 even and they can then upload it to the YouTube channel directly. Okay, we're now recording. Thank you, everyone. Thank you. Can I just quickly try to share a screen so I know it works? Absolutely. Can you see that? It is the Amherst website. Okay, it's on a different monitor. I just want to make sure that it's visible. And is it big enough that you can read something or is it? Well, it's about as big as you're going to be able to make it, at least with my screen. I'm on a large screen and I can see it's taking up the entire screen. Okay, I cannot actually see it next to our faces, so that's why I'm asking. Okay, good. That's one of the problems when you're sharing the screen. Do you lose the ability to do much else? Yeah, and how do I unshare? Let me just. You just up above it says stop sharing. Hover above the screen at the top of the screen. And a little red thing will come on that says stop sharing and you push that. It's not. Okay. I've got two bars, one on top of each other. I've got our show the grid video. Well, I can stop participant sharing, which would stop it. You can cut me off when I need to. I am not. I'm also not seeing what it's when I'm sharing the screen. I can't see the participants or if you. Okay, here's what you do with that. You go to the far right side. And you push. I have to figure out what you push because I've already done it. You push over share screen. Yeah, you should be able to. Or do you have participants at the bottom of your screen? We have three now. Yeah, we do. They're listening to our trying to get it. Trying to get it right. Okay. Have you figured out how to stop sharing? No. Okay, then I'm going to stop participant sharing. Okay. And then that means I probably have to. You may have to start me. I think you're okay. So now I have at the bottom, I have who can share, who can who can start sharing with someone else. All right, we have four people. Wonderful. And it's only it's two minutes off. So we still have time. So can we bring? Yeah, now, do you want to just bring everybody in automatically? And if they don't want to show their screen, they don't have to. Or do you want them to raise their hand if they would like to be brought into the room? Which way would you like to go to do it automatically if that's okay with Anika? Just want to participate. It's great. Okay, then I will start bringing people in. So far, there's John Varner. Okay. And here comes Sarah. And here comes Trudy. Hi, everybody. Hello. Okay, let me try Trudy again. We have some expert help with President Lindy's work. Yes. It's only because I've been doing it too long. I'm in trouble getting Ash Hartwell. Okay, we got Trudy to come in and Ash should be on his way up. There's Ash's beautiful sky. Nice to see some faces of people that we've seen names from, but haven't seen faces. Hi. One more coming in. Francis. If I see a name that I'm not comfortable with, I'll ask you to. Okay, forgot to hit the mute button. No problem. It's good to know you're comfortable with everyone here. Yeah, I'm fine. You all look very familiar. And your names are familiar too. But it is interesting over time where you see someone's name, you see it on email. And we've had so few opportunities to meet people in person. It really is, this is like our only venue for connecting to people. Right. I actually think district meetings are some of the best places for a good conversation. Yes. Sir Marshall is on her way in. I'm going to ask Diane to put her last name up if she could. Diana. Probably Diana Stein. Might be. That's Diana Stein. Yes. I hope I'm trying to bear. Here you are, Diana. Thank you. Thank you. Hi, Diana. So close. But I'm getting some messages that UMass emails were down. So I'm trying to forward a link to some more people. Oh. I've been having some trouble lately. I think it took me a while to find the original message. So maybe other people would have that trouble too. It's actually on the town calendar under other community events or community events. It's not on the meeting. Okay. And that's where you get the link that puts you in the audience and then we bring you in. Okay. That's good to know. I'm trying to bring Phyllis Whitney in and I'm it's not working yet. I just checked UMass email and it's working fine. Good. Phyllis, have you updated your Zoom link lately? If not, you may need to because I'm having trouble promoting you to a panelist. I'm going to have to leave her there until we determine that. That's all we have is there's one in the audience and everybody else is in the room and if you want to get started, you should. Lynn, if you would be so kind as if you see people come in, if you want to come in, that would be lovely. Absolutely. And we'll go ahead with the agenda. Thank you. So Anika and I have been collaborating on what to bring to you folks and are very excited to host our first, essentially our first public district meeting. So welcome to the community of district four, precinct five, precinct nine, and I see names from different parts of town. So everybody, I see some from district five and several from district nine. I mean precinct nine, so welcome. Anika, do you want to go ahead and introduce yourself and what role you're playing, what committees you've been assigned to and then I'll follow you and we'll start from there. Sure. So good afternoon, everyone. I'm Anika Lopes. Thank you so much for taking this time out of your Sunday afternoon to join us. I'm excited to be here with Pam and introduce myself and see faces of most of whom I have, this is my first time seeing. So as your other counselor here for district four, I am on the committees that I'm serving on are GOL, which is the governance, organization and legislation committee. So we really start to advise the town council on matters of organization and governance and making sure that things are clear, concise and actionable, especially in regards to bylaws. I also serve on TSO, which is town services and outreach. So that serves to advise the council on matters concerning day to day provisions and services from the town and also town and community relationships. I also serve on the Jones library building committee, which is quite exciting. And though we're still getting things together and have a meeting scheduled together, I am excited to know that I will be on the outreach committee. So we will have some updates to share with you all in the near future around that. And so I believe that is it for my committees at this time. I neglected to sort of introduce that that as most of you are pretty engaged in what's going on in town, but because this is in fact a still relatively new form of government, everyone's kind of getting a sense of what committees do which, what tasks are they responsible for. And it's a little bit like a senate subcommittee where you have issues that come before the council, but need some venue to get hashed out, get worked out, get some kinks and discussions occurring before the council has to actually take an action on it. And so these subcommittees play a pretty vital role. Every year they're supposed to be renewed and reviewed, is the responsibility sort of equitably spread across committees and are the basic needs of the council activities being represented. So that's the format of the subcommittees. Tracking, who's doing what is tough and we're going to try to do a little bit of helping understand that. I'm Pam Rooney and I'm on Cottage Street, so I'm sort of in the precinct nine end of town. And I was assigned to the community resources committee and that is the committee that discusses and works on planning and zoning and land use. It discusses and works on housing and homelessness. And also the master plan. Also it weighs in on economic development in town and sustainability. So it's a pretty broad reach. It's really kind of the people end of things. So the other action on my plate is to create some kind of a task force or working group. We don't know what shape of form it's going to take now, but just to talk about what are all the factors that are resulting in fewer homes available for working working families, folks who want to live in town and work in town. And what are the factors that that are causing a loss of homes for that segment of the population. So that's kind of us and what we do. I was really excited when we were talking about this agenda. Anika is not giving, you know, she's not blowing her horn too much, but we wanted to recognize that this is Black History Month and that within this within this district itself, Anika is a shining star of what's happening with an Amherst connection to Black History Month. And I wanted to share this. Anika can share the story with you, but it's pretty darn cool that her roots are so deep in this community. And perhaps you can describe the award that you that you accepted just recently from the Amherst Historical Society. Okay, thank you. So yes, just recently on the 12th actually Saturday the 12th, the Historical Society had honored action by grandfather Dudley Bridges was a longtime resident of Amherst. He was a co-founder of the Better Chance House. He was part of the group who established the west side area of Amherst and particularly Hazel Avenue, which used to unfortunately have a very nasty name going under the N word lane. And you know, so he helped establish that becoming a historical district. He was also trustee on the Historical Society and that is where he started an initiative to daylight the Civil War tablets that we have here in Amherst, which were gifted to the town in 1893. They feature names of black volunteer soldiers who served with the 54th Regiment as well as the fifth Calvary, all volunteer. We actually do have two members of a Civil War tablet committee, both Carly and Gary Tardakoff with us here today. But the significance of these soldiers as it relates to Amherst is that we have here in the west cemetery and we have soldiers who again were part of this 54th Regiment along with over 300 Amherst area soldiers. If you take a look at these tablets that are at the bank center, you'll see probably every game, every generational family, every street. It's really exciting, but these soldiers actually went to Texas in 1865 to deliver the news of liberation and freedom along with many other braves. And this is a day that we now celebrate as Juneteenth. They are their stories connect to present day. One of them, E. Christopher Thompson, that's my four times great grandfather, his brother, Charles Thompson. He was a fiddler for Emily Dickinson. She writes about him in her diaries. So you really have this generational legacy of Amherst folks that are some of the first families of color. They're all intertwined. They're pretty much all related. The pool was so thin there, but what we're doing is which is important. There's so much history here and Amherst, and it's so wonderful to daylight it, but also really to learn from it and bring it to current day and really where do we go from here. And with that said, a side project that we're working on is also a history walk, which will start with their legacies, but really move on to the town itself and town center. So in the upcoming weeks, we'll have some announcements of how interested community can really become engaged. This really is something that will take a village and is something that I hope will be celebrated by all residents here. It's really one of our connectors here and just shows our grit. And it's a history that a lot of people that have been here even for many years are not aware of and also something they're welcoming to people coming in new, whether it's new residents, new students, it's really something that we can uplift and celebrate. So thank you. Yeah, thanks. And I would add that Anika accepted the Arthur F. Kinney Conte Award in the name of her grandfather. So that was really pretty neat. So thank you. And actually, we had one more to share. I did just want to pass on that if anyone's interested, we are coming down to the end of Black History Month that on Wednesday, February 23rd at 7.30 p.m., the College of Humanities and Fine Arts will be celebrating a gem in our community. There was Dr. Shirley Jackson Whitaker. She's an artist, a specialist, she's a doctor. She has done a documentary which is called Ashes to Ashes, which actually documents it is, the man was, his name was Winford Rembert, and he's the only survivor of an attempted lynching. And so this sort of film documents his story, their friendship. We'll have a wonderful discussion afterwards. And I'm not sure if we can put something in the link. I know that you can go to ShirleyWhittaker.com for that information. And that's also on UMass at the College of Humanities and Fine Arts. You can us and find it there. But I would recommend if anyone is not familiar with Shirley that you do check that out. And that's on the 23rd? That is the 23rd at 7.30 p.m. And it's virtual. So there'll be a Zoom link that you might want to register for as soon as possible if you're interested. Super. Thank you. We wanted to just do a little rundown of sort of what's going on in town. Most of, I see, let's see, I see a couple of folks in the audience that make it their business to get the word out, you know, what's going on. I see Sarah Marshall. And I see, let's see, I thought I saw Betsy Crowe, which could also be Nick Brabe, just sort of keeping tabs on what's happening in the world. I was going to cover a couple of topics and just to let people know, within the zoning arena, there's been lots of discussion lately on the need for a solar bylaw. So that's something that the Planning Department and the Planning Board, I see Doug Marshall there who's the Chair of the Planning Board. That's kind of a high priority to get going on a solar bylaw. There's also some good news that a design guidelines will be in the works for the town center. And this is something that the Planning Department will hire a consultant to help engage the public in what the look and the feel of the downtown areas and maybe the village centers should look like. So as it gets developed, there are at least some different guidelines on how the buildings need to relate to the street and create kind of vibrant community that we're looking for. There is some parking over parking reviews, you know, what's the status of parking in the downtown? Will there be a need for a parking garage? Where would that be located? Just getting a sense of maybe what the bolt with garage can accommodate. So all of these things are sort of gelling and in the works. And then there's some effort to discuss what rental permitting is needed and maybe updating some of that. Anika mentioned that she's on the library committee and perhaps there's some kind of an update on that that you want to give. Well, we are still in the process. I think as many of the communities of getting off the ground, we have established the two subcommittees, which are design and then outreach. That is the one that I'm a part of. So we have not had that first meeting yet. It will be coming up early March. So, you know, definitely there will be some updates soon after, if not before, but we're still waiting on one other member. So it would be appropriate to hold off a bit unless there are specific questions that I'm able to answer before that. Just a quick update on the school building committee. This Tuesday, the 22nd, they're going to review what's called the educational plan. What are all the functionalities that they want to accommodate in a new school? So what is the educational plan and then what is the space needed to accomplish that plan, those functions, and about two weeks. So that's on the 22nd. And that's the school board itself. Two weeks later, the building committee will discuss the alternatives that are being proposed and the costs associated with those. So that's on the 4th of March. And then shortly after that, just about two weeks after that, is the target date where all of this package gets sent to the Massachusetts School Building Authority. They're the ones that actually borrow the money for the town. So that's charging right along. And if folks are interested in that program, go to the school committee website. And I know that there are some links there for the meeting. And I'm looking at Sarah smiling and she probably knows exactly where to go for Sarah. Can I just interject something? The school project itself has a website. And I believe the URL is amherstashschool-project.com. So that's the owner's project manager maintains that for the elementary school building committee, which is a separate thing from the Amherst School Committee. It's complicated project and process. So there are a lot of places to look for information. Thank you very much. Excellent. So go to their website and you can figure out how to weigh in on that as well. I think we've got, yet we've got Andy. And I wondered if maybe Andy, you could give an update on the finance committee. That's one of the four committees standing is that we haven't talked about yet. Can you put your volume up, Andy? Andy, we're not here yet. Good. But I'd have to choose a different microphone in your settings. Not working. If folks don't, Andy, if you come in, that's great. Maybe Lynn, do you want to just step in while we're so we don't spend too much time waiting? Sure. Because I'm actually, I'm on the finance committee. The, it's right now we are looking at the proposed changes in parking fees. And that's all kinds of parking fees. And there would be an increase for those fees. Actually, the town services and outreach committee will be holding a hearing on March 10th at seven o'clock. And so I please make sure that if you have things you'd like to offer before they make their recommendation back to the council, you do that. We are not in the, in the heat of the budget season yet. We don't really start that until May 1 when the town manager gives us his budget. We have, however, done our first review of the Community Preservation Act recommendations. Thank you, Sarah Marshall, for chairing that committee. And we have forwarded all but two, and we're not, we haven't said no to those two, but we're debating how we want to handle those two. They're specifically recommendations for using historic money to improve privately owned properties. And that's been a little, it's created quite a bit of question. But the other projects are outstanding and they're all outstanding. The committee's done a terrific job. And we have done a previous to this council, we did a review of our financial policies and we'll be working, coming back to those at different points. And then that's kind of where we are for the moment. I think I, yeah, I got that problem solved. And I apologize. There were several other things that are going on on the Community Preservation Act. There will be a public hearing about that. And it actually will be at a council meeting in conjunction with the council meeting. And I believe the day we've set for that is March 28. The Transportation Fund issue. March 21. 21, okay. And it's a public forum. And the Transportation Fund question has to do with the proposal that you may have read about in the newspaper about reviewing the rates that are charged for various kinds of permits, mostly having to do with either business or residence permits for parking. And in those areas of town where you see those signs that are limit parking during the week or during certain times to people who have permits, as well as some spaces in the lower section of the Boltwood garage that are rented out as reserve spaces. And the town staff has proposed changes in those fees. And the finance committee is looking at the financial aspects of that, and we'll report back to Givits information then over to the TSO Committee, which I think Nika referenced earlier. And on March 10th, there will be a public forum conducted by the TSO Committee on that particular issue. Other things that have come up are we reviewed the audit. There's a couple of issues that are out there that we've been working on for some time. One is looking at water sewer rates and how we bill for those. I'm not going to go into detail in these because they're complicated and people have questions. I'll respond to the questions. The regional school budget will come up as a separate budget issue from the rest of the town budget because of the need to have the timing for Amherst consideration coincide with when town meetings occur in the three towns that have town meetings. And there's been some newspaper coverage about that particular issue also. So I think that that covers most of it because there's already been mention of the Community Preservation Act and we talked about that. The other thing that I just wanted to mention is I was asked to in an email earlier is capital. Capital really falls into two different segments. And one is the major building projects, which we have worked on before and are going to have to review as we get new numbers in on the buildings. And as we adjust to things like possible changes in interest rates, there is good information available on the Amherst Engage website that talks about how the plan is for structuring that. It's again, another complex issue, but which I'll be glad to talk about at any time. And so that is going to be an ongoing finance committee matter. And the other is the annual decisions that are made about what capital projects will be funded in the next year. And there's a separate committee, the Joint Capital Planning Committee, that is working on it now. It will report to the town manager. Town manager will then propose what's called a capital improvement program, which is submitted along with the budget and will be reviewed by the finance committee and voted on by the council probably in June. And so, but it starts with the Joint Capital Planning Committee trying to develop recommendations for the town manager. And that's the process that's currently underway. So that's the brief, that's the summary, I think. Bam back to you. Thank you. That's actually a nice segue into where to find information. So in all of these conversations that we're having about different committees and different activities in town, one of the things that struck me as I was thinking about running for office is where do I go for information? And I know just looking at the names of folks that have weighed in here, many of you are actively engaged in town events and activities. But I just thought it would be worthwhile sort of refreshing our memories on where some of this information is provided. And I wonder if we've had technical things that maybe Lynn could start my screen sharing. And I wanted to just take a look at the town website or where some of our information is available. You should be able to pull up. Okay. How's that? Can everybody see it? Good. Good. So when I'm thinking about either services that I need or questions that I want answered, I typically just go to the amherstma.gov main website, main page. And there's this wonderful scrolling band of topics. And I discovered very recently, in fact, that this button called transparency, which has lots of information that I actually wanted, I did not realize that it was in the transparency tab. So exploring the transparency tab a little bit was kind of a revelation. We have some of the budget numbers that Andy just talked about. But in my mind, communicating and staying in touch is kind of a really important element for people in town. It's a really good way to get information. And so I think you can see, since my screen is sharing, there's a great site under communications to notify me. And by going to the notify me, you can actually sign up for gazillion different opportunities for notifications that get emailed to you. And you can sign up for everything from notices of public meetings, you can get alerts. Can you see this at all? Or just you just hear, okay, bid postings and calendars. And so the calendar is something that I've paid a lot of attention to. If I were to go back, so you can get notified, you can get a message and email of any of these topics. And it's very, very handy. A kind of fun one since there's been quite a bit of discussion about potholes. The service request button is a really wonderful one that you can submit requests for services or for issues and complaints. There's a wonderful map here that you can actually locate your issue. And there are, here's one that says dead animal. Dead animal was on somewhere on East Hadley Road. It looks like an apostle. Can somebody come haul it away? Traffic or street signs have been knocked over. Road maintenance issue, which is probably a hot topic. So you can actually place on the map your location right on the description and submit it. So I thought that was just pretty cool. And in fact, my husband came up to me says, Pam, there's this huge pothole on Main Street. He says, I think it's near, it's near Shumway Street. And I said, Alex, go find it and we'll put it on the map. Don't just talk to me about it. Take action. And so this is a really wonderful tool for that kind of feedback to mostly to DPW. And then thirdly, there's meetings and agendas, which is a marvelous resource given the number of committees in town and how often they meet. It's pretty mind boggling to know where to look and where to go. So on this calendar, you can see listed the Jones Library Board of Trustees. There's a link to the Zoom meeting each and every day. All of the events that are happening are listed. There's a Energy and Climate Action Committee meeting with a link. So that's just a really marvelous way to find out what's going on in town. Another opportunity is is the volunteering one. And that's something I think Anika and I sent out that list of all the committees that are looking for new members. And so we will put in a pitch to get engaged in whatever committee meets your needs. You could become a committee member. You can volunteer. And a lot of that information is right here on the main website. Anybody want to add anything to that? Sarah Marshall? You just assume I'll have something to say. I'm at, well, no. No. That's great. Thank you. Anyway, we'll put in a plug for people reaching out and getting engaged as most of you are looking around at the names here. But it's just kind of a really nice single point of access to all kinds of information of things that are going on in town. Yeah. I had mentioned earlier and I just come back to it again. There's a separate website that town is maintaining called, I think it's AmherstConnect.com. If I recall, or do you know? Engage Amherst.org. And it has some particular issues that have staff assigned to respond to questions and maintain an open dialogue, one of which is about the capital projects, which is what I mentioned. And if you're interested in how we could possibly fund four major projects and the choices that have to be made on funding the four major projects, our finance director is curating that section, which is what I was referring to earlier. But there are other sections to it. And so I just wanted to point that one out too. Thank you. Yeah. Actually, one other, I'll see if I can share again. One other site that is, where am I? One other site that's really, I think very handy. And that is, as community members, we will go to your government. And on your government, the town council has a website of its own. And if I go to that town council website, the very first thing that shows up is click here to submit comments to the town council. So if people want to let us know anything that's going on, you can, you can submit comments directly. This link will take you or your comment will be submitted. And it's accessible to all of us. You can actually also see the comments that were submitted. So you can get reinforcement if you want on where things are headed. The other important thing that I'd like to share for us is how to get in touch with us. And there is a common website. It's just called town council at Amherstma.gov. It's over here on the right hand side. And that is a message that is shared with every single town counselor. So that's a really handy one as well. If you don't know exactly who to target, you can target us all. Ms. Griezmer has the, the pleasure of, and responsibility of actually responding to the emails that come in. And she will recommend that you actually submit comments to the town council on this website instead. But there's also a directory and that gives the contact information for each and every one of the counselors if you have a specific item that you want to discuss with somebody. So, Anika. Yeah. So with that, thank you. Thank you for that thorough walkthrough. And so with this, we want to open up to comments, questions, concerns, and also ask that, you know, this is wonderful. We have 23 of us here. And we appreciate all of, you know, your time and engagement. But, you know, I'm hoping that we can work together and really spread the word. We represent an important population, but a relatively small population in comparison to registered voters in the district. So I think just really important, whomever, whoever has this, you know, the networks reach out to your neighbor, whether we agree, disagree, just so we have this open communication and dialogue and really are encouraging bringing others to the table with various perspectives and viewpoints. And with that, we can just open the floor. Yeah. And please use the raised hand function. And also that there are two people in the audience that I can't seem to bring into the room. And I think it's because you may need to update your Zoom connectivity. But you can still raise your hand and ask questions. Okay. Thank you. And I see Sarah Marshall has raised her hand. Thanks, Pam. Maybe this comment would be better directed at the town manager. But all households or at least property owners receive mailings several times a year from the town. And it seems to me that could be an opportunity to tell people how to reach their particular counselors or, you know, and I know we'll all be notified in a few months about what new voting precinct and district we are in. And that's one thing. But currently here are your town counselors and you can follow them or get on your email list. Yeah. Great. I think one of the things that was, I'll just respond to that as well. One of the things that struck me is that it is really difficult to be able to reach out. And I think that's, you know, the back and forth that Anika mentioned is that we don't necessarily have contact information for folks. And how do you get the word out? How do you get the input if you don't have that? Anika, I'm sorry. I stepped in there. Well, we're in this together. You know, we're raising hands, but everyone should speak freely. So John Varner has his hand up. Well, I have several questions. But the first one is regarding the parking garage assessment. That was part of town meeting when we went through the whole Boltwood garage process. And I understood then that what we authorized and what was constructed was done in a way to allow for an additional story of parking to be built on top of the lot that is there now. And I'm wondering, is that not the case? Has that been abandoned? And I just need clarity on that issue. I'll respond to that. And in fact, it was designed for a second story. What has not been clear to people is if there have been changes in the code since that time, and if there are now conflicts with the proximity of buildings around the Boltwood garage itself. So as I understand it, there has been money allocated to a consultant who can actually do the structural engineering review that's needed. It will answer that question forever because it keeps cycling around and we would love to have that put to bed or put to use one of the other. Ash Hurtwell has his hand up and he needs to unmute. Ash, you need to unmute. The most commonly said under Zoom is please unmute. Yes. Pam, I was interested that you mentioned that you maybe working to create a task force on the shortage of housing for the work, you know, for people who work in the town but can't afford to live here. This has been a perennial problem from Amherst forever. And it has a lot to do with the fact that some estimate, and it's hard to know what that estimate actually is, of university students or in residents. And the whole pattern of their occupation distorts actually the permanent residents and those who would like to live here because of high rents that are because four students will live in a room. I'm exaggerating. But the point is that the whole relationship between the universities and the town is a major influence on our demographics and our equity and the rest of it. And I don't know that this really has been tackled in a systematic way, but it's evident that we are not alone as towns that are affected by a large university presence that distorts the whole economy as it were. And there are two things that are underway, perhaps. One of them is the black census that is proposed by the Amherst, sorry, the African Heritage Reparation Assembly, I think is working to establish a black. That will be helpful, but it would be partial. And I wonder if, how it is, does the council or others undertake to do some research around some of these fundamental structural issues that really affect the BIPOC and the poor population in that is a part of us. So big question. I don't expect a detailed answer, but let's just put it on the table. Thank you. I can reply with the intent of a deeper dive. And I think there are lots of studies that have looked at one issue or another. And I think holistically, we've not necessarily taken all those pieces and put them together. What are the factors? What are the factors that we can manage as a town and what are lessons learned from other college towns? How do we house students, but how do we also house the population that we want to have in town to support the school systems and to be engaged citizens? We have everything from tax rates to real estate practices. What are those portions that we can actually focus on and make some gains to, I guess it's, I'm going to put this in context. There is housing that is being built across the nation actually that is very high end. It is the most profitable for someone who's willing to put money at risk and build housing. There is also the other end of the spectrum where there are grants and opportunities for state support to build affordable housing. Nobody is tackling the range in between, which is a pretty big range. If in fact our only assets in town are our current housing stock, then how do we manage to hold on to enough of that existing housing stock and make it available for families? That's part of what I would like to get accomplished. Just understand what those factors are and what of those can we manage? I would also just like to chime in if I can. This is another push towards outreach, whereas AHRA will do what they can. We really need to be creative to get out there and just expand our voices. We seem to sometimes have pods where we maybe have four or five people speaking for BIPOC community or just a few counselors. That is not only untrue, but it's also I think dangerous also with any population. Just really expanding what the low income population is and also realistic that that does include students. We have homeless students as well. We have trouble across the board and there's not that fixed solution answer, but just really all of us doing what we can to work together to figure it out and especially reaching broader populations. We have more people speaking for themselves. If I could just say that part of this has to do with the relationship between the town and the universities and the issue of equity. Just to put that on that we get relatively a pittance from the university in terms of the presence of the university in the town and its effect. Just last I'm sorry I don't want to take up too much of your time for everyone to respond and ask questions, but we have also spoke with both Tony Maroulas and Nancy Buffon who work with the Chancellor in Mass and they're happy with an upcoming meeting rather to also join us to be able to answer questions and hear from residents in person or on Zoom wherever we are at that time. Lynn Griesma is but I think she's going to say Pam Corsa has her hand up. Thank you. Hi everyone. So I am here. I live on Jeffrey Lane. I am a neighbor of John Varners and Francis Capparello who's also on this call and here because of the reason of the rental issues around student housing. We on Jeffrey Lane recently as many of you probably know have had two houses turn over to student rentals owned by the same person and my question I think has more or less been answered. It was around the rental permitting that you mentioned Pam and what kinds of considerations you have in the hopper to date or if those are evolving how we can as residents be abreast of what's being considered have input at timely moments so that those of us in the whole of Amherst can really be talking about this issue and I will also remind that John Varner has written two what I think are stellar pieces in the Amherst Bulletin that outline actual recommendations. The first one I forget when you wrote it John but several months ago. So just want to put my voice in the mix because it is a concern and it's a property value concern for those of us who are abutting derelict properties and so anyway I'll let John go next because I think his hand was up after mine but he may have more detail. Yeah if I can if I could jump in I think that there are a lot of possible solutions and I don't see any one massive solution being developed to address everything. I think there's a lot of a lot of interlocking issues and what Amherst is dealing with is also being dealt with as a problem in a lot of communities around the country. I would direct people to an article in a Washington Post yesterday about the high percentage of properties in the Atlanta area that are being bought by investors to turn over into investment properties whether they're going to make a bunch of money. It's predominantly in the lower income sections of Atlanta that this is happening and basically the same thing is happening here in Amherst. You know I know that landlords want to make as much as they can off their investments but at the same time their investments if they directly impact the welfare and value of other people's property it's unfair and there are a lot of strategies that Amherst could adopt to help curtail investment for the person or for the purpose of converting single family units into student housing and one of the ones that I'm most keen about pursuing is the idea of establishing zoning districts in which the distance between student houses is specified. State College Pennsylvania has done this extensively. I was in touch with their zoning manager in State College and they have three separate zoning districts. The details I don't need to go into here but what it basically does is for most of the people in that community establish a buffer zone around individual single family homes and prevents landlords from coming in and buying up entire neighborhoods. Here in Jeffrey Lane we have two properties within a few hundred feet of each other that have been converted into student houses. This year we're lucky the students have been fairly well behaved. The landlord has been fairly responsive in dealing with some of the issues around property maintenance that we brought up but as another friend of mine who lived on McClellan and ended up moving out because McClellan just turned into a student ghetto said it's okay up to a point and then all of a sudden it's not okay and in my mind if another house or two on Jeffrey Lane converted into student housing we will be a student ghetto and everybody's property values will decline our quality's life will decline and Amherst is providing a lot of opportunities for landlords to make money. They need to step up and provide protection for individual homeowners. Several hundred units of single family housing have been converted to student housing recently in Amherst over the last decade or a little more than that and there are ways to limit this again it's kind of interlocking with an issue all over the country where America is becoming a place of landed gentry where a few people own scads of properties as investments and everybody else pays them their due instead of putting money into owning properties and investment which is kind of the American dream. So I'm just curious to know how to direct town council to address these more more directly and what the best way to put pressure on town management which I think has been sort of derelict in its duty the town manager I think is he's listening to landlords who have a lot of money and real estate is the business of Amherst that is that is about all we've got going for us at this point and I think unless we're very aggressive in limiting the conversion of single family homes into student housing we are going to become a student ghetto that's going to reduce the quality of life in the whole town and the things that have made town an attractive destination for people to live the engaged populace the school system these things are going to deteriorate if there is much more erosion in single family housing in town and at that point it will even impact people who live in wealthier districts in town which are not now problems for student housing conversions places like Amherst woods or a few other neighborhoods in town that are more well to do and and sort of protected by their their value from investors coming in buying up properties and turning it over into a cash cow for student rental housing but how can we as citizens introduce measures ride heard on what's being talked about you know I've brought this up now to a couple of different people but I really don't know what steps town council is taking to address the issue and I don't know how to bring more pressure to bear on town management and it's just it's very frustrating for me to be in a position that I feel like you know I feel like going out there in the middle of Amherst and giving that nut with the with the MAGA signs in the middle of town a little competition and just holding up signs about oh you know limit student housing oh you know like limit investments that are displacing individual families it's like you know that's the level of frustration I'm at right now and I'm just interested in knowing what I can do let's hear from a couple other folks and and we can respond to that in a second but I'd love to hear from from the Vernon Jones of appropriate for me to comment on a different issue at this point sure we'll come we can all right first of all hi everybody and thank you for having this meeting and thank you to all of you who are serving as our town councilors I'm well aware that it is a huge job and the number of issues you face is incredible it'll come as no surprise to you that I'm particularly interested in how things are going to move forward on both the community safety working group report and on the climate action plan I think in a number of places it's not clear where responsibility lies with the town council and where it lies with the town manager and even where it does lie with the town manager I think we rely on the town council to keep a focus on these issues and to see that they keep moving forward I don't know what's realistic I would I would love to see a monthly report to the town council on both of those issues because both of them we have some momentum we have some excellent recommendations but I don't think the action on them is moving forward at the pace that that it could and let me just comment go back to John I have some sympathy with the issue you're raising but I would like to ask that we try to find a word other than the word ghetto to be used in discussing these issues I think it's a word with all sorts of associations some of which are very negative and tap into both issues of race and anti-Semitism and I think John's pointing to a real problem but I think a different word would probably give us more productive conversations thank you thank you thank you so much I wanted to also chime with that I have to take a minute whereas I do for John runner I understand everything that you were saying but just even the very definition of ghetto I think that we need to work with that because it's certainly not going to lead us to creating a more diverse community and I don't think that that's what you meant but you know in terms of attracting single families and professionals that may want to come here and establish business I think that we should collectively find another word because I have heard that more times than I could count and it's stemming each and every time what word would you suggest well someone talked about a dilapidated area some of them are I've walked around myself and as someone who has you know I haven't been here for quite some time but I do remember as a kid and walking around some of the areas especially about a new mass and I think it's clear that we all see that we can see the difference especially those of us that are here now and haven't been here we can figure that out one that is not offensive or you know has racist tones to it I don't know if this meaning will be the date but I'm happy to follow up with a list of words by the end of day that I think could be more appropriate and then we can adopt what people are comfortable with counselor Andy Steinberg yeah I'm not going to get into the suggestion of the final name but I think that we recognize that the question is that there are neighborhoods where there has been a high concentration of student rentals and that it when you get to neighborhoods that have particularly high rates of residences in proportion that it does change the neighborhood and I think that the concept is what we need to concentrate on by trying to give it a single name it does get into problems it's sort of is equivalent to what I've sort of felt uncomfortable with when people talk about some of the new apartment mixed residence buildings in downtown and refer to them as student dorms they're not dorms they're apartment buildings that are heavily concentrated with the high proportion of student rentals but they are not dormitories and I think that it's it creates a tension within the community because the students are a part of our community it's the nature of university town and just two quick things and then I want to turn it back over to the district counselors is that I think that there are two things that are being worked looked at very closely by a number of counselors one is the rental registration by-law which was passed originally by town meetings some time ago and just needs to be updated and there are a lot of aspects of the student of the rental registration by-law that have over time proven to be inadequate including to to many minds the amount that is being charged just to be able to register property as well as enforcement if we had more money coming into that system then we would be able to hire more inspectors and that would so that's something that the group I know is looking at and if the other is what was mentioned previously by John and that is the zoning and I know of counselors who are working on the zoning issue and I'm confident that there are counselors who are there and what I would just encourage is to use those communications methods that Pam talked about earlier and just keep back to the issues because counselors are listening so thank you. Yeah I just wanted to address a couple questions that Russ Fernand Jones asked and that is that it we have an understanding with the town manager that he will regularly report in his town manager's report on both the progress on the ECAC recommendations as well as the progress on the CSWG recommendations my I believe he has communicated to me that he will be doing the progress on the CSWG recommendations at this next meeting he'll it'll be in his town manager report and that he then we also have an opportunity to raise questions about that and the manager's report is part of the packet that's available to the public as is anything ECAC has just presented their annual report to us it is in our packet for the 28th as well and we're looking for a date when they may actually come and do a little update with us as well. I wanted to reply to the conversation as well and in terms of the task force the working group whatever moniker it gets I think is trying to look at a little bit holistically so the the rental permitting is one aspect of it and as I said before perhaps there's a review of the taxation you know the tax rate because we have income properties versus owner occupied non-income mine is certainly not an income generating property here so I would like to see the the different aspects knitted together rather than tackling these separate pieces one by one they just they really do need to to fit together and and be kind of a man help us manage in a more comprehensive way how we deal with this I see Sarah Marshall's hand up yeah no I just wanted to say Lynn mentioned the town manager reports I believe you that we can subscribe to receive those directly the town managers reports so you don't have to know where to look for town council packets and then find it within the packet I think you can just get them yourself oh and Doug also has some yeah in response to people who want to raise the issue of housing in town I just wanted to say as a member of the planning board in addition to giving communication to town council you can you are welcome to come to planning board meetings and make public comments we do listen and you know we we're thinking a lot about housing too and more public voices is good I think John Barnard and then and then the Vernon Jones I'd like to make one more comment and then I have to actually jump off I have some people waiting for me here but I think whatever we do in terms of establishing regulations needs to be backed up with enough funding for reinforcement I was speaking with John Thompson the guy with the hapless job of trying to ride herd on student housing and he has over 5000 rental units in town that he is supposed to be managing or riding herd on and it's a it's a hopeless task I mean he just there's not enough you know if he was working 24 hours a day there still would not be enough time to for him to address all the problems that are coming up and so these problems just get rolled over and people are you know landlords are being cited for violations and then there's no follow-up on collecting the fees that are stipulated as the penalties for violations you know I think that Amherst has to do more than get rules on the books they also have to get mechanisms and funding in place to enforce those rules my my comment and again I apologize I do need to sign off here in just a couple of minutes thank you thank you Lydia thank you uh yes hi um I just want to jump all the way back to Sarah Marshall's issue about getting um increasing the number of people on this meet at these meetings um I'm wondering whether our former town count district town counselors would be gracious enough to use their email lists and send out to the people that they were representing how to get involved now because they had a much more extensive list I think and maybe you know if we can't get the town to do it maybe they could do that that's all thank you I asked I asked Bill I haven't received it yet so I had some luck of asking you know others to send our information to their list because I think you do have sort of people there could be conflicts in them handing over their lists but you know we have had so we had the Amherst current and then I believe as well had at least sent the the agendas for this meeting out and we'll keep pushing you and we appreciated very much having the current and the indies then you know post that it was great um and we got a number of responses that way so thank you Diana you need to unmute Diana you need to unmute I muted because of the phone I um think it would be really helpful if you would send out the day before the meeting uh reminder with the link I think people uh have trouble getting on sometimes because the message was so long ago that had the link and I for meetings that do that I find it very helpful thank you but thank you for this meeting thank you for joining any other hands um I see folks that haven't said much but you're welcome to Mr. Ash Hartwell and you need first I want to unmute thank you and then I want to echo I I was remiss and really not um acknowledging and honoring your um your your work on the town council we know that it is an enormous task and uh and we're just so grateful for people who are willing to step up and really work at improving the conditions of the town and and looking at the issues of equity and all the rest that is on your plate so just a a note of tribute and thanks and thanks for everyone who's here thanks for saying that I actually I actually had hoped that Steve Shriver and Evan Ross might come to this meeting where we could actually thank them for three years of hard work getting the ball rolling so um they didn't show up so we but we can still thank them I I don't see another hands but I would love to encourage people to uh if you get a notice from us that we're going to hold another meeting um send it to friends send it to neighbors and also write to us and suggest opportunities to meet with people because we can meet in person you know outside as the weather gets a little warmer um or even meet with um select groups if you want to put something together for the senior citizens or the Clark House or something like that we would be very happy to meet with folks and Nika do you want to add anything and then maybe we just we can we can say thanks for everyone's time this was terrific I think that you covered that with that uh recap right there thank you all for having us for voting us in and please you know along with ongoing issues that are going with council even if there are other agendas or concerns that may you know not be on the agenda that are important to you know please send those along as well yes I would build on that we would love to have uh topics of interest to you that we can do some homework and bring back information for you on a number of things so let us know thank you all thank you this has been great seeing a few faces and seeing names bye bye bye good night good afternoon thank you thank you all thank you Lynn thank you Andy appreciate it very much thanks for uh letting including us you're welcome you're welcome it's a little it was reassuring to have some some season the voices you guys did great you didn't need you didn't need oh yeah yeah we did I see sarah stealth stealthner hi did you hear from you but glad you were here