Sorry about that. Are you guys all set? >> Hey, call me time. Thank you. Yes. >> Okay, stand by. And five, four, three, two, one. Good evening everyone. Welcome to the
January 20th, 2026 meeting of the Long Meadow Select Board. And I didn't get bought enough time. Here we go. This is Select Board Chair Josh Lavine. I will be confirming that all members and persons anticipated the agenda are present and can hear me. Members, when I
call your name, please respond in the affirmative. Dan Workco >> here. >> Beneath Mavathy >> here. >> Andrew Lamb here. >> Shelley Mayor Dwolf >> here. Staff, when I call your name, please respond in the affirmative. Lynn Simmons, >> here. >> Mike Barbieri,
he is here. He's just not in the room at the moment. Peggy Sheldon here. >> This open meeting of the Long Meadow Select Board is convened in person and via Zoom webinar as posted on the agenda and town's website identifying how the public may join. There is no chat or Q&A function. All the materials for this
meeting are available on the agenda posted on long memma.gov. The public is encouraged to follow along using the posted agenda unless I note otherwise. This meeting will feature resident comment. For residents attending the meeting in person, please raise your hand when we get to the comments section of the meeting and I will call on you to approach the
microphone. For residents participating in the meeting via Zoom webinar format, please use the raise a hand icon at the bottom of the screen bottom of the screen. The meeting moderator will promote you to panelists 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
unmute. Residents who 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 computer when you are not speaking. If anyone in in attendance
is recording this meeting, please announce yourself now. Great. All right, we'll proceed to the pledge of >> allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God,
indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Okay, we'll start with resident comments. We have anybody signed up or anybody online? >> Yes, sir. >> All right. Uh we will proceed directly
to kudos and plottits. >> Uh for today um certified public finance officer CFP CPFO credential uh town of Long Finance Director Ian Codington recently earned his certified public finance officer credential. It's a that
is a advanced nationally recognized designation of professionals working in state and local government finance. It's rewarded awarded by the government finance officers association and signifies that an individual has demonstrated comprehensive knowledge of public finance best practices ethics and
leadership. The CER to earn the designation candidates must pass a series of examinations covering core disciplines of public finance. The exams cover accounting, debt, planning and budgeting, treasury compensation, procurement and risk management. The
CFP, the CPFO designation also helps ensure the department is led by someone with a proven experience in government accounting and regulatory compliance. Uh this is a significant milestone in Mr. Cogington's career which demonstrates his hard work and dedication to the profession. Congratulations to Ian on
this great accomplishment. I think we can all say that that's a fantastic thing and I'm very proud of Ian and uh glad we have him on board. Um any other kudos or plaudits? Uh looking around. Um
I will just uh I won't Oh, never mind. I'll keep it for later. Um all right. So, next up on our agenda, we have interviews and appointments uh for the future building use task force. Have we had everyone sign in yet?
>> Sign in sheet. >> Thank you. >> Okay, you're the last one. >> Not quite yet. >> Okay, so I was thinking the board has not discussed this as we're not permitted to discuss outside
of meetings. Um, of having us come out come up uh maybe five at a time since we have a lot of people. We normally would do we like to do panel discussions uh but I think given the amount of people we have uh
that would probably be too much. Um so why don't we to the extent we can have five people come up. I'm going to go I'm going to name names and uh then we will start the interview process. Uh so I know Mary Beth withdrew today.
So do we have Christopher Carr in person or online? is online I believe. >> How about >> and uh Bernie Cohen? >> Thank you. >> Daniel Cohen.
>> No, Daniel. Okay. >> Okay. Uh, >> Paul Dunkerley. Uh, Joe Eckerly. I guess I can look at this time. Uh, Earl Godfrey, I know you're here.
Uh, do we have Sarah Greg? Yes. come on up and do one more. Uh Zachary Kushner. Let's just wait for Mike to get set up.
This got much better after we got the stand in case anyone's wondering, >> but can't always be foolproof. I heard the owl. >> Do you want the You want to get a table? >> Okay. Um, I just want to make sure
everyone online can can hear as well. >> Okay, we're back to this one. >> All right. Uh, starting with Earl, why don't we go ahead and introduce your name and your address, please?
>> 156 Bington Road. >> Sarah Greg, 33 Rosemore Street. >> Zachary Kushner, 73 Captain Road. Paul Dunkerley, 232 Kenmore Drive. >> Bernie Cohen, 98 Converse Street.
>> Okay. And uh why don't we go ahead and ask everyone a general question. We'll go we'll start the other way with Bernie. Um can you tell us why you have applied for the future use future building use task force?
>> Yes. Specifically, I think what caught my interest was the opportunity to create some housing options um in Long Meadow. Previously, I'd been on the housing authority for about 12 years. We had tried to get an accessory bylaw
through the town. It was shot down by the planning board. Um I don't think Long Meadow was necessarily ready for that at that particular time, although it's now statewide mandated. It's permissible. It's exactly the Bible actually that we had proposed through
the housing authority. So that that was a thing that captured my interest. Plus, uh, Long Meadow has some great buildings that are about to be reused and, um, I'd love to be involved in planning what is the best use for these buildings. Um,
one of my thoughts, Dr. Lamb had done such a great job at the young man M man M man M man M man M man M man M man M man M man M mansion and as a lawyer I know that that space got filled up by a couple of lawyers and I think if given other opportunities I'll create [clears throat] some space
for that from other kinds of businesses. So those opportunities really intrigued me but specifically I think the housing opportunities were what brought me to this meeting. >> Don't you think we have enough lawyers in town already? Yeah. Well, I think probably the ones that were already here
would be the ones taking that office basically. >> Okay. >> I happen to be one of those [snorts] lawyers. >> Oh, I see. Okay, great. Uh Paul, >> thanks so much. So, what really kind of captured my attention was um that I'm
looking at these three buildings and particularly the community house around which there's a lot of emotion u for the town. My kids participated in activities in the community house. We obviously all go to vote there and it's kind of an iconic building as is the town hall and
I think it's really important that you know we kind of honor the history of those buildings while at the same time look take a look at the unmet needs that we have in town or perhaps the anticipated future needs and find a way to utilize those buildings and spaces uh in a way that complements what we're
already doing and what we're trying to do. But again to keep an open mind on all of that as well. Uh I think it's really important that we have an opportunity to hear from residents on this as well. Um and to make a really strong uh and informed recommendation to
the select board in terms of what we can do as far as you know so that that's kind of what piqued my interest. The other part of it is that now that I'm retired and I've kind of put aside some of those immediate postretirement things I feel like I have the time whatever
time is necessary to dedicate to this. uh and I have a skill set I think that will you know that will help to uh enhance the process. >> What is your skill set? >> So it it's actually multiple things. So aside from the fact that you know I worked in the school department for you
know almost 20 years and in a leadership position for 13 and in the school department, you know, we work in a very much so a shared decision-making process. But my history goes back in terms of employment to leadership positions where I have either been a
part of or run uh groups and meetings uh and task forces in order to get certain things done. So, you know, it's everything from participating in the high school uh building project where I was the faculty representative from the first day that they allowed a faculty
representative until we closed that project out and signed it off and paid that last check um to, as I said in the paperwork that I gave you, uh you know, putting in uh an outdoor storage facility. I've also been involved in a
lot of other things involved with uh maintenance and uh building improvements. So, I have a pretty good feel of what it takes to get things going, what needs to be done when you're either rehabilitating or building out a space, and what it takes to maintain that space in the way that's appropriate
for the users for the long term to make sure that the investment that the town makes um is uh is a good investment and makes sense long term, not just in the short term. Zack. >> Um, simply put, I'm here because I feel
like it's an opportunity to be involved in the local community and make a difference. Um, I've been a resident in the town of Long Meadow for about eight and a half years. Um, and, uh, my background is in construction and development. Um, and what's interesting about these projects is, you know, these
buildings, um, you know, they're, you know, we're trying to evaluate them to see what their next potential use could be. And as we all know with uh the changing building codes and you know trying to modernize and and find potential new uses for these properties there's a massive component of
feasibility and uh site logistics and you know ADA accessibility. Um, and I think some of the value that, you know, um, I could provide and one of the reasons why it's interesting is, you know, understanding it from a builder's perspective, um, as well as a developer perspective. And simply put, you know,
I'd like to try to make a difference and get involved locally here in the community. Um, and, uh, you know, figured I would give it a shot. >> Thank you, sir. I'm currently the um head administrator at Canopy Brokerage
Company in Enfield, Connecticut. And this opportunity actually came across while I was working on a mixeduse redevelopment of the Nathan Hail School, um a Montre School in Enfield. Um I worked with one of our main investors to
apply to the town, create an RFP, do the market research um to have them approve it for about 40 55 and older. um apartments. Um I love research. I love doing the supportive work that it takes
to get projects going. Um on a personal level, I love old buildings. Um when I was 19, my now husband and I drove through Long Meadow to get to Bright Nights, and I was like, I want to live there. [laughter] Um, and we drove past, you know, center school in the community house and I find
them so beautiful, but also I want future generations to find them beautiful and useful as well. Um, I have two small children at home and so I'm thinking of their um, uses for it as well and what would make them love Long Meadow the way that
I do. Um, and I just really think that it would be a great opportunity to be in the community as well and create long-term community benefit. >> Well, go ahead. >> Okay. Uh, my interest in this is the due
to the fact that I have a deep and abiding interest in Long Meadow that extends well beyond 70 years timewise. Um, I've been involved in a lot of aspects of Long Meadow Community Living from uh, election works where I was an
election worker, clerk of elections, and then warden of the elections. Um, I'm involved with the shelter committee and well, there's any number of things, but what I do principally is I get out and I'm amongst the people in Long Meadow.
uh granted a demographic that approaches my age. Uh some of them are older and some of them not quite attaining the same age. Um and the other demog uh demographic uh is the uh military and
veteran committee uh community. U I talk to these people all the time and quite frankly I'm here because I was urged to be here. part of what you do. Uh because I'm not a builder, I'm not an estimator. U I could probably go out and sell
something to somebody if I put my mind to it. Um but the ones you want to sell on this and the ones you want to satisfy are the people who don't do all of these other things. And I think that's where I come in and and I can make
I can I can help people understand some of the difficult decisions that are going to have to be made about this. But at the same time, I've interacted with the Long Meadow Historic District and the Long Meadow Historic Commission. I I
know what the interests are out there that, you know, span the entire community. Uh, and I have an interest in protecting that as well. So, yeah. >> Before I open up to everyone else, has has everyone [clears throat] watched the
recent presentation we got on the the needs for rehabilitation on these buildings? >> No. >> So, and anyone who's interested whether you put on the task force or not should watch it. Uh, it's and and read it.
There is, I'm sure everyone on up here would agree with me, significant financial capital needs on these buildings that would be very difficult for our town to take on for all three. Um, so I would absolutely recommend
familiarizing yourself and anyone who goes on the task force that will be have to be your bible at the beginning to because they'll have to guide a lot of decisions. Um, [clears throat] any questions for our first panel that we have up here? >> I have a question. Um,
>> for anybody, but particularly maybe Sarah and Zachary because of your experience. [cough] Have you, um, can you share an example just from your experience, I think you'll teach us as well, of a of successful adaptive reuse for a project that you maybe admired or
thought it was good and what made that project work. Yeah, I mean I can kind of start off on that. Um, so part of my business is, you know, we're a commercial general contractor. I've, you know, done a lot of public work for Dam um at my previous life um before I went out on my own.
I've also done a lot of private work um and then on top of that, I own uh several commercial properties in Western Mass and Connecticut. Um, and you know, a common, you know, um, thing that we run into as developers is, you know, how can we take a building that was
potentially, you know, at one point, a department store, for example. We owned a building on Main Street, 425 Main Street in Middletown, Connecticut. It's about 40,000 square feet. It was the first Bob's Discount Furniture Store um, in I think actually New England. And then prior to that, it was uh, a
department store. So, it's had had multiple, you know, lives. And um you know what made that building challenging was you know ADA accessibility, right? If we were going to you know you're not going to find a single tenant to take 40,000 square feet on Main Street in Middletown with zero parking, right? So
we had to basically figure out how to effectively and efficiently make the building ADA accessible. Um and how can we potentially partition the building off to maybe get multiple tenants in there, right? Looking at potential uses of office space, retail. We even looked
at potentially doing housing. And what I think is a big driver in today's world is cost, right? Construction costs are going up. There's, you know, previously and I think it's starting to correct itself, but there's labor shortages. So the cost of labor is significantly, you
know, increased. Um, you know, during COVID, we had major material lead time issues and price increases. So, you know, when you're evaluating these deals, right, and these projects, understanding the feasibility behind them is a key component. Um, and you
know, what I see is potentially, you know, um, there's potential roadblocks where, you know, you could pay an architect or designer to, for example, convert to housing, but then you figure out, you know, the HVAC costs are very prohibited prohibitive or the uh, fire
sprinkler system is not adequate, right? So that specific project we found that the best use was to do you know retail on the you know the storefront area and then do uh smaller office partition spaces on the second, third and fourth floor and that you know uh we met with
the economic developer uh uh committee in uh Middletown and there was a lot large need for smaller office spaces that were feasible for some startup companies. So, not only did we were we able to repurpose the building, we were able to do it economically and fill a need for the local community and, you
know, do it the right way. So, um, you know, that building was from, I want to say, 1935ish. Um, and, you know, we kind of brought it up to modern day, you know, use, new electrical system, new heating and cooling system, upgraded fire sprinkler
system, so on so forth. So that's one example something that I've experienced in >> something that I really love to be a part of was when we moved offices there was a huge Victorian on Hazard Avenue in Enfield. It was more or less abandoned
um over 3,500 square feet um as a single um single family home and then there's a giant barn out back and no one wanted it. It was basically falling apart. Um, and we, my broker, myself and our main
investor tooured it and we created a layout plan and we made it into a mixeduse with two apartments um, and then our office in the front and we maintained the historical integrity of the building and the looks um, while
creating two upscale apartments on a budget as well. Um, that created more housing which is desperately needed in Enfield specifically. Um, and I really liked being a part of that and getting to see, you know, taking this building
that needed significant repairs and changes and seeing the final income and seeing people come in and fall in love with it. And now we have two long-term tenants, and we get to be in the front in our office as well, and we really love it.
>> Does that sound familiar, Andrew? >> These these products are a piece of cake. Everyone should do it. [clears throat] >> Uh, any other questions from the board members? >> Go ahead. >> Thank you. Um, and thank you all everyone for applying. Uh, this is great that you all are putting your names
forward to do this. Um, I think I just I wanted to just mention kind of just two comments quickly. Um the first is that I think um and I think the select board would probably agree with me on this is that people coming into this task force and want to be a part of it. We would really look for folks to have an open mind coming into this process to really
kind of go through everything, go through all the options and then come to us with the best recommendation, not maybe have something prejudged um you know in your head of where you want this project to go. Um and then the second thing is is that we are looking for this um to be done pretty quickly. We're
looking for a report to come back to us in December at you know at the end of this year. So uh folks uh you know we it really will take like a lot of time commitment I think uh to do this you know meetings and I think there's be work probably that needs to be done outside of meetings as well. So just kind of just those two things I just
want to mention um you know at the outset here. Um and I think uh Zach and Sarah you kind of touched on this in your answers. So, I'd be interested to hear from the um the rest of you. Um just, you know, and I this is not like a a response to the presentation that we
got or anything, but just kind of first impressions. What do you maybe see as kind of the biggest challenges that might be uh you know, facing this task force or the project in general? uh that when you look at this, you you think to yourself like, okay, that that's something that we're gonna have to
really look out for or um you know, we're gonna have to really think through or you know um you know, kind of be ready for um uh for this project. Um and I we could start with you Bernie. >> Sure. Well, the first thing that was mentioned actually was cost, you know,
in terms of rehabbing or doing any kind of work on the building that because they're older buildings, um, any kind of rehab could make it prohibitively cost, which means that we then may have to bring in private entities or make a
public private partnership to work with other nonprofits who may be able to do development and bring in tax credits or whatever other uh, you know, financial resources may be available to make the project work. And the other thing was
what are the needs of the community? It was another point that was brought out. What what do we need here in Long Meadow? And the needs of community um sometimes don't always mesh with um what the butters may want such as you know
the the problems with that we've met in town with some of the concerns raised by the abuters at the at the middle school. So that would be an example. How do we, you know, even if we propose a project, how do we sort of spoke that out and
work with people to see what does the community need? What do we want here um in these places? So I think, you know, those are some of the challenges that I certainly see. So it's not just what even we may come up with. We have to
determine the community as a whole. >> Great. Thank you, Paul. Yeah. So, I feel like I'm leaprogging here a little bit, but um I think probably two of the most important things are one, the costs that are associated with it, and I think to
start with building that foundation of saying if we're going to keep these buildings, this is the minimum we have to do to make them um usable in the public domain, ADA compliance, sprinkler systems, etc., etc., and to bring that information forward to the town and have
the folks, you know, do the work that's necessary so that people understand kind of kind of where ground zero is on this if we're going to maintain these buildings as for some particular future use and then build from there. The other thing that I think is paramount is is
listening to people and bringing that information back and forth. So, there's going to be a lot of education that goes on in both directions. We as a committee would need to educate the town in terms of of what we know, what the reports say, how things come together, what departments heads are saying, what our
town manager and select board is saying in terms of what our unmet needs are uh at present and what our anticipated future needs are that we may need to use these buildings for. And then to listen to our residents and see what it is that's important to them among those
things that I just mentioned and to make sure that if they have ideas that are new that we are open to those ideas and that we incorporate that into our thinking so that we come up with an objective plan that makes sense and serves the greatest level of needs with the understanding that we're not going
to make everybody happy. Just like the middle school, you're not going to make everybody happy. When we built the high school, not everybody was happy and so on and so forth. But what we do need to do is uh make the best effort possible to make a recommendation to the select board and town manager that makes the
most sense for our town and its population not only for tomorrow but probably for the next 25 to 50 years. >> Great. Thank you, Earl. >> Oh yeah, you have two huge issues here that I see. One is the financial side
from the report that Jos was referring to. In the other one, you have the sentiment of the community, the the last town hall, the community house, and then the old town hall. The old town hall may or may not be the
simplest one to move somewhere in the equation. [clears throat] uh potentially with say federal or state grants and possible use as a veterans facility of some some sort. The community house, as I understand it, was a gift to the town
from the first church. Uh they're not going to take lightly if you can't do something with it. So financial requirement or not, boy, going to have to find a way to do something there.
the previous town hall we had. Somebody could probably use that. Uh but it's in a tough location uh behind the community house and and with the firehouse. But I think you have to keep these things in mind and uh go
after the lowhanging fruit. The first one you can, you know, definitively almost get something done with and then go back and look at the others. >> Great. Thank you. And then and sorry I didn't mean to not give you the opportunity if you wanted to say
[laughter] anything Zach and Sarah but not I mean you kind of in your experiences I think you guys kind of talked about some of the challenges that coming up. So >> yeah I think I think the biggest challenge no matter what the use is going to be how to bring it up to modern day life safety code right ADA compliance fire you know sprinkler fire
alarm so on so forth. >> Thank you. >> Anybody else? Okay. Uh and before anyone leaves, I this is we had a fantastic response to this where we have seven spots at large and uh I'm was really
happy to see the response we got and I I don't know how if we advertise this differently or if we just this is something people are really excited about. So thank you all for applying. Um we can't take everyone u but we're so happy to have this response and have such qualified and eager people. Uh we
don't always get that with uh things we put out. So, thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right, we'll see how many uh we have to fill this next one. >> One online. >> Who do we have online? >> Greg Morrison. >> Okay. Uh David Lipkkey.
Hi, come on up. Um William Low seemed no. Okay. Uh Ryan Cole and Greg will bring him in. Uh Leonard Shaker and Larry Star
Mark Bojic. >> You had to cancel. Emergency. You had to cancel. >> Okay. All right. Oh, perfect. One more. >> Ask Greg to unute. Greg, can you unmute, please? >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> All right, Greg, we know we can hear
you. Why don't you go ahead and start introduce yourself? >> All right. My name is Greg Morrison. I live at Ellington Street. I move to Long. I am an architect and historic preservation consultant for LRK. It's a
firm based out of Memphis, Tennessee. Um, so most of my my work to date has been in Tennessee, but I specialize in adaptive for youth primarily um and and historic preservation and
deal a lot with with the types of challenges we'd be looking at with these buildings. Frankly, the aspects of life safety and accessibility and all those things uh they don't scare me because they're my day-to-day of dealing with how they are approached. There is always
a possible path forward. It doesn't mean that it's uh it may not be economically feasible and it may be there may be challenges associated with it, but I sort of thrive on figuring out how it is that we do meet all of the codes and still work with existing buildings to keep their historic integrity and make
them work for new uses. Um, so I and I'm also sort of representing the um the Long Meadow Historical Commission as a member of that group to have a voice in this uh in this discussion. And honestly, part of
why I got involved in the Long Meadow Historical Commission was an interest in buildings like these that fall outside of that. Uh they're not part of the historic district. they are part of the sort of public image of Long Meadow and making sure that we retain that that historic integrity but also find
something that works for a new use. Um, so I'm I'm very uh very excited about the potential of being involved with something like this. >> Thank you, Greg. Larry, >> um, I'm Larry Star. I live at 81 Williamsburg Drive in Long Meadow. I've
been here for 40 years. Um, I have been involved in a lot of projects in the town over the year. I started building the playscape at Blueberry Hill when we first got here. I oversaw that. Uh, but I was responsible for bringing the ambulance to town. Um, I took over that
committee and raised the money and everything. I have a background in ambulance operations uh when I was younger. Um, I have a number of real estate things that I'm involved in. Uh I am a trustee of the Bushnell but I also am the vice chair of the building
committee. Um where we started when I first came involved there was no annual budget for capital expenses. Um and that was a significant problem that basically I took on and as of the budget we just passed um a couple weeks ago. Uh there's
a 900,000 uh budget just for my capital expense that that is part of my oversee that building. It'll be 100 years old. uh in a little while and we have done an amazing job. We're also now taking over um it's it's public but it's not well
known yet. Uh the Warner theater in Torington u we're in the process of the contracts to take it over. They were in deep financial circumstance. Um and again I will be handling the building there. It is over 100 years old and there's actually two buildings including
a uh department store that was taken over as part of the process and that building is in very bad shape. Um, so we need to look at it all over again and figure out how we're going to maintain it. Um, I have a number of commercial buildings. 46 Daget, the bu office building in the Riverdale shops. The
only office building there is my building. Um, I'm the only owner occupier. The others are all tenants. Um, we built a number of buildings, a number of partnerships that I'm involved in around uh the area. uh I was uh chair
or co-chair of the uh of our uh study committee that looked at the re redoing the town charter. Um and uh I would point out that that was a one-year appointment, but it took us two years. And so I'm a little concerned when you say we need to have this done by
December. That's fine and we can work on it, but instead it's more important to get it done right. And if it takes more than December, then that's what it has to take. Um I have no preconceived notions. I have no particular department that I think should should take uh
a lead uh whether it's housing or or house or municipal services or whatever. We need to look at the best and highest use for this properties. Um and my guess is that from a funding standpoint, um it's going to have to be a phased project where we in time do different
pieces at different times. Um not all at once and some of those buildings may have to be stored. Um, at the Bushnell, we have a mothball building as well right behind the Bushnell. We uh were given one of the uh town houses that exists right behind their beautiful
properties, but the one we got is a piece of garbage. Needs a lot of work. Um, and right now we've moth balled it for the future and we oversee that. It there's a cost about $40,000 a year just to keep it moth bowled. Uh but we're keeping it that way because we want to
eventually use it for something and we have some ideas but that will also be a large capital expense. Um so I've been involved in the high school 17 years on the high school council. We think that's the longest sentence anybody ever had on one of those councils in Massachusetts.
Um and I was very much involved with Larry Birdie uh towards the building of the high school. We both basically stayed on that until that project was done. Um and uh I had a lot of involvement in what was going on with that with Larry. Um number of other
projects I co-chared I chaired the water and sewer study committee where we came up with a significant number of uh things that we needed to do in town and as of now I think almost all of them have been adopted and been implemented. So I have a background of getting things done. Um, and then I'm particularly
interested uh in these projects because these are buildings that have a capability of providing benefits to the town. I don't know what those benefits are, but that's what we have to figure out. What is it that we want from these um in the in the period of time we have to
get them done, which again I think is going to be an extended period of time. So um I can answer a lot of other questions. There's a lot of other projects. I've been involved with the marketing for the adult center. I was involved in getting that passed by the marketing campaign, the development of
the marketing campaign. Um, the center school I was involved in as well, but I've been involved in a lot of these things back behind the scenes and that's my preference um to to to the way I work. >> Lenny, I'm Lenny Shaker, 86 Farmington Avenue.
I've been in town for 36 years. I'm here primarily as a representative of the LTO Historical Society. I'm a board member, so I'm the individual here, but I'll get back to the other board members. And we have a vested interest in preserving and
maintaining as much of Long Ma history as possible. Uh we've we're very familiar with the buildings. We've done research on the buildings. We've written about the buildings. Something that we're interested in from a historic perspective. I can't bring a lot of
financial expertise but we're willing to do uh research on the options and can provide a historic perspective and maintenance of law matter history which we feel is extremely important and willing to work with with other people.
Um again this is something that each of the board members values in maintaining any aspect of law matter history that's possible. Thanks, Ryan. >> Hi, everybody. Uh, thanks for this
opportunity. Ryan McCullum, 12 Long Meadow Street, been here closing on 10 years. Um, and so my interest in this committee came from the fact that, you know, it lines up well with my experience. Um, which is kind of
three-fold. Uh I worked uh as a project manager for the city of Springfield in the uh department of uh planning and economic development where I did have a portfolio of publicly owned uh properties and buildings that we you
know put out the bid and worked with private developers to reuse um through the redevelopment associ uh authority or through the city itself. uh worked hand inand with private developers to see buildings, you know, be reused in the
city of Springfield. Uh from there, I had an opportunity to be the legislative director for the executive office of housing and economic development under uh former Governor Deval Patrick, where I did similar things um at the state level, but mainly worked with
legislators throughout the Commonwealth um to make things happen as far as getting state uh incentives for some of those projects. uh for reuse. Uh currently as a consultant, one of the buckets I I I have where I help folks is
I help developers uh and different municipalities across the state uh navigate uh boards like you all and neighborhoods um to have their projects come to fruition. Um, so whether that's talking to legislators in that area, talking to uh local officials or to
neighborhood councils and butters and and other interested parties and stakeholders to getting things done um when they want to develop a building. Um on top of all that, um I sit on several boards currently of nonprofit boards. I sat on the racial equity task force that
some of you uh created um back during Floyd after Floyd. Um and so I understand you know government right having worked in government and now I'm being on the other side being a consultant for the private sector to work with government. Um and I also I
don't come here with any preconceived notions as Larry mentioned. I don't have an agenda on what what the use of those buildings are. Um and also the the building might be we might need to have the market figure out what's the best thing for any of those buildings. Um so we might not have to come up to with
actual recommendations on the building except bringing it to code or making it a more uh more appealing um building for the market to tell us what makes sense. So I think you know my experience plus knowing the kind of uh intersection
between p the public um the public sector and the private sector. Um and then my my experience sitting on boards and getting to a yes and staying within our scope and not letting things go offkilter and knowing what might be best for our community is uh what I bring to
it. >> Thanks David. >> Good evening. Thank you for having us here today. at Dave Lipkkey, 207 Lynwood Drive, and uh just wanted to talk a little bit about why I'm interested in serving on the committee and how I think I could help collaborate with other
members of the committee to put a recommendation forward to the town and to the select board. Uh so to do so, maybe I can actually start with just a very brief story going back uh 20 years to 2006. Uh I was in college in 2006. Uh
I was a political science major and I was actually interning for the uh Senate Foreign Relations Committee uh when believe it or not uh two former presidents, Barack Obama and uh Joe Biden were members at large on the committee and uh that was probably the last time I've been involved in politics
was about 20 years ago. Uh but I have with that being said, I've actually been uh very involved in the town uh just in other ways. So I've been here for about 12 years now. Uh my daughter is 10, my son is eight. Uh and I've coached their soccer teams, their track teams, uh been
very engaged in the town, uh but have never uh volunteered for a committee before. Uh when I saw this opportunity, it seemed like the time was right for me to uh get involved again. And really the reason for that is is twofold. One, I want to make sure that we respect what
makes Long Meadow so special, a place that I I want to continue to raise my kids here and see them grow up and to make it a place where, you know, maybe one day they can return to. And part of that is making prudent financial decisions for the town that respect who we are, who we have been, and who we
aspire to be. Uh and with that context, my career has really been around helping leaders make decisions around tough strategic choices. And this is like undoubtedly a very tough strategic choice. Uh we have uh community um
buildings that are special and dear to everyone and could have many uses. Uh and I come to this with as many people have said uh no preconceived notions around what the properties could be. But what I do bring uh to the table uh is almost 20 years of experience advising
Fortune 100 executives on multi-billion dollar decisions, about a year and a half in real estate private equity. Um and I would just love to help work with other committee members to think through um how we can make a choice that that benefits Long Meadow uh now and for the
next 50 years. >> Great. Thank you very much. Um before we move on to more questions, I think we'll do the same questions for this group and then we can add on uh if we need to. Um but uh Greg, have you uh so if you look
at the makeup of our task force, one of the members is either from the historic district or historical commission, uh has there been any discussion for a historical commission on who they would like to appoint to the board or to this task force?
Uh yes, we uh we talked about it at our last meeting and I had just as an individual already planned to sign up anyway, but we discussed it at our last meeting and everybody was on board with the idea of at least for the historical
commission for myself covering our uh our involvement. >> Um >> we're still waiting to hear back from the district. Okay. The language and the charges or >> Yeah. So
how do we >> the groups are meeting in February so we may have more input come February >> if they both want to appoint someone >> then we have do we decide >> well I think ideally we would know that
uh before we appointed and it would be valuable at that point to know if it's Greg is their appointee because then that would basically allow another member of the community to serve >> or if someone else is [clears throat] appointed then Greg would be one of the people. >> I'm just more thinking if they both
appoint someone. How do we handle that? >> But I don't know if we've had that come up before. >> Not >> I thought we said that they would have to duke it out. >> Yeah. >> Um All right. Unless somebody else has a a different question. I thought that so
we've covered why everyone applied. Um >> sorry. And I guess Leonard too, right? You were you part of that conversation as well with >> society, not the >> we're we're more important. >> Yeah, sorry. >> We're more important. >> This is why they're above all the >> Yeah, we're we're this is when people
apply and they're confused about historic district. >> We don't throw stones. No one remembers. There's [laughter] three that all have exact pretty much the same name. So, >> yeah, we're unrelated. >> Um all right. Uh so what Andrew asked a question uh before and I think it did
end up going around to everyone. Um are there any successful projects particularly that uh you are aware of that you would like to either involved with or that you can point out as something that you think may be uh useful guiding post for us. So why don't
we start with David? >> Sure. I can really speak to maybe two examples. Uh first for about a year and a half two years I was part of a real estate private equity firm uh looking to raise a uh build to rent fund to develop affordable housing single family homes
for rent. So I think I have a very unique perspective on what it takes for a private investor uh to make an investment um and one that could benefit uh the public good. But I think maybe just more interestingly, one thing I'd like to call out is one of my my favorite articles would encourage
everyone to take a look at it if you haven't had the chance to read it. It's about five years old. is from the uh magazine Politico and it's a piece about uh the over the Ryan district in Cincinnati and it's a very in-depth u piece around uh the importance of public
private partnerships and this is in the context of urban redevelopment uh particularly uh in an area that was suffering from a lot of hardship but I think in that article there's a lot of very interesting lessons learned you know things that worked out well for Cincinnati but also some things that disenfranchised the community and I
think taking the lessons learned from those types of artifacts um with the kind of context around what it takes to make a project pencil or are important pieces that I would bring to the committee. >> Right. >> Yeah. For me, it's not it's not one
singular one. Um when I worked for the city of Springfield, I was charged with uh kind of being the point person with the urban land institute, which is the uli. The ULI is a national organization that brings uh economic development and
planning and housing uh experts together and then they go to different towns and cities and they do a tour and they think about what might be best use for for that city. Um so the ULI came to Springfield and you know it was great
traveling around with them. They interviewed stakeholders from the mayor on down to neighborhood folks um and came up with um a great report that had things like, you know, raising the York Street Jail site um redeveloping 1331
Elm, which has turned into um some housing and Court Square. Um and then other things about just community pride. Um so it was great to learn from them and learn from a group of people who are thinking outside the box. I think that's something that um I always try to apply
um when I'm doing, you know, anything, but especially when it's thinking about development um is having some ideas that are outside the box or some vision that that might not be in that community's um DNA um to have. Um so yeah, working with
the ULI on the uh Springfield project was was something that I can bring to the table. Again, we we from the historic society, we bring a historic perspective. So, as you're probably aware, in the early
1930s when the library was built, the Stores House Museum, which is the headquarters of the historic society, was going to be demolished. They didn't feel that that was a viable option and the building was going to be demolished. committees met and ultimately was
decided to preserve the historic society his preserve the store's house and its location was moved to its present location. So if you look back at history there are often examples that can be brought forward today where historic
site was was deemed um not valuable to preserve and in retrospect it was very important to preserve that. So we can bring that idea or that history that may provide some insight as to what can be accomplished if it's financially or
fiscally responsible. >> Uh [clears throat] well if we're going to look for a major facility I think that um is a good example it would be the Bushnell. Um over the last 15 years we've um I've overseen major uh enhancements to every
system in there. We've replaced the elevators for example. It was a major chore when that building was built. Nobody ever thought of replacing elevators 80 years later. Uh so it wasn't it wasn't easily done. Um and we did that. We had historical redevelopment on our steps. uh we had to
actually go out and rec re reconstitute certain concrete um blocks uh in order to meet the historical committee because we do have a historical issue with that building. Um major systems air handling u modernizing everything replacing all
of the electrical with LEDs for major energy savings. Um all of the major systems have been adjusted over the years and we continue to do it. Um, like I said, I have a $900,000 annual budget and about a $15 million wish list that
um we're working down slowly. So, that was a a major uh facility that has um weathered the time, weathered COVID, which was a major problem for any performing arts center. Um, but we've done that and it is now one of the a
gems in the performing arts area. Um, now we're starting all over again with the Warner U. The building committee is not all that thrilled with having to take that on, but we will and we will do it. Um, but we have all the same issues of all of the major systems need to be updated. We
have we have to send somebody in to to throw the circuit breakers very often um because they're popping just it's a very old building and it needs a lot of work. And so we're just starting that project. We actually have to wait till we sign the documents which will be coming up to take over the ownership. Um, and that's
being worked on as the exact format that it will take, but that's a major challenge and we're working on it and we will do it. >> Thank you, Greg. So, I have several projects that I have
close experience with that have pursued like use of the federal historic tax credit program and national park service grants and those sorts of things that are tied to like very standard kind of triedand-true preservation practices. But the one that really comes to mind is
a project that [clears throat] did not pursue historic tax credits. It's a late 1960s high school in an underserved part of the city of Memphis that uh it was a really important anchor in the community, but it just wasn't
functioning under its current use and it it actually just had its ribbon cutting last week. It's still figuring out who the tenants will be and exactly what the use will be but and it actually became a a public private partnership and the
community just valued the building enough that everyone understood it as a baseline that it needed to be retained in some capacity but people also demonstrated a willingness to see what like what does that mean? How does the building need to change? What are the uses that are appropriate for it? Um
it's called North Side Square. Now, it was North Side High School. Um, but it was just it was an interesting experience to see it grow from like a sort of boots on the ground analysis of what to do with it to now it's still not across the finish line. There are still
things that are being figured out about it, but there's enough pride and enough interest to carry people forward with that. to seeing that energy around it and I think a willingness to sort of try something. The the local example that comes to mind is just something like the
urban food in East Springfield that like it's not always fully it's not 100% occupied all the time. It might be a little bit strange, but you can tell that people are trying to do something with it, trying to figure out how to make a place that people want to be. And that's the sort of thing that I'm uh
interested in trying to see how we how we do that. how we try things that respect people's interests, that respect the past, and how we find an answer that can kind of bridge those um things that may start out disperate. How we find a place for them to all align in the best way possible.
>> Um I [clears throat] think we we've heard from people and I wanted to belabor the points unless you want to on um biggest challenges. I think it's been covered a bit. Uh is there any other questions from the board? Dave, go ahead. >> Thanks. >> Yeah, I really really appreciate
everyone um stepping [clears throat] up. I I know Ben had mentioned it as well. Um it's always great to see familiar faces, new faces uh who want to get involved um on such an important topic. Um, one of the things I don't want to be repetitive. Um, I had a bunch of different questions and one of the one
of the questions that I I wanted to ask and I'm not saying that I uh I'm suggesting this or I'm in favor of this, but from a tax revenue uh perspective, could you just each weigh in in terms of uh you know, potentially your your
thoughts on um how important or maybe not important it is to to look at these buildings for uh generating tax revenue uh in our community. And then also the second part would be um I see Liz Bone here so it makes me think of sustainability uh as we're looking at
these buildings. Um could you also touch on that? Thanks. Uh Mr. Lipkkey. >> Sure. Thank you. Uh I think tax revenue is always uh a great thing for any town to be able to increase. It allows the town to invest uh in other pursuits. Uh,
with that being said, I don't think tax revenue should necessarily be the the the north star of the project. For example, and I believe this was in the video, you know, imagine there there could be a $10 million cost to keep a building open and open open and operating. So, potentially avoiding that
cost might be of higher benefit than generating some marginal tax revenue down the road. So I think ultimately it's really important to take this approach uh with a hypothesisbased method where you develop a hypothesis for each site and try to test that
hypothesis out with you know logic, evidence and data and see what is feasible and possible uh for the highest and best use for that site. >> Thank you. I mean, it's hard to follow that up, but um obviously if we can if we can put
something back on the tax roles and increase our revenue, that's something that I think most folks would would appreciate. Um but um there are pl there are times when you do the opposite and and you and you seek out a tiff, which is t tax increment finances, where
you're giving tax breaks uh to developers to make something happen that isn't economically feasible. And so making that part of the formula is something that might need to happen. I I again want to caution, you know, how
deep and what our scope is and, you know, maybe we have some priorities and and what we're thinking about, but a lot of that stuff comes, it will be coming in front of you all to make some of those decisions whe whether there's a tiff or something like that or if these buildings are even eligible for a tiff.
Um but yes, tax revenue would be great. Obviously, if we do do some type of um RFP and we put something out the bid, then sustainability and and what we're expecting to happen from the developers that that reply to the bid, we can
outline all of that. And if you don't get the enough of the um responses that you want, maybe it is something that makes it economically infeasible to do. Um, so that's, you know, I think obviously we'd love it to return taxes
if it can and be sustainable. >> I'm not sure my expertise is within within that realm. But I think that if these if we can come up with a viable solution to preserve these uh buildings, then there may be some tax advantages to that. But I think ultimately we need to
determine how viable they are and what the ultimate plan will be, whether they'll be commercialized or not, or whether they'll be maintained by the town. So those are issues that may be putting the car before the horse in regards to what the future will hold as far as tax revenue.
>> Uh but am I up? >> No. >> No, not quite. [laughter] >> Um tax revenue is just one of many items. It's it's not uh it's not number one. It's not number 100. It's just one of many that we have to look at. Um I have an MBA in economics finance. Uh
theoretically I'm an accountant. I teach for Boston Tax Institute. Um I'm very familiar with uh with tax credits on on nonprofit buildings. We've got them on the Bushnell. Um and so where they're appropriate, we will use them. Um but
it's just one of those items that goes into the the calculus of what is the highest and best use of this building. Um and that is where we start. Nothing predetermined, nothing um in advance that this is what we're going to do with this. We have to look at every aspect of
every one of these buildings to determine what will be the best uh utilization for the town uh given the resources we have. And that all comes into one giant calculation and out pops an answer um which some people will like and some people won't. Um but the the
job of this board or this this committee will be to slle that out and figure out where do we think is the ultimate best use for these three facilities um in the long run and taxes will be part of it but so will everything else. Uh
sustainability I'm not sure what that means to be honest with you. I want that defined. Um what do you call sustainability? You know the buildings are up but they're sustainable. Well, okay. Um, they're not going to fall into disrepair. Is that what sustainable is? So, yeah, I'm I I stay away from weasel
words. Um, let's define exactly what it is we're trying to accomplish and then that's what we head towards. I'm not sure how we define sustainability, but that's something that has to be done. If that's an important aspect, um, whatever it is, then we determine these are the
criteria that are important in making decisions for these multiple buildings. Go ahead, Greg. >> Okay. Um, and I think to echo some of what was said before, like the the the
sort of line item of um, putting something on the tax roles and what that means like that that can be part of like a million a million different proforma scenarios. That's like a very easy thing to figure out how it pencilles out and make sense of that. But the sort of
intangible side of that is like these buildings are really they're a handful of only kind of the bulk of a small handful of buildings that represent to people what the community in Long Meadow is about
and how like it's the physical manifestation of the town of Long Meadow. And so there will be things beyond the tax roles associated with this that like it's not just these buildings. It's the trickle down of how they shape people's
perception of the community. And I think it would have impacts on things like property values not just of the abuing buildings but in the town like what are the things that we offer to people that make this an attractive place to live. So I think sometimes like when you have
something like a proformer to back it up and understand that like all right well this one choice is going to cause a loss for a certain number of years but there is a reasonable projection that in 10 or 15 years it will attract xyz number of
people or businesses to the town in a way that will create some financial benefit down the roads. I think it's that that possibility as long as the numbers are looked at in a way to acknowledge like you don't want to do it blindly, but there could be a scenario
as sort of touched on before where you knowingly operate in a different way that isn't like day one the most profitable but at the end of the day is best for the community because this is this is like a a once in a-lifetime shot to do the right thing with these buildings. So
just making sure that that stays not that we are not looking at five years from now. We are looking at 10, 15, 25, 50 years from now. What is right for the community? >> All right. Thank you. Any other questions before we let these
folks go? >> All right. Seeing none, thank you all. >> Thank you. >> Um, >> thank you. We don't uh vote on the same night. We normally would take the next meeting and uh we're we had a couple last minute
cancellations. Peggy. >> Uh yeah. >> Okay. >> Mr. Wick and I think um one other person. >> Okay, >> that's it for now. >> So we can see if we have uh more people want to show up at the next meeting and discuss if we want to vote after we hear them um without because time is uh
getting short on this already. We would like to get moving. So, uh, thank you all. We appreciate your applications and your interest and, uh, for coming tonight. >> Thank you. >> Feel free to stick around if you want. Ever source coming up next. >> It's ever here.
>> Okay. >> Action. We have select board comment if anybody uh has anything they'd like to to say. No. Um, all right. I I would like to thank uh DPW for uh getting out there.
We had snow the entire weekend and uh I know that my street was pretty good at least. So, it was light snow which is helpful. Uh but thank you all for getting out there and and taking care of and getting over the streets and I know that
as soon as I finished shoveling it seemed like I need to go back out there again this weekend. So, it's a big challenge for DPW. So, thank you for all your hard work. Um, anybody else before we move on to Eversource? No. All right, go ahead. Uh, introduce yourself, please. And, uh, go ahead.
>> Hi, good evening. My name is Lesie. I am the newest member of the community relations specialist team for Western Mass. Uh, thank you for your time. Thank you for the opportunity. We are here today to, uh, discuss our 2026 project
plans. I am here today with Greg and Brian, both from the gas construction and project engineering team. Um, so I'll give them the floor and again thank you for your time. >> Uh, Peggy, can you pull up the
presentation? >> So, um, thanks for having us. Uh, my name is Greg Galant. and the construction manager for Eversource um for the gas side. Um so I just wanted to kind of um meet with you guys, go over a few things. Uh I know that there was a
previous meeting a few years ago um regarding some issues that we we had had on the construction side um involving a uh a failed trench which resulted into a flat tire um and then also some paving
concerns that u we didn't have complete in enough uh an appropriate time. So, um, we did address those issues. Um, and we looked at where we, you know, where we had work to do, right? Um, along along with our contractor, NPL, who does
a lot of the work in the town. So, um, we've come a long way with, um, field supervision. Uh, we we meet regularly with the DPW, Sean. Um, and they're they're great to work with. Uh, Sean,
Craig, uh, Tim Keane. So, um, we really made some strides to improve that relationship. Um, because we did see some we did see some, uh, challenges there. Um, one of the challenges there that I mentioned was, uh, the paving and not having a project essentially paved.
I believe it was Route Five there um, in enough time. And where we kind of had a challenge with that was um in other towns, other cities, they usually have us wait uh a year or so and pave the next season waiting for a settlement. I
believe that got, you know, lost in translation to >> that wasn't what that isn't what Long Meadow um requires or expects. So, um, once we realized that, once the restoration group realized that, they understood that that isn't how this town
is. Um, so, and again, they we meet with Sean regularly to ensure that we're going to, you know, restore the roads, um, in a timely manner and making sure the DPW is on board. Um, we do have, uh,
five projects slated for 2026. Um, two of those projects we're requesting to uh hopefully begin in the winter months here um for a couple reasons. Uh, one of them is to work alongside the DOT on a
Birchwood AB project uh which involves installing some main on Laurel Street um from Converse to Dover Street. It's about 1,000 7 uh 1,070 ft of 6 in. Um and the other one is uh Massav which is
on the uh Connecticut side. Um and that is to get ahead of some paving work from the town uh starting this spring. So I'll kick it over to Brian to maybe talk a little bit about maybe some of the work that we still have left um or
anything about these projects. Yeah, I can just dive into more details. Brian Marello, I'm the project engineering manager for the guests. So again, like Greg said, Massav is about 3,700 ft of
main replacement. Uh Birchwood is 5,000 ft of main replacement. And then the other three are Normandy, Warren, and Lincoln Park. All kind of uh projects that were just kind of jobs we've done in the previous years. So the past three to five years, we've done jobs next to
these neighborhoods. We're just continuing that work to replace this leak prone pipe on those streets. >> What do you mean by leak prone? >> Leap prone. So all all of these projects have old gas facilities out there,
either bare steel pipe or cast iron. So, it's all older facilities that are just high risk of leak just be due to their age of the infrastru in infrastructure and that's why we're out there replacing these pipes.
>> Um, I'm asking this question to our town staff. We got an email from Sean this afternoon. Is he he's not referring to all these projects. He's referring to I assume he's referring to the Massachusetts Massad project. Uh, and Birwood.
>> And the Birchwood project. Okay. And those are the two projects you want to do winter work on. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Um, and why don't you just uh when you say winter work, hey, when when are you when are you thinking of
starting because you know we have we have a moratorium, so we'd have to lift that. So when exactly would that work be done and what season would it go into? I I guess. So, we've uh real we'd like to start um as early as, you know, next
week, beginning of February, starting putting paint down for locating utilities and um job walks. Um but yeah, we're looking to hopefully start at the beginning of February. um some of the durations. So for Birch would have it's
an approximate of 120 days um of the entire project that is obviously weather dependent too. We don't work when it snows. Um that involves 74 services which we wouldn't do those services until uh
springtime comes. Um and Massav is approximately 100 days with 58 services um that again we wouldn't start but we would ideally like to start them beginning of February um with a crew on
each project if possible. >> So >> a couple sorry just to point out winter work for us. So we don't do any services. So, we don't go onto people's property for the winter. Just we don't want to destroy lawns or field any of that, especially when it comes to like that spring winter break. Also, we don't
leave open trenches. We have access to hot mix. We don't use plates in the winter. So, anytime there's a potential for snow, the roads flush with hot mix. No plates out there, so there's no issues with plows or anything like that. And we work hand in hand with Sean just to make sure we're all buttoned up
before any type of snow event. And so on the same subject, >> the services [snorts] don't get touched until things are warm. >> So is there so no one will have any interruption in the gas delivery? >> Okay. Uh the Laurel Street portion of
that project, the Birchwood project, how long will Laurel itself be blocked off for? And let me add a double another question on top of that. What will the impact be to traffic on Laurel Street? >> So, I don't have that answer simply
because we meet with the we meet with the police department and we come up with a traffic plan to mitigate as much shutdowns as possible. Um, I don't anticipate that we would have to always shut down the
road. A lot of the times we are doing alternate traffic where we're letting people go in one lane, officer stops them, let lets them go on the other side. Um, but that really does depend on what the police department and the DPW
and ourselves are able to come up with. So, that is another thing that we work with Sean and the police department and creating traffic plans for each project. That's going to be a nightmare. Um, okay.
Any other questions from the board? >> Well, so Laurel Street when Sorry, I missed that. When is that project start? >> That would that would start that would be one of the projects to start next week. The measuring or the painting, etc. >> Okay.
>> Yeah. So, we got to put in, you know, the way it works, we put in um permit request, um dig safes, go out, locate our lines, allow other utilities to locate their lines, which usually takes a week to two weeks uh depending on the
area, and then we then we commence kind of construction. So, again, we would have to meet with Sean, the police department, come up with a traffic plan and so on so forth. So, I'm >> just wondering if I I know we had this conversation probably two years ago, I
think around Wworth um by Williams Middle School and and the uh safe routes to school and and we had uh I think at the time we we tried to shift the project to the summertime and I just don't know I don't work for the DPW. I haven't talked to Sean about
this, but I'm just wondering if that's something where it could be pushed out to the summertime for commute. Probably not. Dan, I don't know if you saw the email from Sean today, but he wants these two jobs. >> Oh, that's part of that's part of the memo. >> He wants those done for in conjunction
with the out project to get ahead of that. >> Okay. I thought you said Birchwood and Massav, but >> yeah, Birchwood has Laur. That's the one that has Laurel's project. >> So, the way we name our projects, it it could be a side street that we name it, but that's because if you do a main
street and then another main street and a main street. So, Laurel Street, it it's uh from basically from Dover to Converse, that section there. Um that's part of the Birchwood project. Yeah. >> And that's why I'm not in the DPW.
[laughter] >> Um and so we did we have a recommendation from DPW to wave our winter moratorum. um limited to the hours operation laid out by public safety and DPW trench
patch material, traffic plans and timelines for completion. Uh so are you prepared to to follow that if that's the way we got? >> Yep. Yeah, we're able to get hot mix throughout. Um that was one of the challenges with the failed trench. Um
the crew ended up picking up some mix that really some asphalt that really wasn't hot mix that wasn't supposed to be in the ground. So once we identified that it was okay, we're not going to use that stuff. So um the timeline
uh about like I say 120 days given weather. Um and we can update uh Sean, the DPW, and you guys if if needed on any anything extra, but we usually stick pretty true to this um um schedule. Again, it's kind of just the weather
dependent, right? Um, and then the time considerations we're we're fairly used to now working with um, you know, the permanent hours. I think it's 7 to 3:30 or so. And, uh, any emergencies, we've reached out to Sean. Um, don't
anticipate to really have anything too big on these projects. Um, it's a lot of they're larger projects, so it's a lot of just pipe work. Um, again, no no no services, things like that until the weather warms up. >> Okay.
>> I will take exception to uh you're making us sound like we're unreasonable to want the Route Five paved. It was a disaster, which is why we had the issues. It It was patchwork. It looked It was terrible. We heard about it every day. So, there's a reason we have the
policy. >> Um All right. Uh so I think for most of this we we wouldn't be involved. It's just because we need to wave the moratorium. Normally it'sformational. Um all right any questions or do we want to move on to that?
>> We'll take some extra hot patch mix if you guys [laughter] have seen take a big bump on the way. Just dump it out the back. >> Um and is there any is there any work we can do while the roads are open up? Is there any advantage to us?
>> No, there's not. There wouldn't be enough room anyway. >> We need them to come in and do their thing so they can get out of there and we can get the L project going. >> All right, fair enough. Got to ask. Okay. Uh well, I entertain a motion to
wave our uh winter work moratorium for Eversource uh for the Birwood and Massav projects uh limited. U based on the criteria laid out in the
DPW permit which includes but is not limited to hours of operation laid out by public safety and DPW trench passenger material traffic plans and timelines for completion. >> So move second. >> All right. Any further discussion? All those in favor? >> It's unanimous. All right. Thank you
very much. We appreciate you coming in. >> Thank you for your time. >> Have a good night. >> Have a great night. >> Stay warm as well. Okay. Uh, Liz, are you coming up for energy and sustainability? >> You have to let >> find Andrea online as well.
>> Yeah, Andrew is here. I just have two things to talk about. So, talk about >> uh thank you for having me. Um, I wanted to talk about um just a yearly thing that we've been doing the past couple years with, um, the group called
Homeworks. Um we've been partnering with them since I believe 2022. And we're the whole purpose is to help uh people save money on their energy bills. Um about 15% on their heating cooling bills and also um we would like
to get more people in town. Um have home energy audits. Um and that will also help uh lower our um carbon footprint in town which is very important. Um on our
energy and sustainability committee web page, we have this uh green um uh summary and uh it's updated every month about um by Doug, someone on our committee who um says checks uh with the
building department and um shows how many solar panels are in installed and how many home uh homes get energy audits and things like that. And uh so this year um we're going to start um Homeworks is going to start off with
some mailers um and is also going to uh do door-todoor canvasing which um uh is actually very beneficial. We got a lot of um people signing up that way. Uh they're also going to be um uh tableabling any events that we have
coming up. So if we have the uh future fiesta, they'll be there. Um, sorry. Planet Future Fiesta and um what else? And our goal this year is 250 energy audits.
Um and uh right now we have about 18% participation. So we'd really like to bump that up. And so our committee is asking um you know anytime uh we can promote um homeworks or any other energy auditing uh company out there to help
our um residents save energy, we'd appreciate that. >> Um our second and I believe Andrea is going to talk about it. She's there. [clears throat] Uh, one thing uh we she did had said she
did say was there's no um closed caption on the uh we can hear you >> zoom. >> Okay, great. This is Andrea Chase. Hi Andrea >> and I'm chair of the energy and sustainability committee and um want to
thank Liz for providing the information about homeworks >> closed caption >> the >> the other event that we want to talk about is that one of the key responsibilities we have here in town is
educational outreach on issues of sustainability and energy efficiency of of course, which you can see with the homeworks work that we've been doing. But we're excited that this year we're going to
have um a townwide event on February 25th. We're going to be showing a movie called Plastics People in the Long Meadow High School. Uh, and we're going to be um this is co-hosted by us
um the recycling commission, the conservation commission, the >> [laughter] >> um St. Mary's Church, uh, First Church, the Social Action Committee of Sinai, um, the Long Meadow
High School climate change club, and I've just been informed from the Key Club that they are happy to provide a mini program to encourage parents with small children to attend and their children will be in um, an area under
the supervision of the parks and wreck and key club to do an activity related to sustainability and um transitions, which is a nonprofit organization here in town, is covering
the rental cost for this, which is $250. And um I'm told that the town of Long Meadow has $141 in the budget to cover the school costs. Uh so we're here to
let you know about this. It's an important film talking about microlastics and the impact that it has on every part of our life. our environment, our bodies, our air, our water, our soil,
and um the we're going to show the movie and then have a question answer period with a couple of panelists and have this moderated. We really would like to ask the select board to attend and help us promote
this. Um so, any questions? [snorts] What time? >> When? >> Oh, yes. February 25th. What time is them showing? >> Uh, doors are going to open at 6:15.
It's going to start at 6:30. >> Okay. I think if you could um send a graphic that is easily sharable. >> Yeah, >> that'd be great. >> And um I I I'm not I don't do social media, but I know the town has some good outlets and it does get out there. uh as
we learn we just saw from having 15 people sign up for a a task force. So that's great, >> right? >> Um so yeah, I would if you could send that to us, we can pass that along. I know some of the other members may um if they want to share it elsewhere,
that'd be great. And uh also put on there the key club. I think uh maybe people can watch a movie and have some babysitting. So that's good, too. >> Yes, it's in the final edit edits. So >> Okay, great. It's almost ready. >> And I also just want to mention um you
when we when homeworks when we signed up I I think there's a little bit of hesitation on the part of the select board on signing anou uh but I I think it's worked out well from my perspective. I just had an energy assessment a couple weeks ago uh which was free and uh one of the things I
learned was that uh my my bedroom was too cold is cold and that's really the reason we had the assessment. It's because I had the the furnace turned down on my my my radiator. But then I turned it up. I opened it up and then that night it made so much noise we realized that's why we turned it down.
We just forgot. Um but otherwise it was it was very useful. We're having uh some insulation put in. So uh it's a great it's a great program and we signed up uh you know mailers are everyone gets so much junk mail things can get lost but if you see it enough uh I think it'll
get through. But I signed up because I went to the cookie sale at the library. >> Okay. and they had a table there and I signed up and it worked out great. So, um I think that's working out really well and I hope more people take advantage of it. I know you you probably can't promise people that it's free, but
>> well the the assessment's free. >> Yeah. >> And uh you get major savings on the the things that you do if you do uh go forth with them such as 75 to 100% off of insulation costs. Um, you have heat pump
rebates, thermostats, free bulbs, um, and you can have one every two years. >> Yeah. So, I I know that we all know this, but I I think if if uh you're doing a great job getting the word out there, but keep doing it because I it's a great program for the town and for our
residents. >> I agree. >> Yeah. We'll look forward to hearing more about the the movie showing and send over a document and uh we'll get it shared. >> Okay. Any other questions? >> Okay. All right. Thank you.
>> Thank you, Andrew. >> Okay. Uh if we move on to correspondence, u most of it is resumes or cover letters. Um and then we have uh Len, can you remind us what's going on with the MO?
Uh yes, they are looking for um interest uh if someone's interested in serving to put your name in. They've agreed to um keep the deadline for letters of interest open until tomorrow because our board meeting is tonight. We
received the letter uh I think it was the day of your meeting on the 5th. So it was too late for us to get it in correspondence. And so it's region four that has an opening and if any of you are interested we could uh submit your name.
>> And so a Tuesday morning meeting once a month or so. Um all right. And then uh the last we have a request for a nuisance dog hearing from the uh Pioneer
Valley Yach Club and we're just working on scheduling that. Mike. >> Yeah. February 23rd. >> Okay. All right. Um, anything else in correspondence? Seeing none, we'll move on to the town manager report. >> Thank you. I have a short one for you tonight. And I was just looking up
something related to it. Um, so, uh, I'm happy to announce that we have, uh, signed a contract with Lelo Construction, uh, for the Western Drive neighborhood. This is for the water main and sewer rehab project. Design was funded at the May 2025 annual town
meeting and then construction costs were approved at the November 2025 fall special town meeting. We're expecting work to begin in April um in a few months. Project involves water mane replacement, sewer system rehab, storm water upgrades, and road repair. It's
over 12,000 feet of aging water manes that are will be replaced with um ductile iron pipe. Uh there will be traffic delays and detours during this construction time. uh and we'll do our best to make that as least painful as possible. We're going to post alerts on
the town website, social media, electric electronic message boards, and you can follow along on the DPW project page, long meadowmma.gov1037work. And just an update um that the site and design decision for or the covest parcel on the corner of Williams and Frank
Smith was issued on January 9th and there is a 20-day appeal period um before that uh permit can be issued for construction. And that concludes my report tonight. Happy to answer questions if you have any.
Okay, go ahead, please. >> Um, for the Western Drive Water main uh sewer project, how long are we looking at that project being? >> Um, I'm trying to pull up the contract right now because it had all of that detail in it. Uh, it will be it's it's
pretty much the um summer construction season. Um, if they're starting in April, I can get you the exact time frame, but >> And then So, this is going to be going on at the same time as the L project. >> Yes. >> Okay.
>> Yes. >> And the L project, the duration of that is probably >> two years, >> two construction seasons. >> Two construction, right? Okay. Yeah, it's traffic is going to be very challenging.
>> Voting in January. >> And yeah, and I know you listed a number of ways it will be uh put out. I I this is not something we would want to do a reverse 911 call on, but uh I think but we have to really harp on
people to to be prepared. I mean, >> it's not going to matter. You can only if you're going to Springfield, there's only so many ways you can do it. >> Um, but the more we get it out there, the the better we >> hopefully the better result we get. >> Um, all right. Anything on uh the monthly reports that we have attached
either. Okay. >> Uh, we can move on to old business. Uh, we have a couple special select board meetings. I will entertain a motion to approve the
Monday, December 29th, 2025 select board special meeting minutes. >> Make a motion to approve the 12925 minutes. >> Second. >> Any further? All those in favor?
>> Oh, I I have to abstain from that. I wasn't there. >> Oh, sorry. Yes. Any abstension? >> Oh, the 29th. So do I. I'm sorry. >> That's okay. Um, >> so I will abstain. >> Okay, we got a couple extensions. You got that, Peggy? >> I'm sorry.
>> We have three. >> Me and Andrew abain. Yeah. >> All right. And then, uh, January 5th. >> Um, I will move to approve the January 5th, 2026 select board meeting minutes. >> Second. >> Uh, I have an additional comment. I
forgot to email you, Peggy. I noticed it says uh widow instead of widow. >> Says what? >> Widow. >> Thank you. >> Where did I see it's on uh page three. >> Thank you. >> Um so with that change in mind, uh all
those in favor and uh Shel you can abstain I think unless you watched >> for the >> Yeah, it has you was here. >> I was here. Why is Who was absent? >> Oh, it says you're absent. >> I'm trying to think of
>> the January 5th one. No, >> it says All right. It says absent. Shelley May or Dol. >> January 5th. >> No, I think you were. Oh, no. That was the one before. >> One before? >> I thought the one before I was >> Yeah, you were here last meeting. So, we need to correct the last meeting. >> Oh, was I? I was on Zoom. Okay. So, that
we need to fix the minutes. It says >> Josh, I don't think you had a motion to prove that. >> Oh, that's these are just details here. I move we approve [laughter] the minutes for January 5th with the aforementioned edits. >> Second.
>> Okay. Um but we it says absent Shelly in italics. Am I >> Yes. >> Yes. So that additive. >> So let's fix that. >> Uh that being said, all those in favor? >> Great. [clears throat]
And I I'm not going to do anything. Want to move or not? Whatever. >> All right. And I will uh move to approve the January 12th, 2026 remote U select board special meeting. >> Second. >> All right. >> Meet minutes. Sorry.
>> Yes. Um I have a second. All those in favor? Any abstensions? >> Yes. Thank you. >> Okay. Um fiber string followed from presentation. So this is actually Venice's [laughter] fiber string.
>> Yeah. Not a fiber spring. out. But um I I think we we thought it'd be useful to because this is such a big project and because last week's or two weeks ago the presentation obviously couldn't capture everything to just kind of take some time if questions were coming in to just talk about them and explain maybe some
things that um you know didn't make it into the presentation just to keep everyone updated um on what's happening. So just a couple of things that kind of came in that I just wanted to uh you know take a little bit of time to just explain or talk about. Um so there was some dis uh some questions came in about
the you know kind of out years the bond uh is paid off and the revenues coming in you know I mentioned that it was going to be somewhere between 2.5 to $3 million and like what happens with that revenue um and so the what we have seen
western mass communities do and um I think has worked well when they've paid off their uh bond is to then reinvest that revenue back into the system um and then basically lower um everyone's monthly fees for
their fiber internet. So um you know right now it cost $90 a month uh you know initially cost $90 a month because you're also paying off this bond but once that is gone then the idea is that you know moving forward you can keep lowering the price of um everyone's monthly internet. Um and that just
becomes another way to make it you know more affordable. um to give people the chance to have internet at a very uh cheap price um that is a very you know high quality good internet service and you know what we'll probably see is
private companies continue to increase their internet uh pricing and so you know with municipal fiber just like we're seeing with um you know gas and electric in these different communities like Westfield or South Havadley or Chikipe where you know in the winter
they're paying half of what Eversource national grid communities are paying. Um that is, you know, the idea for what will eventually happen with fiber internet. So that's um kind of the kind of the the most commonly used uh uh way
to to reinvest that money. Um the other option that um we've seen some communities do is maybe on a one-off basis, uh the MLP can actually make a pilot payment to the town. Um, and so that is something we just saw happen in
Westfield where Whip City uh decided to um they they made an agreement with the town where they would pay the yearly principal and interest um for them to redo all of their athletic fields. Um so it's like a $10 million project um and
actually Whip City is going to take some of their revenue and they're going to make the P uh make the payment. So, um, you know, that the way that they've kind of, um, sold it is to say that since they are serving as ISP from other communities, they're saying, "Oh, the money we're making from other
communities, we're going to use that to, uh, you know, kind of pay for these athletic fields." But revenue is revenue. And so if that happens, so like, you know, something like this, like where this year we have the center school windows that need, you know, $4 million, this could be something where the town would go to uh the MLP and say,
you know, would you be willing to, you know, do this for the town and give back to the town? An MLP board could decide to do that. Um, and so that's um that's an option of, you know, a way that the MLP could actually, you know, uh, invest or give back to the town for certain
projects. Um and then uh kind of relatedly um the the the pricing model of how this works is with the $90 monthly fee. Um so that right now the way that it's priced is at $27 of that
$90 per month would go to Fibers to cover the admin, to cover the billing, to cover all the technical support. Um and this is pretty standard for what these contracts um have looked like with, you know, other communities. uh what Whip City has done with other
communities. And you know, if by doing that, by giving um you know, the $27 out of that $90 to Fiverr for um the admin billing, technical support, um as well um
um as well as just being the ISP and actually running the network. Um you know, we are not having to add a single employee to do this. We're not going to be asking anything of our DPW um or any other town staff. Um this is something that you know we are I think all
everybody on select board wants agrees that we want our town staff worried about some of the things that uh are already on their plate and they're already stretched very thin. So it's better to have um a a group that are kind of experts in this handle this and take care of this. Um and so that's kind
of how that um that relationship is. Um and then also I think this is going to just take some um education um in you know out in the community but some other people have kind of asked questions about you know why um why wouldn't we
pursue like a 5G like wireless or why wouldn't we try to welcome um like a 5G and I think some of that some of the misconception there is that just because you know 5G or like Starlink is uh they're like newer terms uh doesn't mean
that they're actually like more advanced than fiber. Um, so you know like 5G is really it's just basically radio frequencies and so it's still kind of tethered and a part of this very outdated like old radio frequency system
and so there are limits to how much um you know how fast it can go uh what it can do and it would take you know I think major technological advances infrastructure um uh investments to really make significant advances in that
uh and that's like not guaranteed at Um and then you know something like Starlink. Starlink's a great option for rural areas or third world countries but it's not something that is really um going to be able to provide speeds for the uh the use of like a town like Long
Meadow and especially you know the use um that folks will need uh moving forward. Um so that's [cough] just I think just going to take some education you know and I think as they explained uh fiber string explained last week um or our last meeting this uh you know with fiber it's like as long as you have
the fiber optic cables it's it's just about uh changing basically your like router or um you know the technology in the other end of it to advance the speed. So um you know so it's a lot less um you know there there's not as much
doubt um there uh for advancing uh technologically and then I just had a uh just had one person kind of reach out about um gateway fiber and what had happened uh with gateway fiber and I had already provided updates on this over the summer but just
I know it's this project all this has kind of gone [laughter] on for years so uh it's kind of hard to keep track track of everything But um the I guess the latest uh update with Gateway Fiber was that the town met with Gateway Fiber in July of 2025, so last year. Um this was
the second time that the town met with Gateway Fiber. and the town and I think to Lynn's credit and our legal council's credit, they've expended a lot of resources in um educating Gateway Fiber
about what is needed to actually uh come into a town like Long Meadow. Usually these companies, they come in, everything's already ready and uh they're good to go, but that was not the case here. Um we had legal counsel even attend the last meeting with Gateway Fiber to explain the process to them. Um
and so they have all the information that they need if they are interested in um you know moving forward in uh Long Meadow. Um it's really just the ball is on their court. Um but you know I think um the last meeting too we talked about
how we are benefiting from seeing other towns kind of further on in the process than us. So we've seen uh Gateway Fiber now operating in three communities, Gardener, Pittsfield, and Northampton. uh in all three of those communities. They have not completely built out all
the communities. Uh Gardner was where they've built out the most, but Gardner is a really unique situation where all the residential is in one area. Everything is overhead uh poles in that area. Um it costs twice as much to
connect a house underground as it does uh overhead. And so, you know, all these like private companies, they basically come into towns, try to um string up high density pole um you know, aerial pole um uh places and then kind of get out. And that's really what we're seeing
Gateway Fiber doing. Uh in Northampton, too, we're seeing, you know, they haven't been there for very long, like maybe less than a year. Um you know, they've at this point gotten rid of direct customer service. We're seeing business owners, residents kind of be very vocal in um the kind of the poor
quality of service that they're receiving uh in the number of outages that they're having. We're seeing people actually switch back to Xfinity from Gateway uh which is really just kind of unfathomable. uh when you have something like fiber um to have kind of that poor
of a product out where people are actually now going back to Xfinity um it really says something and some of that too goes to what Fiberstream talked about with the care and the quality that they're that they propose and their design and engineering. Uh you know
they're not trying to do things on the cheap to just maximize profit. this is about doing things that are actually going to, you know, uh design things and use and use materials in a way that's going to bring quality uh to the service. So, um that those kinds of
differences are just are just massive. And um and and so that's kind of, you know, where where where we're at on that. And like I said last time too, um I think the worst case scenario would be to here would be to have some a company like Gateway come in, build out some of
the town and leave because that really puts the town in a difficult position because we would not have an option really to build out the areas of town that would be more expensive to build out in and um you know like in Long Meadow we have almost 40% underground. So almost half the town is underground
and um we would just kind of be out of luck for all those areas. Um, so those are just kind of some of the uh questions that came in that I just want to make sure that we we took some time to answer. And also, um, you know, there are going to be other things too that could not all fit into that one presentation that, um, if folks have
questions about, please feel free to send an email and be happy to answer as you know, as as we go along. And if anyone else has any questions or any comments, too. >> I got a couple questions. Yeah. >> Um are is Fiberspring are they doing any
shell are they doing any uh advertising that we discussed? >> So um they are meeting with their marketing team. Um they are trying to also uh collect some of the materials that Mass Priorities is putting out um
just so that they can ensure that what they are going to create is kind of addressing some of those. Uh but they did say that they are going to make a commitment to um do some marketing ahead of the May vote, but they will Yeah, they're going to get back to us with
that. >> Great. Um and then I that's great to hear about Westfield doing the um doing the fields. Obviously, we'll never be in a position where we are making any money from other towns to have that kind of revenue.
It it does seem a little odd to me that everyone's paying on the bond and then to get any money back, we'd have to ask the MLP for that. It makes a bit of sense in a town where that's been a historical structure where there was another reason for the MLP prior to the
internet, but we did this just to have fiber. Um is is the reason is are they separate entities the town and the MLP is that statutory or is that just how it works? >> Yeah, that is statutory. So the MLP is
kind of it's just its own its own thing. It's independent. I mean right now we are the MLP. The select board is the MLP. Um >> but and then that's just kind of how it starts out. And then, you know, last May at our annual town meeting, we had that article passed for the special
legislation um to give us the option of either doing an election for an MLP or to appoint an MLP. Um that is still going through the legislative process. It came before committee in the fall and um Lynn submitted testimony in favor of it on behalf of the town. Uh but we're
just waiting for that to go through and then you know when that goes through then you know we'll have to have a conversation about you know what we want to do to populate the MLP. >> Yeah. I just think it's it'll be important if things go as well as we wanted to that this money is available
for other uses not necessarily just lowering prices which is great but that doesn't affect the whole town. I just think if everyone's paying for it, everyone should get the benefit of it in the long and the short term.
>> Yeah, Andrew, >> I think this is a great opportunity to kind of like uh bring up a lot of points that have come up from people in town. So, thanks for bringing this on the agenda. Um, so just to you've answered a I've got a ton of questions from people. They were generally very good questions.
I think it's natural for people. This is all new to everybody, right? So we've been talking about this for a long time. So it's kind of a new topic to everybody. Um beneath answered a lot of those questions. U probably just a few that I thought would be valuable to bring up. Um one is that what we're
already talking about. So it is it is not true that the profit I'm asking this is a question. It it's not true that the profit can be used for anything but the MLP. But it is true that the MLP can in
the future if they have a lot of funds donate to a project in town. Is that correct? >> Yes. Yeah. So I mean the the revenue doesn't go into like the general fund. I mean it's just kind of to think of a you you just have to think of it as almost like an enterprise, >> right? But you you could use those things for another purpose. The MLP
could donate to something like what you're saying. >> Yeah. It's like it's like it's an important pilot payment basically from MLP to the town. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Um, another thing that somebody asked that was I think a valid question was has Ian been, and I asked this to Lynch,
she answered it, but I think it's important that everybody knows the answer. So, has Ian been looking at these projections? Are we just taking their word for it yesterday last meeting when they um just told us what they thought the break even points would be and and the actual costs would be? And
uh I did talk to Ian and correct me if I'm wrong, Lynn, he has been looking at this. There are some unanswered questions particularly about the loan. He was saying to me that so this idea of a balloon payment at like 20 years that that some people might look at that and
say you know that's kind of like a little bit disingenuous. You know you're doing this large payment of millions of dollars at year 20 to keep the initial um payments low to kind of make it more palatable. Um but so it's kind of like kicking the can down the road. But he
pointed out that if you do an override, you can't do that apparently. Like you ha you can't go more than 20 years out. Um, and if you're going to do longer than that, then you have to not do an override, which of course will affect our tax ceiling situation. So he said he wanted to look more into it. I told him it would be good, I think, if he came
before us at some point, to give us his take and his objective opinion about what they presented to us. Is that Do you agree with like what Ian was saying about the loan? Yeah, I know that he's looking into it and I do agree that he should come forward to you to talk more about it, especially as we talk about
setting a warrant. I think those are going to be really important things that we include in the explanation and you know that you have the information you need to explain to constituents. >> Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And he um he did attend a meeting um at least one or two meetings with Fibers and their finance
people um and so he's he met with them and then yeah has been looking at their financials and everything. And then another question and it might not be decided yet but somebody asked me is the warrant article for borrowing like 27 or $30 million or is it some lesser amount
like because it's in incremental or maybe we don't know yet. >> No. So generally the when we do projects like this we u get authorization for the full project amount. You we don't necessarily borrow that full amount each time we go to borrow. We wouldn't necessarily borrow 27 million because we
don't need that all right now. we would borrow it in the phases that we need it for construction. >> I'm glad you asked that because I I did when we first started discussing this I I thought it was multiple rounds, but you wouldn't you're not going to borrow 8 million and then >> find you're not going to borrow the
rest. Yeah. Right. Um >> so you the town gets permission to do it and it's at the discretion of the town. I see. >> And I think this is the same as like the middle school >> project, right? We got full authorization. It's not bomb barred at once. >> Right. >> Yeah. Um and then with so specifically with this project um it would be five
different borrowings um because it would be done uh in five different stages and so it's like what per year we borrow for that year. So the very first year is a it's I think it's a $6 million borrowing um and that is to build out the pilot
project uh the pilot area sorry it' be the make ready cost and the pilot area. So the pilot area um they showed was you know the fiber hut would be placed um you know by the high school of tennis courts and so it would be kind of building out around that area initially. So it would be connecting the long
meadow shops um as well as um the you know the the businesses across the street um and then the neighborhoods kind of directly around it. Uh what Fiverr Swing identified for that pilot area were just high density areas that
were aerial um just around that um that that the shops just so that revenue can start generating quickly and that we're not spending a lot on construction costs. Um but then with their signups um that you can go on to their website and sign up which we know we can start
promoting. we can kind of take a look at those numbers and see, oh, if there's an area where there's a high amount of signups, might be good to go there next and start generating revenue and all that. So, >> yeah. >> All right. Should go further. Thank you, Vene. That was very helpful. >> Yep. Thanks. >> Appreciate it.
>> All right. Moving on to new business, seasonal park and recreation department fees. Come on up here. First, thank you very much for putting this on your very long agenda. I appreciate that. Um, the spreadsheet before you is representative of all of
our programs. Um, some of them may look familiar because last month you approved them. Um, if you go down just a little bit, Peggy, all of the the camp fees are there. Um, select board approves fees. I
thought it would be beneficial to add context to some of the fees. So, you have the the program name. um we indicated whether or not they're run by employees of the town or if they are run by vendors that are hired by the town.
You have um before you the actual fee structure. We have current fees and again it's all of our programs. So um all of them for yeah for an entire fiscal year and any that we are proposing an increase or in the case of
aquatics with the daily admissions a decrease. And then just some other context for your review. Um how we pay out. If it is vendor based, um if it's employee based, it's hourly based on the um the pay scale. But we typically
um with vendors there's different arrangements that we have, but it's anywhere from 60 to usually 75%. In some cases, it's a little bit higher. And just and I'm sorry, Peggy, I made you go down, but if you go up again. Sure. >> Where the headings are,
>> we use a software system, actually a cloud-based system for registration that most of the programs um are fed into. If they're not, I indicated that. And another system we use is ProAre, which is specifically for the daycare. And I
know an area of interest in the past was the um the sponsored sport associations. So, they're alphabetical and then those are at the very bottom of the spreadsheet. Um, I shared it with everyone because if if you try to print it, you'll see it's really small. So,
this is hopefully everyone can >> crossberry. >> Yeah, I added notes where I thought it may be useful again for context. And then it they're alphabetical based on content areas. So you'll see everything from adult programs and aquatics um to
sponsored sport associations and everything in between. We have different compartments within the department that we we kind of itemize our programs. So we have categories and you'll see that as well. So, I know this is kind of a large
question, but can you explain how your parks and rec funding works and how these fees that we're looking here slot into that? >> They all all of them go into the recreation revolving fund, which is
interesting. We all department heads are having our budget meetings with the town manager's office and finance and that's primarily the discussion of the general fund and how that's appropriated. This isn't none of this is appropriated. This is all filtered through the recreation
revolving fund um which was established I think in 1992. Um most recreation municipal recreation departments have a recreation revolving fund. They all function [laughter] differently. Some are large scale like ours. Um Amherst
has a pretty large revolving fund. Um and then there's other cities and towns that have smaller ones that they don't put all of their programs in. They may just choose to do their aquatics or their day camps. We filter everything through the revolving fund >> including child care.
>> Yes. >> And how does um and I know that child care we see that in our on the annual budget. >> You do >> as well. And can you explain how that works? Um, Lynn could probably explain better, but I believe it's Mass General Law statute where salaries can't be paid
through a revolving fund. So, they're allocated from the general fund, but they're paid back through recreing twice a year. And that includes that's not just salaries, but that's their benefits as well. The goal is for all of the programs to be self-supporting. I've come before you
before and you know that some of them aren't. have cost centers and profit centers built into the department. So, some of our profit centers are the day camps, the um extended care, which is before and after school, and oftentimes the day camps. Um some of our cost
centers, our aquatics, which we've discussed in the past, but also um based on some of our current practices, we um we're seeing deficits in field usage, facility, and administration. And those are contracts that we're carrying. For example, the wolf swamp maintenance
contract is currently paid through recreation revolving. So, we distribute that between facilities and field usage. >> So, the the sports associations, that's uh one that hits my wallet and one I hear from u from Corey in particular if
he's watching. Um, can you explain how those fees uh how they're used and um as you said there there's some deficits. Uh how we work around that. >> Sure. I made some notes. So I think
they're all the way down and perhaps to the right with the sport associations. Those are sponsored sports and they're all a little bit different. So >> go up a little bit and go over the right. >> Maybe go up a little bit. Yeah. And then >> you went past it.
It's after after school. >> Keep going other way. >> Most of them are field sports right here. >> And then the aquatic club. >> And I believe we instituted I I know we have
record of it and then perhaps it's in the notes here, but it was about 10 years ago where we began to implement the fees. Um we were seeing the need for increased maintenance, outsourced maintenance. Um, not all facilities have bathrooms, for example. So, much of the
$15 per player fees goes towards sandy cans um in all of the parks where we don't have restrooms. And even the parks that we do have restrooms, for example, Wool Swamp is a very large area. Um, we are not able to unwinterize when the sports begin in March and then we have
to winterize before they're actually dead in November. So, we have bathrooms. Those run anywhere from 225 upwards of $300 per month. Um, a lot of that goes there. Oftentimes, DPW we will supplement. So, aside from their budget
with things like field paint, small equipment purchases, we've done that in the past. And then, of course, some of it goes to offset Wolf Swamp. >> This board famously does not like deferred maintenance uh and trying to make up for lost ground.
Are there fees that you think are are too low that are holding back our maintenance? >> As far as program fees or >> any fees, >> I don't think so. I think we really try to take a thoughtful approach. We segment all of our program areas. So,
for example, after school is listed now. We when we look at after school, we look at our pricing. We factor in the actual um we make many operating budgets for some of the larger programs. So what it cost that happens to be a staff fund program. What it costs to run the
program. Um what it costs to staff the program with after school we have transportation costs and we also look at on top of that we look at what our competitors we benchmark and we usually do that around this time of year. This is usually when um especially in the
camp sector when other our competitors our benchmarks are setting their fees. So we also look at that. Um we look at how we're different. So we look at value added components to all of our programs. So we often find ourselves very much in
the middle in terms of pricing but we also try to look at value added components. Um for example with the day camps um we we did go up and that was what I brought to the select board [laughter] last month. Um but we're also
looking at value added components. um bringing in speakers, doing supplemental activities, things like that. So when there are fee increases, we can show that to our parents and our families. So I don't think we're necessarily
priced low in terms of cost recovery with the exception of aquatics, which is such a hot topic and that really is the only area I would say that we don't strive to break even because there there is no break even with the pools. um it's a
serviceoriented um facility and we know that. So we try to offset slightly with swim lessons and with pool passes and concessions, but that's an area that's definitely it's a cost center and we know that and I I
certainly appreciate that and I and I'm glad you have given us some information and I would like to keep it coming on the aquatics and we talked about this maybe a month ago. Um I I don't mind that it's a cost center. I'm worried
about some of the capital costs. Um but the more it's a cost center, the more it's something we have to I think it gets a harsher eye. Um so I hope we can turn it around, >> have a good summer. >> We have two working strategies. One is
and a lot of it is based on feedback from last summer and and things that we we knew and also from survey results and one is in terms of facility enhancements and one is in terms of program and service enhancements. Um the timeline for the facility enhancements
unfortunately won't match the beginning of the summer season just because the primary funding source is the CPC. So, we won't vote on that until you won't vote on that until May, and we will not have funding until July, which is into the the season. So, one of our working
strategies is program enhancement. So, looking at what aquatic programs we currently offer, how we can enhance them um in terms of adult programs, swim lessons. We have a lot of different initiatives that we're working on in that area. and then hopefully throughout the summer we can bolster the facility
component all while addressing capital needs. >> So I was looking very closely at the the swim fees. So I just want to make sure I I'm correct and I was happy about this. Um so we're decreasing the fees by $5 for a daily and a $7 for a daily.
>> We're doing a roll back. >> We're trying to see if decreasing the cost will increase utilization and that's what we want. So, I think that's a good thing to do because we were worried it was being too expensive and we don't want to make sure that's not the reason people aren't coming. So,
[cough] I think that that's good because we want to I think this summer we should look carefully at if we can get the numbers up to kind of, you know, I think we understand we're never going to break even on the pools, but we want it to be utilized more so that it's kind of less
of a loss and more of a utilized resource. That is our plan. >> We spent a lot of money on them and I would if we see them full of people that's great. That's that's >> a win. Yeah. >> Yeah. Absolutely. >> For sure. >> Yeah. >> Couple questions. [clears throat] Um
thanks for putting everything together. >> Um when so on the the vendor cost, I'm just curious is this this is like a third party that's hosting the dance for example. This isn't a like a software cost or something to collect the funds or is that all included or >> correct? It's the vendors. So, we have
different and those are contracted vendors, [cough and laughter] so they're not employees. Um, taking Dance for example, we do all of our own registration. That's a quality control for us. So, 68% of the fee depending on the class. So, if you take the the $225
class, the vendor would get 68% of that with the with our percent, we would cover our cost, which would be a portion of the cloud-based registration system. admin, we'd go to offset any of our of our other compartments.
>> And then the other question, because I I I had thought that it was like software mixed into that. Is there is there one solution that you're using from like a software perspective to collect, you know, all the user fees or it sounded like maybe there were a couple different
ones. I'm just seeing if consolidation might be an option. >> It I think it is long term. Um, we do have we use a cloud-based system. We used Activenet for years and they got very expensive. They have different modules. We primarily use a registration
module. We have a reservation module. We have a point of sale that we use at the pools. And we found my wreck to have lower fee structure. And they're very user friendly. Where the deficits are are with some of the adult programs. You might hear them when you have your
meetings. We have um Zumba and um other various adult sports and a lot of those are cash based. So we're trying to eliminate the cash based. It would just require um more staff training, more software to have something not an Apple
Pay but something similar to that where people where we could eliminate cash completely. Um we haven't been able to do that just yet, but we use my for almost everything. >> Thank you. Any other questions right now?
>> No. All right. Great. Well, thank you. It's uh let's make this part of a continuing conversation. Appreciate you bringing and putting it all together and speaking with us. >> Thank you. I did try to consolidate so I won't burden you with time to too often, but um I will most likely need to ask to
come before you again probably in the fall. >> That's great. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. All right. Uh, next up we have a certificate of recognation. Recognition for Jake Alivera. Uh, Dan, I believe this was
your doing. If you want to speak. >> Sure. Thank you. Um, yeah. I mean, so I had obviously we're a bunch of us are going to the Mass Municipal Association. uh they do an annual conference and um it was hard to
hard to miss that uh Jake Senator Jake Alive was being uh honored. So I thought it'd be a good idea for us to uh present Senator Aivera with a citation from from Long Meadow um on behalf of the select board uh you know just because of all of
the positive things Jake has has done for you know Long Meadow his entire district really. Um, and I thought it'd be a good opportunity for us to um, acknowledge Jake for his work um, for what he does for uh, our community and the surrounding uh, communities. Um, so
I had reached out to uh, to Lynn and and Mike who were very helpful uh, in helping put this together. Um, to acknowledge Senator Alivera. Um, I've I've been pretty swamped with work. So, Mike was helpful in kind of
putting this together and and getting this in in front of uh the select board. So, I appreciate that your help with with this, Mike and Lynn. Um, so I don't um do you want me to read this or >> uh that's up to you. The full text is on >> Yeah, it is getting it is getting
>> You have to read it when you present it. >> Well, yeah. So, uh, anyways, I'm not going to read the whole thing now, but, um, again, just wanted to say thanks to Senator Alivera. Um, he's, you know, been doing a great job and, you know, some of the things, um, personally that that I I like about Jake is that he's
very accessible. I think everyone on the board can, uh, knows that, um, acknowledges that and, um, if there's ever some issue we need help with, Jake is always um, you know, quick to to make a text or a call. and uh areas around just our you know our libraries and
securing funding uh and the list goes on. But um I just wanted to say thank you to Senator Alivera um for everything that he does to to help make our jobs a little bit easier and and keeping up the uh uh communication as well. So thank you Senator Alivera and we will see you
uh at MMA on Friday and Saturday this weekend. Thank you. >> Thank you Dan. This is a great idea. We were lucky to have a a state senator who lived in our town prior to Jake and uh the attentiveness that Jake has shown
us for not being a resident and I mean we're all constituents but he's he's really fantastic and I've been I was pleasantly surprised by that. He he's a very anyone who speaks, he's great to engage with, but he's uh really attentive and
and cares a lot and just a a real test a real boon to us. Um all right, anybody else we move on? Okay. Uh speaking of M&A, MMA, uh voting procedures for the MMA annual business
meeting, voting procedures, I just said meeting three times. Um so the I believe as chair I am designated as the uh the voting member of the town. Uh the
curse of the MMA continues. I am unable to attend. Uh so I think we would normally we have to designate in writing a voting number. Um, so I would I think just going down the
line I would designate a vice chair beneath your you're planning to attend. Correct. >> Yes. But I will not be at this meeting on Saturday. >> Okay. >> Uh, our clerk is Shel. >> Yes. >> And >> there's or can we also >> I think you can >> you can also nominate Lynn to do it.
>> Oh, okay. >> Yeah. >> Or or the manager designated writing by by such chair. How would you feel about us uh designating Lynn? I I'm don't even know what this is. [laughter] First, I'm learning. So, >> you want Lyn to be >> designated. I love that idea.
>> Then I [laughter] then I will designate Lynn to uh be a voting member on behalf of Long. Um do you need me to sign something? >> And is that just for the Maya breakfast? Right. >> Not. >> Now she's trying to see what else she can get in control of. Just kidding. >> Or is it for the business meeting as
well? >> Hold on. >> Yeah, I thought it was the business meeting. I thought it was for >> um Oh, apologies. I was thinking of the Maya breakfast which is Saturday morning. It's Saturday morning. >> Maybe it's the same thing because
>> No, it's not. This is the um Mass Municipal Association um their annual business meeting. So, that's fine. Um we also have the Maya breakfast, which I don't know that you actually have to vote to designate
someone, but there is a vote at that meeting. Um, >> then I designate you as well for that. >> We'll just throw that in here. >> Go forth. Okay. And then um
the last item on our agenda is the MO which we discussed uh the PV PVPC MO alternate member. Um, so if anyone is interested in applying,
uh, the deadline is now tomorrow for us. >> Do we have someone on the >> um, no, the way that this is set up is um, we're broken out into regions. And so the region that we're part of has a primary member from Brimfield. Um, they
are looking for an alternate. There has not been an alternate for a while. So if we are interested, we can submit a name as an alternate. >> So this also says select board chair. Does that do we know if that matters? >> Um yes, but it could be any select board member. >> Okay.
>> I did double check that membership. >> I believe I would not be permitted to uh apply for another committee. So um okay. So if anybody would like to put themsel forth uh by tomorrow just let landlord Mike know
and otherwise I will entertain a motion to adjourn. >> So moved. >> All right. All those in favor. >> Thank you everyone. >> Thank you everyone. Thank you.