 All right, great. So, hi everyone. Welcome to our official District 5 April meeting. It's so exciting. I'm sure we'll have more folks joining us as we go along, but as per usual, Shalini and I got very excited about all of the things that we're working on and I made a slideshow for you. So, we're going to move through some of the, some of the portiality. I'm like, I'm going to make a slideshow. She's like, can I look at it? I was like, if I do it at enough time in advance, she had about five minutes. So, I'm going to. And you had two minutes to add my slides. All right. So, before we get started though, I do actually think folks on this call do know each other because like you said, it's mostly the most engaged Amherst folks, which is great. I have met all of you at this point to reiterate for the sake of the recording, maybe my name is Anna Devlangathir. I'm one of your District 5 counselors. I use she her pronouns. And I'm actually coming to you from downtown right now I'm at work still so that's why this, this is not my house. My house does not look this professional so Shalini, I will toss it to you. Okay, and I'm Shalini Beheld-Mellon. I'm the other District 5 counselor, and I'm speaking from my home office, which I love. So my basement. Welcome y'all. Thank you so much for coming everybody. So, here we go. All right. So, just to run you through what we're doing today, we've got a lot on our agenda. So, we want to talk through what we've wrapped up since the last time that we came together in March. We're going to talk through what we're working on both at the council level but then also in the committees that Shalini and I are on. We will talk through there was a really interesting discussion at the town services and outreach committee Shalini and I both sit on that committee about paving and road repair. So I wanted to give you a little bit of an overview on that, as well as a couple other things that Shalini has going on in CRC. So really quick overview of what the fiscal year 23 budget process looks like. Quick updates on what's happening around town. Mindy is going to give an update on what's going on at the State House. We'll talk through some current openings that are on committees that we really would love to fill with some wonderful District 5 people. And then we will open it up for comments questions just general open floor. I'm blazing through here what we have wrapped up. I don't have my little divvying up of what we're doing. And so just stop me if I start talking about something you're supposed to talk about. So Shalini is going to go into depth on the paving discussion in a moment but we did have that conversation at TSO. So we're going to talk about parking permit fee changes. So essentially I think we talked about this last time our parking permit fees. That's for folks who live really close to downtown they can purchase a parking permit to park closer to where they live and especially if they live in an apartment or don't have parking available. And those fees hadn't been updated in many, many, many years. They were, I believe Shalini correct me if I'm off there. I think somewhere around the lines of like $30 a year. Something very, very low. Yeah. And so that's, that's too low unfortunately. So we did need to raise them. One of the things that we did when we raised them though was saying that this needs to be reevaluated annually versus waiting another 10 years or longer so that we don't need to make big jumps and we are also escalating the prices slowly so that it's not overwhelming both to our town staff who are the ones who have to feel the calls when people are angry that the prices go up. But also so that it's not a shock to folks who are purchasing these permits. It is now much closer to what UMass, Northampton, other surrounding towns charge for their similar parking permits. There's a, we approved a new crosswalk going from basically across from Garcia's that area over to the playground and Kendrick Park, as well as parking changes and a bike lane on this. Is that Kendrick Park? Is that, yeah, the street that's on the other side of Kendrick Park as well to make sure that people have a place to park when they go to the playground. I don't know if anyone else has noticed this. The playground is never empty. It's pretty amazing. I walk my dog down there a lot because I work in town and constantly seeing people playing there is really, really sweet. GOL, our governance committee has made some updates to the rules of procedure. As we learn as we, you know, fly the plane as we're building it, we are constantly learning more efficient ways to do things and GOL has been focusing on how do we adapt our rules of procedure to make sure that they are equitable to make sure that they are matching what we need to get done. I couldn't remember if we talked about this last time but I wanted to make sure it was mentioned we finalized or approved our Community Preservation Act fund allocations for next year, which is really exciting. I think all of you know this but I'm just going to remind you, CPA is an incredible community resource. It supports things like affordable housing, it supports recreation, conservation and open space and historic preservation. A lot of these really important projects have been supported by CPA funds. For example, the new affordable development that Wayfinders will be building on Belcher Town Road is it was that land was purchased with CPA funds so it does help, really helps our community in important ways. We did a poll hearing for the South Landfill. I included that just to let you know that that project is cruising along and for those who know folks in Amherst Woods and have not heard this the fencing is going to be going up around the North Landfill. So the dog park is in the front part on Belcher Town Road. They're keeping the sledding hill open, but they're fencing in the rest of it as protected habitat for the grasshopper sparrow. So, maybe you look like you're thinking geographically. Yeah. But basically that's that was part of the agreement. It's going to be under conservation restriction. And that's to limit. These are ground nesting birds so it limits dogs going into free range and trample on the nest. Did I ask a question. Sorry. What is it. What is Paul hearing. So town council is the keeper of the public way. So anytime that a telephone pole that it considered in the public way needs to change. They have to come to us and ask us. So it's literally literally a poll. Okay. Yeah, I asked that question about three times before I fully wrapped my head around that. Yeah. So Mike, thank you Anna. My question is about the landfill and the fencing. So there's like a path that runs parallel to the sledding hill and the landfill that leads up to where the landfill starts and also the dog park. Is that going to be fenced off or that I think it's part of the Robert Frost. Cross trails around the outside that will stay available. Thank you. So, just, you know, maybe you might hear some things from your folks about it too, because it's, it's a little bad. I'm probably going to hear about it from my husband, actually. He walks our dog in the landfill, like every day. I'll be prepared. Yes, you can send them to us. So then we've also passed a variety of proclamations for those who don't know just to throw this out there. Residents can always bring forward proclamations for the council to pass so we do proclamations or citations we have not taken advantage of the citation component and I'm going to try to encourage us to do that soon. But essentially those are congratulatory statements from the council. We also passed resolution which are non binding. They can be brought forward by our community members they do not need to originate in the council. And so when you bring them forward, we try to find a council sponsor for them to move them through the process. So a few that we have done. Today, we did a reading it's Holocaust Remembrance Day and so we also did the reading for Jewish American Heritage Month. Prior to that we've done Juneteenth, Shalini, do you want to talk about Arbor Month because you were the sponsor for that. Yes, I was. And that was April is the Arbor Month. And I would encourage everyone to avail of the free which you'll probably know someone here knows about this more than I do but the tree commission or whoever gives up free saplings and trees. So, yes, I believe it's on believe it's at the farmer's market, if not at the celebration on Sunday, or no that's that's also Saturday, my weekend days are flip flop and I'm telling you, but there is an opportunity and then the other one is there was a mail happening from the Environmental Science Club at the high school a while ago so I am going to be the proud new owner of like eight new trees and I don't know where I'm going to put them but there's a lot of opportunities to get low or free cost saplings. Yeah. Hello, and we have the president. And then one of the other things that we finalized was redistricting so this is your friendly reminder you should have gotten something in the mail, just to confirm your polling place. I'm smiling I believe was labeled as town census so please check that confirm I for all of you, most of you I don't think your polling place change although Adrian. Do are you still with us after the change I can't remember. I feel like you might be leaving us I hope you keep coming. I am moving to district. I'll always be part of South Amherst regardless of the. My home base. Transitions are always a good opportunity to interconnect and to stay connected as a community, even though I will be we will be leaving you here in the old prancing seven. And it's important to know we are still your counselors through the next election so that is, that is, that is still your stuff with us. You lucky duck. All right, shall I anything to add on this. Not in this but are we does the agenda have the water and sewer changes and all of those. Yeah, that's the committee. I'm going to go into that. Okay. So, so this is kind of what we're currently and upcoming down the road right so the big one that's not on here because I know you know it is budget. We're launching fall on into budget season. So the things that are currently in town services and outreach, where Shalini and I also both sit our water regulations and sewer regulation Shawnee do you want to start talk because I know you are excited about the public engagement. Possibly. Yeah, do you want to start us off with that with the water and sewer. Yeah, or I can just matter. You know, I think it's an important one because there's a confusion about who pays when there is a break in the water, especially the water line. And if the break is at the street level, or if the break is in your home. So right now the way it stands, the resident, the house homeowner pays for it, even though the break, breakage happened at the street and because of the street paving, or because their trees growing I spoke to one resident downtown and they said, they have to change they have to clear out their sewers and every three or four years because the tree roots go and impact. And those are town trees so you can touch the town trees, and it's the homeowner who has to pay for it. And there are a few towns where the towns pay for any kind of breakage like that so it's really a discussion at the level of the town council and our committees right now the TSO is talking and discussing it. So who should be paying and when, and one other option that we're studying is where the town takes out an insurance to cover that. And so, homeowners will be responsible but they can take out that insurance and the other piece that's really becoming very important is that many people don't know that they are responsible for that so it comes as a big shock if suddenly you get a bill of $15,000 because your, you know, pipe was damaged because of some street work. And people don't know that. So there are different components to this conversation and we just want everyone to know about it and be part of it. And Martha has a hand up and then Adrian. I'll add my two cents in there that since you were both you know our counselors I would urge you to vote for the what is it the option to that are DPW had presented where the town would pay for damage in the water mains that's under the street. You know, from the trunk line to your curb, because after all, you know, as you just mentioned with the person that had the town tree. I mean, we have no control over what's happening on the street whether heavy trucks are going over whether you got dug up how old the pipes are or anything. And so it doesn't seem right that the homeowner should have to pay thousands of dollars like this lady that has this $18,000 bill. Now I know in my particular case, I had a leak in the water system it was at the time that the sewers were putting in in our street. So the road was kind of torn up anyway. But at first we thought that the leak was, you know, on the part of the pipe under the street and so I had the, you know, the contractor that I was paying then dug up and discovered no it wasn't that pipe it was actually several feet in on my property which was fine but then the street, then the town wanted to charge me for repaving the street when they were going to have to repave it anyway because they were putting in the sewer. And I was able to argue them out of that but that's just an example of, you know, it doesn't seem right that the homeowner should pay for what's going on with the street and right under the street. So that I would I would urge you to vote for that option. I agree. Thank you, Martha. So, may I jump in as well. Yes, please. Go ahead. Thank you, Martha. I support your point of view. And if my, if I may add. I'm from Aisha Valley, our homes are 60 years old. And when we moved into this development. The town into its wisdom planted these wonderful trees. And for homeowners like me, I have done maintenance on having a rotor router come in annually to make certain that the tree roots. are not interfering and damaging and leaking in, if you will, into these old sewer pipes. It is costly to the home owners, but I want to, I want to footnote a couple of things, perhaps that the counselors on you and Shalini can take forward. I think the cost to be born by the homeowner and unknowing homeowner is unnecessary. But I think the town can do the following one notify homeowners of the existing statute right now on record. And the fact that the maintenance to keep sewer lines open is, is incumbent upon the homeowner and encourage homeowners to do that to keep roots from eroding already old pipes going into the sewers into the streets. But to keep us surprised of the, the encumbrance of the homeowner, because I know the, the woman who was charged $18,000 for most of us, that's exorbitant. And to be forewarned is to be forearmed so one we need information about the maintenance that's incumbent upon each and every homeowner, including yes maintenance of rotor router that's on our dime. So what's the town's responsibility to those of us who are in these older developments where you know the sewers and the pipelines are getting pretty old. So thank you for listening. No, thank you that's a really good, really good point, Alice. Thank you for that because I lived almost across the street from Adrian and never did anything with road or anything never had any problems that kind. We had heavy. I mean, we all have heavy clay soil. I don't live there anymore of course, but I wonder whether the heavy clay soil had something to do with this, but also the trees that were planted by the town did not survive partly because of such heavy clay soil. So we did put in other trees which, which managed to survive partly because we knew more about how to plant them. Anyway, that's my, my take on it that I didn't ever know anything about rotor or some problems with roots getting into into sewer lines. I think I knew too. Sorry. Yeah, I just wanted to add one, one more point. I know when the council was talking about the issue. I think it was started. I am that mentioned that in most cases the homeowners insurance policy will pay for it. Well, so in my case, the homeowner's insurance policy did pay it, but you know with some deductible, but my insurance agent warned me that if I had another insurance claim on the house in the next three years, the company would very likely cancel my home insurance Wow. And so it means that just saying oh well your insurance pays for it is still leaves a real risk on the homeowner so just would like that to be taken into account. Thank you. Oh, yeah, go ahead Anna. No, I was going to move on. But I say I just want to throw it out there that you know we have like we're going to go to pavements next and you'll see that we have so many costs. And so just taking on additional costs means we are taking out, taking it out from somewhere else. I mean, so I don't know where I was going with that, but just that to be cognizant that with education and would getting a town insurance, which might be cheaper than a regular insurance would that be a good and like if everyone was warned and educated and they had the insurance with that be a sufficient and just we haven't decided but I'm just getting ideas with that be sufficient. I think it's all in educating the citizen Richelini. I think the town, given our real estate taxes, and the awareness that the cost to the town might be absolutely impossible and astronomical. The homeowners, we just need to know what is our responsibility. And what do we need to do to avert any, any issues regarding 18,000. The other thing that I thought of and I'll be brief because they know you want to move on. Isn't there a way for the DPW to alert a homeowner, where the water usage goes beyond in other words, the water coming out of each residence. We are accustomed to knowing what our monthly water bills are. However, if there is a leak, and a homeowner is not aware of the extra cubic feet that are used, perhaps there could be a trip wire at the DPW alerting the homeowner so that before we get into 18,000 of not only water waste and water usage, but the cost of replacing the lines. Surely there's there's some way of assisting us as we try to avert an encumbrance of the town in taking on costs of 18,000 for every homeowner that has this huge bill. Great. And the question was around the insurance last thing and then just just a quick feel how do you feel about a town based insurance as an option. Let me say something before we do the group deal really quick. So on this topic. So what we've asked Gilford mooring and Amy for Secki to come back with which are the director or superintendent and assistant superintendent to DPW. We asked them to come back with cost comparisons because if we do switch over to the method where the town owns up to the property line or up to the curve right they what they have said is that it would allow them to shift to being a pro app in a proactive acting in a proactive manner. They could have just replying just responding to broken water mains, they could get on a schedule of going around in a different way. So there are a lot of other considerations right that go into the town, taking ownership of that. But when one big factor is cost we know that right and so we've asked them to come back with what would it cost. So for her household or etc. What are the potential costs for up to the property line for up to the actual how like up to the break, not break it's not a breaker when it's water but you know and then and then no change and then an insurance policy so we will be looking into that cost very closely. Yeah, let's move on. I think you summarized it well. So, a couple other things. Oh, did you want to talk about the general discussion we had with Amherst media. Is everyone you're aware of the situation. Do you want to. Yes, yes, I can do a brief. Yeah, sure. So essentially, Amherst media as you know as you'll know is a local, wonderful local nonprofit. They provide a major service for the town by streaming or broadcasting our meetings planning board finance committee. I think I think those are the big three and school committee thank you so they are in a situation where they're in the process of building a new building that will house all of their everything. But the building they're currently in which is down on College Street, that building that's covered in Ivy, they're getting asked to vacate by ever source who owns that building. So it's been a little bit of a challenge because their new building is not ready to find them a space for approximately two years two to three years. We do not. We don't have town buildings available unfortunately, and I know that we have a number of vacant buildings but they are not suitable for occupancy at this point, or are slated slated for other use. So we had a discussion around that but also around what are the communication practices between Amherst media and the town. We used to have a town representatives sitting on their board. We talked about what would it look like to reinstate that etc. That's that's the really brief overview we the council doesn't necessarily have a decision to make in this we were trying to foster some better communication and to get a really good understanding what the situation is what the council can do is talk to Paul about how to prioritize this. Yeah, Nancy. It's basically related to Amherst media, unless they wanted to extend their role, but it's the town looking at all into townwide internet service. Both South Hadley and Greenfield have now done this, and it has been from what I've heard, very successful in both towns, and it would seem to me it's too bad that Amherst couldn't have been a leader in that process. Um, you know, I don't know if Lynn has, yeah, or not or, and I know that there would probably believe that there was big efforts. Maybe I'm wrong on the part of Greenfield, I don't know about Hadley to get funding for that. Lynn, do you have any idea on municipal fiber, or just municipal wireless, and then maybe Adrian has an answer or another comment. There have been discussions from time to time. And in the process, it would basically mean we would become a utility. And there are become utilities companies, I mean, for example, Holyoke has a water utility. And that's one of the reasons that their water rates are really, really low is because they basically use the river as their generation for water. And actually it attracts industry because it's so long. We're going to take on putting in townwide internet we would become a utility we'd have to create a you have to basically put it in, and so it wouldn't necessarily wouldn't be free per se particularly as it directs directly connects to houses. It's not a live conversation at this time. I'm not saying it's not ever going to come back. But as far as I know it's not a live conversation at this point. You see it's slightly alive in the back of my brain. Other things have taken priority but it was something that I was interested in pursuing prior so it's not. It hasn't. I have not been able to dedicate time to it yet, but know that it is on people's minds, because you're right, it would be it would be a major asset to the town it would be a significant undertaking but it would be a major asset. Okay, so there are a couple of threads here. Let me see if I can stick to at least just two of them. I heard the entire town council discussion regarding Amherst media on Monday night and I was hopping around in my seat because I happen to have been the last and only the second liaison of the town to the Amherst to Amherst media and sitting on the board for a couple of years and also participated in the cable advisory committee. So I think I know some of the internal issues both from the town's perspective, as well as the Amherst media perspective. I'm not going to go into that right now, but I would like to hit on two things. One is that I agree with Anna and I think we've been calling for broadband for the town to go into broadband since our cable advisory commission decided that we needed needed to disband disband but asking that another cable advisory committee be created. Our role had ended, but we didn't say that it should disband part of the issues and it's in the minutes and unless I'm absolutely wrong. We asked for the town to continue looking into the whole issue of the partnership between the town of Amherst and Amherst media given the changing internet aspects streaming people cutting cords. The fact that the town is now into its own internal I net that was a three year mega really mega agreement between the town and cable and the yes, the cable company Comcast to allow the town to take over its own I net, but that's because Comcast wanted out of the business anyway. It's very complicated. I don't want to go into the weeds, but one, I think going forward. Amherst media in the town absolutely must be clear what its next couple of years is going to be as a partnership. And secondly, I hope the town continues Anna, if you're supporting this to look into broadband for the town to have its own independent as East Hampton and many of others in Massachusetts has done. I think you'll find Amherst media at least the former board I no longer serve on that board as supporting that position. So, that's all I have to say on that. Yeah, thank you. When. Yeah, interestingly enough, and Adrian I did know that you serve on the board for the town and I'm sorry I wish I frankly wish you were still there. But thank you for doing that the actual the cable commission has to be re engaged if you will reappointed. It's an every 10 year cycle, but in order to get ready for the 10 year renewal of any license or the 10 year decisions about any license, you basically start 36 months in advance and so sometime toward the end of what we do going into 2023, by the fall of 2023 we need to have that cable commission up and running again because they need to do a community survey. I mean, Adrian you know this better than I do. They need to do a community survey and so forth. This would be the time. Exactly. This would be the time in order to decide to look at whether or not. To move into a townwide broadband, and it would also be the time to look at frankly what's happening with cable television around the country and the world because the with live streaming, it's not what it used to be. And I think the most important thing is to determine. Is it a service that we need to have in Amherst, the way we presently have it in order to be able to reach all of our residents are frankly is internet, providing that service so it's a much bigger question. Right now the immediate question for Amherst media, which to be honest, they are responsible for finding their own space based on the contract with the town. But the immediate question for Amherst media is where are they going to go at the end of June and they had approached a variety of the entire council and then individual counselors and that led to the discussion at the council meeting that you were. Adrian thanks thank you for listening to it. And at some point, it would be useful to hear more of your perspective on it but the history of the future of cable television I think is a question mark. And in terms of what it is and what it looks like and whether or not at that time we go into the cable commission again is the time to be looking at whether we also now institute an internet service that's provided by the town. I see some shaking heads Nancy, you've been there before Adrian you've been there. Good time get to it. Yep. All right, we can talk about it. I guess I will, I will bump that to the top. Adrian, did you have something to add. Very quickly, Lynn. I urge you. I urge you on behalf of everyone involved to make certain that the cable advisory committee or whatever it's in its new iteration will be to be up and running in the fall of 2022. And we were called into action only 12 months before this is a far and it's an on the task itself is not possible given the very changing timeline so with that having been said Lynn I look forward to having that cable advisory committee up and running. And for the for the foreseeable future because it is such a quickly changing wife out there. That is terrific advice and coming from somebody like you coming from you with the experience you have on the last one, I, I greatly value that advice. Thank you. All right, well we have marketing orders now. Such a good group. We have such a good district. All right, so can we just do the public service announcement on behalf of MS media that they're looking for 2000 square feet of space for two to three years if anyone has contacts with humans Hampshire college Hitchcock Center anyone who might have space for them. You know, you know, huge, huge barn or something that's just hanging out. Yeah, but this, this equipment and stuff so they will they want to make sure that it's safe and and so forth. But yeah, a huge very safe. Huge safe. Yes, exactly. Exactly. Oh, Adrian, did you have something else to add. No, okay. So, but a place to the last couple things flood maps we are, we are going to get these done very soon, right Lynn. Yeah, so I think I think Lynn's going to like start ripping up agendas if we don't get it done soon so flood maps have been before the council for a very, very long time it just is a long process they are 10 year flood maps right so they're really important. And those maps are able to be viewed. Ooh, Shawnee or Lynn, do you remember exactly how people can view them if they're interested. Otherwise I can, I believe it's on the planning, you'll, little find it. I'll find it. Little find it. Okay, so other things. Shawnee is going to talk about in a moment the rental registration by law that's something that's the Community Resources Committee is working on. I introduced a bylaw on Monday I was very proud of it I introduced my first bylaw. So this is to ban deceptive advertising on the part of limited services pregnancy crisis centers so these are centers that pose as clinics for for folks who are pregnant. They are often evangelical in nature and seeking to talk people out of getting an abortion so they don't actually provide true medical services. And so they tend to fly under our state deceptive advertising bylaw because they're not selling products. And so some local municipalities have started to introduce. They're more complicated than that but that's the very general reason they've started to introduce different municipalities have introduced bylaws similar to this. It does not ban those centers from existing it merely says you cannot falsely advertise in print or online about what you do. Can you describe for us. First of all, thank you Anna so much for introducing this bylaw, because a lot of pregnant people go to these clinics throughout the Commonwealth and the country, thinking they're going to get counseling on a range of options and usually we're not even being provided with options just being provided with one path. So I, as a resident and as a constituent, I want to thank you. But I'm also wondering if you could explain to us what is the process of that bylaw. When does it get voted on, and how can we help. Yeah, thank you so the process it was, I introduced it on Monday and it was referred to GOL our governance organization legislation committee. They will be pursuing a legal review just to make sure it sound. I'm confident in it this is not the first time this bylaw has passed and I think it's a pretty good one. But it needs to go through legal review. Once that comes back, GOL will actually be reviewing this for substance so typically GOL just looks to see if something is clear consistent and actionable. On this one they're actually going to dig into it and talk about the content. They will recommend it or not recommend it back to council, and then the council will have to do two readings. The best way to support it would be to engage in public comment. So either writing a public comment to the town council or calling into one of the meetings once it comes closer. My anticipated timeline if everything goes according to my plan in my head is that it'll come before the council in early June. That's my current thought. That depends on how much of the beast this budget turns into but that's my current hope right now. But public comment is very, very welcome. Thank you I hope you keep us in the e-news posted as to its progress so we can. I will. I will write a darn newsletter if it's the last time I did a class. I even started one. So, yes, I will. Thank you. Thank you. Also of note with that particular bylaw is I got really excited and wrote ours really fast, but East Hampton and North Hampton are also planning to introduce similar, similar bylaws and in their city so keep an eye on this this is that this is not as much of a huge risk in Amherst, because the centers typically target lower income communities communities that have higher percentage of people of color. And so they tend not to target communities like Amherst, however, that does not mean they do not advertise here and us passing it East Hampton passing it North Hampton passing it supports communities that are targeted in saying hey look we can use their bylaws but have passed legal muster that have stood up and gotten voted on. We're, we're kind of that rising tide lifts all books thing right so we're trying to to think of this as it supports Amherst and it supports this this larger or larger community as well. And then the last thing I can let Shawnee talk about it but that's in CRC as well which is the demolition delay bylaw. I was looking at Shawnee. You can keep going. Basically, what this is is we currently do have a demolition delay bylaw but this is about a pause before a structure that is determined to be historic can be partially or fully demolished. And so the prior bylaw I believe Shawnee jump in if I'm incorrect, but the prior bylaw was very very very broad and kind of ambiguous and so they're trying to be very clear about what is the historic structure, who determines what a historic structure is. How long do people have to wait, what counts as demolition all of those questions CRC is wrestling with right now. And so that will be coming back to the council at some point. So CRC voted five zero to move it forward, recommending the changes I think the big changes also moving it from the zoning bylaw to a general bylaw. And that's because other towns do that and that's what's recommended by the higher state level historic commission. So that's highly recommended by the historic commission committee historic commission itself. So, so that's, yeah, so that's moving forward and for all practical purposes, what's considered a historic building is any building that's older than 50 years old. So that's going to be something to pay attention to, because 50 years is pretty young, and so that is something to to consider, and that I anticipate the council will have a lot of discussion about so that's another place where you can weigh in if you have thoughts. I know Adrian you just said that Orchard Valley has a lot of houses that are 60 years old. My house is historic. You've got Echo Hill you have some of the major developments in the 60s where all 50 years and plus so I applaud this, this new look at the demolition delay bylaw, and urge you to move expediently on it, because there are historic buildings and those of us down here we're not we're old but we're not too historic. And the other thing to consider is very soon I believe within 10 years, between 10 or 20 years most of Amherst Woods will be in that as well. So, so there's a lot, there's a lot of housing that there's, it'll be a real I'm really excited about this discussion I also want to give a lot of credit to specifically been breaker on the town staff but also our historic mission and Jane walled for those who know Jane, they worked incredibly hard on this and they deserve a lot of credit as well. So, we did this one already sorry I went backwards. Okay, so in our committees we kind of touched on this briefly but as a reminder Shalini and I both sit on town services and outreach. My, my reason for only taking one committee is that I do also serve as Vice President of the Council, and then Shalini is sits on the Community Resources Committee and so we talked briefly about these but we wanted to dig into a couple of them. So, please so shall me zoning priorities. Oh, this is fun to read. So, you can see that was my slide. Maybe I should put it up as, should I share my slide or make it bigger somehow, I could just share my Excel sheet. I think the basic idea over there is that we have a lot of in the Community Resources Committee there are a lot of important things we're working with especially related to zoning, right with respect to housing or climate action goals and so I'm just going to actually share my screen. It's easier that way. And the idea was how do we prioritize these. And so we created a matrix where we're prioritizing or starting to as a committee look at the different goals that we priorities based on our town goals. So let me just very quickly show you. Sure screen. Can everyone see that. So, and the yellow colored ones are basically coming from the town staff so they're color coded and oops. Yeah, so along here we have all the different legs, the flood map solar bylaw assessment and citing bylaw the design standards that we want to create for the BGBL there's article 14 from the news of whatever there's a demolition bylaw parking the housing zoning issues group living marijuana use so all the yellow colored parties are coming from the town staff. The blue ones are coming from, I believe it's the town, town council. And so housing was that the blue the comprehensive housing policy one. Oh yeah okay thank you so those are the comprehensive housing yet you're right. And so those are allowing owner duplexes I'm not going to go into details but the ideas that we're doing a lot of very interesting stuff here related to zoning. And the idea was to try and map this out along here with our climate action goals social justice and equity goals economic goals, affordable housing or comprehensive housing policy that we adopted as a council, and then see which ones like which we'll be working on. And so we try to as a group rate them on these different goals. And, and so that will drive what we really pay attention to. So that's kind of what we're doing here. So, I'm just being mindful of time we only have about an hour. No apology necessary I think we tend to get excited about all the things they know about. So, um, so the next thing up is the rental registration bylaw so we'll do a really maybe a really brief overview shiny and of the time the work. I think the big thing around the rental registration bylaw is again. Okay, so there is a work plan so if you want to participate in a particular again, you can see this was a slide I sent. So it's kind of myopic. This is available in the CRC packet, as well as like to see a clear the CRC packet from today from today. So April 28. If you look at the CRC and that way you can see what topic you might be interested in or just come because for the next like April 28, May 12, May 21, we will be discussing the rental registration bylaw and this tells you what aspect of the bylaw we're discussing and the overall reason for the sponsors to promote this bylaw is that we want to make sure that we are ensuring good quality housing. And, and right now our inspection is complaint turbine so only there's a complaint the house is inspected and often tenants don't know or don't have the power to complain. So a lot of housing good is not well maintained, but by instituting this in a good way we will have a regular inspection system in place. So I'm going to just stop there and this anyone has any questions so we do want to hear from residents landlords. And what, you know what, what would you like to see in the new registration bylaw that would ensure the quality of housing in your neighborhood. So the next step we're going to talk about parking and Johnny will talk through the bulk of it but essentially what this is. Yeah. Okay, I'm sure so let me know if I miss anything. Yeah, yeah. So we had, we had Jason skills who's our town engineer and billford morning from BPW come through to talk to us about how they make decisions about caving. And then I honestly did not know that I would be as intrigued, I should have guessed at this point I should know like even if it sounds boring I'm going to be really excited about it. But basically what they, what they do is they have this little car that they drive around and they've got all of these cameras on it and they do scans every few years they go around and do scans of our roads to figure out what we need what the priority areas are for paving. And then they change this is not necessarily predictable some because the freeze and thought cycles have shifted so much. For those of you who are down near me on Bay Road you know Bay Road was actually okay a couple years ago and then in this past winter Bay Road went right so. This is really what they're what they're looking for and they use something called a PCI which the pavement condition index, thrilling I know, and that gives you sort of the rating for the road. Lynn, don't shake your head at me, it is thrilling. So the, the roads in Amherst and this is a little fuzzy, but if you would like to look at this, you can find this slide deck in the, what month is it. This was April 21st town services and outreach packet. So you can see we are looking at some roads that are serious so if you look down here, that is Pomeran. And you can see where these roads that are in really serious condition are very poor condition etc etc. So, yeah Alice. We're down at where Applewood is, and the road is in Bay Road is in terrible condition. We have lots of potholes but it looks green there. I think this might be from. Oh you're talking about this stretch of Bay Road. I'm looking at Bay Road, near the Hadley line. Yeah, let me. But Bay Road was one of the roads identified for fixing in 2022. Yeah, I think the major part of it, Alice is right, is down here on the, where are we west, eastern side. Eastern side around Applewood, beyond Atkins toward Applewood is pretty bad. So I know the part you're talking about there is a little stretch of yellow in there it's kind of small to see on this map. So we had a really interesting conversation about how they're how they're scored and rated and so I would encourage you to look, zoom in on this and then look at the other some of the other streets around to because one of the things in our discussion we found that sometimes comparatively you look at the type of damage that there is right so potholes versus bumps and things like that it all that all plays into how it's rated. And if you don't think something is correct on our the list of paving, you can always reach out to to DPW to see if they when the last time they looked at it was because that was one of the other things they said was this past winter even really changed things from the last time it may be that it's relatively better than other places but it doesn't mean it's good. I know I know. And they also have a list sorry, I don't know if you're showing that I don't know what time you are. Yeah, I'll show you. Yeah, no I was just going to say that one thing that Gil from Moorings said which was very cool is that it, this whole software really allows us to remove the politics from paving paving, which I thought was really cool because now we have a very systematic way of looking at what deserves, you know, taking care of and it's not based on people who are making the most noise. Yeah, and the reason for that is because, you know, we look at this, look at that right so if we did all of our roads at one time. We would need 48 million hey Mindy do you have you have almost 49 million. I mean Mindy's great but that's just not realistic and so we need to we need to phase this it's it's not possible and then if we did it all at once we'd have to fix it all at once again in like five years so. Yeah. So noting this right we are we're doing okay I think we can do a little bit better than yellow, but looking at the, the length of pavement network that needs to to be fixed we have three miles that are considered very poor. And our two of those is Pomeroy, and we have 41 miles most of our right. Sorry, sorry, I think that might be what I'm mixing I always just. I saw Pomeroy, I did not see West Pomeroy. Pomeroy is pretty bad. So, Pomeroy is due for recon, am I right that's Pomeroy right down from yeah so Pomeroy is due for reconstruction, this is the suggestion map so suggested. You can see where these where pink is where complete reconstruction is yellow is mill and overlay so important to note in district five there's several sections that are recommended for mill and overlay. Green is we're going to hold off on it for now it will get done later but again we don't have 49 million dollars and blue is cracking crack seal or surface treatment. So that's when you see like this wriggly lines, let me fill it in. So worst roads. If anyone I was thinking about making trophies, but I decided not to. So worst roads as of spring 2022. Stony Hill Road takes the takes the win. And you can notice here at the square, square yard cost of repair right so when we interrupt you I'm so sorry, but it's worse roads but it's based on usage. Because I can tell you any number of roads and nothing gets us as worked up as roads. I would like to be clear that this is based on usage. It's not only usage but usage is a significant factor they take all about it so much on he was saying like it's not the politics of it. They actually it's really an equation which is, which is very cool. So these are the, the, this is what was done in 2022. So they've started. They worked on they did work on Bay Road a little bit. And they're working on Levitt Road Meadow Street, etc, etc. I know I'm going really fast. So in 2023, this is what they're hoping to, to work on as well. College Street, Stony Hill, old farm, etc, etc. So then 2023 preventative maintenance this is the ones that are not getting milled or not getting totally reconstructed. These are the ones that will be trying to defer or prevent sorry by doing small maintenance as well. So she street. Yeah, Nancy. And I can tell that you're really turned on by the technology here, which I love. It's like I remember the having a display of how they tell how much water is being used. And it is so accurate that they can tell when the Super Bowl, half time comes because everyone goes and flushes their toilet. Water use goes up. It's wonderful to watch. I love it. I just want to pass on to you in the hope that you may also be equally intrigued by what I recently learned about what's happening in some places in Europe in which they're using old plastic bottles to make a new plastic road surface. And I know I sent it to Lynn and I sent it to Paul and they both said, Yeah, we should look into that. Unfortunately, the company that's doing it is from the Netherlands and I don't know whether anybody here is doing it. What a, what a great opportunity to take care of the roads and get rid of plastic at the same time. So I leave it to you. That'll be your goal. I'll do that right after I get Wi-Fi to the full town. So the other, the other thing that we talked about in this that Nancy just reminded me of is how we can work on not just repaving in the same way that we've always been doing, but how can we do upgrades without totally breaking the bank. I'm trying to encourage us to do things like if folks know that reflective, the reflective paint that has like a shine on it when you paint the shoulder on places like Southeast Street and Bay Road. I would encourage them to do something like that for the safety of pedestrians and cyclists. The downside is that it's more expensive. And so it's one of the things that it would be, it's really important for us to understand how can we, when, if we're ripping up the whole road anyway, let's factor in improvements for specifically cyclists and pedestrians as well as we go. So that, that's a conversation that we are having at TSO. And we will continue to have and ask for as we come. Oh, I just see Tracy Zafian just joined us and Aaron is also here if they wanted to say anything, but also it can we do a time check because I think we announced the meeting from 6.30 to 8. Okay, we're good. Okay, so I wanted to just, I'm, this is really just an FYI, I'm not going to get into the budget process, but we are starting in on budget season. So a quick timeline, very simplified Lynn may want to fact check me on this because I could be very wrong. The deadline for the council to get the budget from the town manager is May 2. Typically it's May 1, but May 1 is a Sunday this year so we're giving him an extra day. So on May 2, the town manager has to give us the budget draft. This will not include the regional school budget and the reason for that is we are in a region with other towns that have town meeting and so we work with their schedules as well. So we're giving voting, I can say that word on the regional budget on May 2. That's at our council meeting on on May 2. So, all the rest of the budget will be draft to us, the regional budget will be voted on. We then refer it to the finance committee, which is comprised of council members and some resident members as well. The finance committee does the bulk of this budget work right so they review the budget, they hear presentations from each department, they hold a public hearing, usually I believe when that is joint with the council public hearing on the full budget, and then they report recommendations back to the full council within 30 days so they, they're planning on doing that even in fewer than 30 days they're saying that they're going to be done with that by May 26. On June 6, tentatively, we will hold a public hearing on the capital improvement program and the full budget, full operating budget. And then by June 30, we have to be done. So, I am sure Lynn wants us to be done far before June 30, but that is our deadline. So, to clarify, this is a huge long list but the reason I wanted to show you this is if you want to listen to specific departments talk about what they're asking for in this budget. This is the schedule for the, this can be found in the finance committee packet, I cannot remember the exact date when if you know it, but this is in the finance committee, the finance committee packet for for this last Tuesday. Last Tuesday, thank you. So, briefly want to remind you because as budget season approaches with what I have noticed is that people often do not understand what the council can do with budgets. So the town council can adopt the budget with or without amendments by June 30. We can only delete or decrease amounts, except for expenditures that Massachusetts or federal law requires, we cannot move line items around. I cannot say I am taking this money from trails, just because you know I would never do that. I'm going to take this money from trails and put it into paving. I'm excited I am about paving I still can't do that we gave the town manager guidelines, he builds the budget based on those guidelines, we can only say yes, yes, or fix it. We cannot tell him specifically what we want to see changed. So, as you make public comment just keep keep that in mind. We talked about this. Can I just mention to addendum to what you talked about. Right in here you can. The hearing is, but the hearing on the general budget is going to be at five o'clock on the 16th of May. Oh, 16th of May. All right, don't look at my slides and get there wrong. Thank you. It was scheduled for the 16th of May, during the regular council meeting, but because it took almost two hours maybe more last year. We've decided to schedule it earlier in the, in the evening at five. And then the other thing is there is one item in the budget that we actually can increase and that is the elementary school budget. So we can do that by two thirds vote my right. That's correct. Got one right. So yeah if we if we do increase elementary school budget we would need to do it by two thirds margin. Thank you. Yeah, thank you. And can we point out I think Rosemary and others who are interested in the working with the senior center that the senior center senior center related discussion is on 17th May at 1045. So I want to. I think fast one that we're going to turn it over to Mindy in like three minutes Mindy you're on. So upcoming events around town just things to note and not miss farmers market is open, which is really exciting. I was away last weekend and I'm so excited to get there this weekend. This Saturday, April 30 is town, it's town cleanup day. There'll be various locations around town to do some pickup. I will be at graph park Shawnee I think you're going to you're going to be a graph. Yes, we are. And then after the pickup, which I believe is that 10 on the town common there will be on the common right here. And that's where you can clearly see this I'm pointing out my window will be a celebration as well put on by the chamber and the bid. And that you can register for the cleanup part on the Amherst engage website. May 1 the Jones library has an open house. They are hoping that you will come help us envision the future of the new library so from 12 o'clock to two o'clock you can drop in at any point please come I'll be there. So a lot of other counselors are attending as well. Yeah, I think it's a really good opportunity for us to envision together what we want to see and they're going to have different tables related to climate action goals towards us, you know, team programming, or so whatever ideas you have bring your young ones and, and participate in this fund and there's going to be childcare, I believe from 12 to one available. I think is having their grand opening on May 2, I will say if you were able to go last week to, or this week to any of the shows I went on Tuesday, it's beautiful. It's, it's really going to be such an amazing community resource so I encourage you to support them on. I know that I had some some bears hanging out at my house last week and our Shawl and he's had some bears and on May 4, we have a web bear in our, which is very funny. And that is with Dave waddles who's from the black bear and fur bearer biologist from Department of Division of Fish and Wildlife. Yeah, no, no, no, I was just, I was just so excited about it because suddenly I see in my backyard and we never, I've never, ever, ever seen a bear for real and it's there and was just so relaxed. It seemed like it was comfortable having people around because I stepped out to pictures my cat came and it was just looked at us and walked by. But I think the focus of the talk with them is how can we cohabit because we live in bear country or bear area so how do we cohabit with bears and I think that's a really important thing for us to learn with children they're playing outside or now we're going to have composting outside on the streets or garbage so you know how do we work and live peacefully and in harmony with our bears. How do we make it so the bears aren't super comfortable with us around the walk away. So I bears are my second favorite first or second favorite animal depending on the day I adore them and I, it's really challenging for me because I all I want to do is just hug it and I know that it doesn't want to be hooked. All right, so the elementary school building committee has another public engagement opportunity may fit at 630pm so it encourage you if you go to the elementary school building committee website you can register for that. And then the last thing this is a short list there's so much happening y'all the cup of Joe with Paul and the finance director Sean Mangano specifically about the budget is May 6 at 830am that is via zoom. So, so consider attending these as well. So I think that's another really great opportunity in a very informal setting to talk with Paul one and one about what's going on why are you doing this or not doing this or what can we do. So I think the cup of Joe is a great time to in a small setting talk with him about finance. I forgot this I'm sorry. Martha. Yes. Okay, thank you. Yes, our league is going to host a community wide reception that's for everybody in Amherst to welcome our new leadership for crests and the diversity equity and inclusion. Some of you probably already met the new crest director, Earl Miller, who was just such a bundle of energy. He's just amazing. The DEI leader director has not been hired yet, but apparently there are now candidates who would love to come and work with Earl Miller and, and, and so I think there's going to be a good suite of candidates and our own Jennifer the assistant DEI director she's apparently you know she's been doing the job behind the scenes for two years you know he's just terrific but we want this to be a time when everybody can come. However, there is a correction we had a meeting today and decided we would change the time to be from three to 5pm and that's because that's a big climate action event on the town common that ends at two, and we wanted not to conflict with them. So, we have the park reserved, we're going to have music we're going to have free food. And he would like to ask you folks to just publicize this any way you can we'll have a. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, we'll have a corrected one of one of those. I'm going to bite to hopefully by tomorrow to surround but and I will be sending out an official invitation to the town council members to attend, and so on and we've already, I've already talked with Paul and Jennifer and Earl about it. And we really hope that a lot of people will come to help celebrate because it really is a new beginning for this town. And, and I think it's really important that people get excited about it. And I frankly think anybody who meets her will be excited. I'm going to hit the ground running and has not stopped. He's doing a phenomenal, phenomenal job. Yes, yeah, but I mean people have been working very hard on this for 18 years. And, and so it's finally be really beginning to come to fruition. It's still a long process to go but, and so we're, of course, we'll be asking the town council to really make a good commitment financially for the next fiscal year. And to support Crest as it gets going and so on and to, to support the the DDI director and, you know, then to work on proposals about to increase funding and so on and, and so forth but we think it's really important for the community overall to hear from the council that yes there's a commitment for the longer term. And if you agonize over finances you don't want it to come across as your negative about the program because of the finances which is, which has come across sometimes before with to some people at least so. Anyway, so please please come. And yes, we will get the corrected announcement out shortly. Yeah, and we owe so much gratitude to the Community Safety Working Group and generally local activists for for supporting this as it's gone ahead as well. So, I don't know how to erase my annotations, but oh I know how to erase my annotations. So, briefly we've got a couple of pending and current vacancies so zoning board appeals we really really need people. So folks who might be interested in zoning board of appeals, or the solar bylaw working group. These are two that have current vacancies and then we have potential upcoming vacancies on planning boards and folks cycle off their third term comes up so full list of vacancies for other committees which there are plenty of ways to get involved so if you want to add something to your already impressive list of civic engagement that is, that is the way to do it. Would you like to tell us what's happening at the State House. Sure, but would you like to tell me how much time I have. Could you do it in five to seven. We have a budget. We passed the budget last night well first of all hi everybody. There's a couple updates redistricting will go into effect in terms of state rep districts and Senate districts in January, not before. I just want to stress that on the third Hampshire district includes Pelham until December 31, and also includes Amherst and half a Granby. After January 1 it will continue to represent all of Amherst and half a Granby, but not Pelham. And so just keep that in mind, Senator Cumberford district changes a little bit but she still represents all of Amherst now and later. But I really want to stress that because I think there's a lot of confusion on the part of residents thinking that the new districts are in effect right now they're not. Although the elections that will happen in September November are for the new districts. So, if you lived in Pelham, you'd be seeing me at the Pelham library in September but you wouldn't have a chance to vote for me on September 6 so keep that in mind. I am on the ballot so thank you everybody. I am running for reelection I'm just going to take a moment to say that we the house did pass a budget last night. Thank you, Sean. And it is close it's so the budget processes the governor gives us his budget. While he's crafting his budget the House and the Senate hold these joint hearings and bring in the governor's departments and they tell us how much they think they need and for what purpose. And they also the House and the Senate determine come to consensus on what they think the revenue is going to be for the year so how much money do they have to spend and they also hear from the governor, what he wants to do. Usually I'm told in the past, the house just like copy and pasted the governor's budget and little tweaks here and there that did not have that has not happened since I've been there. And it certainly didn't happen this time they basically did not use the governor's budget as a model for most departments. And I am, I have to tell you, I am so proud of this budget and I had so little to do with it but nonetheless I am so proud that we have this kind of budget in this budget. So the house goes first when it concerns money, our budget process started in January. So as part of that process I met with the chair of House Ways and Means, I told him what my statewide priorities were and what my local priorities were. Here's that from as many reps who want to schedule one on one meetings with them so not everybody does but a lot of us do. Then he kind of hears about what's going on in the state. He's hearing from us he's hearing from the speaker. He developed he and his staff develop a budget which they presented to us about 10 days ago. We have an unbelievably short period of time to create amendments it's like it turned out to be like two and a half days because of Good Friday. So on a Wednesday, we have till Friday at five to submit amendments and these are all kinds of amendments for statewide programs local priorities, otherwise known as earmarks, etc. And then his staff over that weekend through school vacation week, sort through all those amendments and categorize them by topic or like department like environment, education, early education and childcare public health, judiciary basically following like the joint committee structure. And then this past week, we go and we advocate for our amendments in a room, it can be a virtual room but it's also an actual room. And each, each legislator gets to make their pitch for why their amendments should be completely funded. And then they take all those amendments in that category. All together in a consolidated amendment, and basically, they pick and choose which ones are going to go in the consolidated and which aren't so you're not going to get all your amendments but where did you go. So generally speaking when we get the consolidated for the most part, a lot of times I search and look for words like Amherst, Pellum, Randy, depending on what amendments I put in. And this year I also put in some statewide so I go, you know, extension service, things like that. And you can see what comes back. And then generally speaking, since we will have a good opportunity to advocate for these amendments. We don't vote against the consolidated amendment because it is what it is, you can vote against it but it's still going to go through and it's our job to make a budget. The budget, meaning the last consolidated amendment. Last night, the budget is close to $50 billion. It will go to the Senate, they will add a ton of money after a couple years in the state house I now understand the process. The state, you know the house goes first, and we're a little bit more cautious, just because the house is cautious to tell you the truth. We're a little bit more careful about not spending money we don't have. And members don't get that much money to do earmarks because there's 160 of us. I actually think they should give us each a million bucks and just take 160 million off the top but nobody's going for that idea. When it goes to the Senate, they get a lot more money, because there's only 40 senators, and the joke is everybody is a chair in the Senate, which isn't actually a joke everybody is a chair in the Senate so they can all direct resources to them. But that's good because when you've got a great relationship with your senator like I do if there's a local earmark that didn't get funded in one house. I can say to I can advocate with Joe to say, is this something you'd be interested in doing. And she'll pick it up sometimes and move it forward, if she hasn't already got her list of local priorities. So the Senate will work on theirs towards the end of May. It'll be different than ours, it'll be a lot more money than ours and there'll be things that we won't want things that we will want they'll have to go to conference. The Senate will come up with a brand new identical budget, and then it goes to the governor, he either signs it, or, and it goes into law. He vetoes the whole thing, or he vetoes parts of it. In the past couple years, he's made a lot of line item vetoes, the house has come back in and so is the Senate we overrode every single one. This year I think it's going to be a matter of timing because if he, if we're very late, which we weren't we were actually early. So if we're very late, and he waits the full 10 days before he has decided it could potentially be when we're in recess. And recess this year is a reelection recess, so people aren't going to really want to come back. And that means the session clock will tick, and we'll have to come back in January as a whole new body and re pass the budget and we override them, which can happen but hopefully it won't. So let me just tell you a couple of things if I have a couple minutes to have I think I have two more minutes. So being from New York is now coming in handy in terms of the speed with which I'm talking. So the budget is about $50 billion. I want to tell you some of the things that are in it. We're spending $10 million for universal school meals. We didn't have to fight for that the budget came to us with the chairman of ways of means hearing that this was important to every district in the state, and he put it in. Awesome Amherst benefits from this superintendent Mike Morris sent a letter in advocating for this. There's another thing that was baked in in the budget that we received no cost phone calls for people who are incarcerated. The best way you want to prevent recidivism is you keep people in jail connected to their community. How do they do that through phone calls right now up until this budget passes. We charge folks in jail and arm and a leg for phone calls so much so that they can't afford it. This takes that out. It says there's there's a fund it's going to pay for it and it orders sheriffs to come up with a plan that's not going to gouge the state so it's good news. It bans child marriage, another big get. There's a genocide education trust fund that was funded at $500,000 this is big we passed a law this year to make sure that genocide education happen in schools. Some teachers were upset because it was like unfunded mandate, how are they going to get training, we've now endowed a trust fund, so they can get the training to be able to do that when you look at what's going on in the world. I'm actually here with you today it's Holocaust Remembrance Day. It's clearly an important thing to have a genocide education program in our schools so that students and Massachusetts residents can see the signs of fascism and respond accordingly. It's a common app for state benefits. This has been something that we've been fighting for for a long time. Right now, if you're a person with limited income, and you want to call and you want to apply, and you got convinced that it's okay to apply for food stamps, social assistance, mass health, a whole bunch of state programs, you have to fill out like 10 different very complicated applications, ridiculous barrier, a really significant barrier, when a computer program could figure it all out and say what you're what you're qualified for in this budget, a common app is being paid for. Another one, a half a million dollars for abortion care and services infrastructure. Another one that I love that I've been advocating for this year a great deal is, we don't allow young adults to access HIV prevention medicine without a parental consent so right now, sit right now for the past decade or so we've had excellent HIV prevention in the form of a pill. But if you're a young adult, you can't get that with that parental permission which means you have to disclose to your parent, why you think you need HIV prevention and that could either be you don't want to disclose your sexual orientation or you don't want to disclose your sexual activity. We don't make teenagers do that to get STD services. For that we treat them as emancipated adults so it's a real way of shaming quite frankly young gay adults. So in this budget, we included, there's legislation that Jack Lewis from Framingham has been introducing for the past three terms, we included his legislation that allows young adults to get HIV prevention without a parental consent. Here's why I think this is important and why I've been advocating for it with what's going on in the world right now or not the world. Let's think about just the country. We've got don't say gay happening in curriculum in Florida. We've got in Texas they're criminalizing parents who are trying to get gender reforming healthcare for their transgender kids. And we've got, you know, sort of these efforts across the country to really shame and silence LGBT adults and kids, and not only shame and silence but erase them. They're not there. They're not going to be in the history books. They're not going to be on the books in the library shelf. That's kind of scrub the country clean. I really feel like at this point in Massachusetts, the legislature has to be extremely proactive in saying we see you in every way that we can. So this legislation says it to young adults. I also have been advocating for the healthy youth act for the same reason, but advocating for gender X the bill that I have in to put in a non binary gender marker on every state form and application for the same reason because I really feel we have to do something it's not enough just to say oh we're great we're Massachusetts that that's not going to happen here. And although I don't know if you heard there's a there's a lawsuit happening around parents requiring that they find out if their child in school is asking to be referred to by a different gender, and they're suing the school system for this. So it's happening, we have to respond we have to respond saying we're protecting people we're keeping we're making sure that people are safe in schools, safe at work, safe in the library, wherever. Do I have one more minute or did I go over. I think I went over. What, what about East West Rail, maybe. Okay well I can do. Well, we'd like to call it West East Rail. Yeah we do that's true West. I'm not sure if that's actually going to get us West East Rail. So I'm a, I'm a, I actually, I don't care what we call it as long as we get it. I actually am willing to say that's called the Baker Express, as long as it happens. And I'm not a big fan of Baker so. Let's, we'll have to see what happens. I mean I think that we met with, we've been meeting with the Congress people from the area and the governor and Neil, because there is a lot of federal infrastructure money coming in we want to make sure that Western mass rail is included in it. We had this meeting with the governor on this week, where I think he tried. So, this is being recorded so where I think he indicated to us. The good news is he indicated to us that in order for us to get this federal money. We would be in a good position to get it or we'd be competitive if we had a rail authority, which we don't have in Western in anywhere in the Commonwealth. He also told us that his staff and man start have been working up rail authority options. That we asked him why it wasn't included in the transportation bond that has come before the legislature, and he indicated that he didn't want to spoil it because the legislature never goes along with what he asks for. I'm afraid if we put it in the bond, then we would reject it. So, we'll be working with mass dot to see what they have done since they apparently have a lot of research on this. And the other piece of it is we asked about sustainable streams for revenue for it because the infrastructure money will help to build it, but it may cost several million, you know, like 30 $50 million a year to maintain it. Some legislators have all different ideas about this. Some people want some percentage of the sales tax to be generated come back to Western mass other people have other ideas. And the governor also has an idea about how to sustain it, but he's not telling us yet. He's going to check with his staff. He said I have an idea but I don't want to say because sometimes I get in trouble if I say so he's going to talk to a staff so I hope he tells us soon what his idea is for sustaining revenue. Okay, so the good news is he seemed interested in rail. He's dedicated staff time to rail. He has an idea about sustainable revenue sources for rail and to be continued. Thank you so much for all of your, your work and your advocacy. Thank you. I'll speak for myself to say I'm very excited to see your name on the ballot again. So, oh, thank you for continuing to be willing to serve. I also just say Nancy Eddie please send me that article on the plastics for roads in my position on the end with committee I'd like to see how they recycle it. Thank you. Thanks. Send it to me too. I apologize that we went over I'm happy to stick around for a little bit if folks do want to have any questions. I will we will keep working on our timing I think we get really excited about all of this stuff and then forget that the point is really open time so I'm having a round. And again, to reach us you can always email us. I'm going to be starting up my outdoor office hours every Friday from 430 to six for right now I'll be on the South Amherst Common. I got a tent. So rain or shine I will be hanging out. And if you've noticed, there are now tables when don't laugh at me I got a 10. And so, so there are tables there now. And I'd love to come talk to me and come hang out so unless it's light naming, then I will not be there, thunderstorming that's the term. Not laughing at you I love your. Thank you. It's been a really interesting meeting. I want to record the next few meetings, but the money calendar May 26 is informal ish meeting all meetings informal but there'll be informal office hours, May 26 and then June 23 will be the next formal district five meeting, and then July 28 again office hours. And on, I think in June, on June 23, we plan to invite crest crest director to the, so please spread the word and please let other people know, tell them to write to us so we can add them to our email list and invite more and let more and more people know that we're here for them. Okay. Thank you all so much Martha. Yeah, I just asked you all. We appreciate your good work. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Is the council planning to continue hybrid meetings so that the public can zoom in and make comments. Yes, although I hope the state does pass the ability to continue to meet virtually for all bodies. But if we go back as of July 15 to meeting in person, we will also have the zoom available. That's for the total council meetings. What we can't afford is for the community. It's just, yeah, for all the committees. Yeah, it's both in person and virtual. An IT person very close by all the time. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. And as always, we welcome feedback and ideas what he would like to spend more time on in our time together, or any changes you would recommend maybe next time we'll go back to the old ways of doing the zoom meeting where you can chat and with a chat box and So we'll try that again, as opposed to a webinar. So please write to us. Thank you all so much. Feel free to stick around or drop off every wonderful rest of your week. Hope to see you sometime this weekend at farmers market or the cleanup. Thanks. And I hope that almost every person who attended tonight is a League of Women voters member. Right Adrian. I'd like to give a shout out to Shalini and to Anna and of course to our president for being here. But Mindy, if you're still with us, I so appreciate your newsletters. Some, some newspapers have a beacon call. We do not in this area, but thanks to your newsletters, we say a prize of not only your activism, but your passionate support for a lot of things that at least I support and cheer you on. You may not always hear from me, but cheers to you Mindy keep up the good work on behalf of Adrian. Thank you so much. That's that that feedback means everything to me. Thank you so much. Thank you. You have questions. Feel free to hang out with them. Otherwise, have a great day. I'm going to hang out for a little bit because I want to bring something to both of your attention. Is that all right? Adrian, do you want to say something? And I do. Anna and Shalini, if you have another minute, I would like to pass something by as well. Yeah, go for it. Adrian, do you want to go first? I don't want to cut in line in front of you. Well, just the following. It goes back to Amherst media. And the very full discussion you had Monday night. So I was not part of the contract between Amherst media and the town. I was very much involved in the entire negotiations with the Comcast lawyers. And our team on the cable advisory committee. I would ask both of you, Shalini and Anna to take a look at the responsibility of the town. And with our partner for a, what is it now, six to eight weeks in helping find a place for Amherst media. I know there is a split decision among the counselors in terms of whose responsibility it is. But I urge you to take a look at the Comcast contract between the town. The Comcast and Amherst media to take a look at the fine print there in terms of supporting to the end of this contract period. Amherst media's and the town's responsibility to the citizens. Not where we're going and not where we're going in the future. We owe our channel 1712 and 15 or peg channels in providing these services to the town now and through the contract. So I urge you to do that. Thank you. And as you know, I spoke advocated for our support of the town. But if you have a specific line because I remember reading and it's in the contract very specifically said that if you're looking at it just legally that the that Amherst media is responsible for finding a location. But I feel that the work they do is so important and they're in a difficult spot and we should work with them. But I don't know if I'm hearing you say that the contract says that the town is responsible for finding a location is that what you were saying now. She's being very specific. That sounds to me like the town's not responsible but the town is responsible to the residents to make sure that there is these services available is that what you're saying Adrian. Point on perfect. Thank you, Mindy. I was not clear. Absolutely. Okay, so if they don't have a location and they can't provide the services then the town is responsible. Okay, and we cannot jump ahead to the 2026 contract that issue is not on the table now. It's what is the responsibility and Mindy you know that through the league. We and with your help and with all the new counselors. We embarked on a production with Amherst media with Stan and myself. Really highlighting I mean the so the fact is I don't want to see them out and dry. It's a matter of fairness. It's a matter of matter of obligation to our citizens for this contract period so thanks for hearing me out. Yeah, no that makes sense. Thank you. Thank you for that support shall only as I said I know there's a split decision. And that's all I have to say. I think you're going to be recruited for that commission. Yes. Your name is on my note. Thank you everybody. Thank you. Thank you. Good night. Good to see you. Good night. I don't want to put too much on your list but I wanted to follow up on something I mentioned to you last summer that I've been that I forwarded to the town manager which is around the broken railings on the bridge. And so I had, so the people who run the Amherst mobile market over at boulders south point. The first people to show it to me because they were concerned about the family members who go to graph park and sometimes don't realize that the pedestrian bridge is for them. So I ended up walking on the street and not only is it an ice words dangerous. And there was also a point around sidewalks and access to graph park for people who might be walking there, not driving there which I know sounds ridiculous because, but it seemed to be last summer that it was much more common to people who had cars than people who were walking with them. So I think when I brought it to the town manager I suggested that they put a sign by the pedestrian bridge that's in two different languages and English and Spanish. That says something like this is your bridge, you know you this is not private property because you know when you're on no lane. There's a little sign that says private property, say off so if I would think that would bridge to so some kind of signage that says use this bridge because that'd be the same. The other railings were going to be fixed but now I'm hearing that that may not be happening so I just wanted to bring it to your attention because I think you met. Anna and I, did you meet with them with the mobile market folks about it last summer. She talks to me a lot. Yeah, we talked to them. It wasn't an official meeting but she did talk to us about it. You know, I, so last summer I was told that this would be fixed in the spring. So when I know April comes around and I sent an email just said do you have a schedule for when the work will start. And I know we don't know when it'll be completed because whether etc. You know when will it start and I was told it may not, you know, but the indication was, I don't think I actually was told it's not going to start then spring, but there wasn't a date. So I just want to, I want to bring it to your attention. No, thank you. I was told and maybe Tracy you know the answer to this more than I do but I am not one of the issues was that 116 was not maintained by or not fully maintained by the town that's. I asked, this is a question that I asked last year and I said, you need help with the state because it's 116. Right. No, but that's it's a state road. I mean it's a town road all the way to the notch from downtown. Right. And so the town controls it. Yeah. So I was told it's not. And I offered I said, you know, can I can I help with either on the state side with the meeting. I was told it's, you know, they've got it. Well, and the DPW has the plans to like improve along Mill Lane to the park. Like to finish the work that was on East Hadley Road. Right. The railing has come up before though. The bailing is important. Tracy isn't getting better by it. There's also that one area to like near. Like on the other side of the street, like we're across the little bridge, you know, where there was a, I mean that's, I've heard that's getting fixed though. On like closer to like to the Pomeroy intersection, like sort of near the USDA building in the Hampshire, because right everybody was being directed. Like concrete barricades there to go. I mean that's been there forever. I've heard that that's getting fixed like the, but I know people bring up the railing. I haven't heard anything definitive that the railing will be fixed. I haven't either. No, I haven't either. I'm trying to remember who told me this now because I thought that the reason that we were given was that it wasn't the town didn't maintain that bridge that that was a state road and so clearly that's not true. That's a town road, my understanding, all the way to the notch. So like, for example, like Pomeroy, but that's the thing is I think the bridge could be different. I can give you the, so the, the information I have is it's because I guess it's called the West street bridge, right. DPW needs to submit its application to the conservation commission to get the proper permits to perform the work and determine any restrictions. And then the timeframe I heard was it'll be happening shortly. So I guess I'm not necessarily I'm just bringing to your attention because I know I talked with you about it last spring when I first heard about it, since both of you were the council people. So I just wanted to bring you up to date rather than forward. So I take a moment and just bring you up to date now and say again, if there's anything I can do to help if it turns out that it's a state issue. Maybe because it's a bridge. I don't know. But I'm wondering if that, you know, but it sounds like it has to go to the con con too, right. So it has to anyway, because it's water, right. But it's, but I don't think it's a state issue because I haven't been told that but I'm here. I'm sure you're right. I don't know why. But there is an issue about, I mean some of the other improvements. I mean DPW is weighted on some of the money. So I guess the question is do they have the money for the bridge yet. So that one feels like a health and safety, you know, no, of course. I mean, you know more than, more than, I don't know, but yeah. All right, I'm going to write an email to Paul and ask, and I'll get clarity and then you'll follow up. Yeah, can you talk to me too. Yeah, we had. Thank you very much. But again, it's an offer that's out there that if I can be of any assistance. If there is a state angle to this, which I don't think there is, but if there is, please let me know. Well, thank you. Thank you. And thank you. Thanks for tonight. The two of you. Yeah, sorry. Yeah, I think you're like the only ones you were having like regular meetings almost well physics re sometimes and I thought that was a council thing sort of. We only have to do two a year. Oh, well there you go. Yeah. I think we need more than once a month because I can talk for 20 hours and up pavement. Well, so I was actually so girlfriend morning came to attack tonight and was presented that again. Oh yeah. So, and we asked him more questions and stuff. Was there any questions about the section of Bay Road by the Hadley line by Applewood. We didn't talk about that. We didn't. It's not a lot of conversation. At our PSO and either, but tonight folks were like, no, that section's really, really bad. And I just wasn't sure if it was one of those like it happened after the last scan, kind of like the other part of it. So one thing that's interesting too is so my neighbors, because I'm near root nine and root nine, the root nine, the west part of root nine right it's all kind of now. Not very good right now and. And so I was shared with them and somebody said, well, when are they ever going to fix our like my street, of course, everybody's always about my street street, but. So I shared with them the 2000, I mean, or somebody in the neighborhood sent the 2017 scan with the pavement condition index, the PCI. And because the person had done that and they said, well, are they ever going to update it and then I shared because I thought the presentation Jason did was so good. I shared it with my neighbors and then somebody said, well, the, that my street, Blue Hills Road is actually that the it's rating in improve significantly. Like from 2017 to now and they haven't done any work on our street. So my neighbors are like, do I believe this? Like, did you just like change the evaluation criteria? I'm wondering like fewer people are on it or something. I mean, some parts of the road are really not good at all. I'm not a lot of cut through your mass traffic so the northbound direction is significantly more ripped up than the southbound. You know, that raises an issue like I wonder if there was a usage part variable and there was. I wonder if roads get so bad that using other roads that the roads that they are deferring from end up looking better on the scans because. Well, I mean my neighbors are like, do we even believe this because now you're telling me it's like well it was a C and now it's in B plus and like how did that happen because I can't pull that over academic. In this budget, just say I want 49 million for Amherst roads and just see what happens. Yeah, I'll put that in I think there's 30 million for an elementary school a little bit here a little bit there pretty soon we're talking about real money. Yeah, so. Yes, I mean I'm hoping that the DPAW. So, I mean it is available I guess through the YouTube like through the YouTube channel but it'd be nice if they actually put it up like front and center that they were good. It's a good presentation. Yeah, I thought it was really an answer a lot of questions I mean a lot of people. You know really do say what about my street or whatever so it always says to give them some it's good to have database decisions. Yeah, I think it would be really good if they could really clearly articulate sort of what the equation is though because I do think you're still going to have people that are like my street still terrible it's not even on right like I think it's important to know like it's not just a number of potholes. No, sure. They talk about that in the presentation but it's not like it's on slide and I always been aware of like when you just put slide decks up so much. Oh yeah no I mean you definitely want some of the conversation to. Yeah, they did clarify it's the main roads and like amongst the bad streets, the way they prioritize is based on the high traffic high volume. That's actually a question. So I know for TSO that they have a, like a policy, you know related to like parking requests and things and it's like whether it's an arterial or not but so there's certain roads that are not considered like the major roads, the arterial, the collectors, but in the town's database they call them higher level roads because they want them to get repaid more often like Lincoln or something that is like supposed to be more of a neighborhood street but it's also like a sort of priority street, so they bump it up in the rating but then you wouldn't want it to be considered like a higher level like a collector street when it's really more of a neighborhood street. But just for paving priority they'll bump it. And the real, and the thing too I mean what I feel my neighbor is that if you look at the capital budget I mean typically it's only like two to three miles of road a year get repaved. And we have like over 100 miles road. There are 100 town owned miles. And so you're you're just in the queue you like you can't get them all. So like 41 of them are are like need to be prioritized. Like that's the, yeah. Anyway, anyway. Yeah, thank you both so much. I appreciate it. I just wanted to. So I had some of the information on the prom a project. Yeah, you did. Did you get my email back. I said that. Yeah, you were going to ask about when it goes to the council. I'm not sure is it. So the day I see they were pretty happy about it. I mean they were overall happy but they continue. I mean I think that the one lane roundabouts are just really I mean they are so much safer than other types of intersections you cannot. You can have rear end crashes and you can have some smaller types of interactions and some people are going too fast and they end up in the roundabout, like in the center roundabout but you cannot. You can have the crashes that really hurt people right so in one of those forums. There was a woman who the teacher from Amherst Montessori who got hit like crossing the road. They're running red lights and like he crashes on all those really serious crashes where aren't there fatal crashes you could not have those it's small roundabouts. Like it's like impossible. And so. And so they are planning to put the rectangular rapid flashing beacons like at each of the approaches, which I think is good and then Guilford also said as I noted in my email that they're also putting. They have the crosswalk across the street, like to the USDA building because people had mentioned that too because there's offices and apartments and the gymnastics. So that will be good to have that connection I did ask him about what will people accelerate like what happens sometimes with roundabouts as you get out of the turn. People are like zoom, like even doubted people worry about that a triangle to it's like you just want to speed up the minute you're out of the curve. He said it's 300 feet so hopefully it will still be wider. So I mean, they seem pretty happy with it. I mean a question with the rectangular, like flashing beacons is whether it will all be maintained because the DC has done inventories downtown where And a lot of like there just aren't that many that have audible signals like there's a whole bunch downtown that are supposed to and some of them. They aren't maintained and then other ones the neighbors complain and then DPW turns them down and says, I mean it's like how you decide what's a priority and what's not a priority and I used to live in Indiana Pennsylvania when I was in grad school and their audible signal was Jimmy Stewart talking because Jimmy Stewart's from Indiana Pennsylvania and so it was literally it's scared the Jesus out of me the first time I heard it because it goes This is Jimmy Stewart, it is now safe to cross the street and that's the whole thing and like I'm not kidding and scared the crap out of me the first time I heard it. Like we should just get like, this is Emily Dickinson, you may not proceed. Oh yeah, there you go, you could do them they have little controllers. No, maybe you don't like it would have to be more like this. This is Emily Dickinson, the curve walking the curve. I'm a curve. I was doing a study once right there's a senior center like right next to one of those crosswalks and I mean if you have your windows, I mean it is a little annoying but we don't actually most of those downtown crosswalks don't actually have like residential properties right there. It's not like. So far away that's far away. I mean I'm really glad that promise fixed I mean I think they need to do the project like this season right because I know I mean when I finally inventoried it and I saw like how bad it it's so bad there. It's so terrible awful there's no cross there's no pedestrian crosswalks or anything it's yeah. I don't know coming back before us. That was my question because I thought I don't think it really needs to I don't think I will. I don't think it will but I'm glad that it's going forward. I'm going to go for it I've asked him before, because like the state duty they always follow the process of they have the 25% design, then they have the 75% design they're required to have them. And I brought up once I was like so what does the town do and he's like we don't do that. If we don't, we don't solicit public input, like, it's like, okay. Anyway. So the one thing was a Myra Ross is still concerned that people who are experts on disability access like weren't consulted. And so, like for example when you like when you look at the research on roundabouts and roundabout safety, like some of the travel trainers and specialists who work with like say Mass Commission for the blind or something they'll tell people to stay away from certain roundabouts, if they don't feel like they're that safe, particularly because the traffic is never halted 100% unless you have like an actual stop there. And so, and the one at like triangle, the one at Kendrick Park is really bad. If you, if you try to walk all the approaches like as like pretend that you're like an excessively challenged person, it's terrible there's the ones where you have to cross like five lanes to islands and make like an angled turn like how is that even know I did run there the other day and I was like, oh my gosh, I don't know where I'm going. So is there a solution to see to that. So I mean so she's brought it up a number of times I mean the rest of the committee seemed like it would be pretty good she just wants to have confidence that it is safer. So I think Maureen Pollack was going to reach out and see there basically there's no money to ask for a consultant at this point, according to Guilford and so they were going to see if anybody would just like evaluate it a little bit for free or something and give it their blessing and Do you think someone at UMass or MS College that specializes in that? Well I think you want it, I mean that's there are people at UMass you've done studies on improving and about accessibility for visibly impaired people but I think I do think it makes sense to look at like the disability like community community more just because they're taking it from that perspective and I think that that's what would make Maureen feel comfortable she's not going to feel comfortable like a sighted researcher like telling her like an engineer know less probably right is telling her what is good and what is not good so So Tracy I think speaking generally though do you think that seeking opinion from DAC is sufficient or should we be consistently building into budgets disability consultants to Because we rely on DAC a lot and they're right but they are also not necessarily always professionals in that space either so They aren't they are professionals like they'll tell you right I mean I think yeah I don't know that's a good question I mean I would I mean I think that they and they do have staff and stuff too and I don't I mean that might be a good question for them but I don't think you need to necessarily build it into the budget Do you want me to find out if MassDOT has technical assistance they could That would be amazing Could you send me an email requesting that on end Shaul and you just say you know is that doesn't because actually that would be a good thing for MassDOT to have is a technical assistance department on Access and disability for Well so they have like MassMobility so Rachel Fitchinbaum who I talk with pretty regularly so MassDOT helped create MassMobility And she does a lot of presentations around the state on improved accessibility and different programs and travel training and all those things and MassMobility was originally funded through the MassDOT budget So there are some programs out there So but yeah I mean so I think I mean it should be good I guess when they get it done But I am so I am still concerned about Kendrick Park I mean I know there's the public hearing on that it's the same night as the forum the elementary school Because that's how meetings work But I mean I'm concerned just like Gufford had said that there's no money in the DPW budget like to do any improvements And call many traffic near North Pleasant Street and then it came up at the council meeting and said well what about can't you do anything can you Make it a one-way street can you move the parking or anything and and it seems at that meeting it seemed like Gilford's response was like no we can't do anything at all But I would really I mean I'm seeing a lot of kids at the park and I'm seeing somebody was telling me they see families actually pull over and like drop their kids off on the park side to go park because there's not that much parking in the area I mean so It'd be great if there could be some commitment to do something more than nothing I mean until you do that there's still going to be a cut through street and like all these other things so even if there's not money to do big construction improvements I would hope that there could be something for a little bit of traffic calming and safety Including moving the parking to the other side I think Yeah so there must be best practices for that traffic calming things like I have a whole plan The whole plan was written out the issue is that they're saying they can't fund it this year And then the question is I guess there's also a question just about the quality looking at the pavement conditions like the quality of the pavement there isn't good enough to do like say paint like stripe parking meter spaces or something But if you look currently on the west side of the street there's almost no markings there I mean people park there and there's not like tons of So I don't know And I need to I mean I do think the EPW's work plan is very full But I think just like on behalf and we don't know for sure that it would even be a next year's work plan Right because of the money is an issue the money could be an issue next year so It's just with all those people using the park and it is getting a lot in the playground it is getting a lot of use like what can be done Okay I don't know Can I just quickly submit the menu before you go just quickly Can I circle back because I just found the email and I'll forward it back to you But the last discussion that happened with Paul about the bridge seemed to be on August 15th where he said that He sent a link to the plans and the put so the DPW put together plans and which shows the improvements we want and they won't happen for a while we need to get the funds But our engineers are working on it How many when did you say that one? August 15th 16th last year To me or to you Shalini? You know that no it was he so he forwarded to me what he sent to you I think oh no I'm also included so yeah it's August 16th Can you forward that to me? Yes Yeah Okay and you asked about repairing this I have asked you to look into that and I'll just send it back to you anyway because I think the last time well That was my memory my memory was They knew about it. It was under consideration and it was gonna be done. I mean you have to know about it, right? You drive on 116 Right there And I said a great welcome to town So Just to again to be to clarify are you saying that if we send you the exact amount you will be able to get is because that's the email If I if I had received amount of money For it in February, I probably could have thought about you know putting an earmark for the budget that we just passed There may be an infrastructure budget at some point that I get to sort of have an impact on and I would submit it then Right now it's probably too late. I mean Well, it's you know, it's too late on the house side. I guess I would need to know how much it is and maybe approach a senator Because I kept telling him here many is reaching out to us again and again. Why are we not giving her the numbers to get The funding how much it would be showing Let me look at the there's a link to the plan so I could look into the plan and see which shows the improvements we want to make Look at the I just sent you an email Yeah, sending you one right now But in the email that I just got from him he doesn't indicate that it's a financial issue he indicates. It's a process issue Yeah, he was just all over the place with that one. I have to say you can we turn off the recording though I thought you already did. All right. We can edit that. Yeah