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Video-1: youtube.com/watch?v=7titIWXpE_U

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5 4 3 2 1 >> Good evening. This is select board chair Dan Zoro. I'm confirming that all members are present and can be heard. Shelley Maynard DeWolf >> here. >> Dr. Lamb

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>> here. Veneovati >> here. >> Josh Lavine >> here. >> Thank you. and I am also present. This open meeting of the Long Meadow Select Board is convened in person via Zoom webinar as posted on the agenda and

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town's website identifying how the public may join. There is no chat or Q&A function. All of the materials for this meeting are available on the agenda posted on long meadowmma.gov. The public is encouraged to follow along using the posted agenda unless I note

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otherwise. This meeting will feature resident comments. For residents attending the meeting in person, please raise your hand when we get to the comment section of the meeting and I will call on you to approach the microphone. For residents participating in the meeting via Zoom webinar format,

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please use the raise hand icon at the bottom of the screen. The meeting moderator will promote you to panelist, unmute you, and give you permission to speak. If you join the webinar by phone, dial star9 to raise your hand and star six to mute or unmute. Residents who

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wish to speak will identify their names and addresses only. Each individual is afforded three minutes for comments. Please note that this meeting is being recorded and that some attendees are participating by video conference. Please remember to mute your phone or

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computer when you are not speaking. If anyone in attendance is recording this meeting, please announce yourself now. Hearing none, we will now move to the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the

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United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right, we will start with a regular select board meeting announcements.

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Uh, first responder night. First responder night will be held on Tuesday, August 18th, 2026 from 5 to 8:00 p.m. on the Long Meadow Town Green. Uh, please join a night full of activities, food trucks, and K-9 demonstration in support of our first responders.

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Fall town meeting. The Falltown meeting uh is set for Tuesday, November 17th, 2026 at 7 p.m. at the Long Meadow High School. Citizen petitions with certification by the town clerk are due no later than noon on Friday, October

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2nd. Board and committees. Interviews for board and committee annual appointments or reappointments uh will be held throughout the summer months. Residents who are interested in learning more on specific committees or current vacant positions can visit the board and

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committees page on www. long meadowmma.gov. An online application is also available on this page. Uh we will start with resident comments. Does anyone here have uh comments? All

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right. Anyone online? >> No one with their hand raised. >> All right, moving along. Uh kudos and plottits. Congratulations to Marsha Harbison. Congrat a resident of Long Meadow on

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taking her final um bow this May after five decades as the first violinist and assistant concert master with the Springfield Symphony Orchestra. With her children and grandchildren in audience, Marsha's final performance was dedicated

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to her late husband, Bill Harbison, who passed away in February of this year. Bill was among was a long member of the Long Meadow Community Preservation Committee, an avid supporter of the Springfield Symphony Orchestra and an active member of our community who we

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will miss dearly. On behalf of the town of Long Meadow, we congratulate and honor Marsha on her retirement from the orchestra in which she dedicated five decades of service to. Um, also there's a Mass Live uh article that can be found

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on this agenda. Um, or if you look it up, you could find it as well. Uh, congratulations, Marca, and thank you, Bill, for all of your continued dedication to the town over the year over the years.

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We will now move to um interviews and appointments. So, board and committee annual interviews. First we will start with uh Mr. Shonne. He's up for reappoint.

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>> He is on he online for the uh this is for the audit committee. Um Mr. Shonne, are you all right? You're on mute. >> Good evening. Hey, how's it going? Hi there.

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>> Thank you for the >> the juggle having to reinstall Zoom when you thought you were updated. >> I hope everything's working at the moment. >> I know the feeling. Um so, um appreciate you stepping up again. Um we see you every year during the audits. You do a

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great job. I just wanted to give you the opportunity to introduce yourself and why you are seeking uh reappoint for this important position. >> Uh thank you, Dan. I appreciate your kind remarks. Uh anyway, my name is Matt Shonne. I live at 294 Ellington Road. Um

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I've been a member of the audit community I I think for three terms now, which is is n maybe I don't want to think about how many years that is. I think it's nine. Um but it's been something that I've been doing here since shortly after we moved here. Uh it's a mission I think uh is important

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and while it may be uh relatively quiet, making sure that the uh money that the town takes in is properly allocated and that we do everything on the up and up and as as clear and as you know easily visible to the public as we can is important and frankly it has downgra uh downstream benefits as well. I mean, the

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fact that the town has a solid bond rating, things like that, positive evaluations from the GFOA every year requires that the audit be done well and the audit committee makes sure that that um responsibility of having the audit done annually and is done well and then presented to the select board and you know, make sure that that gets done in

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an effective way. So, we're proud to continue that. Um, I'm happy to be a part of the committee for the time that I've been here and I'm more than happy to remain. I have been trying to force the chairmanship onto another member for years and I will continue to try to do that but I would love to remain a member

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of the committee. >> Does anyone have any specific questions about how we've been doing things or about how the audit committee is progressing or what our current goals are? >> Um I I personally don't have any questions. I've been impressed uh just over the years with with all of your work that you've done and um you've

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actually been able to recruit a lot of people maybe not for chair but certainly uh to that committee. So thank you for that. I'll open it up for any additional questions. I >> I'm curious what the goals are. >> You offered it up. Now you have a good answer. [laughter]

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>> Well, I I actually I'm going to take an opportunity to So, one of my annual concerns is the long-term planning of both spending and the existing um well, the recurring debts that we have, things like OPED and the other costs that go along with our employees. Um the town

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manager has gracefully taken on the responsibility of making a task force to review long-term implications for the budget um which I have been um uh kindly included in. So thank you for that. and it gives me an opportunity to look at some of the long-term concerns that we

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talk about each year that we do the audit and make some long-term planning for how we're going to handle um well frankly the changing forecast on what terms of our uh revenues as a town and both and our expenditures and trying to make sure that those remain in balance. So, our long-term concerns over mainly

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the costs are associated with town employment is something that we pay attention to on an annual basis at the audit committee and we're now taking going to be able to use that task force to um take that long look and do some planning and then hopefully present to the select board some realistic options about how best to proceed.

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>> Very good. Uh any other questions? I do think it's important to recognize that we've had some help from members of the select board and recruiting on the audit committee, not just me winging to try and get more people. However, I will take that opportunity to point out that we do have several vacancies and if

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anyone knows anyone with accounting experience or accounting adjacent experience, we would love for them to consider joining the audit committee. More is always better. >> Sounds good. We'll get the word out. We'll help you out there. >> Thank you very much. >> Thanks, Mr. Shone. Appreciate it. Have a good evening.

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Okay. >> All right. Uh on to board of assessors reappoint for Austo Baros. Hi. Should I >> please? Uh and if you could just introduce yourself, your name and address first, please.

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>> Yes. My name is Austo Baros 95 Warren Terrace. >> All right. And you're seeking a reappointment. I believe uh you've been on for about a year or so. >> A year and a half. >> Year and a half. and you you took a you had to go through a lot of certifications as well and I know you spent a lot of time and energy and and

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effort uh doing so and um if you just want to kind of talk about your first year and a half and um what you're looking forward to in a next term. >> Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. So, it has been uh very interesting year and a half working with the uh principal assessor

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and the assessor's board. uh the um the process in general and our uh interplay with each other on the board has been smooth and I think it has led to some good results for uh the board. It's been

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a relatively frictionless process uh set of processes over the past couple years. I find valuation uh interesting. I think that was something that I was interested in one of my degrees and uh you know it's fun uh trying to help folks figure

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out the actual value of their homes. Um so yeah, it's been a great year and a half and I'm seeking reappoint to continue that and continue to give back to the town. >> Excellent. Yeah, really appreciate all the work you've done and um I know it's a difficult uh position to be in um and you have a lot of meetings so thank you

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so much for stepping up again and I didn't know if anyone else had any other questions. Uh, seeing none. All right, we'll let you off pretty easy. >> All right, great. Let me bring you anything. >> All right, thanks so much. Have a good evening. And we will be voting uh um just for the whole group. We'll be

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voting um at our next meeting on on these appointments. >> I see. Thank you. >> We will next go to community preservation committee. Um Mr. William Welch up for reappoint. This is for the

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three-year, I believe. >> Right. Right. >> I am William Welch. I live at 25 Road. >> And if you just want to talk about why you're seeking reappoint and um the work that you've been doing and what you might be looking forward to. >> So, I enjoy the work of community

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preservation. It's a nice intersection of historical plus, you know, available public funds that are, you know, eligible under the statute. Um, you my goal has to been to make the board, I'll call it more consumerfriendly.

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Uh, so an example of that is we move to two funding cycles. So for years and years it was a single funding cycle which um didn't make a lot of sense to me because I think there are needs that arise outside of what had been the year

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or annual funding cycle. So this year was our first year of implementing it. I think it went well. Um the amounts of money were small uh which is fine because it takes care of the needs uh that you may see off of the you know

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annual town meeting. Um so I think you know in the future I would like to see if we can't uh more broadly communicate our message um particularly to private taxpayers who may have a right to use our funds if

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they live within one of the historical districts uh because I think they have the right to tap into it and essentially use the money as long as they do so appropriately. >> Great. Uh any other questions? I just want to compliment you on uh and the

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board on the change in the funding strategy. I think that that it's a change for the better. Uh I know it's something that been percolating for a bit and I think it's it's a good idea. It does. It's more reflective of uh how things work, why we have two town

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meetings because sometimes things you can't think of in uh over the summer may come up. So, um, thank you for doing that and, um, and take take our compliments back to the rest of the board. >> I'll do that. Uh, if I may, I have two

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thoughts on committees more broadly. Um, so my first one is I think that there should be some rule uh, that committees need to respond to taxpayers with within a certain amount of time. Whether you call it the 48 hour rule, the 72-hour

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rule, uh I don't know what rule you'd want to impose, but as a taxpayer, I've had contact with a few of the committees, and you won't get a response for a week or two. And you usually have to follow up one or two times simply to get a response. And the response back is

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typically, you know, sorry that I didn't get you earlier. you know, I'm a volunteer and you know, was busy with other matters and at least internally my response to that is if you don't have the time, then you shouldn't be

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volunteering. Uh, but I think the committees or at least the ones I've had exposure to should do a better job of interfacing with the public because I think they are very much seen as an extension of town government. And then my second comment is I think we should

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do more in terms of anonymous feedback. I'm not aware of any regular routine feedback that we collect on the committee's writ large or the individual members and I think that would be a valuable tool for you as you evaluate

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not only its personnel but what it does. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> I think that's it. All right. Thanks so much, Mr. Welch. Have a good evening. All right, we will go to uh Mr. Swerki.

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>> And this is for a new appointment. >> Hi, Michael [clears throat] Schwarzki, 145 Tanglewood Drive. >> And Mr. Schwarzki, thank you for stepping up um for a new appointment. I know sometimes it can be um you know, difficult to get people to serve. So,

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thank you for stepping up and if you just want to talk a little bit about your your interest in seeking this appointment, uh that would be helpful. >> Um I previously served on the capital planning committee about 8 to 10 years ago. I found it interesting. Um due to

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work and other requirements, I haven't had the time until recently to actually participate properly in town events. Um now that I have the time, I would like to get back into more town activities. Um I know that the community preservation

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committee serves an important role in providing funding for projects that would otherwise just not get funded. Um an interesting variety of requests come across um from different organizations. I think the work that the committee does

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is interesting. It's at the intersection of inter historical preservation and recreation and housing and uh open space preservation. I think it has the opportunity to make lots of impact upon the town even when

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it distributes relatively small amounts of money. Um and um I would look forward to being active in its affairs. >> Great. Yeah. Thank you again. Any additional questions?

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>> Seeing none. All right. We'll we'll let you off. Thank you, Mr. Schwarzki. >> Thank you. And we will now go to Jane Crosby for historical commission. This is a new appointment. I think Miss Crosby came in front of us maybe last meeting if I

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recall or >> maybe not. >> Not now. [laughter] >> Maybe I saw you out somewhere and it >> probably >> top of mind. >> Yeah. >> But um thanks again for uh stepping up and if you just wanted to kind of go over um why you're seeking this appointment.

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>> Sure. Uh, my name is Jane Crosby, 73 Lincoln Park. Um, and the reason why I applied for this u position with the historical commission is um, in part because I have a long-standing interest

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in in architecture and in historical preservation. Um I'm a 10th generation New Englander and um so this was sort of um drilled into me as I was growing up. I'm also a member of the historic

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district commission and um one of the our composition is supposed to include someone from the historical commission and we have no one um actually currently on the commission uh on the historic district commission who is part of the

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historical commission and um no one else um on the commission seemed to be interested in doing it so I thought I would apply for it. >> Very good. Well, thank you for stepping up and that's probably where I recom I remember you coming in front of us previously. So

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>> pro possibly I'm also on the task force for um the future um uses of the buildings in the historic district. >> Gotcha. >> So I think that's probably where we know each other from. >> Very good. Um thanks so much. Any other questions?

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>> Seeing none. All right. Uh well we will let you go tonight. Have a nice evening. Thank you so much. >> And we will round it out uh with parks and recreation. I see Mr. Duket here. If you'd like to step on up and uh we have

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Jeff Renul as well who's joining us remotely. >> We'll start we thanks for coming. Uh we'll start with you, Mr. Duket. >> Gerald Duket, 69 Claremont Street. Of course, I'm seeking a reappointment for fame and fortune. Look,

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>> no. Uh I uh that had a very good time on the uh park and recck commission. Uh it's a great group of people. We have a a great diversity of sort of experience in town with regard to you know I think between the five of us we've got kids who played every possible sport and uh

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we're we we gel. We're a very good working group. Um, I I enjoy uh trying to figure out sort of the the coordination puzzles of getting uh sports leagues to cooperate with each other in terms of the use of town

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resources, which can be uh surprisingly uh politically uh charged. Uh uh you know, everybody knows that this is a town that takes its uh athletics seriously, so I enjoy that. But on the

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other hand, uh it's also nice to be dealing with something that isn't about life or death and uh still contributing to the community in a meaningful way. >> And even more so that this year with the the um construction at the middle school with the fields, we're losing some fields. >> Correct. That is that is a that is

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actually generating some innovation in our thinking about scheduling that I think will bear fruit. >> Great. Well, we're glad to have you serving over all these years on the committee and thank you for stepping up. And of course, I would promote paying. No, [laughter]

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>> hold on. We might have some more questions for you. >> Oh, sorry. >> Any any additional questions for Mr. Dukat? >> Get him out of here. [laughter] >> All right. On to Mr. Renul. Um, I think he's on Zoom. Hey, Jeff. >> Can you hear me? Okay, >> we can. We can see you, too.

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>> Oh, great. Thank you so much. Um, I'm I'm sorry I have to go after uh Mr. Dukat because, you know, he's a hard act to follow in general. But, um, I wanted to just, you know, kind of tell you my story with the park and wreck

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department. I >> Sorry to cut you off real quick. Could could you just um introduce yourself again and your address, name and address, please? >> I'm sorry. Thank you. I apologize. Um, Jeff Renul, 27 Cranwell Lane, Long Meadow. >> Thank you.

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>> Yep. No problem. Uh, can I go or? >> Uh, go ahead. Yes, please. Yes. >> Okay. All right. Um, uh, so yes, I've um [clears throat] I've been engaged with the park and recck department for probably personally 20 plus years, you know, with my kids starting in the um,

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you know, the the daycare and working up through all of the sports activities that uh, were offered there. And uh I I can tell you that, you know, as a liaison for the CPC, um I couldn't be prouder of what we've done at the Wolf

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Swamp Fields with turning it into a a field that um has been, you know, got when we had the October snowstorm uh used as a uh an area that was um kind of

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for uh you know, getting rid of all the rubbish, what have you. but it kind of destroyed the field and now what we've got is what I would call a a field a complex uh conducive of Long Meadow and our sports. Um my kids are both are now

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out of the school system, but I'm proud to say that they both worked and loved playing all the sports in town and and then that parlayed into their careers as high school athletes um and made them people who they are today. So, um I'm

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very proud of what we've done and I'm very excited to see what um you know what we can do next as a as an organization. Absolutely. Yeah. Thanks so much. Especially for bringing up Wolf Swamp Fields, too. That's been a just a fantastic project. I remember playing on

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those fields uh you know in the early 90s and nothing compares to what it looks like today. So, um thank you for all your work there and and continuing to do the work of this committee. Um, any does anybody else have any additional questions?

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All right, seeing none, we'll let you get back to the lake there. >> Thank you so much. I appreciate it. >> All right, have a good one. Thanks. >> All right, we are now moving to board and committee appointments.

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Do I have We have quite a bit of motions here. I'm looking at you. >> We'll get started. Yeah. Uh, I'll move to appoint Michelle Keen Moore to a three-year term expiring June 30th, 2029, uh, to the board of health. >> Second. >> Uh, any further discussion?

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Seeing none, we'll do a roll call. >> Um, select board member Zoro, >> yes. >> Um, select board member Lamb, >> yes. >> Select board member Lavine, >> yes. >> Select board member, >> yes. and select board member Shelley

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Maynard Dwolf. >> Yes. >> All right. Thank you. Now, uh conservation commission um Andrea Chason is seeking a reappoint for uh a

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three-year term expiring 6:30 2029. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Uh any discussion? Seeing none, uh we'll call a roll call, please. >> Okay. I'm going to shorten that a little. Uh, Mr. Zero, >> yes. >> Mr. Lamb, >> yes. >> Mr. Lavine, >> yes.

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>> Mr. Hammovati, >> yes. >> And Miss Mayor DeWolf, >> yes. >> All right. Uh, moving on to Council on Aging, board of directors. >> We appoint Judith Dong for a three-year term expiring June 30th, 2029. >> Second.

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>> Uh, any discussion? Seeing none, roll call, please. >> Mr. Zworko, >> yes. >> Mr. Lamb, >> yes. >> Mr. Lavine, >> yes. >> Mr. Emabathy, >> yes. and Ms. Maynard Dwolf. >> Yes. >> Move we appoint Amy Block to a

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three-year term expiring June 30th, 2029 to the historical commission. >> Second. >> Um, any further discussion? >> Seeing none, uh, we'll do a roll call, please. >> Mr. Zero, >> yes. >> Mr. Lamb, >> yes. >> Mr. Lavine, >> yes. >> Mr. Hemovathy, >> yes.

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>> Miss Maynard Dwolf, >> yes. Um, I will move to appoint Emily Anderson and Elaine Dela uh Devase uh to three-year terms expiring June 30th, 2029 to the Historic District Commission. >> Second. >> Uh, any further discussion? Seeing none,

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we'll go to roll call, please. >> Mr. Zoro, >> yes. >> Mr. Lamb, >> yes. >> Mr. Lavine, >> yes. >> Mr. Himovathy, >> yes. >> Miss Maynard Dwolf, >> yes. And I will move to uh appoint uh Elizabeth Bone to a three-year term expiring uh June 30th, 2029 on the

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recycling commission. >> Second. >> Uh seeing any further discussion? Seeing none, we'll go to roll call, please. >> Mr. Zoro, >> yes. >> Mr. Lamb, >> yes. >> Mr. Lavine, >> yes. >> Mr. Hemovathy, >> yes. >> And Miss Maynard Dwolf,

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>> yes. >> All right, we will thank you very much. will be moving along to um the board of registars appointments. We have uh a couple appointments to make tonight. I'm not sure if anyone had a chance to

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uh read the the uh letter from the town clerk, but uh Lynn, I believe so, we're going to make two appointments tonight. Correct. >> Correct. >> All right. Um there's t so typically just so the public knows we've always

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had um at least one Republican and one uh Democrat in this case. Um down the road we're going to potentially seek another appointment for uh someone who's unenrolled, but we're not going to handle that tonight. So tonight we're just voting for uh Cecilia Walker, a

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Republican, as well as uh Richard Naidell, a Democrat. I think that's who it currently is >> to be continued or filled. So they have both. >> Yeah. Down. >> I was just saying that because there's

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two um Mick get two names. >> Okay. Um, so do we have uh is there a motion for >> um I I will move to appoint uh Cecilia

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Walker and Richard Naidell to the board of registars. >> Second. Uh any further discussion? Seeing none, uh we'll take a roll call, please. >> Mr. Zwerko, >> yes. >> Mr. Lamb, >> yes. >> Mr. Lavine, >> yes. >> Mr. Hamavathy,

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>> yes. Miss Mayor Dwolf. >> Yes. >> All right. And just want to say thank you to everyone who stepped up for uh seeking these appointments for our elections. Thank you very much.

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Uh so we will now um move into the um select board comments. Um does anybody have any comments? Uh Mr. Lavine. Uh just like to give a shout out to the Long Meadow All-Stars baseball

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team, U1 uh who won the district championships over uh our big rival Westfield. Um I I was I'm a big fan. I got two kids on the team and uh there's a great group of coaches uh Tony Budri, Sam Furge, and

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Ryan Williamson. And uh it was it was a a thrilling tournament all around. They then went on to win a game over uh in the state tournament. Uh they sadly have uh their run in the tournament is over, but uh very proud of them and all the

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all-star teams. I I watched uh a lot of little league baseball the beginning of the summer, but uh it's always a blast. >> And this is the furthest the farthest they've been. Is that what you're saying? >> Uh so last year they they lost two games in the state tournament. This year they won one. So and lost two, but uh yeah,

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that's farthest they've gotten. So on an upward trend uh world series next year I think >> trending upwards. Uh Wongo baseball. It's great to hear. >> Yeah. >> Thank you Josh. Uh anybody else? >> No. Uh seeing none. Oh sorry. Sorry.

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>> Sorry I can't see anybody in the room so I can't tell if anyone's about to talk. >> Go ahead. Thank you. >> Oh um I just wanted to give the board an update on the budget task force. the the task force has met three times now and has done a really great job moving through a lot of information and a lot

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of data and uh this past uh meeting that we had I think you could really start to see a lot of connections being made by the the task force a lot of great questions they have a lot of early ideas so the task force is u moving forward

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really really well meeting on a regular basis and moving through a lot of information Um, uh, we're, as Matthew mentioned earlier in the meeting, we are planning to come before the select board with some ideas and recommendations and we're on track for that. I'll also add

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that Lynn and Ian have been doing an amazing job supplying the task force with a lot of information, data, and then walking us all through it at a very granular level so that the task force can make some really um, solid and wellfounded recommendations. So, the

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budget task force is moving along well. And again, I think it was a great idea for Lynn to suggest it because I think the the town is going to benefit from having that board's feedback or that task force feedback and recommendations. >> Any questions on the what the task force

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is doing or what to expect? >> Uh I I guess I have a quick question. Thanks for uh going through that, Chile, and and nice work. I know it's a lot of extra work, so much appreciated uh doing that. Um, is there going to be um any forums coming up or anything uh like

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that that the group is thinking of? >> Yep. In fact, uh Lynn, keep me honest, but the last meeting the group actually talked about that um similar to what the building task force is doing. They did discuss um different ways to engage residents, provide information,

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education, and awareness um on all things kind of budget um challenges the town's facing, progress we're making. So uh we did start talking at the last session about how do we think we could best do that? What venues can we leverage? What medias can we use? Um so

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the task force is the is talking about that and so more to come on that. Uh we didn't really land on anything specific yet because the board is still going through some of that background data and information, but I'd imagine over the course of the next two meetings, we'll figure that out and and be able to share

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what the task force is suggesting. >> Excellent. Thanks so much. >> Anything else? Seeing none, we will now move into applications. We have a couple of uh one-day liquor

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license applications. Uh starting with Long Meadow Adult uh Center Community Fund. Yeah, I will move to approve the one day liquor license application submitted by the Long Meadow Adult Center uh community fund uh for an event on August 27th,

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2026. >> Second. Uh any further discussion? Uh seeing none, uh we'll do a roll call, please. >> Mr. Zero? >> Yes. >> Mr. Lamb? >> Yes. >> Mr. Lavine? >> Yes. >> Mr. Emmaothy? >> Yes. >> Miss Mayor Dwolf? >> Yes.

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>> All right. And then we have St. Mary's Knights of Columbus Council 5406. Uh, and I will move to approve the one day liquor license application uh submitted by the Knights of Columbus uh for an event on October 24th, 2026. >> Second. >> Further discussion? Seeing none, we'll

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do a roll call, please. >> Mr. Zero, >> yes. >> Mr. Lamb, >> yes. >> Mr. Lavine, >> yes. >> Mr. Hamathy, >> yes. >> Miss Mayor DeWolf, >> yes. >> All right. And now we'll This is a fun one. Moving on to mobile food vendors on

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town property request. Fletcher's barbecue trolley request. I'm not sure if the the board had a chance to uh take a look at the request, but uh Fletchers is looking to similar to uh Poor Things Coffee and others that have come in

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front of us. They're looking to have um the barbecue barbecue trolley request. And I'm not sure I see Mr. Fletcher here. Um, I think we're just letting him in. >> Yeah, he's here. There we go.

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>> Hey, Mr. Fletcher, how are you? >> Good, guys. How are you? Do you all >> doing well, thanks? Um, if you could just first uh uh say your name and address, please, and um obviously why you're in front of us today for this exciting project.

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>> Bill Fletcher, 106 Long View Drive. Um and we're now entering in our fourth year of Fletcher um in town and one thing we have learned is that uh people love to leave town in the summer. So uh every we uh repeatedly are um seeing

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just sort of a down tick in our um customer base for the summer months. Um and we still have the same rent to pay. So, we're looking to increase our revenue by um adding a a mobile food operation.

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>> And this would be the same trolley that you had at your event that I saw at your event maybe about a month or so ago. >> Yes, exactly. Yep. That was its debut. Um and everything went smoothly. So, that was a fun that was sort of a test

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case for us. All went well. Um, and we have the um health permits and fire gave us the go-ahad. Um, and then we got the the um hawker license from the state. Um, so we're all we're all ready to go. We're just looking for permission from you guys to operate in town.

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>> Great. Yeah, thank you for going through the necessary steps in advance. I did see that you had also um mentioned the locations as well which would be consistent with other uh vendors that are doing similar um things in town as well.

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>> Yeah, I don't know where we'll really land. So I I put in sort of all the places that you have um indicated just so we can so we can just start to see where the people are. Um, I'm currently excited about the um the pools and those

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parks. I think that might be a good spot for us. >> Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, I'm seeing, as you said, a lot of people are leaving town, but we're seeing a lot of people and kids and families at the at the playgrounds as well. So, um I I don't have any additional questions. I I know

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that um Bill, you you and your team have been um good partners with the with the town of Long Meadow and um provide good service and and food and with a smile and I think uh you guys will uh continue to do good things and um thank you for

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uh bringing this project forward. I don't have any further questions, but I will certainly open this up to the the board here. >> Um I have a question for you, Bill, and then a question for Lynn. Um, so what what is the the breakfast plan? I was a

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little surprised to see that as one of the >> breakfast tacos. Um, they're a huge thing. I don't if you guys have ever been out to Austin, but breakfast tacos are a huge thing out there. Um, and you know, I I would love to when schools get open too, my daughter goes to um center,

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so and I've noticed four things there. Um, and I think that would be awesome. a cup of coffee from them and a couple breakfast tacos to go. >> Uh, and interesting that you bring that up. That was my other question for Lynn. Um, we started talking about a pol

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changing our food truck policy and I don't think we did, right? >> Or we have um we have a signage or we change something with the signs. Well, >> I'll ask my question a different way, I guess. So, one of the things we talked about as a board was not trying not to

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have competing food trucks or food vendors. Um, but comp complimentary I think is great. Uh, so are you planning to serve coffee when you do have breakfast? >> No, you know, um, uh, Bri, who is, uh,

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owner of Poor Things, was actually at that spring festival where we debuted the trolley. Uh, and I asked her that very question. I was like, "So, how would you feel if we started selling tacos right next to you?" and her answer was, "We would love it. Um, the more the better." Like, that will bring more people to us. And, uh, to answer your

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specific question, no, I would I would specifically not, um, offer coffee if I knew they were going to be there. >> All right. Well, those are, uh, very good answers. Um, and then my I do another question for you, Lyn. What What did we do on the Barnard parcel with um,

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the coffee roaster, the other coffee roaster that I can't remember the name of? >> So, >> so coffee roasters. Yeah. >> Yeah. you um there [clears throat] was conversation about not having them at the same place at the same time. Off the top of my head, I don't remember what's on their

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license and what you approved. >> I know. I mean, specifically, I I just am worried about the Barnard parcel as a place >> Oh. >> for people to stop. And I I know that maybe the police department didn't have concerns. I think we asked and maybe if

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somebody else can remember, but that that spot just concerns me as if it does have a lot of people there. I guess it is bigger than I I think it would be, but I I just don't I get nervous that people go fast on that hill and if they

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all of a sudden say smell uh smell the ribs and want to pull over real quick that there's going to be an accident. I just don't want something like that to happen. That would be my only hesitation. And I think that otherwise this I think it's fantastic. I I'm just worried about that one parcel.

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>> Yeah. From what I recall, I think that Soal operates out of there, but Poor Things does not. >> Right. >> Barner. >> Yeah. >> So, we did give them the if that's part of the permit. I guess I I do think that the police department did the public safety said it's okay.

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So, it's worth a shot. I think it's there's better spots anyway that I would encourage. But >> um the only other location that was uh brought to my attention was the Wolf Swamp Fields because we run a concession stand there. Uh so Parks and Rec did

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just express a little concern that it could infringe on potentially what they are selling. Um I don't know that it's anything we need to be overly concerned with yet, but just putting it out there to you. Um, all right. Well, I will uh make a

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motion uh to approve uh Fletcher's Barbecue Shop and Steakhouse's um request to operate a food trailer in Long Meadow um per our food our mobile uh vendor policies.

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>> Second. Uh any further discussion? Seeing none, I will go to a roll call vote. >> Mr. Zero. Yes. >> Mr. Lamb. >> Yes. >> Mr. Lavine. >> Yes. >> Mr. Hemovati. >> Yes. >> And Miss Mayor DeWolf.

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>> Yes. >> All right. Thank you. Thank you. And good luck. >> Good luck. >> Thank you so much, guys. Really appreciate it. >> Have a good night. >> Um, all right. We will now jump into correspondence.

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Um there was a what it's been about a month or so so we've had a lot of emails kind of pile up here. Um does anyone did anyone want to bring up anything about any of the correspondence tonight? Seeing none. All right. We will now move

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into uh town manager uh report. >> Pass it to you Lynn. >> Yeah. Thank you. Um so the Bliss Park playground is open. A ribbon cutting and grand opening will be held tomorrow, July 21st at 10:00 am. All u people are invited and encouraged to attend. Stop

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by the park today just to check things out and it is incredibly used. Uh there was a lot of people there, various ages, um using every sort of apparatus that was there. So, it was great to see. Um the sheriff's office uh in a very abrupt

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and disappointing announcement uh the sheriff's office notified communities that as of Friday, June 26th, they will no longer provide weekend, which is Friday afternoon through the close of courts on Monday regional lockup services. This is a major blow to us uh

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because we don't have adequate facilities to house an arrestee for that long. It requires us to bring in additional staff on overtime um and expenses for meals. none of which we had budgeted in the FY27 budget because of the announcement coming so late in the

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um prior fiscal year. Um and so it's it's unfortunate because this is a fairly large change and we got very little notice for it. Um LRO roadwork update. There was a construction meeting held on June 25th with all the parties that are involved

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in this. Uh beginning mid to late July, Marias will undertake Converse Street portion of the project. It involves full depth pavement restoration. They'll excavate down about 20 in and um they uh Maras and Mass DOT plan to close both

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lanes of Converse for about 5 weeks to complete this work. More details will be coming about the detours and uh traffic plan. Um late July to August was felt to be the best time frame to do this uh heavy traveled road because um it's

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generally less traffic while school's out of session and they want to get it done before school is back in session. Uh the future building use task force has scheduled public forums. One was held last week on July 15th. There's another one coming up on August 19th here at Greenwood Center and the one on

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September 12th will be at the Long Meadow High School auditorium. They are providing a brief presentation on the current state of the buildings and then looking for feedback from residents. They are quickly gathering a lot of information um looking at a lot of um

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data and the prior survey results but they really want feedback from the residents. So I would encourage anyone to attend those and if not um just to fill out the form that they have on their website. As was mentioned during select board comments, the budget task force has held three meetings. There is

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a lot of information that has been shared with that group from my office and the finance director. One of the things that we're striving to do is every bit of information that's shared with that task force is available on the task force website so that the public can digest it, read it, ask questions.

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Um, and really not we're not trying to keep any of this just for task force members. So, uh, I would encourage anyone to go check out that page and and read one of those reports and then reach out if you have some questions. We submitted a complete streets grant application with the assistance of Beta

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Group. There were two applications that were submitted. One is for the construction of the improvements at Williams Bliss and Redfern. That was for a grant total of 999,000 which is the maximum almost at the maximum award amount of a million dollars. And the other is for design

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funds for improvement on Long Meadow Street South. That work totals 150,000. and that would um continue to move along on that future tip project. So, we should be hearing on these grant applications sometime late summer, early

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fall, and I'm really hoping that we get some something at least for uh certainly the Mass Works project. Uh Eversource Solar Credit Cash Out. This um was one that's been kicking around for a while, but I'm happy to say

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that we did receive the check in the amount of $886,000. Funds were deposited into a general miscellaneous fund. Uh this money will need to be moved at the special fall town meeting. It will be um included in our FY26 free cash. So that number will

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um be higher than we're anticipating primarily due to this extra $886,000. the MSBA accelerated repair program for the center school windows. We have submitted our schematic design to the

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MSBA. Uh they will hold a board meeting in August to vote on our design and then um once we have that back, we will need to get funding which is on schedule to be on the annual the fall town meeting more in November. So, we're hoping for a positive outcome of that at that board

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meeting. Regarding the Bliss Clay Courts, Parks and Recck Department is starting to begin work on the study for the courts. They have engaged with several firms. Um, one firm we are waiting on a design on a a proposal for the um scope of work

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and then we're hoping to be able to move forward there to get that study done and get the public engagement process going. Um this will line up potentially with the capital program but also uh future community preservation grant rounds. The courts will remain closed throughout

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that um study and we have screening additional screening going up. Not all of it was available. Um so we're waiting on the second batch of the order and then that will go up to kind of enclose those courts so they look less unsightly. Um Reynolds and Greenwood

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Pool have been up and operating now for um a little over a month. Um, the pump for the kiddie pool has been installed at Reynolds Pool. They're troubleshoot DPW is currently troubleshooting a leak in the pipe. Unfortunately, as soon as they find a leak, another one pops up. So, the kiddie pool is draining very

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quickly right now, and we haven't been able to maintain proper levels, but um they're continuing to work on that daily. Um, we've held two of four chat and splash events um with the next two coming up on July 22nd and August 5th. I do have some uh total numbers in there

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for daily uh admission and membership. Um as you can see, we're we're holding pretty strong this year, much better than we've done in years past. Um so there's a lot of excitement at the pools right now. Uh there's a lot of information that's being shared with pool goers about upcoming improvements,

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including furniture, a mural painting that's going to happen at Greenwood Pool. So, it's been really wellreceived. And then in in advance of the pool's opening, we were fortunate to have the sheriff's office come paint the interior locker rooms at Blisspool. So you see

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that here in my photos, which looks much better. Um and eventually we'll get the concrete floors painted as well. Um and then um just on the further amenity updates, uh parks and recck department moved through a contract that was signed

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uh for O'Brien and Sons to do the new pool pavilion. This was part of the community preservation funding. This will provide some muchneeded shade there at Greenwood Pool. Okay. Um the fire department has submitted a FEMA MIMA brick grant. So

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building resilient infrastructure and communities for the emergency generator to service police and fire departments. This will replace the old outdated generator that's insufficient for our operational needs. Uh we were previously awarded a brick grant. If you remember

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several years ago, that grant had then been cancelled when the new presidential administration came in. Um, we have however uh learned that that grant has been reinstated. So, we're just waiting to hear where we are in that process. It had been approved through the two

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layers. We were waiting on that third approval. If we're successful, this will be the um planning department mapping and scanning of those large files that we have um large maps and plans. that'd be great to digitize. Uh and then the finance director has

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engaged with the state federal funds and infrastructure office to help with that federal grant match. Uh we've tried this a couple times and haven't been successful, but we're going to continue to try while they have that resource available. This will either um be used to match with the emergency generator

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grant match or potentially with the um scanning project. And um we would have a fall town meeting article if we're successful in that brick grant to come up with the grant match if we don't get money from the federal funds and infrastructure office.

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And then lastly at the um June meeting I gave you a bleak outlook on the DPW demolition. After that June meeting, uh I convened the DPW procurement and accounting offices for all of us to do a deep dive um along with town council and

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the finance director to look through the bid submissions and um D was also I'm sorry DPW was tasked with talking to D about whether or not we could get an extension of our permit that expires at the end of the calendar year.

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um DP uh DP was willing to consider an extension, but we were going to need to have firm details and timelines. That wasn't necessarily a huge hurdle. Our bigger concern was that um bid prices were now known. Uh and there was a

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substantial difference between the low bidder and the m medium and high bidder. And so we were very concerned that if we did have to go back out to bid, our bid results were not going to be favorable. And so collectively we decided our best approach would be to phase the

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postclosure and demolition engineering work which would allow us to split up that contract over uh a couple fiscal years and then also um gather any capital funding sources that could potentially be used for this that were

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remaining funds from prior capital projects. So between all of those um modifications, we were able to come up with enough funding to sign the contract for the demolition work. And so we have a pre-construction meeting scheduled for

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Wednesday this week that will come up with the timeline. Um this is great to be able to get this moving forward because we because of that substantial difference in the bid prices, but also um this has been a long-standing project that we would love to wrap up. Um,

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and we're going to continue to closely monitor for contingencies, hoping that um, we fare better than than we could and we won't need additional funding at Falltown meeting. >> Happy to answer any questions that you might have. I know this was a long one tonight.

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>> Thanks, Lynn. >> Um, thank you, Lyn. That's that's a lot, but um, one question about the sheriff's office and no longer having the weekend lockup. Do we only incur expenses if we have someone that we need to hold or if Okay. It's not like it it's incurring

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expenses because people are on call or we're not paying anyone unless they have to come in, >> right? >> And do we have any idea how often that happens on over a weekend period? >> Um it depends. We don't have a huge number of arrests that occur during those time frames. Um however, we did have one this past weekend and that

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total for that was about $3,000. Wow. Okay. I would I would just say um like generally speaking, it's been pretty broadcasted about the just various sheriff's departments across the Commonwealth and a lot of uh

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a lot of the budget cuts and that they've had to make. So, they've had to make some very difficult decisions. By no means am I speaking for them, but um you know, this is probably a result of that. Um but at the same point I did want to um touch on the sheriff's

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department again for the project that they did to help uh paint the the uh the pools. This is now uh the second time. So last year they had painted uh Greenwood Pool, now Bliss Pool. Um they've done the sheriff's

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department has done a massive cleanup uh down at the Meadows. They've also done the cleanup um at Wolf Swamp Field. So, I do where there might be some bad news, I do want to highlight the the sheriff's department and working really closely with the town of Long Meadow. Um and

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when I had reached out about the the pool project, they said absolutely how however we can help. So, um I just want to say thank you to Sheriff Coochi uh and his team for their continued uh support of of Long Meadow um uh the

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recreation programs as well as uh various cleanups. So, I did want to comment on that. Um I I don't know if there's any other questions or comments. >> Dan, I do have a question and you might have answered some of it around the sheriff's um the sheriff county item.

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Was it just so is it across all of Massachusetts that the Ham Hampton the sheriffs can no longer provide week weekend lockup transportations or was it just specific to Hampton County? >> Just Hampton County. >> Um and my concern with that is one Lynn,

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you mentioned the budget, you know, the budget impacts, but there's also a big liability for the town of Long Meadow in those instances as well that I think we need to think about. And so I also just have a question kind of being new to how this works on a state level. Are we

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aware and have we contacted the governor's office because my concern is lockup services is a core function of the sheriff's department. And so Dan, I completely agree with you and appreciate the support and help with painting. I

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think if core services aren't being able to be met by the sheriff's department, are other non-core services being stopped in order to provide these core services? So again, my concern is impact to budget, but also the liability for

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the town with us keeping people overnight and for weekends. There's a huge liability there. Do we do we know if there's any any adjustments being made or did we only get the the communication that

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they're they're severing those services? >> Um we have only received the communication from further communication that I've received from uh Chief Stocks. the um

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police chiefs that are impacted are continuing to meet with the sheriff's office on this, hoping that this will eventually be relieved, but um as of right now, it still stands, but conversation is ongoing. >> Okay,

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>> thanks, Shelley. Yeah, the only other highlight is just about the pools and it's um I mean there's a a great great level of attendance that we're seeing an increase. This was a really big topic of conversation as we all know just last

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year and it's really it's really good to see that we're these numbers are so strong this year. Um, so, you know, kudos to uh Parks and Wreck and and Barry Jarvis for her work and some of the changes that they've made to um hopefully drive uh solid attendance at

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the pool. So, thank you for that. And now we will move into the department monthly reports. I'm not sure if anyone had any questions or wanted to highlight anything in these reports before we uh move on.

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Oh. Um, saw the LPD report that there was, uh, a scammer, somebody was stopped by an employee from sending out money from a Bitcoin machine. Are we still waiting on that bylaw to be approved?

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>> Yeah, we have not received that back yet. >> Man, where is the Bitcoin machine? um that I I I was not a aware that there was one, but let me I don't know. I'll have to get back to you on that. >> Maybe the maybe the person left town to

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do it, >> I was just curious. Nothing we need to look into right now. All right, we will move into old business. Um, so we have a approval of meeting minutes

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for July 15th, 2026 draft meeting minutes to be approved. >> Um, I will move to approve the July 15, 2026 uh meeting minutes. >> Second. >> Uh, further discussion? Seeing none. Uh, roll call, please.

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>> Um, one second. You July 15th, >> it's actually it's just a mistype, but in the in the link, it's Yeah. >> Yeah. June. Uh, amend that to June 15th. >> Second. >> Uh, further discussion? No. We'll go to roll call, please.

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>> Uh, Mr. Zwco, >> yes. >> Mr. Lamb, >> yes. >> Mr. Lavine, >> yes. >> Mr. Hemathy, >> yes. >> Miss Mayor Dwolf, >> yes. >> All right. Next order of business, um the continuation of town manager FY2026

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evaluation and salary. Um so I will I will just start by saying um at the at the end of every uh fiscal year the select board uh convenes and submits or

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sub rather submits and then convenes um uh a going through the town managers um evaluation and every year since I've been on the board uh which I guess is reaching almost five years Now, um we've

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scored um we've evaluated and scored very highly of of Lynn Simmons as our as our town manager. And um this was a really a a project that Josh Lavine when you were chair brought this forward um to take another look at the town manager

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Lynn Simmons um contract. Um so upon further review and further discussions over the past 6 months uh the board uh decided to um extend Lynn Simmons contract uh for a three-year contract. Currently she was

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already in a contract. Uh we met and felt that it was the right thing to do um based on the evaluations and the value that Lynn brings to the the town of of Long Meadow. We looked at a lot of data from other towns um and we're proud

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to um announce that um we felt it was appropriate to uh have an extension of her contract for 3 years. Um and then currently town or labor council is actually looking and reviewing uh the

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contract to uh then make it we'll make it public for everybody to view um on the website as well. Um, does anybody else have anything to add for that? Do I have a motion

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um for the ratification of town manager employment contract July 1, 2026 to Jul June 30th, 2029? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Discussion. >> Well deserved. >> Thanks. >> Yeah. Congratulations, [clears throat]

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Linda. Again, it's it's you've done a great job and we're looking forward to continuing to work alongside you. >> We'll take a with that said, we will take a roll call, please. >> Mr. Zero, >> yes. >> Mr. Lamb, >> yes. >> Mr. Lavine, >> yes. >> Mr. Hemathy, >> yes.

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>> Miss Mayor Dwalt, >> yes. >> Congratulations. Um, and now we will move to new business. uh authorization of conservation restriction CR amendment. Lynn, I'll let you speak to this, please.

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>> Great. Thank you. >> Um so, the Department of Conservation and Recreation completed a formal survey of their conservation restriction in the Meadows and they prepared an updated boundary plan. Rather than attempting the complex process of trying to of tying the new survey back to the

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original property deed, DCR proposes a streamline approach of recording one-page document that legally ties the newly recorded survey plan directly to the existing conservation restriction. The approach mirrors the current practice utilized by the Department of

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Agricultural Resources for similar boundary updates. Town council has reviewed this amendment and finds no issue. The recommendations for the select board to authorize the town manager to execute the conservation restriction amendment. Any

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further questions, comments here? And so we can we can vote on that today. Lynn, >> you can if you'd like. You can wait if you want. Um, >> is it uh is it pressing to vote on tonight? We could we could vote on that if someone wants.

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>> This is my job to look at this and uh if I it seems fine to me and if DCR and town council are telling us that they've looked at it and they think it's okay, I think we we can also go forward. >> All right. Josh says it's okay, we can

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do it. I didn't say is I said [laughter] I >> um do I have a motion to move forward with the authorization of conservation restriction amendment CR? >> Uh so moved. >> Second.

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Uh further discussion seeing none we'll do a roll call please. >> Mr. Zwco. >> Yes. >> Mr. Lamb. >> Yes. >> Mr. Lavine. >> Yes. >> Mr. Hemovati. >> Yes. >> Miss Mayor Dwolf. >> Yes. All right, thank you. We will now move

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to set the state uh primary warrant and should be early voting schedule is do we need to do two um is it two motions or do we just set the date and everything keys off? Okay, >> you you should do the warrant separate from the early voting schedule.

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Um, I'll move that we accept the September primary warrant as it appears on the agenda. >> Second. >> Uh, any further discussion? Seeing none, we'll move to a roll call, please.

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>> Mr. Zeroco, >> yes. >> Mr. Lamb, >> yes. >> Mr. Lavine, >> yes. >> Mr. Hemovati, >> yes. >> Miss Mayor Dwolf, >> yes. >> Thank you. And go ahead, Ben. >> Um, I will move to approve the um

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in-person early vote schedule as attached to the agenda. >> Second. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> I have a little bit of a discussion. So, I had actually been communicating with Lynn about this and I think um I had

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asked if if it was um I noticed there were basically two full weeks of in early inpat in-person voting and I asked her if it was poss if she could give us some data on uh what are the state requirements and what are the

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costs incurred and did she think it was based on prior voting uh cost effective to basically have like 16 days of full-time voting. And um she responded that there is a there is a pretty

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stringent requirement, but you can limit it somewhat in the first week. You don't have to do all like seven days. You can do three and a half days. Um you I won't speak for you, but in in Lynn's opinion, it was would be totally probably a good idea if we basically

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saved some funds and just had, you know, 10 days of voting instead of 14. But um I would be in favor of that. I think that we this is probably more than adequate early inerson voting for an election that's kind of a

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not a presidential election, but a in between elections. That's my opinion. >> Um, thank you, Andrew. I I appreciate that. Is there What is the the cost on that? But I mean, I I I tend to disagree, but I I'm just curious what the cost. >> Sure. Um, so I'll clarify just a little

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bit. Um, we're required to have one full week of early voting um before the September primary and then another full week before the November election. The November one is when um we can reduce the hours. They don't have to be full

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days. It could be a partial day. And so that was ultimately what um the town clerk ended up coming back to me and recommending that if there was interest instead of the full day hours of um 8:15 to 4:30, it could be a 9 to1 in those um

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in that first week of early voting leading up to the November election. So it's a little confusing. >> I see. So it's not half the days, it's limited hours for the first week. >> Yes. >> But a full time the second week. >> Yes. And the same leading up to September. You have to have one full

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week of it. Um our our um daily vote count isn't an overwhelming number, but it's too much to have the office staff take it on without, you know, without additional

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support in the office. So, um, we try to have the least amount of workers as possible while also still giving the best service as possible. Uh, that requires them to have, uh, two people here, two extra people here. So, um,

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it's about, um, $200, um, a day to do that. >> Yeah. I mean, I just I I personally just view it and I respectfully I I respect her totally. Um, but we're talking about

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$200 a day for probably the most sacred thing that we should be um advocating for, which is our right to vote and making voting easier for people and families and our seniors, our

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veterans. I just feel like this is something that I personally I feel really strongly about making sure that our open and free elections should be um easily accessible for for everybody. And if one person misses it because of a

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time change, that's that's just too many people to miss out on on voting, especially when, you know, we've we've worked so hard through history to to get to the point where everyone has has their say and can vote freely in open

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elections. So, over $200, I'm personally deciding on keeping these elections as accessible as possible. Uh, any further discussion? >> Seeing none, we'll take a roll call vote. >> Mr. Zwco,

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>> yes. >> Mr. Lamb, >> yes. >> Uh, Mr. Lavine, >> yes. >> Mr. Hemathy, >> yes. >> Miss Mayor DeWolf, >> yes. >> Thank you. Uh, now on to the select board. FY2027

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liaison assignments discussion. So we have the spreadsheet which lays out um all of our different assignments that I believe are consistent with what we had uh last year.

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And in years past, we I guess if someone wants to possibly change into a different committee assignment or role, um we're always open to to doing that. I'm open if people want to make changes if you feel like

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you feel strongly about trying a different committee as a liaison. Um or if we want to keep things as is. I know there's been some change on on the the board um as well recently. So, I'm okay with keeping things consistent unless uh

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folks want to really make a a trade here, we could do that, too. Um any thoughts for the board? Uh yeah, I mean I don't see any reason to change um unless someone has a reason

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for for themselves that they see. >> I agree. I don't see any reason to adjust them. >> Status quo is good for me. >> All right. Well, it looks like Do we need to uh do we have to vote on this now? It's just we'll keep everything as is. Okay.

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Excellent. Well, um the only final thing I would say is I I know there's a we get pulled into a lot of different meetings. Some might be last minute with these different different groups and really appreciate the the board's um commitment to um help out some of these other committees when they when they ask us to

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attend. I know it's a lot of extra work outside of what we we do on a regular basis. So, I just want to say thank you to that um as well. Um do I have a motion to adjurnn? >> So moved. Second. >> Uh, we'll do a roll call, please.

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>> Mr. Worco, >> yes. >> Mr. Lamb, >> yes. >> Mr. Lavine, >> yes. >> Mr. Hemathy, >> yes. >> Miss Mayor DeWolf, >> yes. >> All right. Well, thank you everybody for joining. Have a good evening. Thanks.

