Community Preservation Committee
The Community Preservation Committee is comprised of seven volunteers who evaluate and vote on projects requesting the use of Community Preservation funds. If the committee approves a project, it is then brought to a town meeting where taxpayers vote on the project.
At the Mendon Annual Town Meeting held on May 10, 2002 and at the state election ballot on November 5, 2002, the voters accepted Sections 3 to 7, inclusive, of Chapter 44B of the Massachusetts General Laws otherwise known as the Community Preservation Act (CPA). Voters approved a surcharge on real property at 3% of the annual real estate tax levy against real property; with an exemption from such surcharge of $100,000 of the value of each taxable parcel of residential real property. Each October, the Town of Mendon receives funds from the State of Massachusetts Community Preservation Trust Fund.
The total matching funds received from the Massachusetts State Community Preservation Trust Fund over the past nine years is $1,327,403. In addition, in 2009, Mendon received a $500,000 state matching grant to purchase the 61-acre former Chaleki property and in 2010, a $66,000 state matching grant to repair the town hall roof. Both grants were available to the town only because of the available CPA funds to match the grant funds.
Over the past nine years, Mendon has received $1,893,403 from the Massachusetts State Community Preservation Trust Fund and the two state grants. In this same time period, the Town of Mendon collected $1,792,373 in revenues through the CPA surcharge.
A detailed information packet on the CPA, guidelines for submission and application documents for the CPA funds are available at the Mendon Town Hall in the Town Clerk’s Office, the Taft Public Library or on this website.
CPA funds have been used for various projects, such as restoring hundreds of town records that date back to the 1600s, including an original copy of the Declaration of Independence, and fixing a town hall drainage problem and repairing the damp and moldy vault, where the records were being stored. Funds have been used for recreation projects, such as building a multipurpose field with a walking path around it behind Memorial Field on Millville Road. CPA funds have also protected open space for passive recreation, such as Meadow Brook Woods, which includes the 9-acre Inman Pond, entrance located on Park Street. Currently, the Mendon Boy Scouts and the Trustees of Reservations are working with the Mendon Land Use Committee to clear trails through the property and clean out an invasive non-native aquatic water chestnut weed from the Inman Pond, so it is a "work in progress." People interested in volunteering on these projects should visit the Land Use Committee page and send an email requesting more information.
The CPA provides new funding sources, which can be used to address three core community concerns:
A minimum of 10% of the annual revenues of the fund must be used for each of the three core community concerns. The remaining 70% can be allocated for any combination of the allowed uses, and for the creation and preservation of land for recreational use. This gives each community the opportunity to determine its priorities, plan for its future, and have the funds to make those plans happen.
For questions you can call Dale Pleau, the Town Coordinator at (508) 473-2312 or e-mail the Community Preservation Committee Chair.
For further information on the CPA visit www.communitypreservation.org or www.state.ma.us/envir/cpa.