 Done it. Did you record to the cloud? That's the key. I did. Okay. Okay. So if you want to make Pat co-host, that's up to, I don't have that power anymore. You've got the, you've got all the power, Lynn, for usual. Right. For usual. Why give it to me? She never shares. I used to have it. I just gave it up like for nothing. You're in a mood, Paulie. Yeah, cause I'm signing off. Yeah, he's not even staying. Good. How do I make you co-host? So you hover over her name. I think where it says more. Allow me to do. Oh, there it is. There you go. You're now co-host Pat. What is that? So you're like Ed McMahon. You're supposed to laugh at all of Lynn's jokes. As usual. You know, I, I know. We are recording. I hate to say this to you. And we have people in the audience. But they're not in yet. No, they're watching and hear us. Oh, welcome to district two. And there's two people named Pat D'Angelo's in the audience. Well, that's cause Carol is. Yeah. Yeah. That's why I went on with my bank. For moral support. So I'll leave you to your own devices. Counselors. Probably. Thank you. I can't talk to you right now. Anyway, Lynn, I, to bringing people in, I think would be a good thing. I now have four of you in the audience. Four of me. Yes. What? Okay, I'm promoting people to panelists. I have no idea why you have all those Patricia D'Angelo's. I really don't. I don't either. More than one. Yeah. So let me check with Carol. Carol, did you go on several times or something? Hi, Barbara. We're just letting people in. That we know. Except I'm not letting in for Pat D'Angelo's. No, one of them is. Carol, I guess. Eric, background. Promote to panelists. Hi, Barbara. Simpson. Chris. Hey. Phone promote the panelists. Hey, Renee and Eric. Hey. Well, somebody, one of you has to turn something. Carol needs to turn some things off. Nancy. Hi, Nancy. Hi, good evening. Hi, Lori. How are you? Good. Thank you. Daisy, I thought I already promoted her. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I have another person by that name in the audience. The two of you. Or somebody else using your. Web thing. Peter would I can't seem to promote you. You may have an outdated. Nice picture, Bernard. Lisa Campbell. I'm trying to promote you to panelists and. Not being successful. I now have five pat DeAndalus's. Somebody in your household pat. Not doing this. Good evening. We're going to get started in just a moment. Thank you for joining us. We understand there was a glitch in people receiving notifications, but. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Yeah, they went out March 1st. Then the first time I forgot the attachment and then I added it. So, and then I sent a second round to some people. Lynn, could you promote one of the pat DeAndalus's? Because I think it's Carol. Just did, but she's not happening. Hi, Lori. All right. Let's. Get it. Good. He is coming in. I did just promote. A pat DeAndalus. Jane. I'm going to go check. Yeah, just. No, no, no. Yeah. And. Okay. I'm going to keep looking for new names as they arrive. I'm going to keep looking for new names as they arrive. A couple of people in the audience and they don't seem to be coming in. Which doesn't make any sense unless you have an updated. Your zoom. No, it's happening. If you don't want to be seen, you can always, of course, turn your picture off. But we do ask you to turn your sound off. It's actually nice to see people. Yeah, but I'm eating. I told you it's great when we come see each other. Is it possible to turn on chat so we can have a better exchange of opinions? I hate to say it, but unfortunately with this version of zoom, we don't have chat. I know it's, it's, there's nothing we can do about it. It's, this is the town's version. And because it's a webinar. We can't turn on chat. And you have your hand up. Would you like to say something? Perlain. Just muted. I did not mean to. Hello, everybody. Can you bring in Amber? And I'm trying. Okay. I'm sorry. And. Here's Kitty. See if she comes in. Really Perkins. We can't find where the hand raising is or how to put questions in the Q and A. Is there some. We'll explain that in just a moment. I need to know who is at. I'm going to ask the person at one, nine, one, seven, four, five, three, three, three. I have three, three, four, two, two. Please identify yourself. Pat, you. Oh, that's not Pat. That's probably Carol. No, Carol's gone off. So don't promote me from that list. All right. I can always throw you back out again. Yeah. Michael Lepinsky is. Should be brought in. Renee Moss unless she's with no. Okay. I can't seem to promote Renee. Maybe no more. We'll see. Mindy is that you at nine, one, seven, four, five, three, three, four, two, two. Could you. Hi. Hi. It's me. Three, four, two, two. I'm a resident. Thank you. Can you tell us your name? You won. You won. Thank you. Yes. I live in the neighborhood. I'm sorry. I don't have the zoom app. So I can only hear. Or I'm going to mute myself and I'll just listen. Thank you. Glad to have you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. So let me explain where this is the town's. Version of. Zoom. It's a webinar version. And as a result, we cannot. Have a chat feature, which I regret. Mentally. But I want to make sure that if you would like. Us to. Provide information. If you did not receive one of our notices, please email us. At. At our emails for the town. Yeah. Okay. My name is Greece. Mergy. Or I. S. E. M. M. M. M. M. M. M. M. M. M. M. M. And I'm. D. E. M. G. LISP at emmers mass. Go. How did you. Marcy's glove. Is in it. Yes. How, why are you in this? I have no idea. Maybe it's my mom alter ego. certainly can thank you both the others it's frustrating you have more hair than I have but you have more soul than I have so what can we say uh perlann you have your hand up is there something you wanted to say no I was just trying to get a bit of you oh okay I've tried to get my arm down but it's just wanting to stay up if you go you go back to the raise hand function yeah I have oh there we are okay it's down okay and uh okay I'm feeling all right let's get started we are expecting Mindy Dom I know that she's driving from the state house uh and she will be calling in uh but meantime we do have uh congressman let me just make sure I have that Coby are you here yeah you are okay congress Mcgovern McGoverns um it's his um western massachusetts representative and that's Coby Gardner Levine and Coby was going to give us about three to five minutes of some quick updates and then you can ask him questions you can make requests whatever you want to do okay Coby you want to go ahead sure well thank you Lynn good evening everybody um as as Lynn just mentioned my name is Coby Gardner Levine I work in Jim McGovern's office over in North Hampton so so just a little ways away from Amherst so I was asked tonight to talk about some federal updates and I think the best way to spend this time is to kind of jump right into the omnibus appropriations package that passed last week and just for background this is the largest domestic spending increase in four years and delivers I think some pretty incredible investments that are necessary to meet the challenges that we're living in this moment in time and I also want to say that it gets the United States off of the budget from the Trump administration which is huge so as a broad overview the bill contains 13.6 billion dollars in emergency funding for security and humanitarian needs for Ukraine it contains an increase in funding for key domestic priorities such as Pell grants establishing President Biden's new ARPA age cancer initiative and these investments are designed to create good paying jobs and lower the costs for families and the bill also secures major bipartisan legislation such as the reauthorizing I should say the Violence Against Women Act creating new cyber security protections to fight against cyber attacks to our infrastructure just to name a couple so when we look at the portion of the legislation that's specific to Ukraine that I just mentioned a moment ago the goal of course is to hold Russia accountable and isolate it further from the global economy but I think with that said we need to also be cognizant of making sure that we protect our own economic interests here in the US which is why the House of Representatives also move forward with a strong bill that would ban the import of Russian oil and energy products into the US which would cut off a major source of revenue for Putin and separately as we work to diminish the Russian economy we remain focused also on bringing down energy costs for American families as well as our global partners and the bill also takes some steps to review Russia's access to the World Trade Organization review how we can further diminish Russia and the global economy but another key thing that I wanted to mention in the bill is that it reauthorizes and strengthens Congressman McGovern's Global Magnitsky Human Rights and Accountability Act which is more commonly known as the Global Magnitsky Act so that the US can impose further sanctions on Russia and just for some background context on that in 2012 Congress took bipartisan action with the Magnitsky Act to impose sanctions on human rights abusers in Russia also normalizing trade relations and the standard was actually expanded in 2016 to apply globally so broadening human rights abuses that can be punished with the sanctions and bolstering coordination with our partners and so this new bill that I just mentioned a moment ago would actually actually extends the Global Magnitsky Act so that the US can continue to punish Russian oligarchs and top government officials for these heinous attacks that we're seeing on Ukrainian civilians and the violation of Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity so on a bipartisan and bicameral basis Congress is going to continue to work with the administration to take every potential action to limit the costs of Putin's aggression on American families and also to blunt the effects of the price hike and that means focusing on ensuring stability of global oil markets while also working to diversify our energy supply and you probably saw in the news that the administration has already announced its plans to release more than 90 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve this current fiscal year and to support the Ukrainian people and frankly democracy. Congress is also enacting emergency funding that includes billions in humanitarian, military and economic support as part of our omnibus government funding legislation and we're also working to help ensure air support for the Ukrainian armed forces and to clarify that a bit you've probably heard President Biden has said very clearly that American troops will not go to war in Ukraine but our nation can provide military equipment and support our allies who are struggling and supplying airplanes to Ukraine and we also need to need to help the two million approximately Ukrainian refugees who are fleeing their homes and escaping other nations which the UN has actually said is the fastest growing refugee crisis in Europe since World War II and this this funding that I just mentioned also comes on the heels of one billion dollars that we've committed in security assistance to Ukraine over the past year so just switching away from Ukraine for a moment I also wanted to remind everyone on this call that a year ago last week President Biden enacted the American Rescue Plan which frankly turned the tide on the pandemic put shots into arms getting people back to work children back safely in schools and money in people's pockets and following that legislation we've set a new record actually for jobs created small businesses started economic growth and shrinking unemployment in spite of the hardships caused by the pandemic so for our community in this omnibus bill I also wanted to mention a couple of other specifics for our region the first is that Congressman McGovern secured two and a half million dollars for the 33 Holly Street project in Northampton the Holly Center for the Arts and and you may have seen in today's Gazette that that was one of the articles that kind of detailed that process I'm happy to get into that a bit more if folks have questions but actually earlier today myself and a couple other members of our team were with the congressman there for an official announcement of that funding in downtown Northampton and the second item that I wanted to mention was Congressman McGovern also secured one million dollars for a robotics program and scholarships at our own UMass Amherst right here in town and and so that's of course money that's coming directly back into our our town our community our education and and so separately from that many many of you who've heard the congressman talk over the years have probably heard him talk about hunger and food insecurity it's one of his major issues that he's been focused on over the course of his career and I wanted to share that as a result of working tirelessly with the Biden administration to the congressman has actually just achieved one of his goals which is to make sure that we convene during this current administration a White House conference on food nutrition health and hunger so just kind of as as a general overview of that this is a conference that's designed to bring together stakeholders from across the federal government local governments researchers students people with lived experiences and and the goal is to create a plan to finally end hunger by the year 2030 because we want to create a system that allows people more choice especially to fresh produce and and to locally grown food and in our area we have quite a lot of that our local farmers are on the front lines in in creating a better system but I'm pleased to announce that congressman McGovern has secured the funding necessary to finally make this conference a reality and and so I wanted to make sure I brought that up tonight so I know that was a broad overview but I hope that was helpful to understand the omnibus bill a little bit better and and I also wanted to say on behalf of the congressman that we we definitely know there is more work to be done in his state of the union address we heard President Biden speak powerfully to the issues facing America's working families and Democrats plan to lower their costs and right now we're working to make more goods in America and lower everyday costs energy child care prescription drugs that the list goes on but but our office believes that these are essential to creating a better and a more just country and and while these changes haven't been as quick as we would hope what we are accomplishing quite a lot and we will continue to fight for more and so with that I'd like to turn it back over to you Lynn great um let me just mention that there are 28 of us in the room and there are 15 more that I've been trying to bring into the room but I can't for some reason I think it may be the version that they have of zoom but uh so I'm uh we're going to take uh Kobe has agreed to take a few questions I would like to also just acknowledge that Kobe is one of our Amherst Regional High School graduates and so he's a young man come home which was really nice uh Lori Golder Golder you have your hand up hi Kobe and thank you for that I wanted to point out one more thing that was in that omnibus bill um that that uh uh the government and also Ed Markey and um our senators basically supported which was a million dollar earmark for the energy transition institute at UMass whose goals are very much aligned with the stated goals of town council and the energy and climate action committee so I thought there was a nice report on that in the Amherst Indian Friday if anybody wants to look at it the opening was last week or a couple last week I think yeah this last Monday yes thanks Lori are there any questions for Kobe at this point or requests you know once in a while you get his ear I should also say that I'm happy to leave my information for folks Lynn I don't know if maybe you're able to uh send that out to some sort of listserv but I'd be happy to pass that on as well since I know we have quite a few folks on this call why don't I send it out in a follow-up email okay all right um are there and then we have Mindy Dom who is in her car driving back from Boston and Mindy uh you want to give us provide us with a brief update on things that are going on I think I gave you permission to talk now I have to ask you to unmute can you Lynn can you hear me yes we can hello yes okay great hi everybody I'm sorry I'm not on camera and um I hope to give you um a brief update on what's going on in the state but first I really have to shout out Kobe I think he's an amazing um representative for Congressman McGovern we're really lucky to have him in our region to support not only our political and sort of issue efforts but really terrific case workers or residents who are having problems with the federal government you know whether it's the department of the IRS or the state department with passports they're just a really phenomenal office um I always feel lucky to have Jim McGovern as my congressman as I know many people in Amherst do but I also feel lucky that we have Kobe as his rep so I just want to thank him because that was a really unbelievably explicit specific and great update so I'll try to be a little brief I just want to give an update on some legislation that I think is of importance to folks and some community um sort of services that I've heard a lot about so on legislation I get a lot of questions from people including from Lynn about the status of the home rule that would allow Amherst to have ranked choice voting and at this point that bill is still in committee which is a good sign it was extended because they couldn't make a decision about it by February 2nd it's extended until the middle of next month and I am continuing to work with the chairperson to try to get it out of committee and to be able to be voted on and pass and from the house that would go to the senate and the senate would they get passed and then hopefully get to the governor's desk um for his signature and for enactment so we are still what they call working that bill but the good news is it's still alive and kicking and able to be worked so that's a great thing um two weeks ago or last week I think maybe two weeks ago we passed um a big bill in the house of representatives on offshore wind you might have heard about it it's a really incredible piece of legislation that makes Massachusetts a leader in the development manufacturing production and education and workforce training that's needed for offshore wind and also includes research and development which is the piece of the process that will come back to Amherst through hopefully the UMass Amherst Wind Center um they'll be R&D affiliated with this bill they'll be training they'll be training for high school students as part of this bill as well as manufacturer production and distribution and there's also battery storage technology associated with it because how else are we going to get the wind energy from Nantucket to Amherst, Kallum and Grandi so that is a really exciting bill people have said to me since we passed the climate roadmap bill so when are you actually going to do something besides just do the roadmap and I really look at this bill as the first step not the last on how we make that roadmap a reality so it takes the goals the climate goals that the house and the senate set and it says so here's how we're going to do it with wind and there'll probably be more climate-based legislation coming out of the legislature before June so stay tuned for that I know that's important to our district and I think there's going to be a lot of activity on that in the house. Some of you may know we also passed the Votes Act a couple of weeks ago and pieces of this act that are very good that we all support are things like making mail and voting permanent extending early voting periods it cut the registration period to 10 days it allows for no excuse absentee voting as far as I'm concerned a major issue in Massachusetts that people should not have to have a specific excuse in order to vote absentee they should just need to vote absentee but you may also be aware that that bill had a amendment in it to allow for election day registration which failed I supported it I opposed the effort to fight it I was not successful but we put up a really good fight because the the vote on the election day registration was pretty close by House of Representatives standards and it actually is in conflict with the Senate bill so we had to go to conference committee and we're all really we're advocating and we're hoping that what will come out of the conference committee is election day registration so I'm happy to take questions on that but stay tuned the way it works now if nothing happens with election day registration specifically is because the bill extended early voting and at the same time cut time period for registration there will be a couple of days of election day registration but that's actually not good enough we need election day registration on primary day and we need election day registration on the general election day and in Amherst we particularly need that like other college communities because a lot of people don't move back into our area until a day or two before the primary and they need to be able to vote as residents just as if they lived here for the 10 days prior so we're going to continue to work on that we also last week passed a supplemental budget this included money for rental assistance some COVID related tasks but I think most importantly to people that I've heard from it also included refugee resettlement money specifically for Ukrainian refugees so that's good news it'll also be able to be used by Afghani refugees but it expanded and increased what we're doing for refugees in Massachusetts we are coming into budget season which means that there'll be lots of opportunities for people to basically tell me what they want to see in the budget whether specifically or just generally and you should take the opportunity to let me know what you think we should be spending money on and what you think we shouldn't be spending money on it will also be an opportunity for me to try to get some earmarks for local priorities I'm really proud that in the last ARPA budget I was able to get some really good earmarks for organizations in our community like the Amherst mobile market to increase food security in our community the Amherst public schools to support mental health services for students money for the Drake the new performing arts venue downtown as well as the Amherst survival center and other organizations so I'm going to continue to try to get some of the our priorities funded specifically in addition to generally and I think the last because I probably have talked too long at this point is a little bit on the UMass test state people are beginning to understand that the governor announced last week or two weeks ago maybe maybe 10 days ago that they were going to close many of the stop the spread sites across the state for COVID-19 Amherst is one of those sites leaving western Massachusetts with just two sites in Springfield I saw it today that I'm really happy about this that the town has submitted a letter requesting that the site stay open under a Cumberford and I led an effort of representatives and state senators and sent a letter to the state on Friday urging that the site remain open that it's not only an access issue for residents to be able to get free PCR testing but in our perspective it's also a way to do surveillance because rapid tests do not get surveilled and in our community we need to know if they're particularly because of the college populations if we're experiencing outbreaks and you know it goes back to like what believe it or not Trump said at the beginning of the pandemic right if you don't test then you don't know we're not in that situation we want to know so we need to make sure that that testing exists I've had some like good luck with legislation some of my bills have been advanced from committee I'm happy to um let you know what they are if you're interested I will leave that to a question and answer because I don't want to necessarily presume but I think I probably have spoken enough Ling and my have I reached my time limit you have that's okay um I'm going to ask now if there are people who have questions of Mindy please raise your hand and make sure that you subscribe to Mindy's regular newsletter it's electronic and it has a lot so we have one hand up Jacob Hirsch please unmute and state your question there you go hi thanks um I'm Jack Hirsch at on Flat Hills Road and I'm just wondering this question could be either for Mindy or Kobe or both but there is what what is the effort to fund entrepreneurial new energy clean energy supplies there's a company in East Hampton called Fluid Power Symptoms that's FL-O-O-I-D which has a really interesting approach to developing clean energy it can be incorporated into the design of buildings and it's just one of many new approaches it seems like all of the politicos are jumping on solar as the only solution although Mindy I realize you're talking about wind too although that's very limited and where it can go but anyway I'd like to hear about alternative energy sources well I'm certainly not a person that I'm not a scientific engineer so I can't like you know I would have never been in a position to judge one energy source over another but I think if you know that company they may want to reach out to their rep who is Dan Carey in New Hampton because first of all there's a lot of small business grants right now out there but there's also an effort on the part of the governor as well as the legislature to look at something called clean heat which is the way we heat our buildings how should we go about doing that and that has some alternative energy pieces into it but I think there's interest in that but I think it's more about potentially asking that companies getting that companies and connect contact with their representative to maybe meet with someone in either the secretary of economic development's office or the energy and environmental affairs secretary to sort of brainstorm how they can go about seeking state support I wouldn't write it off I think it's just about meeting with the right people okay kitty axelson berry okay am I on you are okay great thank you hi kitty axelson berry from 89 stony hill road in amherst mendy um I'm sure that you're aware of the hampton county um courthouse I know it's not part of your district um the wadrick ireland courthouse that is full of mold and dust and there have been five people with al s in recent years there three three judges of whom died from al s in the last few years they had two of them had the same office the other one had an office like right nearby there have been 60 plus cases of cancer there that many people feel are because of the bad air and there have recently been some air samples done and it has the courthouse has the worst kind of molds and toxins the sheriff and hampton county just decided that he's not going to let his inmates into that courthouse so although it's not part of your territory I'm sure that you have a lot of people here who work there okay my daughter works there she doesn't live in amherst but she does work there and we're really concerned about her health and the health of other people who work or have to appear at that courthouse is there a way that you can help apply pressure on the state level to having that having people not have to work there having a new courthouse built we don't think that trying to remediate it after they've been trying to remediate it for so many years will work or at least have it studied have an epidemiologist study can you do you have the power to you know help out with that I well that you put the question perfectly I absolutely have the quote unquote power to help out with that meaning I have the ability on behalf of the district to support as an ally and advocate with my colleagues who represent springfield about the courthouse which I've been doing so what we do in this situation you know when I first heard about it I contacted the reps in springfield and said what do you need from me and my job then is to be their partner and to do what they need me to do so in that in this case it's either sign on the letters make sure that they know that I support what they want to do I believe the governor has talked about replacing the courthouse um I Toby may have some information on the federal level but I think on the state level there is an effort to replace the state the courthouse um and I'm supportive of that when it comes to springfield I need to say that I basically um don't shy away from lending whatever support delegation you know that it sprinkled is the largest city in western mass it's also the most disadvantaged city in western massachusetts and I'm very aware that we live on the I-91 corridor together and that part of my job as a western mass legislator is to support the development and the health of springfield so for that reason I would I enthusiastically you know join them about the courthouse I'm an enthusiastic opponent of biomass in springfield um I I've worked hard to try to make sure that springfield also has access to vaccination and testing for COVID-19 and those sort of things so I think it's not it's appropriate to ask kitty because I think those of us who are in the northern part of the valley need to support our brothers and sisters in the southern part of the valley so thank you for asking it's good to know that constituents are concerned about it bernard uh brennan please come state your name and where you live and go forward hi bernard brennan northeast street um I wanted to thank you Mindy for your support of the Amherst mobile market as well as the testing sites both have been really important to my farm and I don't know if this is a legislation request or a funding request but I'd love to see the process of changing speed limits become easier or get funded and my local reps know my particular problem on my street but I bring it up as a as an everyday quality of life issue that affects a lot of people and should be considered thank you thank you very much for playing enough to me and also your town councilors great uh andy you have your hand up andy steinberg is a councilor at large with us and has joined us for the evening andy go ahead hi thank you i first of all i want to say hi to everybody because uh i represent the this district and all of the districts as a councilor at large is you know i run town live um there are two issues that i just wanted to really quickly um point out that we're working on in the council and are concerned about one is for Mindy and one is for Kobe uh Mindy the issue on the state level and i can send you more about it later but i'll mention it because we have a number of concerned residents here has to do with the amount that the MSBA the mass school building authority appears that they may be willing to match the construction costs of new elementary school which we so badly need and there are a couple of problems that we're finding one is that the construction costs have really been increasing substantially on all kinds of construction projects in the everywhere but it's affecting public buildings and uh so what we had estimated when we started the process was going to be an 80 million dollar school may end up being a hundred million dollar school and there's a question of whether MSBA is going to take up their portion of the increase in the cost of construction or whether they're going to have some sort of expectation that it fall on entirely or almost entirely on the town and this creates some big problems for us that Lynn and I have been talking about quite a bit and the other aspect of that one is that MSBA is very good about talking about the benefits of net zero energy school buildings but they don't seem to be interested in paying for any portion of the cost of making a building that zero energy ready or equipped and as a consequence we have some things that we're just struggling right now to figure out as to how to move this forward and be able to fund the project we haven't reached conclusions but we're working on it and Lynn might choose to add to that because she's working on that with me the other one for Coby is that Pat Ancholus and Diane and another counselor are trying to develop something that we is really aimed towards the federal level and that is a resolution that would support an issue that's going on right now in a federal level and that is the president doing something about student loan cancellation and we know that there has been a pandemic related pause and payments on student loans which is scheduled to end fairly soon and this is a huge burden on our economy and on a lot of our constituents and something that we're concerned about and I don't know if you have any knowledge of what's currently being considered either in the administration or in Congress to assist on that issue so those are the two topics thank you. Let me just mention that Mindy your office and Paul's office and my calendar and also Senator Comerford confirmed a meeting it on Friday specifically to talk about the MSBA funding problem and we've been working with Mindy and Joe for a while and they've also been talking to MSBA so we might get to that as we go into later issues but either Coby or Mindy did either of you want to comment on either of those items. Well thank you Andy that as far as the question of student loans well first let me say Northampton you may know what did a similar resolution to the one that you've mentioned they had put forth a resolution about this this exact concern as far as anything concrete I I'm not sure I can offer that way because I think we're still kind of on the federal level right and a bit of a wait and see period on that front because the information has not been necessarily provided as to what exactly is going to happen on that front but what I will say is that earlier today or maybe it was late last night that there was kind of talk floated as some of you may have seen about potentially extending that freeze that you mentioned I think it was the White House Chief of Staff who said that another pause to the payments could be in the cards but sort of more to come on that nothing committal but that was sort of the latest direction that I was aware of as as to that question of student loans. Okay Mindy any other comments before we go on with the rest of our meeting? Well we'll probably continue to see what we can do around MSBA if there's a new climate bill that comes out in the spring we'll probably look to see if there can be a climate fund that impacts to it or introduce legislation in the next session. I'm interested in seeing how we can maybe get MSBA to pick up more of their share of the increase in construction costs as a result of the supply chain but as many of you know when I ran for office people asked what I was going to do about the school because at that point we were not online for the MSBA funding we had taken ourselves out of the line and I said my first thing is I'm going to be trying to get us back into the line so being on the line and being able to access funding makes sense if especially if MSBA picks up their share so we'll continue to fight that good fight. Okay thanks Mindy you know what I'm also going to provide your information and the link to your newsletter when I send out Coby's information as well. Okay thank you both for joining us and you're welcome to continue to listen Pat I think you and I would would agree that we want to move to hearing what other people are interested in talking about. I can't even find you Pat there you are. I'm up here okay on my screen yeah I'd like to hear we were going to talk about our committee assignments and stuff but I would like to go directly to your concerns and questions. Right so raise your hand if you're in the audience you can also raise your hand I just haven't been able to figure out how to bring you in. Chris Riddle please unmute. I'm Chris Riddle, Strong Street, Amherst and one of the among others on this screen here creators of the zero energy bylaw and I just like my two corrects to comment on the likelihood that there will be an effort to weaken the bylaw which I hope won't happen. Chris thank you for giving me the opportunity and then we'll turn to Pat. I have no intention of weakening that bylaw. I was part of the group that also drew up the second one that was the one that passed town meeting right before the dissolution of town meeting. I believe that once we build the elementary school we will find things that we hadn't anticipated and we may at that point have to do something with the bylaw that allows for some other kind of arrangement but I can't even anticipate that now. I know that while we were in the process of developing that bylaw which was right before I went I ran for town council it was just amazing to work with Chris and Rudy Perkins and others on that bylaw because they know this world and they brought to the table enormous knowledge. The other thing that I think we need to realize and this came out during the many many meetings about the building that went on the last two or three weeks and that is there seems to be enough room on site to put the amount of photovoltaics that need to be there for this school so and the bylaw really encourages asks requires that we in fact use the site for the use of photovoltaics so those will be new additions to this as well. The irony in all of this is taking this school to net zeroer isn't the most expensive piece it is the construction costs and the rising construction costs and the fact that the MSBA has not kept up with those costs and I don't just mean the most recent inflationary problem I mean over the last several years so that's where I stand in the bylaw I don't want to reopen it I am only one councilor of 13 but that's where I stand. Pat? And I'm also just one councilor of 13 but Lin and I will be voting the same way to maintain and keep the strength of the net zero bylaw in place so you have our word on that. Okay Chris thank you. Tom Thomas Simpson please correct how I've said your name if I did something incorrect okay. Tom is close enough. Okay. When you have a name like Greece where you kind of go with that you know. I have a couple of topics I understand the zoning bylaws being looked at and I did some time on the zoning board and one type of application that always drew immense public interest was when a duplex special permit application for non occupied duplex came up in the residential neighborhood and under article 3.3211 in the RN zoning districts non-owner occupied duplexes are allowed with a special permit and I think a change that should be made is that that non-owner occupied duplexes should not be allowed period in the RN districts when you have the duplexes and that immediately opens up a building for at least eight occupants who are going to be college students and the neighbors were always completely opposed to this but because it was allowed by the zoning bylaw there was not a lot the board could do about it except put as many conditions on it as we could think. Townwide as regarding the rental registration there is a complaint response plan form that the zoning board used in the aforementioned cases that I think should be extended to all residential permits townwide what that does is it gives the neighbors the names and phone numbers and addresses of the property managers the owners of the property and the tenants so that three o'clock in the morning when there's a problem going on the property owner can be awakened with a phone call by a butter instead of having to wait for the police to come or probably in the future be the crisis response teams but I think that would be a good tool for butters to college college student occupied housing to maintain peace in their neighborhoods and that excuse me complaint response plan form should be posted on the town website for each property so that those numbers and addresses are available. Another topic concerns my local neighborhood here on Blackberry Lane there's apparently there's a there's a presently a case before the conservation commission regarding some clear cutting of a lot on Tuckerman or two lots on Tuckerman and I've not been involved in that I don't know both sides of the story but from reading the emails floating around from residents of the neighborhood the contractor involved is displayed an antagonistic attitude to the conservation commission and I'd like the town to support the conservation commission and showing some spine and getting some penalties to resolve this situation. So Pat if you don't mind I'll go first and mention that your comments regarding the rental bylaws are just absolutely time on and absolutely the right time to raise it. There are a group of counselors that have been meeting and working on issues related to the rental bylaw we will have our first meeting about that at 5.30 on Monday night March 21st it'll be one hour where they will begin talking with the rest of the council about some of the things they're thinking about they're looking at other places like state college where Penn State is and looking at how to strengthen the rental bylaw which it's interesting it affects every district in the town it is not just around the university it is in all of our neighborhoods and in different ways so I will carry these two comments forward and make sure that they are raised as we begin to look at this bylaw. Pat did you want to comment on that? I agree with you on that I'm going to comment a little bit on the duplexes I'm going to be I'm just beginning to look at this issue and I'm going to be working with counselor Hanneke on duplexes and I was thinking even thinking triplexes but the idea of owner occupied being the major requirement I feel a little more I feel open about that because I really think that if that you can have duplexes and they're not necessarily all going to be rented by students they're going to be rented by working families as well and so I I see it as a way of addressing housing I'm I really want to look at this issue so at some point Thomas I would actually like to meet with you because I think that right off the top of my head I feel a little resistance to saying it has to be owner occupied so but I would like to meet with you because I do know and I honor and respect the kinds of issues that people on Blackberry and Grantwood and have been having with students and the rental registration by law and really implementing it getting more inspectors on board really needs to be looked at we cannot be asking landlords to do their own certification I think that's a mistake that we need to be certifying each residence so that's kind of where I am with that and I'm trying to think what the other issue was. Well the other one is Tuckerman and that just came to Pat's and my attention about 10 days ago right we've been in contact with the town manager it is in front of the conservation commission there has been another instance in Amherst where somebody did something similar and they ended up having to do significant restoration and planting of trees to bring the wetlands back to what they were supposed to be and our conservation commission if you've never had an opportunity to watch them I strongly recommend it it is one of our strongest and most powerful boards in Amherst and it has some enormously talented and well educated people on it that know these issues and we have been lucky Anna Devlin-Gothier who is on the conservation commission is now a counselor so she brings that to the council as well I don't know the results of what the conservation commission will do I just know that it is before them at this time okay thank you for bringing it up thank you Eric you had your hand up quick I wanted to call on Julie but go ahead Oh pardon me Lynn I just have a question if unless this is not the right time to ask but thank you so much and thank you so much for bringing us all together tonight I have a question pertaining to the most recent or not the most recent the last meeting I think in December of the planning board we were made aware of a compact between Amherst and Shootsbury regarding the the water protect watershed protected area in Shootsbury that that flows that through which two main attributaries to the Atkins reservoir flow and I was wondering whether they're what the status of the kind of the compact is I know that at least I remember that it was the recommended by the Pioneer Planning Commission that the two towns agree upon a large kind of a larger watershed protection notion than what was they was actually it was it was hope that a specific bylaw would be crafted to protect that area and I'm wondering what has transpired since that kind of the idea that we never entered into the compact in 2005 and what's the situation regarding that Pat unless you know something I'm going to just have to say we'll have to find out and get back we have to find out my apologize Eric thank you okay so I see we have three seeing some more hands raised uh Julie yes hi Lynn and hi everyone I am Julie Brigham Gretti I'm on 26 Grosemary Street and the reason I'm on tonight is because I'm a member of Emmanuel Lutheran Church and for the past several months we've been hosting Craig's Doors in our church 24-7 particularly due to COVID it was an originally an agreement that we would host people during the day or at night only and it really has raised the issue of how you how Amherst in general is going to deal with this homeless crisis without penalizing or at least leaning on the churches because it was in the Baptist Church for a while and it's moved around we've got people in the University Lodge and I just think we as a group of really concerned heartfelt citizens need to think about putting together a a facility that's going to deal with this so we do not have them on our streets if you've been to Portland Oregon or other places we don't want that and and but we know that homelessness is an issue and we need to deal with it so I'd really like to hear how how we can all work together to find a solution maybe a permanent building and also provide space within that environment for Craig's Doors and other groups to be helping our homeless citizens so I really like to hear your comments on that and I will take them back to our church community who are currently supporting these homeless people in our congregation every night and thank you for doing that Pat you want to go yeah I'll go a little bit first one of the things that's happening is that we did create a housing and homelessness committee a working group and the director of the senior center was leading that and she has left Amherst and that committee has kind of fallen apart and it's a critical committee and where I've been talking to the town manager and we're looking at how to revive that we really need a permanent shelter we need permanent housing and so that's something that's actively being looked at and I would you know again Julie like Thomas I'd like you to contact me so we can really talk about it I will say that the churches have thank I am grateful for the church is coming forward and we can't lose you because this is a transition that's really critically important but there are some things in the works in terms of the possibility of buying property to put a permanent shelter that I can't talk about right now but that is also being looked at very directly I appreciate that because it's it's it's we can't just keep moving people around and I think stability will lead to getting people back on their feet in a faster way than this instability so thank you very much I'll be in touch it's also there has been about 1.5 million set aside in ARPA funds for the purposes of establishing a permanent home for the homeless in Amherst and we like this date to chip into go ahead Pat I'm sorry Lynn the other thing that's critically important and I'll say this to everyone in district two we now 132 Northampton Road East Gables the 28 studio apartments that are going to be is being ground will be broken next month I believe for that and that was an incredible fight because people don't because of nimbyism and we need to look at ourselves as a community so that we really are supporting our homeless our homeless residents these are people who are part of our community and it's exciting that that building is that that housing is going up but we need to do more and we need as neighbors to open up to everybody so I'm a little preachy there but it's an issue that I care a great deal about Gerald Downs hi thank you for having this forum I'm at 325 Levitt Road and I just have one issue that I'd like to comment on it's really the poor quality of the asphalt on our road I've been here since I've been in Amherst since 2005 I've been living here on Levitt Road since 2013 and the road is is continually just patched I've been patiently hoping that someday I would see it being stripped and repaved but that isn't happening every time I see the crew out you know just patching another hole I feel like that's not going to work and so I would just like to know if there's a plan for our road moving forward but beyond that I would love it if there is a space for input because I think beyond just paving the road our road could probably use some traffic calming measures the speed limit is 40 miles an hour I've been told by people who lived here for longer than we have that it's been 40 miles an hour although many homes have been built along this stretch and now there are lots of kids so it would be great to revisit the speed limit and then also to look into traffic calming measures like some of these fancy digital read back things that I see that I actually think have an effect I would love to know your thoughts about prospects to have something like that happen on our road Lynn thanks I get the roads in the sidewalks right I love it when we talk to people who live in the middle of town they want their sidewalks improved when you talk to people in our district they just want sidewalks right that would be wonderful like a constant battle um we have asked the the uh superintendent of the department of public works uh for a schedule of roads and uh I am waiting to see when we get the budget and the recommendation from the Joint Capital Planning Committee whether we have that forthcoming at this point I don't unless in the last couple of days we've started patching which I totally hear you I live on Flat Hills Road and we're in similar condition although I think we had a piece of ours paved sometime in the last five years um the uh they can't start doing the patching for the potholes until it warms up enough so you can do the asphalt that you need to do the patching but in the end the patching doesn't keep because then we get another late March snowfall or mid March snowfall and they just come apart again so I hear you loud and clear and the calming measure that is very interesting there is the one on Amity Street and some people who live on Amity Street feel that it has done an amazing job of helping to calm traffic so um that along with Bernard just wanting to reduce the traffic uh speed limit this is not uh this is not an issue that is not that has gone unnoticed thank you for speaking up about it though Gerald thank you Sharon Weisenbaum yeah thank you um I want to take the opportunity to thank Mindy for supporting the H43P1 bill since I have your ear here I think um and I also want to thank Lin and Pat for creating such a warm um inviting environment for us um I would like to speak on the um watershed the emmerced watershed that involves the shootsberry plans I happen to do a tour today of the five and actually six sites where they're going to be or they're proposed to be solar clear cutting of forest with solar power plants one of them has already been built and there are five more sites um with just massive amounts of clear cutting and it's all in the emmerced watershed and I found out that shootsberry is actually 1200 feet high which is the size of Mount Toby and Mount Tom the center of shootsberry is 1200 feet which is 900 feet above emmerced so it's like significantly steep downhill and all of these proposed clear cuts are on this hill that feeds into the emmerced watershed and I know this is a shootsberry issue that involves shootsberry bylaws and the shootsberry government but my question about this is as emmerced residents especially in this district we're just right at the bottom of the hill and this is our water supply and and nature doesn't really have these town boundaries and so this is like something that's like rushing down the hill affecting us in emmerced and so you know I really appreciate that we're working on our bylaws in emmerced to site solar intelligently but what about this looming threat to emmerced that's happening in shootsberry and what's that I'm kind of tying back to what Eric brought up you know what what's our relationship as a town to what's going on in in the next town that could affect us so profoundly you know affect our water supply I mean Atkins Reservoir which is this watershed it's 50 percent of the emmerced water supply comes from Atkins Reservoir so I you know I don't know if this is answerable but just like what's our relationship to this thing like this we're working on it in shootsberry but what's the relationship with emmerced how do we in emmerced work to protect our water thank you Pat you want to go no one of the things that you know that we did try to get a temporary moratorium in about intelligent solar siding and we have managed to get a bylaw starting to work about siding solar and what the zoning regulations will be I think that one of the things that's true is that we need to be working with shootsberry and and the maintenance and preservation of forests and things like that are critical to maintaining a healthy water supply maintain and maintaining or fighting climate change and if you look at the 2050 roadmap it talks about in ground solar talks about folder photovoltaics but it equally talks about the preservation of forests and so it's really critically important that we work together and you know thank saint michael di chiara for doing the work that he's doing in shootsberry the watershed plan I really need to begin to look at I sort of took a break and and so I'm not going to be able to comment really intelligently on that but there but when you're talking about elevation and things like that and what runoff could be from shootsberry we need to look at that there are other people here ruby perkins may be able to speak I don't even know if we would agree about everything but I think that he could maybe even speak to this issue if he felt like it um when there are other people well I do know that there is a lawsuit now I believe that pelham has joined leverett or shootsberry I can't remember which town it is and they they've joined together in a lawsuit because of the way the state law is written it really offers very little protection as we went through all the discussions about the potential moratorium on the ground mount so large ground mount solar we learned a lot and this issue did come up on a regular basis particularly because many of the residents that are in the area that is right adjacent to shootsberry are on wells and septic systems we're we're part of that five percent of the town that does not have public water and sewer and so uh it it not only concerns about the um whole issue of our water table the whole issue that you're talking about but it also includes our water table levels and the ability to maintain those and yes you are correct akins reservoir is a huge water supply for amherst um pat I think we need to add this to our list to go after okay yes yes the other thing is I'm going to ask people who've already had a chance to ask a question if you would wait till we get to people who haven't had an opportunity so I just want to let people know of that it's good so I'm gonna jump over a moment and go to Rudy Perkins oh thanks very much Rudy Perkins uh cherry lane and amherst um I wanted to start off by thanking Andy and all the counselors working on trying to get a better match out of in a msp a that's just it seems terribly behind the times and also getting them to put some money where their mouth is on net zero and other green features I think that's a great effort working with our state rep and senators so thank you for that and I wanted to thank Lynn and pat for expressing their commitment to net zero and the net zero bylaws we go through our our school project a really exciting project but um I wanted to raise one comment in connection with that I know the town council doesn't really play a role in the siting of the school but what I think you will end up getting involved with is what we do with the parcel we don't pick for the school and I think we need to be thinking about that now the decision as people probably know is going to be for the school to consolidate the two Fort River and Wildwood on one of the two sites either Fort River or Wildwood and there's pros and cons for each of those sites I I I'm up in the air about that there's a lot of things to be looked at but I and because it might be a very close decision I think it would be good to have in the mix what we like about the other site for use for example for DPW or fire station senior center affordable housing we've talked about tonight and so on and just I'm not saying it should be the dominant factor but it would be nice that if the town was already thinking about that and we could weigh that in the decision about which site to pick for the school be thinking about which site is most appropriate for one of the other top uses and just weigh that as one factor so I hope you guys can turn to that at some point soon thank you thank you thank you for that in fact I've I've asked Paul Backelman about that very issue that do we have a say meaning we the council therefore the town and not just the school building committee and not these schools and I he's still looking into it because I think there are I'm like you I've gone back and forth and on which school would be best and I have thoughts including things like senior centers and early childhood centers for things like the school that we don't use so I'm not frankly focused at all on DPW because we're trying to work something else out on DPW so I hope we don't have to use Fort River or and it certainly is inappropriate to put it at Wildwood I'm not even clear it's a good play a good idea to put it for a river for those of you that have ever asked that question I was a chair of the DPW fire station advisory committee we we dissolved in December of 2018 and while Fort River was listed in the initial documents it was taken off the table for the very reason of we did not know what the schools were so it's it's really not back on the table at all so that's just a piece of information that might be useful I'm looking for hands that we haven't seen tonight but if I'm not seeing any others I'm Laurie hasn't that Laurie hasn't asked a question of us she asked a question of or made a comment to will be I believe it right and also kitty was the same yes you know let let me just start back over kitty okay kitty axelson berry from 89 stony hill road I have a few questions and I'm going to try to make it brief first of all the master plan when will a master plan implementation committee be appointed it's been I think 12 years since the master plan was passed and one of the main points was that it needs to be implemented and that that requires an implementation effort which means a committee currently the master plan is being cherry picked in ways that many disagree with so that's my question a master plan I'm going to just say my three things the same thing goes for a serious study not only of rental bylaws but other the challenges that face all college towns that have especially a big university and a small population of full year residents like amherst will there be a committee or working group appointed to study the challenges that we all share and what other towns are doing about it finally iro brick made a request that the town council seek and receive advice from kp law about the appearance of conflict of interest related to one of our official elected officials a member of town council and that is shallony ball mill and her business and or personal relationships with landowner synda jones who owns the forested area that the solar had been proposed for so large solar farm I urge you to seek out the advice from kp law as suggested because this individual has made the claim several times her own self-assessment that she has provided with the the ethics commission with and she says that the ethics commission has said oh she has no conflict of interest but this is unlikely that after such a short conflict conversation the ethics commission would actually make such a definitive determination based on what she said in addition it does not address the appearance of conflict of interest it only addresses actual conflict of interest so those are I'll stop there on those three questions first of all master plan implementation okay so the master plan implementation is a master plan is adopted by the is recommended by the planning board and adopted by the town council it is regularly appended with additional pieces for example comprehensive housing policy etc in terms of an overall committee to do implementation most of that falls to the community resources committee however they have not taken it up as an actual item per se okay and so it falls to the planning board and the community resources committee but it's something that people regularly have to keep in mind as they develop anything Pat do you have anything else you want to say on that uh no okay uh the rental bylaw I think we will know more after Monday when we see the group come forward as to whether needs to be any other special committees for with regard to rental or whether that will be again vested in this case within community resources committee we're aware that there is a group of residents that have been talking about this but they've also been talking with the people who are working on the drafting a bylaw and with regard to conflict of interest I kitty we're probably never going to agree the authority on conflict of interest is in fact the ethics commission okay I personally spent a great deal of time with more than one counselor over the last four three and a half years three years and three months to be exact uh reviewing conflict of interest helping them put together their statements making sure they knew that the phone number and that they called the ethics commission I will tell you that you can file a complaint with the ethics commission if you want to but our lawyers are not the authority on the conflict of interest law the conflict of interest law is governed by the ethics commission of the commonwealth of massachusetts I I personally go overboard and doing my conflicts I just filed one because my husband wrote a letter of support for something um but it doesn't mean I can't vote it just means I'll be upfront about it um Rudy you have your hand up I'm gonna go to jake hi thanks for giving me another chance and I just gotta say kitty those were great questions but that's an aside um I wanted to make a comment and ask a question about either the planning department or the planning board I'm not sure whom but um it seems to me that they have become a reaction board um there've been two opportunities for them to vote to support uh planning in the term in terms of moratorium and they've voted both of them down I realize the town council also voted the latest moratorium down but at least you had an eight to five majority in favor of planning and it just seems like um I wonder if the council has discussed the charge for the planning board I don't I don't see what they do in terms of planning I wish that they would create a vision of what downtown amherst should look like so that we have some idea of how they want to steer uh developers or steer proposals um we've gotten to a situation where parking is a real problem and to me that only reflects poor planning um what do you think about that the fact that they're a reaction board and and not a planning facility oh goodness um my reaction my honest reaction is this happens to me a lot when I agree with somebody I think they're doing a good job and when I disagree with them they're doing a bad job and um I vote I did not vote for the building moratorium I thought that could have a really negative impact on um downtown development uh in amherst I also was a sponsor of the moratorium the solar citing moratorium the uh so and I feel you know it was hard to be defeated but we also felt like we moved because with the planning board literally when we went to them well Lynn and I and Anna went to them they the majority it was I think it was uh five to two or I'm not sure but there were two people who and they said oh we don't we don't need a bylaw that was their response we don't need a bylaw now they're very busy working on a bylaw more importantly we're busy as a town putting together a bylaw committee who will that will be representative of a lot of different areas um the conservation commission the health department and we're going to be looking at the creation of a citing bylaw that will facilitate the development of solar in amherst and also protect for us yeah I don't know if I'm still muted but that's not really my point my point is as as Anna Gauthier said the solar bylaws more than five years too late many towns in amherst have had solar bylaws for many years I'm talking about planning I'm talking about a vision for the future I think it was supposed to be based on the master plan although I'm not sure but since we have a department that's named planning and we have a planning board it sort of implies that some planning should go on but I think it does and I think I think we have a lot of things that have changed in terms of we have the carp plan now that the energy committee has brought out we need to look at that that's going to affect planning I think that I'm going to I'm going to sit here and just struggle with a way of debating with you we're getting you to agree with me so I'm going to let go in a minute I do think the planning department works very diligently they are they respond to counselor requests they respond to committee requests and they listen to residents and the planning department I also think where they're making decisions what they're I don't know if they have an overall vision but I know the planning department does and Lynn do you want to get me out of the water that I put myself in or I think we're I think you're not giving enough credit okay so I want to just be very clear about that um the dynamics in town in many ways changed with the creation of the town council and then with the creation of the town council came the creation of the community resources committee which every every city if you will that has a council has something like that so one of the things that has been interesting is to watch the dynamics of the community resources committee with the planning board and there's some people who are very concerned about those dynamics so I I have full regard for both groups I have enormous regard for our planning staff and I will say that in the space of the three years of the first council and even the two and a half months of the new council we have thrown more things at them than any department their size could ever manage and still have a thought of their own because we get elected with an agenda that each of us brings and then we want to make sure that that happens and that's part of what has happened with the change to the new government so I don't think it's just the responsibility of the planning board or the community resources committee but also the responsibility of the town council to create a vision and to help move it forward so I there's no one answer to this one but I actually do not in any way have a lack of I have total I should just say I want to say it very positively I have total appreciation and respect for our planning staff our planning board and the members of the council she's the president of the council she's also my own one of my own can you move mute please hello thank you um you're still not yeah there we go and did you have your hand up yes I did um I it's been up for a little while because I wanted to comment a little bit on the question of the watershed issue and I just didn't have and had the opportunity um I did a fair amount of inquiry and on on that issue prior to the vote on the question of a moratorium on the solar and specifically we have two committees that are very much involved in process and I wanted to make that is related to this one is mentioned already is the conservation commission which really is working on wetlands but we also have a watershed protection committee and if you look on the website for the names of the people on the watershed protection committee that is really an outstanding group there are a lot of the there are all people who have substantial knowledge and tech technical expertise in the area and so I wanted to make sure that if we did not have a moratorium in place and something was going to come forward which was appearing unlikely at that time because of the way the sequence of withdrawal and subdivision plans was working out that if anything came forward during the period before we adopted a bylaw that the watershed protection committee would be consulted by the zoning board of appeals or planning board in the permitting process and that made the inquiry of the town manager to get assurance that that was the case and that the watershed protection committee would be represented on the group that would advise on developing a bylaw and they are so I think that it's important to know that that committee exists and that they are looking out very specifically at this issue the other thing and Pat mentioned Michael DeChiara who I've known for many many years and he's now on the planning board and been very active in the solar issues in Shisbury and I you know they have they are one of the towns that has had a bylaw in place for a while on regulating solar and I have not had an opportunity to talk with Michael about specifically whether he's looking out for the watershed for both towns but I think that their bylaw and Michael's commitment and understanding that I'm fairly confident that he is looking out for it from the Shisbury side I think but it is you know what our piece is going to have to be to make sure that as we develop a bylaw that we do it appropriately and that's why I'm so happy that the town manager had suggested took a suggestion and to designate somebody from the watershed protection committee to be on the group that is advising on bylaw development so that that was what I wanted to add Lynn. Thank you Andy and that's that item actually just came before the Council for Information on the 7th. Laurie Gardner? Yeah I can't sorry I need a new prescription. Okay I'm at 111 Auburn Wood Road and I wanted to say something that I have heard said many times now at the various meetings of town councils and committees so I'm an environmentalist my whole life and I am also a physicist a scientist and have been very interested lately in energy policy and policy around the energy transition this has always been something I've heard about. One of the things that I learned in looking into the energy transition is and as concerns forests and sequestering of carbon is that the way we manage forests in Massachusetts any forest that ever gets logged and that's all state forests and anything owned by coals they're harvested on a 60 year timescale and that 60 years is exactly the point where they start to become good carbon sequestering places okay so our forests are not good sequesters of carbon if we are in fact logging them worse than that is if the land has ever been tilled which most of the land has the timeline is even longer so this was heartbreaking for me to find out and I cannot stress how important it is when making decisions about cutting forests that we do it in a way that is environmentally sensitive because you can just you know everyone knows we can destroy we've all seen the results of clear cutting and what can happen it could be a complete disaster but we need to be thinking about the whole picture here and I want to encourage my counselors to please you know be aware that our forests people like to think we should never cut forest because there's such good carbon sinks but that is not in fact what we do in Massachusetts we do not keep them as good carbon sinks and if we're not we have to ask ourselves if we want to do what's best for the planet perhaps this is a site where there might be a better better be a solar you know a solar array or a wind array you know I hate to say that as an environmentalist but it's just the truth so you know there isn't there is an organization in Massachusetts that I ran into a while though that I know is fighting to change the way we manage our forests and I sort of hope that happens but as long as we keep doing things the way we're doing them I just wanted you to realize this and that that's all I had to say I just wanted to throw that out there because I hadn't heard it mentioned in all of the talk about forests and cutting thank you Laurie that's important information and I appreciate hearing it very much Elisha Campbell please thank you um I did want to say just one thing about planning boards which is they are created by state law and the state has certain things they want planning boards to do so we then asked them to do other things also but they have certain obligations under the state I have a totally different question because I have you know during the redistricting I found out that I will at some point not be in your district anymore but it's not clear to me when that's true is it clear to you when does redistricting take effect yes I it is very clear to me and let me explain that to you now first of all Elisha Elisha I actually thought you stayed but I'm south of route nine I think I don't no what's route district district two is virtually unchanged except for a very small portion um at the northern part of the district but before I commit to that I'll go back and look at the map I guess the map I saw wasn't adopted some other map watch okay thank you let me explain this as of uh next on March 21st we will begin the process of identifying the voting locations for each of the precincts precincts in the future will be called and this all begins to apply to the elections in September the preliminary primary elections for state and then the November elections okay so you are already in your new precinct okay so precinct district two which has normally been precinct two and precinct seven will actually be precinct two a and precinct two b I'm sorry you're right it was precinct two and six okay and the voting places were the fire station and the Fort River school and more recently precinct two voted at the high school okay so on Monday the 21st the clerk of the council will be coming to us with the recommendations for how the different precincts will be assigned to their new voting places that will be the kickoff and those precincts by the way have been approved we had a redistricting committee that did a phenomenal job in a extremely short period of time I have a really talented group and uh they looked at I think it was something close to 20 different maps right of how to break up Amherst okay and it's all driven by population we now have a population of about 39 000 plus um so once we decide where the polling places are you will start receiving in the mail information about where you will vote okay the biggest changes were around what is now district three which is the amity street uh part of downtown and that district was changed enormously but district two actually did not have nearly as many changes as we thought but the education process to end the short answer is very soon you will start learning where you will vote in September okay uh Sharon up actually I think Eric had his hand up before me Eric but it was yeah go ahead oh thank thank you thank you Sharon and thank you Lynn I just wanted to add to what Andy indicated a few minutes ago that I was particularly gratified to see the appointment of somebody from the board of health on the water supply of the solar siting working group as it's the board of health that is has the fiduciary fiduciary responsibility regulating the quality and health of the the quality and the and the quality of our drinking water that is that no people who derive it through through wells so the public water supply protection committee governs public water but it's the health department that governs private wells derived from private water so thank you for getting that appointment to the working group as well well I have to say it was in large part due to several district two residents who wrote the town manager when they first saw the description of the committee that that position was added so advocacy works and we appreciate the fact that you did that Sharon thank you and I'm I forgot to do this before but I'm Sharon Weisenbaum in 86 Henry street in Amherst and I wanted to respond to what Laurie said about maybe these forests since they're not that old are okay to be clear cut and I just want to really emphasize how much the forest do for us it's so much more than carbon sequestration that they absorb water and they prevent flooding and erosion and they also clean the water and so our wetlands and our our water are really at risk if these forests are clear cut by the amount of water that's going to rush down that soil that is not held by the forest and that that's a huge concern for me and and I want to just also talk about the Shootsbury road proposal and that watershed and that the residents along that road and just that proposal is in a residential area it's like building a huge power plant in a residential area clear cutting that entire forest that's bigger than 34 football fields and what about their wells and then it it feeds into the Amethyst Brook and into so many wetlands you know the northeast street area where it opens up is just all wetlands and that you know what's going to happen to them if the forest uphill from that gets cleared and so I'm wondering also about the watershed protection committee and you know it's wonderful that they're there and I think they're wonderful people and I feel confident in their strength to protect us but then it makes me wonder then about Shootsbury like you know that's this huge effect on Amherst and what do they have they don't have any power to affect Shootsbury and just to point out that even though Shootsbury has fantastic bylaws they might mean nothing because that right now in the state the solar industry has the power to sue our town and win you know saying that we can't limit their ability to build solar wherever they want however they want to clear cut forests and so even our bylaws at a state level might be really meaningless and I think it's important for us to keep that in mind in Amherst when we're thinking about protecting our water like how how much power do we have we can't count on Shootsbury to protect Amherst water because we maybe can't protect it so anyway those are those are the thoughts I wanted to add thank you thank you Sharon thanks Marcy thanks um so I um I understand we're all you know trying to protect the wildlife and the the forests and our community and I love I love all of that energy and the bylaw is going to be great but I would like to add just the question you know we have a timeline about reducing fossil fuels we have a timeline for the climate and you know disaster and I'm hearing a lot about where it's not okay to put up solar so I'm hoping that there will be effort and energy put into where would be a good place to put up solar and um I know solar isn't the only answer I love Mindy talking about wind initiatives um but we you know we have a huge global and as well as local problem going on and I um I just want us to have the perspective if it's not a good place here to put up solar if it's not good in Shootsbury well where is it good and where can we use that technology to our benefit in terms of getting rid of the fossil fuel um imbalance so I've spoken to some of the friends on um smart solar you know Amherst and western mass and I don't want to be a naysayer to their efforts I really appreciate you know I live in the woods and I appreciate their efforts and I live near Atkins reservoir so I'm hearing all of that in a good way but I also really want to know could we could we find um solutions that are positive using solar as well so thanks that's all I wanted to to share so one of the there's two things that happened there's many things that happened in the process of coming forward with the proposed moratorium first of all the planning board moved from not feeling we needed a bylaw to actually feeling we do need a bylaw and actively talking about it and in many ways I think that's as important as anything the other thing is that the um ECAC energy climate action committee uh also convinced the town that they needed to do a solar siting map and that map is not just um you know fields and forests it's buildings it's parking lots it's all of the places that are presently developed so for example the police station in downtown is slated to get a new roof sometime in the next year or two well once it gets a new roof it can also become a place where you put solar because you don't want to put solar on a roof that you have to replace in another three years you want the roof to happen and then the solar to happen right after so those kinds of issues are part of the solar siting study as well as issues related to racial and social justice and other and environmental issues as well um I please I urge any of you that are interested in the committees uh please submit your community your uh community action form CAF community action form yeah citizens anyway thank you and the other thing that's critical yeah the other thing that's critical is to address with our state senators and representatives and our um that we need funding to build put solar on rooftops to retrofit homes and particularly people of low income need the support the financial support to do this that to me is even more critical than the in-ground solar not that and I'm not opposed to in-ground solar I'm just I'm opposed to clear cutting a hundred acres when you could have a smaller array but it is critical that if we have to look at the social justice aspect of this and that's very easily ignored we speak to it but you know for everybody here should be contacting Kobe they should be contacting Mindy and and uh Joe and uh Senator uh Markey and uh Warren and McGovern because we need to be able to retrofit homes and we need that in Hamden County we need that in Hampshire County we need it everywhere so that becomes a critical aspect of the work that we need to do Renee yeah yeah just um just to um I support what what you just said Pat and I I think in response to what Marcy was asking you know several years ago or no within the last two years we had the niche report the niche report was was commissioned by the town was paid for by the town and it identified the roofs it identified the disturbed fields rather than the forest it identified all these places to put up solar but the town didn't act on it nothing was done it was just identified and then the so and then we had a multinational developed you know corporation come in to do it with a private landowner and it was a matter of well that wouldn't cost the town anything so you know that's when action started because it was a reaction to what was being proposed that many scientists many of us thought saw as detrimental but meanwhile the town had all this information about places where solar would be appropriate on municipal building rooftops on disturbed fields I mean if we look at the solar array at Hampshire College that was on a disturbed field there was no clear cutting for that so we have to you know advocate for ways of of building of spending the money because in the long run the expense will be much greater if we make as the the state has said in its um in its smart regular oh 2050 report the 2050 the roadmap has said don't do do not do land with no regrets put solar where there's no regrets when we start clear cutting forests there will be regrets look at Conway look at Williamsburg we have so many examples of places where it was clear cut and there are there are severe regrets it's heartbreaking what has happened in these places and I haven't heard any stories of clear cutting where there weren't problems so I suggest we do it and we do it right and we do the right combination of solar and what Jack Hearst talked about before was a company in East Hampton that's developing renewable energy that that's not solar solar is not the be all and end all it's a small piece of the puzzle we're going to do it we're going to get renewable energy and we're going to do it right and we're going to have solar we're going to have wind and we're going to have technology that we don't even know about yet and I'm going to say that we have gone over time and that's fine honestly but I'm wondering uh no I really mean that it is fine uh I'm there I'm looking at people who are attendees who are not in the room and I really want to know if any of them uh have a question or comment or something that they want to share before well we're waiting for that let me also mention that Alicia Walker who's in that large counselor had hoped to be with us tonight but had a last minute family situation she needed to deal with so she was not she was going to talk about the implementation of the Crest program and the terrific new director that we have just hired and perhaps we will be able to have him join us at a district meeting sometime um in mid-spring or so um are there any other questions or comments I mean hey this is early for Pat and I on a Monday night sometimes we're here till 11 or even later Andy nice to see you still any other comments or questions yes Kathleen Bridgewater you're muted Kathleen you've done mute Kathleen there we go can you hear me now yes we can okay I just was saying thank you um that this was a good evening to put together I don't have a lot more to say but I do want to speak up and and um comment that there are people who said some very important things tonight and among them were Sharon's uh issues concerning the forest and the many things that forests do other than just sequestering after 60 years that's sequestering they can't get to the point of sequestering if they're chopped down um I you know if we're if we're going to get to the point of really being able to clean out carbon through woods that's going to be a part of it it's also around here we are aware of a lot of wildlife and talking about a little six inch space underneath fencing for animals to be able to move along on their way is really it's it's it's specious the to when you start fragment fragmenting the woods in this area it causes many problems not only for the the animals that need to get around from place to place but also for the concentration of certain types of insects that might not necessarily be something that you want to do I won't get into all of that right now but the whole the thing that I've learned in the past two years of trying to understand what's going on and uh is that this is a really complex issue and we all think we know a lot about it until we hear more about it and then we realize that people are trying to make decisions and consider that there's no emergency when there really is an emergency and the emergency is is that we need to take the time to truly find out what the issues are and that concerns me a great deal I also want to say that the issues about the perception of conflict of interest really does concern me and perception is as a deer is a concern as much as the actual handing money over back and forth between people but when you can go on the internet and very easily see which people have have beneficial business interests that are shared between uh two individuals or two other individuals who are involved in town um on town committees it becomes it becomes something where I frankly um lose a certain degree of trust in the process and when people go and vote in a way that supports the people with whom they have business interests where they're they're complimenting each other uh online when they say I love this person's business um to for one another that is just like a person who who endorses someone else's book those are very valuable endorsements and those endorsements may do not necessarily mean that money changes hands hands but there is a value that that can be gotten from those relationships and it is I think um it's it's foolish to consider that you can say well I know that I would not be be prejudice in favor of my friend and and business associate uh that's why we have conflict of interest laws and if the conflict of interest laws are not sufficient to uh to get into those problems at least one should care about the perception and the perception is pretty strong when you can see in some cases actual money taking changing hands during the process of of elections and supporting supporting people in an election and then voting on the the donor's business when it comes before the town council um so I understand that that the the state ethics commission was involved but to what degree the state ethics commission truly understood the depth of what was going on on the internet that was clear from the internet just for anybody who takes a look this this just doesn't seem to be ethical to me um so that's one of my concerns and I guess that's all I want to say so thank you so much and thank you for sharing that I'm going to skip to Barbara Ford because she's not spoken hi Barbara you've done mute thank you here you go um thank you thank you I think this this particular meeting has been far better than the first one which I attended way back when um we covered a lot of territory and um I'm interested in many of the subjects particularly the issue of clear cutting would may or may not be able to ever recover in the future our future but the thing I wanted to mention was I think the council is considering or has considered going back in person and if you're going to do that it's been very hard to see people's faces um on on the television and I'm I really have appreciated being able to see them up close and personal and the zoom ish part and in so maybe you will start thinking about pushing uh cca tv or whatever we call it um that's not it but anyway um to do something tactically that improves on that situation so certainly their long distance views you can't tell what's going on when people are speaking to so let me just that's that we'll be seeing up again yeah it will be coming up again on the 21st it was delayed uh from the I have an agreement sitting next to me and the other person in my household agrees with that particularly okay thank you so we will be um we will be um voting on our form of our format if you will for meetings uh on the 21st no matter whether we go back in person which we've been doing actually since January we need you to actually mute I'm trying to okay all right uh whether we go back in person or not we actually did starting in January went back in person but it's been optional for counselors to continue to attend virtually those of us that have been in the room wear masks and we have made even though we have lifted the mask mandate in Amherst we can individually choose to continue to wear masks uh and I have personally not decided what I plan to do although I um because I've been very conservative in my own personal behavior from the beginning the governor extended the ability for councils and other bodies to meet virtually till July 15th and uh we what we have learned is that when we are in the room and we have a we have to have first of all the town manager has to be there we have to have an IT person and we have to have by law a minute-taker in the room if we tried to do that for every committee it would be financially prohibitive but our goal with the town council is to continue to create access via zoom for all people so that they can continue to attend the meetings and make public comment by zoom how we handle our committees is still a kind of an unknown and the vote on Monday will be a critical vote particularly now that the mask mandate has been lifted Pat did you want to add to that or Andy not right now no Andy not on that issue I had one more thing on solar later when you get to me again okay why don't you go ahead Andy well I just wanted to I just wanted to answer or at least provide a little information that some people may not have about the whole thing with the regulation of solar and what the towns are allowed to do or not allowed to do section 40a of the mess to its general law chapter 40a section 3 has a sentence in it the subject is about what towns are not allowed to do within their zoning and the sentence that we're always talking about and Blin and I have been talking about the sentence to the point where I think we're blurry I'm looking at it no zoning ordinance or bylaw shall prohibit or unreasonably regulate the installation of solar energy systems or the building of structures that facilitate facilitate the collection of solar energy except where necessary to protect the public health safety and welfare so the one big question that we're constantly needing to address is how do we construct a bylaw that makes sure that it talks about everything in terms of we're doing this because it is necessary to protect public health safety or welfare in my mind clearly the subject that's been a lot of discussion tonight about water quality fits within that category the other things to just know about this and this goes back and I apologize for playing the retired lawyer part of this but I will anyway the Kate the lawsuit that was referred to earlier was filed involved Waltham which is of course right in the 128 track and then the Boston area and so that it was overland that was not really analogous to what we're talking about in western Massachusetts communities but the developer who was denied by the planning or zoning board the permission to move forward with a solar development claimed that it was in violation of the statutory section that I just cited and they brought the lawsuit and I think that some people know there's a little bit of reference to the fact that both Pelham and Schittsbury that currently already have solar bylaws have joined into that lawsuit and provided a brief and actually heard a presentation by the attorney who's representing the interveners and learned a lot about the whole litigation from doing so the other thing that I'm aware of and I'm sorry that Mindy is not currently on the call but I believe that the legislature is thinking about whether there are changes that need to be made to the statutory section and I think that that's something that anybody who's interested in can talk to Mindy or Joe Palmer about because it's something that could come forward Okay Jacob you still have your hand up yes I'd like to make one comment and then totally change the subject but I learned about the water protection committee and looked them up this afternoon and they had a meeting in the middle of January in the minutes haven't been posted yet so I'm wondering if that's something that you can facilitate that's actually an issue that is a common issue for many committees I will just tell you that when I chaired the DPW fire station advisory committee we were responsible for doing our own minutes so it's not a small task but we did make sure they got posted but I will mention that particularly thanks the other thing I wanted to and this take a deep breath this is very different topic I've been living in Amherst for a little over 40 years and my memory isn't great but we have one new industry in all that time that I noticed and that's the marijuana industry I'm really thrilled that profits have gone from cartels and the mafia to private industry and the government and I'm wondering how much money has Amherst made as I drove around today I saw I think five dispensaries how much money does Amherst get his kickbacks from the taxes on the marijuana we I think kickbacks is probably not the right term but nevertheless let me start by saying we're just learning because actually the most recent dispensary just opened we actually I believe have three recreational marijuana facilities and two medicinal this is not an industry to be honest I have a lot of involvement it's just not my but you get to spend the money but I do understand and we really don't have a good fix this year when we see the budget we will have a better idea of what that revenue looks like and some of the revenue is already committed to helping people overcome addiction etc and so forth so some of it's prescribed and the rest goes to the general coffers of the town and then gets redistributed as part of the budget so we'll have a better sense the budget uh from the town any hint is it billions or is it no oh my god no no I think it's in the hundreds hundreds of thousands that if we're lucky okay hundreds of thousands okay I think the figure last year was around 210,000 or something like that Andy right you know I've got it uh so it's we're not talking a lot of money uh and we're also looking at that money to for reparations once we figure out how we will be able to establish a reparations fund right that looking at it we're looking at the equivalent of yes not not the actual amount yes yes um so um anyway that's that is the best answer we can give you and the but the town manager releases his budget on uh to the town council on May 2nd and we begin a month long very intensive process Andy is chair of the finance committee I'm a member of the finance committee Pat's been on the finance committee we basically meet twice a week for the next four weeks after that budget is released and begin that process so we'll know better than is my best answer for now thank you are there any other questions or comments Nancy anything no this was great very informative and I just want to say thank you to both of you for doing this thanks thanks this is this has been our most well attended yeah this meeting so thanks for joining us and yeah really and truly thank you it's now 846 and I'm going to say the meeting's adjourned can I do that yes thank you okay take care thank you everyone good night thank you thank you you're welcome thank you let's get more she said there were two medical dispensaries