##VIDEO ID:l3s7UEwpMlY## for for that for for for for that for that for for for is I keep are you ready for me yes I am okay stand by five four 3 2 1 Welcome to the September 3rd 2024 meeting of the long medal select board this is Select board chair ven haavi I will be confirming that all members and persons anticipate on the agenda are present and can hear me Members when I call your name please respond in the affirmative Dan zero here Andrew lamb here Mark gold here Josh LaVine yes here sorry staff when I call your name please respond in the affirmative Lyn Simmons here Mike barbier here this open meeting of the long meow select board is convened in person and Via Zoom webinar as posted on the agenda and Town's website identifying how the public may join there is no chat or Q&A function all the materials for this meeting are available on the agenda posted on Long meow ma.gov the public is encouraged to follow along using the post agenda unless I note otherwise this meeting will feature resident comment for residents attending the meeting person please raise your hand when we get to the comment section of the meeting and I will call on you to approach the microphone for residents participating in the meeting via Zoom webinar format please use the raise hand icon at the bottom of the screen the meeting moderator will promote you to panelists unmute you and give you permission to speak if you join the webinar by phone dial Star 9 to raise your hand and star 6 to mute unmute residents who wish to speak will identify their names and addresses only each individual is afforded 3 minutes for comments please note that the meeting is being recorded and that some attendees are participating by video conference please remember to mute your phone or computer when you are not speaking if anyone in attendance is recording this meeting please announce yourself now no one online nope okay great all right we will now begin with the pledge of allegiance of Al of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with libery and justice for all all right great well uh we are going to start today's meeting with a presentation from the pvpc and I want to thank members of the energy and sustainability committee for joining us for that presentation so looks like you all have a quorum so if you all want to open up your meeting I'll give you guys a moment to do so we've got quite a nice turn out the energy and sustainability committee to help hi Andrea Chason chair of the energy and sustainability committee my address is 236 crvw Circle and we have quite a nice turnout and I think should we have everybody introduce themselves I you may need to uh someone may need to make a motion to open up your meeting and then you can take roll call and then we can proceed I move second you could just do hand votes since they in person okay great so I mean I don't I'm here Greg Greg link um Gary LaVine Doug Taylor Bryant Miller I think we're only missing two people okay great all right so um the select board and the energy sustainability committee are meeting together tonight to receive a uh presentation from uh Mim Klan who's the senior land use and environmental planner with the pvpc and the objective of this presentation is uh to do a reduction scoping of greenhouse gas emissions and this process um which we're starting tonight will hopefully lead to a place where we have a plan where we can apply for Grants to actually put some of these um recommendations into action and actually you know start reducing greenhouse gas um in Long Meadow so I believe are you Mimi oh okay hi Mimi for some reason I thought you were joining us by Zoom um oh originally I may have talked about doing that but I was in the office in Springfield so I fig okay perfect well thank you so much for joining us tonight um so yeah so I'll turn it over to you uh to begin the presentation all right thank you yeah I'm happy to be here um happy to be doing this process with um with Long Meadow um so we did receive funding from Department of energy resources es to assist the town with this um so you can go to the next slide um and so it's uh it's uh Regional energy planning assistance is what we get from d and we get it every two years um so we have funding it just took a while to get it and get every you know work everything out and be able to meet so we have until the end of May to do this process to finish this process um so um doar provided funding for communities to prepare for the development of this CommunityWide greenhouse gas emissions reduction plan so you're familiar with green communities I assume the program that you're already involved in which focus focuses on reducing energy use and greenhouse gas emissions from unipal facilities but this is looking at the entire community so to reduce greenhouse gas emissions CommunityWide while also this is Do's language so while also addressing environmental Injustice and empowering community-driven Solutions so the planning includes preliminary scoping work so they didn't give us funding to do an entire plan it's just scoping it um and that's also supposed to include stakeholder engagement Community workshops and then the drafting of the scope of this full plan um and as I said we just need to expend all the funding by the end of May um and deliverables are the scope of work for the full plan I had set out region engagement materials I don't know if I have enough hours for that because I think at this point I'm down to only about 20 hours remaining so it kind of depends on how you want me to use those hours so you can go to the next slide um and I don't know if everybody saw saw this greenhouse gas inventory that was developed um a year ago a little over it was more like a year and a half ago so we contracted so for the last round of this planning assistance from do um they were funding greenhouse gas emission inventories and which Long Meadow signed up for and we contracted with um clean energy extension at UMass and they were the ones that developed this inventory um that uh went through a variety of kinds of data to assess how much greenhouse gas emissions were being emitted from uh well just from electricity building heating fuels and transportation so a bigger plan would also like a state plan the state plan encompasses waste um sewage things like that they didn't include that probably because it's a very very small percentage but also they had trouble getting the data you know for this kind kind of small of a project um so I plan on just kind of covering the highlights of the inventory for this if that's okay I mean if you've all already looked over it and that's not necessary I won't but you it's a few minutes so I figured um because it's you know it's the starting point for looking at okay well if you want to reduce your emissions need to know where you're starting from she wasn't able um Zar ding at clean energy excession she wasn't able to get access all the data you'll see she was missing some for transportation but um so as you can see up there um the greenhouse gas emissions by Source um looked at electricity building heating fuels transportation in both the residential Municipal and Commercial sectors and if you look over on the right um 34% of emissions were from transportation in Long Meadow 40% from electricity use and 20 6% from building heating fuels um and then I also broke it down by sector so about 73% of emissions are coming from the residential sector 24ish per from the commercial sector and 2.7 from the municipal sector so obviously the majority from the residential although commercial is you know almost a quarter um so next slide and feel free to I mean I guess feel free to interrupt with questions if that's allowed otherwise you can ask them at the end um so um this breaks this this slide and this page on the inventory breaks down the um the heating fuel piece the heating fuel emissions um looking at residential 81% of the emissions are from the use of natural gas and again this is so this is from 2020 census data as well as she looked at both census data and assessor data they do vary a little bit um assessor data I think will not unless it's a primary heating Source they will not um record that data and I think that accounts for some of the discrepancy um but 81% natural gas 133% of emissions from heating oil 5% from electricity 1% from wood and propane of course that was four years ago I would assume it's changed a fair amount possibly at this point I don't know how many heat pumps have been installed in the last four years but my guess is the use of electricity would have gone up as a heat Source um and gas or oil would have would have gone down um we won't know until you do a follow-up inventory um and it looks like from 2015 to 2020 emissions didn't really decrease very much for heating um so small amount um so going to the next page next slide um this one looks at um electricity emissions and then Transportation emissions so you did have a pretty substantial decrease in emissions from electricity use um there was some so I didn't fully I I'll be honest I didn't fully understand this um if you include behind the meter solar generation it actually decreases the amount of emissions she explained it I don't fully understand it so we're going to go with that so including that the decrease in emissions in electricity use was almost 19% which was due to increases an efficiency um due to you know probably a lot of Mass Save using a lot of Mass Save programs weatherization those kinds of things decreased usage as well as probably increased use of Renewables um so people putting solar on their homes uh and then Transportation was where we have this Gap so she has emissions from 2015 based on an average of vehicle miles travel this is all from um Mass doot um data and an average fuel efficiency of 20.8 miles per gallon but she was not at the time she did this able to get data for 2020 so unfortunately that's kind of a big gap um I would assume that efficiency has gone up but uh that vehicle mile travels may have decreased due to covid and more people working remotely but it' be very interesting to do this again and find out get that data um so then the rest of the inventory went on to make a number of recommendations and these are General recommendations strategies actions whatever you want to call them that you'll see in most climate action plans are at zero plans um things to reduce emissions from buildings uh promote increased levels of residential weatherization even though I'm sure there's been a lot already more could be done um implementing more energy conservation measures in municipal buildings so keep applying for competitive grants through green communities and other types of Grants um promote transitioning to Air and ground Source heat pumps from oil and gas and that would be for all buildings um you know for residential as well as U Municipal and um you know there's more and more incentives out there for commercial as well um and conducting public Outreach campaigns that would include information about benefits and incentives for all these which I know you have this amazing energy sustainab sustainability committee that already does a lot of this um so um I guess big question will be what more can be done so um next slide um reducing emissions uh in the transportation sector this gets a little trickier um because it involves EVS which I know are not um we're not at a perfect place with them um but recommendations or strategies actions would be to install more EV Chargers um on Municipal property if possible um hopefully more commercial Chargers um increasing EVS in the municipal Fleet and when you think about EVS you could also think of plug-in hybrids as well because there's a lot of those available um and they have really good efficiency even if they're not EVS um promoting EVS to Residents and educating about incentives um and promoting use of bikes and public transportation uh next slide um recommendations for reducing emissions um and uh increasing the use and production of clean energy installing more solar arrays I assume you probably have some already I'm actually not familiar with that um solar arrays on municipal buildings and um property promoting more residential solar and storage um and I don't know where the town is at with Municipal aggregation program if that's in the works or it's already Okay um so there is possibly over time of increasing the percentage of Renewables in the aggregation energy Supply um so the next slide um thinking about what our priorities um what would you want to include in this um reduction plan and eventually in your climate action plan um what are Town leadership goals and priorities for emissions reductions what are Community priorities that's the idea of doing the out reach getting public input um what are realistic goals and timelines for these reductions what are most feasible areas to focus on um and then I guess I'm wondering how will this process coordinate with the efforts to develop a climate action plan which I know is a goal um of your resilient master plan and you and I know that you want just to kind of build into that some uh in some ways so next slide um so thinking about engagement um you know that Doe talks do are talks about partnering with stakeholders which obviously we have the sustainability committee I mean I don't know if there's other organizations um as well as schools businesses question um that would be stakeholders um you know there's all Poss you know number of possibilities for engagement disseminating a survey developing Outreach m material holding stakeholder engagement meetings CommunityWide meetings you know we're kind of past I don't know if if there is any townwide events where we may have missed an opportunity to do some kind of Outreach or there might still be opportunities in the fall for doing some kind of Outreach um and I know you're already doing a lot of um engagement around sustainability so um next slide so coordinating the rest of this process next steps um just looking at roles and responsibilities so we can assist with any type of planning and facilitating of stakeholder and Community engagement and then the main task for us for me would be developing the scope for the plan um and if time you know helping to develop any type of materials for outreach um and then for the town clarifying the goals priorities and strategies for emissions reduction um through your own process and through engagement um and then reviewing the draft scope of the plan and then setting timelines for these um so and then the last slide I just had some resources I imagine that you've already seen a number of Net Zero SL climate action plans I just um linked to some that I've um used I I last year developed a template um for greenhouse gas emission reduction plan that was based on the city of melrose's plan because they worked with MEC as did Arlington um and I like their plan I mean locally East Hampton's just finished one I mean there's a lot that you could use as models so um I I guess leave it there great thank you so much um and I think this is a great starting place and a good kickoff and I know that the next meeting in um you know I think maybe later September or in October you'll be meeting with the energy sustainability committee so yeah we haven't said that meaning yet right I don't know well we can talk about yeah you all um so I know that you know you all will get a chance to engage with uh Miss Kaplan more um so I want to first ask the select board if you all had any questions comments or anything since this is kind of our opportunity to ask questions make comments go ahead Josh on on the EV uh slide I you know in theory I I agree with us putting in more Chargers we have a terrible problem with our rate in town we can't make it cheap enough to for people to want to use it yeah Karen's mentioned that yeah and does the pvcp you know pbpc uh have any uh inroads with the state or with eversource or any of the uh energy bodies that could help get a better rate or facilitate a way to have a way for towns to to be able to get a different rate for that I mean I did see that eversource has some type of plan that I think you can sign up to I sign up for that where you can have a lower rate if you have any information on that please send it because we okay I've been working on this for years and resource terrible to to deal with and they don't explain anything okay and yeah so if you have an in and maybe the person the right person to talk to that'd be great okay yeah can do that thank you markk Josh just to that end there was a great article in yesterday's Boston Globe that I think it was yesterday it might have been Sunday that they took two electric vehicles around Massachusetts to buy ice cream yeah to buy ice cream right that was the the article but they also talked about what it cost to charge the electric vehicles and they were kind of like Long Meadow they were very very expensive to charge at Municipal charging facilities and so it's yeah it's really hard cuz the state's pushing EV so much and they're just behind you know imper system where the dpu hasn't come up with the right if you will tariff for for the electric companies for charging which is part of the problem great thank Greg did I see you so I think go ahead I think one of the things that's happening over here is that we also have a lot of questions we were invited to this to join you in this and we want to kind of pull together what we're doing how this will help and support the things that we're already doing we're excited about about developing a climate action plan I think um if it's possible I already see Hands coming up from the yeah I just want to make sure that select this only opportunity forel to ask questions I want to give them a chance first but of course we still have plenty of time of course yeah I think I saw Greg with his hand up go ahead we'll start with Manu Greg is new and so he's got a question Doug I can't use my teaching voices my name is minu terani and five Lexington Road and as you know I think V and then they know my students and I we did a strategic plan for our town and I'm sorry but I need to say that I don't agree the number one cause of CO2 emission in Massachusetts and long midle private course not the housing and then we did a lot of strategies what to do with it how we can deal with it and then at this point in time I'm doing some research with my German and Japanese colleagues on electric cars because as you know lithium is a pretty dangerous uh mineral we have only one mine in Nevada most of it comes from China and then Australia is another country but the issue yes exactly because EV electric cars actually there are a lot of dangers and issues as associated with them so in order to reduce the emissions something that we need to do is public transportation more than anything else at this point in time like for schools for if you have seen our town when the middle schools they need to pick up their student the the kids I mean forever they're lining up and all the cars are on and uh and those are the things that we need to pay attention the other thing uh as you know there is a site which is amazing the most dangerous for our area you put your address in it comes up the most danger in our area is flooding and what uh mayor Dominic sna has done in a Springfield we need to do that to clean up our ponds to get the CO2 emission that comes from those uh green algaes out of our area and open it up and then the next the next thing is CO2 emission and the wind actually and the lowest risk for all of us minimum risk is CO2 emission so we need to gather our information in a format that uh they make sense and then they are no dangers for example as I said what do you do with lithium batteries only Tesla accepts at this point in time for recycling you can take it to Tesla nobody else does so what do we do with them all right hi Greg link 125 Drive um so to the point about the electric cost I I plug in my my car as well but it I'm run off solar so my house is run off completely solar um it can be done off grid you can do battery backup doesn't have to be lithium it could be other sources of batteries um but it could be off grid so it could actually turn into a money raising thing not a money costing thing um and certainly if it was located at the shops it would actually drive business to the shops as well as people sit there and wait for their cars to charge yeah they got to eat somewhere or do something so there is a secondary effect thanks so let me see if I can focus this a little bit in terms of what it is I think you're asking us to do and why the energy and sustainability committee is here because I think one of the questions is whether or not we're the appropriate source to help work with developing the scoping plan and pull together this greenhous house gas inventory is that correct greenhouse gas emission reduction plan cuz the inventory is done I mean we're not we're not doing another inventory as part of this process this year so I guess my question is what's the purpose of our meeting right now then in terms of the energy sustainability committee with you and the select board at this point I think one of the things I understood is that the select board may not be the great entity to actually do this work with you but they were looking for a vehicle to do this is that correct yeah my understanding from Karan who's the main person I've been communicating with um was that I would probably be working with your committee okay yeah so yeah and that's correct so it's you know this is just kind of like a kickoff meeting just for the town to be aware that this is happening for the select board to be aware this is happening um and to just kind of start this initial discussion but from here on out they will be working mostly you know with you all attending your meeting next and working with you all can I before I was going to say it seems like a natural place for this to sit we've already started a lot of work on this we've partnered with homeworks we have I'm going to look to have Greg who's our technology person bring up information about we're already reducing greenhouse gases we have a fair yeah one of the things that you're talking about here is community outreach and getting involvement on that which would be something that we don't have the capability of doing on our own in a good way so for us that would be a very constructive thing I think part of what Manu is coming up with and other people are coming up with are actually going into specific recommendations on how to keep reducing our greenhouse gases we don't have much control of that in the energy and sustainability committee we can only make recommendations to the select board and to the town for adoption but I think my reading of this is that you would help us and we would need support some support from the state the town on really implementing community outreach survey development getting their input and I think part of my question is how do we do that in a way that's going to say okay we don't have um administrative staff for our committee so we're kind of stuck with your time and then who's going to help coordinate that with us would be some of the questions I would have go ahead Mark Andrea if I can try to answer your question or try to answer a question there are two issues here I think or two approaches to the issue and the first is the residents of Long Meadow and their private use of vehicles their choices of how they heat and put apply electricity to their homes and all that kind of stuff and frankly you know we are a Advocate and maybe uh trying to do a little arm twisting but short of imposing things like our stretch energy codes and things like that it's very difficult to impose that on on residence can't tell somebody you got to buy an electric car the other side of the coin though is the town and the town's buildings and and I'll just use an example we're embarking on the construction likely of a new Middle School you know we built a high school we built a senior center we built a DPW and all the green energy and all the things we had kind of went out the window because we're worried about cost you know but is the town going to take a stand and how is the town going to take a stand on what should happen should we as likely happen build a new middle school you know are we going to require that to be a a zero energy you know Net Zero facility I don't know that no on the other hand are we going to not that's something that not just the select board but there's a school committee there's a planning Bo there's a whole bunch of elected people in this town who need to be brought on board because how this is implemented on the town side is very different from how it's implemented on the res res side and frankly I'm going to look to your group to say you work on the resident side and you know continue to force us to work on the town side JH go ahead Josh I'll go uh yeah just um mark on that I think that that's a great example Middle School is a great example of how these things actually get done because we're they drill the well to check for uh and I don't remember the technology but geal yeah geothermal to use something down there to heat or or cool or whatever I didn't I didn't totally understand it but the it will probably get done because it'll be cheaper we'll get incentives from the state there's Federal incentives there and it'll cost less long term and that and you're right we can only do so much but that's some that's the way you affect things by giving it uh incentive so that's a a great example and I had another one another point I can't remember so go ahead Gary yeah picking up on that now according to the scope that we have here do you want us to report to you as we're going forward should we meet in between before we come up with a plan I mean what what is from your point of view how do you want us to report on the ongoing thing you in general well well I I do think you the plural you I think that there is a memo that is also attached to the agenda that Karen um prepared and it has a recommended action and timeline so you know it has steps that you all will take and then it does have another meeting right now it's proposing that this happens in March where you all update us on on the work so you know for me that makes sense and you know we can if something changes we can obviously adjust but there is a proposed action time I remember the other side um when I when we were looking at the church being rezoned I got a lot of questions including from your chair I can we require uh Green Building Etc and the answer answer is our zoning bws I think that's a great tool to one of our only tools really to make sure that we can Implement some goals here and you're lucky you have a planning board member uh on your committee so I'd recommend you utilize Bryant and through this process because it's really easy to have goals it's a whole different ball game if you have bylaws that have to be followed and uh we don't have a lot of space to build in town but things do get rebuilt occasionally um and so you have to be proactive on those things and we can't require it unless it's already in there it's in the byw so uh i' recommend Mark made the point talk to other people in town talk to other committees I think that's totally yeah correct we have to all right any other comments questions just goe just to point out I think people know here the energy and sustainability committee is is uh advisory committee to the select board so to the extent that you want things done your answer Gary is yeah you got to come back here get things done on the other hand there's there's a lot of authority at your committee level to talk to people and move things along as well okay great also on the agenda if I may there's a scoping memo that was also provided from Mimi that kind of outlines the meeting dates and the goals of each meeting and what's set there so I would encourage everyone to read thato it kind of outlines exactly the process we can was laid out okay all right excellent Gary yeah on that the second meeting it says in September 16th two weeks from today we I think we should postpone that a little bit that's not really well I think that was because originally the first meeting was supposed to be in August right okay might have to be I think this is just a proposal and showing us I think timeline that actually works again we are advisory I mean we certainly we've submitted things to the select board for recommendations you can accept them you can not this is um to Mark's point we are going to be doing a great deal of um development in this town and there's lots of ways that we can feed in information but I think one of the things from my point of view that I particularly like is if we can really do a much more robust engagement of the community in with support that actually provides input so that when we are in more official meetings and we're providing recommendations we can say to you you know of the and I'd love it if this was this number of the 2,000 people who responded to our particular Outreach 80% of them say this is what we want to do um it would be great if we could do that I mean we were excited when we get 400 responses after sending out like you know 6,000 requests so um and we would work with you in creating the timeline I guess I still go back to wanting to be able to better coordinate this with the town Administration in a way that allows us to make sure that we're all communicating so that it's not just loaded on us as a surprise and that's really important for us on this thank you anything else anything else that I'm missing all right great well thank you so much for joining us I think you all have to probably make a motion to adjourn I seconded all in favor thank you thank you thank you thank you all okay um we do have a public hearing beginning at 7:30 so um I will now move on to select board announcements school committee and Housing Authority vacancies uh reminder there are current vacancies on the school committee and Housing Authority for terms to expire at the June 2025 annual Town election residents that are interested in interviewing for the vacant role on the school committee should send letters of interest and a resume to selectboard long me.org and school committee at long meow. k12.us by Monday September 9th interviews will be held at a joint meeting of the school committee and select board on Monday September 16th with appointments to follow on September 24th the Housing Authority vacancy deadline has been extended to September 25th residents interested in the Housing Authority position are encouraged to send letters of interest and a resume to selectboard longm met.org by this new deadline interviews will be held at a date to be determined the fall special town meeting is set for Tuesday November 12th at 700 p.m. at the long meal high school gymnasium citizen petitions are due in the select board's office no later than noon on Friday September 27th in order for a petition to be guaranteed placement on the special town meeting warrant 100 names signatures addresses of registered Town voters are required and must be certified by the town clerk you can find forms instructions and additional information at Long Meadow ma.gov toown meeting the complete streets Advisory Group has launched a survey to help inform their work on the updated prioritization plan all community members who walk Bike Run Drive or use public Transportation are encouraged to take this short 8 question survey which will close on September 18th the results will help prioritize areas for improvement to learn more about the complete streets work and to take the survey please visit Longet ma.gov Civic alerts Long Meadow Community electricity is a program in development by the town of Long Meadow to provide residents and businesses with new town vetted options for electricity Supply the program will be open to electricity customers in Long Meadow whether they are resident a business a renter or an owner the draft plan for the program is available for public review through October 7th 2024 on the program website Long Meadow commun electricity. you can download a copy of the draft plan learn more about the proposed program and submit comments on the draft plan a public hearing on the plan will take place on September 16th during the select board meeting at 7 p.m. in meeting room 8:15 at the LPS Central offices the hearing has virtual access details of which can be found at longmen Community electricity. Long commun electricity will not replace eversource the electric utility in Long Meadow which will continue to deliver your electricity repair power outages maintain the electricity grid and manage all billing okay so I think we have time for at least one resident comment um who's here for resid comment Tom stuff okay I didn't bring my timer so I think it'll be shorter Tom Shay 81 green metal Drive I am optimistic that this is the last time we'll be discussing the improper storage of pool chemicals at Bliss pool in July no more letters I'm holding a tough one in AB bance I believe the town DPW and its C certified pool operator will be very careful next year in the storage of pool chemicals since there have been two incidents and two cya letters from the fire department in the last 2 years as Captain VR States develop a plan and education enforcement supervision are critical my original email to the town manager was cordal alerting her to the issue and she acted quickly to alleviate the situation the proper response back should have been Tom we're taking care of IT personnel have been spoken to Andor reprimanded there'll be further supervision education in summary some accountability the recent full letter from the fire department not just the excerpt is in interesting Town manager and select board chair's excuse for the storage was the storage room was full the fire department says the storage room ventilation was broken which one was it since if the room was not full as stated would the chemicals have been placed where the ventilation was broken note the fire department stated there was an exceedence or violation regarding the oxidizer sealed containers the muric acid last year was in a sealed container what would have been possible this year is hop the fence same as last year no Breakin because the chemicals are on the pool deck pop the lids mix the chemicals or throw them around the pool deck in the playground or in the pool delaying the opening fire department said contamination is bad pop the lids mix them together Burn only 24 hours and less than 95° might have been over the weekend if I did not alert the town so well over 72 hours I doubt the DPW workers made a time or temperature decision and if there was no problem why did the DPW scramble two people over to the pool at 7155 next morning to take care of the situation which like I said prompt response the material data sheets and labeling on the containers do not have a Time guideline lid disclaimers it says storage cool dry secure ventilated and separated I spoken the region Head of the State Department that deals with Hazmat as well as two certified pool operators and a pool chemical company all of stated chemicals should not have been stored there bottom line they should have taken them away if they didn't need them that day and brought them back to the DPW I'm uncomfortable with the fire department me Memo using words such as likely greater or lesser risk and unlikely these chemicals represented a burn risk eye and lung risk and would have been sent back to the DPW if not needed at the end of the day the thought that there is no prescriptive definition of security wrap up real quick okay get to the point there were no lights there were no lights last year in summary chemicals should not have been stored on the pool deck residents expect the town will do better next year I think we're done with this issue for this year thank you okay thank you Tom anyone else we can fit in one more resident comment yeah please can delay I just if somebody else wants to do a comment before we start our dog hearing they can I can't tell you I don't know sorry lot of I ask be oh yeah I mean we'll be doing resident comments after too but after yeah after twoo yeah I mean folks will have an opportunity to speak after the hearing it's one minute why don't just yeah yeah um okay so let's get uh attorney chaplain and I think I saw Marty Lee outside as well we can let her know we're about to start and if anyone else is here for the dog hearing outside I'm going to move that we open the dog hearing second all right you do okay I do that okay all those in favor great all right uh thank you attorney Chaplan for joining us uh tonight to help guide us through this dog hearing um so this dog hearing has been triggered uh by our Animal control officer Marty Lee um thank you Marty for you know advising the select board and making us aware of this um this is you know for those of you that have read this in the agenda this is a was a heartbreaking event that I think um has been communicated to me was you know heartbreaking for all those involved and all of those feel um you know terribly about this but of course you know we offer our condolences to miss sulon and her family for you know their loss um you know uh during this event so um I think the first question I want I want to do is kind of set the table and see who is here to uh possibly speak um I know that Mr cerello and also miss Suson were notified of this are you Mr C okay thank you for joining us Mr cell um and I do not know if Miss sulon is here okay um and so Council I will kind of look to you for how we should best proceed um if we should take maybe testimony first from the Animal control officer or whether we should talk to Mr cello what whatever you think AB absolutely my inclination which is sort of against conventional wisdom is I I tend to hear from from the owner first and then go to the Animal control officer there's no uh tried andrue way to do it um just for the benefit of those in the audience um as the chair stated um there's a statute in Massachusetts that says whenever we have a written report um that a dog may be a dangerous dog it charges this board with investigating that complaint so we hold a public hearing like this um there are some definitions which I guess the board's well aware of so I I'll uh I'll hold off on on all of that until we have questions but um my recommendation would be that we we proceed with testimony from the owner um and I typically you know ask if they've had a chance to review the police report which we have in this case report of the animal control officer um and and if they have any uh you know if they either agree with the report or if there's anything they'd like to add or differ with okay great and then I know that typically we swear them in first right correct okay great so go ahead Josh I I just need that if you don't mind uh I thought it would be helpful to actually get the definitions just for everyone listening to remind us I don't think has been through one of these before and uh also are the uh remedies we can propose sure yeah perfect all right I was I was gung-ho and ready to ready to go into it and uh I I know for some folks this is this is repeat but um essentially the the first thing so the um the board will listen to testimony from all the witnesses I'll swear them in um the first thing the board has to do after the testimony closes is the board has to determine whether or not the dog in question fits the statutory definition of a dangerous dog or the statutory definition of a nuisance dog U so for the record a nuisance dog is a dog that one by excessive barking or other disturbance is a source of annoyance to a sick person residing in the vicinity two by excessive barking causing damage or other interference a reasonable person would find that behavior disruptive to their quiet and peaceful enjoyment or three a dog that's threatened or attacked livestock a domestic animal animal or a person but the threat or attack was not grossly disproportionate reaction under the circumstances so that's a that's a nuisance dog um a dangerous dog by contrast you can get there two ways one without justification a dog that attacks a person or domestic animal causing physical death or injury or two behaves in a manner that a reasonable person would believe poses an unjustified imminent threat of physical injury or death to a person or to a domestic animal so to to recap the testimony goes in testimony is closed the board decides does the dog that we heard testimony about meet the statutory definition of a nuisance dog one of those three ways you get there a St statutory definition of a dangerous dog one of the two ways you get there um if the board finds that neither of those definitions is applicable the hearing is concluded nothing further happens at that point if the board finds that the dog is a nuisance dog the statute says that the uh board shall order remedial action that will ameliorate the cause of the nuisance Behavior it doesn't get any more specific than that by contrast if the board finds that the dog is a dangerous dog under the statutory definition the statute says the board has essentially seven options to choose from it can be one or more depending that could be confining the dog um that could be an order that the dog be muzzled it could be uh in order that the owner secure liability insurance uh could be order that the owner put a dog run in could be in order that the um that the dog be altered so neutered or spayed um could be an order that the owner make the dog identifiable to the Animal control officer that could be through a chip that could be through photographs um there's some other examples in the statute the the most um the most extreme remedial action that the statute U permits the board to order is Humane euthanasia and there are there are some circumstances where that that's ordered uh so that that is the that is the hearing again at a high level testimony under oath after the testimony the board makes a finding uh dangerous or nuisance or neither dangerous nor nuisance and then depending upon which finding the board makes uh the board may have to order remedial action it's either in the general sense under nuisance or it's one of the seven um specified um dangerous dog remedies if the board goes in that direction great thank you anything else before we talk to Mr cell okay uh Mr cell if you don't mind uh Council will swear you in please raise your right hand do you somly swear to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth and the matter now in hearing yes okay great well thank you so much for joining us tonight Mr Castello um I guess we will start off by I'll start off by asking if you've had a chance to review the police department report about the incident okay and do you find that report to be true and correct yes okay great and have you had a chance to um review the animal controls officer Animal Control officer's letter to us I have okay and do you find that to be true and correct yes as well okay um I know that um the Animal control officer has recommended that your dog be muzzled um whenever they leave the house um is that a recommendation that you are okay with and find uh that you'll be able to comply with yes I yeah I don't have a big problem with that no okay okay um does anybody else have any questions select board Josh um how old is Hank he's just turned two and has he been neutered yes and uh what kind of muzzle are you currently using well I bought a muzzle I I've only put it on him once it's it's just like a mesh that covers his snout how often do you normally have or so you've only used it once have you had Hank out of the house or has he been home I haven't had him out of the house other than to take him to the vet since the incident occurred one one walk early in the morning with the muscle but otherwise no I mean we walk we walk them every day and this was an unfortunate incident and um he I live on conver street we have a very wide uh tree belt there and I was walking um I guess it would be East on Converse and I saw an elderly woman with a small dog from a distance so I went out almost onto the street I couldn't go onto the street because of the uh there was traffic and as we started the car cross paths um my dog does get anxious with other dogs he's not really that aggressive but the the small dog started barking at him and got aggressive with him and then he kind of lunged and I was on wet grass and I slipped and he dragged me and and he got the dog and he's very he is very strong and he's got a very strong bite and unfortunately that's that's what happened but we we walk him all the time we go were with you know buy dogs all the time and I've never had a real problem with him he does like I said he does get anxious but you know he has been trained I I I've also taken him back to training so I am in private classes with him now to because we've been told um by the vet that he's dog reactive he's not people reactive at all but but apparently dog reactive so we're working on that now great thank you everything else anyone else a couple of quick questions how much does Hank weigh I would say he's about 130 is there any kind of fencing um in your yard oh yeah there okay yeah he's now I mean we have a fenced in yard he's in the house or in the back you know and it's an we have a big yard but there's a smaller part that just fenced in for him that's all I have no okay sorry one when you before the incident were there certain times when you would walk Hank we used to we usually walk in on a weekend we'd walk them midm morning we have a route that goes down into Forest Park and we would do about 2 and a half miles and then after I come home from work we'd walk them um during the week and like I said we've never really had an issue thank you anything else from the board all right um and council do we need to swear in the Animal control officer as well I will okay good evening you saw where to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth in the matter now in hearing yes Alo great well thank you so much uh again for joining us tonight Marty Lee um so you know we've read obviously your letter and your recommendations so um if you could just maybe explain a little bit about why you think this recommendation is um you know why it meets the mark and kind of explain your thinking behind it that' be helpful for us um well I obviously feel really sad for both parties um I think both parties love their dog I think it's just it's a really sad thing that happened he Mr cerello had to quarantine the dog by Mass state law for the 10 days and after the 10 days he was considering euthanasia because he thought he really didn't have a choice and um he went to the vets and the vet called me and the vet wasn't really comfortable euthanizing would have if you know they usually call they don't just and they said the dog's not at all people aggressive it's um dog reactive and so he chose to take the dog back home and think on it um and would like to work out some solution um to be able to keep his dog that he loves but obviously we can't have this happen again um so I don't have any problems with this dog I've never picked this dog up running as a stray this isn't a dog that's getting out all the time so he was walking on leash it's not like he was off leash it's just He Slipped the dog pulled away so my recommendation would be that um you know he'd be able to live with the dog in his house how he's living and loving his animal but that if the animal is leaving the house at all that it be muzzled so that if another dog if God forbid he was to pull him if he was to knock him over that the dog would be muzzled and could not cause any damage okay great and then the muzzle that Mr cerello described that he has purchased for the dog that is sufficient yeah I mean I don't think you can a muzzle as long as it's prop ly if it's you know a properly fitted muzzle um then I mean he has he has as much to lose if he doesn't have a properly fitted muzzle and this was to happen again you know so um so I would I would say a properly fitted muzzle that the dog can't get off you know if he was going to walk him and have you had a chance to view uh Mr cerello's backyard to make sure the fencing and everything is also sufficient I did not um I quarantined the dog and at that time we thought the dog was being euthanized um and then um so no no I have not but I also have not picked this the the problem wasn't this dog escaping the problem was that the dog pulled hard and he slipped Mark yeah Mari Le question this is a 2-year-old dog I mean are you recommending that for the rest of this dog's life which could be 10 12 years that this dog be muzzled when it leaves the the property oh yes I am because if this was your dog that died some people would would would probably feel I'm being too lenient and would want the dog euthanized I personally don't want the dog euthanized I myself have owned I owned a Shepherd that was aggressive to anyone outside of our family and so my dog lived a great life he lived 10 years we have a fenced in yard he loved his family he ran around in our yard but if I left the house he did he went on a muzzle because he you know I didn't want to euthanize my dog so I just knew I had to be responsible so so in my mind that's the best of both worlds this dog can enjoy his family but not hurt somebody else's dog thank you anything else um attorney J questions no no questions okay um um a question for you um so if we classify this dog as a nuisance dog or as a dangerous dog what is the lifespan of that classification I I guess I'm just asking if another incident occurs um does this you know does a previous classification carry with it or is that like a new incident where we would have to make a new classification in in Practical terms um I think once a that's that's a good question um I think it it's a new Once the dog's deemed dangerous the dog's dangerous but I think what boards are really asking me when they ask me that is you know if there's a incident um that wouldn't rise to the level of dangerousness in the future then do we basically get to revisit our order um and the the answer is not unless you again find the dog dangerous okay um I I I suppose in that future instance you could consider the totality of the dog's behavior um to to arrive at at dangerousness but it's kind of difficult hypothetical because there's no facts really attached I guess where I'm trying to get at is if we deem this dog a dangerous dog we're restricted to the remedial actions that we can order um if another incident happens where we think uh remedial action that's not one of those seven that are enumerated um we where we think that would be appropriate would you know would we be able to do that I guess so just kind of spelling out the hypothetical let's um let's let's say let's say you find the dog dangerous tonight and you order muzzling exclusively and then there's a subsequent um incident for that subsequent incident you you could um I I see yeah that's a that's I've never had it go that way I've seen it where you have a dog who's found to be a nuisance and then there's a subsequent incident and you find the dog to be dangerous and the uh the penalty gets more severe at that point so I've never had the question posed to me if you find a dog dangerous at time one find the dog nuisance at time two and then utilize sort of the more um flexible statutory structure at time too for for nuisance um I I suppose you I suppose you could I've never seen it happen but it it seems you know the the second finding would be in response to a second incident and if the incident didn't fall within dangerousness then I suppose you could make a nuisance finding and the dog could both be nuisance and dangerous and the two orders would attach to it a good bar exam question um but I yeah I guess I'm just trying to for me I think the town restricts itself if we deem dog a dangerous dog because it's my understanding that as if we G the dog a nuisance dog right we can still utilize any of the remedial measures besides euthanizing it sounds like we could do both if we wanted we can do give the dog a dangerous dog and a nuisance dog oh could we be so in one incident you have to you have to pick one or the other but if you have multiple incidents and multiple hearings in theory you could have multiple findings based upon the cas I did I did have a dog years ago and and I'm sorry because I don't think we had a lawyer at the time time this was like I don't know 15 20 years ago this was a long time ago we had a dog a pit on greenacre that it somebody and the board kept putting more and more and more like the dog kept escaping and kept so they just kept adding on they actually never ordered it euthanized but they kept adding on more and more and more restrictions so I know we have done that this isn't that case of a dog that keeps escaping things right excuse me if I might I I did read the statue and and and the statute does talk about the dog defending itself or its owner and I mean I would argue that when when I was passing that dog and it started at my dog he was probably defending me if not himself so I don't think we have to I mean I don't think it's imperative that the dog be found dangerous he happens to be a big dog and the other dog is a small dog but he was I think he was defending himself as well and defending me because he wasn't the f I mean he didn't react first the other dog was it was a small dog it was a Chihuahua and they can be very aggressive and that dog started at him and he reacted go ahead Josh i' like to move that we close the public hearing second any further discussion okay all those in favor okay great thank you uh for joining us um okay um now that the public hearing is closed do we have any motions I'll move that we find Hank a dangerous dog under uh mgl 1 uh 140 section 157 second okay any further discussion all those in favor oh sorry some discussion um I this is my least favorite thing we do easily uh I I love dogs I would never I would have a lot of trouble doing the ultimate penalty on a dangerous dog and I I don't plan on proposing that today but I don't I'm I'm sympathetic to yes I understand that a Chihuahua was barking at your English Mastiff but that is not that's a disproportionate response and the owner of a dog that is that powerful has to recognize that and I know you do but I think we need to take pains to make sure this never happens again cuz just as much as I would never want to take away someone's dog I also never want to have a dog that I had a chance to restrict harm another dog and so like I said I I do not I don't I I don't think I could ever honestly vote to euthanize a dog unless it was really extreme so but I think there's other things we can do but that's I I just want you to know that that's my thought process and I I don't to me to find a nuisance dog I think would be uh inaccurate anyone else but so had we gone the if we were to go the nuisance route we could increase um you know whether it's you know the the muzzle but just changing you know adding additional uh measures potentially with the dangerous dog we can't necessarily go backwards if that makes sense it's my understanding that there would have to be an additional complaint that would come in if that's correct to turny chap one in order to that's I mean quite frankly either way um the board really doesn't get to revisit its order one way or the other unless there's a subsequent incident and at that point more or less the Slate is I don't want to say it's clean because you can take into account the prior incident um but but there's no there's really no revisiting whether you go nuisance or whether you go dangerous as a practical difference if you went nuisance instead tonight you could order training and muzzling as opposed to just muzzling if you go dangerous you can't order training because it's not one of the seven and menu options for lack of a better term so I think so that's kind of where where I'm going personally is I excuse me I agree with Josh I mean I think it's based on the definitions that were given it you know it appears that it's a dangerous dog but and I definitely do not want to be euthanizing a dog this is a terrible story it's it's unfortunate um but I just feel that we have the ability to put other measures in place if it's a nuisance versus a dangerous dog so that's kind of where I'm hung up on this but regardless we're we're not going to be supporting euthanizing the the dog I think that's pretty pretty clear I I I am with the options that are available to us I'm comfortable that we can uh craft the response I see what you're saying but I I think I don't want to set a precedent that a dog can kill another dog and is just a nuisance do um and I I just I don't know it doesn't ring true to me I it's a failure of the statute that we're limited but I to me I think we have enough um I think we have enough options here I can cot with Josh I feel he this dog definitely meets the definition as you gave us that he attacked another animal um aggressively the definition of a dangerous dog but I do I do think that it sounds like muzzling is a solution that there is consensus on I I also want to recognize there's no there's no way we're ever going to have zero risk in a situation like this we're we're balancing compassion with the unlikely possibility that he attacks another your dog attacks another dog and Claws the dog and hurts the dog so I think that this is um you know I I assume we will achieve consensus but I do think dangerous dog is a right definition if I could just ask one more question turn Chapman yeah under our options the um along among the restraints so would that include a a leash that attaches around the waist or some mechanism that so the dog can't run away period I know that it says that uh person keeping the dog shall be securely and humanely muzzled and restrained not exceeding 3 feet can that restrain brain be attached to the to the body of the person walking I I've never seen that but it would certainly seem to be in the spirit of the statute I know the it also talks about the tensil strength of the um of the leash as well um so I've never seen that specifically ordered but I mean I think I think I would stand up I still with my daughter who will walk in the dog and we hold it with two fingers and not really going to do anything right and if a dog bolts I would like the person to be stuck there and do stuck to the person so I I was stuck he he never got away from me he dragged me so it's not and I and I would suggest that around the around the waist you don't have the leverage to hold the dog back if he does lunch oh if I'm holding him by the if I'm holding him by the leash he's never it's I happen to SL slip on wet grass in the morning that that's really what happen we have to understand the the other way this the Mastiff could hurt a dog with its paws jumping on it if you're telling us that you're not going to be able to make it work you'll have to keep the dog at home oh no no I am I'm I'm happy to do the massive and I'm I'll do whatever you want me to do I don't necessarily I think what he's saying is I don't necessarily think that's safer that he might have more I still my recommendation is still the muzzle because I do think you have better control this is in addition to the muzzle I think Josh's point is that if you lose control of the dog which is possible then the dog is loose and if you're attached to the dog then it's less likely it can roam further and cause more damage I supp have knocked over uh Mrs soal and we just we have to do what we can to protect people that's why we have these hearings oh I get it anything else all right so we have a motion to deem the dog as a dangerous dog in front of us we have a second we had discussion so um all those in favor okay all right and then um in terms of remedial measures I I would can we just ask the attorney just list those seven again just so absolutely this this time I'm I'm going to read them um so option number one that the dog be humanely restri drained provided no order shall provide that a dog deemed dangerous be chained tethered or otherwise tied to an in adamant object including but not limited to a tree post or building option two that the dog be confined to the premises of The Keeper of the dog provided however that confin shall mean securely confined indoors or confined outdoors in a securely enclosed and locked pen or dog run area upon the premises of the owner or keeper provided further such a pen or a dog run shall have a secure roof and if such closure has no floor secure to the sides thereof the Sid shall be embedded into the ground for not less than 2 ft and provided further that within the confines of such pen or dog run a dog house or proper shelter from the elements shall be provided to protect the dog option three that when removed from the premises of the owner or the premises of the person keeping the dog the dog shall be securely and humanely muzzled and restrained with a chain or other tethering device having a minimum tensil strength of 300 lb and not exceeding 3 ft in length option four that the owner or Keeper of the dog provide proof of insurance in an amount not less than $100,000 ensuring the owner or keeper against any claim loss damage or injury to persons domestic animals or property resulting from The Acts whether intentional or unintentional of the dog or proof that reasonable efforts were made to obtain such insurance if a policy has not been issued provided however that if a policy of insurance has been issued the owner or keeper shall produce such policy upon request of the hearing Authority that's this board or a Justice of the district court and provided further that if a policy has not been issued the owner keeper shall produce proof of efforts to obtain that insurance option five that the owner or The Keeper of the dog provide to the licensing Authority or animal control officer or other entity identified in the order information by which a dog may be identified throughout its lifetime including but not limited to photographs Veterinary examination tattooing or microchip implantations or a combination of those methods uh number six that unless an owner or Keeper of the dog provides evidence that a veterinarian is of the opinion the dog is unfit for alterations because of a medical condition the owner or Keeper of the dog shall cause the dog to be altered so that the dog is not reproductively intact or option seven that the dog be humanely euthanized cor thank you um I I'll move that uh Hank when he's removed from the premises be fitted with a muzzle uh to be inspected by our Animal control officer and a leas leash that is affixed to Hank and around the Walker's waist with a tensile strength not less than uh 300 uh pounds 300 lb not exceeding 3 feet in length uh and that the that Hank be oh no that's that's it for now all right second second all right any further discussion uh the thing I was hesitating on was uh pet liability insurance and the re I was going back and forth on it and the reason being that uh I I'm hopeful this will prevent this from happening again and so we won't need P liability insurance so if anyone feels otherwise you know that's uh we can vote no and uh try again but uh that's that was my thought process no I had I had the same thought and I think I can some conclusions you so I'm comfortable with not including that at this point just so we're clear so so the are we suggesting that the leash also has to be wrapped around Mr cerello is that correct yeah it's see people running with them sometimes running leashes so it's a belt hooks onto the belt so I'm sorry I'm just like right now I'm trying to look up um you said for 300 lb T strength that that's the that's the statute it just says that yeah no I'm just wondering how easy that is going to be to to get that's that's I'm just wondering you know I've never done this I've never I'm wondering how easy just just because I have other orders you guys placed that still are not because it was hard for the people to get all the things that were ordered so I'm just trying to make this so he can um so I can't tell I guess if if it's not easy to get we'll end up back here but I just a quick search a half inch lease from some companies has between 500 00 perfect okay cuz I just quickly pulled up these waste things that are all just saying up up to 125 lb dog but that's different than what you're saying so okay great anything else all right my my only my only concern is the is the leash that J Josh is talking about just because I mean I have a dog he's 40 lbs and if if I put that type of leash around my waist I just don't know how I would how I might slip I I might I'm just not used to using that leash personally and I don't I'm not sure if Mr I don't think the leash has anything to do with the weight of the dog it's just a tensile strength but there's still you know you're in tug of- war and you have something around your waist and you're you're moving in a different direction the dog does a sudden movement somewhere I I just don't know I just that that's my only concern is that um it could be harmful for the for Mr catello as well and that's just something that you know I'm thinking of right now if I was in his shoes maybe it's a a better way for him to walk his dog I I just don't know I think that might be something that we we could come back and uh revisit uh maybe Mr cerello could uh investigate and try to use that type of leash and um if he's comfortable with it then I think that would be a good thing but I just don't I don't know enough about leashes I I used to have one and I'm just pulling on one up for Dan but this see this so this is the leash the hand that goes around your waist and then there's two handles one very close to the dog one just off the waist and that way it's really just a fail safe you're not it's not intended if you're just walking if you're running or hiking maybe you want both hands free but generally especially if you have a dog who is going to tug you want to have a hand on that leash and so I I see what you're saying but I I think that that can be addressed I think it behooves us to air on the side of Public Safety rather than I mean this was clearly one of the uh options that has been considered in other situations like this so I think that you know they get went to the extent of even specifying the tensile strength that's required or necessary or recommended so I think that's probably the right move from a public safety standpoint in my opinion anything else all right so we had a motion a second discussion um all those in favor okay great all right uh thank you Mr Castell for joining us thank you for your cooperation thank you Martin Lee for joining us as well thank you attorney chaplain appreciate you you need for anything else um I know I don't believe so okay start to drive absolutely okay thank you this this is a pretty early time for you to leave us I know that's not bad um okay so now we will go back to resident comments and sir I think you were up first um you will get 3 minutes please uh begin with your name address and then you get started I I think I'd like this my name is Peter bton I live at 121 Laurel Street I'd like to uh beg the uh chair's Indulgence um on the August 12th meeting my uh character was came into question and it received a great deal of publicity in Western Massachusetts uh I would like to ask for a few more minutes than three to just I'm going to talk about myself I don't like to do that I don't normally do that but what I would like to do is just address the issue that was that was criticized which was my character I'd like people to know a little bit more about me um I was a candidate as you know for registar and the I think the the people in Long Meadow might also be interested having heard that and read that in the paper and so forth they might be interested to know uh who I am having read that living in their Community as I said my name is Peter Benton I live at 121 Laurel Street uh when I first heard about this um I was angry but then I became very disappointed that this happened in Long Meadow uh very disappointed that it happened to me um I was never consulted or asked any questions about my whatever anything actually and um it came it came not only as a surprise but it also was very disheartening considering the life that I've LED and I've lived in the community for 43 years um my wife is um um she grew up in this town and her family was very prominent in this town and my family has been very prominent in other towns um um I have a I'm a CPA I have a successful practice and U my family has has a history of public service and I've had my practice for many years and I have a lot of clients and friends and people that I've done business with Through The Years lawyers public officials police Chiefs Bankers attorneys uh College presidents business people lay people um I know a lot of people and they know me and it wasn't just upsetting to me but it was upsetting to them as well not only in just this community but throughout Western Massachusetts where I know uh where I've been active uh uh myself and I have two older boys I have three boys I have two older boys who are very successful one living in other communities one lives out of state and um I have also have a 38-year-old son and I think that uh Dan you might have seen my son in the high school when you were there he's a dimin of young man walks with a gate and he had an aid with him Andy is autistic he's intellectually challenged he was diagnosed with autism at 4 he's profoundly disabled he has physical disabilities he's a cancer survivor he's nonverbal and needs 100% support 247 makes it very difficult for my wife and I our lives have not been the easiest but we wouldn't trade it for anything we love him he's our son um Andy went through Long Meadow schools and as I said Dan you may may have seen him I don't know if you remember he left the school in 2005 did I think you may have graduated in 2003 are thereabouts and he um U Mr Benton I I did let you go over by a minute let me just can I just go a few more wrap up real quickly he's he goes to Sunshine Village I was asked to be on the board of directors of Sunshine Village 13 years ago I I have been very pleased about that and it's a wonderful organization they are um they do deab and support services for intellectually disabled people I also have written and published two two novels and a short stories and they deal with the kind of issues they also deal with social issues as well but one thing I want to talk about especially I'm sorry Mr B I just just I just want two minutes we we've already gone over and you know I I wish this is not the Forum to have this type of conversation I just want to explain one thing please please I I wish that you would have reached out to me and we could have talked about maybe putting you in the agenda or found a different way to have more expansive conversation but this is resident Comon and I've already let you go over by a minute I appreciate that I will thank you thank you Mr Bon okay anybody else here for Resident comment go ahead and name address and then go ahead and get started sure my name is Dean roges 22 Warren terce I've been a resident of long medal for 54 years and involved in town matters off Town matters often on during that period thank you for your time and a busy agenda and for your service I state with assurance and from experience that long meow is a wonderful town and its people are good and fair-minded people the town relies on its residents friends and Neighbors to volunteer and serve on the many boards and committees that govern and manage the town and its Affairs this is what a this is part of what makes long meow such a good place to live we saw that earlier in the meeting when of course the energy sustainability people were here very nice peter Benton was one of those volunteers not withstanding a very busy personal and business life Peter stepped forward in good faith to fill a vacancy on the town board of registrars his appointment to the post was taken up by the select board on August 12th at a public meeting carried on long metal cable TV the appointment was discussed in Open Session and rejected by the board based upon allegation made by a select board member in effect gring him as a racist and homophobe the select board member based his charges on his investigation of Peter's backround including a review and interpretation cherry pick selected items from Peter's personal Facebook page I've known Peter for 35 years and I can categorically state that the charges are false I am also not aware in my 54 years in town of any other time that a town resident has been subjected to a character attack by a town government board member at an official public meeting consider the enormity of what has been done and the effect on Peter's family business and Community reputation the allegations were made at a public hearing broadcast on long metal cable TV repeated in the reminder that is delivered to 5,000 homes in Long Meadow and 5,000 homes in East land M and appeared in an article published in the Republican and on Mass Live all because he simply volunteered in the best long meal tradition to fill a vacancy in at a town board should he have anticipated a public attack from the board for his good intention of town service the problem becomes how do you prove a negative that is that one is not a bigot once a very difficult in Peter's case not so difficult a good place to start would be a brief review of his years of good works and Endeavors and Mr Ro if you could please wrap up we've had three minutes okay well um May I just have one more minute then I think we have some backup coming to to finish um Peter Benton has long been prominent in involvement service and improvements in Long mow and surrounded communities he's quietly served as communities in many capacities are you aware that Benton Drive on the border between Long Meadow and East Long Meadow was named in honor of Peter's grandfather who was a prime mover by behind the development of the East L MTO Industrial Park among other good works okay thank you Mr roses okay appreciate it thank you L anybody else all right I think you know the drill name address I do know the drill Larry star 81 Williamsburg Drive in Long Meadow Massachusetts uh thank you for letting us discuss this today um we had a discussion about a terrible situation with a dog this is a terrible situation with what's been done to a human being um it was inappropriate I am embarrassed for what our town has done I couldn't believe when I read it um the whole nature of what's going on with people being discredited for things that have been said many years ago out of taken out of context by individuals who don't know the story um is a horrible result and the select Board needs to do something about that um our town residents going to be willing to step up in the future to to volunteer for positions knowing that they can be character assassinated by a member of the select board that is horrible um my suggestion is that maybe it should have been done in executive session you should have had a a breakout to discuss it so that it didn't become a public issue um I am very appointed in what I've seen happen in this town with this issue it should not have happened okay and I know Peter for over 25 years I'm a member of the bo I'm a member of um the Boston tax um Institute where I teach Peter has been a student of mine but I've also used him as an accountant for clients of Arts um he has not been nothing but um uh perfectly gentlemen in all situations and I think we uh owe Peter a big uh apology from the town thank you thank you Mr star anybody else here for Resident comments uh name address and then you can get started with your comment yes I'm Robert humston of 84 Burbank Road and I'm here on behalf of Peter Benton and I was shocked when I watched the proceedings on TV and I'd like to just simply give a list of everything that Peter has done in the area besides Along being a longtime board member and treasur and chair of the audit and investment Committees of Sunshine Village he was he organized The Long Meadow chapter of the RO Rotary Club in 1996 spear headed as president chapter's First Community project raised $100,000 plus and worked with town community and family for construction of the current Greenwood Park playground in memory of a Long Meadow child who had passed away former coach and general manager for youth sports teams including Hockey baseball and soccer past member human Relations Committee of aditus a nonprofit serving intellectually challenged individuals in 1997 he co-chaired the CPA division of the United Way he's a past business consultant of Junior Achievement 37-year member of Rotary International including East Long Meadow and Long Meadow when organized held various positions including president of local chapters and chair of the district committee and president of the rotary Memorial Scholarship committee current chair of the written long meta Republican Town committee uh score Springfield Leadership Institute past graduate and business manager he's a college instructor he's taught classes at Westfield State Bay Path and holot community and he's a published author of two published books including Brownstone and ivory a work of historical fiction set in East Long Meadow and Long Meadow I would just finish um Dean Roan's letter in closing perhaps the board might consider the following are Town residents going to be willing to continue to step forward and volunteer knowing now that they may be subject to attacks on their character at a public governmental hearing widely broadcasted across various memory media when their applications are acted on when situations arise similar to to that of August 12th shouldn't the board consider handling the matter as permitted under Massachusetts law simply in an executive session the law requires that the person involved be invited and given an opportunity to attend and defend the matter is then handled privately at the meeting the board requested that a letter be sent to the Republican Town committee requesting names of persons for appointment Dean is a member of the Town committee and he notes that the town committee has not yet received the letter but would respond promptly when received okay thank you appreciate you anybody else here for Resident comment no okay great thank you all for joining for your comments uh we will now move on to select board comments uh does anybody have a comment Josh uh first want to talk about the um the Micro Burst that in town uh as people know I live on Farmington Avenue and we got hard hit and uh the response was fantastic uh streets were cleared that night uh by the next day there were Crews all over the place swarming to pick up trees and I just want to thank the town and Leadership and DPW and Northern Tree for their response uh it was really really impressive and I my whole neighborhood was uh had really high great things to say so thank you than you um and I also want to pass on an update from the Middle School building committee uh we on the end of last month we had a uh a meeting to narrow down to one preferred schematic plan uh which was a new Consolidated building at Williams uh with a new Auditorium and uh you can go back and watch that meeting and uh the the two years leading up to it I think there were 17 public meetings uh and the board worked really hard to get to that point and I'm really proud of our work and impressed by the people that we worked with including Lynn um so there'll be a lot more to come on that a lot more decisions to be made um but right now we The Next Step will be to have a hearing I guess it's not a hearing a meeting with the uh Middle School building authority to discuss our preferred plan great thank you Mark you thank you a couple of things just a followup to Josh's comment I think the damage from the August 16th severe weather storms that we're in that part of town should be separately accounted for and we should seek transfer from the operating stabilization fund at the special fall town meeting to reimburse the operating budget for these expenses I think the event is truly an you know an act of God if there ever was a definition of an act of God that funds that's what the the operating stabilization fund is four and Recovery costs for that which are substantial there's a tree in my neighborhood my next door neighbor's tree that's still down and hasn't been dealt with by the DPW or Northern Tree for now many weeks but I think this recovery cost are beyond the normal tree expenses and if we try to pay for this out of our normal tree expenses it's done so at the at the expense of actually the things we want to do planting and and other things so I I'd like to suggest that uh the select board look to have the town manager collect those costs and separately appropriate those we did it in the past obviously it's been a much worse situation but I think it ought to be done secondly uh I I was attended a meeting of the pioner valley planning commission's no which is the Metropolitan planning organization uh I reported this before these meetings that the mo coordinates overseas major traffic capital projects within the Pioneer Valley the costra overruns have been obscene is an understatement uh The X Project went from 15 million to 27 million a bridge in uh in where went from 5 million to $15 million uh a a group of leaders from towns throughout Western Massachusetts got together and and I think they gave the message to the DPW that this won't be acceptable uh and you say well what difference does it make and the difference is that we're borrowing from tomorrow to pay for today projects like the Long Meadow South South End Of The Long Meadow Street is just getting deferred more and more and more years because we're trying to figure out how to pay for this year's projects and next year's projects and so I think the I hope the the Department of Transportation got the message that that they need to get these costs under control and stop this concept of borrowing from tomorrow because right now as it sits the south end of Long Meadow Street is no longer on any plan anywhere anyhow and the plan goes out at least 5 years and so I think people should know that at least I'm and the other leaders of communities are are very very active in taking care of that and trying to address that uh in terms of other other issues I I just want to let people know I think everybody's read now that the the labor contract between drg operations and and the uh and the the transportation Union 488 who represents the drivers of the pvta were handled I think my public statement would be that that that was done uh appropriately I think that the solidarity the pbta members communities was very appropriate uh and it wasn't done just by half in stance I will just help people that I spent many many hours at special pbta meetings helping the put together programs for the uh to to advise the RG and see what they were doing but the pva's most recent uh press release speaks to the need and the the success of of of the Cooperative agreement that was signed and hopefully it will lead to many many years of uh of long-term labor peace and and programs uh just so people know the bus service in long midow would not have run without without that and finally just uh people may be but I seen this but just a quick look forward at the next select board meeting that's is September 16th uh there's going to be a a review by good energy of the municipal aggregation program I think that uh there's going to be a lot of information given out at that meeting but I think it's important and the reason for my comments tonight is I think residents should really educate themselves before that meeting there's now information posted to the the website as as V uh commented at in our announcements and I would urge residents to educate themselves about the municipal aggregation program and find out what's available and what the opportunities are going to be for the for the residents so please people go to the town website and look look for that thank you thank you anything else all right uh so now we can move on to the presentation from fibers spring and Mike I think the fibers spring team is outside um how are you guys you all can take a seat right here busy night yeah and then yeah yeah you guys can grab all right thank you we've got more coming traffic jam out there yeah um we'll give you guys a second to get settled in before we get started talking about it Mike if you can pull up the presentation in the meantime great thank you one of these mics Mike you want to you want to grab that one right there gra a mic all right great so thank you all for joining us tonight we've got folks from Fiers spring as well as folks from the municipal fiber task force joining us we uh at the last select board meeting discussed the municipal fiber task Force's recommendation that the town partnered with fibers spring to bring fiber internet to Long Meadow and now Fiers spring is joining us uh tonight uh to tell us a little bit more about themselves I think I talked a little bit at our last meeting about how the task force has spent over 7even hours with Fiers spring in meetings in facilties Tores and that's not even including the you know emails and phone calls on the side to better you know understand their offerings so um you know the fiber task force has spent a lot of time with these folks and now it's an opportunity for the time Long Meadow to begin to uh meet and to familiarize themselves with fibers spring so um what uh on the agenda um there are a few documents um that are attached uh for folks that are following along first is a copy of this presentation that they're going to give us um also the finan projections uh kind of worksheet that they're also going to go over and fibers spring actually took the initiative to watch our previous meeting and take a look at all the questions that were asked during that meeting and they provided responses written responses to all those questions and that's also a document that's attached uh to the agenda so um I think what we can do next is if you all could just introduce yourselves uh name title and then you all can go ahead and get started with your presentation sure thank you um thanks for having us I'm Sean Fitzgerald I'm the general manager of South highy electric and Fiers spring good evening Tim H ho gric CTO hi I'm John Hine I'm chair of the municipal lifeboard in South valy and um I was also a select board member for 12 years so I know I can anticipate the questions you're going to be asking so Mike con Cary I'm the Financial Manager we have a few other members from the team from the back uh B this I'm the Telecom manager for South Hadley elri Adam St Martin director of operations from Telecom M Electric South Hadley and Fiers spring Kelly Frasier marketing and customer service manager for Shel and Fiers spring the whole team's here yeah so yeah you guys you all can get started all right great um if you just yeah hit the next slide please thank you so just to let you know who we are so South howy electric is a Municipal Light plant um we have about 115 years of service to the residents of South Hadley we uh currently serve about 8,080 electric customers over 4,100 Broadband customers and over 1359 phone customers a picture right down there is in front of our Operation Center and that's our building and a couple of our linemen um Fiers spring uh was a new residential service that we introduced in 2018 sorry the vote was taken in 2018 we we launched Construction in 2019 we started serving our first customers in 2019 next slide please uh the the benefits of South hady Electric in hoast electric solution so combined South highy electric and hooc Gast electric we are a uh integrated ISP service if you will the way that works is uh shelled provides most of the services the billing the customer service the marketing the project management all those things that uh are required to be an ISP Hoy Gas and Electric provides the network operations uh services so I'm going let Tim hos talk a little about that this slide is his go ahead 10 sure so whole Gas and Electric you're not not familiar we're founded in 1902 we've got about 150 employees we serve gas electric and Telecom is a newer business uh we're 25 years old we've been doing an ISP uh service for about 25 years and incrementally grown it into a uh multi-million dollar a year Revenue we partnered up with South Hadley around 2018 we've been messing around a little bit with fiber to home since about 2013 and have incrementally added uh towns as we've gone along and as a result we've uh fortified our Network substantially uh to where today right now we have 130 gig of internet capacity we can scale that uh more than double up to 300 gig we have several internet uh providers all load balanced uh we own our own ISP space um we do the things that we call uh table stakes in the ISP business so there's this reference up here to network defense attack mitigation platform these are active defense systems that we have in place to mitigate attacks uh we're attacked all the time from the internet and these are automatic mitigation platforms that protect all of our customers anyone connected to our service and we invest heavily in those uh we currently have we started from zero residential subscribers in 2017 to now over 11,000 and I continues to grow with uh South Hadley every day adding subscribers and chicke adding subscribers every day um we do numerous business connections Enterprise grade type stuff and um we have verticals in education healthc care and financial and with our Network do we not just provide uh internet service but uh land private land to land connectivity so for these financial institutions healthc care who need privacy and their Network we provide a a secure uh transport infrastructure that's outside of the uh internet to connect their sites together and and uh we have numerous carrier carrier Network interconnections as I mentioned previously we have three Upstream providers all tier one providers but we connect uh to extend the reach of our Network to uh Comcast Charter the mass Broadband Network crown castle Verizon and we have connections in various uh facilities we locate uh we're located in 15 what we call Pops points of presence where we have Active network equipment that we uh you if you can move to the next slide and these are the current communities that we're serving today not all Fiverr to the home some uh we have just uh commercial connections through for some of our Healthcare or financial institutions but um so this has grown again from uh there was no towns here uh in 2017 and and now we're up over a dozen and uh hopefully long meal chooses to move forward and we can move that number up right um so tying all of this stuff together we need a network to build it uh and on the next screen is just a uh overview diagram of how our network uh is constructed so we have a major ring throughout Springfield where we lease fiber strands from from crown castle we uh with our partnership with chicke and South Hadley we built Rings redundant Rings through chicke and South Hadley and of course in City proper and Holy Oak we use our own fiber to connect uh our own uh facilities together and uh Community anchor institutions and enterpris and uh businesses all that stuff ties back into two uh locations here in Springfield call them our gateway locations and that's where our three internet providers and all of our main gateway connectivity uh is accessed any questions on the network yes I'm this is probably the dumbest question you've ever heard probably not so so you have 130 gig capacity yes do let's say my service which is probably it's probably a lie but they say I get 800 Megs per second if if I was using all that and say all my neighbors were and everyone in town said let's all turn on our 4K TVs yeah can you is there like a backup if you max out or yeah so so the networks are kind of funny you know they say you've maybe heard the term build it and they will come well in networking you actually if you want to grow you have to do that so you have to build capacity years in advance so we built our capacity about 10 years ago we started running out of capacity so a couple of years ago we started investing in the next generation of capacity which we're about to roll out but what we monitor we have uh numerous monitoring systems that help help us keep track of this stuff what's up what's down what's being utilized what's taking hits what's getting errors um but in the context of that 130 gig so that's we've got three providers we've subscribed they're both uh all three are 100 Gig feeds um one is clocked at 50 gig the second is clocked at 50 gig and the third is clocked at 30 gig coming up to30 we've got a total capacity build in those that we can go to 300 our Prime Time capacity our Prime Time utilization right now when we call prime time it's when everybody's at home 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. at night is is our peak time and we see these huge huge mountains during 6:00 to 10: p.m. our U maximum utilization uh average utilization sorry is about 50 g during prime time right now so a few years ago that was half of that um and so we had to beef things up but the idea is to take at least be able to take one a hit on one internet provider and still maintain Prime Time capacity and so that's the intent with not everybody does it that way but that's how we kind of forecast our Network and so if we look at that kind of capacity and we look down the road the infrastructure that we're putting in today we're kicking it off at 100 gbit on our major ring but it's scalable to 200 and then on to 400 GB without us changing any hardware we built in scalability so as we grow uh we simply now it's you you basically write a check to buy the license to turn the capacity up on on the hardw yes so you're not using if we started signing on you're not using that money to increase capacity you're already ready to do that that's right yes we just in the past two years we've invested 1.5 million in the network infrastructure alone go ahead Mark yeah I don't know if this is for Tim or but but do you does shield own own the networks the fiber do the towns own the fiber and how what's the relationship between the owner of the fiber and if you will the service provider or the operator of the fiber so long metal will own the network you will own all the fiber on the poles um and all the licenses associated with that and sheld and HG will be your operator so you will pay sheld and hdn of fee to run and manage that Network on your behalf and and yeah I guess and and if and when long medow starts hitting these Peaks you know is it our responsibility to tell you we're going to need more capacity is it your responsibility to tell us we're going to need capacity or is it your responsibility you just up the capacity and nobody cares uh there there's a open communication between that so we're not gonna We're Not Gonna um whack you more money for uh without consulting with you and agreeing upon those terms however it's in comp upon us to inform you when you're reaching your capacity let's say you buy a 10 gigb link and you're starting to hit that 70 80% well now we want to start talking about maybe moving that to 210 or a 25 or or something like that and which H has done for us so we we've been upping our yep 10 25 and now to 100 now to 100 we've just gone to 100 and we've been keeping the dialogue open but it's important to remember that you're going to create a Municipal Light plant with a Municipal Light plant uh board and we have a Municipal Light Plant Board member here and so you will be apprised of these issues and the capacity and your light plant manager design whoever that is will be in constant communication with us as your internet service provider and and this is the way it works for us with lever and shsb as well we serve them the same way and it would be the same kind of uh interg governmental agreement configuration same way what's the relationship of these Municipal life plant boards with the community that they're in are they just the like a like like the library department or the DPW department or we're we're elected we're elected uh from the community so we have five uh board members um and every year there's at least one board member that or one seat that are are you beholding to the I mean if you're independently elected who do you answer to the the residents I presume right the rers yeah so so does that mean you run your own budget oh sure yeah yeah so there's an MLP budget yes separate from the yes town of south adley or whatever in some communities the the board is appointed either by the mayor or the select board and not and not vote it depends on the structure of the MLP within the individual yeah yes right yours yours are appointment right so you can choose when you set up your Charter how you want to establish your board yeah and I think in some communities too the select board will act as the ml yep that happens too so yeah it'll be a decision for us to make that's right good questions anything else before then move on okay yes go ahead okay so I I touched on this briefly you know sheld has about 25 employees and growing um what we can provide to you as your internet service provider we would be the the internet service provider with HG as our contracted wholesale provider but we can provide project management we're really a turnkey solution for you for your project we can provide design and poll applications management materials procurement management engineering construction marketing campaigns customer Serv service sales billing collections um home business installations Network management which HD provides but we also work in conjunction with 247 365 technical support and emergency response Lifeline access Lifeline is a uh program that helps you know make make it affordable for people to have internet and there's also eate which is a school program which we we manage for you registered IP address with Aaron which is registering getting our own IP addresses the American registry from uh for internet numbers and then manage Wi-Fi 6 technology so really we provide it all we do this right now in South Hazard John hin is not only our chairman of the board he's also a customer we have about 2600 customers right now in South Aly then another roughly 1,500 in shsb and Leverett that we manage day-to-day all these things and if we go forward with Long Meadow we can provide any and all of those services this is just a diagram of what it looks like you know we run the fiber in your town once it's on the pole or underground we attach a Service drop from the pole overhead to your network interface device which is attached outside your house somewhere and then from that Network it's called a nid that network interface device we run right into an optical Network terminal and then a cat 6 cable up to your Wi-Fi router it's really very similar to what you have now with your current providers it's just now fiber optic which means it's infinitely scalable it's uh symmetrical your upload and download speeds are the same and you cannot accomplish that with the copper coax this slide really is just uh survey results we have week one surveys we have 3 month surveys and then we have 12 month surveys and the green bars really are a good sign those bars are all in the 95 or better percentile typically you see a high satisfaction from our customers and one of the main core reasons is that our installers they're not on that that turntable saying they got to go and get to another one and get to another one we we tell them spend the time so if a customer needs four hours they're there for four hours if they need more then so be it we'll be there we we give what we call White Glove service and that's the the model we're going to stick to we help customers understand streaming we do a lot of Education in the home when we even help them get connected sometimes to services so we're very proud of the survey results we'll continue to survey our customers uh every time we acquire one yeah go ahead Mark Sean can I just ask you a quick question is is it a fair characterization just between us here to say that you know that that Holio Gas and Electric kind of maintains the the the wires and the all that kind of stuff and you you do all the office I mean with 25 employees clearly when a tree comes down on a wire somewhere it's not holy it's not sh shelled from South Hadley's going out and doing it I assume it's Holy Oak gas electric well I mean how many linen do you have uh we have about eight linemen and and then plus Telecom then we have Telecom technicians so we have about a dozen capable linemen or or Telecom Tech but we also have subcontractors that we have as backups so you're right when we have the glut of construction we have to beef up and we have to have subcontractors support the construction so we have providers that we've partnered with that help us construct the fiber optic plant in a storm situation we have contracts with those those providers that we will bring them in it's the same thing as electricity right Municipal Light plants have something called Mutual Aid so when one town gets hit hard I send out a signal I get 40 other MLPs in Massachusetts and then New Hampshire Vermont Maine they all respond and they send Crews if they have them uh we in the Telecom side we have our own contracts established with these providers and they back us up and we actually have a shared facility where one of those providers actually collocates with us which was a strategic move that we made so that we have a really strong relationship if we need them and we've used them we've had storms in Leverett and shsb and South Hadley and we've you know we're we're there usually before the power company is so we're highly responsive but it's it's it's agile management and and we can add employees as we grow so if long meow comes on board I will look at how many employees I will add and then I will look at beefing up my uh subcontracting uh agreements that I already have in place thank you yeah thank you go ahead dad um excuse me thank you for presenting this is this is great this is something that um as you know has been coming up uh often across the town and residents and so appreciate all your work um one of the one of the things that I get questioned about is okay so long meadow is a customer can you just kind of walk us through like what that process looks like cuz we're talking a lot about kind of the the end game and and what that looks like but you know I just want to know like on boarding and and the support that we're going to have because that's kind of a fear from a lot of the residents that I I talk to sure so um very much like South Hadley when we had the same we had customers in the same position you know a lot of people you know worried uh the way works is we stand up a once you get financing you approve the project we give you a project timeline and we have it spelled out how long it's going to take to do each step um a Gant chart if you will and Bobby lzw well manages that over there with the team but um once once the plant is actually up in in on the polls and ready to connect we usually stand we have a website that's predetermined we have people go in and put in interest or applications so we know who has the interest we collect it and gather it and part of that is doing a campaign to solicit interest emails mailers whatever it takes to get your customers interested we also do education events we go to senior centers we go to the school Bobby sets up in the back of his truck with Kelly and they do meet and greets in the neighborhood where they're launching the first fiber optic so we get put a TV on the back of his truck we pop up tents and we go to a neighborhood and we say this is how you stream and um the the process is easy there's no applications our technicians most of them come with 20 years 15 years of experience I have three people who came from Comcast who have a ton of experience so they're very familiar and and one of them actually worked in town here and did a lot of connectivity for their former provider so it's a seamless process our customer service reps reach out to the customers who say they're interested they schedule a visit we visit the home we assess what the needs are and then we come back and we actually schedule the installation it's very seamless very smooth we we've done John's house right Saturday morning Saturday morning we came out you want to talk about it at all or um yeah I I think I think the the the key is that um obviously not everybody's going to get it on day one so we're going to break up the town into fiber hoods that is discreet sections of the town where the construction will go in and and you and clearly you want to hit those areas that Express the highest interest um a piece of advice for either selectboard and Miss lightboard um once this starts happening people are going to want to say when am I going to get connected when am I going to connected in the grocery store people come up to me when am I going to get connected well I was in a fi that had low interest and so I was at the end of the line but the benefit of that was I could sell people I'm the damn chair and I'm not connected yet and that pretty much ended the conversation but that's what that's that's the reality people are going to get wind of this and they're going to want it and you just have to be disciplined in terms of having a strategy as as to how you want to proceed knowing it's going to take five years to do it right and the best strategy we feel is the fiber hoods with the interest because when you collect the interest it takes the politics out of it and we go based on interest and construction cost it's twofold and it helps to ramp up your Revenue earli yeah right is where High interest to high penetration for your existing customers do you have have they experienced rate increases annually or how do you guys usually run that or yeah zero and 5 years we've had no rate increases it stayed we launched it at $74.95 and we give $4.95 off so we we offered at $70 and we have decided not to increase yet we're looking at those numbers all the time inflation you know there's increases uh but right now we have not it's also highly competitive environment so when cable company gets wind you're going to see your cable prices start to come down M they got one and it's also I mean it'll be up to us or you know whoever the Municipal light board is to set those prices it's not you know right Fiers Spring's decision but we can guide you and work with you and show you how we came up with the prices we did it's all based on your capex cost and how you got to price it to get your returns David did you want to add something I think what the select was asking s I I think what they'd like to see is that Gant chart take off the timeline but it's step one poll applications right through oh we connected a home and everything that happens in between there's a lot of people probably on the SEL cor that are unfamiliar with the process and just seeing the steps would give them a little bit better either more information and certainly more Comfort level as to what the processing do certainly I mean we could provide you step by step every step of the process that that we have me Bobby has a timeline already actually I think he has it right here with him we just didn't bring it on the screen but here's an example you know here's here's an example of the process all the items we have to do to get your project constructed and you know we can we can email this to you we can share it with you this is how we you know we constructed our our project Sean what's the time Horizon across that yeah it goes to uh year year five is 2028 year 6 is 2029 we would in 5 years hope to have everything constructed in town 5 years that's that's the way we did our town our town was completely constructed in 5 years and if and we finished a little sooner we finished up in what 6 months early Bob we were 6 months early we would have been actually a year earlier it wasn't for Co but there's some items in here I'll just run through a couple of them you know establish a project team responsibilities develop a plan meet with the municipalities isps uh Town demographic analysis cost estimations IGA Contracting design and Engineering seed Money Town funding sales and marketing plan billing customer service process health desk there's a whole slew of tasks in here that we've got to get defined and and we can do them relatively fast because we have a lot of experience we have the the vendor relationships uh and we've done it already great I would just add um we haven't talked about it but multiple dwelling units in South Hadley they were at the end of the process because they present unique financial and logistical uh problems so again a heads up you know when the town is built out and most people uh have access to it um people in apartment buildings are going to say well what about me and that takes a separate um negotiation if you will with the condo association or or the apartment landlord and it's much more expensive so um you know keep that in mind that that's that may be one of the more difficult is issues to deal with as you start rolling out your fiber connectivity chn I think your name's joh John how how does this I'm I'm concerned about the cash flow process of financing this if you're rolling it out paying for it as you go how how did South Hadley Finance this and come up with you know if with if if there's few few people rolling in to begin with but the first question is we need $475,000 for pole permits or pole access and some how did how did you do that in South Hadley well Mike can do the details but we did essentially a $12 million Bond yeah basically we had funds available so we could borrow from the electric company to cover some of the upfront cost costs we got about 3 years into it and then we went out and got permanent financing for about $12 million now remember in it you know you're going to run a deficit for a while um until the project turns around until you meet the the take rate that um that you're going to need the the trick is to try to match your borrowing cost or the amount you borrow with the amount you need so you're not doing it up front and it's it's a whole process to determine what's going to be best for you and that's going to be determined based on what different financing is available to you what the structure is what the interest rates are um but that's a discussion that's going to have to be had but just to confirm there was no funds coming from what I'll call the municipal side of south adley or any of the other commun we were we were on our own and it's probably going to be different so so how do you how does a how does a well South cley has a Municipal Power and Light Company right but Long Meadow that doesn't have one that's right how does the town of long meow go out and sell bonds from a some we have no history of Municipal Light and Power Company being able to repay the bonds and and have you know the simple fact is that the town's going to have to guarantee the debt of the Municipal light department and it's probably going to be backed by the taxpayers and that's generally what happens happens in uh communities that don't have electric light plants is they they bond and you see a U property tax increase uh usually usually it's a 20-year Bond so so just so you know long meow doesn't have room in its property tax base to do that unless it's unless we exclude it from prop two and a half we're at the pretty much at the top of of the prop two and a half that's part of what we've got to work our way around and I and I support the program I'm trying there's one alternative that once you become a Municipal Light plant and if you do your votes in accordance with the statute laws you can become a joint Action Agency member hopefully we're exploring that right now and there's a way to borrow funds through the way we borrowed funds through Mass Municipal Wholesale Electric Company mck we borrowed our money through their pulled financing and that's one way for the Municipal Light plant to borrow the it it is a daunting task but the if you get to a certain amount of customers which Mike is going to show you in a minute you'll make enough Revenue to meet your obligations your debt service and we did the same within two years we achieved enough to meet our monthly obligations two to three years we were profitable and year or four we're cash flow positive you know yeah to be cash flow positive in four years is is fast um it won't likely happen as fast only because you know we had some advantages being the Municipal Light plant however it can happen within a reasonable period of time and you can make enough Revenue to meet your obligations and if you're borrowing that money you know and and again I don't know how you're going to borrow but there are there are some options that we've talked about have any of the municipalities looked for the residents to basically pay an upfront cost like I'll pay the $3,000 to bring it to my home people in a fiberhood that say I'll pay The Upfront cost that is a tax reduction year one I I think many communities have uh decided just to to vote to tax their their residents and it was a vote they put it out the vote right and they approved to increase their taxes by a certain amount to get fiber because ultimately it is like water and sure right it's a it's a public service and well it's a little different because some people might not want it so they might say it's not for to tax me on something I'm not going to bail myself up did you have any when you had these experiences with votes in other towns can you share a little bit about how this went um you want to talk about some so in shutesbury the MLP decided to offer a subsidy for new customers they would actually put $500 towards the construction cost for the new connection to be brought to the house so if you were signing up for service and there was an estimate to bring service to your house let's say was $800 the ml would kick in 500 and you would pay the balance so you're saying that the res individual residences had to pay for to be hooked up and it wasn't just a collective taxation of the town as a whole that was their choice that was their choice that was their choice their town next door L that is a deterrent to the town next door lever they just bonded for 20 years everybody bought on and they had 95% take rate so there's many different models and working together actually produces the options to pursue that path I think the operative is many different models and I think we've got to figure out what what works for the town long though the good news is though the the models used to fail if we had if we had you know a dollar on our tax rate of of space we might go that route but we're you know prop two and a half is a hard cap of $25 tax rate and we're pretty darn close to it the one thing just to share with you is that in every Community across the United States almost every time the one thing they do vote for is Fiverr so if you put this out to vote I I would be shocked if it didn't pass you know you saw the the approval for the MLP but um it can happen it cannot pass and so the majority do pass it and then you have to decide how you want to finance it there are options we can assist um but these are are choices that are going to have to be made Ben it I I think from what I'm hearing I think we need the assistance of an experienced group like shill to to come back and say here are potential options for financing it for coming you know and I don't you know rather than just say yeah we're going to go do this come up with you know we're going to go do it and here's the path we're going to take because otherwise we can you know we're not going to do a very good job of inventing the wheel ourselves everybody else's 12 or 25 communities have come up with all the options for doing it yeah and I think we task force to do that so I think the task Force's thinking behind this was this initial ask of $400,000 um for design and Engineering that will inform the a lot of the financial decisions that we're going to be making and also that $400,000 is also uh towards poll applications now poll applications are you know they it's a very long process to have the pull applications and then once the pull applications go through the buildout actually kind of comes quickly so our thinking was let's put in the poll applications get that process started let's do the design engineering and then you know we can take a look work with Mike their CFO and you know be able to present the town with options of how to finance Finance this and move forward okay um and just brief I mean notable achievements were eligible carrier designation from the Mass Department of telecomunications cable National recognition from of fiber Network operator certification from the Broadband Association we built out all public areas of South Hy under budget and ahead of schedule and we have a take rate of 50% in 5 years and just to caveat to that almost every fiber project we see is achieving a 50% take rate so that tells you and it's just going up these are just testimonials from Leverett and shuberry I won't read them but they're very positive and if it get scroll to the next one that's the chair of uh Leverett and this is the actual MLP manager of shoots Barry Gail Huntress she is very thorough if you want to talk to somebody about these hard choices she's a great person to talk to and I think is there one more and this is a summary you know we have a strong reputation of Rel reliability and redundancy 80 years of combined Knowledge from experienced telecommunication people strong understanding of MLP rules regulations extensive poll application experience uh fiber to the premise from beginning to end total solution strong project management experience 25 plus years fiber industry experience and that's it and we have a financial presentation I just what's the legal uh status of Fiers Shield is it a holy a separate Corporation from you know South Hadley electric is no it's not it's just like an operating division of South Hadley electric yeah it's a service it's a brand it's just a brand So within within South Hadley electric yeah South Hadley electric the customers the the rate payers of South highy electric own South highy electric everything we do for fiber is part of that there's no it's not a separate company it's all part of South howy electric thank you yeah and I did just want to say too I guess uh kind of talking about how this would be financed and the options available you know we met with a lot of different vendors and one of the reasons why we recommended Fiers spring is their breath of experience so you know we've got folks who used to work at whip City we've got I think Bobby came from uh chapi uh Crossroads fiber and obviously the partnership with jolio gas electric you talk these other vendors they tell you oh this is the one way you finance this is the one way you do this this is the one way you do that and I think these folks they give you the Good the Bad and the Ugly and we really appreciated that that they were upfront with us even some of these costs on um you know the spreadsheet that they outline other vendors didn't even tell us about those costs um and so we feel comfortable that they're going to be able to advise us to make you know the best decision that we can uh for the town thank you yeah we we've taken a conservative approach Mike is going to talk about it and so no I get to talk about the bad the other this this is just based on kind of best information available to us now um it looks like and and we tried to do it based on take rates um because costs scale up so the various Construction cost I mean we broke it down into three phases engineering and design make ready and uh the cost construct engineering and design is really what we're talking about now with poll applications getting a a drawing of of the plant what it's going to look like understanding the actual measurements the actual footage to be deployed the actual materials needed that'll help us hone in on what the true cost of construction is going to be um and you can see that cost jumps up with the take rate and the reason it jumps up is we're adding more um residential and and Commercial Services uh that then leads down under the assumption that you did 100% borrowing that a four and a quarter rate over 30 years with semiannual payments you're looking at what your annual Debt Service would be and if you want to flip over to the next one please this then kind of gives you a little uh p you know and what it shows you is that a 30% take rate you're not making money um at a 40% you probably break even uh if you get the 50 or 60 you now have enough money to make this project work and um what you say 50% seems to be where everybody's at again these numbers are are estimates based on what we know now uh you know again as we get the actual drawings those numbers will change as we um get Make Ready class from eversource those numbers will then be updated um the construction the actual labor and materials that go into the build we'll get that from a competitive bidding process um and a borrowing cost will be based on um what we're able to to get from the various financing sources it may be one it may be several uh you know again we'll have to see what all our options are and and what we can do once we get all those numbers we can put it into a more realistic picture that will actually cash flow out over time and you'll get a better feel for the financial viability of the project I think we heard before that the other towns that you were talking about the bonded did 20year bonds this is a 30-year Bond so that would change the financial picture quite a bit Yeah cuz 20 years The Debt Service would be too high yeah I think we' probably get a little closer to that uh but you need you need to remember too that you're building a plant that's going to be here for decades you know yeah this is a you're basically building a utility and and it's a uh 50 to 100 Year investment uh fiber is infinitely scalable if you know we don't see incumbents investing the money in these territories especially western Mass uh other than these private entities that are coming into sections and then they leave parts of the sections of the town unconstructed and the likelihood of them selling that plant is very high and then you lose your control so this is about you know generational setting your town up and John can talk about this I mean I mentioned Sean earlier that this reminded me uh reading about the history of shell back in 1914 um you know some residents got together and said you know we think it might be a good idea to own electric generating and transmission capability there was a little private you know company and they decided and they went to town meeting and they decided um um to create the MLP and to buy that little electric generating company and 100 years later the position we are in because of that decision uh you know it you get caught up in the day-to-day you know again have been on this St where other day-to-day issues you you you deal with but then you see something that drastically affected the quality of life in South alley and that was one of our I was on the board when we decided on the Municipal light board when we took the vote to move ahead on this project which for us was a big unknown you know we hadn't done this before uh but I think it was that sense that we could have a significant impact on the quality of life and Healy by giving this kind of service making the service available to people and yes you know it's got to be financi financially um you know feasible but there's also that that sense that a 100 years from now people look back and said that was a smart decision those guys made good job I know we got a couple futurists out of the audience in 100 years are we going to say what what the hell are we doing with fiber it's all over the air now or it's in our implanted in our heads I I mean kind of being a little fous but if we're taking out a 30-year loan to have this for decades is this going to be is this The Cutting Edge or is there something that I I know we looked at this a little bit over the air just isn't going to work but is there something else better than fiber that is com doesn't work today not that we know 30 years from now yeah not that we know of today and I've been in the business about 35 years and I keep hearing about Wireless yeah and I keep building fiber networks and I don't go back and replace them we we just had a town I won't name the names but call us that built a wireless network that's not working and so now they want to us to consider helping them build a fiber Network after they built the wireless network and and and I was told when I when we were building this 5G is going to wipe you out 5G hasn't even come close to touching us and so um when you're in your home and you're watching TV and you're streaming and you see this uh you go crazy and so the the the static connection of a of a hardwired fiber plant to the home is King it's it's gold it's it's just the most fast and reliable and if you're working from home you're uploading documents you don't have lagging you don't have buffering so and and if you have the right Partners you can just keep increasing your capacity because the plant itself is infinitely scalable it's the components you attach to it that you just have to keep upgrading and that bring just one more question does that bring us does that connect in like existing mesh networks if you have like I a lot of people in long have weird homes that like have I know that I have three different networks in my house is there any problem with that so right now the mesh networks they all work together it's to expand square footage in the house what we deploy is the same type of technology Wi-Fi 6 technology and if you need a mesh extender it is added the mesh extension uh approach the technology gets better and better over time the most secure connection right now is a fiber optic connection when you get into your house and you don't run wires to have a secure connection as as Sean said a static connection between two points you run a mesh Network because it creates its own wireless mesh and that's how that technology works but that's all short range y so the whole point of fiber is to get those extended reaches get through the woods where there's heavy foliage um and basically be run anywhere to a point and then that's it that's the last thing you when it goes into my house I can I can go nuts with whatever you want your own stuff uh stuff from the provider whatever we do have customers that have taken a leap to go with the cellular offerings that are out there and we actually welcome them back and yeah they don't doesn't work V this question may be more for you or for the our committee and that is the one of the requests is that we we pursue the pole uh permits so that we because they're the long delivery time I don't know the exact number but I think long meow is probably 25 or 30% underground wires why wouldn't we start there and and and see and and get not only subscribers but get money into the system that will then help us pay for the the pole permits and I hate to say that whether you you know those people are going to have to wait a little long or do some combination of both but but you don't need a pole permit to put the stuff underground that's a great question and you're correct we don't need a pole permit to put stuff in the ground but it's more expensive Going Underground than aerial but but you but you can get get their provided you know you know underground it's real easy to talk about but the it's there but you you go there and the condo it might not be there or might be plugged or it might be broken but you're right you're right you you can absolutely but it does require financing and you know we could calculate the underground cost thehood that's where you know you can say you know all I'm saying is don't exclude those neighborhoods that may be underground wiring early fiberhood I think that will all be uncovered with the design and engineering recomendations in the document that you have is that we do look at underground as a as getting a cost so that you so the select board has the information well you know I'm I'm as you can tell I'm really concerned about outlaying $475,000 in our current tax base sure knowing and and I I support this 100% I think this is great but I I agree with you it's going to take a few years till till it turns profitable and and I'm not you know I'm I'm concerned that the town can support that that few years if it's a town-based system on the other hand we could run it like a independent startup you know and and just borrow enough money to get us through the few years you're going to borrow more money and the payoff is later but then the town doesn't have to come up with the the cash up front because this like every other Town we're hard pressed for for cash yeah yeah yeah I mean yeah there's there's different strategies I I think one reason to why we're pushing the you know poll applications is because one of the goals of that we that we identified was that we would like for every home in Long Meadow to be able to connect to fiber if they so choose and so yeah underground we could go ahead and start that but obviously for the polls like we would just want to you know get that processor and also if someone else puts an application before you that just makes it takes it even longer and and all that so it's kind of like getting to the polls first is important full applications also enable us to if we so desire in the future I'm not trying to push this all of now to be our own elri service yeah Bobby one of the most important parts to answer the other part of your question is to get on the poll before anybody else because this way the competitive market is only between a few providers you do need to have some aerial presence to get to these underground areas to do the whole town underground is very very cost prohibitive it's super expensive in the reality of things you want to have pole presence you want to have that permanent sooner than later and for example in Connecticut may take five to six months to have a poll application reviewed in Massachusetts it takes two to three years so what you're looking at is when you're doing the seed mining approval the design and Engineering puts together pretty much what we're looking at for materials fiber servicing which are your fiber hoods uh working together with the board to develop a scope how we're going to walk forward and that actually leads into a financial model and the decision-making process which overall defines the timeline and how you move forward and how your numbers get better well put all right anything else all right okay well thank you all so much uh for coming by we're going to be voting later to adopt uh the recommendation um by the task force but thank you all so much and you know I think uh the Fiers spring folks are going to be at Pride on September 15th I believe it is tabling um so folks in the community that want to talk to fers Spring and learn more about them you know feel free to stop by their tap Pride great thank you all so much for thank you thank you for coming all right 921 and we will move into the town maners support um just an update on the water system in the early hours of Sunday August 27th a low water level alarm went off at the water tank while we were determining what was causing the tank level to drop and not simultaneously fill a non-essential water use restriction was declared a reverse 911 call was sent out to notify water users the tank valve was manually open to allow the tank to fill once the tank level increased another call was able to go out to lift the Restriction after review of the system to determine the cause it was discovered that the Telemetry system was not working correctly which caused a communication disruption resulting in one of the water valves closing and remaining closed with the tank not receiving water to replenish the supply and with water being used the level of the tank fell causing the town to lose water pressure resulting in the alarm going off the root problem was identified as a battery and charging unit that powered the antenna for the Telemetry unit at the water tank losing power this issue clearly exposed to vulnerability in the communication system as there's no redundancy DPW has engaged an engineer who specializes in these issues uh reviewing the tower and both pump stations to design a long-term solution uh an update on the August 15th weather event as most of you know a section of town experienced a severe weather event on August 15th Long Meadow police fire and DPW assisted with road closures tours and cleanup DPW made use of the contracts it has with um it has in place for tree work and had all available staff respond to expeditiously clear roadways and sidewalks although the damage was isolated to a small section of town it was a notable event with damage to many trees houses and other property costs are still being calculated given that we are at the start of the fiscal year the budgets in place are able to cover the costs however I do want to consider a warrant article to replenish the accounts used by DPW to clean up the debris I have I will have more information uh for the select board at your next meeting uh a big thank you to the police fire and DPW staff who assisted with the cleanup and to Northern Tree who responded quickly a followup uh regarding the Reynolds pool chemical complaint uh there were public comments made at the August 12th select board meeting I'm providing additional information to dispel any concerns that may have been created by those comments I'm aware that Mr Shay was not pleased with my response to his allegations and complaints regarding the storage of pool chemicals at Reynolds pool in July while construction work was taking place in preparation for the school the pool reopening at the time his concern was expressed it was looked into and further action was not necessary Mr Shay's email was acknowledged and responded to to ensure that residents and the select board are confident in the town's handling an issue I asked the fire department as the hazardous material response agent to analyze the issue the completed analysis is attached to my report I do excerpt sections of it though here that I'll just read briefly the chemicals involved were calcium hypochlorite a class 3 oxidizer sodium bisulfate a corrosive and curon acid all of these chemicals are routinely used in the operation of swimming pools in public semi-public and private applications based on information contained in the SDS all of the chemicals require ventilation and should be step separate from incompatible products these project these products should not should also not be exposed to prolonged periods of average high temperatures over 95° due to accelerated decomposition they should not be subject to contamination and should remain dry due to the products being new and still sealed in their original containers the risk of water infiltration and contamination is extremely low with the chemicals having been stored outside for less than 24 hours the issue of temperature should not present a half the analysis goes on to state that the maq for outside storage of a solid class 3 oxidizer is 40 lb which was exceeded in this case storage within the building has a much greater maq and is allowed based on the totality of the circumstances in this case temporary nature of the storage weather conditions based on National Weather Service data and the closed facility it is likely that a greater risk would have been presented by storing the material in an unventilated room with other other pool chemicals and for anyone that wants to read the full analysis done by the fire department uh it is linked on my report uh you may have seen some of the detour signs that have been placed along Long Meadow Street Williams Street um regarding the bark Hall Road Bridge closure Mass do is resurfacing the bark Hall Road Bridge work began the week of August 19th as an expected and is expected to be completed no later than November 15th Town officials are going to going to continue to work with Mass DOT partial Lane reopening as soon as possible Elementary playgrounds the installation work for equipment is complete at Center in blueberry work is started at Wolf Swamp the rubberized surface was installed at Blueberry Hill Elementary and playground and the playground has been open for students playground resurfacing at Center School is being installed and is was expected to open today uh and Wolf Swamp Elementary is expected to be completed within two weeks each site has some punch work uh work that needs to happen including LOM and seed after all the installation work is done Community grand opening celebrations are being planned uh and details will be shared for all to attend and uh just to uh speak again about what uh Josh stated during selectboard comments the Middle School building committee met on August 27th and voted on the preferred schematic design and report to be submitted to the mass School building authority presentation slide deck for the meeting is linked in my report here it's available on the school department website the Middle School building committee voted to recommend option 8A a new 665 student Williams Middle School at the Williams Middle School site with an auditorium the pre preferred schematic report is uh submitted to the msba and the msba board is scheduled to vote at the end of October on the town's preferred solution the project would then enter schematic design phase with a townwide vote scheduled for the fall of 2025 and that concludes my report I'm happy to answer any questions you have any questions or comments from the board Josh uh just a quick one on the water system I I did not uh I don't even know if I was in town but I I heard from people that the 911 call went out quite a bit after people had noticed that didn't know what was going on the 911 call went out much later is there any way to automate or hopefully this won't happen again but if if something does happen if the water level gets low is there a way to automate a call telling folks folks so we don't so we don't have to catch it not right now that is that that's something that could be looked at by this Engineers potentially potentially I was thinking that morning when I heard about this as well the disadvantage of that would be waking people up but the advantage of that is people might turn off their Sprinklers and you have more water in the reserve Bas basically so I know I don't know if there was a reason like I think people got to call around 7:00 a.m. yeah 7:00 something but it occurred at like 3:00 a.m. so yes I'm not sure what thinking I mean maybe it took a couple hours to figure out what was happening yes it did that's a good point we' probably feel a lot more angry people if it happened maybe why did you wake me up uh anything else yeah Mar just my comments earlier L I asked about the the the the storm cleanup and I I know you're going to put some numbers together but I think it'd be useful also to know because we're using because you said our budget might be able to cover it but what doesn't get done because you know what was in our planning that won't get done if if we use our normal budget to cover the certain storm cleanup yep and um some of that is also taking the risk that we won't have any other weather events the rest of this fiscal year which is not okay all right anything else okay all right so let's uh move on we've got uh moving into Old business now approval of meeting minutes of draft meeting minutes from June 17th 2024 any discussion or motions I I'll move that we approve the minutes of the June 17 2024 meeting I'll second any further discussion all right all those in favor all right great can I just ask we're we're now two months two meetings behind which is unfortunately also two months behind and and I know our minutes technically become legal the minute they're we leave the meeting essentially but it you know what would it take to get us up to up to date and I'm not trying to put the pressure on you Mike what I'm trying to do is get you somebody else who can do minutes July July is done I just didn't want to overwhelm anyone for the meeting today because of all the information we had already on the agenda so July's done August maybe has maybe like an hour left so those two are pretty much done so they should be ready for the September meeting I don't know if I'll be able to get to this meeting by September 16th but I'll be caught up by the October 7th meeting certainly great thanks great anything else okay all right so uh now we're moving into the vote on the municipal fiber task force recommendation and I think why this vote is being presented now is we had this recommendation presented at the last meeting we met with fivers spring today and what this recommendation does is basically adopt the municipal Municipal fiber task force recommendation and uh by doing that it just allows the town to begin coordinating with fibers spring to start disseminating information um to you know inform folks about what they do uh in advance of town meeting um and and to just kind of I I guess just position the town as working towards um you know pursuing this partnership with Fiers spring is that is that well put anything to add to that okay yeah just uh the select board had put the charge to create this Municipal fiber task force with the expectation that a report was going to be done which you did now the Board needs to accept the report which in turn accepts the recommendations who will be is there any cost associated with this uh endorsement or at this point or who will be paying for the communication to educate everybody at this point no no there's so there's no costs yeah yeah ass with this and what did just remind us what are we vote what is the town voting on at the fall town meeting yes so the town is right now what the task force has proposed is that the town vote on three separate articles so the first article is just the second vote required to create the municipal Life Plan uh the second article is to uh is is to approve f fing um to do the poll applications as well as the design and Engineering which is $400,000 total for both of those um and then the third article is to enter into an intergovernmental agreement with f spring if any one of those fails that well the municipal life plant if that vote doesn't pass then the rest um you know are no but it we would need to fund the study in order to ENT entering into the intermunicipal agreement wouldn't do much good if we didn't fund the study as well so we right really all three would have yeah yeah they're all kind of dependent on each other yeah I don't believe the inter mun intermunicipal agreement needs to go to town meeting that's just through you guys yes sorry yes um you're exactly right I think we we figured that out later was that if those two articles pass a town meeting then the select board would be presented with an intergovernmental agreement to sign yeah sorry I miss I'm exactly right um okay Mark yeah I I I I support the development of a municipal fiber system in town I'm concerned about the expenditure of $400,000 given additionally what we heard tonight about there may be a whole bunch of other options for financing it you know I was very interested that that Mike had said that or John had said that that South Hadley was a separate you know maybe because South Hadley gas and electric or whatever electric company but it's it's a separate Corporation and and you know I understand that with no history the town of long met is probably going to have to back these bonds but there's a difference between the town of long metal backing them and the town of long medal issuing them and and you know it may be a fine distinction but it's a it's a big deal when it comes to our our tax space and I don't know how to explore that frankly within this context and how we do that between now and and November but I think it's important that that we understand that you know we can always say well it's only free cash and we can use free cash but free cash is still the town's money and and you know without a provision for you know whatever entity we set up paying back to town the town's out $400,000 you know which is fine but but if we create a separate organization that becomes an investment rather than an expense an investment in a system that ends up getting paid back out of this utility or municipality organization whatever it is so my concern is getting these finalized dotted and te's crossed in the cash flow of the of the economics rather than jump forward I mean I I think it's a great idea to finalize the MLP and enter into a intermunicipal government agreement I think that's a great idea and even pursuing poll permits if that's the right thing to do do it I'm just trying to figure out a better way to finance it then than just use free cash or the town's money yeah yeah and I you know I think that the other part of it the other $200,000 that would be needed for design and Engineering I think is just critical for us to to be able to explore the financing options and you know what what that would look like um and so that's what the task force was thinking and you know making that recommendation um but you know this is you know we'll we'll get to discuss what's on the warrant and yeah I I hear you but I think you know I'm listening to what Andrew said that there's going to be a percentage of people in town I don't know if it's 5% or 20% we're going to say I'm not using this don't spend my money on providing something for other people or I'm happy with com you know whatever it is and so I I think it's I mean I'm going to be an early only adopter I think it's a great system you know but I think we need to come up with something that's self-contained so we can go to the people in Long mle saying the users are paying for this and the residents aren't paying for it and I you know and and ultimately does it get rolled in because it's utility maybe but the town Longman has not been a in the business of being a utility frankly I'm not sure we're in it that's that's our strong point yeah yeah I mean I think that oh sorry go ahead Josh well I I would 100% agree with that except that in theory this will make money for the 10 and it doesn't matter if everyone we don't need everyone to to buy in so if 10% say I don't 20% 40% we saw if they say I don't care about this it it doesn't matter because the 60% of due are also benefiting that 40% because the whole town could make money on this and that's I think that that changes the whole to me changes the whole thought process here um and we have to and you know I know we're all concerned with the budget here and at 100% um but we have to I think that this because there is an end goal in mind I think it's important to spend this money and not uh and then explore our financing options but we at least have to put in this investment I think that's a very good point everyone will benefit if this turns out to be a win for the town I think you make a good point as well Mark but I also I also am kind of there is always some benefit in spending the money that you have and not borrowing more money I'm I'm very kind of aware that like our debt service is a significant part of our budget I think we have a selector policy that it should not be more than 10% I think Ian once told me of our budget and we there or not or right over that so you know there's some benefit to just not borrowing when it's at a relatively High interest rate still were there ever examples I don't know even know if this is possible but where the MLP has paid back the municipality for those startup costs once it was money yeah I'm not sure I mean that we can choose to do that if we want um um I I can't think of a specific example I was going to ask kind of L point I'm will to do the work there's a bunch of municipalities that have done this and see what see what more information I can find out about financing vehicles that might make this I understand you I understand you may not have enough information I appreciate that and the task force it's our job to find that information that you don't have and present it to you yeah I I I I would I would suggest or I would support the fact that we don't say oh you want F of your house you'll pay 5,000 that's they tried that in wilham and did not work at all and and frankly you know if if I say yes and I pay it you know my neighbor's going to say oh well as long as he's got the wire running down the down the street you know I'll just connect my house for 50 bucks or you know so I I wouldn't I don't think that's the way we want to go I don't know if anyone has ever done it that was my question I know wilham tried I I was at a meeting with wilham when they said they were actually trying to assess people for and and they got a very very very low tape rate to the point where they abandoned the project I think ly's I mean I think your idea makes sense just a first blush yeah makes sense to me yeah great something to explore yeah when when we were in Westfield they told us that they were doing several payment payment in tax programs where they were they were using their MLP money to support projects in the town in lie of them paying the town for the revenue that would so I so I think that's what they're doing in Westfield they were paying some of that money back you love pilot programs that would make sense though that that is a workaround of about what I'm saying yeah huh it's a good idea yeah thank you that was a great idea yeah I do I love that Mark I was just going I'll make a motion that we we accept the recommendation that we accept the report of the fiber Task Force and and uh move forward with implementing the recommendations second all right any further discussion okay all those in favor all right great thank you thank you all for your work appreciate it not tonight but in general you go tonight all right uh now moving on to new business um so the first item under new business is an open meeting law complaint that was filed by a town resident Richard Foster and this was concerning the discussion that took place in our August 12th meeting around uh Mr Benton's nomination to the board of registers so uh the complaint is attached to the agenda um as well as Town council's response to the complaint um and I I think that um you know I I just kind of want to oh well I guess I should say that what the select board is being asked to do tonight is to discuss the complaint and decide and vote whether a open meeting law violation occurred or not so that's what is in front of us tonight um so I want to kind of I guess just walk through what this open meeting law complaint was and and you know kind of what transpired so a few days after our August 12th meeting uh I think everybody on the select board received an email from Mr Foster um alleging that an open meeting law violation occurred um I responded to Mr Foster and explained to him open meeting laws and the statutes and how uh this you know did not come anywhere close to a violation of the open meeting law which was reinforced by our town council's uh you know response that they that they ended up uh providing last Friday uh Mr Foster responded to my email by saying thank you for the illuminating response and I did not hear anything else from him a few days after that he went and filed this complaint um with the Attorney General's office now you know I I realize that open meeting laws are complicated and difficult to understand but I think that it is unfortunate here that instead of trying to better understand open meeting laws that Mr Foster just went ahead and filed this complaint because all this is really resulted in is just the waste of taxpayer dollars that we had to spend on our attorneys and also a waste in you know the time the town's time and energy and resources and having to respond to this complaint uh because you know as as the town council's response makes clear right the way that this was handled at our select board meeting was done in compliance with State Statute and also with case law um and and and in fact case law actually flat out says that when we are discussing nominations that this should be done an open session um and you know I we had a lot of folks come here tonight and make resident comments and you know there have been articles written about this and I just want to guess kind of go over the facts again of what happened at that meeting the nature of the statements that Mr Benton made they were not made in a private conversation they weren't made in private correspondence they weren't even made just to his Facebook friends right these statements were published publicly for the whole world to read anyone who has a Facebook account or can Google could have read these and also it does not appear that these statements were made um you know in service of a project or in response to any question these were just statements that Mr Benton wanted the world to know about how he felt about these certain issues so when we hear things like these statements were being taken out of context what Mr Zoro did was he just read the read the statements as they were intended to be read as Standalone statements so that line of argument doesn't really you know hold much water with me um and the other thing that I want to you know address is some of these comments too about how the select board acted in a partisan manner what I also want to remind folks is that at the August 12th meeting that we had a democratic nominee before the select board there was a democratic Nom that was before the select board that we already that we could have just voted on right there but we took the extraordinary step of bypassing that nominee and asking the Republican Town committee to send us a new name um and I I believe that this board took that action because the five of us uh this body we believe in the non-partisan nature of the select board and we also believe uh in town president and following Town president so I I want to reiterate that I am proud of the way that the select board handled uh you know that that decision and just to kind of zoom out for a second um this episode to me was an example of the hyper partisanship infecting our country right now where people feel the need to defend and excuse abhorent statements just because somebody of the same political affiliation made those statements and I think if we can learn anything from this it's that we will be so much better off when we can speak with moral Clarity and we can say that right is right and wrong is wrong despite what who made that statement you know based on their political party um and I hope that you know if anything that's something that we can learn from from this whole episode so those are my thoughts on that and you know obviously welcome anyone else's thoughts Mark yeah I'm not going to speak to the issue because I I agree with with you the I I want to speak to the what's before us which is the open meeting law complaint I frankly I was very surprised when I opened up our packet and saw that Our Town Council reacted to this open meeting law complaint frankly open meeting law complaints as far as I understand go from the complaintant to the State Attorney General's office somebody in Worcester who deals with open meeting laws and they will tell us whether it's an open meeting law complaint or not despite what we may think despite what our town attorney may think so you say the select Board needs to respond I don't feel a need to respond the Attorney General's office is going to tell us whether it's an open meeting law complaint and so yeah so we looked we looked into this procedure of how this works so once an open meeting law complaint is filed it comes to the select board we vote on whether there's a violation or not if we vote that there was a violation then we need to enact remedial measures if we decide that there was not a violation then that kind of ends it right there and then the complaintant has an opportunity to appeal our decision to the Attorney General's office but isn't that filed with the Attorney General's office either way a copy has to go to the Attorney General's office I I understand that but in the past the select board's never dealt with them because they've gone to the Attorney General's office who tells us you now need to accept it remediate it or forget about this it's not going anywhere because it's not really a violation which is what mostly happened but the select board's never had to respond before because my understanding is no matter what we do this Attorney General's office as is obligated to respond to this to this complaint I think that's correct but the procedure is on it's the second item on the agenda under here public body must meet with it must meet to review the complaint with within 14 days after review but within 14 days the public body must respond to the complaint in writing and must send the complaint in a response and a description of any action the public body has taken to address it it go on go it goes on to say the public body May delegate the responsibility to counsel the staff member to review the complaint anything else no just I guess I have a procedure question because uh um obviously this is this is going to the uh attorney general uh as Mark said and we want to make sure that we are uh doing everything correctly by the letter of the law and we must send we have to respond to the complainant and uh describe our with a response and description of any action we must send the Attorney General a copy of the response we may delegate this count responsibility Council but only after it's met to review the complaint and that and that's what I want to make sure that we are not running a fail of anything because Council has responded and I guess we could adopt that response if we wanted um but that was done before we reviewed and is is there any that's what I I want to make sure we're doing this correctly sure so uh when we received the complaint um we at Town Council had already been apprised of this um comp complaint before it was formally filed uh just to verify the process that had happened at the last meeting um and in receiving the complaint we forwarded it off to Town Council it is completely up to this body whether or not you adopted or not but their review of what transpired they watched the meeting uh and then they read the complaint this was their opinion and it's up to the board if you want to adopt this letter and use this as a response does the the timing the order of what happened here will that will that matter uh that was not raised by Town Council okay in their review I think I would only add you know I I don't think this was a open meeting violation and I think that um Mr Benton's comments that were R I don't think any of us really agree with but I I would only add that I was saddened that there was such a kind of a public disparagement of a fellow citizen I think that you know we should have a very we're a small town we should have a very high threshold forever directly disparaging one of our neighbors you know I I don't think Mr Benton is a bad person I'm acquainted with him I think he has done a lot of good things in town but um I don't think that you know any of us would agree with the things that he put forth but I just want to speak out for you know the discourse and there may have been other ways or a different tenor could have been taken and achieved the same result even though it's not an open meeting violation to not have chosen to do such a thing in executive session it could have been done in such a way and perhaps been a lot less inflammatory no yeah I I appreciate that Andrew and I you know I would just um I guess point back to town council's response where they cite case law saying that you know discussion of nominations should be held in Open Session um and so um and then you know and and I also understand you know Mr Benton some of his friends came uh today and and talked about how you know the toll that this has had on him and and and you and you me remarked that as well um and I will just say that I didn't see Dan what Dan said that night as that Dan was just reading statements that Mr Benton had made Dan didn't disparage his character he didn't say anything personally about Mr Benton he just read statements and allowed us uh you know the opportunity to make of those statements of what you know what we want and so that's that's you know how I took it yeah I I just wanted to say a couple things um and very being very well said kind of kicking things off um um you know i' I've made a couple comments on this already um verbatim to the the paper when they reached out and all that I'm going to comment about is the simple fact that that when we make Nomine uh when we when people want to sit in front of us to be appointed to a a board or a committee as a select board member that is probably one of the most important um decisions that we make on a regular basis um we saw the response from Council there was nothing that was wrong here from the board's part and people hold select board members to a standard that they expect us to to do our homework on every single issue and appointments on the issue of having open and free elections that I take that very seriously every every appointment that we make on this body especially Board of registrars that is overseeing our elections there aren't many appointments that are nearly as important in my opinion um that select boards make and to ven's point we even said to the Republican Party in the town of Long Meadow we view that there's two Democratic um appointees previously this year it's going to be two Republicans so we all agreed I believe we even voted on it to go back and come in front of this board for an appointment again we are doing our homework on every single issue that comes in front of us and that is simply what I was doing I was doing my homework for an appointment that oversees our elections in an open meeting meeting and this is what we've always done in the Commonwealth what we've done in Long Meadow and nothing was wrong I'm sorry that some people didn't appreciate that but those are the facts and we watch the video and that's an appointment that's made we make several appointments and we should be crediting select board members for going above and beyond and actually putting in the effort that we're elected to do and doing our homework to make sure that people that want to sit on boards and represent the town that they're representing the town in a way that is respectful to our neighbors and all individuals across our town and and that is exactly what I did and I take this very seriously to put in the the extra work and homework to make sure that we are appointing people um that have the values that that we should share in Long Meadow that is respectful to all of our neighbors so ven I appreciate you kicking things off and I just want to in closing I I just want to say over the past couple weeks with you know a lot of the unfortunate attacks that were coming my way I I just want to say thank you to um a couple select board members that have been very supportive Josh has been supportive you've reached out to me and and I appreciate that as well as you beneath um and also the the town's people I can't tell you sat morning my phone was off the hook you know what happened what happened um and and I had a lot of outpouring support um and I just want to thank the community for standing up uh for the the board as well as myself you know during a time in which um you know I was being wrongfully attacked and I was just doing my job doing doing the homework that is necessary to make the right decisions for the overall community so so with that said Thank you anything else all right I oh sorry goe I was just going to say I just read that language again just to verify and um it says while the public body May delegate responsibility for responding to complaint to Town Council or another individual it must meet the first to do so and um I think what's important in that is that what you have in front of you is a draft you can choose to adopt or not at that point it would be sent out it would be delegated to send the response so I think that's the distinction so I I would move that we uh find that there was not an open meeting law violation and we delegate the responsibility of uh drafting a response letter to Town Council uh regarding U following our our meeting tonight second um any further discussion go ahead Mark what happens if the Attorney General doesn't agree they just don't I mean it it just they'll let us know yeah so I mean it doesn't it doesn't impact our decision on what we think essentially and they get I assume it's up you discuss they get an independent I mean it sounds like our attorney knows what he's talking about I'm not going to you know I mean I my tendency is to accept our our attorney's position but in in general the Attorney General's office can do do whatever they want to do I guess we could we could say yeah there was an open meeting law violation and we're going to get retraining on it and then the Attorney General well the Attorney General then I don't think would review that decision um because there would be no disagreement by the complainant um but from I I I don't think we should find an open me meeting VI we should not say there was an open meeting law violation in order to bypass review I mean uh yeah if if there was found there was an open meeting law violation uh just based on the wording the statute I'd be very surprised but um I I don't think we should vote for it just just in case right yeah I mean I stand by the way that the meeting was handled and um and you know like I said State Statute and case law both support the way that it was handled so I if the Attorney General's office wants to say that there was a violation then we'll deal with that then but right now I feel comfortable with the board's position all right so uh any other further discussion okay all those in favor great all right um next up is the ratification of the DPW collective bargaining agreement Lynn do you want to yes thank you uh so the um Long Meadow Association of Municipal Employees is the DPW Union um this is covering the contract of uh June July of 2022 through June of 2025 in that contract there was a wage reopener as a result of the implementation of the uh wage and classifications study we have been in negotiations with that Union uh since April and I pleased to say that we have a memorandum of understanding now and um The quick summary of it is it uh represents a 2 and a half% cola increase for fiscal year 24 so that's the year we've already closed out uh and then effective July 1st of 2024 so that's fiscally year 25 we have a new salary scale and um that would be adopted with the ratification of this tonight and then um employees would receive that retroactive Cola for FY 24 and then um be placed on the new wage scale as of July 1st something to say no okay just gonna move just gonna move all right go ahead uh I would move that we uh ratify the word that were or we telling you to ratify um no that yeah you would you um ratify the memorandum of understanding I would move that we uh ratify the memor memorandum of understanding uh with the Long Meadow Association of Municipal Employees second any further discussion all right all those in favor all right thank you ly that's important yes thank you um okay next up are some one-day liquor licenses um so does anybody have any any comments or discussion on this is there is there a limit or is it's a limit per year per year okay Li per year and it's a lot it's like 48 okay I looked into it Josh it's like one it's just short of one a week and this is well I I think I think also uh last year Tom looked it up it I figured somebody would know the answer to that um I'll move that we approve the one-day liquor licenses for the uh lacf for nove sorry September 5th 2024 September 12th 2024 and September 26 2024 second okay um any further discussion right all those in favor all those opposed all right and then we also have a um one-day liquor license um application from oneway brewing for the pride festival I'll move that we approve the one-day liquor license for uh oneway brewing for operation at the long met pride festival uh on Sunday September 15th second any further discussion go ahead Mark I just want to verify the location there wasn't a map that I saw with this maybe there was but I didn't see it I believe this time it was actually attached oh yeah it's the same location the same not on Town property no yeah same locations last couple years right y okay uh anything else all right all those in favor all those all right we good um and then a street closure application from the uh long met pride festival um next up I'm going we approve the street closure application for the Long Meadow pride festival uh for from inner Long Meadow Street or on in Long Meadow Street from Williams to Longfellow on uh September 15th from 11: to 4: p.m. second any further discussion all right all those in favor all right great and then anyone have any comments on correspondence Mark I can see you're thinking about it you're right but I'm going to hold it little the time all right okay so I'll entertain a motion to adjourn so moved second okay any further discussion all right all those in favor all right thank you everybody thank you all thank you for