begin our meetings we're recording please go ahead thank you good evening it's June 17th 2024 and we are beginning with a regular meeting of the Town Council and as I explain later we're then going to take a pause in that meeting due two public forums and then come back to the meeting okay we'll show you the schedule in a moment um the open meeting law allows us to continue holding meetings remotely without a quum of the council physically present at a meeting location while providing the public with adequate alternative access to the meeting this meeting is accessible in real time by zoom and by phone and we are checking on Amis media live broadcast there are in fact 10 10 counselors in the room tonight thank you given that we have a quorum of the council present I'm calling the June 17th 2024 regular Town council meeting to order at 63 um I'll call upon each counsel by name uh by the name they have indicated they would like to be addressed at that time please unmute your mic and say present and this will indicate that we can hear you and you can hear us I'll begin with Pat deand president Anor Devin go here present councelor ete present ly grimer is present councelor hanck present Bob Hegman present councelor Lord present Pam Rooney here councelor Ryan presid Kathy Shane here Andy steinford presid Jennifer to present councelor Walker please check the audience for Council walk okay right there's no chat room for this meeting if you have technical issues make sure that Athena and I know and we will decide what to do at that time if you would like to make a comment or ask a question please use the raised hand button and uh depending on the severity of a technical difficulty we may have to suspend the meeting um we're going to show you the schedule since this is a little different than most evenings uh and so I'm asking Athena to put it up on the screen our first order of business waiting there's am media for those of you on ammer media you've not missed anything we're just calling the meeting to order um our first order of business tonight is a joint meeting with the Jones Library trustees this is for the purpose of discussing the proposed process and timeline for filling the vacant trustee seat due to the resignation of Robert Pam there will be no public comment during this portion of the meeting upon conclusion of the meeting with Jones Library trustees will recess the regular Town council meeting for the purpose of holding two public forums during each of these public forums there will be an opportunity for public comment but only related specifically to the topic of public forum the first is regarding an appropriation for the purposes of purchasing a piece of property referred to as the gauge property which is part of protecting our Watershed the second is a public form regarding Appropriations for the Regional High School trans back and Fields at the conclusion of the second public for Forum we will reconvene our regular Town council meeting starting with announcements during the regular Town council meeting there will be one general public comment period the order order of the agenda is slightly changed the discussion item regarding Water and Sewer updates will occur during the action items there is no vote on the water in sewer rates tonight that will not happen until July 15th this requires a 14-day notice and we need to make sure that happens for the public the discussion of the Town manager gos goals is postponed to June 24th pending receipt of all inform information necessary for me to complete the analysis at this time I'm calling on Austin Sarat chair of the Jones Library Board of Trustees to call the meeting of trustees to order Austin thank you ly I'm calling tonight's meeting of the Jones Library Board of Trustees to order when I call your name if you'd signify your presence uh far here Jean here Tammy I didn't hear Tammy but um I can I can see her uh I don't see Lee Edwards uh with us so Lynn we have a for thank you The Joint meeting with the library Trustees for tonight is to discuss the process and timeline for filling the vacancy the packet in the document includes five attachments tonight we will only focus on a b c and d and by this the town by doing this the Town Council not Joan Jones Library trustees are seeking agreement on a timeline which is a attachment fee which includes our joint meeting tonight a joint meeting on Monday June 24th at 6 for the purpose of agreeing to the questions to be asked of each candidate and those questions will then become attachment e we will also meet on July 15th at 6 o'clock pm to interview and select candidate the announcement regarding the vacancy that will be posted tomorrow is attachment C and a description of the Jones Library trustees are attachment D so I'm going to ask the town clerk I mean the clerk of the Town Council excuse me to show the timeline and ask if there are any questions at this time regarding the timeline and while she's doing that let me just explain this is a process the council has used now I believe this is the fourth time we've used it twice for school committee people we've used it once for the Housing Authority and this is the first time we've ever used it for the trustees um so it's a process that is consistent with the charter and consistent with our rules of procedure and consistent if you will with our practice we're on to the next slide after this one and and we're on to the next one we're actually onto the timeline for the actual trustee selection so meantime you've had this packet for a while and I'm looking to see if there are any hands this on the timeline regarding the timeline Austin you have your hand uh Lynn the timeline question I have as involves the submission of possible questions I believe that that is imagined to happen by the 20th of June and my question is just do you want these qu the potential questions to come from Individual members or do you want them to come from uh the entire let's say the Jones Library members do you want do you want them to come from Individual trustees you want them to come from the trustees uh as a whole if you have a meeting at which you can discuss them uh and you would like to submit your questions as a whole that would be fine uh the reason we need to do this in by next week is because we then don't have a council meeting until the 15th of yeah July so I don't think we we have a a trustees meeting between now and the 20th when you had put up the questions would be due so we would intend to submit questions individ as individuals yes that's necessary in order not to break up and meeting thank you okay um so the question on was on the timeline and the process now let's move if you will to the announcement which is very important because we need because we need to post this tomorrow I we need to make a live link where it says Jones Library trustees but just take a moment to review this announcement and see if there are any changes that people would like to make it this time e scrolling to the bottom of the announcement I no I think stay on the bottom right there thank you are there any questions with regard to the announcement and we encourage all the trustees and counselors to make sure that they publicize it through their various newsletters Etc okay with that we're going to move on to the actual description of the Jones Library trustees oh I'm sorry Mandy Joe you have your hand up moved on my hand is for moving on oh for moving on okay thank you uh we're going to go to the description of the Jones Library trustees and mjor Joe you have your P yes at the bottom of page 10 so on the second page of this description as I mentioned I believe two weeks ago um this is listed as having a potential to join the town Board commmittee of the audit committee which I don't believe the town has unless we've checked it but it's still listed there I thank you I have the feeling I pulled up the wrong that was the only change but I think I made up the WR uh so this is on attachment D page 10 and uh it's the it's in the bullets and it says they would serve on the audit committee we don't have a separate audit committee the finance committee Ser of the Town Council serves as the audit commit it's also down at the very bottom number five of town boards and committees got it thank you so I got it up above and not okay I also note that um these same four committees the Jones Library building committee the Jones cap The Joint Capital planning committee the Personnel Board or the Budget coordina Group should be go back and be listed in the description of the posting uh and we will make sure we do that because right now it said they might only serve on the budget coordinating gr so we need the other three okay Mandy Joe you still have your hand up by okay looking at the description of the Jones Library Board of Trustees are there any further questions about the description of the Jones Library Board of Trustees Jennifer well where it says uh providing significant input guidance and support for the expansion Renovations of the Jones Library I'm sorry is this on page nine right you just it's uh Athena just highlighted it oh thank you so I just guess cutting to the point is that um is that asking for particular position on the expansion so maybe we could just ref rephrase that if one had a different um position on whether on their on expansion renovation or repairs it it sounds I mean we all know what support for the expansion people have different positions on that so it sounds like it's reading you have to have a particular position it has been in here from the beginning as part of their description of no I know I'm just and so what you would like to say is support for the guidance input and yeah just take I would say support or maybe not have support I mean I think that yeah it's it's a little loaded right now I'm going to suggest the following provide significant guidance and input regarding repair or expansion renovation of the Jones library is that acceptable I to me it is thank you okay are there any other questions comments suggestions okay uh Pat did you no I'm scratching my head you're um all right let me just mention on the questions um depends on how many candidates we have we will make the um candidates can either be in the room in the town room on the 15th or they can be on zoom and we've had a combination of both when we did the school committee a couple of about I don't know maybe less than a year ago uh we actually had about 12 or so candidates and they just lined up in the room and we did a whole routine where we made sure no candidate always answered the question first and so we'll be doing something like that we'd like to make sure that uh and the reason I included the role of the school committee or the questions from the school committee it just gives you a sense of the kind of questions we're looking for so I have asked that in the timeline that uh all suggested interview questions uh from the council and the trustees or and from the public need to be sent to me no later than this Thursday so that I can come up with a set that we can look at next Monday per please unmute Lyn how many questions are you expecting here I'm seeing uh for the school committee it looks like it was six seven eight yeah we had about eight and you know that's that is really the maximum because we usually allow two question two minutes per question right and depending on how many candidates that can become a very lengthy evening okay thank you Kathy just responding to that question um we narrowed down the school questions but there were a lot of issues as you could see that were raised specific so more fewer is better yeah when L set a maximum you know to just really because it we're only allowing the responder a few minutes per question in addition to how why they want to be in a summary so it's not that we're trying to get more but at least get at Key things that people want to know are there other questions or comments again I just want to go back and make sure there's no questions about any of these particular documents at this time Eugene I have a question I I was kicked off the meeting and by the time I logged in I'm not sure if you covered on page four this is the process of the voting the final bullet point I think I know what actually this means but it it it it says board first and Council first asking each their top choices you only get one choice per voting round is that correct there's okay just just wanted to clarify that thank you yes but it's let me also just add it is the total Collective vote of all of the trustees and who are seated and all of the counselors so it's 13 plus 5 or 18 votes Andy given the point just raised should the uh word choice be singular it technically is but I will take the S out okay any other changes people would like to see to the memo Jennifer is there a hyperlink to what the statement of interest is if at least like it may be different you know for the planning board or zba it's certain number of words that says clearly we don't have a hyperlink to it we do set a word limit and we describe um a little bit uh the statement of Interest shall describe why the candidate is interested in serving uh out the I'm sorry that's there yeah okay Bob um in the case that we do not select one candidate that has a majority vote what's the procedure beyond that what we've usually done is then uh narrowed it down to the top candidates and then had another round of voting okay Farah L what if there's a majority among the trustees but not among the council is that is your response the same as for the last the previous question in fact it is 18 votes and so it's a majority of 18 votes no matter whether you're trustee or counsel okay thank you barah are there any other questions I want to ask Alicia Walker if you can hear us and we can hear you eug and Eugene has his hand up L thank you Alicia yes I can thank you Lynn thank you I didn't see you before until we went to the BL screen Eugene you have your hand up yeah I just wanted uh Clarity I'm trying to find in the document when I read it over the other day I thought um it had said of course now that I'm rushing through it I can't find it it said that we would need nine votes I'm trying to find where that is in the document unless I'm was hallucinating um I just wanted to clarify we would need the math looks like we would need 10 votes to settle on a candidate right if we're looking at 5 plus generally that the understanding is you like to get to 10 votes and very often at the end of the voting process we move to make a motion to appoint the person and at that point we're seeking to see whether or not everyone will confirm the person okay yeah if I if I find I could have swor I saw that in the document but I can't find it now so I just wanted to clarify that that we would need the winning um the winning candidate would need 10 votes across both Council both the councils and the trustees yes Mandy Joe I just wonder that might have been a legacy from our last appointment where we calculated how many it would need if it's there I don't I don't know which one I'll read through again and see if I can find it but it might be left over from the last time we did the process where there were less people for number of VES I by the way is also those people present and voting so it's here on page seven I'm sorry it's here on page seven on page seven thank you um yeah it's 10 yes good good catch thank you point of order it's not present in voting it's it's a flat of the remaining seats and there are 18 REM remaining seats so it's a flat 10 okay whether you have to be present to vote but just like the charter is with the council a majority of the full Town Council if for certain votes where it's seven no matter how many are present this one is a flat 10 it's a distinction between got it being present and voting or not so regardless of whether or not everyone votes or abstains you need 10 you need 10 vot affirmative votes to select a person thanks okay are there any other questions um then in that case Austin I'm going to ask that you adjourn the trustees thank you Lynn uh meeting of the Jones Library Board of Trustees is adjourned and I am going to um at this point uh the meeting of the Town Council is in recess that does not require a vote Yes agree do you want to vote for that one Athena to to put the meeting in recess I don't think I think you need a vote if it's more than let me check I don't remember if someone um I can take a moment to check or you can make a motion and vote I'm just going to make a motion I move that the council recess its regular meeting to to reconvene after the next two public forums there second second thank you I'm going to do roll call vote paty Angeles hi Anna Devon gothman hi councelor e i Lyn grimer is an i councelor hanii i Bob hegner I counc Lord hi Pam Rooney yes councelor Ryan hi Kathy Shane yes and Steinberg hi Jennifer Todd yes counc walk yes thank you we're going to now move to the public forum on the appropriation regarding the gauge property there will be a brief presentation and then the floor will be open for questions or comments from the audience regarding this um particular property and um at that point we will then adjourn this public forum and move on to the next public forum which is regarding the high school Regional High School track and field so um Paul um point of order Bob would you like to call the finance committee to order all thank you Bob please call the finance committee to order um I'm calling the finance committee to order at 6:31 pm. I see all five council members are present and Matt Holloway one of the resident members is present Matt can you hear us and can you be heard I'm here Bob thank you okay we're we're in session I'm here as well Bernie sorry m Bernie that's okay okay given that we have a for of the council president I'm calling the public forum regarding the gauge property to order at 632 uh I will quickly go through the role Pat angelis pres an Devon gothier present councelor present ly Gore present councel hanii present Bob hegner present councelor Lord pres cam roon here councelor Ryan BR Kathy Shane here Andy Steinberg pres Jennifer to here councelor Walker here okay with that I'm going to um turn this over to Paul and I you can tell me who you would like to call on for brief presentation yeah thank you Lynn uh superintendent Public Works Gilford Bing is going to make a brief presentation on this request thank you good evening this this request is to appropriate $18,700 to purchase the gauge property which is an which is an 11 Acre Site on Sand Hill Road in shutesbury there is a matching Grant from the Massachusetts energy and environmental Affairs drinking water supply protection uh program which is for $65,625 [Music] or and at Atkins Reservoir so we try to protect the properties in the zone a by either having restrictions placed on the property or outright owning the property the Gage family wanted to sell the property to the town so it would be permanently protected are there any questions from counselors at this point noting that this will be on our agenda at another time this evening uh Kathy shames it's not a question or maybe it is just to get Guilford to confirm this is coming out of the reserves um not from where is the the 108,000 coming from the money would be appropriated out of the water um reserves not out of the general fund thank you thank you so the floor is open for public comment with regard to this item and in general let me just say uh if you are in the audience please raise your hand and if you are here in the town room please make sure you have signed up with Athena for the purpose of this public comment e for those of you who just joined us they're 29 attendees on zoom and I'm sure many others that are watching on Amber TV um and uh we are doing the public for with regard to the appropriation to purchase the gauge property it's part of protecting our watershed e see no hands either in the town room or online the public for must remain open uh till I'm going to say 6:40 to be saved e e it's 6:39 I'm going to call on the chair of the finance committee to give us just a brief statement of the finance committee's recommendation uh finance committee uh discussed this on our meeting on June 4th and we recommended to approve this purchase thank you so uh Bob hegner is chair of the finance committee please adjourn the finance committee but please ask them this way um point of order I believe the finance committee is going to stay in their special meeting and then adjourn after the next public we have to thank um so I'm going to move to close the public forum and adjourn the public forum meeting and seek a second second uh thank you we're going to move to a vote we'll start in this case with Donna Devin goth here i councelor ete i l I councelor hanii hi Bob hegner I councelor Lord hi pamon yes councelor Ryan hi Kathy Shane yes Andy Steinberg hi Jennifer to yes councelor Walker yes and Pat d'angelus who just stepped out of the room so that's an absent okay uh we're going to be in a break of four minutes until we begin the next public for meantime I just want to make sure that if you are here to comment on the public during the public forum on the Regional High School track and field that you have signed up with Athena for e e e so is next the end of it do you want to check and make sure people W leave their votes as they their recommend do that well type it when you record should turn Turf it should be Bob I think your microphone is is on there you go thanks thank you for your patience uh it is still July June 17th and we are now going into our second public forum this is a special Town council meeting and finance committee meeting given that we have a quorum of the council present I'm calling the special public forum on the high school track and Fields to order at 6:45 I'm going to just quickly make sure you're still present uh Pat d'angeles present Anna Devon goth present councelor ET present Lynn grimer is present councelor hanii present Bob hegner present councelor Lord present Pam Rooney here councel Ryan still here Kathy Shane here Andy Steinberg present Jennifer to here counc Walker here thank you um and the finance committee is still in in its meeting so uh there will be a special public comment period during this time it will relate only to the high school track and field uh we would like to begin with a very brief presentation and Paul I believe you're going to call on somebody but I'll let you go yes I I think is it Dave or Doug I for who Dave Dave zaka assistant Town manager make the brief presentation thank you very much Paul thank you Lynn happy to be here tonight and I am joined by the uh superintendent of of schools Doug water um I think uh I'll be very brief I think the community and the council uh are well aware of the the project before you in this public forum and later in the meeting um we have put together a multi-year effort to plan and um ordinate efforts to uh replace the existing track and create a new field within that track at the Regional High School off matun Street uh the town and the schools have been working very closely on this project and we've made great great progress great strides over the last few years we've uh brought on a consultant SLR uh experts in the field of uh experts in their in their craft of of building fields for high schools and colleges uh in the region and we've refined our options we started out with a dozen or more options and we're down to three uh those options include two uh eastwest oriented uh track and field proposals and one North south track and field proposal I think um um in general um replacing the track and field has received strong support uh from student athletes coaches parents and the entire uh Regional School System in general believes that this project is a very high priority uh there also appears to be very strong support uh based on the feedback we've gotten in the various meetings we've attended and public comment for the north south option uh with refinements now in place we have a much greater confidence in the design than we did months ago we have studied groundwater uh Wetlands topography uh and a number of other factors with our consultants and we believe we have a very solid plan and a path forward recent meetings with the regional school committee and the community preservation act committee and the finance committee have included extensive discussions on the three options and the funding scenario that can make uh any of those options possible and those are what bring us to the to this meeting today and to later discussion in your regular meeting um I'm sure the council will have questions for the superintendent for SLR our consultant and myself later in the regular meeting but for now I'll conclude my comments there thank you thank you David if you're in the town room and you wish to speak to the issue of the high school tra back in field make sure you have signed up with the clerk of the Town Council if you are in the audience and you wish on zoom and you wish to speak to the issue of the high school track and field please raise your hand at this time Athena how many people have signed up that are in the town room three three thank you and they're right now there is one person in the on Zoom is there anybody else on Zoom who wishes to speak to the issue of the high school track and field there is a second person I'm going to go with those two people uh we're going to start with the town room but before we start let me say the following um anyone wishing to speak has already raised their hand uh public comments or a matter within the jurisdiction of the Town Council residents are welcome to express their views I'm going to make it up to three minutes the council will not engage in a dialogue or comment on matter raised during general public comment although we will try to make sure that your questions are answered public comments are not reflective of the opinion opinions of the Town Council I also want to just remind people that we must definitely follow the First Amendment which restricts our ability to cut off speech we'll recognize speech speakers in the order in which they have signed up rotating between zoom and in person so we'll start actually within the room the first person okay uh Mary clay thank you thank you all for hearing me and all the work you're doing on this I'm very familiar with this project so my name is Mary clay I'm going to speak in two capacities one in my role as the president of the ammer hurricane athletic boosters and one in my role as a town resident um with five registered voters in our household um several of them who have graduated from the school well four of them who have graduated from arhs and won this year in fact um none of whom however um have actually played the sports for which I'm actually advocating for because we all strongly believe in community and making things right for everyone and that's why in my capacity as the president of the boosters I'm advocating for doing this field project the as as best you can the the right way and I think with the reorientation that's what we're promoting um I know that the price tag is a little bit higher um 756 $756,000 more sounds like a lot in the scheme of things it is not in the scheme of our fiscal um issues I understand where people are trying to be fiscally responsible but there's a lot of costs and um reasons why you should consider doing the reorientation um one it one of the reasons why is um this project has been in the making in the works and overdue um people have been working hard on this project since 2017 18 I think is about when looking at this has been um started so I do believe that really focusing on doing it right and by right it would be reorientation because that's going to benefit the most people that is going to do several things including um putting when it's shifted it puts um people closer to the buildings it's a Forward Thinking plan because there's other projects around that would be support the track and Fields being reorientated to the north south um orientation has improved access to locker rooms and bathrooms for the athletes bands and people using the the space um including being closer to Safe places if there's storms or micro bursts or anything such such as that um 8 accessibility um and then just the biggest thing for the athletes are the the sun the sun facing in their eyes when they're trying to play the sport so I'm I'm really asking you to help appropriate the funds and make this work um the boosters um worked really hard on the turf artificial turf but at this point in time we want to refocus and say please do it right it's been over 30 years that this has needed to happen if we don't do it now the cost just get higher and I don't think this will be a project that can happen um after this is done I mean there'll be maintenance and resurfacing and such but in any event I'm advocating thank you for your comments okay thank you I want to call attention to our new clock which also makes that wonderful sound um uh we're going to now turn to the A audience where Maria keki please enter the room state your name and where you live thank you my name is Maria keki and I live in South ammer uh uh there are a lot of pieces to the puzzle to secure the $1 million necessary for option three some actions we can do relatively easily but many others are beyond our control and there are always unexpected curve balls that we cannot even foresee right now if anything goes arai so that we cannot bridge that $1 million gap by this fall and the restrictions are still in place we would either have to settle for option 1B or we would have to do this whole dance over again Regional school committee meetings Town Council meetings finance committee meetings Community preservation act committee meetings and then back to the Town Council all of this takes time and energy and would probably result in yet another unnecessary delay in this project the regional school committee is well aware of the desire by many on the council and in the region for option 3C there is no need to take a vote to emphasize that point please remove all the restrictions now and let the regional school committee concentrate on their work to put the best possible plan forward thank you thank you for joining us we're coming back to the room Deb Leonard good evening um my name is Deb Leonard I'm a resident of ammer I also have two hats that I'm I'm wearing this evening um I'm speaking for myself as a a Regional School Committee Member and I'm not speaking for the whole Regional School but I'm asking you all for as much latitude as you can give us to get this done quickly as we can without compromising the ability to apply for CPS CPA funds in the future um maintaining restrictions will either neither add nor detract from my commitment to find an advocate for funding sources other than requests from gifts from this town as a member of the public and a parent I would like to um revisit a topic that I've brought up recently in in another public meeting about the Democratic process so on November 7th 4,597 people cast ballots in the town and elected all 13 of you amongst other people not 4600 um five of you sit on the finance committee and I really appreciate and respect the work that all subcommittees do to get the work done and and if manner but I do want to underscore that five is not 13 and the 13 of you are the ones who are responsible for the con constituencies in this town um I remain concerned about the oversized impact as I'm sure other people do as well so I just want to underscore that there are vocal members of the public who are persistent they still get their one vote they cast their one vote or they had the opportunity to cast their one vote but I'd like to point out that in the finance committee five of you are responsible to the um the taxpayers and the voters and there are other voices on that committee who are don't have that that kind of accountability so I'd really like all of you to keep that in mind when you weigh both the recommendations and the input from the public thank you very much thank you for joining us Jeb uh we're going to the uh Jennifer sha please enter the room state your name and where you live hi my name is Jennifer sha I live in South ammer and I'm a member of the regional school committee and my comments today are my own I want to ask you to remove the restrictions on the $800,000 of CPA funds and $900,000 of free cash that you authorized in 2022 the regional school committee is committed to getting this project done now which is in the best interest of our students these restrictions have not served well on the regional school committee they locked us into an option that met with much resistance and was ultimately not feasible financially delays have resulted and costs have increased in the meantime it's time to work within our means while striving for the best possible project when the regional school committee decided to open ourselves back up to all possibilities several months ago we were able to get the project moving again to meet our goal of a planed completion by fall of 2025 we need to make a final decision next week so that our designers can do do their work please be assured that the regional school committee is very aware of the strong preference by many for option 3 C which includes reorienting the track and field in the north south direction we are also cognizant of the fact that even with the $800,000 in CBA funds and $900,000 in free cash we're still $1 million short we will need to deliberate and decide what is possible and desirable and balance that with the benefits of a North South orientation it's our responsibility as the regional school committee to understand what we would have to Omit in order to afford a north south orientation and to balance the risks and benefits of each approach this will involve eliminating some items and seeing what we can include as alternates as we seek CPA funds from all four towns if the restrictions on both sources of funding are not lifted tonight and we cannot find a way to bridge that $1 million gap we'll have no choice but to fall back to Option 1 B the least desirable option which does not include reorientation and only renovates the field rather than complet completely new construction with drainage and irrigation that option 1D provides option 1D even with its East West orientation is a far better backup plan with completely new Field construction and a cost that we know we can make work my colleagues and I on the regional school committee will make every attempt to achieve the best possible facility we ask you to respect and support our decision to remove restrictions so that we can do just that thank you thank you for joining us Jennifer uh we'll go back to the room Liz he good would you like to Liz he good good evening everybody Liz he good she her hers pronoun District 2 ammer first I need to apologize to you I got so bogged down I didn't respond to your email I appreciate your reaching out to me um sure you want me to use my teacher voice voice cuz I can do that um I feel like we're beating a dead horse um I have been to I don't know how many meetings in the past so many years about this topic and how important it is for all of our students um our town our members of our town and members of the four towns that use the track and all of the kids that I go and support each and every time they um compete if you could see the looks on their faces when they enter a different Town's facilities and compare it to ours their self self-esteem tends to WAN just a little bit before they have to go out there and perform their best we don't want to do that to our students we don't want to do that to our athletes we don't want to do that to our town some of the most poorest towns and cities in Western Massachusetts have better facilities than we do chape has two well has one Springfield has one and they're building a new one okay so we need to put our money where our mouth is in support of our students our student athletes and the Town members that use that track and we need to do it now I appreciate your time thank you and as I just got back from Oregon and I have to say that a number of our student athletes Logan plays third in The discus nope shot put 10th in The discus we had Ola Laura Kora um Mariah and Ella plays first in the girl Sprint medley we had ol Laur H Mariah and Ruby play second and the 4X one so these kids are competing at a national level Massachusetts sent the fifth highest amount of athletes to Oregon and um they were phenomenal they had a great time and this is what they can do and do better if we support them in this Mission I thank you for your time thank you for joining us Liz uh Sarah Marshall please enter the room state your name and where you live Sarah is in twice so I know I'm trying to figure out which Sarah is going to enter the room can you hear me yes and maybe this is telephone Sarah okay and is the other Sarah oh dear there's two Sarah on our screen I assume only one Sarah I had trouble raising my hand on one device so I logged in on two other devices um Sarah Marshall uh District 4 emmer and Regional School committees um with your per well permission I will uh give a comment for the chair of the regional school committee Sarah best Kenny she was not able to log in so this is what she has to say the track and field project will be on our next meeting agenda and I will note that's next Tuesday the 25th of June and I see absolutely no reason not to work with all the town to have the best possible outcome for our students which in my opinion includes a North South orientation for the field and track one of the hurdles will be requesting funds off cycle for the CPAs of other towns but oh dear um but we can be ready to uh make those requests as their Cycles come around and the uh adding to go out to or make requests for add alternates or phase construction is a good idea um May I add uh my own comment is if I have time please you do have time you still have an hour a minute and 42 seconds okay well I was at the finance committee meeting um last week and I was um I I it was wonderful how much support there is for the north south re reorientation so if that is the way you um if you buy your votes later tonight steer us to requesting more money from the CPA Committees of the various towns I will do everything I can to make that happen speedily so thank you very much for your support and I will take all my hands down thank you for joining us Sarah are there and other people in the room SB sadik TB sadik I'm actually a resident of sh Barry but I'm the principal of ERS High School um I'm hoping that you'll do whatever it takes to get the track project moving forward um we try to educate the whole student and kinesthetically their physical well-being is part of that track amongst a lot of those Sports probably the uh probably a more diverse number population of students who run track than there is in most other sports diverse ethnically as well as socio economically they made connections that last a lifetime and know when I was at Emer High one of the things that motivated me to do my homework is staying eligible for being a to run track and play football it's the same with students nowadays students who participate with sports get less discipline writeups they um they're in school more often and again there another way for them to get bought in not every student loves math or science and social studies but they'll do more if they have another tangible motivation all and the students that Liz named who did so well in Nationals representing our town I think it's time we invest and show them how much we really appreciate them and talk is cheap we have to put our money where our mouths are and these kids who went to Nationals some of them may never have a track a home track meet so their parents the ones who can't afford to travel are never going to be able to see their kids run in ammer because they don't have the means to go someplace else we talk about equity and how we want everyone to have the same access this is another example of how it's not happening so I'm just really hopeful that you'll do what you got to do to make this happen so that we can have home meets for our students and um support them in meaningful ways I think this will do a lot for them and their self-esteem thanks thank you for joining us are there any other people in the room Athena no okay that concludes the public comment period I'm going to turn to uh the chair of the finance committee and ask if he has any comments or uh need to consult with your committee uh yeah we did uh have a very long discussion of this issue it lasted more than two hours um but it was very thorough and I think the committee um really um looked at the the um the various options from all sides and uh came up with some strong recommendations first of all let me ask the members of the committee do you want do anyone want to change their votes on any of the four motions so the first motion was to recommend the council adopt the CPAC recommendation to remove the artificial turf requirement um that was a unanimous vote um second um motion was to recommend the council approve the CPAC motion to receive the restriction on the north south orientation with a strong recommendation to pursue the north south option and encourage the regional school committee to return to CPAC for additional funds to meet that north south objective as soon as possible as needed in this motion passed by vote of four to one um the resident um the vote in opposition was in favor of keeping um the north South's restrictions so that money could be only used for the nor north south project um does anyone want to change their vote on this issue all right motion three was to recommend recommend the council remove the north south orientation restriction on Council order fyf 2305a which appropriated $900,000 in free cash towards the project this motion failed by a vote of two yes and three no uh one resident member did not support it one resident member was absent um basically the the committee the consequence of this vote is that the committee recommended that the project only focus on the north south option in other words don't look at any of the other two options does anyone want to change their vote um I I would point out that the the council has the option of accepting this recommendation or not um the motion for um we recommended that the council not adopt uh approval appropriation and transfer order FY 2403b an order approving the town of Amis gift uh the amers pel Regional School District $756 $160 from free cash for the track and field project for the north south oriented design option 3C and the council strongly recommend the regional school committee to pursue a Norths South option through CPA funding through the four towns um the vote on this was unanimous uh with one resident member absent does anyone want to change their vote on this um I guess two other things that I think we we uh I think Sarah uh mentioned it briefly but we strongly recommended that um the project be phased so that whatever money we have at this point in time we use to build what the final project will look like whatever whether it's reoriented or not and the reason was we wanted to make sure that the the school committee had time to raise the additional funds necessary to go you know to to finish off the projects uh as well as uh we felt very strongly that should not bear the burden of the extra cost by itself but the school committee would have the option to go to the other three towns for CPAC or other for CPA or other uh other funding um so I think that covers it does anyone on the committee want to add anything Kathy yes um the the one thing I wanted to add Bob is that we also recognize for for whatever reasons one of the line items that was in the totals was not added to the total so the total cost of the north south is roughly $254,000 higher than what we saw in the diagram so that also so so that means the it still goes with get the more money from CPAC but the the idea of phasing is there's some elements that would not need to be done right away uh immediate and the track and the field could still be useful like redoing sidewalks there were several things that could be done later without undermining the project so we identified some big ticket items and the designer the designer agreed that that could happen um so that it was feasible not just you know it'll be half done because we phased it it will be ready to be used but there'll be some additions that would come later um I should also point out that the reorientation the three project option 3C includes um first of all creates a a playing field which is will support all the school all the sports that are done uh participated with with um in ammer high school as well as a second field um which will be a practice field or a field that can be used for other uh for other purposes that will be kind of where the existing field is now or the the western part of it so there's there's really two fields in option three C rather than one field and the field is is much it's large enough so that a soccer field which is I guess the the largest field will fit comfortably within inside the track so uh again all all sports uh that are at uh that students at ammer high school participate in will uh be supported by this okay are there any other questions or comments from the finance committee at this point okay then Bob I'm going to ask that you adjourn the finance committee uh do I have a motion to adjourn so motion any second second Shane all right uh we'll just go uh in order on the screen uh councelor hanii I uh Kathy yes Andy yes uh I'm a yes Alicia yes uh Bernie support Matt support okay so it's unanimous okay um I'm going to move to close the public forum and adjourn the public forum meeting and seek a second second thank you and we're going to vote on that very rapidly councelor ET hi Lynn grimer and I councelor hanii I Bob hegner I councelor Lord I Pam Rooney yes councelor Ryan I Kathy Shane yes Andy Steinberg I Jennifer toab Yes councelor Walker yes Patti Angeles hi Anor delin goth here I it's unanimous uh The Forum is adjourned and we will go back to the regular Town council meeting okay Lynn for the record you did need a vote to to recess for that long it's over 30 minutes you need to vote to recess we did need a vote and we did it so now do we need a vote to reconvene or can I just say we're reconvene you can reconvene okay seeing that we have a quum at the council we're reconvening the regular Town council meeting at 717 uh we're going to go to announcements and then soon after that we'll go on to public comment please uh place the announcements on the screen and just let me call attention to the fact that we have two meetings one on June 24th that we will begin with a meeting with the Jones Library trustees but we will also have a regular Town council meeting and that is the night that the budget for fy2 comes before the council both the budget operating and capital okay uh and then the council will meet again on June 15th and that is the night that we will interview candidates for the Jones Library trustees July 15 July 15th thank you uh and meantime there are a few other committee meetings although I just want to recognize the fact that the finance committee has continued to meet uh during the month of May it met twice a week and so I they are continuing to meet be trying to catch up with all the backlog at this point so um at this point I'm going to ask of how if you have in the room and you want to make public comment for general public comment at this time please make sure you have signed up with Athena if you're in the audience and you want to make General Public comment at this time please please raise your hand let me note that there are 39 people in attendance on zoom in the audience are there any other people on Zoom who would like to make public comment I need people who are wanting to make public comment who are on Zoom to make to raise their hands now there are seven people on Zoom who would like to make public comment how many people are in the room one thank you we'll begin with uh Tony Cunningham please enter the oh excuse me before we start uh again public comments on matters of within the jurisdiction of the Town Council um residents are welcome to express their views we're going to do up to oh boy uh I'm going to go with two minutes um the council will not engage in a dialogue or comment on a matter raised during general public comment public comments are not reflective of the opinions of the Town Council as in the past we have make very clear statement about respecting First Amendment rights of people to speak and our inability to shut them off unless they are violating certain guidelines uh we'll recognize speakers in the order that they have raised their hands and I am going to at this point only be calling on eight people on zoom and one person in the town room let's start with Tony Cunningham please enter the room state your name and where you live hi thank you Tony Cunningham ow and drive I just wanted to make a request that you move um the postponed motion in your agenda it seems to be quite late in the evening with some substantial action items prior to that I looked up a couple of former times when the right to postpone was enacted by counselors and it seemed like at the following meeting the item was the first thing handled so precedence would indicate that you should be doing it first so this is a request that you change the order H I would encourage all counselors to support councelor Shane's motion um so that the town manager would not sign a contract with FAA to redesign removing historical preservation like the mill work which cannot be replaced and uh also affecting the sustainability of the building for example not replacing the single pane windows with at at a minimum double glazed and then secondly I just wanted to mention the memorandum of agreement I saw there is a third amendment in your packet but last time I checked it wasn't on your agenda and uh I see a lot of issues with that Mo MOA and it looks like it hasn't been fully vetted so I would encourage the council to direct the town manager to not sign that Mo MOA so do not authorize the town manager to sign that amendment number three thank you so much thank you for your comments we'll go to the person in the room please come forward Vince o Conor Vincent oconor 175 Summer Street um apartment 12 [Music] um earlier this year um before the Frantic budget period began I made three suggestions with regard to increasing Revenue um the first suggestion with regard to ammer college I think has been more than adequately taken up by both the council and the regional school committee the second recommendation um discussing with the university the their need to compensate the community for the impact of their commuter traffic on our roads uh I heard recent comments from the manager on that issue the third issue is something that is actually with entirely within the control of the town and that has to do with um providing our state representative and our state senator with um plus or minus 10 20% estimates of the cost savings that could be accomplished by the Commonwealth moving to a single Universal we have Universal Health Care we but we don't have single-payer we've gone to the expense of universal healthc care but we have not achieved the budgetary um savings that Single Payer will and one of the most effective arguments and information we could provide our state representative state senator is the cost estimate of savings that would be accomplished both by the municipality and before the school committee um and I would urge the council to ensure that this year those estimates are formulated and provided to our our Senator and representative thank you thank you for your comments both of whom are sponsors of the universal Single Payer legislation that's thank you for your comments Jeff Lee please enter the room state your name and where you live hi I'm Jeff Lee I live in District 5 um and I really can't believe you would entertain the uh Amendment to the library Town memorandum of agreement uh that's in your packet tonight as well as endorsing the uh Draconian set of design cuts that are being proposed as uh value management um if you look at the June 1st Capital campaign report the capital CA Capital campaign is still $6.9 million short of its uh commitment to the town to cover the library share um and adding another 550 thou ,700 to do the redesign required for the value management will bring that up to $7.5 million short of their goal and if you look uh $7 million that the $7.2 million that they already claimed to have raised is in the gift intentions and pledges column so it's by no means certain and when you consider the DraStic historical preservation and sustainability cuts that are being proposed um I seriously doubt that all of those donors are going to uh continue to want to donate so I see this as poor f management or value management and or stewardship of a Historical Library building so please vote those down thank you thank you for joining us Jeff Maria Kiki please enter the room state your name and where you live thank you Maria kapiki South ammer uh commenting on the library I've sent you many letters and you've gotten I'm sure a lot of letter is talking to you about why we need to stop this uh misguided project now uh the impact to the town is going to be devastating the impact of the library quite frankly at this point uh would be devastating if the changes um are enacted so please do your duty to the town um and direct the town manager not to sign any contracts to go for not to proceed with these uh these cuts that nobody wanted from the very beginning um the sustainab I would just be really curious about what the sustainability Committee of the Jones Library project that hasn't met for a very very long time would even say about all of this um please vote Yes on councelor Shane's motion uh do not enter into any further contracts for any of this um you're not even the the library is not even in compliance with the existing memoranda of understanding um so please do the right thing let's stop this let's go to something that we can afford and that we can accomplish and go do other things that we need to do in this town as well thank you thank you for joining us Maria Ira brick please enter the room state your name and where you live hi I'm Ira brick from District 4 I urge the Town Council to support the motion by Cathy Shane to stop the library project by telling the town manager to not sign a contract with FAA Architects so that there will not be another 500k plus spent on more value engineering to reduce the expansion by eliminating much of what was promised in the original plan which was supported by only 3,000 of our 40,000 residents and that was back then it is lost a considerable amount of that support it is my impression that at least two-thirds of the Town Council as well as the town manager understand the huge net negatives of the expansion plan whether the original pipe dream or the current nightmare you owe your allegiance to the well-being of our town we have multiple INF infrastructure needs more pressing than this flailing campaign be braver and vote against continuing this nonstarter do not allow it to continue as a non- stoer tell the council and manager and your town that you support catching up on very delayed maintenance and figure out how to affordably bring the Jones up to speed and then to progress with hiring teachers fixing roads and building the needed fire station and public works for facility thank you thank you for joining us SRA Shon B Millan please enter the room state your name and where you live Shin Bell um District 5 uh so I just want to take a moment to um acknowledge that the library trustees are elected by the residents of ammer and they take the responsibility to St the fire uh the libraryies finances and programs incred incredibly seriously they've dedicated thousands of hours countless hours in the past decade to meticulously plan this renovation Guided by the expertise of professionals the discussions I'm hearing in Council about what they should be what should be cut what should not be cut maybe we can arrange this maybe we should rearrange that and let's pause and re rethink this thing to me that is outside the purview of the council yes the financial implications are your responsibility and so coming to the rebidding cost and the project costs which is within your domain the Reid the rebidding process will not incur any additional cost to the town from my understanding and they are not asking for any additional funds on the contrary if you do take on the renovations we know that um although it's disputed what will be the exact cost but we kind of have a sense the big big improvements that are needed they are going to cost a lot of money while still not giving us um the programming the the benefits that a new library brings the sustainability there's a lot of talk about that the new library even with the proposed adjustments will be a far more energy efficient and Sustainable Building than our current facility the building will be Net Zero ready and many of the conservation measure measures listed on page three of uh The Architects report in August 30 are still in place it will contribute to the town's broad broader sustainability goals how much time do I have I can't see the time limit oh there it is eight seconds seven seconds okay okay okay so the last thing I also want to say is the outpouring support of the local and state legislators like Jim mowan thank you for your comments Shon thank you um Arley please enter the room state your name and where you live hi um my name is Arley I live in South ammer and I would like to say to the proponents of the expansion be careful what you wish for um we hear a lot about the leaking roof The Atrium roof well that didn't just fall out of the sky that was the decision of Architects and trustees to Value engineer their plans um and now you are in the same situation if this goes forward 12 weeks of rushed uh cost cutting designs you're really running the risk of winding up with some version of the leaking roof so I would say again be careful what wish for thank you thank you for joining us I see additional people putting their hands up I actually had to only plan to call on two more people uh but I will think about that when we get there Dorothy Pam please enter the room state your name and where you live you need to unmute I it's actually Bob Pam I'm using her machine hey Bob that's okay so a short statement it's time to accept that the expansion and Rehabilitation of the Jones library is not affordable the design changes will probably make the project ineligible for historic tax credits so the fundraising would be reduced equally for no net Improvement in the Project's affordability uh the library U which simply replac the rough estimates of repairs proposed in 2016 and the added the handicapped accessibility in 2020 simply used the industry inflation factors realistic work on the repair Alternatives required acknowledging that the starting of the project had a substantial risk of failing and it was not done in the last year we've seen the permanent loss of one of the libraries boilers and the temporary failure of the fire safety system due to leakage and storm damage um repairs are overdue we all recognize that repairs only will not be cheap but this can move faster than many possible as I think about the work done on the expansion project uh We've it has had some redeeming redeeming features the HVAC system needs to be replaced it should be with a commercial scale air source heat pump system as was planned for the Expansion Project it was to go on the new roof with visual baffles to keep it out of sight I believe it can go on the 1993 building roof or if the atrium is is rebuilt um somewhere on the interior roof the design for this system including all piping and valves throughout the 1928 building have already been done by professional Architects and Engineers I believe we now own those work products and using them should save us months and hundreds of thousands of dollars the federal and state government and the utilities offer grants toward energy work that meets their rules you need to wrap up okay um the heart of this is um Amis has other Capital needs but you know we did thank you for your comments okay two minutes is not allow Carol gray please enter the room state your name and where you live uh Carol great 815 Southeast Street Amis Massachusetts uh so I heard the comment about uh deferring to the library trustees I appreciated that Pam just weighed in as a library trustee who I believe is the treasurer and very familiar with the finances I'd also point out that three prior uh presidents of the trustees uh have come out against this came out against this project adamantly against it thought it was fiscally irresponsible and that it would destroy part of our cherished Library I was a former Library trustee and I uh I love the library and I I am completely against this project because it's going to destroy parts that we really love um I urge you to vote against this project in every motion where you can if you uh find you can't vote against I urge you to abstain uh rather than vote in favor because this project is throwing good money after bad um it's uh the uh the initial project was uh I believe 33 33 million now we're up to what 47 million and if we if we had gone with that contractor bid it would be uh almost 20 million more uh this and it is costing us money every month I think I might have read it maybe 200,000 or something it's it's costing hundreds of thousands every single month that we postpone killing this project it should be finished um I'm also very concerned about the historic preservation the when the Jones Library accepted CPA funds we signed a historic preservation restriction I'm concerned that all these eliminations of of historic uh Woodwork and things like that may uh put the town and the library in legal liability because it may be violating the historic preservation restriction um I also am very concerned about the elimination of the green features I founded the green Committee of the Jones Library when I was a trustee this is not the project the town wanted we're about to cut perhaps 12 teachers we need to stop this project now thank you for your comments nany's I iPad please enter the room state your name and where you live hi Nancy Gilbert 166 Lincoln Avenue I love the Jones I walk by it I go in it I really want to see it preserved however and I wrote earlier to you that this project we keep talking about I don't know how many times I've written to you and made comments but please take the appropriate action to prevent The Continuous Financial drain in town caused by this prospective project please support Kathy shon's motion not to enter into a new contract with the Architects for additional expenses for the new design work it's a big drain please begin to focus on repairing and renovating our beautiful Library please remember this is a Library project not an additional Community Center please view this project with a lens of the town's needs the education of our children we need faculty in the schools we need a new fire station we need a new DPW our roads are deplorable our sidewalks are deplorable we need a new Senior Center or addition to the present Senior Center we need money to go to the health department these are just to name a few of the needs without ever increasing our property taxes which are going Skyhigh and I know that many families are not coming to town because of our taxes and the schools and that many Elders are leaving because of the taxes please vote to ha this project in the financial drain thank you thank you for joining us Sean Burke please enter the room state your name and where you live Sean you need to unmute we can come back to this person okay Janet Janet Keller please enter the room state your name and where you live um Janet Keller I live on Pulpit Hill Road and um I'm asking you to vote Yes on councelor Shane's motion this motion would release the town from a project that's unaffordable and it would the motion would allow the town to make cost saving climate friendly repairs and replacements for the long term that would otherwise be valued and engineered out of it expansion build bidding documents historic features could be preserved in the mid to longterm cost burden on taxpayers could be reduced through Energy savings from installing a solar uh HVAC system triple paying Windows longer lasting roof and retaining H his historic exterior brick and stone surfaces that don't need painting thank you for considering these conel thank you for joining us Janet Jan Janet Sean please enter the room and hopefully unmute and state your name and where you live Sean try to unmute please I've sent a prompt and they this person doesn't seem to be responding so suggest we move to the next person okay there are two other comments and that's going to be the end of them Eric zikos please enter the room state your name and where you live hi my name is Erica zikas I live on Hol Road in District 5 and I am speaking today so that I hope that you'll allow theou to be signed and give the designers an opportunity to find Cost Cuts and generate a more favorable bid for the Jones I'm excited about the project and I think it deserves a chance thanks Erica thanks for joining us Jennifer sha and please enter the room state your name and where you live hi Jennifer sha I live in South Amerson I'm a member of the regional school committee but my comments are my own I would like to plus one everything Shon said but replace Jones Library trustees with regional school committee and replace the Jones Library building project with the high school track and field project I would encourage you each to think about how much you trust the Jones Library trustees with the building project and extend that same trust to the regional school committee about the high school track and Fields project thank you thanks for your comments that concludes public uh Sean we're going to try one more time please enter the room and unmute go ahead you're unmuted oh great it's actually Reber can you hear me we can okay good um it's Sean's iPad so I apologize um but he's standing right here and um basically I'd just like to say that aside from all that you've heard from me in writing about how we both feel regarding the Jones Library issue um I just wish to add that um in response to now hearing again about how we should trust all the people that are elected into office to be doing the right thing all the time and never question them is very contrary to um our life during the 60s and 70s where you question people quite often and still should be at times um but if anyone thinks that because people are voted into office is guarantee that they're always going to be doing the right thing well I just think and Sean's right here he'll agree say you agree okay um that there's no hope for any of us just look at our national situation thank you thanks for joining us Sean that concludes public comment we're going to go on with the consent agenda the items were selected because they were considered to be routine and non-controversial after I read the item if you would like to remove an item please state so that does not require a second to move the following items and and the printed motions there under and approve those items as a single unit 6A waiver of Town Council rules of procedure uh rule 8.6 6A adoption of the 2024 juneth Proclamation 8B Act acquisition of gauge property on Sand Hill Road for water supply protection and Council order FY 24- 05e and Order appropriating funds for the town of amorist water fund Capital program um purchase of wet shed land for water supply protection 8f optional tax exemptions 8h Amendment to the 2024 Charter Review Committee charge of the appointment date specific an 8i amendment to Summer Town council meeting schedule please raise your hand if you would like to remove an item uh councelor hanii item 8 I the amendment to the Summertown council meeting schedule okay thank you are there any other items seeing none I'm going to move for a vote Lyn grimer is an i if you need a a a motion I'll second that motion thank you B thank you Andy uh okay the motion's been made and seconded Lyn grimer is and I councelor hanii hi Bob hegner I councelor Lord hi Pam Ro yes councelor Ryan hi Kathy Shane yes Andy Steinberg hi Jennifer to yes councelor Walker yes Patti Angeles I an delin gothier i councelor ete i it's unanimous uh did you vote Lynn I okay thank you I did at the very beginning before I called for a second it was my recollection all all of the items that are under presentations and discussions are Elsewhere on the agenda we're going to move to action item 8A and A1 2 and three all begin all regard the regional track this comes in the form of eight I mean of four different motions I'm going to place the motion on the table seek a second and then we'll move for discussion the first motion having been reviewed by the finance committee in a report Kathy I'm just requesting you show it on the screen Lynn thank you I that's perfectly fine okay having been reviewed by the finance committee in a report dated June 17 20124 been published on the town bulletin board for a minimum of 10 days on June 7th 2024 and the council having held a public for on June 17 2020 20 2024 in accordance with Charter 5 Point Charter section 5.6 to adopt the CP AC Community preservation act committee recommendation to remove the artificial tur requirement restrictions affiliated with the original 800,000 CPA award from June 2nd 2022 the in for the ammer Regional High School track and field renovation project in Council order FY 23- 08a is there a second Shane seconds okay are there questions or comments on this motion Pam just to clear a point of order um are we going to discuss and vote on each of these motions separately or do we discuss it in general um we can certainly discuss it in general and let me just point out but it I mean we need to vote on them each separately just to be clear okay so let me point out and review the four motions okay the first first one is regarding the CPA money it removes the restriction for artificial turf the second one regards the CPA money it removes the restriction for orientation of the field the third one is the free cash money that the council voted before that's $900,000 it would remove the reorientation of the field and the last one is is the request for new money and that would be the additional 761,00 56 56,000 um and that would have to come from free cash unless it following the recommendation that CPA has made which is to come back to CPA for that money let me also mention that the reason that if if we vote for the last one you cannot use CPA money to replace all money already appropriated so if you really want people to come back for CPA money the schools to come back for CPA money you want to vote no on the last one I'm sorry the last one's written in a negative disc that separately when we get there thank you um okay the floor is open for discussion uh councilor if someone else had a hand before me did anyone that case I think I would prefer if we went one at a time okay so the um motion has been made was there a second yes there was a second Shane second did it so this this is the one that is the CPA money it's the 800,000 and it removes the artificial turf requirement okay ready to vote all right councelor hanii I Bob Hegman yes I councelor Lord I Pam Rooney yes councelor Ryan I Kathy Shane yes Andy Steinberg hi Jennifer to yes councelor Walker yes Pat dangeles hi Anna Devin gothier I councilor R yes Lyn gree muren I it is unanimous okay I'm going to place the next motion on the table and seek a second having been reviewed by the finance committee and a report dated June 17 202024 been published in the town bulletin bulletin board for a minimum of 10 days on June 7th 2024 and the council having held a public forum on on June 17th 2024 in accordance with Charter section 5.6 to approve the CPAC Community preservation act committee motion to resend the restriction on the north south orientation in Council order FY 23-8 with a strong recommendation to pursue the north south South option and encourage the regional school committee to to return to CPAC for additional funds to meet that north south objective as soon as possible as needed is there a second seconds thank you con discussion questions and comments Mandy uh councelor hanii I really wish this one was in two parts um but uh it's not because it's CPA voted their motion but part two about strong recommendation to pursue north south I absolutely agree with but I'm of the opinion that if we want we're we're the appropriating authority we can put whatever restrictions on that appropriation we want and if we want a north south appropriation a North a north south track we should put a north south restriction on it um I will get into more details when we get to the free cash ones on why I'm voting against removing north south restrictions on that um I don't want to repeat myself six million times but um this one I recognize there's some some desire to um follow the CPA recommendation because it is ultimately their recommendation of spending their own money but I am still going to vote against it because I do believe that um removing the Restriction does not not adequately um say that we want this money used for a north south track and so I will be voting against this motion Kathy I will be voting for it as I did in the committee because I think it's important we allow flexibility when you add the number up the third option that is the north south is a couple hundred, more than we saw so it's 4.4 that's a million more than the money we have available so it's a gamble we think we can get it from cpath but I don't think we should stop to say there is only one solution I think if the school committee can do what they hope to do and our CPAC and meaning Amorous CPAC said come back to us we're ready come back and our CPAC can move out of cycle because what in our discussion was they can do a bond authorization they don't have spare money right now but they can do a bond authorization and the intention is to go to the others as well if we can come up with that additional million dollars it can be the second phase we don't have evidence yet that we have a million dollars worth of phasing everyone should know we came up with some big ticket items lighting sidewalk a few others so I think allowing flexibility and I will say the same when we come to the council's 900,000 is critical at this point we've got to deliver this there's a timeline ticking here and the timeline on getting ready they want to get ready and go out to bid this year so putting restriction on isn't necessary since the intent is to go this direction but if they discover they can't I want to leave the the flexibility for the middle option which gives us a five Lan an eight Lane track a great field but doesn't reorient it and it does do drainage and a lot of other things so again I think leaving flexibility as CPAC did do is the important thing to do here I'm going to pause for a moment and go to the chair of finance committee although Bob did review for us earlier how the votes went did you want to tell us on this one how they went okay um the the motion passed by vote of four to one one res resident member supported and one resident member was absent okay and I'll come back to you for comment uh George Ryan it would I strongly support the reorientation for many many reasons um one of them has to do with the 2019 athletic facilities plan which one of the cornerstones of that plan um is that the track be reoriented and there are many other reasons why it should happen um what would help me with this decision I mean there's this notion that we we're not sure what we're going to discover quote unquote in the next week and so there's this this sort of uh sense of uncertainty which I find deeply troubling um which is why I'm leaning towards um basically keeping the Restriction because uh I don't get a clear sense that there's a plan forward and I'm hearing from some members of the school committee that um they want this flexibility so they can go back to the other orientation um it would help me if it were possible for either these superintendent of schools or for the assistant Town manager if they could to speak to uh what might be possible um maybe what councilor Shane has said is that at this moment uh no one is sure and so that's where we're at but um I would be helped if if we had some sense that there is a sense of a plan how this could happen in terms of phasing and in terms of doing this uh in a way that that would make it pretty certain that we'll get what is I think the best plan and one that's an agreement with the 2019 master plan both interim superintendent Doug Slaughter and uh assistant Town manager Dave Zac are with us um would one of you like to speak you could why don't you take the motion down for the moment thank you um Doug sure I can comment um you know we would love to do the the north south orientation and I think that's the the commitment of the committee I think that was the the conversation uh As I understood it not to to say they took formal action relative to that um I think we're still working through uh a variety of ways we can we can uh you know uh approach the the cost differential um there are some things uh relative to how we bid the project that might give us some flexibility obviously there's uh CPA funds that we can seek um in uh in the Regional Schools we do have a a capital stabilization fund that we can also tap into a little bit it's not a huge resource and and we don't want to sort of starve that resource for uh you know too much money because we do want to use it for some other projects we have um but nonetheless you know there are a variety of ways we can approach this we're still working through those both with our designer and just thinking about the the the mechanics of of the sort of bid process and the and the possibilities there to to uh give us some flexibility relative to to reaching out to other CPA committees and and finding other funding sources so think it's work in progress um I think you know the conversations As I understood them with this within and around the the topic with the school committee was that they would uh prefer to go with the north south orientation uh if at all possible so we're still working on ways to to approach that and and uh uh you know find a way to get the level of funding we need to get that that orientation done it's the best Ultimate uh project for us if at all possible thank you uh Dave Zac please uh sure Lyn if I could just build on what Dr slaughter said you know I think as we outlined in the um in the finance committee meeting I think what we're looking at is a combination of three things really you know a cost savings within the budget and we appreciate um some great comments from members of the finance committee uh members of the council and members of the of the community uh they have you all have identified some potential cost savings within within the current budget I think I would call the second uh option would be phasing or bid alts uh bid ads uh as we as we get closer to the final design uh looking at what can we uh propose as alts within that bid or in addition to the base bid uh and those may need to be um moved to a a second a second year if you will and then budget adjustments as the design progresses so um under the first category I know that um the finan one member of the finance committee pointed out a small um discrepancy in our budget for option I think it was in all the options but it was a saving of of $50,000 for one of the um the shot put or one of the uh U track and field events we're looking at a potential Savings of 350,00 ,000 at least this would be in the phasing category um for doing the conduits and then the bases for the lights and then moving the lights themselves either to a bid alt or to a future Year we're also looking you know creatively at working um with the town of course on the sidewalk along matun street that is in the public way currently it's in the uh it's in the budget for about 80 to $100,000 we're also looking at whether we can move things like um U goalpost safety netting things like that uh to alts or to private fundraising or to Future years um you'll also note in the budget and um SLR is here Kevin our consultant from SLR is in the in the room happy to have him jump on if there are specific questions but we're we're also carrying a very comfortable and conservative contingency right now of 551 th000 that's 15% of the overall uh project cost as we move toward final design that will likely move from 15% to 5% so there's a significant savings there we're also carrying about 175,000 uh for a potential inflation on the project between now and and construction um SLR has uh um quite a bit of experience bidding these projects right now and and in general uh horizontal construction is is um much more predictable these days than vertical construction so we're looking at a combination of cost savings phasing or bid alts and then budget adjustments as the budget uh uh as the uh design is is progresses and then of course as as the superintendent noted going back to ammer CPA Leverett pelman shutesbury and again uh happy to have um our our our consultant uh from SLR answer any more specific questions you might have okay let me go on and ask other counselors if they have questions or comments and then I do want to come back to Kevin who has been nice enough to join us this evening um Bob hegner yeah I just uh I just want to I I am in favor of rotating the track but I do want to point out that the option 1D provides a pretty good playing field it's it's not north south oriented but I but but Kevin correct me if I'm wrong but I believe you could get the soccer field on there it's just the only sport that won't be supported on that as the football is that correct the way it's currently designed u under any scenario um it would accommodate all national Federation High School sports including soccer and football um the track configuration we show option under option uh 3C is a slightly different shaped running track um and it allows for a slightly larger wider soccer field um but again both would be within National Federation um uh standards for competition play uh just with option 3C you get a little more overrun area between the track and the field um so there's some benefits of that reshaping of the track right so I guess the council should understand that the option 1D gives us a really good playing field it's just oriented in a different direction right thank you ly if I could I just add one comment to that Lynn before you move and and I think Bob made this comment earlier but I just want to re reemphasize that option 3C actually gets us two north south oriented Fields it gets us the field within the track and the field to the West which will be a much improved field to the West with the East West orientation either one um we do not get that new field and the fields to the north if if there was an East West uh new track and field the fields to the north would be basically the same as they are now which are not really high quality Fields so um we wouldn't get a perfect field to the West in the north south orientation but we get a much improved field than what is there uh today so thanks yeah and and that is in our report that you all have just a picture of what that looks like um Anna Pam oh I'm sorry I think mine was a first Anna is showing up on my screen next but I don't know why okay go ahead pam pam please go ahead um I like the fact that uh this review of the design elements and some of the opportunities for cost cutting is being done now at the beginning of design I think that's a really good strategy uh that said I still support removing the restrictions on the orientation um I think we just need to be eyes wide open as we go forward because there may be some unexplainable costs that we aren't aware of I also do have some questions about um the 3C that perhaps Kevin or or David can address and when I look at since we're talking about this now um when I look at 3C and I look at the orientation of the of the playing field uh and the proposed uh additional or New Field to the to the south of it um I do not see the money for that new field in the cost estimate all I see in the cost estimate is $160,000 for lawn top top soil seeding and lawn when we looked at a well a well planned and well designed and built infield for 1D uh it includes drainage it includes good uh well- draining material that allows that track to be used um much more extensively than the current Fields do so that cost when I looked at 1D the cost of that infield construction is more like $700,000 not $160,000 so I think the price is going to be higher when I look at uh option three again and I overlay the existing Playing Fields um we actually lose two playing fields we will get a we will get a seated lawn as a replacement and and we also lose to additional Fields so I don't I'm I'm not convinced that the um that the new Southern field um is actually going to cover the loss um enough for now um Kevin would you like to address those issues yeah so I think dve met David mentioned it that that second field isn't going to be as high performing as the field that you'll get within the track um the budget just won't allow uh an extensive uh under drainage system and an amended uh root Zone uh top soil layer and new irrigation system but we will have a surplus soil coming from the new track location that would be placed it would be laser graded shaped um there we'll put as what amendments we can afford into to it um but it will be lacking some of the features um and so that's why the budget is is much less uh than the the engineered field we'll say um the fields as I know them to the north that exist above the East West track currently um from what I can see from striping on Aerials and what I've seen in the field um they're not regulation siiz Fields but there are two areas um I think one of those areas would be retained but it still would not be a full competition field um but we are planning on creating a fullsize grass Athletic Field to the west of the north south orientation it doesn't it doesn't appear that there's enough room for a full-size to the west of this of the new playing field and I hate to think of the material that's coming out of the area that the that the the new track layout would cover it is really really Mucky sediments and I would hate to think that that's what's going to get placed on a new playing field Kevin did you have anything else you wanted to address with that yeah uh no it's just you know we'll do as much as we can with the budget we're given on that field if that's the option we go with Anna um thank you couple of thoughts so the first thing is the the I didn't organize them well okay so we know that our fields are overused by at least 150% right now from the report taking out a grassy area that is not a regulation siiz field and adding in a field even if it's not as fancy as the one inside the track is adding resources for our student athletes that they desperately need um the Professional Engineers that do fields for a living are telling us that they have space to put a full regulation siiz field if we reorient the track I trust them to know that similarly I trust them that if they say the soil can be used to make a field as it currently is underneath the field uh that that would happen I think that the questions that I'm having are a little bit of the zooming out here if we can and I'd like someone to just restate um the the the implications of saying that we cannot or that we will not remove the Restriction uh I would like to know does that mean that if they discover they can't if the school Regional school committee discovers that they cannot go with option three that it's not viable that they would come back again or sorry if we say no you can't remove the the Restriction they say we can't do this with the money we've got do then come back to us again to ask again to remove that restriction with a concrete plan in hand are we I'm trying to figure out what we're what the implications are of both of th those votes um are we what we're doing is what we're doing right now saving them coming back to us if they determine they cannot do option three and then what I'm trying to figure out is what else is going to change within this next week that isn't just damning this project to be option 1 D or one whatever one of the ones because if what we're saying is that we need them to also seek other funding from other towns and we know that the other towns aren't going to pull their CPAs together and make a decision on this in the next week which is when the regional school committee is saying they need to know the answer by how is that what why would we how is that going to go anywhere with with option three so if I'm missing something about the timing here someone please correct me but I'm there's saying they need to send in a decision by next week but also that we should give them the latitude to go to other CPAs and seek Al alternate funding sources within the next week am I missing something I think this is where the benefit of the finance committee discussion would be helpful and so I'm going to um while I listen to it I'm not going to try to recount it uh so I'm going to actually look to the fin committee to if you can explain the issue of phasing in or perhaps Doug or uh Dave zc would do that sorry ly that that is part of it but that's not the entirety of my question I just want to make sure the other part is captured as well which is what is intended to be done differently in the next week that would emphasize our strong preference for north south orientation right thank you thank you Bob do you want to start or should like go on to uh Dave Zac and Doug um I can start um I think that the the issue of phasing uh was really one way to keep the budget within the money that we had at the at the T we have right now without having to add any additional money I'm not sure we're there yet I'm not sure we can save enough to to do that but that was the basic idea the idea was not to take anything off of the not to change anything in the project but to delay certain aspects of the project so that um we could move forward with what we have now and then add on the other pieces as money became available that's the basic idea behind the phasing it's not to cut anything out um it's really just to delay certain elements of the project and and David M me mentioned some of them it's um you know it's the lighting um the uh sidewalk along maton Street there there are certain Big Ticket items that we could we could save a lot by phasing that by moving that to a separate phase bidding it out separately but it it's not clear that we have enough money to do that Kathy and so let me just give you an example the original ticket for the lighting is like 700,000 while you're doing the field you would at least do all the conduits and you would do the bases for the lights but you actually wouldn't install the lights that would be phased in later and perhaps paid for by CPA money there's just an example of the phasing concept does that help Anna I understood the phas and concept that wasn't what my question was okay all right um I'm GNA call on Mandy Joe I was going to make some other comments but I will try to try and summarize what the council is being asked to sort of do in a somewhat neutral manner let's try so the council back in 2022 on CPA's recommendation voted a financial order that had two restrictions on it we already voted to remove one of them so it now from 20122 uh a 900 9 800,000 Financial order has a restriction of north south um back in 2022 the council and all three other towns voted to approve a $1.5 million borrowing from the region back in 2022 in December the council also voted a free cash appropriation gift to the regional school committee of 900,000 with a north south orientation restriction all that money together and then a couple months ago in February the school committee came to us and said and all four towns and asked us Bas basically to revote the one and a half million to remove the north south restriction and the turf restriction that was on that um they said at that time it was very immediate we needed to do it now um couldn't wait and now just a month and a half ago they did the same thing with this and I'll get into into that they got those estimates a month and a half ago or so that said option 1B can be done almost within just the borrowing authorization that one and a. half million option 1D cannot be done within the borrowing authorization but if restrictions are removed has enough money to do it although finance committee has realized it does not with restrictions removed have enough money because it did not include the design fees of 250,000 but option 1D only has a million. s available right now but it needs 3 point something million option 3C needs 4.2 to 4.4 depending on how you can count those design restrictions um and available right now for option 3C is $3.7 million um and so they the school committee said well we need more money for 3C and so we're going to ask the town of ammer for more money for 3C but we also want those restrictions on 3c's money that $1.7 million that 3C can do removed so that money can also be used for 1D they have told us they need to know our answer by next week so they can make a decision on which design to go with to continue designing a a plan because they need to now design which direction that track is going they don't need need to fund that design plan until December so this is where the finance committee had a two-hour discussion because they need to pick their design next week and the school committee has basically told us in various different phases that they want whatever design they picked fully funded by next week or confident that it will be funded when they pick their design next week the finance committee realizes that if we're not on this financial order the extra 750 asked for if we fund that through free cash and they go with 3C we cannot use CPA money to fund that in the future because we cannot supplant any already funded money with CPA money right and so if the council wants the school committee to ask for CPA money for the additional by the way that Financial order has a North South or restriction on it um if we if we want CPA to use CPA for north south we cannot fund the financial order because we wouldn't then be able to get CPA money for it because it would supplant and would be against the law so we cannot if we want 3C but also want to use CPA fund the new Financial order but if you don't fund the financial order the school committee is left with 3.4 3.7 3.4 million 3473 for for option 3C or if we remove the Restriction 3.4 for option 1D and well then 1D is nearly funded but 3C is not and they pick the design next week and so the decision we have to make is when they're picking a design and telling us they want 3C but they also want full funding of of a design when they pick it next week if we remove the restrictions can we trust them to go with 3C even though they don't have all the money for it um so that's sort of how I look at the decision we have to make um as simplistically as I can try and explain it I'll keep my hand raised but you can go to others to say why I'm going the way I'm going Anna did that get to your questions yes at first I thought I was going to have to explain to Mandy that I also did understand all that first part too but no uh the December key element is is what's the uh yeah that was what I was looking for thank you thank you Alicia councelor Walker excuse me councel Walker um it's okay thank you Lynn so I I mean Mandy Joe summarized a bit of the timeline that I was going to summarize but I think the question that she ended she ended with in terms of do we trust them is not the same question that I'm asking myself of course we trust them they're elected officials um and we talk about how we should trust other committees to do what they need to do and those decisions while we do have a preference and I know it's in good faith and I also am strongly in favor of option three 3C it's the purview of the school committee to make that decision to make the decision as to which option they move forward with and which option is feasible with what they have um and so I think we've heard from school commit committee members we've heard from the superintendent and the assistant Town manager in terms of the desire and intention to pursue seriously option 3C and I'm not sure at this time considering their timeline and their plan of events that we can ask them to do more than to seriously consider and try to pursue that option um and then also thinking about what unintended consequences the vote might have if we do not remove the restrictions and the school committee does not have enough money to move to option 3C despite trying to pursue it seriously um they have a timeline they're trying to meet which I think is part of what makes this a little bit more complicated um where we would then be locking them into doing probably the least favorable of all the options so right now basically our vote is signaling to them it's all like the best or the worst we're not getting anything in between um and I think that that's problematic considering most of the decisions that we're talking about and considering are under the purview of the school committee so we don't actually have the ability to make those decisions um and so I think similar to what CPA did in terms of writing a very strong message displaying what our thoughts are as a committee if that ends up being everybody's thought I know I don't speak for all of the counselors here but I I feel like I'm getting the sense that a lot of people are also re very much in favor of pursuing option 3C and so maybe sending a very strong worded letter to them with whatever we vote would suffice um but I I am troubled by locking them potentially locking them in to having to decide an option that they do not want to pursue just because they don't have enough funding or they don't have enough time Jennifer uh thank you so I agree with what councel Walker just said I'm in favor of lifting the Restriction I do um I have a couple of questions if we don't lift the restriction and they and the school committee can't raise the funds for 3C they do have the money for 1B so that so that's my concern if we don't lift it that we may get one B um my next question is I sat in on the CPA meeting last week and they said they were so supportive of reor of the 3C that they would even meet out of session to make a decision sooner so my question is if we lift the restriction and next week the school committee has to determine what plan they're going to ask to be designed could they if they don't yet have the money in hand for three C but they feel pretty confident that the CPAC that the Committees in the or towns will approve it and amoris which would have the most funds to give has pretty much said they will meet early they will do everything they can to provide the CPAC funds for 3C to happen so next week if we lift the restrictions and don't require only 3C we don't hold out for just 3C could the school committee ask the designers to begin designing the reorientation on the not the hope but um on the verbal commitment that they've received from the amher um CPAC I think the person to ask that question of is Doug yeah so I think the be careful of in my response I think um so I think that you know everybody would like to move in the direction of 3C and I think it's sort of what's the level of confidence uh that we can get there and so I think that's part of what we're evolving I think the other thing I'll share is just you know I you know school committee is not met so some of these you know uh ideas of a phased approach or or uh returning to CPAs in each of the four towns um have not been you know I'm happy to fill out those applications that would be what I would do um that's not something school committees necessarily going to do but but um I think there uh you know obvious ly would be interested in those sources of funds and those those uh you know that kind of Outreach um you know I think if if we can get we're gonna have to make a judgment as far as what we tell our designer to do uh if we feel like we can get pretty close with either a phase approach um or uh you know other you sort of alternate ads that we can put into our our bidding when we do later you when we do that later if we feel like we can get pretty close with the resources available to us then then uh you know we'll move forward with that 3C design um I think we have to get you know pretty close I guess is a short answer uh you know we've identified a few um few things that we could do as far as phasing it um and we what here's I guess the risk for for the school committee is the following if they tell the designer to go with 3C and we get to you know when we're ready to bid and those other pieces of it don't materialize the other funding don't materialize we're going to have to go back to our designer and ask them to rework uh the design to something other than what they've done we're gonna have to go through our our permitting process with a town again so that's what we really want to avoid is that sort of double spending for design and double spending for uh and double effort around things like permitting um so obviously most flexibility makes it easiest and I think that you know we'll we'll try to make the best uh judgment we can to to move ahead with 3C as as as the direction we'd like to go if we can get it pretty close which I think we're right there um that would be the direction the school committee is going to want to go to um I think the the risk though is just is you know do we end up in a circumstance where U we have to rework design and rework permitting process uh that delays Us in some way that's the that's the only real concern we have but again you know if if we can get pretty close on a you know thinking about how the funding might fit together from alternate sources or a staged approach or whatever then I think uh you know we'll we'll likely move ahead with that reoriented track Pat you've had your hand up and down did and other have spoken I'm going to try not to repeat what anyone said but it would be helpful if people could um if Athena can speaking pull up the spreadsheet for three seats said Kathy I misheard I I'm sorry P um I'm I'm uh listening to all this and and issues of trust and not trust and and it's not that for me uh it is that 3C creates 3C creates a situation in all of the fields that integrates them so the softball field uh is is will be different uh the there's this extra playing field there's more there is the possibility if it's reoriented of using the hill even to seat people before bleachers happen uh it um it improves the number of athletic events that can happen there uh it makes it a short walk for the home team it makes it convenient parking and uh it will really connect to the if there are Renovations at the war memorial and everything so for me uh mostly though it will Empower our athletes who are amazing I mean they're winning using terrible facilities on to practice but what can they accomplish how can they be empowered or enriched by the transformation of these playing fields and I feel strongly that removing the restriction and this is why my hand has been going up and down I've been listening to other people um I I feel like lifting that restriction um leaves us without the kind of playing fields that I think we really need to have thank you David you had your hand up and then I'm also in the process Athena could you start finding the slides where we have the table that shows the options thank you David uh yeah Lyn before you share those um Kevin is here tonight he has you know slightly reworked the you know particularly 3C uh he has two slides one is on potential project bid Alternatives and similar um options and then he has a new slightly amended adjusted budget for 3C so before we show something that's a little bit dated um could we possibly go to Kevin and have him share those two slides and walk us through those if that's where Kathy was going and ly I just want to say that is what I wanted thank you Kevin uh yep uh I'll go ahead and share we're going to ask have to ask uh Athena to allow you to share okay okay yep no I have permission um okay thank you so as David mentioned we just went back to pull the uh design fee below the line on the spreadsheet can everyone see it on my screen by the way yes I'm not hearing a yes oh someone's asked if you could just enlarge it a little bit thank you there would me is that good so that's good the two major things um it was pointed out that in the running track and events breakdown we did have a both pole vault event area and Shop put twice so we removed out the redundancy there which removed let's say roughly 55,000 I think was the number from the total we also pulled our design fee below the project total costs well it was always described here obviously it this being above the line made it appear that it should have been Incorporated in that number so that's all the changes that we've made to our our current um cost estimate for all three options um but this brought the project number down to uh 4,1 160,000 and again a big point that we keep making and I'll go to the alternate slide in a moment um as David mentioned at this level of design uh where we're somewhere between schematic and preliminary design we're still carrying a hefty contingency of 15% and uh by the time we're at final design that will be at 5% um which will represent a significant savings and also a 5% inflation um that's really uh just a cautionary uh 5% uh past projects we annually would uh carry 3% but because of pricing escalation that we've seen over the past couple years um which was actually up over 7% um at this point we're uh we're carrying five but we may feel comfortable enough and again as Dave mentioned we have bid some similar projects just this past year so we uh use that current pricing when do uh developing these estimates um so there could be some savings with the uh inflation that we wouldn't see when we go out to bid uh the second slide we prepared is just some of the potential project bid alternates uh the big ticket item being the electric the athletic field lighting and uh as mentioned this would under the base bid we would just install uh empty electrical conduit uh pull boxes and then the actual concrete foundations for lighting we've done this on numerous projects where even multiple years later uh fundings uh put in place and it's a a quick one or two day installation and the lights are uh craned on top of those foundations the uh the wires pulled and the the controls are installed um so we're saying that's about a $350,000 savings right now uh matun Street uh the Curbing and sidewalk improvements that are shown on all three of our plans uh that's a plus or minus $90,000 savings if that can be funded elsewhere uh ball safety netting which doesn't really isn't depicted well on the uh the renderings but behind each uh goal area we uh typically on new facilities we install 15 to 20 foot high netting that runs across the back of the goals um this allows for uh you know use of certain areas of the track while games are being played or practice uh creating safer areas um you know a lot of people like to stretch in the high jump areas and warm up um so ball safety netting is something that we typically put in design but it's not a cheap element but what we uh have done in a phase approach is just put the foundations for the net poles um those go in a concrete curb along the back of the field um and they're relatively a small expense when compared to the poles in the nettings themselves so that's uh plus or minus a $70,000 savings uh some of the other items we just discussed were walkway scope reductions um this we're going to have to look at a little closer to see exactly how much reduction we could do yet still maintain um Ada accessible walks to all necess Neary areas um and then chain link fencing um our plans call for for two uh for option 1D and 3C um call for a 4 foot high chain link fence around the the track itself um and you'd currently don't have that so if we remove that and just replace the chain link along maton Street um still uh controlling access to the site um that could be almost a $100,000 savings there so a combination of those and then with a reduction of contingency which it the current budget would be almost $360,000 um it's it's a good amount of uh project alternates that we can put in there well I have this up is there anything else uh anyone would like to see could you go back to the first slide yes so what you're saying on the first slide is that the total project is 4,160 or do I add the 254 when this was brought to our attention last time um I didn't have an answer for that question I we had not included it in the construction cost um and partly that was just my fault not asking the question uh assuming that you know our Design Services were funded and not coming out of the uh the construction budget um now we understand that you know there was confusion in this and then potentially an oversight on our behalf so currently the one you would add our design fee to the 4,1 160,000 okay thank you you're welcome 414 thank you um let's see uh Anna you have your hand up so of the bid Alternatives without reading the full CPA law um Dave do you have an estimate on what of those are eligible for possible CPA allocations in the future or requests excuse me in the future that's part one as as far as I know anything that is a permanent structure at the facility would be CPA eligible the only thing that is not CPA eligible um is artificial turf and we removed that from the project yep okay thank you that's what I thought I wanted some time ago months ago when many months ago when all these votes were taken they were taken relative to an artificial turf field and we knew full well at that time that CPA funds could not be used for that part of the project but anything that is attached and and and quote permanent uh fixture at the at the at the facility I believe is our CPA eligible okay so if I mathed this which I I not known for that in my head but I did this in my head it's around 660 ignoring the TBD items and ignoring is that seem truish those those um those costs so that's 660 that could get spread out or um requested through CPA funding for for 3C um I think I I want to clarify I don't see for myself I'll speak for myself always um I don't see this as an issue of trust I I see it as an issue of logistics and I apologize if I insinuate it otherwise uh Doug you said we'd need to be confident in funding and get pretty close but again pretty close by when because we're hearing next week and I just logistically do not see how we can reasonably get close to 3C by next week December maybe but if that decision is being made by next week and and and confidently pursued by next week because we don't want to go through permitting twice and need to be confidently pursuing One Direction again I don't see how we're just making a false Choice by by removing that um removing that restriction and we may as well just vote one D or whatever or one what B so I I genuinely uh if we first question is if we don't lift it and they don't have the money by December they come back correct or are we just saying no project because what I'm hearing is they would come back and say we have to pay the design fees again recognize that and it would slow the project but they come back to to explain why they now have pursued it and and that CPA funding didn't come through or the other funding didn't come through I I would like to hear someone who's truly believing that we should remove the Restriction while knowing and acknowledging that the school committee needs to pick one and would like to do that by next week including like to have that funding secured or knowing where it's coming from hypothetically secured by next week how we aren't kidding ourselves with this can I I I do genuinely want to hear because for me it feels like a vote to remove this restriction I don't see how this wouldn't go to Project one of the one options if the school committee is is saying which we heard them say that they need to have this decision made by next week including the funding Mandy Joe so Anna in some sense slightly summarized why I don't support removing the restrictions because the school committee in my mind actions speak louder than words and the school committee's actions have been in February to ask us to vote to remove a north south restriction on the borrowing money while saying that they want a north south project and not doing anything other than asking us to remove the restrictions to a north south project they did not apply to any CPA Committee in February despite our pleading to apply to CPA's out of cycle for funding for a north south project then about four five weeks ago whenever this one came in and they made their votes they kept saying they want a north south project yet asked us to remove the north south restrictions on all the funding and even asked the CPA to remove their restrictions while not also simultaneously instructing their superintendent or themselves actually asking and applying to the CPA for additional money for a north south project and said they came to us for free cash which under all of our financial guidelines is not what our fin our financial guidelines say no under two reasons one it's not a use for free cash and another one says we want if CPA money is eligible we fund those things through CPA not free cash and they instead asked us for free cash and they still haven't applied to any of the four towns for CPA and so their actions in my mind say while they're saying they want the north south all of their actions point to if we remove these restrictions 1D is the project we will get because their actions have not shown up till now that they will pursue a north south in the manner they need to given the trust level not given the the TR the lack of risk they've said that they want when they pick a design next week so from where I stand if we want north south we need to keep the restrictions on Kathy um it I I thought it was very helpful to have the numbers up on the board because the issue Mandy we've been not voting for the same thing on this for a long time the problem has been we haven't had enough money for the north south and wasn't the school committee that came up with ask us for cash it was a suggestion of Staff um they were actually a few of them were pretty reluctant because they were also asking for more money for the operating budget at the same time so I think Anna's uh math quick math was accurate you know we've got about 610 maybe 660,000 that could be phased in 3C we need a million unless there's magic that 250,000 design fee has to be paid by someone so it is part of the cost so I by removing the Restriction I understand we might end up with 1D but I think it's a good option and I I understand it's not the option that's north south the list that was given us if the school committee can see that next week and make those decisions if you notice the lighting is n a 700,000 it's a smaller savings on each of these and fencing is smaller if contingency is really listed too high we get pretty close and what I worry about with taking contingency out is usually that's part of a design contingency it's not just construction there's some uncertainty because he Kevin hasn't done all the uh the the final piece of it but but we need we need that buffer um so I don't know whether the buffer is set too high so pretty close and I think it's the school committee that's going to have to look at this to say are we close enough with the assurance that they can go back to CPA with discussions not just with ammer but with the other three towns and leaving that them to do that over the next couple weeks is what I would like to do which is why I want to remove the Restriction I want to get an option that moves this year um not wait again for next year I I think this has been a very long delay um basically because we haven't had the money and and just so everyone knows the amount my estimate is what they have to ask the Amis CPA for CPAC is about $800,000 if that extra million is right you know for the phasing so you know we may well want to spend that money but it's a big chunk of money out of our CPA so it's buying with affordable housing with you know some of the other things that CPA so it it's something that we might all welcome depending what else is on on the docket um but it it's it's not like CPA is just this magic and they've got a a big thing so it it's something we have to look at and I would be totally for it as long as it doesn't push out something else Kathy thank you George am I right in assuming that and maybe this is a question for Kevin or maybe he can't answer it but the presentation he just gave us now about see and the various ways in which uh it could be U cost could be gotten and and phasing could be done is that a presentation that will be made to the school committee next Tuesday not only that but I need to have Kevin send those documents to Athena so they can be placed in the record for tonight yeah we'll do thank you George um yeah I don't know about the presentation next week I hadn't been asked um this was the first I was hearing about it but more than happy to give it George is there additional questions well if if I had some Assurance I mean again I I want to uh remove the restriction and let the school committee do its job but and I'm also hearing overwhelmingly that the right decision is to um option 3C and if I had some confidence that this uh case would be made in the strongest possible way to the school committee combined with the very strong support from CPA combined with what we've heard tonight from uh many of the people in the athletic and sports Community then I would somewhat reluctantly but I would say let's remove the restriction and and let the school committee make its decision I think it is correct they are the elected body and ultimately it is their call um I would point out that the vast majority of the money that's going into this project is coming from CPA and from the town from free cash um so we do have a pretty large stake in this but I hear the argument that um it is is ultimately their call um but what's frustrating me is the sense that um I don't have a clear I just don't see that a case is going to be made on Tuesday and they seem to be they apparently have to make a decision about design and I share Mandy spere that they will simply go with the the middle option and I think that would be a terrible loss um so again like Pat my hand keeps going up and down um Doug you have your hand up yeah I just I'll I'll share with you that that as far as the presentation that that that Kevin shared with you tonight I'll share that with school committee uh next Tuesday we'll do agenda setting a little later this week with the chair and so um you know we'll definitely have a robust conversation about this I know that I would be uh remiss not to sort of share this this this conversation with him as well and and I think that the I think the like I said before I think that my sense of the committee and I they haven't taken a formal vote on this my sense of the committee is that they would like to do 3C as well um but they also I think that that uh the urgency of of of making the repairs and and doing the project is also pretty strong in their mind as well which is part of why the urgency to sort of pose some questions um I think as far as applying to CPA and other communities and and even even in ammer you know the there are you know staff have to do that there's limits on how many staff we have available to do that or we would have been applying in the meantime and we've only recently had the the feedback from the the Amer CPA that they'd be interested in funding up an additional amount of funds for that for that so it's a matter of of uh our staff here in the in the schools putting together those applications and getting them uh uh set off to those those communities I do know in in Leever p and shutesbury their processes um are typically winter and spring some of them don't even begin until January with with their review um but happy to you know POS those questions earlier I know the who the chairs of each of those committees are and and can talk to them and reach out to them and happy to do that and I would share the same with the with school committee is that you know we we'd be reaching out uh immediately to start the conversations with each of those cpac's and each of the four communities um what I don't have a sense of from the from those other communities is is what uh commit they already have of their CPA dollars so what their capacity is I just don't know and I probably won't know by next Tuesday night either um so that's that's another sort of question mark in the conversation uh that happens but but I'm happy to share you know this dialogue with with the school committee and and certainly I think they're they're um hopeful to move ahead with the 3C and I think that if we can find uh some some ways to sort of structure how we do it in a way that that meets the funding that we know we have plus uh what we might be able to reasonably uh acquire between now and and when we have to actually bid the projects um you know we'll move ahead with 3C if possible but we do do need to give our designers an opportunity to kind of do their design thank you Jennifer my concern is that if we don't lift the Restriction we will get 1B and is that correct they have that money now if we don't lift the Restriction they can choose that option I just want to be clear yes they have 1.7 million right so I really hope we can have 3C but I would much prefer 1D to 1B and I feel like we're forcing if we don't lift the Restriction we are maybe forcing them into that corner Andy yeah I think that from the at finance committee meeting one thing that I thought about very strongly was the statement of CPA committee chair McLoud and he couldn't have been more firm about his um projection as to where CPA would go if it got a proposal that they did you know they didn't lightly say we encourage the proposal and we will take it up out of our normal schedule which we know that they have done before they did I believe with Kendrick Park so that there's a lot of um strong statement that was made that gives me U confidence I also um have not heard a single member of the school committee saying that they had anything as their first choice if the funds were available other than 3C they really want the north south track and I haven't heard any of them say that U that isn't something that they believe strongly wi um and I guess the last thing that I keep thinking about is you know just my knowledge of the other towns and um how their procedures go unlike um amerur we have a yearound government and can vote at any time to um allocate borrowing from CPA if there's a recommendation from the CPA committee to do it the other towns do have to go through special town meeting process it is a much slower process which then gets into the questions that we so carefully asked of Kevin um from um the consulting firm about the delays which have already been strongly spoken about tonight and don't need repetition but that gives us the ability to say those things can be put off until we hear from the other towns um as to whether they have the capacity to go forward um and then re-evaluate if there's not sufficient support because they don't have available funds or some other problem occurs in their CPA committees or speci special Town meetings so I do think that we have a very solid path forward and I hope we end up with votes tonight that encourage the school committee to um do what uh Doug Slaughter Su um was saying is that uh he would be prepared to get an application into our CPA committee but he needs direction from his school committee and I think from what I know he's going to get it Anna so two questions the first is um the difference between 1B and 1D is the lighting and the rejuvenated field is that primarily correct Kevin I think is yeah that's that's correct it's us utilizing existing drainage versus all new and all new light pole system okay and are those elements of the project that could also be hypothetically phased in over time with external CPA funds um you don't have to answer the CPA part but Li the new drainage so no under the new north south that would have to go in at this time of the field okay so my question is um my rhetorical question for the council not rhetorical if if folks have answers I always want to hear them but I don't if we're so confident in this path forward if we are people are saying they have confidence in 3C happening if we lift the restrictions because they believe the funds will be available if we're so confident if we have a solid path forward why remove the restrictions why not stay the course I think that what people keep saying is they believe this is going to happen they believe this is going to happen I personally do not believe that this will happen within the time frame indicated by the school committee that they feel they need to make this decision firmly by which is next week I still haven't actually heard someone explain to me how what's going to change in the next week that's going to prove that those funds are are available and lead the school committee to go for for 3C uh I'm still open to hearing that but if we have this solid path forward why not stay the course if we go with 1B or 1D we are negating all of the work that's done on The Field's master plan we are losing an opportunity for adding an actual playing field that doesn't exist right now taking out open Green Space and turning it into an actual field reorganizing and following through on what we spent 50 Grand uh to develop a plan to do so I just why are we not staying the course if we feel so confident in this um yeah the motion's been made and seconded the motion on the table which will show on the screen is with all of the notifications it is to approve the CPAC motion to resend the restrictions on the north south orientation in Council order FY 23-8 with a strong recommendation to pursue the North South option and encourage the regional school committee to return to CPAC for additional funds to meet the north south objective if you vote no it means you don't remove the Restriction if you vote Yes it means you remove the Restriction point of order yes if this was originally a borrowing authorization which I think it was it was what is the vote Quantum to change the authorization uh 2/3 so this will need nine yeses correct okay because it's a borrowing authorization our borrowing authorization requires nine votes the CPA money was not a direct cash it had to be borrowed does that yeah please but this doesn't change the amount that c CPAC is talking about it simply talks about um the use of it I hear your question you're saying it doesn't change the amount so why we are not changing the amount to borrow Anna I mean Athena do you want to so a a motion to resend or amend something previously adopted um it requires the same vote Quantum as the original vote to adopt the order that's in the council rules thanks and in that case it was nine thank you very much all right are we ready again you vote Yes you remove the Restriction if you vote no you don't remove the Restriction okay and we're going to begin with Bob hegner I councelor Lord I Pam Rooney yes councelor Ryan hi Kathy Shane yes Andy Steinberg yes Jennifer to yes councelor Walker yes Patti Angeles no Anna Devin gothan no councelor at yes Lyn gesmer is a reluctant yes councelor hanaki no the motion passes with a vote of 10 in favor and three opposed we're moving on to the next motion having been reviewed by the finance committee in a report dated June 17th 2024 been published on the town bulletin board for a minimum of 10 days on June 7th 20124 and the council having held a public forum on June 17th 2024 2024 in accordance with Charter section 5.6 to remove the north south orientation restriction on Council order FY 23-05 C which appropriated $900,000 in free cash toward the project is there a second Shane second and now I want to ask what is the vote Quantum um an appropriation of free cash is just a majority vote it's not it's not a borrowing so it's not a two-thirds vote it's a majority vote okay thank you I'm sorry the motion's been made and seconded are there questions Alicia um yes I just have a question about that determination so even though this isn't exactly to borrow it's just to move the restrictions would it still be the same numbers it because it's not they're not technically it right and I I'm trying to read are you asking about the vote Quantum or are you asking about the figure the in this case the town the clerk of the Town Council has said that the vote was not for borrowing and it was only a majority okay thank you okay a majority of counselors present so right now that's the full councel there are 13 of us present so it's seven that's right okay all right we begin the vote in this case with councelor Lord hi pamone yes councelor Ryan hi Kathy Shane yes Andy Steinberg yes Jennifer to yes councelor Walker yes yes Patty Angeles honor Devin gothier no councelor ate I Lyn grimer is an i councelor hanii no the motion passes I'm sorry I didn't oh I'm sorry Bob hegner yes thank you I my check mark was too big um Chang my vote to and no yes okay councelor d'angeles has asked to change her vote to Nay uh the motion passes 10 in favor three opposed and we will go on to the final one and that is would you put the motion on this screen please it it is thank you having been reviewed by the finance committee in a report dated June 17th 2024 been published on the town bulletin board for a minimum of 10 days on June 7th 2024 in the council having held adoption have been helded a public form on June 17th in accordance with Charter section 5.6 to not adopt approval appropriation and transfer order FY 24-3 B an order approving the towns of ammer fre gift to the amest re pelum Regional High School District of $756,000 north south option through CPA funding through the four towns is there a second Ryan second okay are there questions this one is a no so if you don't Kathy go ahead that's just what I was going to say if you say yes to this it means don't use free cash for this right it's an oddly worded one but it means go somewhere else for the money right I.E CPA and Bob yeah I just wanted to remind people that there was two reasons why we sorry there were two reasons why uh just remind everyone there were two reasons why we voted this way um to to not adopt approval and one is that if we use free cash we can't use CPA funding to back to backfill it and secondly we really felt strongly that this should be a shared cost among the towns not something that ammer paid for itself thank you Bob are there any other comments or questions Andy yeah there was one additional reason that I had for not wanting to use free cash and that is that while we did do it once before I don't think it's a good practice and because in the end what we have for free cash um if we don't use it for other purposes um it always goes into the capital stabilization fund and given our need for so many things in capital um not the least of which of course are roads and sidewalks but I'm going to mention one other which is fire station and the reason I mentioned fire station is that the last time we had a financial projection from our former Finance director Shan Mangano about um the options for moving forward with other projects um one of his strong suggestions was to use um a large or all um uh Capital stabilization to fund the fire station so we could get forward moved forward with that project without having to borrow any money and then um use it for the other for other projects um for those reasons I was uh very uncomfortable with the proposal to take it U from free cash and then uh of course when I uh heard from chair M Sam McLoud from CPA committee um then that gave me additional feeling that this was wrong and so I encouraged the yes vote to say no don't use the those funds councelor hanii just I mentioned it briefly in a prior discussion um on a prior motion but the other item is our financial guidelines also strongly encourage all Town departments and I know the regional school isn't technically a town of ammer department but it's a you know still comes to us but we encourage all of our town departments to apply to CPA for any project that is CPA eligible first so that using those funds for those projects to free up other revenues for projects that are not CPA eligible and so this this financial order actually goes against that that sort of guideline that we have too um and so I just want to remind our school committee members go to CPA and phase first first yes phase go out to your CPA and also your donors okay uh we're going to begin the vote with pamaron yes Kathy Shane I mean councelor Ryan thank you I'm sorry councel Ryan B right yes Kathy Shane yes Andy Steinberg yes Jennifer to yes Council Walker yes paty Angeles hi Anna Devin goth I councelor yes Lyn gmer and I councelor hanii I Bob hegner yes councelor Lord I it's unanimous okay we are going to take a much needed break uh we will be back at [Music] 9 hate to do that we'll be back at 920 please turn your mics off and also your video off Lynn would you mind saying what agenda item we're g to come back with would you please say which agenda item we're going to begin with when we come back the water and sewer updates thank you e e e notice she didn't notice he stand take there's B e I have to say the last one I wasn't sure we need to start reassembling e e e well you return Please put put your video back on as you return Please put your video back on so Guilford moing is with us and although we have voted the gauge water supply there are a few quick updates that we're going to have on water and sewer and please note we are not voting Water and Sewer rates until um July 15 and we have checked to make sure that that still allows proper billing I'm also going to um amend the agenda for tonight by postponing until next week uh the appointment of the charter Review Committee this will allow the chair to write a memo and we're going to postpone I I think that's all work postponing we'll see okay so uh Guilford please proceed hi uh Amy rzeki is actually going to get these updates so if you can let her in the I'm here okay hi Amy hi I must have just been on a page two of the screen um for those of you guys that are newer counselors I think I don't I haven't had a chance to present in front of a couple of you guys so um I'm Amy rzeki and I'm the assistant superintendent of Public Works um and uh I'm I'm I'm hopefully gonna go through this quickly um but just a couple of updates on some um water specific items that um just I need I need you guys as town to be aware of um so the first one is water use restrictions which um those of you guys that were on the Town Council last year um recall um that we've had a lot of conversation about the fact that um we were going to need to start enacting water use restrictions so um just a little bit of a history um we are allowed to provide water as a public water supplier based on the fact that we have both a registration with the State and a permit which I get sounds confusing but it basically means the state has two different ways that they can put governances on us or put restrictions on how we provide water um currently we just got our water registration so one aspect of how we're allowed to get water we just got that renewed in 2023 um and that is what has now placed the fact that we need to do water uh water restrictions um for outdoor use during times of drought um the permit um is going to be updated I was on a meeting earlier today it's probably going to be updated in about the timeline of 2026 or 2027 at that time the conditions of when we say hey people have to start restricting their outdoor usage that might change so understand that in a few years this might change but for now I'm just going to go over what our water registration is requiring us to do um during the summer for um restrictions sotha if you can go to the next page uh you skipped one go back I think there we go um so our registration we're covered under 310 CMR 36 for in terms of our registration and the restrictions this is the broad Strokes of it but they're basic saying that when the state so when the Secretary of the State declares different levels of drought we are going to have to react by doing different levels of water use restrictions in the town um and so during a level one a mild drought uh we're just going to have to do that we're going to have to say that people are only allowed to water their lawns or do any non-essential watering one day a week and outside of the hours of 9 to5 so we'll have to designate one day a week that that is the watering day I guess um during a level two so a significant drought if they declare that for our region um then all non-essential water uses are banned there's a couple of limitations a couple of carves carve outs that I'll talk about and then level three which is a critical drought or level four um all non-essential water uses are banned and there's no limitation like there's no little carve outs on that it's just none of it's allowed um so again this is going to be applied when the secretary makes a declaration and they're going to be lifted when the secretary lifts the Declaration for our region um and we're required to comply with this immediately which is why I'm talking to you guys now because this is something we're going to have to follow this summer um there are additional components to this in terms of enforcement and documenting enforcement um that we have to have fully in place by April of 2025 and so that's what we're going to be kind of working through this summer uh Athen if you can go to the next slide so just in terms of what is an essential outdoor water use and a non-essential outdoor water use um I guess I'm stealing something from that last order where I'm saying the nonessential uses are anything that aren't the things below kind of the double negative um the things below or the things that are listed here are basically the what the state considers an essential outdoor water use so it's uh if it's watering for health or safety reasons so that means cooling shelter such as the the splash pad that we have in town pools that we have in town um if we' put up a cooling shelter uh say later this week with all the heat um that would be a health or safety reason um production of food so you know um Gardens or you know large Farms uh livestock um they do have a carve out for core functions of the business and they're saying that's for plant nurseries golf courses um wedding venues um you'll see that there's limitations with that so it's not that a golf course can just say well I'm a golf course I can do whatever there there are still some limitations but they have a little more freedom than um somebody watering their lawn um and then there's also irrigation of public parks ation of shade trees and um publicly funded shade trees so the town shade trees um and establishing a new lawn if you've just like finishing construction so a lot of these there are kind of some some limitations but this is the broad Strokes of um what the state thinks are essential water usage that are um outside of those level one drought one day a week level two drought no no outdoor watering um next slide Athena um and then I just want to kind of again go back to a year ago if folks recall um when we enacted the water use regulations um in section 1. D um we put we knew that this was coming and so we put in language to cover this and so this is a language that we put in that basically said we have the right to restrict water use during dry seasons or during other emergencies and at times this may be due to mandatory compliance because of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and that that's essentially what I'm talking about here is the state is requiring us under certain circumstances to follow their prescribed plan um and then we do have language about um it may include fines and um after proper notice we can shut off water if people have violated it um that second part the reason that I have that a little further down that's the portion that um we're going to spend I think this summer and the rest of this year trying to figure out how we can even put systems in place to be in a place that we could you know enforce document fine any of that so at least in terms of this year um we don't we don't fully know how we're going to um how we're going to do the second part of that but at least in terms of having restrictions getting the language out there um and following that that part of it is what we're going to do this year so that was my quick water use restrictions I don't know Lynn if you want me to go through all of my topics or do you want me to pause on this and take questions Paul you have your hand up yeah I just want to mention uh three things one this all the groundwork that you did a couple years ago especially Anna um has said and uh Amy was ahead of the curve on this so that's this sets the base so when this came in we were ready to act on it the second this is you know the water use restrictions are coming from someplace else it's not it may be perfectly green and verdant here but it's it it doesn't matter where the decision is made someplace else and third the reason we want you to hear this in a public meeting is because this impacts everybody it's some it's a type of thing that rils people up if they can't water their their their Gardens or their grass and you will hear about it when and we're not even in the enforcement stage this year but we we're going to be required to be there so that's why it was important enough to bring to your attention tonight okay thank you um Amy please proceed okay oh I'm sorry Mandy Joe you have your hand up I'm sorry question yeah I I think you explained it well but I believe in past years the council's never done it but the select board as water Commissioners used to put in the restrictions and so this supersedes that I believe that was the biggest change that we made in the yeah when we updated the the regulations a couple years ago um was this that switch that the council approved when we updated I'm not questioning it I'm just like confirming it because people used to be like well the the select board did it andc it confirming that that was what um that was the change that was made and Anna you had your hand up yeah Amy can you go back to the um first off thank you for this this was very thorough and helpful can you go back to the slide that had golf courses on it yeah thank you this is a curiosity question I'm sorry I I know people love when I have curiosity questions at 9:30 at night um so okay so the part okay health and safety production of food livestock public parks um that's the one that I was I was stuck on so I know that limitations apply sure does public parks also include athletic fields say out of school I'm gonna assume yes but I can I'm I'm I have it right here so okay I can look it up myself to I was trying but I figured you might be faster I think that's what I was trying to figure out was as we think about the recreational Fields it says Public public parks public recreational Fields so yes thank you so much yes and just to address Mandy Joe's question or not I guess comment um part of the reason that we took the town the town Council out out of this decision-making process is just because at times when the state says Hey Connecticut Connecticut River Valley you guys are in a level one drought we have to be reactionary as of when they did that and so there wasn't necessarily going to be the time to have you guys um confirm that and and so we that's that's why I was written that way thank you um continue on please okay so next uh we're g to talk yeah we've talked about this is the sum my summer of 2016 it was the Summer where we the first time that in my time here that we declared a drought we had all that fun and then the other fun was that we tested for lead and copper at all the El El schools and got to talk our way through leaden copper rule um so that's this is that's the other part of what I'm talking about today um so um I guess if you can go to the next slide Athena um so this is more an update for you guys but this is a a pretty big project and a pretty big Federal requirement that we're under right now is um part of the Le and copper rule this is in the aftermath of Flint Michigan and everything that happened um the federal requirement or the the Federal Federal uh the EPA um did some revisions to the lead and copper Rule and a big component of that is that they're requiring us to do an inventory of water service lines throughout our system and so we're having to systematically identify the components of every single water s uh water line in our entire water system um the water service lines uh it's about 10,000 if anyone was curious so we're having to systematically confirm 10,000 uh service lines it's great um and one of the changes from what we initially thought was going to apply is that um the EPA is requiring us to do an inventory regardless of who owns the service line and so even depend it it didn't even matter if the town owns it or if the property owner owns it or anything we have to be submitting to them information on the entirety of the service line from where it leaves the water main to where it goes into goes through concrete into basement um and this is due in October 2024 so this has been a major project that we've kind of been picking away at for a while and now we're moving full steam ahead um this summer so if you can do the next slide um and the information that they're looking for particularly um they need the material type um so it can be copper plastic galvanized lead it could be a whole long list um they want to know the size the installation date and they also want to know the building type um I think they're going to look a lot more closely at you know houses you know single family multif family houses and also school and Child Care Centers and maybe not be as concerned about service lines in places that are non-residential installations um and then there's some additional parameters but these are kind of the big things that we have to identify for all of these 10,000 service lines if you can go to the next slide so how we are tackling this um we're reviewing all of the documents that we have which is Water Service cards um anybody who has a water line to their house um I maybe I should say 90% of the people that have water lines to their house there's a little index card that exists that at least has a sketch of where we can find um the shut off outside and where it attaches to the water main but on a lot of them it does also have what the material is what the size is when it was installed and some um frankly some really humorous notes as well on uh some of the history of them um but we're looking at that we're also looking at construction plans and permits um and then for the colleges you know some of these big numbers come from the fact that we also have to do this for say every single building on UMass campus where it leaves the large water main to where it goes through the concrete in the foundation on that um on every single building on UMass campus so we're working closely with um Hampshire College ammer college and UMass to um complete the inventory on their campuses the hard part is there's often details missing and so part of why I'm coming to you guys is that we're going to be needing all of our residents to be uh contributing to this solution so if you can go to the next slide please um where where we're going to need support over the next month month we're going to be setting out um a mailer to folks um to anyone who has a property in ammer that gets Town water um and there's going to be this quick five minute survey where it's going to direct you to go into your basement find your waterline it tells you how to find your water meter and then it runs you through a couple of quick tests that you can identify the material and the size and you can click a photo and then send it off to us um the more people that do this the more we can fill in those blanks um the way the EPA is seeing it anytime you have a blank if things are uncon confirmed they're going to always assume the worst case scenario so we want to fill in as many blanks as possible so that ultimately when you know kind of phase two of this after we submit our inventory we're going to have to go back and start filling in those gaps you know identifying the things that were unknown um I prefer to be able to be focusing on the places that really do have problems and that are most likely having LED and so as many of these as many residents as possible that can complete this survey and send us information that's going to be really valuable for us to hone in on the areas that that really need us to be um you know doing the next step so um yeah and then I I just put a note in here we understand that in the town of Amis there's often times the property owner is not the same as the person living in the house and so there will be a notification that goes to the property owner if they're not living in the house to let them know what's going on so that they can encourage Who members in the house to complete this survey and get us the information um a if you can go to the next slide um this is just a quick snapshot um but I I wanted to show more just to show like we're not hanging you guys out to dry and expecting everyone to be an expert in what a water line looks like and so this is you know step two there's three steps in this one find the meter two determine the material and three um determine the size so this is you know the hardest part is determining the material and we step you through it um with a quick does a magnet stick to it or not um what color is it and can I scratch it with the key um using you know those three things you can pretty easily determine what the material is so um we're trying to make this as easy as possible so that nobody has to be an expert but everyone can be super helpful and useful in this process um I think I have one more slide Athena yes no okay no that's it on the service line inventory so I don't know if anyone has any questions on this quick update Kathy I don't really have a question although it's a clearly a mammoth task so I one comment it might be is I don't imagine the federal government is helping you pay for all of this um requiring it but the friendlier I think you're already doing that with this the friendlier this can be when it comes into somebody's house the better and um if you can post these we can get this out as a note to people to anticipate these coming and that this isn't an invasion of your property and if they don't do this you would have to go into their house is that correct yeah if it's if it's still an unknown and it's you know of certain time periods that we suspect it might be led then that's going to be the follow-up is we're going to have to confirm so we're either going to have to go into their basement or if that's not allowed then we may have to dig up their front lawn to be able to physically see a service line which I can't imagine anyone wants um so yeah Kathy in terms of getting the word out um honestly I would have just put a link in here but I've been advised that um at least when it comes to these public forums that anyone can access um because of cyber security we don't want to do that and get a lot of false information but I'm happy to share the link with Town counselors if you want to get it out to your um the people within your districts to to spread the word and encourage them to do it um we're just we're trying to kind of balance making sure that we're not that that we're doing this in the the Cyber secure way and not inviting a lot of um kind of bought answers if that makes sense thank you Bob um I just want to note that there is this Federal paperwork reduction act which does limit the ability of anybody to file to do a survey so make sure you're not violating that act um secondly are you going to have a helpline for people to call because be people who just can't manage to do this on their own yes um so with with all of this people can call the public works department um I yeah but I would just add one other thing that is there's a large number of vacant houses in the summer in ammer because they're rentals and nobody's home that's one question but the other question is uh District District 2 has a probably most of the people in town who are not on the public water system and yet they may have in their own plans because some of these are very old houses um some of these more less desirable pipes and so forth is there any attempt to inventory that so this one is just um this Federal Regulation is on us as a water supp lier to understand the the people that we serve um so it's not necessarily covered by that but I mean that's a that's a great Point um we've seen with stuff like posos that a lot of times after they you know approach the water regul um water suppliers to do something they often then follow up with how they can start to do the same thing for private well owners um so I wouldn't be surprised if something like that followed up but it might also be a good conversation to have with the the Board of Health if they you know want to partner on um something like that to to look at the safety of that as well my only other comment is I just see cha-ching chaing this is an expensive project yes wow George so we have a sizable elder population and uh some of them at least are homeowners I'm just wondering if you um will be working with the senior center and if that you see that as a concern um so you this will come to some folks and they simply won't be physically able perhaps to do this or they might have need help so just wondered about that right no I appreciate that yeah we're um we're gonna be we're talking about this with you know people throughout the town so we can find a way to make this be as effective as possible so thank you thank you all right let's move on to what oh George you still have your hand up I think it's you're done okay water meters two seconds on this this is more my PSA is just while I'm here talking to you guys um as you guys know we've been um working on updating um or replacing all water meters um that um we started this in 2014 um and so basically this is part of it's going to be part of the cool thing of the service line inventory as people are sending us photos of their meter and of their water service line we're going to be able to tell if they have an old sty which is like the one on the left or if they have a newer style which is the one on the right um the difference is if you're not someone who likes to play the game of what's different between the two photos um it's really that gray box that's attached to the leand side of the meter um that's that's the difference and that's that allows us to um read The Meters remotely from the exterior without you having to have something installed to the outside of your house that gets torn off when you do the siding or um stuff like that so um if you're unsure about your proper property um I just encourage folks to call the DPW office to determine if you need an up um a replacement or not um and to schedule an appointment so that's all I have on that and I'll take any other questions or I'll let you move on we're holding thank you very much Amy and um Good Luck thank you I appreciate you guys giving me a couple of minutes I know you have a very packed schedule but thank you very much it's clearly um we probably should record this section of the meeting and put it out um all right uh we the next two items also involve uh DPW so we're going to go with them and that is uh a motion as recommended by Town services and Outreach committee to adopt Massachusetts General Law chapter 90 paragraph 17 C which will reduce the statutory speed limit from 30 mph to 25 mph for roads in thickly settled or business districts without other posted speed limits is there a second second deangeles um this was an item discussed and comes to us from TSO so Andy I'm going to go to TSO yes thank you um I think that the report I wrote it so that it would be pretty clear explanation but you know because the whole system of U establishing speed limits is one of the least understood and more complex processes and I tried to um do some explanation with the committee report and the attachments to it but basically um very simple piece is that uh for current speed limits that are not um marked otherwise um there's a presumption that um in most areas of town it's a 30 mph speed limit in a lot of streets uh res both residential that are fairly uh tightly packed U reasonably tightly packed as far as frequency of housing in business areas um it are on that 30 m an hour there is what the statute this option provides is the reduction of that um by five miles an hour and um if we as a committee having um received fair amount of uh input from various U sources U felt that the appropriate thing is to do a number of neighboring communities including Northampton have done which is changed that default from 30 to 25 and that U uh we U therefore voted uh to make that proposal uh to recommend that to the council um otherwise I think that it would be best to just respond to questions Kathy um I am totally in favor of this so I just have a question if there is a posted speed limit and it doesn't make sense you know um and one example is we have an intersection North amoris that if you turn one way it's says 30 another way it says 35 a third way it says 25 all from a short distance from where you're standing um so and they are posted so this would not apply to that correct we would have to then say to whomever came up with those and then so that's the question and then secondly this definition of um thickly settled versus somewhat thickly settled and 30 and 40 again um if there's been development along the road where um more a complex is coming in at what point is it more like a thickly settled as opposed to not quite as thickly settled um and I I have specific roads in mind so so it's this is only where it's not posted correct to get a change in posting we have to do something at the state level and do we have to do it on non-state roads and then differently on state roads because we have a state road in North Amis um Route 63 is state so I know anything that happens there we have to go to them Gilford I'm going to call on you because you're shaking your head I'm agreeing um yes if we have a road that's posted they don't agree we have to go through the long process of getting the doing a traffic study and proposing a new a new regulation for those roads that's how you do it if it's a Town Road it's only a townway town process but still has to go to the state if it's a state road like 63 it's a town and state process and then it goes to be approved okay Mandy Joe councelor hanii I'm sorry yeah um a couple of questions and um I apologize to the council I've been seeking a map of speed limits from Andy and then I realized way back in 2020 I might have created one for um CRC when this was referred to CRC and so I've been trying to get through Paul whether the one that's on my computer is accurate to try and figure out what roads were here so I might refer to that map with some of my questions but um or with some of my comments but um the TSO report seems to have a conflict so I'm going to also try and confirm some of what um Kathy just said in one section it says voting this would reduce the statutory speed limit from 30 m hour to 25 milph on any and all or all town-owned roadways within a thickly settled or business district that is not governed by regulatory speed limits so I think what Kathy said was is it understanding that if it's got a speed limit sign posted this this vote has no effect on the road is what that statement says um but then it also said like three sentences later state-owned roadways and any roads that are presently governed by a regulatory speed limit so non-post roads um that it would not apply to state-owned roads or any road that is presently governed by a regulatory speed limit limit generally a posted speed limit other than 30 mph will not be affected by adopting this section which to me when I read implies that if it is posted as 30 miles per hour this would apply and that would directly conflict with the statement before that says if there's any posting it doesn't apply so I guess I'm trying to figure out whether if a road is posted as 30 like actually posted as 30 and we vote this does that automatically go down to 25 because the statement made in the TSO report seems to imply that it might even though other statements said it wouldn't and then once that's answered can I ask some my other questions Andy yeah now this was very difficult to write um in the word generally has an ambiguity to it and uh the the problem that um exists is that if a road is posted at 30 miles an hour was it posted at 30 m an hour because the default speed limit of applies to that road or had we gone through a process and gotten permission to post it as a 30m an hour and that isn't entirely clear um it's my understanding that we may actually even have to go back to U have have the town engineer go back to the files to see if there's any um action that was taken on the road that is is exceptional that those are paper files and require some searching for each one so um it is a little bit of an ambiguity on that one piece is if it's posted as 30 why is it posted as 30 um thank you uh pamon it it's now getting clear as mud yeah um my question which we're also trying to bat around is is if we do an umbrella 25 M hour speed limit do we have any control over it sounds like not um posting certain areas at different speeds than 25 it sounds like a whole lot of work what are the what are the overall benefits of um it sounds like a really good idea because I'd like to see 25 mes an hour speed limits in more areas but what are we what do we actually accomplish Mandy Joe so so my next questions um Beyond trying to that that question was trying to go to I'm trying to figure out exactly what roads this would affect um because I don't like voting on something when I don't know what would act what we're actually voting on um and so the next question I have is thickly settled is a specific definition of a quarter mile long section of road so I'm going to give a couple of examples Station Road um flat Hills Road and uh Pulpit Hill Road if we vote this is it the entire Road or is it only the portion that might equate to the thickly settled section since Station Road has a large section that would not meet the thickly settled definition by any definition is it all of it or is it only the thickly settled sections of this and then how does a driver determine at what point without sign postings that that speed limit changes from a default of 40 potentially to a default of 25 and then my next question is more for probably Chief Ting and the Police Department than Gilford um are there any funds to enforce a new definite a new speed limit down at 25 or are we basically um doing this to feel good because just changing a number doesn't change drivers actions unless there's some other change to either enforcement or the look of the road so obviously guilford's not going to answer the second question but let's go for the first question I'll do the second one too but the first one is um what's generally is being considered by most communities is when they for when they put this in place is that if there's not a speed limit sign then it's the default of 25 and some communities are actually putting up um end the speed zone signs to end the speed zone which we could do that to tell people you know in in40 in 40 m hour and then anything after that would be um the default but it is kind of vague and what you get out of doing this is you get the basic saying of is you got to slow down when you're in this community is 25 there is another option in this law which allows you to do it for individual streets and when you do it for individual streets you actually then put the sign up on the street that says thickly settled 25 mph so then you're being more def definitive on what you're actually calling the 25 um but most communities have taken the broad brush approach and even Mass do is encouraging people to take the broad brush brush approach and saying that if it's not posted something else it's 25 and then it's falling to the police department which I won't answer that second part okay uh George so enforcement obviously is is a crucial element just as we all know just passing this is not going to really have that much impact um but I think it sends an important message and it's a message that I think it's important that we send um I hope it's also the first in a series of things we'll do over the next few years that will address the issue of speeding traffic calming pedestrian safety Etc um some of these things have already come before TSO I'm hoping that it's something TSO will continue pursue um but in a sense it is I don't know if about feel good I guess obviously we will feel good if we do it um but it's I think also sending a message and I think that message is one that it's important um postco we're seeing speeding as a recurring issue um we do need more enforcement um we do need in certain places perhaps things done to the road to discourage speeding um but I think this is a first step so I encourage us to do it um with the hope that many other are going to follow in the future Kathy I yeah just two comments um Gil for when you said what other towns have done I've seen on the lever on plum trees did they says lever's a 25 M hour speed and Mandy that would be a good example of a road that's wouldn't be called th thickly settle they just said this is what we've done and when uh a bunch of us succeeded in lowering the speed limit when you come into Amis on Route 63 which is the state road we petitioned the state they lowered it not as low as we wanted but to 45 with a blinking light that tells you your speed people slow down they used to go 60 now they go 50 which is better than 60 I mean they did they did slow down you can hear the brakes get hit because they hit that um so it I just want to encourage people if you're on a stay road is possible to get it changed so we're going to try again Andy yeah I I think that what we were recognizing at TSO was that um it would have an educational effect and it would also enable Police Department if they had the resources to patrol a street that they're concerned about and to apply the uh and enforce the 25 M hour limit and uh so C you know there's a benefit to giving the police department that option when it has the resources and the priority to do so and I think that uh speaking from the finance committee role that I play for a second um we do have to recognize that the police department does have its limits during the hearing process when we were doing hearings on the budget uh one of the questions that was asked of Chief Ting was about the size of the department and uh basically uh you know his comment was that if there were more officers that there are a lot of things that the police department could do that it's unable to do with the size of the force that it has now and one of them was was uh traffic and uh that um it's not that he said that they don't do traffic but they were able to do more regular traffic and Community placing was another thing that he talked about at that response but I think that the TSO feeling was is that um lowering the speed limit is something we need to do for safety for Road users and Road users are not just people in in vehicles but also include bicyclists and pedestrians including some of the uh uh fifth graders who came and testified before us about why they need to have a safe route to school for bicycling thank you Anna so uh Guilford please always correct me if I'm wrong so counting on you to to explain why I'm wrong if I am wrong but but I don't see any harm in this but I do think to kind of echo what other folks have said it's important to be realistic about the scale of change that this actually is um relative to how amazing it sounds to say we're lowering speed limits uh I I think I just I want to be realistic about the actual impact and scope of this because I think the other issue that we have is the roads that uh I think it was I don't remember whose point it was but the roads have shifted right the number of people that have changed on these roads since the speed limits have have been established I think that that's something I would love to see TSO also and I know that you'll have plenty on your plate but I think that seems like the sister move to this right the next move is to say how do you get a road re how do you reclassify a road to reestablish or I know that you know the the state has the process of how to go about changing the full speed limit but in order to reclassify some our streets that I'd argue I I agree with was it Jennifer or Kathy sorry whoever made the point of of population shifting um I agree that we need to make sure we're able to reclassify areas as thickly settled or not but when I look at that map um not Mandy's map but the there's an MIT map of speed limits through town and you know this will really impact hypothetically would impact some of the roads slightly adjacent to downtown hypothetically I can't overlay this with our um zoning map which is I think what Mandy might be trying to do but um The Realistic impact of this is is relatively small compared to the problem we have and so well I think this is a good step or at least I don't see a downside to this um so why not I think that there's more if we actually want to get at the the issues that we're having with speeding throughout the town there any other comments or questions going to move to a vote I believe we're we're starting with councelor Ryan great okay go hi Kathy Shing yes Andy Steinberg yes Jennifer to yes councelor Walker yes Pat Angeles hi Anna delin goth hi uh councelor r i Lyn grimer is and I made councelor hanak no uh Bob hegner yes councelor Lord I motion passes 12 cam Ro cam Ro yes I'm sorry who did I skip Pam Rooney I'm sorry Pam yes thank you motion passes 12 in favor one opposed uh the set next uh motion is as recommended by the town services and Outreach committee to adopt a safety zone in accordance with Master law uh chapter 90 paragraph 18b for the portion of Henry Street between Market Hill Road and Pine Street is there a second second second oh my God after all these years uh are there any questions or comments Mandy Joe um a couple the the first question is has the current 25 M hour infor uh speed limit that is posted now been enforced um the engineering study said enforcement is one of the more crucial aspects of managing speeds um and what the second question is if we change it to 20 is there a plan to differently enforce it more enforce it more frequently enforce it like will we change our enforcement methods to actually start enforcing um uh the next question for TSO um the engineering study said that traffic calming measures like speed cushions or raised midblock Crossings would be applicable for this street um and that those are most effective at slowing drivers and the engineering study said that the location could be eligible for high visibility walk crosswalks and Associated signage so did TSO talk about recommending any of that especially since the engineering study indicated that um without enforcement and this street that is relatively straight um and and that has no visual instructions generally encourage drivers to drive faster regardless of what the posted speed limit is so it doesn't it was their discussion about whether a posted speed limit change from 25 to 20 would actually make a difference without any other changes to the roads and then finally the engineering study along with the actual statute indicates that a safety zone should be a full quarter mile or more um but the motion that was just put on the table is less than a quarter mile according to the engineering study the engineering study had said you can go an extra 3 ft south of Pine Street to get to the full quarter mile that safety zones under the statute are recommended is there a reason that the motion does not include the full quarter mile did TSO not recommend the full quarter mile is it legal to do it without a full quarter mile can we choose less than a full quarter mile I know it's a lot of questions Guilford I'm going to leave you to answer the questions that you can which don't deal with enforcement okay so the recommendation I understood was for the full quarter mile so I guess we if you just want to if you can edit the motion when you make it um so that should be what it is um there was a lot of discussion about traffic calming we brought that up quite a bit um TSO approved this as being a a safety zone so this this little area will go on into our design this fall and hopefully in the spring or sometime by the summer we'll have worked out what the traffic calming will we would want to see um we also the report says to move the parking lot to the daycare side of the property we propos that a couple times and so those are things that we will work out over the fall and winter and hopefully have a plan sometime next spring or summer for probably implementation if we can um so that was discussed so can I just ask with regard to the amending the motion is it would it be 300 feet south of Pine Street yes okay thank you 350 according 350 hold I didn't remember the number thank you no I you got I got to find it in the engineering study yeah 300 ft 300 according to page three of the engineering study okay so I'm U I made the motion I'm going to now ask just ask for a friendly Amendment which after the word and it would say and 300 feet south of Pine Street is and somebody seconded is that acceptable thank you okay uh I don't know that we have answers for the rest of your questions Mandy Joe Kathy I I just want to emphasize the other question Mandy asked because the original request was for a raised platform or speed hump something like