“I was misled.” Council on Aging (COA) board co-chair Connie Larrabee was expressing her frustration to members of the Community Preservation Committee (CPC) at their Dec. 10 meeting during a discussion about whether the CPC should re-open its FY16 grant application window so the COA could apply for money to pay for a portion of the proposed renovation of Hildreth House.
Whether it was misinformation or a lack of information that kept the COA from applying before the CPC’s normal September deadline, most CPC members agreed that changing their rules was not the way to remedy the situation. The committee voted nearly unanimously not to re-open the application window but conceded that the situation brought up unanswered questions about CPC policy regarding grants for projects that will be funded by excluded debt pending Town Meeting approval.
The long and winding road to this predicament began last year, when the Hildreth House Improvement Committee (HHIC) sought town support for a plan to renovate and expand the town’s senior center. Last fall, the HHIC applied to the CPC for funding for five items that were part of that project: new windows, a lift, raising the level of the porch to make all entrances accessible, and a handicap-accessible bathroom and kitchen sink. CPC members repeatedly questioned the HHIC about what would happen if they granted funding and the full renovation was not approved at Town Meeting. According to CPC minutes, at a Nov. 19, 2013, meeting, there was “lengthy discussion of the grants and their relationship to the larger building project.” At their meeting a month later, the CPC asked that the HHIC return to a future meeting because of “a lack of clarity about the status of the grants if the larger project is voted down.”
In January, the CPC approved funding for the only item the HHIC had identified as doable outside the scope of the full renovation: the new windows. “Our understanding was that since they didn’t know what would happen with the project at Town Meeting, they didn’t approve the items that relied on the larger project,” Larrabee told the Press.
This month, when the COA, which is now seeking funding for a pared-down Hildreth House renovation, went before the Capital Planning and Investment Committee (CPIC) seeking its support, the CPIC asked Larrabee why the COA didn’t apply for CPC funding this year. Larrabee explained that she presumed that the CPC’s reaction to a request for funding a portion of a project not yet approved by Town Meeting would be the same as it was last year.
Reluctant to change the rules
But CPIC Chairwoman Debbie Ricci responded that the COA had misunderstood why they didn’t get funding for all of the items on their list last year. She further informed Larrabee that once a Town Meeting vote to fund a project has been taken, it’s too late to apply for CPC funds for that project. Realizing the COA’s predicament, Ricci sent an email on November 22 urging the CPC to reopen a special application cycle for FY16. CPC’s posted application window for FY16 closed on Sept 26.
CPC Chairman Didi Chadran and member Deb Thomson met with Larrabee and told her that re-opening the application cycle would require a rule change, but they offered to bring the matter before the committee at its Dec. 10 meeting. At that meeting, while some members were sympathetic to the COA situation, most were reluctant to change their rules for one group.
Members also discussed the larger issue of whether the CPC should fund specific items that are part of any project paid for with excluded debt. They argued that if Town Meeting doesn’t vote to fund such projects, any CPC money allocated for those items would lie dormant until the next fiscal year. “This is the very reason that the Town Hall project was for debt service,” said Leo Blair, Municipal Affordable Housing Trust representative to the CPC. He was referring to the 2011 Municipal Building Committee’s approved request for a $1 million bond to help finance the renovation of Town Hall. That $1 million will be paid back over the next 20 years from CPC surcharge funds.
Blair said that the COA should have asked for support for debt service instead of funding for specific items, and that a fiscal 2015 request structured in the same way as the fiscal 2014 request would have the same answer from the CPC: No.
Little help available
The COA’s dilemma could be summed up as follows, said Blair: If they ask for CPC funding before Town Meeting, they won’t get it; if they ask after Town Meeting approves funding, they’re disqualified. Selectman Ken Swanton, the BOS liaison to the CPIC who attended the meeting to support the COA’s position, reminded the committee that most of their grant applications come from committees that, either through experience or personnel, understand how to structure requests so they’ll have the best chance at success. Swanton said that inexperienced applicants like the COA “don’t know the process” and the CPC doesn’t offer much help.
