City of Portsmouth, New Hampshire Prescott Park Master Plan Implementation, 5 Apr 2022

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From YouTube: 4.5.2022 Prescott Park Master Plan Implementation Committee

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4.5.2022 Prescott Park Master Plan Implementation Committee

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Okay, good afternoon, everyone, let me begin by apologizing to those who have been waiting.

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Particularly online, we had a little technical difficulty, but we've now solved that.

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So I will my name: is tom watson, I'm the chair of the prescott park, implementation.

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Master plan implementation committee, I'd like to open the meeting and begin with a roll call of.

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Attendees, so I'm going to ask each of you to give your full name for the benefit of the people who.

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Are either online? Who may be watching this on tv later date? Hopefully not too many people will be.

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Watching on tv, why don't we begin with you? Beth, uh yes, beth marchesson assistant, mayor joanna kelly,.

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Are you I'm not a member, oh robin lori, meyerkoff, okay and, as I said, tom watson, uh genevieve.

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uh Is excused because she got caught up in the flight mess.

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Over the weekend, and so we've excused her attendance and I'd, ask other people to also.

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Announce who you are so the record will reflect that uh peter rice, director of public works and.

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Joe almeida facilities, manager and cassie, you want to tell us who you are: I'm cassie bethany.

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I'm um samson and project manager on prescott park phase one improvements.

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Okay, um who else is on the zoo meeting other than members of the public? Who wants to be recognized.

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Cassie, do you have other staff members that you wanted to have promoted to uh panelists.

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No just just me here: okay, all right, I will uh declare that there is a quorum and we'll.

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Proceed with the with the meeting um before we get to the substance of the meeting, and as I.

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Promised everybody this will be a very short meeting. We have a very.

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uh Discrete issue we need to discuss, and hopefully, resolve which comes to us relatively recently, an.

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Opportunity, but before doing that, I'd like to welcome the assistant mayor as a new member of.

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The committee, thank you, I'm very excited to join the committee. We've got lots of background stuff.

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Lots of catching up to dip welcome uh so uh again the the uh the purpose today.

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uh Let me just drop back so the last time the committee met was on december 13th, at which time.

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uh We heard a number of or received a fair amount of data from our consultants about some of the.

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Structural analysis and the testing environmental related testing that was done. The test pits that.

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Type of thing, and as a result of that, we tweaked the plan a little bit primarily relating to.

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The relocation of straw warehouse the addition of the uh to the shaw, warehouse uh and uh relocating.

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uh The stage the the seasonal stage in that same rail, if you will, where the shaw presently sits.

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Since that time, the consultants have continued to work up uh the specifics of the I should say.

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The actual design components of phase one and, in the course of doing that, an opportunity for some.

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Funding for phase one has come forward and I don't want to sort of steal the the fire.

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From cassie, but there's some opportunity for some state money that is, will be available this spring.

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At least the decision will be made this spring for improvements in infrastructure and related.

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Improvements that will improve uh climate resiliency, uh and that, of course, we know, is a big.

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Issue in this park because it sits on the river so with that, uh I will turn it over to cassie to.

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Tell us where we're at thank you tom, um so I saw this interesting opportunity come through my email.

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Through the new hampshire coastal adaptation working group- and it's a grant that is spearheaded.

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By the new hampshire department of environmental services, it's actually funded by the america.

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Rescue plan act arpa if you're familiar with that and it's being administered by new hampshire des.

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It is focused on applications for flood resilience and storm water management, and it's only eligible.

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Applicants are are new hampshire municipalities within the 42 communities that constitute.

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The coastal watershed, so, of course I thought press.park would be a perfect fit for this grant.

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There are two areas where you can make an application. There's an implementation.

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Application, which is a hundred thousand dollars- and it's focused mostly on.

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Final design permitting and construction um and then there's I'm sorry. I misspoke there's.

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A planning and assessment phase, which is design focused and that's a hundred thousand dollars.

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uh And not to exceed amount, and then we have implementation, which is final design permitting.

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And construction, um we were thinking of going for the full two and a half million dollar request for.

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Construction purposes, um which would certainly help and the request would be focused on all the.

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Resiliency strategies that we're putting in place within the phase one improvements, as you know, the.

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The resiliency goals of the park improvements are focused in phase one, um so it seems to be a.

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A perfect fit based on their examples that they included where we check many of the boxes.

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Like upgrading, tidal culverts, improving drainage infrastructure.

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Deployable flood barriers, which is our seawall and not deployable, but in addition to.

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Flood proofing, the shaw raising and relocating, which would fall under this category as well.

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The shaw warehouse, so I think we have a strong application. I've been working to develop it and.

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Part of this request, and why we're here today, is that we're looking part of the application.

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Is a letter of support from stakeholders who are interested in seeing these improvements happen and.

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Of course, the blue blue ribbon committee is is um we would love a letter of support? Of course,.

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From this committee, we are also, we requested a letter of support from the arts festival.

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And wesson sampson, and to look into luke and are providing letters of commitment which are also.

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Required as part of the application, I'm happy to answer any other questions, but that's a high level.

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Overview and when is the deadline, once you tell the committee when the deadline is for submitting.

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This material or um applications are due on april 15th, so the end of next week, and you need a letter.

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Of support, or whatever letters of support, you're going to acquire by that date as well right.

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Correct: okay, any questions about the process or the amount of the.

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Grant or just a question what about the other users of the park, the new.

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Hampshire, heart association and gondola have they been approached.

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We have not approached them, yet we were thinking for the resiliency focus.

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The arts festival is the most affected by that. If this group committee feels that it's that.

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Those groups should be approached. We can certainly do that. Well, I I mean I'll leave it up to you.

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Folks and your um your discretion, I don't want to slow anything down, but I thought you know maybe.

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Not than art association because they set up in the sheaf, but the gundalo. You know because of what.

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They do, but certainly if that's gonna slow the process, then that's fine. It's just curious more.

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Than anything else, how many letters of support are normal in this type of uh grant situation.

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um That's a great question: this is the first grant of its kind.

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Because it's coming from arpa funding, so there is no guidance on number of letters of support.

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So maybe to beth's point, um maybe approaching one or two of those organizations.

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Yeah, we'll we'll follow up on that yeah I mean I'm sure they have to meet as a board and stuff.

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And they may not be able to pull it off in time. So it's just a thought. Good point. Other questions.

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I mean it seems um kind of ridiculous not to go for it. If we can exactly.

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You were going to say cassie, oh um two, things to add. First, there was a workshop webinar that.

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I attended earlier this month uh talking about the details of the grant. They do look favorably.

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Upon applications that reach a large group, so if there are ways that we can impress upon.

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The uh reviewers of the applications, that of the amount of impact that will be.

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Solving or having I guess that would be looked upon favorably. They also like to.

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They will provide up to two and a half million. We could make the request for two.

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And a half million and they could uh agree to that. They could also award an amount.

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Up to that full value, depending on what like they've, how they'd like to break up the awards.

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um The total value of the full, the full arpa funding, is four and a half million, so they haven't.

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Yet decided if they're going to award a few large projects like ours would be, or if they're going to.

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Award many smaller projects or some combination there.

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I I think, in terms of impacts, like large impacts. It's um you know. The resiliency is also for the.

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Benefit of all the south end and also strawberry bank right, you know the it I mean, that's primarily.

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From what I remember, the resiliency features were really to help not just the park, but everyone in.

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The south end so would getting a letter of support from strawberry bank be too outside the bounds.

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Of what we're looking for, because that's a really good point, strawberry bank is yeah bank.

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Is ground zero, yeah right exactly but they're also really well known in the state and a big entity.

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Also, I suppose, how about the south end uh neighborhood association, oh.

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I can ask them, I don't want to no I'm not I just I'm, I'm pay, but I'm not. You know, I'm not in a.

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Leadership position, I don't even know who's the president or anything is it still mary and esther.

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It could just be mary, I think mary thomas, but I can ask, but again I don't want to you.

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Know I mean if they can pull it together in time like it's due the 15th case, so you would have to.

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Be postmarked the 15th or submit it on a portal, the 15th? Well, it would be submitted as part of the.

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Package, yeah yeah, it's an online application and it needs to be uploaded and I would be doing the.

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Upload by 4 p.m: okay, alrighty I'll reach out to foster I'd love to not be doing the board of 369.

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All right well, so so, let's, let's kind of do this, uh assuming we're going to vote in a minute to.

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Actually issue a letter of of uh approval um of support, uh if you could reach out to the south.

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End and if that's something, then if they need some questions and put them in touch with cassie.

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um Would you like me to reach out to strawberry bank uh sure that would be great.

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um Want me to reach out to gondola. Do you think absolutely if you get a connection there so.

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And just um yeah, probably the best thing to do would be to if, if that's something they can do.

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You know, I don't know, like the strawberry bank board comes from all over the place, so it might.

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Be difficult, but it may be something that that you know larry or somebody could just issue on its.

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Own without having to go through a border pool and again this is just a you know, nobody's being asked.

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To commit to something, this is just supporting the city's application, even if they grant the.

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Make the grant to to the city the city council would still have to accept it. The terms would.

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Be negotiated in a grant agreement that type of thing, so it doesn't require the formality of some.

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Type of a formal vote is just sort of a statement of support because of the uh improvements in in.

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Resiliency, could we be get? Could we get sent on email, some specific language, so we're.

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We're clear about what we're asking for, in this uh letter of support, sure absolutely yeah.

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So what I would like to entertain is a motion that that this committee uh issue a letter of.

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Support for the application, and um what I would suggest is that you know the motion would include.

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My working out the language with cassidy and joe for the actual letter, because we won't have.

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A chance to get back together to approve the actual letter, but I think it's just a.

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Vote to support the application. That is the most important thing. Do you need public comment? First,.

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Before the motion- yes yeah um yeah, we probably should do that. I know we have one person.

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And this is our only item of business, so why don't we set that aside and.

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Peter, if you'd like to speak to this, or you just want to make general comment.

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Okay, all right, then,.

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My general comment: this is fantastic, go for it perfect! Thank you um all right is there. Anybody.

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uh On the zoom call who would like to comment on this motion before we before it's made? Okay, so now.

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I'll entertain a motion to issue a letter of uh approval for the application uh grant application.

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And to uh authorize me to work with joe and cassie and and actually crafting the letter.

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So moved, okay, all right any further discussion about motion or hearing none and we don't need.

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A roll call because we don't have any committee members, okay, all in favor of the motion.

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All right and the chair votes, I any against unanimous, excellent. Okay um thanks cassie.

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You're, finding that thank you, cassie and I'll follow up with you from the draft peter's room.

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Okay, all right uh before I entertain a motion adjourn. I want to just pass out because I know.

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People have asked about this in the past. This is the sign that will go up in the park. You can.

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See it is finished, it's been finished for a while joe's been working with our uh you need one peter.

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Thank you. Thank you guys for doing this. This has been something that I've I've wanted for a while.

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So I really appreciate it um so joe. You can give us a more precise update, but at least as of the.

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End of last week he's working with trying to get the yeah it is. The sign has been printed, it's a.

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Waiting for me to pick it up, it's a very large sign, but I do need to and I do need to have.

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The staff carpenter build a structure to mount it onto um so um and that person is very busy so.

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We are, we are working hard to get this to the top of his priority list and uh yeah.

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We're working on it yeah, it's not something I can just simply clip to a fence over there.

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Because it's it's a it's a big, it's a big, it's a wonderful sign, but it's very large and.

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And it's informative, but I want to make sure that we'll get it up before the season really kicks.

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And that's really what counts absolutely for people's children. Absolutely.

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uh Any other questions at all: where will this one play? Sorry? Where will this be placed.

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I'm drawing a blank right now to be determined. I don't think I don't think. We've we've settled.

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On an exact location of it, I know that there's there's there are areas of the park we wanted.

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um To place it, but as I recall, the committee thought that the entrance up on state street.

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Yes was the area because that's really where people come into the park, yeah.

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That was that was my recollection, so yeah is there one or two of these one? Okay, yeah.

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I think that's the consensus that that will get the greatest exposure. um Okay and thanks for joe.

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And peter for working on this, because I think this is really a great thing. This is, you know.

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What that's a good idea? Yeah, it's a good just another way to have people access information.

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Exactly there's so many as we know, there's so many rumors that spread very quickly about things so.

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It's nice to have some facts: yep and, and I've been working with cassie on getting sort of an updated.

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Diagram of the master plan, reflecting the various changes that have been made so that.

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Will be on this site, so we won't have the problem that has happened at past meetings where people.

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Come up and they're asking questions about an earlier version of the plan, so that should be.

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Available, you know by the time we put this sign up great okay, any other new business or no okay.

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Then I'll entertain a motion to adjourn so moved. Second, all in favor aye opposed it's unanimous.

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Thank you all. This is probably one of the best meetings I have attended in a very long time.