 Okay, we're recording. Go ahead. You're muted. Excuse me. Good evening. We'll start over again. So welcome to the town services and outreach committee. This is October 6 pursuant to chapter 20 of the acts of 2021 extended by chapter two, the acts of 2022. This meeting will be conducted via remote means member of the public who wish to access the meeting might do so via zoom or by telephone. No in-person attendance of members of the public will be permitted, but every effort will be made to ensure that the public can adequately access the meetings in real time via technological means. Thank you. At this point, I'd like to call. To order the meeting and I will call on the committee members. If you could note yourself as present and heard. So, Andy. Present. Thank you. Good evening. Good evening. Yeah. Yes. Okay. And I know that we have. I'm going to go ahead and pass the floor to Anna and Amy. Great. So we are going to talk through. I know it's going to shock everybody when I say the word water, but we're going to talk about water. Sometime I'm going to say sewer and you're all going to just be thrown for a complete loop. So watch out. But. Oh, Andy already. I just wanted to remind Lynn that I think that there's a quorum of the council sitting here and we've been called counseling. There's only six. Okay. It's because Amy is a temperate or not a temporary is an honorary member of TSO. So we, yeah, it's, it's confusing. Yeah. Shawnee. Question. When is public comment? That's an unique question. Public comment is after the, the universal efforts. Presentation after the second. Great. Thank you. Okay. So, um, so we are talking through the. Final part of water today. We did the regulations. I want to thank all of you for all of the efforts that you've put in. Sorry. I have a creature who's trying to. Attack me right now. And what we need to talk about still is the actual bylaw itself. And so in the, in the, in the packet, you need to stop. In the packet. There was a memo from Paul. That talked through. The, the water use regulations and the. Bylaw. So what we have been working on is the idea of. We create a. General bylaw that provides for adoption of the water regulations. This is instant. Amy, please jump in if I get this wrong. We even met. Amy and I met about this. So like hypothetically, I should be. Correct. Um, but I'm sure I'll get it wrong. So we, as a council would adopt a general bylaw for water. And then another one for sewer. That. Creates the process to adopt those regulations and adjust them as needed. Um, instead of creating a full bylaw that includes all the regulations. Right. So we've separated them out. So we did the regulations. Now we just need to do this bylaw. And it's pretty simple. Um, and in the memo, Paul outlines the different ways that similar bylaws have been written in terms of who is, who has a thought. For each part of it. Um, and so what we've talked about is if you're looking at, um, at Paul's memo, we're doing. Option A. Or that's what I'd like us to do. I think that we should do. And then in the proposed bylaw. Um, My belief is that Paul got it right. That it should be that the, um, the town manager is responsible for the administration to implement. In an enforcement of the bylaw. Uh, and Ken. Is that, is that what we talked about? Hang on. I want to make sure I got it right. Um, Yeah. Sorry. So as water and sewer commissioners, we, the council have the right to change the regulations, but Paul is the person who enforces them. That's the way that the regulations are written right now. So this would be most consistent with those regulations. We have it, um, we have the, the enforcement stuff in the, um, in the regulations. This bylaw is just aligning with those. And this is what would live in the general bylaws. The regulations would be separate. So it's really clearly spelled out in this memo. I'm just kind of reiterating it in case folks have any questions, but I would like to, um, I'm happy to make. To make a motion, but before I make a motion to, um, adopt the, the, uh, proposed bylaw as written in the memo from Paul, I just wanted to check to see if there were any questions from folks. Or concerns about that process. I'm seeing no questions. So we are comfortable. Oh, Amy. Oh, my God. Amen. I thought that was like a major. I was like, no, I thought we were ready. Okay, great. Um, so I feel like I need to do something more formal, than make a motion to adopt the proposed water bylaw. As written in the memo to the town council from the town manager. Athena, is there something different that I need to do? Um, TSO would recommend the town council. Sorry. Yes. Okay. I move that TSO recommend the town council adopt the proposed water bylaw as written in the memo from the town manager to the council. Okay. So I feel like I need to do something more formal than make a motion to adopt the proposed water bylaw as written in the memo to the town manager to the council dated February 26, 2022, which reads that. The ability to change regulations. In the water and sewer bylaw or water bylaws. Is the responsibility is the of the town council as water and sewer commissioners. That's my motion. I'll second. Thanks, Andy. Okay. And we will move to vote. Yes. Yes. And. Yes. Anna. Yes. Okay. And Dorothy is not with us. And I am a yes. All right. With that, folks, we have closed the book on water. So this will be going back to council. Thanks again to Amy and Guilford. And we will see them again soon for sewer, which Amy and I will meet about either tomorrow or Monday. We'll see you next week. We are on water. So, thank you so much for joining me right now. And yeah, we'll see you for sewer, but we're, we're good on water. Thanks y'all. This is exciting. I like the big deal. I'm happy that for what something went through without, hold on to that enthusiasm until sewer comes around again, because there will be questions. I'm sure it takes a lot for me to lose my enthusiasm to be very good. I think actually Jennifer has a question. No, I've just never seen anything. I've never seen anything like this before. I've never seen anything like this before. So my hat is so off. To you. I can't. To be clear. This is a bar we should all try and reach. Okay. All right. To be clear. The regulations were the much harder part of this process. We all, there's a reason why this was like, oh my God, we need to buy a lot too. All right. Thank you all. I think, I think we are set with Amy and Guilford. Is that right, Anika? I believe Guilford is. Yeah. You're free. You're free. And it's. Thank you. You guys again in another couple of weeks. Okay. So yeah, we're moving. All right. So. I promise through 20 minutes and I like over delivered. So. Yeah, you really did. And we started late as well. So. Fantastic. Okay. So I know that we will have. We should be with us shortly. So maybe what we could do just for a quick minute is go ahead. And work in the minutes. Has everyone had a chance to look at the minutes. To go through the minutes. Would anyone like to make a motion to approve them? Or I'll move to approve the minutes. Was that. Was that your motion? I guess I made a motion. Okay. Will you second? Yeah. Okay. We'll call on the vote. So Anna. I shall name. Yes. Andy. Yes. Okay. And Dorothy's not with us and I am a yes. Okay. So we will check that. And I think that Athena. I agree that we can go ahead and. Pass the floor on to both Shalini and Andy. Yep, they can, they can go ahead and present. Okay. If you need help pulling up documents. Any of you then let me know. Otherwise I'll let you do your own share screen. Okay. Thank you. Take it away. Andy, I'll start it and you can go with the plan. So we, I just can introduce maybe. And then you can go over what we're hoping to accomplish. So the goal for today's discussion about this was that we. Present some sort of a plan that all the sponsors have worked with together, including Jennifer and Alicia. And so we want to present that to you. And then get your feedback on that. We can have a little discussion about what the different pieces are. And then we still have to attach a timeline to it, but there's some steps that are really urgent and we are hoping that we can do the presentation and discussion, but then also have some action items that can be taken right away. And with that, I will turn it over to. Andy and Jennifer, feel free to also chime in. Okay. Well, I'll pick up on a piece and then see if Jennifer as a co-sponsor is anything that you want to add. But first of all, I want to appreciate the time and commitment to zero way standards to invest in this process and look forward to continuing to have their input as we consider the bylaw and with the help that I hope that they can provide in implementing the bylaw. I know that there's some questions that have been raised about the process that has been proposed through the work plan, but I want to explain it a little bit. But in first say that I asked to be a co-sponsor because I really have been a long time believer in the goals of this bylaw and that we really need to do everything possible to reduce the waste going to landfills from Amherst as our share in addressing a worldwide problem and also recognize that composting serves several purposes because it helps to reduce the waste that's going to landfills and it reduces methane that has a significant impact on global warming. And I think that we can accomplish that most soundly by having town have a larger role in establishing and monitoring the waste collection system. And that's what ultimately the core of the bylaws about there were always questions about the details of the bylaw and but it was it was a good starting place because we needed to get something out and to sit there and argue for a long time about what bylaw to propose was something that I didn't think would get us to the next stage as quickly as we could. But having said that, I'm now sort of put in position and I've talked with Shalini about this a little bit that we're also members of this committee and ultimately all of us who are counselor sponsors, members of the council and we have to make sure that we're doing the right thing for the town as we go forward and we recognize that our friends at Zero Waste Amherst are advocates and we respect them as advocates. But we can't be entirely advocates ourselves because I think that we need to also make sure that what is being ultimately proposed to the council is right for the town. And I do think that there are problems that we have to look at and one that's very important is staff capacity. And Paula Guilford might talk about that too but I think there is I have looked at other towns and how their structured towns of similar size that the staffing requirement to administer the system to oversee the system. In fact that it's a now a town service and not a contracted service. And to make sure that we're adequately informing our residents and business owners of what they need to do to comply with it is not a simple task. And in talking with people in government in similar communities that were in Massachusetts and on very blanchards list of things that are important that it is a significant commitment of staff time and we don't have the staff time as far as I can tell though I think that it's a significant commitment that we have to make sure that we have a significant commitment that we have to make sure that we have a significant commitment that Paula will comment on this more fully to do this without getting some additional staff and that's going to have to be factored into it. I have big questions about the cost. I think it's important to make sure that we have a significant commitment that we have to maintain the current system. Though I do worry that we're creating an impression amongst the community that price will go down. In fact it may not go down because the tipping fees and other costs that are incurred by waste collection are going up gasoline and equipment and everything else as well. We don't want to be taken by anybody who bids on the contract and so we need to understand how the whole system works and there are questions about how this is going to be structured financially because we are not a provider of service and it's going to call for some restructuring and finally there's a question of what needs to be done to make sure that it gets enforced and those have to be considered too. What we proposed was a work plan is being the best way to sort of divide it out and come forward and at some point we might put it on the screen. It was included in the packet for this meeting but added to the plan as a draft but we felt that at least providing a draft was a good way to start the discussion and the last thing that I want to say before seeing if Jennifer has anything to add is that one of the things that we can do to assist this is to recognize that the state DEP Department of Homeland Protection can provide significant staff assistance to us and that there's a process to obtain that staff assistance. That's where Veronique Blanchard was involved before and if you notice the number one suggested step in the process is to work with DEP and our staff to try and see if we can secure that assistance. And I know that Jennifer has been working a little bit on trying to assist the committee to be ready to do that and get that application moving and so but it is the number one step, the first step and that's the reason. So I guess I'll turn it back to the chair to Jennifer. Jennifer please. Or Shawnee, do you want to go? Did you want to say something? You can go. I wanted to, but I did also want to acknowledge that the motion that was referred from the council to TSO, which is a number E of that motion did say that, you know, that we would, we were working towards the town providing directly or through a contract with one or more waste hauler, the universal curbside pickup of trash, recyclable coastal material and other waste hauler services. So we are coming at this that we want to select the best and the process that works best for the town. But with the, you know, kind of based on the, maybe a premise on, on research and what other towns have done that we thoroughly want that our goal would be to obtain this, the waste hauling and the curbside pickup and perhaps look at it, you know, and look at a pay as you throw system that would incentivize reducing waste, that we would obtain that through a competitive bidding process to get the best service and price that we, that we feel that we can. Now, if at the end of the day, that, you know, wasn't getting us what we wanted, you know, we're under no obligation to do that. So, you know, I think that's, you know, what we were tasked with doing the motion that came to TSO was to be looking at whether we was premised on that we would be able to meet our climate action goals more thoroughly through either, you know, through a contracting system. I mean, some towns do it where the town provides it directly. We're kind of, we're trying to get it in the right direction, but that, that that is part of what we were tasked with when the motion came to TSO. So that's, and when in our conversations with DEP, it was Susan Wade at DEP, what, as Andy said, one of the first things that we will do is apply for a technical assistance grant. And we said Susan a list of questions to help her determine which would probably be the best of maybe, I think there's three technical assistance grants available. And she suggested the one that is about contracting out and contract management, that that would be the most appropriate for us. So, Shalini, or, or Anika. Yeah, I can add a little bit. Anika, is it okay? Did you want to say something, Anika? No, no, no, this is still, you know, we're still in the middle of your presentation. Yeah. Okay. So, um, so a couple of things like how we, where we are right now, we had last year through zero waste, Amherst, they had applied for the grant with, with, with our staff. And so we already, so the first part of what the DEP assistant did was to compare what are the options, if our goals are waste reduction. And so the conclusion of that particular round of research, and that research is included in the packet, if anyone wants to go through or even watch the videos. So the conclusion of that round was that the best way that Amherst can reach our goals of waste, waste reduction is through contracting. Um, and not by starting our own, initially it would be that we contract out, and the town contracts. And the reason for that is the collective bargaining power. And as Andy said, we don't know what the costs are going to be. However, some of the costs that are going up, like all of us who've gotten our bills recently, our costs have gone up. And that's part of inflation and all of that. So that's going to go up anyways, right? So that's the point. And so we're not talking about the town contracting or the individual. So we're not talking about that. Those increases are going to happen regardless. But what we now have to look forward to look forward in research, maybe through an RFI or RFP, which we don't know at this point, is that what is that going to look like when the town contracts? Because now there is strength in numbers and there is collective bargaining power. And that we are hoping, and that's what we are seeing, at least in Shudspurry or some other towns that have contracted, that they did get multiple bids from different haulers, even though we have only three in the area. But even the fact that we're putting out an RFI or an RFP at the right time, we're hoping it will generate a competitive bid. And that will add to the other goals that we have, a pay as you throw system, which means that it's going to incentivize people to throw less waste and do more composting. So the payment that residents will be making will be tied to the amount that they're throwing out. So we can do that. And the third thing is the transparency in this process. It's all very clear who's being charged what. And we're also able to measure, I don't know, measure the right word, but to see how much waste as a town we are actually putting out. So all of that is possible through this new contracted system. So that's the ideal goal. And now there are all these different pieces. How do we implement? How do we get to that place? So that's where the two ways. So the first step is related to us. Our first goal, which is obtaining master EP assistance, which is with Susan wait, and she will help the staff. She will help us to then look at how to do, move to a contracted system. What will that look like? And how to create an RFI maybe or all of those steps. And then the two a part is where we go into now develop and going into the details of, you know, what, what, what I moved towards a town contract. What are the challenges in that? What, how are the towns doing it? What are the staff needs putting an art and one of the action steps there is to put an RFI. I'm going to pause a little bit because Andy has his hands up. No, I was, what I was going to do is to conclude if the rest of the committee wants me to do so. And that is to put up on the screen, the draft work plan, just to give a quick one or two minutes worth of sort of what it's about that to try and read it or deal with it in detail, but only if the committee, if that's the committee's desire, then that would be the last step. Please. Anna, what do you think? Yeah, it would be helpful right to put up the. Okay. Thank you. Or is it Andy whoever is doing that? Thank you. This one. So what you should be seeing on your screen and tell me if you're not. Let's see if I can enlarge it. Is the draft plan and what we basically try to do is you see the purposes of the bylaw. Begin the plan and as promised, I'm not going to read it. The first step is to obtain mass TEP assistance. And then when we. Have that assistance as part of it, we don't have to wait until we get a result from an application to go on to the next step, but we do feel that that is the important place to start. Then as you move along through it, you get to what we call to a to be in to see. And the reason that we call them to a to be in to see is that we think that they can go simultaneously. But what it is, is to develop the possible town. Rep use collection system. To make sure that we scale the cost to the amount of trash, which is what pays you throw is about. And then the third one is the composting. And under each, we started by talking about the objectives of each step and they're fairly similar because we're just trying. It's a really a learning. Mode for the committee. And we tried to find the action steps and. Matters that need to be considered and understood by the council. In each of those steps. And these are all subject obviously to review and discussion. What we did not do is fill in the last two columns because. We want to, you know, just seem premature. And we were just trying to get a concept out. So that we were beginning. We could at least start with a breakout. And then, you know, I think it's a little bit of the work that these two to be done, the information that we think. That this committee needs to understand in order to make a recommendation. And we were looking at sort of CRC's experience and how. It's been handling the. Very complex process of amending. Rental registration and. Recognizing that it needed a work plan. And it had to. Proceeding in that fashion. And then the. Once that is done. Then we can go back and. The way we put it was the next step would be. The next step. Once we have all of the knowledge that we think we have about the system. To align the by-law and regulations. With the. That that are being proposed with what we've learned. And also. This does not have to be. Waiting until the end to, but to conduct a. That would be proceeding as noted. All critical stages. And we did not attempt whatsoever to deal with the date for. TSO discussion of any of these issues. I know that. Advocates would like to see it work as quickly as possible and move as quickly as possible. I think that those of us who are members of TSO. Realize that there are lots of pressures right now before this committee. And the amount of time committee has. To devote to any one of those many. Projects that are. Before the processes that are before the committee. It's something that the committee as a whole needs to. Assess. So that's basically it. And let's say questions. I'm going to stop sharing. So. I cannot see if there are questions. Can you. Okay. So. That enables me to stop sharing. Jennifer. Yeah. No, I just, you know, want to add that. You know, so TSO doesn't feel like it's all on their plate, because it certainly isn't to try and, you know, do the research and craft the program to get us to the point where we would, you know, go get put out an RFP. That even just applying for the DEP technical assistance grant that that work will be able to be done. We'll report back to TSO, but that can be happening. You know, we'll report back to TSO. We'll report back to TSO. With the consultant. You know, and the sponsors, you know, and of course there'll be some staff time, but that. So work can be happening. That isn't all on the TSO committee members. Because that's would be impossible for you to take on. So we're very work. Hoping, hoping if we get the technical assistance grant. That that will enable the work to also begin. To move a little more quickly. Yeah. Jennifer kind of touched on my question, but you know, you know, you know, I think for each item, I know you have the column for responsible counselors, staff and others. I think. As I'm thinking about the kind of timing of this all. And trying to think about what's reasonable. I'm trying to break out what you expect to ask town staff. To help with what you expect TSO, not, not necessarily specifics, but sort of what's going to be sponsors, what's going to be TSO, what's going to be town staff. I'm curious. And then actually, I wanted to, I wanted to just make a question about what the, what are the goals for the Council? What are the goals for the Council? And how it relates as to town staff time on this. But also just, I love the work plan. Thank you. Oh. Yeah, so there are a couple of things with this. So first. This has not been said as a priority for the council. It's not in the goals for last year. The council would have to, I think, should make it as a goal. For. You know, it's not mentioned in the last year, I think before town staff and I dedicate expenses, I align what I do in a way we align our resources with the goals of the council. So if the council is going to add this as a goal, it should vote to do that. If it's, and I'm trying to understand what the goals are, I understand reducing waste and why, but I guess it doesn't align. It wasn't a priority in the carp. It was listed, but not listed as a priority because the carp is all about reducing carbon. And it wasn't identified as a town manager goal. So I think that that, before we start moving down on the work plan, I think the council needs to say, this is something we want to explore. And I'm not sure. I'm just sort of winding around a little bit here. Because, you know, if it's about, I don't think we're saying it's going to save money. I don't think we're saying it's going, it's because it's unlikely to save the, it'll probably cost the town money. It's unlikely. It's a question whether it will help with our carbon action, but it's not a priority in terms under the carp. It's listed, but it wasn't prioritized. So, you know, if the council wants to move in this direction, it'd be great. And I think you should, you would say, okay, how are we going to do it? And I think you've got a great plan. I do appreciate the plan, but until, but I think it's, I would hesitate to allocate staff resources if the council hasn't said, yes, we want to do this as a broader group. Thank you, Paul. Shawnee? Okay. So a couple of things that were raised here. One is the ECAC not listing it as a priority. And I don't think the carp has listed, presented as a priority of anything for that matter, but it is there in there. It is. It is. So that's one thing. The second thing is when they, they have all publicly and officially supported this. So if they didn't think it was an important enough, because they do know that anything they say yes to and vote for involves town, staff, time, council committees, time. So my hope is that when they are voting to support any particular initiative that they are giving it that due thought. And therefore if they have said yes to it, then it is a priority. So as far as town council goals go, I think we're definitely going to advocate for that and will be put in our goals this year. And that being said, I don't think we should stop the process for, it is going to like the, as you can see from the plan itself, there's so many steps to it. So I do urge us to at least start with the process because Susan, wait, what we've heard is she already has a lot of commitments and she's getting booked. So if we don't get her now, if we don't apply now, we may not get her assistance. And doing it without her assistance just means more work for all of us. So I think that's one step whether we go ahead or we are going ahead in that direction. We know that the town council is going to support it. It is going to put it in the goals. So let's at least get that step going. And as far as the cost to the town, that's a speculation, we don't know that. And so again, we need to do, and so we're not trying to force anything, but we want to start taking the steps that are needed to get more information and that can inform us to move in that direction and then work the timeline accordingly. So with that said, can we get some commitment from you about the timeline for when this grant can be applied? Yeah, no, the grant I think is fine. I think I already said that, that's something we can certainly pursue. It's moving beyond that to all these other steps that you showed, beyond that first page, that was an enormous amount of commitment of town staff. And I'm not sure if you're going to be appropriating, looking to, how are we going to do that? What are we not going to do? Because, you know, just, and I don't want to be, I'm not trying, this is something that a lot of towns have done. There's evidence that is a good thing. I'm just saying, you know, we're doing a whole lot with our current DPW staff especially who would be expected to do this. And I'm not sure who there would take this on, honestly, and Guilford can speak for himself, but we don't have people waiting for jobs to do. But if, you know, if this is a grant that Susan can take on and we don't really, that would be awesome. Okay, I'll call on Andy. And then afterwards, we have not heard from Guilford. So Guilford, if you have thoughts that you would like to share or whichever, please do so after Andy or whenever you see fit. So, Andy. Yes, I think that the points already been made about, and we've already significantly sufficiently discussed the question of getting Susan Waits assistance and that she would be helpful. In the meantime, there are little pieces in there that we've actually been studying ourselves as co-sponsors and we can begin to transfer that knowledge and members of the committee may be willing to take on discrete pieces. And I'll talk about one in particular because it relates back to the staffing question that was talked about and that I've given some significant thought to. And that is that one of the towns that was listed that's a Massachusetts community. And I think that the Massachusetts community are the most important to look at but very neat Blanchard had mentioned was Arlington. And a lot of us know the town manager of Arlington have personal relationship with him. And through that, he stirred me to conversation with the staff person that works on managing their system and what she basically said was that she's a part-time employee and that there are two other part-time employees or two other employees who allocate part of their time to the point that Arlington, which is a community about the size of Amherst on an ongoing basis has one person working full-time to manage the system throughout. And if I assume that that is translatable information for us that we might be able to get little pieces of assistance without a significant allocation of time as we begin the study but it is going to become more complicated and there is based upon that experience an ongoing need that is going to have to be taken care of and the most likely places would be taken care of is that since we're probably going to have to use the enterprise fund approach to funding this so that the people who are participating in the system as homeowners are going to be paying into an enterprise fund we would probably have to build additional salary into the enterprise fund in order to support the staff time that's needed to administer the system. Now that's just a very preliminary observation. I may be entirely wrong in my conclusion but at least I wanted to put it out there. Thank you Andy. I wanted to give Gil her the chance to speak because he hasn't yet before going on to Jennifer and then Shalini again. I really don't have much to say. This has been talked about for quite a while. I think it's been looked at before. It is at a point in time where looking at this might be a good thing to do. It will take time and it requires to if we don't get additional personnel or funding to help us with this it would require shifting from something to do this. We do have one person who could do it very well but then he also must he spends a good deal of his time working in the transfer station. Even if we go this route we'd probably keep the transfer station open because of some of the some of the intricacies and differences we are than other people. Our way system we get a great deal of mattresses and a great deal of furniture at the end of twice a year at the end of a school semester which most communities don't get. So we have some differences but back to my point it might be time to do it. If we go beyond what Susan's doing there may need to be a shifting in what we do or funding to help get beyond what we do. Thank you. Go to the next step. Thank you. Jennifer. I did want to add that our community sponsors have also done our really subject matter experts in this area and they have done and can continue to do a lot of research and provide us a lot of data and comparisons that we have done. So I hope that we can work with them and take full advantage of their expertise so that and that would relieve to some extent the sponsors and hopefully the staff of a lot of the legwork and research and data collection that has to be done as we move forward. I understand that you know certainly for this fiscal year but between if we are able to get the technical assistance grant and have Susan wait from DEP work with us and work closely with our community sponsors and the vast expertise and information and data they can provide and then the sponsors working as well that we could make progress during this fiscal year and then look to having it be a goal for the next year. Thank you Jennifer. Yeah I think one step for us then the sponsors might be to separate out what is the town staff's responsibilities and what can the committee members do and I can obviously understand that not everyone's going to have time to devote to it but I think we can all individually look up other towns and work with zero waste and our resident sponsors and it will always be filtered through like many of us like Andy has a lot of experience and then I bring in a lot of research experience and you know that objective lens so we and then you know all of us are bringing this Alicia who brings in her own expertise and Jennifer so we can all bring in and pull in our expertise and then definitely separate out what we are expecting from the staff so that Paul has a clear sense of how much staff time and then just like you're looking at other towns like Lexington right now is moving in that direction so we can collaborate work with them in partnership like as they're moving and we can share information with them and receive information so I think I think that's all I wanted to say at this point but just as an action item for at least today and any other questions of course that the committee members have we can hear that out but as an action item I think if we can just say that we're going ahead with the grant for the DEP grant and this we can figure out the timeline I mean that's the only most urgent thing that we want to impress on and then for us we can figure out what is the town staff and like break down this table a bit more to see which was addressing Anna's question and out of that what is and then start doing individual research and compiling that so that we can then every meeting we can present what we're looking at thank you so I just you know on the staff what I would ask you to do and encourage you you're going to be setting goals for me in the next month or so right and so that would be a good time to say council is a priority goal for us and then that helps assess and then you know with that goal that's how I build the budget based on the town council's goals the council has added goals mid-year they did that a year ago and that's an option as well but we're not mid-year we're just we're right in the time when you're probably in the next couple months you're going to be talking about goals so it's a good time to be getting the council to say is this what we think we want to do as a council and I agree with you I would think the council would support this right and then it's up to me to say here's what we will need to begin working on this I mean the grant will help get us moving but then it'll be like here's the cost of whatever we're doing to move this forward according to you know allocating staff or whatever resources we might need I just trying to work we've been working really hard to align our work plan with the council's goals in the budget and so I just want to honor that that process that we've been establishing thank you Paul so I this is really interesting to me because I think this is a new process for me on TSO right and I know that CRC has been working through a different type of work plan with the rental rides and I'm curious I think I got a little bit of my concern raised when and Shalini this was not your intention and I know that but when it was said that you know TSL will go and do research and then come back and do this and then come back I think I'd really like clarity on what these next steps are because I don't know about all of y'all but I don't I don't have a lot of free hours to add more research in on on a bill that I'm not bringing forward and and this is why I didn't sign on to this is because I didn't have time to to engage fully in it and so I want to respect you know all of our time and so I'd really love some more clarity on on what the expectations are for the use of time on the part of not just town staff but on the part of the folks in TSO as well yeah I would um I would second that as well so Shalini please yeah I think I did say that not everyone in the TSO is going to be equally passionate and wanting to spend those hours on research it's more individually the people who are motivated to do this will do the research and I think the onus is really on the um the sponsors who are bringing forward this and and at the same time I think what the what we're expecting or hoping from the committee is when we present the research and like in the packet that you have a chance hopefully to read it and see you know bring your lens and expertise critical thinking and do the discussion items that when we present them and you know they do have a healthy discussion around you know especially if they're going to be on the crossroads and what decisions we're making at every step um thank you I uh so I just wanted to add to that I I don't want to speak for on it but I think that it's not a matter of passion it's really a matter of just capacity you know um I think that you know we all want to do our part I want to speak for everybody to do our part to move forward and and do what is right and best for the planet but um just a matter of just simply not having those extra five minutes to eat um so uh but I'm sorry I know you had your hand up and then I know there was Jennifer you said exactly what I was going to say it's not that I'm not motivated or interested I am out of hours yeah I'm happy to be supportive which way is possible I just would I would not want to say myself I would have this time to commit to help and then not be able to come through um with that promise um so I think there was Jennifer and then Andy and then back to Shalini just very quickly yeah I would not expect TSO members to to take on you know really the research you know to take on the task of making this this happen that and that's where I you know we have wonderful community sponsors not to put it all on them either but they've actually already done a lot of the research um so yeah we wouldn't um anticipate you know asking you outside of the committee time to be doing you know any of the work on this thank you Jennifer and Andy yeah I mean obviously the work plan we deliberately left the dates and the people assigned for steps off of the chart just recognized the need to have those columns completed as we work along and um that's because of the reasons that have been addressed today and I as a member of as a member of the committee and thinking of the committee as a whole we've got a lot on our plate and I wonder you know we have to remember as a group that we were assigned to bylaws to look at on the same night and we have not um to my knowledge begun a similar process to start a conversation about the other one that was referred to us on lighting um Anna was a co-sponsor on that so she can speak to that more fully um than than I can um we've talked a lot about um various kinds of road problems from um traffic to conditions of roads to speed um about our relationship to TAC and what TAC's role is and this uh committee's role is um I had a little bit of an exchange as Lea's on with the TAC chair today um and I just sort of acknowledged all of that because there wasn't much else that I could do since I was not going to be able to attend their meeting because of another conflict I had earlier um in the day um so but we do have a lot on our plate and so I think that um we have to recognize it for ourselves and respect it for ourselves and we have to ask our community to understand it too as we can uh work out the timeline question but I don't have answers to them or if I had if I could even suggest an answer I would have started that additional column uh shall yeah I think what's coming up again is what I was bringing up in the last meeting around having a process in the future someday in some council where we as committees you know start when we first form like what is a process going to be a prioritizing because there's always that tension of individual counselors bringing forth bylaws and initiatives which is great we want that right we want passionate um counselors who are bringing forward meaningful proposals and then how does that work with the rest of the committee who may or may not like the rental registration is a perfect example I am zero in rental registration where did that come from and yet I'm actually the one doing the most detail community engagement going through thousands of pieces of information which is so rich with what's happening with the tenants what's happening there so all I'm saying is that you know we're going to find ourselves in that tug and pull where we may not want to and in the absence of a formal process where we decide how are we going to prioritize based on our social justice goals environmental goals our economic vitality goals as a committee when these things are different coming in is there a process we are bringing to prioritize that on a timeline and right now I don't see that in my mind there's a process which is if there's anything related to safety justice um environment that comes first in my mind and but we may not be on the same page and that's okay but we need to have that conversation and maybe that needs to be on the agenda at some point like how do we bring our full hearts into the work that this committee is doing when we have slightly it's not that you're not passionate of course I know you're absolutely passionate about the climate climate goals but again in terms of as a committee what are our goals and how do we prioritize that which is I'm proposing we can put that as a discussion item in the future agenda sure thank you Sean and we do have you know just ongoing and you know we'll talk about there we do have you know quite a list some of them do have to do with safety issues and some that Andy has brought up just on our agendas going forward that we have that was that we have referred and still pending from the council as well but yeah so we can definitely oblige the conversation or the discussion rather were there any other questions from anyone okay alright then with that if we could Athena with your help I'm having a little bit of trouble seeing attendees to be able to move into public comment I can help you call on folks once you open public comment I'll look and see whose hand is up okay so with that I would like to open public comment public comments and matters within the jurisdiction of the TSO committee residents are welcome to express their views up to one two three minutes so if we have anyone who would like to make public comment would you please raise your hand now and you guys it okay if I call on folks in the order yes please I don't know why I'm having trouble seeing like okay I can't see the number or name that's all right oh Shalini just quickly can we can we just share that there are seven attendees and there are three hands up just so people know what's happening thank you Shalini so the first person is Tracy Zafian go ahead Tracy hi so I'm not actually going to speak on the item that you were just talking about which I assume some of the other members of the public are I wanted to just comment briefly about the public hearing for next week that's on the parking including for Lincoln and Sunset so that's not my neighborhood but I understand that there was like a leaflet that was put on people's cars about the upcoming hearing it didn't have a name on it but it basically had in big letters like parking ban you know Lincoln Sunset show up at the meeting and I'm not going to talk about it I don't know if the council know how you feel kind of thing and just I don't know whether the TSO is still planning to do a flyer or not as was talked about but just and I'm sure that anybody you know who knows how government would know of course this isn't an official town flyer but just you know if questions come up or maybe if the council could put something out and just say like that's not official it is not a ban it is just a kind of thing with like additional information because I'm expecting if people are leafleting like that and I mean maybe there will be more by next week as well that there could be like a you know a group of people who are kind of stirred up by that type of rhetoric so I just wanted to just bring that to the TSO's attention in case you hadn't seen the flyer or heard of that so thanks. Thank you Tracy and if we could I'm sorry I'm sorry. Are you are you happy to stay with us. I should have. Might we be coming back to the waste taller. I think after you know this is public comment. I mean if it's okay for me to say sure. Stay with us I think we have included the presentation. Okay. Okay the next person is Darcy. Go ahead Darcy. Hi, I'm Darcy do mom from South Amherst. I just wanted to say very briefly that I'm really excited that TSO is having. You know their first conversation about the work plan and now it's about one year from when it came up in TSO the last time. But I'm hoping that it can move forward that the request to have a DEP technical assistance grant can be parallel to having the discussions that you're going to have in TSO rather than waiting to do it because that could take a very long time. So I'm pretty sure that could be something that could be parallel to whatever you're doing. Or your discussions in TSO. And yes we are we're hoping that we can get a recommendation back to the council. You know sometime like by mid February. Anyway, and yes we're all in for you know we can we have established this sustainable neighborhood team program and have about 25 volunteers so far we're working on spreading that throughout Amherst and sort of trying our goal is to get somewhere around 70 volunteers. So we're working on that to try to help the town in doing outreach both for this and for other climate initiatives that the town might want to undertake. So thank you very much for working on this. I'm thrilled that we're moving forward. Thank you Darcy. Do we have another comment? Yes there's one more person with their hand up. John Root. John Root please go ahead. Thank you very much. Yes, I too want to thank the TSO for considering and taking the next step in looking at the Hauler reform bylaw which the town council has demonstrated as a body is definitely excited about. So I see a significant momentum here and it's very exciting. I'm going to go to the former chair of the recycling refuse management committee. And a number of years ago we devoted a lot of time and effort to creating a solid waste master plan and that plan was accepted for consideration but nothing has was done about it about those proposals. So I think that the whole soul of that master plan was all about removing organic matter, compostable matter from the waste stream. When dump trucks go down the road, 50% of what's in there is compostable. It's just unacceptable. It's just wrong. We need to get it out of the waste stream. And the, the amount of waste that's in there, the amount of waste that's in there, the amount of waste that refers to pay as you throw and incentivizes the reduction of waste. I think it's a tremendous shift in public awareness because it'll, it'll really help educate people about the importance of the, of the three hours reduce or use recycle. It's not just the recycling. It'll, it'll really, I think, it'll, it'll really help educate people about the importance of recycling. And I think it's a tremendous shift in public awareness. And I think it's a tremendous shift in the community spirit as well. I've seen a tremendous amount of enthusiasm about this issue. Everyone I know wants to do the right thing. And I think a lot of us are aware that it's very difficult to do the right thing and that the town's responsibilities to make sure that it, to make it easier to, and to do what it takes. And I think it's a tremendous shift in both diverting, you know, diverting waste and thereby reducing our carbon footprint and also helping to, to mend some of the divisiveness in town, in town politics, because I think everyone, regardless of their political, political strife can get behind this. So thank you very much for, for what you're doing. Thank you, Mr. No other hands, no other hands in the attendees. Shawnee. Yeah, I think I just wanted to add one more piece to this whole process that I'm super excited about. That we heard about was the community engagement and education process. So every step of the way that we are moving forward, we're really building something in the community together that we are all behind. And so there's a lot of positive pieces. I know there are challenges and understand, you know, that's the technical part that we don't, we don't, we don't, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, that's the technical part that we don't think about. And I thank you, Paul, for reminding us that, you know, the budget is allocated based on the town manager goals and all of that. So, you know, we're definitely going to bring this forward in our next round. So there's a budget for this planned out and we talk about that separately. But other than that, as a committee as working with the residents with our serial And others, you know, we can continue this momentum that we've already built and move forward with that. Thank you. Thank you, Jennifer. Yeah, so since I'm not a member of TSO, I'm asking this as so the plan. Okay, as we, you know, start to work on it, can we amend it or fix it or add things, you know, even that there were some blank squares. So is we would come back to the committee with, you know, refining the plan, I guess is what I'm saying, if we want to, you know, there were even some suggestions made today for amending it, you know, adding some things to it now and is that something we would do in the committee or come back to you or could we so what it would be the process for refining it as we, you know, start to move forward. Athena, I was just about to refer to you before your hand popped up. So, you know, Paul. Thanks for calling on me I, I'm concerned about the idea of referring back to sponsors because if they're doing work outside a meeting and they're working as a group. And that is, that is unofficially creating a subcommittee so we would need to find a way of doing this work within TSO or else designate some or other type of working group, if you're planning on doing work outside this committee. The other option is to assign work to individual members to bring back. And then you're not working as multiple members outside a meeting. Thank you, Athena. I have a clarifying question. So just for like maybe feedback on the plan, could Andy be the person to hold the document of any individuals have feedback comments they provided to Andy, and don't discuss amongst each other. Is that okay. Like we sometimes do one member collects feedback and then that feedback is shared at the next meeting and we make sure that that's posted online at the same time it's available to the rest of the members. Andy, would that be acceptable to you that we send you our individual feedback on the work plan like I'm thinking of, you know, already about separating our town staff duties versus individual counselor or not individual but our council duties and stuff so whatever feedback we have can we offer that to you. I can take on some of that role I do have some concerns that we not inadvertently slip into a situation where multiple people are trying to work together through one person or anyone else and effectively becoming a subcommittee without becoming a subcommittee. So it really would have to be that I would get suggestions and then present them to the committee. And my personally make recommendations if I was doing that or if you gave it to shall and she would be doing the same thing. So whichever way you go. What we're trying to do is avoid anything that creates a subcommittee or makes a group outside of the TSO group working together with official sanction because at that point. There's an official time committee and has to post meetings and comply with all the open meeting requirements. At least that's why I understand Athena's course our expert on giving guidance on that but that's my understanding. Thank you. Yeah I think that's how we're doing it with the rental registration because there were many many sponsors on that one. And I don't know what's happening behind the scenes but the way it's happening is that Mandy Joe is the person that people are sending the edits to the live document and then she incorporates those and then updates it and makes it public. Am I right in my understanding Athena. Yes I believe so. Alright so last call on the other questions or comments regarding universal. Okay. Alright so we will move on now Jennifer would you are you going to stay with us we're saying good night. I'm sorry I'll go into the audience. Right. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you everyone. Thanks. Okay so we actually do not have town manager appointments tonight. We did like 20 of them last week. And we've approved the minutes so we're on to announcements. Does anyone have an announcement to make. So I went I don't know if you all can see this I went to see an exhibit that was Amherst community and actually Springfield residents led called voices of resilience about it's an intersection of women on the move with a common space being Ellis Island that was quite nice and it goes until October 15 I believe just on Saturday Sundays and Wednesday so. That was quite interesting I would recommend it. And so, and then moving on our next agenda I think we know that next week on the 13th that we have our hearings for Hope Church on Gaylord Street and then Lincoln Avenue sunset Avenue and Elm Street so that will be starting at 7pm and 715 respectively Andy. So regarding that. We heard one suggest personally reporting to us through public comment that there may have been flyers put on cars. I was wondering if we have any confirmation that that was not done by anyone from the town. Or whether because we did talk about that at one point is being a desired step to take to make sure that people who are parking on the street would get to be informed. The town has not leafleted cars. So those are coming from individuals not not affiliated with town staff. I did post the hearings on the town bulletin board is required and they've been published in the Gazette. This the they're in the Gazette on the 6th and they will be again on the 13th and I'm sorry, the previous Thursday, the 29th and the 6th. And, but no no flyers or or anything like that. Yeah, just to add on to what Athena said that there was a counselor who asked that staff leaflet cars and after having some discussions, especially with Athena who felt like doing it for this. This hearing would be inconsistent with how we've addressed every other hearing. And so we tried, we're trying to be treat every hearing and every parking change the same. Okay, thank you, Paul. So we have we do not have items that have been that we're not anticipated with 48 hours so I guess well so we're having a little bit of an early evening for TSO tonight. All right, do I need to have a vote we're just adjourn or adjourn the meeting and say good night. Thank you to declare us adjourned. I declare us adjourned. Thank you, Anika. Bye bye. Thank you for your awesome meeting.