people are handing out flyers in the neighborhood not a good one all right five really four three two one wow uh good evening everyone welcome to the June 17th 2024 meeting the Long Meadow select board I'm uh select board acting chair Josh LaVine I will be confirming that all members and persons anticipate on the agenda are present and can hear me Members when I call your name please respond in the affirmative Mark gold here Dan zero here beneath heathy Here Andrew lamb here staff when I call your name please respond in the affirmative ly Simmons here Mike Barbieri here this open meeting of the long met select board is convened in person and Via Zoom webinar as posted on the agenda and Town's website identifying how the public may join there is no chat or Q&A function all the materials for this meeting are available on the agenda posted on Long meow ma.gov the public is encouraged to follow along using the Post-it agenda unless I note otherwise this meeting will feature resident comment for residents attending the meeting in person please raise your hand when we get to the comment section of the meeting and I will call on you to approach the microphone for residents participating in the meeting via Zoom webinar format please use the raise hand icon at the bottom of the screen the meeting moderator will promote you to panelists unmute you and give you permission to speak join the webinar by phone dial star9 to raise your hand and star 6 to mute unmute residents who wish to speak will identify their names and addresses only each individual is afforded 3 minutes for comments please note that this meeting is being recorded and that some attendees are participating by a video conference please remember to mute your phone mute your phone or computer when you are not speaking if anyone is attendance in attendance is recording this meeting please announce yourself now all right I'll do the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge algi to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay uh start with announcements uh board and committee vacancies applications are open to serve on appointed long medal boards committees and commissions interviews will be held at the select board regular meetings in July and August to learn more about the roles and responsibilities of the Committees and to fill out an online application please visit longm medal ma.gov Civic alerts juneth town office is closed Town of longal municipal offices and the recycling center will be closed on Wednesday June 19th in recognition of juneth volunteers needed the town of Long Meadow is looking for a few volunteer citizen scientists to help us collect water quality samples at kly Brook once a week this summer led by the Connecticut River Conservancy this is a fun way to get outside and contribute to a healthy cooie Brook and Connecticut River for additional information please visit longm ma.gov Civic alerts uh and we have a it's not listed on here but tomorrow night the Middle School building committee is uh hope holding a forum at the adults Center at uh is it 6 or 7 7 at 7 o'cl uh to talk about the uh the process to get where we are on uh choosing uh potential plan for the middle school and uh I think it's a good way to interact with folks and uh on the committee and ask questions and uh and hear the thought process um and and I will just say uh for my announcement I welcome Andrew congratulations on your election um and then I will uh open the floor for uh reorganization uh there's a Dan I'd like to make a motion to uh nominate ven heathi as chairperson okay uh I'll second that any discussion I would only say that I think benath would do a great job but I was actually thinking if it were up uh in my opinion I thought mark would be would do a incredible job as well just because he's got a a great deal experience and I don't know how many times you've been the chair in your long tenure Mark how many one year and how many years once for one year but and how many years have you served 15 okay well we have a motion for V on the floor at the moment um I would say uh Ben you've been on a year now um I think I was a chair after my first year I think it's a good uh it's a good learning tool and uh it's an important part of seeing how the sausage gets made so uh I think you're think you're ready for it and uh so support you uh anything else all right right all those in favor all those opposed uh we have any motions for a vice chair I um I move to appoint Dan Zoro as Vice chair I'll second that uh any discussion all right all those in favor and uh any motions for a clerk well as is tradition usually the newest members clerk so I move to appoint Andrew lamb as clerk second any discussion on that all those in favor okay all right thank you um so just just real quickly uh you want to swap over uh sure want [Music] to all right congratulations all right uh just wanted to say real quickly obviously an honor to be uh serving as chair now uh we have a lot of challenges that we're uh going to have to face here uh especially over the next year where we're looking at addressing infrastructure needs uh looking to deliver on a new middle school and just overall looking to set Long Meadow up for the future and so I'm excited to work on all these problems with with this group here um you know I think the select board is at its best when we're working together as a team um and I think those of you that know me know that I don't like doing things in a certain way just because that's how they've always been done if there's a smarter way to do things or a better way to do things then I'd like to adopt that so I'd encourage everyone else in the select board staff if you have ideas for how things can be done better please let me know um you know we can discuss it and if it makes sense I would love to adopt that to make um things smoother so um thank you again guys for uh your confidence in me and I'm looking forward to the next year of working together um so let's move on to the next agenda item which is resident comments do we have anyone here that would like to make a resident comment Mike do we have anyone no one on online okay all right then we'll move on to interviews and appointments so we have a few interview schedule for today um all of the folks interviewing today are actually seeking reappointment so hopefully uh we don't have too many surprises most of the folks here have also served the town in various capacities over the years so um let's start off is I don't see Dave Marinelli here right he may on zo do you have a note from him or anything Tom's not Dave okay so we'll skip Dave and we'll go to Arlene Miller Arlene if you could come up to the mic which appointment is this for S so so we'll we'll cover both at the same time how about that so Arlene if you could so Arlene's uh seeking reappointment to the community preservation commission as well as the recycling commission so if you could just please start for the record with your name address and then maybe tell us a little bit about why you're seeking reappointment and maybe the work that you're looking forward to doing on these committees wow so I'm arleene Miller 68 East grage Road Long Meadow we've lived in town my husband and I and our family since 78 or 79 so about more than 40 years um and I'm seeking re-election you want talk about both at the same time yeah sure yeah sure so community community preservation is simpler um that's been not not in place as long as the recycling program so we'll talk about that it's just a committee that's a pleasure to work with half of the group is back here being looking for reappointment uh uh this is an opportunity for the town to use money which is generated locally and from the state to do special things within the community and it's restricted as you know to certain items it can't be just used for anything and over the years um I just looked it up because I want to have some number in case you asked me a question we've we' we've spent about $6 million on this project to improve various aspects of this community projects that probably would never have been done if we had not had this opportunity so it's a it's very interesting it's uh challenging in sometimes but I think we've done ites it's a good resource for the community and it's been a pleasure to work on that committee great thank you anybody have any questions for Arlene sure okay you look eager to talk uh do you have your eyes on any particular projects you you'd like to see tackled or anything in town that you think uh could use uh CPA money well I have one that I think is a need and that would be affordable housing and one that I think would be wonderful and that would be a renovation of the Old Town Hall to make it very special interesting go ahead and so I assume the affordable housing bucket of the CPC funds is been accumulating because it's difficult for us to find ways to expend that money what ideas does your commission or in your experience have there been to to use that money very few that's why we haven't spent the money uh we have probably we have well over $200,000 Steve will know more the detail on on that um not easy we haven't had we we were looking for partnership with the Housing Authority we haven't had a lot of input with that we did do a study years ago about what the potential might be in Long Meadow and it was a study and uh we do have one project that's active and that's with the adult center where we uh help people stay in place we supplement needs to to keep their their homes solid for period you know not not huge it's like a limit of $10,000 or something per applicant but it just helps people get over hump and that's the very little thing that we've done with that with that money however given I don't know what's going to happen with the middle school property might open up opportunity may open up and uh we've talked about trying to partner with Habitat for Humanity on a lot anywhere in town um we have our eyes on it we talk about it but we haven't done anything a followup question would be um I don't know what the state match for the CPC funds is now but I imagine it has gone gone down it has do you ever do you know what it is and is there ever like rumors that it might go even lower to the point where it's not even a match anymore I think this year is the lowest possibly when the first year uh Long Meadow I believe it was 2006 when we adopted it we adopted a very low you could either do between a one 1% or 3% local tax we did a 1% um and at that in the beginning we we're getting 100% match right this year I believe it's as low was 13 to 14% And that's what it's been for a little while but I'm yes but so what's happened is it's is a pot as you maybe understand and so the more communities that join it's becoming very popular like Springfield just joined a couple of years ago so I mean cities like that so that dilutes the pot and housing it's funded by exchanges when people buy houses it's the deed deed exchange and the Market's been slow in terms of housing hous is moving so the pot's smaller because of that and because of more use in the pot so theoretically if a community were to stop participating in the program the pot could I mean the percentage good could go theoretically go up say that again please theoretically if some communities decided you know this isn't really worth it for us because the match is only 10% or 8% then it could theoretically go the other direction not yeah I think actually it's going the other way more towns are joining all the time because if there is extra money the state sometimes gives excess money in the budget to community preservation those supplement yeah to supplement it so it's been a very I think most communities are very thrilled to have it I mean some of the projects we've done are really would never have happened without that kind of money it's that kind of projects that goes get shoved to the side and uh so I think St Stephen these guys will me Andre talk to all that so recycling well that's sort of my passion um as you might have guessed but in fact I brought with me calendars if anybody wanted a calendar but you know you probably all got them in the REM ER on Thursday the 13th right and I just must must say that the June 13th is not a trash the 16th is not a trash holiday 19th June 16 the 19th is not a trash holiday it so people even though it's a Federal holiday and the recycling center is closed there is still trash on the normal day that week in case people are conf confused oh don't oh wait a minute they have to pay for those great any any so the recycling commission uh to me is a very invaluable Committee in the community uh we have no budget um but we are an Advisory Group are we try to educate people about recycling we try to work with DPW to assist them in any way we can about Recycling and and to help the community do better job we can all do better job we do a very good job but we can always do a better job and I can I'll answer any questions you have about that great any questions not a question more of a comment um or really a compliment to Arlene I know you've obviously been around town for a while you've been involved with so many things and um especially in recycling to have someone like you with your leadership within recycling I think uh the City of Springfield or all of hampen County you were in charge of um just just impressive um and nice to have you um you know making these contributions so thank you want to say that great well thank you so much for joining us tonight and reapplying and we will be voting on your appointment in one of our upcoming meetings thank you all right so next uh do we have John bresnahan here all right John so John is seeking reappointment to the Conservation Commission so you just please start with your name address for the record and then just let us know why you're seeking reappointment and what you're looking forward to working on can I just make a suggestion you want to bring everyone up for each board we can do if uh Patrick oh you is everybody okay with that we've done that in the past if we pulling Folks up from Full board um all right yeah we can do that uh so also Patrick carahan and Richard McCulla if he's here okay no all right so we have both of you start with your name address and then uh talk a little bit about why you're seeking reappointment good evening John bresnahan 47 Falmouth Road uh currently serving as chairman of the Conservation Commission I've been on the commission now for 25ish years somewhere around there so quite a while and it's uh been enjoyable uh from a couple different standpoints um at the beginning uh the role was very defined by the Wetland RS in the state um and now I can see over the last couple years with the makeup of the commission we've kind of expanded our role a bit and we're reaching out and looking at Trail development uh trash pickup and really taking care of all the resource areas within the town and that's been very fulfilling in a lot of different ways great thank you Patrick car 311 Farmington Road uh and uh I Echo John's uh uh commitment to uh greater stewardship for this Conservation Commission we still do our mandate what we're supposed to but we are expanding out a little bit and uh increas in educational opportunities and educational awareness and also trying to get a better handle on the total resources not just the specific Water Resources but there's a lot of other resources within the Watershed and within our our uh purview that we're trying to look at maintain manage and also educate the public about great thank you any questions for these folks I guess get enough easy only 25 years can I publicly Endor Patrick and I John he's a good chairperson well thank you so much both for reapplying and for joining us and we'll be voting on your appointment in the next couple all right so for the count I think believe the council and aging is up next uh there was somebody who was accidentally missed from the memo but I believe we have Maryann Squire here as well okay great yeah and Sandra MC faden thank you all right great thank you both for joining us um if you could start with your name address and tell us a little about why you're seeking reappointment good evening my name is Sandra mcfaden and I live at 91 East Greenwich Road almost next to the Millers here and I've been on the board of council and aging board for three years now having served as chairman for the past two years and I thoroughly enjoy serving on this board um I think in the past couple years we've revived some benefits for seniors in town we now have 6,000 seniors in town which is a a good number uh We've revived the medical equipment um usable equipment and we've also revived the senior trips using our our our long metal van so I've been in Long Meadow all my life lived here I'm a product of the Long Meadow School System and I'd like to give back to the community thank you then I would be a newcomer cuz I didn't come until 69 um and I've enjoyed my tenure here and I've been on the Council on Aging for three years sorry could you just start with your name sorry sorry I figure you know me by now Maryann Squire I live at 39 alal Road great thank you um I've enjoyed Council on Aging it's been an eye opener in many respects and um and we've brought to the table many new things and some old things that we Revisited so uh the senior Center's been awesome place to get off the ground and running and we've uh highlighted lots of new things and Revisited some older ones I've enjoyed it and I've reapplied as you can see so I hope you consider that right thank you questions from the board all right this is what happens when we get you know I guess reappointment interviews we know all these folks so thank you both so much for appreciate it thank you all right uh Steven Weiss historical commission good evening good evening so you know the drill name address and a little bit about why you're seeking reappointment sure Stephen Weiss 25 Hilltop Road uh my wife Carol and I have lived here almost 38 years now uh before I get started me being on the historical commission I also um I don't know if this is appropriate or not but I would put in a plug for arene Miller who's a colleague of mine on the on the CP PC and John bresnahan as well we have a terrific terrific committee and there inter John is the C the Conservation Commission uh design uh to the CPC um I started on the historical commission I think it was 12 years ago now because I wanted to learn more about the town's history uh it turns that we have just a wealth of history in this town uh you the historical commission itself has uh has a budget of zero we spend it down every year U but but the goal is to preserve conserve and educate about the town's history whether that is uh pulling together a list of historical structures which is not as easy as you would think uh because it's not necessarily easy to tell when certain structures were built in this town whether they were built before 1901 or after as you get pictures of them that were 1906 and barns have a way of moving houses have a way of moving uh in this town uh but I've really enjoyed helping to to preserve again Preserve conservative and uh and educate people about the town uh for most of my 12 years on the historical commission I've also been the I've been the designate to the CPC and I've been the chair of the CPC uh probably eight or nine years now um and I'm really proud of the work that the whole committee has done on the CPC uh to answer one of Andrew's questions it is down to about 14% right now I will tell you about a month no was actually earlier this month uh steuart sagor who is the guru if you will of the of our state organization he is a walking Encyclopedia of uh of everything CPA he came out and did a uh a talk with the cpcs from East Long Meadow Long Meadow mson wilam Springfield and I think Agawam and one of the things we got there to answer one of your questions is there has never been a community that has dropped out of it yeah um and and and Arlene is right well the mix has the match has gone down I think it was when I first got in the committee it was 20 somewhere in the 28 to 30% range it's now down to 14 why because it's so successful um uh what I also took from that meeting with M with steuart sagor is our committee is doing I think can I say everything right never but are we doing basically the right things both in terms of developing a process for vetting the applications that come to the town soliciting the applications we've developed a pretty good system for getting for letting the the people who might be putting in applications uh know when the application process is what we're looking for in the applications uh and and we've you know I think we've done a good job of um sh of monitoring the system we've developed a system that I'm not sure other communities use we get quarterly reports from all of the applicants that have been awarded fee funds so we can follow what's going on with those applications and making sure they're they're progressing uh it's uh it is I've been on a lot of committees in a lot of different situations the CPC is maybe the most functional committee I've ever been on uh and the historical commission is is quieter but also uh really functional and I hope to continue on it great thank you any questions the board anything all right well thank you so much for joining us we'll be appointment next meetings thank you yeah thank you pleasure being here uh David Miller for the energy and sustainability committee David Miller 68 East Greenwich Road here in the fine town of Long Meadow I've been here since 1978 remarkably accompanied by my wife the entire time uh I have uh had an interest in town activities since about the mid or early 1980s when my wife became very involved in town politics and uh I managed to stay in the same house with her for the duration of that time and served as a sounding board and at one point probably knew as much about the what was going on in the town as anyone else but my actual active involvement began in uh 2012 when I and a other group of people uh got together and sponsored and got the stretch code passed and that is one of the things that we continue to work on now in the sustainability uh committee and that is because that there's an extension to the stretch code that's coming up which will codify more strict requirements interestingly it's not going to have much of an effect on private ownership but it will have an effect I think on any new uh business construction that goes on in town and it's merely an attempt to try and improve the efficiency and sustainabil of any new environments that are constructed um I have some other interests uh and one of the things that you see here is the electric lights uh just uh early on when I became a member of the committee at its Inception uh we decided that one of the things that needed to be done in town was to improve the efficiency of the Town buildings and that included the electrical processes that occur in town in particular the lights in the town buildings and also the insulation in the town buildings and I was involved in that so I've had a long interest in improving the efficiency of the town and look forward to some serious challenges I think in the coming years because uh although it's fairly simple to get together a program to improve a defined entity such as Town buildings it's much more difficult to encourage the Town members to improve the sustainability of their own homes and that as you know can be done through the Mass Save programs and I've been involved with that program and we continue to push that as a committee so I'm hoping that you'll reappoint me because I look forward to a lot of challenges in the future go ahe uh question about Mass Save so when you first entered in the mou we we got a few complaints from people that they weren't happy with um I can't remember the name of the company off the top of my head uh that we that you partnered with uh but I haven't heard anything lately so I assume that's good but uh how many um massive interventions have you have you had in the past uh year or two well that's an individual kind of thing uh we have only sponsored a real intensive um introduction to that to the community twice in the past say four years uh but Mass save as you know has been around for a long time I've had now four interventions and you can have them done every two years uh in your home and it's amazing to me each time they come in to my home they find something else that has needs to be done maybe wasn't looked at with any particular intensity in Prior years in terms of their programs uh so I think it's a very worthwhile uh Endeavor as far as the difficult ulty is actually Mass Save contracts out with at least two if not three different vendors uh who then uh independently may send you a mailing and invite you to participate in their home energy assessment then you contact them and make an arrangement for a visit and then a contract if they find things that need to be gone forward with so that's a little bit confusing to the town and the response the difficulty is that we don't have any control over those different entities they're just private uh activities that function through Mass Save so I think the important thing is that if homeowners are having difficulty they let the town know and certainly the town could let us know and we can intervene hopefully to make things better thank you anything else I just want to add that as uh leaon to the energy sustainability committee and having sat in on meetings um you know I appreciate all of the you know value that you bring to the committee um and you know you're I think an integral member of it and just want to also underscore everything you said about the stretch code work and how important that's going to be so thank you thank you yeah thank you for being here tonight appreciate it um Andrew berky Parks and Rec commission thanks for joining us all right I'm Andrew berky uh 32 Wilston Drive um and seeking reappointment to parks and wreck I've been been there the last 6 years um and we have accomplished a lot in those six years um well swamp got turned on a bunch of other things have happened um we weathered the pandemic in Recreation and um if you have young children you will notice that we are kind of bursting at the seams Recreation wise in town um and it's a lot of fun to um see kids participating in Recreation but it also causes a lot of challenges because we don't quite have enough space to put all of those kids and so a lot of the things that we navigate on the committee are trying to figure out how to equitably find spots for everyone and so it's both fun and a challenge I guess um and it means that we get to participate and interact with I guess all of the sport associations in town which is a lot of fun so um uh the new refreshed LBA to Lacrosse to soccer to the programs that we run ourselves like um track and cross country so of which I have volunteered the last I don't know three or four years as a coach in those programs but great thank you uh anything from the board you nailed it all right okay thank you so much yeah we'll be voting on your appointment soon cool thanks all right um Virginia Ryder for recycling commission good evening um my name is Virginia Ryder and my husband and I and I from 20 Burkshire Lane in Lou my husband and I moved here in um 1978 so we've been here a number of years I've been on the recycling committee for about 9 years um under the tutelage of you know who uh Arlene she's been wonderful and I've been involved with um obviously the um Saturday Sunday mornings down at the Swap Shop and uh I've enjoyed and also uh the commission has done some um uh Outreach things in the community as far as getting we one year we got kids involved at the middle school doing projects related to recycling and uh some actually made videos it was really an exciting time we've done a number of things like that uh you know especially on Earth Day we have things and we have the shredding event which is always successful um and uh so it's been a very rewarding I I really enjoy working down at the recycling center and especially the swap shop um it's been fascinating to see what people bring in and what they shouldn't bring in and how to get them to sort of understand to a little education and get them to understand what is worth having in the swamp shop and but also redirecting them when things have to go someplace else um so anyways it's been it's been a wonderful experience I do enjoy it a lot great thank you you're welcome um anything from the board go ahead J uh me and my kids have received your education at the Swap Shop you're very very kind so thank you we we all learned something well we love it and we love the kids coming down they have great questions yeah great all right great well thank you so much for joining us tonight appreciate it much and uh Mr carahan I think we have to call you up one more time here for tree committee uh Patrick caran 311 Farmington Road Long Mass uh been a resident everybody keeps telling the resident date so moved into town in' 69 moved out in 79 moved back in 2002 uh so I've been here since then so on and off for 30 some years and I'm applying uh for the tree committee I've reapplying for the treatment it would be my uh fourth appointment I completed 9 years okay great um do you want to uh maybe speak a little bit about why you're reapplying again about maybe some kind of work that you're excited about with at the Tre I mentioned I moved into town 69 in 1969 the tree canopy tree cover in Long Meadow was quite substantial it's degraded significantly since then I personally like trees I like tree line streets it's Tree Line Suburbia it comes sort of with it and I would like to work on and we have been working on trying to get the uh tree cover planted at the same time taking care of the hazard trees because this trees age they become hazardous so we do have to mitigate the hazard by removing trees but we also need to plant trees uh and so that's sort of been the challenge it's very expensive to maintain them very expensive to trim them to take down Hazard trees and to plant trees so that's that's the real challenge I also enjoy the educational aspect of uh telling people the value of trees and uh and so that's part of what we do as a tree committee uh we've got a couple new members that are very engaged in doing the educational Outreach so I'm very excited about how how they're going to interplay with the tree committee on that also great thank you anything from the board right great thank you so much for joining us tonight thank you appreciate it all right um we are now going to move on to select board comments so um just a couple of quick things for me just want to congratulate our long met high school girls tennis team and the boys lacrosse team for winning uh state championships and I also want to congratulate Josh LaVine on his reelection here and congratulate Andrew lamb on your election and looking forward to working with both of you uh this year so congratulations thank you Josh uh just on that the election um I want to thank everyone who was working there uh and everyone was working hard it was it was a great turnout in the day of and what I was really uh Harden to see was that the the mailin participation was massive uh we it was a huge turnout for U overall and uh I I would be curious to hear what the what it costs us to do the mailin what the participation is and when all that shakes out I'd like to have uh Tim in here or at least get the information passed to us because you know if you make it easy for people to vote they're going to vote and I think that's great um and then I I just want to mention the Middle School building committee I I said uh in announcements earlier that there's a public forum tomorrow uh last week we had a meeting and we had a lot of uh a good crowd there to watch the meeting um and it was all folks from uh ducksbury Woodside um ww worth and and Terry Drive uh who all are surrounding the Williams site uh with traffic concerns and I I certainly understand the concerns and if there are other people who weren't at the meeting or uh didn't you can watch the video but uh tomorrow there will be a chance to learn a lot about what the steps that are being taken to try to uh help traffic and uh you know we have we're working with really good AR Architects and designers who are taking this very seriously um so if anyone's curious I I would recommend them watch the meeting and and go tomorrow great thank you Dan uh thanks just quickly um Echo your same sentiments beneath in terms of the the uh the high school sports with the girls tennis winning uh division 2 state championship and the boys winning division 2 State Championship uh their 21st state championship pretty impressive um and then also uh congratulations Andrew um as the newest member uh we haven't didn't really know each other um but look forward to getting to know you and working with you um you know nice job on the campaign and and election and Josh as well um we didn't want that lctv agreement to go uh without you all the work you put into that so I think that was might put me over the top but uh glad to have both of you here and um and then also I did want to mention um Leah Peterson who ran as well um for select Bo I thought she had a um she ran a strong campaign as someone who um has never um sought office before so um I did want to mention that um and that was it than Mark yeah just a couple of things I just wanted to report on the scanic Valley Regional Health Trust that meetings that I go to uh they they continue to do well financially uh this last meeting just so people can understand the kind of programs they run there there was a lot of discussion about their reinsurance they actually have a process and there I think they said there's between 10 and a dozen people who are insured in the eight to communities that they work with who have have significant medical costs and in scanic Valley runs a reinsurance program so anybody with medical costs hitting over $250,000 it moves to a reinsurance that's a a method of I mean obviously the town pays the scanic valley pays for that but it's a method of protecting the financial U you know assets of of the group and I think it's a it's a great system they're also uh uh talking a little bit about some of the other uh programs they have for wellness that we hope people participate on it's very important that they be able to maintain the very strong positive Financial agreements they have as we can know that this coming year the rates are going up 0% for the town of Long Meadow and it's a testimony to the the work of this scanic Valley Regional health committee and so I I think people should do that the thing I just want to mention is the Piner Valley Transit Authority again they have a board meeting that I was at we're just reiterating this is the 20th anniversary I think of the Pioneer Valley Transit Authority and they have free Transit mid July to Mid August and so people should uh take advantage of that it's a it's a great program and uh hopefully it'll show what the writers ship can do on how much people appreciate Transit the commity great thank you all right um so we can now move on to the town manager's report thank you uh so I have official election results that are linked in the agenda here I'm not going to read through the whole thing however uh the the thing to note is that for the Housing Authority they are not official results yet there was a two-way tie for writing candidates each one of them received four votes it's a tie between Shelley Baron and in C camarada um the town clerk has talked with the elections division is going to work with Town Council to determine next steps so I'll have a further update for you um as it potentially may have some involvement on your end um the age friendly designation uh the town has reached a milestone in our agent dementia friendly process the age friendly action plan for Long Meadow has been approved AARP has reviewed the age friendly action plan put together by the age friendly Task Force Under the longrange plan steering committee with the expert guidance of pbpcs Becky BOS in um in 2018 the town had been certified as a dementia friendly Community by AARP so this was the second piece of that project um but it was spearheaded uh through the work of the longrange plan steering committee the agef friendly plan is incorporated as a full appendix uh in the 2024 longrange plan that just recently wrapped up and uh the recommendations have also been uh incorporated into the actions identified for the longrange plan so work to be to uh begin implementing those strategies is going to specifically be done with the Council on Aging planning board and here with the select board and the long range plan uh with the longrange plan now concluded uh approval of the ageef friendly action plan uh we do I do want to make sure I have a special thank you to some key members who made sure that this work got done assistant Town manager kin Micey muns planning board chair and chair of the longrange plan steering committee Cheryl thibo Jim Laden Adult Center Director and our two senior liaison uh representing the community Terry Wier and Corey odense for their dedication to reaching Broad and diverse audience for this project that's all I have for my report tonight happy to take any questions that you have great um I think with the Housing Authority if I understand correctly that when there is when no names appear on the ballot you need five righten votes to clinch a seat so I think we had two people with four and so that's what's causing this potential issue potentially um I don't know the specifics from the update I had last week um as I prepared this report but okay I'll have more info I'll confirm that that sounds right yeah I think I think that's I think that's right um and then um not from the town manager report but from the uh monthly reports um I did want to just highlight that the Ada playground equipment installation is going to begin this week uh from the DPW report um and then also the L project is now for the water main u l project um it looks like it's scheduled to begin in July um and I know that you know obviously it had to be delayed for circumstances outside of our control um are we still on track feeling good that we'll be able to complete this for you know potential tip project we are moving ahead until we are told otherwise yes so we full steam ahead it's about end up being like a two- Monon delay uh sounds about right around that okay Mark yeah thanks just follow up on ven's question work on the old project one of the things that concerns me is the the traffic and traffic shut down one of the things we talked about is maybe getting some public input and I was just wondering if there was any going to be any process by which there was public input sought about or discussion s or public forums or whatever about the traffic patterns and traffic plans and what it's going to do and especially for if if we're going to work nights or whatever it is or early mornings and people live in the area because nothing here says anything about involving the residents of that area and I think certainly they need to be involved if not the rest of the town because every seems like in the morning everybody goes through that that's intersection of forest Glenn in the western I'll talk with DPW especially as they get their construction uh schedule firmed up with the contractor uh I will say it would be odd to to do Resident Outreach on construction planning efforts but there might be some happy medium to make sure that um we're keeping them informed and if they had some some different thoughts on it we could take them but I would be careful to uh call it a big open process to um weigh in on traffic detours just we would set precedent and we have a lot of road projects that are going to start um but I think there's there's some hybrid option there that we could definitely entertain one other things in the finance report and it says contact nature conservatory and service net regarding incomplete 3 ABCs and their risk of losing exempt status in the upcoming fiscal year assessors what does that mean so this is um we we've encountered this aoup with a couple other agencies where the um nonprofit status is not active and so they cannot get exemptions on property tax excise tax related to that and so our cessor has been um vigorously Crossing all the t's dotting all the eyes to make sure everything is in place as you know it's a new assessor she's making sure everything is um lined up and in such uh she's finding that there's um some expired statuses on things that need to be renewed in order to qualify for exemptions so what's our is our approach to she lets them know she reaches out or they get a so do we so do we give them a a grace period to go renew their their nonprofit status or do we build them until they get it it depends on the situation with excise there's very little room but there's certain timelines that have to be met so if they can supply it before it has to get turned over usually we recommend they pay it and then they file an abatement after um but in this specific case I don't know I'm not sure I would need to look into it okay that's and the last thing is I noticed and this is the year-to-date budget items who is it in the school department that I understand that they're not responsible for line item budgeting th they're only responsible for the bottom line but boy they got some lines that are way over over over budget in that school department I'm just wondering if this does the does the entire school department get that budget or does it just go to superintendent O'Shea and we don't know where it goes from there and we really don't care as long as the bottom line stays okay um I'm not I'm sorry I was looking for what you were talking about so it's just if you if the budget we got which is IM mun IM munist print out if you go to the school department of it there were awful lot of that that seemed to show over over budget through I think I don't I think this was the end of April the end of May so I'm just curious of if they're getting it as well as as us oh yeah they're so we're in the crunch time right now as the fiscal year is about to close out so both Ian um the rest of the finance team but also on the school side this assistant superintendent they're running these reports transfers are coming in furiously um everyone is looking at this right now thanks anyone else just quick the only comment that I wanted to make was I I had noticed and uh correct me if I'm I'm wrong Lynn but for the parks and wreck are we are we really spending around $35,000 a year um at the the clay courts yes that's what the cost is to maintain that court I mean I I drive by all the time and never see anybody on those courts um when I saw the number I was just kind the maintenance cost is to get them ready uh I know that the park and recck commission is taking this exact topic up at um I think they their last meeting they did and they plan to take it up again I do think that you may expect a report or recommendation from them in the future on um on what what to do there so I I would encourage you know you any of you or certainly any public listening if you have thoughts on it either um strongly to keep them or um to repurpose them to something else reach out to the park and rec commission anything else no all right so uh we can move on to Old business the first item is to approve um draft meeting minutes so I'll entertain a motion to approve our May 20th 2024 meeting minutes so moved second second all right all those in favor can I just there were Corrections if I could yeah yeah absolutely thank you I sent a couple of Corrections to Mike that I think they need to be included and several of them are I'll call them typos typos or or whatever that is but one of them I just wanted to make a comment on it and and I may in fact have said what he reported in fact I probably did say what what he reported but the the cost of the municipal aggregation is 0.1 Cent per kilowatt hour and I think it's reported in there as 0.01 and so I think it should reflect the actual cost whether I said that or not I I'm sure he captured what I said but I I misspoke then okay so I want to make that correction I sent that to Mike as well I think we were told the actual cost is much lower than what anyone was saying 0.001 or something like that not that I well it's 0.1 it is 0.1 it's 0.1 Cent per kilowatt hour that the aggregator not the that the the consultant gets from the suppliers not from the talent but they get it from the suppliers based on the volume that they sell the wrong line of work just telling you that's what it is yeah all right do we need to amend or should we just go ahead this vote I can just take that do okay perfect okay as amended um all those in favor abstain I shall abstain thank you um all right so next up is our the continuation of our FY 2025 water sewer storm water rate discussion uh we started this discussion at our last meeting uh I think when I spoke with Andrew last week I encouraged you to watch this part of the video from our meeting so us this so I don't know who wants to set up this discussion um Lynn or Ian but sure so what I'm passing out right now sorry didn't mean to interrupt um sorry is uh the memo that was sent to you late today it is um in response to the questions that came up at your last meeting there what I counted I think was four specific questions of followup uh and so this is the information that we have for you um it's not as detailed as the last memo you had so if you would like you can quickly skim through it um and then uh happy to answer any additional questions that you might have on it this got an email to us at 6:36 today right yes okay yes yeah I apologize I was in finance committee meetings for appointing new members so it was a I'm just point out none of us have read it yes nobody's read it and it again it it's answers to questions that were brought up at the last meeting so if you want I can read the question just to remind you and then I won't necessarily go through each of these items because I don't think it's that relevant for tonight's conversation but more a takeaway for the future um yeah that'd be great okay so one of the questions you asked at the last meeting was what do other communities have for balances in their water Enterprise retained earning accounts uh the community that Ian and I both split to survey and we are still waiting on quite a few responses um there were very few that actually gave us a dollar amount that they had right now uh but most hovered between 20% of the utility budget 50% of the utility budget um or some combination of that like Southwick has used 0 to 490,000 over the past 5 years in retain in water retained earning so that's not quite answering what you had but we found that it was was kind of all over the place just for reference what is long those what our balance is yeah I mean if we're going to compare it to other communities I'm just wondering our is is oh so our uh our goal is $500,000 which is we're at $323,500 currently are you asking like what is that percentage if somebody called us and asked us the same question we asked them what would our answer our answer would have been the policy that you have which is a balance of $500,000 not a percentage of our budget fine okay um the second question you asked was whether they had policies regarding use of retained earnings and balances uh beler toown no policy Charlton um they maintain a reserve amount of 20% of the budget same with lllo um but that was for sewer lllo did not have one for water uh wear has no policy chapi maintains a surplus and retain earning to cover projects or to reduce the need for loans um they increase rates when the rate no longer supports the annual operating budget um Southwick uses retained earnings to offset increases in capital and operations so not those were not necessarily policies they were just answers that were provided to us um and then Wilbraham uses retained earnings to help stabilize rates and then other communities we don't have responses on so then the the answer that is a lot longer here and I might actually skip to the end I'm sorry the question that has a lot longer of an answer I might skip to the end for um because it kind of tees up for the water rate conversation um and then you also had asked for a gain and loss report for the water Enterprise fund and that has been attached to this memo tonight it shows you um I think is it did you give three years three years years y um of uh um three years of activity within the water sewer storm water Enterprise accounts any activity that was taking place during Town meetings whether that be capital projects or uh outlays of uh funds so the longer answer to question number three which was what are Springfield and water Sewer Commission budget numbers and so this was I I believe this question was asked in relation to the rate increase and the percentage increase Springfield was giving us um and I want to be clear um Ian has done a great deal of work putting that together for you or providing some more information on what the general operating budget is for Springfield but what I don't think was made abundantly clear at the last meeting is that the increases that we receive from Springfield are related to the capital budget not their operating budget uh and so I think that is the distinction there they have some really massive capital projects happening we are a portioned a share of that and that's the bulk of what our increase is attributed to so I'll stop there I don't know if there's questions or if you would like to to have Ian go back into some of the budget stuff with Springfield go ahead Mark yeah so and then the I I'm going to question your last comment that the bulk of it related to Capital because if you look at their increase and and this is in the letter from April 4th which we just got over the weekend says that onm and omm is operations and maintenance operations and maintenance went up from 13.2 million to 14.2 million to 18.5 million in the coming year so it went up pretty significantly that's operations and maintenance where Capital outlay went up from 3.8 million to 3.7 million actually went down to 4.5 so the the capital didn't doesn't appear to have really gone up that much I mean it's gone up but not nearly as much as their operations and maintenance and the memo as I read it said that they've got a new accounting system that's allocating for operations and maintenance differently but be that as it may I guess I still have no clue and I'd love to ask you know whatever his name is the finance director pelino you know they come down and they say we're going to allocate to the town of Long Meadow 1,933 313 you know and the town of long meow is going to get 6.49 % which is the three-year running average of the of the water usage but nowhere does it say how much they're going to sell us in volume and I think based on my understanding of past years they bill us based on volume not based on 1,933 313 and so nowhere does this memo say we therefore plan on charging for fiscal year 2024 $2.33 or whatever it is per 100 cubic feet they use a different unit than we do but but they don't you know and so the question I would have is how do you take this budget that they have and turn it into bills for for communities because they bill by volume and and it seems to me they do what we do they assume a volume they're using a threee average we assume a threeyear average and we build by volume but they throw this out as their budget but nowh they tell you what they're going to bill us per unit of water they just tell us there's an allocation of $1.93 three million allocated to long mle and so the question is what are we actually going to get build and what's what's the basis by which they do the billing because this this memo of theirs which is the most thorough I've ever seen a memo they've written clearly says their costs that are going up are in operations and maintenance and and maintenance expenses that they have a new process for allocating and this is how they proportion the the their expenses but they don't say how they're billing so Mark if I can respond to that um Sean and I had a conversation with the Springfield Water team on the 11th and we specifically asked him how this works so the 1.93 million that the town is built is built on a monthly basis and that reflects what Springfield Water will build us annually so this is the cost estimate that they come up with and I asked him I said specifically Josh is this expected or is this our actual cost and he said that this is our actual cost at year end Springfield Water will reconcile this amount based on our monthly Billings and true up the balance last year the town was issued a credit because we underbill what or we we paid more than what was built so we were issued a credit but depending on the activity for the year it could require additional Billings so this is a function of cost centers and are based on calculations of Prior cost but I reiterated with him and I said is this what we will actually build on a monthly basis and he said yes and how much did we get as a credit that I I'd have to defer to Lisa with that I don't know so so we don't get build on volume on a quarterly basis this amount reflects an annual total and we get Build 12 months of that amount and that's how we've been built previously that's my understanding of how this works but if there's a true up is that because they figure out what the usage was or because oh we found out how much this has all cost us to do our you know it would be based on yearend usage so they would bill us monthly for a given amount based on their projections for the year and at year end when they have actual amounts find out what it actually was they would find out what it actually was you could be credited or you could V more exactly I don't want to put Lisa on the spot okay all right but if there is a point where you do have information on a question that's asked okay feel free yeah jump on it uh and so just to point out a little bit of this conversation um and it's in the memo as well Ian and Shan have requested that Springfield Water and Sewer attend one of your meetings we tried to get them here tonight they weren't available we've asked for July 1st although it seems like that meeting might have a quorum issue and potentially um vacation scheduling issues for Springfield so um we felt it was important for them to come talk to you directly about what their budget is instead of us Gathering some information but then if you have follow-up questions it's not helpful for us to say we you know we'll have to get back to you I think we need some answers on the spot what is the deadline for which we have to set our water bre so to answer that specifically uh there is some time you don't have to do it tonight the next billing is mid July is that right um so you have a little bit of time but depends on when your next meeting is um the mailing cycle is really determined by us it would just shrink down the amount of time someone has to make a payment uh but to set the rate and to generate um a bill I think you we certainly could wait but I do think you have the information to be able to do that I think a lot of your questions are bigger questions that impact the future I don't know that it's going to impact the FY 25 um amount from Springfield that much yeah go ahead so we Bill 3 months at a time our quarters are January February March April May June July August and September October November December right and for the middle two quarters we we have a different sewer system but our water system is the same my understanding was that rates we would vote today or we would vote go into effect July 1st 2024 for the fiscal year 2025 budget but the reading that's being made onor July around July 1st which covers the usage of April May and June is build at the 2024 rate that we said not the 2025 rate and if that's correct and I'm not suggesting this but that that another quarter we don't need to set these rates until sometime in September 1st so we can get them into the billing for the July August September now having said that there was a massive discussion 10 years ago and it was it was Alex Grant who did that said because we used to set the rates in July and August and he said it's not fair to the town residents to not know what the rates are for the water they're using starting July 1st you know and so that's when we moved up the rate setting to this time of year so that people knew what the rates were starting July 1st but the rate we set tonight or we set for fiscal 2025 is for fiscal 2025 which is water that's used starting July 1st 2024 now I'm not suggesting we wait all the way till September but my comment is that in theory we don't you know what they're getting build on for the July 1st give or take reading is the 3 months ended then is based on the 2024 rate now if that's not happening then there's been a change in the town the way we do business because we've been and in fact the vote was to set the 2024 rates at the rate we have now not to and not to if you will use this 2025 rate for the last quarter of fiscal 2024 I don't know if I'm being clear but I don't know if you want oh no go ahead um this came up a lot during the quarterly billing and I know Lisa lives in breathes this every day but I remember this coming up I don't remember the answer I'm hoping Lisa does but I know we talked about this when we were developing that rate structure so for the last two years we have used the rate that we voted on here in June for the bill that comes out at the beginning of August so it is the April May and June usage at the new rate not the existing school year rate so they so we haven't been doing what Mark is saying and delaying the rate implementation that's countered to the vote of the select for said people are using water but not knowing what rate they're being built at April M June there was a reason for this I remember I just I don't remember the specific reason I remember it coming up I remember conversations about it I'll have to go back and look but I know it was a deliberate action fine I I'm I'm not arguing that we're not doing it I'm just giving the history yeah uh Josh yeah I remember I was talking about this I don't I also don't remember the reason but uh Mark I I think you're certainly right on that and the the corollary corollary to we don't want people to not know the rate is we also don't want to set a rate without knowing getting some answers so we're yeah we're kind of stuck in the middle um but I I I certainly think you're right that we if we were going back then I would take some time um but you I I want know the rate but I also want people to know that we have done our due diligence and are setting the right the right rate and are comfortable with no you're right Josh I and I think one thing you can say is what we're seeing today folks is you're going to 22% or 24% increase your water rate which nobody wants to see but you say that's where it's going and people you know without voting it that's clearly what the numbers show but we're going to get the and maybe we'll make some some adjustments hopefully downward but that's very different from just billing them these new rates for April through June 30th they've already used the water many people and that was the whole issue was the sprinklers and the irrigation and all that kind of stuff was us using water with they that using old water if you will at the new rate and that was something we did not want to do and intentionally chose not to do okay so I think I mean this is later on on the agenda but we have a proposed meeting schedule so I think the next proposed meeting is actually the middle of July like July 15th or 16th or so um and so you all have not talked to Springfield Water uh commission about that being a date that could possibly work for them to come no it was just the July 1 July 1st they were not available okay well uh I mean I I think p for me I would like to get some more information um and I and I think to Josh's Point hopefully the public understands that we're doing our due diligence and looking looking for all the information before we set rates so you know unless uh you know anyone else has anything to say that could you know potentially change my mind I think um it makes it would make sense to maybe delay this um you know for another month yeah even if we are there is going to be a big jump this year which that seems to be indication I I think we really owe it to everyone to be able to look forward and find out what's the next four years because if we go up 22% every year uh that's going to could change people's Lifestyles or decisions on their lawn um so I I really I think that that is the right thing to do um and even if we have to uh set a special meeting for it if we have to do something to to to give it time and depending on what Lisa tells us about tpw billing uh I think that that we owe it to people to do that if I can add an additional point I think that the Springfield Water Commission seems receptive to this whole understanding of the town because after our discussion I reached out to Dominic pelino and I noted this in the memo about the operating maintenance expense in increase because it was over $4.2 million and that is a significant increase for not only Springfield Water but a portion to the all all the different communities so he and I put this in the memo he spoke about the details of the account and what caused those drivers and I think I would like or I would ask the board to when they come and meet with us give them give them your feedback and really ask questions about where these increases are and what they expect coming forward more important than that I think we owe it to them to submit our questions to them in advance because the worst thing that can happen is have them show up here and say I don't know I got to get back to you you know and and I guarantee you without the questions in advance that's very likely to happen and so I mean I I'll be glad to put together my questions in advance hopefully they others can can do the same thing and just so people at home can see this you know Capital went up marginally Debt Service went up actually marginally so the question that came up last time was does this reflect the West Parish filter project and the answer is no it doesn't not at all they haven't bonded that yet so none of that's there you know what this reflects is a change in their operations as far as I can tell and they're you know they're independent they're able to do whatever they want to do I guess but we ought to get a chance to push back to them I'm just personally a little concerned that this memo came April 3rd and the select board seeing it who are the water and sewer Commissioners seeing it for the first time this weekend so that's 60 days at least 60 days later and that's when a 22% increase is coming we shouldn't be not seeing this 60 days later that's my found anyone else yeah and then I think also if um you know we can look back and see why we were applying the subsequent F you know subsequent year fiscal years rates to the last quarter um and just so that we for our knowledge know why and can explain that that also obviously be helpful but Ben there's it's a it's a problem because there are people who' have been turning on their sprinklers right since April 1st they give or take thinking that they're paying one rate and they're going to get buillt 22% High higher for that or they would have been getting build 22% higher I guess the ult other question that we ought to ask is you know Lisa can you spin your magic and say based on what we hope or see or maybe two months worth of readings that you've gotten so far you know what would it look like billing that at the 2024 fiscal year rates versus 2025 fiscal year rates for that that quarter because it's it's a 22% is going to there're people getting multi thousand water bills and 22% makes a big difference I believe in that memo from the finance director at the last meeting there was some scenarios on what that increase looked like for the average user you had that in there I think but if there're specific but those were annual I'm just looking at this quarter then you just cut it and well it's not it's not linear L though it's not because of how we build for winter avering right no no but because of how people use their water people don't use water linearly during the year they use far more in the spring and the summer than in the fall you know well we we took rates based on both summer and fall so you could take theoretically one of the water rate periods during the summer and equate that to the new rates to see what that change is we have the ability to do that okay great um and then I think also you know Ian Lynn whoever is scheduling this meeting with Springfield Water Commission you guys are obviously aware of the questions that we have too um that you can pass along to them yeah I think it would be helpful if you have questions you get those to Ian he'll compile them so we're not sending seven different emails to Springfield Water we can send them one um I think at for this point we should plan on them coming for July 15 so if you get your questions in you know early July we'll get them off to them and we'll confirm that they'll be here at the next meeting okay great but meanwhile what do we do about water rates I mean from my perspective I think we need to resolve whether this is going to be retroactive to April or not and we can do that if we choose to so I was gonna go back go ahead if we don't retroact it to the April you know May June you will have a quarter that is a lower rate the current rate and then your next three quarters you're going to have to go more than 20% to cover the operating budget but but it'll be four quarters no because then the four quarter will then be in the new fiscal year covering the new fiscal year budget it it should not be that's my point revenue is recognized in the the fiscal year it's received I understand revenue is recognized in the fiscal year it's received but billing is the billing rate is in the fiscal year it's used that was our that was the intent of the select board okay so you're right this year for fiscal year 2025 the first quarter is going to be at the 2024 rate but for fiscal year 2025 or 2026 the first quarter will be at the 2025 rate yes but every year four 30th you're going to have to have the revenue to cover the Enterprise otherwise you got to get you know from the general fund so the year has to cover the Enterprise budget whether the rate is a higher or lower rate the whole year has to be covered the revenue has to be cover the revenue is a c the revenue that we get in in July July is fiscal year 2025 Revenue I get that okay it came in based on a rate that we had set last year my understanding it was always like that before we went to quarters it was on you had six Monon bills so they didn't align with the fiscal year I remember this being talked about when we went to quarterly billing I'll have to go back and look I'll watch the meeting I I know we talked about it um I know there were memos about it I know we exhaustively looked at it um I just don't know it enough to speak to it tonight yeah it makes sense why it would have to come in during the year but it is it is kind of backwards on on when the rate is used so but it's evident also now if we change it there will be a shortfall basically a long there's going to be a catch if we don't change it yeah the answer to that Andrew is we don't know if there's going to be shortfall because we don't know how much water is going to be used you know and we never do and this goes to the point of what is our water stabilization fund for now if somebody called me and said what do long meow use their water stabilization fund for it's the equalize rates because we every year estimate what our usage is going to be and the one thing we know is when that year is over we did not use the amount of water we estimated we either used more which caused our Revenue to be higher than we thought or we used less which caused our Revenue to be below what we wanted and we'd make up the difference if was less from the water stabilization fund that's the history of the water stabilization fund the problem was we went through this period of years where there was a lot more water being used than we projected every year this before we went and our water stabilization fund grew the target is $500,000 we had $1.2 million in there at one point and so we said look we're never going to use that to stabilize the rates let's take some of that and use it for a capital project because it's water and we did that but that was the exceptional basis and I don't want you being new or Lynn to say well that's the process this the stabilization fund is for capital projects it's not it was never intended to be for that now I'm not sure what the policy said but the fact if you go back and ask Paul Pik he'll tell you it was to stabilize the rates and it makes sense when that's the case because you never know how much water people are going to use in the coming years so you're always making that estimate and so you know you hope that the $500,000 covers emergency repairs because we always have to do that and any variation in the water rates and so to me that's very different from you know we use it for for Capital needs we've always bonded Capital needs for project for water projects I had a dumb question did it was it called the water rate stabilization fund it's called the water stabilization fund I mean now it's obtained earning so I it wasn't called the rate stable but but that was that was the use of it that was the so Mark so in the past it would be to stabilize the rate it would basically use to mitigate the rate no it wasn't it wouldn't necessarily stabilize the rate what it would do is stabilize the fun so if you say look we're going to bring in $1.5 million in water fees and the water uses down that year and you only brought in 1.3 million in water fees your budget was short $200,000 so you transfer money out of the stabilization fund to make up for the because the water fund has to balance but if on the other hand you said we're going to bring in $1.5 million in water rates and you bring in 1.7 the extra would get transferred into the water stabilization fund figuring year from now or two years from now we're going to need that water for because we're going to come up short so in a year where let's say you underestimated the rate was not as high as you needed it to be you could use those funds to basically cover the shortfall and then continue yes but it it wasn't so much that the rate was lower than you needed to be though usage it was yes the usage was lower than you but they really did right right they really okay well I mean I I think from what I've heard from Lisa and Lynn I think I think that we can wait a month and and continue how we have been billing but it seems like we need to figure out we need to just Recall why that is exactly but it seems like we had gone through some process and that that process had led to um you know building the way that we do so um if nobody else has anything else to say on this then I one more yeah go ahead Ian knowing what you know though is there any factor in here that they're likely to say oh we may we can reestimate that or something like that basically what they gave us is what it's going to be they're not going they answer our questions about the future projections but is there something I'm missing here about like something that they could actually assess based on our input or our our uh concerns that they might actually reassess something that's been assessed to our town so my understanding of the process is Springfield Water Commission in the past has sent us a estimate in the December time frame and then come February March April they send us their actual So based on that it is likely that we could see a change but at this point this is what they're going with so we have no way of knowing if there is going to be a change or not fortunately and they could always argue hey this is just your projection we'll true it up at the end of the year you'll pay exactly what you're supposed to pay and everyone will get their commenor amount every Community will do it their part so but and and maybe you've undercharged your residents at the time or maybe you overcharge them then depends on what the true up is and then so this goes back to the beginning when Lynn said that you felt like we had all the information in front of us to set the water rate for the year I did before there's additional questions that came up yeah okay yeah I don't I don't think the number from Springfield's going to change and I think we know what our numbers are for the bonded projects we have going and you're basically saying you know what it's it's we can set the rates and if we overestimate then the next year it we can low residents will benefit from having a lowerer rate the following year Etc but that's that generally isn't how it works the land they don't benefit from a lower rate the following year if we wouldn't our retained earnings be much higher and then you could translate in you know you could set the rate a little lower than you thought it might need and then well then that gets more your retained earnings stabilize the rate right so if you look at the water budget that Ian sends us one of the lines is use of retainers earnings to reduce rates and in the past years if you go back and you can go back many years in this thing you'll see there are times that we've used retained earnings to lower rates primarily because the retained earnings were very high but also because we just wanted to moderate the rates a little bit so we can we can do that I guess in theory you could do it next year right so I'm saying like let's say the rate was higher than we needed it to be this year then your retain earnings will be very high and you can use it to mitigate the rate in the next year which would theoretically reduce the cost to of the water to our residents that's all I'm trying to say yeah I think it's important to note two things one the commission can have retained earnings used to reduce the rate at two points during the year the special town meeting and the annual town meeting that is when it's table to be voted on to be used in the past 5 years the water rate has not made use of retained earnings to reduce the rate now there has been the use of retained earnings and I believe this is back in fiscal year 18 2018 that's correct but for water specifically it has not needed to use retained earnings to reduce the rate and that's not really a statement of the Enterprises itself I just wanted to make that clear to the select board that in the past it hasn't required to be hasn't been required to be used that doesn't mean that it doesn't in the future but I just wanted to offer some additional Clarity is that because the retain earnings were used for capital projects and things like that so if you look at the past three years in the fund balance that I provided most of the retained earnings is used towards smaller capital projects which is allowed under the water Enterprise fund policy it can be used up to $500,000 towards capital projects Mark is also correct that the water can be the water Enterprise fund Reserve fund can be used to reduce rates and use in emergencies so in the past say 3 to 5 years we have been using it historically for capital projects so I honestly think that this is kind of a philosophical question in the sense that you know markx made a good point that in the past hey maybe this wasn't supposed to be used for capital projects but at the same time this board has and everybody has talked about how you know we're you know have so many infrastructure projects that are coming up you know and how deferred maintenance has been an issue I've heard each of I know each of you cares about that a lot so when you talk about you know philosophically should we return earnings be used for capital projects or should they be used to mitigate the rate to be honest with the huge amount of infrastructure projects and Capital Improvements that we need you know one could easily argue we need the money basically we need the money it's hard for us to say boy it's everyone has been deferring maintenance for so many years but here we have an opportunity to use retain earnings to do that but we're taking the money from that to lower the rate which you know the rate's going up from what I heard in the last meeting you may you said maybe it's not going up a lot in the next 5 years but it's not going down it's going up maybe in four or 5 years they'll have a big jump like this I think I don't remember the reason why but I think that this is possibly a new normal although you also said that we're not the highest Community we're actually on the lower end so uh just on that in in theory and hopefully we aren't charging people so much that we have we have enough retained earnings to do all the capital projects we need because I think our rat should be through the roof right and so it's not it just can't cover what we need I I you know I I see what you're saying everything counts but I mean you have to bond for most things but right and so and we we saw with the L project came in under what we thought but it was still massively expensive and that's a tiny tiny portion of our town um but yes there's there's a philosophical question I um it's one of the benefits of having a mark around that has I didn't know uh about the original idea of the retained uh earnings account so that's interesting to know um and I can see can see how it benefits but um yeah we don't we don't want to build it up artificially or because I think if we charge some higher rates we've made a mistake if if we do have too much of retained earnings so but you know here and there I can see why we'd want to do it and take away a little bit of pain but Josh we we never you know intentionally overb build for water to build retained ears I was saying you know the the issue is always you know oh it's a dry summer water usage is up for watering Lawns and our revenues higher so we put it in retainer oh it's a wet summer water uses you know that's always been the the discussion it's never been you know what we do and like I said we've gone to a threeyear running average of water usage as the divisor to try to make that all work out yeah you know and not right but it it's not accurate but it's the best we have okay so if we delay this vote for a mod what what could we hear at the next meeting that would alter you know or change the water rate that we would set basically if they lower it would simply offer you an opportunity to talk to the Springfield Water Commission and inquire them about the increases on their end that would be the point of waiting and the value of that would be that they would get pushed back and maybe that would influence them in the future or make like compel them if they're hearing this from many communities to reassess and the drawback is that we wait a month and folks are using water in July that the you know for the first few weeks of July where they don't know exactly what rate they're being charged there's or going back actually yeah or going back three mons this is it's going to be sticker shock for people regardless I think um but I Mark while we were talking I was looking throughout my I was trying to find quarterly billing in our old minutes see if I can find something really quick and you I I just stumbled upon your point you said I don't think the rate change is going to change people's actions and I I still it doesn't change Behavior I I think 22% you never know actually it would I don't it's usually after fact in theory but I I don't think it will I mean I still see I go around town it's raining I see sprinklers on um I don't I I just don't think it hits people's pocketbooks enough to matter not that it it doesn't and some people I I know it will because this is 22% is 22% um but uh I think we need to do what's right for us and what we don't want to step on the DPW and our billing process so I you know I I could go either way whatever the board wants to do well I give you another scenario Josh because we have not yet gotten the true up for this year from Springfield Water and Sewer and that may put an infusion into our water retained earnings bill or fund but it may not I mean we have no idea and and I think one of the things we ought to look at is and maybe we can do that internally and the reason I'm saying this is that I I would like to use money and frankly when we talked back in in March we were going to put we thought we had $200,000 worth of money from the water retained earnings fund that we could put toward the fees this year to lower the the rates by you know 10 cents or something like that you know and from that March 22nd agreement till your memo we got that got removed and I have no clue why or how and what changed in that's why I asked for this water retained earnings system something changed between March 3r 22nd and now that says we don't have $200,000 to put in there and I think we do and I think we owe it to the people in Long meow to not take the rates up like this but take it up a little bit knowing that it's going to keep going up every year but I think my comment to you we in at that meeting was if you raise the rates by 22% there's going to be a few of us not here at the next meeting because for those of you who haven't been here water rates bring people into the select board maybe it won't this time but it always has especially when you do something that people don't like well I think that's guaranteed I mean if we if we had it if if it's 22% and we said let's make it I don't know arbitrarily 15% it's still going to be people up but at least you know you know we're having this conversation we can point to them like obviously we we consider it very very carefully I mean whatever we decide the the increase is uh 86 cents or 84 cents if I'm correct 84 cents per unit that's the increase okay but but of that 84 cents 49 cents is from the Springfield Water Department okay so we can point to a a large I mean we've got the numbers to show where that that's coming from you know the issue to me one of the big things was that we we as a town made a mistake when we borrowed $1.2 million for a project $1.5 million for a project that's only costing 5.6 million that's not true the project is not costing 5.6 I I want clarify that how much is it costing um that is just for the construction work that is not for the design and Engineering um you want to come up cuz I just want abundantly I'm willing to use the correct numbers I don't have the exact number for me it's at least a million dollar more than that plus 300,000 I to 1.3 million more than the yeah and it wasn't 5.5 I think the bid ended up coming in a little over six and that was just for the construction work so we estimated I think it was a million in design and Engineering oversight um so we're I mean yeah I'm corrected I apologize stand corrected the fact is we borrowed money before we knew what the project was going to cost us and that costs us money because you can't make money on the money you borrow and that was the mistake of the town and we shouldn't be doing that we should wait till we know what projects cost before we borrow money CU we over borrowed and now we're that's part of the cost here if you look at the the interest cost on on our water bill it's gone up substantially and and I just think people ought to ought to see and know that and we ought to do what we can as a as a select board as a Water and Sewer Commission to try to modify or moderate some of those those issues the bonding capital is is up almost 40 cents a unit yes um and I will also add though that we the borrowing for the uh L Project work was higher than what was needed for the L Project work however if you recall at the annual town meeting that the excess Bond money is being used for another massively needed water project on Magnolia thank you 1.5 million is the estimate current so this is money that is being put back into the water utility um and then just real quick it was July 5th 2022 there was a memo from the interim Finance director at the time with appointed question calling out this um change to once we went to quarterly billing you were going to have to make a decision on whether you were using the new FY rates or the old FY rates and the board had a pretty thorough conversation about it so I just point you to that July 20 July 5th 2022 meeting and you decided to stay status quo with how it has always been done which was the new fiscal year starts the new rates meaning you're you're back billing you're billing the prior fiscal year at the new fiscal year rate and there's a memo attached to that agenda and I I will say too with the timing of this we did vote at the fall special town meeting for the L project bonding knowing that the timing of when we put out the bid would probably bring us back a lower a lower Bid And so that was a big consideration um and you know SA save the to money and I think like you guys said we have an abundance of water projects we've got we've been able to use it towards Magnolia and I'm sure if we decide that we would want to do more design and Engineering for other water main projects in town we will have this you know this money ready for it so um I mean it was I just point out that authorization to bond doesn't mean go out and borrow it before you know how much you need we did authorize 11 something million it was the right thing to do at the time we should we would do it again you know but that that doesn't mean that's what you go out and borrow the next day before you know how much of course yeah of course but I mean but like I said it was a timing issue of wanting to go out to put bids in January and get a good get a good bid um go ahead do you think it's premature to either begin discussion or save time by either talking about the issues on the table which are basically should we change the way we're billing the second quarter of the year you know that issue with April May and June and if we're going to decide what how what we're going to do with retain earnings is that like for example if we're going to mitigate the rate that's a whole another discussion about what what should the rate be essentially right so and I'm kind of honestly I obviously like joshh like all of us I'm sure we see the virtues of whether we save it and use for Capital planning issue capital projects or try to lower the rate but it seems to me going to be a discussion take it seems to me that the way that this discussion is headed that it will be better for us to wait among get some more information talk to the Springfield uh Water Commission um so if there's no further discussion I just want to make sure with Lisa can weigh on or Sean if that if that is correct if it if it's not going to affect anything um billing wise so even if we're retro using the rate I would just need it by like the 20th of July okay and the proposed meeting is before that so okay all right so let's table that for now um and then move on to the second part of this uh the Springfield Water Sewer Commission and Long Meadow agreement which I think is also incredibly complicated and Lynn if you want to take this one yeah so I think um in some respects you almost have to have these con conversations um at the same time which is I guess what we're going to do but um the what you see in your packet is the 5-year agreement because it's more thorough so I wanted you to have that that agreement was signed by a prior select board in the subsequent one-year agreements there has been um inconsistency with who has signed them sometimes it's been a town manager sometimes it's been a DPW director um and this year when Sean presented me the 5-year one and the one-year agreement I looked at both side by side and determine that this was not a document that I have authority to sign nor does the DPW director to sign uh authority to sign so I sent them to Town Council they're reviewing them they did confir or confirm that um it needs to be the water Sewer Commission that signs it I don't have any um history yet that you've ever signed these oneye agreements since that one expired but I think it's really important for you to look through that 5-year one because it talks a lot about stuff that we've you've brought up here for questions like how do they determine what share we pay um what how much water we actually are purchasing from them uh so that agreement is just still a one-year offering that's all they want to do I have not been directly involved yet in the conversations about extending that 5-year agreement I know Sean has had some initial conversations with them about that I don't know if you want to talk about any of that now or you want to wait till they're here yeah they've actually been the ones pushing to continue these one-year extensions so it be something for you guys to approach with them whether you want something more comprehensive from them when they come okay and so there's no there's nothing for you to do well technically you could vote the one-year agreement if you wanted to tonight or the next meeting um because it operates on a fiscal year so the one we have that was signed last year but I'm not sure who I haven't looked at that one um that one expires the end of this month I I don't think they're going to shut us off um because the agreement actually technically isn't valid because it hasn't been signed by anyone with authority to sign it so I think you can wait until did we get the oneyear agreement ly I got the it's uh the very first document okay so something to talk with them too at the next meeting yeah if they and just make sure you look through the fiveyear one cuz it it does go over a lot of what we've talked about is that this one there's a yeah the extension is the first one and then the second one is the longer one that expired yep okay great uh anyone have anything to add on this all right uh let's move along to the lctv operating agreement um who wants to te this one Josh um so I I mentioned at our last meeting that there were some questions uh we we sent this around this been in the works for many years at this point um and we had a draft that uh we had all gone a little cross-eyed reading and Mark brought up a question about uh funding and that the town wouldn't wouldn't be obligated to fund Beyond fund a budget that went beyond what we actually got from Comcast uh and that has been fixed after some back and forth uh and we would have signed this or we would have had this up on the agenda at the last meeting but the uh lctv was uh missing a couple filings with the state for nonprofit status uh two of those have been fixed as far as we've been told by uh the town and there's one pending from last year um so I guess we if everyone's read this and is comfortable with it I know that Jay tman has read it Liz Leiden at uh at MTC everyone is uh okay with it um but I don't think that board can lctv can sign it right now without being without being up to date they may be up to date now it it's not a public as far as I know it's not a publicly accessible database that they would register with it's not like uh the secretary of the Commonwealth where I can look at see if that they're valid corporation which they are um so I guess it's up to the board uh if they want to vote tonight um and to sign this when we are told it's on board or they're up to date which is what I would recommend or if we want to vote to sign or if we want to table it until they're in place so um that I think that's the options as far as I can see it and this would be us directing Len to sign correct correct okay uh go ahead Mark yeah I'm trying to find the paragraph and I sent it to I think it's three to Lynn that somewhere in here it says it says lctv uh shall submit to the town a budget and the town shall pay the pay the budget or something like that I'm trying to find it and and my question is you know basically do we really care what lctv budget is don't we just care that it says funding from the town of long Meadows cable access revenue and we pay that amount and that's Our obligation because it says that we they will submit a budget we will pay that budget to the extent that it doesn't exceed what we get but as far as I'm concerned lctv can have a $20 million budget and raise money from doing video things and you know fundraisers and bake sales and have all this other Revenue which is great because they're going to need it because our share over time is going to go down as people cut the cord to cable TV and so I'm questioning whether the comment should be lctv will submit a a budget to the for and who and the revenue shall be the town of Long Meadow or it's the there's a line item and I think what I said said to L is the following uh it said uh yeah lctv it says lctv shall provide the town with an annual budget as noted above and the total and and the total amount of which shall not exceed the funding received by the town pursuant to the Comcast license that's what it says lctv shall provide the town with an annual budget as noted above the total amount of which shall not exceed the funding perceived by the town pursuant to the Comcast license why don't we change that to lctv shall provide the town an annual budget in which the revenue line that enumerates the town's transfer funds shall not exceed the funding received by the town pursuant to the Comcast license that gives them the authority to go go raise go run a bake sale yeah and we talked about this a lot and I have thought about it um do I care what lctv budgets is uh a little bit because they have a pot of money and when that is exhausted if they if their budget was twice what they're what they were receiving from us from Comcast if they once they expend the rest of that money they're they're in big trouble uh they I know they have a cash Reserve we will start seeing that uh with the budget or with the reporting to us but uh we we don't have a vested interest in lctv uh continuing on but we do have a vested interest in uh Peg access to the town and uh showing all our meetings so you know could we do what you say yeah we absolutely can um and I I'd be fine with that but I'm just explaining why it is what we what we arrived at because we I am concerned that if the budget goes Haywire then but the way it's written they don't have the authority in their budget to go have a bake sale right this is right and this is not this is not the language I propos I proposed the the other part that uh it can't be more than what we're paying U or that are we are never the town's never on the hook to pay more than what we get from Comcast uh so that that language uh maybe Lyn remembers where it came from that might have been from but that's not what I proposed for some reason I feel like this came from their attorney that's what I'm wondering yeah that really ties the hands of their independent board of directors if I was on their independent board I because that means that I mean I know that they they do what VCR transfers to digital they they do all that other stuff that shows Revenue I I assume it brings in Revenue but none of that is is allowed based on this or impacts their budget based on either that or they're going to end up with two separate budgets and I think that would be problematic for the town well I'm I'm looking back through our emails and I it was their language yeah I didn't give that language I don't know I just found it um so I'm looking at track changes where it had uh a budget shall not ex oh yeah this is from yeah this this came from them because I had what I what originally was in there was an annual budget as noted above the total amount of which shall not exceed the funding or no which is subject to approval by the select board and shall not exceed the funding received by the town pursuing to the comcat license Comcast license that subject to approval was what got cut out and added in the other language so I I don't know that the language I put in is that in the event that Comcast fails to make the required payments town is under no obligation Etc so I that and that's what I care about I don't care about their budget otherwise but the way it's written Josh we do care about say what you but I'm just saying the way it's written the town cares about their budget right and all we care about is the money that comes from Comcast right yeah I I like I said I'm I'm fine with the language if you want to put it in that way I it would concern me if it's in there but I I don't think that we have a say um well what about a hybrid of lctv shall provide the town an annual budget as noted above the total amount of funding provided by the town shall not exceed the amount of from provided from Comcast something like that yeah so you still get their budget right we we want to get their whole budget and we want to know how much they expect from us absolutely I think that's that's right I I just we can try it doesn't mean I just Reddit is their budget is limited to what we give them and that's just it is and and I can't believe they'd approved that well this may have been to be quite honest looking at the document this may have just been a track changes issue where it got cut and everyone's sick of looking at it and that may be it um or they may want to limit it to what they got coming in but they don't know right I know I know I mean you're right we really shouldn't care but frankly I can't imagine that they'd approve that well I if they got an independent truly independent board I'm certainly happy with putting the language that either of you said I think said the same thing yeah and then we can go back to them with this and see if that's I think if we at this point they would I'm I'm sure they'd be happy to hear this and they'd be happy with the tone of this conversation if if everyone's voted comfortable voting with uh with the caveat that they need to get in that last filing I say we just vote on it and give it to them and say Here's what you get and I think they'll be happier with it so that's fine all right somebody want to make a motion oh I'm I'm moving on this what's your motion John I move we approve the uh oh I lost my agenda I move we approve the Long Meadow General General lctv let me hold on let me start again I I move that we approve the agreement between the town of Long Meadow a public access cable television of Long Meadow Incorporated as presented on the agenda with the change to section 7 uh the second sentence uh which will read L lctv shall provide the town an annual budget as noted above uh showing an appropriation from the town of Long Meadow at an amount no higher than the funding received by the town pursuant to to the Comcast license uh and continuing on from there second you got that Mike the video does all right uh all those in favor all right longest standing agenda [Music] item sorry Josh um okay so next next up we've got an engagement letter from um attorney kanof um so attorney kof was our attorney representing town of Long Meadow in our litigation with eversource he has switched law firms and this is an engagement letter that basically um creating kind of I guess a new agreement between us and him but following the same terms as previously agreed to um and so here what we're looking for Lynn is a vote on this by the select board to uh direct you to sign the engagement letter I believe so okay I see just your signature line okay great um so any discussion on this anyone want to say anything uh oh we we talked about a little bit before um in executive session the only thing I would if anybody's curious uh they will let look in the agenda they will see C turn can's billing rate is $450 an hour that is what he was always contracted with us at that can change but I don't think it will and as far as we are aware the amount that we voted on a town meeting a couple years ago now uh will still cover this we haven't been told otherwise great we'll still cover the litigation or the EFS up to the efsb which is what uh was discussed at the meeting great so I will entertain a motion to direct the town manager to sign the uh letter of Engagement with attorney kanof so moves second all right all those uh any further discussion okay all those in favor all right great so moving on to new business we are setting our 2024 FAL special town meeting uh date and location a memo was provided to the select board by our executive assistant Mike barbier the proposed date for a fall special town meeting is Tuesday November 12th at 700 p.m. at the Long Meadow high school gymnasium um I believe that this date was selected because we have a presidential election this year and uh the presidential election will be November 5th 2024 and obviously with the amount of early voting mail and ballots that puts a pretty big strain on our volunteers um as well as the town clerk's office and by setting the fall special town meeting after the presidential election they're not having to juggle all these different things while also trying to put on um a special uh Town special town meeting sorry not special election special town meeting um the memo also details when articles from all the Departments and boards are due in the select board's office uh the proposed date is Friday September 27th and then also citizen petitions um are also due by that same date and then the bottom portion of the memo just provides a timeline of all the key dates before our fall special town meeting um does anyone have any they want to add to this or explain anything Mike I don't know if there's anything I missed pretty much cover everything that obviously that calendar is just tentative dates as we we look ahead um but pretty accurate in terms of the meeting dates okay great anyone want to add anything I'll make a motion to set the special fall town meeting for November 12th second all right any further discussion okay all those in favor all right okay uh next up our select board meeting schedule and so this is the complete FY 2025 meeting schedule I think if folks take a look at this um it reflects what we did last summer with a paired down meeting schedule in the Summer where we moved to one meeting in July and one meeting in August I think that it worked well for us last summer uh committees aren't meeting in the summer there's usually less work for the select board to discuss in the summer and I think this also is reflective of what other municipalities do too uh where they also have paired down meeting schedules in the summer and is also I think just a reflection of people's schedules and their summer vacations and summer plans um and not just for the select board and the staff but also folks that we want to bring and you know before the select board to speak um I know just personally um that the August 19th meeting I will have to miss and so if there's any wiggle room there where we can make that the first Monday of August instead if that doesn't make sense you know obviously that's fine um and then the other thing that I just wanted to flag too is that it it's I know our February meeting the second meeting of February always matches up with uh school vacation April 2 yeah oh and April and April 2 and I was you know curious if we should also discuss modifying that at all um you know I think now too we have a majority of the select board with children um on school calendars um so those are just a couple of the points um of discussion that I had but open it up to other folks and anything that you want to say Bene my only question and I'm not going to August doesn't isn't a big deal but in in the February and April if we were not to have them those weeks what what's the proposal yeah I I don't know what the proposal and especially the February one we're like in the thick of budget season and that's really slightly like to the prior Thursday like you can't have it the same week obviously because that's the whole point of if you're away right but you don't want to make it a full week ahead because then it was just a week since your last meeting so I don't know what the precedent is for yeah I don't know what kind of leeway that's why I'm asking what's the proposal well we could you don't have to decide on those we have some time at least um also there are some months that have five Mondays so there is some flexibility with midrange just would have to look into that and play around a little bit okay so you know we could adopt this schedule tonight but just maybe Mike if you could take a look to see if there's any kind of uh you know if there are any options there for us uh I'm I'm also I'm fine moving August I could do um August 5th if we want to do that but it depends on everyone's schedule I um because it you know it it seems silly to know to set when we know uh at least one of us isn't going to be here I guess I speak I'm I'm away on the fth but I could probably uh join by Zoom August 12th was in the middle so that's closer to yeah either of those were 12th oh question is the school committee uh it's they meet on Tuesday so if it's a Monday we'll have no issue with that 12's good yeah 12 12 okay great thank you guys um great well I will entertain a motion then um um move we adopt the proposed uh fisc year 2025 select board meeting schedule uh with the August 19th moving meeting moved to August 12th second all right any further further discussion all right all those in favor all right uh next is our uh selectboard leison assignments discussion so um we've been provided a list of all of our liaison committee assignments obviously the easiest way to do this would be to just give answer all of Tom's uh that sounds fine L on asss but it does you know obviously I want to open it up if anyone feels like they want to shift there Le's on assignment for whatever reason any trades any trades yeah a first round draft anyone no okay all right so um yeah I don't think we don't vote or anything but just Andrew sounds uh congratulations on your new L um all right and then I will entertain a motion for uh the long meow adult center community funds uh two one-day liquor license applications for events to be held on July 11th from 5:00 to 7: and on July 25th uh from 5: to 7:30 so moved second all right any further discussion all right all those in favor all those opposed all right and we've got correspondents anybody have any comments on any of the correspondents that we received yeah there was one thing that was uh yeah I I have a question have we heard back from that uh the West Springfield do we have any idea what that's about yeah no no idea what it's about um I encourage them to reach out to the chair when we re reorganize the board so benath I'm going to have them reach out to you to go over if it's a specific topic that is of interest to the board to bring forward as a topic but I did let them know that Resident comment sections are only permitted to Residents who are given 3 minutes each that's the information that I gave them but I encourage them if it's something that they wanted to reach out to our chair then they're more than you know welcome to do that great thank you and Mark do you have something you want to no I that was it oh that was it okay great and then um so that's all then we'll give Andrew the honors of moving to ajour I move we uh I move we adjourn second all in favor oh all hey don't don't get discussion all those in favor go Celtics oh go Celtics yeah like a half hour all right all those in favor all right all right thank you everyone thank you