WEBVTT September 14, 2026 1 00:00:22.000 --> 00:00:34.259 John Compton: Oh, really? College one. We're talking with them, too. You can even bring that up on my shoulder. 2 00:00:34.840 --> 00:00:37.310 John Compton: Peter, I told you. 3 00:00:37.450 --> 00:00:41.470 John Compton: What's that? 4 00:00:42.520 --> 00:00:56.949 John Compton: You don't go straight on McCaul, and you turn right… He goes right to me on my stop sign. First repeating we've had in years. Notice that? Yeah. It says go. That's the initial. 5 00:00:56.990 --> 00:01:05.859 John Compton: I don't know, I'm not thinking about what that means. See if they stop sign, actually. 6 00:01:06.640 --> 00:01:26.069 John Compton: It was a scraping, it was a, thomas, what I was gonna do is take off the stop sign for going up and put that one. 7 00:01:26.210 --> 00:01:28.369 John Compton: Get it off. Frey to get it off. Yeah. 8 00:01:28.970 --> 00:01:34.460 John Compton: It's not like this. I've written people in prayer. 9 00:01:40.390 --> 00:01:52.829 John Compton: I'm sorry, John, my Zoom account isn't really being operative. I said, what are they gonna do? What does that mean? Well, it means I… I don't… I don't think I was letting these people in. 10 00:01:53.020 --> 00:02:02.030 John Compton: No, I just left them all. That's fine. But now you should be. Any addition. 11 00:02:02.180 --> 00:02:04.790 John Compton: I'm just telling you, Yes. 12 00:02:05.800 --> 00:02:13.639 John Compton: I came to another place. 13 00:02:14.200 --> 00:02:23.810 John Compton: Used to be such an easy program to use Oscar. 14 00:02:25.270 --> 00:02:31.130 John Compton: It's almost all software. It's about adding new features and stuff, but it's the formal. 15 00:02:31.380 --> 00:02:50.490 John Compton: There was some whole thing that came up for you, I'm trying to remember what it was, that needs to be done. Toilet paper. Yeah, the article's a little dirty. No, it was, 16 00:02:50.570 --> 00:02:52.819 John Compton: I have 3%. Something's broken. 17 00:02:55.500 --> 00:03:00.540 John Compton: But it doesn't, I would say, urgent, but it's something that you will take care of, again, 18 00:03:00.890 --> 00:03:03.259 John Compton: Well, John, what I've already done is it came out. 19 00:03:04.600 --> 00:03:29.049 John Compton: Yes, I think that was it. But yeah, so somebody asked me about that. Kristina. I need my piano, too. No problem. I've had my piano for… I had it tuned once. Are we ready to go tomorrow? It still sounds good. 20 00:03:29.890 --> 00:03:34.860 John Compton: I mean, is this about 100? We've got to make sure. 21 00:03:36.090 --> 00:03:40.710 John Compton: It's all the hurricane. 22 00:03:45.410 --> 00:03:47.699 John Compton: books, I do. 23 00:03:47.800 --> 00:03:52.219 John Compton: Somebody indicate if you can hear us? 24 00:03:53.670 --> 00:03:56.580 John Compton: Just… alright, thank you, Gene. That's good. 25 00:03:56.910 --> 00:03:58.610 John Compton: Alright. 26 00:03:58.950 --> 00:04:05.919 John Compton: In that case, let me call the, September 14th Town Council meeting, Washington Grove to order. 27 00:04:06.570 --> 00:04:11.699 John Compton: First item of business, as always, is, 28 00:04:12.240 --> 00:04:19.490 John Compton: to sign the agenda is to approve the agenda, so I'm gonna, 29 00:04:20.050 --> 00:04:24.890 John Compton: I'll make a motion to approve the agenda. First, I have to get into the meeting, thank you. 30 00:04:24.990 --> 00:04:28.409 John Compton: Any second? Am I gonna need a second. 31 00:04:29.240 --> 00:04:34.699 John Compton: I've done some… I've done the meetings. I would like to propose, it's… 32 00:04:35.220 --> 00:04:45.470 John Compton: short amendment? I have an amendment before… okay. So I would like, John, if you could give us an update on where the town attorney… 33 00:04:45.550 --> 00:05:01.949 John Compton: on the summary of the protections for volunteers out of the insurance plan. I know she's been busy, but this was on our… we voted on this, like, in June, and I just want to make sure that we don't lose track of it. No, it's on her work plan, but… 34 00:05:02.240 --> 00:05:12.489 John Compton: As you all are aware, a variety of pressing issues have kind of absorbed a fair amount of time. I could list everything she's 35 00:05:12.810 --> 00:05:17.099 John Compton: involved in for the town, there's that. There's the, 36 00:05:17.640 --> 00:05:29.530 John Compton: There's, of course, the easement with the canning for the bikeway, there's the easement and settlement with the travel path. That's fine, that's fine, I just wouldn't… that's… that's all I was asking. That's what I was asking. 37 00:05:29.760 --> 00:05:31.480 John Compton: Lighting? 38 00:05:32.130 --> 00:05:36.510 John Compton: Please rename… It's endless. 39 00:05:40.100 --> 00:05:43.380 John Compton: We're only getting heartfunction patterns. 40 00:05:44.120 --> 00:05:45.900 John Compton: You kind of wonder. 41 00:05:49.430 --> 00:05:51.130 John Compton: Just a moment. 42 00:05:58.790 --> 00:05:59.580 John Compton: Miss… 43 00:06:07.930 --> 00:06:15.860 John Compton: Recording of the conference. She raised the computer audio. There. 44 00:06:16.180 --> 00:06:24.349 John Compton: All right, good. Now, where were we? We were on, the agenda, Sharing is not terrible. 45 00:06:27.320 --> 00:06:29.430 John Compton: I do the same thing every day. 46 00:06:31.640 --> 00:06:32.610 John Compton: And… 47 00:06:44.310 --> 00:06:47.549 John Compton: Make me… can you see me, Georgette? No. 48 00:06:48.360 --> 00:06:54.640 John Compton: I cannot get Zoom to open properly on my travel computer, so I apologize. 49 00:06:55.140 --> 00:07:00.959 John Compton: I don't understand why I'm not able to share it. Hold on, guys, you have a little bit of a… 50 00:07:04.440 --> 00:07:05.290 John Compton: Yeah. 51 00:07:45.160 --> 00:07:46.650 John Compton: Do you know what piano tone? 52 00:07:48.790 --> 00:07:57.509 John Compton: You can put on listserv. Use the listserv for something positive. Well, I think Anna's been tracking down Succan, too. Oh, she is? Yeah. Good. 53 00:07:57.680 --> 00:08:09.699 John Compton: Right? Oh, that Anna. It's like, how many Anas are in the room? I didn't know who's behind me! Is the Anna eating my clementine? 54 00:08:10.200 --> 00:08:19.140 John Compton: And then… I started to give it to her. Yeah. Yeah. I threw it at her. You… I lobbed it. You were lobbying. I was lobbying. I was lobbying. 55 00:08:21.290 --> 00:08:26.980 John Compton: No, because I'm looking for lots of impressive. Oh, you're pretty as well. Yeah. 56 00:08:27.600 --> 00:08:28.949 John Compton: That's all the money, then. 57 00:08:29.090 --> 00:08:30.970 John Compton: I want to pay you under 50 bucks. 58 00:08:31.390 --> 00:08:36.429 John Compton: That's what used to pass over 40 years ago, that's on a bus. 59 00:08:39.820 --> 00:08:41.070 John Compton: Show me. 60 00:08:42.650 --> 00:08:43.630 John Compton: Okay. 61 00:08:44.220 --> 00:08:47.639 John Compton: Hopefully, we now finally have sharing… 62 00:08:48.160 --> 00:08:57.900 John Compton: Activated. So, the, this is, the agenda as presented. There have been a couple of changes from an earlier version. 63 00:08:58.340 --> 00:09:10.160 John Compton: Which I highlighted. Number 5 is crime and security, and she wrote with Officer Melanie Romano. We had a, 64 00:09:10.840 --> 00:09:16.899 John Compton: She's got involved in some 9-11 activities, and… 65 00:09:17.010 --> 00:09:24.649 John Compton: indicated that she couldn't spend enough of time preparing for this, so we agreed to defer her to the November 66 00:09:24.780 --> 00:09:32.360 John Compton: council meeting, and so she will… we will… we will bring that item in November. 67 00:09:32.530 --> 00:09:43.470 John Compton: I think the only other… That's… that's the only… Obvious change, so, 68 00:09:43.840 --> 00:09:47.849 John Compton: With respect, however, to approval of the agenda, I would like to 69 00:09:48.030 --> 00:09:52.180 John Compton: update the Council on, the… 70 00:09:52.300 --> 00:09:55.490 John Compton: Easement for the bike path for the county. 71 00:09:56.070 --> 00:10:07.919 John Compton: We initiated, The ordinance and pre… and… and moving forward with that. 72 00:10:08.050 --> 00:10:17.559 John Compton: In the hopes that we wouldn't delay Progress on construction of the… Shared use pathway. 73 00:10:18.490 --> 00:10:20.350 John Compton: when I finally… 74 00:10:20.610 --> 00:10:37.649 John Compton: learned, what the… the timeline for construction of the shared youth pathway was, and whether or not the… at what point the ordinance… the ordinance… the easement needed to be in place. It turns out that it needs to be in place 75 00:10:38.140 --> 00:10:39.820 John Compton: Before February. 76 00:10:39.950 --> 00:10:49.099 John Compton: when they're going to advertise and bid out the construction project, with the idea of starting in June or July. 77 00:10:49.250 --> 00:10:52.480 John Compton: Probably July of 2027. 78 00:10:52.900 --> 00:10:55.660 John Compton: So, just par for the course, this project. 79 00:10:56.190 --> 00:11:00.909 John Compton: You know, nothing… nothing about this project has gone swiftly. 80 00:11:01.110 --> 00:11:08.919 John Compton: So that means that, the, any, any, we have time. 81 00:11:09.080 --> 00:11:14.030 John Compton: To negotiate with the county several of the points that others have raised. 82 00:11:14.160 --> 00:11:23.489 John Compton: And that we… that I was not able to address, in the short time available, the terms in the easement. 83 00:11:23.900 --> 00:11:26.880 John Compton: I put into the… 84 00:11:27.330 --> 00:11:39.169 John Compton: materials folder, a communication I sent, to the county attorney, the assistant county attorney, with the several issues that, 85 00:11:39.400 --> 00:11:46.730 John Compton: Are, in fact, worth… Worth discussing with the county. One of them is this in-perpetuity easement. 86 00:11:47.210 --> 00:11:58.239 John Compton: And whether or not that, that makes sense for a municipality to give an in-perpetuity easement for use of its property. 87 00:11:58.450 --> 00:12:04.629 John Compton: And, as well as, the easement contains some ambiguous 88 00:12:05.790 --> 00:12:15.049 John Compton: Clauses where it says that the county is going to be… that the property can be used for a shared use path. 89 00:12:15.160 --> 00:12:18.550 John Compton: Or other similar public use. 90 00:12:20.090 --> 00:12:23.950 John Compton: And that seems a total… 91 00:12:24.100 --> 00:12:34.949 John Compton: open-ended statement. The whole point for the… the whole point for the easement is the shared use path. It's a superfluous clause. It's a minor point, because 92 00:12:34.960 --> 00:12:47.619 John Compton: our attorney assures us that the sum total of everything in that easement pretty much, requires that it be used for a shared use path. Any attempt to use anything else would 93 00:12:48.440 --> 00:13:00.329 John Compton: make the easement open to breaking in court. So, which effectively means it won't, but that's a minor point. It's the… it's the, it's the, perpetual easement. 94 00:13:00.370 --> 00:13:10.920 John Compton: So, I'm… I'm going to… if… if the Council agrees, basically, we can… we can defer action again on this easement. 95 00:13:11.270 --> 00:13:12.990 John Compton: And the ordinance. 96 00:13:13.010 --> 00:13:17.449 John Compton: Another month to… for the opportunity to have a discussion. 97 00:13:17.460 --> 00:13:33.490 John Compton: with this, and here… basically, at this point, it's to hear back from the county on what I sent them, trying to… with my best explanation. By the way, I'm making this explanation because Suell and believe this should best come from a representative of town. 98 00:13:33.510 --> 00:13:43.150 John Compton: Who is trying… is… is interested in exploring, a, a, 99 00:13:43.310 --> 00:13:54.080 John Compton: Revising the terms so that we achieve the same goals, but in addition, the town isn't providing an open-ended 100 00:13:54.220 --> 00:14:04.359 John Compton: use of our land for a vehicular purpose. So if we… of course, if we were allowing a building to be built, or something like that. 101 00:14:04.420 --> 00:14:15.900 John Compton: that nobody would think about having one unless it had a good long… a good period at which it would have to be renewed. In this case, to have it in perpetuity seems… 102 00:14:15.910 --> 00:14:31.819 John Compton: unnecessary. We'll see where that goes. We can be back here next month. Once again, I'll review the timeline. If we pass the ordinance, there's then a 30-day waiting period till it becomes effective, and you can sign the easement. 103 00:14:32.750 --> 00:14:51.349 John Compton: All right? Yes, Barbara? So, I really disagree with you that the language about shared use path is ambiguous. For 6 years, we've been working with the county on a shared use path. The term they use now isn't… for new paths, it's not even shared use path anymore, it's side path. So. 104 00:14:51.710 --> 00:15:08.929 John Compton: you know, maybe… maybe they'll start calling it a side path, and we'll say, oh, it's not a shared use path anymore. I think you're really getting into, seeing problems that really are not there. In terms of the length of the, the easement, if Sue Allen 105 00:15:08.930 --> 00:15:33.919 John Compton: proposes to them some period of time, and they say, sure, great, we don't mind, that's fine, but this idea that we should just hold everything up and just have some time frame does not make sense. And I've seen timeframes as short as 5 years, like, why would the county invest $2 million into the staff and have it available to the 106 00:15:33.920 --> 00:15:43.879 John Compton: public for 5 years. I've seen as long as 50 years. I'm not sure how that helps anybody in the future. You know, future residents are going to come here. 107 00:15:44.400 --> 00:16:07.459 John Compton: use the path, get used to using it. And then there's this idea that somehow, like, if it's not… if we don't like it anymore, we'll shut it down. Well, how are we going to determine that? Like, what are the standards? Are we really going to go to court against the county because we don't like the path anymore? Like, how are we going to define that? So, I think we need to be very careful about how we talk about this. 108 00:16:07.460 --> 00:16:30.490 John Compton: And not jeopardize all of the work that's been done by the Shared Use Path Committee, the task force, the residents in town who have been promoting this, that 94, 92 residents who voted for the path 5 years ago. So, I'm very interested to see what Sue Allen can ring from the county, you know, if she rings something that is 109 00:16:30.600 --> 00:16:37.889 John Compton: satisfactory to everybody, great, but I think we also have to recognize that we may not get this 110 00:16:38.030 --> 00:16:48.019 John Compton: time limit, or whatever it is you're looking for, that this is a negotiation process. I'm really interested in hearing from Sue Whalen more than anything. 111 00:16:48.470 --> 00:16:51.829 John Compton: I agree, what if… what if they say no? Does that mean… 112 00:16:52.050 --> 00:17:11.360 John Compton: we're not going to go forward. That's why I started with the timeline. If they say no, we can certainly accept the easement the way it is. I hear some of you saying, no big deal, that's fine, but maybe for others, it does seem to be, 113 00:17:11.599 --> 00:17:21.480 John Compton: issues. And to tell you the truth, for someone who went through a knock-down, drag-out battle with the county over that meadow. 114 00:17:22.240 --> 00:17:27.200 John Compton: I would rather have some… have protections in place. 115 00:17:27.460 --> 00:17:32.219 John Compton: To ensure that the… the Grove's interests are, 116 00:17:32.650 --> 00:17:47.180 John Compton: are, represented than not, and count on benign activity that we are not in control of. Not that I think there will be anything of the sort, but I think it behooves the town to, 117 00:17:50.540 --> 00:18:09.539 John Compton: do what we can to achieve our goals without, digging ourselves a potential hole. Only a potential one, admittedly. With respect to the litany of the support for the bike path, I… I'm… 118 00:18:09.890 --> 00:18:14.440 John Compton: I, too, am totally certain that this easement will get approved. 119 00:18:15.010 --> 00:18:28.610 John Compton: The only question is, do we try and refine the terms? And since there seems to be plenty of time to do that, worst case is, we're back where we started. 120 00:18:28.780 --> 00:18:36.749 John Compton: then we still have, you know, everything gets executed just fine. The rush to do it is… there is no rush. 121 00:18:36.910 --> 00:18:40.519 John Compton: to do it. I don't think… from everything I understand. 122 00:18:40.820 --> 00:18:59.609 John Compton: We are not going to be in a position of… of impeding the progress of the path. I don't understand what we're doing right now. We don't have a motion on the table. No, this is where… I'm recommending it be removed from the agenda. Oh. That was my recommendation. I put it on there, and I'm asking the Council for… 123 00:19:00.810 --> 00:19:17.659 John Compton: to weigh in on the agenda. It can stay on the agenda, and we can discuss it. Okay, thank you. That was the point, the whole point. So, Barbara, I'm confused with what you're saying. Because John made some statements that I really disagreed with. He could have just said. 124 00:19:17.660 --> 00:19:42.639 John Compton: take it off the agenda. I think it should be taken off the agenda. As I said, I want to hear from Suellen. Let's just take the thing off the agenda. Oh, okay, so we're… All right, that was the other problem. Swellyn could not be here tonight. It turned out. Right, right. I knew you wanted that, and I believe that's correct. I want her to be here as well. But how do we move forward? Can we… we don't have a motion, so… I want to remove the item from the agenda. 125 00:19:42.640 --> 00:19:55.139 John Compton: vote on that? Or what? Yes. Okay, so that would be a revised agenda. Oh, let's just move forward. You're just talking about removing number 15 under unfinished business? Yes. That's do it. Okay, that's correct. 126 00:19:55.850 --> 00:19:59.020 John Compton: Okay? Yeah. Any other comments? All in favor? 127 00:19:59.910 --> 00:20:10.060 John Compton: All right, I have some chagrin looks of Bonsai. Thank you, though. I think it's the right way to approach this without imperiling 128 00:20:10.230 --> 00:20:25.870 John Compton: any progress, or even suggesting the town has diminished interest in… We're violently agreeing with you. Violently agreeing. Okay, good. So that takes us to the public hearing on Ordinance 2026. 129 00:20:25.870 --> 00:20:40.010 John Compton: dash 12, which is authorizing a driveway access easement to the owners of 503 Macaulay. It has a longer name, if I was to read it. Someone is trying to get in, and they're still there on hold. Oh, it's me, because I probably have to… 130 00:20:40.680 --> 00:20:41.800 John Compton: Sudden people. 131 00:20:42.120 --> 00:20:45.280 John Compton: Jill… Jill still can't believe what you just said. 132 00:20:45.850 --> 00:20:46.700 John Compton: And. 133 00:20:46.700 --> 00:20:51.530 Jill Bloom: No, I can hear you guys now, it's fine, I don't know why it took so long, but I'm here. 134 00:20:51.800 --> 00:20:52.900 Jill Bloom: Thank you. 135 00:20:54.900 --> 00:20:58.430 John Compton: Yeah, I just let everyone move to Daniel speaking. 136 00:21:02.510 --> 00:21:11.850 John Compton: Anybody else shows up. All right. So, the public hearing is now open, and I will stop the sharing. 137 00:21:12.220 --> 00:21:17.870 John Compton: Here, so we can see, stop the sharing there. 138 00:21:18.370 --> 00:21:26.629 John Compton: Is there anyone here to speak to the ordinance, Ordinance 2026-12 on the… 139 00:21:26.830 --> 00:21:34.879 John Compton: mediation, for the, the, Charleston Driveway at Fido's annual. 140 00:21:38.000 --> 00:21:57.460 John Compton: All right, seeing no one, we'll stop the public hearing right away, and move along to the next item business, which would have been approval of minutes, but unfortunately, they were not quite ready, so we'll have to 141 00:21:57.910 --> 00:22:04.500 John Compton: postpone the minute. I will post draft minutes. 142 00:22:05.010 --> 00:22:22.420 John Compton: Or not. If anyone's interested, they should always just ask. I always… we are posting the video, the transcript, and the AI summary of the meeting. Those are already there for the August Council meeting. 143 00:22:24.430 --> 00:22:29.130 John Compton: Alright, so, public appearances. 144 00:22:29.350 --> 00:22:34.050 John Compton: is now the next item. And, this is where… 145 00:22:34.200 --> 00:22:39.430 John Compton: People attending may speak to any subject they wish for 3 minutes. 146 00:22:39.780 --> 00:22:41.640 John Compton: Hmm, or less. 147 00:22:41.810 --> 00:22:44.130 John Compton: Do we have anybody here with a public appearance? 148 00:22:45.650 --> 00:22:46.390 John Compton: Anybody? 149 00:22:46.390 --> 00:22:49.059 Jill Bloom: Me, I guess. This is Jill. 150 00:22:49.690 --> 00:22:51.509 John Compton: Gil, okay, Gil… 151 00:22:51.510 --> 00:22:56.719 Jill Bloom: So I know the agenda item for the wall is later, but do you want me to speak now? 152 00:22:57.520 --> 00:23:08.490 John Compton: Yes, since you're a principal, you could speak if the council has a question for you, at the time we take it up, but yes, this would be the best time. 153 00:23:09.240 --> 00:23:25.720 Jill Bloom: Okay, thank you. So, you know, I've broadcast my reasons for wanting to retain the wall, and I did note a new proposal that came up on Saturday about repairing the wall, and then John had amended it somewhat. 154 00:23:25.920 --> 00:23:31.539 Jill Bloom: So, I don't know if I need for everybody's, you know. 155 00:23:31.760 --> 00:23:42.169 Jill Bloom: if people want to hear from me specifically about the reasons that I want to keep the wall, or if they want to hear about what I think of the proposal to restore the wall. 156 00:23:42.550 --> 00:23:46.760 Jill Bloom: But I'll do whatever you think is best. 157 00:23:51.250 --> 00:24:10.569 John Compton: Okay. Make more sense when we're having a discussion? Sorry? Wouldn't it make more sense when we're discussing? Yes, yes, you can certainly be available to, consult about. If we have questions. Yes, if you have questions. All right, Joe, thank you. I did expect you to, obviously. 158 00:24:10.570 --> 00:24:17.720 Jill Bloom: Just to clarify, I'll have an opportunity to speak later, is that what you're saying? I'm sorry, it's cutting in and out a little bit. 159 00:24:18.290 --> 00:24:30.999 John Compton: No, you will be… if the Council has questions, which is entirely possible about, about, the matter, they can ask them of you. 160 00:24:31.230 --> 00:24:33.209 John Compton: And you, you can then respond. 161 00:24:33.990 --> 00:24:34.860 John Compton: It is… 162 00:24:34.860 --> 00:24:35.340 Jill Bloom: jokes. 163 00:24:35.340 --> 00:24:39.759 John Compton: something you want to say to us, this is the time. That's correct. 164 00:24:39.760 --> 00:24:48.910 Jill Bloom: Okay, well, that's what I'll do then. Okay. I've elucidated the reasons, that I think the wall should be retained, and I'll just summarize them real quick. 165 00:24:48.940 --> 00:25:00.280 Jill Bloom: I guess the most worrisome is the idea that the… my house sits below street level, and so runoff, comes into my… my yard from 166 00:25:00.470 --> 00:25:05.169 Jill Bloom: the opening in the wall, and if the wall wasn't there, I'm afraid there'd be a lot more of that. 167 00:25:05.530 --> 00:25:14.229 Jill Bloom: Personally, I like the wall because it gives some definition to my property, and it gives me a buffer from the road, which is, as you know, right there. 168 00:25:14.580 --> 00:25:26.400 Jill Bloom: I also want to speak on behalf of the idiosyncrasies that are associated with town properties, properties in town, especially the ones that are, 169 00:25:27.290 --> 00:25:34.310 Jill Bloom: you know, are the old cottage homes, because there's a lot of irregularities here. My lot is really small, but I'm next to a park, blah blah blah. 170 00:25:34.440 --> 00:25:39.820 Jill Bloom: And I just think that those little idiosyncrasies 171 00:25:40.760 --> 00:25:57.000 Jill Bloom: make… give the town its character, and I think we shouldn't be so willing to homogenize them. I don't think the wall does any harm. I'm a little perplexed on the proposal that the wall could be… remain if it was 172 00:25:57.510 --> 00:26:05.489 Jill Bloom: restored, But the two feet of patio that are inside the wall 173 00:26:06.020 --> 00:26:08.989 Jill Bloom: You know, on the House side of that. 174 00:26:09.690 --> 00:26:13.489 Jill Bloom: would be removed because that is an encroachment. It just seems like… 175 00:26:13.890 --> 00:26:16.849 Jill Bloom: odd, because I don't see that anybody will… 176 00:26:17.030 --> 00:26:21.719 Jill Bloom: Ever want to be accessing that 2 feet in front of my house. 177 00:26:21.860 --> 00:26:24.199 Jill Bloom: So I'm a little confused about that. 178 00:26:26.230 --> 00:26:36.919 Jill Bloom: Yeah, so that's pretty much the summary. I'm very much in favor of restoring the wall, and I'm certainly welcome, you know, open to talking about who pays for it, especially if some of it falls to me. 179 00:26:37.080 --> 00:26:54.170 Jill Bloom: There's also the possibility that I could purchase the land. We'd proposed a land swap before, and that didn't work out, but if you'd be willing to sell me the wall and the land inside the wall that isn't my property, that would be good, too. 180 00:26:54.450 --> 00:27:04.249 Jill Bloom: I think my son had some things to say, so why don't you take other public comments, and I'll ask him to come up so he can comment too, okay? 181 00:27:06.540 --> 00:27:07.410 John Compton: Okay. 182 00:27:07.920 --> 00:27:10.050 John Compton: Not sure there is anyone else. 183 00:27:10.880 --> 00:27:11.430 Jill Bloom: Nope. 184 00:27:12.040 --> 00:27:12.780 Jill Bloom: I'm… 185 00:27:12.790 --> 00:27:16.489 Adam Eig: I'm… I'd like to say something. 186 00:27:16.510 --> 00:27:18.670 Jill Bloom: Ow! 187 00:27:18.670 --> 00:27:22.670 John Compton: Anyways, I would like to say something. I don't know. 188 00:27:22.820 --> 00:27:25.799 John Compton: Okay, you would like to make a public appearance. All right, Adam. 189 00:27:26.750 --> 00:27:29.350 Adam Eig: Yeah, well, I… I submitted the… 190 00:27:29.680 --> 00:27:33.049 Adam Eig: information for this before I knew that, 191 00:27:33.370 --> 00:27:38.849 Adam Eig: Officer Romano wasn't gonna be here this evening, but since it's gonna be in the minutes anyway, I figured I'd… 192 00:27:39.540 --> 00:27:41.000 Adam Eig: State my piece. 193 00:27:41.120 --> 00:27:48.380 Adam Eig: In light of the recent criminal activity in the Grove. 194 00:27:49.230 --> 00:27:55.669 Adam Eig: I'm hoping that we can take real and substantial action to deter the ongoing threat to our community that we're all experiencing. 195 00:27:56.160 --> 00:28:00.740 Adam Eig: I've researched security camera systems for the Grove and found a great solution. 196 00:28:00.910 --> 00:28:05.850 Adam Eig: One thing that I know for sure is that criminals do not like to be on camera. 197 00:28:07.070 --> 00:28:15.470 Adam Eig: the… System addresses privacy concerns while also deterring criminals and potentially providing actionable information for authorities. 198 00:28:15.890 --> 00:28:24.100 Adam Eig: The cost to cover every point of entry in the Grove is between 1 and 2 years of limited-time single-officer overnight patrols, as have been discussed. 199 00:28:24.660 --> 00:28:29.260 Adam Eig: While also providing 24-7, 365 coverage and deterrence. 200 00:28:29.730 --> 00:28:36.589 Adam Eig: I consulted with a technical solutions provider that works in environments where maintaining data security is essential. 201 00:28:37.100 --> 00:28:38.200 Adam Eig: And… 202 00:28:38.690 --> 00:28:46.329 Adam Eig: The proposed system is entirely offline, so the data is never on the internet. Encrypted data is transmitted wirelessly. 203 00:28:46.500 --> 00:28:54.869 Adam Eig: in bursts and intervals we define, not continuously. So, once again, real-time data is not available in the system as proposed. 204 00:28:55.500 --> 00:29:01.279 Adam Eig: There is an option for real-time data if we wanted, but in the interest of greater privacy, that is how 205 00:29:01.420 --> 00:29:02.550 Adam Eig: I'm proposing. 206 00:29:02.790 --> 00:29:09.740 Adam Eig: The system includes a high-resolution camera with excellent low-light image quality, which is connected to an offline 207 00:29:09.850 --> 00:29:17.539 Adam Eig: Automated intelligence system that identifies and sorts license plates, vehicle makes, and vehicle colors to assist with identifying vehicles. 208 00:29:18.770 --> 00:29:23.599 Adam Eig: The system does not include facial recognition software. That was an intentional 209 00:29:23.710 --> 00:29:27.349 Adam Eig: omission on my part, once again, because I'm… 210 00:29:28.110 --> 00:29:34.200 Adam Eig: I want to make sure that, privacy… Concerns are addressed. 211 00:29:35.030 --> 00:29:48.780 Adam Eig: as designed, the home base, which I presume would be the town hall, would have two computers, one which would receive and process the information and send it to a backup system, which would also be offline. 212 00:29:49.190 --> 00:29:53.259 Adam Eig: A second computer would serve as the review computer, which would have 213 00:29:53.820 --> 00:30:03.510 Adam Eig: Which would have access to review all of the data, both the organized and sorted data, as well as the raw footage, but it would not be able to delete or edit data. 214 00:30:04.560 --> 00:30:12.269 Adam Eig: Any ability to connect to the internet from these computers would be physically removed from 215 00:30:12.560 --> 00:30:17.099 Adam Eig: The computer, so they would not be physically capable without an addition of hardware. 216 00:30:18.850 --> 00:30:31.039 Adam Eig: The upfront cost for the first camera, including the custom software, associated hardware, customized computers, basic backup drives, all of… that is probably about $25,000. 217 00:30:31.250 --> 00:30:39.090 Adam Eig: That is everything except the mount, because the mount is, once again, a huge variable in both cost and how we would want to use it. 218 00:30:39.670 --> 00:30:47.329 Adam Eig: I've always foreseen this as, at least for the first one, to be mobile, so that we can move it around, see how it does, see if it's… 219 00:30:47.790 --> 00:30:52.060 Adam Eig: How we want the system to, be positioned. 220 00:30:52.450 --> 00:30:55.819 Adam Eig: I'm not the only fabricator in town, and I'm sure that 221 00:30:56.420 --> 00:30:58.710 Adam Eig: Between all of us, we can build this stuff. 222 00:31:00.730 --> 00:31:05.970 John Compton: Adam, you're, you're, you're… Breached your 3-minute limit. 223 00:31:06.510 --> 00:31:12.350 Adam Eig: Yes, sir. Well… Regardless of whether the idea that I'm… 224 00:31:13.030 --> 00:31:15.969 Adam Eig: that I'm proposing, or a different path is determined. 225 00:31:16.200 --> 00:31:20.300 Adam Eig: I really hope that… 226 00:31:21.070 --> 00:31:26.570 Adam Eig: We respond to the fact that our community has become a consistent target for certain criminals. 227 00:31:27.220 --> 00:31:38.290 Adam Eig: And I'm very, very concerned that delay in inaction will make us appear to be a soft target to those criminals and allow the problem to get worse. 228 00:31:38.970 --> 00:31:42.150 Adam Eig: I hope that whichever, solution we… 229 00:31:42.320 --> 00:31:43.610 John Compton: Okay, thank you. 230 00:31:43.610 --> 00:31:46.190 Adam Eig: Choose is based on objective evidence. 231 00:31:47.580 --> 00:31:48.440 Adam Eig: Thank you. 232 00:31:48.680 --> 00:31:49.640 John Compton: Okay. 233 00:31:50.830 --> 00:31:51.920 John Compton: Alright. 234 00:31:52.410 --> 00:31:57.990 John Compton: Another public appearance, I see Val Bloom there. Anyone else? 235 00:31:58.170 --> 00:31:58.950 John Compton: Duh. 236 00:31:59.510 --> 00:32:05.549 John Compton: Okay, well, that Valgo, and then Bell Earl, who's present here in the room. 237 00:32:06.070 --> 00:32:06.940 John Compton: Bell? 238 00:32:10.540 --> 00:32:11.240 Jill Bloom: Me. 239 00:32:12.350 --> 00:32:28.310 Jill Bloom: Hi, hello, sorry, what happened? It's a little bit crackly, I hope you can all hear me. My main thing is just to inquire of the genuine benefit to the town of removing that brick wall, because it seems that the benefit to the town 240 00:32:28.870 --> 00:32:39.600 Jill Bloom: be largely negligible. I mean, most of what we've heard is saying you want more homogeneity, just things to look the same when 241 00:32:39.600 --> 00:32:53.840 Jill Bloom: In my opinion, that's not what the town's about. But all that aside, I genuinely wonder, to the benefit of the town, it seems that benefit to the town is negligible, and the harm to us and the next owners of this house would be fairly significant. 242 00:32:53.840 --> 00:33:04.489 Jill Bloom: Especially with questions of, like, removing it and whose job it is to re-beautify it, because tearing up a brick wall will make the yard really ugly. If you guys tear it up, is it our job to then… 243 00:33:04.640 --> 00:33:06.439 Jill Bloom: Fix it up and make it nice again. 244 00:33:06.660 --> 00:33:11.399 Jill Bloom: Also, we've heard a bunch of things that sound 245 00:33:12.160 --> 00:33:20.259 Jill Bloom: just somewhat contrived, like a new parking space, which is not needed, no one on this street thinks that's needed. 246 00:33:20.410 --> 00:33:30.729 Jill Bloom: I mean, you've heard, or maybe you haven't, but if you've read the letters, you've heard from our neighbors, most of which are… pretty much all of which, agree that this is… 247 00:33:30.730 --> 00:33:50.410 Jill Bloom: a non-issue entirely. Fixing up the wall, I can get on board with, although I don't think in that bad shape, but get on board with that. But I also didn't appreciate how it was listed as Jill Bloom has agreed to this proposal in a proposal that we only read for the first time today. 248 00:33:50.880 --> 00:33:57.040 Jill Bloom: Yeah, I mean, we were sent it yesterday, and you received it today, it said, Jill Bloom has agreed to this proposal, we never agreed to anything. 249 00:33:58.460 --> 00:34:12.400 Jill Bloom: So I don't know what that's all about. The issue with the plow is another thing that's been raised when, in my 30 years of life, that has never been an issue, and Johnson Valley gets plowed when it's about half the size of this street. So, 250 00:34:12.520 --> 00:34:18.379 Jill Bloom: All that is to say, and if anyone has an answer for me, what is the genuine benefit to the temp? 251 00:34:21.600 --> 00:34:22.210 John Compton: Okay. 252 00:34:23.820 --> 00:34:28.259 John Compton: All right, thank you. Any further public appearances? 253 00:34:28.530 --> 00:34:30.429 John Compton: Bloom. Bill? Yeah. 254 00:34:30.980 --> 00:34:37.279 John Compton: We have, Nan, but we have Bill Earl first, and then, Nan, you'll go after Bill. 255 00:34:37.800 --> 00:34:51.749 John Compton: dope. Yeah, so I'd like to, support Adam's, comments. We have… you seem to me to become a soft target. We used to have so much of this, but… 256 00:34:52.150 --> 00:34:54.280 John Compton: live. 257 00:34:54.560 --> 00:35:07.409 John Compton: People were doing this sort of thing, you know, breaking into cars and stealing them and dumping stolen cars here. Are still at it. Just some other cars recently, not just a rash in the spring. 258 00:35:07.680 --> 00:35:09.880 John Compton: And… 259 00:35:10.320 --> 00:35:20.160 John Compton: One of the good things about Washington Grove, normally, is that most people get away to walk around town most of any time, and it's a safe place to do that. 260 00:35:20.760 --> 00:35:23.950 John Compton: And that's one of those key things that's in the… 261 00:35:24.210 --> 00:35:40.889 John Compton: There's a Gallup survey that's done worldwide, and that's a key question they ask as a way of understanding whether people, whether a place is a good and safe place to live. Do you feel safe walking around in your neighborhood at night, by yourself? 262 00:35:41.640 --> 00:35:50.109 John Compton: And I think this should be in… for the most part is, but should certainly remain that kind of place. 263 00:35:52.090 --> 00:36:08.479 John Compton: So, and the cameras are a start, not the only thing, I think. So I'll have a letter to the council in the next month with some more things, but, you know, we're not in a position to have the whole county, 264 00:36:10.000 --> 00:36:13.439 John Compton: reduce the crime rate. Andy White. 265 00:36:13.880 --> 00:36:18.300 John Compton: But we can make us a less attract… ourselves a less attractive target. 266 00:36:21.200 --> 00:36:23.010 John Compton: Oops. Okay. 267 00:36:24.350 --> 00:36:27.420 John Compton: Sorry, I'm fiddling with this camera. 268 00:36:27.910 --> 00:36:30.720 John Compton: It just turns out not to be quite the right one. 269 00:36:31.910 --> 00:36:32.810 John Compton: Alright. 270 00:36:33.540 --> 00:36:34.175 John Compton: Okay. 271 00:36:37.260 --> 00:36:38.240 John Compton: Well. 272 00:36:42.590 --> 00:36:44.479 John Compton: March, and I'm sorry. 273 00:36:55.990 --> 00:36:59.950 John Compton: There we go. Okay. Right, Nan, you're next. 274 00:37:00.680 --> 00:37:14.360 Nan: Yeah, I have two comments. One is, we have… a bunch of people around here have sent in support letters, and they have not appeared on the website, and there's been no acknowledgement of the letters. 275 00:37:14.850 --> 00:37:24.630 Nan: And the second thing is the positive function of things like the brick wall haven't been addressed in this resolution. 276 00:37:24.830 --> 00:37:30.190 Nan: And haven't been given any voice, like Jill said about the water. 277 00:37:30.380 --> 00:37:33.880 Nan: Coming down to her house, which is lower than the street. 278 00:37:34.720 --> 00:37:36.600 Nan: Those are my two questions. 279 00:37:39.280 --> 00:37:46.369 John Compton: Okay, just a matter of information. There was no resolution introduced, not even a motion. 280 00:37:46.510 --> 00:37:55.749 John Compton: the suggestion to allow a month for comment on the Planning Commission recommendation. 281 00:37:55.960 --> 00:38:11.680 John Compton: which I know everybody's aware of, was that the wall should be removed, and the encroachments by… on the property should also be removed. And so that's what we're doing. We're having comments, lots of letters, 282 00:38:11.890 --> 00:38:23.310 John Compton: the… proposed motion that, I put together is not on the floor, it's simply a proposed 283 00:38:23.370 --> 00:38:42.620 John Compton: solution, so, don't assume that, anybody supports it as yet, or, or that there won't be an opportunity to, speak toward that, that, solution if Council, 284 00:38:42.710 --> 00:38:48.059 John Compton: feels like adopting it, or something similar. That's just for your information. 285 00:38:48.610 --> 00:38:57.829 Nan: I was talking about the draft notification… the draft that was in the… on the website for… on your agenda comment. 286 00:38:59.290 --> 00:39:01.870 John Compton: Right, and I'm talking about… 287 00:39:01.870 --> 00:39:03.290 Nan: Craft, yeah. 288 00:39:03.830 --> 00:39:05.750 John Compton: I'm talking about that as well. 289 00:39:06.120 --> 00:39:06.860 Nan: Okay. 290 00:39:09.830 --> 00:39:10.580 John Compton: Alright. 291 00:39:11.300 --> 00:39:17.669 John Compton: Seeing no further public appearances, we'll call the public appearances to a close, and I know everybody's here 292 00:39:17.820 --> 00:39:22.920 John Compton: waiting with great interest. I was on a few of these agenda items. 293 00:39:23.740 --> 00:39:31.219 John Compton: But now that we're going on to the Treasurer's Report. Jean is here to, walk us through, 294 00:39:31.610 --> 00:39:39.399 John Compton: What's, important in, in, in that… September Treasurer's Report. Jean? 295 00:39:39.690 --> 00:39:50.770 Jean Moyer: Yeah, it's a packed agenda, and I have very few comments to make, but I'm open to any questions. We're only 2 months into the new fiscal year. 296 00:39:50.970 --> 00:39:55.369 Jean Moyer: So, there's not much to make comment on. 297 00:39:55.600 --> 00:40:02.400 Jean Moyer: There's nothing I have any worries about, 298 00:40:02.670 --> 00:40:07.389 Jean Moyer: The ARPA money is finally starting to flow out. 299 00:40:07.650 --> 00:40:13.320 Jean Moyer: It's not reflected, in the August report because, the… 300 00:40:13.910 --> 00:40:19.079 Jean Moyer: Large payments are going out in September, you'll see that next month, but 301 00:40:19.200 --> 00:40:24.740 Jean Moyer: our ARPA balance will start to drop, scheduled, hopefully. 302 00:40:25.000 --> 00:40:29.690 Jean Moyer: To be finished by the end of the year with the ARPA money. 303 00:40:30.880 --> 00:40:34.769 Jean Moyer: I had commented, or it was in last, the July 304 00:40:34.920 --> 00:40:38.590 Jean Moyer: a report as well at the very bottom there, John. 305 00:40:38.780 --> 00:40:48.360 Jean Moyer: Pardon me, I'm dealing with allergies and other things right now. Yeah, our insurance payments, did come in higher than budgeted. 306 00:40:48.440 --> 00:41:06.329 Jean Moyer: We pay them out once a year, so that amount that you see there should not be changing throughout this fiscal year. But we did the best we could with the information that we could get from, legit. 307 00:41:06.420 --> 00:41:08.680 Jean Moyer: As to what our rates might be? 308 00:41:08.790 --> 00:41:22.020 Jean Moyer: And, did our best to budget for it, but the actual rates did come in higher. That was noted in the July report. I thought I'd point it out again for those who might have missed it last month. 309 00:41:22.160 --> 00:41:28.930 Jean Moyer: Because that does… the one item that does really… Jump out, 310 00:41:29.220 --> 00:41:33.740 Jean Moyer: for only being 2 months into the year. 311 00:41:34.470 --> 00:41:41.970 Jean Moyer: Interestingly, we found out last year, Legit had been undercharging us over the course of 10 years. 312 00:41:42.160 --> 00:41:45.979 Jean Moyer: And rather than ask us to cough up what 313 00:41:46.350 --> 00:41:53.270 Jean Moyer: We had been undercharged for 10 years. They are… phasing in. 314 00:41:53.700 --> 00:42:00.790 Jean Moyer: Our, premium to what it should be over the course of 2 years, so… 315 00:42:01.590 --> 00:42:07.990 Jean Moyer: If you go back in to any old reports and wonder why it's so much higher, that is part of the reason. 316 00:42:08.210 --> 00:42:14.629 Jean Moyer: That would be the liability and property insurance there, both of which are with, legit 317 00:42:16.730 --> 00:42:21.190 Jean Moyer: And that's really the only comments that I feel are needed. 318 00:42:21.490 --> 00:42:24.640 Jean Moyer: Certainly available for any questions. 319 00:42:27.960 --> 00:42:29.660 John Compton: Questions from the Council? 320 00:42:30.310 --> 00:42:33.050 John Compton: Motion to accept the Treasurer's report? 321 00:42:33.370 --> 00:42:35.370 John Compton: I have the motion. I'll second. 322 00:42:35.480 --> 00:42:42.500 John Compton: Peter moved. Mary seconded. All in favor? Aye. That's unanimous. 323 00:42:43.270 --> 00:42:45.310 John Compton: Alrighty. Thank you, Jane. 324 00:42:46.460 --> 00:42:58.120 John Compton: Alright, get my… Agenda back on here. So we're on to the Mayor's report, my report. 325 00:42:58.460 --> 00:43:07.319 John Compton: Some kudos. Well, I hope almost everyone here, participated in the Labor Day events. 326 00:43:07.320 --> 00:43:19.260 John Compton: First kudo goes to the Recreation Committee's Labor Day organizers, all the volunteers, and all the participants for a terrific weekend of competition, sport, food, and fun. 327 00:43:19.560 --> 00:43:31.199 John Compton: A special nod to gold medal leaders Renee Boznik and Peggy Bohr for managing… For managing the team. 328 00:43:31.250 --> 00:43:42.230 John Compton: And for arranging near-perfect weather. Good job, ladies. Yeah, so, that was great. 329 00:43:42.230 --> 00:43:56.790 John Compton: And the other kudo, I think, needs to go to Tom Laws and his crew, who is our contractor, who does all of our tree removal and limb pruning. 330 00:43:56.890 --> 00:44:03.560 John Compton: around town throughout the year. We had a, an old 331 00:44:03.790 --> 00:44:20.839 John Compton: tree? Was it an oak sleeve? I don't remember what it was. That had been overhanging the lake for decades. I believe I remember swinging on a rope back when we were allowed to swing on ropes into the lake from there. 332 00:44:20.840 --> 00:44:24.420 John Compton: But it, it fell into the lake. 333 00:44:24.420 --> 00:44:38.490 John Compton: And it was sufficiently large where it affected the use of a fair amount of the lake, and they removed the tree and had to do it by manual sawing. 334 00:44:38.740 --> 00:44:45.920 John Compton: Because, it was too big to remove without cutting up and using 335 00:44:46.610 --> 00:44:59.139 John Compton: saws with petroleum products is not a good idea in a small body of water. So they did a great job. They got it out without leaving much evidence that they were ever there. 336 00:45:00.550 --> 00:45:06.880 John Compton: Okay, all right. So now, you know, a few, a few items. 337 00:45:06.880 --> 00:45:21.599 John Compton: So, last week, we received from the Planning Commission and the HPC a proposal draft ordinance for a proposed waiver of certain zoning requirements 338 00:45:21.920 --> 00:45:36.880 John Compton: Based on historic preservation criteria. And the council, rightly, and everyone immediately, sent that to the town attorney to review, to, for its, 339 00:45:37.150 --> 00:45:48.640 John Compton: you know, its, completeness and… and to see, any legal ramifications regarding… with respect to our ordinances. So that's where it still is. 340 00:45:48.950 --> 00:45:58.830 John Compton: Similarly, the Planning Commission has worked on an amendment to our ADU, Accessory Dwelling Unit Ordinance. 341 00:45:59.060 --> 00:46:18.559 John Compton: This also was mentioned last month. The Town Attorney is reviewing a draft of a zoning text amendment, which we are compelled to do to align our ADU ordinance with state-mandated requirements from, last year. 342 00:46:18.660 --> 00:46:34.950 John Compton: And our town attorney is familiar from her work with other municipalities with what's required, so we're all looking forward to hearing her refinements and comments on the draft ordinance. 343 00:46:35.670 --> 00:46:46.220 John Compton: The Stormwater Management Project update. Well, we've got good news and, not so good news. 344 00:46:46.730 --> 00:46:52.520 John Compton: So, I wanted to, show, if I can… 345 00:46:52.630 --> 00:46:59.800 John Compton: A few photographs from the, the progress that, 346 00:46:59.930 --> 00:47:05.739 John Compton: has so far been made. Gene alluded to we're finally paying money for 347 00:47:05.860 --> 00:47:10.429 John Compton: Hopefully these guys are gonna open. They're probably gigantic. 348 00:47:11.140 --> 00:47:12.120 John Compton: Bye. 349 00:47:12.530 --> 00:47:15.240 John Compton: Let's see if this'll come up for me. There we go. 350 00:47:15.780 --> 00:47:18.290 John Compton: Okay, so, 351 00:47:19.810 --> 00:47:30.400 John Compton: I… I went ahead and, took a few photographs of, so, work began on, with the, 352 00:47:30.660 --> 00:47:34.630 John Compton: Asphalt, that's not what I wanted. 353 00:47:36.760 --> 00:47:53.699 John Compton: Well, I'll start with this. This is Oak Street, where that grass matting covers a pipe that has been installed along… past those trees in order not to impact the trees. 354 00:47:53.710 --> 00:48:10.560 John Compton: And up to this path, this pipe, the swale above it, all the way to chestnut, of course, is going to be reshaped, to, handle significantly more water, and it will feed into this pipe. 355 00:48:10.560 --> 00:48:19.260 John Compton: So we're standing on Hickory. We are… no, yes, we are standing on Hickory. Look, there's a grate at the corner of Hickory and Oak. 356 00:48:19.650 --> 00:48:27.039 John Compton: So, let me, so, another couple of pictures, 357 00:48:29.140 --> 00:48:47.900 John Compton: Yes, so this is at Acorn and Chestnut, where significant improvements are being made. We're looking down next to the church parking lot from Chestnut. What you can see is that the asphalt swale has been removed, been replaced by 358 00:48:47.900 --> 00:48:51.049 John Compton: What will be grass eventually, those are some rock. 359 00:48:52.100 --> 00:49:01.349 John Compton: Dams to impede the rate of flow, that comes, the water that comes down here. 360 00:49:01.600 --> 00:49:06.470 John Compton: The, this flows… now we'll look at it from the other direction, looking up. 361 00:49:06.920 --> 00:49:25.490 John Compton: And you can see, up here at the, at the far end are the two, are… actually is a new opening for two culverts that cross acorn… I'm sorry, cross chestnut, and flow into this, this, now what will be a grassy swale. 362 00:49:26.010 --> 00:49:34.040 John Compton: Looking down Hutch's Way, beyond Chestnut, Avenue. 363 00:49:34.370 --> 00:49:41.219 John Compton: This is the new grassy swale that has been installed. Once again, this was an asphalt swale. 364 00:49:41.240 --> 00:49:50.390 John Compton: And, this, is… is largely in place. It needs… also needs some refinement, as expected. 365 00:49:50.390 --> 00:50:04.699 John Compton: Because the actual elevations and flow, require a, you know, an appropriate grading, and there are a few adjustments needed, but, the bulk of the work has been done short of 366 00:50:04.770 --> 00:50:15.559 John Compton: Of those adjustments. And oh, here's a better picture of the… the new… the couple of types that now exit, onto that, 367 00:50:15.780 --> 00:50:28.200 John Compton: That's swale at… that's Acorn and Chestnut. So, oh, and the last thing is along Chestnut Avenue, between Center and almost to Oak, we're looking toward… 368 00:50:28.450 --> 00:50:33.019 John Compton: or Railroad Street, this, trench drain 369 00:50:33.690 --> 00:50:47.699 John Compton: or French drain, actually, has been installed. There is a pipe that will collect the water that flows in a sheet flow that comes off the road will go into this gravel. 370 00:50:47.700 --> 00:51:01.950 John Compton: go to the pipe, and the pipe comes toward the cameraman, and then ultimately down Center Street. So, so work is being done. That's the good news. The not-so-good news is that, 371 00:51:03.260 --> 00:51:13.620 John Compton: due to a… I won't say why. We were, the county came out and inspected and issued us a stop work order 372 00:51:14.270 --> 00:51:29.390 John Compton: Because we were disturbing the surface of the land surface too extensively, and we needed a, a small land disturbance activity permit from the county. 373 00:51:30.280 --> 00:51:32.830 John Compton: So, we had been told that we… 374 00:51:34.090 --> 00:51:39.190 John Compton: Could get away without having that, but once an inspector showed up. 375 00:51:39.720 --> 00:51:52.779 John Compton: That turns out not to be the case, so we're… we have to get one of these permits. That turns out to be further complicated by the need for a permit from the Maryland Department of the Environment. 376 00:51:53.310 --> 00:52:00.900 John Compton: to… Demonstrates both the sediment control In place, will not. 377 00:52:01.210 --> 00:52:17.800 John Compton: damage the environment, and and so we need to get a, an approval from them as well. So work on moving a lot of earth around has been stopped. It has not stopped our roadway work. 378 00:52:17.850 --> 00:52:37.350 John Compton: Which can be considered as road improvements and culvert improvements, rather than actual land disturbance. So we're getting what work we can get done, and hopefully we'll get this permit and be able to finish the remainder of the work in a timely way. 379 00:52:38.280 --> 00:52:45.990 John Compton: And that is my report. I have one question. On the… when you go down, to Betsy Church. 380 00:52:47.060 --> 00:52:49.890 John Compton: You know how you have… you have this… you have these… 381 00:52:50.670 --> 00:53:05.369 John Compton: Except dams? Kind of basins, yeah. It seems like they… they never drain. Well, some of them, they'll drain. Is that, like, is that a… does that cause any problems? That's a… no, that's a… that's a… That needs to be remedied. They all need to drain within a day or so. 382 00:53:05.370 --> 00:53:16.000 John Compton: So, and so you know, okay, so… Yeah, yeah, no, no, I was just wondering if that was… The design on paper is to not… 383 00:53:16.000 --> 00:53:29.499 John Compton: retain water in the pools, at all. Okay, I was good. I was like, thinking… Yeah, I would have thought that would be obvious to everybody, but apparently it wasn't. And when the initial installation was done, sure enough. 384 00:53:29.500 --> 00:53:35.860 John Compton: one of these… Areas between one or two of them, between the deed to retain water. 385 00:53:35.980 --> 00:53:43.550 John Compton: And where it should… where it needs to not retain water, so it has to be re… 386 00:53:43.770 --> 00:53:48.249 John Compton: reconstructed in a way that it doesn't. Right. 387 00:53:50.830 --> 00:53:51.720 John Compton: Okay. 388 00:53:55.210 --> 00:54:03.719 John Compton: So, all right, then the 503 Macaulay Driveway. I did also… you'll bear with me for just a moment… 389 00:54:03.820 --> 00:54:18.299 John Compton: As part of the, we had a public hearing of sorts, and we've, of course, reached a, an agreement as to how to, how, how, which in, with, with the. 390 00:54:18.300 --> 00:54:26.750 John Compton: the Challstrom's on how to provide driveway access without using the town's walkways. 391 00:54:26.880 --> 00:54:38.759 John Compton: And, that… The, the construction portions of that, agreement, 392 00:54:39.140 --> 00:54:49.610 John Compton: have actually been completed. So, and I did want to show, pictures for those of you who had not, perhaps not seen. 393 00:54:49.960 --> 00:54:52.730 John Compton: This… let me… 394 00:54:52.920 --> 00:54:59.460 John Compton: So, this is, this is looking, as you come up, Grove Road, 395 00:54:59.620 --> 00:55:06.870 John Compton: With a sharp turn there onto Macaulay, that's where the driveway used to enter there, and it was gravel. 396 00:55:06.870 --> 00:55:21.770 John Compton: you're seeing a bunch of leaves, but also a lot of grass. As you'll see, there's no driveway anymore, and, there is a… you can see this, stake, and there's a cross here moving around, and that's actually where the… where the… 397 00:55:22.150 --> 00:55:34.939 John Compton: where the… where 6th Avenue ends and the private property begins. So you're looking straight down the avenue at this point. The new driveway looks like this. 398 00:55:35.850 --> 00:55:54.400 John Compton: And you can see that it's completely adequate. And lastly, Fifth Avenue, which is immediately adjacent to the 503 property, looks like this here from Macaulay. It enters in the distance a bamboo 399 00:55:54.730 --> 00:56:00.189 John Compton: forest, and continues on into the wilderness. 400 00:56:00.980 --> 00:56:20.070 John Compton: But, it is now accessible. There will be signage, and there will be… likely be a proposal to restore this walkway to the same character as other walkways in town. Further down McCauley, we have 4th. 401 00:56:20.070 --> 00:56:22.390 John Compton: And third… 402 00:56:22.390 --> 00:56:35.849 John Compton: And Grove. They both, both go in the same direction. You may want… I don't know if you mentioned this, that 6th Avenue, some people don't know that if you went back to 6, it goes all the way through to Boundary Street. Yeah. 403 00:56:36.340 --> 00:56:42.769 John Compton: Yeah, way in the distance here. Yeah. It, it can… it… it… it's, it, the town… 404 00:56:42.890 --> 00:56:46.240 John Compton: Walkway continues straight through. 405 00:56:46.820 --> 00:56:51.069 John Compton: It's got trees in the way and all that stuff. That's your boulders. Yeah. Okay. 406 00:56:53.000 --> 00:57:08.069 John Compton: So that's the status of that, and later today, tonight, they're going to, the Council will be taking up the approval of the easement for that driveway, which the first 50 feet crosses a lot of town land. 407 00:57:08.390 --> 00:57:12.799 John Compton: Either… That's either Macaulay. 408 00:57:13.080 --> 00:57:23.259 John Compton: McCauley right-of-way, or… or, town property, the first lot in front of the 503 Macaulay property. 409 00:57:24.640 --> 00:57:33.959 John Compton: Alrighty, the Washington Grove Connector. Well, we already did, moved on from the easement discussion, but… 410 00:57:34.380 --> 00:57:42.190 John Compton: Another issue, and another reason that their process is still 411 00:57:42.330 --> 00:57:54.399 John Compton: The required process for moving this to construction is still going through the steps, is they are required to have a public hearing on the final plans, or the 95% plan. 412 00:57:54.760 --> 00:58:00.560 John Compton: And, so they are on October… First. 413 00:58:00.970 --> 00:58:12.519 John Compton: So that's, it's in the agenda. There's a link to how you can sign up to view that public hearing, and you can also speak at that public hearing. 414 00:58:12.660 --> 00:58:14.720 John Compton: If you sign up to do so. 415 00:58:15.250 --> 00:58:20.540 John Compton: I've got a question. Yes. I don't know if it's appropriate to say, but can we… 416 00:58:20.540 --> 00:58:28.100 John Compton: Confirm the fact that the town has approved for the… this pathway, and… because a lot of the discussion has been 417 00:58:28.100 --> 00:58:47.089 John Compton: kind of rehashing, you know, whether we could have a pathway and all that through, and I don't… I just don't feel like we should be revisiting that unless the Council feels like they're going to re-vote on it. I would just like to somehow… Well, I think that would come up when we actually discuss the easement, but Barbara… Barbara went through the… 418 00:58:47.560 --> 00:58:57.279 John Compton: No, it's open, so the whole purpose is to just confirm that the path is for a public purpose, and so… 419 00:58:57.410 --> 00:59:05.560 John Compton: Yes. I mean, if you believe that, yes, it serves a public purpose, then you can say that to the county. I mean, you don't have to… 420 00:59:06.260 --> 00:59:25.579 John Compton: censor what you say, and, well, I don't want to say this. I'm talking about in town, just discussions in town. It just seems to be a revisiting about, you know, whether we need a… Right, but this is not about revisiting. I didn't know if it was appropriate to bring it up, but since we were talking about the sharing minutes, I was asking. 421 00:59:26.100 --> 00:59:51.080 John Compton: So, did your question get answered? The point is that… the point is that there's a lot of stuff going on… there's a lot of stuff going around town where there is… that a lot of people don't understand that this is specifically just for the easement, and not that we're reopening the whole thing of whether we should have a bike path or not. The town council… a lot of confusion in this town, and I think Meredith was just asking for a blanket statement from the mayor, saying that is not 422 00:59:51.080 --> 01:00:02.030 John Compton: Yes, Peter has stated it correctly. The, the Council action approving the, bike pathway happened 423 01:00:02.120 --> 01:00:14.539 John Compton: A few years ago. I just wanted to get there, so we're not re-discussing it. After extensive town examination and discussion. Thank you. This is… this is our part 424 01:00:14.820 --> 01:00:16.800 John Compton: After the county is spent. 425 01:00:17.080 --> 01:00:19.320 John Compton: Kevin or $800,000? 426 01:00:19.510 --> 01:00:29.250 John Compton: already, with no construction. This is our part of confirming our, our, end of the path. Thank you. 427 01:00:30.100 --> 01:00:33.490 John Compton: Yeah, thanks for asking that question, Mary. 428 01:00:34.440 --> 01:00:45.019 John Compton: Okay. A few announcements of events now, just to wrap up my report. Bluestober is the first one coming up on the 17th, that's this weekend. 429 01:00:45.290 --> 01:01:04.889 John Compton: It's the 17th annual. No, it's… I think it's the 19th annual. Why does this one still say 17? Changed it 3 times. Okay, it's, I think it's the… maybe the 19th. Anyway, it's been going on a long time, and it will be at the gazebo on Saturday. 430 01:01:05.490 --> 01:01:24.599 John Compton: The Wash & Grove Fall Arts and Crafts Festival, which last year moved, under the auspices of the Rec Committee, and, will be held between the Women's Club and out here by McKatherman Hall, is, on September 26th. 431 01:01:24.780 --> 01:01:35.540 John Compton: And there will be food, vendors and other vendors of arts and crafts at, at this family family event. 432 01:01:36.190 --> 01:01:46.279 John Compton: Washington Grove… on September 27th, Washington Grove Cares has, sponsored and arranged for, 433 01:01:46.280 --> 01:02:03.059 John Compton: a well-known physician, Dr. Patrone, here, to, who is going to speak, to… on the subject of arthritis, and, causes, and, and, and… 434 01:02:03.750 --> 01:02:07.000 John Compton: Presumably also ways of… of… 435 01:02:07.270 --> 01:02:14.100 John Compton: Treating or ameliorating arthritis. And that will be at 3 in here at Mcatherine Hall. 436 01:02:15.500 --> 01:02:32.609 John Compton: Lastly, the Woods Committee, has a fall volunteer event to spread wood chips along the trails in, one of the woods. I seem to have forgotten to put which one it was. I think it's the Eastwoods. Eastwoods. 437 01:02:32.680 --> 01:02:38.729 John Compton: The Ace Woods, yes, I realized the one. And that is on October 10th, 438 01:02:39.180 --> 01:02:48.230 John Compton: All right, and that's the extent of my report. Any questions or… other things? 439 01:02:48.880 --> 01:03:00.640 John Compton: Okay, so we'll move on to administrative matters. The first item is a request for food trucks, to be at the Haunted Gazebo event. 440 01:03:01.050 --> 01:03:07.950 John Compton: And, Just by way of background. 441 01:03:08.050 --> 01:03:26.300 John Compton: Last year, when the Fall Festival, was proposed, the Rec Committee would take over the Fall Festival. The Council spent some time addressing the issue of, of ensuring that an outdoor event like that, which would 442 01:03:26.710 --> 01:03:39.800 John Compton: potentially disrupt a part of the town, would be managed in an adequate way, that is to say, a typical roadway, adequately, but, 443 01:03:39.800 --> 01:03:49.799 John Compton: Particularly if, they were going to invite vendors who would… for… who would have for-profit activities. 444 01:03:49.840 --> 01:03:53.570 John Compton: It's, it's a, it's a, 445 01:03:53.660 --> 01:04:02.410 John Compton: It's an important, issue for use of town facilities when for-profit activities are involved, and the council 446 01:04:02.410 --> 01:04:21.739 John Compton: established, a, a process by which anyone, and we extended and included the Rec Committee for their activities, should, clear by meeting, by, by coming to the Council or the Mayor, to, 447 01:04:22.020 --> 01:04:27.229 John Compton: to, ensure that the activity, was appropriately managed. So. 448 01:04:27.260 --> 01:04:33.619 John Compton: With that preamble, the, REC committee submitted a, 449 01:04:33.620 --> 01:04:47.919 John Compton: a proposal for the Haunted Gazebo event, and having, a food truck or two, or whatever, whatever, where… and, that was, well done, and it was well done and quickly done. 450 01:04:47.990 --> 01:04:53.219 John Compton: Partly because the Fall Festival, they both put together a really great 451 01:04:53.390 --> 01:04:56.110 John Compton: Proposal, so we'll use it as a model. 452 01:04:56.650 --> 01:05:03.589 John Compton: So I… I don't know if… I hope the Council had a chance to read it. We're… we're here tonight to approve 453 01:05:03.810 --> 01:05:08.000 John Compton: their plan for the Haunted Gazebo event. 454 01:05:08.350 --> 01:05:14.400 John Compton: So, can I make a motion? Yeah. To approve, food trucks at the Holiday Gazebo? I second. 455 01:05:14.910 --> 01:05:29.310 John Compton: Any questions? Any discussion? On the menus, or anything like that? In the materials, their proposal is in the meeting materials, so you can see what I'm… I'm talking about. 456 01:05:30.130 --> 01:05:37.889 John Compton: No discussion? All in favor? Any opposed? That's you. That was, unanimous. Thank you. 457 01:05:38.610 --> 01:05:43.319 John Compton: Okay, so, yeah, let me, 458 01:05:44.120 --> 01:05:47.210 John Compton: Get my other agenda up here, 459 01:05:47.570 --> 01:05:52.430 John Compton: So, as you know, I've announced several times that, and it's been the, 460 01:05:52.840 --> 01:06:09.769 John Compton: in the interest of the Council to improve, the responses and tracking of requests for maintenance and other, and other things on… on town property. And so, 461 01:06:10.250 --> 01:06:16.200 John Compton: our town administrator, Anna Burke, has been working on, 462 01:06:16.420 --> 01:06:22.020 John Compton: two aspects. One is to facilitate requests for work on… 463 01:06:23.150 --> 01:06:27.470 John Compton: To be performed by maintenance or other related things. 464 01:06:27.500 --> 01:06:46.949 John Compton: in town, and the second is to be able to track and follow the response to those requests, so they don't get lost in the shuffle. So, we are close, and we're not actually… we actually are there to using, and I'm going to hope… 465 01:06:46.960 --> 01:06:47.900 John Compton: Where is it? 466 01:06:48.990 --> 01:06:50.530 John Compton: Tell me that's nuts. 467 01:06:51.780 --> 01:06:54.770 John Compton: Going to open for me. No, it's not, because it doesn't… 468 01:07:00.200 --> 01:07:02.249 John Compton: I thought I could show… 469 01:07:03.230 --> 01:07:07.079 John Compton: the form, but I'm not going to be able to, because I see it's going to give me trouble. 470 01:07:07.730 --> 01:07:10.870 John Compton: typical Microsoft issues. 471 01:07:11.060 --> 01:07:15.600 John Compton: Remember, I'm an Apple person, so it's… I'm gonna disparage, 472 01:07:15.920 --> 01:07:33.629 John Compton: Anyway, we have a model form, which we can make available. It will be made available on the web, so anybody who has a request can go on the web, fill out a simple six-question form, and that request will get 473 01:07:33.980 --> 01:07:46.870 John Compton: To a central place, and be assigned to someone who will be responsible for, acting on that request, and who will be able to eventually 474 01:07:47.150 --> 01:07:50.440 John Compton: Right now, it will be by informing, Anna. 475 01:07:50.550 --> 01:08:06.280 John Compton: what they've done with that request, and what the progress on that request is, and ultimately, we want that to be available so anyone can see what happened to their request. That won't happen immediately, but once we get it on the web, it will be able to happen. 476 01:08:06.560 --> 01:08:15.740 John Compton: So we're making progress on that, and thank you to Anna for her work on that, and although there is more to do. 477 01:08:16.040 --> 01:08:20.150 John Compton: She is currently tracking requests, to the best of 478 01:08:20.319 --> 01:08:23.240 John Compton: Of her ability with this system. 479 01:08:23.350 --> 01:08:29.679 John Compton: Alright, that's what I had to say. 480 01:08:29.939 --> 01:08:42.549 John Compton: Let me make a quick request. She gets that on the website, can she just drop us a line and it's there so we can take a look at it? Yeah, but that's what I hoped, you know, I'm really annoyed, and it wasn't on this computer, I did have… 481 01:08:43.010 --> 01:09:07.700 John Compton: This link shouldn't have opened it, I don't get it. I did want to show it to you, but it's not. I'd mostly like to see what it looks like on the website. Yeah, so that's what I was going to do, show you the actual website. Okay. How easy it is to access. Yeah, but it's at a totally mystery URL. Yeah, you can do that. Well, they don't need to see it tonight, so they can see it, you know. 482 01:09:07.700 --> 01:09:11.219 John Compton: Yeah, you can see what we're talking about. Just so we know when it's active. 483 01:09:11.370 --> 01:09:13.920 John Compton: Oh, it's not… he's not active yet, huh? 484 01:09:14.130 --> 01:09:28.450 John Compton: Okay. Well, we can make it active, but it won't be as, automated as we would like. So, submitting your request, we can do that immediately, because we have the form 485 01:09:28.450 --> 01:09:34.620 John Compton: ready to go, even the online form, ready to go. But then, once that's submitted. 486 01:09:34.640 --> 01:09:38.480 John Compton: Right now, Anna has to enter it into her tracking 487 01:09:40.279 --> 01:09:47.090 John Compton: It uploads? Well, it uploads it, but you have to then respond to it. You have to do something about it. 488 01:09:48.779 --> 01:09:57.559 John Compton: But it's a good… it's on its way. I've used it a few times, and it's a game changer. I hope so. Yeah, it's really helpful. 489 01:09:58.060 --> 01:10:00.180 John Compton: Right. 490 01:10:00.600 --> 01:10:00.970 John Compton: Meeting 491 01:10:01.730 --> 01:10:16.769 John Compton: All right, next item on the agenda, the proposal to enact rules for use… the uses of the east and west woods. So, some of you are aware that, some camping, tents 492 01:10:16.770 --> 01:10:22.829 John Compton: And other stuff were found in the Westwoods, last week, or week before. 493 01:10:23.090 --> 01:10:29.450 John Compton: And this is, of course, not permitted. We have a no camping on our signs. 494 01:10:29.680 --> 01:10:35.520 John Compton: And it was removed. We removed the camping equipment, and 495 01:10:35.810 --> 01:10:38.600 John Compton: But it turns out that, 496 01:10:39.340 --> 01:10:49.520 John Compton: If you try and look for where we prohibit what we prohibit, nobody seems to be able to find when those prohibitions were enacted. 497 01:10:49.970 --> 01:10:56.069 John Compton: And it turns out that back in 2021, the council… 498 01:10:56.150 --> 01:11:08.149 John Compton: with the Woods Committee prepared a set of rules for the woods. It went to the Council, it went to some… it went to comment, and 499 01:11:08.150 --> 01:11:23.859 John Compton: it seems to have gone into a black hole after that. So, I asked Patty Klein and the Woods Committee to revisit the 2021-11 resolution, which was never enacted. 500 01:11:24.050 --> 01:11:34.849 John Compton: And we'll be bringing it, hopefully, and we'll be bringing it to us so we can… we can establish, what… what… what are the appropriate rules for use of the woods. 501 01:11:36.600 --> 01:11:39.420 John Compton: That's kind. 502 01:11:39.690 --> 01:11:44.520 John Compton: Alright, we have arrived here at a request from the owner of, 503 01:11:44.680 --> 01:11:56.179 John Compton: 406 Fifth Avenue to resolve encroachments. So, Joe Bloom, the owner, responded to a, 504 01:11:56.600 --> 01:12:15.240 John Compton: a recommendation I made, and I'm sure others made, that anyone anticipating, knowing they had some issues with their boundary… their… their property lines and their… and encroachments, to, and were planning to 505 01:12:16.120 --> 01:12:18.469 John Compton: Sell the house, or do something… 506 01:12:18.640 --> 01:12:28.669 John Compton: on the… in the areas of the questions, come and try and get those resolved before the last moment, when it could get in the way of, 507 01:12:28.760 --> 01:12:45.540 John Compton: in the way of, their intentions and other things. So she came in with the issues that are associated with her property at 406. That's what we heard some public comment on, and last month, 508 01:12:45.780 --> 01:12:51.629 John Compton: the Planning Commission's recommendation, to remove the wall 509 01:12:51.900 --> 01:13:00.929 John Compton: And other encroachments, was brought to us, and we opened the… Matter of public comment. 510 01:13:01.320 --> 01:13:08.519 John Compton: So, we don't have a motion to do anything about it, so I wrote a proposed 511 01:13:09.740 --> 01:13:16.720 John Compton: action for the Council to consider, and… 512 01:13:16.880 --> 01:13:30.069 John Compton: it's… part of… part of that… that went through one revision, and I apologize to everybody that it… it's not un… it's not unusual for something like this to go through a revision, because it wasn't… it's… it's a relatively… 513 01:13:30.270 --> 01:13:31.740 John Compton: complex. 514 01:13:32.130 --> 01:13:33.180 John Compton: Question. 515 01:13:33.360 --> 01:13:38.469 John Compton: And so… The revised, proposal 516 01:13:38.900 --> 01:13:49.240 John Compton: Which I was hoping someone would introduce just for discussion. So, is that 2614? No. Oh, so that's… that's the one. Not so long. 517 01:13:49.310 --> 01:14:01.360 John Compton: That's this one that I'm going to show here. That's farther down the… Okay, I got it. There we are. So that's this. 518 01:14:01.710 --> 01:14:10.210 John Compton: In front of you now, but… I'll propose to introduce it. Oh, thank you. I'll second. All right, so it's been… it's been introduced. 519 01:14:10.380 --> 01:14:17.500 John Compton: All that means for everybody, reminding you, this means we can formally Discuss. 520 01:14:17.700 --> 01:14:24.520 John Compton: the motion. So the motion is extend… is… is… is… is long, because the issue is complicated. 521 01:14:24.620 --> 01:14:49.549 John Compton: It's here, and I'll just go through it, because a lot of people were here earlier, and hopefully are still here, and, and they can read it, it's in the, it's in the materials, but I'm going to read it out loud. So, the first, we have, the review of the structures at issue, and one are the encroaching structures on tan land identified by the Planning Commission. 522 01:14:50.020 --> 01:15:03.379 John Compton: These include a 2-foot strip of brick patio along Acorn Lane, the property boundary, and a trellis and a soccer goal on the north side of the property, actually in Wade Park. 523 01:15:05.090 --> 01:15:10.720 John Compton: The other structural issue is the brick wall we've all heard and read about. 524 01:15:10.940 --> 01:15:13.440 John Compton: Which, which, 525 01:15:13.600 --> 01:15:25.180 John Compton: which… so there's a brick wall interrupted by a 3-foot open gap doorway, and I can show you a picture, although that material also is in the… is in the documents. 526 01:15:25.360 --> 01:15:28.669 John Compton: that is on town land along Acorn Way. 527 01:15:28.840 --> 01:15:38.060 John Compton: Therefore, a town-owned structure. It was erected prior to purchase of the property by the current owner, and is in some need of repair. 528 01:15:38.440 --> 01:15:41.589 John Compton: That's a description of this structure. 529 01:15:41.720 --> 01:15:43.640 John Compton: And they were both issues. 530 01:15:43.910 --> 01:15:58.749 John Compton: Regarding the number one structures, which, upon recommendation by the Planning Commission that these encroachments on town property at 4065 be removed at the time of sale of the property, the Town Council resolves the following. 531 01:15:59.240 --> 01:16:08.119 John Compton: 1. All encroachments by outdoor features on town property, as identified by a location survey, Showing there, actually. 532 01:16:08.320 --> 01:16:10.730 John Compton: Beyond… on town privacy. 533 01:16:10.910 --> 01:16:18.039 John Compton: will be removed. These include an arbor trellis and the portion of brick patio. 534 01:16:18.240 --> 01:16:21.399 John Compton: There may be a few other minor things, who knows? 535 01:16:22.020 --> 01:16:29.800 John Compton: It is agreed by property, owner, by Jill Bloom. Get rid of property. 536 01:16:30.000 --> 01:16:35.540 John Compton: owner, that. Remember, this is just the proposed motion. It… 537 01:16:35.840 --> 01:16:42.440 John Compton: Job Bloom has agreed to no such thing, but she would need to agree with this if this was to go forward. 538 01:16:42.780 --> 01:16:48.659 John Compton: That she would remove the trellis and the other encroachments coincident with the sale of the property. 539 01:16:49.040 --> 01:16:56.870 John Compton: The town, at its expense, will remove the patio encroachment coincidence with sale of the property. 540 01:16:57.740 --> 01:17:09.269 John Compton: So why are we paying… well, I can explain it later now. Why are we going to pay to remove an encroachment? Well, guess what? That's just what we did with the Challstrom's. 541 01:17:09.900 --> 01:17:10.730 John Compton: property. 542 01:17:10.870 --> 01:17:16.509 John Compton: We, we invested in rectifying a long-standing 543 01:17:16.800 --> 01:17:25.600 John Compton: situation that we… that the Council and the Planning Commission believed should be resolved, and… and that's what, this would… 544 01:17:25.830 --> 01:17:26.630 John Compton: Would… 545 01:17:26.970 --> 01:17:35.360 John Compton: would indicate as well. No, but just, like, two other… the fence, where John Deal lives, and the fence 546 01:17:35.440 --> 01:17:54.990 John Compton: Where Mark lives on Chestnut and… But this is, like, our history. It's not just that, it's not Charleston, it's consistently, whenever there's been a triggering event, the town has removed those. Yeah, hold your argument, because… No, it's not an argument. There are plenty of other… you're just giving other examples of… 547 01:17:55.220 --> 01:17:57.450 John Compton: Okay. Right? Okay. 548 01:17:57.710 --> 01:18:06.799 John Compton: The last bullet is any encroachment by landscaping will be removed by the owner, or remain, as… 549 01:18:07.630 --> 01:18:12.839 John Compton: is, associated… We're having a time of… 550 01:18:16.120 --> 01:18:27.690 John Compton: What does that mean? I've got sale. And you… it's because if you're supposing you're planting bushes and plants on town property. Okay. That's what it means. Landscape. 551 01:18:27.960 --> 01:18:42.470 John Compton: It's not an actual structure in the usual sense. So something that may not be here, but may be here… there before he sells it? Right, and this… this… this allows the Planning Commission to decide whether they are, 552 01:18:42.730 --> 01:18:47.990 John Compton: should be removed or remain. Is there, in Kosher and landscaping now? 553 01:18:48.130 --> 01:18:49.889 John Compton: I have no idea. Oh. 554 01:18:50.750 --> 01:18:52.379 John Compton: So why is that sent in there? 555 01:18:53.340 --> 01:18:56.370 John Compton: Because we want to deal with all the encroachers. 556 01:18:58.880 --> 01:19:11.369 John Compton: I mean, that's… it doesn't have to be in there. That's if there is any encroachments, if there is… There was some, plants there. Yeah, I thought there were. In the front, potentially. 557 01:19:12.170 --> 01:19:16.220 John Compton: Alright, so that's what would be the resolution. 558 01:19:19.120 --> 01:19:22.759 John Compton: that Joe would agree to remove the… the… essentially the… 559 01:19:23.590 --> 01:19:30.939 John Compton: the movable items. The town would agree to remove the structures and the ground. 560 01:19:31.680 --> 01:19:37.780 John Compton: And any landscape would be at the decision of the Planning Commission, if there is anything. 561 01:19:38.170 --> 01:19:44.710 John Compton: Now, regarding the brick wall, of which we've heard a lot and read a lot, and thank everybody for your 562 01:19:44.890 --> 01:19:49.870 John Compton: Input on this. Lots of points of view. 563 01:19:50.030 --> 01:20:01.179 John Compton: On that, and I think, potentially, it raised… raised a lot of questions, that… that ought to be addressed, and so that's what this motion… 564 01:20:01.670 --> 01:20:07.590 John Compton: attempts to do. One, any roll of the wall with its open gap. 565 01:20:07.850 --> 01:20:15.339 John Compton: in diverting water from flowing towards the 406 residence will be evaluated by the Town and reported to the Council. 566 01:20:16.010 --> 01:20:25.299 John Compton: Alternative measures to control stormwater, such as regrading a buried pipe or a curb, will also be evaluated. 567 01:20:27.780 --> 01:20:34.640 John Compton: Boiled down, it says… If, if there is… if… the wall 568 01:20:35.090 --> 01:20:54.419 John Compton: that area is contributing to keeping water from flowing into the property and the house, then either the… then something needs to be done one way or the other. The wall is performing that function, or something else needs to perform that function. 569 01:20:55.140 --> 01:20:58.280 John Compton: Before anything, you know, we have to have a plan. 570 01:20:58.590 --> 01:21:07.149 John Compton: And then, after that evaluation, it's just an evaluation, nothing's done, upon which the Council will decide, once they hear the result. 571 01:21:07.360 --> 01:21:10.710 John Compton: Either restore the wall, structurally and visually. 572 01:21:11.390 --> 01:21:14.429 John Compton: Not an expense, it's a town structure, keep that in mind. 573 01:21:14.800 --> 01:21:28.970 John Compton: or accept the recommendation of the Planning Commission and approve removing the brick wall at town expense at or near the time of the sale of the property. Once again, this is a triggering event to resolve 574 01:21:29.120 --> 01:21:32.500 John Compton: All these things that we've heard 575 01:21:32.710 --> 01:21:40.670 John Compton: Jill Bloom, you know, talked to… and Val, talk about. 576 01:21:40.870 --> 01:21:43.140 John Compton: Which affect their property. 577 01:21:43.550 --> 01:21:46.590 John Compton: So that's it. 578 01:21:47.020 --> 01:22:03.460 John Compton: And I know it's complicated, but unfortunately, this is a complicated issue. So diverting… doing that assessment would happen now, or at the time of the sale, or would that be something… That would be happening in advance. Try and decide what we're going to do, what's going to happen to the wall. 579 01:22:03.700 --> 01:22:06.749 John Compton: Before the actual sale. 580 01:22:07.000 --> 01:22:11.860 John Compton: Yeah. How much property is there between the wall and Jill's? 581 01:22:12.020 --> 01:22:24.410 John Compton: house, I mean, what is a pound gonna do with that? I don't know exactly how much, but I think it's, like, 7 feet or something. I think all told, we're talking about 8 or 9 feet on the wall. 582 01:22:24.510 --> 01:22:29.199 John Compton: from the… From the north… Sorry, from the south. 583 01:22:29.320 --> 01:22:33.840 John Compton: West corner of her house to her property line is about 5 feet. 584 01:22:34.000 --> 01:22:41.509 John Compton: From the property line to the brick wall is about 7 feet, and then the wall adds another foot across subway. 585 01:22:43.400 --> 01:22:54.540 John Compton: All right, so we have a motion. Should we have Georgette give the Planning Commission point of view on it? That's what I was going to ask. Yeah, exactly. I'm sorry I preempted that a little, but I wanted to… 586 01:22:55.170 --> 01:22:58.110 John Compton: Make sure that all the ramifications were… 587 01:22:58.620 --> 01:23:01.220 John Compton: Well, there's one… well, I just have one question. 588 01:23:01.340 --> 01:23:05.940 John Compton: So, say we go ahead and we leave the wall. 589 01:23:06.210 --> 01:23:08.550 John Compton: And then some owner buys the house. 590 01:23:08.890 --> 01:23:13.809 John Compton: And realizes, I'm putting all this money into the house, I don't want this thing in front. 591 01:23:14.120 --> 01:23:17.909 John Compton: Now, it's the town's property, and it's the town's wall. 592 01:23:19.310 --> 01:23:21.970 John Compton: Is that… is that in consideration here? 593 01:23:22.930 --> 01:23:23.650 John Compton: Ed? 594 01:23:24.070 --> 01:23:31.780 John Compton: It's not… well, it's not right now. The decision about the… the proposal for the wall is deferred until it… 595 01:23:31.870 --> 01:23:45.170 John Compton: It's determined whether it's serving any function, and until the Council can discuss, maybe even the HPC should be consulted. What value… 596 01:23:45.270 --> 01:23:52.409 John Compton: historically, or… What's the right word? Aesthetically. 597 01:23:53.610 --> 01:24:02.999 John Compton: you know, historically, aesthetically, this wall has for the town, which might inform the decision of the council. 598 01:24:03.200 --> 01:24:19.440 John Compton: So, so just… so this is… alright, so what exactly are we saying here, then? Well, I don't know that's… Well, that's… this is… this is… this is whatever she… what's… that's not relevant to what's… what this says, though. This is… this is… I think the Planning Commission… 599 01:24:20.450 --> 01:24:24.830 John Compton: And you're on the Planning Commission. Yes. Is… 600 01:24:25.450 --> 01:24:40.500 John Compton: Sorry for this, guys, responsible for this issue, because you have for some years, not just this year, some years, in alignment with the, with the, with the, 601 01:24:40.890 --> 01:24:42.280 John Compton: comprehensive plan. 602 01:24:42.800 --> 01:24:52.289 John Compton: determined that these encroachments should be resolved. As… ownership or other… 603 01:24:52.430 --> 01:25:01.749 John Compton: significant events on the property where these garments occur. When those occur, these should be resolved, one way or the other. They should either be, you know. 604 01:25:02.000 --> 01:25:10.120 John Compton: just so that we don't have to revisit them again and again. So, with that. 605 01:25:10.550 --> 01:25:19.489 John Compton: having… having done that, it's now dropped into the lap of the Council and the town to consider what do these encroachments 606 01:25:19.800 --> 01:25:35.989 John Compton: You know, what should the town do about these various… But what does this say? This is saying… Yeah, oh, this says, this says… That's what I'm asking. This says that the encroachments, remember, the wall is a town issue, not an encroachment. 607 01:25:36.500 --> 01:25:45.710 John Compton: that the encroachments that are associated with the property should be removed upon sale at the time of sale. That's what it says, and it… 608 01:25:45.710 --> 01:25:57.739 John Compton: it says how they'll be removed. Who's responsible for this? Who's responsible? You're removing the wall, basically, from… No, it's wrapping about the wall. You're removing the wall. 609 01:25:57.740 --> 01:26:10.729 John Compton: from the fact that that's a town responsibility, not the owner of the… that's what you're doing, you're separating yourself away from the owner. That's how… I'm separating the two. Okay, that's… that's… that's a little different, the way of looking at it. Okay. 610 01:26:10.780 --> 01:26:13.009 John Compton: Okay. And so, so, okay. 611 01:26:13.380 --> 01:26:22.379 John Compton: Is there an option for her to buy from the town, as we've done in some other situations, or is it because it's not a building, it doesn't apply based on 612 01:26:22.620 --> 01:26:25.509 John Compton: how it's written. I mean, the question is. 613 01:26:25.780 --> 01:26:40.909 John Compton: You want to revisit that again? I don't want to revisit it. They or may not remember what was involved. I can't speak for Suellen, our town attorney. Yeah. But, but I… to the best of my recollection. 614 01:26:41.440 --> 01:26:45.849 John Compton: between her and Bill Roberts, the former town attorney. 615 01:26:46.310 --> 01:26:54.930 John Compton: The town should tread very carefully about giving rights up. 616 01:26:55.090 --> 01:27:02.259 John Compton: to town land. Just because you don't see a use for it today, doesn't mean you won't 617 01:27:02.770 --> 01:27:07.760 John Compton: in 10 years, or 15, or 20, or whenever. And so, 618 01:27:08.160 --> 01:27:23.860 John Compton: you know, it needs to be very carefully thought out. For those properties that were determined to have their structures sitting on town property, they needed an immediate… and that was a far more serious thing, yeah. 619 01:27:23.860 --> 01:27:31.670 John Compton: But these are not. These have all been… have been… have been booted… have been kicked down the road until… 620 01:27:31.780 --> 01:27:33.710 John Compton: A new owner arrives. 621 01:27:34.090 --> 01:27:43.639 John Compton: How are, you know, are they to inherit the impressionments, or are they to inherit a clean slate? 622 01:27:43.940 --> 01:27:44.840 John Compton: Yeah. 623 01:27:45.270 --> 01:27:46.709 John Compton: Go ahead, Al. 624 01:27:47.370 --> 01:27:54.099 John Compton: Okay, so the Planning Commission has been very supportive for the last 10 to 15 years. 625 01:27:54.250 --> 01:28:06.749 John Compton: That non-compliance structures and non-conforming uses should cease when circumstances change, and the sale of property is when we most of all the instances of that. 626 01:28:07.070 --> 01:28:20.700 John Compton: The fact that the non-compliant structure, or brick wall, has been in existence for a long time is no more relevant than the long period of time the residents at 503 Macaulay Street drove on 5th and 6th Avenues. 627 01:28:20.790 --> 01:28:36.789 John Compton: Like the residents at 503 McCauley Street, the resident at 406 Fifth Avenue is planning to sell her use of town land to a new owner, as if it was part of her property. The reasons that have been raised to allow her to do so are beside the point. 628 01:28:36.790 --> 01:28:41.940 John Compton: Town property belongs to the town, and use of it cannot be sold by a private citizen. 629 01:28:42.860 --> 01:28:43.730 John Compton: That's it. 630 01:28:45.910 --> 01:28:47.579 John Compton: Okay, thank you. 631 01:28:48.420 --> 01:29:02.879 John Compton: Alright, so I… now… We, we… Mary and Peter, Helpfully introduce this fairly… detailed, 632 01:29:03.810 --> 01:29:07.800 John Compton: roadmap for moving forward. And, 633 01:29:09.010 --> 01:29:22.060 John Compton: there are other things to consider, so I guess I'd like a discussion of that, to the extent you feel willing to. I'd also like to immediately suggest this proposal. 634 01:29:22.630 --> 01:29:28.139 John Compton: should have months to percolate. We shouldn't act on it without… 635 01:29:28.320 --> 01:29:41.260 John Compton: having a, you know, making sure that, the first time, I certainly did not get it right, the first draft. So, the extent to which this one may need to be adjusted, we need some time to consider. 636 01:29:41.540 --> 01:29:47.420 John Compton: So, that doesn't mean we can't get a… test the waters of any questions or comments. 637 01:29:47.890 --> 01:30:03.269 John Compton: It seems to me that consistency and fairness is what we're trying for here, doing for everybody what we do. You know, it's hard when you're talking about neighbors, and you don't want to do that, but, you know, if our policy is clear, and that's how we're enforcing it, I think you 638 01:30:03.780 --> 01:30:20.360 John Compton: it makes sense to be as consistent as you can, and it seems to me this proposal kind of looks at the uniqueness of this, that the wall may have a purpose, and to look at it historically, to look at the, you know, the structure and, you know, it coming down, is it? I mean, I think it's pretty, pretty… 639 01:30:20.820 --> 01:30:23.909 John Compton: good way to… to deal with the Whalen particulate. 640 01:30:25.790 --> 01:30:34.249 John Compton: I would just… that's exactly what I wanted to say, but more strongly, is that being on the Planning Commission and seeing how hard 641 01:30:34.390 --> 01:30:43.090 John Compton: the Planning Commission works. We really work hard at, integrity, consistency, and when 642 01:30:43.360 --> 01:31:00.199 John Compton: these are our neighbors, and it makes it really hard to do that type of job. And I commend the Planning Commission for staying objective in this, and being consistent. And to every single thing, we try so hard to help neighbors and, you know, give them what they're looking for. 643 01:31:00.200 --> 01:31:10.550 John Compton: And this is just another example. We spent a couple hours, we've been over there, you know, we've looked at this, and this is… this is what the comprehensive plan calls for. 644 01:31:10.550 --> 01:31:22.880 John Compton: this is fair for the whole globe, it's the bigger picture. It's not an individual. And it's really hard volunteering and sticking your neck out, trying to do the right thing, and being sniped at. 645 01:31:22.960 --> 01:31:37.639 John Compton: And I just think that we all, you know, as Council, we took an oath to do what's best for the town, not what's best for individuals. And I just, like, we have to just restate that once in a while, because it's, you know, it's tough. It's really tough. 646 01:31:37.670 --> 01:31:43.270 John Compton: Oh, I was just gonna say that, I think the idea that… 647 01:31:44.370 --> 01:32:00.949 John Compton: I wouldn't want to see somebody's house flood because of something the town does, so certainly any water mitigation that is necessary, of course, we should do that, but I think then whether the wall stays or goes really is not a question of 648 01:32:00.950 --> 01:32:11.400 John Compton: the property owner or the neighbors, it… if it's a town… if it's on town land, it's up to the town council to decide that. So I agree with this, 649 01:32:11.400 --> 01:32:30.269 John Compton: this last clause about, you know, if it needs to be looked at again, fine, but at the end of the day, if we take it down, that's the right of our town, and as Peter says, I know the Planning Commission is really trying to be consistent all the way through, and as you pointed out, too, so I think it's important to do that, so… 650 01:32:30.470 --> 01:32:31.280 John Compton: Yep. 651 01:32:33.710 --> 01:32:37.350 John Compton: I do want to comment that… that… 652 01:32:37.500 --> 01:32:46.250 John Compton: There are examples of fences around town that have been in existence for a very long time. 653 01:32:46.730 --> 01:32:50.750 John Compton: But, are actually on town land. 654 01:32:51.000 --> 01:32:53.570 John Compton: And they enclose town land. 655 01:32:53.980 --> 01:33:00.600 John Compton: making it… Part of the property owner's land use. 656 01:33:01.230 --> 01:33:13.259 John Compton: And the… the, corollary of… for this… this wall, and the patio discussion is that, 657 01:33:13.500 --> 01:33:16.540 John Compton: You know, as soon as the current owner, the 658 01:33:16.840 --> 01:33:29.370 John Compton: Remember, the policy is… is long-standing, corrections are not… the idea is not to inconvenience or impact the current owner, but when it changes hands, the new owner 659 01:33:29.570 --> 01:33:33.700 John Compton: Needs to inherit a property, or buy a property, which is… 660 01:33:33.810 --> 01:33:47.579 John Compton: defined based on the actual balance. So, there are the other examples of perfectly lovely fences that everybody's been looking at for decades that 661 01:33:47.990 --> 01:34:01.789 John Compton: will be recommended to be moved, or removed. Basically removed, a new one can be built on private property. But there are other equivalent situations. We don't know where all of them are. 662 01:34:01.930 --> 01:34:03.239 John Compton: A few of them. 663 01:34:03.420 --> 01:34:04.560 John Compton: Arnold. 664 01:34:04.990 --> 01:34:13.069 John Compton: So, I agree. I mean, that's exactly the problem, is, you know, each one seems like an individual case, and the only… 665 01:34:13.620 --> 01:34:18.870 John Compton: The only fair way across the whole town to deal with it 666 01:34:19.000 --> 01:34:29.749 John Compton: is to, you know, have a consistent policy. Nobody wants to harm anyone, in the process, but even though it may 667 01:34:31.560 --> 01:34:32.630 John Compton: change. 668 01:34:32.980 --> 01:34:37.080 John Compton: That particular property's characters. 669 01:34:42.070 --> 01:35:01.839 John Compton: Okay, well, can… can we… can I have a motion to defer this, action till October, and ask for public comment on this proposal? So how much… I'm curious how much this is affecting Jill's plans to sell her house. 670 01:35:03.600 --> 01:35:05.170 John Compton: Joe, are you still here? 671 01:35:07.000 --> 01:35:10.710 John Compton: Yeah. That's a question for you. You can answer to. 672 01:35:10.710 --> 01:35:11.520 Jill Bloom: Yeah, I'm here. 673 01:35:12.700 --> 01:35:20.949 John Compton: You may answer to however you wish. I was just curious how this is impacting your decision to sell your house, and what the timeframe has. 674 01:35:21.490 --> 01:35:25.690 John Compton: How's affected you. She's so… You're muted. You're muted, Joe. 675 01:35:28.330 --> 01:35:29.630 Jill Bloom: Can you hear me now? 676 01:35:29.630 --> 01:35:32.360 John Compton: Yeah, thank you. 677 01:35:32.360 --> 01:35:33.010 Jill Bloom: Okay. 678 01:35:33.130 --> 01:35:35.100 Jill Bloom: So, I'll… 679 01:35:35.420 --> 01:35:50.889 Jill Bloom: as much as I love my house, I'll be selling it anyway, because I need to help, I need to provide some help to my two sisters who live in upstate New York, and that's where we're going. So… I'll be selling… I plan to sell it in the spring. 680 01:35:52.770 --> 01:36:12.410 Jill Bloom: Yeah, so, I mean, the disposition of the wall, it just makes a lot of work if the wall is to be gone and we have to figure out another way to control the water, etc, etc. It won't stop me from selling the house. I tend to be extremely transparent with whoever comes to look at the house. 681 01:36:12.480 --> 01:36:16.980 Jill Bloom: About what is and isn't mine, because when I bought it, I knew that stuff wasn't mine. 682 01:36:17.120 --> 01:36:19.450 Jill Bloom: And I never assumed it was, it's just… 683 01:36:20.000 --> 01:36:31.050 Jill Bloom: you know, that's just how it's laid out, so… No, if the question is, does it change… does it affect my plans to sell? No. It just makes it a little more difficult, depending on what we decide, what you all decide. 684 01:36:33.210 --> 01:36:37.060 John Compton: I was just concerned that we were delaying your process. 685 01:36:37.720 --> 01:36:38.440 Jill Bloom: Awesome. 686 01:36:39.420 --> 01:36:47.500 Jill Bloom: I don't think so. I would like to know… I would like to know sooner rather than later, so I can take steps to mitigate any… 687 01:36:47.750 --> 01:37:04.179 Jill Bloom: you know, it's gonna be unsightly at first, right? And if it… if the wall has to go, and so I would like some time to fix it up. That's one of the reasons, since the wall performs the function of holding back the water and doesn't, 688 01:37:05.650 --> 01:37:21.130 Jill Bloom: Yeah, I'd just like a chance to… I mean, I'd like to have the wall repaired, and I'm happy to contribute to that, but if that's not to be, I would like it to be resolved before I go to sell, so that I can show the prospective buyers what the property really is. 689 01:37:23.260 --> 01:37:24.789 Jill Bloom: Does that answer your question? 690 01:37:25.510 --> 01:37:27.130 John Compton: Okay, thank you. 691 01:37:29.400 --> 01:37:33.659 John Compton: I'll make the motion to defer till October. Okay, we have a second. 692 01:37:34.610 --> 01:37:44.520 John Compton: Listen. Nick seconded, Marilyson, Nick seconded, deferring further discussion and action until the October meeting. 693 01:37:44.940 --> 01:37:46.250 John Compton: Any discussion? 694 01:37:46.670 --> 01:37:47.920 John Compton: Unfair. 695 01:37:48.510 --> 01:37:59.349 John Compton: All right, it's unanimous. Now, will this… this proposal that you put out, will that be put out to the public so that it would get read? Yes, exactly. It's been introduced, so, just like I did with, 696 01:37:59.350 --> 01:38:08.689 John Compton: Previously, we'll get it in the bulletin, you know, there should… the council meeting in October is on the 12th, I think, so it should give… 697 01:38:08.770 --> 01:38:09.799 John Compton: Book. 698 01:38:13.350 --> 01:38:19.379 John Compton: All right, next item on the agenda is Mcatherine Hall Piano Tuning. 699 01:38:19.520 --> 01:38:32.469 John Compton: Is there a tuner in the house? I'm gonna let Chris, introduce and just explain the ramifications of… Oh, what? 700 01:38:32.680 --> 01:38:46.430 John Compton: There are huge ramifications to an untune. We'll let you know. Bumblebee. Bumblebee. A chopstick to destroy your ears, yeah. 701 01:38:46.680 --> 01:38:59.810 John Compton: So, so essentially, you know, we had, we had somebody that used the piano this past weekend, and they were asking if we had a tune. We looked into it, and I think the last time it was a tuned was 10. 702 01:39:00.270 --> 01:39:02.130 John Compton: 2014. 2014. 703 01:39:02.310 --> 01:39:19.109 John Compton: Pianos, the pianos, should be tuned annually. What? At least. And part of that is to ensure that it doesn't get damaged. You know, there's a huge sounding board in a piano, for example, and 704 01:39:19.110 --> 01:39:28.639 John Compton: And if you don't keep it to them, then it goes through, you know, the temperature issues. In fact, right now, there's… if you're not using it, you're supposed to plug it in, dehumidify the piano. 705 01:39:28.640 --> 01:39:35.449 John Compton: So there has been some efforts made. There was… my understanding is, that this piano isn't 706 01:39:35.800 --> 01:39:43.219 John Compton: Too old, considering piano age. And that the, the town council, 707 01:39:43.650 --> 01:39:51.359 John Compton: spent quite a bit trying to get this piano. So… so the bottom line, again, would be that it's a… it's a town. 708 01:39:51.720 --> 01:39:55.729 John Compton: resource, and so… 709 01:39:56.250 --> 01:40:04.019 John Compton: Who… first of all, should we get… keep it tuned and kept in shape, just like any other resource that we have in town? 710 01:40:04.140 --> 01:40:15.769 John Compton: And if we do, who should be paying for that? Part of that is, if we rent the hall, do we have enough to cover the expenses for the hall? And we're barely breaking even if we are. 711 01:40:15.790 --> 01:40:31.699 John Compton: How much does it cost to tune a piano? And we're finding, I guess, about 200 bucks? $200. 200 bucks for a year. I mean, if you… Annually. And yeah, you do it once a year is what is recommended, right? A lot of people, they don't. 712 01:40:31.700 --> 01:40:38.310 John Compton: I mean, the town uses it for town events, too. It's not just in rental, I mean, it's part of… Yeah, it's part of… 713 01:40:38.700 --> 01:40:56.379 John Compton: the town. Yeah. So I'm not sure what… I don't understand why we would have… Well, I don't understand why we would have this conversation at this level. It's… it's a repair and maintenance of thing. It is, right? It should be part of the town budget. Chris has just barely mentioned the… 714 01:40:56.440 --> 01:41:21.409 John Compton: Actual issue. Once you decide… You married the lead. Yeah, right? We want to play our piano. May I play our piano. There is one that you can get that will communicate to another piano. 715 01:41:21.410 --> 01:41:28.530 John Compton: You can play at the same time. The world's in trouble, isn't it? Yeah, one of the new signs… This same song can be played… 716 01:41:28.530 --> 01:41:39.320 John Compton: throughout the world, the county. That's at least $200,000 or $300,000. I mean, we have, we have extended, 717 01:41:39.490 --> 01:41:41.749 John Compton: Resources that we… 718 01:41:41.830 --> 01:41:49.810 John Compton: rent out, use here in the facility. You know, it's like… it's like the AV equipment, for example. I mean, everybody uses that all the time. 719 01:41:49.870 --> 01:41:54.850 John Compton: And it's even used outside, you know, people take speakers out and do whatever. 720 01:41:54.850 --> 01:42:13.469 John Compton: So, so, you know, I guess the overall question is, is how are we going to maintain this? Is that something that we should pay for within town budget? Is that something we should try to pick up within the, the rental structure and the lease structure? I mean, besides the pan of all, everything else that goes into 721 01:42:14.980 --> 01:42:19.919 John Compton: Yes, there's more than… So are you asking, should we charge more for rental? 722 01:42:20.050 --> 01:42:29.079 John Compton: Of the hall, is that the question? What direction should we go in? Should we just take it out of our town budget, or should we charge more to try to cover the cost? What do you think we should do? 723 01:42:29.640 --> 01:42:35.000 John Compton: Why don't you make a motion as to what we should do? Yeah. 724 01:42:35.520 --> 01:42:38.979 John Compton: What does the town rental cost now? I mean, not town hall. 725 01:42:39.450 --> 01:42:48.419 John Compton: What do people charge? It's complicated. It depends on who by the hour, it depends who's ringing. 726 01:42:48.530 --> 01:42:55.739 John Compton: Because it comes out from a town resident, and they typically do one full day. 727 01:42:56.010 --> 01:43:07.939 John Compton: 200 bucks. I think you could easily calculate how much you have to raise it to cover the expenses, and I can't imagine it's going to be, I mean, $200 pretty cheap to rent the hall. 728 01:43:09.360 --> 01:43:18.169 John Compton: Right, so maybe we should ask… you know, you're… you raise it, you get… you get… get into trouble here. Maybe we could ask Fress to… 729 01:43:18.390 --> 01:43:30.690 John Compton: you know, evaluate the rental, the rental structure for the period time, I think. And what was the last time it was raised? Well, I think last time I saw history, I think 730 01:43:30.700 --> 01:43:42.249 John Compton: didn't… weren't you involved, Barbara? Yes, but we didn't raise it at that time. Yeah, yeah, but you looked at… Yeah, but you looked at the rental structure and everything else, is that right, or… Yeah. 731 01:43:42.820 --> 01:43:51.730 John Compton: So, there's two, there's two rates, one for town residents, and one for outside rental. That's correct. Sponsored by town. No, so, so we… 732 01:43:51.810 --> 01:44:03.119 John Compton: And then there's government and social events, too. Right, but so an outside person cannot rent it without being sponsored by the town. Town person? Correct. Okay. 733 01:44:03.350 --> 01:44:05.529 John Compton: Correct. And it… but they… they pay… 734 01:44:05.630 --> 01:44:11.660 John Compton: Even though it's sponsored, it's still a higher rate than the town resident that does it. Correct. Yeah. 735 01:44:12.150 --> 01:44:16.010 John Compton: So, so, let me, let me do… you know, it sounds like we, we want to try to… 736 01:44:16.060 --> 01:44:36.640 John Compton: capture these fees as much as we can in the rental. With that, you know, let me make a motion to reevaluate the structure of the rental fees, since it hasn't been. And in fact, what's missing, clearly, is the rental of the AV equipment. This is professional equipment that we have. 737 01:44:36.640 --> 01:44:44.890 John Compton: It's… it's… it's so complicated. I mean, I take a look at it, it's not like a plug in one jan here and plug in, you know, left and right channels. It's… it's… 738 01:44:44.890 --> 01:44:47.850 John Compton: There's a mixer and everything, and it's quite expensive. 739 01:44:47.990 --> 01:44:50.580 John Compton: So… I'll second. 740 01:44:50.780 --> 01:44:55.809 John Compton: Okay. Thank you. All right, I, I think at this time. 741 01:44:56.400 --> 01:45:00.840 John Compton: Well, no, it's just another… it's another Macather expense. 742 01:45:01.200 --> 01:45:05.349 John Compton: It's down… it's hidden down there in the town council reports. 743 01:45:05.640 --> 01:45:22.259 John Compton: We took this over, Chris, who said, don't worry, there's not much work involved in the… Do we want to jump to that right now? No, we're not jumping to that. I mean, it's not imminent, it's just… 744 01:45:22.260 --> 01:45:46.820 John Compton: Okay, okay, so Chris is going to evaluate the costs and the revenue for use of the town hall. And there are some judgments to be made. I mean, what is the town going to pay for, and what… how much should we recover from users? That's what it boils down to. I mean, it's like any time we 745 01:45:46.820 --> 01:45:53.299 John Compton: We rent the facility to… you know, for Tom, Tom, 746 01:45:53.430 --> 01:46:03.129 John Compton: recreational activities, town services, whatever. You know, you know, that's what town costs. 747 01:46:04.850 --> 01:46:08.309 John Compton: Okay, that we don't, you know, that comes out of our budget. 748 01:46:08.540 --> 01:46:18.920 John Compton: All right. All right. What's the motion, please, again? Yes, they have Chris reevaluate. Re-evaluate, what happened to the people that didn't account to? 749 01:46:19.680 --> 01:46:21.869 John Compton: Well, that's part of the rent structure. 750 01:46:22.060 --> 01:46:35.619 John Compton: That's what brought this whole thing to light. But we are going to get the piano, too. It was soon. Has everybody been done? Yes. I don't think so. No, it hasn't. Why not? We never got the final go-ahead to get it done. 751 01:46:36.200 --> 01:46:41.299 John Compton: I never… I thought I made a clear statement. Get… get it done. 752 01:46:41.970 --> 01:46:49.349 John Compton: It was a no-brainer. The only issue was, if we're going to do it annually, what are the consequences? 753 01:46:49.350 --> 01:47:11.319 John Compton: Well, alright, alright, that's not… you don't need to point fingers, but… No. You mean they had to put up with an untuned piano? I don't know how… The piano sounds fine. Okay. Oh, to your ear, to your ear, baby. 20 years without a piano, seriously. Awesome. Okay. 754 01:47:11.320 --> 01:47:17.370 John Compton: All right, let's move on to the next item, which is also, wait, do we vote on this motion, or… 755 01:47:17.440 --> 01:47:31.760 John Compton: What's happening here? It was a… it was the sense of the council that this be… Oh, it wasn't a motion that never made? You want to make it a motion? Fine. All in favor of having Krist be evaluated. 756 01:47:31.760 --> 01:47:51.079 John Compton: We want to get more work. You should say, no, you're in favor of John Porter. I'll help him out if he needs it. I want to make a motion that Kristina at the tune of piano. The piano tuning school? Yes, that's a good piano tuning. 757 01:47:51.080 --> 01:48:03.860 John Compton: We might get a break, though, right? The 12-string guitar. That's exactly a subject we haven't visited in months. 758 01:48:05.140 --> 01:48:16.400 John Compton: So, I want to also open this floor up and share it with, with Mary, since we have 759 01:48:16.650 --> 01:48:24.750 John Compton: collective data, I guess, right? And it has to do with, well, first of all, the… 760 01:48:24.980 --> 01:48:27.630 John Compton: And we talked about this last council meeting, too. 761 01:48:27.630 --> 01:48:47.760 John Compton: Trying to get a stop sign put in, coming from the commercial corner, on, Brown Street and Chestnut. And why is that? And because cars don't go down there, but pedestrians and bicyclists and others do, and it's an awareness thing. If you're coming in off of Railroad Street and, say, making a left turn, a lot of people 762 01:48:48.480 --> 01:48:58.789 John Compton: turn quickly to get out of the oncoming traffic as they're coming up over the Humpback Bridge, right? And then if you're not aware, as a walker, bicyclist. 763 01:48:58.900 --> 01:49:00.920 John Compton: There might be something coming. 764 01:49:02.520 --> 01:49:17.129 John Compton: You usually get hit, and there have been some near misses recently, so… So do we have to vote on it? Do you make a motion to do that? I don't know. To put in a stop sign, do we get? Yeah. Put a stop sign on for the pedestrians walking at… from Brown Street across, Hickory. 765 01:49:17.690 --> 01:49:32.649 John Compton: Right. But currently, there are stop signs coming out from Chestnut Road, at Brown, and a stop sign coming down Brown. I believe there's one. Yes, toward, Chestnut. 766 01:49:32.650 --> 01:49:46.990 John Compton: at, you know, there is no stop sign coming off railroad, and no stop sign coming up from the commercial corner. Yeah. So two corners have stop signs, and… So you're saying when you, when you go down Railroad Street and take a right turn on Hickory. 767 01:49:50.990 --> 01:49:56.799 John Compton: Chestnut. Chestnut, yeah. It's over by Earl's. Who were you saying stop song with Dave? 768 01:49:57.380 --> 01:50:22.369 John Compton: Coming in pretty much in front of Earl's house. If you're coming from the commercial corner, up, the dead-end street, right, coming up from the commercial corner onto… that's not a car we're talking about, we're talking about pedestrian bicycles. And you're saying, that you think putting a stop sign there would be… It's awareness for the pedestrians and bicycles. There's probably a better sign you could put up for pedestrians in. 769 01:50:22.370 --> 01:50:25.249 John Compton: It's a maid. They want to put one here. 770 01:50:25.250 --> 01:50:30.700 John Compton: And here. Yeah, yeah. The problem is that that's only about 15 feet, even if the car turn all of a sudden. 771 01:50:30.710 --> 01:50:37.110 John Compton: But we could come up with, there's signs that would be more appropriate. Oh, that's no proposal to put one… 772 01:50:37.110 --> 01:51:02.059 John Compton: Entering Chestnut Road. No. Railroad. Yeah, that would be… For the reason I think I just heard you say. So he's only talking about one stop sign? Correct. Yes, correct, correct, yeah, correct. Pedestrians and bicycles. Pedestrians and bicycles. And Bill, and Bill, when he talks his car on the side. And I suppose what you consider a different sort of sign. Yeah, that's okay. It's an awareness thing. 773 01:51:02.060 --> 01:51:10.499 John Compton: If there's something better. Like, they have not a big enough sign, 774 01:51:10.590 --> 01:51:17.650 John Compton: At Railroad and Oakmont. You know, oncoming traffic does not stop. Right. 775 01:51:17.650 --> 01:51:40.660 John Compton: Right? That's what it says. And unfortunately, it's not a very big shot. For future thought, too, if there is a connector coming from through there, we'll end up with a lot of issues. Yeah, we're gonna have to have a lot of, think that through, as far as signage. That's gonna be a whole, but that's, like, that works. Yeah, but that's good. That's a good idea. All right, do we have a motion to, install 776 01:51:40.660 --> 01:51:46.739 John Compton: Some kind of a sign. I like that motion. I'll second. Peter moved. Mary seconded. 777 01:51:47.010 --> 01:52:06.909 John Compton: Yeah, all in favor? So, I didn't get a chance to what I… what I was gonna say. I don't think it's necessary, because it's very easy to see who's coming from either side. The problem that I see in that intersection is people running the stop sign that is there on Chestnut. 778 01:52:07.630 --> 01:52:09.780 John Compton: That is a big problem. 779 01:52:09.850 --> 01:52:31.239 John Compton: Having said that, I'll vote for it, but I don't think it's necessary, but I don't think it's… Well, to give you an example, I almost got run over walking from the post office. Yeah, people… Why didn't you look both ways? And I guess, but as the cars are coming in at 30, 40 miles an hour, coming in off of Railroad Street, it's kind of hard to dodge around a blind corner. 780 01:52:31.240 --> 01:52:36.989 John Compton: And this individual was on a cell phone, a Grover, In a car, just… 781 01:52:37.090 --> 01:52:42.339 John Compton: Zooming on through, you know? There may be a nice traffic slowing down 782 01:52:42.930 --> 01:52:47.869 John Compton: implement at that point? My answer is, the… 783 01:52:48.030 --> 01:52:57.209 John Compton: bump. Bump. At the stop sign. People, you know, I think you find the general recommendation is not to do that, but on our 784 01:52:57.320 --> 01:53:15.269 John Compton: Small streets, low streets… People do not stop. That is very effective. And the complaint that I can't get over it is because it's going down, you gotta stop. Yeah, because I haven't stopped. Yeah, that's my thing. I think it makes a difference. If you really want to put those, that full… And I think, I think it's… 785 01:53:15.270 --> 01:53:22.549 John Compton: Anyway, go ahead. Yeah, I agree. All right, so we can… All right, we've got that one. Okay, second item. 786 01:53:23.650 --> 01:53:46.400 John Compton: Do we want to vote on this one, or no? Or do we? Okay. I remember raising mine. Okay, good. So where are… is there another piano coming up? No, but there's one more traffic safety problem. Okay. Consideration of new traffic calming speed bumps on Chestnut. Now, everybody knows that we have, 787 01:53:46.530 --> 01:54:01.729 John Compton: you know, the electronic signs, radar signs on Brown Chestnut. The one on Brown has been acting kind of crazy, and so Mary not been working. Mary has been talking to the PEC down at Radar Sign, and they're trying to… 788 01:54:01.830 --> 01:54:26.510 John Compton: I think we're gonna have to argue with those guys to give us a new sign for Brown. It's just totally erratic. We've got people driving down the road 80 miles an hour, according to the side. John might get close, but I never go over… I never go over a section. Okay, that was me in the car. It's way off. And it's not just the onesie or twosie, you know. 789 01:54:27.410 --> 01:54:52.299 John Compton: It seems to be happening quite frequently. But the chestnut Street Sign works, and it's consistent. And it's also not collecting data, probably? Yeah, it is. And so… and that's where we feel that there's enough data coming from the Chestnut street sign to say that it definitely warrants, not only a replacement of the speed bump that was there, Chestnut and… 790 01:54:52.300 --> 01:54:57.800 John Compton: You'll get that. But then we needed another one. We needed another one, kind of where the sign was. 791 01:54:57.860 --> 01:55:07.910 John Compton: But the data showed that about 30% of the cars coming through there are speeding. Yeah. Oh, wow. So, that's… 30%? 30%, yeah. What kind of speeds? 792 01:55:07.910 --> 01:55:22.859 John Compton: Up to… I think 40 was the highest. So, you gotta really accelerate there to get it. There's a lot of 25s to 35s. But I think there was a 40-some one person… Yeah. Because you saw it periodically. 793 01:55:22.860 --> 01:55:26.779 John Compton: But definitely, there. And also, and we've talked about this. 794 01:55:26.780 --> 01:55:44.209 John Compton: when you turn on to Chestnut, there is no, speed limit sign, so if you go straight on the call, you know, but when you turn over, there's nothing that says it's 50 miles an hour, so… Put it on the… put it on the maintenance, list. Okay. We'll be all set. Okay. Yeah. 795 01:55:45.000 --> 01:56:09.830 John Compton: Yeah, but we have a budget for that. How about we never get any stats? We were supposed to get all these… all this information from those… Well, we just gave you. Yeah, so the 80 and 40 miles an hour, like, so, no, seriously. 80 is incorrect, that signed count. I can… I can print it off for you. I'm running. It doesn't show up on the… on the screen. Actually, I mean… It needs to adjust to 1 mile an hour, so… 796 01:56:09.830 --> 01:56:11.560 John Compton: Anything to say about it? Yeah. 797 01:56:11.560 --> 01:56:14.469 John Compton: She would probably damage that one on… 798 01:56:14.470 --> 01:56:22.359 John Compton: Brown. On brown. First of all, you got… it's… So, if you're going 16 miles per hour. 799 01:56:22.360 --> 01:56:36.289 John Compton: Oh, yeah. It goes into it, slow down, slow down time. Yeah, yeah. Guys, the speed limit is 15 miles an hour. If you want it to be 20, then change it to 20, but 15 miles an hour, I mean… I can make that motion, alright. 800 01:56:36.290 --> 01:56:40.590 John Compton: It used to be 25 back in the day. I mean, if you want to enforce 801 01:56:40.620 --> 01:56:52.880 John Compton: 15? Is that what you… Right, but it's not your… your, the awareness is 50 miles an hour. That's really what you want, is the awareness is 50. And that's what the sign does. 802 01:56:53.140 --> 01:57:09.239 John Compton: No, it says slow down, or something. Too fast. Too fast. Too fast, whatever it says. Please send smiley. I changed it. Smiley face. What do you change it to? This means you? John? 803 01:57:09.240 --> 01:57:22.140 John Compton: So, with that, too, you know, to kind of speed things up a little bit, but we want to also move the one on Chestnut. Right. Right? Right. We're thinking about moving it to someplace on Grove. Grove Adn, in Grove Road. Grove. 804 01:57:22.270 --> 01:57:25.409 John Compton: Oh, boy, you wanna… you wanna get a real… 805 01:57:26.090 --> 01:57:37.730 John Compton: information load? Put one on Ridge. Yeah. Well, as soon as we get the Brown Street fix, that's where… Yeah, because, we've got some notorious… 806 01:57:38.120 --> 01:57:48.850 John Compton: But the bumps don't seem to slow down… Hurry up and stop. …low down. Yeah. The bumps don't really seem to slow people down. They do, but then it will go very fast in between them. 807 01:57:49.210 --> 01:58:04.750 John Compton: Across… yeah, that one does. The one that… the farthest… the temp… the one that's not a asphalt, that one does. Yeah. Great. That one is… is great. It's very effective. Yeah. People really don't like to be shutting things up. 808 01:58:04.820 --> 01:58:20.930 John Compton: I think so. So the motion is… or… is this a motion for… No, it was mostly a motion. We have to do it, so the council has to approve it? If so, I'd like to make a motion that we put a speed bump. 809 01:58:21.130 --> 01:58:30.530 John Compton: On chestnut. No. What? No, we don't… that's your thing, is moving around. That's what we bothered, we had kind of… No, not… no, putting seed bumps on Chestnut. 810 01:58:32.220 --> 01:58:36.190 John Compton: You need to learn, just do it. We don't need a motion for that, right? 811 01:58:36.650 --> 01:58:38.719 John Compton: It's usually a good idea. 812 01:58:39.310 --> 01:58:47.970 John Compton: Can I add something to that for traffic coming? We'll put them both the same thing. We need to repaint 813 01:58:48.430 --> 01:58:59.690 John Compton: all of our stripes at the stop sign, that psychologically makes a huge difference. Yeah, and we… yeah, so if we… why don't we add that to it? So the next road contract. 814 01:58:59.780 --> 01:59:02.649 John Compton: Where we always end up… Yeah. Restriping. 815 01:59:02.670 --> 01:59:22.159 John Compton: Or we can do… No, we didn't do it the last one. Yes, we did. I may have missed a few, we may have missed a few, but… there's a lot of no… No, no, only where we worked, we did the… Oh, I don't know. No, it wasn't a general read. Oh, yeah, there's a lot of places… A lot of general read? 816 01:59:22.160 --> 01:59:26.520 John Compton: No, no, not repainting. A lot of places, there's no line at all. 817 01:59:26.710 --> 01:59:36.779 John Compton: Trust me. Is that maintenance, or is that… is that road? I'll tell you what. No, maintenance, right? Can we have… RJ could do that, right? 818 01:59:36.780 --> 01:59:50.589 John Compton: Oh, it's not painted. They put down the mat that was… Yeah. …that they put down on the ground and sticks to the asphalt. Oh, could RJ do that? RJ could do that, or we should get a professional, or whatever. 819 01:59:51.450 --> 01:59:55.780 John Compton: You could paint them and do it that way, but those mats last 820 01:59:55.980 --> 02:00:00.900 John Compton: A long time. But, yeah, I bet we're not going to do our roads for quite a while. 821 02:00:00.990 --> 02:00:06.389 John Compton: Right, probably. Yeah, you think so? If you want to make a list, Mary's the roads person. 822 02:00:06.390 --> 02:00:26.239 John Compton: Okay. Of all the ones you want to put stripes. Road Scholar. We can get a quote. It wasn't cheap, it was like a thousand bucks each intersection. Well, maybe we should use the tracking device, right? And put all the streets in there, and then we could then… 823 02:00:26.500 --> 02:00:33.350 John Compton: Consolidate and figure out how many stripes we need, and then try to get a cost. 824 02:00:33.870 --> 02:00:37.789 John Compton: If we put it in Anna's tracking system. 825 02:00:37.790 --> 02:00:54.780 John Compton: Yeah, well, if we're gonna do it in the spring, why don't we… I would just do it all at once, because the company that does that, that, that's what they specialize to realize. Right, but no matter when we do it, you need to identify all the lines. Yeah, yeah. Where lines are needed, where we need it, where… Yeah. 826 02:00:54.780 --> 02:01:08.110 John Compton: I have a list right here. So, are we buying speed bumps? What? Do we need to approve them? Can we approve the… can we approve the speed bump? I think we need to propose exactly where it's gonna go, and to do that, you need to… 827 02:01:08.310 --> 02:01:24.169 John Compton: this is from past experience, you need to, inform… The residents? Nearby residents. Some will jump up and down and say, fantastic, what took so long? But you may run into those who… 828 02:01:24.420 --> 02:01:40.379 John Compton: And then what do you… Well, then it's a matter of decision, you know. Well, I would propose… I guess it makes sense to put it where the speed… speed sign is now pretty close to it, which is about the middle of… Okay, that's that first block. First block, yeah. 829 02:01:41.500 --> 02:01:49.950 John Compton: So, why don't we have a motion, and like we do with other things, keep this open for a month, and get feedback. I would move to put a speed bump 830 02:01:50.300 --> 02:01:53.659 John Compton: At, chestnut, halfway down the road. 831 02:01:54.000 --> 02:02:09.900 John Compton: So as long as we're doing it, is that the only place where we want to do it? Like, any place on Brown Street, or… I mean, I can tell you, people speed down Brown Street, you can… that we don't have the data there. Here's what we used to… what we… over the… 832 02:02:10.820 --> 02:02:17.170 John Compton: Over the years have, evolved as… as the trigger… the triggering event. 833 02:02:17.290 --> 02:02:19.870 John Compton: the residents… 834 02:02:20.320 --> 02:02:28.580 John Compton: on that street need to support a speed bump. Because if they don't support it, then they must not feel it's a problem. 835 02:02:29.320 --> 02:02:36.619 John Compton: And if they don't feel it's a problem, you know, for somebody across town, just because they were walking there and thought somebody was going too fast. 836 02:02:37.320 --> 02:02:38.200 John Compton: you know. 837 02:02:38.720 --> 02:02:50.279 John Compton: It's… it's hard to, you know, every… everybody out there wants a speed bump on your street, and you say, oh… But they requested the sign on their street. Yes. The speed sign. 838 02:02:50.280 --> 02:03:01.910 John Compton: Well, we talked to them about putting them when we flooded the location, yeah. Well, I guess that's what we have to do, is just… Yeah, so what's a defer for next month, and then we'll talk to all the residents up and down. We already know. 839 02:03:02.200 --> 02:03:06.229 John Compton: Good points from 2. I think… I still think that's the… 840 02:03:06.490 --> 02:03:11.710 John Compton: Best way to get the most buy-in for any of these. 841 02:03:12.090 --> 02:03:20.160 John Compton: kind of decision. So, question, we have… we have the speed bump at, at the park. 842 02:03:20.410 --> 02:03:21.770 John Compton: a River Park. 843 02:03:21.880 --> 02:03:27.440 John Compton: Where it's 5 miles an hour. That's a good one. Why don't we… 844 02:03:28.390 --> 02:03:35.790 John Compton: Is that one 5 miles because there's a walkway right there? No, it's because if you go over it much faster, you… 845 02:03:36.050 --> 02:04:00.680 John Compton: Alright, so why don't we use those type of speed bumps? Well, now you're talking about what speed bumps we put in. I would say… I agree. That design, that's the same one that's over on Ridge Road. They've proven that's effective. Effective for many people. You could still fly over them, but, you know, but it's, you know… 846 02:04:00.680 --> 02:04:08.190 John Compton: It's a really reckless person who would do that. Yeah, it's an awareness issue. Add that to my… that's specific. 847 02:04:08.200 --> 02:04:09.420 John Compton: bumped that she said. 848 02:04:09.500 --> 02:04:10.490 John Compton: Yeah. 849 02:04:10.880 --> 02:04:18.399 John Compton: Okay. Okay. So we'll table that for next month, then? Yeah, and then you'll come back. The proposal is to put the bump. 850 02:04:18.900 --> 02:04:22.379 John Compton: They're on the first coffee. We'll come back and… 851 02:04:23.010 --> 02:04:25.020 John Compton: Maybe not a good time, but… 852 02:04:25.560 --> 02:04:43.750 John Compton: I'm not gonna be here next month, so… Okay, what's next, Chris? That's it. He's out of it. That was it? Wow. All right, the next item on unfinished business is the easement to Montgomery County. We took that off the agenda until next month. 853 02:04:44.060 --> 02:04:58.300 John Compton: The next item is the ordinance authorizing the driveway access easement for the owners of 503 Macaulay. I, late today, I put into the materials folder the, 854 02:04:58.320 --> 02:05:10.099 John Compton: The signed easements by… by… by the Challstrom, Charlie's still here, and the settlement agreement, both of which are part of the… part and parcel of this ordinance. 855 02:05:10.320 --> 02:05:18.790 John Compton: And, they, are to be held, and, and we will sign it once the Council 856 02:05:19.030 --> 02:05:31.660 John Compton: Actions are… are, finalized, until then to, to finish this whole, 857 02:05:32.470 --> 02:05:37.920 John Compton: matter off. So, what we have… what the… the… 858 02:05:39.250 --> 02:05:44.080 John Compton: Ordinance has already been introduced. That's why we had a public hearing on it. 859 02:05:44.330 --> 02:05:51.210 John Compton: Now we have discussion. Any further discussion on this ordinance? The language has been minorly tweaked. 860 02:05:51.350 --> 02:06:07.189 John Compton: in… not the ordinance itself, but in the settlement agreement, I believe. There's a few word changes in the easement, but nothing material. It's now to the satisfaction of Suellen, representing the town. 861 02:06:07.320 --> 02:06:12.790 John Compton: And, tag Hutchinson representing… and my Challstrom's. 862 02:06:13.120 --> 02:06:18.980 John Compton: So what you're voting on is that final… Versions. 863 02:06:19.980 --> 02:06:21.489 John Compton: So, any discussion? 864 02:06:23.150 --> 02:06:27.679 John Compton: Okay. You said you put something in the file this afternoon? I did. 865 02:06:30.080 --> 02:06:32.000 John Compton: And it is… 866 02:06:32.410 --> 02:06:40.209 John Compton: Oh, or did I… did I put it in the… I might have just put it in mine. If that's the case, I apologize. 867 02:06:40.570 --> 02:06:46.850 John Compton: I call a signed agreements. Yes, the signed… it's signed agreements. 868 02:06:47.130 --> 02:06:48.249 John Compton: Where is it? 869 02:06:48.390 --> 02:06:54.690 John Compton: I may not be, I'm moving it, as you, as we speak. Oh. 870 02:06:55.610 --> 02:06:59.740 John Compton: I think I'm moving it, but this thing is behaving really hard. 871 02:07:05.270 --> 02:07:12.460 John Compton: Okay, I'll be moving it. All it is, is the same. There's nothing… Nothing new, new to see the… 872 02:07:12.580 --> 02:07:16.529 John Compton: I'll be sure it's in there. I don't know why, and it's just refusing to move. 873 02:07:19.210 --> 02:07:22.050 John Compton: I can… I can't move anything, you know. 874 02:07:23.590 --> 02:07:24.250 John Compton: I guess. 875 02:07:24.990 --> 02:07:30.229 John Compton: I mean, basically, we voted for everything that it's called for, right? Yes. 876 02:07:30.370 --> 02:07:32.039 John Compton: So we just have to finalize it. 877 02:07:34.140 --> 02:07:39.409 John Compton: We voted for the funds, and it's done. Right, we did promise that. Yeah, I really should have. 878 02:07:40.450 --> 02:07:42.239 John Compton: How do I know it's not there? 879 02:07:43.510 --> 02:07:47.819 John Compton: Public chatting, and what… oh, I on purpose, didn't put it in there, that's what I said. 880 02:07:48.670 --> 02:07:49.790 John Compton: Alright. 881 02:07:49.900 --> 02:07:56.979 John Compton: So we have to vote? I would like a motion. Yes, we're now at a point of calling the question. 882 02:07:57.040 --> 02:08:10.360 John Compton: of voting on this ordinance. I want to make a motion to approve the… fill in the blanks. I don't know what you call it exactly. I'll move my lips, but you say the ordinance. No, I don't… I don't… I'm not sure what you were. 883 02:08:10.760 --> 02:08:16.850 John Compton: I forgot what I was saying, because I'm still annoyed at this, hotel to approve this, these signed agreements for the Challsters. 884 02:08:17.220 --> 02:08:28.509 John Compton: That's all part of the ordinance. Once you ratify the ordinance, then that follows. Oh, so we need to ordinance them, that's all. Yes, the ordinance is 2026-12. 885 02:08:28.880 --> 02:08:33.700 John Compton: Motion to approve T26-12. 886 02:08:34.100 --> 02:08:48.720 John Compton: I'm busy trying to help today. Just because AI did that, okay, John? Yes, yeah. You resemble it. I moved on. In a half a second, I'll have it in where it ought to be. 887 02:08:49.010 --> 02:08:52.330 John Compton: This one, this one I can move it. Thank you very much. 888 02:08:52.590 --> 02:08:54.710 John Compton: Public hearing. 889 02:08:59.210 --> 02:09:05.900 John Compton: Nope. I'm sure. I know, of course I. Alrighty, so, that's… Let's move this on. 890 02:09:06.020 --> 02:09:08.129 John Compton: Okay, we're through with that. 891 02:09:08.610 --> 02:09:11.249 John Compton: Carol Apis. Still there? 892 02:09:11.700 --> 02:09:15.300 John Compton: Okay. 893 02:09:22.770 --> 02:09:40.160 John Compton: All right, so that, takes us to new business, and I hope somebody from the Playground Commission… Oh! And there's Oscar. Thank you guys, very patient, but I knew we were… had a fairly quick one. 894 02:09:40.160 --> 02:09:41.070 Charlie Challstrom: Excuse me, John. 895 02:09:41.070 --> 02:09:41.709 John Compton: Was… 896 02:09:41.710 --> 02:09:43.889 Charlie Challstrom: There… was there a vote? 897 02:09:44.940 --> 02:09:46.829 John Compton: Yes, it was, unanimate. 898 02:09:47.720 --> 02:09:48.120 Charlie Challstrom: Thank you. 899 02:09:48.120 --> 02:09:48.810 John Compton: of, you know. 900 02:09:48.810 --> 02:09:49.280 Charlie Challstrom: Thank you. 901 02:09:49.660 --> 02:09:55.989 John Compton: Sorry, I was looking at something else, and they were raising their hand. 902 02:09:56.430 --> 02:09:57.690 John Compton: Yes. 903 02:09:57.930 --> 02:10:04.510 John Compton: Okay, so, the big response to the Playground Renovation Modernization RFP, Oscar. 904 02:10:05.040 --> 02:10:07.690 Washington Grove Playground Committee: Okay, great. Thanks. Can I share my screen? 905 02:10:07.800 --> 02:10:08.580 Washington Grove Playground Committee: I'll do… 906 02:10:08.580 --> 02:10:11.859 John Compton: Oh, you can, if… Version can't. 907 02:10:11.860 --> 02:10:13.309 Washington Grove Playground Committee: Yeah, I see it. I got it. 908 02:10:13.650 --> 02:10:14.680 John Compton: You got it? You can do it. 909 02:10:15.010 --> 02:10:15.840 Washington Grove Playground Committee: Yeah. 910 02:10:15.840 --> 02:10:18.020 John Compton: Oh, good. Alright, there you go. 911 02:10:18.020 --> 02:10:21.409 Washington Grove Playground Committee: Alright, slideshow time! It's, 912 02:10:21.410 --> 02:10:44.890 Washington Grove Playground Committee: intimate crowd tonight, so for those of you who haven't been following this very closely, I'll give you an update of how we got here, what we want to do next, and so, yeah, bear with me, I'll try to make it quick. Yeah, so I'll give you, like, a quick rundown timeline to the present. I'll talk about the RFP bids, and then what we would like our next steps to be, in terms of water mitigation, and then, a new, basically, the punchline is, 913 02:10:44.890 --> 02:10:52.909 Washington Grove Playground Committee: we want to issue a new RFP. We'll get to that and talk about how that's going to fit in with, with future work. So, yeah, here we go. 914 02:10:52.930 --> 02:11:08.530 Washington Grove Playground Committee: just to remind people, because I know some people don't really know, you know, where the Playground Committee was formed, so, timeline, the Council voted to remove… it began with that metal jungle Gym, and, in January 2025, 915 02:11:08.570 --> 02:11:26.450 Washington Grove Playground Committee: We started a work group that eventually had a comprehensive plan that was approved in December last year. January of this year, we formed the Playground Committee, and we've been working on implementing the Playground Comprehensive Plan ever since. 916 02:11:26.580 --> 02:11:50.030 Washington Grove Playground Committee: the Council budgeted $30,000 for capital expenses for the previous fiscal year, and we held off on making any purchases because we were waiting for the outcome of a state grant, and then we learned that we received the state grant, and so then we didn't spend any of the $30,000. So, to date, no money has been spent on implementing the Playground Plan. 917 02:11:51.050 --> 02:12:07.320 Washington Grove Playground Committee: once we found out that we were receiving this $250,000 grant from Maryland, there was a request that we should produce a site plan, before the Council would approve for any… the purchase of any equipment. 918 02:12:07.390 --> 02:12:17.610 Washington Grove Playground Committee: And the site plan would include, all the specific placement of equipment and any kind of water mitigation. At that point, the committee said, well, if we need to be thinking about 919 02:12:17.630 --> 02:12:28.610 Washington Grove Playground Committee: water mitigation and all the designs and the drawings and the dimensions, then we need to have a professional firm handle this. And so. 920 02:12:28.850 --> 02:12:37.439 Washington Grove Playground Committee: by July, we had a, the approval to issue an RFP, and so we issued the RFP to have firms produce 921 02:12:37.440 --> 02:13:02.200 Washington Grove Playground Committee: a design for the whole playground, and then proposed equipment that could take the comprehensive plan and implement it. And so we received the bids, I guess 10 days ago. We received the bids, and we were underwhelmed. We received two bids. There was one firm in Washington, D.C, that did some really nice natural-based designs that we had 922 02:13:02.200 --> 02:13:15.839 Washington Grove Playground Committee: spoken with quite a bit throughout this whole process, and they knew the budget, they knew what we were going for, they visited the playground, they said they were going to bid, and we were in contact through the bidding window, and at the end, they didn't. 923 02:13:15.910 --> 02:13:22.460 Washington Grove Playground Committee: And so, we got bids from two companies. You can see that these are images from the bids themselves. 924 02:13:23.660 --> 02:13:30.689 Washington Grove Playground Committee: We don't think that this… that the designs they proposed matches the aesthetic of the Grove. 925 02:13:30.690 --> 02:13:52.130 Washington Grove Playground Committee: and what we're going for. We want a playground that feels like the Grove. And if we're going to spend this money, even though it's grant money, so it's technically not even town funds, we don't want to spend any money on bids that don't produce a design that fits in with the character of the Grove. And so I followed up with, 926 02:13:52.270 --> 02:14:10.579 Washington Grove Playground Committee: the DC firm, and Lauren Wheeler, the woman in charge of the firm, said, the budget was too… wasn't high enough, and the window was too constrained. And so it was a surprise to me, because we'd been in touch for most of the process. 927 02:14:10.680 --> 02:14:15.559 Washington Grove Playground Committee: So, that's where we are right now. We're not going to follow up with, 928 02:14:15.980 --> 02:14:35.159 Washington Grove Playground Committee: move forward with either one of these bids. It just doesn't… it's not a good match for us. And so, where we go from here is there's still that question of the water mitigation. And we think that trying to have a firm that addresses the water mitigation and the entire design for the whole playground and the equipment, it's just not feasible. 929 02:14:35.500 --> 02:14:55.699 Washington Grove Playground Committee: So, we'd like to go back to the… to proceeding with that… that gradual manner, that we had tried earlier. And so, what we would like to do is have the town take on the… whatever water mitigation plan for the playground spaces outside of the perimeter play areas, 930 02:14:55.700 --> 02:15:10.680 Washington Grove Playground Committee: we'd like the town to handle that, and the Playground Committee will focus on the equipment purchase and installation in those playground zones. I spoke with Steve Wertz today. I mean, we all know that Steve is the expert, you know, on the… on… 931 02:15:10.750 --> 02:15:26.249 Washington Grove Playground Committee: on everything related to the playground, what's under the equipment, the drainage that's been built up. And, we spoke this afternoon, he says that he doesn't think there's much of a standing water issue to begin with at all. You know, with the exception of the grass. 932 02:15:26.250 --> 02:15:32.729 Washington Grove Playground Committee: Outside of the horse swing, you know, kind of going to the back, near the… 933 02:15:32.950 --> 02:15:50.809 Washington Grove Playground Committee: the ditches, he said he thought that's really the only place where we might have some standing water every now and then. I think we could also add the space around the metal jungle gym. Otherwise, there's not that big of a water issue. And so, I said, I told Steve, well, what do you think about this? You know. 934 02:15:51.120 --> 02:16:08.940 Washington Grove Playground Committee: Our playground plan calls for the installation of a large playset near Zone 1, which is where the small metal slide is. That's a perimeter area, and there's really no standing water there, so if we just replace that equipment as the playground 935 02:16:09.060 --> 02:16:33.480 Washington Grove Playground Committee: plan calls for with a new piece of equipment in that spot, that's already been built up for drainage. And he said, yeah, it makes sense. And I said, well, and then there's the wooden fort that's also in a perimeter play area, and we could replace that with another smaller playset. And that's not introducing Playground into the grass area where we would need to do any kind of drainage. 936 02:16:33.480 --> 02:16:52.439 Washington Grove Playground Committee: Those two particular spots are already designed for drainage, so it seems like we could do a pretty quick RFP. The same RFP document that we have that strips out all the complicated base tasks and optional tasks, it's the same document that just says, we want two pieces of equipment. 937 02:16:52.440 --> 02:16:58.170 Washington Grove Playground Committee: In these two zones, a large playset and a small playset, and get bids on those. 938 02:16:58.770 --> 02:17:15.940 Washington Grove Playground Committee: And he said, well, that makes sense. So, I was glad to hear that, so I'm relating that to you today. So, what we think we could do in a more gradual way would be issue a new version of the same RFP, a lot of the same, you know, legal language. 939 02:17:16.040 --> 02:17:22.199 Washington Grove Playground Committee: The same format, it's just instead of all the different base tasks and the optional tasks, It is just… 940 02:17:22.199 --> 02:17:45.079 Washington Grove Playground Committee: a large piece of equipment for Zone 1, a smaller piece of equipment for Zone 5. You know, we definitely do want to have seating and benches, but if it's under $5,000, we don't need the RFP for that. And so, you know, we could do that as we like. And that could be Phase 1. We could turn around on that pretty quickly if you just approve tonight. 941 02:17:45.349 --> 02:18:02.519 Washington Grove Playground Committee: And then, in the meantime, once we get the RFP rolling, we can start thinking about, well, what kind of water mitigation do we need to do? Steve doesn't think it's a big problem to begin with. We can start thinking about the design for the Village Circle, so we can… we can have a few… a few things moving, 942 02:18:02.829 --> 02:18:26.729 Washington Grove Playground Committee: design for the build circle, we can start looking at restoration services for the horse swing and that metal horse structure, because they need to be restored. We could also be thinking about the accessibility path, and the reason why I think we shouldn't do the accessibility path in this first phase one is because if there is any kind of water mitigation, we want to make sure we handle that before we build up an accessibility path 943 02:18:26.759 --> 02:18:32.159 Washington Grove Playground Committee: That could otherwise act as a dam with water that's running off of the basketball court. 944 02:18:32.319 --> 02:18:55.479 Washington Grove Playground Committee: And then once we have that accessibility path set, then we kind of format the spaces in the playground, and we can think about, well, now where can the train go? Where can the smaller pieces of equipment go once we have the path that runs through it? It just seems like that's a… that's a missing piece before we can start to add other equipment. But the need for the path really doesn't preclude us from 945 02:18:55.769 --> 02:19:13.589 Washington Grove Playground Committee: installing the equipment in the perimeter spaces that already exist there. So, like, the big structure and the small structure, we could do that pretty soon. And all those other phases can then proceed later on. So that's where we would like to move ahead, at this stage here. So, yeah, our request for tonight is, 946 02:19:13.799 --> 02:19:30.089 Washington Grove Playground Committee: that we agree that we move forward on addressing the water mitigation in-house, instead of having an RFP for a firm that comes in and does that. Let's tap into the knowledge that we have. You know, Steve knows a whole lot. Evan Whalen also knows a lot about, 947 02:19:30.259 --> 02:19:46.779 Washington Grove Playground Committee: native plants and other things that we can do to increase the amount of water absorption that we have in the playground. So, there's a lot that we can do in town without going for an RFP for that, and then that would free up the Playground Committee to issue a much more limited RFP for those two pieces of equipment. 948 02:19:46.779 --> 02:19:57.699 Washington Grove Playground Committee: to be placed into the spaces that are already built up for drainage. And then we can work on the other things, like the water mitigation in the grass areas that would then culminate with, 949 02:19:57.699 --> 02:20:03.789 Washington Grove Playground Committee: the accessibility path, and the smaller pieces. So, that's the update and the request for us tonight. 950 02:20:06.370 --> 02:20:10.020 John Compton: Alright, thanks, Oscar. I'd like to make a motion to accept there. 951 02:20:10.190 --> 02:20:12.020 John Compton: Proposal? No, secondly. 952 02:20:13.180 --> 02:20:26.380 John Compton: So, I would just like to ask, Steve, if you have anything to add in terms of the water mitigation piece. If that's okay, John. I didn't say… oh, sure. I didn't say anything about the monkey bars, but the rest of it… 953 02:20:26.450 --> 02:20:37.900 John Compton: Three years ago, I think it was, RJ and I transited the whole area. There's just little low spots. 954 02:20:38.010 --> 02:20:51.900 John Compton: Maybe 2 inches, whatever. It's not a water problem there, where all the playground equipment is now, before he's undrained to it. So, let's talk about putting these two pieces in. 955 02:20:51.930 --> 02:20:58.849 John Compton: I don't see any problem as far as water problems in those areas. It suggests what's wrong, but it's a… 956 02:20:59.450 --> 02:21:10.460 John Compton: So, like I said, as far as the multi bars, I didn't say anything about that, but I did tell him that there is no problem, and he was talking about the train, and I told him… 957 02:21:10.460 --> 02:21:23.230 John Compton: when they do decide to put the train in, not to put it horizontal with the ditch, because all the work's gonna come down, and then it's gonna be able to… you know, it'll end up being a pond, because 958 02:21:23.230 --> 02:21:30.350 John Compton: Your train has, 6x6s or 4x4s that I said, by total turnout. 959 02:21:30.450 --> 02:21:38.170 John Compton: the opposite direction, so it's facing the trail. And that way you don't have the problem of all the water coming down, hitting it. 960 02:21:38.170 --> 02:21:57.480 John Compton: It'll never get to the drainage. So what would happen after these first few pieces were in? That's up to them, what… where they go on from there. I told them the worst area is, that does hold a lot of water, is… 961 02:21:57.700 --> 02:22:01.969 John Compton: Closer to the top, where we put that little… 962 02:22:02.310 --> 02:22:18.840 John Compton: This? That F&B wanted to put in. There's the little 4C swings in there. Okay. That's the only area that really holds water, from the seesaws to that woods area. That holds a lot of water. 963 02:22:18.910 --> 02:22:30.870 John Compton: In that area. But the rest of the playground doesn't hold much water until you get on the top side of the boat. Once you get on the other side of the boat, then you're having a lot of water problems. 964 02:22:30.950 --> 02:22:32.240 John Compton: Thank you, Shane. 965 02:22:33.070 --> 02:22:34.310 John Compton: No, we just have to ask. 966 02:22:36.580 --> 02:22:44.229 John Compton: Yep. To accept the, proposed… Recommendation. Okay, now, Mayor. 967 02:22:46.410 --> 02:22:49.420 John Compton: Anybody else have any comment on this? 968 02:22:49.980 --> 02:22:52.599 John Compton: Proposal, because I do. Yeah. 969 02:22:53.130 --> 02:22:58.120 John Compton: I'm sorry I'm hearing about this for the first time, and I… 970 02:22:58.870 --> 02:23:03.120 John Compton: It's not that… I mean, clearly, the bids received 971 02:23:03.260 --> 02:23:12.460 John Compton: And we're not responsive in the way the Playground Committee hopes, then presumably Council will absolutely agree with that. 972 02:23:12.780 --> 02:23:20.459 John Compton: So, the proposal to move ahead is, much more to my liking. 973 02:23:20.770 --> 02:23:24.240 John Compton: In that it addresses… the site. 974 02:23:24.770 --> 02:23:27.830 John Compton: At least with respect to drainage. 975 02:23:28.260 --> 02:23:36.020 John Compton: Using some in-house expertise that we have, and, can probably be done 976 02:23:36.230 --> 02:23:40.029 John Compton: Quite adequately, and nobody should hesitate to 977 02:23:40.160 --> 02:23:44.950 John Compton: I think, you know, it's not just a matter of raking the dirt around or putting in a… 978 02:23:45.020 --> 02:24:01.520 John Compton: a pipe. If you want to raise the whole thing up half a foot, it might have it. I'm just making that up. Whatever, to make sure the site is adequate for… that… that could be part of the ensuring that the water drainage issues that we've seen 979 02:24:01.810 --> 02:24:04.120 John Compton: Or become non-issues. 980 02:24:04.670 --> 02:24:08.770 John Compton: What bothers me about your proposal again, guys, is… 981 02:24:09.390 --> 02:24:18.100 John Compton: for some reason, you haven't proposed what I would… what is called by the planning board a site plan. 982 02:24:18.770 --> 02:24:36.659 John Compton: they do a preliminary plan. A developer comes with a preliminary plan where they say what they would like to build, they kind of lay it out, and here's what we're going to do, these sorts of things, and and the, 983 02:24:36.830 --> 02:24:41.919 John Compton: The capacity of the development is approved in the preliminary plan. 984 02:24:42.240 --> 02:24:45.889 John Compton: The exact position of everything? 985 02:24:46.590 --> 02:24:48.660 John Compton: Is in the site plan. 986 02:24:48.770 --> 02:24:51.209 John Compton: And the site plan is a layout. 987 02:24:51.230 --> 02:25:10.039 John Compton: It shows where the sidewalks are going to be. It shows where the accessibility path would be, it shows where the benches would be. It literally lays out the plan, not that you're going to execute it all at once, because site plans aren't… are usually then executed 988 02:25:10.040 --> 02:25:11.499 John Compton: If they're very… 989 02:25:11.710 --> 02:25:19.040 John Compton: large, or even moderately large, in phases. And it seems to me that if you had a site plan. 990 02:25:19.610 --> 02:25:31.770 John Compton: And at one point, you… this woman, whatever her name, Lauren, you mentioned her again in your… had proposed for $25,000 doing, basically, a site plan. 991 02:25:32.450 --> 02:25:38.520 John Compton: That, I think, still is, by far and away, the appropriate first step. 992 02:25:38.780 --> 02:25:43.769 John Compton: Because once you have that, once you have the site prepared, water. 993 02:25:44.600 --> 02:25:58.019 John Compton: is an issue, we know that. Once you've agreed with the designer, the site planner, where everything's going to be, the paths or whatever, then it's just a matter of executing that. 994 02:25:58.370 --> 02:26:16.469 John Compton: And yeah, you might want to get bids and proposals exactly the nature of the equipment, but you know exactly where it's going to go, or exactly where… which area might need a little bit of adjustment. You know, there's always room for a little bit of jiggering, depending on the specifics, but 995 02:26:16.510 --> 02:26:21.069 John Compton: Without that, you, you run the danger of 996 02:26:21.280 --> 02:26:28.939 John Compton: Doing some installations, and then discovering that you can't really do everything you wanted to do. 997 02:26:29.060 --> 02:26:30.480 John Compton: Because… 998 02:26:30.600 --> 02:26:40.140 John Compton: You didn't plan everything appropriately to understand how you could get everything you wanted, or what you had to give up. I have a question. 999 02:26:40.140 --> 02:26:48.549 Washington Grove Playground Committee: Is that what we did when we got the huge, the metal dome with the ropes and the suspended swing, and the seesaw? 1000 02:26:50.140 --> 02:26:52.510 John Compton: I'm so… I'm sorry, I don't… I'm… 1001 02:26:53.810 --> 02:26:56.240 John Compton: But what I'm talking about doesn't address 1002 02:26:56.870 --> 02:27:02.579 John Compton: you have what I call a preliminary plan in the comprehensive plan. The Playground comprehensive. 1003 02:27:02.580 --> 02:27:03.010 Washington Grove Playground Committee: No, I' 1004 02:27:03.520 --> 02:27:14.830 Washington Grove Playground Committee: I'm asking, what was the process that we used when we bought that? Because those are fairly recent pieces, like, last 15 years or so. The two wood seesaws, and then the big metal dome. 1005 02:27:14.830 --> 02:27:18.420 John Compton: What it costs in the past? 1006 02:27:18.420 --> 02:27:20.430 Washington Grove Playground Committee: No, what was the process that did… 1007 02:27:20.620 --> 02:27:20.960 John Compton: Yeah. 1008 02:27:20.960 --> 02:27:24.019 Washington Grove Playground Committee: They do the plan and the site plan and all that. 1009 02:27:24.020 --> 02:27:31.020 John Compton: Oh, no, no, no, no, no. Back then, the Playground Committee, which was formed on… 1010 02:27:31.700 --> 02:27:38.139 John Compton: upon interest, and… and, agreement by the Council to spend money. 1011 02:27:38.340 --> 02:27:49.300 John Compton: On… that we needed a new piece of equipment. So they agreed to look into a new piece of equipment. They identified one, and they asked that here's where we want to put it. 1012 02:27:49.680 --> 02:27:52.130 John Compton: That… and then it got approved. 1013 02:27:52.270 --> 02:27:57.719 John Compton: It was literally a piecemeal thing, but, like, we do, like, one of those 1014 02:27:58.280 --> 02:28:00.769 John Compton: Every 7 or 8 years. 1015 02:28:01.260 --> 02:28:04.299 John Compton: If I had to go back, and maybe even less frequently. 1016 02:28:04.460 --> 02:28:22.720 John Compton: And so it wasn't anything resembling the comprehensive makeover, which we all agree would be fantastic, and for which we have a good portion of the funds for a comprehensive makeover. It's… my… my thought is that if the site 1017 02:28:23.670 --> 02:28:28.630 John Compton: Location of ev- of everything you can think of that you would love. 1018 02:28:29.020 --> 02:28:33.679 John Compton: In, in, in, in, in cooperation with a designer. 1019 02:28:34.270 --> 02:28:46.060 John Compton: who could help you out with things that, you know, you might overlook. Get a professional. Here's the actual measurements where we would put these enclosures and everything else. 1020 02:28:46.190 --> 02:28:54.629 John Compton: And yes, you could say, you know, we had in mind these sorts of agreements, so this enclosure is the bigger one, and here's the smaller one, and here's the one we think will, you know. 1021 02:28:54.790 --> 02:29:01.670 John Compton: All of which are still, still, suggested by the site plan. 1022 02:29:02.030 --> 02:29:05.949 John Compton: And then move forward, and then it becomes an easy matter of… 1023 02:29:06.750 --> 02:29:18.180 John Compton: acquire in an easy matter. What I mean is… you've already created the guidelines to, to produce… to put the equipment in the facility. 1024 02:29:18.500 --> 02:29:19.920 John Compton: But without that… 1025 02:29:19.920 --> 02:29:36.120 Washington Grove Playground Committee: Where we went in circles last time, because, you know, when… the benefit of working with a company that would do the site plan, the equipment procurement, was that they could develop the site plan with the specific equipment in mind, and that was the benefit of working with a company. 1026 02:29:37.210 --> 02:29:48.680 Washington Grove Playground Committee: the budget wasn't high enough for them, and so they just didn't bid. And so the idea of having a company that gives all the specific places where the specific equipment's gonna go, they're going to have to then choose the specific equipment. 1027 02:29:48.860 --> 02:29:50.099 Washington Grove Playground Committee: To then do that. 1028 02:29:50.630 --> 02:29:52.490 Washington Grove Playground Committee: To tell us where they're gonna go. 1029 02:29:53.870 --> 02:29:54.570 John Compton: What? 1030 02:29:55.480 --> 02:30:00.340 John Compton: I'm not sure what the… I'm not sure why that's a puncture. 1031 02:30:00.340 --> 02:30:08.900 Washington Grove Playground Committee: They're gonna give us a design and tell us all the specific places that very specific pieces of equipment are gonna go. 1032 02:30:11.900 --> 02:30:13.659 John Compton: So you're saying it's like a chicken and an egg? 1033 02:30:13.660 --> 02:30:21.959 Washington Grove Playground Committee: It is, it is, and so that was what we just tried. We tried to go with a company that could deliver the design for the entire playground. 1034 02:30:22.220 --> 02:30:24.709 Washington Grove Playground Committee: Working with their equipment people. 1035 02:30:24.920 --> 02:30:28.790 Washington Grove Playground Committee: To show us the specific equipment, where it's gonna go, and they didn't bid. 1036 02:30:29.890 --> 02:30:36.679 John Compton: Right. And in fact, not only did it not dig, but they said, $250,000 is not enough. Right. 1037 02:30:36.680 --> 02:30:37.220 Washington Grove Playground Committee: Yeah. 1038 02:30:37.410 --> 02:30:41.489 John Compton: Well, I wouldn't… did anybody here think $250,000 was enough? 1039 02:30:42.290 --> 02:30:44.090 John Compton: I certainly didn't. 1040 02:30:44.280 --> 02:30:51.499 John Compton: But I expected we would spend the grant, and then… Execute the remaining parts. 1041 02:30:51.760 --> 02:30:57.709 John Compton: in… by budgeting annually what we could budget. Yeah, but you need a company… 1042 02:30:57.710 --> 02:30:58.150 Washington Grove Playground Committee: Yeah, tell us. 1043 02:30:58.150 --> 02:30:59.780 John Compton: The town was feeling really good about it. 1044 02:30:59.780 --> 02:31:23.960 Washington Grove Playground Committee: go in the various spots until they tell us, they've got to make decisions on which piece of equipment they're going to purchase. And so there's a lot of discussion over that particular equipment that's going to go there, and they declined to do that, so we don't have a design based off specific equipment. We're going to do RFPs based off companies that have the kind of equipment that we're looking for, and then we'll select that piece, and then we'll work with the company to 1045 02:31:23.960 --> 02:31:31.279 Washington Grove Playground Committee: Make sure that they can customize and change the, you know, the footprints of them. 1046 02:31:31.280 --> 02:31:32.350 Washington Grove Playground Committee: Or do they have options for the footprint? 1047 02:31:32.350 --> 02:31:34.950 John Compton: And all of… oh, Oscar, I, I… 1048 02:31:34.950 --> 02:31:37.000 Washington Grove Playground Committee: It goes into the space that we have. 1049 02:31:37.150 --> 02:31:53.319 Washington Grove Playground Committee: we have the spaces already, we just need to find the piece of equipment that will fit those spaces, that have the aesthetics, and we have a lot of companies that we can work with now that aren't doing the whole comprehensive design. They have equipment of various sizes that would fit the spaces that we have. 1050 02:31:54.750 --> 02:31:55.070 John Compton: I… 1051 02:31:55.600 --> 02:32:01.720 John Compton: I don't know, I guess I viewed the layout from the comprehensive plan a little bit differently than your 1052 02:32:02.520 --> 02:32:14.300 John Compton: your… what you just expressed, and that is that the… I don't know, there were 10 enclosures with, with a concept use for each of them. 1053 02:32:14.470 --> 02:32:14.930 Washington Grove Playground Committee: Yeah. 1054 02:32:14.930 --> 02:32:26.250 John Compton: And so… and all of which provides a significant guidance as to how to modernize the playground. 1055 02:32:26.250 --> 02:32:26.840 Washington Grove Playground Committee: Yeah. 1056 02:32:27.110 --> 02:32:40.899 John Compton: Alright, so now… The question is, what else needs to be done to establish those enclosures in, you know. 1057 02:32:41.280 --> 02:32:44.839 John Compton: So they're not… they're not just rectangles on a drawing. 1058 02:32:44.840 --> 02:32:45.420 Washington Grove Playground Committee: Here's a. 1059 02:32:45.420 --> 02:32:49.210 John Compton: What they can do for us. Or what they are, or whatever. 1060 02:32:49.210 --> 02:32:55.549 Washington Grove Playground Committee: When we send in the bid, and they propose their equipment, they're gonna give us some diagrams of 1061 02:32:55.550 --> 02:33:10.530 Washington Grove Playground Committee: the footprint of the equipment. And if it's a company that we want to work with, we'll say, okay, this is what Zone 1 looks like. We'll send you the dimensions of Zone 1, those are the questions it can ask us. Give us some bids that fit into these specifications for this dimension. 1062 02:33:10.530 --> 02:33:26.589 Washington Grove Playground Committee: you know, for Zone 1. And they'll come… they'll give us the images of the equipment, and then we'll see the, like, the overhead, you know, dimensions of length and width, that will overlap with the dimensions that we give them. So, we'll have a sense of… 1063 02:33:26.590 --> 02:33:28.959 John Compton: How big the pieces are gonna be. 1064 02:33:28.960 --> 02:33:29.849 Washington Grove Playground Committee: And where they're gonna fit. 1065 02:33:29.850 --> 02:33:30.670 John Compton: green. 1066 02:33:30.670 --> 02:33:40.660 Washington Grove Playground Committee: So, I mean, so when they give us their bids, we'll know how that piece of equipment fits in with the space we have. The advantage is that we have 1067 02:33:40.980 --> 02:33:50.889 Washington Grove Playground Committee: We have the enclosed spaces, and when we give them that information, they'll know that they've got to give us a bid of equipment that they have that fits that space. 1068 02:33:51.390 --> 02:33:58.169 Washington Grove Playground Committee: So that we could then decide, okay, well, we like this design, because you've given us design that fits 1069 02:33:58.890 --> 02:34:01.140 Washington Grove Playground Committee: The dimensions of the space that we've given them. 1070 02:34:03.420 --> 02:34:08.919 John Compton: Didn't their plan lay out where they wanted everything, kind of in a total… 1071 02:34:09.170 --> 02:34:15.190 John Compton: Did anybody here actually expect a set of rectangular enclosure? 1072 02:34:16.920 --> 02:34:29.910 John Compton: I certainly do. Marking the spot. I expected that there would be 10 enclosures, containing… 1073 02:34:30.130 --> 02:34:38.929 John Compton: Equipment suitable to the uses that were proposed, the vision that was proposed for each of those. 1074 02:34:39.370 --> 02:34:55.669 John Compton: enclosures. The actual enclosure, as Oscar was just saying, really depends on what the piece of equipment… you have two choices. You either make an enclosure and whatever… you can't put anything in there that doesn't fit the enclosure, or you can't put more than 1075 02:34:55.820 --> 02:35:01.230 John Compton: whatever number of the things that will go in that don't fit the enclosure. Alternatively. 1076 02:35:01.400 --> 02:35:15.190 John Compton: you have… have the concept enclosure. Here's where this enclosure is, and you, you know, you ask an equipment company to say, you know, what can you put in this area? 1077 02:35:15.310 --> 02:35:20.290 John Compton: Not necessarily that shape, but that area that meets our needs. 1078 02:35:20.960 --> 02:35:22.329 Washington Grove Playground Committee: Yeah, so they can do that. 1079 02:35:22.330 --> 02:35:23.989 John Compton: I'll tell you exactly what they think. 1080 02:35:23.990 --> 02:35:27.500 Washington Grove Playground Committee: The RFP is that they have local reps that will visit the playground. 1081 02:35:27.780 --> 02:35:39.509 Washington Grove Playground Committee: They'll see the Playground, they'll take pictures of it, we send them pictures of it, and yeah, it may be that they'll see the, like, the Zone 1 space, and they'll say, okay, it's not a rectangular space, you know, it's kind. 1082 02:35:39.510 --> 02:35:41.310 John Compton: Or they'll say, if it was just a little bit… 1083 02:35:41.310 --> 02:35:47.250 Washington Grove Playground Committee: It might say that they want to produce a piece of equipment that fits into that space, or it might be that they'll propose equipment 1084 02:35:47.250 --> 02:36:05.250 Washington Grove Playground Committee: And when they give us the dimensions, it'll be a slightly bigger space, and part of what they're gonna do is build the ties, and then make sure they have the surface equipment. But that should come through with the RFP. You know, even the bids that we got that we didn't like, they had the designs that went with that, so when we… 1085 02:36:05.250 --> 02:36:05.570 John Compton: So… 1086 02:36:05.570 --> 02:36:22.279 Washington Grove Playground Committee: If we did want to move forward with one of these, we'd say we want to move forward because we've seen the prices, we've seen the designs, we've seen the footprints, so that we'd say we like this because this is the site plan that goes with it. They're giving us, in a sense, the site plan you're describing as part of their bids. We've got to get the bids for them to. 1087 02:36:22.280 --> 02:36:24.929 John Compton: Let me ask you a question. 1088 02:36:25.070 --> 02:36:30.759 John Compton: You, you don't see… a problem developing. 1089 02:36:31.070 --> 02:36:37.539 John Compton: from, Building out several enclosures. 1090 02:36:38.130 --> 02:36:39.430 John Compton: and equipment. 1091 02:36:42.760 --> 02:36:50.620 John Compton: without also planning the ancillary, I'll call it the ancillary, 1092 02:36:50.660 --> 02:37:04.979 John Compton: structures that you want, if… such as the walk… we'll just adjust the walkway to fit the proposed enclosure when it's done. We'll adjust the accessibility path. 1093 02:37:06.080 --> 02:37:19.970 John Compton: in whatever small way. It'll go here, but the way it actually gets into the enclosure depends on the enclosure, blah blah blah, and so it will… it basically will adjust the site plan. You're just… 1094 02:37:20.310 --> 02:37:22.339 John Compton: Solidify the site plan. 1095 02:37:22.560 --> 02:37:26.320 John Compton: With the specifics for each location. 1096 02:37:26.610 --> 02:37:30.470 Washington Grove Playground Committee: I think if we'd had a million dollars, I would want to do it all at once. 1097 02:37:30.470 --> 02:37:31.990 John Compton: I'm not gonna have a Bonsai plan. 1098 02:37:31.990 --> 02:37:45.820 Washington Grove Playground Committee: I think that the fact that our budget is what it is means that we can't have a company that gives the whole thing with the specific equipment in mind and lays it all out, so we have to then proceed gradually. 1099 02:37:45.820 --> 02:37:47.719 John Compton: But you have no interest in that. 1100 02:37:47.720 --> 02:37:55.129 Washington Grove Playground Committee: the perimeters that we have already. There's… we… yeah, I'm okay proceeding. 1101 02:37:55.370 --> 02:37:57.020 Washington Grove Playground Committee: This way, given that… 1102 02:37:57.020 --> 02:37:58.519 John Compton: I'll see if there's nothing. 1103 02:37:58.690 --> 02:37:59.079 Washington Grove Playground Committee: These are the. 1104 02:37:59.080 --> 02:38:00.970 John Compton: strengths that we have, I think it's okay. 1105 02:38:00.970 --> 02:38:01.360 Washington Grove Playground Committee: Okay. 1106 02:38:01.360 --> 02:38:03.250 John Compton: I don't think he's within it. 1107 02:38:03.250 --> 02:38:11.010 Washington Grove Playground Committee: the play areas that we have. And they might change the footprint shape of the enclosed areas, not by much. 1108 02:38:11.160 --> 02:38:13.820 Washington Grove Playground Committee: Yeah, I think we… I think we can still… we can work with that. 1109 02:38:14.210 --> 02:38:16.109 John Compton: I just want to say one thing. 1110 02:38:16.390 --> 02:38:22.309 Washington Grove Playground Committee: We're a small municipality with a smaller budget, and we can't have the all-in-one approach that we 1111 02:38:22.600 --> 02:38:25.169 Washington Grove Playground Committee: We're hoping that we'd have Back in June. 1112 02:38:25.470 --> 02:38:26.220 John Compton: Right. 1113 02:38:26.350 --> 02:38:27.610 John Compton: Can you hear me? 1114 02:38:28.300 --> 02:38:28.790 Washington Grove Playground Committee: Yeah. 1115 02:38:28.790 --> 02:38:29.739 John Compton: That's true. 1116 02:38:29.740 --> 02:38:30.380 Washington Grove Playground Committee: Yep. 1117 02:38:30.650 --> 02:38:31.350 John Compton: Oh. 1118 02:38:32.080 --> 02:38:49.719 John Compton: I just, I just wanted to say that I, I totally, in the perfect world, I agree with John and what he's saying, and you know, we've already, we've already, you know, talked about spending $25,000, whatever, on having a consultant come in and help you. He kind of did that. I really like the direction, though. 1119 02:38:49.850 --> 02:39:09.030 John Compton: that you're going in with… I like to… I like to squeeze every penny I can out of that money and get the most for it. Our… our playground right now, you know, my great-grand, whatever their kids, the kids, like, my nieces and nephews that go in there, love, love it, just the way it is. So, everything else is bonus as far as I'm concerned with it. 1120 02:39:09.030 --> 02:39:17.730 John Compton: And I really like the idea of when you hire one company to do everything, there's an amazing amount of overhead that you're paying for. 1121 02:39:17.730 --> 02:39:34.080 John Compton: the way you're approaching it this time, I think, by having RJ and Steve. You know, really, I think that… I think that there's a big advantage, obviously, a savings in doing that. And I like the fact that we're going to move forward. Maybe I look at it as a la carte. 1122 02:39:34.120 --> 02:39:47.420 John Compton: moving forward, and I understand John's concern, but that's, you know, you say if you can, you know, manage his project, make sure that the pathways are right, and that, you know, that you keep your mind on the big picture. 1123 02:39:48.400 --> 02:39:56.059 John Compton: I think, I think, you know, you go, you know, you have a… you… you, Steve, because I, I would never disagree with you, Steve. 1124 02:39:56.260 --> 02:40:01.420 John Compton: I'm with John. Yeah. You need to have plans, but you already have 1125 02:40:01.840 --> 02:40:05.340 John Compton: 7 areas that are already laid out. 1126 02:40:05.750 --> 02:40:21.120 John Compton: So, realistically, all you have to do is measure all those areas, go to different companies, and say, this is the size of the area, this is what I want, because not every company is going to give you what you want. 1127 02:40:21.540 --> 02:40:28.840 John Compton: So you're gonna have to go to maybe 4 or 5 different companies. Now, you said the first 2 items you want to 1128 02:40:28.940 --> 02:40:30.210 John Compton: buy. 1129 02:40:30.960 --> 02:40:33.450 John Compton: So, you have to measure the area. 1130 02:40:33.570 --> 02:40:35.510 John Compton: Put it on a piece of paper. 1131 02:40:35.620 --> 02:40:42.489 John Compton: Draw the area out, contact the company and say, we want this piece, and it'll fit in this area. 1132 02:40:42.860 --> 02:40:48.139 John Compton: Okay? Then you go to the next area, and you say, this is the area we want. 1133 02:40:48.240 --> 02:40:59.610 John Compton: we want this piece, and if they don't have that piece, you gotta go to a different company and find it. And find what piece you want that will fit in that area. And then… 1134 02:40:59.610 --> 02:41:12.389 John Compton: You go to every area you want, if you make it a little bigger, a little bit smaller, but you put it all on paper, you bring it to them, show them what you have on paper, what you want to put in that area. 1135 02:41:12.770 --> 02:41:14.410 John Compton: And that's your design. 1136 02:41:14.840 --> 02:41:22.670 John Compton: And then from that point, they can make a decision. Your walkway doesn't really matter, because your walkway can go in no matter what. 1137 02:41:22.970 --> 02:41:36.989 John Compton: All your benches can go in no matter what. But what John's saying is you have to have a plan. They want to see a plan with all your equipment, where it's going to go, and make sure it fits in those areas. 1138 02:41:37.580 --> 02:41:51.880 John Compton: So, if you know… you know you're gonna put a train in, you know you're gonna put your houses in, you already have equipment there that you either plan on moving or leaving there, so you have to document 1139 02:41:52.190 --> 02:41:55.670 John Compton: where are you going to be putting all your equipment? You just can't guess 1140 02:41:55.840 --> 02:42:07.720 John Compton: I'm going to be putting this here today, and then come in and say, well, now we're going to do this area over here. They just want to see everything on a piece of paper. 1141 02:42:08.220 --> 02:42:14.260 John Compton: With the piece in the middle of it to make sure it fits that area. 1142 02:42:14.370 --> 02:42:15.500 John Compton: Okay? 1143 02:42:15.650 --> 02:42:17.640 John Compton: That's the way I look at it. 1144 02:42:17.830 --> 02:42:18.430 Washington Grove Playground Committee: Yeah. 1145 02:42:19.150 --> 02:42:25.309 John Compton: But, like I said, you're gonna have to go to different companies, because one company is not going to carry what you want. 1146 02:42:25.350 --> 02:42:41.120 John Compton: You're gonna have to go to multiple companies to find exactly what you want that will fit in our town. So why can't… isn't he asking for that, zone 1 and Zone 5, and to go ahead and start the process? What he's trying to do is… 1147 02:42:41.120 --> 02:43:04.499 John Compton: do this piece here, this piece here, but it doesn't have a whole plan. But we saw the whole plan, we saw the whole… we saw an idea of the whole plan. No, that was not what we're talking about. There's not… there's not a site plan done, period. Well, not the site plan that he had. We saw a layout of the zones, and we saw the amount of land. Exactly, but you do not know what's going to go in there, and will it fit in those zones? 1148 02:43:04.940 --> 02:43:21.990 John Compton: You have to know what is gonna… you know where your zones are, so you go out there and you measure your zones, you make up your mind what you want to put in those zones, because he's keeping some of the equipment there. He's talking about moving some of the equipment. So if he moves 1149 02:43:22.540 --> 02:43:26.179 John Compton: The horsey swings that are down in the swamp now. 1150 02:43:26.180 --> 02:43:27.570 Washington Grove Playground Committee: We're not gonna have horse wings. 1151 02:43:27.570 --> 02:43:35.489 John Compton: And if he decides to move them up here, you know, is that going to fit with something else up there? That's what the Council wants to see. 1152 02:43:35.490 --> 02:43:40.670 Washington Grove Playground Committee: Hey guys, is it okay if I talk about what I want to do, instead of, having Steve tell me… tell you guys what I'm trying to do? 1153 02:43:41.680 --> 02:43:42.640 John Compton: Yeah. Yeah. 1154 02:43:43.290 --> 02:43:59.279 Washington Grove Playground Committee: again, I think when we send these RFPs, these companies, we're gonna get bids with measurements, and we'll make decisions based off whether those bids and those measurements, conform to the vision that we had. And then when we bring it to you. 1155 02:43:59.580 --> 02:44:15.179 Washington Grove Playground Committee: you'll have the dimensions for them. And in the back and forth and the question and answers that we have with the companies as they're preparing their bids with their designs for those specific zones, we're going to be talking about dimensions, and we'll talk to them about, yeah, where it should go. 1156 02:44:15.940 --> 02:44:20.449 Washington Grove Playground Committee: And you'll have that information when we eventually want to accept the bids. 1157 02:44:20.450 --> 02:44:21.040 John Compton: Hmm. 1158 02:44:21.500 --> 02:44:28.660 John Compton: So, hi, can you explain what these RFPs are going to be asking? Because I'm really confused. 1159 02:44:28.980 --> 02:44:38.380 John Compton: So you have… let's say you have one zone where you want a certain type of equipment. Yeah. Are you going to send out a single RFP? 1160 02:44:38.720 --> 02:44:46.399 John Compton: to multiple manufacturers to price out that piece of equipment that's gonna go in that area? Is that what you're doing? 1161 02:44:46.630 --> 02:44:47.190 Washington Grove Playground Committee: Yes. 1162 02:44:47.610 --> 02:44:50.459 John Compton: Pricing out one area at a time. 1163 02:44:51.140 --> 02:45:07.060 John Compton: from multiple vendors that might make the same type of equipment, similar looks, similar feel, but they might have different design elements and slightly different sizes and different costs. And you're going to find out the one that you like the best at the best cost. 1164 02:45:07.060 --> 02:45:07.600 Washington Grove Playground Committee: Yeah. 1165 02:45:09.940 --> 02:45:10.630 John Compton: Okay. 1166 02:45:10.890 --> 02:45:21.400 John Compton: we should trust them. I think where John's coming from, and I think where the communication is breaking down, is that you seem to think that a designer has to be a, 1167 02:45:21.730 --> 02:45:40.859 John Compton: The source of all this equipment. Yeah, equipment. And it's… they're not the source of the equipment. What they are is the source of catalogs of endless types of equipment that they have access… a good playground designer will have access to so many catalogs of different types of equipment that they could recommend. 1168 02:45:40.860 --> 02:46:03.480 John Compton: that you price out. You know, they could say, we have this zone here, we're going to make this design. Here are three options for Zone 1, 4 or 5 options for Zone 2. And these are the manufacturers, and you can contact them to see what their costs are. But they're… in the process of putting together this design, they're going to give you these options for the types, based on your comprehensive plan. 1169 02:46:03.540 --> 02:46:22.799 John Compton: that they will be able to design around, and maybe pull some uniformity into the design, because they will look at a certain manufacturer and say, I really like this manufacturer for this reason, because it matches your plan. And they will pull equipment from their catalogs that work within a plan. 1170 02:46:22.860 --> 02:46:32.969 John Compton: and is unified, and that's what designers do. I'm… that's my extent. I've designed for 40-some-odd years, and 1171 02:46:32.970 --> 02:46:51.769 John Compton: So, it's… it's just the expertise that a designer brings to the situation, and brings a comprehensive look to what you're doing, rather than buying it piecemeal, and you can plan out your purchases all at once, and… or a kind of different themes, and you don't want to do that. 1172 02:46:51.770 --> 02:46:55.410 Washington Grove Playground Committee: No, we can't… we can't plan all the purchases all at once, because we don't have the money for that. 1173 02:46:56.110 --> 02:46:58.429 John Compton: No, no, no, no, you don't have to spend any money. 1174 02:46:58.610 --> 02:47:12.060 John Compton: you spend the $25,000 on a designer, they… they build into their design the options that you could have. They can have low to high, 3 or 4 different options for each zone, at different cost points. 1175 02:47:14.220 --> 02:47:15.270 John Compton: No money spent. 1176 02:47:15.270 --> 02:47:17.830 Washington Grove Playground Committee: You're talking about custom equipment. 1177 02:47:18.140 --> 02:47:18.540 John Compton: Nope. 1178 02:47:18.540 --> 02:47:19.780 Washington Grove Playground Committee: In that approach. 1179 02:47:20.140 --> 02:47:20.750 John Compton: Oh. 1180 02:47:20.750 --> 02:47:26.830 Washington Grove Playground Committee: We, we, we, so, we, we got, we got two bids from companies that since did that, and… 1181 02:47:26.830 --> 02:47:27.330 John Compton: So, how… 1182 02:47:27.330 --> 02:47:28.300 Washington Grove Playground Committee: Those, those… 1183 02:47:28.300 --> 02:47:31.350 John Compton: I'm asking them to do installation or anything other than their designs. 1184 02:47:31.860 --> 02:47:33.720 Washington Grove Playground Committee: I… I… I'm not… 1185 02:47:35.800 --> 02:47:41.079 Washington Grove Playground Committee: I think we have the money to buy equipment. We have companies that have the kind of equipment that we like. 1186 02:47:41.860 --> 02:47:42.690 John Compton: Okay. 1187 02:47:44.040 --> 02:47:45.220 John Compton: So… 1188 02:47:45.360 --> 02:48:01.970 John Compton: I'm not understanding some of the objections here, because there is a Playground Comprehensive plan, and there are zones, and there are suggestions for the kinds of equipment they want in each zone, so I'm not understanding 1189 02:48:02.090 --> 02:48:11.100 John Compton: What is… And I'm not gonna speak for John, for me. It's the difference between 1190 02:48:11.660 --> 02:48:14.130 John Compton: Having a wish list for your house. 1191 02:48:14.660 --> 02:48:18.650 John Compton: And then having an architect design to that wish list. Yeah. 1192 02:48:18.810 --> 02:48:20.619 John Compton: That's the difference, I don't know. 1193 02:48:21.190 --> 02:48:26.030 John Compton: So, I want a big… I want a house with these features. 1194 02:48:26.520 --> 02:48:41.629 John Compton: You don't… there's no drawings of that house yet, but you have a list of features you want in your house. That's why you hire an architect or somebody to come in and flesh out what that house is gonna look like, where the rooms are gonna be, and what the paint's going to be. 1195 02:48:41.980 --> 02:48:46.930 John Compton: And… and then that's what they build from. That plan. But this… 1196 02:48:47.070 --> 02:48:56.860 John Compton: isn't like that. I mean, they've done all this research looking at the kinds of equipment that they want to put in it, like the train, for example. 1197 02:48:57.880 --> 02:49:02.710 John Compton: Play houses that look like Washington Grove. I mean, they've… 1198 02:49:02.870 --> 02:49:12.280 John Compton: they've spelled that out here. So, when they came out with the plan, comprehensive plan, and we discussed this over and over and over, and we were trying to figure out 1199 02:49:12.500 --> 02:49:21.579 John Compton: what is it, and how much? And I'm looking at this approach to project success, and part of that is determining lifecycle costs to determine project feasibility, right? 1200 02:49:21.790 --> 02:49:30.319 John Compton: before you buy that piece of equipment, you know, how long is it going to last, what's it going to take? Is there a lot of maintenance? You need to know all of that. 1201 02:49:30.320 --> 02:49:46.009 John Compton: And I think, you know, so part of that, and it's like getting an architect, you know, they said when they developed the comprehensive plan, that that was their vision document. Vision document, not a planning 1202 02:49:46.500 --> 02:49:59.650 John Compton: structural document, it was a vision document. This is what we think we'd like, you know, like over by the monkey bars to have a music area. But that's a vision, right? But if they're breaking it down. 1203 02:49:59.790 --> 02:50:12.450 John Compton: and they know where their zones are, and they're doing each piece, I don't understand why they can't look at each piece. They have a whole… That's part of what Oscar was saying, too. Some of the newer equipment. 1204 02:50:12.500 --> 02:50:36.330 John Compton: that went out, and it was a onesie-twosie, and piecemeal. They stuck in the dome, and they stuck in, I guess, that little chair with the ropes and everything else. But this is different, because they have… they have a vision, and they have a plan, and they have the zones, and they know what they want to go in that zone, so if they know the two big zones, and they put those… what they know, and then they move on to the next one. 1205 02:50:36.330 --> 02:50:41.669 John Compton: And then, as Oscar said, they'll come back to us about all that stuff you want in terms of 1206 02:50:41.670 --> 02:50:50.689 John Compton: You know, in terms of maintenance and about the specific pieces of equipment that they do. I mean, I don't know why they can't manage it. These guys have spent 1207 02:50:50.690 --> 02:51:07.920 John Compton: months and months and months. They've talked to companies, they've researched, you know, they've become experts in all this. I mean, I think we put them together, we need to have a little bit of faith in the fact that they can pull this together. And it doesn't have to be, you know. 1208 02:51:08.340 --> 02:51:26.999 John Compton: I just think that we're… we're doing too much. I mean, I think we can get a perfectly lovely playground based on their plans in a little bit at a time, save a lot of money, because we've got a lot of in-town expertise to do this stuff. And I just don't understand… I mean, I think 1209 02:51:27.810 --> 02:51:34.179 John Compton: And we want a grovy… we want a groovy playground. You know, we don't want… we don't want something off the shelf. 1210 02:51:34.400 --> 02:51:50.750 John Compton: So… We really have to trust this. We could leave away with this, really. You know, we could spend $25,000 and do what John suggested. But nobody's… no, I think you're drawing the wrong conclusion… Yeah. …from what is being suggested. Yeah. Okay? 1211 02:51:50.750 --> 02:51:55.549 John Compton: This… this is the… this is the Playground Committee. It's the same committee that put together this… 1212 02:51:57.160 --> 02:52:01.859 John Compton: this uni… this… this all-encompassing RFP 1213 02:52:02.760 --> 02:52:09.950 John Compton: And asked for, a provider of… to meet the needs of the tent. 1214 02:52:10.320 --> 02:52:14.920 John Compton: And… I'm sorry, I mean, I have to say this, some of us felt this was… 1215 02:52:15.140 --> 02:52:21.099 John Compton: Not going to work for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that the budget wasn't high enough. 1216 02:52:21.620 --> 02:52:30.749 John Compton: But also, because The, the opportunity to imposed Roe v. 1217 02:52:30.970 --> 02:52:39.820 John Compton: preferences on it would… was going to be lost, because you only had a single 1218 02:52:40.210 --> 02:52:42.659 John Compton: Entity to install the whole thing. 1219 02:52:42.880 --> 02:52:44.230 John Compton: I believe… 1220 02:52:44.550 --> 02:52:55.890 John Compton: some of us suggested at the outset, when you suggested that you do a… engage a site designer, that go with that. 1221 02:52:56.480 --> 02:53:02.799 John Compton: And get your site fully Conceptually, beyond concept. 1222 02:53:03.490 --> 02:53:14.620 John Compton: establish somebody who, as John indicated, could recommend who could provide and fulfill your vision, And then… 1223 02:53:14.760 --> 02:53:23.840 John Compton: go after the pieces of equipment. So, what this… I think they can… they… but this… what… what they're proposing to do could certainly… 1224 02:53:24.150 --> 02:53:29.049 John Compton: work to execute the, I think, the comprehensive plan. 1225 02:53:29.590 --> 02:53:32.580 John Compton: But, it, it, it, it… 1226 02:53:32.990 --> 02:53:42.209 John Compton: won't have the same likelihood of… of… of, of… what's the word I'm looking at? Not uniformity of… 1227 02:53:42.380 --> 02:53:46.959 John Compton: Of, compreh… again, comprehensive design. 1228 02:53:47.260 --> 02:53:58.410 John Compton: Not that we want it all to look the same, but we want it to be, to fulfill our image of how each of those visionaries are executed. So, I think… 1229 02:53:58.710 --> 02:54:01.210 John Compton: You know, it will require some discipline. 1230 02:54:01.810 --> 02:54:07.400 John Compton: To do that, if you're going to make your decisions with… without… 1231 02:54:08.130 --> 02:54:11.620 John Compton: Any comprehensive look at the site. 1232 02:54:11.950 --> 02:54:17.199 John Compton: Somebody made a point, is what are you going to do with the pieces you want to keep? 1233 02:54:17.370 --> 02:54:34.960 John Compton: We identified these two locations where we want to put certain types of equipment. We've got to move some stuff out of there, so now we have to make a piecemeal decision, because there's no decision made about the rest of the site. What are we going to do with them? We're just going to get rid of them because we've got to make room? 1234 02:54:35.520 --> 02:54:39.469 John Compton: I mean, I just think that you… you need to have a… 1235 02:54:39.670 --> 02:54:48.689 John Compton: Not a humongous general contractor, but a plan in place before… 1236 02:54:50.140 --> 02:54:55.799 John Compton: Before are coincident with going after fulfilling the individual. 1237 02:54:55.800 --> 02:54:56.869 Andy Bielen: Hmm… I don't… 1238 02:54:56.870 --> 02:55:08.539 John Compton: Your opening sentence was, I think it'll succeed. And then you go on to say what you would like in terms of what I would call Peter's perfection. 1239 02:55:08.540 --> 02:55:22.119 John Compton: There's perfection, and there's success. Let me finish. You… your opening sentence, what you just said was, I think they'll succeed, but… and then you went on to talk about what they're talking about, the overall plan. 1240 02:55:23.250 --> 02:55:38.609 John Compton: Perfection is perfection. No, I never said perfection. No, no, I'm… Peter said perfection. But in terms of you wanting a big, comprehensive plan with an architect and things like that, that's… that's… and you said spend no money. It was $25,000 right out the bid. 1241 02:55:38.610 --> 02:55:53.270 John Compton: It is money. It's $25,000 that have come out of the $350 before we… Let's say it wasn't money. No, you said we won't spend anything. You said, we'll do this, and we won't have not spent anything. Let me finish, let me finish. So… 1242 02:55:53.370 --> 02:55:54.460 John Compton: you know. 1243 02:55:54.900 --> 02:56:06.390 John Compton: Interestingly enough, you're saying you think a succeed as long as they do their job, but you think there's a better way of doing it. There's always a better way of doing it, and there's always a better way of doing everything. 1244 02:56:06.510 --> 02:56:21.009 John Compton: But, personally, I think I agree with Mary. They have worked their tail off, they have done so much research, they've talked to so many people. I've sat in these meetings, haven't said anything, because I'm not allowed to as a liaison, but I have absorbed what they're doing. 1245 02:56:21.140 --> 02:56:28.539 John Compton: They have done a tremendous amount of work for this, and I think it comes at a point in time that we say, we trust you, go forward. 1246 02:56:28.990 --> 02:56:40.380 John Compton: Because every time they've come back to us, I feel like we've changed the plan on them. We kind of… they were doing this, and then they bring it to that. Well, that's not exactly what we want, and then they go back… 1247 02:56:40.730 --> 02:56:41.650 John Compton: What? 1248 02:56:42.180 --> 02:56:45.400 John Compton: I hear what you're saying, but I don't… 1249 02:56:45.620 --> 02:56:50.280 John Compton: What exactly are you talking about? What have we changed? 1250 02:56:50.280 --> 02:56:51.190 Andy Bielen: Ugh. 1251 02:56:51.890 --> 02:56:55.260 John Compton: I mean, asking for a site plan 1252 02:56:55.460 --> 02:56:59.899 John Compton: Isn't a particularly, innovative concept. 1253 02:57:00.140 --> 02:57:09.960 John Compton: All right? And so, may choose not to do it. I'm not saying you have to do it. We're making… we're having that discretion. But that's… there's nothing… 1254 02:57:10.780 --> 02:57:16.800 John Compton: retrograde or derogatory about doing that. Yes, there is. I'm just feeling like… 1255 02:57:17.030 --> 02:57:33.170 John Compton: they keep coming back to us with what we tell them, and then in the discussion, well, it just gets moved around, and maybe I'm incorrect about that, but I just… Maybe you're misunderstanding what I'm saying, and when I say, I think they'll succeed. 1256 02:57:33.270 --> 02:57:41.170 John Compton: It's not a matter of, you know, will… will we get, 1257 02:57:41.530 --> 02:57:53.630 John Compton: a playground that meets most of our requirements. That's not what this is about. It's about, will we get one that can be, that is 1258 02:57:54.700 --> 02:58:06.190 John Compton: in total been designed to work together. The answer is that maybe, if you do it this way, but certainly if you do it the other way. 1259 02:58:06.700 --> 02:58:09.309 John Compton: The other way being not too different. 1260 02:58:09.400 --> 02:58:18.620 John Compton: It means having the whole site… I mean, they can do it. You don't need to hire anybody to do it. They could actually go out there and say, man. 1261 02:58:18.620 --> 02:58:22.060 John Compton: Now that we had this concept vision plan. 1262 02:58:22.060 --> 02:58:45.060 John Compton: here's exactly what… we'll just pick up some pieces of equipment, and, you know, this is exactly what's gonna happen. We're gonna have to move this over to here, we're gonna move that over there, here's the layout, that's what a designer. And that's what they're… I think that's what they're proposing to do. And that's what I was saying. In pieces they're proposing. That's what concerns me. It's still in pieces. 1263 02:58:45.180 --> 02:59:01.310 John Compton: They're going to do something before they have this. Now, okay, I'm merely pointing it out. I, you know, I agree they've done… I think we're saying that they already have it. I think that's where… I think that's what we're saying. I think they have enough of an image, and enough of a vision, and enough of a… 1264 02:59:01.310 --> 02:59:07.549 John Compton: of a constructs to do it. Well, since I've heard repeatedly that we've got 1265 02:59:07.590 --> 02:59:16.260 John Compton: Old equipment that's dangerous, which I think is just absolutely untrue. We have old equipment that… 1266 02:59:16.570 --> 02:59:24.569 John Compton: you know, we can do better than and make a better piece of equipment. That's a different argument entirely, but I've heard some arguments about 1267 02:59:25.290 --> 02:59:28.860 John Compton: About the current playground and making replacements that 1268 02:59:29.230 --> 02:59:35.730 John Compton: seem to be created to achieve an end rather than to be based on the actual fact. 1269 02:59:35.830 --> 02:59:47.070 John Compton: All right? And that's… it just worries me that you want to get to an end, you know, stick with the meaningful arguments, the ones that resonate. 1270 02:59:47.530 --> 03:00:01.270 John Compton: And so, you know, it's… So, John, we're at an impasse. The town wants us to vote, and you know what? It's not like it's all gonna… this is gonna take place over quite a period of time that we're gonna watch it, we're gonna monitor it. 1271 03:00:01.270 --> 03:00:09.520 John Compton: Who's we? Who this week? Council. He said he's going to come back to us with each piece. They want to just get going. Just to discuss with them. 1272 03:00:10.830 --> 03:00:16.700 John Compton: When can we vote? I'm sorry, maybe… Paul said, I didn't mean to cut you off, I'm sorry. 1273 03:00:16.910 --> 03:00:22.229 John Compton: You know, you think we keep changing the goalposts, but… 1274 03:00:22.420 --> 03:00:28.980 John Compton: I think it was the last, or even the one before that, we talked about a designer. 1275 03:00:29.240 --> 03:00:46.679 John Compton: It's what John is saying, is what John is saying. We did talk about it, go back and look at the minutes. We talked about bringing somebody on board, and in fact, I think Oscar said, hey, they were talking about 10% of the overall fees, it's gonna cost about $25, that's where we're coming up in the numbers. 1276 03:00:46.680 --> 03:00:49.500 John Compton: Sure, it's gonna take money, and we said that. 1277 03:00:49.850 --> 03:01:06.729 John Compton: we have a vision document, is what we have. A comprehensive plan is what we're calling, but it's a vision document. And just like… just like, you know, what John and John are saying, and Steve is saying, is, you know, if you take this, and you… the small slide, right? 1278 03:01:06.970 --> 03:01:22.479 John Compton: you're going to get rid of it. Then what are you going to do? You're going to send it to the dump, or is it going to be reused? There's ideas built into this vision document of what we're going to repurpose, but then how… if you take a piece of equipment out of zone, whatever it is. 1279 03:01:22.480 --> 03:01:34.110 John Compton: And it's something you want to repurpose, but that repurposed spot isn't where… isn't available, because there's something else there. Who's… who's playing musical chairs? 1280 03:01:34.180 --> 03:01:46.740 John Compton: who has the overall understanding of this comprehensive design, right? And so, is… are we doing… that's what I'm questioning, and it sounds like that's what we're headed towards. 1281 03:01:46.740 --> 03:02:03.939 John Compton: We've got, what, 9 zones? We left out the… and that's irking me, too. We left out the basketball court because nobody wanted to deal with it, and all of a sudden, now it's part of the playground. And we're funding, you know, basketball court resurfacing and painting and everything else. 1282 03:02:03.940 --> 03:02:08.059 John Compton: And where's that money coming from? I don't know, it's… But anyway… 1283 03:02:08.730 --> 03:02:22.459 John Compton: We're piecemealing this, and that was the concern that I had. We're taking out the jungle gym because it's unsafe, and then we find, is it unsafe, or it's as safe as any other piece of equipment out there, right? 1284 03:02:22.800 --> 03:02:33.469 John Compton: But yet, we still want to take it out because we voted to take it out. Okay, we're going to take it out. Now we have this comprehensive plan that we seem to, instead of doing comprehensive. 1285 03:02:33.820 --> 03:02:41.909 John Compton: assessment and planning, we're now going zone by zone, because… because we went out with an RFP, 1286 03:02:42.420 --> 03:02:48.949 John Compton: Then nobody wanted to bid on, because we don't have the $2 million budget to redo the entire playground. 1287 03:02:49.720 --> 03:03:09.090 John Compton: That… and then now we're coming back with, okay, yeah, we can't afford that, so let's not… let's not eat the whole cake, we'll just take a little piece, but, you know, we don't know what piece we're getting, and what… you know, sure, they're gonna succeed, and it's going to be like that fork that's gonna sit out there and rot. 1288 03:03:09.090 --> 03:03:10.320 John Compton: Potentially. 1289 03:03:10.700 --> 03:03:14.950 John Compton: You know, what is… once you put a piece of equipment out there, what do you. 1290 03:03:14.950 --> 03:03:15.310 Andy Bielen: Where's. 1291 03:03:15.310 --> 03:03:19.500 John Compton: Chris. I'm with you. 1292 03:03:19.500 --> 03:03:22.899 Andy Bielen: They paid attention to the fort, and maintained it, and replaced it. 1293 03:03:22.900 --> 03:03:23.890 John Compton: The reason? 1294 03:03:23.890 --> 03:03:24.820 Andy Bielen: Replace pieces. 1295 03:03:24.820 --> 03:03:25.930 John Compton: And it wouldn't happen. 1296 03:03:25.930 --> 03:03:31.789 Andy Bielen: have fallen apart. Like, the whole point of the Playground Committee is to ensure that this doesn't happen going forward. 1297 03:03:31.790 --> 03:03:33.859 John Compton: That's what we're hoping for, right? 1298 03:03:33.860 --> 03:03:34.510 Andy Bielen: Yeah, so… 1299 03:03:34.510 --> 03:03:35.730 John Compton: That's what I'm worried about. 1300 03:03:35.730 --> 03:03:44.359 Andy Bielen: I'm very concerned, or confused here, because we have two areas that are clearly defined. You drop two new pieces of equipment in there. 1301 03:03:44.360 --> 03:03:44.820 John Compton: We have… 1302 03:03:44.820 --> 03:04:08.260 Andy Bielen: We have the specs from the equipment manufacturers, we have the maintenance plans, we have the warranties, we pay attention to it and make sure it doesn't fall apart. That needs to happen no matter whether a designer comes in and tells us, oh, we need this here and this there, whatever, or we make our own judgment about, hey, this works in this place, this works in that place. 1303 03:04:08.470 --> 03:04:26.380 Andy Bielen: I can see bringing a designer in if we're gonna, like, build out certain zones that aren't already pre-established with the retaining walls and the mulch beds that they need to have, and the drainage and all that. That's fine, that makes some sense. With this incremental step we're discussing here. 1304 03:04:26.380 --> 03:04:35.919 Andy Bielen: Two predefined zones, large, we can certainly… we're not gonna go out and propose we buy equipment that doesn't fit within the zone, or… 1305 03:04:35.920 --> 03:04:42.969 Andy Bielen: or, or meet the modern safety standards of the equipment. We're not even talking about 1306 03:04:43.180 --> 03:04:57.939 Andy Bielen: you know, pulling stuff out that doesn't need to be pulled out to accommodate those new… those two new zones right now. So, I mean, I think it seems to me, from observing this calc… this conversation as part of the Playground Committee, that we're… 1307 03:04:57.940 --> 03:05:03.959 Andy Bielen: In some ways, making a mountain out of a molehill when it comes to replacing two pieces of equipment, or… 1308 03:05:03.960 --> 03:05:08.520 Andy Bielen: two zones of equipment that really are quite defecated. Are they safe? 1309 03:05:08.520 --> 03:05:09.700 John Compton: Eddie, let us vote. 1310 03:05:09.700 --> 03:05:10.729 jan davis: Oh, that's talking! 1311 03:05:10.730 --> 03:05:12.050 John Compton: I can't tell. 1312 03:05:12.050 --> 03:05:12.540 jan davis: Hotel. 1313 03:05:12.860 --> 03:05:17.809 jan davis: Well, I… I can't tell whether I'm allowed to talk or not, but I have… I just have one comment. 1314 03:05:17.810 --> 03:05:20.339 John Compton: I don't know, but sorry. 1315 03:05:20.900 --> 03:05:21.810 jan davis: Can I talk? 1316 03:05:22.260 --> 03:05:26.060 John Compton: No, no. We please both. 1317 03:05:26.060 --> 03:05:26.730 jan davis: mentor! 1318 03:05:26.730 --> 03:05:34.299 John Compton: I'm not gonna… Yeah, the discussion… with the Playground Committee. 1319 03:05:34.300 --> 03:05:36.220 jan davis: I just want to make one comment. 1320 03:05:36.220 --> 03:05:44.710 John Compton: No, Janet, no. Everybody could make a comment if they want. We both, you guys are okay with both. So what are… 1321 03:05:44.710 --> 03:05:48.269 jan davis: But anyway… All you're saying is that I think you know this works! 1322 03:05:48.780 --> 03:05:49.210 jan davis: You know what? 1323 03:05:49.640 --> 03:05:57.020 jan davis: Grove once, and then now you're advocating that they good somebody and do what somebody else wants instead of what the Grove wants. 1324 03:05:57.020 --> 03:05:58.310 John Compton: The motion was… 1325 03:05:58.310 --> 03:06:01.010 jan davis: The committee has done what they need, what they, what they… 1326 03:06:01.010 --> 03:06:01.630 John Compton: Oh, sure. 1327 03:06:01.630 --> 03:06:03.630 jan davis: And they should be allowed to continue it. 1328 03:06:04.130 --> 03:06:04.710 jan davis: and all that work. 1329 03:06:04.710 --> 03:06:27.200 John Compton: And the proposal? What is the proposal, exactly? Oscar, can you put the proposal back up? No, do we have… do we have a formal proposal that we're voting on? Or is it just… it's what he put up? Yeah. Well, that was a PowerPoint presentation. No. Oscar, can you put the last slide up, your proposal? 1330 03:06:29.000 --> 03:06:31.750 Washington Grove Playground Committee: It was simply, to issue an RFP, 1331 03:06:32.160 --> 03:06:35.479 Washington Grove Playground Committee: For two pieces of equipment, Zone 1 and 5. 1332 03:06:36.350 --> 03:06:37.080 John Compton: Okay. 1333 03:06:37.940 --> 03:06:46.060 John Compton: And to have the town assume the, responsibility of dealing with the drainage. Those are the two pieces. 1334 03:06:46.060 --> 03:06:46.720 Washington Grove Playground Committee: Yep. 1335 03:06:46.720 --> 03:06:47.470 John Compton: Alright. 1336 03:06:48.660 --> 03:06:51.710 John Compton: So, I'm making a motion to… 1337 03:06:51.930 --> 03:07:01.149 John Compton: approve the Playground Committee's proposal. Oh, you did. Okay, so there you go. Yeah. 1338 03:07:02.380 --> 03:07:08.050 John Compton: Seems to me the question has been called. Okay. Yes. So, all in favor of a… 1339 03:07:08.650 --> 03:07:12.339 John Compton: Oh, understood. Anybody not understand what they're voting on? 1340 03:07:12.750 --> 03:07:15.960 John Compton: Okay, then everybody. Any opposed? 1341 03:07:18.420 --> 03:07:21.090 John Compton: All right, 2 opposed, 4 in favor. 1342 03:07:21.410 --> 03:07:30.460 John Compton: Go for it, guys! I, for one, would like to know where the… In it… 1343 03:07:30.780 --> 03:07:34.660 John Compton: What is happening to what's currently in those enclosures? 1344 03:07:36.130 --> 03:07:50.589 John Compton: Can that be enough… I mean, we just voted… I'm just saying, I'd like to hear at some point. At some point. Part of the decision as to whether or not… That's reasonable. …equipment can be installed, is what's happening making… 1345 03:07:52.270 --> 03:08:07.040 John Compton: Right. That's fair. And we're, we're gonna basically… anything that they buy, we're gonna have to, we're gonna approve anyway. I know, but I… I will be surprised if there isn't some questions as to how this will fit the whole plan. Okay. Okay. 1346 03:08:07.690 --> 03:08:11.700 John Compton: Just, just the… Okay, thank you. 1347 03:08:11.700 --> 03:08:17.959 Washington Grove Playground Committee: everyone stays on the same team, honestly. So, I think this is a mutual relationship. 1348 03:08:17.960 --> 03:08:23.409 John Compton: Compliments on… Let me just say, this… 1349 03:08:23.410 --> 03:08:30.570 Washington Grove Playground Committee: I just want to say, as well, this is a volunteer effort, of people that want to improve the town. 1350 03:08:31.570 --> 03:08:34.399 Washington Grove Playground Committee: We don't work for anyone. No one's our boss. 1351 03:08:35.570 --> 03:08:47.320 Washington Grove Playground Committee: This… this was the culmination of meeting with a lot of people, taking a lot of people's preferences for what the town playground would look like, and… 1352 03:08:47.540 --> 03:08:52.090 Washington Grove Playground Committee: I think you need to be very thoughtful about how you treat the people who volunteer for this town. 1353 03:08:53.240 --> 03:08:53.920 John Compton: Right. 1354 03:08:53.920 --> 03:08:54.640 Washington Grove Playground Committee: Thank you. Good night. 1355 03:08:54.640 --> 03:08:56.190 John Compton: Okay. Alright. 1356 03:09:03.570 --> 03:09:13.139 John Compton: Moving on, all right, moving on to the next item, which is Resolution 2026-14, 1357 03:09:13.280 --> 03:09:17.019 John Compton: Guidelines for use of triggering events. 1358 03:09:17.340 --> 03:09:18.800 John Compton: Outland. 1359 03:09:19.420 --> 03:09:30.970 John Compton: You know, it's like, I know you guys are going to do a great job. Okay. So, John, I'm making a motion. Is that okay? Yes. Motion to, 1360 03:09:31.270 --> 03:09:37.530 John Compton: Introduce Resolution 23rd, 14 guidelines for the use of triggering events with Plan for privately virtual. 1361 03:09:37.690 --> 03:09:41.080 John Compton: Okay, and the one he's introducing… 1362 03:09:42.190 --> 03:09:58.880 John Compton: is somewhat, and while he's doing that, can I just, like, just give you guys, like, a little bit of an overview on this? When I was searching through ChatGPT about triggering events, it actually showed the history of all triggering events in the Grove. 1363 03:09:58.890 --> 03:10:18.270 John Compton: And we have, like, we've been using this forever. It's a, it's a great tool, but we've never codified it in a resolution or anything. And even ChatGT, you know, pointed that out, that you've got all this stuff, it's embedded in your… it's in your comprehensive plan, it's everywhere else. You really should. 1364 03:10:18.620 --> 03:10:22.319 John Compton: you know, do exactly what Sean's pushing forward here to resolution. 1365 03:10:24.320 --> 03:10:41.320 John Compton: Right. Okay, all right, with the, with the, support of ChatGPT, here's the resolution as introduced, and it certainly can be tweaked and whatever, and, and should be discussed. 1366 03:10:41.610 --> 03:10:50.460 John Compton: The title is now, Guidelines for the Use of Triggering Events to Reclaim Town Land from Private Encroachment. 1367 03:10:51.040 --> 03:10:52.779 John Compton: And, 1368 03:10:53.100 --> 03:11:08.040 John Compton: The one as proposed by the Planning Commission, which is largely what you see here, indicated… the main thing is that trigger it had was triggering events include the sale of property to a new owner. 1369 03:11:08.690 --> 03:11:18.230 John Compton: And public improvements on town land affected by the encroachments. Those were the triggering… extent of the triggering events mentioned. 1370 03:11:18.580 --> 03:11:21.870 John Compton: Alright, so that's changes by sale. 1371 03:11:22.140 --> 03:11:27.050 John Compton: Of ownership, and the town doing public improvements. 1372 03:11:27.260 --> 03:11:29.040 John Compton: Affecting the encroachment. 1373 03:11:29.590 --> 03:11:48.479 John Compton: Well, the fact is, there, there clearly can be others, and just to… to… John Porter asked, you know, what, what, you know, should… should we be more, inclusive into what we consider a triggering event? So I tried to add that, and it's the next… 1374 03:11:48.940 --> 03:11:52.299 John Compton: And owner-initiated renovations. 1375 03:11:53.050 --> 03:11:55.770 John Compton: Landscaping or permits. 1376 03:11:56.000 --> 03:12:04.529 John Compton: that impact the town land affected by the encroachment. So that basically, names three general 1377 03:12:04.880 --> 03:12:09.140 John Compton: triggering events. Change in ownership, public improvements on the 1378 03:12:09.660 --> 03:12:13.209 John Compton: On the approached, land, which is town land. 1379 03:12:13.460 --> 03:12:21.710 John Compton: Involving it, and owner-initiated Events that affect the encroached property. 1380 03:12:22.280 --> 03:12:30.329 John Compton: And I don't know if there aren't others, but there might be. That's why it says triggering events include… 1381 03:12:30.520 --> 03:12:34.479 John Compton: We could say, specifically, there may be others. 1382 03:12:34.710 --> 03:12:42.469 John Compton: And basically, all this… the whole point to this, as Peter was pointing out, was to, 1383 03:12:43.840 --> 03:12:47.259 John Compton: Put in a… into words. 1384 03:12:47.340 --> 03:12:58.450 John Compton: what the policy that the Planning Commission has been following recently, that the Town has followed at different times in the past, but not always. 1385 03:12:58.460 --> 03:13:07.609 John Compton: But now ought to be following going forward, and so somebody can read it, and not just wonder, well, why are they choosing to go after this encroach? 1386 03:13:08.490 --> 03:13:19.820 John Compton: Well, you can still ask that question, of course, but it's up to the Planning Commission to be consistent, and the Council to decide whether, indeed, their recommendations make sense. 1387 03:13:20.610 --> 03:13:25.829 John Compton: Yeah, my point in this is that everybody in the town should know 1388 03:13:25.980 --> 03:13:37.010 John Compton: what will trigger these kind of events. I mean, it shouldn't be arbitrary, and it shouldn't be inconsistent. So, I, you know… Do you think this does it? 1389 03:13:37.510 --> 03:13:48.659 John Compton: I don't know, I could… I could think of maybe, you know, so one of the ones I asked was, like, well, one thing, it says sale of the house. What about a transfer of a house from one person to another? Yeah. 1390 03:13:48.710 --> 03:13:59.820 John Compton: So maybe it should say transfer of ownership, fail. Yeah, just transfer of ownership. Because that's more inclusive. Right, so, yeah. Yeah, if it goes from owner-occupied to rental. 1391 03:13:59.990 --> 03:14:06.120 John Compton: That's not a sale… that's not a transfer of ownership, but it's a… it's a change of the type of… 1392 03:14:06.360 --> 03:14:08.180 John Compton: What's going on at the property? 1393 03:14:08.390 --> 03:14:10.280 John Compton: So, I just don't know. 1394 03:14:11.300 --> 03:14:28.849 John Compton: Well, I think that sort of change to this could easily be corporate, if the Council feels that's where to go. The other question, do we want it this broad, or do we really, really just want it at the sale of the house, you know? That's the other thing, you know, how… 1395 03:14:29.320 --> 03:14:40.049 John Compton: How often do we want to be doing these kind of things in town? Well, for example, another triggering event, which has been used in the past, is we've got a fence that's 1396 03:14:40.280 --> 03:14:41.520 John Compton: on town land. 1397 03:14:41.660 --> 03:14:48.079 John Compton: Somebody… Not maintenance, but what needs to rebuild the fence, because it's slowing down, boom. 1398 03:14:48.370 --> 03:14:50.750 John Compton: That means you need a fence permit? 1399 03:14:50.870 --> 03:15:04.560 John Compton: It needs to be on your property. Right. So that's an event to deal with that encroachment. Doesn't change… not change in ownership, but an owner-initiated event, right? 1400 03:15:04.770 --> 03:15:18.459 John Compton: What if you just put treatment events include, but are not limited to? That's very good. Yeah, I didn't… I failed to put something like that in there, because we can imagine other… Because if somebody just… somebody wants to go and put a… play a swing set. 1401 03:15:18.610 --> 03:15:22.380 John Compton: In the front yard, which is actually town property. 1402 03:15:22.480 --> 03:15:24.520 John Compton: That would be a triggering event. 1403 03:15:25.740 --> 03:15:27.069 John Compton: Would it? Yeah. 1404 03:15:27.310 --> 03:15:37.159 John Compton: It's a… and it would be covered in that. Okay. Yeah. I mean, that's the whole… the whole goal is just to protect, properly and perfected town, that's all. The thing is that there's never been a definition 1405 03:15:37.380 --> 03:15:50.079 John Compton: of what a triggering event is. And that's what… I mean, that was my point, is that the residents need to know. Yeah. But we knew we couldn't… you can't cover… you can't put, like, everything that might possibly happen 1406 03:15:50.150 --> 03:15:58.390 John Compton: in this, but I thought that John, added to what we had, and it, thought it covered it pretty good. And then you pointed out something, which is, you know, we can… 1407 03:15:58.850 --> 03:15:59.740 John Compton: Yeah. 1408 03:16:00.250 --> 03:16:03.540 John Compton: So, has this been reviewed by Sue Elen? No. 1409 03:16:04.170 --> 03:16:09.619 John Compton: So, I think that we should have her review it before we go any further. 1410 03:16:10.050 --> 03:16:11.819 John Compton: Well, the town reviews it. 1411 03:16:12.070 --> 03:16:13.190 John Compton: as a… 1412 03:16:13.840 --> 03:16:27.240 John Compton: We could… we don't need public input, but it's always a good idea to ask… I would say so, yeah. Oh, man. Okay. No, public input. I said, Sue Whalen. I know. At the same time… 1413 03:16:27.420 --> 03:16:29.130 John Compton: It allows time. 1414 03:16:29.310 --> 03:16:32.040 John Compton: For public input. For public input. That's all I'm saying. 1415 03:16:33.220 --> 03:16:40.500 John Compton: Okay, I just wrote in your, your, suggestion, huh, Nick. 1416 03:16:40.760 --> 03:16:42.000 John Compton: to cover that. 1417 03:16:43.550 --> 03:16:58.649 John Compton: The thing is, if you… if you give… put it out to the town, we're just… we're just defining something that exists already. We're not asking the town to decide whether we actually want to have trigger… I mean, it seems like we're opening up a can of worms. No, you don't have to. 1418 03:16:58.690 --> 03:17:15.099 John Compton: Public comment is just public comment, whether it is… Well, the comment… We don't want… we don't want to have this. It… the triggering event, it's in the comprehensive plan already. I mean, it's a little late for anybody… So why… if it's a… but this is a done deal. There may be… there may be… 1419 03:17:15.330 --> 03:17:21.480 John Compton: nuances or insights, just like what Nick brought on. But it's also going to open up the can of worms. 1420 03:17:21.760 --> 03:17:32.989 John Compton: Okay, that's fine. I'm just saying that. But I think the most important thing is, because the whole thing is just about triggering events, she might have a way of phrasing that that encompasses… 1421 03:17:33.010 --> 03:17:45.879 John Compton: Does it say in the comprehensive plan in regards to triggering events? I'm not sure. It doesn't say anything in the comprehensive plan specifically about the word triggering events, it's just that this concept of what we're saying, you know. 1422 03:17:45.880 --> 03:17:59.840 John Compton: The concept of reclaiming? That encroachment should be resolved… That encroachment shall be resolved as the occasions occur. Right. We don't want the discussion to be about whether or not 1423 03:17:59.840 --> 03:18:15.100 John Compton: we can reclaim town. Yeah, that's what I'm saying, is that that's where the people are going to interpret this, not as we're just trying to get a definition. That's what we're here to filter, right? Exactly, exactly, because there's so much going on in town right now. 1424 03:18:16.430 --> 03:18:26.359 John Compton: Okay, so, it's… this has been introduced. I already… I put in here Nick's implied amendment. 1425 03:18:26.680 --> 03:18:30.310 John Compton: Proposal to make it, but are not limited to. 1426 03:18:30.630 --> 03:18:34.630 John Compton: And in any event, Barbara has now 1427 03:18:34.790 --> 03:18:54.180 John Compton: requested and… or pointed out that this is something that the town attorney should review, and I agree. So let's put this on her play, along with everything else at the moment, and see if we can get a week solid of her time. We might have to get somewhere. 1428 03:18:54.250 --> 03:18:55.790 John Compton: But, 1429 03:18:57.080 --> 03:19:06.630 John Compton: And… and agree that, those… that will happen, and at that point, you can take this up with her comments. 1430 03:19:08.000 --> 03:19:08.730 John Compton: Daryl. 1431 03:19:08.850 --> 03:19:14.470 John Compton: Meanwhile, we'll ask, you know, we'll point out that this has been proposed public comment. 1432 03:19:15.100 --> 03:19:21.499 John Compton: And we should put in there also that when the triggering event happens, it's the mayor who has the enforcement power. 1433 03:19:22.440 --> 03:19:28.209 John Compton: One other section to go. Yeah. 1434 03:19:28.320 --> 03:19:30.360 John Compton: Open a cup here. I have. 1435 03:19:30.590 --> 03:19:50.440 John Compton: Okay, that's, if that is, the consensus, agreement, we'll do that. We go on to the final, item on council reports. Could I just ask a question? In the materials, you have the proposal for the municipal leaf composting, but I didn't see that on the… Oh! 1436 03:19:52.460 --> 03:20:01.110 John Compton: I neglected to do that, and so, yes, if you bear with us, we should add that to the agenda. 1437 03:20:01.280 --> 03:20:04.879 John Compton: It, it should have been up in the administrative thing. 1438 03:20:05.150 --> 03:20:13.020 John Compton: So what there is, is a proposal from the Sustainability Committee to continue the leaf composting project 1439 03:20:13.150 --> 03:20:17.470 John Compton: And to make a few… they want to make one more bin. 1440 03:20:17.970 --> 03:20:36.820 John Compton: in an area that's already cleared of bamboo, they want the town contractor, our contractor, to help with a variety of things, including turning the leaves. They would like to finally finish the rain barrel gutter collection system. 1441 03:20:36.820 --> 03:20:52.779 John Compton: And that's what the… that's what the proposal… and there may be something else in there. Yeah, that the, office will monitor the number of… Oh, the amount of leaves leaving town, yes. 1442 03:20:52.800 --> 03:21:06.750 John Compton: Watch for that. They already talked, yeah. Kitty. Yes. Okay, you need to communicate with, Green Earth, or whatever they're called now, which is not Green Earth. 1443 03:21:06.970 --> 03:21:17.309 John Compton: Because leaf collection… I think they were doing that before, but… Yes, it's in their contract, and we just need to remind them that we want that information. 1444 03:21:18.460 --> 03:21:28.140 John Compton: okay, so we stuck this back into the agenda here as, as new business. 1445 03:21:28.490 --> 03:21:40.490 John Compton: Which is fine. We need a motion? We need a motion to approve the year 4 of the leaf compost. I think the motion to approve the year 4. Remusable leaf composting. 1446 03:21:40.990 --> 03:21:45.840 John Compton: Any… Controversy or question on that? All in favor? 1447 03:21:46.210 --> 03:21:53.859 John Compton: Okay, thanks. Thank you, Barbara. I literally overlooked it. I put the document in there and didn't put the… 1448 03:21:54.170 --> 03:21:55.530 John Compton: Thing on the agenda. 1449 03:21:55.600 --> 03:22:12.099 John Compton: Okay, Council Reports. We'll go through this quickly. Lighting committee, John reported that the balloons right outside of here, which have been subject to being knocked over, they are unstable, but a plan to set them in concrete 1450 03:22:12.100 --> 03:22:18.490 John Compton: As well as move them across the walkway, where they will be out of harm's way, more out of one's way. 1451 03:22:18.490 --> 03:22:20.470 John Compton: They're never out of harm's way. 1452 03:22:20.580 --> 03:22:26.949 John Compton: Has been, has been conceived, and the plan is to execute that. 1453 03:22:27.500 --> 03:22:29.230 John Compton: Mcatherine Hall. 1454 03:22:29.560 --> 03:22:36.759 John Compton: This is a big one, fortunately not for this year, or the next year. The piano? What? Piano tuning? 1455 03:22:36.810 --> 03:22:53.960 John Compton: Nope. Elevator. Elevator function. So we had an annual inspection of the elevator. Chris reports, and he was, you know, read the reports and had the annual inspection, which we passed, but the technician 1456 03:22:54.590 --> 03:23:10.519 John Compton: reported that the elevator is an old elevator, and has worn, in spite of its lack of use, relative lack of use, and is unlikely to meet the 5-year inspection requirements. 1457 03:23:10.760 --> 03:23:12.749 John Compton: Which occur in 2030. 1458 03:23:13.950 --> 03:23:18.690 John Compton: Apparently, it won't handle the weight. There already is a weight issue. 1459 03:23:18.960 --> 03:23:24.700 John Compton: So, we're going to have to do something about the elevator and… the technicians… 1460 03:23:25.670 --> 03:23:39.080 John Compton: professional opinion was that it probably should be replaced. Worker's the owner. What? Worker's the owner. The well-kept secret. 1461 03:23:39.080 --> 03:24:00.350 John Compton: In the front, it's to the left. Yeah, it's down from this level up. It's part of the ADA compliance. It's for, yeah, ADA. It's an ADA, yeah. It's fairly well hidden. Yeah, it really is. Yeah. It just, it's one of those… 1462 03:24:00.350 --> 03:24:03.339 John Compton: A floor, to one floor. Okay. 1463 03:24:03.340 --> 03:24:07.619 John Compton: So, maintenance. Peter, 1464 03:24:07.620 --> 03:24:23.970 John Compton: was reported, that, these… there are drainage issues in the circle, when there's heavy rain, and they've done some investigating as to the cause of why… why are there drainage issues? Unbelievable. And they're going to re… 1465 03:24:24.250 --> 03:24:32.960 John Compton: continue that investigation to determine what can be done to fix the drainage issue. Apparently, there's a drainage pipe? 1466 03:24:33.710 --> 03:24:46.400 John Compton: somewhere, but nobody seems to know quite where it goes. It may be clogged, and we may… No, the drain… the drain is… it's unbelievable. When you pull up that… that grate… Yeah? 1467 03:24:46.510 --> 03:25:00.079 John Compton: At… at ground level, it is solid, compacted dirt from there, right? All the ways as far as it goes. It's never been cleaned in 40 years. So it's been filled? It hasn't worked… it hasn't worked in… 1468 03:25:00.700 --> 03:25:04.050 John Compton: Probably about 8 or 9 years ago? Yeah. 1469 03:25:04.790 --> 03:25:19.470 John Compton: Okay. Especially how many leaves you get in this… Yeah, it's… I'm sure it's all leaves, so… Okay, so there's issues… So that's being looked at in the circle. I'm trying to top Chris's $130,000, whatever. 1470 03:25:20.090 --> 03:25:22.280 John Compton: Yeah, you'll get there. 1471 03:25:22.450 --> 03:25:38.939 John Compton: Marilynn Found Sustainability reports several, events that are planned by the Sustainability Committee. A fall incentive workshop, that's an incentive for, converting to, clean energy, 1472 03:25:39.070 --> 03:25:45.190 John Compton: systems, It's been tentatively planned, I believe it's for October. 1473 03:25:45.430 --> 03:25:57.330 John Compton: No date yet. And they are also sponsoring a, tour of the transfer station on Friday afternoon, October 16th, so… 1474 03:25:57.510 --> 03:26:02.739 John Compton: Anyone interested in, touring the, the transfer station? 1475 03:26:03.080 --> 03:26:07.039 John Compton: All the features of the transfer day, and there are a lot. 1476 03:26:07.360 --> 03:26:11.779 John Compton: I don't know if any of you, man… whew 1477 03:26:11.780 --> 03:26:36.660 John Compton: got to that town hall that two council members held. I did, yeah. Did you? Yes. Oh, can you give a brief report on what, what, what, what? Brief report. Very brief. I don't want to hear all the bellyache, man, I want to hear what the actual, consequences of the… So, the, goal for the current administration, right, with the current counselors. 1478 03:26:36.900 --> 03:26:38.570 John Compton: Is to vote. 1479 03:26:38.760 --> 03:26:53.509 John Compton: by November, because there's… some of them are leaving in December, on whether they want to shut down the incinerator. Oh, that, yeah. Yeah. Which… the materials to feed the incinerator are hauled out by train. 1480 03:26:53.880 --> 03:27:12.440 John Compton: And… and what happens to all the refuse now? Well, they're gonna segregate, go into this modernistic, you know, we're gonna… we're gonna compost so many percent of stuff, and we're gonna… long story short is they're gonna put, like, 90 trucks on the road between 3 in the morning and 3 in the afternoon. 1481 03:27:12.610 --> 03:27:25.520 John Compton: And trunk it to Pennsylvania? And trunk it to Virginia. The price of diesel fuel? And then, so that's how they plan on getting rid of the waste, but what if… 1482 03:27:25.570 --> 03:27:41.589 John Compton: the question is, is what if… what if Virginia decides to close the orders and not accept, or what if the rate for disposal goes up? I mean, we're footing that bill. And they're saying that right now, with the current estimates, you're only going to pay 1483 03:27:41.590 --> 03:27:53.420 John Compton: I forgot what they said, like, you know, $10 a year or more, which I doubt. That's what PEPCO said when they sold all their facilities and went distribution only. What are your electric bills like? 1484 03:27:53.480 --> 03:28:09.740 John Compton: So that… that's pretty much it. They want to take a vote this year, and in the later, news article that came out, it's because the council president, I forgot her name, Hannity Gonzalez, I don't know. She's saying that there are, you know. 1485 03:28:09.860 --> 03:28:11.700 John Compton: They're probably gonna vote at that. 1486 03:28:11.790 --> 03:28:12.929 John Compton: Put it down. 1487 03:28:12.930 --> 03:28:32.099 John Compton: Yeah, well, so, I have a couple of comments. First of all, I think it's morally indefensible to ship all your garbage somewhere else. So, you know, at least Maryland should get a grip on the garbage situation, and not pawn it off on another state. I mean, that's just in principle. 1488 03:28:32.100 --> 03:28:37.100 John Compton: But secondly, All of this trucking activity. 1489 03:28:37.180 --> 03:28:38.779 John Compton: is proposed. 1490 03:28:39.000 --> 03:28:44.220 John Compton: for that transfer station. Yes. And it would be substantially 1491 03:28:44.710 --> 03:28:56.100 John Compton: modernized, expanded, whatever, to accomplish that. And the idea of reducing the landfill By a modern shorting system. 1492 03:28:56.420 --> 03:29:04.270 John Compton: the question is, you know, how effective, you know, what… as Kristina pointed out, you're still left with a lot of landfill. 1493 03:29:04.760 --> 03:29:06.260 John Compton: And, you know… 1494 03:29:06.420 --> 03:29:19.089 John Compton: Not that I crash, but do you remember… do you remember when, when I first moved here? I don't know if you were here at that point. Was there a crash issue? They wanted to… they wanted to build the incinerator at the transfer station. 1495 03:29:19.090 --> 03:29:30.600 John Compton: And we had… do you guys know that? No, I don't know. That was the plan, they were gonna do it, and they had a… they had this chart, a circle, of the kill zone, all around what it would do to the area. 1496 03:29:30.600 --> 03:29:45.290 John Compton: And they were gonna put that, you know that stack at Dickerson? That was going here. And yeah, you guys know, you guys didn't know that? No, no. Yeah, and it was… it was, like, serious, and they… it was… they wanted to do it, and, you know, obviously it got turned down at the end, but… 1497 03:29:45.290 --> 03:29:55.449 John Compton: It was, so part of that, too, is because of deferred maintenance on the Dickerson facility, and… Oh, because I neither need to… you're right. 1498 03:29:55.480 --> 03:29:59.160 John Compton: They need to invest in the Dickerson, 1499 03:29:59.210 --> 03:30:13.019 John Compton: plant. It's prime real estate. …or do something… Yeah. Something else. And they've extended the contract. I guess some contractor out of New Jersey is running the facility right now, and they had to extend their contract to 2030. 1500 03:30:13.060 --> 03:30:24.220 John Compton: Well, and they've provided for canceling it if it's shut down. 2030, that's not very far. So, yeah, this all wouldn't happen probably before. Wow. Yeah, and that's why they want to vote. 1501 03:30:24.220 --> 03:30:33.779 John Compton: Yes. Soon, in order to figure out what to do and what the refurbishments have to be. And would you recommend that, with this meeting coming up, for the, 1502 03:30:34.000 --> 03:30:47.420 John Compton: Like that. Would you recommend… is that worth us attending, like, listening to it, or is it, like… Jane Kopoznik, the leading, the design and construction team, explained 1503 03:30:47.860 --> 03:30:49.589 John Compton: Push the bike's boat path. 1504 03:30:50.090 --> 03:31:02.739 John Compton: people wanted to know, why are they having a public hearing at this late? Yeah, yeah. And, you know, she basically said, because we're required to, because sometime in the past. 1505 03:31:02.840 --> 03:31:08.739 John Compton: There was some plan that got… A huge public outcry. 1506 03:31:08.980 --> 03:31:26.369 John Compton: Where they didn't have a hearing at the very end of the planning process before construction, and it was a huge uproar. So, to fix that, they inserted this requirement at the last stage of planning, a public hearing. 1507 03:31:26.690 --> 03:31:37.689 John Compton: So that this wouldn't happen again. That was her explanation, because the plan is done. Yeah. And this plan, like many others, has had huge public input. 1508 03:31:37.950 --> 03:31:50.569 John Compton: you know, the idea that there was any… would be anything that would be a problem is ludicrous. Why have it? But they have it. I can think of a few names in town who we'll be… we'll be hearing from on… on that. 1509 03:31:51.050 --> 03:31:53.150 John Compton: So you have to report on the late committee. 1510 03:31:54.120 --> 03:32:09.599 John Compton: I'm sorry, I'm still going, yes. Oh. Yes, lastly, out of the Lake… out of the Lake Committee, and this is a big year for rules and regulations, the Lake Committee is… is looking to revise where appropriate. 1511 03:32:09.600 --> 03:32:23.909 John Compton: the rules and regulations at the lake, and they will be bringing those revisions to the… the plan is to bring it to the council. So, today we've talked about the woods used and regulations, we've talked about now the lake. 1512 03:32:23.910 --> 03:32:29.929 John Compton: I did not mention here is that we also need to revise the Woodward Park 1513 03:32:30.460 --> 03:32:41.370 John Compton: probably regulations because of the reservation system for the passports. Which is not Bho? 1514 03:32:41.700 --> 03:32:48.460 John Compton: Which isn't… it's not… Not in place. And the pro… and while the lake and the, 1515 03:32:48.690 --> 03:32:53.100 John Compton: The lake and the woods are both resolutions, which is sensible. 1516 03:32:53.940 --> 03:33:11.620 John Compton: report regulations as an ordinance. Oh, great. That's what I'm talking about the drug dealers, not the… No, I'll try it. I have one more comment… They're gonna prohibit drug dealers, yeah, they've been permitted. What is the percentage we're getting from them. I have one more comment about the lake, which is kind of a buried, 1517 03:33:11.620 --> 03:33:20.339 John Compton: budget issue that's coming up is dredging a lake. It's on our… it's on… it's on the capital improvement. Okay, yeah. It just keeps… 1518 03:33:20.340 --> 03:33:28.099 John Compton: Getting closer. But it's getting closer, yeah. In the next couple years, it's probably… People are longer meetings. 1519 03:33:28.320 --> 03:33:32.210 John Compton: Yeah. Okay. Alright. 1520 03:33:32.380 --> 03:33:41.769 John Compton: Okay. Second. I don't have dinner. Thanks, Gerald. Thanks, guys. Good job. Oh, wow. 1521 03:33:41.780 --> 03:34:01.740 John Compton: Playground Committee's upset that they can't… Well, they're going ahead. All the trash. They're using trucks instead of the railroad, which is already there.