welcome to the February 24th 2025 meeting of the long mow select board this is Select board chair Veni I will be confirming that all members and persons anticipated on the agenda are present and can hear me Members when I call your name please respond in the affirmative Dan zero Dan are you with
us hand up uh Andrew lamb here Mark gold here Josh LaVine here staff when I call your name please respond in the affirmative Lyn Simmons here Mike barbier here this open meeting of the long mow 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's no chat or Q&A function all the materials for this meeting are available on the agenda posted on Longet 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 raiseed 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 6 to mute unmute residents who wish to speak will identify their names and addresses only each individual is afforded three minutes for comments please note that
this meeting is being recorded and that some attendees are participating by video conference please remember to mute your phone or computer when you are not speaking if anyone in attendance is recording this meeting please announce yourself now Sarah Hanan and reminder publishing thank you Sarah um and now we
will move on to the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and jce for all all right and we will move into
select board announcements annual town meeting is set for May 13th in the Long Meadow high school gymnasium budget presentations will be held at the select board's March 10th and March 24th meetings and the board will vote to close the final warrant on April 7th for additional information please visit Long
Meadow ma.gov toown meeting nomination papers are available for the June 3rd annual Town election residents interested in running for elected office May obtain nomination papers by contacting the town clerk's office at Town Clerk at Longet ma.gov or 41356
54103 to schedule an appointment find additional resources and view the full election calendar of important dates and reminders at long meow ma.gov elction residents and businesses are reminded to please are reminded pleased to clear snow and ice from sidewalks
within 24 hours hours after the precipitation ends please use an ice melting compound and or sand where necessary to ensure the sidewalk is safe for pedestrians if you have a fire hydrant adjacent to your property please ensure that it remains fully accessible after snowstorms for additional
information please visit long meow ma.gov Civic alerts the town of Long Meadow is seeking your assistance in creating the cover to the 2024 annual report please submit this please submit your original photo or drawing by March 14th at noon for a chance to be featured
on the cover of the annual Town report for additional information and guidelines to submit please visit long me.gov Civic alerts uh and that is it for select board announcements and we can now move into resident comments anyone here for Resident
comment anyone online Mike I do not see anybody no okay no resident comments all right uh if there are no resident comments then we will go ahead and move into select board comments anybody would like
to make a comment Mark yeah thanks uh couple of things the at the last meeting I commented about the increase in medical insurance uh premiums from the Mia which is the mass interlocal insur
inter local insurance agency and also the GIC which is the government insurance company over the last couple weeks since we've met the skint and and scantic Valley Regional Health Trust which Long Meadow remains a is is a
member has also met if you recall the miia rates were going up an average of 14.8% ranging from 9 to I think maybe 18 or 19% and the GIC is rates gicc rates
were going up a little bit over 10% on the average um happy to report that scantic Valley Regional Health Trust and we kind of alluded to this has approved the rate increase for next fiscal year of 4% and I think that speaks to the benefits of us being part of the scanic
valley of scanic Valley managing their own Health Care Program uh they you know this this past year the scanic Valley Health increase had a 0% increase in premium and when I talk about premium
increases those are premium increases that are equal for the town and for our employees who are the members of that uh health group so you know last year their rates went up zero they suspected that
they expected to eat significantly into their uh I'm going to call it Surplus but it's not really Surplus their their uh funding they did not eat into it as well as they as much as they thought they would and therefore they're very
comfortable with this 4% rating increase I think it's a a real testimony to the community and what we can do as communities and I want to thank the folks at scanic Valley for doing a great job I think was was really important the other thing I wanted to just com two other things I was going to comment on
one is that there just a reminder for everybody all the residents that there's an insert in a water bill asking for people and residents to fill out a survey about recycling trash bin sizes uh it's really important to do that we're kind of struggling on where to go
and what to do and I think it'll be very helpful to get uh the input of of many of the residents of how big uh a trash barrel they want there are the barrels are available for people to see if they want to see the difference between a 48 a 65 and a
95 gallon barrel they're they're available down at the DPW but there's also some pictures in there with people standing next to them hopefully you can see the 95 is pretty big but if you could fill out the survey that would be great finally I just want to point out to people that last week the division of
local Services which is an agency of the Commonwealth and I think they do a great job sent out a pretty broad email to all of us and it was their annual property tax summary Bill and you know we hear a lot of complaints and things about property taxes in Long Meadow but it was
interesting that the this this Commonwealth ranks Long Meadow 51st out of 351 cities and towns in the a average property tax bill so everybody says we're our tax are the highest in the state they're not they're 51st that
that's pretty pretty low but more importantly it also has a a phenomenal chart that says what are taxes as a percentage of a resident's Expendable income and Long Meadow ranked 301st out
of 351 that's down 88% down the list so there's 87% of the cities and towns in in Massachusetts whose homeowners paying a larger percentage of their available tax
available income for property taxes I know nobody likes property taxes I don't like property taxes none of us do but I think when we all sit around saying longm taxes are ridiculous they're the highest in the state they're this they're that they're none of the above
they're uh 51st in average tax bill and and they're 301st in the percentage that taxes are of of a Homeowner's uh in in Expendable income and I think it's important to communicate that great
thank you um anyone else Josh uh first I just want to give a dispatch from the Middle School building committee uh we are starting to consider at our monthly meetings uh a bit more of the nitty-gritty now that we're going forward with a uh a general plan and
place uh so for instance last meeting we were talking about uh color schemes so and uh bathroom design so if people want to tune in uh there there's a lot of good visuals and uh I thought it was uh
it's moving along so you can get a start to get a really good idea of what it's going to look like over there um if we approve it this fall so um I would recommend people tune in or at least uh check out the agendas and the materials uh and second I I just wanted
to take a moment to comment on the uh Board of assessors appointment from earlier this year uh I really done my best to let this lie uh but there have been weekly letters to the editor and the reminder and blog and Facebook posts uh and puning my character as well as other members and uh I don't come to
speak on their behalf but I uh wanted to address what people are saying um the boa vote to not appoint reappoint Mr Foster was framed two ways uh an act of agism or an act of Revenge uh both both are completely absolutely false um I
made my decision to appoint someone else based on feedback from town employees which I I will discuss uh shortly um but I first I want to make my uh initially I want to make clear that the decisions I make on the select board are for what I think is best for the town I I don't do
this job for the glory or to push people around I do this because I I want to help our town and his residents and given that Duty sometimes i' agonize over decisions and I did on the uh the the boa vote uh as for the vote in question I I thought some background
would be useful uh Long Meadow didn't have a principal assessor for two years before we hired Maria catalo in 2023 uh principal assessor it's an important job as residence Point person for uh property valuations and
abatements uh among other duties and it's really critical to have a principal assessor on staff and we had a hard time hiring one um and Mr Cal is doing a good job especially in a time of rising valuations which I just heard from Mark we hear a lot about that it's uh prices
go up and taxes go up and uh some people have a lot of questions about that and it's important to have a staff person in town to handle that uh so when considering the vote for the boa uh for which there were two candidates I I reached out to the town manager's office
to ask how the board was functioning uh and I was told about some incidents that were making uh Miss Cal's job more difficult are causing an undue burden on uh Town resources and I'm not going to be specific uh so I'll just say based on that conversation I decide to vote for
Mr mlan um my comments before the vote I I could have been uh my wording could have been chosen better uh but I was trying to be diplomatic and uh so I for that I do apologize if anyone took those uh uh
in a way that may have hurt them um so I'm not planning to address this again uh but I felt it important to set the record straight so thank you thank you Josh um and then Dan anything sorry you're M you're muted D all I don't think we can hear you
still Dan can your else okay all right um yeah we're having issues hearing you we're going to I'm going to try to clear that up okay we'll we'll uh we can come back to you if you had something um and uh so comment from
me um I've um over the last you know few weeks have received tons of text messages screenshots uh about Mass priorities and all the ads that they've been running on Facebook um and so you know for those of those of you that don't know Mass priorities is this dark
money pack that's funded by Comcast and they've been spending a tremendous amount of money in Long Meadow ever since we've been considering bringing Municipal fiber internet to town um and you know lately it's just been completely inundated on Facebook on Instagram other social media um um apps
um and in looking at their advertising they have spent $60,000 in advertising since the fall special town meeting um they spent about another 30 or 40,000 prior to the fall special town meeting um and you know I
think by by the vote that took place and the margin uh of that vote I think folks had a good idea of what was going on here and could kind of see through it but this is just to let folks know that you know we are aware of their efforts what they're doing and I think that
folks still need to be vigilant and understand uh that there's going to be a flood of misinformation as long as this project um is going to continue moving forward and this is the same kind of tactics that we've seen in other communities West Springfield has
also felt the brunt of this for more than a year now and um you know we we for for company as big as Comcast that's worth you know hundreds and millions of dollars uh you know $60,000 is a drop in the bucket for them and so um they're going to continue to do this just to see
uh you know I think a to uh kill the project from happening here and also uh to kind of kill this idea from from spreading uh further out so um you know I do appreciate people uh reaching out about it and responding to it and um and
you know and we are aware of it um and then I don't know if oh sorry you have oh just briefly I just want to acknowledge I and I'm sure my colleagues here have heard a lot about potholes in town this is New England it's the winter but I know in particular anyone who's driven down Shaker Road knows it's in
rough shape I've we are all very aware of this I think Lynn is going to speak to this in her comments I just want to acknowledge that um many people have been heard and that we are working at on it thank you great thank you and do we have
Dan can you hear me now yes we can that's good yeah and we can hear you I think Andrew did a good job Philip bustering for you can you hear me yeah we can hear hear you did you have a comment oh maybe not he can't hear us
yeah oh okay all right he I forget about it I think all right we'll we'll move along um so we'll now move to Tom Manders report thank you uh so yeah um about potholes uh so weather permitting dpws patching potholes pothole patchings
primarily limited to cold patch this time of year with the exception of Wednesdays there's one hot mix plant open on Wednesdays and the DPW is limited to three tons of hot mix which fills their hot box and keeps the mix added an appropriate temperature so it does not set too fast the exact amount
of tonnage to patch Shaker Road alone for instance would be 80 to 100 tons just to put it in context uh until the asphalt plants fully open in late March or early April the DPW will continue to use cold patch to fix potholes cold patch does not last more than a few
weeks unfortunately um and as we all know potholes are really typical in New England this time of year the freeze and thaw that we've been experiencing as of recent creates the perfect conditions for for potholes to develop we encourage anyone to fill out um a pothole report
to the public works at Long Meadow ma.gov a work order will then be created and then uh the the pothole uh crew will be dispatched to that location to address it and along the same lines um this is related to Shaker Road because I know
this is one of the worst roads in town it's the one we get the most complaints about and that we've all experienced um pretty poor conditions there that will likely only get wor as the freeze Tha cycle continues through the spring um but a road resurfacing scope has been
finalized and is being ready to be put out to bid this is for the large Road resurfacing project that had been discussed by the select board and supported by the special fall town meeting in November of 2024 ideally a contractor will be on board for the spring with work going
through the fall of 2025 the explanation used for the road resurfacing article at the special fall town meeting this fall uh in is included Below in my report because it provides a brief summary of funding of road projects and the list of roads to be included in this upcoming bid so I'll
just read that briefly because I think it does a good job summarizing it the town has a backlog of Road resurfacing projects the town annually funds road workor with mass do chapter 90 funds approximately $480,000 a year and capital Improvement funds ranging from
340,000 to 740,000 a year needed road work greatly exceeds annual funding allocations to make Headway on the backlog of work the DPW and select board developed a plan to address roadways that do not need imminent underground
utility work the streets to be paved include Shaker Road Emerson coie Twin Hills Drive Long Meadow Street from Bliss to wheel Meadow B Air Drive canterberry Lane grassy gutter road pwns side road and other streets as funding permits the roads listed have designed
completed and can be put out to bid very soon so as I mentioned it's about to go out to bid uh once we receive um bids an award will be made very quickly so that we can get this under contract to start this spring uh news regarding the assistant
Town manager so as I had announced at a previous meeting uh the former Town manager Karen Micey muns accepted a position with the state the position was posted interviews were conducted and I'm really pleased to announce that enter your meeting ID followed by town uh I'm
really pleased to announce the appointment of Mike Barbary as the new assistant Town manager Mike has not entered any number please reentering uh Mike has a strong background in municipal government Community engagement and strategic planning uh he brings valuable
experienced and Leadership to the role the select board staff and many community members have come to know Mike in his role as executive assistant to the select board and town manager Mike's been an asset to the town manager's office and has strengthened the communication efforts and strategies to keep residents informed form Med Mike
regularly takes on tasks outside of his role to help support other Town departments including launching of electronic voting at town meeting and a new document management system for scanning and storing records digitally I look forward to working with Mike in this new role and have no doubt he'll continue to be an asset to the town the
position of administrative assistant to the select board and town manager and the position of associate planner will be posted soon uh two other quick updates related to planning um accessory dwelling units are allowed by right across the state so
as of February 2nd the affordable homes act came into effect across the state the affordable homes act mandates all Massachusetts communities to allow accessory dwelling units or adus by right in all single family zoning districts among other strategies meant to increase the development and
affordability of homes the affordable housing act defines a as defines as a self-contained housing unit inclusive of sleeping cooking and sanitary facilities on the same lot as a principal dwelling that can either be attached or detached
from the main housing unit and is not larger than half the gross floor area of the principal dwelling or 900 sare ft whichever is smaller municipalities are able to prohibit adus from being used as short-term rentals however they are not
allowed to restrict the use of adus as general rental units and cannot restrict occupancy by ownership family ties or age local municipalities are able to set design standards for adus within reason and the planning board is currently reviewing a draft revision to the town
zoning bylaw that would allow them to Define and set standards for the construction of adus in Long Meadow they are striving to bring this proposed revision to the annual town meeting in 2025 and will be discussing this draft zoning in more detail at their March 5th
meeting and the 916 William Street site and design review application has been submitted the town uh received it in the building department this is for the parcel of land that's owned by kvest group and is currently occupied by the former uh Christian Science Church building the proposal is to develop the
2.93 acre property at the northeast corner of the intersection of Williams Street and Redfern Drive all materials are publicly located on the active Case Files link on the planning um Department website it's under a folder Mark
2025 um and then the address of 916 William Street if you'd like hard copies are also available in the building and Community Development Department uh if you have questions or uh comments regarding the proposed development you can attend the planning
board public hearing on April 2nd 2025 or you can send correspondence to the planning board by emailing Planning Department Long Meadow ma.gov or sending um actual mail to uh planning board at 231 Maple Road great thank you uh and
um first congratulations Mike I think everyone shares my uh congratul feelings of uh gladness that you have the role thanks thank you I appreciate it quick question about this um the limit of three tons of Hot Patch
why is there a limit is it because that's how much they'll the truck can hold or the T like can we get more or is that no um it's restricted because there's one plant open and all the communities are using it and additional
our um our hot box trailer is limited on size as well lied basically okay uh Josh yeah uh just wanted to comment in the uh lfd report that uh I was really pleased to see that the fire
department is fully staffed and I'm I'm really proud that of the work we all did on uh making our wages competitive so that we could uh make sure that we can stay safe so uh was that was really great to see abolutely markn I have a
few questions about the individual reports if I could the the year-to-date expenditure report which is a munist report why does it show that School Department salaries are encumbered where town salaries aren't is what what is it
about School Department salaries that causes them to we know why they encumber their salaries and we don't um I don't have a thorough explanation for it I know that that's what they do every year um but I don't I don't know any more
detail about that school department will be here March 10th for their budget presentation so if you want I can give them a heads up that yeah I might just I mean there's there's got to be some policy I don't know the other thing is that there's commment about the fire
engine once again having engine troubles you know if I own a a car that failed in several different cars the same way I'd probably stop either buying it or stop buying those engines is do do we have any policy that says we're not buying
any more Cummings Cummings engines in our trucks or that's what comes and that's we're kind of stuck with it it seems to me that a you know a diesel engine like that should probably shouldn't fail the way that one did because dust or something got in the intak or I don't know whatever the it
just surprised me that that you know we just kind of roll over and say well that's it's out of warranty that's the way it goes yeah uh there is no policy that we're not buying that type of engine uh but it the entire issue that you just raised is has been sent to Town
Council oh okay a couple other things there's there's a line in the park and Rex report that I just didn't understand and maybe you can explain it it says the halfe salary and benefits payback for full-time daycare teachers admin extended admin and half the assistant
director is estimated at $340,000 compared to 303,000 in 2024 says compared to 2024 we assessed 21,000 more in salaries more in health insurance what what is all that mean I just didn't understand that at all uh
I'll have to pull it up and read it in more detail okay yeah I mean you don't need to answer it right now just get back to me I I'd appreciate the the other thing I just would comment on I was going through the budget and you know as we move forward now we're getting into budget season uh in the
past years we've deferred a lot of expenses into the special fall town meeting especially Capital uh with the expectation that we could or might be able to use free cash to meet those expenditures but this year I think for the first time in five or six certainly
the like million people on this board we're likely to have a very significant need to use free cash to close the budget deficit and the snow removal line item and people don't may not know but but snow removal is the one line item you can intentionally deficit fund the
town of long meow throws $100,000 in there and on an average year it's 140 or 150,000 and this year it's probably going to be four five six who knows how many times that with the storms we recently have and I think it's just a watch out until we know what that is
likely to be that we have to watch out uh saying well we'll we'll have all the free cash in the fall that that we can spend for other things to fill in budget gaps because we in fact may be spending a lot of money on doing uh filling in
expenses expenses for snow ring Ian did you move your chair up here because you had something that you wanted to comment to response on Mark's question about the um the amounts that bar had pointed out so that is part of a two-part um indirect cost that I
calculate for parks and wreck DPW fire during the year so that includes health insurance life insurance Medicare retirement and then the salary reimbursement that comes out of the revolving fund so those are at the same time frames during the year so one time
in the first half and then assessed at the end of the year in June okay so when when when the parks and rec wrote we were assessed it was by the general government part of the town okay I I that's what that word is confusing and um just to clarify too that that
additional 21,000 in salaries that is related to the wage and classification study that the the significant amount of those increases were for daycare uh positions that's great thanks that makes sense okay yeah M yeah I just want to
make sure everyone in the zoom could hear us now yeah can you hear me yes we could hear you okay apologize there may have been 5 minutes of no B on our end so could watch the recording tomorrow night anyone in there wasn't that exciting any and and
then Dan did you have something you wanted to say for selectboard comment I was I was going to comment on just you know on the roads but I think Andrew did a good job handling that um I've been in contact with with Lynn as well as Sean
just to address a flurry of requests from from residents but um thank you Andrew for covering that and then the only other thing I just wanted to acknowledge uh Robin frett so Robin frett is was represented of Brian Ash's
longtime aid for 12 years and um she did an excellent job over the past 12 years just servicing you know over 40,000 constituents in the second hampen district and um I I had attended a a retirement party uh last weekend and I
just you know wanted to you know offer her congratulations on retirement and and thank her for everything she's done across the district great yeah thank you um and of course she had to fill your shoes being legislative Aid yeah um and
so yeah just a few comments from me uh thank you I want to thank Josh for highlighting um the long meow fire department um and them being fully employed last year when we were having this conversation Chief Dearborn basically said that this would be the result if we made these wage uh changes
you know before our firefighters were getting paid 10 20,000 less than most of our surrounding communities and we were having a difficult time being fully staffed uh paying out a ton um in overtime uh to make up for that so really pleased to see that um that that
change um also uh Shaker Road uh this has kind of come up um you know recently um and and it has been an ongoing concern in town and you know I think this is exactly why a year ago when we kind of having this conversation you
know I I think I said Town manager DPW you know Finance director like can we find some other way to invest um in Paving our roads because the way that we've been doing it uh has not cut it and so last year at fall fall special town meeting we made the biggest
investment in road paving um that we have in you know a long long time and so uh Shaker Road is at the top of the list of what we want to address and and you know finally get to so um I'm I'm glad that we did that and you know and folks just have to wait a little bit longer
for for this uh road to be paved um also want to say congratulations to Mike uh for being named our new assistant Town manager you know I think that we are so lucky to have you uh step into this role to have someone that has had all this experience that knows everything so well
uh in town and this just seems like a natural progression natural next step for you and so we're really lucky that you uh have accepted this role thank you so thank you appr it um and then also I just want to mention too that in the DPW report it's good to see that some of the arpa funding that we kind of talked
about at the end of December um the the funding Gap that we had that we want to close with some projects that some of those projects are actually getting done right now um and so that's exciting to see yeah yeah Mark just a question about AR buing are those funds in the town of long Meadows hands you know I so we
already have those funds so it's not something okay because I concerned that the government might hold back on arpa funds and then we're stuck with it we received our town allocation two years ago okay that's fine um held in an account thank you great uh so there's
nothing further we'll move on to Old business so we've got two draft meeting minutes from February 3rd and February 13th um any comments or discussion about them I'll move we approve the minutes of February 3rd
2025 select board meeting second second any further discussion right all those in favor we have to roll oh yeah roll call vote uh Mr H yes Dr Lamb yes Mr Gold yes Mr LaVine yes Mr zero yes great
thank you um and then I will move to approve the draft meeting minutes from the February 13 2025 meeting of the long select Board second okay any further discussion question Mike Mr hopy yes Dr Lamb yes Mr
Gold abstain Mr LaVine obstain and Mr ZKA yes great thank you all right um now we can move into our uh updated Tree Management bylaw review and I think we've got some folks from the tree committee here who can speak to that so
if you all want to perhaps move up to a microphone um so that we can ask you all some hard-hitting questions um so while you guys are just getting settled in just to kind of set the table uh for this discussion uh this bylaw um
was voted down at our fall special town meeting and I think we've had a couple of instances since that with tree hearings that really kind of highlighted the need for the a bylaw like this um and so the tree committee as well as the tree Warden uh have been looking into
this and I think they've prepared a memo um and so I will turn it over to you if you want to talk a little bit about the memo that you wrote and and want to talk about this my name is Catherine qab and I'm a member of the long M tree
committee uh we're very concerned about the fact that there is really no bite to any of the uh any of the rules or regulations that
are presented in the town tree manual by putting the manual into the um bylaws we would have a little bit more um to stand behind such things as fines
and uh more uh substantial uh don't want to say punishments uh regulations for people to follow
uh when they're planting taking down and these are not meant to disturb the residence trees the residence trees uh are looked as private and the things on the
tree belt and tree belt and certain public spaces are the ones that most of these regulations um apply to we would like to
encourage planting of the proper types of trees so that so much change with the environment has occurred that certain trees no longer can um withstand either
the weather or all the salt and so a lot of the things in the bylaws could be better applied if we had some type of uh
regulations in the town uh in the town bylaws we currently um feel that perhaps we did not give enough consideration to the public when we
presented the last uh set of bylaws uh at the town meeting and that people didn't really realize um what was involved we would like to take a chance
we would like to take the opportunity to give [Music] some uh some education uh good go ahead Bill no I think I think it's very fun I think we're sort of May maybe politically uh naive or unaware
but I think we uh didn't realize that there would be a backlash to what was presented and I think the thought is that we're going to be a little more proactive as we go forward here so that the we so that the U the public understands where we're coming from so
that's what and I think that the public might have misinterpreted some of the things as punitive they're not punitive we merely putting into codification best practices for uh Street trees protecting the street trees caring for the street trees and selection of proper Street
trees it's all we're doing uh most of these are already rules and regulations we're just documenting it so that the town residents can see it they can read it uh the draft manual or the draft uh the draft bylaw it's very specific it's applicability it's Administration
removals uh tree plantings and requests for prunings a matter of fact this is actually more generous than most other towns because there is a there is a section here that allows the homeowner with the tree wardens permission to do pruning on themselves which is not
actually allowed under current Mass General laer Garden Street tree so we're actually allowing the residents greater flexibility with tree Warden approval and an arborous oversight to trim trees on specific uh reasons in specific
places if it's a town tree so yeah just one one one additional Point L cornet so Mass general laws 87 which this particular document refers to and falls under um did not give us as indicated before enough protection we feel for our
treeses um the basic tenants that we have running this tree committee and doing our jobs here is to protect and preserve the trees in this town this is really needed for that there is a lot of good education and information that has come to bear in the last few years that
we really need to focus on such as I think you saw everybody on Long Meadow Street uh all those boards hanging around those trees there's a there's a tree Legacy in this town and it's our role to really push for that preserve those trees trees are living organisms
uh they last many many years um what we have seen in the past and why we need these regulations are you know people planting the wrong type of tree uh for example a tree on a tree belt like an oak tree that they don't think 30 or 40 years down the road and know that that tree is going to go up and interfere
with the power lines where does the responsibility lie on that right right in your lap so we have really taken the initiative to uh look at all the best practices as Bill indicated across the state state many other communities in Western Massachusetts have adopted
similar regulations Northampton I think um you know a couple of other towns in this area as well and the focus is really preserved protect for not only today but for the Legacy we're passing down to you know residents off into the future so as Kathy indicated we're
really working now on educating what's in this which didn't happen before so we have articles in the coming out in the reminder U Long Meadow neighbors we're really trying to educate people there was a lot I think you know you're were at the last meeting there was a lot of
black ink late at night and people really didn't get a good understanding of what this was all about so our fault we're going to really educate people about what the benefits and needs for this this particular bylaws are great than and do you have something else you going to add no okay no
no agreeing yeah yeah and I think uh in the chair of the tree committee's um letter that you provided to us not just the op ads but there's other specific Outreach um ideas that you've included in there as well for folks that are um you know watching at home and and want
to check it out on the agenda um joshh uh Lynn is there uh any bar on bringing back a bylaw a general by La not a general okay um am I correct that there's no change in this from when it was brought at the last
meeting that that's and I soone we get opposed on so many things I can't remember what what was the issue at the last meeting what what were people saying there there were a couple and again it was fairly one-sided um this time of course moving forward we'll
have people that will do a better job at presenting the plus parts there was some misunderstanding I think about the some of these bylaws impacting private property um someone made a comment if they want to have their put some sighting on their house they'd have to come to us not the case you know things
of that nature so Mo mostly misinformation and just not fully understanding what this would accomplished and why what's the intent the intent is to preserve and protect our town trees not my town trees Our Town trees and doing all that together so I I've I've learned a lot about trees
in the last three years on being on this board uh some of which I didn't think I I needed to know but um I so what I am in in favor of this I my concern is this that I think it's hard to bring something two meetings in a row and it's
the same thing and people say what well we just voted this down why aren why are we V Ving in and uh we've seen with other things that's zoning bylaws when you want to change them you have if you get rejected you have a two-year waiting period and you can kind of retool and uh as we
saw with like the church rezoning um so I I am I hope this gets passed because I I think that it is important and it would help us in our hearings if we had guidelines we could point to and say yes this is what needs to be done and here
we have a criteria for doing things it'll help uh our tree warden so I my only concern is that it I the education purpose um your your ideas are are really important uh and but it's hard it takes a lot of work one of the other
issues that came up at the meeting was uh with respect of pruning and I I think um that the bylaws go into that as well I think a little bit more explicit to what what you can or cannot do uh and many of these are state laws uh you know
also I was unaware that actually a citizen of Longman cannot go out and plant any Tree on their tree belt just willy-nilly I mean that's also so I think there's there's an educational aspect to it um you know but but by and
large I don't think there's not much of a change from what we're presenting yeah I certainly don't oppose trying to put it on I just the method is really the key here yeah Andrew um thanks for being here thanks for doing your work I I reread this again and there's one that I
there's one um section here uh 9B about construction activities within 50 ft of a town tree and I think that um when I just think about what people might question or might object to um or worry about their own personal like home
and how this could affect them and compliance with regulation this is one question I was thinking maybe either I'm curious but also you might want to address at the meeting so for example it's basically saying that you have to have a tree plan submitted to the tree
warden for any construction within 50 ft of a town tree and as somebody I read this I think to myself hm what if I wanted to do something on my house okay and then I how do I do a tree plan so at first I was thinking what does 50 ft does seem quite distant to be affecting
a tree and then I thought if I was working on my house it really probably wouldn't affect um me very much because these are usually at the tree belt there's a setback no problem correct um so then I'm thinking what could possibly be near a tree well maybe a driveway and
then I come back back to 50 ft like is the 50 ft which seems pretty far away from a tree like let's say I'm doing my driveway 50 fet is distance from a tree you know that that seems like I'm not I'm wondering why it's not
like 10t for example or 15t to my novice like mind and then another question I have is and I came up and I CED this a lot when I was on historical district commission like who the onus is on who to really know to Will that this tree
plan needs to be submitted so for example in the historic district commission if somebody in the historic district wanted to change their house the building inspector would go and it was kind of his role to say hey wait a second you probably don't know about this historic district commission rule U because of course you know you're not
expected to know everything about our bylaws and you really need to go get permission from them I'm not going to expect an average homeowner to really know this section right here and so who is going to like someone wants to do the driveway I don't know if a building
insector goes and inspects that I I don't so I'm wondering about compliance just throwing this out here is to get your thoughts and like just things that people are probably going to be thinking when they hear it again comments on that and and Mr is this what you were talking about when you gave the example of the
sighting and yeah that that fell under that and I did question that myself and I wish uh our tree Warden was here to give me the technical aspects of this from my understanding and I'll want to hear from the other folks too one of the concerns and you saw this on Long Meadow Street with putting up those boards
around those trees uh impact to root structure is key and goes a lot further out than we would think and my and my I'm fairly new on this board but I thought 10 ft sounds like uh you can damage and kill a tree by doing extensive construction and when I questioned this I was
told to really talking about major construction digging primarily or running heavy equipment over the root structure of tree so that's what the impact is and a 50 ft I believe was an area that they would have around any
tree that could be prone to any kind of root damage but do you feel like so for example let's say someone want to do the driveway which is probably the most likely thing to encounter a tree belt tree within 50 ft that would not no no tree waren would object to that that because it's not deep enough you I think
what when I did talk with Le about this and um it was more around you know digging or running heavy equipment over um the ground you know obviously a hard surface of a driveway would not not fall into that particular area you mean go ahead so construction activities is
defined um in the yeah in the bylaws as uh disturbance of the ground by removal of vegetative surface cover or top soil grading excavation clearing or filling so does that mean if somebody wants to actually make an addition on
their house but there's heavy construction running within 50 ft of a tree then they would have to submit a tree plan is that what this is basically saying I'm I'm reading that it's a good question so I just I don't I don't think I'm the I don't think so that's not what it's saying I don't think so because
construction activities I I whether the heavy Vehicles driving over it would impact the tree or not I don't think that fits in construction activities so that's a certainly making a very good question I I just wonder if you want to think about these and
like either these are questions probably people are going to have or or or think maybe and you don't want to be blindsided I think and maybe just either clarifying or reducing if possible if the tree W thinks is reasonable uh to something a
little more proximal to tree those are just some thoughts appreciate Mark yeah I'm just reading that section 9B it says a tree plan is required to be submitted to the tree Warden prior to constru activities within 50 ft of a town tree
and you know when I did redid my driveway they take up the old driveway go down 3 or 4 Ines or whatever it is and so based on definition construction that was construction you know I didn't happen to have a town tree I must have
had a town tree within 50 ft I'm on a I got tree belt so you know in general though what I've heard from people about this is that it's it's 10 pages long and the homeowner is required to know it because otherwise they're going to get
fined and what they're looking for I think is three paragraphs or or a page and a half but not a p 10-page document that has a lot of filler in there beside here are the rules and regulations you need and would seem to me that the
bylaws ought to be here's what you must do before you do the following not all the the verbiage that we have here just imagine yourself as a homeowner and you've got and and I think that's that's what what sunk this frankly at the last town meeting is
people look at it's 10 pages long and I'm not going to take the time to learn it it's just too much you look at our most of our other bylaws The Noise by bylaw know it's four sentences you know it gives you times and dates and and things like that I think that's what people need need to have and we really
ought to look at it this is a great document but not as a bylaw and I think it's a very viable document but it it's not a bylaw you know it's it's longer than most of our the rest of our bylaws put together
those are very good points and we would really appreciate having those thoughts so we can put them out to the public and before we even do that perhaps consider it our next meeting
that we would want a more uh General set of rules as the bylaw and this is just another part of uh I don't know how much of this is state law right and if it's state law we don't have to restate it in
our town bylaws you can say you must have B base state laws then you know that leaves it to you know that's where I think the most important part of this is where the um it UPS the penalties for removing Town trees or uh because I can't remember it's $50 now
something it's really a pittance if somebody cuts down one of our trees and so I I think that that is the important stuff is but Josh I think we need to differentiate between cutting down a tree which I think is pretty heinous and we don't want to have done and somebody
saying this branch has got hit by a truck it's bending down now I got to call five people and wait three months and I had that situation in next door to me it took 4 months for somebody to come out from Northern Tree Service to take here like we could have gone over with a
with a treea and taken out the branch but you're not allowed to and it it just it it looked terrible it was terrible by the time they got to it they had to take down the whole tree rather than than the branch because it had killed the tree so you know bylaw does allow though the
ability for the homeowner to prune that Branch with the tree warden's permission with the tree warden's permission though that that is pretty good she's pretty quick that that's not bad but I do understand everything else you're saying are probably don't even where we have a tree wi to be they may
not and and I don't know how to get around that one I mean put on the website I mean Pat the issue for me is make it simple make it easy make it quick make it limited hit the high points and imp and Implement a bylaw and
that people can can support I 10 pages is just people are just and I think that's what you got they just said that's it we don't and to Josh's point I mean I think that coming back with an uh uh another article which is exactly or bylaw which is exactly the same as one
that was voted down I think kind of making it more concise making it one page with all the important bullet points gives you the chance to say we heard you we we heard that this was a little too verbose we're going to make it more streamlined and this I mean I think it's better to say we heard the
town we made some changes and let's try this again because we don't think we got our message point across the other thing I would suggest is that we incrementalization we have aren't being addressed let's get those in because at this point we don't have anything and
it's really painful and we may not get it all but let's get something at least in there okay all right that's good very helpful than consideration so we redraft this and and uh have to submit it for the fall correct I'm assuming that's
where there's no way well I mean there's still time it just depends on is that we we we have until the thing goes to print until the warrant goes to print I mean essentially we don't want to do that but we've done it in the past okay yeah I
mean Mike if you provide more guidance um Leah is obviously at a conference actually this week so but um the first select board meeting that you will review the warrant is March 24th articles are due March 7th so you do have some time between now and March 7th to draft an article and then you have
some time to kind of structure it and work at your own individual committee meetings between now and then do public Outreach but as long as realistically it's on the draft warrant by and that's really the purpose of bringing it Forward tonight is to re-engage the conversation to see if there was an appetite for bringing it back and it seems like if we can work on something
you know collaboratively to make some of the changes you suggested we can make that happen so um March 24th realistically is the target date that the select board will review the draft warrant so okay so that's that's the final date is March 24th March 7th is the date that we if if things change in
between if if language changes in between March 7th and March 24th that can be communicated into the warrant but ideally it would be sooner rather than later we basically do a a first pass of it on March 7th and then we will vote on it March 24th so March 24th you'll
review it in April 7 sorry sorry yeah March 7th is just the date that we recommend that departments and committees get their articles since we have enough time to prepare the structuring of the warrant when is your next tree committee meeting can be
sooner usually this are the have AUM now third Tu third Tuesday of the month so okay we just had one um just to I following along the conversation here and obviously having sat through a lot of the tree hearings here with you um
and working on some of this with Karen and Leah um I I completely get that people aren't going to read the the bulk of this that's just the nature of how it works um but I'm looking through this very quickly and um
I'm it's broken out in areas that I think are really easy to understand tree removals tree planting request requests for pruning and I'm kind I'm hopefully you won't struggle with this but I'm sitting here struggling with what are you going to take away that's going to make this still something that people
can understand given that some of the questions that have come before you um and some of the questions that have come into the office when people are asking to do something on their property uh I get it's long but I I I think it covers everything that we've all addressed at
least phone calls in my office conversations with Leah um and so that's why I'm asking when your next meeting is because I don't know if you need more guidance and stuff that you would want would you need more guidance on areas that you think could be
um streamlined but I'm looking at this and I'm I'm don't know where you're going to go with this well we don't either I think that's why we have to get together this is modeled after northampton's I believe so and several other communities have passed ordinances
similar in length and you know we didn't just pull this out of the air so I think the Le Leah and Landon crew looked at other ordinance as well terms of length and coverage Lynn what I know we like to reduce things
to bylaws and not have them as policies and procedures but is is there something that we can do in the interim that gives us critical bylaws and then refers to policies that allows the the tree Warden
the tree committee is an appeal whatever it is so we can move forward with something that's understandable and I and I'll repeat my comment of you know even if we don't get it all now let's get something and and work toward what
we need I I don't I don't know that there's issues with every one of these yeah items so let's get the ones that have the issues and address those and hopefully we we can do the rest later and state law we don't have to replace repeat state
laws I have a set of points here that Leah gave before she left and they're very short so I'd like read them to you and you can see uh what you think about these as a
start uh the highlights cutting and pruning of public shade trees other than by the tree Warden was never allowed previously under state law this bylaw formalizes processes alow allowing residents to
obtain a permit to prune trees under the tree Warden supervision two right now the only way under state law to move forward with managing unauthorized cuting is to issue up to
$500 fine the bylaw will allow for additional fines and or mitigation plantings as a response to removals and that really pertains more I think to U uh a business cutting down trees on
their tree belt or uh maybe damaged by um some type of uh construction people but uh number three the bylaw will formalize tree protection requirements for when construction work will impact public
shade trees such as Excavating near roots and the last one this bylaw will encourage planting the correct tree in the correct location using proper plant practices so this was just sort of
General um shorten up the key points but would this be something that you're thinking of as a start I don't know Kathy if you're asking me I I the answer is probably yes I think one thing I wrote down the you
know bylaws uh you know pruning is not allowed without permission of the tree Warden I think if the bylaw said which shall be received within you know five business days or what whatever you know that makes people feel I'm I'm putting
this in and nine months later I'm still can't do whatever right I need to you know something that lets people know the government's working for the town's going to work for them and and you know but the answer for your specific question is yes if it formalizes tree
protection requirements that are already covered under state law just say state law prevails you know people we don't have to restate that but again that whole idea of I need to go get the tree Warden I know Pat you said you know Le's
pretty good and she is pretty good but you know that and I know that but there's 15,000 people in longmen who may not know that and for them to hear and you will get that back to you within one business week or three business days or something that that goes a long way
toward people saying you know I'm I'm I'm getting what I want but there's 300 people show to town meeting if you can educate them one other comment we went through quite a long period where we didn't have a tree Warden um the job was taken by
people in different departments and I think at that point there was an awful lot of a time lapse when um when people would put in and say oh I want someone to come and look at my tree but it was someone from the DPW and they were too busy
uh now Leah does this fulltime and she really does try to get back very quickly and most of her um uh forms that you have to fill out are only a half a page so someone can do it easily and she can
get back quickly but that you know that's something that we should somehow let the town know we're in a new position we have a tree Warden and like you say we'll get back to in in a or so uh anything else Dan did you have
anything uh yeah I could jump in quick um yeah I mean I I well first I want to thank the the tree committee um I know out of out of a lot of the different committees that we all are Liaisons to um the tree committee for as at least
since my time they've been very active and um I appreciate you taking this back up and you know taking some of the advice from the the residents and and the board and others um I think some of the flexibility points that that you that that Patrick I think brought up
earlier um is certainly a good idea working with the the tree Warden um to Mark's Point um I think Mark you might have mentioned something about um like a noise violation I just in terms of looking at how we have a tree violation
it's just trees obviously are are much more uh complex they're above ground below ground um so I I can understand why we have such details in this report um or bylaw but with that being said if
we can minimize it to you know a handful of like FAQs or some some bullet points just to educate the public and and really um certainly at town meeting as well from like a presentation perspective um getting the word out to
folks and just presenting it a bit more clearly I think it'll it'll be more favorable um but I I do agree I think Mark was saying it's you know 10 pages is is a lot but like I said trees are certainly uh a complex issue and I will
be very happy um once we do have something in place because I think every time we have more and more of these tree hearings like I said last time it's a very slippery slope and and we don't have anything that we've truly been following and this will really help make
our decisions uh more clear moving forward so um certainly Echo a lot of the thoughts that everyone had brought up but um really appreciate that the three committees work on this and and staying on top of things great thank you all yeah thank you all so much for joining us tonight
and we'll continue this conversation yeah thank you all um next up is our Charter review update so this is a continuation of a conversation that we started at our last meeting um attached is um you know a document that
kind of goes over this new configuration of the capital planning and will now will be called the capital Planning and Building committee so really since the last meeting nothing very substantive kind of minor um changes here and there but um you know wanted to you know we
were talking about you know potentially having this uh to be voted on for our annual town meeting so wanted to you know open it up for folks after getting a chance to see this document to provide any feedback or thoughts or anything else they want to discuss on this and and Lynn is was there anything that you
wanted to add before we kind of um I just wanted to point out that it is a different version than um what you had the last three versions uh and it's different because I took some of the comments that were made at the meeting and some of the comments I received
after the meeting uh and kind of merge them into a new document I do think that we are a lot closer there's some other areas I think we do need to discuss but um I think it's it's close great um
anything from the board Mark yeah I I had a chance to look at this pretty carefully and I sent some information to Lynn beforehand and afterwards and I appreciate the Lynn's inclusion of of of a lot of this stuff and but I I'd like
to think that there's still some things in here we probably don't need and and I say that in terms of my experience with the building committee and other things I you know for example under oversight and Reporting it says part C the committee
shall review maintenance plans to ensure they align with the long-term needs of town buildings uh you know we got a lot of people looking at maintenance and I you know I I think the people are very good on the building committee and capital planning but frankly they uh you
know we don't need them over looking over the shoulder of our DPW and maintenance teams for what they're doing for maintenance cuz what this devolves into is literally a going through every maintenance item in the on the on on the building or the the
facility and I think that's not what what we intended to do if we want to look at maintenance you know policies or maintenance programs or whatever that's very different but reviewing the maintenance plans to me
seems excessive for for having this committee to do this the other thing and I I talked to Lyn about this and I know Lynn didn't really seem to agree with it but one of the things that I have found in the past to be of extraordinarily
help help was the reporting back of the progress on Capital planning and on on Capital spending on capital projects because we seem to have no good feedback mechanism
to the select board certainly and even to that that Committee of once the money is expended you know we don't know what the what really happened to it we used to have a a very very you know formal reporting of of capital projects and
capital project status and that's kind of Gone by the wayside and I had thought that the committee should be responsible for over over seeing at least I indicated the transmission between the town which is the DPW County and and the select board
on progress of expenditure history of Prior year capital projects in other words the the town does their thing but the the capital planning committee or Capital planning building committee know what it is and they include that in their communication back to the select Port I thought that that was also an
important an important item so those those were the critical things things but I think it's important that we do something about it and that we integrate the building and capital planning committees thanks anything else um any any thoughts about Mark's point
about the maintenance plans um obviously I don't know the you know I haven heard another argument against it but what Mark is saying seems like it makes sense and um hey does kind of seem like Overkill um and not something that
we necessarily need to task the committee with um so that seems like something that maybe we could do away away with the uh reports part um I guess I kind I guess I'm wondering Mark kind of like exactly exactly what you mean by that because I
feel like you know just from DPW reports from everything else happening to we kind of have a good sense of what's happening with these capital projects and where there are where they are um but you you're talking about maybe something that's just like a separate
document that is just on the capital reports yeah I guess I could share with you the the reports that we had gotten but they basically were you know and I'm sure in the end of seeing them there's the capital projects approved here's how much was approved here's how much was expended here's how much yet to be
expended you know here's how much is encumbered or whatever and here's what we expected to close out at you know and one of the biggest problems we have with capital planning in my opinion is that we do Capital planning essentially Lynn does it in in October November for a
project that's at least a year away maybe more than that and so the our costs are best estimates our best efforts but they're rarely right on because that's the nature of the beast that's one of the reasons we've worked into the
capital plan a a a chunk of money so that when we miss by 700 $ the whole project doesn't have to sit there and just linger we have money that to make up make up these differences but but following up on you know the the
quantity quality and extent of and of of the cost estimate I think is important for us and it's important for everybody in the process so we know how well we're doing I mean and so that's really what I intended need not really a you know I
don't need a detailed 10-page written report on each project and and I think the the DPW report we got from the facilities group and from the project group does a good job of summarizing the project in in Pros but not necessarily
in finances Josh Mar did you mean something beyond what the the last bullet point under uh oversight reporting committee shall receive reports on the status of capital projects and expenditures and provide updates to the select board
yeah I I guess that that to to a large extent that covers much of it but it you know reports on the status of capital projects I don't know if that's you know as detailed as I would have like to see it but yes you're right yeah I I I
because I I see what you mean that is uh a important thing to uh come our way and so cuts down surprises yeah the the the one other thing that I would have liked to have seen in this that
doesn't have in there so much is you know I my history is I I was on the capital planning committee before we had a town manager and at that point the process was Town departments and the school
committee all went to the capital planning committee who was the Clearing House we now have a town manager who's the Clearing House and so the question is what is the role the capital planning or Capital Planning and Building Committee in my mind and I'd like to think other people would agree it's the
voice of the residents in other words Lynn does a great job of prioritizing them based on input from depart Town department heads and her understanding of what's going on but I think that what I'd like to see in here is the intent of
the capital planning doing and building committee doing Capital planning is to feed back to the town manager and to the select for saying we heard Lyn's priorities were 1 through 10 but we think PRI number nine is should be number six because of such and such
because of the community feeling that that didn't come through this and and by including that it better for me defines what the job is of the capital planning committee which is not to second guess the town manager not to create the
priorities but rather impose the residents sense or the feelings or hearings of the residents on that on that prioritization okay um okay anything
else board so you know it sounds like um well because no one has spoken up at least the the maintenance part is something that we could maybe strike yeah yeah do you I I'm happy to yeah give some comment um yeah I'm I'm in agreement with that maintenance part
coming out I think that makes sense uh that's fine a lot of this uh was a consolidation of the permanent building committee Mission and the capital planning Mission Capital planning is already required to provide those status reports that that's something they're
just not doing um internally we do that there's a quarterly cap is it quarterly U monthly um capital expenditure report accounting does it's exactly what Mark was just um explaining that the previous Capital committee used to do that's
still being done but it's being done inhouse so um I would be open to maybe accounting or Finance including that in their monthly report but my hesitation and this was the area that Mark and I had some disagreement on my hesitation
was adding another administrative level that just made more work for departments when it's something we're already doing it's working well Capital planning in the existing form is was supposed to be doing something but just hasn't been and we've been able to we're still making it
work um if there's more information that you want I think the information is already there I just would love to see a streamline way to provide it to you so I'm not I'm not opposed to you getting those progress up Ben can I just respond I I think it's I have no problem with that report being included in somebody's
monthly report my only request would be that you also send it to Capital planning committee so they understand that's one of their responsibilities to look at it and oversee it but and they don't need to do anything else with it other than to to have it but they ought to have it and if if it's included in a
report I'm great yeah I think one of the things that is going to be critically important is that if this happens if we rework this it passes that there is a um I guess for lack of better words on boarding with this new committee to
really go over how um important they are what they're required to do and what the expectations are because um the way it's it's working now is not working and we have an opportunity to fix it and make it
something that we all can benefit from and to Mark's Point sharing it with them from the GetGo to say this is what's expected of you and and this is why it's important uh of us I think we we need to commit to doing that if this
passes yeah absolutely and so okay so looking at section six it looks like we can get rid of c and then D maybe reward that the the beginning of it sounds right where it says the committee shall receive reports on the status of capital
projects and expenditures obviously they don't need to provide updates to us um if we'll be getting it directly from the department but maybe just some language in there about how they need to be reviewing it regularly or monthly um would be helpful
I think rewarding it that way um anything else Mark I think it's a great revision with a couple of those changes we made my only question now is that this addresses the status of the
capital planning committee and building committees what can we do about the flow of information materials you know the the way that the the charter I think is very specific that says the town manager shall do this and it shall go here in so many days and
then go there and go and and that is still fairly convoluted for lack of a better phrase and I I'd like to ask that as your next effort you take that on and see if we can't streamline that as well
there's just too many people review you know it's there's a there's the finance committee is involved and the capital planning committee if we can take a look in you know and and streamline that flow we can make this stuff happen a lot faster one of the other um conversations
we've had about that is what you were talking about earlier is that we get quotes So departments start getting quotes in October and then it's going through the vetting process right now the money is not available to them till July with one procurement manager by the
time it goes out to bid it's a year old now and so one thought we had was is flipping this whole thing and this has not been sussed out so I'm open to continuing to discuss this but that in the FY future fiscal year budget we um
have the line item for say it's $2 million Capital planning there is no projects associated with it and that the capital planning process would start right after the money became available July 1st for approval at the special fall town meeting so money is available
July 1st Department start getting their quotes then it's a very compact timeline and then September projects are done or projects applications are done vetted out and it goes to the fall town meeting and then the money's available the next
day so we have a 4mon capital plan instead of a 12month capital plan that was one idea that would shorten that up and I I think we should continue to talk about it I don't think it's something we need to decide right now we could amend it later but it's a great idea I think
the the the weak Link in there is it commits the town to Capital funding yeah without knowing what the money is going to be used for so you know that means we go into town meeting and say we need $2 million for Capital
funds trust us we're going to spend it wisely well it comes back to town meeting in the fall to allocate for the specific projects so all they're doing is approving the bucket of money for capital and then fall town meeting is where it would all get plugged into the
projects it it all needs to be work need to be worked out but that's stuff like that starts to make a lot of sense Dan yeah oh yeah go ahead Dan I was just going to say um regarding the uh reports so do we do we have like
sample reports that have that we that the committee has used in the past that might be helpful so when we when we're or I guess maybe Lynn when you're talking to them about you know what does good look like um are there examples of of what those reports are to Mark's
point I know Mark wants to see certain things in the report but maybe we already have that I I I just don't know um in terms of the capital planning reports to like select board no I'm not aware of those but we do have a an Excel
report showing the capital budget where the projects um projects that were funded and then the status of those that exists already that's kept inhouse by accounting um do you want me to share that with Mike so we can view it would that be
helpful uh maybe if you want to get into that level of detail I don't know if we need to no thank you um but I'm I'm not sure if we need to get to that level right now um but um but and I also want to say that some of the stuff that you know Mark and ly that you all were just
talking about and consolidating time we working timelines they were we looked into that as part of the capital planning program working group um that I was on during my first year and we actually produced a memo that kind of talked about some of this so I don't know if that'd be useful to to either
you know send that memo around again to the select board or to maybe like attach it to um our next agenda as just a correspondence or something just for folks to um to take a look at some of what that working group came up with yeah and also if the board decides that they want to bring this you know to uh
annual tab meeting and this is on the first draft warrant we can definitely attach that memo from the uh you're talking about the capital resilient group that yeah we could attach that memo to that discussion too just so that it's a refresher yep yep sounds great okay uh anything else on this
one okay so I think with those revisions then really it's just about putting this on the warrant right and yeah yeah if we're heading in the right direction we'll start drafting the warrant articles that are so associated with this and bring it back to you great that
sounds great all right thank you everyone um next we will talk about another uh continuation old business uh from my conversation last meeting the remote meeting participation policy uh there was some question about whether a policy had been adopted previously we
looked into it we looked at the record there had not been and so we do need to adopt a policy of course you know on the state side they are likely to extend uh their remote uh
remote um laws remote meeting laws uh but in the event they don't uh we do need to have something in place and also right now committees are looking to us for guidance calling the town manager's office um and so uh you will see attached the policy I think it's the
second document and uh back from when we talked about this the first time I there were a couple of things that we had mentioned about um requiring folks coming to meetings uh to be in person in certain instances uh such as when uh
someone was seeking a new liquor license um and so I think that that was from when we had this conversation last time some of the things that we were like most focused on trying to iron out the rest of it is I think also um you know a lot of the language is is coming from
Town Council and has been vetted by them um but I know Mike you also wrote a memo I don't know if there's any anything else you want to add to this yeah no um that summarizes it um I believe that actually absent of you guys just wanted to provide additional details and
guidance for people attending most of that language is already in the provisions that I outlined in in state law um but uh if you adopt the provision set forth in chapter 30A section 20D that authorizes remote participation by members of a public body not present at
the meeting um providing that the absent members and all persons present at the meeting location are clearly Audible and provided further that a quum of the body and the chair um is in person so that that's really the only language that you need to adopt to um enact that change
going forward but the the original intent of the policy I think we brought it back last year was to provide those extra local guidelines for if you do want somebody to come in person for a liquor license hearing or for a poll petition or something of that nature um and that's totally up to you guys to decide on whether or not you want to
have that layer of you know structure yep yeah thank you Mark so V Mike whever wrote this did a great job the the the one thing that concerns me about this policy is the last sentence says each such board and committees May adopt more restrictive requirements for
public attendance were required by the nature of the business and essentially it says the allowance of this and restrictions of this remote participation shall apply to other boards and committees replacing the wordss select board with the name of the board the we have a pretty extensive section seven that says people need to
be here for liquor license and stuff like that I think we ought to require the other boards who adopt this to have their own section s in other words what does the zoning board of appeals want people in present for what is the you
know the tree committee want you know anybody who's adopting this ought to tell us you know in writing what they want people present for and I think that that's the one Gap I see here is because it allows other a other committees to
adopt this just by saying we adopt it and we're changing the word select board to you know cultural committee well but the cultural committee must have something that they maybe they don't but if they don't they should say it that they want people present for it y you
know what so all I'm saying is it says it says here uh that these boards and committees the term select board whatever then you know uh it says that they should re communic Comm unicate and writing to the town clerk in the office of the select board if they've adopted
it I would like to add and include their own section s or something like that their own requirements for inperson attendance yeah I know I know what you're saying because it it may be different for for other boards and committees who they may or they may say it's okay for them to to
join I don't know um ultimately um commities can decide to follow this same practice but the the main purpose of adopting those provisions and in the Master General law is what is going to allow these committees to meet um in a
hybrid format moving forward if the um temporary Provisions laps um so you have time to review and come back and talk about the policy further if you need if you want to make amendments to it but ultimately if you do adopt the provisions of Master law going forward
that's the first step really so yeah I I understand what you're saying Mark but I think so so as it's written right now right it's for any other border committee the instances where the select board would want folks
to come in person also applies to them right and then it's allowing them also um other space to make further restrictions just basically say you know what whatever they want people coming
before them to be in person um and but these other boards committees are not going to have utility companies or they're not going to have um liquor license applications so it's but they might have a zoning appeals petitioner that they want you know I all I'm saying
is that it says they may adopt more restrictive requirements all I'm saying is write those down and submit those when you send it to the the town clerk I'm not I don't care what they write down they say may say we have no restrictions nobody ever needs to appear
before us in public but if they do they need to write it down so that everybody understands it in advance doesn't it already say that no it doesn't say that they have to because such more restrictive requirements must be approved by a majority of that border committee be documented in the minutes of that border committee and be
communicated in writing to the town clerk and the office of the select board so does that say that that their restrictions must be yeah so they must be in the minutes and then they must send that to the town clerk and the select board's office all right all right anything else just a point of
clarification yeah so on in regards to liquor licenses for example so um Mark correct me if I'm wrong but am I understanding that every time the senior center wants to have a one-day liquor license that we're demanding they of the
select board in person no it says new a new liquor license it actually says he liquor license violation annual regulation hearing zoning change referral request I think it might be referring to a a hearing um
so if there was a new liquor license hearing so we could clarify that in the in the policy if necessary yeah let's I think we should clarify that yeah I mean if they're coming up for Renewal and they have no uh violations against them I mean I think we need to it's not a hearing with work with them yeah no I I
agree with you Dan I think we should change the wording on that I think that's what it we probably meant to say but it's just not written as clearly you can I think if you just insert seeking new annual liquor license or annual or seasonal yeah leave it to the
lawyers if it and requires a hearing any annual or new that require hearing y it says hearing we don't require hearings for renewals no I yeah separate yeah
I um okay and then um and then you know I think it's 7 B2 some other examp it says individuals attending a hearing before the select board at which they their property or their businesses um are subjects of the
hearing so liquor license violation anual regulation hearing zone change referral requests um and so you know it's it's kind of in a way that like gives us moreal latitude right purposely yep
right okay great okay um can I just ask if the state renews their remote license remote meeting requirement none of this applies correct um well you can still have local
policy you can still have a local policy in place to make specific requirements as you see fit so I think we should do this regardless because of what we're talking about yeah yeah right now I mean if somebody wanted to come via Zoom that you would prefer to be in person you don't have anything in writing that really backs that you could request
kindly that they're attend in person in person but this gives you a little bit more um backing yep yep okay so if there aren't any alterations to make to this we can vote on this yep tonight right to adopt it you just want to change that
you know petitioner seeking a new annual or seasonal liquor license I'll make that change yep perfect all right I will entertain motions I I'll move that we approve the long letter select board remote meeting participation
policy uh second okay as amended I should say amended um any further discussion just you want to add or no okay uh any further discussion on this all right uh Mike Mr yes Dr Lamb yes Mr Gold yes Mr line yes Mr
zero yes okay great thank you uh now we will move into new business and we have the quarterly investment report is Erica with us yes perfect hi Erica good evening can you hear me yes
we can hear you thank you for for joining us and um we are ready for you to talk us through the quarterly investment report perfect thank you um so tonight I'm submitting my quarterly report on the status of the town's cash and Investments for the period ending
December 31st 2024 as for the investment policy the town held no long-term Investments That exceeded the 5-year limit the individual Bank balances were under the 20 million um doll Bank provision all banks received the highest safety rating of
green from ver Bank except for Newberry Port and Eastern Bank where both institutions received a yellow rating all accounts are fully insured or secured the second quarter of the fiscal year 2025 has continued to produce interest rate decreases due to the FED dropping rates the most noteworthy
decreases were from People's Bank and Newberry Port Bank where our rates dropped from 4.51% to 3.94% and and excuse me 4.95% to 4.55% respectively the treasure and assistant treasur are closely monitoring
interest rates and moving funds to the appropriate accounts that will optimize Investments with the best return as mentioned Newberry Port bank and Eastern Bank both experienced a change in ver Bank ratings from green to Yellow during this quarter I reached out to representative from both institutions
for comments on those changes and provided the explanations as attached to this memo I will continue to monitor the ratings for both of these institutions in the future the oped pension Reserve investment fund experienced loss in quarterly interest the quarter ended
with a net decrease of approximately $50,000 the December 31st balance in the fund is approximately $8.3 million also noteworthy during the second quarter the town earned a total of approximately $467,000 in interest the treasurer's
office will continue to seek the best possible interest rates and diversify funds according to Max appropriately to maximize investment potential while being in compliance with Massachusetts state laws and regulations we will also continue to monitor all accounts and ensure Safety and Security of all of our
investments great thank you so much Erica um any questions comments from the board Mark yeah Erica the the Newberry Port Bank ver Bank yellow rating I thought it said it was for the quarter ending September 30th was was there a
rating for the quarter ending December 31st um so our ratings are quarterly that we were see from ver bank so they're a little bit behind so the most recent one was for September as you'll see in um the email that I have with
Newberry Port the more recent one since that quarterly rating has not been published yet okay so and and can you just remind me of what our policy is if if a bank has two consecutive quarters of yellow rating
rating um I don't have it with me but I think it's two or three quarters and then we start monitoring and slowly moving out funds um it's when it becomes red that we um have to get all the funds out right so so we're I assume on the
lookout for Newberry ports December be Bank you know rate ra and they they and they understand our our internal policy about that I assume yes thank you great
thank you uh anything else no um right I don't know if Dan has anything but uh no I'm good thank you okay great thanks all right I think that's all we've got for you Erica thank you so much have a great night everyone yeah
thank you you too all right um next up uh we have a discussion about General Reserve stabilization fund um I think the chair of the finance committee Erica AA is joining us by Zoom okay great um
and so kind of to set the table on this a little bit I think the finance committee did a um an in-house Workshop thinking about new ways um that you know they can kind of go about assessing some things and and and thinking about the way that the finance committee um can go
about being you know adding value to the town um and I also had a meeting with the chair of the finance committee another member of the finance committee too about some of these ideas and I think you know a result of this has been a poli proposal that the finance
committee has brought forth to the select board um this was sent around to the select board uh this afternoon and I know that uh the finance director Ian and Lynn also um prepared a PowerPoint on this so this is not something I think um as was stated in the email to the
select board not something that needs to be voted on tonight but something that um you know we'd like to present and talk to the select board about tonight um and then continue this conversation on into our next meeting so um I Lynn I'll turn over to you for the PowerPoint
I'll I'll just defer right to Ian who sure we worked on a PowerPoint today that uh lays this whole thing out so go through it did you uh do you need me to send it to you yes please thank you sure so while I send it to Mike I'll kind of um
queue up the discussion so good evening everyone um the point of our discussion today is part of a longer discussion where the the select board as part of their goals um made a discussion in June of last year where they wanted to look
at the specific Financial policies of the select board uh Erica AA the finance chair has been working with uh the other members specifically on the reserves and the stabilization
fund um today I will be going over a specific policy change that will discuss um changes to the operation stabilization fund and queue up uh separate discussions where I want to go over op uh General reserves and uh
future policies it's going to be worth the wait yeah I'm just waiting for it to come through you would think right across the room it come pretty soon you want to invite Erica just share a little bit of like trck inol well I can I can kind of
comment on um what the finance committee's involvement with this is um there's been a lot of discussion with the finance committee which um actually Dr Lamb was um brought you into this where they've wanted to take a more advisory role within their Comm within
their committee and kind of look at uh the town of Lao as a whole picture and figure out where they can best be used in terms of providing a um supporting service for me as the finance director but also to work with the town manager
to either do research outside of um my role or to help distinguish things that are important to town residents um in the discussions that we've been having recently there's been a lot of
discussion about um the stabilization fund and how well funded it is and the question came up is is there a better use of the funds so today I want to go over what I think would be a potential
strategy that the town could use going forward I'm ready when you are Mike yep so if you want to to go to the first slide so the goal of our discussion today is to discuss amending the operating stabilization fund policy to allow the
use of Interest Revenue when the fund exceeds the 75% Target additionally interest funds would be used to supplement next fiscal year's Capital or Municipal budget so the operating stabilization fund was established by
vote of town meeting on November 18th 2003 pursuant to M General Law chapter 40 section 5B the original goal was to reach 4% of the town's operating budget the current policy which was amended in June of 2018
has a Target balance of 75% of the general funds operating revenues in the last four years the stabilization fund has been over the target balance of 75% if you want to go to the next slide
Mike this um this slide shows the history of the general reserves from 2012 to 2025 now what are the general reserves the general reserves make up the free cash and operating stabilization fund
free cash is measured as of July 1st of the fiscal year and this is the date that free cash is certified since 2012 the general reserve and operation stabilization fund have had the following performance in 14 years
the operating stabilization fund has been over the minimum goal of 4% for 12 of those years in the last four years the operation stabilization fund has been over the target balance of 7.5% and has exceeded the maximum balance of 10%
of general fund operating revenues in the last two years I highlight these things because this is the result of Prior year transfers from free cash and healthy interest rates which has created such a large balance in the
fund moving to the next slide sorry when you're sharing on Zoom it's a little bit different uh it's okay presenting mode no no worries there go um the next next slide talks about the interest rates that have been received on the operation
stabilization Fund in the last 3 years I discussed this with Erica Brunell our Treasurer Who provided me with the following details um in January 2023 to November we received 3.92% interest rate from November 23 to 24 we seeed
5.52 and currently as of November 24 we're receiving about 4.72% on the stabilization ation fund now before January of 23 the stabilization fund was kept in money market accounts as rates were not previously is strong the next slide
shows the history of the interest Revenue that's been earned since 2012 um I'd like to highlight that in the last three years we have had the most significant growth in our interest earned and as a note um the ending
balance of the stabilization fund is not not only impacted by interest so in the year-to-year change if you might notice it's not going to line up exactly why is this all important this is important because if you saw in the
slide that showed the stabilization fund Target balances we are currently over our maximum policy uh I bring to you today a current proposal that amends the stabilization fund policy to allow the use of interest
Revenue when the fund exceeds that Target the use of Interest Revenue requires a 2/3 majority vote to transfer from the stabilization fund as is required by Mass General law the goal is ultimately not to touch the principal
balance of the fund as we know um emergencies can happen and the markets as well as the economies can be impacted by change in administration changes in global Marketplace and what we don't
want to do is throw off the stabilization fund by spending unnecessarily I hope that um these this discussion today will be fruitful in the sense that the goal is to provide
another lever for the town manager and I to use within both our Capital planning and our budget planning this is something that has come up in past years where as budgets continue to become tighter we have to look at additional
ways for us to um address those needs as we've seen in the past few years costs continue to rise critically needed infrastructure projects road work have a deferred maintenance for years and need for it to be done the tradeoff between going our reserves
well over policy targets I feel is not worth the risk of continuing to fur critical needs in our Capital this is why I am recommending to the select board to adopt this policy change in the operation stabilization fund to better take advantage of the strong position we
put ourselves in and continue to chip away at well- needed Capital requests um Lynn is also attached to the select board the specific language that would be changed within the policy and I'm happy to speak to that as well think
we're going to put it up on the screen so you can see it there we go so the text that's highlighted is the specific change that will that we are proposing to the operation stabilization fund policy the
specific language reads upon reaching the target balance of 75% of the General funds operating revenues based on the completed audited prior fiscal year the interest calculated is an available Revenue source for the next fiscal year's Capital and or operating budget
up to 100% of interest earned and this requires a 2/3 majority vote I'd like to highlight a specific point of language that we used within this request completed audited prior fiscal year why would I use this the reason for this is
we don't want to have the risk of using next year or estimates That Could Fall outside of what the available revenue is by using an audited number that number is completed and closed and we would know for example what that number would
be this provides us with the assurance that we know what our available funds are to use if we show choose great thank you so much and um Erica thank you for joining us I want to
give you the chance to add anything if you'd like um I like yeah so you have the finance board recommendation because that was sent around um we would not want to include operating budget as a reason for using of this interest um we
specifically we're trying to find additional funds to address what we think is an very extensive need for um capital and maintenance improvements in the town's infrastructure so we were hoping to find ways to add add to the $2 million in a real way to start making
some gains on that I would say that as the finance committee we would not be in favor of putting it toward General operating budget um expenditures but think it should be spent for this very specific reason great thank you um okay
Josh yeah I think this is a really interesting idea and I I think I just in terms of where the money would be used I think as we were reading this I I think I agree with Erica because I I'm kind of seeing a doom Loop where
you our operating budget goes up every year including the use of these funds while the principal is not growing or I I guess there's a scenario I'm seeing where our principal is not growing because we're using the interest and we
don't have free cash and then our budget then we're Falling Towards the 7 and a half% even below the 7 and a half% and I just don't want us to use it as a a crutch for the operating budget I I just
and when interest rates are good it's easy to to think about this and say yeah this is great but if you look back and I think we had half a percent uh on a couple of the years there and when we get down to that one that's not really
any money at all uh even on 8 million bucks um but it can get us into a into some trouble I'm not saying I I'm not in favor of this I I'm just uh I do want us to think about it and be be careful on it because I using it for specific purpose of
capital Improvement is uh an interesting uh Cory to this I guess but in in theory and looking at it right now it it sounds it makes a lot of sense to me because we it is a lot of money and we have some
leeway great thank you Andrew um I do think it's also an interesting idea I have several thoughts from just hearing about this I think that the my interpretation of Erica's suggestion to basically use it for capital is to help
us collectively avoid the temptation to use it for something else in the sense that like Capital planning is always going to be necessary we're so far behind and the fact is and I don't know if this was part of thinking one of the main consider ation I have when I think
about this is the fact that this is not something we're always going to be able to count on as Josh alluded to like can it really be considered like a recurring fund when like the interest rates could be very low in the future essentially so I think that you know it's I have no objection to using the
interest for something useful in our town especially if we've already met the select board policy from the past but I don't think we should like use it it's not something we can always count on essentially um I do think it gives some flexibility for example Lynn uh
could know that hey interest rates are this much I'm probably going to have you know conservatively can budget this much more and it doesn't you know it's a little less restrictive than the policy of just using operational stabilization funds for unexpected things so there's some benefit to that
but um there's also you know the 7 and a half% I believe you chose just because it's between 5 and 10% it might be a little more fiscally conservative to say you know it has to be once it's 10% then we do this essentially just kind of make sure we're always at the top level of the select
board policy before we you know use the interest to do something else with it but um I'm not I'm just these are just thoughts I had just from hearing this policy for the first time my last point and question is if we do this it still would require a 2/3 vote at every town
meeting that we want to use the interest out of the yeah so that's we're not avoiding that essentially Mark yeah when I first heard this I said what a great idea and then as I thought more about it I'm saying wait a second and and and and you know I
I guess I'll comment and Erica you probably know as well somewhere Peter Landon is rolling over in his grade Peter Landon was that don't ever use onetime money for recurring expenses guy and he was right and you know to the extent that this would allow the
proposed policy would allow us to use it for the operating budget is just a a recipe for disaster it means you're living beyond your means and and I I can't imagine doing that but on the other hand using it for Capital especially when we looked at the needs
we have for roads and water and things like that seems to make some sense and and I took it a little bit further and said you know if we thought about this 6 months ago we might said instead of borrowing money to do our do our
roads to add to our roads because borrowing adds to our operating costs we could have used this money to add to our roads which would not have caused us to add to our our our operating costs and I really
see funds out of the reserve funds or interest out of the reserve funds as a way to replace bonds potentially bonds that we thought about using because that way it it's available when it's available and If Josh pointed out the
interest rates are half a percent or less and it's not available that's fine but but we really save a lot of money in interest if we don't have you know interest in principle if we don't have to bond something and we can use this as
a as a as a source of Revenue and so I you know I think we ought to look at this as capital I I particularly saw the note from the finance committee that said uh the investment income dollars are an addition to rather than a li of
capital spending that's currently in the select board's policies the operating budget I you know I also have a concern about a little bit this system that in the past few years we have deferred Capital till the fall we said we'll
spend you know we'll we'll use free cash for Capital I think that's been great but as I said in my comments earlier this year we have to watch out cuz we're going to have one heck of a snow removal budget we may not have all that free cash available to to supplement the
capital budget come to fall and so I think this is an is an opportunity for Capital I'd support it for Capital but I'd stop there and like I said I'd even more support it for replacing bonding Dan anything from you
uh well first I mean I just want to thank Erica and and the finance committee I think this is in a town like Long Meadow um we need to get creative and I think the finance committee um you know I I thank you and I I don't want to speak for the whole board but um we need
to get creative in these situations I think this is a great idea um the only thing I'm I'm maybe trying to understand is you know to Mark's point and and others like we we we need need the money towards our roads and and
infrastructure um and other things but if we have more flexibility which I I think maybe Lynn you had mentioned with this policy as well as Ian can you kind of explain what that flexibility would
would allow us to do outside of just going this route for Capital Improvements just to have a better understanding um in terms of of our our language in there regarding uh operating budget yeah I mean I've I've been it's
been no secret that the FY 26 budget is um is one of the most challenging ones I've had yet here uh and knowing that that's likely not going to alleviate anytime soon I didn't want as Ian and I were talking about this um and preparing
a a policy amendment I didn't want to uh narrow put something forward that's so narrow that it restricts us later on um knowing that we could have a discussion about it here also you know fully respecting the finance committee and then their opinion on how the funding
should be used um that for example though if if we had this language last year um we could have used it to uh fund the literacy program the literacy curriculum which was not a capital item um but we could have used it uh for the
purchase of that that which came out of the operating budget so things like that I mean there's a lot of unforeseen things that come up um and I think what's the other thing that's really important is that um I don't view this as um using onetime money uh annually
because we don't know we we we'll have a good idea but we won't know as um we're really looking ahead and in future budget uh preparations what that interest calculation is really going to be we'll have a rough gu estimate but the numbers that we've seen the last 2
years are really helpful but the numbers we saw 10 years ago really aren't going to do anything to help close a budget Gap so that's why I left it in there just to provide more flexibility so much of what we do is not flexible and I like to take the opportunity for flexibility
when we can but completely understand if you want to do something different Andrew you want to speak first oh no goad well I as I'm hearing this I'm think thinking about it I I kind of um I understand the value of flexibility but I also feel like um I'm kind of a
little more sympathetic to the finance committee's original perspective and the reason is you know we again we all kind of recognize we don't want this to be used like for operating expenses because it may not be there all the time right
so if we have a policy where uh we know at the same time capital capital planning money is always going to be needed and it's almost infinite so so and as long as we have this policy where it's only used for that supplemental not to kind of replace funds that they're
going to get anyway it's probably the best way of you know thinking of it as like a bonus essentially it's not something we're going to put into the budget somewhere and then be upset about it because we don't have the money for it the next year if interest rates go down it's just something where hey it's
great there interest rates were great we got a big windfall this year we can use it for Capital planning and put it somewhere where we know we're going to need it and they're not getting anything out of their budget taken out of the budget that they wouldn't always already have gotten it's kind of the a good way
of making sure it's used in a way that um is always going to be necessary but doesn't put us into a situation in a following year where we're like where' this money go you know Josh yeah I'm glad we're gonna have
more time to think about this but I Len I thought that the point you brought up about the uh literacy literacy program was an interesting one and I wonder if this could if we could word it to say a one-time purchase under the operating
budget or I Which is less flexible but would give us some opportunity to fund something like that that does come up and doesn't fit under Capital uh not not saying we have to but I that's something to think about follow up if you don't
mind could so we could always just vote money out of the operational stabilization fund with a 2/3 vote could we not if I mean if it's like a unexpected you know would that have qualified for the literacy program could we have done that with the with money
from this fund from this account it was um but it's not expected there was discussion about whether or not it met the criteria that the select board policy lays out regarding use of the operating stabilization fund the allowable uses of the fund is right on the screen one and two there was a
discussion about whether the literacy curriculum met either of those and ultimately the board decided it did not okay so so Andrew this the select board's policy on use is different from the state's policy on use the state says
you get a 2third vote you can use it to send everybody on a trip somewhere more more restrictive right we made it more restrictive H yeah I I'm go ahead go ahead if our goal is to have this
between 5 and 10% and we're over the 10% it doesn't seem to me that like we're like you know hundred, over the Target to me we should be able to use that overage in any way we want if if it's a two-third votes going to take it out
anyway you know what I'm saying so you know I don't know I forgot the numbers but basically if we're at like 8 million now and that's 14% so maybe half a million of that is over the Target to me go ahead I haven't thought of everything
yet literally I'm thinking the issue is this talks about the operating stabilization right but the operating stabilization consists of two components as as Ian showed us it's free Cash Plus the reserve account no Mark
the other way around General Reser General res is the operating stabilization free General Reser and this talks about using money from General reserves no this talks about using the stabilization okay so I guess the point Andrew for me to respond to
you is we don't need to put additional money into the general Reserve fund you know into the operating stabilization F we don't need to continue to put money we can leave money in free cash which we have done because our our stabilization
fun fund is already at that right appropriate level and so right and now got there because of the magic of compound interest I tell you it went out pretty quickly when we had a massive storm in town right so what I'm
observing is we have a policy that's not the state's policy it's our Town's policy to be more restrictive in how we use the operational stabilization funds which I understand but if we're over the target of the plan
10% it seems to me that we might be able to be a little less restrictive in that overage and the town could say let's use this for a literacy program you know as long as we don't go below the 10% which is already the top of the line and it still requires a 2/3 Town vote which is
pretty difficult so anyway this might be a longer discussion for the future but these are just some up yeah you're talking about two things here one is your current policy and eligible uses right we're talking about interest on the fund balances which is what we're our proposal is to be more lenient but
we're not proposing to be more lenient in the stabil operating stabilization what and to keep us off track the maximum balance is 10% we're above 10% what happens now and let's say so that was that was kind of where I wanted
this discussion to go is importantly we have no parameters on once we reach the maximum balance yeah so like if we're at 10.2% yeah yeah and interest rates are at 4% that's going to keep going at
$400,000 we're going AB above 10% so what do we do with that and let's say we put this in but we didn't it didn't vote town meeting it didn't pass was there ever contemp any did it do you
think that when they made this policy they contemplated it would ever go over 10% and then we would return it to free cash so it would be more easily spent we've just never been lucky enough to be in the situation where the interest has had us go over the limit over the theoretical I was going to say
was there but I was there and the reason the the reason it's done that is because the interest is at a higher percentage than our town budget is going up every year so the interest rates going up at you know it was 5% 4% whatever and the
town budget was only going up at 2 and a half% 3% 2.8% something like that and so as a percentage of the town operating budget this was going up but that will turn around very quickly if interest rates go down below
2% and the town budget continues to increase at 2.8% or 2.7% or whatever it is and so you know over the long call it's going to work out that we will be
at about that 10% C Level yeah and then how 10% came about was was you know was a discussion that the finance committee had with our rating agencies at the time and when the interest rates go down are we going to be kicking ourselves that we spent our interest on other projects I
don't think so and especially because we will know we should be able to predict to some extent when interest rates are going down because we're looking back at the past year but um oh Erica is raising your hand hey go ahead Erica the old fashioned yeah I want to talk about the
real value of money and remember as we're storing this money the price of everything on Earth is going up as well so stuff that we defer is costing more in the future mhm so if we don't have a good reason to hold on to this money which as far as the finance committee
could tell we don't to spend it on stuff now that we know is going to have to be done and will be more expensive in 3 years from now is always going to be a better idea so um I just as you look at that sitting on cash or sitting on money and not doing things that need to be
done has a cost that isn't as easy to understand but it's real no and I think the the other piece of the finance committee letter was to say we definitely shouldn't be putting any more money into the stabilization fund at this point M um and taking it out of free cash for
the operating budget yeah thank you I think that's a great point I mean I think we've we this has been something we've been talking about about when we've talking about our water mains or road paving of if we had addressed this 20 years ago 15 years ago 10 years ago right the cost would have been you know
much lower um and now you know we're in a difficult position because those Investments hadn't been made previously um you know I think with this proposal the the finance committee was getting at a a big problem that we have is that the
capital you know funding is stagnant and it is nowhere close to meeting the needs of um our community and the finance committee came up with this interesting uh creative idea to grow that pot and and that's really
important but I also you know I'm hearing what Lynn had to say about the flexibility that's needed in a community like us that we have our budget is difficult we don't have a lot of flexibility in a lot of places and so
when we do get something like a literacy program um you know that's unexpected or a budget like this year's that's um you know really difficult I also do I think sympathize with needing to have some flexibility to meet
those types of situations um but you know I I I don't know if this is like a policy that could be crafted in a certain way or anything but what I would like to see is that you know typically the interest is devoted to um Capital uh deferred maintenance
specifically but then when we do have uh you know these kind of unexpected circumstances that we do have the flexibility to use it um towards those unexpected circumstances um and you know of course the unexpected circumstances are always going to seem like they are the most
important thing to address or or to do and I think that that is where we would have to be very sober in our assessment and really having to determine when we would push those funds away from Capital over to you know whatever um the other
need is um so yeah I mean I I I appreciate everyone's thoughts I mean I I sat here and listened for a while and you know I'm still kind of you know unsure but though that's kind of where I'm I'm at right now um but it sounds like there's consensus that it's not a
bad idea and we appreciate the uh definitely the contribution from the plance committee I mean question is really how how do we do it I I definitely think we should table this idea of like what do we do with the overage over 10% let's just drop that I mean this is what we with the interest is the matter at hand and and we're thinking about can we know in the next
meeting yeah absolutely this is very helpful I think it's a great idea and to Josh's question earlier about um making sure that we don't take the interest and have a essentially a no interest year we have the specific language it says up to
100% of interest earned so the select board could um give the directive of only use 90% so there's still a little bit of Interest growing I think that was the point of this so that if the the select board felt that we were being too aggressive we could have a discussion
about what would be um good in terms of saving versus using the funds now what a good point you thank you on that point can I just add one thing so if we wanted to like just kind of um make it a little more conservative I I was thinking if we
added the words maybe instead of is in this sentence like the interest calculated is unavailable Revenue Source if you just maybe I'm thinking for future select who forgotten long long from this conversation that we're having now the interest calculated may be
unavailable Revenue resource basically just to give a little bit of I don't know it just seems a little bit like this is an option you know the 100% the 90 it could be 90% it could be 70% it's just a little bit softer way of saying
this is an option you don't have to do it you could just keep making lots of money from compound interest just for the future essentially um may be an available Revenue Source POS of is the current policy says
the maximum balance shall be 10% of the general fund operating revenues we're over that so what does that mean does that mean we ought to be going by policy to the town meeting and
saying we propose to move that excess into free cash right I mean it's not like it's in the stock market Market that could drop 20% tomorrow it's in invested in CDs and other you know certain money I I wonder if I mean yeah maybe that is what we
want to do but I I wonder if this would be better turn uh worded that the maximum balance or something like we shall not put in any make any uh deposits into the operational stabilization fund if it
will get us in excess of 10% because in this case we got there by interest by compound interest so uh right I think this I think this covers that Josh it says the maximum balance shall be 10% with that is the max but we're above that so what do you right
but we but we certainly aren't going to put any more money into it yeah no I understand that but it doesn't but according policy we should be moving money out of it yeah that's what I mean if you read this in just black and white and and it's kind of what we're talking about with overage and how much but I will also point out that there must have
been years if I recall that we were below the 5% maybe and nothing nothing bad happens like to be over 10% is no more egregiously negative than being under both are out of policy it's not you know what I'm saying it's not like there's if you said if you're over 10%
you have to put it all in the free cash you would you should be just as stringent in those emergency periods when we have to go below because of some stress to this does say what happens when you get too low it says you have to come up with a plan to replenish it well you you could say like you have to
replenish it till the 5% we don't we don't do that so as and I made the point of course what to do with extra money but I'm saying that I don't think we we can do any we can do whatever we want as a talent right but I would argue that the current policy says that we should
be proposing to move money above 10% and next year when we get interest and we're above still above 10% we should be proposing we move that so in other words we don't need the I shouldn't say we don't need the the suggested change here
but Andrew recommended that we say upon reaching the target balance of 10% if that said 10% instead of 7 and a half% in the yellow there we already have that yeah because we have a maximum balance
of 10% as a policy that was and yeah question so just delete this and let's say we're above our maximum policy we have every expectation that interest rates are going to continue for the current year we ought to be taking
making making a a a you know warant article in town meeting to with a two-third vote to move this into free cash so that the town can make use of it however we see fit but I I think the point of this is if we go we have some cushion to get down to 7 and a half%
right so yeah based on based on the policy that States interest shall ACR in the fund the target balance shall be 7.5% of General funds operating revenues I did not originally use the maximum balance because I thought that would be too restrictive I I hear youan but we
it's not where we want to go with this it's where we are today sure we are above 10% so whether we change this policy or not we we are we would be within the policy to recommend to move everything
above 10% out of that fund well I think I think it's a different issue I think the point Mark that that we're trying to make is I don't want to touch the principal balance I would much rather touch the interest that we've earned and if we did touch the interest that we earned we would fall under that 10% why
don't you want to touch the the principal balance what if it what if it was at 18% but I mean I think these are two different things right like so this is about if we're at 7.5% then we can use the interest right and then what we're
also talking about is is the fact that we're over 10% right now and moving those funds not just necessarily interest just those funds out too let me make a suggestion we all we all kind of agree this is great it's embarrassment of riches we have more money than we thought Etc but basically it's in the wrong place though right I understand so
what you I think what we should do here is like for the next meeting talk about the actual proposal hand with the interest but if one of us wanted to one could basically make an article any one time we don't have to necessarily even make a policy anytime it goes over 10% and that's restrictive in itself for
future select boards that that you know over 10% you got to do this what at any point we could say let's move it to free cash could we or is that not an unexpected event like let's say this year we said we're
$500,000 uh uh over the 10% Target let's move that to free cash would that not be allowed because it's not an emergency it's up to you guys it's your policy so we could just do that the already says the maximum is 10% you could just make a
proposal and save get the 23 vote and any year you don't have to make a policy necessarily if we're over 10% that's correct could do that right right so these are like two different kind of for later yeah one is can we use the interest every year if we're over 75% and the other is can we transfer any
money over 10% those are the two different I'm just thinking if we have it's $8 million in there now if we have Memorial Day storm and uh a snowstorm and it takes like uh and we have to spend two million bucks to clean that up
yeah we still have seven and a half percent so then we can still use that interest we have that flexibility and so I I think this is that's my thinking on it 10% is a different ball game I know this we talking about a long
time but can I just ask Ian what did you when you said you know as long as the as long as it's 7 and a half% then you can see interest your opposition to being 10% which would be more conservative just in this specific little conversation not with we're over I mean
would you be opposed to being 10% we're way over it it's it's irr it's immaterial for this moment right now that we're in but I think that one could argue that you know seven 7 and a half% you're giving up the interest well it wouldn't it be better to be closer to
10% you know I I guess to to answer to answer your question for the future the the reason that I wanted to go with 72% is um I did some projections on to where the stabilization fund would be if
we took the interest out of it and in 2026 um we would be at about 99.7% so we're at 10.91 now we would be at about 9.7% so in one year by doing this policy we're going to drop significantly because the budget will go
up also if it was 10% if we ever spent any money we would get down 10% and the whole point of this is to have money to spend it's not really to it's the interest it's not no no the point of the operational operating stabilization fund is to have money for an emergency yes it
is not to generate interest right and so we have to have some flexibility to be able to spend that money and right of course what I'm talking about though is if the target so the more money we have to your point the more money we have in the operational stabilization fund the
better I'm actually arguing the same point that we're saying that we can use the interest if it gets to 7 a half% um I'm only suggesting what if we may that it has we can't do the use interest unless it's 10% that's that's what I'm saying then this is pointless because it
we'll never if we're not putting in any any more money then there will we're not going to stay at 10% right okay I I think I I see what you're saying I just that is the conservative approach but I think that comes back to Erica's time value of
money sure and also sometimes we just have to spend the money sure and if we're if we have this at 10% it may never come up again we just we had a freakishly High yeah interest rate for a few years yeah so just one other
consideration just so that you have the other side of this um this was created this 10% maximum was created um in 20 2009 it looks like um the cost
of an emergency now is much higher than what it was in 2009 and so just it it's possible that we may actually want to increase this to 12% or 14 or 15 I mean one Culver failure on Long Meadow Street is going to almost wipe out this amount
so just to keep in consideration that 10% really isn't very much anymore what am the the $8 million one Culvert it I mean it could depending on the size of it stuff just is obscenely expensive now
I mean it's almost $2 million to take down the old DPW just the the cost of everything is is so high that when you created this 10% was a lot but but Lynn my my recollection was we used percentage instead of dollars because we
thought that inflation proved it in other words your budget goes up because of inflation and so this 10% also also increases as the that that was kind of the thought as opposed to saying yeah it's got a $2 million in
this fund and $2 million doesn't buy what it used to buy right and I think I think you're right um it I guess what I should be saying then is a cost of an emergency is gone up and that's where cost of emergency went from 2% of a
operating budget to now it's 5% of your operating budget right okay just to something to consider that's all not to think that you're pressured to do something with money that's over 10% just maybe it's okay to have maybe you should up that
threshold okay can can do we know what other communities or state guidances for stabilization fund balances I can look into that for you why don't we send Erica Erica he looked at we looked at other at
other towns it's all and we actually compared it to bond ratings to see whether or not it had any impact on bond ratings and you have all sorts of of levels you have people who have a lot more than we do you have people who have half of what we do as a percentage of their revenue it's all over the place
and it's in no way correlated to bonding which was what we were looking at at the time so I don't think there's a specific State one um Mr OA informed us many times that the state just changed so that they could use the interest out of the state Reserve fund so I believe they
just put a state law in to be able to do that but I would say I mean I agree with you that the cost Lin is going up but when I asked Ian to tell me when we'd ever pulled money out of it I think it was once and it might have been the the ice storm 2011 September yeah but that's
the only time we've ever taken money out of it we pulled money out in the fall for mold remed ation and um what was the other one storm cleanup storm cleanup that the only freak storm stabilization F no that we did yeah that was the only two times this summer we had the weather
event on Farmington and we had um significant uh mold in schools that we had to emergency remediate 280,000 was 314 for the mold but three times in 23 years
or no what was the 2011 storm sorry nice to have it when you need it though yep yep okay um so I think we've got some stuff to chew on and we'll come back at our next meeting do do Dan and Erica um have anything else that they want to
add Dan no no I appreciate it thank you thank you Erica no okay thank you so much for joining us Erica I really appreciate it thank you all right great um Let's uh yes so let's just bring this back in our next meeting continue
discussion I I feel like we're making progress here and I think we should be able to hopefully come to some consensus at our next meeting um next we have the uh the ma The msba Accelerated repair program uh not for Center School roof
but for the Center School Windows um and this is a statement of interest um Lynn do you want to speak to this one yes so uh similar to what we did with the uh statement of interest for the roof uh we are trying now for the windows so this is um the Massachusetts school building
authority accelerated repair program the windows are now at an age where they qualify for the program we plan to submit um to try to get us in the process there um and this is the a required um application step the school
committee also voted uh and now it's up to the select board to vote and then we will submit the application uh in March when it's due okay great any comments anything on this one quick question what what's the match what's the state share and you know should this
get approved uh they don't we don't have that information upfront we we won't know until we get in and start moving through so if we get in we still have to go through our and then we got to figure out how we fund our share oh yes stabilization fund
okay great anything else oh yeah sorry one is our mess uh my I hear from teachers all the time there so this would be a a Big Boon to the town if we can get this does this require any action on our part specific a specific
vote attached to it specific language in the second document right so I yeah take that vote yeah there there's language do you need it resolved having convened an open meeting on February 24th 2025 prior to the so statement of Interest submission closing date the select Board
of Long Meadow in accordance with its Charter bylaws and ordinances has voted to authorize the superintendent to submit to the Massachusetts school building authority the statement of Interest form dated March 14 2025 for the Center School located at 837 Long Meadow Street which describes and
explains the following deficiencies and priority categories for which an application may be submitted to the Massachusetts school building authority in the future five replacement renovation or modernization of school facility systems such as roofs Windows
boilers Heating and ventilation systems to increase energy conservation and decrease energy related costs in a school facility this statement of interest is specifically intended for the replacement of windows and doors at the center School in Long Meadow and hereby further specifically acknowledges
that by submitting the statement of Interest form the Massachusetts school building authority in no way guarantees the acceptance or the approval of an application the awarding of a grant or any other funding commitment from the Massachusetts school building authority or commits long mle School District to
filing an application for funding with the Massachusetts school building authority second okay any further discussion Josh can you repeat that that was passed out at the end Mike Mr himy yes Dr Lamb yes Mr Gold
yes Mr LaVine yes Mr zerka yes okay great and then so this looks like uh some further action by the Town Clerk and the chair of the school committee yeah we um we will get the uh SOI signed by all who are needed to sign and then I
think we just do a certified vote to the msba perfect certified true true copy of test of the vote from the town clerk okay I'll work on coordinating that great thank you and then uh we've got uh one day liquor license applications I I just got a question do
these get approved by us and then go to the state to the abcc not one day no okay yeah we're they're missing check boxes and I and I I just I I don't know it
might happen every month but I I just noticed it today like it doesn't say if liquor is served or sold person's under 21 in attendance yes or no like we should just make sure they're filled in in case we ever get audited or something um yeah I know I know the last couple were I these ones when I posted I may
have just uh missed some oversight there so um typically they are served not sold I'm sure they are and then I know it's nor I see what you're saying we should beer and wine like it's not checked so oh and the second application on the first one too so I think that that maybe
it's it's not showing up in the scan I think the first one's got him but the second one is I think that's her signature oh no yeah I there's different ones missing on other on um yeah so I I I'm fine with this I I
know how these events work but I I just ask Mary Beth to to fill them in and just make sure they're complete so okay great uh otherwise I I'll move we approve uh one day liquor license application for the uh lccf for
events on uh March 5th 2025 and March 20th 2025 second second great thanks um any further discussion Mike Mr hovy yes Dr Lamb yes Mr Gold no Mr LaVine yes Mr
zero yes great thank you and then uh correspondence any comments about correspondence Mark just a couple of things the there's a Comon Comcast letter February 14th that talks about their service interruptions and all this kind of stuff is is there any chance we
can put that it had some information specifically on contact Comcast that was on pages eight pages N9 and 10 chance we can put that in our website just so people can see how to and I don't know the appropriate place
because people call from time to time saying how do I contact Comcast and this would be helpful y the other thing is there's a the there was a copy of the nominating papers in public relations or or press release in there
and I think the I I suspect it was caught by now but there's an opening for school committee for one year yes that's not on the um that document the one that I posted there was probably the original email it was amended shortly after oh
okay okay anything else all right I move that we adjourn second thank you okay any further discussion Mike m sh aathy yes Dr LM yes Mr Gold yes Mr LaVine yes Mr zero yes ni all right great thank you
all so much appreciate it thanks guys