 Thank you. You too. Okay. We have about six people in the audience. And if you would like to enter the room. The, the as a panelist, please raise your hand. And I will try to bring you in. Come on in Eric and Renee and there's Kathy. Eric and Renee. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Jocelyn. Got it. Jocelyn. Raise your hand if you want to come in. And Michael Jenks. Raise your hand if you want to come. Into the room. All right. Where it is six 30. It's a beautiful evening out. And so people may have decided they have better things to do. If you are in the audience and you would like to enter the room. So I'm going to start with the agenda for tonight. And I'm going to start with the agenda for tonight. So this is the district two meeting. And welcome. Pat D'Angelo. So I are pleased to be your counselors. And without any further ado. Let me just quickly show. The. Agenda for tonight. If I can just find it, you know. That'd be good. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your presentation by Earl Miller, our new Charest director. And then Kathy Shane and Alicia Walker, if she's able to join us are going to talk about the elementary school building project. Then Sam McLeod is going to do a brief. Introduction or overview of the community preservation act. We're going to open the floor for questions about the FY 23 community. And then we have a bunch of announcements. But what we really want to do. Is make sure we get down to the general Q and A so that people have plenty of opportunity to ask questions. So with that, I am going to stop sharing. I'm going to once again ask if there's anybody in the audience who would like to come into the room, please raise your hand. Okay. Right now they just want to stay there. Oh, hi, Alicia. You were able to join us. So Alicia is also our, our other. Townwide, our at-large counselor, Mandy, Joe Hanna key. The third one is not able to be with us tonight. So with that, I am going to turn it over to Pat who is introducing. Good evening, everyone. I'm going to get right to Earl Miller. He's the director now of the community responders for equity, services or Crest program. Two, two months as of Saturday. Crest is a public safety department and sister agency in the, with the police department, fire department and emergency dispatch. And I want to say before coming to Amherst, Earl was the director of recovery for the Western mass division of the Massachusetts department of public health, and he was also the director of the department of public health. He was the director of recovery for the trauma informed approaches task force and led the department's justice, equity, diversity and inclusion. Initiatives. He's also raised awareness about the impact of homelessness on people's emotional health and wellbeing. And raised awareness about integrating peer support into the world of housing and tenancy. And it has made him a thoughtful, dynamic and responsive human being who is truly kind. And that's about the nicest thing I can say about anyone. Thank you for being here, Earl. Earl, just one minute. If anybody who is in the audience would like to come into the room, please raise your hand. All right. So I'll get going and raise your hand if you want to me to see your face. There'll be lots of opportunities for us to see each other's faces hopefully soon. So my name is Earl Miller. I'm really excited to be here. You guys did the work. It's one of the reasons why I think Chris has a shot. Is the kind of thoughtful, challenging conversations this community had. As I've met with my peers and there's some other communities. I've met with folks in different places. I've been at Chris's office and others are at his office. I've been at Chris's office. I'm doing a press like department now. I did not know there was a Harvard Vermont. And now we'll have regular meetings for a while, I guess. So what crest is, is is going to be for all of us to figure out together. What our mission is, is to serve the under served. To be there for the folks who traditional services, I know that, you know, there's a shift in language away from the word homeless, but I was homeless. I did not have a place in this world to be. It was not just an absence of a roof was absence of a safe place to be. I recognize that that space is one that folks of color are more far more likely to end up in if you look at the eviction rates in western mass right now. Folks of color are something like three times as likely to face eviction and to have that eviction served on them. So that is a group that represents a significant amount of communities of color, but also just this folks with disabilities, seniors, young people, trans folks, it cuts a wide swath across communities that that are not historically served well by many. And mental health is really a passion of mine, partly because I think we don't think about it enough, despite how pervasive it is in the world. And the last two years for folks who were there yesterday I think I said something similar for after the last two years I think we all can appreciate what it feels like to not be on on steady ground. And, you know, there's some data about what having a mental illness and particularly a serious and persistent mental illness in the Commonwealth means. But the number that that has been true my entire career that continues to be true is that folks with a mental health condition in the Commonwealth die on average 25 years earlier than their peers. That is 35 years earlier with a co occurring substance use challenge. So when we talk about what Chris is going to do. What we're going to do is address issues that we know have existed in a new and kind way where we're in the middle of interviews. A big part of what we're going to be is who signs up to do the job. And we've been really fortunate we have a really diverse talented group of folks signing up to work with us. And we're going to start training in early June. And that is terrifying. It's super scary. I just heard today it's been 20 years since Amher set up a new department that's been 100 plus years since the new public safety department was set up. So, I think about that a lot I kind of wake up thinking about it. Both is scary and wakes me up Coco. Hey, okay my dog is not listening. Hopefully that is not a sign of things to come. So my my approach to this as we're looking to build out what we're going to do is really one of both street level engagement, meeting people where they are, and wherever they are. So I've had the opportunities to go to schools the senior center, now working with some local churches to go meet folks in the places that maybe they feel the most safe. And one of the real benefits of being the only employee of crests is that I have a lot of time to go just meet the town and one of the things I'm always. It's always hard to have a full picture of the place you live right because you live there and all your stuff is there and all your people are there, but immerse is such a nice community. Even the folks who are angry seem to be pretty nice about it. And that may be just that I come from a place that isn't always so common. But you know the fact that everybody that so many people have thoughts on what we should do that people have been dreaming about this for a couple years Alicia is on our implementation committee and is one of the folks who really been championing this. I'm fortunate right I, all I have to do is take the real solid vision of both the CSW G's work and the leap report which is a document that is being used all throughout New England now and the town should feel really good about that right how often do you get to fund something that is being used in the Berkshires, Vermont, Connecticut, in Ohio people are looking at it to form departments like this. We're going to respond to 911 calls and I think that gets a lot of the press because that's the scariest thing right. But if you look at what folks are calling 911 for in your community it's because they have nowhere else to turn. The calls are often things that if folks had larger support networks, right, if you think about what folks are missing, it's often what people might get from family, right, a concerning year, someone who feels invested in your life, someone who cares how it turns out, it's going to listen to you without kind of judging you. And so those are all the things where we're going to sign up to be for the folks who want us and for the rest of it, we're going to be in your community, we're going to have a lot of fun. The work is going to be hard so you might as well have fun doing it. And that's something I really believe in is that we're going to have a good time here. It's a nice community. There's lots of open air space. I like bird watching. And I'm always, I'm in the town basically seven days a week so if there's something you think I should come to give me a call I like a party. I'm a big fan of a barbecue. I want to get to know you all so I think that's probably enough. I, you know, I could talk for and I do talk for hours every day about crests and so sometimes I, I will I don't want to get too into the weeds except to say that, you know, we're going to let the work determine what we do. You know this is not in this is not a platform in which I'm choosing to kind of paint the things I want we're going to let the work what the actual need of our community says we need to be. And we have a mandate right our mandate is to deliver whatever public safety response we do through an anti racist and equitable lens, which means that we will go to the places where other folks may not be able to. And I'm lucky. This is all the stuff don't tell anybody I would do this for free. I need the money, but I would do it for free. And what a, you know, what a wonderful life if you get to do the thing you want to do and also make a living. Yeah, I'm interested if folks have questions or thoughts I'm always interested in hearing people's comments and concerns and if you don't feel comfortable in this venue. I hope by now the word has gotten out that I'm, I'm willing to have this conversation wherever you are, whenever feels feels right for you. Because again, as much as I say this is an opportunity first time in 20 years for a department 100 years for public safety. It's also an opportunity for you. We get to lead the way in the country in this. And just quickly, the distinction between what we're doing in Amherst versus what's happening in other communities is really that our folks are town employees. They are not contracted. We are not going to be easy to unwind, which hopefully won't be something we ever have to consider. But it means that there's a real security. It means that when we deal with the police department, we're not doing it as as vendors. We're not doing it as a nice thing to do. We are a sister agency. We have all the same responsibilities. The same accountability measures. We did my first budget hearing which was terrifying but I made it through the other side. You know, we're, we're, we are a real department and, and you're going to see that real soon. That's the great part. We start training in June we plan to go live in August we'll be here for the school year. So, that's, that's my, my, my opinion, any, any questions or comments. Okay, either if you're in the audience, or if you're in the room. Please raise your hand if you'd like to ask or a question. That's a good sign maybe I answered them all. Yeah, right. You haven't answered them all and you and I both know that. Pat knows that I know that Alicia knows that the best is yet to come. I've not seen any hands we have 12 people in the audience and 10 people in this room. If you're in the audience and you would like to enter the room. Please raise your hand and I will try to bring you in. I'll say the question I've heard the most is how can you help encourage people to apply for our jobs. We have eight responder positions posted right now. There is not necessarily like a large educational requirement where we're hoping to find compassionate empathetic people, we will train them we have the resources to provide training for folks to get folks where they need to go. You know you hire for personality train for the responsibility of that we are going to do that so if you know somebody looking for a job, particularly if you're there's somebody you feel you want in your neighborhood helping folks out. If you want to encourage them to apply. We want to meet them. Okay. Well, we hope you'll hang around and listen to what else is on people's minds, but seeing no questions. I'm going to suggest that Kathy Shane and Alicia Walker will move on to the elementary school building project. Kathy has been with this. She is actually been chair of the elementary school building committee since its inception, about a year ago year and a half ago. Two years. Oh my. All right, and Alicia who joined the council just this last January, also is now on the elementary school building committee. So we're going to start with a brief presentation. This is a very complicated project. If you can get it through this brief presentation or power to you. Okay, so Kathy, I will queue up and your slides and get out of your way, but I have to queue them up first. So this is always interesting. All right. And can you, can you do it as a great. Thanks everyone. As Lynn said, it's a complicated project and what I'm going to do is a real birds eye view. I've put at a couple different places. I have a website for the school project but you can also find all the presentation materials on the town website. What we're what we're our goal is to build an excellent 21st century elementary school that meets our educational needs has daylight in the classroom uses the outer doors and incorporates our net zero energy principles. So with the sixth grade moving up scheduled to move up to 2023 I find that not everyone is aware of that we're where we're looking at consolidating Wildwood and Fort River to schools to have one school grades K through five with 575 students. We're not yet chosen the location, nor have we chosen what that will look like we're working with an entity a granting entity called the Massachusetts school building authority that will participate in the grant with as you can see a design firm and an enterprise project manager. Next slide Lynn. This is our, the big picture of the timeline where we are right now MSBA this grant authority has certain milestones we have to hit. We've already gone past the first one which says, what are we looking at what are our choices. Now, by the end of June actually by the middle of June we have to pick one choice we're down to four different choices with some variations on it. And then they have to approve it. We go from there to say what is the building really going to look like where what color of the floor is going to be where the door is going to be. And then they will tell us how much of that cost they will pay for and we're planning it's going to be expensive we're planning to go out for a debt exclusion override to the voters. Next slide please. As I said we already did this preliminary design we got that in in March, we're now in the middle of by middle of June, getting down to the most cost effective appropriate choice. And the choices are, are we building at Wildwood, are we building at Fort River, are we building an all new building, or are we doing a partial renovation with an addition they can't be an all renovation, because we need more space than either school has. And the cost estimates and other criteria will be guiding our decision, and we're hoping to stay on a timeline where we make a decision and we have a report that goes to MSBA by the end of June. Next slide. All choices will have classroom space and program space that meets the education program daylight outdoor space for education safety, when you come in, and when you drop off your kids community use after hours. So we have good choices all choices really are, it will meet our needs, every choice will be a green net zero school what that means is the HVAC system will be electric no fossil fuels it's going to be well insulated on energy efficient and on site owned by the school system, photovoltaic panels will offset the electricity use at a minimum we expect this is going to save the schools or save the town $250,000 a year based on the utility costs of these two schools. Next slide. In the middle of looking at a lot of variations that designer has been willing to show us what a two story might look like, or three story as a new building, and one particular way of laying out in addition to renovation, and it showed how these schemes might look on each site. Next slide. This is one of the three story building concepts, and it has, and it shows you how it fits on each of the two sites. It has the entrance when you come into it with the community spaces. So these spaces could be shut off at the end of the day or during the weekend or during the summer but you would have access to the cafeteria to the gym to the library. And this is this particular picture is a three story building. This is two story building and the pictures are not exactly the same because the, it fits differently on the different sites. And one of the things I want to point out as you're looking at the Fort Riverside is the floodplain lines are being redrawn but this one shows the old ones, it will be pulled back, but that red line that goes around the Fort Riverside is something called a flood prone conservancy and we, we can't easily build over that line we can use the fields beyond that line. So it's it's a don't go over this line without a special permit. So although the Fort Riverside is much bigger. It's where we're not able to use all of it because there are wetlands are rare species, but that's just what these different lines on the site is Wildwood on the contrast is a much smaller site and it has hills. So we have to stay in the flat part of Wildwood. Next slide. This is a potential way of renovation and new with a new addition here you can't quite see it but all of these slides have where the existing school is because we're talking about building a new school. While the other school is occupied. We're not moving the kids to a new site so it has to be in this case it's actually taking part of the building out building a new addition that's the orange. And again this is how it might look on each of these two sites. Next slide. And I, and this is just a really bird's eye view and I hesitate to even try to tell you what's on it but as I said Fort River has a lot more acreage and this takes Fort River has about 31 acres, but the buildable acreage is in the 13 acre range, but the usable acreage with the community fields that are there is substantially larger than Wildwood in terms of the owned by the school. Wildwood has some access to middle school and town fields but it's not right there it's not flat. The water tables are different but both both sites have water and have to be we have to worry about how the soil drains. There's no doubt that there's a hill at Wildwood. The plan the engineers have said they can build it both sites in Fort River they build the building up they bring in dirt so they'd improve the drainage. Both sites have traffic challenges, particularly offsite, they are different in the two sites but neither one of them has easy traffic solutions. Next slide. So we have our schedule on and Earl said he gets up every morning and says, Oh my, I go to bed in the middle of the night and wake up in the morning goes, Oh my gosh, we have to make a decision. So we're going to get new cost cost estimates. They're out at the cost estimators now to give us estimates on all the different variations you've seen two story three story. And they've looked at both sites. We will get be discussing the cost estimates on June 3 and continue to compare options. There is a community forum will everyone in the community will see what we're seeing before we decide on June 13. We're scheduled to make a decision, choose one of our options which site is it new. And then we'll get a report that encompasses all of that. And we have to review the report and submit it to MSBA and we're on a very tight schedule because if we miss an MSBA board meeting, it sets us back three months to it could be even longer. And after that, if we get approved by MSBA with our choice, then it really moves to designing it and getting really good cost estimates with MSBA saying how much will they pay, and we're hoping to bring it out to a town vote in the spring of 2023 with construction, construction documents and if it's an all new school open it in 20, 20, that should say 2026 we don't go backwards. It says it's a typo. If it's ad reno again there I've got a typo in the slide it's 2027 because it would take long longer to do ad reno. That's it. The next slide is really just there are a lot more pictures and a lot more information in the packets and we would be glad to share them with them so you can email me if you want more you can email Alicia. And we've seen some of these pictures multiple times. The designer has been terrific and they add different pieces. They're also looking at different variations in how we heat and cool the building. We're talking about particular geothermal ground source or air source we will have variations on the cost estimates of those to look at also. I'm done. Before we move to questions I want to ask if there's anybody in the audience who wants to be moved into the room. And then I'm going to ask both people who are in the room and in the audience to raise your hand if you have a question. Maria. Thank you. Questions so much as I want to comment and talk about the school building project. I am really enthusiastic about having a new school building at the Fort River site. This is a fantastic site. It's got wonderful fields that I'm sure if anybody's ever been out to the Fort River site in the evenings that places chocolate block with people. Every time playing my kids have done tons of sports there every time I'm there there's a bunch of people using those fields. And I'm really eager to have the elementary school students have access to those wonderful fields as well. And one of the things we need to think about. What's best for the kids, which I do think is Fort River is what's best for the town and that involves what do we do with the site that's not chosen for a school. And I think that that site is absolutely imperative to keep as a town asset and to use as a community center. There are so many programs that need spaces. There's a youth empowerment center, youth empowerment center, a BIPOC community center seniors, an early childhood center. There's so many places that need a place they need a home. And they could find one very easily at Wildwood which is wonderfully close to middle school and high school for kids to walk up it's close to town. It's an invaluable asset to have both of these sites and both of these buildings. We need them. And we need to improve these fields. Any one of us who are weekend warriors out there trying to do sports in our 50s know that these fields, we have all of our fields in town need help. And this is a great way to have a win-win-win is to build the school at the Fort River site, keep Wildwood, make it a community center. And I'd like to ask our counselors that are here today, particularly Pat and Lynn since it's your show. If you're willing to commit to keeping both of those sites as town assets for a community center. Before I call in Kathy, I want to ask Alicia, and I just want to apologize Alicia that I didn't do this earlier. Did you have anything else you wanted to add to the presentation. Oh, thank you, and no, I think Kathy did a very good job at summarizing sort of where we are in the process. We have some very big decisions coming up. And so I think that my only plug here is the ask for feedback. And so I think we really want to hear just like what Maria is saying that's what we want to hear from everyone like what, what are you all looking to happen. Where, where do you stand right now with the information that we do have because we do have a considerable about a considerable amount of information. And I'm really looking to see how the community also feels about the decision that we are going to make. Before we go on to answering or responding to any of the statements. I'm going to see what else people have to say, kitty. You have to unmute kitty thank you. So, I'll just try to talk about things that haven't been mentioned. One of them is that I mean I live in district two, which is where Fort Rivers which is, you know, we are all in district to basically it's a district to the traffic there is not bad it's not bad at all compared to the Wildwood traffic which I've also gone to fairly often and that is horrendous. It's scary. It's really scary to make a left turn from the strong street onto East Pleasant Street. It's much better in at Fort River. Also, since we're in district to I think that East Amherst would really benefit from having a school there. In terms of restaurants we already have a bank there and you know Cumberland Farms and mom's house, but I think we could have more there and we would benefit from it, and there will be those new developments and I think it could be really thriving, as we like to say robust area with the school in particular that would be a very very important component. And the other thing is, I'm also interested in whether you guys would commit to keeping both sides as community assets. That's all. I'll respond to that. I was going to respond after Maria asked. Yes. I am committed to keeping both buildings as assets for the town I think utilizing I right. I'm favor Fort River. Kathy probably knows that Alicia probably knows that. But I will support whatever the committee decides. But it's critical that we keep that area open we have new families that are going to be moving into a mixed income, the affordable development there. We have people already living there who use as Maria said the fields and other things the mobile markets going to be there. So it's at Fort River it's so it's critical. And I agree with Maria that if Fort River is chosen Wildwood has great potential and the reverse is true. So I have to say that but yes I'm committed to keeping both of them as town properties. That's great. And Alicia. I'll be glad to respond in a moment. Okay, my response is going to be a little more complicated. I don't ever like to give up town property for anything. Okay, so do I want to keep both. I can actually argue for both sites. And in fact I've done that with Kathy, I've sat there and said I could argue for Fort River because of this, the fields being one of the many incredible assets. I don't want to lose, no matter which site we go to is the field, but I want to be very clear, neither one of these buildings is in good shape. It is going to take millions of dollars to make them habitable for anybody, whether it's a senior center, etc. And so I have wonderful thoughts about what we could use all these buildings for. But it's going to cost us. I'm just going to throw out another, another 10 million, just to make these buildings habitable. Otherwise, we wouldn't be building a new school. So, somewhere in our thinking about these properties, and we need to think about them in terms of usability down the road, and what it's going to take to make them usable as an early childhood center as a senior center, as a youth empowerment center, as a whatever you want to use them for. So, basically, I don't ever want to sell town property. I'm not really in that mode. But I also don't want to delude people that the day that we move out of one of these buildings, we're going to be able to move a program in to a building with a leaky roof with moisture with all kinds of other problems that have led us to say, we need a new elementary school building. I'm trying to be practical about where we're where we are in this. I want to take a question from somebody who hasn't asked, asked a question. It's a person who's labeled district to meeting. Could you please identify yourself. I think I unmuted you but. Okay. Okay, go ahead. I'm on the back. Oh, sorry. I'm. Hi, everyone. So, I'm Kathy and Alicia thank you for the presentation. I'm very grateful to the school building committee for the work. You guys are doing I know it's not easy. I'm excited that our time is going to have a brand new school for elementary students. My comment is about the marginalized population in our town, including myself. We don't have anywhere that we call our space. And so we are going to have a huge opportunity to have one of the buildings available. In CSWG we have recommended having a space that is close to the high school and middle school and to downtown. And it's no brainer that why would fit the site. In addition to that are other programs that could benefit from converting why would school to community space. And I'm hoping that the building committee will consider forever for the new school and why would school for community programming. And Miss Lane, I hear what you're saying about costs, but as a black woman, I feel irritated when I hear that something is going to cost a lot of money when we have programs that serve the need of the community. We will find the money. If we need to borrow, we need BIPOC center. We need youth empowerment center, and so on and so forth. Whatever we need to do to get the money. Let's make it happen. Thank you. Thanks for joining us Pat. And I noticed someone with the same thing at our council meeting the other night, and I didn't know it was now I know. Yes, I'm in Atlanta my daughter just had a baby with her with my son in law, so I'm babysitting. Well congratulations. Thank you. Nothing like being a grandmother. Yeah, fun. Yeah. Right. Are there other questions before I go back to Maria Eric grody. Yeah. Eric you need to. I can hear you. I just have a question from risen from past discussions. One point for River was being discussed as a possible site for the DPW garage and I wonder whether that's been put to rest, or that's somehow working in the background and will factor in the decision making. I couldn't be happier that you asked for River is not a site being looked at for DPW. And you're not saying that. That's just a weekend sentence. Okay, Thanks. Lilian Cravitz. Lily, Lillian, you need to unmute. All right. Sorry. Here we go. Can you hear me okay. Yes. Okay. First I'd like to say that I trust that the building committee will make the right decision, whether it's Fort River site or Wildwood site. and cons but I would like to speak in favor of the Wildwood site. Having worked both at the middle school and the high school as a teacher and had children that went from Wildwood to the middle school, junior high and high school. There are many benefits from the curriculum point of view of having those buildings close to each other in that you can have presentations or presenters account go to each of the schools very easily. You can have students from the different levels helping each other out. My daughter was a mentor in the special ed program when she was in high school. So she could walk right over to the elementary school and help out. So there are a lot of opportunities for having student involvement if they don't need any other transportation. In terms of having parents dropping students off that are multilevel, you know, different age groups, it's way more convenient. Older siblings can walk their younger siblings to school or help them bike to school if they're all near each other. So there's a lot and I did write a letter to the building committee, which I hope you received as to the benefits that I see about the Wildwood site. And I would the other one, the one that I think is very serious and I don't even I hate to mention it, but in case of an emergency, if you need to evacuate one building, you have another school site within walking distance that you can evacuate students to. And that did happen in my time as a teacher at the high school. And we moved all the high school students to the middle school gym and auditorium. So aside from traffic, which I know is important, but they both have their pros and cons. Fields are wonderful. They can be shared. And I certainly appreciate the field situation at Port River, but I know it's very swampy. I've been there. I've walked through it. It's swampy, you know, it's they can lift the school up and do all kinds of groundwork, but they're going to have to do a lot of work to those fields to not make a mushy. And one of the big problems with Fort River forever has been the blood playing area. So, you know, I know you've got a lot to think about, but I'd like you to think about that how it will affect students, how they can move from one building to another and utilize the spaces elementary students can go to the musical, the high school, they can do it as a field trip, you know, things like that. Or if there's a special presentation from a storyteller that's doing stories in one building that can easily share that with another, you know, move to another building. So those are my my input. Thank you very much for listening. Thanks, Lillian. Kathy, you had your hand up earlier before I go back to Maria. Did you have something you wanted to say? Yeah, I was just going to respond to the would we commit and also maybe just say a little bit more about the sites. Lin listed some considerations on the condition of the buildings, which is true for both sites. The other thing having tomorrow we have a finance committee meeting, then we have another one in two days, we have an operating budget that's under extreme stress and thinking of who's going to turn the key to open the door of the building that's left vacant and pay for the utilities to be running, pay for the upkeep of the building, pay for people in it. So we have to think, I'm not seeing it all about getting rid of either of them, but I know one of the things that we've been hampered with in the past is when we just lock the door and let the building sit, it gets worse. And Sam has talked about what about that building in South Amherst? Couldn't it be used for and it's in worse shape. So I'm worried about how much we're stretched and this school plus a fire station, we're stressed to even hire our firefighters enough that we need an EMT. So we, I wish we had unlimited amounts of money and I would certainly like the state to start giving us a lot more to support. But that's just a comment on we have to think about operating costs as well as investment in the buildings. So that's just one little mention the land condition at Fort River. I switched. I flashed over that it is the water table is high, higher than it wild would and it's flat. So there's no place for the water to run. So one of the things we expect we will see is that the Ford River project costs should we want to be there will need to be more expensive because we have to fix that and we have to fix it for the community field. So it's an investment in field. So we should be doing that. But it's not easy. It's not going to be an even cost race. And so we just haven't seen those numbers yet. And I just along one more point on one of the principal, the school said, because the water sits on top of the land, she's not able to use the fields in the winter because it's icy and dangerous. She's not able to use them in the spring because it's too swampy. I mean, there are plenty of playground space. So it will be incumbent on us if we choose Fort River to make sure we have the money to do something about the fields. That's just a point I want to make. There is unfortunately, there is money involved in these decisions. I want to mention also that the elementary school building committee meets about every other Friday at 8 30. Many of us have been in the audience for many of those meetings. You don't see the audience, but we're there. And that is the other thing I want to just be very clear about. It is not a town council decision as to where to build this school. It is an elementary school building committee decision as to where to build this school, as to what school to build, and when they have made all of those decisions. And MSBA comes back to us and says, we'll give you X percent of the bill. At that point, the town council decides how are we going to pay for it? And for us to do anything prior to that would be essentially the town council telling the school building committee, here's what you're supposed to do. And that's not our job. So Alicia, did you want to respond? Yeah, I just also wanted to share because one thing that I think we missed that I'm not sure if people haven't been watching our meetings would know is that we are working on an evaluation matrix that will also help us to make this decision. And so prioritizing certain aspects of the project and what would be more important for our community to see happen. And so we don't have a full consensus on that document yet, but we're looking at things like the traffic, the disruption during construction and the cost. And so I think there are still some things that we are working on getting to, but we're getting really close to the decision making point. I'm not sure if it's fair enough to say yet that Fort River will be more expensive overall. I think that we know we'll be spending more money on the fields, but Wildwood is also going to need a considerable amount of site work. And so because it's rocky and they also have poor soil conditions just kind of in the opposite way. And so I think we're really going to be counting on those cost estimates to come in to see what the numbers are going to look like. But the treatment of the fields will be included in the cost estimate. So we will have that information to look at. I think there was one other. Oh, and then, and I just wanted to also offer my perspective on the both building situation, which is that again, that is like a decision that all counselors would have to make. So I can only share my own personal opinion on that. And that is that we've been talking a lot in council meetings about the shortage of usable town buildings and town spaces. And so I think that this is a really good time for us to sort of hang tight on our town properties and to see at least to explore what the possibilities were to be. Because again, like we said, there are a lot of a lot of different programs that need a space right now. And that are going to be a considerable investment either way. And I think also building a new space is also a considerable amount of money. And so if we were to be serious about moving any which one of these projects forward, it might be a better investment to just have a building that we can renovate or fix. But that I also don't know. So again, I think that just in the the best interest of being able to at least explore that option, I would be interested in in committing to keeping the buildings so that we can at least look into that. Because I think if we write that off, then we don't even have that option on the table. And so I just wanted to offer that my point of view on those things. Thank you. Thank you. Are there any other questions before I go back to Maria? Eric, I'm going to go to Maria first since I've also been to you once before. Any others? Maria. Thank you. So thanks for those great points, Alicia, you made some of the points that I was going to, I'd like to talk a little bit about the other elementary school in town. I'm not sure how many people are really aware that Crocker Farm is not only going to continue to exist and serve elementary school students in town. It's going to serve a higher proportion of families in town. It's going to go from serving 30% to about 40%. And as you, you will all know, Crocker Farm is not located anywhere near the middle or high school. And so I think we have to be really thoughtful when we talk about benefits to elementary school students to know that there's a whole lot of kids and a whole lot of families that are not in that area. So I am, I have to say I am a little bothered when I hear people making those comments. You know, all our buildings need upkeep. And as Alicia points out, finding new land and new buildings is going to be way more expensive than trying to upkeep what we have. And that's important to do. And I hope that the fields are included in the plan. And I hope that that land, I know that you've been an advocate to try to get financing for other projects and so on. And I think this is a great opportunity to go and seek out other funds that funds to help with the fields, CPA funds and other I'm sure there's other things that I haven't even considered. But your advocacy to do that for what's really a town resource would be greatly appreciated. I want to talk a little bit about the Wildwood site because I think that people might not be completely aware of the problems. You know, it's pretty clear to me that the school building committee is going to choose new construction. That means having to build a new build, keep the building that exists in place and build next to it. Wildwood is a very small site. And in order to get the building there and not be coming off the hillside that goes into the middle school, they have to excavate part of the hillside that's on the east part of the building and construct a 15 foot retaining wall to deal with keeping the hillside up. And then, you know, in terms of drainage problems, Fort Rivers got clays. They don't infiltrate and they don't drain well. Wildwood's got glacial till it doesn't drain well. And the hills do not do it any favors. It's going to require a drainage system both above and below this 15 foot wall, which will be not many feet away from an entire half of the building. And importantly, you know, we talk about the gorgeous playing fields at Fort River. The truth is, by the time you put all of the increased parking and the building, there is literally no open grassy playing field possible at Wildwood. It's hills and parking and a building and outdoor place structures, but no open green space. That's a real problem. There's also, in terms of cost, I agree with you, Alicia, I don't think we know where we're going to land. Because I think if we really include all of the costs, and we give this a fair shake, they're talking about building around about at the entrance to Wildwood, that's going to cost a pretty penny. And that's not anywhere near that will not get any MSBA funds. And it doesn't even solve the problem that the traffic study identified, which is that really you should have a separate entrance and exit. And that's simply not even possible at the Wildwood site, because of the steep hill that comes down from strong street and the poor sight lines. They recommended a second exit. They can't build it. It's not possible. So the one other thing to talk about with with Wildwood is that because it is so, so small, building, putting in the geothermal weld is going to be complicated. In fact, everything is complicated. And construction is going to be complicated and small. And the kids that have to be there for the couple of years are going to have no outdoor play space, and are going to be subjected to a very chaotic construction site for a couple of years. You simply don't have those problems at Fort River. You can spread out, you've got the fields. I think it's really trying to shoehorn in a solution at Wildwood when you can meet all these needs and much more at the Fort River site. So I'll stop there for now because I've taken up a lot of time. Thank you. I want to go to Eric Brody, and then I think we're going to move on to our next topic. Okay, Eric. Thank you. I'll make it a quick question. Has there any been any discussion among the committee about the town's new percent for art by law regarding this project? And if it's not, when would that work? Kathy, let's briefly address that. And then we're going to move on. Eric, there's been a brief discussion. We penciled it in as part of the total costs. And the discussion will focus on what that might look like when we're at this next stage when we're down to a preferred solution. So it has not been forgotten as you may not be surprised since Eric and I were on the committee together that rewrote that by law. And I and just one final thing on that. However, the MSBA money cannot be used for that. That has to be town money. Okay, so next on our agenda tonight is Sam MacLeod. Sam, we have a brief presentation about the Community Preservation Act. Sam has been on CPA for what, for three or four years now? Three years. Three years into four. Okay. And I'm going to pull your slides up and try to do what I did with Kathy, and we'll move on. Can you hear me? We can. Okay. So I appreciate the welcome to allow me to present Lynn and Pat. Thank you very much. And I'd also like to thank all the other attendees and the Kathy and Alicia for their presentation in the school, although I'm in a different district, I have interest in this and I recognize the massive amount of work of what you put together in your presentation. I want to talk about the CPA Committee, which I was fortunate enough to be appointed to. It's a town fund that I'm not sure that everyone is aware of in the community. I know many of the people here might be, but I said in a motivation a few years ago to try to get the word out in our community about the CPA, because this is a fund based on the state law Community Preservation Act that is specifically targeted for good things. It's an easier type of volunteer work, I guess, would be than some of the other projects, because it's everything that is in here, all the outcomes are beneficial for everyone. The Community Preservation Act, and I'm on the committee makes recommendations to the town council on how we should spend a million dollars a year. And if you can start on the first right here, Lynn, that would be great. I'm having trouble with the slides for some reason. It's jumping on its own. Is it really? Okay. But just please go ahead. Well, we can just negate it. I don't want to confuse people with the slide or minimize it. But there are four categories of Community Preservation funds. They are Historic Preservation, Open Space, Community Housing, and Recreation. And the thing that I like to emphasize is that this is the Community Preservation Act. And the Community Preservation Act Committee. What we do is we have a budget that's based on 3% contribution from the town that we make recommendations to allocate through these four categories. Some of the projects that might have that you might be familiar with that have been funded through this are the Amherst Dog Park, which is under construction on the road old Belchtown Old Amherst Road. Plumbrook soccer field where I spent a lot of time was originally arrived from Community Preservation Act funds that was purchased the land. Are you able to get this to slow down now, Lynn? Yeah, I'm trying to go. It seems to be working. Okay. As long as I don't put it in slide mode. Okay, that sounds great. So if you can go back one slide to number three. So again, we have a fluctuating budget of a million to 1.3 per year. It varies. It's allocated between the care categories. It's for the community. And the point I want to make it's both public and private projects. The vast majority are public projects, but we've had a few that originated from private programs recently some historic preservation projects, Amherst Women's Club and others. But even though it's mostly public funds, I want the community and our committee would like to have members of the community just recognize what the opportunities are and the benefits of this program. And you can make suggestions to counselors, to committee members, just idea because the more that the thought gets out there, the more it'll bubble up. You can go to the next slide, please, Lynn. Again, here's some listing of the historic projects that we've had under open space. Amherst Dog Park, Zollaproperty, Brunel Property, Dave Zomax been very active in acquiring lots of open space for use by the town. Another category, Lynn, next slide, is historic preservation. There's been all kinds of work in here. You can find this on the town website, but some examples are the Strong House, which is next to the Johns Library. Emily Dickinson Museum had portions of it that were renovated. North Amherst Community Farm have had a number of presentations they don't all qualify, but that's that's an example of a community led project with tangible results for members in the area. North Amherst Library, West Cemetery, the headstones were renovated through historic preservation funds. Next slide. Recreation Grove Park, where a number of folks were there just the other day. There's the new water park that was funded in part by the Community Preservation Act, Mill River, Kendrick Park, which is I've heard great feedback from folks on that Plumbrook. We acquired the Hawthorne property. The point I'm trying to make is there's all kinds of things, good things that come from the Community Preservation Act. Next slide. And community housing, this is another very important area. John Hornick and his group come and make presentations every year with all sorts of ideas and with great outcomes. Rowling Green and Wayland and most recently on North Hampton Road, the Valley CDC North Hampton Road project that's under construction. These are all fantastic areas. Sometimes I've had the good fortune during my time in the committee that there hasn't been too much of a competition of funds that may change. But my motivation in coming to district two this evening is to continue to get the word out for those who may not be aware of it. I know our counselors are aware, but not all community members. And a lot of information is available on the town website for those who have interest in possible projects. And to learn about it and go to the next slide, please. Here's an example from last year, because this is we have yet to set the timeframe for this year. Last year, we had an open meeting with our committee where we invited folks in August, where prospective applicants could have a Q&A. We started the proposal application process in September, and it was a short window. And that may or may not be the case again this year. But those are just the general dates. Next slide. And again, the thought is to spread the word if there are ideas that you or some folks that you know may have for potential projects, whether they be initiated from the community or by the town, raise the question. Tell your counselors, tell, go to the website, which we'll display here in a minute. These are all great things that have come about from the project. And it is a community fund every year. And during my timeframe for the last three years, it's been about a million dollars a year. Next, next slide. So for more information for those who have interest or thinking about projects, last last year, one of the community projects that came up was the pickleball courts recommendation in district one out by Mill River. I'd never heard of it. Since the time that was recommended. My brother plays, I've heard it from all kinds of people. I never knew about it. That's going to be a town led project. But the origin of it came from a community group in North Amherst. And what the best place for those who have interest to go to is the town website on the CPA page to go to Amherst math.gov, our government look up Community Preservation Act, you'll see information on our committee. And in red here, you'll see something called the CPA plan. It's not really a plan. It's actually a document that talks about how funds are allocated. A lot of information has been put on the site. It's always there for the town folks to look at. I recommend that you do talks about eligibility, approval process, timeframe. And there's also something called the CPA coalition website, which is a state run organization. The CPA program is not just Amherst math, it's the entire state and they match funds at various points in time. It's a really good bang for the buck where it's allocated to good things in this community. Next slide please. So again, I'm trying to be brief. I know this is a very packed meeting, but I'd like to thank again the district and I'd like to encourage attendees or those listening to check out the Amherst math website, Amherst math.gov site under the CPA board and read some of the documents there and share this with your friends. We've set up a Facebook page a few years ago, entirely with the intent of just spreading the word out about this great program in town. It's on facebook.com slash Amherst CPA seat. What we do again is we field proposals, the majority are from our from our town. A lot of work and they all benefit the community and we make recommendations on how to spend those funds, whether to approve or not. They go to the finance committee and then they go to the town council for approval. So I appreciate again the invitation to come here and talk about it and just get the word out. Remember CPA in town, there's a million dollars for good things. If you have a project in mind, check out the website. So I see we have one question. Lori Goldner, please. Enter the room, state your name and ask your question. Go ahead. I'm Lori Goldner and I actually serve on the energy and climate action committee and I'm wondering to what extent I'm still fairly new at this town governance stuff. So I'm trying to learn my way around and I'm wondering to what extent the CPAC take into account, do they do apply a climate and also an equity lens to your projects and in particular, take into account the goals of the CARP, the climate action, adaption and resiliency plan that the ECAC put together some couple of years ago now, I think, and take into account the state and town goals of greenhouse gas reduction and eventual carbon neutrality because there's a lot of, you know, when you're talking about restoring a historic building, there's some problematic things there. And when you're talking about community housing, there's equity and climate justice things that need to be taken into account. I'm wondering if you guys think about that at all, apply that climate lens as per the CARP. Thank you, Lori, for your question. And I hear what you're saying. I can't speak for the full committee. I can speak for myself as a member. Proposals are presented to us and we have criteria that are obligated by the state in terms of whether or not these projects qualify. However, once a project qualifies, each member of the committee has determined criteria that they will look at. I do know that some of the items that you've discussed have been talked about in relation to the projects and factored in. So we're aware of the impact and the potential benefits of the items, items that you referenced, and it's an individual decision for each committee member when it comes time to vote on the projects. But I certainly factor that in among many other things, but I can't speak for other members of the committee. Okay, thanks. Thank you very much. And thank you for the presentation. It's a very nice presentation. Oh, thank you. Jocelyn Ford, your comment or question. Thank you. Thank you very much. Can you hear me? We can. Thank you so much for your presentation and all the previous presentations is very informative and helpful in community building as well. Regarding the CPA, I'm wondering if there has already been work done on a survey of Native American ceremonial stoneworks within Amherst? And if not, if that would be the sort of project that might be eligible? We have to check. I know there was some information related to stoneworks. There are some uniqueness, unique aspects of the way the law was written in terms of what qualifies and what does not. And my recommendation, Jocelyn, will be to look at the town site where it delineates most of the criteria. And there's if to dig in further, there's the state CPA law. When we have uncertainties as a committee regarding what qualifies and what does not, we ask questions of town staff to provide that those details. I can't answer for you. The question as stated at the moment, because I don't know with certainty and the process that I would use and I would recommend this for you as well is to look at the town site under the town government or your government boards and committees, Community Preservation Act committee, and there'll be information on the page, both in the CPA plan, which if you scroll down, you'll see, but also in the the main screen that you'll see it. And I see the name Jocelyn Ford's. I just have a side question. Jocelyn, are you a longtime Amherst resident? I was, were we classmates? We certainly were. Hi, Sam. I was on the wrestling team with Dan. Oh, with my brother. Great. Fantastic. Yeah. No, I lived in Japan and China for most of my life after leaving Amherst, but COVID here due to COVID. And nice to see you again. I'll tell you. I may not see you at our ending reunion, but you're not sure about that. Say hello to Dan. Well, thank you. We'll do and do our council members know if any work has been done on doing a survey of Native American ceremonial stone structures within Amherst? Not in the time we've been on the council, Andy, do you remember anything related to that that might have come before town meeting? No, I do not. Yeah, I that's something new as far as I can remember. But I think being in touch with the town staff, you could start with Sean Mungano and Sonia Aldridge is probably the most knowledgeable person on our town staff with regard to CPA, and they could explore whether there's ever been anything like that and whether it is, in fact, eligible. I can't imagine it's not, but boy, there have been some serious questions over the years about what is eligible. Kathy, you have your hand. Yeah, I just want to say Kathy, you're muted. Kathy, you're muted. I'm trying to unmute. There was a proposal to do some of the historic mills that were along Mill River. And we it finally went through for a trail and an interpretive trail. But when it was stated as a survey, the CPAC powers that be said we don't do surveys. So I think writing up a sentence or two, what Lynn just suggested and Sam, because it goes through the Historic Commission also to see whether they would support it. It this has not been done. But I know the other project just they literally ran into they use the word survey. And that seemed to be it doesn't they don't do surveys, they have to be preserving or restoring. So it was an interesting line on what it can be used for. But I have just a quick question, Sam, that's unrelated to this, but I can ask you another. When you approve a project, and in this case, the pickleball courts, which were explicitly for Mill River, which everyone, we got 21 letters of support got written to the council. So and they all said Mill River. Does that mean they have to be at Mill River? So could and the town staff decide to put them someplace else? And that's just something you don't have to answer. But it's a question that's coming up just so you know, that we all assume that it was a done deal. And I don't know how that works when you've got a specific place, and you've funded a specific project. Don't hold me to it. But each project is specific in and of itself. So the committee judges the proposal that's in front of them, and makes a determination on whether or not they wish to approve it and allocate fund recommendations, which then go through the town processes for approval. I do recall that one, Kathy. And I believe there was flexibility built into where that might be from the discussion. There was the possibility that Dave's, which Dave Zomac raised that we have yet to hear from the those who would be implementing it, any issues that might exist. There was the general indication that the preferred location, for many reasons, including the origin of the proposal would be Mill River. But there was the possibility it wasn't excluded to be elsewhere. But, you know, there were some comments about from Dave Williams on the committee, North Amherst being on the move in association with the pickleball court. So there's the potential that if the town were to decide to have it elsewhere, I believe that could occur, even though that's not the proposal intent. Thank you. Um, Maria. Thanks, Sam. How far in advance of a project happening? Can you get a request? Can we get a request or you may formally be applied? Yes. Oh, that's a that's a great question. Last year, the application on the website opened up in September, and it was a one month window. There had been discussions about what duration of opening the proposal window would be. But at present, there's a timeframe between for public applications on the website between September ish to October that has yet to be determined. We're going to be meeting soon. There's some advocacy for having greater stretches of windows, and certainly there are some communications directly with chair of the committee and or town staff about unique projects that come up on a special basis that happened as an exception that happened with Kendrick Park, because there was a limited timeframe where there was a $400 $400,000 state contribution that could be matched if we were able to come up with a fund. So during my time period, there had been a couple of exceptions to the standard cycle and they both were related to urgent acquisition or state grant approval processes. But down the road, who's to say, I hear what you're saying. And I think it's beneficial no matter what the deadline is for the actual application to be to begin inquiring as soon as the idea comes up. Because it's recommended for applicants to converse with the various committees, the historical commission, if it's historic preservation, recreation committee, if it's if it's recreation, etc. So my response again would be to the minute there's an idea or a thought, I would start asking questions or but the first thing I would do would be to go to the website and review all the specific language. There's really a lot of great information there. And I forgot to mention this. On the left hand side of the website, this is the town site. And thank you, town staff, Breonna and others for putting this out there and Sean for some improvements. All the previous projects are listed there year after year, you can actually go on the town site, click on the left year after year and see all these great things that have been done. But again, my long winded answer is, as soon as an idea is there, I would start the gestation and the other good thing about this committee, from my perspective, it occurs every year. As long as it's authorized by the town and not revoked, which, you know, there's so many great projects, I think it's going to continue. If a project doesn't get approved, we've had some that didn't get approved last year, or two years ago, they can reapply the next year. So that's my response. That's helpful, Sam. So five counselors per Sam's previous request to tell your town counselors when you want them to do something. I'm telling five of you, get ready to apply for CPA funds for the fields at Port River and for improvements at Wildwood Community Center. Thank you. Jocelyn, do you still have your hand up or? Yes, sorry, I did just want to add one thing, the instance with our neighbors. The Chief Preservation, Cultural Preservation Officer for the Narragansett Tribe recently moved up to this area to Orange and he came to our land and I did identify a stone turtle that Indigenous people made. So it is in our neighborhood and we'll see who this should turn to. So I will be emailing you to get those information of who I should be contacting to find out if something has already been done. Thank you very much. And thank you, Jocelyn. And we'll look forward to hearing from you and try to figure out how to help direct your questions. Thank you. So Andy Steinberg has been most patient. He's not going to make a budget presentation. I can assure you of that. But what we'd like to do is if there are people with questions about the FY23 budget, that's the budget that will begin July 1st and go through next June 30th. Now is the time to ask those questions. I'm not seeing anything, Andy. Must be everything's okay. Go ahead. Yeah. I guess there were a couple things that came up that I didn't respond to earlier because I knew I was going to have an opportunity for a moment later. As far as Jocelyn Ford's question about whether there's been any effort to look into Native American items that might be worth looking at, Dave Zomac is another resource to consider as assistant town manager and works these conservation. And so I would encourage, if you're interested, to at least send him an email and see if he's aware of anything. As far as the questions that have been asked about whichever site is not used, and they're not going to get into stating what I think should happen, because I don't know which of the sites is better. I think I'm going to trust the school building committee to make the wise choice for the community. But the then the other site, we have a lot of demands, including demands for Community Preservation Act funds. And it's one of the things that I'm concerned about. Kathy alluded to this earlier. And that is that as I look out a couple of years from now, I, we are going to have substantial budget pressures on both operating and capital budgets. And we're in it's going to require difficult choices. And think that it's one of the things that we sometimes have a difficult time with. So when I look at the FY23 budget within this isn't the formal presentation, and I'll only talk about specifics if asked about specifics. But one of the things that we have to be thinking about as a finance committee is not just the capacity of funding something in 23. But we have been asking the question, how do we continue funding it in 24, 25, 26 and think out three years down the line. The same thing is true of the capital projects. You know, they've been driven higher. We've been saying this for years and the construction costs are going up. But unfortunately, construction costs are going up at a faster rate now than they've ever gone in our memory. Because of those same reasons that everything else is going up at a faster rate than anything else we can remember. And that's going to affect future town budgets too, because the revenue side is limited by what taxpayers can afford to support and to proposition two and a half limits. And as we look ahead and we're entering a period of inflation, we have survived over all of the years that I've been involved with the budget, which has been quite a few going back to being on the finance committee in the town meeting days and then the select board and now the council, because inflation has been relatively low. And when you compare that two and a half percent increase in property taxes against inflation, it's been hard but manageable. I can't say that as I look ahead for the next few years, that it's necessarily going to be manageable. It's going to be harder and less manageable. And so as we look at the FY23 budget, that's one of the things that we are thinking about. With that, I will, if you know further questions, there are no questions come up. Lynn, I don't know what it is. We didn't prepare a presentation because have been so many presentations on the budget. I encourage everybody, if they haven't seen the budget, that there's lots of ways to find out information about the budget. One is Amherstma.gov slash budget. And you can find the full budget there. And also, if you go to the Engage Amherst website, you can find a lot of information about the budget and have opportunities to ask questions of the finance director through the Engage Amherst site. And the other costs that we have, and we've alluded to over this conversation, has been the capital expenses. And that also there's some information is going to be updated because a lot of that has been affected by all of the inflation cost factors that I've talked about. So we are going to have to be updating. And Mr. Mangano is working on doing so. So are there specific FY23 budget questions? Okay. Then I, speaking of websites, Pat, if you'll indulge me for a moment, I'm going to try to do the district line thing. Okay. Okay, go for it. This is, I found the website. The new voting districts that Lynn is talking about. Okay. So if you go to the town's website and you put in districts, okay, you find under district precincts and hours, you find a list of the new voting places. Now, none of these are new. We've used them all in the past. Okay. But that doesn't answer your question. The question is, I live on XYZ Street. And in this case, I live on Flat Hills Road. Okay. So I push F. And lo and behold, Flat Hills Road is precinct 2B. I go back over here. Precinct 2B votes at Fort River Elementary School. Andy, where do you live? Hitching post road. Hitching post road. Okay. This begins with an H. Hitching post road. Also in 2A. Let's see, Andy, you vote at the high school. Pat, where do you live? 21 Ward Street. Okay. Ward Street. Go to W. Ward Street. Right up here. 2B. Pat, you vote at the elementary school, Fort River Elementary School with me. Sounds good. So that's how you find out where you vote. And if you want to look at the actual map, it's further down on this page. And you see the new map. And I know this came up at our last district meeting. And I'll tell you, Pat and I are going to be very sorry to lose some of you because we're losing everybody south of, not south of Brute 9. We're losing, we're keeping the people who are in this little triangle south of Brute 9, but we're losing the other people who were in this area. And we're also losing a small portion of people up in North Amherst. And we're stretching east and picking up, frankly, a couple dormitories or large housing projects. So when you got your census this year, at the bottom, it told you where you're going to vote. But you're going to hear a lot of education about this going into the future. So just one more example. Kathy, you don't live in district two. You live in district one. What street do you live on? Montague Road. Okay. Montague Road. You're past it. It's just after a mill. There's a short Montague Road. 1A, okay. Go back over here. 1A, you vote at the North Zion Korean Church. Okay. Anybody else want to give me an address or a street? You have to call it out because I can't see your hands. I can give you mine. Mine is Autumn Lane. Autumn Lane. Okay. Alicia, you are 5B going back to this thing. You vote at Monson Library. Okay. It's that simple. And I was so excited when I found this on the website today. I said mystery solved. Okay. I'm going to stop sharing and I'm going to go on to Pat. We have a couple announcements, but we also want to make sure we have time for questions. So, Pat, you want to talk about dog licenses? Well, I actually, I don't know the deadline, but dog licenses, I believe it has to be done by the end of this month. And you need to go to the reception desk at the first floor of Town Hall and pay your money. I think it's five dollars if you do it in time and it's more expensive afterwards. I'm sorry, I didn't look up the actual deadline. You can do it on the website. Yeah. Well, yeah, I'm so not technical. Yeah. Yes, you can. Yes, you can. Those who are technical. You do need to have proof of your dog's rabies vaccination. But if it's a renewal and it's in a different period then. Thank you, Andy. Thank you very much, Andy. So if it's a renewal and the same dog. Right. You're fine. Okay. All right, Pat, you want to talk about mobile market? Yeah, and I, yeah, the Amherst mobile market is a community driven bilingual mobile farmers market bringing affordable organic fresh produce to Amherst food desert neighborhoods. And while we exist to increase produce access for those experiencing food insecurity, all shoppers are welcome and food secure shoppers are important to help us fulfill our program. Shares start at $15 and they go up to 25, but that's because you're would be buying a share and share and helping fund someone else's share. We accept checks cash, HIPAA, HIPAA and WIC vouchers, etc. There are going to be four sites this year on Tuesdays. The market will be at Groff Park. On Wednesdays, it'll be at Mill River Recreation Area. Thursdays, it'll be at Fort River School. And on Saturdays, East Hadley Road, where the Valley Bike Share is. It's an incredible organization and this is our third year running. So please, please participate. And one other community announcement, we just want to mention that the Amherst Survival Center is desperately looking for volunteers because when the semester ends and students leave, they tend to lose a lot of their volunteers. So with that, I want to open it up for general Q&A questions. Anything, not just about what we talked about tonight. Yes, Renee. You're muted, Renee. Renee, you have done mute. Yeah. Okay, sorry about that. I said hi everyone good evening. It's great to be here with everyone at this meeting and hear about all these wonderful things going on in Amherst and of course, welcoming Earl Miller again. Aren't we so lucky? I just had a question given that this is District 2 and we have lots of forest land in District 2 and I was wondering if you Pat or Lynn, if you or Andy, Alicia, if you have any updates for us on what is going on with the this solar working group. If you know when that's going to get started. If there are any, if there's any news on the solar bylaw working group. So exciting. The solar bylaw working group of four different committees of the five have submitted names for appointment. Those names have come before TSL, correct Andy? On this just this last Thursday and they will come before the council on Monday, June 6th. Now the resident the two resident members, those interviews are still happening and once those recommendations are ready, they will also go through the same process of coming to TSO and then to the council. And then finally at this point, the one committee who is not provided a name is the Board of Health and it's not clear what their plans are with regard to that and that's all I know on that. I did ask one other question and that was whether or not any application had been filed for additional sighting of solar off of Shootsbury Road and at this time none has been filed. Thank you. Thank you and yeah so if you'll just keep us all posted on that we appreciate it. Thank you so much. I just asked that question tonight Pat, go ahead. No, I was just thanking Renee for the question. Are there other questions? General Keel and I, Eric. Thank you Lynn and good evening to everybody. So wonderful meeting and great to kind of get to hear what's going on in great detail. One follow-up question regarding the kind of the implications of of clear cutting and on our water supply. The Water Supply Protection Committee was I believe appointing a working group to assess the impact of clear cutting on the watershed, the aquifers, the recharge systems, essentially the water supply and I think it was it was brought up at the January Water Supply Protection Committee that quite a large number of arrays are in Shootsbury are located, proposed arrays are located within the watershed that supplies 50% of the drinking water to to the Amherst and I'm wondering whether there's any whether there's a kind of a deadline as to when they will complete it's work who in fact is on the committee the subcommittee that is looking at that consequence of of on our water supply of clear cutting. I don't have answers to that Pat. So I'll have to get back to you but I so what I've written down is the water conservation or water supply protection committee protection committee has developed a subcommittee we want to know who will who's on it and we want to know when their whatever their report will be is coming back great all right thank you are there other questions again we don't always know the answers but we'll do everything we can to get other questions okay let me just mention before we finish tonight uh we have a variety of things coming up over Memorial Day weekend there is a pow wow at the um high school it starts on Saturday at 10 and it also can proceeds on Sunday as well the public is welcome several counselors and myself will be there on Saturday uh at noon for kind of their opening ceremony if you will uh there's a memorial to day parade on Monday the 30th it begins at 8 30 goes down the center of town and ends up at the memorial pool uh where there's wreaths and so forth that is being sponsored by the veterans and uh Pat you want to talk about the proud pride okay pride uh flag raising will happen June 3rd at 5 30 um and uh we'd love it if all you straight people would come and support us um it would be in front of town hall are there any other questions comments well I want to thank Alicia and Kathy and Andy and Sam and Earl for being here yes and for all of you who've attended I appreciate it very much and and you know what for those of us on the council this is an early Monday night enjoy very thank you all for being here it's been good and we'll see you sometime probably early fall okay great take good care thank you thank you I'm gonna stay on for a second