great good evening everyone welcome to the May 14th 2024 Town Council uh meeting I would ask that we stand at this time for the Pledge of Allegiance Al to unit States of America and justice for all you did a good job the double tonight at this time I would ask that uh we take a a moment of silence to reflect on everything happening uh not only in our country but in the world as a whole thank you um I have to announce that this meeting is being uh audio and video recorded by ELCA and I have to ask if anyone in the audience is recording the meeting and if so if You' state your name for the record hearing none um public comments Genie anyone signed up for public comments no one has no Don do you see any anyone on nope okay Council comments counselors anything interesting any comments not yet not yet so a couple comments from the chair um one we know um we have a meeting on May 28th correct jeie yes and that will we're trying to hold that as much as possible to just our budget hearing night um that's where we will hold a public hearing and we will discuss uh the proposed budget along with the capital plan and possibly approve it at that time um the other thing I wanted to mention is gardeners at the brown farm have all their plants in most of them uh we were able to get it Roa tilled early for them so that they got a almost two week ahead of time head start on it um if you uh remember that's one of the gardens up there is all the vegetables are donated here to the senior center um last year was an off year with all the rain this year they're hoping for a lot more fruit trees that were donated or funded through the CPC funding have all come in I just have to plant them so I am hopeful to be up there this weekend to get all our fruit trees planted and I was able to purchase some blueberry bushes to also go in up there so so hopefully at the next meeting I will be saying hey guess what all our fruit is in thank you Ralph um with that town manager report it's two pages well you got a public hearing at 6:15 I gotta get you there take your time yeah good evening good evening everybody um so we'll start uh with the budget I guess Kim and I have been meeting with the financial oversight committee uh every Friday uh basically since our last meeting with the exception of Thursday last week uh uh the meetings have actually been very productive and and beneficial not only uh obviously for the oversight committee to sort of go through the whole budget but there comments to us uh on how it's presented um and some of our our thought process and and just comments on how we can sort of make this a little easier for everybody to digest and understand as we move forward here next year and and years Beyond um so uh we're we're we still have some work to do but we're we're well on our way and uh things have been going great um Quin uh Ryan quinby and I have been meeting with uh the team at Westfield Gas and Electric uh almost every week as well they're they're fieldwork is in the QA QC process right now um and we're expecting a finalized designed uh end of the month beginning of next month so that's moving along swiftly um the center Town District steering committee had another public event uh May 8th um uh to Garner interest and public comment for the center Town District uh the event was held at Graham Central Station and was well attended despite the freak thunderstorm that we got about 15 minutes before started um so the next engagement is uh Monday May 20th uh here at the COA at 6 PM um to uh sort of have more of a workshop feel to GA gather more input from and ideas and opinions from our residents uh you know we're we're trying to trying to craft the district um for for all um and the only way we can do that uh is to really have constructive conversations with uh the the members of our community so if you have time come out Monday May 20th at 6 um we'd like to have a constructive conversation about where where where people want to see this go um we are uh pleased to announce our newest uh Team Member uh Team Member Rob ailla uh he's been hired as the the new planning director for the town of Ean meow uh we are excited uh to have him uh join us uh he comes to us from town of am Amherst where he's the town well a town planner um his first day is May 20th also so we'll throw him right into the public forum for Center Town District hopefully he shows up on the 21st um uh yeah if you're in town hall uh stop by the planning department and say hello and welcome him uh the new high school project remains on schedule uh as we move through design development um msba has reviewed that submitt and comments have been addressed uh we cleared two uh hurdles in the process um the notice of intent was approved by the Conservation Commission on April 24th and site plan approval was granted by planning board on May 7th uh so we anticipate uh no no stalls in terms of Permitting and uh you know allowing Fontaine to be on site when they want to be on site so we can stay on schedule uh so that's going to keep us right around uh I know they when the bell rings on on the last day of school they'll probably be in the parking lot waiting for everybody to leave um you saw met Public Public Library is working on their fiveyear strategic plan um the plan will set the the mission and vision of future goals for the public library um we had a uh informational uh session uh I guess it was three Saturdays ago um at the library uh members of the public uh Chief was there a lot of lot of department members were there uh Town Town employees I mean um so thanks to our uh Library staff and our director Katie um they really do work hard on making our library a fantastic place to be uh and they continue to do so um the Council on agent kicked off its three-year rolling strategic plan there's a lot of strategic action going on in town uh by sharing this year's goals with the community through an interactive trivia game on April 24th that was fun um the plan is a result of input from community members board members Town employees and volunteers um as you know here at COA we have plenty of volunteers um actually on that same day we received our new Ada van uh that was the result of a budget earmark from the state as well as supplemental funding from the Town Council so we are all very thankful for that that's outside in the parking lot um legislators will be here on May 20th I guess May 20th is gonna be a big day yes uh for photo and check presentation so please be here if you can um I'm also pleased to announce that the town of Esa Meadow has been awarded $ 22,721 process has been difficult for surrounding communities to get their hands on this money that was sort of earmarked for them uh the um gaming commission changed the process into more of a block Grant application and obviously uh We've sort of reaped the benefits this year by uh having a a very uh competitive uh application um the money will be spent on projects and planning Public Safety public works and it uh special thanks to Rebecca who uh who ushered in the application process uh with input and project ideas from Chief Morisette Chief Williams Ryan Quimby Bruce fenny and Aaron cobbler um whose input and ideas made this obviously a huge success for us so we're excited about that um upcoming events uh Center Town steering uh District steering committee meeting on May 20th at COA at 6 um there's a the American Legion Memorial Day ceremony May 27th at the high school at 11:00 a.m. uh coffee with the town manager June 5th here uh at 10:30 and there is also a uh Community preservation workshop on June 5th here at 6 PM um so they'll have a whole presentation on uh Community preservation projects funding uh sort of the whole thing to kind of get everybody up to speed on on where things are all things Community preservation um and that's all I got unless anybody's got any questions counselors any questions we get through oh man Community preservation Workshop um will Stuart sagor be he will be he's actually uh putting on the presentation um and I I apologize members from Springfield ham uh Ean Meadow maybe mson Long Meadow Community yeah surrounding everyone's been invited to kind of um sort of relay out how things work at Community preservation uh projects that are approve you know uh that are appropriate for this funding and projects that AR aren't appropriate for this funding um so they expect a big crowd and uh I think it's one of those things that there's been a lot of gray area they sort of changed a lot of their chart from from 2012 till now and um I think well you know a lot of these things go on precedence right and if the rules change in the middle there precedence gets thrown out the window um so there's I'm sure there'll be a very large Q&A um and again like I said there's a lot there'll be representatives from a lot of communities here so hopefully we can get answers on a lot of questions that we still have to sort of point this in the right direction to to quite frankly keep this program alive because um you know there's more and more um State funding that is dwindling um there's just more buckets that all the money has to go in and CPC is one of them CPA is one of them that um has sort of seen the contribution um sort of decrease as time goes on here so um my only other question is under the 29 $92,000 yep that's out of the mitigation fund um is that something in the future it has to come in front of the council for us to accept it like a grant or yeah okay we will have to accept those funds sure yeah it's awesome Yep that is a a nice um surprise actually yeah we uh we there was a lot of a lot of work went into it we met we met more than a few times and like I said Rebecca did The Lion Share of um you know putting it all together and and and sort of administering the whole process so um we're excited yeah there's a lot of cool projects in here um we got the uh part of the next tip project on the capital plan is keep going down North Main and one of the components is a um road safety audit which we got grant money for uh with this stuff um some more some more roadway safety things there's a sidewalk design component traffic cameras uh wants to do a mutual Aid fire pre-plan with surrounding communities so we kind of know if you get called in on Mutual Aid where's what and you know how to handle other communities um radar speed signs I know most of our issues with traffic uh although they have different names most are caused by speed uh I would say all um whether it's site distance or crosswalks or uh whatever complaints there are on the roadways it's because people are not observing the speed limit thereo they don't have time to stop at a stop sign or a crosswalk or they're going too fast at a curve so um we've that's most of the comments I hear about roadway safety from our community members are about speed so that was uh sort of a priority to get those signs up and around town thank you how do we do and Rebecca thank you for your effort on that that's a great accomplishment um very well actually good job Tom you're welcome um number six Communications correspondence and announcements I'll start with an announcement all votes tonight of the council will be by roll call um and then I have a letter which was submitted to um the town of East Long Meadow um attention Debbie house assistant Town manager from Mayberry Material Handling um I will read it maybe Mayberry Material Handling will be holding our monthly Cruise events again this year in the months of May June July August and September at Mayberry Material Handling 90 denslow Road the actual dates are the following Tuesday May 21st Tuesday June 18th Tuesday July 16th Tuesday August 20th September is a date to be determined uh dinardo's restaurant will be preparing and serving the food uh Marco dinardo has the license and will secure the permits we will be accepting donations from for the various events um thank you John Mayberry I know uh in the past over the past few years he's been doing this and it's been an extreme success and uh I know they've been donating to a lot of different causes which is wonderful and anything we can do to help to announce it is awesome those are the only announcements and correspondence I've received so we're going to move on to number seven public hearing hearing for required first reading for the proposed bylaw amendment of chapter 160-4 of assessors both of office certification council members are Anna Jones Matt poucher Ralph Paige Marilyn Richard Connor OA uh on Zoom is John torsa and Kathy Hill I would ask the clerk to read the legal notice into the record the East Long meow Town Council will hold a public hearing on May 14 2024 at 6:15 p.m. in the media room of the Council on Aging located at 328 North Main Street for the purpose of addressing a proposed bylaw amendment of chapter 160 Board of assessors subsection 160-4 oath of office semicolon certification this bylaw Amendment will change the amount of time Assessor must take the oath of office from within two years of their appointment to to within one year of their appointment to comply with the division of local Services standards public hearing may also be attended via Zoom webinar with the below length information relating to this bylaw is available for public inspection at the town clerk's office for the council g r quagi town clerk of the council and I mentioned to Ralph actually um our assessor Diane Bishop brought up that legal notice reads that the um it changes the amount of time the assessors must take the oath of office from within two years to one but it's the amount of time they have to take their certification so while it's not accurate in the legal notice it's accurate in the um the uhw byw amendment that was on the website in our office um councelor OA would you like to read the proposed bylaw Amendment sure um aside from the purpose and rationale am I just reading the change or the whole thing um I think it's just a change we have to read bylaw already exists and we're just changing one little section so okay so the purpose for the proposed bylaw amendment to section 160-4 of of office certification for the Bureau of Municipal Finance law informational guideline release igr number 22-15 attached established minimum qualification standards assessors must meet to qualify to perform the duties of their office has been Chang from within two years of appointment to within one year of appointment so then the change is under chapter 160 Board of assessors section 160-4 of the office certification the last sentence is changed from the Department of Revenue division of local Services assessment Administration course 101 must be taken by all appointed assessors within two years of appointment to within one year of appointment great thank you um applicant so usually at this time we have applicant come up and just say a couple words is there anyone here sure like to speak I may great um so there was a um Bureau of Municipal Finance law uh guideline release number 22-5 um that basically changed that provision from two years to one um so the oath of office has to happen before you do anything on the board of assessing so that that won't change um it's specifically the guideline to this was so that the course had to be taken within one year instead of two which was allowed which is why our bylaw was written with a two two-year requirement was because that was the Statute um and they've changed it to one so we're just getting in line with General La yep yeah pretty straightforwards um so this is a public hearing at this time I will open this up to um the public and if anyone would like to come up and speak for or against the this OPP bylaw change please come forwards Don do you see anyone online I'm sure okay having no one uh from there so this is the first reading right jeie yes so having this um I'm just going to close the public input portion for now and I would entertain a motion to continue the public hearing um to June 11th so y I'm sorry uh I make a motion to continue the public hearing for a second reading for the proposed bylaw amendment of chapter 160 Board of cessors 160-4 oath of office certification to June 11th 2024 at 6:15 p.m. second perfect having a motion made and seconded um this is a roll call vote is there any other input from the council hearing none Anna yes Matt yes I am a yes Marilyn yes uh Connor yes John yes and Cathy yes okay this is continued for a second reading successful okay licensing matters um a one-day liquor license for East Village Tavern would someone like to make a motion sure on forwards I move to approve a one day liquor license for the East Village Tavern for the easta Rotary Club 4th of July Carnival beer 10 June 28th June 29th June 30th July 1st July 2nd and July 3rd 2024 from 6:00 to 11:00 p.m. and July 4th 2024 from 11: am to 4m is there a second and then then we'll open it up having a motion made in seconded further discussion welcome wonderful thank you so you are going to be doing all the alcohol service at the carnival until second year you're disappointed so uh so first year successful and you mean again you'd have a proest and we didn't bring it back it it was a great job and uh like I said I mean i' I've me ran multiple large scale events uh St Patrick's days and I never experienced anything like that with the change of weather in the amount that our staff had a pivot and set up tents in the rain and deal with the weather and I work Clos with the Rotary Club to same time we're uh simultaneously you know trying to keep in contact with you know like um the what was going out the high school with uh the weather you know with just the fireworks and you know having to light them off early and everything too y I mean that was a first welcome to East Long Meadow it seems like every year right around the carnival time we either get rain or storms or something um can't predict the weather can't predict it at all any other counselors have any questions input thoughts I just want to say thank you for coming again absolutely your town I mean I'm in the next town over my wife and I Jessica this is my wife Jesse well hasn't met her yet we work very hard inside the business she's there every Friday since we first took over um very long behind the scene hours and then you know hour so working inside the business and we love the town we love the people and being a part of the Town Genie I should probably ask for for names for the record yes names and addresses please John Sullivan 23 Springhouse Road hon Mass Tesa Sullivan 23 Springhouse Road H thank you okay having a motion on the floor and seconded this is a roll call vote Anna yes Matt yes I am a yes Maryland yes Connor yes John I'm a yes and Kathy yes congratulations you got it again thank you I much appreciate everything okay let's put these ones on uh next up is a one day liquor license for St Paul the Apostle Church is there a motion uh I make a motion to approve a one day liquor license for St Paul the apostles Church 235 Dwight Road for a parish maintenance and activities fundraising event May 26 2024 6: to 11: PM second um motion made and seconded is there any discussion on it okay hearing none again a roll call vote Anna yes Matt yes I am a yes Marilyn yes Conor yes John I'm a yes and Kathy I'm a yes great that is approved thank you next up is a one-day entertainment license for Country Development Corporation uh is there a motion yes I make a motion to approve a one-day entertainment license for Country Development Corporation 33 Harkness Avenue for the class of 1974 East Long meow High School class reunion for September 26 2024 from 6: to 8:00 pm I'm in a second down okay motion made in seconded further discussion so this is a unique um venue for a high school class reunion um jeie I believe you said it's going to be like in outside Courtyard area of this going to be near Peppa's and um the overhang where Murphy's nutrition is just for a couple of hours I guess it's a casual Gathering of the classmates and two of the classmates play an instrument and was that Carl's Carl parella theant for the as a property owner and of 74 so if you're wondering at 33 harness have if we have a new venue we do not but it seems to fit and I think uh it would be a good location for him and he seems to think so any other uh input hearing none uh Anna yes Matt yes I'm a yes Marilyn yes Connor yes John I'm a yes and Kathy yes okay that has been approved we're on to A4 um entertainment license for brew practitioners is there a motion yes I make a motion to approve an ENT license for brew practitioners 45 balr Street with conditions as outlined and their special permit second motion made and seconded further discussion so Genie if I'm correct it's uh the special permit talks about um Amplified uh music outside is not allowed right so I I attached their unapproved minutes from the uh planning board meeting where they appeared the applicants appeared and I highlighted the section where um she's here okay yes want to talk to the applicant sure how are you tonight I'm wonderful thank you for asking how are you very well thank you so entertainment license um we're putting it in with the same conditions as your special permit um you've already been through the planning board and I believe they basically said no Amplified music outside is that correct that's correct and nothing after 10 either and nothing after 10 o'clock that's correct and was there any other thoughts uh that you want to share with us as far as what type of entertainment you're looking at um so we did have that discussion um with the planning board actually and I'm not able to say what type and the the risk of um purposely discriminating against other types I mean I can maybe if you were to ask a specific question in something that you did not one I can say whether or not but I I just don't want and I apologize I just want to qualify that statement with it I am a um labor and employment attorney and so as soon as you start listing things off then you I just don't want to discriminate against anyone in a at a public hearing so um maybe if there were some restrictions we can talk about what I might leave out but I just don't really want to start ticking things off of what I will have so Genie what is in entertainment license allow for and not does it allow for um it does not allow for it list does not allow for r on the application some second page of your packet um and it's exposing body parts basically well that that that's my first so that has to be every application per Mass General law so that's you know so those are not all that's not so that under the application there's certain things that are right but and then they could be dance exhibit Cabaret public shows um on the application it says occasional acoustic bands to provide entertainment for patrons open mic night maybe no heavy metal or distasteful music is that right tany that's on your application me yes um but and I want to fall short of I don't know who's going to determine what's distasteful or what's heavy metal but yes it's not a u like a guar heavy metal nightclub or anything it's mostly you know just local music and we will not have any exposed body parts so I know certain restaurants and all are limited to the number of performers what's the board's thought on trying to keep it consistent with uh what we're doing with restaurants so and a like these Village just got a trial for five for five exactly I mean any thoughts from other counselors insistent is important um so I I would like to um just for a clarification what do you mean the number per of performers like per band exactly so um with our restaurants and all we've limited the number of uh people within the band to five um and that way have a you know 10piece band playing um again hard rock music which is not heavy metal heavy metal um again I'm just trying to get a general feel because because the application is very open and Broad as far as right it's pretty open-ended what you're looking for so just and that's just because the nature of our venue and and just to qualify you know what it really looks like so and I don't know if each of you have been actually been in our venue it's very small um so we don't really have the capacity to have like a a major massive concert or anything but I will say that the nature of um open mic which is normally the the process of open mic is a community um event essentially is usually what happens is you get someone up there that runs the open mic and you have community members that come in and want to play two or three songs sometimes they do have like a joint effort you might have two or three people on the microphone and one person on the guitar and somebody picks up a tambourine so even though it might be more than five people up there contributing to the music it's not if you're not looking at you know three plugged in guitars and um a drum set and a bass it's um it usually and I just and the reason why I been bring that up is because the nature of what we usually had at the brewery in the past is it really is just a a small band type thing but to limit to the number of people I I feel like that it's almost not even in I I don't want to say it's not enforcable but it it kind of it draws a picture of something that doesn't even exist but I don't want to limit the community to what they want to have either and I will point out that we we aren't a restaurant and so we don't have to worry about you know patrons actually dining and it being too much or something like that um obviously we will abide by what the community wants and what the board decides but I just I'm having a hard time understanding why that the number of limied it to five people um in a brewery um is is helpful I guess and and maybe help me understand that so again when you started the comment you said our place is a very small intimate location I think having eight nine 10 people in a band playing in that um does not lead itself to a very small uh setup um obviously if you have a a band with eight or 10 people in it you're going to be trying to draw crowd of a very large crowd um again I don't think we're talking about Open Mic um you know on that idea I think we're we're looking paid entertainment is um I mean more of my thought Conor okay I see what you're saying yeah I just didn't want so I'm gonna ask the counil for their thoughts because I've been um overpowering a little bit so Connor yeah I don't really see the need to add any other restrictions to it I think if it becomes a problem then we could address it in the future and there's other things like the rocket limit that would limit the potential exposure of how out of control something could get okay so my understanding is most restaurants that have live music is three but East Village you said is on a trial basis for five yes so why not do five I agree and and I don't think that necessarly proh hits like five people or more than five people going up one at a time just five all at once right exactly so open mic night I don't think yeah you know one or two people at a time so he said it for five and you have to stop karaoke after five people go exactly exactly I think only fair I mean I I think that's the thought would someone care to make a motion then to say um that we'll be consistent with the restaurants and allow five live active yes performers anyone want to try it yeah so so this would be to amend approval of the entertainment exactly five at a at once does that sound right entertainment practition band members I guess is one way to put it performers five piece I say active performers right active performers no more than five active performers at okay so I make a motion to approve an entertainment license for brew practitioners bus4 bald Street and we're we're not are we including the conditions outlined should right yeah with the conditions outlined in their special requirement and also limiting it to no more than five active participating that's good performance is there a second so did I already have a motion on the so so your motion right now is to amend it to only allow five active uh performers at a time at a time no more than five so that's an amendment to what we have on the floor is there a second to that Amendment second okay so we have a motion uh for an amendment in a second is there any discussion on that hearing none that's a roll call vote Anna yes Matt yes I a yes Marilyn yes Connor yes John yes Kathy yes okay so we have a motion on the floor now that has already been uh made and seconded it has been amended um so with that is there any further discussion on that hearing none um I would call A rooll call to approve the license the motion as amended Anna yes Matt yes I'm a yes Marilyn yes Connor yes John I'm a yes and Kathy yes okay jeie did you follow all of that yes now it's your job white out on her computer okay that one's done thank you thank you thank you so much have a wonderful evening you too yeah and I don't think that will limit them as far as Open Mic or anything like that second six person it's a tambourine or something PD's gonna run it Matt's dancing in the front row Waring okay move on to 8B financial matters um we have the do we have a motion for the release of uh money from American Rescue plan I move that we release [Music] $4,295 78 in unused American Rescue plan act arpa funds previously approved arpa projects to unassigned arpa balance account 5 85522 high school skylights and domes 23 $388 count 58552 Maple Shade elementary school parking lot and playground $ 37,39 180 account 58552 fire 2023 Chevy Tahoe $737 account 5 85526 firefighter bunker gear year $488 120 total unused arpa funds $4,295 78 I second motion made in second in any discussion Conor so these are above beyond what we already closed out last time so then we'll have to find a new use and appropriate these shortly this $40,000 will be in the uh uh probably Capital plan in two Tuesdays from now perfect but it needs to be again we running against the clock UND designated these things just trying to stay ahead of it all so the Maple Shade parking lot and playground that was um completed these have all been completed um and that's why the money's going back to undes sh shade to see it so okay um that's awesome okay we have a motion made seconded is there any further discussion hearing none roll call vote Anna yes Matt yes I'm a yes Marilyn yes Conor yes John I me yes and Kathy yes okay consider that money back in ARA well actually a transfer from free cash for prior years expensive C motion I make a motion to transfer $2,144 67 from free free cash for prior years expenses for police details and a deficit to account 27210 d4900 as presented second motion made in second in any discussion um so I have a a question I know when the details go out um there's a 10% um add-on on top of what the officers get paid for administrative where does that administrative money go how's it used I would assume that part of the administrative would be for when there's a shortfall and someone doesn't cover their bill um is that accurate is accurate and so all that administrative has been used up I mean I'm looking at I mean just one column um 63023 there's $ 66,9 three um brought in actually 67,000 which is over $6,000 in administrative so all of that administrative is used to cover losses is it used within the department to so it all stays in this account to to yeah so if you we wouldn't have to do this so we won't have to anymore first of all so this balance has been dragging along for who knows how long this $712 portion so this is another counting thing that was found and is now being uh reconciled on a monthly basis so that we don't end up with dragging a balance for six eight years uh and then all the other bills are uncollected right so yes that the the administration fee could perhaps offset some of these but when the amount is too high it doesn't matter when the when you can't collect the bill yeah no no no I understand that I mean like I said it's one of those um I mean I'm just looking at this for the details basically 1,4 $32 and if you just took one month of administration which in that same column it's over $7,000 for administration you would think that there would be plenty enough left over to cover to ,400 um I'm just curious there's quite a bit in administration and I'm just curious of where it's all going yep okay if we could get some type of breakdown afterwards on that y I mean I understand it's obvious that the deficits been being carried along um sure other than that any questions any thoughts okay we have a motion on the floor it's been seconded um with no further discussion this is a roll call vote uh I'm gonna start with Kathy Swit it up wow you caught me off guard yes and John yes Connor yes Marilyn yes I'm a yes Matt yes and Anna yes okay once in a while I switch things up um a transfer from free cash to the cultural council is there a motion I move to transfer $7,500 free cash to the cultural Council account 253 8693 d4900 is there a second yes me yes I second that um motion made and seconded further discussion Tom would you like to just give a quick overview yes I would um so this amount specifically is sort of two- part uh the first part is um I was uh approached by the cultural Council who were in the midst of planning their third annual uh Arts Brew Festival uh for which the previous two years they received grant funding for uh which they were unsuccessful for this year um and so we're asking if uh if if I could help uh you know um Mary's very persuasive and the second and the second part of it is sort of my first meeting with them was the day that they were looking through their all the requests that they received for events from around town um and I think I read off a bunch of them in my report um but they they they they struggled to fund these projects in that they they obviously funded multiple projects and the T to the tune of whatever the $1,800 they got from the state but they received additional requests up over $166,000 um so again I talked about CPC before the amount of money that is keeps coming in is slowly dwindling so the amount of work that they put in uh to sort of enrich our community um with with I mean again the events that that are put on are are a lot of them are Town departments that were the applicant but um it's just sort of enriching and I I'll be quite honest with you I I had no clue what the cultural Council did on July 1 and it's not even June yet and I'm asking you to to supplement their funding because it's worth it so my question under free cash if it goes into their account it has to be expended this year by June 30th correct it's already if not if it's appropriated it's good okay they have their own account they'll just just making sure that they'll have to do the back and come in and saying hey we didn't spend it we need it now for July no they'll they'll go in their account and they'll they'll they do their own accounting so um they'll handle all that great any other questions it's a wonderful event it's a you know we should do it I'll just say having having been on the cultural Council before a couple years ago that's a great group of people and I I think it's we we talked about when I was on there doing an event like this so it's really great to actually see it in action um and I think it's just a very good use of um Money Town Money uh to kind of expend kind of that cultural and art section the town um so and would any of you like to come forwards and give the cultural Council a plug first have we done enough for you and I just if you could give us your name Joan Asen I am the chair of the eong met cultural Council I apologize for putting you on the spot but I figure you have an audience a captive audience and um I know some of the things I've seen that you guys do are just amazing that we don't even realize well I I am very grateful for the opportunity you know to expose a little more what we actually do and and it was very surprising me to find out that people didn't even know we existed so um and thank you very much for the the funding we appreciate it immensely um but the basic function of of the cultural Council really is to uh administer Grant applications we get not a lot based on the population I think we got like 11,000 something dollars um last year and um it's applications from you know people apply for the grants and we have to determine who to give them to which isn't easy we get a whole lot more requests than than um than what we're able to accommodate now did I understand and you to say that there's some money in that 7500 that's going to the way that you guys say you do your schedule you're going to spend it before you get the next slot so it doesn't so does I mean I guess what what wasn't clear to me because it's I mean honestly it's more than we asked for for arts and Brew um was it to to fund some of the events that we weren't able to fund um in the 11,000 I can leave that you I'll leave that up to you it's going in into your account and you guys do it if you want to add it to the to the next year's application process or you want to go back that that's entirely up to you awesome perfect thank you and so um the other part of the council is that we are able to apply for special grants to put on festivals which we have been the recipient of those grants you know in the past to put on arts and Brew which we do with the Brew Pub um but this we were unsuccessful in in securing the grant so that's as was explained um we came you know to the town to see if they'd like to help out because it's a really wonderful event and I think you know people really enjoyed it and we actually have plans to even make it even better this time than it was last time that sounds great I know if there's any other questions you guys said it did you set the date yet well we're tentatively hoping to do it on August 25th okay because of the short window we would have once we found out we actually had the money to do it any questions from the counselors okay we have a motion on the floor it's been seconded um roll call vote Anna yes P yes I am a yes Marilyn Conor yes John I'm a yes and Kathy yes congratulations thank you thank you for coming forward um the culture Council thanks you for your support and funding thank you thank you okay we're gonna move on to um 84 um transfer from free cash to the historical commission gift account is there a motion I make a motion to transfer $1,200 from free cash to the historical commission gift account 2630 4900 second motion made and seconded further discussion of course would uh Tom would you like to give a little insight into um this free cast yes um another uh another um very important group of people this one I knew about um I sorry um the historical commission um I've been to a few of their meetings um they've literally transformed um the historical room in the library um all of our documents are up there they're in the process of um you know sorting them and well it's already really been all cleaned up but now they're getting into their project to to Archive these things correctly um so uh they had let me know they're at all our events um and they always are in their historical commission tent which uh has has seen better days um so this money is um to get them a new tent so they can continue to do what they do including go to the Arts and Brew festival with the cultural Council um but uh I again um the impact that that historical commission has had um on on the community um that not many people know about I think warrants a little support um from us Mr anyone here that would also like to speak on it we would appreciate it give yourself a little boost here Toman chair of the hisorical commission I've been on it for a few years and um we're just trying to get out in the community and make ourselves known people don't really know about us uh we're a little Museum on 87 Maple Street case any of you have ever seen it new sign new sign we just got a new sign up and uh we're just trying to get out of the community and let people know about us and um we've gone to celebrate eong Meadow first night uh library is going to be doing a summer kickoff next month so we want to set up there um we're going to do a um appraisal night like a um Antiques Road Show here at the senior center coming up in a couple next month or so um so we're just trying to be out in the community and um one of the first things we one of the events we went to um Don actually found that one of the participants left a tent that it was broken and he fixed it up for us and we've been using this kind of broken down dilapitated tent for the last two years and it finally just fell apart and um in order to keep going to the events um we're looking for a tent we're unbudgeted um we're also part of the town so fundraising is a little difficult for us because we're not nonprofit so people tend to be a little leery about giving us money um we're able to make about $500 a year in donations um so we need help this is a little bit beyond our our our reach so that's why we're asking for help so I do have a follow-up question this like Antique Road Show are you letting people bring items in and then they're going to be appraised that's the whole idea I'm going to advertise this because I can see this being a very big event we are we're working with Aaron here at the senior center yeah um we're right now working with Aaron at the senior center um they've found a group of appraisers in summers there's a group of three people that were going to come here um we're going to open up from 5 to8 I believe it is uh people can come bring one or two items to have them appraised by these appraisers and um it's our first try at this so it's it's been it's very common a lot of lot of uh towns do this I did some research on it and they're all over the place so they're very popular events and um it's a joint venture between the COA and the historical commission um we're going to set it up here and we're hoping for a good event and hopefully try to raise a little bit of money to do more things so that sounds awesome any other questions okay we have a motion on the floor it's been seconded um we will do a roll call vote Anna yes uh Matt yes I'm a yes Marilyn yes Connor yes uh Kathy yes John I a yes switched it up I did thanks Tom very much thank you all thanks Tom appreciate it thank you thanks for the kind words okay and next we have a transfer from fire department salary line items to non-salary is there a motion yes I make a motion to approve a $225,000 transfer from fire department salary line items to non-salary line items $115,000 transfer from account 01220 d5110 a $10,000 transfer from account 01220 1- 5142 a $24,000 uh transfer to account 01222 5421 and a $1,000 uh transfer to 01224 5430 is there a second John second I second down okay so just for clarification um it's $25,000 total from two accounts and going into two different accounts um the money's $24,000 going into one of the accounts and $1,000 going into the other account I know the motion was uh a little tough to understand um do we have someone here uh Chief come up and just give a quick overview of when I tell him he doesn't want all all the repairs well I I I know I talked to Tom about you know coming in you know he's always good about you know know I think we got it but um this is this is something I have never ever done in my 12 years as fire chief um we we we're allowed to move a little bit of money here and there on the non-salary side back and forth from accounts just so we can make it through the year um we got crushed this year on some uh pretty hefty repairs and actually we're not done yet um and I know we have two fire trucks ordered um the earliest we're going to see one is they're telling us March 2025 I don't believe it um and then we have another one that was ordered nine months after that so we probably won't see that until January 26 even if I ask them um they are not um they're not they're not getting realistic dates out of the manufacturers the um our dealers and and we're not alone every manufacturer is pretty close to the same way so that brings us where we are now um you guys know I mean you approved the replacement of two patus um one one is hit 30 years old this year and the other one is uh 24 years old this year um we have some uh we had some pump issues on them in our last pump test um that didn't make it safe to keep on the line and and put firefighters at the other end of the hose with that truck um we don't use them every day which is a good thing but if we did have to use it I got to have a truck that's going to work right and be safe for for the guys um it's um my budget you know we've always consistently increased it a little bit here and there um but you know it's for we hit we went through $40,000 in a repair budget fairly quick this year um we had some major expenses that um we've never seen before I I went through two sets of Springs one rear set on their back of the ladder truck um and one coil set on engine 3 which is our our newest pumper and our ladder truck is is a 2017 um I've never had to even in my my 32 years on the fire department we've never had to replace Springs that I that I know of um so and those were were pretty pretty hefty uh expenses um you know I I we we like within $40,000 about I'm going to say about 10,000 of it's regular stuff annual service that I expect to do every year that we have to do every year and then that would give us $30,000 left over for repairs and I kind of lump the repairs into regular which is like less than $1,000 then medium up to $2,500 large and then very large um fortunately enough we've only had we only had one very large which was um engine three um a bunch of crazy stuff with the pump and that truck is 15 years old now so um they don't they don't build them like they used to um on the words of Bobby Hill should we should shouldn't buy new fire trucks anymore but um I'll uh we can't we can't not buy fire trucks unfortunately so um we were fortunate we had some vacancies on the full-time staff so that that gave us that opening for for the funding um so I think um I don't know if it's typed wrong I thought I heard one of the accounts is 5421 5241 yeah be 5241 I thought I heard Kathy say 5421 5241 should be 5241 okay yeah that's that's repair account and the other ones it's it's weird my my ambulance fuel accounts doing well but my fire fuel account is is really tough and we wouldn't make it without a transfer into it so I mean we all know the cost to repairs is just climbing and it's even the small things like a muffler um muffler on a fire truck is $2,000 what I just picked on my dump truck and couldn't believe it when I looked at it I'm like $2,000 for the muffler and that wasn't installed it's the it's it's the emissions um stuff that hurts us too we had uh the DPF filter yep um was plugged because of an issue with the electronics in the ladder truck it didn't go through what burnoff process um fortunately enough Bobby Hill was able to take it off which is kind of unheard of in this day and age was able to take it off there's a there's a shop locally that actually puts it in a cleaner and burns it 24 hours later it was back in so about a $25 bill as opposed to like a $6,000 or $7,500 bill so we you know he he does for for being a town resident that's got a business he he does take care of us and and does the right thing for us a lot of times yeah it is okay we have a motion on the floor it's been seconded is there any other discussion we want to correct the motion to the right of number did you say it wrong she I may have said it wrong but it's printed properly is 524 one okay I thought she said it right when I was following a lot so um obviously the the motions have been written out and we're voting to approve it as written okay how's that perfect okay with that being said we're gonna start with Kathy well thank you yes John I'm a yes as well Conor yes Marilyn yes I'm a yes yes yes excellent thank you thank you for the explanation thanks Paul thank you you around tomorrow always yep okay the big part is getting that from salary to non- salary so even if the number is wrong we just move it after the fact we can do that yes right so well assuming that you have a account listed know yes exactly okay we're on to B6 um creation Municipal uh building rental revolving fund is there a motion I make a motion to approve the creation of a municipal building rental revolving fund established under Massachusetts general laws chapter 4 40 Section 3 the effective for the first fiscal for the fiscal year me beginning on July 1st 20124 leasing payments received for the space located at 382 North Main Street East Long Meadow Mass will be deposited into the fund and the fund may be utilized for upkeep of the building including but not limited to custodial costs utilities ordinary repairs and maintenance as well as Debt Service the balance in this fund will not be closed to the general fund at the end of the fiscal year second okay having a motion made in second end any further discussion Conor um since we had just gone through the revolving fund bylaw at either our last meeting or two meetings before and is this something that needs to be added to our article 4 revolving funds by law listing it as an authorized res revolving fund in addition to AC this should yes so we accept this first to create one and then we have to do a bylaw change to put it in point of parliamentary at our June meeting we will have a first reading of a bylaw yes very good catch like I said that's the good point any other uh questions concerns comments hearing none uh roll call vote Kathy yes John I'm a yes Connor yes Marilyn yes I'm a yes Matt yes and Anna yes okay that was B6 moving right along additional funding in the amount of $ 28,258 from roal roadway funding is there a motion I make a motion to accept additional funding in the amount of $ 28,258 a i second and a motion made in seconded um further discussion Conor just claror go head Kathy in the backup information that jeie provided the amount says 28,1 not 205 right good cat good so Marilyn would you like to want re reread it with the correct number I think that would be better yes is that is that acceptable so do you with second I withdraw my second and I withdraw my motion and we and we will make a new motion 105 right yes okay I make a motion to accept the additional funding in the amount of $28,155 section 53a I second motion made in seconded how do we lose a 100 bucks so quick seems like every minute costs us plant's open okay having a motion made and seconded any other discussion question does this Tom does this money like get earmarked for specific uses or does it just fall into our general Road Improvement basically yeah chapter 90 eligibility whatever's whatever is eligible for chapter 90 so it'll just get popped into the to the balance okay so another 20 potholes will get filled maybe 15 and a half doesn't go far sorry it it really doesn't with the cost of asphalt nowadays but with that being said any other discussion this is a roll call vote I will once again start with Kathy yes Don I'm a yes Conor yes Marilyn yes I am a yes mat yes and Anna yes okay approval of minutes April 9th is there a motion I make a motion to approve the April 9th 2024 Open Session minutes second motion made and seconded any discussion on it hearing none Anna yes Matt yes I'm a yes Marilyn yes Conor yes John I'm a yes and Kathy yes thank you moving on um executive session minutes of April 9th is there a motion I move to approve the April 9th 2024 executive session minutes second made in seconded any discussion hearing none Kathy yes John I'm yes Conor yes Marilyn yes I am a yes Matt yes and Anna yes thank you okay moving on new business old business there is none uh new business um the acceptance of Mass General Law chapter 44 section 54b is there a motion I make a motion to accept the provisions of Massachusetts General Law chapter 44 section 54b to allow trust funds help in the custody of the Town Treasurer to be invested under the standards of the Massachusetts prudent investor Act of chapter 203c second having a motion made in seconded any further discussion just a comment it sounds like this is a good thing and hopefully it yields us some good Returns on some of those funds like opab so reading all the backup documents it sounds like they are still extremely um secure I mean obviously you worry about when you're investing money because not only can It Go up but it can go down right and um sounds like they have quite a few guidelines still yes so is it the guidelines that that drives how you operate this or is it the people too that okay who will be the people actually making this recommendation or decision so inevitably I would suppose me and but um Don and Kim and whoever else on the finance team would have sort of put on they have um we have consultant that we work for um and we sort of probably gather information from whoever is president to say how how aggressive do you want to be here and I mean let's be honest this is real money and we're going to be conservative across the board but this is just allowing other options for these these certain accounts right um thanks y appreciate it um so Tom I do Don's not going to the track room um I did notice through uh some of the emails that it what type of funds um and it talks about the smaller trust funds that we have yes Town beautification conservation land acquisition yeah is there any chance this counil can actually get a list of all of those little accounts that we have and roughly what's in them some of these I've never heard of you may I'm sorry I started my PR preparation for this far down the agenda at about four o'clock today um and I knew you were gonna ask that question um again asum no 100% I'm just curious I mean I know I think you'll find that there's a lot of things that going to accounts and it's like didn't know that existed there's a lot of accounts we have a lot of accounts and most of the most of them have been sort of repurposed but there are still accounts that exist that we're like oh my god when when did that when did that who started that one so I think there's certain ones I mean the first one that popped in town beautification well if we have to replace you know some of the flags or something for the Fourth of July if there's money in that account that would be something that yep we could easily use it so actually that took place when I was on the board of Selectmen SP and you know town beautification and they were responsible for the brick sidewalks which now are not safe well thanks no it's true being safe all the time yeah no you're right so you know I would think that by the vote of the council if there was something that came up that we could direct those absolutely yeah no thank you yep you got it so we have a motion on the floor and second it is there any other discussion on it hearing none roll call vote Anna yes Matt yes I a yes Marilyn yes Connor yes John I'm a yes and Kathy yes thank you thank you P the law is accepted um authorization of the Town manager to sign a five-year extension contract extension is there a motion yes I make a motion to authorize the town manager to sign a 5-year extension First Amendment to town of East long metal water supply agreement would the Springfield Water and Sewer Commission for Massachusetts General Law chapter 30b section 12 second I'll make a motion second excuse me thank you John sorry it's coming in a little delayed no that's okay um having a motion made in seconded any discussion on it I I thank you so much for that reading material Bo and I appreciate it so uh legal has been through this and other than this legal impediment there are no other okay with that being said um roll call vote Kathy yes John I'm yes Conor yes Marilyn yes I'm a yes Matt yes and Anna yes okay E3 um Town manager to sign a copy or lease in excess of three years is there a motion yes I make a motion to authoriz to manager to sign a copy of was years for Massachusetts General Law chapter 30b section 12 second have a motion made and seconded any other discussion um so the motion is in excess of three years I'm assuming it's a five-year contract yes the other option is a yeah 60 month three okay so and that's only if and only if it's advantageous and obviously the price is advantageous but we don't have so we're running into a timeline crunch obviously with July one um and they have to we have to get contract signed and the problem with the extra two years is you have four and fivey old equipment for those two years now you're saving a lot of money but you may end up with some so Ryan if it's advantageous we'll do it if it's if there's if we can't get stuff in the contract for them to service those that equipment more than maybe they normally would for years four and five then we're going to stick at three but because of the time crunch I wanted the option and if if it's your pleasure that'd be great not looking at any more than five no no no nope well like I said it's just with the motion it basically I know yeah and she Genie did ask for backup and there isn't a whole lot of backup because like the water one we had a contract we don't have one yet they just opened the RF yep um and and now we're gonna sort of negotiate a contract here but being already the middle of May and we need these things up and operational on July one I don't know when that time's going to be and if we hit right so is there any other discussion hearing and seeing none roll call Anna yes Matt yes I'm a yes Marilyn yes Connor yes John I'm a yes and Kathy I think you're muted I guess I must have touched the wrong button yes I'm a yes thank you wor okay next up uh disc I asked for this to be put on a discussion of the Town manager per performance review um believe it or not one year is coming up extremely quickly um and typically the council has been behind on this and I would like to keep us up to date um so my thought process would be for the council to ask Tom to do a self- review and if we have some questions if you guys want to send them to me to go into a self- review um then I will forward them to him and and have him do a self- review we can look at that and then we can set up his uh full review um but I'm just trying to think from the council do you want to try and um get him the questions so that maybe by the meeting on the 28th we can receive that which is only two weeks um would he be able to do a no we've got nothing to do between now and then no whatever yes I could and then my thought is once we received the self- review then our June meeting we could look to do um his full review does that timeline sound Marilyn um we had discussed this and and you know it was the the feeling that you might be doing some stuff that we don't really know you should get credit for and so it's really important you know you're here day to day you know sun up to Sunset and we're not and so that's why you know we hoping that I'm allowed to go home at Sunset no later do something so that we would be able to better understand and perhaps evaluate and recognize and approve that sort of thing Kathy John any input any thoughts on it um just to kind of Tagle along with on Maryland um Tom had some goals that we agreed on so when he does the uh self assessment if uh you could at the very least comment on the progress you've made on the goals in addition to as Marilyn said I'm there's no doubt that there are multiple things that have been uh worked on in in this past uh 12 months that um the public should be aware of as well as uh the counselors if they're not aware of certain things Conor the only one idea I have I agree with all of that so far um some with the private sector background some companies will solicit feedback from other immediate direct Reports say like our Deputy Town manager do we think that that would be appropriate to get input from a slightly different perspective since we don't see it dayto day yeah I mean I have no problem with anything honestly so how would we do that I'm not sure trying to to write to direct them to write something about me yeah you don't know what they're gonna say we don't have to and again we've often thought about that but I also um think that that would be something that they would have to do directly to us uh privately thinking now oh yeah because we don't right you didn't finish your want well obviously we don't want any um if someone says something negative we don't want time really okay you're working graveyard shift now staying in the lane thing too also right exactly if I may I think it puts some of the direct reports um in an awkward position because you're you're asking them even though the information would come to the council um it just puts them in an awkward position because you're asking them to um comment on their boss yeah whereas we are the ones who oversee the manager's performance and the hiring and firing of a of a town manager not to suggest that you're getting fired just quoting the quoting the charter I don't know that I'd be in favor of that I think it puts um our Deputy Town manager in an awkward spot or the chief the fire chief or police chief because they report to to the manager well I think this going to be a two-step process anyways I think the first thing we do is I will get to uh together with Tom I will submit some um outline basically of what we're looking for and have them do the self- evaluation that way there we can all receive that before we go forwards to do his full evaluation that's fine and I've been kind of keeping track not just of the ones that we agreed to but all the ones that were submitted um because you know some of them got checked off organically and some of them I saw the opportunity and checked them off you know what I mean so um that shouldn't be a problem that's awesome thank you I'll just Echo kind of quickly from the public um sector perspective I don't know I I kind of agree with Kathy I'd be a little maybe uncomfortable with that I mean I'm certainly you know maybe open to it but at first I'd have to think about it a little bit more um because I know I just conducted we just did performance reviews a few weeks ago so in a little bit of a different fashion than that okay any other questions with regards to that topic so we're going to move on to action items um I will uh set up a self- evaluation um some questions and all if you guys have any or if there's certain things you'd like to know about please email them to me I will compose them and get them over to Tom um and the next is um who would be putting the bylaw together for the revolving it shouldn't it shouldn't take too long we'll we'll we'll give you the same it's either Kim or or I can do it it's not I we actually can edit I would prefer not to no we can do it I we have we we can edit the ecode page and printed out red or underscored in Redline so add in yeah yeah that's actually easy for us and so um school kid table the last uh last motion would be a motion to adjourn if everyone would like to I move excuse me if I could just ask one other question it's more procedural as it relates to the uh May 28th meeting which in fact is the public hearing for our budget the annual budget um should there be um not straight approval of it or follow-up questions and we can't uh approve it for the June 1st deadline um do we have enough time later that week on a Thursday um in that event I just want to make sure everybody else sees it the same way I do so me and Jeanie talked about this and um there is enough posting time to in before the end of the month um it would make things uh extremely tight but we can post it for post on the 29th for the 31st which is a Friday but yep so so if it doesn't go through we would have to hold a Friday um I could also post it in advance and and cancel it yeah maybe the following day or Thursday we can talk about that more yeah I think that that would probably be a smart and be better than a Friday oh most people would rather not a Friday night yeah I have nothing going on so with that being said we would ask you then to post a follow-up meeting for that Thursday um if needed right thank you Kathy you're welcome great Point yep any other uh thoughts so the motion to adjourn was made and seconded uh roll call vote Kathy yes Conor yes John I am a yes Anna yes Matt yes and I am a yes thank you