CPC Hears Requests For Funding

Community Preservation Committee members are looking for a formal application from the Jonathan Bourne Public Library, which has informally requested Community Preservation Act funds for three projects.
On Wednesday, members also received a heads-up as to other anticipated requests for historical preservation funding, as the deadline looms for the submission of warrant articles for Bourne’s October 20 Fall Town Meeting. All preservation act funding requests must be approved by voters at Town Meeting.
A September 12 deadline for those articles was pushed back to September 5. Selectmen voted Tuesday to approve that new date, set because there needs to be 45 days between the article submission deadline and Town Meeting.
Although an application from the library is not as yet before them, members unofficially discussed the building’s needs. Trustees of the town-owned, historical building want CPA funds to make the library compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, to restore the leaking cupola, and to install a new heating system in the building, the latter currently considered an $80,000 project.
The formal application is expected to contain more exact estimates of the cost of the proposed projects.
CPC Vice Chairman and historical commission member Donald E. (Jerry) Ellis said the commission thinks the library is “an integral part of Bourne Village and should be protected at all costs.” He said the library trustees still need to appear before the commission, however, so that the members of that board can make a recommendation on their requests.
Committee member Daniel L. Doucette, a planning board member, noted that the requests seem to be for things necessary “to keep the building alive,” and not for any frills or expansion.
CPC Chairman Barry H. Johnson said the library trustees had wanted to see the results of an upcoming Capital Outlay Committee study, but that the repairs they wanted funded might not be able to wait.
Mr. Johnson said he would be conferring with the Capital Outlay Committee regarding that issue.
The CPC will not be voting on any Town Meeting recommendation as to the library’s request until they hear from the historical commission and hold a public hearing on the formal application.
The same would be true of any other applications for CPA funds.
Mr. Ellis told CPC members that the library is not the only body that has yet to submit such a request for funds earmarked for historic preservation.
He said the historical commission is expected to request $21,000 to add four more Bourne buildings to the National Register of Historic Places.
The town has already received funding to apply to add the Bourne Town Hall,  the former Coady School in Bourne Village now used by the Waldorf School, the Bournedale village  school on Herring Pond Road, and the Jonathan Bourne Historical Center on Keene Street to that list.
The proposed new request would add the Soldiers and Sailors Monument at the front of town hall, the Cataumet schoolhouse, the current School Administration Building, and the grounds of the Aptucxet Trading Post, a site of historic significance, to the register.
Since the elimination of the West End, or Memorial Circle, in Buzzards Bay has been proposed, the historical commission members would like $20,000 to move the commemorative stones to a circle around the town hall flagpole.
Mr. Ellis told CPC members he had already discussed with Town Administrator Thomas M. Guerino the idea of lighting that memorial around the clock
The historic handmade glass windows and door panes at the Jonathan Bourne Historical Center, along with the need to repair and replace original gutters with a similar style, were among smaller projects needed to complete the restoration of that building. He said the commission is expected to request $50,000 for that work, the last anticipated request for money for that building.
Mr. Ellis then reported a serious problem with the rotting handicapped ramp to the rear of the historical center. He told CPC members to expect a request for $30,000 to install a lift similar to the one installed at the nearby Bourne United Methodist Church.
Lastly, the commission might be submitting a request for $10,000 to clean up Burial Hill in Bournedale, a site now filled with trash and beer cans, and replacing or repairing the signage at the site.
Added to that $131,000 in requests, would be about $100,000 in requests made on behalf of the Bourne Historical Society.
That society, Mr. Ellis said, would like $50,000 to replace the hand-cut clapboards on the Aptucxet Trading Post building with like materials, ensuring the building’s preservation.
That building also needs its leaded “Coke bottle glass” windows and door panes replaced at an estimated cost of $25,000, roof work costing $10,000, and a $12,000 moisture control system.
The final expected request, Mr. Ellis said, would ask for $3,000 for a PowerPoint and sound system that could be shared by the Town Archives, the historical society and the historical commission as they education both children and adults as to the town’s past.
If submitted, recommended by the CPC, and approved by Town Meeting voters, all of the above requests would spend $331,000 of the approximately $353,000 in CPC funds available for historic preservations use this year.
Several years ago, the CPC set aside $30,000 in undesignated CPC funding for committee supplies, equipment, legal services, and the services of secretary Lisa A. Groezinger. Mr. Doucette suggested determining whether the committee should also submit an article requesting a replenishment of those funds. Mr. Johnson said there is $12,747 remaining in that account, and CPC members agreed that Mr. Doucette and Ms. Groezinger should compile a list of anticipated future costs in order to assess how much more funding might be needed.
Because of the change in the date by which articles need to be submitted, CPC members voted to extend their own deadline for applications for submissions to the October 20 Fall Town Meeting only.
Mr. Johnson then commented, looking ahead to the May Town Meeting, that the committee had promised to discuss asking voters to change the way Community Preservation Act funds are used in Bourne.
Bourne voters allocated 70 percent of CPA funds to open space, 10 percent to historical preservation, 10 percent to affordable housing, and left 10 percent undesignated, which has allowed for recreation projects.
Because so many groups, not to mention the public, would need to be involved in that discussion, Mr. Johnson suggested setting up a decision-making process.