 Please terrific. Thank you very much. Welcome to the October 15th select board meeting This meeting is called to order at 6 30 p.m We have a couple of select board members who are going to be a few minutes late But we're going to get started because we have a very full agenda. First of all, are there folks here for public comment? All right first Come forward right both of you together single whatever you want You can comment about anything you want during public comment Just please identify yourself for folks at home. Age Wilder precinct 10 I Had a few comments about the safe and healthy neighborhoods materials that are given out. I presumed to students I was looking through the packet that the select board received for tonight's meeting The there's one It looks like a tri-fold brochure and there are typos throughout it and Grammatical errors and I couldn't take it very seriously because of that. I'm hoping it's just a draft The other thing is I think that one of the big concerns that is not addressed in that pamphlet is mid-term evictions for students As there's enforcement of the nuisance bylaws I'm hoping that students are being made aware of the possibility that they could be evicted and There's the eviction process, but in addition to that there's the Private nuisance state law By which a landlord can trespass a student out of a house for criminal behavior in a very short period of time So I'm hoping the off-campus student housing department or the brochures or something gives students a heads up about that It also there's a statement in one of the brochures that says Tell your neighbors that you're having a party That They may call you before they call the police. I don't think that should even be suggested. I don't think it's the neighbor's Duty to police their neighbors. I think that that just gives the students the idea that they can do whatever they want until the neighbors call The other thing is that I think somehow we need to reframe the idea of a party Because a hundred to three hundred people that you don't know at your house is not a party and So the brochure legitimizes a party and if you let your neighbors know there's a party That's one thing But if you're having a hundred to two hundred three hundred people come that you don't know That's a whole nother issue and that's not even appropriate Thank you very much other folks for public comment And please identify yourself My name Ralph Carlstrom precinct 10 Thank You Ms. O'Keeffe. I submitted last late last week a Document And I just just brave recently like to say that I appreciate you're considering it As as neighbors I think one of the most important things from our point of view that the town manager has done in his term is Institute the safety and healthy neighborhoods program. I think it's a wonderful program We're fully in support and I think it's important that his evaluation reflect his efforts in this area So we've had we've we've drafted a few criteria for the Town manager evaluation that are centered on the self neighborhood issues in the safe and healthy neighborhood Program So I actually would actually if there is going to be discussion of this I'm I don't think now is isn't obviously in the time But I was wondering if there is discussion on this when that's likely to happen Is that it's hard to know that's an untimed item so we'll fit it in when we can during the meeting Okay, I guess I would because I'm going out of town tomorrow So if that discussion is going to take place and if there isn't any urgency in getting it done I would ask that could be postponed on November 5th select board meeting then I could be there for that discussion Okay, I can't know how that discussion Okay, thank you Anyone else? Public comment Okay, then we will do a couple of untimed items some easy ones that we can do without all the select board members here Miss Stein would you like to make the motions on we'll start with the taxi licenses? I Move that the select board Um Whoops, where'd they go? Move approval of a new taxi slash chauffeur license for Edward P. Beaughard of Amherst on behalf of green cab company second For the discussion all in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. I Moved at the select board approve a new taxi chauffeur license For Corey Reinhart of Springfield on behalf of gotta-go taxi second Discussion all in favor say aye. Aye unanimous to absent About common vitulars licenses Do you want to start with you all alcohol licenses? It's at the top sure. I move that the select board approve all alcohol Licenses for each reception scheduled on the following dates and premises of the youth of the UMass Amherst campus Center no, yeah, it should be centered listed below Meredith Schmidt campus center director. So you noticed on that I put in the word center Okay, October 20th 2012 from 6 p.m. To 12 a.m. At the fine arts at fine arts center October 24th 2012 from 5 p.m. To 9 p.m. At Goddell library Bernie Dallas room December 10th 2012 from 4 p.m. To 6 30 p.m. At the fine arts center Second for the discussion all in favor say aye. Aye. Just more on my list I move that the select board approved special wine and malt licenses for each reception scheduled on the following dates and premises of The UMass Amherst campus center listed below Meredith Schmidt campus center director And on October 27th 2012 from 12 p.m. To 4 p.m. At furcullo hall school of education lawn UMass October 27th 2012 from 2 p.m. To 4 p.m. At the Eisenberg school of management atrium UMass October 27th 2012 from 10 a.m. To 5 p.m. At the student union lawn UMass November 10th 2012 from 7 p.m. To 11 p.m. At the fine arts center UMass Second for the discussion, and so I'll just note that actually the word center It shouldn't say campus center in the original part because it's talking about locations all over campus Okay, and that would be the same for both of them. So we're gonna strike that all right further discussion all in favor say aye Three to zero one arriving. All right. Let's see I Move that the select board approve a common victor license for survival centers Incorporated doing business as Amherst survival center 138 Sunderland Road Monday Tuesday and Friday 11 a.m. To 3 p.m. Thursday 11 a.m. To 7 p.m. Cheryl's old executive director pending issuance until any slash all Outstanding town department Regulations have been satisfied Enthusiastically second for the discussion. So this is just noting this is for their new location So they had one at their old location. This is getting them ready for the new one All in favor say aye I move that the select board approve a common victor license for advanced fresh Concepts franchise doing business as AFC stushi at big Y number 46 175 University Drive Monday through Sunday from 9 a.m. To 7 p.m. Aaron liang Manager pending issuance until any slash all outstanding town department regulations have been satisfied Second for the discussion. I'll just note that we typically have new businesses come in to do a little commercial for their new Business for a common Vic. This is not a new business. This is a new offering at big Y that Happens to need a common viturals license. So we didn't make them come in for that But just so people know there is will now be new sushi at big Y All right further discussion all in favor say aye Committee appointments I Move that the select board confirm the town manager's appointments of Laura love it to the Historical Commission with the term to expire June 30th 2013 Judith Moran to the Historical Commission with the term to expire June 30th 2015 and Jim Berset to the leisure services and supplemental Education Commission with the term to expire June 30th 2014 Second for the discussion And we noted in discussion before the meeting the reason that Different committee appointments have different terms as they get staggered so that the seats remain Three-year turnover seats for the ones where that matters For the discussion all in favor say aye I move that the select board approve the appointment of William Stencil of Amherst to the Kanaka Saki sister city committee for Term to expire June 30th 2015 No need to stagger for that committee Second for the discussion. So those appointment letters are already made out Nobody minds if I just cross out that date then rather than having to go through Reissuing them again. All right for the discussion all in favor say aye. Hi 641 couple more minutes What else can we get through here, Mr. Wilde would you like to do the resolution honoring the African-American Revolutionary War Soldiers? Yeah, four minutes you can either explain it and then read it or you could just read it and see what still needs to be explained or Let me try to explain it first what this is about it's an ongoing effort To honor African-Americans who fought in the Revolutionary War as you know in the beginning of commemorative processes in this country There was discrimination for example the daughters the American Revolution didn't want to recognize African-Americans who'd fought in the war for various reasons and so forth That's been largely resolved, but there is no monument to the African-Americans who fought in the Revolutionary War perhaps five thousand several thousand Native Americans also fought on the Patriot side and there was some years ago a proposal to create a monument on the National Mall in Washington For various reasons that didn't come to pass But a group of concerned citizens the descendants of some of these soldiers has attempted to revive that proposal now to find a Parcel somewhere off the Mall. So the idea here is to get towns that Whose residents were part of this effort? to Pass resolutions in favor of such a monument and to express their support for that proposal to their state and national representatives So it's part of a national effort It's taking hold doing quite well in Massachusetts and Connecticut and we were asked this was the best Chooses municipal Association publicized this effort last year and now we're taking action on it and hope that it'll be received favorably It's a very long and complicated resolution. I don't know if you want to read it in its entirety There were apparently two residents of I should correct myself two men who fought on behalf of Amherst and Revolution Some lists to just three. I think the names are duplicated. So there was one who was an Amherst resident Definitely proven and another one is was often the case was a resident from somewhere else who apparently fought in an Amherst unit So we have two particular soldiers here that we would be honoring as part of this larger national effort Would you prefer to read it or would you prefer to just refer to it in the motion? It's so long. I think if you have a copy hand Yeah, I think I'll just read a couple of paragraphs of it, okay Whereas Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut and Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa have introduced s 883 The National Liberty Memorial Act in the US Senate to complete the unfinished business of two decades The construction of an entirely citizen funded national liberty memorial to African-Americans of the Revolutionary War at location in the monumental core of Washington DC and whereas from 1775 to 1783 an estimated 5,000 to 10,000 slaves and free persons served as soldiers marines and patriots in the Revolutionary War in addition to Tens of thousands of men women and children who provided civilian assistance ran away from slavery and petitioned courts and legislators for freedom and Whereas more than 1570 African-Americans served in the Revolutionary War from 194 of 351 municipalities in all 14 counties of Massachusetts and Whereas two African-American soldiers and patriots from Amherst Cesar Pratt and William Ewing participated in the struggle for independence and I'll skip ahead to the end here be it resolved that the select board of the Town of Amherst joins the National Mall Liberty Fund DC the congressional sponsors and original Cosponsors of the National Liberty Memorial Act including Representative Donald Payne of New Jersey and Representative Frank Wolf of Virginia and those who applaud the decision of Congress and President Reagan in 1988 to authorize the predecessor Memorial at a site between the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial and The final passage is then say that we encourage as a volunteer We encourage volunteers to explore the history of African-American Revolutionary participation We urge the Massachusetts Delegations to the US Senate and Congress to support this act And we will pass these recommendations along to our elected officials second Thank you. All right. So we'll consider that to be mr. Wild having made the motion mr. Hayden having second Is there further discussion? I'd like to appreciate mr. Wild's initiative in taking this on Paying attention to this and getting the resolution all ready for us to deal with so thank you very much very well done miss Brewer I would just mention Associated with the motion that you speak into my that it's not a proposed resolution anymore But however, we want to praise it on the actual motion sheet Okay So the it the resolution has been read so right we're kind of skipping the motion part. Okay, all right Red hence moved and seconded for discussion all in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. And that was unanimous. Thank you very much All right. Good timing Our next item is a report from mr. Musanti and the staff team of the safe and healthy neighborhoods initiative We've been getting updates on the safe and healthy neighborhoods activities for many meetings and we have recently instituted a plan to do this the second meeting of every month in Talking about it We decided that a more thorough status report of kind of exactly where each piece of it is right now And what recommended next steps would be would be appropriate for this meeting and so that's what we're going to do Mr. Musanti. Oh, and I'm sorry one more thing There is a great deal of information about this agenda topic available in the select boards packet all of which is on the website So folks who are paying attention at home And let me just give you a little pro tip for if you're using the web packets at home If you click on the part that says the name of the items when you go to the packet file It rearranges everything so it goes in the order that we discussed them Typically at meetings except for the untimed items fall at the very bottom So if you're trying to follow along especially when we have like 40 documents or something That's a good way to make sure they're in the right order So so folks can follow along with all the same information we have mr. Musanti Thank you. That was my introduction So I'm pleased to provide an update I'm joined tonight by several of our key staff who are working With neighborhood residents landlords property owners And each other and the University in particular to take action steps to Stabilize and improve the quality of life in all of our Amherst neighborhoods, but in particular neighborhoods that have been affected With a with a growing number of rental properties the past few months have been marked by I Think a lot of Developments positive action What's clear though from the day-to-day week-to-week experience is that? some of the issues we're confronting are very real and Do not have easy solutions But particularly over the summer and now into the fall We've been able to ramp up our efforts and I want to highlight a few a few of those for you and then Devote several minutes each to reports from our building commissioner Rob Mora health director Julie Fetterman fire chief Tim Nelson police chief Scott Livingstone about Progress reports in their particular areas as it relates to the safe and healthy neighborhoods initiative and then I want to conclude our presentation With a description of some key next steps I think highlights of the progress report very briefly before you hear the a lot of the details There's been a lot of outreach and that's ongoing With with students neighbors rental property managers landlords university officials To talk about Concerns and talk about possible strategies to create some positive change We have ramped up our inspection and code enforcement efforts We hired a Full-time code enforcement officer John Thompson who's also here with us tonight He began with us part-time in the early part of this year and Transition the full time in June and you'll hear from Inspection services how that has translated in to a more responsive An active effort on the part of code enforcement health department Noting Meaningful progress in decreasing but not eliminating the amount of overflowing household trash Postal upholstered furniture discarded mattresses things like that In some problem properties and areas that have been known to be problems in the past Julie can update you on that and other initiatives in the health department Just this past Friday night we began in collaboration coordination with the UMass police department joint patrols and starting with Neighborhoods nearest to the Southwest residential area of the UMass campus Primarily Sunset Phillips fearing Lincoln Avenue, and that's what we hope is a Partnership that we will build on with some meaningful results in deterring inappropriate behavior and increasing our own visibility And lastly just a The university at our urging With their own initiative has updated and created a Report on student conduct in discipline cases Through the dean of students office and vice chancellor associate vice chancellor and coup Goli and there is a community forum Occurring tomorrow night the 16th of October at 6 p.m. In the community room at the UMass police station Pleasant Street and Encouraging members of the community to attend Hear from the dean of students, but also have an opportunity to meet the new UMass Police chief so with that I want to turn it over to staff and we'll hear For about three minutes each or thereabouts plus or minus First Rob more a building commissioner than health fire and police Good evening. I'm gonna be referring to a memo. I sent to mr. In your package along with a expel excel spreadsheet here Basically, we're talking about two things tonight as Progress we are making inspection services complaint tracking and follow-up And some new inspection programs that we've we've initiated here in Amherst Complaints are historically Been filed with the office and very little tracking and follow-up or any evidence of that that I've been able to find So we're really instituting the first program to follow through on inspect on complaints here now and we are working with it to Come up with better online Complaint filing and monitoring from the public But basically what I want to talk about is work that's taking place and some progress we've made since June 1st That's when we really started tracking complaints here From the day they come in through to resolution or or status of where we are at any particular point of the investigation or Compliance process so we've we've recorded 64 complaints combination of zoning or any type of code violation that has been brought to our office and You know as a result we've we've successfully Seen 33 of those through to some sort of a resolution compliance with either the building code health codes or zoning bylaws There are a number of these zoning related cases that take quite a while to resolve and a extensive amount of research and investigation and follow-up before we can get a plan together and and make efforts to work with the property owners and Landlords and managers so we are doing that we are working on that daily And those are those are the ones that fall in the under investigation category They're actively worked on And and we we set timelines and we we check in on those as necessary What we have seen out there Really really required me to think about what are we going to do with some of these properties that we don't get to see? Periodically, and it's not just a complaint response, but we need to start looking at some of these structures For life safety Firescapes as an example the building code requires that they be inspected every five years again No evidence of that being done. So we're we're out there John Thompson and I are working You know checking out the neighborhoods. We started with one one or two areas that we feel we could handle Then the volume of properties that we're looking at at one time and Reaching out to those property owners and making them aware of regulations and their responsibilities and obligations as a property owner So that's going to be what what really builds our periodic inspection program that we are obligated to do under code Or respond to under code now and also really, you know make a difference in these neighborhoods You know from the public view things that you know holes in inciting holes in roofs Like I said fire escapes at the same time. We're able to get some information on some zoning Regulations we have regarding parking of vehicles Most of our zoning complaints that are resolved quickly are parking related. We've issued a couple of citations. It's very new We recently received the ticket information from the police department and Just started that a couple of weeks ago. So we we expect to see that become much more active In fact today, we were discussing a third citation that'll be going out in the morning So I think that It's where we are today We'll do all the all the summaries and then select board can ask questions and Now we'll have Julie Fetterman our health director Good evening. I think I'll refer you to your packet. I know you probably received a number of items Back in January 2010 the health department refocused its priority on our core functions one of which is Responding to housing complaints since that time we've Changed a lot of the ways in which we approach the issue of housing complaints Because one of the only ways the the only way that we get into a property is when someone calls and Makes a complaint about it or is an occupant and invites us in because they have a concern So What we have done is decrease our response time so that we're getting out to all the properties within 24 hours Once we're there We offer tenants a full comprehensive inspection if someone calls about and landlords if someone calls about one issue we're called out on that specific issue, but It's now become our policy that everyone is offered a comprehensive inspection. That's explained to people and While we're there We do our best to educate the occupant and the landlord property manager About what it is exactly we're seeing what the order to correct that we're going to write up is going to include So the education and the process of trying to bring that property into compliance starts the minute we come through the door Another thing that we began it seems funny to think but back in the day We didn't have email contact for all of our properties. So we're collecting all of that information of we've seen that really Increased the communication between inspectors and those folks who are working on the properties So there's a lot of communication flow going back and forth I think that's really contributed to more timely repairs happening in properties You'll also notice That we started partnering with you mouse to do some education of landlords and tenants We also started working closely with the UMass off-campus housing services so that We now have a relationship with then if there are things that we want to post on the website We'll be able to do that They're also coming to us with some ideas and things they're saying seeing in the community because There's staff that UMass off-campus services that works really closely with a lot of the landlords in the area Another thing that we've done is start at the beginning of the semester and at the end of the school year educating tenants and property owners in some of the neighborhoods where there's historically been issues about what our expectations are and what the responsibilities are for occupants and for landlords and We feel we've seen a real decrease in how much appears on the streets in the neighborhoods And so we're continuing to do that annually We're also looking at what other types of initiatives we could come up with were at this point looking in at Looking at move in and move out and how we could make those particular periods of time Be a little cleaner You've all got our living off-campus and Amherst pamphlet. We're kind of excited about this again. We've gone around to Specific neighborhoods where they're historically issues and the feedback we've gotten from landlords and property owners Is that they're really happy that we're doing this and some of them are approaching us now? So that they can get this and give it to their tenants when they sign a lease So there's a lot of communication going back and forth You have an Excel spreadsheet from us too We track all of the complaints that come into our department This is mandated by the state. So we've always done this What's new is now we're going to be noted Documenting what's a rental and what isn't a rental to see What how much of a percentage of our rentals really comprise our complaints? You'll see under action OTC order to correct. That's what the state mandates once a health inspector goes out to a property there We use the state sanitary code and there are certain timetables for every type of Infraction that we find so in order to correct may be written and All the things that were found on the property have to be corrected within 30 days Other more crucial things that may be within five days some things are within 24 hours for instance, no heat no hot water I just wanted to explain to you a little bit what that was So I don't want to take up too much of your time because you've got this big packet and there are several of us Those are the highlights. Thank you very much. Thank you. I ask Chief Tim Nelson update us on fire department Evening Well as we've had you know fall fall when the theme theme here When the big chain change changes for us and has and it's had had a great great effect I think is that I did an addition of a full time It's fire and the inspector to help full focus on those on all on all these problem problems that we've been Talking about and that's in the last year And it's allowed allowed us to kind of kind of make make a team team approach with our with our partner partners here We all go out and see did did different things that did different times Which may be within the purve you have a different department so the team team Approaches a way way to go and we've been you know focusing on You know those call quality of life life life items and Focusing on just general say safe safety And one of the things that one of the big big things that that we do is we want to work with the land land landlords and our tenants because the the first thought thought thought is that we're there to be punitive and that's not really I mean There there there are times where that isn't necessary, but the goal is to gain compliance and Again, we don't want the folks to think that that we're there with the big big big that if we have half How have to well okay, but we want folks to to to comply and let to let them know that we're here We're there to help and it's tough especially especially as we focus on rental Properties most most of those are things single-family family homes and the law Prohibits us without and in invitation to go in and and and and inspect so our and and Entry is through complaints, but we still have to be invited in or as a result of Say a fire in the incident fire alarm or something something like that And we arrive and we see that there is an issue then we can go on go on from from there Or no notify our partners And it's at times it's it's hard to call Quantified what what we we do because you don't because there is the fire that does not happen folks that Don't don't get get her because we've we've been been there and got I've gotten them to comply apply with with with the law and and the code But that doesn't lie the fact that it is is it is quite quite quite effective And it's just a lot a lot a lot a lot of work work left to do Thank you. Thank you. Ask a police chief Scott Livingstone To go next I believe the package you have before you from the police department is a comparison is comparison data a 2011 to 2012 for specific dates those dates being the beginning of July to the current time and Most of them are you know what we have not been used to referring to its quality of life issues so in a nutshell you can see that the The summons enforcement and also the arrest The enforcement for summons is up the arrest are a little bit down slightly Newson's house violations are up a little bit Total substantially with summons is and down a little bit with with the arrest and Usually the reason being for that is the officers are a little reluctant to make arrest on extremely busy evenings Because of the time involved to make those arrests so a lot of it depends on the actual behavior of the students if it really warrants Arrest than regardless of how busy we are they'll go ahead and make those arrests But summons is is the better way to go for us in regards to that Specific to noise complaints and police actions. We've been able to tell it, you know still Only about 15% of noise responses by the police receive punitive action And that's a good thing that means that most of the noise disturbances that we respond to and They're pretty much hold steady anywhere from a thousand to twelve hundred per year Most of those are met with cooperation from the students only about 15% of those responses And all of either arrest summons is or TBL violations That's good news, but Last year was about 10% so it's still low, but it's kind of trending upwards in regards to that so You know, we need to continue to do our Educational initiatives when we can and make sure that the word gets out there with all of our partners that You know certain behavior is not acceptable and be very specific about what type of behavior that is it'll get kids into trouble so Areas we need to continue to work on Out of all the noise disturbances that we've responded to so far this year Only 13 have been repeat offenses. So that's also good news On the other hand, you know, we're still continuing to get pretty consistent stats and the number of actual noise disturbances that we respond to so a lot of that has to do with the changes in the students that are living off campus and Continuing to get the word out there about behavior, which is appropriate which isn't That's about it as far as that specific sheet involving the town quality of life issues, you know areas that we're continuing to work on The officers themselves always do follow-up usually on Monday or Tuesday mornings. They respond to properties that we had issues with and they Kind of greet the students in the mornings or afternoons They're usually different officers than Actually were involved in either the arrest or the summons. These would be day shift officers and say listen You know, there was a response here this weekend, you know, you guys either got arrested or summons Obviously, you're aware of that. Here's what you need to do to make it better. So that's an opportunity for the officers just to Just to talk with the students and stuff and let them know that like look look you messed up But there's ways of fixing it. So that's a continued process that the officers do whenever we have the time to do that So there's always continued follow-up by the officers whenever we can whenever we can do that You know, we continue to work with with the landlords and our initiatives with the campus and community coalition We meet regularly Frequently with a lot of the landlords that live in town, you know, Steve Walzack at Puffton the Jones's Kurt, Sean Boyle, but oh those are continuing dialogues and Most of those people I mentioned are very good landlords and we don't have a lot of issues with their properties Know the campus and community coalition, I think everybody's very aware of the work that we're doing that's continued work in progress We've had some successes last spring specifically and then we took a couple of steps back this fall. So You know, we knew we were in it for the long haul and you know, we're not you know We're gonna keep working on that so My staff we meet weekly all my staff sergeants lieutenants captains just to go over the week's activity Keep everybody abreast on specific properties or issues that we have to deal with and Last but not least the town manager mentioned I wrote around with Chief Horvath this past Friday night for about three hours We wrote around together. I showed them the neighborhoods and the properties that are concerning to us and you know discussed Methods that they could be of assistance to us aside from our mutual patrols areas that we would like to see them Try and concentrate some of their efforts on we had an excellent discussion and we're gonna continue those discussions I think that's about it. All right. Thank you. Great. Thank you and let me talk for a moment about Key next steps, it's clear that the on the ground action the collaboration coordination between the many town departments involved in this effort and with members of the community is is Enhanced and better than it's been in a while, but it's clear that so far at least The results have been mixed and that there is much work that remains to be done To that end and I've outlined this in some detail in my memorandum to the select board in tonight's packet I've invited Several members of the community from a variety of so-called stakeholder groups To work together with me and town staff On what I am calling a safe and healthy neighborhoods working group And it's really to finish the work that's been begun in earnest over the last year or so to develop a specific action action-oriented proposals and specifically In the run-up to annual town meeting This spring this coming spring And bringing back recommendations to me In a couple of key areas That can then be brought forward for consideration By the select board and by Amherst town meeting next spring specifically I want the working group to research Finish the research and the finish the reviewing of programs of residential reg rental regulations Looking at primarily college College towns and I have several such examples that I've gained even in the last week talking to My colleagues from across the country who are college town managers And Bring back recommendations By March 1st to me. It's really focused on eight or nine key areas rental registration itself special permit requirements a A a bona fide pre-inspection program of rental units Coupled with a regular inspection program clear penalties for violations More specific And clear requirements on parking Parking requirements Improved upon language related to exterior maintenance requirements for Rental properties in particular The creation if one doesn't exist already of a property management plan who's in charge of the property and what are the protocols? For contacting the owner of the property And then the development by the owner With review by the town of a property owner response plan about what are the protocols if and when there are complaints that are Code related And otherwise related to the property. So that's That's a very important but doable First task That would have a series of recommendations for action by Springtown meeting a second primary focus of the group will be to look at our current for unrelated persons family definition in our zoning by-law and Develop either Recommendation to retain it as is or develop Proposed amendments to try to improve upon it and having those recommendations Honor before February 1st with the goal also of Having time for those to be reviewed by the planning board and ultimately town meeting in the spring The working group itself I'm envisioning a total of about 15 members I expect to be very active myself in the group. I have asked Dave Zomac our director of conservation and development to chair the group Dave will be my Point point person on this Working group effort and will be speaking for me In the in the work of this of this group I've asked Invited Residential homeowner Phil Jackson to join us Ms. O'Keefe Chair of the select board will participate in this group I have commitment from Sandra Anderson to be the planning board Ongoing planning board liaison on the safe and healthy neighborhoods effort. I have commitments for two possibly three senior University officials to serve John Kennedy vice chancellor for university relations Nancy Bafone Involved with external relations at the university is possibly a third representative and also a Off-campus student tenant that we would like to serve. I'll also be having a a Rental property owner Serving a rental property manager Along with the staff that you've heard from tonight building commissioner health director fire chief police chief as well as Planning director for the town So I want to stop there and Happy to answer any questions you may have thank you very much I'll start with questions from select board. First of all, I'm just going to say that this represents a really major formalizing of the efforts so far and and Step the path to move it forward In some ways and you know, I'm very connected to this myself as someone who lives right on the bitter edge of the university In some ways you kind of hear everything that the staff was saying and you're saying oh my gosh We haven't been tracking this stuff before we haven't been doing this before like why why does this feel so Slow to respond Another way of looking at it is that in fact for 50 years I was just doing some research on this for 50 years the town has been evolving different ways in different responses to To try and deal with again an evolving issue of the university The situation changes all the time personnel changes all the time We've had a dramatic change in personnel at the top levels of pretty much everyone that has spoken tonight Mr. Musanti himself and The last two years have really made such a huge focus and priority of this from the town perspective As you can see from the efforts that the town manager has has devoted to this that I think that This is really Showing the town's commitment to dealing with the facts on the ground as they are right now and getting us much better Prepared for the future so I commend the town manager for his prioritization of this and and and the very excellent Explanations from all the folks who are here tonight. So thank you select board miss Brewer I just have the easiest question first Which is the last item that you were just going through is the item that you emailed us on Saturday And has been added to our online packet, but it's not in fact in front of us tonight Okay, you don't have hard copy Nope Happens when people go on vacation when we occasionally let them go away, but yes that that is the only other item They're referring to we have lots of paper, but we will we had that one too, and I'm sure it's in the online packet So everyone will be able to review it there Other questions or comments from select board for Mr. Musanti or for any of the staff who spoke this reading Yeah, just a quick question. How often are we going to get a formal update if you will about what's going on So that can be a quarterly Report or semi-annual or has that figured out yet? To be determined, but I think at least Monthly if not more frequently particularly the closer we get to spring-town meetings. There's some months that are more important than others The questions or comments from select board It's time. I guess this is for chief Livingstone. Is this new? Behavior by students of throwing beer cans to me that sounds new Is this New in terms of the history of the problems that you have seen this this kind of assault by students on Sports It's new in that it It happens more frequently at less large events that used to be kind of common nationwide it you know sporting riots or Just riots in general it became kind of the norm So I think the last real incident we had was the O3 riot It's new that it's kind of happy to just kind of indiscriminate noise complaints where there doesn't Doesn't necessarily have to be a large number of people. So yeah, that's really concerning. It's concerning to the officers and it's a You know, it's an area that we talk about frequently with our CCC group and when I meet with the dean of students and those are the types of Incidents when we catch people or we've requested some really immediate action from them regards to punitive action And we they've been very responsive to it It's difficult to catch people doing that because they're usually behind something or in a large group So when it does happen, they've been very receptive to punitive action I'll just note that as a trend something that's had a big impact the last couple of years is Social media and so you're dealing with much larger gatherings that occur much more spontaneously And and just keep popping up all over the place because of Facebook and Twitter. So this is when we talk about kind of an evolving Response to these issues. It's because yeah, absolutely more frequently We were being called from the residents who have you know hosted a party of 50 friends and it turns out to be 250 friends because people start texting people. So it's that's common That's common occurrence Other questions or comments from select board Okay, mr. Weber, would you like to comment? I know we had some discussion about whether planning board was gonna comment I don't mean to put you on the spot. I mean to give you an opportunity You can refuse that. Thank you, miss. Okay. Just quickly. I wanted to thank the select board for For taking up this topic tonight and to mr. Musanti and the rest of the town staff for Continuing to pursue it The planning board has been a Sort of a center for public comment on a lot of these issues around zoning especially And it's a larger issue than just zoning obviously So we're thankful to have the you know, it takes a village to solve this problem And and we look forward to helping in any way that we can It will take other public comment at this time You know, mr. Cool, please identify yourself John cool precinct to I just a couple of thoughts and suggestions obviously I strongly believe that you know When when it's possible to catch the offenders Assault an officer. You're out of school. You're out of Amherst. You're out of here And I hope that the other people see that that way Um, secondly, I'd like to comment on the social media aspect of things. It certainly can grow a party It grows it out of control. It grows it out of Context that is we're getting people who don't have any relationship or who are so many times removed from say the party hosts Or the originally intended party attendees that there is no there's a great deal of anonymity Taking place here in no sense of individual responsibility However, I also think that we need to study with some seriousness the ability to put social media to work for us And by that I mean things like if we have What I will roughly call a blitz of enforcement items going on say on a on a first weekend of school or a first particularly Pleasant weather wise weekend of school And if we're putting together all of the tools that we've used throughout time and and New ones as we develop them such as cops and shops patrol of parking lots More response from the university university administrators actually staying on duty At some very ungodly hours. They're learning some things and being a presence there all of these things I suspect are Led themselves if you will however reluctantly to being manipulated by social media in Ways that could benefit us that is if somebody who's taking a case of beer out of a southwest parking lot Gets caught then I expect cell phones all over town light up saying who they're patrolling the parking lots in southwest or if somebody sends an overage friend into a liquor store to buy something and that Gets interdicted then I suspect once again as I say cell phones will light up So as we sit here and talk about social media and how and how it's compounding our problems Let's not forget the ways that we can Perhaps put it to work for us. Thank you very much and for anyone who doesn't know that was my father There's always people who learn this new for the first time and he was the only one raising his hand That's why I called on him. No anyone else like to make public comment at this point Okay, terrific stay tuned because you're going to be hearing a lot more about this Mr. Aiden asked how often we'd report on this There's no issue that I spend more time on then town gown stuff. I talk about it at select board meeting I don't talk about it to quite the whole percentage of time that it that it takes up of mine But this is a major focus of myself of the select board of the town manager I think you'll be hearing more about it then you can stand to hear But I think that this was really critical and and poor mr. Moussanti I'm like a broken record about this and I do this with the University too is People need this information all the information that folks got tonight about what has been going on as part of these efforts Is new information to folks the discipline information from the University and the forum that they're going to have tomorrow night 6 o'clock you mess police station That's new information in the absence of information It's very easy for people to think that nothing is going on they need information to the contrary So so I I hope that this will be part of the town and the University and all of us getting more information out there Because I think that I people need to know and this could not be being taken more seriously than it is and as the chief said Chief of Livingstone said so far our our successes are mixed, but we're we're wholly committed to this So thank you very much. Thank you all for the very good information. Mr. Moussanti. Thank you. Thanks for all coming in tonight Okay Believe it or not. We're actually a little bit ahead of schedule. How did we manage that 728? Let's see what we can do for two minutes here Let's see the select board annual report Yes, I just keep putting that on there till I shame myself into getting it done This is the report that I always during the week I say, you know what that I can just finish up during the weekend and then the weekend comes and I just cannot bring myself to finish the thing So you'll have that soon Did all these things oh, let's note the November 6th election warrant and can't remember if we have a motion to this effect or not We do. Okay. Let's make the motion. We believe we don't need to vote an election warrant, but it can't hurt this time I move that the select board authorized the November 6th 2012 state election warrant as presented Second for the discussion Mr. So interesting stuff this year Stuff about recognized from town meeting indeed and so folks know if you're interested in the warrant that is also in the select board packet It will tomorrow. It will be posted many places and most likely including the town clerk's page on the website So this is the ballot for obviously the presidential election. It also has the text of the different ballot initiative questions on there Further discussion all in favor say hi. Hi. Hi. That's unanimous select board members Please make sure you don't leave without signing that because we really do have to get that posted tomorrow. So We will not sign it now. Okay, 729 is the same as 730. So we will get ready for our 730 item Which is I yes, it's that time again voting in assigning select board positions on town meeting warrant articles We don't have a draft agenda yet And this is typically how this starts that we actually start taking our positions on these articles before they have numbers And that's how this always goes and this is no exception Um, I hope that we will be able to get most if not all of our positions done in three select board meetings But we shall see tonight We have several that are ready for us and we will start with the Community Preservation Act articles And we have both mr. Zomek and mr. Just appear to talk with us about those Good evening, I'll start and then I'm going to turn most of this discussion over to Dave to he can address some of the work in a little bit more detail than I can a lot more detail than I can but these are projects that that The planning department and conservation department been working on diligently and just to provide a little context for this last year at town meeting We voted a two hundred thousand dollar reserve budgeted reserve So we had around two hundred and seventy five or two hundred and seventy six thousand dollars possibly to be allocated Or to be appropriated potentially at fall town meeting ordinarily we make most of our CPA requests at spring town meeting as I'm sure Most of you know, we've done that in order to the extent possible to align with JCPC Desires and and you know give give some sense of continuity to that. However Not all projects line up neatly with the kind of timeline where you'd like to say gee We just have to hold that till spring particularly open space preservation items and things that are being written for grants very often have timelines that are different from that and To and that's really what we're talking about tonight. We're talking about projects that are ready to move forward We we had some sense of that last spring. So what we're going to do is bring forward these three projects for Town meeting this fall. So we the CPA committee has met So we we started our deliberations a little bit earlier than we usually do because we had actual requests in front of us we didn't We concentrated on these three proposals we Heard about them at our first meeting we asked for some additional information at our second meeting we Put mr. Zomek through quite a diligent Process of responding to our requests for more information and responding to all of the criteria that we use in the CPA Committee to help us determine how we might fund fund these Sonya Aldrich was kind enough to meet with the finance director gave us some really great options for funding and we We moved all three of these forward unanimously at our last meeting so there are there are three proposals and I think what I'll do is let I Think I'll let Dave speak to each proposal and when he's done with each proposal I'll make a brief comment about what we moved and how we saw the funds being recommended to town meeting so Thank you very much. I'll be fairly brief I think all of you received Extensive information in your packets including maps. Let me start with the Conservation open space projects We'll all refer to them by the name of the owner. The first one is a about a 20 acre piece of property off of Bay Road Property owners name Richie This is a property and I should preface all of this by saying These projects have been Recommended by the Conservation Commission to the CP AC These are projects that we have been working on for some time as as mr. Jess have mentioned. We actually didn't have Really any significant projects in the spring. So this is a little bit out of sequence, but projects happen They come together and we can't really dictate when they do But both of these projects the Richie and Brunel properties have been on the Open space and recreation plan priority list for many years The Richie property in particular is a 20 acre piece of property up on the Holyoke Range As you know, we have been working with the State Department of Conservation and Recreation the Kestrel Land Trust The Valley Land Fund and a number of other groups to try to preserve the Mount Holyoke Range This is yet one more piece of the puzzle actually one of the larger pieces of the puzzle remaining on the Mount Holyoke Range The landowners have been waiting for a couple of years to do this. We tried a number of different options We tried the APR program We tried working through the federal government and for a number of reasons in particular that we couldn't amass other Properties to bring with this to make it a larger effort This this the property has kind of been on hold So I'm happy to say we've got a solid appraisal It is ready to move forward and we've submitted what's called a land grant We've done these many times before we have an excellent track record This property would provide agricultural land upland forested land which is Habitat for rare and endangered species. It would also afford us Additional access to the Mount Holyoke Range with a small parking area off of Bay Road We've applied to the land grant program. This is a 70 30 match 70 percent from the state Our hope is to know the outcome of that grant before town meeting on November 19th So that's the Ritchie property and the Community Preservation Act committee voted unanimously six to nothing to recommend a hundred and fifty one thousand five hundred dollars to two town meeting Out of a budget to budgeted reserve Thank you questions or comments on the Ritchie property. Mr. Hayden and If before the 19th of November the park grant doesn't get approved or There's definitive action on it that is not approval Well, the excuse me the warrant article is being written in such a way that The grant is a requirement to move forward. So it's contingent upon getting the grant We've done these in a similar fashion many times before Staying with that same theme Slightly smaller project in terms of dollars. We are working with the Brunel family off of potwine lane Again, this is a piece of property About 16 acres off of potwine lane that the family is very interested in protecting and has been on our list for many many years again, we're very directed very Proactive in the way we go after properties. We're not doing this Simply what comes on the market? This is a property that contains habitat for rare and endangered species It's along the Plum Brook and it is part of a much larger protected block of land that mr. West over worked on for many many years and added to town meeting Authorized many acquisitions along the Plum Brook and I'm furthering that work working at the current conservation commission We have a partner in this project as we often try to do is is reach out to our partners In this case the Kestrel land trust is our partner They submitted the grant with the town of Amherst blessing to the state for what's called a partnership grant This is a 50-50 a dollar-for-dollar match Our goal is 163,000 the local map of the local dollars from CPA would be 81 $1,500 so again theme partnerships continuing our efforts to preserve large blocks of protected land and The Community Preservation Act committee voted six to zero unanimously unanimously to recommend the expenditure of $81,500 for the purchase of the Brunel property to town meeting questions about the Brunel property again The grant the warrant article will have a contingency that the grant is received We will not proceed unless that grant is received and we should know by November 19th a slightly different proposal and And my office has been very busy earlier this fall preparing these we As a result of discussions with Variety of staff from the superintendent of public works to to the town manager and our planning staff We as a staff have been looking at the North Common This is the area just outside the front of town hall between the Spring Street lot and the Main Street lot and South Pleasant Street and as many people know if you've walked that area and spent any time out there at the Mary Maple or other events it is an area in town central to the downtown that is in great need of care and Renovation it suffers from overuse compaction Route to route both route damage route exposure lack of any sort of Area for water to move and water to leave the site So we have a lot of erosion happening there in every storm. And so staff took a look at that working together We put together a park grant. This is the same program that we applied for funds for War Memorial Pool It's a 70-30 match and we put together what we think is a very competitive proposal to the park grand folks for approximately $500,000 to Do what's called a design build grant year one of the grant would we would hire a consultant It would be about $50,000 and we would hire a consultant to work with a variety of different stakeholders including The Historical Commission the LSSC Commission The bid has expressed support and interest in this process the Chamber of Commerce Town staff and anyone who cares deeply about downtown and about the common both North Common and Maine Common To participate in a design It'll be about a six month design period if we're successful in getting the grant and we're successful in getting town meeting Support we would begin the design process in January. It would need to be completed by June 30th If the state grants us the money, we would then be in line for the construction money The design would be completed and then one year from June 30th of June 30th 14 We would excuse me 13 or 14. We would need to have the the construction done So that is the North Common Park Grant and the Community Preservation Act Committee voted six to zero to recommend the appropriation of $15,000 from the fund balance and that we would borrow $143,672 That we would recommend that bar borrowing Just as we've done for other CPA funded projects So that would encumber future CPA funds at whatever annual amount As we I think the probably the most widely known Project that was done that way was the athletic fields down on potline where and that actually I think we're coming up on year Seven or eight of ten or something like that. So we we do we'll have Borrowing authorizations that drop off the table and we'll take new ones on it's a way to really stretch our CPA dollars It does restrict us somewhat in the future from you know CPA some CPA appropriations because we have certain encumbered funds that we That we must approve Generally, we would recommend they don't have to be approved from CPA funds But we've always persuaded people that that's an appropriate place to take them from so this is a similar kind of project So that would bring our total recommendations to town meeting this fall of $248,000 the borrowing authorization doesn't count against our CPA appropriations because that only counts in the year when we actually have To make the appropriation to pay for the borrowing So the the fall meeting would would have the option to appropriate $248,000 and we have sufficient amounts in the fund balance to do that Just so folks know we just got a notice from the Department of Revenue this week that our CPA Monies are coming in Virtually identical to what they were last year the the match which I'm not sure matches the proper term when it doesn't actually match But the allocations are at 26% I think John if I saw that if I remember 26.83 or 26.52 or something very very similar to what they were last year So the good news is they haven't gone down. They aren't anywhere near the hundred percent that they were and that probably will be The only match that we get given that we're a one and a half percent Community we probably won't be a second tier level of funding It does give us a chance to plan for Springtown meeting our recommended allocations Thank you questions or comments about the North Common Project mr. Hayden and then that's one thing I appreciate the the all the three presentations you've given to us here to read and I would one note on this North Common Project I particularly appreciate little paragraph about how the public is going to get engaged with this design in between Design and implementation that's that's important. Thanks for looking at me though that information all comes From mr. Zomek Mr. Wilde just a quick question mostly for mr. Jessup could you Explain how the fund would be a portion between the various accounts within CPA? Yes, the first two projects would be Open space Allocations and I think the third one the town common. I think at this point would go would be a portion to historic Renovations all they know is there some portion that might be Open space. I think there's ongoing my understanding is there's ongoing discussion about that We want and we we envision a role for both the historical Commission and the LSSC Commission as our recreation commission To play a part in the design and and the construction if you will the outcome I met with the LSSC Commission last week. They voted to support the The grant and the upcoming warrant article. I believe the historical Commission is meeting tomorrow night I think at 6 p.m. They've Informally discussed the grant. I think our hope is that they would move in terms of a vote tomorrow night In terms of apportionment. I think there's a general sense that a Fair bit of this work is really about historic preservation of the the common And certainly there would be some open space broadly defined open space recreation components People do recreate there. They picnic we hold a number of activities. They're both informal and formal So the LSSC Commission was was on board with that But I think there's a little dialogue that needs to happen perhaps between the two groups as to how the apportionment Takes place. That was my impression. Thank you Questions or comments about North Common Can't remember what meeting I was at with mr. Zomek recently when he was talking about the folks came from the state in relation to the grant for North Common see how viable it was and in fact right before mr. Zomek showed up somebody tripped right over a tree Yeah, the state person wasn't sure if that was a plant, you know to try and persuade I think all three of these proposals demonstrate one of the basic tenants that we've used with for CPA consideration is that We're using this to leverage we like to think of CPA funds as hey We'll give we'll give we'll give we'll recommend it But where are you getting your other money from and how is this helpful to you not we don't we don't usually want to be This sort of the sole source of funds We usually go back group and say hey use this to use this to assure that You've got other sources of funding and these are great examples of it very successful Assuming that we get all these grants great point. All right, miss Burr Please begin to mix it. It's a small thing But for a town meeting when you print all this wonderful information up for town meeting probably worth Reorienting so that these are matching the same way South Pleasants on one end and Boltwood's on the other end It's not confused people All right, miss Stein would you like to make the motions for the CPA articles? Okay, there are three. I move that the select board recommend to the November 19 2012 special town meeting article for CPA open space per nail property Second discussion on favor say aye. Aye. That's unanimous I move that the select board recommend November 19th 2012 special town meeting article for CPA open space reaching property Second for the discussion on favor say aye. Aye. That's unanimous Can I move that the select board recommend November 19th, 2012 special town meeting article for CPA historic preservation North Common? Second discussion. I just want to note on that one that the the balance between historic preservation and other stuff is still being considered And we're calling it historic preservation in this motion, which is okay Point. Thank you For the discussion on favor say aye. Aye. That's unanimous Excellent. Thank you very much. Thank you for coming in. Thank you for all the good information And we still got a couple more warrant articles Number one. We have to take a position on everything. So it's it's on here Even though it's an easy one to hear reports of boards and committees is article one standard nothing dramatic here Miss Stein would like to make that motion. I would but before I do that Do you want to assign the three CPA ones to me since I go to? The CPA meetings would anyone like to fight Miss Stein for doing the CPA We would be very happy if you're to volunteer for this. Okay. I volunteer I just thought I'd try to keep us on track for that. Okay. I move that Would you like me to go ahead for the next article which is a report ports of boards and committees? Yeah, I move that the select board recommend November 19th 2012 special town meeting Article for reports of boards and committees So folks who are following along at home now what we're talking about. This is just a technicality article We have to approve it in order to hear the reports of boards and committees that are not presented That are not presented in written form. So that's what we do Second for the discussion all in favor say aye. Aye. That's unanimous. Okay. Next up transfer funds unpaid bills previous year Mr. Pooler is here I know what this is time. Would you like to speak to article one? I know that you like that one. Sure. I like that one I like the next one too No, well those two anyway, I could do the next Unpaid bills I Am happy to put announced that we have no unpaid bills This is a standard article that we put on the list just in case This Point in time. We have no unpaid bills. So I don't think that we're gonna need to Do anything at town meeting. We'll probably move to dismiss it at that point But that's the status Yeah, so the actually the recommended motion for tonight is to recommend dismissal and then if in fact any such Unpaid bills from a prior year for which we didn't encumber funds We would revisit that at a select board meeting prior to the article being considered at town meeting. Okay, I Thought we just did this motion If there were to be you know saying Yeah, okay, I thought we usually just go ahead and make this motion and then move to dismiss it when there are no None, but we can do it any way you want. Oh, we could say we move to recommend paying unpaid bills If there are any or dismiss it if there aren't That okay, okay, I saw a move Discussion I'm curious, but I'm wondering if this is going to be part of the the consent calendar The even better just sort of one of the articles that should be a candidate for that, right? Yes. Good point Thank you. That's of course. I'm looking at that the response we got from the TMCC on our on our letter mentions that Okay Been moved seconded further discussion we discussed all in favor say aye. Aye. Aye unanimous. Okay next up borrowing for road work Mr. Moring yeah Asked mr. Moring to join me. I believe in your packet. You have a list of specific roads And I will ask mr. Moring to address Which roads are on the list and why I'll speak to the financial aspect of this We went to the JCPC and we presented this item and they voted to recommend This will continue a Program of borrowing for roads that we started a couple of years ago where we borrowed four point five million dollars and major reconstruction We can Use borrowed money to reconstruct roads We can use chapter 90 money to do minor repairs on roads. So when roads really get to a point where You just have to reconstruct them It makes sense to use borrowed money. We then looked at this within the context of our overall borrowing needs and our capacity This will fit in on a 10-year borrowing schedule it will pretty closely within our List of projects that we know From last year we're scheduled for FY 14 if we go to 7% of the tax levy as the amount that we're spending on capital and with that Explanation the JCPC recommended it and then I will turn this over to Gephard Moring to talk about which roads are on the list and why Well, we started this list with three million dollars with the work and then the financial people said no You need to take a little less So we went down to a million dollars So the list actually started out as being all the local minor roads in town that had zero ratings or Zero ratings being on the list and that's how we came up with the first three million dollar lists We kind of grouped the roads together that made sense and working so that we didn't have a contractor come into town We drag them all over town. We kind of had a contractor come in work in an area fix an area and then go to the next area So the list you have starts with Butterfield Terrace and Ends with Thistle Lane to give us a million dollars worth of work And that kind of covers East Hadley Road area Echo Hill North area Echo Hill South And then we have seven hundred thousand dollars will get in chapter 90 and we're proposing to pick the high point area To spend that seven hundred thousand and do the roads in high point area So that's kind of how they came about it there Because it was based on three million dollars to begin with there probably is some room or flexibility if it's so desired to move around We would like to stay with the minor local roads even though some people have expressed concern about that We will we will probably never have to go back To do that work again in 20 years if we do these roads we repair them and then we can concentrate more on the Major roads after that. So that's the thought process behind it. If you have a question Like I said a little bit earlier, but we we did kind of lump the things together because a contractor has a lot of equipment and has to move it around a lot So we wanted to kind of keep the we kept these lumped together in neighborhoods so that we could get the maximum dollar For paving and I have to pay a lot for mobilization Which is moving your equipment around questions and comments for spur Tell us about Mill Lane Everything else I just expect to just get To work properly, but what does it mean that Mill Lane is on the list? Well, Mill Lane only the paved sections are on the list. That's why there's two sections in there Only the paved sections nothing's changing No, but it'd be real easy to change it There's so much gravel on that road from grading it and grading it that it would be It would cost money to pave it. We have to bump something off the list, but we've only on this list We only have the two ends of the road the two paved ends. I Certainly don't want to complain about any list that has my road at the top of it But how mr. Wald's road and my road ended up at the very top of this list Could you speak to that? There's really the two highest paving priorities in town Or does it just show if you serve long enough eventually your route will get paved? Those are the top because we didn't have a neighborhood to stick them in Butterfield terraces Have a neighborhood and neither does old Maggie road old Maggie roads off Highway 63 and so they're just have no neighborhood Okay This time I've said no set JCPC, but I'll say it again. I wish there weren't five cul-de-sacs on there I Understand the proximity and all that but I I think if you look you probably could come up with Some roads that are more important than cul-de-sacs that only serve like three or four houses So it could be minor, but it could be more important or More needed let's say then Then five cul-de-sacs. I Understand the proximity issue You want to comment on that or no like I said we started doing three million dollars and we can't set up for three million So yes, if we wanted to sit down if we want to come with a process for juggling some roads around Anything on your list that has a zero and I don't know if you have a color list like I do I do so you have the red zeros Anything in those red zeros would be fair game and we can put together a program with those and We also have seven hundred thousand in chapter 90 money. So You know, we also would be able to get the high point as I said earlier the whole high point section neighborhood It could be done with that as well So So if I sat down with a map and Approximate square footage and suggested ones that didn't include anything near me. I want to make That I felt Would just have more use I'd feel more comfortable. Is that a possibility? Or I don't think we want to get into select board members making such specific recommendations like that But I think that her point is a good one how help people understand how these things get prioritized So for example, how all these things can be minor local roads And I'll just use my road because I know it well and Mr. Wilds because I don't know it well But I know it a little bit those are important So but just to talk about how they're both so different So like I look at my road and I say okay That's a major connector between North Pleasant Street and East Pleasant Street and Mr. Wilds Road is Just sort of a road that only people who live on it would ever go down there So so how do how does something that's a cul-de-sac and something that leads from here to there end up kind of being equals on this list? Well, they do and they don't you have to pick some we had to pick some point to divide roads up And we actually divided our roads up in the six different classifications of roads So we have major arterials minor arterials major collectors minor collectors Major locals minor locals. That's just the methodology we chose and then based on number of houses on the road number of Connections you can make from the road and what we know for the be the traffic counts We have traffic counts on some roads, but we don't have traffic counts on cul-de-sacs So a cul-de-sac will be low will be minor local because we'll just use the standard formulas are used in planning So many houses so many trips per day. That's the vehicle count Lincoln Avenue comes up a little higher because we actually have traffic counts. Unfortunately. Let's say yes It's a bigger road. So it'll move far farther up the list Your road we really have no traffic counts on so we just count houses and your road becomes a minor local road Because there's not that many houses although. Yes, it's a cut-through for a lot of people who actually are working at the University and University vehicles going back and forth from East pleasant to North pleasant like you say But there was no real traffic count. So you just use the households on it. That's how you got the local minor local Mr. Walz rose definitely It's out in the middle of nowhere. Most people even know where it is when I say something about it but it's right off 63 most people stay on 63 and Just drive right by him and don't even wave So that's kind of how we set the road classifications up there Yes, there could be a road that could flip up one or flip down one some may flip up to we actually did traffic counts and so forth But this is how we kind of set it up Okay So miss Stein, I think you if you have further comment about how it all happens What would be a productive way for her to offer a further comment on that? You know, you don't want to get into slight board members picking which roads are I think any feedback that any member has It would best be funneled through me. I just want to add that I Don't look at it as glass one-third full. I look at it as Our list was well over 20 million two years ago with town meeting support We spent four and a half million dollars just on major roads Reconstruction that allows this conversation tonight to even occur because we're now starting to look at more of the traditional neighborhood streets that if they're done properly Like this we won't have to do paving work for most of them for the next 25 or 30 years And we'll be able to attack that list in a serious way. So the list the long list Which is still Very long is one-third or so shorter in dollars than it was a couple years ago Through the good work of Guilford and his staff and Sandy in the sport of JCPC There's a way to cobble together another million dollars of property tax funded borrowing, but the long-term solution Is not the property tax. This is a supplement to what we hope will be a much larger Annual Distribution from the state government for road road repair and public transit and that debate will be happening in earnest Right after the first of the year in the legislature. And so that coupled with Some local monies where necessary will will allow us to get way down this list sooner rather than later Mr. Walden patient. Yeah, I understand the Steins Postal objections to cul-de-sacs and I think after I thought about after the JCPC meeting, I think I Still come down in favor of what mr. Moring is proposed he and mr. Poole did a very thorough presentation about road types way things are calculated the way they're funded and everything and so The main argument I think is still the most bang for your buck not moving equipment around doing things in place But I think there's another one we could add to that or two actually and one is maybe not fairness But a certain kind of generosity because there are parts of town that perhaps never expect they're going to get these services You know, they watch everything else being improved and not their neighborhood So I think it's in a some way It's it's it's a good statement of our commitment to the community as a whole to address things such as the cul-de-sac The other thing that was about we talked so much about neighborhood quality, you know, it's it's both Demoralizing and a practical problem. I think if you have five nicely paved streets and a cul-de-sac that is terrible You know, if you're talking about property values about communicating and in the sense of caring for neighborhoods quality of life Safe communication and transportation and so forth I think there is an argument to be made for doing the whole neighborhood and not leaving out one street or two streets here So leave you with that. Thank you The questions or comments mr. Hayden. I'm Mr. There's just very quickly. How close does this hue to the last report that we saw? Report before the four million about it. Yes, there was we had I've got it back on my desk at home, and I won't look at it. I'm just gonna depend on you to remind me how close this is to These having been near the top of that near the the second tier on that list They weren't and that's because the big four and a half million dollar project bond We did we concentrated on the major roads and all the minor roads local miners all those are put down the bomb I'm just forgotten about okay when you look at that list that list was created to address the major roadways So the minor locals and the major locals aren't even anywhere close being on that list Okay, this one was meant to be go into the neighborhoods do the minor locals major locals and There is one other thing before you go on when you look at this list if you decide you want to give Comments or suggestions the red zeros are roads that are zeros now This was a six-year plan and the program lets us age the road in the program the computer ages them so The blue zeros weren't zeros this year So the next year they turn to zeros next year later they turn to zeros next year later They can turn to zeros. That's just the computer doing its its process. So they're not really zeros now Although many people will argue with me about that probably So when you look at the red zeros are the ones that are zeros now Anything that's blue is an aged number Because we ran the computer simulation and came up with the simulated OCI's on them just so it's clear Okay. Thank you. Miss Burr Speaking of clarity is there a place where just someone who lives anywhere in town say not on one of those top two roads Wants to look up and say, you know, I wonder where I our street is in this hole Is there a full list like this or is some there's some kind of list like that that people could go look at Say where their street is no, okay Because we do them for particular purposes when we know we do we haven't we haven't been able to put it Online so people can look at it you can the closest you can get to it as you can go to the GIS system And click on the streets in the GIS system and you can see the OCI and that OCI is a little old It's probably about three years old, but you can go and click on your road It'll tell you about the segment of the road It'll tell you when the talent accepted or if it didn't accept it and it'll tell you the all the little information like the Condition index and so forth. That's the only place and that's about three years old that number But it is Anything else then about the borrowing I'll note a point that I don't think was made This is an unusual thing to do for fall time meeting But one of the advantages of doing this now is that We get the money now we can start paving in the spring as opposed to this waiting until next paving season Which wouldn't or the next fiscal season fiscal year that wouldn't begin until July 1st So that gives a head start on some of this work and and it's taking advantage of historically low bar borrowing rates right now That and we think we'll get the most favorable Low bids by timing the bid over the winter. So I think that's really great planning So I hope we can keep doing that kind of thing. Okay. Anything else on this this time? Would you like to make the motion? Sure. I move that the sled for recommend November 19th 2012 special town meeting article Borrowing in for road work And even though you miss the street I care about a second Further discussion all in favor say aye. Aye. That's unanimous Okay, next up solar purchase other towns So warrant article this is something select where it has talked about a couple times as we've dealt with the whole power purchase agreement For the landfill solar agreement A couple months ago at this point And mr. Puller can tell us more about it Thank you this summer when The town signed the power purchase agreement with smart energy We signed an agreement with them for a project that could be up to 4.75 megawatts of power At the time we mentioned that possibility of having alternate sites The idea being that at the landfill we could build An array that is as big as 4.75 megawatts, but for various reasons both for dealing with the neighbors for trying to configure the The site to bring it back from the property lines To deal with some of the environmental concerns Just could configure it optimally. We might want to have a smaller site But we still need and would like to buy 4.75 megawatts of solar power So we've been talking with our same development partners smart energy and blue wave about finding other sites and they have been in the process of Conducting investigations looking at sites in other communities that are within the Womiko district To buy power we have a draft agreement with them that the power We would buy it if it was not coming from Amherst would still be at the same price That's the power we're buying from the landfill. So from a financial point of view. It's the same deal They are in the midst of doing their due diligence and investigating sites and going through investigations with securing options for development with landowners talking with local officials and other communities about doing the development What this article does is gives the town manager the authority to sign A deal for us to buy power from one of those other sites because this is a contract for more than three years Town council has advised that we need town meeting authority So this would go to town meeting it would give the town manager that authority Once we have a deal with a site from another community that is we think a viable site and the right amount of power Then the town manager could go ahead and sign that deal And that is the essence of what this article is about Thank you good explanation So it's kind of part and parcel of what we already did at town meeting that town meeting improve the idea of a long-term contract to buy 4.75 megawatts of solar electricity we're We're gonna try and get as much as we can from the landfill Location and we will try and get The remainder from this other location. So it still is the same contracting authority questions or comments about this, Mr Yeah, I just like to recall at the 4.75 Megawatts Multiplied with a number of sun shiny hours and the efficiency of the solar novel Actually Does not meet the town the municipal load entirely and that's important comes close I remember it did come close, but that's important because we can't be contracting for more than we ourselves would use And that's that's why that's right four and a half is so is important is a real and an important number. That's correct Thank you other questions or comments about this one That's dying would you like to make the motion sure I move that the select board recommend November 19th 2012 special town meeting article multi-year power purchase agreements Second for the discussion Okay, let's let's assign these before we get going here transfer funds unpaid bills. Miss Stein. Did you already take that one? Borrowing for road work should be one of our JCPC people Mr. Wildman Jim do that Just thinking since you are on JCPC contract authority for solar purchase Very good. All right next time we'll have a bunch more articles to deal with thank you It's for if you could ask to make sure that in our next packet. We get the list Lovely chart that shows who's doing Yeah It's a good place that we make notes to ourselves, etc. Yeah, we should only have that when they order we get the order of articles Oh, right time for our 750 item. We're 20 almost 25 minutes late for that. I apologize. I Miss judged how long the the town many more and articles would take um So this is a proposal to form a local historic district study committee in North Amherst again We have a whole bunch of information in our packets about this which is available online And we have mr. Michael hanky here chair of the historical commission to tell us about this recommendation welcome It's great to be here. And one thing I did learn prior to this is that my road Gray Street is probably Above Jim's Road on that list at least I can rest assured of that at this point Not that anything's gonna happen there, but you've been here before With a local historical district study committee and you've appointed one before for the Emily Dickinson district there are a number of districts that the Commission would like to see studied and Residents from North Amherst came forward in mass to the historical Commission and Asked us to move this forward. So there's some momentum in North Amherst I think Amherst in general certain neighborhoods feel threatened the historic fabric is threatened the sense of a neighborhood is threatened And I think residents are starting to see that the only way to put some controls on this is By using local historic districts North Amherst is a national register district We're all very familiar with it. It was called the dirty hands district for a reason. There are mills and streams and other Other remains of the historical the industrial past of Amherst in that location as well as the town center of North Amherst Which has the the church the North Congregational Church the library the school There are a number of other important houses in the district. So the historical Commission Supported this unanimously We'd like to ask the select board to appoint to consider and appoint a local historical district study committee now In the in the paperwork, you'll note that that the existing local historic district study committee could Continue on with this. I'm not sure that's That they want to but But they could There are certain restrictions. You have to start with a list of nominees which are from specific Groups most notably the American Institute of Architects obviously an architect two nominees from the Board of Realtors And the local historical Society and then failing to get nominees from from that group. There are a lot of other choices local historical Commission members architectural historians landscape architects and on and on Also, I think there is expertise in the neighborhood Some of the people have brought this forward to us have done quite a bit of work In fact, they are one of the residents of the area is publishing a book of historic photographs of North Amherst So I think there is there's a potential to garner some participants from from North Amherst so Basically the select board would have to appoint these individuals and then these individuals would form the committee the study committee And then they would take the time required to figure out the boundaries of the district to canvas property owners in the district And to figure out if there's enough support to move this forward to town meeting essentially and that's basically it Thank you very much. So this is the whole process. Mr. He described is prescribed by state law So this is as noted exactly what we just went through with the Dickinson district that we the select board Established the study committee. It did its whole public process did all the applications for the the different seats on the committee Etc did great amounts of study and then was ready to bring it forward. So we would be looking at something roughly like that again And does anybody else want to have questions or comments about this issue? I'm a little I'm a little concerned about the characterization of a local historic district as being the only way to control certain things within a community and That's just not the way I felt that we talked about the local historic district the last time So obviously as it plays out through, you know, through its reality I Would not at this point vote against establishing one because of that Comment, but I just I worry that that's Considered the be all this is a be all end all of something which it's not it's only one tool and I wonder if maybe Jim from this as a historic Commission person or Mr. Henke wanted to elaborate on that a little bit more just for the viewing public as well as kind of reminding all of us Because at this point where we are of course with our previous historic district is that we still have not been able to obtain the Full range of membership of the actual Ongoing committee as we had hoped you know we went through all the work We set it up the original committee did all the work it went through all the steps And now we're still struggling to find the range of people to participate in the actual ongoing work of the committee So starting another one feels a little Resource intense to me at this point I have no idea how we could possibly find staff time to support another committee at this time But I don't want to deny the fact that you know, this is what people can do This is great. They can go through this process So I guess I just like a little more context before we go ahead and Mr. Walden I can speak to some of that maybe in reverse order starting with the last We were actually you know, we're getting to the point where we can go ahead and establish the Local district Commission for the Dickinson district. We have a number as you know a number of citizen application forms are in We have the required ones from the obligatory groups and so I think and we're looking for somewhere at large members So this is an opportunity to say to the public also if people are interested in applying They should by all means do so and sooner rather than later but we had I had a long discussion with mr. Malloy this morning and We had been keeping in touch from the conclusion of the district Creation at the end of town meeting So his thought and the Historical Commission has thought as mr. Hank you can explain was that they wouldn't bring this forward till the Dickinson One is about ready to go. So he has if he has the confidence that he can handle it then I'm not worried about that Miss Brewer's point again, Mr. Hank you may address this to I imagine but Miss Brewer's point about Use of local historic districts to control things as well taken I think but you know One of the arguments in the case of the Dickinson district was that the direction seemed to be coming from town and not from residence It came from the town because it's mandated by the Amherst preservation plan Which town meeting funded and by the master plan and it's a standard preservation tool across the country embodied in the state and federal law In this case as mr. Hank you's pointed out the demand came from residence So that by the standards that the argument we had should be a plus But I think what mr. Brewer is getting at is that we don't want to confuse Certain things or to try to use the wrong tools for the wrong job So as we've seen tonight and before there's been a great deal of discussion Amherst about neighborhood quality About zoning about rentals and things like that and a local historic district is not going to solve that problem And as mr. Henke has said at the meetings before it's it's not it's not going to and it shouldn't be used for that way but There are historic resources that are jeopardized by development and it makes sense in a certain way I think that given given that north Amherst is the focus of redevelopment to put these kind of measures in place especially when we didn't manage to pass the Village Center rezoning which would have imposed other controls on design and Form-based codes and so forth More generally though, I think anywhere that has already been designated as a national register district That is it's an honorific, but it signifies that it's met a high National standard for historical significance is worthy of consideration for Local district status again just for the public viewing this We really have no tools to prevent right now outright demolition or wholesale inappropriate modification of historic structures We have the demolition delay law, but once it expires then that's The owner can do as he or she wishes the local historic district would put some Put some teeth behind the desire to preserve and to maintain the character But again not to be confused with zoning and with attempts to address social problems We've been we've been very popular this year at the historical commission. I usually were very lonely and We're I feel like Humphrey Bogart when I had those letters of transit, you know He says I'm never as lonely as long as I have these letters of transit Well, I think in general to address miss Bruce point a local historic district Cannot solve the problems as Jim was saying but it really targets areas that have considerable historic fabric That is important to the town. We've been getting pressure from neighborhood groups The Sunset and Lincoln Avenue area They're really concerned about the historic fabric of their neighborhood. I know there's a movement there amongst residents That's very strong about us about starting a study committee for that group In that particular case It's easy to point to the historic fabric in that neighborhood gonna be a little more difficult to North Amherst because the bigger area So the study committee is gonna have its work cut out for it But it's really targeting areas with a lot of historic fabric. That's what it's meant for The local historic district will never be an umbrella for the whole town It's really it really has to focus on specific areas in the case of the Emily Dickinson district. I mean, it was it was a natural So we we have a good understanding. We understand what you're saying and Our charge at the historical district is the historical Commission is to preserve as much of that historic fabric as we can and at times we feel very frustrated I know residents have been frustrated recently With some of the with some of the events going on with the demolitions So I think this is going to become more and more important as time goes on because some of our downtown neighborhoods rich in historic fabric are being threatened Hi, thank you. Anyone from the public looking to comment on this issue this home Please come forward and please identify yourself. Hi, I'm Pat Holland and I live on Montague Road Along with my neighbors. I've been very supportive of Holding this forming this district a historic district and I'd like to just share A book that I've just published. It's it won't be out officially till next month but this is in this series of Old pictures of both North Amherst and Cushman in this case and so I hope that this would be helpful to people on the committee to Pick out some of the the houses that really should be preserved The other thing I just wanted to say is that we ourselves don't have very strong feelings about The exact extent of this district It could go all the way up to the northern boundary and all the way down to Say UMass that would be a long way But I think one of the things I And several of us feel strongly about is that include places like summer street that really are As in Cushman wonderful examples of working class housing And have been there for a long time and really give you the feel of what it used to be like there and Then in part of summer street toward Montague Road You see the houses the rather bigger houses of the business owners For that area too, and then you get over to Montague Road and somewhat grander yet So I think it's not just preserving elegant old houses It's preserving ordinary people's houses too that we really want to emphasize But how you do that and how much space you take that's what I think the study committee would have to figure out Thank you. Congratulations on your book very exciting. We'll look forward to your signing party. I Just like to mention the difficulty in filling some of the slots on on a local historic district a Commission is the fact that practicing architects in town and realtors are barred from doing work in the district They serve on the commission so that is a problem that has to be solved Fortunately, you can move beyond if you cannot find those people you can certainly find other town residents with expertise That could serve on the commission Thank you. All right other public comment on this All right, miss time. We'd like to make the motion I'm sorry Mr. Mishanti was gonna suggest In on the motion sheet that the word Recommend nominees be changed to solicit nominees because that's the next step in this statutory process is Soliciting candidates not because it's not a list of names to be approved tonight The other piece of it, okay, maybe I should try and make the motion and then Okay So I move that we solicit nominees for appointment to a local historic district study committee for the area in North Amherst surrounding the existing National Historic Register District as attached and that's the part that's attached It's the map that we're referring to the charge which because we have such a well organized office now From the previous local Historic District Study Committee is also in our packet therefore also online and we could just fix it up a little to show that the charge does not expire in the past But in the future and that it would include special municipal employee status and That it's for that North Amherst area as defined You're getting ahead of us here. So we've got the motion Well, but we can't say you want to add the charge. I mean we can solicit appointees to something that doesn't exist Okay, so I'm sorry. So you were still making the motion. Yeah, okay. What I'm saying is it's really more than a The motion was perhaps Miswritten in terms of getting a little ahead of itself because we obviously can't recommend nominees if we haven't yet solicited them Right. Also, we can't really solicit them very effectively if we don't have any idea what they're going to do And so arguably the committee charge is just reflecting the longer documentation that we have from the state Okay, so how However, you might like to break that up that makes sense in a way to you but that we could solicit nominees and And also the charge, you know the charge that's in the packet I think that the first thing we're doing is we're voting to establish a local Historic District Study Committee Arguably, that is true approving the charge soliciting membership as Described I think voting to establish is really the key first step. I agree Mr. Walton just gonna say you know, I think Since I was here to ask you to create the first one post many years ago I think the reference to mass general law 40c is adequate as far as the charge goes because it is this okay Said it is all part of state laws. So That I think is covered at least in this old appointment charge old charge So what we could say is to establish under MGL chapter 40c a Local Historic District Study Committee for the area in North Amherst surrounding the existing National Historic Register district As shown on the attached map and the solicit Members there are going to separate motion. We don't even have you know, frankly, we don't even have to say Mass general yeah, yeah, okay Second Back to the beginning. Let's want to point out that there are two municipal buildings that are within this district And I don't know how the rules would apply to them But the current districts rules would make upgrading these things to handicapped Buildings which were required to do if we do any modifications more expensive than otherwise. So Maybe maybe not. I mean the law does make allowances for things such as Handicapped access solar panels things like that. It's mostly has to do with reciting rather than different materials Doesn't determine whether or not we establish the committee, right? Okay, very good for the discussion all in favor say hi That was unanimous. Thank you very much. Thank you very much So to clarify that it's my understanding that moving forward the office upstairs in concert with the planning staff We'll go ahead and go through the same steps that we did before which are so carefully outlined here And we'll start to solicit those people and then those will come back. That's the next time It'll come back to select board is when those nominees are available, right? Okay, thank you very much for coming in moving on it is Getting later by the minute. All right. It's 831 and we are late for our 805 item now 805 item is something we announced the last meeting that we would talk about this meeting proposal to set 7 p.m As a start time for fall town meeting. This is something that the select board has discussed Various times in the past town meeting coordinating committee did solicit a survey among town meeting members When they did that they got like exactly 50% Yes, no exactly And like one person said they didn't care or something like that But even that was a small sample of town meeting members. It was about 96 I think if I remember 91 if I remember correctly, but something like that So so here is why I'm thinking that this is a good time to do it first of all This fall town meeting starts much later than usual typically we start the first Monday in November this time we start the third Monday in November because of the Presidential election followed by the Veterans Day observance So we weren't able to start until Monday plus there were Wednesday issues there With the availability of the odd trim so we're starting on November 19th We only meet one day that week because of Thanksgiving being Thursday Nobody wants to meet the night before Thanksgiving so then we will meet the following Monday and Wednesday and then Mondays and Wednesdays thereafter as necessary This is obviously a very busy time of year for folks between Thanksgiving and Christmas and Hanukkah and everything going on then So To get that much of people's time and attention is going to be difficult And we want to finish as soon as possible because we actually have to the the FY 13 parts of the warrant finish our FY 13 budget and need to be Given to DOR Department of Revenue so that they can finalize our what's the word that's not finalized That's what our tax our Tax recap sheet which is the document we submit to get an approved tax rate So so this is part of the end of year Dealing that the town has to do and so that typically happens in early December. So anyway the longer we push this the the the more complicated everything gets so Additionally while our warrant is currently about 20 ish 21 articles Some of those might go away before that it we sign it. It's very dense These are not, you know, 20 simple articles. These are 21 fairly dense articles So I'm very concerned about the timing I Think that this is a good time to give this a try. It doesn't mean we'll do it forever We'll see how people feel about it how they react to it. It might be positive. It might be negative if it's positive it has the potential to Shorten not just our fall town meetings But our spring town meetings our spring town meetings which go on for typically, you know between six and twelve nights It's been a while since it's been 12 But you know, it's a much higher number of nights to add that extra half an hour's worth of potential time on to Each session actually has the potential to reduce the number of sessions that we have to go at all Which is a huge time saver for very many reasons, but it's also a very It's a greener option when you think of the hundred plus, you know cars that make the round trip to town meeting For every session. It just seems like here's a way that we can make a difference here Furthermore, I don't think that this is a really Dramatic change to put on people It's not like we were saying to push it the other way to push it to eight o'clock Which would have a big effect on people the fact is if we push it if we move it up to seven o'clock We cannot start town meeting before a quorum's worth of members arrive The the majority of town meeting will indicate their feeling on the start time based on when they show up So so I don't think we're forcing anything on anybody We're enabling them to take advantage of starting a half an hour early. So that's my pitch Miss Stein Okay, I was gonna say tonight that I really am not in favor of this Because I'm we have finally reached the point where younger people are Beginning to show up as town meeting members and I believe that the earlier time would be hard on them However, I think you raised some good issues for a trial and if we then have town meeting vote again, I Would be willing to go along with it for this next time For the reasons you stated I I think they are good reasons I am concerned about the effect on younger people and I think it will be Extremely aggravating if we are there at seven and then people don't get there till a quarter of eight anyway That's not the way I'd like them to vote. I'd like them to make a real vote The other thing I worry about is the impact on us having to be there at six for a select board meetings I mean truthfully I find it hard to To get my ducks in a row so I can be there at 6 30 and 6 seems not much works but I'm game for trying it once if town meeting gets to vote after it's done Whether they want to continue at 7 or go back to 7 30 because that would give the younger folks a chance to To weigh in or the elders. I mean they also may not want to get there that early That's my thing What was there a hand over here for part of Mr. Wall? Yeah, I take Ms. Stein's concerns very seriously Because I think one of the things we need is a more diverse town meeting diverse measured by age among other things But I think it's a it's an experiment worth trying out And I mean it could actually work the other way because one of the complaints we have from people about town meeting is it Takes an hour and long who has time for that especially younger people with families don't and so if as miss O'Keefe suggesting this works out and produces a reduced a slimmed down town meeting That might make it more attractive to younger people people with children and so forth But we won't know unless we try And as it turns out there is not one time that all young families put their children to bed And so therefore there are people in very Anecdotally that have decided that think that in fact the earlier time will work better for them because then they'll just be gone You know and the rest of the bedtime preparations will happen after they've left or etc So it's actually not quite as cut and dried or obvious as it might seem as to whether or not It's easier or harder for people with particular age children to do that again pointing to the perhaps fewer nights The other thing is we have not discussed the six o'clock start time at all We've only talked about seven o'clock start time for town meeting. So let's not conflate the two and let's talk about that I am extrapolate however We do usually meet So I didn't think it was an unreasonable extrapolation keep meeting at 6 30 just talk really fast We don't always meet beforehand exactly I I'm going to support Support this. I mean there are lots of good considerations Maybe the most important one though is that We see that there's there's a way to do it better. We don't know how to get to that better Which is to say fewer sessions? I would stop short of suggesting that we change the time to 7 o'clock Saturday morning and finish when we finish some other towns do that And also have trouble getting quorums, but I think this is a good thing to try and at least it The worst it could do is get people to comment to step up and say well, you know I was not one of the 91 people who responded yay or the other 91 who's responded nay But here is what why this is important or stupid as far as I'm concerned I rather like the idea. You know that adds a half an hour, which is you know sort of a quarter of a session Something like that every time Um, all right, so shall we vote to to oh, I'm sorry public comment first anybody want to comment on starting at 7 o'clock Okay So let's vote to start. I move that the select board Agreed to begin the special town meeting Scheduled November 19th 2012 at 7 p.m Second discussion mistake. Just want to appreciate the TMCC for getting that survey out and maybe Suggesting that they do another one during town meeting to see how it's working For the discussion all in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. It's unanimous Okay, seven o'clock fall town meeting very exciting 815 item FY 14 budget policy guidelines discussion. All right in your packets. You have a document that is a plan for how to proceed with our budget guidelines discussion and a and the guidelines from That from the current year that we are working from Here we go Okay, so my proposal is that we proceed similarly to how we have done this in recent years We do this over a couple of different nights at the top is bullet points suggesting The timeline we're doing this slightly later than we usually do because we skipped our October 1st meeting because this basically Would have been the only thing we had to talk about And with the whole town meeting starting later all of our whole fall schedule is just just slightly off So my recommendation is that we tonight review the FY 13 guidelines to consider whether we want to keep Revise or delete any of them and also offer any new guidelines that Ideas that we have at this point at next week's meeting We would then have a working draft of what would be this year's potential guidelines And we would take public comment on that at that time We would consider revising accordingly also based on any new thoughts that we might have in the meantime And we would have a similar discussion on November 5th And we would either decide that we were prepared to Approve them at that time or else that we would be waiting until November 19th. How does that schedule feel to folks? So this is what we've been doing in recent years trying to have kind of a focused discussion about this each time So that we know what we're talking about. Okay, so if there are no objections to the schedule So as I said, this is kind of a two-part discussion So we'll start with the first part which is simply reviewing the guidelines that we currently have for this year Much like the town manager's goals This is a this is an iterative Conversation and process that we've been going through for a couple of years now and we spend increasingly I was gonna say spend increasingly less time though. That's not true We we look at these differently every year. We we have been using sort of roughly the same Budget policy guidelines but tweaked as appropriate to the circumstances of each year And we've been putting putting a lot of time into these So I think the wording is pretty good and expressing kind of generally where we want to be As with last year And the previous year that first paragraph the overall philosophy I would suggest that we kind of leave that alone for now because that is something that will That will sort of come organically from the discussions that we're gonna have tonight and over the next couple of nights So we don't need to talk about what our philosophy is our philosophy will sort of identify itself as we go forward So it's really about all of the ones that come after that. So so let's start with the expense Reduction goal and see if anyone has any comments on that so Read this quickly for folks at home. Although this document is also online So like we're continues to support appropriate regionalization and reorganization when such initiatives would reduce costs and realize Efficiencies we also continue to support reassigning services outside of the general fund where Responsible and with due consideration of the implications of funding loss mindful of sections blah blah blah of the town's financial policy guidelines Financial management policies and objectives We support green initiatives for their short and long-term potential to reduce costs and we appreciate The benefit of predictable power costs provided by a comprehensive solar project We consider the negotiation of labor contracts that the town can afford and sustain to be of highest priority because salaries and benefits are such A significant portion of the budget. This is all about expense reduction elements this time It also mentions funding loss. I'm not sure frankly when I look at the budget guidelines where to bring up the CDBG loss but it seems to me that Funding loss might be the place it might have come in the first paragraph as well where we added Last year the expenses from the War Memorial pool, but I do think it's an issue We need to discuss in terms of the budget policy guidelines I think it's the biggest issue for the budget policy guidelines So I'd like to leave that to the end. So if we can kind of do the easier part first the end of this discussion tonight I mean not the end of the whole process So so specifically about this part of this paragraph on expense reduction Leaving aside the CDBG possibility at this point The one thing that I was thinking is if if there's a way to emphasize in here more progress on the regionalization issue the This is feeling a little bit stalled right now particularly with regard to emergency dispatch At the same time we're talking about FY 14. So do you think that there is going to be There's going to be progress before that such that the FY 14 doesn't need to identify that or maybe could still reference that generally I would leave it in because the progress Could quite likely influence FY 14 budget recommendations So adding a concept of looking for for progress Okay, so how do folks feel about that kind of specifying that we're that we're looking for kind of real concrete things to happen And I can work up wording, you know draft wording on that to see what we think for next meeting Yeah, just with obviously the comment that we haven't been specific in the past And so the question is if we want to be specific about that and what other things might we want to be specific about We don't talk about We say a comprehensive solar project, which I guess to speak a little bit louder I guess comprehensive solar project is about as specific as we may need to get but if I think you Calling out that it's emergency dispatch. I think it's worth doing for people. Okay Other thoughts on expense reduction paragraph mr. Hayden. We of course Leave out a whole range of other things that we might consider for reducing expenses you know buying cheaper paper and painting things less often and likes of that I I'm generally comfortable with that because that's That's a that's a part of the evaluation that we're looking for that there But I just wanted to note that Okay, so you're saying You don't think that that's covered. Well, this this is you know picks up It picks up the labor negotiations the big one it picks up regionalization, which is the most promising one right now But you know, there are thousands of other little items like you know, it's We have been very successful even though it's not in here reducing our expenses on energy for instance Not because of a green initiative but because of Stephanie's efforts, you know Doing things with controls doing things with the air conditioning system at the police department, you know That's not here It's okay As long as we understand that it's being done successfully I don't know if that needs to be here as a result, but I just want to remind us of that. Okay. Um, yeah I so you're saying efficiency is more in general So not just ones that are associated with reorganization or regionalization, but right I mean that's to always be looking for better cheaper ways to deliver services, right and save money. Okay. Yep Okay I was just kind of say sort of the same thing except looking at different vendors for different kinds of Products, okay power would be one, but there are others I'm not promoting one or the other Just so that we do things the least expensive way possible Okay, so if if it seems appropriate to use examples I will without getting into what we always talk about kind of the what and not the how So but if that's illustrative, so okay, I'll get I'll give one example I mean, it's just really specific, but we've done well to recommend buying drugs from Canada as a part of our policy and But then I looked at when I was going to buy a drug for my husband, I found that the Canadian price was More than it was with my insurance. So that's what I mean. Let's Not assume that's because it's coming from Canada. It's cheaper Let's continue to make price comparisons and you know, that's just one teeny example There may be other ways to purchase from larger sub, you know more Economies scale and agreements aggregates that sort of thing. I'm not promoting one thing or the other Okay, I'm lost about adding to and improving this paragraph Okay, I will work up some language on that and get back to you on it next week economic development So this is going to be this is going to have specifics that are related to this year as far as numbers We recognize our most reliable revenue sources property tax and growing our property tax base in net positive ways is critical We strongly support Pursuing responsible and appropriate expansion of our commercial sector which currently stands at 9.7% We strongly support expansion of the tax base in accordance with the community's goals as expressed in the master plan We strongly support solar power generation and other green initiatives as opportunities for economic development It's important to clearly articulate to the select board and the wider community the cost-benefit analysis of such pursuits As well as their consistency with the master plan number will need to be updated probably on the 9.7% Other thoughts about I'm Developing thought I'm going to apologize that it's not quite Cohered The net that the idea of net positive There's there's so much crammed into that And I want to be mindful, but I don't have a suggestion yet How to put it down in the print I want to be mindful that It's really easy to grow The the value of our properties There's a certain conversion process that's going on that has has been a very positive influence in the value of property So I know because mine got evaluated up as a result But whether or not that's in that positive is is still a curious it also doesn't grow our tax base So the the tax levy is what it is and the tax base is what it is Individual I did I'm just I know you understand this I'm taking this opportunity to make sure that people aren't confused by what you said Individual evaluations don't they don't make the pie bigger. They just redistribute right the pie Yeah, just just want to be a little careful with that net positive, and I don't know if If we need to expand our conversation on that or add words here or if we could just let it be understood That That you know that positive economic net positive is not always financial or not in every way Financial right so I think we had this conversation last year But if you think it still isn't clear enough then we can work on new words We wanted to incorporate the idea that the bottom line economic improvement isn't the only factor You know so you could create a you know stick a prison You know in South Amherst and that would grow our tax base, but it's not in a net positive way So we were trying to kind of incorporate those elements But so keep thinking about it and see how you feel about it and we can revisit it Okay, anything else on that paragraph at the moment as we're thinking Okay We'll look at the other revenue paragraph We continue to support the pursuit of new revenue through expanded arrangements with the university and colleges We support regular evaluation of service fees for possible increase We also continue to support advocating for state legislation that improves local taxation options Increases aid to Amherst or mitigates onerous mandated costs Additionally, we support advocating for increased state revenues such as more progressive taxation including higher income tax in order to increase Funds available for local aid to all communities as per relevant sections of the town's management policies Yeah, I think this might be the appropriate place to insert some reference to Sustaining some are all of our CDBG funding primarily serving low and moderate-income people and My broken record is infrastructure Financing and regional transit funding, which is a very big legislative debate in the first three or four months of 2013 that we need to be Continue to be active participants in Say that again what that what advocating for infrastructure and trans advocating for a long-term, but I mean what does that have to do with the sustaining funding for human service It's a it's a it's a separate type of new revenue for a different purpose Okay, that we're not coming here next fall with a property tax funded bond issue for roads as opposed to some other broad-based state revenue That might be more appropriately Structured as a more equitable way to pay for road maintenance. Okay, so by you're saying that part of part of and The conversation about CDBG is going to be bigger and still I'm going to try and push it off until we're done with these paragraphs But you're saying the relationship there is if you're not spending money in the various ways We're spending it right now because we have to spend it this way because the state isn't giving us enough money Then we would have more money to be able to put towards things like that Towards the human service agencies so through more aggressive everything right including that right, okay? Okay, so so this is about being specific about infrastructure really seeking In particular the infrastructure and transit is because this is Because this is where we're talking about advocating with state legislation, etc Which we've been pretty effective with in the past the things we've been advocating for and this is clearly where MMA and the State government is paying attention to right now. So this is a place there. We should definitely put our efforts. Okay, Miss Stein Okay, I wondered This is specific, but it crosses my mind under this paragraph, okay? I wonder if it's time to read them and the rates the University and the colleges pay for Amazon service I'm thinking about the fact that It's been a while and I don't know what they've gone up I'm just thinking that they are quite a dream on the town to the point that we have to call neighboring ambulances on weekends and I don't know if that's a possible grounds for for reorgant for renegotiation Just a thought We have a one-year extension in process for our strategic partnership agreement with the university and a large part of that agreement is a Payment to the town for the Based on a formula for the calculated university share Providing EMS services so that escalates with an annual cap on it Based upon call volume and other factors So that agreement Will be up for renegotiation and extension over the first half of calendar 13 Okay, thank you. So that was originally a three-year contract. Was it three years? I guess couldn't be more than three years Yes, I think it was two done. No, it was a it was a five-year five-year agreement So is that where you're allowed to do more than five years? I was thinking it was three years It is three but the It's not a contract, right Okay Not a contract. That's right. It's an agreement But anyway, so it was a five-year one that that expired So that that was under all the original terms from when select board five years ago talked about pushing this idea of the of the reimbursements for the emergency services due to the change in Leadership at the university. It didn't make any sense to renegotiate that with the interim person Yeah, oh, yes, absolutely. And that's Mr. Miss Ante and I have talked about other things that you might be able to include in the strategic partnership agreement, you know It's kind of limited to some specific stuff Public safety issues and water issues and maybe if you think more broadly about what the campus represents in the community You can add to that so Yes, that is a good priority. So maybe that can we can call that out as as Critical part of that other new revenue paragraph will note the importance of the strategic partnership. Yes, along those lines Very specifically calling that particular agreement out because it was rather groundbreaking when we did it And I think every component of it needs to be revisited whether we decide well We're not ready to revisit that particular aspect of it or not before we resign it. We need to look at whether or not We are actually capturing the cost based on the formula we used previously not just rolling it forward and of course particularly we no longer have marksmen of school which is which was a big discussion item and is kind of a Going nowhere discussion in many respects in terms of having children in Untaxable housing, but it's still something that needs to be brought back again And like you say the water situation might be different So to relook at all those particular aspects of the plan I think should be called out and people want to just to review all of it the other thing I think we Might mention much as I hate to pick on our neighbors is I don't think Hampshire College pays us anything and That needs to be revisited because they give us a gym. So yeah, well aside from that, you know And I know we pay him the big money We go on a lot of calls for nothing there, which is good I'm glad that nothing bad actually happens But we end up going on a lot of calls there period So I would think that it would be something that we would need to at least address, you know for the public This is where we're at with this. This is how many calls we do we can't figure out a way to do it But that there's where it sits for right now, and we'll revisit it another time Thank you. All right I find myself in a mildly awkward state of mind or state of thinking that There might be a guideline we put in here that that Reflects what we've been doing Either by way of encouragement to do it more or by way of recognition Between the park grants and the other grants that we dealt with last year. There's almost a million dollars extra in our budget We don't mention that effort here as being something Encouraged we heard about almost a half a million dollars worth of grants tonight, which are supporting very important programs and That's new revenue that I certainly am glad to be able to consider a Great point. I'm surprised we don't have that somewhere people good with including. Yeah Okay, thank you Anything else on other new revenue Okay, capital like board recognize the perils of inadequate investment in capital improvements and remain committed to trying to incrementally increase the Percentage of the property tax levy allocated to capital over time to achieve a goal of 10 percent per section blah, blah, blah Towns financial policies Sockboard continues to support funding capital investment by means other than the capital budget including through the use of Community Preservation Act funds Community development block grant funds and other grant opportunities through shared purchasing and ownership with other towns or entities and through bonding or borrowing for large Long-term projects as noted in the overall philosophy putting additional revenue toward helping us catch up on the growing backwag of capital Infrastructure needs is one of the ways we support spending beyond which is necessary to maintain service levels We know from the Projection FY 14 projections meeting last Thursday with mr. Pooler that the recommendation is going to be to Allocate 7% of the levy to capital this year. So that's a big improvement. What was what was it this past year 5%? 6.5 so so 7 so we're working our way up there some of that will include as we noted earlier the The bond the authorization for the new road work that we have talked about Other points that we'd like to make about capital Mr. Hayden first of all I want to say that I support this we worked hard on this and you know, we kind of really Well, we worked hard on it to get to that. I just just want to air my observation that 10% 6.5% 5.2% Really is meaningless With regard to the reality That we need to have 2% of the replacement value of our capital Budgeted for every year and that's kind of a minimum rule of thumb number and I have no idea of 10% of our Taxation is anywhere near that higher or lower. I'm gonna stop now Is that what organizations with giant endowments do? That's what organizations that want to keep their plan going do Okay All right noted. I don't know if there's any way to include that now in here Okay, anything else you want to say about capital or we're kind of Pretty thorough miss Bruce. I think that might be where some of us were imagining the word part grant appeared You know under other grant opportunities But I think it is worth pointing out that it was it was yet an additional grant that we went after that now We're used to asking for maybe we'll have continued success Reserves I would suggest that the reserves rather like the introductory paragraph kind of we leave it till the end, you know till The second or third discussion as we sort of see how this develops So are we in agreement with that Mr. Generally, but I there's one important element to it that I don't want to see change and that is the idea that We don't use reserves To fund ongoing Expenses we can use it for startup money to help things going on but the idea that you know you don't You know if you can't identify a source To support an ongoing cost don't take it up reserves because that's that's not sustainable Noted so so I think we won't take make any changes to this now Which is in support of what you're saying, but I think that we'll continue to talk about it to see where we end up Which is a good segue to the CDBG situation. So we are We are slated to lose up to about nine hundred thousand dollars in funding that we currently put towards direct funding to human service agencies to qualifying capital expenses and qualifying administrative expenses the human service agency funding is $200,000 180 of that and then the capital and the Administrative which is to say staff a certain amount of staff salary is attributed to this grant as appropriate and is Potentially going to go away and this gets into your town manager's report item, but they might as well talk about it now So this is something that you've learned about since our last meeting it has been in the paper You have explained it to us, but it hasn't been sort of explained in a public setting So why don't you tell us what the situation is and to give us an update on I know you had conversations with our legislators Last week and what your predictions are for for going forward? In Recent years the town has been just above the minimum qualifications threshold to qualify as a CDBG mini entitlement and that has allowed us access to at one point one million dollars Per year in grant funding the last couple of years nine hundred thousand As part of a statewide update that they do every couple years eligibility criteria using updated census data and other information our relative Score with a number of poverty related indicators Declined and that was true for most of the communities who have Been qualifying under this mini entitlement status. What was unique about Amherst? However, it was that we were the only one of the dozen or so Communities that qualified to have their lower score Result in going from just above the threshold to just below the qualifying threshold So with the help of staff I have submitted a detailed letter To the Department State Department of Housing Community Development. We've asked them to thoroughly review and explain to us the Calculations and criteria used to make sure that from a methodological standpoint that the approach that was taken Is sound And where there are issues particularly in relation to like how some of the scores were rounded Because we we fell below the threshold by a fraction of a point How the score was calculated in some categories was through rounding whether or not that in and of itself caused us to go Just below the threshold We're asking for reconsideration in that case and failing that consideration for what's called transition funding for some Significant portion of our current year allocation for the federal fiscal year that begins next October Which is what this is all about the current year money is not affected But this is for a year from now I did meet With senator Rosenberg representative story Last week we reviewed our appeal materials and status and detail There is additional outreach underway to Department of Housing and Community Development And if and when needed we will have the legislators come in and help support An appeal process right now it's focused at this state and local staff level going through the Methodological issues and seeing where we end up with that and then We're looking at legislative support depending on what we find there So I expect all this to play out over the next 30 to 60 days Given where we are one of the other Rationals for transition funding is that the Announcement of our change in status comes extremely late in the process. We've already actively begun our Development of a plan for the Amherst proposals for next year If we were to no longer be a mini entitlement community, we would be put into the competitive grant category that that encourages you know regional regional approaches and certain things and that would be great if we started that grant Application process many months ago, but as a practical matter given the timing It makes it very difficult to be able to craft a Competitive grant proposal never mind be funded so That's where we are with that and I'll be reporting to you as we go along So best case scenario is that they would reconsider and find in our favor. Yes So second best case is We're not a mini entitlement community, but we're awarded Transition funding and there's precedent both state and local for that back in 2005 2006 the town of Amherst received Transition funding the last time we were deemed no longer eligible. So there is precedent we've had some Preliminary discussions with with the state about that concept and that will be actively explored as well And then the worst case is we go from nine hundred thousand To zero, but we'll know that we should know that Really over the next 30 to 60 days how that plays out and well in advance of our You know finishing our budget planning for the next fiscal year Would you say that the competitive process is is one of our scenarios or or because we've learned so late We're really not it is we're technically eligible, but it would be extraordinarily difficult to submit a Competitive proposal at this late day Okay, so we're basically looking at sort of three proposals and I'm wondering if you might Offer any sort of assessment of the likelihood of any of them I Don't want to venture Because it really is speculation at this point I'm hoping to be Well, I don't know I Don't know but we're gonna try like heck if we were to be in the transitional funding Category do you have any sense of how much that might be? Is has not been unusual in prior iterations of this Here and elsewhere that we are Transition funding is awarded for half or more of the amount but that's a Case-by-case kind of scenario and is that just for one year or multiple years? My understanding is it has been done for more than one year, but I think it's most common for a one-year transition Other questions As the liaison to the block grant advisory committee Yeah, we had a we fortunately were able to get an update on this from mr. Zomac right before we went into the hearing which was really helpful In terms one of the things I just would like us to all be clear on as we move forward And of course we don't want to be labored if it all just turns out great because you know We have all the right conversations with all the right people and they overturn the decision and everything moves along If that isn't the case though This is not only a huge problem for funding our shelter and a huge problem for the individual Agencies that we have funded in the past that we took off of the town budget that we would now of course have to face that issue again As to whether or not we want to reconsider folding something to our budget again something that has no revenue stream associated with it So it would be new expenditures. There is also as you have been bringing up miss O'Keeffe's for many years now The more that we pushed we that we took full advantage of the administrative portion of the grant the More of a position difficult position that puts us in moving forward because it's the same amount as the social services It's not some tiny amount It's a huge amount of money that we're spending that's able to be spent on administration right now Which just because if the tasks went away Doesn't mean that there's a one-to-one dollar correspondence that it's like oh We don't have the funding to administer something we don't have any more Well, actually we're able to use it for a little bit We've leveraged it for a little bit more than that that is what you are supposed to do with it and so We would be face it. We face challenges on multiple fronts It's also especially difficult to look at although it's very hard to think about all the very social service agencies And especially our shelter and how those would fit in they're also the capital investments many of which are quite boring But are things that have needed to be done over the years Unfortunately, we haven't been able to put any substantial amount of money Into low-income housing as we'd hope to although we have put in some associated with Olympia Oaks, etc And you know to face the idea that now the money is going to drop away again when every year We kept waiting for that right project to come along and now to not have the money. It's also funding Because we haven't had that project we have been able to fund a lot of ADA compliant Areas and so that's something that I thought about bringing up associated in the capital area is that as we have renewed focus on our ADA transition plan what with the changes and the personnel who are running that and the DAAC is looking at that again associated with the coordination with the schools, etc is What projects we might be needing to undertake associated with disability compliance that again we could have used this money for We have been using this money for even as we speak on Main Street. We're using this money for And that again would not be there. So it's not like these projects are also separate. They're very Integrated into what we do on a daily basis So it's just bad news all around but I'm trying to be clear on just how widespread the bad news is So I think that it's clear that it's very important to the select board Clear it's very important to the community to be able to continue to fund these things as best we can Now this is obviously almost a million bucks that we don't happen to have in our budget we We did the projections meeting with mr. Poole the other day with the four towns meeting on Thursday we Four boards. I'm sorry. Thank you Projections are for a balanced budget at 3% increases for the town school and libraries 3% is for the town is Bit more than half a million dollars. So on the one hand, you could say oh, well, there's that revenue Well, as I said, the budget's balanced with that and that includes the increase in capital and As the two biggies the increase in capital and the increase in the retirement assessment We're expecting the retirement assessment to Amtrak County to go up seven point five percent. That's two hundred and sixty thousand bucks So so it's not like that money is there What what I feel like we're getting to is Needing you to make a recommendation to us how to proceed not tonight Because I think that I think that this is still all evolving too much The information is new the status as mr. Musanti talked about is is in flux, you know You said 60 to 90 days We're gonna need to be flexible with our guideline because it's the 60 and 90 days goes beyond when our guidelines would be done but I Think I'm speaking for the select board and saying we want we need a way to be able to address this And so the first thing we have to do is to ask you for a recommendation that makes more sense than us saying Why don't you just cut the chairs budget, you know, so there aren't so many chairs and all the offices or something like that That would be foolish. What do you think of that? Yeah, I think that's entirely appropriate and you know the the Timeline laid out in the town government act is that I would offer specific budget recommendations Honor before January 16th. So given this issue as a as a significant issue you can expect Me to be able to articulate Budget recommendations that Acknowledge this issue While also taking this opportunity tonight to reinforce one of the themes That you heard from Sandy and I at the four boards meeting the other night on the projections is we have to maintain our our very strict Fiscal discipline that has served us wet well through, you know, this, you know god-awful recession and the very slow recovery and While we're in a more stable place than we were we still have a ways to go and we just have to You know, that's going to influence the the recommendations that I make So that we don't have this slippery slope Getting it getting into difficulty again like we faced five years ago when you think about how much flux we really are in right now with the presidential election coming up and what that's going to mean to the economy with the the sequestration sequestration issue in Congress and what the what federal issues are going to mean as far as that trickling down to being then state problems then being local problems So really this this is a very messy thing at the moment So so I think that as far as your recommendation goes We'll see how this goes in the next couple of weeks and to see how specific we might be able to get in here But with our guidelines, but it's very possible that this is going to be our big Philosophical statement in the beginning, but we're gonna have to think about what we mean by that It's all very nice to say we want we want we want But you know, then you have to make some hard decisions. Mr. Heaton Yeah, I just want to one other thing that I heard at the board board's meeting was that that 3% That was level services that wasn't you know I was keeping all the cops the firefighters the teachers that we have in the pot hole fillers that we have now Anything less is well less Miss Brewer, I'll get to you Mr. Steinberg also. I don't Heaven forbid I should oversimplify But one of the things we could consider doing to simplify is in the overall philosophy paragraph About halfway down where it says while recognizing the necessity for one Memorial pool and the bid since we can cross those things out now We could simply substitute in Somehow magically dealing with the community development block grant loss if appropriate You know and leave it just at that I think at this point because we you know things will progress beyond once we Turn this in we may not have a final answer by the time we publish this But that right there just like we called out one Memorial and the bid right up front last year to draw attention to them I think that we can do that effectively here and we have plenty of other avenues of ensuring it's a Priority I think that'd be a fine way to update the draft Policies for going forward then we've got a placeholder for it. I think it might be We don't want to take the easy way out here and just you know giving the wish list of all those things We right we've got a we've we've got to sort of take it to some next steps Depending on what the recommendations are going to be as far as you know We're willing to sacrifice what for what you know and that's not a kind of a line item basis That's again. Also. It's sort of a philosophical basis, but you know that can become a reserve question It can be gamma who knows what question, but we have to But so yeah I agree get it in there to show that this is our priority and and use that to be part of our draft goals going forward The magic money tree out back because we've really been watering that That guy in Kenya Mr. Steinberg, did you want to come forward and comment? Andrew Steinberg chair of the finance committee. I'll be really brief, but I did want to just touch base on the fact that Finance committee held continued to meet On Thursday night last week after the meeting of the other boards adjourned and we had a significant discussion of the same issue And I just thought it'd be worth taking a moment to share with you the fact that we had that discussion and And I think that our conclusions were pretty similar to what you've just expressed in your discussion and We did not vote guidelines yet. We took it was really an informational discussion that we had that evening The reality that we all recognize is that the federal grant here that we're talking about Where we would be losing the funding begins October 1 of 13 and runs through September 30 of 14 And we just came from a meeting where we were getting projections on a budget for a year that begins July 1 of 13 and goes through June 30 of 14 so that There's nine months of overlap and the only one quarter of the $900,000 then is available for the year that we are adopting a budget and Of course, this is all very new information to us at the time and we just That evening after when we continued our meeting heard the report that Mr. Musanti gave to all of you this evening I Think that in the end our conclusion had to be that we are going to have to remind everybody When we issue the guidelines that the word preliminary Which we always use in the guidelines Probably is even more strongly stated than it has been in some of the recent years but we do that with Much hesitation because we know that the libraries and the schools are Going forward and developing budgets and we'll be thinking about the terms of three percent and We know that they're going to be really struggling to come up with responsible budgets and meet the Meet that guideline. So this is a very difficult discussion But we don't know what we can do to reflect any change in our guideline at this point because When we have to issue our guidelines in November, we will not have any of the additional information that Mr. Musanti has been talking about with us and with you and So that leaves us in a very uncertain status in the budget development process for the FY 14 budget, but I think that the strength that we all have is that as a community we have budget coordinating group that allows all of us to talk with each other and to think very carefully and Very cooperatively about how we will proceed and That that's a discussion that will be very helpful to have to inform us going forward And the other thing that did come up a little bit in the discussion too was some of the questions about federal sequestration and Some of the other In the questions about what might happen in the year ahead Should there be some kind of budget deal cut in Congress that will eliminate sequestration but result in substantial cuts? Some ways it's easier to predict on the sequestration Because you know what cannot be eligible for sequestration The other is really a larger unknown But we also looked at what mr. Puller's numbers were and we think that he was Very cautious in his projections and his projection about state aid We had no increase in Unrestricted the local government aid and a very small increase for Education Is at least some Confident gives us some confidence that those numbers were suitably cautious under the circumstances and recognizing The uncertainty of where we are so I think that we were a little bit less concerned about that side of it but Obviously are very concerned about this CDBG and made the same request that town manager come to us with a recommendation as to What we might do on all of the realms that we have to work with as more information becomes available So thank you very much Okay, so I will try and capture the things we talked about tonight They will be in new working draft guidelines for next week Those will be in the packet and online as a Friday afternoon At next week's meeting we will take them where they are see if we want to change anything and also hear public comment on them Where they are any any changes that the public would like to see and And see what we do with that and then we'll again take it forward to the next meeting Anything else that we want to include with this before we move on Okay, good. Thank you very much next up Managers report. We already took out one of your big bullets. So Leaping forward here. Okay Fortuitous I Wanted to talk briefly I Was able to attend the International City Management Association annual conference last week And it was a really useful Professional development opportunity for me Was able to I didn't meet personally, but I met many of The 2,500 or so city in town and county managers in attendance from all over the country Canada and More than a few from overseas. So it was fascinating and that was probably the greatest Benefit of attending a conference like that was the opportunity to network with my colleagues we had a number of areas that were Touched upon on the various workshops regional services Renewable energy and solar a number of leadership related Workshops and probably the most useful Workshop was a workshop on town gown Issues Most of which we are familiar with But we are not alone Which is not you know shouldn't stop the presses, but it's it's They're Same or similar issues being confronted by college towns all over the country. I had the opportunity To meet a number of city and town managers from college communities and Have quite a bit of information from what the ICMA calls a college town consortium That I can be sharing with you and with the staff and there's opportunities for further collaboration about best approaches For example, you know we talked earlier tonight about Inspection related programs and rental regulations There's a lot of information and best practices out there in college towns Including copperbly Sized college towns across the country about how they've addressed these issues and I think that'll be helpful to our work group in the weeks ahead as we Complete work on specific proposals for the spring So that was ICMA In terms of recent upcoming activity we're in the home stretch for Finalizing a draft Special town meeting warrant for the November 19th town meeting You will have a warrant that we believe is ready for your approval consideration approval in your packet at the end of this week for action at your October 22nd meeting and then also in terms of coming attractions the next step in our taxi regulations update is a Couple of meetings with taxi company owners We have one such meeting scheduled for later this week. Our intent is to See what Suggestions they may have for refining the draft that's been circulated and then put us in a position to Finalize recommendations with you for action at your November. I think November 5th Regular meeting of the select board Questions or comments from Sandy. Miss Burke. I'm sorry if you could repeat that last phrase you were saying action at our November 5th Meeting, but we'll be getting something our next meeting Yes, you'll get the current draft an updated version after this week and then The expectation is that you're in a position to vote any changes if you want at your November 5th meeting Which gives us close to two full months to then implement as part of the annual license renewal process and So when you give us the update next time if that could have like a cover memo that had the process of public meetings and input and whatever from the Taxi companies so that we know What kind of feedback was received and what that process was that would be great Any other questions for mr.. Miss Burr one of the items I Mentioned last time and believe it or not actually found my note to that effect was Associated with private security firms and as part of the same healthy neighborhoods aspect So if we could just have an update on that in a future town manager report doesn't even have to be next week We can be finished but just so that we understand What that role is those folks get hired and how they interface other questions or comments All right moving right along member reports BCG updates, so I have this on here again Just as a reminder to us BCG meets. Oh geez We got to get that meeting posted Tomorrow morning. Yeah, we're going to meet on Thursday Yes, that's one of the reasons I left it on the agenda BCG meets hopefully Thursday morning We are going to be talking about our the any feedback from home boards and committees on the recommendation We talked about before visa the the money going to the OPEB trust fund as The allocation for a fall town meeting. That's a warrant article. We talked about it a bit last time as you see if you read the Philosophy paragraph from last time putting any additional revenue towards OPEB or shoring up reserves was exactly what we said last year So to continue to support that is completely consistent with what we had said last year But I want to be able to say kind of officially what select boards feedback is on that as opposed to just generally so Can we support the OPEB recommendation? Miss Stein I think it's a good idea, but I do think we're a little bit uncertain now because of the CDP to problems generated the staff people The shelter those are important issues. So I would like some money to go to The post-employment benefits, but I just don't know whether we're gonna have to Spend a little more this year to get us through the hump We just don't know. There's a big question mark. Okay, so just to be clear. This is for FY 13 this is to balance the FY 13 budget. Okay. I have no problem with that. Okay Miss Burr while still understanding that even though it's the FY 13 money if we put it in OPEB Then we can spend it on health care related expenses, but that's money. That's then not in reserves Toward when that's pulling out potentially in theory pulling money out of FY 14 users So I mean it still does have an impact and so I You know, I assume we'll talk about this at BCG. I am also your uppers BCG You know that I am a little leery about the OPEB Funding at this point, but knowing that we can use it toward current health care expenses If need be thus meaning we could shift some things around I'm less concerned about it. So I'm not planning to fight that Yeah, so to miss Burr's point an issue she raised before is Concerned about OPEB and with the downside potentially being that the money was sort of stuck there And now it's now it's in this OPEB trust fund that you can't appropriate from but the fact is you can always appropriate from that some people Some people actually are funding their OPEB trust fund and working from that for their current To pay their current current health care benefits, right? Some people some communities are funding the pay-as-you-go retiree health care related costs From the OPEB account and so as part of their annual appropriation There's annual appropriation into OPEB plus some additional amount, but the annual appropriation is really a Reallocation of what we're already doing for the pay-as-you-go portion because that's built into our employee benefits budget in general government and then And same thing on the school side and the library side So it is sort of globally part of the money that we have to pay for health care for employees Current and retired no matter what happens with any potential state legislation or something in the future It's so it's always available to us for health care funding So and my understanding was that that eased your concerns about it. We haven't we're not tying that money up in some strange way Okay All right, so we will be discussing this more BCG So I can make the point that there's there's concern that sort of the alternative is obviously to shore up reserves Shoring up reserves for general unknown is never a bad idea to shore it up for potential Known is also not a bad idea so So the main thing that BCG is looking for is that that we are sort of generally supporting either of those things as opposed to new spending in particular So I think that it's clear that that's where we are on that. Okay All right liaison and representative reports want a need to know basis here for this quarter 10 Anyone I get it 10 the Hampshire Council of Governments like board association dinner to honor John Oliver congressman John Oliver and it was very nice he Did remind me afterwards that he will be my congressman right up till January so that things still might get done in Washington You heard all about the community preservation at committee meeting which I did attend and I'm not going to say anything else about that I There are some points from the board of health One is that the motion That will appear at town meeting about getting Polystyrene out of the landfill They came to the League of Women voters who are supporting this and The recycling and refuse committee came before the board of health to Present on this and the board voted unanimously unanimously to support their article For town meeting so I thought you'd want to know that As it turns out in terms of the businesses if I understand the notes only 40% of businesses are actually using these kinds of inflated foam styrene containing Containers for their take-homes There is also going to be a public hearing on October 25th about The town of Amherst public health regulation drinking water supply protection The main concern is to restrict activities in a small area near the Atkins reservoir So that was the board of health The Kanagasaki sister city committee one they want to buy a flag when it is ready And I know we're moving on that They are going to be celebrating next year the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the city sister city relationship with Kanagasaki and Also the 10-year celebration of the sister city kind of libraries and the one last thing is that they plan to Send Halloween decorations and other artifacts to Kanagasaki so they could get some information about One of our holidays. So that's I think all that I was going to report on Might as well go to mr. Wilde on the flag update. What can you tell us about the town flag? Yeah, I mentioned Miss Stein has been working hard and consistently on this and we're kind of in the waiting phase right now So our artist Barry Mosier sent me I guess at the round just before the last select board meeting I think it was the completed wedding raving is that will be the emblems of the book and the sheaves of Chabris to produce Species they may be that will be on the flag And so I just have to hear then he was out of the country for a couple of weeks and just had a new big project Opening at a gallery last Friday. So he just back in touch At that point and just want to confirm with him the colors And then he will put the whole thing back together and I will consult with miss Stein and mr. Sell and make sure we have everything we can the standpoint of the flag company and then go ahead and order Thank you very much Any other liaison reports you'd like to make I think that can't wait I think we talked historical was the the main thing I think with the district here Okay, and again to remind people if they're interested in applying for the Dickinson district Local district commission that they should please do so Mr.. The trivia bees a week from Thursday. We'll have to mention that again next week so everybody can come watch Just be silly for a good cause Two other meetings. I'd like everyone to attend because I know you have all kinds of time on your hands on number the November 1st, which is Thursday 7 o'clock the housing and sheltering committee is having presentation by our consultant on the housing production plan So they've watched the draft has already been produced people are giving feedback And that will be the public presentation of that information And then there'll be additional public presentation after that But that is actually going to be in the annual and house on the fifth floor So Thursday the first watch for that anybody who's expressed curiosity about the housing production plan That's the place to be and the other item is on Saturday the third. Yes two days later at 9 a.m For towns meeting associated with the regional school district planning board to top make sure we are all on the same page as to what We are all talking about associated with regionalization And Culek and Rosenberg for sure are supposed to be there the trading anything Yes, I Believe you volunteered to do this for us because you're just so nice But the Hampshire Council of Governments thing on Thursday with the street easements blah blah blah thing So there's a I'm in a butter to the Eastman roundabout seriously like really I'm in a butter all the way down Any university property? I got it too because I but the university property even though it's okay That seems a little large, but at any rate So we don't have to have a select board meeting of any kind associated with that And you're just gonna represent mr. Hayden will be there also we will have some engineering expertise Okay, let's see chairs report I Given you a document as I do periodically That's just full of various ways that I have been Representing us if you have any problems with it You should know about it and then let me know and I'll try and change What I do going forward so I tried to just kind of summarize any sorts of the types of remarks so that you know what I'm talking about and There you go other things the Next meeting at five o'clock Preceding our select board meeting is our annual coffee hour with UMass representative student leaders I've been sending out about 60 almost 60 invitations this week to the UMass folks So that doesn't count the staff and Mr. Moussanti is taking care of town staff. I mean, I hope it'll be a good turnout It should be another good meeting this is a fourth annual and We'll see how that goes. So that's five o'clock next Monday the 22nd And was there anything else that I was gonna talk about? I don't think so. So let's uh Let's see. Let's do a couple of untimed items so we can get out of here First one is town manager performance goals All right, this is a process. We've been going through since oh so many months It is in our packet so Ralph Karlstrom submitted a document for our consideration regarding the town manager performance goals and That is it's on the web packet. Did everybody get it in their hard copy packet? Okay, so Apologize it the email came from him so a coalition of Amherst neighborhoods. So first before we get into that so We've been talking about this for many many months now at our last meeting You urged me to just go ahead and just accept them as they were so that we could stop having these conversations I wanted to tweak the wording a little bit of the final goal that we discussed that time Which was goal number 10 and also I made the adjustments to goal number three that we had talked about we eliminated part B So we had to incorporate Make 3a make it not be a anymore just be three So I tried to summarize so we were all in agreement with the spirit of the submitted goal about affordability and I just wanted to Take a stab at those words because we do try and be very careful with our words So did anybody have any issues with The wording that was created there So this was the affordability goal So it's and we wanted it to be sort of in the spirit of the green goal that we had done And so what I wrote was the town manager shall help to support the creation of more housing that is safe decent and affordable for Individuals and families at low-income levels. I tried to take a lot of the exact verbiage that had been Suggested to us. I wanted to take away with the original sentence said something was something like to make Amherst more Affordable and well, I think it's easy to mark ways that Amherst is greener I think that more affordable when you consider the fact that our tax rate is you know only going up etc Like the affordability of Amherst in general is actually a bigger thing than we can address but what we are looking to do is to continue to support the creation of Low-income housing So that was my takeaway Miss Stein, I have no problem with what you wrote But if you're going to you give us these to look at I'm gonna find So it's a question of how much you want to keep doing with this and so we'll get it I don't I don't So I I guess I'll put these away thoughts away till next year. Okay, we can always do that Okay, so then that brings us to the other memo that was submitted to us. So the coalition of Amherst neighbors I think I'm messing up that acronym. My apologies. Neighborhoods. Thank you Sent us a Detailed goal about safe and healthy neighborhoods and So as mr. Colstrom noted in the public comment at the beginning it was about Having more specific criteria by which to evaluate the town manager next year And so I I personally I liked the concept of the goal My concern was that I don't actually want us to be doing the goals for like half the year And so for this to come to us now when really we should have Approved these goals a couple of weeks ago already. I kind of didn't want to open up this whole a whole new area To be parsing as carefully as we've parsed everything else When we added the goal last time about affordability Even though that was so late in the process that was not something that had been touched on in the goal So once that was brought up it seemed like an important thing to want to include the part about neighborhoods is actually part of goal number two goal to a Town manager shall continue to strengthen relationships with UMass and the colleges for concrete progress in areas that improve the community's quality of life By and then there are several sub points But the first one is mitigating the impact of a significant student population on neighborhoods on demand for public safety resources on parking and traffic issues and so forth I Recognize and appreciate that the that the submitted goal goes into a lot more detail than that Bang and stuff around I Think that it then Throws out of balance all the other things that we ask the town manager to do by not going into that same amount of detail on all of Those things and also kind of makes very blurry again What we were talking about before about trying to specify the what rather than the how I think that they're great points that are made and things that we should we should hold on to that and think About that as part of our thought process as we're doing the town manager's evaluation that that's kind of raising the kinds of questions that We want to be thinking about And I think very many of them are very clearly addressed by the safe and healthy neighborhoods initiative that we had so much detail on tonight My recommendation is that we not incorporate them into the goals at this point because if we incorporated them into the goal We're going to go through another few weeks of language parsing and by then it's going to be you know December or January and The year is half over and he doesn't have the working goals in front of him So I think that it doesn't add enough to to the goals and the outcome To incorporate these at this point in the process considering our great awareness of them already and the of the issues raised and the fact that it's already Noted as an important area in the goals Mr. Walsh Yeah, and some of these things are already also explicitly stated in the master plan and we've hired code enforcement of officer and so forth So it may be the best thing I mean I understand your reasons for not wanting to Incorporate this wholesale, but maybe that's it can serve at least as an impetus to remind us of the importance that the community attaches to Goal number two and what stands behind it? Absolutely Miss Stein, I think I saw her hand and then mr. You did Okay, the point that you're raising Is expressed as mitigating the impacts of the significant student population on neighborhoods On demand for public safety resources on parking and traffic issues and so forth That's true But it isn't exactly the same wording or the same problem because the problem is really more of the taking over of neighborhoods by business entities and running those properties as essentially boarding houses and so I Almost wondered if we could just take again short and Very very short not all the iterations, but just The first paragraph and take out the first wording and take out to include. I mean he's working on it, but So it would read the town manager shall develop special Recommendate specific recommendations for consideration by the select board to address neighborhood health safety and the quality of life issues and I would be happy with that as an addition without all the subsets But I think it's a different Emphasis than saying UMass Has to mitigate the effects of the students because the problem is bigger than that So tell me one more time the part you would like to I would just take everything out of the first Two lines except the words to include the town manager shall develop specific recommendations for consideration by the select board to address neighborhood health safety and quality of life issues and Just assume that we have the bigger picture But it's more than just the university dealing with the students So that's my thought. I don't know a problem with that. I think that that's very clear What you are doing and I what you'll continue to do shall develop specific recommendations for consideration by the select board to address the neighborhood health safety and quality of life issues and Just stop Okay, so you're saying in addition to or instead of what we have currently I was saying in addition to because it's different than the university dealing with the students Okay, so make that like point B or something or you know, I think it's 11 I think it's a weapon As much as I like the nice around 10 because because who really is about the university relationship, right? And this really isn't it's related, but it's It's not for all the reasons that Miss Stein just stated It isn't just because it's UMass students and UMass needs to do something about it Actually more purely about So I think that it does it does address the Landlord part of it in a way that isn't currently include I think it could be considered included by reference to the various mitigating impacts But but I agree that it does draw into the equation a different It's not just with the university relationship for sure I mean, if you think about all the people that reported tonight on the safe and healthy neighborhoods They're not UMass people. It was a police chief. It was the fire chief. It was the health inspector. It was building inspectors and so on and so That's more inclusive under a point 11 which you don't have to spell out And I don't want to see this again anymore While we're wordsmithing it do we need to have the words by the select board or for consideration by the select board in there I think it's that it's specific recommendations to address. That's fine. I mean, he's talking to us And also the recommendations are to town meeting there to staff there exactly It's not that we have to then say go John, you know We will but it's bigger than that All right. Well, well, I hate to do anything late at night. I'm sorry thought to I don't have a problem with this No, because I've laid out an action plan that you didn't object to and in fact enthusiastically endorsed Whether without any of this in the formal Town manager, you know, we could parse words about whether it's fully captured in set in goal number 2a or not If you think provides clarity by having it be a separate goal, I'm totally fine with that Okay, so it's going to be that sentence without by the select board recommendations for consideration to address It's just not even for consideration Get rid of for consideration recommendations to address. Yeah, that's fine. That's absolutely fine Okay, go number 11 Comes a prime number again press publish. All right, so let's make an official vote then to accept the 11 11 they're growing every year As presented and amended Okay, I move that the select board approve the FY 13 town manager performance goals as amended It's even in there. I knew I was Walking on water All right That's unanimous. Yeah, we're done with the goals. Okay next up. We've got some minutes to approve That we approve the minutes And I just have to find the dates because I couldn't find anything to correct my goodness stop the presses Isn't that amazing? I moved to approve the slipboard minutes of July 16 2012 in October 1st 2012 and cross out as amended unless somebody has something to say I couldn't find anything It's been moved to second and further discussion Unanimous yay minutes have been approved anything else nothing that here did not consider we've already discussed the trivia be we've discussed the coffee hour we've discussed the Meeting at UMass police station tomorrow night, which is optional for all select board members and is posted as a select board meeting and For mr. Hayden makes his motion. Is there anything else that we we're going to be meeting next Monday mirror seven days from now So is there anything else critical that we need to bring up before that time? Then mr. Hayden I'd point out the 10 o'clock is just like 845 Objection then this meeting adjourns at 1001. Thank you very much. See you next week