Minutes
Lincoln Community Preservation Committee
Dec 04, 2007
Present: Rayna Caplan, Susie Collins, John Koenig, Colin Smith, Peter von Mertens, Bryce Wolf
Absent: Craig Donaldson, Bill Stason, John Valpey
The committee first heard from Gary Taylor on behalf of the Affordable Housing Trust. Gary described the terms of the original CPA grant to the trust, which had been made in the context of the possible purchase of the Ridge Road apartments. That purchase never occurred, and since then, the owner of Ridge Road has done some repair work on some of the units, and has rented a number of the units. There may still be possibility for the town to acquire some of those units. With the Deaconness breaking ground on its project, 30 units are automatically added to the town’s affordable housing stock, putting the town over 10%. It is projected that with the new census in 2010, the town will be 14-17 units short of 10%. There could be a real threat of a 40B development on Winter Street.
Minuteman Commons is in financial trouble, and there is a possibility that the town could buy more units there. Housing for persons with special needs is also under discussion.
The Trust would like the CPA to renew the $900,000 grant, but without the restrictions place on the original grant - those restrictions being the $150,000 per unit cap and the limitation on use of those funds for buydowns. In place of those restrictions, the Trust would agree to come before the committee and obtain its consent for any spending of the CPA funds.
The committee discussed the pending proposals.
The committee reviewed a memo from the Town Clerk regarding the Archival Survival project (2009-04). The memo describes the construction of the vault as being only one component of a larger project, which involves: assessments of the collections’ preservation needs, preservation supplies and services, digitization of records, and various furnishings and equipment. The memo also states that the library/Town Clerk will make a good faith effort to seek financial support for these post-construction operational needs from sources other than or in addition to CPA funds, including the Codman Trust, the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners, and private fund-raising.
The Town Clerk’s memo also addressed the issue of future capacity in the vault. The proposed vault will provide 700 linear feet of storage space as compared to the 170 linear feet existing. Of the records currently stored in Town Hall, only a small sub-set requires permanent preservation, and of that sub-set only an even smaller portion is of sufficient general historic interest to warrant placement in the new vault. After an initial transfer to the new vault from the Town Hall storage, the Town Clerk expects permanent public records disposition to the vault to be at a rate of 5 – 10 linear feet per year.
Peter von Mertens discussed the proposal for invasive plant management funding (2009-06). There are invasives all over town. Areas that might be dealt with as part of this project would be around the school and the muster field. There would be a crew of 3-4 with a crew chief. This would be a pilot project, and their could be requests for future CPA funding depending on the results. The Conservation Commission does regular maintenance on over 2000 acres in town. The explosion of invasives is leading to the loss of trees as well.
The committee discussed its fund balance, anticipated to be approximately $1.5 million at the end of FY ’08. In that context, the committee discussed the suggestion from Colleen Wilkins that the committee consider paying off the three projects that were approved for bonding, in light of the large requests that are anticipated in the next few years.
The committee unanimously approved the minutes from its November 13, 2007 meeting.
Submitted By: John L. Koenig
Approved: _____________
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