a plea for dialogue amongst our two committees, and so that our internal, I'll go away. Sorry, excuse me. It was just a plea that we, it was a plea that we were very careful about what we said, what we did, and not to allow our image to be such that the public, the town, got to say that no, well, one committee does one thing, one committee does another thing, and it's not always positive. And maybe I can't say it as well as somebody else, but that's why I think that I wrote that, and would hope that everybody in Algonquin knows that I'm all in for Algonquin 100, whatever we do. And so when I see things being 99 i get on fire right so i certainly don't want anybody to think that this was a criticism of what we do because what we do is so amazing it really is and i'm not going to be around for another 15 years, maybe 10 years, but I want our legacy to be totally that people from the outside are amazed at what we do. And many people are amazed at what we do. I hear people every day tell us how wonderful the Marshall Way is. And certainly the work that we do reflects in the money that they give, because they see a path that's cared for. Right? So that's it. John, can I just have something? So when I read it, I was a little taken back that everything that we say in these meetings are public and they're recorded, and they didn't see a need for it to be written down like this. Because I'm the one at the meeting that mentioned about the preservation fund using their funds for the Heritage Museum, and I did it because I'm hearing it, and in my head I'm thinking the marginal way, they specifically are asking for money for the marginal way, and now all of a sudden there's something else. So very innocently it was discussed at the meeting. It was not brought up by me. I don't know if it was brought up by you, I don't remember, but I innocently said I don't understand, it shouldn't have been in here. I thought that really, it upset me, because I mean you're naming, you know, you did not, and I appreciated that. I was the one that was upset by, well, I don't, I mean, I didn't, I, that was, I didn't understand why they did it, because their mission, our mission, is for the marching away, it's not for the Heritage Museum, and this looked like something that shouldn't have happened. But that was me. But what I read here is that you're saying that our committee [1:57:06] Louisa Gillespie: a round of negative comments. Right. [1:57:08] Becky Danner: Was talking negatively about the preservation fund, and that was not what happened. So I think that just reading that, because that was like in the very beginning, really kind of made me negative about everything else, because I'm going, wait a minute. This should not be here, right? And there are a few other things too, but so that's point, and I'm sorry if I didn't mean to implicate the, so I just want to say that I think that there was more than what Joan's saying, because it was my, and I heard from other people about other things, but it was my feeling that it really hurt me. So that's just what I want to get out there. I certainly didn't mean to hurt you. I know you didn't, but just, you know, it was written and it [1:58:00] Louisa Gillespie: got sent to another entity and it, right, there are just things in here I believe that you're, I mean, if you read this and you said you read it to the other board, yeah, and I gave them copies, right, you said this caused a round of negative comments. I don't recall a round of negative comments. We always allow public comment at our meetings, and you're saying here that you know at the, it effectively cuts off any preservation fund discussions. We've never, as you well know from the May meeting, we've never cut off a discussion. We've let people vent or make constructive comments. Oh, I think that related to those little stars you used to put. And I put them on only for the first time after that particular meeting, to not allow, you know, it's just, it, just worried me, because to me, it's what it is in, this clause, this section of the committee handbook, it talks about conflict of interest. And it talks about the independence of boards and committees. And so it is to members should also refrain from bringing matters currently under discussion and view by their board for discussion before another board or committee and commission. I mean, we are tasked in our resolution with doing whatever we need to do to fulfill this mission of protecting, taking care of all these things that are under this standards. And so it's not anything where we need or should be falling under having to get permission from the Preservation Fund for any of this. [1:59:53] Becky Danner: I'm not saying that. I'm only asking for communication channels to open up and discuss things. [2:00:01] Louisa Gillespie: But they're not being at the table. [2:00:03] Becky Danner: Nobody ever said that you wanted to get permission for the preservation. [2:00:09] Louisa Gillespie: Well, you're suggesting they should be at the table at all times. [2:00:14] Becky Danner: I do think so. They should be in the audience. [2:00:16] Louisa Gillespie: They can be in the audience, but they're not going to be at this table discussing anything. [2:00:21] Becky Danner: No,. [2:00:22] Speaker C (unidentified): I think over and above getting into any more specifics that were in your letter, I think you had an honest approach to wanting to get us to communicate. I do [2:00:34] Becky Danner: and I always will. The issue is any negativity [2:00:38] Speaker C (unidentified): that's surrounding the committees right now is off of one issue and that's off our disagreement about how money is raised, specifically on the margin way. So we can get into hours worth of discussion about that. But this whole thing has exploded over that. And above and beyond that, this committee as a whole, everybody I know has absolutely no problem with preservation. You're doing a fantastic job. You've got a $5 million endowment right now. You paid a million dollars for phase one. You're doing exactly what your her mission is. We're trying to do what our mission is and preservation has no seat at the table of a policy. Policy is the select board and the town manager. It's not even us. We only make recommendations. So they shouldn't be at the table with us telling us how our committee should do our mission. Now we want to meet and have discussions about projects and things. That's fantastic i think we should that's what we should be discussing projects where we can cooperate and things that we can do that result in your being able to raise money other things that we can do cooperating on doing this walking tour you have resources we don't have the whole thing of the josiah's chase materials and everything those are great places for us to cooperate of course and [2:02:05] Becky Danner: And you've done a great, good job on that, Elaine. [2:02:07] Speaker C (unidentified): But we are never at the table with them. And we don't, other than your being there, we're not invited. Our meetings are totally open. Anybody can come, speak, participate, whatever. So I just would hope, as Joan started to say, that if you have some comments like that, again, you have some issues with our committee, you should discuss it with us first before going to them. Because they've already decided we're meeting once a month and they've got people we never decided who would meet once a month we talked about meeting to [2:02:39] Becky Danner: Discuss some issues that was a suggestion, okay, it wasn't a decision, but I just think it would be great if we could meet and set up a list of issues that we could discuss. Obviously we're not going to discuss everything, but issues that are friction points. And I think what set it all off was that document that came around that got everybody so excited, and that was also only for discussion purposes. Again, now we have to, please, we have to be careful, but we can't, it was for more than discussion. Because it had the, it was for select boards names that are no longer. [2:03:34] Louisa Gillespie: Even on the select board, it was for discussion only, just to put that to bed, Louisa, we took the. [2:03:41] Speaker C (unidentified): The existing resolutions, copied them, pasted in the new things, and left just as the original was. It wasn't meant to, okay, we're going to get this signed next week. It had nothing to do with that. Our mistake for doing that. [2:03:56] Becky Danner: You know, we've all made mistakes, for heaven's sakes. But this is just a plea that hopefully we can talk about our mistakes and get a little bit closer, the two committees, so that we and again the word in town comes out that oh how wonderful it is that these. [2:04:17] Louisa Gillespie: Committees work together, that's my goal. All right, it's a worthy goal, but before you initiate some ideas and make suggestions, you have to either say to the preservation fund these are my ideas only, because I have not yet taken this up with this committee. I don't think anybody, I would not, I would even say to Elaine if she walked in to some board or department ahead without telling me, I'd say that's not your place. It says even in our handbook that all communications go through chairs, not, I'm not. Trying to take power away from anybody, but so there is a focus and a funnel, and that everybody understands that if I want Amy to go off and do something, she's going to report. I know what's going on. I don't know when you go off and make a statement like this and say we're going to have monthly meetings. That's news to this committee, and it shouldn't be. It should come to us first before. [2:05:32] Becky Danner: Those were only suggestions, but the other committee had a very serious half an hour discussion about this and they've supported the ideas, but I think maybe we should table this discussion today. It's getting late, within a couple hours, and maybe bring it up next week, can see if there's any common ground that could be breached on this, where that your handbook. [2:06:02] Louisa Gillespie: Would agree we could go forward with meeting with the fine. I think if this committee wants to talk about it at the November meeting, we can talk about it further. I mean, you already have one project that Elaine has been working on with Allison for months now, three projects, sorry, three. All right. Since it is six o'clock and we haven't gotten to the major review, this collaboration draft, Elaine and I can put something together about this. It's a very complex thing. I'm sorry that our liaison isn't here. Year. We have, Elena and I have talked about this just by phone and she's read it. I've read all the documents that were sent out to us by the town clerk. What is supposedly on the comp plan on the spreadsheet, we've already tackled everything about the plaque and the centennial. So that was a moot point that shouldn't have really even been in a comp plan when it's a 10 year plan. I don't think they've described accurately. And we had a long talk with the comp plan representatives years ago when they were putting this together and explained, gave them that strategic plan and said, this is what we do. And very little of it is really described accurately. So I think we have to either expand and correct what their little blocks of project descriptions are, because we're not protecting the seacoast. I mean, that's going to come or go on its own. We're protecting a path and 12 acres of land, and we can talk about some further detail and I'm concerned about the issue frankly of the finances that this is news to me because I had not even seen this committee handbook until last week so when it was printed and put out in 2023 they never disseminated it to chairs I never got it I never even knew it existed until Elaine found it on the website. And so this talk of collaboration, that was written up and they never even collaborated with committees before they wrote it up. And now we're being set all these requirements about how we should add this and do such and such and all. And so we're getting sort of more edicts about how we're supposed to work within the committee. And one of the things that I'm truly upset about is this idea that all of us now, we have to approve or go to a town manager every time we make a request for expenses. We have presented a budget to the town. We go to the town manager with it. We go to the budget review. View we explain how it ties in with our all the projects that we list for the year and why this we need these expenses and then for them to turn around and say that every expense has to be approved by a town manager and all it's just too nitpicky as far as I'm concerned and I don't understand why they're either they don't trust us and I'd like to know why what kind of incidents have come up why what is prompting all of this that we're putting into this tight little straight jacket of how we're Supposed to conduct our business now I think it's more because they have an awful lot of people wanting money for the town but what does that have to do with this [2:10:03] Becky Danner: They've got to pay for the town hall they've got to pay for all these things and I think they're just tightening the budget but that's just my opinion well I don't think it has to do with [2:10:12] Louisa Gillespie: You personally no it's not personally but it is onerous and really it's as if they do not trust us this budget of all the committees is like two hundred and thirty thousand dollars for all the committee budgets which is one point I think you figured it out one point six, five percent of the entire budget. So if we cannot go and pay Mike Allaire for work he's already completed, or go and buy plants, or put up a big poster that shows, you know, an event or something like this, which is in our description of what our projects are for a year, then I think they need to change this I just think that this is too constrictive and there are too many things in here it doesn't it doesn't give us any agency or power over what we're already doing and we're doing a better job than and have better descriptions Of what we're doing than they're even asking for so I think there's they should have come to us and had a conversation before they started putting all these rules and regulations in. That's kind of what I object to. This is collaboration, but I don't think they've collaborated from the very beginning. And I do wish the two chairs, the two select board members that have been at our last meetings weren't here today. I'm disappointed that we couldn't talk through this and find out why we're having to do all this extra work, which it is going to take a lot of work putting together all these new reports in the format that they want it's just causing a lot of busy work and we're already busy so that's my statement here do you think Elaine that we need do we do this ourselves do we call a workshop this is certainly not something that we're [2:12:17] Speaker C (unidentified): incapable of doing because we do it and as Joan said we deal with many more strategies than they're asking us to do. It's just this comes off more as a directive rather than a collaboration and guidelines that the group has come up with because every committee has its own mission, its own strategies, its own priorities, its own personality, its own skill set. So to try and make everybody pigeonhole into this is what you have to do, it doesn't allow for the creativity that [2:12:50] Speaker D (unidentified): has made these committees so special. Could I just say something about that? Because I agree with you and I know how you feel. I think this is about being accountable for the comp plan. I'm not saying anything new to anybody. When I was on the sustainability committee and the representative came and talked about the comp plan, I remember a member said, the sustainability committee said, well, why should we give you our ideas when nothing ever happens? It just gets on a shelf so then they had a comp you know decided to have a comprehensive plan implementation committee and that's yeah what this is i just want to say i mean i 'm you know i have to do the same thing for the watershed there's four things here and what they're asking for is what are we gonna what's gonna be a priority well i would think the walking tour like you know there's things on here this is not i feel because my i have 14 things on the watershed and that doesn't cover everything in the watershed right base plan that I have to do but I look at that because it's tied to the comp plan and for the town the comp plan wants to be a living document so that it doesn't go on a shelf like many reports do from my understanding of the town that it becomes, you know, you do these reports, everybody gets it, and nothing happens. So this is an, this is a, and I think it's good. I'll just say that. I don't feel that I'm in a box because they're asking me for how, what are you doing on your committee to address these things in the comp plan? And I can say that. And so can you guys, but that's not all we do. So I just want to say, I don't, I don't feel. That is, they're making it look like [2:14:40] Speaker C (unidentified): A comp plan, by definition from the state, is a guideline. It's for the town as a roadmap of where would you like to get based on surveys that you had, based on priorities, based on budgeting, based on all those things. It's great to follow it. It's never been followed before. Correct. So I love the idea that we're laying this out. The problem is sometimes it looks like this is being a directive. You have to do. I want the committees to be able to say, yes, we'll deal with these things, some of these things in the comp plan, but don't pigeonhole us into only that. [2:15:19] Speaker D (unidentified): I don't think they are, Elaine. I hear you. I really do hear you. I hear you. I don't read it that way. I don't feel pigeonholed. I don't feel that. I feel what this is trying to say is the comp plan was voted in by the voters, right, was decided that these are the priorities and we are going to try really hard to get the committees, all of us, to work toward the same goal. Oh, that's not everything the Sustainability Committee does or my watershed or anything. It's just, I don't feel they're confining us. I think they're saying the comp plan is a kind of a broad document, right? And some of this stuff here that I'm reading is broad. It's not everything you do. [2:16:01] Louisa Gillespie: And we're going to have to expand it because it isn't enough. [2:16:04] Speaker D (unidentified): But however, it's for me, all they want from us, and I'm talking too much, but all they want from us is here are the strategies in the comp plan that match your committee just let us know what your priorities are not that you have to get it all done in 2027 but what do you run up so I looked at the 14 things and I and I thought yeah I can see it is it everything no because it's not 10 years yeah I mean yes we're not going to change that yeah can I the idea behind it is let's make it alive let's not make it something that well we did this, but now this is, you know, this is, it's confining us. It's not confining us. [2:16:45] Speaker E (unidentified): Yeah, I would agree with you, Jane. [2:16:48] Becky Danner: But I, well, Joyce is saying, wait a minute, Joyce, go ahead. [2:16:54] Speaker E (unidentified): Yeah, I would agree with you, Jane. That wasn't the reaction that I had to it either. I thought this is a good thing that it's taking the broad goals and saying, okay, these things I think are under the purview of the Marginal Way Committee. And so, you know, let's see what you're doing with those. Also, it came across to me and it seemed like the wording was all about this is proposed. We're just putting that out there out here for discussion. And we want your committee to discuss it. So I think, in a way, that is what you need to do. You need to put something out so that people can actually discuss it. And even under these, you know, these things under here, it says, you know, these aren't necessarily the actual things or all they are. It's just like a template for us to look at to see how we would work with it. And I actually thought it was a good thing to have some consistency among all the committees. I don't really know the other committees, but I didn't have a negative reaction to it at all. I thought this was a good starting place. [2:18:07] Louisa Gillespie: Do we want to have, then, a workshop over this? [2:18:11] Speaker C (unidentified): We need to respond to this by October 15th. So the issue is... [2:18:16] Louisa Gillespie: Can I just ask one question? Yes, sorry, on number two under ours, it's the natural resources, and then it lists under responsibility that's the conservation commission. We should be there, conservation. [2:18:29] Becky Danner: But I mean, if I can help with this resources, right, and Jane is basically they're going to fix that first time they've ever had, all right, okay, accountability committee tied to it, right. [2:18:42] Speaker D (unidentified): So they're just trying to figure it out. Okay, thank you. I promise you it's not limiting. I don't, I mean, I don't know how to say it. I don't feel that. When I look at my 14 things, I don't feel like, oh, my gosh, they're only making me, I can only do this. No, they're kind of broad topics. [2:18:59] Speaker C (unidentified): I don't have a problem with, I think, laying out all the strategies that they did off the comp plan by committee and all of that. Right. It's great for the committees to see. This is what the comp plan says, even if that committee didn't commit itself to doing those initially, because most of the input was only from the comp plan. Most of the people in the community or committees did not have a final say and or didn't go to the meetings to have a final say. That's not my point at all. My point is this is collaboration and stewardship. Why didn't you involve some committee people from the beginning to talk about how we might see you've [2:19:37] Speaker D (unidentified): Got all these list of things we might see on the implementation committee no on this document. I don't have a problem with the document. That's the thing. That's what this is, though. They said they did not vote it in. They want to know our feedback on this. Is it a useful document? Is part of the instructions? This is not voted in. This is not final. Right. It's just a that's what this is about. It's a draft for discussion, a draft. I understand. But the draft [2:20:04] Speaker C (unidentified): Discussion is only in writing. It's not with people sitting down and flow back and forth about that's too many things we don't think that works for us so how do we get how is it going to be implemented how are you going to evaluate us how often are you going to what how is it going to be [2:20:20] Speaker D (unidentified): Done Blaine that's what they want though what you're saying is what they want in that document what we want to see is committee input this is what the marginal weight committee says how are you going to do that 's what this is about instead of getting you know 30 people in a room it's facilitating within each committee and what are our what are our concerns is it useful for us this is this is what this is they're asking us to do they're not pitching holding us they're not they're not putting us In a box they're just saying would this be useful and the whole purpose is that we should all be working towards what the comp plan outlines all of us should be it was voted in right I mean it was it voted in or not I mean I it was voted in so it's voted in and I feel like there are things within the comp plan that you know that people wanted I guess I'm just I'm just trying to understand I understand your feeling I don't feel the same way I feel like this is a good thing [2:21:28] Becky Danner: So now I think we need to have a meeting before the 15th. [2:21:33] Speaker C (unidentified): Does anybody have any specific input now? Or were you fine with everything? And just, do you want Joan and I to deal with the reaction for the committee? Or do you want to sit down and talk about it? [2:21:48] Speaker E (unidentified): Well, it didn't come up until it was already 6 o'clock. I think it would take a little bit of discussion about, you know, we would need a lot of internal committee discussion, I think, before we could say on the 15th, this is what the committee says. But it does say if you can't meet, if you can't meet that deadline, you know, let the town clerk know when you could. Right, so yeah, you know, I would agree we can't, we can't now open this up for a discussion because it's late, you know, and so I think we need a separate meeting for it, or we delay it until the November meeting, and we say we can't respond until after the November meeting, but [2:22:37] Speaker D (unidentified): I would be in favor of a meeting between now all the way, I think they want input soon. [2:22:43] Louisa Gillespie: I think we probably would have to do some kind of a, an extra meeting just to talk about what we want. I mean, we've, we've given them, we know what we're doing. We either have to expand, we can't expand this exactly because that is the comp plan, but in some kind of a, I mean, you have 13 things, we have things that are actually the only one that we're working on that's relevant is the talking tour, exactly what I was thinking, I mean, it says establish a plan, we have the plan, the green broke and the protocols, we've done that, so the only one that we are [2:23:27] Speaker D (unidentified): actively tasked with doing is this tour, right, so that would be put down as priority one for, we'd start, they don't want us to finish it, they're just saying look at the four things, it's not everything, obviously not everything that the marginal weight committee does supposed to add [2:23:43] Louisa Gillespie: more, I would think that, no, these are, we just wondering, it gives us the option of adding more [2:23:49] Becky Danner: it says future annual plan inputs on the bottom, or at least online, we can put more, but all they [2:23:55] Speaker C (unidentified): have, all we have to do is refer them to the strategic plan, we have a ton of things we do [2:24:00] Speaker D (unidentified): Right. But I think they want us to choose something from this, from this four things that are linked to the marginal way work. Just, I mean, I'm not saying that's all. [2:24:11] Speaker C (unidentified): And the way that's written is it's research and analyze the possibility. Yeah. We're not just researching, analyzing it. We are developing. [2:24:19] Speaker D (unidentified): And so write that down. I mean, I think it's. [2:24:22] Speaker E (unidentified): Could we get back to, because we have to end this meeting. So could we get back to scheduling another meeting to discuss this? Because yeah, I thought what we were being asked for was input on this as a template, not that we have to fill out everything right now before the 15th, but what do we think as a, this as a plan for how we do this, so that's the discussion I'd like to have, and I think we need another meeting to do it and not continue to do it now, all [2:24:54] Louisa Gillespie: Right, we could either do something. Let's see, I don't, I'm here all this week. I don't know what my medical appointments are going to be the following week. Could we meet for, if we just had an hour to talk through what we want to put in as our priorities, is there a morning or an afternoon this week, this week, does anybody [2:25:22] Speaker D (unidentified): anybody's Friday, you can do a Friday, do Friday if people, other people, I mean, I think they're on page one is what they're, we can see what they want, right, I mean, I think we just look at that and [2:25:32] Speaker E (unidentified): are you back choice by on a Friday would be all right for me, yeah, I could be there on Friday [2:25:40] Susan Driscoll: All right, I will be in Australia, I know you can't, I know you could be [2:25:45] Louisa Gillespie: you're probably not going to, I can give you a zoom link but I don't think you [2:25:49] Susan Driscoll: I'll be in Australia on a 12-hour difference, so I won't be able to attend. [2:25:55] Louisa Gillespie: Exactly. So forget, all right. So what if we did, could we say 9.30 Friday morning? [2:26:02] Speaker D (unidentified): I can't make it Friday at all. [2:26:04] Louisa Gillespie: Okay, you can't. All right. Well, do we have enough? Oh, do we have to, okay. Do we have to hold this here or in a conference room because we're having more than, so there'll be one,, two, three, four, five of us. So do we have to hold it maybe over in town, all in the little conference room? [2:26:24] Speaker C (unidentified): We might have to, because I think even though it's a workshop, we don't have to take public input, but I think we still have to because it's over. [2:26:31] Louisa Gillespie: I'll have to, let me check with Chris and find out if I can reserve it. Otherwise, 9.30, I guess, and 2.37. And I'll check with her and see if we have to, if there has to be public. [2:26:45] Becky Danner: let's just send in what we think and then you and Elaine can coordinate it what do you want to [2:26:52] Louisa Gillespie: discuss or not do we want to a public discussion about this Joyce how strongly do you feel do you want to do it that we just talk this whole thing through I mean I'm fine doing that and then we can bat things ideas back and forth because you'd rather not well the only thing is [2:27:12] Speaker C (unidentified): you cannot do this by email you cannot that's right we cannot have it on it's an unofficial [2:27:20] Louisa Gillespie: meeting so you can't do that we're discussing public information so we have to do it [2:27:26] Speaker C (unidentified): yeah or just send something in writing that we put together and it could be sent back to you [2:27:31] Speaker D (unidentified): but you can't run your meeting through email no but if she if Gail just wanted to give something and can't attend and they want to give yes you can do that it could come in it could [2:27:44] Speaker C (unidentified): Be compiled, okay, and then we can compile it and yeah, just send thing, send this is what the whole committee has done, just send it out, no comments back, yeah, right, all right, is that all [2:27:59] Speaker E (unidentified): right with you Joyce, that's okay with me, I mean, I don't really have that much of a problem with this. So I'd be interested in a discussion to hear more about what some of the issues are, because, you know, I read it more like what Jane is saying. So I didn't have a negative reaction to it at all. So I don't know that I'm going to have a lot of input, but I would enjoy coming to the meeting and hearing what you all have to say about it. I don't think they want us to come to [2:28:27] Speaker D (unidentified): any consensus or, I mean, I think the issues that they have, does this work for you? Is the use of format for planning they want thoughts on that, I don't think we have to, but I think getting different people's thoughts about it and writing that down, so what I'm saying is we can [2:28:46] Becky Danner: all answer this and send it to Joe and Elaine and then they can compile everything rather than sitting in all right discussing it back and forth, yeah, you know, you take a vote on [2:29:01] Louisa Gillespie: all right if this is what you want to do if you decide that you want to just send me your comments elaine and i will get together put something together we will send it back to all of you just a transmission to you can read it you can send again your can they cannot send their corrections to me again no all right so what we do is compile it all we say [2:29:35] Speaker C (unidentified): this is what we're going to send along to this, to the select board committee, wherever they want us [2:29:40] Speaker D (unidentified): to send it as a guideline, it's these bullet points, correct, I know everybody knows that, right, bullet points, right, are what we're commenting on, the front page, all right, we can do that, if people then [2:29:54] Louisa Gillespie: object to what we send out, then we're going to have to meet and thrash it out, if there's [2:30:01] Speaker C (unidentified): some, something, I am sure after they receive all of this from the committees, they have a huge amount, I mean, there's 13 committees, whatever, that they're going to take input from, they're [2:30:12] Louisa Gillespie: going to have to go back and determine, okay, this is all right, can everybody have everything sent to me by Friday morning, and I said that is a deadline, if we have, yes, are we still meeting or no, I guess we're not meeting, we're not meeting, by Friday morning, yes, then Elaine and I will put this together and write something up and send it to you by, let's say, next Monday, and they do say [2:30:45] Speaker D (unidentified): Say like what should be corrected or added, or you know, they leave it open for that. So you know, I'm sorry to be difficult. I don't mean to be difficult. You're not being difficult. [2:31:00] Susan Driscoll: Can I, can I just say one, can I just say one thing? I was on the comprehensive plan committee at home and Sharon Mass, and we did all this work and we produced this thing, and our select board never really asked the various town committees or anybody about how we might implement some of this, like how we could in the next five years do the work. And as a result of not having that oversight, most of the comprehensive plan is just on a bookshelf. So I'm gonna, I want to, I want to say that to the extent that the select board is trying, and they're probably still working with their consultants on the comprehensive plan, is trying to find a way to ensure that as much as possible, the comprehensive plan is implemented. And if all they're asking us for is what are the things we're going to be doing? Well, one, how do we want to give them feedback? How are they going to know if we've accomplished these things on the comprehensive plan? Then I think we need to say these are the things we're doing. We have a strategic plan. You know, I don't know how all the other committees are functioning and maybe they need more oversight. I don't think we do. And I'm going to start off thinking that they're not going to be coming down on us with more reports. And we've got to, God forbid, the town manager would not want to sign off on every little check every committee does. He doesn't have time. Nobody does if they're a town manager. Manager, so to the extent I'll give them, give it grace that we're trying, they're trying to figure out a way to implement what the town voted on, even if it was a close vote, the town voted to on this comprehensive plan. Then I think it's incumbent upon us to say yeah, we see these things and we have a plan and these are the things we're doing and leave it at that and just wait and see, like are they suddenly asking for reports and stuff like that? I frankly don't know if they will because they have other things they need to get done and they probably have other priorities based on that comprehensive plan, but having experienced it and sharing mass and seeing it go on a shelf with nobody following through, I'm going to give it grace. And if this is how the select board is hoping to make sure that this becomes a living document, then good for them, because there's a lot in the document that probably would be great to implement. [2:33:27] Speaker C (unidentified): All previous comp plans did exactly that. They went on the shelf. Right. And as a community, there's an implementation committee. Right. It was going to oversee making sure that some of these things were being done. Now, the person that was running that is now on the select board. So that's why I believe you're now seeing it come through the select board. [2:33:46] Susan Driscoll: Sure. And we had an implementation committee in Sharon and it didn't matter. So to the extent that they're going back to the committees that actually do a lot of this work and asking for feedback and how, you know, how do we, what do we think about how we track it and what are our priorities? Priorities, I think that's okay. I don't want to start with they're trying to control us, because I'm not sure they can for that they really want to so much as they want to at least make an effort to not have this go on a shelf and then five years later we spend another several hundred thousand dollars on another comprehensive plan having not accomplished anything at all. [2:34:28] Louisa Gillespie: Right, well said. Okay, so I think we have a plan. Okay, so people can send me whatever comments, ideas you want, and we'll put it together and send it back to you before we submit it to the town. Can I make a motion? [2:34:45] Becky Danner: We adjourn the meeting. First we have to vote on doing it that way. Okay, because it's official. [2:34:49] Louisa Gillespie: Business. All right, can someone make this motion please of the how we're going to put this. I'll [2:34:55] Susan Driscoll: I'll make the motion that we do what Joan just said we were going to do. People are going to give comments. We're going to provide comments back to Joan by Friday, whatever the date's going to be, October 9th or 10th? I don't know. I don't know. By Friday. By Friday, October 9th. And then Joan will consolidate that information, and they'll send the committee an email for a final look at it, and then that's what we'll submit by October 15th. That's my motion. [2:35:25] Louisa Gillespie: Motion. Okay, all right, so I think since we have people on, I have to ask for a vote, a voice vote, so Joyce, how do you vote? Yes. Susan? Yes. Elaine? Yes. Gail? Yes. Jane? Yes. I'm a yes. So it passes, and this is the way we will get this report together. Okay, now a motion to adjourn. Motion to adjourn. Second. Second. We're just going to have a hand raised on this one, I think. We are adjourning. Thank you all very much. [2:36:05] Susan Driscoll: Goodbye, everybody. Talk to you soon.