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Good evening, everyone. Thank you all for coming. This is, I think, the third session we've had on the proposal for what to do with HES. So I appreciate you all coming. There have been some major changes.

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Pretty much every time we've had a new information session. There's been new information. That's true here. We'll go over that in a few minutes. Again, thank you for coming.

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Leon Malarski is at the microphone right now for those of you who don't know Leon, he is our

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zoning enforcement officer, he's our acting planning officer while Bill Warner's out hiking

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the Appalachian Trail. Leon's a practicing architect has years of experience in construction

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in the industry so without further ado, I will turn the presentation over to Leon.

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Thank you very much and good evening everybody.

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Tonight we're going to talk about how to

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elementary school and its future and the future basically of the town and all the residents

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as we go forward and like

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to start by a little brief history, a timeline of how we got

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to where we are today.

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A HES school or HES was constructed in 1948.

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It's last renovated, it was 1989, to give you an idea of just how old the school is.

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Physical structure is still good, but the electrical and mechanical systems all have to be replaced.

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In December of 2018, School District 17 voted to close HES.

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In April of that same year, Planning and Zoning Commission reviewed the acquisition

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of HES and provided a report to the Board of Select, recommending the purchase of HES.

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In May of 2019, the Hadam planning and zoning commission held the public hearing to discuss

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the purchase of HES, a referendum was held in June of 2019, where the residents voted

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to overwhelmingly buy HES,

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in June of that same year, HES closed.

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In the June and July of that same year, the town held a survey for the HES community to see what could be done with the facility.

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In September of that year, the town closed on HES, and the residents of, and the residents of Adam, became the owners of HES.

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Again, in October and November of 2019, the town held public shorets, allowing the residents to provide input on what could be the possible uses for HES.

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Between January 20 and June 22, obviously, with respect to the time that COVID was taking place, the town tried to lease and sell the HES.

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They applied for two community challenge grants with no success.

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The town is awarded a grant in August of 22, for $480,000 for roof repairs and other site improvements.

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In the following year, in May of 23, the town applied for a third community challenge grant

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renovate HES for affordable housing and senior housing apartments, senior center, a community

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center and select office space. This is in response to the two surveys that took place in 2019

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in June and in October.

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In May of that 23 that same year, roof bids were open and the lowest bid

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for that roof was over a million dollars.

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Before the town decided to spend a million dollars on a roof

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that we really didn't know what was going to take place

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underneath it, we had to discuss that.

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And we had a town meeting on June 8th of 2023.

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During that meeting, many people voiced their concerns

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and made comments as to what the future use of the school

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would bid.

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And at the same time, we allowed, or we didn't allow, but we had people filling out index

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cards of making further comments and recommendations as to what the town, the residents

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would do with the building that they owned.

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In June of 23, the town issues in RFP for a space utilization study, and July of that same

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year, we issue another RFP for the multi-generational park and playground design to be

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located at HES, that playground is getting ready for installation as we speak.

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In August of 23, the town was awarded a $4.55 million community challenge grant for the affordable senior housing apartments, the senior center, the community center, and the select municipal offices.

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In September 8th of 23, the town issues are RFP to develop HES and response to the grant.

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It also, with the concerns of the idea of addressing the concerns of the people of the previous studies.

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And to the November of 23, after receiving three competitive bids for the development of our piece of property, we opened the bids, there was a panel of several people who did it, and we anonymously shows rack reality as the developer for that.

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In March of 24, we went ahead and did a space use utilization study in response to some of the requests and comments of our fellow residents that was completed by Antonazi Architects and was presented the study at the end of March of 24.

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The Rat Realty proposal was followed in the following week was presented at a public hearing. The proposal was certainly in response to what we were trying to achieve as a community for our use in that school.

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On

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June 22, 2024, a public information session was held for the Affordable Senior Housing Senior Center,

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basically the uses at HES,

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and the development concepts that were being put forth at that time.

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Tonight we're here now as a project summary on how we got here.

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The economic considerations, and to address any questions further questions and answers that the residents may have.

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And then, of course, on July 23rd, we'll be the referendum to vote on the future of HES.

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So the rest of this presentation is going to try and give you a concise summary of where and how we got here.

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And

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for that we're going to start with the plan of conservation and development

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RPOCD.

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The POCD became effective, became effective, January 18th.

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The purpose is to set forth the most desirable use of the land and property

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and to determine an overall plan for the town.

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The high-level considerations in the report

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or the adaptive reuse of historic buildings.

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But destiny and friendly development get the center to be more active.

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We develop under-utilized buildings, housing alternatives for growing population of our aging

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seniors, business, and jobs keep the essential of our essential district of our community

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active, a gathering place for all community members.

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We also had to consider the infrastructure and community facilities, the development of a public...

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Sorry.

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We had to consider the infrastructure and community facilities, the development of public water supply, development of public waste work disposable,

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And to pay attention to a dark skies initiative, a dark skies initiative basically gives us an active center with a low light level, so that our town center doesn't look like a shopping mall.

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And then getting around, pedestrian circulation, improve access to area resources, resources, for example senior center and a community center.

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The

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plan of action in accordance with the BOCD was to respect what the residents value the most.

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Invest in a physically, physically sound infrastructure.

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Try everybody to remember that we own this school,

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and it's been the desires of all of us in our comments and in the research

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to own it and control it.

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With that becomes a responsibility.

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We not only have to create a use for that building that would be fiscally sound, but would

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be sustainable or a long period of time.

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We do not want to create something as owners that we are going to have to support because

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we didn't plan properly, taking into account all the factors that are necessary to make

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project like this work.

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On May 1st 2019, we had a public hearing. This public hearing was

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going to control the future use of HES. The Planning and Zone Commission, in accordance

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with the state statutes, had to reduce the report that considered the use of HES

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school and all the factors that would come into play in accordance with the POC date.

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And they are, among other things, the best future of the property, whether or not the

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proposed uses add to the vitality of the Higgenum Center, tax exempt uses, which ownership,

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the town or school district 17 would, one, give the proposed sale, lease the level of scrutiny

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at the zards. Two, have the greatest interest in the economic vitality of the Higgenham Center,

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or three, focuses deliberations on consistency with the implementation implementation of the POCD.

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The outcome of that result will come under discussion on the 15th and a letter from the

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planning and zoning commission, our elected officials will be presented to the Board

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of Selectman with respect to whether or not this project falls under the auspicious of

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the POCD requirements.

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So

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what does the community want to take away?

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On this slide, you're going to see three,

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the summary of three surveys and chorets and meetings.

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The first was the one we discussed earlier

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in the timeline July 2019 with the HES community feedback survey

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regarding the possible uses, and I will list them.

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Bring activity to Higgim Center on Knights and Weekends, preference to lease the property

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versus selling it.

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Support local businesses, preserve recreational activities, support the community septic system,

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Possible use, possible public use, elderly housing, keep grounds for community use.

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This is back in 2019.

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On October, November 2019, when the provost threats were held, the following are the

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comments.

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Preserve the building for civic uses, community septic systems, community gardens, playgrounds, ball parks, adult recreational uses, event space, community theater, community center, pop up markets, tax generating uses, a key statement, tax generating uses.

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June 8th, 2023 at our open house at HES, these items basically summarized people's wishes from

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that meeting.

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Keep in mind, this is three and a half years later, after the first community feedback

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survey was taken,

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I list.

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Bring activity to Higgins Center on Knights and Weekends, preference to lease versus sell

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property.

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Support local businesses, preserve community recreational activities, support a community

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septic system, possible public use, senior housing, mixed use, multi-generational activities,

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cultural events, farmers, farmers market, etc.

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You'll notice in comparing all three

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of those studies that many of the comments are very similar.

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And there's a reason for

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that. It's a, it's a, we're all of the same mindset that these uses when combined could

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create a sustainable use for that building, that we as the owners would be able to say,

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okay, we made a good business decision, we have a performing building in the center of

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our town that brings activity and vitality to a multi-generational set of people.

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Taking

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all of the slides and the subsequent inter-consideration, all of the subsequent research,

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The POCD, we based the final designs and what we thought were considerations on a wishlist

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of plausible uses as they relate to the cost of creation, maintenance, and continued

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use, and they are in no particular order.

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Option one, least HES to a developer, it incorporates a select town offices, a community

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senior center, senior center, and affordable senior housing. The total cost to the town

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would be $1,000,000, and this will be explained a little more in detail as we proceed

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through this presentation.

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The pros are numerous, the cons are negligible. It meets all the

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lines of the POC day. The town retains use of public areas indefinitely. It falls

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in line with the town resident's sentiments. It centralizes community activity. It

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provides senior housing. It aligns with the state affordable housing mandate of which

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I'll ask Bob to discuss a little bit when he gets a chance to talk. But what that means

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is, because our town is proactive, we've already started to deal with that, and we only

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have a few choices with affordable housing, and I would rather be in our control than

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somebody else's.

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Provides multi-generational public space and recreational activities in central downtown

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location, we'll create a more active downtown atmosphere, creates a space for small performing

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arts activities contributes to a tractive town center and no real tax consequences to the town.

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Option two, which was addressed by Antonossia Associates, with respect to renovating the building

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and moving all of the town's services except for the town garage to that area.

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Obviously the cost is very high at 31,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.

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We had to take out the soft calls for all the architectural and engineering and we ended up

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on a Proxima Hard Cross of 23,977.

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This number may sound exorbitant and it probably is.

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But we went to a professional and got his answer and these numbers are conservative.

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We would not know the true cost of this until we actually put our performer together

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an actual program of what's going to get into that building, how it's going to be built and the level of

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equipment and materials that we're going to install in the building.

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So these numbers are conservative.

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I think they probably could come down, but I'm not going to give you a low number.

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Because we own the building.

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And last thing we want to do is get halfway through it and realize we're five million dollars short.

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Everybody's needs to realize up front that this is a big undertaking to go to this, to this extent, with that building.

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The pros are essentialized town services, modern community and senior services, renovated facility to a high-end commercial use for town use only.

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No income-producing property.

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Our maintenance costs will roughly stay the same

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when I get to that in a second.

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We would be able to provide room for H.K. Park and REC.

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And we'll end also for youth and family services.

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The cons, obviously, is the extreme construction cost.

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It will increase the taxes for towns, people.

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And our maintenance costs, which are currently at 105,000 a year,

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We'll continue to accrue yearly and probably cross more in each success of year.

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Renovation and maintenance costs for the vacant buildings.

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Once we vacate buildings, we are going to have to renovate them or put them up for sale

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and a fire sale.

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The buildings are the senior center, it's a very small building, and it's old.

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And the town hall, if we move down there, is the type of building that would very hard to sell and or modify.

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It's a non-incombosing property, as I mentioned before.

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But the present town facilities use approximately 21,000 square feet of space.

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By moving over to HES, which has a square footage of about 44,000, we'd only be filling half the building.

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So we would have to figure out what to do with the rest of it.

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Option number 3 is to leave HES untouched.

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Continue to use town facilities as they are.

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The cost to date since the purchase of that of HES approximates $750,000.

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We as residents have spent five years supporting this building, paying for studies, paying

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town staff to do all these studies and accumulate information with respect to the residents'

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wishes.

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And we have no real pros to leaving this the way it is, it's not a fact that it's really a non-issue.

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The cons that goes against the POCD goes against recommendations for the HES workshops.

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It goes against the desires of the townspeople.

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We're going to look back to the responsibility,

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the takeaway slide which would show all of the wishes of the town residents.

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The maintenance costs would continue to accrue at $105,000 a year and continue to rise.

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That $105,000 is a number we just put together based on last year's maintenance alone.

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And it does not include any major repairs that we might have to do.

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We'll discuss in a little while I mentioned a little earlier about the electrical mechanical plumbing systems that there are all need replacement.

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The major building component, well here, the major building components are in the brink of failure.

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None of this is in that cost of that I just mentioned.

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The continued activity equals deterioration.

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We must do something with the building.

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Non-income producing property, 90% vacant right now, continued cost studies will only add

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to the crude cost that we have presently, and we have a remaining roof repair cost of approximately

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$600,000.

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I've been in this business for almost 40 years and I've seen studies and I've been on the other side as a presenter.

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We've had five years to decide what to do with this building and the comments over those five years have not changed.

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It's time for the town, the residents, we, the owners decide what to do with the property.

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So as a proposal here, that it's on the table,

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we want to meet the requirements of the

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POCD, the Affordable Housing Act, the Connecticut Community Challenge Grant, and wishes

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of the towns people.

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We think that the design that's been put forth by the developer meets

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the requirements of what we try to achieve as representatives of the owners and as owners

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ourselves.

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To recap,

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we'll quick on the trigger.

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Town of Adam purchased Adam Elementary

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school on a site of nine acres per four hundred and fifty thousand dollars. It was awarded

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a four point five five million dollar community challenge grant that would take into account

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affordable senior housing, senior center, a community center, town offices. One of the requirements

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of that grant is must have a developer.

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That proposal came in from rack-reelting, and it's the proposal is to lease the 1989 edition

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to rack-reelting for 99 years.

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The town retains ownership of the building and the grounds.

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Rack renovates and remodels the entire building.

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Rack pays $350,000 in a lease fee to the town

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and pays rent of $1 a year for the next 99 years.

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The town under this plan realizes a tax revenue of $100,000 a year approximately.

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Those taxes obviously coming from the rental space in the seat for the senior housing.

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The other 14,000 square feet, the town will pay 140,000 dollars for 10 years as a development

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fee, 50,000 a year for maintenance and utilities.

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The lease can be extended for another 99 years for one dollar.

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Under the terms of the Connecticut Community Challenge grant, the developer must match or

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received the grant amount of $4.55 million at a minimum to participate.

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Developers true costs for this part of the project will be about $6 million.

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And the rough costs for the project, including all the state and town expenses, will

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approximately be approximately $12 million plus.

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At this point, I'm going to turn the mic over to Bob and thank you very much for having the patient still listen to me.

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I'm not going to go over this slide a lot of detail.

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I know we've thrown a lot of numbers at you already.

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This presentation and its entirety will be up on the web tomorrow, the town web.

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And as you probably figured out, this whole thing is being recorded.

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and as soon as Valley Shore Community GV turns the recording over to us which hopefully will

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be tomorrow they're usually pretty quick. We'll have it up on our website too so you can

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review it. So I want to hit the high level numbers because what I've seen a lot in Facebook

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are partial physical presentations, not the whole picture. I'm just going to concentrate on what

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you see there as column. The first column option one and that's basically what we've been talking

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about. We're going to lease the bill. We're going to lease part of the building to rack.

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I'll show you those details on a side in a couple of minutes. We'll retain ownership of

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the building. We'll retain ownership of the ground.

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I mean, let me just go down the figures. We're not going to have to pay anything beyond this point for renovation or remodeling. Under this proposal, rack reality will take care of the roof repair so we don't have any obligation there.

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As Leon said, they're going to crack will pay a $350,000 buy-in fee to get into the lease.

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Billing permits be somewhere probably about $18,000.

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Over the next 10 years, the income and expense for the town, we will pay rack realty $1.4 million,

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effectively to do the renovation for the town wing for us.

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The estimate from RAC is the cost to renovate that town wing is about 4.2 million.

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The estimate we got from it at the nauseous associates was about 9 million.

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So no matter which estimate you use, we're paying 1.4 million in getting a much larger return.

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Routine maintenance and utilities were estimating about 50,000 a year.

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That's not payable to the RAC as a Facebook post claims.

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That's payable to ever source and whoever's doing the maintenance.

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We're basing that, honestly, just cutting the current amounts we pay.

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I honestly expect that the heating bill will be less, but on the other hand, we're

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going to have central air conditioning or air conditioning throughout, so there's going

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to be an air-conditioning ventilation bill.

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They may offset each other, hopefully for the first few years since it's all new renovation

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and new work, there will be a lot of maintenance other than just routine.

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Rack will pay property tax or the equivalent of property tax, it will be about $100,000 a year as Leonis said, so in the first 10 years that's another million dollars.

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So our impact, the next line down you see $532,000, that's what we've paid for those 10 years of ownership.

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That doesn't reflect the fact that we're not paying the other 50,000 that we're paying now and maintenance per year.

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This is the best financial deal we've got of those three options, and then it goes on from there, and you can see the other options we've assessed.

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We do the town hall. If you look at final costs there after 20 years, that's a 34 million.

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The rack proposals at 32,000, and let's just keep HES as it is until we can figure out and come to a total consensus to what we want to do with it.

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And then we're going to pay for all that renovation.

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That's about a $25 million dollar not we'd have to crack over the extended time.

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All right, this is the site plan that's presented.

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Again, this is on our website currently.

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This was on Rack was presenting.

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I just want to take you through it quickly.

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We are about to break the ground to put a playground in right there in the area of the

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Shaddub Museum is now, we'll connect to it, that'll start hopefully next week with breaking

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ground.

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We'll be renovating the existing basketball court, also marking it for pickleball,

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botchie courts, some more pickleball courts, and we're also talking about potentially other

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recreational activities there. But they'll be responsible for installing those. We'll be

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responsible for maintaining them afterwards. Just to be clear as to what is least,

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that blue bubble,

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which was me with five minutes, and a mouse trying to put it on there, you might pick up that

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This is not to an A2 survey accuracy requirements, but it will give you a good idea.

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The blue blob is what RAC is going to be renting from us, it's the area for the 36 senior

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affordable housing and it's a parking lot for them, and they'll probably be some modifications

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and we've been talking about sliding the parking lot a little closer, but you get the idea

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of what it would look like.

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Again, all of the building, all of the grounds remain in our name.

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This was done in response to feedback we got at the first session, the Tribune 26, when there was consensus from a lot of people that they didn't want this building sold.

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There was also a question of how we're going to guarantee the developer will do what he says.

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Well, there's no guarantees in life, but if the developer is a tenant as opposed to an owner, we have a lot more control.

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So this was changed to address those two concerns.

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A change that hasn't been highlighted yet in response to concerns on the last information session

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when we talked about Iraq after 99 years could buy it for a year for a dollar rather.

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People didn't want to do that.

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Even though none of us in this room are going to be here 99 years from now.

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So again, we check negotiate with Iraq.

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we'll just give them the option if they're around to renew the lease for a dollar at the

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time. You know they're 99 year lease. We have to run all these changes through the

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Department of Economic and Community Development, they're the ones in charge of the grant,

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rack out to run through their financing, they have to make sure as a lease they could still get finance,

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they can. We have to make sure from the state that if we lease it we're still eligible for the

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4.5 million dollar grant. It doesn't have to be a sale. They're fine with the 99 year lease.

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So these have been developing as we've been getting your feedback and incorporating as much as we can.

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But again, the blue area is what's being leased.

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The rest of it is public use and it's all in our name for as long as forever, frankly.

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Floor plans, these are on the website as well.

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And also in the town Hall, if you haven't seen them.

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But it's basically the proposal is for one bedroom, bedroom and a den,

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or two bedroom apartments, that's what the different colors are.

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I'll go back to the unmarked slides so you can see clearly what the proposal is for the grounds.

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And with that, I will open it up for questions and comments.

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Please come up to the microphone for your comments so they can be recorded for the people who watch this on the session.

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Other things I want to say before, before stepping aside, on our town website, you can find all the documents, all the studies, all the information that we've talked about.

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Please take a minute to look at it.

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There are Facebook posts as recently as an hour before this meeting

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with completely erroneous information.

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We're not selling the building.

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We're not paying utilities to rack or maintenance to rack.

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There are a number of things that are just flat wrong on Facebook.

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I know everyone shocked to hear that.

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00:37:12,230 --> 00:37:15,090
I've said some of you may have heard me say that.

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After reading a few posts on Facebook, I don't believe anything

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read on Facebook even if I wrote it. So please take a look at the facts and make your own decision.

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If you're in favor of it, that's great. If you're not, that's great.

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But make the decision based on facts, not rumors, and any windows that are being spread.

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All right. With that, I will step back and invite people to come up to the microphone.

341
00:37:53,640 --> 00:38:04,760
Hello. Sharon Bates, I'm wondering why it started off as a sale to rack and then turned lease.

342
00:38:04,760 --> 00:38:12,360
All right, as I just said, Sharon, it was the big, the request for bid said sale or lease.

343
00:38:13,440 --> 00:38:16,740
All three proposals that came back proposed buying it.

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But the feedback we got when we presented that was strongly that the town didn't want it sold,

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so we were able to convert it to a lease.

346
00:38:26,280 --> 00:38:34,900
Also, what is the proposed income from RAC having these senior center affordable housing?

347
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The income to RAC?

348
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Monthly.

349
00:38:38,700 --> 00:38:43,400
I couldn't tell you, because I don't know, these have to be affordable housing units.

350
00:38:44,460 --> 00:38:47,440
So the state sets a maximum of what the rent can be.

351
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I don't know what that is, nor can I project what it will be when they're open.

352
00:38:51,720 --> 00:38:52,620
I think that's important.

353
00:38:52,620 --> 00:38:56,200
But it's probably in the area of 1,500 in a department.

354
00:38:56,500 --> 00:38:57,840
Don't quote me, but it's a ballpark.

355
00:38:58,860 --> 00:39:02,840
But also understand, and this is another thing that's wrong on Facebook tonight.

356
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When we talk about property tax, we all think, okay, it's based on like our house.

357
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The house was worth so many dollars, 70% of that is the assessed value.

358
00:39:14,560 --> 00:39:16,240
The taxes are based on that.

359
00:39:16,480 --> 00:39:20,300
For most commercial property, which is to be treated as a commercial property.

360
00:39:20,300 --> 00:39:24,640
the part that RAC has, it's not based on the value of the building in the land, it's based

361
00:39:24,640 --> 00:39:29,220
on what they call net operating income, because that's a purpose of our commercial property

362
00:39:29,220 --> 00:39:30,240
that's introduced at income.

363
00:39:31,060 --> 00:39:36,760
So the more income you make from it, even without changing the building at all, the more the taxes

364
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will be.

365
00:39:37,740 --> 00:39:43,560
The 100,000 we're estimating is based on what we were expecting they might get for income

366
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for the units.

367
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And as that goes up, obviously, the property tax goes up.

368
00:39:48,200 --> 00:39:57,000
I would like to ask you where you think that people should discuss all of this in the

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town of Hatham. I think Facebook, number one, is basically an open forum. And we all

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know we can take things as salt. But it's also a place too voice-in opinion. And there

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always a silent majority and a vocal minority. So I personally take a fence at the way that you

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discuss Facebook because I think we're all intelligent people here. The other thing is with the

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of Adam, it just seems that you came in or the town came in with one thing and then we

374
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see another thing and then it morphs with legalese and verbiage and it makes a slippery

375
00:40:56,480 --> 00:41:06,000
slope and it doesn't give a lot of confidence in any of this and I think I heard and I

376
00:41:06,000 --> 00:41:15,940
know a lot of people voiced, no housing in the center of Adam. And I am definitely for

377
00:41:15,940 --> 00:41:24,920
no housing, affordable senior or anything because we have enough housing in this town.

378
00:41:25,620 --> 00:41:30,240
This is not for the seniors of Adam.

379
00:41:33,120 --> 00:41:40,620
Even though you're my wife, actually, you're my wife and I love doing this, no, never happened before.

380
00:41:44,090 --> 00:41:49,230
But yeah, we had this past Saturday, Saturday before at the farmers market.

381
00:41:49,790 --> 00:41:57,250
A cup, because I had the display boards there with the rack proposal, the floor plan you saw, and also this one behind me.

382
00:41:57,250 --> 00:42:02,570
And they were, they're middle aged or younger, they were very interested in the proposal

383
00:42:03,090 --> 00:42:09,130
because their parents are looking for a place to downsize to parents don't live in

384
00:42:09,130 --> 00:42:16,510
town. I'll say that, but please. But they would love to have them move here. And I have

385
00:42:16,510 --> 00:42:22,110
talked to a number of seniors who would love to downsize and stay in Hatham. The senior

386
00:42:22,110 --> 00:42:24,930
and a director has gotten the same feedback.

387
00:42:25,550 --> 00:42:30,150
There are seniors in town who don't want to be burdened anymore

388
00:42:30,150 --> 00:42:33,470
with maintaining a large house and are looking for houses.

389
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I'm at the microphone here.

390
00:42:35,710 --> 00:42:36,710
You chat now.

391
00:42:36,870 --> 00:42:38,490
Sharon, you asked you to challenge.

392
00:42:38,710 --> 00:42:39,850
I'm answering your question.

393
00:42:40,630 --> 00:42:43,910
Now, finally, and I don't see why people who are against housing

394
00:42:44,450 --> 00:42:50,470
are so upset with it, if that is the true sentiment of the majority of the town,

395
00:42:50,470 --> 00:42:54,130
You don't come up at the vote, and we'll drop this proposal and we'll go on.

396
00:42:54,130 --> 00:42:57,590
That's very true. I think it will come up on the vote.

397
00:42:57,810 --> 00:42:59,550
One way or the other, yes, it will.

398
00:43:05,360 --> 00:43:07,860
Alex Marconi, so I didn't grow up in Adam.

399
00:43:08,300 --> 00:43:13,720
I moved here about a year ago with my wife, so with an old school and lots of towns and

400
00:43:13,720 --> 00:43:16,180
canker dealing with this, what do you do with it?

401
00:43:16,380 --> 00:43:20,080
Really, it's apartments are senior housing. Or bulldoze it.

402
00:43:20,180 --> 00:43:24,660
My town bulldoze, my middle school and my high school, busy in North to do with it.

403
00:43:24,660 --> 00:43:27,820
And that's probably going to be the future of Hess, if we do nothing.

404
00:43:27,900 --> 00:43:31,900
It's eventually going to get bulldozed, because it's not going to be worth hanging around, too.

405
00:43:32,360 --> 00:43:34,720
So thank you came up with a good creative solution, Bob.

406
00:43:35,380 --> 00:43:42,820
My question really is, how does we get to 32 million for town offices in 12 million for

407
00:43:42,820 --> 00:43:48,520
rack? That's a huge difference, and I would think what racks do in building 30 apartments would

408
00:43:48,520 --> 00:43:53,020
be actually more expensive than town offices. Any insight?

409
00:43:53,620 --> 00:43:57,780
No, to be quiet on us, no, I can't explain the difference.

410
00:43:57,860 --> 00:44:03,520
Some of it is municipal and government projects are more expensive to that extent, I don't

411
00:44:03,520 --> 00:44:11,160
know, but I will put out as a comparison, rack-est, not rack, Antonossi estimated and Leon

412
00:44:11,160 --> 00:44:12,000
is already hit on it.

413
00:44:12,100 --> 00:44:23,000
To put the town office, renovate this for town office, it's a new town hall, would be about

414
00:44:23,000 --> 00:44:30,020
Nathan Halk and converted that to town offices. That was 16 million. Honestly, when we asked

415
00:44:30,020 --> 00:44:34,460
Antonazia to give us an estimate for making this a town hall, I was expecting the bid 20s,

416
00:44:34,480 --> 00:44:37,760
and that might be more accurate. But the point is that it's a bunch of millions.

417
00:44:39,240 --> 00:44:39,720
Hey,

418
00:44:42,370 --> 00:44:43,830
that might should be one.

419
00:44:47,120 --> 00:44:50,940
You have to understand the building types that you're discussing there.

420
00:44:51,700 --> 00:44:57,440
Antonazia's costs and estimates are based on a commercial design. The mechanical system is alone.

421
00:44:57,900 --> 00:44:59,980
would quadruple or even.

422
00:45:00,000 --> 00:45:16,100
5 times the cost of anything we're doing. By us creating 36 housing units and 14,000 square feet of commercial space, we can downsize the mechanical systems. They don't have to talk to each other. They don't have to communicate.

423
00:45:17,100 --> 00:45:23,880
And as you well know, if you're building a small apartment or a house, you can go to many splits,

424
00:45:24,760 --> 00:45:32,640
more of a downsize piece of equipment, which causes considerably less.

425
00:45:33,700 --> 00:45:38,040
So then you can also talk about the types of finishes that go into a commercial building,

426
00:45:38,340 --> 00:45:44,720
versus the types of finishes that go into residential, and even our office space.

427
00:45:44,720 --> 00:45:58,640
One of the things we've requested of the developer is that we have a say in the design of our space that we're going to occupy for the community center and the selectown offices.

428
00:45:59,620 --> 00:46:04,600
We want that to not be so much commercial but to have more homey feel.

429
00:46:04,600 --> 00:46:10,600
So that when we go there and we're visiting, or we're partaking in a community activity there,

430
00:46:11,680 --> 00:46:18,500
it feels a little bit more like we're going home somewhere and instead into a stark construction,

431
00:46:18,760 --> 00:46:22,660
that's made to take us a serious amount of abuse.

432
00:46:23,140 --> 00:46:26,180
So it's a much higher level of product that goes into the building,

433
00:46:27,740 --> 00:46:31,600
but your big expenses are going to be in your mechanical, electrical plumbing systems,

434
00:46:33,020 --> 00:46:38,320
firearms, sprinklers, interconnections, everything has to speak to each other, everything is

435
00:46:38,320 --> 00:46:42,880
computer-controlled. You have to worry about fresh air makeup and how you're dealing with the

436
00:46:42,880 --> 00:46:47,780
people that are inhabiting that building. So a lot that goes into it. So it's a big difference

437
00:46:47,780 --> 00:46:53,220
as to what we're doing with what we're trying to do and that would be the biggest difference in the

438
00:46:53,220 --> 00:47:00,400
cost. And my last question is, to the town give any thought into us being the landlord of senior housing,

439
00:47:00,400 --> 00:47:05,960
doing basically what rack is, and then we would collect the income from the rack.

440
00:47:07,300 --> 00:47:13,400
I can't say we give it serious thought. I have some concern. It's going to raise additional

441
00:47:13,400 --> 00:47:17,000
costs for the town because now you have to have people who manage that and do it professionally.

442
00:47:17,880 --> 00:47:22,620
To me, there's a couple of considerations. To me, I think a private entity would be better.

443
00:47:23,180 --> 00:47:28,220
Private entity also has a little more flexibility on to whom they rent it and to whom they say no to.

444
00:47:28,220 --> 00:47:30,420
and it's easier for them to evict tenants that are not

445
00:47:30,420 --> 00:47:31,740
compliant as a rule.

446
00:47:32,500 --> 00:47:34,660
But the other thing in this situation in particular,

447
00:47:35,480 --> 00:47:37,980
this grant requires partnering with a developer.

448
00:47:39,080 --> 00:47:42,680
It's a common state requirement for their grants these days

449
00:47:42,680 --> 00:47:45,060
because they want to make sure the project moves forward.

450
00:47:46,080 --> 00:47:48,800
So could we eventually do that and manage it ourselves?

451
00:47:49,900 --> 00:47:51,500
We could if we want to go that route,

452
00:47:52,060 --> 00:47:54,740
but we don't get the 4.5 million assistance to do that.

453
00:47:55,500 --> 00:47:57,540
Thanks, Bob. Overall, it's a nice job.

454
00:47:57,540 --> 00:47:58,880
Thank you.

455
00:48:09,640 --> 00:48:11,420
Good evening, ma'am and all.

456
00:48:13,240 --> 00:48:21,260
I live in the house here in the Higgen, many years ago, back in 1977, when I met my wife

457
00:48:21,260 --> 00:48:26,240
and we got married and we were looking for a house, I can remember, I brought in what anywhere

458
00:48:26,240 --> 00:48:27,040
I worked.

459
00:48:27,320 --> 00:48:30,400
As a man, his electrician, the guy's up in there, and well, you're going to send your kids

460
00:48:30,400 --> 00:48:31,580
to private school?

461
00:48:32,040 --> 00:48:32,060
No.

462
00:48:32,760 --> 00:48:35,680
He said, well, you've got to get out of the middle of town because the schools are no good.

463
00:48:36,420 --> 00:48:38,360
because I hear that ain't a lot much better.

464
00:48:39,220 --> 00:48:41,960
But anyways, we looked around, and somebody suggested,

465
00:48:42,180 --> 00:48:44,940
I did switch 17, my wife and I, we drove around,

466
00:48:45,100 --> 00:48:47,300
we saw the new high school and stuff like this.

467
00:48:47,460 --> 00:48:48,860
We fell in love with the place.

468
00:48:49,580 --> 00:48:52,380
So we bought a house, up on there, on the

469
00:48:52,380 --> 00:48:56,600
Killing Worth Roadmeer, where the herb shop used to be,

470
00:48:56,740 --> 00:48:57,380
the t-shirt.

471
00:48:58,640 --> 00:49:00,380
And it was still there, I like it,

472
00:49:00,620 --> 00:49:02,200
but there is a lot of work that I've done.

473
00:49:03,380 --> 00:49:08,040
And the last meeting where we had at the, they had an elementary school, there was a woman

474
00:49:08,040 --> 00:49:13,300
came up with them and they were saying, well, who, who would want to live in here and I raised

475
00:49:13,300 --> 00:49:13,980
my hand.

476
00:49:14,260 --> 00:49:21,900
I said, I would, not now, not probably when they built it, but if I wanted to downsize into a small

477
00:49:21,900 --> 00:49:26,720
house and yes there's a lot of houses around, but not a lot of them are affordable for senior

478
00:49:26,720 --> 00:49:27,320
citizens.

479
00:49:27,320 --> 00:49:32,720
I said, I would love to get a place in here, because then I can walk down to my tree and

480
00:49:32,720 --> 00:49:37,160
place to get my lottery tickets and stuff, and then you've got the restaurants there,

481
00:49:37,280 --> 00:49:41,880
and you've got the post-opposing walk too, you've got the pharmacy, all within walking this

482
00:49:41,880 --> 00:49:43,200
business and stuff like this.

483
00:49:43,800 --> 00:49:48,400
So in that sense, I would love it, and I've spoken to other people with that idea, and they

484
00:49:48,400 --> 00:49:53,880
think it would be great, and it would be something that would be a foldable, and as Bob had

485
00:49:53,880 --> 00:49:58,180
before, because the state laws we can't make it just

486
00:49:58,860 --> 00:50:01,940
Adam's senior Senate, but when they first open,

487
00:50:02,320 --> 00:50:04,600
we'll make sure the word gets around to Adam,

488
00:50:04,640 --> 00:50:08,580
Higgit, Adam, Nick, and all that, so that we citizen here

489
00:50:08,580 --> 00:50:10,820
can get first abs, and eventually.

490
00:50:11,860 --> 00:50:13,380
So I think it's a very good idea.

491
00:50:13,860 --> 00:50:16,600
I have in this senior citizen affordable hat,

492
00:50:16,700 --> 00:50:17,940
as well as old logic.

493
00:50:18,400 --> 00:50:19,740
I support it.

494
00:50:19,960 --> 00:50:20,600
Thank you.

495
00:50:20,780 --> 00:50:21,160
Thank you.

496
00:50:21,160 --> 00:50:25,160
Let me just, because that comment has prompted another mic, were you in line?

497
00:50:25,980 --> 00:50:29,900
Yeah, but let me just talk for a minute on a four-hour hours insurance.

498
00:50:30,940 --> 00:50:34,980
Fortable housing is a need in the state for all people.

499
00:50:35,160 --> 00:50:37,680
Not just for seniors, but a four-hour housing is a big need.

500
00:50:38,440 --> 00:50:43,660
The state is making some serious pushes to require talents to develop affordable housing.

501
00:50:44,280 --> 00:50:45,260
This is a step.

502
00:50:45,260 --> 00:50:53,160
As part of our this mandated requirements for affordable housing, every municipality had to have an affordable housing plan.

503
00:50:53,960 --> 00:50:54,460
We do.

504
00:50:55,160 --> 00:51:02,840
We have committed to the state in the next five to ten years to have 35 or so affordable housing units.

505
00:51:03,460 --> 00:51:08,720
Again, not necessarily to seniors, but overall this plan will help us meet that.

506
00:51:09,300 --> 00:51:14,080
I can tell you if you follow the legislature not the short session with the long session last year,

507
00:51:14,080 --> 00:51:22,020
There were some pretty draconian bills presented to force towns to develop affordable housing.

508
00:51:25,580 --> 00:51:30,240
The state is going to force it or we can get out in front of it and this is a good first step.

509
00:51:30,720 --> 00:51:37,320
But I will also fully acknowledge we need affordable housing for all, not incommetable, for all age levels.

510
00:51:38,500 --> 00:51:45,040
This affordable housing honestly is now more accurately reported as working force housing for the most part.

511
00:51:45,040 --> 00:51:55,660
It's housing for the nurse, housing for the clerk and the hardware store, housing for our kids who have graduated college and want to come back and can't afford to buy a house.

512
00:51:56,340 --> 00:52:02,420
So there's going to be a big push for affordable housing. This is a step, but it can't shouldn't be the adequate.

513
00:52:03,380 --> 00:52:09,240
Why wasn't affordable housing put on over with the other apartments that were built?

514
00:52:09,240 --> 00:52:13,480
Because we can't force the builders at this point to do it.

515
00:52:13,780 --> 00:52:16,860
If a builder has state money involved,

516
00:52:17,740 --> 00:52:20,300
and this was part of when the discussion we talked about

517
00:52:20,300 --> 00:52:21,800
Rossi in apartments there,

518
00:52:22,240 --> 00:52:24,320
state grant was involved in that.

519
00:52:24,860 --> 00:52:27,620
At about 20% of the housing units your apartments

520
00:52:27,620 --> 00:52:28,720
have to be affordable.

521
00:52:30,000 --> 00:52:35,600
But for private projects, there is no way to require that, currently.

522
00:52:36,320 --> 00:52:46,680
How do you, Mr. McGarry, give first dibs to the hadam residents to move into the senior proposed

523
00:52:46,680 --> 00:52:54,560
senior housing? I think that's an impossibility. And I would like you to explain how you do that.

524
00:52:54,560 --> 00:53:02,100
Okay, well, one, we don't rack reality does, and it's a matter of where are they going to market and one are they going to market?

525
00:53:02,520 --> 00:53:10,420
Oh, so, because Rock is here in the town, they're going to...

526
00:53:11,800 --> 00:53:18,960
I am saying, rack has the option of advertising it first, right in town, before they go beyond.

527
00:53:18,960 --> 00:53:21,920
that go with Connecticut state laws?

528
00:53:21,940 --> 00:53:26,480
There's nothing, again, marketing isn't an issue for that.

529
00:53:26,500 --> 00:53:31,680
The issue is once you have the applications, you can't put them in a pile of, okay, these

530
00:53:31,680 --> 00:53:34,320
are the atom ones, these are the not atom ones.

531
00:53:34,820 --> 00:53:38,940
We're going to go through this pile first and pick the ones we want and if they're any left

532
00:53:38,940 --> 00:53:41,040
over, then we'll pick from some of these.

533
00:53:41,460 --> 00:53:46,380
You've got to consider all those applications that you're considering at one time.

534
00:53:46,380 --> 00:53:50,380
So you're going to have a rack, look at all the hatham.

535
00:53:52,040 --> 00:53:56,540
The proposes we've had for a rack, and I can't force them to do it, but they've been agreeable.

536
00:53:56,960 --> 00:54:00,700
So far, they will market it first in town.

537
00:54:01,380 --> 00:54:06,180
They're going to, I will admit, they are going to fill empty units with somebody that think is a good tenant.

538
00:54:06,580 --> 00:54:09,200
It may be somebody from town, it may not.

539
00:54:09,620 --> 00:54:15,660
Quite honestly, I don't see a whole lot of demand that people are going to be coming from Willamantic or Lichfield Hills

540
00:54:15,660 --> 00:54:22,840
To come to Adam but they might really yeah, I would expect most people moving it to senior housing

541
00:54:22,840 --> 00:54:29,520
Wanna stay in the area they are oh I would too, but I don't think that's going to be

542
00:54:29,520 --> 00:54:35,900
Truly real life again. I'm not saying these are all units will be filled with seniors from how I am that that would be foolish

543
00:54:35,900 --> 00:54:41,440
I'm here to say all right another thing with the maintenance

544
00:54:41,440 --> 00:54:42,900
Yes.

545
00:54:42,900 --> 00:54:43,140
Yes.

546
00:54:45,120 --> 00:54:48,180
We're paying maintenance on what is it?

547
00:54:48,220 --> 00:54:53,980
The land is it just the building inside like sweeping the floors?

548
00:54:54,660 --> 00:54:57,920
What is the $50,000 maintenance cover?

549
00:54:58,340 --> 00:55:04,900
That is our estimate, is that is primarily maintenance on the part of the building we are

550
00:55:04,900 --> 00:55:05,420
using.

551
00:55:05,420 --> 00:55:10,760
rack is responsible for maintaining the grounds that they use which would be the parking lot

552
00:55:10,760 --> 00:55:16,700
basically and the bill part of the building they are occupied. So while the grass and everything

553
00:55:16,700 --> 00:55:23,360
else we maintain. Yes. Okay. Because that's available for public use. And that's 50,000 a year.

554
00:55:23,580 --> 00:55:28,260
No, the 50,000 is what we're estimating on the building. The grounds I don't have a good estimate for.

555
00:55:28,640 --> 00:55:31,280
Oh, all right. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome.

556
00:55:35,700 --> 00:55:40,720
Just a question on this part that we would own.

557
00:55:41,440 --> 00:55:48,900
I've been thinking a lot about the original intent of the ground when it was donated back in the 40s I would imagine.

558
00:55:50,080 --> 00:55:51,420
And the use of education.

559
00:55:52,060 --> 00:56:02,860
So one of my questions is, could the community center be expanded at all to accommodate the arts and some of the things I've seen around the blue fire stages being taken their space being taken?

560
00:56:02,860 --> 00:56:08,660
is the community center able to be expanded into it, able to accommodate those types of things

561
00:56:08,660 --> 00:56:14,140
so that the original intent of the building could still sort of, you know, live and breathe

562
00:56:14,140 --> 00:56:21,720
in this new form. Okay. Well, to the original D, the transfer of this property to the town,

563
00:56:23,180 --> 00:56:28,200
there's some rumors floating around and I can understand where they started that it was for a school.

564
00:56:28,200 --> 00:56:33,700
It had to be a school in education use, actually that's not accurate, not entirely.

565
00:56:34,540 --> 00:56:41,240
The requirement was that the town erect a school on the property, and to tear down the

566
00:56:41,240 --> 00:56:43,540
union school and make that property a town green.

567
00:56:44,420 --> 00:56:46,800
When they opened the school, those conditions have been met.

568
00:56:48,200 --> 00:56:51,420
So we're not required to keep educational use there.

569
00:56:51,560 --> 00:56:53,540
There certainly will be some in the senior center.

570
00:56:54,640 --> 00:56:58,040
The auditorium, as most of you I think have been in it and you know there's a stage in

571
00:56:58,040 --> 00:57:04,340
It certainly can be, and it blue fire does use it for presentations, but for their other support work.

572
00:57:04,760 --> 00:57:08,100
I don't think there's room in this building for it.

573
00:57:08,680 --> 00:57:11,460
With either proposal, this or making it a town office building.

574
00:57:12,860 --> 00:57:13,360
Got it.

575
00:57:13,600 --> 00:57:14,120
Okay. Thank you.

576
00:57:19,470 --> 00:57:19,730
Okay.

577
00:57:21,090 --> 00:57:28,050
What I started to say is the young couple that approached us at the farmer's market.

578
00:57:28,050 --> 00:57:36,490
live in Hatham, their parents live in Naga-Tuk or something and they will be down-sizing.

579
00:57:37,330 --> 00:57:47,610
And this young couple would like their parents to come to Hatham to be close to them and live in an affordable housing situation down the road from them.

580
00:57:47,990 --> 00:57:50,670
Now, does that make them out of towners?

581
00:57:50,670 --> 00:57:58,030
Or do they get, you know, do they become encounters because they have children that live here?

582
00:57:58,650 --> 00:58:03,190
I think you need to start thinking a little broader than them and us.

583
00:58:04,190 --> 00:58:12,350
The other thing is the rack developer that is working on this project also lives in town.

584
00:58:19,910 --> 00:58:22,570
Sharon, there's somebody already waiting, please sit down and give.

585
00:58:24,900 --> 00:58:26,560
Come on, what would you like to talk about, Ron?

586
00:58:26,560 --> 00:58:33,240
you want to go round around all the time, but we've had this exchange of any time. What happens if

587
00:58:33,240 --> 00:58:43,580
rack decides to sell along the way? To sell what? To sell what? If they don't own anything,

588
00:58:43,860 --> 00:58:48,460
they have leasing rights, they can sell the leasing rights and certain conditions. Now the price

589
00:58:48,460 --> 00:58:57,280
what happens? Well, prices rise how? Okay, just like anybody, why is this? Why is something?

590
00:58:57,680 --> 00:59:08,600
It instantly, it goes to prices. If anyone bought into the lease, they'd be still be bound by the conditions that were on rack.

591
00:59:08,940 --> 00:59:15,700
These would still have to be affordable. Actually, I think by stage statute, it may have to be deeded as affordable for a period of time.

592
00:59:15,700 --> 00:59:19,340
So somebody could come in and continue what rack was doing.

593
00:59:19,880 --> 00:59:21,460
Somebody couldn't come in and say, okay,

594
00:59:21,920 --> 00:59:25,520
I'm going to renovate these apartments and make them all high end units and charge $1,000.

595
00:59:26,140 --> 00:59:28,160
They could not do that for how long?

596
00:59:28,960 --> 00:59:30,680
Well, the lease term is 99 years.

597
00:59:31,020 --> 00:59:33,820
No, books, I far as rack, raising prices or whatever.

598
00:59:35,280 --> 00:59:36,440
They've got to be afforded.

599
00:59:36,600 --> 00:59:43,640
It's going to in the lease terms with this as affordable seeing your housing for the term for the 99-year term of the lease.

600
00:59:44,120 --> 00:59:50,360
And what's Sharon, there's no guarantee at anybody, what I've well overqualified as a senior, believe me.

601
00:59:50,640 --> 00:59:55,020
There's no guarantee at anybody that's going to get in there that's a senior.

602
00:59:55,740 --> 00:59:58,780
They're going to, the rack is in a rental business, they're going to put it on the open market.

603
01:00:00,050 --> 01:00:06,430
Okay. I can guarantee that people get in there will be seniors. I cannot guarantee that they'll be from Adam. That's correct.

604
01:00:06,830 --> 01:00:13,070
But I find it hard to believe that everyone, every unit every time is going to be sucked up by somebody from Adam.

605
01:00:13,330 --> 01:00:29,850
It may be, but also keep in mind if our seniors don't want to avail themselves to this. Part of the advantage of this is even though I know some people don't want more housing in the center is if we want to revitalize that center and support the businesses we have.

606
01:00:29,850 --> 01:00:32,730
and hopefully and sent others to open new businesses,

607
01:00:33,450 --> 01:00:34,750
we need people on activity.

608
01:00:35,590 --> 01:00:36,270
Come in, ladies.

609
01:00:36,490 --> 01:00:39,290
If you want to raise tax revenue,

610
01:00:39,710 --> 01:00:41,490
we need an industrial park.

611
01:00:42,010 --> 01:00:43,210
They make a lot of money.

612
01:00:43,650 --> 01:00:45,310
Yep, and I would agree with that.

613
01:00:45,750 --> 01:00:46,410
Thank you, Bob.

614
01:00:49,470 --> 01:00:51,050
Good evening, I'm Sherry Tuba,

615
01:00:51,290 --> 01:00:54,770
and I just want to congratulate Bob and Bill Warner

616
01:00:54,770 --> 01:00:56,690
and all those who worked on this plan.

617
01:00:56,690 --> 01:00:57,930
I think it's phenomenal.

618
01:00:58,350 --> 01:01:01,970
And I love the idea of leasing the senior housing

619
01:01:01,970 --> 01:01:08,810
I talk to seniors. I'm a senior and there is really a need for senior housing and I think it's a great idea

620
01:01:08,810 --> 01:01:16,090
And I just applaud you for all the great work you've done. Thank you, Cheryl. Yeah, and I'll say a number of seniors want to stay most of us probably say

621
01:01:16,090 --> 01:01:17,970
We want to stay in our houses forever

622
01:01:19,410 --> 01:01:21,410
Unfortunately for a lot of us those plans change

623
01:01:22,410 --> 01:01:24,670
And you can't or you realize

624
01:01:24,670 --> 01:01:31,470
Now that you're a widow or a widow or it's a heck of a lot of work to maintain your property and you'd like to downsize

625
01:01:32,830 --> 01:01:35,050
I have a question on the referendum.

626
01:01:35,450 --> 01:01:40,050
I think the wording of the referendum is that we're voting on the proposed lease summary.

627
01:01:41,190 --> 01:01:44,470
The proposed lease summary as I've seen it is just six points.

628
01:01:44,930 --> 01:01:48,210
I haven't seen any links to the full lease.

629
01:01:48,370 --> 01:01:49,490
Will that be made available?

630
01:01:50,250 --> 01:01:55,430
The full lease will come about after we get authorization to enter into negotiations for it.

631
01:01:55,490 --> 01:02:01,650
It will follow the guidelines in those six main six or ten whatever the main points are there in the lease summary.

632
01:02:01,650 --> 01:02:09,570
Okay, this is the first time I've seen that Raqq is only leasing part of the building, will that be included in part of the referendum?

633
01:02:09,810 --> 01:02:11,870
Because I think that's very important for people.

634
01:02:12,030 --> 01:02:18,670
We're the wording of the referendum is set because it had to be set for us like Manhattan to approve it and we had to get ballots done.

635
01:02:19,530 --> 01:02:26,570
But the intent is clear and what we're committing to is a Raqq is only going to rent or lease.

636
01:02:26,570 --> 01:02:32,170
Basically, it's the 1953 edition in the 1989 editions.

637
01:02:33,070 --> 01:02:38,530
Okay, so I've been to almost every informational center, and this is the first time I've seen that.

638
01:02:38,850 --> 01:02:42,310
So if I were a voter going in, I would think they were leasing the whole building.

639
01:02:43,390 --> 01:02:48,470
So will a diagram or something else be made available to the public as part of the referendum process?

640
01:02:48,710 --> 01:02:53,730
We will have as much, and we can definitely have the summary of the key points for us to negotiate.

641
01:02:53,730 --> 01:02:59,190
have already cleared that with the lawyer. I'm hoping we can also put in something like

642
01:02:59,190 --> 01:03:03,810
the slide I showed with that outline the area that's being they will be leasing. I don't

643
01:03:03,810 --> 01:03:06,230
know how much we can do without it becoming election hearing.

644
01:03:06,650 --> 01:03:07,310
Okay, thank you.

645
01:03:07,370 --> 01:03:07,990
You're welcome.

646
01:03:17,540 --> 01:03:24,120
Hi, my name's Tim Lucas. I want to say I think this is great. I was a fan when we previously

647
01:03:24,120 --> 01:03:30,050
were pitched the sale of the building to rack. I'm even more of a fan now that it's

648
01:03:30,050 --> 01:03:33,590
I love that the town will retain ownership and control of the property.

649
01:03:34,430 --> 01:03:38,570
I think as somebody said a couple of minutes ago, Sharon, I think your name was.

650
01:03:39,370 --> 01:03:41,870
That town staff has done a phenomenal job with this.

651
01:03:41,970 --> 01:03:45,830
I think bringing multiple iterations of the plan to the table,

652
01:03:46,370 --> 01:03:49,210
coming and speaking openly to the townspeople,

653
01:03:49,470 --> 01:03:54,010
being willing to receive the tomatoes and darts being thrown at you,

654
01:03:54,350 --> 01:03:55,630
and still stand up like professionals.

655
01:03:56,090 --> 01:03:58,730
I really commend you all for what you're doing.

656
01:03:58,890 --> 01:04:00,010
I think this is great.

657
01:04:01,490 --> 01:04:04,330
I've been on that side of the podium in these types of meetings,

658
01:04:04,350 --> 01:04:06,510
and it's not easy, so I give you a lot of credit.

659
01:04:08,150 --> 01:04:18,010
I also think that it's important that people go into this and think about this within open mind.

660
01:04:18,310 --> 01:04:23,010
I'm not on Facebook, so I think I count myself very, very blessed,

661
01:04:23,010 --> 01:04:27,350
maybe relieved that I'm not hearing and reading all the hoopla that's out there on Facebook.

662
01:04:27,950 --> 01:04:32,170
Sounds like there's a lot of static out there. I'm sure there is. One of the reasons I'm not on

663
01:04:32,170 --> 01:04:38,530
Facebook, but I'm not here to sold box and grandstand. But I do think it's a great opportunity for the

664
01:04:38,530 --> 01:04:51,050
town. I think that perfection is the enemy of progress. And if we are constantly chasing

665
01:04:51,050 --> 01:04:57,510
perfection, and we want to make this the ideal euphoria. It's just not going to happen.

666
01:04:57,690 --> 01:05:00,610
We're going to continue and before you know it, 10 years from now, we'll be sitting here

667
01:05:00,610 --> 01:05:05,870
having the same conversations. And I feel like not to turn this in a direction where I'm

668
01:05:05,870 --> 01:05:10,030
going to get tomatoes and darts thrown at me, but I feel like we missed an opportunity with Rossi

669
01:05:10,030 --> 01:05:16,650
because we voted that down. We collectively as a community voted it down, right? I feel like we

670
01:05:16,650 --> 01:05:21,150
This is an opportunity, hopefully that all the opportunities there aren't gone, but hopefully

671
01:05:21,150 --> 01:05:26,190
we can bring that back to the table in some form with a different developer, because that's

672
01:05:26,190 --> 01:05:26,590
an ISOR.

673
01:05:26,610 --> 01:05:27,650
That needs to be addressed.

674
01:05:27,950 --> 01:05:34,130
I hate to see HES fall into that same category where we're just our own enemy where we're

675
01:05:34,130 --> 01:05:37,130
not letting this thing be developed and seeing progress out of this.

676
01:05:38,190 --> 01:05:44,610
So I think that, do you need a doctor, I hear you sowing and moaning from here.

677
01:05:44,610 --> 01:05:46,570
It's really disturbing and disrespectful.

678
01:05:48,190 --> 01:05:48,890
Yes?

679
01:05:48,890 --> 01:05:49,490
I get it.

680
01:05:50,210 --> 01:05:50,990
I get it.

681
01:05:56,390 --> 01:06:08,890
So I think that some of our citizens here are not participating in the open forum in a positive

682
01:06:08,890 --> 01:06:10,130
and constructive light.

683
01:06:10,430 --> 01:06:12,210
I had one more thought that I just lost.

684
01:06:13,710 --> 01:06:20,950
And I think that it's a great opportunity, I think that rack is great because they're

685
01:06:20,950 --> 01:06:21,410
from town.

686
01:06:21,650 --> 01:06:22,630
So I think this is a good opportunity.

687
01:06:22,930 --> 01:06:27,110
Again, I commend you for the bringing this to the table and continuing to present with

688
01:06:27,110 --> 01:06:27,890
open minds.

689
01:06:28,110 --> 01:06:29,630
And listen to the feedback that we're giving.

690
01:06:29,850 --> 01:06:30,850
I'm fully in support of this.

691
01:06:30,870 --> 01:06:31,470
I was before.

692
01:06:31,610 --> 01:06:32,370
I'm even more now.

693
01:06:32,590 --> 01:06:32,990
Great job.

694
01:06:33,390 --> 01:06:33,690
Thank you, Tim.

695
01:06:39,460 --> 01:06:39,840
Hi.

696
01:06:40,540 --> 01:06:40,680
Oops.

697
01:06:41,360 --> 01:06:42,360
I'm going to step back.

698
01:06:42,360 --> 01:06:48,880
I'm Chris to do Yard and I'm one of the founding board members of Blue Fire Stage Company and I'm also a

699
01:06:48,880 --> 01:07:01,360
Hatham resident and we have been a stage company since 2019 and we've been using HES since the fall of 2019 when we were established.

700
01:07:02,100 --> 01:07:29,480
We have been in that space, we paid, excuse me, we paid rent to the town for that space for two years and we've been excellent stewards and for all of COVID, we were kind of like the only people kind of taking care of the space, washing toilets, replacing paper towels and toilet paper and whatnot, but beyond just the space, what we have been establishing since 2019.

701
01:07:30,000 --> 01:07:59,980
Is a real community experience. And not just within Hatham and for Hatham residents, we've been bringing people in from other towns into our town and they're coming in for rehearsals. They're coming in for performances. They're coming to our restaurants. They're using our businesses. They're falling in love with Hatham too. But they are being exposed to this town. And so my comment is like,

702
01:08:00,000 --> 01:08:05,100
This proposal by shutting us out, and we're not the only ones.

703
01:08:05,260 --> 01:08:08,260
There are other community groups that use this space,

704
01:08:08,800 --> 01:08:15,900
and by only having the cafeteria as the one indoor community space,

705
01:08:16,600 --> 01:08:22,080
you're really shutting the door on a lot of other groups that can build this community,

706
01:08:22,380 --> 01:08:25,740
that can bring this vitality into Adam.

707
01:08:25,740 --> 01:08:30,240
And that's where my concern is.

708
01:08:30,900 --> 01:08:35,940
I think more of this space could be a lot

709
01:08:35,940 --> 01:08:39,520
for community use, and that would actually bring more people

710
01:08:39,520 --> 01:08:42,200
into the town on a more permanent basis.

711
01:08:43,500 --> 01:08:45,980
We've got a bunch of apartments in the center of town,

712
01:08:46,220 --> 01:08:47,140
and isn't that cool?

713
01:08:47,360 --> 01:08:48,380
Yes, it is.

714
01:08:48,800 --> 01:08:53,840
But when you actually have activity around that living space,

715
01:08:53,840 --> 01:08:57,920
a vital activity that interplay with each other,

716
01:08:59,160 --> 01:09:02,500
you're going to build and grow something even greater.

717
01:09:03,880 --> 01:09:07,540
So I think that this current proposal is, yes,

718
01:09:07,640 --> 01:09:08,760
and I know you've said before,

719
01:09:09,020 --> 01:09:12,100
it's not a perfect plan and I understand that,

720
01:09:12,400 --> 01:09:16,820
but it almost just feels like the town's just trying to get rid

721
01:09:16,820 --> 01:09:19,800
of this HES albatross that's hanging around our neck.

722
01:09:19,840 --> 01:09:22,160
And I think what we need to do is really

723
01:09:22,160 --> 01:09:30,820
invest in our people, in our community who are doing the things to build even more community

724
01:09:30,820 --> 01:09:37,700
and make Adam an even more accessible and inviting place, that's all I wanted to say.

725
01:09:43,800 --> 01:09:44,440
Thank you for your comment.

726
01:09:44,540 --> 01:09:47,420
How many performances have you done in the five years?

727
01:09:50,940 --> 01:09:52,580
So you've done 20.

728
01:09:56,340 --> 01:10:01,680
Let me march. Can you give me just a couple of seconds here? Thank you, dear.

729
01:10:03,060 --> 01:10:07,700
Okay, and I thank you for the work you're doing as far as other community groups there.

730
01:10:07,760 --> 01:10:10,000
I've set up before and I know people take a fence.

731
01:10:10,200 --> 01:10:17,180
But by and large, our use, all the activities that are in there are use of it of Hadamilometry has been as a closet.

732
01:10:17,700 --> 01:10:21,860
It's a storage space. The library is using it now during the renovation.

733
01:10:21,860 --> 01:10:26,000
and the lines have done it, historical society has done it.

734
01:10:26,560 --> 01:10:32,360
It hasn't seen much with the exception of blue fire of active use of the space.

735
01:10:33,660 --> 01:10:34,900
We're paying a lot for a closet.

736
01:10:36,020 --> 01:10:42,820
And I realize the plan doesn't include you for economic reasons that the developer has

737
01:10:42,820 --> 01:10:48,220
got to have a fiscal irresponsible plan on his end, but there may be other options in town.

738
01:10:50,880 --> 01:10:51,880
Thank you for waiting, Mark.

739
01:10:53,510 --> 01:11:00,890
Thank you for hearing me. First of all, thank you for the presentation. I thought it was very well done.

740
01:11:02,010 --> 01:11:15,790
I wanted to mention that the Adam Committee on Aging has supported or written a letter of support for the proposal of the Selectman.

741
01:11:15,790 --> 01:11:26,210
And then further, I want everybody to know that there are one fifth of us in town about,

742
01:11:27,870 --> 01:11:30,310
that are 65 or older.

743
01:11:31,430 --> 01:11:40,110
And many of us who live in larger houses are looking for space that we can move into that

744
01:11:40,110 --> 01:11:47,190
as less organizational work to do with like lawns and repairs.

745
01:11:47,950 --> 01:11:48,390
But anyway,

746
01:11:50,830 --> 01:11:57,230
I favor the proposal and hope that the town will consider it seriously.

747
01:11:57,570 --> 01:11:58,230
Thank you.

748
01:11:58,370 --> 01:11:58,910
Thank you, Mark.

749
01:12:08,190 --> 01:12:10,370
On the voting on the 23rd.

750
01:12:10,630 --> 01:12:10,870
Yep.

751
01:12:11,470 --> 01:12:13,670
Are we meeting someplace or this?

752
01:12:13,670 --> 01:12:15,830
The voting is just like a regular election.

753
01:12:16,030 --> 01:12:17,630
You go to your normal polling place.

754
01:12:17,630 --> 01:12:23,810
or news the machine is that they open at six o'clock like they always have they will be open until late o'clock

755
01:12:23,810 --> 01:12:28,230
it's just like a regular election and if you can't be here you can get absentee ballots

756
01:12:28,230 --> 01:12:29,930
town clerk has them available

757
01:12:31,690 --> 01:12:40,850
um the uh the thing we vote on is it three is it's going to be just this we vote yes or no

758
01:12:40,850 --> 01:12:46,630
or be possibility voting at the one's 32 million or the one is just just this one

759
01:12:46,630 --> 01:12:57,630
Because this is a decision we have to make, honestly, there's, I don't think there's enough to say yes or no to a town, all proposal and the other proposal is just we just don't pursue anything

760
01:12:57,630 --> 01:12:59,830
We pursue trying to figure out what we want to do.

761
01:13:00,150 --> 01:13:06,110
Is there still an idea of having some of the property used as a community for the center of septic system?

762
01:13:06,590 --> 01:13:08,090
Yes, that's still available under this.

763
01:13:08,090 --> 01:13:08,950
Mr.

764
01:13:17,210 --> 01:13:22,330
Caramelare Schimm, a resident here for the past 13 years, I was just wondering, I'm trying

765
01:13:22,330 --> 01:13:28,030
to figure it out not in here, the auditorium, what's happening with that at the school.

766
01:13:28,450 --> 01:13:30,910
That is where the Blue Stage Fire Company uses?

767
01:13:31,050 --> 01:13:36,610
Yeah, the auditorium will remain, will be fixed up and improved, but it will be still an auditorium,

768
01:13:36,610 --> 01:13:37,910
it will still have a stage.

769
01:13:38,550 --> 01:13:43,090
And the warming kitchen that's attached to it will be enlarged to make it better as a warming

770
01:13:43,090 --> 01:13:48,810
to our kitchen. Okay, and could the blue fire stage company still rent it and practice there

771
01:13:48,810 --> 01:13:52,890
and everything? They certainly could. Because I think, you know, senior residents would love

772
01:13:52,890 --> 01:13:57,990
to go and watch. I'm sure. We would too. What age do you take?

773
01:13:58,250 --> 01:14:04,090
Sorry. What age group do you take for any ages? In my kids would love to do it. So, okay, I just

774
01:14:04,090 --> 01:14:08,690
wanted to make sure they could, you know, groups could still use that. Oh yeah, definitely. Thank you.

775
01:14:08,690 --> 01:14:10,530
Sorry, I just wanted to clarify.

776
01:14:11,590 --> 01:14:14,090
Well, it's great to have a performance space.

777
01:14:14,830 --> 01:14:17,730
What we actually require on the daily is

778
01:14:18,630 --> 01:14:23,930
a rehearsal space and also a space for all of our set pieces,

779
01:14:24,210 --> 01:14:26,570
our costumes, that kind of thing, which is what we have

780
01:14:26,570 --> 01:14:30,450
in the downstairs portion of HES right now.

781
01:14:30,570 --> 01:14:34,450
We have two of the classrooms, the old art and music room.

782
01:14:34,450 --> 01:14:59,670
Um, because in order to rent this space for an eight for three nights a week for an eight week rehearsal period is just not it's not fiscally possible for a non profit group like ours like us it's just it's it is just too expensive. So that's why we are asking for like classroom space to still be included in a plan for HDS.

783
01:15:00,000 --> 01:15:00,620
Thanks.

784
01:15:03,510 --> 01:15:13,190
Not if we go forward with this proposal is pretty much as you've seen. There can be tweaks to it, but we can't go back to the developer and say, this section of the building that you thought you were going to use, you can't.

785
01:15:21,410 --> 01:15:37,410
We do that at the expense of the senior center and the one we have now is inadequate and is frankly a safety hazard. You're familiar with it. There's, I think, eight parking places there. We're seeing an average of 16, 17 seniors every day. The senior center is open.

786
01:15:37,410 --> 01:15:43,750
And what that means is some of them park across the street at the Breiner Memorial Library, which is fine with the library.

787
01:15:44,350 --> 01:15:49,610
My concern is that death march they take across 154 to get to the senior center.

788
01:15:49,730 --> 01:15:50,830
It's just not good.

789
01:15:51,390 --> 01:15:54,590
The property of the senior center is only a third of an acre.

790
01:15:55,230 --> 01:15:58,230
There's no room to expand parking. There's no room to expand the building.

791
01:16:07,660 --> 01:16:10,720
For parking, a current senior center of this proposal.

792
01:16:14,630 --> 01:16:17,150
Yeah, there'll be a slightly behind-the-cat mark.

793
01:16:17,470 --> 01:16:19,350
That's a state requirement, at least a minimum.

794
01:16:20,750 --> 01:16:22,750
Parking during the day, I don't think it'll be a problem there.

795
01:16:23,090 --> 01:16:28,530
The tenant parking is around behind the for the apartments is around behind it, and that

796
01:16:28,530 --> 01:16:29,490
little L area.

797
01:16:31,370 --> 01:16:32,810
So there will still be plenty of parking.

798
01:16:33,470 --> 01:16:37,990
The front parking lot is still available for use for the farmers market or other events.

799
01:16:48,290 --> 01:16:48,510
All right.

800
01:16:48,870 --> 01:16:49,590
Anyone else?

801
01:16:56,540 --> 01:16:56,780
Hi.

802
01:16:56,780 --> 01:17:03,060
My name is Sarah, and I'm a resident of Paganum, and I want to start by thanking all of you

803
01:17:03,060 --> 01:17:07,900
here for your service and for your time, and you all have full-time jobs that you worked

804
01:17:07,900 --> 01:17:10,720
all day at today, and I appreciate you spending your time here.

805
01:17:11,940 --> 01:17:20,360
I moved to this town in 2019, not originally from here, and the welcome that I received when

806
01:17:20,360 --> 01:17:26,300
came here was amazing and it helped me to feel excited about living here.

807
01:17:26,600 --> 01:17:33,360
I have six children in this town in the school district and I'm not a senior quite yet.

808
01:17:34,380 --> 01:17:39,000
So, I represent kind of the other side of the population with young kids.

809
01:17:39,620 --> 01:17:46,380
And I can say that as a mom of young kids, this is really exciting to me because it makes me hopeful

810
01:17:46,380 --> 01:17:53,000
that my children will actually have activities and cultural events and opportunities to connect

811
01:17:53,000 --> 01:17:56,900
with other people of the town here because for a long time there hasn't been that.

812
01:17:57,160 --> 01:18:02,100
So the idea of having space for a multi-generational community is really exciting.

813
01:18:02,600 --> 01:18:04,500
I'm also a licensed clinical social worker.

814
01:18:04,920 --> 01:18:10,660
I have almost 20 years of practice and every study that's ever been done about the mental

815
01:18:10,660 --> 01:18:18,440
benefits of community connection and connecting seniors with younger individuals is

816
01:18:18,440 --> 01:18:21,760
boundless. Every study that's ever been done on it is the same. It says it's a

817
01:18:21,760 --> 01:18:26,640
wonderful thing. And what I'll say about my experience in this town and the

818
01:18:26,640 --> 01:18:32,880
community is that I think this is a group of people who are extremely hardworking

819
01:18:33,460 --> 01:18:39,320
and they care about families and their children. And most of all there's a deep

820
01:18:39,320 --> 01:18:45,600
commitment to community here and it's why I fell in love with the town and I think that this

821
01:18:45,600 --> 01:18:52,300
does an amazing job of incorporating that spirit and doing what's best to move the town forward,

822
01:18:52,700 --> 01:18:58,920
even though it may feel scary. And so I really appreciate this. I feel excited. I feel excited that my

823
01:18:58,920 --> 01:19:03,560
kids are here and are hopefully going to be able to experience it and that will continue to grow as

824
01:19:03,560 --> 01:19:10,100
and continue to welcome new people like me, who I think bring good things to the town, like children.

825
01:19:11,880 --> 01:19:15,640
And again, I just thank you for your time. Thanks.

826
01:19:21,900 --> 01:19:26,700
I want to let you all know you all know, oh, a special round of thanks to her.

827
01:19:26,940 --> 01:19:29,540
She's the one who produced these slides for us.

828
01:19:29,700 --> 01:19:36,100
If you had had to sit through the original slides we had, you wouldn't have made a pass the first one.

829
01:19:36,100 --> 01:19:43,120
She did a great job at making them attractive and skinning down what was said on them. So again. Thank you

830
01:20:03,410 --> 01:20:04,270
Neil Perrin

831
01:20:05,170 --> 01:20:05,690
so

832
01:20:05,690 --> 01:20:09,290
One thing I need a couple things. One thing I need to address is

833
01:20:09,970 --> 01:20:11,690
We are a rack markets

834
01:20:12,330 --> 01:20:14,270
Who comes here

835
01:20:14,270 --> 01:20:21,130
There's a individual that spoke earlier question about that if I remember correctly you're from killing worth and nobody gave you a hard time to move here

836
01:20:21,130 --> 01:20:22,710
When you did right

837
01:20:24,050 --> 01:20:34,110
The other thing is I am looking around the room and I'm pretty much the only one that has

838
01:20:34,110 --> 01:20:37,330
interaction with the senior Monday through Friday.

839
01:20:38,190 --> 01:20:43,750
So to say that housing is not wanted, I think what people had mentioned was they were concerned

840
01:20:43,750 --> 01:20:47,150
about low income affordable housing, not senior housing.

841
01:20:48,250 --> 01:20:51,770
There is one senior that just recently moved out at town.

842
01:20:52,610 --> 01:20:56,730
She does ask me when the applications will be available.

843
01:20:56,890 --> 01:20:58,790
I explained her, they got to build it first.

844
01:21:00,390 --> 01:21:02,910
The seniors want to stay in town.

845
01:21:03,310 --> 01:21:04,190
They don't want to leave.

846
01:21:04,730 --> 01:21:06,730
Some of them are fortunate enough to live with their kids.

847
01:21:09,270 --> 01:21:12,530
And the death walk is pretty dangerous out there.

848
01:21:12,530 --> 01:21:13,470
I actually walk alive.

849
01:21:13,630 --> 01:21:15,770
The seniors across the road so they don't get hit.

850
01:21:15,910 --> 01:21:17,750
I almost got hit with a Tesla.

851
01:21:18,510 --> 01:21:20,830
Fortunately, the state PD came out and they caught the lady

852
01:21:20,830 --> 01:21:22,950
and she got a very, very hefty fine.

853
01:21:24,970 --> 01:21:28,790
I implore everybody who is not familiar with the Senior Center.

854
01:21:29,910 --> 01:21:33,890
Come down Monday, Tuesday, or Thursday around 11, 30, and see what a nightmare it is.

855
01:21:34,030 --> 01:21:35,290
I do drive the Senior Van.

856
01:21:35,710 --> 01:21:37,870
There are days where I cannot pull in there.

857
01:21:39,270 --> 01:21:44,710
This, in the past five years, from where I'm aware of, nobody has approached the town

858
01:21:44,710 --> 01:21:46,630
with proposals to put something here.

859
01:21:47,090 --> 01:21:48,370
Nobody's knocking on the doors.

860
01:21:49,590 --> 01:21:56,010
Nobody's, you know, trying to move in here, you got to start somewhere and if you get seniors

861
01:21:56,010 --> 01:22:00,670
here and a lot of people question why the Shad Shack is they are the museum.

862
01:22:01,310 --> 01:22:05,010
Well, if you have a museum there and you have a playground there and you got seniors there,

863
01:22:05,010 --> 01:22:05,970
it all comes together.

864
01:22:06,930 --> 01:22:09,390
So, eventually, this could be phase one.

865
01:22:09,850 --> 01:22:15,170
The town did vote down Rossi, you got to start somewhere because if not, downtown in a state

866
01:22:15,170 --> 01:22:21,370
just like it is. We are going to lose out on property tax. We all know property tax, you

867
01:22:21,370 --> 01:22:26,870
know why your middle rate will never go down. We deal with it. It's something that has to

868
01:22:26,870 --> 01:22:29,970
start here. Otherwise, there's no-

869
01:22:30,000 --> 01:22:36,580
To be people bashing the first select men, the zoning board of appeals, plan and zoning, you couldn't get it done.

870
01:22:38,560 --> 01:22:44,480
I fully support this, not because I drive the seniors, or I would love to move my mother over here.

871
01:22:45,720 --> 01:22:55,720
It's needed. And thank you to Bob, the select men, P&Z, land use, Mr. King, the students that are here on their summer break.

872
01:22:57,000 --> 01:23:00,280
This town needs to be welcoming and bring everybody together.

873
01:23:00,640 --> 01:23:04,320
There's so much stuff we haven't common, if we just get rid of this bickering.

874
01:23:05,360 --> 01:23:11,020
This could be a better town than what it already is, so hopefully it passes.

875
01:23:22,670 --> 01:23:24,730
There, we can make space for you in the jail.

876
01:23:25,250 --> 01:23:26,830
We'll even give you keys right now.

877
01:23:26,950 --> 01:23:27,470
Right out of the promise.

878
01:23:29,410 --> 01:23:30,710
You've performed at the jail.

879
01:23:30,850 --> 01:23:31,110
Nice.

880
01:23:31,450 --> 01:23:31,570
Nice.

881
01:23:33,210 --> 01:23:36,110
Rebekah Degnan, I'm the president of Blue Fire.

882
01:23:36,590 --> 01:23:41,230
Also, a Hadam resident and a former educator in our district for 20 years.

883
01:23:41,790 --> 01:23:49,750
I moved to Hadam with my husband in 2004, which is when I was initially hired by our middle school as a course teacher,

884
01:23:50,250 --> 01:23:59,750
taught choir for 10 years, and then got my master's in counseling, changed over to be a school counselor in our district at our middle school for six years,

885
01:23:59,750 --> 01:24:04,170
And then recently I've opened a private counseling practice and killing worth.

886
01:24:04,530 --> 01:24:07,230
I'm very invested in these towns in HK.

887
01:24:07,950 --> 01:24:10,330
I love our kids, I love our families.

888
01:24:11,050 --> 01:24:13,910
And I have first hand seen how much of a difference

889
01:24:13,910 --> 01:24:16,770
both in terms of community and mental health.

890
01:24:17,250 --> 01:24:20,570
The arts have done for our kids and for our families.

891
01:24:21,850 --> 01:24:28,370
And one of the things that we pride ourselves in at Blue Fire is that we go out of our way to collaborate

892
01:24:28,370 --> 01:24:32,470
with the fine arts departments throughout our building or throughout our town.

893
01:24:33,110 --> 01:24:37,890
So, we make sure we schedule around their performances, so we never conflict.

894
01:24:38,030 --> 01:24:40,310
So, kids can do our shows and the school shows.

895
01:24:40,690 --> 01:24:43,390
We have an apprenticeship program where we train people.

896
01:24:44,070 --> 01:24:46,190
Many of them are kids and teens.

897
01:24:46,650 --> 01:24:49,630
We train them in an area of the arts that they're interested in,

898
01:24:49,770 --> 01:24:53,350
and then they take those skills that they don't learn anywhere else except from us.

899
01:24:53,350 --> 01:24:58,210
And they go, and they become the stage managers for the school plays, they become the customers,

900
01:24:58,470 --> 01:25:05,630
they become a lot of them, the lead actors, pit orchestra performers, we do all areas of that.

901
01:25:06,010 --> 01:25:13,670
And we have a huge group of kids and families that have gone through our programs and the town's benefit from that.

902
01:25:13,690 --> 01:25:22,070
It is really important that we continue to do this work and that we have a space, a performance space is not sufficient.

903
01:25:22,070 --> 01:25:27,430
And we have to pay a hundred dollars a day to use the auditorium, the cafeteria and the HES.

904
01:25:27,890 --> 01:25:28,930
So it is not sufficient.

905
01:25:29,230 --> 01:25:30,770
We can't have our home there.

906
01:25:30,870 --> 01:25:37,090
We need a space dedicated to us that we can use day in and day out and do our programming.

907
01:25:37,650 --> 01:25:39,870
And with this proposal, that will be lost.

908
01:25:39,890 --> 01:25:41,350
And it's not just our loss.

909
01:25:41,550 --> 01:25:44,070
I want to make it very clear that it's our town's loss.

910
01:25:44,350 --> 01:25:45,790
It's our kids' loss.

911
01:25:46,050 --> 01:25:47,390
It's families' loss.

912
01:25:47,730 --> 01:25:49,190
We love our seniors.

913
01:25:49,190 --> 01:25:56,230
we actually would love to have a place where the seniors can move in the senior center, senior housing,

914
01:25:56,750 --> 01:26:05,030
move into HES. We would love to do programs with and for our seniors. We would love to bring the arts to you.

915
01:26:05,350 --> 01:26:11,630
We are not against that at all. We want our seniors there, but we only have two rooms.

916
01:26:12,350 --> 01:26:17,610
And that is all we need. We don't even need a performance space. There's other places we can rent to perform.

917
01:26:17,610 --> 01:26:29,870
We need our two rooms to bring our programming to keep contributing to our community, to bring business into our communities, and that's going to be lost, and that is a massive, massive loss for our towns.

918
01:26:30,270 --> 01:26:41,650
So I really hope that people will vote now and that we can then be invited to the table as part of the planning for how we can create this community center where we can all work together to support our community.

919
01:26:42,430 --> 01:26:42,770
Thank you.

920
01:26:42,770 --> 01:26:43,650
our

921
01:26:52,230 --> 01:26:56,030
columns again. I've been in a number of times when I've gone up to the

922
01:26:56,030 --> 01:27:00,550
60s, I mean they've seen you set us up there when I wife and I and all most of

923
01:27:00,550 --> 01:27:05,970
all the time we have to park over there in the library and in a couple I'm

924
01:27:05,970 --> 01:27:09,330
remember this one particular time I'm going across I hit the button of the light

925
01:27:09,330 --> 01:27:21,330
I'm not walking and this jerk comes whipping by I mean speedy I'm

926
01:27:21,330 --> 01:27:23,110
But it is dangerous.

927
01:27:23,810 --> 01:27:25,850
With this place in here, it's going to be easy.

928
01:27:25,910 --> 01:27:29,770
Precene your scissors is the goal there for the senior center at the 60 club.

929
01:27:30,470 --> 01:27:33,190
And if you live there, then all you have to do is walk.

930
01:27:33,550 --> 01:27:37,190
And also, when you got the little playground there, and you've got the senior citizen with

931
01:27:37,190 --> 01:27:40,950
there on a nice day, they can get out there and sit in there and watch the little boys

932
01:27:40,950 --> 01:27:45,590
and girls play, maybe big boys and girls play, and stuff like this, and they can,

933
01:27:45,770 --> 01:27:49,410
and their little kids can enter the actual the senior citizens, and that'd be nice.

934
01:27:49,410 --> 01:27:52,010
So anyways, I still support this once.

935
01:27:54,470 --> 01:27:56,810
Part of our thought when we first got to this

936
01:27:56,810 --> 01:28:00,170
of the mix of the senior center, senior housing, senior center,

937
01:28:00,530 --> 01:28:03,310
and playground, is there a number of seniors who are also

938
01:28:03,310 --> 01:28:06,630
their routine daycare for their grandchildren?

939
01:28:07,470 --> 01:28:09,330
This gives them a place where that can be done.

940
01:28:14,020 --> 01:28:15,900
Can I just point, is this a song?

941
01:28:16,940 --> 01:28:17,160
A song?

942
01:28:17,440 --> 01:28:17,940
Is this a song?

943
01:28:18,060 --> 01:28:18,520
Oh, it is.

944
01:28:20,180 --> 01:28:21,800
And you just wanted to note something too.

945
01:28:21,800 --> 01:28:28,340
So I'm hearing the word community space used a lot right now, and I am sorry that this proposal

946
01:28:28,340 --> 01:28:34,060
displaces blue fire company, stage company, and as Bob pointed out before, it's not to

947
01:28:34,060 --> 01:28:37,260
say that we won't have a future home for you.

948
01:28:37,760 --> 01:28:44,040
Right now, we're definitely in limbo, we're shuffling around, the town has projects going on.

949
01:28:44,100 --> 01:28:48,900
The school district has projects going on right now, we're in a high school that's so massively

950
01:28:48,900 --> 01:28:56,360
oversized and underpopulated that we would not get enough money from the state reimbursement

951
01:28:56,360 --> 01:28:57,580
to renovate it.

952
01:28:57,840 --> 01:29:02,680
So we're talking about community spaces, but we're a little disproportionate right now.

953
01:29:03,040 --> 01:29:07,040
You know, we're meeting in the high school auditorium right now, which is not a town of

954
01:29:07,040 --> 01:29:07,600
Adam building.

955
01:29:07,940 --> 01:29:09,660
It's an RSD 17 building.

956
01:29:10,140 --> 01:29:15,840
We're at the mercy of scheduling this building, asking school workers to come in on scum

957
01:29:15,840 --> 01:29:22,560
vacation to host this for us because we, the town of Adam, do not have a community meeting

958
01:29:22,560 --> 01:29:29,220
space big enough that can accommodate a large capacity of people with seating that has air

959
01:29:29,220 --> 01:29:35,900
conditioning. So one of the pros of this HES proposal is that, yes, the multipurpose room,

960
01:29:36,080 --> 01:29:40,680
the auditorium, or the cafeteria, and whatever you want to call it, it gets renovated into a

961
01:29:41,520 --> 01:29:47,420
community meeting space. And people say they want to see downtown activity. Well,

962
01:29:47,540 --> 01:29:52,020
community spaces, you know, right now, it's where we're here. It's eight o'clock at night.

963
01:29:52,060 --> 01:29:57,700
Night time is when these kind of spaces get used. So I just, I feel like that has gotten lost

964
01:29:57,700 --> 01:29:59,920
in the shuffle a little bit tonight, you know.

965
01:30:00,000 --> 01:30:06,880
We're talking about community spaces, but really, this proposal is a community space. It's a transformation.

966
01:30:07,560 --> 01:30:12,340
And it's shifting groups around a little bit, but that's part of evolution, that's part of change.

967
01:30:12,820 --> 01:30:17,780
And that's where we are right now. There is a lot happening. There's a lot potential for change.

968
01:30:18,120 --> 01:30:26,740
And that's why we keep having these information sessions, because as somebody mentioned before, it seems like every time we come to a meeting, there's new information available.

969
01:30:26,740 --> 01:30:33,260
And yes, as unfortunate as that can be sometimes, that's how these major construction projects

970
01:30:33,260 --> 01:30:33,660
work.

971
01:30:34,040 --> 01:30:34,740
They evolve.

972
01:30:35,020 --> 01:30:39,660
They change, negotiations change, options change, pricing changes.

973
01:30:40,960 --> 01:30:45,300
So at the end of the day, we are trying as hard as we can to get the information out

974
01:30:45,300 --> 01:30:49,680
in a timely manner, and that's where we're at.

975
01:30:50,260 --> 01:30:54,700
So I just wanted to touch on the use of community space.

976
01:30:54,700 --> 01:31:04,900
As I think Viv said before, there seems to be a lot of us versus them when really at the end of the day this is intended to be a community space for all

977
01:31:05,220 --> 01:31:10,800
town of Adam, people and groups and ages and so forth.

978
01:31:13,170 --> 01:31:14,910
Step up to the mic, please, so it's recorded.

979
01:31:25,820 --> 01:31:27,020
They appreciate that.

980
01:31:27,020 --> 01:31:34,940
And I guess what we are also hoping is that if this is a yes, if the vote is yes, we would

981
01:31:34,940 --> 01:31:40,240
like to be part of the conversation, because part of what makes this so difficult for us

982
01:31:40,240 --> 01:31:45,460
as an organization, as an active nonprofit organization in the towns, is that nobody has ever

983
01:31:45,460 --> 01:31:52,320
approached us to ask us what do we see in our future, in the towns future, how can we contribute,

984
01:31:52,320 --> 01:31:58,780
how can we continue? So I would ask that if you know if the vote is a yes in the spirit of

985
01:31:58,780 --> 01:32:03,540
what you just said which I appreciate the follow through of that being can we please be part of

986
01:32:03,540 --> 01:32:11,080
those conversations and not be you know sort of like yeah blindsided like we feel very blindsided

987
01:32:11,080 --> 01:32:16,900
and we have been following we were at the very first meeting that Bill Warner had at HES during COVID

988
01:32:16,900 --> 01:32:22,300
and we were there as part of those conversations where we heard tons of people say they want

989
01:32:22,300 --> 01:32:28,840
to be a community center. And, you know, so I'm just saying we have followed all of the informational

990
01:32:28,840 --> 01:32:33,900
sessions. We've been at all the informational sessions. So it's not that we haven't made efforts,

991
01:32:34,440 --> 01:32:39,780
but we feel blindsided and we feel not communicated with. So moving forward, we would ask that

992
01:32:39,780 --> 01:32:43,620
we're part of the conversations about how we can continue to contribute to the community.

993
01:32:44,320 --> 01:32:46,420
Absolutely. Thank you. Yeah, fair ask.

994
01:32:51,660 --> 01:32:54,860
So what is going to be in that wing that you guys are saying

995
01:32:54,860 --> 01:32:57,900
is going to be owned by the town. Do you know exactly what's going to be in there?

996
01:32:58,260 --> 01:33:02,420
Okay, just a core correction. The whole building will stay owned by the town.

997
01:33:03,020 --> 01:33:07,000
I know, I just want to make sure it's cleared everybody every time this is mentioned.

998
01:33:07,660 --> 01:33:09,140
The wing that

999
01:33:30,800 --> 01:33:33,700
that's the wing we're talking about.

1000
01:33:34,600 --> 01:33:40,740
This was better if you went back to the one where you had the least with the blue and you saw the wing that we were going to have.

1001
01:33:41,020 --> 01:33:45,680
That's what I'm pointing out because I can show you what the internal layout of that

1002
01:33:45,680 --> 01:33:47,880
because I, Scott, I think that's what you're asking.

1003
01:33:48,240 --> 01:33:49,040
If not, I'll go back to you.

1004
01:33:49,040 --> 01:33:51,740
If that's not going to use that space, what's that going to be used for?

1005
01:33:53,240 --> 01:33:55,820
This is the existing multi-purpose role.

1006
01:33:56,680 --> 01:33:58,720
This will be community center activities.

1007
01:34:00,520 --> 01:34:05,800
The green space is a new senior center to replace the one we have.

1008
01:34:06,520 --> 01:34:12,280
The blue space are office space for two town functions that are currently not co-located.

1009
01:34:12,280 --> 01:34:19,020
The registrar, who is located in the fire station number one, they are literally in a storage closet.

1010
01:34:21,500 --> 01:34:27,080
One, I don't think it's the best location, but secondly, the fire department is needing more storage with more OSHA requirements.

1011
01:34:27,760 --> 01:34:30,300
This will move them out of that storage closet down here.

1012
01:34:30,720 --> 01:34:33,760
The second function is the state troopers, our resident state troopers.

1013
01:34:34,400 --> 01:34:37,880
If you don't know, their office is in this building.

1014
01:34:39,840 --> 01:34:43,960
It's not centrally located, so this makes a more central location.

1015
01:34:44,240 --> 01:34:46,320
It's at the old high school right now, right?

1016
01:34:46,500 --> 01:34:47,060
Pardon me?

1017
01:34:47,320 --> 01:34:49,160
It's at the old high school right now, though.

1018
01:34:49,460 --> 01:34:50,100
Yeah, well, this building.

1019
01:34:50,180 --> 01:34:52,300
It's in the actual of the old middle school.

1020
01:34:53,320 --> 01:34:53,720
Right.

1021
01:34:54,600 --> 01:34:55,420
Oh, yeah, this building.

1022
01:34:55,560 --> 01:34:55,860
I'll tell you.

1023
01:34:56,080 --> 01:34:56,900
No, no.

1024
01:34:56,900 --> 01:34:57,420
I'm sorry.

1025
01:34:58,860 --> 01:34:59,100
All right.

1026
01:34:59,120 --> 01:35:02,720
And then what goes on with all the property that's different from that building?

1027
01:35:03,660 --> 01:35:09,720
Like there's more property outside of where Rack is going to rent, right, or your rent, whatever you want to call.

1028
01:35:10,440 --> 01:35:11,900
So what are you going to do with that property?

1029
01:35:12,140 --> 01:35:14,060
That's all going to be recreational use.

1030
01:35:14,540 --> 01:35:18,000
All the way out where you used to have the hay rides and all that stuff, all that.

1031
01:35:18,400 --> 01:35:21,040
You're way beyond me as far as time.

1032
01:35:21,540 --> 01:35:24,880
The school property itself now is nine acres.

1033
01:35:25,800 --> 01:35:30,480
The nine acres will be available, obviously, for the outside of the building of the parking lot,

1034
01:35:30,480 --> 01:35:36,560
prints for recreation. There is also talk we've talked about a BMX pump track being put

1035
01:35:36,560 --> 01:35:44,120
on there, maybe a dog park, maybe a skate park, there are more opportunities back in

1036
01:35:44,120 --> 01:35:45,300
that general area.

1037
01:35:46,740 --> 01:35:51,040
All right, so with that said then what I mean like you talked about the housing and everything,

1038
01:35:51,280 --> 01:35:56,300
what's going for our taxes to make people like me that's single be able to afford to live

1039
01:35:56,300 --> 01:35:59,240
here and not have to move within the next few years.

1040
01:35:59,240 --> 01:36:09,320
Well, this is, we're going to keep dump the money here and there, and this will be a affordable deed restricted affordable seeing your housing.

1041
01:36:09,780 --> 01:36:17,080
Once you restrict someone as a affordable seeing your housing or through a lease agreement, that sets the maximum rent that can be charged.

1042
01:36:18,300 --> 01:36:24,300
That doesn't mean everyone who wants to is going to be able to afford it, but it brings it down below the market rate right now.

1043
01:36:27,540 --> 01:36:28,700
Is that what you're asking Scott?

1044
01:36:28,700 --> 01:36:28,960
tax?

1045
01:36:29,080 --> 01:36:30,360
I was going to affect mine.

1046
01:36:30,800 --> 01:36:36,320
Well, this will bring in 100,000 roughly 100,000 dollars a year, present value, tax revenue

1047
01:36:36,320 --> 01:36:37,220
to the town.

1048
01:36:37,500 --> 01:36:39,140
Will it make a huge difference in your bill?

1049
01:36:39,920 --> 01:36:39,940
No.

1050
01:36:40,440 --> 01:36:45,960
But we've been adding to the tax base with other, with the other apartments, with the health

1051
01:36:45,960 --> 01:36:49,740
center where it used to be merit engineering, an island dock road.

1052
01:36:50,160 --> 01:36:55,560
There's been quite a lot of commercial-style development in town to help spread the tax

1053
01:36:55,560 --> 01:36:55,860
burden.

1054
01:36:55,860 --> 01:37:02,040
But it's a good point and it's something I usually mention when I talk about this, so I'll take advantage of the opportunity now.

1055
01:37:02,680 --> 01:37:10,880
Keep in mind this going with the proposal here is the least costly option that we've got right now to discuss.

1056
01:37:11,380 --> 01:37:16,780
If we keep that building and eventually renovate all of it for whatever use we feel is appropriate.

1057
01:37:17,560 --> 01:37:23,360
And to nazi's estimate, just to bring this building up the current code, this building being the HES.

1058
01:37:23,920 --> 01:37:29,240
Of the current code and replace the aging systems are on the edge of failure.

1059
01:37:29,240 --> 01:37:29,980
It's 20.

1060
01:37:30,000 --> 01:37:34,780
3 million dollars. That's going to come out of your taxes and some way, show your performance.

1061
01:37:36,360 --> 01:37:41,280
All right. So the other thing, too, is on Facebook, we do not agree with or whatever, there's been an article.

1062
01:37:42,180 --> 01:37:47,340
So we're going to pay a hundred thousand, a hundred and forty thousand dollars or whatever it was.

1063
01:37:48,040 --> 01:37:52,020
Then we have to pay them forty thousand to use this space, right?

1064
01:37:52,260 --> 01:37:53,780
Where's the point? Where do I get it?

1065
01:37:57,120 --> 01:38:03,980
I'm just trying to clarify, Scott, yes, we will pay Rack 140,000 for 10 years, as basically

1066
01:38:03,980 --> 01:38:05,320
as a development fee.

1067
01:38:05,780 --> 01:38:07,300
They're producing for us.

1068
01:38:07,500 --> 01:38:13,560
If we had to remodel this wing, we'd be spending easily $5 million, one estimate for

1069
01:38:13,560 --> 01:38:15,000
Anthony's 10 million dollars.

1070
01:38:15,140 --> 01:38:21,460
So somewhere in that range, we will pay Rack $1.4 million to get that done.

1071
01:38:21,460 --> 01:38:28,320
there's one way to look at it and the other way to look at it though is you're gonna pay them in two and a half years you're gonna

1072
01:38:29,180 --> 01:38:31,700
paid them back what they paid us

1073
01:38:32,880 --> 01:38:33,220
for

1074
01:38:34,240 --> 01:38:39,940
But it's not here so we're gonna lose out money for the rest of the years. We're gonna be paying. Well, yeah, yes

1075
01:38:39,940 --> 01:38:43,220
We're gonna lose out money if we do nothing without wing

1076
01:38:43,220 --> 01:38:48,400
If we change use on this building which we have to do to use it because it's not a school anymore

1077
01:38:49,120 --> 01:38:50,920
It's got to be brought up to current code

1078
01:38:51,460 --> 01:38:56,160
Bringing it up to just bringing it up to current code is going to be a million millions of dollars.

1079
01:38:56,820 --> 01:39:02,660
So if you're going to have a senior citizen senior housing everything there, would you move this town nurse there?

1080
01:39:03,180 --> 01:39:04,680
We don't have a town nurse, Scott.

1081
01:39:04,860 --> 01:39:06,960
She's not in the bottom floor that building anywhere.

1082
01:39:07,740 --> 01:39:10,900
But, over the annex? No, we haven't had a town.

1083
01:39:10,920 --> 01:39:15,340
The town closed its public health function.

1084
01:39:17,080 --> 01:39:24,340
20, 16-ish. We get all those services now from the chat crowd, the Connecticut River area

1085
01:39:24,340 --> 01:39:29,140
health district. So there is, there's a social service worker in there, social department,

1086
01:39:29,740 --> 01:39:34,440
in the addicts behind the jail. That would stay there. She would stay there. That function

1087
01:39:34,440 --> 01:39:35,260
would stay there.

1088
01:39:35,940 --> 01:39:40,140
Is there a chance that she could be moved to one of those rooms and blue fires stage company

1089
01:39:40,140 --> 01:39:43,320
could get the whole bomber that since we have the little league in the ups and downs?

1090
01:39:43,880 --> 01:39:48,440
Well, the upstairs, no, the upstairs in that building, no, isn't literally entirely, I think

1091
01:39:48,440 --> 01:39:54,360
Lions have some storage up there, but it's primarily the clothing lockers, what I call it,

1092
01:39:54,480 --> 01:40:00,480
where you can, people are donating views, but wearable clothing and you can go in and draw out of that.

1093
01:40:00,940 --> 01:40:05,880
And then what about where we have the town meetings, now the upstairs that building, is that available?

1094
01:40:06,600 --> 01:40:07,880
Upstairs to which?

1095
01:40:07,880 --> 01:40:10,760
Well, we have the town meetings now, in the old stone building.

1096
01:40:10,760 --> 01:40:20,720
Okay, the upstairs of that. No, we own the that building ownership is split equally and that's per square inch between the town and the maisons.

1097
01:40:21,520 --> 01:40:27,720
Both both groups I've access to both parts of it. I don't think the town is ever used a second floor.

1098
01:40:28,060 --> 01:40:29,700
Right, I've never seen anybody use it.

1099
01:40:29,860 --> 01:40:33,880
No, the maisons do use if they meet like every Wednesday or something they have.

1100
01:40:33,880 --> 01:40:35,320
But just once a week.

1101
01:40:38,020 --> 01:40:38,120
Yeah.

1102
01:40:39,040 --> 01:40:43,940
I'm just saying I think there's more we can do for a blue fire stage company with spaces we have available.

1103
01:40:43,940 --> 01:40:47,000
Well, could be, we're going to have the existing community center.

1104
01:40:47,100 --> 01:40:49,120
Are we going to need that for a community center anymore?

1105
01:40:49,480 --> 01:40:50,480
Probably not.

1106
01:40:50,580 --> 01:40:52,660
The existing senior center if we move out.

1107
01:40:52,880 --> 01:40:54,400
Are we going to need that as a senior center?

1108
01:40:54,660 --> 01:40:55,220
Probably not.

1109
01:40:56,160 --> 01:40:58,200
Will there be other options that may come up?

1110
01:41:02,660 --> 01:41:06,820
And Bob, I just like to make a comment about relocating social services entirely.

1111
01:41:06,820 --> 01:41:13,000
entirely that was considered as an option and it was actually requested for them to remain

1112
01:41:13,000 --> 01:41:19,100
where they are. A lot of the services they provide, you know, people who use their services

1113
01:41:20,840 --> 01:41:28,880
would like some privacy and confidentiality and locating a social services usage facility usage

1114
01:41:28,880 --> 01:41:36,560
in the center of town does not really yield confidentiality or privacy. So that is the one major

1115
01:41:36,560 --> 01:41:40,780
reason why social services will remain where they are.

1116
01:41:47,790 --> 01:41:52,010
But we're starting to go with money and let me point this out.

1117
01:41:52,210 --> 01:41:58,110
Keep in mind, this isn't the only, whatever we do with HHS, renovation is going to have

1118
01:41:58,110 --> 01:42:01,130
to happen, bringing up codes going to have to happen sooner or later.

1119
01:42:01,770 --> 01:42:08,210
Keep in mind, that's going to be happening in the same era where K2 may be more up on this

1120
01:42:08,210 --> 01:42:13,170
than I am right now, but the last meeting I went to with the school

1121
01:42:13,170 --> 01:42:18,350
district to talk about what their plan is for dealing with this building and all their

1122
01:42:18,350 --> 01:42:23,850
other buildings. Phase one of the plan which focuses on the high school, it does some things

1123
01:42:23,850 --> 01:42:29,130
in the other remaining schools, but the focus is a high school. Phase one was estimated

1124
01:42:29,130 --> 01:42:36,150
at $164 million. The state will pay half if we're lucky and we'll split the other

1125
01:42:36,150 --> 01:42:39,270
$82 million, $6040 with killing worth.

1126
01:42:40,430 --> 01:42:42,910
That's a couple of mills on your taxes right there.

1127
01:42:43,230 --> 01:42:46,450
In addition to that, our town garage is decrepit.

1128
01:42:47,130 --> 01:42:48,430
It was state of the art.

1129
01:42:48,750 --> 01:42:51,430
Unfortunately, it's the art of 1932 when it was built.

1130
01:42:52,130 --> 01:42:54,430
It is not sufficient for what we need.

1131
01:42:54,970 --> 01:42:58,850
Now, whether we just remodel it where it is on both sides of depot road

1132
01:42:58,850 --> 01:43:01,810
or whether we relocate it somewhere else in town,

1133
01:43:01,810 --> 01:43:07,370
you're looking at for remodeling probably five to seven million if we did it right

1134
01:43:07,370 --> 01:43:11,470
away if we relocate you're looking at seven to ten or maybe twelve now

1135
01:43:11,470 --> 01:43:15,390
you're depending on what the site needs these things are all coming up in the

1136
01:43:15,390 --> 01:43:19,330
near future there's the microphone dear I hate to do it to you but I'm doing

1137
01:43:19,330 --> 01:43:20,690
it to everybody else

1138
01:43:22,700 --> 01:43:26,040
and I'm lying I'm not hating this but I've got to pretend I am

1139
01:43:27,120 --> 01:43:33,480
Tim I have just one quick comment not to throw monkey wrench in the plan it's a

1140
01:43:33,480 --> 01:43:37,620
plan as I said before, and not three hash all of that. But one thing I did think about

1141
01:43:37,620 --> 01:43:41,860
while I was sitting over there listening is at a previous meeting we heard the registrar

1142
01:43:41,860 --> 01:43:46,620
voters, I think two of the fine ladies got up and said that they were a little bit taken

1143
01:43:46,620 --> 01:43:52,260
back that they were going to be relocated to this area and my thought is maybe they don't want

1144
01:43:52,260 --> 01:43:56,920
to relocate and maybe they could stay where they are and maybe blue fire stage company could take

1145
01:43:56,920 --> 01:44:02,200
those rooms that were going to be allocated for the registrar. You're right, and this meeting

1146
01:44:02,200 --> 01:44:05,800
the one of the registrars stood up and said she felt blindsided.

1147
01:44:06,640 --> 01:44:10,440
Frankly, the word just hadn't filtered down, but I met with all of them when we laid

1148
01:44:10,440 --> 01:44:14,840
out what they would like to do if the registrars move here is move the polling place to

1149
01:44:15,860 --> 01:44:16,260
here.

1150
01:44:16,800 --> 01:44:16,900
And what?

1151
01:44:17,180 --> 01:44:18,120
You're meaning here.

1152
01:44:18,440 --> 01:44:18,480
Right.

1153
01:44:20,460 --> 01:44:20,960
That's here.

1154
01:44:21,080 --> 01:44:22,220
Not here here.

1155
01:44:23,260 --> 01:44:24,020
To HES.

1156
01:44:24,340 --> 01:44:30,800
And we talked about that that's certainly doable and with that they were fully, they were supportive

1157
01:44:30,800 --> 01:44:31,400
of the move.

1158
01:44:32,910 --> 01:44:38,290
Would you explain how

1159
01:44:38,290 --> 01:44:39,850
Number two is?

1160
01:44:40,290 --> 01:44:44,150
Number three is, and I guess it's

1161
01:44:44,150 --> 01:44:52,410
Well, number two and three, which are the old part of the building that's being renovated by Rack.

1162
01:44:53,250 --> 01:44:57,050
We are paying them money, the say the figure.

1163
01:44:57,170 --> 01:44:59,190
One point four million over ten years.

1164
01:44:59,190 --> 01:44:59,970
One point.

1165
01:45:00,000 --> 01:45:15,720
Right 4 million over 10 years. They are renovating that portion of the building. That 1.4 million over the 10 years is covering the renovation that they're doing on that part of the building.

1166
01:45:17,740 --> 01:45:22,740
And it's not covering their costs, the rest of me, that will be at least the two, two and

1167
01:45:22,740 --> 01:45:23,160
half million.

1168
01:45:23,440 --> 01:45:24,060
And I,

1169
01:45:26,310 --> 01:45:29,730
you know, four million dollar costs is what they gave me today in estimate.

1170
01:45:31,230 --> 01:45:33,050
So we're getting four million for a minute.

1171
01:45:33,070 --> 01:45:36,230
You're not getting, you're not getting your money's worth.

1172
01:45:37,490 --> 01:45:43,190
They're doing the work on that portion of the building that we don't have to spend money

1173
01:45:43,190 --> 01:45:43,970
to do.

1174
01:45:44,110 --> 01:45:44,550
Correct.

1175
01:45:45,490 --> 01:45:49,570
And that's part of my concern with some of the conversations you see on Facebook.

1176
01:45:50,530 --> 01:45:54,390
The information may be true what they're saying, but it's not complete.

1177
01:45:54,530 --> 01:46:00,910
No one that I have seen in the comment is pointed out that we would pay $4 to $5 million to

1178
01:46:00,910 --> 01:46:01,870
renovate that space.

1179
01:46:02,010 --> 01:46:03,630
We're not going to make that payment.

1180
01:46:05,930 --> 01:46:07,810
You post on Facebook, correct?

1181
01:46:08,590 --> 01:46:09,870
In reply to post, yes?

1182
01:46:10,210 --> 01:46:13,890
And that's where a lot of the information is coming from.

1183
01:46:13,890 --> 01:46:16,030
Which information, Sharon?

1184
01:46:17,010 --> 01:46:22,270
Your latest post about paying the 140 and everything else.

1185
01:46:23,510 --> 01:46:25,990
So people are seeing your figures.

1186
01:46:26,070 --> 01:46:26,750
Right.

1187
01:46:26,750 --> 01:46:28,270
And a lot nodding.

1188
01:46:31,150 --> 01:46:32,890
Okay, I miss the odd nodding.

1189
01:46:32,950 --> 01:46:33,750
It's a reference I don't know.

1190
01:46:33,750 --> 01:46:36,770
The odd nodding, figuring and doing the math.

1191
01:46:37,410 --> 01:46:41,750
So rock is getting 1.4 million from us.

1192
01:46:41,750 --> 01:46:42,210
Correct.

1193
01:46:42,990 --> 01:46:44,050
Over 10 years.

1194
01:46:44,170 --> 01:46:44,530
Correct.

1195
01:46:45,810 --> 01:46:53,830
And they are in a position of making a tremendous amount of money.

1196
01:46:54,810 --> 01:46:58,250
So they're not losing out by doing this.

1197
01:46:58,870 --> 01:47:04,090
And if you did the total building, what is it?

1198
01:47:04,590 --> 01:47:06,970
12 million, 13 million.

1199
01:47:07,030 --> 01:47:09,550
That is putting into the whole project.

1200
01:47:09,550 --> 01:47:16,390
The rest may probably be about 13 million. I think it'll be a little bit more. But yeah, and that's including the grant correct.

1201
01:47:16,530 --> 01:47:22,170
Okay. So that's not bad for them. They'll be making it.

1202
01:47:22,230 --> 01:47:26,870
They will and their business and you can't expect their business. They're not a charity.

1203
01:47:27,850 --> 01:47:30,330
I don't have a problem with a business making an honest profit.

1204
01:47:30,690 --> 01:47:37,110
Okay. Good. I wish you'd include that a bit more about what they'll be making.

1205
01:47:37,110 --> 01:47:39,970
Well, most of the posts, I'm sorry, I shouldn't interrupt.

1206
01:47:41,030 --> 01:47:41,050
Yep.

1207
01:47:41,210 --> 01:47:41,510
Okay.

1208
01:47:41,930 --> 01:47:45,090
Most of the posts are talking about what a sweet deal rack is getting.

1209
01:47:45,510 --> 01:47:45,790
And they are.

1210
01:47:45,790 --> 01:47:47,210
I don't know, they're getting a good deal.

1211
01:47:47,310 --> 01:47:49,970
I don't know how sweet that is, because I'm not in that business.

1212
01:47:50,910 --> 01:47:55,190
But we advertise this, and 300 companies receive our request for proposal.

1213
01:47:55,790 --> 01:48:01,390
We have three replies, and I invite anybody, because there's been some information on Facebook

1214
01:48:01,390 --> 01:48:03,670
about how the other two were better for us financially.

1215
01:48:03,670 --> 01:48:06,610
I invite anyone to look at all three proposals.

1216
01:48:06,950 --> 01:48:08,590
They've been on our website since April.

1217
01:48:09,570 --> 01:48:11,930
Read what the proposals are asking for.

1218
01:48:12,610 --> 01:48:15,950
One is asking, parented housing is asking for example.

1219
01:48:16,130 --> 01:48:17,610
They talk about pilot program.

1220
01:48:18,110 --> 01:48:20,290
If you're not familiar with that, that's an acronym.

1221
01:48:20,330 --> 01:48:21,810
It's payment and the lift taxes.

1222
01:48:22,890 --> 01:48:25,890
And what they're requesting is about half the tax rate they would pay.

1223
01:48:26,550 --> 01:48:29,570
Another one is asking for tax abatement on a sliding scale.

1224
01:48:30,350 --> 01:48:31,770
And there are other things in the proposal

1225
01:48:31,770 --> 01:48:36,430
that the five of us who reviewed them all felt would be debt for metal.

1226
01:48:37,050 --> 01:48:40,710
So I would say anyone who starts talking about the other proposals being better, I would

1227
01:48:40,710 --> 01:48:44,370
challenge them to say, that's fine, I'm not saying you are, Sharon.

1228
01:48:44,790 --> 01:48:47,230
I'm just to then tell me which proposals you think is best.

1229
01:48:48,310 --> 01:48:57,010
What I'm seeing as the town is going to end up paying 200,000 in the next 10 years for

1230
01:48:57,010 --> 01:49:04,550
maintenance. I mean if it's 50,000 just for the buildings and then we're going to be maintaining

1231
01:49:04,550 --> 01:49:12,590
the outside too. Plus the 140, I mean it's going to be over probably 200,000 that will be

1232
01:49:12,590 --> 01:49:20,770
putting into this. You know, it the 100,000 we're doing right now with it just sitting there

1233
01:49:23,370 --> 01:49:24,410
seems low.

1234
01:49:26,630 --> 01:49:34,630
So there as a community center, if the town could do this, and just do a community

1235
01:49:34,630 --> 01:49:41,110
center and maintain it without a developer. I mean, I think that would be ideal for the community.

1236
01:49:41,270 --> 01:49:45,250
It could be, but again, working the financials. That means we'd be on the heart for the

1237
01:49:45,250 --> 01:49:47,510
roughly 20 million 15 to 20 million.

1238
01:49:47,530 --> 01:49:50,050
What were you just talked about 12 million?

1239
01:49:50,390 --> 01:49:53,910
That's right, talking at private contractor prices.

1240
01:49:54,010 --> 01:49:56,890
The estimate we got from Anthony Nazi for a government job.

1241
01:49:56,950 --> 01:49:58,610
Sharon, please, I let you talk.

1242
01:49:59,230 --> 01:50:04,250
The estimate we got from Anthony Nazi, a respected architectural firm, just to bring the building

1243
01:50:04,250 --> 01:50:09,330
up to code and address the failing systems was 23 million.

1244
01:50:10,530 --> 01:50:11,870
I kind of feel that's high.

1245
01:50:12,470 --> 01:50:19,710
But we'd be paying, even if we pay what rack is proposing, that's $12 million out of the town's coffers.

1246
01:50:20,790 --> 01:50:23,510
And we don't even have developed to use for the whole building.

1247
01:50:24,750 --> 01:50:28,730
I mean, that's one of the first questions you're going to ask should ask when you're looking at remodeling.

1248
01:50:28,870 --> 01:50:30,530
Well, how much of the building do you want to use?

1249
01:50:31,010 --> 01:50:37,730
Because if you're going to use 30,000 square feet instead of 40, you might as well lock off the other tents or you're not heating and cooling them.

1250
01:50:37,930 --> 01:50:38,710
And that's right.

1251
01:50:38,710 --> 01:50:41,190
I mean, the town could, we could.

1252
01:50:42,430 --> 01:50:42,830
We could.

1253
01:50:42,830 --> 01:50:42,990
We could.

1254
01:50:44,430 --> 01:50:51,570
And we could spend, and my concern is, and this is personal, we have, we don't come to consensus

1255
01:50:51,570 --> 01:50:51,990
readily.

1256
01:50:52,330 --> 01:50:57,770
We spend a lot of time studying, restarting, arguing, re arguing, and then starting the process

1257
01:50:57,770 --> 01:50:58,590
all over again.

1258
01:50:58,910 --> 01:51:00,290
We've done it for years with Rossi.

1259
01:51:00,450 --> 01:51:01,350
Should we buy it or not?

1260
01:51:01,510 --> 01:51:03,290
We finally have made that commitment.

1261
01:51:03,770 --> 01:51:05,110
We did it for years with Scoville.

1262
01:51:05,250 --> 01:51:06,030
What's going to happen?

1263
01:51:06,630 --> 01:51:11,330
We can do it for years for this, but understand you're going to pay a price for doing that.

1264
01:51:11,650 --> 01:51:16,210
So I'm not saying no, don't do that, but understand again the full financials.

1265
01:51:16,330 --> 01:51:23,030
We are going to pay to maintain the grounds regardless of this proposal or if we keep it.

1266
01:51:23,390 --> 01:51:24,250
There are costs.

1267
01:51:24,590 --> 01:51:26,110
Pick which ones you want to spend.

1268
01:51:31,170 --> 01:51:34,830
And on that same note, Rack isn't asking for a tax break.

1269
01:51:35,250 --> 01:51:39,790
No, they are an MVP and property tax on the part of the building they are leasing.

1270
01:51:39,790 --> 01:51:48,170
Correct. Where if we were to spend $25 million as suggested, we collect no property tax and we're out 25 million.

1271
01:51:48,430 --> 01:51:54,510
Yeah, or 10 or 15 whatever costs. Yes, that's very true. This would still not generate tax if it's total municipal use.

1272
01:51:54,530 --> 01:51:56,230
That's what I thought. Thank you. You're welcome.

1273
01:51:56,730 --> 01:51:58,810
And the maintenance costs would not go away.

1274
01:51:59,530 --> 01:51:59,530
Yeah.

1275
01:52:11,240 --> 01:52:16,960
We seem to be going over the same points a couple of times. Does anyone have any new questions or comments to add?

1276
01:52:17,920 --> 01:52:18,540
Certainly, lad.

1277
01:52:25,340 --> 01:52:29,980
just enclosing that we get to the end of this. This plan, I just want to...

1278
01:52:30,000 --> 01:52:46,960
I remind all the residents, owners of this project, meets the requirements of the POCD. It responds to the concerns of the citizens, through all the comments, shirats and studies that we've done.

1279
01:52:46,960 --> 01:52:57,600
And with our research, it meets the fiscal responsibility that we need to have as owners for this.

1280
01:52:58,680 --> 01:53:07,700
And it allows us to maybe vacate some other areas and help my blue fire find other spaces.

1281
01:53:08,380 --> 01:53:10,220
Nobody here is against that.

1282
01:53:10,540 --> 01:53:15,060
It's just for this building to operate we have to take care of the whole building.

1283
01:53:15,060 --> 01:53:26,440
And finally, in closing, this town has 6,000 31 registered voters, and I urge everybody who

1284
01:53:26,440 --> 01:53:29,120
gets to see this to come and vote.

1285
01:53:29,840 --> 01:53:34,680
Yes, or no, I don't really care, but I want you to come and vote.

1286
01:53:35,940 --> 01:53:43,380
We don't get enough town participation here, and our last couple of referendums and

1287
01:53:43,380 --> 01:53:47,520
And so on, the voting turnout is very, very small.

1288
01:53:48,320 --> 01:53:52,920
Please, spread the word, get everybody out and vote.

1289
01:53:53,940 --> 01:53:56,260
We really, it's a town ownership.

1290
01:53:56,680 --> 01:54:02,460
We all own a piece of this thing, and we need to take responsibility for that and think

1291
01:54:02,460 --> 01:54:04,720
about where we're going as we go into the future.

1292
01:54:05,800 --> 01:54:10,580
I'm an old guy, and I've got younger generations that live in this town.

1293
01:54:10,580 --> 01:54:16,880
This is about where it's going in the next 30 or 40 years, not in the next 5 or 10.

1294
01:54:17,560 --> 01:54:23,920
And hopefully their generations after that will follow suit and help make how to a better place to live.

1295
01:54:24,780 --> 01:54:26,420
But we have to take action.

1296
01:54:27,520 --> 01:54:35,660
And absence of any other plan, this is the plan on the table that meets the requirements that the town put together

1297
01:54:35,660 --> 01:54:40,440
through the POCD and through comments that we all voted for and supported.

1298
01:54:41,780 --> 01:54:49,000
So hopefully we get a good turning of vote turn out and a good response to the application

1299
01:54:49,000 --> 01:54:51,400
we put forth with respect to HES.

1300
01:54:51,920 --> 01:54:53,460
Thank you.

1301
01:54:53,840 --> 01:54:58,820
Again, the polling is Tuesday the 23rd at your normal voting location, six in the morning

1302
01:54:58,820 --> 01:55:01,500
eight o'clock at night, please come vote.

1303
01:55:02,800 --> 01:55:03,620
Thank you all for coming.