 This program is brought to you by cable franchise fees and generous donations from viewers like you Good evening Seen as we have a quorum of the town council present We are calling the special meeting of the town council to order at 501 Based on governor Baker's executive order suspending certain provisions of the open meeting law signed Thursday, March 12th 2020 all the 13 counselors are present for this meeting having joined remotely We have called this meeting as a special town council meeting and therefore there will be no opportunity for public comment Future meetings will have clear ways to offer public comment That information will be posted on the town's website as we figure it all out meantime, we continue to urge you to Contract contact the town council either individually or by email town council at Amherst MA gov As a preface to our presentations and discussion tonight the town council recognizes that this is a new reality We ask our residents to brace themselves for the changes that are coming and have already arrived We will all need to work as a community Neighbors helping neighbors and the community working to help those who may struggle do the imposition of disease lack of resources and losing a job our Elders are more vulnerable and our children are bewildered The town of Amherst is very fortunate to have the outstanding leadership of our town manager Paul Bachman Assistant town manager Dave Zellmack and our talented and dedicated staff as we anticipate the unknown In addition the town's public health leaders and emergency response team are here this evening health director Julie Fetterman Fire and EMS chief Tim Nelson police chief Scott Livingstone and Department of Public Works superintendent Guilford mooring. They are part of this coordinated effort As Julie has recently said we've been preparing for this event an event of this enormity for 17 years Ever since 9-11 We urge all to regularly visit the town's website Amherst MA gov dash Three slash excuse me three five one nine slash coronavirus for more details and continual updates and We ask for everyone's patience as other important business of the town may be appropriately delayed With that we're going to begin our meeting and a presentation will begin According to our gen agenda for by Paul Bachman So there should be something on your screen if you can see it This shows a slide presentation. I hope the counselors can see it. Can you not or not not? Not yet. It's showing up. We're pulling it up So it seems like a long time ago, but it's been less than a week since I reported to the town council last Monday About the status of our preparations for COVID-19 At that point we were talking about potentially travel bans to other states Some minor changes to our operations Nothing of the magnitude that we are talking about today Or there yet, okay, can folks see this slide show Okay, so So this is a dynamic ever-changing situation The town has been nimble we've taken actions we had prepared for and Some of them much sooner than we ever ever anticipated We plan we adjust we execute execute. It's a real team effort and It's not surprising because we have a terrific team just this morning this superintendent of public works Guilford mooring and the assistant superintendent Amy Rosecki and the health director Julie Thetterman, I met with the members of our wastewater treatment plant and They had concerns they are frontline employees if their Operations don't continue. We have real problems in the town. They had legitimate concerns, but in Julie was able to answer them when she could and acknowledged if she couldn't these are employees who are On the front lines every day and we have to make sure that they maintain their health For our town, we're managing a very major transition and how we conduct business for the We're gonna be looking at our hours of operations how we how we prepare how we test and As you can see tonight, we really want to give credit to our IT department for all the work that they've done To get this meeting up and running to get this technology into all of your laptops so you could participate today So the first thing we wanted to talk about is now joining. Oh, thank you So the first thing we went to talk about is what is corona virus and why do we care about it? And our health director Julie Thetterman is going to talk about that. Oh well first off, I'm gonna Let's go to the next So some actions that have happened already so we had the governor declared a state of emergency on March 12th We closed the town's public buildings to all outside groups that on March 12th We closed the town buildings to the public starting today March 16th The Amherst regionals public schools are closed as of today The governor closed restaurant and bars. He announced this on Sunday. That is effective tomorrow March 17th Our higher education institutions have transitioned to online learning all three of them and Higher education campuses are primarily closed to the public next slide So these are the things we want to cover tonight We're gonna give you a status port on where we are we're gonna address some key questions and answers and talk about the Preparations and plans where we are and then I think that the counselors will have many questions And we're really eager to hear what those are so next slide So Julie is gonna talk a little bit about COVID-19 Good evening. I just had the Opportunity to get off the first federally Federal fed nationwide conference call with the Centers for Disease Control There are about a thousand of us on the call And so what we've just learned is that CDC will be updating us this afternoon that they're currently in the US 3,000 cases they're calling this the acceleration phase and The acceleration phase is directly impacted by the public health response So you're all familiar with the curve and the concept of flattening the curve So the acceleration phase is when we're seeing in the US enough cases that we are accelerating basically overnight 700 cases were diagnosed overnight since last night in Massachusetts we have 45 confirmed cases and 119 presumptive positive cases in Amherst at this time we have no confirmed cases. I Want to talk a little bit about transmission because I think this is one of the key things for people to understand You've heard so much in the news People are getting information in on from so many places, but I do want to emphasize some of the key points So one is that this is a novel virus and what that means is it's a new virus That's one of the reasons why it's so transmissible People do not have immunity to it So it spreads very easily very quickly unlike flu where many people over the years are building up a certain amount of immunity Diseases are transmitted in various ways This is a virus which means that it's not living unlike a bacteria, which is actually alive This virus is sped spread via droplets these droplets are big and heavy. They don't linger in the air They are actually spewed out when you cough or sneeze and they land Hopefully not in your face, but they could land on on you or on a surface So that's why we keep talking about cover your cough cover your sneeze Don't go anywhere sick and wash your hands Want to talk a little bit about washing your hands soap and water is what you want to use to wash your hands again I know it seems so boring, but I was actually reading some studies about soap and water last night Washing your hands with soap and water for 20 seconds vastly reduces Virus and also bacteria at the same time on your hands the reason that's critical is though It's because even though you are keeping your surfaces clean You may go into another room or into some place where a surface is not clean And even though you've just washed your hands you are now Touching that surface. So that's why repeatedly washing your hands is important and also not touching your face Because when you touch a surface and then touch your face you're coming close to mucous membranes your eyes your nose your mouth This is a lower respiratory illness and one of the things we know is that the Receptors for this virus are mostly located in your nose and in your lungs And that's why the disease so easily can get from your face down into your lungs You're hearing a lot about hand sanitizer hand sanitizer is not necessary Except in places where there's no access to soap and water So it's not necessary if you'd have hand sanitizer in your house The best thing for you to do is to wash your hands with soap and water And that's true anywhere else that you go if you're not in your own bathroom Then if you're somewhere else you're going to use a paper towel or something to turn off the faucet Many of these are health behaviors or actually these are all health behaviors that we should always be using even at other times So the main tool we have other than personal hygiene for containing the spread of this disease is variations of social distancing So right now even though you can't see us in town hall. We're all sitting six feet away from each other That is the initial type of social distance distancing that we're looking at One of the reasons for that is when you sneeze or cough What is ejected from your body is not going to go more than six feet So this is a mechanical blunt barrier to spreading disease You've also heard the words quarantine and isolation Quarantine is an especially uncomfortable word. It sounds rather scary But what it really means is that someone who's not sick But has been in contact possibly with someone who is ill Or has traveled somewhere with high rates of transmission Is going to stay at home for 14 days and isolate themselves in their room They're not going to share a bedding. They're not going to share a bathroom So that during that 14 days which is the incubation period of the disease In the event that they began to develop the develop disease Which tends to happen between days three and we're looking at maybe three and seven Though it can happen anywhere in those 14 days That that person would already have stayed home and not had contact with anyone At the end of those 14 days if a person has had no symptoms They're absolutely fine. They go back to work. They can have full contact with anyone that they want Isolation is the tool we use When someone is actively sick with the disease Now one of the things you're hearing about is the availability of testing So in a perfect world someone would get tested They would stay home and within two days they would find out whether they had a positive test If they had a positive test that test would be repeated They would be assumed a case. They would stay home for one week minimum Seven days minimum And after that only after three days of having no fever And not using any type of fever reducer and not having any symptoms Would they then be allowed to leave their home The problem we're having right now is that the tests are so limited as you've heard That only two categories of people in Massachusetts are being able to be tested regularly It's those who are at increased risk for severe illness And healthcare and critical infrastructure workforces Those are the people who are being tested. Their tests are being sent to the state lab As we speak other labs are being opened up to be able to process tests This is a dynamic situation. The testing will be changing day by day So right now what we have learned actually today is that people who have not been tested But are getting a clinical diagnosis from their providers of having COVID-19 Are also being told to stay home and isolate You will occasionally hear people confusing the two words of quarantine and isolate It's important to remember that when you're hearing that someone is quarantined at home That person does not have an active case of disease It's actually just that extra barrier to prevent transmission As you know there is no vaccine at this time. Developing vaccines takes a long time We're not looking at having a vaccine until probably a year from now Here you have a picture of the wave and the curve When I got off what we want to see is a flattening there You see with protective measures, public health measures We hope to decrease that acceleration of cases that we're seeing now One of the reasons to do that is to not overwhelm our healthcare and hospital systems But the other reason is that if we slow that acceleration We should also see a decrease in the total of cases This is the time to really take serious measures If we do this now, we can slow the spread It's important for everyone to comply with whatever is being presented to them It's very difficult for us to change our habits But each person's ability to do that is really going to help to slow the spread of this disease And when you're slowing the disease, you're protecting not only yourself But those in your family, your neighborhood or your community who are at highest risk Those with diabetes, high blood pressure, cardiac and respiratory illness Older folks, especially those over 80 and very young children and infants So we put in a couple of quotes from Dr. Anthony Fauci Who is, in my mind, the foremost expert and has gone through this before And really is a leader on this And he has sounded the alarm since that the cities and towns and states And federal government should be acting sooner than later So you have seen in the last week a wave of actions by the federal government By the state governments and by local governments To try to counteract the development in the spread of this virus It's a virus that spreads very easily And there is a lot that's not known about it And that's one of the things that Julie is really good at Is she has been meeting with town employees and other groups regularly for the last two weeks And able to answer all the questions that they have And I'm sure you all have questions that are pent up So I'd ask you to just write those down You don't have to chat them, but just write them down Because we're going to come back at the end for questions and answers Now I want to just sort of run through where we are as a town Which is what we are concerned about The way I look at it is we can only control what we can control And all the policies at the federal and all the decisions at the state We can't really control, but we can control our operations So we have looked at this as sort of a two legs One leg you have the public health system And the other leg is your public safety system So on the public health system, it flows from the CDC To the State Department of Public Health To the local Board of Health or our health director On the public safety side, it flows from FEMA to MEMA To our local emergency management director Who is also our fire chief, Tim Nelson So it's on these two legs that we stand in that we have addressed this So Tim and Julie are our two subject matter experts on this They have mobilized both the public health field And the public safety field in the response So our core emergency team is Julie Who's our health director, Tim Nelson Who's our fire chief and EMS Director and emergency management director Scott Livingstone who is our police chief And he's also in charge of dispatch Which is a critical link to anybody who has a concern They dial 911 And our dispatch center is really well trained on this However, you know, it's a small space And we worry about their health as well Dave Zomek is the assistant town manager He's our public information officer And has been working with our outside constituent groups And with town staff extensively Guilford Mooring is our superintendent of public works And a lot of times people say Why public works? This is public health Public works is critical to our operations Because there are a few systems that we are required That we must have And that's electricity It's water and it's wastewater And some people now would say internet But if our water systems and wastewater systems go down That's a real problem for the public health Of the town plus the public convenience of the town And Guilford will talk about that in a little bit Also Sonia Aldridge who's our interim finance director And all the decisions we make All the purchases we make The budgets, those are still realities that we have That we have to pay attention to Our team doesn't act alone We have people who support us So under communications front We have Brianna Sundred who's our communications manager Under Guilford is Amy Rosecki Who's our assistant superintendent of public works And also one of the leaders in the state On water supply issues Jen Brown is our public health nurse Who works with Julie and has a fabulous way Of interacting and educating people on this virus Holly Bowser is our assistant comptroller She works with Sonia Class 1-4-1-3-2-3-7-2-4-3-3 Is now exiting Goodbye So all these things We have to go through our finance system Or our purchasing system Angela Mills in the town manager's office Is obviously central to everything that I do In the fire department We have our assistant chiefs Jeff Olmsted and Lindsay Stromgren And our police captains Ron Young and Gabe Ting All very strong, very experienced people And we've even experienced it in this situation Where someone couldn't be part of our team And the next person stepped up And filled in admirably So we think about a number of things As we plan for this And we have been at this for several A long time now, several weeks Julie's been at this since January 20th I think was the first real diagnosis And Tim obviously So we think about force protection And that sounds really powerful But what it means is You can't have first responders respond If the first responders are sick Or disabled or something So we have to make sure That the people, that the town employees Who are in the front lines Are able to do the jobs And that they're protected So this is called force protection Police and fire have been at this for a long time They have established protocols in place To help make sure that Their teams are resilient And can respond And have all the protocols in place Where I talked a little bit about the dispatch We have to make sure that they're all Having best practices on hygiene So that there's no spreading Of the virus there We weren't so good on the town side Honestly, we've really ramped up our systems But we've had pretty Strong Interventions that we've done And that includes basically just Closing our buildings Jones Library and its branches are closed The schools are closed The town buildings are closed This is part of Preventing people from gathering To many people from gathering Schools have a whole different metric For making their decision But it's also to make sure that our Unknown participant is now joining This is so that our Employees can do the jobs And our employees Need to do the job Especially in finance for instance That they need to be able to get Our vendors going to be paid On time Because everybody's on very thin margins Right now because of the impact On the economy So all these things have to be Still working in place I mentioned our wastewater treatment Plant operators this morning Also our water treatment plant operators These are all people who are central To the functioning of town government So we have force command And then the second thing is Incident command So if something happens Who's involved in that Again very strong team With Tim Nelson, Julie Fetterman And Scott Livingstone all able Their high communicators they all have Incredible experience With the town So if there are protocols In place for if someone calls And dispatch has been trained To do a series of questions That Scott can address And be able to do that To respond in an efficient way The next thing we look at So we have force protection And then we go to continuity Of operations So continuity of operations Coop sometimes they call it It's like how are you going to keep Your operations moving When all these things are doing So we have a team that includes Dave Zomek, Sean Hannon from IT HR, Evelyn Rivera, Riffenberg And Finance with Sonia Aldridge And these are the folks who are working On they've been working for several weeks now On workforce protection Which is why we closed some of our buildings If people are required to work at home Or with the schools being closed More and more people have to do that Take that option, what are the rules About working remotely Are they able to reach connectivity Are they able to have the files So IT has been working overtime on that If people aren't able to come in And we have our policy on time off And compensation for that And policies on all kinds of things That HR is working through And then the other thing is Because of this disease We can't have in person meetings Which is why we are conducting this meeting this way And so we have to Implement and share Out and train On virtual meeting technology With this system that we're using today So there are a lot of pieces in play People have been working seven days a week Literally seven days a week to make all this happen And so it's been really A terrific team effort So the next thing is about communications It's all about communications We have, you know, I look back Letter to employees, this was sort of a Alert letter about a week ago And it seems so innocent now Because we were alerting them to things That now seem so passe We've had Department heads meetings And that was the last time we had a meeting Because the next day We realized we shouldn't be having meetings We've We have Then we started to have staff meetings And if you could see this room On all the rooms in town hall We put a new occupancy limit And now every room in the building Has a fire code occupancy Limit But now we have a new limit And for this room It's 18 people allowed in the town room Previously there would be closer To 90 or 100 people Who could fit in here So there are new things And when we tried to have an all staff meeting We realized not all staff Should get together in one room So we introduced new technology So we could have some people stay At their desks and participate remotely And all these things are being Run out and delivered Within 24 hours We said oh my gosh we got to do this IT jumps up and makes it happen somehow We've been meeting We had wastewater today I think there was a highway or water meeting This afternoon again 7am tomorrow There's another meeting coming up That Julie or Jen go and meet with the Employees and just talk to them Listen to their concerns Try to address their concerns Last week we went to Met with the library staff We had about 20 rooms But there were probably about 20 seats That were allowed in there Maybe 25 So everyone was social distance apart So we've been working On lots of different levels Primarily to communicate with our employees Because there's a lot of anxiety Amongst our employees Not knowing what this means The public face of the town They're interacting with the public On a regular basis So there's lots of Just the unknown is what's Staggeringly challenging And it's truly an unknown Because even the experts you asked Julie about something and she'll say Nobody really knows the answer to that question Because it is a novel virus Sean So as we were going through this We looked at also what are the What are the programs that were Going to be impacted And so Dave worked with Mary, our senior Center director, Mary Beth Ogilovitz And they started cataloging All of the programs that they Had and initially we were saying Which ones can we have and which ones Can we do we not and so we do all the work On which ones we could do and then Quickly it's like no we can't do any of them So we move forward So I want to just go through With our team who's here today And talk about where we are From your perspectives With Chief Nelson who's our Second subject matter expert So you have to push it down You have to hold it down Good evening Just real real real real quick We're in a good good place In terms of public safety Safety I would say We've done a lot of work on a lot Of training in years past For something like this And you talked about the team And this team has been Working as Paul Paul said For weeks In a rather quick note I was in Washington State back in January when the first case Came out it was in A couple of towns over from From where I was And I called Julie or I sent her a text I said hey something's going Going on here and so on And so forth So we've begun To work on this week weeks ago And it just goes We've got a really good team Here in town Just three quick things I think one folks should be Reassured that The town is doing all that That it can to address this And address the needs of Our residents You know we still Have power We still have water You still have police Out on the streets You still have us Responding to emergencies We're also doing a lot more To address this public health Emergency And another thing would be Just listen to the science Science Julie just went through A lot of that And we need to listen to That and pay attention To the attention of that Because that's a big part of What is going to get us through Through this Without any hysteria Or anything like that And third We need To take a common sense Approach to this We talked about how Folks are at times Making runs on supermarkets And all that Do we really need 30 days For provisions for this No, no, you don't The other part of this Is if we do Do things like that It can hurt Your neighbor Unknown participant Is now exiting See ya Something I said This is one of those times Where we really need to come together Someone said the last time We were in a situation Like this was 9-9-9-11 And I would say That this is akin to that But it's going to affect a lot more people But if we do the right thing If we're smart It means we're not going to hurt Our neighbor As you know, supermarkets Are reducing their hours That's so they have a chance To clean Really clean their facilities At the same time, it gives them time To restock So we'll have the goods and services That we need We need to give them a chance To do that This is going to be a community effort And it's going to go on for a little while And again, I guess I can't Emphasize enough That first and foremost We need to take care of each other Unknown participant is now joining We need to take care of each other And that's what the town Team is doing And that's what we will continue To do Talking about Our operations As I said, we're going to continue To answer the call We've trained We've enhanced our Policy a bit To directly address Public health Emergency Part of what we do Is support the health In their Work And react to those needs That come up because of this So our folks are trained We've got the protective equipment That we need We're working with our partners As well And that includes And they Stay at the medical center And on a large We're working with Our three centers Of higher ed As well because we're all Parties in Protecting our community Community Thank you So Scott, you want to talk about police And dispatch and how you're prepared How this differs from what you're normally dealing with No, I got it So currently Both the police and dispatch center First of all, everybody's healthy We have 100% Of our officers and dispatchers Are working No second calls So we're in a good place there To be on their proactive patrols As routinely As they always would be We are responding to calls as normal We have made some tweaks To the types of calls that we may change And made adjustments to And some of those are like medical calls And the nature Some of those types of calls And some of our quality of life calls We've got contingency plans in place Where we may not want officers Waiting into large crowds, that sort of thing They're anticipating Perhaps when the students return But we're trying to stay as normal As possible when it comes To call response and that sort of thing We want our officers out on the streets Being visible And being as routine as possible From that perspective There is a Message on our webpage As well about Vehicle stops and there may be a reduction In that, but again Officers will be out there They'll be vigilant In responding to calls and doing What police officers do In the dispatch center again Everybody's healthy there And everybody's reporting to work We have contingency plans if things If somebody were to become just sick Over the normal course of Working because there are currently 10 full-time dispatchers there We're lucky in that we have Four police officers on our department On dispatch experience So if somebody were to get ill We have emergency officers Who could fill in for them So everything on dispatch Is normal as of now Our records bureau Will be operating at full capacity But probably through electronic Ability So if people need records requests We can still have the ability to do that But it'll be conducted electronically So we're in a good place And Last but not least Carol Hepburn The animal control officer She's going to continue to work I'm trying to get her to I'm working on getting her To understand the importance of Social distancing And doing the right thing But that's her usual Carol kind of drives the ship Even though I'm in charge So that's a work in progress I'm not going to back you on how those are working But all in all public safety Police and dispatch we're in a really good place And everybody's on board Thank you. That was one of the things that The public should rest assured Is that police and fire especially Have a lot of contingency They do a lot of contingency planning Worst case scenario planning What if there's a chemical spill What if there's something happening At the university And there's connections with the state police And can move things momentarily In an instant so they have a lot Of contingencies in place But it's still people Who are responding to incidents And so our Work is only as good as we are To keep our people healthy and so that's why We talk about force protection To make sure that all those folks are Healthy. And then Guilford you want to talk about public works And water and sewer and all the divisions you have So right now the water system Is working perfectly the way it's supposed to We are coming to the spring season So there's things we will be doing That we normally do every spring To help improve water quality In the system. You'll see our crews Outflushing water lines which is a normal Thing it has nothing to do with The virus that's going on right now We will be doing normal Sampling so you will see crews That go out and we'll be going to Businesses that we normally go to We're required to do that by the state And the state hasn't changed those rules The facility is stocked With chemicals we have probably A full supply so we should Last our normal Duration for treatment We actually see a drop In water usage Students left and the water dropped Like it normally does The question is will it stay down Or will it come back up and will Students come back at the end of the spring break As well. The one thing That we ask you to do is if you Have any concerns about the water Please call the office You may have to leave a message Or you may have to send an email But let us know When the water system changes When we lose customers or gain Customers we often have changes In how the system works and that Could cause some discoloration Or it could cause some weird smells Or it could cause something in the They're normal and we just need to know About it and see if there's something abnormal About it but most of the time it's normal The wastewater plant is functioning As normal as well. We have A full staff. We have one person Who's out sick. He doesn't know What he's out sick with but it seems to be He's the guy who's caught the flu the most This year so we think he has the flu again He had flu A the first time I think he's on flu B this time We're doing all the things we can There. You will see people out Cleaning routine maintenance on the sewer lines The big truck with the elephant hose On the front the vector truck Will be out cleaning sewer lines We're doing that for two reasons One it's routine maintenance And if we don't do it we have backups The second one reason we're Doing it is with everyone cleaning Everything and using flushable wipes We're afraid people will flush them Flushable wipes should never Ever be flushed Down the toilet. Do not do that Please. We've been having a lot of Problems with flushable wipes And things being sent down the toilet Which are not meant to go down the toilet So please help us out and help our crews out You will see probably more Personal protective measures taken By the crews as they're out working Just wearing a full face shield Instead of a partial face shield Or they might actually have more gloves on Or a suit on to help Protect them from splashes As they work That's just something that they're doing And they should be doing it anyhow They're just taking a step up On their PPE, their personal protective equipment Highway will be out working And parks will be out working as well We do have things we require to do Every spring and they'll be working On those things and then They're there to take over As we need to or Step into the water and wastewater Will if we need to as well Carry along and moving things right along Yes, the transfer station is open We have made some changes To the transfer station We want you to Think of the transfer station as another place You need a social distance Be prepared when you go there You want to be in and out You don't want to have long conversations With your neighbors That's not the place to socialize Even though it is a very social place Most of the time We just leave Do not bring a lot of things That do not really need to be disposed of Concentrate on the things That do not need to be in your house Which is basically household trash Get your household trash out If you have leaves and brush From cleaning your yard Let it sit for a while Bring it in a couple of weeks or a couple of months When things calm down And we have time to take care of it a little more So the staff is there The interaction with the public as much as we can We still want to keep the service open Great, thank you The next one We were talking about is town operations Dave, do you want to address some of these things? Sure, thanks, Paul So I'm working with this great team As Paul mentioned before Our HR director, our interim finance director Our IT director and our assistant Superintendent of Public Works But I wanted to also put a plug in To the staff that we work with That you often don't see up here on the stage We have a terrific Group of people That work with us Within our departments And they have just stepped up tremendously From planners, inspectors TPW employees And water and sewer And the list goes on and on In LSSE, I've talked to almost Every department head today And To a person, everyone seems to be Stepping up Folks are really dedicated Very committed They want to continue operations But they also understand The seriousness of the situation So what we're doing Working with our team In terms of continuity of operations All department heads are working with staff On Contingency plans To work remotely from home We're also looking at alternating shifts Within departments The key is we want to continue as best We can to serve the public To serve our boards and committees During this period, particularly from Now until April 7th And at that time I'm sure that Paul will make decisions That are appropriate as we move to the next phase So we're going to be Working remotely The public can still call our offices And email with questions With concerns about Plans About filings, etc The key for us is to identify Essential staff and tasks So we'll be, you know, from Accounts payable Payroll How do we conduct inspections How do we continue construction projects We'll be working closely with Guilford and his engineering team Whether it be the golf park Renovation or The multi-purpose path on East Hadley Road We'll be working on those projects And how we can use best practices Social distancing to keep those Outside projects going We've been doing outreach to Boards and committees To chair people Paul did make the decision to Suspend All public meetings except those Of the Town Council At least through April 7th That Policy as we approach April 7th So outreach is also ongoing To applicants in the regulatory process It's very important that we Communicate with those applicants To let them know what we're doing Between now and April 7th And then beyond that So my staff will be reaching out To those people Who have filed applications We'll also be establishing protocols Regarding any communications With the university With Amherst College, with Hampshire College The bid in the chamber We've been reaching out to Those partners out in our community Because they are trying to plan For events and other Activities in our community We'll also be establishing Communication links and groups Within functional areas So that work can continue Remotely as our staff Do what they do best which is Serve everyone in our community We would ask for your patience IT has been terrific As has been mentioned But it's going to take us a little while Some days to get some of these Systems up and running When in doubt, please give The call to our staff Whether it's in conservation And development, whether it's in accounting We will do the best we can You may not get a person But please leave a message And we will get some of our staff To return messages and emails As promptly as we can So I think I'll stop there for now, Paul Okay, so we're sort of Jumping around a little bit but that's okay So our community partners, Dave mentioned The chamber in the business improvement District, we've met with both groups Dave met with the full board of the Chamber and Then we had a team Meeting with the Amherst College Hampshire College, UMass Their senior leaders and their emergency managers Just to make sure those sort of Communication lines are open It was very helpful for them To hear each other and us to hear what their plans are And how they're addressing this I have to say that the communication With our schools and with our library With Sharon Sherry at the library And Mike Morris at the schools have been superb They are Really team players We're sharing information Making decisions together And I really appreciate the willingness That they have to work with the town And move forward as a group So it's been really important So one of the things I wanted to mention Was that we are a college town Amherst College, Hampshire College And the University of Massachusetts at Amherst And they have all moved To remote learning Or moving people off of their campus That has a big Impact on us And not only I can feel how I felt it today How sort of vacant the town felt And it felt sort of sad to me Usually when the students leave in the summer Everybody sort of elated But now it just felt a little scary And sad But we will manage through this But there are some real implications To the town's operations And especially on finances And this is not a high priority But this is going to be something That we will have to take into consideration That council will have to take into consideration We will have lower revenues For water and sewer Because we have a lot fewer students Who are going to be here for several months We will have reduced parking Revenue because there will be Fewer people coming downtown Because all the restaurants are closed Or working Giving box lunches And things like that And meals tax will go down So a lot of the revenues that we're used to receiving Are going to be lowered this year It has a really This disease It has a ripple effect across the economy And that's why we believe that We need to take very strong action To do as much as we can To mitigate it Dave mentioned the committees And how we really Appreciate the committees Basically going on hiatus A couple of weeks let us get our people Situated in their New work environments This is a huge adjustment for our employees Who already are Feeling anxious at home Because of their children Now we're asking them to work from home To support the committee successfully We ask our Committees members And board members to give us some Time if we wait until Early April In this one meeting It's not the end of the world And it will give us the space we need To make sure all the Staff who need to support these committees Are up and running And we can provide you with the technology That will comply with the open meeting law And so the public can See everything That you are doing as a committee Those that commitment to Being open and transparent to the public Is very high in our town So We will be focused on Going to the next one I think we did that And the last The other thing is about communications I want to talk about Communications is probably the Lynch pin for our connection to the public And to you as counselors So we will continue to work hard To be Communicating everything that we Can get out to you And doing even more communication to the public Things that we had in mind Last week we were saying This would be a great idea Let's do a 90 second Q&A With Julie and then there is no time Because there is something that's happening And we have to address it right then and there So all of our plans Get set aside And we don't know what tomorrow will bring Within 24 hours everything We have a nice plan set up And we run right through it One of our biggest things That we have focused on And maybe Dave will want to talk a little bit About this is our vulnerable populations We are a community that is a welcoming community Our senior center Is And this is a very vulnerable population It's the seniors, our social service providers Our guests at the homeless shelter Non-English speakers Immigrant communities People who are in extended care We have concentrations of seniors Our staff members We have connections With all of those through different ways And we use existing connections It might be through the fire department It might be through the health department It might be through Dave Or different groups So it's really We're using existing Connections But it's someplace that we're going to need a lot more work And a lot more support And something we will talk about in a little bit So The next one Go back So these are some of the issues That we have identified For our vulnerable communities And I think we're not the only ones Obviously this is people have been emailing us Saying what's going on With food security issues And things like that Can I say a bit about that? So very quickly I think everyone at the At the table here has had some Role in some of the steps we've been taking But let me just quickly Highlight a few things that Have been going on to help our Our vulnerable folks Within our community So I can't say enough as Paul just did About the schools We're working closely with the schools And Mike Morris and his team They are coordinating food Distribution to eligible families In our community So that is ongoing And the schools Did a terrific job Getting that up and running quickly We're working with our Senior center director Coordinating and continuing The food distribution programs At the senior center So that is ongoing I know that Julie And Tim and Scott Before I get to that To senior communities At the Arbors At Applewood At Ann Whalen already At the shelter I know the shelter staff Julie and others at this table Have been in close contact With the leadership at the shelter So we're doing everything we can To support that vulnerable Population I know that health screenings Are beginning at intake now Provided by doctors, nurses And PAs So I know Julie has been working on that And coordinating those efforts With Kevin And other staff there They're instituting new And more extensive cleaning procedures For the shelter at the end of each Sheltering day They're already Establishing social distancing Of cots within the building And I know that Rob Mora Our building commissioner Is working with the leadership At Greg's Doors Looking at some of the day use options Because of course we realize that Public buildings both in town And on the college campuses Are closed Temperatures are still at a level That we have some concern So we're looking at options for People experiencing homelessness Where they could go during the day So that is ongoing And then lastly our CPOs Are reaching out Have already reached out to the leadership At Greg's Doors to see if we can help With recruiting some volunteers We know that the shelter has lost Many volunteers Particularly those college students Who have left our community But there are other college students Coming back to our community From schools all around the country And there may be an opportunity For us to have them assist So those are some of the tangible steps We've been taking And I guess we're happy to have questions Later on in the presentation So you've been very patient I know it's hard to listen when you're remote Just two more slides So Some of the things we're working on Is the things I talked about earlier Remote work, what's where the policies Around that, committee meetings Canceled and then move forward Ongoing communication, regular updates Cancel into the public And The next slide If you can't mention this One of the things I wanted to sort of conclude on Is that this is a global pandemic It's going to get worse Before it gets better These are extraordinary times And communication And support for each other is key The decisions we are making Are science based decision We depend on our subject matter experts Specifically Julie and Tim And their connections And their relationships to all the other Scientists who are looking at this To give us advice and provide The decisions That we think are in the best interest of the town So there are two things that I'm going to conclude with One is today at four o'clock I declared a state of emergency That Allows us To Alliance us with the decisions that were made At the federal level and the state level It provides a clear communication To the public that we This is an important issue And we're going to take unusual steps To continue to address it It doesn't mean anything Dranconian Although there are those steps That are down the road that seems that Will come from different states that are Happening now So that is a Step for us And that happened at four o'clock today And the council has it in their inbox As well The second is We have talked a lot about Count operations and how we're doing And I think we've got that pretty much under control But there's a bigger community out there The whole community And there needs to be more More people involved Who can participate in that and support that And I call it Resilient Amherst And we call it anything It's just a group of citizens Who will come together And start to address People coming out to us Saying how do I help my coffee shop How do I help the business community The person who waits on my table I want them to Make sure that they don't lose funds So People want to set up GoFundMe pages There will be a lot of organic things But we also want to provide A panel for people to say I'm here to help I'm willing to make phone calls for the senior center I'm willing to Help find a space For people who are experiencing Homelessness to be during the day I'm willing to do all these different things That are going to be needed So that's going to be a community effort It's not going to be us Doing it So I'll be working with the council president About this So Anyway So Working with the council president To talk about the formation of this group So those are the next two things Until something else hits us So I think there are Questions and answers We also have our state I believe we have our state rep and state senator available It's up to the president How you want to move forward from here Thank you Paul and to all of you For your just amazing work Over these last several weeks And particularly this last week So I think Rather than ask questions here I'd like to make sure that we While we have Joe Cumberford Our senator and Mindy Dom With us that we go ahead And ask them to speak And then we'll take questions From the council So Are you ready senator Cumberford Hi everybody Yes I've been on the line listening And I want to thank you for your service How How long would you like the update to be If we could keep it to about five minutes That would be good One thing we're all aware of is fatigue Using online meetings Of course Yes well I've been on the line for the entire meeting I'm grateful for your service This is an unprecedented time I've heard it called at the state house Something akin to The economic crash in 2008 plus Right because the plus is of course The impact of the virus And how much we still Are learning So as folks have said What's true and amused about the situation Being rapidly moving fluid Changing The nimble And both pragmatic And expansive in our thinking all at the same time That's true at the state level I want to say that Repdome has been doing An unbelievable job Really leveraging her public health Expertise from You know really really at the back At the start of when this became Clear that it was going to be an issue In the commonwealth in the United States Repdome has really been leading Tremendously grateful To be in partnership with her So at the senate level You may remember that Where you may have heard that I As senate chair of the joint committee on public health I was tuned in Really quickly and did Move the legislature both My committee chair In public health and my own Committee to an oversight hearing And now seems like It was months and months ago A couple of weeks ago As things were really clearly Crystallizing for us We Learned a great deal there It began informing the work of the senate And I was named to lead the senate Effort so I'm chairing the Working group In the Massachusetts senate responsible for responding I'll tell you The committees that we've put Together in The working group again This is a An attempt for us to be Lean, mean and quick In our own work And because we want to serve The people of the commonwealth So my, the committee members That are leading different buckets Of work are senator sear around Elder affairs I know you're talking a lot about elder affairs There's lots we can do in terms of advocacy And funding and policy Senator lewis schools That's pre-k through higher ed Senator brownsburger elections Municipalities, courts and The department of brection Senator tar we're looking at Price chains Supply chains and price gouging Senator creme is interpreting Federal guidance We're getting both daily federal Guidance sometimes hourly federal Guidance and then sometimes hourly State guidance and our job is To interpret them for people like you Senator freedman on healthcare And hospitals we've been in very close Contact with the my job Here representing you with our area Hospitals and our health Centers and providers But we also have to think about The well-being of the whole and the whole Surge capacity for the commonwealth Senator lesser economic recovery And reinvestment including small Businesses workers and nonprofits And then I'm leading the safety net Subcommittee and we're looking Here at food security We're looking at housing And homelessness to begin So the Senate It's moving on these areas All at once each of these Subgroups has a number of senators That have assigned to work in those subgroups We're working on three different Tears we're working On advocacy with the governor So the governor And the executive branch under a state Emergency can move a great many things Quickly that are within The executive purview So we're channeling up Daily Through daily conversations and meetings And Small leadership meetings With folks like me talking to the governor Staff and then meetings with the senate president Where I escalate to her Escalating issues that we hope To see executive movement on We're also looking at funding So we've passed a 15 million Dollar Supplemental budget really honestly That's chump change compared To what we're going to need And the state knows that certainly We're glad that our federal counterparts Are moving as well So we are escalating A budget recommendations and then Finally policies so There are things that the legislature Can do that in fact Only we can do on certain Issues and so we're dug in On each of these working groups on those Three areas and So you'll already see some policy And some budget recommendations from the senate Moving to that end Let me just say that and I think I have one more minute I am available to Constituent we've been Reaching out to a range Of different cohorts from the health sector To the small business sector Two municipal officials Cohen from my team is District director as some of you may know Certainly we're firing on all cylinders Because we're both serving the district And then helping to lead the senate In this work So we're going to bring on extra capacity So that we can be We can staff up and the senate president Is going to support that But please My website senator Joe Cumberfork is the place where you can Get me one stop shop Team and I are here for you and the town of Amherst and with that I'll stop Thank you Joe we're going to I hope you can stick around with us a little bit There may be some additional questions And I know you and representative Dom have been working very very At Rapidly to file effective Legislation as we go forward That helps businesses and Communities as well So representative Dom if you could Come on Can everybody hear me okay Yes Hello Hi So this is Mindy First I want to let you know that As of today based on the Department of public health surveillance Report there have been 197 Confirm cases in Massachusetts They're really throughout Massachusetts And you can find more information about it On the department of public health website The governor's emergency orders It's www.mass.gov Flash COVID-19 And there you can Reach not only the surveillance data The emergency orders and the executive orders That are following it I just want to echo one thing that Senator Cumberfork said which Is that we are here for the residents And for the town We are actively Trying to find out what people's experiences are Not only their experiences But their hardships that are Understand them not only to move State government to meet their needs But also to identify where we need To have legislation to make that happen And Senator Cumberfork and I As well as other people in The Valley's delegation we will Be pooling our resources as staffs Also so that there's a team approach To the COVID-19 Sort of casework that might come up In our communities So I just want to say a few words about Being in a time Of changing information And uncertainty And we for sure are In that space But that means that every time we learn Something new even though it kind of Represent the uncertainty of Before it also means That we're stronger going forward I want to urge folks to take care Of themselves and their families Not only by social distancing But emotionally because uncertainty Can be hard But a colleague of mine describes The practice of social distancing Particularly if people are able To stay home and work remotely And not go out as an investment In our healthcare system In that by staying home And potentially not Transmitting infection We are in fact lowering the infection Rate and protecting our hospitals We're also protecting The most vulnerable amongst us I want to just say that If you think you're ill The guidance is Please don't go to the doctor's office Or the emergency room or your clinic Call them first One of the executive orders that the Governor put into effect over the weekend Make sure that providers On all settings whether it's a hospital Or a private office Are able to get reimbursed for Medicine to all patients And COVID-19 Related cases will have No co-pays or cost shares So there's no reason not to call But there is the guidance Not to go in as a way of protecting The reception space And not exposing people To infection There will be more testing available This week in Massachusetts We'll probably be seeing a whole lot More numbers coming up Not only a number of tests But when we test more We're going to find more infections We're going to be able to report more infections And so those numbers will surely Be increasing One thing that was said earlier That I just want to correct Is that the executive order did not close Restaurants That does not mean that restaurants Will not want to suspend business But it did not close restaurants It banned on-site consumption And allowed the continuation Of delivery and take-out So for those restaurants that are still open And amersed that people are feeling comfortable They can still be patronized But on a take-out or delivery basis I've been posting on social media Other ways to support our local businesses And I'm sure Senator Cunliffe has too That's also a place where we're Posting information And again The needs of the town And the needs of residents And the needs of the community And we must not create And otherwise, in this epidemic And it will unfold because we'll be More health care-related needs As we in fact experience infection Please let us know so that we can Be of assistance whether it's Connecting you to unemployment Insurance on the expedited Way small business loans Other health care providers Testing that's why we're here And since Friday about that directly reflect the experience of people in the valley. So at this point your experience is really going to be the to-do list for the legislature as it should be and together we'll make sure that this response is effective and timely and compassionate. Thank you. Thank you so much. So we already have two counselors who have done the following and let me explain how we now work the technology. There is a chat area. In the chat area you say that you would either like to ask a question or make a comment. I will then make sure that I'm aware of that because Sean and Athena are helping and I'll call on you. You unmute, unmute your computer and you ask your question, make your statement and then go back to mute. I'd like to suggest that we start with any questions that we might have of the senator or state representative. Okay. Andy Steinberg please unmute your phone and go ahead. Well first of all I want to thank everybody from our staff and the Senator Comerford and Representative Donald for their presentations. I'll be really quick. There are two matters and they actually both end up tying back to questions for our legislators so I appreciate being able to come on now. One is that while my heart because of my work in with the people in my career is with the vulnerable populations we're talking about but I have had a lot of contacts in the last two days from small businesses and I'm really pleased to hear that both of our legislators have recognized that problem. I think that we as a town also need to be very cognizant of the special problems that they are having and make sure that we are providing the flexibility and listening but the question that gets more towards the legislators that I was referring to as a different subject and it gets into a question side. One of the problems that we have as a council and I know this from my work on the finance committee before this and then the select board before this is that we have a lot of deadlines that we're working with all the time including the development of the budget for the community approval of budgets and we have other things that we're working with that involve for example the mass board of library commissioners in the mass school building authority now because of our building projects and those timelines usually drive our work and under the circumstances we're going to be in some of those deadlines are going to be hard to achieve with the kind of response that we always like to give. What thought has been given to providing some degree of flexibility for these kinds of deadlines that I'm referring to? Either Mindy or Joe? Oh go ahead Rep down. I was just going to suggest thank you Senator. I was going to suggest Andy that you put together a list of the particular deadlines that you have already identified that are problematic in terms of what's going on. I'll be happy to bring that to the speaker's office which has been very receptive to understanding the demands that are on municipalities and trying to address them. In fact last week when I met with the town manager and council president and it was brought to my attention around the issue of remote participation but requiring physical presence of a quorum and how that could be complicated I merely not only brought to the speaker's office but I kind of brought legislation to the speaker's office that I was going to be introducing. I don't know if it had any effect but soon thereafter the governor released an executive order saying that they were going to allow remote participation so I think a lot of what they're doing is based on what they're hearing or the needs. So if you're able to at least share the deadlines that you're concerned about I can get you feedback on what's going to be expected to them. I tend to think I'm going to be honest with you that some of them will be relaxed but I don't want to say for sure which ones because I don't know how it will all shake out but I think there's an understanding that you're working under deadlines that might be hard so are we. Today at the governor's press conference I heard the speaker say give some indication that it's not even clear about the legislature's budget deadline. So I think there's an understanding that uncertainty means that there isn't definite date but in terms of specific deadlines I'd be more than happy to bring that back and get at least some comments and reflections that could be helpful for the town. Thank you I believe that we will be developing that but go ahead Senator Comfort. Sure I was just going to echo what Rep Dom said it's really important to have the most clear most proactive communication from the town possible and I just wanted to say that there as I'm sure folks probably know there are two kinds of ways these these dates get decided in law one is through regulation where we don't need the legislature we just need good advocacy with the executive branch to get them changed and one is with the legislature. So for example the legislature and I'm sure the house is working on this too the legislature is working on some student opportunity act deadlines that need to get moved so the Senate's working on that so we need to move the April 1st reporting date we need to dispatch MCAS that needs to be done legislatively but other dates can be moved through regulation or through executive order now that we're in a state of emergency so escalating them up to us is essential and in the Senate the working group that I'm running has a municipalities election uh subgroup and they're all churning on dates but again getting visibility into what's what's hard for Amherst will be critical so that we can add that to the pot and they can move on it from the Senate side and join Rep Dom and that's what we did we heard about municipality strife and we also escalated through the Senate president to the governor and that's the kind of bottom-up push that we'll keep doing to move the executive branch where it can move quickly okay uh Andy you said you had a second question no but there were two and I covered them but thank you very much and thank you both and we will follow up uh with your suggestion to get you the list thank you thanks um yes okay Kathy would you please unmute your mic and go ahead and ask your question thank you Lynn and I too want to thank all the work that's going into staff and Minyan Joe up in Boston I have a one step higher level question not directly just to Amherst but to all of us the federal tax filing date and the state tax filing date is April 15th still thinking today about all these people walking into their accountants offices and what the accountants are going to be doing in terms of exposure I don't know whether there's been any discussion about moving those dates at all that was my question okay so I can't speak for the federal government although we've been in touch with the federal delegation on dates that we share certainly in the senate we're looking at all dates currently and that you know they're all on the table and as folks have said throughout this call there is an evolving understanding so some people um some people got an understanding really quickly that we should be looking at these dates you know three or four weeks ago for some it's taken a bit longer to get to that understanding and but they're there now both in the legislature and the executive and you know you can count on us to continue to watch dog there's so many things April 15th is one among likely thousands of dates that are in the on the move right now because of this okay thank you the next person shall any you want to unmute your mic and ask your question yeah thank you so much so these are questions actually from john page from the chambers of commerce we all received them but I thought uh two that were of interest to me and what might be helpful to hear from um senator and uh rep midi dome uh the first one was how do we best position the town of amherst and the surrounding areas to receive federal and state aid as it becomes available and another question that uh is really relevant to our local businesses is what emergency funds and other sources can businesses make damage damages claims to I can start this and then um senator cummings can add in I hope okay first of all today um I don't know if there's I'll be honest with you I'm not sure about positioning um amherst for federal aid I think we have to really be at this point making sure that we position the commonwealth to be getting federal aid and one of the ways I understand to do that is there's a small business loan sort of application that basically documents the impact and I put it up on my Facebook page I'm more than happy to share it with the town council small businesses who are feeling the impact from COVID-19 and that also goes for folks who are feeling the impact because the colleges and universities have closed as a result of the health crisis should be filling out that documentation because that's going to help establish impact in the commonwealth and that will position the commonwealth for federal aid as I understand it um the second part of that is that today's press conference the governor announced that they were starting um I think a 10 million dollar interest-free loan for small businesses and we'll be finding out more information about that and the guidance for that probably over the next I would say 24 hours um small businesses to reach out to us they should reach out to center come up with office my office that's why we're here and we're joining together so I wouldn't say go to both um you could go to one and you'll probably get both um I don't want to tell people what not to do though if they want to go to both they should um but we'll find out more information about that loan package I suspect that is the first small business loan package that we'll see it will not be the last I think it's really geared towards this immediate sort of shock piece and I think we're all expecting that with the federal emergency order there'll be more money coming later on but again we have to be able to document the impact in Massachusetts and we do that by small businesses filling out it's called an application but I don't quite think it is an application it's more like an impact form which um I'll be happy to get you the link for okay thank you anything else senator comford um during the call I I will confess that I was multi-casking and there is a a thread that was started by john and claudia and a few others I sent the summary from the governor's office out although unfortunately the governor thanks to claudia who flagged it the governor sent the wrong link so I emailed the governor's people and they're checking on the link um but I just so that's that's out in the world through repdom and me it's I think it's really important that folks understand that this is the first pretty basic foray we still don't know the federal money that that it's coming into massachusetts um you know the the house passed the federal package the senate hasn't taken it up it's the federal level so there'll be both state and federal money flowing in our job as your advocates at the state level will be to channel that money as effectively and as equitably and as much to western mass as possible okay if I can just say one other thing one of the other pieces of legislation that we introduced was to give host communities um specifically small businesses nonprofits and municipalities in communities that host colleges and universities that have had to close because of COVID-19 specific um sort of priority in a loan program who knows what will happen with that legislation but submitting that legislation and filing it was sort of like putting a flag in the ground to say there's a unique economic impact for towns like amherst whose economy is really dependent on higher education in this situation for this particular time it may be the same economic impact as other towns a week or two from now but in the wake of college closures I think we have a specific impact that we definitely wanted the state to be able to recognize okay thank you Evan would you please unmute your mic yes thank you thank you to senator comfort and representative dom for being with us um so my question is um less about the businesses and more about the employees um so with the governor's announcement yesterday uh many low wage service industry workers uh finding themselves without a paycheck I know the governor uh also talked about some changes to unemployment insurance that he could make some that are being filed legislatively but I'm sort of wondering just what the options are um for the many people here who just lost all of their hours in their restaurant uh over the next several weeks and then also if anything's being worked on with regard to uh helping these folks pay rent perhaps uh rent relief rent deferment do you want to start the cover for yeah go ahead um you want me to start right down sure that's fine okay I'm not gonna go but you go ahead oh no you have well you go no you go and then I'll go and then I'll say goodbye to everybody okay well as thank you as you know um Evan the governor did create this unemployment insurance he's waived the one week waiting period I think it's all about getting um unemployment insurance out to people quickly um you know the closings came the the public health emergency sort of came on very strong and so people were caught off of wears um I can't tell you for sure that there'll be extra emergency assistance funds available I know that there were organizations like the community foundation of western math who are trying to leverage the philanthropic and generous spirit of the valley and then be able to provide those funds directly to organizations which then may in turn provide emergency assistance to individuals um at this point there's legislation I believe in that would put a moratorium on evictions and foreclosures again none of this legislation has been moved it's all about legislators saying this is our intention um I would think that if people were facing eviction or foreclosure um I certainly would want to know about that I think the town might want to know about that because we might want to have a conversation around those issues um I think that's all I have to say but you're right in terms of people who may this week have lost their paycheck I'm not I I know that I don't think there are any cash assistance sort of being provided to people but I think that there are organizations that are providing support in terms of basic needs senator come for me and I'll just I'll just chime in super quickly um and and say that the senate working group uh is has a subcommittee on two subcommittees that are relevant to your question um one is the economic development one that I mentioned shared by senator leather so he is looking at the pieces of unemployment insurance that are not covered in governor bakers relaxing of some regulations which are really important his executive order was important for us there's more we can do he's also looking at um sick banks and leave policies that don't burden small businesses um and finally um in my thinking at committee building off of what repdam said we are going to look at a loan um sorry evictions and foreclosures the house did that first um the senate is going to pull it over and we're doing a bunch on food security food security will look quick quickly like more money but it doesn't only have to be more money it can be things like ebt cards that get more flexibility say for example ebt allowing for people to get home delivery which is not now allowed um we can't get delivered foods with our ebt programs we're also looking at basic minimum income you know many people have said that our systems are frozen we're trying to hard to figure out how to work virtually in some sectors all of these things are going to mean that it's going to take too long for us to respond for real people who as you say have lost these wages overnight so we should just infuse a check from the government for some amount based on some criteria like earned income tax credit eligibility or something like that i'm in favor of that and um that's being moved uh also uh in the legislature and um and i want to just i want to go back to what repdam said about the host community which is important for a community like amherst especially like amherst repdam is leading that in the legislature and we just escalated it up to senator lewis um so it's really it's an important initiative and i'll certainly i'm certainly going to go all in but i just want to make sure that folks know that repdam is raising that issue um at the forefront and with that i am unfortunately having to go to another meeting um but i wish everybody well i'm happy to be in touch with anybody um who would like to schedule time just speak and connect and thanks for your service and we want to thank you thank you for joining us our pleasure okay good night everybody so i'd like to move to questions to the town if we could and plus one four one three five five nine one six four nine is now exiting okay and we have a question from dorthy is now exiting dorthy would you please can you hear me now yes okay great so i i did have a question originally for her to do with food stamps further down the line but then i'll ask the questions i have for the town one is um paul mentioned a group of citizens who wanted to help out in many ways and i thought that one of the things that we as counselors could do rather easily is um using our precinct lines um and then within our precincts get block captains uh form more detailed email lists of the people within our districts uh for example um we already have kind of one in in precinct 10 but there's a lot of people's email addresses i don't have that way we could with block captains have a way of getting in contact and not collecting information that people don't want to share but collecting information they do want to share such as if they live alone um who might be emergency contact so that we could keep track of people if things get really bad um so um i i know that there are email addresses that one can buy um i do not have them i think they're expensive i just have like a what i could get um i believe that at some point uh some some group in town actually did have such email addresses or maybe the town could buy them so that the town um so that we counselors could have a better way of keeping closer contact with the people in our districts and letting them have closer contact with us so that if somebody is alone or somebody needs help they could communicate through us and we could get it to the to the town very quickly okay thank you um is there i guess i see another question from darcy would you please unmute and ask your question darcy you need to make sure you unmute okay yes i'm here um i have a couple of things one is that um i really uh do like the idea of the organizing some kind of group like resilient amherst and i think that there are already some community district based organizations that are in existence that might be willing to work together to um to help out with that i've been hearing a lot from constituents um about how they can help out how they can help the business community how they can help people who are in need um and i think that that would be really good i think that we probably have a lot of participation as far as more residents watching this particular meeting than we usually have and you know i'm kind of sad that we don't have public comment at this meeting um and i'm thinking that maybe we need to schedule the meeting that might be um entirely public comment so that we can because i think people have a lot of ideas about um how they can be helpful is what i'm sensing i'm heard i've heard a lot more from constituents in the last week than i have in the last year um so i think to the extent that we can do that that would be really helpful and make sure that we communicate with them we did i did get one comment from a constituent that um that the the website the covid-19 part of our website didn't actually advertise this meeting um maybe that was wrong but um i i think that that um a lot of people didn't know that this meeting was happening today uh even though we all send it out on social media and so on um so um and the second thing is that i would i would really like it if we could um use zoom and have zoom meetings for our you know i'm hoping that we can get our our different meetings going again after some of this settles down and and use zoom which is i think a little bit more accessible for the public to use it's very easy and you know it would be a way for the public to just be able to click on a link and um be able to to participate in a moderated meeting where you know it could be organized so that it wasn't chaotic um so yeah to the extent that we can have the you know get help from our public i think that would be really really good okay i'm gonna pause for a moment and ask uh paul bachmann to speak so two quick answers thanks starcy for bringing those up one is uh we're using teams for this one we will evaluate that it will look at it and they'll investigate zoom also so i think i hear a lot of people are familiar with zoom and it's pretty user-friendly so we'll look at what the pluses and minuses are um so we went this way with this one and we'll evaluate secondly um the video for this um this meeting we will put it on our website and that's a great idea to put it on the um the department of health um website as well because it's all about the um coronavirus so thank you for that suggestion we'll do that okay um shallony i'm gonna skip you for a moment and give elissa a chance to ask a question elissa unmute your mic i did but i wasn't ready yet because i thought shallony was going first um i actually do have a couple of comments associated with all this enthusiasm that people have to be helpful and as i feel confident that the people that you have in that room there are actually already looking at trying to bring together you know just the salt group that was the seniors that worked with the fair department still meet and how can they be helpful there was an emergency response group that i think a lot of us who knew k moran knew that she was affiliated with how they might be helpful um there's a new seniors group one of these uh senior community groups that one started in northampton one started over here of course with all these things these people would need to be managed and i will speak as someone who has an 87 year old living with me if i lived out of town and i was concerned about my 87 year old mother-in-law living here i don't want just a helpful person knocking on her door because that person could be asymptomatic and be sick so i think we have to figure out and it sounds like the cpo's are already doing a great job and maybe we can just continue to be fed information on how those connections are working because this is not a matter of oh it snowed a lot let's have someone go plow your driveway this is a with social distancing it's this really unique thing thank you uh shallony you had another question yes so this was a question for julie i think um there are actually three questions you want me to say all three in one go go ahead okay so the first one is just generally i think residents are still confused about what's the protocol if someone feels the symptoms like basic plans for family or households who may have infected members so i don't know if that's up on that website after going check the second question was about how do we reach people who don't have internet and how do we keep them informed and then the third question was something that's been coming up how can residents help the local restaurants and we've been talking in district five and with Darcy and then i'm talking with bid and chambers and so while we want to promote the pickup and deliveries uh in local businesses we also want to make sure that they are safe so have there been special guidelines safety guidelines for restaurants under the current conditions have those been sent out julie thank you shallony uh that was a lot so i think i'm going to start with your last one because that's that's the most uh resonating in my brain so thank you for the question about food and restaurants so first of all um the question that i think a part of what that question is what's happening in restaurants to make sure they're really safe and healthy and um the fda is actually supposed to come out with a statement tomorrow what we're hearing is that statement is going to say what we've already been doing which is that if restaurants use the cleaners they're supposed to and adhere to all of the sanitary conditions that are normally in the food code then our restaurants are completely safe so our health inspector has been going out and on her routine inspections she has been advising managers and owners about that that it's really important to be doing everything that is stated in the food code to keep restaurants sanitary and clean she's also developing something that's going to go out via email we have most of our our owners available by email so an email will be going out just reiterating all of that and also really emphasizing hand washing of course in a food establishment everyone is supposed to be doing that anyway so this is just reinforcing everything that needs to be happening so that was the part about are our restaurants safe and is take out all right you had another piece there which is about what are we going to do to help our restaurants i think that's already been discussed a little bit and i think that's part of what um when paul is mentioning this concept of having some subgroups that could be part of something that keeps amherst resilient is having folks working on that issue because we do understand if and have been very concerned from the beginning about the impact on on all the folks who work in restaurants now does that answer what you wanted to know about question three okay so i'm going to go back to question one which i believe i'm going to restate that to make sure i've got it all so you're asking me that perhaps people are still confused about what they should do if they have someone who's sick okay so the first thing to remember is that if you're sick at home and you have flu like symptoms which include a fever and some respiratory distress then what you're going to do as you always should you're not going to work you're going to call your primary care provider people should not go to urgent cares or show up at the emergency room the first step is to call your primary care provider where they're going to go over with you what your symptoms are it has been a very bad flu year so we've seen flu a flu b we've also seen some other really severe viruses going around so people have been sick a lot this year if a primary care provider thinks that perhaps you have symptoms of COVID-19 very likely you're going to be told to stay home and care for yourself at home people who are severely ill are going to be advised how they should come into a doctor's office or how they should get transported to the hospital for that kind of care we do know that testing is going to open up really quickly but until it does rather than people going to healthcare providers for testing they're going to be told to stay at home many we're not exactly sure the percentage but many of the cases of illness that will happen will just be mild to moderate and people will be able to stay home and recover just like they would from the flu the difference will be if someone has asked to stay home who has symptoms they're being isolated which means they should stay in their home stay in their own bedroom if the if they have the capability they should have their own bathroom if they don't have that capability then they should be cleaning that bathroom or someone else should be cleaning it with gloves with the appropriate 10 percent bleach solution or wipes if they have them available or Lysol and that person should be staying in their room and not having contact with others that should go on for seven days at the end of if before seven days or for a minimum of seven days then the person during this time should be monitoring their temperature if their temperature is gone for three complete days 72 hours without a fever reducer and they have no other symptoms then they can be checking with their healthcare provider about being able to leave the home we would now this is what's true as of today things are changing daily we will be seeing more testing we'll be seeing more testing sites luckily warmer weather is coming because it it could be that testing is going to happen in some unusual settings there are there is the possibility of doing drive-up tests for people where they won't get out of their car there'll be the possibility of having outdoor testing none of that is in place yet is there more that i can add to that i think you should proceed okay and your second question i have now lost the third was the internet sorry people who don't have internet yes how can we how are we reaching out to that yes thank you so much so one of the ways we will be reaching out to folks is through various types of community ambassadors so one an example of that is we have something called the amherst human service network in amherst this is an email list serve of about 60 62 service providers who provide who are either heads of agencies or work for agencies that work with folks they've already gotten one message so we'll be disseminating written material in different languages out that way and other ways will be possibly through faith community well no sorry i'm going to change that because our most of our a lot of our faith communities are closed now so we're aware of the need for people who don't have internet and people who speak different languages we will be looking at unusual ways to get that information out another way will be we have all the addresses for all the apartment complexes will be doing mailings out to apartment complexes uh dorthy you have a question at this time okay i've just unmuted well earlier i emailed in with a suggestion that we take an empty town building and prepare it in advance of need as an emergency as emergency hospital beds but since then i have thought of an easier way which is using umass which is a state institution now i may be wrong on this but i know there's some buildings that they plan to knock down and replace uh if those buildings now are empty which i think they are the maybe perhaps the Lincoln apartments or maybe some of the ones on north pleasant or east pleasant uh that space or even an empty dorm could be prepared as a backup emergency hospital beds for those people who need emergency care with ventilators should we come to that then that those buildings are slated to be destroyed in the future then no one would have to say oh i've just got assigned to the you know the plague dorm i think that we could we should do that because if we wait till we know that we need those beds as you know we'd be if if things get here as bad as they are in Italy then there won't be time to do it so i'm saying let's take the big leap and use a state facility which the state should support and prepare some extra beds for those who are really who must be in a hospital julie and tim i guess are going to respond to this go ahead julie thank you so much for that question so this refers back to something that the chair said at the very beginning which is that there has been preparation for the possibility of pandemic disease epidemic disease for at least 17 20 years and really beyond that but especially intensively since we saw the anthrax events after 9 11 so this type of planning which we call surge planning is happening among many entities we have a 94 town coalition that is the health and medical coordinating coalition so they're sort of that big broad entity that is looking at what are going to be the needs for supplies what are they going to be the needs in a larger area than just a town for taking care of people should we have that type of overwhelm at our hospitals i also want to go back to the fact that one of the reasons to be doing what we're doing in this town in this state and much of the country is so we can flatten out that curve so that we can prevent having that kind of surge on hospitals because we as a town would not for example be able to get ventilators we don't we want to prevent that from happening we're learning from each country that's already gone through this with their specific types of medical services their public health infrastructure their governments and their cultures so the u.s massachusetts amherst we are in a good position to not have to do that that being said we have always had conversations about what buildings or entities might be able to help and so i really appreciate your thinking in that direction we don't feel as an emergency team as we've had this discussion that we need to at this moment be looking at empty buildings but certainly those type of worst case scenarios have been talked about for quite some time thank you um i believe thank you thank you okay go ahead please i'm so sorry i wanted to say one more thing which is that the first thing the first thing that we're going to do is anyone who is not who has who doesn't need to should stay in the home they already have because what the majority of people are going to need is is a bed a bathroom a sink to wash their hands most people are not going to be needing to have intensive care that you're talking about that we would then set up in buildings so i wanted to emphasize that that we're talking about people staying home and getting their care in their home obviously people who need skilled nursing and machines it's something different but that will not be the majority of people okay uh evan you have a question please uh yeah i have a couple questions that one should be quick um and then the other maybe not so quick uh for david for paul so the first question which i think is for david um is there was a mention in talking about the shelter about their applying social distancing to their cops um and i'm sort of just curious if that's if and how much that's reducing the shelter's capacity to take in people um and then the the other questions are for more for paul it was mentioned very early on uh the potential loss of water and sewer uh parking uh local option meals tax um all of that and given that the budget is due in a month and a half and this likely won't be over by then i'm just sort of wondering is there an effort to make projections for the fiscal year 2020 budget as it's being developed and where this might go or is it really just anyone's guess at this point paul oh so thanks for your questions evan um on the shelter so at this time they are instituting uh social distancing for the cops and it has not reduced um the capacity of the shelter even one bed so they are still at the same capacity um they're being creative they're they're still adhering to all the safety uh requirements of our building commissioner but i will have rob mora continue to communicate with them and and visit the shelter in the days and weeks ahead um and and again the communication between the shelter staff and and the fire department and the police department has been excellent uh all along and i'm sure we'll continue to be vigilant about that but the short answer is no reduction in beds paul so yeah so today was the first day i think that we really noticed a downturn in the number of parking you know parking downtown downtown um we don't know the impact we don't have any you know numbers coming in yet we probably won't know till the end of may until we get a month's worth of revenue um it's just up in the air um we are sort of moving forward and we you know talk with schools and libraries um we can adjust our deadlines a little bit in terms of if they submit there by April 1st but i think we're going to move forward as um with some cognizance of what the condition of the economy is going to be and we might adjust our projections that way honestly we haven't i haven't spent a whole lot of time on that yet i mean sonia has already been focused on it but i have not um are there any other questions of the council at this time because mandy joe and i would like to make basically just uh make sure that there's an opportunity for counselors to ask questions about kind of their job of being a counselor um and let me just kick that off by saying uh we have already asked you to cancel your district meetings um we probably have to say we strongly advise that you not do office hours unless you can figure out how to do them in a way that makes you and whoever comes to your office hours safe obviously you cannot do that in any public buildings because they're not open um we are planning to go ahead next week with our regular meeting uh i will pull the council to see if they're willing to meet earlier since we all seem to be a little more confined to our homes um but we are also going to be looking at the agenda and figuring out a short in the agenda how to make sure that whatever can be put on the consent agenda is done that way and delay action on other items that are not as pressing as the need be the other thing that i've already done is contacted each of the present chairs of the four five committees um four committees actually and uh and plus jcpc so five committees and i've asked them to really prioritize what they see as the most pressing issues the time frame for those you know for example jcpc whose advisory to the town town manager um is not going to meet this week um and probably not immediately but we want to make sure that they do meet in time to be able to hear from the various town departments and work with sonia on the final advice to the town manager um andy chair andy steinberg has clearly indicated we have to stay on target with our budget um we do not have the burden if you will of trying to call a town meeting which many of the towns around us are grappling with how to do that um how to get a hundred people in some kind of semblance of order so the reality is that um but we will continue to meet virtually we will not be meeting in person if you saw the room right now you'd realize that we're about as far away from each other as we can be and still be in the same room so mandy joe do you have other things you want to add to that at this point okay let me ask mandy joe to come in first and then dorsi okay no i don't think so um i think when you covered what we discussed and in this changing environment how much of it's out of date out of date already but i would encourage though if you have the ability to do something like facebook live or some sort of social media office hours um that might replace something maybe that can happen um you know or the district not a formal district meeting or something like that but some sort of ability to or maintenance of communication back and forth between constituents in a way that keeps us remote okay it appears i skipped darsie for a question earlier so darsie do you want to come back on the line i i just had a quick question for julie um it sounds like um what you were saying before is that there are no like um further uh protocols for food handling uh other than the basic ones that that um restaurants and and food stores are supposed to use and i'm just wondering are there protocols um for for delivery and pickup and and also now we have we're having a number of different stores that are talking about doing deliveries that aren't food stores like book stores um you know neighbors are talking about organizing to to purchase books from amherst books and so do they need to have any protocols for delivery uh to our homes julie thank you that's a very good question and that actually came up on the cdc conference call today i found it fascinating that they were talking about things like grub hub um so at this time there are no particular protocols in place people are thinking about that you know plastic bags um in terms of just general delivery like even books and and that type of thing but in terms of food um no there really isn't and i was thinking it might be helpful for me to give a little bit more information about food so um this this virus as i said before is really transmitted through uh receptors that are mostly in the nose and in the lungs and so it food there there are almost none of them in the esophagus so as food would go down through the mouth and into the stomach and in the stomach there are none um they're just finding there's there's appears to be no root for transmission in that way um the other thing too and some of you will find this gross but when we're talking about foodborne illnesses we're often talking about the fecal oral route so what that means is after food handlers use the bathroom if they don't wash their hands well that there are certain diseases that can be transmitted through food in that way and again so far the re the research is showing that that's pretty unlikely so again they were talking about that just this afternoon on the CDC conference call um and it's pretty interesting because of course the science we keep learning more uh but that's where we're at right now so some of it comes down to are there concerns about people handling plastic bags um at this time nothing has particularly been identified another good thing for people to realize is that this virus and jennifer brown our public health nurse loves to describe it this way it's it's like a little sphere you know you've seen pictures of it right so and it's not alive it's dead and so it starts so it's not moving around like a bacteria is so when it's out in sunlight and it gets UV rays from the sun it the walls of this little non-movable thing start to degrade and so it starts to become um no longer able to transmit disease now what we don't know is how long it lasts on surfaces but we do know that sunlight helps to degrade it so that will all be part perhaps of how we're thinking about these deliveries because of course deliveries will not really happen person to person they'll be left outside people's doors thank you we hear new information each time um uh shallony was there anything else on that one okay then alissa i believe you're next thank you i was originally going to talk about our regular meeting next monday but since julie's still there um i was wondering if she could remind us as we're telling people i know what it says on the website but like you know the little elevator speech about the fact that as i mentioned earlier just because someone's asymptomatic doesn't mean they're not sick and just don't know it yet so i'm seeing too many things out in the larger world that are saying yeah let's just get together it's fine if two couples get together for dinner but not four couples it's like what are you even talking about you have no idea if folks are sick or not isn't that not part of what we're doing at this point thanks alissa that's that's a really good question so so one piece of so yes essentially we're doing social distancing six feet now when you've got a family we're not saying everybody's you know six feet around a giant piece of plywood at dinner time because we have to be so far from each other because we're going to be having routine contact but the the the question there about folks who are asymptomatic and again that came up today um is that we're still really learning the role of asymptomatic folks in transmission of this disease so mostly what we're looking at is that if you're not actively coughing and sneezing you're not transmitting anything because again those heavy droplets aren't being spewed out so i think one of the big things we're looking at is coughing and sneezing um on the other hand we are starting to they are starting to see that there does appear to be sort of this pre-symptomatic stage in asymptomatic people where they could be transmitting the disease but they don't know enough about that yet so when we're talking about how people should change their behavior basically they're saying social distancing so not being together does that answer your question yes if it means that two couples who are asymptomatic that don't actually live in the same house should not have dinner together yes i i think that's what i'm saying yes okay all right yes and the chief is telling me yes that's what i'm saying i just hate to say it but yes elissa you said said that you had something else to comment on um oh just in regards since i know it came up earlier with someone talking about wanting to have public comment as soon as possible and it's all well and good if we want to have you know some separate meeting associated with that there's so much material available online of course not everyone sees online but um in terms of our meeting monday i'm hoping we're calling it a special meeting as well so that we're not trying to manage public comment we've had enough fun trying to manage this tonight and i would rather not do that on monday uh let me just say that we're not going to work public comment in and in until we have come up with a decent way to manage that with the technology and i'm looking at sean while i say that and he's nodding yes so uh it's important that not only that we have public comment at least at one meeting a month if not more but that we continue to stay in touch with the public but in addition to that when the public comment happens it's important that it's done in a way that the public feels that they have been heard so um andy i believe you are next andy sorry it took me a moment to get to my unmute button um i just wanted to do um respond to something that evan had raised a little while ago and it relates back to the question that i posed to um senator cumberford and representative dom when they were with us the um problem that we have with the budget is that we are really driven in the budget by deadlines both on the regional school budget and on the um town budget itself some of the deadlines come from our own charter which was uh devised to coincide with what the state budget policy is for when we need to act to adopt the budget and uh we really need to have a better understanding of whether flexibility is available to us and how we get to that flexibility because i think it's going to be very hard on our staff to assembly information which uh evan was talking about and i corresponded with paul earlier today about that same information what adjustments we may have to make either on the expense side of the revenue side because of what's happening so it is a complex process i don't think it's a subject for discussion today but i did want to at least um assure the rest of you that it is recognized and that i have been corresponding a little bit about it and i want to through paul and uh lin follow up with the invitation to inquire with the senator and representative and what we could do if there's a feeling that this needs more exploration at a meeting i would encourage you to talk to lin and mandy about making sure that it gets on an agenda at an appropriate point but that was this is rep mindy dom hi andy i'm still on the phone actually joe has i'm sorry still here no that's okay i but i'm going to do though as a result of this phone call i'm going to bring back the issue without the specifics of municipal deadlines across the board the ones that emmerced space are very similar to the ones that other towns face and i just want to i'm going to get some feedback hopefully tomorrow to at least provide some initial thoughts on what people are thinking about in terms of municipal deadlines committees budgets etc so that i'll bring that back immediately even without a specific list so that you can we can at least find out and i'll also check with colleagues to see what their towns are feeling and thinking about doing thank you thank you um i believe shallony is next yeah i just had a quick comment about public participation maybe you know i think as district counselors we could be collecting the questions from our residents and compiling them and bringing them to our meetings is that something we want to consider we're actually looking at a couple of different ways and we'll put that in the list of possibilities thank you um dorothy okay i think i'm unmuted now i would like very much to have a worded piece of information that i could include to send in an email message to those email addresses that i have of exactly how people can tune into the meeting uh next week um is it just going to be the link to go to go to channel 17 or is there anything else that they would need to know just uh just thought whatever i tell them it's correct okay we'll make sure that we have that and that we send it out way in advance okay thank you yep are there any other questions from the council at this time uh Darcy i just have um just one more comment to make about the the possibility of including the public in our next meeting and that is that um this um this uh format that we're using called teams uh apparently can accommodate up to 250 people in a meeting and and can be moderated so that uh it would be managed the same way that we just managed our own contributions um so that if we had a part of the meeting that was public comment it could just be carried on the way we always have public comment um so i am just you know advocating for that i actually like zoom better but i guess teams has the capacity to do it too so i you know whatever we can do to make sure that we include the public i think is really important thank you we we really are working on it and i'm i feel very strongly about this as do you whether we can make it by the next meeting i doubt it but we will see what we can do and urge all of you to continue to be in touch with your counselors we really are going to skip um we have no action items uh we also have no appointments at this point with regard to committees uh is there anybody that feels a pressing need to give a committee report let us know seeing none um we have no minutes to approve uh Paul i think you probably spent most of uh the early part of the meeting giving your comments are there any final comments from the council okay then uh i first of all i'd like to thank the town manager and the team this has been an amazing effort i probably have been watching it unfold day by day but not living it like you have and uh it gives me as a citizen resident of amherst a great deal of comfort to know that we have such a well educated team and thoughtful team um working on our behalf so thank you i also want to make sure that we thank the people behind the scenes athena our town our clerk of the council shawn and the whole it department and the various other people are participating community participation officers who were here on saturday answering phones and talking to the people from the schools who were concerned about the case with the regional schools finally i want to just thank all our counselors um you've worked hard to get your own lives in order and settled i hope they are and then immediately making yourselves available as counselors to the rest of the citizens of the of amherst and that's the job we were elected to and i want to thank you for living up to that job as well uh so be safe and be well do i hear a motion to adjourn maybe yes you're here yes we can all unmute for that one participant is now exiting we're all adjourned thank you thank you everyone be safe