 Board meeting we have a very full agenda here tonight But her usual our first item is public comment We'll share Good evening. My name is wayling greeny, and I'm the executive director of the Amherst community connections I'm here tonight in that capacity to go over the potential impact of the PVTA hike increase on the users as you note that there will be a public hearing this coming Thursday here in Amherst at the Bank Center at 2 o'clock or 5 o'clock and I would like to remind you first of all the increase right now proposed is Beyond the 20% Operating costs increase that PVTA has reported in the press in the past four years So given the operating costs is about 20% my feeling is the Fair increase in order to be just and fair should be around that percentage point and if you look at your Pass your packet here that I put together the increase in the fair is between 20% to 400% so that's a huge increase if you look at the most of them Is increase, you know above 20% so that's itself. It's very scary 400% increase of the bus fare So just for you if you are going to Northampton For Cooley Dickinson Hospital for example for most people who go there For checkup or whatnot, especially people who go to emergency room because they have no primary care doctor Right now. It's a dollar 50 plus 25 cents transfer In the near future that will go up to two dollars and fifty cents and that's a huge increase so In my mind if you were going to go according to a 20% increase rationale Which is much more in line with the cost increase. You will help the people who go to Northampton leads Florence Holyoke Springfield for various reasons. They will be able to afford it You might think people go there for pleasure or for family visit But no most of people who go to these places they go there Just like us who go there either for doctors for dentists for safe passage service for the College Church breakfast program for the Northampton Housing Authority housing application and for soldier-owned services for the veteran Administration in Leeds and they go there to go to Valley Medical Valley Medical Center That seems to be the only place that will accept mass health patients in this area and for start light center That's for mental health recovery and rehab in Florence and when they do go to Holyoke They go there to apply for food stamps. They go there to apply for homeless cash assistance And if they go to Holyoke, they could go there also for social security card replacement And then finally if they go to Springfield, they go there to replace their state ID when they go to the registry of motor vehicles Or they go there for the shelter the Worthington Street Shelter for women Worthington Street shelter for men So these are the destinations they make and these are the reasons why they go so the cost increase place upon them It's really high So I have a list of recommended price according to the destination or according to the Purpose according to the one way and to the destination in this material that I presented So for these two reasons I like to ask you given the majority about 60 percent of the bus riders They are living in poverty and many of them are homeless. So when you place increase at the 400 percent Increase rate. It's an unjust and unfair burden on them And I also want to remind you in the PVT advisory board that our town officials such as miss of Keith and mr. Musanti, they are the worth Presentatives from town of Amherst along with about 18 other representatives. They are mostly all of them government Presentatives none of them. I noted they are consumers or riders of the PVT Service so I think to have a more informed decision-making process in the long run I would suggest the PVT advisory board is to include Consumers who use the bus service regularly so I hope that you will review the cost increase and consider recommend to your advisory board that a new Advise a new adjusted Increase of the fare be brought back to the public for further Recommend for further input and further Consideration in the future. So I hope that July 1st Fair increase will not be based on the current approved schedule or the current approved Amount by the advisory board. Thank you very much for your patience. Thank you for coming in and Note that this is not a select board action. We're not the select board doesn't make a decision about the PVT a fair increases Mr. Musanti is Not only the town's representative to the PVT advisory board, but it's also the chair currently So it's good information for us to have we appreciate it And you should certainly make this information available at the public hearing that they're holding for purposes exactly like this this week In Amherst. Thank you very much. This board you have a question. Yes Thank you for clarifying that because I was gonna ask you to do that and then my quick question for the presenter was in this column In this set of columns here the recommended fare increased by 20% that is your personal Basis based on the 20% concept, right? That's a recommendation was by PVT a the recommendation You're referring to as your recommendation. It's the recommendation from my agency Amherst community connections Okay, that's what I was just trying to make sure which which thing was proposed by who in which thing was recommended by right Yeah, thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you for the information and thank you for coming in Anyone else from the public like to make comment at this time Okay, we've got about eight minutes then for our first scheduled item and so we can take care of a couple of untimed items in the meantime Let's see just so folks know we have a whole bunch of street closure Requests on here all of which Are not happening until Sometime later so we can get to them and fill time with them as we need to but we don't need to stay late tonight to make sure We get them off we can continue these to a future meeting Just as an FYI so we might as well start with the things that are more timely Just to make sure that we get out of here on time and I will note that we do have an executive session planned for the end of this meeting and Before anything else happens a CTV if you're able to turn up the speakers in this room I think that the microphones here are not projecting well into the room. So that would be appreciated Okay, Miss Stein, how about we start with the taxi driver and show for licenses Okay, no, I have it I move that the select for Prove a new taxi driver slash chauffeur license for a Jeep Fuller of Leverett, MA Richard Harvey of Montague MA and Adam Zucker of Leverett MA on behalf of Ambassador taxi cab and transportation Second for the discussion. Oh, they were saying I I I Move that the select board approve a new taxi driver chauffeur license for Mitchell Snyder of Amherst mass on behalf of Green Transportation Incorporated Second for the discussion. Oh and they were saying I Not as unanimous Okay, how about You have a special liquor like a couple of special liquor licenses I move that the select board approve a special oil alcoholic license for Danielle Laferriere and Gary Wardlaw on behalf of Amherst College catering for a catered student event in the Freedman room at the Keith Campus Center Amherst College from 8 p.m. To 12 a.m. Wednesday April 4th second For the discussion miss Brewer Wardlaw The person's name is Greg Okay for the discussion what you transpose, but okay all in favor say aye Next I move that the select board approve a special oil alcoholic license for Tony Maroulas on behalf of the Amherst area Chamber of Commerce For Margarita tasting at the Eric Carl museum of picture book art 125 West Bay Road Amherst MA from 5 p.m. To 7 p.m. Wednesday March 28th 2012 it's summer soon second for the discussion all in favor say aye. Hi unanimous Still five more minutes. How about all right, let's do Let's do some parking and street closure requests So starting near the bottom of the first page because we don't know want to start Okay, I move that the select board approve the reservation of 18 metered parking spaces on the south side of the Spring Street parking lot and Two metered spaces on the west side of Fortwood Avenue Specifically the fourth and fifth metered space moving south from Spring Street on Saturday April 24th 2012 from 9 a.m. To 8 p.m. For the UMass Amherst cannabis reform coalitions extravaganza Festival second and just to clarify that's the 28th of April month Is it the 24th, but that's okay? Okay, what happens when you don't get enough sleep. I know it's been moved in second. It is there for the discussion All in favor say aye. Hi. I was not trying to cut short. Yeah, that's you need a problem All right, the League of Women Voters, okay I move that the select board approve the reservation of the first eight metered parking spaces on the west side of Fortwood Avenue Originating at Spring Street moving south towards College Street beginning Thursday May 3rd 2012 through Sunday May 6th 2012 from 8 a.m. To 8 p.m. Each day for the Amherst League of Women Voters annual book sale Second for the discussion All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. That's unanimous The Cushman one on the other side, which one the Cushman one on the next side Yes, I move that the select board approve the blocking off of Henry Street in Cushman Village for their annual May Day celebration on Saturday May 5th 2012 from 9 a.m. To 1 p.m. Second for the discussion Mr. Hayden, I'm just gonna say that's that's a very that's a very nice event you should go I would just add that TPW superintendent police and fire chief have all reviewed this and are okay with it Thank you very much and those materials are in our packets All right for the discussion all in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. That's unanimous I moved that the select board approve the reservation of 18 Metered parking spaces on the south side of the Spring Street parking lot for their annual plant sale setup on Friday May 11th 2012 beginning at 6 30 a.m So I drew no later than 6 p.m. For the Garden Club of Amherst Now all second now it's second is further discussion. I Was puzzled and that's why I hesitated just for the setup We have the request materials in our packet it's If I see as if in my head, they should be setting up on Friday for a sale on Saturday But I may be wrong if you just double check the request we can always amend it if necessary because this isn't for a while They've just requested for for that slot just for Friday Friday the 11th 18 space and 6 30 All right. Well, I so moved All right, so we moved and second and discussed further discussion all in favor say aye hi Hi. Hi. Hi, I'm not as unanimous. All right, base state bike week, sure. I move that the select board approve the reservation of 34 meter parking spaces by closure of the main street parking lot on Wednesday, May 16th, 2012, from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. for a bike rodeo and on Friday, May 18th, 2012, from 6.30 a.m. to 12 p.m. for the annual bike breakfast and bike show. Second. For the discussion. Oh, favorite, say hi. Hi. Hi, hi, hi. That's unanimous. All right, let's see. So now it's 6.45, so we'll save that other one for later. Make sure you remind me so we don't leave without doing it. Bucky just mentioned briefly, Miss O'Keefe. It's so helpful that the motions now say annual and that we have these wonderful maps. So all the people involved in making that happen, it really does make a difference as to us just being able to say yep, yep, yep, that's the thing and makes it work much better. And you wouldn't think that it would be so complicated to get a system down like this, but it took a while. All the right people with all the right information to make it happen and we are very appreciative to Miss Roussel in particular for really standardizing that and making it very informative and consistent every time. Okay, so our 6.45 item is Lions Club Service Award. So we have tonight, this is fun, the Lions Club would like to present an award to Barbara Bills and Cherry Hill Golf Club. So Mr. Kromak here to talk about this. Welcome, and if you could identify yourself for folks at home. My name is Todd Kromak and I'm the president of the Amherst Lions Club and also a board of director for the Northampton Lions Club and also a second vice district governor for the 33 Y Western Massachusetts District Lions. Thank you for seeing me on such short notice. And the reason I'm here tonight is really to thank Mr. Mazzani. He's been very supportive. I'm really diligently working hard to get an Amherst Lions Club back up in this town. It, we used to have one years ago but it dissolved from lack of interest, not recruiting members. So for the last three, two years, I've done a lot of work to try to rehab it and rejuvenate it. And we had a Leo Club induction ceremony last week of Junior Lions, the middle school that went very well. And Lions Clubs are only as good as the community that they serve and the community officials that they serve. It really has to become a good partnership. And for the last two years, we've been having a global golf tournament at Cherry Hill. It's been a phenomenal success. We have people every spring or in the January, they wanna play in this. And the money that we do raise always goes back into the Amherst community. And this year, we've determined that a good portion of it, we wanna donate to Amherst Leisure Services, principally because the diligent and hard work that Barbara Bills has done to help the Lions Clubs raise money. Last couple of years, we bought pedestrian safety signs that went to, one went down to Crocker Farm and they got distributed to various Lions Clubs communities around Western Massachusetts. We purchased them from the proceeds from the golf tournament that's held at Cherry Hill. It's very popular and it's lots of fun, but we couldn't do it without Barbara. So I'm here tonight that on behalf of District 33 Y, Lions in Western Massachusetts, if Barbara could come up, I have a special recognition for her. District 33 Lions present Barbara Bills of Cherry Hill golf course in appreciation of distinguished service and leadership to the community in 2011. Thank you. You're very welcome. And I had a sweatshirt, hasn't come in yet, but it's got multiple District Lions on it, so she's gonna have to wear it. Hopefully, I will get it before the global, but this woman is, you guys got it, she's a keeper. And this year, as I said, we're donating, we'll be donating most of the proceeds. This year's tournament, we want to sponsor some kids for the camps that can't otherwise be able to afford. And thanks to Barbara for all you do. We really, we couldn't do it without you. She's just great, so. Thank you. And you know, wanna, thank you. You gotta hang that in the pro shop. Where do you see? I think I'm just really fortunate to one of the things I enjoy most about my work at the golf course is working with the various charities that host events and tournaments at Cherry Hill. And I have to say, it's just been a real pleasure working with the Lions Club, and especially with Todd and Dwayne. They've just been fantastic. And their enthusiasm just carries through the event. And it's, and we're just happy to help to be a part of that big picture. Well, we couldn't do, you're welcome. And our next, it's actually, this year's is scheduled for May 19th. So if anybody has any spare time in the evening, we're gonna be out there. If you drive by Cherry Hill and look close, you're gonna see these, look like falling stars in different colors, but it's really the golf balls out there around the course. So it's really fun. So thank you very much for your time. I didn't know if I, I was gonna, it's probably addressed the next select board, but we have, we want the, we'd like to have the Imobile at the Rotary Fair that same day as the golf tournament. And I know it was kind of late. I talked to your assistant. I might not have made it on the agenda today. Not today, but it's in the pipeline. So we will be approving that. So thank you, select board, we appreciate your time and thank you so much. Yep, bye. Thank you very much for coming in. And thank you to Ms. Bills and all the folks at Cherry Hill for what a great help they are to so many organizations in the community. And to Ms. Bills in particular, for really turning around the Cherry Hill golf course. It's been a tremendous success under her leadership. As I say, it's the only golf course we went to last year, so thank you. Tremendous. Thank you so much. And for folks who couldn't hear that, he just noted that the, that Cherry Hill is the only golf course in Western Mass that allows carts to be used at night. So that's very interesting. Mr. Woldt, terrific, terrific. And I'm gonna ask ACTV again, if it's possible to turn up the speakers in here. This is a change that we've made recently and it doesn't seem to be working right now. And it would be very helpful if we could get some volume in here so that our microphones are amplified. Okay, keep working on that. I'd appreciate it. Okay, let's see. What else do we got here? 652, we've still got three minutes until our 655 item. So let's go back and finish the, yeah, cultural survival bazaar. Okay, I move that the select board approve the reservation of 10 meter bags on the west side of Boatwood Avenue, originating at Spring Street intersection, moving south toward College Street for vendor use for the cultural survival seventh annual bazaar on the South Common from 8 a.m. Friday, May 25th, 2012, through 9 p.m. Monday, May 8th, 28th, 2012. Second. For the discussion. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye, that's unanimous. Okay, we could do the seasonal license renewal, speaking of Cherry Hill Golf Course right below that. I move that the select board renew the seasonal wine and malt liquor license for Cherry Hill Golf Course 323 Montague Road, manager Barber built for operation from April 1st, 2012 through January 15th, 2013. Second. We have to do this. Further discussion. We do have to do this. And the other thing is, we had talked about extending this so that it covered the snow day. Winterfest. Winterfest. Walking my mind there. But we're not able to do that right now. Town council says that we can't extend it that far, so we'll deal with that separately. But we do need to get there. Seasonal license renewed. Further discussion. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Okay, so I don't think there's anything else on here that we can do. This Stein has already indicated she has not had time to check out the minutes yet, so we will hold those off until another meeting. We're not going to do the minutes tonight. No, I was just teasing her that's the one time I did read them and she didn't. Okay. We'll put them off. All right, so at 6.44, which is the same as 6.55, so our 6.55 item is sustainability issues and we have Ms. Ciccarello here to talk to us about a variety of items related to sustainability and the upcoming sustainability festival, so Ms. Ciccarello, if you come forward. Good evening. Thank you for coming in. Thank you. Well, I don't know if you've already covered the parking issues, so I'm sorry. We have not. Oh, good. Thank you. Okay. Well, the parking request this year is the same as in the previous two years. We're hoping to block off the parking on Bultwood Avenue from College Street to the street that's totally slipping my eyes at the moment. I'm sorry. Spring Street. Thank you. So we just want those 22 spaces. They're the same we've requested every year. It's mainly for vendors to drop off, unload their goods, and then they actually do park elsewhere, but we do need that for some of our vendors who have larger equipment where they need a vehicle to be there throughout the day. We also have some electric vehicles that will be parked there throughout the day as part of the event, and we also have some people that have some accessibility issues that we would like to be able to have them park right next to the common. The event, if I can give a plug for the event as well now while you're waiting on voting on it. The event is being held on Saturday, April 21st. It will be sunny, so I'm told by vendors who were there last year where it was not, but the event is being held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and it will be on the town common. We have approximately 100 plus vendors this year. We've had a lot of response from vendors, so a great variety. We have a lot of artisans. We have products and services for renewable energy. We have nonprofits represented. We have lots of town organizations represented as well. So it's a really wonderful event this year. Live entertainment as always, a lot of people that are actually donating their time to the event this year, so we are very grateful to them. It's just going to be a fabulous event, and it'll be very much a family-friendly event. Another feature that's happening this year that's different in previous years is that we're going to have a textile drive that's being put on by the recycling committee, and they're asking citizens of Amherst to bring clean and dry textile items. So it's not just clothing, but if people have even rags, torn sheets, anything that they have that's laying around their house, they could bring to the event that day, and they will be a vehicle to take the clothing, and the reusable items will be donated to the Amherst Survival Center and to the Fisher Home Hospice Shop. So those will be the good items, but the items that are just rags will actually be recycled. So we want to encourage people not to just throw them in the garbage, but to actually bring them to the event because they can be of further use. All right, thank you. All right, folks, I'd like to take care of the parking request right now. Ms. Stein, that's the top, it's like the second motion. I know where it is, I just have to find my motion sheet. I move that the select board approve the reservation of 21-metered spaces on the west side, Boltwood Avenue, originating at Spring Street, moving south towards College Street on Saturday, April 21st, 2012, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. for the Amherst Sustainability Festival. Second. For the discussion. It is noted, I will note on the request that the meters get bagged the night before, and so that's kind of an administrative thing that the parking folks take care of, and that will be communicated to them. Other discussion? Ms. Burr. I didn't get a chance to count, but one of the pieces of paper says 22 and one says 21. I believe it's 22, but I wouldn't want somebody to think they just shouldn't bag one of them. Pick one in the middle and don't. I move 22 just in case. There you go. All right. Fairly discussion. All in favor say aye. Aye. That's unanimous. Okay. Other sustainability fair issues, then. So you told us about the fair and what it is in the exciting new textile we're cycling. Anything else you'd like to tell us about that or get right into the student cleanup? You could get right into the student cleanup would be fine. And actually, the student cleanup is actually somewhat partnered with the sustainability festival. UMass Amherst has a lot of events that are going on the day, few days after the sustainability festival. And we wanted to try to partner in some way. And we have a student here, Cameron, who I'd like to invite to come up and speak to the select board as well. And I'm going to actually let Cameron tell you what he's got planned. Okay. Welcome. Thank you for coming in and please introduce yourself for the folks at home. Hi. I'm Cameron Cackley. I'm the secretary of sustainability. I'm the secretary of sustainability in the student government at UMass. So for Earth Day this year, I have been working on kind of a campus cleanup type event where we're going to have hopefully a lot of students come together and split up into groups and go to different parts of campus and clean them up. So we thought as a partnership between the school and the town of Amherst, we could have one of those groups go to Kendrick Park in Amherst and have that be part of the cleanup. Mainly because of its location being kind of right between the center of town and campus. We thought it would be a good location for residents and students to come together and do something for the town. Terrific. Thank you. So you're looking for residents to show up there at a certain time and help with the community group? Correct. And I guess also looking for your approval. Just don't want to have a bunch of students going out of the park and cleaning up for, you know. Kendrick Park is under the town manager's authority. And he's busy at the moment. He's looking for a permission to use Kendrick Park to clean it up and if they need any permission for a bunch of kids to suddenly be out there cleaning it up. And that, I have authority or use of Kendrick. So what I would ask you to do is follow up with Debra in my office, town manager's office and you can anticipate an affirmative answer. Thank you. To the request. Thank you very much. Thank you very much for doing that. That's a wonderful initiative and much appreciated. And thank you to ACTV for fixing the speakers. This is great. Much better. I do want to say too if residents are interested in participating in that, they can contact me via the town website and I can get them in touch with Cameron. Terrific. Thank you. And is there a particular time that that's going to happen? And we're meeting. All right. And we also have ride share program information. The ride share program, I'm going to invite Daniel to come up and speak to that. Thank you. Hi everybody. Welcome. I can't help but feel like I'm on Judge Judy. I've never been to a meeting like this. I have come to request the town of Amherst partnership from Maserides. I'm from the department of transportation. Maseride in Boston and my job and a department in that is Maserides. My job is to work with organizations, towns, companies around the state and introduce our programs that help reduce driver loan traffic to the workplace and also provide commuter assistance. Where our overall arching mission is to reduce traffic on the roads and improve our quality as well as safety on the streets. So we're requesting the town support as well as the town managers support in partnering with Maserides. I've been chatting with Stephanie here about this and she's asked that I come and speak to the board about that. The advantage of partnering with Maserides, a couple of the programs that I just want to highlight are New Ride, which you might have a sheet about. It's our state's ride share database. Some people can jump on that to link with other commuters to travel together. It's also our state's rewards program for traveling on green. So anytime anyone walks, bikes, carpools, rides the bus, or even works a compressed work week or a four day work week, you get points. And with those points, you spend them on coupons, discounts at local restaurants, there's some events, and as well as to shows and attractions like that. So it's a lot of fun. And as I said, it's our state's ride share database. So we really want folks to jump on that. So it's an advantage for town employees as well as residences to take advantage of that. Also with partnering with Maserides, the emergency ride home program would be available for all town employees. And by getting hold of that, you just need to also complete the emergency ride home partnership form and perhaps that's something that the sustainability coordinators in the... Sorry, Stephanie could facilitate that. Also partnering with Maserides would allow me to come to events to staff outreach days, community outreach days such as the environmental, the sustainability fair. So that's one reason why I do want to partner with Maserides. That sounds like a wonderful program and very beneficial to the town. And I understand you've already spoken with Mr. Roussanti about this and it's really you who kind of make our partnership official. Is that right with the program? And so this is eligible, folks who are outside of the town's workforce are eligible to be part of this as well. It lives or works in Massachusetts and it's a part of Maserides, greeting the state, curbing greenhouse gas emissions and also providing a transportation service for companies and towns and organizations. So it is available for anyone that works or lives in Massachusetts. Terrific. Other questions? Ms. Brewer. So I understand that the new rides program would be available to anyone and then the emergency ride home program. Now we can be a partner with or without being part of that as I understand it. And I'm wondering if we, I know we've talked about it in the past, but whether or not we have such an official thing and then I was also going to ask you if, I know you, Mas, has talked about having such a thing and I don't know if they have an official arrangement like that or if it is in fact done through this. So for the town's workforce, even that, you know, we can be partners right away if you decide to do that. But in terms of the ride home program, that would be a separate step, right? It would be. I would ask Stephanie to chime in. But we're interested in exploring that as well. The really nice thing about the emergency ride home program, I believe that is only for immersed employees. That's not correct. That program isn't open to the residents. But the benefit to that would be that anyone who does choose to commute to Carpool, ride a bike if something should happen during the day, they can actually have support in getting home, taking a taxi, and they don't have to coordinate that through me. They could just make a call, get a ride home, get a receipt, and then they can get rainbows through mass rides. So the town isn't responsible for any of that reimbursement. It goes through the state. Just to follow up, but we'd have to have an agreement. That would be the partnership. So we don't have to necessarily specifically partner for the citizens to be involved in new ride, or even the employees to really be involved in new ride. The partnership is specifically for the emergency ride home program. Great. And then do you currently have an arrangement with UMass or with any other colleges? We do with Amherst College. That's one organization in the town that we've partnered with. I'm discussing with UMass Amherst at the moment, talking with Enza there about also doing this at UMass Amherst. But yeah, and you ride anyone in the state can jump on there now. It's commute.com. And you can join that straight away. The emergency ride home thing is a sign-up partnership agreement as well. Thank you. Other questions or comments from Slack Boy? Mr. Hayden. I would make one. I've got 700 points already with the new ride program. You're a new rider? I notice you've got the ankle band that's from MassDot as well. One of the best handouts that you guys have. Okay, great. Yeah. So the rewards points, are they fairly widely distributed? Are there places in Western Mass you could redeem these points? I'm not doing it for the points. I don't know yet. There are some places, yes. Wonderful. Wonderful. And if folks were interested in being involved in that part of it to be a business that was providing benefits through the points, would they contact you also through the website? They would go to the new ride at newride.com and newride.com. If a company wants to provide rewards to green commuters, that would be an avenue to go through, yeah. Thank you, Ms. Rain. Yeah, I'll just make another comment. And when I was doing the research on this, I just noticed that Amra seems to be a pretty good community for this kind of thing because we've got clumps of places that people go to. Yeah. And, you know, so you can catch up with other people who are going there as well. Yeah. Thank you. Other questions or comments about these programs? All right. Well, thank you very much. Yeah, thanks. Thanks for coming in. Thanks. All right. And before we let Ms. Chickarello go, we also have the revision to the town's fuel efficient vehicle policy and the suggested revisions are in documents that are in our packets. And if you could just refresh folks' memories about this. This is part of our application for the green community. Right. Yes. This is criteria four out of five criteria that are required to become a green community. Just to give you a quick update, the official deadline has now been released. It's May 29th. And I do believe we are in excellent shape to make that deadline. Thankfully, it was the end of the month. That was a good thing. I'm very happy about that. So this policy has already actually been adopted by the select board. It was approved by the select board on August 8th of 2011. So these revisions are just minor revisions to update the policy with the current guidelines. So for each round of application, they revise some of the criteria. So to keep this consistent and current with the current policy, the highlights, as you mentioned, are in the document in red. And they're very minor, very few changes. So the part on page two that talks about the exempt vehicles, that's just sort of a tweaking to wording. It's not making significant changes to what are and are not exempt. Well, the only, I think the change that the state has made is just that they want all of our vehicles to be listed. So before this, it was just the non-exempt vehicles to the policy had to be listed. Now they want us to list all of the exempt vehicles so they can sort of have an idea of what we have and keep track of it as well. Any questions or comments? Yeah, just this is very much along the lines of the presentation that we saw at town meeting. I can't remember now if it's a year or six months ago, but we did see all of this and voting to support it. Other questions? Mr. Guad? People often ask about hybrids as efficiency. The point is to be efficient no matter how we get there. And again, the heavy vehicles that have the higher service needs are exempt, as the public understands because the questions come up again and again. But it's also been discussed in JCPC with vehicle replacements. So the police and the fire know exactly what kind of vehicles they have. What the replacement cycles are and I'm just just sure that everything is being maximized really in that respect. Thank you very much. So we've been sort of using this policy now since August and I don't know if any vehicles have actually been acquired in that time, but Mr. Moussanti, has this proven to be as expected to be easy to manage and track in that way? Yeah, especially with some of these common sense updates to the policy where it makes sense to evaluate our goals and fuel efficient vehicles in the overall context of our vehicle inventory. So we really are in the early stages of this and it's a part of our capital planning now in a much more deliberate way. It's not a nice to have kind of side light. It's part and parcel of the discussion about fleet maintenance schedules and things like that. Yeah, it's beginning to have a more pronounced effect and we actually had some requests and I know we're all waiting with bated breath on the final recommendations from joint capital planning later this week, but there were some fuel efficient vehicles that were new to the capital plan request list altogether this time around. I think you can say in part spurred on by the goals behind this policy. Just take this opportunity to publicly thank Stephanie for all her work on the Green Communities Act application which is a big project in and of itself and we're really looking forward to applying before May 29th and we're looking forward, well we can't guarantee the outcome, we're optimistic and we're looking forward to reaping the benefits of that designation which is primarily monies to pursue real live energy efficiency and sustainability projects here in Amherst so we're excited about it. That makes so much sense for Amherst to be a Green Community, this will be really wonderful. Do you have any idea when you might hear? No. I think when we get the application in the next round I believe of applications for the grants themselves will probably be some time in June so I imagine that because basically what they do is they notify you once you submit your application they'll notify you whether or not you've received the designation and then you're informed of the amount of your award and then you can apply for your grant for that amount for whatever projects and that's really the basic idea of putting together a five year energy efficiency plan is that you identify those projects that you're going to pursue and use the money for so you've kind of got your ducks lined up so it should make it a smoother process. Bestine, you had your hand raised? Sure. A question or a comment I was going to make or do you want me to make the motion? You can do whatever you like. I was going to ask Mr. Buss's it's wonderful to see the hybrid sign on some of them and I just wondered if you had any idea what percent of our fleet so to speak is hybrid? The PVTA fleet it's still a very low percentage of the overall I think that particular grant was 10 or 12 buses several of which are servicing in the UMass transit service area or area it's still a relatively low percentage but PVTA very much wants to expand upon that the good news is we have 10 or 12 the bad news is that they're very expensive per vehicle although over the life cycle use of the bus which is many many years PVTA will end up saving a lot of money as well as all the environmental benefits that accrue. Thank you. I move that the select board approve or revised fuel efficient vehicle policy for the town of Amherst as presented to govern the replacement of all non-exempt municipal vehicles with fuel efficient vehicles whenever such vehicles are commercially available and practicable said policy to apply to all divisions and departments of the town of Amherst. Second. Further discussion. All in favor say aye. Aye and that is unanimous. Thank you very much. Thank you for all the information. Remind us one more time to the sustainability festival Saturday April 21st 10 to 4 Amherstown Commons. Terrific. Thank you very much. Thank you for coming in tonight. Thank you. Okay we have a couple of more minutes before we get to our 720 item and I'll just remind folks that it's crazy about timing. It's because you don't want anybody to tune in or be planning to come in for something that we have started already when it's scheduled for a time later than that. So that's why we try never to start early. Oh no my iPad has a different time than my phone. I have to panic. That's right and my iPad is 720 but on my phone it's 717. Yeah okay we're sticking with the phone time. Can I ask a question? You may. I'm not entirely convinced the PVTA hearing information is on the town website but I'll look at that more later. My particular question associated with that is as the chair of that is that something you would plan to attend on Thursday? Can people expect to see you there or that they'll see other members or how does that work because I know it's a big board. I will be there for at least one of the two sessions five to seven on Thursday at the bank center. There will be some number of members of the board there. There'll be some members and a number of staff from PVTA and our administrator Mary McGinnis. Let's see. Two more minutes what else can we do here? I think we used up all of our untimed items. I'll note I apologize I had completely forgotten to update the calendar preview section of the of the document so I didn't include anything about our next meetings. We don't meet next Monday because that is the night before the town election and my tradition is like where it never meets then. So our next meeting is on April 9th and on April 9th we will be doing of course a lot of warrant article stuff. We will also be approving the personnel we will be receiving the COLA recommendation for non-union employees and we're going to have another liquor license hearing. We have an application from Cumberland farms on College Street route 9 down by South East Street. So that will be a liquor license hearing for a new license at 7 15 I believe that night. After that the following week the Monday is the holiday so the next meeting is Wednesday and that's the one that we have at the police station and so then we'll meet again the following Monday but I apologize I should have had the April meeting information and some of what we're expecting for those on the calendar preview but I did not make it on this time. Okay. 720 our 720 item is a winter shelter update and we have Dave Zomek here to talk to us about that as well as Miss Lara Quinn from the service provider. Mr. Zomek how has the shelter season gone? Thank you very much it's actually going extremely well. Thank you for having us tonight and I think I will try to be very brief and then turn it over to Miss Quinn for some more specific details but as the board knows and the public knows the shelter is a CDBG funded activity this year and so I wanted to quickly run down some of the reporting requirements and where Craig's Doors has been on those and overall I think the report is very good very positive we're very you know thankful again to have Craig's Doors as our provider this year the partnership with First Baptist Church with the numerous volunteers church volunteers college volunteers the fundraising I think is going overall very well wonderful long-term volunteers I was there a couple of times and I know that Wayling Greeny and Kevin Eddings are taking the lead with food and doing a terrific job with the food preparation for the night meal and the breakfast so overall what we've seen has been outstanding Craig's Doors has been up to date on all of their quarterly reports those have all been received by CDBG staff we've had kind of a quarterly meeting as well so reports that are required by the CDBG program are all on time and in our possession we've had a number of meetings with Craig's Doors staff and board including Jerry Gates and Jerry Weiss is now on the board as well we've had a total of three 12-16, 1-15 and 2-9 staff from the town of Amherst visited the shelter I've been there personally twice once in the morning at once at night with health director Julie Fetterman and what we observed was all going extremely well we've also had numerous check-ins with Chief Nelson and with Officer Linda Newcomb who is assigned to that night shift and does a terrific job for the police department so meetings various reports all submitted as well as the financial reports the Craig's Doors is at about 60% expended, total expended and we're expecting a bill here shortly for the end of March and then we'll just have the month of April left so billing is all up to date and has all been processed I think I'll let Ms. Quinn go into more details we've had good report on the number of folks that have been housed and perhaps you're going to talk a little bit about that I do know that the church and Craig's Doors continues to work creatively with some guests who have not been able to abide by the rules of either Craig's Doors or First Baptist Church and there has been some trespass orders given but that's fairly standard for the operation there and in the future I know that capacity and some of the nights you have exceeded the number of people that you can actually shelter there and that's something to be talked about down the road for next year so overall I think it's been very positive Perfect Questions for Mr. Zomek before we go to Ms. Quinn Ms. Brewer and perhaps this is more of a question for the town manager but what's the expectation in terms of what the select board will say I realize that the block grant advisory committee may see different or somewhat different set of details but what's your expectation as to what we might see when the shelter season's over and what we can look forward to and mention to people is going to be coming up or is there going to be a report to the select board I would anticipate a end of season report and we haven't talked in any detail yet about the actual form that that would take a touching on the same issues that Mr. Zomek has touched upon tonight you get some report late spring or probably in that time frame Right because this is something in writing at the end of the season so that we have that each year would be helpful Sure if I could we were asked to just come in and give a 5 minute or less update tonight but we'd be happy to have a more detailed written report as I've said Craig's Doors have provided all the monthly required reports we have all of those and would be happy to summarize those at the close of the season or just before the end of the season whatever the select board and the town manager would like It's also been my understanding that as a CBGB funded program that we are committed actually to providing a report and how those funds were used It's April 25th Is that the schedule date which we would certainly be doing that Obviously by the end of the season our last date will be the 29th of April technically and we'll have then that month to be able to wrap up all of our data for the entire season but we certainly anticipate providing a full report that would just sum up everything at this point but again I want to thank David also it's been a very mild winter I think that means a lot we're happy for many, many reasons for it to have been a mild winter certainly for the guests at the shelter for the overall community for the mission that we have in order to shelter those that have nowhere else to go but also we've had incredible cooperation and my purpose really for being here is to thank you all for the incredible support thank the select board the town manager Dave Nathania Malloy, Ruth Turner the Amherst police department certainly Linda Newcomb it's really shown that we can do this, we can make this happen we can do it well we can do it cooperatively and we can really make a difference I understand that my comments this evening are to be brief and frankly to illustrate some continuity as well so really as the executive director at this point of Craig's Doors it's also been my privilege to be able to work with an incredible staff to be able to have Kevin Noonan on board as you all know who's been our director of programs who's been managing the shelter I'm also happy to announce that he will be moving up to the position of executive director as well I'm moving on to other opportunities I think we've really set a wonderful standard here and I'm looking forward to looking at the housing piece more specifically and for Kevin and all the board of Craig's Doors to move on in the same way we know we have next year and we're going to look at how we're going to fund that how we're going to all work together so we have lots to do I have a report here my comments brief and as I say I put this in writing so it will give you something to work on and it really is my honor and privilege and it's to my great joy to introduce Kevin Noonan to provide you with the real specifics about this year's shelter season if I can here thank you thank you I just want to acknowledge and thank Laura for not only being the founding member of one of the founding members of Craig's Board and organization but also the name Craig's Doors came from a comment that Craig Lorraine himself once made to Laura Quinn about wishing that he had a door that he could close after having a bad day I'll keep my comments brief because I know you have a busy agenda as well so now that winter is returning we'll be petitioning for another six months of operation if that's okay with you it's freezing out there I don't know what to make of this weather it's been I just want to echo what Laura said without going through the whole list it's been very helpful to have a collaborative effort with the town as well as with the Houses of Worship the Amherst Survival Center has been volunteering with us as well Linda Newcomb as both David and Laura Laura said her team has been great we've worked very closely with her on specific individuals as David said getting creative with who to trespass and who not we rely very much on her assessment of people since she's had so much experience we've had about 119 different people come through the shelter this year and of that number 75 of them were men and 24 were women there has been an increase in the number of women this year and we are working with First Baptist Church which I can't say enough good things about these people we virtually dislodge them from their church at 8.30 every night all of their activities and our staff comes in at 9 and we sort of take over the church facility because of the way the permit was granted by the state the waiver was granted by the state to allow this activity to be held there one of the stipulations was that no other activities could be held in the church while we were there so that makes it difficult for the church to have any kind of meeting that goes over time can you imagine if the select word had to be done by 8.30 every night we could dream on the other hand this is a big room we could use this space for a shelter in any case they've been very helpful and we met with the Dave and Chief Livingstone and Chief Nelson as well as Davis Kevich we're talking about trying to make it safer for the women for next year right now they're behind a curtain and there hasn't been any major issue but it would be a little bit more dignified and certainly more secure if we could have them within some more sturdy walls and there is a room right behind the fellowship hall where we're working right now which can accommodate that purpose so now that the the way the CDBG funding works we have to get our permits in line for the next three years so Jerry Gates will be going to Boston to apply for a renewal of year three and a modification of year three and a new three-year waiver for the coming year I think the hope is on the part of the people that first bat this church is that there won't be a need after the next three-year renewal so that would be four years kind of the one that remains from this three because they're optimistic that we're going to be able to find a permanent site so we're looking forward to his success in that and continued cooperation from the town we know the resources are stretched very thinly and we appreciate the CDBG support we couldn't do it without it and we certainly appreciate the help that we've gotten from not only the community but other agencies Meg Wright from Elliott Homeless Services comes once a week and is in contact with us throughout the week just telling us about this or that person and working with them and getting them specifically with people who are mentally ill and Wayling Greeney has done a wonderful job coordinating the food and feeding every night it's been tremendous to watch and she also has been working with many people to help them find housing and about by her count I think ten but some of those are just people who have left town but I think our statistics show at least five have been able to acquire permanent affordable housing and also Wayling with Jerry Gates has a mentorship program where people are able to get jobs and I think another ten people have had some temporary participation in that so in the interest of being brief I'll end it there and we're happy to welcome Diana Stein this Thursday and any of you who would like to come and visit are certainly welcome as well thank you very much thank you for this report and for doing such a tremendous job in your inaugural season as the service provider questions or comments for these folks anyone well we really look forward to reading the report thank you so much it's Quinn and good luck to you as you move on to new opportunities and best wishes for continued success for the shelter season thank you very much thank you Mr. Zomek alright 135 so this now begins our marathon working towards town meeting we have 31 is it 31 something like that articles on the warrant we've got the draft warrant actually was on our desks tonight the warrant I was looking at earlier didn't have any numbers on it so I don't know how many we came up with yes 31 exactly articles we are scheduled to sign the warrant on Friday morning everyone remembers at 10 o'clock that will be a very brief meeting just to sign the warrant that's the only thing we're doing and so between now and the end of actually before the end of April because town meeting starts April 30th our last meeting in April is the 23rd so we have to fit in all 31 of those articles and it's a challenge to schedule everyone's availability and get a bunch of articles that make sense together so basically we're starting off easy and we're starting off with the articles that are very simple they occur every year and practically we could probably speak about them in our sleep but we all do need to rather the select board does need to take a position on all town meeting articles to recommend them as part of our town government act so tonight we will start with those on your agenda they are not the articles are not numbered because those numbers did not happen until today but we will go through these fairly quickly we have in our packets a information sheet from finance director Sandy pooler that describes each of the articles in brief and that's especially helpful for folks who are following along at home but I think that's all we need as an introduction so the first article on the list that we're dealing with is the reports of boards and committees this is the standard opening article for every town meeting and it is about whether or not the body will hear reports of boards and committees that are not available in written form it's a housekeeping article to say the least and that is our first article I'm just wondering if we knew in particular of anything that was coming up I know some years there are obvious things like the 250th committee or whatever but we just had the warrant review meeting today typically we know about request for reports at the second meeting which we call the motion review meeting that's in a couple of weeks at this point only the finance committee report is expected but the moderator didn't expect to have heard from other folks who might want to speak yet anyway I'm going to move to article one sure if I can find a motion sheet which has a tendency to migrate did you also have a comment I apologize well I was just going to volunteer to take this one because I always do traditionally it's fine by tradition okay I move that the select board I move to recommend that the select board approve the recommendation here as you may notice article one reports of boards and committees I think we're moving that the select board recommend recommend for the discussion all in favor say hi that's unanimous Miss Stein would you like to speak to that anyone want to fight Miss Stein for article one alright Miss Stein it's all yours article two is transfer funds for unpaid bills this is an article that obviously is about paying unpaid bills for the previous year we don't expect at this point there are no unpaid bills that anyone is aware of should they become available should they show themselves should they what am I trying to say here should we find that we have unpaid bills the recommendation would be to pay them because that's how you maintain a good credit rating so basically what we do with this article is we and I should say that if there are no unpaid bills of the finance committee we'll move to dismiss this article that's funny it actually says that should be finance committee another warrant to edit shall I make the motion yes please I move that the select board recommend April 30th 2012 annual town meeting article four of funds for unpaid bills second further discussion so I'll just note that we'll recommend it if there are any and we support dismissal if it will be dismissed alright that is the sense of the select board thank you for the discussion all in favor say hi hi and I'd be happy to take that one too she's going to get in all the easy ones really guess I'll like the easy ones okay it's all yours this is optional tax exemptions this is another one that we do every year and this has been done every year since I believe 1994 is what the memo says state law allows for certain property tax exemptions for qualifying elderly veterans, blind surviving spouses that in order to allow those exemptions up to the 100% qualifying amount town meeting needs to approve it every year so we do this every single year it is always unanimously approved by town meeting and it's one of the ways it's one of the very few ways that we as a town can help to grant some tax assistance to some folks who qualify any questions or comments about article three I move that the select board recommend April 30th 2012 annual town meeting article three acceptance of optional tax exemptions second for the discussion they were saying hi that's unanimous I like that one I can deal with that one too I think that some of us who have done these before if anybody really wants these they really only need I think I've done it and you've done it if you want it you can have it sure you want it Alissa has this one no problem I like that it has a little report with it and everything next up we have authorization for compensating balances so this is the one that we have to also do every year that if this allows the treasurer to enter into banking relationships whereby the town might get something beneficial interest rate or whatever in return for having a certain amount of money or whatever invested in the bank we need to approve this because otherwise it could be considered an expenditure without an appropriation so this is a technical way of approving that and we do that with the banking relationship and per usual we have no such of these banking relationships but giving this approval just allows the treasurer maximum flexibility so we do this every year questions or comments about that I move that the select board recommend April 30th 2012 annual town meeting article 4 authorization for compensating balances second discussion the toaster might go to Craigstores exactly I always think that the toaster get a toaster in return for savings okay for the discussion all in favor say hi that's unanimous who wants it oh yeah sorry who would like that one I've got that one all written down to if anybody wants my text for it you want to do it or should I do it I like to not do anything but then that's clear I'll do it Miss Steiner did I hear somebody on the my right did somebody over there want it do we have to credit your notes okay let's see next up retirement assessment okay this is this is the town's annual assessment to the Hampshire County retirement board this we have information about how much this increased this year this is this is a different number number nine thank you yeah sorry they're not in order so the total amount of the town's assessment to pay for our town school and library but non-teaching elementary school employees is three million four hundred and sixty eight thousand three hundred and twenty four dollars that is up two hundred and eleven thousand five hundred and thirty one dollars or six point five percent from the current year this is one of those bills we absolutely have to pay so there we go questions or comments about this miss burr so the numbers less than is listed on the current do we just put a big number because we weren't sure I will follow up on that typically this appropriation is the general fund portion only so it may well be the smaller number but yes we will clarify that and amend the draft article language if needed for Friday morning and presumably the slack board will support it whether or not how much it is okay further discussion no I'm sorry other questions or comments Miss Stein would you like to make the motion shall I go ahead yes please excuse me I move that the select board recommend April 30th 2012 annual town meeting article nine retirement assessment second further discussion Mr. Hayden actually I realize what the problem is with the motion that the word two is missing it's to the April 30th 2012 annual town meeting but that's just you were struggling with that and I just realized why thank you for the discussion they were saying hi and that is unanimous and it's going to do that one I could do it since I complained about it okay sounds good we'll do that one okay so do you want to describe the next one the regional lock up so the next one is the regional lock up assessment this is the Hampshire County regional lock up essentially the jail that was established several years ago with an assessment to all of the participating towns this assessment has not increased at all and during that time I believe it was 2006 or 2007 when it started I should look at my memo just talking off the top of my head here but I remember when we first when the town first dealt with it that it was said to be approximately a dollar per person it was essentially a portion by population so our population is a little bit bigger now but our number has not gone up but the main point here is that the number has not changed and that this is again a bill that we have to pay in order to participate in the system questions or comments Miss Stein would you like to make the motion I move that the select board recommend should I put the two in recommend two the April 30th 2000 I don't think that works April 30th 2012 annual town meeting article 10 regional lockup second further discussion say hi hi that is unanimous and I'll take it between our notes between my notes and your notes I keep forgetting to assign it I'm so sorry Miss Brewer is taking that one it'll be good because it'll be done we'll see okay and the last one is the reserve fund this is article 14 the reserve fund the reserve fund is not to be confused with the town's reserves free cash or stabilization we call that reserves the reserve fund is a different fund and annually typically we appropriate $100,000 to that and that gives it to the finance committee and it's a reserve fund that's used primarily for snow and ice expenditures so it's something within the $100,000 expenditure amount comes in during the year typically snow and ice so that can be taken care of without going back through town meeting and as I said we do this every year there was one year it was reduced and then at the end of the year it had to be increased again because $100,000 is what they need to work with for snow and ice it's fine I move that the select board recommend to the April 30th, 2012 annual town meeting article 14 reserve fund second took a whole bunch of articles before I figured out what you meant further discussion all in favor say hi hi and who's gonna take that I'm happy to but I'm also happy to donate it too late too late I got it fine all signed all approved we're gonna have to ask Mr. Moussanti to turn up the volume on his phone he's trying to find out who the new UMass chancellor is going to be in fact he'll be announcing that very shortly okay we have $745 budget discussion alright pay attention budget discussion then we'll get to Mr. Moussanti's report so the FY13 budget discussion again no one has sent in any questions ahead of time just jumps ahead a little bit and sort of skews with the BCG report that will be coming up but basically we're ready and I won't have you do it tonight but just to talk about it so that you're ready for it to consider the Mr. Moussanti's recommended additions and restorations list we've been putting off that part of the budget and discussion about how we prioritize that how we would deal with these these extra expenditure requests in the event that we receive more revenue than the budget originally was projecting at this point and so we've been putting that off to have more information about how much revenue there was going to be etc at this point there is not an expectation of additional revenue and in fact we'll recall that the budget as it came in had was actually above the original expectations because we were expecting a 2% increase in state aid and in fact we're now expecting level funded state aid from last year so we were working with something like a $200,000 deficit or not a deficit a gap a funding gap between the original town manager's budget and what revenue was projected to be so that gap has basically been filled by a variety of updates to revenue and expense projections so we're good with that but we're not expecting additional money beyond that from the state at this point we have sent our letter as did the library in support of the extra $65 million the $65 million that the governor has proposed allocating in the fall as an additional appropriation as was done this past year that amounted to about $500,000 for the town of Amherst we have asked as has MMA and as I said the library we're all advocating for if they reasonably expect that money to be available it would be much more helpful to us to know that ahead of time and have that as part of our baseline appropriation as opposed to it being an additional appropriation in the fall but at this point we have no information that that's going to happen so we can't plan on it so the only item currently on the town manager's additional funding list is the child care program subsidies for the after school child care program so like I said we don't have to be talking about this in detail tonight but the recommendation when we talk about it which will be next time is that that's our only, that's the only thing we're looking at right now you're basically withdrawing your request with the information that we have right now you're not recommending that we go further down that list than the child care that's exactly right and we're still Superintendent Garrick and I remain optimistic that in the very near future and prior to annual town meeting we will finalize a recommendation on funding for after school programming cooperatively between the town's leisure services department Amherst public schools and some private providers we are literally in just beginning to review some detailed recommendations from an independent outside assessment that the town and the schools jointly funded so we're in the midst of digesting those recommendations I know there'll be one or more meetings with school and town staff and the providers in the coming days to review that it's my intention and I have the support of the superintendent to come forward with a specific recommendation prayer town meeting for the select board to consider and so BCG is expected to consider that initially at our next meeting we're hoping that that would be ready for that. So BCG will have a recommendation that can further inform the select board's discussion of that additions and restorations list but I just wanted to kind of prepare you with that context for us to have the discussion next time. The other point that needs to be made about the childcare funding is that this is not a new program it's not an expansion of a program this is to fill in the dollars that are now missing because we're able to be funded through the community development block grant this year so to leave that unfunded would leave a bunch of participating children and families unable to continue to participate so that's the priority and that is the context like I said in which we'll be having the discussion next time in case folks have other feelings about that list you know start thinking about it now and we'll have that discussion on April 9th. Any questions or comments about that or anything else related to the FY13 budget? Nothing? Okay Mr. Musanti have you heard any new news out of the state about money process? No. No we don't anticipate a house ways and means budget till probably mid-April now. So we're as you said we are continuing our efforts to try to convince the legislature and the governor to support building that 65 million of supplemental state aid if there is a state surplus at the end of this fiscal year to build that into the base aid but we are highly unlikely to know that at least in a definitive way prior to town meeting and we're not counting on it at this point. Alright anything else about budget? Alright so then that gets us to the manager's report and before his bulleted items he has a hot news flash for us. And I apologize for my loud iPhone but that was I have received word during the course of this meeting that the UMass Board of Trustees have it accepted President Koretz recommendation to appoint Dr. Jeremy currently the provost at the University of Kentucky to be the next chancellor at UMass Amherst and that was voted this evening so I know a number of us had the pleasure of attending at the university's invitation a luncheon with him and members alumni representatives as well as from the community and I know all of us were impressed with Swami's intellect his deep experience at Kentucky and elsewhere in higher education his leadership skills his fundraising proven fundraising prowess and his understanding I thought and sensitivity to all the things that fall under the umbrella of town gown issues and I want to congratulate him and look forward to working with him in the months ahead. Next personnel update going back to bullet points from the agenda the board knows this but we haven't talked about it at a meeting but very briefly you know that our Human Resources Director Eunice Torres has decided to retire and her date is March 30 and I want to thank Eunice for her service to the town and wish her the best in her retirement that puts a recruitment for that position front and center it's one of the most important positions in the organization I believe and the basic timeline as I envision it we have begun our advertising for candidates for this position and you can basically anticipate that will be really for the month of April in May I intend to be involved with interviews of leading candidates and sometime in the month of May my goal is to make a formal job offer to the leading candidate and then the start date would be dependent on the circumstances and transition issues related to whoever that successful candidate would be but as soon as possible after that is made so I'm looking forward to that and I'm confident that we'll be able to recruit somebody who can really do a fine job for us next couple of items related to under the umbrella of safe and healthy neighborhoods initiative issues first you know that a week ago Saturday there was a event that was being promoted at a number of downtown Amherst establishments called the Barney blowout which is a pre St. Patrick's Day like event and while there was quite a bit of coordination between downtown bar owners who participated those that did in the Amherst police department we did have some reports of unruly behavior in our downtown there were I believe 10 arrests made over the course of that day in the downtown area that has triggered some post-mortem discussion amongst downtown business owners including bar owners and others and others in town and my intention is to work with the Amherst police and the community and we're having a meeting with some of the bar owners who chose to participate in this event this past year and we'll talk about how it went and what lessons might be learned going forward so it's one of the board to be aware that that dialogue is ongoing I just want to mention the main point of confusion that there's been and feedback that we've heard is that this was in some way supported by the town and that we allowed the bars to open early we absolutely did not do that they didn't even ask us I think we made it pretty clear in the fall that such a request would not have been positively received so they didn't even bother what does happen is folks line up to get into the bars very early because there are capacity issues and so folks mistook that as thinking that the bars were open but the bars were absolutely not open the chief of police did a tremendous job coordinating ahead of time personally with each of the bar owners that they knew very well what their license specified and that there would be no early openings and in fact he reports that the bar owners and managers were extremely cooperative before and during the event but there will be this follow-up meeting and we'll see how we dial down the obnoxiousness level of this event for next year and the conversation continues Mr. Walton and I hope you made that so the point is that how we can characterize the event exactly, thank you all right next I wanted to follow-up I mentioned at our last meeting a situation that occurred at a rental property on College Street where the police responded to a report of excessive noise a situation where there was a large party going on the party was broken up by the police in the course of their visit the police noticed that they were very concerned about what they thought were questions about the structural integrity of the main floor of that house especially with the large number of people that had gathered affordably with the Amherst Fire Department Health Department Inspections Department and Mr. Garabizian the property owner landlord there was a temporary eviction notice issued but work was done to correct deficiencies in the smoke detector system as well as securing the integrity of the floor and tenants were allowed to move back in a couple of days later I wanted to follow-up on that and saying we continue to work with that particular property owner based upon the very positive collaboration that occurred when we became aware of and he became aware from the town of issues related with the College Street rental our intention is to continue moving forward with him and looking at other properties of his I'm not aware of a formal schedule yet but those conversations are ongoing with the property owner and our anticipation is that we'll have positive collaboration like we had on the Spring Street issue when it was brought to his attention it's very important and thank you Mr. Brewer I'm just a little confused and I'll use my excuse for the first time I've been around for eight days but was this it says roof on this piece of paper why do I remember floor from the newspaper accounts not that I really you know one or the other it's still bad that's that's caused by me typing too quickly that's like there wasn't another one it's almost all the same letters just in a different order just making sure there's that we know thank you okay next I wanted to update the board on a recent training session held for Amherst police officers by representatives from the Burlington Vermont Police Department in particular Lieutenant Jen Morrison the town Amherst Police Department in Burlington have been in dialogue for a number of years now on community policing issues given the similarities in the two communities hosting a flagship campus of the State University the training that was held most recently was on community based and problem oriented policing and it's related to Chief Livingstone's initiative as the department has evolved to a change of what we call sector based policing where patrol officers are assigned to a particular sector neighborhood of the town with more focused collaboration and problem solving so the Chief reports it was a very good training and it's really about sharing best practices that include but not limited to changes, any potential changes to bylaws, mutual patrol initiatives such as with university police in future trainings that might that might occur so that dialogue is ongoing thank you and I just want to emphasize for folks that all of these things are falling under the agenda title of safe and healthy neighborhoods initiative and this is to emphasize the degree to which the town is paying attention to these issues in a really multifaceted manner the safe and healthy neighborhoods is about a coordination and collaboration of different town departments to be sharing information on these issues it's working with the university and the folks there we have a large and expanding relationship through the campus and community coalition there is no single magic bullet to how you solve issues like this it is it is about communication and coordination and education and you're dealing with a pool of folks who are changing 25% of them every single year and by that I'm referencing students of course we have had tremendous turnover in the roles of the people who are dealing with them especially on the university side just in recent years so all of these relationships get developed the communication happens but it still it needs to it always needs to grow and increase and spread but I think that Mr. Mucanti's report really shows just one aspect of how committed the town is to dealing with this is hiring recently of the new code enforcement officer a brand new position wholly devoted to addressing this issue head on the fact that the police are doing trainings with folks from other places about this the fact that we're following up very directly about the disturbances with the Pre-St. Patrick's Day celebration as well as the problem properties and dealing with the property owners this is all just a small segment of the attention that is being put towards this I know that in my role on the Select Board the thing that I spend the most time on outside of meetings and outside of planning the Select Board meetings is dealing with the town gown issues so there's just a tremendous amount of resources being dedicated to this on the town side as well as on the university side really excellent relationships being formed there we had very strong very positive conversations I think I speak for all of us with Mr. Subbaswamy the new Chancellor we're very happy to hear how seriously he took these these issues and how much he experience he has in dealing with them so I just really want the community to recognize that this is a critical issue facing the town everything that has to do with off-campus behavior and its various implications and the town is doing everything it can and really making progress the progress is slow but sure and we're getting there that's all, thank you let me just add to that briefly appreciate that and the town is all in on this issue and by its nature the issues are difficult and the solutions are not easy it's not about writing the next regulation or creating the next fine of stuff there is an enforcement piece for sure but these are difficult complicated issues that are I think if we're looking long-term going to be best solved by collaborating so we have the town staff has been reorganized in a way but there'll be lots of outreach to current and future city representatives and landlords and tenants because we're looking to stabilize and improve the quality of life in all of our neighborhoods and I know there is a lot of support in the community for that effort and so I want to pledge the town is all in on this but it's going to be a collaboration because we're looking at the long-term progress that we can make together which can only happen if we work together on this stuff in terms of recent and upcoming activity I want to mention a couple other things last Friday the 22nd of March a number of us had the pleasure of attending a luncheon by Amherst College at the Lord Jeff to hear from Amherst College President Biddy Martin update us on initiatives at the college and also she asked for and I was able to offer and some others there as well some highlights of what the town is doing some of the key issues facing the town wanted to thank President Martin for for that event and that ongoing dialogue with Amherst College I guess that was a Thursday last Friday I attended a forum sponsored by Pioneer Valley Planning Commission Pioneer Valley Transit Authority and a grant called Mass Inc at the PVPC offices down in Springfield on region wide transportation needs and new financing strategies it was to hear from Tim Brennan from PVPC Mary McGinnis PVTA Administrator and the author from Mass Inc looking at the fact that just in the Pioneer Valley there's over a billion dollars of highway and transit investment needs and some of us there speculated that that number is actually conservatively low because those are public transit but also on the roadway and bridge work it's really just the big so called big projects state numbered roads etc as we know like most communities the many many neighborhood streets that also are in need of investment to bring them up to an acceptable standard but the report touched upon potential ways that that funding gap might be closed and there was a sense at this meeting that as we head into the next calendar year in particular there may be opportunities for dialogue at the legislative level to think through what is a longer term solution on these issues as opposed to muddling through which I think could best characterize the last 25 years tomorrow I have the pleasure of speaking at the campus and community coalition to reduce high risk drinking sponsored annual lamplight awards over at the campus center at UMass and we'll be talking about that ongoing partnership and honoring honoring this year's recipients as mentioned in public comment public hearings will be happening in Amherst this Thursday the 29th from 2 to 4 and 5 to 7 p.m. at the bank center related to potential PVTA fair increases that would be needed to help close an estimated 1.8 million dollar PVTA budget gap I want to make clear that these are draft proposals and the public hearing process here and elsewhere in the PVTA service area is a fundamental part of the PVTA advisory boards process a board in which I chair this year before the PVTA board recommends any changes if any and we don't anticipate taking action on any of this issue until our June meeting so it's important that writers and others be heard at these public hearings and encourage people to attend on Thursday at the banks or submit comments to me or to the PVTA itself and lastly I want to mention a welcoming reception that has been scheduled for Thursday April 12 from 2 to 4 p.m. in this room at town hall for our new building commissioner Rob Mora as well as our new code enforcement officer John Thompson we've invited members of the community to that reception and we're also making a special effort to invite representatives from the business community and building trades to that. Any questions or comments from Mr. Misanti? So we're a couple minutes early strangely for our member reports Miss Pruer raises her hand. Actually you were probably also going to mention this dinner we got invited to as a board on the 29th so that you could remind me where it is I'm asking the select board and I were invited to a dinner at the university this Thursday evening at the campus center sponsored by this undergraduate student government association a number of us have accepted and we're looking forward to looking forward to that event on Thursday. Thank you. Continuing that theme and taking care of a couple things that will be in my chairs report which nobody tunes in for later. I will also be speaking at the campus and community coalition lamp later awards tomorrow and it sort of figures into the to my liaison report but it's all related that of course the pre St. Patrick's Day issues were a big topic of conversation at campus and community coalition also they did receive a complaint about it from a faculty member who wanted them to lend their voice to trying to to mitigate the impact of this event and so that was a big topic of discussion additionally we talked a lot about the spring and the things that the kind of activity we can anticipate how to coordinate around that and how overall we need a plan. We need a plan much like kind of the select board's master calendar that we anticipate certain things that happen all the time you know every year and we need to be able to plug into each of those dates what the communication and coordination needs to be around all of those things one of the things that's part of the communication for spring and everyone has their own sort of area of communication and not least of which is the dean of students office and the police departments both Amherst police and UMass police departments and coordinating with students and landlords and residents off campus etc but another part is just sort of the communications part so I submitted a column or letter I'm not sure which it'll be to the collegiate that well I hope run this week I haven't heard from them but again just kind of putting out there you know this is spring the magnificent community this is your home while you live here and we hope that you will enjoy it and we hope that you will respect it and very much the same message that I gave at our coffee hour with the student leaders in the fall so I'm hopeful that that will run in the collegiate and again just kind of the whole town gown thing Mr. Musanti and I also had a really tremendous meeting with the new dean of students as well as the associate dean and the dean of students and the dean of students and this was kind of a follow up to a campus and community coalition meeting that Mr. Musanti attended a couple months ago where a bunch of data was presented from all the different folks there about how the first semester had gone and expectations for the second semester and I talked earlier about the dean of students office or just in general how a number of folks in these different positions that we've had in the past relationships with over these issues has changed and so there's a new dean of students and there is this newly created position of the off campus housing associate dean I believe is in name and so we were talking about what kind of accountability and discipline issues have been going on and in fact I'm sure I speak for Mr. Musanti also that we came away from that meeting so it's not always easy to communicate with the efforts that the university is taking it's not always easy for them to communicate what they're doing in that regard because they're really tremendous privacy issues involved regarding individual students but those folks are looking for ways trying to find out what's making that noise. Those folks are trying to find ways to communicate more generally about what they're doing and also communicating to the campus community and to the larger community about the fact that expectations have changed on campus and the expectations for student behavior are very high and the consequences for violating those expectations can be very serious. So they've got issues of coordination on their end with kind of getting that message out appropriately and to the larger community I subsequently called the executive director for external relations and events and we were talking a lot more about that communications piece also how to let the community know about the very important and progressive steps that the university has taken to deal with this but again it's an enormous organization and the student body changes 25% every year so it will take time to change that culture and getting a lot of pushback even on the culture change that's happened so far so suddenly when students are being held accountable in a very strict manner well their parents start to call and their clergyman start to call and they get legislators calling and everybody's threatening lawsuits and everything so the university really needs to be supported in the actions that it's taking because if we're all serious about trying to think then the only way to change it is through all of these many processes and part of that is accountability so lots of good stuff going on in those areas but take care of a bunch of stuff I was going to say later okay so member reports then the first is the BCG report in your packet of the summary points from that I already talked a lot about one part of that which is the which on this list is 3A being the town manager's priority shared with the superintendent for finding funding for the after school child care program subsidies basically BCG situation is that the budget is balanced Sandy pooler finance director is constantly revising the projections for expenditures and revenue and that is currently in balance with a gap at the elementary schools the elementary schools have a little bit more than $200,000 projected gap which they have brought to the finance committee for a request to fund from reserves the finance committee had a very thorough conversation with them about about the current finance committee policy essentially the town's policy on reserve use as we have observed for the past couple of years which is to say that we're not using reserves to fund additional operating budget and ongoing expenses we've been using reserves to try and shore up our reserves and not go back to the bad old days of essentially spending more money than we had we're only endorsing as a town currently reserve fund use to fund to be a bridge to either anticipated new revenue or anticipated cost savings and this was obvious with the a couple years ago with the measure of the marks meadow school they needed some reserve funds for that to cover to help smooth the last year of operation there in order to get to the cost savings they needed well at this point the elementary schools and the school committee have decided to pursue school choice at the elementary level for the first time for the first time in recent memory starting next year the way that works with under the mass general laws is would be received in FY 13 but is not available for expenditure until FY 14 so the finance committee is satisfied with and the town manager is strongly endorsing the reserve use as the bridge to that to that money in FY 14 that comes from school choice so that's what the recommendation is going to be currently but the finance committee has not taken a formal position on that yet but they did have a discussion where the sense of the body was that that's what they wanted to do they're waiting final numbers on that and the other thing we talked about is another priority that is currently unfunded and miss Brewer can fill in my gaps on this but we'll recall that the recently formed regional school district planning committee of which miss Brewer is our representative along with the finance committee and miss oppie from the school committee had pursued a grant to help fund the assistance that they believe they need to study the financial and legal implications of regionalizing through our elementary school system the other towns in the region are putting funds into this and Amherst needs to kind of be on the same page with them as far as progress and getting and being able to share so they can have this conversation very constructively that grant was not successful so at this point they are without money for being able to get that assistance and at this point they both don't know exactly what the costs are for the money they need what the costs are that they need to pay for and hence they don't know the amount of money that they're going to need so conversations are ongoing about that right now as the costs and recommendations will come as appropriate to whomever about how they might look to be funding that anything else on that Ms. Brewer? That absolutely is exactly right and there's a meeting in fact taking place even as we speak where there's some discussion going on as to what other types of grants and funding might be available through the state because when you talk to the right people you find out about all these other different programs you might not have been aware of but there's one only a mere number of weeks before we had to turn into grants so it was a good grant application but as you'll recall from an email that I think I forwarded while I was away there were tons of grant applications and so there's only so much money to go around and we didn't get it we are still having and obviously this feeds into my later report but we are still having a forum on the 11th and I'm going to ask Harrison to make sure we have time for town meeting article one to also update people on where we are because different communities are looking at this a little differently like of course Pelham which is always so interesting at our four towns meetings they're saying hey we might actually be able to put some money into this spring while the cynical side of me says yeah Pelham really needs to be worried about this right now so maybe they will have the money ready for the spring we don't have dollars ready to know exactly what that will be but it's a work in progress and we won't see any requests for funding associated with spring town meeting but it's a continuing topic of conversation so that essentially covers the summary points the only other point it makes is that there's no additional recommendation at this time last year the BCG's recommendation was okay and any funds above and beyond what we're expecting should go to reserves we're not far enough along to make that recommendation at this point so this elusive $65 million that we keep talking about $1.5 million to Amherst does become available there would be further discussions that would yield a recommendation on that future Mr. McSanti anything you want to add to any of that? No just underscore the caution you know I've mentioned in Mr. Pooler as mentioned multiple times in public that we're really trying to make this a low or no drama budget year that doesn't mean we're flush it just means we're not looking at a multi-million dollar cut for the first time in five years so at this point we're looking at somewhere close to level funding of state aid and but we're still in a precarious but slowly improving situation so it's in that kind of context that budget recommendations are being made and I know for example there's one neighbor in community that has about a million dollar budget gap projecting that their health insurance costs are going up by 1.1 million dollars next year we're very fortunate that we're not having a need to recommend any health healthcare insurance increase but if we had a you know 10 or 12 percent increase we'd be looking at a million dollar increase and lo and behold we'd have a million dollar budget gap so it's in that context I want to be very cautious about spending recommendations that we make thank you alright questions or comments on BCG information then we move on to JCPC Mr. Stein and Mr. Wilds I'll start and then Jim can go ahead for JCPC I wasn't there so I'll leave it to you anyway at the last JCPC meeting the community preservation act chair Peter Jessup came and spoke to us about what had gone on and the recommendations and I've already mentioned the things that were going to be funded last time we met one of the things to keep in mind is that there's a $200,000 reserve for those funds that should something come up say for example a unique opportunity to get a piece of open space that would be very valuable there is some money there to work with then we worked on a proposed list of fundings out of the many requests that we received that Mr. Luehler put forth and there were some a lot of it we had studied them and had come back with our comments to the JCPC meeting and a couple of issues a couple of requests that seemed particularly important weren't on the proposed list so he's gone back to try to put them in too that I think may receive funding that are part of that two that weren't, hadn't made the cut and I don't know what magic he's going to have to work to try to get them in but one was a $30,000 $33,000 request for security cameras in the library the feeling has come we have been incidents there and that they need to have those cameras to record those incidents so that they can deal with the perpetrators these cameras if they get funded would not be recording would not be observed on real time like you see in TV where people sit there in front of TV screens and see what's going on in all parts of the building but it would be a record of what had happened in the different areas of the Jones because that library has many spots where there are no staff people and it has been found in other libraries that just by virtue of having the cameras there and having signs of these areas under surveillance a lot of the problems go away so this was raised as a really important request now that was one the other was a very modest request which was a many of the buildings in town their exteriors are maintained and there is funding in the JCPC list for that but one building which is a town owned property has not received any funding despite the request over several years has been the Hitchcock Center and the building is simply deteriorating they are fighting be that damage the wood wrought and we are actually as a town responsible for maintaining the exterior of that building so as I say I don't know what will be the final outcome but I don't know what will be the final outcome but this is what has been going on in the meetings and actually we are going to have another meeting which wasn't on the docket so we can see the final list and okay anything that you would like to add? I unfortunately missed the last meeting but that is my recollection of the way the conversation was heading so I think it has been very thorough actually two things one is that the Kendrick Park project has simply been bumped from the five year plan because it is over three million dollars and frankly we just don't see being able to do that as it is we are going to be bonding repairs to the downtown fire station that absolutely need to be done tree planting which was needed before the storm and certainly needed now a major dump truck and sander that DPTW really was going to have to have given the snow conditions we had last year if not this year and then there is federal mandated radio replacements for the police department I think that have to be bought so those are very expensive items all of those that are going to go out for bonding it's the way we juggle that's it thank you very much Ms. Brewer I was just I was so pleased to have yet another opportunity to bring up the idea of having that report that tells us the condition of all the town buildings because then we would also have that as a reference for JCPC and for Hitchcock especially given that there are no changes for Hitchcock and at what point would you go ahead and maintain after you've waited a long time to maintain so really looking forward to that report thank you I was wondering that you said that there's a lot of value to putting up the cameras on the signs for surveillance in the library and I was just wondering how much value you could get from putting up the signs without the cameras one just wonder and it would save $33,000 that we're going to have to find somewhere but I don't think we can do that and announce it can we there may or may not be cameras alright I have a few more the Agricultural Commission met and and some of the they would like very much to have a meeting with the Amherst Farmers market to plan for next year so that they can expand the market and Mr. Musanti has agreed to facilitate such meeting and the plan is to have it sometime before the beginning of the new year prior to that they are going to do a survey of Amherst Farmers to see who in fact is interested in participating in an expanded market and the thinking has been that it might be that there are farmers who have goods for only a portion of the market time so that shares could be spaces in the market could be shared in some way and so that's what's going on there the Board of Health I would like to make an announcement there will be a public hearing on April 26 regarding the new regulations on emissions from solid fuel burning devices and I do want to note this one in particular because the fines for disobeying these regs are very high the first defense is between $1,000 and $5,000 and the second offense is between $5,000 and $10,000 and this is mandated apparently by state law once you put these in so it's such a bump from what we're used to thinking about in terms of fines I thought I should really mention that but anyway the public hearing for April 26 and my guess is that the proposed regs are probably on the website but you could get a copy by going to the health department okay moving onward let me see the Kanagasaki sister city committee had a very busy time but a very lovely time in this very room I spoke my very limited Japanese to welcome them and that was fun and then had to introduce Mr. Musanti which I did by calling him John totally gone but it was a lot of fun having these visitors here and I was able to participate in one of the potlucks which was for the Japanese chaperones and teachers and translators and actually had sat at a table with one member of the committee and her spouse and this was the translator who spoke excellent English and we got to share travel stories and things like that it was very rewarding and the feeling of the whole group was that this was really a delightful visit maybe more rewarding in particular since last year the students couldn't come due to the catastrophe in Japan with the nuclear reactor mill down I don't think I want to say anything about that let me just take a quick look nope I'm done thank you questions or comments from Mr. Stein thank you very much for handling the Kanagasaki sister city committee duties it's wonderful for them to have another devoted liaison and thank you for doing that actually one short announcement which is not a liaison thing but we all received an announcement from the Hitchcock Center saying they had still some spaces in their programs for adults and for children so if you're interested contact them thank you other liaison reports from folks Mr. Heaton I just have two very quick ones the zoning subcommittee of the planning board is very hard I see the indication of the fruits of their labors are on the draft warrant that are in front of us tonight they've been spending a lot of time extra meetings even getting the form-based code for Atkins Corners and North Amherst Village Center massaged, corrected made presentable for town meeting there will be public hearings in front of the full planning board next week I believe is the first one on Wednesday you have to double check the website for that but it's I'm really rather impressed with with how much they're taking in from the public and getting it into what will come in front of town meeting next month month and a half from now I'm going to urge everyone to pay attention to those there are lots of words it's not frightening because it's large once you begin to read it it's not bad at all you'll recognize a lot of it from last year of course also I'm not going to be able to listen to my estimable colleagues speaking at the lamp later ceremony tomorrow because I'll be at the League of Women Voters I'll meet the candidates night I'm hoping people will meet me as well as the other folks who are stepping up to do service for the town just to clarify they don't actually overlap lamp later just 330 to 5 and candidates start 7 o'clock for the meet and greet and 730 for some of us working but thank you for reminding folks about the League Mr. Wilde for local historic district committee which will be likewise an item on the warrant this time article 28 I guess and that basically proposes to install some protections for historic resources and planning in the Dickinson district of Amherst standard practice under Massachusetts general law obviously the local historic district study committee is in favor of the measure but the article was also formally endorsed by the historical commission design review board and on Wednesday last week the planning board voted to approve the review by about 6 to 3 will be taken up later of course in this body questions or comments from Mr. Walt anything else Mr. Walt I was actually just going to ask if we'll have some kind of report since that is not a complete slam dunk apparently based on some of the feedback we're getting and so if we'll have something that we can read prior to the night you can measure feedback by numbers or by volume but there will be something I believe members of town staff and members of historical commission and the study committee will be willing to come and present if necessary but there is already some material presented to planning board last week because they took it up twice and wanted some additional information so there will be certainly text and live entertainment as well I think that's what I like to hear since I was away regional school strict planning committee and BCG was all I've attended so far and I'll leave it at that mentioned earlier so great all right let's see I think I covered all my yeah my liaison reports the concom meets tomorrow night and council on aging I was at another meeting so I missed the last meeting but I hope to be at the next one so that's the end of my liaison reports Miss Stein this is so unlike me but I really think that people should be aware of the fact that men's basketball team from UMass has made it into the national invitational tournament and managed to actually beat two teams they were not expected to meet and are playing in the semifinals tomorrow night at the same time as the candidates thank you if they make it to the finals that's it will be broadcast I think Mr. if I might ask the consideration of the town manager for a future town manager's report town manager's report items something like that from me yes exactly I was just frantically looking for something online to see if it was already there and I just completely forgotten I've gotten several questions lately about what would place so if we could just have a brief update as to where things are with that and in terms of for example how much longer the trucks are going to be taking up a third of the surface parking when they're going to be finished with the work and what the permanent which I had to admit I'd totally forgotten what the permanent parking expectations were going to be by the residents there and I said that was all discussed in another venue but it wouldn't hurt to have an update thank you alright let's see open meeting while update this anything on open meeting so she has to yeah because I want to get I want to get the email out to Amy so that we can get the answer back on particularly about Jones Library trustees and the school committee and also what experience if they have any yet because I haven't seen anything published but to ask them if they've done a ruling on anything yet in terms of limitations if there was anything else we thought of April 9th and we might be able to get something for them and so folks who don't know what we're talking about because they don't read our minds that was about the remote participation part of the open meeting law which the slide board is looking to have a town policy on by the end of this fiscal year okay chairs report then the only things I didn't already talk about everything I talked about had to do with town gown stuff I do actually do some other things I did speak I offered remarks at the Tibet Day rally which was actually the same day as the St. Patrick's Day pre-celebration and I read the town's proclamation about Tibet Day and that was people were very happy to have town representation there and it was really a very lovely event I did not join their march all the way to Northampton but they had a beautiful day for it I also offered remarks at the Girl Scout celebration which was the next day I had attended briefly and Miss Stein was able to attend for the whole thing Amherst Folly's fundraiser for the senior center which was at Buckley Recital Hall and Amherst College and it was just magnificent and unfortunately I had to leave just before intermission so that I could go to the Girl Scout event but that was also a really lovely event and that was on the common and that was wonderful I attended the whole performance and the second half was just amazing there's a high school seniors male who sang so fantastically I can't even tell you but the rest of the second half was good too alright did we cover all of the untimed items that we need to cover alright then I will make a motion to go into executive session as is noted on the agenda I move that the select board go into executive session per Massachusetts General Law Chapter 30A section 21A sub set to consider the purchase exchange lease or value of real property because an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the negotiating position of the public body open session will not reconvene at the conclusion of executive session I need a roll call vote please Brewer, aye Stein, aye O'Keefe, aye Hayden, aye and so that adjourns the open meeting session . . . . . . . . . . . . .