Okay, we're recording. Councilor Ryan, please go ahead. >> So, good morning um to everyone. It is Thursday, May 7th, and it is 10:02 a.m. This is the regular meeting of the town services and outreach committee. Chapter
2, the act of 2025 extended through June 30, 2027 gives public bodies like this the ability to hold meetings remotely. This meeting is accessible in real time via Zoom and by phone and is being recorded.
I'm just going to take a moment and make sure that everyone here can be heard and is present. At the moment, we have four of our colleagues. We're missing one, but hopefully he'll be joining us. Um, Pam Rooney, >> I'm here. >> Councelor Lord, >> present.
>> Jennifer Tob, >> I'm here. >> Okay. And we have town manager Paul Bachelman who's with us. We have two members of our staff, Amy Raziki and Guilford Moing also with us.
And we have our presenters. And so um I think we're going to turn we're going to begin on the agenda. We actually have public comment uh to start, but I'm going to postpone that until later in the meeting. Um I know there's a bit of a time crunch, so I'm going to have our presenters come forward and make the
presentation first. Um, and so I think without further ado, I'm going to ask them to introduce themselves briefly, very briefly explain how they became involved in this process in this, uh, project and then I'd like them to make
their presentation. >> All right. Hello. Um, my name is Ben Codair and with me is my team of Finnegan, Bell, Keith, and Janeska. We're students from the University of Massachusetts Ammerst and we're here to present our recommendation findings and
methodology for new and updated street lighting policy in Ammeris, Massachusetts. I'll just go and share my screen. All right. So for some context, the town of Ammeris streetlighting policy is relatively outdated, not having been
updated since 2001. Uh there was some reform efforts in 2022 and 2023 uh on the city council, but it was ultimately unsuccessful. Um, starting last November into December, uh, town manager Paul Bachelman reignited reform efforts when
he discussed having a student organiz or a student group, uh, present on potential recommendations for reform. This uh, limited street lighting policy that we have today leaves the Department of Public Works with only their best efforts uh, at street lighting
throughout the town and place them in a position without strong footing. All right. To frame our research, we identified uh equity, character, responsibility, and safety as four pillars throughout our work. These were
taken from a similar street lighting master plan in Salt Lake City, Utah. And we thought that the questions of who is heard in local government, especially relating to street lighting, how does quality of life of residents affected by street lighting? and how can we best balance environmental health and and
financial responsibilities along with public safety uh in the implementation of this policy. So to say our research question was what street lighting policy considers safety, responsibility, equity and character to best serve the residents and environment
of Ammeris, Massachusetts. And to answer this question we used three case methodologies. One being qualitative interviews. We interviewed with um local leaders uh public public servants uh and experts. We did municipal policy review
where we consulted similar towns and cities identifying implementations that they had done recently, successes and failures they had had. And we also collected our own independent data in and around Ammeris, Mass. >> Hi. So, as Ben stated, we analyzed a few
different street light policies in some other towns. these towns being Flagstaff, Nantucket, Northampton. In all these policies, we found that the Kelvin Kelvin levels were about the same, that being 2,700 except for Nantucket and Northampton where there was a few exceptions of them allowing
3,000 Kelvin. In all these policies, they were aiming towards reducing light pollution, u improving safety, reducing like lights light glow and like glare. Um, however, the Flagstaff policy was a bit stricter. they had more uh
requirements for shielding and stricter color temperature restrictions. Uh the key takeaways for these for Flagstaff was that they had a city engineer that was in charge of pedestrian lighting. For Nantucket they had a light enforcement officer to enforce this policy and for Northampton they were
very specific for lighting times and lighting levels. So our findings on ideal lighting in terms of Kelvin rating which is color temperature it's essentially the color of the light and the higher the rating
goes the cooler temperature it is the more like white or blue it is and the lower it goes the warmer tone it is the more orange yellow it is we found um as previously said nothing was really over 2700 uh other than a few exceptions for
300 and in terms of bug rating which bug rating is a measurement for output of lighting and how controlled the light is. Um, it measures backlight, up light glare. As you can see on the figure, backlight is on the yellow. It's the lighting towards the
back of the street light. The up light is on the blue. It's towards the lighting towards the night sky. And for G, it's the glare. It's the green. It's like at an angle where it hits the human eye. And this is on a scale from zero to
five. five being very extreme, zero being not extreme at all. Um, and we found for the bug rating that the backlight and the glare tended to fluctuate between one and two. However, up light, the light towards the night sky is just like none. Um, we also found
that shielding is very important to prevent backlight, up light, and glare. And shield shielding is almost something you can attach like on a street light. It's like an accessory and attachment, and it helps control where the light is going. And there's different types of shielding. So you could do like partial shielding where it's only stopping the
light from going in one direction or you could do full shielding where it's stopping the lights from going in all directions other than where you actually want it to go. So for our qualitative interviews we did six of them. So for our first one we met with two Ammerst town council members uh
to hear about like policy expectations and find some of like the background info. Um, we learned here that they really attached importance to like dark sky initiatives. Our second meeting was with the Department of Public Works officials. We met with two of them. They had a lot of concerns over safety and
lighting. We what we took out of this was that we really had to think about like the cost of the of all these changes and to think about like creating like clear legal boundaries and tried to reduce like some gray areas. For our third interview, we interviewed uh with
a campus shine representative at UMass. And campus shine is an initiative nationwide to improve campus lighting. Um we had this interview to try to understand the current standing of lighting light at UMass since we understand that UMass is a really big light poller here for Ammeris and they
also attached a lot of importance to dark sky initiatives. Our fourth meeting was with the Northampton mayor. Um, we had this meeting to try to discuss Northampton light policies since they recently update updated it and to try to see how best Ammers can implement a policy like this. Our fifth interview
was with a Smith professor who is a dark sky initiative leader. He's a big reason why there is a campus shine chapter at UMass. A big reason why Northampton and Smith College have recently updated their street light policies. Um there was a lot of discussion here on the dangers of light and the phys
feasibility of the light policy. Um our last interview was with the center of sustainable light coordinators at UMass. This was again to discuss UMass campus lighting and the direction that they were going towards. We learned here that they were working towards improving light on campus and working to comply
with dark sky initiatives and they are also open to working with the town of Ammerst. Oh, sorry. >> Sorry. Technical. >> So, along with um some of the qualitative interviews, we also wanted to get some in town examples for how the street lighting in Ammerst actually is
today. So, here we have some pictures of downtown where we specifically wanted to identify lighting that didn't meet the standards for our bug rating. So the backlight up light and glare um the color temperature and the shielding. So in the picture you see on the left um even though that both these lights are
unshielded the one with the lower or the higher color temperature rather the bluer light emits much more glare than the unshielded um warmer light. So to continue with this data collection during our research we conducted on the ground procedures with a SQM or sky
quality meter device which measures the rates of light pollution within the town of Ammerst and in the night sky. So we measured points in the downtown area alongside Ammerst College, College Street and other nearby locations in the hub of Ammeris based activity. The sky quality meter works on a reverse logarithmic scale where the higher the
score is the darker and the better night sky where uh there's a maximum of 22 with the darkest sky a middle with a around 16 and below 16 is considered to be heavily light polluted. So in these maps right here, we have marked data points. Both on the left
here is a a bigger map of Ammeris where on the right is a more a more zoomed in part of town where um the lower numbers on this scale indicate a higher level of light pollution in the in the town and um and a a higher number represents a
better night sky score. And we see that a lot of our higher numbers, that is the ones with the better night sky score, happen to be around in Ammerst College and in the lower parts of downtown where street lighting is is seem to be more shielded and definitely
more sparse than um than in like heavily downtown areas such as near the bars or other businesses. And where here we have a key on the right where red is an extremely light polluted area with a score below 16. Yellow is a brightly lit but still less than ideal 16 to 18
score. And then green is still bright but has the best ratings in Ammerst for um light pollution. So uh over the last couple of slides we've gone over what the lighting profile of Ammerst broadly is. Uh street lights that are a little bit higher in color temperature, fairly intense as far
as the intensity of the light of the light goes and not very extensively shielded as you could see uh in the pictures. But what we haven't discussed is the challenges that that can pose and why that could be an issue. And we've divided that into three pillars. First of these is the environmental problem.
So broadly speaking, uh if a light is poorly shielded and particularly bright, uh that can affect animal life cycles. So the example that we've given there is some insect populations. Bright lights can disrupt eggling behavior which of course can throw pretty delicate habitat uh out of balance. it can be more
difficult for uh certain affected uh plant characteristics that are supported by uh by other wildlife and ecosystem. Uh and as you can probably imagine uh with a pretty heavily wooded area that Amorest is here in western Massachusetts uh those habitats are of course uh
fairly fairly delicate um and that can be disruptive. Uh the second pillar is safety. And now, as I'm sure you can imagine, uh, when there's a fairly minimal amount of lighting, uh, where there's a lot of foot traffic, that can reduce the likelihood of a person being seen by a driver on the road. So, if I'm
crossing the road or walking along a major road and there's very little street lighting, that can impede my visibility to a driver. But on the other end, uh, excessively intense lighting, as we've just gone over, can pose a similar issue. So, especially when a light is really really bright uh and not
very well shielded, the glare uh can get into the human eye of a driver. Uh and the effect that that can have is it overwhelms the senses and makes it more difficult to perceive everything else. So, if I'm driving and there's a large uh street light with a lot of glare getting into my eye, it might actually
be more difficult for me to pick up on a pedestrian walking by. Uh anecdotally, if you ever want to test this yourself, you can walk up to any light in Ammerst and if you uh look at that light and the area around it doesn't seem very visible to you, but it seems more visible when you cover that light with your hand, that might be an indication that the
glare is fairly excessive. Um uh the third pillar that we've gone over there uh is human health. And this relates a lot to both color temperature and shielding. So, higher color temperatures, uh, those levels that are above 3,000 or 4,000 Kelvin, that is
assoc associated with blue light. Um, and the effect that blue light has, it can be emitted from such street lights as we've gone over or your phone, uh, computers, tablets. When you see that late at night, what that does is it disrupts your circadian rhythm uh, and, uh, your general sleep process. So, the
quality and amount of sleep that you get will be reduced, which of course uh, can have some detrimental health effects that we've got over here. So that's sleep disruption, cardiac issues, weight related issues. It can also intensify anxiety, um quality of living, uh and from a quality of life perspective, it
also reduces access to the night sky, uh which can have somewhat of a detrimental effect on quality of life. And all of these factors could be at play with the lighting profile that we've just gone over with Ammerst. So what this builds into is the
implications uh of the policy that we have uh sent out to uh to the town of what we think um an ideal light uh would look like in Ammerst. And a lot of it relates to some of the policies that we went over in our review earlier. So first uh for the sake of avoiding that
excessive blue light getting into the eye, warm light in instead of cool. So levels that are closer to 2,700 below uh 3,000, those lighting types will generally be less disruptive to the human eye. Uh they're also a little bit less intense as far as glare is
concerned. Um as far as the brightness of the light goes, in cases where lights are particularly bright, uh we would hope to reduce that somewhat so as to avoid uh the disruption that we talked about in terms of the environment and in terms of driver visibility. Um and the third that we want to go over here is is
the shielding. Uh so uh that is going to relate to the bug rating that we went over earlier. So shielding such that it uh reduces both uplight which can improve your access to the night sky and that reduces glare into the human eye um and also into uh other areas that could reduce the amount of light that is
getting into natural habitats and reduce light that is interfering uh with human vision uh which can improve the navigability of uh of certain certain areas. Uh of course as with as with all studies we did face a few uh limitations
throughout this process that we want to acknowledge. Uh so throughout this process um this was done based on our own research and our own findings. We were not able to conduct resident surveys on a on any scale. Um so the personal opinions of uh the public and Amoris residents might not have been
taken into consideration and that is worth noting for uh just for future consideration of this policy. uh we did reach out to the uh or we tried to access the head of lighting in the town of Ammerst. Unfortunately, we were not able uh to uh make a time work during that process. So, we were not able to
incorporate those findings and those perspectives into our work. Unfortunately, um in terms of cost data, we were not able to access the exact details of the exact types of light and the exact types of shielding um that could be installed uh in terms of the exact technical specifications which
which uh made it difficult to uh visualize the exact details um of cost unfortunately. Uh of course in addition to that as you can imagine uh the University of Massachusetts Ammerst campus is actually probably the most uh intense light poller in this area. So a
lot of the light pollution uh in this area is actually going to be coming from there where this policy cannot have an immediate effect uh which is worth considering. And as far as our personal findings that we went out with machine the SQM meter uh to do that is more act anecdotal. Uh we accessed the areas of
the town that we were able to in the time uh that we had. Um so it's uh anecdotal but we do believe that it's illustrative of the uh of the major uh themes of how lighting uh generally operates especially in the more uh
populated and dense areas. So this raises a question of what comes next and for our next step recommendations that go along with the policy which we are presenting. Um we recommend through our recommendations and implementation plan which all of you
should have the full document. This is a brief summary of our two major divisions. And the first division is the equity division. This sparked from equity concerns between resident communication and communication with the town when it comes to issues with street
lighting. First, we would recommend the creation and distribution of a resident survey, which a draft has currently been made and it is in the current document. And what that survey would ask is what people feel about the lighting. Do they
think it is too bright? Do they think it is too dim? and also do they feel like they can properly um communicate these concerns that they might have to the town and we would also recommend a revitalization of the website. As it
stands, Ammeris Connect is the main platform for concern reporting. However, through our interviews, we discovered that more often than not, a lot of the communication is rather phone dominant, which creates some issues for
individuals where English might not be their first language or they might not feel comfortable to communicate over the phone or they just might not have the time. So by having more phone dominant concern platforms um it creates issues
with who exactly gets to express their concerns and also when looking at Ammerst connect there's overall a 50% nonresponse rate from what I was able to see um on the website and so overall the
website should be revitalized to increase better communication and When it comes to implementing the policy itself, we have a few recommendations that couldn't exactly be put into the policy. And so the first is
when it comes to setting the shielding requirements, we would the options would be selected by the DPW from some of the examples which we presented in the equity report. We have some examples from Northampton and Flagstaff. And then
subsequently they would be sent to the town to ensure that like the required shields would be put on the models that are currently available and accessible and then they would be voted on. Um and
they would follow the bug rating system. And then we would also recommend a workshop for public engagement and education. And the point of the workshop is to take these abstract ideas such as
bug ratings or Kelvin measurements and turn these abstract ideas into visible concepts. So we wanted to show the difference between warm and cool lighting. And we wanted to show the different shields so that way people could actually visual visualize what
this glare was and what these different issues are when it related to street lighting. especially since we want people to be more communicative about their issues with street lighting. And then these areas that we noticed that needed a greater amount of light,
we were able to identify a few key areas. First off, North Pleasant Street between Orchard Hill and downtown. We found that that area was incredibly dark, which is a major issue because a lot of students walk through there. They
walk through um between UMass to then enter the town. And because of all that foot traffic, it can be incredibly dangerous if it is dark out. And we also saw Main Street between like the train after the train tracks when you are
heading from downtown that is also rather dark and it does have a lot of bus stops down there. So, we would recommend that additional lighting is implemented. And then we also would recommend general lighting fixes because
we did notice um from our perspective there were a few bulbs which were out. However, this is based off of our experience and we are only a few people. So, we would also recommend doing
general surveys. And in the survey draft, which has been put into the detailed equity and implementation plan, there is um in the draft survey, it does ask if people have areas that they feel would need more lighting.
And then for additional next step recommendations, um, in the case that replacing a bulb is too expensive, whether they are brand new, like incredibly new, we understand that that's not necessarily cost effective.
We do have an alternative where we would recommend um the implementation of gel covers for a cost-effective color shift. Now, we are not asking for the lights to be red. Um, we are asking for more of a
amber hue, a more orangey tone, a warmer tone that is not bright red. This is the example that we were able to collect from the firehouse. And while it would be the most ideal to swap out the bulbs, we understand that if bulbs are brand new, it might not be the most um
cost-effective choice. So, this is an alternative that we suggest. And then finally, we also suggest dark skies collaboration with other towns, which may be worthwhile for Ammerst to meet with other representatives of towns that
have successfully implemented street lighting practices that like eliminate light pollution. And some of these examples are Northampton, Nantucket, Pepel, and um Koi. And we believe that this would be ideal because it would
increase communication and overall people could share strategies and it would be beneficial when looking at eliminating light pollution. >> All right, we are happy to answer any questions and get into the details of the policy we have provided as well. But
before that, I would just like to make a few acknowledgements and thank yous. Uh first and foremost, Professor Bridget Davis. um this was her vision to bring together students and the town and make this happen in a way that I think is mutually beneficial and she supported us 100% of the way through this project. So we can't thank you enough Bridget. Um
also to Paul Balkman, he gave us this opportunity to apply our studies and produce something in the real world. Uh also to Manny Joe Hani and Anna Devlin Gothier, their foundational work uh on this subject was very influential in our policy drafting and their enthusiasm
kept kept this idea alive. uh as well to professor James Loenthal uh for his passion of light regulations and providing us with the valuable technology to conduct our own research and as well Gilford Moing and Jason Skills from the Department of Public Works uh for meeting with us providing your operational perspective and
generally everyone that uh support us along the way on along the way. We'd like to say thank you very much. >> So Ben and your colleagues, thank you very much for the presentation. Um I'm just going to say briefly something about the context for this committee and
then I'm going to open it up um for questions. Um I have one to start with that I hope my colleagues will allow me to to ask first. But um first just so you know and so the public knows and uh
we are relatively as a committee new to this issue. um the committee uh membership turns over and there's been a substantial turnover. I believe uh councelor Tob and councelor Lord have
been on have dealt with this issue in the past. No, it's new to you as well, Jennifer. I'm sorry. >> I was on TSO. We didn't really address it so much last term. >> Yeah. Well, that so there's some history here just briefly um to be aware of that. So basically you're speaking to a
group of people who have not uh given this a great deal of thought. Um we have a president uh councelor Hani who has given a great deal of thought. Um and we certainly will um hope that she may have some questions or comments but um this
has been before this uh body since August 10th, 2022 when a street life policy was presented by councilors Heni and Anna Delin Goutier to uh TSO. So it's almost four years. Um and it's uh there's a lot
that's been done in the background. Um but the current iteration went to the town manager and he has asked you to um to take to bring us uh your thoughts and your your recommendations. Um and so uh
with that sort of crude preface um my first question is how did you all um what academic program are you in? What just tell us something about your um department and how you became involved
in this as as students? Uh could you say something briefly about that? >> Yes. So we are part of the UMass Ammers public policy department. Um >> public policy. Thank you. >> Yes. This was um a part of our senior
capstone actually. Um it was originally Ben's project and we were recruited on as to contribute to this project and all work on it together. Um, we were inspired by our love of local policy and
also wanting to make positive change in the town which we have been lucky to call home while we have been here at college. >> Very good. Thank you very much. Um, so I see councelor Churchill has joined us.
He probably joined us a long time ago and I didn't even notice. Um, and he also has his hand raised. I'm going to start with Andy and I see also two other counselors and we'll go from there. So Andy, if you would ask your question. >> Yeah. Hi. I I I joined early in the in
the um presentation and I was able to review the the full um slide deck before beforehand. So I just wanted to say thank you for this. I thought it was great work. Um, I've been in an MPP program myself and so I certainly
understand and and salute you for uh for uh choosing this area of work. I think it can be very rewarding and um some of your um conclusions are more generally applicable, I think, especially the the website needing improvement. We've heard
that in a number of different ways and uh it's something that we need to that we need to uh you know that we're continually working on and the county is working on now. But I was curious about the the fact that phone complaints are prioritized over online complaints. I
thought that was an interesting finding and um I'm curious about what what our draft um policy looks like compared to Northampton's. Um
is I'm always curious whether ours are more complicated than they need to be or whether they're similar in terms of the level of complexity. And I'm wondering if you looked at Northampton's policy or you know Flagstaff or Nantucket or any
others, how does ours compare in terms of simplicity of of implementation versus complexity? >> We got muted. No, we're good. Okay. Um, so to speak on Northampton, uh, I would say that so the policy that they have is
pretty much one like extremely robust for the area and it's pretty applicable to Ammerst. I would say if anything they went even further with exceptions and they kind of went with um kind of the most strict um guidelines they could in terms of both like dark sky and
international illumination engineering society's like guidelines. So they they went even stricter than we did I believe um in the sense where they were um trying to limit light to 0.1 foot candles and they had very very strict
shielding requirements. So, if anything, I'd say that our policy is extremely um uh inspired by by these towns, but I would say that Northampton is the easiest map on just because of just kind of the
similar local um like realities of the towns, but they went a little even further in their recommendation. I'll also say that a handful of the towns we reviewed also consider regulation of private lighting uh especially commercial and residential. Um we felt
that was a little bit outside of the scope of what we were doing so far. Um so our presentation is exclusively about the public right ofway and what we light there but uh there was significant portion dedicated to regulations of private lighting as well. >> Um I can also speak a little bit more to
Flagstaff. Um yeah, you asked about um their policy. Uh ours follows some of the broad um scopes that they had as far as the containment of of shielding. That was one of the uh major features of Flagstaff along with color temperature. Um their policy uh is fairly specific as
far as different um designations for different uh roadway types. Um and it was a little bit difficult um as far as um the distancing requirements that they have. They set very specific requirements for how far apart two lights can be. Uh we felt that because Ammeris is a very different sort of town
with more winding roads and hills than Flagstaff which we would expect to be uh flatter and more open uh that it would be it would be difficult to make that pragmatic and also it's more difficult to replace entire uh lighting uh poles. So we took the uh the major requirements
that they had about the lights themselves. Um, so they they um are they are a relatively straightforward policy, but some of the more granular elements of it didn't seem entirely uh practical as far as uh an Ammeris specific perspective goes. So we just
incorporated what we could from them. >> And in terms of Nantucket, it was it was it wasn't just specifically street lights their plan. It was just an overall lighting plan for them. And so they also included stuff for like holiday lighting and like residential
and non-residential lighting. Um, they were really specific with like the times of things like street lights are off after like 1000 p.m. and like dimming and how everything goes like that and how bright something is, color temperature, um, things like that. And
they I thought it was really interesting they had like a light enforcement officer that they created to enforce the policy. They also had a lot of like penalties and like fines that people would have to pay. Um, so that was a lot different than the Ammerst policy.
>> Good Pam Rooney. >> Thank you. Uh, I really enjoyed the presentation and the information. There's there's a lot to uh absorb. Um, I had some questions and I know you you
didn't necessarily spend a lot of time on the implementation of these programs or policies, but I would be interested to uh hear a little bit about how the different communities, if they even
talked about it with you, implemented their strategies. And and I'm thinking in general of um we have a variety of light styles. We have
a variety of bulb types. And you know, we have, as you can tell, we have lots of lighting fixtures in town. How does a town start to go about um
implementing a change in policy? um speaking with the Northampton mayor about it, she did say that it was um relatively gradual after the implementation of the policy, but I believe that um our main focus was to um
have something on the books for future lighting um when it's when it's constructed. And then if there's potential retrofitting to these standards after, then that then that can come after. Um, in terms of the actual shielding and how we have different kinds of light posts, um, I believe both
in the Flagstaff and the Northampton, uh, policies, there were, um, multiple images of kind of approved shielding, um, guidelines for lighting and lighting that didn't follow approved guidelines, which followed what looked like most industrial models for lighting, which is
pretty easy to to um, it's not that they all have to be uniform, but just that they follow a specific amount of shielding standards. which I do know that the examples um from Flagstaff and Northampton, they are in the um equity and implementation
plan. And a part of what we would recommend for implementation is the purchasing creation of a couple shielding prototypes and that it would be voted on by the
coun by the town council and it would be discussed in further detail because I know that there is a lot of variation in the lighting and so I also do know that there's a lot of different shielding prototypes as well, which um
>> and I'm going to add part of part of the situation is that we utilize um telephone poles as uh the standard for some of our street lights. And we and we may be we may be
regulated by by the power company or the telephone company, whatever, who owns the pole um to standards that they that they um mandate. Jennifer, >> thank you. Uh, that was an excellent presentation. So, thank you. Um, I So,
one is a comment. I have a couple questions, but my my comment is um Pam and I represent district 4, which is adjacent to the campus to the south and the east. And particularly in the precinct that I live in, so Ammeris is really like maybe two different towns.
We have our outline areas where light being too bright and affecting animals and you know the natural environment is an issue. And then I represent a very in town district and particularly one precinct has lots you know I live on
Lincoln Avenue so I don't if it's has a lot of foot traffic from southwest residential into downtown very late at night. um you know and students you know who are they use the flashlight on their
cell phones. I was walking home from the Ammeris media um event last Saturday night after dark and every group of students I passed had their flashlights on their cell phones out because you cannot you can't see. So, it's hard in
terms of my personal experience to imagine that there's any place where it's too bright because and when and I appreciated when you showed some of the major streets downtown, but if you get into the residential neighborhoods, which again has lots of foot traffic late at night and a lot of um
pedestrians walking in the street, it's extremely dark. So that's we're really, you know, so when I see looking at Nantucket or Conway, that's for part of Ammerst, but then as you know, the areas closest between the university and downtown, um, are definitely not too
bright. Uh, and I, you know, we may with new lighting, you know, want to look at having the gel covers and, um, you know, maybe less glare in our lights, but there are areas in Ammerst that need more lighting. If my constituents heard
that we were working towards less lighting, they would be very um upset. So, I did want to ask though in in the report it mentions creating separate columns on the website. Is that on cclick fix? I wasn't sure what where on
our website what that was referring to. Oh, so we were talking about um the Emers Connect and creating different columns for different types of complaints to
um so that way people's concerns could be um addressed faster because a major issue that we found on Ammerst Connect was that major issues um that there was a 50% non-response rate. Um, and so that
leaves a lot of people's concerns or complaints potentially left unheard, which we found was a major issue that should be worked to remedied. It's a part of the overall website improvement.
>> Thank you. But I Okay, I'm embarrassed to say this. I always use for myself Cclick Fix. Is there was there another option? What is I have never used Ammeris connect or is that the same part of the same platform? >> They're the same. I believe I believe
Cick fix is like the in like the input part of Ammeris Connect which is the entire system to my understanding. >> Yeah. And I have to say I didn't know calling was an option. Maybe I need to do that. I just use and and I have to say it's Yeah. I I I I put one issue in
four years ago and I haven't heard back. So, um I sympathize with the 50% non-response rate. >> I'll say one thing about um your comment about lighting in in Ammeris. Uh we completely agree that um there is not one uniform idea of less lighting in
Ammeris. That's why we specified the places along uh Main Street that we think are currently underlit. Um however we find that especially the implementation of lower color temperature bulbs the more orange and
amber tones has a very high impact um on reducing the overall uh intensity of the lighting around Ammerst. So for the citizens and counselors concerned about overlighting a lot of those concerns will be ameliated with the change in
color temperature. Uh, and to your point about some place being underlit, I personally I work at uh, three amigos in North Ammerst in the mill district and I walk back towards my apartment and that road has maybe one or two lamp posts on the entire walk and I I walk with a
reflective band on my bag so that you know I'm seen and I also sometimes have my uh, flashlight on in my pocket. So I completely completely sympathize with the idea that some places especially that have seen more resident population in commercial development in the last you know 5 years the lighting plant has
not uh kept pace. >> I'd also love to comment a little bit on the color temperature that uh that Ben was discussing. Uh anecdotally speaking uh I live uh right now in uh in North Apartments uh in in at UMass which is uh which is a wonderful time. Um but uh
most one one of the notes that I've had since I started this policy. It's actually my my perspective on it has completely changed as I've learned more about lighting. A lot of those lights in that area are more towards that amber hue that uh gentler uh warm tone. And speaking as a resident of that area, I
can say with confidence that uh those lights um are plentiful in terms of actually lighting the area, but the glare is um is not an issue at all. Um, and so that's so that that uh speaks to me um speaking as a resident of of that
area that is that is mainly lit by that type of light that that can uh be powerful in terms of visibility because I I feel I feel quite safe and I think that um any resident of North Apartment would would comment in the same way. Um there there's no issue with visibility but the glare is not intense. uh the um
the blue light is not really being emitted by those specific types of light. And so um that that could be an indication to me uh that the quality of life impacts just of the color temperature change uh may well be quite substantial. >> Yeah. I mean we'd love to have more
lights at the lowest possible glare. >> Yeah. And those lights, by the way, I take it, are um town lights or are they lights that have been erected by the uh by the apartment complex or doing
>> apartments? I believe that those are UMass installed. Uh I I speak anecdotally on the on that type of light. Um my knowledge those I think are the perview of the uh of the campus. >> Um good. Okay. They're quite they're quite similar um uh to the to the lights
that uh that are in Ammerst based on the uh walk that we did. Um mechanically they do appear to be uh very similar. Uh just the uh the light fixture that's inside structure uh happens to be >> different. >> Paul, I'm gonna go to you first and then
to Andy. Um Paul, >> thank you. So just again, great job guys. really appreciate it and thanks Ben for being inspired to take it on and recruiting a strong crew. So I really appreciate that. Um yeah, I think you know what's important to remember I mean it's a C for the council is that this is
our street lighting system is not something that was designed and implemented. It was you know it's decades. It's it's an accumulation of decisions made over decades, literally decades. Um, and in different values at different times, you know, and you know,
for a while all the lights were mercury vapor. Then they moved to sodium vapor, which is sort of this gives this yellow hue that looks like, you know, Westside Story or something like that. Now we're into LEDs, which is way more efficient, and it gives a different type of light. So every time we make some changes on
sort of what we want to do in terms of energy or a design standard that the town has adopted multiple times in the course of the last several decades then the values change and I think that you're sort of saying hey let's look at it and the council wanted to do this was let's look at our whole system and see
how it complies. We're not going to be able to change everything overnight, but what are the standards we want to put in place as we make these incremental decisions over time and are there any things that you can do um in the in the meantime to like shielding lights and things or how do we and also I think the other thing that you really brought to
my attention was how responsive and how can we be better more responsive to the residents without giving over um there's a there's a um there's a lot of people who know how to work the system and and communicate to the town. There's a lot of people who are silent, right,
and who don't know and and students who might feel not unempowered to sort of communicate. So, I think all those things that you brought to light are really helpful. So, I just want to thank you for the work you put on this >> Andy. Yeah, I really think you you managed to
show the interaction between, you know, glare, safety, and cost, and how those things are all sort of intermingled and they uh interact differently in the downtown than out outward areas. So, it's really interesting. And I guess one
of the concerns that you mentioned, I think, is that people can be blinded by by downtown lights and then you get to a crossing and maybe you don't see somebody in the crossing. And I'm wondering specifically if you've seen any examples of crossing lighting that would be
activated by somebody in the crossing. You know, not not necessarily at a corner where there's walk lights, but if there's if somebody's trying to cross, I guess it would be kind of challenging with cars going through and animals and whatever, but is there any strategies to
for safety of of crossings that involve, you know, activation of lighting that you've seen? Um, I'll say a little back background for me. I'm I'm both a policy master's policy student and also master's planning student. And especially in planning contexts, there's
sort of an idea that um an abrupt stop sign and especially uh flashing pedestrian lights are sort of a a last resort for pedestrian safety. Because if you require blinking lights to communicate the presence of a
pedestrian, then that tells you that the entire system of that road is unsafe. it probably means people are moving too fast for the amount of traffic on that road. Uh, and that might require traffic calming or curb extensions or safety islands. Um, and it might also say that
the area is not bright enough. Um, so yes, uh, flashing lights do have an impact and they have their places, but um, they're not, uh, a drag and drop implementation tool that solves these problems. They're much more of a
band-aid solution. Yeah, I was thinking more of just lighting strategy. So it's so it is brighter in those areas where without an unnecessarily unnecessary pollution or we'll say one thing that we didn't include much in the policy because it doesn't currently exist very
much is pedestrian first lighting. Right? So you can have and the the north the uh mill district does this in North Ammerst along some of their pathways is they have hip level ballards that are totally shielded and flash down on the
path and perfectly illuminate anyone walking there and they they also light the path in front of you with very minimal uplighting and glare uh costs. So instances like that where it's a it's a pedestrian light rather than a street
light might be useful. If I could add on to what Ben said with the hip level lighting in some of the areas that had the best sky sky quality meter ratings were to the naked eye or to around us were a pretty well lit pretty well lit parts of Ammerst College but did
implement heavily shielded hip level and lower level um low color temperature lighting which significantly um helped the sky quality meter even though it to a regular you know non like passerby seemed like a completely well-lit campus.
Well, thanks again for this and and I will just say that the irony is that we've replaced a lot of our lights with LED bulbs that, you know, will never burn out. So, so replacing them is a bit of a challenge, but we'll uh we'll work on it.
>> Professor Davis. >> Yeah. Um, thank you so much. The presentation's been so helpful. And um I'm just wondering since you didn't go exactly through your your act you I know you took the time to write up a proposed policy that would actually scaffold in the steps. Could you just talk a little
bit about the details of kind of the timeline and what the like steps would be per like needed replacement per request for an additional light um or per like kind of um retrofitting as you talked about it? Like how how would you
see that happening? What's the timeline that you've built in? and and how feasible um would it be? And then I think there'd be one additional piece that I think would be helpful that I I know because I've heard some of your conversations um and we've debriefed and I've read your memos um of your
interviews, but um how do how would that plan being followed support the request of the DPW staff um to be kind of both backed up and supported in terms of having um making sure that they're able
to provide a safe thoroughfare for pedestrians and for drivers and that they're not liable. >> So, I'll start with the uh implementation and cost considerations and retrofitting. Um the policy that we have submitted we believe is a fairly
concise iteration of all the overlapping unanimous ideas in street lighting. As we've said time and time again, the first and foremost thing that we would say is low color temperature bulbs. Like was mentioned previously, the transition from uh sodium vapor and mercury bulbs
into LED gave us the opportunity for the first time to have natural light, you know, bright powerful uh high Kelvin light bulbs with these LEDs. Uh and so many cities across the world did right without considering the impacts of this.
The the literature is unanimous. the color temperature should be lower and there's basically no, you know, visibility cost uh to doing that. It it's it's just overall better. So that's the primary thing we would say. The rest of the plan is more is uh a pretty straight down the line implementation
strategy we've identified, which is to say that you know plus or minus 10% on any of these instructions we think is a a good faith uh attempt to implement these stringing strategies. An example is the distances of the light poles that
we um that we have in there. Um we were not able to get the exact street lighting GIS data until the very last week of our project. So we don't know the distance of the street lights, but presumably as was mentioned the telephone poles are already where they are and we're not really going to change
them just to change the lights, you know, 15 ft over. But the density of that lumen at that distance is something that we think the town should consider. As for constant implementation, uh like many parts of the plan that we did not
identify such as what neighborhoods get lights, uh we believe that's a political question, right? It is a question of value of how much money you would like to put into this. I think it's pretty easy to say that, you know, lights that go out in the next 5 years are
short-term and can will very easily be swapped over to a warmer LED at that point. Um, in the 10ear zone, that's very hard to say. That's a cost consideration. And then um those light bulbs that have just been installed and
are looking at the beginning of a 20-year lifespan is where we in included the consideration for gel covers um and uh compromises to be made there. Uh and then did Bel did you want to talk about the supporting the DPW with firm
regulation? Where did someone >> Yeah. Clearing out the gray area? Oh um yes uh with the implementation of this policy it also provides um more
protections for the DPW and um it allows them a clearer set of rules and regulations to follow and also um it just in while involving more
resident communication. It also allows for um better DPW all >> Yeah. Yeah. I know that they um when we were first cons uh talking to the DPW about this issue to get their perspective that one of the main
concerns they brought up was um pedestrian safety. Um I know that there's um you know been pedestrian casualties in like recent years in Ammerst. So we really our mantra was not like less light but but better light. And um but we also believed that with
more uh specific um regulations and guidelines that could um uh protect DBW in terms of liability in the terms that they have the the exact guidelines that they need to follow that we have studied to that are um like the
safest to procedurally implement. So, you are all seniors. Is that correct? >> I'm a graduate student. I'm a >> Oh, all right. Well, graduate students want to stick around. Seniors are all leaving town, maybe.
So, um uh we can't force you to stay. We can't maybe Paul, can we hire any of these fine young people to uh because uh you're looking at five uh well-meaning but totally light illiterate well I'll
speak for myself. you're looking at one totally light, illiterate uh counselor who um and this committee is now tasked, if I understand this correctly, with helping the town manager um take what you've done and shape it into a policy,
not a bylaw. Is that correct, Paul? That's my first question. um we're looking at a policy document um which ultimately is is the purview of the manager but um we would uh take what you've done and um start to see what we
can craft and so we are going to be thinking not all much today but certainly very soon about next steps but um I it looks like I can't compel any of you to uh to continue for
another year uh on this project. Uh I guess you do have to graduate. Maybe we can get the graduate student and hire him as an intern. Um >> there's certainly there's certainly more work to be done. >> Uh that I Yes, I can see. Um but you have made an excellent start. uh you've
taken I think a fairly complex set of of of documents that we've already uh had in our possession and I think you've put them into a more consolidated concise form that I think will help us. We do have present in the audience and Pam I'm
going to come to you in just a second but uh we do have present in the audience one of the counselors who was involved in this getting this whole process started. I don't know if she wishes to speak. we do have public comment coming up. Um she can certainly
raise her hand if she wishes, if she has any thoughts or suggestions. Um but before I turn to that, um Pam, >> thank you. Yeah, I was thinking I was thinking also about next steps and the
fact that uh you know we do have street light there's a group of people that does deal with street lights. Anytime we are touching uh a light fixture is an opportunity to, you know, add the
gel, add a shield, that kind of thing. Um or or change the bulb, but it but it is certainly a cost to do any one of those like that per that one that one trip to that one pole could could
implement a number of changes. Um, so we would probably want to strategize the the most effective use of that trip to any one pole. What you know, what do we tackle first? What are the what are
the the most effective changes, etc. So, um, it really is it really is a personnel cost probably much more than it is a a parts and pieces purchase. Thank you. Uh Paul.
>> Yeah, I think that's a really important point because I think um you know we have one town electrician for the most part and and he needs to have his truck truck operational for him to really do his work and it was out of commission for a long period of time. Um but when he's able to get to the work he does
really well and he's but he is he has a broad range of responsibilities. He's he doesn't just do street lights. He's also making sure our sewer pumps are working so that, you know, waste water can get to where it needs to go. He's asked to do all kinds of things um to install air
sensor uh monitors in different buildings. So, he's he's got a long list of things that he's always struggling to keep up with. Um, and it's just a bit clarified, George, um, or councelor, um, the, uh, the directive from the town council is
to direct the town manager to develop a, a policy on street lights. So, that's the task. Um, we've struggled with how to move this forward um, with the existing staff we had. So when Ben took this on, it just was like a a golden opportunity to jumpst start a directive
that council had had voted some time ago and to inspire us to move forward on it and give us a framework u and some guidance, you know, especially looking at other communities uh to see where we should be going with it. So that's that's the if you look at follow-up,
that's where the followup is. Jennifer, >> this must be might be too in the weeds, but I'm just curious. The gel covers, are they expensive? And it be I guess in the interim, I don't
know if before we can have the funds to maybe implement and redo our whole street lighting system. I mean, could are the gels relatively affordable and can they go over most any street light or do you have to have a special street
light for them? >> Um, we found that the gels um in comparison to replacing a bulb or changing around lighting um we found that they were much more cost-effective. We were basing it off of a lot of
theater style lighting and how they use gels to change the different colors. That was our major um theory behind it. And we also we found that overall they were um more affordable. And we found that um at least for more square type
lighting, it was very easily implementable. Um when it comes to different types of lighting, that would have to be tested out. However, I do know that most gels are rather um malleable and so I don't have much concern about it fitting to different
types of lights. Um that might just take a little bit of workshop um like a workshop process. However, I do think that in the case where changing out the light bulbs might not be the most um cost-effective, whether they're brand new, um it would be a less costly
solution and it would also allow for some customization and variation as well. >> Thank you. So, if I were to summarize um the presentation and the goals that
you have set for a a what you would see as a a a good town policy when it comes to lights, it would be warmer, dimmer, and shielded. >> Okay, that's I'm going to that's what my
takeaway. And um so I want to thank you again uh for your presentation. Um we're now going to go on to the rest of our agenda. Um but ah councelor Lord your hand is up please. >> Yes. I wanted to thank um you all as
well for this amazing presentation. I learned so much and I appreciate your time and your energy. Thank you. So, um, you are welcome to stay and see how sausage is made, but I I don't really encourage that. Um, you have a
very, of course, you're in public policy, so probably you have a stronger stomach than than most of the folks that I know. Um, but, uh, thank you. Thank you, Professor Davis. Um and uh I'm going to move now if that's okay with
the committee uh to public comment uh which we had postponed at the beginning of the meeting and see if anyone wishes to make a public comment at this point and after that we'll go back to town manager appointments. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you all.
Think that was >> Thank you. So, I do not see any hands being raised unless I'm missing something. So, um if that is the case, then I'm going to move directly to town manager
appointments. We have two uh sets of appointments this morning. I'll start with I think the most uh well start with the elementary school building committee. Um Paul, if you would. >> Yes. So, uh thank you. This is for um the elementary school building
committee. Holly Young is our new uh procurement officer. Simone Christophori has resigned. Uh one of the requirements of the MSBA is that you have of the Mass School Building Authority is that you have a a certified procure procurement
official on the committee and Holly Young uh fulfills that task. She just started her work on Monday. So, I'm prepared to make a motion and seek a second and then we if we have discussion or questions, we can entertain them at that point. Um, the
motion is that TSO recommend the town council approved the appointment of procurement officer Holly Young uh for a term to last the length of the MSBA process uh to the elementary school building committee. >> Second.
>> All right. The entire committee seconds it. That's excellent. I like to see that kind of uninity. So, we have a motion. We have it seconded. Um, questions, concerns, anything uh for Paul on this particular >> appointment? It seems like it's basically right. All right. I I don't
see any hands and so I'm going to move immediately to a vote. And on my screen, I see Pam Rooney. >> Yes. >> Andy Churchill, >> yes. >> Uh, councelor Lord, >> I. >> Jennifer Tob, >> yes. >> And the chair is an I as well. So that
is 50 unanimous uh to approve that recommendation to the council. Second uh appointment before us is the recreation commission. Paul, >> yes, we have two um appointments to the rec recreation commission. One is Josh Broadill. Josh Broadhill. He has been
working in the recreation mostly like trail maintenance and camp maintenance and things like that. But now he works for Kestrel Land Trust and he manages 42 miles of trails uh in the Connecticut River Valley. he's really been focused on becoming more involved in the
community as a resident. So, we I really were was excited to have a young person who was interested in serving. The other person is Mary Clays who's been involved in many levels for decades in the town. I mean, not too many decades. Um, and
uh, but being a coach, being in in uh, involved with the boosters, and this is the first time uh, she's been able to carve out enough time to be able to serve on an actual commission. So, she's especially interested in girls sports, which we are really happy to have her
uh, involvement on the recreation commission as well. So, questions for the manager on either of these appointments to the recreation commission. Okay. Um then I'm going to make a motion
and seek a second. Um, I move that TSO recommend the town council to appoint uh Josh Broadhill uh and Mary Clays uh to three uh three-year terms to expire June 30, 2029
to the recreation commission. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you. Councelor Rooney seconds. And I'm going to go immediately to a vote. Uh Andy Churchill. Yes, >> councelor Lord. >> I
>> Jennifer Tob. >> Yes, >> I'm an I. Pam Rooney. >> Yes. >> It's unanimous. 5-0. Um, thank you, Paul. >> If can I add one thing? Uh, George is that we are working on the reappoint memo so that you'll have a long list of
people for reappoints who coming up at the probably the next meeting. Okay. So, um, the next item on the agenda is something that I wanted to get your input on. Um,
I have some notes I want to just put in front of me so I don't completely babble. But, um, we essentially have had now a series of conversations with staff. Um, we've had, um, both the town manager goals have
asked us to do uh, some um, investigation into the condition of boards and committees, town manager appointed boards and committees. Um, we also have some, uh, matters that have been referred to us by the council related to the charter review. Um, and
we've dealt with a number of these related to outreach. Um, we've met with both, um, the the manager's assist, executive assistant, we've met with the communications manager. Um, and so, um, at the moment, uh, we are waiting to
hear back from the resident advisory committee. Um that's going to a process as I think I told you is going to take a couple of months overall. Uh they're going to generate a survey. Um that survey will then be sent out to um all
manager boards and committees. Um then the results will be brought back and that will inform their uh advice and thoughts to us and then it will come to then we will um review that and see what next steps if any we wish to take. My
understanding and I think we've made this clear in the past is that eventually this should result in a report from TSO to the council um addressing these issues broadly um and I would see it all as one report would
include both um what the uh council has asked us to look into um and what um we we've done already related to the manager goals. The qu my question for you is what else do you want me to do?
What else do you want to do as a committee? Are there other uh do wish further discussions? Do you have other areas you want to hear from staff about? Um I'm kind of looking for next steps or is the thought that right now we're in a
holding pattern until we hear back from RAAC? Um because so I'm looking for your guidance, your thoughts about where we should be headed. I'm prepared to at least begin to draft the very sketchy uh
initial report that will be filled in over the next coming months. Um I'm not saying that I need help, but it would be nice. Um, but at this point it's it's uh that's what we're also thinking about that eventually this should result in some kind of communic
should result in a report back to the council. Um, so I'm looking for any thoughts, suggestions, um, you might have about what you need to learn more about um, and whether you are comfortable with where we are at the
moment, which right now, as I said, is a kind of holding pattern um, waiting to hear from RAC. Andy, >> I think some of this was um encapsul encapsulated in Paul's uh comment about there are some folks who know how to
access the the system and be heard and there are some folks who don't. And uh I think that was reflected in the types of questions that were in the charter review committee report and that have been sort of sent to us. And so maybe in
I like the idea of a report. I like the idea of sort of, you know, categorizing the types of ways people can be engaged and do or don't know how to be engaged or and then what what's what's happening
currently as far as upgrading the website and you know um how residents are are reached out to about uh committees and things like that. So I think I think there's an opportunity for us to
you know accentuate the outreach part of the TSO um uh you know mandate um to sort of um you know sort of organize the the types of ways
that residents can and want to and are or aren't able to I don't know how much we can actually say how much they are are aren't able to but I think we can sort of say that here are some things we've heard here we've talked to the people who are some of the
people who've involved in communicating on behalf of the town and we've tal and we've heard from some of the at least through the charter review committee about some of the issues that people feel they have and um you know I think it'll be very you know the the resident advisory survey is
really about sort of consolidation of how people can participate through committees or How many committees do we have? That's, you know, part of it, I guess, but it's it's sort of the broader issue is how do people understand how the town works and
figure out how they can have input. So, um I I' I'd be happy to help on a on a report if that were useful. >> Thank you. Um Jennifer, >> I actually raised my hand because I have to be off for about 10 minutes. So, I just want to tell you that I'm going to
turn my video off and I'll be back. >> Okay. >> Have to make a call. I have to do so. Um I mean, one of the things I'm wondering is do do you need any more um do you need to hear anything more from anyone
on staff? Um and um I'm not hearing that that you do. Um it sounds like um we've had a very extensive amount of of conversation and also material given to us by Paul's uh executive assistant that
that I will certainly go through and and sort of organize. We can certainly tell people how many boards and committees exist. We can give them a pretty good idea of how many people actually serve. Um there's some just basic background information. Um I think well so and we
can talk about you know the challenges that staff faces in doing this. Um I think that's something that needs to be emphasized. Um I think we've seen that that essentially the the process of of onboarding vetting uh finding people like we today we see two excellent uh
you know candidates for the recreation commission. Um those folks don't just come out of nowhere. We've learned that that there's a fair amount of work that's done behind the scenes largely by one person. Um we also have the residents advisory commission committee.
So um the challenge that I think is something that should be stressed that um uh and that how much work is done by so few um and so uh but yes categorizing summarizing ways people can be involved
talking about some of the changes that are coming to the website um these are the kinds of things I'm hearing these are the kinds of things that would go into report whatever report is eventually generated obviously comes to the to the committee for review and for you know changes and immenations and input. So, it's not um not like suddenly
you're going to read a report in the in the uh uh in a packet some month that I just wrote and submitted. So, I appreciate Andy's offer of help. Um I I think I may take him up on that. Um but u that's why I'm asking this and I'm
Yeah. So, Andy, >> you're muted. um that um I think that Sam's comments were were very helpful too. So we want to make sure that we're incorporating all of her the ways in which they are working on the website and the ways in
which she is looking to you know continue the civic academy and maybe adapt it in different ways. So I think there there there is some there's a story that can be told about what is being done now by several you know dedicated folks and then you know sort
of that's part of that's part of the story and then you know talking about how can we make things you know the committee structure more efficient or more effective or whatever and and then you know other issues that we've heard about. So, I I I think it's it could be
a useful um document. Hopefully, not too long. >> You're talking to the master of producing long winded wordy texts. Um good. So, um I guess in short
something I'm going to start to work on. I will work with counselor Churchill to at least begin to get sort of an outline. A lot of the pieces or some of the pieces can be filled in. and some of them will take some time. RAC is going to take some time, but that's where we're headed with this. And I'm not
hearing any strong desire to summon anyone um or ask someone to come and speak to us about any other areas at the moment. That may change, but that's where we're at. Um Pam, >> yeah, I would I would agree with the the
topics just um points of access. How does how do people access information? I I looked up as I was listening to the engage amorest or ammerst connect and the first thing that came up was see click fix but it's
there's so much information in on the town website it is nearly impossible to find what you are actually looking for if you don't know the the actual document or the actual department or the you
So, I won't go into that, but points of access, uh, the number of of boards and committees, the number of people that are serving at any one time. I mean, there's that's a it's a massive number of folks, um,
the staff that's that's needed to support it is important and those challenges. And then um last but not least, I have been thinking about how to recognize people who do step off
of the boards and committees. I think didn't town meeting used to recognize people who had served, you know, six years on the planning board or six years on the da da da board and there was sort of a a a thank you and I don't recall
ever hearing anything like that since the council was formed. um you know even if it's an article or an op-ed or you know something of that nature in the paper it it might be really nice way to publicly acknowledge
that people contribute and that others could others could have their name listed too if they if they volunteered. So that's a little bit separate, you know, the >> No. Yeah. No, it's good. It's good. Thank you. That's not something I thought of, but that's good. Um Andy,
>> I guess the the one thing that it would might be useful to hear is if somebody from MMA or somebody like that could talk to us about,
you know, communication strategies in other towns. Um it might be useful to sort of get that kind of perspective like are there things we're not thinking about? Are there everybody has these struggles? You not enough staff, not enough money, too many demands,
um hard to communicate, hard to figure out how to communicate, but are there certain strategies that certain that other folks have used that we might want to consider putting in a report? >> Okay. Okay. Okay. I will note that the transportation and
party commission uh where I sit as a member um is starting up and some of these issues about ammeris connect clic engagement interface website um we're dealing with those in a very direct and
immediate way right now and hopefully there'll be some uh you know synergy and some overlap um between trying to construct that portal and that site ITE um because the goal in large part is to make it easier um not just more
efficient which is important but also easier for residents they know where to go to to you know register their concerns or complaints or issues um around transportation and parking. So hopefully there'll be a lot to learn
from that. Um I've been impressed by uh what it has done, what Sam Gifan and Kathy Anderson have done. These are Kathy is the the liaison for TPC. She actually works out of the Ammeris Police Department. Uh she's she's Gabe Tang's
executive assistant. Um it's impressive. Um um so there's going to be some developments there that may also uh inform some of what we're doing. >> Pam, >> does TPC also cover street lights?
>> Um that's somewhat uh vague area actually. um that I think is still to be be ironed out um because it impacts >> I think it'd be perfectly appropriate. >> Yeah. No, I think you know somebody says we've heard today um you know certain
stretches of North Pleasant uh certain areas are are unsafe um for pedestrians or bike cyclists because of poor lighting >> and really that's a transportation issue. Um so yes I think the answer is there will be a role uh for TPC to
address those concerns. What we can do about Yeah. So yeah I think that would be great because it is it is integral to to street safety and right ofways. I mean most of this stuff is flopped right in the right of town right of way. >> Yes. And there is there is no other, you
know, unless it comes to TSO as sort of this miscellaneous topic. There doesn't seem to be a a home for it. >> I would make a motion I would make a motion that the TPC >> what
>> take all >> we can make all the motions we want, but I could think of a whole bunch I'd like to make, but I'm not sure our input, our power would be that great. But um in my thinking about citizen engagement with the town and the website
um there are what I think of as as um nuisance complaints, nuisance property complaints, um parking on lawns, trash, noise um basically and those go to
inspections. Inspections deals with that. Um, Cclick Fix deals pretty much with maintenance issues, a very broad category. Um, including street lights that are out, but dead animals and, uh,
you know, uh, potholes and, uh, you know, there's a whole broad category, a long list of things, and those, um, go to DPW. And now with transportation and parking, there's a place where residents can come
with their concerns about pedestrian and bike safety, about parking issues on their street, um you know, uh bus routes, crosswalks, um you know, rapid flashing beacons,
etc. There's going to be some overlap to some degree, but essentially those are the three I think is the three major buckets, three major places that citizens can interact. Cclick fix is an app on my phone. Ammeris connect is
something that I go to on my computer. So there's also the just the different ways we you know uh technologically interface with the town. So you have a telephone, you have your phone, your your app, and you've got your your
desktop. And so there's that kind of aspect. Um, but basically there's those three uh buckets, those three areas. Um, and trying to help people understand that and make it easier for them to access it and educate them is part of what we can
do as a committee, I think, as is in our outreach function. So we'll see. we've got, you know, got a lot to to chew on, but this is helpful to me. I appreciate Andy's offer. Um, the next item on our agenda is minutes. Um, unless there's
further thoughts from anyone on this topic. Um, I wanted to go to minutes next. And we have a set of minutes from April 16, 2026. >> I move we accept them as written. >> Okay. We have a motion to accept as
written. Do we have a second? Well, I will second because I haven't seconded yet. So, have a motion and a second. Um, any changes, questions, concerns about the minutes of April 16th. Seeing none, I'm going to go directly to vote and I'm going to start this time
with Cam Rooney. >> Yes. >> Andy Churchill, >> yes. >> Councelor Lord, >> I. >> Now, the chair is an I. Jennifer Todd, she may not be with us. She's still on the phone. Okay, Jennifer
is at the moment is out of the meeting. So, the vote is 40 with one absent uh to accept the minutes of April 16, 2026. Final item on our agenda um is future agenda items. Um, our next meeting,
unless I learn otherwise from the manager, will be focused on waste hauler and we will be meeting the consultant um from the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission and she uh is uh Paul's thumbs up suggests that she's aware of it, Paul's aware of it, and now we are
aware of it. Um it's been on our uh uh uh schedule for some time. So that will be the the main event at the next meeting. It sounds like also we at that meeting we may be seeing a a large number of reappoints. Does that seem or what do you say Paul?
>> Yes. So so Mimi we went over the topics that she wants to cover. She'll give you an update and where what she the work that she's done. I think you'll see uh where the direction she's headed and the information she's gathered. It's just a it's just a status report for what she's up to. And yes, I'm hoping to have
additional um appointments. I think over the next two months, you're going to see additional appointments coming through. >> They'll come in in Okay, great. Okay. >> And then finally, uh I want to come back to what we just had today and ask the
manager to give me a sense of where he sees this going. Uh is our role for the moment done until we hear from you further? um do we have any role to play in terms of looking at the materials that were presented to us today? Where
do things stand with street lights? >> So, as I mentioned, I think during the meeting that uh the this sort of uh started with a vote of the town council to direct the manager come up with a policy >> and you know, we didn't have money to hire a consultant to do it. we didn't have staff capacity to do it and you saw
the amount of work that these students did which was really good I think and that's actually gives us some prompts to move forward. We have to talk with Jason and uh Guilford about refining this. I mean it's it's it's a really good proposal obviously but um
there's more that has to be dealt with in terms of the practicality of the implementation and what that all looks like and just carving out their time is going to be the biggest challenge in my time quite honestly to focus on it. But unless the council chooses something else that that's where it lands. I keep
it on my list of council requests and this is one one that's floundered um as not because it's um so we're going to try and refocus on it. >> Well, that I think is I something for us to think about u as a committee. Um
another approach to this is a bylaw. that is what is done in some places and if it's a bylaw then that would put the workload u shifted to us is my understanding um and given the fact that we only have so many bodies given so
much work to do um is this something I'm just going to throw this out here for us to think about is this something we would consider shifting this away from a policy this would be a council decision I take it um the council would decide that they want us to pursue a potential
bylaw. Um, and that would then become a task we would take up and that would at least take some of the burden off of staff eventually. Obviously, staff would obviously be involved and consulted because there are a lot of things that we can't uh determine. Um, so that's something I think that we should
consider. Um, manager, I'm sure, will have some thoughts on that. Does my committee have any thoughts on that? Pam, you have your hand up. >> Yes, I do. I have thoughts on it. Please go ahead. Think. >> I'm pretty much fed up with bylaws. >> Oh, you don't like bylaws?
>> Remember, we're a legislative body. We're a legislative body, Pam. >> I'm pretty I'm pretty much fed up with crafting and editing bylaws. >> Okay. It feels it feels like uh a
I guess I would be hardpressed at this point to see that a bylaw could produce any different a result than a strong policy that was adopted by the council. You know,
these are our intents. This is this is the direction we want to go in. this is the this seems to be the cost-effective strategy to pursue. Um
the bylaw that we saw from the two counselors back a couple years ago was extremely detailed. Mhm. >> And um so I I guess I would pose it to to
Paul. What um how would how would town staff react differently or operate differently given a bylaw or or a policy? >> Well, I think a policy is way more flexible. So you can change it when you
need it. Um and things change in the in the lighting industry. I think the reason this this has never been in I don't believe this has been in in the town council goals for the town manager. This is a vote of the council to to do it and so it's never been that's why it hasn't been prioritized and if the
council wants to take it on and start running with it that's you know god bless you but um >> it's it's a complicated topic um and you know I mean I would like to be able to talk I mean Guilford watched the presentation so I'd like to check in with him to see get his read on things.
Um, and I'm guess I'm really trying to figure out what's the problem or having a better street light policy is totally good, right? But is there an immediate problem that we're trying to fix? Um, would be more. But again, the way I prioritize work is if it's in my goals
for the council, then that's that takes prior priority over a vote to develop something by the council. >> Yeah. And there was there was not unanimous support for it becoming a
bylaw at the time. >> Andy, >> yeah, I think we need to think about capacity. Um, you know, there may be some simple ways like if if a street light burns out, let's replace it with something that's 2700 or lower, you
know, but I mean, you know, we're dealing with Hampshire College and we're dealing with, you know, the DPW and we're dealing with the budget, you know, and I just I just don't think that putting heavy effort into street light policy at this point
get despite the fine work that was done, it just seems like it's I don't know that we have capacity And I don't I I wouldn't want to add that to to Paul's list at the, you know, to bump anything else out of the way. But, you know, I I imagine that Guilford saw this and he
could say, "Hey, well, maybe we could buy some bulbs." You know, I don't know. >> Jennifer, >> yeah, I agree with what Pam and Andy have said. I think it's fine as a policy and as Andy said if bulb you know maybe we can get gels where we can't gel
covers and as bulbs burn out we replace them but I have never received an email from a constituent complaining about our light policy. I just feel like our plates are so full there's there's very little I can think I'd want to bump off of the town manager goals and replace it
with this. So, I think a policy is good and also if we have a bylaw, I mean, we don't have it in our budget. You don't want to be in violation of implementing a bylaw and and we just I don't see where we have the funds to really redo our street lights.
>> So, I offer it simply as one way or a way to address what is clearly a capacity issue on the town manager side of the ledger. um that the work would fall more to counselors and to a council subcommittee
or committee to deal with. I would note that this is a policy that is 25 years out of date. So that's something that I think I mean that's especially given the changes have
taken place in technology blah blah blah. It's it's it's definitely long overdue for a revisit. Um we've had two attempts, one uh by two counselors and now this group of students. Um and so
I would feel a little concerned if after the end of this year um we it's now the 26th year in which the policy has not been revised. So um just putting that out there. Um
I don't have any items not anticipated and so um a hand raised. My goodness, Jennifer. Yes. >> Um okay. So just in terms of when I do hear from constituents, I've recently
received two emails and I didn't know if these would well really how to follow through on them and if it would come under TSO's purview. one was, and it's I have to admit it's really not where I personally want to put my time and energy, but um to have a bylaw, I guess,
prohibiting uh battery no uh gas power lawn mowers and leaf blowers. >> Leaf blowers and Yeah. >> Yeah. And then there was a request for and this is actually George straddling our districts for a light um at the
crosswalk of AMD and Lincoln. And would that that would be referred to our new transportation parking commission. And so I'm just wondering how I follow through on these. I I guess the first one about the gas powered leaf blowers that would be if a counselor wanted to
introduce a bylaw. So maybe >> yes, >> that's how it would get to TSO. But I should tell it and I do I share the concern about the street light as I know you do crossing Amity and Lincoln. You're thinking of the uh the the sign or the the the standard that was knocked
over and is currently >> Yeah. He just you know or maybe just having actual I don't know if you want a street light or just the flashing beacon, but is how does that does the should the I advise the resident to go to TPC? >> Yes. Yes, that would be a perfectly I mean you can also copy Paul. I'm sure
he'd be happy to see it but um it should come to TPC. >> Okay. Thank you. >> So that would right now that's Andy Steinberg is the chair. um you reach out to me after the meeting. I'll give you the details. Eventually, hopefully soon, there will be a unique email. We're
hoping it'll be TPC ammerrist ma.gov. Um but that's not official yet. So, please don't if you type it in, you're not going to get anything, >> but we're hoping it'll be something like that. Very simple. And you just say to them, send it to them and um that's where it'll start. >> Okay. Thank you,
>> Andy. Yeah, I was just going to say that um the policy may the speed light policy may be 25 years old, but obviously some updates and changes have been happening along the way. So, it's not like all the street lights are the same way they were 25 years ago. So, I'm not sure if this is the limitation of policy or or what,
but um anyway, I I think we just need to be very careful of capacity at the same time evolving in ways that are that make sense. So, >> Paul, >> just quickly, so on that uh flashing thing, I George has brought that up
previously multiple times. And so, I think that's a that's a repair issue, not to put one in. It's just it got knocked down. They they have to put the new one in. Is that if I'm talking about that correctly? >> Yeah. Right. That's Yeah. Okay. >> So, that's they know there that's on their list. The electrician has it on his list of things to fix. In terms of
the the gas powered motors, that came up a few years ago, I think, with councelor Pam. So I can dig out what has happened with that and if you want to move that forward that would be up to you. There's always push back from the commercial landscapers and stuff. >> I know I actually went back through her emails and >> Oh, you did? Okay. So I don't have to do that. Okay.
>> No, >> I I would just say I I they bother me as well, but I am absolutely not going to try to put my foot down and say you can't you can't use those in the town of Amorest. it is.
Um I I spoke to several um contractors and I said, "Hey, you ought to be aware that there's discussion about perhaps um limiting or or um what's the word I'm looking for? Uh banishing prohibiting
>> blowers. And they said they said for every for every task you'd need to have two lithium batteries. The cost of those is is incredible. and you'd have to have a way to be able to charge them in between uses and you'd have, you know, basically half the work that you could
get accomplished. It would just be cost prohibitive for them. So, it just it it's annoying, but it's not something I'm going to tackle. >> List of priorities. >> All right. So, um I think that uses up
our agenda as far as I'm aware. Um, we've had a chance to talk briefly about future agenda items, uh, and unanticipated items. And, uh, unless there are any further hands. Um, the chair is getting ready tomorrow to go to
a very sacred place, um, that perhaps none of you have ever been to, nor have I, Ashbury Park. Uh, and I'm going to visit a very special shrine and make an offering. It's actually a wedding. Uh, I don't think the the the boss himself
will be in town, but um anyway, >> have fun. >> That's the hope. The weather >> stone pony. >> Yeah, that's the plan. Um, but anyway, >> well, the boss of TSO will be there. >> The two bosses will meet.
>> Oh, yeah. I don't think so. Um, anyway, so at that with that bit of levity, uh, I am prepared to make a motion to adjurnn. >> I second. And there's a second. And so council Pam Rooney, what do you say? >> I say yes.
>> Councelor Ryan says I. Andy Churchill. >> Yes. >> Councelor Lord. >> Hi. >> And Jennifer Tob. >> Yes. >> All right. We are today's meeting. Paul, thank you very much. Athena, as always, thank you very much. >> And uh I'll be a report of what my
conversation is with uh the boss when we meet again. May 21st is our next meeting. Okay. >> Go well.