##VIDEO ID:oLwaC1fdeAw## yes we're all set stand 5 4 3 2 1 Welcome to the November 18th 2024 meeting of the long metal select board this is Select board chair vene haavi I'll 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 please respond in the affirmative Dan zero here Andrew lamb here Mark gold here Josh LaVine here staff when I call your name please respond in the affirmative Lyn Simmons here Mike barbier here this open meeting of the long met select board is convened in person and Via Zoom webinar as posted on the agenda and Town's website identifying how the public may join there is no chat or Q&A function all of the materials for this meeting are available on the agenda posted on Longet ma.gov the public is encouraged to follow along using the posted agenda unless I note otherwise this meeting will feature resident comment for residents attending the meeting in person please raise your hand when we get to the comment section of the meeting and I will call on you to approach the microphone for residents participating in the meeting via Zoom webinar format please use the raise hand icon at the bottom of the screen the meeting moderator will promote you to panelist unmute you and give you permission to speak if you join the webinar by phone dial star9 to raise your hand and star 6 to mute unmute residents who wish to speak will identify their names and addresses only each individual is afforded three minutes for comments please note that this meeting is being recorded and that some attendees are participating by video conference please remember to mute your phone or computer when you're not speaking if anyone in attendance is recording this meeting please announce yourself now good all right we will now begin with the Pledge of Allegiance IED Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible liberty and justice for all all right and we will begin with select board announcements huge thank you to all the volunteers residents and staff who attended town meeting last week and ensured that the meeting ran smoothly if you un unable to attend the meeting a recording of the live stream is available on the long metal Community television YouTube page the minutes will be posted to Longet ma.gov as soon as they are available the long metal fall leaf program will continue with curbside collection on Saturday November 23rd and Saturday December 7th Long Meadow clear leaf bags are on sale at Big Y currently the drop off areas in The Meadows off of West Road are open 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. 7 days a week through December 8th with a recycle uh and recycle center pass as required for additional information about the leaf program please visit longm ma.gov Leaf program town of Long Meadow municipal offices will be closed on Thursday November 28th and Friday November 29th for Thanksgiving okay and after that we will move right into board and committee interviews and we have one interview tonight for the board of assessors if you could please begin with your name address and why you're seeking reappointment good evening Richard Foster 29 Captain Road uh Board of assessors good question why I'm seeking reappointment um actually the board of assessors is likely one of the better committees in town as far as the actual reaching out and touching the residents uh even so much more than even select board activities because you know we get to go one-on-one understand the ples of a person uh sometimes help them sometimes not help him but I thought it was very rewarding I was I was requested to join the committee they were having trouble getting people on and I I enjoyed to stay on it uh looking forward to serving on it again great uh any questions from the board no come on Mark I'm just glad you dressed for the occasion Richard you got one you got a question you know there was one thing I noticed when when I got on the board in it's it's hindsight uh I made a statement I don't know if you're aware but you actually take a a 10 session uh course on the internet to be a board of assessor and you have to pass the task and I thought when I completed it it was ashamed that it wasn't a mandatory requirement of the select board cu the information there was very pertinent more much more in detail than what we got into in the budget and our uh discussions in the uh in the actual boardroom when we were actually talking about the tax base I was still Rec recommend it uh very very informative I thought I knew most of that stuff after being on the board for as many years I was I didn't I came I was confused on some items it's it's very enlightening to go through that that part of that training okay great thank you uh there's nothing else from the board then you'll hear from us when we vote on your appointment okay thank thank you all right and we've got um appointments from our previous meeting to vote on um I'll entertain motions on that yeah I'll make a motion to appoint uh I'll do them all one motion I'll Point John Skye to the capital planning committee for a three-year term expiring June 30th 2026 Point William Welsh to the community preservation commission for a three-year term expiring June 30 30th 2026 appoint Teresa yesu to a Council on Aging Board of Directors for a three-year term expiring June 30th 2027 7 and Appo Bob Abel to the historic commission for a three-year term expiring June 30th 2027 second any further discussion okay all those in favor all right great thank you all right moving right along we will now move into resident comments do we have any resent comments anyone on Zoom I do not see anyone on Zoom no okay great uh then we'll move ahead to select board comments anybody have a select board comment they'd like to make Mark go start down there that's right oh yeah um just want to congratulate the boys cross country team on winning the D2 state championships uh this past weekend uh I think they had four four runners in the top 20 is pretty incredible uh so I just want to say congratulations to everyone great thanks Mark you're next yeah I have a a few comments the the the recycling committee began work on a roll out of a plan for the automated recycling system that's part of the new upcoming trash hauling contract and uh with the money approved that that at the special town meeting to purchase the recycling bins for each household the communication roll out plan is now being developed with a implementation Target geared for before the July 1st 2025 required start date so they're hoping to have these purchased installed and you know distributed and the program rolled out uh in advance of when we need to do it for our contract but that's really a work by the recycling committee and they were responsible for doing when we went to the 35 gallon barrels and that seemed to work fairly well and I expect this to work the same way so I'm I'm pretty optimistic about that I just want to follow up with a a couple of things they've been I'd gotten a couple of emails and calls about water bills uh that went out last week I think there were some things on on the Facebook or whatever and I think that the town needs to make people understand that the significance of the cost increase from the City of Springfield you know we get blamed for a lot of things and maybe we are responsible for some of this but but clearly there was a significant increase in the cost of water from the from the Springfield Water and Sewer Commission I think there needs to be a way to communicate that uh couple of kind of housekeeping things I I'd sent a note to our chair but I just want to reiterate that uh you know that we need to go through the past year of executive committee meetings we don't do that in Open Session but minutes need to be issued we haven't had executive committee meetings minutes issued in quite a while I also want to kind of re re iterate my request to review the recommendations of the charter Review Committee those were some unfinished business and I think we should either we should look at it if nothing else just to put them to bed rather than than just leave leave them hanging there's a a whole bunch of people worked pretty hard on it and made some recommendations whether we follow them up or or not follow them up I think that we uh we we need to uh take some action on those great thank you um and so Ju Just to um touch on a couple things that you mentioned Mark the executive committee um or the executive meeting sorry meeting minutes I think we were supposed to discuss that during our executive session we just had we just ran out of time but um I I agree and that is something that we will um talk about and then the charter review um I purposely delay that to um occur after town meeting just CU I didn't want there to be any kind of confusion um in that conversation but um that is something that we we are going to address um I know that you and Lynn had discussed um some of this um and I think we're going to revisit it look at it and and I think in the new year we'll talk about it um at our select board meeting um one other thing I know that we mentioned this in select board um announcements but just want to also thank the town moderator um for the great work at town meeting last week I think we had a great town meeting great turnout great questions and participate uh participation from our residents I think that this was the first town meeting where Lynn did not have to speak and I and I think uh my wife said it was great to see that Lynn got a got a break from not getting a pop quiz on every aspect of her job for for once in front of the whole town um but yeah I want to thank everybody town clerk uh for for a good town meeting um after this we will now guess go right into Tom manager's report I just have a question I don't know where it's appropriate so at the town meeting the town meeting created a Municipal Light plant and is the process for that does that come with a a an Enterprise fund or do we now have to go before a town meeting and create an Enterprise fund for that I know we had we created we create Enterprise funds through the town meeting and if we want that separate we talked about it at the and I think the war article talked about an Enterprise fun so I don't know if that is automatic or is it something that we need to do separately so we are receiving a lot of guidance of on Municipal life PL from Our Town Council um and so we'll be discussing that at a yeah at a meeting but they have are very familiar with this have done this with other towns and they be to guide us yeah through that so um but yeah we will probably do that at a one of our December meetings um sorry oh yeah oh d i just going to say um so I I Echo what you said about town meeting and and and the moderator I thought she did as always an excellent job um and also just wanted to say uh thank you to uh the veterans in town we had a couple veterans events um so we had a breakfast over at the adult center that that I had attended um also um right at the Town green as well with Earl Godfrey and we had a lot of uh kids that attended as well I know that they had the day off from school but it was nice to see the some of the troops that were there um some of the kids and the color guard and uh just a overall really good good event so um just thank you for that great thank you all right all right I think you're up now thank you um so it tonight I'm happy to start off with another Grant award uh we have a department of ecological resources uh called de Culvert replacement Grant uh the DPW submitted this application uh in their de Culvert replacement Training Site initiative this is overall the uh through the de stream continuity program which awarded $2 million to 17 municipalities uh and again we were um re we received one under the Culvert replacement Training Site initiative this um aims to build a network of Road managers skilled in replacing coverts that meet Mass stream Crossing standards it's going to include training opportunities site visits and technical assistance the town was selected to receive a grant to support replacement of a culvert on West Road Trail over Long Meadow Brook the grant award was for $75,000 which is the full amount we requested it's going to um help us conduct field data collection to replace the Culvert on West Road Trail in the fan steban Wildlife Refuge over Long Meadow Brook which is a cold water Fisheries resource and priority habitat um and I know the select board knows this but for the public um we have settled the two DPW legal cases that were set to begin jury selection on November 13th this involved disputes over the land taking and environmental contamination at the 170 Dwight Road parcel this is the home of the DPW garage and offices settlement marks the closure of the landt taking case filed in 2019 and the environmental cleanup case filed in 2021 uh legal council for the town of Long Meadow informed the select board that both parties agreed to resolve the long long-standing disagree M ments through a settlement under the terms the previous landowner will provide a payment of $400,000 to the town of Long Meadow uh and and the previous land owner has agreed to drop its lawsuit against the town which sought further compensation for the property taken and in exchange for this the town of Long Meadow agreed to dismiss its lawsuit against the previous land owner regarding environmental contamination at the site the rest goes on to just summarize the outcome there but uh once the release is ready it'll be brought back back to the select board for a vote um the energy and sustainability committee has launched a survey for their climate action plan this is being done with the help of Piner Valley Planning Commission a survey is um out there to gather input to better understand the needs and priorities of Long Meadow its residents and businesses to reduce the impact of climate change and create a climate climate action plan for our town um Long Meadow as we all know has endured uh several severe weather events in the the last few years costing in the realm of $60 million plus to homeowners insurance companies in the town the cost to municipalities are borne by all of us in our community would like your help to reduce greenhouse gases which contribute to climate change the survey takes about 5 to 7 minutes to complete and is for Long Meadow residents and businesses only a flyer with the QR code is attached below and paper copies of the survey are available at the Long Meadow Adult Center um and an update on the Long Meadow High School pool in August of 2024 while the facility staff and pool vendor were gathering pricing for the replacement of drain covers and resurfacing of the high school pool some red flags were noticed upon further investigation significant work was identified to be done to the pool's drainage system to guarantee the safety of swimmers and the pool's compliance with the Virginia Graham Baker Act designs were prepared by the town's contractor and work kicked off on October 1st by early November the work to replace um sorry the work to clear and replace piping and valves was complete and new drain covers were installed however while checking the electrical bonding of pool components some higher resistance readings came back on some of the ladders and it was noticed that the starting blocks had been moved from the shallow end to the deep end at some time in the recent past and had never been properly bonded the town's design contractor then prepared a spec for the electrician to run a new bonding wire and attach all components to it the last component of the pool infrastructure repair work was to electrically Bond the new Sump System last week the entirety of the pools pieces requiring bonding were checked for continuity and the majority of them were not bonded at all or had fluctuating resistance ratings this indicates broken connections of course this bonding wire Loop is encased in the pool deck and which is likely from the 1970s it's hard to tell when how or why the bonding is broken all options were reviewed by the design contractor electrician facilities director and the high school certified pool operator unfortunately the next step is to run a new bonding wire within the pool deck to each item requiring grounding this means saw cutting into the tile and concrete approximately 1 and2 in around the entire pool running a new copper bonding wire to each pool fixture ladders chair lifts starting blocks diving boards Etc it's expected the pool will be down until at least the New Year design work is in process and will be expedited and then bid out for construction and then two other quick updates that I did not provide in my written report here um one is to just emphasize and call attention to um the burn the ban on outdoor burning um we're in serious dry conditions right now and any um anything can be combustable at this point if you're doing an outdoor burn so please do not and also just call out um in the fire department monthly report just want to note that it is Chief dearborn's last monthly report he retires on Friday there will be a change of command ceremony at 3:00 at the fire department to um change command from Chief Dearborn to Chief Ry thank you great thank thank you uh any questions comments for Lynn on the report or the department monthly reports Jos I just have a question for you on the um one of the last things you said if I I was driving around town recently and I smelled smoke and I called the fire department I wonder out where it came from though is it is there anything people should do in particular if they smell smoke uh should they call the fire department call the fire department they'll ask for your location they'll and if they get enough calls they'll be able to pinpoint it more closely sometimes it's just a wood stove or a pellet stove sometimes it's an actual outdoor burning situation Great Dan um regarding the the pool I know I had reached out to you from some residents had reached out to me about when um you know they were going to open up the pool so when you said this is the start of the new year of 2025 so it's it's pushed back probably a couple months from what we had thought and and maybe I missed it but where are we using another Pool as the the high school going to leverage another pool yeah the high school has been working on agreements with other um community pools to be able to have the high school swim team use those facilities thank you Mark yeah I I I think it was one of the monthly reports about The TR toown trolley that was running out of fun funding or funding was was ending for you know that that that come up a few times of the Pioneer Valley Authority meetings I've been at pvta is as most people know now getting funding from the state to run buses for free so people at home who don't know pvta buses are no no fee right now but I guess the question is should we go just go back to the old pair transit system trown trolley replaced Paratransit which is frankly the called the short end for dial ride uh if if we're not going to have a trown trolley long metal is included in that as a as a convenience is something helpful but if it's no longer helpful for our residents it might be something we want to look at getting back long metal residence into the dial ride program and then looking for the no fee system I I don't know where that how we follow up with that Lynn but if you want to I can also talk to the pbta about it yeah it was in a um weekly email update I provided so it's the information is very preliminary right now um so I don't think there's anything that needs to be done yet it's just something I'm keeping tabs on okay thanks thank you anything else okay um our dog hearing is set to begin at 7:30 so we'll skip ahead and try to take care of some other business here um over the next 6 minutes um after the hearings we have approval of meeting minutes so I'll entertain any motions to approve those minutes I'll make a motion to approve uh two sets of minutes the first set of minutes is from the October 21st select board meeting and the second set of minutes from the November 4th select board meeting and approve them as issued second any further discussion I have to abstain on the second one okay so uh you want to vote them separ yeah I'll V them separately okay I'll I'll move on the uh that we approve the October 21st minutes second okay any further discussion all those in favor all right great now move we approve the minutes of the November 4th meeting second okay any further discussion all those in favor abstain all right um ratification of the fire chief contract so this is um something that we discussed and reviewed in executive session and now we will vote to ratify it here in Open Session anybody have any comments that they would like to make um or you know maybe explain is anything you'd like to explain a little bit before we um so just so the Public's aware this is a contract for the incoming fire chief Ry who's replacing Chief Dearborn on Friday uh after a change of command ceremony uh Chief Dearborne will will retire and chief rigny will take the helm um this contract is um effectuating that appointment as fire chief um the contract largely follows what's in place for chief Dearborn um with changes in compensation uh and there's also been a change regarding um uh compensation in terms of pulling the fire chief off of the non-represented pay scale this was a recommendation that had been made in the wag and classification study and this is our first opportunity to do that um with a contract and going forward we'll look at doing something similar with successor police chief contracts great thank you any anything from the board on this look for a motion I'll move that we approve the the contract for fire chief John Ry second okay any further discussion all those in favor great congratulations Chief or soon to be Chief R um next up on the agenda we have the Fiers spring intergovernmental agreement town meeting was actually you know obviously just last Tuesday after town meeting it was sent over to our Town Council they're still reviewing it the review has not been completed yet so we will not be discussing it or voting on it tonight uh we'll be talking about it at our December 2nd meeting um okay so we got about three minutes left goe like to just ask a question because it's it's come up can can somebody explain the to the public as much as anybody else what the processes for bidding for whether it's contract for for fiber optics or whatever it is if if we need bids or why we don't need bids for that yeah I don't know if Now's the Time or sometime later but I know it's come up and it might be appropriate for people to hear that yeah so as part of the um I think with the creation of a Municipal Light plant you do not need to follow regular procurement um I think procedures I believe that that's what what it was right in terms of this intergovernmental agement um I don't know about that but I do know that because uh fibers spring is a subsidiary of South Hadley electric light which is a governmental entity we don't we can just vile a govern intergovernmental agreement it's like a intermunicipal agreement and so because it's a relationship between another municipality essentially um we don't have to go out to bid for this yeah thank you L um yeah so um can we start the hearing right now or yeah by the time you finish opening all that okay all right so uh attorney chaplain can we have come on up I like the new setup I just don't know where to go it was it was not it was not by necessity technical difficulties all right great thank you so much for joining us uh attorney chaplain um we are going to have a hearing uh nuisance dangerous dog hearing um can I also um get a show of hands of folks that are here as parties or here to witness for this okay thank you bathro okay all right great thank you um and uh attorney chap I think we usually let you kind of um tee us off here absolutely I typically give a little introduction obviously the board's done a number of these hearings um at this point um and obviously the Animal Control Officers at all the hearings but for members of the public that might be watching or that might be here for the first time just to give a little bit of a background in Massachusetts we have this setup where if there's a complaint about a dog if there's an attack or if there's a situation that somebody otherwise complains about the statute actually designates the select board in the town as an authority to investigate the complaint and the way that the hearing can go is it can go really one of three ways the um select board can find that based on what's reported and based on what's what comes to light at the meeting that um one that the dog fits within the statutory definition of a nuisance the second possible outcome is that the board finds based upon the facts that the dog fits within the statutory definition of a dangerous dog the third possibility is that the board finds that neither of those things is the case that the dog is neither a statutorily dangerous or statutorily nuisance dog if the hearing Authority the select board finds that the dog is a nuisance dog the statute says in a very vague way that the board should uh not should the the board shall the board must order some type of remedial measure in the case of a nuisance dog the stat doesn't say what that is so the board has to be creative um in the case of a dangerous dog the statute enumerates seven different things that the board can do the statute says the board has to do one or more of those things um there uh so basically leashing um confinement of the dog um a muzzle orders possible order um ordering that the owner purchase insurance um up to a certain amount against future injures um order that the dog be uh neutered or spayed um order that the owner identify the dog either with a chip or some other means and in certain cases where the attack's very serious um the board has the ability to order that the dog be humanely euthanized and and obviously if that's what the order is you can't really mix those with the with the other things it's it's pretty VY um so what I typically do at this stage is I read the definitions because they they are sort of intricate and it is a little dry um but it is at the heart of the hearing and that is what the Board needs to find um so we'll start with a nuisance dog there's three ways that a dog could be a nuisance dog the first one is that by excessive barking or other disturbance the dog is a source of annoyance to a sick person residing in the vicinity the second way a dog could be a nuisance dog is that by excessive barking it causes damage or other interference that a reasonable person would find disruptive to one's quiet and peaceful enjoyment and the third way is that a dog has threatened or attacked livestock a domestic animal or a person but the threat was not or the attack was not grossly disproportionate as a reaction under the circumstances so those three categories are are a nuisance dog there are two categories of a dangerous dog one is a dog that without justification attacks a person or domestic animal causing physical injury or death and the second way that a dog could be a dangerous dog is that a dog 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 um there are a handful of exceptions um basically circumstances or categories where a dog cannot be deed deemed a dangerous dog um and those are a little uh a little overlapping but I do do want to go over them so um solely based upon either growling barking or both growling and barking together you could find that that dog's a nuisance dog but you can't by Statute find that that dog is a dangerous dog um you can't base a finding of dangerousness on breed so for example um you know someone has a pitbull or a Rottweiler that fact in and of itself can't be the basis for uh finding that a dog is dangerous obviously a pitbull or a Rottweiler could be deemed dangerous but it would have to be based upon what happened and what's reported to the board not solely the breed the dog and the the final exception is if you have a situation where a dog was defending itself or was defending a person and it it um and the reaction wasn't grossly disproportionate under the circumstances um also fitting into that category is if the person who was attacked was a trespasser either into an enclosure where the dog lives or the property where the dog lives um you can't find the dog dangerous based on that you could find the dog to be nuisance dog but uh you can't kind of dangerous there so with that with that is the background that's the charge to the board this evening this is you know set by Statute I've had other boards ask me can we delegate this to somebody else no this board has to hold this hearing um the statute doesn't get specific in terms of how the hearing has to go so we treat it kind of like a court hearing kind of like a magistrates hearing um while we don't strictly apply the Rules of Evidence I swear in every witness under the pains and penalties of perjury to tell the truth um we ask that people only testify to what they've seen with their own two eyes heard with their own two ears um you know that way the board can perform its statutorily designated function of finding out what the facts are Discerning whether based on what's reported the dog is dangerous nuisance or neither and then do what the board is required to do Under the statute after that great thank you so much attorney Chaplan um so with that I will open up a hearing of the uh or I'll open up a dog nuisance uh dangerous dog hearing uh pursuant to massachusett general laws 40 section 157 and uh the general bylaws of the town of Long Meadow 5301 and 5318 um I would we to vote on that oh um yeah want to make that a motion yep I I move or so moved second okay uh any further discussion all those in favor okay great thank you um so attorney chaplain I don't know if um you know you have any suggestions but I think may make sense to begin with the complaintants I typically do that um in this case I was thinking it might be good to hear from the Animal control officer first okay Mary Lee I'll sa looks like we got quite a few people here right thank you so much for joining us Marty Lee um if you could um just Begin by maybe you know familiarizing Mr chair if I may swear first could you please raise your right hand you sol swear to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth and the matter now in hearing yes than okay thank you very much sorry about that um if you could just uh familiarize uh the folks that are watching and you know just this select word too of The Facts of what happened and then if you could provide um you know maybe your thoughts or recommendations after that'd be helpful okay um so I got a call from I think my first call came from I'm not sure I haven't met him yet are you are you Scott no you're not Scott no there's a difference um who's the the the are you whose mothers got bit no no no I'm the owner of the dog no no I know so you're yes so are the people here that that um were that the mom got bit okay so um cuz I haven't met them but I got a call from them and so there his name is Scott also so um so I got a call from him saying that his mother had been bit in East Long Meadow uh I think she's like 90 years old she got bit what was reported to me and that um that the person who had the dog took off this was according to them that the dog that the police had traced the dog to belong to a Long Meadow dog so even though it was a bite happened in East Long Meadow they had to refer it to Long Meadow because the dog lived in Long so there's Mass state laws regarding rabies when there's a bite so I have to go out and quarantine the dog so that's that's where it started so normally I do those quite often like you know daily I I do a lot of quarantine so it's usually a no big deal um I went out um to Richard's house and Richard was still um saying that his dog had not bitten anyone and so my concerns then became larger than more than is he to do with the hearing I don't know so my concerns became bigger than the quaran my con my concerns became that this dog had bit an elderly woman the dog was quickly removed from the premises if it hadn't been traced by a license plate we wouldn't have found the dog so then a 90-year-old woman would have been told to get a series of rabies shots which would have been unnecessary and a lot to put her through she ended up in the hospital I think for about a month with ciff um and that if this happened again and we didn't trace the dog so that's why requested the hearing because I think there should be some kind of orders so that the dog so that this cannot happen again so there's a responsibility um this dog shouldn't be out without a muzzle or you know able to to bite anyone um so I was hoping to hear from all the parties I know um so you could hear from the other parties I I thought that the people who had the bite happen would be here but you have the report from he Long Meadow and you have that's that's what happened great thank you so much just for the record I never received confirmation if they would be here or not but they did the hearing notices were sent out okay great thank you um any questions from the board for Marty Lee Mark thanks for being here I just want to make sure that what I think I'm reading for your report it says narrative for civilian Marty Lee kante it's it says uh and this from your report reportedly Richard PUO a long metal Resident was walking two dogs named Bella a golden retriever in Ludwick a German Shepherd at East Village Place in elderly facility on Benton Drive in East Long Meadow correct one of the dogs reportedly bit Constance Wickman an 88-year-old resident of the facility on the butt and drew blood reportedly Mr PUO did not take responsibility for the bite and left the scene quickly Alice Wiman reported witnessing the bite and taking down his license PL so is that is this report part of your testimony yes and so then what happened was all of that was under East Long Meadows police police cuz obviously I was I wasn't out there but Scott Wickman who Alice wickman's husband and it was his mom that got bit um is the one who called me and then when I started trying to um talk to Mr PUO originally he didn't tell me that the dogs belonged to um Dagmar Childs um but I eventually found out they belong to her that's U shepher belongs to me the golden belongs to him so reportedly it was the Shepherd that bit um Alice Wickman and when I went out to quarantine the dog um I ended up quarantining them both because um Mr PUO kept saying that he that um it didn't bite so then I quarantined them both because I didn't want to take a chance that if it was one and not the other and both dogs were there and um so but they both went under the quarantine so we know there was no rabies risk the woman did end up with sediff as I said and yeah so I think I've explained everything question about that met Ally speaking when you say that the patient had CI was it evid was there any evidence medical evidence that it came from the dog I think that's so that's yeah let me clarify that that's reportedly cuz I'm not a nurse and I'm not I didn't see medical records reportedly Mr Wickman told me his mother and I think I'm not I'm not a medical professional I think CDE comes from antibiotics that's the most likely which were given because she's 9-year-old with a bite understood was it the hospitalization the same as the hospitalization when she went for the dog bite that she was in the hospital for a month I think you mentioned yes it was right after the dog bite right after the dog bite is when she landed in the hospital it may not be material for the reportedly I have to keep saying that reportedly because they're not here and so reportedly from the wickman's my concern was more this dog the license place was traced to this residence when I went out there to do the quarantine the dog was was you know acting like a Shepherd protecting its property so I mean that's a very normal way for but it you know you could tell it was a powerful Shepherd barking from within the house um so my concern is if this dog was to go elsewhere and this was to happen and we didn't trace it we'd be left with a bite that we had no dog you know and I don't know if it could do more damage I don't know um you know that if I hadn't been able to trace a dog I would have been having to recommend rabies shots to an elderly woman I apologize if you said this but was it unclear which dog allegedly bit the according to the wickman's it was the shepherd okay thank you um and when I went out there it was the Shepherd that was very um agitated at the window but um Mr PUO has I mean you can talk to him he he um at least when I was there was saying neither dog bit her okay thank you anything else for Marty Lee great thank you Mar um attorney chaplain do you have any recommendations on who we should speak to next U I would suggest that we hear from the um so so I I understand the the owner and the person who is there are different different folks I I would suggest we hear from the eyewitness first okay um great I believe that's Mr PUO so Mr PUO um if you if you please come up to a microphone I made a statement from the East Long police that day and they they should have a copy of what I said and what I saw and and we received that copy huh we we received that copy received the East long metal Police Department's report so yeah you raise your right hand please do you saw swear to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth in the matter now in hearing I do and can you please State your full name for the record Richard PUO pu Z zo thank you sir thank you um so I guess the most important question is do you still contend that the German Shepherd did not bite um the in the statement I made to the East Long meow police I said I I did not see either dog bite the woman I know they were barking as they came up and they saw the the women had the uh Walkers and whatever and they were barking but I did not in that statement I made I did not see the dogs e dog by that woman okay all right any questions from the board for Mr you have that statement we do yes okay yes yeah Jos how old are both of the dogs say what how old are the dogs the dog uh Ludwick the German Shepherd he's got to be three years old no next year okay three next year and the the the golden is got to be five five and I I'd like or or sorry sorry um we'd have to swear you you're going to make a statement um and and how big is the German Shepherd he's got a he's good size I mean 80 lb sorry ma'am uh we can't pipe in0 lb but she's right 80 lb do you want to swear them both in so they could yeah maybe that's idea yeah she's the owner I found that out second because she was in the hospital I wasn't there um I was in the hospital and I just got uh released on October 12th all right we'll have to SAR you in first ma'am you please raise your right hand right hand do you Solly swear to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth in the matter now in hearing yes and could you please State your full name for the record dagar child can you please spell that for me d a m a r and then childes c h i l DS thank you okay great and so miss Charles you were saying that the the dog is 80 lbs yes yes okay and and not 3 years old yet no okay okay um has um the German Shepherd ever had an incident like this before no he's been in training since he was 6 months old a matter of fact this summer when we went to Europe uh he went on a 3- week program um for K9 we didn't want to just put him in a kennel so he went to training now I've taken him to Home Depot he goes out to Bliss Park all the time he loves us sit there and just watch the kids we walk him there um he's always on a leash he has not shown any aggression since I've been home from the hospital I've had the visiting nurse op and the the um physical therapists there and people in and out of the house he has not barked he has not shown any aggression at all towards them we have a cleaning lady that that's come in uh the last year and you know the dogs don't they're friendly have Jos have the two of you reviewed the police report from E Long Meadow he did I did not I have and so you know that the police officer said there were puncture wounds that were fresh he uh he he was at my house did you read the report that said that he saw puncture wounds ever fresh and were bleeding bleeding I did see that I was taken back by it cuz he showed me a picture of a a thigh that had uh uh open open to the flesh like the skin was taken off he showed me that picture and I conceived at the time that that was the bite but to this day I've been to the police station numerous times the police told me I had to write a report and they gave me all they won't allow me to talk to them and he has a picture supposedly allegedly of that do B we haven't seen the picture he I don't think you have the right to see the picture um why wouldn't we because I mean we're the ones that are being and my dog is the one that's being accused of being vicious why wouldn't I want to see the picture if and and and as far as Richard told me there was no tearing of the cloth or whatever and the woman wouldn't cooperate so he was getting in the car and he was going down to the police station I made a statement ask a question assuming that the police officer telling the truth and I'm I think that's a fair assumption where do you think those bite wounds came from or the injury they had to come I mean I I did not I made a statement to the East Long met police I understand what your statement was did you read my statement yes I did and I'm asking you question I did not see the dogs bite that woman they were barking and and as I said in that statement that you know they had the uh Walkers and whatever is it possible to get sworn in I'm his his son and it might help mediate a little bit between you guys and him they get a little defensive and think it might help a little bit I understand where you're coming from with that said since you weren't and ey witness we're we're just going to stick with the which just the folks who were there take a long time then can I ask you a question go ahead Andrew sir I perhap I'm sure you would acknowledge the possibility that although you did not see the dog actually make a bite it might have happened but one thing that I might want to ask you is how close do you think your dogs got to these individuals I was I was coming from the uh Power Line walking my dogs and I cut through their Shrubbery in the back of the uh rest home and I cut through and there's a walkway I can show you the pictures and then I cut across the grass cuz they were barking like hackers I'm just actually asking how close do you think your dog from what you actually saw got to these individuals like a couple feet closer feet very close okay yeah um so when this incident happened it sounded like you you left the scene after so I'm I'm I guess I'm trying to understand if if nothing happened why would you be leaving the scene abruptly abruptly in that paper that the statement I gave to the east long metal police I put the dogs in the car I shut the door then I went over and I talked to the two women the uh the daughter or daughter-in-law I guess said that uh your dog B bit her mother-in-law and but as I S stood there I did not see the ripped pants or anything of that that would indicate but he was the dog he was as close to her but I did not witness as I said in that statement my Ludwick biting the woman but in in that situation I mean it's conceivable if if if if someone said a woman got bit by a dog wouldn't you want to go try to help the woman and and try to I did I went over and I put the dogs you I just said this I put the dogs in the car then I walked over to the women and and I said and and she wrote in her thing that I asked to take her pants down and that's you know that's just that doesn't go anywhere uh cuz that's in the statement and I went over to inquire and I didn't see the pants ripped and she didn't show me the wound and she claimed she put her hand in there and came out and was all blood I she didn't do that for me and and I I can't say I I saw obviously didn't see that but I went to them them after trying to find out what the situation was the dogs were barking and but I put a statement out to the East Long met police you probably have a copy of it any other questions move we close the public hearing second okay any further discussion all those in favor all right great thank you yeah you all can move back from the microphones um okay um me too oh yeah me too thanks Marty okay um and one other thing no sorry we've closed our public hearing it's close it's close um okay so Josh you want to start off I have a question for attorney Chaplan um the fact that so dog clearly in our jurisdiction the fact that the incident occurred out of our town does that change anything with our consideration here uh no okay um there complaints been made to the board but a dog that's within your jurisdiction so um everything that the dog has done is is fair game okay thank you and um and and sorry it's uh Mar maybe I shouldn't have had you step back your your recommendations your recommendations well I don't want to you know keep your around more than we need to but um your recommendations were musling the dog um when leave the house it's it's a really hard one um for me cuz I I hear Dagmar saying the dog is is good when you're around but you weren't around um my companion and um so I guess in my mind the biggest concern for me or a very big concern is this to this date not acknowledging that the dog was there an elderly woman says I've been bit and there's no acknowledgement of I'm so sorry how can I help um my concern would be a future incident and the dog going missing so I don't know what to do with that um I don't know whether it's that the dog needs to be on muzzle if it's not with its owner needs to be muzzle if it's taken out of the house um can leave that for you guys to decide you have lots of thoughts usually on um and I know dogs act very different with their owners than they do with can I show you a video of his no I have no I have no doubt that possibly that's true dog and dogs are like people they can like 300 other dogs I understand Miss I understand what what I'm saying is dogs can like 300 other dogs and people and just decide not to like one so since this dog for some reason unprovoked bit this woman now we have to look at not allowing this to happen again because we don't know what the dog's not going to like or like there is the there is the added piece of it may well have been because the owner wasn't there um the fact that I I you see where I'm coming from yeah no absolutely no thank you thank you so much muzzling at the very least okay Mark I think she did write a ticket I think Mr pu sorry we this now a discussion the select board I I think you know the the first step I believe in our adjudication of this is to determine whether the dog is a nuisance and or dangerous dog and based on the dog actually biting somebody which from the reports we've read from both these long metal police and from our our dog warden appear to been un unprovoked wasn't the dog you know defending its territory or anything like that I I believe we should find that the dog is a dangerous dog and I'd make that motion second okay any further discussion yeah just uh on that our last dangerous dog hearing um we had a lot of talk about because the nuisance finding does give us a lot more leeway on what actions we can take um but I like I said last time I I agree with we we should should when a dog is showing dangerous Tendencies I think we should find it to be dangerous and um and I I think that again the options that are available to us I I think are sufficient so um I agree with you yeah I agree with Josh um deeming a dog as a nuisance gives us more options to mitigate but sem semantics do matter and if we are not deeming a dog that's biting other people dangerous then you know that that I think um that kind of throws everything uh out so um I also agree um with with what Josh said did the motion uh name the dog specifically since there was two dogs there yeah sorry I guess L this would be the German Shepherd lwe thank you anything else just D quick question um so when you visited the home is there like proper fencing in place in the y I did not go around um Mr PUO was um quite defensive when I had visited um and the dog was very agitated because his owner um was not there so the dog was was really kind of going crazy from within the house um so he the the dog just came up to the window I just saw the dog through the window um sorry Mr P so so at that point I was trying to do a simple quarantine um and then um yeah so again I I don't know if the dog would have been different if if this child was there if she was walking it out but he was not able to put the dog safely on a leash to come see me anything else all right all those in favor okay um so now that the dog has been deemed a dangerous dog the next uh step is to determine what orders we will um you know Institute what we've talked about is ordering that the dog be muzzled when the dog leaves the home is there anything else that um folks feel like should be ordered or want to discuss I would just first say that I would be in favor of that at a very at the very least when when muzzled when not at the home and then um you know if we want if you want to re refresh your memory on what the orders can be um it is an attachment um this the second attachment under is there any way we can um swear back in this um child just because I'd like to ask her just um I guess if if that's what we order if we if we order a muzzle it would still be up to you to to to realize that if you weren't going to be there or you um having my second surgery screwed up and the dog was stress yes I agree that so so I I I just need you to kind of know that like in the future that you don't want you know you don't want to I can tell this dog means a lot to you and it's your dog and you're seeing the dog acts different around you so I just want to know that we're not back here like the dog you you're going to have to be more careful if you're what Haven met the dog you don't want to see videos I don't know if this going Bey she's trying to help okay yeah I'm I really am trying to help I'm trying to make it so that you don't get your dog taken away or um I'm trying to think of how can we make this so that so it works so that the dogs I think I should clarify I'm talking I was suggesting support for the idea of being of musling with or without the dog's owner president just to be clear thank sorry Mark did you have something yeah I guess I I I'm also concerned that from the reports we read which may be differ from what we heard tonight but from the reports we read there appeared to have been a uh and I think Marty Lee alluded to this you know leaving the scene of the dog bite that made it a little bit more difficult and I I think that's really problematic for me today but potentially for the town going forward should this happen again and I I don't know what our what our potentially potential remedies are you know in in terms of you know whether it's the donor the dog's owner or another person with the dog but I I think we need to address that as well so maybe maybe muzzling outside of the home and maybe only being only leaving the home with the owner but I don't know how you can do that because if [Applause] because if something happened to the owner then somebody has to be able to remove the dog out of I I I don't know but I yeah yeah go I don't think we have the capability to do that under the statute um if I'm not expressly yeah I mean we can I know we can always find a way but uh I to me muzzling is I'm Al very disturbed by leaving the scene and it shows a lack of responsibility and I'm it's but I I hate these dog hearings I wish we never had another one but we got to do what we have to do to make sure this doesn't happen again I to me muzzling and the leash as the minimum 10 tensile stress of 300 lb not exceeding 3 feet in length to me uh should accomplish that uh we also didn't ask but I the dog should be neutered if the dog is not yes he is and microchipped great thank you any anyone else is the dog microchipped okay he's microchipped and U certified great um well you makeing a motion make your motion yeah I'll move that uh the German Shepherd L Ludwig is required to be to wear a muzzle when outside of the house and be restrained by a device a leash or chain or other tethering device having a minimum tensile strength of 300 lb and not exceeding 3T in length and um that the dog be microchipped and neutered if not previously accomplished second any further discussion just to clarify that also means in the fenced in yard out outside the house does that mean I wasn't recommending that because the dog isn't having a problem escaping has your dog ever escaped I've never picked up I mean I've been dog officer for like 20 years now and I've never picked this dog up so uh no I would say outside the premises being outside of the U property owners home owners property home owners property great all right so we had a second any further discussion oh yeah just don't let it happen again muzzle I know that Marty Lee follows up on the these things if we haven't had a dog come back yet I don't know what we would do if it happened again and i' if I could tell you not to walk as part of this order if I could tell you not to walk at uh elderly facilities I would but we can't but be aware of your surroundings I wasn't walk I all right uh all those in favor all right great thank you all right thank you all for joining us appreciate it thank you all right go see you next see you in two weeks all right um and then I think the folks here for the next hearing are waiting outside do they have minutes of this meeting that I can the the board will the board will publish minutes okay all right so so I will move to open a uh public hearing uh for a liquor license uh violation second okay um all those any further discussion all right we just made a motion to open the public hearing yeah um sorry all those in favor all right great thank you all right um so this is in regards to a liquor license violation of Lola's restaurant um we'll begin with officer jarowski yes all right great um yeah just yeah grab microphone okay at once all right good evening yeah thank you so uh we will Begin by um I guess swearing all of you in at once so um what what's the language here just the same or Mike you want to do itanda ra your right hand do youly uh swear to tell the truth in the matter before the hearing yes I do I think that's pretty close to that's perfect that's perfect great job all right all right thanks Mike uh okay Officer D drowsky if we could begin with you just kind of describe what happened uh in the incident y good evening uh mikowsky Lieutenant lawal Police Department unfortunately officer Alita is very upset he can't make this uh meeting it's his report I'll be reading from but I approved it so I can ask uh and answer any questions that they come forward all right the following is Officer ala's report on Thursday October 24th 2024 I officer ala conducted business established alcohol compliance checks for the town of Long Meadow I received training on October 11th 2023 on the Liquor Control Act taught by investigator Christopher Temple of the Alcohol Beverage Control Commission the abcc an underage operative 20 years old voluntarily agreed to assist the L Police Department the LPD as an underage buyer prior to the start of the operation the underage operator was given a safety brief and a review of established abcc guidelines the safety brief was conducted by Lieutenant trakowski the underage operative was read the guidelines he understood and sign the document the operative was wearing a blue t-shirt and khaki shorts the underage operative was given a preliminary breath test a PBT after the operation showing a .% result Lieutenant trakowski provided the operative with a $20 bill which was used to conduct a transactions the operation began at approximately 4:30 p.m. out of the 13 establishments one was a failure one was closed for the day and one business claimed to not possess an alcohol license the following establishment failed the Restaurant Group uh Loos tacos tequila and oysters at approximately 5:00 p.m. the underage operative entered Lolas and sat down at the bar he proceeded to ask for a Bud Light but was informed that they didn't sell it the server then recommended a melou Ultra the operative was then served the Michelob Ultra the server took the $20 bill processed the transaction and produced the operative with change at this time I enter Lola's and met with the manager who was identified in this report she was advised as to the reason for my visit and informed that they were just served to uh served alcohol to a minor the server was also identified again it's mentioned in the report I spoke briefly with the owner and they were informed to expect a followup from the town of law medal for Servant alcohol to miners that is essentially the end of the statement relating to uh hold us great thank you so much and if you all could just uh thank you thank you for joining us tonight and just introduce yourself so we know who we're talking to I'm Ralph selo one of the owners coowner of uh posto in Long Meadow and also less Benjamin Coy and attorney with the law firm of bacon Wilson representing the lcy and Michael presel one of the owners as well all right great thank you all um I I'll open it up to the board if you all have any questions after hearing uh the police officer's report yeah Josh uh I I remember when we got the license we told you there was going to be compliance checks very disappointed to see you here um is Ashley thirston the manager of record abcc manager no no who is the manager of record I believe Mike yeah okay how of are you on the lowest premises uh pretty much five six days a week pretty much all the time I was there at the time I was was in the Celler in the office correct I came up and I ended up uh talking to the officer actually are uh Ashley and Michael were they tips trained they are and I do have certifications that they are tips trained it was an unfortunate uh oversight by uh by Michael uh he feels horrible about it the the server the policy is to card everyone and unfortunately he didn't follow the procedures so he was disciplined as a result of it um and compliance is number one the number one thing that they strive for uh their other restaurant did successfully pass just down the the way it was again an oversight by someone who's been working in the industry for over 10 years for the same company and has been a valued employee so um they apologize for the oversight and are taking corrective action to make sure that that doesn't happen again Mark can I ask what corrective action is being taken well they they were retrained to make sure that they're checking everyone's ID no matter how old they look um that's something that everyone is taught in through the tips training Pro program and that they instill in their restaurant and again it was just an unfortunate oversight by this particular employee at a time where honestly there wasn't anyone else in the in the bar it was just a a complete oversight on his behalf anything else from the board yeah they they're always oversights and yeah but we keep seeing them unfortunately yeah Mark yeah I guess I guess my question for Michael for you and for Ralph is do you do you have any issues with the report that we heard from the police officer okay so I mean we're not disputing the facts we're just not not at all throwing yourself on the mercy of the court and I spoke to Michael the the server he's been with us he worked with us at the federal um you know we've had a liquor license one or now we have three of them one in Connecticut four actually we still have the federal for over 22 years we've never had a violation so he he knows very disappointed um I you know frankly it was embarrassing I mean to to for this to happen we're absolutely embarrassed I think is the word we're Lieutenant chowski is that correct there's never been a violation at these at these restaurants in matter if I'm wrong but it's been one less than one year March it's been years correct I think Mike would probably have a better I have on my record for postto anything else is the server still employed yeah he is yeah he's he's been with us for over 10 years um you know unfortunately I told him if it happens again he's going to be terminated because you know we just can't take that risk um and they've been told again it's in our it's in our handbook um we teach it and now you know um we would remind them we do what's called a lineup which is every day before for service we bring all the servers up and line up and go over different things one of our weekly things that we go over um but obviously we're going to say it every day now for a little while but you know I would remind them he just he feels terrible he made a terrible mistake and really there's no there's no excuse for it yeah Mark I'm going to do something unusual you were in our our shoes what what do you think the appropriate response is well I I think the the appropriate response is given the fact that the these particular lenses although this is a new newer location for them have a history within this town and within other towns of running a business that hasn't had any violations um according to the liquor license violation policy that this board has um given the fact that um it's a first offense at this location that a warning is in appropri at Remedy or or appropriate outcome by the board for this particular um incident um given the fact that uh the individual who did commit the violation is tips trained we have the certification to show that and again it was a a first time and and and won't happen again thank you my one of my concerns is not just that it was a violation that it was a very early in the I'll call the liquor license history of of Lola's restaurant violation but also the location that that location has a very close to our high school a lot of younger kids there it's a really a concern and and I will say that many people not these folks on the select board but in past select boards have been very very concerned about liquor licenses in areas close to the high school and so it you know it it's serious any violation in our town is as Mr LaVine said we take very seriously but the ones that the in the in the vicinity of the high school are particularly Troublesome to me at least understood thank you anything else yeah I'll just add that obviously we do take this seriously but also I recognize that you all have been in Long M for a long time and you have you know we have not had incidents with you before and I think the way that you presented yourselves and spoken about this today shows that you know you understand the severity of it and that you've taken um corrective actions um to to to you know make sure this doesn't happen again so um I'm appreciative of that um I want to say that yeah D good you want to go I was just going to say well to to Mark's comment I'm not sure what you mean about other board members being lenient on liquor licenses close to the high school I just don't think I I don't I don't even know where that comes from um cuz we all of us take it very seriously and for someone like myself who would go to friendlies where you know as a kid and now there's Lola is there which I've been a few times and um I can tell you every every single time I've been there I've been carded um probably cuz I don't look like I used to of course but but um you know I'm certainly disappointed because you know one of the things maybe to Mark's Point um some of a few of us on the select board we like to see these restaurants in town we like to see um New Growth we like to see the the upand cominging of restaurants and um places to go to eat to be with family and friends and I think that's a good thing um so I'm going to continue to I'm not going to be lenient on liquor licenses like Mark seems to think but um I'm going to be um welcoming to to new businesses like Lolas but I also will say I'm you know disappointed that this happened but I do believe that um you know you're taking the right step steps to make sure that um positive change um does happen so um I I I hope you do uh keep your word and that we don't see you here again so Jos yeah just a couple more things um Fletchers got a warning last year from us or maybe probably earlier this year I was very glad to see they pass their compliance check this time I hope that you'll continue in the future um and also just a warning uh your previous occupants of your spot um uh since I've been on the board we suspended them because they got dinged a second or third time it was either was it seven day three days we G them three-day suspension I know that that is that's a big hit to the business I'm I'm unfortunately in Ben's shoes uh representing clients on this side and it's not I know he doesn't want to be here andone neither do you um so I I hope we never see you again for this um I'll move motion I'll move that um for this uh liquor license violation uh that we provide a warning to Restaurant Group laua lless tacos tequila and oysters uh provide a I I can't remember the term we used for uh an official Warning Second okay any further discussion all those in favor all right great thank you sorry about that thank and hopefully we won't be back here and everyone seemed to think here for the dog hearing too got to close the all right um and oh yeah we'll move to uh close the hearing second okay any further discussion all right all those in favor all right all right so we took care of a few items uh before the dog hearing so now we will skip ahead to new business um and the msba accelerated repair program for Center School um great thanks yes so as you know we applied to the accelerated repair program when it reopened in 2024 this is for the Center School roof we at were successful at town meeting last week with reprogramming funds that had been previously approved at a town meeting for the roof um the funds will now be used toward the feasibility study that's required for the roof as part of the msba process so this vote here tonight is one of the first deliverables um which is the um board action letter and the um initial compliance certification so the select Board needs to um vote this tonight and authorize the town manager to sign um documents related to the accelerator repair project for Center School roof moving forward great thank you ly Josh can you just explain how the the money would play in for what we auth authorized and what may be potentially in our future for paying yeah to the best of my ability I can um yeah I I know it's it's up in the air so uh within um 120 days we had to comply with funding which we've done um we will will then be assigned an uh OPM and designer from msba we do not get to choose they rotate through a list of approved um vendors and we will just be assigned one uh and then we will be paying for the feasibility study with the $695,000 that had previously been approved for the roof it will not cost that much for a feasibility study for the roof um this is not a a new school it's just a a roof replacement um and so as we move through the progress I'll be able to uh update you further and then at some point we will need um a funding authorization for the roof itself but uh I don't know what that cost is yet Mark can you just what's the projected timing for what you just indicated including you know funding if I assume it needs to be authorized by a town meeting um I believe it's 14 months uh this this process is uh 14 months it's it's fairly expedit um so just very quickly only in state law is 14 months yeah that's true that's true um but we've already done the um the funding um that was we had 120 days to do that so we'll be sending in that vote um and then um a Project funding agreement needs to be executed with the msba board of directors no later than 14 months from our invitation date and our invitation ation dates November 1st so it could move quicker than that hopefully it will um but I also don't know um the timing on the uh vendors that msba works with in in completing that but I'm sure it will meet the deadlines it just may not be sooner than 14 months just for clarification the msba assigned vendor is the person who does the study not the person who does the roof right right the OPM and the designer right so at some point I assume the roof goes out for bid I guess if that's process right yes yeah okay and and is there a formal you know roof building committee or roof committee that needs to be created as part of this msba process they're they're very heavily into that kind of thing I'm just wondering if we've got to start putting together people to interact with the mspa or is this completely administrative I will get back to you on that I'm not entirely sure okay thanks there may be a um review when bids are received to for selection of a um vendor but I'm not entirely sure so I will follow back up with you thanks I'm sure the uh the school building committee right now would love to take this sign as well all right anything else so you need a motion to accept an the the msba invitation and authorize the town manager to sign the application yes I'll still move so second all right any further discussion all those in favor great okay moving right along uh Department of Environmental Protection consent order would you like to explain this one sure so as I've talked about in previous meetings um the the uh Department of Environmental Protection has uh issued a consent order against Long Meadow um this is based on water quality um there's some deliverables in that report that we need to do that we're we're actually undertaking now which is in installation of a tank mixer in the water tower tank um but a lot of this uh relates to the upgrades that are happening in Springfield and so as IID mentioned to you before um Springfield has until 2028 to come into compliance if they fail to do so then um that will be a matter between D and Springfield but um we will then need to um make every attempt possible for long Meadows Water to come into compliance through long Meadows end and so this is d consent order that they um put us on notice about and you need to formally accept it and we'll um sign it great thank you anything El this Josh was there so we already got a letter they told us what to do in 2022 and we didn't do it is there I know we're going to do it now is there or we kind of did it Y is there any penalty towards us or does it matter that we didn't do it um if we continued to not do do what they had been telling us to do yes there would be but there were extenuating circumstances back in the then um the conversation over a installation of a tank mixer actually started prior to covid and DP D gave us um um a longer length of time to make efforts uh on a water uh water age study that we were taking doing sorry um and because of Co it changed everyone's patterns and so it changed water use cuz people were home more and so they agreed to let us stall doing um completion of that Tracer study and then it it just delayed everything else and then we had um change and change again in DPW leadership so this project did not get off the ground when it was supposed to so are we now in a position to be able to comply with this and do it we can as much as we can absolutely yeah the work on the take mixer is already started right Mark I guess one of my concerns Lyn is not the the water tank system in the mixer but it's the has five deviations that we're we're somewhat depending upon the city of Springfield's multi multi-million doll project to resolve do we or should we have a plan B I mean because if it doesn't it falls back on us and and right now we're we're doing doing some work on the water tank but my understanding is that that's not intending to necessarily address this this issue right um so if you recall uh at the last the annual town meeting um in May there was a capital article for um a interconnection study with the town of Enfield that is a Avenue that we're looking at uh I I don't know that it's actually going to be viable but we are going to study that uh ultimately it comes down to where we get our water from and Springfield's where we're getting it from so if we are looking to make some other change or um if we're not going to get it from Springfield we're going to get it from somewhere else but the other alternative would be uh installation of our own treatment plant to treat the water that we're getting from Springfield to try to improve the quality of it obviously everything I just mentioned is incredibly costly it needs years of design and uh construction but those are you know those are some of the conversations that we do have just about what happens if um Springfield can't meet what it needs to meet uh and what do we what then does long meta want to do after that but if the I have every hope that the City Springfield and their work they put on or the Springfield Water and Sewer Commission more properly does their work will alleviate the issues we have the question is if if by chance it does not you know aren't we under under a time constraint to to make this Improvement and I mean do we do we then say well now it's 2026 2027 we've got all the change the new filter system in Springfield and we still got these issues so now we're going to start with a three to five year Capital program I know nobody wants to spend money and we I don't want to spend it as much as anybody else but like I said I think you know to have a plan B that says if this doesn't work here's the direction we're going conceivably could a buy us some time with the D and more importantly make something happen a lot more quickly to alleviate this situation and and frankly you know my limited knowledge of water Clarity is you'd certainly have to put in you know something like a a UV purification system on the water streams coming in from the City of Springfield which would knock this stuff out of the out of the lines but you know that's not cheap and it's not quick yeah and um some of what you're talking about runs on two different paths one is what D would require both Springfield or us to do and the other is what we decide we want to do that could be over and above a d order um it's prelim we're we're too premature to have those conversations yet um we could speculate all day what will or won't work um and i' I'd rather wait and see what happens and then follow what D is telling us to do right now which is what we're doing the work on the the tank mixer is already in progress so we're we're going to meet those deadlines I feel like if the Springfield Water System doesn't fix our problems then we would have to start a big conversation with d because they can't say well you need to fix your water now well we tried and we're going to have to figure something out but it would cost us a fortune so I I agree we need to have probably plan B but I I don't think we're Plan B will have to be after plan a fails I think I mean wouldn't I mean to Mark's point I guess maybe Josh as well with D um I I don't want to imagine there's been other towns similar situation but it probably would be helpful to get some sort of guidance to suggest hey 2028 is when Springfield's going to be completed if that doesn't work you know what what's what what do we do I mean should we be doing something now just in case um will our will the measures we're putting in place right now will those potentially solve the issue I don't know but I think it would be helpful to get some guidance from DP and to see what what other towns or communities in in a similar situation have have done yeah we've had um conversations with d and what they're wanting us to do um is what's in this letter so I at this point I am not um in the position to want to go above and beyond that right now because it takes years for of design and a lot of money and I'd rather start with what they're telling us we should be doing first um and then go from there and we already know that the water we're buying from Springfield is coming in not meeting the thresholds that are required so to some extent we can continue to you know make all of these plans once the water is well into our system but in reality we're buying water that already doesn't meet it so really at that point it's a installation of a treatment plant at the entry point that it comes into long met out anything else oh sorry go ahead Josh I'll move that we enter into the administrative consent order with the D second any further discussion all those in favor great okay uh next up on the agenda is our draft FY 2026 budget and capital plan calendar and assumptions hopefully folks had a chance to review this there's nothing really out of the ordinary from how we usually have this uh scheduled we will at our next meeting on December 2nd we will do our joint uh select board school committee finance committee meeting to kind of kick off the budget talks and you'll also see attached to the agenda um our budget assumptions for FY 2026 um Ian I don't know if you had anything that you want to speak to on this or Lynn um or otherwise I can just open it up to the board for comments sure I can do a quick uh summary if that's all right yeah of course thank you so as you can see this is again very early on in the process so these are all subject to change I want to highlight a couple things because I feel that they are the most important so one of them being Debt Service as you can see in the assumptions we are looking to see a small decrease in our total debt service on the Year this is as anticipated as we plan for the Middle School bonding in the next year as we will see the excludible debt will level off through FY 27 which was plann for when our time frame of bonding was for the new Middle School I also want to highlight the general fund employee retiree benefits um as Mark is well aware we have our scantic Valley meeting tomorrow and we had a difficult discussion at our last meeting um due to the fact that health insurance rates continue to rise uh spefic specifically the town is anticipating an about uh $99 to $100,000 increase in retiree rates which we have to absorb within our current fy2 budget so this is something that we're monitoring as higher premiums continue to impact the valley and impact our residents and taxpayers so if we look at um uses for example uh six out of our seven Union contracts are going to be starting negotiations soon so this is going to be a very challenging year for us in terms of wages as we are in the midst of our wage and class study and doing the implementation but we also have the union contracts we need to figure out in terms of funding so that's something that Lyn and I are both addressing and working towards um nothing out of the ordinary for sources you know we are expecting to see a 2 and a half% increase as approved by the board new growth is escalated conservatively based on prior years um we I had a discussion with the gfoa as last week we met with mass tax Foundation about net state aid and there wasn't anything in particular to expect extreme decreases or increases so I'm not expecting a a severe change in our net state aid but it was mentioned during the meeting that going forward uh the state is looking at how it's going to handle its budget in future years so I will continue to update you if there's any changes other than that as a whole um we're not expecting too many changes in the sources I'm happy to speak to anything else great thank you um and I did want to mention that at the at our next meeting is when we will vote to adopt uh the calendar um any comments from the board Mark yeah I have a few the first one that concerns me is is that the budget basis the the guidance is based on a couple of 2 and a half% increase I guess my question is is that a 2 and a half% increase from last year's approved budgeted annual town meeting or 2 and a half% increase from the budget as revised at the fall town meeting because we there there's a big difference there's a five $250,000 difference and I think it puts a real you know a two and a half% increase from the fall is more than a two and a half percent increase year-over-year so I guess that's my first question it's it's generally based on the revised budget so so we're really more than two and a half% year over from annual meeting to annual meeting um well it's not the it's it's not the individual lines necessarily it's the budget as a whole right the budget as a whole well fine I I I guess I made my point yeah the the couple other questions is the projected reduction in debt payment that you had Ian reflect the funds approved at the November special fall town meeting for Street repairs yes okay thank you and and uh the the other comment I want to make and I seem to be a broken record on this is one of the areas that are it's killing us an 8% increase every year is the Retirement Board and I know we had a discussion about it you called somebody and they said nobody's ever done it don't even worry about it I we we can't continue with an 8% increase every year I think we need to take a a a hard look at it I don't care that nobody's ever done it I think we ought to if nothing else try to be the first people do it or if nothing else create a two-tier retirement system one for existing employees who are in the Hampton County system and another for any new employees and we've been hiring new employees every year only because it'll be a while but at some point it'll break the handon county back the last at our last meeting we got a report and everybody saw that of of Prim which is the the public Retirement Board in Massachusetts reporting record revenue and growth in Investments retirements through the Hampton County Regional Retirement Board are invested through Prim but after they take their local share their expenses they come back and tell us they're not making enough money and they have to increase our fees 8% every year if we were to cut them out and invest ourselves with our new employees in Prim we'd be making these record stock market earnings and growth for our for our employees I just think that continuing to throw up our hands and saying well Nobody Does it we're stuck 8% is a killer for this budget and if can and if if this was 2% or 2 and a half% instead of 8% would put a lot easier burden on our ability to pay teachers and firefighters and police officers but we're spending a ton of money on a system that we do not at all control and seem to have thrown up our hands and saying well Woe Is Us that's the way it goes I believe there's a different system there's a better system and we've got to find that system where it's going to drive the town of Long Meadow into a very very difficult financial position to Mark's point I I guess maybe it's a question of Mark so you're making good points but I don't like no one I don't know who's throwing their hands up I mean no one on the we on this board I I don't I think we're all in agreement I mean we've been you've been on the board what 17 years now and and we you seen this go up up and up and up and here you are 17 laters years later still saying that and you're acting like we're all throwing our hands up like let's I'm happy to do a study I'd support that well we directed The you know the our our CFO to look at it and he came back and said you know you called somebody at the state and you called somebody whatever and the report was it can't be done no let me inter reject it can be done you need an act of the legislature and this B not necessarily this board but there was a conversation and no one wanted to pursue special legislation if you want to do that we're happy to prepare language for you to um endorse and we send off to Boston whether or not an act of the legislature happens is a whole other question and and people need to understand the Hampton County Retirement Board is extraordinarily well connected politically and have stopped other actions on the board but I'm thinking it like I said why why must all of our future employees be be receiving their retirement benefits through this board you know why can't we as a town set up a a two-tiered system why can't we think outside the box and say you know if we can't beat them this way just avoid them the another way and that's the kind of thing Dan that I that's that's fine it's home rule petition is what it sounds like right so well home rule petition would be you've been on the board 17 years and we're we're still dealing with the same issues so so is it my fault so you're blaming everybody else no I'm not blaming everybody else have we ever brought a home rulle petition in 17 years to address this I haven't seen one and I've been in town for a very long time I I hear you Dan the point is I'm not I'm not convinced the home rule petition is is the only solution I think that there's Alternatives like I said to go around it instead of go through it I mean fighting the Hampton County Regional Retirement Board and I did it for a couple of years is extraordinarily difficult in the in the legislature they have a strong political you know action and group and the you know like I said if if people want to just sit back and say it's 8% increase and we'll take care of it that's fine but we have to realize that an 8% increase on this you know very large expense it's what 400 $500,000 a year is really impacts us dramatically yeah I think last year when we talked about this we all did want to look into other options I think Ian did a lot of work looking into other options and we did hit this you know this kind of dead end with this special legislation and we did have this discussion decided not to pursue that but Mark if you have other ideas then we can talk about that we can pursue other options like let's you know I think everyone's open to this because I don't think anyone thinks that this is sustainable um but let's be constructive and let's offer ideas and then talk about maybe how we can actually pursue those ideas one thing we'll do is we we need to look back at the originating documents on when Long Meadow joined Hampton County Retirement figure out what that says because I don't know if that locks us into continuing this way in perpetuity or if there is an out where new employees could go to a different route so let's take it step by step we we'll look at that first and then if we can um use put new hires in a different system then we need to talk about what that looks like and um and the the phasing in of that so we'll we'll get back to you once we know at least that answer and if you want to give us some direction on whether or not you do want to entertain special legislation um let us know so we can get working on something great thank you okay anything else all right so um don't think that we have anything to vote on there um but we will be voting on the calendar um at our next meeting um so next on our agenda is our goals um discussion um so for folks listening at home a couple of months ago the select board met with a facilitator and we talked uh had a had a great discussion um about our goals both in the short term and in the long term and attach to the agenda our documents that outline what some of these goals are and so they Encompass everything from looking at upgrading EV Chargers to looking at how we can reuse buildings like the community house and Town Hall um to our fiber internet work and there have been instances in the past when the select board has met with a facilitator but I don't think that it was ever a conversation um or a process like this and this was something that I think was long overdue and when I became chair Lynn proposed this as an idea and I said that we should absolutely do this um and I I hope that the select board felt the same way that I did that it helped give us focus on what was possible and what we should be focusing on in the short and the long term and I think even dur during that discussion it helped clarify a lot of our priorities it also helped us rule out some things that were kind of you know kind of U sticking around that had had been on the back of our minds um and just gave us more Focus so we would like to take a vote to officially adopt these goals but I also want to just you know open it up to the rest of the slck board uh or to Lynn you know if you want to add anything or make any comments about our our goals and the process that we um engaged in and these weren't in any specific uh order uh no there this is not showing it a priority yeah all right I would only add that I agree I thought it was a very useful session for all of us to kind of talk very frankly about what the priorities are what the needs and wants are in the town and I think the list is good um I'm particularly very interested in what we're going to do with our surfit of town buildings like The Community House of town hall and the Old Town Hall like you mentioned so there's a lot of really important things on this list great and yeah and the facilitator that we met with um is very experienced in town government holding many different positions in different towns for 30 years and has also done this work as a facilitator with other select boards as well so he was a very useful and also provided a lot of knowledge and expertise MH yeah there just a few things in the other goals that I I think are more important and that I would like to move up I I'm not sure uh I guess that would be in our actual goals but I I think the public shade trees I I think we need to do some more thinking on that uh similar to what we did for Paving where we can come with some bigger ideas think big picture on that um I know at the end of my street there's a bunch of trees just got delivered that are to go in on uh on Farmington along where the old construction was and it's everyone's really excited about it and uh that's a big part of the maintenance that we have to do is looking at Old trees and putting in new ones um also the long-term budgeting something we talked about where we can get a better idea of where we're looking at in the next uh 3 five years uh something like that um we I mean we generally know where things are going but I think other other folks might want to get an idea and um and also the a charter a charter review I it's something I think that fiscal year 2027 is a good idea but I I just thought it was interesting just to pose against one of the emails we got uh on our agenda saying hey uh why don't you change your former town government um which is you know we every town meeting we hear that from people I I think I heard more this time around than at others but um I if people want to do it you know we can have a charter Review Committee and they they can talk about it um because when whenever anybody asks me well how can I vote from home I say change the charter um and I'd like to give people the opportunity to actually do that if they want I don't know I I have a lot I have a ton of thoughts on our former town government but um I guess that in the right place but it is something that I think we should keep on the on the agenda yeah and I think to just kind of give the public insight into that discussion we are taking a look at some of those remaining Charter updates that were never implemented and we'll move on those uh in the new year but in talking about a bigger Charter review where we're you know having a charter committee or um you know another group we did decide that it would be good to do it in FY 2027 because that would be 10 years after the last Charter review and thought that that would be an appropriate amount of time um for us to engage in that again so we also wanted we also thought that in this process it was important to identify those things and name them so that you know no matter who's on the select board and if things change that some of these goals in the future are set out and people have uh a referral to it can reference it and also can understand maybe why certain projects were or yeah projects were kind of pushed out or um you know thought to be taken thought it would be better to be taken up at a different time Dan one one of the things I I didn't see on here and I'm sure we probably talked about it at at our meeting was uh the Hot Topic of of trash and recycling um I know that obviously came up at at town meeting and I know I personally had a lot of questions about it I think Josh you did as well um so when the contract is in place I mean we're going to have to sit down have open forums uh Talk Amongst the the select board and you know find the best way forward because I know there's a lot of questions and we need to listen to the residents and this is something that I think we're going to see a lot of in the in the coming months and we have a contract for 5 years so I mean there's there's only so much that we can probably really realistically do but I think we need to listen to the residents and and come together and try to come up with um a roll out that makes most sense for uh residents under the constraints that we have so I think that's probably something that we should be focused on talking about a little bit more in the coming months Mark yeah one of the things that I didn't see on this list that I think needs to be there is and and and it may be part of the Middle School building issue is what do we do with Glen Brook and you know I mean I you can go on with that forever and ever but but part of the sale I think if I can use that word of a middle school project and Josh you're on there is you know we can offset some some of the cost or we can do you know down the road here's the plan for the for for the where Glen Brook Middle School is and or that land and you know there's all kinds of issues because they're essential Sports Fields right now but nevertheless it's one more unused building and we have in here you know what are we going to do with the town halls but to me the Glenbrook Middle School and having that in a plan I think needs to be pretty much a a 2026 plus priority or 2026 priority I I would say that's even one of our highest priorities because one of the thing as part of the sale one but two uh we talked about this at our strategy session that the the school committee has to give the town us the school uh the Glenbrook site and then we have to decide what we want to do with it and the water tower site they still control the water tower site yeah uh well they'll probably try that from their hands I guess but well but but that but it nothing's going to happen unless it gets on somebody's list of things to prioritize but so but I I think that one of the things we talked about at our meeting was for our vote next fall which we found out recently is going to be earlier than we thought probably a special time meeting in September um that we should at that point we should be able to say and the school committee has said they'll give us back Glenbrook and here's our idea for it uh it doesn't have to be 100% solid but I think that is something really important to look into now for and so that people have a pretty good idea at least of what's going to happen if we have one school at at Williams yeah I agree so I mean I I think we can add that to this year's goal list fy5 yeah I mean if uh we're going to be having special time meeting in September can I ask how how would we yeah so let's say you know we wanted to form a committee of some kind to look at all or would it be Lynn and the town administrators coming up with ideas that we consider how what is usually uh how do you usually do go about this for example if like people had ideas like hey let's take the upper plateau and make it uh invite developers to submit plans for over 55 housing and for example keep the fields at at the bottom like how do people come up present their ideas and how can we evaluate them Andrew you just said on my ideas so I think it's it's a common idea because I think these are that's just one suggestion that I think is a good one personally but we should of course consider everything yeah so first what I think I would do um and the assistant Town manager and I have already talked about this but um what we would do formally is um I would ask kin to research the actual property itself um figure out ownership and any sort of restrictions that might be in place and what the actual um square footage is of potential buildable area and write up a formal opinion on what the zoning is currently and what can be um developed under that current zoning and then some ideas on if there were a zone change what that would look like that type of thing and just kind of give us somewhere to start and and then that could come back to you and we could have a discussion um we we could start there yeah that'd be great I think that's let direct let's direct you to do that if possible I mean I think that would be yeah that'd be a great place to start and then also just whatever needs to be done for uh the process for the school committee to transfer ownership back um and getting that figured out too I think is important okay um anyone else so what I think I'll do is I'll we could take everyone's feedback and then edit this live document um and bring it back to a future meeting to adopt because as as you know from the session it was structured as the goals that we already had some were closed out some were moved over because they're ongoing processes they don't just end it's work that's just always ongoing um and then there was that list of extra uh goals that we kind of talked about at the end of that session that I took notes on that you know if you want to implement some of that stuff in there there's categories already in our goals document that meet some of those um specific conversations that were had so we can always you know add things in as a draft and you guys can vote to approve it the meeting great Andre can we get an update on you know regarding the disposition of the town hall and the community house and the Old Town Hall we're waiting for a study what is the status of that yeah the RFP um it's actually going to be a request for qualifications it has not gone out yet uh we um it's in draft form and then we recently had a meeting um regarding police station andir fire station and the need for an emergency generator and where that needs to get placed in the parking lot and so then that snowballed into the how we use the parking lot and the driveways at Town Hall and Community House for police and fire use and so then we um agreed that we'd go back and look at that draft RFQ to make sure we had appropriate language in there for a designer to come in and make sure that whatever they talk about related to community house or town hall takes into account the use of that area for Public Safety purposes so it's very close to being able to go out I'd say it's going to be released in the next two weeks okay thanks anything else okay then we'll um make those edits and uh talk about this again at a future meeting and and take a vote so um we will move on to our one- day liquor license application I'll move we approve a one- day liquor license application for an event for uh December 19th 2024 for the long meow Adult Community Center fund as well as a uh event on December 5th 2024 uh for the Long Meadow Adult Center Community Fund second any further discussion all those in favor all those opposed all right thank you and any comments um on correspondence that we received uh yeah just uh on the the town meeting format email I just want to make sure I wasn't making a light of it I I really think it is a a serious issue that our town uh has discussed and um there's a if anybody wants to talk to me about it I'm happy to happy to uh it's a it's a good topic um but I I I think it is important and I wasn't being factious people the nice thing about our former government uh is that it's representational and even down to this if people want to change it they really can um so if that's what you want to do we can just just a comment that that don't underestimate what it know we talked about a charter committee and a charter commit it's not it's a charter commission very very circum spected by the the state who must be on it what they must cover how long it takes what votes there are how people are required it I'm not saying you can't do it we can do it we did it 10 years ago and and it may very well be time to to do it again but it's not something that's undertaken lightly and frankly once it begins it it it's outside the the venue of the select board which is fine that's what it what it should be it becomes part of the charter commission and they present their findings to the town and the town votes it up or votes it down as they did here as they did in East Long meow and other places my my father was on the charter the most recent Charter review commission that Isam me did and I could not believe how much work it took it it's un it's unreal yeah good luck to the folks here in 2027 all right anything else sounds like Josh wants to be on it I want talk about it that's all right uh I move to adjourn second any further discussion all those in favor all right thank you everyone thank you see out there Wednesday yeah yeah I got it