 Thank you. We're all set, go ahead then. Good evening. It's January 18, 2022. And pursuant to chapter 20 of the acts of 2021, this meeting is being conducted via remote means. Given that we have a quorum of the town services and outreach committee present, I am calling the January 18, 2022 meeting. I will call upon each committee member by name. At that time, you should unmute your mic and say present. This will indicate that you can hear us and we can hear you. Please remember to mute your mic. After saying present. Shalini Balmille. Yes. Anna Devlin, got here. Present. Anika Lopes. Dorothy Pam. Present. Andy Steinberg. Present. There's no chat room for this meeting. If you have technical issues, please let the chair. Or the minute taker know to make. And to make a comment or ask a question. Please use the raise hand button. If technical difficulties arise. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask. The chair will decide how to address the situation. Discussion may have to be suspended and there will be a note in the minutes. We're going to move immediately to the election of the chair. And so the floor is open for nominations. Shalini Balmille. I'd like to nominate Dorothy. Dorothy, do you accept the nomination? Yes, I do. Unless someone has had a change of heart. And puts himself forward. Are there any other volunteers. Or. Nominations. Okay. I second Dorothy. Okay. Then, um, Let's go through the roll call and have a vote. And that would be starting with. Um, Shalini. Yes. On a Devlin got here. Yes. Dorothy Pam. Anika Lopes. Yes. Dorothy Pam. Dorothy Pam. Yes. Dorothy Pam. Dorothy. Thank you. That is unanimous. I'm going to now turn the, um, Gabel, if you will, over to the vice chair. I am, I am going to hang around for a bit of the meeting. I'm going to go through the roll call with otherwise, um, Go for it. Well, I guess we should open the floor for nominations for the vice chair of the committee. Okay. Anna. I would like to nominate Shalini ball mill for vice chair of GSL. Are there any other nominations? Okay. Shalini, do you accept the nomination? I do. If there's no one else who is excited about it. I'm not going to work on this together. Yes. I'm nominating all of us as the vice chair. Good. So let's have a vote and I don't have a, I'll just go on the order of what's on a screen in front of me. Anna, how do you vote? I vote for Shalini. Well, no. Okay. And Dorothy Pam votes. Yes. And Anika. Yes. Yes. Okay. Good. Thank you. Okay. Well, welcome. Shalini. Thank you. So we have a lot of things before us. Um, and. I think that the most important one is setting up a meeting time first. And, um, So what I'm going to ask is, um, Lynn has done some pre-thinking, uh, which I find helpful, but in terms of thinking of the cycle of when, um, Agendas have to be posted and when our reports have to be sent in for the town council. And so she has suggested the Tuesday before a town council meeting. And we know that sometimes we have town council meetings two in a row because that's just how it turns out. But the real question is, um, first of all, Does somebody have a. Um, Conflict on Tuesdays, day or evening. I do it. Oh, sorry. I forgot. Go ahead. I do. Yeah. I'm really trying to preserve my, my work day hours. Um, from, I typically work between eight 30 and fourth. Um, I can wiggle it a little bit, but I'm already asking a lot. So I'd prefer to try to avoid those as much as possible. Okay. Um, Anybody else who works during the daytime. As I always think this semester, Annika. Anika, sorry. I do. I do as well. I mean, I really work both day and evenings, but evenings tend to be a little more flexible. Okay. All right. So now we get to the evenings and we actually have two members of the committee. End of Andy. I'm sorry, Andy, please. The problem that I have too is that, um, The other committee that I'm on is finance. And I suspect that we also are going to end up having to meet. In the evenings for similar reasons that we're dealing with. So if that turns out to be correct, I, you know, I just don't know how that conversation is going to flow tomorrow morning. Well, also, Andy, now that I'm thinking about this, um, I don't think it's fair for you to have the finance committee meeting and your other committee meeting on the same day. Um, because I know that we're going to have to meet in the evenings for similar reasons that we're just expressed. And this consequence. If that turns out to be correct, I, you know, I just don't know how that conversation is going to flow tomorrow. Um, because I know what you do for the finance committee. So I think. I know anyone speak up at any time, but it's looking to me like Tuesday. Might not work. So if we talk about evenings, we could do Monday night, the week there is no town council. We could do Wednesday night, which conflicts with the planning board. Thursday has got about five other meetings. So we have a problem. And I don't want to leave anyone out. Um, we could do a five o'clock meeting, but. I'm thinking that, that I think, and Tuesday. I'm feeling that Tuesday is really out for Andy. But what do you think, Andy? Um, what I was thinking about. Um, is that the way we worked it with, um, and you were the one who was on two committees and met on Tuesdays. Last time it conflicting times. Is that it was the CRC that was the meeting. And what we ended up working out. With the chair of CRC at the time was. That alternating weeks would be. One committee or the other and that we set up a schedule. Was the two committees together to do that. Then we were able to. So that there was a meeting every Tuesday, but it was the alternating committee. And, um, the way we had set it up was that. It sort of worked out that sometimes you got the benefit of being. The day after the council meeting. More time and at times it turned out the other way, but it was a matter of the tricks of the calendar more than. Design. Um, so I would suggest that. If we agree on Tuesday that we not. Fix the evening. If we have a meeting on Tuesday, we can do that until we have a committee chair for a finance committee. Have that person talk with Dorothy. And figure it in figure it out if there's a problem. And if we can work out such a schedule. Also, I have a problem with evenings because CRC is flexible to do it in the afternoon. So, um, I can't do it in the evening. Publicly in demand kind of committee. So they were trying to have that one in the evening. And then if that's in the evening, then I cannot afford to have another because I work in the evenings. Most of my classes are in the evenings. So I can give up another evening. So. Um, If we find that people working here just cannot do. So I would suggest that we have to go back to the CRC and say that, okay, that one has to be then in the morning or afternoon. Can I suggest that given this that you set a meeting, your next meeting date for February 1st. And decide whether it should be six or 630. And that we then take it from there. And once all the chairs. In elected, we'll figure this out. Okay. Okay. I think that that it's pretty clear on a works five days a week. And she works in the daytime. That's, you know, we have to, we have to work around that. Alternating Tuesdays could work. CRC often has its forums on an evening meeting, but it's regular meetings in the afternoon. So if there's possibly, it's not going to be easy. Okay. It's not going to be easy, but I would say email me with any thoughts you have on this. Because I know that you have evening classes. This semester, I don't have any HCC classes. So I have more flexibility than I usually do. So, which is good. Okay. So any other thoughts that you have on that. You can speak to them now. Anybody. Yeah. Yeah. I had my hand up. Yeah. And the finance community did a doodle poll. And what we did was the polls. I didn't set up the poll actually it was Sean. And God has set it up as ours. Who's our staff person of finance. And he had times of days, days of week. And ask, you know, the usual question. Yeah. Yes, if necessary, or absolutely no. And that's information that I was basing it on. Plus we have one member who works in. During the day and on finance, which is what the problem is too. I think it's going to take a little bit of time and. You know, it's a question. If we want to do a doodle poll, like two of the other committees, CRC and finance, we can do that now. But come back on February 1st. And that was a good suggestion. Just pick a date. Right. So we can do that, but I don't want to do that until the other committees have. Made their decisions from their doodle polls. So that people know when their committees are meeting. When do you think those other committees will have the results of their polls? We're meeting on the 27, the CRC is meeting on the 27th. Mm hmm. And Andy, when does finance going to meet? I might have it tomorrow because the. Doodle poll was done in advance of the first meeting. Okay. So we're down to meet on February 1st. But if we, if somebody will have to create the doodle poll, I'm happy to do that. Oh, Anna, thank you. Can I ask a question? Absolutely. Okay. So Shalini, what you were saying with CRC, I recognize what you're saying is that, and I remembered some of the feedbacks the RC got is that it was challenging to make those times because it was at like 2pm or something. But you're saying that technically you all could meet during the day. It's just that you'd rather meet at the night in the night. Yeah. Okay. So we could then do a doodle poll. Please. So might five o'clock be an option for this committee? I mean, that might be sort of, it's not daytime. It's not evening, but it might be the worst time also. So just, if you want to do a doodle, throw that in that list too. Well, my classes are generally six onwards. So I need to be done by six. I see. Okay. Yeah. So Dorothy, I'll, I'll make a doodle and send it to you and you can decide when to send it out or what edits are needed, but that way it'll be ready to go to you. Okay. And I'll probably check it with Lynn and Paul just to see. Of course. What are ideas? Cause I think that'll be good. Okay. That'll be great. So it is hard for particularly public access that that's part of the question with CRC is the public access. What time do you want to meet on February 1st? And that is a Tuesday, right? Yes. Yes. So why don't I hear from people? Shawnee, do you have a time of day that is better for you on February 1st? Five, 536, 630. Yeah. At this point, it doesn't matter. I can dedicate one evening. Okay. What do people feel about six or 630? That works. Okay. Which one, which one is preferable? Six or 630. Six. Six for you. Six. Okay. Anybody have a problem with six. Okay. I will school myself. Cause I'm so used to six thirties. Okay. So the next thing that we need to do is. We need to look over the transition memo. We also need to approve the minutes. That came in. And on the question of this one side here. Of minutes. There are several ways of doing it. One is, I mean, first of all. You know, we all should read the minutes, but sometimes things get very crazy on the council. And you're just bare dying in paper. And sometimes it really doesn't read the minutes, but it is a good idea to read your committee minutes. Some committees designate somebody who says, I will make time. I will read over those minutes. And if there's a problem, I will get back to you. Do you want to have us vote? When we get minutes, because we need to do this quickly. So we have good turnaround and get them posted. Okay. So you want to have the whole group approve the minutes, or do you want to have somebody who automatically approves the minutes by looking it over? And again, this is open discussion here. I'd like to have the whole group read them. I'm not really super comfortable having just one person. Do, do full overview. Okay. Anybody else with a comment on this? Okay. I agree that we should all look at the minutes. Yes. So this reminds me of something that I was thinking of saying. First of all, thank you for electing me chair. And I've talked with. With everyone except Andy beforehand, because I felt Andy was not somebody who would be interested in taking over the chairmanship of this committee because it was deep work in the finance committee. But in reading over the minutes, I realized Andy has a very. Crucial role in this committee. You are the only person who was on TSO last year. And there are a lot of issues that I'm seeing where I'm thinking, Oh, Andy knows the answer to that. So what I want to say to you, Andy is feel free to. Raise your hand buddy and bring us into the, into what the issue means and what the, I can see there's some issues where the problems were not resolved. Where there's still some things to talk about. So we will be drawing upon you a lot for that. I was on TSO the middle year. Okay. I was in CRC one year, TSO one year. And then back to CRC. So there's a lot of things that have been happening in detail that I know a little bit about, but not that much about. And in talking with the other members, I made it clear that I wanted a more collaborative style of chair chairing this committee, which means feel free to. Correct. Guide aid make suggestions. It's a small committee. We don't have to be that formal in this committee. And so I'm hoping that people still feel able to do that. And if there's any problems with that to, to, to let me know. Okay. Because there's a lot to this. And I am used to being a council member, not a committee chair. As a council member. You're just freer to express your own opinion. As a committee chair. So I think it's a, it's a different task. And so I really do. Look forward and really need your support and your help on this thing. So if anyone has any comments to add to that. This is a good time. I have a quick comment, Dorothy. Yeah. That's okay. So just really quickly for, for the. Benefit of also of the public. I think it might be helpful to clarify which item on the agenda we're on because we've jumped a little bit. And so either. The transition memo and items carried over from previous. Perfect. Okay. Yep. Thank you. So that's what we're going to be talking about right now. Great. Thank you. And I do appreciate your support on that to clarify. No problem. Okay. So we had a lot of things on this. Memo. Okay. Excuse me, Dorothy, did you want to approve the minutes? Okay. Yes, I do want to part of it. You're right. And I was just realizing I was halfway into the minutes. Did everybody get a chance to read the minutes? I did not get them until some time today. So, and I'm seeing a lot of interesting things here. Okay. I'm just wondering how many people had a chance to read the minutes? One. Okay. Would there be a serious problem, Lynn? If we put off. Approving the minutes until February 1st. Okay. I would like to do that because I, I saw a lot of things which were very interesting, which were partly done, halfway done, which are in process. That I think we might want to make sure that we're all up to date on before we approve it. Okay. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Until the next meeting. Okay. Dorothy. Yes. Yeah, just, just a couple of things. One is that I recognized as we were. Getting to the end of last year's session. After the election, it was clear that I was the only member of the committee. That was actually going to be serving on the next council. So I ended up putting this as a high. Request on the. Committee preference form. Because I felt like having at least one person per carryover. Might be helpful to the committee, both for. The substance and for the process that the committee. And so I will do my best, but try not to be overboard. In doing that. And the other thing that I just wanted to say is that. I would encourage that. You feel free to go to one other committee member can be the vice chair, whoever you want. I would encourage you to go to one other committee member. To help. Kind of proofread the report as you go through at least in the first rounds. So you're, you're comfortable before sending it to the council. It's good to have a second person. Looking at it and seeing if everything. Got stated. The best possible way I do that on the finance committee all the time. Yes, that is definitely. Oh, Paul. Yes. You can know. Thank you. So I think it's important for the committee to understand that the minutes are not that it's just a reflection. Did it capture the discussion and the activity from the last meeting? And he was the only person at that meeting, unless you all have taken the time to watch the video from it. So it's not a diss, it's, if there are items in the. If there are items that you would like to talk about, that item you need to put on your agenda. You can't just sort of, you know, go through the minutes and sort of pick things out that you'd like to talk about. If you say, oh, there's three things I'd like to talk about, then the chair can put that on them on the agenda for discussion. But in terms of the minutes itself, you know, the idea on the minutes, it says, did it reflect the, did it capture the flavor of the meeting and did it capture all the actions of the meeting? Okay. So my point one is I want everybody to read the minutes, but point two, as Paul points out, it's a question, are they accurate? The only one who can answer that, unless somebody else watched the video is Andy. Andy, did you get a chance to read the message? Because as you pointed out, they reached us fairly late and I was at that point, trying to grab some dinner and help out with the house. Okay. So then we will put that off to the next meeting, but thank you Paul. That's a, I knew that in one part of my brain, but it's good to clarify that. Okay. And looking at the minutes is not just a general conversation opener is the question, are these accurate? But we will, when you read the minutes, please be prepared to discuss at the next meeting, any items that you think you want to carry over. So, okay. We have measures that will automatically be carried over per town council rules of procedure. North Pleasant street upgrades in North Amherst. And that is to do with changing parking areas around the park, I believe. No. Okay. So the North Pleasant one had to do with. Relocation of sites and streets in the area. From the university towards pine street. And it was a fairly complex. Presentation that was made, I think, both at the council meeting and in a little bit more detail of the meeting. And there's a substantial amount of material. That I recall being in both packets, the council packet and the committee packet. So what we would need to do with that is to get that material. And it does not wish to make any changes to the material. And it then. Invite Guilford to that meeting. Guilford attends as the superintendent of the public works. A fair number of the TSO meetings because so many issues. And I think that's a very substantial project. As with the town services that he provides. Through his department. So that, I mean, that's sort of the brief comment. It really is a very substantial. Project this underway. And what happened to TSO just so you know, I think it's a little bit different from what we were talking about at the time. The second one was the Kendrick Park one that you referred to. Which we substantially finished the, the one piece that's left as a fairly. Small piece in comparison to the parking pieces. We're, we're done. And what essentially happened is Guilford talked about both. At the committee meeting. And I'm going to talk about the Kendrick Park one done. First, because of the order in which he was. Planning on proceeding with work. Well, sometimes it's hard to remember whether you hear things in committee or town council, but I'll tell you. I, looking at this, it says Eastman lane, pine street, crosswalks, multi-use paths, lots and lots of stuff. I really don't remember any substantive discussion of this. At the town council. So, yeah, so you're saying this is a big item and we need to get a lot of material on that. Anna, I see your hand up. Yeah, so I tried to do some digging because I was, I wanted to read more material on this. So I believe if folks go into the SharePoint file, this is from the July 15th packet. You can find the memo and the, the July 15th, 2021. If you, if you're interested in looking back, but yeah, I agree because I started reading and I was like highlighting and noting and I was like, I need so many maps and way more information, but that's where this is. And that's where the maps are, et cetera, et cetera, for folks who are looking who would like to verse themselves. I had some other questions, but that'll be it for now. Thanks. So then is it appropriate for me to ask Athena to forward just to list this and to send it forward as to us. So we don't have to go to SharePoint to find it. Absolutely. I think, however, what you should do is go through the whole list and decide which ones you want to take first. Okay. And then also Paul may have some information that says some of these are more urgent than others. Okay. Okay. I would take more questions on just this item. If there are any more questions. And Shalini has her hand up. I was also going to just ask Paul actually about this and also generally speaking as we go through this list, maybe we could get a sense from Paul and then maybe from Andy and then amongst us, what is the priority and how do we pride and then amongst us, how are we prioritizing these different issues? And then we might have some chance later on to talk about some of the things that are not on the list that we think are important and so. So do you think it would be a good idea if after this meeting, I put together a list of these items and then also say add other items if you want and send it out to you for you to think about and to respond or whether that's going too soon to do that. Well, I'll just call on Anika. You have to say. I was just going to say some has been echoed that, you know, looking through share point. I'm looking through this agenda. It's definitely seems like it's packed. Very interesting, but definitely would be a lot of reading and continued research. And then eventually it points out that, you know, it does need a lot of community outreach and input. Thank you. So that is right. Okay. So. Yeah. So I just want to put myself in the right frame because I did what right go through and write lots of questions that might be more specific to each of these, these proposals or not proposals, these measures. So right now the purpose of this conversation is for us to think through our priorities of the items that are carried over. And we are also currently going to ask Paul for his, his sort of one to five scale of how, how much of a priority is this? Is that correct? Great. Thank you. So my part B of that is things that have arisen from this that might be more about our process. So I'll give an example. Item or number one. The North pleasant street where we were just talking about one of the, one of the questions that came up for me. Is it mentions TSO practice amongst similar public ways, requests as to seek input from, from transportation advisory committee, disability access advisory committee, public, something that I'd love to consider. And maybe I'm sorry if I'm being redundant and I should have just emailed this, but, you know, is, what is our actual process and how is that clarified? So to make sure we're consistent, to make sure we're not accidentally leaving a group out, things like that. Because I think one of the, one of the important parts of the conversation in prioritizing these is what's also coming up as a result. And for me, that's, that's a question of process that I'd love to see us formalize a bit. So Andy. Is there, I mean, there's a decision making process, but I don't think that's really what she's referring to. No. What before we would decide on issues in the last council. Kendrick Park is a good example. But not the only one. Those are the committees that we would most frequently like to hear from there might be other committees. So normally we would identify the committees refer, ask those committees if they would offer any advice to us. And we would schedule our major presentation. And discussion, depending upon how timing work, because we had to manage it against what the debt, if there were any deadlines, but we made sure that we got the reports in from those committees. So for example, when you're dealing with crosswalks and sidewalks, you really do want to hear from the disability access advisory committee. And we would make sure that that committee had an opportunity to consider the proposal that was coming out of public works and offer their comments. And that we would have the comments to consider. And so that was generally how we went about doing it. And it was really the chair's role to try and manage the timeline of that process and propose it back. Because it's very, you know, it's just a matter of logistics. And then the, in the last round, the chair, Governor Ross would be the one who would contact whichever committees. I assume by email and phone if necessary and make sure that they were able to schedule it within their meeting process and get the report back to us in time for us to work from their reports as opposed to getting the report after we've made a decision, which would not serve a purpose. So when you did this before, did you, had you reached the point in your work on TSO to do that or had that not had happened? I mean, the first person that I would talk with would be the DPW and to see where they are on it, I assume. I mean, is this halfway done or is it just started? This one, I don't think that there was much work done on this. The effort was to get Kendrick Park done sooner. Paul might have some comments on it. Yeah, I do. Thank you, Paul. So, yeah, so I'm your staff liaison. So the work that you need from staff goes should come from me. And so, you know, with all these things, Dorothy, I can work with you to sort of tee up what's needed. And so we can sort of lay out the game plan. It's that's what happens with the chair and sometimes the vice chair in terms of, are we, is the committee ready to take on an action? So you're not spending your valuable time doing things that aren't, that's our productive. So, and I think, you know, you all identified that item one is a very big, very complex. We're not really ready to bring this forward. So many other things in the engineering department right now. So, you know, that's not in the, you know, immediate offing for you at this point in time. But we're, I think, you know, we'll probably talk to you with the DPW about what they're, when they think they will be able to take, bring this forward in a more detailed way, because what was presented was a sort of giant, a general overview. And there's a lot of very detailed plans on every section of the road, because it's a very long section of road that need to be reviewed. And as, you know, as Andy said, you want, we want DAAC and TAC to weigh in. And I'm assuming, you know, TAC was always, sometimes TAC was asked, sometimes they weren't. I'm assuming you want TAC to be invited to review these things. So we do, but I wondered that a conservation committee wasn't mentioned here. So. So the conservation commission would have its role because they, they have a regulatory body and Anna can kind of address that because she used to be on the conservation commission, but they, you know, they, they have a very defined a purview that they will have to be, things will have to be filed with them and they'll have to go through that own set, their own separate process. Any comments on that, Anna? Yeah. Just really, you know, concom is regulatory. Paul said that, but just driving that point home, they are tapped in when something falls within their jurisdiction jurisdiction. In this case, they'd be tapped in by DPW. And so it's less, less relevant to us. Yeah. Paul, if I'm off, tell me, but yeah. If just one, like one other committee that may come into play here and we would, until we see the plans, we won't notice the public shade tree committee. I guess they're trees. They're on. Yeah. Okay. Good. My question for you, Dorothy is, you know, I think thinking again, trying to think about this from a systems perspective of, are we deciding when we're outreaching or have we asked these committees, when would you like us and how would you like us to reach out to you? That would be my consideration here is, you know, like the example Andy just gave, I think was a really good one of, you know, if sidewalks are involved or crosswalks are involved, we want to make sure we're reaching out to the disability access. Dak, I don't know. But I think that, you know, making sure that we've done the initial outreach to them to say, this is when we currently are tapping you in, is there something we're missing? Right? Is there something that we need to make sure that you are consulted on as well, that we might not have thought of, just to make sure we're not putting the assumption of when they want to be outreached to. Well, I may have misunderstood what Paul said, but I thought that he was saying that he would help coordinate the timing of these. Is that correct, Paul? Yes. Okay, so, but we will, we will work on that, Anna, because that's a very good question of what happens first and what order. Yeah, and I was definitely speaking more generally, so no need to get into the weeds right now. Okay. So Paul, I'm assuming that you would help us identify which committees and then I'm also thinking is it, if it's impacting stakeholders like the businesses that are on that road or, and so for residents. And so I'm guessing that you would help us and that's something we can obviously formalize at some point in our outreach plan that when we're making any decision, we're going to be able to do that. And so that's a really important point. And so I think that these are, this is how you go about, these are the stakeholders who need to be reached out at what point, with what information. And who's reaching out to them. And so all of that can be formalized. But just for now, Paul, the question is really, so you'll be helping us out with though. That's an excellent point because that's a really important function for the, this committee is to make sure it connects with the people who are working on the public input. That there's places for people to comment. This is again, think of this like as the Pomeroy village and the amount of work that we did for that, for the Pomeroy bullet roundabout. This is akin to that because it will impact a lot of properties. And, and making sure that we're touching base with everybody in advance because that's really, that's a really important function. And we can say, here's what we're doing. Here's what's the plan is here's what we're doing. And then you can vet it and say, well, what about this? What about that? We need to reach out on these other groups. Well, I know that Shalini was working on an outreach plan. And it kind of got put aside because there were other things that had to be done. I think that we need to kind of try to formalize that a little bit better and then check with you to see how that works. So that we don't have to always have to invent the system. And I think that's part of what Anna was saying, because it's a more organized system of doing this. And I totally agree. So that's one of the things that we will be putting together. The, again, the question has her hand up to. Okay. Oh boy, I couldn't see it. Yes. So this question is for Paul as well. And most of us were at the facilities tour. Would it be helpful and excuse me if this is repetitive to maybe talk about, you know, some of the, some of the departments that we would have to reach that there is an opportunity for them to, to come and, and join a meeting and speak to, and you know, speak to us is in terms of their, their functions and, you know, a lot of the questions that have just been asked about, about the different departments as well. Or communication. So this isn't for, we're not talking about a specific proposal. You're talking about just general information. And I would defer to general, but what would, and so we're not taking up all sorts of time, but maybe with once we have identified. What issues we would be dealing with in the foreseeable future. To maybe tie in those folks. So I guess it would be great to have something where we would talk with everybody, but I'm thinking about time as well. So I guess I might defer to Lynn as to how the committee gets its business. You get referrals from the council, right. And then referrals from the council. TSO can also generate. Issues it would like to look at. Although we would hope that that would be consistent with council and, but Anika, to your question, I think what would be useful here is to have a Dorothy and Shalini or anybody else in the committee really lean on Paul myself and Andy in terms of kind of, how do we bring something that's this big forward? And who needs to be involved because it is a huge project. It's not just one intersection. It's about five or six intersections that are going to be affected by this sidewalk and so forth. So, and it was a request, I believe Paul, I'm correct that generated out of residence to do something like this. It kind of was an agreement with residents as well as people in the town. So I think what we need to do is kind of move on to the next, but take this and say, okay, when we're ready to bring it forward, how do we bring it forward? Who has to be involved and have a whole plan just around this one? Okay. Okay. So the participatory budgeting with the university to do with. I don't see this as a major item at this time, but I thought some of you have read this over very carefully and have questions. So I think this is your time to ask them to comment. I can go first. I've thought about this earlier, and I think it's a very important issue to engage the community on this issue. However, I think our community engagement plan needs to be in place first because otherwise we will just end up hearing from the same people we hear from. So I think once we have a community engagement plan, so we know how to systematically reach out to different constituents. And then we also work with the institutions in town, like UMass and so forth, who can then help us. And that's part of what's proposed is that we work with the institutions, but I feel like we need to first figure out our bid. Okay. Thank you. Andy. Yep. My participatory budgeting is originates in the charter and with the charter commission and the charter commission required that there are, that there'll be an appointment of this commission. And they did meet and they did provide us on the council as a whole with fairly complete report that was a, if I recall correctly, it was a PowerPoint presentation. It's, you know, it may make sense to make sure that that PowerPoint presentation is made available again to the entire committee since either we haven't looked at it in a long time, or we've never seen it. And I think it was my recollection, it was pretty complete. And then if there's a desire to do so, the major presenter of that report at the council was Meg Gage. And maybe ask Meg, if she would attend a committee meeting for, you know, half hour or so to answer questions about where they ended up and what they were suggesting. But I think, I think that's as far as I would want to go right now. But, but Andy, this, this looks like it's not the same as the participatory budget commission. This is town gown working partnership, which I thought was something I hadn't heard of before, but I'll call on Anna and then Lynn and Paul can clarify. I think this is, this was one of the recommendations from the participatory budgeting commission from their report, if I'm reading it correctly. You know, I mean, I think this is one of those things that it's really exciting concept. And this is a massive, massive lift, right? And that's not to say we shouldn't do it. But, you know, I mean, even some of the things that are mentioned in here get into like HR policy, right? Of offering release time, of offering some of them get into issues with, with faculty governance around approving student credit for internships. I think that this is where it's, this is a big, big, big thing. And so I, I don't, I'm not saying we shouldn't start it. I do think we should make strides on this, but I just want us to recognize that this is not a small nor a simple pitch that's in front of us with this. So that's, that I just want us to recognize the magnitude and scope because I was, yeah, when I read it, I was like, wow, that's, that's a, that's an idea. Yeah. Right. So Lynn and Paul, am I correct in inferring that this may not be something we're doing right away? I would agree with that. Okay. All right. So, yes. So we are ever interested in cooperating when we can. Okay. And you're right, but we're getting deep into other people's power zones to do that. Okay. So then the next one, I believe is the revision to town council policy regarding the control and regulation of public ways in relation to, okay, this has to do with lunch carts. Do we, we are in charge of public ways TSO. Do we decide we're going to go with lunch cart by lunch cart, or do we say we're going to delegate that to the authority of the board of licensed commissioners to do that. And I think in talking with Lynn earlier today, she reminded me that TSO dealt with the sidewalks, but they didn't deal with the streets and the issue of the carts are on the street in a parking space. Do they get charged? So they, whatever, whatever happens, they, and it's a complex issue and we had interesting discussion, but I think this is a topic that we could discuss and perhaps it wouldn't be the most challenging one. So Andy, you have some thoughts on this. Yeah, we simply ran out of time on this one at the end of the last council, it wasn't that it was that complex. And what happened was that the second to the last meeting of the committee for the entire, for the prior council, I made a recommendation to German Ross about a possible revision to the, to the policy that would encompass the issue. And there was never time within those, that last meeting to take it up. So it was dropped at that point, but I have the email that I sent to Evan that I can send back through Dorothy and then Dorothy can decide whether to send it on to the committee. Right. And but that's kind of where it was left because it was actually fairly late at night. And I said, I have some ideas of how we can address the problem, but I don't want to do drafting at 10 o'clock at night under this kind of an issue if we're going to talk about changing policy. So I think that probably the next thing for me to do is find that email I sent to Evan and send it to Dorothy. Right, thank you. Thank you and Shalini, you have a comment. Yeah, I was thinking that this may be something we should tackle just given that we are hearing from people how our businesses are being hurt are hurting. And so if this is something simple and straightforward and it is providing clarity to the businesses downtown, what they can or can't do, maybe this is something we should prioritize. Okay. I'm going to say it's more complex because we're dealing with a cart, not a brick and mortar, but so it's just things as Andy, you have your hand up again. I was going to actually say exactly what you said. This is an issue that I've dealt with back from the days when we had a select board and not a council. And we spent a lot of time on lunch carts then too. There is some inherent tension between. Entrepreneurs who really want to do the lunch carts and I think we all have seen them around a few of them. The one that's always out near the post office and the Unitarian Church is the one that's been around the longest time. And there is complaints from restaurants that is competing for their business. But I think that. You know, in many communities, lunch carts have been a part of the downtown scene and. It's always been to try and accommodate them as best we can. But this really has to do not with the. Licensing because that's in the board of license commissioners, but it has to do with. Providing them reserve parking spaces in which to. Park their carts should they wish to use the street as opposed to the sidewalks. Right. And what fee the town would or would not get. So that's part of it. Yes. So this is a very interesting, although complex topic. I hope that we might be able to get to this sooner rather than later. And then we could probably deal with that. Any other thoughts on that one. Okay. Let's see. Carry it over. Okay. So this is another one that. This has to do with safety zones and speed limits. This is the. Request. To adopt MGL charter chapter 90 17 C and 18 B, which then allows the city council to in the interest of public safety without further authority, establish a speed limit of 25 miles per hour on any roadway inside a thickly settled or business district in the city of city or town. In any way that is not a state highway. So this is something that we did discuss in the town council before. And I remember this maybe in year two. So what is, why is this still up before us? What happened, Lynn on this one. I'm going to defer to Andy. I think that it was just a matter of, as everything we said priorities of what we did. In the first year, this was referred to CRC. And I was on CRC in the first year, not the second year. And I think that we've really only had a discussion at that point that it's never come back to another committee. The. Step that was taken at that time. Was that. Captain Ting from the police department and. I think it was at that point, the town engineer. Jason. We're going to start with the. The action. The first. Bill's. Came and made a presentation of how. The statute works and how speed limits are. Established and. If you recall, there was a serious injury. I believe if somebody at. On North Pleasant street, which. Provoked the discussion of speed limits from a citizen. A comment that was made during a committee meeting or during a council meeting rather. And I have heard complaints. Probably as long as I've been involved in town government about speed limits. And I think we heard some during campaign. And so it's probably an important issue for this committee to understand and understand what the options are. But it may be necessary to go back to the kind of people who've made that presentation two years ago. To CRC and ask them to make the presentation again. Because it's clearly within this committee's perspective. We really need their professional expertise. And, you know, it's up to Paul, but, you know, I think that Captain Ting and either Gilford or Jason would be willing to come back and explain it again. Right. I think Pat D'Angelo is the one who made the, the presentation in CRC on this issue. So Paul, what do you think you just moved on my screen. How, where do you see this in the list of priorities? Yeah, so I think this has been hanging out there for a while. And I think it's a question that comes up periodically in the town council ought to address it, whether you want to adopt these regs or not. I think the first, the first step is to educate ourselves about what this means. And then you'll, you'll want to do some outreach on it and then make a recommendation to the full council. Okay. So that's clear education outreach recommendation. Okay. I don't remember what, whether they said 25 miles an hour was a good idea or not a good idea. I think that's something that you can share with us, Paul. I don't remember, but we can certainly have, I mean, you'll, we can have them come make the presentation to you. And then you give a robust discussion at that point. Right. And the something that's connected with that are those things that read your miles per hour, the, the signs. And I know they, I don't know how much money they cost, but we have a solar powered one on Amity, which I believe has had a great effect in not, not keeping it to 25 miles an hour, but keeping it to 35 miles an hour to restricting speed, speeding from people. So that's something we can look at. Yeah. I really are pieces to it, Dorothy, because one is what the law allows and process allows for establishing speed limits, which was helpful to have PPW present, but it doesn't do much good to have a speed limit. If you can't enforce it. That's what kept King was talking about. And I think that's a good point to that presentation. Right. Though I do know that there's a lot of self enforcement on Amity because of that sign. It helps, but it's not going to, it's not going to stop a speeder speeder, but it tops the regular preoccupied driver. I was not aware what they're doing. Okay. So we have a lot of stuff that does deals with public ways. I can see that that's going to be a big area. Okay. So the TSO review process. Okay. There is a document that we received. Dorothy, I think we're on parking permits. Oh, oh, thank you. Right. Yes. We've been waiting for this. This is something that's been brought up at meeting after meeting. And I believe Lynn told me today there was going to be a presentation. At the town council. On this. I'm correct. So that we're going to hear about that. So we don't have to do anything until we. Hear the report and then we then will discuss it. Is that it? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it depends what the, I assume the council will refer that the parking. Presentation to one of the committees, but probably TSO. So that will be a pretty big delegation to you. Okay. All right. So that is, that is definitely something that we will be dealing with sooner rather than later. And that's been on the table for a long time. So that's good. Who else would it go to if not TSO? It could also go to finance because that's right. Yes. Okay. So, okay. So then we're moving on to the TSO review process. And that's the one that has the green highlighting on it. This was adopted, I believe kind of late in the year on TSO. And it was applied to. The Lincoln Avenue parking thing, but that was, I have strange comments on that. So I'm not quite sure what we are supposed to do. Look at it again and see if we like it. I thought it got adopted. So Andy, I guess you're on the carpet again on this. Yeah, it said it was adopted. On the 6th of August. What. The committee is actually, I think we reported it to the council. To see if there were council comments and the kind in the general. Comments from the council were very positive. It is a document that a lot that identifies. All of the issues from street with nature of the traffic. Side lines, everything that you might think of. I think that's the one that needed to be reviewed. We actually used it twice. The other is there's a small dead end street off of college street. That is also called Kendrick place that has nothing to do with that building. That is called Kendrick place. And. I think we adult ultimately adopted the recommendation as a council. To change parking there, but we use that price. So. I think it was adopted twice. And Lincoln, of course, is a different issue. I'm sure we want to go deeply into that tonight. Yep. No, not tonight. So I think that this has been adopted. It has been applied. I think that we could take a quick look and see if we. Want to like it the way it is, or whether there are any, any small changes to it. It's on this. It's given on, on our list. Why. Yeah, cause I didn't read that. I didn't have a chance to read the details. I was on many meetings today. So. I can try to sum it up. Thank you. Yeah. So, so essentially this is saying we have two different policies and we need to make sure that they're aligned with each other. So there's the one. The. The town council committee and town services and outreach proposed process for the review of bylaws, public various requests and town council policies. And then there's the second one. From September a month. A month and a half later saying. That is a process for public way review specific to public ways. And is a separate review process. So we need to. Put A and B next to each other and say, do these line up or not. Yeah. So the third kind of part of this is that there's also. The CRC. Wants to wants TSO to adopt the community. Impact review process as well. And so basically we just need to make sure we're using the same, same litmus test for whatever we're doing. And they need to line up with each other. So it's, it's not writing a new one. It's just kind of. Yeah. I think that's a good idea. I think it's a good idea to start the mall together. Okay. This is something that I'm hoping that a small subcommittee could. Deal with and bring back to the committee. So. Yeah. And I think this would include some of the things that some of us are interested in about the community outreach. And what are the. You know, the stages of communication. With the community. The first phase is an education phase. The second, maybe off collection of feedback. The third is what did we do with that feedback? Communicating that to the people are having all of that information located in a particular place. And letting people know where to find that information. And what we did with that. And then coming back again to the community. So, you know, these are the things that will be woven in once we have a clearer. Outreach. And I think I agree that maybe having a working group or subcommittee to. And then we can keep coming back. And I mean, that's the hub. So other people in this. Committee can send ideas and their own, what they've observed observations and everything to that core group. And then that core group can integrate that and then present it back to the committee. That sounds good. And it gets to a lot of the things that we're talking about. I think one of the things we're all agreed upon is that we need to have more outreach. And we can't just kind of do a random kind of outreach that's a lot of the things that we're talking about. And we can't just do a random kind of outreach. But we can do a random kind of outreach. Different for different things. We have to have a very clear idea of what we want to do. And how we want to do it in the order we want to do it. Anna. But it makes sense. Sean, thank you for that. I think you're spot on. And I'm curious if it makes sense to do it as sort of a two part process. Because I think this first part of looking at the two existing review processes. Lining them up before we start kind of. And then we can kind of do that. And then we can kind of do that. And then we can kind of do that. And then we can kind of do that. And then we can kind of do the community impact review process. Because unless I'm mistaken, that does not exist yet. Right. Am I right? So, so I'm curious if part one is to kind of do those first two policies. Get those straightened out. And then we can at least not add a third one into the mix, but instead build on it and expand. I'm curious if that makes sense to folks. I think that makes sense, but it's possible that. I don't know. I don't know. I would like to sit and do that community outreach piece first. Okay. That committee would look at it and see what that, what that, what it means, but I think. Some really strong focus is, and clear looking at the documents is what we need to do, which is something that has to be done very specifically. Okay. Then there's said an item that was recommended not to be carried through the street. We went through quite a process. It ended up in a place that I felt was truthfully illogical. The, one of the issues is. Every time you talk about a particular street, the issues raised. Well, it impacts other areas. And I believe Guilford has expressed great willingness and interest. In doing a more general look. in doing a more general look at an area and then dealing with it that way. And so that's what I wanted to put forth there and Shalini, what you want to say here. All right, okay. I had a question about that decision actually back then. And I've, okay, so I'll put it out now that there were suggestions made by Guilford, I believe earlier on how that situation could be dealt with without going through closing it down for parking. There was another way like we market or something and I just feel like we said no and then we closed it but we never heard back whether we can go back to those other, at least those other things that were already agreed upon that that would mitigate some of the problems. And so anyway, maybe that's something that could be presented to all of us again, that this, and I do believe it's not resolved just because we voted that way did not resolve the issue. So I do believe that should be brought back but with the presentation going back to the original recommendations. That sounds interesting. Yeah. Andy. Yeah. Any of you who were on the council before and talking correct me if my memory on the pieces of this is incorrect. This is Lincoln Avenue has been on another ongoing issue that goes back to my time on the select board before we had the new form of government. The problem is a general nature is that there are people from the university who want to get free parking and not have to pay the large fees to the university. And they were at times taking up large numbers of spaces the closer to the university the more likely that was to be. And they created a lot of problems for both traffic flow through the street and being able to have reasonable sight lines for people making turns into the street or to some extent also just getting out of driveways of homes depending on the time of day. And so what had happened in the first round was an effort to get the no parking restrictions from intersections to a point beyond the intersection. There was reasonable for sight line purposes taken care of and that was done. It took DPW a little bit longer than we had hoped to get the signs up that signs did get up. Then there was the general parking question itself and that came up as a separate issue. It was what the policy that we talked about before was actually developed and used in the first round having to do with Lincoln. And there was a proposal that was made in the past out of the last TSO and a fairly narrow vote, but it was forward with recommendation to the council. And what it was doing was, and I don't have the exact wording in front of me, but essentially proposing that parking be totally prohibited from the street during business hours, except during the summer. And so it had both date specific time when it would not apply during the summer months and it had time specific times. And that ended up for the council. And then an important piece changed in between the TSO meeting and the council meeting. And that was that the university said in order to build the Lincoln Avenue apartment that they're talking about replacing and are now in the process of replacing with new building that they were gonna be closing Lincoln Avenue. And it wasn't clear as to whether Lincoln Avenue was gonna be closed at the university and permanently or temporarily. And so there was some feeling that we really needed to see how that change in traffic flow was gonna be affected by the closure at the university end. And so when it got to a vote because of that, it ended up that the proposal that had come out of TSO was defeated by one vote. And that was where it ended up and of course, this whole thing with looking at neighboring streets then became unnecessary if we were not, because the question was if you were to restrict parking on one set of streets, how would it affect neighboring sets of streets? Is that something that you wanted to look at? So that's why the item is written as something not to be carried over if the Lincoln traffic is not being substantially changed in the parking is not being substantially changed by the closure of the street at the university end. Then it's a question of whether somebody wants to bring it back before the council again. But the thought was to wait and see. So I think that's the best summary that I can give on that one. Very helpful, Andy. And right now is not the time to do it. We have to under COVID with the closures and whatever the parking is not as it was. We have to wait and see for the students to come back and to we need to let things settle down just a little bit. But Paul, I wouldn't mind letting Guilford know that we are interested in his thoughts that he had he supported this. And I think he was interested in looking at some of the related streets, but that we would bring this back when we see if the problem is still there in a month or so, two months or so. What are your thoughts on that? Well, we won't know. I mean, Lincoln has going to be closed for quite some time while they do construction. So we won't have evidence in a month or so. So I think if the council wants to reconsider its vote, it can have that ability to do so. I know some of the parking changes have are being changed already that some of the weird little parking that they have. I think they're opening one lane. It's something that I was hearing about that some of the parking that they did, they're changing already. But we'll have to get the update on that. Shalini. Paul, do you know whether we put up the signs for like, I mean, the big problems we were hearing was how they would block the cars were blocking the driveways. And if there was a way to put signs or something, I think that my recollection is that's what, that was one of the suggestions. And did we ever fall act on those suggestions? Yeah, I think I believe the signs were up. At the time, actually. The first action that the council took was followed through by DPW, which was to put signs up. DPW does not paint sidewalks. That's easy. The signs are for no parking, but the signs, there was a question, would they paint no parking along around the driveways? And that they did not do because they think they said they don't do it. So they put that after that discussion came up at the council. Paul did check with Guilford. And in fact, as the council voted, those signs were erected, okay? So that much happened. That was almost a year ago, or more maybe. Now the question was this issue of further the issue of parking. And that's the one that was defeated at the council with a seven to six vote, I think, okay? And that was further parking restrictions based on time of the year and time of the day. Right, so I'm hoping that we look at this again, but we have to see what's going on. If there's not a major problem right now, I believe. But again, I could check back at least, but the students aren't back. So we have to see when we get back to life as normal, when we have our problems as normal and then have to deal with them. And students will be back on the 25th for classes. But it wasn't just students, it was faculty as well. But one thing that happened is I believe UMass is providing some more parking spaces. We learned in the middle of this discussion that they'd run out of spaces, that there was actually a waiting list for parking spaces and the UMass lots. So we couldn't say, go necessarily put your car there. So the problem was very complicated. But that part, I believe UMass is providing some additional parking spaces. Anything else anyone wants on that one? And I think that that is- Yeah, can I do this again? Yes. Just again, because I walked through and I walked through the resident and it seemed like, again, we're not discussing the issue, but could we just find out whether it's possible to highlight or paint that part, which shows that you're not allowed to park beyond this. And that's illegal to park beyond that part. Because that's what's happening right now is that cars are parked right at the edge of the trackways. So it seems like they could be at least in the interim of a solution. So that's good. That goes to Paul. They said, Gofford said, it didn't last the snow, the ice. What can we do? Yes. So painting curbs is not, it's not an enforceable action. It's not a sign. You can't, even if someone parked there, I mean, it's information. Again, we tend, we have never, we don't do that because it is a maintenance thing. Once you paint it once, it looks crappy if you don't keep it up. And this is a very long street. And then it's not the only street that's gonna be asking for this, obviously, because there's gonna be other things. And if there's not a curb there, there's just a multiple things. I think, you know, enforcement is the answer. If people are blocking a driveway, they can call the APD, they'll come down and they'll take it if someone is available and they're blocking a driveway or something like that. And I think, you know, we can also, I think we said we would be sending our parking enforcement officers down there as well, at least to do better patrolling along Lincoln Ave. And part of it is education. You know, once people learn you need, you can't park right up against the driveway, but the rules are pretty clear that you can't block someone's driveway. Wait, question? Yes. Just a follow-up question on this. And did you have a question related to this issue? No, it's not because of the other issue. So the follow-up question was, do people know that they can call up? I didn't realize that it, I mean, I guess I knew it was enforceable, but I didn't really know that you can call up because then that's a solution that people can. Tell me they know, they take pictures of them and send them to the town manager, but there have been cases when ambulances have not been able to get in or people haven't been able to get to work. So calling up and waiting for enforcement when you can't get out of your driveway safely, they know they can call up, but that's not sufficient solution, but they do know that. Okay, Andy. There was one other issue that was emitted from the list and I had sent it along to Lynn and I think she may have sent it to the committee. She did, she did. And I'm gonna ask you to give a presentation of that issue, Andy. Thank you so much. Well, again, I try and be as quick as I can about this. And it goes back some time because it actually goes to pre-counsel days. There was used to be a Refuse and Recycling Management Committee that developed a Refuse and Recycling Plan. And one of the things that they came up with and felt very strongly about at the time was that composting needs to be encouraged. And I know that this is an issue that I've heard about in a session of an MMA meeting too, that a number of communities are working very hard to encourage or require composting because anything that people can put into compost doesn't go into the landfill and doesn't get buried. And it's both more sound as far as the ecology as well as the cost of dealing with it, just the waste. So that was part of it. And then actually the problem with the Refuse Collection has gotten more complicated because the hope was that we would be able to either encourage or require composting as a part of the trash collection where people who take their trash to the Recycling Center transfer station, they do have bins there for taking compost but to require that it be in roadside bins. So that was part of it. And then the other thing that happened is that most of you have been around long enough to know that we used to have two companies that provided trash pickup and they would tend to compete with each other to the point where at least they cut the price down and gave them a reason to give service. One company has now purchased both of them. So there's only one provider in town that is doing curbside pickup for homeowners. And we have started getting some complaints about them, not huge numbers, but if you look, since this council was sworn in, I believe that there has been one, a public comment that was sent in fairly much right at the time we all took our, became, started our work as the second council. And the, so the, there was a year or two ago, so the, there was a big presentations were made at two of the council meetings in the summertime regarding this whole set of issues and options that are available. And because of the press of things that were going on at the time with all of these traffic studies, it was not something that was addressed. But if you go back to those meetings, you'll find some very impressive research and presentations that were made on the topic. So I felt like a lot of time had been put into it. Our people at the department of public works had worked with a, I had a grant and it worked with consultant to develop those materials for the council. I just didn't feel like it was appropriate to be lost and forgotten. Okay. And Anna. This is something that the health. Board of Health is also navigating, correct. Is this should we make sure we're not duplicating efforts or at least, you know, I mean, I know they're, they're navigating composting because any of the, any of the, any of the, any of the, any of the refuse. Decisions need to go through them. So. Yeah, I just want to make sure that we're coordinating with other folks who are also already working on this and not duplicating efforts. As well. And yeah, I'm looking at you, Paul. I'm hoping you can fill me in. So, yes. So the board of health is the regulatory body over the. Trash haulers in the town. Trash haulers. The town council can establish bylaws here that you're the lawmakers of the town. And so if you want to create a bylaw that says something, whatever it is, you can, you can create that. The, this initiative was presented to the board of health. I think they have deferred on it at this point in time, just because they have a, as you can imagine, a lot going on. And they didn't think this is something that they could take on because it is a, it will be controversial. It'll be a tax or an added cost to people. This is, you know, when you're requiring a new service, it's not free. And either this will be something that the town will have to absorb the cost or some or the property owners will have to absorb the cost. It's a, it's a good that we would like to see that many people in the community would like to see. So I think that they, at least the last time I talked with them, the health director was just like saying, I can't take this on right now. I think this is just a, a really reasonable and totally reasonable and understandable. But it's something, and I think Andy's right that this is something that's has been brought up multiple times. You know, the solid waste state, the solid waste, whatever committee it was presented to the board of the select board in 2016 or something like that. I did a report to the select board at that time. So there have been different recommendations at different times. you know it's interesting the economics have changed. It used to be that we would get complaints because there was two companies that would send trucks up the same street to collect trash on the same day and now we're down to one company but now people are saying no there's only one company and there's no competition and therefore the prices are being increased. There is a consolidation in the industry and it's not beneficial to the consumer. One solution is to have you know town pickup which you don't consider now that is a solution. Yeah so that's a significant new department that you would create and again there would have to be a charge that instead of the trash haulers being you know paid then we would you know purchase trucks and do all the things that we would need to do to establish that as a as a new department and then people we would charge people and collect you know we have to do all the things that go along with that as well so that's a that's a definite option as well. You know a lot of that material that was presented through this the state agency that provided that material that's available in the packets in the summer delves into that and gives examples of how other communities both nationwide and in Massachusetts have addressed this issue. There is I've always thought complication if you build it in as a tax supported service which is beneficial to the homeowners to the extent that it spreads it around to renters and taxes tax deductible and basically it's proposition two and whether you can you would require an override in order to do that. What number of towns and cities in Massachusetts have done is to do it through an enterprise fund or in our case a redoing of the enterprise fund and have charged this fees for people who choose to do that alternative to just taking their own trash to the recycling center transfer station that is always the less expensive alternative for people who choose to do that. So we can go into that later I need some understanding the tax repercussions of the two ways you discussed I think we need more time on that but this is a topic that we need to we need to discuss and you're right it work was done on it something should be decided one way or the other or you know how we're going to deal with it and so that is the list of things and at this point I'm going to ask if there are other items that people just want to quickly bring up that you think we should be dealing with this year or that you want to do and I see Shalini's hand is up. Well when I've already talked about is the outreach plan and so it could be something that we create and test out with our existing issues and then we can roll it out to other committees and they can adapt it to how it serves them the other thing that I know that in the first two years we heard a lot was how is the DPW prioritizing their projects in town and is that something that this committee could do is I don't know if that's relevant to I think it is because it's about town services and it's how is the DPW prioritizing which roads or projects that they work with right so just what other people would join I don't is that clear what I just said you're talking about roads and sidewalks yeah so that's what we hear from residents all the time that they might use the click fix app to report that there is a problem on the sidewalk or there's a pothole or something so we have the technology for residents to report it but then it goes into this abyss and people never hear what happened to it and then we don't know at the back end how the DPW is prioritizing that those different like is this street versus that or so coming up with some kind of working with the DPW or supporting them I don't know Paul so yeah so we can make a presentation to you every two or three years we do a full analysis of all the roads in the town I think those reports are on the website and that helps to prioritize which roads get paved and which ones don't and we can present that to you and we've done that previously I don't think we've done it for the council we've done it for the select board I know since I've been here and so that helps so throats we do not do that for sidewalks we haven't done that for sidewalks that's a different thing so there's two different issues one is how do we prioritize how do we decide which roads get paved and there's a formula that we follow for that and then the second is well how how do when I submit a request for something potholes say how does that get managed and I think there are issues with that that have been challenging for us in the past but that's something that's a very worthwhile thing for the for the committee to discuss as well okay so I'm gonna before I get back to that I'm gonna call on Anna to see what she has to say on this it's not about this okay it's a it's a separate thing okay so the thing is everywhere I go the word sidewalks comes up and I've just been talking to the new director of the senior center and some I guess dementia free dementia friendly communities again again it's sidewalks that are the issue and I know it's complex because our trees our wonderful trees are some of the reason we have problems with our sidewalks and I know that you haven't doubled the budget on that but and I don't know if there's any way to get any more grants or federal money because we need such an infusion of money that it's going to be hard to see where we'd get it in the budget but just understand that that's we hear about that all the time it's it's a major major topic that people bring up and the c-click fix just remember it's a great item but a lot of people don't know how to use it and a lot of people who are worried the old particularly who worry about the sidewalks a lot don't do it so it's it's um you know so many of these outreach things that we come up with are computer driven and yet there's a large population in this town that really isn't using that kind of access to information so I do want to put that on our our agenda as a major issue because it just intersects with so many of our other quality of life aspects so okay Anna new issue new issue um I've got plenty of issues to bring forward y'all all right so uh my first thought is um I'd really love for us to look at individually look at the carp plan put forward from ECAC and just consider how we're making sure that we are really centering um our our climate action needs in the work that we're doing around decisions we make regarding the public way regarding town services similarly um I would love you know and I think this got back to Anika's point earlier um and I'll I think this is maybe more of an individual action that I guess Anika not to I don't want to speak for you but as a new counselor I know that um looking at the groups we typically meet with so transportation advisory council disability access advisory committee I didn't get that right did I I'd love to hear from or meet with those groups to think through their priorities I know looking at I've read their charges um I've looked at their their information but we need to work with them so closely it's really important we fully understand their purview and and what they do and what they need so those are my two things climate climate focus let's all read that carp plan and maybe talk to ECAC about their what they think we should keep in mind and uh our other advisory groups that we rely on okay so I think that's a great thing to do and do we have any other uh issues that people want to bring up that we should be thinking about and then I'm going to ask Lynn and Paul we've been so talking about so many issues there's something really big and obvious that we should be thinking about we haven't mentioned Anika just go ahead yeah so um I just want to add yes uh first I'm a yes I do everything set and you spoke for me correctly uh and second I wanted to ask also if we could be in contact so we could be as supportive of folks who are dealing with seniors so uh senior center um those dealing with homeless those struggling with addiction and also folks that are doing the good work with all of the youth and particularly underserved um so we can assure that we are being as supportive as we possibly can be yes um very definitely uh in some preliminary talks we've several of us have discussed that we want to spend more time thinking about the department senior senior services and the center and how we can reach out to seniors and again that does segue on to sometimes the ability to deal with computers and meetings in zoom because it's it's you know it's great for those of us who know how to do it but a lot of people aren't really signed up on that so yes town services are not just our brick and mortar buildings our public buildings that we're doing but they're also um with the people that we have to do deal with so um any particular thoughts that people want to add on that any particular focuses that you wanted to look at related to other the services dealing with people okay so um Lynn I'm going to ask you have I omitted something on this agenda um I've got too many papers on my desk right now I don't know where it is I want to wait until after we have the retreat to see what other things emerge there thanks okay we've got the date did we in fact submit to our ideas or has that deadline passed I have not even called for them I've been too busy trying to set up the committee meetings for the first standing committees thanks yeah um I'm just emerging from a most intense week long course where I was working 15 hour days for like you know five days in a row um it was not working one week seriously I'm not going to do that one again but I did learn a lot I learned a lot um okay so I was gonna also just mention that maybe something down the road we could just do a review of town services and where we can improve and update processes and policies and along with that I was thinking like even fees that we've been charging for certain services where you know the residents may be disadvantaged and or like I mean just kind of review that do certain fees need to be updated with our current you know it's still charging certain fees that might need to be increased or decreased or and then just review the town services and I think that's something along with and I really like what Anika said it was so specific around specific populations that are underserved or ignored and really paying attention to um the delivery of services around those okay um Anna I was just going to ask Dorothy to clarify your question to Lynn were you asking if there was anything on the discussion items or anything on the regular agenda um I think I did the list of things business brought forward yeah okay I just wasn't sure I didn't want to make I'm going to make sure we weren't skipping the action items or anything like that oh we have to do some um appointments I believe and public comments and all the other things because I don't as I say I don't the paper is lost for me right now right can I add one more thing yes go ahead now that we are talking about lists and this is like it feels so cool that we can add a make up our own list of what we are passionate about and interested in but this is something that we have in different groups talked about renaming a park or not a street because a street is a whole new process but renaming a park to honor our local african-american indigenous people peoples and who've lived um locally and that's something yeah that what my understanding was that when we rename a street that's really complicated because it's maps and you have to change all of those things and get approval from the state but maybe renaming parks or buildings or something like that is something we can think about so I quickly ask paul if that is in fact true that it's easier to do a park than a street well streets are more complicated because that a lot of people depend on it to post office there's a lot of people who get into naming streets and numbering streets actually parks are different um I don't know exactly what it takes to rename a park in this community so we'd have to do some research on that okay all right and andy yeah I was just uh shelly brought up the thing about these and uh just um finance committee is also thinking about these and um what we have to recognize is a couple things one is um it's uh either statute or regulation for the state that indicates that fees are supposed to be geared to the cost of providing the service and cannot exceed the cost of providing the services but on the other side of that coin is that fees are an essential part of the revenue pieces when we do that pie of what is the revenue that comes to the town um we have to make sure that we obtain fees to pay for services whenever possible um a lot of that has to do with things like inspections and things of that nature so it's um I just wanted to point out that it loosened several committees and that there it's not the simple issue okay that's a good point andy um are we are we ready to move on to the appointments and I see we have jones library building committee and elementary school building committee and so paul uh she'd like to lead off on this so so these are pretty two very straightforward appointments because they are appointments that were recommended by the town council for appointment so I figure which one is first but I'll do the jones library first so the council voted at its meeting on January 3rd to recommend that I appoint town counselor anika lopes to the jones library committee and that's what I am doing and um asked for your support of that appointment should we take a vote on that now do we need a formal vote paul yes you do so are you looking for a motion specifically oh yes would you Anna great yeah so I move we let me know if this is right Athena paul Lynn whoever uh I move we affirm paul bachleman's appointment of anika lobes to the jones library building committee one is it are you affirming his or are we just recommending to the town council right thank you okay oh sorry sorry sorry okay okay I recommend we affirm anika lobes's lobes's appointment to the jones library building committee upon the recommendation to paul bachleman to the town council okay and do we have a second for that okay shall I call the question uh all those in favor of the appointment of anika we gotta do a voice vote one by one you have to do roll okay roll call okay um shall we ball mill yes okay anika lobes yes um Anna um devlin gathier yes andy steinberg yes and dorthy pamm yes okay all right so that has been approved and you are formally formally the um member of the jones library building committee well the council's going to yeah the council has to do okay so we're just recommending it to the council yeah okay yeah so we have a voted to recommend to the council that she be the jones library member on the building committee okay can I ask a technicality question I had said it as we're affirming paul's appointment is that correct or are we just should I have just said that we are we are recommended because we're really paul recommended so paul appointed sorry yeah so the town manager's the appointing authority yeah the town council has 30 days to approve disapprove or take no action in which case the appointments automatically approved so you're recommending the council approved okay yeah thank you sorry yeah no that's actually and that's you know it's important to understand the roles of the of this so you're a subcommittee of the town council right and you have no authority in and of yourself right delegated to the council so otherwise everything you just do goes back to the council for for action okay so we have a unanimous vote to recommend to the town council that anika lopes be approved as a member of the jones library building committee and the president will put that on the agenda for monday's meeting and hopefully it'll go through so as the second request is for the elementary school building committee so we have two vacancies right now that i'm seeking to fill one is for the town council position that was previously held by steve schreiber and the council as you recall at its meeting on january third had suggested alicia walker and that's who i am appointing for that the other person is the town's procurement officer if you may recall anthony delaney had been the town's procurement officer and he was serving in that capacity on the elementary school building committee we now have a replacement simone christifory who i am appointing and subject to your approval for that for that seat so there's two appointments for the elementary school building committee okay so uh would i entertain a motion to approve those two nominations to his two appointments two appointments would somebody like to make that motion i move that we recommend to the full town council the appointment of alicia walker and simone christifory to the elementary school building committee as per the recommendation of paul bacheman and do i have a second for that okay so i call the question for a voice vote okay in reverse order um andy steinberg yes okay anna yes uh anika yes and shallony yes and dorthy yes okay so we have a unanimous vote to support that position okay to recommend it to the town council paul one thing to note is the um i believe and linn you can address this if it's a unanimous vote of the tso committee it goes on the consent agenda for the town council so the town council doesn't have to vote it if it's not a unanimous vote then it goes it i believe it doesn't go on the consent agenda athena or linn can correct me if i'm wrong that is correct okay okay great so now um is there something else on this formal agenda that we need to address tonight public comment comment thank you okay last i looked we had um tracy zaffian uh do is there a desire to make public comment at this time if so raise your hand and yes i see the hand up okay so athena could you please admit her to the meeting dorthy i think you might have to do the little preamble oh okay where is it okay okay unless she doesn't i don't okay no i do okay here we go thank you public comment ask all people who'd like to make public comment to raise their hands uh okay i see one person um and the person resides in amherst so i read this part public comments on matters within the jurisdiction of the tsl committee okay residents are welcome to express their views for one to three minutes at the discretion of the tsl chair based upon the number of people who want to speak tsl will not engage in a dialogue or comment on a matter raised in public comment um i believe that is that has been now said so we could go forward um anything else that i should say it's it's good to read that because it's a good reminder to us as well as the public that this is not we're not to sit and have a chat um you should set a three-minute limit yes okay a three-minute limit oh okay is there a timer um so anyway my name is tracy zacyan i'm the chair of the transportation advisory committee um i just wanted to you know um attend this meeting remotely as a member of the audience just given that role and the given the fact that um the council are the keepers of the public way and many of the public way items come to tso i mean the transportation advisory committee we also look at things outside of the public way we have talked at our tsc meetings we had one last week or we had one two weeks ago we're having one this week as well as that you know at some point if appropriate we'd love to we'd be available to its head and present our talk with the tso i guess an agenda item um i did want to just specifically because you were talking about the carryover item it's just mentioned the tax perspective on the north pleasant street project from eastman to pine street this project has been before the tack for a number of years and we've talked with it at length with gilford mooring and after it went to the council in july the tso it was referred to the tso and the tso referred it to the tack for feedback um so we did um at that time we did two different site visits with um gilford mooring to the site and we looked at the detailed plans that engineering had drawn up um and we do have some so tso had originally asked us for her feedback right away you know they it was a very tight time frame and then they realized that they had many other pressing items so they didn't get back to it and so we had not yet submitted our feedback um but we do have it prepared so i guess i wanted to just see good i'm just as you're thinking about this issue whether we want to you would still want our feedback or whether you kind of want to restart the whole process i mean one big piece with this section of north pleasant street is that one of the major property owners is umas and umas is also one of the major stakeholders because its students use that route so much um my understanding from gilford mooring also was that there's currently no funding for the project so that was one thing um that was one reason perhaps that it wasn't advanced you know as quickly as some of the other items um so that's all i wanted to say thank you okay um thank you very much very informative um and that would be very useful um okay are we have completed the official business of this meeting yes shallony i and this is something maybe even for lin that when we make the announcement that public comment um in these committees and council isn't we're not going to engage in dialogue but just encourage people to sign up for the district meeting because that's where the dialogue does happen and many people i was surprised still not surprised but many people still don't know about it so i i suppose the more we just keep repeating it that okay we're not going to have dialogue in a public comment but we encourage you to sign up for your district councilors newsletters and meetings because that's where you can have dialogue right good point okay um so i just wanted to mention something totally random but i thought it was interesting um we have a new senior director of senior services and she worked at the Amherst survival center at some point in the past and has UMass connections and we had uh just two days ago the hostage situation at a Jewish center in texas and somebody tells me that the the rabbi had worked at the survival center in the past so i just thought that was kind of amazing that the survival center um seems to be a great source of service to the community but also a place where leaders are trained so just wanted to mention that um okay i will get back to you um with some of the choices and um ana is going to help me with the doodle poll um and hopefully we'll get ourselves a meeting date and um your comments are welcome during meetings and after meetings so communicate with me and let me mention that for your next agenda there will be a very significant referral assuming that's the way the council votes coming off of the agenda on the 24th with regard to parking fees etc it's just it's a quite a significant presentation okay thank you thank you very much okay so i guess then that the meeting um the meeting is adjourned and i gather that is non-debatable okay and it's 755 great okay thank you thank you Dorothy thank y'all thank all of you please thank you okay