good evening and welcome to the February 25th 2025 meeting of the East Town Council I'll call the meeting to order and ask that we stand for the Pledge of Allegiance Pledge alance to the flag of the United States of America and the repu for which it stands one nation
under God indivisible with liy and justice for all silence to reflect on all of the events going on thank you in accordance with Mass General law this meeting is being recorded by elcat if there's anyone else in the audience if you could identify
yourself hey seeing none public comments we had Nicholas torsa signed up I know running a little bit behind so he'll hopefully be here how do you know that
to there anyone else that would like to make a public comment if it's the council's pleasure we'll move on and we could always come back to comments later hey Council comments any counselor have a comment just for the chair just very briefly um
the DPW a commendable job on the roads storm um you look at all these other pictures from around cities and towns with the problems that they were having they're pretty free and clear here in town so great job by DPW great I'll pass that along thank you yeah espe that was such a tough storm deal with freezing
rain and ice and possible yeah good thing there's no school any other Council comments okay seeing none Town manager support Tom hi good evening little brief this evening um so
attached uh as per usual we got a couple weeks of reports on the high school um so uh we've gotten so far to this point that there's a topping off ceremony tomorrow which is all right I like it I like the enthusiasm thank you
I don't get a whole lot of that in the manager's report uh and uh so that's sort of a ceremonial the last beam being placed on the on the structure so um it's very exciting obviously the the Project's
come a long way in a short period of time but uh every Milestone just as exciting as as the first so um the center down town District uh steering committee met for a final time last Wednesday to close out the the center
Town District planning process um uh culminating in the submission of a draft bylaw from pvpc uh so after a nearly a year of uh conversation and and public interaction um you know we we're we're
almost there on sort of a creation of the bylaw for the district which uh thanks again to the public and everybody for for all of their input throughout the process I want to thank Rebecca for for guiding us through the process uh the steering committee for volunteering
their time um to inform and educate the public on a very comprehensive subject uh our friends at pvpc uh for listening to the community and Catering to all our needs um and a big thanks again to the people s for showing up in impressive
numbers I I guess when when they were so excited that we had 100 people at the first one we uh we were we were kind of proud that that they were so surprised that our turnout so um thanks to everybody for for the you know the
entire process really um I recently met with members of American Legion Post 293 in the historical commission uh as we're preparing for the 200 50th Anniversary uh of the American Revolution uh the celebration begins
this year actually uh with a ceremony at Town Hall to commemorate the shot her around the world uh from April 19th 1775 which was sort of the kickoff to the whole Revolution so uh we're still working on the details I'll obviously keep everybody updated uh it'll be
similar to our Veterans Day ceremony out in front of town hall they'll March from the legion and uh waths and the whole bit there's been quite a bit of work I'm I know some of you have been on the emails uh Ken Hancock who's one of our uh historical Commissioners has done uh
I an amazing amount of research on the veterans of Islam Meadow and even before we were Islam Meadow um so we'll have quite a quite a bit of historical information um but I I'll keep you uh updated on the details there um so
upcoming events we've got the topping off ceremony tomorrow at noon at the high school and uh I have coffee with the town manager next Wednesday March 5th at 10:30 at the COA um and if there's any questions I'll answer them but that's all I got for
right thank you Tom any questions chair sure um so Tom I'm just um politely asking at the next meeting in March or whatever it's been a while since we've heard from multiple different departments what's been happening like with the rec department
okay winter seasons going whether it be it and that um is there any way we can get a a little bit longer managers report that just highlights each department sure it's been quite a while so okay thank you any other comments or
questions I seeing none um Communications correspondence and announcements tonight we have the recognition of our fire chief Paul Moret on his [Laughter] retirement uh so with that uh presented
to Paul J moriset and recognition and appreciation of 34 years of dedicated service devotion and commitment East Meadow and the Isam fire department best wishes for your retirement from the Isam Town Council it's your retirement date
March 7th 2025 [Laughter] I hired I really did hire you I think you're hired [Laughter] me thank you congratulations we hear about the budget before you go the Swiss
Watch most important thing of our job just having a conversation thank you again for all of his years of service and any of of course have worked with them or known them for quite some time and it's definitely been an incredible journey
y okay see what time is it it is 6:09 so we are too early for our 6:15 so I would entertain a motion to move out of order to matters second motions made and seconded
any further discussion seeing none all those in favor please say I I oppos up to financial matters our first topic is discussion with the school committee regarding the FY 26 budget evening hello hard act to follow with the chief
congrats chief on your retirement you need a moment yeah if you don't mind we'll open the meeting uh call the meeting of the school committee of February 26 open the meeting at 610 uh presid tonight uh s trulio William
struther our assistant superintendent for business Pam Blair and superintendent Gordon Smithson thank you much so as a continuation um a little over a month
ago um we had the first joint meeting between some school officials and the the Town Council at this part two um now that the has had an opportunity to host the meeting and come before us again so I'll open it up if you guys want to
start with any comments and sure and we're we're thankful that you allowed us to come back again and and have a full uh meeting and we know more now so that's helpful for us and um certainly this is one of the most challenging budget years uh for the school
department um so far and we're happy to the discussion with all of you um we've had some bigger meetings uh um some smaller meetings and we're very grateful for how well the process has gone so far thank
you thanks good chair sure um could we hear from the town manager as far as the condition of the town and what we're looking at for finances um I know the school budget's a huge part of it absolutely but without knowing from the town where we stand
with money it's difficult Ming forwards okay if that's okay yeah not that I'm putting you on the spot but now no we had this nice sheet that I sent you guys and I actually uh shared
it with Gordon and Pam and the school committee as well um so yeah thank you this is our sort of financial position uh as we sit here well I guess it would have been 11 days ago when it was authored but um just kind of get a feel
for for where we stand here uh so our our fiscal year 4024 certified free cash um was was 10,971 177 which uh you know through a series of votes had moved uh some money
around not too a couple months ago I want to say uh so that available balance is down closer to our Target of 5% at 8% which is uh like 5.69 five million uh we used 1.2 for to reduce the long-term
borrowing for the purchase of 382 North M uh three and a half transferred uh into the general and capital stabilization compensated absences in OPB uh to try to hit those Target numbers or get closer um and then
370,000 uh for the Maple Shade roof feasibility study um our EXs Levy capacity uh grew a little bit from FY 24 to FY 25 now sits at uh
1.6 million uh we had 551 th000 in New Growth we estimate around around 500,000 uh typically when we are at this phase of the budget uh values increased 5.8% and uh tax rate was reduced uh 6 cents
uh in spite of an estimated 36 Cents of high school debt that was before this last borrowing that number will inevitably go up this year uh so we've we've managed to keep the EXs Levy capacity uh consistent uh with the prior
year um sort of due to a targeted effort all of us with our fiscal responsibilities and by management reducing budgets were appropriate um and then obviously a big one this last time was the health insurance which had sort of been historically over budgeted uh it
started right around covid and just never we never brought it back down to the actual level of spending for health insurance so that's uh going to come down and obviously we'll see that uh in our free cash turn back at the end of the year there won't be this an another
million dollars or so coming back um so sort of where what we're looking at at this point in the budget prop 2 and a half allows us to raise the budget around 1.3 million and then uh estimated increases for growth local receipts and state aid which uh we usually anticipate
2% uh came in at 1.4% um and that was broken into I think 1.1% for uh school for Education chapter 7 and then offset receipts for school
choice um then the UND unrestricted went up about 5% but that there was a total of only a 1.4% increase and again this is the first iteration of the governor's budget so these numbers are going to move probably four times before we on
May 20 whatever um so we've got our initial numbers for health insurance and and uh retirement which are largest expenditures and we sort of look to them as the biggest increases or some of the biggest increases from year to
year uh and those are looking at 1.3 million or so between the two of them so we're really only left uh with with a million doll for everything and increases uh that's all of the Departments uh without without cutting
into that excess Levy um so which again we've been trying to make maintain that uh that excess Levy number uh which again is sort of another reserve of money we can tax the community that we haven't in previous
years um our bond rating uh again because of our sort of fiscal Health uh stayed um uh doublea plus um we borrow I we borrowed 83% of the total required expenditures for the
high school so far so there's still one more uh sort of larger purchase um and as we were going through this uh process last year that Bond rating can and sometimes depends on your reserves and the activity in those reserves from year
to year uh mainly if your reserves go down a significant amount all of a sudden uh maybe you're not as attractive uh to lend money to um uh the budget performance uh I guess I will say because of all that we ended up saving
that 24 $25 million on on the first round of borrowing for the high school so obviously uh keeping our reserves and our fiscal management where it is has served us well in the longterm which is sort of the point of the the the whole
thing your reserves kind of set you up it's you know for lack of a better term your savings account for sort of how you're looking down the road um the budget performance is for for fy2 is good snow and ice uh
currently 124,000 in deficit which we see every year uh Town expenditures are in line with the budget revenues are in line with the budget we've we've seen some increase and struggles with uh special education costs uh which will no
doubt continue uh for for whenever things change somehow uh and uh our investment income is already over a mill million um due to investment for the high school uh the natatorium banss and bond
funding um last year we were able to uh complete over $9 million in capital Improvement plan projects uh 1.85 million was funded through a combination of the general fund budget free cash ambulance fund and
our remaining arpa funds uh 1.3 was bonded in the general fund that was for the second part of the where's the modular is that Mountain View yes uh 2.8 funded
through a combination of bonding and retained earnings from Enterprise and other in the ambulance funds uh 50 through a CPC Grant and uh three another three million funded through other grants so uh you
know a lot of work done last year uh with our funding almost $9 million worth of projects I think anybody that's been to the the capital planning meetings it's a little bit of a somber more somber of a tone as we're giving them the uh the number in
line with our policy which is more like 1.5 1.6 million but when you add in all the other work we do with capital with grants and uh uh the Enterprise funds and all that we were we were up over $9 million last year so that was great um
our current Reserve balances Reserve funds for Extraordinary expenditures that's the one that's budgeted for fy2 uh we that was budgeted at 110,000 we're at 67,000 which is remarkably remarkably better than last year uh we had quite a
few uh expenditures outside of what we were planning on um OPB uh 13 million 13.6 million that's 23% of our Target uh we had uh we had seen a
um a stat yesterday per capita uh Isam is number three in the Commonwealth for opab investment it's pretty good um the stabilization fund Target was 8% again that transfer uh got us
right to 8% at just under 6 million uh the capital stabilization fund has no target we'll be talking about that later that has a million dollars in it um and the compensated absence fund has 67 six almost 677000 and that is 100% of our
liability so um retained earnings we target at 20% um water fund uh has 900,000 available that's 24% of the budget sewer is at 641000 that's 23% of the budget the
storm water fund is at 330 331,000 that's 70% of the budget uh and elcat is at just under 500,000 and that's 23 35% of their budget Don says you're welcome Jamie um and and our across open space
uh historic affordable housing and undesignated the CPC fund balance is 2.3 2.38 million which is a good chunk of money we also have a bunch of money coming back from projects that uh somewhere
around 300,000 from uh Heritage Park uh and and various other projects that have come in under budget or whatever so um obviously you can see that uh we are in excellent shape financially from a reserve standpoint uh which has helped
us out with our borrowing and bond rating and and all that stuff that we need to to to move forward here the the the issue we're dealing with now is this the operating budget and um you know we're going to have some challenges getting to a number for that April 1st
submitt again without cutting into the levy a million dollars across uh School uh DPW police fire um it's going to be a challenge um and uh I guess we'll have to get
creative uh to say the least but I think we're also going to have to um probably cut some some of the budget that has been submitted at level one I don't know to what extent yet we haven't had those meetings with the department heads um obviously we've had a a few meetings
with school um at this point and again I Echo that I appreciate all the communication that has happened up to this point probably more than certainly more than we did last year um which I really appreciate uh and it just it works it it's an easier process when
we're all sort of talking uh as much as we can about the inevitability of what we're going to have to do for to get to to April one and then may whatever so um that's that's the gist of it um again
it's still February uh we have a lot to sort of hammer out internally we have a lot of information that will undoubtedly be revised from the state um and and we got some we got some work to do
in the coming months but um that's where we're standing right now I'll just uh open up to you guys if anybody has any specific questions and Kim apologizes uh she had uh had a vacation already set for this week and since we usually have
this meeting uh in February we we didn't think this was going to be an issue but or in January but um so that's what we got I'll do my best we got Pam so we're awesome thank you
Tom so yeah before we jump into the excess level capacity y so I know we usually leave what is it 10% or something um right some capacity and I'm assuming that's in case State doesn't come in
with enough at least then we still have some right we're trying to we we try to leave that buffer like you would leave any other Reserve fund so that if some extraordinary thing happened between now and May 28th there's still enough money
that we're allowed to add right and that's our that's our excess Levy so yes that that it's sort of important because that's things that we can't control right we can control our budget but if something happens from on the state
level and we have to adjust we we we need that capacity to to adjust to things that we don't have any control of okay if we need to though we could take a little bit or whatever yeah so you still want to leave a little buffer yes
I think maybe three fiscals ago we were at two and a half million so so yeah within a few years we've we've used a million of that um to to handle the operating budget and I think that sort of our Trend that we're noticing here is
again that two and a half and the local receipts and that that curve is not as good as big as our budget increase curve and they're they're they're they're looking to intersect unless we interject uh however we can whether it's
the budget side or the expense side or the revenue side um and and we there's a lot of options that we have and there a lot of things that we can do we just have to we have to put our heads together and decide what what's the right thing to do and and that's that's sort of where we're at
it's I mean yeah great the floor is yours so we have come a long way since the beginning of the budget process as I alluded to originally this is um one of the most challenging budget seasons for us which
is interesting with um our um Financial picture of the townside are the town reserves so good so um we're hopeful that we can work in conjunction with the council with Town manager to figure out a path forward on um how we might fund
this budget we've made significant Cuts already and uh I think we'll have Pam if you want to go through uh the sheet that we've handed out and uh we're here to work uh as the town manager alluded uh collectively together so thank so the
last time we were here um we didn't know our number right never want to tell my number until I really know the number um but but what we did know is we were having some challenges in this current year which are going to roll over into next year and perhaps even the following year um what did we identify we are
using all of our funding sources for special education um and that includes the million doll rollover for circuit breaker as well as the 1.6 million in Revenue Vue this year which means we're not going to have the million dollars to roll over next year so that's significant the other thing was um thank
goodness that we had um school choice Revenue that had accumulated a bit because we needed to go into their just under uh $500,000 so between the 1 million and the $500,000 for School of Choice you see where I'm going with that so we already know that in FY 26 we're
going to need to increase our special ed operating budget by the $1.5 million that's in addition to the contractual obligations um we talked at that meeting just as a gentle reminder I think the town is probably very similar to the school department with 83% of our uh
budget is on the salary side so it's pretty significant you know the contractual obligations um so where are we at now we know our number um I feel very confident with it I wish it were a smaller number but it's not uh level services for the school department would
be approximately uh $3 million which is um we put into the charart here because I wanted you to kind of just get a visual um I love visuals uh to to plug in like what does that mean for the school department budget and what does that mean for the Chapter 70 that's
coming in so you know with a $3 million increase um we typically over the last three years have have asked for a 3.9% increase um obviously an 8.57% increase is not a reasonable budget um so the school committee
recognized that right away um as did Gordon and iing this wonderful news um so we've had many many meetings behind the scenes um on on um what can we do to reduce this level Services budget we still want it to be clear the level Services budget for the school
department really is $3 million but we know that the town cannot afford that so we've already looked at some items on what can we do to to uh bring this down so the best person to probably talk about that is U Mr Smith um if you don't mind Gordon to talk about the um so if
you look at the the middle portion of the chart the one pager uh the first area that we looked at was and I think um Mr Christensen mentioned this is we we tried to actually free up Revenue not go to look to reductions
first which unfortunately is the bottom part of the uh middle portion of the page here uh and so we had utilized a certain amount of um school choice money in this Year's budget to handle some um
special education increases just to give you an idea um looking at Transportation alone uh next year it's projected to increase about 22.3% that's not all special education but a lot of it's driven by special
education um at a district um tuition % um some of that's what we know we have to budget for in terms of being prepared for next year just to give you so the drivers of that
8.57% really are special education Transportation um and then contractual out and and I don't think um East Long Meadow is unique um in these challenges I think districts around us are going through the same thing and certainly districts in the Eastern end of the
state um having sat in a few different meetings um on Transportation specifically because that was something that um was supposed to be reimbursed within circuit breaker and they were only able to reimburse at
44% um so this is a struggle that's going on throughout the Commonwealth anyway back to what we were looking at in terms of freeing up revenue for FY 26 we know that um we will have a rollover in school choice because we
allowed that to accumulate over the last four or five years thank god um and so we're injecting $350,000 of that rollover into next year's budget then um we have a
five-year curriculum renewal cycle departments are fed on that renewal cycle and throughout that process when they get to that fourth um year they're in what we call the purchasing year so they're identifying either new curricular
materials or um curricular materials um that will supplement what they're using and we have uh usually either two large departments in that cycle or possibly three departments with um two of them being a little bit smaller and um
80,000 probably wouldn't be surprise given the numbers that are on this page doesn't go that far anymore however next year we're going to freeze that and so the 880,000 would be put into other operational
accounts our teachers have been uh fantastic as we take on this Challenge and um they're collaborating with us and so we yesterday were able to um approve two memoranda of understanding where one
of which um freezes for one year contractual professional development money that um they have the ability most years to present an idea Workshop or take a course and get reimbursed up to
$650 um next year they agree to freeze that so that frees up about $126,500 for next year uh our counselors do some exceptional work with our administrators five years before this five
years way more than five years um uh five days before the school year and five days after the school year which has been somewhat um consistent across contracts you'll see however in times like these you often will also see
that's an area where unfortunately you may have to go to reduce and so we've looked to reduce that in half and so that's five and so they can divide that up whether it's three at the beginning two at the end or vice versa um and so they've been great in terms of
collaborating with us the school committee yesterday at their meeting looked at um how do we possibly expand school choice and where because we've always looked at it uh very much in a targeted way where we're looking at what
classes uh specifically are are least enrolled when I say classes I meaning grade levels so if that's second grade possibly you look there um if that's third if that's fourth this past year I think it was fourth and fifth where we opened up slots and we haven't opened up
an incredible amount of slots because we're never looking to overtax glass size current supplies anything else that um may involve when you bring up may be involved when you bring on new students what we haven't done since the
first year is we haven't taken um Upper Grade levels we haven't taken at the ninth grade level specifically and um last year we didn't take at the sixth grade level but those are two grade levels that are often in demand and we get most of our calls and inquiries
about school choice sixth grade ninth grade um so the school committee yesterday after um some discussion and look at all this they agreed to expand for next year 10 slots at the ninth grade level and 10 slots at the sixth grade level which will bring in an
additional $100,000 into um the school choice revolving account then we will have some leftover uh or rollover from this year KN on wood in school choice and so we also um
looked at using some of that without exhausting as Mr christon talked about the reserves that would be our one area of reserve and so we're not looking to take it to zero if possible um and then finally uh the
athletic fee which has been um I would compl the school committee on the ability over probably more than 23 years but I at least could take it back to 23 years um it's been consistent at $149 for every
sport a lot of uh towns around us or throughout the Commonwealth will CER their athletic fees and so a sport like skiing or a sport like hockey may have a significant higher user fee than a sport like cross country um our user fee has
been 149 for All Sports each season and um has been consistent for at least 23 years we're increasing that by $50 but stay under the $200 Mark so it's $199 and that would increase revenue of
about $30,000 so all of that um accumulates to $822,500 on the revenue side which is significant um and certainly does do some things not only um put certain
amount of burden on families but also stops curriculum and professional development um for a year at least then uh unfortunately we know that that's probably not where we're going to
have to stop in terms of looking at our budget request so we do have three retirements that after working with the leadership team and then discussing it with um school committee we do feel a retirement at the high school retirement at Mountain View and a retirement at
mebrook could go unfilled it's not ideal but um those are areas or retirements that we feel we could not replace then we also looked at I'll just term other right now since we're in a
public meeting some other position one at the high school one at um burland and one at Maple Shade and each of those um respectively would create uh $243,000 in revenue on the first part
and then $224,000 $966 um on the second part overall um bringing the request down to down by $1.29 million and so that would be a reduction
of six total positions so far really hoping to go to the creative collaborative IDE is Mr christop is talking about it's um six positions has an impact the the top part although
creating Revenue still will have an impact so as Mr Smith alluded to the original uh level Services would have been 3.85 uh reduced our request to 1794 which includes all of those um
reductions numbers one through five this in full transparency will not be available next year we hope um we're hoping to get back on track with a lot of those things um and so there is some uh risk of a financial cliff next year as well so just I want us all be
prepared on that um uh as the town manager spoke of uh with a a million available townwide if we were to assume half a million for the schools or 600,000 or 400,000 whatever but if we say half a million uh we're still
1.2 uh million short um and so we look to be collaborative in that regard um we have other options to look for um but I would ask that uh the
council um in your future actions this tonight um consider you know taxing and appropriating versus taxing and saving uh this is the schools departments rainy day we have arrived um so here we
are but we will get through it and um we have some ideas and um so far there is some impact already next year will certainly be felt 're hoping to minimize any future impact but um we're here to work together and
that's uh we're one town and I and I realized that the towns side has um its own Financial challenges as well um so whatever we can do to to keep uh as many uh positions really is what we're trying to do at this point and to keep
education number one in Massachusetts and in the country so whatever we can do thank you U just a question just to make sure I had the numbers right so the original and the the green line on the the chart the original
35 but then when you take out the blue number one z79 that's correct that's correct yes and so the 3.85 was level services in terms of um Staffing but wasn't level Services necessarily in the other um
portion of it more level funding some variances so um but yeah with these reductions then now the request 1794 so the school committee voted last night for us to submit that level one budget at that blue amount so be working
on that tomorrow in munus and we'll work with uh Gordon and uh Kim and Tom and get you those numbers yeah I definitely appreciate all the hard work that you guys have put into that I mean certainly that's not easy to go through all of those well over 10 things that you've
put together there but um it's no number is palatable of course but that's definitely a lot easier to work with than original Quest so I appreciate that a lot totally and it's been very collaborative appreciate the process with the council
president and town manager and we will uh we'll get through this and we're hoping everybody comes for chicken parm tomorrow C you coming anyone have any other comments thoughts questions um what is curriculum renewal
I'm that's a foolish question no not a foolish question at all so basically what we always want to make sure we're doing is first and foremost that you're aligning yourself to state standards and Frameworks um and those
get revised themselves um there on a cycle as well uh but also you want to make sure that you're staying up to date with current research and so um recently uh and this was actually coming out of covid
um desie had a lot of grants that we were able to utilize to bring in a new literacy program um in the elementary schools and to also bring in a new math program that's now um been in existence for three years but we can't always rely
that it's desie is going to come through with grants as as you know after Co there are a number of grants that came through um but curriculum for curricular grants were one of the grant um sources or res ources that were provided um but we with the school
committee's wisdom in terms of for planning had put together in the operational budget about $80,000 to allow content areas to go through that cycle and look at make sure that they're researching look at their materials they
have a year to do that then to start to research what would they do if they had um chance to purchase what programs are out there what's Cutting Edge so to speak Desi's come a long way sorry I keep saying desie Department of
Elementary and secondary education has come a long way in providing um a lot of research in ways of assessing curricular materials so they want to make sure that districts they want to partner with districts where possible um to make sure
that high quality curricular materials are being put in place so Jonathan it's a line item in the operating budget that I zeroed out for next chair do the chair sure um just curious on the bottom required local contribution um does the local
contribution include um is it just uh that's the minimum Forge the school exactly but does that include stuff like our DPW maintaining no that's on the end of year report and it's more spending it's so so that would be additional on
top whatever it costs us to run the schools and all sure okay and that's comes through on the end of year report yeah yeah that's always the one that's a through yeah this is uh going to be a difficult trying year and I'm sure going forwards
we're probably going to have a few um we're definitely going to have to get creative let me rephrase that you're going to have to get well we're hoping because these conversations are happening much earlier than they have in the past um that we
will be able to put our heads together and come up with some you know solutions to this very challenging year for us I do have one question I know Greg you mentioned um you know that tapping into some of these different reserves
like the the school choice revolving and such good to have you know another cliff in the future for other budget years Beyond FY 26 is it possible to see what hypothetical would look like if if this was approved like as is which you know
who knows if that's going to happen like what that potential Cliff could look like I can work on that I don't know if we want see that well in in it's a real thing and that's why we brought it up because we want you to be aware of it and we're going to
collectively work on that in terms of cost for the school district I mean it's always uh worthwhile to take a look holistically on how we're doing things and how we can be more efficient so it's real and it's I know Pam spoke about it
half million and a half that's a real number um that we're currently short uh so we will do our work um but we also believe in East Al Meadow and they're wanting to provide a quality education
to the students of the town so um we're grateful for that and uh we're going to get there we'll make it we'll make it work collectively definely I think one of the things too that we've been prioritizing is trying to ensure that not one of the
stakeholders if you will shoulders the burden of this so trying to look at what can we place um on our families in terms of the athletic fee what can we look to place on our um administrators because now if the counselors aren't there for
10 days and they're there for five some of that work is going to have to come on to the administrator's plan what can we look at in terms of resources being the curriculum renewal freezing so I think we're trying to make sure that it's a very balanced approach so that lastly
students are the ones that are impacted they are the ones that we need to ensure continue to receive top quality education that Greg was just speaking about and really the only way to do that is to ensure that we're taking as much of this away from what's going to
directly impact them and placing more on the shoulders of others um because we have to make sure that we preserve the quality of their educational experience I definitely agree with all of that and also thank you to you and Pam especially for putting together the
information it's definitely very illustrative to be able to get all broken out we like the visuals too revise revise the level revise the level one first so that visual on the recap gets better wish wish it was that
simple and I'm sure we'll have continued conversations of course but yes we're starting this now instead of April yes and Pam's been great she's been updating us as a committee every meeting now once she recognized what was potentially
going to happen it's not quarterly every meeting there's a financial update so that we're really able to keep better thumb on the pulse of what's going on this year so we can better plan for next year and there's been a lot of discussion about um I know we've talked about special ed you know maybe the way
we've been doing business for the last 15 to 20 years is not how we need to be doing things now our children are not the same the problems are different Co did change things and just seeing the ramifications of um some of our very youngest children with very challenging
problems that we didn't see before so we're reevaluating a lot of those types of things um and it will take some time it's it's not a quick fix you know they conversations it's analysis it's um discussions it putting a little funding in because perhaps we need to keep a a
program inh house and not have these kids go out but it's going to take a little bit of money and a little bit of time and just strategizing on where to move that money and how to better utilize it so I just wanted you to know that a lot of those conversations are happening in leadership team meetings you know with Gordon leading that and
then bringing information back to the school committee um so I just thought it was important for you to know that and it's real it's a real thing if if you go into the schools now um um things are different than they once were and so it's our responsibility to educate all
the students and that's what's created this financial hardship it's a real thing um and so here we are well thank you thank you thank you um the town side I think you said
you were starting to meet with the heads next week y so I'm sure after that we'll have more ideas on side of things we have about 1.7 I'll talk to everybody I can join they open their meting you say
chicken parm chicken par tomorrow 12 o' everybody coming you to be there you guys need to close your meeting we are going to close our meeting okay um so in that regard I take a motion to close please motion made by Sarah second second by William all in
favor say I I those poos done motion carries three to zero we are Jour thank you so much thank motion to move back to yeah okay do we have a motion to have to public speak yeah do you want
to do that now or do you want to do the public hearing we'll do the public hearing okay so I make a motion that we move back to uh 7A is public hearings second motions been made in second and any further discussion all those in
favor please say I I I hey we are at our I think I lost the paper that you Genie but mind down okay this is a public hearing for a liquor license transfer for to's Asian Cuisine located at 31 Harkness Avenue
the council members are Jim Ryden Kathy Hill Anna Jones myself Connor OA Marilyn Richards Ralph pagee and John torsa and I would ask the to read the record notice is hereby given under chapter 138 of the general laws that dnw Asian
Cuisine DBA TOS Asian Cuisine has applied for a transfer of an on premises all alcoholic beverages license currently held by hoo Corporation DBA to's Asian Cuisine located at 31 Harkness Avenue East Massachusetts the
Town Council will hold a public hearing on the application on Tuesday February 25 2025 at 6:15 p.m. in the council and aging media room 328 North Main Street East Long Meadow the hearing can also be attended via Zoom webinar for the council g r quag Town CL of the council
thank you Genie and at this time I would uh turn it over to the applicant if you'd like to make a brief presentation and explanation that's before us certainly thank you uh Mr President my name is attorney Michael Fenton uh with the law offices of shat Schwarz and Fenton in Springfield our address is 1441 Main
Street uh I'm joined here today by the principal and owner of dnw Asian Cuisine Inc uh mindong as well as Jonathan who is the principal of the existing operator of uh to asan restaurant located at 31 Harkness AV uh as the
clerk pointed out this is a transfer of ownership uh Mr Dong's entity dnw Asian Cuisine Inc proposes to acquire all of the assets of uh of the existing entity hoi uh hoi Corp uh there's no
proposed change to the name of the facility no proposed change to the seating arrangement uh we do have an amendment to the lease uh signed by country development Corp and Mr carw parella assenting to to the transfer of the sale um Mr dong intends to keep uh
as many of the employees who are currently employed uh by this long-standing and successful restaurant in town uh employed uh through his future ownership U Mr dong and his other uh applicable managers are all tip certified uh and he also runs a successful business in Springfield on
Boston Road known as uh Kieran Asian barbecue former Olive Garden um he has no violations or any issues with the City of Springfield at that site uh we accept all the conditions of the existing permit including the hours of operation which will remain the same uh and we are scheduled for a planning
board hearing a week from this evening uh to assign the special permit to Mr Dong's entity thank you great thank you at this time since it is a public hearing the public now hasn't addressed the council if there's anyone in the audience I seeing none I will close the
public input portion of the hearing there's any comments or questions from the council yes none I'll entertain a motion to close the public hearing move second motion's been made and seconded to close public hearing all those in favor please
say I I opposed public hearing is now closed and I'll entertain a motion to approve I make a motion to approve the transfer of an on premises all alcoholic beverage license for dnw Asian Cuisine Incorporated doing business as to's
Asian Cuisine 31 Harkness Avenue currently held by by jiabo Corporation doing businesses to Asian Cuisine made and seconded any further discussion seeing none all those in favor please say I I any
opposed is approved thank you very much thank you thank you both return to public comments and follow the regular order of the agenda so moved second motion made in seconded any further discussion please say I
I okay passes time it is public opportunity for Nicholas late a little late on the time welcome how are you how's everybody doing good if you could just state your name and address for the record uh Nicholas torsa
283 North Main Street East meow tors Suns Landscaping um just uh so question and kind of a statement so um local Town excise tax that is paid yearly based on the amount of vehicles that you have on
the road per plate or per business per personal use um is there anything set up in motion currently right now or going forward to deal with the road situation uh side and Main Road route going
through town as far as fixing maintaining or possibly redoing at this time you want to answer that or you want me to jump in if you want to go for I would love to jump in so the state of Massachusetts has
granted us um or they will be redoing Summers Road Route 83 Connecticut line to the rotary they are also going to be doing Prospect Street from the Connecticut line to the rotary we have currently a grant in
place which is for North Main Street from harness F to Dearborn so they they extended it to lell Extended to lell gotcha um which will be starting FY 27 in FY 27 um reason for
that is that one will take in all the traffic lights and infrastructure and all where the ones Summers Road and Prospect Street are basically a repaving right um the town's going to be responsible for doing any Culvert repair
ahead of time if it needs it and then the state will redo it our chapter 90 money is what I like to call our pothole money right that's about all it covers yeah just that small repair great I I I sat up all day trying
to figure this out for you there is Ralph I appreciate it um no I just so and then what does the so excise tax specifically what does that go towards is that what it goes towards goes to the entire town gotcha so all the the whole taxes that
are raised it goes across to all the services so not just the roads gotcha but we do get money like rough s from the state so gotcha and why do they just do from Harkness to that like why would they do the whole stretch we have to
sorry go ahead oh that's when we submit that it goes this a transportation Improvement AKA tip project and we have to submit those but there's only a certain pool of money that right at to all sorts of communities across Western Massachusetts so it be very unlikely if
we were to say let's do all of North Main Street the entire section that they would approve that because that would eat up most of that budget so we have to chunk it out unfortunately right which we did just get approved for from LEL all the way down to Brooke okay five
years after that one so how much would that have cost the town $16 million really that much that's today that I mean that's that's just for Deerborn what they're doing just the this first phase and that's pricing right now right
current today yeah could obviously change surely it will defin not gonna go down yeah right so I if you don't mind I think what he what what he's getting at is that is a sort of creative idea in terms of routing
specific percentage of the tax pool to certain things and again uh he's right this guy's right yeah you're right it's just a big local Revenue pot right I down to the state
Nick you gotta go to the legisl maybe we gotta go to the top no so I think it's it's I travel a roads the roads are probably 85% of my job so that's why it's just like it's like every time I hit I'm like oh my God man come so the council has also impressed upon me or asked me to
sort of try to solve this riddle because like the school was talking about roads are not a problem for just eong Meadow no this chapter 90 formula is 20 over two decades old it's no longer appropriate and it's not in line with
costs certainly right so uh these are these are the challenges that we have to try to figure out how to best use this money but Ralph's not wrong $500,000 when I started back in 2017 did $2.2 million of or 2.2 miles of road now
it does about a half a mile oh wow yeah so we've seen it in business too the spike of money is incredible yeah it's yeah things that were 12 13 Grand are now 20 21 Grand correct so so yeah this is this is one of our
other challenges but it's a big one and it's and obviously it's important because of our infrastructure but it's also the one everyone sees everyone drives exactly right um and obviously this is not a great snapshot shot because it's pothole season no yeah and
we just had a snow ice yeah even though we did a great job this is when that the roads start coming up so yeah and I always see them guys too on on Facebook it's terrible they bash DPW ter I I hate that yeah no that's tough them guys work you know they they do a
good I mean they're out there yep you know and they you know that's another story anyway thank you for the thank you thank you so much thank you okay next we are back to financial matters we have accepting a hazardous
materials grant for $5,000 make a motion to accept the Hazardous Materials Grant amount of five grand for Massachusetts General lock chapter 44 section 53 act second motions been made in seconded any further discussion say none all those in favor
please say I opposed passes job Paul next we have approving our February 11th Open Session minutes uh I will make a motion to approve the February 11th 2025 Open Session minutes I'll second that motion's been made in second in any
further discussion seeing none all those in favor please say I I I any opposed motion passes old business we have adopting the hazard mitigation plan you got to make him come on I know
gotta make him chief um I this is the plan that um we had two public meetings um not public hearings but public meetings uh to get the plan out there uh it basically um aligns the town uh with FEMA approval to now apply
for federal grants uh Federal actually federal and state grants that are FEMA or um FEMA which will allow Bruce potentially with covert repair projects and and um he's he's tried several times for generator projects and um it's just
it's it's a struggle it's very competitive um so hopefully this round you know now that we're back we're back in it for five years now once once it's approved tonight we we're you know the plan is approved for five more years so um it's you know it's kind of a
no-brainer for us great and I recall this was the presentation that um came before us a few months ago too right yep the last one was in October and then it went from went from there to FEMA and then FEMA had a one quick change which was easy
for internal it was more just a language change inside and then it was approved yeah great five years doesn't seem long enough our eyes and we're gonna be doing this again say did this it's funny because it the last one we did was in
2016 and because of covid everything got delayed and it expires in five years but it it yeah like it was a blink of an eye and unfortunately I was the only one around on the committee last time and it was a whole bunch of new people in a community which worked out great because there wasn't a lot of edits that needed
to be done but it just takes time right great right thank you for putting it together don't worry other thank you coms I'll entertain a motion to so through the chair I noticed on page four they have a specific uh layout for adoption of the plan is that something
that we actually have to do or is that just a recommendation and just say hey let's adopt it I'm going to kind of defer that to the town manager we did talk about it uh the the I did not all 124 pages but I did page
four the the it seemed uh to it says sample adoption yeah you you adopt how you would normally adopt the plan okay like this that that is like a guideline for us use uh you can fill it in any to mitigate hazards and and so rather than
go through all that we decided that a regular motion of adoption for you is more than adequate then I would make a motion to approve the hazard mitigation plan as presented second motion's been made and seconded any further discussion saying
none all those in favor please say I I any oppos that's the plan thank you thank you thank you thanks Chief see you tomorrow okay next we had uh we visiting the capital stabilization
fund policy has it been something from previous meetings when we had created that fund this just circling back to suggested language changes on the fs
policy so here the chair sure I thought we had asked um mention that we wanted um this to be more of a municipal building Capital stabilization fund and I thought when we said that that the wording was
going to be adopted or changed and then sent back to us okay and I may have misunderstood that like I may supposed to do it and send it but I I thought I thought we were going to have a conversation because I didn't realize that that was
we can have that no no no I I like honestly wasn't sure that's I know that at least you and Kathy were were wanted to see the building I didn't know if that was sort of the I thought we were going to have a conversation to revise it in terms of what we wanted to see if
if you just want if you just want the and again I think I misunderstood that um and when I saw it on the agenda uh I was like oh boy and then I didn't get back around to it till about 4:30 this afternoon after I signed my name on the beam at the high school um
so what whatever your pleasure is if you don't want to waste time talking about it in in in the meeting we can kind of come up with something and and bring it to the next meeting um if if that's what we're thinking I mean I think we we we
were looking at this like large expenditures which let's face it most of them will be building projects um and and we have other funds that we could if we needed to do to to do elsewhere um
and that that's fine and I I apologize for if for dropping the ball on that uh REI the revision piece but we can work that language up if it's the council's pleasure to to make it a building capital building stabilization
fund and and revise that language for next time is that the pleasure yes so that was I thought and and that's why I think we changed the amount that it says to go into it because if we don't have any money then we don't put any in but if we
have a little bit extra and we want to stash them away towards I mean we're going to have the school middle school I believe the fire department um renovation of um the town hall when we're finally in there don't forget the
PD that's probably on top of I thought I hit that that was this fig but that's probably top of no and and and this is something that because it hasn't been budgeted for yet is not an increase if
we don't put it in this year so in all likelihood this will be a suggestion not to fund in the budget this year because we can leave that out of an increase which is really all we're looking at at this point is how much that budget can increase and how much people need it to
increase so that's where we're going to have to that 100,000 probably seems like an easy one to just say right we're not doing that and then we won't create a hole because we've never budgeted for it so when we get to that point all these things that we've budgeted for and then
we take a year off and then try to put them back it's like 1.5 right it's not really just putting it back to where it was we've created a hole or a cliff or something like that that we have to keep chasing um so
I apologize we will update this language to sort of indicate the the that this will be a building Municipal Building stabilization fund um and and change all the other language as as necessary I don't know are there any other parameters that the council wants or is
it mostly just Municipal Building just want to make sure there's nothing else yeah yeah no assuming Municipal Building would mean either the purchase of a new building the rehabilitation of a building um engineering for new build emergency
reps right well so and like we just talked about Capital last year the only thing we bonded was the modular right right so if we had 1.3 million or more in there we could have just paid for it and not took a bond out y um so I mean
that makes sense those are the projects that that this account is most likely going to be used for yes um so yeah we'll just we'll we'll revise that and it'll be on the next agenda if that's that's fine sounds like a plan
great next up we have under new business we have the discussion of a proposed on an amendment relative to massage therapist facilities for a first reading so this actually isn't the first reading right this is whether or not we
want to send it to the planning board it wouldn't be a first reading of the bylaw because we haven't re technically received received one yeah so the way it works is they can petition us we tell them whether we think it's even a good idea then it goes to them
for a public hearing V so then when it comes back we do the first reading and then the second reading as far as I understood anytime that they send us anything even if it's just their petition it is a first reading then we refer it back and then
when it comes back to us it's a second reading we can keep continuing it beyond that we admit I think that I think that is technically how the law reads however hasn't been operating procedure
under the charter um but I I I I feel like the the we've been doing things a certain way and and we can interpret the law different than we've been operating so I think the charter says
that petitioner whether it be a separate department or an individual within town can petition the council to make amendments changes measures um if we so choose then we
assign it to the department and say okay yeah we think a zone change is good um let's send it to the planning board for them to create it and I think uh as we've talked about our bylaw process before it doesn't make a difference on
this one but um yeah um and again I think first reading isn't advertised right so you don't have to hit the the I mean it's advertised but it's not a hearing it's not a exactly um there's there I know maybe
this isn't there there there's it seems a little weird that if the planning board wants something they send it to the council and we send it right back to them right which was a position with the charter it didn't make that much sense
coming from a department but coming from a citizen it makes sense like like if Mr torad wanted us to consider a zone change right well we would say hey that makes sense the planning board should take a
look at this and see about doing a feel like there's something in there about the format right if if that is the request it's not properly formatted as a bylaw which this request is right like he they've redlined it and they've followed the the
rules in the charter for a first reading first submitt if it was just hey I'd like to make a zone change then you decide the the marijuana thing you decide if you think it's worth even going through the process so it's like a
there's like I know we've always sort of done it like this but I think we were looking at the the general law and our Charter and I think if it's properly formatted the submitt from planning board if it's if it's properly formatted can be the first reading I think it's
confusing and tricky and general yeah did I even was that English was talking everything else so because of that it is I think a first reading and when you look at the charter it says prior to final passage each introduced bylaw shall be read at two separate Council meetings the second of which
shall be a public hearing it doesn't really say when at what point you do the first reading but if you go back to petitioned uh measures any measures introduced petitioned um that you petition the council and the
council directs where to go so that's further on in the charter right the the bylaw sections the bylaw section says if you submit a uh one subject right properly formatted
they didn't the one night you want my Charter the planning board is is the applicant right the planning board is is coming to us saying this is what they want to do right I was at their meeting I
rest and they all spoke um all spoke in in support of what this is and so I I hear what you're saying and I agree with the person who comes in and wants to create a Zone change to provide 10 wheelers in their neighborhood or
something that would certainly come to us first and we decide that's ridiculous anyway um no the planning board did discuss this and they all were in favor of sending it to us and Rob's card did out so I think I'm I'm gonna
refer back to the then which one the drones oh the drones okay planning board created a bylaw and sent it to us and we said local publication doesn't make any sense we're not sending it back um we're not going to ask you to do it
because go anywhere but wasn't that different because it wasn't like affecting like zoning and table of uses wasn't that just a general that's bylaw that they were asking us to consider okay General bylaw I think that's why
it's different because anything that's so what I would love to see start I know is a procedure basically and so that way they're going forwards we can say hey if it's a zoning by law this is and if it's
a zoning by law brought To Us by the planning department then we just jump right to the first reading and something that we didn't start talking about back in December but honestly with on our back burner to get
back putting that chart together of all the steps we have to follow but yes I agree we definitely need to so if we do a first reading tonight then do we have a discussion on it or do we have a discussion before a first reading on whether or not we even wanted
to go forwards I think we could do the first reading and then whatever motion you wish to make after that whether we send it or not is I would just like to give a little background on it um I was on the
planning board when it was done but I do understand and now we can do a first reading of it and then and I nominate all right anyone other than me to read itone to read the the letter
sent to us cover L yeah okay Dear Miss quagi at their February 18 2025 meeting the planning board voted unanimously to move forward a proposed
zoning Amendment for the town council's initial consideration and review the proposed amendments pertain to allowing massage therapy by right and no longer via special permit the amended sections
include the deletion of sub of section 450 subsection 8.9 massage therapist facilities and modific to table 3-1 schedule of use regulations text in blue indicates
language to be included while red that's crossed out text indicates language to be deleted the planning board as the proponent for the zoning Amendment believes that it is no longer necessary to have massage therapist facilities go through the special permit process while
they already undergo extensive licensing through the Board of Health and the state the board board hopes that the Town Council will consider moving this this proposal forward and to jump start the public hearing process oh for the board I'm sorry
Robert ay chill thank you Marilyn and then would someone like to read article 8 special permits it's just really the part that's I guess I'll just say the article 8 special permits it would cross out and remove
45089 massage therapist facilities a b c d and e and it would renumber 450 d8 10 to 8.9 and then under the table of uses under bylaw number eight massage
therapist facility or licensed massage therapy Salon it would strike out under standards and conditions see article 8 and section 45089 and it would change Commercial Business and Industrial and mixed use Village from special permit to a
yes okay with that the first done I know rest from the planning board is here I don't know if you have anything I just want to said uh we riew the types of information they need to
provide to the state to get a license and I also compared it to other personal services like barber shop there was in preparation on this meeting I went on the state site and you know they have to provide a FL plan you know
they have to have all three of those hairdressers Barbers massage therapies also have to get a Corey check and provide that so I think that was an issue and then the other thing is I saw a channel 22 uh back channel 22 report back in
2017 where Mr Paige was the uh spokesperson for the town she indicated that the initial reason they had put it in was they wanted to catch kind of bad characters but having a special permit didn't make that happen they weren't
necessarily catching the perpetrators of what had occurred in town before so it's a way to kind of make it a little easier for the massage therapists to start their operations here in town just felt it was great thank you r can I just add
something sure um for years the town um had um massage therapists come with a license from the state um a facility obviously was inspected by the Board of Health and a business certificate and it
worked fine for years and we had one situation and I understand why it happened I do I just think that lots of things happen even if we have all controls in place and this is one thing that is it's I think it's overkill for
one person to just want to open up and and massage my back that kind of thing so I really um I think it should go to the planning matter so good any other comments R so um the
history was that we put the special permit in place after there was a facility operating illegally one of the things that the police department was concerned about was the state was unwilling to pull their license and we
had no recourse in closing the business down um although they were doing things they shouldn't we couldn't close them down the reason we chose a special permit is because we could revoke the special permit and say no you can no longer
operate there a lot faster and more efficiently than the state with that being said do I think it's Overkill I did at that time um I think we were punishing a lot of massage therapists for one facility that
operated outside the rules um I still believe that way um I don't have a problem with removing it but just understand that we do risk the possibility that if we have another facility come in that
we may not have um the mechanism to shut them down as quickly as we'd like to um through the chair I don't know if anybody knows this but do we Happ to know if the state has changed their regs in a significant way on massage
therapist places to sort of maybe be able to have more teeth there there is a professional vision of the state someone's committing the crime they can revoke their licensed Opera that's well I think that's what I was
going to ask if they would if the massage place whatever therapist facility was doing something improper was it oh yeah so oh yeah
they're jail afterwards on it so town the town would make a application to the professional licensure divion of the state they would just pull a hearing and revoke their uh certificate to operate or their license
to makes sense to me Tom so thank you for being here uh Rob had a conflict Russ was nice enough to to show up um in his stad um since I've been manager I've had multiple conversations with this
type of business and meaning this exact business basically complaining about how long it takes to fill a space that's already full right somebody leaves and they just want to go back I mean obviously there's new furniture but and and it just the special permit process
and it just takes a long time to happen and I think there's enough in place at the state level that to come to EA Meadow and then have to go through it all again is sending a lot at least half of those people I talk to to Long Meadow
or wilb Bram so I think it's trying to cut down on people not doing business in Easton Meadow because our process is a little bit cumbersome and again these are just conversations I've had with applicants Andor people that have moved
on um apparently they're they're a tight Network the massage therapists but um so that that that's sort of just my input from from two years of sort of listening to this topic makes a lot of sense thank you Tom
through the shair just to point out historically it wasn't only happening in E Long Meadow in Long Meadow just just so that it wasn't just East long just wanted to make
sure that's exactly I'm reading the reports I'm curious what long meow did in response they closed them down just closed them down uh the state police came in and closed them down here we go so
Anna was my colleague in the DA's office I remember this investigation in several municipalities um this is my first thought when I saw this on our agenda tonight and to your point maryn One Bad Apple kind of ruining it for the rest of them my first saw was do you want to give up if it's already in place do you
want to give up that leverage po I do know um in one of the other locations where it was shut down they were back in business like within a week so I get not maybe there's a different process we can go by that's more efficient
than um being cumbersome but do we want to at this point give up the you know give up that leverage where if it does come down that road you do want to shut something down and Mo and move it along you you do want that ability I do know one of the other places and it was you know it was
beyond I think what some folks might some misdemeanor human trafficking was involved and it was a very lengthy and very costly very cumbersome investigation that was run and it's um you know the person was literally back in business after all of that they were
back in business within a week in not in East Long meow not in Long meow but another uh smaller municipality so I throw that out there just you know through my own experience and kind of watching it all unfold um it's nice to have that leverage when you wanted um
but in the meantime there maybe there's there's more of a happy medium to extradite the the process and and not making it so so my two sense no I wasn't gonna say oh okay I wasn't and then I was and then more air
[Laughter] quotes hey if there's no other discussion I'll entertain a motion I will make a motion to refer the proposed zoning bylaw amend M ments relative to massage therapist facilities
of the planning board for a public hearing a recommendation to the Town Council second motion's been made and seconded is there any further discussion seeing none all those in favor please say I I any oppos motion passes thank you for coming Russ thanks Russ nice to
see you thanks Russ under new business we had discussion of a bylaw regarding transparency of Isam EMP contracts Ralph I know you brought this one of did want to refresh our memory I
have to refresh my own memory so the question came to me by a couple different people um as far as why we don't uh put onto our website our different contracts that
have been approved um you know whether the different Union contracts and all so that people can easily find them they referred me to a couple other towns which seem to list all the different contracts um so that way there if you're
curious as far as you know what the people at the fire department or you know receiving or the police department or teachers union or whatever that the contracts are there um they are public records and they thought that putting
them onto the website would be good I also referred back to I believe it was 2015 I may be wrong on the date um that we had I think it was at the end that the Selectmen had chose to um put in a rule
that all employee compensation would be listed and what they did is they listed all the employees by the Departments and put in their yearly salary um that was a regulation that the Selectmen had put
into place it was put up one year never showed up again the regulation was still in place it continues on even through the charter um it just never got continued um I do
understand and I previously I talked to our previous Town manager and like she explained she's like well this person sees what this person's making and why are they making more than me and um she's like when you bring it into the open it causes it can cause
issues I think it's all public record I don't have an issue with it but and again I'm not sure and the reason I brought it up was as we're doing the bylaws if we want to consider putting something like that in um my
thought is to put something into the bylaw so that it can't just with who's ever in charge at the time or I don't feel like doing it this year um we try to follow our bylaws we
don't always sometimes we don't understand them um that was obvious but again uh it was something I wanted to bring up and see how the council felt about it see if it's something that we even want to consider going forwards I don't think it's something we have to
rush into immediately but I mean we're about to look over everything so who the share um I I when I first saw this on the agenda I thought it was know surpris that we don't already do it um not only do other communities do it but
the entire States 40 41,000 whatever it is employees I'm a state employee you can go online I don't know the website off top of my head right now SP your last you can look you can look at every you can look at everybody's uh my
colleagues anybody in other secretariats and departments and whatever so I think I mean if if the state can do that for 40 41,000 people I feel like we can do that I mean it doesn't need to be something that we do immediately but because I know we've got a lot of things going on right now but I think it would
be a good step it's a small thing but I think it would be a good step in the interest of transparency and I think the idea I mean I I do understand what the you know former Town manager I think that's a good point but I I feel like it would be probably
more better to to have that transparency that outweigh the risk of you know people seeing other people and if it's public record can't they find it anyway they can request the information they just have to request
this be they do do you have request from time to time all the time is that something that takes a long time to furnish individual requests that doing something like this and putting it
out there ahead of time would reduce no the only thing that I would say would be difficult is like everything else just keeping it updated but I met um a um representative Ash's new Chief of Staff the other day
she Googled something and sent me a link it was an old document but it came up on Google and it was like Governor Charlie Baker it was like our list of of that we had on the site of our rep our reps and the governor and all these contact numbers and so admittedly like you said even trying
to f f follow bylaws like sometimes you you don't see that one or whatever but this is you know I don't care I have to do my whole life in on camera so uh are other people going to Care yeah just like they did when we made sure only the department head was in the department
headline right um we have those when we when we talk at Financial oversight every salary has a spreadsheet in every department so is it a heavy lift no I mean people that know how to use spreadsheets could export that really quickly I can't um it would take a lot
of cutting and pasting like real cutting and um but no this is a public area uh in a public domain and it's all public record and I have no problem putting any of it anywhere um so
if that's your pleasure uh or or yeah we can do we can do it tomorrow well not tomorrow but understand it if um the regulation was adopted by the um select board prior to the change of the government and that
re that regulation stayed in force so whether it's I don't even know where it is yeah where is it well that's it's probably in the box that was in the closet that's where they found all those but anyway um and either we repeal it
and not do it or just piggyback what's there and make it more inclusive with the contracts I think it was just salary so I will say that that that's a that was a big thing that came out of that whole communication audit is obviously the root word transparency is a buzzword
and blah blah blah but if you don't actually be transparent like you can't really say you're you're being transparent so again we can put it all up there we we put the budget up there as it is at the end because it's already 43 pages when we do a just a re recap of
it or a summary of the budget but if if if everybody wants to see everything I mean they could pick up the phone and get it in one phone call so if I I would like to see the regulation so I can yell at whoever I
need to yell at well where is it no I'm K as far as the selectman I don't know if you're ever going to find it it's sort of like looking for the used car it was the used car she was in a cardboard box in the bottom and marged typed it
and then put it in her computer so it's in your in there summer right right that's the used car one not and that's why I'm basically saying hey yeah that might be there but maybe we should just go forward yeah so I guess I would say is is a bylaw necessary like that be
that was my someone who was handle administratively as opposed to a bylaw well of course a bylaw wouldn't get lost in a paper box 10 years um yeah I think that's an interesting thing because we don't really have a
place that we've kept you know here's a list of random regulations or votes that the council has taken that we want to memorialize Beyond six months from now and not forget about yeah like I said again the the the
all the information is for public Inception and and the only thing that would change in a Freedom of Information Act request is we'd have to make sure we don't have to redact anything right I mean most of the Personnel record or payroll call it say somebody asked for
payroll they can have it they just we have to redact the Social Security and address and phone number all this stuff but they ask for it and they ask for it regular basis yeah it happens a lot so and again if it's a big ass we we we get compensated for our time and material or
if if it's a huge ask but we if it if we want to put it up here you just go it's online there's the location want to find it there you go half the people in the communications on it don't have the internet somehow or like to use the computer so they they
need it it could be something that if we move forward with doing this um that it doesn't be that we have to update it every time people are coming or going it could just be when we do the just upd July one and you get what you get are you talking just the salary or
the whole contract of the the position the individual because I thought it was a contract your what I was talking two different things so positions employee employee name what their yearly salary is that's one portion of it the second
is the different contracts contracts Union and non-union yeah I think department heads and all that Union I don't read all that stuff but some people do yeah I guess do two
people ask for contracts just salaries both big ones yeah so I'll just make sure that nothing's protected in any of these documents uh and again everybody has them so everybody uses them to negotiate
so it is what it is but again this is where the salary conversation right because everybody keeps Le prog and everybody else and that's how we are at 80% for our salary line on them and again it's worth it you our people are our best asset you got to pay them and
the only way to keep them in the public sector is to pay them right I mean we don't we don't we just don't pay as much it's usually a firm that wants the payroll of all the sou the employees right Jackie but then it's usually one employee or
former employee that wants specific contracts of specific positions people myself I yeah because I don't think there's anything in a Personnel contract that wouldn't be public record
anyway other than no so I'll just ask the our labor Council real quick and then as fast as we can get the information up there the the the so just putting the Union contract up there with sort of the the the steps and you that's
one thing but then you need to see where everybody is and what they're making every year and again all that information is on a spreadsheet thinking just up updated once a year the salaries way there it's not like every
week oh yeah because obviously people will come and go right no and a lot of the contracts are based on higher date and that's never July 1 obviously uh so things change during the year anyway which we budget for but um yeah
salary as of July 1 2026 2025 I don't need a full year in okay so do we direct um the bylaw committee to create a bylaw to address what you're going to do should we should
we find that vote for the reg I mean if there's already a regulation in place de I don't think the regulation talked about any other the contracts it was simply employee salaries right be listed you just rehab what build on I wouldn't
mind going forwards and and attempting to write something and bringing it back and seeing what you guys think um I think that's probably the best Avenue rather than trying to simple and basic yeah we'll we have to update to
another one for June uh updating the fee schedule right after we do the budget the fee schedule is got to be up there for July one so all good we'll wait to go on vacation it's not a big deal you want me to try to find that
vote for a select vote look a little bit you know what year it was just look in the box it's not fair do you know what you you know what um let me contact you um I want to say 2015
okay because it was right when all the things were stirring up and it got really exciting must watch okay fair all right so we
will wait further proposals before us next up we have the town manager midyear per performance evaluation so we are a little beyond the six Monon um and we'll have the full performance
evaluation of Tom coming up in a couple short months before the end of B contract term I had asked Tom to just put together a a little brief summary of where he was on the goals that we had voted on back in
July which I didn't get to you in writing yes but nothing expansive of a but just a quick ide's checkin point so if you would like to yeah regil you thanks Genie um yeah so I'll just um Conor did
ask me to sort of put something together which I didn't so we'll do it verbally right now uh the the the goals themselves um it's always interesting uh obviously there's four that came to me in terms of actual goals but
uh I think I look at your individual goals that you submitted more than I look at the sheet uh and it uh it's just it's funny to to sort of take a step back and see all the things that um you
know not necessarily are going wrong but things that we can just improve upon like you said if maybe we don't lose the special permit we changed one of our processes and boom same things accomplished um but um as far far as the four you gave me uh the building space
usage and needs assessment plan which was sort of uh well just what it sounds like Bruce emailed me I think two hours after that meeting broke and he was like I got all that and I'm like whoa slow
down uh and after uh the the capital cycle we'll get back together and sort of go through everything um as you can imagine this like most of our other things is uh Ralph had asked me a question the other day that everything's
sort of a a moving Target with our plan especially for 382 um and how that sort of aligns with when the leases come off and how are we going to get things on the capital plan to um we I was explaining it to uh the
the podcast the The View podcast the other day and uh on The View story is at the view oh my gosh I guess I should clarify that more often Pleasant um and uh the Pleasant View thank you Marilyn I
appreciate that and you know we we when we do move we want to do it the one time right we we so we're trying to figure out when these dates all line up right and obviously the the right now technically that first lease comes off
in May of March of 27 um and do we want to just get everybody in there there and start the move and then wait three years and so we're trying to figure out that and this whole budget picture has sort of made me step back to kind of maybe we keep some
of that Revenue coming in for a couple more years and keep paying for the building with the existing tenants so um the two parts of that I think that are the most important here are obviously the ship to town hall and what we're going to do with old town hall and this
thing that Bruce sort of has already which is this 3 5 10 20 year Capital plan which DPW we had started I don't know five years ago with an asset management plan for water sewer uh storm
water and now and of course Bruce had building because he was the building maintenance supervisor forever so um that that sort of that process is sort of laid out in Bruce's eyes but now I need to have a conversation with Bruce
and sort of prioritize where we need to go I brought up and I can't believe you missed it because we talked about it so much but the next is the next is the police station um the police station needs some some big time help um and
again I I I'll have this all sort of tied up in a bow at some point for you but for now those are the conversations that have sort of been happening in terms of um what we've got for uh for for assets from from the building
standpoint and the move uh again the date keeps changing in my head every time I have a budget conversation which is kind of annoying because I I'd like to to nail this thing down but I think the reality of the situation is we might
not be able to move in that first day that we want to move in uh which is unfortunate because we've been talking about it for a while but and again I haven't made a final decision yet but it's it's going to be difficult to sort of lose out on a bunch of
Revenue when if if we can't do something uh together with this budget and where we're trending um you know that it might not be prudent to to to make that move when we wanted to um
so and of course that will change every week so next time I'll tell you that we're back on for March uh in 27 and everything worked out and we're good to go um the road Improvement plan uh I that's that's a big that's a big one uh it's
been a big one for me since I said 2017 uh but um we're just not getting the funding uh all the all the pleas to the state from literally every municipality uh in the
Commonwealth um sort of Gone by the wayside I mean I know that there's a there's another sort of plan here with an additional $100 million every year for five years I think was the was the layout in the in the whatever that Bond bill was um so
there's the $200 million layout which is standard and then an extra hundred every year and then sort of a fiveyear roll out so that we could get a some additional money and obviously we've been getting the wrap money here and there and um some of the other sort of
small funding supplements um but the the the plan itself the data to update our road um worksheet has been collected because you guys uh we use some money from free cash to get that done so
that's been collected we're just waiting for the final report now and at that point um you know luckily as Ralph mentioned earlier in the meeting we've got some pretty fortunate projects coming up um two seemingly out of
nowhere Route 83 and Prospect Street um unless you count the one call I made in early 2018 uh I don't think that really you know changed anybody's mind but um we we just have to do a a an
impossible job of making this small budget go further than it does there's no uh it's not feasible for us to start a Paving team at DPW um I mean not now it isn't but we're
we're always going to rely on a contractor to do this work and as Trucking and asphalt and oil prices are where they are nothing's going to change we a quarter I mean we have a 110 miles of roadway in town still and a half a mile a year I mean that's easy math for
everyone so something needs to change at either the state or the federal level uh in the interim when we get this plan Mark and I and Bruce will sort of prior prze what's next and I think uh I think even the public speaker mentioned side
streets which you naturally is the ones that have gone by the wayside the longest it's not worth the return on our investment unfortunately right now we we have to pave our main roads um there's not there's not enough money to get
without serious construction projects and Paving afterwards there's no there's really no plan that I can come up with that is going to help us pave our culde saacs and our side streets and it's just not it won't be a priority until the
funding source changes um that said I think um you know based on how much money we we invested in capital last year um and how much our general fund debt not excluded debt obviously that's going way up but our general fund debt
uh thanks to some of our decisions is coming down maybe we can start start thinking about um putting a little bit more money uh a large sum of money towards like a onetime $4 million $5 million let's see how much we can get
done at least in these main thorough fares and and try to use all the chapter 90 uh to get down the small roadway so again once we have this updated data we'll crank out some sort of priority plan um which is part of the plan but
it's in a vacuum and you know they have semi trffic count and this road needs to be done before this road that's what the computer says well we know that you know Maple has to get done before nollwood or you know what I'm saying so
um that that that's sort of influx too uh but that data should be coming um soon like I said that's all collected Capital stabilization fund we've created I thank you for that I feel like that's going to help moving forward I think you
uh the council in particular uh I mean I guess management can take a little bit of credit but the fact that our finances are where they are is has a lot to do with the legislative branch of isong meadow and so everybody that's ever been
on it should probably Pat themselves on the back um to to in one Bond cycle to save $24 million I know it was a huge sum of money but we were ex we were expecting to be paying a lot of money then and $25
million at one point just came out of that whole pot and that's literally because we are sound financially we have good policies and we make good decisions and I think uh that capitalization fund
building M building Municipal Building Capital stabilization fund uh is going to is going to be huge for us uh moving forward um as long as we continue to fund it and figure out some sort of Target as we move here where we want
that to sit um and we'll hit it because we've hit all the other ones because we're we're responsible with the money and we save when we should save and it and it helps in the long run so uh obviously that has been created we still have some some tweaks to do on the
language um but um the last one was the car Breakin and theft strategy so I've had multiple conversations with uh Mark and Lieutenant Manning about this uh and some of our detectives who have already tried to reach out to the community they they had a I mentioned in
my report they had a Long Meadow and isow did a meet the detectives thing here at the at the COA um which they got quite a draw they had pizza John food just have food yeah so right this is an interesting conversation always because
these in particular are uh crime of opportunity and not uh we don't have as many cars Andor officers on every single street right the these are professionals that find a situation that's vulnerable jump out of their car real quick steal a
bunch of stuff jump back in and go so to that uh Lieutenant Manning had a decent idea that other communities do similar to like a neighborhood watch where everybody's got the ring camera now and so you sign up now we don't have 100%
access to your ring camera OB viously but if a crime is committed in the area you're on the registry and the police or the detectives can go to your house and say do can I see your camera for a certain amount of time so obviously that'll take a little bit of a setup and
a database uh and now with our Cruiser cams and and body cams some of this um will will sort of fortuitously happen on its own but um I think this is another one that we're going to roll out some a
lot of public uh information on um I think um we live in obviously a very safe Community but these things happen a lot um and a lot of them are cars unlocked or key fobs in the in the cup
folder in the garage and um what is that face you know there point being that this these are things that that they've dealt with a lot in isto and so so these are sort of the ideas that we we're going to try to push out to accomplish this goal and
that's a little sort of community involvement when we when we could use some help gathering information to stop this from happening and I feel like um you know with the cameras on the Cruisers and and the body cams um and and maybe some more Outreach to let
people know that our community is is helping each other police itself too um if we get that message out um I think I think that's going to go a long way sort of helping these numbers come down again uh it's a difficult thing to gauge Andor
decide if you've done a good job because people will always try to break into cars at 3 in the morning it doesn't matter what town you live in and it doesn't matter how many cameras you have on intersections which we keep increasing as well um these opportunity
crimes are are they they happen and they're difficult to prevent um but I think with some some public Outreach and and putting my head together with with Mark and and Lieutenant Manning and everybody else at the at the PD I think
we can probably roll out a nice a nice sort of public information session uh or multiple and then I really like that idea of ring camera um registry so to speak that if something if a crime were
to be committed we'd have sort of more information than we could possibly have again we have all of our cameras are on our big intersections we don't have any on you know Sanford and Windom it's just we're not we're not ever going
to um and and the the route is the the officers are patrolling but you know trying to catch those crimes happening when they're happening uh is is very difficult so I think if we can
do a little preventative on our end um and some public Outreach I think we can stop a lot of that from happening so um other than that um with our new building um
commissioner for the first time in a very long time we have zero vacancies at the department head level um had to say it didn't no I I've knocked out a lot no he's been here since before Christmas I've been knocking on wood ever since um you know even uh a
retirement with good succession planning uh that that will we won't miss a beat there so um everything continues to be uh I I'm still I continue to be amazed by our staff how much work we get done
um the the collaborative nature of it Paul um mentioned it at our department head meeting uh that was his last one uh if anybody calls anybody three people answer and they're like yeah what can we do you know um it's an
outstanding place to work and again we've been talking about the salaries a lot tonight and and our biggest asset our people we have very fine people here I'm I'm again still privileged to come to work I'm I'm happy with my job I'm happy to be here um we still are working
hard at the things that that we know we are still falling short on and again like everybody else uh it all depends on the bu and what do we actually have resources to do um do we wish we could do it all of course um but we're going to keep
trying um and I think if we can sort of continue on this collaborative path with fiscal responsibility and and good uh hard work sort of that mentality that we can get this stuff done together um I
again I still see the needle pointing up and and I don't see that stopping anytime soon and I can't think of anything else other than the budget of FY 26 right now and that will continue till about June 1st um but again that too is is a a
challenge that we'll all have to meet head on and we're going to have to have tough conversations this year um and and at the end of the day we'll we'll be left with what we're left with but um you know uh I'm happy to be here I I I
hope I hope you still um feel the same about me um again like I said I I I hope to be here for a long time I hope to be seeing a lot of these projects through for a long time um I enjoy uh every minute of it and happy to be here so and
I'm I will answer literally anything um if you have any questions I was trying to go on long enough so everyone would be tired it's oh honestly uh and I I know you know and most of you take advantage of it if you ever want to to the office if
you ever need anything um my door is always open um there's very few hours in my schedule that are currently open but um anytime you guys all have my cell phone number whatever you need we'll get it
done thank you Tom through the chair sure not really a question I think it's more of a statement is there anything actually I guess it is a question is there anything that the council can do in their abilities to to help you
achieve excuse me move anything forwards you need from us that would make life easier or better that we can do um not necessarily I mean I think uh at some point when when this uh I think it's
hard to like plan for a big project and I don't know if that appropriation is going to happen or if we need a right so say a police station just just a hypothetical right if we try to build a police station right now that's
a520 million expenditure and and we go through this process of you know sort of planning for it and finding space during construction and this that and the other thing what's the what's the and I I realize that that's probably the end
goal of this first goal um is if I tell you that we need a police station I assume that we're all sort of on board that we got to figure out how to make this work right um I I I don't think to answer that question Ralph I I don't
think that I need any help from you any more than you give me um I look back at where say the the the council and the manager and even before that but the council and manager I feel like the town was like feeling itself out Kathy you've
been here basically the whole time right I mean this relationship this marn I feel like this relationship has dfed into this thing that um is like a almost a singular unit on most days um and if I do need something it happens
and I think when you need something it happens I just want to con again uh some some consistency and continuity about where where we all think we're going and what we want obviously we're not going to agree all the time it it can happen
um but I think this attitude that we have where we're we're sort of you know trying to get all this stuff done but still staying fiscally responsible um you know I think if we can all sort of still think like that obviously there are going to be large exp expenditures
that are going to happen some of them out of our control and out of our timeline but I think if these These are good goals because they're just planning for the future of Ison Meadow which is why all seven of you are here why I'm here why most
people that here so again I I How about if if I ever do need your help just keep answering phones that that's what I would say to that I suppose I I I I I've had multiple conversations with most of you on a myriad of topics and I just
wanted to continue because I just feel like like you were talking about the school committee if we just keep having these conversations there there's there's nothing that comes up then we're like oh I didn't we think of that cuz somebody thought of it right um I just
I'm I'm encouraged by the advancement of the community over the last decade and I'm just happy to now be part of it um that's where I'm at any other feedback or comments for you um I I have a list of
the Town manager goals that we all submitted Y and one of my not picked okay and I can't believe it unbelievable well I was in charge of the committee have just slid it in there I'm
honest um the goal was improve frequency of communication that is measurable between the Town Council and the town manager and I know that since Conor's been president he has sent us all kinds of things which I'm sure comes from you so through the back door we're hearing
from you yeah but my question about um the what I was disappointed in um is was that we as a council had not any idea of how the fire chief appointment was going to play out until
it happened um the day I found out about it that morning Kathy and I were brainstorming together about gee we know it's your job but maybe we can think of some people that would be good for the committee um which you did but and that's okay but we didn't know anything
about it and I just you know not that we not that we have to know everything y but that's an important piece of the community um I ran into Eric Matson at at Village Mark several times he lives right over the line and I live right over the line this we and you know he
spoke often about um the the process which he felt was excellent but that's you know I want to hear it from you no and and I appreciate that and um your president and I had that conversation as well
um and again did he get nasty did he get loud did he s I'd like to hear I prefer not to answer that question in an open um no no no and again I think that um I I these are things that I'm still
learning this is just your two also uh and sometimes I'm well it's my decision and I'm going to do it my way understand that I understand that however in this scenario there is a a part of the charter that
sort of it was very difficult from us on non operation standpoint because there is part of this that you're involved in um and that is confirming my decision so perhaps it would have been more uh as Connor pointed out more advantageous to
the whole process if if you're in on it on some way shape or form before it's on the agenda in front of you to confirm that decision so so um yeah that was that was a a small misstep on my part
and I do apologize and yes Connor reamed me out already um no no no that's why he's president again I think you know at this point that that that kind of constructive criticism I could take and I want and I
I can appreciate your opinion as counselors when you're specifically listed in that process for that position so uh I I hear you on that that's S I appreciate it yep I would follow that up though that even though that was maybe one messed up I feel like overall we've
had a really good work relationship and I'm pretty impressed with how everything's gone I I I've told you I told Ralph uh I appreciate how this is working and how it's happening and and yes and I said it
about him when he was there I'll say the same thing about you we we it's been nothing but but perfectly collaborative uh open and honest conversation which of course means especially with Ralph that you don't agree all the time just kidding um no no no I mean we don't we
we're not of the same mindset 100% of the time it doesn't happen um but the fact that we're always having the conversations freely and openly is all that anybody really wants right because then you're not fearful of saying anything because the reaction is just
going to be genuine and you're going to get the same back so thank you Connor for the first half of the year uh and again like I said I I'm I'm I'm I know we have things that we can do better but we are doing a lot of things very well
um and and I'm I'm happy to be here for it so anyone else have any other comments okay see none you wore us down Conor that's thank you Tom for the update yep in terms of action items for our next
meeting the ones that I have written down we would next meeting is March 11th would be the municipal language uh hopefully having a more under Town manager report on different
departments that's all I had at the moment um I remember from the last meeting we had public comments regarding that um AXS oh yes veterans that'll be coming up continued that to March 25th instead
of 11th no it'll be on the 11th yeah okay and to No Surprise dianae has already figured out every possible scenario for you to look at and vote on and we've already got that so great and Conor has asked me to send that out to you this week way in advance March
11 not the Friday before thank you yes you'll have soon to consider Mass General law reading on it is very difficult guys choose to go for it oh it is I to look through the it was hard because they didn't
actually update the particular part of the general laws you have act that would amend that's what I read yeah yeah it's difficult to um the uh Charter change language Jesse
has so we should probably I mean Jesse doesn't take longer than 72 hours to do anything so I should probably have at least an update Andor additions amendments interrogations something uh I think there's sort of a time crunch
crunch right right once once you vote on it assuming it's March 11 then it's four weeks with the AG's office for them to approve it okay then with the June 3 ballot date we should have enough time great as far as the hero act goes
um my husband and I are recipients of the the funding right now I mean I'd love for it to increase but I can't State I just want you to know okay I appreciate that thank you okay so our next meeting will be March
11th and if there's no other action items I'll take a motion to adjourn motion's been made in seconded any further discussion see none all those in favor please say I I any opposed we are adjourned at 8:12 thank you