Are you getting a Yep. >> Test. Can you guys hear me? >> Yes. >> Can you hear us? All right. Um, do you need a few minutes, Josh, or
>> uh, Just give me one minute, please. Ready when you are. Are you guys all set? >> Yep. >> Okay, stand stand by in five, four, 3, two, one.
>> Uh, good evening. Good evening everyone. Uh, welcome to the October 20th meeting of the Long Meadow Select Board. Uh, we are meeting tonight in the town municipal offices at Greenwood. I apologize if anyone is at the school. Um, and we'll get you next time.
Uh, I will read my announcement. Um, select board chair Josh Lavine, I will be confirming that all members and persons anticipated in the agenda are present and can hear me. Members, when I call your name, please respond in the affirmative. Dan Burko >> 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 Barbie >> here. >> Peggy Shelton >> 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 meadow ma.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 comment section of the meeting and I will call on you to approach the microphone. For residents participating in the meeting via Zoom webinar format, please use the raise hand icon at the bottom of the screen. The meeting moderator will promote you to panelist, unmute you, and give you
permission to speak. If you join the webinar by phone, dial star9 to raise your hand and star six to mute unmute. Residents who wish to speak will identify their names and addresses only. Each individual 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 his attendance, anyone in attendance is recording this meeting, please announce yourself now. >> Sarah in remainder publishing. >> Thank you, Sarah. Uh, now we'll have the pledge of allegiance
to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Uh we have no announcements today. Is that right, Mike? >> Um no, just a reminder that the uh
community preservation applications are due November 13th for funding at the end meeting. >> All right. Thank you, Mike. Uh move on to resident comments. >> Good. Tom Shay, 81 Green Meadow Drive,
Article 4, MillionDoll Revolving Fund. The article is written, I believe, was rejected by the select board on October 6th. This is taxpayer money and taxpayer approved funding for capital projects is done at each May and November town meeting. My revised proposal based on
your previous comments is 250,000 deposit into revolver for unexpected operating capital items. Select board should control the account. You may need a bylaw change. 750 deposit into the capital stabilization fund to be appropriate at town meetings by a
twothirds vote. Capital items six months forward should be able to be forecasted. It should be a goal to replenish the revolver. So in November you'll have 400 from last May the interest on stabilization another 400 this May interest on
stabilization 750,000 you'll have a million5 to spend in May or as you fe see see fit my proposal is reasonable since it gives the select board access to emergency funds and also provides the citizens to approve capital items
article 9 and 10 western drive 11 million water and sewer charges should not be used for road replacement portion of these to our agendas. It is against select board policy. Look at your handout. It says that
allowed use of funds appropriation at town meeting money used for operating repairs and maintenance of the potable and firefighting water distribution. Number three, bonds and indebtedness for maintenance repair of water distribution systems. It mentions water. It mentions
road reconstruction nowhere. I was surprised there was no previous discussion of your policy. It makes no sense to use water and sewer funds for roads. There's no nexus or correlation. What's next? A cover charge at the adult center for roads. Using water and sewer
revenues for road reconstruction has never been done in Long Meadow. Emerson Road is currently being paved with general funds for the road, water and sewer funds paid for the sewer. At two meetings this year, the DPW head said the Western Drive has needed to be done
for a while. We were waiting to do water and sewer. Conclusion, appropriate the bonds for water and sewer portion and come back for the road reconstruction in May or bring it all back in May. I was going to mention water and sewer
rates going up 43% even though it was 8% in the town budget. We'll do that another time. Just remember, water and sewer rates are based on appropriations, not just setting rates. Appropriations are done at town meeting by the
citizens. The select board sets water and sewer rates. One last thing. >> You're out of time, though. >> I'm out of time. Hope for another minute for it was a joint session, but thank you. Is it okay? >> Yes. Introduce yourself. Name and address, please.
>> I'm Stefan Plaster. I live on 100 Hilltop Road, highest place in Long Meadow. So, if it ever floods, I will be the last person to go. Um, I've been living in Long Meadow since the age of seven. Um, I went to the center school.
I went to Williams school and so forth. Um, and it's been wonderful living in this town. And what I'm doing is organizing this calendar. We've been putting this together for the last seven years. Uh, the idea is different photographers, local photographers have
to take a beautiful picture in Long Meadow and we want to promote it. Big Y is selling them. Um, I will be giving a talk next door on the 13th of November and also on the 3rd of November I'll be giving a talk at the store's library. I
just want people to realize, you know, this is a high school. Education is extremely important in this town. There's a lot of nature photography, birds, little baby chasing a mother.
And I'm sure everybody knows about this house. There's skeletons climbing up the side of the house. So again, there's lots of great photographs. We want to record what this town looks like now. And we give this calendar to the historical society. In a hundred years
will be famous. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Anyone else? Am I going to be online? >> You see anyone online? >> Oh, she's I think she's um
>> she'll be on later for the um interview. >> Okay. Okay. Uh seeing nothing further, we will move on to uh board and committee interviews. Sorry. >> Oh, am I out of order? >> Yeah.
>> How did I miss that? >> Um >> Oh, sorry, >> Josh. It's okay. If you >> Am I looking at an old one? If you want to do the interviews before the joint meeting, there's only three of them. They're offered the same um commission. It's up to you if you want to do
>> Oh, wait. I'm looking at them. Sorry, I was looking at uh last our last meeting agenda. Um yeah, I'm sorry. Uh Erica, would you like to uh please open up your I went out of order. I apologize. Um if
you would like to open up your meeting for our joint meeting with the uh the finance committee. >> Um yes, I So I'd like to convene the the joint meeting of the finance committee and the select board to review the warrants. Um, do we all need to say our names? >> Uh, you can open your meeting as you see
fit. >> Okay. Um, so the people in the room are here and online we have Cara Stevens. So we are um all in attendance. >> All right. Thank you for joining us. I apologize for skipping over you. Um, so why don't we go ahead and we are looking
at the November 4th, 2025 uh special fall town meeting warrant. Uh Lynn, if you'd like to take a take it away. >> Yes, thank you. So this afternoon you should have all uh received an email from me with the latest draft of the warrant. Um I believe it was getting
uploaded to the agenda later today. So if you look at the one that was sent via email, that is the most current version. Uh so there's been quite a reordering of it since the first draft. Um which won't mean much to the finance committee because this I think is your first time
seeing it. So the different order should not make a difference to you. U but for select board it is vastly different from the last meeting. Uh so starting with article one um you want to are you able to put that up? Okay, there it is.
Thanks. Uh so the first is a pretty standard one. It's prior year bills. We have two this year. uh one is to close out a project uh for our payroll uh update and then the other is a copier
expense that for some reason came in after the close of the books. So that's our first one. Happy to take any questions on that one. Okay. Um, article two, uh, is related to accepting of, uh, mass general law,
chapter 40U and a subsequent bylaw change to allow us to, um, gradually increase fines for unshoveled sidewalks. Um, this is something that came up when we did our codebook review. Uh, at the
time, the general law we had accepted was $10. Um, we've now learned that there is another general law that we can accept that allows us to go um much higher than $10 and that's what we're proposing here. $10, as you can imagine,
does not really uh incentivize uh people to comply with shoveling the sidewalk. So, uh, code enforcement flagged this as an area that they wanted to see us address and they've recommended, um, gradual fines from 50 for the first
offense, 125 the second, and 200 for the third. So, this would accept that general law and then make the bylaw change. >> Uh, the offenses, is it if it's not cleaned up, say we have ice for three days, if it's not cleaned up the second
day, is that a second offense or is it per storm? I believe it's every 24 hours, but >> yeah, >> every 24 hours. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Any >> will there be like education first before we go through a fine just because it's such a steep increase? Obviously,
>> they always do that. Yeah. They really ultimately we just want the sidewalk shoveled. So, we we not that we don't care about the fine, but that's not the goal with this. It's that people actually shovel it. Okay. Uh, article three is a flood plane
bylaw change. Um, this has come forward at the was it the annual town meeting we had this at? Yes. I think um and it was not successful. Um, we regrouped uh and uh the conservation agent and our
associate planner did a considerable amount of public engagement including um notifying each household within the flood plane about uh this bylaw change and uh held a forum um to just educate people on it. Uh this
will bring us into compliance with state law. So it's critical that we get this passed. Um I don't know if you have anything more to add on this, Mike. >> No, what you said was perfect. And there's going to be a um public information session on the 22nd, so ne
this Wednesday um with some of the direct abutters to people who live in the flood plane zone um as well as well as the general public just to get the um intent of the bylaw across to people um so that they're understand and they have a chance to uh ask any questions that they may have. The planning board did
vote to recommend it at their public hearing last week, two weeks ago. >> Is there going to be an explanation, like a layman's terms explanation after this article because the general public is not going to have any idea what it's about? >> I have to add it right now. Actually, I'm working on it. >> There will be. Thanks. >> Uh the forum that was held, how many
people attended that? >> Sorry, I misspoke. It hasn't been held yet. I'm a little off because I was out for a couple days. Um it's scheduled for Wednesday. >> Okay. They did the notification to all the residents in the flood plane district um uh last week. >> Okay. >> Yes. And there was a public hearing on
the 7th. No, no members of the public attended that. >> Um article four relates to a new revolving fund. So um I went into a lot of detail about this at the last meeting, but finance committee
was not there. So, um, some of this will be repetitive for the select board, but I do think the background is important for the finance committee. Um, as you know, we've we have net metering agreements and over the years, we have amassed quite a large credit balance on
our electricity account for street lights. That was due to the town purchasing the street lights and then converting them from high pressure sodium to LED. Thus, we were using a lot less electricity. Uh and so the solar credits we were buying uh have been accumulating. We haven't been able to
use them all. And so we've been back and forth um with both Eversource but also NE who is the holder of one of our net metering agreements. Uh we had to do quite a few amendments. Uh, one of which is with NEN where we have now cashed out
our solar credits and instead of them um accumulating on the Streetlight account or any other electric account, they are now um issuing a check to the town once a month um we take it into an agency account. We split the money as the
agreement calls for with the town of Awam and Nan gets their portion and then the town keeps theirs. um that has just been sitting in an account waiting for uh the rest of the solar credit piece of this conversation to finish, which is
the large credit balance that we have with um the street light account. Uh we've been back and forth with Eversource for the last year. Um where we stand right now is Eversource is willing to cut the town a check for around $880,000
to cash out that large balance of solar credits. um we would just receive the money and um if we don't have an account set up for the money to go into, it will just go to the general fund. So before we give the green light to Eversource to
have them send us that payment, um we discussed setting up a revolving fund. Um there are many other examples of communities that have done this throughout the state. Working with town council, we have modified this language here that um would create a DPW
electricity and energy improvement revolving fund. At the last meeting, the select board uh wanted the revolving fund to be as broad as possible. We tried to do that, but unfortunately we're not able to go as broad as the discussion
wanted us to. Uh and so what we have here is a revolving fund that would um take the Eversource payment and the recurring solar credits from Nen that we buy from NEN um and put these into a
revolving fund that would be used to pay for all electricity accounts on the town side and any town or school capital improvements related to energy infrastructure and the expenditure limit for um FY26
we've set in this draft as a million dollars. That's because between the 880,000 from Eversource and the recurring payments we will hit that 1 million. Um in future years we may adjust it but that's something we do annually at town meeting.
>> Could I summarize a few things? Go ahead please. >> Benefit. Um last meeting we talked about this a lot and it occurred to I think all of us that uh there's no reason why we would um restrict this as much as possible. The original idea was proposal was it for it to be just for like clean
energy projects. So we want to make as raw as possible. If we do nothing, it will go, you know, into our free cash and then we can basically use it for anything except the reason to consider revolving fund was then there could be a
more nimble uh use of it by the town manager for example. You wouldn't have to go to like town meeting and wait essentially. So the argument is and I I think there's it's a definitely worth discussing and I'm personally pretty ambivalent about it because there's
benefits both ways. If you give it back to the town, then the town it can be used for anything. But if you have a revolving fund, then there could be something like that comes up that's urgent, like a literacy thing or or a pool repair that you could theoretically use it for. Although unfortunately now
we've just learned that it's not going to be that broad. So I think that this kind of opens up the >> debate. Um, so one of the ways it it is it could be viewed as broad is the DPW um already budgets for all the town
electricity accounts. By removing the DPW operating budget from paying for that, that frees up that money that's already in their budget. >> Yeah. So that was that was going to be my question. So you said it will pay for all electricity accounts. How much does that add up to?
>> It's about $370,000 a year roughly. So our our net metering will in theory pay for all of the other electricity. >> Yes. >> Wow. >> Town side. >> Right. That's pretty good.
>> And then we have we would have you know a healthy amount left to tackle some energy projects which could be um chillers, could be uh mini splits, refrigeration issues, anything that is that draws energy. >> Yeah. One of the things we talked about
our last meeting was that uh it was police department >> air conditioner broke and we could have if we had a fund like this we could have put in mini splits right away >> uh rather than waiting. So, can I just ask a question again back
to we overpaid historically for electricity or we prepurchased electricity and out of that they're giving us back money or credits because we didn't use the amount of energy that we said we were going to
use. Is that what this money is? we purchase solar energy credits um to a level that we could not realize on our electricity accounts. So, yes, but I wouldn't say
at the time the inet metering agreements were set up, it was adequate when we >> Okay, but that's fine. I see. So, so this is money that we spent in the past that we are now getting back because we didn't spend it. Is that
a true statement? >> Yeah, it well it's sitting on it's it's a credit balance on our electricity accounts right now. >> Okay. And the Eversource this is a one-time fix to the problem. So there's not an additional fund coming forward
>> and then we get a monthly payment from this other thing. >> Yep. >> But are we paying them and then they're giving us back part of that? I'm just trying to figure out where the money's coming from. Um, so we'd buy through the net metering agreements, we'd buy the solar credits, uh, instead of them
sitting on our our solar accounts, and some of this is way above me. Um, so I'm going to explain it to the best that I understand it. Uh, we the solar credits go onto our electricity bill. Um, but instead of applying those to the bill,
it's getting cashed out. So Eversource is just sending us a check for what those credits are, the the monthly credits. The agreement we have is until 2034 and then there's two 5-year renewals after that. So this monthly
payment can come until 2044 >> except somewhere or other we're paying them the money and they're giving it back to us. >> Yeah, we we're buying them and then they at a lower rate and they sell back to us. No, I'm sorry. Yeah, we buy them at a lower rate and then Eversource
converts it and then it's we end up realizing more money in it. >> Question. >> Just one question is so we have a big bololis of a million dollars now. How much so the idea of a revolving fund is that it will replenish itself. How much
can we expect the recurring part of it to be? >> It's going to fluctuate. It's not always going to be the same amount, but it's been about $70,000 a month. So, I I guess I'm thinking, is it really worth going to the trouble of creating another account that everyone has to kind of keep track of for ultimately something
that's only $70,000 a year when >> No, a month. >> A month. I'm so sorry. Okay, that's much more. >> So, we have two other revolving funds that are similar. One is for um the adult center and the other one is for the fire department. Oh, no. Um parks.
No, that's not a 53 and a half. >> Um adult center. Oh, the signs. Um, and those generate >> Yeah. No, that's more than I thought. >> Almost nothing. I mean, the adult center does decent, but the signs one is maybe
$3,000. >> And the adult center one is kind of come in come out, right? >> Yeah. That's that's what a revolving fund is. The money fees or or other revenue comes in and goes out for the intended use, >> right?
>> You can't just spend it on anything. >> Yeah. So this is so the language here is town council said because of the source of the funds this is where this is the language that you can use >> for where it goes. >> The experience that town council's had
with the dozen other communities they've set this up for is that um it has passed do muster because it is um energy credits coming in and being used to pay energy bills. Okay,
>> yeah, that's what I was going to ask was that if it had to be energy related. Um, and then in our last meeting, we were asking about how broad this could be and you received guidance from town council about kind of the parameters. So, can you give us a sense of what the parameters are here?
>> Yeah, I did express that um the board was interested in more of a departmentwide approach to the DPW. Um uh she was
100% certain that would never work. Um >> she appreciated >> she appreciated that you were thinking that but um said that would never work. Um
yeah, she she agreed that that would be great if it was structured this way, but um laughed and said that's not that will never work. Um and so working with her, we just we structured this similarly to what she's gotten other communities. Um,
and just I know this is a lot and especially for finance committee who's hearing this for the first time. There is the only rush on this is that Eversource is waiting for me to give an answer on whether we want them to cut us a check. We can I can say yes and it
will just flow to the FY uh 26 free cash um as we close when we close out for next year which would be considered 27. But um we can wait or we can set this up and and get going on this.
>> So the primary benefit of this is that we don't have to take it to a town meeting other than this warrant to spend the money going for >> to to spend out of it. Correct. We it would come to town meeting every year annually to vote on the spending limits
of the U revolving fund. >> Okay. But the actual expenditures wouldn't have to be separately voted on by the town and that's the primary benefit of this fund. >> Um I mean that's definitely one of them. The other is that it whether the people
at this table change. Um we have a revolving fund set up for this specific use because we felt like this was important. Um I mean granted someone could come in and change it at some point but it would need a vote of town meeting to do that. If we don't have a
revolving fund that spells out what this is to be used for, it goes to free cash and it could be used for anything and everything which has its pluses and minuses. But >> we did also talk about the last meeting whether we want to limit on what can be
done without at least select board approval. >> Is that something that is permissible? >> Yeah, you can do that just through a simple policy. And so if we do it this way, we are basically going to free up $300,000 or so of the DPW budget because this will
pay the electric bills and then leave, you know, 600 700,000 to kind of be there in case of emergencies, things they need to, you know, do kind of quickly, right? That's kind of like how to look at this basically
>> that um or as we prepare a capital plan and we realize something costs a lot like a chiller, we could use this as a a source of funding for that instead of what we had to do the last year with the creative financing for the blueberry chiller.
>> Yeah. I mean I think like I mean I think the the chiller has been a big topic for years now. Um, I think it would also help me to get a sense of what other types of capital projects this could be used for. Um, because I assume that
there's going to be always something that's energy related that you could probably make a case for, but um, you know, any other examples? I mean, I think the air conditioning um, at the police department this past summer. >> Yep. Um, I mean, I guess I guess I try
to get a sense of how broad that can go. You know, what we can kind of like finalize. >> I think if you want it broad, you should leave it as free cash and then each year you vote the free cash to do capital projects. I mean, that is other than I'm trying to figure out that point. Go ahead, Lauren.
>> Um, I just had a specific question about the use. Um the when you described the use for energy infrastructure projects, was that the the language? The first thing that jumped in my mind was the solar panels on the top of the school.
>> Um is that the type of project that would qualify under this um >> this the language that we're setting up? >> Yep. That was my only question.
>> Go ahead. >> Um I think that uh now that we're trying to kind of seeing what we it can actually be used for I think I'm I'm I'm a little disappointed of course that we can't make it more broad. I think if we're trying to balance the ability to first I would say I want I think we have to get the money now so we should
decide. But I think that if I'm trying to balance the benefit of being able to use it for anything we want, which I think is very important now that we realize we can't be as broad if we do this. I'm I personally think that
that's a better uh or more advantageous for the town. I'm a little worried this is getting a little complicated. five years from now, the finance committee, the select board might not remember exactly what we were thinking and like to, you know, we can still use it for
literally anything. It's just that you can't just, you know, the town manager can't basically just spend whenever when like immediately essentially. And I I I think that it's better to be able to use it for anything we feel we need rather
than do this kind of scheme where it's like pay for electricity and then use that for something else. And then who's going to really remember that that exactly was what this was for? >> I just feel like when we have uh when we when there is money out
there, it gets eaten up by the school the schools and that's well, you know, we can find infrastructure things there. Sure. But >> I just feel like if the money goes unless it's pointed somewhere, it ends up in the schools. And that's that's
great. That's what our town does, but >> that's a good point. >> It does. We will see that happen. And it will take away from >> goal is to like have a DP utilize this in some way. Maybe that will help him do that. >> And if and I think the one of the real advantages of doing it this way is that
the we are absolutely freeing up money in the DPW budget by taking off uh the electric accounts on. So we could make it could we make it a lower amount and then have some of the payments go into this and
then the rest go into the general fund. >> Yeah. I mean I can strike the the Eversource payment out of here and it will just be the recurring monthly payments from New >> which kind of makes sense because that's what we can expect to be in a revolving
fund, right? >> Yeah. And then the 880 would go to free cash that you would would close out and you could allocate next fall. >> Guess I was thinking more of >> if we have 840,000 coming in from new gen, >> we want at least to cover the bills. So
that's three 300 grand roughly. Um so we could say this is 500, but we also I we do want some flexibility to be quick and nimble, which is really the whole purpose. So, I I know I'm talking them out of both sides of my mouth, but um that's why we're all here. >> Yeah. I can't speak for the full finance
committee. Um but I would prefer that you actually had a policy that said these dollars would be budgeted into capital expenses, which would then allow the DPW to do capital projects, which we can't currently done. So, to me, I think that would be a better use of that than
the energy efficiency thing over time. I would also question buying into the future where we pay more in the front and then we get it on the back end. That's just weird to me and I'm trying to think through the budget repercussions of that because not I haven't fully figured out how that shows
up on each side of the table. But I I to me a policy that's that's adhered to is probably better than um this specific fund if you want to use it broadly. My question about the uh fund is if we
don't do this proposal, does that mean that the $300,000 that's supposed to be allocated towards paying the electric bills so that it doesn't has I guess it's was coming out of DPW's budget. Are we saying if we
don't do this then we wouldn't have to pay that bill to free up that DPW money anymore? We could just decide to man we're not going to do it this year. Well, do something else. And DPW as far as the electric bill last year we paid it. This year you're on your own. Is that the consequence of not doing this
one? Is that the only way to ensure that the that those electric bills get paid? >> No. No. I'm not saying the electric bill won't get paid. What I mean is it sound it sounded like we're saying that the electric bill the expense of the electric bill was something that was
getting paid through DPW's budget and by doing this that is going to relieve that freeing up the money for DPW to spend in other ways >> only because it had to be related to energy. >> That's my question. >> It's just arbitrary. Yeah. >> Right. And that's my question. So if we
don't do this then we don't have then that would say we're not going to do that anymore. that DPW's budget is going to continue to be responsible for the electric bills and we're not going to be freeing up that $300,000 from DPW's budget anymore, >> right? >> And the town could decide to just every
year give the money to the DPW if it was in free cash. Although I understand Josh's point, which I think is a good one, too. >> Well, just back to Erica's point and also if we if we just made a policy on it, it's very easy for policies to fall by the wayside.
money that just goes into the general pool. Once it does that, it's very hard to to guide, I guess. And I I totally see what you're saying because I I think that that is this is what our conversation was last week. How do we make this as flexible as possible and put it towards the things we want. Um
but I I think that there we can't quite have it both ways, unfortunately. Um, >> well, if you have to revote every year to put the money in, then in a sense it is a policy. You have to choose to revote to refund that money in there. I mean, because every year you can choose
to not fund that money in there. >> Well, you're only voting at town meeting for the expenditure limit. The revenues go to the account. Oh, yeah. I wouldn't do that cuz then what if anyways
it you're making a choice as to whether you restrict that money because you not sure that that you'll be able to say no to the school committee is kind of what I'm hearing, right? >> Well, yeah, kind a bit. Um, but Lyn, let me rephrase my question that I asked
before. So, you said we could strike Eversource like put that into cash. What I meant was of the new gen credits that we get paid out every month, could we have some of those go into this fund, say $400,000 of that to cover our
electric bill and then the rest go into uh general fund? >> I don't know. I would need to ask about that. Um I meaning I don't know how we would word
it. Uh and then trying to think if we have any other examples of that. >> Yeah, I mean just look said fund to receive some receipts or you know set a number on the receipts from the net metering
agreements. I I know that that it's easy for me to say. It may not be uh easy to administer or get through to do, but to me that's kind of the thread the needle on. We want this to be
used for to get those electric bills off the books and we still have money that we can use elsewhere for where the entire town or the powers that be think it's it's useful. Uh, and then maybe and
I do think I also really like the idea of having some of this money to be used for kind of as a strike force on things we need quickly. Um, as as we saw, maybe not the chiller amount of money, but for the quick repairs that you can do
without having to knock on doors trying to find the money. >> Well, you can vote the money over to the finance committee fund. >> That's true. because apparently that's where all the quick money comes from. >> Yes. >> Lyn, can I ask you this is your proposal. Can you talk about how
strongly you feel that this would be valuable? I'm assuming you're in strong support of it, but >> I am. >> Can you share with us? >> I am. Um I think it meets the resolution of the energy and sustainability committee that they put forward at town meeting about um energy efficiency goals. So I think this is a huge step
towards that. Um I think that we can kind of dictate how broad we interpret energy improvements. Um I will push that as far as we can with um finance director, accountant and our
outside auditors, you know, okaying for how far we can go with that. Um, but we we have a lot of work to do energy efficiency wise and this I mean this isn't even going to come close to covering what we need to do. So I'm not
worried about not having projects. Um, and if anything, I'm viewing this as a kind of like a energy capital plan, but I also understand, you know, wanting to have a little bit more oversight. Um,
and I think to me that's where the policy comes into play. If it's a project over say $500,000 or whatever threshold you set, then maybe it needs select board approval. Um but right now we don't have any of those thresholds in the other three revolving funds. One of
them is under a different general law section but it's still a revolving fund and things are come in and get spent out of that with just under the general law. >> One thing that I think is very important that is that we use the money we have
for the things that we feel are the highest priority. And I guess one thinking is that this like there might be an energy project but that's not really where we would spend the money if we had it right in any point in time. I
guess you're saying there's always going to be something that's very high priority and that's not even an issue >> which makes sense if that's true. How would we feel about taking out the the one time ever source payment using
putting that up for capital? I know it's a it's a onetime payment, but um there's always something to do and then leaving the net net payments in this account. Uh, you know, this is why we hire Lynn and why we give her great reviews every
year. We I trust you on this. If you think there's things we can do with this, then, you know, that's that goes a long way with me. Um, so what does the rest of the board think on that? >> I also like the idea of freeing up the the cash in the DPW's budget. I think
with given the challenges that they're up against, I found that I think that they can use that um that will help them out a lot and that'll help the town out a lot to have the money in their budget free up. So, I do like that aspect of it. I think the the one question I think
we're all saying is um what's the definition of related to energy infrastructure and how broad is that? Um I think that would have been great to have some examples of that. Um, >> could we have used it for the pool repairs? >> Yeah. >> Is there energy going to the pool? Like there's electricity.
>> Yes, there is. We would have um we we it might have been a stretch, but we could have tried as much as possible for >> there was some electric work. Yeah. >> Well, who who is the authority that would say you're not doing it right? Like someone in the within the town. >> It's going to come up through finance,
through accounting, and then ultimately through our outside audit. They'll flag it. What specifically Lynn's referring to is when we certify our free cash and when we have our auditors come in, they're looking at our balance sheet. They're looking at our special revenues accounts, looking at our revolving
funds, they're determining whether or not the transactions that we pursue are legitimate under the law when it comes to allowability. So, one of the things that Lynn and I talked about and we talked about with council is to make
sure that the language being used here would pass muster of do because do is very specific about revolving funds and how they want it structured. >> So, you five or six years down the road, if we do this like five or six years down the road, we decide that this is
not the best use and we should be using this money towards something else. Can we change it at that point or are we kind of stuck with this? >> Yeah. >> Okay. And then what would that process look like to change it? >> Uh bylaw amendment. >> Okay. So just be changing the nature of the revolving fund or removing the
revolving fund. Okay. >> Yeah, >> that's a great point. >> Um we had a solid waste revolving fund for years or recycling, whatever it was called. Um and ultimately uh the town meeting did away with it. That was I want to say 2020.
>> Do you mean the enterprise fund? >> There was a Was it an enterprise fun? >> Yeah, it was an enterprise fund. It was in 21 and we got rid of it. >> The solid waste recycling. Okay. Um but yeah, you could do the same for a revolving fund. You could modify it long as long as it met, you know, parameters
by statute and do um or you could get rid of it completely. >> Josh, go ahead. Um, so is there anything I'm just looking at 2044, you know, we're we're talking about like now and the next few years when 2044 hits. Is there anything that we can do whether
it's policy related to make sure that uh it's not a huge sting when it's 2044 and we've been spending all this money on good projects and all of a sudden we're in a tough situation in the future. >> Um, so I can't speak to what will happen with net metering agreements then
because that's Who knows? But um one thing that Ian and I have been doing and Ian mostly is tracking um funds that you know when we adopt you um certain things the funds
are available for 20 or 30 years and that sounds great but we don't want to leave you know the people that come after us with this big headache. Like one of the ones we track right now is the MGM payment that's not here forever. and what how do we start weaning
ourselves off of that? And so I would hope we would do the same for this if it looks like those net meery agreements won't be renewed or you know don't exist anymore in 2044. Um we have the same with PEG access money from cable. Who knows what will
happen with that? And then the opioid settlement money that is till 2035 >> on balance. I think, you know, I'm I'm personally happy to support this. I think Josh and Neath made great points that really helped explain like the reversibility of it and helping the town
side of the budget and the fact that we can, you know, change future people. Everyone here at this table is a different person and future boards can decide what they want. And sorry um and just we had you know
real life example of this this summer with uh the air conditioning at the police station. So because we weren't able to because we didn't have a revolving fund like this to address it in the moment. What ended up happening there? If you can kind of talk through that as kind of a real world example of
um you know why it would be advantageous to have something like this. >> Yeah. So they they brought in the um outside electrical contractor to kind of troubleshoot what was happening and then it falls under the electrical contract that the town the DPW has like the on call one. Uh and so what they use there
just takes away from something else that might come up. um or potentially if if they use all the money they had um under that contract, then we'd be looking at a finance committee reserve fund request like we've had to do in the past for a
hot water heater at the um police station before. So, um a lot of it's just let's figure out this immediate need and then let's cross our fingers and hope we don't have another one um the rest of the year. >> So, were they able to get it fixed this
summer? um they patched it together. It is not a permanent solution. >> So it might just end up costing the town even more because we kind of did a patchwork solution and then probably we'll have to actually go in and fix it. Yeah. Right. >> Yes. >> Yeah.
>> Anything else on article 4? >> Yeah. I mean just just kind of um >> close close out on this. I I would say that initially I didn't like the idea of having some type of restriction towards this money just because we have such limited revenue sources in our town that
to restrict the money in any kind of way kind of felt I was uncomfortable with. But thinking about the backlog of infrastructure projects that we have that could fit into this and how this you know we will always have some project that is a high enough need for
this to address and freeing up some of the DPW budget. That does make sense. Um and also that we really don't have anything that can meet uh that we can move quickly on like we don't have any kind of fund like this uh currently. um
and to kind of introduce that into our you know fiscal you know the fiscal tools that we have >> you know that does make sense to me. So um I I will say at the beginning of this conversation I I was not favorable towards this but now I think I've come around and and in favor of it. Could I
bring up the point about you know saying over a certain amount they should ask for she the time manager should ask for select word approval whether it's like 100,000 200,000 250 like some I'm thinking in some range like that >> but I don't I mean what do you envision
is the most reasonable given you kind of know what amounts you need to spend for um like just on a on like an you know on an everyday basis that might come up. I think it'd be reasonable to start at either 100,000 or 250.
>> Um I think any project of that size really >> you need to having >> being involved in it. >> So let's uh start a policy. >> So we're are we are you guys leaving the Eversource money in or are you taking
the Eversource money out? What would the finance committee think about that? I know your answer, but >> um so the it looks like your the section that you're talking about is
um the fourth line from the bottom to be expended by the Department of Public Works, including but not limited to to support all town electrical accounts. That's the that's what pays
the electric bill, right? Um, that's my favorite part of this. >> Um, I like the idea of having a limit that the select board has to be checked in with um, for the expenditures. Um,
the I'm sort of ambivalent about the speed the access the speed of access to the money, but the idea of freeing up DPW budget, that's the most attractive thing. So, I mean, I I would want to get rid of that
portfolio if you got rid of everything else and left in that we're going to take the money and pay the electric bill to take that out of DPW's budget. >> Well, I think the question is, so what there's 800 is it 880 >> roughly? It's probably more now, but >> yeah. So, are the net metering
agreements have been building up for years and so we have I don't say $900,000. Should we put that in this account now or do we have something else we want to spend it on right away? Um, I mean, I guess if it gets put into this
account, you can spend it right away, but you might have to check. >> Put it into this account, you can spend it right away. If you don't, you can't spend it till next fall, a year from now. >> Do we? >> No. No. Because it has to be part of certified free cash. Um,
>> do we need >> do you need us to um do you have a project that you have in mind that this money could go towards right away? >> Um, the only thing I would say at this point
is to supplement the capital plan. >> I don't So I don't have a specific project. The capital plan. >> Oh, I'm sorry. I mean, out of >> if it was in this fun, is there an infrastructure project that you'd want to use it for right away? >> Um, we need to address the issues at the
police station in terms of the HVAC and the same with this building. Um, the window units were fine for this summer, but that is not a permanent solution. >> I hadn't looked at that. >> Yeah, >> that is dangerous. >> Okay.
>> That's how this build that's how this room is cooled. >> Wow. So that >> so we have a vested interest in making clearly we're going to be here now. >> I've been through some hot ones at the school. So yeah, >> um knowing how the our capital funds are
are going to be decreasing every year because we're borrowing off them into the future right now. Um, I do think that if you could say, "All right, we'll put half of that money in this fund to fund those two things and the other half hold on and put it into capital plan would make sense because I think you
have a lot of non- energyefficient capital stuff that is hugely delinquent as well. Um, but it's um, but yeah, I mean, you can find ways to make it look like it's energy efficiency
stuff, but I I do think that the capital fund in general is has higher greater priority than a lot of that stuff. >> If we wanted to put some into the capital fund, you just rewrite the article that some of it would go there. >> No, >> it would.
>> It would be a separate article. You had to create >> No, actually for that. >> No, I couldn't. We couldn't because we don't have the funds yet. >> So, it would be next fall. We'd move the money next fall. >> Okay. >> Right. >> That's correct. So, you can't really >> So, we couldn't >> The only the only way you would have
access to the funds in this fiscal year is if we were to set up a revolving fund. We would not be able to access the funds until free cash certifies in the fall because they are part of FY26 revenues. Please keep it down. Thank you.
>> Sorry. See, Ian, you were saying that the capital the only way to have access in this fiscal year is to have it in a revolving fund >> because they are FY26 revenues that we have not yet received. We would only be able to access the funds in this current fiscal year if it were set up as a
revolving fund. Otherwise, we would have to wait until fall as part of our free cash certification. >> Correct. >> Even though we knew they were income in the May meeting. >> No, we did not. We did not know. >> No. In a next May's meeting, we would
know that it was income. There's no way we could actually include that as part of the budget in May. >> It's coming in as a revenue that wasn't >> It's considered miscellaneous revenues. I mean, >> okay. All right. Well, um,
it it wasn't budgeted. We didn't have I'm trying I'm thinking on the fly here of ways that I I don't see how it how it would The same thing happened with the um settlement money for the DPW lawsuit. >> Yeah.
>> Um that came in. It was unaccounted. I mean, not unaccounted for, but it was unanticipated revenue that we could not realize until free cash, which is why there's an article on here. It came in as came in and hit free cash,
which we couldn't do anything with it until free cash was certified. So, I anticipate this is going to be treated the exact same way. And and Erica, I completely agree with you that there are, you know, enough capital projects that, you know, need to be funded. And I
think what my hope is is that enough of those capital projects would fall under this that we could start knocking those off. This might be the middle school building committee member in me, but I would rather if we can if we know that there's something we need, let's order
it now because there's delays and there's >> inflation and tariffs and so I think that >> we should get the money in hand if we can. >> I mean, one of the major energy efficiency upgrades you do at your house is you replace your windows
>> and that I mean that's this fun >> energy improvement. >> Yes. >> So, I think it's a lot broader than I think we're realizing >> everyone discussion.
>> All right. That was very helpful. >> Thank you. Lynn, you want to go up to article five? >> All right. Five. Um, this is it. It's a lot of words, but essentially it um we're not actually spending any of this money uh in a new way. Um this is um
speaking of windows, the we have applied for the accelerated repair program for uh through the MSBA and um we will find out if we are accepted into that program after town meeting. If we are accepted into that program, we need to confirm
funding for a feasibility study and design by January. So instead of having to call a special town meeting, um we have this article on here, uh assuming that we get accepted into the program, we feel like we're in really good
standing to do that. Um, and what we would be doing is repurposing the $300,000 in community preservation money that was a a project that had been approved at town meeting in 2022 to start the window
replacement project. Uh, once they did some initial analysis, they figured out that um we were not going to even come close to having enough money. And so that project got paused and the only way we're really going to be able to complete this is through that MSBA program. So, we're using that 300, this
article uses that $300,000 to fund the feasibility study and schematic design if we are accepted into the program. >> Is it going to cost $300,000? >> No, it should not. There's 290 left out of that 300,000. Um, we don't have a
total amount for the feasibility study yet, but um we believe that 300 is going to more than cover it. >> I have 1.4 million in my head for the window replacement. Does that sound right? >> Um I think it's north of three.
>> Oh, >> wishful thinking. >> Okay. And so what is the in rapid repair? What is the um percentage reimbursement on that? >> Um too soon to say exactly.
>> Have to do this first obviously. >> Yeah. And we're already in it for the roof. So that's great. Uh and we there was 90 applications. We made the cut down to 40. We did a site visit with them here. So, we feel like we have a really good chance at getting this.
>> I know this process is a little bit different than how we usually do it, but should we shouldn't we be voting to adopt each article as we go along? >> You probably should because then the finance committee can take those articles as they are listed and vote on the recommendations after. I would suggest that.
>> Yeah. All right. You want to go back to one? >> Sure. Yeah. Um, I will move that we adopt article one. Second. >> Uh, anything further? All those in favor? >> All right. I'll move that we adopt article Can I just do a bunch?
>> Yep. >> Okay. I vote that we uh adopt articles two through five. >> Second. >> Uh, anything further on that? All those in favor? Okay. Yes. >> Okay.
>> You can do that too. >> Six is um funding the collective bargaining agreement for the DPW for FY26 along with um wage adjustment uh colas for non-UN personnel. Um
the DPW the explanation pretty much covers it all, but the DPW um has a new contract 2026 through 28. Uh and with that, there's a new wage scale that we really feel um pretty excited about. Uh
if this article passes, it will fund that wage scale and then we can start um advertising for all the vacancies that we have with those new rates. um which makes us incredibly competitive and hopefully get those positions filled. And then the cola for non-UN personnel
uh usually this is done as an article at the annual town meeting and it was there um but the amount listed in order to get our budget to balance um was a an amount that um would have yielded a 0.5 cola
for non-union staff. Uh and so um we've held off on issuing that cola. uh with the hope that we could um present this article to actually give a cola that is um reflective of the market and
um and a little bit more um I hate to say respectful but um respectful of the workforce that we have. >> So that that's this article. >> How's hiring going over there by the way?
>> Um pretty good. We are seeing a healthy amount of applications come in which is great. Um it hasn't always meant that people show up at interviews though. >> I mean that's an improvement.
>> Yeah. >> At least people don't look at it and say I'm not going to do that. >> Yeah. >> Good. Um Lyn, um in past finance committee meets, I know there's been some discussion about um the uh significant
percentage increase in the staffing for DPW and your um assessment of how short >> the DPW remains. I 30% seems is is that
um well that's so I guess that's my question like how short are you still? >> Yeah. Uh when we were in negotiations, we were hovering around a 20% vacancy rate. I'd say we're probably still around there. I haven't run the like stats on the department in a couple
months. Um we're we're right around there still though. It seems like every time we make some really great hires, we have some retirements. And so that's what we're having right now. It's not people leaving necessarily for, you know, greener pastures. They're actually retiring. Um and so we've gotten three
of those right now that just happened. Um, so we've made some headway, but it's not it's not where we need to be. >> It's a good question. Something we talked about a good amount. >> You want to move on?
>> Yeah, sure. I'll move we adopt art six. Second. >> Any further? All those in favor? >> Seven. >> Seven. Um okay so as you all know we had a special town meeting and a special town election. Those were not the funds for
those were not covered in the um operating budgets for the various offices that um had to come up with funds to add some things for that um for both of those events. Um I know finance committee is very well aware of this because we made use of their uh reserve
funds. So thank you. Uh and I at that meeting I promised to put forward an article to replenish your reserve fund. So that is this um along with replenishing some funding in school hardware that was used uh for the all the tech stuff that got added. And then
the um the town clerk um had extra staffing costs and ballot costs, ballot printing costs um that were not carried in the FY26 budget. Uh so you know obviously this money is spent. Um is there and I hope we don't
have a big meeting like that we won't need one for a while uh to expect to spend that much money. Is there there any lessons to be learned about how much we spent? Did we overspend? Because I know we we had we thought there would be a lot more people than
there were. if something this did come up, are there are things we can do differently? >> Um, some of the IT stuff, the 9800 that is a onetime purchase, so we have it. I mean, just as technology ages out, um,
the town clerk stuff that really I don't think would have been avoided no matter what. Ballots costs, what they cost to print and >> we have to have one for everyone. Yeah. >> And the rental of the pole pads as well. Yeah, >> that's something that if there was only five pull pads at town at the special town meeting, check-in would have gone
until 10 p.m. >> Okay. >> So, it's more of it was an efficiency gaining as well. >> All right. >> All right. Anything from the finance committee? >> I'll move to your opportunity to give us more.
>> If you had more, we'd keep asking. >> We'll create fund you guys. Um >> I I did have one question on on this actually if you don't mind. Um, so Lynn, in the clerk's office, are any of these numbers like related to
the increases that we're seeing in terms of just could could it be helpful if we had like a part another part-time person in the clerk's office, I'm just trying to as we see these numbers increasing and with all the elections and demands of that office, >> is it worth like taking a look at
potentially funding someone part-time? >> Yeah. Um, it's a good point. I think we would need to look at it, but the problem with clerk's offices, town clerk's offices, and city clerk's offices, is that it's a lot of work in a
very condensed amount of time. And so, it's hard to justify having someone year round because, you know, if you don't have an election, it's not you're not as overwhelmed. It's when you have an election and, you know, you drop everything those four weeks leading up to it and then you've got the cleanup
right after. So, I don't I don't know that I could justify a part-time person year round. >> I just didn't know fiscally if it made more sense. That's why we see these increases. That's all. >> Thank you. >> All right. Yeah, I'll move to adopt
article 7. >> Second. >> Any further in favor? >> So, article eight. Um, I've also I think all of you maybe know about this, but Oh, no. I'm sorry. I'm jumping ahead. This is fire overtime. I was thinking of
something else. Um the fire department uh has had a considerable amount of overtime spent already this fiscal year. Um they have um an employee in uh the academy that's necessitated overtime um for other people to fill the that
vacancy while the person's out. Um we've also noticed uh an increased call volume. Um and so they've been trying to fill, you know, positions to make sure we're adequately staffed to keep up with that call volume. Um with that also means that there's increased revenue
coming in. So it it's a good problem to have, but it's a challenging problem. Um just making sure that we we are not burning out our fire and EMS staff. Um, so what this article funds is um an increase to the fire overtime because we
are going to deplete it and um an addition of two full-time uh firefighter paramedics to allow the department to continue to meet this call volume. Go ahead. >> Um, in the explanation portion of this,
I was wondering whether we should put that this is funded through the increase in ambulance receipts >> that, you know, this is not something that we're taking, you know, that we decided that we need to spend 200 plus thousand dollars on, but that this is in reaction to there being an increase in that same amount of ambulance receipts.
>> It's not. So it it isn't technically it isn't being funded out of ambulances receipts in this article because we can't do it that way. Um this would fund out of free cash which then they bring in more ambulance ambulance receipts
which you want to get into how you handle that? >> I'm trying to I'm trying to pull up the numbers but just offhand the way it works is in our general fund budget we have our local receipts. One of those local receipts is our ambulance revenues. What we do is we set a
specific amount for the year. Say we bring in a million dollars. If the revenue brings in 1.2 million, that 200,000 of excess goes towards the ambulance fund, which pays for new ambulances equipment to fund the
ambulances um benefits and indirect costs related to EMS services. So technically, we're not funding positions, but the ambulance revenues subsidizes the fund or subsidizes the
fire department. Yeah. No, that that makes sense. Um I mean I I get I don't know. I feel like it would be helpful in some way, I think, to recognize that this is kind of
just in reaction or in because of the ambulance increase in ambulance receipts because >> we did, you know, increase wages that led to increased staffing that led to this increase of ambulance receipts that that was necessitating more >> um staff. >> Right. What I what I got from Chief
Ricky along the same lines is if we add staff, it does two things. One, it means that there's always somebody from Long showing up when you call. Um, and two, it saves us from paying another town for
a call. So, I I don't know if this is kind of beyond the scope of this, but that that was my thinking that this is I don't know if we want to if we can include this somehow, but >> it allows more calls from here, so we don't have to pay um and now I'm blanking on. >> I don't think we pay other I don't think
we pay just municipal, but we lose the income. That's what I mean. Not pay another town, but they get paid. >> Do you think you mean because to when we explain to the town, it's important to acknowledge that that >> just in here? Yeah. >> No, just in the explanation >> because we wouldn't be doing this. >> You can just make a little phrase that
says, you know, due to, you know, work for increased workforce allows, you know, we're losing money. We're not capturing all the money we could be from the ambulance one. This is like going to be a good investment actually be profitable for the town, you know. >> Yeah. Let's say something to that.
>> Yep. We can work on the explanation. >> As somebody who received a $2,000 bill when her son had to go by ambulance, I'm not sure we should like really brag about that. I think we I I don't think you're have any problem getting this passed. You can put that in there, but I wouldn't view this as a money-making
operation. Personally, >> well, no, that's not what I meant. I didn't >> I know that we would not we would not be doing this if we didn't. >> Yeah. So just something like the re the the revenues generated from the additional ambulance use is expected to
offset this salary like that would be the way you would put it right >> because I guess my fear is I just I don't want people to say oh you know could we be using this 211,000 towards something else right >> I want to make a a Move it out to courtly.
>> Second. >> Anything further? All those in favor. >> Um, article 9 is a um water mane replacement project on Western Drive. Um, select board has heard a lot about
this uh and it's one of the um major capital items for DPW this upcoming construction season. I was able to talk to Ian a little bit about this today and I thought it was very helpful that Ian kind of I asked Ian to kind of like put these articles
where we're borrowing more money uh also in light of what we're going to be borrowing for the middle school and get his assessment on our debt service going forward how far out of policy we will be. Ian, I think it'd be helpful if just for everyone's education you kind of share some of your
>> Sure. Just in terms of what Andrew is talking about, um, the select board has a policy, specifically the debt management policy, which states that general fund debt service has a percentage that it is
not allowed to pass or at least is recognized that it should pass, which is general fund debt service divided by general fund operating budget. So, it cannot be no more than 12%. Now, Andrew is aware of this because we've had this conversation in the past as to the
projects that are coming up in the future. And I think it's important to note that a lot of planning was done in the interim to make sure that we had the borrowing capacity for the school. That was utmost importance for the select board. That was utmost importance for
town staff to make sure that we had that. That being said, um, DPW and specifically Shawn has highlighted the various challenges that the town has in terms of its water main and sewer main capacity as well as road maintenance and
a various amount of other projects. So what you see before you today is prioritizations for the DPW in terms of continuously reducing the risk impact of broken water mains and sewer work that
needs to be done. Now what does that mean in terms of what Andrew asked? So our current debt service outlook is the following. As of today um we are at about 10.81%. If we include the September borrowing approved, which was the roadwork, the
jet truck, and the new chiller, we're at about 11.67%. So that means with the current proposals, we would be over the policy limit. Now, there's some caveats here. As >> introduced policy is 12%. Go ahead. >> Yeah, I'm just saying if we add these
projects here. So, um, if we were to include the upcoming middle school debt, we're well over the policy limit. Now when we did the high school back in 2012 uh we borrowed that in two tranches. This will delay some of the impact of the town's debt service if we choose to
go this route. Now when we presented the borrowing at the town meeting you know we assume the borrowings all at once. So there's some you know numbers here that can change. Uh it is important to note that planning was done in advance of
this in order to have DPW and time bond set the rates. Um I showed Andrew two schedules which went over the water projects total rate impact and the sewer rates total impact which showed that for the sewer rates um article I believe
it's article nine or article 10 >> 10 is sewer >> 10 is sewer um article 10 being the sewer work um would be able to be fully covered by the increases in the sewer rate as of this last this last summer.
So what that means to residents is the current approved capital funds that was voted in would pay for this debt service. It would not require an additional rate setting process with the water manes. There would be some impact but it was largely negated by the
approved capital funds that were set. So this is said another way is that there was prior planning done to make sure that these projects important in nature would not cause undue impact to residents.
>> Thank you. >> So can I just re So these are being covered by the additional charges in the water and sewer rates which were already passed. So we wouldn't have to increase again because of this step. we would not need to increase again until the spring
or summer when we would vote again and that would be determined by the select board at the time. >> And last thing I would add is Ian is we're very well aware that with the middle school bar we're going is very high. I think he mentioned that it would
be 16%. Yes. at some point but only the things that we are very very high priority are we going to be borrowing for. I think everybody understands that and certainly does want to make that clear. >> You and I got a question about the 16%.
>> Sure. Um, you talked earlier about the borrowing coming online for school >> and how that was going back to the planning that you talked about was going to coincide in some way with other um
borrowing levels decreasing or dropping off. How long is the 16% going to be the number? So, I'm still determining what exactly it will be because there's some it really depends on when we go out to borrow it. But
let's say that we borrowed next year for the substantial piece of the middle school. We would see the impact of this for at least five to six years and then during that five to six year period it would decrease over the life of the
loan. Now that that to be said, there is debt during that time that falls off. So, it's very likely that we won't stay at that highest level um immediately. But it's something that within the debt
management policies I'm reviewing to see how our town shapes up against similarsized budgets to see if there are changes that we can do in order to be better suited for future policies. >> Thank you.
This is all, thank you for bringing this up, Andrew. This is all very prudent for us to think about as we continue on because as we've seen, there's a lot of wants that the town has, a lot of needs that the town has. I mean, we we have to borrow at some point, but
we have to uh think and look at it in a larger context. I also asked Ian to do a little research because I asked him what at what point would you be very alarmed like is there a metric that's considered best practice off the coffee arbitrarily said 20% would be very scary but I asked
him to look at other towns in the state and see what kind where where they're at for example like an average >> debt service ratio. >> Yeah. So look I I I did an initial look just to see in terms of where we were in
terms of similar size debt service And if I were to look at the five nearest communities to Long Meadow in terms of annual debt service, they range from 3.94% to 14% and an average of about
8.6% of their debt service percentage. >> So in terms of other communities, we're a little high at our level, but it's something to note. >> Yeah. Thanks, Okay. Um, article 9.
>> Yeah, I'll just say that thanks for that explanation, Ian. And this is just to kind of remind folks that we set the water rates the way that we did so that we wouldn't have to have significant spikes every time we need to do a large project. And um, you know, that is that is why we set the water rate in that way. This is something that's been
previewed for two years now. We've also been talking for two years now about using our water rates to pave roads as well. This is something that is practice that other communities have done, we have not done. And um you know when
we're taking a look at how we can improve our infrastructure, we should be looking at every opportunity to do that. And this is something that other communities have done and you know folks that we've talked to um have have talked about you know how how much it has helped their infrastructure um in other
communities and I'm glad that we are now adopting that uh and using this practice. >> Um Venith I would if I could just add um just so it's it's abundantly clear we are not just using the water and sewer enterprise funds to pave the road. you
cannot get to that infrastructure without taking up the road surface and so naturally you need to replace and repair that road service once you've disturbed it. So this is not just a road resurfacing project. Just so it's
abundantly clear. >> Motion. >> I will move to adopt article 9. >> Second. >> Any further? All those in favor? >> So 10 is a um is a parallel project to this. It's uh for the sewer line in that
same project area. Um much of that can be sliplined which is is one of the reasons why you see the cost so much lower. Um and then in the areas that it cannot be sliplined they will be replacing the sewer line. And uh for the finance committee we talked about this
at the last meeting. This is one of the oldest areas in town. So Western Drive is right the edge. A lot of when we had time bond look at our infrastructure, a lot of the water and sewer lines there are a hundred meters old and are on the
cusp. They break all the time. This is sorely needed, but we can't. And there's the rest of that part of town. We have to move over, but we have to start on Western Drive, which is a big project. >> I move we adopt the article 10. >> Second.
>> Any further? All those in favor? Uh 11 is um another water project uh is yeah uh to replace the water meters. Um they have reached the end of their useful life. Uh this has been on the capital plan for many years and is now
risen to the level of um needing to be expedited. Uh which is why you see it here on a fall town meeting. Uh this one of the things that is great and I don't think has been emphasized enough is that it will no longer necessitate an employee to uh have to do
the driveby reads. Um they will be able to be monitored um wirelessly which also gives residents access to their accounts on a more real-time basis as well. >> Is uh is this an energy infrastructure
project in any way? >> True. Um, >> we just talked about we don't want to borrow. I think 1.5 million on there. >> They probably use less power. >> Aren't these the smart the smarters? >> It it could be. Um, if you really want to pursue that approach, we could look
at that. Um the the caution I would say is that there is a funding source associated which is water meter I mean water rates which is different than energy efficiency projects but we could look at it. >> Can you clarify what that means?
>> Uh to do energy efficiency projects we don't have user fees or rates coming in to help do those. Whereas a water meter replacement, we have water rates that are paying to keep the enterprise going. >> So since we have a different funding or
payment source for the borrowing, does this it still counts against our DSR? >> Yes. Which well any any general obligation bonds that we take out, whether it's enterprise fund or general fund, count against our DSR. >> This is kind of an example of a caveat,
though. It's being paid out of a different source. >> Yeah. My question is only half facicious. >> Can you give us an idea of how many meters right now don't work and we're just estimating? >> I don't have that number. I can get it
for you the next meeting, but I don't have that. >> Is this So, I've had this with clients before where the town just won't do the reading. They'll say, "No, you have to get the like if you're selling your house, you have to get the meter changed," which Yeah. is >> Yeah. They've been doing that. >> It's a massive pain. >> Yes.
>> Okay. Even just for scheduling, it's hard. Okay. >> That's It's a lot of money, but we have more. It's good to have a payment source on tap. >> And is it true that if a new meter only lasts 10 years? So, in 10 years, am I
reading that right or am I misunderstanding that? >> Yep. >> So, this would have to they'd all have to be replaced in 10 years. >> Yeah. I mean, they're >> That doesn't sound very long. >> It's It's like Not to make this simple, but it's like a refrigerator. Like one you bought years and years and years ago. The technology
was not there. So they lasted a lot longer. Now these are really technical meters. They just the components don't last as long. >> It's a technical thing that has water running through it. Right. So >> we're near. >> It's like your laptop. You want it 10 years.
>> Ian, do you know what the intended term of the borrowing is? Would that line up with 10 years? >> That's a great question. So I've initially my thought was to do this over five years because given the cost of the project and given our capital funds
available in the sewer project we could do this aggressively and pay it off over five years. I also did um schedules for 10 and 15 years but I would certainly if the board asked me I would recommend doing five years.
And just to add a final point to that that goes to what I said earlier where there would be no rate impact if we were to do a 5-year project. >> I move we adopt article 11 second. >> Any further? All those in favor.
>> Hey, article 12. Um I mentioned earlier this is um the $400,000 in settlement money that came from the DPW lawsuit. Uh it is in it was certified as part of our free cash and I am proposing with this article to move it to um the demolition
um of the old DPW facility to supplement funding we already have uh for that to help get us to the point where we have enough funds to take that building down. >> Make a motion to adopt article Second.
>> Any further? All those in favor. >> 13 um is new equipment for the grounds division of the DPW um using free cash uh to fund a new sandpro machine and a new mower. These would have been capital items. Um,
but this has been kind of our practice over the last few years of using free cash to help uh go after some of these purchases that really don't meet a priority that um allows them to be funded through capital. As you see, the Sand Pro is um 18 years
old and then the mower um we actually only have one mower that's currently working. Um so this is sorely needed for springtime. I move we adopt article 13. >> Second. >> All those in favor.
>> Okay. Uh 12 is um I'm sorry, 14. I'm not going to bring us back. Uh 14. Um this is uh to fund the streetlight account, which was the account that was used to allow the contract to be signed to do
the Long Meadow High School pool repairs. Um if we had held off till until meeting to come up with the funds to sign that contract the pool would not have been open in time for swim season to start. Um that work is if it is not
already done it is almost done. Uh and it will not impact the swim season starting. So, um I made a decision in August to move ahead with that um with transferring those internal transfer of those funds to allow that contract to be
signed so the work could get started with the understanding um with DPW that I would bring this article forward to um replenish the street light account so we can continue to pay our electricity bills. >> I thank you for doing that. I know that
was uh it's tough to make decisions like that on the fly, but I'm glad you did it. >> Your school will be happy. >> I'll move we adopt article 14. >> Second. >> Any further? All those in favor.
>> Okay. 15. Um this is to fund the town's portion of the grant match for the Bliss playground um renovation. Uh so this is part of a larger land and water conservation grant. Grant itself is $1.6
million. Um the town is will be reimbursed 820,000 roughly from the land and water conservation fund. The um balance of this is coming from CPA which we received um in the spring. Uh we had
hoped that we were going to find a different funding source for the remainder of the funds. Um but that has not materialized and the contract's been signed and we need to get moving on this. It needs to be wrapped up by the end of 26.
Uh the playground's been ordered, work will start and um we're eager to see this done. I move we adopt article 15. >> Second. >> All right. Any further discussion? Seeing none. All those in favor.
>> Okay. 16 is to fund um phase two design work for the Long Meadow Street Tip project. Um this, as you all know, Long Meadow Street is very long. It has been broken out into multiple phases. Um, this will allow us design work to keep
us um on or potentially ahead of schedule for the transportation improvement uh plan funding um which is federal dollars that are available in Western Massachusetts. Um we have done incredibly well um because of DPW's
proactive nature in funding design work in the last couple years um to the extent that one of the projects later on is um you'll see is we're accelerated um it's actually the next article uh and so we're hopeful that this will remain the same article 16 if we keep funding
design and keep us ahead of schedule when a project that falls off schedule in in Western Mass um we are standing there with our hand up saying we are ready to go and we can move up and that's exactly what happened on on for 17. So this funds that design work.
>> I move we adopt article 16. >> Second. >> Any further? All those in favor? >> So 17 like I was explaining. Um this was actually not supposed to come to us until next year, but because another project has fallen off, we have moved up
and um we are about six months ahead with these easements, which is great. Um, this is technically phase one of Long Meadow Street resurfacing. Uh, and we have 10 temporary easements and one permanent easement. This would fund those easements. We would do the formal
legal t um taking of the easement and fund it. >> Is that supposed to be 2,643? >> Uh, I don't believe so. No, it's it's not a big area. >> Two square feet. >> 10. Um
I will verify it while we are here. So I have all of that from Tim >> very confident you were corrective easements. proceed. >> Yeah. >> Move we approve article 17 >> if necessary with correction.
>> Second. >> Okay. And see or any further discussion. Um, and and I just said this is something people might ask about because I I have some friends who got land take on uh Long Meadow Street. >> You're right. >> It is.
>> Yeah. It's supposed to be a comma. >> All right. Yeah. So, we can fix that. Um, >> I was kind of shocked by how much some people got on Long Meadow Street. >> Yeah. >> Um, how much of the 500,000 is towards the compensation versus the design?
Um I don't know if I have that breakdown. >> Luckily here there's only one perment though. >> Yeah, >> temporary is just like construction related, >> right? >> But even the temporary >> that can add up because it's strict for two years.
>> I might not have it for you tonight, but I will have it >> for >> and you'll also have it when you vote on them. >> Yeah. Okay. Right. >> Okay. Um, we have a motion where I'm just uh all
those in favor. >> Um, 18 is um actually just a correction. At the annual town meeting, the the warrant that was sent to every household listed the incorrect fiscal
year in the article, but the motion had the right fiscal year, but it was a consent agenda. So, this was really just a >> cover our bases. >> Yeah. Yeah. So, it's just fixing it said FY2024. This is just fixing it. So, it
says 26. So, it's the right year. I'm read article 18. >> Second. >> Further, all those in favor. >> Okay. Um 19 is our standard one that um puts the CPA money into buckets.
>> I move we approve article 19. >> Second. >> Okay. No further. All those in favor. >> I'll move that we close the common warrant. >> Second. >> Any further? All those in favor
>> everyone. >> Thank you. Finance committee. >> Thank you. >> Appreciate your input and the discussion. >> Vote now. >> Did you? >> Yeah. You have to adjourn. >> But there you're just adjourning to another meeting. >> Yeah. To reconvene. >> Okay. >> So someone needs to make a motion.
>> I move we second. >> All in favor? Cara, you in favor? I'm in favor. >> Sorry about that. >> Okay, we'll be going to another meeting. >> All right. Thank you all. That might have been the longest uh article
discussion we've had. It was very useful. We appreciate it. >> Text me if you need me. >> Yeah. >> All right. Um and while we will now Is it uh interviews next? >> Yes. >> Uh we'll move on to board and committee
interviews. Uh we have three interviews. Is everyone confirmed? Peggy. >> I see two. Oh, they're in. Yep. >> Yeah, I see they're in now. >> I think uh we also had Annne Slick on the list, but I'm not sure that she's here.
>> Okay. So, we do have uh Katherine Dressel and Sarah who are both applying for historic district commission. >> And do we have uh how many >> went to the high school? I did send her an email here. >> Oh, okay.
>> Good idea. Um how many openings are there? Um there are I think I believe at this time there are three full-time and then three alternate because we had this issue at the beginning of the fiscal year where clips got um termed out. So actually Sarah is currently on the
committee. She is reapplying as a she was an alternate member. She has a current term but she's reapplying for a full-time member. Um Katherine Drestle is also applying for a full-time member and there are spots available. >> Okay, great. >> Um all right. Uh, Katherine and Sarah,
if you could introduce yourself, please, your name and your address. >> Hi, Katie. Okay. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Hi, I'm Patrick. I go by Katie. I am at 857 Long Meadow Street.
>> Hi, I'm Sarah and I at 302 Williams Street. >> Okay. Uh thank you both for your application and uh Sarah for already being on the commission. We appreciate your work. Uh if the why don't you go in
order uh Katie and then Sarah why don't you uh tell us why your interest in the commission? >> Sure. Um so I am my house is currently situated in the historic district. Um, very proud of that. I knew what I was
getting into when I purchased the house about one and a half years ago with my young family. Um, Sarah Morgan is, I believe, the chair right now. She's a neighbor of mine and she saw me peeling paint on my front suit not too long ago,
walked up my sidewalk, asked if I'd be interested. Um, which I told her I absolutely am. Um, so she directed me to application. I observed my first meeting a couple weeks ago. Sarah was there as
well. Um, didn't scare me away yet, so here I am. >> Great. Sarah. >> Yeah, I historic homes has always been a hobby of mine since I was little. I And
I wanted to give back to the town. That's why I got into it to begin with. and it does not have to do with my job. So, it's a nice break and a good way for me to get back to where I >> All right. Thank you. Um any questions
from the board? >> Just to confirm, after you make an appointment um as your next agenda topic, there will be three openings for full-time members and three openings for alternate members. Okay? So, yeah, there's plenty of space in the committee
currently. >> Yeah. Okay. Well, um I see no questions from the board. We appreciate you coming in and uh waiting us out for the warrant talk. Um anything you want to say before we uh send you on your way?
>> No. >> Great. Thank you for your interest. No, thank you um for allowing me to continue to serve our community. >> All right. We appreciate all you've done and we'll continue to do it. Thank you very much. >> We'll vote on uh at our
>> Yeah, we'll vote at our next meeting. Okay. Uh moving on to board and committee appointments. >> All right. Um, I will move to appoint Tiffany Pignitaro to a three-year term expiring June 30th, 2027 on the audit
committee. >> Second. >> Anything further? All those in favor? >> And I move to appoint Sarah Morgan to a three-year term expiring June 30th, 2028 on the historic district commission. >> Second.
>> Anything further? All those in favor? Great. All right. Moving on to uh select board comments. Would anyone like to speak? I guess uh I'll >> go ahead.
>> Um I I just wanted to acknowledge the uh police department. There was a recent uh attempted home breakin and uh it was actually and I'm drawing I'm drawing a blank on the name of the dog all of a sudden. Ruben. Ruben. Sorry. So, Ruben, uh, there's going to be plenty of treats
coming Ruben's way. Uh, Ruben successfully, um, stopped the individual, and I wanted to thank the Long Meadow Police for their participation, uh, in that uh, apprehension. Um, also, I I don't know if it was Josh last week, but uh, uh, congratulations
to the golf team for winning the Western Mass Championship. Maybe you didn't say it that way. >> Um, >> yeah. And the last thing was I I had attended um the the close Long Meadow Close as well as the Long Middle Police.
They had uh set up a stand at the shops where uh they were handing out Narcan and obviously that's something that that touches you know many of our uh our friends, our families, uh relatives, everyone knows someone who's might be struggling with addiction. So, I just
want to thank the police and Long Close for uh their efforts and setting up a tent to hand out Narcan and it's something that I now carry uh just as a precaution um should someone be in danger. So, thank you. >> Thank you for that, Dan. Uh anybody
else? >> Oh, okay. We'll move on to uh applications. Uh first, we have a one-day liquor license application for One Way Brewing. I move to approve Oneway Brewing's one day liquor license application for October 26, 2025.
>> Second. >> Okay. And um anything further on that? All those in favor? >> And I'll move to approve Glenn Meadows one day liquor license application for
November 17th, 2025. >> Second. Anything further? All those in favor, >> Josh, just to clarify with that application, if their state approved license comes back prior to that, right, then >> this one day application will be void,
but they're still in the process of waiting for that application to come forward. >> It can take a while. >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> Um, okay. Next up, we have street closure applications. Uh, this first one's from me. >> Wait, you have to recuse yourself? >> I I think I probably should.
>> Probably. So, I'll uh move to approve the Farmington uh road closure application for uh October 31st, 205. >> I spilled street wrong, by the way. >> Second. >> Um Okay. All those Any further? All
those in favor? And uh I I think I I guess I abstain. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. Okay. >> Right. And I will uh move to approve Green Acres uh road closure application for October 31st. Second.
>> Uh, okay. Anything further? I will note that um this normally comes in and my wife noticed that they hadn't and that's why it came in today. We got got the troops on it. Thank you for taking care of that so quickly, Mike. Um, all right.
Uh, all those in favor. >> Okay. Presentations, guest speakers, Barry. Uh, it's probably you want to sit. It's probably more comfortable over there. >> Beggy, can you pull Peggy Bar's presentation?
>> I think it's the one on the agenda you can use. Got the agenda just to the right. All right. Okay, go ahead. First, thank you for inviting me to your meeting. Um, I think I know most of you. My name is Barry Jarvis. I am the
director of parks and recreation. And initially, this was going to be a presentation that discussed the pricing structures within the department, but I took the opportunity to provide a little background um and perhaps some strategic initiatives kind of woven in. So, um
hopefully it's a relatively straightforward um piece of information. If you look, and you probably had the chance to read through it, but I thought it would be beneficial to provide an overview of the department. I like to think this department's very unique um
from other departments in terms of our services being elective. So, people don't necessarily have to utilize the parks and recreation department for their our programs and our services, um our facilities and such because most of
what we provide are a very competitive nature. So, um, we take a customer service approach that's very similar to most of our competitors. If you, um, and that kind of the first slide gives an overview of that. If you look at the
town's website and you happen to see our page, the first thing that should pop up is our vision statement. And in the early 2000s, probably around 2003, we um did a vision session with the at the time park board because they were still elected and the department and we
strategized what we wanted our vision to look like, what our mission wanted to look like, our goals and objectives. So if you went on the town's website, you'd see um the vision and it's passionate professionals, beautiful parks, and exceptional experiences. So, we strive to with every service and activity um
and event that we provide, we strive to to accomplish that. The next slide goes into the recreation revolving fund. Another unique feature of our department. um not completely unique to the town because there certainly are
other departments that have revolving funds, but most of what we offer in terms of programs and services is directed through a revolving fund, the recreation revolving fund. We do still receive general fund support primarily
for some of our staff. Um so 2.5 staff um myself the administrative assistant and half of the assistant director are funded through the general fund and you're all familiar with the town budget probably more than anyone. You notice that the daycare salaries do receive an
appropriation from the general fund but they are paid back um twice a year usually once in December and then at the end of the fiscal year. I gave a history point which I think is very interesting that over the last 60 years the revol or the um general fund has really only seen
an under $3,000 increase annually. So most of our um enterprise is funded through revolving. So it's programs and services, its revenues that we take in through primarily user fees. That's our main our main um revenue piece, but also
donations and some grants and things like that. And going to the next slide, I thought what I wanted to present was to capture all of the different components of the department. So we do a lot of programs and activities and services and events
that many people are familiar with. We segment them all out for accounting purposes, for planning purposes, um, and for financial accountability. So you will see the different program areas um that we use with our registration with
our accounting and then the year-to- date um and I took FY 25 because that was the year that just finished the um revenues the year-to- date revenues and expenses and you can see where our cost centers are and where our profit centers are. So, it's really
no surprise that some of the um main cost centers are the aquatics line item and also um facilities and administration. It's worth noting that with the um the last one, which is field usage, when I'm reflecting the expenses
just over $6,500, that's not any of the departmental um expenses that the DPW incurs. So that's strictly what the recreation revolving fund pays for. Um what comes out of that is the the portable bathrooms and the
parks, some ancillary supplies, and then in the other cost centers you'll see aquatics um which I'll explain a little bit later in the presentation and facility expenses which primarily that is the wolf swamp maintenance contract.
Um the next slide, I apologize. I tried to be creative with um showing a different viewpoint of that and when it was transferred there were some spelling liberties that I didn't take but happened to transfer unfortunately. But hopefully this shows where our different
um our cost centers and our profit centers are. Traditionally the afterchool program which we call extended day um and the day camps and oftentimes the daycare are our profit centers. um we are not truly making a
profit because um if you look back or if we I refer back to one of the other slides um some of our staff are funded through the recreation revolving fund. So the 50% of the assistant director's salary and 50% of her benefits as well
as portions of both custodians for this building are funded through revolving. Um, so it's not true to say that we are have if you actually if we go back to the other slide, the $82,000 profit um for extended day
really isn't a true profit because there are expenses that come out of that that are not they're not reflected there, but they do come out of that. So an interesting question that always comes up is how we price our programs.
So I think it's two slides. Yes. >> One more. >> My team and I really take an approach um of cost recovery pricing. So we don't price our programs to make a profit in any circumstance. We really try to cover
our costs which is um true to form with a revolving fund. Um there's different municipalities that are that we benchmark in this area as well as in the Commonwealth and nationally that take similar approaches. It's not uncommon
for recreation departments to have revolving funds. Um and increasingly you see it more and more especially um in this area. So, we never, as I said, um we don't price to to make a profit. We try to
cover our direct cost where it becomes a challenge. Oftentimes, it's pretty easy to identify our direct cost, especially when pricing a program. So, we know we have our instructors, whether they are in staff, um sometimes they're vendors,
and any facility rentals that we may incur. We don't have a lot of facility options within the configuration of the parks and recreation department. We often rely on school facilities. That does come with a rental fee as well as
custodian fees. Um any supplies, if there's insurance, uniforms, things like that. Those are pretty easy to identify. What becomes a little more difficult are the indirect costs. So need my glasses for this. Um if there's changing
administrative overhead for example um if there are utilities costs we do pay the water bill for the pools that we program and manage and operate and we receive all the income for those pools. So in turn we pay the water usage for
that. Um and then sometimes there are capital costs that we aren't able to completely fund within the recreation revolving fund but we do contribute to um almost every year we have um community preservation
requests that we make and we often try to if we can't match the funds that are essential we try to contribute to offset. So we usually don't ask for the full cost of any capital project that we have.
Um next would be determining the pricing goals. So as I said most of the programs that we price we adopt a cost recovery um model. Sometimes we do use a subsidation model. We do have a very
small scholarship fund that we utilize. It's in honor of our park board chair, Brian Triliss, who was the park board chair for, I believe, maybe 16 out of the 21 years that he was on the park board. Um, it's 100% supported through donations, and it's typically a small um
account. There's usually under $2,000, but it does help us grant um program subsidies, um, pool pass subsidies for people in need, and we base that on the federal poverty guidelines. We have adopted some pricing strategies.
We do offer non-residents um we do we do charge non-residents more with some of our programs um to offer and incentivize residents within our programs. We always look for any ancillary sources that we
can find at the Wolf Swamp Fields. example, many of you have probably seen the concession stand. Um, it's not a big money maker. It's more of a service feature. Sometimes we have merchandise. Um, if you look on our website, we do have a small online store with Long
Meadow gear, um, mugs and aprons and sweatshirts and things like that. We do sometimes rent equipment when we have the opportunity to. We do have, um, a donation program through the Truly Scholarship Fund. Um, we do look for sponsorships when it's appropriate
within the confines of what's allowed within the town. And oftentimes there's grant opportunities. Um, as a town, not specific to the department, but the land and water conservation grant that we received for the Bliss Park playground is an example of that. Um, and we
receive almost regularly annually a small but important grant for our field hockey program through the youth Chevy sports program. So that's always something that helps subsidize and offset some of the increasing costs for some of our programs.
So a topic of interest um especially this summer and certainly as we move forward in planning next summer which we've already begun to do is our aquatic facilities. You've spent a lot of energy. I watch your meetings um and meet with Lynn frequently and understand
the capital that's been invested in both of our swimming pools. And one of the charges I feel my department has is how can we make those pools more attractive to residents, get more people involved in swim lessons and to do that because
of the expenses that we incur have to charge user fees. We have different degrees of that. We have our season pass which is the most economical for people. It's one fee and it's both pools and it's all summer. We have daily fees that we do charge non-residents a little bit
more and we always have a $5 after five fee. Um we have our daily rates that we did decide we made the decision to attempt to increase or actually to decrease um and offset our um our
deficit with the aquatic program. and that caused discourse within the community. So, we are looking at that and will be looking at our fees. We've done benchmark studies with what our communities charge. I did add some of the benchmark information because I think it's interesting and it's
important to understand that when we look um at our different surrounding communities, it's not always apples to apples. For example, in the town of Awam, there is a very large subset of the general fund. So they um
they receive a lot of general fund support and their evolving fund only pays for their camp their camp their pool staff. Um in East Long Meadow, it's probably the most similar in our general area that is comparable to Long Meadow. They also have a general fund. um they
use that for staff and equipment and they utilize their day camp revenue to subsidize their pool loss which is an interesting model that I don't use that reporting mechanism but we could certainly do that if we wanted to reflect that way Springfield um as a
combination we've also looked at different communities outside of this area so we've looked at Simsbury Connecticut that seems to be a model that we are kind of doing more of a deep dive with because their population is similar, the amenities are similar, and
some of the changes that we're looking to make for the 2026 season, we are we're looking at Simsbury as one of our benchmark communities. With our programs, most of our programs, we do um end of season or end of program
surveys. And this is just a snapshot of one of the many questions that we asked our season pass pool holders. So, um, to put it in perspective, we had almost 600 pool pass holders. 21 people responded as of the time that I took this screenshot, and we asked them questions,
um, such as, "What kind of pass do you have? What did you like about the pool? Did you find it clean?" Um, giving us feedback on staff, amenities, and things like that. So, in the next series of slides, uh, we asked them about pricing. So it's interesting that my perception
was that we had a great deal of discourse with pricing over the summer yet 57%. So they felt that it was just about right. So, we will be looking at our pricing structure structures, continuing to benchmark um different
communities and looking to see we run bud budget simulators often. So, seeing how we can make changes that make sense financially for the department but are also appealing to our residents and our families that we serve. And I think the
last slide with Yes. So that's just a summary of some of the narrative with the suggestions. So people talked about the pricing um talked about wanting different options for vulnerable
populations that are limited on income such as seniors um perhaps veteran incentives. They talked about, they gave us feedback um about the opening of the pools and the closing and we've already begun to explore ways that we can try to extend the
season. Perhaps it's opening earlier than we usually do. Perhaps it's staying later. We did um if you noticed, we we did try to do that because the last few years it's been very warm into September and of course this September it really wasn't. and as soon as the pool water
gets cold, it's very difficult to warm it back up unless it's very hot. So, we are exploring a variety of different options as far as hours and those type of logistics. Um,
and then those are just some more facets of the essay. We the essay the survey. We asked them about um our hours and we asked them about the quality of the swim instructors and the lifeguards which are usually the same people, the cleanliness of the facilities, the benefits, the
exercise and some of the feedback we received had to do around additional programming perhaps adult fitness programming such as water Zumba, water aerobics, those type of things that we're exploring for next summer. I included a piece on sport associations
because they are a large part of our department. Certainly without them, we can't offer most of the youth sports that we offer in town. Um they don't quite fit financially into the revolving fund. Most sports in our town are run through independent associations. Many
of them are 501c3 or working toward that exemption status. And I thought it would be important to define how they fit into the department. Um we treat the sport associations as sponsored, meaning they have their own board of directors. They
have their own um financial mechanisms, their own registration systems. The only sport that we run as a town department is well actually there's a few, but field hockey is the current sport. Um cross country is a program. Track is a
widely popular program with over 200 um children in it. We run field hockey oursel, but traditional sports, most of the others are run independent of the town. We've produced within the department a set of sport association standards that have different pillars in
terms of equal play, fairness, um based on national standards, playing time, those type of things that all of these associations agree to that they will adhere to and in exchange they are sponsored. One of the benefits to the sport
associations is that they are able to utilize town facilities, whether they're fields or the swimming pool um or the basketball courts within the school. And the department, the parks and recreation
department acts as um kind of a conduit to secure those permits, make sure the fields are lined and ready and prepared for all of the the usage that they receive, which is quite a bit. We know that our youth sports are very popular in our community. In 2008, um when and
actually a little bit prior to that, there's annually directives given from the select board and the town manager for our budgets. And right around 2008, the directive was initiated to try to diversify our revenue mix. We understood
that the general fund couldn't always be relied on for some of these non-essential but quality of life services. So we began to implement the signage banner policy which you see at some of the fields in town at Turner
Park, at Bliss Park, and at Wolf Swamp Park. that was intended to bring in revenue. We also implemented a user fee. It was started in 2008 and it was $3 per player per season with the understanding
that it was going to increase in increments after 2021. So the original messaging to the sport associations was in spring of 2022 it would go up to $10 per player. it would increase. It would stay the same for the summer but then
increase in the fall. Um, we never implemented the $20 per player fee based on feedback from the associations based on their feedback that they gave the department and the park and rec commission um that they had many of
their own costs that they tried to cover. They also help the town in their their own ways with preparing um the fields and and supplying some things to um help facilitate their fields. So when we landed at the $15 fee, we stayed at
the $15 fee and that's currently what they pay per person per player per season. What that covers and that's often a question that we get is all of the sandy cans that you see in the parks. We don't have bathrooms in most of the parks and the ones that we do, we
have to have staff open and close them. So really only the high school stadium and Wolf Swamp um and sometimes Stores Park which has Strole and Depo Fields um has bathrooms. Otherwise we have portable units that we put out usually
the end of March and we collect usually the middle to end of November. Those are quite pricey. Those are about $5,000 a year. Some of the maintenance cost, um, as I mentioned, the Wolf Swamp maintenance contract is a little over
$130,000 that's paid through the recreation revolving fund. So, some of the user fees offset that that fee. Some irrigation work, sprinkler heads, sometimes um, field paint. Sometimes there's one time either maintenance or
grounds expenses that perhaps would be deemed capital expenses that we have the opportunity to fund within recreation revolving that we do utilize those funds for as long as they directly benefit the sports that are paying into that. That's the justification.
I referenced the banner program in 2023. We launched the program not necessarily as successful as we had hoped despite some pretty aggressive marketing. We direct marketed and contacted all residents who owned a business in town
as well as many of the vendors that do business with our town and so far only 13 to date. We also on some occasion rent athletic field to private entities. you've approved some of those. Um the lacrosse,
there's a lacrosse rental that's currently happening on Sunday mornings at Wolves Swampfields and the two jamborees. Um those private companies pay fees to the town. Those funds are collected by parks and recreation, but they are deposited into a general fund
account. So they're not utilized by parks and recreation. We're just the conduit for collecting. And then just reiterating what our department goals are because we have the privilege of having a recreation fund.
Um we take it very seriously and it's a responsibility to make sure that we run that as um essentially a business account, an enterprise account. So we don't have a large allocation from the general fund. So we have to raise the
money in order to spend the money. Um, we do our best to balance what the priorities of the community are with what the priorities and the abilities are within the department. We try to do that and be very accountable. And when
we're seeking new program ideas, sometimes they come from residents, sometimes they come from one of our administrative um, division heads perhaps seeing a new trend in recreation. and pickle ball is a really easy one to point to because everyone knows that that is the the fastest
growing sport currently. Um, so there's also new trends in adult fitness. We also try to look at some of our program areas where we know we have holes such as teen programs. Teens are really tricky to program for. So we're always looking for programs for teens and
pre-teens, um, vulnerable populations, special needs adults, those type of things. So, we're always on the lookout for new program ideas. That might be it. >> All right. >> Thank you, Barry. I thought that was very uh
well done and good explanation of where where the money goes and where where it doesn't. Um from our general fund at least, uh the revolving fund is a we talked about a lot today, but uh it's
clearly a a good avenue for the parks and recck department rather than having to come with your hand out every year to the town. You can uh sell fun, which is great. Um I had some question. Well, oh, one, I I remember when you
brought in the sign policy, and I was very excited about I wanted to do it. And as someone who had my own business, I no longer do, but when I had my own business, it was just overwhelming to me to say, I I got to design this thing and
then order it. And I wonder if they're if even just making it a little easier, having like teaming up with a printer that will do it like I don't know, go graphics or something. If I don't know if you already do that, but if you could say, "Oh, well, we have it set up. If
you just tell them your idea, they can make it work." Because I I knew how to do everything. I I could have, but it just it seemed so overwhelming to me. Um, so that's just an idea for that because I I do I think it's great they are there. I would I wish we could have them all on the fence, especially a wolf
swamp. I think it'd be great. Um, so that that's just my idea on that. Um, and then I'm glad we have this slide up. The uh well actually, you know what, Andrew talked to me about this a lot today. Why
don't you uh ask your pool questions? >> I had um so I'll start with this. So Dan, Dan and I went to one of the talks this summer with Lynn at one of the pools and when we were there there were very few swimmers and it was a sunny day and and
Dan had said something that I I won't forget. He said like when when I was young this was place the happening place to be like this was like very very popular and so it was there were far more lifeguards than there were swimmers. I actually know know one of the lifeguards who works there and they
were just telling me how many some there were multiple days where there were no swimmers. So, I was when when Dan and I were chatting, we were just saying like, you know, why aren't there more people here? Is it because it's too expensive? I think personally we should be willing to run this program, the pools at a loss
just to get the community together. I didn't know it was because there were too many like more people had built swimming pools in town. And then I saw this slide and I saw we're losing like we're this doesn't even include the millions of dollars we've spent on like renovating the pools. $132,000 loss
losses in the aquatic program. And I thought about how few people and then I was I I emailed Lynn and I assumed that you helped I I found out today that the number of swimmers per day on average at Greenwood was 55 a day, but at Bliss was
only 12. And it made me think to be honest that we would be remiss in our fiduciary responsibility if we didn't ask you to dig a little deeper into the usage at Bliss because I'm thinking how
do we make first of all you didn't add up these columns on the right but actually it's a significant loss right so the revenues add up to like 250,000 but the losses add like 370,000 so it's
We're down like well over $100,000. And I I just think that it's worth looking into the cost of running both pools, you know? I mean, I think when I think about how can we reduce the cost of the passes, well, to be honest, I just did a
back of the envelope math here. If it costs 188,000 bucks to run the two pools, half of it for one of the pools, it's 94,000 bucks, 12 swimmers for two and a half months. It basically comes out to over $100 we're spending per swimmer for Bliss pool. I'm sure you've thought
about this. So, I hope you'll share some thoughts, but I want I think that I would suggest you kind of get some metrics together. We have plenty of time to think about next summer, but I don't think we should I think we should look at the numbers because if it's really
obvious that this is not worth and and also you New Orle mentioned in the future, Blisspool could need $2.5 million more in like upgrades including like a chemical storage shed for half a million and $200
million more in lining stuff. And I'm just thinking we don't want to we just need to be use common sense. This is just my this I thought about this for two days after like looking at this and getting your email today and I think that um it's it's definitely
something we should look into. Um >> what do you >> I'd love to share please. >> So one thing that's not reflective because bless you all of the revenues and expenses are by compartments. So something that's not perhaps obvious is
the day camps use Greenwood Pool for swim lessons and two swims a day. So if there were some type of accounting, which I'm happy to do, and this has come up before, to allocate some of that day camp revenue back fairly to aquatics
that would potentially lessen the deficit with aquatics. And I think that's fair to do. I think one of the things you mentioned um I mean we all certainly reminisce about that pool um even I've been here 31 years and even
back 31 years ago the pools were heavily used and one thing that I've paid attention to and I've reported is the increased number of backyard pools. So many people have their own pool. I don't believe that's a deterrent. I think it's
really a great opportunity to look at some of the um and you'll see this with um a CPC request that we're developing some of the amenities with the pool. I think it's time to make the pools more attractive to people even if they have backyard pools. Um so I think it's a
combination. I think it could be attributing some of the day camp revenue back to the pools. I think it is perhaps making the pools more appealing um both financially and not complete subsidy but perhaps looking at the daily rates which
went up significantly and we kind of decided that we wanted to do that based on the deficit that didn't really work because it didn't bring in more revenue it just brought less people so perhaps lowering the daily rates and possibly the seasonal rates. So the daily rates
more significant reduction, but the season pass perhaps a more subtle to get people. I think there's many families that do the math at the dinner table and they say, "We're only going to be home for five weeks in the season. We're
going to go 15 times. Does it make sense for our family?" And perhaps it doesn't with the current fee structure. I'd love that opportunity this summer to see if we can bolster those numbers. One of the the things that we used to do that we
don't do anymore is the full day sport camp model. And that's primarily because of the vendors. Um it it was a consequence of COVID, but it stuck because all of the vendors, meaning the lacrosse camp, the soccer camp, and such. They ran a traditional 9:00 a.m.
to 3 pm day and they swam at Bliss Pool at the end of the day. The vendors now choose to do half-day sessions. Um, and that that has, I think, had a negative impact because the people that were picking up their camper, didn't bring the rest of the family and swim until
dinnertime. So, I think there's opportunities to do a historical look back to see what used to work, implement some of those. Um, the survey resulted in some interesting things where people did reference past practice. One of the
things we used to do was Adult Swim. Um and some of you probably remembers if you went to the pool um the the break the 15-inute break where the adults the kids we get them out of the pool and that was adult time every quarter of the hour to the hour and that was appealing
to adults. So perhaps some or all or more of these initiatives um it I think it's much better to have perhaps lower fees but a lot more people in the pool because I think it's a better it's a better visual. We have the lifeguards.
We're paying for the lifeguards no matter if there's one person or our capacity 200 people. So I I'm very eager for the opportunity to make some of these changes. Um programming if we did water Zumba that could bring in probably
not a large audience but definitely different people that may not have even have thought that they wanted to go to the pool. So to me the problem with the when Bliss came or when uh Reynolds Pool came back I I remember I was very
ambivalent about it because it was money that we maybe could have used elsewhere and I said well town will do what town wants to do. People were very passionate about it and then they just are not showing up and it's it's a real it's a shame. I I would wager people who spoke
at town meeting in favor are not going by pass. To me, we're we're not competing against home pools as much as I'm at the field club. We have 200 clubs in town. Those are that's what people
would would choose to do, I think. And especially if it's not much more. The field club's very inexpensive. Um, but when the reason we switched is because we used to go to the uh to Bliss pool because I live
close by and we couldn't go in the kiddie pool. No, we couldn't go in the big pool because we had swim diapers maybe at the time, but also it was just a a pool. It's just there's nothing on the side. There's no chairs. You bring your own chairs, but that's a pain when
you have kids. And I know that this is this would just be more money, but It's not fun to go sit on concrete and I I that's also things you have to replace. It's things that break. It's more maintenance. Um but maybe we do that at
one point. What I don't want is to see us fall prey to some cost fallacy where we spent money on bliss. Maybe we shouldn't have, but we did. If we throw more money after it, that's a real tough
sell to me. um for a very small subset of people may think they want it, but they're not going. And Greenwood is with the splash pad and the camps nearby. To me, it's just a much more logical place to
to throw our efforts. >> Thank you for pulling this together. I think this was really helpful to see and I absolutely love your mission. Um as a parent of two children who did use the and the extended care. I think it did you did a fantastic job with it. >> Um I think I had similar questions as to
um Andrew and Josh. It I think it would be helpful to come back with some quantitative data maybe over the past five years is around usage cost benefit analysis. I think that could help us kind of have that conversation with you to say, hey, what does make sense? If you were in here earlier, I'm not sure
if you were listening, we have a lot of priorities to balance in the coming years. And I think it would help uh like residents to understand where we're coming from if we could see some of that data that I know you have. Um and then also, you know, I know some people responded to the results, but 21 people,
right, out out of like approximately 600 passholders. It would be great to get more information from them as well. Um I think that could help us >> or for people didn't buy a pass. >> Yeah, exactly. Like So, I'm wondering if there's some creative ways for us to um get you some
help even creating some of those surveys or reaching out and getting public feedback um and either and or creating some of the quantifiable kind of data points that would probably help us to have that conversation. Um but I think you did a fantastic job putting this together and I appreciate you taking the
time walking us through it. And I know we're focusing on the aquatics, but there are clearly a lot of other programs that that are that are kind of self- sustaining for you. So, I think um what we're honing in on is the ones that are probably um and then I have one
technical question. Administration, what what is that exactly? Is that staffing or is that what does that actually mean? >> It is the So, as um in the presentation, that's 50% of the the assistant director. >> Got it. Okay. That's what I thought, but I wasn't quite sure. 50% of her benefits
and also ancillary things. So sometimes if there's training opportunities, sometimes we will we will allocate that. If not >> um grant-based, we would we would defer back to that. >> Okay. >> And the survey is still open. So if anyone's watching and bought a pool pass, >> we thought they
>> they can and we can certainly explore doing something similar um and having it up online. These surveys are fairly easy to generate >> and I think they're really beneficial. Um, I have another nonpool question. So, the other
So, a lot of the fields I spend time at with my kids are they're doing great and I appreciate all the work that DPW and um, parks and wreck has done on it. Uh, the only field that I fields that I've really noticed that could use a lot of help that don't get it are the two bliss
baseball fields, baseball and softball field, which need a ton of work, right? they need like start fresh >> essentially if which would be under DPW's per per view. Is there let's say we didn't have
another pool or their user fees that could be used towards that. Is there a mechanism for you to have funds go to DPW for for fields or is it in the revolving fund that's it? >> So the revolving fund's interesting
because it's money in money out. So, if it's not a compartment, um, and even the the categories that I created a compartment for, they don't all have funding sources. Some of them are just they're just expense categories. Prior to this meeting, which is why I was a
little bit late, was the park and rec commission meeting that was down the hall and we invite the sport associations on an annual basis. And the two that were there tonight were the aquatic program and little league. And when they provided their report, it was very
interesting to many of the people in the room that all of the their they disperse from age four, I believe, to high school, but their their high highest concentration are the younger children and the most of their divisions play at
bliss, which was interesting to learn from a programming perspective because I don't program the sport associations. We work in partnership, but we tend to focus on the larger fields, but the most kids play up bliss. So, that's very interesting.
>> Yeah. I think if there's something we could do on that, that would be a priority to me to because Yeah, that's a kid's first time on a field and the um the side by the woods is a little bit better than the side by the street. That
is >> terrible. that really that's and if that's the first you're walking on like and it's it's kind of a it's not a great experience. Um but a lot of our sports associations do they hold a fantastic
job. >> They do. >> And um I'm glad you you work with them. I'm glad I know there's a good relationship and um maybe you all butt heads down in the meeting. I didn't hear anything when I was walking by, but um yeah. So that that's just things to keep
in mind. I think that uh this has been very helpful to me >> to to think about where your funds are going and things that and you're focused on a lot of the same things that we are. So yeah, thank you for that. >> Thank you. We do have the active recreation assessment that we conducted
a couple years ago that does point back to the field conditions and prioritization and I believe Bliss is near the top >> of that list. >> So that was acknowledged. was one of the things that that grant we didn't get >> and it is the grant that we didn't get
for that phase two that would have taken a deeper look at that. >> That would have been a big project but um hopefully that'll come back up at some point. Um anything else from the rest of the board while we have Barry? >> I I just wanted to make one comment. Um,
so what Andrew was talking about in terms of the the pools, um, definitely when I was a kid, for sure riding my bike, there was a lot of lot more people than I saw over the summer when we were sitting there. Um, but I I think I said this a couple years
ago, once we once we start, we have to think of everything. All options have to be on the table, but if we if we're to close a pool or close pools, they're never coming back. I mean, that's just the reality. Um so we have to understand that we are going to operate with a with
a loss. I hate to say it. Um but I think what we need to drive towards is having a pool that having pools that actually people want to go to that we're opening our pools on time. Um this is not your
fault by the way. Um but I think we need to make pools more accessible. we need to actually invest in the pools the the proper way to drive attendance and I think that also comes to u marketing efforts as well with with surrounding communities because it's not
just people from Long Meadow that have to that can use our pools other people can too. So, I think I don't know exactly, maybe it's a question, what are we doing with uh folks at Glen Meadow to to drive them to our pools? What are we doing with the sports associations to to
drive attendance? The camps you mentioned, that was something we always went to the pool at lunch and then went back to Russell Field. Um, so I think I don't know if we're not doing all of that, but I just think that we need to make sure we're doing our best to drive
and and market uh the usage of the pools because like I said, once these are gems and once once we close one pool, we're going to close another pool and that's it. and they're never coming back and and people are going to be forced to join a country club that's expensive or
they're fortunate enough to have their parents have a pool in their backyard and that's not that's leaving a lot of people out uh from you know growing up with a a pool that's down your street and both ends of town. So we're going to have wider discussion but it's just I I
felt like I had to call that piece out because I I do think it's important that we have these in our community. the other the other point that Josh made on uh totally agree on the on the field. So, this is something that I I feel like it unfortunately it falls to the parks
and wreck, but folks at home should understand that this is this is a a DPW issue that is control that that is in charge of our fields and maintenance. And so, I get I'm very active in sports and and have been and I coach and people
complain to me all the time about how poor our fields are and it and it ends up being a many cases a result of of your department when that's not really the case. So, I think people ought to know that as we look forward,
we really need to start focusing on field maintenance. Um, and you're doing everything you can. I believe in your budget, it's very tight. Um, but to Josh's point, I just think that we we really, especially with the new school coming, we're going to have less field
space and this field space that we're stuck with is poor field conditions. So, something that I I hope that the the board, you know, as we talked about earlier with DPW and some of these funds that are potentially freeing up for projects would be to allocate more
funding towards our fields. So, anyways, I know it's getting late. I just wanted to make those comments. we are publicly accountable for the fields. Um I fully acknowledge that. So I think we work pretty closely with DPW. Um I know that there's in the capital plan
embedded there's lots of different concepts for lots of different fields but we certainly have challenges coming up not just with the pools but with the fields um and the middle school and we've already begun to plan. So we work collaboratively with the high school and
the athletic director and his department in sharing fields. We also have been approached by East Long Meadow. I'm sure you know that they're renovating. They don't have a baseball field for the spring. So, we have an upcoming discussion hopefully conversations with them. Um, we're going to need
reciprocation when Williams goes offline for different fields. So, we'll see. >> All right. Nothing else. >> Thank you very much. >> Appreciate you coming in. Good job. You can't leave yet.
>> I won't leave. I just need >> All right. Um, any comments before we move on on correspondence? Okay, let's go to uh town manager report. >> Okay, thank you. Um the there is, as we
talked about earlier tonight, there is a public information session on the uh proposed updated flood plane bylaw. The associate planner and conservation agent/tree warden will hold this public info session on Wednesday the 22nd at 6 o'clock here at Greenwood Center.
There's also a Zoom option. Um and this has been posted on the town website and the bulletin board. Um you can ask questions and get they want to get input on the proposed update. Um and this will go on the November 4th fall special town
meeting warrant which was just closed earlier tonight. Uh along Meadow Street paving project, a contract was signed between the town and Palmer paving in the amount of $921,000. This is going to complete drainage improvements and resurface Long Meadow Street from Crescent Road to the
Connecticut border. And Converse Street paving uh between Route Five and Laurel Street started last week. This paving is for the restoration of the trenches that were done for both gas and water work that was recently completed. And I'm really uh pleased to announce
that the town treasure collector Eric Cubernell was recently appointed the Massachusetts Collectors and Treasures Association legislative committee for a term to expire in December of 2026 with an option for renewal. The committee meets throughout the year to create
legislative uh a legislative agenda to be presented to the legislature to sponsor and support items related to management of public funds and municipal finance. So, big congratulations to Erica for this uh statewide uh seat that she's going to be on. And that uh wraps
up my report for tonight. >> Thank you, Benique. >> The commerce repaving that was paving that was done by Eversource, right? >> Correct. >> And not the town. >> Correct. Yes. Yep. >> Um and um do we have an update on the
sidewalk work that was uh being sent out to bid in the beginning of the fall? >> Um I don't, but I will get one. Okay, thank you. >> All right. Uh, anything on the reports? Okay. Thank you, Lynn. And congratulations to Erica. That's a nice
honor. Good for the town. Um, all right. Moving on to old business. Uh, >> I'm hold. >> Oh, yep. Yeah. No means tonight. um Massford's grant design, Bliss Williams and Red Fern.
>> Okay. So, uh you had a large presentation at your last meeting. Um some of the takeaway from that was that we you there was a desire for more public input. And so, uh we talked about this special town meeting option. Um but that really pushed us too far into
November in terms of gathering input and um having them there at that meeting. Plus, um, knowing that the warrant was only going to be 19 articles, we did not think that the turnout would be that great. So, we didn't want to put a lot of effort into that and the expense of
having the, um, uh, engineers there. So, um, what we did do was schedule a public information session on October 29th at 7 o'clock. It's going to be here in this room and also virtual. Um it will start with a presentation by the Fuss and
O'Neal uh engineers and then open up to Q&A. Um we do think this should be um from 7 to 8. I think that's plenty of time to capture that. Um and then what we would do is um take those comments and then um bring back to the November
3rd select board meeting a um recommendation from staff um on what based on that feedback based on the fuss and O'Neal and then um you know based on our internal discussions uh what approach we think should be taken and then we can discuss it with you but um
it's kind of thought what what we expected to um move forward with to wrap up so that we don't lose time and can make sure that we're ready for the next grant round. >> And so that's that's kind of as far as we can push it timewise, right? >> Yeah. I mean, if we brought this back to
you in the second meeting in November, it only gives them like two weeks and that is that's not enough time. >> Gotcha. >> Lyn, is it possible to have the um the session on the 29th recorded? >> Yes. >> Okay, perfect. >> Could I ask just make I made this point
to Mike when I came to look at the plans and Mike was here. We had a conversation last week and after the after the traffic study came out and the traffic stud was quite optimistic regarding like the traffic clos capacity that we have. But one thing that it didn't have was anything about the middle school, the
new middle school, how traffic patterns would change and increase volume. I'm still quite optimistic it would be fine, but I just asked Mike to make sure that at this presentation I'm sure that question will come up. Let's revise the traffic study so that the new middle school is accounted for. And I assume
that there were other traffic studies that have been done as you mentioned that did do that. So just make sure that's added to the presentation. >> That's a good point. >> There's another current one that just concluded as well that >> So we have a lot of data. Yes. Perfect. >> Yeah. No, thank you. This I think this is exactly what I thought was
appropriate. Just another opportunity for the public to chime in and to hear about this, provide thoughts. So thank you for bringing this together. >> Again, >> it's going to be a major change to the town for the better. Y, >> but we want people to feel like uh feel part of it and understand what's going
to happen. So, great idea. Thank you, L. >> Um, okay. Anybody else? >> All right, moving on to the energy and sustainability stretch code update. Shelley. >> Um, so we did have we did I um and Paul
attended the last meeting where we talked with the the DNS committee and what they've decided to do is not ask for it to be put on the word. That's why we didn't see it there tonight. But what they are going to focus on is uh having more conversations with the community,
with local contractors, helping to educate us on what this stretch code actually means, what the impact is, and how it could help the the community. Um some of what they're looking to do and what we discussed to do is try to put out a mailer to the residents. Um they did ask the board if there's any way we
can help them with that cost with them not really having a budget. Um, I said that I would talk with all of us and talk with Lynn to see what the options are there, but they're going to focus um, now primarily on educating the public and having community conversations to get the information out
there. Um, Paul did say he would help them engage with local contractors who do often work in town to get them to a meeting to ask questions and learn more about it and to get some feedback from them as well. So currently they're focusing on that rather than putting it
on the warrant at this point and risk it getting voted down and kind of losing the traction that they've had so far. So they're looking for other opportunities to engage with residents and um get the word out. >> So a mailer I thought was kind of the eye popping figure of 6,000 bucks.
>> Yeah. >> Um which is not nothing. Um but Lynn suggested to put it in with the census potentially. >> Yep. That's an option. Um, there'll be depending on what is in there already, it could have some increased postage costs, but I
don't know that we generally do a lot of inserts in our census here. So, we could find that out and the timing would line up. >> They were also wondering if it was okay if they had a flyer made up at the town meeting that's coming up in November if if folks from the committee handed the
flyers out with information on it to people coming into the town meeting. They wanted to make sure that wasn't going to violate any type of >> violation. It's usually okay, but they need to check with the town moderator. >> I think they were gonna email Rebecca. I'll just follow up. >> Yeah, I was just going to say also the building department also put a link on
their permit link page um or the the portal that gets you to permit link just with a disclaimer about the stretch code um giving people the opportunity to make comments and who to email for that. So, they've already gone ahead and >> um started that process which is good. And typically for this kind of thing, we
do a water bill insert. Would that work? Okay. >> And you could do a quarter sheet for that as well. So it's a little bit >> Yeah, cheaper. >> Okay. >> We do have this revolving fund. >> Energy efficiency related.
>> Yeah, it is energy related. >> Okay. >> I will take that back to the committee and I'm sure Andrea and team will be circling back. Great. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. Uh last up, we have select board and town manager goals. Um
it's 9 9:42. So my I put this on uh because I I want this to come back at least quarterly so we can discuss it because I feel like it's we have great discussions on it once a year, but I would like us to talk about it more. Um,
and that I also thought the agenda looked a little too short and uh, so sorry. >> Oh, yeah. I've only been uh, it's only my third time being chair. So, >> Josh, if I may, I will also say that
recently at a recent planning board meeting, we were uh, we gave them an update on the long range plan. It's amazing to see how that plan impacts our goals and vice versa. So, if you would like before the next time we bring this back, we'll update the spreadsheet based on some of the goals that are identified
in the long range plan that the select board is um kind of overarchingly assigned to. So, we can do that as well. >> Okay. Yeah, I think that would be helpful. Um and so if we just look through this since we do have it on it is on the agenda, a lot of the things
are in progress. >> Um which I I think is really a testament to how uh Len, Mike, and Peggy are on it and uh the rest of the town. So, we I definitely appreciate that. As Mike said, the long range plan is being
assessed. We have the um coming up fairly soon. We did the uh the townwide facilities assessment. Um Lynn, could you just tell us where we are on that? >> Yeah, so the um the the actual
facilities themselves, that uh report has wrapped up. We are waiting on the staff and budget structure that was being done in tandem with it. They had um some delay in uh community responses that they were comparing us to. That is
almost done. So as soon as I have the final final, then it will come to you guys for a presentation. >> I think that that I'm looking forward to that because we have facilities that are not being used and have a lot of potential.
Um my my neighbor is uh I can't remember the name of the historic building tax credit uh guy and sorry Greg I know I butchered that but um he keeps sending me ideas so I'm looking forward to hearing what you have to say. Uh so center school roof window replacement
underway. We talked about demolition of DPW today. Uh the ADA transition plan we're looking at that we're in fiscal year now. >> Yeah. Are we uh that's coming up? It's been about since 2017 on that.
>> Yeah. So, we the the plan itself, we we don't have any plans right now to refresh that plan, but I can say that we have a lot of projects that were called out in that plan that are in progress. So, like the Bliss playground, all the elementary school playgrounds, um the
Bliss pool, there's ADA improvements there. Um moving our facility here was huge. So there's a lot of stuff that's happened. Um we would we should be looking at a refresh transition plan. >> Okay. Thank you. Uh beneath you want to
just give us an update on fiber. >> Um sure. Yeah. So fibers has completed their design and engineering and so they will come and present to the select board and then we can go from there. Um they'll present you know different construction options, different
financing options and go from there. >> Great. um net zero by 2050. So, we have the solar solar panel plans at some point. We'll talk about that. Is there anything going on with that one? >> Yeah, this is a topic that's going to probably take a lot more of our energy
in the next couple um years. um because there's a lot of movement with the stretch code conversation, but also um the energy and sustainability is working on climate leader certification and that is something we're going to have to have
some conversations about because there are impacts that are um pretty pretty substantial that if we're trying to meet climate leader certification, we need to decide if that's what we want to do. Um, and then there's a lot of stuff that has to happen to put us on that path.
>> Okay. Thank you. Uh, we have to check inventory on all the remaining non-LEDD street lights. >> Yeah. Um, this is a it's something that should get done. It's just not a high priority. >> Okay. Maybe at the next uh track meeting
I can discuss this. Lynn. >> Yeah. >> Uh, municipal aggregation. So Lynn, those last two things technically we could that revolving fund we discussed tonight earlier with Yes. energy, >> we could leverage some of that money to help us with some of those project.
>> Both of them. Yep. >> Yep. >> Municipal aggregation's done. >> Yep. And then uh the EV chargers that actually I parked an EV charger yesterday in my hybrid, but it doesn't count. Um, so I had a meeting with um,
Eversource and Universal Electric two weeks ago. There is a potential fix, a software fix that will allow us to bring the NLX chargers back online um, without having to swap out all the
hardware. NLX went out of business or bankrupt um, and so all the chargers are offline. Um, we're exploring whether or not that is possible and what the cost would be. Um, >> but doesn't that just get us back to where we were before?
>> Yes. And so that was why I met with Eversource. >> Um, because Universal was insisting that there was a better rate for us and I said come to the meeting and they did and there is no
better rate. We have we have what is the rate. So Shel, the charges that like at Wolf Swamp elsewhere around town are I don't know like four times what anyone else charges >> because we can't. So we don't have a
good rate. Is it still a possibility that we get somebody else to come in? >> That's what I would like to do. So that was what this is. This is a this goal was of release an RFP. >> I've spent Yeah. Yeah. Too much >> brain power on this. Okay. So things are
happening >> sort of. I mean the federal incentives are not there anymore so it's not as lucrative for someone to come in but um >> yeah it's still there on the list. >> All right. Um active recreation areas.
It's a low priority. Oh, this is the um list park in Kiebrook. Yep. >> I'm sorry. High priority. >> Yeah, this is still ongoing. >> Okay. >> Yep. Um and then
>> same grade. So we talked about that today. >> Uh passive recreation. Um then Kie Brook. So this is still back to what we talked about. >> Yep.
um on DEI. Uh Chile Salazar reached out to me and asked about um the she was asking if there was two DEI committees and I think she was talking about the internal town group which is that still ongoing.
>> Um it's kind of an as needed and it lately it has been focused between myself and Mike and HR. We did that professional development day. Um right and that was a huge success. Um and now we are actually spinning that off um into another like customer service
related one. Um so that that has some a lot of renewed interest now. >> And the other thing that um she asked is if there's any onboarding for elected officials or volunteers like any training and I I said that that um not that I was aware of but I thought that
would be a great thing for DI to come back to us. >> Yep. Yep. That'd be great. Um, okay. And then, uh, safety efforts for apartments. So, this was added by the town. >> Yep. We still, we still do this. We have
a safety committee meeting every quarter with, um, our um, Maya rep, and we continue to, you know, work on that, go to trainings. Um, all of our attendance at annual meeting at at MMA, that qualifies us for points. Um, any of the
trainings you see come across your emails from Maya, those all get us reward points that we use towards this grant, the safety grant. >> Okay, good. Um, on the H County Retirement Board, do we
know what is happening with the legislation? >> I haven't had an update in a while. >> Okay, we should >> since the last time I gave testimony. >> Yeah, we should check in on that. Um then the charter bylaw and policy review changes.
>> Um so we took off all the ones um related to recall. Um I know that this isn't specifically speaking to that but it's the most current um related to it. Uh we took those off uh after talking with town council. It needs more review
and he needs to have some discussions with the attorney general's office. Um, and then, um, we do have I've been back and forth with the form of government committee chair, which is a Mass Municipal Managers Association committee that goes out to cities and towns to
talk about the different forms of government. Uh, and I'm scheduled to meet with him on Wednesday to to hear about what when they can come and what kind of that what the presentation looks like to you all. Uh, and so I think that will help guide some of what our future
work is in this area. Okay. Great. And then uh just down on the the bottom uh we don't have them fully on there. Uh I just wanted to touch on I the Glen Brook Middle School plan. I think now
that we know the school is happening. >> Yep. >> Um we should explore how we want that to be discussed. >> Um because that is a massive opportunity for the town >> and could be really transformative. So, uh, we want to make sure we think about
that carefully and have a lot of input. And then, um, on the the last one on the select board policies, uh, Mike, this would probably be something that I I know we've talked about it, but it's been a while. A lot of our policies say like
>> review annually, by annually, >> as we have this one on our desk, uh, trian, I don't know how to say it. Trian trially. >> Yeah. Um, so we should do that and look at them and you know some of them because I it's just like with the uh the
select board policy on the agenda we weren't really following and we should >> we should look at them and you know maybe the water enterprise fund we update to say it can be used for road baiting because it is a good >> I'm glad you brought I'm glad you brought that one up. So Ian has begun
looking into some of the finance related um items and I've began looking into some of the non- finance related items so that we can coordinate and come back with >> just um a review. But I think you're right. Absolutely. We should bring them back um on an ongoing basis to >> not that we need to fill up our agenda
as I've uh learned today. >> But there are some that are in conflict with actual bylaws and >> correct. Yeah. So there's any number of reasons to look at it to educate ourselves but also to um see if we need to update. So >> yeah. All right. Um
>> any >> does the town facilities study and what comes after that is that actually even on here? >> I was thinking of it as way up at the top >> and there. >> Oh, okay. So it falls under >> the first second overall one.
>> Oh, I see. Okay. >> Yeah. and the DPW related items like public shade tree management, pavement management that came out of our um strategic session that we had last September, we'll have to formally add those into this when we go in there and make all the updates. So, we'll just figure out where to c put them in in the
categories. >> Does anybody have anything they'd like to add to our goals? >> I I brought it up earlier. I I just think um fields is something that I don't know if the what the the group feels as well, but I just feel like that's where
again I I get a lot of feedback that our fields are in dire need of repair. Um and I just walking into tonight's meeting, I could hear the um the uh parks and rec meeting with another group about the the fields in in poor
condition. So, I think that's something that I would I personally would like to see and I hear a lot of feedback from residents and I'm not sure if that's something I don't want to speak for the rest of the board, but if that's something that others would be interested in in in addressing as well. >> That's one of the most tactile way
people interact with our town. So, >> yeah. And I think with uh Glenbrook that that priority for that needs to be moved up uh because I think that's going to take a while and we should give ourselves time to do that. And I know that there are a couple of pieces to that where the school department has to
give the land back over to the town. That has to happen. And then I think what we had been talking about was having some type of committee or some something citizen to lead that process. And I want to make sure that we're giving, you know, enough time for that to happen. I would love to get that
started, you know, as soon as we can. >> Yeah. All right. Uh, anything else? I'll entertain a mo a motion to adjurnn. >> So moved. >> Second. >> All those in favor. All right. Thank you. >> Thanks everyone.
>> Thank you. >> I like this room. >> I like