my class is actually downloading the data into some arcgis software and we're making some comparisons between what kind of solar energy do we have versus what's the speed doing to see if there's a tilt on the solar panels um is there a can we find some patterns in the temperature versus the altitude um but not only that because I'm an integrated teacher with uh there's a history teacher she can look at a map like this right here and we can start talking about why are there different rules and regulations over different countries we did into um the Civics of it we get into why is Yemen blacked out why is North Korea blacked out um what what's going on in these different countries that make different laws that seem like it's just a radio one balloon and my virtual learning is set I got a chance to fly through hurricane Florence with the United States Air Force Florence was a category 4 hurricane that made landfall in 2018 but the Air Force isn't the only one who flies through these giant storms Noah does also to gather Vital Information the job of a hurricane hunter is not for the painted heart these brave men and women must fly straight into one of the most destructive forces in nature hurricanes are born over the open ocean and while satellites can track their movement meteorologists and researchers need to sample the storms directly to get the most accurate information about them Noah's hurricane hunter Fleet includes two P3 turbo prop aircraft as well as a golf stream 4 jet the p3s fly through the storm encountering devastating winds that can be over 150 mph the jet can fly higher than the turbo props Gathering data from the upper atmosphere both planes have high-tech equipment on board to get the job done like radar fix probes that measure particles in the air scientists also deploy drop wind SS which parachute down through the hurricane to the ocean surface sending back data on pressure temperature humidity and wind these measurements can help us understand the structure of a storm and the winds that are steering it the data is used in computer models that help forecasters predict how intense the hurricane will be and where and when it will strike land hurricane Hunters take a literal look into the eye of a monster formed by Nature their courage helps further science which saves [Music] lives we've been talking about remote sensing now it's time for a remote interview hey thanks for joining us today we really appreciate it hey guys how's it going nice to see you can you tell us first of all how are drones used to assess tornado damage we have one of those uh quadcopters so a smaller drown we get some aerial shots and some videos so that we can really understand the magnitude of the tornado damage then we have another drone which is a fixed wing with vertical takeoff and Landing capabilities that we use to map the area and do some analysis to really tease out some of the tornado damage for the quadcopter we're basically manually flying that using an app when it comes to the fixed Wing we actually plan the mission out in the software will'll draw a polygon around the area of our interest I want 70 to 75% overlap so that I can get 3D modeling capabilities once we set up that mission it's uploaded and sent to the Drone so then when we actually fly the fixed Wing we're really pressing a few buttons it takes off and it goes and it it does its Mission how do you use the data once it's collected so with our fix Wing we're actually collecting uh two types of data so we're collecting visible imagery and we're also collecting multispectral imagery so we have two cameras vegetation will emit energy in Mir infrared bands so in this portion of the electromatic spectrum that we can't see so the nice thing about using a multispectral camera is that it allows us to assess d damage to vegetation that we would not be able to see in that visible portion we have to process this data so when we go out and we fly you know one Mission could collect thousands of individual images at at a place we use uh software to be able to then Stitch and line up all this imagery so that we have one continuous image that we can then look at and see a complete picture of tornado damage why is this information so important we need to validate the tornado warnings but we also need to understand the high wind impacts on the ground so what areas were impacted what the potential intensity was of the tornado because when we actually go out and Survey these areas the damage surveys are a way for us to help better understand what the toric intensity was thanks so much for talking with us adults aren't the only ones who can program and fly drones our friends at Stonehill Middle School programmed their own drones and let me tell you they blew us away just as Noah scientists program drones to fly specific patterns over tornado damage the students at Stonehill Middle School were challenged to program drones to fly specific missions their task was to program drones to fly a series of aerial Maneuvers but we didn't stop there students also had to sync their drones movements to their own musical compositions that they also created with code their drones had to do flips spins fly and formations of up to four drones at a time each drone was programmed to follow a unique set of instructions using the students code just like Engineers the students had to test their programs fail and learn from those failures reflect on their work and then regroup to fix mistakes and and start that process all over again until their drones were ready to do what they wanted them to the final air shows were pretty impressive [Music] these skills the student showed by being able to program brones to fly to a specific location for a specific task directly relate to the processes used by Noah to assess tornado damage who knows in a few years maybe some of these students will be working for Noah and collecting important information about our plan that was awesome data validation is a big kind of scary term you might be thinking what does it have to do with me but it has a lot to do with you and it's got realworld implications validating data is making sure that the quality and accuracy of the data is correct before you use it kind of like checking your math before you turn in a test I am Tom Jones a planetary scientist and Veteran astronaut I've got my PhD from the University of Arizona in remote sensing of asteroids looking for water on the surfaces of asteroids out between Mars and Jupiter and then I've been able to employ that same training in orbital missions looking at our changing Planet through the space radar lab missions in particular I flew four times on the space shuttle back during the 1990s and 2000s uh 53 days in space overall with a trip to help build the International Space Station the other three missions were science missions and in in particular two of them were really interesting to me as a planetary scientist I got to study our planet from space using an advanced radar camera map the changing surface of the Earth we took our space shuttle Endeavor with the radar inside the cargo bay here we rolled it over to face the surface of the Earth as you see here on my backdrop and we scan the surface of the Earth with a radar beam listen to The Echoes coming back to the shuttle's cargo bay and transform those radar Echoes into digital images it used three different colors wavelengths of 3 cm wide 6 cm wide and 23 cm across cross and by using those three different wavelengths or colors of radar light we could light up the Earth's surface below listen to The Echoes coming back and the computers aboard Endeavor could combine those radar Echoes into digital images of the planet we could look at everything from how much carbon is in the forests that we see below us on the earth we could look for pollution in the oceans we could map earthquake faults and watch erupting volcanoes it's a very versatile instrument that can that can study almost every aspect of earth science and we're still studying those images 25 years later so ground truth is the idea that you must prove that your observations from space are accurate by going to the site on the ground that you're looking at and collecting the detailed information about that site to see what the truth is on the ground so that you can correct or make more accurate the radar imagery that you're recording in space and if we could prove by ground truth that our space observations were accurate then we can take data all around the planet where we don't have investigators on the ground and by using that extension we can get accurate data all over the surface of the Earth but data validation isn't just something that scientists do it's something students do as well you may not realize it but you work with data all the time from seeing what the temperature is to working the math problem at school validating data can be as simple as making sure the forecast you are looking at is for where you live or checking your work to make sure your answer on a math problem makes sense if you're doing a simple addition problem and you get a really large number your data might not be valid checking your work or validating your data can be an important step to success in school and in dressing appropriately to play outside the next time you check the weather to see if you need to wear a jacket or check the prediction on sever weather you can thank remote sensing and the work that the people at Noah do have you used remote sensing in your life let us know down in the comments section and if you like this video be sure to follow stem3 on Facebook and Twitter and subscribe to the National a and space Museum's YouTube channel thanks for watching [Music] we come from a long line of farmers and there's a sense of Pride with being part of these multigenerational businesses but there's also a significant amount of pressure my senior year of high school my dad made the decision this world no longer needed him in it I don't know if he was overwhelmed by the bills and checks that weren't going to be coming in because of the strawberries dying off but it breaks my heart that my dad made a permanent decision for a temporary issue don't feel like you have to go through it alone Farmers have to take care of their physical and their mental health because what's a farm without a [Music] farmer in the mornings that's my time watching the sun come up I can have a cup of coffee and exercise if I want to it helps me start the day with a sense of gratitude every day is a new opportunity don't forget check in on yourself love your mind this is a got about two minutes okay great for Tom are you all set I'm almost ready okay I think I my pen in there okay that pen give this back thank you yeah you could Tom the same as you yes I am ready now okay stand by 5 four uh welcome to the select board meeting of May 6 2024 uh this is Select board chair Tom Lusa I'll could be confirming that all members are present and people on the agenda are present and can hear me uh so when I call your name please respond the affirmative Josh LaVine yes ven amav here Mark go here Dan wo here and staff when I call your name please respond the affirmative ly Simmons here Mike barier here this open meeting of the long medal select board is convened in person and Via Zoom webinar is posted on the agenda and the town's website identifying how the identify how the public may join there's no chat or Q&A function all the materials for this meeting are available on the agenda posted on Long Meadow ma.gov the public is encouraged to follow along with the posted agenda unless I note otherwise this meeting will feature resident comment for residents attending this meeting in person please raise your hand when we get to the comment section of the meeting and I'll call on you to approach the microphone for residents participating in the meeting via Zoom webinar format please use the raised hand icon at the bottom of the screen the meeting moderator will promote you to panelist unmute you and give you permission to speak if you join the webinar by phone dial star9 to raise your hand star 6 to mute unmute residents who wish to speak will identify their names and addresses only each individual is afforded three minutes for comments please note that this meeting is being recorded and that some of the attendees are participating by video conference please remember to mute your phone or computer when you're not speaking if anyone in attendance is recording this meeting please announce yourself now nobody okay uh we'll now begin with the Pledge of Allegiance all stand I pledge Ali to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay we have a few announcements uh the annual town meeting um is set for Tuesday May 14th and today's the 7th right 6th today's the 6th so a little more a week and uh it will be in at 700 p.m in the long metal high school gym to view the warrant for additional information and resources please visit www longm ma.gov toown meeting the annual Town election is set for June 11th 2024 which is Tuesday and it'll be at the Long Meadow community house and the polls will be open from 7:00 a.m. till 8:00 p.m. voter registration deadline if you are not already registered to vote in town is June 3rd 2024 to view a sample ballot and find more information please visit www.long ma.gov elction design workshop for the book Brook that um the town will host a public presentation and discussion tomorrow Tuesday May 7th 6: to 7:30 p.m. at The Community House 7:35 Long Meadow Street to review the Design Concepts and collect feedback on how well they capture the community's vision of what changes need to be made this comes as part of a three-day Workshop that encourages community members to participate in the planning process of restoring the brook and making improvements to the Bliss and Lauren Parks more information can be found on the town website at www.long meow ma.gov Civic alerts and Resident comments do we have any Resident comments tonight any folks no anybody online not see anyone on the zoom okay well the last meeting we have enough resident comments for maybe five to six meetings so uh hopefully uh things with that situation resolved itself how about select board comments do we have any members get to w't go Josh you have a while and then we'll go um yeah so just to give an update from the Middle School building committee uh we met last week and uh did a couple things um I know one's going to touch on this in our uh Town manager report but uh narrowed down essentially down to three choices which will be the the three choices going in that we're going to get designed and price out uh that's a renovation code update on Glenbrook um a brand new at Williams or renovation and addition at Williams um and there's a lot more information we got a good packet from jwa uh last week and so folks can take a look at that it was also an informative meeting talking about uh how the pricing would work out and um I think that's something that I mentioned at the meeting and maybe on people's minds uh to me not being a in construction at all uh I thought a renov ation and a code update or an addition at Williams um or renovation and an addition so not doing a full new build would be cheaper options when it comes down to it they're not necessarily uh a renovation and code update we wouldn't get a lot of reimbursement from the state so even though it looks cheaper it may we may have to pick up a bigger part of that tab because uh the school would still be under sized like we wouldn't be able to uh fix the science rooms for instance so we would get no budget for that uh and then a renovation and add-on at Williams to you would think that if we keep some existing part of the building it would be a lot cheaper but probably not because uh and this is where the construction vagaries don't I don't understand them but uh if you're trying to retrofit an old building to bring it up to new standards it's very difficult and would cost a lot um so if you look at it end of the day uh doing a brand new school out of those three options is probably the cheapest and obviously we'd get a lot more uh control over what would come out um so there's still uh we're still pricing that out so that is just a preliminary uh amount that we were looking at but uh it was everyone should take a look at the packet that was on the agenda last week uh it was very helpful I thought and even um had some very preliminary site designs for what Williams could look at look look like with the new school so I'd encourage everyone to to go take a look at that okay Mark yeah a couple of things one is I I I participated as by Zoom the Hazardous mitigation plan public forum I think beside the committee I was probably the only one on it which is unfortunate there's a great summary though in the reminder and I'd urge people in town and to read it and will impact all the residents of town and it was a lot of work done by the group in DPW and Karin myy muns and a few other people to put together that hazardous mitigation plan uh and so people ought to look at it and I also obviously our fire chief who's the head of that group too uh I did attend another Piner Valley Planning Commission planning meeting and for the first time in a while nothing has slipped anymore so our our our road Renovations are are still where we last knew they were which is this North End the so-called long mow l is on schedule for what they call fiscal year 2025 which is after October 1st but the south end of town is any anybody's guess and it's going to REM remain that way the state is also putting their Federal money and they've announced that and I think we've all seen it in some of the things we've gotten to significant push on bridge repairs and so uh could be that you know flat roads roads on on regular Pavements may may slip a little bit more more but we'll see what happens uh there was a a meeting in the energy committee and I just want to and ly I don't know if you you want to mention this or not but but this is they're following up on the on on the municipal aggregation plan and so people at home need to understand what this is that the the energy committee and I was in on this did some preliminary interviews of potential they're called consolidators or aggregators actually I think they're called These are Consultants who would work for the work for the town to put together a municipal aggregation plan we narrowed it down to a couple of people and then turned it over to Lynn and Karin and said you know it's a coin flip between these two and Karin interviewed them and she said she agreed it was kind of a pretty much of a coin fliping so there I think the energy committee is kind of been has been charged with getting any public input so uh people who were interested at all in in finding out how this works and what it's all about uh I urge them to go to the energy committee meeting I think the meeting is next it's the end of this week I'm sorry but it's on the on the website and I I suspect that from that they will come back to the select board with a recommended aggregator for the select board I may I'm hope I'm not stepping on the toes but the cost of the town is nothing they all get paid based on a formula set by the state it's the same formula and so what you're really looking at is who's got a fancier website or who's got a better negotiation to get better rat and you know the the the two groups that it's down to both have great track records deal with a lot of communities already in Massachusetts and personally I don't think we can go wrong either one but uh in essence stay tuned because I think that's going to probably come I would hope at our next meeting or something like that it's got some real good opportunities for people in town great thanks Mark any yes thanks um I I just wanted to uh make a couple comments ments one on the I had attended the Pete Landon uh Memorial event uh on Sunday I know there are a few of us at that event as well and I just want to say thank you to uh Lynn I thought you did a great job Tom as well I think you represented um the town uh very well nice remarks um Andrew berky uh chair of the um parks and wreck committee um and I was talking to Andrew after and you know one of the things we were talking about was you know Pete was a guy who this Memorial and plaque could have been placed at 10 other places in town um he just a really good guy gave a lot back to the community and I think one of the things we see a lot is you know we might have a couple uh residents who might reach out to us on a regular basis but Pete Landon was someone who who brought solutions to to trying to solve problems and I think that's um something that we can appreciate um so I thought it was a really good event um also the paper writing event too I wanted to thank Arlene Miller uh Liz bone the recycling committee for putting on that event I know there were some challenges in terms of just a lot of people being around with the the jambur in town but I think everyone worked together to uh to really make that a a good event and um also Mark I want to thank you for uh volunteering at that event I appreciate it um the other and and while while I'm on the topic of the the lacrosse jamborees in town um I I went to both weeks um I had a lot of positive feedback from the the community on on these uh events and I serve on the long range uh planning committee and I see Patrick uh in the back who also serves on it and one of the things we hear a lot about is having more Community involvement and more community events where people can uh come together and and if you were at these events you could see the hundreds of Long Meadow uh parents as well as uh young athletes that we're having the opportunity to um have a great weekend and um also spend money uh downtown uh if we have one I guess down at the shops uh actually Starbucks ran out of coffee and uh that's with having coffee that's even with having poor things coffee uh present so uh just a great event for the town I hope we do more of these events and uh the last thing I wanted to mention was the coie uh coie Brook Workshop that I just got back from at the community house so I think this is a good opportunity for tomorrow night for everyone to show up and um Tom you mentioned something about the Fishing Derby uh brings me back in the day when I was uh oh yeah at the Derby but um so everyone please uh attend the event uh you know make comments suggestions and um just that's really all that I wanted to add but um and thank you everyone okay great the e oh did you want to oh yeah if you don't mind if I just I I forgot to mention the um the jambur and I agree with everything Dan said it was a really great event uh I went to my uh my daughter played in it and uh it was it was really fun to see people and I remember uh when we I don't remember which jamere we had in front of us we were talking about why isn't it Wolf Swamp and judging by the number of people that were there I can see why uh Mr St Clair said it can't be a wol they don't have the parking uh it was absolutely packed um so I know that it Bliss closing Bliss May uh inconvenience a bit but I think it overall uh the the positive the benefit to the town is absolutely worth it so um and to everyone who organize both events so thank you it's great good yeah so I think I'm just going to piggy back off of a couple of things that were said um so Mark was talking about the municipal aggregation uh the energy sustainability committee is having their meeting on May 9th um to get public input on it and their plan is to come before the select board at our next meeting to talk about it the two Consultants that they've narrowed down to are good energy and mass power so folks are interested attend the meeting on May 9th um the Pete Landon Memorial yesterday I want to also thank Tom and Lynn you guys did a great job of representing the town of Long Meadow also want to thank the Landon family uh they gave you know some great speeches and shared some great stories and I think Dan and I um were talking to Andrew berky after the event who's the chair of the parks and rec commission and we were just talking about how important it is to take time to do things like this like put together a memorial and be able to share stories of people in town um and you know it's a way for us to build community and for us to remember our history and whether it's something like uh honoring someone who you know just left us like P Landon or having the um Johnny see book release and talking about somebody else that used to live here uh these things are just so important and you can see kind of the way that folks engage with it and come out and respond to it that it is really important to to our community uh yesterday the weather was not great and we had you know a lot of folks there um you know from from all parts of town so that that was great to see and then also the lacrosse Jamber I want to thank uh Bill St Clair Melissa shettler top tier lacrosse everyone else that put those to events together they were great events um and similarly talking to families in Long Meadow that attended they absolutely loved it especially folks that um you know were on the boys side where we haven't traditionally you know had it here in a few years um from their experience for you know what their tournaments were like before to being able to have it in town and having that set up uh they were all just you know absolutely thrilled with it and also coaches and parents from other towns too were very complimentary of how everything was run and everything went and also the businesses and the shops I mean I think uh I stopped in a postto and they were saying that they could not believe how much business they had and I think some of the waiters were even talking about how they were sad that they weren't on the schedule for next Saturday for the girls event because uh you know business had been so good so um all all in all just two two great events and um and you know just proud to see the town turn out in that way okay thanks yeah I just to jump on some of the stuff I you know when the the idea of having the jambur you know by the high school in Center town by the shops you know I I I knew this is going to be a home run and I'm glad that it's picked up steam and it'll probably continue to move forward so that's great um as far as the Peter Landing Landing event it was really the first time that I had been like out of my car those fields since they've been finished and it it's pretty spectacular uh if you get a chance to go by there and of course Pete you know put a lot of time he talked to Barry quite a bit about uh how to best plan fields and so forth and when I think about the time on the board you know the the fields the adult center which Pete also helped to connect with some of the folks that Mary Beth did the fundraising but he he made the connections with the Blakes um and then you know the um the DPW you know those are three things that you know and I as I look back at my time involved with the select board those are pretty significant things that we did that um everybody's happy about and um you know we the buildings you know we got again the interest rates were so low then it was just great um so the other thing is uh there was a select Board Association meeting for people in rural towns and ly and I were at that event last Saturday and um there was some interesting things that came up um there's some legislation that is looking at trying to get some some uh additional funding for land that's in a town that is really um not not developable you know not developable uh so you know you look at state parks you look at our um Fanny steans and and the national uh uh uh property that that's down by the river and and they talked about um like for I think it was the town of Worthington they said they get about $187,000 from the state for having that Park in their town and then they said that um in um um um Plymouth they have a park in Plymouth they get 1.2 million and so of course people in western Mass are saying what's the formula with us how how do they get 1.2 million for a park there versus the western Mass so that's one thing that we may hear more about because we do have some land that could qualify us um the other thing is they talked a lot about housing and the housing crisis and it's a big uh uh Focus for the governor and um so as we look at our town you know we have some options and there is a a zoning for uh congregate residential housing for seniors for elderly and I'm hoping that that can happen you know that we we can find some places I know that there's uh a 4 acre partiel that maybe that's in walking distance to the senior center that may come up for for sale and um you know that would be a great opportunity for the town um and then also I know folks are looking at what will happen with the middle schools uh for housing and uh again my thing with uh housing for seniors in town who want a downsize would still be to try to have Condominiums so they could transfer their money into um a property that then they could sell at some point later in their life if they need additional money and so forth um so you know they talked about putting out rfps for developers and so um you know hopefully that's something we can think about because housing is you know uh again we you know there's a lot of folks who want to work in town and can't find housing but if we had uh seniors move in into you know sort of e conate housing that it would free up homes for other folks who you know work in the area or work in the town they can move in I know the processing prices have gone up but we do have a lot of smaller homes in town that are hopefully can maybe people can be affordable um okay and the town maners report for May 6 thank you uh so first up on the report is a topic that I bring back every now and then as I have updates uh the pool work and lifeguard situation so work to open both pools is moving ahead quickly the Park and Recreation Department began the process to seek a waiver of the Lifeguard age requirement to increase the number of potential applicants the process involves an application to the local Board of Health and then approval by the State Department of Public Health to allow 15-year-olds to work as lifeguards I'm pleased to say that the waiver has been approved uh this is going to offer us another tool for fully Staffing the pools and then regarding the mechanical and electrical work at Bliss pool the bid had gone back out we saw a decent amount of interest um at the pre-bid conference and we did receed two bids the uh procurement manager is working through the contract process and we expect to be able to move ahead on that work very soon uh Greenwood pool is currently being ready for reopening as well with the standard opening procedures beginning um some Grant news regarding the casino mitigation Grant I'm pleased to say that the recent Casino mitigation Grant application submitted by the town was approved while the money's technically earmarked for Long Meadow we still need to apply for eligible uses the assistant Town manager DPW police and fire all played roles in obtaining this funding the total Grant award is $324,800 and in our Grant application we broke it into two areas transportation and Public Safety through the grant award we're funding phase three of the traffic Cammer project for Dwight Road at William Street Shaker Road at Maple Road Washington Road at mael Road and Long Meadow Street at Bliss Road uh and Long Meadow Street at South Road and Booth Street this will install all the fiber optic cable from Maple Road to the state line and the intersection of Long Meadow Street to at Bliss Road the grant also covers fire fire rescue equipment including Highway and stabilization kits CPR compression device a combination tool and a cardiac monitor this will also relieve some a funding request uh from the ambulance Fund in the fy2 Capital imp Improvement plan uh and the list goes on with a lot of other fire rescue equipment that I didn't itemize here in this report um and then one of the um ones that I think I'm most happy about is a transport the transportation related request we were successful in receiving funding to amend the speed table at William Street in grassy gutter so all this work is going to be moving ahead very soon and regarding the recycling center I'm aware that there's been considerable public conversation regarding the recycl Center hours uh many people had assumed that the center would open on Wednesday April 3rd and begin with Wednesday Saturday and Sunday hours like in years's past the information that was put out by the DPW was that the recycling center would open in April with no solid dates the issue around full reopening relates to staff last season we had a significant staff issue which NE necessitated other members of the DPW to be forced to work overtime to keep the recycling center open this depleted the overtime budget for the Department over the winter we evaluated Staffing options and waited for the wage and classification study to finish with the budget constraints and the inability to hire a sustainability coordinator who is planned to be responsible for administrative functions of recycling we decided to continue with the status quo and post for the part-time recycling attendant positions the positions were posted interviews were held two candidates have been hired and in the process of onboarding we need one more person to reach full Staffing level but we anticipate to be able to to open uh soon full schedule soon which um would at this point just be the addition of Sunday it's open on Wednesdays and Saturdays right now um an update on the bid protest for the L uh water main project and Sewer work at the conclusion of the bid Pro protest at sorry at the conclusion of the bid process for the town's Water and Sewer replacement work related to the L project we were subject to a bid protest the lowest bidder who we disqualified protested our disqualification to the Attorney General's office while the bid protest was pending with the Attorney General's office we were unable to move forward with the one a to move forward with the project uh after hearing in late Mar after a hearing in late March we received a decision last week that the Attorney General's office rejected the bid protest so we're now moving forward with the contract with to the second low bidder as a reminder this work needs to be completed in advance in advance of the L project which is being funded through the transportation Improvement program um looking ahead for our fy2 goal setting I I wanted to gauge the board's interest in holding a select board retreat to spend a day or a half day focused on goal setting and other topics I Envision this taking place after the new select board is seated I've spoken with a facilitator who came highly recommended from another Community the facilitator has extensive experience working with Massachusetts municipalities on this topic so what I would ask is I'm just going to um uh present this here to you tonight just in this Town manager report and have you think about it and then I'd bring it back at the next meeting just for more conversation and um hopefully some direction and then um as Josh had mentioned in selectboard comments an update on the Middle School building project we reached a milestone actually about an hour or two ago uh with the submission of the um uh preliminary design proposal or program I'm sorry preliminary design program uh so last week Wednesday May 1st the building committee hit uh this Milestone by approving the preliminary design program submission to the mass School building authority the submission to msba includes a full evaluation of existing conditions at Glenbrook and Williams a report on recent educational visioning activities an assessment of existing and needed programmatic space and a comprehensive education plan uh most importantly the submission includes a summary of preliminary design options the slide deck from the May 1st presentation is linked in my report uh and its information is also regularly available on the Middle School building project website which is linked right off the town's main page happy to answer any questions that you might have thanks yes Josh how is it is a retreat in uh open meeting law do we post it okay you post it and you respectfully ask that um members of the public and press uh either do not attend or um are respectful of the conversation that happen so that we can have some sort of informal dialogue without fear of it being on a front page of a newspaper do we stream so we don't stream it suppose the last one we did we did at bayth Tom you yeah yeah we did it with Bernie Lynch I think we did it at bayth yeah and um and it went pretty well is that the individual they recommended or no no okay all right because he he he did a nice job but um yeah I think it should be a five day no I'm Hawaii but I'll have everyone send an emails well the thing is you know if it is if you to add that Retreat to all the other things that select board members do um it has to show up when they look at you know compensation you know we've talked about compensation for every job in town except the select board and now that I'm leaving I can speak out about it you know the worst the people what people always complain about is oh here's this person there asking for a raise for the job they're in so I am not going to be in this job but I think that you know as we look through I guess I could ask the town manager how did it slip by that the select board wasn't evaluated to see if they should be earning extra money compared to other towns so normally um compensation for elected officials is handled through your Charter and it would be covered in your Charter review process you're not on the town's pay scale okay you're not you're not part of our we classification plan so it's generally you would have something in your Charter requiring every 5 to 10 years wages for um elected officials be annually or be reviewed on some sort of schedule 5 10 years um and there's usually a a process spelled out in your Charter I don't believe we have anything in our Charter so I'm imagining your stiens are set by bylaw no they're just the annual town meeting just in the budget because I know where did the dollar amount come from at some point somebody picked it once 50 years ago and it's would have been the 1700s and and it's just continued through because I know a few years ago people maybe remember the town meeting somebody stood up and said I think the town moderator should get a raise and they voted her a raise th% raise yeah maybe Tom can do that in the fall yes not this meeting I can't do it this way I mentioned when I was leaving his chair I think the chair should get paid more because there is extra work but well too bad you didn't say that in town meeting last year no you could but uh but that is uh something to be any other questions about the I had I had one quick question on the recycling center so School commit doesn't um so Lynn right now it's Wednesday and Saturday the recycling center is that what we were saying but yes what was the note we got today from Lisa I saw an email today from Lisa that said they're going to be they're now they've now got full St yeah I don't think I went to everyone um so Lynn if is there a possibility that we could and I don't know if this is favorable or not but I'm just thinking there' probably be more interest to have the recycling center on Saturday and Sunday but I don't know if that poses uh uh issues with staff yes and that's probably the reason right okay Wednesday so there was an email and I apologize it went to it went to Irwin pers who's the head of the recycling committee and it says it's from leis oxen who's the business manager at DPW I'm happy to report the recycling center will be going back to normal 3 days and hours starting Wednesday so this Wednesday so and she just goes on that they've gotten their full Staffing people so she's updated the hours on the web web page so this Wednesday apparently it's going back to full time well I know the last meeting I know I mentioned that and um one of my neighbors for job got a job so I hope people are listening you know so if we have any other staff meeting uh needs we should mention them in our our meetings um the other thing is of course the mitigation for the uh Casino I have my MGM water here because I I did go there listen to some music and so um we thank MGM for not forgetting us um all right the next thing is we need a motion to approve the minutes of March 18th so move a second a second okay any discussion no all those in favor all right now the long meow Community television agreement um is on the agenda but due to State filings um lcv has requested we postpone this agenda topic until May 20th so we'll do that um the next thing is can you continue the discussion about the shade tree regulations um so so this is you know we met at our last time we looked at the first draft of the public shade tree regulations and the board made some comments for suggestions and revisions and you know there's an updated version of the regulations that were on the agenda tonight uh Leah griov the tree Warden is here tonight along with members of the tree committee to answer additional questions on the proposed regulations um and so I don't know if if we should start with Leah if you um have any comments in addition to what we heard last time h i um yeah I think I wrapped it up for the most part pretty well in the executive summary that I had submitted um most of the comments I received at your last meeting in April seemed you know fairly kind of more like um you know changing some of the language around uh keeping content the same but making it a little bit more clear um spelling out some words like right away rather than leaving it as R uh the the main question that was kind of left open-ended a last we spoke was regarding uh you know the conflict of there being um you know the right of way pruning that's required under the town's General bylaw I think that was yeah chapter 29 259 article 3 uh regarding requiring residents to maintain 7 ft of clearance um so I had met with the Building Commissioner um Paul hey Sean and Karen and we all kind of sat down and talked about uh good ways to kind of move forward with that so that way there's consistency um you know the proposal that we all agreed on and felt would be appropriately uh manageable in terms of workload was um keeping the language as is in the proposed regulations before you and then at fall town meeting proposing to amend the general bylaw to reflect um you know that management is for public uh privately owned shrubs and trees that are encroaching onto town uh RightWay and then in that interim period between um you know if and when these regulations get adopted and then if and when the bylaw revision is made that period that it would exist between now and then I'll work with the um zoning code enforcers to make sure that if we run into these situations we can um take them Case by case the Building Commissioner didn't feel that they were um frequent scenarios that are that his Department runs into um you know we're not going in there laying the hammer down making you know being firm on violations regarding this you know it's a new process it's a learning process and so um we just want to make sure that there's understanding of the this process and um you know it's certainly stuff that I can handle for the most part um anything really within 7 ft height I can manage or tackle and if I can't you know I can get someone out there you know a train contractor out there I've done this already in a couple occasions it's primarily lyen trees that I've seen they sprout out like crazy they grow low branches is it's their genetic so um you know people contacted me and said can you come clip it back and I'm I've got you know I'm happy to go out and do that I think that's within my um you know jurisdiction as tree Warden to go do that for them so um like I said there really isn't too terribly much that they see on their end for that there isn't too many times that I've seen that on my end so I think um personally that it's um the best way to go forward and that's you know the group kind of landed on that and I'm happy to um hear other revisions or if you have any comments regarding that um that proposed option for the pruning okay thanks Leah just one thing um you know on Section six number four um you know I I still as I read this I mean I think I have to have a lawyer to understand that it's going to be more than $500 I mean you know it it says any violation should be punishable by forfeiture of not more than $500 I just think after that we really need to say plus C paragraph below or something you know uh or additional charges um to the town plus you know I don't know I just think something has to be there I I because you they can read that then that's they're stuck on that and then all the rest of we talk about you know two and a half times the amount of the inches of the diameters of trees that were cut down but um I I I don't think the average person reading this would think it's going to cost him more than $500 and I I brought that up last time and I don't see the problem with adding something like plus C paragraph below or I got a question I can I can work with Karen and see uh if there's you know a better way to kind of word Smith that section I moved around um in it so instead of making the sentence start with in addition we kind of moved that around but um I didn't you know I can work with her and see if maybe there's a better way that we can have that be more clear yeah just CU most people are going to just see that and that's they're going to stop and say well and we had someone here said well then I'll just just charge me $500 if I'm building a $800,000 house what do I care about $500 um if I can H my driveway exactly where I want it um you know and you know forget the trees I you know I like I said the last when we had the tree hearing trees are not like telephone poles you just pluck them out so yeah I have a note on my on my copy how can we I don't understand how we can go above $500 have we run this by a j yes this did this went before Town Council and I had um I had reached out to a couple of other tree wardens the one in Brooklyn and the one in Northampton and had asked um because I had also read the section in um Mass General law 87 where it mentioned fines and establishing fines and the way it was explained to me was in um you know you can establish fines in your own regulations in the same way that for for example Conservation Commission can write a bylaw and establish fines under that bylaw which um you know are in addition to what's required under the state act so that's how it was explained to me I I just to me uh just a plain reading of the statutes if we did bring a fine against someone and tried to collect on a large amount I I I don't see how they would certainly point to that I just would be curious to hear what Town Council has to say how that is possible um and I know that there I'm sure there is uh there can be but we heard from our uh Town Council that there's not much case law on this uh because doesn't come up much um and obviously it's a very old statute if it only had 500 bucks so I'm just I'm curious about that um and then I I was at the last meeting and Leah this is this is great I want to thank everyone who worked on it I think it's uh really important we saw uh this year we love dog hearings and now we love tree hearings and it's this will probably bring us more of them but I'd rather I'd much rather have uh a basis for what we're going to do in place I so I think this is fantastic and I thank you for all your hard work and the tree committee um this is great um I I had a quick note on the draft warrant article uh if we're going to if we're going to be changing it and we're talking about trees we might as well change uh Shrubbery 25931 shrubber to shrubber and trees if that's what we're covering but um my my bigger question was if we're allowing sidewalk clearance up to 7 feet so up to 7 feet could be anything so if we want at least 7 feet we should say that or if we want exactly s feet we should say that up to includes six and includes five um so just we I hope we can be clear on that and then my other question I just the two and a half times amount of the dbh that we're that we're looking at I just um I guess it's unauthorized I just want to make sure we're all we that could be a huge amount of money if we're for that then then that's fine but I guess we're not springing on people so they'll know that it's an issue and that's the point so maybe I just convince myself um and then I had one more question on the waiver the waiver for the removal that's only if you're repairing or replacing a building it's not you can't Grant waivers otherwise is that am I reading that correctly the yes um not necessarily just buildings but I would I would include Utilities in that um it's similar language from the wetlands protection act where it's um if something's already lawfully existing so if somebody needed to um you know redo their sewer line and and have it completely taken out and replaced um you know they would be allowed to go through that process they still would likely need to go through a tree hearing I would assume but um would then be able to be waved of any kind of mitigation because this doesn't you know it's not like somebody's just trying to go in and improve a Vista View or or you know something like installing um if we're seeing a lot of installing solar panels you know the new structure like that wouldn't be exempt but um you know things like utilities overhead wires um houses patios sidewalks um so maintaining replacing but not you know if they were to expand or go into the right of way to expand a driveway for example um the expanded part of the driveway would not be exempt from the waiver okay that was really my question so the waiver you can't just grant it willy-nilly not you but if we have like a tree Warden who comes in and says I hate trees they can't Grant waivers based on this it's only it's very specific so i' want to confirm thank you yeah and I think the good news is that in all these years we haven't had any hearings tree hearings so um you know Leah you know you did a great job I thought with the last one um and I you know our prior tree Warden would must been doing their job appropriately in the tree committee is there anything the folks on the tree committee would would like to add could you you want to step up and you have any comments yeah okay Captain absolutely okay okay I was here for the last meeting as well if you just introduce yourself again I'm sorry just introduce yourself oh I'm sorry uh Lou cornette uh relatively new member of the tree committee um I was here last time and and Mark was talking about uh the difficulty of sometime interpreting some of the rules and regulations by the average homeowner and um I spoke with Corin and Le about this there is a frequently Asked question section that's that's part of this on the website and it kind of deals with taking things out of the legal framework and answering some of those questions a little more detail and a little bit easier to understand language so to me that's that's important I'm asked those I've only been on the committee for a little while and I'm already getting questions from residents about this that and the other thing so that's an important part I think that we are looking at is just making sure that we have the regulations and they're legally enforcable and solid regulations but at the same time we have an ability to communicate the kind of problems that people have such as you know is this a town tree or or my tree so we're working hard on that as well yeah well it's really important to have residents involved in this process you know to help us make sure that we're not getting too far out of out of whack with with how we approach things um you know one of the things that came up you know is the differences in trees you know that U there were some trees were taken down and you know the maples seem to fall more likely than Oaks and do you guys talk at all about that in your committee about the differences in terms of trying to determine which trees should not should be protected I'll let Leia take that in more depth but that that meetings I've been to and as a volunteer I attended most of the meetings in the last couple years that's certainly a topic on the table about what trees we should plant where which ones have you know survived test of time uh power lines various things and sometimes trees are very fashionable uh and in fashion they should say um but the test of time says they don't work well in our community leer do you want to talk about that yeah um I can say that primarily when I do tree inspections and I have to do a removal that you know is a high risk risk of um you know highrisk of consequence um typically the Norway Maples and the shoker maples are you know it's it's likely going to be one or the other um the norways when they we which we do not plant they're on the Massachusetts no plant list they're an invasive species but um you know when they start to fail they go fast um and and tend to be brittle and crack uh the sugar Maples not only do they not handle Road Sal and so of course we have a lot of those up on the Meadow Street um I can you tend to see them down um you know Williams Street some of these busier roads uh then when they go fast as well because of the road salt but they are also are um you know showing that they don't handle climate change very well they're starting to we're starting to lose their um temperature range that they like to Man live in um so they're moving further and further north so between warmer temperatures increased Road salts things like that um you know the sugar Maples they just aren't standing to the test of time um but we also uh and a big thing that I wanted to include in these regulations was the um you know really trying to emphasize right tree right place um you know we all have our biases I have trees that I love and I have trees I see around town that I absolutely can't stand um but it's not my job to take down trees I don't like it's sh down the ones that are higher risk and so I wanted to make sure um you know for any future tree Warden if we were to run into um somebody who maybe have those biases um you know it's really in there that you once a tree is kind of at 30% or higher in um around town to try and and limit the planting of that as much as possible so um we have much higher than 30% Naples in Long Meadow so um they really aren't ones that I like to plant you know sometimes people will say can I put this in if they're requesting the plant themselves and I'll offer Alternatives that might be similar um you know similar fall colors or similar in the broad beep shape aspect but um you know I I just really think we got to take that turn towards right tree right place um because that's how we're going to have the species that last longer and really increase the survivability of the um the saplings and the smaller trees that the newer trees that we're planting is um you know setting them up okay and Leo would we have to put that in writing or is that something anyone with a forestry background would would feel like that's what we should do regarding the 30% yeah I believe that is in the regulations it's not firm because I don't quite know how intensively we can enforce that um me see if I can find planting tree planting oh boy tree selection factors that the tree were so I'm on page seven uh it's the fourth paragraph in section of Part B section one the tree Warden shall keep species diversity to a maximum of 30% dominance the maximum extent practicable okay great thank you Mark gold yeah I I don't have any question I think it's a great job the the one I guess conclusion I've made from this is that you know without a policy like this uh and we've I I hesitate to say this but we've kind of left the pruning of of tree belt trees to to Residents because we haven't put a a lot of money into it if we're going to start enforcing having not allowing residents to trim the tree belt trees it may come down to us needing to spend more money for the town to trim the trees because we're likely to get the calls when people realize hey I can't do that anymore and and it's just something to be aware of it's part of our budgeting overall budgeting process potentially yes Dan um agree agree with everyone's comments um again appreciate everyone on the tree committee as well um all your input Leah as well um one of the things I'm thinking because also on the agenda tonight you know we've done some of these inserts for utility bills I feel like this is a really good opportunity once this is set in stone to put this in a utility bill insert so um residents understand the changes that have been made and and to Mark's point we actually have a policy now that's uh um going to be in place soon so I think that could help um you know solve some of the issues with residents maybe some of the questions they might have and just kind of wild wild west just cutting things down um so maybe that's something that the tree committee want to wants to take a look at in the future for um submitting that request and I've done that for other towns um on the Wetland side of things where we went and we made a a trifold type thing and handed those to local realators and and people who might be selling your Wetlands for example that explains our bylaw and how the wetlands are protected um and in local um you know Wetlands contractors so I think you know if the tree committee would be interested in taking this on and and work with me on it maybe doing something similar but targeting you know potentially realators and also local landscaping companies as well because I know sometimes if they're out there and they're Mowing and the resident asks for a trim you know they might unknowingly go ahead and trim and we'll want to avoid that as much as we can okay thank you Leah thank you um you know it's great to know that there is a place on the website that for question frequently asked questions so people can always go to that what's the time frame we adopting this now well I mean if we have to get some revisions you know if we have to do a couple I mean is this something we're going to Target for the next meeting or well we could either do that or we feel that do you want to see what the Town Council has to say exactly about the I I am curious I don't I'm not saying do it now I'm just wonder what the time frame is yeah so then we could bring it up in the next meeting that's fine you know if that's all that's holding us up so all right great thank you thank you Le um all right so that's our tree policy my computer's not happy for some reason but I'm I'll make it through um okay the uh the next thing is the town meeting Article Five okay we all received a memo from Lynn was attached the agenda um and she sent us an email Also regarding Article 5 and some changes which um are good changes you know because the the curriculum that they're discussing is going to cost less money but now we just have to figure out how we work it out on the floor so then thanks um if you wouldn't mind I'll read the memo just so the public has some understanding of what this discussion is so um Article Five on the upcoming annual town meeting warrant is to fund a new liter Elementary literacy curriculum as you may know LPS initiated a review of the elementary literacy curriculum in the 2022 203 school year and activated a formal curriculum review pilot and adoption process in October of 23 originally a review and pilot committee plan to make a final recommendation to the school committee at the end of May 2024 however this group met on Thursday May second and recommended an option that will cost less than the requested $495,000 um curriculum that was just a placeholder at the time the curriculum being recommended to the school committee is quoted to cost $270,500 64 leaving $224,400 School Committee Member will make a motion to amend Article 5 on the floor of town meeting to reduce the funding amount should Article 5 pass as amended this will leave FY 2025 funds available for another use I'll lay out a few considerations that I would like you I would like to discuss with you the first of which is the state's FY 2025 budget is still being debated there could be changes to the state aid numbers that could positively or negatively affect the town's budget lowering or increasing Revenue projections we want know until the state's budget is passed right uh the amount of article 12 rais in appropriate could increase to more closely fully fund the wage and classification study implementation option three the funding source of Article 13 could be changed from available funds in the treasury to raise and appropriate the balance of the funds could remain Al unallocated and we could re-evaluate once the state budget has passed see item number one for why and um the fourth option would be replace the funding that has been cut for OPB Andor Capital this option requires a lot more discussion and movement of Warrant articles at the town meeting my recommendation is to move forward with number three and then I would ask for a vote of Select board and then we would prepare a motion to amend to be read by a select board member for Article 13 at the town meeting okay first question is in terms of the state budget is this a variable that happens because I know we usually set our everything up for town meeting and then but this is yes we do it based on our best projections the state aid numbers we get but then it makes its way through the house through the Senate um through the governor and um just with the precarious uh Revenue estimates lately we're not feeling very positive that our Revenue our state aid number is going to stay where it is it's less than it was last year um it was a 1.14% increase uh and it it's it could be reduced further uh I don't feel confident that it would be increased at least where we are right now okay great Mark yeah Tom I think you might not have been at the meeting one of this one of the things that I mentioned earlier was that the state aid is not going to be what we put in the budget okay it's either more or less and and in the past we've kind of lived with the difference and if it's more it's great it turns into free cash if it's less you scramble and have to do a budget change in my my suggestion at the time was we and it was part of what was in Article 5 and a few other things was because we deferred if you recall we deferred the fire truck funding we deferred some other capital projects was that we wait until the fall town meeting and have if you will uh budget true up which would be based on the actual you know state aid okay this would add another $224,000 plus or minus based on that and the more I think about it and the more that this has occurred I think the more you know more uh I would advise that we do that because we really ought to be adjusting our budget in the fall and setting a tax rate based on an actual budget not based on an an estimated budget so I mean we' we've we've never gotten what we projected to get but we've never adjusted the budget either okay now you know M as I thought about this one of the things that we didn't discuss this year that we had been discussing pretty frequently and in the past quite a bit uh is the taxes going up 2.5% and you know we had had recommendations from the finance committee to to never put it at 2.5 to keep it below that because we were going to you know hit this ceiling and it was going to break through and we didn't hear anything about that this year Well the reason is because the tax ceiling which was four years out is now 11 or 12 years out yeah and so and also because in order to get a balanced budget we used the the the town had to use the full 2 and 1 12% right clearly there's nothing wrong with coming in less than 2 and a half% but again a lot dep you I go back to a lot depends on the state aid you know and and so we have you know no matter what we do now at this Springtown meeting that's not what's what the state's going to give us and so we ought to take a look at we've got OPB unfunded we've got the capital project for for some security cameras we've got the fire truck we have a couple other things that we we pulled money out of and and we got to address it we've got to address those things and I don't know that we can address them now because we don't have the money to do it so I just say let's stick with what we got and plan is to fix it in the full you know really go in the fall when we know what the budget's going to be okay any other comments about these four options feel strong so so Lynn can you uh explain a bit more but uh the the effect on the budget and what will happen in the fall option three versus uh just letting it sure letting us Che up in the fall sure so option three doing it right now um takes that funding from free cash that we're using and uses the operating budget instead so as we go to build out FY 26 budget it's not as much of a gap that we're trying to make up because we had already um filled that Gap with operating funds um option number four and I I guess I would add some hybrid between those two we could do as Mark is suggesting by kind of taking a wait and see approach continuing with Article 13 as it is use free cash that's they're not going to spend all of that money July 1st or even even August so we could continue to reassess the budget situation by the time we get to fall town meeting we'll know what the state aid numbers are really going to look like and we could decide at that point we want to put some of that into Fire operating and then they would stop using free cash that would then turn back over for the end of fy2 um it's really just six and one half dozen of the other to some extent um now I apologize if I didn't if I said option four I didn't mean that I I I meant you said three okay good yeah well three for three is the fire one oh yeah no I wasn't comparing three or four I don't I don't think option four is good I I I'm glad you brought it up uh I don't think that's what we need to do because we don't need to do that now so yeah so the one thing to point out though with option three is um the the money that's left the the difference of the literacy money what versus the $495 that we had budgeted it will leave us like $25,000 roughly the fire department um line is 196 I think if I remember right 166 oh so there that's even better than what I was thinking so there would still be significant funds that would remain kind of unallocated that that we could wait and see what happens in the fall too although who knows that might be enough and that might not even be close that's what I'm worried about yeah I mean that 60 Grand is good to play with but we uh from was at a event I was talking to uh a state senator from a different district and he said yeah well you know good luck yeah and that's what that does that makes me nervous and I I just the two years I've been on the board the two other budgets we were blessed at the when the state aid came in and I'm a little nervous when we're the opposite of that and so um you know you guys have been in the Golden Age with me uh it's going to be interesting what what happens here um so I do like the idea of keeping flexibility and which we already did a bit we kicked some things down the road with the intention of funding them um but yeah I'd like to I think keeping as much flexibility as we can with the idea that it can be allocated in the fall if I'm understanding correctly ly um I think that that's a good way to do it okay and L you had something to yeah I I don't I just I don't want to cause alarm either I mean we don't know what's going to happen in the fall um and we face this every single year we're just calling it out right now uh and this is actually a good problem to have we have money that we could use towards this problem but I also U Want to point out if we do get into a dire situation like that there are other options besides um what we're going to use this money for that you know you do hiring freezes you do um things that you don't normally want to do but you know that happens if if we do face a substantial cut like that Mark you know I I I think my my personal opinion is leaving things as they are gives us maximum flexibility and and in fact November you know by the time we get it implemented so maybe we're five months into the into the new fiscal year we won't have used all of that money and we could make that change I I just think given what gations the state's going through the the maximum flexibility we can leave ourselves gives us a lot better leeway than backing ourselves into a corner right now so that's my opinion okay so ly let's just make this clear so there's going to be a motion from the school committee you know to make an amendment um on Article 5 and then we could make a change to Article 13 or no it we could yeah you can do nothing you can leave it alone okay just Article 5 will change that's the only change that would happen okay if you I I wanted to be transparent in letting you know there were other options if you wanted to use that money a different way and those options don't go away you just we'll have to wait till fall toown meeting to exercise them okay so we don't need to plug that that those numbers into another article and on the floor of the town meeting you don't have to do it this meeting I just wanted to make sure you were aware of what was going to happen so that if you sat there and questioned where's this other 224 going to go wanted to make sure we had this conversation before town meeting so that if you did want to make an adjustment at Spring Town meeting you could do that okay so besides the numbers on Article 5 changing will it change any of the other numbers in the not as it sits right now okay well we can't change the warrant at this point anyway so it' have to be on the floor right right so uh Lyn on if we we and I'm just trying to think all this through is the so if we do say change 13 that helps you the budget will have less of a gap for operating for next year to make up yep is that do you think that that is worth taking away some flexibility in the fall depending on how the state budget comes in um I think it will help but it's too hard to say remember Josh it may only have a onethird of impact because in the fall we may choose to make this change then and we're still going to move two thirds of it so right it's even less than yeah I I'm curious what the other Golden Boys think Golden Boys hey it's been all good for us no no I I think that we amend or you know have school committee amend Article 5 if the vote passes tomorrow and leave leave the warrant as as is I think I think just I I'm also for retaining flexibility and it seems like the option to amend Article 13 to make it closer to our operating budget the pros of doing that just aren't necessarily there to take away uh the potential flexibility that we could have so mhm okay yeah and I I would just say having we don't know what the state what the state funding uh is going to look like probably isn't good um gives us a a bit of a buffer going into you know into the fall um so I mean I I like the option that Lynn you know brought forward but while I'm here we might as well ask Ian as well did we miss anything or is there any are you in agreement as well I'm in agreement yeah I think flexibility is important nowadays especially when the budget's been as tight as it has been this year if anything we want to extend as much as possible in order to make sure that next year the issues that could pop up aren't as difficult all right great and again you know for those of you who at home you just remembering back you know that the school department did a great job of keeping their budget to 3% and then this you know a little bit of an add-on and the town has done a great job of covering everything um so we you know so this will just help us and and I guess I'm agree with everybody else we'll just wait and see what happens tomorrow night with the school department and then uh you know we won't have to make any changes and if I if I could just give a boots on the ground update we you know we still need this to pass uh and I it's yeah we're assuming it will uh but my my kids have just finished the two uh option for the literacy program and they they loved them both and they were both of them were a massive Improvement and it's really important that these do go through um we had an old system that from what I've heard from the school committee and my friends and teachers was it was outdated and it's really important but this they this is a great program and uh it's very important that we get it through yes to Josh's comment the finance committee recommended against the passage of Article 5 finance committee sometimes holds a lot of sway town meeting and sometimes they don't but they made that recommendation based on $475,000 and so the question is should we ask the finance committee who was considering meeting before the town meeting to go in and and evaluate what they might think with the number to be $270,000 in 400 instead of $475,000 because that could be important to have them speak differently and I think unless somebody asks them to review this especially if the if tomorrow night the school committee adopts this I think that's important I don't know whose position it is to go ask the finance committee but maybe it's Ian I don't know but but I just wanted to point that out because because it's it's a big deal I I agree I think it's fair it's the only you know they they voted on one thing and it's changed if it changes tomorrow it would be fair to give them another crack at it and you know before they get at town meeting you know yeah and and the finance committee vote was very close it was four to three to not recommend it and I know that most of the conversation amongst the folks that voted to not recommend it was about the process and um and so you know I don't know how the dollar amount might change their conversation on it but it is a conversation they should have because I do think you know close to half a million is a lot different than something in in the 200 thousands um yeah and then you know I think even last year with the with the 88 playground vote they initially voted to not recommend the 88 playgrounds and I think they met maybe just like minutes before town meeting and and switch their recommendations so it's definitely possible for them to meet again and do that yeah I I just had a question on the process can they can they vote knowing that amendment's coming can they meet or do they have to look at the warrant they already did me to vote on the warrant I think I they can do anything they want to I think and and remember that if there's no Amendment on the floor of the meeting they they won't have to say anything but based on what we expect to be a vote by the school committee tomorrow that's a pretty good indication that there's going to be an amendment brought before the town meeting Josh and so I think that would be the basis by us going to them and saying you know you want to take another look at I and could they meet on the they do that all the time they meet 10 minutes before town meeting yeah I was wonder if they could do that or meet on the floor even they can make an additional recommendation on the floor of town meeting so can they vote then no they would have to vote prior they have to vot Prior but for instance the warrant was printed as not recommended but if information changed then they can vote on a new recommendation yeah I think if uh yeah I think we should try yeah I think it's a good idea great so I'm taking that as a consensus that you'd like Ian to reach out to the finance committee to just let them know what's happening you know I'm not going to here we don't appoint the finance committee but understood but you know they ought to know that there's a because up until today we didn't even I at least I didn't know that this was coming okay good so we'll move on to the next item and um you know we have a memo attached to your agenda from The Adult Center Director jim leaden on a request to increase the Council of Aging uh revolving account limit and you know they want to increase at $250,000 for the remainder of the 2024 the most recent vote of the select board to approved this increase was last June which is for fiscal year 23 town meeting approved the revolving account at 150 for fiscal year 24 which is 150,000 this is why this request is coming forward to the board tonight the finance committee also approved this request at their previous meeting and the town meeting warant for fiscal year 2025 has a revolving account set at 250,000 so to reflect necessary increases moving forward and so they're just looking for this to make it through the rest of this fiscal year right yes correct so we would need a motion to now I'll move I'll move we authorize an increase in the councel on agency revolving account an increase to $250,000 second okay any further discussion see none all those in favor okay I people at home should know that this represents you know if they do one or two additional trips they're bringing in more money and you know it's it's not like changing their budget it's it's more turnover in in programming so it just means they're more successful good thank you um so now the quarterly investment report Our Town treasur collector Erica Brunell is in attendance to present the quarterly investment report for the previous quarter and the report and supporting information is also included on tonight's agenda and here's Erica good evening can you hear me yes we can thankk you good evening I'm here tonight to submit my quarterly report for the status of the town's cash and Investments for the period ending March 31st 2024 as for the investment policy the town held no long-term Investments That exceeded the 5year limit the individual Bank balances were under the $20 million balance provision all banks received the highest safety rating of Green from verbank and all accounts are fully insured or secured the Third of fiscal year 2024 has been very stable with interest rates with one notable increase from Newberry Point savings bank which saw an increase from 4.5% to 5.10% the treasurer and assistant Treasurer are closely monitoring interest rates and moving funds to the appropriate accounts that will optimize Investments and the create the best Returns the last quarter ver Bank reported a yellow rating for new vport Savings Bank and I'm pleased to share that Newberry Port Savings Bank returned to a green rating this quarter the opep pension Reserve fund experienced a gain in quarterly interest the quarter ended with a net increase of $249,300 and the 30 March 31st balance in the fund is approximately $7.9 million um the treasures office will continue to seek the best possible interest rates and diversify funds appropriately to maximize potential Investments while being in compliance with Massachusetts state laws and regulations we will also continue to closely monitor all accounts to ensure the safety and security of all Investments anyone have any questions yes Mark gold has a question yeah Erica thanks I I have nothing particular it's more philosophical or operational and you know what what we hear is that that the FED is threatening to lower interest rates and they they held off a little bit and and if you look at the interest rates we have money invested on it it's it's pretty wide range and I guess the question is is you know does the treasurer's office look at the potential of lower interest rates and do we have the opportunity to try to get longer term you know Investments to lock in these interest rates beyond what the FED may be doing to try to cut rates I know they didn't cut rates this time and they may not even cut them the next time but you know that's everybody's goal so the question is is what are we doing to try to lock in interest rates at the highest we can for as long as we can so I reach out to a lot of our bank Representatives um pretty regularly just to keep in the loop of what the current rates are um and I have Representatives that will reach out to me via email um pretty continuously just letting me know if they have any specials that come out um as far as the CDs it's a balancing act of just making sure we have the liquidity in the funds as well as trying to take advantage of those interest rates um as far as the bond go or the bond funds we have to be careful with those because of Arbitrage rules so we can't invest too highly with those um all Bond proceeds right now are in account that maximize the foil's potential for interest rates that we can um without going over arbit charge rules so those ones um we have really maxed out what we can gain on them and we'll continue to get the best interest rate because of that um but the CDs um especially um the CPA funds those ones we look at right regly I think this one is a 9 month or a year um so when that comes back up we absolutely we go to all of our different vendors and try and get the best interest rates but keeping an eye on those but I don't want to lock up all of our funds in CDs um yes the interest rates are advantageous but at the same time we want to make sure we have with the funds do we ladder our CDs yes okay thanks okay any other questions all right um do we need to take you approve this so we can have a motion to accept we've done that in the past I'll make a motion we accept the those 2024 third quarter Treasures report second okay all those in favor all right thank you good evening thank you very much have a great night y okay so um the next thing we have is a uh interm Municipal agreement uh we're looking at an agreement with agalon for net metering and this is an initiative that town manager has been working on for the last few years and so we're happy to see that this agreement is being brought forward it's a benefit to us and I'll turn it over to town manager she can explain how it's going to be helpful for TS thank you yes so this is something I've been talking about for a while um we have two two net metering agreements power purchase agreements uh one of them we had made amendments to uh months ago uh and that's a fairly straightforward one it's with the town of Deerfield uh and that um we've already seen the benefit from adjusting by uh reduction in electricity charges at the library most notably um and some other smaller accounts I think the schools might have seen a little bit um but this agreement has been lingering for a while because working with um Beth greenblat who you had a presentation from a while ago um she had experience in another municipality in the eastern part of the state that um allowed the net metering agreement to cash out the solar credits so instead of applying them to your electric bill you were able to accept a cash payment for them and in situations like ours where we were consuming more we were purchasing more solar credits than we were consuming um it is a great solution for us so Beth has been working um on this with us along with our town C Council um in the town of awam uh so the this agreement here is our tall and solar agreement um we are the host Community Agawam is an off-taker of about 49% and uh every month what will happen is instead of it uh applying solar credits to our utility bill it will send us a cash payment from nen the Solar Company will deposit cash deposit a payment into a town deposit account Town accounting here Will do the allocation that's needed and cut a check to the town of agam for their portion so we both are agreeing to cash out our solar credits in order to do this we need an an intermunicipal agreement which is just a standard agreement between municipalities so that if any of us are not here we have this agreement that dictates exactly what's supposed to happen um awam uh had this under review for quite a while uh and they did um finally sign it and send it back and so now it's here with with you guys um a couple things to note uh that I just want to bring up here CU I had some follow-up information if I can get this to load um we will be amending our schedule z um so you see it says attached as exhibit a it's not attached right now um it's really not gerain to this agreement but it will get attached once it's um updated uh and looking for this section three oh so payment of funds um on page four um you see this is what calls out how we're going to pay them um and it will be um in accordance with this with the net metering agreement and our schedules Z allocation so that's just what um tells the I can't get this to load pull it up on go to pull it up you want um no it's an email Beth and I were going back and forth about um and I just want to read you what she had said to me oh I I just asked for some examples examples if we knew what that 49% equated to in dollar amounts just in case that question came up tonight so um 49.13 of the total generation is allocated to awam with the balance to Long Meadow the value of the net metering credit is solely determined by the current net metering rate under the eversource rate schedule for that rate class for example if the net metering credit rate is 0.12 Cent kilowatt hour and the asset generates a total of 5,274 100 kilowatt hours annually the total payment from eversource to Long Meadow would be approximately $633,000 and the approximate amount of the money that long meta would pay agam is $310,000 both agam and long meta would be responsible to pay nen for its contracted amount um and then can you can you just what you just said say that and explain we have to pay new Jin for our contracted amount can you just explain what that um for what we have agreed to buy from them what we are committed to buying from them for our share of their their solar right their solar generation okay well I just so you saying we could cash out and then will those funds be used specifically for like this payment and for other electrical sort of costs for the town yeah we will um I don't they're not uh directed payments meaning we don't have to at least as I know right now we don't have to commit them to something specific at the moment um so it's it's fle it's flexible money in the overall budget yes okay I can see the advantages of that okay um yeah I'm just trying to think of this so we we have a contract we buy credits we don't we can't use all the credits right okay so to explain it further this has been a a problem for many years it really started when we switched from our High Press sodium street lights to LED all of the net metering credit purchases were being charged to that streetlight account because we were um paying so much in utility cost to run those High Press sodium lights so it wasn't an issue well we switched to much lower demand energy with the LED street lights and instead of using those solar credits to pay on the utility bill we were buying all these credits and not being able to apply them to anything and so now we have about $800,000 in credits on a couple uh different utility accounts eversource so it's a good problem to have but it's also a big problem because it's not helping us right now we we need that money to be applied to our energy accounts and um so you can redistribute those credits one time eversource let you do it one time to a bunch of different other accounts I didn't want to do that until we fixed this net metering agreement because if we did that and we didn't have this agreement fixed we were going to be in the same problem in you know 6 months a year okay um and so now that we have this agreement that's going to fix our problem I then can go work with eversource to redistribute those credits to the numerous other accounts the bulk share will probably be the school department because they're there big biggest energy user which will then see a reduction on our utility costs in fy2 how much would this normally build up what's what's the annual amount of credits well when we when we started this we had um when when we became aware of this problem I should say we had $375,000 in credits and how long had it been uh a year and a half oh wow okay we we spent Josh about about $300 ,000 a year in electri oh no about $400,000 a year in electricity on our street lights and we cut that by 3/4 something like that but we were still paying new Jen because we had these power purchase agreement with them so we paid new Jen and they put credits right onto our bills and the credits exceeded the the amount of the bills that was thing I was wondering about because I I'm thinking of my house in the summer I get a lot of solar power and I build up credits and so I essentially never get a bill because in the winter I'm using up my summer credits when electricity costs a lot more is there are we still utilizing our credits in that fashion or is this only for excess I'm sorry is this only excess credits or is it all credits that we're buy can I try we're buying the credits we have are credits on the account and as Lyn said we get one shot to redistribute the because when you get a power purchase agreement you have to put down if you will the the meter number so or the bill number so it goes against specific bills that's what we built up before so we built those up in the future we're not going to get any credits we're going to get a cash payment okay okay but in the credits that we built up we now have to move those out of the accounts have too much credit so we get a one time shot I understand that I'm asking about going forward going forward we don't get any credits we're getting cash we're using we'll get we have one agreement that we will still get credits for you you'll see that on the um like the library account Council and aging it's some smaller accounts it's not as big of an agreement as this one okay that one we're going to continue to maintain this one we are going to cash out okay this agreement will stay in place for 25 years uh and that I mean by all accounts everyone is very happy with this potential setup okay can I one other one other thing is that that with having now remove these this power purchase agreement from these and cashing it out it makes available to the town other potential sources for low or renewable or low cost electricity because you can't can't buy more than you can use but now we're not using this new these new gen credits and so we can now go look at something like solar or for the town or Municipal aggregation or whatever it is but in the past we had you know it turns out we were buying more electricity than we were using for the for these for these accounts now we're buying it's a better balance I guess is the best way to put it yeah and I I think I remember um when you asked about what we're paying nen um nen Cuts us a check we have to then pay them for the credits that we we've purchased so it's like a weird they cut us the check and then we cut them back the proceeds that are due to them and so L These funds like if we wanted to put solar on this building could those funds be used used in that capacity um potentially I don't think well the F funds could be used for any lawful Municipal purpose okay whether it's sold on this building I think the cost of that would exceed what we have for funding um and there's likely other avenues to fund something like that um yeah but this is this is hopefully going to to to be a really big benefit for us um and then certainly the redistributing those credits that are currently existing that's going to help as well two two questions one is is so when we redistribute the current credits it will reduce our current and fiscal year 2025 electrical payments does that mean the budget will that now actual will come in below Budget on those on those accounts it should okay and the second thing is and this is probably for Ian how are we going to show this new gen Revenue are you creating a new line item that is revenue from Power purchase agreement or is it going to be net of what we pay now now there's how is this going to show so that we can see what we're accounting for I mean you could do it both ways in simp in in sense of simplest I think would netting it would be the simplest way but we can certainly make our own line item to show the actual Revenue receives you're the CFO you do how you make sense to you but I think we need show both way both ways work so I can I can show you guys both examples and if one way is confusing then we can I can't imagine we're going to have a preference no we just want to see it on on the budget but that can be done okay so is there something we can vote on tonight is that yeah I I don't see the reason way it sounds like okay just quick question I think this was probably before my time but um how how did we go about choosing the town of agam I mean I'm just like were they willing to work with us or is that you know that before my time too I don't know it was new Jen who came to actually it's Paul pic primarily but I think I was involved in a little bit was going out and saying okay we want to we want to sign this power purchase agreement and they said we have this much volume of of electricity to use and we said well we can only use part of it who do you know who can use more of it and it really needs to be in municipality so they kind of brought agam into the you know into the group got to do that and then the last question is so if we're the I guess I think Lynn you said we're the the host community of of the agreement so um are there any administrative costs or any negative ative costs that we have to um incur based on this agreement just no it'll be just a another account that they process monthly okay just just one um funds will go into a deposit account accounting will just cut a check every month gotcha just like paying a vendor great all right move we enter into a memorandum agreement between the city known as the town of agam the town of long meow for collection and payment of net metering payments okay second we got a second on that no further discussion well all those in favor okay so there we go and I have an agreement here for you to sign tonight okay want get your pens ready think about this about 6 months okay to get million dollars in credits so the next item of uh on the agenda is the opiod uh litigation so as you know the town has received funds due to opioid litigation because um companies made a lot of money by um overmedicating people and and a lot of people died from opiate addiction and so they have now discovered there's two other companies that could be brought into this suit and so Lynn is going to explain what what we should do if we want to participate in this next step in terms of expanding the so just you know we're getting money already and this would expand it if if the litigation is successful with these two other companies that were making quite a bit of money thanks uh so we received a um a communication last week from the national Consortium that's um representing all the government entities in the O the class action opoid uh lawsuits and um uh this is a ask about whether or not the town would uh confirm if we are in agreement to um Amendment complaint to add uh Pharmacy benefit managers as prev page um you did this PR to as to the lawsuit okay okay thank you and so um really if the the board can take a vote or not I don't think it's going to have much in we're one of hundreds of other fish in this Pond um but I did want to bring it to you just in case you did want me to go on record I don't think there's any reason not to we're adding on another potential Li uh defendant and from reading the email it seems like these are small potato middlemen but you know why not yeah $ million that's pretty small yeah among how many litig yeah um I don't know whole other folks feel um I'll make a motion we we approve the the the recommendation to expand our involvement with the op opioid litigation okay I'll Su in that motion any further discussion all those in favor okay I have to exchange just I have a conflict okay conflict it's just over one exstension um but ly in terms of the funds that we do get for this from the opio settlement do we have a a committee that involves parents who lost children or anything like that or people been directly impacted by opio use in town not a um town uh sponsored one uh the closest would be probably the Clos community that um works with the high school um the Board of Health has been the one directly overseeing uses of opioid settlement money MH okay all right because that's something I I mean I you know I don't know but it would be good to have some people who are uh directly impacted you know it's like if you if you look at making decisions that are going to have the best results you want to include people who are going to be impacted the most and so families that have been affected by opat abuse you know should be included in decisions and and I don't know if the health department can can include them in some way you know even as an advisory role yeah they're working right now on a CommunityWide survey that they're um going to be Distributing to get uh feedback from the community on ideas for how to use the funds and then they will be bringing that information back to the Board of Health for discussion that's excellent thank you um all right so in terms of uh the next thing we have is a utility bill insert request and hopefully you folks all saw that um you know that basically it's about battery disposal and I I I was I learned something new about B Le disposal yes I I I was at the recent recycling committee meeting and the reason this is brought up is because the if if the wrong batteries get into our trash disposal or trash system it's potentially problematic I I'll put it that way I mean we've gone through situations where they've literally had to comb through the you know the recycl not the recycling but the uh trash disposal to find certain items because there are sensors at Republic that look for things like this okay and so it's important to the town that people be educated so that they keep things out of their trash that should not be in the trash and that includes radioactive waste Believe It or Not we've had a lot of that and and and you know lithium ion and other and other batteries so uh that that's the reason this is before us and that's the reason they're looking to communicate this more broadly to the people okay so people who have batteries that you know are in the bad list you know um I know there's some places I don't like libr DPW the DP I don't know if the library takes them anywhere but oh they would take but the DPW does do it you can obviously go to the recycling center to do it used to be car Hardware they're not in business anymore but but I you know but essentially you can take them to the DPW along with fluorescent light bulbs and other Mercury containing things like that and they will address it but you can also go down to the recycling center with them that tells you that right here on the battery insert right it says right down there where take them so good um so we need to approve the we have our motion to approve including this insert so move second second okay all those in favor all right and now we have a street closure application we have the friends of store Library um want to Long Meadow Street East of The Community House lot and the um to the east of the Green in front of the community house for an event on Sunday May 19th from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. is there a motion to approve this event okay Tom can I yes I I'm not I'm not opposed to it I'm just not sure exactly what it is that they're requesting because they say one thing in one place and then we we've got two applications which appear to be MH for the same date at the same place at the same time and you know I'm just wondering this is because it says the the area in front of the community house yeah that's very that's that's fine that's not necessarily in front of store's library but I just I could provide Clarity to that so so it's for a um event going on at the library and they're requesting additional parking in front of the community house so they're requesting to close down that area between 10 and three so that they have those spots in front of the community house for their event if they need overflow parking that's the request in it's enti so they're not looking for it for like a street a street action they're looking for it for their own parking just kind of Reser oh okay that's yeah clarifies and there was we uh we have the police chief and the parks and Parks and Recreation director way and there was no conflicts um on that date and and the two applications Mike I didn't I don't know what you mean to well there's a map here oh okay and then there's a request the map doesn't actually mark off where it's going to be but um yeah because the other end of it is it's one way anyway so they would ideally be looking to block off where it starts on Williams um and then utilize that for parking and then once it's full um okay that's it okay thank you Mark like so we have a motion to accept this closure yeah I'll make a motion we approve this the street closure as requested by the uh by store St stores Library yeah second okay all those in favor all right and the next thing we have is a one-day liquor license for St Mary's parish uh application for volunteer appreciation dinner social will be held on May 29th from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. um is there a motion to approve that I'll move we approve the uh St Mary's parish event on May 29th second okay all those in favor okay and then we have a Knights of Columbus Council uh 506 or 5406 um one day liquor license for an event on June 6 from 6:00 to 9 in St Mary's parish is there a motion to improve this one day liqu license move we approve the June 8th 2024 kns of Columbus uh one day elor license application second okay all those in favor okay all right well any comments on our correspondence that we've gotten um I mean it look pretty straightforward um and if there isn't any comments then I guess we can look through the next thing is our our next meeting is the 20th uh I will not be in that meeting and Josh will you be the chair it's my solemn duty of course yeah no wiggle room no wiggle room yeah I'm glad you'll be available all right um so other than that we look for a motion to adjourn so move okay second all right all those in favor okay good night thank you we'll see you on the 20th 7 o'clock