 So I will call the meeting and select board to order at 635 p.m. on March 19th Sorry opening remarks announcements and agenda review Is there anything on the agenda that we need to adjust or any announcements anyone needs to make as we get started? If not, we'll we'll begin with public comment Just as a quick reminder if they're here people people here for public comment It would be related to things not on our agenda if you want to speak to something on the agenda We'll just wait until that time, and then we'll have you speak at that point We generally was you know don't react to those things that are in public comment. We generally have you keep your remarks about three minutes We do do we do listen to those and take note of them. Is there anyone here for public comment? Please step to the microphone and Tell us who you are and the reason you're here Except the microphone doesn't pick you up for the television, so we do Yeah, I'm sure I Have a very good voice. No, they can actually know I can't need you to come forward. Please come forward And just identify yourself in the microphone and and and speak to the to the issue that you have Yeah, it's difficult for me. So that's why And I don't want to be on camera either So well the camera is actually in both directions. So you're on camera either way. So Okay And there's five items So it's time to speak very quickly. Hope to catch up one is I would like to have Thank you for putting fixing the elevator in town hall and get it up to Have it inspected Similar thing in town hall also to is the ladies room. I can only speak for the ladies room the stalls is very dark and the sinks are very far from The edge of the sink to the wall didn't actually the faucet is kind of far and women have No biologically they would have shorter arms. So it's very difficult So you're in the dark to go to the bathroom and then the wash your hands you have to have very long arms That needs to be addressed Next thing is I would like speaking of bathrooms. I would like there to be a beyond I'm also called air fresheners and all public bathrooms. It is a health hazard because it is caused mood disturbances headaches nausea a variety of things vaginal irritation Of because it lands on the toilet paper, etc. It's not necessary doesn't work Not necessary all What cleans the bathroom is flesh in the toilet that usually works and it's usually fans or And or and or a window anyways to let a fresh air So like those air fresher so-called air fresheners or artificial friends You've been from all public bathrooms within the town manners next item is that I would like to see many is Jewish Heritage Month, and I would like to see something along those lines. I would like to see a flag on the town common I would like to see Todd in schools and this is to address the ongoing saga of anti-Semitism, especially it's currently in Amherst That people have been well aware of And then the next one would be I'm trying to find out about the presidential apartments how to get that Enforced it has not been enforced lottery winners have not been Only two out of the six lottery winners so-called lottery winners doesn't feel like a winning when you're losing Have only been given an apartment that was promised to them. It's been six months No one has received the apartment that was promised to them Moving expenses were not paid for And how to get that address I'm trying to get it on the agenda on the CBA and there's been no such luck No one wants to address it at all. So I want to know how that could be further Addressed or what kind of recourse can lottery winners have in order to address this issue? Thank you very much Appreciate you coming out and sharing those things with us. We do take note of them and we will Potentially take action on some of those things and and certainly ask about them at potentially a future time So thank you. Is there anyone else here for public comment other than items on the agenda items on the agenda will do at the time? Seeing none, I'll move into our agenda First item on our agenda for action discussion is the short-term bond anticipation notes. Mr. Bob, would you want to thank you, Mr. Chair? First I'd like to Welcome and announce that sherry Boucher is here and she is the acting treasure since today is the first day of our Without Claire McGinnis who has as you know resigned so sherry's here and certainly and she has stepped up to become the acting treasure And along with Jen LaFountain who would be the acting tech collector So I really appreciate the things that they've done to take on this. So thank you sherry for that So you want to come up? Yeah But sherry's done this multiple times she's seen the transition through treasures three times I believe so she's an old hand at doing this So we're asking the select board to sign a short-term note in the amount of 1,195,000 This is the final year 125,000 for repair and improvement to the Amur Street Practitioner including the Drossel and accessibility ramp on the north side of the Amur Street That was approved in 2014 That serves this fund in three terms. We can share the price point. This is a three year of a five year payment schedule 500,000 for the sewer project in Amur Woods as approved in 2016 Although the authorization was for three million This amount is a rollover of the amount borrowed last May to meet the project spending each through the end of the fist this fiscal year Another amount will be borrowed in May 540,000 is for the land acquisition between Montague and Sunderland roads as authorized in 2017 this is the second year of a five-year plan The note will be dated April 5th 2018 and when we will mature on April 4th 2019 the town received an interest rate of 1.62% be a competitive bid six bidders responded to our request Cherry has the notes for you to sign there's no action. That's required. No action is required just need your signature. Okay, just signatures So she's just gonna leave that with us and we'll sign later. Does she actually have to take it with her now? If I could leave them with you or do you need to stay? Yes, I'll do it. We'll sign it after the end of the meeting then But you should be give it to These are clerk officially At least three signatures Here Back times Thank you Thanks, Sherry. Thank you very much anything else to add to that. No, okay appreciate that Thank you for stepping into that integral for us as acting treasurer So we'll we'll do our signature duty a little bit later We'll take care of that. So next up is the MSBA statement of interest for Fort River School and Wildwood School I will start by saying that I am an employee of the schools and therefore I will accuse myself from this and I will yield my chairmanship to Miss Brewer who's acting chair for this Month because we rotate that So she's the vice chair. And so if you would be so kind as to sort of run this section of the meeting I will Disappear for a moment Let you guys discuss this a little bit Thank you It is not a hundred percent clear that it was required for mr. Slaughter to do that But he thought in the interest of everyone understanding everything it would just be simpler if he did that We haven't done these statements of interest for a few years In fact, he was thinking that maybe we hadn't done it in total since just before he came on the board three years ago And so we have done these as a select board However for quite a few years in a row before we finally got in line for the last project So these are very lengthy documents, which anyone can look at in our online packet. There's one for Fort River There's one for Wildwood elementary school. This is simply the process. We have to follow It's not a matter of convincing the select board that these things need to be done because we know they need to be done But we also know that we we have a guest with us tonight that we'll hear from shortly because he is also someone that more people need to see But in the meantime the speech that I used to always give associated with these is that when you make these statements of interest things say things like Building jeopardizing student health poor health and learning environment This does not mean it is not safe to send your children to our schools It is safe to send our to your children to our schools, but we know that they need work so it's always a little nerve-racking to see this put into words in the way that it is but We do believe or we would not ask you to send your children to our schools if we didn't feel that way So with that if mr. McPherson would like to Introduce himself to everybody who hasn't met him yet and then could could give us just the again the brief overview Because we don't need to be convinced. We just know we need to sign Each Would someone like to go ahead and start with reading one of these and then see if we have any questions before we So we can break up our narration tonight because it is a long and all item on the motion sheet And my question is all right to the two and I can ask it first or I can read absolutely ask and ask the question so Having read these over, you know one prior to the meeting I Don't know if I remember the last time we did these but we very well may have since my tenure on the board, but There's two requests here. There's two elementary schools that we're talking about We don't know at this point Which or both might be in play and so I'm just trying to understand a little bit of the submission process at this early stage We just kind of put them both in and at a later time There'll be some decision-making about What we actually end up with a understanding is the state doesn't You end up with one Not two and I guess I'm interested in somewhat managing expectations of people see that there's two submissions That does not mean they're going to be Two new elementary schools in tandem and I just wanted to get clear for myself on the process Okay Okay So so it's essentially when we work on those two buildings and they could potentially Both happen if they receive the fun. Yeah And we chose Okay, that's very helpful. Thank you and Whenever I'm happy to reason See if there are additional questions Okay, so They moved to authorize The superintendent to submit to the Massachusetts School Building Authority the statement of interest form dated March 14th 2018 for the Fort River elementary school located at 70 Southeast Street Amherst mass Which describes and explains the following deficiencies and the priority categories For which an application may be submitted to the Massachusetts School Building Authority in the future And they are priority one building jeopardizing student health poor health and learning environment priority five modernization of school facility systems poor energy efficiency and poor operating efficiency priority seven obsolete building poor educational space utilization and hereby further Specifically acknowledges that by submitting the statement of interest form the Massachusetts School Building Authority In no way guarantees the acceptance or the approval of an application the awarding of a grant or any other funding commitment From the Massachusetts School Building Authority or commits the town of Amherst Amherst Pellum regional school districts To filing an application for funding when the Massachusetts School Building Authority I have a question for the town manager. I will admit I didn't pull the documentation from when we did this several several years ago But this is not the language exactly in that it doesn't start with the resolved language that was recommended to us in the required Form of vote so I'm concerned because if I look at the front page and I look at the back page It says having convened an open meeting on such and such date Our motion doesn't say any of that Our motion is more just our standard motion kind of stuff The rest of it I think is adequate, but it doesn't Have the appropriate Beginning phrase and I know sometimes these technical things are pretty fussy about what they actually want us to say if you could that would be helpful Very beginning. Yeah So how would we change? Yeah, it's like the first sentence, maybe Good eye Do I do I should I read the word resolved as well? Just go ahead Having convened in an open meeting on March 19th 2018 prior to the SOI submission closing date the Select Board of Amherst, Massachusetts in accordance with its charter bylaws and ordinances as Voted to authorize the superintendent to submit to the Massachusetts School of Building Authority the rest follows, but I'm happy to read it again authority the statement of interest form Dated March 19th 2018 for the Fort River elementary school located at 70 Southeast Street Amherst mass 0 1 0 0 2 which describes and explains the following deficiencies in the priority Categories for which an application may be submitted to the Massachusetts school building in the future priority one Building jeopardizing student health poor health and learning environment priority five modernization of school facility systems Poor energy efficiency and poor operating efficiency priority seven obsolete building poor educational space Utilization and hereby further specifically acknowledges that by submitting this statement of interest form the Massachusetts school building authority in no way guarantees the acceptance or the approval of an application The awarding of a grant or any other funding commitment from the Massachusetts school building authority or commits the city that or commits the town of Amherst and the regional Regional school district to filing an application for funding with the Massachusetts school building authority Thank you now were there any additional questions editing on the fly there They did give us the language. It just didn't get translated to our motion sheet So we appreciate the school's help in in making that happen and thank you Mr. McPherson and providing that to us because we did have it it just didn't quite get cut and paste in the right place Questions about the statement. Should we make a read at a third time just to see how it goes. All right, so in that case So you'll have to give them the wording for the first sense for the next one Do you have a separate one for the next now? These are these priorities or they're different. It's just the first sentence All right, so Confir about all those in favor, please say aye. I Oppose abstaining and so that is 4-0 unanimous with one absent Okay, and now if someone would be willing to take the first sentence from as Kruger's desk and tack it on to the First sentence that was provided on our motion sheet. I think we'll be okay just Dates have to be adjusted as well. Well, just there's a part about Authorize if you can just pick the sentence up With resolved Having Convened an open meeting on March 19 2018 prior to the SOI submission closing date the select board of Amherst, Massachusetts in accordance with its charter bylaws and ordinances is Voted to authorize the superintendent to submit to the Massachusetts School Building Authority the statement of interest forum dated March 19 2018 for the Wildwood elementary school Located at 71 Strong Street Amherst, Massachusetts here one zero zero two which describes and explains the following Deficiencies and the priority categories for which an application may be submitted to the Massachusetts School Building Authority in the future Priority one building jeopardizing student health poor health and learning environment priority five modernization of school facility systems poor energy efficiency and poor operating Efficiency priority seven obsolete building poor educational space utilization and poor In here by further Specifically acknowledges that by submitting this statement of interest forum the Massachusetts School Building Authority in no way guarantees the acceptance or Approval of an application the awarding of a grant or any other funding commitment from the Massachusetts School Building Authority or commits the town of Amherst Amherst regional School district at Amherst Palom regional school district To filing an application for funding with the Massachusetts School Building Authority Were there any further questions? All right seeing none all those in favor, please say aye Opposed So we have another four zero one abstinence my understanding mr. McPherson can probably help us with this According to the documentation we have in front of us that actually not mr. Steinberg is our clerk But our town clerk is going to have to certify that we did this and so if you'll get her the language Then she'll be able to write that letter and it'll go to the schools and then everybody'll be happy Everybody will get their material in time to get it in before the deadline Great. Thank you. Thank you very much for coming in. I don't the IT work Yeah, it seemed fine, but I'm not sure wasn't wasn't picking up the the audio very well So are we ready for me to take the next topic? Yes, we are okay. Thank you very much for that. I appreciate that So next on our agenda is a complete streets policy first look Hey Would like to come forward other members of the committee are here as well. Absolutely. Yeah, I'm just going to make the presumption Okay, so just tell us who you are tell us who you brought with you since I think you brought us some Some colleagues from the tack and so well, thank you very much for inviting us in tonight. I'm Aaron Hayden I'm the chair of the transportation advisory committee and Tonight this is the first time that we have something ready to advise you all with Wish there could be more of us here tonight, but we have family duties and everything else that that will delay So have two of our members at least for another 15 or 20 minutes But Bruce Carlson and Mark Robinski are here with me tonight Bruce is a member of the complete streets subcommittee that did the work to put the policy together and bring it to The transportation advisory committee as a whole Missing our Eve Vogel. We are seven all together and Rafikra Bebe Sandra Anderson, and I think these are people that are familiar to you and Kimberly Tremblay The transportation advisory committee is still labeled as new on the town website I noticed Indeed we feel very new and part of our work is to figure out how to Interface with town governance with with you on the various matters that affect transportation to that end we are developing ways of doing things our policies our practices and complete streets is An example of how we might be moving forward in the future It's a little different than other things the complete street streets policy is a state program that Promises money which is makes it interesting to us because we're always interested in how we're going to fund these wonderful projects we're going to be advising you on the challenge for the subcommittee in pulling together this draft was Taking the the state guidelines the state requirements their idea of what a complete street is and make it appropriate for Amherst Amherst is unique in many ways as we all know and appreciate and Our sense of completeness of streets and how they connect and where they connect to will be different than The standard policy so the or the or the generic I'm not even standard. It's more like a generic state policy The the subcommittee which by the way included Tom Webb We we are happy to Have help on our subcommittees from outside because there's a lot of a lot of work that has to be done the the subcommittees job was to understand the state guidelines and Then interpret that into Amherst the places where that most affected the policy that you're that you're reading now is In exemptions and requirements and and metrics what we are going to measure how we're going to measure them The the subcommittee worked for several months on this policy and in the end brought it to the the advisory committee as a whole and We did some work on it some tweaks in fact We sent it back and had it redrafted by one of our members, which was very helpful and We held I Guess it's our version of a public hearing. It's not a public hearing and that it's not a requirement But we did invite the public to come in and comment on on our policy in an open meeting to which they were expressly invited to speak and In the end we fold that all together in the in the draft that that you see there. We also Engaged as much as we could Committees that we thought might be interested in this policy Planning board even invited us to come and speak with them And and we did that but other committees, you know had things to say had had suggestions and and and We intend to reach out that way for any one of our policies that will be developing in the future I hope you have The result of the planning boards vote there in front of you. It was Almost unanimous what there was one abstention, but otherwise there were I guess there nine So there were eight there were eight yeses in one abstention I'm going to stop there and invite Questions the reason that I invited my colleagues to come along as I'm hoping that they'll help me feel these things as we get Into the arcane us of of this questions screw I Had made a few few notes It's and I want to commend the transportation advisor community for getting something, you know to getting getting this far along They know you've been really working on this For a while in a very determined manner One thing is it it looks like exceptions from the complete street policy Ultimately or the decision of select board if I'm reading I'm reading from page the top of page three It says exceptions shall be reviewed by the transportation advisor committee which will forward its recommendations the select board with supporting documentation Any exceptions must be approved by the select board With document is that so am I understanding that any if there's a reason that somebody can't file this policy which Somewhat of a mandate in some ways then that would that would come ultimately to to this board Yes Maybe two reasons for that one is that's the way it's done. I mean yours is your final authority on this But also many of the exceptions do involve other Requirements that might be for that same space most of which are also in your jurisdiction and certainly if not directly One step removed So yes, we advise okay, so I just wanted us to realize that that was that's in here I Just go in order. This is from the Minute to some of some larger things so under five network the second sentence this network will offer Robust transportation routes. I don't know what a robust route is we spent a lot of time with that and the You have another member joining Hello, Eve. This is Eve Ogle who is chair of the subcommittee and she's welcome to join us here or me here Them there We spent a lot of time with the idea of robust how best to describe the the importance and the value of Maintaining the connections the various different connections that happen along a complete street that that are expected We can change that word if you'd like but but the idea is it's it's it is a descriptive word and and not precise But then that's the point of exceptions Okay, we're not this is under the network section About the use of the robust in the In our network so I'm just I had a question mark somebody just under six jurisdiction. It looks like on town in townways town controlled projects Projects will adhere to the town's complete street policy and then things that are not within the town's jurisdiction like a private development Or something on one of the campuses It says the town shall advocate that the project comply with the complete streets policy and Intercondect with the existing multimodal transportation network. So Who who would Advocate and how would you advocate? I mean I get requiring but where you can't require what is What you know, is that compelled to select board to advocate or how do you see that happening that? Advocating when it's not in the jurisdiction of You want to speak to that or I don't know that we talked through those kinds of details that I am in many ways that I Would say that the first sentence is the more important one that where we have jurisdiction because we're providing funding or any kind of permit That we would require it to comply with the complete streets policy The second sentence I think it goes along with what comes I believe Where is it? Is it before or after where we say the town will work to network? Oh, it's the very next paragraph The town will build and maintain partnerships with all these other folks So I think the idea is that we have ongoing partnerships with other folks that are doing developments of various kinds and And that in the process of making that so I guess I don't I don't know if we exactly we were not naming Who but the oversight of the entire complete streets policy We say At the very end is it select board and the town manager in concert with the transportation advisory committee other appropriate town departments and committees Right, so I'm just I guess I'm trying to be clear what the expectations are of this board or the town in general because you know in two Years something have well you didn't advocate or you know in concert with I would you know that was another one like Not I'm not totally clear, but I'll just just moving on well, I just just to be fair. We may not know exactly part of our Developing our Practices and policies would involve that the idea is that even outside of places that we have direct jurisdiction That do have direct impact on things that we do like the driveway is going to connect with our road that we Accept the responsibility of doing what we can to make sure that it complies with our this policy What that it is? Remains to be seen maybe all right, and I'm also unclear what the we is what the royal we is in this case But let's move on because this is first look okay, so Just seven design where you Talk about some of the design Features in a general way, and then it says references include but are not limited to the following and then you have a whole list of different guidelines and things and I just two things one I was just Curious because I would I would usually see this as a References at the end because they they often change a lot and I see that they're embedded in here So that's just something I noticed and then I don't know if these are two separate things are redundant, but it says The first bullet the last The fourth arrow it says Amherst street tree map, and then the last bullet is Amherst tree inventory Those two different things about trees or are they the same thing? I think that they are I Think one is embedded in the other I believe that the the tree map is in the inventory or the other way around I'm not sure condense them the the and we may want to condense those what was important in that is is that again and creating a Taking a generic policy which you could apply anywhere and making it Amherst Trees are an important part of The question just a redundancy or not Earlier draft because I actually didn't get the most recent copy myself, and I think both of those were added Based most very recently based on the comments of the shade tree committee, and so I mean I just need to get you know Just as a you know reader, and it's our first look on our agenda So yeah, I was like I know we have those kinds of things, but are those both the same or different? I think I will I Think that's essentially It except that similar to my other comment oversight Responsibility the select board and town manager and concert with the transportation and other appropriate so that's great That's a general statement, but I'm not really sure what that is obligating us to or They just have a question mark there That's what I got But I first asked what the last point was that Miss Krueger made because I wasn't sure what page she was on Oh, the very page six. There's oversight responsibility. So that means a lot of work. I agree Take a shot because I definitely used enough. Yes, and so if I could yes, this is Unusual as mr. Hayden knows from when he was on the select board that we have very few written policies in general in town I mean we have staff has plenty of technical policies They have to follow based on their technical expertise, but in terms of town policies that come out of the select board Which this eventually will be They're few and far between and they don't have a standard format and so we're just kind of winging it as we go and Things like hey wouldn't it be a good idea to put all the references at the end because some of them will change and that's easier than Fixing in the middle of document we could certainly do that and thinking about which tree is embedded in which tree plan to make sure We do cover them both because we have we have those specific documents But the other part of it to being Associate with oversight responsibility I have I suspect that at the end of our questions the town manager might might offer us some insight as to how this might Work practically speaking so for example the select board is never going to oversee Implementation of anything that's not our role and it's certainly not the transportation advisory committee's role But it is town staff's role and so figuring out ways that we can say we want to have It's the select board and transportation advisory committee want to have Input as to reporting requirements and progress reports and what those things might include So that we don't say later. Well, that's not the report we were looking for So that we can give that information ahead of time But to make it clear where the lines of authority are and that also does reflect back to what miss Krueger initially brought up about You know who who shall advocate and it's with the shall gets tricky in terms of then Who would we necessarily look to would we say to the town manager? This is a shall and the meaning we all agree is that the town manager shall look to this and then see about assigning it out or The shall is some other body. So we appreciate that you struggle with finding exactly the right wording to both Accomplish what you want to accomplish, but not be too overly prescriptive. So thank you for that So we'll just have to work some of those details out when we do Come with the next version of this will want to make sure we include the transportation advisory Committee's names at the given time and the subcommittees with any additional members Because we want to give people credit for their work and we also want to know who to call Later when we're confused about what something actually means. So that would that would be super helpful. So I think that I'm also just interested in you know, what is What you feel the transportation advisory committee as an ongoing committee's role can effectively be in this What do you see the select boards role as and what you see more as say for example? Department of Public Works whenever a project comes up goes through this policy Matches it to their work and then eventually reports out on it. So getting getting a sense of that would be helpful In in this policy or in our overall policy And then I'm not being facetious. I'm sorry if it sounded that way but the the Part of part of what we're realizing is that the five networks that will be advising you on Are all interwoven with each other? obviously and Certainly within this complete streets. So as we work through those Prioritizations for the other networks and their maintenance and their improvement Those priorities clearly will reflect back into Any request or any any chance that we have at a complete street Implementation So that's that's that would be the knot that I would want to untangle and It'd be very simple for us to put in something simple here saying you shall you know talk to this group or that group Or maybe we would rather maybe I would rather it reflected back to an Understanding for the networks as a whole and having said that I don't know quite how we would do that I'll just say that I am appreciating the the questions that you're asking about sort of how does this actually work in terms of the oversight and Accordation and I would say that the the the basics, you know, we we developed this You know the DPW staff did the first draft and then several of us on the subcommittee And you know took that draft and worked with the mass DOT guidance to revise it But we didn't have the kind of expertise that you're actually bringing bringing right now You know to even ask these kinds of precise questions. And so It's anyway the insight that you guys would have about how to make that work would be much appreciated Mr. Walt I don't know if it's because I'm exceptionally tired or exceptionally benevolent tonight that I didn't have a lot of specific questions like that I mean, I guess I was sort of assuming given that you were Taking charge of this in a sense and that some of these things are under our purview as part of the public way that a scenario might be you come to us and report on something and for example UMass is putting a new entrance and We would like that to Articulate with our bike lanes and everything else and you bring it to us And we'd say well what should we do about that should the town manager talk to the whatever, you know, or the That's the conversation would take place and whether it's nailed down. I'm not so concerned about I don't know if that's what you had in mind by way of consultative processes or Actually, honestly a lot of the process now is that the DPW is sort of the initial right, you know And the DPW makes a lot of decisions about whether to bring things to us at this point Yes, we understand that that's changing Very rapidly there'll be other sources of work for us Maybe maybe the short answer is yes, I mean that that is kind of the amorphous An extension of the processes that we have now that we would now that the TAC would be involved with and Certainly, I'm anxious to get Whatever definition we can whatever better definition we can have for these processes right now the ideas are driven by our recollection of Bealing with these things in the past and our wishes for what they might be in the future Follow this did have one specific Miss Kruger raised the question the exceptions again Maybe my brain is not functioning, but you're the first one is the transportation network is undergoing routine maintenance, you know Potholes geometry stays the same. They're fixing something that struck me as qualitatively different from the other ones Which involves say new construction projects that have accomplished the same purpose or a project where public transit is Required am I reading that correctly? And then does that mean that if a pothole temporarily closes the bike lane you have to come to us for authorization? So I'll let me just say one think about these exceptions in general So these descriptions basically come word from word word for word from the mass DOT guidance And in the mass DOT guidance they basically say if you include any other exceptions besides these we're going to look at That really carefully as a potential excuse not to do what you're supposed to be doing So we basically use the language that they Suggested and pocked it honked it right in here that said You know, I think My well, I guess my interpretation of this is that If there's gonna be an exception that's questionable then it would have to be reviewed by us and justified but if it's just Very apparently one of these exceptions then it would not have to be, you know, a major issue Okay, because it talked about foreign recommendations to select board and that's why I wasn't to fall in this cribber If you look at the top of page three Mr. Warren, did you have to be involved? Did you want to contribute to this piece of this conversation as well? Please come forward and Provide a bit of clarity if you would that would be great And just help us out here It is camouflage on so he's hiding in the back You don't have to completely give up all the chairs, but you guys are doing great You're asking a lot of good questions and these questions were all asked by the committee and as we grapple with these Questions as the committee grappled with it. It went back to this first thing that mr. Hayden said This is a state program We're trying to fit into and we're trying to make a policy that makes the best Grade possible and then actually grades really high if you take their criteria There is a lot of unknowns of how they'll actually operate and we know that and where you're it's just kind of that way The exceptions are meant to be that the ones listed there are General exceptions if we're doing pothole repair if we're doing maintenance on a road if we're gonna overlay a road Those don't get complete streets, but if we actually do something more Defined in a roadway, then we'd have to do the complete streets Policy followed all those steps and then if we couldn't make it then we'd have to bring forward the exact Sort of like pine street. We couldn't do Bicycle lanes on both sides or sidewalks on both sides We would bring that forward in the design and these would be the design recommended and these are the exceptions we're doing so yes it Would go through the process of the committee seeing it and then the select board finalizing and accepting the plan like It's really quit with pine Street was done. So that's how the exceptions. I see will go the same way they kind of go now With the exception of the first one which is maintenance and then the we don't really Didn't really understand the next ones really because We're really not that big that we have Projects that go on simultaneously So a lot of those would be are just there because they're stated in the state policy that these should be Exceptions exceptions. So that's kind of how I put together So if you have any other questions, I'm happy to help and I hope I cleared that up a little bit or I might have made it muddier so I'm just gonna follow up on that just for a second if however, we we had the capacity and will to Do complete streets even though we were just doing one of the things that would fall under an allowable exception We can still we're allowed to do that. We are right. So it's it's really if we are this affords us an opportunity to sort of When doing more routine or small sorts of things which is what that first bullet really is about the others are Like you say in sort of communities that don't match with what we do generally But like in that first one, it's like we're just kind of keeping the street functional We're doing a small repair. We're not compelled to comply the complete streets if we were doing a much more much more extensive Reconstruction than we are compelled to to fit into that as best we can obviously correct a good example is Bay Road right now We have a section about 200 feet that blew apart We're gonna go in and overlay that and repair that up as best we can but it's not gonna be a complete street It's just maintenance repairing. What's there? So I'm still a little confused about the exception section then so not muddier just less clear so Just the way my brain works is saying Exceptions shall be reviewed near the second part first You're gonna have exceptions exceptions have to be reviewed then have to be approved by the select board and the way this reads Which I totally appreciate it's what the state wrote But in terms of practically speaking the way this reads now Pothole repair is gonna have to go to the transportation advisory committee and gonna have to go to the select board That's what these words say Yeah, I'm guessing you don't really want that to be true. We actually in the state doesn't read it that way That's what those words say sorry the state doesn't read it that way But that's what those words say and I can't approve a policy that says those words if that's not what we're doing So we're gonna have to find a way to put something slightly modifying in there to both satisfy the state's application process Routine maintenance from the complete streets policy would require something like that Something like that for example because we've talked about how one is different the first bullet point is substantially different And I find it hard to believe that the state Does think you're going to have all those people review it so they should we all know the state is not great writers Okay, just sorry if they aren't and so while we appreciate you got to fit the boxes so that they get it So if they give you the money and we want the money Finding a way to work in that phrase that Ms. Vogel. Yeah, I believe most of the people who did this are engineers too so Right the others seem to be Inherently prove it you're proving a reason for exception. Whereas the first one seems to be less that way You know like cost of accommodation is excessive disproportionate need probably you got to defend that You've got to sort of make an argument for that make a case for that and to do that for any sort of Routine maintenance, which is essentially in the bullet one. It's a little Overkill to be perfectly honest. We if you like we'll just move bullet one down into the as Miss Fogel said We'll move it into that paragraph And then you only have a format. Yes thing could probably address it. Yeah, other questions. Mr. Simer Yeah, I don't want to Get into this in great depth. Mr. Hayden at the beginning mentioned having consulted with other relevant boards and committees at least giving them the opportunity to respond and The one that I was particularly interested to sure has been consulted as the disability access adviser committee and in saying that I noted I know that the Users in mode section two of core commitments make several references to pair of transit riders disabled residents assistive mobility device users But I was also curious whether there's been any discussion about people with either Significant sight or hearing impairments the So the details of the The design of the road of the complete street of the elements that would be in the complete street Which in this case includes sidewalks And for for people who are mobility impaired probably most importantly sidewalks but also bus stops and crossings We In the other Guidelines that we're putting together Do include and and very carefully include Accommodations The the the challenge that has been presented to us by the DAC has been to go above and beyond what is required certainly to follow the the the Access Barriers Board requirements and the ADA requirements That can go be taken for granted. We're going to be doing that. We're being challenged to go beyond that and Well, we're gonna work on that. So I guess to answer the question While that is not here in this policy It is part of the policy for every element that this is involved with Thank you Other questions. Yes, so along those lines. I would hope that the next version of this policy would state in some sort of Perhaps ending section not quite sure again. It's not like we have a template That wet that revisions to this policy will because you know We'll vote on it someday and it'll be that vote and then the state will change something or you'll realize something else And we'll want to change it But that there should be some indication that revisions would need to go before Whatever that year's equivalent of a DAC Shade tree is one you mentioned I don't know if there are any others but to specifically call them out and it doesn't mean that you will that you will Necessarily adopt everything that they've asked for as you've talked about but that way everyone knows we didn't forget to talk to them And that they had the opportunity to have input and I think that's something that we just incorporate in a phrase Near the end that revisions to this policy should be made available or you know before acceptance or Revote or we'll make up something because that's what we do That that indicates that it'll go just like you made the rounds this time that it would make the rounds if something changed because Despite all the expertise all of you bring to the TAC it may well be that there's something that seems easy to you and Isn't in fact easy to members a member of the DAC who would notice it differently And we just want to make sure we're including them because they have historically not felt included in many things So that might be one way of addressing that Without mentioning that they wanted this thing, but we're giving them that thing for now until we get to the other part Yeah, I would I would revise and extend that remark to include other committees that are appropriate public shade tree conservation planning Zoning Board of Appeals the design review board. I mean they're there. We understand that our advice Really does need to be colored by lots of different places We're likely not to think of them all the first time around Or maybe even the second, but we're going to try Thank you. Is it for the questions? If not, so the next step is you guys will take the comments back from the select board work on it again And then come back with a revised Proposals to the select board, right? Conference with about some of these specific questions about process I Would point out that that miss Kruger has made it to most of our meetings and has been very helpful in these things Really I would I would maybe ask that of you. How would you like to do it? We're happy to go, you know go in our little locked room and come up with these revisions Okay, it's a public meeting. So it's not exactly locked and but on our own with Connie's oversight Or and come back with proposed revisions or maybe even just the revision so that you can see it in You know focus in on them directly or for the whole thing out with things in color or some other process It's Kruger Well, I have enjoyed being the liaison to the transportation advisory committee and I do try to get to the meetings But I'm thinking first of all, I'm I'm one of The five members plus mr. Bachman. I don't always know. I mean I have some ideas. I don't always know The exact guidance so I might look to maybe the chair or a chair and a member of meeting with maybe me and mr. Bachman and another select board member, whether it's slatter or screw or whoever just so we just sort of Do that kind of thinking maybe maybe redrafting and then we you know try it out because I it's an awful lot of one Responsibility for me to say yeah, you got the process right because I I know some of it But that's a hard question and then secondly, I you know I sometimes have scheduled conflicts like the last time you met and I think the next one coming up So if we had something specifically scheduled for that it would get attention and wouldn't be cutting into your regular meeting And I would know that I could be there You know if I was one of the ones I I'm thinking a little more broadly than just me showing up at your meeting Maybe we can just take the time to make the revisions give you a marked-up copy At your leisure you can give feedback back to the town manager and he can feed back is probably a better way So we don't have to bring everyone into the committee and yeah, no that's like for time to talk about it I think that's that's the next the step is for you guys to work a little bit on it You've heard some feedback then we sort of work it back and forth through our offices That makes sense to me that it would that I believe what I believe I just heard mr. Moreng say was that it would go they'll mark up a copy It'll go back to mr. Backelman He'll distribute it to the select board, but it won't yet be on an agenda and it'll be Mr.. Backelman saying to the select board members tell me is this what you wanted or did you want this other thing? And if so write it yourself And other than that then my other question was I did allude to earlier the idea Of you having input on this. I don't know how much input you've had a chance to have so far But while I don't mean to put you on the spot here if you didn't have something in particular You wanted to talk about one of the things I will want you to tell us more about is how you see that? Overseeing piece so that it's it's clear where the lines of authority are So the only other question I haven't is is relative to Are we operating under a timeline to get this in place to make us? You know available for funding for grant funding. I know that having that helps I just know are we are we trying to meet a certain deadline or target date to? No, okay in this situation this we've already submitted our intent to make the policy So that checks off the box for mass DOT so that we don't have to have an official policy for mass DOT yet Okay, and actually the way things are working out We won't really be eligible for our projects in middle until October So we still have one more step to do in between and then this is not the step but something else we have to do Great. That's good to know as well All right. Thank you all very much appreciate you coming out tonight Great showing from the tack. Thank you all for coming in Appreciate the work as well So next on our agenda is Personal procedures manual revision mr. Steinberg. Did you want to make a statement here? Yes because my wife is an employee of the library in a non-union position I Am going to use myself from participating either in discussion or voting on The next two items on the agenda great. Thank you very much so we have a Moment so let's let miss Radway. Do you want to come up and mr. Butterfield? Why don't we just move my You're all welcome to come forward another the personnel board shows up in force. Yeah, exactly bring them all up So in order of events we have the actual changes to the manual But then secondarily we have an actual actionable item that we're going to take action on but but let's start with the big one first If that's all right Since that's the order in which we're taking things the the changes to the manual So if you'd be so kind Yes, I'm Tony Butterfield. I'm currently the chair of the Amherst Town personnel board and I'm happy that some of my colleagues in fact most of my colleagues are with me tonight Chris Hoffman and Catherine Porter and Charlie Sherpa Only Rebecca Woodland is not here and on their behalf and more importantly on behalf of the staff committee that has really done All of the heavy lifting we are happy to present to you the new improved personnel procedures manual But I also want to acknowledge the members of the staff committee who are here and I think they're two of you Joan Mrs. Yacht and Linda Wentworth and The others and I want to get their name into the record because they work very hard on this Stephanie Chicarello the sustainability coordinator Teresa Florent from payroll and benefits Nate Malloy senior planner Jen Lafontaine the Collector's office and now our acting collector and Mike Olkin who was the GIS Coordinator who has since left the town's employee employment Just that way background this project has been in the works for a long time Maybe as long as three years ago the members of the personnel board individually Did some minor edits on the then in existence personnel procedures manual? And it was clear that process was going nowhere So a little under two years ago HR director Deb Bradway said we need to get serious about this And I think the best way to do it is to put together a staff committee representing the different departments and We will meet regularly and we will do a complete and thorough overview and updating of the manual and so That's what she did and that's what they did this committee Has been meeting every week since August of 2016 member. That's 2016 not 2017 and During that time period they have also met with the personnel board on nine separate occasions to keep us informed as to Where they were ask questions make sure they were on the right track Then late last fall the the draft document was posted I guess on the Intranet website that the town has so the employees who are going to be affected by this could see it and a survey was sent out asking for their Feedback and any questions or concerns they might have and then in December this past December the board met with all of those Non-unionized employees face-to-face To have some interaction about what was in there and if they had any concerns and was mostly a listening session for us So what you have before you is the result of that process and all of that? hard work I we hope that we think that in General this document is way more user-friendly and welcoming to to new town employees We are pretty sure it's very up-to-date with all the rules and regulations and in particular Massachusetts law and federal law We've put more or less an independent copies of all of the Policies of the town that affect the behavior of employees even a few that don't really come under the purview of the personnel board There are some new sections There is the one clearly economic item regarding a proposal to increase the shift differential and throughout we have Tried to emphasize more than has been in the past and the town manager has been very supportive of this and that is the Whole idea of professional development for the town employees Indeed the very process of creating this staff committee to do this work is an example of that Professional development and they also did a whole lot better job than we as members of the person of bill personnel board could have done ourselves So with that I think I would be happy to Take any questions That you may have Just before we start the question is redway. Did you have anything you wanted to offer or add to this? Before we okay She's my security blanket for any questions. Yes. Oh, that's what she'll do. She'll answer all the questions. Okay. All right There you have it So are there questions from members the board? Miss Brewer, so there's a lot in here and so thank you very much For all the work of course, but in addition to when we know we don't tell you that often enough so thank you for all the work and Then also especially for getting it to us ahead of time so that we had a little extra time to look at it Because we did have a rare week off and so some of us were able to put a little more time into reading it ahead of time And also for providing the memo because knowing you know, what are the highlights of what we're looking at? It turns out there's a whole lot of highlights because you changed a lot of stuff So we didn't have to look far to find changes. So thank you for bringing us all up to date on this One of the things that I had asked Mr. Backelman in terms of the rest of the select board not knowing because we can't deliberate outside of public meaning is I had asked him a couple of questions associated with sick leave buyback and Although we may each hold different opinions about how sick leave buyback works One of the things that I appreciated that Ms. Radway was able to explain to me quite clearly Was the reminder of course that this is the non-union Personnel that is that is looking at here and trying to look at you know What are we doing in terms of the bargaining agreements? What have we historically done and? Not having basically different classes out though. She would not use this terminology I would not having different classes of employees in terms of how we treat them for you know basic human needs sorts of things And so I appreciate your explanations that that went a long way toward me understanding the history behind why we do what we do and Again, I don't have to agree with all of it, but understanding why? the different things apply to different issues and then of course other things are collective bargaining issues because it is always Awkward for the select board because it always feels like it always feels like we're in collective bargaining although of course We're not always in collective bargaining and we are able to get updates in executive session with collective bargaining But it often feels like we can't really say anything ever about anything that's in a contract because somehow that might be Problematic if we say something even though we don't do any of the negotiating But then that means that when people express concerns to us or we develop concerns on our own there's not really a place for them to go and So that kind of all came out in my questions Associated with that particular issue, so I just appreciate that there's a lot that you're trying to balance with all of this So thank you Really more of a comment I mean I think I Was I was glad we had the summary memo. I've Been able to be in a number of the personnel committee meetings as the liaison Because it's usually early in the morning. There's less things to conflict with but So I've gotten to go in I just think over the two years really Both the personnel committee personnel board has really Undertaken that a huge task and the collaboration with the staff group was just a great model I mean, I don't know how other towns do this, but it seemed like Not only were really good ideas brought forward by that collaboration and sort of testing You know the staff may have come up with something tested against the personnel boards questioning and probing and Acceptance or not and then I think I mean tell me if I'm wrong, but at the end of the day I think there was a real buy-in from Everybody that this was ready to go and a really good product. So It was a lot of work I've seen a lot of pieces I certainly didn't read the one in my packet at this point Confess But I just I just think it was a great process and a really fine product that the whole tone of the manual Changed through this To be a welcoming Kind of a document and more accessible document and of course legally bringing it up to today's time And it's hard to keep that stuff current but this had a lot of catch up to do so Just wanted to acknowledge where I think the really fine Effort and I I always felt good, you know after one of those working sessions If I if I could thank you very much The appendices are 50 pages and the document itself is 40 pages and We really put the appendices at the end so they could be changed As policies are updated By the state or federal government without affecting the body of the document I just want to echo what Connie Krueger said is that this was a mammoth undertaking And I've been in other places where they've attempted this but it doesn't get finished and it takes a long time and Two years is a long time to work on something. I think you're right the model of engaging the employees And and the personnel board is really good at listening the personal belt board comes in regularly and listens to employees Interacted with employees on a regular basis. I do think that Deb Bradway deserves a ton of credit for sort of quarterbacking this entire thing through the personnel board and through the employee committees It there were a lot of this looks all nice and pretty now But there were a lot of rough spots along the way that where people disagreed and they had to work through things and so I think that This really I mean it's sort of our drink our thing says draw It's more than a draft it's a little bit closer to being a draft so So thank you that is a really terrific piece of work They're actually because you know you wouldn't want to go away and handed without an edit after all this work so Be as an outsider reading this and I did mention this in my email pages 27 to 28 where it talks about sick leave buyback It's already the policy that Less than ten years no buyback So it doesn't make sense to me to say that effective such and such date the new policy is this it's like it's the same policy and so Somehow being clear that nothing has changed in terms of the ten at the ten years. That's still true and Because it doesn't say the new policy is less than ten years no buyback. It says for new employees and The reality is it's still no ten So just in terms of people's ease of finding how they are compared to the other employees Sure the in fact the only thing that changes in the sick leave buyback for New hires after July 1st 2020 is the cap right for retirement The first bullet is not a change Well, we know you got at least a page well You have you have no idea how many fines I did in my electronic version so To make things work out That was the one that I found frustrating You want to say to the other members of the select board that having Miss Krueger Along with us was quite helpful. She was at most of the meeting. She did have a lot to say and knowing with all due respect Miss Krueger knowing that you were also the liaison to the transportation advisory board Connie get a life I Though I will say I had a harder time keeping my mouth shut in your meetings than in theirs Let it chirpy things to add We're very you were very gracious about that, mr. But I feel so are there any Was there a specific edit that you wanted to suggest for that or or because we have the motion on our motion She says presented slash Actually You have a note you can do that. You'll make it make even more sense than it already okay So is there further comment or more suggestion for them for the personal policy manual? Please if you would be delighted to read this motion I Move to adopt the personnel procedures manual revisions as amended Is there a second? All right, there's been motion a second is it for the discussion Hearing none all those in favor, please say I I Post all right, so that's four to zero or unanimous with one absence So thank you for that So next a much more specific sort of topic relative to non-union Hourly staff shift differential increase so If you'd like to introduce that for us So consistent with the shift differential provided in the collective bargaining agreements with the DPW and with the SEI you Our proposal is to increase the shift differential for affected non-union personnel from 70 cents to 85 cents per hour there are currently five employees affected by this and Based on the total number of hours they worked in Calendar 2017 This will cost a hundred and sixty dollars and would win with it Would this take effect immediately after our vote if we any questions or comments for Our guests relative to this if not then I would entertain the motion I don't mind doing it, but I'm happy to have somebody else do this one I'm distracted feel free to do if you look this I guess I haven't I don't know unless mr. Wallace to do this one There's a typo in there should say 15 cents because 70 to 85 is 15 cents not 10 cents, but on our motion Oh, I say it. I say yes. Oh my goodness. Thank goodness The motion sheet it's just it's not don't worry about it. Don't worry about I got it Put the DRA Yeah, the DRA Yes, I moved to prove an increase of 15 cents In the evening shift differential for non-union employees from 70 cents to 85 cents per hour and there's a second and that's the differential. That's not we're paying people In addition to so is there further comment Hearing none all those in favor, please say aye. Hi. Sorry. I'm giving you the eye because I don't want you to let Them go yet. I actually did want to ask a different question. So that's unanimous with one person Thank you. I I knew I had another note that I wanted to ask you about so this I'm sure this isn't a change It's just a clarification for those of us who don't go to personal board meetings Appendix a is the personnel by-law itself the by-law itself has not changed and the by-law is part of our general by-laws and So even though it says draft because the whole thing says draft nothing in it changed and it's exactly as it's been in our general By-laws since 95 Okay, because you didn't all the wonderful work you did didn't mean we had to change that so we don't have to do Anything for town meeting is what I'm getting Excellent glad to hear it. Thank you Thank you very much. Thank you to your other members who've come this evening and help us out and walk this through this a little bit So thank you very much for that So why don't we take a short recess five minutes or so let everybody stand up walk around and My mr. Steinberg, yeah, all right, so we're all back Thank you all so next on our agenda is the annual town meeting draft warrant a first look Do you want to just sort of take us to just hand out a little paper? this long sheet of paper to you and These are in note the order that we've placed them in because you haven't looked at the warrant to number it is How we think we can organize them in terms of when you they would when the people would come in to But talk about the warrant articles to you by your four meetings in April And so this is sort of the universe of potential articles And I think we're pretty settled on on these but a lot half of them pretty much our standard ones that That you would expect to see there are four petition articles so We can walk through we had a gender setting or not gender setting we had warrant review this morning with town council and town moderator the chair TMCC and staff and Went through a draft warrant There's a lot of work to be done on it the town council has a few things that he has to work on We have a few things that we have to work on And but the idea on this is that we would have a draft in advance of your meeting on Friday Which is would be the time for you to discuss the warrant and the article the actual language of the articles on the warrant You don't have to sign the warrant until April 2nd So this is sort of your first look and are there things that we're missing from your point of view or if there are things that You like oh, we're not ready for this or anything like that. That's the idea here It's good to have something to look at there's a number of things that are Scheduled for a meeting of the 18th of April was this meeting. I won't be here for I'm wondering what flexibility There might be to swap some things around what? We can adjust it. However, you hear what you said I mean certainly not everyone can be at everything and I if it needs to be then fine, but a couple of things I've worked on And there's some swap because the other any of the other the other three dates are fine But that date and so you're not available. No, I'm out of the country, right on the 18th Right, and so I know that Sorry, so that's 18 April 18 Having struggling with that. It's not 2018, but that's just me. I know the 18 is on every line It's hard the one date month here is the order in which we're doing things So the other thing I would point out is is that it's likely that with the the petition articles There's one zoning one if I'm correct on this and the other three are petition articles The one zoning one is closely aligned with what the planning board is bringing forward. I'll just say that now So it we might want to put those on the same night because then they can all talk about it at the same time Makes sense, and then I think you know as far as the other three it may depend upon availability of petitioners and You know our own schedule as far as what will or won't work So with without knowing how much behind-the-scenes has already gone into this Is it possible to ask the planning board to come a different time than April 18th? Because if it isn't that that had to be the time because of their schedule of hearings and when they can get the reports done Etc. If they can be moved to either then you know the night through the 23rd either because they'll be ready or because they Won't be ready in which case the 23rd. I think it's essential that Ms. Krueger be here just because of our work on the internal working group We didn't invite anybody we want to have the conversation. This was done today We okay, this is before we had we had want review it and that finish it and then we put this Put this together and then she said should I invite people as I let's talk to the select board tonight and see where Yeah, and it's useful. This is very helpful. Yeah. No, and I did anything wrong I just like no my god all the ones that I care about I Can't right because that's the other thing about the 18th of April is this a Wednesday Is that correct right just for those of us because you're because it's the week of the school vacation Monday's the holiday In the in the Boston Post came Yes, we'll be here Or that afternoon the 16th the 16th correct Was the other thing I was gonna mention about this So there's I don't know if that made it in today's we had a conversation There's a number of easements relative to road work and that's worth thing. We're gonna gonna cluster those I think those have been listed as a single line there. Have they? So there's a number of those I also just as a you know Miss Krueger and Miss Brewer may very well know this but I'll Advise my other two colleagues because I saw this today that the medical marijuana Believe it's the uses one is a really long article because it because the State CCC not our local CCC, but the state CC identified and articulated different kinds of uses or You know for retail establishments and that's really so they're rather extensive mostly Programmatic, I guess I'd say you know definitional sort of things that are being considered to be added to the warrant I mean that's the warrant to the zoning by law And so that one's a really lengthy one So it would be very helpful to have Both of you here to kind of go through that because that's a I can Probably guarantee that will be a very difficult one just because of the size of the changes that are being recommended It's bro So one option associated with that as well as that there although it wouldn't be traditional for the way Amherst does it we already talked about a slight modification to the Layout of that particular article because it's going to be extremely difficult to reprint accurately We know we've run into problems with that in the past And so they're already time out maybe combining some categories You know the definitions have to state what they are but then in terms of putting them just so it's fewer things for people to try and hop through in that fashion because It is it we looked at and we all said wow, this is Like the way this looks it's it's it's just is what it is. It's a lot of letters There's a lot of detail and and there was some clustering. I don't know where it was Yeah, there was gonna they were gonna try some clustering, but it's It's it's it's gonna be tough. I think I mean there's no way around it I mean it's necessary as well though But but I think that hopefully in in our conversations before and at town meeting around that article I think I hope that we can have substantive conversations about what It's trying to cause to have happen So we're not tangled up on things like layouts and right, you know Auditans of that sort sort of word processing versus the actual meaning of the words. I'm actually not understanding Maybe miss Krueger will be immediately obvious to her But I don't understand what the abbreviations mean for the second item under April 18th right now What? Center text credit offsite, I don't know We know what the we we have a general sense of what the articles look like but we sure don't know what that There's a lot of type of yeah, because this was we understand that it was put together in a hurry after today's war It's supposed to be treatment center. Oh and off site dispensary So it's treatment so it's probably supposed to be TRT instead of TX. So one of the things we'll want to do when we Republish this is even though it's mostly an internal document to be super clear that that's not new That's just a revision to what's Current that's not a brand new concept. We don't want people to start getting worried that these are brand new concepts But and the warrant Title of the items should also make that clear that some of these are almost house keeping Right, and then some of them are not that one in particular is a very very small change rough part designation of Act D You know, that's okay Yeah, no if we're gonna swap swap dates I would suggest giving some consideration to switching budget in zoning for between the 9th and the 18th for two reasons one is because of the Request made by miss Kruger and the other is that Well, I don't Anticipate that we're gonna get any news that's gonna cause us great problems out of the houseways and means committee budget We won't know what the houseways and means committee budget is until probably the 11th of April, right? Good point as well. If that had some me if there's some major shift There may be some work to be done relative to that if there was something we don't anticipate that but yes, miss Brewer Yeah, the thing we'll want to we'll want to make sure we're clear about though It's too bad miss Brestrup was here just a couple minutes ago and now isn't but is that the second packet deadline is April 19th And so we have to have the planning board reports before we as by practice before we Do these articles ourselves and so obviously they were planning to have it in the second packet at least But if they were scheduling it if we schedule it for the 18th But what I'm what I'm getting at is they may not be ready. They may win the 23rd so they might want the 23rd and That would not be unreasonable given the volume of reports they're gonna have to write and Still get them done. I mean so that means they'll actually end up in the packet before they come to us Which is totally fine Fine if it goes in that order But we don't want to push them to have it done on the night if they weren't if they were gonna do that great But I suspect not because they have a lot going on The turns out isn't all about marijuana surprisingly enough despite the huge amount of time we spend on that issue So I think Anything jump out at anybody as far as things there I have two questions since since you just are fresh from warrant review, you know exactly what all these things mean and so The ag commission change and the recycling refuse management change I don't care what the changes are at this moment I know we've talked at least about membership numbers But what I'm asking about is are those things that are currently town bylaws or currently town meeting actions Or currently mass general law Exception says because it should be clear in the warrant what those are and I don't know what they are So I'd like to know that coming into it So the ag cum membership change is a little bit of two of those things because we had town meeting take action But there's also a governing section of mass general law as well. So those have to be Inalignment with one another and that's some of the some of the questions We have posed to council or will pose to council about how to word that properly. So that's the case So a town council said that a lot of ag commissions were set up before the state law was established And then they came in after the fact and said here's how you should do it But a lot of towns like Amherst had already set them up and that's why there's a conflict in this And the Municipal Modernization Act actually was one of that was actually something that did happen the municipal Modernization Act and so In addition to the mass general law reference So it's it's also in that section of the law and so my question to town council is probably the same as your question to town council, which is that the Municipal Modernization Act said oh, here's how you set up an ag cum You know like we didn't already know that we've done it for years ago But it says three to five members and the question is can we say thank you very much But we want ours to be seven if we want it to be seven or Do we have to do it for it to count as an ag cum and have the powers of an ag cum? The other thing we sometimes do is is asked for like homeroom petition type legislation So that may be part and parcel of what so that's the series of questions I think we're gonna pose to council about this is so there's so we have an exception that like one of the things that's explicit in the law is residency of Members and we were looking to potentially allow say students that You know in in agriculture might not live in town, but are interested in agriculture Is that an allowable exception or not? You know, so we've got a kind of way through some of those things on the recycling refuse management You know committee change Again, I think that was an that committee's a committee of town meeting. Isn't it not it is so and again I think the same There's some of our own work because we were talking about Sustainability committee and so whether we get our that piece done of Our own work to potentially form that but also to to have the recycling refuse management committee Discuss this topic as well. I'm not sure they've met to discuss that They have discussed it. I've talked with the chairman And they're supportive of he says they are supportive of this they have a meeting on March 29th I think because I told them that you would want their support to Because basically this it would this would the sustainability committee would subsume the The RRMC and they were in favor of that process so So again, just so that the warrant articles that we eventually get out of town council are clear in terms of master in the law and Municipal Modernization Act is nice because you cite the numbers and it's all very straightforward But other things are a creation of town meeting also Meaning they change the general bylaw or Sometimes they're just a creation of town meeting with no effect on the general bylaw and so that's where we sometimes have to Disconnect because some a few committees are in the general bylaws. They were a bunch of committees never went any place other than Select for it. I mean, it's just there's just so many different ways of doing things And just because town meeting acted on it doesn't mean it ended up in the bylaw But if it's in the bylaw then obviously it's a bylaw change as opposed to town meeting acted on this 15 years ago And now we're changing what town meeting would do We'll try to articulate those specifics Thank you. That makes it much clearer speaking of that Speaking of that that reminds me of something council brought up this morning in the Municipal Modernization Act and had to do with the reauthorization of Revolving funds. Yeah, and and there is a so that Sort of standard Reauthorization is going to be a little different this time around Because it won't be just that it'll that'll be a part of a broader Standing authorization so the Municipal Modernization Act Actually compels us if I understood the council this morning to have those types of revolving fund authorizations be You know sort of set up and then we don't have to renew them each year after that But they are listed and then we can obviously modify them if we need to but but at the same time What we do in this for schools is there's a you set an upper limit on the on the revolving fund essentially And we've traditionally had to reauthorize it every year the change in State law around modernization Requires us to sort of set that up in perpetuity essentially So that revolving fund reauthorization is a little more than just that It's that plus sort of complying with how state law now reads around Around those kinds of funds. I think this McGinnis brought that up to tell meaning that that was in Process and we weren't compelled. I think we had a sort of one-year Optional piece which is what we did and now I think we're kind of required to switch The format of that so that's that's that one as far as a preview on that Are there any other questions? I mean we'll get into the nitty-gritty a bit more on Friday when we meet And hopefully some of these that are a little Raw at this point will be smoothed a bit So it's sort of like rough cut lumber versus finished lumber. So we'll we'll try to resolve those at all So yes, so the I'm gonna bring this up again then but I just keep saying it over and over Maybe it's more likely to happen when we Work out the schedule because planning board is able to do what they're able to do and whatever swap happens Happens potentially the 18th and 23rd being switched one of the things we need to be super clear about because it's 18th and 9th No Planning board is not going to be able to do the 9th. Let's say 18 and 23rd switch Likely Likely we don't know for sure and that doesn't mean the 9th and the 23rd I don't care You're rotating about or you want to spin the dial is One of the things we've tried to get better about over the years and I know as purple is every intention of doing it I just want to make sure we give her enough time to do it Which is that with the petition articles? People need to be told to give us something in writing not just show up because that is maddening It does not have to be the same thing they're planning to put in the town meeting packet But they need to end since their first meetings the second and if we do do I mean our next meeting after this is the second And so if we do in fact do those petition articles that means that you know soon as you work out what night the planning board is coming And I'm sure it's not second That they get told that like as soon as possible so that they can get working on that because they may not have planned for it They may be thinking more about town meeting packets Some of these are not experienced petitioners correct Any other comments or question at this point? Okay, looks like a busy spring it is yes, I agree So so I think we'll move on in our agenda unless there's anything else someone wanted to add relative to that and again We'll meet on Friday morning. I believe in board of tail So next on our agenda, I have committees boards and appointments and reappointments. We have two appointments to make I Will actually Speak very briefly to the appointment to the Agricultural Commission The person mentioned there and I will not say his name not because I don't want to but because I don't want to say it Incorrectly, Mr. Mikowski. I think it's outside like Chowsky. I wouldn't want to Who is is currently serving as the manager of the? Summer farmers market Has met with the committee actually as a whole because he was actually at their meeting and so we've moved his his Appointment into into tonight's agenda for that purpose here. I think he'll he has a Nice connected agriculture and a little different view than just a farmer has by virtue of working with the farmers market and so I'm pleased to sort of have that person be added to our There's no motion. There's no motion. Yes, there is no motion Yes, we have There are no motions for either of them, but that's okay because they were on the agenda, right? So did anyone? As far as CDBG did miss broody do want to offer any comment or suggestion around our our person there Just that we will be thrilled to fill all the slots on CDBG and we appreciate all the applicants that came forward and Many of them were referred by other members or as potential members just going to show that that again is what makes the difference Is that personal contact someone you know? So I'm saying that to all the committee members out there who are planning to not continue after June Find a replacement for yourself Because personal contact works in terms of talking to other people So that'll be great to have a full committee because they do still have some work to do even though those Recommendations have been sent in they have additional work During the rest of the year just more sporadically and so it'll be great to have a full committee And then it'll be ready when they're into the next cycle. I'll still be on board They will help you still be there All right, so if someone would be willing to Potentially offer a motion to really get it making it motion He's looking for a previous one where he's going to slot out different names and committees. I think that's exactly what I'm doing Keep talking every one of them in it. But if not, I'm gonna They go to the agenda for the names you just get the agenda again I Move to Appoint Andrew Are let's start with David Nitschowski to the Agricultural Commission For a term Ending June 30th, 2020 There's a second. Yes So we had this conversation briefly and then I just Was reminded by my colleague. This is makes it only a two-year term I don't think we're in the mode of thinking of 2021 yet as opposed to we did it for a reason for two years versus three Does anybody remember well often that's picked so to make to with an awareness. Oh absolutely But I but it's not I absolutely know for a fact that it's not true for block grant because others were ending in 2020 And so if we are looking for staggering, I think we all just kind of forgot that 2021 is three years from now now because you know it is well, it seems like a long way away a comment on it given that we have not a rule but a practice of Two three-year terms and or six years if it's two years and two years and you know, it doesn't ultimately affect Reappointing and filling out the potential for six years. So if it if it was done deliberately, I Don't know that it's bad To use these I don't know I wasn't right I know it was an oversight for block grant because I just didn't think of 2021 We had a very brief conversation So we've still got a lot or not. We want to alter the motion that we currently have to make it 2021 I mean, I can look them up, but but we could also leave ag-com 2020 since we might be changing ag-com I don't know. Well, if you're sure on the other one, let's make that one 21 right and leave this 20 in a way It doesn't Right doesn't we can make it add up to six seven day or not So we'll keep the motion we have on the floor currently at 2020 Is there further discussion? Hearing none all those in favor, please say hi. Hi. All right. That's unanimous And so if you would be so kind mr. Steinberg to craft the other Just very simply again, I moved to appoint Andrew Grant Thomas to the community development block grant committee through June 30 2021 There's a second. Is there further discussion? Hearing none all those in favor, please say hi. Hi Post that's unanimous as well Thank you both for your service in advance of actually serving but we appreciate you stepping forward and offering your your services to those those two committees Next up we have our consent calendar Several items on there two things I'll point out real quickly for cherry hill golf course There's seasonal licenses both common Vic and and liquor license and then a series of events Believe on campus are most the rest of those and if someone either has Comment suggestion or would like to offer the consent calendar Take those motions The one thing on the consent calendar that I was going to suggest is that there was a little bit of inconsistency and wording because the way the way it is worded is moved to approve the items listed and then Under some of them two three Actually most of them then there's move to as opposed to just to approve Which was number one. I thought that at least we should be consistent and it wouldn't make sense to include the words move to Yeah, so I would just say to approve Because it's all consumed subsumed under one motion and with that correction I will move to prove the items listed on the consent calendar for March 1928 Dean is amended And there's a second yes, okay, what we decided last time about the patio So You'll know there's a photo And explanation I believe Well, I just want to make sure we understand that we're we are in fact taking that into account because we said It was an issue right I think we wanted some some sense of where there's an explanation I believe as well and the chief has reviewed these all right I think there was a couple emails relative to that we have we have his these two the in your packet They don't they don't have the his signature, but the ones we have upstairs do have the signature I want to know if they Photoshop the people into the photo because it almost they almost look like they were It is sort of stuck in there after the fact. It's not true, but I know it's not but Does that slight look to it? But anyway, sir, I Don't find their explanation particularly compelling and I think it's got a bit of an attitude in it that we've done it Before it'll be fine. Don't worry about it Which I do not find pleasing in comparison to when we have people coming before us for other types of licenses But if the chief feels okay about it, I'm willing to roll with it But we will need to continue to ask that question if they have something else that's outdoors Just having reviewed it again. I I Feel content with the way they've talked about how they would monitor the area and I just think it's always a little risky when we don't have somebody here before us, you know Texting is almost the worst but email in trying to figure out tone We really don't know so I'm definitely willing to give the benefit of the doubt on that But I think our questions created You know that diving a little deeper and thinking about it some more and whether those Assurances could have been you know, we're already in place or I made them think about it more and they Put put them in place And I think it will be some thought put into managing the outdoor space and I'm Content with that right and I think it also raises the the question with the with the police chief a little bit as well Just sort of making more aware. Oh if they say outside, I need it So I think we've hopefully moved in the right direction on that. Is there further discussion? Hearing none all those in favor, please say aye Post that's unanimous. All right, so that is all of section seven and I believe at this point We are into How many sure for okay Mr. Chair Few things Yeah, thorough report last week the if you recall you had authorized or approved a the Signs that would go up on Wednesday prior to The annual election and those signs are prepared. They're sort of the sort of wired signs that say vote Tuesday What's the town seal on them? So they're Produced and ready to be installed and we're working on locations for those If you There is a weather forecast for additional snow coming up on Wednesday Thursday Just to update you at this point in time. We are just over two hundred thousand dollars over our school Or our snow snow budget That's not too unusual in FY 15. We were two hundred and fifty one thousand dollars over and FY 16 We were thirty eight thousand to the good FY 17 we were two hundred and fifteen thousand and this year we're two hundred and two thousand dollars So we're in the same range as of Two of the last three years it's still over budget typically what we do is then You'll see you at the end when we go to town meeting We sort of move money around from areas where we have money and to fill the snow budget hole So in years past we just generally haven't had a circumstance like we've had this year with health insurance So health insurance is likely to you know, we have a hundred thousand dollars in in the reserve fund Not to be confused with all the other kinds of reserve funds The one the finance committee controls for these kinds of things. So we're likely to have That competing for those same dollars as the snow and ice is that correct, okay? Yeah, so we're still working out the total Volume of all that because we don't know what the health insurance hit is going to be at this point As you know with the resignation of Miss McGinnis as a treasure collector We have now three major positions that we will be searching and we have schedule set up for all three for the town clerk for the treasure collector and for the assistant to town manager It's as I think we didn't meet last week so I have appointed general fountain as the acting collector and Sherry Boucher as the acting treasure They will be reporting to me, but also we've offered support from mr. Burgess and Miss and Sonia and Dave Zomek and Deb Radway will provide a real network of support for them They are both very experienced in their positions and will do a terrific job. There's some things they haven't done But we're prepared to help them with that We're taking some things off their plate such as we are, you know we're transitioning to The ambulance billing system being to a private company and so we will be managing that as well And just as that moves to a private company the person who was doing that task The way you you make that balance is that you eliminate that position But that person has been relocated to the second floor here to a position that was vacant So no one's going to lose their job. We will be down one position though I want to inform you that I Signed a pilot agreement with next amp which has a solar farm on 324 Montague Road and this is in alignment with how we've done other Solar deals as well according to David Burgess The I also signed a signed sent it to you, but I need to do that a host community agreement with GTI which is the medical marijuana provider on Meadow Street and So that has been reviewed multiple times by town council It's pretty much according to Jeff Kravitz pretty much the standard that we're allowed to do as much as we're allowed to Do from them at this point in time We have received our audit report It's a clean audit with there's no management letter, which is a big accomplished accomplishment There are no items outstanding or that have been identified by the auditors. So we're very proud of our treasure collector and accounting teams for running such a great operation and we get audited every year as you know and typically they auditors want to find something and They have found things, you know small things in the past like someone not documenting their hours for CDBG Quite accurately the way they wanted them to be documented and we fixed that and but this year we'd fixed all the things and It was really terrific. So So again, congratulations to the auditing company auditing Thank You auditing company the accounting department The other thing with Ms. McGinnis Submitting to resignation. I've appointed Anthony Delaney to the be on the Fort River Building Committee and So he'll be full for he's been going to those meetings anyway talked with the superintendent felt like his expertise Was would be suitable for that also the school department is is responsible for part of his salary this fiscal year So it made sense if that's how the superintendent felt. He wanted his resources To be used that was good Mr. McPherson attends those meetings Ms. McGinnis was attending those we had a lot of staff attending these meetings and so But mr. Delaney, it's also it. He'll be very good at that. He's already proven his worth there The The insurance advisory committee, I think I sent this to you on email but not announced it to you in a public meeting the insurance advisory committee Approved the proposal for health insurance on a vote of nine in favor zero against for three abstentions and one absent and this would do do three things one it would be to move from a Self-insured to a fully insured in health insurance product for the employees of the town of Pellum town of Amherst Which includes the Amherst elementary schools and the Amherst Pellum regional school district The second thing it would do is it would eliminate one of our two providers right now. We have Harvard health and Blue Cross We would eliminate Harvard health It says it makes sense to consolidate our risk pool with one provider It gives us more leverage when we're talking to that provider because we can always move if we want to The third thing it does is it makes plan design changes This is probably the thing that's most has most impact our employees because it introduces a deductible Which we don't have now it aligns our product with benchmark two according to the GIC There were there were basically three benchmarks. The GIC has benchmark one benchmark two and benchmark three And so we've aligned at this point in time with benchmark two which introduces the deductible at 300 for individual 900 maximum for family Have some other changes. There's some slight benefits to employees But it's really an attempt to Helps to control our costs of insurance By helping employees be educated about that where they make choices about where they seek coverage For instance if you choose to go to a tier two hospital Which is the most expensive kind of hospital to go to your copay is significantly higher Than if you choose to go to a tier one hospital The only tier one hospital the only tier two hospital in Western Massachusetts is Bay State in Springfield It's the only one out here. There are people say well, I like going to the Boston teaching hospitals Many of those are tier one hospitals. It's not based on how expensive the services. It's based on Their output and their their results are people readmit it are our patients Served well once once they're in there. They are they treated well and all these different metrics metrics that Blue Cross has and so a lot of hospitals are striving to get into be tier one because people are making Decisions with their feet about saying well, I'm not gonna I don't want to pay that big copay for my and these are fourth Operations of choice that you don't you're not being required to go in your doctor's not saying you have to go do this You're it's not if you're in a car accident you go to the hospital those things are not the things that are covered but what I want to mention is that This will be a big impact on employees. We are We met last week to start the plan to roll out the week of March 26. We'll start educating employees. We will have Sessions at every workplace in the town DPW every fire station police station every school and We'll have multiple sessions at each of these places. We'll also have major meetings with retirees Who will have be impacted by this as well to try and educate people about it? a lot of changes a lot of effort by staff a lot of cooperation by the unions who've been educating their own numbers throughout this whole process and So I think that this sets us up going into the future as we will Be going to Maya blue cross blue shield and then they have guaranteed that next year We will be increased no more Than the midpoint of their range of increases a lot of our members were concerned that yes You give all your business to blue cross and then they jack you up the next year. That's not they won't be able to do that That by that by this change we will reduce our health insurance price But we still are responsible for any deficit that we incur this year plus since we're self-insured We have the run out for the medical expenses. We incur during May and June that we will have to pay during July and August That surcharge Will be incurred by both the town and by the employees and that will be placed on the employees And I can make a more thorough presentation. I didn't bring the chart with me But the employees will know exactly how much it's going to hit them And then that will be accounted for separately and once that that those deficits and that that run out is accounted for Then the surcharge will go away We are budgeting that on a two-year schedule So it's not too impactful on anyone and any employees as because we're spending it out over time Our sense is that With your year one, we know where we are year two We know it won't go up much more than it won't go up more than the midpoint year three That surcharge will drop off and then there'll be some flexible. So it won't this any increase in year three shouldn't be as impactful But there's no guarantees my feeling is that this is about as good as it as you can get in terms of looking into the Future with health insurance these days. So Happy with this and I see this as a step. I see this as a good Attempt to address our health insurance thing our health insurance problem And it also moves moves the risk from the town. This is the most important thing to the insurance company so right now we bear all the risk and we've paid for it because we've had at least a half a dozen very large claims up to $250,000 that we've had to pay and that just decimates our our self-insurance pool that will then be moved to To the to the Maya Blue Cross plan So big project a lot of people put a lot of effort into it Case Lugar especially has put enormous amounts of time and the insurance advisory committee led by Patrick Brock was Just Struggled with it because it's hard to go back to your employee to your union members and say Guess what? We're asking you to raise your your rates and you're gonna have to pay a deductible But they understood this the predicament we were in and they knew that if we did nothing We would be making cuts of our budgets in the town the school and the regional school districts of hundreds of thousands of dollars nearly a million dollars in each of them Which would have required what required us to lay off people and I think they recognized that was an unfortunate choice We were stuck in so that's moving forward the What else oh We are about to be meeting with representatives from the town of Hadley for the ambulance that's going to happen this week I hope I anticipate and Is to talk about What the services we're providing where they where we are on pricing and Where they went where they think we should be right now? They they pay us a hundred and forty thousand dollars for to provide the service They account for about nine hundred of our five thousand calls a year As you recall they made they went out to bid and they received one bid that was chart that charged the town 292,000 dollars or something like that For to provide a service that had an ambulance stationed in the town of Hadley We provide high very high levels of ambulance protection for the town of Hadley and I think We'll be talking to them about how much what they value how they value things and how we value things So I'll keep you posted on that conversation Aren't we're we're meet meeting with the town administrator a member of the select board and the fire chief there the And then just a couple other smaller things one is The Had a cup of hand one of my cup of Joe's at at Kelly's restaurant as Krueger was there pretty good turnout with police chief Who seems to know pretty much everybody? and And so it was it was really that's always a good venue because people come in and they have their lists of things They want to bring up about mostly about which roads needed attention for the most part and we anticipated that but It was really good literally positive energy Really good connections on a lot of different levels It was very positive. I also Gave my speech at the mass continuing continuing to continuing legal education Seminar for municipal attorneys And that went really well and that was also a webinar So it got broadcast out some people weren't able to make it because of snow But they were able to watch it on on the internet and then today I made a presentation sort of the town hall road show This the at the Amherst women's club and they had a really good turnout, you know 40 people probably there And that was a good session as well So I think that's pretty much all I have tonight Questions. Yes. Yeah, just one thing going way back to probably the first item, which is a snow and ice budget. Yes Of course, there is a special set. There's a section of the state law that allows the town some additional latitude for snow and ice emergencies such as this year in accounting procedures, so Just to remind our colleagues that There is a more flexibility than just the reserve fund as far as how this can be handled correct. Yeah Other questions or comments? Yes In your packet and you got this in the email, too. There is a letter from the Amherst Pellum regional school district That says that at their meeting on March 12th They voted to authorize borrowing a sum to support the projects that were included in the Amherst Pellum regional capital plan and discuss at the Four towns meeting and apparently this is I don't think this is I think this is new they typically this has not been done it has the minutes of their meeting and Their auditors wanted them to present this to the select board and then to have the select board Acknowledged that you've received it so they want to make sure that every every all four towns had received this notification So that's why this is in your packet if memory serves a required notify us of it because it compels us We have an option to take exception with it correct within 60 days So that's part of why it's here and if we have a reason to take exception We have a certain amount of time in order to sort of raise the issue as it were It's Brewer So I believe that it should be added to our agenda for Friday Okay, okay as an agenda as a list of topics item because otherwise the public doesn't know that This is in our it was in our packet But it's not listed on our list of topics for today and we got it as mail today And so I thought a new version of it had come in because why would it be in mail and both in our packet? But it got sent to us both ways but again the public doesn't see our mail You got it now because it came in as a hard copy today, and they just Right, and I thought ooh, maybe it's been updated, but no it hadn't changed and then Meaning that then on Monday, we would authorize you to fill out this receipt Saying we're done with that because the notice to the public part of it is that we have 60 days For the purpose of expressing disapproval of the amount of debt authorized by the district committee Which I don't believe we'd have any intention of doing, but that's why I believe it should be on our list of topics So we can say we it's like a first refusal sort of thing like nope We're not going to exercise our right to do that unless somebody's going to come in and tell us why we should exercise Okay, I believe it requires ultimately town meeting action if we're going to We'd actually have to have a town meeting. Yes Which makes it even more appealing To actually do that, but I mean it's involved doesn't know we have this option So we'll make sure that that gets on to the agenda for Friday So are there any questions or comments for the manager relative to his report to us If not, then we'll move into select work no reports do people have anything to offer relative to that Mr. Simon Yes I'm going to report on one thing in particular I have not been able to attend a lot of my committee meetings that I normally attended and You know, as you know, I've been dealing with health issues and I appreciate everybody's patience and Assistance, but it's all getting better Actually, the two one is just to remind you the Kanagasaki visitors are coming this week Weather permitting. I don't know what the how this is now going to affect the plan but they the it is scheduled for their arrival on Wednesday and It is a traditional opening ceremony here in this room but the other item I was going to talk about as much more significant issue you notice on the list of town meeting warrant item topics was to Emotion to repeal the zero energy and then replace the zero energy bylaw and Is a reminder of what happened in the fall special town meeting the Proponents of the article Made their motion The select board made a motion to refer back to the select board so that we'd have an opportunity to have some type of process working with the proponents of the article to Come in with a Version that would be Achieving the goals, but also achieve them in a Practical manner that would allow us to move forward and actually assure that we could build the essential buildings needed to be built and We have been working with The group that had been the proponents and we've had a series of many many that have been very good that I've been tending with Ms. Krueger, Mr. Backelman and the chair of the fire station DPW study committee and Grace Moore and You know, it is an ongoing process, but we have been working very effectively together and We'll be reporting its subsequent meetings and on How that is going, but I just Did want to report that a lot of work has gone on and I also want to recognize That we've had a number of members of the town staff who have been also extremely helpful in Assisting us to think this through so that we can achieve the dual goals of building kinds of buildings that were envisioned that Achieve or come close to achieving zero energy and but also make sure that we get the essential buildings that this town needs Actually bolt Thank you other reports Miss Krueger You know, we're getting into that sort of busy spring season so That time parking working group met last week. We're we're moving along we Are going to be coming to the suckboard with some recommendations Soon we worked on our timeline JCPC during capital planning committee met last week and this week probably has its last meeting And wrapping up and that's been as usual very productive an interesting process And I saw on the Town meeting warrant for a week thing some of those are the capital items And Saturday St. Patrick's Day Myself and senior planner Nate Malloy did a presentation on Municipal parking at the citizen planner and training collaborative annual conference at Holy Cross College in Worcester and Amazingly the the room was full that they were on concurrent sessions So there were four or five things that happened you choose But lo and behold a lot of people chose to come in and learn about or hear about parking We were supposed to be doing it with Melrose But so there was some glitch and so Amherst had the whole hour and a half To talk about what we're doing and like so many things, you know You start trying something and immediately you're at a conference describing what you've done it You don't even know The thing like you're instant like experts. So we talked about that but it was it was really good. I Enjoyed doing that with mr. Malloy It's a version of what we did at MMA, but we had more time and I think just people seem very appreciative and receptive and then I'm gonna let miss Brewer talk about this morning And I'm afraid if I list too many things now, I'm gonna get teased for not having a life Edit my list Thank you So moving on miss Brewer. Did you want to take up on your key? Sure? So we had a flyer in our slugboard packet from February 26th that you all might remember because it was so colorful From campus community coalition, which of course miss Steinberg and mr. Steinberg and miss Krueger, and I'm very tired Our part of the normal campus community coalition, which we named long before the cannabis control commission came along and stole our CCC acronym and They ran a retailers and municipal leaders forum today and a featured panelists included Pete Wilson who used to work for senator Rosenberg and now works for another agency at state level but had been a chair and Well had been a member of the treasurer's alcohol task force and therefore then a chair of a working group of that task force and So those task force the task force did its work basically over the past year and a half The working groups did their work over basically a four to six week period in the fall and then a final report was issued at the end of December and This is what happened to the report thunk Shocker, I know you're all just so amazed that that happened with a state level report But a lot of people put a lot of effort into it And it doesn't mean that some of those recommendations won't get looked at at some point but That report is sitting on the website. In fact campus community coalitions can link it on their website somewhere people can go look at It's over 200 pages with the appendices, but Nobody the treasurer's it's in the treasurer's office lap We all heard about how the treasurer was having financial problems someone was looking at looking at Additional funding from the state and so this is probably not a priority to change things at this point Although some of the recommendations were in fact finding ways to more effectively deploy resources so anyway, that task force happened and Because people various people affiliated with campus community coalition including spiffy Which Heather Warner was on one of the then working groups that was that was under the task force and so was I although we weren't on the same one and so was one of the partners in the campus and community coalition who's a retailer and So was a local town meeting member and so we did have some Western mass representation Thanks to senator Rosenberg and Pete Wilson. We actually had quite a few people Affiliated with that whole project So the panelists again were Pete Wilson and then also Ted Mahoney from the ABCC came out Which is quite rare that somebody from the ABCC is willing to come out and all the way to western, Massachusetts to help educate us about things going on The new executive director of the Massachusetts Patrick it's your association was there Chief Livingstone was there chief whose name I know, but I've just now forgotten from Hadley was there Like went right out of my head was on the panel was moderated by David Sullivan our district attorney and We also in fact at the end had a section from some students who are working on looking at alcohol policies as I believe Miss Kruger's probably mentioned before and They are comparing and contrasting and basically making a big matrix of what Western Massachusetts communities are doing Associate with alcohol policies and Miss Kruger's planning talk to the more I'm planning to talk to the more As we know our projects kind of on hold associated with policies right now just because of all the changes that we're all facing But it was an interesting thing and we're gonna have a follow-up on Wednesday at the campus and community coalition to see what But I when I did basically, you know when you chase somebody down into the elevator as they're trying to leave I Did chase down Peter Wilson and he's and he did indicate that the treasurer's office has not yet taken action or advised The working group that they're planning to take action at any given point and since none of the people in the working group work for the Treasurer, it's not like you know, it's gonna be on their agenda next week at work So we will let you know if more comes out of that But it was it was a great way to get retailers back in the room we had retailers that we from here in Amherst and from from the local area and To to you know sort of restart that conversation about how we can work together in partnership And I think chief living still made it quite clear that we have really good partnerships With our retail outlets whether they be restaurants or package stores here in Amherst So that was that was a proud moment for us that we felt good that things were going well And that is more than enough talking from me Mr. Wall do you have any just? Briefly but not Briefly is more of previous the cultural district steering committee has kept trying to have a afternoon long retreat But got snowed out twice We think that may happen one day But I'm not gonna put any money on that and then the Historical Commission has been working very hard to revise the demolition delayed by a lot But that'll come to you as a warrant article. So I'm just giving you heads up that that's moving ahead. Okay, great Thank you. I just have a couple of things number one PVTA Given the snow storms and whatnot extended the period for comment So if people had additional comments relative to changes in fares and to service you actually had until today to get that in Unfortunately didn't extend it. It was originally the deadline was the 14th, but they extended to the till today The other thing we were scheduled to meet on the 28th of this month With a normally scheduled meeting and then we were going to have another meeting on the Say the 11th as a special meeting of the of the advisory board for PVTA to actually take action relative to what we heard in comment and and the Processing of that information into a Coherent and specific set of recommendations to the advisory board relative to fares and service changes However, there's also a statewide legislative and Regional transit Meeting that has been snowed out at least once if not twice. So it has been rescheduled for the 28th I've been going back and forth in my own mind about whether to attend that or not and whether that would have much impact or not and certainly to take advice from any of you all as far as whether that would be advisable and Certainly the primary folks at you know the director and some of the other staff of PVTA will definitely go to that But they're encouraging advisory board members to go as well So I may do that next week Believe I have to let them know really soon So we won't have our normally scheduled meeting on the 28th where we would have had a sort of first broad brushstroke bit of information relative to our The public hearings that took place So we'll get that in a little more compressed version. I do serve on the finance and audit committee Our subcommittee I should say we are Illegently planning meetings in advance of the April 11th. So we'll probably see those recommendations They're going to go to the full advisory board at that time And I'll advise you all as soon as possible relative to what actual changes are coming forward for PVTA The other topic I wanted to bring up was we had discussed potentially having a retreat this spring and potentially in April and so I'm hoping people have their calendars or some sense of their availability to meet in April and So I'm presuming we were you know the 21st is out As Miss Krueger told us right are you out on the 20th? You are out on the 21st I would personally I'd lean a little bit towards the 28th because I think that just gives us more time for all sorts of things And the afternoons was also the other thing you were suggesting is a little later in the day as far as right I mean I had this Idea if you want to and we usually do the morning, but if we to do afternoon, maybe take a little break and then maybe have You know a meal together right and so I wanted a date because I wanted to think about how to make those arrangements and So plan for that It's the 28th to late versus say the 14th because the 7th is going to sneak up on us really quickly And 28 14th is not 28. There's two days before town meeting starts But it's kind of all done Hi, it's baked I think the 28th unless we could go as early as the 7th I have a conflict on the 7th, then I think the 28th is 14th is getting ready to go. What time are we gonna say 28th is the leading candidate? One one thirty one Do you think is one thirty? Okay, start time or one whatever. I mean preference like getting an idea like We'd go to maybe four and then before 30 Then it would be like six Two might be a little too late, so maybe one or one thirty We can just hold it also then Yeah, we can just block it for One to five and we'll refine it. We don't have an agenda for it or anything, right? Okay So we're okay. Thank you. Mr. Steinberg So I think that will do I I'll talk to you more individually about the other part of the plan I Don't believe I have any other member report information at this point I'm recalling right at the moment. Does anyone else have anything? You knew I think a more things to talk about Were you planning mr. Buckleman to share a loaded question? I thought you were planning to share The GTI has community agreement with us. I made it. I said that to myself. Oh, I forgot to email everybody But that is the intention. I mean and it's a public document, right? It's not like it's a super secret contract or something Okay, great. So that'll be helpful and then where we were you able to talk to the health center about a possible tour before Our kind of gisaki reception is when he said kind of gisaki reception. I remembered. Oh, right We talked about trying to put those back to back To have our select board they're flexible but We talked about today, but then we realized the empty bowls fundraiser that many people So we couldn't do anything right before so you'd like to do before kind of gisaki, which would be like a three It's a probably four o'clock this good reception. We have a meeting during that time And we just realized that I think when we had when we originally had this conversation that wasn't true The other option might be either before or after your Friday meeting People can do that Actually, that's not bad for me if we'd only go an hour because you know We may have questions about the warrant, but you'll just have to take those from us and we won't like fix things or resolve things Friday for the 23rd for torque that would work for me. Is that okay for people? Okay I'll see if they're available. How long do you think our meeting will take? Oh Since we're not talking a lot of substance about the warrant articles because you have that opportunity I think in our What do you mean? We're not gonna when we're not gonna have the opportunity until the night we sign it Right, right. I mean if we want to fix anything What is the zoning bylaw changing in the planning board zoning if you want to get into that level of detail? Then we allow more time because we have department heads who could come in and talk to you about that So if I could follow up on that it had been my and because we should just share an understanding before we go in there Yep, and I know you did mention that option, you know, then staff would be there That's handy too is that we would not intend for staff to attend this We are not going into it with the idea that people would explain that other people would come and explain any of these Articles to us. It's more just our first read of it and just as mr. Slaughter, mr. Rockham, I've already done associate with warrant review today and then feedback they've gotten from KP law before Friday to say Wow, this doesn't even make sense. You're like, what were we trying to do with this and rather than That somebody's trying to commit and give us a mini presentation We're not trying to do that. So in theory, I would have I would think an hour or so we could do that Does that make sense to people? Because that's about all the time we would normally spend on a meeting That's probably I mean, there's you know, like I said earlier that you know, the easements are rather Fixed in their It's just our structure The easements and that sort of thing. Mr. Slaughter. Yes. The one thing that is Yeah, for your amount of time potentially because it is Ultimately our article out of the process that I just described is the zero energy by law and That may take a little bit more Time for explanation than other articles because you haven't seen it yet, right? I'm not really going to see it. So one hour on Okay, then so trying maybe 10 30 10 30 for the tour. Yeah Yeah, and there's a reason you haven't seen it yet is because once you see it it's it's public and it's not finished enough to do that Which is partly where we're having special meeting on Friday, right? Yes, excellent, so and Looking at my other reminders on my list here and there is a reason I take these notes is this having been in this position before with people running for reelection and Not knowing if they will get reelected or not when they are not the only one on the ballot I wanted to make a Brief space for us to say nice things about our Colleague mr. Slaughter because I have been in a position of being on a committee where someone was just gone After the next me after the last meeting we had and nobody talked about it before they left And it was really really weird and so it's kind of weird to do it this way too, but it's important I think that we We none of us take enough time to appreciate our own service and we appreciate mr. Slaughter's service to us not only as a colleague, but also as our chair for the past year and The work on PBTA in particular I just that has been a huge amount of work and I mean not that there's per se a normal year at PBTA, but Still this has been a huge amount of work in particular where you've had to go out of town for us and represent The community and then go to other hearings and represent the larger community as well and very specific parts of that community So I really appreciate all the extra effort you've had to put in for that particular project in addition to all the other things You're doing with this whether it's things like the warrant review, which I'm so happy. I didn't have to do today and And all the lovely chairing things we ask you to do and the follow-ups and the letters, etc And getting back to people. I think it's been it's been very I've been very happy to work with you So thank you for this. I appreciate that. Thank you very much It's my pleasure to do that and to work with you all and it's been a real honor To serve with you all I'm hoping I get an opportunity to continue to do that But it has been a distinct pleasure to serve with you all and and I appreciate that the effort that you all put in on a day-by-day basis for our community and and you know, I'm Humbled by the amount of work that you folks do and and try to do my piece of that as well when I When I do my my work with with you all and and so You know whether the public at large knows, you know, sort of what all goes on, you know, is Is okay if they don't it's you know nice if they do but at the same time it's you know, we don't do it for for For people to call us up and thank us a bunch, but at the same time it's it's nice to sort of be appreciated So thank you for that Thank you So unless someone has something else to add I believe we've exhausted our agenda for the evening And so I would be inclined is our next meeting is Friday morning at 9 a.m. Correct. Do we have a location? Think the first floor and no public comment and it's correct So there will be no public comment and then our next regular meetings the second right as correct as well And because it's on the first floor there will not be opportunity for live Television on Amherst media It will be a bit like watching paint dry I believe But I wouldn't want to claim it will be that for sure, but it will be likely to be online for what is a common me Exactly with that. I am going to make a motion to adjourn. Thank you. Is there a second all those in favor? Please say aye. Aye, and we are adjourned at 9 13 p.m