All right, you guys need a minute or set? >> I think we're all set. >> Okay, stand by in five, four, 3, two, one. >> All right, good evening everyone. Welcome to the Monday, June 15, 2026 meeting of the Long Meadow Select Board.
Uh we have previously opened and had executive session. Um so I will Oops, I spoke too soon. I need to pull up my script. This is select board chair Josh Lavine. 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 Workup >> here. >> Bonath Mathy >> here. >> Andrew Lamb >> here. >> Shelley Mayor Duel >> here. >> Staff, when I call your name, please respond in the affirmative. Lynn Simmons >> here. >> Mike Barbieri >> here. >> Peggy Sheldon.
>> Oh, sorry. Uh this open meeting of the law select board is convened in person and via Zoom webinar as posted on the agenda and town's website identifying how the public may join. There is no chat or Q&A function. All the materials for this meeting are available on the
agenda post on long memma.gov. The public is encouraged to follow along using the posted agenda unless I note otherwise. This meeting will feature resident comment. For residents attending the meeting in person, please raise your hand when we get to the comment section of the meeting and I will call on you to approach the microphone. For residents participating
in the meeting via Zoom webinar format, please use the raise hand icon at the bottom of the screen. The meeting moderator will promote you to panelist, unmute you and give you permission to speak. If you join the webinar by phone, dial star9 to raise your hand and star six to mute unmute. Residents who wish
to speak will identify their names and addresses only. Each individual 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. All right, seeing none, we'll move to the pledge of >> allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice
for all. >> Okay. Uh now we move on to my favorite thing on the agenda tonight. Uh the select board reorganization. Um I would like to uh go against my normal uh habit of not making a motion, but I will move that we elect Dan Zoro
as chair. >> A second. >> Right. Um for further comments, uh Dan, this will be your fifth year, I think. >> Uh going into my fifth. Yeah. >> So you're an old hand at this. Uh, I think you would do you've uh served as
vice chair before and I think it's uh get get in there and I got the seat warm for you. So, uh I think you do a great job with this and it's um as I say when anyone is becoming chair uh it's a great way to see how the sausage is made. you
have a a very good and different relationship with the town manager's office uh and uh just people in general and I think you already excel at that. So I I think you'll this will be a good fit for you. So um if you will accept I think that would be that would be great.
>> Thank you. Yeah, I certainly accept. Obviously we have to take a vote but uh um yeah I just this definitely was not on my bingo card. I was a, you know, kid growing up in town going to center school and through the school system. I see former teachers here, uh, police
officers here. Um, yeah, it's just been quite an honor to serve the community that I grew up in and, um, yeah, I mean, I love Long Meadow and I think we all we all do as well. and and we we want to make sure that we continue to make uh you know, Long Meadow a great place to
to work, live, raise a family, and uh you know, it's quite an honor to be on this board and um serve hopefully as as your chairperson uh for the next year. and it's been just an honor to serve with all of you and learn from you and and Josh especially um you know over the
past year or so you've dealt with so much with the school and um just a lot of other issues and and you've stepped up um you know over the past four years since I've been on the board. So thank you for uh all that you've done and I appreciate uh nominating me.
>> Uh anything else? I move on to a voice vote. Uh, all those in favor. Okay. By vote. >> I'll I'll make a motion to nominate
Shelley Maynard Dewolf as vice chair. You >> want to second Shel? >> Second. >> Second. >> Uh, well, Dan, I think you're chair, so if you want to conduct the the vote. >> All right, we'll do a voice vote. All in
favor? >> I It's not a voice, it's a hand. Okay. Four. Yeah. 50. >> Okay. >> Do we have a a motion to nominate clerk?
>> Uh nominate Andrew Lamb as clerk. >> Second. Um all those in favor. >> All right, Ben, you want to move over? >> All right. I can just see the relief from Josh's face.
>> Oh man, I like the angle over here. >> All right, we'll we'll move to the next uh part on the agenda. Uh select board uh regular meeting announcements. Uh board and committees interviews for board and committee annual appointments. Three appointments will be held
throughout this summer. Uh residents who are interested in learning more on specific committees or current vacant positions can visit the board and uh committee page at uh www. longma.gov. An online application is also available
on this page. Town offices holiday schedule. The town of Long Meadow Municipal offices will be closed on Friday, June 19th, 2026 in op in observance of Junth and on Friday, July 3rd, 2026 in observance of
Independence Day. Uh the select board summer meeting schedule. The select board will have a reduced meeting schedule for this summer and will meet next on July 20th and August 17th. The board will resume uh with their regular
uh schedule uh meetings in September. And now we'll move on to uh resident comments. Does anyone here have any comments? Anyone online? >> Nope. >> All right. Uh next we will go to kudos
and plottits. The 2026 municipal clerk's honor role. Uh we would like to congratulate u assistant town clerk Stacy Martin on being named to the 2026 municipal clerk's honor role. The municipal clerk's honor role is a special program
presented by general code since 2001. Uh in its 26th year, the program has given thousands of municipal officials and private citizens a chance to recognize clerks from across the country uh for the important work that they do uh for their communities. Assistant
Clerk Martin is uh one of the 18 clerks from across the Commonwealth to receive this recognition in 2026 and receive multiple nominations for this honor. Thank you again for your devoted work serving our community. Congratulations.
Um any but does anyone else have any uh kudos or plaudits? Uh Josh? Um, I just want to thank the historical society and uh the Rev 250 committee for putting on the um the oh my god why can't a time
capsule bearing event on Saturday. It was a very hot day but it was really well attended. Uh and uh Andrew gave a fantastic keynote presentation uh where I I I was it was very rousing and I really enjoyed it. uh and it was uh gave
a lot of context to our our town and uh what it means for us to to be here uh able to celebrate this uh momentous year for the country. Um and it was a really it was a fantastic event. Um and then uh I hope I don't miss
anything, but we did uh long metal lacrosse. Uh Dan, I'm sure you wanted to mention this, but I I like now that I'm in this seat, I like to to get ahead of you. uh the 22nd state title uh for boys lacrosse just an incredible run um and
really a storied franchise that it was very exciting to see that happen again. Um and then the boys track team won the Western Mass Division One title which is really exciting and baseball and softball both had really fantastic runs.
I was getting playbyplay from my friend on his son's on the baseball team. A lot of one-run victories and lost in the semis and then softball made a great run as well. So, congratulations to everyone and very proud of our athletes as always. >> Thanks, Josh.
>> Mine's a somewhat of a ditto. I wanted to recognize the historical commission and uh Andrew and Josh for for your uh roles on Saturday. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to go, but I did hear from folks that it was really good. So, wanted to thank you both and thank everybody who helped with the time capsule.
>> I'll jump on the bandwagon. I agree. I I was also going to say it was a really special event and a great deal of thanks to not only the historical society and the Revolution 250 committee, but also uh a handful of really dedicated volunteers who literally uh vetted and
packaged over 300 contributions to this time capsule. And they did a lot of that because we found out that um East Long Meadow opened a time capsule that had water damage because I think a tree route infiltrated their time capsule
from 1976. And so our team went to the uh extenduating effort of literally waterproofing every contribution with not just ziplockc bags, some sort of special bag. So it was a it was a ton of work and and it went really well. And
also want to thank the DPW for coming out on a weekend to help. Um that was very helpful as well. And so yeah, I was um very happy that we had that event. And I also want to thank Josh just to take a moment for um actually in addition to being the MC, but really for
being the chair last year. I thought you did an amazing job. I always appreciated your diligence, your openness to ideas, your availability to me and I'm sure everybody else. So thank you Josh. Yeah. >> And to uh to that, Andrew, on the 250th
event, I um I was unable to attend, but I had I had heard and I just wanted to thank the first responders who uh acted very quickly uh helping out uh a young girl who um had a medical issue. So, thank you for for that and and I hope
she continues to uh recover well. All right. Um, I I do I do see the chief here and I was wondering if perhaps we could uh move the chief up so he's not stuck here until uh midnight.
>> I think it's so I'll uh move to uh move the agenda item of um under old business be ratification of police chief contract FY2027 through 2030 uh to be discussed now. >> Second. All those in favor.
>> All right, Lynn, I'll I'll pass this to you, please. >> Thank you. Uh, so, uh, here tonight, you have, um, a renewal of Chief Stocks's police contract. Current contract expires the end of this month. The new contract will carry us through fiscal 20
um, 20, I'm sorry, through June of 2029. believe that's right. Um, and so this will be a successive uh three successor three-year contract. Um, uh, the full contract itself will be posted on the town website with, um, the
updates to it. Uh, the bulk of the contract just revolves around, um, co cost of living assessments and, um, some cleaned up language just in terms of what's retirement eligible. Um um and yeah, there was there was not a
great deal of major changes needed. The contract itself was fairly new and um when Chief Stocks came on board, it had been vetted by both our council and the council for the police chief's association. So, it was in pretty good shape. It it primarily just revolved around uh financial benefits.
>> Thanks, Lynn. And just for uh the thousands of people watching at home uh right now, um it was, you know, I wanted to thank Lynn for all of your work that you've done. Um what happens is Lynn will meet with um the the chief of police and handle all the negotiations
and and brings the information to us and um I think I speak for the board when everyone speaks very highly of of you chief and and everything that you've done uh throughout your you know long uh standing career here in Long Meadow and and we're really excited that you wanted to continue that career here with Long
Meadow and um just really want to say thank you for everything that you do. you're a great role model for uh the men and women that that serve our community and um I just wanted to really say thank you and and uh congratulations for uh being stuck with us for a few more
years. >> Thank you. Um if I may, I just want to thank the board actually for your consideration. Um I really couldn't have it better right now. Um town manager has been fantastic to work with as you guys know. Um, I think I don't think anyone
on the board was serving when I first became chief, which really makes me feel old. Um, but at the risk of sounding a little corny, um, I've poured everything into my career here in Long Meadow. We're approaching 29 years with the department, uh, completing six years as chief of police and I'm, uh, very
excited to get another contract, another three years in front of me. Um, there's quite a bit I still want to do for the department, for the town. Um, and I'm looking forward to working with each and every one of you. Um, and please, as always, keep me posted. If there's something that we're not doing that you guys need us to do or want us to do, let
me know. That's kind of been my mantra all along is just let me know what you need and I'll get it done if I can. So, again, I just want to thank everyone for your time, your consideration. I truly appreciate it. >> Thank you. Uh, anyone else? >> Yeah. Yeah. I mean, not too much more to
add uh to what Dan said, but just to say that, you know, we hear from surrounding communities all the time about how lucky we are to have you as our chief, and I think that that's exactly right. We feel very lucky to have you at this role. You've been with us in Long Meadow for a very long time. And I, you know, this
was great for us to hear that we were able to come to this agreement with you so you can continue your work here. And, you know, you have our our full confidence, you the full confidence of the police department. And um I just want to say congratulations and thank you for all everything you do for our town. >> Thank you, sir. I appreciate that. Thank you, everyone.
>> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> So I I'm good. >> Oh. Uh so I will move to ratify the police chief contract uh from FY2027 through FY 2030. >> Second. >> Any discussion?
Hearing none, we'll go to a vote. Uh, do I have to call I have to call out the >> All those in favor. All right. All right. Uh, congratulations, Chief. >> Thank you. >> Thank you.
>> We will now move on to uh interviews and appointments. Uh, first up, uh, we'll have Andrea Chason. Hi. Hi, Andrea. How are you? >> Um, just
>> Andrea Jason, 236 Westview Circle, and I'm here for reappoint to the Conservation Commission. I don't know how long I've served on it, but it's been at least at least nine years already. It's hard to know. Time really rushes by.
And u one of the things that we'll uh we're not here to uh have difficult questions for you, but just want to kind of get an first of all, thank you for your service, many years serving, and we just want to kind of get an idea of um why you're seeking reappoint and um just tell us a little bit more about that
would be helpful. I'm excited to tell you. First of all, the conservation commission has been a lot more active in overseeing and managing the uh conservation property that we have here in town. And I've been part of moving
that forward. We're going to be working more closely with the meadows and the farmer particularly around the way the land is treated. And that's something that we think is really important. And so I'd like to be part of the next set of discussions that are going to go into
um the renewal of uh the issuance and possible renewal of a lease for farming there. I'm also excited about the work that we're contemplating to create um
more wildflower meadows that will be insect pollinator friendly that will also be helpful for education, for schools, for the general public and my own personal hope and nobody has
promised anything about this. This is my if I had a wish that Santa Claus was giving it would be to figure out how we can open trails along the river in the meadows connecting the riverfront conservation area down to Fanny Stevens
and I'd like to be part of that discussion. That's what I hope to be working on over the next three years. I've also been heavily involved in the Earth Day cleanup. Um, and I want to thank you, Dan, and everybody you do.
>> But, um, part of that is made me very much aware of the opportunity to educate the public about how to protect our property and I want to continue being part of that. So, I and I really like the people who are on the commission.
So, even though I hate the meetings, it's a good thing to do. >> All right. Well, really appreciate you stepping up once again and um we will be uh voting at our next meeting. >> Great. Thank you so much. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Sorry.
>> I did have one quick question. Have you been working with uh parks and wreck or the conservation commission on uh the talking about the trails or the the the farm? >> Um that's something I do reach out to
the parks and rick both to the chair and to Barry Weiss. I know that we we it's something that we need to be better at that. I mean, the parks and wreck has more oversight on the playing fields and the use of activities, but it's
something that we should look into and figure out how we can, you know, Laurel Bliss, how we can really connect and work around those areas that also are part of the open space, Turner Park. Um
there's, you know, for a small town, this town has a major attraction for lots of things from the birding and the meadows to the playing in all the fields. And we have lots of opportunities to
both enhance the property that we own and and be better stewards of. So, yeah, we really should work more closely with parks and wreck. That's something that I would work with the conservation commission on. Great question. >> Thank you.
>> Any other questions for Andrea? Sorry, Josh. I I was kind of skipping ahead by myself. Um uh thank you, Andrea. >> Is that it? >> Yes. >> Okay. I'm staying around for another presentation. So, >> all right. Thank you. >> Next up, uh
>> just a heads up. Michelle Keen Moore for reappointment for the board of health is also here. She was originally scheduled for a later date but rescheduled to this time. So just at the end of the interviews that are on the schedule, Michelle Kingmore is here as well. >> Awesome. Thanks so much. Um and uh Miss
Dong, >> if you could just say your uh name and address, please before we get into it. >> Judy Dong, 100 Arlington Road in Long Meadow. >> Thank you. you and and what brings you here today in terms of what you're seeking and and why you're seeking another uh term,
>> another term. Right. I I've had one term. I'm just finishing three years on the uh Council on Aging and uh for the last two years I've been secretary of the Council on Aging and very involved in it. I think it's a great committee.
I'm enthusiastic about everything that we do. I'm proud of the work that we've done. Um, and I think uh the number of people that attend the events at the uh adult center is is proof that things
that we're doing there are working and uh are successful. >> Absolutely. Yeah. Couldn't couldn't agree more. There's uh you drive by and you see a whole lot full of of people that are there taking advantage. So >> yeah, >> um thank you very much for your service uh and and continuing continuing to want
to serve as well. Um, any other questions? >> Thank you. >> All right. >> Thank you. >> Thanks so much. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Have a good evening. >> Thanks. >> And next we have Amy Block. >> Hi
Amy, 6 Avenue. and if you just want to give us a little background and what you're seeking and >> Sure. Um I am seeking reappointment to the historical commission. I have served um a three-year term and would like the opportunity to do more. Also um we've
had a vacancy for a long period of time on the commission and it felt very important to just reapply. >> Absolutely. >> To continue the projects that we're doing. any any uh interesting projects in the pipeline?
>> Um well, I would like to see us pursue the um certified local government application. Um we've started that. We had applied once. Um and it's something that we have reached out to the historical district commission on as well because it takes the partnership
between the two to apply. Um the goal is that if we were awarded that designation, then we would be able to access more funding for historical preservation and organizations like the historical society would be able to um
access more funding as well. >> Excellent. A town like Long Meadow likes to find ways to get more funding. So appreciate it. U any other questions? All right, we'll let you go. >> Thanks so much. Thank you. Thank you.
>> And uh Liz Bone, you'll note on the application it's had a check mark under energy and also recycling. Energy the term is not expiring. So it's just the recycling commission. >> Gotcha. Thank you. >> Sorry, I was confused which one I was.
>> Too many hats. >> Yeah. Right. uh Lisbone 34 Elizabeth Circle. I'm uh reapplying for recycling commission. Um and I just became chair of the recycling commission uh two months ago or a month ago. So, um
I guess uh what we're working on right now um we just met with some department heads and uh we discussed um increasing recycling and uh better in and having better recycling um practices within the
town buildings. Um, we're also uh comp uh compiling a spreadsheet of all the um recycling and trash containers at all our parks and um community spaces so we can have uh a good way to keep track of
it and also see what we need to add or subtract um or purchase, I guess. Let's see. Uh, we just finished up getting the calendar um out or um finished um
uh fixing uh editing it, I guess I should say. And let's see. And that's going to be going um out through uh so or on our website um this week, right? And uh we've also
been talking about cardboard uh down at the DPW or at the recycling center um and the recycling bin distribution. So >> excellent. >> Does anybody have any questions? >> Any any other questions? Thanks, Liz.
>> N >> I'm glad we're looking at the cardboard issue because that's something that's coming up quite often. Yeah, >> even myself, I went down about a month ago and I I thought I went early enough, but apparently not. So, >> yeah. Yeah, there's we've been
discussing it and would like to continue discussions with the DBW and maybe you guys. So, >> great. Thanks so much, Liz. Appreciate it. >> Thanks, Liz. >> And Michelle Keenmore. Hi, Michelle Kedenmore, 116 Brooks Road.
>> And if you'd just like to tell us what you're seeking appointment and um just some of your background. >> Sure. So, I'm seeking to continue um my position on the board of health. My background is uh I have my doctorate
from the John's Hopkins School of Public Health and um I have also more recently uh been teaching at Western New England UNI University in the department of bi biological and physical sciences for the
past 15 years and I've also been serving on Bay State's um board of the overseas clinical research for about the past 20 years as a volunteer.
>> Excellent. Impressive resume. Very impressive. And um yeah, I just and I also just want to say thank you with all everything that we had to go through with COVID especially >> um and and all the work that you've put in um as well as your colleagues. Uh thank you for that. Um any other
questions? >> How are you finding your work with uh our new health director? I think Ryan is great. Um, he's enthusiastic. He has a really nice background. I think he is really tackling things. Um, and I think
we're very happy to act as a resource for him and he's moving things ahead really nicely. >> Great. >> So, that's the feedback we like to hear. Thank you. >> All right. I think that's it. Thank you so much. And and like I said, we'll be
voting at our next meeting. Okay, sounds good. >> Thank you. Have a good evening. >> Thank you. >> All right, next up, uh, applications. I'm sorry. Uh, select board comments. Does anyone have
any additional comments? No. >> Seeing none. Oh, >> I just have one. Uh, it's I just want to thank everyone who worked on getting the pools open. Uh I saw especially over this incredibly hot weekend I saw kids walking through my neighborhood uh that
I presume they were going to the pool they were biking with their floaties on. Um but it's it's good to see it being used um and that we have that resource. So thank you to everyone who worked hard on getting it open. >> Well said. Uh we will now go to
applications. Um, so we have a liquor license amendment application uh from Royal Spice Incorporated. It's a change of manager application. Mike, I'll hand that over to you. >> Yep. So on the Zoom right now, we have attorney Rachel Fancy as well as Sam
Jeep Pr who is, I believe, currently um one of the um owners of Royal Spice currently. So this is I'll let Rachel speak from here, but it's a change of manager liquor license amendment application. I'm promoting Sam Gin now as well.
>> Can't hear you >> of the business. They had an employee who was acting as the license manager. That employee is looking to um move on and go to a new a new job at this point. So, we're looking to replace that license manager with someone who's going
to have some more permanency. So, a director and owner of the company would make sense. Um, other than that, there's going to be no operational changes. Uh, Mr. Duth is uh serve safe certified and he's been in the hospitality and food industry for over 15 years and has been
involved with this business since its inception. Um, it just makes sense at this time and transition the license manager over. We talked about I believe earlier on um doing it while the application was going. We realized that this employee was not going to stick around um the entire time, but it just
didn't work out at that time. So now we're seeking to do so now and hopefully we'll have the board of support approved. >> All right. Thank you. Um Josh probably has some some questions given with your legal background. >> Yes. Um thank you very much for coming
before us tonight. Uh so I I've not seen um I I don't do as many manager uh change applications for restaurants. Uh and so I I did note on this one uh that
you're you're back of house uh as the chef. Uh do do you work with the the weight staff or the bar? Do I guess my question is do you have a separate bar staff or there are you working with people who are coming in and out of the
back of the house uh all the time so you have that interaction so you can uh keep an eye on things from the back. >> Uh I'll turn it over to my client but I believe he's working now just as the chef that's just prior experience. He's sort of working all over um the premises
now part owner and director. >> Oh okay great that's that answers my question. Mr. >> Hi, can you hear me? >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Yeah. Uh so my primary uh things like uh
I used to work as a chef and right now uh uh I'm like you know supervising in the kitchen and taking care of all the restaurant operations. So uh I will be in the restaurant you know like uh 7 days in a week you know to taking care
of the operation you know to surprise all the operations and everything though apart from that I have a bar waiter also working with me here in the restaurant so you know >> okay >> so primarily supervision of the the bar
staff as well as the kitchen staff on the side all that that uh makes me feel better that's Great. Um I I you may have heard our spiel before, but in Long Meadow, we we take it very seriously uh your duties as making sure that people
are carded, that there's not uh people who are underage uh getting served alcohol and as the manager that will it's your responsibility. Uh and if anything does happen, if there's a violation, uh you'll be in front of us. And we don't like having those meetings.
We much rather have ones like this. Uh and so and we do there are sting operations I'd say probably twice a year in town where uh and you do not want to get caught by that. Uh the Long police do them as well as the state uh liquor
board. So make sure that everyone is being carded and uh don't assume because you might get yourself in some trouble and we don't we don't want to see you back here. >> Uh >> yep. Absolutely. >> All right. Great. >> Thank you. Thank you.
>> Thank you, Josh. Um, any any other questions? >> No. >> All right. Do I do I have a a motion? >> Yeah. I'll move to uh approve the change of manager application submitted by Royal Spice, Inc.
>> Second. >> Um, all those in favor. >> All right. Congratulations and uh keep up the good work. >> Yeah, good. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for your time tonight. >> Thank you. >> Have a good one. >> You too. Thank you.
>> All right. We will move to uh street closure applications. I will uh move to approve the captain road block party application uh for uh Friday, June 19th. >> Second.
>> All in favor? Um, and I will move to approve the center school carnival road closure application for Friday, September 25th. >> Second. >> Any other comments, questions? >> I will not have any kids in our school.
My first time in seven years. >> Sad. >> That is sad. Um and uh so all in favor >> u and I will move to uh approve the Massachusetts State Police car seat install event application to close Long
Meadow Street on June 28th, 2026. >> Second. >> Any further discussion? Um all in favor? All right. Next up, we have uh presentations, guest speakers. Um so we
have a presentation. We have Andrea Chason here. uh if you'd like to >> come back on up >> and uh >> and Liz as well two members of my committee
>> and we'll introduce ourselves. >> All right. So, yeah, before we get started, um name and address, please. Uh I'm Liz Bone 34 Elizabeth Circle. I'm on I'm the uh clerk of the energy and
sustainabil sustainability >> clerk initial founder. >> I don't know. >> Andrea Chason, 236 Chris Circle, chair of the energy and sustainability committee. >> Andrew Kisca, 31 Northfield Road, member of the energy and sustainability
committee. >> All right. Thanks so much for coming tonight. >> Okay. So tonight there's a couple of purposes in our presentation. Um out I'd like to focus a little bit on the um
specialized optin energy code uh and as well as some work that we've been doing. So at this point Liz and I will probably speak more to the energy the specialized opting code. Andrew will speak to some of the other work that's
going on that's important that supports this. Um Mike is you have some material for us. >> Now Andrea is this did didn't this come up at town meeting or you came in front
of a similar code >> or was it I feel like this came in front of the board at one point >> previously. We've come before the board to ask the board for support and helping the town adopt the specialized adopting
code a number of times. This is to give you a plan, an understanding of where we are now going forward with the ultimate goal is that we would like this to be an article on the fall warrant. It puts us in a position of
uh adding it to our climate uh action plan along with some of the other things that we need to do that will allow us to apply to be a climate leader under the state's um programs that will enable the town to
apply for grants for energy efficiency things for up to $1.15 million. right now we're limited much more significantly as a green community and this is something that we think would be a financial advantage to the town and
wouldn't cost anything to any residents which is important. Um so just to give you that was kind of the goal and the benefits um what we've done to date and Liz provided some information about what
we've done to date. Oh, >> and I should say that one of the things that we're aware of, this town has been hit with so many things coming at it, you know, in so many ways from the Williams school, from water and sewer, from the
um municipal aggregation to the fiber. It's like sometimes it feels like there's a lot of change happening and we know that residents and businesses are probably reeling from all of the things that we keep asking to keep pushing us
forward. So part of the greatest part of this work is education and outreach and we know that we that really needs to happen in a very constructive way and to that point we've done a great deal. Do you want to talk about that? Yes. Um I
>> I did not include that sheet because you had talked about actions to date in yours, but I will talk about it. Um we've had uh forums held uh to talk about the energy code. We did not have hardly any actually I don't think we had
anybody come. We've handed out lots of flyers at the town meetings. Um we have a presence on our Facebook page and on our town website that we talk about it all the time. Um, and we've uh worked with Paul Healey
in the building uh department to um educate their the people coming in and also the contractors. He said there's has been uh really no chat about it from the contractors coming in. Um, and
uh, so I think I think we're in a good place and I think um, if you see the flyer after we talk a little bit that I thought we could send out in the water bill or and include it with a lot of information for the town
meeting. Um, it's pretty clear. It just I think a lot of people are just, you know, are my taxes going to go up kind of talk and this kind of clearly states no. So, um, >> we want to be really clear that there's no financial impact to 98% of the people
living here in town. The specialized optin code impacts businesses. So, for example, the new business that's looking to be developed on the corner of Williams and um, >> Frank Smith or
>> whatever. I always get those confused. uh that would under this would be um required to meet the goals of the the specialized opting code. The good news is that the Williams school has adopted all of the aspects of the specialized
opting code and received additional funding as a result of it. So there's money out there to help municipalities to ratchet up the um uh work towards becoming carbon net zero net emission.
I always forget it's net net zero emissions by 2050. >> Um part of this is we're a green community. We already required to adopt the stretch code which will keep moving forward. The
specialized optin code adds some additional requirements for residences that are 4,000 square feet and over 400 >> 4,000. >> I'm so used to lately, you know, 4,000
doesn't seem >> only new construction over 4,000 square feet and that's pretty big. And um we recognize that people are frightened that it's going to cost them if they do renovations in
their homes. It's not. They And one of the reasons why we want to work closely with Paul Healey and the building commission is that they're also reaching out as uh Liz said to the um contractors and they've started to include
information on the permitting process. So they've already adapted that which is important for contractors who will also be asked to educate people who are they're coming in to give um proposals to. We know that um
one of the areas that we're going to be doing more outreach. We we're using town events. So for example, the future fiesta festival, we had information about this and presented it. Most people it just kind of goes over their head because they're not involved in it.
We're going to have a better presentation for the Pride um fair September 13th in Long Meadow. We're planning on a big display and we're looking to develop more visuals for the town meeting to help do a presentation
so that it will be pretty clear uh and hopefully combat misinformation that we know that goes around on every time there's a change. uh pretty clear that this is really not going to impact a town that's 98% built
out with very little uh going on. I mean when Glenn Brook comes down and there's whatever we do with that there may be an impact there but that's years away and by that point the stretch code probably will have caught up to the specialized one and imp place some requirements on
it. So at this point we're look working with you to ask you to support the work that we're doing. Um the planning board adopted the specialized opting code recommendations when they adopted the uh
long range plan uh the climate change long range plan two years ago. That's already in their um uh rearview mirror. And as far as I understand, they also support this. Um,
guess questions. >> Do you want to see the >> Okay. >> Do you want to see that their flyer? >> Yeah. >> I have some comments while we're waiting for that. Um, so I do remember the public forum. I was the only person who came to it maybe a year a year and a
half ago. And I at the time I did feel like education was crucial, but I see now that nobody really cares until there's like a vote essentially that happens over and over in our town. So I absolutely agree that education is important to tell people the pros and
the cons of of everything. But I think that it might just be like you have to put it on an article to know what for people to care. You know, nobody's really going to pay attention to the pros and cons. So I I don't remember I I remember taking notes but at the meeting
I mean >> listen >> there were some surprising things that came out about the details and I think it would be great if you could send us like the actual uh specialized code so we know everything about it. But I remember I was taken aback by something that was said um that like you couldn't
have gas stoves or something like that and you had to have solar. It was like a requirement. Um, I did appreciate clarification about, you know, it's not affecting renovations. Um, and I remember, I don't remember the answer, but what percent of the state is already
doing the specialized code? Do you have any idea how many towns do it already? >> Because I remember thinking it wasn't a high number, but we were hoping that like it would be more. Um, and I definitely remember Andre and I talked about this at least three or four times at the time and it was like emphasizing
the grants was probably an important thing to explain to people as well. And obviously the downside would only be if you felt like it would deter business development or something like that, you know, in the future. But like that's all
the things that we need to kind of re revisit and and make sure everyone knows about. If I can address the question of deterring business development, there are the last I looked, there were 92 communities, municipalities, cities
around the state that have already adopted the specialized optin code. That's increased since I last looked and I can get you the exact number. >> Um, most of those are in places where they're doing actual real business development as compared. We don't have much,
>> right? hasn't deterred it because the state already has mandated goals to reach energy efficiency and contractors throughout the state are supposed to be >> employing those goals.
>> Um you can use gas by the way even under the specialized optin code if you offset it with um electrification capability. >> Okay. But going forward,
>> as gas becomes more expensive and there's much more um reliance on heat pumps and induction cooktops and things like that, um and Andrew, who's he's my go-to guy on
this one because uh he's our expert on what's happening with the electrification throughout the state. Uh my my personal guess is that businesses know if they want to be in business in 20 years, they're really going to be moving forward to really develop their
property in a way that is going to be reflecting what the community needs are. Um I know Ammerst East Hampton, they have adopted the specialized optin code. Business development is booming there.
I I think Josh had a followup. >> You made a typo in specialized. >> Oh, did I? Sorry. >> Um the English major and me just um but I don't think you don't need to convince us. I think if uh we're for better or worse for the people in town pay the
most attention to stuff and if you as soon as you tell us that the town could get money, we're probably um and if it's not going to cost us anything. But uh you know I this isn't news to any of you. I'm sure if you if you're coni
trying to convince people at town meeting the battle's already lost. You got to because the same people show up to every meeting. They don't like change. And if somebody gets up and says I think this is going to affect my renovation. Doesn't matter what you say. You got to
get it out there before. And I'm not telling you anything you don't know. But you have to get new people to the meeting because you have to offset the people who are gonna we we have when we vote on who the trustees are of the uh the gold fund, six people vote no. Uh there's people who vote no on literally
everything. So you have to offset them and uh you know that's easier said than done, but you have to get a a ground swell of people who say, "Yeah, this is a good idea." And I think if to
me it's one thing to say we can get grants. But if you say here's a grant that we could get but we can't now because we don't have it and here's how much it would be. Or if a business owner says well I I want to do
this to my building. Um but I I can't or I if I put solar panels on I get an extra $100,000 or something for one of our aging commercial buildings. we have concrete examples. I think that that that's great because it's very hard to
understand things in the abstract. Um and so again, I know I'm not telling you anything, but and I do also agree with Andrew that we just got to put it on and and see what happens. Um because it's uh this is not a zoning bylaw, so we don't have to wait if it doesn't. Yeah.
>> Yeah. If it if it's on and it fails, you could try again later because that's already 92 out of 350 towns is already way I think if I recall more than it was when we last talked a year or a year a half ago. So I think that as more towns
do it and more examples like what Josh is saying like hey look at the grant they got then it becomes you know the whole state is moving towards this already the stretch code I remember that was one of the things that came up now like the stretch code is already doing it like some people so like these are
all really important things to bring up but I don't think there's ever like a this is the end for something like this right like but I also think I really think nobody's going to pay attention until it's on until there's a vote to actually decide something. >> And so, yeah, all the education and the
support may come up in the last month and a half, but uh I think so I I got solar panels when I moved here. And uh so every month I get a check between $1,600 for my um smart payments, which if you put on solar panels today, and
Andrew, you know about this, you put on solar panels today, you don't get those payments or it's much less, >> right? >> That could happen to us here, too. If we this pot of money that the state may have, grants will run out. So if you wait, then
it's too late. So >> I should also clarify that if the town adopts this in November, there's a six-month grace period to ease in in transition required under the state law. So it wouldn't become effective until 6
months after that. We can set the date for the adoption for the implementation once it's adopted. >> Is there any time when it does affect the renovation e commercial or residential?
>> Only if it's over 4,000 square feet, I think. >> Yeah, there's some multif family and commercial >> construction, but that's sorry. Go ahead. So multif family and commercial it would affect um but we don't really have that here. Um and it's
only for new construction this part. So residential. >> Okay. >> I mean I guess if you're putting on 4,000 square feet on your house and you manage to find an additional lot in order to do that because that's like
building a second house on top of your house. It would have an impact on that. But >> well, good luck. >> Part of what you get when you do that there, even though the federal government has cut back on incentives, the state's incentives are still there. And one of the things that um Department
of Energy Resources has done is shown what the actual out-ofpocket costs would be for somebody initially putting that together. But then you also have to um you're probably in a better place because you'll be saving money on your
utilities. So there's a >> a wash on some of that. I don't remember the exact amount, but I don't think there's many places in this town where somebody's adding 4,000 square feet to their home. And just to clarify that, so it's not if
if it puts your building over 4,000 feet, it doesn't kick in. It has to be 4,000 ft of new 4,000 square feet of new construction. Yes. >> Yeah. So, this is very limited, >> right? >> Yeah. And and again, I really I think that maybe the first time we talked
about this or you know, this was kind of out there that was not understood I think um widely and Right. >> Yeah. >> Right. Each time we talk about it, we get better at the talking. Maybe we get better at the questions being asked. Um,
and we become more sophisticated, which brings me to what I'd like Andrew to talk about, which is part of helping people in this town make decisions about electrification and sustainability.
>> All right. Thank you. um recently completed some training myself and another member of the um energy sustainability committee com completed some training provided through heats smart alliance. Now this is a a
nonprofit uh organization uh of volunteers privately funded. They work with the Mass Clean Energy Center. Um, and both of those agencies are dedicated to accelerating the growth of clean energy in Massachusetts. And
Heatsmart Alliance or Heatsmart Alliance in particular promotes the adoption of energy efficient heat pumps in Massachusetts. So, Greg and I, Greg Link, the other person on the board, and myself completed training, which was a six
module training about an hour and a half each module. We did that for six weeks um to become volunteer coaches to help um spread the message and work with folks that are considering
um or need to update their heating HVAC systems in their residential homes. So, we went through that training. We've become volunteer coaches. We haven't coached anybody yet, but we have completed that and are available to do that. Um, Heesmart Alliance has a
I'm going to say a very deep roster of very experienced folks um that trained us. Um, some of them even here in the Pioneer Valley, Amhurst, Northampton, etc., Springfield. Um, we plan on getting together uh just a informal
discussions on how things are going. Um and we also have those re them as local resources to help us help people determine whether how they what is the best course for them moving forward in terms of electrifying some of their
heating or HVAC load. >> If I can add to that, first of all, I need to thank both Andrew and Greg who stepped up and added some additional responsibilities. This is something um
I my husband and I installed a heat pump a few years ago and we had no guidance whatsoever on doing that. We were just struggling to find any information and for the most part a lot of the contractors who are in the area don't
have enough information or experience doing it. So, this is a really important part of helping to reach out and educate. And um we're going to be providing Lynn with additional information to put into the town manager newsletter. And we'd like this to be on
the website in a prominent place at least for a while. But we really want to help demystify and also fight the misinformation that a lot of the local contractors provide. I know that when we were trying to get a
estimate on what we should be doing, how we should be doing it, we must have spoken to at least eight different contractors all in the heating, air conditioning. Four of them said, "You never want to do that. You know, we're not even doing that. It's ridiculous.
You can't do that in New England." And then four four of them all had different information and different costs. and we were just struggling to figure out what the what to do with it. So, we really want to encourage people to transition
ahead of time, not in an emergency situation to make their house more energy efficient. And Andrew and Greg are able to coach people through, figure out how to ask questions, know what to do. It's a really invaluable
service that we'll be able to offer here. And I had a similar experience just about 10 years ago when I replaced my HVAC system. Bring in three contractors for estimates. What about heat pumps? Kind of scratched their head and we we really
don't do heat pump, you know. So, but I think they're they're also coming around too because they're feeling the pressure of state policies that are um mandating I don't know if mandating is the right word but encouraging the
conversion from from fossil fuels incentivizing I think it's a much better word. Thank you. >> Yeah. So, moving away from fossil fuels into into electricity for your HVAC. So would a resident be able to um use
your services or coaching? >> Yes. >> Is that kind of >> That's the idea. Yeah. So if Greg and I are on the website, they could contact us and we would use the training that He Smart Alliance provided us. There's a whole coaching handbook with suggested
templates for e initial emails and follow-up emails and all kind of different of course, you know, you personalize it and >> you get to know people and what their needs are, but >> Well, thank you for doing that. I mean, that's a lot of extra time and hours that you had to put into it. I I mean, I
just know personally for myself, I would want to take advantage of that. And I have a ton of questions that that I could have for you tomorrow. So, but um no, I think that's great. And um >> one last piece of good news um and we
just learned uh from the green energy group that um for the municipal aggregation where Eversource went in and got a rate increase for the kilowatts for the next six months. Our contract is I think
almost two cents cheaper on the standard default rate. Uh, and um, I'll be going back to get some more information about the takeup of it, but I just think it's really important for the town to know that the work this board is doing with
the support of the committees is actually saving people money and so they think that's important in this day and age. >> Yeah, absolutely. Thank Thanks so much and thank you for coming tonight and um, for all that you do with all the different initiatives. Um, you make a a
positive difference. So, thank you so much. You're welcome. >> Don't let my members off the board. >> All right, we'll be in touch. Thanks so much. Have a good evening. >> All right, we will now move to
correspondence. Does anyone have any comments on the correspondence? >> Hearing none. >> I had I'm sorry. I had one. Um, I think there was a correspondence around the recycling with the cardboard. >> Yes.
>> FAC. I know we talked about that a few months ago. Um, is there anything we can talk with Sean about from a DPW? I know we were talking about having to try to get somebody down there to help regulate and make sure we weren't having non-residents dump utilize that. Is
there is that still something we can talk about or that they're working on? >> Um, yes. So, I have it covered in my town manager report that got uploaded late to this afternoon. >> All right. >> So, you haven't had a chance to see it yet. >> Okay. >> But I'm happy to cover that then. >> Okay. Awesome. Thank you.
>> All right. Um I'll pass it to you, Lynn, for your uh town manager report. >> Okay, perfect. Um it's a long one tonight. Um a line painting contract was signed with K5 Corporation in the amount of $40,000 and some change uh for line
painting. This includes painting of nearly 40 miles of road lines in Long Meadow. Uh this is the plus sign arrows, the school markings, bike lanes, uh and other pavement markings. That work um is weather sensitive and the temperature has to be a certain degree. So um uh it
will it usually takes place sometime at a night during July or August. So that should be starting soon. Um an update on Reynolds and Greenwood Pool. Uh both pools open on Saturday. Uh they passed all inspections. The kitty pool at
Reynolds is going to open slightly later. When they were doing startup operation, they discovered that the pump for the kitty pool was no longer functioning. They had to locate a new pump and then price it out. As soon as we have the pricing, it will be ordered. Um and then during the closing procedure
on Saturday night the 13th, it was discovered that the chlorinator at Reynolds Pool was not functioning and chlorine was unable to be supplied to the pool. So, it necessitated the Reynolds pool close on Sunday, June 14th. A new chlorinator was purchased and it's going to be installed this
week. And the parks and recck department's going to be meeting with summer staff to develop a better communication plan for residents and pool goers to inform them more timely of opening and closing updates. Uh, as we did have some failures with that communication method over um over the
weekend on Sunday, I don't believe that there was proper notice provided to the public about the pool being closed and why. So, we're working on that. And um last week, a group of eighth graders from Williams Middle School came and presented to myself, the assistant town manager, and then in a separate
presentation to the parks and recck department for their civic actions project, which was regarding the Bliss Park tennis courts. Uh it was really great to see the four um members of the eighth grade class uh so engaged in something. Um, I was really surprised
with how much work they had put into it, including contacting vendors and getting quotes and um, it it was really great to see. So, >> did you tell them we're hiring? >> We did inform them of the parks and wreck community preservation application uh, for the review of Bliss Park to
start this summer. So, hopefully they'll stay engaged in that. Um, I'm happy to announce that the town was awarded a $60,000 grant through the FY26 Community Compact Municipal Fiber Grant Program. This grant um was signed and submitted to the Division of Local
Services on June 2nd. We were under a press embargo until uh Friday, so that's why we couldn't announce this earlier. Uh it covers capital costs associated with adding redundancy to the town's existing municipal fiber network via our municipal fiber resilience and critical
infrastructure integration project. It focuses on disaster recovery and resiliency and is designed to solve three highle priority vulnerabilities in our current digital architecture. Um, a huge thank you to uh, assistant town
manager Mike Barbieri and the assistant um, IT director Gary Blanchard for their help pulling this together. Um, they were the lead advocates for this grant and um, without them they we wouldn't have been successful. Um, an update on the new water meter
installation. So, a contract was signed with Hydro Utilities LLC in the amount of 36 uh, $367,000. This is for the installation and retrofit of our new water meters. The substantial completion date for that work is June 1st of 2027. In total, that
um uh retrofit and installation amount represents approximately 5,616 meters. It's part of the overall water meter upgrade project. There is a separate contract and bonding for the actual purchase of the water meters that
was a prior project approved at town meeting and the debt service was built into the FY2027 water rates. Um the purchase of uh those meters though uh uh is $1.5 million and it covers only about half the meters
that we need. So DPW is preparing to bring an additional funding request to the fall special town meeting. It will come obviously to you all first for inclusion on the warrant which would um cover the second half of meters for purchase. Um and then in the coming
weeks residents with imp impacted uh meters will receive a communication with more information about what to expect. We're doing this in phases so that it's not um an outreach to the DPW of 3,000 residents uh asking for their meters to be swapped out. we are trying to stagger
it based on staffing availability and now with the new contractor coming on board to assist with this installation. Um you can go online and sign up for an appointment and then DPW will schedule that for you. And then uh regarding the overflow
cardboard. So um as was mentioned during select board comments earlier and um and some of the correspondents that we've received um both my office DPW and select board have received complaints regarding the cardboard dumpster at the recycling center filling up prematurely
before the weekend rush. The recycling center staff had been reporting this as well and uh staff at the DPW were looking into this in contact with waste management. They learned that the um dumpster over uh two weeks had been
missed pickup and so what was causing um um the pickup happens on Thursday and so by Saturday morning the dumpster was at or close to being full and so it filled very quickly Saturday morning and people would get turned away then. So this has been rectified. Waste management um is
back on schedule now. I'm not sure what led to the failure for those pickups, but uh DPW is paying much closer attention. The recycling ascendant, recycling attendant staff are paying much closer attention to that now that they know that Thursday is the pickup day and it needs to be emptied no later
than Friday so that they can accommodate the weekend rush. Um, and in addition to that, when we did get outreach from two of the three residents, I double checked the cart size because um, I wanted to make sure that um, they weren't going out of their way to bring something to
the DPW yard when um, maybe they had a smaller size recycling container. And in two of those three instances, that is the case. So, one of those people is waiting for a swap. The other one is not has not identified wanting a swap. So, it's just something to consider as well.
it's that sometimes they are not able to accommodate the recycling at their house because they have a smaller size recycling container. Um so certainly if you get complaints um pass them on because we could have another issue that we need to look into. Uh Wolf Swamp Field Mowing requests for
quotes had were solicited and responses were received on Friday June 12th. The DPW is going to move forward with the low bidder who is Spring Valley Landscaping at a cost of $1315 per mowing. that includes the equipment, fuel, labor, and insurance. This is
going to improve improve DPW's ability to maintain other areas of town and school property um by taking this offline. As a reminder, um this has been outsourced since it came online. Um but the bid that was out early spring was
for both treatment and um mowing. It came in double what we had budgeted. So, we pulled the mowing out of the contract because the treatment and the um overseating and the aerration, that's stuff that we can't do. And um we
awarded that contract and we thought we could bring the mowing in house while we regrouped. That put a huge strain on the um very small grounds crew and they fell behind in a lot of areas of town. I'm sure you've seen it. We've seen it here and just the upkeep has not been what we
expect. Uh, and so this will help them get back on track. We did, um, as my report says, put this back out to get quotes award awarded to a vendor that, um, is a different vendor than who's doing the treatment and overseating. So, we're hopeful to see that this will have
a great improvement. Um, the Bliss Cor Bliss clay courts and the playground, DPWs, I'm sorry, parks and wreck is beginning their work uh, for the study of the clay courts. This will really hit the ground running in July when the funding becomes available
from the CPA grant award that was voted at the town meeting. So residents can stay tuned for that. Uh the courts are going to remain closed though throughout that process. There is no plan to um put that out to bid and um get those clay courts back up to speed. So um I we've
heard complaints from people about the weeds growing there. That is likely how it will stay. We've talked about mowing it, but that will make the condition worse. It will spread out the weed seeds and just turn the entire area into a a
large overgrown bed. Um, so if we do nothing, it is actually better than trying to mow it. We do not have the ability to maintain those clay courts. It's a specialty we don't have and we used to outsource that anyway. Um and
but I am pleased to say that the um the surface for the playgrounds um is in full-blown um work this week. Uh the contractor was mobilizing on site there today and pouring is happening this week. So that should be wrapping up. It
is fully on schedule. The contract is supposed to be concluded by the end of June and we will meet that. I had heard that there were some earlier inaccurate dates being circulated that this was supposed to have been done by now. That is not true. The contract always said end of June. The grant goes through the
end of June. Um we have a final inspection by the grant authorizer the end of June already set up. So really pleased to see that project happening. Um and um last but not certainly not least is the demolition of the old DPW
facility. As you know, we put this out to bid. responses were due June 9th. Um the attached memo in my report explains a lot more from the town engineer. Um but we are in quite a situation right now. We have a lack of funding based on bid responses. Um our shortfall is about
$600,000. So we are unable to award that contract at the moment and we need to now decide what direction we want to go. So I will be looking for some sort of consensus or further discussion from you all on what to do. When this um happened in a
similar um DPW project regarding the high school pool, I authorized the DPW to move money from different accounts to cover the cost so we could get that pool back online. But that was about a sixth of the cost of what we're looking at here. And so if if I were to do that
again, it is a massive ask that will hit a lot of department, a lot of lines in the DPW to make up that 600,000. We would then um really be taking a risk with needing to replenish those funds at the fall town meeting. Um I'm not sure
that I how comfortable I feel doing that yet. I wanted to get some feedback from you all. The other option is to call a special town meeting to vote on funding potentially from the operating stabilization fund. Not really sure where else we could identify 600,000 in
funds to make up this um deficit. Um or the third option, at least at this point, is not to award the bid, wait until September, go back out to bid, see if we can get a better number. um and then know that we have a town meeting
coming up closer to when we would have bid results. The risk with that is our permits run out the end of this calendar year and the likelihood of getting all this work done in the fall is not very good. So um we are kind of in a um
peculiar spot at the moment and we need to decide how we want to move forward. uh we cannot sign a contract until we have identified all the funding and um these bids are only good for I believe it's 30 days. So um we do we do need to
make some decision. Um >> Josh, >> um I will I do want some things I want to say with DBW. I'll get to that at the end. Um thank you for addressing the cardboard and the the mowing. Um, I know
I bugged you a couple times about the mowing at the is very prevalent or noticeable at the baseball fields and from the community house. Um, and you you had a good answer on what was going on and I'm glad it's been addressed. Uh, and it seems like DPW's caught up pretty
well. I just noticed that our executive session that side of the building. Uh, so that that's good. Um, for Bliss Courts, uh, I I agree that we shouldn't be touching it. It was money that was a
luxury that I think that got out of hand. Um, and this maybe is kind of silly, but maybe we should put a netting around at least on the bottom of the fence so people just can't see it. >> Yeah. >> Uh, now out of sight, out of mind. I
mean, I know people want to play there, but at least it'll be less of an eyesore while we're deciding what to do. Um, then on DPW, do we we we know that there's hazardous materials. Do we have to do something? Uh,
is there a timeline on when we need to demolish it? >> Uh, the only time constraint at this point is the DP permits. They will expire. >> So, they will expire, but when they expire, is there anything saying this building needs to be demolished or this?
Okay. No, >> I mean it >> other than I mean we're paying more for insurance because it's an inh uninhabited building, but >> not 600 grand, >> right? >> Um yeah, as we wait things get more expensive. Uh
it's never going to be cheaper to demolish than it is now. But I'm certainly wary of blowing a hole in our our budget already uh in the fall for next year. That's a difficult thing to
do. Um, that's a bad spot. But I I'm also I my initial instinct then from your explanation is I I would rather not do that and wait. It's cheap. It'd be more
expensive to should we do any engineering and repermit, but if we get in a spot where we've moved money around and then we can't replenish it, it's worse than than the alternative, I think. >> Thanks, Josh. Dr. Lamb.
>> Lynn, what was the bid? 600,000 less than what what is the bid amount again? >> Um, the the bid the low bid for the uh demolition came in at 2.256 million. There is a um full memo that was attached to the agenda to late today. Um
some of the reason for the late uh manager's report is because um we we just got these responses on Friday and I wanted time to analyze it and include it in here and then I needed more information on the pools for you from tonight. Um so that there
>> when we did our original bid, was it based on what we thought biders at the time? I mean, what do you think is the reason why we're off by >> Sorry. Um, so then the the balance of the 600,000 is um between the demolition
costs of 2.256 and what we have available is actually only $62,000. However, we still need to pay for engineering related to oversight of the project that's required. It's $310,000.
We have a contingency for change orders built in. Potentially we could move that number a little bit. We have it at 10% which is 2 point or $225,000. So even if we did a zero contingency which is incredibly unlikely, we're
still short $400,000. >> But when we did the town meeting amount for the warrant article, we included those things, right? The contingency. >> Are you talking about for the building itself when the building project started? I guess I'm asking why we were
our bid why we estimated too low. >> So when they changed um when the DPW project was the debt authorization went to town meeting >> I don't I wasn't here so I don't know what fully they had included in the
demolition but I know it did not include um keeping some of that garage space. So that is what is also contributing to this cost is some of that garage space has to be kept because there's not enough room for the equipment at the new facility
>> and it's and it's re it's able to be rehabilitated. It's >> the very far end to closer toward the recycling center there are I believe it's two garage bays might be three that can be kept. Yes. >> Really? Okay. >> Yep. >> What are we doing with the rest of the
space? Um, as of now it'll just be it would be just leveled and cleaned up. There's no future plans at this point. >> Do we know if any remediation needs to be done like take out existing >> a little bit soil? Okay. >> Exactly. >> And that's accounted for.
>> Oh, it does. >> And when was the mass uh uh permit expire? >> The end of the calendar year. >> Is it okay if we does it have to be completed by then or just started or a contract has to occur? believe it needs to be completed by the end of the
calendar year. >> And and so what's the process for getting new permits like the cost or timeline for that? >> Don't know yet. Um I do think we need to have a conversation with D to find out what that looks like. Um if it's a we
have to redo it again, that that would be massive. I mean, half the reason we're still having this conversation is because that process took an extra year and a half. >> Um involves we wouldn't have to >> that involves like them assessing the
site and it's not just as simple as like knock it down and we approved it just expired we'll just approve it again it's not simple >> right it and it went further than D it triggered MEEPA um and there was an environmental justice population in Awam that was within the mile radius that was
the mileage radius that was required to start the MEPA process so that added um a significant amount of time and cost >> but do you think that if they approved it like to expire on December 31st, they wouldn't readily approve it again for
the next year. I mean, is it easier because they've already kind of studied it and nothing's changed? >> Hopefully, but do they have extensions to permits? They might >> because I know like Concom has extensions for like their wetland permitting and stuff. So, I'm just wondering if the state has very similar >> They might. It would definitely be a
conversation we would be having. Um, we just haven't had that chance yet. >> Okay. Yeah, I think that those pieces would be like really important. Um, before we make a decision, >> I had a quick question on another topic.
Back up to the waste management just from a a contract moni monitoring perspective like with waste management missing a few of these pickup dates. Um, I think around town there's been a few dates missing. So, it's like a two-prong question. one, do we have anything in the contract that would allow us to claw
back any money from what we're paying them if they don't meet a certain like service level agreement? And then two, when they don't do pickups, is it possible for them to communicate with the town and we put a post like on our website just letting people know, hey, a truck broke down. Your trash isn't going
to be picked up. I think um and I'm only asking because I got a lot of questions in my neighborhood because our trash was not picked up for several days. Um, and we didn't know why. >> So, yeah. So, the the recycling one at the recycling cardboard container at the
recycling yard is a different contract than the curbside residential pickup separate. >> Um, and so they have different uh clauses in them. >> Um, the curbside residential, there is a daily update from the driver or the
route on what happened and what got missed, whether there were tags or not. >> Okay. Um, and there is very regular communication between DPW clerks and the driver. >> Okay. >> So, if something is ever missed, um,
definitely call the DPW. We want to make sure your address is on there. >> Okay. >> Um, it it would be rare that we wouldn't know about something. >> Okay. Yeah, because our whole neighborhood was missed for the the weekend. >> Usually gets on there that night. And this was a big when we first switched
>> Yeah. roots or how that works all the time. >> Yeah. Okay. >> Thank you. >> Used to be a lot of work, but >> any other questions for Lynn? >> Yeah. Uh, thanks. Um, Lynn, I I just wanted to ask about the water meter
installation and why we went about it this way where we funded half of the purchases and are seeking the second half. Um, it was strategy to keep rates low >> to not have it spike so much. I mean, it
would have been a $3 million project at that point. >> So then if this funding request is authorized at town meeting in the fall, then that will necessitate another
like a water rate increase to absorb that. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Yep. But it would be in the next fiscal year, not in 27. This this um 1.5 is going to hit in fiscal 27. So your rates that you set accounted for this already.
So when you get rates in March, let's say, it would account for something a borrowing that in theory was happening this coming fall, um but won't have debt service on it until fiscal 28. >> Okay. >> All right. Any other questions?
Seeing none, we'll go to the department monthly reports. Uh, obviously we're not going to read through all of them. Any other any questions on these reports, comments? Seeing none, we'll go to old business, approval of meeting minutes. Um, is
there a motion? >> Yeah, I'll move to approve the June 1st, 2026 meeting minutes. >> Second. >> Uh, any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor? >> Abstain.
>> Oh, Josh abstain. Okay. Um, we already went over the ratification of the police contract and then select board town manager policy review. Um, new financial policies, uh, do DLSS
best practice recommendations. Uh, Lyn, do you want to take this? >> Yep. So, um I'm sure you've all had a chance to look at this massive document. Um this I can't get it to load. Uh they
this is uh the first draft. Um there is a lot to this. Is Ian here? Okay. I will actually see if Ian can take this conversation over. He has done an phenomenal amount of work on
this um and sat through the do uh policy update with us or I'm sorry uh for for the town at their training um and then modeled their best practice policies to um Long Meadow Standards. So I'll kick it to Ian to just brief you on where he
is with this. >> Thanks Lyn. Can you guys hear me? Okay. >> Yes. >> Perfect. Um so just a quick summary as to what this is. So this organizes the town's current financial policies as outlined in the select board um
management policies into a cohesive manuals between two categories. The financial planning section and the financial operation section. uh with the assistance of the finance team, myself, Jason Ducharm, Amber Grudell, Maria Catalo, and Chad Thompson, we reviewed
and updated applicable policies related to uh law me and what we currently have. Um this new tool overhauls the current policies um using best practices put together by the state and the GFOA, which is the government financial
officers association. uh policies um policy is a policy making it aative process and I know that we'll continue to make changes to this as we go on. However, this gives us a great baseline um to go forward with. At this point,
you see a draft version. Len and I are working on some of the finer details a finalized version in the coming weeks. Um if there's any specific questions or recommendations from the board, I will gladly take those um look into it and then potentially implement them into the final draft.
>> Excellent. Yeah, thanks so much for all of your uh input and effort on this. Seems like a pretty heavy lift if you ask me. So, >> thank you. >> Um any any questions for Ian? Obviously, we'll be talking more about this in coming weeks.
Seeing none. Thank you, Ian. >> Perfect. Thank you. >> All right. Uh we will move on to the investment policy update. >> Uh when do you want to take >> This evening. >> Yes. And Erica Brunell, the town
treasurer collector, is here and she can brief you on why this is coming to you outside of the financial policy review. >> Hi Erica. >> Good evening. Can you hear me? >> We can. We can't see you, but that's okay. >> I know. I apologize. I have to connect
with it tomorrow. I thought this was a um Teams issue, but apparently it's now a Zoom issue and my camera just doesn't like me. But I apologize. I'm glad you can hear me at least. >> Yes. Thank you. Um, so I am moving this piece forward ahead of um, Ian's
amendment to the financial policy in hopes that we can review just the piece about the investment. Um, because with the increase in funds coming through for the ban and more borrowings next year, our cash flow has exceeded what our
investment policy is really capable of handling. So back in 2002, the select select board had allowed an amendment to the investment policy to allow up to $20 million in one institution. And at that time that was sufficient, but it is no
longer sufficient to meet our demands. So um I'm asking tonight that the select board will allow me to remove the monetary limit of $20 million in one institution and instead just maintain the 45% concentration limit. So, a big
piece of this to keep in mind is that this large cash flow that's coming in is due to the ban for the middle school and the water meters. So, that those funds will be drawn down as the projects are underway. So, we won't have this large
um cash flow all the time. But, in order to accommodate the $72 million ban, it's really necessary for us to make this change. And I'm really looking to keep those funds in an institution that has FDIC and DIFF coverage because if we go
to an institution that utilizes Interfy, it would have an exorbitant amount of um banks that would need to open accounts for us to keep under the $250,000 limit for just the FDIC. So, just some of the really main features of this
memo, but um that is the explanation of why I'm coming forward today before Ian's adjustments because we really can't wait beyond next week when we get the fund uh the funds in for the band. >> Makes sense. Um it sounds like certainly we've kind of outgrown the the policy
and a lot going on in in town right now. Um appreciate your your work on this. Um is this something it sounds like you want us to approve tonight? Yes, please. Because our funds are coming through next Monday, so I I don't
want to be in violation of the investment policy. >> Absolutely. Um is there anyone else have any any questions on this one? >> Have a question. Uh Andrew. >> Um is the thinking in your mind that it's a matter of um convenience in the sense that we have
such large amounts of money coming in and it's just too much work to put it into different accounts? Or is it because there's like one best bank with the best interest rate and you really want to make sure we maximize that? I remember when we made this policy, I was think I was on the finance committee and
obviously the reason to have it was in case like you didn't want to put all your eggs in one basket in case a bank fail or something like that. Um I'm not necessarily averse to it, but I just wanted to know what is the greater reason to do it. >> No. So, I absolutely would not put all these funds into one institution. As
much as I would love to have just one account hold all of these bond proceeds because it would make my life so much easier, it's um it's not a safety feature that I'm willing to um put on the town's back. The 45% concentration limit is there and I think that's a very
smart um I I guess like cap in order to use to make sure that should one institution go down, we do still have the concentration spread out. Um, so it's really important that we do hold that 45% concentration
limit. Um, but taking into consideration that $72 million coming in doesn't even look at the cash flow we currently have. Um, it's not a convenience, although there are some great rates of some institutions versus others. I think it's just a safety thing to make sure that we
are spreading out our funds, but also making sure we can get interest rates that are necessary. Um, but also has having liquid funds at the same time. Okay. And I guess one more question would be what do you anticipate the
highest account level would be like 45% of all of our proceeds? Like are we talking like 60 million or 40 million in one account? You have any idea? >> No, I don't even I don't even want to go that high. So, even if I were to split
up um the 72 million coming through and you say it's about 35,000 in each account or 35 million in each account, some of that 72 has already been spent. So, we will be able to get rid of that from the two large accounts. But, I'm thinking even if it's two large accounts and then we have other accounts that have close to 20 million in them.
there's going to be a good spread across different institutions, but I do also want to look into at least one other um local bank that does have FTIC and DI coverage and they are one of the top um
top banks on the verb bank rating for our area. So, they're one that I've been reaching out to and have been getting relationship um with that bank, too. But I'd like to throw them into the mix of our portfolio because I think it would give us another opportunity to spread out some more funds on a very safe
institution. >> Can you tell us what the FDIC coverage insurance coverage limit is for something like this? Like how much will they insure? >> Um, so for banks with DIFF and FDIC, FDIC goes up to $250,000. The DIFF is anything beyond that.
>> So, and there's no limit. >> There is not. >> Oh, great. And one last question is >> that's why >> I'm sorry >> sorry that's why some of the larger banks get kicked out of that coverage because they get too large and they don't want to cover that. >> I see. And one final question is um so
obviously we've had this policy in place for a while and it sounds like for these next several years it's kind of like a special situation where we have you know $70 million or whatever it is coming in for a middle school. Do you feel like after this time has passed, there's still benefit in going back to a policy
like this or do you are you not not concerned at all about going back to like putting a like a limit on each individual account in one institution? >> Um I feel that the percentage concentration is a better monitor of our cash flow over time whereas our cash
flow is going to fluctuate that percentage is going to fluctuate with it. And if you have a monetary cap, it's just more restrictive. But if you're following through on the percentage cap, it's just a safer and easier way to maintain those cash flows over time.
>> I'm sorry, I have one more question. If you um do you feel like other because I remember debating like this percentage, you know, obviously you could be more conservative. It could be 30%. It can only be in one institution. What do you know about other towns and what they do? Is this 45% like a typical amount or is
it an outlier? I honestly haven't done the research to see what other towns are doing, so I wouldn't want to guess on that. Um, >> I don't remember either. I think I asked the same question three years ago, but thank you. >> Any other questions?
>> No, I I was going to ask a couple of Andrews, including that last one. Um, I I think that would be something good to know going forward. Unfortunately, we don't have time to do that right now while this money is coming next week. Uh, and but I do feel that we see how
much work Erica goes into in monitoring our accounts and the safety of our accounts. Um, so I I do feel comfortable with with this. Um, but I I would like to know going forward if there's something we should do to uh
if there's something that the board wants us to do to make it make it more comfortable of lowering the percentage, something like that. Um, but I I do think that it does make sense to me that a hard cap doesn't uh is not indicative of where we actually need to be. So,
percentage works for me. >> Yeah, I would just I would just echo some of those comments and Erica, thank you. Uh, it's it could be very easy just to kind of leave things as as they are. Um but you're taking the approach, you know, always looking out for the best
interest of of Long Meadow and making sure that ensuring that these funds are are safe as well. Um so certainly we don't want to mess around uh with potentially losing these funds um with
lack of FDIC coverage and so on. So I just do want to really thank you for bringing this up to us and um staying proactive as you always are. Um, and we'll certainly, as Josh and Andrew said, make sure we address this in the future as as times change, uh, with
funds and projects as well. So, um, thank you again. And is there do I have a motion to, uh, proceed? >> Yep. I will move to amend the investment policy uh or I'll yeah I'll move to amend the investment policy as recommended in the
attached memo um authored by our town treasurer >> second. >> Any further questions? All those in favor? All right. All right. And we'll go to uh new
business. Uh the we'll talk about the ban approval. Um, >> there's also like a general policies. >> Oh, geez. Sorry about that. Uh, first we'll go to the, uh, general policies review overview.
>> Uh, yep. I'll take this one on the So, this is pretty much just an update of I think at the last meeting we gave an update on just how we have the matrix system set up in uh, Google Sheets, just outlining the review that has taken place to date. Um right now, um there's
a few recommendations, but none that we need to take action on today. It's just, um a few that you'll see highlighted in red, we're recommending that we either delete or we look at more closely just to figure out if there's something better that we can actually um institute. Otherwise, some of them are duplicates, what's already in our
personnel manual. So, those are items that aren't aren't needed in both areas. Um some have just kind of outlived their shelf life, like the telecommunications policy. It's very outdated. It was written in the early 2000s and it really doesn't have any benefit to how we, you know, currently h to our current
practice. Otherwise, a lot of these that you'll see highlighted in yellow are um going to get a deep dive from some from some specific departments who have some I wouldn't say oversight on these, but just have they have some impacts to their um functions. um others um we have
reviewed and there's some initial recommendations or there's no recommendations at this time based on the fact that you've either modified it within the last year or you made some um modest amendments as you know the years have gone. So, um you could Another reason why we wanted to bring this back
was also just to um kind of just get a temperature check to see if the board wants to, you know, take any specific ones on their own or if you want to just kind of continue down this route of having us review and we can come back with further recommendations as you see fit. But otherwise, we kind of just
wanted to show you the overview of what was done to date and obviously from there you can kind of take some of the recommendations and either make some suggestions or you may have some suggestions of your own, you know. >> Yeah. Thank you. I mean, this is a a huge undertaking to be going through all the policies. Um, I mean, it's a ton of
a ton of work. I really appreciate, Mike, all your work and and Lynn and the team. I'm just curious. Um, do you feel like overwhelmed with what you're doing currently or um No, I think this was the easy I would say easy, but this was the
nonstrenuous part. I think actually going in and starting to make the amendments to them and put the pen to the paper, that's probably going to be the difficult work. So, um I'll say the more help the marrier, but I don't know that we're prepared to do that yet. Hopefully sometime this summer, but you
know, obviously we have to prioritize a lot of different projects, but >> makes sense. >> I think the biggest ones for us are the all the budget and financial policies which are Ian's looking at uh along with the rest of the finance department. So, um I look forward to hearing what we
have there. I think that was the one that kind of spurred this on. And then reading through this certainly uh was it MySpace and BIBO? I don't know what Bibo is, but I'm glad we're not referencing that anymore.
>> Thank you. >> Uh we don't need to take a vote on this. >> No, just just kind of just a status update. >> All right. Thanks so much, Mike. Really appreciate it. Um so we're going to go to new business. Um the bond anticipation note, also known as ban
approval. Does >> Erica again? >> Yes, I'm still here. >> Did Did you Would you like to uh just talk about this briefly? >> Sure. So, we went out to bid um for a
ban. Uh short-term borrowing is what a ban is, and it's to cover the four projects highlighted in the memo. the middle school construction, the water man improvements, sewer improvements, and water meters. Those bids came back last Monday and BNY Melon Capital
Markets LLC came in at the lowest bid with a net interest cost or nick of 2.71995%. There is an attached spreadsheet that shows the other bids that came in, but they weren't quite as competitive. So, we are looking tonight to get your approval and vote for, and I'm sorry, it
is quite the vote. It's very long, but this is necessary in order for us to finalize the borrowing. Um, with which again, those funds would come in next week. So, we're just looking for your approval on that ban. >> All right. Thank you. >> And the new clerk at Serita.
>> Are you serious? >> They're like hazing. >> Thank goodness. Um, I just want to say that Ian was kind enough to talk to me about this for a while today and I was just looking at
the policy and and the bands and um I I got more comfort with it as we discussed it. I I to me there, you know, the it sounded like Ian, correct me if I'm wrong. The goal here was obviously it was a pretty attractive rate but it gets us to a position where we can do the
major borrowing later altogether but it's not without some risk and I think it's important that we all acknowledge that like we're we're basically just paying interest on this and there's no principle um being paid and it might work out in our favor especially if interest rates are go down when we make
the major borrowing but it's also possible it could go the other way. Ian, do you want to share any other important comments on that just for people's education? >> Yes. So, I'll respond. Um, just so people understand, traditionally when we do large construction projects like
this, um, during the construction phase, we often do financing first in the form form of um, short-term borrowings like this. So, when we had the high school, when we had the DPW building, we did a similar thing. We borrowed short-term during the phase of construction and
then ultimately borrowed within a long-term borrowing once construction was substantially complete. Nothing has changed here. Um Andrew is correct that we do have some interest rate risk. Um I will note that we work with our financial advisors who monitor rates
throughout the process. And what is helpful for us to understand is that every long-term project has the ability to um issue what is refinancing which we just recently took advantage of in the last couple years with the well metal high school which saved us uh a
pretty penny. So it is something that ultimately does have risk in the short term and also the long term but it's something that is monitored. >> Thank you. Any other questions? >> Do we have a a motion?
>> Does this have to read all of that? >> Does he have to read all of that? >> I believe so. >> That's how we've done it. >> Happy to read it. I just >> Well, it is. It's >> I just I think it says I mean it says
past tense like the votes were unanimously passed. Is that correct? There should be a document on there's a document on the agenda that should be titled select board vote. >> Let me look at this. >> It says vote of the select board. Yeah, it's two pages. >> Hold on. >> I think it's we hereby. So I I move that
we determine and blah blah blah. >> Yeah, we here. >> I I move that I move that we determine in accordance with GL. >> Okay. Just skip the first paragraph. >> Yes, skip the first paragraph and start with uh determine, approve, etc. And
these are all separate votes. >> I got Oh, each of one is a separate vote. Okay. All right. All right. I move we hereby determine in accordance with general law chapter 70B that the cost of the Williams Middle School construction project authorized by vote of the town passed on September 9th, 2025, article 1, and excluded from the limitation of
proposition 2 and a half so-called by a vote of the town passed on September 30th, 2025, question one, being financed with proceeds of a portion of the notes defined below, together with all other bonds and notes of the town previously issued to pay cost of this project does not exceed the portion the portion of
the total cost of the project that is not being paid by the school facilities grant and we hereby approve the issuance of notes and bonds to finance this project under GL chapter 70B >> second. >> Um any further discussion? All those in
favor? I move that we further vote to approve the sale of 71,464 I'm sorry 71,464,61 um 4% general obligation bond anticipation notes of the town dated
June 22nd 2026 and payable June 22nd 2027 to BNY Melon Capital Markets LLC at par and acred interest if any plus a premium of 914,782,000 I'm sorry $114,78262.
>> Second. >> Uh any discussion? All those in favor? >> I move that we further vote that in connection with the marketing and sale the notes, the preparation and distribution of a notice of sale and preliminary official statement dated June 2nd, 2026, and a final official
statement dated June 9th, 2026. Each in such form as may be approved by the town treasurer be and hereby are ratified, confirmed, approved, and adopted. >> Second. Uh further discussion, seeing none, all those in favor, >> I move we further vote that the town treasurer and the select board be and
hereby are authorized to execute and deliver a significant events disclosure undertaking in compliance with SEC rule 15C2-12 in such form as may be approved by bond council to the town which undertakings shall be incorporated by reference in the notes for the benefit of the holders
of the notes from time to time. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All those in favor? >> I move we further vote that to author that we authorize and direct the town treasur to establish postisssuance federal tax compliance procedures and continuing disclosure procedures in such
forms as the town treasurer and bond council deems sufficient or if such procedures are currently in place to review and update said procedures in order to monitor and maintain the tax exempt status of the notes and to comply with relevant securities laws. >> Second.
>> Any discussion? All those in favor? I move we further vote that any certificates or documents related to the notes collectively the documents may be executed in several counterparts each of which may each of which shall be regarded as an original and all of which shall constitute one and the same document. Delivery of an executed
counterpart of a sign signature page to a document by electronic mail in a PDF file or by other electronic transmission shall be as effective as delivery of a manually executed counterpart signature page to such document and electronic signatures on any of the documents shall be deemed original signatures for the
purposes of the documents and all matters relating there too having the same legal effect as original signatures. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All those in favor? I move we further vote that each member of the select board, the town clerk and the town treasurer be and hereby are authorized to take any and all such
actions and execute and deliver such certificates, receipts or other documents as may be determined by them or any of them to be n necessary or convenient to carry into effect the provisions of the foregoing votes. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All those in favor?
>> Thank you, Andrew. >> Thank you, Andrew. >> Thank you, everyone. I just want to add one more piece that um Mike did take the forms for me that do need signatures. I just kindly asked if you could all sign them at the end of the meeting. Um we just need those to be submitted tomorrow. So I appreciate all you've done.
>> Thank you, Erica. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, Ian. >> Thank you very much. >> All right, moving on. We'll do the uh eighth extension for the water agreement with Springfield Water Sewer Commission.
Um, Lynn, do you want to >> Yep. This is your annual renewal. There's been no changes other than updating the dates. Um, just renews the existing agreement from I believe it's 2009 if I remember right. Um, at some
point it will likely be updated to be a uh more current document, but right now we're still moving ahead with just annual renewals. >> That's what they said eight times ago. >> Yeah. Um, and this one as well as the sewer one that you're about to get next have both been reviewed by town council.
Okay. >> I spelled a wrong. >> That's a good start. >> You're finding a lot of spelling errors tonight. >> I know. Uh, >> I don't know like what are we doing here? They It's
We need to have another conversation with them. I think um I would love to know what's going on with the uh construction that I only read about in the paper, you know, that the the findings I we're stuck. I mean, we have
to buy our water from them, but um and I I don't know if this this isn't the venue to do it because they will come talk to us if we want, I think. >> Yes, they will. Um, but yeah, I just this is just bringing up to me that I think we should have them in again to to
discuss what's going on and get an update and talk about the future of our rates. >> But in the meantime, it's not like we can buy it anywhere else. So, >> yeah. And I think Oh, sorry. >> No, sorry. And I I think uh you know our
our senator Senator Alaba has filed legislation um about um giving communities that are are part or get their water from Springfield um a seat at the table as part of the commission. So I think that's something that I think you know I'm in support of. I think from
based on our conversations I believe select board of town is in support of as well. So, um, this is something too that I, you know, if there's any kind of, you know, anyone wants to go out and and tell Senator Oliver that they're in support of it or tell their other legislators that are in support of it, I think that's important to do.
>> Did Did we Didn't we sign a letter for that for in support? Okay. I was going to say if we didn't, we probably should if everyone wanted to, but >> thanks for bring Shelley. >> No, I was just going to ask about the same thing. How does a conversation like that work? And since other communities
around us are in a similar position, can we collectively come together with other communities if they're willing to and have that conversation or um kind of just not really sure how we do that? But it seems like we're in a bit of a
non-leveraged position. So, how do we kind of have a more leveraged >> position talking with the water sewer commission? I know a seat on the board would be very helpful, but >> yeah, I think that's the I don't want to speak for the the senator, but I think that's kind of the the point of the legislation is to have have a seat at
the table. >> Um, but we previously we've had uh Springfield Water Sewer Commission come in front of us >> and we've we continue to talk about even this agreement too because we keep doing >> okay, >> you know, so it's >> but uh no val I mean valid points. I
think we all share some of the similar um feelings. >> Yeah. To to Shel's point, I I recently met with uh Jim Leen, who's on the East Meadow Town Council, >> and one of the things he's interested in doing is having more conversations between elected officials and on things
like this. >> Yeah. >> Um so, if you're sounds like you want to do it, so we'll uh I'll connect you. >> Perfect. I mean, I do think it makes sense though because if if >> they can come and talk to us oneon-one, but I think when you're collectively talking to the surrounding towns and
we're all asking for the same thing and we're all struggling way and or needing something to change, it's it's easier. It's not as easy to say no when you're looking at multiple towns surrounding them. So, I I was just wondering how we could get that
>> going. I'll talk to you about it. Uh okay, >> that's a great question. >> Good points. Thank you. Uh, do we have a motion on the amendment? >> Um, so we have to make a motion to accept this agreement or to to approve
the eth agreement. Yeah. Okay. Extension. >> Can to appoint you to sign? >> Um, did I sign it last time? Yeah, that would be helpful. >> What? They they always they never put the right signatures. So >> So you'll be signing it >> if you give me authority to
>> add that to the motion. >> Yeah. Okay. So, I uh make a motion to um vote to approve the eth amendment to the town of Long Meadow Water Supply Agreement, giving Lynn uh the town manager um authority to sign contract.
>> Second. Any other discussion? Seeing none, all in favor? All right. Uh and now we'll go on to the amended agreement for wastewater services. So, this one did go through a much more substantial review. Um, myself along
with the DPW team went over to Springfield and met with them. Um, we went through this agreement with them and then subsequently had town council go through it as well. Um, you'll see in here the changes that were suggested to be made, all of which town council was
fine with. Um, this one is not as intricate. Um, however, it hasn't had a full thorough review in quite some time. Um there are some things that we should probably be start talking about as a result of this. Um
and some of that is for it uh most of that's for a different night. But um this covers us from when our sewage gets to Springfield. There is a lot that has to happen before that happens. So that
is on us. get to Springfield as in >> the line at 91 >> um even further. >> Okay. >> It goes under the river through AWAM and then into >> Oh, so our sewer line is that Okay.
>> Yeah. >> there and goes down. >> Yeah. Oh, so this only covers once it hits >> Yep. >> bond side. >> Yep. Because everything else is ours. All that infrastructure is ours. So, we at some point you'll be hearing from DPW
more on that. Um, and then we should be having some conversations. I have given town council a heads up that we will likely be reaching out. Um, this is one that there's a lack of at least historical records that we've been
able to find that identifies easements and location and >> it's a big deal. >> Yeah. Um, so this is one that will likely take um many years to put together. >> Do we work with Agawam on do we have an
agreement with them on maintaining lines that we share? >> We do not. >> We should try to do that. >> Yes. >> Yes. I left with more work from that meeting than I had going in. So >> that's better now than after something breaks.
>> Yeah. >> Sounds like a crappy job. Are they of the same like age and maintenance as some of the other water sewer pipes that we're talking about that we've been kind of working on or is or is this a different infra like infrastructure? >> This would so
um without getting into too much detail >> um once we connect once our sewer line connects on the other side of the river in Awa we merge together and so that infrastructure is shared. Okay. >> Do we have a motion?
>> I will uh move to approve the amended agreement for waste water services and to appoint um the town manager. I think I saw someone was town auditor and or or just all all necessary town uh
staff to uh sign the agreement uh to fully execute it. Second. Any further discussion? Seeing none. All in favor. All right. Next, we will move to the FY2027
general appointments, town council and labor council. >> Um, I will move to appoint Me Talerman Casta LLC as our town council for fiscal year 2027. >> Uh, any Oh, sorry. >> Second. >> Any further questions?
>> All in favor? >> And I will move to appoint Sullivan Hayes and Quinn LLC as our labor council for FY2027. >> Second. Any discussion? All those in favor? And then we will move to uh setting the
2026 fall special town meeting date. >> There's one more. >> Oh jeez. Sorry. >> Uh I'll I'll move that the select board uh appoint town treasurer collector Erica Brunell tax title custodian through June 30th, 2027 pursuant to general Massachusetts general laws
chapter 60 section 77b. >> Second. Uh any further discussion? All those in favor? All right. And now we will go to setting the 2026 fall special town meeting date.
Um so you'll see in the memo that we are uh suggesting November 17th. This date has been vetted by all of the people that need to be involved, which is a growing list. Um and includes um the availability of the gymnasium at the
high school. Um and then so we back up from there all of the other dates that we're required to have met in order to get to that November 17th meeting. So the date that um uh warrant articles are due and then the date that it would come to you for
first draft and then you'd actually close the warrant on um uh the 19th and then it has to be signed and posted by November 2nd. >> All right. Yeah. I'll move to set the fall special town meeting for Tuesday,
November 17th, 2026 at 7 p.m. at the Long Meadow High School. Jim >> second. >> Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor. >> All right. And do I have a >> I'll move second.
>> Uh further discussion, seeing none, all those in favor? And I think we have the signs and papers. >> Yes. Thank you. >> Nice job. >> Thanks.