I got it. >> Good evening and welcome to the November 13th, 2025 meeting of the Islam Town Council. I'll call the meeting to order and ask that we stand for the pledge of allegiance. Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the
republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. I would ask that we take a moment of silence to reflect on the events and Veterans Day this week.
Thank you. In accordance with Mass General Law, this meeting is being recorded by LCAT. And if there's anyone else in the audience recording, if you could identify yourself. Seeing none, we'll move on. Uh public comments. Is there anyone in the audience that wishes to make a public comment this evening?
No one in the audience and no one with their hand raised on Zoom. Council comments. councilors that have a comment this evening >> and Ralph. Wow. >> I was just gonna say um kind of the legislative breakfast we went to um with
the fire chiefs of Western Mass. I thought that was really excellent Tom as well. Um just to learn about all the stuff that you know some new equipment and things that are coming out. Um great to be able to like hands-on see some of the stuff that our fire department is
doing. So that was really great. Yeah, thank you, John. I agree. That was a nice experience and it definitely puts into perspective, you know, we talk about the stuff in the budget, physically seeing it in front of you is kind of a much different experience. >> Okay, if there's no other council
comments, we'll move to the town manager's report. Hi, Tom. >> Hi. Good evening. >> Hi. Uh so uh as usual the uh project reports for the high school for the weeks of October 20th and 27th lead off
the report. Um I mentioned last time the building committee did do their walkthrough. Uh on October 30th um almost everybody was uh just in awe. Uh it it's quite a sight to see uh what's been accomplished so far to the point
that Mark Hogan from Fontaine was yelling at the group to keep up because uh everybody was stopping to look at everything. Um and we were paying him by the hour still. So we were trying to move forward. Um so again, thanks thanks to the project team for taking the time.
Um again, there's our the link on the website if you ever need a a sort of your own update. There's plenty of good stuff on there. uh the the town website building project. Uh so I'm pleased to announce our uh
patience in selecting our perfect candidate for the council on aging director has finally paid off. Um Emily Constantino has accepted the position and will begin December 1st. Um I guess I want to thank everybody at the COA for for their patience, their board
as well. It's it's been a long six months without a director. Sharon Jordano, the um accounting assistant, has been the acting interim director sort of handling uh all all the day-to-day stuff. And so, thank you to her because it's been it's been a long
it's been a long road. So, we're excited to uh to have Emily join our team. She's she's quite a dynamo. So, we're we're excited. Um uh on Friday, uh members of the community in conjunction with the HR department, COA, Eastern Hampton County
Veteran Service District, and Esau Metal Food Pantry planned and executed a last minute food drive that saw uh amazing success. Um the the the notice went out kind of late. Uh there was uh there was some trying to figure out the logistics of it, but about 48 hours notice, the
the group was able and the community was able to fill uh the food pantry van in about 6 hours. Um it's just an unbelievable community experience. I was there for a little while. Um it it's nice when we with with so much
negativity it seems sometimes in the world that uh we get to see such a positive outcome on on a day like that. So, thank you to to everybody who sort of lent a helping hand there. And uh special thanks to the Doe family who sort of orchestrated the whole thing. Uh
I graduated high school with Brian. He works for the VA. Um his mom and dad were there, his wife was there. It was a it was a family affair. So, uh thank you to them. Uh we we also want to wish a fond farewell to Detective Sergeant Dan
Bruno. Uh Dan has been working at the Esong Meadow Police Department since May of 1998. Uh we don't talk about the 90s much anymore. Uh Dan uh recently accepted the job as the new police chief for the town
of Ham. Uh so uh obviously we're going to miss Dan a lot. He brought so much experience and professionalism to our department. Um and we we wish him the best of luck in Hampton. He he's a super guy and and we're happy for him and um
you know, congrats to the to Chief Bruno. Um we got some uh uh hot news today off the press. Uh we did our uh after the uh council meeting last uh last time we
were talking about the uh borrowing and so we had to do another ratings call and we retained our double A plus rating. Um, so again just uh I I know I always seem to talk about how awesome our finance team is, but again
uh just another sort of testament to to all they bring. But again, I think it it also you deserve a lot of credit as a council because we can have all this policy and we can have all this uh sort of mindset, but uh you
are making the decisions and you are doing the appropriations and you are following all those policies and those best practices and uh you deserve a lot of this credit too. So, so thank you. Um
the uh and lastly again there was uh the veterans dinner here on Monday night uh which was very well attended. We had another uh great day with flurries this year uh in front of town hall uh for the Veterans Day ceremony. But um a sincere
thank you to to all of our veterans for their service and their sacrifice for us. So that's it. >> Great. Any questions? Maryland. >> It's not a question. I was going to say something in public comments, but I figured you were going to say something. Okay. >> And I didn't want to steal your thought. >> Okay.
>> But in terms of the veteran ceremony, um Tom spoke beautifully. You spoke beautifully. Um it was a really proud day for our community and our town. I've been to a number of them, but this particular one was a little more special because we had so many young folks
involved. Um the choir from the high school came. That was amazing. >> Awesome. >> We need to get them every year. >> But the young man who plays the bag pipes, >> Brendon. Yeah. >> Incredible. Incredible. And the scouts, it was just uh a community event. It was
wonderful. So, I was glad to be not a part of it, just on the sideline. >> That was great. Yeah. >> Really? >> You're welcome. >> Proud. >> Thank you. Um I just want to reiterate and again I didn't want to take your thunder. Um, I just wanted to
congratulate Chief Bruno. Um, fantastic, uh, gentleman. Like I said, uh, he's been here since 98. Um, I've always had awesome dealings with him. Whenever I had a question, he was right there with the answer. And, um, I'm extremely
excited for him and, uh, this new chapter for him. >> Yeah. So, congratulations. Yep. He got sworn in Monday night. >> Anyone else? I see none communications correspondents and announcements. I had five. So just a
recap of of those sorts. So again, congratulations to Dan Bruno on his um moving beyond. Can we say them? Is that >> But I'm sure he'll do well. And it was nice having him serve the town for all
these years and doing a great job at it. Uh likewise, the same sort of sentiments about the Veterans Dinner and the Veterans Day parade. Those were both well attended ceremonies and that was nice to see the turnout. Um we had the Clutter Doctor 25th anniversary award
presentation la last week I think as well. So that was also nice to see a local business in town uh doing well. And then likewise we had the Brownstone Gardens 50th anniversary celebration which was nice. And then at the same time we learned about Mr. car's retirement after all the things we wish
him well in his retirement. >> Excellent. Great. Y >> thank you. >> Okay, I think those were all the things I had. >> So next we move to public hearings. So this is a public hearing for the tax classification hearing to determine the
percentages of tax levy for fiscal year 2026. The council members from left to right are Jim Leiden, Kathy Hill, Anna Jones, myself, Connor O'Shea, Marilyn Richards, Ralph Page, and on Zoom, John Torsche. Unlike a normal public hearing, there is no legal notice required for
this. So therefore, there's no legal notice for the clerk to read into the record this time. >> But it is still available for the public to comment or ask questions as well. So at this time, I would turn it over to our assessors to presentation.
Good evening. >> Evening. >> How are you all? >> Hi. >> Back for another year. >> Different going on this year. Um, thanks for having us. Uh, we'll start off with values. We uh went up 6%.
So, our assessments did go up. This is from the sales from 23 to 24 about 160 arms length sales uh which is less than 23. So we values went up 6%.
And uh the beginning of the year was slow then it went up. It's it's similar now. The market is still hot in Nissan Meadow and budding towns too. Springfield's is way up and I
expect we'll have another increase next year. About that, I'm not sure the percentage wise, but it's still going strong. I was I know about a sale this weekend. It went 40,000 over cash. So,
one weekend, six people show at open house, 40,000 over cash. And so, that's still going on. But again, not just in Nissan Meadow, but we are up 6%. So, and this year with the assessment up, usually when the assessment goes up,
tax rates come down, but this year we're getting hit with the school for the first time with just a teeny bit last year, but this is going to be a big hit this year. So, I can talk about my taxes. Um well the a uh first I'll say
the median rate for e went from up to uh 418 200 so we're up over four in the high threes. It'll go up again. So we'll talk about my personal taxes because they're out there. I went up around $1,100.
So I'm assessed in the fives. So that is about $550 for valuation and 550 for the high school. give or take. Uh didn't break it down to T because I had a different tax rate
when I did this, but I talked to the uh financial uh uh officer uh Kim. We talked about the differences. So, I'll use mine. So, I'm I'm going up 1,100, which is a lot.
So, that's coming January 1. Your bills are going to be higher. No doubt about it. But, it's going to be your highest bill. This is the biggest hit. So let's say someone gets hit for 1,500 me, 1100. It will not be that high next year like I can't say guarantee unless
something happens past two months. This is your big. So if you get a big one of 1500, it will not be 1500 next year. This is the biggest percentage and hit for the school. So I'm just preparing the public. You're going to get a big bill January 1st and it will be the
highest. So you can't continue. So mine's going up 1,100. Use my example. I'm not going to go 1111. That would just be insane. That would be too much. I mean, even though we got the new school, which is great. So I won't be,00 next year unless something like I said
probably, like I said, I was like 550 550 next year. I don't know about valuation. So I would say 53 or 54 will not be that high. This is the highest hit. And and again,
can't guarantee it, but it is the highest hit. Won't keep going up that much. Uh >> percentage increase wise, you mean? >> Yeah. Dollar Really? Dollar-wise? >> Yeah. >> Yeah. You know, so if you're getting hit by 1,500, you're because I've had people ask me, "Oh, I'm up 1,200. It's going to
go up 1,200 every year." No, >> it's not. >> So, this is your big hit. This is for uh your January 1 bill when you see it. And the values are online right now. Yes, they are. >> The new values are online and uh we'll
talk. You know, the tax rate hasn't been inked in yet. I had 1945. I think it's going to be 1943. And that's where we are for valuation. Pass it along to Diane. Unless anyone had questions on that.
>> No. Okay. >> So, I'm gonna just start. So anyone who is um uh watching from home although that we are going to have our tax classification hearing packet um on screen uh it is already on our uh
assessors page website under quicklinks so anyone can uh pull that off there if they would like to. >> I'll just give one time I should say your taxes are going to go up about 10 11 or 12%. I can give a percent for that. Mine were 10.2 too just to give it
an exact figure. Okay. Thank you. >> The information that we're going to be presenting is for illustrative purposes only. Um this is so the town council can make um an informed decision from the information that they receive from the
board of assessors to decide on a factor um for allocation of the tax levy. This meeting does not determine the tax rate and no tax rate's been approved as of yet. Um when we do submit our recap
sheet after um the final uh split tax rate for single um factor of one has been determined, we will be submitting our tax recap. And at that point, the Department of Revenue will have the ability to review all of our information
and to hopefully approve it very soon. Uh the town council will also be able to uh vote on if they so chose a small uh commercial exemption or a residential exemption.
So I always like to start off with how we um the starting point uh we always have to look at last year's uh levy limit and for fiscal 25 our levy limit was 53,215,610
and we had a tax rate of $1848 per thousand. So once starting with that um tax levy we are able to for fiscal 26 able to add 2.5% to the levy and any new growth and in
this case this year we also had amended new growth from fiscal 25. So that in uh those totals would now bring our uh FY26 levy limit to 55,531,188.
And that's when our um excludable debt will come in. Anytime that we have debt um that we voted outside of the levy limit, we can add that in and our total debt exclusion. Uh and this is high
because of the high school. It's the first year that we're getting the debt added on. Uh we have 5,574,120 that would allow the town to utilize the full maximum levy allowance
of $61 million5,300. Naturally, when we start planning our budgets, we try to be as conservative as possible, and the town council and our town manager did an excellent job. Uh we did not spend to the maximum, which
means our tax rate didn't go as high as it could have gone. Uh and our town budget was voted on for 59,172,333 which leaves 1.9 million of excess levy capacity table
for fiscal year 26. I have a summary of tax rate options and you can see that we have three sections. Tax factor, we have percentage of the tax levy and then a tax rate. So if we
were to have all properties, resident, commercial, industrial, and personal property all having the same tax rate, we're projecting it to be uh $1943 per thousand. and the town council, if
they so chose, could shift the tax rate up to 50% to one of the classes of property. And in a community such as ours, it potentially could be shifted to the uh commercial, industrial, and
personal property um al tax levy allocation. So with that said, if you looked at those rates, you would see that the residential tax rate would shift down a small amount until you hit
to the 150% shift, but you will also see the commercial, industrial, and personal property increase a lot faster. And the reason that that happens is we have 83% of our properties are residential. So
that's a large group and we have a small group of commercial industrials. So the residentials may get a break but it has to be shared amongst a large group. Um, the average single family home with our
new values, as Marty just mentioned, is $418,200 and the average commercial and industrial assessed value is $1,31,800. If we did a full shift of 50%, our residential family, a single family tax
bill would decrease by $811. And that same shift make our commercial industrial um and uh tax bill go up $10,000. And that's a huge shift for a small
group of class of property. Please, if anyone has a question, stop me because I'll just keep going. >> We did have a lot of new growth. That helped a lot. 978,000. That amended really helped
buffer the tax rate a little bit. That was a good surprise. >> It did. >> The amended new growth that was um what we weren't expecting. So, in other words, we had a larger uh new growth than what we had anticipated. Um so we had larger new growth for fiscal 26
which was that 700 and and then the at the towards the end of fiscal 25 we found uh we learned that two very large personal property accounts had changed
from being a manufacturer status to regular um corporation status which meant all their personal property was taxable. So omitted assessments went out and that totaled two personal property
accounts. >> It usually comes down to machinery in these large buildings. >> Yeah. Um that was it was a huge benefit for the town of East Long Meadow, but it
was very large um burden for the two businesses that they had to experience this um large tax bill. >> Yeah, we always hope to get above 500,000. So this was this was good, very
helpful. So when looking at the historical perspective of levies, you can see that we have pretty much over the last seven or eight years, we're pretty much the same. Uh anywhere between 82 and 84% for residential and 16 and 18% for the
commercial, industrial and personal property. Um that's telling us pretty constant. Our residentials are we're still, as I call it, a three-bedroom community, even though I know all of our houses that are being built have much more than three bedrooms
these days, but we are an owneroccupied residential community. We always throw in our neighboring towns for tax comparison. And out of the six towns that are listed here, we have
three comparable communities that fall below our average family tax bill. We have two communities that are above us. So, we don't stand out in any way. We're just falling
within. Um, and as everyone knows that there are some communities that are just um, very popular for people wanting to buy homes and East Long Meadow is like the be all end all right now.
>> Another pat on the back of >> That's why she >> I'm not moving. Um, >> so I'm going to jump into residential exemptions if the uh town council is um
ready for me to move on. That you do have the right to adopt a residential exemption. This exemption doesn't change the total the total taxable value. It just shifts the burden from some
properties to other properties. So if they are owner occupied, usually an owner occupied but a lesser value home will see a benefit and any properties that are rentals or larger owner
occupied homes would see an increase. So whatever amount of money we need for that residential um taxation, it's just shifted between properties. It's it might seem like someone's getting break but it's only a small group that are
going to get a break. The remaining will be paying more. There are only 20 municipalities out of 351 that have adopted this and it's really due to having very high percentage of rental properties. And if
you look at this list, you can see that they're mostly in the Boston surrounding Boston area or on the Cape and that's where people are benefiting if they do own
their home and it's a smaller value. Um, I personally don't think that East Long Meadow taxpayers would benefit because we're just shifting the burden from one group of residential homes to another. The last thing that we have the ability
to adopt is a small commercial exemption and that is for any commercial property that is less than $1 million in value and it's occupied solely by businesses with an average annual employment of no
more than 10 people. A confidential list is provided annually. Sadly, it is not as up to-date. Um, there's a lot of errors and omissions. So, it's really pushing us to try to determine if this
property really qualifies. I've looked back and there's a couple of businesses in town that have moved three times and they're still at the original place where they started. So, it's it's a little bit hard to follow their list. Um
there are approximately 36 properties that may qualify and due to multi-tenants in one building maybe one of the tenants would qualify but if another one doesn't qualify it would
eliminate that whole par potentially um qualifying for that exemption. All it does is it shifts 10% of the value. So, if you had a um property for $100,000,
we would assess it for 90,000, but that other 10,000 would then be shifted to the rest of the commercial and industrial. So, that's doesn't sound like much, but when we're talking some of our bigger businesses, it could have a a very large impact. Um the exemption
doesn't change the total taxable value properties and it does not benefit that small business. It it does benefit if they qualify the person who owns the actual commercial building and it would
be up to them to share the wealth with their tenants if they so chose. Um, in fiscal 25, there were only 14 communities that um have adopted. And when I think of 351 communities that
could adopt it, there's very, very few that do adopt it. Um, that's what I have. I'd be happy to answer any questions if I know the answer. >> You will. Mhm.
>> Does anyone have any questions? >> Did a good job >> as always. >> Always. >> Very thorough as usual. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> There's no other questions from the council. It is a public hearing. And as the opportunity, if there's anyone in the public that wishes to make a
comment, if you could come forward and state your name address for the record or if there's anyone online, if you raise your hand on Zoom. Okay, I see no one making a public comment. So,
input portion of the public hearing and you know, it's up for council discussion. >> May I comment? >> Sure. have a question and again it's not necessarily in regards to this. This has been a wonderful presentation as always.
Um it's an ability to limit um age out on uh a tax. In other words, um like if you reach age 70, uh
your taxes, if we vote, can be held at whatever it is. Um I I read something through Mass General Law, but again, it's like reading a dictionary. Um once you think you've grasped it, another chapter says, "No, no, that's not really
what you're reading." Um and I just wasn't sure um if there's any anything we can do for our elderly that are having difficulties Well, to the best of my knowledge, there is no sweet age where taxes either stop
existing or get held. Um, and if there is something, I'm sure somebody will let me know as leave this room. Um but we do have senior exemptions and it is for
people who are um have income and asset that are on the lower side and East Long Meadow is actually one of the more generous communities. We do allow people to have more income and assets than most communities in our area. Um it is an
annual application and the town council just through local option increased it. They doubled it. So for the people who are you know having a a difficult time they really should reach out to the assessor's office to see if they
qualify. Uh but there's I to the best of my knowledge there is nothing that says >> I'll keep reading master in the law. >> Okay. Like I said, it's a few times um and I'm going back over the years all the way
back to when our former government when it was a board of select men and it was brought up and um I just don't know if we had ever done any research or if >> again >> yeah it's been brought up all over the state too if pockets bring it up >> and there's other 580
>> you know in the US that have something like that but again every state's different and Massachusetts may not allow it and um you know, someone from New Hampshire may be able to get it. I don't know. >> Any other comments or questions?
>> Could I? >> Sure. >> If I may, I just want to say thank you to Marty and Marilyn and Hayden, our our board of assessors, and Diane and Kerianne and Melissa in the assessor's office. Uh as you can imagine, most of the time when people call about their
taxes, it's not a fun nice call. Um, but they put a lot of work obviously into tonight, but this is a whole year process and it doesn't stop and they'll start over again tomorrow. So, uh, thank you for all that you do. We we really do
appreciate all the hard work. >> Yes, I agree with Tom. That's definitely a lot of work to, you know, it's a nice neat presentation when it comes to us, but there's a lot of work that you guys do to get it to that. So, thank you. >> And it may get a little uh scarier January 1. So,
30 days. >> Thanks, Marty. >> Our department, not yours. You >> ain't going to change their phone number. >> Have a recording. >> Not ours.
>> There's no other comments or questions. I'll entertain a motion to close the public hearing. >> So move. >> Second. >> Motion's been made to seconded to close the public hearing. Any further discussion? Seeing none, since we're on Zoom, it's a roll call. Jim. Yes. >> Kathy, >> yes. >> Anna, yes. >> Emma, yes. Marilyn,
>> yes. >> Ralph, >> yes. >> And John, >> yes. >> Public hearing is now closed. >> And then I would entertain a motion for the tax factor. >> I make a motion to approve that the town of Esau Meadow adopt for the fiscal year
2026 tax rate a factor of one a single tax rate with no residential or small commercial exemptions. >> Second. Motion's been made and seconded. Is there any further discussion? Seeing none. >> Yes. >> Kathy, >> yes. >> Hannah, >> yes. >> Emmy, yes. Marilyn, >> yes. >> Ralph, >> yes. >> And John,
>> yes. >> Motion passes. >> Thank you. >> Thanks, guys. >> Back to your other meeting. >> Okay. Next on the agenda, we have one licensing matter for three one-day liquor licenses for East Village Tavern
for November 24th, 5th, and 6th. Is there a motion for the first? I make a motion to approve a one-day lifet uh to 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 a.m. on Monday, November 24th, 2025. Second.
>> Motion's been made and seconded. Is there any further discussion? >> None. Jim, >> yes. >> Kathy, >> yes. Anna, >> yes. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Ralph, >> yes. and John. >> I'm a yes. >> First one is approved.
>> Then a second one. >> I'll make a motion to approve a 1-day liquor license for East Village Tavern, 53 Mark Main Street for extended operating hours from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 a.m. on Tuesday, November 25th. >> Second 25. >> Second.
>> Motion's been made and seconded. Any further discussion? Seeing none. Jim, >> yes. >> Kathy, >> yes. >> Anna, >> yes. >> I'm a yes. Marilyn, >> yes. Ralph. >> Yes. >> And John, >> yes. >> Motion passes. >> And the third license, >> I make a motion to approve a one-day
liquor license for East Village Tavern, 53 North Main Street for extended operating hours from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 a.m. on Wednesday, November 26th, 2025. >> Second.
>> Motion's been made and seconded. Any further discussion? Seeing none, Jim? >> Yes. >> Kathy, >> yes. Anna, >> yes. >> Emmy, yes. Marilyn, >> yes. >> Ralph, >> yes. >> And John, >> I'm a yes. >> Motion passes. Thank you. >> Yay. >> Next, under financial matters, we have
accepting a digital equity implementation grant for $64,950. Um, since Rebecca's in the audience, would you mind giving us a brief presentation, >> please? Um,
So, um, back in June, the council received the digital equity, um, plan that our, um, Kimley Horn U consultants created with multiple town departments and public feedback. And we had one month to turn around and, um, apply for
implementation funds. And so, um, we sort of just kept the train running. And um through a collaborative effort between LCAT, the library, the Council on Aging, and um the Housing Authority, we thought that creating a digital um
literacy training program that the um library would implement across three key locations in town being the library, the Council on Aging, and also the Housing Authority would um be a way to start um filling in the gaps that were identified
in the digital equity plan. So digital literacy skills, especially for seniors and people that are transitioning in the workforce, um was a key um area to improve on. And so we felt that this um was an opportunity uh to create a
program uh that would help fill that digital literacy gap. And it also includes um purchasing laptops that um all the participants in the trainings would be able to um utilize. And I don't know if there's any other
questions. >> Sure. There's a whole list of questions. Um digital literacy. >> Yes. Are you talking um people who are not familiar with how to operate a
laptop and walking them through the basics? You know, starting with how to turn it on, how to get to Gmail, how to get to um I mean, that's what we're looking at. And as far as the laptops goes, so um we're purchasing those. So,
those are um bought through the grant. Those are the town um laptops that can be used by any participants that are coming in trying to Okay. >> So um just to you know address the first
question um the library had run a I want to say it was a 10-week pilot program with another related agency under the mass broadband initiative um umbrella. Um and in the spring of last year, they
ran um a 10-week program and they tried to um solicit from the community which topics they wanted to um learn about. And so they built the the pilot around those 10 different topics and it was fairly basic and they um saw that there
was a need for additional um training at like a intermediate and advanced level. So this training digital literacy training program would provide um three levels of instruction. A basic curriculum, an intermediate curriculum, an advanced curriculum at all three
locations um across town um for uh over the course of like six to nine months. And is that like um word document um is it broken down into different uh
software and how to use it or is it just basically um the computer? >> Yeah. So I guess in the basic um curriculum you would have like basic computer skills, how to turn it on, how to create an email, how to access your email. Um, and then in the intermediate
curriculum, you would um learn some more um Google Suite and Word. And then you could go even beyond that in the um advance um >> right up to training hackers. We're not
just have all our nieces and nephews at 10 years old come in and teach us. Um, and actually since you're bringing up the the students, the um there is a uh I'm sorry I I don't remember the name of it, but but there's something on the
libraries website that has the like on demand training. And so there was a portion of this grant that would actually work with students um at the high school to create an LCAT to create um some ondemand training. So you could just like click on a link and say I want
to learn about the Google Suite and it would be um a short video um perhaps an edited version of one of the uh training sessions. Yeah, >> I just know it when I got my Apple phone, I literally handed it to my 10-year-old niece and said, "Could you
set it up?" And then um in addition uh to the training and uh the on demand library and the devices, we would also have I believe it was um I want to say up to 10
hours of uh like dropin support for troubleshooting and problem solving things that um I know they have a lot of traffic here for the volunteer who's helping helping seniors sort of get out
of fishing schemes and debug their their phones and things like that. Um, and so the trainer that we wind up working with would also be asked to do um dropin hours at the three locations to help people um troubleshoot different issues that they're encountering.
>> It's awesome. >> Yeah, we had a maximum of um $65,000 to apply for. So, um the team is very proud of the package they put together and that we were um granted nearly the we were granted everything that we had asked for.
>> Great. >> Yeah, from my perspective, it seems like that will definitely help out the community and if we do move further along the in town broadband initiative, that would help >> more people. >> Yeah,
it'll help more people be able to access it and know how to use it. So that would be great. >> Yeah. And I think if people are more familiar with the technology um there's going to be less resist resistance to opting into a new system.
>> Will there be any component of it to around the safety like the the consumer safety like to recognize if >> the fishing scam? >> Yeah. or the fishing >> um >> how to protect your own.
>> So the the curriculum is not something that has been fully built out yet. We we just anticipated that we'd be able to differentiate three levels of training um and we had made it incumbent upon the trainer that we contract with um to
build out uh the curriculum. And so if there are um you know ideas such as you know uh avoiding fishing schemes and other online scams, I'm sure that there's space to build that in there.
>> Any other questions? >> No, the last comment I would say is thank you for the complete breakdown. um very interesting as far as uh seeing how how to apply for the grant and all and what you're looking at and uh
information was very good. Thank you. >> Yeah. Uh no problem. Welcome. >> Only the manager didn't forget to put it in there in the first place. >> Would you like a motion? >> I would. I make a motion to accept a
digital equity implementation grant in the amount of $64,950 per Massachusetts general law chapter 44 section 53A. >> Second. >> Motion seconded. Is there any further discussion? Seeing none, Jen, >> yes.
>> Kathy, >> yes. >> Anna, >> yes. >> Emmy, yes. Marilyn, >> yes. >> Ralph, yes. And John, I'm a yes. >> Thank you for putting it together. Thank you. Thank you, Rebecca. If it's the council's pleasure, I would entertain a motion to move out of order
to the assessor's department metrics and then return to normal order. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Motion's been made and seconded. Any further discussion? >> None. Jim, >> yes. >> Kathy, >> yes. >> Hannah, >> yes. >> Yes. Marilyn, >> yes. >> Ralph, >> yes. >> And John, >> I
passes. See, >> if if you don't mind, I'll start. For those of you who don't know, uh that was Dian's last uh searing >> um with the town of Isa Meadow. >> Um
>> denied. Uh again, uh I know that um Diana has sort of probably been waiting for the day when she could leave for a while, but uh she really is uh an expert as far as experts go in her field. Um I know
this because uh she gets lent out to pretty much every community in the Viner Valley whenever they need help and sometimes further. Um we we are certainly going to miss uh her uh her knowledge obviously, but I I will in
particular miss our relationship and your sense of humor. Uh and uh I obviously we all wish you the best and thank you for everything that you've done for the town. >> Thank you. >> Exciting and scary.
>> I think Jeannie can attest to that. So um I am going to give us uh give you the metrics for the assessor's office. Um I did not know I needed to provide something in writing. So I gave you all my notes.
Um but it is available and at least you'd have something to look back to. Um so one of the most important things that our office has to do is we're responsible for valuing all real and personal property uh to full and fair
market value and in order to do this we are required to visit and inspect properties and that even includes businesses for first property. Our inspection programs includes uh cyclical inspections. Cyclical
inspection is we have to visit a home at least once every 10 years regardless if they've made any changes and we are required by law to do this or we will not get reertified re our certification approved. We do
approximately 500 homes a year. We do try to send out a letter in advance. We never know exactly when we're going to be visiting, but we know within like a period of uh six next six to eight weeks, somebody will be stopping by your
home. So, it's so nobody is like, I had no clue. We always notify the fleece. Uh but we do do 500 homes a year. Uh building permit inspections. In the past several years, we've had at least 500
building permit inspections to um review sales property. That's part of our valuation process. We had approximately 300 sales that took place in our town last year, but a lot of them were family sales. They they were not arms length
sales. um 178 of those properties were reviewed and that does include some commercial um it's not just residential, it would be your commercial, your industrial properties as well. Uh once all of our inspections are complete, we
have to then review all of the information that we just picked up and we have to um enter it all into our system in order for us to get ready for our annual interim adjustment uh for do uh division of local services approval.
We do rely on our board of assessors to review our sales. If anyone watches our meeting, we always on a monthly basis provide our assessors with all of the sales that took place in the last month. And then at the end of the um year, we
provide them with a full list for the year. And they have to then say our assessments need to go up or go down based on what the market is. and they give us an idea of the percent increase
that we need to um uh bring our values to. At that point, our consultant starts working on the statistical analysis based on the decision of the board. And while we're uh that is all happening, we have to
submit all of our new oath our L4s our sales reports to do. Uh and this year our fiscal 26 values got approved on September 19th. Uh we talked a little bit earlier about our new growth uh 728
um,000 for fiscal 26 with an additional 250,000. We were almost a million dollars and as Marty um said a little earlier that was really a big help to our to the tax base. Uh, and this is the first time, at least I've been here 16
years, um, and I've only seen the values continuing increase, we hit the3 billion dollar valuation. >> So, that that's pretty impressive. Now, we do have new homes going in
constantly. We we've had quite a few new commercial um properties that have been um adding to our tax base. Also, we once every 5 years we do do a full reertification and that requires even more indepth
statistical analysis. The department of revenue makes sure that every possible way to analyze sales is complete. >> Is that FY28? Sorry. >> Yes, it is. FY28 will be our next full
reevaluation. Our town presently has 6900 uh 6,942 parcels and approximately 550 personal property accounts that we maintain. And while the assessing department is
working on the values, the finance team is working on the recap and I am part of the finance team. So now we're we're doing both sides uh the assessing and starting to help pull together our tax recap.
As we just did tonight, assessors are required to have a joint meeting with our town council. So you could make your decision regarding our tax factor. And thank you very much for um accomplishing
that this evening. Um once that happens, our town clerk will then certify the town council's votes in our DSL gateway, sign off on that, and the assessors by tomorrow morning will be able to submit our recap for approval.
This now starts paving our way to the third quarter tax bill that Marty did to um and billing community. Most people in a quarterly billing um community have a very hard time understanding the
difference between preliminary and actual taxes because preliminary is just based on one half of whatever you paid us last year. And your actual is based on the new values and the new tax rate. And then whatever you paid us in
preliminary, whatever that balance is is then split over the next two quarters. And as Marty mentioned, we will people will see larger third and fourth quarter tax bills because they're going to be playing a little bit of catch-up from
the preliminary whatever they paid last year to our new tax um the new taxes. Um so with that said, our office will be busy and um I
picked my retirement time. Um, one of the things that I wanted the town council to be aware of is the amount of applications that go through our office. Um, we have a program called uh, chapterand which is forestry,
agricultural and recreation. We have 24 properties that um are classified and this requires annual applications. We start taking them about two months before it is due
and they are now due on December 1st. It was always October 1st, but mostly the farmers uh petition the legislaturators to have that date moved because October 1st was in their peak of farming and it
they were having a hard time meeting their deadlines. So that law did change. It is December 1st now. statutory exemption. This would be for our seniors over the age of 70 who meet the income and asset um requirements for our
disabled veterans. Um and we also have for uh people with uh certified blindness. Um any of those people they have to apply on an annual basis. In
fiscal 25, we approved 193 exemption applications and we are getting more and more that are coming through the door that are first time. Um, they all have until April 1st to submit
the application, but we encourage people to get them in as soon as possible because they can actually see the the uh benefit on their tax bill. We do do real estate and personal property abatements and the only window of opportunity if somebody does not feel
their value is correct is after the third quarter tax bill is mailed which is generally prior to January 1st and up through February 1st unless February 1st falls on a weekend then it goes to the next business day. That is the only time
someone can apply for a an abatement on their real estate or personal property. So, I've taken great pride since I've been here to have the assessing team be able to try to do their best to explain
how assessments came to be. And because a lot of times people will come in and say, "I just got my tax bill. I want to file an abatement. My taxes are too high." >> And and you know, I I understand that, but it's not based on their taxes. It's
based on their value. and all of the information on their their property record card. And when people have had a chance to understand how things are put together, they might not agree with it, but they have much better understanding
because we've empowered them to know how it together. And we always go over their property record card with them because they know their house a lot better than I know their house. Um, generally even though people are not
always happy with the taxes, they at least say, "Well, I get it now." And it does eliminate a lot of abatement applications that come that actually get filed in our office. And there are some people that we encourage to file if they
come in and and we show them as having four bathrooms and they go, "I only have one. let's get an inspection. You need to let us assist you because we want our data correct. That's that's the key thing. Um we get on an average of 20 to
25 annual and on occasion we get one or two that will go to the appellet tax board. Um but very few pellet tax board case if anyone wants to know that's that quasi governmental agency that will make
the deciding factor between a taxpayer and an assessor the decision that is made between them motor vehicle and boat excise um they send RMV sends us eight commitments a year in calendar year 25 in January we
just sent out 18,800 156 excise tax bills. >> Pretty a few. >> If a person sells their vehicle, trades their vehicle within a calendar year, moves out of state, uh totals, junks
their vehicles, they might be entitled to a motor vehicle abatement. Uh and due to the Heroes Act, uh any disabled veteran that has a 100% disability, they are entitled to a full exemption uh on
one motor vehicle. And we did grant 769 motor vehicle abatements. So, it it takes a while. Um it's it's a process and people do provide the information that's needed for us to to have the assessors grant these.
Um, we did just send out our boat form uh boat excise bills. We on an average have about a hundred and those are the people who got more their boat on a lake uh or at a marina. Uh these are the ones that have them sitting in their
driveways on getting ready to take off for the Connecticut River or some lake. Um those people do receive a boat bill from us. forms of list. That's for people with personal property. We have uh 550
personal property counts. 550 forms of list get to come into our office. Our stacks are like this and it takes a while to go through them. We did adopt the town um adopted the small uh personal property exemption. So any
propert personal property account under $5,000 in value is exempt. But regardless, if they're exempt, people still have to file their form of bliss and we still have to update the information in the system. So, some people got a break, but the work didn't
go away. Uh, and as I said in my notes, there's a zillion more forms that we could talk about, but like I said, uh, I know that nobody wants to hear about every single one of them. Uh one really important responsibility is um updating
all new ownership and we have to access the registry of deeds. We pull all the new deeds, any new parcel subdivisions, plan of lands, update our systems. So we get the tax bills to the correct people and we do share all the ownership information and address changes to all
billing departments. So we're the starting point that then branches out to all other departments. Uh, in calendar year 24, the assessor's office answered close to 1,250
phone inquiries. We had 918 visitors to our office, and yes, they did find us. And since co, the amount of emails have really grown by leaps and bounds. Um, most people go, I meant to call the
assessors up. Maybe I'll email them. It doesn't matter what time of day or night or weekend. We get the email and it's waiting for us when we get in the next day. But it's good because then we can respond right back from email and we
have since co we do so much more business via email applications going back and forth. Um so it cuts down the traffic in the office. It does save the taxpayers from having to go back and forth and we get accomplished that we
need. Um, as I mentioned, we do take great pride in our website or our web page. I mentioned earlier our tax classification hearing is there. We have um our GIS mapping that is updated regularly and we
do upload all property record cards. We now have them back to 2015. And generally um in within the next week or two, we'll be getting the FY26 property record cards online. There is a
spreadsheet with all new values if anyone would like to see it. But the property record card is the full description of the property. And naturally, we couldn't handle it without our awesome dedicated assessing team um
and all their years of experience. So, we have our assistant assessor, Kerianne Wel, who is here with me tonight. Uh, she's got 17 years of assessing experience behind her. We have our administrative
assistant, Melissa Goodro, she's on her fourth year of assessing. Our three um member board of assessors, Marty Grudgen, he's 17 years he's been on our board. Clerk of the board, Marilyn Gadini, seven years on our board. Hayden
Smith. He's our newest. He's uh about two years uh starting on his second year right now. And as for myself, as I mentioned, I've been here 16 years and recently just completed my 30th year of assessing.
>> Uh that totals 77 years of assessing experience on our team. >> Joe's. So, I don't know if that's what the the town council was hoping for with um >> yeah,
>> my notes hopefully there weren't >> um but yes, so that's that's it in a nutshell. >> Like to stick around and 20 years here. I think I think >> 35 round number.
Well, you know, I was leaving two years ago >> and and I I did do these two X-rays. >> Um, also there was um and I don't I I don't know how many people actually look, but Diane and Don had a very good
idea of sending out that sort of littleformational insert in the second quarter tax bill. >> Um, and we'll have another one, I think. Right. We're still going to we'll have one in this January tax bill. Obviously, there'll be some sticker shock. Uh but this one will do a good job of sort of
explaining what that breakdown that Marty was trying to talk about about uh how much of the increase was normal and what what is the excluded debt for the school uh to try to break it down a little bit for everyone. Uh so we don't have the language for that quite yet, but
>> No. In fact, Kim and I were just discussing it this afternoon. >> We're sure you are. Yeah. Does anyone have any questions for Diane? >> I have a quick one. Sure. >> If anyone were to ask us um what to anticipate for January, what how could
we is there a percentage or >> It's really dependent on the the value of their home. >> Nice. >> So, the valuations you said are on the website right now, the new ones. Yes. >> So, how would somebody find that? I think I want to walk This would be a
good thing to probably just walk through. Yeah. >> Um >> so right now we have a um valuation spreadsheet. It's on the assessor's web page and it is under quick links which is on the right hand side
and it is an Excel spreadsheet. I do have it locked down so people cannot go >> FY26 final values. Even I can do it. >> And I have filters on it. So if somebody
wants to filter just a street or specific just say like certain commercial properties or that is all available. So, >> so if you've got your FY26 propo proposed value,
>> divide by a,000, >> okay? And then multiply that times the tax rate, which is 194, $1943 >> projected to be 19 >> projected. Illustrative purposes only.
>> We we do believe, you know, it could change 1945. somewhere or but >> in there somewhere again um with with a $183 of that being excluded debt. >> Uh you know your your
>> keep going up >> your increase to the bill one cent here or there on the tax rate is sort of nominal when you see what that increase looks like. >> And so for those following along at home if you go to the website homepage eastma.gov of you click on government at
the top. Under departments, if you click on assessors, the quick links that Diane is talking about are on the right hand side of the page there. >> So, you can get your new value, >> divide that by a,000, multiply it by the proposed tax rate, which we think is
going to be $1943, and you'll get >> your taxes. Mhm. >> So, quick question. Um, for the high school, we've borrowed roughly 83%. >> Yep. >> If I remember, right? So, we're still
going to have to borrow another 17%. >> There's Yep. We have another >> point. Once we do that, there'll still be that >> there'll still be one more >> another little jump taxes down the road, but >> Right. And that'll all be >> this will be the main one. >> Yeah. Yeah. There there's still a lot
that has to go into that in terms of cash flow and >> exactly >> uh what what that borrowing looks like when we have to do it in in August proposed. >> Yeah. So even though it kind of seems like jump now, it's not going to keep going up. It's going to kind of settle
out and then there'll be a little hump again in the future. >> Yeah. >> Right. >> Barring anything crazy from happening. >> Oh, >> no crazy. Thank you. will say over the last few years you can see the difference in valuation. We had
gone up over 20 and if you take out the $183 that would put us down quite a bit. So >> um again that's because the valuations have gone up so much that your tax rate can go down >> which actually works out because that
gives us more leeway to the $25 max. So, >> right, >> and like Marty said, it's it's a very >> juggling game, >> very desirable community still. So, um th those the sale numbers and the valuations are probably not going to go
anywhere anytime soon, which is which is good. I was talking to our um do rep as we were getting our values certified and he said to me that the prices that are coming from East Long Meadow are the the
top of the line right now in the Western Mass area. It's it is the most desirable town. And I think the high school is also >> pulling people as they want the new high
school, want their children to go to the new high school. >> Yeah, that's both a great thing and a bad thing at the same time. It's that everything gets more expensive, but it's good that people want to come here and stay here. I think on behalf of the whole council
though, thank you for not only your presentation tonight, but all the years of service you've given the town and >> thank you. >> We wish you very well in your retirement. >> It's been my pleasure. I miss you. >> I'm sorry. >> Thank you. >> Miss you. >> I'm still going to be around. I just
>> sitting in front of >> softball. >> You can come into the audience anytime you want. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you, D. Thank you, Diane. >> Good evening. >> So, if I may just, you know, amazing
looking through how much the assessors actually do. >> Yes. >> It's one of those departments >> that you don't hear a lot about because they just go about their business and take care of it. Um, but then when you look at the stats, um, it's obvious that they're
working like crazy all the time and, uh, it's greatly appreciated. Oh, exactly. And I think sometimes it's easy for people to just think like, oh, they're just typing in a number and sending out a tax bill, but there's a lot of math involved and a lot of research to have that number bear value
instead of it just pulling it out of thin air. >> Great. Okay. So, we are back to our normal uh order. So, next we have approval of our October 28th meeting minutes. I make a motion to approve the October 28th,
2025 meeting minutes. >> Second. >> Motion's been made and second. Any further discussion? None. Jim, >> yes. >> Kathy, >> yes. >> Hannah, >> yes. >> I'm a yes. Marilyn, >> yes. >> Ralph, >> yes. >> John, >> I'm
passes. Thank you. And next, under old business, we have an update on the transfer station of ground storage tank. So, I know after our last meeting, I had done a little more research to go back to the
uh meeting previously, but let me just pull up the email because I forgot what meeting that was. >> 13 of 4. >> Thank you. >> That was our snowstorm Zoom meeting. You were in the conference room in town hall. >> Oh, that's right.
>> That's right. I remember that. The funny thing was when I was looking for that meeting, I just picked a random point in the video and it happened >> happened to be right there. What? Where you at? >> In the middle of talking about it. >> That was funny. Um, but at that time,
whether it was intentional or not, the council did vote ocean anyway to not only clean up the spill that had happened, but also to what we thought, you know, buy a new tank and get it
operational again. I think in hindsight was more information that was really just for the the cleanup and not inclusive of the cost that it would take to put a new tank in >> surrounding stuff in town. >> Yes. the the the title of the contract
with Thai bond and then therefore got transferred to the agenda was you know soil site cleanup and above ground storage tank replacement which was if you look into the contract with Ty bond was never part of that $22,000
and then as you can imagine the cleanup that happened after we paid Ty bond to test and report on what cost an additional I think Bruce gave me the numbers another $17,000 to rip out all the concrete, which was the base of the
old tank, get rid of the tank, pump that down, get rid of the tank, and and clear all the soil out. So, and that didn't the final report of which I think the last invoice, the time bond was paid in June of 25.
Um, so as we Bruce is still working on a updated list, I know Connor had asked if we could get the what that would look like if we wanted to replace that tank with a new concrete structure. Mark Burman from DPW still pulling those numbers together in terms of pouring a
new pad. There'll be permitting. We can't do anything on that site because it's a landfill without D permitting. and then we'll we'll get a quote for that tank that Bruce mentioned in the meeting which was sort of a suggestion from DP. Um you know the the reason why
Bruce asked for the money for the ty bond thing was because we weren't going to have he wasn't going to have the money in the in the operating budget to do the tie and bond contract and the cleanup and so and that was sort of unexpected. So, um I apologies across
the board for having that uh in the title of the contract, me not really picking it up and putting it on the agenda as that because that was never really part of that free cash uh appropriation.
So, uh, furthermore, uh, I I know that, uh, that was a, uh, something that's used a lot on, and we're going to start, we'll talk about this at when we do the budget, but, uh, as you can imagine, this is just, uh, there's a lot of
liability in this area at this point um, from from another spill that we'd have to clean up if we decided to keep taking waste oil at the transfer station. Um, but also changing how we do things in that we're really going to have to find a way like we do for everything else we
accept there. Now, test this material that we're taking because we're taking our our we're taking it at someone's word that they're just dumping waste oil into our tank. But unless we know that for sure, people could be getting rid of
something that say costs a nickel a pint to get rid of, but they're actually dumping something else in there that contaminates the whole lot, which would add to more cost. So, I'm not I'm not sure what that looks like, and we have to have further conversations. I know
it's something that we've always offered there and I I would think twice about saying we're not going to do that anymore without having a a a larger discussion and probably at the council level too. um you know we we take a certain amount of things there and one
of them was always waste oil and just to say uh we're not going to do it anymore without without good reason and again the reason is is is a liability thing and and the potential for these extra costs if there's another spill I mean as
as long as I've known humans they are fallible and they will make errors so and that includes the people that work there or the pump driver that comes to pump the thing out So, um, we're going to put the number together to see what it would cost to put it
back. And I'm not saying we're not going to do it anymore. Um, but we need to have a further discussion on how much liability we want to take on at the transfer station in that regard. >> So, Conor, thank you for researching
that. Um, did take me a while going back through the agenda. I found it and before I even got to send it to you, boom, I'm getting email and I was like, you spent all this time. Um, but I do appreciate that. Um, I I
do, um, I'm just going to throw something out there. Um, the tank that they had suggested, uh, mass DP. >> Um, it's a separate tank that sets onto the ground. You walk up two or three stairs and you pour whatever you have
into the tough. Um, I would be more apt to look like something like that. The one that we had was basically a building on the outside of it. It had a funnel with pipe going in. >> Yeah. >> Um, going back, >> it looks like pipe that came through.
disconnected and so everyone from the outside was pouring >> and that's where it came up to roughly 100 gallons of spill which is >> if you had to go upstairs and you're only pouring in your you can only carry so much up.
>> So I mean even a five gallon container weighs quite a bit. So, >> okay, >> if you do spill it, >> right, >> it's going to be five gallons. And under the hazardous materials, anything under eight gallons, uh, you don't have to report.
>> That is correct. >> Just a little side note there. And it's easier to clean up a small amount. Like I said, if that pipe again leaks, now all of a sudden you got 50 gallons >> sitting inside of a concrete structure
that you're trying to clean up. So, um, okay. >> That's why I remember back and I was like, that's a great idea and seeing the tank and all. So, >> yeah. So, that and that was the >> and I don't know the cost of it. >> Yeah. >> And that Mark's going to put that
together uh based on whatever D says we can do. Y >> um you know, at at some point it's difficult because you've been doing something a certain way for so long and then as soon as that fails the EP you you try to go put the same thing back and they're like, "Oh, no. we don't allow that anymore. Uh so I I'll have
the let's say we can have that I I've asked them to get it to me so that I we can look at it in terms of a capital project because my my thoughts are that we're going to get into that range. Um then then maybe that's a good time to have that conversation about is this is
this something I'll talk to Mark and Bruce as they as they gather the information and see if it's still something we want to do. >> Great. Thank you. Great. Thank you. Any other questions or comments? Okay.
And next under old business, uh just an update on the town clerk, clerk of the council replacement process. Uh so after our last meeting in October, the posting went out on Thursday, October 30th, and it I think is still up. >> Yep.
>> The website at the moment. >> Um I don't know if you have anything else to add on that. No, other than uh after um last meeting we talked about uh council involvement um and so I solicited Connor to sit on the interview
panel with Audrey and I. So um he thanked you for your suggestion. Uh, no. I think um, and again, I think uh, somebody brought up a previous interview process where some some counselors were in the room or something like that. Um, I think it it would be
much more beneficial to the panel and the applicant if if the counselor were were at the table with us um, instead of sort of lurking. >> Yeah. Um, so we talked about it and and we both thought it was a good idea. So
we'll just we'll we'll go that route and when we schedule interviews, uh, Mr. Mr. O'Shea will be with us. Audrey will do all the questions. Don't worry, you don't got >> Has there been a good interest in the position? >> Yeah. So, it's really funny. I've been trying to hook up with Audra all day
before the meeting and she just called about six minutes ago. So, she seems like she's had a busy day, too. But uh there there uh I know there's at least one applicant. I don't know how many more we've got. I I don't have the the spreadsheet yet, which is what I had
requested was just an update of of what the what that looks like. >> It's a weird week. Thursday meetings. >> I know on holidays. >> Yeah. >> Um but um I I'll reach out certainly and and let you know and we can disseminate
when those interviews will be. Yeah, likewise. I'll let you know once everything closes and we start that next step in the process. Great. Okay, we already did metrics under new business. So, the next topic was the
200th anniversary celebration. um wasn't expecting that we would necessarily decide anything, but figured since that'll start coming up quick in the midst of budget season if there's any ideas that we wanted to start thinking about um in terms of town celebrations
or if there's anything that we wanted to maybe incorporate into the budget process for the upcoming year. um whether it's related to Fourth of July festivities. >> I was just going to say that um >> or even something I was thinking about I had seen some other communities were
maybe doing some like tree plantings along streets to, you know, say that they did this during the 250th. >> I think there were some others that were doing like flag banners. We don't have them in town and maybe that's something we could look into. Uh some other communities have like those hometown
hero banners on their utility poles, but they were going to switch them out for, you know, some sort of commemorative 250th. >> We did that for the town's 125th celebration. >> In my basement. >> Yep. Um
>> actually, if you watched that video from February, whatever the date was, there's one behind Anna. >> Oh, because it's in the conference room on the wall. You know, I would like to actually we should do this every year, but I would like to see some sort of more formalized
float or something that the council I mean when we march we're all over the place and they don't even know who we are and we pass the the >> that's because they put that's like they put me in front of you guy. I don't know why they do that. >> They talk about the school committee and
we're there. So I just really feel that know we work hard. I won't be here, you know, because this is I will be off in June. But um we all work hard and um the town appreciates what we do and it would be really nice if there was something that pulled us together as a team and
Kathy could ride. I have the big float. Big float. And I'll be exeicio. >> Councelor Amoretta. >> We'll put you right up there, man. >> Yeah. Right. Anyway, that's that's just
what I think. No. So, I've already begun having sort of high level conversations with Rotary uh the parade committee uh historical commission uh in an interesting little wrinkle. We have a 50year time capsule to open uh this
year. Uh they buried in 76. So, um that's sort of getting roped into the whole thing. I think um you know as we as we think about the budgeting piece of it, if if we intend to uh make this a a sort of a yearly thing or if we intend
to make this a 250th thing, I think we should stick with our uh one-time purchase mantra and not add to the budget one-time items. Um, so but but I I think there's a commitment. Uh I I would like us to have a more of a
commitment to, let's face it, one of the best things that this town does. And it seems like uh you know, the town of Islam Meadow doesn't get involved in too much of the celebration other than walking in the parade and letting that parade sort of go down the street. And
uh so I I personally would like to to see uh the town make a little bit more of of whatever that is a monetary contribution or time from staff or whatever that looks like whether whether it's some sort of celebration fund that
we you know just set up out of free cash so that it's not in the general budget. Again, I I don't want to beat a dead horse, but we we keep talking about these line items in the budget and the increases and how much I mean, we did get some good news on the excess levy, which uh you know,
we still h are going to have to be careful and things are going to be tight from year to year. So, um but those conversations are are sort of happening. I'm happy for anyone if you would like a representative as we start to sort of narrow down what where these talks are
going. If you want a representative from the council to be involved, this is a very makeshift uh operation. So far, we're just kind of talking about who's always involved and what they've been doing and what can we do. And obviously, there's a lot of legalities to talk
about in terms of who's paying for what and procurement and if we want to get a float, we got to we got to do that now. and this that and the other thing. So there's a lot there's going to be a lot of logistics here, but um I think uh I I think the commitment from the council is
there and it's certainly there for my office. So um however however you want to do whatever you want to talk about, if you want to sort of keep talking about it at every meeting from now until then, then great. Um but I I think uh you know the 250th is is exciting. I
think the whole country certainly the state has already put out a bunch of stuff about their their 250th plans and celebrations. So um I think I think we can we can sort of make a half a year out of this from January on to through
July. >> Likewise. John, did you have something? >> I was just going to add I I thought a time capsule would be a great idea. So that's cool that we're going to have one. It'd be great to maybe even do one now and we can open that one up again 50 years from now.
>> That I think I I I think that's the plan. John, I I I think we uh I talked to uh the historical commission this morning. Me and Tom Behan had a had a meeting. So that that that is the plan. Um and again, I why not, right? I mean,
uh, we'll we'll get another plaque and we'll bury it in the same spot as the the one we dig up at Heritage Park. So, um, yeah. No, that's a great idea. >> Is that the one we're digging up? Heritage Park. >> Yeah. Uh, yeah. Yes. >> There's two of them.
>> There's two there. >> I was going to say you said 76. >> Yep. >> Cuz there was one that I was involved with and I wasn't 76. >> So, in 76 the bar is set really high for us. I'm going to say the they the Springfield Republican had like a 20page
like addition for the the the bicesentennial. So all sorts of uh businesses getting involved with advertising and uh there the whole history thing and um
so I you know again um the sky's is the limit really. Whatever we decide we want to do I I think we should we should be spearheading the the movement because um it's really the best time of year in East Meadow um and and
it's the 250th birthday of our country. So I I think we I think we go big her. >> That sounds great. >> I agree. >> Yeah. So I I would say maybe I'll put
this on the agenda again. Maybe not for December, but maybe uh at some point in January. And >> in the meantime, we'll keep thinking about ideas and see where we land. I I will say this. Um it will be here in a blink.
>> Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Know that again. >> It doesn't take long. And like I said, you know, if you're not thinking about it, all of a sudden it's like it's next month. >> Yeah. >> Should we get this on the April agenda? >> Oh man.
>> Okay. I'll stay on it because we that that group is sort of trying to meet a lot to to make sure everybody's got their ducks in a row. So, I'll keep you in the loop unless somebody wants to come on the loop.
>> I'm sure I'll keep talking to you. >> True. >> Great. So, the next action items, um, from our last meeting, we had tabled the center town district bylaw, so we can bring that back under old business and see
where we go from there. Uh, we'll have our license renewals, um, town manager goal review. That one will be informal. It won't be the usual one that we do on the yearly basis where we're filling out forms, but we can just discuss where we think is our halfway
checkpoint in. >> Are you not meeting then in November? your next correct December. Okay. So, meeting in November? >> No, as of now, we don't have a need for a second meeting. So, we won't meet that week of November. We'll just meet December, >> the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. Yeah.
>> Yeah. >> Of course, if anything comes up in the next, you know, four or so weeks, we can always try to find a special meeting at some point in there. But there's no nothing I have that I think we need to meet before December. everyone the holiday break
>> and in December. Are you anticipating just the one meeting? >> I'm just anticipating that one again unless something comes up because otherwise that would have been like Christmas Eve or so. >> Yeah, it's Christmas week. >> Is that the 9th? >> Uh yeah, Tuesday the 9th. >> Okay. >> Y
>> and then we'll be back to our normal >> January. January. >> Budget. That's all I had for action items. >> You just did that. the budget ever since. >> It does seem like we just finished to start talking about it.
>> Ongoing. >> Yeah, Kim's had the FY27 recap in front of me since September >> right there. >> Well, if there's nothing else, I would wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving holiday and I'll entertain a motion to adjurnn.
>> So moved. >> Second. >> Motion's made and seconded. Any further discussion? Seeing none, Jim? >> Yes. >> Kathy? >> Yes. >> Hannah? Yes. >> Yes. Marilyn. >> Yes. >> And John. Yeah. Have a great night, everyone. >> Thank you.
33. Right.