Town Council - Regular Meeting

Recording in progress.

And if Amherst Media is ready, can we start recording? We are recording. Thank you. Before I call this meeting to order, I want to explain. Sam, can you turn off your audio? Leave computer audio. I should join this panel?

Thank you.

I'm going to explain the run of the night for meetings because there's actually three meetings being held tonight. And it was a little bit confusing to people, so I want to make sure people understand what's going on before I call the forum to order. um the first meeting that is being called to order when i call to order will be a public forum on appropriations three four different appropriation orders that public forum is both a council meeting special meeting and a finance committee meeting because the finance committee meeting has not met on two of those orders because they have been reduced in time when the public forum is over the council will adjourn their public forum meeting, the public forum. There is a separate agenda for the finance committee that included the public forum and a discussion by the finance committee. So when the council adjourns after the public forum is over, the finance committee will remain in session to have a discussion on the two financial orders that they have not seen in the amount that they are up for tonight. when they are done that discussion and a possible vote on a recommendation regular meeting of the town council to order so there will be a time between the public forum and the regular meeting where the council will not be in session but the finance committee will be in session I hope that is clear to people. I don't know how long the finance committee will take, so I cannot estimate how long that will be, but that is how this tonight will happen. And so are there, from counselors, before I call the public forum to order, are there any questions about any of that? I don't see any hands, so... With that, I'm going to let the time hit to 633, so I gain an extra minute. Good evening. Seeing a presence of a quorum, I am calling the public forum on appropriations outside of the budget for the town council to order at 633 PM. Please be advised that this meeting is being held in person and that remote access for members of the public is provided as a courtesy only in the event of technology issues with the remote connection. the meeting will continue in person as scheduled as long as there is a quorum of the council present in the town room or through technological means chapter 2 of the acts of 2025 extended through june 30 2027 the ability of public bodies to meet without a quorum of the council physically present at the meeting location although a quorum of the council is present in the town room This meeting is being recorded and is accessible in real time via Zoom, phone, and is a live broadcast on Amherst Media Channel 9 and at amherstmedia.org. At this time, I will call upon each councillor by the name that they have indicated that they would like to be addressed. This will indicate that we can hear you and you can hear us. Councillor Brevik. Present. Thank you. Councillor Kano-Martin, I believe will be absent tonight. Councillor Churchill will be absent tonight. Andy Churchill will be absent tonight. Anna Devlin-Gauthier. Present. Lynn Griesemer. Present. Mandy Johanicki is present. Councillor Lord. Sam McLeod.

Question.

Pam Rooney. Here. Councillor Ryan.

I'm here.

Kathy Shane.

I'm here.

Jennifer Taub. Here. And Councillor Walker is absent tonight. If councillors have technical issues, please let the council clerk know or call a point of personal privilege. There will be no general public comment periods during this public forum. There will be public comment. That's the whole point of the forum on the financial orders. At this time, I'm going to turn it over to Kathy Shane to call the finance committee to order.

I'm calling the Finance Committee to order. The counselors who are on the Finance Committee are all here, and that is Lynn Griesemer, Sam McLeod, Jill Brevik, Counselor Brevik, and Anna Devlin-Gauthier. And I want to call the resident members to make sure they can hear and be heard. And right now I see only one, Kathleen Mitchell.

Here. Excellent. Are we ready? Kathy?

Yes.

Excellent. Okay. So we will be moving on to the public forum on supplemental budget appropriations for Charter Section 5.6. More than one half the time of this meeting will be devoted to public comment. This public forum is on four financial orders, FY2704B for the Pelham Treasurer Collector Services. FY2704C and FY2705B for Wildwood Elementary School Care and Custody and FY2706A PFAS appropriation for monitoring and remediation. At this time, anyone wishing to comment or ask a question specific to the financial orders that i just spoke to please raise your hand in the zoom application if you are present in the town room and have not signed up with our i.t sean please do so now residents are welcome to comment or ask a question specific to the financial orders related to this public forum it is not a general public comment period that period will take place during the regular town council meeting that begins later tonight the public forum comments or questions are not reflective of the opinions of the town council because this is a public forum if questions are asked about the financial orders there is a potential for them being answered um there are No hands, give me a second. There are no hands raised in the Zoom application. Has anyone signed up to make public comment during the public forum? Okay, one person has. So each commenter will have three minutes to make their comment or ask their question. Kathy, you have your hand raised.

Yes, I see that Jeffrey Robert, who is a member of the Finance Committee, has joined us. And I just want to make sure we can hear and he can hear us. Jeffrey, if you could unmute and just let us know everything's OK. Yep, I've got audio on my side.

I'm good. Thank you. Thank you.

Excellent. Thank you, Kathy. So. Vince, please come on up, state your name and where you live and make your comment related to the appropriation orders.

Vincent O'Connor, 175 Summer Street, Apartment 12. I'd first like to remind the council that the usual practice has been to post the agenda of your meeting, which includes usually a brief description of the various activities, including this forum, and there is no posting on the door of your meeting. So I would just urge you to try not to have that happen again. The second comment I have to make has to do with what is not one of the proposed orders, and that is to restore to the schools the money that was improperly removed from the budgets of the elementary and regional schools by the town manager acting alone on his own and especially with regard to the regional school budget improperly and illegally and quite frankly before the council spends any money Outside of the budget that they passed in June, they ought to make both the elementary schools, the Amherst school system, and the regional schools whole. And in such a way that in making them whole, that the monies that should have been in their budget in the past would go into the base of both the elementary schools and the regional schools for the purpose of formulating subsequent budget proposals for the next fiscal year. I think it is a gross omission to not look at this issue and understand the impact that those budget cuts improperly conducted and supinely I dealt with by the council need to be remediated by the council itself and the both school districts need to be made whole in a very positive and constructive way.

Thank you Vince for your comments. Sean has anyone else signed up to make public comment at the public forum. And I see no hands raised on the zoom application for the public forum and it is now 640 so I will make a motion to adjourn the public forum, is there a second in seconds Kathy seconds it and we will move to a vote. Councillor brevik. Yes. Councillor Kennell Martin is absent. Andy Churchill is absent. Ana Devlin-Gauthier. Aye. Lynn Griesemer.

Aye.

Mandy Johanicki is an aye. Councillor Lord.

Aye.

Sam McLeod.

Aye.

Pam Rooney. Yes. Councillor Ryan.

Aye.

Kathy Shane.

Yes.

Jennifer Taub. Yes. Alicia Walker is absent. That is unanimous. At this time, the council is out of meeting. We will call to order the regular town council meeting after the finance committee adjourns, but I pass the gavel over to Kathy to resume the finance committee meeting and discussion.

At this time, we're having a special meeting of the finance committee, and it's mainly to focus on the two financial orders which were revised, and they're substantially different than what we saw and had time to to talk about. And so rather than having those postponed to be discussed tomorrow, there was a decision to have them be discussed tonight. And all the finance committee members were notified of this. So, Mandy, I have a question. Do I need to recall us to order? Are we still in order? You're still in order. OK, so we are still in order. So we sent several questions in advance. And I see that Sean Magnano and Jeremiah are both with us um i i don't know how you want to handle this but let me just give a brief description for anyone both other council members but anyone in the public who's listening the original financial order For Wildwood, there are two of them. One is for the operating budget and one is for a capital budget. And initially, the order that we had reviewed were assuming because it actually had taken place that the recreation department staff would be located in Wildwood. They had been in the middle school. and the middle school decided that they couldn't be there anymore. So they were located and moved. So we had an occupied building with, yes, not very many people, seven staff members in the building. So the operating budget reflected a full-time custodian and fairly substantial use of electricity, heating, and other kinds of utilities. And the capital budget assumed as much as $100,000 in capital needs because the location of the recreation department was near the gym and it wasn't accessible. So there were some physical things that might have had to been done to the building. Following the time we met in July, the Recreation Department announced that they did not want to be in that building because of the building conditions. And they've since been moved to Bangs. And Bangs initially was not or will be moved to Bangs. Bangs was initially not available because it was being reconstructed and renovated. So they will now be in banks and Wildwood will therefore not be occupied by any ongoing staff people at this point. The other potential use of Wildwood was if the DPW building decided that it needed swing space wildwood was potentially a swing space as of this summer there are design decisions or options that are being looked at for phase construction and they might not need swing space that isn't certain at this point but right now there's not a potential use of the building except that the recreation department would like the option of using the gym And so the order for finance was substantially revised, reduced by over $80,000. And the capital budget was revised from 100 down to 50 with a maybe we'll need to do some things. We're not quite sure what the 50 was in the way it was written up. So what I'd like to do is we sent a series of questions in to Sean in advance, and maybe, Sean, the best way to do it is for you to address some of them. Those were not shared with all finance committee members, and none of the counselors have seen them. If that works for you.

Yeah. Do you want me to just read the question and then the response? Is that okay? And I've brought Jeremiah along with me to answer. answer the more technical questions that I have no clue about. So we will get started. The first question was, is there an additional cost to house the rec department at the Bang Center? And there will be some additional costs to move the rec department to the Bang Center. We would categorize it as sort of minimal, but there will be labor and time to plan out the space, move the rec department over there. There are some desks already set up in the space where the rec department will be going. So we don't have to move all of the furniture, but there will be some furniture that will have to move. But overall, I would say it's not a huge cost and we wouldn't be seeking additional funds for that move. There are also some benefits, as I'm sure everyone can imagine, from moving the rec department there. They're going to be located near the senior center, near public health, near CRESS, near DEI. So they're going to kind of be with a lot of our other community service organizations. So we anticipate, well, there will be some costs for moving them over there. There will also be some efficiencies having them located next to many of the departments that they work with on a daily basis. And I'll just keep moving through the questions, but if anybody wants to dive deeper, just shout out, raise your hand.

Sean, just a quick question. Is that a permanent move or is that something that is temporary for six to 12 months?

Yeah. So this, This will be a permanent move. That was one of the calculations that we thought about when REC came to us and said, while it is not working, we kind of said, what would get your staff a permanent high quality office space for the next five to 10 years at least? And Bank Center offers that. The second floor has been recently renovated. It's organized into offices with some open space where you can have multiple desks working together. and as most know there's a large renovation going on to the building to make it more accessible and brought up to code so that building is going to be in really nice shape and this move will be more or less permanent okay the next question is the memo indicates that shutting down wildwood would be expensive and that it would be expensive to return it to a non-mothball state so basically Basically, if we were to shut the building down, what will that cost? And if we do shut it down, is it possible to get it restarted? And what would that cost to get it restarted? And for that question, I'm gonna turn it over to Jeremiah to talk a little bit about what that would look like.

Hello.

Yeah, I think the big thing would be is, so how long would it be offline? and before it gets brought back online. And the reason for that is there's a number of different ways that we can take care of each of the different systems. The building itself is a lot easier to take offline put it in sort of that dry layup or layaway state and not have to really do much. The HVAC system, though, you're going to get a much shorter timeline from all of that. And to take that offline and to bring it back on, really decisions would sort of have to be made. So the building itself, it's easy. We can shut down electricity, we can reduce heat. If we wanted to choose to eliminate heat, those are all steps and big decisions we'd have to make. You have to think about air quality of the building, any types of moisture, the roof. So, all of those, those different systems are going to severely impact how that building is taken offline and how long it will survive in that state before it's, it's looked at as being either. There's we're at the no turning backs. stage of it or that we can turn it back on. So I guess kind of going through some of the different systems, you know, heat, electricity is some of the big ones that we look at. Can we reduce the electricity? Can we reduce the heat? Absolutely. So what happens when we reduce the heat? Well, it could affect our life safety systems. Our life safety systems have to be maintained on a vacant building. So even if there's no one in there, we need to make it safe. It's a code requirement to ensure that if anyone were to ever get in there, they would be protected. Our first responders or public safety would be protected and there would be some type of notification systems out there. So there's always these thresholds that we can bring it to 68 degrees. and above we can have people in there and they can occupy the space or we could use it for storage and people are going in it below that but above say 40 degrees we we could have not necessarily occupy the space but we still have enough systems going um and we don't have to make any drastic changes if we go as far as saying we're not going to heat the building You know, when we think about it, we need to protect all of the piping in there from freezing. We also have to consider what we're doing for the HVAC system. It's a very large school. Are we filling the piping system with like a... Nitrogen gas so that the pipes don't rust from the insides out because they now have moisture in them and they're sitting. So there's just a lot of decisions that would have to be made. It really boils down to what do we want to use the building for, if at all, and how long do we expect it to be offline? And I think that that will determine how much we have to do. And each one of those is it's I think there's going to be a time where we're saying we're either putting this money up front to take this building offline or we're using a similar amount of money, but we're keeping it operational. It's going to be an operational expense over a period of time.

Thank you, Jeremy. And there's a related question. Sean, you're taking them in order. But the other one was, is that if we take it offline, given the age and antiquity of the systems, is it even possible to start it up again? And I think you're saying it depends on how severely. That's the one. Would it be possible? And the question is, so everyone understands that The building's not going to be occupied. It is going to be used for storage for the recreation department and potentially use of the gym. So the question is, what is what if we weren't to do either of those? Would we be saving it where we're at a budget of, you know, almost two hundred thousand dollars to keep it open at this level? So. I think you've answered that it depends on the length of time, even on whether you could start it up again. Is that correct?

Yes, and I guess to really simplify it, I would, I would say. The building itself after 3 years, I would be concerned. The heating, the heating and ventilation system after 1 year, I would be concerned. So, so ultimately the answer is, you kind of have a year. To make make a decision, if not, it's going to cost. large amounts of money to restore the system.

Sean, I think we can keep going. I see Sam has his hand up and Jeffrey Robert has his hand up on this. Sam.

Thank you, Kathy. If you want to go through all the questions first, I'd be glad to lower my hand. If you want to take questions in sequence related to the question that was discussed, I

Maybe that makes sense, Sean. Let's just run through the questions and then if that's okay with you, Jeffrey, then we'll come back and ask for more because otherwise we'll take too much time. Does that make sense?

Yep, I'll run through them a little quicker too. So the next question was DPW design decision. When will the decision be made regarding phase construction? If made by year end, could Wildwood be decommissioned at that point, not knowing or knowing that it's not needed for swing space? So that question is related to There's several reasons why the recommendation was made to keep Wildwood in a usable state. One of those reasons was as an emergency use for the DPW while we await the construction of a new building. And so the timeline for that project right now is that the Wesson and Sampson is expected to have a schematic design cost estimates around December of 2026. And so a decision at We'll know at that point whether phase construction is even possible. Right now, the designers have showed us a very, very high-level drawing of it might be possible, and we've asked them to look into that more. So by December of this year, we'll know if phase construction is something they're recommending is possible, and then a decision could be made at that point if we felt like that influenced whether or not to keep Wildwood open. The next question is the revised costs total $193,000, including capital. This is a high cost for maintaining a building for the use of the gym and storage. Does it make sense to keep this building open with those high costs just for storage space and recreation supplies and the gym? And so there were a few reasons outlined in the memo why the option to keep the building in a usable state was recommended. We're sort of at a point where there's two pathways, right? There's this path to keep it in a usable state and there's a pathway where it could be completely shut down. The recommendation is to keep it open and one is for the storage and for the gym of the recreation department. That's not the only reason, but that is a reason given, you know, not a complete surprise, but a somewhat short timeline for vacating the middle school and moving all their stuff, right? So they're a small department, seven people, but they have a lot of stuff. And so to move them quickly and find a new home took a lot of planning by multiple folks and there were not many options to consider. So that's one reason. The second reason I already mentioned was the public works department and their headquarters and having that wildwood space, even though it may not be desirable, having that space as a fallback option should something unforeseen happen at the public works building, or if we just find out that phase construction is not a possibility. Again, we haven't gone through schematic design, let alone more detailed analysis of the site. So right now, it's just an idea on paper. So that's the second reason. And then the third reason is there is a working group that's going to be put together. I talked to the town manager. The plan is for them to start shortly after Labor Day. And the focus of that working group is to explore the future of the Wildwood site and the facility. And we didn't want to do anything to the building that would limit the options to the town and to this working group. We felt like if we were to decommission the building, shut it down, and based on some of the information we got from Jeremiah and Rob Mora about how quickly the building could go south, we felt like not maintaining the building in this usable state would sort of limit the options to that committee and ultimately to the town. So We thought this maintained flexibility. Again, the proposal is only to maintain the building for the rest of the fiscal year and then reevaluate in the spring about what to do beyond that. So those are the reasons why this appropriation order was recommended. If the town anticipates demolishing Wildwood in the future or redeveloping the property, where would the rec department conduct programming once the Wildwood gym is no longer available? Um, so the rec department and Ray's here. So if there's more detailed questions, he can hop on, but the rec department is used to being very flexible and redesigning their programming based on the spaces that are available to them. They've dealt with several curve balls over the last few years. Um, you know, talking to Ray, uh, you know, the late start move of the high school limited how much time they had in the facilities there. Um, there's been changes at the middle school, which has limited, uh, their, their time and access. So they're used to looking at the resources they have available and building programming. If Wildwood Gym was not available, they wouldn't have a gym that they could program during the day that doesn't have kids in the building. They are going to be working on getting access to Amethyst Brook, which again would be after hours. They're always in talks with the high school and the middle school about accessing those spaces. But their options will be more limited if Wildwood is eventually demolished. And what is the anticipated use of the Wildwood Gym? daily by the rec department during the day, nights or weekends, what types of activities could be used for senior center activities and what has rec done in the past? So I think the answer during days, nights or weekends, it's all of the above. It would, rec department would have much more flexibility to program that site during the day, which they don't typically have with school gyms. So Ray's initial plan is that it would support basketball, youth basketball, two different programs, AYBL and then the fifth and sixth grade suburban basketball league. both of those programs have been in Wildwood in the past. So going to the last piece of that question, they've been at Wildwood and at Fort River at different points in time. Pickleball would be an option. That's one of the ones that has currently used the middle school, the small gym at the middle school. And I think it's a small piece of time on the weekends. That would be an option for during the week programming. So that could definitely be an area for opportunity and expansion if they had the Wildwood gym available all day. And then adult sandlot basketball. So basically drop-in basketball pickup games is something that it could be used for. So those are a few areas that they've identified already they would use it for. There would likely be more that they would consider if they had that gym to themselves. How much storage space is required by the rec department and for how long would Wildwood service storage? So right now rec is using about one and a half quads. So these are really big classrooms. Some of that is taken up by all the furniture that they had to remove from the middle school. So some of that might not go with them. But they have a lot of storage because they have all these different programs. And different times of the year, you pull out different stuff to support those programs, whether it's summer camp, the athletic programs that they have, different needs. And they're... storage is a little bit different than like the storage finance would have. So for us, we use the North Amherst school. We can put things in boxes, put it in a certain area and we never have to worry about it unless there's a request or an audit or something like that, that we need to go find stuff. REC needs access to its storage all throughout the year. You know, it's, it's, it's not like you might think of storage where you never see it again. They need to be able to get to it. They need space to pull things out and program and plan. So it's not just, they need, you know, shelves that they can stuff things on there. They need space where they can pull it out, open it up, and plan what they're going to do for all the different programs they provide. So Wildwood could serve as storage. We would plan for just the rest of the fiscal year, honestly. And during this year, we've already been talking with Jeremiah and Rob Moore about evaluating other facilities in town to potentially serve as long-term storage, because if we don't have the Wildwood site, which might be a real possibility, we are gonna need a place for rec storage to go. Right now we use the North Hammer School for some of the traditional storage. It takes up the basement level of that building. The floor above it is now vacant. That's where some of the Head Start programs used to be. One reason we haven't just thrown things in there is there was interest, potentially interest for youth programs to stay in that building. It was designed for an early child care center. Um, when Hampshire college is early childhood center closed, they were had at least some really initial discussions about possibly coming over to that space. Um, and we know that that continues to be a need, um, in the community. So once we, you know, if there's a decision to turn that floor into storage, it's likely not going to ever go back to being, uh, you know, a home for, for youth programs, but we would evaluate that during this year. And that might ultimately be the decision because there's not a lot of other areas in town, um, for storage right now. And that sort of rolls into the next question, which is why not use the North Amherst School for storage? Already been used for that purpose, so I think I sort of addressed that. There was another question about why not use the closed maker space at the middle school. That was one of the spaces that REC was using, and they've been asked to leave that space. So REC was using that whole old wood shop area for storage, and they've had to pull everything out of there and move it to Wildwood. So that's no longer an option. And what is the plan after one year for storage at Wildwood? Again, we're going to evaluate facilities in town. And, you know, they may also mean looking at external sources if we have to rent a facility or if we have to look at sheds or, you know, small rental facilities that could house some of their storage. One of the things, talking to Ray, that's really important about their storage and it's why the middle school was such an ideal location and Wildwood's okay and Northammer School is not so great. is that they really like their storage near the programs that they're going to have so that if they forget something, if they need something extra, they don't have to drive all across town to get what they need. That's one of the problems with Northammer schools. It's not really located near any of their programs. The middle school was perfect because most of the programs are in that little area. So that's going to be a reality we're going to have to deal with, and they'll have to adjust into their operations to some extent, no matter what. But we are When we think about storage for them, we try to find storage that's close to where their programs are going to be. I think those are the questions, Kathy, unless you think I missed them.

Yeah, I think you did. So Sam and Jeffrey both had their hands up, and now I see Jill as well. So I'm going to take Sam, Jeffrey, and then Jill, having heard. And just so people know, Sam and Jill didn't have a chance to see these questions. Jeffrey submitted some of them, but not all of them. So I didn't share them before tonight, Sam.

Thank you, Kathy, and thank you, Sean and Jeremiah. As I listen, we discussed some of this previously in finance, and the concern was shutting down and damage to the building. You know, my concern related to damage related to air quality and or mold. What I heard today, Jeremiah, you indicated it could potentially be shut down for maximum, maximum of one year after which we're risking conditions. I see the decision as a trade-off between what's it actually cost to shut it down and turn it back on versus the risk. And I understand the desire to have flexibility for all the reasons that Sean mentioned, but, um, I see the costs in the table in the report at 171, which would be a somewhat functioning building for reduced use without the rec department. What's it actually cost to shut it down and turn it on again with the minimum level of utilities, perhaps 40 degrees. If we don't have that number, that's fine. I'm just trying to get a handle on the trade-off of shut it down, cost, shut it back on versus the timeframe of a year, aside from the potential uses that Sean referenced. Thank you.

Yeah, thank you, Sam. I don't have that figure, and that is something that Sean and I have started, and Rob, Maura, we've all started to really look at and say, okay, so if this is the direction that we're going to go and we are shutting it down, what is the cost and what changes to the building have to be made? Um, so that, that is something that, that I have been looking at the, you know, really thinking about over the weekend and, you know, was kind of digging into some more today. I don't, I don't have that, that figure for you now. Um, uh, it would, it would take some time. Um, And again, I think it all depends on what do we consider kind of shutting it down to. So the closer we sort of approach the red X on the building with all of these mothballing, we get to that point of sort of no return. Yeah, it's just something I would have to kind of spend a little bit more time on. You know, unfortunately, I don't have it right now.

No, I understand. And I'm not necessarily advocating for shutting down with Red X. I'm just trying to get the parameters. Would it be fair to say that it's, you know, hip shot? It'd be more than 10 grand to shut it down?

Yes, absolutely.

And it could be up to 50 grand potentially?

I would put a larger number on it than that.

okay that's that's worth to jeremiah's point it really matters are we shutting it down with the anticipation of starting it back up or are we shutting it down with anticipation of demolishing the building if if we're shutting it down to demolish it i mean we're we're removing oil tanks we're disconnecting you know we're hiring plumbers and whoever to disconnect lines as jeremiah said the safety system i mean there's if we're shutting it down because Again, we're not going to, or for some times we think we might start back up, then it might be a different cost than if it's the latter. So I think Rob and Jeremiah can come, you know, if the council needs more information on that, they could come back with more.

No, that's quite helpful, both your responses to my question, because it indicates the reasoning behind the desire for flexibility prior to decision point. Thank you.

So I'm going to take Jeffrey, then Jill, then Lynn. Councillor Brevick, but Jeffrey.

So I just had a follow-up question on the same vein of conversation, Sean and Jeremiah. It was about whether or not you'd use town employees to do the mothballing shutting down process, if that's even possible, if they have the requisite skills for such, or if there's a third party vendor that you have to go out and contract with, go through procurement process to do that. Is this something that we in-house could actually do?

Jeremiah, you can speak. I mean, we have an, we have an electrician. I don't know, you know, their experience with taking, you know, taking a school offline. We don't have a plumber. We don't have necessarily an HVAC specialist for a building like Wildwood. We definitely don't have anyone who would, from like an environmental standpoint, I don't believe, be able to take out like an oil tank out of the ground. That usually has to be procured and contracted out. We've done several of those in the last several years, whether it be Fort River or the middle school, we've had to contract out removing oil tanks. So I think we would look, there's not a, the talent facility department is not huge. I think, I mean, Jeremiah will say it's small. I think we'd look at public works to see if they have some of the skills maybe, but I don't think we would be able to do a lot there either.

Yeah, I think we would have to even go beyond that, like Sean was saying, and procure some of that out.

So from the sound of it, especially when you're talking oil tanks, I mean, you've got a comma or two in that conversation in and of itself. So if it were the 40 plus degrees or even getting to the 64 degrees where your moisture problems are a little bit less of an issue, some of that might be able to be done in-house, but then everything that we're doing to say like actually shutting the building down permanently is going to go through a significantly larger, not only cost, but procurement process, if that's the correct understanding that I have. Yes. Thank you.

Council Breivik.

Yeah, thank you. And yeah, thanks to Sean and Jeremiah. I appreciate all of this information. I have just a quick numbers question on page four. of the revised request um that like breaks out the cost centers i just am wondering there on the lines for the building maintenance assistant which went from 47 000 down to 23 000 and then benefits went from 30 000 to 22 000 I'm curious about where we landed with $23,000 in salary and $22,000 in benefits. Usually you would see benefits being a percentage of the salary. If you could just maybe explain the math there, that would be helpful. I'm sure there's a reason. I'm just wondering what it is.

Yeah, no, Kathy got me on that right away as soon as she saw that. So the building maintenance assistant reduction, so that's just the straight halftime individual. So they would be 20 hours a week. So it's a direct 50% reduction. With health insurance, they either have it or they don't. It's not something that gets prorated the same way. So for that, the cost could have stayed the same, but we made a decision to, when we did the first estimate, we based it on a full family PPO plan, which is our most expensive plan as a precaution. When we reduced it down to a 50%, we dropped it to the lower cost family plan. So it's still based on a full family plan, just the lower cost option, but it's not a prorated health insurance. It's the full health insurance.

The way of thinking about it is once you're a genuinely half-bound person, you get a full-time health insurance plan. You don't get half of one. Yeah, 20 hours is the threshold. And the two different numbers that Sean had put in, one was the most expensive option, and this one is more the HMO option. You don't know who the person will be, and you don't know which plan they'll choose.

And so this is not a split plan? One full-time position split doing some of this work and doing other work.

Not as a break.

Purely part-time.

Right.

Envisioned as a purely part-time. Okay. Thank you so much.

Lynn. Yes. I want to have you clarify. I think Jeremiah, you mentioned that when we vacate a building, we still have to do certain things to make sure that this building is still safe. And does, could you just explain if we were going to mothball this building and it was going to just sit there empty, that's considered vacated. What would we have to make sure would still make it safe?

Yeah, so a building that's mothballed, there still is... an FPA, so National Fire Protection Association code requirements that state that all life safety measures have to be maintained. So your fire alarm system, if your fire alarm system is there and in working order, well, you need to have it monitored. If you do have a sprinkler system, the sprinkler system has to work. all your fire extinguishers have to work. And again, it's in these emergency situations where either someone is in there or someone has to go into the building. If we think about it, an individual can get into a vacant building. However they get in there, we don't know. But we also want to make sure that they can get out of that building, so if there was any issue. um really you you want to make sure that that doors can that operate properly so if they're exiting a building if they need to get out in a rush they're not going to hit that door and it just be bound up because of snow and ice or just the fact that the door is is starting to corrode and won't open so all of these these different items need to be uh maintained um Security is just another aspect of all of that. So we want to make sure, and for us, I mean, it is, no matter what, if we're mothballing it or not, it is an asset for the town. So we want to make sure that the building is secure. The alternative is we say it's mothballed, but then we put the signs on it with the big red X. The bid red X means we don't have to do anything anymore. No one is going in there. If there is an issue, you don't enter the building. So if you're not at that point, if you haven't decided to put that on the building that says this is no longer safe for people to go inside, you really do have these minimums that need to be maintained for the building. So that's just kind of like a quick rundown of some of the items. But again, with each degree, there's additional costs.

So if we vote to go with the recommendation and a year from now or 10 months from now, we're actually looking at saying, you know, it's time to put an X on this building. There's still going to be some costs associated with that.

Yes.

Thank you.

Yes.

So I'm going to just ask a follow-up question to Lyns. If I look at the budget and everyone in the revised proposal shows you the budget, If we weren't going to be using it, but we're doing everything you're protecting, then is it correct, the building maintenance assistant, 44, almost $50,000 disappears. There's some things that you would not have to pay for. And Jeremiah, you said you could... move the heat down to 40 or 50 degrees, you know, wherever. But so we could be looking at a substantially lower cost if we decided we weren't going to be regularly using the building. And the reason I'm asking some of this is that we've known for four or five years that we were gonna have Wildwood be vacant. We didn't know the exact date the school would, but it's never been in our budget. It was not in the town municipal budget as a cost that we were gonna have to keep doing something. And so I'm also wondering about the 50,000 in capital. Would we put any capital in, or is this just a holding in case something goes wrong? And following up on Lynch, what do we do after 10 months? If DPW decision is made and they can do phasing, could we make a decision in February, you know, halfway through the year to turn it down to this minimal, you know, keep the fire alarm working, but really lower the cost instead of being a couple hundred thousand, and I'm adding the 50,000 to the operating. can we get it way down to 50,000 because we're not paying for a custodian and paying the benefits. So it's a question about what is the carrying costs of this building if we decide that we are not going to be using it. So if we want to do it for at least a half a year, I think that's clear the way I stated it.

Can I quickly respond, Kathy? To that is that a question to us class answer that. Okay. So the capital request is only intended for absolutely needed expenditures that's not. That would be for anything that is legally or from a safety perspective required and if it's not spent it could go towards decommissioning the building in the future, or you know demolishing the building in the future. So that there's not like a project in mind with that money right now. It's really meant like we have money for other buildings in town that if something unanticipated, unforeseen pops up and we need emergency funds, we would use it. And, you know, coincidentally, I heard from the schools that the repairs they made to the HVAC system there on the roof, there were some additional issues with that. And so they're not quite sure what the condition is of that. So there could be, you know, depending on what we do with that building, there could be some of those capital expenses, but There's no big project planned for that money. It's there as a precaution. And then, you know, Jeremiah, I'm sure will reinforce this. The facility staff are extremely stretched in town. They've only added buildings in recent years to their control. And we haven't added any staff. And this would be a big facility to add, even if you're going to keep it in that sort of low 40 degree level. If there's an expectation for the facility department to to the building once a week and check it out and flush systems so that things don't back up like that's a really big workload anyways and then if we're expecting the facility department to um kind of just fit that into their workload which there's nobody assigned there's already multiple staff who cover multiple buildings there's nobody that um has unless jeremiah tells me otherwise that there's flexibility for someone to just pick up uh wildwood so i think that's the challenge we If the town doesn't want to keep the building in an operable condition for the rest of this fiscal year, I think we would need really clear direction. What is that condition that the council wants us to keep it in? And then we would bring back potentially an additional appropriation request, a different appropriation request. We would let you know what it would take in order to do that.

I'm sorry, Kathleen. I didn't see your hand. And Jill, is your hand up again? I see Kathleen's hand and then Jill.

Yeah, thank you, Kathy. My question is just about the Wildwood Working Group, and you said it was supposed to start after Labor Day. Does it have a timeline or anticipated timeline by which we might have some more information about the future of that site?

Maybe, yeah, it sounds like Dave has some info on that.

If I could. Yeah, not a lot of information on that, but certainly Sean and I have have spoken at some length with paul about kicking that off as sean indicated certainly jeff bag as our new planning and economic development director would be you know integral to that process and and likely part of the staff support for that committee um as soon as paul is back from his time away i'm sure we will get focused on that and and he will start talking about appointments but It's, you know, now that DPW has kicked off and some other appointments have been made, I think that's next on Paul's list. And if I could just put in a plug, I've spent almost two hours with rec staff today walking Wildwood. I've spent a lot of time with Sean, with Jeremiah, with Rob Mora at the building, with Ray Harp and his staff. And I think the plan that the town manager and Sean and others have put forth is really the compromise to give us time to do further assessment of the building to figure out. Certainly, you know, I look at his three buckets, really the personnel and staffing, uh, issue. And I think, you know, um, this, that was kind of a wild card precipitated by the schools. Um, um, asking us to vacate and have rec move out. That was not in the plan, and it was just thrust upon us. So we got them over to Wildwood and realized that is not the best location for them. And I think we've pivoted to Bangs, and I think it's going to be a great collaborative environment for them to be in there. But it still leaves us with significant questions about storage and the gymnasium. As Sean indicated, you know, there will really be the loss for rec of two gyms. One is Fort River, and this one could follow fairly soon thereafter. And I think the use of the Amethyst Brook Gymnasium is still in question. We don't have an MOU with the schools to use that. But storage is an important component here. As Sean indicated, we're talking about equipment, materials for Halloween, Fourth of July camps. It is a lot of material that doesn't fit into neat nooks and crannies or shelving. So it gives us a little time to figure that out, figure out whether we need the building The DPW question will be will be answered by December. In my estimation of the situation, we can't really have the building at 40 degrees. You're going to get mold, mildew, We would have to move wreck stuff out of there for actually going to keep that building at at such a low temperature that would have to be a decision we'd have to make this fall and get that material out of there so just wanted to add some some of those elements that I've talked about with staff as we've gone through this process.

Council perfect.

Caroline Crouse, yeah just a quick follow up um because and yeah this will be such this is such important information will be something that will you know be really relevant in the coming year i'm wondering and. Caroline Crouse, Dave you said you, you know really have been working with the staff and and trying to hear their you know their thoughts and input and input of you know people who were working in the building um. Is there anything else that would be relevant for us to know about so like we heard about heat and humidity and. You know, there was mentioned of air quality were there any other concerns or any other really you know significant pieces of feedback that we got from the REC staff during their time there.

Again, if I could, Kathy.

Sure, Dave. Go ahead. And let's just keep it short because there's also a larger report, Jill, on the conditions of this building, which is one of the reasons we were planning on taking it offline. But go ahead, Dave.

Again, to be brief, I think... You know this, we had to move in a hurry and kudos to Jeremiah and Rob and Ray's staff for getting it all together and moving everything over and IT, etc. So when we got there, yeah, the building, it's a tired old building. That's, you know, I think everyone knows that's why we're building a brand new building. building the Amethyst School, and it shows and it feels it over there. Moisture is difficult to control in a building like that. So some spaces are highly conditioned and others, as you get farther out on the branches of the tree, really don't receive a lot. So I think as we start shutting systems down, if we shut them down or if we turn the heat down, I think you know jeremiah and rob as have indicated to me that things will just start to fail whether it's more moisture coming through the roof which we know needs work um or not controlling uh you know through hvac anything in the building so it's just a matter of time so i think we're asking for the time to keep the storage, possibly keep the gymnasium going as an income source for REC, which they've enjoyed for a long time using that gym. And then maybe after the first of the year, working with the town manager and through you, further decisions will be made.

Are there any other questions of the committee?

I'm ready to make the motions.

Okay. Okay.

And I make these with the condition that we will be hearing about this on a monthly basis through the town managers report. The first motion, there are two motions and I just want to make sure I get them correct. Um. that the finance committee recommend to the town council that they adopt appropriation and transfer order FY27-04C, an order for a supplemental appropriation to the town of Amherst general fund operating budget for available school expenses, excess capital funding for the operation and maintenance of the Wildwood School for fiscal year 2027. Seek a second.

Second.

Second. I'll take any discussion of that. And the one question I would have is this notion of if by mid-year, meaning January, February, we decide we are not going to be doing this for multiple years. Can we come back and revisit this? So can we vote this now and have Sean and staff be reporting the actual operating costs of the building and revisit it in, tell me the time, January or February? So without amending that, I would like to have the record show that that would be a consideration.

That was my notion of having it in the town manager's report so that the record shows that we want to keep track of this in case we want to shorten the time.

Okay, then I second the motion. The motion's been seconded. Are we ready to vote? Is there any other comments? Okay, I will call the finance committee members as I see them on my screen because I don't have a list when I Kathy is a yes. Kathleen support. Council brother, yes. On a devil got there I and Jeffrey Robert.

Support.

Okay, second one. I move that we recommend to the town council the adoption of appropriation and transfer order FY27-05B, an order for a supplemental appropriation to the town of Amherst capital project program for available school excess capital funding for FY27 Wildwood School facility improvements.

Just so people know, this is at the $50,000 level. That's the revision. Is there a second?

Second.

Is there any discussion of this? Then we'll put it to a vote. Lynn? Aye. Kathy is a yes. Sam McLeod?

Aye.

Kathleen Mitchell? Support. Council Brevick. Yes. On the devil and got clear eye. And Jeffrey Robert. That concludes our discussion of these 2 financial orders we already met in July and recommended unanimously the other 2 financial orders so we don't need to have any discussion of that so we can adjourn. the special meeting of the finance committee and turn it back to the council if i move to adjourn um i second that and i think we need to put it to vote so kathy is a yes sam aye lynn aye kathleen yes councillor brevik yes Donna Deville-Gauthier. Aye. And Jeffrey Robert.

Yes.

And I want to thank Sean and Jeremiah and also Dave for coming here. And we have a record of answers to this. So I think the other thing we'll do in finance is to regularly monitor what's going on here. So make sure we get a report back. And thanks for the patience of the council for giving us what turned out to be a full meeting in the middle of the council meeting.

we are adjourned thank you we will move right into the regular meeting of the town council again i thank the counselors and the public for being patient with that that allowed us to get to these orders tonight as a council um so it is 7 32 and seeing a presence of a quorum i am calling the august 17th regular meeting of the town council to order um again this meeting is being held in person and remote access option is provided as a courtesy only um i won't go through all of that we did it an hour ago but i will because we were um adjourned and not in council meeting for so long i will make sure all of the counselors are still here um so i'm just going to do roll call on that counselor brevik Yes. Councilor Kennell Martin is absent. Councilor Andy Churchill is absent. Ana Devlin-Gauthier. Aye. Lynn Griesemer.

Present.

Mandy Johanik is present. Councilor Lord. Sam McLeod.

Present.

Pam Rooney. Here. Councilor Ryan. Still here. Kathy Shane.

I'm here.

Jennifer Taub. Here. And Councilor Walker is absent. With that, we will move right into the meeting. Announcements look a little bit different. The town has changed its agenda center for boards and committees, so we have links to the calendars on that for everyone to look for the board and committee meeting information. There are no hearings tonight, so we will move to general public comment. Anyone wishing to make general public comment who is attending remotely, please raise your hand in the Zoom application. If you're present in the town room and have not signed up, please do so now. Residents are welcome to make public comments on matters within the jurisdiction of the town council. The council will not engage in a dialogue or comment on a matter raised during general public comment. Public comments are not reflective of the opinions of the town council. The First Amendment broadly protects individuals' rights to address the government, to speak and to express themselves, including their right to say hateful and offensive things. I'm generally unable to shut those commenters down under the First Amendment of the US Constitution unless their level of speech falls within an exception articulated by the courts, such as fighting words, true threats to a particular individual, harassment of a particular individual, or incitement of imminent lawless activity. If a question exists as to whether a particular speaker is engaged in engaging in unprotected speech, I must defer to the principle of freedom of speech. There are no hands raised on Zoom of people who wish to make a public comment. Sean, how many people in the town room have signed up? Two. Everyone will have three minutes to make their comment. Sean, who's the first person who signed up? Vince, please come on up, state your name and where you live and make your comment.

Vince O'Connor, 175 Summer Street, apartment 12. And first comment is, after the last discussion and information, I think that those who thought that squeezing the elementary schools into just two buildings or two and a half or whatever was going to be all gravy, welcome to the real world. My comment regards the manager and police chief's proposal to use sworn police officers to observe ICE and border patrol activity in the town of Amherst. That proposal is a dangerous mistake. First, that there is black letter law that convicted a number of police officers in Minneapolis who stood by and watched the murder of Mr. Floyd, that requires police officers to intervene when criminal acts, felonies at least, are committed in their presence. And their failure to do so, will be used by the defense, by those who defend ICE and Border Patrol people, for any criminal acts they commit in the presence of the Amherst police. Absolutely foolhardy to send the police there. They will become, essentially, their inaction will become witnesses for the ICE and Border Patrol people who commit criminal acts. Their inaction will essentially testify to a jury that nothing criminal happened. Utter foolishness on behalf of the manager and the police chief to put their police officers in that position to be silent witnesses for the defense of people who commit indefensible acts. I mean, if you wanna look at Minneapolis, The best observer was a 17-year-old black girl with a cell phone camera. This is not an appropriate thing to an observer for the town. At least her observations were made public. What the police will see will have to be extracted from the police department by litigation. The best option is to send a well-organized, disciplined crest team there. They don't have the power to arrest. Their failure to intervene will not be testimony on behalf of any ICE operatives who engage in misconduct.

Please wrap up.

Finally, with regard to the police officers themselves, to send them there and to have them in the presence. Your time is up, you need to wrap up. In fact, we'll subject them as the police officers in Minneapolis found out to both civil and criminal penalties for failure to act.

Thank you, Vince, for your comments. Sean? Evan, please come on up, state your name and where you live, and make your comments.

All righty. Good evening, councillors. My name is Evan A. Smith.

Speak closer to the mic. Yes, thank you.

My name is Evan A. Smith. I live in District 5. Last month, I shared some statistics with you, not the ones that are in front of you now, but you remember them. They were about how many UMass students live off campus. UMass presented these figures to the Amherst Planning Board on October 25th, 2023. The planning board members accepted the data as accurate and the census numbers confirmed them. The data show that UMass' recent enrollment growth is overwhelmingly online only students who don't live locally. After accounting for UMass's 4,000 new beds, the net addition to the off-campus population is about five students per year, five. The distribution could shift somewhat. A few hundred students may have moved from Hadley to Amherst or the other way around, but the claim that thousands of new students are straining our housing supply is verifiably false. Counselor Taub has questioned my qualifications for the planning board because I said that UMass' off-campus numbers were essentially flat. But she attended, literally attended that 2023 October meeting. And the recording is public. So I'd invite all of you to watch it and judge the numbers for yourselves. But enough with the data for now. I want to offer my opinion on why these numbers matter so much and why they've been met with so much resistance. The housing data is critical because it undermines the myth of the student invasion. In that story, Amherst's homeowners are the victims and the oppressors are low income student renters who depopulate our schools and chase away aging in place seniors. That myth gives us, the homeowners, a permission structure to fight back using zoning as both a sword and a shield. It gives us the moral basis to confine students to arterial roads, to impose moratoria so that they don't take over our downtown, that was articles 18 and 19, and to dictate how many unrelated individuals may reside together before triggering eviction. The student invasion myth lets us ignore Mindy Dahm's plea to go big, and when rents inevitably skyrocket, we simply blame the next chancellor. Everyone loves playing the victim, but the data contradicts this story at every turn. The housing production plan shows that our under 25 population is shrinking. The chief of police reports that noise complaints have dropped 50% in the last decade. And here's the uncomfortable part. Without the myth, we have no principled basis for excluding students from our white picket fence neighborhoods or dictating with whom they may live. Without the myth, those bylaws are just discrimination. The myth has also led us to endorse some curious economic policies, like specifically requesting more tax-exempt PPPs, the worst possible housing option for Amherst's future. The fact is, off-campus students are major contributors to local businesses, real estate values, and tax revenues. If you don't believe me, just ask your finance committee. They'll tell you how devastating it would be to lose a big chunk of our off-campus population. The bottom line is that the numbers don't lie. The student invasion myth is false and every policy it inspired deserves a close second look. We need to do better, especially for our student constituents. Thank you, counselors.

Thank you, Evan, for your comments tonight. I see no other people. seeking to make public comments so i will close the public comment period and move us on to the consent agenda um the following items were selected because they were considered to be routine and it was reasonable to accept that expect that they would pass with no controversy to remove an item from the consent agenda for discussion later in the meeting ask that it be removed when the president lists the consent items the request to remove an item from consent does not require a second so the motion at this point is To move the following items and the printed motions there under and approve those items as a single unit. Item eight, a one approval of FY2704B Pelham treasurer collector services. Item eight, a three approval of FY2706A PFAS appropriation for monitoring and remediation waiver of town council rule of procedure for rule 8.6 for town manager appointments. Item nine a approval of town manager appointments to the community development block grant committee and the waiver is required for one of those two appointments because one memo came after the TSO met and item 11 approval of July 20 2026 regular meeting and public forum minutes is there anyone that would like to remove any items from the. Agenda consent agenda. Seeing none, is there a second to the motion?

Second. Second.

Councillor Ryan gets that second. Any discussion? Seeing none, we will start with Anna Davongafie. Aye. Lynn Griesemer.

Aye.

Mandy Johanicki is an aye. Councillor Lord. Sam McLeod. Aye. Pam Rooney. Yes. Councillor Ryan.

Aye.

Kathy Shane.

Yes.

Jennifer Taub. Yes. And Councillor Brevik. Aye. Yes. Councilor Walker, Councilor Kano-Martin and Andy Churchill are absent. That vote is unanimous 10 to 0. The consent agenda passes. OK. That we have no resolutions and proclamations. We have no presentations and discussions. We move on to action items. We just appropriated under consent FY2704B, item 8A1. um so we will move on to fy27 item 8a2 which has two motions in it um we will start with um fy 2704c see the motion is having been referred to the finance committee on july twenty twenty twenty six having held a public forum on august seventeen twenty twenty six and finance committee submitted a recommendation to the town council on august seventeen twenty twenty six to approve appropriation and transfer order fy twenty seven oh four c in order for a supplemental appropriation to the town of Amherst general fund operating budget from available source from available school excess capital funding for the operation and maintenance of the Wildwood School for fiscal year 27 as shown on page 12 of the motion sheet. Is there a second?

Second.

Okay. Lynn Griesemer gets that. Is there any discussion on this one? Kathy? Okay.

Let's have one, and it's really just a minor effort. I think the recommendation was for this particular order was tonight, not the date, not the July 20th date. I'm going to have the same comment on the Capital One.

The motion has that the recommendation was submitted on August 17th. The order was referred on the 20th of July, but the recommendation... The recommendation is on the 17th, okay.

That is what the motion says. Thank you.

council ryan so i was dying to ask this question during the finance committee meeting but i got the feeling that i probably shouldn't um so i didn't and i'm not sure this is the right moment for it but and it made me more curiosity than anything else but as we know sometimes there's a game of musical chairs as we move our staff around and the space is limited But I was a little surprised to hear that they're moving into the bank center on the second floor. And so my question, and maybe it's for a later time, is then who gets bumped? Or who was that supposed to be for but now is not for? So I just wondered if someone could enlighten me as to uh what impact the movement of rec into banks has on all the other tenants in that building which are they're a substantial number veterans health department press senior center so i'm just curious about this sort of impact of that change dave

Thanks for the question. It's a great question. In fact, no one is getting bounced out of their space. We'd always considered the possibility that REC could move into banks. But again, there's multiple projects going on all over town. And one of them is some of the HVAC and other work going on in banks. So at the time that we were asked to leave uh, arms space wasn't available in bangs because of the renovations that are going on there. But, um, as you may know, crest move has moved down to the poll room as part of those renovations. And we believe that is a very good place for them to be. in the poll room with their own uh entrance and exit on the ground floor and um the director there is quite comfortable and happy with that space for her staff so the space that we're moving rack into is on the second floor that was formerly occupied by crass So DEI will be on one side. The Health Department will be moving up this fall. They'll be on the other side on the second floor. And we've already had conversations with Dan and Kiko and Pamela and other staff. And they're very excited to have REC as part of the, if you will, the community services group of departments there. So the space is vacant right now. It's, as Sean indicated earlier, newly renovated. in the past few years for Cress and ready to have a rec move in. The desks are still there. They'll have a reception area to greet the public. And I think that's one thing that wasn't emphasized enough earlier in the conversation. We want a place to welcome the public. If you want to walk in and talk to somebody about a recreation program or swimming lessons or whatever it might be, Wildwood was always going to be a challenge, right? Because of the space and the curbs and how large it is. But they'll be utilizing the space formerly occupied by Cress, and they'll have their own reception window, and we think it'll work really nicely.

Any further questions? Seeing no other hands on this motion, we will move to a vote. We start with Lynn.

Aye.

Aye. Mandy Johanneke is an aye. Councillor Lorde. Sam McLeod. Aye. Pam Rooney. Yes. Councillor Ryan. Aye. Kathy Shane. Yes. Jennifer Taub. Yes. And Councillor Brevik. Yes. That is unanimous 10 to 0. I'm also a yes.

Oh, sorry. Anna Devlin-Gauthier. Aye.

sorry about that that is unanimous ten to zero with three absent which are counselor kennel martin andy churchill and counselor walker we will move on to the next motion which is having been referred to the finance committee on july 20 2026 having held a public forum on august 17 2026 and finance committee submitting a recommendation to the town council on august 17 2026 to approve appropriation and transfer order fy2705b an order for a supplemental appropriation to the town of amherst capital project program from available school excess capital funding for fy27 wildwood elementary school facility improvements as shown on page 13 of the motion sheet is there a second second ernie thank you no thank you pam are there any questions or comments discussion on this motion Seeing none, we'll move to a vote, and we start with me. I am an aye. Councillor Lord? Aye. Sam McLeod? Aye. Pam Rooney? Yes. Councillor Ryan? Aye. Kathy Shane?

Yes.

Jennifer Taub? Yes. Councillor Brevik? Yes. Anna Devin-Gauthier? Aye. And Lynn Griesemer? Aye. That is unanimous, 10-0, with three absent, who are Councillor Ken O'Martin, Andy Churchill, and Councillor Walker. We now move on to... Let's see where we are. Item 8A3, the other appropriation order was on consent and voted on consent. So it is 7.52. We have one more item on our agenda, and then it is just committee liaison and manager reports at that time. Would people want to take a break or just move on to that item and see how quickly we can get out of here? We're going to move on. This is item 8b, proposed zoning bylaw article 18 to consider amending the zoning bylaw by adopting article 18 clean energy infrastructure and associated amendments to zoning section 3 use classifications and standards. 511, renewable energy accessory solar photovoltaic installation slash battery battery energy storage system uses 6.2 fences and Article 12 definitions. This is a first read. No motions will be taken tonight under our charter. We have to have two reads before we can do any voting. I'm going to recognize Pam Rooney to give a very brief

uh crc report and then i will move on to anna devlin gauthier for the gol report wonderful thank you very much there was an extensive memo in your packet so the summary of that is that the crc has worked on this measure for over a year and a half incorporating public comment, planning board comment, and now we have a document that has GOL comment. So we appreciate all the input. Before I do anything else, I do want to acknowledge the work that has gone into this from other than counselors, the Solar By-law Working Group consisting of Duane Burger, Martha Hanner, Janet McGowan, Laura Pagliarulo, Robert Brooks, Daniel Corcoran, and Jack Jemsick. The planning board has been several terms worth, town staff across many departments, but a special thanks to Stephanie Ciccarello, who has served as liaison to the working group and to the CRC on this bylaw. Staff include Dave Zomek, Aaron Jacques, Rob Mora, Chris Bascom, Steve Gaughan, Amy Rusecki, Jeff Bagg, and I'm sure many others. There are two former staff, town planner Christine Brestrup and Nate Malloy, who contributed, and former CRC members Pat DeAngelis and Kathy Shane, who both contributed to this document. In a nutshell, this document represents the Town of Amherst adaptation of the state mandate to have and allow a single consolidated permit available for applicants starting in October 1. And the bylaw that has been composed addresses three components. One is a consolidated permit process. Second is simple, simple solar siting requirements. And third, battery energy storage system siting requirements. The purpose of this bylaw is to facilitate clean energy development by providing a clear path for proceeding, but also providing enforceable standards for the placement and operation and removal that maintains public safety. So that is the gist of a 20 page document. If there are any questions, I and others on the CRC would be happy to answer them.

Anna, GOL report. So GOL had to turn it into a competition to try to find minor changes for clarity, consistency, and actionability. As a reminder, we were not looking for substantive changes to make. You can see our changes in the document that's in front of you. They were minor. And we appreciate the length of time it took CRC to get this to us. And I don't want to tell you how long it took us to get it back to you. So thank you. It was an hour.

Thank you. We will now move into discussion, questions, comments. Again, this is a first read. I'm going to say the second read is slated for September 14th. Before I recognize others, I want to say one of your changes, GOL, was to redefine the 2024 Climate Act, and there are four other places it references it. So I will be sending another track change version to Athena, making sure all of them are are also incorporated i found some others because it's so long as i went through but they are all also very minor to for consistency and i won't take any more time than that at the council meeting we'll give you a sticker too it's i kept every time i look at it um i find some so we'll start with sam mcleod

Thank you, Mandy. I just, for somebody who hasn't followed this thoroughly through all the years, I'd like to thank CRC Chair, Councillor Rooney, for a report that I found to be very helpful. And congratulations to all who worked on this to getting this bylaw inside the two-yard line first and goal.

Thank you. Lynn Griesemer.

I also want to begin by thanking all who've worked on this for the last three years. And yes, I've been paying attention, but not maybe as much as I should have. And while I'm a member of the GOL committee, we only review for clarity, consistency, and actionability. And I have some questions that are outside the purview of that committee. And then depending on the answers, we'll decide what the next steps might be. My questions come in to three different categories. One is the distance required from private wells. The second is frequency of inspections. And third is hazardous waste and the relationship to insurance. I can divide them up or go right ahead with them, however the president would like me to do.

Let's do one at a time, because I think it'll be easier to follow.

I represent District 2, which includes the 5% of Amherst that is on private wells. In fact, my husband and I have a private well. Because of this significant cluster of wells in the northeast corner of Amherst, I feel strongly that the entire area should be seen as equivalent to a public water resource or well. Those of us who are in this corner of Amherst share the same underground water resources and thus are at the same risk asked of residents who have access to public water resources. In fact, because of our water resources, all of our underground, one might even view them as more vulnerable. We can't see them. My question is, why would we not treat private wells and clusters of private wells with the same distance requirements that we do public wells?

Pam, do you have an ability to summarize the planning board conversation? I know CRC and planning board hearings had a big conversation about that distance requirements. Try. Why don't you try?

I can try that. The response from the planning board was that with research in hand, effects of solar panels is negligible, that there are in fact rooftops that collect rainwater for drinking from solar panels so that the solar panels themselves are not perceived and researched as material sources of pollution or contamination. Battery energy storage systems, however, are a different ballgame, and they are treated in a different manner with a much larger offset distance.

Linda? My next question, and these are all related, by the way, is regarding inspections. Please correct me if I am wrong, but as I read the bylaw, inspections are required as the project is being built. And then after one year, only if there's an extraordinary weather event or some other kind of event. We live in a town where we now inspect our rentals every three years. Why wouldn't we do that here? seems to me a more routine inspection, whether or not it is because of an emergency or not, should be required on a regular basis.

Pam? Thank you. That's a very good point. During construction, there would be a routine inspection. Much of the damage, much of the issue around solar siting is, in fact, erosion control and storm management. Following construction, which means that the site has been stabilized If there is a heavy rain event that is one inch over 24 hour period, which is fairly regular these days, that is the trigger for an inspection by the third party. So the developer, the owner has the responsibility to maintain reporting with that frequency and that may not be so again this is this is presumably after stabilization of the site does that answer your question it answers it i'm not sure i'm happy with it thank you okay and your third

hazardous waste insurance, while I'm aware that we do not live in significant hail, H-A-I-L zones, such as those who live in Texas. Nevertheless, we aren't blind, and we have seen more and more erratic weather events in the Northeast. Who knows what's to come? How do we ensure that some extreme weather event, not just rain, That could damage solar panels and trick or trigger an accident with best could lead to hazardous waste that can in fact leach into our water supplies and private wells, making them useless and frankly totally negating the value of our homes. Is the ratio for insurance liability sufficient to cover these unknown weather events and impacts on individual homes? And in addition, in evaluating the base on a regular basis, which the bylaw accounts for, should the 1.25 factor be even higher?

I don't have . And

I don't think Dave Zomek would have an answer to that at this time, but we will note that one down. Stephanie Chigrella was unable to be here tonight. And yeah, so we will note that one down and forward that on to staff and hopefully be able to get a written answer to that prior to the next meeting. Councillor Ryan.

So this is a rather broad question, and I feel compelled to ask it. My understanding is the state strongly is working to meet its energy goals, is strongly working or encouraging the kinds of facilities that this bylaw seeks to regulate, and the solar farms and the best and so forth. So I guess my question is, I don't know how much was discussed, whether it's even considered, but to what degree the kinds of restrictions and requirements, which seem quite numerous in this bylaw, might run into problems with the state or with the courts?

I'm having a hard time.

Understanding the question, or?

With the hand up, you kind of, sometimes it sounds jumbled.

I'll repeat it. The state is very eager to encourage these kinds of facilities to meet its energy goal. So the question I have is whether this was discussed by the committee or staff, whether they feel that the kinds of regulations that are in this bylaw, which are quite extensive, might run into problems with the state and or the courts, because one would think that a lot of what's being regulated here is already covered by the kinds of you know, regulations that already exist in general, but apparently not. So is there any concern that this is going to be challenged in court or that the state, I don't know if the state even looks at it, maybe they don't, but was that at all discussed? Because this is very detailed i'm just imagining other towns and cities in the Commonwealth all getting to have they're all going to have to do this to regulate their solar farms and best facilities is kind of detailed below.

So I'm going to try and answer that and then Pam will add on. Thank you. Because Kathy and I were the ones that delved into all the regulations. So the state passed a law that requires the... that tears the clean energy infrastructure into state permitted infrastructure, which we would call really large. Let me just call it really big. And then a consolidated permit pathway for what we're actually calling large, but anything below the really large. In response to that law, they authorized a department to create regulations to implement the law. We must, as of October 1, accept a consolidated permit application under the law. That permit must be adjudicated and ruled on and either granted or denied within one year. of the fulfillment of the application. In the state, in putting forth regulations, also put forth guidelines. The regulations are law, the guidelines are not. What the guidelines are, are if, and a town may say, we're not gonna permit this, state you can have the lower level ones too we got the application we're not going to review it state issue the permit review it and issue the permit at the size we're talking about here we don't want to do that we want to be able to issue the permits ourselves but if the state is issuing the permit or if within a year of the application the town does not rule on a permit application the guidelines are what go into effect and become the permit requirements so what we attempted to do was match as many of those guidelines to our bylaw as possible where it made sense and then cover some things that weren't in the guidelines that were still allowed to cover particularly actually what the guidelines were really missing were the distances from wells. The water supply protection requirements are basically non-existent in those guidelines. So that is part of this bylaw where we felt we didn't want to just go with the guidelines or say, you know, let the state handle it all. We want a bylaw that handles all of that because water supply protection is very important. So that I would say that's one of the things where the bylaw is important. What I would say is CRC had a legal review. There were a lot of questions from the attorney about how this looks and what it is. But when we asked the attorney specifically if this were just a solar siting bylaw, ignore the state regulations, ignore the consolidated permit part of it. If the state hadn't passed that, but we were still because that's what we originally started on was just solar siting and best siting and all. what would your opinion be and her opinion was this is good for that you are good for that so um we got no concerns regarding during that legal review regarding the legality of any of what the citing of the structures and the the regulations we put into this bylaw for the citing of the structures was the attorney basically green lighted that there there can't the ages office does not review where a city does not review the laws, so there could always be a lawsuit. We can't predict right, but the Attorney thought that what we had drafted. Was well within our ability to do so, and was solid Pam would you like to add anything to that all right.

So you obviously do not feel that these restrictions are overly onerous or would dissuade anyone from proceeding to address the kinds of energy issues that we face as a society. So you feel these are legitimate? I'm just asking. I don't. These are legitimate restrictions or concerns. that will make both the residents safer and also make it possible for people to build solar arrays and to build battery battery storage facilities.

Yes. What I will say to that is during the public hearing, the planning board definitely had that in mind to make sure that they were not overly restrictive. That was one of the things they always questioned us about, any of the setbacks and stuff. Is this too much? And I will say, given the makeup of CRC, that happened during, even before it made it to Planning Bird hearing, that pushback of, is this too much? Is this going too far? What do we need to do? So that was part of the conversation, I feel. Pam?

I think it would be surprising if you actually looked at the state guidelines that they were much more detailed than I would have expected. We sort of said, expected a carte blanche. If you want to do this kind of project, go for it. they had a lot of detail and we were well within the range of what the state was asking for. What we added was a small section on agrivoltaics, which is the allowance of agriculture beneath canopies, solar canopies, and then the extended distances from wells, which sounds like we just need to double check and confirm.

Yeah, the extensiveness between the guidelines, the regulations and all of the explanatory and all it's over 200 pages from the state. We're at 14. Anna.

Thank you. So one of my significant concerns here is on the impact on wildlife, which seems to kind of have been given more of a passing glance in this. And I appreciate the glances that it was given, but I wanted to dig into two specific pieces that I would love to see possibly adjusted in this. The first is that I'd like to see a more specific mention of maintaining migration quarters on the fences. So having you talk about fence height in a couple places, but I'd like to see, you know, there are folks who are doing not just the height of the whole fence, but little cutouts that are turtle-sized or whatever it is, right? And so I'd like to see mentioned specifically of looking at an analysis of what natural wildlife occurs in the area and making sure that it's not disrupting the patterns of that wildlife. Which gets me to my second point, which is actually where I came into this. which is about birds. And one of the things in 1809-03, it talks about glare. And it says, SPI shall be located so as to minimize glare onto any abutting or nearby occupied buildings. That's great. However, that's not the only thing that the glare of an SPI impacts. And so when we think about the glare of these panels, we know we are seeing more and more studies of birds that are fooled by especially large-scale solar fields. They think that they're lakes. um and we're seeing this impact on foraging habits because insects tend to gather there but also on migration patterns and so i wanted to i'd like to adjust and i can try to think of what language this could look like and i i know how long you spent on this and so i don't like being that person that's coming in with a suggestion but i guess that's our job I would like to see something in the glare definition that is more clearly talking about that the glare analysis needs to include mitigation efforts aimed at mitigating the impact on wildlife. Mitigation, again, broadly glances over the concept of wildlife, but I think it needs more specificity here. There are treatments that you can do. There are coatings, there are decals, there are all sorts of things that developers could do to a solar array to lessen

that negative impact on birds and i would like to see that included that's all i got for now pam i will note that that we have uh included in the um i think it's in the dimensional requirements and actually it was in the special section on the height of the fence that they have to be held eight inches above the ground which allows for everything everything um except probably bears Woodchucks at my house go into like a two inch high opening. But I think that that tends to cover the bulk of most small mammals and turtles.

Yeah, I think, I guess I would like to make sure that a biologist, honestly, or someone with more, not that you and I don't have the expertise, but someone who is able to say in this area, this is what animals are moving through. And it could be broad enough for the whole town, but if there are specific areas, we want to make sure that that eight inches is adequate. And yeah, that would be my approach there.

In terms of coverage of the panels with vinyl or some sort of reflective bird deflection material or something like that, we did not include that, and I don't know of any solar field that includes something like that.

If it's available. Yeah, there are. And there's a couple of different strategies. I'm happy to send them as, I guess, inspiration. But I think it's something that I'd like to see us encouraging in our policy and not just relying on people to do on their own.

Thank you. Kathy.

I just had a really quick comment in response to George's concerns. When Mandy and I, and I've not looked at this in any depth since I went off CRC, when we looked at what the state had done, I was shocked at the level of bureaucracy and steps and details and things we were required to do. in and they were billing it as streamlining, and it was somewhat overwhelming, including new terms. So I just wanted to say that this is an effort to make it at least work for Amherst. The only other comment I would have, I am near a solar field up in North Amherst, and That eight inches allows lots of very big turkeys to run under it. Because when my little dog goes there, all these turkeys go dashing through to the protection under it. So it's amazing what some of these, what you would think an awfully large animal, and they do underneath. But that field has lots of pathways through it. you know, it's not one big fenced area. And that was because it was also a cross-country skiing and Robert would cross. So there was an effort by the town and the builders, the installers to maintain public access ways through land. So just thinking about that a little bit in terms of the expanse of it, if anyone walks up there, it's the one near the Cherry Hill Golf Course. But there are lots of ways to walk through it that I think are really helpful for Ana's point about animals, but also humans, that it didn't restrict all access to those areas. Thank you. Jennifer.

Yeah, I just wanted to ask, Ana, so were you concerned that for each solar installation application, that the height of the permitting body, look at the wildlife that's there?

I don't know that we have such diversity in our wildlife from area to area in the town of Amherst. I think that it's really a matter of asking if there was someone with the expertise to know the, not just anecdotally, but to truly know the fauna in the area and their migration habits and their access needs to make sure that we haven't forgotten anything. I think we all could sit here and brainstorm a list of animals, but is there something we forgot? And I would want to make sure that If eight inches is adequate, that's great. But I would want someone who has that expertise to make sure that they've weighed in. And if they did, excellent.

Yeah. Well, Erin Jacques, I mean, there was many town staff, and I know she was representing the Conservation Commission, and she reviewed the bylaw, I think, in detail.

Dave?

I'll be very brief. Um, I think this is a great conversation. I think the, the standard is eight to 10 inches for wildlife passage. I will say that, uh, and we've gone through this, um, quite extensively with, with pure sky down at Hickory. Um, you, you run into, um, variation and variation might create opportunities for different wildlife of different sizes. But we also need to think about children. And we really don't, you know, for their safety and for any human safety factors, we want to make it difficult uh and impossible actually for folks to get into these uh arrays because there are some could be some dangerous elements in there so we can get more information and i'm going to pass along your questions the council's questions to stephanie so she can coordinate um responses for the for the 14th but um eight to ten inches is about the standard but again we need to think higher than that

it gets pretty easy for a child or even a teenager to to get under that so public safety is a factor as well thanks thank you i wanted to comment just to explain a little bit more about the site suitability assessments and scores because that might and and encourage you to read that guideline i can forward it to you the if you're doing the consolidated permitting process and you're array or best is of a certain size, you have to do site suitability. And these are standardized throughout the state based on state maps. And there are five different criteria that need to be assessed for site suitability, one of which is biodiversity. And that includes the priority habitats designated by Mass Wildlife, Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program and the Index of Ecological Integrity Values from the UMass Conservation Assessment Prioritization System. and you are given a score and at certain scores, you may be required to mitigate or minimize or not do it at all, depending on the score. So I would encourage you to read a little bit about those assessments to see if that alleviates some of the concern regarding wildlife corridors. They talk about wildlife in the biodiversity, but not necessarily corridors, but mitigation and minimization is not really, You know they don't say what that has to be that would be up to the permit granting authority, depending on the score. So that that may be, and that is standardized based on the map at certain levels and where the land is and much of our land that might be on that. would would fall within some of those bio maps and all for lower scores to require the minimization and mitigation, but I will forward you.

some of that so that you can read a little bit more about what the site suitability purpose is. I would appreciate it. I think my concern about the fence height is the lesser of my two concerns, to be honest with you. I think that wasn't a huge concern. I just thought the turtle cutouts in the other city were kind of cool. However, I do think that... i'm i'm happy to dig in more i think it'll be helpful my concern isn't with with birds is that it's interrupting migration habits not necessarily nesting habitat i mean certainly the creation of this is in its own way but um because it's creating a new element that the birds perceive to be water and so i think i'm curious to see how this lines up and how folks are navigating it but i'm i'm not sure that it will show up on that uh like on the maps and things like that because it's not necessarily a nesting habitat right so i think it's a i feel like this is a new area to kind of see if we can tease apart and maybe we can do it a little bit better thank you i would um please please send me that and i'm happy to read it council ryan

I was just going to add that that I would certainly support any kind of fencing regulation or migration strategy that would encourage woodchucks to to move to to belter town or Hadley or any place actually outside of amherst just this is so you know.

Thank you any further comments. seeing none we will move on um appointments were done under consent um committee and liaison reports are there any further town council committee reports i think we've had one in the packet from every committee any others

I was just going to say, we are meeting tomorrow, and to the extent that other council members are interested in what our financial policies are, how OPEB works, and how the pension fund works, that is the discussion we're having. And we'll get a brief report from the Budget Book Subcommittee. But it's an effort to make sure that we, and the financial policies were originally given to us by the select board and we updated them, but those are policies that we as a council have adopted.

Thank you. Any reports from councilors that are sit on town committees? Pam.

I will report on the DPW Building Committee. That's okay. That project is moving along. The scope of work and the fees associated have been agreed upon. That has been signed. And with the original appropriation that was still in hand from earlier efforts, this will carry the project through, I think, through schematic design. So that's really good. We get a really good handle on the schematic, the layouts, the opportunities there within this before anyone has to come back to council for additional appropriations. The work that's going on right now is confirmation of site conditions, both at the existing site and the Ruxton site. which is on Pulpit Hill Road, and that concerns wetlands contaminants, the geotechnical studies. The consultant is interviewing staff, essentially as we speak, they started those interviews on the 13th, and they are meeting with all of the staff and the departments to assess staffing and actual needs in terms of facility use and equipment. i did ask at the meeting and i will ask again tonight that the town manager provide a a current and projected staffing list for the dpw for all of those departments i know we have we have the current list in the budget book for this year, but I would like very much to see if there is an intended projection of staff so that we're actually designing a building for staff that we think will have not something that we would like to be having, you know, 15 years out. Um, Let's see, what else? I think that's basically, oh, then just to summarize when the next meetings will occur, they will be on September 16, October 21, November 18, and December 16 for the time being, Wednesday mornings.

10 o'clock thank you george do you have a report or a question because i have a question for her okay so i'm going to ask my question for um pam which is in addition to that that sounds great is there a desire to get or or did you ask for a projection of vehicles i know in jcpc vehicles and numbers of vehicles have been a huge question especially with dpw and as we're building a new building that's going to have to house all of these maybe we can get a projection of that and that consideration as well during this.

Let's make that a very specific request to the town manager that we get a list of vehicles current and projected.

Thank you.

Right in writing.

Or just just part of that conversation of projections as you're projecting out for needs i'm going to go to Jennifer because I think the hand is up for Pam.

I appreciate having the dates of the next. Building committee meetings are they serving any more discussion about having them on zoom you know remote.

they're going to be they're going to be hybrid oh yeah Okay, thank you, thank you and Lynn.

Okay. Kathy, do you have a question for Pam?

No, I just, I'm going to forward to you. Sean has been working on a vehicle policy that would include when we take vehicles offline because they're not being used very often or we share them. So I'll just share it too because it will have an immediate effect or it should have an effect on DPW and requests for new vehicles.

Thanks. And now we'll move to Councilor Ryan.

I was going to just say something briefly about TSO. I think my hand was a little slow.

Go right ahead.

Thank you. I appreciate that. I'm sure you all read the report, but just to reinforce that we've had our second lengthy discussion with the consultant. And in the report, it gives you a sense of the kind of decision points that we're moving towards. In the most recent meeting, I think it's fair to say we had only three members present, but the consensus is moving towards a pay-as-you-throw model. So imagine that people would have their trash out, and then if they don't fit the particular size of the bucket, they would have to have something put into a bag, and the bag would be alongside of it. That's the direction we're heading in. We haven't made any decisions. And also leading towards mandatory composting. So please take a look at the report if you hadn't. The decision points are listed, and we will have our next discussion exclusively with the consultant on September 3rd. and any thoughts or concerns you have please share them with the chair or come and attend the meeting thank you kathy

Just, I was gonna report on the school building, but George, a couple of questions, but I will read the report. Do we have a sense of, will we save money compared to the way people currently do? And will we be putting the town at risk for the complaints that now go toward a thing? So I will read the report, but I think the concern has been our, to what extent are we going to increase costs of waste. And then the bags versus buckets. If you watch what the bears are doing to even buckets, unless you securely put them on the lid, the paper bag would be a pure disaster if it was a bag up where we live. I mean, our bears are really very clever. And I'm talking about North Amherst in general, but they come out of the woods and they took the lid right off a bucket and tipped it over and had a really good time with it.

Thank you. And you wanted to do a school building committee update?

I was just gonna do a really quick update, and I'm not sure the slides are posted yet, but the building's basically being occupied right now. The teachers are moving all their materials in, and there are just a few finishing touches, and the issue with Eversource, would we be connected or not? The town staff, Bob Parent, as well as our people have been working nonstop every week, And the one comment from the new school architect is they've never seen Eversource trying to be as accommodating as they are. So the fact that our senator and our rep got on their case and raised this to a high level made a difference. And then the final one that was very touching, Alison Estes, who is the principal of the Amish book. She wanted to give a report on what the reaction to the school has been. And she said some of the teachers have walked in, looked around, and burst into tears of joy on the space that they would be working in and what it's going to mean for the kids. She said, we've really created something of beauty. And she was worried about storage. Each teacher was told not to bring any more than 23 boxes to their class as they're setting it up. And one appeared with 30 boxes. And she said, well, see what you can do. And she proudly said, I got them all in. So in any case, school will start on the 26th, but they're doing a rotating series of classes so parents can visit with kids before that, just get a sense of what the school is going to look like and where you're going to be. So the school... folks and staff have been fantastic on accommodating what is a very complicated move because I can't tell you how many volumes of books Wildwood and Fort Rivers libraries had with all that unused space that they had. So it's how do you get down to enough that fit in a library? So people have been working hard all summer.

Thank you. Pam.

I have a question for Kathy, and that has to do with traffic. Has there been solid conversation with the school community about not driving kids to school in the morning or pick up so that we can start to alleviate some of that traffic congestion?

We need to take that up again because I don't have a good answer. They are well aware of it and I don't know what notices have gone out that didn't come up at the building committee meeting, but I can talk to the principal and the staff. The staff are aware of the issue and whether that communication has gone out or not, I don't know.

Maybe we could say that at least one counselor expressed strong interest in seeing a reduction of parent drop-off because we already pay for our buses. We would like to see the buses used efficiently. Yeah, will do.

Thank you. Counselor Ryan, do you have a question for the school building?

No, but another report.

OK, we're going to hold off on that then. Sam?

it may overlap with what george is going to say it was regarding traffic plan for the school which was discussed in transportation parking so the town staff and police department were working on it the one they have some alternate parking spaces but the one part of good news that i heard which people may have seen as they drive by the site, is instead of there just being a single entrance and exit, there is going to be two. They're constructing and finishing currently another access point near the original section that was going to be for the bus route. So there'll be not just the singular one and it may be ready this week. There'll be at least one entrance for the buses and another ones for the parents drop off. There's still going to be traffic headaches, but I was encouraged to see that development nearly be complete.

Thank you. Councilor Ryan.

So Transportation and Park Commission had its, I think it's its third meeting, and the portal that we hope will be the interface between the public and the commission is still not ready for prime time, but it is in a beta format, and members are using it and getting it. So hopefully within a week or two, that will be online. Hopefully the next time we meet, I can announce that. The Commission did go ahead and make a recommendation on a project for Mount Holyoke Drive for a crosswalk. And just so the Council understands, under our current rules, that actually goes not to the Council, but it goes to Paul. And it basically recommended that a crosswalk be placed at that site. There is a financial implication, as you can imagine. And so just to understand that that's what happens. It now goes to Paul, and it gets into the larger issue of funding. So all future projects, requests from residents need to go on to the portal. So we will not be taking up any more resident requests until the portal is live. And any requests that have been made up to this point will have to go into the portal for us to take up. And so getting the portal up and running is a big priority. And hopefully that will take place soon.

Thank you, Kathy.

George, I'm willing to do this, but I need to know where to send it. Over the last three years, maybe even four years, JCPC has had resident requests that all are around crosswalks, slowing down, speed humps. And each time we were told we have to have a policy first. So what my issue is, is people wrote those up and presented them. If I gather them all, can I just send them in that these were the in the queue from the past and they were supposed to be held by DPW as a series of things to be considering. And I just feel like asking people, I'm not saying that you need to do them, but you can see the breadth of them. And, you know, there's a set of streets up in North Amherst where you can avoid a traffic light by going through a neighborhood. And they were asking for some traffic calming kinds of things. And one of the responses, we have several like that in town. And so if we want to do something about those bypass streets, we should be looking at how many of them we have and doing it. But in any case, I have them all and can just send them to an agenda. Who do I send them to? or I can send them through Sean to you.

Well, they would not go to me. They would go to the chair, which is Andy Steinberg. And I can give you his email address. And there's nothing wrong with that. I think you can go ahead and do that. But what he has told us, and what I think the commission has agreed, is at this point, those requests, in order to be activated or to be considered by the commission, would need to be entered by the various requesters onto the portal. And, of course, since the portal isn't ready yet, that, I understand, is a bit of a problem. But, yes, please forward them to Commissioner Steinberg. But understand that for them to proceed at this point, at some point, once the portal is up, they'll have to be entered into the portal by the various requesters.

So may I follow up on that? So the request that the Transportation Parking Commission have received so far in the last six months will not be entered into that portal and therefore will not be considered unless they re-email you or email us. The chair will not be entering them on their behalf.

You could raise that issue with the chair, but that is what was maybe Sam if you'd like to weigh in here.

That exact question was. asked in varying forms or inferred by myself, recognizing that there were quite a number of requests that came through the Council. all of which were forwarded to the chair. The long and the short of it is the committee has yet to determine a prioritization format. I raised this at the last meeting. It has yet to be discussed, the process currently. the initial crosswalk at South Mount Holyoke and the initial discussions are demonstrative to learn the process, but we have not yet set a process for determining which items will be decided first. And there could be a variety of reasons, prioritization due to importance, Certainly the ones that have been provided to date, I raise that very clearly with the indication that somebody should at least enter them and consider, even if they come in after others, that they were asked first. But it has yet to be determined. And It'll be interesting to see how this goes forward. There was discussion about potentially having application windows. If there's too many, similar to what we've done in the past with CPA. Stay tuned. We'll see how this rolls forward. There's a lot there to consider.

One other question. Has the chair indicated that if the chair is not going to enter those into the portal, that they will at least email those requesters and inform them like we have to do with all of our applications. So they will at least be informed that they need reentered.

Without question. And if the chair didn't, there are other members of the committee that would. So they'll all get ingested. And I think it's less for the purpose of timeframe of which ones are first, as opposed to having a standardized information process for all the requests that come in. These suggestions have been made to the chair. Thank you.

Thank you. We'll move on to liaison reports. Are there any liaison reports at this time? I do want to mention that the Council did receive the annual report of the Human Rights Commission, and it is in the packet for tonight's meeting. I'm seeing no other hands. We will move on to the Town Manager report. Dave, would you like to say anything?

No, other than to express my appreciation for the thoughtful conversation and great questions you had about Wildwood School. I think staff have given that a lot of thought and and the time that your votes will allow for us to do deeper assessment is really appreciated and i think all of us once once that committee wants all works to appoint that committee that working group whatever it is called i think we'll all feel better about charting a path for the future of wildwood so looking forward to working with the council on that thank you thank you i'll move on to town council comments we start with the president's report oh

OK. I'll just highlight one thing with that, which is next week, I think it's next week, there is a scheduled meeting that is between some staff at the town, myself, the vice president, and I have invited counselor Kathy Shane to attend to and UMass leadership. I do not know who yet. I will find out when I show up. um but i have heard that the chancellor will not be at it um and the best that um the town manager has been able to give me on topics is p3 the recent contract that was signed and housing um that's as much as i can give right now because that's as much information as i have but if you've got any thoughts on that or on and and this is particularly for I have heard, I don't know whether there's a group of residents that I know a number of counselors signed the letter to that was sent to the university. I do not know whether that will come up, but if there are any thoughts, particularly from counselors that signed that letter, please let send everything to myself, Kathy, and Vice President Walker. Again, since I don't really exactly know what is going on in this meeting, I can't guarantee we can bring any of it up, but it would be good for us to have as much thoughts from counselors as possible before we go into that meeting. That meeting is next week. So I wanted to highlight that. If there's questions on the President's report, I will do that now. Otherwise, I'll move on to future agenda items. Future agenda items are agenda in two weeks. I am trying to clear the deck of everything so that I can call a work session instead of a sort of regular special meeting for Hampshire campus zoning. Please watch the first public presentation that was given about a month ago now, almost, because we will not be, the consultants will not be representing that information. It will be expected that you, are aware and have sat with the information that was presented at that public meeting before the august thirty first meeting um when the agenda is posted we'll obviously post a link but i sent a link out to that video beforehand um to get a preview of what the meeting is about and all there the consultants are meeting with the planning board i believe on Wednesday of this week for a similar thing. So they wanted to meet with the planning board. They wanted to meet with the council. That's what the meeting on the 31st is. I'm trying to make it a work session, which means I cannot have anything else on the agenda. If other things pop up, it will obviously not be titled a work session, but it will be run in the same manner as a work session. Any questions related to that before we move on to councilor comments? Councilor Ryan.

So in my experience, the difference between a council meeting and a work session is that at a work session, we get fed. Is that not going to happen this time?

Cannot have any votes. We did our first big work session related to the Charter Review Committee.

So we got pizza or something.

I don't know whether we did or not, but we're not getting fed at this one.

But no, you're not going to feed us?

No votes, one topic only. And it's much more informal. No food at this one.

Sorry.

It will start at 630.

Pam. I just wanted to confirm if this work session is the August 31st meeting or a different date.

It is the 31st. Yes, that is why we are holding a meeting on the 31st is for the work session for the Hampshire campus zoning. Kathy.

I want to underscore that anyone who didn't watch the session should get the Zoom and watch it and look at the charts because there was a lot of work done on mapping out exactly where the land is and what the condition of the land is. In other words, is it wet? Is it not wet? Where are the roadways now? And things that came up about if it's education zoned, The Red Born, which is used very often for events, can't be used that way if it's education, but there's not an educational facility. So some of these things of alternative uses, I thought it was a really interesting meeting and very thoughtful on an array of creative options that you could consider for zoning, some of which I hadn't thought of. So it's worth watching it to come with as many questions as we can that go beyond, because there wasn't a lot of Q&A during that session.

and i will have more information as we figure out more with the consultants exactly how it will be run and all but we will try to get that presentation into the packet in enough time for people to be able to delve into that more than just over the zoom link um counselor ryan

You probably made this clear earlier, and I just missed it, but if the work session goes ahead on the 31st, and that is truly a work session, we're only talking about Hampshire College, the solar issue, the solar bylaw is going to be in September.

September 14th.

14th. Yes. Okay. That still fits the schedule.

That that is the plan for September 14 in case people are curious right now is a Council photo at 530. The clean energy by law and a proclamation that was just automatically referred to GL today at this point that's all it is. there's a possibility for some additional zoning by law proposals from Pam and Jennifer if they decide to go forward with those I do not know. the status of that so we will see they got a month but if i get that in time that would be on the 14th too um that's right now the schedule for the 14th it's a month away so i'm sure a lot will change in that time um any counselor comments jennifer

Yes, so I don't want to get into a he said, she said, but since I was directly addressed in a public comment, I just think it's important when you look at this sheet that we were given, it would suggest that the student enrollment has been flat. And according to the UMass statistics between 2000 and 2025, undergraduate enrollment, and this is just undergraduate increased by, and to assume that all of that is online would seem not to be accurate. And I do believe in probing statistics. I know that in April of 2023, we received a fact sheet on housing trends from UMass. And one of the items said that between 2020 and 2022, the Hampshire County Population had increased by 11%, and that's why we were having a housing crunch, and that didn't sound right. And when I probed more deeply, it turned out there had been no population increase in Hampshire County in that time, and the university did retract the statement. So I just... i would caution against looking at this and saying oh you know um the campus enrollment has remained static and that there's no increase in um students you know living off campus although you know i won't list them all i've done it before there are many uh apartment complexes that have been built that are primarily um you know, have student residents. And we're certainly seeing that in District 4 with an explosion of protected use ADUs. And the applicants are very clear who the residents will be, who they're building those residences for. Thanks.

Thank you. Any further counselor comments? Seeing none, there are no topics not anticipated. 48 hours in advance by the chair. There is no executive session, so I move to adjourn the meeting. Is there a second?

Change seconds.

We move to a vote. We start with Counselor Lord. Sam McLeod. Aye. Pam Rooney. Yes. Councillor Ryan. Aye. Cathy Shane. Yes. Jennifer Taub.

Yes.

Councillor Brevick.

Yes.

Anna Devon-Gauthier. Aye. Lynn Griesemer. Aye. And Mandy Johanek. He has an aye. That is unanimous 10-0 with councillors Kano, Martin, Churchill and Walker absent. We are adjourned at 8.52 p.m.