Topsham community center committee finalizes pre-planning documents

[0:25] Chair/presiding officer: So we will call this meeting to order for September 28th. Call it at 5:15 p.m. It appears that everybody is present and I got it for yeah I guess we picked a good date. No guests in the room and no guests online that we see at the moment, correct? Great. Does anybody have any changes to the agenda? Oh, we moved up the review minutes. Okay, sorry. Sorry. So we will get this out of the way now. So the August tenth minutes there were 3 copies floating around, because we kept them from our last informal meeting. We just need to vote any individual committee role of communications or follow-up updates to share fantastic [2:10] Mark: town updates Mark I have started looking at the legislative history to the different changes to the tiff statute so that I can come up with some language that would like to ask the legislature to change to allow it to be used for recreation buildings and then I'm going to reach out to Dan Stevenson over at the MRA with tips and my hope is to get it in the hands of our current legislative delegation before I go for vacation on Wednesday so that they can hopefully get it put in the process to come before the next session of legislature because this is the session they're allowed to do anything whereas the second session they're not allowed to too much for like brand new bills so my hope is to start working for us amended so that it could be a potential use if we had someone that wants to do a tiff and we could [3:09] Speaker C (unidentified): to try to set it up so if that all goes as planned and the legislator votes on it right would that go into effect immediately or is it how does that work let's say it made it through [3:28] Mark: this session and got approved it probably would not be emergency legislation so we're going to affect 90 days from when the legislature finishes meeting so the legislature let's say they finish in I don't know June it's traditionally what they did so that it would be by about this time next year it would be in effect okay so you're still looking at a ways off okay thanks but we've got there's been some talk that Crookers may be getting ready to do something there's also now have interest in the Hundred acre piece across the highway from the top of your wall, and then we're making really good progress with the zoning amendments for the battery storage out of this Farms. The current proposals off the table, but if we change the zoning, you know, there's a good chance someone else may come. So those are three possible areas that might be good opportunities for tips. And so if you can get the statue changed, quite a good way to make it work. There's 100 acres out there, yeah, wow, between like Blueberry Lane and 995.96. [4:35] Speaker C (unidentified): Wow, okay, is it all developable? [4:44] Mark: These projects would need some zoning changes, yeah, but if they went through it to keep the oval interesting, great [4:54] Chair/presiding officer: news, thank you. Harriman updates, I think we just had two final questions for Harriman on, we did, and I did hear back from Mark, and he is more than happy, I shared a copy of this document, and he was absolutely fine. Do I need him to, as long as I have the email where that's one, okay, and I kind of felt that way too, and he told me at the time, which was two days after our last meeting, that he was writing a new RFP, and then he would share it with me. I emailed him again today when I saw the minutes and said hadn't seen that, was hoping to have it to hand Mark, and he said I'll get on it this week, so right. Would you say that this should continue to be a line item on the agenda since we're still waiting for that final piece? I think just to touch base, but I'm hoping that Marvel haven't been gets back from vacation, okay, I know he's got a lot of work there, right. So that we can have it in motion. I know that we have written down the use of the pictures and the RFP piece of it, and so we wanted to be sure that we didn't take it off the agenda until we got what we needed off of it, so we will leave it on there for now. Yeah, I do not. I'm Allison and you are a mic, nice to meet you. [6:40] Mark: Some back Barcelona, he's in my chair, all right, fantastic, well, we're glad you're here, thanks for joining. [7:02] Chair/presiding officer: Okay, so as a follow-up from our last meeting, our plan was to go through the pre-planning material that we had drafted, kind of like beginning to end, to make sure that if there's any final edits, that now would be the time to do it. Our hope is that when Lynn and I give an update to the select board, that we would have this printed in color and finalize. So the one thing I will say that we can start with, if you guys want to go to the last two pages, our notice for the gift range chart was, we had Talked last time about having in an adding in a paragraph that kind of says that for the purpose of this we would be working towards this goal but the pool would be under its own thing. So let me just read through what we have on the top of this and I'll read through every line item. The gift range chart identifies preliminary opportunities for individuals, businesses, and organizations to support the community's long-term goal of establishing a community center for leadership and other philanthropic gifts. Note the purpose of this gift range chart, for the purposes of this gift rate chart the estimated seven million cost of the pool is intentionally excluded. Any fundraising and naming rights for the pool shall be undertaken by this committee as a separate initiatives. Do we feel that captures what we were discussing last time? I [8:44] Speaker D (unidentified): need to adjust to that. [8:46] Speaker E (unidentified): That [8:48] Chair/presiding officer: puts the, that lowers because this chart right here was still a aggressive but the chart itself was at 20 million, we lowered it to 15 which puts us in that kind of 22-ish range because we had always said we didn't want the gift range chart for the goal to be the entire amount of community center with the idea that there might be some grants for other opportunities besides actual cash donations that we would take into effect. So that's how we did this and then the next one we left the kind of generic naming conventions that was provided from our first search opportunities but we wanted to have an opportunity to discuss this as a group to see if people have changes or other things that we want to make. The one thing I have written down as a note and that I didn't put into it was we had said you know is there a way to say you know this tier is this level, this tier is this level, this year and I don't think we're there yet. No, because I just, it felt this seemed more applicable to keep it a little bit more general. [10:11] Speaker C (unidentified): Yeah, I think we'd have to go general and then that'll be more in the fine-tuning aspect of it. [10:19] Chair/presiding officer: Again this is pre-planning documents so this is just will be incorporated into a feasibility study to see is this even doable but based on what we're saying as the potential cost this would be a draft of a gift ring chart we could include in it any changes, amendments, anything we don't like. Are we okay with it being at the 15. [10:50] Speaker C (unidentified): On this page 10, the only thing that kind of jumps out at me is that first gift, a gift range of one to 2.5 million, you have full facility. I'm not sure if that's oh that direction we want to go. Okay, does that does that yeah maybe it after one person about that means I think I've just always kind of felt that it's going to be the Thompson Community Center and then like specific parts of the building. I don't think it's going to be like say we get say we get two million from John Smith, is it going to be the John Smith Community Center right because that doesn't that doesn't that would be 20 million yeah that would be the whole thing right well if somebody wants to give us the money right yeah I mean shoot for the stars right [11:42] Chair/presiding officer: But I don't like the whole facility. Okay we can just call it signature spaces. Yeah, and we can take out overall center and just say main building recreationally central community hall. [12:00] Speaker C (unidentified): Main lobby gymnasium. I think the gymnasium is the one that on the next one. [12:07] Chair/presiding officer: Yeah, I feel like it's I feel like we don't need to. I guess where I meant like these are those are examples like if someone gave us the two and a [12:20] Speaker C (unidentified): half million but really wanted their name on the gymnasium cool yeah exactly yeah and I'm fine with that too I just like I said I just don't want the whole building to be able to go yeah [12:38] Chair/presiding officer: Okay anybody see anything else they don't like I'm just curious the left hand column so if you're [12:45] Speaker D (unidentified): gifting under 25 000 the option is community recognition with that pregnant column but then it says if you're giving ten thousand to a hundred thousand shouldn't this be a under twenty five [12:59] Chair/presiding officer: thousand and then twenty five thousand to one hundred thousand I mean yes but I think it's flexible like maybe if somebody gave us a whole bunch of it like computers and stuff like that maybe you could say in the offices donated by so instead of just community recognition it could be it could be called out in the project itself so I think this is just rough estimates of where [13:29] Speaker D (unidentified): things would lie okay so somebody's saying I'm going to get 30 000 they would know that they [13:33] Chair/presiding officer: would fall under a few different options yes okay you know somebody gave us 30 000 maybe they don't [13:40] Speaker C (unidentified): Want lightning right? Exactly. Yes, okay, yeah. And that being said, I do think, I do like, was it when we went to, where did we go down? Well, we went to James Scott. They had a wall with all of the donors' names, so I think no matter what rack they fall into, I would like to see some sort of recognition if they want it on there. Right, again, that builds community. I don't know exactly how we would incorporate that, but I think that's something that we have this to pay special attention to you because donor Recognition is huge. It's huge just to show that in some respect, to have it always, you know, out there in whatever way we choose. But I really did like that wall. That was really cool because it was right there when you walked in. [14:41] Speaker F (unidentified): Can we go back and chat about the top 2 and just kind of run through it as how it looks? Just it's kind of get a recreation. I don't, I was just looking for the layout of the proposed center. So we'd have a named gymnasium inside of a name recreational wing, and or not necessarily. [15:06] Chair/presiding officer: I think, again, the right hand side are examples of naming opportunities. I think that if we had somebody that named the gymnasium, I think it might pretty much be the recreation area. You want me just to move the gym and pool? I mean, honestly, we should have probably didn't take out pool since we said we're doing that. We maybe move the gym up. Yeah, is that what you're thinking? Yeah, because again, this is all just completely examples. Yeah, but I do understand you don't want someone questioning that. Yeah, do you want an asterisk at the bottom that says any and all of these donation or gifts are to the naming opportunities will be approved by and either this committee or whomever? Or no, I do think that's important. We didn't read through the opening paragraph on this page, but the last sentence does say all opportunities, gift levels and designations remain subject to further Review and approval. Yeah, is it good to like, I didn't know who would be a group or we didn't know who exactly would be approving it. Do you think would be helpful? That's what I'm saying, that will be subject to the board of selection. So let me read the whole paragraph just so we can all hear it. The following naming opportunities are presented as a preliminary planning framework to illustrate how donor recognition could be incorporated throughout the project. All opportunities, gift levels and Designations remain subject to further [16:46] Speaker E (unidentified): The review and the people and just the two words could be leaves that third column pretty flexible. [16:54] Chair/presiding officer: But I do like the idea of essentially building the gym up and taking the pool out because we did call that out earlier, taking out the whole facility, and I also crossed out overall center. Any other changes? Let's see. So I'm just confirming there's not a need for an asterisk below to repeat that. I don't think so. For me, maybe what we could do is put a, I think that's [17:25] Speaker C (unidentified): a discussion point. What if you're November? What if instead of the word example in that third column [17:30] Chair/presiding officer: we put potential instead of example, you know what I mean? Yeah, and then I was going to say put it enter after the period of project so that the all opportunities becomes its own separate thing. People are more likely to read it if it's not all one paragraph. Oh, but yeah, totally. [17:53] Speaker C (unidentified): The only other thing I would question is we haven't even talked about doing any outdoor features. That's part of our plan, so I guess if we got a donation that would have to cover the whole cost of whatever we want would be happening out there, right? So we don't have that in our budget, right? We only have the building. Does that make sense? You know what I'm saying here? Could [18:30] Chair/presiding officer: be a bench inside in an area, but the tree, I'm, I don't know what you're, I get what [18:38] Mark: you're saying. At this point I think you could leave it because if someone comes to order the donations, I want to give this playground and that means you can do it if you don't getting a donation for it, but you know this is all more conceptual even trying to get approval to start the plant as opposed to promising things [19:00] Chair/presiding officer: that you saved me. [19:03] Speaker D (unidentified): I feel like that is almost like other donations and planning, you know, that we reviewed and you know we couldn't ask for that kind of thing, but I agree with the other side, it's right there. Yeah, and I agree with you. Yeah, okay. [19:28] Chair/presiding officer: So going with the potential and then they added the, what were you adding, what was the word you wanted that somebody wanted to add paragraph after project, right? Okay, just an asterisk. Yeah, I'll space it so that it sticks. So we're going to enter and so that it's its own line. Okay, I'm just going to break my own thing right here. Going back to the outdoor one, should we take out trailhead? I'd [20:09] Mark: almost do that because if this happens you probably have the connection to the real trail. You put the back of the project, so I mean I think none of this promises to build any of them, okay, but if you've got someone that says they want to give a bunch [20:23] Speaker C (unidentified): Of late towards a piece of it this place ideas I think okay why not sure why not there we go yeah. [20:35] Chair/presiding officer: Feel free to add some outdoor and accessibility you know we're having to pull the splash pad it's actually quite funny right after you guys talked about that the last meeting there was a salesman who was coming through Maine for splash pad. [20:50] Speaker E (unidentified): Oh no way come visit we weren't at the point of wanting to talk with anybody because once. [20:57] Chair/presiding officer: They get your number then they're on yeah but I was glad to take his card and his information and I would give it to the committee to reach out if there was a decision to go that way okay working our way backwards for a second then the previous section starting on page four with the capital campaign leadership structure I don't think we had any edits that we had as a takeaway from last time again just to kind of go through a draft would be the select board would be the top town of Thompson. Staff us and then we would appoint campaign chairs and then and within that would be our campaign cabinet, ideally with campaign coordinator, major gifts, committee folks, business leadership team, foundation grants and institutional giving community volunteer team and finance team. And then on the next 3 pages it just kind of highlights the responsibilities as it would potentially fall to each of those groups. [Speaker D (unidentified): I.] Didn't have any that we had any edits after we reviewed the updates last time. But I did want to make sure that if anybody found anything or wanted to revisit any of these items. The only thing that I can't remember what version I made it in is I put we had mentioned putting the number of people for each of the campaign each of the cabinet teams. Amy Dabczynski- teams so Okay, so the numbers that you see after it. Amy Dabczynski- All right, our wish list. Amy Dabczynski- Of all these amazing people don't know if we disagree, or do you think I should put people after I don't know I just know. Amy Dabczynski- Other than that I didn't change any of the wording access I didn't have any. [Speaker E (unidentified): Talk about okay.] Now the last piece is going back to the very beginning when we started this whole thing. I think now that we've gone through all of the elements of the pre-planning phase, now would be a good time for us to just review these three pages just as a reminder. The goal is going to be that once we have this exactly the way that we wanted, we'll use this to draft up a presentation for Lynn and I to make to the select board and to help determine what our next steps will be. So what's this is the piece that goes into creating the feasibility study and then we get to determine what parts of the feasibility study and how we would go about that. But let's just take a second and review this because last time we read through it was in the word format. So the town of Topsum has an opportunity to create a lasting community asset that will serve the residents for all ages and for all ages for generations to come. Why this project matters, communities thrive when residents have access to spaces that encourage physical activity, lifelong learning, civic engagement, and social connection. A vision for the future of Topsom, the proposed community center is envisioned as a vibrant gathering place that promotes health, wellness, recreation, education, and community connection. Preliminary plans include an amazing indoor walking track, fitness and wellness spaces, meeting rooms, community kitchen, aquatic facilities, and administrative offices. As Thompson continues to grow and evolve, many residents have consistently expressed the need for expanded recreational wellness and community gathering opportunities. Community engagement efforts, including surveys, forums, and planning discussions, have demonstrated a strong support for the development of a community centered facility designed to meet these needs. [Public commenter: make changes keep] going the proposed community center will create opportunities for youth development through sports recreation educational programming and fostering a place to belong healthy aging through accessible fitness wellness and social opportunities family engagement through multi-generational activities and community events Community connection for shared spaces for meetings, celebrations, civic activities and informal gatherings and improved quality of life for current and future residents. [25:57] Speaker D (unidentified): The sequence of it is totally just right. So the sequence of physics. So why this project matters is physical, lifelong learning, civic engagement, social connection. Of the sequence of that, does that flow with our goals and our dreams? Does putting them in that order impact how people see it? I mean, it sort of varies along the three places that we put it. I think it's fine, but do we all feel that physical activity should be first? That's a good question. I kind of think the connection should be first, but that's, I don't want it to be seen as recreation. That's not our intention. So if we have physical first, I just wonder if that gives that message. [26:44] Speaker E (unidentified): I feel like we talked about social connection being first many meetings ago and for some [26:50] Chair/presiding officer: reason it's not. Maybe it is somewhere else and we'll come across it in our, maybe. Yeah, but I think [26:55] Speaker E (unidentified): we can fix it there too, just in my opinion. That's the most important block on the whole thing, and I'm so happy it is one of the first things that people read because it does matter. Yeah. [27:07] Speaker D (unidentified): Okay, good, that's great. So if we have social connection, the next one would be, we want to sequence them in the way that we want it done. What if we just do community connection first [27:19] Speaker C (unidentified): and then leave the rest of them, so that education and community connection kind of sandwich the [27:25] Speaker D (unidentified): physical to be social connection, physical activity, lifelong learning, certification, engagement. That's the thing she's up in the top of the project. Oh, I'm looking at the other. Yeah, okay. [27:41] Chair/presiding officer: I think I like that, the social connection and then the physical activity, lifelong learning, and civic engagement, because whether or not we want the focus to be physical, there's a lot of elements that of the building that are physical, and we're not saying sports, right? We're saying [27:59] Speaker C (unidentified): is walking track and gymnasium and all of that, okay? And in that, in that next paragraph under our vision for the future of awesome, we could do the same thing. That's where I was looking. Yeah, community connection, then health, wellness, recreation, and education. Okay, I like that. And then that way the physical is sandwiched between the two. No, okay, I'm sorry, community connections first there. Yes, I would just move community connections and then leave the rest and the [28:28] Speaker D (unidentified): The last one seems to flow, okay. Youth development, healthy aging, family engagement, [28:36] Chair/presiding officer: community connection, quality of life. [28:38] Speaker F (unidentified): That's my question. Is that our representation of our need for a focus on senior citizens? Is it that line or should we? [28:48] Chair/presiding officer: I think it's healthy aging. [28:50] Speaker F (unidentified): Is that enough? Is that enough word? It's all enough. [28:55] Speaker C (unidentified): What if we do the same thing? What if we say healthy aging through social opportunities, fitness, and wellness? What if we put the focus, because a lot, it's a lot of that generation is looking for the social opportunities, so I feel like that's where it needs to be first. [29:14] Chair/presiding officer: So somewhere else where you're saying you think that needs more work, I just feel like in all of [29:18] Speaker F (unidentified): our feedbacks that we've received, they've used the word senior citizen a lot and wanting a focus to a senior lifestyle, and I don't know if healthy eight, I get it, I do, I think it's, it makes sense, it's good for all ages, but we've all talked about focusing on activities for seniors, so what if we [29:41] Speaker C (unidentified): said healthy aging and senior activities, I [29:49] Speaker F (unidentified): think just putting the word in there somewhere properly [29:51] Chair/presiding officer: really might help. Yeah, seniors at the end of it, like healthy aging for all generations, that's the [30:00] Speaker D (unidentified): last one could have something like that for quality of life for current and future residents [30:04] Speaker C (unidentified): of all ages, but I think what Steve is getting at is that where it's senior healthy [30:13] Mark: aging for seniors through accessible Fitness wellness, well it's healthy aging for all people now, what do we [30:21] Speaker C (unidentified): you know, people in their 40s can't have healthy aging, healthy aging for residents of all [30:27] Chair/presiding officer: generations, or I think the point is that we need to find the right way to fit senior games, we have [30:33] Speaker C (unidentified): youth development, we should have seen right, healthy aging, healthy aging including senior activities through accessible fitness wellness or through social opportunities, whatever order [30:47] Mark: you want to put those last three. If you're 30 and 40, you're not thinking about healthy, right, you'd almost be offended if someone said it. I think you're okay saying healthy aging for seniors there, and then the last one covers everyone else. This is a group body like the current future, did you [31:10] Chair/presiding officer: get for the of all ages in the last one, we do want to put that, yes, thank you, and then you okay with the second one? I have healthy aging for seniors through social opportunities, accessible fitness and wellness, that doesn't sound great. No, I think you gotta leave it, I'm just, what it is, okay, the [31:38] Speaker C (unidentified): only other thing, and this is probably just me, but at the top I'm going to talk some community center, investing in a stronger, healthier, and more connected community, should it say like well connected [31:55] Speaker D (unidentified): we're not connected, yeah, well connected with ourselves, we're [32:01] Speaker C (unidentified): better, well, more better, more better, a well-connected community [32:09] Speaker D (unidentified): progressing stronger, healthier, and well-connected [32:14] Speaker F (unidentified): I'm a little connected [32:24] Speaker C (unidentified): So going along those same lines, if we're, if we're saying, if we're taking out more, should we take the er off of stronger and healthier? Are we saying that we're not strong and we're not healthy? Yeah, she's always your girl. [32:40] Speaker D (unidentified): We are strong, we are healthy, but and more connected community. Yeah, no, and well, investing. [32:50] Speaker C (unidentified): Investing in a strong, healthy, and well-connected community. [32:54] Speaker E (unidentified): Well done, Kim. Very good, Kim. I do. [32:59] Chair/presiding officer: Sorry, I'm nitpicking. That's OK. That's why we're doing this. [33:03] Speaker C (unidentified): See, Kim, I trigger you. [33:06] Chair/presiding officer: In a good way. I'm not just reading you out loud. Investing in a strong, healthy, and well-connected community. So no A, just in well-connected. And a well-connected community. Yes, sorry, don't listen to me, listen to them, they already have. [33:24] Speaker C (unidentified): All right, box on the top right, survey results gathered during the needs assessment process. [33:47] Chair/presiding officer: Process identified significant demand for features including a social gathering space, Kathy that's probably where we moved, yes, indoor walking track, gymnasium, fitness center, kitchen space, and aquatic facilities. These findings demonstrate a clear desire for a year-round social and recreational opportunities that are currently needed within the community. I love it, a community-led investment. [34:14] Speaker D (unidentified): An estimated, second, Kim, sorry, before we go on, something seems grammatically not right with this, these findings demonstrate a clear desire for year-round social and recreational opportunities that are currently needed within the communities. That's somehow, that's radically right, okay. [34:48] Chair/presiding officer: Okay, Kim gives the thumbs up though, okay. An estimated project cost is approximately 27 million. The town strategy is to maximize philanthropic investment in order to lessen the financial burden on local taxpayers and ensure broad community ownership of the project. The capital campaign will seek support from individuals, families, businesses, foundations, and community partners who share a commitment to Thompson's future. This effort is more than a building campaign, it is an investment in the. Long-term vitality of Thompson. By combining public leadership with private philanthropy, the community can create a resource that will deliver value for decades. This, none of you probably, Mike and Mark might remember, Thompson futures, do you remember what tops of the future, that was where the road here came by and the whole moratorium on building and tops and nothing, that was that room, so it just now nobody else remembers that. [36:02] Speaker C (unidentified): But I did all right back to that first one. Okay, I think the word that needs to be, which that was, that was my own suggestion. Okay, now it's an idea and I agree. Okay, I never know the difference [36:15] Speaker D (unidentified): between the two, so instead of that, yes, right, but there's something good, thank you. Then something [36:22] Chair/presiding officer: was wrong. Okay, it feels better, good job. Okay, anything else? Moving on, multi-generational impact. The community center is being designed to serve individuals across all stages of life. Children will gain safe and enriching spaces to play and learn. Teams will benefit from structured recreational opportunities and social engagements. Adults will have access to wellness, fitness, and community programs. Older adults will enjoy opportunities to remain active, connected, and engaged. The project reflects a commitment to building a stronger community where residents visits can gather, connect, and thrive together. Thank you. Changes, we have our testimonials, which did we pick this testimony? I went through whatever documents are on the drive. I don't remember if it was a survey or something. It must have been the surveys and I found two that fit. Okay, so there's that testimonial, the one on the second page. Okay, if other people have other suggestions, these just seemed like the two that they came out of the surface. Yeah, they just seemed like two that supported the points we were making. Okay, I did not wake them up. Okay, I literally thought, okay, I guess I don't remember seeing it, so it must have been after you made it. This has been there since the first time I made it last time. Economic impact, the topsum community center will strengthen the local economy by creating jobs during construction, supporting local businesses, and attracting visitors for programs, events, and community activities. By providing high quality recreational wellness amenities, the center will enhance topsum's appeal to families, employers, and future residents while encouraging continued investment in the community. This lasting asset will contribute to the town's economic vitality and quality of your life for [38:40] Mark: years to come. Nice job. All right, because that helps make the argument that the statute should be changed to allow tech money to be spent on recreational buildings, because it shows its benefits the whole economy, isn't just a recreational thing we're going to say. [38:58] Chair/presiding officer: Say current and future residents, do you need some of the studies that have been done about the recreational value? John, I had given them to John Fattick years ago, but at some point, yeah, but I mean in the fight, in the discussion from the legislature. [39:16] Speaker E (unidentified): What was your question? I was just wondering if you needed any, the field to families, employers, current and future residents who are like that, well, it's kind of like. [39:27] Chair/presiding officer: Right in the middle, okay, will enhance Topsum's appeal to families, employers, future and I think current and future residents while encouraging continued investment in the. [39:41] Mark: Community, I like that last. [39:52] Chair/presiding officer: Page of this part, Thompson has reached a pivotal moment, planning efforts, community feedback and preliminary project development have established a strong and foundation for moving into fundraising readiness and campaign planning, the next phase requires community leaders and supporters to help transform the vision into reality, early philanthropic investments will demonstrate community confidence in the project, build fundraising momentum, help secure major gifts and foundation support, reduce. Dependence on taxpayer funding and accelerate progress towards construction and implementation, a lasting legacy, the tops of community center represents an opportunity to leave a legacy that benefits current residents and future generations alike, together we can create a wealth of meaning destination that promotes wellness, strengths, community bonds and enhances the quality of life for everyone who calls Tops in the home, the other testimonial is it's vital to enhancing the services available to. Our residents and to growing our community, in conclusion this is a unique opportunity to invest in the future of Tops of a place where community health, recreation and connection can all come together under one bridge, so I think we did change the way in which we ordered it in a few places, we just must not have caught it on the first stage, there's a lot of the rest of them say community health and then recreation and I like the testimonial but I'm struggling with it grammatically as well. It's vital to enhancing the service available to our residents and growing our community. [41:33] Speaker C (unidentified): I agree. It's vital to enhance. [41:38] Mark: Enhance. That's what the person said. It is. Is it? Yeah. All right. [41:43] Speaker E (unidentified): That's why they were close. I would just put it in a box like you did the earlier one. [41:48] Chair/presiding officer: You think there should be a box there? [41:50] Speaker E (unidentified): Yeah, to match the earlier testimony. [41:54] Chair/presiding officer: Perfect also because they'll be the same color, right? Let's go back and look at the camera. [41:59] Speaker C (unidentified): Can I make another notification? Sure, of course, that's what we're here for. So on page two and then again on page three, and I'm just, I wanted to get your comments. So we were just talking about the name of this center being the Thompson Community Center, correct? Yes, so Growth Team, so if we're in any paragraphs that we're saying the Community Center can be lowercase, but on page two under economic impact, the first line is the top seven Community Center and Community Center is lowercase. Growth Team, planning to name it, I mean, the tops of Community Center, I feel like Community Center should be capitalized. [42:44] Mark: Growth Team, People are we. Growth Team, You haven't chosen. [42:47] Speaker C (unidentified): Growth Team, that's where I. [42:50] Chair/presiding officer: We had this conversation last time, because I changed all the community centers to two, so I am open to whatever. [42:57] Speaker C (unidentified): And that's what I'm struggling with, I'm not sure what is right, because it doesn't have an official name yet. I think we should take tops underneath all impact, and that would be one way to solve it is take tops and out of it. Because I just say the community center, we know from the right page one, so if we just continue to, we keep it consistent and just say community center throughout, because under multi-generational impact it says the community center, right, group under economic impact the tops and community center, so if we take tops on out it's consistent, and then and on the lasting legacy if you take [43:38] Chair/presiding officer: Talks about it still says at the end for everyone who calls Thompson home, yeah, so I think as well, good call, yeah, there we go, was it just those two spots [43:50] Speaker C (unidentified): And actually under on page two under a community-led investment does the second sentence, the town strategy, does town need to be capitalized, I don't [44:03] Mark: Believe so, I think it does, it I think because you're referring to the town of Thompson, yeah [44:10] Speaker D (unidentified): So next question, nowhere in here are we mentioning the location, that is true, okay, there's pictures of it in that location, it's priced because of that location [44:37] Chair/presiding officer: Well, my thought is all of the other documents, especially the chairman's report is available to anybody. But this is in my eyes, this is a pre-planning campaign, this is going to go into the feasibility study. Then the actual location would be discussed in the feasibility study itself, but before you can start a feasibility study, we have to say, is it close to the point of the feasibility City is to say is it feasible and so at one of the questions we would have to ask is it feasible in this location okay so i think a lot i think we did a lot of stuff that we have in our minds that maybe other larger capital campaigns wouldn't even be at that point yet because they might have started with the pre-planning campaign and say this is what we want to do this is why we want to do it now let's start to think about locations we incorporated that in everything [45:34] Mark: No, I think it's good to not pin ourselves down exactly there yet. Just in case we get [45:45] Speaker F (unidentified): Okay, this is definitely overthinking. Testimonial. We need to I know everybody presumes it's a local resident, but would be more catchy and more eye triggering for somebody to read it. if it says resident testimonial or thompson testimonial i don't know well the assumption [46:10] Speaker C (unidentified): is there that it's understood i understand the assumption survey right i also the document i [46:16] Chair/presiding officer: was looking at i don't think i was able to tell whether or not they were a resident which is a survey testimony [46:23] Speaker F (unidentified): yeah because i just yeah i think there should be something to say that we got it from somewhere not just out of the blue yeah you could do you know which survey it was [46:36] Chair/presiding officer: because you could i would have to look back but you could do like 2024 survey testimonial [46:41] Speaker C (unidentified): something like that right because we correct me if i'm wrong but we don't have permission to use their names and i don't even think it was yeah ever have permission to use the photographs [46:57] Chair/presiding officer: that's what you do yeah that's when i called mark and went through all of that and said okay so with that the next step will be taking and determining what we are going to bring back to the select board so this kind of fits into to eight we talked last time that and i think leslie brought it up that when we look at our tasks from when we went i think it was october of last year we had one of the tasks was driving public engagement in the community center so i think while we definitely want to talk about this and where we're at i think we do want to have a discussion are there specific asks that we want to take back to the select board and how should we address if the public engagement piece was one of our tasks what [48:17] Speaker C (unidentified): Do we all think about that? I'm not entirely following everything you said, to be honest, and that's probably just me. So if we're going to go to the select board and [48:27] Chair/presiding officer: present everything we've done to this point, what are our questions for them? And maybe this is a marked question, because as opposed to when Steve and I went and said okay, we've done all of this, are we approved to move forward in the next stage? You had mentioned last time that maybe this was the time to ask for the RFP or something like that. What would our next steps be? So you were given [48:54] Mark: basically three big tasks last time, right? One was to work on trying to finalize a right-of-way with the fairgrounds, an agreement, that's been done, check. The other was to work on trying to figure out what fundraising could be done, how, etc. This shows you've been working on that. So one of the things related to that one might be, will be okay to start executing this, you know, started to put together committees and working on it, started applying for some grants. Then the last charge was to get an RFP for the next stage of the design which is site specific it is something market called the 15 point design so if mark gives pam a sample of one we could conceivably have that ready for your october meeting because october 28th sometime in october 21st so we can conceivably have that ready for that meeting and then if you guys are happy with it you could bring that to the select board when you do the update so the up the update could basically be here's what we've done here's what we need to be done next, you know, the 15 RFP released, that if the select board chooses, there is a pool of money from not this year's time meeting but last year's time meeting, that one of the, a lot of purposes was for design and planning for the further design community center. Now probably in the end whether or not that money can also be used for other things, like for instance, if it comes, if they say let's go ahead and release the RFP and the numbers are good, you know, because they're gonna have to a really release it and then B, say we want to spend money, all of a sudden it comes back at 500 000, you may have a problem, because that's, but let's say we got lucky and it was considerably less than that, the slug board may say okay, you're, you know, we'll fund it, go ahead. I don't think you're going to get far on the fundraising if we don't keep going on the design, because people are going to say how realistic is this if the, so the town isn't even a different sign. And with all that said, there's something we hadn't contemplated a year ago is we're gonna get a school done in our lives for free. Cause this town did not charge the school district when it got Williams Cone. So if they decide they're gonna do their new elementary school in the Bay of Williams Cone, based on what happened at Hart's Well, my understanding is most likely we can get the school couldn't charge so now this building to start with will probably need some modifications but so I guess my point is things aren't necessarily dead in the water if the select board says don't release the RFP but I don't think you can do a fundraising campaign start that without that RFP being released so it might be more of a holding pattern that's investigate more grants find things to apply for whatever so as far as what you'd be asking for I think it would be to release the RFP and to organize the fundraising so I'm almost picturing [52:16] Chair/presiding officer: like the last thing is to pull up the charges from October and kind of have that be the starting point this is what's happened with this is what you asked us to do this is what's happened with this and then you know to say do we have their authorization to continue to move forward with the RFP fundraising engagement and those pieces that'd be my thought and then yeah does that make sense is there anything I'm not thinking of right now [52:53] Mark: and the other thing I just throw in assuming I get done what I'm planning to do just that we're working on getting the two statute but [53:01] Chair/presiding officer: I think what we're gonna Lynn and I are gonna do is take all of this and start to draft so that when we come to the next meeting we'll present all of it and then you guys will give us all the feedback on things we forgot thank you and the next week is the 21st right it's a different date right okay yeah because we will need to have whatever we're presenting in the first week in November to the manager's office by the 28th [53:32] Mark: unless you decide you want to do the second November meeting which is possible then you guys you have two weeks to get to that I think part of it is going to [53:41] Speaker C (unidentified): hinge on how quickly yes RFP template well I mean you don't have to make the decision that will be okay yeah okay but just so you kind of have a little bit the way to stay [53:57] Chair/presiding officer: Before any meeting, yeah, is the deadline? Okay, that helps, because I wanted to make sure we addressed it in the right way. I know the last few times we have had the charges completed, the charges came up with our thoughts on new charges, and then waited for the select board to approve. And this feels a little different, because we're just presenting an update on where we are at. This, okay, because our charge isn't done yet, right? Correct. So any questions from the audience? [54:37] Public commenter: I don't know if I want to do this again. I see you got a lot of hurdles to come over. I, you're gonna have a hard time selling the RFP. One thing my people out here talking to with me, they don't want the time to go anymore. We just to jump drastically here now. We talked about the way of cold school getting back to us. Well, we're either doing that, you know, we're gonna spend 150 million dollars to build a school. Our tech can go up to six eight hundred dollars a year. Now that's gonna go up. We're gonna build this place, you'll probably build it. The problem with finance then, you're gonna have the cost of running it, the water, the electricity, everything else, that's gonna be the art itself. I'm not sure with the club to another place. I think you've got, I think I invested in one of those. I don't remember reading it. I've already somewhere the investment of that, so that'll be one thing you'll want to highlight anyways. But anyway, I supported it for the road to be put through, but I think it's a good idea. You need to get rid of your rich funds, you have to replace into it, so I can read that, and I'll probably read the design that build it further. But the problem will be to some of the taxpayers, cost of running it 'll be three to five years to build the thing. By that time, what's the tax going to look like? I have no idea. Schools keep killing us, the county's killing us, ours are going up all the time. We have a fire department can't get manpower in there. This is just no end to it. That's where I think what your hurdle is going to be i'm not folks we are going to cost you five hundred thousand dollars like i said yeah that'll be a draft thing it's there the money is it the money in the country now to make some of this work but again we got a big project and we're looking at canada bridge you might want to we want to put some money that for a sidewalk right i don't know state might do it or we might have to have to do that but we have a place there we have a parking lot in that in the There's a lot of things going on right now. Yeah, I don't want to discourage you, but I want to make sure that you're aware that there is opposition for that reason. Yeah, and I think, and I'm so open. [57:04] Chair/presiding officer: And I think we've tried to keep that in our considerations with everything we've done up to this point. We did, we have created some projections on what we toward the other community centers, what their profitability looks like, and so what kinds of charges they would have to be to meet those overall expenses. So we have kind of some drafts for that. You have contemplated. [57:33] Public commenter: Trying a certain program. Yeah, that's the plus that also cuts off from the. [57:39] Chair/presiding officer: Probably up here in the building, so that's good. Yeah, so that's a good call out, and I know bring it updated. Yeah, for the presentation, or maybe we can add that to our next time. I think you're going to get a more detailed operational with the RF when the RFP, I mean, we have a rough estimate, we've done a lot of it, but we don't want to get, I don't think you want to get hung up on that at this point, but we just have to have that keep it here for the next step. Okay, all right, good to know. I'm always. Lying. Well, thank you for that feedback. We do appreciate it, and we do recognize that there's a lot of other hurdles in the community, and so we just want to make sure we have all the ducks in a row when the time is right. We're obviously taxpayers law just got our bills. [58:42] Speaker C (unidentified): And I think a lot of people don't, and they don't understand the cutbacks from county and wherever else they can then play. And the school budget is huge when it comes to the town taxes, and it's I think you know we always plan. Yeah, we always plan, we always have our money set aside because we know that tax bill is coming, but that's more difficult for a lot of people, especially the older population. Yeah, so my neighbors, you know, we have to take into consideration the whole population. [59:17] Public commenter: Right, because it doesn't affect the whole population, so that's why I think it would, it'd be, it'll be a town media chain that makes work, right, and those are the pros and cons, but you go to timing night, it's unusual, so we'll see. Yeah, that's how I bring people out. Mark's pretty good at recruiting people too, so I have those back years ago, we just showed what time we did. [59:42] Chair/presiding officer: When this one happened, we had 375 people, something like that, when this whole project, certain topics. Yeah, perfect. Well, thank you for that feedback and consideration as we prepare what we're going to bring to the select board. With that, what do we have as follow-up action steps besides making all of the edits that we just read through and that? And then I have Allison and Lynn to prepare the select board presentation. Other than that, I, you know, I'll keep on the agenda the chairman. Yeah, just to make sure that we get something. And then we should also, we might want to make it, though I think we will need to have a discussion at the October 21st meeting whether or not we want to shoot for the first or second support. I think we'll have to make that decision at that time. So the first one would be October that, and that would be when the new, the new November, I mean November 5th, when the new board's in front of us, and the next one would be the 19th. I think you shoot for November, that's what I had down. Yeah, and that's what I have on my calendar, but if we find that we don't have all the elements that we need at our next meeting, at least we know we can push it back. I think we'll decide that at that time. Any other action steps that anybody has? Then I will confirm the next meeting October 21st, 5 15 p.m., I believe it's in this room, and meeting is adjourned at 6 17.