 This program is brought to you by cable franchise V's and generous donations from viewers like you Seen as we have a quorum of the Amherstown Council Connected virtually I will call this meeting to order at 637 p.m. On Monday March 23rd 2020 Good evening. I'm hoping we have stable connection through Amherst media so that those of you that are home are Also able to join us Yeah, I'd like to start with a roll call and so be patient while people turn your mics on and Let me just start by saying Shalini are you here? All right, we connected so the public can hear them patient's gang patient's gang I'm now going to have to mute Okay, Shalini. Let's start again Please speak up We're not hearing her Shalini Try again, please Shalini, can you unmute and speak? Sounds like elephants are nesting Pat, can you hear me? They can hear the they can hear that but you can't get something Well, no, was that Dorothy or that was Pat de Angelis had just heard that Pat, can you hear me? We're just having trouble getting the sound in out from the town room out to everybody Connected remotely so we're working that out right now should have a figured out shortly Shalini, can you hear me? And You can't can you hear me? Hi, I just want to let you know Sean I just heard from someone who's watching that they can see us and they can hear us well they Logged in to the Amherst media channel 17 Thanks, so they can They can hear us, but I think what's happening is we're not getting the sound back from We're not getting the sound of the microphones in the town room right now So we're trying to figure that part out But thanks Let's So Kathy, thank you for that report Um, we're going to go ahead and start the meeting But we really do need to figure out how later on You're going to ask questions and that may be only be able to do it by Typing the question to me Okay, yeah speaker phone speaker phone First of all, we want to thank all of the efforts for technology connection We're trying to connect through two different systems. One is our yeah on air through Amherst media Blasting And the other one is through our teams, which is the software we're using So we've called the meeting to order I just want to mention that we have A couple other town council meetings you'll hear later that we're going to be meeting every monday at least for The near future Those meetings will be at 6 30. So our next meeting is on march 30th It'll it will include public comment And we will have instructions on how to make comment that in a live way And those instructions will be available on the town website and on the agenda our second meeting Scheduled at this point is monday april 6th at 6 30 p.m. We will have other information about that The stand standing committees of the town council Will call meetings starting with one that is going to meet on march 30th And the others not until the week of april 6th will be more specific about that later We have the joint meetings of the town council and the school committees To fill the school committee vacancy. We are going ahead with that We are scheduled to do interviews with candidates on tuesday april 14th at 6 o'clock At this point, I would suggest those will be virtual And then we also have a second meeting scheduled if we needed for tuesday april 16th at 6 o'clock We will only use the second date if we have so many candidates that we need to interview them in a second night If we do not meet on the 16th, we will make the decision Regarding who which resident is appointed to the school committee on april 14th I also want to mention there are many many resources out there both federal state and local But one local resource you might want to check out is the amherst area chamber of commerce website Where you look at open for business and you can see who's open And their hours and websites and so forth So did the council not hear any of that? Okay Do you want me to try it again? Nobody said anything Can you type to them say we're still working on it? Those of you watching at home. We're still working on Connecting the council so they can hear and we can hear them I am muted. Can you hear me on that James? Why don't you ask them if they can see the screen can they hear us? Yes, we're testing now to see whether counselors can hear me So I can hear you when now you guys able to hear me on that end Yes, I can hear you and I can hear Lynn. Okay. Let's let's start with roll call then Shallony ball mill Yes Alyssa Brewer Yes, Alyssa is present Um Sorry, something just switched a little more again. Uh, pat de angelis Present Darcy duMont Yes, mandy joe hannacky present Darcy Pam Here Evan ross Yeah, I'm here Kathy shane She's here You need to unmute. All right. Yes here. Okay. Steve schreiber Here andy steinberg I'm here president and sarah schwarz I'm here president great. Thank you So, um, but I'm hoping you can all now hear me Thank you. Sorry for the delay I have an additional meetings Next monday is the first is one of those and we will be Figuring out how to do public comment and advertising how to do that before then So I would like to start with just an opening statement and just say tonight will go through The various ways in which the town of amherst continues to prepare for and respond to the covet crisis And we will be meeting weekly for the indefinite future to keep the community updated and take whatever actions are needed That includes how we hear from residents and respond to their questions and concerns Which we'll talk more about in a few minutes Everything we say and do is occurring in a context that changes by the hour actually the minute And takes us into territory. We've never seen before It is unsettling to say the least for you and for us But I want to make a few comments about how we are approaching all of this as a community And what to look for as events unfold First I want to note some of the strengths on which we can rely going forward Every community is different, but amherst has some things going for us that should give us confidence The town staff is highly professional experienced and qualified to help us deal with whatever comes along the town manager Our public health director the leaders of our first responders units and all the other professionals who act on our behalf are a resource many other communities envy Similarly our frontline staff from first responders to support staff in every area bring the highest level of skill And dedication to their work. We'll be thanking them all many times in the weeks and months ahead But I want to make sure to take the opportunity right now It is at times like these that I appreciate just how important it is to have that kind of strength in place and how much it sets us apart from many other communities Second like every community amherst surely has its financial challenges But only a little more than a year into our new form of government I think all of us on the council have been struck by how strong a legacy of financial planning and management we inherited Amherst has taken a careful and conservative approach to managing your money We enter this period of uncertainty with strong financial reserves One of the highest bond ratings in the state And deep experience in getting value for our dollar All of that will make a tremendous difference going forward And I want to thank the earlier generations of town leadership who left us so well prepared Finally quite apart from the formal mechanisms of government We have a community that shares values of compassion generosity and concern For our common good. We are inks inescapably all in this together And I think we can rely on each other to meet each challenge with intelligence goodwill and respect So we approach a bad situation with many reasons to feel relatively good But it remains a bad situation nonetheless and in the coming weeks We will need to rethink many of our existing assumptions and plans Here are some of the main issues that you can expect to see the council working on The town budget The calendar requires us to make many decisions over the next few months about spending taxes And using in the use of reserves. The only thing we can be certain about however is that uncertainty Will be our constant companion No one can predict what the national and state Economics economies will look like as we begin a new fiscal year on july 1st Because cities and towns rely so heavily on state Local aid we must wait for developments on federal and state emergency assistance And state tax revenues and spending priorities before we have any clear idea of what our own budget will look like Because so many residents and local businesses are confronting their own financial struggles We must assume That local tax revenues will also be under tremendous stress How we ultimately deal with all of that of course remains to be seen But there is no question that business as usual is out the window And we will need to approach budgeting with a clean slate a clear sense of our priorities I thank in advance the finance committee of the town council The town manager the interim finance director and staff and the school committee and the superintendent and his staff And the library trustees and the director and her staff for their flexibility and innovation as we make and remake our budget While none of us sign signed up for this duty We accept it And I feel confident that we will work together to reach the best solution for Amherst The town staff these are the folks we rely on but whom we also often put in the most difficult situations Just in the past few weeks. We've made major adjustments on how we deliver town services Including closing town offices To the public But our commitment to excellence and responsiveness is unchanged And we ask for your patience And forbearance as we take the steps necessary to provide services while keeping our service providers as safe as we can And the future Much of the council's work in our first year focused on the future Preparing for discussion on our master plan And zoning bylaws Looking for opportunities to broaden the tax base Dealing with decades of backlog and investments in town school and library facilities The present challenges may seem overwhelming But one hallmark of a strong community is that it never takes its eye off the future So we will continue to take take as long of you as we can In the face of considerable uncertainty, but we will clear clearly need to revisit some of our assumptions One early example is our capital plan Assumptions about state aid Local revenue borrowing and availability of reserves will need to be carefully examined Long-term commitments will need to be considered in the context of current needs and the prospect of uncertainty that may persist for some time Again, I think in advance all of the town council's standing committees including jcpc The residents who serve On there are many other town committees and all the many stakeholders who must come together around a new set of facts And ask for the understanding of all as we find the best path forward in unfamiliar terrain So many questions and regrettably few answers at this time But I repeat my conviction that Amherst is well prepared to tackle these challenges as a community in the state And I am proud to be working with such dedicated colleagues on the council Who will have that the unplanned opportunity to push the ship to full speed on its first voyage I feel pretty good about that voyage and I look forward for all of you and Amherst to join us in this challenge Thank you So we're going to go on with our meeting and you'll understand a few of my comments as we go through Um, we have no hearings tonight Uh, we are not doing public comment tonight That is actually allowed both by the governor's order And also by our own charter. However, we absolutely encourage and invite you To be in touch with us at town council at amherstma.gov And also know that this meeting is being recorded and as with our meeting that was virtual a week ago You will be able to view it on amherst media So we're going to move on. There are no proclamations and commemorations But we do have a presentation which is an update From the town manager and our health director Julie Federman And then then next will be our school superintendent, Mike Morris And our head of senior services, Mary Beth The council will be asked if they have questions or comments And I may have to depend on someone else who's going to tell me that Because i'm not getting the right thing on my screen We have a few action items later Both in a consent agenda and then we have two actions in particular That we'll be taking with regard to the state of emergency and the budget deadlines We also, as I mentioned earlier, we'll be moving forward with the school committee Filling that vacancy and looking at our rules of procedure Hopefully this will be no more than a two-hour meeting because there is such a thing as virtual fatigue So let's move forward if we will with the presentations. Mr. Bacheman I have it on So I will be using this microphone and make sure everybody can hear me at home and the counselors I will not be using the computer So first off, thank you Lynn for those words. They mean a lot to us as staff staff are working very hard during this crisis and It really does mean a lot that the council has been supportive and respectful of the needs of the of staff And I appreciate how you're bearing with us at time That's a stressful time by the time when We're trying to do the best that we can So tonight it's a snowy evening out there So one good thing about virtual meetings is that there's no such thing as a snow cancellation So There's no excuse for not showing up if you are not here Tonight like last week We want to I would like to make a status report on where we are as a town And this is something I've asked the council to have a weekly meeting so We can provide an update to all of the For everyone On this everyone in the in the community for where we are first So where we are next slide, please Okay And then so this is our agenda for tonight And we have a lot of slides. So please bear with us. We have a lot of information to convey to you and to the public So next slide So Just to Go back the only this is a similar slide to last year last week The only thing that's new is the governor's order today Where he issued a stay at home order this morning at 10 a.m That is not a shelter in place order is not a curfew. It is a stay at home And except for essential workers in there in the packet is the is a copy of the order and is a list of the Essential services that have been identified It's about seven pages long of essential services So it includes a lot of organizations that allows restaurants to continue operating in takeout So So that's the new thing today next slide Next slide Here we go. So this is a slide that I prepared earlier and then Got more information as of this afternoon So where it says 600 and this actually just helps to illustrate how quickly things are changing in the state of massachusetts And the slide it says there's 646 total cases as of noon today. There were 777 total cases And the slide it says there were five deaths as of noon today. There were nine deaths On the slide it says 3403 patients tested to date by mass state public health laboratory And as of today, there's 3,722 patients who have been tested by the mass state public health laboratory The slide says 2,601 additional tests performed by to date by commercial laboratories That now that number is now 5,200 when you add up the new numbers that that comes to 8,922 People who have been tested as it as the governor had had Promise this has been a tremendous increase in the number of tests Of the nine of the of the 777 cases six are in hampshire county the way i've Seen it and the largest group will talk about this in a little bit The largest group of people age wise are people in the 40 to 49 year old range So it's people between 40 and 49 who've been identified Next slide So in terms of the town of amherst are the only thing that's new is the last bullet which is Issued as of today so that only essential employees will be reporting to work on site Other employees will be working remotely if they're able But and we have worked through through this department by department as a as a work in progress so we continue to Calibrate who should be at the office who needs to show up What work needs to be done and I have to say I really thank the town employees unknown participant is now joining I want to thank everybody So it's and it's a Really appreciate the flexibility of all the employees next slide So I'm going to give you a quick status report of our core functions. So Again an emergency management emergency medical services fire services police services dispatch Water treatment and distribution wastewater treatment and collection public works and roads Finance including payroll payables purchasing and health of course So just a few notes. I'm not going to go through each one one by one From the police point of view the calls for service are down They have Increased they have adjusted how they address certain complaints and using social distancing as part of their response plan They've With all the businesses closed downstairs downtown They are Going door-to-door in businesses checking the doors checking on a regular basis checking to make sure the doors are locked On foot patrols through downtown just to protect the property and other people that might be downtown The one thing that they noticed also Is that there is an increasing number of people who are calling to report groups of people standing too close together Um, that's not necessary. We don't need that but they I ask people not to it's not something that we will enforce unless it's a large party But if there are six people who are about to You know take a walk and they're standing too close together Um, okay We've lost audio Now it's back on test test test Nope. Nope. Nope. Well, we'll keep talking and Sing a little song Let me try this one Test test test. Is that any better? No sound, but Amherst media can hear us. So this is going to be very entertaining for everyone watching But the council can't hear you But the council can't hear unless they have the tv on Right I'll keep saying test test test to see if any of the counselors can respond if they hear this or not Test test test Can the counselors hear now? Hear through that microphone poll Can I use this microphone or does this one work or not? Yeah, we can hear that. Can you hear us on your end? Yes And we're not getting Not getting feedback yet. So So yeah, so work for now. I had unmuted and that's why you got feedback So I'm going to just catch up to where I think we were and not sure if someone can text me if we Did something differently. So as of today employees who are Only essential employees will be who are doing essential tasks Employees who are doing essential tasks will be asked to come to work that can admit It's a range of people. It might be different on different days depending on what the task is that we need Of course, of course police and fire Are essential or wastewater and water treatment plant operators are essential Maintenance workers are essential. There are a number and it clearly is essential and so making sure the town continues to work is How we'll be moving forward. So the this slide that we're on now I mentioned that we the calls for services are down from police and fire We have the police department has been checking doors downtown To protect the the businesses the property to make sure You know It's a because there are so few people downtown it makes it Vulnerable so they're on foot patrols checking doors walking through the town on a very regular basis Police are highly visible Going through the community because there is so so much so make fewer people out One of the things I mentioned and sorry for if I'm repeating this Um What has increased are the number of people who are calling reporting groups of people who are standing too close together It's not necessary to do that Unless it's a giant party. We're not going to respond to those If it's a group of six people about to go on a walk and they're standing in too close proximity It's not something our dispatch should have to respond to nor police officers um For the dpw as I mentioned earlier, it's snowing out. They will be addressing, you know, they're ready to they're prepared to Do the work necessary for this storm? The wastewater and water treatment plant operators are all in good shape and ready and coming to work One thing I'd like to report is that the governor established a child care for emergency worker program and one of our treatment plant one of our Employees who is an essential employee employee has utilized that service and said it worked wonderfully his Wife as a nurse. I think it is and both had responsibilities to respond to their work environment and so this system that the state set up really worked well Town hall, obviously we are on reduced staffing And then We've been adding operational capacity too So today we had four firefighters who are coming off the either the call of the student force being Trained and educated through our hr system And they will be available to work as firefighters for the fire department Very quickly. We also hired a new wastewater treatment plant operator who started today as well So those are good Additional capacities that we're bringing on into the next slide So we're talking about continuity of operations and that's our remote work Which we talked about our committee meetings have been canceled until april 3rd and i'll tell you that's a godsend to staff Hope lost paul audio Sorry folks at home So we're not doing anything Um, it just is going in and out. It could be the weather. Who knows Go ahead try again Test test test Back I think So if I talk now do people hear me and if you back on, okay? Yes, you're back. Thank you. Okay So the continuity of operations I talked about committee means that god send to The committees who for not meeting just for our staff to be able to get themselves organized by After april we are preparing to Start to implement in a lot a lot of the committees who have been anxious to meet and we'll be able to do that successfully communications We're providing regular updates. We're preparing a new website called amherst covet that will Be dedicated to all information about covet for the foreseeable future and this will Work with the school department to bring all the information together under one website And we're getting ready for some online community forums. I know the counselors are eager to do this And staff are as well So the next slide So the next thing we want to do is go to the public health update And again, our health director julie fetterman is here and she has a few slides that she'll be able to walk through To the next one Good evening. I'm hoping that you can hear you hear me Um, I was just with you a week ago Um, and things have certainly changed in massachusetts since that time though not particularly in amherst So when we talk about containment of this disease, we're looking at the disease the the tools of isolation and quarantine I'll talk a little bit more about those as I go down to the bottom of this slide but isolation and quarantine are The beginning stages of social distancing everyone has been hearing about social distancing and what that means staying six feet away from other people Um at this time as we're seeing community spread of the disease in massachusetts More in the eastern part of the state. We're also looking at mitigation tools. So a mitigation tool is When we start limiting gatherings. So as we saw today when the governor Said that now we're only going to be allowing groups of 10 people And shutting down of businesses except for the ones that are essential This is all part of this this spectrum of social distancing People will be able to get out and get food prescriptions Go to md appointments and go to work if they have essential jobs as paul referenced earlier That list is on the website and is also in the governor's order, which you're seeing on television and in the newspaper Staying at home means that people need to stay home only to go out for essential activities The other pieces of social distancing we've talked about before Which are washing your hands? Well, no, these are hygiene social distancing is staying six feet away from other people staying home And we know that this is a really difficult thing to do This is so many people are struggling with the isolation of this But if we all pitch in and take these measures, we're hoping that we can flatten the curve At this time and i'll talk more about that at this time We have no vaccine. It will take at least a year to develop a vaccine. This is true with all vaccine development That's not unusual for this particular disease. It just takes that amount of time to actually develop a vaccine and feel confident that it can be introduced into the public in terms of treatment There there is work being done to look into antivirals that could treat this disease There are promising Studies being done at this time in massachusetts. We don't have treatments that are being used So when we talk about flattening the curve What we're talking about is not overwhelming our hospitals and medical system as we As we see now I'm sorry paul. There's another slide where we're going to look at the curve, right? So, okay, i'm going to go on to that then because I think it'll be it'll be more clear Oh, but let's go back because first off. Sorry about this Um, i'm still getting used to all this technology also So I want to talk about exposure and diagnosis So people can become exposed to the coronavirus By touching surfaces or by being around someone who is actively coughing and sneezing and then spewing out droplets I know I talked about this last week. So I think I don't go need to go into that But those are the ways in which people are contracting the illness When someone touches a surface that has the virus on it and then inadvertently touches their face Then that virus can enter through the nose the eyes and the mouth Testing is something you've been hearing a lot about lately Um, as you can see from what paul was just telling you about the department of public health Testing is really ramping up in massachusetts One of the things that means is that we're also going to see more cases diagnosed So in some ways that will this will be providing a picture that will look alarming But because we didn't have the availability of tests before we weren't always able to diagnose Who had disease physicians were having to go by clinical signs and symptoms now we're going to have the ability to test people and get a good sense of How many people test positive and then the people who test negative also because that gives us information About how the disease is spreading in the community A positive diagnosis Which as I said before was being done just by clinical symptoms, but will now mostly be being done by a test Results in Two or three things if someone tests positive for covid 19 And they are severely ill then they're going to be hospitalized and isolated in the hospital But the majority of people won't be severely ill. They will be told to go and isolate at home Isolating at home means staying in their own bedroom Hopefully using their own bathroom And staying Isolated from their household members and the rest of the community until their symptoms are gone And it's been at least seven days Since the start of their symptoms Now that we're seeing more testing Being available they should also be able to get a negative test If they're unable to get a test and have that come because there's still not enough tests to test those who are recovering Someone who's had no fever for 72 hours after that initial seven days and the Um And no more symptoms than they also can be considered able to go out of isolation Quarantine is when people have been exposed Or or possibly exposed to someone who's positive for covid 19 Quarantine and isolation are essentially the same Except that in quarantine someone is not ill. They're monitoring monitoring their temperature monitoring their symptoms For two weeks It's two weeks because that's the incubation period for the disease at the end of two weeks if they've had no symptoms Then they are released from quarantine And are considered healthy So this slide shows you the spread of covid in massachusetts I don't know if you can read the dates on the bottom if you orient yourself their sideways So you can see that on march 6th We started with five cases There was a bump at march 10th where we went up to 50 At around march march 15th. We started seeing a big uptick so that now we are at More than 646 cases as paul said the new numbers were released at noon today So what this means as I started to talk about last week is that we're really in the acceleration phase with this disease in massachusetts This is why it's now incredibly important for everyone to be doing what they can with social distancing Staying home using incredibly good hygiene, which we're all not used to washing our hands so frequently Not touching our faces. This is what could turn this tide in massachusetts This slide is very interesting. I want you to see that on the left we've got 19 and younger and on the far right 70 and older So early on as as things were being discovered about this virus What was thought was that young people could be spreading the disease, but that they weren't going to get sick But as you can see here this age distribution From 20 to 29 we had 93 cases This is as of march 26th and then From 50 to 59 we had 119 So if you look at the 20 to 50 year old group You can see that there are many cases out of this total So we're finding out that young people Are getting sick One of the differences and why we see deaths of more older people is because they have Underlying medical conditions. It doesn't mean the young people don't but older people have Okay, i'm back Can people hear me? Okay, so the purpose of this slide is just to show That younger people are getting sick And that's a message that we really need to share with family and friends because early on there were messages going out That young people would not be getting sick and they are we also know that they are carriers So it's very important for us to think of that as a whole population This is a change from what we were initially thinking All right, here we are at the curve. I know you all have seen this many times But what you're looking at is a red bump which shows what will happen Without protective measures And the blue part of the curve is when we do have protective measures The dotted line represents our healthcare system capacity This is important for many reasons But two of them are that unless we can slow down the rate of disease transmission Our healthcare system will become overwhelmed What that will mean is that people who need to be hospitalized for covid who need Specialized medical care will not be able to get all the care that they need But it also means that those with Other types of health conditions who are going to be needing the healthcare system needing the hospital Are also possibly going to be able to go going to have to go without the care that they need So it's imperative now That everyone takes the steps each individual that could help to flatten out this curve That would mean that our hospitals would not become overwhelmed Our physicians and nurses and nurse practitioners and physicians assistants who are already getting very taxed Would not be sent into further excess workloads So we're really asking everyone to join In doing what they can to flatten this curve Okay, it's back to me And again for those watching there those participating We apologize for the delays that's happening and there's a lot of strain on the system right now So the next slide Is we want to i'm going to run through i'm not going to repeat things i said last week But these are the sort of core things that we look at on a daily basis With our with our core team next slide Just to organize yourselves again. This is our team that's in That's been that's regularly working multiple hours a day together and then going off and doing additional projects. We are We of course have supporting people who are supporting us In every role and we're expanding those support teams as we as we work Things that we are Looking for currently as we are going we're reaching out for volunteers Meals on wheels needs volunteers who will come who will pick up meals and deliver them Properly socially distanced to people who to elders who need them at home and and have them Participate we also have a cert cert team, which I don't even know what it stands for But it's a group of people who are have always been ready and prepared to provide additional services during an emergency So we'll be tapping their expertise soon. So next slide So one of the again we talk about force protection and that's sort of it sounds like a military term And i'm i think it comes from that but this is about making sure that our employees are Are healthy and safe and there's redundancies in place so that we can continue to serve the public Police and fire it's obvious We have closed the town buildings To the public and have told people to work from home Key is our water and wastewater treatment plants and keeping those operating school buildings and the libraries are closed If there is an incident we this is our incident command team Fire chief and emergency management director tim nelson health director julie fetterman police chief scott livingstone. I think You know tim is probably the baby on that of the in terms of years of service So we have multiple so many years of service here people who've worked together who've worked through crises in the past High level of communication and trust and it's it's really terrific to have this team ready to respond Because when you respond it's not always formulaic you have to make decisions on the fly You have to say can you handle this this I got this and so it's really impressive and important for the town to have these Really strong people there representing us continuity of operations the These are where the virtual meeting technology we're working on it it is evaluating multiple different Options including the one we're using now including zoom Looking at the technology in the town room and how we can communicate that way A lot of these systems are being stressed, but by wednesday we will have settled on or hopefully this week we will settle on a a A form of platform that will work on for our meetings and then start to Roll that out to staff who will support the people who are calling meetings And there and so we will have that this week and As we prepare for those meetings our staff Are spending the next week and a half to To get the agendas ready for the committees who are going to be ready to meet Getting materials making sure that they have access to everything they need so that those meetings Can be successful that they're not just people joint going online and chatting is we want these means to be productive So everybody's time is utilized well Next slide so in this slide this there are The bottom three bullets are new I did a brief video to staff And just to sort of connect with folks because it really is isolating when you're Working in a small with a smaller group instead of seeing the people you see on a daily basis It's isolating for people at home. So having that connection to folks is really important The town council president and I speak daily in terms of and I update her on anything that happens and in Just pretty much transparent for with all the things that were there in play And providing and trying to get better at this providing regular updates to the town council As you can imagine there's a lot of things flowing through here all at the same time I try to get as much out as I can to the council and I really find that this This meeting is an important thing for that on the other hand. I talked about a new website That our Communications manager Brianna Sunred is leading a team of employees who are going to be working from home to build it in a very near future We're looking at facebook live events and a number of other things that we will be working on next slide So one of the things that that's different this week is the students from UMass and who are on break Are we up So julie is going to stay until there are questions at the end Um was one of the questions Um We ready we going okay everybody in here. Okay, so communication. So one of the things that's new this week is that the students are back There are about 8,000 students that live off campus at uh UMass and that's in multiple towns not all in amherst, but there are They are eligible to come back if they've paid rent and they want to stay living in the town or wherever they are um The UMass reports about 609 students living on campus who will continue to live on campus They're congregating them into several different dorms to make management better And I think amherst college has said they have a couple hundred students who are on their campus as well The university has put together this This flyer to send to people who are coming back and helping to educate people about social distancing and the importance of that In their lives as well So the next so tonight um, we're going to be talking about um The elder community and food security and in future meetings. We hope to be talking about local businesses and um the Our homeless community and the number of things that we're working on on those So first tonight we have our superintendent of schools mike morris And he's he's dialing in so I wonder if he can hear us and if you want to take over mike Sure, I just want to make sure people can hear me Is that coming through? It is we can hear you Okay, great. So I can't see the slides because of the It's not synchronized with the video feed that I have so I apologize for being directive on slides But uh, thanks for having me tonight. I appreciate it. I mean, uh, I know paul mentioned he speaks to the town council president every day Lord knows how many conversations paul and I've had over the last couple weeks Uh, but it's critically important from the school's perspective that we're close Uh and aligned with what the town's doing because um because of the obvious connections between the two So I really want to thank paul and his core team because we communicate all the time and it's critically important During this time during this difficult time that uh, we're working all together and uh, I want to you know Share that the school side. We really appreciate the support of the town So if we're on slide, I guess Going ahead to slide 25 Um, just going backwards a little bit. There were there was increasing concern Uh on the week that ended march 13th and Um At uh for us we woke up on march 13th that friday There was a conference call with the commissioner and the master's department of public health um, there was uh Some superintendents thought that maybe there would be a forest closure. Some weren't sure We woke up on march 13th confident with information We had that we were going to make a closure decision regardless of what The commissioner and the state did and and we did do that. So at about 1115 That morning, we had a video shown to every student Precated 12 actually two different videos one for elementary one for secondary Announcing that the schools to be closed for two weeks Two days later the governor announced a three week closure of all schools in massachusetts With the earliest return date of tuesday april 7th I will share that at this point there's a lot of questions about that return date and we continue to have conference calls with the commissioner On at least a weekly basis And we're trying to plan for multiple scenarios of potential returns Uh, because we're really getting certainty of the situation and what the advice will be with all the charts Uh, julie showed earlier. I think one one might start to question the april 7th state But we're going to wait and see what the commissioner does And again, if he makes a decision that's not aligned to what we feel like we need to do for public safety as we did before We'll we'll make the decision that we feel like is in the best interest of our community The next slide 26 talks about communication and the reason it's so early in this Slide deck is it's so critical to be To be communicating out with our constituents what's happening At our website, which there's a link to it links to all 12 letters sent home to families and staff About the situation as it evolved um It sort of acts like an oral history a little bit of the uh, of the last couple weeks as well In the tone of the letters and the information we shared out and I want to particularly thank julie fetterman who has been a Uh, just a complete rock and giving us advice advising us And about what to communicate and how to communicate accurately with the public because she's been she's been a great resource We're trying to maintain our weekly communication. So our weekly newsletter goes out on friday Granted this friday's a couple days ago. It was mostly about this uh, COVID-19 issue, but we're maintaining those kind of structures Uh, we had staff specific communication throughout the situation. So multiple multiple emails to staff Uh, one of the things that we found is and paul referenced this a little while ago Is that uh, and this came from a staff member wasn't my idea Um, there's so many emails that's relying on electronic communication So I did a short video for staff that was positively received and and I think uniquely The thing that felt unique to me was how many people said, uh, in a in a relatively big organization How nice it was to see a face and hear a voice And and we've taken off on that. So our principals have recorded, uh, video Videos to their students and families. Um, I think most of the elementary principals anyway already finished their second video and sent that out And again the the piece around the social distancing which julie talked about which we're absolutely practicing Uh, but also the the contrast to social isolation just being concerned about Students and families and having the visual representation particularly of principals It's been critically important for us and something will continue into the future Uh, and we've maintained our our regular meeting schedule. We've met a lot Often than that, but we're we're maintaining our regular meeting schedule with school and district leaders So that we continue to function as a team and and keep some structure in a somewhat less structured time If we could go ahead to slide 27 um From a health perspective, uh, we were fortunate last year to get a grant from um, department of public health and we now have a nurse manager Who works closely with julie fetterman? Also closely with the massachusetts department of public health and local health public health officials Uh, I just want to note that there's a plural for a reason on public health officials Um julie is our contact in the town of amherst, but we're a regional district And uh, all four towns don't share julie. Um, and so we've worked with multiple public health officials On this one. Uh, one of the big focuses was making sure that families got student medications on friday And then some picked them up on monday of uh, week ago to make sure that families had the medications They needed given that um, we we We had a feeling that you know Get picking up medications is going to come a little more complicated in the future Uh, and the nurse manager has also done a great job of fielding staff questions concerns Uh, that go on during this this time as well as family concerns Go ahead to slide 28. Um So, uh in 48 hours, we our wonderful staff took what they were doing and tried to transition to a model of distance learning Um, the guidance that the state has been up until this point that it's enrichment activities for all students Um, we're not trying to we're not a university setting where we're trying to zoom picture-rolled into, uh, an active meeting zone Uh situation the same way you would do perhaps with college or graduate students that being said our teachers have been making strong connections For instance our college counselor shared she had 23 meetings last week with different families Because this is a pretty critical time for our 11th grade students and thinking about college Uh, and I know some of our staff are using all different forms. Um to maintain contact whether it's google classroom Which is pretty uh used pretty ubiquitously across the district class dojo Other tools that were existing and then enhancing their youth and we're fortunate that we have Uh strong technology systems in place because we're not recreating. We're really enhancing what uh, the technology was previously doing Uh, again maintaining strong communication with families and students and continually Adding additional online resource lists. Um, so that families are supported in working with their students Uh, their children rather at home We could advance to slide 29 again. I'm trying to uh be conscious of of your time I know you have other things on your agenda, uh, one of the things that immediately surfaced was um Then the issue of food scarcity and what can we do for our families? And so, uh, again school let out on the 13th, which is a friday Um that following tuesday we started our meal service the last week We served over two. It was actually 2058 meals Um to students over four days Tuesday through friday of last week And we know that many of our families getting to school would be a barrier for them So we set up locations and high density Areas that had more than their share Of families who let us know that food scarcity was a major issue for them So I really want to thank our family center of food service staff who came in And the many staff volunteers who showed up to help with delivery at those sites We're fortunate that this week uh today actually we started a partnership with UMass And they're assisting us with about half the site which is reducing the load on our food service and volunteer staff Just because we are interested in sustainability Long term because we don't know how long the school closure will last I will note that um some of the concerns that our staff are hearing in the community as the uncertainty of the school closure Lasses how long will you know these food services Be able to continue and you know, we're trying to again focus on sustainability because we don't know if this will end up being an even longer term closure But it's been well appreciated by our community and well supported by our staff Go ahead to slide 30 So technology so our grade seven through 12 students have chromebooks It's a we have a one-to-one program that's fully functional However in grades three to six There are chromebooks per student, but they stay in the school And we surveyed all all families and that those grade levels and to date we've Loaned out 97 chromebooks Uh, which is a lot if you think about um You know four grade levels. That's a pretty high percentage Uh to families so that they can be using it And that's really all the work of our is staff and a perfectly socially distanced world Julie would have been thrilled to see the way it was done three long tables gloves and And how they checked them in and out and we're also providing a lot of technology support for staff To be able to know how to contact families without using, you know, for instance private cell phone numbers Other ways to contact families who maybe don't have internet access So we're actively working on those right now and continue to add to our list of tools that our staff have access to And the next one's my last slide So this is something that i've talked to the town staff as well about in their core team, but What we know is that uh, despite our best efforts and families the feeling of social isolation is going to affect Uh, probably everyone in this current situation So our counselors are making regular routine Connections with our students who perhaps are most at risk in this situation We've developed protocols for students who may be struggling, especially with the current context And um, I think we um Want to maintain and do everything we can do To support students and families in this way And we're fortunate to have a strong team of of kind of therapists clinicians Who are actively working with students On the current experience, which is a novel one. Um, you know for some perhaps the stereotypical View might be oh students, you know students aren't in school They're gonna be enjoying that it's less stress But but in fact what we're hearing from our students is the structure of school The social relationships that occur between both students and students and as well as them and and the faculty are really grounding Experiences and without that we're trying to fill the void as best we can in the current context And um, I think our staff have risen to the challenge, but the longer this uh, the closure goes on Uh, the more we're going to have to really be connecting with families and students and being cognizant of the strain that this is putting Uh, and everybody involved and and the last thing I'll say and then I'll stop or pause anyway Is just also the piece around making sure that our staff Are practicing self-care So our staff are working incredibly hard, but they also now have either many of them have their own children at home They're taking care of family members As well as trying to attend to the needs of their students in a very new way And so one of the critical messages we have been is just making sure that our Our staff are taking care of their colleagues are checking in routinely are letting their Supervisors know what's going on in their life. It's getting in the way of their work Because this is a stressful situation for everyone involved And the language I continue to use is is my personal opinion is this will be a marathon not a sprint It doesn't always feel that way to many of us But but I think it's the truth and so when we think about mental health in this slide It was primarily focused on students But we're taking active steps to try to support our staff in practicing self-care during an uncertain And certainly a typical time that has a lot of stress for everybody involved And and if our staff can feel positive and supported, you know, they'll do a much better job working with our students And that's been our approach throughout And I think that's my last slide. Yeah, this is paul again. Thank you very much mike there a couple Well, first off, I want to write back at you on being a good partner. You're highly Communicative is really terrific for both sides Schools in towns to work together. There are a couple questions counselors had and one was You know, so much of the world has gone online, but some of our families do not have access to the internet And can you share a little bit about the efforts that the school district has made to try and connect folks to the internet? Yeah, so that is one of the biggest if not the largest Kind of pieces that's that's a large piece. We're still working on and and You know, I'll just tell a story because I think it's illustrative of the issue So we were all set with a purchase order to buy mobile routers Look mobile hotspots, excuse me mobile hotspots are families And we heard from four districts right it before we purchased them that The data plans that come with those are insufficient for the expectations that Students would how much data they would use especially at the middle school and high school level That after 90 minutes their data was done and so it wasn't an effective strategy And the districts felt like they'd spent a fair bit of money to not have much payoff So we are working, you know the Comcast some of the other companies have Kind of free 60 day Kind of models with certain requirements. We're working some families around that. There are some barriers to that And one of the next steps we took is reached out to the colleges and universities trying to see If if someone who is used to maybe high Like we lost you families who don't have connectivity live had some thoughts about a different way to approach this but Um, so with something we're still actively working on anyone listening to this out in the community has ideas about How to approach that task, you know morris m at arts.org We are open for ideas because it is something that much like many many districts. We are struggling with and Kind of the frustrating part is when we think we might have a solution You know Glitches and and another barriers. We don't want our staff going into homes to install Pieces of equipment even if we had it right that would not be consistent social distancing So that's another barrier for us if we had a technology solution that involved An is staff person going into people's where people are living So again, we're still working on it. We're not giving up any stretch, but it is a real barrier And it's something we're actively working on Thank you mike and then there's one other question and the food program. I think has been really impressive and The question was if you need volunteers I know we need volunteers for the meals on wheels program But does the school district need volunteers or do you utilize current staff to help connect with with students? Yeah, I mean it says a lot about our teachers educators clerical everybody that we've actually had such an abundance of volunteers that we have sad people today who As we shrunk our sites because you mass took over some Because I mean we told them they can certainly go but we're we're in good shape with volunteers Our staff have been just abundantly helpful and Not only wanting to do that but also just at a safe distance to see faces and for our students to see familiar faces And one of the things I've noticed is a lot of the people have wanted to volunteer in the especially the elementary level In the parts of town where they work in so a lot of procter farm staff wanting to volunteer in south amber So they would see kids and be a familiar face and Long-winded answer is I think we're a really great shape right now on the volunteer part if that changes I'll certainly go through paul and and we can let folks know Great. Thank you so much mike. So now we have all right. Thanks. Take care So we have mary bethola love it's warming up in the bullpen and uh Unknown participant is now exiting by mike. Um, so now we have uh to go to the next slide. So mary beth. Can you hear us? Good evening. Can everybody hear me? We can hear you in town. Can you hear me? We can hear you in the town room Great It looks like other people can it looks like it's coming up on the screen that the town council can hear me Super. So I have a similar situation to mike in that The video feed that i'm looking at on my desktop is not synchronous Or showing the slides that i'll be using So i'm going to just trust that you're going to flow along with me on my slides that i'll be presenting Is that okay? That's right. We got it Great. So if you would come down to the first Content slide that says resources staff The main message that I would want to share tonight is that the building is closed But all of the staff members that you see on this slide including myself Are still working each and every day So one of the things we noticed is when we closed the building here at the bank center and closed the senior center There was a precipitous drop in phone calls and inquiries And so we have been working hard to message that we are still all here Though some folks are working remotely. I am here every day. I try to make myself viewed and People know that I am around and available And so if we can share that message tonight, that would be extremely useful to let people know that We are all still working and we are available in terms of our staff. We are in a great position Other senior centers. I'm I'm part of a listserv of western mass senior centers Some have been closed because of sicknesses. There's a local senior center where 20 of 21 staff members are home sick. We are all well and we are all working The only place in which we have seen an impact has been our volunteer base as one would expect people are making some really wise choices based on their vulnerability and Their age and stage with regard to complicating medical conditions, but we are rapidly rebuilding that core so If you switch to the next slide resources knowledge connection and programs We remain strong So we know our people in the community and we also know how to get things done Our key asset really has is the depth of knowledge of our social workers Our connection with the community with the people we serve and also our external partners. So none of that has been impacted by co vid or Some remote operations and that's something that I think is is really critical For the seniors in the community to understand that we are still fully functioning And then the second key asset has really been our food programs and our food programs despite UMass closing that meals on wheels program We have all been able to successfully transition all 38 folks Who have been supported with various meal plans and or support services? When the umass meals on wheels plan closed Those individuals were all phoned three times by myself And with a social worker three days in a row to make sure that not only that they had plans in place But that the plans were actually working and functioning We continue to have contact with those individuals and so far Everybody is being very well served in the various ways Not only do we contact the individual clients who were part of that program But also their family members and other informal support systems including PCAs or healthcare workers Who are part of their whole system of support? Next slide In terms of our operations If someone were to ask me why are we strong? I would say it all had to do with the town manager directing us Long before this occurred to begin and engage in continuity of operation planning for this before it was necessary So we had plans in place. We had lines of successor authority We had um identified our list of vulnerable clients and also the essential task which we needed to To continue to engage in in order to serve those individuals We also knew that the volunteer base would change radically Based on everything that Julie would be sharing us about Risks and exposure to COVID-19 And so we began to Anticipate needing new volunteers and beginning conversations with individuals who primarily were under 60 to anticipate that Next slide Here's a quick outline of sort of where we have been So primarily at the outset it really was to communicate and message For seniors that this is going to be a radical departure from their prior Ways in which they interacted with us and with each other So we had to message social distance and also the safe practices that were shared with us through the town We engaged in individual calls. We engaged in visits We also I did a recorded robo call. We have a database system, which is fantastic And I was able to place a call Within days of us closing You know Assuring people that we had a plan in place and that we were still open And I had received many phone calls and also emails as a result of that first recorded call for people to say That that was a very reassuring Engagement with them. We also updated our website with COVID-19 relevant information And we also used our social media and in those sorts. So beyond messaging them Hold on mary. That's your you went gone in and out of with intersectionality. So that could be um, you know, the intersection of Their natural supports language and family status. So each of the social workers In discussed cases there are approximately 56 Mary Beth, can you hold on one second? most frail and vulnerable seniors which are being followed on a daily basis Did a resource list which I think has been invaluable for the community and we are in the process of sharing that and in That resource list really relied on The aspect of social distance and how can they continue to Gain the things that they need just for activities of daily living and that would be delivery of medication delivery of food all of the various food sources So we prepared some lists. We shared those In flyer form. We also have them on our website And I believe tonight you were shared a pdf of our senior spirit newsletter and that has been If you were to ask me about the digital divide, that's a reality for this Group and so we have to do far more one-to-one Communications so that folks Know what is out there and available for them We also instituted a call a neighbor friendly phone call list. So we are matching and it's an online fillable form on our website So folks can access and you can also sign up a senior to receive a call I prepared a checklist And sort of the purpose of that is not only to help people to engage socially but also to be going through The indicators that we would be concerned about about mood depression Food and sleep and then that there's a referral back to us if there are any concerns as a result of those phone calls Next slide So where where are we in terms of what we're Providing the services really that we are focusing our efforts on its first and foremost social work services So we continue again calls and check-ins of frail and vulnerable clients We also rely extensively on informal means of communication. So Our ability to be present to hand out meals to participate in the meals and meals program Speaking to individuals even as they're walking by keeping that six foot difference We know each other and we can rely on that just to do a check-in. How is our how are things at clark house? How are your friends? So we're always going through Eliciting information on what the status is because I will say that we're used to seeing Over a hundred people a day and that's how we kind of keep our close contact is that visual And so we're just having to sort of exponentially grow that by not just our staff doing it but using The friendly phone calls and those others means of support The social workers are continuing to do referral and assistance So they're still working with clients actively to assist them if they have any Issues around food insecurity or delivery of medication We have assisted people to obtain medication from pharmacies when they've been unable and they had no other sources of support And they also continue to coordinate services and that's where really our extensive Relationships with our external partners really help to shore us. So we work with a number of PCAs and also healthcare agencies We work on a daily basis with Highland Valley elder services, which is the access point for home healthcare Nursing services as well as meals on wheels and then also individuals who might have questions about Mass health medicare snap and housing So all of those services are remaining in place. They're just taking place over the phone And then the second prong of our effort is focused on food and making sure that folks know where to go and how to access it Our congregate meal, which was our community meal with the focus was Intentionally by the the title three funding the focus of that was socialization It is now around reaching out to individuals and making sure that people are getting proper nutrition So we were able to shift with the assistance of Highland Valley from a congregate meal to a cold takeout lunch and This is if anyone is watching or is able to share this information We continue to share that that meal is free to anyone age 60 and above in the town of Amherst So anybody can come here And have that meal. We just need to have a two-day in advance Notice for that. So that is different than meals on wheels It's administered by the same organization But it's it's an entitlement if you have reached this age and you would like to have a free lunch You are entitled to that free lunch I am in the process of recruiting volunteers because one of the things that I think is is perplexing about this is that Highland Valley has shifted that to a takeout lunch at the same time where we're telling people don't Leave your home And so if I can get enough volunteers, I can shift the daily takeout lunch to one that could be delivered To individuals through the community. I have a number of individuals. I've also been Working with the school department At their community distribution sites to identify we now have eight seniors at those locations And so we'll be able to share those meals at those locations. And if there are more we'd like to have that ability So I am still actively recruiting anyone who would like to deliver a meal We continue to deliver our meals on wheels on the screen. It says 35 plus I believe that as of the close of business today, it was 51 individuals that we Deliver meals to in the community. Those are four routes. It includes the town of Palom And sign up on the information as I mentioned This will be shared with the community is available Online and there's that phone number and then we are also still continuing our food distribution Mobile services. So Western Mouse Food Bank and Amherst Survival Center have two senior food distribution Programs that occur on a monthly basis and we've been working with them to sort of shift those distribution methods So that they minimize Seniors coming out. They used to all the bags everything arrived here Now we're working on getting those delivered at locations where Groups of individuals are already located and then again if I can get more volunteers We would have the ability to deliver those bags. So making sure that they have that sustenance The the food bank is commodities. So canned goods and dry goods and Amherst Survival Center once a month is Fresh food So it can be everything from protein and milk to fresh fruits and vegetables And then the last program that we run for food is bread and produce Which we are still looking at how to reconfigure So that we can do it in a way that would be safe and support the larger community day and my last piece of Resource that I would want to draw your attention is last week. We onboarded a nurse Karen Rainan And she also comes from Amherst and she was formerly a school nurse and you can see a bit of her CV on the slide Her position is funded through the generous contribution of community member Dorothy Gavin And she will be with us six hours a week to provide a health advice line And that will be I think very helpful to our seniors to have that reassuring person that they can phone Ask a few questions to that that is health related So I guess in some I would say for anybody listening What we are most concerned with is volunteers to assist us with delivery of food Whether they be the bags of food or expanding meals on wheels We make sure that it's done in a safe manner that is consistent with CDC And other guidelines in terms of keeping social distance using gloves using hand sanitizer I go out every day. I was out today I would never ask somebody to do something that didn't feel was safe myself So I feel like we have sufficient river banks in in place for that guidance And it makes a tremendous difference Because it allows us to sort of interact with that last piece of behavioral health and the social isolation And just being able to be a source of resilience a surface calm and hopefulness Makes a a big difference in the day of a senior So thank you. I think that's it great. Thank you. Mary Beth. So you're looking for volunteers What's the best way for a volunteer to contact you to see to talk about what it takes to do it If they're comfortable with the protocols you put in place. Do they just call you in your office and what is that number? Yes, so the number is 4132593114 that is my direct number We also on the the Amherst senior center town a website We have a fillable form where somebody it's called Offer support receive support. So if somebody wants to just email us and and fill that out I'm happy to have extended conversations with anybody who might be interested or curious And supporting our seniors Great. Thank you very much. Mary Beth. Great job Are there questions from the council? The only question was whether what was the phone number to call and Oh, great. Mm-hmm. Do we want to go back to questions for either paul or Um for julie at this point counselors. Please let us know I will just also tell you i'm not getting that communication, but paul is Are you getting that communication? So, uh, there's a question for from alissa for julie. Um There's several people have lots of questions for julie. It looks like So do you want to call on the people to ask those questions? So so the questions are from alissa And kathy shane All right, alissa. Let's start with you. Please unmute your mic ask your questions and then mute it again Great. Thank you. And thank you for all of this So my question for julie is more about all the immense work that's done with public health And then there's the whole other layer Of the public perception of what's being done and the public outreach And so I appreciate that she's having to do all those things All of the time one of the things that I think it's important to keep in mind in terms of the kinds of questions We get from the public is that it was actually public health officials who told us that young people I'm not saying julie did i'm saying that told us that young people weren't as likely to be affected And so as we continue to move forward here, I think for example the slide that says treatment no vaccine I understand what she means by that But I think it's really great if she can put out some more information when she gets a chance to breathe Whether it's copied from another source. She trusts or whatever that says Even though you're hearing about testing That vaccine as all normal vaccines like she said will take a long time in the meantime treatment looks like this But just saying no vaccine on a slide. I understand what that means But I think that's not as clear to the public and so again It's like she needs a whole other staff just to be able to communicate this stuff effectively But I think offering people some more information in that regard like yes You're hearing about this but the vaccine still out 18 months in the meantime. Here's what people do I think would be just incredibly helpful Okay Thank you, elissa I actually have a whole team who works on the communications So I will take that back as paul mentioned were Close to setting up a more robust website so that we can have a lot of resources in one place Um, we're also looking at onboarding some nurses so that Jennifer brown the public health nurse and myself will be freed up freed up a little bit from the calls that are coming in But that's great feedback. Thank you Okay, elissa. Was there anything else? That's fine. Okay, kathy Hi, julie. Um A couple of my questions. I think are for you and then one for paul I have a specific question about seniors and vulnerability at places like in applewood um They they have vans that go and take people to shop at stop and shop And I don't think they discriminate among which seniors go or not um, so Is that fine and I I'm asking it both because I know 198 year olds who I told just not to get on the van But it's a question of how many people can be in a van. Can they all be going and this is 80 to 98 year olds are going So that's the one question specific to an applewood like place which is bringing seniors To go food shopping and the second was about the general trying to keep groups small if people are outside Like in a park The restrictions on group size, uh, does that apply and and how bigger group could be outside? You know at a picnic a family picnic Thank you Thank you kathy So you're mentioning applewood specifically applewood is an independent living facility in amherst and I was in contact with their medical staff person on friday several times and then this morning with the The managing director of applewood so The advice is that older people stay home and when we're in our 90s. We're older That being said people are still being allowed to go to the grocery store Uh, it's a personal decision. I think applewood is doing a fantastic job in educating their residents about How to protect themselves? I think you bring up an interesting question about vans So I will circle back to applewood. We did not specifically talk about that I know frequently on the vans. There are often just one or two people which would be fine um So i'll move on to your second question, which is about parks. So The governor is using the number of 10 people to be out and about Um, I think what's really important is to just look at the basic facts of social distancing So what we really want is for people to be six feet apart that being said a household so a family of four or five They're living together And so if they're going out and they're going to be together Getting some exercise playing outside, which is wonderful. Thank goodness spring is it was coming. I think it still is Um, so we want to see people outside the kind of thing that is discouraged is A group of people playing basketball and touching that basketball throwing a frisbee to each other Unless they're household contacts. So the number 10 is used because It's so much easier for people to think about a number and what that means to congregate congregate in that way But what we're really asking people to do is have six foot social distancing So tell me if you want to clear want me to clarify either of my answers I know those were both very they were both very clear. I mean in this um And then the one I have that's um more for you paul Is around in the governor's order It sounded like uh, it was possible to impose as much as for $300 fine and even jail time If um, people don't observe the don't gather Is that going to be strictly enforced in amherst? I was asked this by a resident You know, are we going to be just trying to get the word out there? Just don't do it That's my second question Yeah, so that we talked we discussed some of this this morning with our police chief And the role we play is for is an education role and a sort of intervention role and you know If there are complaints about noise Or or large gatherings, we will address those The police have introduced new protocols. They won't just wade into a large crowd They have new system new ways of approaching that But um, you know as much as we can we want it to be educational. We don't really have plans for Introducing fines or anything like that at this point in time Okay, paul. Are there any other questions? Yes. So um, shalini has a question about craig's list, but I think it's craig's doors I've lost yes craig's doors, please Go ahead shalini Oh, I was just hoping we could get an update on the status of For people who are living in or visiting craig's doors and also If there are any resources or what can how can we help people who are Fearful of being evicted right now because they can't pay rent. So yeah those two questions. Thank you Thank you shalini. This is julie. I'll take the first question. So we've been working very closely with craig's doors And what we've instituted Well time really morphs So i'm going to say about 10 days ago perhaps longer Is that all guests when they arrive at the shelter are being screened by medical professionals physicians assistants doctors Or nurse practitioners. So they're getting their temperatures taken They're being assessed for possible signs of illness Um, their lungs are being listened to if they have any signs of illness And they did some they're doing some Initial baseline assessment of lungs for folks who are smokers also Those staff are those volunteers those are folks who are volunteering after their full-time jobs are then Being very helpful with shelter staff to help them come up with the best type of cot arrangement So that people have the most distance when they're sleeping head-to-head There they've also been helping them with creative ideas around serving dinner also Helping them with Sanitation and evaluating the sanitation which has been excellent So we're really thankful for these volunteers and I think i'll just put a shout out now that craig's doors is looking for more medical volunteers MDs nurse practitioners or physicians assistants to volunteer between 9 and 10 30 it often goes to 11 And if anyone is able to volunteer That would be greatly appreciated as these folks are traveling an hour to do this late at night The contact for that is Kevin noonan it's his email address which i'm going to stumble over right now so we will Try and get that up on the screen The other thing they're looking for at craig's doors is as we saw students Who are not in town many of them were volunteers at the shelter So regular volunteers to help set up the cots are also needed that would be every night that would be between about 7 and 9 p.m So I think I will pass it on to paul And uh meanwhile, I will see if I can get kevin's address email address up there So I think the second question was about evictions And I think the governor addressed that I didn't hear the entire press conference today Because we were at a meeting but um, I think he answered that's explicit explicit question by saying that the courts are not open So there there's there are no eviction proceedings moving forward, but I would have to find a more detailed answer to that question So Let's see the other thing I just wanted to point out is What the what his order actually says is that all businesses and other organizations That do not provide covet 19 essential services shall close their physical workplaces and facilities brick and mortar premises To workers customers in the public as of 12 noon on march 24th 2020 And shall not reopen to workers customers or the public before 12 noon on april 7th 2020 And they had some exceptions of course for the essential workers and for churches temples mosques and other places of worships Okay, are there any other questions? Please indicate by Sending a darcy has a question. Okay darcy Oh, um, I just um Saw the emails that were Sent by jerry weiss this week. Can you hear me? Alright Yes, but it's a little you may actually need to back off of your mic a little bit Oh I just was wondering What the answer was to the question that was being debated over email this week about What whether there's a plan that is in place In case a resident of craig's door doors test positives for covet 19 What would then happen? Thank you for that question. Yes, we've been working on this. Um, in fact, we spent much of the weekend working on this So we are Identifying where someone who one or more people who test positive for covet 19 who are shelf shelter guests Could stay so that they have adequate isolation They have monitoring and support and all the things that they need We're also looking at the same time For where we would be able to quarantine the rest of the shelter guests because that would be needed also So we've got a team of about five or six people actively engaged in identifying those sites And is there uh, okay, so you have some sites all potentially ready to go if that were to happen today or We are essentially prepared. Should that happen today? Yes I don't think we're seeing it on the tv screen, but Uh, Kevin noonan's email address is kevin kevin at craig's doors all one word C. R. A. I. G. S D. O. O. R. S Dot org Uh, evan ross has a question Okay, evan Hey, this uh, should be real quick Uh for paul. So I saw that the governor's order, uh, exempted construction Especially around public works. And so my assumption is That any current projects we have going right now like the multi-use path on east hadley road will be ongoing throughout so When we pray we look at our work. We look at what can be accomplished using proper social distance Protocols and our assessment at this point is twofold. One is that these projects can be Accommodated using social distancing and secondly, we think it's vital to keep as much of the economy moving forward as we can As long as we're observing the Social distancing rules. So a lot of outdoor work As long as it's people not working closely together can be moved can move forward And we will we will continue to do that as best we can and it's a lot of the protocols We we identify them and these are work. This is work that is being done by private contractors as well Okay, are there other questions from the council Please indicate by typing to us. You have a question Again, I want to urge the public to feel free to send us any questions you may have through town council at amherst ma.org Right after our meeting last Week, we received a series of really amazingly good questions and The person got amazingly good responses. So We also have an opportunity to add when we have time the frequently asked questions on our website. So With that, I think we're ready then to go on to the next part of our meeting Um We're going to start with our consent agenda agenda And the consent agenda unless you tell me differently Includes the following mary baffle the letter Is now exiting Okay These items were selected because they were considered to be routine And it was reasonable to expect they would pass with no controversy To remove an item from the consent agenda for discussion later in the meeting asked that it be removed When the president president lists the consent agenda items the request to remove an item from the consent agenda does not require a second The items in the motion are the town council's rules of procedure 8.2 8.6 and 10.3 The approval of the march 9 2020 minutes And the approval of the march 16 2020 special town council minutes. Is there any item you would like removed? Please Communicate with us by typing Oh Sorry about that. I will correct that. All right. Let's finish this and then I want to go back and correct the Uh email address for the town council Uh, so the consent agenda is to move the following items and the printed motions there They're under and approve those items as a single unit 7d town council rules or procedure rules 8.2 8.6 and 10.3 I need a second. I'll hold on. I have two more 10 a approval of march 9 2020 town council meeting minutes as presented And 10 b approval of march 16 2020 special town council meeting minutes as presented Mandy seconds. Okay. Thank you. We have to do this by roll call vote since we are all um Remote so let me start by uh asking for the vote shallony You have to unmute please Oh, yes Alyssa brewer I pat de angeles I I Darcy duMont Yes Lynn greecemer votes. I um, andy joe hannacky Yes Dorothy pamm Yes Evan ross Yes George ryan Yes Kathy shane Yes Steve schreiber I Andy steinberg Yes And sarah schwarz I Okay We have two the next two items on our agenda. Oh the motion passed 13 00 uh We have two agenda items that come next last week. Uh, the town manager shared are actually declared a state of emergency And shared that in your packet We would like to ask the town council to ratify of the town managers march 16th 2020 state of emergency declaration That is a motion. Is there a second? Mandy seconds. Okay. Is there are are there questions? Please let us know by sending a question or a statement that you want to ask a question Shalini has a question. Shalini, please speak Yes, I support this Motion I just wanted a clarification and maybe for the public What is this entail? What does it mean for the people? What does it mean for the town council? Yes, thank you Thank you for that shalini Um They're Pretty much every community most communities in the commonwealth have declared a state of emergency The implications aren't Really broad, but they may come into play later or down the road. So for instance Some insurance policies may require a state of emergency in the locality to be in place before they respond to a certain kind of claim that Private property owner or Individual or business may have If we are seeking additional funds from the federal government or State government The fact that we declared a state of emergency may help our case. It may not be required and in talking to our town attorney The town attorney's advice and they've said was that it's better safe than sorry on these things and As long as you know And so that's why we pushed it forward to have a state of emergency Move forward it it just helps us in terms of communicating to the public as well that this is a very serious Pandemic and that in the town has taken it seriously Are there other questions about the state of emergency? Okay, the motion's been made and seconded. There'll be a roll call vote We'll start this time with elissa brewer Brewer says I de angeles I DuMont Yes, greesmer says I hannocky I Pam I Ross I Ryan I Shane I Shriver I Steinberg I Schwartz I And bell mill Yes Okay Then the next item is new on this agenda and let me just give you a little context or background And that is by the charter The libraries and the schools are required to advance to us a budget Advance to the town manager a budget by april 1st And then the town manager is required to advance to the town council His his proposed budget for fy 21 by may 1st Those deadlines need to be extended because We expect some potential impact on this year with things like State revenues And also possibly even town revenues from things like real estate taxes And so what we would like to do and what the motion is is to move those dates So that respectively the Library and the schools would not advance their budgets to us until may 1st And the town manager would not advance his budget to us until June 1st in discussing this And based on the kind of experience we went through Last year with budget thank heavens. We have one year of experience as a council However, this would allow us to Get some have an opportunity to possibly make some adjustments and We also are very aware that the governor And the legislature are looking and I began I believe even today began discussing The bill that actually would extend these deadlines We also know that at present Many of the are a couple of the surrounding towns that join us on the regional school budget Are already delaying their town meetings until may or june Anything further on that paul that you want to give his background? I think the memos speaks for itself. Um, there are questions from shallony elissa and andrew Steinberg and Mandy joe Okay, let's start with shallony Um, I was just um, I think it would be helpful to me to understand what The repercussions are going to be and I mean they are going to be and I don't see how we can avoid postponing this but Um, is there any way we can understand what the repercussions are going to be of pushing the budget forward and Um, and how can we prepare for it? and Mandy joe has a procedural question, but if I can answer Shallony's question first and you can go ahead joe So, uh We don't know exactly the ramifications We believe that we for the last quarter of f y 20. We will see a significant reduction in many of our um Revenue sources including um hotel and motel meals tax hotel and motel taxes meals taxes parking revenue Things like that We anticipate that this will extend into f y into the f y 21 budget. So we don't have The march numbers yet, which we will give us a bit of an indication on where we will be headed Um, and there will also likely be delays in people paying their taxes. So I think there will be a significant impact and We may not have all the answers by the time it comes to make a decision But this gives us a bit more time to have more clarity that we can present to the Council and to the public as we prepare our budgets I want to go to Mandy joe and ask about the procedural question Yes, sorry about this, but I realized we probably need to suspend 8.4 to vote on this tonight So it will require another roll call vote. Okay. I'll uh I'll move to suspend. We'll do that when we get to the actual motions. Thank you Okay, uh Alyssa Thank you. I realize everything is a moving target, but speaking of people paying And we know that at least springfield for example has said they will not penalize people for paying their vehicle excise taxes late I realize that it would be much better like with most things if the governor just made a decision or the legislature made a decision But in the meantime, what are we to tell people we're planning to do? Are we going to say that we're absolutely waiting for this a state level decision to be made? Or are we going to assure people that we are not going to penalize them for not driving up to town hall to stick Something in a slot or being willing to do it online, especially if they're worried about paying other things in their lives Paul Thank you. That's a really good question because we get that I speak with the mma today. We're hopeful that the legislature will pass blanket application of the Waving of late fees and penalties We have there is limited discretion the town has at this moment in terms of what we can waive and what we can't waive We would take the most We would take as many steps as we can as per minute under state law But we're hoping that the state would recognize this as a pretty important thing For for everybody in the commonwealth Let's look for an update on next week's agenda on that very issue Okay, so on the agenda on march 30th Look for an update on whether or not the late fees would be suspended on things like excise tax real estate tax, etc Anything else elissa Thank you. That's perfect Andy Thank you So I just wanted to um briefly state something in support of the motion that we're going to be getting very soon I was on the finance committee in 2008 and 2009 and that's significant because If you recall we had a recession in 2008 and 2009 Was when we were developing the budget for 2010 fiscal year And it was a very Difficult Being upon Was continually changing throughout the development of the budget process and I recognized that the governor And lieutenant governor were involved in local government maybe back then because They were very the governor was very quick to propose legislation which was being considered today in the legislature In which I've had some communication with Both our senator and representative about to provide the kind of flexibility That cities and towns did not have back at that time and We need to We would have benefited greatly by having that flexibility Back in 2009. I'm Pleased that we have it now and I would therefore Um urge that we take advantage of that flexibility Um, I also wanted to just comment that in the end we did adopt a budget And it did serve the town for the year of 2010 And we began to rebuild our financial strength after that Um, and uh, we came out of it very strong And I think with the kind of planning Again, we're capable. We know we're capable of I think that we can come out of this strong again Thank you. Are there any other questions from the council? Okay, then I'm gonna make two motions the first one we'll do and then we'll do the vote The first one is move to suspend town council rules of procedure 8.4 Is there a man? Mandy seconds. Okay Then the roll call vote this time. We're going to start with pat See, I learned well from athena Yes Okay, dorsi Yes Lynn greecemer says yes hannity Yes, dorthy pam dorthy pam You're on mute dorthy. Yeah. Yes. I'm now muted. Evan ross Yes, george ryan Yes, kathy shane Yes, steve schreiber Yes, andy steinberg Yes Sarah schwarz Yes chaleney ball millen Yes, and elissa brower Yes, all right, then we're going to move on to the larger motion The larger motion is to grant the exceptions requested by the town manager on march 23rd 2020 Under charter section 5.9 to modify the deadline established in charter section 5.4 a For the airmaid school committee regional school committee and library trustees To submit their proposed adopted budgets for fiscal year 2021 to the town manager from april 1st 2020 to may 1st 2020 And the deadline established in charter section 5.4 b For the town manager to submit a proposed budget for fiscal year 2021 to the town council from may 1st 2020 to june 1st 2020 Due to the extra time needed because of the governor's declaration of a state of emergency related to covet 19 Is there a second Okay, is there any further discussion at this time? Then a roll call vote this time we start with darcy Yes Greecemer says yes hannoky Yes Pam Yes, ross Yes, ryan Yes shone Yes schreiber Yes steinberg Yes schwarz Yes balmille Yes brewer Yes and de angeles Yes Okay We don't have a lot left on this agenda. So let me just go on and say Posted with the agenda tonight are the latest draft of the questions for the school committee Not only do I not personally like group editing, but doing it virtually is just out of the question And so I have asked individual counselors without replying all to send me changes Or requested changes in those questions. I recent that email to you today And ask that you have it back to me by thursday the school committee Is meeting on friday I mean on thursday in the afternoon and at that point after that both Um The school committee chair and I will meet again meet meaning but virtually And spend some more time trying to come up with our final set of questions Are there questions about how we're going to go forward developing this? Yes, paul Alyssa has a question and uh evan has a comment and mandy joe has a question or multiple questions Okay, who is the first one? Alyssa. Alyssa, please go forward Thank you Um, lindos as as lin said she said we we could comment to her individually and I did I see some serious shortcomings in those questions, which I think are partly due to Um an experience at doing questions of this nature for this type of process So I would just like our And I believe she's going to take that into account when she talks with alison. I totally trust that process So I would just like our motion to be rephrased to indicate that we say yep You're doing the questions and the questions will finally be done by lin and alison Not that we quote approve these questions or approve next week's questions because like you said a group editing process isn't going to work I want it to somehow be clear that we're giving you the authority to finish this Not that we are approving that set of questions because that set of questions is something I can't approve And I just want to point out that the motion and vote up here is not tonight that should not have the It's not on the um agenda at this time the if I could follow up then yes Then and actually I would rather we didn't vote at all. I would rather that we say Okay That we by consensus agree That you are undertaking this extra responsibility for us to do with this chair of the school committee Not that we are ever going to approve the set of questions because good luck with that with 13 people plus the school committee members So I would say it's just a report out. I would say it's never a vote. So I would ask you to consider that Okay, thank you Evan you had questions Yeah, uh, so a couple comments actually I'll be that guy Um, so thank you for not doing a virtual group editing first off. I think that would be a nightmare um, just a couple brief comments one is I I understand that the list of questions is probably everything that's on the table right now or everything that's being considered Sort of taken from what everyone submitted. Um, but it's my sincere hope that the final List will be far shorter um I don't know how many candidates we have right now Um, and perhaps the list length could adapt to that But if we had four candidates, you're looking at at least two hours of interviews based on how many questions we have now Um, and and the number of questions is just too long. So I'm hoping we can scale that down Uh, I agree with Alyssa that I think it'd be really tough for us to vote on any particular list of questions without it Turning into a group editing. And so I think that I support the idea of just Voting to empower the president To to come up with a list And the last thing I do want to say is one thing that's made me sort of uncomfortable throughout this whole process Is the fact that we're filling a school committee slot and yet The town council has sort of outsized weight in this just because of our sheer numbers when it comes to actually voting And so anywhere that we can give deference to the school committee And empower them would be useful. And so my personal hope Is that as we go into finalizing questions with you and with, um, Allison, uh, that those questions that were if you have to pare down the number of questions That the questions submitted by school committee members Are prioritized over those that are submitted by counselors because after all this is one of their members Can I yeah I just want to note the cue that uh, we have mandy joe kathy shane darsie demont dorthy Pam And then elissa bro organ mandy joe kathy dorthy Darcy And Darcy Okay, Dorothy and Darcy Okay, and then elissa Okay, so let me just answer a little bit about that in the back, you know And I will make sure next week in the packet you have the full set of documents again, not just the questions But we've made a couple serious efforts To make sure that the school committee feels a level of equal participation with the council even though When the final vote is done. There are 13 of us and only four of them um, the first of those was of to meet with allison and develop the process the second of those was To make sure that as we developed that process and it was up for discussion That the school committee had an equal opportunity to discuss that I actually attended the school committee meeting when we were still meeting in person and There were some suggestions made and we actually incorporated The third was the school committee themselves developed the description of expectations and responsibilities that will appear At did appear in your last packet, but it will appear in the final packet sent out And then finally, um, I let's I think allison and I spent about an hour and a half On the phone on saturday coming up with this latest draft And we've already set a time to talk about that this coming friday So i'm trying she's collecting kind of where the school committee is coming from and i'm collecting where the council is coming from and um, I Think it's very important that we see the school committee as a partner in this process um, mandy joe Yes, thank you. Um I actually went I was one of my questions was how many questions are going to end up on this list because I do agree with evan That this list is way too long. Um For in person if this is going to be presented to the candidates For writing answers that that might be a way to to limit some of the in person questions but I'm going to add my two cents On the list and whether we should vote on it Um, I actually disagree with evan and elissa and I think we should have some say in that Because if we're preying down this list from two pages and 20 some questions to five questions or four questions I think it's important that Since we won't be able to ask any other questions of these candidates That it's important that the council and the school committee I actually do agree on what those four or five are if they become really Small if we do get down to a level like that because you know, we may not agree exactly but but I think we should know Which ones are getting asked and have a say in that Okay Kathy Okay, I'll try not to repeat what's already been said because people brought up some points. Um I will echo that I had already said to comment that this is long I do want to say that I think one of the perspectives that the council should be trying to bring to this And I think it is in a lot of these questions is that this would normally Um be an elected position where people would be facing Questionnaires that league put up and others put up and they would be doing responses So it's not quite the same as this a committee choosing their next member So that's why both perspectives are important And I think I would like to echo what mandages said that I because I think it needs to be paired down having us see and um Have a say or at least have input on What is almost final would be important and I think we had the time to do that Um Darcy Yeah, um, I would agree with mandy joe and kathy that um That it makes sense for us to have some input into the questions And also that uh and agree with everyone that there are too many questions Um, I did wonder and maybe I don't know if I missed something, but I know that Oka always when it's doing this type of thing has Also a list of criteria that will be looked at in making A decision about whom to choose And so I I didn't see that anywhere Of um, you know, what what what the what the two bodies will be Looking at to make their final choices And um and that you know that came to mind in reading the questions because some of the questions Make you wonder. Well, what what is it that the body is getting at here? What is what is the good answer to this question? um and uh I actually Like the fact that there were some questions that seemed to get at having A diversity of voices on the school committee um that would give us an idea That there might be a diversity of voices um, so That was That would be something that I'd be interested in talking about around, you know the questions that we include Thank you. Uh, let me let's hold off on the discussion of criteria until after we Have any other input tonight on the issue of questions. So Dorothy, I believe you're next Yes, I would just like to quote willy loman who says the woods are burning I think we're spending too much time on this. There are much more important things that we should be doing I think that I like the first motion that said that lin and allison should get together and make the list of questions period Okay, and elissa I'll try and be quick since I spoke on this previously following up on the selection criteria I appreciate that you're saying we'll talk about that in another time But I also appreciate what you said earlier about the primacy of the school committee in this discussion They wrote the handout They're having significant influence on the questions And they should indeed as Darcy said be writing the selection criteria so that we know how to interpret the answers The other two items that I was concerned about is that for example the question on the dual language program is entirely inappropriate That's because most of the people who ran for school committee in the last couple of years Didn't have any idea how that process got to the point that it was while they were running when they were going to the league When they were having coffees at people's houses, etc That's something you learn about once you're on the school committee And so I strong I will never vote to say yes to a question like that Which is why I feel much more comfortable saying If you guys disagree with me and you and allison end up going ahead and putting that in I'll do that But I will never vote for a question that's specific because it's entirely inappropriate The other thing in terms of looking forward because of all the other pressures we're under I would really think it would be an excellent idea at this point even though it sounds like more work I think it will actually be less work in the long run if we come up with two alternates One is verbal questions. One is written questions If things get more difficult for people to participate But yet we aren't willing to postpone all together, right because there's obviously a continuum here If we are things get more difficult It may make more sense to ask people to provide written answers In which case the questions could look different while of course bearing in mind that once you start writing essay questions You're going to be preventing some people from participating because in all realities school committee members don't have to write position papers So I think having those two alternatives available to us Even if you just tell us it's verbally if you don't have two separate documents is fine But I think that's really worth considering up front rather than saying Oh, it's three days from now and things have gone wrong So let's go ahead and turn these into written questions because we all know they're not going to be as good if we do it that way Alyssa may I ask a qualifying question about your recommendation? Are you suggesting that there be some questions people are asked to write? And other questions that they will answer verbally I I am suggesting that there could be such a hybrid there could also be a scenario under which We only did written questions and we voted and deliberated based entirely on people not participating Actually verbally participating in their own interview so to speak Just like we do with say, um, you know when when the town council talks about who ochre recommended to them We don't ask those people to participate then at that point in the process looking at a a position a position we may find ourselves in where The candidates are not able to act to To connect up with us, you know, like the problems we had earlier tonight Just to be able to technically be able to move to written questions and answers and then just evaluate that and deliberate based on that But perhaps a hybrid Is the best of both worlds? I don't know But giving ourselves those options early on rather than scrambling to do them two days before the meeting. I think would be really helpful Thank you Kathy you had another question And I'm just trying to echo what I think Dorothy was asking for I think many of us have comments on specific questions and I I don't want to take the time tonight So I just would urge us all to be Very specific in the comments we give to Lynn as she goes into this next iteration and then we come back to the contents and And the possible options for how we do this Interview all right. Thank you Paul are there any other questions? Okay, uh, and if there's no other questions and we're going to move on Uh with the rest of the agenda Um, let me just ask if there's any committees that feel they need to report at this time Evan Please move forward Yeah, just really brief. Oka is going to be meeting on Monday the 30th um, and the primary purpose of that meeting is to develop interview questions for zoning board of appeals Uh, I sent out an email last week asking if any counselors had questions that they wanted to submit I've heard from one counselor so far. No one is required to submit But if you do want to submit questions for the zba interviews If you can do so by end of day friday so I can collate them and oka can discuss them on monday That would be appreciated. Thank you Are there any other committee reports at this time? Mandy joe says no for crc. George says no for gol okay And So let me just tell you our estimated dates for these next meetings Uh community resources the estimated date is april 8th Um the finance committee the estimated date of the next meeting is april 7th Uh for gol It's april 8th For jcpc April 8th, but that could change based on some additional conversation Um out oka is march 30th as just stated and the town services and outreach committee I will be polling for april 6th at 9 30 in the morning Okay, is there any other question on committees? We've done the approval of minutes paul. Do you have any further Things you'd like to report on I think he's probably ready to Hang it up for the day. I have no other comments to any other counselors have other comments or Items that you would like to see on future agendas and let me just mention that next week We have been discussing the possibility of finding hearing a little more about some of the human services And food programs that are out there As an additional feature for the public But if there's additional items, please let me know Darcy has a comment Darcy Yeah Yes, I just wanted to to again repeat that And i'm really glad the town is um Looking more at the possibility of getting public comment through zoom or in some other way at our next meeting and I invite people to look at the north hampton March 16th meeting that they did by zoom the city council meeting and The way they incorporated public comment was it seemed very easy So we could look at something like that. I I would really appreciate it Thank you Darcy In fact the irony is that two or three of our town staff actually looked at the meeting At one point paul was even called on because all of a sudden he showed up as a participant So and the technology we expect to make a decision as a town by tuesday or wednesday of this week And make a decision based on how we can in fact create the best Experience for both the counselors as well as for the public to participate Okay great um anything else counselor comments at this time We have already dealt with the one topic that was less than 48 hours And we have already done an executive session And I believe last week you declared that I was allowed to say the meeting is adjourned Yes The meeting is adjourned. Thank you so much for your time counselors. I I'm working hard to get these meetings down to Fewer hours and thanks for our assistance from both the town staff and from amherst media