By Carol Britton Meyer

Seven preliminary applications for the next round of Community Preservation Act funding total $202,700, ranging from a dog park feasibility study and resurfacing the Kenberma pickleball courts to upgrading Paragon Carousel light bulbs to LED to installing veterans memorial grave markers at Hull Village Cemetery.

If all the proposals are approved, there would be $385,213 to put into reserve for future projects from Fiscal 2023 CPA revenue, not including the expected partial state match in November.

The Community Preservation Committee considered all of the proposals at its meeting Monday night. However, the likelihood of the CPC recommending $100,000 to the most costly proposal submitted – a Habitat for Humanity workforce homeownership opportunity proposed by the affordable housing committee – is low.

While there are merits to the proposal, CPC members agreed, a site has yet to be identified, although a grant received by the town is paying for a feasibility study to find a suitable location for affordable housing.

So far, Hull has collected $3.5 million from the tax surcharge approved by voters in 2016 and a partial state matching grant, with a remaining fund balance of $2.7 million.

CPA funds may only be put toward historic preservation, open space, community housing, and certain recreation projects, with restrictions.

The deadline for preliminary applications was Sept. 28; the final deadline is Oct. 31.

Proposals include:

• A dog park feasibility study ($10,000) proposed by the town to find a location;

• Mariners Park enhancements ($20,000) proposed by the town that could include picnic tables, Adirondack chairs, and other amenities to make the area near Allerton Harbor more user-friendly.

• Resurface pickleball courts at Kenberma ($20,000), proposed by resident Paul Newman and other pickleball players, to replace the cracking asphalt surface and protective coating. “More than 1,000 people, many of them seniors, have signed up for the pickleball app,” Newman said. “The courts are used all hours of the day. We need to be proactive, because the courts’ useful life will deteriorate very quickly otherwise.”

The surface was applied two years ago and is supposed to last between four and eight years. Yet to be determined is whether this work is still under warranty, why the surface deteriorated so quickly, and whether CPA funding can be used for what appears to be maintenance, rather than a rehabilitation project. A next step is for Newman and other proponents to meet with the select board and parks and rec in an attempt to win their support of the application.

Guidance form the Community Preservation Coalition will also be sought regarding whether the proposal would qualify for CPA funding.

• Shade structures ($20,000) proposed by the town, possibly at the Dust Bowl and other locations.

• Paragon Carousel LED light bulbs ($25,000), proposed by the Friends of the Paragon Carousel Executive Director Jon Ericksen. Friends board member Tim Reynolds spoke on behalf of the proposal.

“We want to get rid of the 1,060 incandescent bulbs, which are the original ones and have heavy electricity usage, and move to historical-style energy-saving LED bulbs,” he said. The carousel is on the National Register of Historic Places.

The bulbs, which are installed on the carousel itself, generate a lot of heat.

“LED bulbs would help in the summertime,” Reynolds said. The Friends plan to consult with the historical commission and look into the possibility of MassSave funding.

If the CPC recommends this project and town meeting approves it, the goal would be for staff to change all the lightbulbs by the end of 2024.

• Veterans Memorial grave markers at Hull Village Cemetery ($7,700). David Irwin, representing American Legion Post 140, advocated for project funding.

“We would like to dress up the cemetery with markers that also hold a flag in place,” he said. “Joshua James and a number of Civil War veterans are buried there.”

Select board approval of this proposal is required for it to move forward in the process.

• Habitat for Humanity workforce homeownership program ($100,000). Because the feasibility study is a work in progress and a site has not yet been identified, CPC Chair Rachel Kelly told AHC member Kelly Reilly, who shared some of the details with the CPC this week, that the project is not “shovel ready.

“We’d all like to see some affordable housing, but I think this proposal is putting the cart before the horse,” Kelly said.

CPC member Jim Richman suggested that perhaps this project “could happen next year.”

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