CPA Spending in Hamilton

Hi All,

Just thought I'd send out some information on how the money for the
Community Preservation Act money has been spent since it's inception in
2006. Personally, I am not happy that such a large portion has been
spent on Recreation and Open Space(which in a lot of instances is
actually just another form of recreation). I can tell you that had I
known how much of this money would be spent on recreation back in 2006 I
never would have voted to approve it. And I certainly will never vote
to increase the appropriation to 3%, as tabled for a vote this year but
will certainly be coming back next year, if this trend continues.

This year on the Hamilton and Wenham Town Meeting Warrants you will see a
request of CPA money for several Playgrounds at the schools. I urge you
to vote against them. The town is going playground crazy with requests
for the Bunker School, Winthrop School and Pingree Park playgrounds not
to mention money already spent on the Patton Park playground. I will say
that I do support the request for money for the Affordable Housing
Trust and the Hamilton Housing Authority. We really need to see a more
even distribution of CPA money among the Historic Preservation,
Community Housing and Open Space categories going forward (as it was
originally intended) and hopefully bring more affordable housing into
Hamilton.

Graph and info attached taken from the CPC public hearing in May of 2016.

Bob Gray