meeting and the regular council meeting. >> We're recording. Please go ahead. >> Okay. Thank you, Athena. Um, good evening everyone. Seeing a presence of a quorum, I am calling the July 20th, 2026
public forum to order at 6:32 p.m. Please be advised that this meeting is being held in person and that the remote access option for members of the public is provided as a courtesy only. In the event of technology issues with the remote connection, the meeting will
continue in person as scheduled as long as there is a quorum of the council present in the town room or through technological means. Chapter 2 of acts of 2025 extended through June 30th, 2027. The ability of public bodies to meet without a quorum of the council
physically present at the meeting room. Um although I'm not sure if we have a council quorum present in the room. We do. Okay, great. The meeting is being recorded and is accessible in real time via Zoom, by phone, and as a live
broadcast on Ammeris Media Channel 9. Um, I will call upon each counselor by name uh to in and would like them to indicate whether or not they can be heard and we can hear them. Councelor Brevik,
>> present. >> Um, councelor Conno Martin, I believe it's not. Okay. Councelor Connor Martin >> present. >> Uh Andy Churchill >> present. >> Anna Delin Gothier
>> absent. Uh Lynn Grymer >> present. >> Mandy Johanni >> present. >> Councelor Lord >> present. >> Sam Mloud. >> Pam Rooney
absent. Uh councelor Ryan >> present. Kathy Shoen, >> I'm here. >> Jennifer Ta is also absent and myself is present. If counselors have uh technical
issues, please let the clerk of the council know or call a point of personal privilege at any time. Um I would also like to recognize Kathy to call the finance committee meeting to order. I call the finance committee to order.
Um the finance council members have already indicated they can hear and be heard. That's councelor Breick, Sam Mloud, Lynn Griezmer, and Anna is absent. So I'm calling on Joe Jane who
is here as a member. Joe? >> Yes, I'm here. Thank you so much. >> Thank you, Joe. Great. Thank you, Kathy. Um, so we are holding the public forum on the Community Preservation Act appropriation
for the Goodwin Memorial Church. Um, we do not have a presentation for this, but we still will have uh the public forum comment period. So, anyone wishing to comment or ask a question specific to the financial order related
to this public forum who is attending remotely, please raise your hand in the Zoom application. Um, if you are present in the town room and have not yet signed up with the council clerk, please do so now. Residents are welcome to comment or ask a question specific to the financial
order related to this public forum. This is not the general public comment period. We will have that later in the regular town council meeting after this forum adjourns. Public forum comments or questions are not reflective of the opinions of the town council. Because this is a public
forum, if questions are asked about the financial order, there is potential for them being answered. >> Rooney has joined us. >> Uh yes, Councelor Rooney, can you hear us? >> Yes.
Thank you. Um, and councelor Ryan, did you have a separate point of Okay, great. Thank you. I don't see any hands on Zoom. Do we have any uh signups in the town room, Athena? >> No, not for the public forum.
>> Okay. Yes. So we will um have to allow the floor to be open uh for the next three minutes. So if anyone does uh want to comment before the 3 minutes is up,
please feel free to raise your hand or sign up with the clerk in the town room. Otherwise, we will be holding the public forum for the next 3 minutes. Okay, you can try. Okay. Okay. Um, I will take a last call for
comments for the public forum. Um, okay. Great. Uh Kathy, you may call uh you may adjourn the finance committee. >> Yes, the finance committee is adjourned. >> Thank you. Um and I move to adjourn the
public forum >> and I'll second that. >> Thank you. And councelor Breick, >> yes. >> Councelor Cono Martin, >> yes. Andy Churchill,
>> yes. >> Um, that's absent. Lynn Grymer, >> hi. >> Mandy Johanni, >> hi. >> Counselor Lord, >> hi. >> Sam Mloud, >> hi. >> Pam Rooney, >> yes. >> Counselor Ryan, >> hi.
>> Kathy Shonne, >> yes. >> Um, Jennifer is absent. And myself, yes. Um so with that we are are adjourned for the public forum and we are going to move right into the regular council
meeting. Um, so seeing that we have a presence of a quorum of the council, I am calling the July 20th, 2026 regular meeting of the town council to order at 6:40 p.m. Please be advised that this meeting is being held in
person and that the remote access option for members of the public is provided as a courtesy only. Um, and this meeting is also being recorded. We have already confirmed that we can hear each of the counselors and that they can hear us. But if any counselors
have any technical issues, please let the clerk of the council know or call a point of personal privilege. There will be one public comment period during general public comment. If you are in the town room, please sign up with the council clerk to make public comment. If
you are attending remotely, I will ask for you to raise your hand in the Zoom application when we reach the time for public comment. Um, we have announcements. Um, our
upcoming council meetings in August are listed on the agenda, although they are subject to change at this moment. So, I would just uh keep an eye on the dates for our August council meetings. Um the community resource committee will
be meeting July 23rd um and again on August 13th. The finance committee's next meeting is tomorrow the 21st and again on August 18th. G will meet on August 11th and September
8th. And TSO uh will meet on August 6th and September 3rd. Um, okay. So, we will move into general public comment. Anyone wishing to make general public comment who is attending remotely, please raise your hand in the Zoom application. If you are present in
the town room and you have not signed up with the council clerk, please do so now. Residents are welcome to make public comments on matters within the jurisdiction of the town council. The council will not engage in a dialogue or comment on a matter raised during general public comment. Public comments
are not reflective of the opinions of the town council. The First Amendment broadly protects individual rights to address the government, to speak, and to express themselves, including their right to say hateful and offensive things. I am generally unable to shut those commenters down under the first
amendment to the US Constitution unless their level of speech falls within an exception articulated by the courts such as fighting words, truth that threats to a particular individual, harassment of a particular individual, or incitement of imminent lawless activity. If a question
exists as to whether a particular speaker is engaging in unprotected speech, I must defer to the principle of freedom of speech. Right now I do not see any hands on Zoom. Um Athena, do we have folks signed up in the town room?
>> I have three. >> Um okay. So um we will allow three minutes for each public comment. And can we uh start with the first person please Athena? I think it's Sam. I'm sorry, I can't.
>> Sam, thank you. Um, thank you. Yes, just be sure that you um unmute the microphone, state your name, and you are free to make your comment. Okay, we need just a moment to work on the microphone.
Thank you. Yes. >> Yes. Do you want me to unplug it? No, leave it. Okay. >> The [laughter] one I was Oh, okay. >> And you'll just have to hold this down. I'm sorry. >> I'm gonna start my clock. Um, so good
evening counselors. Uh, my name is Sam Bedri and I am speaking tonight as a student researcher currently participating in Hampshire College Teach Out focusing on regional climate resiliency and public utility infrastructure. I am here to introduce a major emerging economic opportunity for the town of Ammerst that leverages the
unique agricultural and scientific assets right here in our community. The development of a centralized publiclyowned biochar utility. Biochar is a carbon rich soil amendment created through pyrolysis because this is a nient highly integrated industry requiring the coordination of municipal waste, agricultural supply chains and
public infrastructure requires a level of centralized planning that no single private business can handle. It must be a public enterprise. We can establish this immediately by launching an initial campus pilot program by partnering with the Bloomberg Philanthropies modeling our project after this their successful city climate initiatives in Minneapolis
and Cincinnati which is where I'm from. We can secure private foundation backing. You can then match that with the state infrastructure capital via the UMass Brightite grant framework. Because this is a pilot function strictly as an educational resource for student learning utilizing state university research assets is completely legal and highly incentivized. This public utility
solves a massive liabilities problem for operating budget. First, it directly offsets our high tipping fees for yard waste by processing it locally. Secondly, because biochar is recognized globally as the absolute gold standard for permanent carbon credit sequestration, this utility creates a continuous renewable revenue stream for
the town by selling high value offsets directly to Boston based businesses. The physical output then flows right back into our local economy. Selling this refined biochar pioneer valley farms and orchards boost crop resilience for our internal municipal budget utilizing biochar in our town greens. The golf
course, the sidewalk um tree bed structure increases water retention. the dramatic drop. Uh this dramatically drops our public landscaping water costs and extends the lifespan of our trees. Finally, because our region pulls water directly from the ground rather than relying on the quabin, this utility provides a localized water filtration
shield identical to the activated charcoal infrastructure utilized by major municipal water systems like Cincinnati to clean and purify groundwater supplies at scale. The data and findings gathered from this [clears throat] um from this pilot uh will give the town
uh towns of Ammerson Hadley the exact framework needed to build a permanent combined municipal facility in the future. We do not need to sacrifice our valley's historic landscapes or replace valuable agricultural research footprints with short-sighted commercial sprawl to balance our budget. Infrastructure for this future exists right now on our regional educational
lands and it must be protected as a public asset. Thank you for your time. I I truly appreciate it. Thank you, Sam. Vincent O' Conor. >> I believe it's the one to the left. Is that correct? Or your right. My left.
Sorry. >> And Vince, just please hold down the button when you speak into the mic, please. Just make sure you hold down the button when you speak into the mic. Make sure you hold down the button when you speak into the mic. >> Oh, okay. >> There you go. Thank you. >> Oh, that's a So, um, Vincent Okconor,
175 Summer Street, Department 12. Um, I'm here to say, uh, make some comments about the manager's directive that was defended by himself and the police chief. Um and first um it is utterly
unwise to send police officers to be observers because they have a positive duty to interfere in criminal activity. If criminal activity occurs in front of them, their failure to act will be a
defense uh for ICE and Border Patrol people who engage in criminal activity. So very unwise. Second, the directive tell unlawfully
tells police officers that they should be bystanders when criminal activity occurs in front of them. They police officers are not subject just to the directive of the man of a manager or mayor or a chief of police. There are
positive laws in Massachusetts that require them to act. Any person who directs them not to do so is involved in themselves in criminal activity and has incurred both civil and criminal
liability and professional uh um potential harm. And also any officer who obeys such commands subjects themselves to both civil and criminal penalties and
the potential loss of their ability to be police officers. So those those two reasons are sufficient. The third reason not to send police officers to the scene, but in send instead send crest
uh patrols, four to eight individuals, four to six, however it is. um is that it avoids the situation where police officers who are who are bystanding doing nothing
then turn on the neighbors who have who have watched criminal activity and want the officers to do something. The people who should be sent are not people who have are people who have no power to arrest only power the power to observe
and that that will avoid liability for police officers and for um those who command them. Um and quite frankly if you want to understand who is the best o
observer of police misconduct um saying that ICE and border patrol people are in sense some sense police um look at Minneapolis the the the
most effective observer was a 17-year-old black girl who not only took a video of what happened in the murder of George Floyd, but testified two years later in court at the ripe old age of 19
or 20 against those officers. And so I think it is folly and it's detrimental to the individuals in the police department to be sent uh to observe something that they should be
acting on and to create liability for them civil criminal and to to potentially destroy their ability to be police officers. and anyone who orders them to do so is themselves a criminal
and should be held to account. This council needs to wipe that directive off the books. >> Thank you, Vince. >> Evan Naymith. >> Evan Naymith, thank you. Please just be sure to hold down the button on the
microphone when you're speaking and please state your name and make your comment. >> Right. Thank you. Uh good evening counselors. Evan A. Smith, District 5. Um tonight I want to talk about Newark, Delaware. Uh this is the town that hosts the University of Delaware. Newark is almost identical to Ammerst in its size
and demographic composition, but its housing policy is really different. Over the last decade, Newark has permitted off-campus student housing at four times the rate of Ammerst. Market rate apartments built by for-profit developers. But because it permitted an
appropriate supply of housing, living in Newark is far more affordable than living in Ammerst. Apartments.com says that rents in Newark are 350 a month cheaper than Ammerst. Rent Cafe says that they're $600 cheaper. Zillow claims that monthly rents there are $700
cheaper. I don't know which one of those numbers is accurate, but even the lowest number suggests that Ammerst renters pay landlords $15 million more every year than their Newark counterparts for the same exact product. A few months ago, I interviewed Newark's planning director,
Renee Benley. She has a background in housing economics and a masters in urban planning. She took half an hour out of her day to explain Newark's policies. Rather than pushing students into dormitories, Newark permitted thousands of taxable off-campus beds. In fact, they permitted so much student housing
that renting market rate in Newark is cheaper than renting subsidized housing in Ammerst. Accordingly, Newark has completed zero subsidized units in the last decade. Miss Benley says she prefers market rate student apartments because landlords carefully screen their
renters to protect their investment. As a result, the rowdier students tend to stay on campus and the more responsible students live in town. Though am uh pardon though Newark technically has a four plus unrelated individuals bylaw. Miss Benley informed me that they don't
enforce it because renters are only required to list one contact on their lease. Furthermore, Newark doesn't need to enforce that bylaw because most of its students live in apartments, not in residential neighborhoods. Please understand, Newark, Delaware represents the entirety of my vision for Ammerst.
Nothing more and nothing less. Their tax base is broad. their housing is affordable and residential neighborhoods are populated by families, not students. They got there by permitting, not prohibiting. The policies I just listed were also successful at Penn State,
Purdue, and many other small towns hosting big universities. Those towns permit student housing far more than we do, and their yearround residents reap the benefits. If Ammerst adopted the housing policies of these municipalities, it could save residents tens of millions of dollars every year.
I urge the town council to find its voice on this critical issue. Please take decisive action. Thank you. >> Thank you, Evan. >> There are no no other names on the register. >> Okay. Thank you, Athena. And I do not see any hands [clears throat] on Zoom.
Um, so I'm going to close the public comment period and we are going to move to the consent agenda. [clears throat] Excuse me. The following items were selected because they were considered to be routine [clears throat and cough] and
it was reasonable to expect that they would pass pass with no controversy. to remove an item from the consent agenda for discussion later in the meeting. Um, ask that it be removed when I list the consent agenda items. The request to
remove an item from the consent agenda does not require a second. [clears throat] Um, should I state the whole motion? Okay. Okay. So, um I move the following items
um and the printed motions there be approved as a single unit. 8B, referral of financial orders to the finance committee. 8 C approval of the September 1st, 2026 state primary election
warrant. 8 D approval of amendment to agricultural preservation restriction. 9A 1-8 approval of town manager appointments and reappointments. 11A approval of minutes for June 15th,
2026 regular town meeting. >> Shane seconds. >> Thank you, Kathy. Um, so I will move to a roll call vote. Uh, councelor Cono Martin. >> Yeah. Sorry, was that a yes?
>> Yes. >> Thank you. Andy Churchill, >> yes. >> Lynn Grymer, >> I >> Mandy Johanni, >> I. >> Councelor Lord, >> I >> Sam Mloud. >> Pam Rooney.
>> Yes. >> Councelor Ryan, >> hi. >> Kathy Shonne, >> yes. >> Um, and councelor Walker, myself is a yes. Oh, and councelor Breick. Yes. >> Okay, great. So, that passes
unanimously with let's see here, two absent, 11. Yes, it's correct. Um, we don't have any resolutions or proclamations. Um,
the town manager goals update is the first item under presentations and discussions. Well, we have a presentation or is there anything you would like to say about that, Paul? >> Yes, thank you. Um, in your packet there
is a memo that um addresses gives you an update on the town major goals. I think part of the original goal process, the council had asked for a six-month uh update on where we are, and that's where we are today. Um, and it was a it was a good exercise because it gave me the
opportunity to assess where we were, also to identify areas that um where we were not going to achieve the goal and for various reasons. And I'll start by saying the um many of the goals you'll notice that where we're either re rescheduling
uh is because of either staff turnover, meaning with the planning department specifically, and also with the gargantuan task of taking on the Hampshire College um reszoning that has just really um absorbed an enormous amount of time. And so I tried to sort
of summarize where we were. Um it's I'm really proud of the work the progress that we've made despite th those um those things that have happened including the Hampshire College um resoning effort and the amount of work it put took just to even get funding for
that. um major um goals are are pretty much on track uh and we will be trying to focus these to reach the uh successful conclusion by the end of the calendar year. So I'm happy to answer
any questions or give updates more detailed updates if anybody would like to have specific questions about them. >> Thank you Paul. Okay, it does I don't see any uh counselors with any questions at this time.
Um if if we can we can move on to the DPW staff relocation plan update. >> Okay. So, uh, again, this is a very good thing for us to respond to, and I appreciate
the council's, uh, order. Um, and in reviewing the order, I agree with everything the council had requested. Um, the, um, except that we won't be able to reach the target date of October
1 as requested by the council. Um it's a it's a very serious order, something that we take we take very seriously and again agree with uh office sentiments including DP including the DPW workers in the um decision-m process relocating
personnel to a new location as soon as possible. We know we have to relocate um our employees out of that current building because that building is going to be demolished and there's no reason for us to wait if once we get a suitable site. What was important to us and to
the um superintendent public works was that they did not want to relocate people twice and that if we're going to move people that we should move them once to a um to the the temporary um location the locations um and the other
thing was an operational concern that was expressed in terms of separating some of the employees from others in the employees in terms of the day-to-day management. This is a complex um undertaking because not only are we relocating a a giant department, one of
the largest in the town, but they still have to meet their operational requirements, whatever whenever it is, they still have to conduct the the duties that they have to maintain during the course of the the workday. So m being able to do their jobs while we're
relocating is a is a is a takes a lot of planning. The good news is that we have selected uh Weston and Samson as our designer for the new facility. Um we are working we're meeting with them on or meeting to with the building committee
on Wednesday to discuss further about what the what their uh response to the RFP uh is going to be and what the timing looks like for some of their work. Um, so I think having them do a true assessment of what the temporary
needs are and the permanent needs is really important. Again, you know, we do prioritize moving our employees out of that building as quickly as possible, especially before the winter if we can. Um, but and so that but we're going to utilize our um, you know, our the the
consultants that we're hiring uh, to help facilitate that process. When we looked at this in terms of um our current staff doing it without an appropriation, it was just too much for our current staff to take on uh without setting almost all their other activities aside because you really do
need to do an assessment. Um we recently relocated our um recreation department from the middle school to Wildwood and just with a handful of employees and moving into two classrooms. Uh it took
multiple days work in terms of um planning, organizing, hiring moving companies, uh procuring the moving companies, uh getting the space of ready um because the rooms that were being given us weren't really um suitable for
immediate occupancy. Um and then finding issues within the building once we were inside that we're still trying to address. So, it's it's I just want to emphasize that the need is there, the commitment is there. Uh that it's a it's a pretty big task to make it actually
happen. >> Thank you, Paul. >> Um uh councelor Breivik, >> thank you Paul for the report. It it it is really clear and I think makes a lot of sense and I think that syncing this
effort with the larger planning effort makes a lot of sense. Can I just make sure I'm understanding correctly that then you think it is realistic to have the relocation happen by the end of the calendar year or am I misunderstanding that? >> So it depends which direction we go. So that's the one of the first tasks for
the consultant will be um so one of the plans there's there's several different options available and that's something we'll have to look at. One is to move in a building that we already own which would be Wildwood. A second would be to build a temporary structure that would have a useful life after we occupy it up
in at Ruxton which would not be done by the end of this this calendar year. And the third a one of the uh a proposal came in uh during when we're reviewing options to build this a new facility on
the current site, relocate the employees to the adjacent facility and then demolish the current building all on the same site. We have a lot of questions about that option, but those were the the sort of three options that we have. The least appealing option which would
also be an option is that we would find multiple sites for the different units um utilizing smaller spaces to different locations. Uh that could be achieved. Uh the only things that can't be achieved easily is our uh keeping our vehicles
undercover and also the um mechanics bay which is probably the the one space that we really need to that is the most needs the most work honestly. Can I just ask a followup? >> Yeah, sure. >> Sorry. Um just because I'm surprised to
hear the that third option. Um and [clears throat] I you know um in looking at the report like the the requirements for the temporary location are things like safe, operationally effective, capable of supporting services. And we
heard so much testimony that the current site does not meet those criteria. I imagine you'd use the same criteria in considering that option as well. Correct. >> Yes, that is correct. And what I think what the proposal was and we were surprised by it during the presentations
at the building committee meeting was that one of the the proposers came in with a building a new building on the same site adjacent to the current building. Um, and then once that was built, moving people into the new building and then demolishing the
current building and then continuing uh with additional facilities on that same site. Um, that would eliminate the need to move people twice from into a temporary location. And so they there were some efficiencies of that. You know, we we've talked about it this
morning actually. Uh there's a lot of we have a lot of questions for the designer about that option because um not I we didn't think there was enough parking spaces and there was not enough really room to move around to actually build the building and conduct the normal DPW
operations. But you know uh Weston Samson came was it was Weston Samson came up with that proposal and it was intriguing to see. Um, Kathy, >> I I think you may have answered part of my question, Paul. I looked at the
design proposals you had from the different firms. Um, and that trying to build and then relocate on the same site is clearly what we did with the school. Um, we had one of the reasons that pushed us to the Fort River site was the
amount of space we had. it was would have been extremely possible but much more difficult at Wildwood. Um so just I heard what you said about looking at that and um if parking and vehicles are part of the issue uh I guess the
question I have and you have a good design team is there a solution for the parking that doesn't um impede the construction you know and and so those are I'm assuming are all the logistics that you're going to be looking at. So th those are my main questions. I
thought you got some u not the one you chose but you had at least one very creative set of ideas and I know with the school we picked on all the brains that we had proposing things and we picked a
designer but we also knew what other people have proposed. So, I'm assuming you're looking at what kinds of ideas you can get from those quite thoughtful proposals. I thought, >> yeah, and councelor Rooney can weigh in on this as well. We I thought we had
some really strong options available and um felt that um the the firm that we chose to engage in negotiations with um had the most the deepest experience and in the a deepest bench in terms of being able to um
help us reach a a successful conclusion on the project. Um yeah and I thought there was people the the two the other firms really presented some really interesting options as well. Um, you know, I think that there are some of these comments I was I was relating to
you just come from DPW employees themselves. Sort of we we have talented people in the engineering department who are sort of penciling out some of these things and trying to figure it out and they're going to have really strong opinions about it because they know their operations better than anybody and they're sort of like just checking it
out to say is sort of could this really work based on what they what they saw on the presentation. I just have one followup on the I I understand the reasons you chose what you chose, but that was the one that
expressed the most skepticism of staying within the budget that we've set. So, I'm hoping that the committee will be able to enforce a budget and that kind of thing because they still are living with a proposal that they did multiple years ago and and so bringing it up to
date in terms of that focus I know was going to be a challenge. Yes. So I think that's that's true. Uh they were they did come up with the original um you know our our capital projects manager Bob Parent is the OPM current OPM for this project. He
understands the mission. Uh and you know Shamano is on the committee as well. He understands the finances. So we are sticking with that $35 million. It'll be a challenge. It won't be everything we want. it'll be um it it won't achieve many of the goals that we had hoped for
like relocating everybody into one location. Uh so we're looking at alternative options like um you know having water be at the new Centennial you know wastewater is already at its own facility. Um so we just we're going
to have to um adjust our appetite and what we can achieve with this. We just don't have the option of really expanding the finances for that project if we're going to stay within our budgets. >> Andy,
>> thank you. Um, you mentioned that the the superintendent had had thoughts about this. I know we heard quite a bit from, you know, the rank and file employees about their concerns about the building that they're in, but they were also
concerned about um the contract that hadn't been um taking the temperature of the employees as well as the supervisors. And is this sort of sense that there's an understanding of the
complexity of of having a you know a temporary facility and that they mo they they mostly wanted to make to see progress happening or is it that is this contrary to what they the urgency that they felt?
>> It's a good question. Um so the superintendent assistant superintendent talked to people that they're in that and they're they are in that building. they're talking to other people who are in that building who are expressing real concerns about it. Um, and I think you're right what the sentiment was. We're not seeing progress. We want to
see progress. And I think that was a legitimate um concern by the DPW employees. Uh, and it's and I hope that what we're doing now by contracting with a designer, having this relocation being incorporated into the original design
scope is is an important piece of this. So, I'm hoping that that that will um uh let them see that there's actually a action being taken at this is the highest priority for the town right now. >> Councelor Cono Martin.
>> Yeah. I just wanted to ask if if we know what the timeline will be for like when we're going to choose between, you know, the three options that you outlined in terms of the relocation of of the employees that are currently in the building. Um, you know, so I know you
had mentioned, you know, relocating them to an existing town building, um, having a temporary structure, and then the third option probably not so great of constructing on the site while they're still in it. But, um, yeah, I guess like when when will we know? And like also um
you know how soon will they actually be able to get out of that building because we did talk about that being a priority to get them out of there as soon as possible just because of the health and safety concerns. And I and I guess also like it would be really helpful to see at some point like a breakdown of of how
many employees are still in that building because I know it was mentioned in previous meetings that you know not every employee works out of that building and it's you know it's not really clear to me actually like how many people were moving or anything like that. So like just like more information would would also be helpful as we go
through this. >> Sure. So the first thing that the um firm will do is they'll sit down with each employee, sit down with the superintendent, assistant superintendent and go through what their their space needs are, what their functions are, how they do their jobs. Um they really want to understand from the employees what's
important, what do they what equipment do they need to be near. Um how often are they interacting with different people. So by listening to the employees they feel they develop a work plan that they and that that sets their agenda what they need to what they need to
design to um you know they won't be able to meet everything and they you know one of the firms which I really like the idea it wasn't the one we chose actually does a sharet with the actual employees where they lay out the designs or the ideas um with the employees only the
employees not not the public or anybody else and let them sort of sketch on it and write down and they learn a whole lot by that engagement. Um, you know, I think the that building is in we all agree that it's in terrible shape and
you know it it could have a challenge any moment in time. We would have to take immediate action. We're hoping that this will give us a um we're we know we're aware of that and we hope that we're able to get through that get through this process before that building crumbles basically.
But I don't have a timeline, but that's one of the first things we'll do. And when you know um we don't have a timeline from the designer yet, but I'm I um I know there's a scope that's been circulated to the building committee. I haven't really reviewed it yet, but it
but this the actual um design the time frame is not in that yet, I don't believe. >> Yeah. I would um thank you Paul. I was just wondering maybe um Pam if like once that becomes available maybe that's something you could share when one of your report backs um from the the building committee.
>> Thank you. >> It's a public document. >> I know I I just >> Yes. You would like to see it is what you're saying. >> Oh yeah. And also it's been kind of hard to access those meetings and their materials. So I think it would just be helpful. Thanks
>> Sam. >> [clears throat] >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> One microphone. >> There we go. >> Can you hear me now? >> Yes. Thank you. >> U Thank you, Vice President Walker. uh
and thank you for the presentation. Uh Paulal, I read the uh response and appreciate the thought process behind it. I'm glad to hear that uh the employees are being
reached out to to identify their thoughts and concerns uh which is primary. Um I I think the approach makes sense to seek to coordinate and minimize
uh duplication. Um given the number of technical uh systems that are under discussion, I envision that going to a temporary site for some of the items would in fact lead to
duplications of expenses. I'm curious uh are you aware or is it yet to be determined if some of the systems aside from the uh you know garage space for the large vehicles
may have difficulty going to a temporary spot based on the added expense affiliated with it. uh and separate from that what you know is there yet to be determined a time frame for when all the
uh facilities all the systems and everyone might be moved to the new location. Thank you. >> Yeah. So many employees come in, they check in, they get their work assignments and they're in their trucks going out in the field. So they're not really in the building that much, but they're the ones in the field. Others have offices there and they work in the
sign sign shop or engineering and those are really not help not good um um places to be working. The thing that's more complex is as I mentioned the bay for the um with the lift because they need a very they they lift very large
trucks. So they need like a 40ft door to get trucks in and out. Most um we looked at some spaces that are already existing that might be be available. They tend to be like 20 foot doors that accommodate auto automobiles, not trucks. The most complicated thing is that almost all of
our water um uh data, all of our water infrastructure is in the current building that's going to have to be relocated at some point to somewhere. Um and relocating all of those all that equipment where they monitor all the wells and all the water supplies um is
is a is a it's just a very complicated thing. It's one of those um mustrun operations. You can't let those things go down. So, there has to be a very careful plan about make sure making sure that um the all those um monitoring stations are still up and running and
we're able to access them in different locations. So, that's building a um a backup or a sec the the next location is going to be really important. For instance, we have the similar situation with our dispatch. We have a backup dispatch facility at the North Fire
Station. Um, but that was we already had a back we weren't building a a a replacement. We were just building a backup system at the North Fire Station. Um, so they were able to keep the currents um in the the current dispatch center in the police station
operational. This is a different beast because we need to get something up and running and then transfer everything over to for the water system. wastewater is pretty much contained in the wastewater treatment plant. Now, >> uh thank you for uh clarifying your
response and again I appreciate the uh planning thought process that you're going through and recognize uh the value uh I guess pun intended of uh seeking to avoid duplication of expenses. Uh it'll be interesting to me
to see the outcome of the uh studies in terms of integration with temporary and permanent and what may or may not get there. But I'm very glad that you're uh proceeding along these lines uh with thorough review I would call it. Thank
you. >> Okay. Uh seeing no other counselor hands, uh thank you Paul. We are going to move to action items. Um the first item is the community preservation act appropriation order. So um thank you. I
think believe councelor Lord is recusing herself for this um item and is moving to the audience. Thank you. Um, and I'm going to present the motion having been referred to the finance committee on June 15th, 2026,
having held a public hearing on July 20th, 2026, and finance committee submitted a recommendation to the town council on June 23rd, 2026 to approve appropriation and transfer order FY2707B,
an order appropriating the FY2027 Community Preservation Act budget as required under Mass General Law Chapter 44B Goodwin Memorial Church Preservation as shown on page 11 of the motion sheet.
>> Second. >> Uh thank you, Mandy Joe. Um unless there are any uh Yes, Kathy. >> Just a quick comment. the finance committee report you have in your
packet. We were unanimous in supporting this and one of the reasons for moving it quickly to finance is that there's matching money so that not only the money that we're putting in because there's an emergency situation. um our
town staff worked really hard to get this extra money so it became an even more robust proposal and I just want to say thanks to all the staff work that went into that. >> Thank you Kathy.
Okay, seeing no other counselor hands, I'm going to move to a roll call vote. Um Andy Churchill, >> yes. >> Lynn Grymer, >> I. Mandy Joe Hanicki. >> Hi. >> Sam Mloud, >> hi.
>> Pam Rooney, >> yes. >> Councelor Ryan, >> hi. >> Kathy Shonne, >> yes. >> Uh, councelor Walker is a yes. Councelor Breivik, >> yes. >> Councelor Cono Martin, >> yes.
>> Uh, thank you. That is unanimous. Uh, three absent. Uh, with three counselors absent. And counselor Lord, I think we can welcome you back now. [clears throat] Great. Um, all other action items were
passed on the consent agenda. um in addition to all town manager appointments which were also passed on the consent agenda. Um so I'm going to move to committee and liaison reports.
Um CRC Pam, thank you. The CRC will meet this Thursday to continue its public hearing on clean energy bylaw. Um we we think we
have a quorum. Um and so that's making its way through the through the works. Uh we integrated with help from Mandy Joe um a good deal of the commentary from KP Law uh from Carol
Carolyn Murphy Murray, excuse me. Um so that is in much better shape than it was. Um, that's kind of it for CRC. >> Thank you, Pam. [clears throat] Um, go
Anna's Amber. Uh, councelor Cono Martin, is there an update from Jo that you would like to share? >> There is not. I am so sorry. We um were not able to meet um this past week and are looking to reschedule our meeting.
So I apologize for that. >> No worries. Thank you. Um and finance committee Kathy >> announced at the beginning um we meet tomorrow and we will be taking on the financial orders that were just referred
to us but also reviewing financial uh management policies. um just both for new counselors but also we do this periodically and our next meeting isn't until August. So that's my report.
>> Thank you. Um and TSO councelor Ryan. >> Yeah, just a quick most of the all the work actually of TSO recently was what you just approved on the consent agenda on the town manager appointments. Um we will be meeting again on August 6 and at
that meeting we will be hearing from the uh waste hauler um consultant on the RFP that's August 6th and also there'll be a report update on work that's being done on the town website um related to our outreach function and then we will meet again on September 3rd and at that
meeting we'll be hearing from the street lightss vendor that works for the town and we will be asking questions and working on the uh street lights policy documents. Thank you. Um, and town committees with councelor members.
Um, I'm not sure if there's any other additional updates from the DPW building committee, I think, uh, that you would like to share, Pam. >> Uh, just that there's a meeting this Wednesday. Uh, I think it's at 2 o'clock and it is not on Zoom, so I am not going
to be able to participate. Thank you, Pam. Um, and the elementary school building committee, Kathy, >> we met uh last Friday and uh I'm not sure the photos are in the packet yet,
but it's very exciting. The school will be opening on time. They're actually trees and grass that have been planted and somehow the tree looks like it's always been there. So that what's been achieved in a short amount of time is very exciting. It looks like the issue I
raised about Eversource bulking at some paperwork issues or rag issues around linking us up with solar will be solved in time and it's thanks to heroic work on the path of our state representatives but as well as our staff. The other
thing that was great about Friday is the uh uh OPM person who was presenting it made a point as he was sitting in one of the classrooms using the Wi-Fi in the building of the new school. So, it's not
just that we're moving the furniture in, but the systems are functioning. And the only other point I'd make is that we've been working under tremendous time pressure, but we got a report about the tightness of the envelope, which is
important for uh heating, cooling, and that we have so far exceeded standards. It's truly remarkable with multiple tests. So, our construction staff are doing a really good job despite the pace that they've had to work.
We have a um and the last point is there will be ribbon cutting and it's being organized for October 26 at 3:30 in the afternoon, but I don't have any more details. We have our town staff is
working with the school staff and MSBA also gets involved in this. Um but that's when the official huray will be happening. Thank you, Kathy Lynn.
>> Um, I'd like to um better understand why D why the DPW building committee is not is not meeting on Zoom or in hybrid mode? >> Yes. Is that something that possibly Pam or Paul might have an answer? Yeah, answer it.
>> So, at this point, the chair hasn't scheduled it that way, but I agree that the creating doing all Zoom or all in person are are easily easily done. Doing hybrid meetings requires a bit of um um
support as we've seen tonight actually. Um, so but I think after this meeting, what the chair had said previously is that once we get the designer going that the meetings will move into either hybrid or zoom and I think you're right, I agree with
councelor Rooney that they need to be uh recorded and in Zoom. >> Um, can I just ask one more question with that? Are they being recorded? >> No, they have minutes being taken. Thank you,
>> councelor Conno Martin. >> Yeah, I just I I'm remembering that I think I I had a conversation chair about this and she was saying that it was um difficult to get the town room or maybe that she was concerned about
other town staff needing the town room to do hybrids. So, I'm just wondering if that could sort of be prioritized to allow the committee to use that space. >> If I can respond to that. >> Oh, yes. >> So, yeah, that and also uh we're looking at a different technology where we could
use a different room other than this room. Uh it's called the owl that other other boards I'm on utilize. Um, and it's but again, it needs to sort of help set that up and then we need to be able to secure it at night and all that kind of stuff. But that means you can sit at
a table and the there's a central device that swirls around and takes, you know, focuses on whoever's speaking at the time. You don't need to have the complexity that we have here. As long as you're in a smaller room, that's the only challenge with that technology. Councelor Ryan,
>> this is a question for Kathy and for the school building committee. Um, have you all been looped in on the discussions going on with town manager about parking and picking up and dropping off students? Is that something that's been discussed by you all? And do you feel
like you're you know what's going to happen or that? Yeah, I'm just curious what's happening at your end from that. >> The answer is a partial yes. Um there's been an area identified on the the bypass road that goes near where the
green area is that can be a grassy area for parking. While the the issue, as you know, George, is that once we start using the school, the other school has to come down. And so we're losing part of that issue. And there'll be so
there's going to be some temporary parking that will require more walking to get to it. But we have not had a long discussion on that other than to be assured that there is some planning that's going on. And early on we were told that's the role of the town rather
than the building committee, you know, so TSO should be worried about it or you know whomever. But >> but it's not. Yeah. But but and then the other the we we we the eventual building was designed for 170 why do I remember
numbers like this but anyway 170 parking spaces and it's because there's rarely car pooling for the staff who who are coming in. So, there's going to be trying to be some encouragement of parents using the bus system rather than
driving their kids to limit the number of cars that are going in and out because we're going to have to be sharing one entrance with buses and vans. So I I'm assuming that it's going to be a a full press by the school that
once they get all the furniture moved into the building, but really trying to impress on people that there is this four month six month issue um that people need to worry about. Well, I don't know whether you want to
add anything to that, but that >> Yeah. So there's three different things that are happening and there has been a there's meeting there've been a couple meetings on the town staff side plus the school staff side. There's we have another one coming up on Thursday I think. Um so and it's includes you know
the facilities people from the school the superintendent involved um DPW crest um police um and finance and our capital projects manager. Those are all the people pretty much as pretty large group in the room.
Um, so there's three things that are a challenge. One is as Kathy said, we won't have all of the parking that we need when the school opens because the building where a lot of the parking is going to go is still standing. So until that gets demolished at the end that should happen by the end of the year,
there won't be parking available. So there's an internal circulation uh uh issue in terms of two different driveways. We were able to access to move things around to allow a second entrance on the north entrance which is closer to Main Street so that the buses
can still will go in the south entrance and then the the employees and parents and guardians will go in through the north entrance which is closer to Pelum Road main street and so the the bus traffic and the and the employees and all the other the vehicles will going
in. There's a circulation pattern that they're putting together for that. So, I think the school department's kind of satisfied with that. Um, they also planned and then the other piece is parking, off-site parking for employees
and we have looked at and some of this came up with traffic and parking commission I believe. Um, looking at the what we call East Street, which is where the East Street School, that's the parallel road to Southeast Street on the other side of the of the common there. Uh, moving the parking around. If you
move it on the other side of the street, you create more parking spots. And then we also own the East Street School, so we can put some parking there. And DPW's come up with a plan for that. And that's about a 4-minute walk from the school. There's another site, which is a property that we own at 81 Beluretown
Road that we're going to develop for affordable housing. There's about I've got the maps. I can show them to to the council if they'd like to see it, but I think there's like 28 parking spots there. Um that's about a seven minute walk to the school. And then if you know
if you're going down Main Street, um there's a field on the northeast corner of Main Street which is often used by the uh J Jewish community of Amoris JCA for um parking during certain um religious days. Um the town actually
owns a big swath of that which I didn't really realize. We have a very wide uh ride ofway there. So we can get about 25 cars in there parking on the grass. Um, and there's a there's a a um curb cut to get access to that. So, there are mult
there's three different locations where we can place cars um offsite. And I think what we're talking about as of this morning was let's activate all of them. Let people choose which ones they want to utilize. It's not and we won't pave these things. They'll be gravel or something like that. DPW is working on
that. So, that's the second thing is where do we part put vehicles on the site? Where do we put vehicles off the site? And the things that's most concerning is the traffic on East North Southeast Street and it's just going to be complicated. There's going to be a lot of cars trying
to get through there. So the strategy is looking um at uh putting up flashing lights on the site so that we already own them um from the construction to slow cars down during at the two um entrances to the driveway. And then also
um having um someone having people helping uh people get in and out of the driveways during key times in the morning. The schools have been us there. The most important times when it's the busiest in the morning and the afternoon. Um police
they may be able to do it but they they there's there aren't that many police officers on duty at those times. They could be called away. We're talking to the community responders and and Camille has said, "Well, if we get training for our community responders, maybe that's a function they can serve, you know, for
an hour a day. Um, they have to go through a training, which is about a dayong training to learn to do it." So, she's thinking about that. Um, we really don't want to have to hire a detail to do it because it's very expensive. But those first couple weeks, the first month is just we know we know we're
going to have to have somebody out there helping people navigate through that. And then usually after a month people find their way. They find different paths. They avoid the intersection. Whatever. The other thing that's happening is the school is doing a a strong outreach through um their
newsletter uh to encourage people not to drive to school, not to drop your kids off to take the bus. Um, they're also going to have uh orientations by grade level in advance at the end of August to have people bring their kids in early
before school opens to navigate the site, understand where they would have to go, help the kids figure out how to get in the building. And the principal is doing a really good job of sort of planning that out. And I think the the last piece is communicating all this to the public, which has to happen in in
the next couple weeks. So people know there's going to be change. They know there's going to be heavy traffic. They know parking is going to be difficult. Um and then and and the goal is to get all the students there safely. That really is what the goal is. >> So there's a lot a lot of moving pieces,
but I think you know we've got it segmented out pretty successfully. >> Uh thank you Paul. Counselor Ryan is do you have anything else? >> Okay. Thank you Kathy. Uh yeah, I just wanted to build on you know the one of the concerns is while the construction
is happening taking it down all the traffic is through that south entrance. It's we don't have the two entrances. And I've asked multiple times of can't we close off that shunt road that runs behind the bank? And I get a firm no
every time. But I'm not convinced that that couldn't be engineered to have there only two buildings there to make it two ways. They can they have to go in and they could go out the same way because it's it's dangerous. If you take a look at where it slants in, it's
really near the driveway. um to the school and it's always been dangerous, but it's going to be more dangerous. Um so Paul, every time I ask I get a no from one strong voice, but I haven't heard a let's look at it and see whether
maybe there's something we could do. >> So So that is something uh we've looked at and uh I get the same response. I think there's some concern about cutting through the bank parking lot once you um in some ways u because you don't you
don't want clear access to the bank. Um the other thing I forgot to mention is that at the north entrance where the vehicles there's going to be segregate a separate entrance and egress for the um construction traffic that's going to be walled off from the other. So they will be able to access the the demolition
sites on a separate road that's going to be built for them and then they will be told not to go through that intersection at all during the peak times. There will just be no vehicular traffic from there. So there will be basically three driveways at the north entrance. At
least that's the last when we last met someone came up with that idea and it was pretty creative. Uh [clears throat] Pam, >> thanks. Um it's occurring to me that uh there needs to be a pretty strong outreach program with um the university
and their parking system so that they could be notified. PVTA certainly. Um, but it also occurred to me that with a new crop of students coming in for the fall that landlords really ought to be or if there's some way we could reach
out to landlords in town and just say work around this, try not to use that intersection. And then lastly, um, having a bit of even though it's a light light time, a light shift, but having some kind of police coverage on Harkness
Road, it will become a major cut cut. And I feel badly for the folks that live there, but if if traffic calming, as in police cars, could be would help. Thank you. >> Thank you, Pam.
Um, okay. And we were working on t um are there any additional committee or leaison reports that have not yet been shared? >> Uh Sam, is that a hand? >> Uh uh yeah, thank you. Uh the TPC
transportation parking committee had their first online meeting uh last week. I'm glad that we were able to because it is recorded for others to view. Um the subcommittee on intake process prioritization
presented their results or their suggestions and uh I thought it was going to go live right away but it will be soon for individuals to submit requests. Um and the chair introduced uh the first
second topic uh which was [snorts] [clears throat] the West Street South Mount Holio crosswalk request. Uh as we are developing an understanding of the uh intricacies
of handling requests uh he felt it would be instructive which it is to go through the process. So we began that discussion which will continue next week. I think it's going to be an ongoing process to
uh come up to speed but things are moving forward. It's live uh in terms of uh processing or adjudicating requests and um hopefully we'll see the online form soon along with additional
information. And as a uh coincidence, we were also discussing at a prior meeting the uh Fort the Amethyst Burke School um intersection and we recognized that it was a matter
that the TBC could not respond to. It needed to be taken care of by town uh staff um given the time crunch. Uh having just returned from New York City these this past weekend uh and having
dropped my kids off at schools for years, uh I envision a Manhattan uh concentration of traffic for uh couple of months here. Thank you. >> Thank you, Sam.
Um okay. If there are no other committee and liaison reports, uh we are going to move to the town manager report which is in the packet. >> There's a couple things I'd like to highlight if that's okay. >> Absolutely. >> So most important is tomorrow night at 6 o'clock there will be a public
information meeting uh for about Hampshire College about the campus the resoning study for the Hampshire campus. Um and everyone is welcome. You should go to the town's website and it requires pre-registration. Uh it's a webinar format that's being
managed by one of the consultants that we have from mass development. We'll make a introductory statements. We will go through a number of the slides that shares a lot of information about the campus, what we know about the the land patterns on the campus, the wetlands and
things like that and and the sort of historical patterns on the site. It should be a really interesting uh meeting and then we will be answering as many questions as we can as we as we can get to and this is also an opportunity to gather questions that people have uh
that they want to present because that will go on our website to answer most frequently asked questions any question anybody has. This is not about what Hampshire plans to do with the site and I think that's a lot of interest. We don't really have answers to that um because we don't that Hampshire College is not part of this. This is really
talking about the the Hampshire College that campus. Um, and we're really orienting around the council's vote that the highlighted the priorities. Um, so it I think if you have the opportunity to watch it, it'll be recorded obviously and then you can watch it at your
convenience as well. And um, so it goes from 6:00 to 8 tomorrow, Tuesday, July 21st. The second thing is I want to announce that Dan Garcia, our new director of senior services, started work today. Um, and so it's really exciting to have him. He's already
reporting that lots of people are coming up to him in the grocery store and he goes to lots of different events and having suggestions for him on how to improve the senior center, how to get more people to be involved. So, he's very receptive to that. Um we are doing
a um training for liaison um for um how done by our clerk of the council about how to manage public comment because that's something that we experienced as a as a big challenge for people who for chairs and and staff members and just
really a comprehensive approach modeled pretty much on how the council handles its public comments where you you know what you're allowed to what you have to listen to and what you don't and what the rules are about engaging uh with the public on that. Uh and also we're doing
some trainings for for their staff leaison for the new agenda setting uh system that we're setting up on the website. So you can find all meetings and all their agendas and recordings all in one one place. So that will be good. And lastly, I just want to congratulate
two staff members. Uh Rome Cabrera from the recreation department. He graduated from the MMA certificate in municipal leadership and management program which is associated with SUFFK University and it's something several other members of our staff including the clerk of the council have gone through. It's a really
good, it's a 26- week program, whole day Fridays, and you walk out with some actual graduate school credits. And so, congrats to Rome for doing that. And, and also, Philip Alva uh from the assistant director of DEI was awarded the Nancy Galcowski legacy award from
the Massachusetts Municipal Management Association, which is the association I'm a part of. and that will it's it's a a cash award that will allow him to defay costs to participate in um in trainings or uh mentoring opportunities
and so um so that's that's an exciting thing as well. >> Thank you Paul. Um, Andy. >> Yeah, I I was just trying to scroll through the extensive report to find what I think was in there, but um was is there a mention of um the hiring of a
new assistant planning director? Is that completed? >> Yes, the pl the assistant planning director is hired and started work today. Um uh her name is Alexis Wheeler, I think. I forget her last name. Um, sorry, I just met her this morning. But, uh, she has she's doing her orientation,
um, getting to know people, taking on the tasks, and so that's that's a really it's a really strong hire for us. And, uh, Jeff Bag is relieved to have someone uh, in that role. >> Pam,
>> thank you. Could you um can Paul remind us and the public where the links to um the Hampshire College conversation is? >> It should be on the homepage of the of the town's website. Uh there should be a um
right right like there's four pictures that show up when you when you get to the homepage and one of them says Hampshire. You just click on that and then I believe that there should be a link there. >> Thank you. I went to I went to planning and zoning, wasn't there? >> It should be right on the front page and I can send it to you so you can share it
out if you'd like. >> Thank you, >> Councelor Ryan. >> Yeah, if you will. I've got two things I'd like to raise with Paul quickly. Again, as always, thanks for the very detailed report. Um, first has to do
with I mean, in this report, you do tell us where you're going to have to make cuts from the capital budget. Remember last meeting we took $120,000 out of the capital budget and now we are finding out where that uh gets taken away. First this has to do with it. Apparently it
had previously approved equipment and now it's going to not get all that equipment. Is that that is correct? And I assume that would impact at least to some degree its ability to do its job because this is equipment it previously had expected to get. So that's not
really a question. It's just pointing that out. The second though um you point out you mentioned that um you have two distinct projects uh related to school facility assessment and planning and one of those is not going to get funded but you're not sure which one it is. Um are
you even able to tell at this point and maybe I should know this but I don't what those two distinct projects are or um that one of what one of which is not going to get funded. >> So so one it'll be up to the school to decide which one it's one budget is one capital item. Uh, one was for a facility
study of Crocker Farm and not sure if Kathy remembers, but >> the the other is um they wanted to do an assessment of the way they use bus drivers and custodians where they're splitting time whether there was a more efficient way of doing it. So, it was
sort of a staffing informing staffing study. >> Right. So originally both of those were approved and now one of those >> they were they were approved but um they were it was not they were best guesses for numbers. So the Crocker one was more
clear on uh uh doing the kind of assessment that then you can apply for some of the grants that are available for HVAC and others. Um because Crocker has been sitting there with a half million actually as much as a million
dollars in future expenses and it's not clear that there's been that kind of assessment. So it's a bit similar to what we did of our other buildings, George, but we just never did it of Crocker. >> Both of them are really really important. You would agree both of these projects.
>> Uh yes, but um I'm assuming the schools are deciding which one. Yeah, they're going to have to make the choice, but they'd probably like to do both. >> Uh, anyway, I just I'm just observing that. Just I didn't know what they were. Now I do. Um, >> and I'm sorry. >> I'm sorry. Just to be clear, it's the
second part is operational review of the facilities operations department. That was the second piece of that. >> I just want to say that that one was hazy, George. You know, it was uh wanting uh Shannon removed several other requests because they didn't have anything to substantiate them. and she
said, but she'd wanted to take a look at this one. So, it wasn't one of these. It's we have a dire need from this. It was uh >> Yeah. >> Um I The other one is very quick. Paul, you mentioned shared services. The treasurer collector's office has begun
serving the residents of Pelum, which I think is a wonderful thing. Um but I assume we're getting paid for that or is that a are we just doing it out of the kindness of our hearts? >> No, there is an appropriation request in your in your packet still. So, we are I mean the town of Palum is paying
us$12,000 I believe it is and we're asking for an appropriation of $100,000 to pay for the and there's a detail of what that will pay for for the town >> and it's not putting an extra burden on our staff that this >> it'll give us the opportunity to hire someone. We had previously um uh frozen
the position uh because so now we will have a funding source for that position and also give some opportunities for staff to take on additional roles that would help us and keep them engaged with their working for the town. >> Thank you. Uh Kathy
>> building on George's question on uh where that 120 might come from. We a year ago, not this past year, we approved with some question marks, a new IT software for the finance director who
then left us. And our current finance director said he doesn't really want to use that software. And so it's one of these capital appropriations that's unlikely to be used. And I just encourage you to look at look at that because it it wasn't a one-time cost. It
was a startup cost and then there was an annual subscription to it that was expensive and would have required retooling all the ways we do various systems. So my memory is it was at at least $120,000 in that line item and it was in the hope
that we would keep a finance director who decided to leave us. But I just Sean has said that he doesn't particularly want to switch to that. So it might be worth looking at that money. >> Okay. And [clears throat] if there are no other questions, I just had a couple
of questions also. Paul, um I'm not sure if I saw this in this town manager report, but I was hoping you might elaborate a bit on the wreck department's move to Wildwood and what the long-term plan is there, how long we anticipate they will be at Wildwood and
where their destination will be after. >> Uh so we had to move them out of the license with the regional school district terminated on June 30th, so we had to move them out fairly quickly. Um
and and so we were really diligent about moving them into Wildwood. The school district was generous enough to let us use two classrooms in Wildwood um even though they still control it for the summer. So we had to get something that had proximity to the the activities for
the summer. The space that they're in is not fully accessible. So the recck department is holding office hours uh spec you know specific office hours in the bank's community center uh for the time being. um whether they stay there are basically
in two large classrooms not exactly conducive for office space not um a lot of issues w with the space so we will be looking at alternates once we get control of the building on September 1 there might be another office space that we might be able to utilize that the
district has said we should look at once they clear out they're using that building pretty intensively this summer because a lot of summer camps are there um with the other we don't want to rent space for wreck The other spaces we have are the North Hammer School and the um
Bang Center, which is I don't know if they can fit in either one of them those easily, but so the thing before us uh for facilities is to determine uh we know what their needs are. Um whether it's better to
keep them at Wildwood at um move them to Bangs, which I think is too small, or move them to North Amber School. So those are the sort of options that we're looking at for those for that. And so we know they're going to be there at least the summer and probably farther into the winter. Um I'm not sure there's a lot of
things to work out with wild one once we take control of it like snow removal and things like that. >> Okay. And so uh the conversation or those decisions are made outside of the council, but will that be a part of the conversation uh the council has regarding the Wildwood building?
So, we we'll we're setting up a Wildwood reuse committee that will take that on. And so, one of the questions for the committee is do you want to use any of the space? This is a temporary solution. We're pretty clear about that. We're not investing a lot. We're put putting existing equipment in there and things
like that. Um, so for the building, do you want to use this building for something else or is it a is it a demo? Do you want to use it in the meantime before we get to the demolition? Those are all the questions. And what is the true condition of the building once we get in there? for finding lots of things that there's a reason the school is
abandoning that building quite honestly. >> Okay. Thank you. And I just had one other question and then I will move to other counselors. Um regarding uh dispatch calls going to Crest, I'm wondering if there's somewhere where it's listed which uh call types are going to be dispatched and if there's a
phasing approach where other call types were will be added or uh what is happening there? >> Yeah, I can share the call types with you. That's um that's a good question. Um so what we are so we're looking at all
the call types and we're and it's really an iterative process. So um the the dispatch director and the police chief and the crest director and I sit down. We go through all the calls that were sent to Crest. Um look at the calls. The dispatch director looks at all the calls
that came in said decides which ones could have gone to crest and then is also sort of separately looking at the time frame from 4 to 8 to say how many calls could have gone to crest under our current system had we had operation activities then. So those are three things that we're looking at and then we
look look at actual calls that went to crest and how they were handled. Um, and we're learning things from every call and we're getting super many comp a lot of compliments and learning things just from calls that Crest responded to on their own. Uh, Crest has obtained uh
scanners so they can self-dispatch if they hear a call that um that is going to police, but they feel they should be they could help or for fire or police, they can self-dispatch. That's that's a normal thing. you know, we we look at we've also gotten the call types from um
Northampton and it's it's not a whole lot of calls right now going through the dispatch and we're about the same as Northampton and um they've engaged LEAP to look at their dispatch and we're probably going to do the same thing, talk to LEAP about whether they want to that's the law enforcement action
something or there but they had done the initial uh review of call types during the uh community community safety working group time. And so I've talked with Amos about that. Could they come in and sell and look at what we're doing compared to other communities or is this
is this the right number? And maybe it's the right number, maybe it's not. I don't know. Um I think you know what my argument is that um Crest isn't going to live or die based on dispatch calls. It's going to it's already proven it's worth in many ways. um and you know and
has to continue to show that it's a worthwhile investment by the town because they are you know I I'll show I'll send you a letter that we got uh recently that was from a um from somebody who was really helped by crest which just really
they didn't have to be a town resident but they were really helped by having that kind of response where they can spend some time with the individual um as opposed to a police who have to declare the call because I get another call coming in.
>> Thank you, Councelor Conno Martin. >> Hi, I just wanted to ask um about the I know that you had mentioned there was a plan to um sort of like um determine what we want to do with the Wildwood building uh going forward. So, I just wondered if you could report on any
progress in forming that committee. Like I don't know if there's been like any announcement on the website that we're recruiting recruiting residents for that or where where that's at. Yeah, I don't think there's a announcement on on it yet. So, typic what this was supposed one of the advantages of hiring Jeff Bag
as our planning director was that he had done something similar in East Hampton and then he just got overwhelmed by Hampshire and so now he's got the Hampshire reuse site and this having the new assistant director start work. Um, one of the things that lured her to the
town was these major projects that we have coming forward. Uh, so once she gets her feet on the ground, which will take some time, I'm not sure what his plan is for allocating staff out for the for both studies, >> but it we haven't made the announcement, but it's it's on our list to get things
done. >> Uh, Lynn, >> uh, thank you, Councelor Walker. Um you mentioned in your um update that you'll be forming for forming both the Wildwood
Committee and also a fire station um um not study but actually building committee >> uh will there be counselors on both of those committees? >> Typically on building committees we do. I've not thought about I haven't thought through the Wildwood I'll talk with Jeff
Bag about what worked in East Hampton and see what he what they look at there. I I don't have an answer for that one, Lynn. >> Thanks. >> Thank you. Uh seeing no other councelor hands, I'm going to move on to town council comments. Um starting with the
president's report. Mandy Joe. Um it's in the packet. I'm happy to answer questions. Lynn, >> this is not a question to uh President Hanuki. Uh it's actually a thank you for uh the guidance that you were able to
give us uh for the um pilot meetings. Uh three four of us went up last week. Uh Andy Churchill, uh Pam Rooney, and Jennifer Tob and myself. What we learned, however, was their listing
sessions. And basically what they do is they spend the first half hour to 45 minutes uh basically going over what the pilot uh formula does and doesn't do. And then they also uh talk about um what
their process is going to look like and then they break you into listening sessions. And so while I think it's very important for the ones that are happening this week that counselors and I know at least two or three are continuing to plan to go that counselors
go but then also writ please submit your written comments because um they're really looking at um a broad view in fact I think a little more broad than what we anticipated
based on the original uh charge. Uh however, one of the things that we had been advised to do and that is strictly stick to the issue of publiclyowned land, not try to venture into the issue
of uh nonprofits and particularly private higher education. At another time we can talk about the kind of research that we've been able to learn from other states that um professor Ray Laaja has been doing
because other states have in fact uh passed legislation that provides guidance to individual towns on how to deal with large nonprofits and I think there is something to be said for that but that's a whole different thing than this commission. So again, I want to
thank um the counselors that have been doing the planning on this and uh if you um and I we sent you our testimony, so you've seen it and if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask. Thanks.
>> Uh Sam, >> uh thank you and thank you Lynn. I know I talked to you earlier in the week uh regarding your efforts and to the other counselors in Greenfield. I just thought I'd let you know and others that uh I did attend the um listening session in
Holio today. Uh President Heni was there as well. Uh and there were probably 50 folks or so is my estimate. Uh and they [clears throat] are listening. I mean they presented the information on
the pilot but when they broke into the uh breakout groups at my table there was a commissioner and uh they are listening to what attendees say uh and with followup. So, I think it's, you know, I
thanked the commissioner as well as um, you know, the governor, our senator for, uh, being involved in this and I think they're helpful and there's the ability to send comments as well, which I did and I would uh, there's one more in uh,
it field and who knows what the outcome will be, but I I'm pretty sure based on what you're the four of you did in Greenfield and uh, others that they're getting the message from Ammerst. Uh, and we'll see what happens.
>> Okay. Uh, Kathy, >> I just want to say thank you to the four of you, Andy, Lynn, uh, Jennifer, and Pam. I read what you submitted, and I thought it was excellent. Um and it creates a model for us rest of us to
build off of. So thank you for the thoughtful work that went into that. >> Yes, thank you Kathy. Um okay, seeing no other hands, I will move to future agenda items. So, thank you all for putting on your
calendar August 31st as a potential council meeting. Um, we will be cancelling at least one of the three that are now sort of slated for August, if not two of them, but we don't know which ones yet. [laughter]
So, watch watch your emails for that. um in August. Right now, the public forums on the appropriation orders we just referred today need to be held um and then voted on. Um we are trying to figure out when we can get that clean
energy bylaw that uh chair Rooney talked about into its first read at the council so that the second read can be at the first meeting in September and and hopefully then it is enacted and effective before October 1. Um that is the reason for actually adding the
August 31st in case it's not ready for the 17th. Um so those are the two main things on the upcoming agendas. Um we will be speaking with an agenda setting uh councelor Churchill tomorrow. Um he has requested some potential agenda
items regarding structural deficits and revenue goals for the council and figuring out um how that looks at maybe a council meeting or otherwise. Um, so that might end up on an agenda in August or later as we discuss it with him and
what his goals for that request are. Um, right now that's it for the August agendas, which is why you can probably tell we're trying to figure out which ones can be cancelled. >> Thank you, Mandy Joe. Um, and I will
move to councelor comments. If there are any additional counselor comments, please raise your hand. Okay, great. Um, and any topics not reasonably anticipated by the chair
within 48 hours of the meeting. Um, I don't have anything there. There is no executive session. Um, okay. So, with that, I will move to
adjourn. I'll second. >> Um, okay. And roll call vote. We will start with Lynn Gryer. >> I Mandy Johanni. >> I. >> Councelor Lord. >> Sam Mloud. >> Hi. >> Pam Rooney. >> Yes.
>> Councelor Ryan. >> Hi. >> Kathy Shonne. >> Yes. >> Councelor Walker is a yes. Councelor Brevik. >> Yes. >> Councelor Conno Martin. >> Yes. >> Uh Andy Churchill. >> Yes. Um, okay. Thank you. And we are
adjourned at 8:10 p.m.