Good evening and welcome to the July 8th, 2025 meeting of the East Meadow Town Council. I'll call the meeting to order and ask that we stand for the pledge of 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 brief moment of silence to reflect on all of the events. 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. Uh, next on our agenda for article 2, section three of the charter, we have our annual uh, town council reorganization. So, this is the time each year in July when the council elects a president and vice president
serve for a one-year term. And then, as our council rules state, uh president can also only serve two consecutive terms in a row. Someone else would have to uh take the seat. So, at this time, I
would accept nominations. I would like to nominate new Connor O'Shea to continue as president for another year. Second. Motion. Nomination has been made and seconded. Is there any further discussion? Anyone else?
You don't want it, Ralph? No. No. I'm I'm just like I said, it's one of those where in the past we've done it and then voted in someone else. I think basically it's just a nomination and then I think wasn't it like the first council meeting there was like three people there. Yeah.
Okay. Great. So nominations been made and seconded. Since we're on Zoom for a hybrid meeting, it'll be a roll call. Jim, yes. Kathy, yes. I'm a yes. Marilyn, yes. Yes. John, yes. And Anna, yes.
I'd like to thank you all for uh the confidence serve as your president for another year. It's been a privilege to serve you for the first year and I look forward to the next year working with all of you again. Good job. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you, Anna. And then nominations for vice president. I would nominate Anna Jones to be the vice president again. Second. You got seconded. Any other nominations?
Seeing none, Jim? Yes. Kathy? Yes. I'm a yes. Marilyn, yes. Ralph, yes. John, yes. And Anna, yes. Thought about it. Had to think there. Thank you everyone. Congratulations.
Thank you to all of you. Next on our agenda is public comments. There's no one signed up as I'm aware and I don't see anyone in the audience online or in attendance. Council comments. Is there any counselor with a comment this evening? Yes, Ralph.
Um, I would just like to do a large shout out to Lori Heert who worked at the police station. She was uh previously a dispatcher and then she worked in the office. She has retired and I just want to congratulate her and
wish her the best in uh the future and everything she wants to do. Um me and Lori go way back to uh high school graduates in 1982. And she'll probably kill me for saying that, but let's do that. But congratulations. Uh the town will definitely miss her and miss her smile
uh whenever you went inside. She always greeted you, welcomed you, and made you feel like anything that you had in front was important. I definitely appreciate that, and I know we'll miss her. Well said. Yes. Happy retirement. Yeah.
Uh, the only comment that I have is I just wanted to say thank you to everyone that was involved in either attending or participating or arranging in any way the Fourth of July parade and related festivities, especially since I know with the high school construction things
were a bit different this year, but it was still nice to see the community come out and support it. And I think I saw more people this year than I even did last year. I think the was definitely larger this year. Y was nice to see it was well attended. And thank you to the Rotary Club, too, for putting all of that on.
Absolutely. Town Manager report. Good evening, Tom. Good evening. Yeah, I guess I'll start uh since I was a baby. That's my favorite day of the year. Uh and we never disappoint, do we?
Uh and the weather was perfect. And so I'll echo those thanks. It a lot a lot goes into it. uh the parade committee, all their volunteers, like uh a lot of a lot of people have to come together for for such a great day and I'm always thankful. So, I I'll echo those thanks
as well. Um happy FY26. Congrats to the president and vice president. Uh and uh I I just wanted to shout out to the uh the finance team. um they don't get to exhale as much as the rest of us after
we pass the budget. Uh so they've been working diligently to close out FY25, which we'll uh see further on down the agenda. Uh and we'll continue to do so uh for the next month or so. Um and so
thanks to Kim and her team for all their work. Uh, a lot goes into uh well everything they do every day. But uh I kind of laughed to myself the other day like, "Oh yeah, that's right. The budget is still going." Like
uh I'm just kidding. I knew it was still going. Um thanks Kim. Uh attached our um the project reports for the weeks of June 16th and 23rd uh for the high school and auditorium. Uh,
every picture is just getting more and more exciting now. It's really starting to take shape. Uh, floors, walls, I mean, like it's looking like a building now, and it's just keeps being exciting. Um, I I had a site meeting with the Pioneer
Valley Planning Commission who's uh with assistance from Wesson and Samson and the D uh will be providing us technical guidance. Uh we're plan to submit a EPA brownfields grant for 70 Maple Street cleanup. Uh the deadline's in November.
Uh so we're really rushing to uh get all our ducks in a row. Uh as you can imagine, they're they're all like all grants competitive. Uh we have uh we think a strong case to make due to the location of the property uh near the
center of town. Um so we're we're working on all that. Um, so I I'll keep you uh sort of a breast as that process takes shape. But, um, yeah, I just wanted to give you an update on where we are and where we're going to be hopefully in November with a
pretty solid uh, application, including that uh, Yukon TAB uh, presentation that we that we worked on uh, this spring. Um, I also have uh, new fiscal year. I have
uh pursuant to article five of the charter uh I'm just want to advise you of the recent appointments to boards commissions and committees and start the 45day clock. Uh all these appointments uh and reappointments are uh existing
members uh that want to sort of re-up their uh service except for Lynn Booth who just retired as the executive director of the housing authority and now she wants to be on the housing authority board. So, uh, might as well
be a reappoint. Um, so, uh, all our, uh, applications are are there for your consideration and they are as follows. Uh, the for the board of assessors, Hayden Smith, uh, board of health, Rebecca Torch, Board of Library Trustees, Cynthia McNot, Board of
Library Trustees, Amy Paul, Housing Authority, Joseph Williams, Housing Authority Lynn Booth, and Planning Board Cassandra Sarah Swallow. Um, so again, uh, as in recent years, I'm just sort of letting you know about these ones that
are, uh, you have some some rights as counselors, uh, in the charter. Uh, so I'm just kind of letting you know that those appointments were were would be effective July 1. Um, and I I uh be remiss if I didn't take a
moment to uh pass along our condolences to Carl uh Otto's family. Um, Carl passed away on June 27th. Uh, longtime DPW employee, also served his country in
the Navy. Um he was hired in 1978, hired in 2001 and went right to the transfer station to work part-time right up until he passed away. Um I I just want to sort of postumously thank Carl for for
his service to his country and his community and uh he he's going to be sorely missed. He was a wonderful man. Um, uh, upcoming events, we have the ribbon cutting for the Westcom building, uh,
July 14th at 10 a.m. Uh, that's at 645 Shwining and Drive in Chabe. That's the new address. That's just not just a random spot in Chabe that we're holding the ceremony. Uh, and then, uh, as I was doing my read through, I realized I did
a copy and paste here. There are no Earth Day festivities on August 6th at 10:30 a.m. at the COA. That's coffee with the town manager. Uh so I'll have that changed before it gets posted on the website. Yeah. Uh well, we can talk about the Earth every
day if you want. I mean, it's pretty good. Uh so, uh I hope everybody has a a pleasant summer and that's all I got for tonight. Does anyone have any questions for Tom? Ralph, not Earth Day.
Earth Day on um on the EPA um for the Brownfields grant. Do we need to tell them what our proposed use is going to be or um or is it basically an open It's part of the application uh to to sort of let them know what our thoughts
are or what we think it could be used as. But are we bound to it? No. Okay. Nope. And then um I would like to make a motion that we wave the 45day um period for um the board of assessors,
board of health, board of library trustees. Um and actually all of them they've already served. Uh they and if they want to continue to serve, I think that's wonderful. And uh I think we should wave the the remaining 45day
period. Great. Is there a second? Second. Motion's been made and seconded to wave the council's remaining veto period. Any further discussion? Say none. Jim, yes. Kathy, yes. Yes. Marilyn, yes. Yes. John, abstain from the vote. And Anna,
yes. Motion passes. Thank you, Tom. Thank you all and thank you to our uh members of all our boards and committees and commissions who volunteer their time for their community. Uh it's a big commitment and
uh I appreciate them all. Great. Anything else on the town manager report? Okay. Thank you. No communications correspondence and announcements. We are
bit too early for our second reading for public hearing. I would entertain a motion. Okay. It just changed. See, if I read slow enough, we all right,
just pull that up. So, now that it is 6:15, this is a public hearing for proposed amendments to zoning bylaws regarding private car sales and a required second reading. The council members are Jim Leiden Hill,
myself, Connor O'Shea, Marilyn Richard Page, John Torch, and Anna Jones. Ask the clerk to read the legal notice into the record. Okay. The East Long Meadow Town Council will hold a public hearing on July 8th, 2025 at 6:15 p.m. in the media room of
the Council on Aging located at 328 North Main Street for a required second reading of proposed amendments to the town of East Sang Meadow Zoning bylaws to amend subsection 450-3.3 additional use dimensional and density regulations to add new subsection
450-3.3A 10 introducing regulations on used motor vehicle sales not including car dealerships and car auctions on private property. The public hearing may also be attended via Zoom webinar. Information relating to this bylaw is available for public inspection at the town clerk's
office 60 center square for the council. Gina lady town clerk clerk of the council. Thank you Jeanie. So then as part of the second reading under article 3 use regulations this amends section 450-3.3
additional use dimensional and density regulations under a general provisions. It would add a new number 10. Used motor vehicle sales on private property. A. No used motor vehicle may be offered for sale on any private property except in accordance with Mass General Law Chapter
90 and with a license granted under Mass General Law Chapter 140, Section 57. Individuals who do not possess a license under MGL chapter 140 section 57 must keep the following in mind. No more than one vehicle will be permitted to be posted for sale at one time and no more
than two vehicles will be permitted to be posted for sale on the same premise within a 12-month period. So that's our second reading. Then I don't know if our planning director has anything that he wants to add since the last time we talked about this. I just want to say when the plan may
subcommittee discussed this proposed bylaw, they definitely cut it down what it was originally proposed by the planning board. um especially by removing the clause where you can't have um more than 20 days of one vehicle
being posted for sale on a property and decide to just get rid of that alto together and just keep it to the bare minimum of what's allowed under the general law which is to only have one vehicle for sale at a time and then no more than two for sale in a 12-month period. So that's that's all the
comments I had and happy to answer any further questions the council has. Great. It is a public hearing. This is an opportunity for the public to provide any comments. I don't see anyone physically in the audience or on Zoom.
So, we'll close the public input portion of the hearing and then back to the council if there's any comments, questions, discussion. Comment off. Um so under um 10A uh the
last line as it reads right now it says um individuals who do not possess a license under Mass General Law Chapter 140 subsection 57 must keep the following in mind. Um I don't think keeping something in mind is um the
correct language. Um I would suggest uh must also adhere to the following conditions. Um and that way there you're not just saying oh yeah I thought about it but must adhere to the conditions must also adhere to the following
conditions and at least that way there makes those two conditions mandatory and And although I, you know, did speak and all on this, um,
I I still don't like making things more restrictive than what the existing Mass General law is. Um, Mass General law allows three vehicles to be sold in a 12-month period, uh, before they consider you a used car salesman,
basically. Um, and I just I'm concerned on how we're going to enforce this. Um, but I guess I guess looking at it, I'm concerned about all zoning bylaws, how they get
enforced. Um, and again, I think that's always been as long as I've been involved an issue. The one thing is I'm not sure if the town under their bylaws can
enforce what's in mass general law. Um, and again, that would be more of a legal question. Um, because what this basically says is if you violate, you know, this portion of chapter 90, then literally the town can issue fines
because you, you know, violated that. I don't know. I don't know if we have the authority to do that or not. And again, this is just something I've been thinking about. Um I would assume because it's in our bylaw that we would have the authority saying
that you had to follow Mass General law, but shouldn't everyone follow Mass General Law? Shouldn't everyone read it on a nightly basis? These are just thoughts and like I said, I wasn't sure what the other counselors had uh their thoughts on.
Um, thanks Connor. Um, these general laws have been in place for a while and um, they've helped the town in previous used car violations and um, I think that the purpose of what
we're doing here is just notifying the public. I mean, there are lots of things on the statute that come into play that we don't have in our zoning bylaws, but this is one piece that I think comes up enough that if I were going to sell a used car, I might look
to the zoning bylaws to see what what I can do and what I can't do. And it tells us, it references those two um statutes that we would not necessarily look up if we didn't know to do that. So, I think it's more of a user friendly type of
bylaw as far as enforcing um when it was enforced before actually police department was involved, but I guess that's on a case- by case basis. Um I just believe that it it it from
what what it was to what it is now. Um it's more of a um just a a notice. this is what controls our used car sales in East Saw Meadow and it's based on statute. So I think we did a decent job.
I would agree with that sentiment. I agree with Ralph in that in its original form before the modified language here. I wasn't in favor of it. I didn't think we should be more restrictive than what the state allowed otherwise. But I can see the value in trying to remind
people or make it more easily accessible that there are other rules not just that the town has promulgated but that the state has and we need to follow those as well. Any other thoughts? There's I would make a motion to close the
public motion to close the public hearing. Any further discussion? Seeing none. Jim, yes. Kathy, yes. Emmy, yes. Eron, yes. Ralph, yes. John, I'm a yes. And Anna, yes. And then is there
perhaps Ralph a motion to amend a proposed language? So, how about I offer a motion to approve um the zoning bylaw or used motor vehicle
sales on private property um with the change in language to u must also adhere to the following conditions. Second. It's been made and seconded to amend the
zoning bylaws with the modified language. Is there any further discussion? Seeing none, Jim? Yes. Kathy, yes. Yes. Marilyn, yes. Ralph, yes. Don, I'm a yes. And Anna, yes. Motion passes.
Thank you all. You Thank you, Rob. Thanks. No licensing matters, financial matters. Our first one is the acceptance of an FY26 FY25
EA grants energy and environmental affairs the amount of $22,000. Tom, would you like to provide a brief background to that for us? Yes. With the caveat that uh
I wish Rebecca wasn't out of the country. She spends a lot of time on this and she's going to watch us back and wonder why I fumbled it all up. Absolutely. Um, this this grant actually was a uh continuation of a grant that we
didn't get in the first place and then was granted during the time that we uh put the grant in for uh the mitigation fund. and it's essentially to help with the uh
con concept of the center town redesign uh with with thoughts of the multimodal transportation as well as what what housing density actually looks like. I think we had a real problem uh you know aside from the 40R component
with people visualizing what this would actually look like. Uh and so um this will be a grant to sort of help us visualize what what we would kind of what that center town district
planning would end up as in concert with a very similar uh line item in the community mitigation grant that the language looks very similar, right? Um so that will be uh we
will run those in parallel so that we're not duplicating any services. Uh well, as I as I understand it with my uh with my engineering brain, the whatever we think about doing
down downtown uh has to do with the Rotary and what any modifications we can make to to clear up congestion and traffic and accidents and just sheer confusion. uh
is going to take some public input and it's going to take probably a bunch of different layouts that all of which might not make any sense. Uh and and multiple years of trying to put something together that
you know makes sense for both from a design standpoint but also for the community. Um, so again, we'll we'll have a um a what do you call those? Consultant work
with us to sort of put some of those pictures together. And here's some ideas. Rob's um here's a plug for you, Rob. The the his um traffic um survey, it's on the planning website. I
had mentioned it a couple meetings ago. We're closing it Friday the 11th. Uh sort of getting everybody's input on you can you can guess where the responses are going and it's all towards this hub of ours that need some modifications in order to sort of ease
traffic and all the other intersections that are listed close by. So um most of those answers to those survey questions all end up back at the hub back at the Rotary. So, uh, we're going to spend a
lot of time trying to figure out what that's going to look like, what it could look like, maybe some different, uh, sort of concept plans to see what are some possibilities of of a change in design downtown. So, that that's sort of where this one is, as
well as the first one in the community mitigation. I I only say that because the language is very similar and there's a lot of the same language and so I assumed there would be at least one question about that.
So I preempted it sort of not not to satisfaction anyways. So looking at it under um and I'm going to jump ahead a little bit. It looks
like there's three separate grants. One's a transportation grant through the mitigation which talks about um uh the traffic studies and stuff like that all in the Rotary. Y um one of them looked more uh under the
mitigation looked more like a visual where they were going to show us y what the downtown could and this one sounded more like it was getting into the weeds as far as the mixed use um you know and what we can do can't do and
language the center town district stuff center town district stuff and the multimodal sort of transportation sidewalks and walkability so so yeah So let's call it qualitative, quantitative and transportation. That
that was like more design data related. So with that, I just wanted to throw out the 40R aspect. Um which we basically said that we didn't want to go with 40R. So I just wanted to reaffirm reaffirm. Yes. that
and again it's one of those sometimes tied into grants or other things and because the the proposal that we submitted for the grant wasn't in this work I just wanted to make sure that yeah no
you know there may be affordable housing aspects and uh and stuff like that are in it y but it's not notable yep no so again and that was sort of we're back to the the first thing I said at the first first meeting was if 40R
wasn't feasible or good for the town, we weren't going to do it. And then we'd figure out a bylaw that works for us, which is now where we're at. Uh which is all this grant funding is going to help try to shape that the way we want it without without 40R. That's gone.
I just found it amusing that all grants were 22,000. Yeah. It's like, wait a minute. Did I read this right? Maybe this one is referring to this one and um so it's actually a total between the two of 44,000 and then 60,000 for the transportation correct of
it. So and I did take the conversation there to the next agenda item and I but it it needed to be sort of separated out. It's all tied together but it's all right. We'll all be Yeah. I do think the transportation aspect is a good part of it that we didn't
necessarily focus too much on last time because even regardless of what you do with the car side of traffic, we know that there's some issues with crosswalks and safety of people navigating around especially with the Fourth of July festivities and stuff.
Yeah, it it's going to take a lot of thought uh and a lot of time to to get down to that point where everybody's safe in that area. Great. Any other questions? If there's none, I'll entertain a
motion. I move that we accept the fiscal year 2025206 EA grant energy and environmental affairs in the amount of $22,000 per Massachusetts general L chapter 44
section 53A. I'll second that. Motion's been made and seconded. Is there any further discussion? Seeing none, Jim, yes. Kathy, yes. Emma, yes. Marilyn, yes. Ralph, yes. John, yes. and Anna. Yes, passes.
Thank you to Rebecca and Tom and everyone else that is involved in putting these together as well. And next we have accepting the Mass Gaming Commission FY26 Community Mitigation Fund Award in the amount of $347,200. There any other additional discussion
on this or anything else you want to add, Tom? No, I guess I would say thanks again. Uh in addition to Rebecca, obviously uh Rob which our planning director uh had had a lot to do with this application. Uh Bruce Fenny public works uh Chief
Beecher, Chief Williams. Uh this is a very very collaborative grant application in which we meet uh multiple times to figure out the best way to spend this money on what a large amount
of people need. Uh that's that's um you know checks the boxes for the mitigation fund. So uh I just want to say thanks uh to everybody again. Um it's obviously a huge sum of money. Uh we're going to get a lot of cool stuff
done, a lot of lot of needs met. Um and the only thing uh with some of the the the original application was 350,000 in change and we were awarded 347. That difference um was one of the
PD's radar units that came with one of their cruisers. So it's not seven, it's six with this mitigation fund. So, that's the difference between our application and what we were awarded. Great. Yeah. The only two things that I would add, um, if I'm not mistaken, and
hopefully I'm not mixing them up, you residents will notice that from the last time we applied for this grant and received it, some of the radar signs that they've seen throughout town now were funded with it. Yeah. Last time. So, yep. Things like that and more will come out of this. And then I
think I forwarded it to you as well, but uh Chief Beecher also sent us a letter of support for this grant award on July 7th uh because it would provide some life-saving equipment and training measures that their department could utilize. Yeah.
Any other comments or questions? So, um, just for the public's, uh, view, what we're looking at in the grant is community planning is 22,000, transportation 60,000, public safety is
268,240. Um and I mean like we had just said some of them are to um purchase uh the rotary redesign feasibility study uh radar units uh seven new radar uh units
to install in the patrol vehicles, traffic cameras for monitoring traffic. Um the life packs for the fire department. Um ambulance equipment improvement. uh lighted mobile sign uh trailer. So, so this grant covers quite
a bit of public safety and all and I think it's wonderful and uh it was well put together and well thought out on what we needed. I agree and thank you for detailing that Ralph. Anything else? If not, I'll Marilyn just a quick comment. Um,
huh. Historically, the town has done a number of studies regarding the design of the motor. Are they around anywhere? Yes. Uh, I think I have at least two of them. Yeah. Um so the it's interesting because
the design parameters and and sort of thinking of design has changed so much and um it was always thought that with with with all these streets coming in there wouldn't be enough of a radius with sidewalks and bike lanes and we
wouldn't we'd have to take a bunch of property to do it right. Uh and now design has changed so much that um this isn't just a feasibility. This is going to one of these ideas that comes out of someone's head is is going to be a
winning idea that will work. Now I have thought about this many a night obviously but I assume that would mean that one or more of the seven that come in will end up being one way at some point or a portion of it one way. And
again, I don't want to speak for the designer, but uh you know, I know I don't enter the Rotary from Prospect Street because it's nearly impossible to move from that stop sign at at a certain point of the day. So, that may be a oneway up or something like that. Uh so,
I think it's always been what do we do with our seven streets and our Ripley's Believe It or Not intersection. But you have to think sort of bigger than that because it's this problem that we have in the center is the same problem that we have at
Shaker and Chestnut that traffic. It's like the highway. Somebody hits the brakes, everybody hits the brakes. Now we have congestion. So everything is starting there and just leeching out. Um so it's going to take more than just the
feasibility of the rotary. It's gonna be a feasibility of traffic in East Long Meadow. Um, again, it's a huge undertaking and I think that's why whatever feasibility came out, I think everybody just think
thought that this is a mountain we can't climb and I don't even want to try. Uh, I do study that actually did include the closing of a couple of the streets. Yeah. um not one way in. I would close
it, just shutting them down. So, um you know, I didn't and as I say, I don't know how many were done and I'm not looking to look back at that and say this is this was a good deal, but I don't want to reinvent the wheel and come up with something that did six
years ago. It's it's a great question and and I hear this one a lot. The first question out of the consultant's mouth is going to be give me everything you got. Okay, that's pretty much standard for everything we do. Uh, you know, they'll say, "Give me everything you got and we
will." So, good point. No, that's a very good point. And I would like to hope that knowing how much the state has been investing in rotaries elsewhere that there's got to be some other design ideas that we didn't think about 20 years ago that
maybe you're overfet now. Yeah. Over fat. Okay, there's no other questions. I'll entertain a motion. Make a motion to accept the Mass Gaming Commission Fiscal year 26, Mass General
Law, Chapter 44, Section 53. 53A. Oh, 53A. Sorry. Second. Motion's been made and seconded. Is there any further discussion? Seeing none, Jim, yes. Kathy, yes. Emmy, yes. Yes.
Ralph, yes. and Anna. Yes. And John. Oh, and John. Also, yes. Sorry, I was leaning forward. Sorry, John. My fault.
I think I I Okay, then. Next we have just the one authorizing the town manager to execute the purchase and sale agreement for real property with parcel ID 72-12C-0
on Allen Street like that's generally known as the Allen Street landfill. Would you like to provide an update on how this came? I ever uh so um
how far back you want me to go? Uh 1975. Yes. The town uh leased this portion of the property uh on Allen Street for a landfill back in the 70s. Uh it was
closed in late 70s, early 80s. Uh the town after that subsequently got the parcel with the brick house if you know where I'm talking about where the power lines come over by uh by Tanglewood and Skyline Drive. Um and
D uh after we closed Summers Road has been honest to close Allen Street landfill. Uh, this landfill was more of a trash dump than uh a bulky waste and and wood like Summer's Road was. Um, and
although it was closed um to to the design parameters of 1980 whatever, uh, you can imagine that was just kind of covering everything over with some dirt. Uh, that was about two feet. Uh ish ish
Maryland. Okay. We we did some test pits that that would say that they weren't quite too fat. Anyh who, so we've talked about this in the capital plan for a while about uh Allen Street back when I was in DPW, like when I first started about uh putting the CAD design, the um
corrective action design together to close this. The big hiccup had always been we didn't own the property and our stance was that we were not spending public funds on a property that we did not own. Um
so back in FY22 we appropriated uh $30,000 to buy this parcel. Um and D coming out of COVID
say like a couple years later really kind of held our feet to the fire and I I maintain the stance that for for a number of reasons we didn't want to spend money on someone else's property and so uh we tried to get D to engage
the other property owner to help us close the landfill. uh DP didn't think that they were ever regulatory going to get this person to close their side andor in concert with us. So, the option was to purchase the
property uh money we've already appropriated or close the landfill with some sort of access agreement, try to recoup our money after the fact with who knows how many lawyer fees.
um or give them back a clean parcel of property, which uh is just never an option for me. Uh I did uh before this purchase and sale sort of came to light, I did start to head down a eminent
domain uh path. Uh but that was stopped by a conversation between our attorneys and this purchase and sale agreement. So, this is $20,833. I get that right? Uh, which is that
maximum amount allowed by law, which is the uh three-year average of assessed value times 25%. Uh, uh, I think that that's sort of the gist of it all. Uh, this way when the
property is um, you know, when the landfill is closed up to D standard, this will be all our property. um that that we can do with seaf. So that's that's the 30,000 foot view. I'm happy to get into the weeds. I've actually
been out there a bunch and it's a lot of weeds. So uh uh any questions or um I just want to add the part that you were talking about with um the dollar amount. This was the same thing that we ran into with 382 North Main Street
except that we're under that threshold that Mass General Law Chapter 30B specifies. So the average assessed value for the past three years was $16,666. Y but MGL allows you to purchase it for up to 125%
of that average assessed value. So that's what gets us to the $20,833.33. But then my only question for you Tom was I know there was a question that Rebecca, our legal counsel had about whether 30b applies to just that amount
that we're purchasing it for or whether that has to be inclusive of like any closing costs or so forth. Do you know if she ever she didn't she's actually on vacation. Um but I think that was um the portion of
the motion that allowed me to still negotiate um if for instance that had to be inclusive well then that number would have to come down uh purchase price I mean so uh that was the only I had asked
this morning to make sure that we had the motion right um and uh on advice of councel he because the deal is not on to add the word ne allow me to negotiate and execute so that if any of those unanswered questions were answered uh I
I could still um and again the issue you raised would only drop the price uh and again we appropriated a amount more than this price anyway did I hear correct the motions say to negotiate and exeize
authorize and create and execute. Yeah, they're not in there. Yeah, she's not in there. Okay, sorry. And then just for the benefit of the public too, in case you're wondering where this landfill was on Allen Street,
it's essentially across from Skyline and Woodbridge Drive on the opposite side of those streets. It's it's this we own 9.9 acres. This is 10.1. It's a it's will be a challenging site. There's a lot of
resource area. It's right on the the rear property line is the uh Mil River. So, um it it it's challenging to say the least, but could be uh a cool parcel for reuse
at some point for something. Uh it's certainly it's certainly a good-looking piece of property for sure. Any other comments or questions? Then I'll entertain a motion. I make a motion to authorize the town
manager to negotiate and execute the purchase and sale agreement for the acquisition of real property on Allen Street in East Long Meadow, Massachusetts with parcel ID 72-12C-0 known as the Allen Street Landfill. Second.
Motion's been made and seconded. Is there any further discussion? Seeing none, Jim? Yes. Kathy, yes. I'm a yes. Marilyn, yes. Ralph, yes. John, I'm a yes. And Anna, yes. Motion passes.
Thank you for preparing that, Tom. And then next, we have accepting the FY2026 chapter 90 aortionment for $92,58.73. The only question that I have about this, Tom, I mean, it's good that it's a
little more money than sometimes in the past. Um, do you have any idea from a DPW perspective what streets they might be looking at using this chapter 90 money for? Uh, on their what what where they're at on their
Yeah. I don't um uh I thought uh Pleasant was coming up because they just did the sidewalk and I think that Maple Shade was done, Porter was done and Pleasant hasn't been done in quite some time and it's in
pretty bad shape. And I think we're sort of focusing on those main roads and and specifically some that uh are are most welltraveled. Uh, so I'm pretty sure um Mark I asked Mark last time when I gave
that update. I don't remember when it was a couple months ago about what was coming up this year. A Pleasant Street is is the one that's on the list for for the next season. Um, so that that's that's my
understanding. I don't want to speak for them and obviously these things change. Uh and I do believe that there's still one more uh legislative action that has to happen for this for us to access this money.
The I mean the additional from from whatever 580 whatever we usually get to get to this number there is still legislative action that has to take place. Uh and that's why the letter says contingent upon. Um, so but again, we'd
be accepting a grant for an amount that would be more. So there's sort of no harm, no foul from that sample. Maybe just as an action item for August, if you could get an updated copy of what that list is just in case anyone's
wondering what's next. Everyone's wondering. I know. I know. Thank you. If you could keep the list to like six pages or less, that'd be great. This was if this was included in fiscal
year 2026, it's budget. The governor signed the budget last Friday. Yep. So, I pretty sure that might might have been the final. So, then it was the transportation bond bill that they signed that was back in like May because it went through the
House and the Senate. She signed it. But there's one more action. I I like in a supplemental. Yeah, it I I printed out the article. Hold on. The uh uh they have to file a companion
bond terms bill which must go through the legislative process before funding can be made available to the communities. So, it seems like this particular increase in chapter 90, like everybody got the message. It it got to this point and I don't see any way that
it's not going to happen. I just want to say because I read it two hours ago that there there is still one last thing that needs to be signed and or voted on. And I don't know what that legislative action is. And I would actually I think your input out
I think that makes it sound like they just have to negotiate the financing terms for it and that may be and and I don't know enough about the process per se at the state level. Uh but it looks good.
Yeah, definitely good news. Okay. Would you like a motion? I sure would. I make a motion to accept the fiscal year 2026 chapter 90 aortionment in the amount of $92,58.73 cents to be expended under the
jurisdiction of the Department of Public Works said sum to be reimbursed by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Second. Motion's been made and seconded. Any further discussion? Seeing none, Jim? Yes. Kathy, yes. Emmy, yes. Marilyn, yes. Ralph, yes.
John, yes. and Anna. Yes. Motion passes. And next we have our fiscal year 2025 year end transfers. Know if anyone has any particular questions for Kim since she's since
she's here in the audience. Um, I think my general comments were it seems like we've had a really good year and that there's not an excessive amount of transfers that we were trying to find money to shuffle
around. There's a lot of just the usual snow and ice that's always to be expected and just a couple salary line items overall. So, that was positive to me that wasn't a lot of stuff bouncing around. Any
comments or questions from anyone? I just have one quick. Um, we're transferring money to uh long-term interest. Um, it's a extremely small amount, but it doesn't seem to make sense. How do
you transfer it into long-term interest? So, we have budget line items for short-term interest, long-term interest, and principal. And she was like short-term principal, long-term principal. I honestly I just made a note that I want them combined for next year's budget. I want them in the same
department because it's just this is the interest that was due on the short-term note, the ban. This is the interest that was due on the long-term note. One of them was short $95. We're just moving the money to the other one. We should be able to do that. Okay. Shouldn't have to bring it here.
And I guess that was part of sounds interest sounds like hey it's income coming in but what you're saying is what we're paying out and we ran okay yeah so I did make myself a note I want that all in one department so as
so you read my mind great any other questions on transfers There's none. Then I'll entertain a motion. I make a motion to approve the fiscal year 2025 year end transfers totaling
$147,815.12 as presented. Motion's been made and seconded. Any further discussion? Seeing none, yes. Kathy, yes. I'm a yes. Marilyn, yes. Ralph, yes. John, yes. and Anna. Yes.
Motion passes. And of course, thank you, as Tom said, to Kim and everyone in the finance team for putting all of that together, even though thank you. We're usually done by Mayor June. I know there's a lot of work that you guys doing through the summer vacation. So,
thank you. Okay. Next, we have approval of minutes. A motion to approve June 24th. Make a motion approve the June 24, 2025 open session minutes. Second. Motion's been made and seconded. Any
further discussion? Say none. Jim, yes. Kathy, yes. Yes. Marilyn, yes. Ralph, yes. John, yes. And Anna, yes. Motion passes. And under old business, we just have an
update on the 382 North Main Street lease documents. So, as Robert requested at our last meeting, Bob had sent us the list of all of the leases that are still in effect at 382 North Main Street. Um,
I didn't have anything in particular, but figured I would add it to the agenda in case there were any comments or questions that anyone had on uh the information. It was great reading. Um, no, it was just nice to see how each
one was uh structured and set out and the length of it and um and how we're going to be able to try and condense that to get what we want done when we want. So, thank you. Yep. Great. Anything else? Okay, seeing none.
Next under new business, we have the town council will reaffirm the council rules or offer any amendments or modifications to our council rules. Does anyone have any suggestions before we burn them? Before we go to bey,
I'll jump. This is a very minor thing. It's actually just a typo and it's under rule 5A meeting definitions. In that sentence, regular meetings of the town council shall that word be should not be there. I think it just
came out quickly. So it would read without it shall not be less frequent than once monthly. Yep. Shall be not beard or not to be. Just remove that be.
Oh, shall be. Dear Jamie. Yep. Thanks. Bless you. Bless you. That is a good suggestion. Anything else? R. So under
officers, the first paragraph, the last line, rule one, council officers. Um the first paragraph, the last line, it says a president and a vice president election of which shall take place at that
meeting, comma, honor before the next regular meeting. Should just end at meeting should just end at meeting and remove the honor before the next regular meeting. That makes sense. You see what I'm talking about? Thank you.
Um, what was No. Um, are you done? I'm sorry. I want to interrupt. No, that's okay. About um the reorganization with a full council present. Did I dream this or was there some
discussion about um if a full council wasn't present for a meeting then a subsequent meeting we could do it by majority or did I just dream that up? That's actually in the charter that we haded when I researched that. So, we had
changed the charter a while back to say as I remember I did look it up. So, at the first meeting, ideally the full council is present and then the reorganization would happen. But if the full council isn't, we have
30 days to reorganize. But if the full council still isn't present, then a super majority vote could reorganize. Got it. Five people, could do we want that to reflect in our rules? Um
I'm just I'm just cuz cuz I thought it was in here. I didn't I didn't even think it was in the charter. I'm I'm sorry, but I remember having a conversation and because we were discussing if we were going to have a full council tonight and um so it you
know doesn't say anything like that here or shoulderence or we could just say pursuant to article two section three of the charter. So it would say like at that meeting, pursuant to article 2 section three of the charter.
Yep. Yes, I think that would work. That's a good idea. Okay. At least it reminds us to look in both places for Exactly. Where do you want that inserted? Um, so at the first paragraph, we'll say election of which shall take place at that meeting, comma, we're going to
remove on or before the next regular meeting, but in its place add pursuant to article 2 section three of the charter. Okay, got it. Good point, Mary. Well, you did the research. I couldn't find it. Anything
else, Ralph? Um, rule two, role of the council president says the president town council shall be the official head of the town of East Swan Meadow for all ceremonial purposes. Um,
in practice, the town manager has always been the head of the town for ceremonial purposes. Um, so maybe we can just adjust that. The town council should be the official. We could just remove that whole last
sentence eventually. And again, I think the only reason I bring this up is nowhere in the charter does it say that the council president is uh for ceremonial purposes the head of the
tenant. um we actually elect some or we hire someone to do that. Um, so I don't think the council rules. I think they should reflect uh what the process is. And again, I'm not sure how to adjust. Just strike it. Telling you my thoughts. Remove it. Then
what about and this is uh not in regards to any present company, but potentially in the future um having some delineation where if there was a town ceremony for ceremonial purposes, it's the town or the council president who represents the council or his or her
designate. That way in the future there's no fight over who's gonna be speaking at an event or never fight over that stuff. We're glad if we do it. We we don't it actually comes up a lot because um not we're a very rare form of
government. Uh, and we get a lot of stuff that needs to be signed by the chief elected official, which doesn't make a whole lot of sense when you have a charter, but actually the chief elected official is the president of the
council, I would assume. Uh, and so we sort of run into these little piccadillos every once in a while. Oh, so the second to the last line, town council shall be the Long Meadow Town Council shall be the or the president of the East Long Meadow Town Council shall
be the official head of the town of East Long Meadow Council for all ceremonial purposes. So the president is represents the council. That makes sense. Okay. Yeah. So we just add the word council in there.
Exactly. I think that alleviates everything and and that way there if you don't want to show up to something you can just tell the house. Oh, that makes sense because otherwise like the town manager in our charter case is really the chief executive of the town.
Right. The king of England car. Yeah. Right. Okay. Um, rule four, uh, duties of the presiding officer. Uh, the very last paragraph says, the presiding officer
may speak on matters under consideration. However, prior to doing so, he or she shall indicate they are speaking in favor or in opposition to a matter. I'd like to remove um the however prior to doing so they shall
indicate how they're speaking because with all due respect a lot of times as a counselor we don't know whether we're going to be for it or against it discussion and then you hear um considering that we basically saying the
president's the only one that has to say how they're going to vote before they just didn't seem to make sense. So just remove the clause. Remove it. Yeah. Stop it. Consider Exactly. So remove what clause in rule four?
However, going forward. Oh, right here. Is that the one you were talking about? I'm sorry. Yeah. That's a good point because I can say over the last year I haven't always moved whether I'm in favor or against everything. And when I was president, I was the same
way and Kathy was probably the same way. out. Um, rule 5C, introduction of council business. Under the first paragraph, um, the last line says, all petitions submitted to the council for action must
also include a list of all associated pros and cons in order to convey positive and negative impacts. Um, I would suggest we remove that. It's not something we do in practice. um to ask someone to come in and try and give the
negatives on what they're asking for just never seemed to make sense to me. Um I understand the philosophy behind it. Um but I think it's our job to look at something and say, "Hey, this a positive, this is a negative." Um to ask
a petitioner to include that just never seem to we've never used it. We'll put it that way. Um, I think that makes sense and I think as you point out, it's our job as counselors to sus out that information pro and con, but it doesn't have to be
the people coming before us that are going to do all of it on our behalf. I will end with that this year. Next year we go on to page four and five. No, that's all I had.
Let me just double check. But I had one other that I Oh, sure. under rule 11 around the uh committee parameters and guidelines. It it pertains to
licensing matters standing committee. Um it's the last sentence in the description. It will undertake a bianual review of the town's fee schedule beginning January 2020 and make any re
recommendations for changes no later than July 1 of the review year. We just um back in where are we John? June agreed to um a fee schedule for our bylaws with the understanding that we
would review it annually. And since um license fees are part of that to me we don't need that sentence anymore. It's it's flies in the face of what we all agree should be in the bylaw. So instead
of bianual, why not just an annual review? I I just think we remove it because it's spoken to already in the fee schedule, isn't it? Yeah. Right. But don't we submit the fee
schedule to the standing licensing committee? Yep. You're right. Okay. So if it's already going to you? I think either would work because then in the first sentence of it, it does say that the purpose is the establishment of any fees required by MGL or local law. So
you could kind of consider that as you could infer that you're whatever is sent to the committee from us annually. They could review it and recommend. So either way, I think it would work there. Any preference on that? Council,
should we strike the sentence? Take out the last Take out the last sentence. I agree. So, take out the last sentence. Starting it on. Yeah. But I And in addition to that, there the definition says we'll work with the town
clerk in the establishment of any fees required by MGL or local law. That's true, but that's not the only thing the committee does. So I would like to add on to that sentence that says and to review any licensing related matters
that come before the committee is generic enough to cover all the other stuff that comes to us. Yeah, that makes sense because there's been well it could violations, it could be questions about whether an applicant should go forward. It could be anything
or like when the state changed the rules and it's like how do we now operates that porum license. Yeah. That come before the town council. That come before the committee. Okay. Good.
Anything else from anyone? If there's none, then I would entertain a motion to amend the rules as described. So moved. Second. Motion's been made and seconded. Is there any further discussion? Seeing
none, Jim, yes. Kathy, yes. Emmy, yes. Marilyn, yes. Ralph, yes. John, yes. And Anna, yes. Great. So, the rules are amended. And then as part of that, one of our council rules was that we would affirm them
individually. So yes, what I could do is I'll make the changes we look at approve tonight. I'll mark the amended for the latest date which is tonight and I'll send it to all of you including that last page for you to sign. If you see anything I missed, let me know. But
then if you can just return that last page signed to me and Connor, I don't know if you want to accept that to me electronically or a wet signature. It's up to you. I think either is fine as long as you're okay with that. Electronic signature is legal universally and legally now. Yeah. And
far easier and easier. You can buy a house with electronics. Yeah. Right. My stamps. Great. Uh let's see action items for our next meeting.
[Music] Crazy to think that we will be in August. For our next meeting, we will hopefully have the year-end financial report closing out FY 2025, potentially any capital pro project
balances if there's any that can be closed. We'll review the executive session minutes that were kind of in limbo perpetually. Uh we'll have the road paving plan list from Tom. And I think that's everything
that I have so far, but we'll see what happens over the next month. There's nothing else for action items that anyone has. I'll entertain a motion to adjurnn. I make a motion to adjurnn. Second. Motion's been made and seconded. Any further discussion?
Seeing none. Jim, yes. Kathy, yes. Yes. Yes. Ralph, yes. John, yes. And Anna, yes. Oh, thank you and had a good