 Good evening and welcome to the select board meeting of July 23rd 2018. It's Calling meeting order at 6 30 p.m. We'll start as usual with opening remarks announcements and agenda review Are there anything regarding the agenda that any of my colleagues need to mention or note to me about that? I don't believe anyone's here for public comment So we'll probably dispense with that this evening just because there's no one here for that Of courtesy to someone who is here for a non-public comment, but an item on our agenda But heaven knows when we get to it if we don't do it first So we'll we'll under item 7 licenses public way and mirrored parking reservations. We have a couple of items I believe mr. Turkels here for so if you want to step up announce your name with the at the You didn't Mike and really look to see if we had any Did you have anything I'm sorry kind of zip through that without giving you a chance to sort of breathe or offer a suggestion Thank you I would like to suggest that although we really appreciate that the minutes got prepared for us and that our clerk Looked at them I wonder if later we might take a brief reading period to go ahead and read them because I Couldn't given the other things that we're already on our desk tonight. I couldn't read them all before we get started That's perfectly fine I was gonna suggest that or delay to our next meeting, but probably that will work just because it'll be a few weeks to learn right exactly so If you would be so kind as to introduce yourselves and then tell us about Why you're here. Sure. My name is beer to your Cal emmerst resident And Amherst live is a local nonprofit that we founded in 2012 I believe To bring arts and culture to our downtown area We're a nonprofit 501c3 corporation. We've thrown Seven events so far over the last five years And then plus five more ignite Amherst events that we we hosted in Amherst Amherst live is Oliver myself and Tony Morales and a host of volunteers from the town of Amherst that Bring these shows off The market for our events is generally homeowners Between the ages of you know, 30 and 65. We're not really focused on the student population We like to think of ourselves as bringing arts and culture to the downtown for adults We found have found over the years of doing these events. There's limited venues really for us to do these events in Amherst So we tend to look at you know event spaces that can be act as venues that are kind of out of the norm So You know, we think that's a great way rather than having to build a whole new building for a venue Let's repurpose different spaces around town to hold events and we think it's a lot of fun and people who come to the events I think it's a lot of fun This particular event that we're here in front of you guys tonight for Is going to be held on as planned to be held on August 4th from 8 to 11 The events and eclectic mix of graffiti art old-school TV and live jazz We've done an extensive amount of a planning around the event which we'll walk you through tonight As and just to give you a heads up somebody might have mentioned it in the past in our marketing for the event we're keeping the venue the location of the event secret and Much like in New York and California these events are kind of under the cover and the patrons find out about them Really where they're going to be on the day of the event in our case We're going to send an email to everybody two days before the event that helps build the hype around the event And people kind of get excited to try to figure out where it's going to be Although you all know where it's going to be because it's in your packet See so you may want to ask the press not to reveal the location that is why I mentioned without pointing that out specifically So we have sponsors for this event The Amherst bid is one of our partners. We've been working closely with them on the event AJ Hastings is is a host Is a sponsor as well as a number of other local Amherst businesses the event's going to be completely on private property I think you have a map of the layout of the event in your packet We are planning on serving as with all of our events We have served alcohol at and we've never never had a problem with that At this event there will be beer and we're making a special because it's the height of summer alcoholic snow cones That will be served at the event And these will be sold along with food at the event as with all of our events We have hired a professional and licensed company to manage the alcohol sales And food sales in this case. It's bistro 63 monkey bar They have the training and tools and experienced along with the serve safe trained staff of professionals That have a pretty deep experience level in ensuring that We serve alcohol in a safe way in a legal way Keeping focus on the fact that on preventing underage Serving from happening and also any anybody from underage Getting any alcohol from anybody of any of the other patrons We've met at the event site with both Captain Gunderson from the Amherst police department as well as assistant chief strong green from the Amherst fire department and done a walk-through of The event plan and our strategy our layout our exits our entrances the control points for the event And they have approved of the plan and our approach for the event We've worked with the town managers team as well as Jeff Kravitz the economic development director of the planning department the health department the police department fire department In putting the event together in fact at our last meeting one of the suggestions that the Staff made to us was that we make the event a 21 plus event It was all ages although we expected probably 95 percent to be over 21, but we've switched it to now It's a 21 plus event Worked with Susan Malone in the health department on the food aspects and permitting with Jen Garnett in planning on general permitting town manager staff On on the overall plan itself We've done the tax Attestation forum the workers compensation forum the live entertainment license form the pot of porta potty permit and the one-day liquor license Which I think we're here for tonight We've also received I think a list of questions from the select board which we sent back and I hope the answers are in your packet That are there Including the map of what the layout is We've worked with the neighbors Around the venue to make sure that they're aware of it that they're bought into it. We've talked to all the landlords The only residential units that are nearby The property manager of that unit thinks he he said he thinks 100% of the tenants are not in town As that there's it's student housing, but even if that's not true. We are Putting flyers in all of the tenants and we've spoken personally with all the businesses around it And we have not had any any issues that have been brought to our attention yet The area will be cordoned off from the public We'll have two staffed entrances and exits We'll have signage to identify really where where the event is So that people know not to bring alcohol outside of the the event That's kind of the the summary So I'll start with the one simple question to start with if someone who is watching us tonight wanted to Go to the event. How would they be able to do that? That's a fantastic question You want people to go if somebody we do if somebody's interested in attending the work It's the Amherst live high summer pop-up party and TV revival And you can find out information about it and get tickets at Amherst live comm Great. Thank you for that. Are there questions for my colleagues? So I have some additions I'd like to make to the motion so if we could write just jot those down at this point and Then I also have a question about the questions that were referenced in that we don't have any question and answer things in our Packet we do have maps which is great But if there was a list of other questions that haven't in fact already been covered by the presenters It would be good to know those But in the meantime We don't have any email The the two applications are listed under items B and C as I understand it And I would like to ensure that someplace in the motion for B that includes the fact that it's a 21-plus event so wherever that seems to fit and The other is on item C to make it clear that Oliver Brody is Executive director of Amherst live because Amherst live is not actually specifically mentioned within this long motion that we always stitch together with all the pieces of information Which we will include the location because it's a public meeting so we just you just hope no one's watching our meeting and We need to add to that that bistro This is not their fault because we've talked before about the fact that we don't clarify this on the alcohol Application, but we need to show that bistro 63 is doing the actual alcohol service Most people don't think to put that on the application because they're applying They're making the application and they're meeting with the chief police, but When we have the caterer caterer for example Someone who is trained and we always say well Don't you have somebody who's trained if they don't offer that information? And so we should include the fact that bistro 63 is associated with this So In order to not read the motion In therefore which includes an address What I was thinking in response to what you were just doing is Well, everybody else is reading the minutes that I've already read. I will do some Changes to the motions that are part of the consent motion and by then including this as consent motion We don't have to publicly state what the address is because it won't be verbalized So we can honor everybody's wishes You ask about the questions. So this came up, but Leave in advance of agenda setting maybe an agenda setting, but Really all the things that mr. Kale sort of went through with you know, police fire egress note neighbors etc etc etc are all those the All the questions we asked It was just you know, I mean again as I stated to Miss Mills is she liaised for us on this, you know, this isn't about trying to stop something like this We want these kinds of things. This is a nice event We just want to do it right so people can be safe and smart and healthy and you know Good neighbors and all that sort of stuff. So we just sort of post them sort of worst-case-narrow questions for the sake of trying to get Everybody thinking deeply about it so that we don't have any problems. Those are great. I have it in front of me I can read them really quick if anybody wants to hear the questions and answers Up to you guys So, yeah, I have a copy of it as well And I think you addressed all the questions the only one that didn't come up was How will you prevent open container violations? And the written response was we will have signs to tell attendees that they cannot bring alcohol outside the event boundaries Pretty much everything else were questions that you pre-addressed or the select board members. It asked I always have my standard questions that everybody expects me to ask about any alcohol Special alcohol licenses that are outside the usual and This is outside the usual in that It's being requested by a non-profit organization. That's not normally a cellar of alcohol I think that most of the questions have actually already been answered by Mr. Galin his presentation because he mentioned that Bistro 63 is actually the one that is Going to run the bar and that they have the professionalism and the expertise on assuring compliance and including age and service in people trying to sneak in by some other mechanism and I think that I I do have one additional question just to clarify Ms. Brewer's point the other thing that always is there is that We do get concerned about Making decisions to sell alcohol to people who are obviously already sufficiently intoxicated that is not wise and Again because you have Bistro 63 Administering the event. I think that they are well aware of the issue and so that that takes care of that Is it restricted the event itself to people who are 21? So it's age restricted. Nobody can bring anybody or otherwise purchase and you are On your own checking that Aside from the alcohol sales, correct So it really gives us to you know two levels of security there in terms of age Entrance to the event which we'll be doing but then and we I just met with the monkey bar folks on Friday Even though we're doing that. They're still going to be focused on you know Getting ID from people When they serve the alcohol and doing their usual serve safe to make sure that they're only serving of age folks Online ticketing is also explicit as to age limits and one of the things by Keeping the event locale secret Because it's an outdoor space, you know, and it's not like in the middle. It's not it's not in the common That you know, you got to kind of know about it and have a ticket because only the ticket holders will be alerted Where the location is to get to it. So it's you know pretty Secluded because of that are there other questions for Mr. Mr. Turkel or mr. Brody If not, then I think we'll probably as mr. Steinberg suggested We'll take this up potentially folded into our consent calendar and then be able to not reveal your location But again, that's awesome get tickets at Amherst live comm Amherst live comm. I hope you all attend. We'd love to see you guys there Thank you both for your time. Thank you so much. We appreciate it All right, so we'll come back to that a little bit later Let's move up to our action discussion items and we'll start with Shaitree regulations, which is next on our our list Copy of not here yet The South Amherst common yeah, so if those folks aren't here just yet, then why don't we move ahead and we'll go the We'll talk to mr. Moring and mr. Hayden about South Amherst common traffic flow and some temporary changes to to that I think we got a larger sized map with some Arrows on it Ready when you are all right. Well, thank you very much. I'm Aaron Hayden. This is for the audience at home I'm Aaron Hayden the chair of the transportation advisory committee and Guilford mooring director of public works here tonight Just to give you the background for the recommendation the the advice that we'd be giving to you on Handling a little matter that came to our attention at the South Amherst common. This is different than the South common this is the the green space that's at the intersection of a half a dozen roads Shays Street Middle Street Southeast Street East Southeast Street North Station Road. It's it's a bit of a spiderweb the transportation advisory committee is working with ways of Understanding concerns that our community has for transfer things transportation The South Amherst common a concern regarding the traffic Flowing through the cut through as you can see from the map there. There's a cut through the middle of the the common space there have been a number of scary incidents there that have been reported to us and in Deciding that maybe this is something we would want to advise you on and taking some steps to to deal with We did a little homework and we found out that in fact the South Amherst common has been a source of Comments for many many years. This is not a new problem. It's new to us Of course, we're new as well. So it is new to us and the the problems were particularly acute Involving some Reported very near I guess a new it's a near hit. So that would be a miss not a near miss the specifically the Inferred stop sign and we all remember from our driving manual days That when your road ends, it's a stop sign whether there's an a physical octagon there or not You stop and before you make the turn So that virtual stop sign at the end of that little cut-off is Mostly honored by being ignored and and that's that's a principal problem people Use it as if it's an extension of the left-hand turn off of Shea Street a little bit further to the West and come whistling through there several years ago probably 15 by now the four-way stop between Middle Street Shea Street and the Western half of Southeast Street was changed from a two-way stop because of Actually, there were some accidents. There's some very serious accidents to a four-way stop and that did solve a number of the problems this cut-through though Generated a number of requests of us and we after looking at it for a little bit Realized so what we really wanted to do as sort of developing a process for handling things like this is Have a public hearing And I use that term incorrectly. It wasn't the public hearing. It was an advertised public meeting that we invited the neighbors to comment and Share their ideas about what was going on at that intersection. We held it at the Munson Library Hopeful that that would make it easier for people who are directly affected by any recommendation We would make could be there to give us comment We actually had a pretty good turnout. I was I was pleased with a dozen or so neighbors who showed up and shared with us a wide range of ideas. They were almost unanimous in Accepting suggesting asking for us to block the The cut-through off completely which is the recommendation that you have in front of you in the course of our speaking with the neighbors and understanding the traffic flow around That area a little bit better We realized that there might be some consequences to that some traffic patterns being pushed from one place to another the Nonetheless, we all felt that it was worth making the experiment finding out if All the good engineering the good designing that goes into this kind of plan worked here in this particular instance the one modification that came out of the meeting is the Blocking off the right-hand turn into the cutoff the slip lane in between the western branch of southeast Street and Shays Street That's a very acute angle and there's some traffic that Could not go to the four-way stop and then be able to turn left to head North on southeast Street, so we're going to allow them to use that slip lane to make that left in Shays Street. I'm sorry. I had a Shays Street. We're gonna. Allow them to use that slip lane to be able to make that corner That's that's a little detail that is in the drawing there in fulfilling sort of the The nature of exploration of trying to figure out if this is really the right thing we are recommending that the barriers the three barriers that we show there are Installed a couple of weeks into September after The traffic patterns in in the town have taken their made their big shift into the fall mode Before that installation at the beginning of September until they're installed we would recommend Taking traffic council doing a little traffic study to understand how the normal traffic the usual traffic is and Then compare that with the traffic patterns after those barriers are put in I'm hoping that we'll find it works perfectly and the concerns about driving faster traffic Onto the western branch of southeast Street won't happen because there are stop signs there and other Form road forms that do calm traffic when they're headed that way We're hoping that we find out that that speeding doesn't happen there and that the we would make the recommendation that the barriers become permanent so that's the the long story and behind that very short document and I don't know if mr. Moran would like to add something to that And we're delighted to answer any questions. Thank you questions from the board I can start One question, I guess I'm just trying to picture it right now you're Just planning to put on do not enter signs as a method or are you actually planning to put temporary barriers across at that cross point So to keep this kind of like so you can see everything on it if I started putting a whole bunch of stuff It would clutter it a lot. So yes, they're gonna be permanent Jersey barriers across there So you would not be able to drive down the drive across and cut through either way just to follow up on that on the on the essentially right turn lane Coming off of southeast Street on to Shays where you're going to allow one-way traffic there Are you going to on the Shays Street end of that is there's a barrier there to block through because it's a What it's a it's barely a lane it's a lane wide in a little bit It's not like two lanes per se which is part of why it's confusing in that area But I didn't know what your plan was on the Shays Street end of that little piece as well There's gonna be a barrier there, but it's not gonna be a Jersey barrier We're probably gonna put up we have some of the More like you see on the highway where they're actually slats and the bars and they actually can get hit and not tear your vehicle apart We have a couple of those are gonna put there and put no do not enter signs for that side They won't be Jersey barriers there People will be able to make use that roadway to make that one turn that you were talking about Yes, you'll be able to make a right-hand turn if you're heading south on southeast Street and turn on the Shays Street there Some people call that middle street, too I know I was actually looking at the map and thinking geez Southeast Street It's really on both sides technically Which is something that in in my 40 years here. I guess I didn't know until I looked at this map There was two of the questions there one question one comment the Frig What Are the traffic counts that you're going to be looking at and what will they tell you? So there's a couple of things we've actually as mr. Hayden alluded to this has been an Issue has been talked by the town for many years Jim Smith when he was here He actually proposed something to alleviate all the issues going on here. So we have traffic counts that come from probably late 80s that's when He did it. We did traffic counts around 2004 So we'll do traffic counts now So one thing we're looking at is how things have changed over the time period How how how are people using it while the speeds and so forth? The second thing we're going to look at is once we put in the barricades and stop people from crossing over The cut-through we want to know we want to quantify how much traffic is going to be on the west side of the common There was concern about the residents who live on the west side. How much more traffic is that going to put in front of their house? And then so how fast it's going to go There's actually been over the years has been several options for identifying the entire common Which has been kind of interesting every time we get a request for doing something in the South Common It's like do this and as you start looking at doing this you realize well You got to do this and then you do move things that this and you move things here and there In 2004 when we actually looked at it There was came down with three options and it actually encompassed the entire common And we're kind of seeing it now. We said Stop traffic from using the cut-through. Well, if you stop traffic from using the cut-through There'll be more traffic on the west side of the common So that we want to quantify that with the counts and we want to get the speeds as well Mr. Walton, do you have a question? Well my comment just so I can conclude for me is The hard thing another hard thing for many drivers Sometimes if you're injured and have a sore neck it is particularly a problem is where would I'll come now the two branches of Southeast Street come together and you're coming on the West branch and but you're heading north and you have the stop sign and have to really turn Back at a very strong angle to look back to make sure no one's coming And of course this is not doing anything to address that problem for people either with sore necks or not the way that people have Frequently address that problem is to do one of the two cut-throughs and then make a more natural left turn and So I was wondering if you had talked about that and the interesting fact that you didn't do anything on it that the other is This will now force anybody who wants to avoid that Phenomenon that I talked about will have to use the station road cut-through and That could actually they have a traffic effect there, too It could one of the things that I pretty rapidly learned In the course of our discussion with the public that afternoon is that there are many many problems here and We really Weren't ready to solve all of them. So you mentioned the the It's funny. I think of it as a East Street splitting not coming together at that point But you that that that peculiar sort of why intersection that was a problem that was raised There are a number of concerns around the station road entrance the station road intersection with the east branch of Southeast Street There's a funny. I don't know what it what the phenomenon is but people seem to approach that intersection Way too fast from any of the four directions. Well, principally the three directions that aren't a parking lot there's also the When Southeast Street comes back together again at after Shays Street has met it People heading north there. There's another You know the road turns a little bit and then you can either continue bearing left or make a slight turn right to enter That east branch of Southeast Street and that was another intersection that came up and that was a concern and then the Intersection where Pomeroy meets Middle Street and and then further on Shays Street there's a lot of work that can be done here and We heard a lot of it and in fact one of the reasons that I was interested in reviewing and presenting the Various plans that have happened have been Considered in the past around that area is that this may be just the first step I'm hopeful that with the counting that we're going to be doing the observation that we're going to be doing Sue Huges, she's great. She's a great observer. She's going to tell us exactly any benefits or effects that our changes will have That we'll begin to understand better Maybe how to address those other nearby intersections first things first Mr. Wall did you have a question? I mean having experienced also the sardine I was thinking though in addition about the if I'm coming up Shays Street from Route 116 West Street, you know, and then I want to make it when I want to go north I guess to what extent is this left just to the Ingenuity of the individual driver or will there be any kind of guidance in trying to direct people, you know If you're going to go one thing we also do in Massachusetts We don't label our streets So if you're a stranger here, you have no idea what your street you're on you may have a street, you know You're supposed to know what street you're on you might find the street you're crossing But everything after that's kind of a crapshoot So I guess if there's will it be guidance for people who are trying to navigate this or just be left to natural traffic flow Not yet Well I say something snarky, but I won't They'll be they'll be for the first turn we have as we've been looking at this We've kind of come up now with two signs We were just gonna do one sign But there was gonna be a sign telling people go up to the intersection and turn left We probably are also gonna put a second sign that trucks go straight and then turn and so trucks will turn if you're a truck You're gonna probably find it more comfortable to turn in front of the church not and at the first one So we're now up to about two signs as we kind of work through how we're gonna implement this and but there will be more Signage and we haven't flushed it all out, but we will get it all flushed out And we'll probably get another option someone will probably say we should do something else too, but that's what we're playing right now So just some Certifications and you've already addressed much of it associated with the signage and I appreciate what you said about only fitting So many signs on a map this size, but I want to make sure I'm a little uneasy about the which you did not write But the motion that we have in front of us which says as specified by the superintendent, which We're supposed to guess as public works, I guess, but it doesn't reference a particular map There's no written memo associated with this beyond the the notes that are on the map I'm a little Fuzzy on some of this so I'm wondering if we might find a way of Perhaps since there since the map thing it since the sign thing is still being worked out Maybe what it makes sense to do is to say, you know as generally outlined at the July 19th meeting and With the map of July 19th And then expect that once it all gets installed that it'll be we'll get copied in on what it actually looks like So that then when we're evaluating it someday We'll know what that signage was rather than asking anybody to go back and fix it now But we often have either a map that tells us exactly what we're gonna do or a memo that tells us exactly what we're gonna do And this does some of that and it talks about how to do it But the question the first question associated with what are we talking Jersey barriers? Are we talking signage? I appreciate all the detail you've given us I just would like it somehow to be clearer To the future body that sees this What it is we actually did and so maybe the best way of addressing that is just saying that it kind of once Not that you come back here for permission, but that you come back you just send us a map That has all the things you ended up doing and showing you know where the Jersey barriers are Etc. And then that can be added to the future packet when it's time to evaluate this You're the right question. I have in this is just for my colleagues is do we need to specify the dates of The that would be a good idea. There's no written plan how temporary is temporary I mean you indicated a couple weeks Do we know kind of the the date range we should probably? Identify that and in our motion if we're gonna close the street for a period of time so people have an expectation of when We were we were gonna propose some dates, but we're not actually sure which dates we want to propose yet due to a couple of things One there's the election so you have The preliminary our primary elections will be on September 4th The question is do we want to put the counters out before then or after then we're leaning towards putting the counters out After the election because that's going to give us a fault-tie day and a fault-tie time period So we're not we don't if you want to put some dates in it would be Two weeks prior to the installation two weeks after installation it'd be the best dates I have right now because we're trying to figure out What would be the best days if Tuesday is the primary? We might wait until Saturday have a minute for Saturday count Saturday or we might wait until Monday and then count And that we haven't worked out yet as well because it also relies on the company is coming in to do the counting Right So I think from the standpoint of the counts because that doesn't obstruct traffic in any way that's whatever dates work is probably fine I think it's actually more my concern is more about When are we actually got to put in the barrier to that section and the dates that we're gonna have that in place? Which is temporary until we analyze the data I presume and then So do you know the dates that we're bringing those in place? No, because I mean like I said we want to have at least two solid weeks and counting before we actually put them in So if we start on Wednesday after the primary That's two weeks after Wednesday if we start the Saturday after the primary that's two weeks after that Saturday so there's What you what we're gonna do is we'll have it all done in September is the way we're looking at it now So that's what we're looking for. That's why we like written memos and that sort of thing is so September we could say September 2018 and then that way it's whenever in September for the counts and then the installation, but then what's the end date? What's the end date for having I'm not talking about the counts anymore. I'm talking about the signage What's your period of time so the time period was after we do the counts for after they go in the barriers are in There's two when we're ready to evaluate What are we feel like our results have been are we talking about next February? Are we talking about December? What are we looking at? We're looking at very closely after we get all the count data back So it's probably about two weeks takes about two weeks after they're all done to give us the numbers back and have actual Something more than just numbers on a table. So that's how it normally goes so looking at October before we get data back and probably Sometime in October, I'll go to the tack and then I'll come back to you Maybe you understand my question. So I think maybe the easiest way to do it is that the select board would be authorizing that little section of road for the traffic changes is recommended to be Initiated on or about September 21st or some other day like that for two weeks and then that'll give you that gives you We can choose whatever date you want But you're gonna start a two-week time clock from whatever that first day is say it's September 22nd Then you keep it closed for two weeks and then it opens up again That's fine That is that the goal is that what you intend is to why you reopen it While you do all the analysis or you can keep it closed while you do all the analysis the goal was to reopen it That's kind of the impression that the committee left with the residents We're gonna do the counts then come back and evaluate them and then propose a more permanent solution So still confused. So I understand the part about doing the counts before put the signs in I understand the counts need to take place on an appropriate date not voting date I understand that it will take more than five minutes to install what is actually relatively massive signage and barriers etc. It's gonna take at least a couple of hours to put that in and then the question I'm trying to understand is how long is the stuff gonna be there before just for two weeks and Then you can take it out and then but do account during the two-week period So I'll count prior account for the two weeks. It's really only gonna sit there for two weeks Yes Well, it's gonna sit across the road for two weeks. Yes Okay, and then you're gonna pull everything out and Put it back to the way it was Even though you may or may not have your you will have collected your data during that time period But it will be gone by the end of September should yes Roughly right the one of the principal goals in this of course is to end up with a safer intersection ultimately but this Series of actions is really to understand Whether this is the thing that is best done there so Put it in check it out and Then double-check now if it's going so well we could do like the cancer trials So they just prove the drug and off you go, but I don't expect that actually that's what I'm trying to understand Is that it's not going to then be that at the end of September we say well, you know, we're kind of liking the way This looks let's leave it until November or December or January So I'm just trying to understand what the goal is here And it's this very short period of time and if that's the way you want to do it. I'm fine with that I'm just trying to understand what it is. The goal is to have it in for a very short period of time If someone else along the way decides, oh, that's great But right now the goal is just to have it in for the two weeks to count Get the data and then decide what to do next but everything will come out So you said the approximate date you were thinking of was September I just trying to think of a motion It's the Wednesday either the Wednesday after elections are it's going to be the Saturday after the election So the election is on the primary election is on the fourth or fourth, right? Either the fifth or the eighth But you're not doing anything those four years going to be counting traffic those first counting weeks And then it's that's two weeks after that date that you're gonna that the select board has to take an action So if we go to the 22nd, yeah, you go to the eighth and you two weeks as the 22nd right gets this into October So what I was thinking of is if you're gonna do a motion that would be like that it would be to prove temporary traffic flow changes for study of traffic flow on The southeast common as specified by the superintendent specifically for a two-week period beginning on or about September 22 2018 to block and then go on from there Then you've put in both the two-week period and the blockage date So you go from specifically for a two-week period beginning on or about September 22 2018 I There is no specification from the superintendent here There's a description and so I'm not good with calling it that so can we just say as described by the superintendent of public works and Supported by the tack because we always like to give the tax credit for the work that they've done because otherwise we'd say what did the tax say? So you would put it as Described by the superintendent of public works Recommended and recommended by the train. Okay What they're permitting That's why I did the honor about We have to pull the tubes and the counters when it snows if you determine for whatever reason that you need to vary it slightly Have a crept in a way to offer motion. Yes, I think I can try and do that Did I move to approve? Temporary traffic load flow changes for study of traffic low on the South Amherst common As described by the superintendent of public works and recommended by the transportation advisory committee specifically for a period of two weeks beginning on or about September 22 2018 To block the shortcut across South Amherst common That is an extension of Shea Street east towards Southeast Street To block the first left turn from Shea Street to Southeast Street going eastbound to allow southbound Southeast Street traffic to take First right into Shea Street and to perform traffic counts before these changes and after these changes are made Excellent is a further discussion Hearing none all those in favor, please say aye. Hi. That's unanimous with one member absent. Thank you both very very much Well, thank you indeed So next up We'll go back to since I think They're here We'll go back in our agenda the sheet re-regulations Mr. Slater, yes If I may be so boldest to interrupt like I just did which would be to say could someone tell us why this is in our packet and What we're doing rather than jumping right into having a presentation from the shade tree folks because I'm The whole we did a town meeting article. We talked about it before I'm a little uneasy just leaping in and saying present the regulations to us I mean we've seen a variation of this before We had comments. We don't know that they were incorporated We don't have any documentation that says they were incorporated except we have a new document to read So I'd like some clarity on where we're at So the last time this came to the board is in turn in the form of a by-law That was presented to us to be presented to town meeting There was so much specificity in the by-law it was recommended to the shade public trade shade tree committee that they Especially by town council I think was to minimize the factual by-law and to put everything else into a regulation that the select board would Be authorized to approve or not approve So this is these are the regulations that were the more detail which you had seen before because it was presented as part Of the by-law, but they were extracted from the by-law and put into a regulation for you to approve I might follow up my frustration is that we didn't weren't provided with article 12 to remind us of what we were doing and for all Five of us to go digging out that information feels frustrating to me And I would also have liked some intro from either from the town manager or from the shade tree organization to Tell us we incorporated these three things since the last time we talked about this I'm betting they'll probably cover that in their presentation But it would have helped me read this differently than going back and looking at the original by-law and Putting together our notes again, etc. Yeah, I think that's my fault for not putting that in context Which would have made it help you. Yeah, I understand So given that also, I'll apologize for us being late. I thought the meeting started at 7 0 5, so That's all right You know the thing we can always fill the time generally so you're fine So if you'd introduce yourselves and then tell us a little bit about the regulations that are in front of us tonight I'm Henry Lappin. I'm the chair of the public shade tree committee Well snow tree warden with the town of Amherst Okay, so we're here tonight. Thank you for taking the time to discuss Strengthening our town tree laws for public shade trees. So these are trees that are within the public way under the Already kind of regulated by a master in a law chapter 87 Which also would include scenic roads in that which require a joint hearing with the planning board and tree warden What we would like to do is to simply simply take the policy that I've been using for the past six years or seven years and Turn that policy into actual, you know by-law with the town And the shade tree committee has spent a significant amount of time researching other communities and the thereby laws that extend chapter 87 and Created a document which we then presented to you the town meeting and then was reassessed to be a To help me up Paul regulation regulation. Thank you So the big changes in this proposal is essentially Changing the required the definition of a tree that requires a tree hearing currently under master in a law chapter 87 Any tree that is 1.5 inches in caliper, which is measured. I believe six inches off the ground would require a tree hearing That's that's a lot of work for myself and for most people Doing projects that affect the public way for a brushy roads a regeneration that's taking place on the side of roads I'd like in proposing to change that to five inches So that any tree that is five inches in diameter at breast height, which is four and a half feet off the ground And that'll help us with managing the brush along the sides of the roads and things like that and simplify Projects what section is that in? Section 6 process to request a tree removal opening. Do you have the original draft that I gave you guys I? Can give you copies? They have copies if this is the document It's not dated or anything. Actually, it's the same thing We speak into the microphone you should be on the microphone so so there's to the the Masternilla chapter 7 requires a tree hearing for trees 1.5 inches in caliper enough What I'm proposing do is that's still defined as a public shade tree. It just doesn't require a tree hearing So later on the document John section 6 6 it would mention the 5 inch Would require a tree hearing the other significant change from Masternilla chapter 7 is placing a reasonable value on The tree itself. So if it's a healthy public shade tree not a risk tree tree that is you know dead Those trees that are perfectly healthy in their expected of a long life Has a replacement value of $90 per inch DBH That's roughly what it costs to purchase a one-inch tree what it comes down to Then Also, we clearly define roles of the slack board or council Tree warden in the public shade tree committee And then also to strengthen enforcement of the of the laws and there's a little bit more about specifying exactly what is a prohibited act with regard to shade trees and How the fines work and to make sure the fines go into the gift tree fund so that we can then purchase new trees so One of the things we talked about before and I know I saw it here some place and now I'm seeing another reference So maybe there are multiple references is Associated with the gift tree. I see that listed in item G On page 4. This is not page number, but okay under pay under item 6 under G It has fees and it talks about the $90 per inch and it talks about the gift tree fund and It talks about Fines of course in the fine section, but one of the things we talked about last time was Fines general go into the general fund fines. Don't go into the tree fun It's under seven seats as all fines remain be should go into the town's general fund just to be sure We're clear that that's what everybody understood. Yes, okay Good because that separation was important before the fines would not go to the gift tree find a general fund. Yeah, that's fine I think on this draft. I didn't know that And also as mr. Bachman pointed out The fine would be three hundred dollars because of some rather than five hundred that So That was my question number two Which was that we had said in the town meeting article then in the absence of a regulation Promulgated here under establishing a different amount each such violation shall be subject to a fine of three hundred and we talked about Three hundred at our meeting back on October 16th of 2017, but this says five hundred So are we changing that to three hundred or is somebody telling us that it can be five hundred for some reason we're changing it to three hundred We're changing it to three hundred even though the document we have in front of us says five hundred. Okay I have a slight suspicion That the document we had in our packet that we got may not be the newest copy and the reason why I say that is there's a few places where Word by laws used instead of regulation And just still has the five hundred in it So I don't know if your copy has three hundred instead of five hundred then we may need the copy that you have brought No mine also says okay Although Even that we've gone from a town to a city. We may be able to actually Go to five hundred dollars for the fine Three hundred is a limit on cities on towns ironically enough for fines But I have to look them with the with the fine limit is for cities But anyway, Mr. Wall We could leave that to the new town council to figure out because we don't want to tie their hands Just a minor point since we're still editing the document I was thinking if someone is reading this sometimes terms are not defined So if reading definitions on page one, you know, it talks about DBH diameter at breast height And I'm wondering what is that I can intuit it, but if I turn to page two, I find the actual height listed as 4.5 Feet in Roman numeral seven you might want to move that to page one when the term is first introduced For the sake of clarity So I can't if you look at item One be definitions it mentions diameter at breast height And I believe that's the first mention of the term But it's not defined Whereas if you turn to page two item Be Roman numeral small seven it identifies diameter at breast height is four point five feet off the ground So I would just move that to page one for the sake of clarity I think we were trying to put all the definitions in one place at that right, but if you give the measurement You'd agree better There's a minor type of also in G on page three replaces versus replaced, but that's just a scrivener's error other questions Mr. Steinberg, yeah, this may be a question for mr. Bacchum and the Some of I know the answer to section 8 of peels The last sentence is appeals will be heard by the select board Has anybody done any research to determine once a council is in place? Whether the council hears appeals or whether there is some other mechanism of stat that needs to be established I have not I think we would ask the bylaw review committee That's going over all of our bylaws and things like this to analyze that They're going to be have control over the public way then they would be Go to the council If they're gonna have control over the public way Because this keeps coming up. I think that we should work under the assumption that While we're still a select board and while we're still a town We have to do the things that we're not gonna say or future council or future licensing authority in these things because that's just too Confusing it just needs to be what it is now But I think it's worth maybe noting in our minutes each time and here's another one for the bylaw review committee Because it's one that may in fact come up before some other things do even though They're doing actual bylaws rather than regulations and this one still has the reference to bylaw on page One that used to be changed to regulation at least that place and as you indicated more than one place But it's not a bylaw, but we're still gonna give it to them Because whatever what they're finding out for the bylaws in terms of public way for example And how to change that over to council. This will be the same kind of thing It could potentially be kind of packaged up So just to that last point about sort of the word bylaws I went through and sort of circled a few places where that's and there's the word ordinance in one place which Again would be replaced by regulation. I believe They didn't know how my colleagues wanted to proceed whether we wanted to Edit and then make a motion to move it as amended or do we want to Do an edit and then vote on it with a less discussion perhaps the next Meeting do you have a suggestion mr. Right? I would suggest that you submit your comments and we bring it back to you for final We do a good proof on it and all the other kind of things Let you at your next meeting you can Have a final look at it if there are any changes. Yeah, I think No urgency. I don't think there isn't and I'm part of what you know, I was hoping to get out of this Hearing was actually your opinion and you know, you've been doing this For a while and you've had multiple hearings various other Things in town as your expertise and you know, how we can make this hearing process For public change these work better. So if you feel that We're weak here on something and you think we should strengthen it and I would like to hear about that I think the general sense I'm getting from what I've heard his comments is that The General process is fine. We're just tidying up of language mostly and organizational things I don't think I saw anything personally that that I thought needed to be added or removed necessarily And I don't know my colleagues do or not but what I will suggest to them is You know offer edits or suggestions and and send them to me or to mr. Bachman And we'll put a last edit through this and then we'll we'll bring us back in our next meeting Probably mostly in a performance or a way to just vote on at that point unless there's as as we see a final copy If there's issues with it at that point, but if there are structural things in more significant structural Questions that come up about process that it's within the regulation around appeals or fines or or whatever then You can potentially work those out in advance of our meeting of Yes, so two things associated with that one is I don't think this outlines What how an appeal would work? It which is potentially okay We don't know yet and we could work that out when the time came but it doesn't say exactly how that process would work And the the other part of that is any resident or interested party is are we using kind of legal reference there? Or we don't we just mean anyone? When it comes right down to it, or are we saying interested party in some legal term in some In I mean don't don't we in fact just mean anyone or are we saying what how would we define an interested party? I mean, I'm not I'm not sure we're that We're gonna be that specific So can we change it to just anyone? Appeal which sounds a little broad, but That's fine. I mean a lot of the language we took based on other towns bylaws that we were right cutting and pasting and working with Molly Freiliker from the state DCR Urban forestry program and so some of the language. Yeah, we weren't that comfortable with but it just seemed like that was the language It was you so if you have better language great. I Think our main point is that? What we wrote in this was? you know the basic framework and points that we wanted to have covered and How it's finally the fine print. We're not so interested in Yes, so until you made your suggestion I was going to recommend that you guys just edit this and be done with it I don't feel the need to see it again I'd like it to have page numbers and I'd like it to not have the references and I'd like it to the wrong Kind of reg which again, I understand the cut and paste completely That's how you learn is you just take other people's stuff that they've already worked on that's great That's a good way to just form a framework And I appreciate your explanation that this is largely what you're already doing anyway, and it's putting it into a regulation So page numbers a date and We could say we could say as amended, you know Understanding that it's going to be fixed and then it would have today's date on it Does that work? Because I personally don't want to read it again to see if there are more typos in it I mean, it's important to me that we got the concepts, right? And so accepted I feel is a question Sort of process a little bit uncomfortable Adopting regulation and not be us adopting the regulation Actually voting on the regulation that's being adopted So I do think it has to come back to us Just for that purpose it would be helpful. However If we got two versions in the next round one that shows the changes from What we're looking at right now, and then the final then it's easier to do I will take that on if that's advisable And then because I think I think I agree with mr. Simer I think we should actually have the sort of polished version to vote on even I don't think we need to have a lengthy discussion, but unless we do a big email through red line versions, but Does anyone else have a stronger preference to vote tonight on it and instead of a couple weeks from now? I don't see we hardly ever do regulations. It's not like we're breaking with precedent We just approved a theory of a two-week trial of just like a made-up thing that was just given to us verbally and had no problem doing that So I would just like to be able to move along and I know that we don't have as many meetings And if one person wants to take this on I'm totally happy with that And if mr. Steinberg wants to be the one to do it, I'm fine with what the regulations say with the change to 300 I mean it's got typos in it So those will be fixed meaning the references to bylaws will be changed And you know we'll move the definition so it sounds nicer. The only substantive change is the 500 to 300 and I'm fine with it I want us to be wordsmithing it again Well, any thoughts? I Don't have a real strong feeling I mean sometimes we're very fussy whether Everything lists an address and a parcel and a name and I listen to that and then here we're saying whatever so I Mean I would I think my instinct would be to Maybe have a look at it, but not spend a lot of time in discussion, but I'm happy with to do any of the majority wants, you know I mean, I think just Given that we are somewhat process oriented It wouldn't hurt until the 13th, right, but there's no urgency. We're told so again. I don't We've got plenty to do with our time, but I'm happy to go through and do the editing So why don't I do that and circulate it fairly soon? Um red line version as mr. Steinberg talked to me Myself a deadline of the end of the week that way it will give you plenty of time which would be the 26th I want to say So that we'll be ready to vote on the 13th. Yeah Evaluation things and other things So Yes, yeah, can I request that you send Alan and the committee a copy before the final version is done? Absolutely, absolutely Are there also I get the feeling that there are other members of the Shaitree committee here? I did you want to like me to introduce them? Yes, please You can just you could just name them all I can do it from here. So the camera Shoshana King who's Join the committee, but is waiting for official authorization with the new town council next to her is Rachel Luffler who is a member noni Burak? Becky Becky Margot Margotus is Not an official member, but she takes our minutes and helped out a lot and then the front row is Nancy My brain is not working at all Um, put you on the spot Nancy Higgins has been on that committee for a while, so great well, thank you all for the work on this and and like I said, we'll tidy it up a little bit and and Vote on it on our next meeting. Thank you very much. Thank you for your time. Thank you All right Next on our agenda is the proposed South dearful water treatment intermuse Intermunicipal agreement and so mr. Moring if you would come up and Share with us what you know about that at this point So at our last meeting We you approved a list of Intermunicipal agreements. This is one. I had highlighted is as potentially coming when and has come forward We don't have the actual Language of the agreement yet because it's still a town council. We anticipate it getting it today But we have not received it today so mr. Moring can give a little more background of why this is before you so the town South Deerfield actually the town of South Deerfield has two water districts this South Deerfield water supply district, which is in the southern part of the town Is having some Manning issues. They have not been able to find enough people to come in and fill the required manning They're being scrutinized by DEP for their failure to have that They are working diligently on it They actually have advertisements out again for the two people they need to hire But in the interim they need a backup So I reached out and said look if you're willing we can talk about it And we can set up something where if you have a vacation or illness or something We can provide the backup to you with one of our personnel And then you just pay us and reimburse us for our costs for coming over there So the district is in agreement that they'd like to have us as a backup. They don't see us as becoming the new South Deerfield water district people This is just a temporary thing for them to get their Manning situation taken care of and take care of their issues with DEP This is something it's not something needs to be approved tonight But we do need to make sure that we do need to say we're willing to do it and Commit to helping them tonight. Otherwise. They need to find something else DEP is holding their feet to a pretty quick timeline to get into bring everything back into compliance with their manning So that's where they are and we actually so we did actually offer to help and then Predominantly a staffing issue for them as far as you have people with the appropriate certifications and skills They have a shortage in that and you need they need coverage for certain days a week times a day That's where a thing and yes This Brewer Mamo says water supply district is that the more accurate reference than South Deerfield water treatment That's listed in our motion. Yes, it's the South Deerfield water supply district Have their own acronym. They do The two s's throw you off to it's like what? South Deerfield water Questions Concerns we're ready for motion Well, I do have a concern, but in that is that we not get into a situation where We are providing so much staffing for another district that it's affecting the operations of our own water system, but I'm assuming that the town manager and the superintendent the public works who are attentive to that and Will protect our water supply system Yes, we've looked into that and we've already figured out how we can do this to make sure we don't come up short If there's any need for overtime, it'll be the overtime will be performed on South Deerfield side So the operators and view on overtime on their side And we won't have to pay it extra to meet the needs of doing this we do have a couple people some seasonal people in because it's the summer and they'll be able to cover some of our staffing issues on our side because of The fact that we have more actual operators that are licensed and South Deerfield does Well, I'll make the motion and note that in doing so that oh, I'm sorry I wonder if you might include in the motion to say as described in the memo of July 19th Because this is more information than we had on the other agreements and does give a pretty good picture I think of what the plan is and so referencing that memo Would enable me to vote for it Okay, I can do that and What I was going to note is that This really is an authorization for the town manager. So the town manager ultimately decides it's an inappropriate action But it can act accordingly But it also gives us the ability to continue the conversations with South Deerfield, which is apparently what is really most needed right now So moved to authorize town manager to enter into the Inter municipal agreement with South Deerfield water supply district as described in the memo of July 1918 Motion in a second there for the discussion Hearing none all those in favor, please say aye. I Opposed so that's unanimous of one absent Thank you very much. Thank you very much What I'm going to suggest is we do the next item and then we take a short break before we get into our the The other parts of section four. So next time is transportation fund additional appropriation options First look and the reason for this on our agenda is we haven't had a real conversation yet about the additional Appropriation of transportation funds for potential support of the PVTA I looked Rather quickly at the budget that the conference budget that was put together and approved. I want to say last Friday. Is that right? I think it was last Friday at the State contract assistance for the RTAs is the lingo and it was at the Senate's Appropriation level of 88 million which is in keeping with What was originally sort of promised several years ago? That would if it survives signage by the governor Which he has line I'm vetoed so he may reduce that number, but if it survives then then the need for us to Use this appropriation for the transportation fund to support routes would would not be there because it would be Entirely likely the roots would stay in in in the forms that they are now the complicating factors if if is if we choose to use that additional funding for Supportive roots the difficulty we run into is In the past when we let me state it this way in the past when we've had this circumstance we've wholesale purchased a route and That's a much different circumstance than in other words. We're buying a service in this circumstance We you know the amount we have doesn't purchase a route per se it would buy portions of a route And the difficulty is there's an interdependency between Both the north and the south as far as equity questions and even within routes. So there's some some question within a you know the The so for example, let me just put it this way if we were to Continue supportive roots for Saturday evenings on a loop that goes around campus Which is one of the suggestions That is something that we could do and and would be less than the amount that's available to us But most other changes that involve additional frequency of roots and That sort of thing involve a much much more complicated Series of factors, so there's an analysis that has to get done relative to to Title 6 and that also involves, you know support of roots in the southern half of the Piner Valley Transit Authority districts so for example if we provide greater root coverage here than there has to be a corresponding thing there I'm oversimplifying in a lot of ways here, but but just to try to indicate the the complexities of Disproportionate and disparate impact which are both under the title six they were looking for People of different economic means and also different identified groups being disproportionately affected And so it's it's a complicated circumstance. I think the example, you know Mr. Bachman I were talking about this he gave an example of you know There are times and in school districts where someone will say oh someone of means will say oh I won't you know Russian to be offered in our high school I'll just you know essentially buy a teacher to teach this class and it While in some ways that is the cost of of say a class it's not quite that way because of the complications of scheduling and Interlacing it with all the other things that go on within the budget of a school district for example This is kind of a similar circumstance. I do think there are some potential things we could do relative to this additional appropriation So the rates for for the buses which largely don't affect us, but in some ways do particularly around senior service senior van service and excuse me and With the call pair transit service those rates went up July 1st, and that those rate increases will be in effect So there's some additional costs that people will be taking on In in those circumstances We have traditionally in our senior center to offer to 10 pack of of tickets With a 50 cent per ticket discount That was you know, so that made $2 and 50 cent tickets now $2 The ticket that was 250 is now $3 and so potentially we could offer suggestion to the manager that that a different or an additional discount could be applied to those To those ticket packages that people buy There's also one of the other significant changes is that for Van service like that if you are outside of a three-quarter mile radius of a stop There's an additional charge in the past that has not been charged PBT did not charge for picking up people outside that three-quarter mile radius And so if you if you live outside of three-quarter mile radius, you will be incurring a cost. You didn't incur before We could also potentially find a way to potentially support Folks with regard to mitigating that New cost that that would be coming to them as a result of that I don't know offhand how many people are affected by either one of those But just wanted to sort of paint that picture a little bit but I do think it was encouraging to see that the that the compromise or the Yeah, the compromise budget the house and sent came together Funded the RTA said at the level that would would in a sense make PVTA whole So I don't know if anybody had any questions or suggestions or other things they wanted to bring up relative to this or Concerns or feedback they've heard from the community or anything Something to say. Yeah, no, I mean a general question that is Town meeting Voted the money to be available to the town manager to spend In order to cheat with they had a stated version it wasn't legally binding, but it was what their stated intent was Do we if the stated intent is not necessary as the appropriate decision not to spend the money at all Being Never quite being able to put my finance side of me away we did funded out of the Limited amount of reserves for the transportation enterprise fund, which is a non-recurring amount of money Which is what bothered me about the whole proposal to begin with? and Given the stresses that we have on our parking system and infrastructure needs of our parking system I Not sure that it's necessarily the best thing to do I think that that's a decision that however the town manager needs to make Mr. Wall, I appreciate that advice because I think all of us had this feeling when things are proposed that sound good and Do something heartwarming we all approve of and we're aware of the complications that will ensue and puts us in a difficult position I suppose the town manager as well But we trust his discretion just to respond to what the chair said about these possible solutions I'm every call from the general conversations We had nothing previous agenda setting to that the bottom line is it is very difficult just to add roots the way that people think we can For all the reasons that you've mentioned and probably some others too And I appreciated your attempt in past weeks to think of these alternatives such as subsidizing the tickets or these Van access that would affect certainly our residents and not complicated to dismiss the whole so I'm I find that encouraging So I just offer, you know, I mostly sort of painted these picture of things we could do not necessarily say I wanted to But you know, I think it's encouraging the the house incentive sort of stepped up to fund at a higher level Which is what they should have done all along but but But I you know, I agree with mr. Steinberg I think that we recognize it's a it was a non recurring source of revenue and and we do have some other needs There's gonna be a fairly extensive project on the north using those transportation fund monies To help get that project done and and so, you know not spending it would be probably the wisest choice if possible Did you have anything? No, I agree. I mean, I think the the town meeting action was pretty directive and Well, it is within the purview to expand that my sense was we had I had recommended I think the select board had recommended against spending the money at all so if the the funding level Continues at the way the house in the Senate has Proposed then my instinct would be not to spend it on something that we think that town meeting might have thought about it didn't even come up at town meeting so and Since it was our intent my intent or and I think the select board's intent was That this is money that should not be allocated this way in the first place that would solve the problem in a way just I mean to Amplify that and the circumstances that prompted the motion in the first place no longer exist apparently or will be confirmed So I think we're entirely within our rights and not wilding any trust Implied or or other if we decide not to spend the money All right Yes, so after the governor signs it and it actually happens and there's always those little pieces Then it seems like we should have a memo from the manager that says but not yet And that says Under this town meeting under the budget article we did that in the enterprise article We did this we're not gonna spend it and then it's like there we have it in case somebody asked in the future What did you ever do with that? We have a thing to pull out in addition to just saying it So I wanted to put that so we kind of touched on a little bit over over the ensuing Week since town meeting ended, but we hadn't formally put on the agenda So I wanted to put on the agenda and then of course Finish the budget last Friday after we set the agenda So it in a lot of ways helped us in that regard so we may not bring this up again mother than to have a memo from the manager So why don't we take a short break? Before we get into the next item on our agenda And We'll get into that Short break do we have to do our reading during this break to or is that gonna be a separate break? That'll be a separate break. Okay So next in our agenda We're under the town manager performance review We'll start first with the summary of this Self-evaluation which is in our pack. I believe so Yeah, if you want to say so that's a long document and what I intend to do tonight It's just talked to you about the big things the big picture things and the medium picture things And then the things that haven't been done yet that Probably make it'll it'll make a lot more sense or reading all the details the memo Tracks the language of the goals that were established. I want to talk more sort of Topically for you so Of the big picture things I think we accomplished I note I want to note that all these things were accomplished not by me but working with a very talented team of staff and also great leadership by the select board because all of these things have been in Conversation with the select board and making sure we're all on the same page before we move forward. So the biggest one I think is our Health insurance the fact that we had identified a problem with our self-insured program that Our self in our health insurance is our largest Benefit program that we offer to our employees. It's a major cost item in the budget and was has been Really infringing on any new developments that we could produce into the budget Working with staff we were able to conceive a path identify the problem conceive a path forward Work with our union representatives to come to a greed upon solution and then had a very good Implementation process. So that's that would be the number one thing. I think the second thing was the creating the tax incentive for the beacon project, which I think is was a major initiative for the town building on a bylaw that the town meeting had approved and Working through the details of that was very time-consuming working with the assistant town manager and the principal assessor specifically and then again working through the select board and getting the Overall mission on what we wanted to accomplish as a town was critical to that So that would be the second big big thing that I think we accomplished the third big thing was getting through the negotiation and coming to a ten-year contract with for with Amherst media for our peg contract fourth thing was finally getting the fire study fire staffing study completed and delivered and presented to the board and to the Working that through the the union and the fire in the staff at the fire department now That study has been offset a little bit because of the decision by the town of Hadley to take its ambulance services to a private company but the value of that Study has impacted our negotiations with the union and we actually have some good language in there So that when the staffing decisions need to be made We can follow the guide guidance of this study Speaking of ambulance moving the ambulance from a Staffed ambulance billing from a staff position in town hall to a third-party billing system, which While it eliminated a position in town hall. It didn't have that person lose their job We were able to manage that at it in it by doing that in a timely manner so that the person who was doing that was able to Transfer into an equally good position and she's very happy in her new position So that saves us a position in town hall and we think that moving the ambulance billing to a third-party Billing system will create greater efficiencies and increase our collections The marijuana everything about marijuana The host community agreements the recreational the bylaws I was not very not as involved in that as our select board members and our senior staff have been especially our Economic development director, but that was an enormous effort by a large group of people and had success moving in that direction Continuing outreach through the cup of Joe the meet-up with the town employees Press releases newsletters doing the road show Implementing written reports to select board on a monthly basis. I think we're all Good steps taken to continue to do outreach And to better inform the public about the amazing things that are being there happening in town government The LSSC reorganization Has provided us with again cost savings in terms of a position eliminating some positions, but also adding experienced high-quality staff into key positions there and Moving forward and making it a priority for major capital investment on roads and sidewalks Moving forward on the North Common Project moving forward on Groff Park and moving forward on way way finding sciences are all significant projects that you're seeing tangible Advances on you'll see a lot more in the coming months and The And then the sort of key things that happen all the time which is Providing adequate support to the board Managing the budget, you know, we just as a note the north while we had that you know about the Failure of the boiler in the North Amherst fire station The fire department did tremendous work with the under the guidance of the Comptroller to manage their budget So we were able to cover that expense from within the fire department's budget instead of needing a Transfer or a special appropriation from town meeting And then working it with employees and specifically really proud of our new hires for town clerk and executive Assistant to the town manager two very strong hires that I think are really poised for helps us be poised to move into the Coming years with under the new form of government The sort of that's a big picture item the medium picture items I'd say are the work that we've done under our economic development getting our economic development plan Complete it and or nearly complete it and becoming a community compact cabinet Which was one of the things that I think the town had said that we should become Adopting having the board adopt the property disposition policy and moving that forward as we as we go forward Working on the zero energy for municipal buildings by-law which was adjusted to make it more palatable and achievable And helping us to possibly achieve the goals of the by-law Ensuring that the presidential apartments maintain their affordability and And then having Expanding our ability for our town staff to be involved on policy committees at the mass municipal association specifically the economic development director and superintendent public works and I've been appointed to the mass municipal management association board of directors as well What what things are out there that we still need to work on there's a lot there always is a lot One of them is the capital projects. I think that's gonna be a major topic We have a lot of capital projects We have a lot of capital needs that we move need to move forward on putting together a finance plan So that people can say yes, I see how we can afford it. I see how we have a plan in place to address it Along those models along those lines is there are vacancies that I need to fill Specifically the treasure collectors position and the finance structures position. Those are two hyper key positions that are Next are teed up to be the next ones to be hired Working on the regional assessment model with the schools will take it a fair amount of time. I think in the coming months Making sure our bond rating is as strong as possible as we move into the world of borrowing money for major capital projects Re-envisioning our relationships with the with the university specifically through UTAC, but also in enhancing our relationships with the two colleges and addressing the needs for water supply and resiliency of our water supply system and a lot of Environmental issues that are that are out there and then the last thing I want to mention is of course the Implementation of a new form of government that will take an enormous amount of time. I think for all of us and It'll be a real adventure to figure out how to make make this new form of government work I think there's a lot of excitement about it and so and I'm looking forward to that So those are sort of the big picture of the medium picture and then the things that need work or you can anticipate We'll be doing work on as you start to think about goals for next year That's a short summary of that 12 page document Thank you for that other questions for the manager Relative to his health evaluation or the report he just gave us None are required. Yeah We the next step in the process involves us writing what we think right Yes Feel free to make us a copy I'm scribbling frantically Wait is that on page three or page a But thank you for for summarizing it that way But also this is in fact our opportunity to have read this ahead of time and ask questions as in we didn't think That's what we meant when we wrote the goal Because we've run into that problem before and then we go to fill out the evaluation and we realize oh wait You answered or a previous town manager answered a different question than what we thought we had asked and so That's one of the reasons we ask you to get this to us ahead of time And you did get it to us ahead of time despite Other stressors in life and so we really appreciate that and you'd emailed it to us much earlier And so it's only our own fault if we don't have proper questions to ask now because this is our only Opportunity to do so effectively in a group to check in with each other and say is this what we meant when we said this Before we write our evaluations because after that it'll be in the evaluation so Speak now Make sure you're clear on what you wanted Thank you for not being depressed at the dense print on these three pages This is really we are really something to behold No, I was just we have to fill out the evaluation form. So, you know, that's our penalty. That's right I do you think in as we think about And this gets into some topics. We'll talk about a little bit more later. I do think a potential piece of advice I would give to the incoming council would be to separate goals from Standards of practice and I think we've got a little blended here, but We can discuss that more detail another time, but but nonetheless We do have several goals in here that are you know have some specific actual items that you've taken action on which is Fantastic, so thank you for that Are there other questions or comments for the entry? Yes, assuming that we aren't going to have any other discussion about the evaluation tonight I wanted to revisit the calendar because we're still Good because I show we're still showing the 27th instead of the 24th And so what did we decide I thought that I had put it in as the 24th slash Captured it all on the back of this. So are we Comfortable now Canceling the 27th I think we're going to need to well two members not here anyway And so unless there was some great and we said, you know unless there were some licenses We really had to do or something which three of us could do but we didn't want to do any Eval steps. So does that mean we're gonna leave it on there? Just in case or do we I'd prefer to cancel it from the standpoint that that way we don't try and put anything on it And if we need something really desperately before Then we can potentially call a meeting or add it into like we have to do one license. I mean we can just Yeah, well we the So we discussed a meeting on the 24th, and I forget if we took a motion relative to that or not But it was it is I think I guessed it more than once 8 a.m. If yeah, it was it was early I Have written down eight o'clock to substitute for 827 right right, so that was added to the So we I don't know that we formally took a vote to make the 20th or we just All marked it on our calendars with the expectation we would I think you were gonna talk about it again was my understanding, right? So yeah, I think people are gonna review their their calendars Everybody could really do Friday the 24th because then there's no point in fixing it We can't I'll be there Friday the 24th, but we can I'll be there Friday the 24th as I understood Okay, so we can and then So we could move to change the meeting of Monday August 27th to Friday August 24th Or however, you would prefer to phrase that But meaning that we would not meet on August 27th, and we would meet Friday the 24th at 8 a.m. and Then there was also an alternate date if something the sub there was an it was that an additional So if we need more time for to finish up the review, we've got the 5th of September Which is a Wednesday, which is a Wednesday, so we would just continue and that's on our list Okay, but just in terms of our process in terms of that calendar we have that shows us which date we're doing different things For the evaluation it includes the fifth now sounds like so that was a motion to change the meeting of 827 to 824 at 8 a.m. Yes, there a second Hearing none all those in favor, please say aye I post such unanimous with one absent A revised timeline that reflects that that timeline document that we just keep tweaking as we go along right Just email it to us. That's the point. Yeah, I think I said it I could pull off the 27th. I don't know that 27th is on there I think I actually last version think we may have changed. I may have pulled that out We'll just take a look at it. Yes. Let me put that on my To do this to you So if there's not others other discussion about the managers Self-evaluation I did want to bring up the topic of the fiscal year 19 goals and and of course Given this year is a much different Circumstance given the change in government. I think how we shape those or what we want to do relative to goal setting Is very different so I wanted to bring it as a topic usually we have you know when we get into this meeting in the summer We start talking about torque, you know itemizing the kinds of things relative to the fiscal 18 goals Which are we keeping which we get away from which new things we want to do but I think given the change in government It's a much different circumstance the council is going to create their own list of things They want the manager to to take on and and so I Was wondering if anyone had any thoughts about how we might approach That you know one approach is to do nothing and I give many goals and just sort of give them advice as we go along or We could Create very short-term goals that are very you know specific probably much around the transition Curious what you think So I appreciate you bringing this up to us as being let's consider doing something different because we did talk about that for the Evaluation itself, you know how and really how many hours do we want to spend on that at this point given? How many we already spend and so The goals sometimes sort of float away from us too in terms of how busy our agenda is get moving forward so maybe Making some concrete decisions after discussion tonight or if we need to have it again another night I think would be helpful. I think that the goals. I think we should not pretend that the Fy 18 goals go away I think that there might be some way of saying for example and this may reflect what you were referring to earlier mr. Slaughter about Sorry, I don't have it in front of me here, but Standards versus goals exactly and so things like regular communication to the select board So that's something that a future council is probably going to want to evaluate the town manager on But so rather than just saying well, you can't see this You know, this was from the select board. This isn't yours. I think we could easily Put like a cover letter on something like this or on our evaluation or I mean, I'm open to suggestion Obviously, but that says these are the three things Let's imagine we could get it to three. These are the three things. I'll each be two pages long that We think the town manager is going to focus on between now and the transition maybe they're all transition things and These were his goals before and we still think they're pretty good goals And you can look at our evaluation to see which things are done But rather than even having to try and go through and say well, I think we finished 5e or something like let's just not even bother I think putting a cover on that says this is what we evaluated and based on here's the evaluation And here's what we're asking him to do for this next period of time And then you guys figure out your own timeline working with him as to what he wants to do because I don't think we're gonna evaluate him again Before the end and so I think it's just direction, you know, just just generally here's what we would see We would hope you might spend some time telling us about over the next few months Setting up that kind of expectation rather than like some mini evaluation before it's done or anything Or rather than just dropping it all together. I mean, I think it makes sense We we've had a couple of retreats talking about the kinds of things we kind of have in the short medium and long term to work on and Coming up with what some of those things are that we think are the really short-term things and we can even say We know this can't be worked on right now, but we know that you'll want to work on this other stuff In the future, maybe this is part of that whole, you know, letter to the future council concept That makes sense and just you know for the benefit of the viewing audience too, I think it's the chairs remark about Forget how you put it about goals versus standards We've over the years made some progress in that because we used to have things that basically asked to met time I did not to be a crook and a cheat, you know, which is obvious other hand, you know Yeah Sometimes like that, but you know some things like communicating about this like word on one level should be this is obvious as that That's what you do, but we've found that that's not always the case or certain things bear repeating So, you know, one thing we might want to think about is how we would articulate that, you know Just sort of a checklist for people especially for the town council coming in that's not familiar with how these things work And the town manager and his evaluation mentioned to that communication has to be within the bounds of the open meeting Law and so forth Something that occurred to me it always occurs to me in the evaluations as you'll probably find out in a couple weeks Is it some of these things? I Think it's a little bit like what the chair was saying don't differentiate between things that under the town manager's control versus things that are not So for example, I'm glad we have lots of CPA money, but it's what he does has nothing to do with that So it's part of the town's fiscal health and it shows where we can expend money But it's not so we can evaluate in the sense of saying this was done well or done badly because it's not even in his purview I also appreciated the town manager's remarks here Not just the summary of the self-evaluation They're looking for you know things ready to be done For example the critical need to pay attention to questions of debt and fiscal stability as capital projects come online So I think if we could take some of that and you know provide some guidelines there that'd be very useful I would imagine for the council you to say that this is what the town manager sees as critical issues going forward the next Year or quarter or a half year and that we agree with those for where it's worth so there are a number of very specific Goals that really have been continued year for year and they really speak to the town's needs and I don't think that they're going to go away As the select board goes away I think that they really are expectations of the town and I suspect that they're things that Mr. Bachman would work on regardless but we do Know that there are a number of projects like Continuing to work on our relationships with the University and the two colleges It's worth stating but it's not it sort of falls into that category So It's worth continuing it simply because it's a document. We've been at for so many years and We should be handing it over to the new body and letting the new body Work with the time manager to modify it Needed that I think that we have articulated them with the guidance of town meeting over a number of years So I think what would be helpful is sort of a two-part document one is this sort of blends into the next agenda item actually is which is Topics for a future council consideration one would be What you see is the major challenges and goals that you think the town manager should be working on and What are some tangible? Outcomes that you'd like to see now these things might not come to fruition during the term of the select board But would extend into the term of the the beginning term of the council It puts something that they could modify but the the the items of discussion are gonna be that They're probably pretty common and it'd be helpful for the new council to say well Here's what this learned body has thought are the highest priority things that need attention And then the second part of it would be I think part of this thing is what makes for a good, you know board Manager relations and that sort of gets more to the Standards I think that the chair talked about and like what are those things and this sort of gets into what? What what are the things that from your experience made for a good relationship, and you know might be on the communication or whatever it is levels? and a sort of a second phase that might be that type of Memo to me, but also to the future council I think if you if we start to think about in terms of who the audience for the whatever it is you put Together as being both the manager and the future council. I think it actually will be More a richer document because and then the council can say wow they didn't know anything they were there But I think the council isn't going to say that they're gonna say thank you for Prethinking this for us so that we have something to react to so I think that's that will be a That'll be a document I think if it's able to be produced by the board over the next couple months that the council will go back to over time and say Ah now I understand why they said this and it won't be just something that they look at in the first meeting and say huh interesting but I think it's gonna be something that Month after month as they start to learn about the town and how they're functioning They're gonna come back to this and say oh, this is what a matured body had come to has been the highest priorities This is what a matured body of the select board has come to say as being the Values in sort of things that matter and I think that's sort of the hardest thing a lot of times is for a new board Is to figure out what matters what do I care a lot about? This process or that processor do I care a little about it? And I think providing guidance from your seats is really important for the incoming council It would also be provide good guidance for me So I think I've got some sense of that I like sort of what people have offered us as suggestions for this and just to in some ways skip ahead to the the charter transition and so we've had a Because I think that naturally flows from from what the manager was just saying So we've we've talked about a few topics for future council consideration and in a couple different ways We talked about it as in concrete things like oh You know fire station and other capital projects, but we've also talked to more general terms About things like well, how do you want to handle? You know the format of your regulation and how you structure those and where we've struggled or not struggled and parking And you know whatever it is and so I think what I was thinking about in the part Why put the agenda I know of how to do work of gathering storing and sharing it You know is partly the idea behind that is that we need to start I think Memorializing an actual like ink and paper What some of these topics are we've kind of tossed a few out over the last several months need to I think review our Minutes in some ways and pluck those out, but then also think about how we might shape You know Articulating what we mean by those things and some of that is to your point about what makes for a good board manager relationship What are the major challenges and goals coming forward? I think there are other things that aren't in those two categories but still fall within this sort of you know legacy documents for lack of a term to kind of prepare the council to do work but also to You know frame they're thinking a little bit not to Constrain them too much because they get to do what they choose to do But at the same time you know as you said sort of use our experience and know where where we've run into difficulties and and You know give them some guidance relative to how to Potentially find the most expedient path around some things. I mean some things are gonna just take time because they just do But things they'll want to do and some of them are simple things like let's number the pages Let's date all the things. Let's you know, whatever those things. I mean, sometimes it's very pragmatic advice like that It seems silly, but it really is useful Because it helps people keep their versions straight and those sort of you know nuts and bolts sort of things but I do think we need to start sort of compiling that and then Segregating it to sort of bits of work to to potentially Try to chip away at a little bit and in some respects, but I wanted people's opinions about that idea of trying to gather that and and Start to produce these kinds of things. I mean, there's more immediate concerns relative to guidance for the manager and in the next few months as we finish out our terms but also For him and for the council as they move forward There is going to be a significant difference and The council is going to have to work that out with mr. Bachman and that is that how a five-person board Relates to the manager is going to be different than how a 13-person board Council relates to the manager Then they'll need to be different mechanics of how that happens and So I don't know that we can take our experience and Automatically transfer it because it is such a different body just because of its size also because it covers Both the wider and a different range of functions It's not going to have to deal with one-day liquor licenses Or liquor licenses at all on the other hand that's going to be dealing with zoning There are certainly things we've struggled with with just five of us that We can work them that hey when you double the group or almost triple the group. It's going to be even more difficult I mean, that's one of the things I think about but I agree that that a 13-person Board is going to have to function Very differently because of just the numbers that are involved Right and like you said, I mean, I maybe I do want to write several pages about local licensing authority But that would be for the new licensing Commission So it's more of a directing the town manager remember all these things We were frustrated by every time we looked at this or we didn't we knew we never got to just because we never got to And so that parts not to the council per se but because it's the town manager that appoints the local licensing authority but the licensing Commission but That still I think we don't need to just forget about it because we learned a lot when we had to have an actual hearing for example With a problem and so even though we have to go back a little bit to try and remind ourselves The people who are going to be on it are literally people who've never done that hearing We can guarantee that because they weren't these white people So it's that we'll have to do that in the future And so I think that'd be useful as well even though and you know and to be fair with zoning I mean, we do talk about zoning, but of course we didn't get to make the decision It's just like there'll still be a planning board But but this body of 13 will have the pleasure as opposed to the five of us talking about it before town meeting We talked about this a little bit before In terms of I'm just trying to think of like practically speaking how this even works for five To come up with this document So if it was going to be something like a Google document, which we've toyed with before and has never really worked out great for us If we somehow made it publicly visible, although not publicly editable I think that would prevent anything from seeming like it was an opinion per se I mean saying we need to we need to discuss these three items about lunch cart licensing Doesn't feel like as much of an opinion during a transition period like this But there is always the concern associated with open meeting law if we just keep publishing lists And then we're just gonna keep having to write on them and somebody's gonna have to update them And then it's just like I'm not sure that's really effective I mean, I was thinking literally of a clipboard at one point Do we have a clipboard that we start writing things on while we're here as opposed to Like we said going through the minutes and going through our notes and going oh god I know we talked about this, you know, what was that other thing we were gonna do? Do we go home at night? Good. Well, do we send it to somebody? But we say write this verbatim will then at that point we might as well write it verbatim So I can't figure out a mechanism that makes sense here That was part of why I wanted to have this conversation in case we had an idea about that or would just to think about it a Little more specifically over the next couple of weeks until we meet again to think Because somebody may come up with a really clever notion or a way of dividing the work and you know and that sort of thing but I just wanted to bring it up because I knew it was a Unwieldy task at best well because we do have the starting point of the parking lot from agenda setting and that there are items In the parking lot that we know we're not gonna get to over this period of time that we know are for future Reference and so that's at least a start to start working off of that But in what fashion do we do that because I don't want it to feel like just one person's assigned to this You know kind of task But we need to be able to just feed things into it So I'm just thinking about this out loud now is I was wondering if it makes sense for us the first step is to sort of create the categories of things that you want to sort of Gather information in so it could be like future agenda items that need to be addressed It could be board manager relations. It could be Public outreach We could come up with price seven or eight or whatever it is and then from there people can start to categorize their thoughts and start And we can start to Create a document that lives and comes back to the board on a regular basis after April August 13th You're pretty you're meeting pretty regularly Almost weekly That it could be a regular so you're actually instead of having a gen this it'll give some form to this agenda item that will stay there And I'm not sure exactly how to manage that quite yet, you know, it could be a Google doc, but it could also be Could be each board member taking a category or something that you feed people things from that sure I Am belaboring this a little because I I can really Easily see this list coming back and then oh wait, which one is this dated and is this the one that has this thing on it And and who's gonna write down the next three paragraphs about this and so it's it's easy It's not simple, but it's fairly easy to do the categorizing stuff because we have talked about the general areas And you just listed some of them very clearly, but to start filling in some of the meat It I'm not sure I want to see a document, you know That's like the select board handbook but not select board handbook just kind of expanding over time Eventually we may find that we want to have certain people write more things To flesh more things out, but I would really encourage us and it can't be cubby and it can't be whatever cloud thing We're using it has to be some Easily accessible platform I would really like us to try some electronic thing that we could you know when we go home we could While we're sitting here. We could add something to in a quick note and then say oh well You wrote about that you better write some more about that later on but The paper thing and then shuffling that back to you like part of them in the minutes and Doesn't feel very effective that will definitely be unwieldy and I think given where we want to spend our time That's you know, we want to as I often say about technology you want to use it to help us Do the work and not get in the way and so I think there are some opportunities for Potentially technology to help us out. I think we just need to think about a little bit and figure out What's the right tool or a good enough tool? You know, this is also one of those where the perfect enemy of the good Given our time frame that we're working in and so I Mean as Google Docs the right tool it it might very well be but it's easy Right, it doesn't have to be pretty it. It's like wiki pages used to be back right and People can see who added to them and I guess my bigger question would be if we feel at all Uneasy about because we would continue to talk about the items here. It's not like it's Hire this person to work in the summer camp. I mean, it's not the kind of thing that Besides we have no control over that anyway, so I'm not totally worried about the open meeting loss standpoint of it But I know that we've taught IT has expressed some concern in the past about trying to have Google something You know when we put on the town website, this isn't we're not responsible for this kind of document So I'm not sure if there's a good way for people to be able to look at it But in the meantime, I think it would be a mistake to not use it out of fear I think we should just go ahead and try the platform We have is one note, but that means you have to live in the Microsoft world. Yes, which we will not live the other option is is Like a little doc is probably more likely or Google Docs plural But at least one and then we may have to just segment it so we can kind of work within sections of it and and I think there are ways to share it so what it may end up being is that For the public at large, there's a way to get to the page but not have edit I can look into that as well because schools use Google Docs. That's right That's right It says you know email the select board with your comments on whatever section it is. I mean that kind of things I mean you can always put a link I Think that'd be really great. So could we could we get like the parking lot and like the That structure that you suggest popped into something So I I have The rework of the shade tree regulation so I for Friday So I think I will make this also a second piece of that and so share both of those with you And of course, you know, we Don't like the way of structure it and obviously offer comment about that. I think that falls into the sort of housekeeping sort of category So I'll work with the manager on trying to get something Started at least that we can begin to shape a little bit so Which I think can be inclusive of you know, one of the sections can be inclusive of you know Direction for the manager over the next few months as we've had so falls under the goals category in some respects So I guess the Unless there's other comment about that I think I'll just say are there any other charter transition updates that you wanted to share with us or does anyone have to share With us at this point. We've got that sort of standing item On the agenda, I didn't know of any anything off hand Yes, I was just gonna mention So it's it's in your report But for the public at large if they were had not been aware that there had been this wonderful Presentation set of presentations put together by the town manager in case he decided not to mention it during his report later Since it is part of the transition that made sure that all council members were Potentially of candidates were invited to there were a ton of presentations it was a solid two hours of people getting information and Mr. Rockman making it very clear that if they had additional questions to go to him and he make sure that They could find ways to get more information But he also expressed the idea and I don't want to misstate this so maybe I should have left you do it during your report But I thought it was such a good idea that something along he did not call it this but something along the lines of like a Citizen's Academy once the election has taken place So again people can get even more in-depth information before they actually get seated And so he has put a lot of effort and thought into working with staff to figuring out how to you know Kind of bring people along because some of the candidates really don't know how our former government now works And so they don't anything to compare the charter to and so finding out how the different department works and everything I think people were really pleased by that set of presentations They found it really valuable and the people who couldn't be there were sad It was a really great thing to have done so thank you for doing it So if there aren't other updates, then I think we'll go to the next agenda item Which is the status of extended committee boards and terms. I think we've got some outstanding Appointments we do need to make which are not quite ready They're not ready, but I do think we need to add the historical commission which we've been advertising We have two vacancies on that and one of the members of the historical commission express concern about if a demolition Application comes in that they're shorthanded and they won't be able to act and it's that I think, you know It's a town manager appointment with the select board approval So it can't what can happen if you saw the special meeting, but I think When I talked to this member of the commission there wasn't didn't seem to be an urgency unless something came in so I think with your permission we'd put it on the August 13th agenda and have the liaison or We think you're the liaison to meet with the candidates. We can set that up over the next couple weeks Yeah, I was hoping that we would have hopefully have some candidates by then and I think I was hopeful that we were have some for I think was I'm not sure how many I think we're the last time I saw there were three I think Yeah, how much so once a demolition request has gone in is it like 35 days 35 days So the sooner we act the better because the clock could start as early as tomorrow quite frankly, right? Right, but I've been asked to plan you know They like the inspectional services or the second floor if there's anything like that does come in let us know So we go to your sports time that we need to pay attention because one of the members will be on vacation During much of August as well, right? So Again people can still put in their citizen activity form the CAF if they are interested in serving So we please encourage people to do that And there are two vacancies, so there's gonna be ample opportunity for other people to join in Fantastic, is there anything else from anyone on yes? Just bow of information and sometimes I get a question from a committee saying, you know, we're At quorum or close to it. Should we it be at quorum plus one what happened to the application? I said well, we've been kind of busy, you know and things take their time So just want to show the public that we are monitoring the incoming the citizen applications and we are trying to attend to these As you've said in especially when there's any urgency involved just as a footnote I was somewhat puzzled to hear earlier tonight in the meeting a reference to someone who has joined the committee But waiting to be appointed by the council. I'm sorry. You don't join the fit committee till you're appointed by us So, you know if if people want to join they should put in applications But I think we need to be clear about if the public is not clear about What constitutes membership and voting membership and quorum and all that I there have been numerous emails and town announcements, but Again people are free of course to attend meetings, but they're public meetings But to be a member of a committee is a very special thing that means there's been an official designation To be fair I believe that the people that were referenced this evening have in fact submitted CAFs But we haven't acted on them because they already do have quorum plus one on that committee And so they've done all the things they need to do They just need to be clear that if they're voting say on you know 300 or $500 or something to put in a regulation that that person really shouldn't be voting because they're not a member Tuning themselves as a you know a guest, you know, I think just clarify that we've had situations in the past sometimes where someone One or more persons on a committee Encourage one of their friends to apply and then there's an assumption that because one is put in a CAF And there's one vacancy and one application one has an automatic right to be appointed and it's as certain as the sunset Tonight and the sunrise tomorrow, and that's not the case again. There's you know, so an application is no guarantee of appointments. Oh, I'm saying But certainly we don't want to discourage anyone from a plant no location in so that's great So why don't we take another break for a bit of reading about minutes at this point because I think that'll give unless you Finally crafted a motion I think this will give you an opportunity to do the motion for those things under licenses that we need to do and and And so I think that for those of us that haven't read the minutes as closely that we take a few minutes right now and do that Yes, that would be helpful And I actually do have one Question about one of the items under the consent calendar to that's not one. We've already discussed I agree Maybe you do too. I yeah, we have to okay work our way through Through that I think so we'll resume the meeting So we have Number of things on our consent calendar and a couple other items under our licenses public way and meter parking reservation And so I think what we should do and I it will come back to minutes in a minute. I think And So separate from that the minutes I think what I would like to start with it because I think there's some items to either go into or come out of the consent counter, so I don't we need to formally move and take action on that or should we probably Again specific motions to include or exclude certain things from our consent counter and then both that or I think whoever makes a motion on the consent Counter just includes the ones they want to include unless someone says please pull out item one for instance You know doing a note as I mentioned to the chair that the two items that were discussed earlier and Mr. Cal mr. Brody were here. We're not Actually meant parts of the consent calendar, so I will move them as Separate items as I will explain when we get to them So we should concentrate on the items listed under 7a, which is the consent calendar items So is that items one through I through five one through five is what you're referring to so I would like to pull out item one Are there any other items that would like to be pulled out if not then we can Potentially take a motion on the Consent calendar as amended So I moved to approve the items listed on the consent calendar for the July 23rd 2018 agenda being items two through five Is presented as presented two through five is presented second Is there further discussion on those items? Hearing none all those in favor, please say aye And so shall we take up? So item one is a request from the University of Massachusetts for a one-day liquor license And there are some photos Miss Mills has been working Feverishly to try to get Here is Material for you no one from the University could be present because we anticipated this to be this is an unusual one in there University always has one day liquor licenses before the board But this one is unusual because it's located outside in lot 33 along the tree line So this mills has done a really good job at getting maps that show exactly where lot 33 is Where along the tree line? It is intended they're intending to do to have the beer and this is part of a event called called pain in the mass Bicycle tour and it's lit. It's the people who will be participating in this beer tent are only the riders you will need to use you will need to have a This is a 100 and 150 mile bike ride when you conclude the bike ride There's a barbecue and you have a ticket for a beer at this beer tent So the stadium drive is a road that is more like a driveway off of University Drive And it's scheduled for August 11th from 3 p.m. To 10 p.m. So I was just noting in in our the formal application At the bottom where it says approved police chief etc etc that isn't currently sounded just didn't know whether the chief has gotten back to your office about that and Says that he has okay with the questions from the board members relative to that one and its location and And is The TOC is doing the event much like they do many other events on campus Yes, so It's odd That's why I wanted to pull it out and I appreciate all the extra work staffs had to do chasing this down to get more details For something that's outside like this I appreciate that it's not during school year. So that's something Three to ten seems long, but you're saying it's a hundred and fifty mile bike ride There's their 50 bike riders I think 35 I think they have about 20 signed up so far for the hundred and fifty mile bike ride I'm not sure the I think the registration for the hundred mile bike ride. It can be a lot more than that But they have a limit on the 150 mile bike ride. You have to prove that you can actually do 150 miles So my follow-up question is since I have a some vague familiarity for my husband's past participation in pedals to pints Where they go to actual breweries On longer and shorter bike rides depending on how many breweries you go to This is weird because it doesn't end in a brewery it ends in a parking lot that has beer And so if it was ending in a brewery over the period 3 p.m. To 10 p.m. I you know, obviously that'd be that It just seems like a really long period of time for them to be serving alcohol and I'm not sure why it needs to go that late when we when we have We've I think we've expressed various degrees of comfort or discomfort with the Tailgating that goes on in the UMass parking lots normally during games but those are not nighttime events those are day afternoon events and It's light and it'll be pretty light most of this time too, but it's Just a little odd I'm not sure how we feel about that. So If you have access to Any kind of computer device right now? I actually did some research on this and I'm very comfortable with the request But pain in the mass.org Is a website for this event in its entirety and it includes many things including the roots and What their plans are event details? Which includes a comprehensive calendar? This is a the 150 mile Event takes people Riding all the way to the top of mountain craylock and back I can't imagine that there are going to be many riders after that length of a ride Who are going to be able to handle more than one beer and still be standing? But this really is for serious riders and they have a detailed Calendar of activities for the event itself within the that website that I gave to you and And Then I think that part of it is is that just because of the length of the event that they assume that people are going to not come In at one time they are going to come in at varied times They are it is one ticket that is being given to each individual to get a Single serving a single beer. So it's not like they're having an open event. I don't believe That's where I would disagree. I think that they're getting a stub to go in and get one beer and then There usually is the availability of continued alcohol service. And so I'd like that I mean that was right if it's just one who cares. I mean Run it 24 hours as far as I'm concerned. I appreciate that they say that they get one stub to let them in the beer tent that I'm not sure it makes sense to run an alcohol service For that many writers with one beer each. So that's what I'm saying I'm not convinced that doesn't mean they can't and I'm not saying it's bad if they continue to serve because they have Shown themselves able to handle this in many other settings. It is still top of the campus But I find it hard to believe that you get one beer and then you're done That's just not how things usually work. You get one as a yay. You did it And then after that there, but I'm not saying people will be in the mood the ones who do the hundred and fifty miles Which won't be everyone but the ones who do the hundred and fifty miles. It definitely probably won't be Multiple but I guess I'm okay with it I don't know if it says one beer say that let's let's them in to the beer tent Yeah, it's not clear because it says with one stub that will allow them in the beer tent I gotta assume they're gonna let them buy beer because otherwise it would not be worth their time to set this up If they were just giving everybody one free beer, okay, that there's there's no money to be made there Selling the subsequent. Yes. Yeah, I didn't get the idea that the sale of beers and money-making enterprise was a part of this I think it struck me that it was upon their return because other things that They have in there as the overnight riders who are staying in town for the next day They have an event at Johnny's Tavern, which is You know a later event so it's not like it's being designed as a long-term event It's when you look at the calendar that's on here so For all those reasons in fact that this is About a couple of serious charities fundraising for a couple of Health related charities, I think that it's a Worthy event and we should do whatever we can to make it happen And my first reaction was not dissimilar to what is this brewer expressed I thought oh gosh, is this like tailgating and I Immediately realized that all my problems with tailgating Being recognized. This is not that My guess is as well if they're doing a barbecue, you know again the writers will come in over a period of time You know the elite writers will get in earlier, but You know not so elite writers will trickle in later But again, I think they may be projecting till 10 p.m Just to be conscientious of the fact that it might there might be people You know ride much much later, you know if they break down or a lot of things can go You know watch a little tour de France lately and so all sorts of things can go around on a road race But anyway, but I think And I think that the other the other thing is I did that I think about as you know How given them it's outside is it fairly will contain and it sounds as though it is which I Makes me less concerned about the time length and and so I think it's it's all right And it is a segue because then they Again when you look at the schedule, I go to the Berkshire dining common for dinner then Which is labeled from 5 to 8 p.m. So You know, I really do think that it's designed for sort of a very quick reception After they get back and before they head to the Berkshire dining common and then if they wish to go into Johnny's tavern in town So I would like to make the motion to approve item seven I a seven a subsection Roman numeral one I which is labeled as I as presented This is a further discussion. Yes, could we just make it really clear in the motion that it's for participants in The bite like right where it's between four and pain So it's only so it's really clear. It's just for people who are in that bike tour. It's not just for people who wander by Because it's outside that I mean that that's that's the reason I mean normally I know it's participants at the old chaplain's participants on the you know on the deck and No, it seems to me that At some point There's trust that gets involved and I think this is a point to give trust Alright, is it for the discussion Hearing none all those in favor, please say aye. Hi That's on the comments however to the license commission Be formulated This will be their future responsibilities and what to scrutinize. That's right. It is the question of what to scrutinize On on the seven Be I'm going to take them separately. I'm going to move to approve Move to adopt the motion as stated on the motion sheet Presented with the following Editions after the word application in the first line to add of Amherst live a nonprofit corporation And With the comma so it's of Amherst live comma nonprofit corporation comma and then In what now is the second line of the motion There's an address listed and then which ends with the word with with the town Amherst For an event Limited to participants over the age of 21 comma with alcohol sales managed by Bistro 63 monkey bar LLC and Then the word See on I think we could change the word for to on Did you have an executive tractor for you mr. Brody? Yeah, that's it. It's Because we're it's the application is of Amherst live non-profit corporation so Brody a director is listed at the end Executive director, but he needs to it needs to be clear. Well, you're sorry item C doesn't say Amherst live in it Anywhere and so that's why I was tacking it on to the end of well I will come back to see in a second Somewhere sees a separate motion Just trying to make the additions to be is there a second Okay, I've got a motion And a second is there for the discussion Hearing none all those in favor, please say aye Aye aye aye So what's your name is of one absent for motion see again Moving to adopt the motion as presented with the following additions After the word application in the first line of Amherst live and non-profit corporation And after the word the name of the town Amherst in the second line For an event limited to participants over the age of 21 on August 4 2018 Reindade Will be August 18 2018 and everything else And again including Oliver Brody director Is there further discussion hearing none all those in favor, please say aye None so there's So it takes care of section seven of our agenda move on to approval of minutes So we got a series of one two three four five minutes. I believe Yes, so As you all know, I normally refrain from getting involved in the minutes and as soon as you hear my edits You'll know why is That I and I do think that mr. Steinberg does an amazing job on our behalf I also think that it's important that when people try and Google our minutes and when people try and read our minutes They don't have to go look at another document to have any idea what we're talking about so a couple of comments on We could just Do you mind if I just go through them so basically in terms of others present at our meetings I think it's really important to say when people are reporters for newspapers So we say Scott Merzbach daily Hampshire gazette and that just carries through on all of these That when someone's representing a committee particularly if they're committee chair that that's listed right there and others present without having to go and read the body and When someone's staff that their title is called out as it often is with mr. Moring for example and with the town manager that is especially relevant on May 7th But it also applies to April 30th Where we say we want to say Joel Bards Town Council because there's no reason why somebody two years from now is going to know that so Joel could you know move to Australia or something so They may not realize that so I think that those are important just in terms of like page numbers and dates and Then substantively more so even though I think that's important too is It took me a minute to understand what we meant in paragraph under vote and assign positions and paragraph 2 Mr. Slaughter discussed article 28 You know the reason how meaning could vote on this article is that the Agricultural Commission was on and I was like What why did they need permission to vote on the article? So I think somewhere in there. We're saying during the charter transition. I think that was the context in which that statement was made because Tell meaning could always vote on articles or not But we talk about that in one of the other sets of minutes And so I think just finding way to work wedge those couple of words in there I think we'll be clear to people in the future as opposed to so town meetings Gonna vote on this not or why and at the bottom of that page when it so town meeting updates Mr. Backelman introduced town attorney Joel Bard who reviewed his memo on article one. We need to say what article one is Also people to Google the name of the Article these minutes wouldn't come up. Which would be unfortunate You also reference the special time any date that would be a good idea to Exactly well, do you have something you want to suggest there right there? Which one is which I know both Yes, his is the one without the sea Different individual that has the sea Yes, so it's in the Were there other edits to the minutes of the 30 Yeah, I'm not yeah, those were the worst of it, I promise So may first Obviously just daily Hampshire goes out at the top, but It was this special town. I think we can just put in there Mr. Slaughter node the special town meeting voted to authorize like why don't we just say special town meeting past article one and In this case it talks about special legislation So I'm not as picky that it has to have the exact title of the article there But just saying that town meeting voted to authorize the select board to file special legislation without any reference To a particular article seems like a mistake Something along the lines of special town meeting past article one authorizing Something like that Special legislation is in there, so I'm not as picky that you have to repeat Particle special legislation and if anybody else has anything for me one So may second is again just daily Hampshire because that but It's not just a general bylaw to address excessive noise It was to address excessive noise at a gun range and so we should say something some reference to that so that was the title from the I Get that but that's not really helpful. I mean that this is these are minutes that like to just It says nothing in here about the gun range That's and that is the subject of the issue. I hear what you're saying we titled it that because we did but Say something about where it is that it's a gun range Something otherwise people are just going to see what's about people partying Have any idea what this is about Seventh thing again the Third paragraph from the bottom. I think if we're gonna when we do have split votes, we should say who the opposed was Opposed However, you want to do it? I mean it we don't write we don't have those rules Just like there is not a rule that says who for who made the motion and who seconded it But it's been our practice to do it for a while. I'm open, but it just seems like Why don't go ahead and I guess say both What if I forget think it was me Who was it? Well, I mean this is all there is the motion sheets gone, right? So Yeah, I believe it was me, but yeah, I probably I think it was you too, but I don't maybe six months from now I won't remember Then on on May 9th. All I it was just the two public art people just I know it says it in the paragraph But I think it would just as good practice for others present that those are committee members and that's got some That's all see it wasn't bad But it is a great reminder that when we know what we're talking about it. It's like obvious Say, but right so if everybody's good with those changes Like to make a motion. I think someone else has any others Go right ahead then I move to approve the minutes from the following select board meetings April 30th 2018 May 1st 2018 May 2nd 2018 May 7th 2018 and May 9th 2018 as amended They're for the discussion You're none almost in favor, please say aye Thank you to everybody for getting those together it's so nice to have those I think we particularly Thank Rockham and his purple Mills Fantastic to get that All right, so next up on our chin just the the town managers There are a few things so Miss Brewer already mentioned that we had the counselor candidate information meeting and We you I sent out the slide deck that we use that night and to all the council candidates whether they're able to attend or not We had a really good attendance of a lot of department heads wanted to be there they wanted to see who the council candidates were it's very interesting and It was strictly about sharing information about each of our sort of our Functional areas like the police the fire the DPW things like that and we also had The superintendent of schools came and the director of library and everybody had a certain amount of minutes that they could Utilize and they most people stuck with it, but it was a solid We were hoping to do it in under two hours, but it's a solid two hours of presentation very few questions at the end I think because it was two hours People ready to go home so again a lot of people put a lot of work into that and thank all the staff who put the effort in and It's a and also that presentation will serve as a basis for other things that we go out to the public and want to Share information Really proud to announce tonight that the town has received a $25,000 design grant from the Stanton Foundation for the dog park This will go out into the press tomorrow This the reason this is important is is $25,000 is important, but also that almost always leads to a Couple hundred thousand dollar grant for the construction of the dog park because once they invest in the design They like to invest in the construction. So again Dave Zomek has been nurturing this along cultivating the relationship with the Stanton Foundation They gave him glowing response to his the material he submitted They they had told him that they had never seen one is developed and had as much community participation as we had so real kudos to to David and to To the dog park task force Continue to work with a new vendor on the solar that's We are now out of the s-req and into the smart program So the economics of the proposal changes there are things that they the new vendor wants us to change For instance go to a 40 year from a 20 year. We're hesitant to do that It's So we are continuing to meet with with the new vendor on that Way finding signs are have been delivered to the bid they're paying for the first two way finding signs That will go into the roundabout on triangle Street and East Pleasant Street, and you should see those up within the next few weeks with a Stone wall and some plantings around them to sort of set them off in a nice way. They look really attractive Wanted to mention that the The home minister from the Tibetan community had come to visit the town of Amherst And miss Brewer was able to be there on very short notice Because I didn't really grasp what this was until I read it in the paper that morning that it was a Pretty big deal and that this this guy was actually a part of the Dalai Lama's ministry so We've got the chair of the human rights commission and the human rights director to be there And there's a really nice little conversation that we had a lot even went over the time that they had allocated for it So they had also gone to Northampton and had represents from that Amherst Tibetan community thanking the town for having such a long-standing support for the Tibetan people We've been working on and this is I just got a draft of College voting FAQ that we want to share out The University and the two colleges have all agreed that they'll share that share this out. This is just a quick draft It's needs updating and all kinds of things But just something that will appeal to college students to figure out Are they registered? How do they register? When do they vote? How do they vote all those types of things? So it's That's will be the sort of graphic that goes along with it with a lot of links that people can learn more about Just want to announce that Jake's Restaurant in North Amherst received its license today. They say everything is clean everything They've gone through all the hurdles that they need to go through so very quick Time frame from all of our inspectors to health inspector everybody. So they're they're good to go Had a very successful town manager coffee with principal assessor David Burgess at Kelly's Restaurant and what's happening? I mentioned this before is that we're starting to see council candidates show up and sort of ask questions and listen and participate and it actually makes it more interesting in a lot of ways because People feel like there's a slightly larger audience for them to talk about things The I had the president the new president of Hampshire College came in to visit in town hall and it was her second day in the job which was a Really impressive Thing that we were a little disappointed it wasn't the first day of the job that she showed up as David Zomek said but We were able to talk to her about We spent a good solid hour with her and there's a lot of connections. I have with her in her previous life and and I think that This is so I think she's going to be really dynamic for the college and I'm very hopeful That she'll have a lot of relations with the With the town she wanted to she had very good experience with the city of Somerville with a program She did on a nutrition for the city of Somerville and believes very strongly in the connection With the town between the community and the college and probably the other thing is that she's a trail runner She was excited most excited to get a trail map from the assistant town manager that showed all the trails that she could run on The And we've been asked to host a the canvas control commission has reached out to us To host a forum that they want to hear have in mid-August. They're looking at August 14th or 15th They're targeting Communities that they call high-impact communities and Amherst is listed as one of our one of the high-impact communities in order to educate people about social equity of the cannabis Industry and trying to educate people in our Town and in neighboring communities in Western Massachusetts. So we of course said yes to that I think it's gonna be a pretty big deal. They anticipate several hundred people showing up So we'll be working. We just found out about this today. We'll be working with them to To accommodate them we think it's a good thing for us to host We haven't chosen a day yet we're looking at either the 14th or 15th And they're looking at like three hours from like six to nine seven to ten five to eight something in that range If you have preferences, let me know we Will probably have to use do the school. I think I don't think this room Commies depends how many people if they said 200 this this room can't accommodate it Although they had asked about using this room, so I'm not sure if they understand how large the size of it few other thing I don't dates. I want to mention one is the Fort Hill auto body is having their ribbon-cutting as a new business on at 213 College Street at 12 noon on Wednesday On Thursday the community development block grant will make an announcement at 10 a.m. At the State House Usually that's good news for the town We don't have any staff who are able to attend if any select boards members are interested in going It's kind of a long distance to go just to be on a photo up on the stairs with the governor But or it might just be the lieutenant governor and I just but that'd be equally good to have the lieutenant governor What day was that again Thursday at 10 a.m. Next Monday, there's a food security. I think you've all received the invitation from governor from congressman McGoverns office for food security at the regional at the middle school at 1 30 There was some kind of forum not sure exactly the what shape that will be taking I think they'll have someone from the food services at the high school From the regional school district. Hopefully also our health director will be on the panel as well at the end of August you've been Invited or I think you've been invited to the international student welcome reception at the Amherst women's club Which is always a good thing and then on September 1st I want to let you know that they'll be the traditional adventure into Amherst that the Business improvement district sponsors and that we've scheduled for them to use Kendrick Park That day from 12 to 2 is a sort of a staging area for for the the trolley to bring students into town and I think that pretty much sums up Everything. Oh, just on your I think you should have received this campus control commission thing that should have been on your desks and That's it Quick question for you is is an upcoming couple Joe gonna be a jinx They've already asked me yes, it will be once they're open once they're actually open. Yes Are there other questions for the manager relative to his his report to us? Sounds like a resounding no Select board member reports Being quiet time of years anyone have any reporting to do of Select board related things they've done and people they've seen yes So not having had a chance to ask the town manager just like you didn't have a chance to tell me about that event in August yet Because he just found out about it today associate with CCC so Miss Krueger and I are going to a taping of WGB wise turning points this time. We aren't being interviewed Unfortunately, we're in the audience But we obtained a third ticket and I haven't heard of mr. Kravitz is using that third ticket but I'm presuming yes, and so we'll talk about that offline but Anyway, they invited us I tried I guess I wasn't forceful enough and saying we should be on the Expert panel, but we got ourselves invited into the audience. I suppose that's something so that's Thursday night in Springfield and just prayer to that I actually have a meeting of the Hampshire County select boards Association Executive Committee, which is normally a four-member body, but Two of the people on that body were not reelected to select boards this spring So that makes things complicated and the fact that I'm vice president and we aren't going to have a select board in a couple of Months, so that basically leaves one officer on That board and so if you have any thoughts That you'd like to share with me offline about the future of the Hampshire County Select Boards Association and how they Might move on without the support of Amherst et cetera, especially since they're vice presidents also going away That would be great, but yeah, and I know that we've Attempted to attend some of their events in the past and we've tried to combine them with mass select Women's Association events when they're held out here and we just haven't been particularly hugely successful at that But there is still some money in the bank account And we're just trying to figure out how to like let it hold over to like the next group of people Maybe that gets elected in the spring had like so many organizations things So I think those are the two main things beyond all the dates that mr. Buckleman has already mentioned to us I think it was pass. All right Walt's been in Prague, so Not entirely and I haven't gone to any You just won't have any trust Did not officially meet because we didn't have a quorum So we're going to have an official meeting this Thursday if we can get a quorum There's a couple things we need to vote on relative to some continued due diligence at the street school a couple other things One of which is a potential to have to pose a series of questions to candidates of the council Relative to affordable housing and and other items of that nature So we've got a meeting this Thursday night if people want to come and and see what we're up with up to should be a fairly short meeting however Other than I don't think I have anything else So that's my member report. So unless there's anything else I did receive this evening This from the Hampshire council of governments, which I will share out to each of you The one thing that caught my eye and skimming it over is that they've May 24th the councilor sought to remove as many barriers as possible to that goal of getting more people to join and Voted to reduce HCG's membership dues to one dollar So it's getting cheap to belong to the Hampshire council of governments So I will get copies of that to to each of you if you haven't received that already via email, but we can look through it over and Decide whether we want to consider it more seriously or not. Yes I would request that the town manager report to us at some point. What he thinks my initial gut reaction is it's still too expensive so I Very seriously believe that and do not think this is the right time to be joining that organization So if he has other thoughts or other opportunities that are it's important to be part of them for then I'd love to hear that but my assumption is that sounds nice, but no, thank you So if there's not anything else Then I would entertain a motion to adjourn move to adjourn All those in favor, please say aye. Aye, and we're adjourned at 9 39 p.m. Thank you all Amherst media for being with us this evening as well as always