Thank you. Okay, we're recording. >> Great. Thank you. Uh and for the record, I just in uh introduced the select board members that are here tonight. Uh Andrew Lamb is not present. The other four members are here. Uh this
open meeting, oh staff, when I call your name, please respond and spot in the affirmative. Lynn Simmons >> here. >> Okay. At this open meeting, the Long Matter Select Board is convened 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 meadowmma.gov. The public is encouraged to follow along using the posted agenda unless I note otherwise. This meeting will feature resident comment.
Where am I? There we go. for residents attending uh when I'm in person. Uh for residents participating in the meeting, oh this doesn't have public comment. I'm sorry. I'm I reading my old script or the normal script. We don't need that. Um please note that this meeting is being recorded
and that some attendees are participating video conference. Please remember to mute your phone or computer when you are not speaking. If anyone else in attendance is recording this meeting, please announce yourself now. Okay, seeing none. >> No, it appears that potentially Jim
Moran >> Oh, Jim is >> meant that he was recording. >> Okay. And Peter >> Peter is as well. Okay. >> And was that also Tom Shay? >> It is, Lyn. Thank you.
All right. First on the agenda for our special meeting, we have continuation of public shade tree hearing decision appeal. And I'm sorry, I'm just pulling up my email. All right. So,
uh, Jean, if you would, uh, introduce yourself against the proponent and go ahead. >> All right. Good evening. My name is Jean Christie. I'm a principal engineer with Tyen Bond here tonight on behalf of the town of Long Meadow and the proposed Long Meadow Middle School. Um, I do have
a presentation to kind of give big story of everything that's happened to date and um, looking at the the trees we're specifically talking about today. If that's okay to share my screen. Uh, sure. Please. >> I'm not allowed to, Lynn. I thought it was such a good idea to
have a a remote meeting. >> Okay. Can you see my screen? >> Yes. All right. Um, so as a, you know, I'm going to zoom out and then, you know, get down to to the nitty-gritty. Remember, this is for the Long Meal Middle School. William Street on this plan is shown to your left. Uh, Woodside
Drive is on the bottom and Dexter Lane is at the top. You can see the new school at the interior of the site in white along with associated parking and recreational areas and landscaping and things like that. I included this for overall context if we needed it later.
Uh so what we're here today to talk about is um our request to appeal the decision to remove to not remove two shade trees along um William Street. If you recall a couple last week we were here before the board um and we're
looking at a total of six trees to be removed and at that time we had um the the board had um appealed or overturned the decision to um allow four of these trees to be removed. So, this is William Street at the bottom of the page here. Um, this plan has been colorized to give
you a better idea of the existing limits of William Street, which is in that light gray. Um, the school is to the top of the page. So, that dark gray is new pavement. So, there's new pavement associated in William Street associated with a roadway widening. You can see on this plan that that is to accommodate a
left turn lane into the site from on William Street heading eastbound. Um, also on this plan, we showed all the existing trees that are out there on the property and in the public rightway. Those are the light green ones with the numbers next to them. The red ones are trees to be removed. And then the dark
green ones that are interior to the site are proposed trees that we're including as part of um this development. And I'm going to zoom in a little bit further here. Um, this is more for context. We have already reviewed these two trees over here. Um, but in case we needed to revisit anything, I wanted to
include this. um a little more detail. Um and then this is where we're going to talk tonight. And these trees that are in the yellow circle are the ones that that are on the agenda um of a black oak and a white oak. And again, that dark
gray is the road proposed roadway widening. The light gray is the existing rightway or the existing roadway, I should say. Um, looking at what these existing trees look like today, you can see in this lefth hand photo, this is taken from William Street looking west. Um, they
are immediately adjacent to the existing driveway, you know, feet from the existing curb line. Um, then the one on the right's a little zoomed out, more facing on to them. Um the one in the bottom lefthand corner in
this picture shows how that 35 inch black oak is is it's leading into the roadway. Um I thought this was an important picture to show the board um as you know what that imminent hazard may be if we're able to keep it. And then another big picture looking from
the sidewalk to William Street to see what those those trees look like outside. Happy to zoom in on them um later if we need more info. Um, but I know there was a question previously about how far away these trees are from the existing curve line.
So, we prepared this graphic to better show you kind of what that existing conditions is and what that proposed conditions in. Again, dark gray is the the proposed roadway widening. Um, this shows that the roadway is being widened for between four and five feet
in this area at this particular driveway. It is a taper so it does change along the entire length. um that is reducing the the distance from the trunk um you know from six seven feet down to you know two three feet. Um
you can also see in this picture the amount of imperous area that's over the existing root system um and that the grass area that is is available for you know water to get into the ground um and feed these trees that way. those dark circles in the middle there
are are representative of the actual tree trunk diameter in you know compared to the tree canopy um shown graphically there um and one of the things that I I did want to reiterate was why we doing this roadway widening. So this is to
accommodate like I said that left turn lane into the school property. We can't do it on the other side or we oops sorry I'm going to try and see this one. If you look at the bottom right hand picture, you can see the slope behind this car here. And you can also see a telephone
pole here, electric pole, so utility pole, I should say. Um, so so widening the roadway on the south side of Williams is more challenging than on the the north side. Um, getting a little more technical into what the cross-section of the road looks
like and what that widening looks like. Um, this may be confusing for folks, so I'm happy to talk more through it, but this is imagine you're standing um in the tree belt in Williams looking east. So, the proposed school will be on your left. The true trees we're talking about here are going to be on your left here. You can see that the the the brown
vertical piece is supposedly the tree. Um, but you can see how much that roadway widening does cut into that existing green slope and um that impacts that it would have to root system here. So, this is the tree that's further to the west. The one further to the east,
um the the larger diameter tree has a similar impact. Um but that that roadway widening is a little bit less impactful to that that tree at that outside location. Um at this time, I think I can open it up
to folks for questions. I have other drawings in this presentation, but they're they're the technical design plans really only to answer questions as needed. Um, I'm happy to go back to anything else you need to see and ask questions and have some discussion tonight.
>> Thank you, Jean. Um, if you could go back a couple slides to Yeah, right there. Uh, so, and you might want to even go back to the other one, but what what is the um the striped line? Is that a burm there or is that painted lines?
Yeah, >> this is painted lines. Um, okay. These are all painted lines. The curb line is back here, >> right? Okay. And so what is the purpose? And this is why so you might want to go back to the other plan. Uh no, further back. So what so what is the purpose of
uh the eastern side being widened in that way? >> See if I can get that circle. Okay. Um, so because of this left hand left turn lane here that's turning into the site, we can't have traffic, we can't have this opposing lane coming directly at
this left turn lane because at the end intersection they would have to switch lanes essentially. It is the safe practice to, you know, have that lane lined up with the lane that it's going to go into on the other side of the intersection, which is why it is lined
up this way here. >> Okay. Yeah, that that makes a lot of sense. So this is the the the generally accepted practice uh or best practice for for this kind of intersection. Okay. >> Yes. >> All right. Um I I can't see anybody else
on the board. Any other questions? >> Okay. Um well, I think this is very helpful. This is a I know that um I went and looked at the trees. Uh, I know um Andrew was not here tonight, but he went looked at the trees and this gives I
think an even better idea of what the impact will be to these trees unfortunately by having the the roadway cut so close to them. Um because I know we're getting work done in our backyard and the arborist we spoke with said if
you impact tree if you have a if the root system root systems aren't very deep and so uh there can be a lot of impact just from driving over it or work being done on it um which can really impact the the future health of the tree.
Um all right so no other questions from the board? >> I'll just make a comment. >> Go ahead. Thanks. So, yeah, I mean, I think Josh, you said it right. I mean, this is a this is a standard practice for uh making sure that roads are safe. We
have a combined middle school that's that's going to be built in this location. There's going to be more students walking, riding, uh getting dropped off at this location. and and what the tree warden um said, who's also
an arborist by the way, that when these uh when the trunk or or the the base of the tree um is affected, it could cause potential uh safety harm or safety or or danger to the the children. And to me,
that's the really the most important uh piece of all of this. I don't think any of us want to uh remove trees in town. Um I think we all uh love Long Meadow for the the various trees across all of the town, but at the same point, we're
also uh going to be planting several additional trees as well uh to um mitigate the impact of of some of these shade trees. So, I just wanted to re reiterate the points from the experts. Um, at the end of the day, it's it's the
experts that are uh advising us on these decisions. Um, but I we definitely don't take this lightly, and that's also why we're having uh the meeting tonight. So, that that's all that I wanted to add. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dan. And um on that point uh I did I spoke with Leah a few times on
this and uh she confirmed that with the the new tree built uh if we take these trees down there is the opportunity to put other trees in and she gave some uh some examples of the the species of trees that would be able to re be
replanted there. Um, and I I also we discussed a little bit at the last meeting whether I could plant on uh the the property owner's property and we revised by council not to do that. Um, but there luckily there is room on the
tree belt to put more trees up if that's if that's the route we choose. >> Yeah, great. Uh, thank you Josh and uh, thank you Jean for the presentation. I think um you know it seemed to me during our discussion at the select board meeting that the select boards seemed to
be in agreement that these trees did need to be removed for so many of the reasons that you know Dan and Josh and and Jean talked about. But it it was more about um you know providing more information to really explain uh the
need for removal as al as well as exploring and having some of the conversations that um Josh talked about with the tree warden and and talking about some of those options and presenting those options. So I think um at least that has occurred um over the last week and a half to my satisfaction
and I think that I think we're in a position now to vote on this. Uh I did I don't know if the um I know this isn't a public hearing but we did give the chance to uh to the objector to speak at
the meeting last time if anyone is here who would like to speak now uh anybody from the the property owner uh willing to give some time um but I'm not seeing anybody so okay so that opportunity was given. I
know notice was given. Uh this is publicly posted and um Leah also sent it directly to uh Mr. Cal who spoke at the at the meeting last week and I believe may have been the person I believe it was the person who objected at the tree
hearing. Um so with all that being said, uh I entertain a motion unless anybody else has a comment. Okay. Uh, I would entertain a motion to overturn the hearing result for the 26-in white oak and 35-in black oak
located at 458 William Street. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Okay. Uh Dan Zerko made a motion to overturn the hearing result for the 26in white oak and 35inch black oak located at 458
William Street. The motion was seconded by Venith Hamathy. And uh I will now take a roll call vote. Lyn, >> Mr. Lavine, >> yes. >> Mr. >> Yes. >> Mr. Zwco, >> yes.
>> And Miss Mayor Dwolf, >> yes. Right. The roll the roll call passed by a vote of four nothing. >> Thank you very much. >> Um again on that I do want to thank uh town staff and Leah and uh DPW for being
for working together on this and uh and Jean for giving us great information at this second hearing. I thought that was very helpful. Um as Dan said, we we never like to take down trees. Um but sometimes unfortunately that has to be
done. Um but we will going to try to do our best to um to mitigate that. All right. Um moving on to the next item on the agenda. Uh municipal fiber project
response to finance committee questions and comments. Um, I could speak to it, Josh, if you want me to. >> Oh, you know what? Well, we just got a phone call from Michael Kick, I think.
Oh, he didn't realize it was virtual. Um, you know, I'm going to Well, I'll I'll have to call him after. Okay. Um, sorry. Go ahead, Venice. >> Okay. Thanks. Um, so I think this kind of worked out that we had a special meeting uh for this so we can kind of
tack this on as well. Um, this is what this document represents is a you know for you know possibly approval of the select board to adopt as the select board's responses to the finance committee's position statement. The finance committee after our meeting put
together a position statement that included seven questions or concerns about the fiber project. I think it's important to note that these questions, concerns, um, as part of their position statement will be a part of the town warrant and the town warrant is sent to
every household in Long Meadow and, um, you know, so I think it is important that when folks are under trying to understand the fiber project and they are going to town meeting to vote on it that they have all the information that they need to make an informed decision.
Um the fiber project has gone on for you know over two years. The finance committee met with the select board for an hour and then you know met themselves to uh make uh their their vote on a recommendation and to put together this
uh position statement. Um, you know, my hope is that, you know, that they're able to take a look at some of these responses and think about, um, whether um, you know, their support, uh, or their, you know, whether they they their change in support, whether there is a
change in support. Um, and it's also for our town residents to take a look at the responses as well and see how these questions and concerns have been addressed. I mean, um, you know, some of these questions and concerns relate to things like an MLP board. an MLP board has been voted on and discussed at three
separate town meetings. It's important, I think, for our residents to understand that and to know that. Um, you know, and also I think this these responses really put forth um, you know, some of the thinking behind some of the reasons why the financial model was the way that it
was. Um, and some of the misconceptions I think about what fiber is, that this is not some type of passing fad of a technology, that fiber is infrastructure and it's something that's going to last for decades. And that this is not a short-term investment where we're
thinking about whether a household today in, you know, 2026 or 2027 wants fiber, but whether, you know, this household and the household after and the household after that wants fiber. Um, and really thinking about this in as a long-term investment. So, I think that these responses um do a good job of
speaking to that. And again, this is about giving our residents all the information they need before uh attending town meeting on May 12th and making their vote. >> Um do you want to go through the the questions and the responses?
You think that would be helpful? Uh >> it's up to you. I I we can um it it's totally up to you. Whatever you think. >> Uh yeah, I think that would be that would be good. >> Okay. Um so I kind of talked about this
very briefly, but the you know the first concern that they had was about the um who would be making financial decisions as part of the uh for the MLP. You know the MLP is statutoily created and
governed. It is uh you know it's governed by state statute. There are strict uh rules about annual audits, annual financial reports. Everything is done by open meeting. Um and you know there are over 40 MLPS operating in Massachusetts. Um our town council
luckily represents a lot of other MLPS and uh you know understands the space and has been very helpful in providing guidance um on this. Um, and then, you know, this is something too that we've talked about where right now the select board is is is the MLP, but we're
waiting for the state legislature to approve our charter change where at that time a threeperson MLP board can be populated. Um, and you know, I think that at least the sense I've gotten from all select board conversations is that that's where we should be headed where we have an independent MLP board that is
governing this. Um the and and you know and I also said you know this the question of an MLP board and creation of an MLP board has been before us at three separate town meetings. Two separate town meeting votes were needed to create an MLP and an MLP board. Um and then a
third town meeting last spring in 2025 where is where we had the charter change put forward before the town and there was discussion there as well about what an MLP board uh would do and how it would be populated. Um the second question um is asking about how rates
are to be uh set. Um and again this is going back to the fact the MLP board is the one that uh sets the rates. Um, and then going into the factors for why that $90 per month is being proposed as the
initial rate. Uh, it is a lower rate than what Comcast currently offers for one gig. And I think, you know, there's a note in there that, you know, what Comcast says one is one gig is not, you know, actually one gig. But, um, this does come in cheaper if folks are
looking for that. Um, it also provides value for folks that they don't have one gig and they're paying less to go up to one gig at $90. And also that the rates are set so that they could cover operating expenses, build a retained earnings fund, cover buildout costs of the entire town, and that would be
accomplished by setting the rates at $9 per month. Um the third question again uh what I talked about was trying to um talk about some of the misconceptions of this being a short-term investment or a short-term
infrastructure um you know for the town. Um there were questions about the debt service and why the debt service was to be 20 years for that 8.6 million. This is an asset that's going to last for 50 plus years. And so doing something that's shorter than 20 years and
increasing the tax impact on the uh residents was something that I don't think our finance director thought was um very smart and you know I agree with um so that's why that was made there. Um you know I think that this is not something that we have oversold or
talked about too much because again when this is all rolling an MLP that's MLP board that's independent will be governing this but um you know there are other communities where the MLP makes yearly pilot payments um to the town for
you know initial startup costs or anything that the town has invested in the MLP. Um this is something that um you know we've see in central and eastern Mass and it's something that the town could be asking the MLP board for um as well. So if you're kind of
thinking about like long-term MLP becomes you know if you hit a 50% take rate then then you're able to cover everything I talked about plus you have extra money. Um you know that is something that we think I think the town would be uh you know in perfectly good
standing to ask the MLP board to do. Um, so that's in there too to just kind of provide further explanation. Um, this was answered during the meeting and I know that there's kind of some, you know, people are talking, there's some back and forth, but it was about who will bear the risk of the debt. Um, you
know, the rateayers are the ones that bear the risk of the debt. This is, you know, by statute. Um, if the MLP completely were to fail, like you know, if our sewer system completely failed or if our water system completely failed, uh, then the town would then be on the hook for it. But you know this has not
um happened anywhere in Western Mass and nowhere in Massachusetts that we are aware of. Um and you know I think this also makes note that in fact the opposite has occurred where uh once borrowing has been paid off subscriber
rates um have actually decreased um to actually then run the MLP at cost because then you're no longer making the yearly debt service payments. Um and then question five um is to uh the finance
committee just asking you know what does the town what does the taxpayer get in return for their investment and this just goes through this that you know the town through the MLP will own this infrastructure outright uh you know it'll be ours forever if we don't like
the way Ferspring is doing things you know we can not sign a second contract with them or a third contract strike with them. We can go in a different direction if we want. Um, this will earn revenue indefinitely. Uh, it builds an estimated 6 million in reserves by FY
201. Um, and then again, because we control it, we get to control how this service works, meeting the needs of our residents. And you know, and thinking about this again as a long-term investment. Um, you know, it's been
talked about a lot, especially with these last two winters and how high energy prices have been. That Eversource and National Grid Grid communities have paid twice in energy costs over the last uh two winters as what uh communities
with energy and gas uh um entities have paid like Holio and Westfield and Chickpe. And that's kind of the idea behind this as well, that this is a long-term investment that, you know, once the borrowing is paid off and more people are signed on, you get to
continue decreasing that monthly internet subscription rate. Um, and then it becomes um something that really becomes, you know, a perk of living in Long Meadow. it becomes something that helps with affordability that your
internet uh bill every single month is um you know is going to be very very cheap and this is something that you know this investment that some of these MLPS like South Hadley, Holio, Chickpe made 100 years ago um you know 100 years
later their residents are um benefiting from it. You know that's the same thing that can happen here. Um, and then number six talks about the town voluntarily violating its debt policy. Um, and you know, to just be clear, the middle school borrowing already put the
town over the debt policy. This would add .04% more to that. And in conversations previously that our finance director has had with our bond rating agency, the bond rating agency and you know the finance director previewing that we might be doing this. The bond rating agency actually said you
know Longmeta would be well served uh by exploring revenue generating opportunities. And so this is one if not you know the only one that I've seen uh since I've been on my since I've you know been on the select board. Um and then finally the last one um talking
about the finance committee vote and model or sorry the finance financial model not being fully vetted and finalized. Uh I mean this model was put together by our finance director. It was also vetted by uh fiber springs finance
director. Um, so when you're talking about folks that this is their job and what they're uh specialized in, these are two folks that looked at this and vetted it and approved it and said, you know, it all checked out and um some of
the uh certain critiques that the finance committee brought up about inflation and about uh depreciation. This kind of goes into more explanation about that that 80% of the costs for inflation uh or sorry 80% of the construction costs will take place over
the next 5 years and uh I think as it says in this response you know conservative estimates were used for construction make ready costs interest rates and manager compensation you know any of those things could swing the other way easily. Um, especially like
Ian talked about, our bond council thinks that our interest rate is going to come in below 4%, but all of our financial models use 4%. Um, and you know, just when we're talking about the next five years of construction, um, I
think we know from the last three, four years that we have made estimates for roads, for water manes that have come in millions and millions of dollars less than we estimated. And you really just don't know until you go out to bid. And so that is why our finance director as well as um Shell's finance director felt
comfortable um saying that this model could uh go out and be an accurate estimate without accounting for inflation over the next uh 5 years. And then uh finally depreciation. I think this is maybe just a misunderstanding of
what um fiber is. I mean, I think the uh you know, Fiverspring did a good job of talking about the materials and the quality that they're using. Uh, you know, we don't own the poles. Verizon, Eversource owns the poles. They are the ones that will um pay for any damage to
poles. You know, um fiber is a low depreciation asset that does not need uh much maintenance. Also the financial model really sets aside a lot of money for the reserve fund. Um but also this is something the MLP will manage and
that once you know they'll be looking at the take rates, they'll be looking at everything and they'll be uh managing the depreciation fund and they that is part of their statutory duties. Um and so um you know so I hope that you know I think that these responses I think
really speak to some of the concerns and questions that the finance committee have and you know obviously would you know welcome any anything further from them um you know as an independent um as an independent board and committee of our town.
Uh thanks Rene. Uh this I think this is a helpful exercise. Uh the and while you're talking I was thinking well this is this is really the way our government is supposed to work. Uh the select board has put forth uh
well through town initiatives prior but uh putting forth uh an idea and the finance committee is uh acting as the financial guard rails for the town and uh the the town will
ultimately decide on it. Um and that's really that's how things are set up. Uh, and that being said, um, I have I've spoken with, uh, the finance committee chair and I'm I'm hoping to continue to collaborate on this and have some
further conversations. Um I I know that they are they have some further questions for us that I'm going to send uh to you Veneath and uh they would like to and I would like to have another a
joint meeting have them with us again uh so we can continue the conversation which I thought was very helpful and this is really a continuation of that. Um but it is I think having um more ideas and more information out there that we can look at and vet is good. Uh
and it's more information for towns people to consider uh in making their ultimate decision on May 12th. Um so I I will talk we'll talk more about how how that collaboration is going to look. Um
but in initially um I think this this is a great idea to put this out there uh and to show that here's some questions from the finance committee, here's uh some responses and uh then people can can read and consider.
Yeah, I mean I agree and I think um you know I think it'd be important to you know if the select board votes on this in some way tonight to put this on the town website so that you know folks can go and find this information because like I said the finance committee's
questions concerns are going to be mailed to every single home in Long Meadow. So, it'd be great to be able to provide uh an opportunity for folks to get um more information about this and you know there you know there have been times just even in recent years I think the select board and the finance committee have disagreed on different
articles and um you know that may happen here. Uh there may be a disagreement but um you know I I would hope that we could provide enough information where people understand the decisions that were made and why they were made.
Dan or Shelly? Dan looks like he's looking for the mute button. Shelly. No. Okay. Um. All right. So, Vene, do you want to put forth a motion to uh whatever form
you'd like? >> Sure. Um, I will um vote or I will move to adopt the attached document municipal fiber project response to finance committee questions and comments as the
uh select board's uh response um to the finance committee. >> Second. >> Anything further on this? Seeing none, we'll do a roll call vote. >> Mr. Lavine. >> Yes. >> Mr. Mr. Hmopathy.
>> Yes. >> Mr. Zoro. >> Yes. >> And Miss Mayor DeWolf. >> Yes. >> Okay. Great. Um that is it for our special meeting. Uh I will entertain a motion to adjurnn. >> So moved.
>> Second. >> Lyn, roll call vote, please. >> Uh Mr. Lavine. >> Yes. >> Mr. Hermopathy. >> Yes. >> Mr. Zorco. >> Yes. Miss Mayor Dwolf. >> Yes. Thank you. >> Thank you very much everyone. Have a
great night. >> Thank you.