001uh good evening everyone and welcome to a special meeting the ashon select board the agenda there's this just a my name is Robert Sher and we have a quorum of the select board here tonight out in the audience I think uh four or the five members are here so I will call this meeting to order this is a special meeting of uh the select board as I think everyone knows this uh the single item on the agenda for tonight is a public for on the use of the Valentine property so so welcome everyone and uh without further Ado I'm going to turn this over this form over to our town manager Michael Herbert thank you thank you Mr chair um as mentioned my name is Michael Herbert I'm the town manager here and I want
002to welcome you all tonight to talk about the future of a property that has been in the town's possession for a few years now and we're really excited to um you know come up with a future reuse for it and that's the Valentine property uh before I start getting too much into the presentation start talking about this I want to recognize again the select board members that are here Rob Sher Claudia Bennett Brandy Kinsman and Joe Joe I knew you were somewhere Joe Joe miani so I I wasn't wearing my glasses Joe so and then also up here we have Doug Scott who's our Building Commissioner um and uh Jen ball our assistant Town manager Beth Reynolds economic development director and Doug small or DPW director each of them have had some role and played
003played some role in uh the evolution of this property and that's something that we're again really excited to talk about tonight so what's the agenda well tonight we want to review the recent history of the property um and then move and start talking about the restoration of the barn many of you saw over the course of a year uh that Barn being restored to its former glory and so we'll get a little bit more into the details of that um next we'll segue into going over the existing conditions and the limitations of the future reuse of the property um because that's going to help shape and guide what we're able to do with that in the future um then we're going to review a proposed use um that has been put together and it's based
004upon the feedback that we had previous previously received uh through a number of different methods and uh I'll get into that a little bit further as we get to that section um and then next steps we'll discuss next steps uh and then also uh at that point we're going to open this up for Community feedback and discussion um really looking forward to getting your input on this proposal getting your thoughts um whether you agree with things disagree with things have some different ideas anyway this uh this will be an opportunity for you to share those with us so moving along um so let's talk about the history of the property uh we're not going to go all the way back to the 16 and 1700s don't worry I don't have a whole slideshow presentation on
005that although Beth is like why not um we're going to start with something a little bit more recent um we're going to talk about the year 2017 and 2017 was the year that uh Capital group properties um received a comprehensive permit from the zoning board of appeals to build 120 units um in two new buildings now they were going to do a number of things with the property one of the things is they were going to take the house and turn it into a clubhouse um but they really didn't have a proposed use for the barn um and so there were a number of discussions on what we could do with that but really nothing was ever finalized but they got a permit to build 120 units but the developer actually wanted to um appeal
006to what's known as the housing appeals committee to build 140 units so 120 units was not enough for them go figure uh so they wanted to do 140 units but at the same time um the select board in a meeting agreed to try and negotiate a purchase of the property with the developer so the developer is on one track uh looking at appealing their decision to get to build more units and simultaneously or concurrently if you will um the select board authorized uh myself and then the select board member Carl hackinson to go and speak with Bill de Petri of capital group properties to see if we could negotiate some type of purchase um after a series of discussions uh we reached agreement with the developer to purchase the property for 3.5 million and that
007was in March I think it took us what a couple months Carl to get that yeah at least a couple of months yes and it was it's it was a very high figure when we started out you know you might think 3.5 million is high well compared to eight it seems uh relatively reasonable but uh we did come up with uh with that agreement back in 2018 and uh to effectuate that purchase what we needed to do is get two votes uh one was at town meeting in May of 2018 which uh we overwhelmingly were able to secure uh we needed a two-thirds majority I don't think it was unanimous but it was close to unanimous and then we also had a debt exclusion ballot vote in May of 2018 and uh this project along
008with the Mendes school they were on the same ballot the Mendes school fees visibility study passed with 80 it was either 80 or 85% of the vote uh pretty overwhelming majority um so also I should mention as part of this whole uh negotiated purchase and and process we worked with the in and Hicks family who's here in attendance Robin and Cynthia to actually put a deed restriction on their property if we were successfully able to buy the property and so they very generously uh and I want to underline the word very uh very generously put a deed restriction limiting development on their property and so that was part of it as well so moving forward um we ended up you know now we've inherited like a barn that's Fallen apart in a house that's not
009in the greatest shape uh property that's a little bit overgrown so you know where do you start uh well we hired a property manager David Foster many of you know David uh to help secure the house and the barn and start cleaning it out um which he did so and then we had a public forum in 2019 and coming out of that Forum the select board uh agreed to form what's known as the Valentine property committee um and we'll get a little bit more into what the Valentine property committee did but uh they worked for a couple of years came up with a recommendation that ultimately decided we decided not to move forward with and so again we're still left with the property that needed to be taken care of mainly the barn so after
010um after purchasing it in 2018 after years of stops and starts we finally came uh to an agreement on a process on how to uh restore this barn and uh the select board agreed to use uh $750,000 in arpa funds to help restore and preserve the shell of the barn and then CPC funds were also used for that CPC meaning Community preservation act funds or CPA funds I should say so I mentioned a little bit before about the Valentine property committee uh so that group was initially charged with assisting the town and identifying both proper and feasible reuses of the Valentine property by soliciting and review reviewing proposals from interested properties and so that group did it was about nine members did a ton of work uh putting together basically doing a lot of research
011first of all and I was part of that committee and and we looked at different properties in different towns that were similar so for example we went to NAIC and looked at the na Community Organic Farms I don't know if you're familiar with that uh property we also looked at the Holliston Historical Society um our neighbors next door um we looked at the Josiah Smith Tavern and uh in the town of Weston um which was purchased by that town maybe 20 25 years ago and they were still having having a hard time figuring out what to do with it and then finally we looked at the Medway theer Homestead so some of you in the audience here maybe some of you watching at home um have been to the theer homestead and and know what
012kind of unique property that is so after reviewing all those properties we came up with a basically preferred uses through an RFP process and we put that out to bid RFP meeting request for proposals um and we received one proposal from a developer to purchase the property for the sale of the property um and ultimately the committee made a recommendation to the selectboard not to move forward with that proposal first of all we found out that we weren't necessarily able to sell it or actually enter into a long-term lease um with it and then it was just overall it was deemed overall not just in the best interest of the town to move forward with it and again like I mentioned before the focus at that point in time became not uh not necessarily on
013the uh future reuse of the property but how do we restore This Barn in order to maintain it so we can um so we can maintain it for future use that makes sense so we'll get into a little bit on the on the renovation of the barn and I'm sure Doug will be here to help me out to uh talk a little bit about it so as you can see here here's a um a couple really bad pictures of the barn the way it was before it was really really dark in there um the picture on the left you can see that's the foundation you can see stable is not a word that you would use to describe it um it's kind of balancing Teeter tottering on rocks um you can see the general condition
014of the barn in the middle in the rightmost picture um please excuse my daughter in the middle of the middle one she's giving it a thumbs up saying that yes we need to uh restore this thing um but it was in pretty pretty bad shape uh over the years we had uh holes had developed in the roof uh there was a lot of rot that had developed especially in one side so it wasn't going to be um an easy proposition to go ahead and restore this property but uh we're fortunate to have a Building Commissioner who is very experienced in Timber Frame properties and and that's really kind of one of the things that makes this property this Barn so unique is that it is a timber frame uh building and it's got this unique
015joinery and unique structure that's really designed to keep it holding up even if like one corner is gone which actually that was the case with this property one corner was basically not structurally sound and the thing was still standing up but um we uh we embarked upon that renovation or restoration I should say and uh Doug I don't know if you want to come up and talk a little bit about uh just some of the restoration process and well I guess you don't you don't have to get up you can just sit right there and you can push a button we're we are in the 20th century um and just talk about maybe some of the methods and the methodology and and some of the joinery and stuff that were used so what uh what
016ended up happening um is that I was asked for my thoughts on the barn and what we what we could do with it my first thought was just light a match and let's walk away but no I'm kidding I'm kidding we uh so after walking through it we came up with a game plan we went back and forth um one of the options was to take it down completely piece by piece label everything build all new uh there's probably about 70% of it that would be new and um and then put a new foundation in and then um put it back back together and uh but uh that that didn't seem to be something that uh we could get everybody behind so uh we put it out to bid to do renovations to it I
017wrote up a a Specs uh we were very lucky to get a comp a contractor um company out of Rhode Island that uh had a foreman supervis superintendent that was familiar with timber frame work so we were able to or I was able to have uh many conversations with them about the type of joinery that I wanted them to use to put it back together how we were going to scarf the rotted pieces from uh the Rotom sections on some of the Timbers whole Timbers that needed to be replaced and really didn't to be honest we really didn't have a full idea how much was going to have to be done until we finished cleaning it out um taking out the horse stalls and taking out a lot of what was uh superus to the
018actual frame of the building and as that uh we were as that happened and we were unveiling the structure um we found areas that we needed to do whol sale replacement in some areas where we could scarf some joints scarfing a joint is where you're cutting a Timber you're cutting it a certain way to be able to add new pieces to it and um Doug I'm just going to highlight like the place where you did that right here yes that is one of them so all everything that's replaced is with was replaced with Oak pegs that was one of my that was one of my uh demands that we weren't using any mechanical uh Fasteners to to put this back together it was originally and it still is and it was a an oak I
019I'm not sure if it was all Oak more than likely it was the pegs um and and it was put together that way so when we put it back we put it back the same exact way um the uh you know we we we had as part of this about when we had it all opened up and we realized that we had a substantial amount of replacement work that we needed to do um we were able to I was able to work a change order there was close to $400,000 and it ended up spending that it ended up in the long run costing the town a little over $30,000 cuz I did some horse trading um areas that we didn't need to do that we didn't have to go crazy on trading those in for
020credits for um work that we did need to do so and the other thing was is that the all the wood in there except for the flooring is uh hem fur uh typically the what I used to build I used to build timber frame homes and they were all out of Oak but nowadays Oak is crazy stupid and you have to be able to cut it within within three days of when it's cut as a tree um so we used hemper which gave some latitude and some time to be able to properly fit things we had to take corn the back left cornner we had to take that that's a 30 foot tall 8 by8 piece piece of hemper um supporting the in under the basement which you don't see we have a a whole
021series of we got a 30 foot long and a 28 foot long 10x10 Oak uh hemper beam which we all chisel these are all hand chiseled um there's no Machinery used in it um and the goal was to make it safe and sound um we didn't beautify it um there's no electricity to the building uh but it is now standing solid and it should last another 150 years awesome thank you Doug and just kind of expound a little bit on what doug was saying some cases so the sheathing um of the barn when um when that was too R it Beyond repair Doug actually went up to a U or m city under Doug's Direction actually went up to a barn in Maine an Old Barn in Maine and reclaimed some of that Lumber and
022used that as sheathing um for the roof uh that was originally 1 by 12s um they were they were all pretty much rotted I think that's a fair fair thing to say I don't think that's going to surprise anybody who saw the tar blowing in the wind um but um anyway that was all replaced with 1x12 sheathing um and then architectural great shingles and um again as as Doug mentioned all the joineries is hand done uh it really is just you know I I grew up on a farm so um barns have some kind of sentimental value to me and some sentimental interest um but really if you're just a student of architecture um you could probably really have an appreciation for such a barn it's just just really really unique you can get a
023little sense of the of the of the framework here at the top I know this picture isn't the greatest but um some of these things are actually just cable to keep it um well it disappeared everybody so well until okay we we're back now all right there um you can just see some of the complex joinery there that's utilized to keep it keep it upright and keep it going so that was really the story of the renovation behind the barn and so I'll move forward and here's some pictures of the barn that's 95% done um the first thing that I noticed as I walked in there is that you can get a lot more light compared to those uh pictures from before the renovation um that's because we um uncovered the fact that there were
024boarded up Windows there um and so we were able to replace those with wood windows um some of the other windows that were broken we were able to replace uh so there's a lot of natural light that gets in there um especially compared to the way it was previously um it's a pretty wide open floor plan right now um the the outside of the barn is Ceder shingles that's been painted and trying to think of any other relevant uh relevant things other than what Doug and I have mentioned um can't really think of of anything else like like Doug said our our goal was to was to restore this property and to keep it as historical as possible and we were very very fortunate I will say because there was some question about how historical
025the restoration was and we were very fortunate to be on a historical commission meeting with um a historical consultant named Stacy spies uh who is working with the historical Commission on a local historic district that's for another Forum but um she was able to give us her opinion on what she thought about the U the renovation or the restoration I should say and she was very very pleased with it from a historical perspective thought that we were going above and beyond really what we needed to do as part of that so so those are pictures of the bar afterwards the what if I could one the one thing I didn't uh tell you was the interior of the basement so we rebuilt a good section of the foundation that Foundation was a mix of rock
026[Music] stone concrete brick you know it was a so we left the exterior what we did was we poured a on average a 12in thick one-sided wall around the entire interior and there's a concrete floor uh in that uh now so um so there would be no no movement uh for any of that that was that was quite the undertaking yeah it really was a massive project um so let's move forward to existing conditions so I showed you what the barn looks like now maybe a few tweaks since we took those pictures but moving forward now let's talk about the rest of the property and the existing conditions mainly the land so we're very fortunate that we have Carl and Robin Hicks Carl hackinson and Robin Hicks here along with uh several other volunteers actually
027many volunteers worked very very hard to clear this property of all the brush and most of the invasive species that were on the remaining uh acreage of the property which the total acreage of the property I realized I didn't say that in the the beginning is uh 7.7 Acres so you know it's not um it's not a plantation by any means but uh it's certainly a good siiz property and they spent a lot of work u in a lot of hot days uh working with some mechanical equipment Greg WS Greg I can't believe I didn't mention you by name specifically here uh Greg did a lot of work as well um in clearing that property and making sure that basically it's a blank pallet I guess you could say for uh for the future use
028uh there was a Wilderness corter that was untouched um for wildlife to utilize uh basically there's been a path that's been cut to um to uh utilize and enjoy the property and then when we're talking about existing conditions I should uh should also mention the house of course uh the house is the other other building on the property the house is a really really unique uh mish mash we're going to use that term again since it's a technical term of different styles in different um different centuries and different Generations I guess you could say um as you can see here through some of these pictures and I I want to point out that these pictures are a few years old so the house is not in as good a condition as you see right now
029but in the back there is a very very large kitchen area in the front as you walk into the old house which is a two Center chimney Colonial home that was built around the 17 uh in the late 17 excuse me the 1800s the original house was in the 1700s um as you walk into the front you see these nice great rooms with these uh big fireplaces and a couple of picture windows that were added over the course I think around the 1920s um they were added and so it's really just kind of a grand entrance as you as you walk in makes a big difference um when you when you can come in and you have all of this this space that you can utilize and think of um different uses for um but
030I will have to say for the most part this house is chopped up pretty good uh when I say chopped up a lot of rooms have been made um I think it was a rooming house at one point um there's been all kinds of activities that have been found at the Valentine property I think there was uh some gaming that was done maybe back in the day um I see a couple smiles out in the audience people know what I'm talking about um but uh in any case that's the existing conditions of the house just a brief existing condition of the house now before we start talking about the proposal and the proposed reuse of the property let's talk about some of the current limitations that we had in and help shape this proposal all
031right so first of all this land is considered chapter 97 land so chapter 97 is part of the Massachusetts Constitution it is designed to protect open space and Parkland um an environmentally sensitive property uh throughout Massachusetts um it's got a number of restrictions associated with it but a primary one that affects this property is that it prohibits the sale and the long-term lease of the property um because it's chapter 97 land it's also can't be used for commercial for profit use so that's a limitation as well as part of the property um since we utilize CPA funds and since Robin and Cindy's deed restriction on their property was contingent upon having a CPA restriction on the Valentine property we have CPA restrictions Community preservation act restrictions um on the property as well which requires that
032the property be used in accordance with the CPA guidelines and I'll go in a little bit deeper into the the conservation restriction later but that conservation restriction also limits the ability to add buildings to the property now there's certain uh certain instances where uh for ancillary purposes or maybe educational purposes you could build some type of structure but it can't be deletar to the property or or take away from it in its historical and ecological value there's significant Wetlands on the property um and for those of you that are unfamiliar with Wetlands uh their environment sensitive areas that require permitting and um you know they they provide some necessary complications uh with putting together a use for the property you have to work around it to a certain extent we also have limited parking availability
033so everybody you know if you ask anybody you know what's what's a main concern of downtown or any place people will say parking or a lot of lot of people will say parking well the same thing you can say that for the Valentine property as well there's limited space for parking it also must have a tourism aspect to it so when the American um rescue plan act came out and funds were distributed there were a set of guidelines that communities had to follow in order to be able to utilize those properties and uh one of them was that you could use the property for tourist tourism and economic development and so that is what we the rationale way utilize to tap into AR arpa funds to redo the barn so now it has that attachment
034to it so we have to have some kind of Tourism aspect to it doesn't have to be the main thing but there has to be some some level of Tourism associated with it and that's a very broad definition as well and then finally operations at this point in time in Ashland's development it must be self- sustaining so we we can't have a property that bleeds uh money and does not have expenses that exceed our Revenue um I should have pointed out here it doesn't mean that Revenue has to exceed the operating cost but at least has to meet it so we have to have something that's Revenue neutral unless the the town decides to move in a different direction and uh start putting uh more money into the general fund budget so those are the
035current limitations on the property see how I'm doing for time here I mentioned the conservation restriction and the conservation restriction really has a number of elements associated with it in a number of um purposes first it's supposed to provide a framework for the house and the barn and the grounds and what you can use it for and how you maintain it especially the historical properties the house and the barn it provides an opportunity for us to both host public and private events at the uh at the property um it provides protection for wildlife habitat I mentioned that Wildlife Corridor being a key component of that it provides protection for Park land in open space you saw all of that land a good majority of that or practically uh all of that space that I showed
036in the pictures needs to stay as open space um it also provides an opportunity to continue its um its agricultural Heritage uh this property has uh like as you can imagine a um a distinguished history as an agricultural property throughout the years uh being utilized in a number of different formats um an orchard it was actually at one point believe Cliff you might want to help me out here I believe it was a place where it almost like a self- sustaining Farm where people you know they basically grew the food that they ate there uh wasn't necessarily for commercial purposes Cliff's nodding his head so I'm going to go if that's okay kind of kind of okay we we'll stick with kind of and then finally and I think the most important part it gives
037us an opportunity for to learn about and then also celebrate um Ashland's history not just the history of the Valentine property but the history of Ashland itself and so with all of that in mind that is what helped shape the proposed use that we're talking about tonight um I should also point out that this use has been shaped not only through the restrictions and the limitations that I went through before but also through multiple public forums U I mentioned the Valentine property committee's work we also had a survey that we utilized to help create figure out what kind of uses people wanted to see the property oh are we good Paul and Macky okay all right that was a plan dramatic entrance for the proposal here everybody so um again just uh just to close
038up we've we've gathered a lot of public feedback on the use of this property and that has what shaped this proposal um I before I forget Kate Valentine and her husband also provided input on this property and what you know what it could be used for and provided a vision for that and so this incorporates aspects of that as well so first I'll just go over this little green area here which was that open space area which I which I um which I showed pictures of earlier that Carl and Robin and Greg and others had worked on so that will under this proposal that would remain as open space um and you would have walking paths along the property and then you would also maintain that undisturbed Wildlife quarter um there's also the possibility that
039we could use this for Agri cultural use again there's some significant wetlands and they mainly occur uh going following that little Green Dot and it expands over here but there's potential for agricultural use um through that property the blue area that you see here is the historic house and then also the barn um both areas would have multiple functions and purposes that's something that we'll get into into the future slides and then finally um although small this red area is dedicated for parking and there's a couple of different uh algorithms or or calculations that you can utilize they're very basic very generic that you can utilize to determine how many parking spots that you can get out of certain space so we think we can get you know a little over 50 parking spaces on
040U on this piece of property this little section right here sorry about that um so let's start with the barn so the barn has still that rustic look as you can say and as you can see and really it most lends itself to being reused as something like the Holliston Historical Society um which is used for private engagements uh weddings I don't know if you've driven by when there's a wedding there but it's it's it's really cool to to look at especially on a nice summer night um when you see all the lights outside and uh you see the doors are all open you can see inside um a little bit different than the Holliston Historical Society in the sense that the Holliston his Historical Society right now has a concrete floor and then it
041also has um a kitchen that's built in the back um again it would be available for rent so for weddings birthday parties other private events but it could also be used as the town would own it it would also be used for different town meetings and different functions and different events so we would have the possibility to maybe utilize this as a um an arm of the farmers market if you will or uh have a town meeting or a town Forum there or something to that effect um I would be partial to a Bluegrass concert myself but not everybody shares my love of music that way um it could also serve as a location for one of Ashland's hidden gyms which I I think is a hidden gym which is the Ashland Community Theater um
042they put on performances and they generally have those at the VFW but uh this could also serve as as a location for Ashlin Community Theater with uh significant retrofits and then also it could also serve as a place to learn more about traditional arts and crafts uh such as woodworking metal smithing Fiber Arts this is something that can make uh Ashland really unique in the region you have Hopkinson Center for the Arts which does a lot of theatrical uh musical work as well as a bunch of visible mediums as well um you have amazing things Art Center in Framingham that is dedicated towards music and theater and then tan and NAIC which is dedicated towards music we really don't have something here that's dedicated to like oldtime Agricultural and trade trade work uh some of
043those things that are being lost throughout the generations things like stone wall building uh you know stackings what they call it um other things like that the house also would serve multiple purposes so the room on the first the rooms on the first floor that I talked about those those bigger rooms those more open rooms they would be used as a a conference and meeting room facility that back kitchen that I mentioned um we in the back of the building so that could be retrofitted and used as a kitchen to support functions in the house and then also the barn and thanks to Beth we already have equipment uh commercial kitchen equipment for that property so we wouldn't have to go through the expense of that the rest of the first floor would be used
044as a place to support Barn functions as well one of the things I also I forgot to put here is that we could use it as maybe a museum for the Valentine family or even Ashland history you know there's a lot of different ways we can utilize these spaces they don't just have to be for one particular thing you know you could have a changing room maybe for a wedding party but at the same time you could have that filled with Ashley and history um and history dedicated to the Valentine family and then finally the second floor would be utilized for municipal offices and specifically I'm talking about the creation of a new Parks and Recreation Department that would be uh headquartered I guess you could say on the second floor and the duties of
045that would be include managing the rentals for the Valentine Barn maintaining and renting out the athletic fields in town and as well as using future recreational programs um and that's in addition to the site of the community center I don't want people to think that this is a replacement for the programs in the location um at the community center right now the existing programs in location and then that's generally the the the proposal over on on a nutshell Doug do you want to uh do you want to speak to the parks and wreck department in the need so as Doug walks up here we're in a very unique situation here in Ashland in that we don't have a parks and wck Department our DPW actually maintains the fields and all the athletic fields including the
046rentals and things like that and so what's become very very apparent over the years is that we need I told you you should have got up here in the first place uh is that we need a more enhanced Department that's really dedicated towards uh this type of work hi Doug all you uh okay uh we good yeah I mean it's like uh where Where Do We Begin and I don't want to bore everybody with the history a lot of the people in the room were were right there uh 15 years ago when we when we first put that the artificial turfield we replaced Walker field with the artificial turfield at the old middle school at the old high school I should say and then a year later we had the the new Fe High School
047Field Complex um built which was a second artificial turf field along with a bunch of other uh Fields baseball softball and so on and so forth um and what's what what worries me is every time I talk about this everybody's going to get used to just Doug complaining Doug Scott um so it's back to the foundation but anyway so um but yeah and I and I hate sounding that way and all this stuff but if if anybody in this room has ever been involved with renting Fields managing Fields the operation of fields anything like that you know exactly what I'm talking about um as everybody knows the DPW we take care of essential um essential services for the town of Ashlin and Fields uh recreational Field Sports and it's not it doesn't fit with the
048DPW um and uh one of the one of the bigest issues is uh you know games are played at night or on the weekends and we're we're not geared that way you know the the the actual budget itself is not funded uh appropriately in order to cover nights and weekends and things like that and then throw on top of that the school department who has first right to the fields so anyways like I said I I've been we've been talking about this for years and I don't want to come out as a as complaining but all the other cities and towns around us have a parks and wreck department as far as I know we obviously we we have a wreck department already with Kelly rund uh but it's I really think that um ever
049since the artificial turf fields came along uh that we should have been really looking at putting a parks and wreck department in and and for everybody that was involved over the years it was just a massive undertaking there were many many people involved in this whole thing this whole program and they did a wonderful job with the high school fields and all that and and we just we fell short unfortunately as far as putting in a a program to actually rent the fields and book the fields so on and so forth um but if it was easy it would have been done already but there have been some some terrific people involved and many groups and all this stuff and and it's never we've never been able to complete it and uh anyway so is
050there anything else you want me to add no Doug that's great so Doug Doug always loves it when I Call On Him especially un announced he does a good job doesn't he folks he does good so um all right so that's the that's the Parks and Recreation Department and then finally you got A Sneak PE peak of this but uh we got one final curveball here with the uh Valentine property so has anybody ever heard of the invasive spotted Lantern fly if you have please raise your hand oh my gosh not as rare as I thought maybe um so this invasive insect has the ability to just really DeForest and de vegitate uh practically anything it gets it gets on um and so the Massachusetts Department of Agriculture agricultural resources um f familiar I'm just
051not even going to try also known as mdar um they actually have the property under quarantine after they found that the spotted Lantern fly was on the property and so we're working with them right now on treatment options but um right now we it's hard for us to do any kind of activity on it um until we get mdar permission so that's something that is constantly evolving and we're getting more information about that uh We've authorized treatment um on the property so hopefully that won't set us back too far and won't do too much damage and um yeah that's about it so next steps yeah Robin I'm sorry join I can sure um so what are the next steps now um once we get rid of the lantern fly um so we're having a public
052for tonight right and so what we're going to do is we're going to take the feedback that we get tonight and we're going to incorporate that into a revised plan that we will present to the select board at a future date at that point once we have a use determined and a direction determined we can hire an architect and an engineer who can provide more information on the feasibility of the of the plan they can do things like um evaluate for ADA compliance do samples for parking Etc and then that group could also work on a high level estimate on the cost um cost of renovations and so once we get the cost we can look at that we can look at what our next steps are going to be do we move forward with
053it do we move forward in a phased approach do we try to take care of it all at once um and if we do how are we going to fund it um that's a big question with any Town project is what are we going to use to fund these projects there's a there's a variety of sources that we could utilize um each with their own little um idiosyncrasies but it's uh it's certainly possible I don't want people to walk away from this thinking that it's impossible we've we've done a lot of awesome things before um and uh this has the possibility to be uh basically a gem I think of of Metro West not just Ashland but the region uh considering all the the proposed uses that we were talking about which I know it's
054varied but I don't think it's so much that it dilutes any one particular use's influence or or um or power if you will that's not the right word but it's the best one I can come up with right now so um anyway I thank you for your time I thank you for listening and appreciate you coming and uh we'll open it up for questions um what we'll do is or or comments Macky do we still have the mic back there the handheld mic okay um hello hello yeah all right awesome so Yolanda you're going to go first no I'm walking are you going to walk the mic around oh thank you thank you so much so Robin Robin hick Robin this on hello Robin Hicks 11 Franklin Road uh for the next meeting if I'm
055sure there's going to be multiple meetings but um it was I feel that this wasn't advertised properly uh maybe a a A-Frame sign in front of the Valentine estate saying meeting uh I put up some bulletin boards around town don't tell anyone but in the post office it's probably legal but I put it up anyways uh and stuff some mailboxes so I don't know if anyone got those but I think a few people did and we should have there should be a 100 people at this meeting instead of I maybe there's 409 good great yeah and I believe this is also being broadcast over uh Facebook um so there could be many many Watchers um on Facebook as well but thanks for your comments and thanks for doing what you did to advertise the the
056program of course Barbie he Barbie can you hear me hello um this is Barb I live on brighten Road I think we all show our street should be notified of what's going on with the insects so that we can also do something about it because they're just going to come and see us when um the other thing is is I agree that a lot of people did not know about it I don't know if we can put it on bulletin boards at the supermarkets they probably don't like advertising but everybody goes to the supermarket um and I guess that's all I thought this meeting might incorporate more than it it is today but this is good okay any comments on like the proposal or I I I hear everybody in terms of like the adver
057m in the attendance um okay hey Carl Michael do you want to say on uh do you want to say a few words about um the holder of the conservation restriction and how that works um I can I would rather you say something about it because you have a much you know a lot more that you can say than I can here for another 45 minutes so maybe you should do it online so's not reallying a mes near okay is it possible to turn that up Mackie it's okay yeah why don't you come to the podium and uh talk 44 maybe I'll anyway Michael mentioned that it's uh subject to a conservation restriction and uh a lot of times people don't know what that means and for a number of reasons the CPA requirement um
058mainly and the um the article 97 aspect that Michael talked about uh that really emanated from the language of the Town Hall warrant or article uh required a conservation restriction and so how that works is um you have to find someone certified by the state to hold the restriction and the Restriction is a document that pretty much lays out everything that can in a nutshell everything that can and cannot happen at the property and um so the property is owned by the town but it's supervised from that aspect uh by the holder in holder in this case is the Hopkinton area land trust um we worked out an agreement with uh with them earlier in the year um the uh select board and and Michael have the uh the draft of the conservation restriction it's
059now being reviewed by the state but um a lot of times people say why can't we do this or why can't we do that and the answer almost always emanates from what does it say in the conservation restriction and this conservation restriction um it has a lot of leeway it's a it was a um um a little bit of a different restriction because it has has a historical aspect to it as well um and so finding a holder was a little bit challenging because most conservation groups don't want to be involved in things outside of of raw land and obviously this is more than raw land so uh a lot of things that that uh that will go that will happen going forward with the town just have to be coordinated with the hopkington area
060land trust and and they've been very accommodating to this point um does that kind of clarify thanks thanks thanks thank you um I have some slides that I put together yes yes of course um I would love for the slides to be up it would really help me you could but the people online won't be able to see them uh well let's see how it goes um hi good evening everyone uh my name is Luba zorova um I've been a resident of Ashland for about five years so about the time since you guys have been having these discussions about the property um and this is the first time that I'm um participating in it and and have something I I do need one cup oh sorry no that's okay yes thank you um yes so
061I live near Warren Center uh off of Chestnut Street I have three kids uh four six and 11 years old year old boys and um my four-year-old um has been attending adventures in learning program in Ashland which been uh h BR has been open since uh 2019 or 2020 and it has been absolutely the highlight of his week um I've never seen my boy that happy um unfortunately he can only attend uh once a day I'm sorry once a week for three and a half hours um but I came here to speak for nature-based education and for an idea of using having that use on a property to be the anchor use uh that provides the revenue stream and other uses being the supportive and complimentary to that um and the reason for that is
062that I feel that um nature-based and Outdoor Learning um is a very big need in the town um and I'm very confident it will provide um the revenue stream that is needed to balance out uh the budgetary concerns that the town has um and basically my slides are making a case for it and I just want to go really quickly through it um I guess um my goal tonight is to voice the vision for the property because I think the unified vision is missing a bit people are talking about different things but there's no no one thing that is really clicking with everyone and so that's my chance at speaking for it I also feel like I'm speaking for the parents who are in the thick of raising children uh holding down a job and
063not being able to participate in these type of community meetings um I'm paying a babysitter right now to for my children for someone to take care of my children so I can be here but I do think it's a a need and I've spoken to many parents who are in support of it and I'm very confident if we go out there with this idea there will be a lot of support for it so the VIS vision for this for the anchor uh use of this property not the only one obviously but is for Ashlin to become the regional center for local outdoor nature-based and Environmental Education for preschool through high school children meeting the challenges of our society and the needs of the Working Families nature-based education promotes enthusiasm for learning movement physical activity Advanced
064problem solving skills creativity problem solving conflict resolution relationship building raising environmental stewards of tomorrow um and also allows for more uh customized approach to each kid I think it's um intuitively it makes sense to most people that kids learn the best uh with a h in a Hands-On environment Outdoors um and their pictures uh on a presentation to show that so um kids explore they take risks it improves their fine motor skills we all know that um unfortunately children are over stimulated with screens there's a lot less outdoor plane kids don't go to each other's houses anymore they don't ride bikes um this is these are the societal issues that I'm uh describing um and um I think the model for what can be at this place is this little program this little German Ashland
065Adventures in learning that I recently learned is closing and it's closing because um Courtney who runs this program she was um she may be known by many in the community um she doesn't have an indoor space uh she doesn't have a licensed building for kids and so they cannot really spend more than three and a half hours Outdoors there are three four five six year olds um and and co uh also was uh impacted her program and financially it only makes sense if she can offer something full-time and um the only limitation is the imagination really for uh what she has to offer I'm not specifically um saying uh um trying to put Courtney in charge of this program I'm just saying it's an amazing model we already have it in Ashlin we can work
066off of it so that that's really uh the idea um and so why should we consider children as the primary affectors of the Valentine property I feel like we haven't really talked about them um as much as I wish I guess as a parent um access to child care is difficult um women get in line for child care the moment they find out they're pregnant that is ridiculous frankly waiting for for a daycare slot to open for nine months uh at a time um access to Affordable and quality Child Care is difficult cost of child care in m assachusetts is the second most expensive one in the country after California it's more expensive than mortgage so we don't have enough of it and it's always not always high quality and you have to wait a
067long time for it so sometimes uh it makes families make very difficult decisions that they otherwise wouldn't want to do um so I did mention that I feel like parents are not represented in this General discussion because they are they just can't find the time and so I'm speaking for some of them so um as an example of the need ashan's Current public preschool has an enrollment of 81 children and the weight list is 48 and it's very common so you have the need far exceeding what the town can provide ashin is expected to continue to grow by about 10% uh per uh census 25% of people living in Ashland are children under the age 18 we're talking about a quarter of population who can benefit from this um I think this particular use uh
068would be a great fit for the property as I mentioned it would serve public and Community need for child care and after school care for all different ages it would be more affordable uh or at least as affordable as other options except that it would provide an outdoor learning comp component which a lot of parents really love and it fits uh the needs of of many children um it would um it I I believe this use would be compatible with the conservation restriction and historical restriction on a property so the whole issue of you know leasing you cannot lease or rent to commercial properties that that's a nonissue um it would align with sustainability committee goals of contributing into Environmental Education in the town um it's within walking distance to middle school kids could just
069walk after school and learn how to garden or to raise animals or um do farming and then sell their produce at the Ashland farmers market for example there are just so many connections to the curriculum science environmental math um and the income stream um uh as I mentioned our parents are pay for child care obviously and uh that would just kind of come full circle and support the operations of the building itself so uh uh for that to work uh the town would need to either lease um to a nonprofit entity to run a program like that that's one option um except that I'm not really sure what shortterm uh rental I'm sorry lease versus long-term rental are would taking months or couple of years uh long-term lease is usually considered five years or more
070okay so you know uh it has to be something that makes sense from the nonprofit Pro um nonprofit organization to invest in at least a five year like they need a little bit of certainty um so uh the location is across the street from Ashland State Park in terms of programming that you again nature based outdoor type of programming could be uh done in the summer it could be in partnership with um Ashland Recreation offerings already um and um yep I you know if people uh like the idea I think a phased approach would make most sense you know you would start with phase one where you kind of use the adventures and learning model of openin a preschool program first that's where the need is the greatest um I would uh but it would
071be a full day um I'm sure if they started they would easily enroll 20 kids and that's a good Revenue stream for kids um I mean for to run the property from Financial perspective um and another benefit is that um this anchor use would not interfere with other potential uses on site such as um offices renting out the barn to for functions you mentioned birthday parties I just took my four-year-old for his birthday party at another f in Sherburn that's $500 for 11 kids that's a standard rate so like you could literally leverage the program and the animals to rent it for kids birthday parties I'm sure that would be a hit um the one thing I didn't mention not animals um so adventures and learning they have a couple of goats some chickens um
072kids come and they brush the goats they chop up you know kale and feed it to them they gather eggs these are just introduct learning on how to take responsibility for taking care of animals and um and dig dirt and and and play and learn how to count rocks and so many other great things um so these are just my initial ideas I do have a little table here on slide 14 uh of different types of programming for preschoolers so three through six for after school activities for let's say kindergarten through middle school and then after school programs for middle and high school could include um even programs like 4 AG I I don't know if you guys know that um you know that's kind of more advanced uh but the property is seems to
073be a perfect fit for all of it nature learning uh Wildlife Corridor Wetlands you can learn like the curriculum opportunities to plug in the uh public school kids would be amazing um I think in um in 2019 during the Forum um you U mentioned looking into native Community farm and how it's such an institution in town people care so much about it right they made millions of dollars to just rebuild the barn um what they mention is that every single student in natic public schools come comes to the farm at some point they are invested in it it's part of their Town that's what I would imagine this place to be as well um and I'm I'm coming to that I know it's taking a little while um there's a slide about different types of
074models out there um it would be something that would be ours but there are a lot of ideas um on this type of Outdoor Learning um communities and farms and schools and um I know people were talking about that not too many people show up um uh to these forums um I know the ashin mom's group on Facebook is very active and has hundreds of um members and um I'm sure if an idea was pitched to them like you could do some kind of voting on Facebook I don't know if it complies with open meeting law uh and we can discuss this um uh I wanted to uh speak about this idea at the sustainability committee as well to get their endorsement um be because um we have to teach our kids how to be
075more responsible stewards of Earth and this is the way to do it and we have a place to do it and I feel like it's a perfect opportunity for it and I'm not just speaking for my kids it's all the future kids um and yeah comprehensive planning committee I plan to talk about it too as well as a vision long-term vision for the town so this is really an appeal to make the Valentine prop property serve our children and to invest in our future thank you very much I can email you the slides abely yes what would it build oh uh yes I uh the house not the barn yeah the barn has no insulation no water no sewer so you need B for the license place does have sewer but it will okay it
076will okay it should it must I mean didn't you say that the house needs to support the activities for the barn so for the kitchen to work and uh it it needs Water and Sewer I mean I know it will take time and money but you can do anything with time with money time and L yeah I know you just need a vision first and then everything will align put together Crea yeah no I think I'm just building on what has been done to date um I I think a lot of great work was done um I'm just emerging at this particular period of time because of my personal situation and and yeah that's um my yeah I think it's a great idea okay I really do and I don't think it's it's like mutually
077exclusive of some of the things that we're talking about but it's complimentary real question can you tell me like just in general not necessarily how much you pay but in general how much is child care a week at used when Nora was going to school it was like a weekly thing yes yeah um it varies um anywhere up to 450 a week uh 300 is is hard to come by it depends on the hours but 300 is a great deal I would say 350 to 450 sometimes 500 if they're uh it's a really good daycare and they they just renovated their space um that's the range okay yeah generate some significant Revenue thank you thank you for putting that all together I know that was a lot of work any other questions thoughts cliff where'
078the mic go oh you have to use this one okay did you zoom C cliff and zoom mutually exclusive uh just ask a few people in the room uh at any rate no the the only question I really had uh was one that was just touched upon about the house and my question is is about the barn about uh three Essentials that it doesn't currently have um and that is electricity water and I hadn't even considered the the sewage uh but if if one were to have restrooms out there that would be an item too and the other one is heating so I just wondered what the plans were on that sure no no those are good questions um so what you could do is utilize the bathrooms and in the house actually in the
079kitchen in the house and one of the things that we've kind of kicked around as an idea is you could maybe build a Breezeway between the house and the barn um there's a door basically it matches up and yeah I think yeah and like a greenhouse and everything facility was that that's something different yeah it's gone through a lot hasn't it so was a breeze a Breezeway so yeah and basically have a connection point to both the kitchen and the bathroom facilities um in terms of the insallation and stuff it would it would be limited in terms of when you could use it in season just like the Holliston Historical Society does and I don't have it right in front of me but I think they use it from April November they're saying you're using
080it at at basically at your own risk um but they do have I think some kind of supplemental Heating that they utilize there it's just not insulated but that's something that we could look at too the key is you get all of these ideas together and and you like it's like an amalgamation of ideas and then you go out and get an expert who can talk to you about the feasibility of it and and basically draw it out and say okay well this is what something like that could look like um and then you figure out okay exactly what you need what kind of estimate you're talking about so there's a ways to go but I think as as Luba correctly pointed out you put together like a a vision and kind of like an
081idea of everything that you want to do there that's your starting point um okay yeah does anybody online have some questions or comments um hi this is Kate McDonald I live right behind the Valentine estate and um I was listening tonight and my biggest concern is where you said I'm I'm really worried about who's going to maintain this land you my I the Boy Scout Troops down there cutting the trees but from what I've been Gathering about other meetings that have been going on is that the DPW doesn't even want to right now maintain the land the grass of the schools and Seed the grass and who's going to maintain this land and making sure that it's the property properly cut and maintained and like the the um all the woods is maintained back so
082it doesn't overgrow again yeah because that's a big big issue I think yeah Kate I think that's a good question um and first of all I I don't think the DPW said they don't want to um I think they just with their current Staffing levels they have a hard time maintaining everything that they're being asked to maintain and the parks and recck Department in collaboration with DPW would be the ones that would have to maintain this property right so it would be under Kelly's Kelly's at the rec center then so would this all the management of this then fall under Kelly's like she would be the one running her programs then or everything would be rental through her so she would be the one that's manag this whole the whole Barn that that would be
083yet to be determined I mean Kelly's part of the Kelly would be part of the equation here for any kind of Parks and Recreation Department for sure um but you know we haven't seen like what the organizational structure would look like or anything like that we don't even know if we would have a space for them other than this space that we're talking about right because all the programs that the lady said before like Kelly runs an amazing after like a you know preschool programs which could' be you know expanded upon which are always highly in need which you know programs like that so that's something that like again going piggybacking off the lady before um yeah my biggest concern is because I've said we've been dealing with that for Boy Scouts helping out in
084other fields in town of making sure that someone someone is put in charge of maintaining the land perfect thank you yeah Helen Helen you have your hand up right yes I do hi uh Helen Nicole um you know I'm I just I wanted to comment that you know and I love schools nothing in schools I but I would be very concerned myself uh supporting a school because I think that's going to severely limit other community um involvement here it's going to severely limit other community uses I I I would think especially during the week because people come coming onto a school property have to be for there's a lot of things that go along with a school um that would preclude other people from using that area um so I I just want to really
085express my concern for that because we we've spent a lot of money on this we're going to be spending a lot of money on this and I really felt like this property was something that the people in the town wanted uh for the community uh to benefit from for everyone not just one specific um you know School each people I mean all people and so I am a little concerned about that and I just wanted to express that no I I appreciate that Helen and and I think you know one of the things so this property is going to need a multitude of uses to make it feasible right it can't just lean on one particular thing and so you can look at timing of different different aspects and different activities I mean fortunately not
086a lot of parties are going on during school school days right or you know manyi weddings or anything like that but you do bring up a good point you limit your scheduling time for some of those we'll just call call them Revenue generating events like a wedding if you're doing something like a school have you know on you know weekly activities or you know things that require a certain schedule so your point your point is well taken miles hey miles miles is one of the original Valentine property committee members thank you Michael um just a quick point on the the items brought up I I think that the one issue with a daycare type of thing is it would take an incredible amount of investment to bring that up to someplace that to a level
087that could H support some sort of full-time Child Care situation I think it would be much better suited to work in the direction of being able to support school time programs uh for children to come in to do specifics there um but I think that's comes to a lot later in the that this would support this property would support a child care type situation as it's uh direction that it's it's going in in Redevelopment um one other thing the thing I want to raise my hand for is to uh just suggest that uh a part of the process for having an Avenue for uh support is to develop a nonprofit 501c3 type uh friends of Valentine property type of I'm not trying to give it an official name but just the concept uh to that
088could handle a lot of fundraising types of things project support volunteer uh uh creation for everything from semiannual uh types of uh brush clearing and stuff like that so it would take a lot of the load off of the uh uh parks and wck type of hiring of uh you know people to do some of these things that don't need to be done on a constant basis but definitely need to keep the property up uh so I just wanted to suggest uh that that's something be kept in mind uh that might help even fairly early in the process here to develop and I and I I guess have to look at how that dovetails with the uh uh the town ownership and everything like that but I I believe one good uh example of this
089is the friends of minute National Historical Park uh they do a lot of the the fund related types of things in support of uh of the park and volunteerism awesome thank you miles Julie I see your hands up hi Julie nardone 86 elth Street um an idea that I had a piggybacking on the nonprofit was that it would it would be like this new model where they it would be like a caretaker nonprofit uh events planner and they would actually it could be a family it could be couples it could be whatever and they live on the second floor of the Valentine estate because housing is so expensive that would uh take a lot of um pressure off whoever runs profit to have to make you know tons and tons of money so as part
090of this package they would live upstairs they could take care of the land and they could do the events management I don't know how this would work but it fleu into my head so I wanted to share it um thank you thanks Julie right any um any other questions comments uh from the audience or in Zoom land Kate oh no I already had my comment I'm all set thank you um Kate Jers 11 Rodman Road um so I have um a couple things this speaks to me and it's really I I kind of echo I guess of making sure we get people out but the ideas floating around are really exciting and I think we definitely need to either reconstitute the Valentine committee or a new version of that to kind of keep keep interest
091keep um ideas flowing and make sure that it's out in the community and it's not um I think when you have more people kind of the word gets spread out more and it it has a way to uh communicate with people I also think um you know if it I I agree with the self- sustaining so I think that's great I think I think if it ends up being a you know a town Department that should probably be factored in the cost because that would be going somewhere else we we would be paying for that somehow it it looks to me that um the hire it said hire an architect and engineer and I I would say we're not yet at that process right because we'd be spending money to design what um we probably
092do need some help on when there's a tighter list of ideas um to maybe investigate how they're feasible I would support the 501c3 nonprofit and then I do have a question um is that new barn door like a historic reference um because I've Heard lots of people that don't like it I don't like it if you tell me it's historic I'll be like great I'll celebrate it but I hope that we can get something historic there yeah yeah right now the only thing historic about that barn door is the window which is the original window that that um the uh X if you will will be painted black or stained black like the rest of the property or rest of the door not the rest of the property oh my gosh right any um any
093other questions or comments yeah Barbie they addressed the traffic issue have they addressed the traffic issue in that area uh should Beed no there there hasn't so they haven't addressed the traffic issue but I think actually you raise a good point because one of the things that the select board and I are going to do um after the marathon with uh with Doug and his team's help is BU finally Build That Sidewalk on 135 from Marathon mobile over to uh Franklin so so that should help at least with The Pedestrian access so that is a whole other multi-million dollar question so okay well folks I I know Doug you guys talk crossw to connect State par to connect Community set a cross yeah there there's been Doug do you want to speak to the crosswalk
094yeah right now uh step one is to put a crosswalk over by Edgewood uh we've had a professional engineer design it two of them actually so um we're in that process now the uh the signed posts have been planted as far as the concrete and all that but so that's phase one phase two is going to be the sidewalk after the marathon and then a second crosswalk down by Indian Spring sorry Mike I don't think we're going to allow horse Crossing though so no horse Crossing folks no's catch us all right everybody I really appreciate your time and and oh Yanda uh Yolanda Greaves 127 Prospect uh we as a selectboard haven't had a lot of discussion but Michael knows I've been W of the people saying I'm glad we're restoring the bar but what
095the heck are we going to do with this property I think one of the meetings we had many years ago I said the same thing so to all of you sitting here thank you for coming out for all of you watching and following us on Zoom however you're doing it my request as a select board member but again this was not discussed is that if you have thoughts or ideas on what was presented on what was not presented please reach out to the select board reach out to Michael give us your thoughts cuz we've only heard heard from a handful of people as to what you think about these ideas we had one idea presented that was great use it Park and wreck the only way as Kate has told us all is that to
096to to really get community involvement we need to hear from the community this was one Forum I I would suspect that as we get more information and we start making you know some ideas based on what we've heard there'll be another Forum we need your input we need we need you to push back on ideas we need you to say oh this I liked this I didn't like this works this doesn't work a discussion about traffic a discussion about sidewalks a discussion about all the things that are going to be impacted you know the idea that we can we do something with our community theater can we do something with our Arts can we do something with our inhome business people so I would ask that if you've been to this a forum give us
097your ideas talk to people get it back to the select board and to Michael because that's how we can make a decision and I don't think any of us want to wait another year before we do something we have the barn finished what can we be doing with it and with the property thank you email com yeah this will be my last iise anyone of having a meeting at the bottom and so people can actually see it and feel it and touch it G so Robin's question for those uh that couldn't hear is have we thought about having a meeting at the barn um we've thought about it but with the parking situation and some of the the other the other limitations of it you're going to open up your field okay well then we
098might have saw the are you sure about that [Laughter] Robin okay I'm going to let you and Cynthia talk about that and then we'll reconvene how's that say was $20 to yeah 20 bucks it'll go it'll go fundraising it'll be part of fundraising okay Diane Montross y hi um so um I guess it would be helpful to if you could recap next steps I know um I know the the request is made to um provide feedback to the select select board um it'd be helpful to understand like who do we reach out to is there an email address um what are what's the timeline around next steps is there another meeting do you have that information so Diane we haven't scheduled another meeting but if you want to provide feedback the best way to do
099it would be to provide it over email and that is Select board at Ashland mass.com and so all the select board members would get that as well as myself and Jen ball and Susan and Diane in our office so that would be the best way to provide feedback and we don't have a meeting scheduled yet okay all right thank you everyone uh this has been a good discussion I appreciate all the ideas and um we will see you at the next meeting Rob you're going to close the yeah again well thank you Michael and thank you thank you Doug one and Doug two uh for all your for all your help tonight what's that which is W yeah Cliff you had to say that right yeah so anyway uh this has been a great uh
100um okay quiet down you crowd uh so thank you all for coming and thanks for the people online and just to followup I think what Yolanda started uh did talk about uh getting information to us I'm pretty sure we're going to put this on on the agenda for the next meeting unless I hear some objections but I don't think so so we'll do some followup and and talk about next steps and uh so meanwhile feel free to uh continue get getting us that information so um without further Ado I'll is there a motion to adjourn here hereby I I I didn't actually see did oh did she is there a second okay all those in favor of a journey say I I thank you all good night thank you