EASTHAM COMMUNITY PRESERVATION COMMITTEE
Meeting: November 10, 2005
Attendance: Mary Elizabeth Burgess, Town Planner; Martin McDonald, Peter
McDonald, Elizabeth Simmons, Dianne O'Neill, Sue Horton, Glen
Collins, Cheryl Gayle, and David Skiba, Committee Members
At the meeting sample introductory letters from other Towns to community members for solicitation of projects were presented. Peter McDonald will synthesize said documentation for presentation to the Committee at the next meeting.
The members elected Cheryl Gayle and Glen Collins as Co-Chairmen of the Committee with David Skiba as Clerk.
The minutes of the October 19, 2005, meeting were approved with Glen Collins abstaining. The next meeting is scheduled for December 1, 2005, at 5:30 p.m. with a potential subsequent meeting on December 8, 2005, at 5:30 p.m.
By act of the Board of Selectmen on November 7, 2005, the members of the Community Preservation Committee are special municipal employees under Massachusetts General Laws.
The members concentrated on our near term objectives and agreed that Martin McDonald shall contact Katherine Ross of the State Community Preservation Committee to request her attendance and assistance in establishing the first meeting required by statute, to be posted with two (2) weeks notice, whereby the needs, the possibilities and the resources may be explored. David Skiba will call Elliot Carr, Chairman of the Brewster Community Preservation Committee, to seek assistance with regard to the establishment of the first public hearing.
Mary Elizabeth Burgess shall report on the Town Accountant's/Treasurer's information as to availability of funds and necessary timing for expenditure.
Elizabeth Simmons suggested following the calendar of page 16 of the Massachusetts DOR Bulletin entitled "Community Preservation Fund Budgetary and Finance Issues", and Martin McDonald suggested that we have a recommendation by February, 2006. David mentioned that an historic project mentioned by Ken Collins would be the Schoolhouse Museum project, and the members agreed that the types of expenditures that we may make must be explored. It appears that other Towns primarily are soliciting proposals for expenditures, and the members agreed that the Committee also should look for projects. The questions to be resolved are what ownership interest the Town must have and what expenditures are allowed.
For the next meeting, the Committee members should be thinking of potential proposals using the sample guidelines from other Towns; read the draft "Community Preservation Fund Budgetary and Finance Issues" produced by the Mass. Department of Revenue; and think of the needs, possibilities and resources of the Town as that is the threshold for the public hearing to be held pursuant to the Massachusetts General Laws.
Respectfully submitted,
David J. Skiba, Clerk
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