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HomeMy WebLinkAbout01-27-2020 Stevens Estate Long Term Advisory Committee Minutes: Stevens Estate Long Term Advisory Committee January 27, 2020 In Attendance: Chair James Lafond; Members: CJ Gangi,Joseph Pelich,Jennifer Burns-Luz,John Mabon, Kathleen Stagno; Staff: Andrew Shapiro (Director of Community and Economic Development). Absent: Kevin Driscoll. The meeting was called to order at 7:02 by James Lafond. Appointment of Recording Secretary: Chair Lafond suggested the members rotate the duties of the Recording Secretary. John Mabon volunteered to serve those duties for the current meeting. Motion: CJ Gangi made a motion to adopt the practice of rotating Recording Secretary duties among the committee members,Joseph Pelich seconded the motion. Vote: 4-0. Jennifer Burns-Luz joined the meeting. Appointment of Vice-Chair: Mr. Lafond asked the members to vote on appointment of Joseph Pelich as committee Vice-Chair, as discussed at the 1/6/20 meeting. Motion: CJ Gangi made a motion to assign Joseph Pelich as committee Vice-Chair,John Mabon seconded the motion. Vote: 5-0. Acceptance of Minutes from the 1/6/20 Meeting: Motion:Jennifer Burns-Luz made a motion to accept the minutes from the 1/6/20 meeting as drafted, Joseph Pelich seconded the motion. Vote: 5-0. Kathleen Stagno joined the meeting. New Business: Chair Lafond noted that he was recently notified by the Town that training on the Commonwealth's Open Meeting Laws and Conflict of Interest would be offered at the Library on 2/4/20. He said that he is planning to attend on behalf of the Committee and that all Committee members are welcome to attend as well. No R.S.V.P. is required. Mr. Lafond then explained that based on past discussions with the Committee, Organizations under consideration for partnership to aid the Town in managing the Stevens Estate include: 1. Trustees of Reservations 2. Essex County Greenbelt 3. Mass. Audubon Society 4. Historic New England Nick Rossi of Mass Audubon would like to visit the Stevens Estate. The organization has experience in helping communities manage conservation efforts. Mr. Lafond has also spoken with Bob Wilbur, Director of Land Conservation for Mass. Audubon. Essex County Greenbelt already holds multiple Conservation Restrictions (CRs) for North Andover and Historic New England also holds CRs for private landowners in Town. At least one Committee Member will need to reach out to these respective organizations to serve as a point of contact. A. New Business: Review& Discussion of Cell Tower Contract: Overview by Andrew Shapiro:The contract with SBA Steel, LLC is for 10 years, beginning in 2014, with another 10 year renewal term as an option by both parties. Current annual yearly receipts are approximately$45,000, increasing to over$60,000 by year 16 of the contract. Proceeds received under this contract are currently going to the Town's General Fund. The idea of the proceeds instead going to the Estate's Enterprise Fund was raised and discussed by the Committee; it was noted that this could be a recommendation made for revenue in the Committee's final recommendations to the Board of Selectmen. Mr. Shapiro said that he would find out what year the towers were built and the history of the license contract. He would filter questions from Committee members to Mr. Lafond and will research answers from those appropriate Town Hall employees. Mr. Pelich inquired if cell tower use could be expanded under contract renewal; if more revenue could be derived. It was noted that signal interference however, might prevent expansion of towers with similar frequencies. Public Comment(s): Diane Huster(279 Winter St.) reported the Cell Tower was built in 2000. Ellen Mosier(137 Kara Drive) reported the tower also provides Emergency Management services. Ellen reported according to minutes from Selectmen's meetings, Stevens Estate Committee meetings and Town Meetings, revenue from the Cell Tower contract was originally intended to support the Stevens Estate Enterprise Fund and was changed in approximately 2002. Ellen will locate and present the minutes if possible. B. Old Business:Continued Discussion Regarding Community Outreach Process: Documents provided/reviewed: • Draft Survey • Draft Public Input Form • Draft Flyer • Flash Vote Survey Results 1/ Flash Vote Survey Results 2 • Draft Hard Copy Public Input Form Andrew Shapiro noted the current draft of the survey was distributed to the Committee by email for review. The Town Manager was generally supportive and favored a survey with fewer questions, questioned if question#5 could be shortened and the wording "softened," and if question#7 could instead present a list of priorities to the respondents for ranking. In addition to the survey questions,the current outreach plan includes an online Public Input Form, a paper Flyer with QR code link to the Public Input Form, and a paper Flyer to collect free-form comments. Motion:Joseph Pelich made a motion to proceed in launching the online and hard copy Public Input Forms,Jennifer Burns-Luz seconded the motion. Vote: 6-0. Andrew Shapiro then presented an option, used by the Town of Sudbury,to launch a more detailed online survey with FlashVote, an online survey services provider. Details discussed: 1. How it works- pre-advertised period to increase awareness, 48 hour online response period, analysis of responses and reporting of results. 2. The number of questions can be both multiple choice and freeform answers,with the length typically limited to five (5) questions. 3. FlashVote will work with the Committee to refine our current list of questions to adapt to their format, or to develop new questions. 4. FlashVote analysis report includes the total number of responses, reporting of response totals for each multiple choice question, includes a listing all freeform answers and presents a Word Map to identify prominent terms within the freeform answers. Member comments included:J. Pelich likes the option,J. Lafond questions the collection of demographic information, K. Stagno liked the limited number of questions to get people engaged, CJ Gangi is concerned about the statistical validity of the results. On the subject of validity, we should eliminate the potential for a single demographic group to be grossly overrepresented through multiple responses by household and generating large numbers of robotic responses. Mr. Shapiro noted that FlashVote will most likely have a mechanism (such as dual factor authentication)to avoid instances of fraudulent voting. It was decided that the Committee will have final say on how the survey results should be best used once they become available and are reviewed. J. Lafond asked to consider the content of some individual questions. • Q1:Are age questions ok? Is this information relevant? • Q2: Should this question be eliminated? • Q3: Invite freeform input instead? • Q4: Invite ranked responses from a limited list of values? Andrew Shapiro will contact FlashVote to answer the questions and concerns and will report back to the Committee at the next meeting. Andrew will be assisted by Kathleen Stagno. Public Input: Ellen Mosier(137 Kara Drive) stated that the Stevens Estate is self-sustaining, and that the Trustees have collected public input and would like to share those results with the Committee. Diane Huster(279 Winter Street) questioned if tax dollars would be used to support Stevens Estate operations, and suggested alternate funding sources such as CPA funds for Historical Preservation, Cell Tower license proceeds and fundraising by Stevens Estate Trustees. C. Old: Continued Discussion Regarding Review of Comparable Facilities: Documents provided/reviewed: • Comparable Facilities (provided by Estate Director) • Comparable Facilities Two lists of comparable facilities were presented at the last meeting: List of Municipal-owned facilities (compiled by Laurie Burzaff) and a List of Stevens Estate Competitors (by Estate Director Joanna Oullette). J. Lafond contacted three (3)from the Municipal list (Pierce, Payne, and Andover Town Hall) and received one (1) response. He also suggested we add the Endicott House (Joe Nahill, contact) to the list of Municipal facilities. Jim will maintain contact with these three facilities and asked for help on the remainder of the list. K. Stagno volunteered to contact the Thayer&Stetson facilities, and J. Burns-Luz and CJ Gangi also volunteered to help with the information gathering. J. Lafond will create a list of questions for consistency of outreach, and will work with the Committee Member volunteers to collect meaningful results for the next meeting. Thoughts on questions include: 1. Town/Municipally owned? 2. Financial structure (i.e. enterprise fund, etc.) 3. Level of profitability, sustainability? 4. Are operations partly or fully seasonal? 5. Do they hold an endowment to support long term operations? Public Input: Ellen Mosier(137 Kara Drive) informed the Committee that many of the "competitors" listed will be meeting in the near future at a networking event at the Stevens Estate; she will report the date of the event once it is known. The Committee should consider sending a representative to the event as part of the information gathering effort. Discussion and vote on future meeting date(s): The Committee will meet on Friday,January 31, 2020 at Sam for a tour of the Stevens Estate with Facilities Director Stephen Foster.J. Lafond suggested that all attendees dress warmly, wear sturdy shoes and bring a flashlight with them for this tour. The Committee then discussed potential dates for the next two meetings,focusing on Monday and Thursday evenings. The Committee identified Monday 2/10/20 (7pm), and Thursday 2/27/20 (7pm)for the next meeting dates. Motion:Jennifer Burns-Luz made a motion to set the next two (2) Committee meetings on 2/10/20 (7pm) and 2/27/20 (7pm), Kathleen Stagno seconded the motion. Vote: 6-0. J. Pelich suggested the Committee invite a representative from the Trustees of Reservations to the 2/10/20 meeting for an exchange with the Committee. J. Lafond raised the question as to whether the invitation should be extended to Essex County Greenbelt, Historic New England, and Mass. Audubon as well, and Committee members are asked to review the websites of the four organizations to help generate advance questions for their representative(s). All advance questions should be forwarded to J. Lafond and A. Shapiro for compilation. J. Pelich also commented that he believes the Trustees to have the largest Capital Funding resources of the others under consideration,which is important to the near term and long term considerations for the Stevens Estate. Mr. Pelich added that a favorable partnership structure might include the Town retaining ownership of the Estate,with a third party holding a "Ground Lease" for a long term (i.e. 50 years), with benefits and management responsibilities related to the Stevens Estate operations. The Town would also pursue its own representation in the Steering Efforts during the lease to assure consistent administration of the original intent of the lease and to assure community benefits remain active. Information on the four potential partners discussed,which was relayed verbally to the Committee by Mr. Pelic and Lafond is in the table below. Organization Focus Revenue Employees Volunteers Investment ($MM) ($MM) Trustees Education, $36.5 800 1450 $150 programs Essex Cty. Land $11 14 200 $13 Greenbelt preservation Historic N.E. Historic home $16 342 504 $144.4 preservation MA Audubon Education, $35 1200 15,000 $149.7 programs Adjournment: At 8:38 PM,J. Mabon made a motion to adjourn the meeting, and was seconded by J. Burns-Luz. Vote: 6-0.