 Thank you very much. Welcome to the March 18th select board meeting. This meeting is called to order at 6 30 And before we get started with public comment I would like to note that Alan Tory the town's first town manager passed away on March 7th of Just a couple of weeks ago. He served as Amherstown's manager from 1954 to 1975 and Just in honor of Alan Tory. I'd like to take a moment of silence Thank you very much. Mr. Miesanti. Would you like to say a few words about Mr. Tory? Yeah, I would a number of us Had the honor of attending the funeral services for Alan Tory on Saturday and Looking back through his years of service with the town Back in 1974 when Alan was celebrating his 20th year of service with the town as Its first town manager. There was a town meeting proclamation that characterized Alan Tory as quote dedicated thorough impartial knowledgeable and professional with the highest standards of ethics and Alan after leaving the role of town manager and Serving as treasurer at Hampshire College return to town service back in 1983 and serve to turn two terms on the Amherst select board and Barry Del Castillo former town manager was one of the speakers at the service and talked about Alan's service To his community and to his his church to Hampshire College to the South Amherst community He also talked about the many lunches he had over the years with Alan and you know in talking with staff and reminiscing That was the first time I met Alan Tory was at a lunch with Barry Del Castillo and it was really Going through a laundry list of town issues and it was a mini history lesson having Opportunity to speak with Alan and so He was a real leader in our community and I joined many others and mourning his passing and thanking him for his Decades of service to the community Thank you very much someone who really very literally helped make Amherst what it is today. So, thank you Okay, public comment. How many folks do we have here for public comment? Okay, Mr. Weiss Please introduce yourself for folks. I hope I'm Jerry Weiss from precinct eight For thank you for recognizing me. I'm glad to see you all up there. I'm reminded every time I come I'm thankful that you're up there and not me It's my understanding that sometimes this year Rolling green apartments will cease to be considered low-income housing units that they have been for I don't know how many years And that they make up a fairly large number of our units and that When they go what we call I think it's called offline meaning they'll become more private Market rate units When that happens the town will go below the 10% threshold that the state requires To avoid having developers come in and be able to put up Kind of what they want. They can ignore a lot of zoning laws as long as they provide a certain number of handy Low-income units probably 10% they probably have to provide at least 10% and so that's my understanding and That That means that that developers can pretty much do what they want if they own a piece of land and we've always avoided that because we've been above 10% for many many years and Because of that right because of that number above 10% they couldn't do that They had to actually get permission from the select board to do it So I would love if the select board would hold a public make this a An item a scheduled items in the near future Invite a member of the planning department a member of the housing committee and Have an open discussion So the community can hear all that's going on what it means to the community. What are is anything going to be done about this 10% problem? A week too, should we expect? Developers coming in and buying up some land and putting up large buildings. I Think the community would like to I would like to know and I'm guessing a lot of the community would like to know What is all this going to mean and when would it mean that? So I'd love to see that be a scheduled item Thank you very much. Thank you coming in Next ma'am Please identify yourself Karen Jones. I'm a previous resident of Amherst for many years. I was a town meeting member of member of the parking Commission public transportation and bicycle committee and I'm here before you as a member of the planning committee for the bike week celebration will happen in May from the Monday the 13th to the 17th Friday and Our request to you is to be able to reserve the use of the Main Street parking lot on Friday for our breakfast, which we've had for I guess 14 years now and the Spring Street lot on Wednesday for the rodeo, which will be available for registration by high spike elementary school kids in conjunction with leisure services After-school program We do things all week Monday through Friday and these are the two that require use of space Thank you, so that is on our agenda to deal with that tonight So we do have a motion for that but while you're here Is there anything else you'd like to say about the bike week activities kind of give folks? Members of the community we welcome veteran bicyclists In frequent bicyclists and newbie bicyclists We want to support people who want to get on a bike from all ages, you know young to old we're working with the senior center and The health department this year to see if we can get some elders on in the saddle And where can folks learn more about there will be information posted where this is a part of an initiative that statewide that's done with the mass dot and And that's called base state bike week dot. Or guess where you can get information base state base state bike week I look and then mass bike PV all one word dot org Gives a calendar of events in the Pine Valley and the Pine Valley Planning Commission plays a major role in helping all this happen Thank you is anybody else here for public comment for something that's not on the agenda Okay, then we might as well take care of the bike week Motions right now. Well, Miss Jones is here so she can leave satisfied. We have done this correctly I move that the select board approved the reservation of all metered parking spaces in the spring street parking lot on Wednesday, May 15 2013 from 12 p.m. To 6 p.m. For a bike rodeo Second for the discussion Famer say hi I move that the select board approve the reservation of all metered parking spaces in the main street parking lot on Friday, May 17 2013 from 6 a.m. 2 p.m. For the annual bike breakfast and bike show Second for the discussion mr. Aiden It turns out that I'm too old to join the rated rodeo, but it looks like it's a lot of fun on Wednesday But the Friday I'm allowed to participate in the events on Friday and those are also It's a great deal to come and not only get breakfast, but to meet your fellow bicyclers learn their stories and I'm hopeful that they'll be the fun contraptions to try out There are all different kinds of bicycles that often show up there. So Thank you very much for the discussion Oh in favor say hi. Hi That is unanimous. Thank you very much. Thank you for coming in and we will look forward to bike week All right, we still got six minutes before our first timed item So let's see if we can take care of a couple of un-timed items. We do have other parking reservations I move that the select board approve the reservation of the first eight metered parking spaces on the west side of boltwood Avenue We're originating at Spring Street moving south toward College Street beginning Saturday May 4 2013 from 8 a.m. To 2 p.m. And the reservation of the first four metered parking spaces on the west side of Boltwood Avenue originating at Spring Street moving south toward College Street and the reservation of the first four metered parking spaces on the south side of the Spring Street parking lot beginning at the Boltwood Street entrance from Thursday, May 2nd 2013 at 8 a.m. Through Friday May 3rd 2013 to 6 p.m. And again on Saturday May 4th 2013 beginning at 2 p.m. Through Sunday May 5th 2013 at 6 p.m. For the Amherst League of Women Voters annual book sale Second for the discussion. This looks an awful lot like the reservation. We Handled last year and the year before that and the year before that I guess the season is starting for activities on the town common and this is a good one raising As it does funds for the League of Women Voters It actually is the major source of funding for the local League of Women Voters very important We have gotten this motion down pat after all of these years Much details, but okay for the discussion on favor say aye. Aye. Aye. That is unanimous another one The liquor license We can't do that you do the Florence savings bank parking one below the bike. Yes, I can do that I move that the select board approve the reservation of four metered parking spaces in front of 98 North Pleasant Street and Super Bowl on the west side of North Pleasant Street on March 22nd 2013 at a cost of five dollars per meter per day for the installation of a replacement ATM That's for Florence Bank, and maybe it should save that 26th Sorry about that, but yes because I was distracted by the fact that the motion should say For Florence savings bank as part of the motion, I think okay, Mr. He never you seconded much. I have seconded. Thank you, miss I Would just like us to reassure the public what I think is true Which is that the odds once we approve this the office will let Super Bowl and the adjacent business know about it Just so they're not horribly surprised when they show up in case the bank people didn't think to tell them ahead of time Thank you for the discussion on favor say aye. Aye. Aye. That's unanimous a couple more minutes So let's try some special liquor licenses I move that the select board approve a special wine and malt license for the friends of the Jones Library wine Tasting fundraiser to be held in the Jones Library on Saturday March 23rd 2013 from 3 p.m. To 5 p.m. Bonnie isman president Actually, I think you've got an old motion sheet because the new motion sheet has that one struck that's been No, we struck the one from Eisenberg. Oh, well that event has been postponed until the fall, so Yeah, it just didn't make it to the update. All right, shall I take the second one down? Let's see that's for the Eric No, no, no, am I reading in the right place? Okay, so it should be the Eric Carl museum Yes, yeah, okay. Yeah, Margaret Margarita. It was still says testing even though I called and said it's tasting Okay, the wheels are falling off. I'm sorry, but we don't test the Margaritas. We All right, I will be noted on the minutes I move that the select board approve a special all alcohol License for the Amherst Chamber of Commerce Margarita tasting at the Eric Hall Museum on March 27 2013 from 5 p.m. To 8 p.m. Joan Tempton marketing director If we could just correct jones last name in the minutes that'd be helpful Further discussion. I don't favor say hi. Hi. That's unanimous. All right That's all we're gonna do for now. We're gonna do our 645 item. Thank you very much We'll have those to fill in later. So our 645 item is statements of interest from mass school building authority This is something we do every couple of years. This is we need to be part of the process To get on the state's list for potentially signing for potentially financing new school construction or renovation So we have mr. Pahanowicz and Miss Garak here to talk to us about the letters You haven't done this. I can't remember if we did it last year We don't do it every year, but um what the last time we did it We said you know what these letters are kind of confusing and it would be nice to have folks here to tell us what they're talking about So here you are. Thank you So I will speak to kind of the educational goals of what we're hoping to receive if we are chosen to receive funds from the building authority So we are and we brought this motion to the Amherst schools Committee on to last Tuesday and they voted to support both statements of interest and this would be for Fort River elementary school and Wildwood elementary school and our hope would be to Renovate both of the buildings I'll speak about the educational piece and you can talk about the infrastructure and things that I won't know how to cover So in terms of the educational Structure for those of you who have been in both of those buildings While they are to some standard really fine buildings They're not really created to be conducive to educating students today I know that there must have been a great reason to have open-air classrooms Many many years ago, but today to have in three to four classrooms in one space Where there are partial walls? That go up so the noise from four classrooms are within that space is challenging also When students are walking from one part of the quad To and to use the bathroom they walk through each other's classrooms So it's not how today if we were going to look at how to design the interior of our school just from the classroom perspective alone Would not be this would not be our first choice in addition there are Needs today that when you have specific populations of students You want to have smaller breakout spaces where you're working with students in small groups? We have less opportunity for that type of instruction unless we're kind of walking with kids across the building So you lose instructional time through Movement throughout the building So those are kind of the the larger like the educational implications And I know Ron can speak to many many more in terms of safety as well as the structures Let me just give you a little bit too about the what they call the SOI the statement of interest in the MSBA Which is the message is a school building association? This process is something that they did a while back ago to expedite The selection of schools that are in need of renovations repairs or or new schools being built Previously what would happen is the people like ourselves would go off We'd hire an architect we'd spend all kinds of money and then we would go out and say hey we want to build a school will the state give us some funding and Sometimes you got on the list and sometimes you didn't and in the meantime the town's actually spent lots of money under engineering and that kind of Stuff this process now what we do is we submit to them we're interested in moving forward and if we move forward will you play in the game with us and if they then invite us into the game then we can start moving down that road of Of the designs in what we're going to actually do so the first thing we have to do is we have to get a Vote from the school committee and then and when it's a town building you have to also get the select board Or if it's a city to mayor or whoever else to Say that they're willing to support this and what we're really there isn't any real monetary commitment when we Vote tonight, but what is there is you are serious that we're gonna if we were chosen We're really serious about moving forward and that's kind of what we're really voting on Along with what Maria had spoken about with the schools There's also a couple of things that are really new than a prop popped up in the rat in the last few years And that's the security of the schools these schools again with this for open area Any type of entry into the school automatically you have four classrooms that you can get into us in a second our main office is literally 80 feet or a hundred feet away from the doors And before you even get to the main office There's hallways that you can go down and then there's also rooms. They're just off of those main hallways Additionally those at school the one thing that the town has done is has maintained the school Fairly well. I have written this SOI since 2008. I submitted in eight nine and I think ten in 11 I sent one for the Middle school windows and we were fortunate enough to get invited in on the windows They they reimbursed us at 60 cents on a dollar and this year actually what we are asking for is we're asking for Wildwood Fort River, and I actually wrote one for the high school for new boilers at the high school under their green under their green SOI and That only had to be voted by the regional school committee and then signed by Maria to submit And so we're submitting that as well, and I'm hoping that we're gonna get that money is in addition So it's also a long way in front of us But part of the process just to come here tonight and get your vote that you were willing to support Moving forward on this. Thank you very much an excellent explanation and much appreciated Questions or comments from select board members This brew as I always like to point out when we do this statement One of the things that you know and you explained the process super well But for people who are looking at it online and just looking at the statement of interest Sometimes the categories sound kind of scary and and you should not be afraid to send your children to school The buildings are not falling in nothing's you know the furnaces and failing Any of those things unfortunately those things are happening in other parts of the state Which is why so many people are ahead of us in line, but but we fit within these categories. It just doesn't mean that Scary, so I just like to reassure And that is that is true and just as a you know again for the public There's 1800 schools in the state of Massachusetts and of those 1800 there's many many people looking to go into this process and as a matter of fact if you went on to the Massachusetts School Building Authority's website you can actually see where all the projects are there's a graphic representation of where they are And it's pretty interesting Thank you. Miss Stein however We one of the repairs that's needed. That's before JCPC is for a $400,000 boiler Work for the Wildwood School, so we're talking about some very serious Expenditures that need to be made And that's one of the categories that the MSBA looks at is Boilers and energy and so it'd be wonderful if we could in fact get some money to help with these So would that money in fact help or is that JCPC is a separate process for this Well, the JCPC the 400,000 that we're asking for for the JCPC is to retrofit the boilers that are existing What we call number two fuel oil also known as just regular home heating oil and We're gonna retrofit those with in there from 1973. We're gonna retrofit them with Natural gas high efficiency boilers. I did that at Fort River I think it's two years now and I just did it. I was doing some numbers today and The Fort River last year we spent $29,000 in natural gas Whereas Wildwood last year we spent a hundred and eight thousand dollars in oil. So I'm predicting that if we move forward with the $400,000. We're gonna have a 60 or $70,000 per year Payback on it and in addition to that We're not only getting the the economies of the commodity pricing But what we're also getting is the efficiency of going from something like the high 70s up to the 90s and efficiency and then also I'm big and I love energy and I love the community But it also really helps us from the carbon footprint as well because the natural gas is much less Carbon output than the fuel oil. That's tremendous So that that what none of that is dependent on the MSBA? No, but what what I can say is what we do with the boiler will be Usable in the future So it's not like it's throw away money. Thank you. Miss Stein. Also. I'm remembering that we Did roof repairs to Wildwood a long time ago or quite a while ago and then got reimbursed Is that a possibility with this boiler? No, because one of the things right now is there's the green energy thing that I talked about at the high school That's under the MSBA if you only need one thing you need a a roof or a boiler or windows One thing they'll fund that under the green repair If you need like Wildwood because of the infrastructure with the classrooms and everything else They're gonna either fund the whole project or they're not gonna fund any of it at all. Okay Thank you. Other questions or comments for these folks Anyone in the public questions or comments? Okay, Miss Stein, would you like to make the motions? Okay, and I am to read all of this if you would please Special way. Yes. Okay. I just want to be sure because it is rather lengthy Having convened in an open meeting on March 18 2013 the Amherst legboard in accordance With its charter bylaws and ordinances has voted to authorize the superintendent to submit to the Massachusetts School Building Authority the statement of interest form dated 2013 for the Fort River Elementary School located at 70 South East Street Which describes and explains the following deficiencies and the priority Categories for which an application may be submitted to the Massachusetts School Building Authority in the future One replacement or renovation of a building which is structurally unsound or otherwise in a condition seriously jeopardizing the health and safety of school children where no alternative exists to elimination of Existing severe overcrowding three Prevention of severe overcrowding expected to result from increased enrollment for replacement renovation or modernization of school facility systems such as roofs Windows boilers heating and ventilation systems to increase energy Conservation and decrease energy related costs in a school facility five short-term enrollment growth six replacement of or addition to obsolete buildings in order to provide for a full range of Programs consistent with this with state and approved local requirements and hereby further specifically acknowledges that by submitting this statement of interest form the Massachusetts School Building Authority in no way guarantees the acceptance or the approval of an application the awarding of a grant or any other funding commitment from the Massachusetts School Building Authority or commits the city's Towns-Regional School District to filing an application for funding with the Massachusetts School Building Authority That's unanimous one more Okay having convened in an open is going to be very boring But having convened in an open meeting on March 18th 2013 the Amherst Select Board in accordance with its charter bylaws and ordinances has voted to authorize the Superintendent to submit to the Massachusetts School Building Authority the statement of interest form dated 2013 for the Wildwood Elementary School located at 71 Strong Street, which describes and explains the following deficiencies and Priority categories for which an application may be submitted to the Massachusetts School Building Authority in the future one replacement or renovation of a building which is structurally Unsound or otherwise in a condition seriously jeopardizing the health and safety of school children where no alternative exists To elimination of existing severe overcrowding three prevention of severe overcrowding expected to result from increased enrollments or Replacement renovation or modernization of school facility systems such as roofs windows boilers heating and ventilation systems to increase energy conservation and decrease energy-related costs in a school facility for short-term enrollment growth five replacement of or In addition to obsolete buildings in order to provide for a full range of programs consistent with state and approved local Requirements and hereby further specifically acknowledges that by submitting this statement of interest form the Massachusetts School Building Authority in no way Guarantees the acceptance or the approval of an application the awarding of a grant or any other funding Commitment from the Massachusetts School Building Authority or commits the city slash town slash Regional school district to filing an application for funding with the Massachusetts School Building Authority Second for the discussion. Mr. Hayden clearly. This is a result of the full employment for Select Boards Act that we have to read all of this But also I guess the form is important to be clear about what it is We're doing even though that that is pretty rote I mean clearly we're only going to pick one or two or three of those seven items So that's exactly why Miss Brewer in particular had requested that you folks come in and explain this because otherwise We're sitting there going I don't know what we're talking about or that are the buildings falling down You know, is there extreme overcrowding or whatever? So that's very helpful so much appreciated. Miss Stein. Okay, so I'm really old but I remember when that school was new Wildwood and my kids went to England after their first year there and bragged about the carpeting on the floor and this wonderful space that they had and You know, it's it's hard for I remember when they put up the totem pole, which was done by the students It's hard to believe That it's really so different But I've seen it since so I know that it desperately needs this work So I hope you get the money for the discussion Very much say hi Thank you very much for coming in really appreciate it I don't know why people put carpets in elementary schools in particular in the cafeteria It was supposed to make it quiet. No, it's supposed to make it quiet. So you could handle all that open space Thank you very much appreciate you coming in Okay, 655 item. This is a liquor license change. This is a change of manager for tie corner and we had established quite a while ago that when When the liquor license change does not require a public hearing. We don't make anybody come in for it We've talked many times about how the liquor licenses are so incredibly specific that any change to them Needs to come before the select board, but only changes at a certain level require an actual public hearing on that So a change of manager does not require a public hearing, but I want to make sure nobody's here to speak to that at all Okay, so miss Stein. Would you like to make that motion? Sure. Yeah, there's two motions under okay Just to make sure but once in yellow and I didn't know if that was part of the revised motion sheet That's a good thing. I move that the select board approve a change of manager from Chet Setio and pock to can it Boonag for tie corner incorporated doing business as tie corner restaurant ABCC license number zero two four zero zero zero nine zero dash eleven Second for the discussion this burr. I just wanted to also mention quickly to follow up What you said these the select board tell manager office does such a fabulous job on these things for us I mean anybody who looks at the stuff online. There was an additional piece of paper tonight It's just tons of paperwork from ABCC. We look at it. We're like whatever. I mean, it's just so wrote But the police chief does look at it. That's why the change of manager has to be looked at So there are it may seem like we're not doing much because we're not but we have to do that part But the office behind us and the police chief behind us are doing all their parts to make sure this all works Appropriately, so we aren't just killing trees for no reason That's a good point that we are we are the end of the line and this there's plenty of process before it gets to us Mr. Aden and we appreciate it indeed for the discussion all in favor say aye. Aye. That's unanimous I move that the select board approve the new officers slash directors as presented in the petition for transfer of ownership dated March 18th 2013 for Tide Corner Incorporated doing business as Tide Corner restaurant ABCC license number zero two four zero zero zero nine zero dash 11 Second further discussion all in favor say aye. Aye. That's unanimous. Thank you. All right Good. All right, so our next item then is the FY 14 budget discussion on the 2013 paving and roadwork plan and We have mr. Zeke from a department of public works here to talk to us about this for folks following along at home per usual we have all this information in our web packets and Welcome, please introduce yourself for folks at home. Oh, thank you. Well, yes I'm mr. Zeke and I will applaud you for pronouncing it right because most people don't so that's impressive But I'm the assistant superintendent of public works So since Guilford is not available tonight. I get to present this to you Yeah, just very briefly before Amy Walks you through there is a worksheet in your packet and that's posted online that has a as a our Current list of construction activity by public works for 2013 that she can run through in detail and Steve Braun is also here from chair of the public works committee They've been working very closely with staff Assisting with the development of prioritized recommendations and We've had a number of discussions. It's been very very helpful So Amy will run through the list And it continues progress But the which is good But the the tough thing that people throughout town and throughout the state know is that the list of projects that need to be done streets that need to be paved Sidewalks etc is very very long. In fact in Amherst we have about a 16 million dollar Backlog there's roughly a million and a half dollars in available funding for the coming year So we have a long ways to go and it just underscores That as we consider this in the sequencing of projects It's very very important that the state of Massachusetts and the legislature Provide cities and towns with the resources we need to maintain and Rehabilitate our roads There is a transportation finance bill That's been filed In the legislature the house is actively considering it Presently We are very hopeful there will be action by the House of Representatives during the month of April that would Could potentially if the governor's proposal is adopted Allow our chapter 90 road grant to be increased by 50% it would go from about 800,000 a year to about 1.2 million dollars a year You know so that's and with a 10-year commitment with with increases over that time for inflation That would allow us To address the majority of that list And my intention would be to if we really did get a 10-year commitment from the legislature at that amount would be to bond a Large portion of that Chapter 90 money so we could we could do the work over the next two to three construction Seasons and see the benefit of those improvements at less cost than waiting a full ten years, but that's a Debate that's very active now in the legislature They're talking about how to the the easy part is arriving at consensus for the needs the hard part is getting agreement on a Tax source to pay for it a broad-based tax is critical There's been discussions about some combination of sales and income tax income tax And that's I think it's important that we let the legislators know and Transportation secretary Davey and the governor that we're supporting his efforts and April really is a critical time to bring This thing to the finish line so we can begin to make real meaningful progress against our entire list Tell us the details Well you guys have your list in front of you So I guess I I don't know how much detail You guys want specifically We have we have it kind of broken down in terms of funding sources for these so under the bond funding We're looking at Strong Street Northeast Street to East Pleasant Street, there's probably going to be a little bit of sidewalk work there as well Then we have Triangle Street also under that same bond issue From Main Street to Old North Pleasant Street and again Look, there'll be a little bit of sidewalk sidewalk work with that Both of those are going to be reclaimed For chapter 90 work. We have Lincoln Ave, which As you guys probably know we've been doing the sewer work So that'll be base coat only this year and then hopefully top coat next year And then we have West Street to be done And that's just going to be a small section of West Street And I know if you look at the the price tag on that it looks like a lot of price for a small amount of length That involves some Regrating right now the there's a short Section there that there's not good site, especially if you're pulling in and out of the red barn So this is the section right in front of the red barn So there's going to be some lowering of the road to improve the the site on that There's a little bit of water work there as well because we'll be lowering the road so the water main will have to be moved as well And then Dana Street putting in the speed humson Dana Street is the last last item under chapter 90 funding Under our sewer fund we're going to be looking at Repaving the section of Cherry Lane that we replaced the sewer main in last year So and that's going to be getting the top course it got the base course last year And then a couple of other I guess miscellaneous projects. We're going to be doing the middle school tennis courts We're going to be doing the site prep the reclaiming and the regrading and then the school is going to be taking care of Defensing and the painting and the other Associated work and then we have we have cottage street Which we will be doing the top court The top course on Depending on what version of this you got I Don't know if you got cottage street from triangle Street, too. We have number 36 triangle Street It should be the entire length of that, but we are We are at this point trying to figure out What exactly we're going to do the town engineer is working on a focus group with some residents there to try and figure out So that the design isn't quite done on that But it is our intention to try to do the whole road to come with a consensus with the the residents there so So those are the the actual paving projects and then the second part of the sheet There is the other projects that we're going to have that are going to have some effect on the roadways But don't necessarily involve paving this year. I don't know if you want me to run through those or not Sure, why don't you want to do just sort of a brief overview of those also? Yeah, that's great so for water projects this year we have Centennial the the next phase last year the phase was to put the sewer main down Amherst Road and Pelham Road this year the phase two of that is to replace the pump station Which is in front of the Pelham police fire station right there the pump station there is It's in rough shape, so we're going to be replacing that as kind of phase two for the centennial work and then we're replacing a water main on Hillcrest Ave Due to water quality issues there and then on Old Town Road and Moorland Street We're replacing some water main there for to increase the water main capacity there and also to I Guess to loop a couple of dead ends there, so we don't have dead ends which are typical water quality Issues so so that's the work that we're doing The Hillcrest Old Town and Moorland Street those three Projects we're going to be doing in-house our crews will be doing that and then the pump station work We do have a contractor for that sewer projects Larkspur Would wildflower lady slipper T. Berry Lane would Woodlot Road those are all part of the sewer expansion project We are putting together a bid for that to go out to get a contractor to do that work So those are the sewer projects and then water and sewer it's Harkness Road Which again that's part of our sewer expansion project That's you know this year's portion of that and then Pine Street. I guess pending town town meeting approval Of the bonds for that we will be doing both water and sewer replacement on Pine Street Okay, so I'm sure select board will have plenty questions then we'll get to Share the public works committee if you'd like to comment And I know there's a bunch of folks from the public would like to comment So starting with questions and comments from select board on any of these items. What is and isn't on the list Sorry there. Well, I actually brought the the list of projects that I was given at the last public works committee meeting So there's a lot of stuff that's not on the list And I just wanted to be appreciative of the committee for their aid in prioritizing that you know sort of getting to the what what is See what are the top problems? I It was a very long conversation and very thoughtful and I'm glad for it because it does give us get get us to this point where we can say yeah, this is this is a good list Thank you, Ms. Burr. That's excellent, and I'm sorry if you already mentioned this You did such a great overview, but maybe I missed it when you're talking and it's in my neighborhood So that's why I have to ask under the water section Yep, hold old town in more land and of course I want to know for Hillcrest anyway, too when we do that work then Because of the staging of the of the previous Projects, so we'll do the water main work this year then obviously that will tear up the road So then does the road get done the same year or does it get done the following year just so that I can tell People when they go Have them call us Typically what we'll do is when we finish that work We will at least patch it. We do try and get a base course down that year if we can but You never get perfect compaction when you do it, so you want to wait at least a year until you do the top course just that Pavement quality if we can wait that year and that's why you'll see some of You know cherry Lane and Cottage Street are both places where we did the work last year I got the base course now. We'll do the top course now that it's settled exactly and of course These are much less traveled than those are and so but just to let people know. It's not going to stay that way exactly Thank you Other questions or comments from select board miss Jane. It's just another it's it's kind of a subtle one You mentioned the looping of mains As I understand that that's a small additional cost There are not long pieces that connect the ends of those together, so it loops through But it is really good practice and I appreciate that that that we're actually putting it into practice here It helps a lot What can you tell us about pine Street, so what's the what's the general status of pine Street? Which has to be the most complained about road in town? Yes We certainly get our share of complaints as well, so I As far as I know We've just been waiting to get fun, you know for the last several years. We've been hoping to get State grants or something to be able to do that work But there was as with a lot of these ones you want to fix what's under the road before you actually do the road I Believe we applied for funding again this year and did not get it So we're that's why at least through the water and sewer fund. We're going to move forward with replacing the infrastructure because We can't continue to wait for Outside funding for that the engineers are working because we understand that there's a lot of questions about if we do Traffic improvements at certain intersections or engineers are busy looking at different options And I'm sure they'll be presenting that to you guys as they come up with different selections So that's still very much in the in the process So I believe there's plans on the public works website for different options that we're looking at there So thank you. So the the water and sewer lines will be replaced Which means tearing up the road pretty significantly anyway, so once that's done no matter what you put over It's going to be an improvement over currently, right? Yes, so I mean is that true does it does it really kind of rip up the whole road surface or is it just going to be It's it's going to rip it up pretty good But we will be Yeah You may or may not notice and at least you know a year from now It's going to be a great road and it's going to be great the infrastructure underneath, you know The water main will be the right size The sewer main will be the right size to be able to handle Everything that we put down it from Acton's treatment. That's part of what's overwhelming that sewer main right now anyway, so And is this at this whole list not just the sewer part But all of it is this more or less in the order it's expected to go or how does that work? Not necessarily in the order we In terms of the work that we do The guys are going to do it in order of when they can get materials and what makes sense in terms of the paving Just a little note on timeline. We are working on the bid to put the bid out. Hopefully by middle of April we'll have The bids in from the contractor so they should be able to start pretty quickly after that and then we're going to try and If we can sneak in stuff like triangle Street Before graduation that would be great. Otherwise we'll wait till the kids are out of school Like those are the sort of things that help us prioritize when these actually happen is when other Activities are going on that we have to work around And is the em is that whole bidding process is that is that on track for what you expected like we talked about Bonding in the fall in order to get an early start on this year's paving process instead of having to wait until after spring town meetings I was that's I think overall it is and we're expecting competitive bids to come in April and people will be wondering about pothole filling in these various places in the meantime Are you you're not going to ignore the roads that are on the list or anything like that, right? No Right now. We're a little disadvantaged. We have a big stack of potholes in our reclamers Getting some repairs over the last week. So if people are a little frustrated with pothole filling right now, it's We'll be back on track in a couple of days, but That is a concern, you know Other questions or comments from select board One other question. So Dana Street speed humps. This is something that we've heard a lot from Members of that those Dana and Blue Hills neighborhoods about and also from Public Works Committee in their original recommendation to us the concern is since the roads are are parallel and sort of You know people might use one versus the other if we only do the speed humps on one street What does that mean? So what's the rationale behind that plan? the rationale behind doing Dana Street and not Blue Hills is just that the the pavement on Blue Hills is It's in rough enough shape that the speed humps It would be hard to Actually secure them to the road essentially You basically don't want to put speed humps on until you have a good enough surface to be able to put them over So until Blue Hills can make it onto the priority list of roads to be paved We wouldn't necessarily recommend that it be done We do also another hitch in that whole thing is that there are a couple of water quality issues on Blue Hills that We're in the process of having studied but we don't quite know the answer and again You don't want to repave a road until you make sure what's underneath it is taken care of so, you know It's on our radar, but not necessarily for this year Okay All right, I'm sure there will be more comment about that Other questions or comments from select board So a mr. Brown would you like to talk to us about public works? Okay. Thank you All right, so then public folks want to comment on anything they've heard tonight Sure, yeah, so you need to come forward then and if you just move aside so he might speak there and please identify yourself for folks Allow us to address this It is identify yourself, I'm sorry, my name is Reese Davis and I live on on Blue Hills road. Thank you when we first came To the PWC meeting We very clearly came together as a package Dana and Blue Hills together because we we realized the repercussions of one Street getting it and the other street not getting it was the Reproduction pretty bad So The reason you gave is I absolutely engineering and said it obviously is an issue What we would like to possibly Be allowed to sort of Okay So the main concern is that if we are split splitting Between the two because we came very clearly with the two together As you know with drivers They'll very quickly find out that one street is slow one street is fast The issue we have at the moment is Blue Hills is a is a deceptively quiet street There are no sidewalks People walk down the middle of the street quite happily kids play on the street They learn to ride their bikes and all that stuff Where the scene changes rapidly is when you have the opportunistic driver who sees the back up on route nine I'm gonna cut across and you can see them down the end of the road and they barrel down straight down 40 50 60 not miles an hour not unusual As parents I mean over the years we've resorted to shouting after cars Waving them slower we even park cars Strategically down the streets to try and slow them and that works but that shouldn't really be our job. We shouldn't have to do that So the add to that the number of kids that are on our streets We have 27 kids on our streets. We have under 16 23 of those under 12 13 of those are under eight so the numbers the cocktail is potentially pretty bad if Drivers find out that Okay, Dana's no good. We're gonna go down Blue Hills, and we're very fearsome. What could happen? And I think with all respect to the issues that are obviously There's obviously is an issue. How do you do it? We're just worried and we I don't think we'd have come together as Blue Hills and Dana together If we thought they would have been one of the other Issue I don't think I think it we were quite clear from them We've even had let John Willoughby who's been leading the petition on Dana I think he wrote a letter to you today his continued support, you know Dana Wanted to see this as a package still if this is at all possible I'm not quite sure how you'd want to do it But it is a major concern if we get split up. Thank you So it's so is this something that the public works folks public works committee public works staff can continue to work with The neighbors on and decide whether this is the right time to do Dana are not Like I don't think the select board should just decide like that would be fairly random and arbitrary of us but You know can because those are very real concerns if you if you do one versus the other But maybe the maybe the residents haven't thought about the fact that that could mean You know it'd be a long time until you do Blue Hills or whatever So there are there are a lot of different ways to think about it to kind of work out. So So it it's not too late in the process for you to kind of maybe put the brakes on that or or however to continue the conversation So everybody's nodding. So that's good. So Yeah, we'll work with staff and and with the neighbors and you know The the issue with Blue Hills to me as a matter of when not if but Like a lot of the road work and traffic calming work the When is dependent upon having the funds to To attack that list in a in a major way So I'm inclined not to proceed You know to make a small the dollars on Dana for the speed humps are relatively small But the whole point is to make the entire Neighborhood meaning both streets safer. So if that in an unintended way Could in the short term create, you know safety issues on an adjoining street that I'm I'm persuaded not to proceed on Dana yet if we do get to be funded by the Commonwealth through the transportation finance bill that will allow us to to Really attack this list in a major way and we'd be in a position to complete the water waterline feasibility work and then work in the speed humps and paving so that could be done in a coordinated way so I'm very much persuaded by the By what you're saying and by mr. Willoughby summary that was provided to the board today Thank you Miss Brewer. So along those lines then Would you then also speak with another aspect of staff to talk about enforcement on both blue hills just in general because obviously They're experiencing this issue But also as the Lincoln work starts up because as the Lincoln work starts up then obviously it puts even more pressure on the nice smooth Dana the not so Blue Hills and so there will be consequences anyway. What no matter what we do because of doing the work on Lincoln All right. I'm mr. Davies anything else you'd like to Know Thank you very much for coming in and offering your comment other folks like to comment on the the paving and construction plan Please come forward and please identify yourself at the mic Hello, I'm David Schmidt from Excuse me Blue Hills Road Thank you for recognizing me and listening I'd like to Concur with what mr. Davies said His concerns. I think a very valid I would like to see if I can persuade you to a slightly different conclusion Based on some of the same facts. I think we all see the parallels between Dana and how work on one impacts the other but this is If you look at the proposed construction list under C90 where the Dana Street work is listed at $7,300 approximately And I'd like to put that number in perspective a minute and lead you Along with my thinking that's Relatively small cost about one-thirtieth of the tennis court item a little bit further down also Just to give you an idea of The current state of things My car was parked in broad daylight on Blue Hills Road and A broad daylight raining but midday and a car smashed into it and did $9,000 of damage to my car Thank God it wasn't a person because as mr. Davies mentioned there are no sidewalks So our streets filled with people and in the snow snowy season They don't even have the option of walking across the grass of their children Right the snowplow pushes up all the berms. They're in the street for good So $9,000 of damage the cost of that one crash exceeds the cost of the speed humps Assuming that it'd be the same as Dana Street So since we can't really be sure whether it's One two three years out that we would get the sewer work done and the repaving all those Necessary preliminaries to the speed hump. I'd like to see if I can make the point that It's worth spending the extra seven thousand three hundred dollars now Even though we're cognizant of the fact that the road would be torn up and at some point in the future And probably to the tune of a few hundred thousand dollars of work put into it to redo the pipes and everything that The current state of affairs warrants. I think more immediate action Thank you very much So so the the engineering folks will continue to to work on the the options there and how the finances work out I'm I would imagine though, certainly I don't know I'm no expert on this that it would cost more than the seventy three hundred dollars to do it because you Would need to actually prepare the road surface to make them adhere So you don't know speed bumps that are either just falling apart or being pushed down the street or something like that but One of the things I've learned in this job is nothing is as easy as you think it is That's why we'll we'll continue to have these folks Work out the equations on that and consider the pros and cons. I think that all of your points have been Well heard and are certainly very appreciated and and we're just trying to find what the best solution is for the short term And the long term so so please stay engaged with this as they continue to work through those solutions Thank you very much Other folks like to comment on paving. Please come forward. Please identify yourself. Good evening. I'm Jeff Kalman I live at 42 Blue Hills Road. We're here in mass tonight. I'll be brief. I Hear that the speed humps can't go in really until the road is by a viably paved and so forth as a community Blue Hills Road has Informally decided that it's possible for us to financially if The town would allow it to put in temporary speed bumps under the current conditions So we would because we have over 20 children who live on this one little stretch of road We are willing to Explore that option if if you are likewise Thank you very much. That's very. Yeah, that's very solution oriented of you and much appreciated So again, I'll be part of the conversation staff and everybody will talk about the viability of that option as well So that's tremendous. Thank you Other questions or comments first from the public Okay, Ms. Brewer Completely understanding what you stated earlier I want to reassure the public that we will continue to encourage staff to look at this I mean select board won't say, you know, oh, we're gonna do this one and not this one And pick and choose off the list But when we say that we don't just mean yeah, thanks, but you know, whatever We actually will talk about this because we have had conversations in the past Oh, you know 10 15 years where we said we absolutely never ever ever want to put a crosswalk by the Jones library What a horrible idea and whether or not it's a horrible idea It's something we ended up doing despite it seeming like we couldn't possibly do it So, you know, this is I appreciate that everybody's being really solution-oriented and trying to take into account You know one affecting the other can there be some private investment here on a very temporary basis Understanding it's not a long-term solution So we really appreciate people coming together with that and people will keep talking to each other and talking to you and engaging with You so thank you. Thank you All right, other questions or comments about any of this plan All right, so next steps are that this Some of this stuff still needs approval from town meeting. This is part of the FY 14 budget and whereas others is already funded. Is that correct? Yeah, the Pine Street water sewer needs town meeting authorization the other The other items are previously authorized by the million dollar bond issue Or we're awaiting chapter 90 authorizations later this spring Thank you very much. So it really just it reinforces the necessity of the governor's transportation funding plans because If we had more money, we could do much more road work Okay, anything else you'd like to let us know mr. Saki Mr. Braun, okay. Thank you very much. Thank you for coming in tonight Thanks everyone for offering the public comment and we will we will keep ourselves informed about how the Blue Hills and Dana situation Proceeds, so thank you very much All right next up North Amherst local historic district study committee status update has my name, but actually I think it's going to be mr. Wilde I hope we'll speak to this so we had some questions last time about What was what was the status of this this was something that residents had asked us to establish a while ago I believe it was October that select board took a vote to to establish a Study committee for North Amherst and then we had some questions as to what exactly is the situation there So mr. Wilde, okay, just very briefly For purposes of background for the viewing audience Local historic districts are a special category under state law They're found around the country and they provide protection such that that Locale has the power to stop or otherwise modify harmful demolitions or changes to prop to historic properties After it's a long process. It takes at least usually 12 to 18 months to create one of these things Has a high bar like a zoning ordinance required to two-thirds approval of town meeting or a city council Amherst established the first one in the Dickinson historic district downtown at town meeting last year and There has been interest on the part of the public now and creating others first of all North Amherst So the the thing is every time you do this you have to start the process over again The town has to point a study committee that determines The merits of doing this the boundaries the rationale documents resources and so forth then goes to a long process of consultation with the public Submission to the state and bringing back eventually when hopes to town meeting or city council as the case may be The Dickinson district is really just getting underway right now The first meeting of that committee that is the committee that would administer the district and make any judgments took place on Wednesday Town staff and the planning department didn't want to rush ahead with a new one until the first one was established So that brings us to the next step under state law as the mass historical commission explains When additional district is to be created the existing historic district commission or commissions acting jointly as if there are already several Is responsible for conducting the study? Drafting the preliminary report that goes to the state and the public and the public hearing the existing historic district commission or commissions may However, recommend that a separate study committee be appointed for the purpose. So that's what we are right now So under the state law in a sense the I guess as you say the Existing committee has the right of first refusal. It could do it It seems though looking at what people actually say that this may be a burden. They don't want or need to take on right now It's a fairly onerous thing. You've got a new committee just getting started and so There are lots of reasons for thinking that it might be sensible to turn that task over to a new committee for reasons of Efficiency and also because we want to bring in new people including residents of North Amherst So they have a poisonous thing too. So as far as I can tell what we are now, that's the way we're inclining That said you would face a different question down the road if you have multiple districts And then who administers the actual process and make decisions So I think if I can summarize what came out of the meeting There's probably an inclination to create a separate study committee for North Amherst But with an eye in the future to having a single committee that would actually make the judgments because then you wouldn't be Training people in other words one committee can make the decision for multiple districts because you've got the expertise in one place You wouldn't be training people from scratch and starting over again. So that's pretty much where we are I think if that answers the question. Thank you very much miss Brewer very much does. Thank you, mr. Wald and Because it was it was very clear to the members of the select board that We weren't paying attention to that part of the law when we developed the charge for the North Amherst district study committee We were working under the assumption that it was going to be just like the previous process in terms of the study in terms of going out The staff needing to solicit people from the architect board from the real estate and doing the you know The exact same process all over again as opposed to how you very carefully explained and seems pretty obvious in hindsight That the existing group would would serve that function going forward. I thought it was made clear You know and so there was this disconnect because we didn't understand that at the time that we wrote the charge Because we wouldn't have written the charge the way we had had we understood that so this being new to us So I appreciate that they just had the local the distance the Dickinson district despite people thinking it's been around forever Now really just had their first meeting last week and they haven't actually formally yet voted to give up that right of first Refusal I take it but that would be when they would choose to do so if I would hope they would choose to do so based on our Previous understanding and based on what you just described in terms of their workload as well Then we would be able to solicit those parties like we did the first time around and when I say that that's staff doing that Those various places nominate people then we also have at large members, etc And then that process would really get going that does not mean that people can't be turning in their citizen activity forms right now so that would be fabulous, but Because there are at large members of the public to be involved as well But at this point it sounds like in terms of next steps for staff to do It's now at the point or any of us to do For the Dickinson group to go ahead and meet again to choose to say no It's fine with us if this time you go ahead and do it this other way And then in future there'll be two of us and then we can all two of us bodies Assuming that that one actually happens as well And then they could work together for future Yeah, I think that again I was unfortunately unable to attend the meeting because of our work schedule But I that's my sense of what came out of it after conferring with mr. Maloy our associate planner I should say to I mean I didn't think particularly about this other Or the default option when he crafted the charge But that's in part because the thinking of town staff all along was more logical to have two committees But probably we should have made more explicit that choice or that fork in the road there just to keep things clear Thank you So then our next step is essentially to wait for a recommendation request from the current Committee to see if we need to Establish and then recruit for as mr. Burr said a new one Okay, anyone from the public want to comment on this Miss Keller, please come forward and identify yourself at the mic Janet Keller precinct one North Amherst and As you know, we're very excited about the district We've been in conversations with staff with members of the Dickinson local historic district and with folks from North Amherst who might have expertise and interest in Serving and there is quite a bit of interest and We will heed miss Brewers Injunction to get going on those activity forms So I guess that's our little update And very much appreciate the assistance of mr. Walden working on this. Thank you So miss Brewer as far as the CAFs go. We don't have such a committee. How do you submit? Oh, it's right there on the list the North Amherst. Oh really study committee is on the list We are soliciting people some people thought they'd turn them in etc. And so but it's there and you know if By some strange quirk, we wouldn't choose to do it this way No, we'd have their information on file for future historic type of appointment. So please don't let it stop you that we have these other Steps to go through great. Thank you. Any other questions or comments on this topic? All right, moving right along food truck regulation status update So at the last meeting I gave you the details kind of the overview actually those two meetings go and then we kind of checked In on it last meeting and said, you know any comments? Where are you on this? I had hoped to have either the regs for now or the first April meeting depending how things worked out I don't have them for you now. They would have been in the packet has not been a lot of progress on those I got to admit I will say that we did get good comment from staff We we circulated them to staff have gotten good comment from Board of Health Public Works and the town collector's office There are still some questions from select board that I need to get answered and get more clarity on how the parking part of it would work, but And we have not in the meantime had any other public comment or business community comment So the goal is to have them for the April 8th meeting, which is looking pretty good at this point. So Any questions or comments about that? Anyone from the public want to comment on the food truck regulation situation? All right Moving right along so next up that we have rental regulations and permitting report safe and healthy neighborhoods update You know Mr. Zomek chair of that fine committee here with us tonight in the packets We have an overview of the Regulation situation kind of like a translation if you will as well as a set of draft regulations Those draft regulations are from the committee's last meeting So they do not reflect the revisions that were made at that meeting a more recent version is now available on the website On on the safe and healthy page So folks can check that out if they're interested And now I'll turn it over to Mr. Zomek. Great. Thank you very much for having me. I'm joined here tonight By Janet Keller a member of the working group and thank you for being with us as well Janet And I will try to be very brief because I think you've received some very complete Information in your packet. I appreciate the opportunity to speak with you about the efforts of the working group First I'd like to publicly express my thanks and deep appreciation to the members of the working group This group has been working extremely hard and diligently since November of 2012 To respond to the charge of the town manager to develop At the time what we were calling a set of rental regulations. We know now. This is a really should be called a by-law And as Ms. O'Keefe Indicated you have in your packet The version from last week We the working group is meeting again tomorrow And we have a slightly revised version that the group will be considering tomorrow I again referencing Ms. O'Keefe's summary. I think it is a very thorough and Well put together Illustration of where we've come and where we are today. We've had Excellent input from the public. We've had numerous numerous public meetings in this in this room in this forum From three to five in the afternoon, and we've held two public forums that were extremely well attended we've had dozens and dozens of comments throughout the process and I'm excited to now bring it to you and to other boards and committees in the lead up to town meeting This week will be here before you tonight Tomorrow night will be at the ZBA administrative meeting and I'll be joined by other members of the working group on Wednesday night, we will discuss it with the planning board and Again, all of this in the lead up to town meeting I think the document and the process has come a long way since November 2012 We have a document that is responsive to mr. Musanti's charge I will say that part of that charge is was that we address the for unrelated Some of the lingering questions about for unrelated and that by-law and the group early on in the process decided to Table that they felt as though that was just too much And we didn't have time to do that before spring town meeting So I think what you have before you is a is a proposed by-law a draft by-law that is that meets the the expressed purposes one through 12 that miss O'Keefe was so nice to outline and Happy to take questions if you wanted to add anything Janet I Like to echo the comments about the work that the committee did in the staff it was a Very large effort. I think perhaps wise to tackle the by-law and and not take any side trips We certainly felt like we had our hands full And I would like to commend the efforts of all involved and it is my hope that In this final meeting that we will retain some of the features that certainly brought on as you may know, I'm sitting on this board as a representative of the Coalition of Amherst neighborhoods and from the outset we had and Still continue to have a very very strong Interest in the behavior aspects of this and I know the landlords have felt that's a tough one for them And I certainly can appreciate that and understand the state law That they're operating within and has a number of constraints that said I do think it's terribly important that we Retain as many protections and recognize that landlords And many of them are demonstrating this every day have a great efficacy when they settle clear expectations and then when those expectations aren't met act promptly to bring Behavioral issues that have spread throughout town to the great detriment of the town and It's our great hope that That we'll remain strong through this this final on session that we're having tomorrow. Thank you Thank you And we also like to add No, I also want to ongoing thanks to the working group because the Set of recommendations that you've Essentially endorsed last week and there'll be some really What I think are relatively minor edits clarifications for tomorrow the other focus of tomorrow's session that I've asked staff to Explore what the work group is okay. We have a draft set of recommendations That have been endorsed. I want I would like to have some accompanying recommendations about an implementation plan of some sort of, you know Overview of a schedule and then recommendations on on staffing and fees to Implement this successfully So I know that'll be a focus focus of tomorrow's meeting and I'm I think we are on track. I think I'm on track to be able to offer recommendations With this input from the working group in time for your consideration for the annual town meeting warrant that you're scheduled to sign on April 8th Thank you So because not everybody has read these documents I'd like to give a little bit more of a detailed kind of summary of where we are and what we tried to do So going from the overview document that's in the pack and I'm not going to read through this But just because some folks are watching this for the first time to really get a sense of things We got together under the charge that mr. Musanti presented to us to try and figure out how do we deal with the the growing spread of Problem issues associated with rental properties in town those those issues are Their behavior related they are Aesthetics related they are related to lack of awareness by tenants and landlords about what the town bylaws are Regarding any number of things It's related to some tenants in fact being taken advantage of by a landlords the tenants really not understanding what their rights are So we wanted to really put together something that would benefit all stakeholders and the stakeholders are the tenants the owners and managers Neighbors the public at large and certainly our code enforcement officials We wanted to be able to establish baseline compliance with certain life safety and sanitary codes We originally had gone down the road of expecting to do that through periodic inspections the inspection process proved to be too complicated and There are really so many laws that are associated with these things you just can't even believe it So a lot of the things we originally thought we wanted to do turned out to be not not practical So baseline compliance will now be be a self-certification. It will be criteria determined by staff about building and safety code and Folks will now attest to that Additionally to establish baseline awareness of town bylaws and health regulations for property Exteriors so just like we've got interior safety issues to protect tenants. There are also exterior issues the ones that Probably come to bear again tonight involve things like Clearing sidewalks after snow and ice that's something that typically renters often don't even know about And there are a number of things like that To establish parking plans appropriate to each property it has been clear to the working group since the beginning and it's clear to all of us In Amherst that parking issues have been a really significant Problem and so that was a key thing for us to address and I'll get into that in a little bit more detail how we did that In a minute to establish clarity on occupancy limits. We talked about Needing to address the foreign-related persons, but choosing to essentially table that So what we've done is is reaffirm that is the law of the land and so we want to have absolute clarity again on behalf of the Landlords and the tenants that for unrelated is is what will be enforced We want to establish contact people to handle non-compliance. It's part of kind of the registration of all properties Who owns these places? Who do you follow up with as a code enforcement official or as a neighbor if you have a concern? To establish penalties for non-compliance obviously to establish baseline awareness of town bylaws about noise alcohol and nuisance behaviors This has been a really critical part of this and Making sure again that people are clear about what the expectations are and what one could get in trouble for We want to codify these regulations appropriately to make sure that they take effect immediately and that was why we went the Course of a general bylaw And to encourage providing timely access to properties for code enforcement officers to investigate complaints That speaks to the access question I talked about earlier. You can't just you can't just mandate access It very much depends on the tenant Allowing access so so we want to encourage the fact that it's really to the to the tenants benefit Anteva wins benefit if code enforcement officials can get in as soon as possible To a property to investigate a complaint and that we want to ultimately have a comprehensive list of rental properties and That is something that we don't have now and and clearly need so those were those were kind of the things that we started off as as Looking to address with the rental regulations so kind of what they've ended up being is Registration self-certification about health and safety as I mentioned a parking plan And those are the things one a property manager or landlord needs to fill out to get a permit You've got a register fill out all your information as as would be specified You've got a self-certify on the health and safety issues as well as providing the the information about town bylaws, etc. All that is detailed on the The second page of the overview document And a parking plan you'd need to submit a parking plan for approval to the Building enforcement officer who will sign off on your existing Parking situation, which would be only pavement There will not be parking on on grass or dirt Or if you want to expand parking then you would have to go via the zoning bylaw So that that's what that's what a rental permit equals right now Those are the steps you need to take you need to register Self-certify about health and safety and get an approved parking plan There are fines for violating any elements of this and these are primarily fines that are already associated with the zoning bylaw Because really we don't have any new laws here The parking thing is is one new law and the fact that that the rental properties need to be registered But by and large we have not created new bylaws. We have put together Really compiled and clarified the bylaws as they exist with just those couple of new elements as I mentioned There will be a fine for failing to register. We have not come up with what that fine would be yet That's part of tomorrow's meeting and there would also be some kind of fee for registering and we haven't come up with that either That will be part of tomorrow's meeting and the the key thing is there is the potential for permit suspension in egregious circumstances truly egregious of not cooperating with the code enforcement officials and And and not complying with the law compliance is really what what is being sought here So there is there is the the potential for suspension if someone is truly just not Not cooperating with the town and really creating a danger As to the question of behavior we talked about we talked around and we didn't quite get clarity on the behavior question at last week's meeting Whether suspension of a permit could potentially be tied to tenant behavior and we're getting a lot of advice from town council here The goal is to have the have what we put forth be as practical and defensible as possible So originally we talked about it being about truly egregious acts by the landlord So and when we spoke about town council spoke about the fact that perhaps the language still allows for hasn't closed the door on the Potential to include behavior there. There was a lot of comment at the meeting not in favor of attaching tenant behavior to it, but Where there's ambiguity there? We will need to clear that up tomorrow And again looking for it to be something that that town council believes would be enforceable by us As I said, this is really kind of a combination and clarification of the existing regulations and It I just speaking for myself. I think that the main thing it does is clarify It makes it makes everyone's expectations very clear on behalf of the town to the landlords What their responsibilities are to the tenants? It will make very clear to the tenants what their responsibilities are as well as what their protections are And it will make clear to the neighbors one thing that I should have mentioned is that all of this information would ultimately be available online So you can look if you're the neighbor of a rental property you can say oh, I wonder where they're allowed to park Look, this is what their approved parking plan is that's funny They're parking all over their lawn or whatever so so the public will know you'll also know who is the owner of that property Who would you contact if you had an issue and if you wanted to deal with the owner directly as opposed to a Court and code enforcement official, which of course you should always do anyway So so it would be it's just about being absolutely transparent and accessible and clear with all of this information And I think just putting all of the information one place Establishing those clear expect expectations is going to really kind of lift all properties Common complaints that we have heard so far Is that there were not any tenants on the working group? That is true. We did mr. Santy to try to recruit tenants for this specifically from UMass students and for a variety of reasons that was not successful Perse and that's unfortunate and of course the fact that this happened over we were having our whole meeting Well intercession happened in the meantime was not most conducive to student participation But there you go at the same time. I believe that what we have come up with is not onerous on tenants at all It creates parking limitations And it has the people so that is certainly something that would impact the tenants the potential for registration fees being passed on to them that has been identified to us as a concern We haven't even established what those fees are and so if it's a modest fee That doesn't personally strike me as very onerous especially in return for the clarity of expectations and protections that they'll also be able to enjoy They are worried about what a suspended permit would mean to them as tenants The regulations specify that a suspension wouldn't go into effect until after the end of the lease or if the lease were Or what's the word when you vacate a lease or whatever? But if if the landlord had to end the lease with the tenant for some reason That it would happen after that so I Can understand folks would feel like that might destabilize them at the same time We're talking about permit suspension for such egregious acts that I don't I don't know why tenants would especially want to be living in a Property where the place was unsafe and the landlord was incredibly Uncompliant and uncooperative because this really is for their protection as well. So So I didn't consider that to be a big problem So so that's that's been one complaint we've heard about no tenants on the working group So I just wanted to talk about how how the lack of tenants Impacts the outcome and so my point is I don't think it's I don't think it's too bad Another complaint is that this is too onerous for landlords and really I think that that's an exaggeration As I told you this is filling out a couple of forms The the phrase that we've been using a lot in our meetings is that these permits should be easy to get and hard to lose This is really about trying to get compliance. It's about trying to educate It's about trying to kind of bring everybody to the same level, but it's not some big gotcha thing Nor is it some, you know crazy bureaucracy or whatever We we haven't established what staff might be needed to deal with this It the the idea that this is too onerous or too bureaucratic I think just doesn't really hold water because really we're looking at just a couple of very simple things that we're asking of landlords Some folks have said that they're concerned they could lose their livelihood as landlords if you're if your permit could be suspended Per property per per unit if you had non-compliance issues, they're concerned about loss of livelihood Again, I think that's a huge exaggeration We're talking about really the most egregious anybody who is putting forth a good faith effort to comply to work with the building Commissioner to try and get to the point of solving problems would not be any in any Fear of having their permits suspended some folks have said that That it would put their ability to get a financing on properties in jeopardy And I think that that's really an exaggeration also first of all We have examples of such permitting systems in other parts of the country and that hasn't proven to be a problem Additionally, I think that by showing that the town has high standards for the properties And and really kind of a Controlled and reasonable set of expectations that actually boosts this protection of the investment of the banks I would think so I think that that would be an outweighing factor, but that's just speculation on my part And the other big concern that we hear from folks is that this is not going to solve every problem of behavior By students or by egregious acts by landlords and that is absolutely true. It's true It's not going to solve every problem This is going to go a a long way to bringing us further down the field than we are now We're hoping that it will make significant improvement as I said just through the clarity of expectations really kind of Just being crystal clear with folks what what it is that the town is looking for And what the law is that we are expecting everybody to comply with As I said, we're trying to we're trying to make this go just as far as we can in a robust and legally Practical and defensible manner there, you know, if you couldn't wave your magic wand and create regulations You'd create different regulations, but that's not the world we live in we live in a in a world of practicalities and laws and and so that's what we have had to work with It's really about trying to get everybody on the same page And I think that it really is going to do that and that has been as Miss Keller and Mr. Zomek said just tremendous tremendous sharing of information and perspectives concerns ideas through a diverse group so I think that that That's a pretty good summary for folks who haven't read any of the documents of where we are now And if anyone has questions for these folks or myself Please miss Burke. So are you gonna record that for town meeting members? Because it's it really is incredibly helpful. I mean in addition to the document You already gave us which was kind of a shorthand version of that To know how we got there from here and some in those very clear concerns that people brought to the process I think are incredibly important because people will read this and I'll ask those questions in their heads and knowing that yep You did talk about that. Yep. You talked about this other thing, too I think would be incredibly valuable. So think about how you want to do your podcast Right, so yeah, there's gonna be there's going to need to be a lot of information to town meeting for sure And so folks are working on that. Mr. Zomek want to comment? Yeah, just a quick comment So absolutely we did just record that so Couple of other things that the staff are working on for the working group One has been requested just a simple FAQ. So How does this work? What does it do? What does it not do and and we may well go over this draft? I have a draft in front of me tomorrow One of our members Phil Jackson. Mr. Jackson very much likes Different charts and graphs and and he's put together a couple of flow charts for us So those are all available and all of this information we neglected to say for those watching at home Interested in this in the lead up to town meeting is on the town website under the living section under safe and healthy neighborhoods All of the documents we've used all of the comments. We've gotten all of the draft Documents we've been working with and from our all there in chronological order So the group can see where we came from back in November of 12 to where we are as of tomorrow and I think it's a great if you've got even 20 minutes to just jump around a little bit on that site You can see the as as Ms. O'Keefe represented a very robust process went into this and I think Our document which is now what about seven eight pages long Came from a place of someone the order of 25 plus. So we've we've condensed we've refined we've edited We've taken out a lot of things that just were not important to this and gotten to it Gotten a document that covers all the basis without as you stated overreaching or creating a Bureaucracy that none of us are looking for so Other questions or comments I Wanted to be clear and because I think it's true in looking at the enforcement procedures section here as you stated You want the permit to be easy to get you fill out the forms you go through the routine It should be very straightforward hard to lose and so people could be Landlords could be fined for doing all the kinds of problems They already have not picking up the garbage and not dealing with a water heater that's broken or whatever They could still be fined for all those things and pay their fines and go about their business and do that and not lose their permit Because they're still a landlord. They just have some issues They need to work through and so I think that's important for people to recognize too as they're going as as they're reading this To remind themselves that all those things even though you say it over and over again like the you know Referencing all the different bylaws we already have all those things can still happen And so when we talk about revoking a permit It isn't because they have a messy dumpster right now You don't yank their permit for that you make them pay a fine for that and then you know Maybe some huge laundry list becomes a real problem at some point But in the meantime people are constantly working with these folks is the idea right exactly and now there is the list of The what the enforcement procedure would be and it very much starts with you know conversations with the building commissioner I mean they are looking for compliance and and as I said kind of a good faith effort towards compliance You need to you need to respond to the code enforcement officer You need to be part of a plan to address how you're gonna solve these problems You need to take steps to do so within certain time frames You need to pay the fines that would accrue to you if you don't do that Suspension is so far down the line. That's when that's I call it in the in the meeting The nuclear option, you know when you sometimes someone can just be so Intractable so impossible to deal with that. They are just not they are not looking for compliance They are not looking to cooperate that at a certain point you have to say you know what this is this is not appropriate We need we need something beyond finding. We're gonna take away your ability We're gonna suspend your ability to to rent this this property following the expiration of the lease and I should note and I didn't mention this before that Suspension should it ever happen and and we hope that just the threat of it the clarity of expectations and the threat of it serve enough as a To encourage compliance and to deter anything Terrible if a permit were suspended it would be Appealable to a rental appeals board. I think it's called that would be appointed by the select board So so even that is not kind of a you know the end of the line There is due process at every at every step And associated with that I because I perceive that at least the occasional problem has to do with Landlords saying well, I told the tenants they were gonna have to do that tenants and I'm doing that So it's still the landlords problem and they will work through with our code enforcement people Which we now luckily have people that are more available to work with people to do those things Because the bottom line is they can't just both say they're not responsible And this is another and I think this structure helps with that even though that's currently true as well I think putting this into a bigger structure will help reinforce that and then the only other question I had that was of significance because you probably already dealt with it and Your more recent revision under definitions under dwelling unit Although I'm very familiar with the delightful prose of our zoning by-law. I Have to figure there's a cut and paste area error and dwelling unit because it says Used or intended for use by one family comma as defined by the town zoning by-law or household for living blah blah blah There there's some it's either a household or it's a family. It's not both There's a little confusion in there that I'm sure you all know what it means, but it just needs to be fixed Let us don't make any sense at all Let us take a look at that You're just trying to pick up the zoning by-law Yeah, I get that If I could just pick up on something you mentioned earlier and just to expand on that a little bit The code official and really we're talking about it could be A number of different code officials really it could be the building commissioner It could be our health director or her staff. It could be our fire chief or her or his designee and so yes, I mean our our Standard way of dealing with these situations now is and always has been to work with The the landlord or the property manager or the owner in many cases the tenants If they're willing and to to deal with the situation so this as was mentioned earlier really brings it all together in a Transparent easy to understand process and place and under section 12 and 13 I was just rereading it again for the under time or so Under enforcement, I think it's very well spelled out under one through eight on page eight and then under, you know, that that entire process and and Mizuki reference the the Possibility for an appeal and and the hope that if this gets passed there will be the establishment of an appeals body And then under 13 really under 13 be one and two that clearly outlines Those most egregious situations which we think and what has been reported to us from other communities that have similar by-laws There was one reference that they've had actually much much stricter rental regulations in their community for something on the order of 25 years and they've really only had one Suspension in 25 years so under section 13 be one and two That really outlines those those cases and those situations that might cause a permit to be Suspended and of course nowhere in the document do we the word revocation is not in the document anywhere So I think I think it's very clear and again. We look for your input and guidance here in the lead-up to town meeting I'll just note one other thing on the that same page Ms. Brower was referencing with the definitions Which is page two of the document that's in our packet, which is the last week's version of the rigs We did make a significant change last time taking out The exemption for owner occupied rentals, so this will now cover all rentals Including those people who are renting rooms in their house, which are completely equal under the law It's not going to cover hotels motels residential facilities Authorized and operated under state and federal blah blah blah those would be exempt But but there would not be an exemption for owner occupied That was a legacy of when we had been talking about the periodic inspections And so that seemed like too much of a burden to put on somebody who's actually living in the home also So to try and again trying to address all the concerns that people were bringing to us at every stage So we said, okay, you know, that's a that that would be a good place to to yield once we took the Periodic inspections out of it, and it's just the self-certification It was brought to our attention that really we didn't need to exempt that anymore And in fact it's to the tenants in particular and the landlords benefits that we don't because these self registration self-certification Forms make very clear what the expectations are so again You wouldn't want to have somebody losing out on the opportunity to have the clarity of expectations Miss fine. I just for me. It's a little bit confusing on page 5 section C and D I understand that Well under C it says that the owner Won't be in violation if a tenant refuses access But then the very next section says that a tenant is supposed to Allow access so I don't I'm having a little trouble reconciling those two sections I don't know if other people will but I Understand your under section. Okay. I'm on page five and it's one annual owner self-expection and Checklist in its sections is C and D because C exempts the owner if the Tenant won't give access, but then the next section says the tenant is supposed to give access Except if it's limited by the Constitution That's my reading of it anyway now. Maybe I'm missing something I might be able to help Yeah, I'm looking at two different versions here, but so I'll turn it over to Mizzou keep in a second, but so We spent a lot of time talking about whether we could require the tenant or the landlord to require Access and force the the tenant or landlord to permit us access And so I think this was an effort to compromise in that direction to basically say if there is a situation that we need to Get into the building with the tenant voluntarily allow us access and this is what happens now and if the if the tenant did not and the Owner or landlord or property manager tried repeatedly and was unsuccessful And could show us that they did try then that would essentially not be held against them But the tenant according to section D is supposed to give access So that's least language that that we're looking to have but at the same time even though you can make them sign a lease that says Yes, so I will give access you can't actually compel them who there's and tenants have incredible rights in the state Right so So again as mr. Zomek mentioned it would be a question of whether or not that would be held against the landlord And so it would not be if the tenant will not allow access But encouraging the lease language is another way to sort of plant the seeds with and remind the tenant that really Granting accesses is a responsibility that you have but it is not something that can be compelled under law Other questions or comments So this is a little little thing but at the bottom of our page three Registration of permitting a application process and requirements There's a section in red about except as may otherwise be permitted by the code official rental permit application Shall identify the total number of rental units on the property. Why would we not I'm missing like Where did that come from? Why would we not want to know how many rental units were on the property? Like what were we trying to make easier by throwing that in there? I get the streamlining part you talk about streamlining in another section You know like you don't have to fill out a separate form for a bazillion different units, but I'm confused by what that means We're gonna have to talk to Rob Mora or Julie Fetterman on that one It might also be a town council issue. So we're trying to we're trying to make it as streamlined as possible, but then Town council will say things that you need to make sure you specify to sort of indicate the You know, whatever again with the the legislative intent and the due process So that may or may not be part of it or it might just be some random sentence that ended up in there So this is not a perfect document like there we're not complaining. Oh, no Understand how it fits in. Yeah, like why would we not want to know that right? That does seem like something we'd want to know unless there's some weird legal reason. I think there is We were pretty purposeful where we put these in so I'm sure there is a town council answer to that But we'll we'll research it before three o'clock tomorrow It might have been part of when we were trying to clarify that for example if you own an apartment complex You don't need to fill out a registration certification form for all 250 units in your complex You can fill it out for For for one and say it covers 250 units Or you would say we might be breaking it down to for the for the especially for the self-inspection checklist to say, okay I'm I'm attesting to this being true for units one through 50 And I expect to be able to attest to units 51 through 75 Next year or something like that. But so it's it's talking about which ones it's fine. It jogged my memory I think that that's exactly right. We a couple of versions ago decided that Presented to the working group and and they accepted this concept of that there would be one permit per parcel essentially if if if I own one unit or I own 12 on and and each are on one piece of property I submit one application for that or the one with 12 and in some situations Say in my 12 unit development. I'm renovating units 8 through 12 right now so in that situation that language allows me to submit an application to the to the town or one through seven and then basically say eight nine and ten eleven twelve are not ready now or need renovation or It gives the code official some flexibility there because the the property manager owner may not be in a position to submit it there may be Renovations or whatever is happening in those units that they're not ready for so there can be a staggered Application if you will for that there are all kind of ways that Once we went to per a per parcel concept We didn't want the landlord to say I can't fill this out because this this doesn't apply to all my parcels This would there are various ways you might want to or need to kind of exempt or sort of put aside Some of the parcels as it not quite applying to for reasons like mr. Zomek mentioned or that I mentioned So it's that's what it's for it's work I would just ask that you really strongly consider getting rid of that sentence because you talk about that You know apartments one through five and in this other form and by saying this here It implies that there will be situations under which we will not know how many rental units are on the parcel And there would be no reason for us not to know that they might not be active rentals But I mean just in terms of our information gathering. This just looks like a way of Someone pressuring a code official to say I don't have to tell you how many are on there Which I know is not your intent. So I think there's a way Clarify that without removing it because I think we need some we need some safety valve there to make sure Because as as you said, that's exactly the response we got when somebody said oh, I have 48 units So I have 400 units on one parcel as part of one complex But I'm only able to because I'm changing over a hundred of them We don't want that to be an impediment to that owner or that property manager to submit And say this is a this is an achievable process. We just still want to know that there are 500 So if I could encourage us not to edit the document because we'll exactly our minds You know If you do find issues then send them to mr. Zomek because because we want the edits We just don't want to edit the peer So so that would really be terrific because any any input that we get about how to make it clearer or whatever is very valuable So so thank you We just don't need to talk about here this time without adding any without Editing the only thing I would say is you might be able to put in an additional sentence in that clarifies the circumstance where that might be the case and people would get it We will look at that between now and 3 p.m. Tomorrow Ever let you leave maybe And I'll also note that so this is describing and I didn't want it to have to do this But alas I lost that battle with town council. I wanted I was hoping it could be like the self the self registration form and certification checklist and the parking plan and then the regulations just talk about what the Penalties are for not going along with that but town council actually said you need to Describe the registration and the self checklist also But the self checklist and or registration whichever form and it says A that no incomplete forms will be accepted So if you've left blank the number of units well, that's not that's not a complete form And the form will say exactly what we want it to say so, you know, you're filling out the form This is this is an imprecise way of describing what those forms are cool Other questions or comments There's no micro miss Keller anything else. You'd like to tell us about Thank you. Thank you very much for coming in tonight All right Where are we town managers report Mr. Musanti Okay I'm gonna spend a Quite a bit of time reviewing what what's come to be known as pre St. Patrick's Day Celebrations And I also want to talk about our spring season ahead and What we're what we're working on to Keep the community safe in the spring Pre St. Patrick's Day, it's not unique to Amherst, but it is a growing phenomenon in college communities where there's a Celebration Prior to St. Patrick's Day primarily involving young people And there's issues of alcohol abuse, etc And so we're several years into this phenomenon town took several steps working cooperatively with downtown bar owners Amherst police and others to Put into place Procedure on on Saturday March 9th that we think in the end in the downtown area Created minimal issues who was relatively calm we had pre ticketing of some of the bars to keep Patrons at the occupancy limits and prevent the long lines outside that lead to other issues Disorderly conduct outside or drinking in public, etc So we think those worked based on reports from police and fire And in talking with many Having said that There is a growing phenomenon of of Pre St. Patrick's Day celebrations at locations across town typically and Rentals The largest Issue occurred off-campus at townhouse apartments in North Amherst During the midday and into the afternoon on Saturday March 9th We think there was a crowd in excess of 2000 student-aged persons Who are outside? Basically having an outdoor party on the quadra quadrangle area There was excessive alcohol fights bottle-throwing including some thrown at police officers Decision was made late in the afternoon With public safety leadership to disperse the crowd we had upwards of 20 police officers Unseen Many members of the Amherst police department upwards of a dozen We had a large number of Massachusetts state police Community action team personnel responded and we did have some Back-up support from the UMass police department that was in the late afternoon the crowd was dispersed. There were six Men all UMass students who were arrested at the scene of the six arrested two were identified as Throwing bottles at police officers who were attempting to disperse them All of the all of those arrested Have been reported to the UMass Dean of Students Office for internal disciplinary action through the UMass student code of conduct process fire an ambulance Chief reports steady calls for service that day particularly between the periods of noon to six and Then again quite steadily From roughly nine o'clock at night all the way to 5 a.m. The following morning over the course of the weekend There were 21 total arrests The majority of which were alcohol related I think it just The events of that day while there's been a lot of progress made on many fronts by the town by the university by the greater community this was a Not so gentle reminder that These situations place unacceptable demands on the town's public safety personnel in our resources Again, we're stretched to the limit and that's unacceptable moving forward Very aggressively on a number of fronts And I'll focus on police and fire primarily next steps first on the police side at my request and in response to The all the dialogue we had particularly during up to the fall town meeting about the nuisance house by law and potential revisions to it Chief has developed a schedule of response costs to be assessed Against those who become subject to the nuisance house by law and then in very severe Circumstances in terms of the number of violations at a particular property Having those costs assessed on to landlords as well. So that will be a Schedule that is in place As we head into the spring Season I hope we don't have to invoke it, but we will have that tool in place for us We have worked out an arrangement for mutual patrols with the UMass police department in and around the Fearing Street Philip Street nutting ab areas Particularly on weekend nights Fridays and Saturdays into the late evening early morning hours anywhere from four to six officers And they're focused In addition to having higher visibility as a deterrent for the legal behavior Will be to really enforce quality of life issues related under underage alcohol possession And really trying to prevent some of these large parties from getting started and out of hand So it's really a prevention tool that will also be supplemented with Our our latest receipt of a state grant from the State Department of Public Safety a $10,000 grant for alcohol enforcement We've received that grant For the past several years that will also be looking at Open container by law Compliance and things like that I Have asked the University of Mass For additional help I'm specifically Looking for police assistance from the UMass PD Related to a patrolling in the North Amherst area In and around Meadow Street Townhouse area in particular It's really to prevent Try to prevent some of these large Gatherings unruly gatherings from occurring provide that assistance in that Needy neighborhood as well We were also we are also going to be getting assistance from the state police for weekends At the end of April latter half of April and they'll they'll be helping us out as they have in prior years on the fire and ambulance side I have Authorized the fire chief to implement increased staffing really for the weekends between now and and the University commencement weekend which is May weekend of May 10th Particularly on the weekend weekend evenings. We have also been Working with the Mullen Center management and they've been very cooperative in working with us on increasing detail EMS crews for Events where it's believed that a need for such services might might be there and so there's for example another Another event Happening I believe on April 13th, and we'll have a Larger number of EMS personnel hired by the Mullen Center to Provide services at that event if needed and really act as a triage if you will as needed Next been working for some time now and I'm insisting upon action for this spring Some additional assistance from the University related to Helping us staff our ambulance crews so that services can be provided to all of those in need all over town particularly during these Warm warm weather weekends in the fall and spring Specifically I'm asked I've asked for to detail crew ambulances to be Funded by the University For Thursday Friday and Saturday nights in the late evening early morning hours Beginning at the end of March through for weekends through commencement weekend. I've also asked the University to Expand University health services hours on a Really for some of these high when the demand is highest I want them urging them to use their own resources to help us meet the needs of Students and others in the community to provide services, so that's a Discussion that's very much in progress, and I'm pushing very hard Very hard for that the University is also working collaboratively With our fire department and fire chief Looking at the student EMS force and how ways we can have greater collaboration with the Amherst fire department Where there's an opportunity for students to help students and work work closely With Amherst fire in the process So I think there's some very promising work that has begun in that effort and we're expecting to hear more in the week ahead and I'm going to do my best to Get all of these remaining things in place for the spring And I'll be able to report back to you ASAP with how that's going Thank you very much those are the public safety Implications of all of this have been just so starkly demonstrated in recent weeks, so That that you have got a Good plan in place on the police side, especially that you've got strong requests made to the University for both policing and Ambulance support is very Important and I think that the community is really going to appreciate that I was listening to my scanner on The Saturday March 9th when I wasn't downtown seeing how great downtown was working, but unfortunately the wheels were falling off everywhere else It was absolutely alarming to listen to the scanner and to be hearing all of these calls for you know, taking all of these drunk kids to the hospital and You know, and there were just so many of them and then you hear, you know Somebody having a seizure an adult having a seizure or an elderly person with heart issues And I mean, I'm sitting there like on the edge of my seat going how are they gonna get to them? How are they gonna get to them? Well, they did I mean it was incredible and they had they had fire trucks responding because obviously all of our Fire folks are also EMTs, so they would have a fire truck show up until the ambulance could get there I mean it was really extraordinary the work that they did But that shouldn't have to happen The meeting that I was at a campus and community coalition last week I was saying, you know, this wasn't the the weekend didn't go badly because we didn't have enough ambulances The weekend went badly because there was this outrageous behavior happening that was taxing us beyond all all reasonable limits So so your plan sounds great. I hope that the University Embraces that and and responds Appropriately, so thank you questions or comments from this museum. I just want to say I think it's really important that you mass steps up to the plate I think the idea of them having their health service open and Providing additional ambulance crews. I think it's terrible that our own citizens have to wait for an ambulance because they're busy taking drunken students To Cooley dick, so I think the goal that you the goals you have laid out for getting the University to take Responsibility are really important and I'm glad to hear them Question Well, I seem to notice a change in the conversation here I think these measures are great as Ms. Stein said that we're asking the University to do certain things that should simply be logical Since it's their population to a large extent though, not exclusively that's been involved here But I got the sense in some of the press reports that the University was blaming us for this thing so, you know We work very collaboratively with the University I was hoping on trying to solve these problems and that's the absolute truth and you know, sometimes we're going to disagree on what the better course of action would be as so the campus and community coalition meeting last week was was It was a very important meeting very important conversations were held We The the University So I mean, it's just my opinion that There is a there is a culture problem that they face that they're not taking enough steps to address and And they're taking many steps and I applaud all of those steps there There could not have be a bigger change in the University's attitude toward Towards discipline and follow-through and making those things happen very quickly. It really it's been a kind of a sea change there at the same time there is this larger issue of Of people perceiving UMass to be zoom ass like in the bad old days And I really think that needs to be confronted head-on and We don't necessarily agree on that they they were feeling that the bar event was more of Cause of what happened at townhouse as Captain Pronovost pointed out the meeting No, it was just an excuse. There are all kinds of things that happen, you know, the puffers pond situation was not based on any kind of a bar event That was a terrible situation last year. We have had other circumstances at townhouse, you know, the Super Bowl I mean at a certain point you just you can't always be Looking to to blame the trigger you have to be addressing What what is the behavior that is and what are the expectations for what is reasonable? What is you know, is this a is this a rite of passage? for college students and and it absolutely can't be and that message has to come really loud and clear in Word indeed from the University and I think that There they've made a ton of progress with that and they still have a lot of work to do just like we have a lot of Work to do with with all of the different ways that we are addressing these issues So those kinds of meetings are really important to say okay. Yes, we're we're doing a bunch of things we're We're better off for them and then if we hadn't been doing them But wow we've still got big issues and we need to acknowledge them and talk about them and try and solve them together And and that's absolutely what's happening. I will point out that the that the article last week that Mr. Wild is referring to I think specifically that covers about the first third of that meeting You know the rest of the meeting and we'll talk about that more is is all about the other things that we're doing together But to to be able to kind of express joint frustration about how these things go which is really just a sign of That frustration. I mean we are all working so hard at this in so many different ways But at the end of the day, we still have big challenges ahead of us But uh, but we are working well to trying to solve them together this time Agree with that and that it's very hard to change the culture and I think it's Wonderful how hard the community Campus coalition works and I'm glad that there was good partnership feelings then but the main thing is that the university has to protect us our Citizens and they have to make a contribution to that So that we don't have to have you on the edge of your sleep seat because we have town citizens who are having heart attacks or seizures and Our rambulances are tied up. They have to help us Because it's their culture That's causing this for the town Thank you, Miss Brewer I meant that in a good way So just kind of random again partly showing to try and Really make it clear to the public all the things that have been said tonight that we are we are hearing you You know that we are hearing all the different things that the community is saying about How this sort of thing has been playing out over time and what happened in the 70s and what happened in the 80s And what's happening now and the culture changes it and the Facebook and the Twitter and all the social media and how all this plays into everything I really appreciate the idea of talking on all the levels that you talked about and In particular a couple of high points for me are talking to University Health Services Again, because you know, frankly, I hadn't thought about the fact that we can have a hundred ambulances come in here from all over the world Take everybody to Cooley. What's Cooley gonna do with them? Cool, it's just a little hospital. They really are not I mean as much as they're great I mean, they're not really as as a patient's Child pointed out to me the other day, you know, she's in there with her mother with her heart problem And there's kids running up and down the halls in their underwear And you know, it just makes Cooley's life harder, which makes everybody's life harder So if we can keep some of them just like we triage at the Mullen Center, I think that that model makes so much sense So that would be awesome. I Wanted to mention again how much I appreciate. I know it's been a struggle over, you know Just a little bit of time. I've been in town talking about how to really effectively utilize the partnership between UMass police and Amherst police They're both great Incredibly well-trained Certified police forces. I mean, they're the best of the best and they're the same size too In fact, sometimes UMass is bigger than ours So it's not that there aren't people that could work together to work on this And so I'm really really glad to hear that we may be continuing to improve that partnership of how might we most effectively Utilize that because I know that's something that's been kind of a sticking point for a lot of residents over the years. I Do just have to say when I saw the letter at the letter to the editor from a UMass administrator that You know to criticize the over 21 Bar ticketed entry as being an issue I thought was just flat-out ludicrous and I am ashamed that a UMass administrator did that because Really, we have way bigger problems than that in terms of saying if you have a four paragraph letter You don't say well that over 21 bar thing is what promoted this. That's not what the problem is It's true. There are lots of crazy symbols out there in the world when the UMass article came out on the Gazette I forgot to bring the front page with me right underneath. It didn't say riot right underneath It said look at these lovely older people having a shot of whiskey to celebrate their Irish heritage And I showed that to people and like well, they're responsible Well, but what message are we sending we're sending a message that this is an important part of the heritage I mean, yes, people have been barred with all kinds of messages. I hate the fact that every time I drive over the Cooley Bridge There's a huge billboard for alcohol. Welcome to Hadley have a beer Like that's not the message Hadley wants to send either But I'm not gonna blame that for the fact students act like lunatics So and the vast majority don't but the few that do we can't just say oh well Consider the message that Red Bull trucks driving down the street. Well, you know, that's just the way it's gonna be We we are better than that and I know the campus community coalitions work is better than that And so I really really don't want to send a letter like that because that's not respectful of the really hard work You guys have been doing associated with this So thank you. Thank you for acknowledging that those messages I mean, that's the kind of thing we deal with at campus a community coalition all the time and as Was addressed at the recent chamber breakfast kind of all of those environmental and cultural influences that go into this that we sort of We we excuse and we disregard but you know what they're all part of it And it all just comes to a head when the students are together Away from home for the first time, you know living on their own on campus And that's where that's where a lifetime of the environmental messages Come into play, but it's also where you need to be setting incredibly strict lines about expectations and consequences and and so that's that's the message that that really needs to be getting out there even more loudly even more clearly Because yeah, that's critical mystery so I Know this is all very interesting and very good, and I appreciate the report. I'm going to register a certain level of frustration I believe that this collaboration is entirely Exists and is fruitful and everything else But as far as I can tell 1994 students have no repercussions at all for having participated at townhouse As far as I've heard we had to demand That they UMass provide ambulances. They didn't volunteer that they didn't say huh, you know, we have a responsibility here Let's step up and do maybe they did but that's not what I've heard I don't doesn't even sound like any more than two of those 2,000 kids are actually going to have any serious repercussions. I mean that was the report and that that's That's terribly frustrating on so many levels. It's terribly frustrating that the university police backed up The town police at townhouse I'm not exactly sure what that means that they sit in their police cars and wave as as people racing back and forth going to the And I don't ask for an answer now. I just just wanted to to provide rhetoric for The frustration that I'm sure I'm not the only one Is feeling it I'm hopeful That the work with the the coalition The work with The UMass administration Would be more they'd be forthright about it. I mean For nothing from the Dean's office Thank you. So all of this feedback is very helpful for myself and Mr. Moustanti to be bringing to these conversations and To the point about discipline that this was a very well videoed and well photographed And So the Dean's office and the UNPD are actually going through those pictures and videos and they're going to seek to hold accountable everybody who was Who was guilty of something, you know, they still blame the town for I mean, I know I need I think I need more than that If I'm gonna stop being frustrated. I'm not gonna I'm not gonna defend any of that I will say that the University I believe they misjudged this event and so I was having a number of conversations with them leading up to the event about who They were gonna send if messages to you know, who which students were going to receive information about expectations for the weekend and And I went on record saying I really opposed the fact that they decided not to send a mass email out to all their students They and I understand the logic. They were afraid that that would be Advertising the weekend and giving it more attention than it would have otherwise deserved Or would have otherwise had and I think that was a miscalculation And so maybe maybe if they had it to do over again, they would do it differently But they did as the letter indicated from the beginning and apparently still afterwards a view it as sort of a 21 plus Situation which was not obviously what it was, you know that and and the you know the the ambulance records and everything Confirm that it by and large. It's the underage kids who have the have the issues with drinking Those are the ones who are the vast majority of the transports that cause the vast majority of the problems So so I think that was a miscalculation, but I can only hope that that would be different in the future I'm feeling very great deal of catharsis to vent my spleen and so I've allowed myself just one other rhetorical question Is there an institutional memory at all over there? This is not the first year. It's not the first time on this weekend. This is very weekend When a dumpster didn't get burned or a car got flipped over a bus stop got torn up. I mean Come on. I I Many challenges Thank you, Miss Burr. On a slightly different note, but still part of the town manager's report way back at the beginning Hours ago when you started your work You talked about the schedule of Response costs which I'm really excited to hear that we have but it's still actually ours even though it's developed by the police chief, right? So we need to see that at some point so we can help. Yes Town now. Yes, this thing exists. Yes, it's real money. Yes, it matters We just need part of our tool Yep I would just add not the belabor but You know the town and the three colleges including the university we are very much I think genuinely invested in each other's success. We want all of the colleges in town and the university to Thrive because when they thrive the town thrives and vice versa I believe that the University Chancellor is committed to working with the town and This is very much a work in progress but He has expressed a commitment to pursue both short-term and long-term Tools to to make progress All of these areas that we've touched upon tonight, and it is difficult work, but it's essential work and you know This is a good time for constructive impatience to move some of the stuff forward ASAP Really is a it's an incredibly complicated problem. It's complicated on the town side It's complicated on UMass Amherst College Hampshire College aside if this were an easy thing to fix it would have been fixed a long time ago So no one is doing things that they think aren't going to work They're only finding that they're not working enough and so we're always trying to find new ways to make it work and so Really just so that folks know we're we're trying a Million different ways and and we're getting varying results But we still are working very closely together to try and find better solutions every time this time I just want to add one thing to what Mr. Newsanti said. I Think it would have Been far better if the Chancellor Would have said something That would have shown He really is working on this problem Instead of someone who was not as high up In the echelon said UMass I think it would have been Stronger leadership and a little more convincing than that two paragraphs letter that was in the paper, which was an irritant and not and Not an acknowledgement of really how hard people have been working in this town Thank you very much. Mr. Hayden on one hand. I have to appreciate the the honesty of the letter I mean I think now we know We might not have otherwise All right anything else on the subject I turned to the town meeting preliminary list of articles So just very briefly You know in the run-up to select board Reviewing and signing a town meeting warrant for the May 6th town meeting You're scheduled to sign a warrant at your April 8th meeting, which is your very next scheduled meeting So at this time of the cycle we we have a working list of Perspective articles that might be considered at the annual town meeting and Many of them are our standard articles that occur every year. I thought there's a there's a preliminary list in your packet I thought I could highlight a few of those Really the first 15 are pretty much traditional recurring articles budgetary related mostly The Item number 16 is water and sewer debt authorization that is for the Pine Street work and you'll have a specific language For the water and sewer portion of that work that would be authorized Recommended to be authorized at the annual town meeting this May and so work could proceed this calendar year on that portion of the work At the very bottom of the first page And on to the top of the second page there's We have standard articles every year that allow for the possibility of a motion to be considered Related to the use of reserves whether it's free cash or or our other reserve fund which is a stabilization fund There are two items listed under the stabilization fund item. It's really a typo. Those should be under the free cash article and A is social services funding that would be to Implement my recommendation that I made As part of my annual budget that it CD CDBG funding Was cut by as much as half We would identify up to ninety thousand dollars from reserves to basically level fund the social service agency account From the current year and the second I want to mention Listed here is town gown strategic planning. This gets back to what I was saying a moment ago about short-term and long-term planning and the need for the town and the university to redouble our collective efforts at Working working together and The Chancellor Brought forward an idea at a recent meeting With me to work together and jointly fund a strategic planning Exercise that would engage an outside consultant to help help facilitate this effort So that would cover the Number of things to give bring some clarity on The public safety stressors if you will that we talked about or Housing and other other issues and that how can we work most effectively town and gown? So I've expressed to him my openness of that and the notion of working together and jointly funding Such an effort so you can expect to see a specific proposal in the next couple of weeks Also going down working down the list that's in the packet number 31 rental regulations That's the safe and healthy neighborhood work group. My intention is to Take those recommendations and then offer offer recommendations to the select board for possible inclusion on the war And then at the very bottom of the list are a series of petition articles one zoning related article and Nine citizen petitions for a variety of things. I know during the month of April will be Scheduling time with with the select board to review each of those Thank you. I'll just know which number is it General number 39 by law nuisance house select board I'm not sure if that's gonna happen around this is the one we've been talking about for a couple of weeks now I was working with a citizen to try and do this the citizen did put forth their petition Which is number 43? I Think that they actually left out a part that was important to the select board And I think they did it inadvertently and I'm not sure if we're able to fix that at this point Or if it's kind of too late for that So I haven't been able to give that enough time to kind of work that through yet But um that that would only be sort of a catch-up to to deal with what the citizen petition I believe has has overlooked so we'll see how that goes Questions or comments about the the list as it is Mr. Hayden, I'm Sort of noticing that they're 49 and maybe only 48 articles in the end Which reminds me of why and we're such a great place to be really is very diverse the number of issues that are addressed in this are What the exercise that I was trying to do with it was to figure out where the consent calendar would be which ones of these could be lumped together in a consent because that was something we mentioned as An idea for town meeting and I Really can't find that many maybe the easements, but So there they're six or seven that we could lump together, but everything else not even the not even the budget issues can really Be clumped together. I do know mr. Pistrang Who's the only person running for the moderator position this year is thinking a lot about the consent calendar So that is something that hasn't been used for a number of years, but he is going to look to pursue that I'm not sure what he's decided But he's he's definitely thinking about it So let's encourage him on that. Yes indeed Mr.. Do we know yet? It's a two-part question. I guess do we know yet if town council who you know, obviously does lots and lots of things for us Has been able to at least give these enough of an overview that we know these are going forward. It's too soon Isn't it the petition articles? Yeah, they all have to go forward They go forward whether or not they've received the minimum number of required citizen citizen signatures They are at town council Now and he's actively reviewing those We end up putting them on the warrant, but then we sometimes have to dismiss them because they're just not viable, right? So that that's what his recommendation right as to form. We'll have that prior to the 8th of April But everything will have to just I don't want any citizens to think that their stuff might not end up on the warrant It will because it has to Whether or not there's a recommendation that is in fact viable and can go forward. We'll know we're closer to town meeting Yes, thank you I didn't mean to mean that town council was the gatekeeper because I wouldn't want that to be true either And the rental housing info by-law petition. I actually haven't read but I'm wondering if that reflects I'm showing my ignorance, but I'm going to go ahead and wonder if that reflects back to The long-time by-law we have that says how we send out this book about landlord tenant regulation because I know that came up Associated with early work of safe and healthy neighborhoods I'm assuming that when a by-law that currently my point to bringing this up is that our current by-law says we pass out This but we don't pass out this book So well, I don't know what this petition article says we obviously are gonna have a new by-law That's gonna have information that talks about which is going to be incredibly useful for people I guess I would just like Town council at some point to mention as an aside to us When it's a simple thing like that like we're gonna pass out a book and then we don't do it I mean it would be nice to clean up our by-laws and get rid of that, but it doesn't it doesn't matter I mean like like how to describe to people like yes, we don't do that anymore Yes, we haven't gotten around to asking town meeting to take it off the books But that doesn't mean like somebody's in trouble or something. It's just an old thing that hangs there And I don't know I mean just one of those things nobody ever gets around to fixing because we got way too many other things to do All right anything else on Tell me more an article so I did send an email to select for scheduling purposes that we had talked about that April 16th meeting being just if If we had to meet at that point We didn't know what the warrant was gonna look like now that we have practically 50 articles like that's necessary There's no way to fit. I mean this is gonna be essentially, you know, 12 articles per night roughly. Obviously, it's not exactly how it will work out But um, but regrettably we need to meet all those meets meetings in April All right, mr. Musanti. Yes, I want to make a couple of staff recognitions First Vera West Davis who has worked for the town for the past 30 years including the last 23 years in the fire department as Administrative assistant in the fire chief's office. She's retiring March 29th And I just want to thank her for her many many years of dedicated service Chief Nelson has described her as a Quote constant who's provided support to three different fire chiefs and Describes her as dedicated to the work of Amherst firefighters and the department and I want to wish Vera well in her retirement Secondly Wanted to tell you in a public setting I am Have Decided to transfer Debbie Gordon one of the administrative assistants in my office to the fire department to fill the position that was held by Vera West Davis Debbie Gordon Provides a lot of Administrative skill people skills and will be a real asset real critical Part of the fire department team, and I think it's a great opportunity for her she's excited about it and Debbie has been very very helpful to all of us and particularly so to me during Long time ago now when I was newly appointed as town manager we're going through a number of transitions and Debbie Debbie has done great work, and I think she has a long career ahead of her with the town and wish her well In the fire department the third one Susan weight our DPW's solid waste and recycling coordinator Recently received an award In celebration of women award from the Amherst League of Women Voters It's an award given annually To mark International Women's Day. It's really related to community service and Susan was recognized for her excellent work on things like developing and doing the educational outreach and researching and coming up with a proposal that Passed either unanimously or almost unanimously at the Amherst town meeting on the polystyrene band a real forward-thinking environmental initiative and she's done is continuing to do excellent work on Refuse management committee as we look at Reducing our waste stream short-term long-term, and so it's great to see her recognized by the League of Women Voters Could just pause to note that Debbie Gordon has been such a terrific resource to the select board She has as you noted been the been the constant through the big transition and the town manager's office She's such a huge help with licensing with stuff that has to do with committee work She is just she's a lovely person. She's a helpful person and We'll miss her, but we're very excited for her new opportunity Mr.. I'll leave a hole I just wanted to add that oh, yeah, we're gonna fill that Yes, we are we've begun the recruitment process and You know we're we're going to try to attract top tier candidates and I intend to fill ASAP Again reiterating everything you said about Debbie's importance not only daily But also during the transition their last town manager has been critical and I'm thrilled that she's still staying with the town You know if like if we have to lose her at least we're losing you're doing other part of town. So that's excellent One of the things that's always fascinating just fascinating everybody in the world I want you to know about select board work is separating the process from the people and One of the things that is really important to me based on previous town managers Perhaps versus current town manager is I think it would be valuable for the select board Which does depend a lot on staff in the select board slash town manager office to see the job descriptions For Debra Russel as your assistant and for Debbie Because there's been a number of transitions in the way those positions were laid out through the last transition from the town manager And I think it's just important for the public to understand You know what these people do and for us to understand and we all work together Marvelously and I don't think we tax people unnecessarily etc. But because they're under the select board budget to a point I think it's It's appropriate for us to know what those job descriptions look like more so than necessarily for 99% of the rest of our wonderful No, I'm happy to happy to share those with you and you can imagine that that's a pretty Encompassing yeah all kinds of stuff from you know the day-to-day kind of real administrative work to a lot of the constituent services and things like that that people regularly Come to my office or seeking Action from the select board, etc. So Mr. Heaton, I just want to add my appreciation of the Vera service She was the second person that I met when I Came to join the service of the town Chief Hoyle was the first but I was before I was recruited up to join the call force way back when Appreciate her work 30 years of the town. That's pretty impressive. That's wonderful. We wish her well. Thank you and congratulations to Susan Next there is a A letter that's on your draft letter on your desk and is one in the signature folder this is related to Notice of intent received by the town from WD Coles Giving the town right of first refusal On a three parcels of land off of Henry Street and Flat Hills Road That's considered chapter 61 Land under that state statute the town Needs to be offered a right of first refusal refusal Within a hundred and twenty days of receipt so there are some issues technical issues with the Completeness of the notice that has been received and in consultation with town council Drafted a letter for the board signature since the request is to the select board to go to the property owner Identifying issues with the notice and there'd be that would give the opportunity for follow-up So that the hundred and twenty day Clock is not yet triggered Until that notice is considered complete and that letter would make make them aware and then be follow-up with Town staff and with town council and the property owner Thank you So this this item wasn't on the agenda as of last week the late last week The thought was that this letter might be able to come from the town manager and didn't involve the select board at all but as Mr. Musanti mentioned town council said that because the notice came to the select board the select board is supposed to respond with the letter So so town council has created the letter for us, and we just need to sign it Other questions or comments on that or anything else from Mr. Really quick especially in the interest of time. I want to mention five very quickly Recent or upcoming things March 11th. I was had a great time with a number of you Serving as a Celebrity waiter at the empty bowls event over at the pub in support of the emmer survival Center It was a very successful fundraiser I'm told for the emmer survival Center, and we had a lot of fun seeing a couple hundred towns people come out in support It was a good time Last week. I also had lunch Meeting with Loomis Community CEO David Scruggs and Applewood's Administrator Rob Claflin just getting updated on all things Applewood, and so that was very helpful As a Proud parent I attended the emmer's high school musical this past weekend, Oklahoma and there were Big audiences at both the matinee on Saturday and the evening show as I Went with various family and friends to the performances, and there's over a hundred and there's about 150 high school students who participated in all aspects of putting on that Production and it just underscored for me What a priority that the emmer's schools and the high school place on arts and Performing arts and John Bechthold and other staff over there just really a Very positive and successful program Just wanted to highlight that This Thursday, I'll be in an ICMA International City Management Association they call this the Northeast Regional Summit I won't be coming back with any peace treaties or anything like that, but it's a great professional development Opportunity and another chance to see colleagues from all over New England on Thursday So I'll have a report next time and then also a plug this coming Sunday March 24th at 2 o'clock The friends of the emmer's senior center are putting on their fourth annual emmer's follies show At Buckley recital hall at Emmer's College, and it's a big fundraiser for the friends of the senior center We hope to see you all there Questions or comments from Mr. Miesanti All right moving along then to member reports JCPC update Jim's turn break routine another at this time Again in the interest of time since I'm trying to summarize at least four hours of two meetings I won't go through everything, but basically we're done now hearing presentations from the different Budget units and we'll begin deliberations and priorities and actual numbers Starting this coming week on March 7th. We heard from the Department of Public Works Information technology and the information technology component of the schools Basically DPWs asked about nine hundred six thousand dollars, which I'm not mistaken. It's about is down from one and a half last year 500,000 is for road repair coming out of chapter 90. They were to state money that we get So technically it's not part of the capital budget in the sense It's a different it's a different funding source, but it's traditionally listed there So that's part of the the reckoning here and among the four or six thousand dollars remaining a large part That has to do with heavy equipment that's really in dire need of replacement Snowplows trucks road crews things like that so that's taking up a lot of its smaller pieces money for the DPW building Sidewalk money light relamping and things like that So but those are the big-ticket items and there might be some flexibility as I understand it with chapter 90 depending how these things work So sometimes they're broken down in in ways that allow us some kind of leeway Depending how things break down Figured to be speaking. I mean the budget not the trucks the trucks are broken already a lot of them Possibilities also from tree removal work there for safety issues Equipment has to keep limbs that might fall in buildings and power lines things like that So that's the pretty much the picture there Town IT coming off a very successful year. Mr. Piconas says back to our most successful The town has been pretty good about funding requests and basically what IT has been trying to do is to streamline and Make things more efficient in a sense of for example consolidating to fewer large units of equipment while remaining of Maintaining the same service level so for example getting rid of lots of little personal copiers and printers and things like that in putting in big ones That means they cost more and each one is more crucial, but it works out better for the whole another big project there The total we're talking about here is three hundred twenty forty six thousand dollars You know hundred twenty three thousand for infrastructure replacements computer units big tasks seventy thousand dollars to digitize documents They're now stored in the basement of town hall some of those we need to do for preservation some for regular access But they're also freeze up space So for example if we get those documents digitized We can take the loading machines out of this wonderful space here and put them down there And the documents will then be stored in North Amherst school basement where the survival center used to be so there's a lot of Trying to make more efficient use of space and things like that too Other expenses include some Wi-Fi upgrades Munis modules that software that runs the town He helps us keep track of inventory fleet and job applications Interesting thing repeated from last year, which was not granted at the time is thirty three thousand dollars for a hybrid vehicle I think people don't realize that we have a huge a large fleet of vehicle over a hundred hundred twenty something hundred twenty three I forget There's no dedicated vehicle for it and yet We have multiple buildings the FBI service the town hall the schools the library and so forth people have to use their private vehicles for that So we're asking for a hybrid or I should say it is asking for a hybrid JC PC hasn't determined And it might be funded under green communities So there's a good chance to save some money there or to get some money even it's part of our Green fleet incentives Again copiers plotters scanner for the big maps we produce for planning things like that no surprises Schools have a lot of money in $26,000 for copy replacements again one for each business unit trying to centralize there About a hundred ninety thousand dollars for company computing equipment Schools are moving more towards smaller and portable devices in part because the way we use computers is changing But also for example, we're getting rid of the paper MCAS But we don't have a single lab where we can put eighty hundred computers and the students have to take a test in the Same proctored space. So laptops and iPads tablets things like that make that more more flexible also School facilities. We've got $671,000 different kinds of priorities. So for example, there's only $5,000 for a special Ed van But that's the highest priority in a practical sense because as Mr. Honowitz says if the kids have to get to school On the other hand a different high priority actually marked very high Which is unusual is $150,000 for security part in light of Newtown and things like that They're very and you heard about this also with regard to the the world would you know the places with open floor plans Very technical things how doors can be locked or not locked What kind of access can be shut off to a floor or a section and so forth. So that's vital I know Mr. Mutant to work on that this past fall You heard about generators and so forth for the schools Miss Lane is things like that. I'm not you sorry. You're heard about boiler replacement Generators also which are partly a safety issue. They were there for backup and for emergencies. So those are essential kind of things Town facilities about $190,000 miscellaneous things town hall bang center North Amherst Live at North Amherst former school to rehab the basement to make it a document storage area Safety the months and library steps things like that. So that's pretty much where we are You know, they all they all sound important But each group is asked to prioritize and we're going to sort through and try to make what 275 thousand dollars in adjustments between now And the time we get to a town meeting Thank you. Miss Stein. Did you want to have anything? The only thing I think I didn't hear Jim say and he talks fast so I know where he's catching. I'm not going to walk out yet. No, it was good There was a possibility that the car for IT might be electric that this was Interesting option that mr. Pooler suggested we explore and so I thought that was different Right something high high energy efficiency that would fit the community but still green communities eligible, right? Thank you question the comments on the JCPC report. Miss Brewer I actually want to drag the town manager back into this and see if he wanted to give a two sentence Synopsis of the really great explanation gave to a member who was formerly select remember who was here earlier But a DAC member now who was asking us about you know When we do things of capital at the capital planning table Do we think about all the other things we're trying to do in town as well? And I know that's coming up before associated with historic preservation, for example Are we effectively comparing what might be funded under CPAC? And he was bringing in you know Are we really are we looking at our transition plan associated with disability access and the town manager had a really good answer for that? So I'm putting him on the spot now just to say briefly that the answer is yes We are trying to make sure we are staying aware of all of these things while we're doing this It isn't that people are just looking in a very narrow or you know We're just talking about copiers and pieces of equipment. We're looking at bigger issues as well Yeah, the answer is yes, but it can be better and made more clear to all of the staff and so one of the Suggestions I've made to Finance director Sandy pooler as we you know to continuously try to tweak We review projects is to look at that project request worksheet that we developed a number of years ago that for every single project There's a list of criteria and there's a section on there that talks about what are the Objectives that are achieved in individual requests could be anything from you know safety or energy efficiency or You know various things, but having one that's explicit right on that checkbox about you know furtherance of the disabilities access Plan and having so that can be more easily flagged At the staff level my level and at the JCPC level Other questions or comments on JCPC Then other liaison reports It's time. Well the slide board office got a call today from Senator Stan Rosenberg and the state They are interested in our flag and they wanted to know when it would be ready Because they are actually trying to finish up having one flag from every town or municipality, I should say in the state and Obviously, we are one of the last half dozen or maybe we are now the last However, I am happy to report that I should be able to pick up the flags on March 29th And therefore we should plan to have a formal presentation from the Rotary at the April 8th meeting So that they can present the flag that they have purchased for the State House to the town and Then we can make arrangements for having it hung at the State House So I thought that was pretty exciting since we now actually have a pick up date Okay Other than that, this is the week that the Japanese middle school students and the Japanese contingent come To visit and they will be here starting. I think it's Thursday So that's kind of a soggy sister a city committee has been working hard on planning the agenda for when they are here I did not get to well, I got to the Community Reading together event, which was the secret life the brief wondrous life of Oscar Wow And Juno Diaz the Pulitzer Prize winning author spoke on March 11th and the auditorium the Amherst Regional Middle School auditorium was Full and people were extremely interested and he was Lovely use very colorful language, but he was very I think impressed with the nature of the questions that our Amherst audience Provided for him. It was very delightful and then the Community Preservation Act Committee met on March 14th and Did the best they could with a limited amount of money that they had for all the projects I think what they came up with is is pretty good The historical Society is getting the 21,000 plus that they asked for for preserving the artifacts well including Emily Dickinson's dress Amherst media is getting 54,000 almost for preserving historical records Recordings that that they have of the town The Tiffany window Will be restored and put back in the Unitarian Church for the enjoyment of the town for $106,000. This is of course assuming that town meeting approves the Community Preservation Act Committee's recommendations 14,000 will go for the Jones Library roof repair The Brunel phase one property will cost a hundred and fifty six thousand Okay, then there's I'm missing I have an abbreviation and unfortunately I don't Gonna have to think for a minute what that's for but 125,000 will be the Community Preservation Act Committee Support for purchasing the rock farm, which is the five acres in South Amherst That almost got to be the site of 17 condos and instead five acres will be preserved They had to work very hard to be able to come up with Basically half a million dollars and this is the CPA's Abduction towards that the Department of You see our concert you see our thanks Is contributing a hundred thousand towards it because they did believe that preserving the vistas next to the rail trail what's worth doing and Then this year we're not going to they're not recommending funding for the North Common They think that could wait Another year to be further developed the master plan for the community field Which everybody agrees it's needed but that too they didn't feel they had the money for it and 80,000 for Habitat the house that would have been The one on strong street That we purchased the Hawthorne house. They didn't get the Release on Restoring that restoring that would be so expensive They can't afford to do it, but they don't have permission from the state yet to tear it down and build affordable housing So habitat can't move forward on that. So that's That's report. What was the thing that I was going to ask you about housing the housing authority That's not the one. I'm thinking because there was something that we went from 30 back up to 60,000 But other recreation Well, it isn't just a shade thing there's a leak It's an event and the and there's fencing that needs doing and so when they decided that they were going to do this they Moved increase the amount back up to the 60,000 that was requested the problem with the housing is that after Mr. Jessup studied it very carefully. He's not sure that CPA money can be used for the project that was brought forward which was for providing repairs to the kitchens Which are in very bad shape but because Those that housing Units those housing units were not purchased with CPA money. He doesn't think this is legal So what is happening at the moment? Is there's a request from town council to find out if we can do this But the feeling was that we were walking on a icy Nice It was a little bit insecure shall we say so the way they were able to spend all this money is going to be by bonding it bonding part of these projects and the only Problem with that everybody was ecstatic with the things we did approve. You could just feel the air Lighten when when the vote went the way it did The only issue is that every time you take more of the CPA money and put it Into bonds there's less to spend the following year and so It's kicking the can down the road a little bit because if there are equally good projects next year There's it's it's hard, but this is a good time to bond in terms of the interest rates So that's that's my big much more lengthy report than I wanted Sorry, thank you very much question of the comments from this thing, Mr. I'm sorry I will just ask Miss Stein to take back to the committee the CPA committee One little person's concern about the rock farm project Just in general, I mean, it's it's fascinating that DCR has decided that's worth preserving That's certainly not been high on our conservation list of anything to do And so it was in fact at one point considered a potentially viable place to build housing Since we don't really seem to want to build housing anywhere in town of any kind It's kind of irritating Something else good to conservation, but that's a whole nother I'm just saying that often when we have these proposals come to town meeting It's so obvious like we've been looking for this piece of green space to fit all together And then this all works so well and it's this great flow and but sometimes when people hand us money It's kind of foolish not to pursue it as well. So an interesting little juxtaposition we have there I would just ask the town manager to follow up with us later to let us know after this plays out with Whether or not the Amherst Housing Authority project can be done with the money because I'm concerned Because that was supposed to be matching money to block grant money block grant money We may or may not be getting and it's a huge project And if we don't get the block grant money or we don't and we certainly aren't gonna get enough block grant money to do all of it Without the CPA money, then are we do we consider using joint capital planning? But we have to do something. They just don't get anywhere near enough maintenance money from the various other sources and they apply for grants and yada yada But I mean when cabinets are falling off the wall and you don't have faults or get interrupters You kind of need to do these things at some point. So It's just wondering, you know, where who who's who's lap does it fall into next, you know After all these other attempts have been made to fund it. So that we want we can't just say, oh, well Then and just not do it. Okay. What will be the next late? So let's all I'm asking one. Thank you Other questions or comments from this night? All right next reports It's blue It's been really awesome I haven't gone to a bunch of meetings because all my life is now focused on the regionalization of elementary schools and I really don't want to talk about it You do have one big report you got to give us on that for Except we're having a meeting on Wednesday and things may change. So, yeah So we we were all leading up to this vote on March 9th Where we were going to decide what was going to be the thing we were going to continue to work on or were we going To continue to work on anything were we going to just say oh done with this walk away Where we're going to look at a pre-k to 12 system where we're going to look at keeping the 7 to 12 system while changing its school committee composition and adding on a pre-k to 6 and Lo and behold it was determined at that meeting that the only Progress we seem to be able to make was to have a three-town k-to-6 with Leverett, Pelham and Amherst students Barry Representatives indicating although they personally may have been very supportive of the process They did not feel the town was quite ready to be there yet This was of course very frustrating for many people at the table But that seemed to be where we ended up after four hours with a half-hour break in there at some point Since that happened there has apparently been another subcommittee another meeting of because you know We're all these four towns which each have three member boards and their three member board got together since then and is Rethinking their position and wondering if something has changed sufficient in their town that they could consider Asking for reconsideration on our at our next meeting our very next meeting which is Wednesday We would have met sooner had we had the opportunity, but you know, there's It's kind of hard to get 12 people together in the same place We worked really hard to have all of us there on the 9th not all of us can be there on Wednesday the 20th So similar to old arguments we've had in the past at town meeting, you know different set of people's here tonight You know, when do you reconsider when do you make these kinds of decisions? So it's super complicated and it's super frustrating and I don't have no idea what's gonna happen So yeah, so we thought we were gonna be moving forward with the three elementary schools working together But now we don't know what's gonna happen, but we know we'll be doing something so yeah, there's that Thank you for dealing with all of that That's been an amazing process Questions or comments from spur All right anything else from a spur No, that'll do the side of the table anyone Mr. Wolff Let's see I was gonna add to the CPAC, but it's late zone Historical Commission took up the question of the rezoning of Main Street lots, which are your article 40 on the warrant You know, this is let lots the corner of Gray Street and Main Street that we've counted proposed to purchase with CPA funds before it didn't work out The new proposed what mr. Gidera the owner is to rezone them from General residential to neighborhood business What he's gonna do is? That would allow him to build more densely So basically who built on one of the lots the corner lot rather than both of them and we create a building there that could house Amherst media a CTV So that's what's going there Historical Commission seemed sympathetic to the general intention in part because it leaves the one other lot open But don't take a position and that'll take place next month 28th the zoning Board of Appeals will take up the Historical Commission's response to the request about the 290 Lincoln barn demolition and Then design review board had interesting things not just the usual signs, which are always fast-tending and I enjoy very much But what I call the cash cow That's not its official name. Mr. Gates, who you know is working great clothes who owns the carriage shops and of course has been a great patron of the Sir of the homeless shelter through the Baptist Church Wants to erect there or to allow it to erect on this property a Large cow sculpture made of recycled metal by local artist Camille Peters about seven feet high and six feet long It would have every receptacle so people could deposit money inside Or they could have themselves pictured there and there'll be memorabilia you can purchase the idea being that Counterfeit cow productions is making a film about homelessness in a university town and the money Therefore raised would be a way of calling attention to the plight of the homeless and the poor and it sounds like a very interesting idea So there'll be a large metal cow kids can ride on it. You can ever sell photograph there. It'll be lighted at night and Coming coming soon to a carriage shop near you I Fascinating, thank you Questions or comments from Mr. World. There's a frog in Northampton. There can be a cow A rabbit's appear. We have to have something down there Okay, so for my reports We talked all about safe and healthy So campus and community coalition we pretty much cover that too. I will just mention One other thing I've got a document in the packet the second element of the document This is called some UMF spring community activities is the walk this way campaign which you might have read about in the newspaper also I told you the campus and community coalition was Organizing itself into work groups to deal with very specific problems for the spring So one of those groups is the the moving around group walking around group trying to deal with kind of the roving bands of kids who kind of migrate from place to place looking for some place to be and they cause a lot of Disruption in neighborhoods often so so this group is Working to get them to particularly the the very large crowds that are going back to Southwest to try and get them to take a particular Route and so they're going to be doing that by having a whole bunch of students and other volunteers and Electronic signs from the Amherst police department just trying to direct them. It's not it's not like requiring You know, there's not going to be you know We're not going to you know all join arms and prevent somebody from going down Fearing Street or whatever but you know No, phalanxes or whatever But encouraging, you know to folks to take a different route and they've kind of mapped out a route down Phillips Street that would take you through Into the UMass parking lot that comes out at the end of netting Street That actually that's the back of the parking lot at fronts on Mass Ave But you'd be kind of going through that that back part They'll have the baby Burke UMass food truck there to kind of entice And so it would be kind of taking a less disruptive route to to Southwest There we're looking for volunteers to assist in this effort. This is a 10 30 p.m. To 2 30 a.m. On three nights I will be there on both the Saturday nights April 13th and April 20th I'm skipping the Friday April 5th one because you know, we've got that Stan Rosenberg's municipal conference first thing Saturday morning I thought I don't want to be up until 2 30 and then go to that at 8 but anyway I strongly encourage you or anybody that you know, especially town folks I think it's a it's a good thing to get involved with if you can stand it I mean this is not for everybody I recognize that but but if you would be willing to do that then let me know and I think it'll be fun And I think I think it's a it's a nice way to show real responsiveness to neighborhood concerns over there As you probably read in the paper They're actually looking this will be something of a test to see if maybe this could be a route more for the future That would be more permanent that maybe would be marked as sort of a they called it the Minuteman trail So that they're just completely Brainstorming at this point, but but really thinking about what could be long-term solutions So we'll see how that goes. So anybody wants to take part. You just let me know The other thing that's on that list that's not actually related to campus and community coalition But it is student stuff related to spring This actually came out of a meeting that mr. Musanti and I had with the Greek representatives from the Greek community a couple of weeks ago maybe a month or so ago and Olivia pijanowski the president of the Pan-Hellenic Council emailed me to update Us on what they're doing So what the Pan-Hellenic Council, which is the sorority council and the Interfraternity Council have done is Organize a neighborhood cleanup that's going to start on Easter Sunday actually March 31st and then be every other Sunday in April and I've outlined on here the roads that they will cover there So they're basically going to clean all of the litter off the streets and sidewalks on Phillips nutting Lincoln North Pleasant from Mass Ave All the way to Amity Street. I mean that's all the way downtown Fearing Street from North Pleasant to Sunset and the residential side of Sunset have All of the different chapters have been assigned different quadrants of those places to clean up and and again So, you know, we we talk about kind of the the the negative impacts that too few of the students make Considering how we generalize about them. It's really such a such a small Small subset, but it's vast majorities of the students I don't cause any problems at all and more than that are looking to find solutions So the Greek community was really interested in trying to give back in a way that would be meaningful to the community So we talked about kind of the whole litter concept and they really liked that a lot they completely seized that and we'll run with it and and I think that They they should really be praised for that great effort and much appreciated and and we'll see how that goes so so thanks very much to Olivia Pijanowski from Pan Health Council and and all the Folks in the Greek system for what they're going to be doing those weekends. That should be tremendous And I think that's all I have to report on liaison stuff Open meeting a lot update. I hope you don't have it Yeah, whatever. There's there's a thing in here. You can go to it if you want She actually also issued some additional information associated with sunshine week Which usually there's big write-up about the newspaper. I'll see if there's anything of interest and let you know Thank you very much. You know chairs report chairs report. I have bad news. Sorry So last time I told you about advocacy letter. You said yes. Yes, right. Did that be great? Yeah, that really hasn't happened yet I apologize. So it's supposed to be two letters It's supposed to be like one to our legislators and one to the public and mr. We say I think now we're gonna work on communication points and everything It just that has not been that kind of a couple of weeks for that to happen But but we think it's not too late We're still gonna do it and and we're really sorry and if somebody would rather do it instead of us then you can The goal is to do it and so I do apologize for that not having been done yet So anyway, that's where it is this time. It's a good little select board member I called every single one of those people and left a message excellent excellent. Thank you All right, so that's all my stuff. Do we have other things? Yes, we still have more licenses I can make motions All right, so we are working with different versions of the motion sheet So let's just before you start reading them just say what they are and we'll make sure okay Well, we have a special liquor license for the a senior pub night We have a two at least at UMass All right, so why don't I do those two I Move that the select board approve a special wine and malt license for a cash bar for the senior pub night at The Amherst College teat campus center Thursday, March 28th 2013 from 6 p.m. To 1 a.m. Charles Thompson manager second I move that the select board approve a Special liquor license No, I'm sorry. I move that the select board approve special liquor license Applications for the University of Massachusetts for receptions to be held on the following events dates and times Judy Bardwell clerk top of the campus incorporated wine and malt April 20th 2013 5 p.m. To 7 p.m. Fine Arts Center atrium UMass Amherst all alcohol April 27th, 2013 6 p.m. To 12 p.m. Recreation Center UMass Amherst Second for the discussion. No favor say aye. All right, and I have two taxi licenses I move that the select board approve a new taxi driver license application for Peter Belden on behalf of the ambassador taxi company for the calendar year 2013 second Discussion no favor say aye. Aye. I move that the select board approve a new taxi driver license application for Russell a brusso on behalf of Aaron's transportation for the calendar year 2013 second Discussion no favor say aye. Hi, and then I have minutes which I've read shall I go ahead and approve them Are folks ready to approve the minutes tonight? We've got two sets of minutes Yes, no minutes Can we approve them? Yes, let's go this time. I move that the select board approve the minutes of February 11 2013 in February 2015-2013 as amended because I have some amendments Mr. Ian second thank you for the discussion all in favor say aye. Hi As amended or as amended As amended and here you can have the amendment Mr. Moussanti also has a yeah in your packet you have a citizen activity form from Robert Brooks an applicant Conservation Commission, and I would ask the select board to Move to confirm My appointment of him to the Conservation Commission for a term expiring June 30th 2014 second Discussion No He's a retired U.S. Forest Service excellent credentials Back in the 80s. He was a chair and the green on the Greenfield cons-con He's got a background He's very impressive All right, that was moved and seconded right for discussion Discussed all in favor say aye. Hi. That's unanimous, okay So we have covered every motion on the motion sheet that we need to cover correct. We do not meet again until the 8th of April which is the night before the annual town election time. We don't usually meet but we did agree to meet I'll just note. We do have a liquor license hearing that night as is mentioned on the Calendar preview that's for Hickory Ridge golf course and the Stein mentioned the adding the flag thing to that meeting So we will do that And I think that's all does anybody have anything else that needs to be said before we go to mr. Hayden Then mr. Hayden moves to adjourn and without objection this meeting is adjourned at 955