 So, we are now recording to the cloud. Thanks everyone for joining us. The attendees will be able to see panelists and Lynn, I will, I'm happy to make you the host. Thank you. Congratulations, Angela. Thank you so much. Yeah, friend friend of mine's daughter went to University of Rochester and great opportunities opened up for her. Yes, well, you know, Andy Steinberg, Andy went there. Yeah. So, I'm hoping that my son turns out like Andy. Okay. So Andy actually told me that he and. Come on Nancy Ratner were classmates there. Yeah. Yeah. I love Nancy right now. They were all classmates. That is good news. And his kids went there. So anyway, right. So I was in as a, I was in as a. That happens all the time. I went in from our link. And then it said, to be a panelist, I had to come and I said, Oh my God. So I had to go put Angela in my search list and go get the link she sent me quite a while ago. Right. So I want to ask you, how do I blur my background. Go to your stop video and push the button. Uh huh. Video settings. Down to the left side to stop video. And then push the push the arrow. Right. I'm there. And then go to virtual background. Okay. And when it pops up, choose blur. Ah, okay. So I have, I have three or four different places I zoom from. Okay, it says I'm. Okay, it's still loading. Okay, no, you're blurred, you're blurred. Doesn't it. No, no. It doesn't. No, you're like me. I'm actually in my office, which happens to be in my bedroom. I'm in a guest bedroom. So yeah, which is my office. I prefer to blur it behind me. Well, see, this is my carefully curated bookshelf. I did when I was teaching last semester, I think it was maybe, maybe I did it two semesters ago. Oh, it looks great. The bookshelf in the fireplace. Yeah. But, um, you know, and I have three different settings for different moods. But today I went around and turned on my own zoom. So, um, I think the zoom light is so brilliant. In the room. To see which place was better. And it's better to be in a less bright place. Um, because in the one spot, it showed every single line on the face. So I thought, okay. So it's good to have every zoom call. I have to set the lighting. It's very. Well, I still haven't gotten one of those circle things. So I'm going to go ahead and highlight your face. And I don't use it most of the time. I understand. I'll try it again. I found it annoying and then it would kind of turn off. And I thought, is it really adding? I was really free. I was freaked out over reflections in my glasses. So that's, that's why I have that because I teach with my glasses on, but I didn't want them to be bounced back. You know, I want to point out to you. That Nancy Gilbert. And Dale. Um, who might. Think I know who it is. Or in the room. Hello, Nancy. Oh, hello. Hi, Nancy. Dale, how do you do? Come on in. I was going to wait till there were more people and then bring them in the room. So we can ask a question and it's, um, With plowing. Are all, so. We have a pretty small, very compact district. And I was just driving through this, you know, this morning. And some streets are definitely much better plowed than others. Now is that because more cars have been on them or. Like I was surprised that Phillips alling and nutting had not really been well-plowed, but they're right in town. I don't know. That's a, that's a Guilford question. Yeah. So this morning, Jennifer, when you asked me about. That car was parked in the sidewalk. And I texted you and I said, no. Yeah. Yeah. So Tracy asked that. And I said, we had a snow emergency, which says you can't park on the street. And there may have been some cars that just didn't know what to do. So it might be a one-time thing and that we, you know, don't have to worry about that. Because when I, when I get the snow emergency, I said, I hope people know where to go. And then of course, if you've got people scared with, say, Blizzard conditions or, you know, it's snowy and you haven't done it, maybe they didn't want to go out on the road. So. Yeah. So is it very different by you, Lynn? I mean, you get. Yeah. We only got three or four inches. And it's, I haven't been out on the main road and our, our neighbor plows the private driveway. So just, just flat hills. Get plowed by the town. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, but we, there's four houses. Oh, I see. You're on a private drive. And. We. You could not build. Our house anymore based on zoning regulations. Cause it's a, it's a. Pork chop block or a flag lot. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know what's wrong with the flag lot, to be honest. I know that we keep this big distinction between them, but I'm thinking, okay, so what's wrong with it? Two issues. Egress. And whether or not there's a second exit. And there isn't. I mean, if we needed to. We could not drive out of our property. I think any other way. We're close to having it at the end of our driveway. But it would mean. We'd have to take out some shrubs and some trees of our neighbors. So that we could go up through theirs. We could walk out. That's not a problem. It's that's the issue. And then the other issue is. You know, first of all, we're not. We're not on town water. There's no fire hydrants up here. So it's a fire issue. Right. And the fire would want two exits as well. Absolutely. I mean, I see that now. So that, that's, that's good. Okay. So you remember when the. I think the reason I went down to the driveway on. Um, For one, three D fun for one, three people were driving around and visiting counselors. Right. The reason I went down to the end of the driveway on Flat Hills road. Is because if they turned up the driveway, they'd get jammed in here and. It would take us an hour to get them back out. And they never came to you. No, they didn't. I enjoyed it. It was very lively. It's down trucks blaring music. It was, I don't know, kind of like, Haley, how are you? It's so nice to have you join the town of Amherst. I know. Me too. I'm very happy to be back. See some familiar faces. Right. Haley and I knew each other when she was at the survival center. Yes. So Haley, were you at the survival center while a student or after a student? Both. I interned there during undergrad. That's how really what gave me my love of social services. I credit that as happening there. And then once I completed my first year at Craig's, Neri had been the coordinator and she was leaving. She encouraged me to apply and I got the job. It was like coming home again. It is. It is in a way. It's really good to be back for sure. There's no place quite like this. So I had this thought and I had it this morning. Did I meet you at an UMass women's leadership luncheon back when we had in real life, when we actually met in person? Oh, that would have been a long time ago. It feels like I'm not sure. It sounds quite likely. Yeah, that would have been quite some time ago, though. Well, to me, it's not that far ago, but it's just a different, you know, back when you have to go places. It feels like it to me. We even signed up to get dinners at, what's the name of the dinner club at UMass at the hotel? Oh, you can sign it on that kind of time and get a price fixed dinner and just show up. We actually did that for one semester. It was kind of fun. At the top of the campus. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, pre-COVID, we used to go to UMass, not infrequently. For lunch, I don't remember the name of that one, but that's something I would think of when I'd be really busy and say, I don't want to make lunch. I think, whoa, they have this lovely place on the campus, but that's not happening right now, I guess. I just want to mention for those people in the audience, we have another minute or two till we can get started. And at that point, we're going to ask those people who would like to enter the room as a panelist to raise your hand. You don't have to. But when you do, you'll enter and stay mute until you have a question. And we ask that you use the raised hand function. Right. And I would like to add that if you don't do that, could you please come in anyway and turn off your video? So we see your name because what we don't have is, we don't have the ability on this setup to see a list of attendees. I know people like to know who's in the room. So that way we could at least see your name. Because Jennifer and I want to say, at least we want to know who's here. We want to say hello. And whether we see your face or whether we just see your name. You can see a list of people who are in the attendee list. I see participants and okay, okay, I'm looking up. I've always been able to do this at meetings. But can the attendees see this? No, they can't. Okay. Well, I know we're not on that kind of a Zoom call where they can see. Right. And I really think it, I personally think it's up to individuals. Right. Okay. But I do see Steve George, Shirley Griffin, Nancy Gilbert, Linda Slakey, Rita and Bruce Wilcox, George Ryan, Dale, and Christina Sharby. I may have mispronounced that one. And Evelyn just joined it. Evelyn Goldenberg, yes. And Heddy Startup. So it's nice to see who's here. So we can see it. Unfortunately, the attendees can't see this list. Part of the tech setup, which is complicated. Okay. Ladies, it is two o'clock. With those panelists, who, with those people who were in the audience, who would like to enter the room and be a panelist, but still stay mute, raise your hand. And I will start entering you. Don't see them. I see the names having moved over, but we don't see their pictures. They have turned their picture on. Dale, I'm having trouble promoting you. Have you updated your Zoom lately? Okay. There you go. Thank you. Are there any other people who have joined us who are in the audience who would like to join, come into the room as a panelist, where you turn your picture on or not, and you remain mute unless you have a question. Please raise your hand if you'd like to enter as a panelist. I'll ask again in a few minutes, but Jennifer and Dorothy, why don't you get started? Thank you. I'd rather not be a panelist. I'd rather just be able to ask a question. Do I have to be a panelist in order to ask a question? No, you do not. I can raise my hand at any time. And Barbara, is that you? Yes, sorry. Would you like me to put you back into the audience? Please. Okay. So I'll tell you what the structure that Jennifer and I worked out is. I'm going to talk very briefly about some of my priorities for the town council. Jennifer will talk about her priorities, and she's got some things she'll go a little bit more in depth in. Then I'm going to introduce Hailey, and she's our major speaker, and she will speak about re-imaging, aging, and Amherst. And at which point we'll open it up for questions so you can ask Hailey questions. Then Jennifer will host questions from you, to her and me on anything that you want to ask, okay? That's the what's on your mind, whatever. And I think that way will kind of go. So we're going to do a little bit of priorities, then we're going to focus on senior services with Hailey, and then it's open for any kind of questions that you have. Is there anyone who has a problem with that, or has another suggestion? Okay. All right. Before you start, let me just say, is there anybody else in the audience who would like to enter the room, even though you'll remain unmuted, and but you can put your picture on. And Barbara, I think we've just come up against my ability to do Zoom. I don't know how to put you back in the audience without exiting you off of Zoom. And if I do, you can't come back in. Okay. I guess I'll just have to deal with it. There you go. I'm so sorry. Not a problem, but I hope you get to learn it. Thank you. I hope so too. Lynn already has learned enough for 20 people. Yeah. So I don't know if there's that much more in her head. She is really so far ahead of me and a million things technologically, as well as other things. Okay. And I see Rosemary Koffler is here from the Council on Aging, and welcome too. So I'm just going to say that this session of, this term of the Town Council, my second, will be a two-year term. And I'm on the TSO Committee, which is the Town Services and Outreach Committee, which is the newest of the four standing committees of the Town Council. And so what does TSO do? Jennifer thought I should tell you, since it's kind of vague for a lot of people, anything that may affect the provision of services to the community by a town department. Okay. So that's very broad. Measures related to public ways, including transportation and parking, public lands and town facilities. Again, that's a large area. So review and make recommendations to the Town Council on all appointments of town department heads that are filed by the town manager and all appointments that he files on multiple member bodies. And to advise the Town Council on matters that broaden participation and outreach to residents of Amherst, work with community participation offers and recommended Town Council participation in town events. And then review and make recommendations to Town Council on issues and measures regarding the relationship between the town and Amherst institutions of higher education. So before I go into my priorities, I'll give you one brief announcement, which is from UMass. You know that they've got this big construction project of dorm, replacing one dorm and creating a brand new dorm to the north of us. And that is involved closing Lincoln. So the latest word on it is that Lincoln is closed at the entrance of the parking lot 32 to Mass Ave, but you can take an easy detour around it using North Hadley Road and Sunset Avenue. So it's not really, I don't think, I mean, you can tell me if I'm wrong, but at the moment, it seems like that's not too difficult a detour. There'll be a lot of changes that come through and we'll try to communicate those with you as we get them because they're going to close something here, open something there as they have to do it. We also are trying to keep an open door with UMass. We've had some meetings, and Jennifer and I with Tony Maroulis and Nancy Buffon on the impact of the construction on the residents of our neighborhood. And so just be sure that you report to Jennifer or me any problems that you see on this issue because we don't, we want to make sure that the construction trucks are not sitting there with their engines running on residential streets. UMass doesn't want them to do it. They have other places for them to do that. And questions about any questions you have because this is going to take a while, but the end result will be the redone dorms for graduate students at the top of Lincoln will be actually a little bit more set back from the sidewalk and they've reduced the number of apartments. So that should be once it's done, not a problem. We don't really know too much about the impact yet of the larger dorm, but we have really good people on the alert. So that's my relationship with things of higher education at this moment. So I mean, you know, you know what I'm really keen on, which is to reserve attainable family housing in strong neighborhoods, to create more affordable housing and attainable housing. Attainable means not according to some government definition of what is affordable, but something that regular people could afford to work with the African heritage reparations program to increase home ownership, to strengthen the rental registration system to provide safe housing for students and better integration into the residential areas. And Jennifer has more to say on that. To support our public school system and the building of a new elementary school, support the Jones Library renovation and expansion project with emphasis on preserving priceless historical details where possible. To include adequate space in the redone Jones Library for the display of our Civil War stones and the accompanying exhibit of African American contribution to Amherst life, which is now housed in the bank center. And I didn't get to go see that until recently. Bob and I went, it is really a wonderful exhibit. Deborah Bridges conducts the tours. I emailed her just to make sure that the time we were coming with them was suitable and it's a great tour. So I do recommend that to you. To work with the new director of senior services, Haley Bolton and the council on aging, on adding and strengthening needed services to Amherst growing senior community. To improve downtown access to businesses by a detailed examination of the parking permit system in Amherst, which is in fact, the big issue before TSO, which is going to keep us busy for a while. Supporting the hiring of an engineer to examine whether boatwood garage can be expanded for more parking. And I believe I saw that in the budget fee for that. Examine the role that downtown parking overlay has caused overload parking and narrow residential streets and support an examination of all possible parking areas. If indeed a new parking garage is needed. To work towards the policy of a pedestrian friendly streets, safe sidewalks, larger building setbacks for public way, more shared green space, clearly my crosswalks, and state safe speed limits, which I gather is a state interest at this time. To push for hiring of an economic development director to work with the bid in the chamber on a downtown economic revitalization program for Amherst for lower rents and commercial buildings to allow a wider, more interactive variety of experiences as well as a rich and varied program of arts for all aspects of life. To support new initiatives for greater racial harmony and public safety with the Amherst police department, the fire department, EMT program, and the Cres program, community responder program. And to support common sense plans for repair and replacement of high school athletic fields. And I'm nearly done. To work with the health director and the town manager in supporting strong measures to protect Amherst residents and students from COVID. To be ready to support the building of much needed fire station and department of public works, DPW, when suitable land is located and secured. And my final one, support efforts for Amherst's self-sufficiency in terms of food systems, energy creation, and use solar and geothermal. So that should keep me busy for the next two years. So I'll get Jennifer. And beyond. Okay. Thank you, Dorothy. And thank you all for tuning in today. We're hopeful that we can all be back in person for our March district meeting. And Dorothy and I are hoping to have district meetings every other month. So we can stay in touch. And of course, we're always available by phone or email. And then we do have our office hours, our joint office hours, the second Saturday of every month at the Jones library from 10 to noon. And my office hours are the second Thursday of the month from 10 a.m. to noon also at my home at 259 Lincoln Avenue. And again, we're always available to meet as issues come up. So it has been a whirlwind first month from young, yes. Can I pause for a moment and just say, if there's anybody else in the audience who would like to come into the room, please raise your hand. Here comes Mindy Dom. Hello, Mindy. Hello, Mindy. And my office hour is the, I think it's the first Wednesday at the Jones library. And since it's a big room, that's still in person. But we have that in our newsletters, so. Yeah. So should I resume or? Yes. Oh, I'm Mindy. Okay. I'm Mindy. Um, yeah. So as I was saying, it has been a whirlwind first month. And I'm excited to have been appointed to serve on two committees, the community resources committee, CRC, and the governance organization and legislation committee, which we affectionately call the GOL. So between Dorothy and I, we are on three committees. So that's good for the district. And I guess to just sort of define what the community resources committee is, many of you know, but that's the committee that advises the town council on, you know, matters related to the long-term economic vitality and quality of life in Amherst. So it includes zoning and land use, the master plan, community and economic development, as well as arts and culture, neighborhood and housing. So a lot goes through the CRC before going on to the full council itself. The community resources committee is that that is the committee that just held the public hearings for article 16, which was proposing a 15-month moratorium on permitting large-scale ground-mounted solar installations until the town drafts and approves a solar siling bylaw. The community resource committee, after the following the public hearing and deliberation, we did vote unanimously to recommend that pause, the moratorium for 15 months, we'll recommend that to the full council. And then the work of drafting a bylaw for solar siling, the large-scale ground-mounted installations can begin. The CRC also handles appointments or recommendations for the planning board and the zoning board of appeals. And we'll get to that a little later in the meeting, but there are a number of boards and committees in town that do have openings that we would encourage you to consider applying for. And one is a few vacancies on the zoning board of appeals. So the government's organization and legislation committee, the GOL, advises the town council on issues related to all bylaws and proclamations that the council acts on, first come to the GOL, that review, use them for form and content and organization to assure that they're, quote, clear, consistent and actionable for the town council. So the recent article 16 for the solar moratorium, that will then go now to the GOL to be reviewed before it goes to the council for final approval. And another committee, it's not an official committee of the council, but I'm very pleased to have the opportunity to work with some other councils to update and strengthen our rental permitting bylaw. And as many of you know, the genesis of the rental permitting bylaw actually started in district three back in 2013. And we were concerned that although no more than four unrelated tenants were permitted to live in a non-owner occupied rental, that particularly with student houses, there were eight and nine students living in the house. And some of the properties were showing signs of general neglect and deferred maintenance. So we went before the town meeting at the time and were able to have a rental permitting bylaw passed. And now that we've had that bylaw, and I should add that prior to this bylaw, there was no, if for those landlords that may have been repeat violators, there was really no penalty because you didn't need a permit to be able to rent. So there was no avenue for revoking or suspending a permit if there was a pattern of violations. So it's been eight years since that bylaw has been in place. And so with the passage of that time and seeing where some of the weaknesses are, we're now going back to strengthen and update that bylaw. And some of what we're looking at is right now there's one, well, first of all, right now that inspections are done on a complaint-driven basis. And we'd like to see if the town could hire one or two more inspectors to be able to have the inspections be routine. And part of what could fund that is the fee structure now is no matter how many units in your building you're renting, it's $100 per permit. So we're looking at revising that fee structure. So it's a sliding scale. So if you have 10 or more units or 100 or more units, you're paying a different fee than someone who has one unit in their home or is just renting a single home. And we're hoping that the fees generated from that might be able to support another inspector or two. And we can speak more about the rental permitting bylaw and some of your suggestions in that regard as we get to the end of the meeting. I don't want to, after our guest speaker has made her presentation. And I guess, and we'll talk about this again more towards the end of the meeting, but in addition to all the priorities that Dorothy listed, we need a new fire station and we need to find a location for Department of Public Works and be able to move on building that and help our renovated and expanded library be the best that it can be. Many items on our list. But I've been trying to think about my priorities as what's hopefully doable in the short term and then what's more challenging. So what would be more challenging and maybe a longer term goal is to work with UMass and our Amherst College to maybe have as we have strategic partnership agreements now, but maybe there's more we can do in terms of payments and lieu of taxes. But I'm hoping something that might be more doable is to help our local businesses downtown and in our village centers is to reinstate the off-campus meal plan cards, which we had for a number of years and then they stopped having that. And a number of business owners in town that I've spoken to have said that that particularly owners of eateries that for students at Amherst College and I should say at UMass Amherst, I don't know that Amherst and Hampshire colleges were ever involved, but I'd like to see I'd like them to be. But there's a couple of counselors and we're interested and this is something we may also ask for your input or involvement. Assemblywoman Mindy Dow to see if we could talk to the campuses about reinstating those cards, because it really did bring students into the downtown eateries and some of the other businesses on a more frequent basis. So I'm hoping that's something we can do as we look to revitalizing our downtown after these difficult past couple of years. So that's just a snapshot of where Dorothy and I are now. And we'll talk more about this towards the end of the meeting, but I didn't want to keep our guest speakers and the other representatives from the council on aging too much longer. So I will turn it over to Dorothy now to introduce our guests and then we'll have a more conversation and questions and answers later in the meeting. Thank you. Thank you, Jennifer. And Mindy, I don't know if you can stay this long, but I'd love to have a chance to have you talk about what's going on after our main speaker. So if you have. I'm planning on being here as well. Okay, great. I think that's good time. Great, that way wonderful. Okay, so now we're going to I'm introducing Haley Bolton, our new director of senior services for the town of Amherst recently appointed by the town manager. She is the new director of senior services, which means it's broader than just the senior center. Coming to Amherst from the town of Bernadston, where she was the council on aging director, she has Amherst roots. First is an undergraduate at UMass Amherst, where she earned a BA. She also served as a staff manager at Craig's Doors and then worked as the pantry coordinator at the Amherst survival center. And in Bernadston, Haley conducted a very active outreach program during COVID to 800 seniors working with her staff, with volunteers and with the police department. She made need assessment phone calls leading to strong follow up with homebound seniors, which I think included all of us at that point. I love the ingenuity she showed in creating many outdoor social events for seniors to alleviate the isolation of lockdown, such as concerts in the parking lot, outdoor bingo, drive through as well as zoom events. And I look forward to hearing more about her plans to create strong bonds in Amherst. So Haley, we're glad to have you speak to us today. Thank you. Yeah, thank you so much for having me. It's a pleasure to be here today and get to talk to everyone here at the district three community. So yeah, so I come to you from the town of Bernadston where I took over in June of 2019. So I had had a couple pre pandemic months before everything kind of went topsy-turvy. But in Bernadston, we really set the example for Franklin County in terms of our outreach, our programming during the pandemic. We were one of the most active senior centers throughout that entire series season. And I'm very happy to be back in my Amherst roots. It's a very special place in my heart and it's really wonderful to be back here. So I'm going to share my screen now because I've got some slides that I'd like to share. So let me just move a couple of things. So if you can all join me today, I want to kind of reimagine aging in Amherst. And I'm going to walk you through how I plan to do that. So I'm going to be talking today about our current programs and about the future of programming at the Amherst Senior Center. And as I'm talking to you about that, I'd really like for people to be thinking, what does aging in Amherst look like to you? What does that mean to you? So if you can keep that at the back of your mind, be much appreciated. So I've posted our mission statement for the council on aging. And if you don't know, the council is really the advisory board to the senior center director. So they are advisory in nature. They help me kind of craft the direction that the senior center is going to go in. And I'll just pull out some highlights from our mission statement. So really what we seek to do at the Amherst Senior Center is serve and support our older adults. And that includes seniors of all ages and backgrounds. The council is very dedicated to diversity and inclusion and making sure that everyone feels like they have a place at the senior center. We also work to help our older adults remain independent, help them age in place, preserve their well-being, their dignity. And we advocate for them. We advocate at meetings like this to the town manager. It's really important that we make sure that older adults voices are heard. And we also seek to develop dynamic programming, right? There's a lot of intersectionality between someone who's, say, 65 and someone who's 100. But there are also ways in which we need to develop programming that's particular to those individuals, because sometimes their needs are very different. So we wear a lot of hats. And we're always trying to advocate, to educate, and build connections with the community. And so that's why I'm here today, is to kind of inform people about the work that we're doing and the work that we hope to be doing in the coming months. So I've listed here some of our current programs and activities, but as you can see, a lot of things have been suspended due to COVID. We've really been dealt a pretty serious blow by the pandemic. But we are still offering exercise classes. We have Tai Chi, arthritis exercise, several types of yoga, weekly bridge group, a weekly Shakespearean literature group that meets all in person. And then we also offer Zoom classes, yoga, healthy bones and balance, cosmology. And actually, I forgot, there's a monthly ukulele class too. So we do some fun things, exercise. We also offer a Monday through Friday grab-and-go meal. We're currently serving about 30 to 40 people each day through that program. And we deliver meals to homebound seniors as well, and serving about the same volume. So on any given day, it's a good day. It's about 70 to 80 individuals that we're feeding. We also participate in the Food Bank of Western Mass' brown bag program. We do food referrals to the Amherst Survival Center. We offer a monthly foot clinic for seniors and social work services. So if an individual needs financial assistance, if they have a question on shine counseling, need help applying for fuel assistance, we're able to help them navigate those processes. I think a lot of people can appreciate that getting older is complicated. It's very confusing. So we want to be able to help assist our older adults navigate that. And we also offer those services in Spanish through our bilingual outreach coordinator. So even though our activities have been truncated, we are still doing quite a bit more than I think most people expect. I know that they're familiar with our meals programs, but maybe people don't know the extent of our exercise classes. So I'd like to highlight those. And again, we are facing some pretty steep barriers to reopening. Certainly the pandemic is front and center on that. You know, the distancing requirements inhibits our ability to offer ballroom dancing or line dancing. We're not able to offer the congregate meals that we have been doing previously. So we are hampered by that. And we're in competition with other town departments and organizations for space at the Bank Center. So we have to be really careful in terms of how we schedule programs so that we make sure that we have a designated space for our elders. And then, of course, lack of adequate staff and volunteers. There's a few openings at the Senior Center, one of which we'll hopefully be filling by the end of February. But we're still short on volunteers. And they play a really critical role here at the Senior Center. And some of you may have seen me. There's a feature in the Gazette this weekend asking for more volunteer help. So we're really short staffed and we are still trying to navigate the COVID restrictions. And it's really important that we do reopen because there are very well documented negative effects of social isolation. So I've just kind of highlighted one CDC study that talks about your risk of premature death increases across all categories, the longer that you're socially isolated. Your risk of developing dementia increases 50%. Your heart disease risk, your risk of stroke. All of those increase. You have higher rates of depression, higher rates of anxiety and suicide. It's estimated that one in four older adults suffers from depression. And these numbers are from 2020. So you can imagine that after two years of the pandemic there's going to be some increases to that. So a Senior Center really plays a pivotal role in the community. And not just because we have social programs but because of the social engagement that we offer. So it's important to myself, to the council that we work on reopening and increasing our programs. So to me, programming is really the, it's the best metric to judge a Senior Center. How well attended are your programs? That underscores are you serving a need in your community? If your programs aren't well attended then maybe it's time to reassess how can we better be meeting people's needs. So I've kind of highlighted what is, within my first few weeks on the job what I've identified as ways that I want to increase programs. So once we're safe and able to do so we'll be reinstating our congregate meal program, reinstating the Wednesday morning produce and bread pickup. And then we'll also be increasing our collaborations with Amherst Recreation and talking with their new director. They've acknowledged that a lot of their programming right now is for younger kids and there's not as much program for older adults. And certainly we want to see that increase. We want to see more programs for elders, not just younger members of the community. Also want to be increasing programming for individuals in the BIPOC community. Again, making sure that they know that they have a space and that they're welcome at the Senior Center. And it's very important to me to be increasing the amount of musical performances that we do. Music is such wonderful therapy and really a great way to get people, all people together. So I want to be offering more of that, offering arts classes, crafts, memoir writing, anything that helps inspire creativity in our seniors, increasing the amount of health and well-being workshops. Any good Senior Center will have turning 65. What are your Medicare options? How do you understand dementia? Living with diabetes or heart disease. But there are also ways to offer new and exciting programming that maybe is not traditionally associated with senior centers, topics like understanding CBD or medical marijuana. So those are different ways that we can be engaging and informing our older adults. And we'll also be adding new support groups for caregiving, hearing loss, anxiety, safety demonstrations, working to increase our ties with Amherst Police Department, Amherst Fire, the Northwestern District Attorney's Office so that we are educating our seniors on how to stay safe and avoid scams. And one thing that's really near and dear to my heart is intergenerational programming. It's something that I absolutely think has a really important place at Senior Center. So working with Amherst Public Schools on something as simple as Valentine's Day cards for seniors, or maybe something a little bit more in-depth, like pairing a senior and an elementary student and helping them read, having the senior read to them, having them read to the senior. Getting the high school students in to help with technology or even just hearing and talking with the elder. I think that any good intergenerational program will be reciprocal in nature, right? So it's not just the younger person teaching the adult. It's reinforcing that older adults have value and add to the conversation. So that's certainly a two-way street. And of course, we have wonderful ties with Amherst College, UMass Amherst, and those are relationships that can be further cultivated and used to really get some different programming, really engaging things that are going to be outside your typical wheelhouse. So certainly my lab, my first few weeks, I should say, on the job have been really eye-opening, just in terms of the difference, seeing that difference of what was pre-pandemic versus what's now, but really hopeful on the future and how we can adapt once we're able to do so. And I definitely want to hear from people in the community. I'm so thrilled to be here because really your voices are what can help me better tailor programming that's going to suit what you want and what you think is important in an aging community. So before I open it up to some questions and comments, I just want to talk about the age and dementia-friendly project for anyone who might not have heard of it yet. So the town of Amherst is working on a year-long project to better understand aging in Amherst. And we had our first working group meeting back in mid-January. And now we're going to be coming out with the needs assessment portion of the project. So what we'll be doing in the coming weeks is engaging in a livable Amherst community survey. So we'll be talking to older adults and their caregivers, trying to assess the areas in which they're facing the greatest challenges. The survey will be online. There'll be hard copies at Town Hall, at the Bang Center, at the Jones Library, just to name a few. And we really want to get as many voices as we can so that we have a better idea of what does it look like in Amherst for people who are aging. And if you don't want to do it just out of the goodness of your heart, we are doing a gift card raffle. So there's a little extra incentive there to take part in this survey. And we'll also be looking for your voices during our listening sessions. So we'll do several sessions starting in late spring on topics like transportation, on housing, social inclusion, public safety and more. So again, your voice matters. It's really important to us to hear what you have to say. You know, we want to engage as many older adults as possible and get their feedback on how Amherst can be made better. And if you're interested in coming, if you have time, the next meeting will be Monday, February 28th, at 10.30. And then starting in March, all the meetings will be the third Thursday of the month at one o'clock. And I've put two links here at the bottom. Those are going to be the most up-to-date way to know where are we on the project? What's the Zoom link? Where do I go to get certain information? So you can check out the engageamherst.org slash age-friendly page or the information's up on the town of Amherst website. If you go to senior services, there's an age and dementia-friendly project page. So that is kind of the senior center in a nutshell. You know, I can certainly, just to sum up, say that we are still active and engaged and we certainly would like to be doing more. And again, I can open it up for questions and comments if people have ideas, if they have feedback. You know, my understanding is pre-pandemic, there was always something going on at the Bing Center that it really was this thriving and vibrant place. And we certainly have a little bit of work to do to get back to that. But my hope is that in working with the health department and, you know, watching COVID trends that by sometime in late spring will make steps for that. So Dorothy, you have a question. Did you want to introduce Rosemary from the Council on Aging? I can, yeah. So Rosemary Koffler is on our Council on Aging and she might be able to answer some questions that I am a little too new to understand. So I don't know if Rosemary, if you want to say anything briefly to introduce the Council. You did cover things pretty thoroughly. It's a very good report. And we are just getting started and the Council on Aging has had a number of turnovers as well. So we're not as solid a committee as we once were, but we're working on it and we're looking forward to working with Hailey and getting programs started again. I've been a part of the Amherst Seniors Hender since 2003 and it was a very vibrant place and we want to get back to that again. Currently we are looking at some workshops on hearing loss and we'll just keep going from there. So thank you. So Hailey, why don't you handle the questions and people who are in the meeting in any form where we can see you or where we can't see you, I guess just raise your hand and she'll call on you. Yeah. So I think Ken Rosenthal has a question. And please unmute and ask your question. I hope you can hear me now. I can't tell whether you can. I can hear you. Thank you. My friends will not be surprised. I'm going to say this. You listed Amherst College UMass and you want to list Hampshire College. It's one of your places to go for resource and assistance. Hampshire students as well as faculty have been active in the school system for many years but they haven't been active with the Senior Center. They should and I can connect with them. I think it's very important that we involve them and give them the opportunity. Also I'm very glad to hear you talk about the kinds of things that seniors and I'm one and I live close to you on Sunset Avenue. Hearing loss, vision loss, these are things that inevitably come to us. Some of us have experienced professionally in those areas and we can be supportive. And thank you very much for joining us Haley. I think we're really glad to have you here. Oh, thanks. Glad to see you. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. And I'll definitely take the Amherst, excuse me, the Hampshire College connection. That would be great to cultivate. You should tell Haley your connection with I think it's seeing eye dogs because she may actually want to draw upon your experience. Thank you. For 11 years before I retired in 2006, Haley I was the president of an organization called the Seeing Eye which is the oldest organization in the world that provides dogs to guide people who are blind essentially or have major vision loss. And there are so many things that we can do to help people who have vision loss short of actually getting and qualifying for a dog and we could talk about that sometime too. Absolutely. Let's plan to do that when you have some time and we can get together either virtually or in person sometime. Great. I'd love that. And then Ronnie Parker. Am I saying that right? Ronnie, do you still have your question? Here we go. Sorry. I couldn't get, I didn't see the unmute button for a while. That's my internet is slow. Yeah, I don't want to even think of myself as senior or anywhere near that frankly. But setting that aside Haley, I really like your presentation and I really like all the planning, the survey is great but the fact that you're doing more community engagement I think that's really important that piece often falls out and I think particularly with older people I'm not an expert that I was a volunteer at my former senior center. So I have that kind of a direction. I think they don't do surveys. They feel intimidated by paper like that and it makes a big difference to actually sit down and chat. And so I think the community engagement piece is really important. I'm not sure how exactly you plan to go about this but I look forward to hearing more about that. Thank you. Sounds wonderful. But don't back out on that piece because I think people do. That's the piece that slips because you have all this survey data and it all feels so solid because it's survey data but it misses out on a whole range of people who don't respond to surveys but we'll sit and talk with somebody. Yeah, absolutely. So that's a great point and I think of myself as being a little old school. I do like the face to face, the listening sessions. And we even have individuals who are not able to read. So our social worker will be making phone calls and helping people either in person or on the phone to go through the survey and ask them those questions. And I think you make another really great point which is that some people are seniors but don't consider themselves to be seniors. There's still a lot of stigma associated with that word and so part of the reimagining piece for me is that to say it's a senior center but really it's a place for everyone and it should be a place for everyone to feel comfortable and that they still have a really important presence in their community. Right, my thought about that was actually that you talked about the multi-generational nature and how important that is and I think you're completely on target with that. Definitely, thanks. I also want to ask if there are any other people in the audience who would like to enter the room and be part of the screen as a panelist even though you remain mute unless you have questions you want to ask? I have a quick question for Haley. Okay, I have been doing Zoom exercises from the Hampshire Y and I didn't realize that our senior center did some Zoom exercise sessions. How does one access that? It's a little dependent on which class. So in our newsletter some of the classes you just reach out directly to the instructor and then there are other ones that we can refer you to. So if you wanted, I don't have it in front of me but if you tell me which ones you're interested in I can follow up with you on that information. Okay and everybody, her address is like all of us town people which is last name first initial at AmherstMA.gov. So with that formula you can reach everybody in town government or on service. Just last name first initial at AmherstMA.gov. Just don't forget the MA as you go to New Hampshire. And then George Ryan, I can see you had your hand up first. Hi Haley, I wonder if you could just say a little bit about the kinds of volunteer activities that you're looking for. If you could just give me some sense of that. So in the immediate future we need volunteers to deliver meals. We need volunteers to staff our welcome and reception desks. So as it is right now if we don't have a volunteer I should say there's not someone who's able to let people in for their programs to guide them to where they need to be. And then certainly once we are working on new programming you know for example the Wednesday morning bread pickup right we're going to need volunteers to get the food to bring it back to help us sort and have people come in and to shop. So there will be a lot more opportunities to get involved in the senior center once we're able to onboard some more programs. You know if we're doing congregate meals we'll need folks to help set up and break down tables. Things of that nature. But right now we're just looking for people to be on-site help answer phones, let people in for classes and to deliver meals. Good question. And Jennifer? Yeah actually that was my first question. Okay. How we can volunteer but so I wanted to ask so people are coming in now for services in person? Yes. And are they grab and go were those was that something pre-pandemic or is that just since you haven't had the congregate dining? That has been developed through the state for in place of congregate dining. So it would have been people coming on site to eat a meal but now they're taking that home to go. Yeah mostly due to COVID. I think that's something that you'll continue even when they're dining in person? The grab and go I think it's really dependent on the state whether or not they want to do both. I'm certainly in favor of both. I think congregate is one of those really interesting programs where it tends to be more popular with older seniors because they are lacking that social piece but for younger seniors it's not really so much something that they're too interested in. So it for them the grab and go is nice because it's convenient. It's easy. They're more likely to participate in that than to come in sit down and eat a meal. Right. Combination would be great. Dorothy. In the grab and go do you have anything like soup that they can heat up at home or is it just cold food? No they do a hot meal. So there's one day a week that they have a cold prepared meal but the other four days a week it is a hot meal. Wonderful. Thank you. Seen any other questions? I don't see any hands. Are they ready? I don't see any hands. All right. Could I welcome Haley? I don't think they hear me. Oh I can hear you. Who is it? You can hear me great. But Haley it's. Oh it's Dale. Hi. It's Dale Peters. Yes. It's a delight to welcome your energy and activism back into Amherst Haley. Thank you. Thank you. I had one observation to the one observation I wanted to make is that I've noticed in the last few years that Amherst has sprouted an NGO. I believe it's called Amherst neighborhoods and it's been an active organization both in terms of soliciting donations but also volunteers. And it is now an organization on the ground in the town. And it seems to me that collaboration would really be desirable. And I don't know whether you're aware of this group but there's lots of volunteer energy in it and it should be tapped by the town I would say. No absolutely that's a really great point. So thank you for remembering because I have reached out to Amherst neighbors and I'll be doing a similar presentation for them in February. So yeah I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge them. They have like you said tremendous programs, wonderful volunteer pool so I think we can do a lot of good work together. I think that now we can open it up to comments and questions on well I guess we should finish up okay with Haley so if she wanted to go and do something else she could. Yeah we'll give you back. Thank you so much Haley for being here and Rosemary and for all the work you do and I hear from friends and neighbors all the time that they would like to get more involved in volunteering in the community and I can't think of a better organization than the senior center. So Dorothy and I will include in our newsletters think of us also as a link to get the word out to the community. Oh thank you. All of us in district three I can say look forward to supporting you and Rosemary and the rest of the council on aging and your the senior community center. We look forward to reimagining aging in Amherst. Yeah before I go I have to take a question from Mindy because I can see her hands out. Thank you Haley. I get to also join in the chorus of welcoming back to Amherst even though I know you really didn't leave but your work left. Haley and I had the pleasure of working with Haley and as she started at the Amherst Survival Center as an employee. And so I'm thrilled that you're in this position because I know that you bring well first of all excellent communication skills not just in presentations but interpersonally. Thank you. Really great ideas an incredible way with both volunteers and participants. And so I mean a deep respect for all stakeholders. So I'm really excited so I'm really excited. And I also just want to say I'm excited to working with you to support whatever efforts you make in all sorts of programming and how in this role for me I can be supportive of you. So whether that's supporting your efforts around advocacy and making sure that seniors also have a voice in the State House on issues that are of concern to them as well as funding and other kinds of resources. And just you know my own you know my hands in terms of being a volunteer and my ability to promote volunteer opportunities which I'll definitely do after today and trying to get more folks to you. So use me. All right we'll do. It really does come full circle with it does. It's the Amherst Survival Center. It's a very small world. And I just really want to say that I remember very distinctly when we interviewed Haley that her qualities that would that made her such a great pantry coordinator are just sort of multiplied to the nth degree and in her current role. So I'm excited about that potential and possibility and I'm here to support it in whatever way I can. And I want to also thank Rosemary for being here and also for all of your work on the council. I know that you're you're working at with some vacancies on that council and I want to know how I can be supportive to the council. I mean obviously I can't fill the vacancies but if I can be helpful and sort of also letting people know that they exist and if people are interested to participate in that way please let me know how I can strengthen your work on that council. Okay. Thank you. And thank you very much for letting me speak. Welcome Haley. Welcome back. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you Mindy. Haley how many vacancies are there on the council? I believe and Rosemary you can correct me if I'm wrong but we have one but I think we're working on having that person apply. Yeah. There actually will be two vacancies. Okay. It's good to know. Well Haley you bring in your racial. Not too long ago there were three vacancies so several of the people on the council are new to the council as of January. So it has been a little rocky. So I have my hand up for Mindy. I think I heard at the age and dementia friendly project launching that there might be state money for sidewalk repair as part of the making a neighborhood age and dementia friendly. And I'm very excited if that's true so. Well I think that could be and also we have infrastructure money coming down the pike. So I think this is a this is really an important opportunity. This is one way to think about how important it is for us to be in communication about what the needs are and what the and specifically what the funding needs are and what the priorities are for state funding. So and I look to Lynn as the council president as well as Paul Bachman as the town manager and also Haley as the director of senior services to fill me with what those priorities are so that I can strategically and aggressively go after them. So for example I think it was last. Yes we're in the current budget year of FY 22 this budget. I reached out to Mary Beth when she was in Haley's position and I said based on COVID what are what do you anticipate needing resources for you don't currently have like as a way of coming back from the pandemic. And I was told exercise equipment. So we put together you know how much money that would be. It was estimated at $15,000. I submitted an earmark for that. We got it. And I think we're working now with the senior center to figure out make sure they get the money and then you know how do you how do you spend it when you don't necessarily have the space for it. So we're I'm also more than happy to intervene with the state government on figuring that question out so that you don't lose the money. But I think that's part of my job. So I really hope that sidewalks make you know sidewalks aren't only about making it accessible for our elders and eight folks who are older. It's also important for people with disabilities and also for young moms who are pulling spoilers. So I think I'm I'd be very interested in thinking about ways to make more accessibility in Amherst. Thank you. Thank you for asking. That's the most common comment that in my three years I've gotten is about the sidewalks. And it's a huge expense, a huge backlog and anything that helps would be really appreciated. What do you hear, Dorothy? We need sidewalks or the sidewalks we have need to be correct? Well, the sidewalks we have need to be fixed. The town has actually been doing a pretty good job in making brand new sidewalks in areas that didn't have them but which had a pedestrian flow. They've done that both in the north and I think in the south of the town. But it's repairing existing sidewalks. There's that was the first thing I ever mentioned when I went to my first town meeting. And all of a sudden all these people came to me and they were showing me bruises and scars all over the place. We have people falling and getting hurt all the time. Yeah, I'd very much be interested in that conversation. But I also know like in my and I'm not sure what's happened to this, but in my part of the town in the southern part there's also a group of people who I think are trying to get a sidewalk on. Lynn might know this better than me. I think it's Middle Street. Am I right? It's the path that goes from people's homes to Crocker Farm because they want to be able to encourage students to be able to walk to school. And you can't do that if they're walking in the street. So that's what the town has been good on. And I think that if you keep bringing that up, I mean, Lynn would be more familiar with that. But we've done a good deal of that kind of brand new sidewalks to connect people to the school or to the public transportation or whatever. Well, you just put it on my radar. So it's a good thing because I'll be asking more follow up questions about how much money and Lynn and I will probably be in conversation about this very soon. Thank you. Can I see Tracy's hand? And I have a hand up too. Oh, hi. Yes. This is Tracy. Just on the sidewalk issue, I think one issue even in the downtown is that the lighting can be really bad. And the lighting can also be bad at some key intersections. For example, there's been a number of crashes at the intersection of Lincoln and Amity. Oh, God. And the lighting is not that good there. Yeah. And just in the other issues too is like on winter sidewalk, like snow shoveling and so on. You know, sometimes there's jurisdictional issues like who's responsible, the town, the DPW as a courtesy, they do clear a number of sidewalks. But then they typically, I think only do it like one pass and they only do it if they have to send their trucks out. But it doesn't actually mean that the adjacent property owners aren't responsible. So for example, I know Councillor Pam lives on Amity. And so the DPW will do a pass on Amity, but then Amity can actually be really darn icy. And so that can be an issue too. The homeowners on Amity know that they're responsible. The town does it on such a random basis. It cannot be counted on. It's appreciated when done, but it's not it's not the regular path. So ours is done by our snow shoveling service or by my husband. And there's a lot of big sidewalks spread. So it's a maybe we should look into how well that's going and do some checkups. Ronnie Parker and Paige Wilder have their hands up. Okay, this is Ronnie. I actually will give you a story. I moved here in October. Very same month, I took a very bad fall out of my house because there's a hole in the sidewalk that had been covered by leaves and because I was realized didn't realize the hole was there. And so I was carrying my shovel and I fell. Okay, fine. Since then, unfortunately, I fell again because there was dark ice in that spot. And so I didn't see I forgot that that hole was there. It's quite a big hole. There's also a similar hole in another spot just all within the width of my house. And I just wanted to tell you I mentioned this to town council also at some point or maybe the planning board that I would not bring my mother here who's 93 and I would like her to visit but she needs to walk every day and she just walked back and forth in front of the house. I cannot let her walk where we are because it's full of you know, there are these big holes and uneven surfaces. And even now we're worried because we're trying to clear the sidewalk and we have to dig to get under the spots where you have the big holes. So I think the sidewalks really are quite a big emergency and I'm in downtown. Thank you, Ronnie. Thank you. Thank you. And you are right in town. Just minutes from the library. Yep, north prospect. Yep. I guess Paige had her hand up. Yes, I'm Paige Wilder. I live on Fearing Street. I just wanted to connect the senior issue to the sidewalk issue again. The town had been talking about putting a sidewalk from Atkins, I mean to Applewood Senior Center. And I don't know where that stands but it would be nice to revive that and prioritize it. It's really a shame that people with walkers can't get there. People who are able to walk that far but can't because there's no path. And my 99-year-old parent can no longer get there. She's been there six years waiting for the sidewalk. Oh, I guess I thought they had, I know they were working on that, Lynn. Didn't they do that? There was, plans came before us maybe before COVID about tree removal in order to make the path because it was very, at one place, the path was kind of high. I know it's on the town radar. Do you know where it is at this moment? Oh, gee, I thought they had done that. It is on the radar but it has not been done. Okay. That is a very important path. Yeah. Did Rosemary have your hand up? No, but Bob Ham has his hand up. I was trying to comment about the sidewalk but Lynn already mentioned it. So that it was on the radar, the sidewalk from Applewood to Atkins, yeah. They did do a major road repair and sidewalk repair right in front of Applewood but they didn't get it firing out. Bob Ham would like to ask a question or speak. Bob, you have done mute. Can you hear me now? Yes. Mine is a general question and that is at all bus stops there is a need for clearing the snow across the curb and I have seen any number of bus stops where ice builds up there and it becomes a barrier for anybody but especially for anyone who is moving a shopping cart or who is trying to bring a baby in a chair it's just really pretty awful and it's not automatically anybody's responsibility. Bob, you had mentioned to me the bus stop right near the Jones Library and that you said it was not plowed on most days. I haven't been. It's the same issue everywhere. Okay. Okay. So it's not just that, all right. Tracy has another comment. Hi. I just had a quick comment on that. So I'm on the transportation advisory committee and to Bob's question the issue about clearing near the bus stops has come up and I guess sometimes there's a jurisdictional issue that the transit the PBTA or UMass transit will say that the town is responsible and the town will say that UMass transit is responsible and so I think in the end a lot of times somebody will do it but if maybe some of that could be clarified that would be really helpful for the future but that's what's been mentioned at the tax meetings. Yeah. That has to be dealt with. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'm glad. That's where Mindy could maybe. Absolutely. Thank you. I could in the town. I didn't know there was a state issue. Well, it's not. I mean, it's a also a town gown issue. So I mean it's a town gown issue. I don't want to. I tried not to step in ways that I think the town would prefer to take lead on but I'm happy to join the chorus of figuring out who's responsible. Absolutely. Thank you. So Rosemary, your hand is still up. Yes, I put it up again. I don't live in district three but this and my comment is about the center of town and I think for people who have visual problems and hearing problems crossing the intersection in the very center of town from the library, from the bank over to let's say subway. It's very dangerous because the light is not very long. There is no sound signal any longer. And if you are crossing and maybe it's not legal to cross kitty corner but everyone does, you can't see the light, the signal that gives you permission to cross. So I think it's a very dangerous intersection for older people or people with disabilities. So Lynn, I'm going to ask you. I have noticed the people doing the diagonal cross. So I figured it was legal I was never going to do that because to me, I'm not up to it. But what do you know about that center crossing place? All I'll say if it's illegal then I've been illegal many times. I think people are doing it. Yeah. Yeah, no, I think the reason that they stop that they have all the lights be read and all the walk is because you're allowed to jaywalk at that point. But we can clarify that as well as several of the other questions and issues that have been brought up here regarding jurisdiction, etc. And the sad fact that there was no sound I thought I remembered a sound. There was. I don't know what happened to it. Yep. Well, and do we have sound at the new roundabout? Only if there's signals that are for pedestrians. Yes. Okay. There should be, but we can check that out. Okay. Tracy has her hand up. Oh, just in terms of that crosswalk in the center of town, well, I know that the disability access advisory committee, one, they did an inventory of all the crosswalk and crossing signals downtown and the ones that are working and not working and so on. I believe that they've shared the information they collected with the DPW. But the one, I know that that one particular intersection, the main street amity, north pleasant, south pleasant intersection comes up. And any other intersection where all the traffic, all the car traffic is stopped at the same time that it is very hard for people who are completely blind to navigate because you don't have any cues from adjacent traffic. Like normally you would just cross in one direction the other direction. So if it isn't marked on the pavement, there's no way for you to sort of know where to go, whereas you would normally have that traffic to guide you. So people have mentioned that that's a challenge for sure. Thanks, Tracy. So Haley, we know that your expertise is in getting people together and in, which is extremely important, but when we get to some of the infrastructure things, there's a lot of work that has to be done as well. I do think the town did fix the passing to the Bangs Center from the center of town. I get a little fuzzy on that, but isn't that something that we recently did, Lynn? Bangs Center to the south. From North Pleasant Street, there was a way that people would cross through to the Bangs Center and that that was supposed to be very hazardous. And didn't we replace that or is that still on the to-do list? I believe we've done partial replacement on that one, yes. That's been pretty well replaced actually. Yeah. And then they did a very nice job, but that had been extremely dangerous. Yeah, that's good to hear. Are there any other questions on any topic or any of the things that Jennifer brought up or that I brought up that anyone wants to make a comment on or ask a question about? Because what's on your mind? Yeah. Although I did want to, again, we don't want to thank Haley and Rosemary. You're welcome to stay for the rest of the meeting, but we'd also love to give you the rest of your Sunday afternoon back. That's a beautiful sunny day. So thank you so much for taking the time to join us. It was really informative and sparked a good discussion. And we will certainly put the word out for volunteers and openings on the council. Yeah, thank you. It was a pleasure. George Ryan, Barbara Peterson, and Nancy Gilbert all have their hands on it. For questions of Haley? No, no, no. This general discussion, general discussion. Okay. So why don't we have George? Yeah, thank you. Stuart, I just wanted to go back to the beginning of the meeting and Jennifer had mentioned that there's a serious interest in looking at the rental registration bylaw. Right, yes. And I wonder if she could just say a bit more about that. Sound like there was a group of counselors that wondering if they're meeting. Is it beneficial? Just what's the, at the moment, where do we stand with that? Where we stand is we have actually been looking at the bylaw and we had a conversation with Rob Mora. And so we'll be working with him as well. And so we are actually going through, we're looking at what other particularly college and university towns have in their bylaw that we might be able to draw from. So I would say we're in the middle of going through a first go round and then we'll return and show what we have to Rob Mora before we, I think either send it, well, then we'll bring it back to the council and it may get referred back to the community resources committee. But that's where we are now, that we are actually going through it and starting to revise some of the language and look at how we might revise the fee structure for the permits as well. Could you just say who these we are? It's Mandy Jo Hanneke, myself, Michelle Miller of Councilor from District One, Pam Rooney from District Four and Councillor Kathy Shane from District One. So there's five of us that have been that have started to work on this. So I'm really glad that that's happening. And then we'll see, it'll go through it's a long process from this group to CRC to whatever, but there's certainly a good representation of people right there. Nancy Gilbert, do you have a comment you'd like to make or a question? Yes, I have a comment as you're looking at aging and dementia friendly Amherst, this isn't in the belly work of the senior center, but housing in Amherst is becoming too expensive and limited options for elders. So we have a lot of real estate, we would love to downsize, but our options other than Applewood which not interested in an apartment would be the South Deerfield Sugarloaf condos, Belcher Towns Summer Hill, Hadley has their new over 55 development South Hadley, Loomis has colleges and villages and Northampton has Bear Hill, Lathrop Cottages and a lot of other options. We keep, we seem to keep building student housing, but not looking at not apartments, but other options for elders. Many years ago there was talk of building a Renaissance village down on 116 across from the Hampshire red barn, but that fell through. I know there's that parcel now next to Applewood. It would be nice for other options for elders. So I'm wondering if the town counselors could start looking at that. You know that the housing that's going up at the end of sunset is really going to be student rentals, but there really aren't many options for people like us. We have a lot of real estate that we really don't need, but there's no option for us in Amherst. Well, I'd like to, I'm sure Dorothy would like to respond as well, but I would like to say that the what Nancy's referring to is a townhouse development that will be built. It will next, it's been, come before the local historic district commission and will next be going to the zoning board of appeals. It's for 17 units. Well, it will be 14 townhouses that will include 17 units on the South. East, Southwest corner of Fearing and Sunset. It's a large lot. And when they came before the local historic district commission, many members of the public offered comment as well as the commissioners. And we spoke many times with the developer Sunset Fearing LLP to please do everything they could to have those townhouses be for, yes, older people, I mean 55 up who maybe have become empty nesters whose children have grown who are looking to downsize from a home for young families, for young faculty, that if it could be a community not for undergraduates, it could really be a wonderful addition to the neighborhood or else it could be, you know, 60 plus unsupervised 19 to 21 year olds. So when we asked the developer, the local historic district commission, to go back and we asked to make some revisions, they did decrease the massing and they also did put a play structure in the green space behind it and picnic tables. So we are very hopeful. And I, you know, I think that this could be further advanced when it goes before the zoning board of appeals. But this could be a model for what kind of a townhouse development and just new construction generally could be in Amherst. So it could be a wonderful addition to the district or it could be just the opposite, frankly. But most of the building, and you know, again, this is among my priorities as Dorothy's too, and really a major reason I saw a seat on the council is that almost all of our new building over the last five, six and more years has been higher, you know, expensive apartments for students or just departments for students generally. And we, there's very little construction happening of new single-family homes, which is why we really need to ensure we don't lose more of the homes we have to student rental conversions, but also if the new, you know, whether single-family, multifamily, townhouses, triplexes building that happens could be for our long-term, permanent family population, however you want to put it. But basically not for undergraduates. So Nancy, we're very hopeful and I would, you know, encourage residents to come when the project goes before the zoning Board of Appeals and, you know, express our plea that it be for, it would be a wonderful development for people down in some of our house. One thing for senior housing, it really has to be one floor. Seniors are not going to go into townhouses. Stairs is something that seniors are looking to avoid. Right, right. And I know people who moved from Amity Place, where they loved, to the new places on, is it Maple Avenue or Southeastry, Maple Avenue, just because they had to have one floor. And yes, one of the big problems, Nancy, is that Amherst has a lack of space for individual, you know, small houses because we have the universities, the colleges, and we have conservation land. And, you know, I don't know the new piece of property near Applewood and Atkins. I don't quite have to go see how big it is. That's a possibility. But our greatest hope at this time, because of our lack of building for the conventional small homes, starter homes or senior small homes, is to preserve the family housing that we have, which is a big battle. And to do what Jennifer and the local historic district did in working on multiple townhouses and working with the developer to create a more family-friendly design. But this is, of course, as you're saying, I guess there might be some first floor units that could be one story. There could be some of them in there, which we should check out. But the developer worked with this committee before it presented plans to any official body and has increased the sizes of the little backyards, decided to put the water retention thing underground with pipes to free up a larger piece of land that could be used for recreation. You know, it was a wonderful example of how a builder can work with the community to create something that is better for everybody. But what you're requesting, I'm interested in it too, and we'll see what we can find some place where some of that could happen, because I agree with you. We don't have it, and we don't want you to move out of Amherst, okay? Exactly. Thank you. So, Linda Spleyke and Ken Rosenthal have their hands up. I was really going to make the point that you just made so eloquently, Jennifer, about working with the developer, not specifically about that development, but in general, the need for housing that appeals to multiple generations and is actually constructed, so it's attractive to people at different stages in their lives. So, I won't repeat the arguments that you've already made, but it did cross my mind in the context of a conversation that John Hornick led a while ago for the Amherst Municipal Affordable Housing Trust about the recommendations that it might make for the land that was freed up by the golf course in South Amherst. It came up in that conversation that at the, I believe, at the state level, or perhaps it's a banking level, there are, you can get a lot of breaks if you're building senior housing, and I actually don't think we need a lot more housing that collects seniors all in one place. I think people appreciate the multiple generations. I've lived a number of years in DC in an apartment complex that was a mix of families and seniors and provided a lot of useful services. So I wonder, it's useful to look into whether there are funding incentives or at least sort of permission to use senior-related funding in a mixed development rather than having it say, well, all the units have to be for 55 or over. Great, great point. And that takes us here to Mindy. Is this something that you've heard of or? The part on housing that I've been focusing on and actually have been in conversation with John Hornick are the efforts on some towns, some other college towns in the eastern part of the state that are looking at ways to encourage that non-homeowner occupied housing ends up generating some resources for local efforts to build affordable housing. That's what I've been focused on. I haven't heard specifically about housing that's related to seniors and keeping folks in towns. I've seen that through the revenue committee there are some pieces of legislation that go through every now and then that look at reducing property taxes and giving exemptions for property tax to seniors as a way of supporting their remaining in a community. But I haven't seen anything specific around housing and seniors, but I'm now going to keep my eyes open for it. Okay, I hear it. Right. I keep talking about my Sunnyside Gardens experience which were two and one, two and three family attached houses with frequent walkways. And it was all ages so that when I walked, I went out with my baby carriage with my first child. There were all kinds of people of all ages who were watching, checking me out and making sure I was doing a good job. It was a very, very active social neighborhood where all the generations mixed. And that's the closest thing we have is our big neighborhoods with the big houses. But Nancy's saying too much house and I do know what she means. There comes a point when you say this is too much house but I still want the quality of the mixed neighborhood that I live in where I see a variety of people. Ken Rosenthal has had his hand up for a while. Can you hear me? Yes. Thank you. I have two comments, one on housing and one on parking. So I'll make my housing comment now. When you consider rental housing permits, perhaps you would consider the definition of what a family is and consider changing the number from four unrelated individuals to three unrelated individuals. That would accommodate a couple who are not related to each other plus a live-in caregiver. And what it would do is really continue to serve the older people and the permanent residents. What it would also do is reduce the number of students living there from four plus to three plus. We know that students bring in their friends and their cars. And we see them sprawl, the cars sprawled over on the lawns it would just be better for the town if we had smaller units of non-related people living in those houses. I hope you'll consider that. And in a few minutes, I hope you'll let me talk about parking permits. Thank you. Thank you. Linda, you still have your hand up. But we can't hear you. She lowered her hand. I just said sorry. I didn't remember. Okay. I wanted to say two things. Oh, well, let me just first, because I didn't, our challenge is going to be with like these new townhouses and what has been happening with new construction is if they will be priced so that non-students can afford them. So if they're priced by the bedroom at a high price, that will make it not accessible to families and young faculty, young professionals, couples downsizing from a larger house. So that is kind of the maybe challenge or request that we're making of the developer is both the units will be in how they're being built and how they look will be appropriate and conducive to family living and non-student housing but will they be priced so that non-students who were, you know, where you have three or four individuals each splitting the rent will it be priced so that one person or, you know, two adults in a household would be able to live in that location. So that's what we'll see how that plays out. And I would respond to Ken. I'm so glad you brought that up because right now the town we're not allowed to have more than four unrelated individuals or students living in a non-owner occupied house. If the owner lives there, that cap is lifted. There has actually, I've been in two different meetings just in my first four weeks on the council where it's been suggested that we lift that number to greater than four. So I and some others have been pushing very hard against that. So we would be challenged to lower it to three, but we are going to do everything we can to keep it at four because raising the limit and I've actually heard it said that, well, you know, landlords are already violating the limit. So, you know, why don't we just raise it, which as I always say sounds to me like the way to deal with underage drinking is to lower the drinking age. But that would just exacerbate every problem we have. So we are holding the line at four three would be great, but I, that's my response. So we may be looking to you to provide some support for absolutely not raising the number. Well, I'd like to make the case at some point when that becomes an issue, but then it must be coupled with a very strict inspection so that you can verify this. And we all know the stories of how the number of people living in a place have been hidden, not only by the residents, but also by the landlord. Yes. Love said from on that point. Right. Thank you. But we will definitely keep you post. Everybody posted on this conversation. Thank you. Dorothy, you have your hand up. Yeah. I don't want to put anyone on the spot, but I see TR is listed as being here and he's from Amity Place. And I just want to know if there was anything going on at Amity Place or any interest that you want to bring up at the meeting. I'm not hearing anything, but again, we're all very slow at our dials here. Okay. So possibly we're going to hear. I don't know. Okay. So I will pass on that for later if that hooks up. Okay. Do we have any other questions or comments that people have? There are just so many issues that come before the town council. And this is a very informed group that pays attention and thinks about things and, you know. I think Kent wanted to have a question about parking. Oh, yeah, he did. May I? Hi. I know that the town is considering changing the cost of parking permits. It's a very timid change, I think. And I think we need to distinguish between the various kinds of permits we require. There is the permit for the employee of a business in town who wants to come into town to work and go home at the end of that person's workday. And there we want to make it possible for a person to find nearby parking at a very minimal rate, something that the employee can afford if the employer doesn't want to pay that parking for that purpose. And we have those spaces and we should continue to keep that number low. There is another category of people. The people who live here and want to park here day and night all year round or at least when they're living here which would tend to be the seven or eight months at the place that they're at the university and the colleges are in session. And there I think we need to recognize that it should be the obligation of the owner of the property to provide parking just as I provide parking in my house and all of you provide parking in your houses for the people who live there. And there the parking should not be the parking permit should not be inexpensive. We need to put the burden on the landlords and if the landlord chooses to pass it onto the tenant in some way that would be on the tenant so that they pay the really the full cost of parking for not just daytime but daytime overnight weekends in the town. That's the second category and the third category are the people who come to town for the day but don't work here. They tend to be the students at the University of Massachusetts who drive here and park. And the reason they're not parking in the student parking lots as available to them is simply the cost. So for them who are coming for the day but not coming overnight and are not working here that parking charge has got to be close to what they would pay in the parking lots of the University. The most egregious example continues to be Lincoln Avenue and it was fascinating this week to see how empty Lincoln Avenue was until the very day that the University came back in session and then the street filled up so quickly that just to be anecdotal about it I was driving from Elm Street turning north onto Lincoln Avenue I had to put on the brakes and back up fast because turning from McClellan southbound onto Lincoln came a student driver in a student driver car and there was no way that that driver and I were going to be able to pass each other and I wasn't going to expect that person to be able to back up. I had to back up go back down Elm Street so that that person could come by. I do not understand some people cannot look at that and see that it is a danger that has caused problems already and is going to continue to happen. There we must be permit parking and we must regulate it very carefully. Thank you for listening to me. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Well I only know the last call that in the background. Yeah. Can I can concur in that in that cars all of a sudden appeared on Monday and when I left the council meeting Monday night it was snowing and then it so there was snow on the cars. It didn't snow during the night but Tuesday morning there were cars on Lincoln covered with snow that had been there from from the night before. Yeah. And yeah. And I well I don't want to get into too detailed a little conversation about this right now but I know that one counselor when we were discussing permits at Monday evenings council meeting mentioned that for example it in Lowell where UMass Lowell is that they don't give any permits if you're not if your vehicle isn't registered in Lowell and that we might charge higher permits and I guess this would mostly be for maybe students commuter for the students who if you're not registered in Amherst because if the vehicles registered here then the town would get the vehicle I guess excise tax that to offset the fact that we're not getting any of the benefits from the registration being in Amherst that we would charge higher rates for those vehicles for a parking permit and then it would compete with the rates to park on campus at UMass. So that is one of the proposals that a committee of the town staff has put together that is now before TSO that the cars that are not registered in the town of Amherst would pay a much higher fee. There are a lot of interesting things in the plan but it doesn't deal with the problem that Ken brought up on Lincoln Avenue which still has to be dealt with and I hope will be dealt with at some point. One of the other some of the other things I think that you'll like and that is to have better signage to whatever parking there is to make it clear and consistent between the phone apps and the signs on the ground and any printed material because right now they don't all talk to each other. Once we get more on the phone app then you could actually find out there where there is possible open parking. Mainly following through a lot of the recommendations of the Nelson-Nygart report which is over two years ago because I went to those hearings before COVID and one of them is to make it clear where there is parking and to take a look at privately owned parking and see if there aren't some formal or informal relationships that can be made perhaps with employers and their employee parking to use that parking to keep their workers from taking up the parking place in front of it. All of these things are things that have to be done and there's more to do. It's not going to solve all our problems and we're still going to have to come back to Lincoln Avenue but there is an effort being made to kind of rationalize the system right now of parking permits and fees and signage so that we can utilize better what we have and once we've done that to my mind this is my opinion this is not their opinion to my mind then we can talk about whether we need a garage or not but before we have done that we don't know I mean Nelson-Nygart said we had enough parking clearly everybody doesn't know where it is all right but so there's at least some help is coming some things will be thought through better and a more consistent plan will happen which will in fact result in some higher revenues to the town of Amherst which has lost tremendously in this COVID slowdown it's amazing the town actually does make money from its parking meters and it's fine and we've kind of lost I think 50% of that so at this point I'd ask Lynn have I accurately presented that some of that material or do you want to correct me as no you have and as Dorothy stated it has been referred to TSO they will probably hold some more discussions before they actually hold the formal hearing and then after the hearing they will make a recommendation back to the council and also it will be reviewed by the finance committee as well we are trying to find a way that we can address the issues on Lincoln Avenue maybe more deliberate speed than delay because the school bus driver also had to change his route based on it was taking him too long to get down Lincoln Avenue Barbara Pearson and Paige Wilder have their hands up Yes I wanted to address a little bit Can you hear me okay Yes I wanted to address just a little bit of the parking and I guess one crosswalk issue I'm thinking of that wonderful graduated scale that I guess Ken was telling us about different amounts one of the things that we have we I live in that area off of McClellan and we used to be we used to buy we used to buy parking passes for like five a year so if you had company they could come and park without going down to I mean I was told that my company had to park at Kendrick Park and if there anything over 80 it might as well be the move to go to Kendrick Park from where I am so I would really like to have that possibility again I also lived here for 15 years before I realized that where you have the restricted park permits you know only between these hours and these hours that you could park after that and that you could park all summer obviously including June at those places too so that that opened up a whole new range although as many of you know I try not to drive in town but I guess the other thing that I've been wondering about is crosswalks for Kendrick Park the new play area whenever I have an opportunity whenever I I like to take that little path away you know from in front of the park so to go from North Pleasant to East Pleasant and it's sort of there's nothing on either end and I know we're not very far on North Pleasant I mean on East Pleasant we're not very far to the circle but I can't imagine bringing carrying you know having a toddler and bringing a toddler down to that confusing circle to be a pedestrian there and so if they were just a little crossway right there wouldn't get a lot of use but it would be a big help to not feel like you're jaywalking when you're doing the safer right that's it thank you and again that may be in the works I don't know that's an area that that we've been working on but it's not completed yet but we'll focus on it I know the transportation tack is working on that I don't know if Tracy is still with us but but the transportation advisory committee has been focused on that crosswalk by the Kendrick playground but Tracy may have saw it I really think he's he's in front of the park yeah Tracy I'm still here so we had I mean tack had reviewed that and it went to the council and that was one of tack's proposals to have an additional crosswalk between McClellan and Triangle and also I mean the council had also approved other changes including adding a sidewalk on the west side of Kendrick park along the length of the park also changing the parking to be on the west side of Kendrick park instead of the other side of north Pleasant street to the west side of the park so one of the issues I it's a tiny thing but in the proposal being leadership group or whatever they're called that they propose continuing to keep the permit parking on that section of north Pleasant street on the west side of the park on the west side of north Pleasant street and the council had already voted to recommend that the parking be moved to the east side of the west side of Kendrick park. So I think that the DPW is working on the designs to create the safer environment and have the traffic calming and so on right among the proposals too is to have it only be one way traffic going northbound on that section north Pleasant street and to eliminate the ability to cut through which a lot of even trucks are cutting through going southbound because they don't go through the roundabout and so on so there will be a raised crosswalk as well at McClellan street and again tack proposed an additional one so it will be a safer environment. Okay so that's kind of DPW is working on the design. Tracy we count on you to keep on the job okay that sounds kind of confusing but good keep us up to date on that now I do see that John Rosenthal has his hand up and so does Paige but can we hear from John has he been then admitted Lynn? I don't see John wrote oh there's John Rosenthal go ahead you need to unmute John I just wanted to make an observation about parking I was wandering around after the last little snow not this one but the one just before wandering around the site for 13 East Pleasant I think that's the address that Archipelago has in mind and I found it full of cars and the cars had not been moved overnight because you can tell from the snow around the cars and there I I don't know what the count is maybe 20 cars maybe 25 somewhere around there and looking at them I saw them from New York New Jersey Connecticut California and you can imagine where these cars are coming from and where they're going to go after Archipelago builds the next one just an observation that there's pent-up parking waiting for something to happen that is a very good point and this is across my mind a million times and I don't get an answer and it seems that the parking overlay that says that they don't have to provide parking downtown because people who rent downtown don't have cars obviously those are just I don't know visitations from another planet but I don't know I see a problem that's getting worse but thank you for bringing it up Dorothy there is a parking overlay that was passed by town meeting that probably should be looked at again and it it did exactly what you said and that is it allowed people to build but not provide parking and the irony is that when it was passed downtown wasn't wasn't seen as a place for people to live and if they did live there it was seen as oh and they won't have cars well first of all people do live downtown because we keep building apartments for them to do that and guess what they bring cars so it's time for the council to re-look at that decision thank you very good thank you we do all agree on that good so I think hands up from Barbara Pearson Tracy used to love your hand up page has her hand up page wilder right yeah and then Freddy Manning this is page I'm trying to get my head around the higher prices for cars not registered in Amherst and you mentioned the TSO and a hearing I'm wondering if after I speak we could get specific information about who's taking public comment but there's I certainly agree that the cost of parking at UMass should be met for parking students parking on the street but there's a real distinction between people who are living on the campus and people are commuting because they can't afford to live on the campus and to raise their prices to the cost of UMass prices seems like a problem can I say something I there was a discussion it did come up that first of all these are for permits you know not for that that so it we did touch on it and again this is all being referred to TSO which Dorothy chairs but that there would should be this should not probably apply to people who work in town and we're not trying to penalize people who should not have to pay high prices I mean the thought is more for students many of whom live downtown whose cars are not registered in Amherst and are registered out of state if there's something we can work with there but we would also look at a tiered parking fee structure so that we're not penalizing employees or people who for whom it would be a hardship I'm talking about day students right she's well um that's a something that I I don't think it's been brought up I one thing I did hear from UMass that and and I don't know if it's true at this moment but that there are other parking lots which are not as close to the campus as you'd like which may actually have lower prices that there are there are other possibilities open to them but you do bring up something that we should think about and consider um no one's fee for a permit was going to be more than I mean if you register to make up the difference between being registered in another town and being registered in Amherst the streets of Amherst are supported by taxpayers in Amherst and somehow we have to figure out how to do this it is complicated but you're right people have been concerned about people who work in Amherst and your right to bring up we should also be concerned about students who are day students at the university and we should check out a little bit more Jennifer when we meet with Tony and Nancy what the college what the university does provide for them in terms of parking and whether the fees are reasonable or not yeah I agree we'll be meeting with them next week okay so thank you Page for bringing that up we hadn't thought of that Freddie Manning has his hand up as well as Page who just spoke okay please unmute there you go have a very quick question going back to the sunset fearing development is there any way that to prevent parents from buying units and then which happens and that may have already been determined yep we when we brought up well Jennifer's committee and I was just there as a bystander brought up why don't you do a co-op or a condo so people could you know be homeowners and the representative for the LLC said no he does not want to do that because he thinks he can do a better job controlling behavior and whatever as a rental structure so that means that parents cannot buy one of those units because that is a big problem I mean that's a problem on sunset I hear about it there are several houses have been bought by parents and the kids are just going running amok there and just driving the neighbors crazy but these would be rental and they would have the control of the rental agent to make sure that you know things don't become party apartments and whatever okay yeah these are these are rental units but we're also looking at in the as we work on the rental permitting bylaw that there are other college towns that stipulate basically just to avoid that situation that a parent can't purchase a house and then their child is considered the owner occupant and then it's an owner occupied house and you could have then there's not the for student limit so that can be you can have language so that that's really not able to happen and we need to look at including that thank you I'm just I just I guess I'm being a pessimist but I think the the biggest issue here is really not all the rental arrangements I think it really is who's going to live there due to student behavior across the street and so but that would be that's a big issue so but thank you for clarifying that for me well I said Jennifer has been making a study of other college towns and I keep learning from it obviously this is a problem that problem is not new it's not unique to Amherst this is something that has been going on I actually have a shelf of books on college towns and how they deal with them that I haven't had a chance to read we will be working on this issue because it's clearly a major issue that we share with a lot of other places but we can learn from them and as I say Jennifer's been doing a great job and doing that research but we count on the people on the block to bring us the problems so thank you and this is becoming increasingly an issue all over Amherst and you know there's conversations having happening in neighborhoods on blocks and there's probably an opportunity for a neighborhood why I mean a townwide discussion of this issue and I I did want to add for whatever I did when I you know became accounts on January the third I did effective that day resigned from the local historic district commission so they now have a wonderful new chair in Judy Strayer and there is an opening on the commission and before we close Dorothy and I will review all the committees and commissions that have openings but that's one that you know you may want to consider submitting a CAF a community activity form to to join I think it's a good time I'm going to let you do this Jennifer because you talked to Beverly with me earlier to list some of the openings that there are on some of these committees yes I even right there are and again in our newsletters you have already received a Pam grant from Dorothy I have a schedule to send out you know a newsletter update every other month so there will be one coming in February and I will include this information as well but the zoning Board of Appeals actually has four vacancies two for full members I'll then correct me if I'm incorrect but I believe there's two for full voting members which will become available in June and then two associate members who are not voting members but I believe step in if one of the voting members is not present or if they don't have a quorum perhaps but so and the 17 townhouse project on Sunset and Fearing will be coming probably later in the spring before the zoning Board of Appeals so I would encourage people to you know you know go on the town website and read about that board and you know consider submitting an application there will be a vacancy on the there is currently a vacancy there may be more coming up in the summer but there is a vacancy now on the local historic district commission the school building committee has one vacancy for a community member the Jones Library building committee also has a vacancy and if you again Dorothy and I can send you this but if I don't know if you want to write this down but to apply for one of the vacancies you have to complete a community activity form called the CAF and if you go to the town website like www.amherstmass you know amherstma.gov backslash form center it can be a little tricky to find we'll send you the link to all of you for whom we have your email address but it's basically the form center on the town website and I might also add you know while kind of town announcements that this coming Tuesday, February 1st we'll be kicking off Black History Month and there will be a ceremony on the steps of town hall at six o'clock they'll be singing a raising of the pan-African flag and reading of the council's proclamation and also next week on Thursday, February 3rd at 6.30 p.m. there will be a school building public forum that is via Zoom so you can zoom in to that and then again in March there'll be a public forum on the school building committee so that's exciting and I would you know encourage people especially if you have children in the schools to participate in the school building forums oh and then of course there's vacancies now on the council on aging to be came aware of today so there's a lot of opportunities for involvement we'd love to have see district three represented right on the school building thing you don't have to have children in the school to be concerned about education and they're really asking people's thoughts some of the ideas you know I'll say the one good thing about COVID and this is the only time I've said the one good thing about COVID okay is the rediscovery of outdoor education many of the good schools particularly private schools have discovered that children can be outside in the cold weather if properly dressed and that there are yurts and tents and there are all kinds of activities learning activities that they can do and of course we're surrounded by great nature here in Amherst and so the new public school is going to be using more emphasis on some of this outdoor education and a lot of emphasis on light and air and we know about ventilation of course that's really a big thing now since COVID so there's a some interesting ideas being putting forth and if you have any of those interesting ideas you can come and share those ideas so it's an exciting time so do we have anything more or we can wind ourselves up at four we had say I say till 430 just in case we needed it if we were in person I'd be serving you my homemade cookies but we are not so Bob gets them I did make some chocolate chips yesterday I did and I would really like to thank Assemblywoman you know Dom for joining us that we were yes we really appreciate you giving up by your Sunday afternoon to be with us and thank you to Lynn Gricemer our council president yes I've been on the council four weeks and I am in awe I really Amherst would not operate Gricemer so thank you for all you do so I can refer everything to her because she will know okay she does it's yeah she's turning pink yes please really we can't see your praises enough it's quite I'm I think thank you Ronnie Parker has her hand oh I'm so sorry to come in when it's a beautiful day and I know everyone's ready to go back I'll try to be quick I had one additional suggestion for consideration and it doesn't have to be this moment today but I really wonder what is required to change our procedures so that participants in public meetings can be seen or at least listed on Zoom and I'm guessing it's more complicated than I'm thinking but so I don't need a discussion at this moment but I would really like to raise it as an issue that will be addressed thanks good it's a very good point is yep I get used to Zoom and I feel like I'm actually living and seeing people but I do always want to know and since I'm often a principal in a meeting I want to know who's in the room it's just something you want to know and it makes you feel good to see your friends even if they don't raise a question it's good to know they're here sharing with us at the same time and it's the best we've got you know so that's a good point okay I also wanted to say one last that you know Dorothy and I are working to combine our email lists but we really only get that the town doesn't have you know a comprehensive email list that they can make available to counselors so I would say if anybody didn't get a notice of this meeting directly from me or Dorothy then we probably don't have your email addresses and if you could email you know one of us at our you know it's Pam D at amherstmass.gov or tauj and then we'll have your email list to add it for you know all announcements newsletters future meetings we'd appreciate that so I think that most of these people on we do have their addresses but basically we're saying if you have friends you think might want to receive it so kind of spreading and that a little bit because it's there's so much going on that in order to communicate this is what we've got we've got the internet we've got emails we've got email newsletters we've got meetings and we need the addresses in order to do it so and you know we contact us you have you know email or phone come to our office hours we're always we're very available we're a compact district so we're just a few blocks away from each other and we really appreciate your tuning in today you know just take we did have a lot to report we only a month into the council but we didn't want to lose any time in sort of bringing us all together and raising issues of concern and hearing from you that's really important so okay Linda you're still here I don't know if you want to say anything or whether you just want us to say goodbye because we're about to do it we're about to say goodbye and Lynn's about to turn us off okay okay thank you so much Lynn you've done a great job I really appreciate it and thank you for all who've hung in there we've learned a lot from you today yeah thank you very much thank you very much bye bye bye bye