think I need. Okay, your lighting looks great, by the way. Good. You can call this off, right? Yes. Yeah, we always cut all this off. Yeah. Okay. I'm gonna hold on. I'm gonna go get my phone. I'll be right back. Okay. I'm back. You can leave. Lynn, your internet connection is good. It seems to be fine. Okay. So I will also make someone else co-host. Okay. And anyone who wants to show or share screen has to be made a co-host. Okay. And this is set up just like your district meeting where you can pull people in from the panelist room if you want to. I'm gonna ask the, I'm making Kathy a co-host because she's gonna show a video. And as soon as the hosts district hosts show up, I'll ask if they want to pull people in or not. But perfect. And if they can't come in, it's probably because they aren't using an updated version of Zoom. Right. And you have my cell phone number. If anything gets knocked out, you can just text me and I'll restart everything. Got it. And if Kathy gets knocked out, what will you do, Angie? Well, I'll cry a little bit. Just so you know, Kathy, we're recording. Okay. That was a little bit of a joke. Yes. I heard it. I heard it is that too. What do we do if Kathy gets knocked out? No, you cannot get knocked out right now. Right. Exactly. I will continue to pack for our very early flight to West Palm Beach. So great. I will see you all next Wednesday. Enjoy. Enjoy. Thank you. Be well. Bye, Angela. Is that Angela leaving? Yes, because I am now mistress of the show. Oh my gosh. You want to hand the race over? No, I'm fine. I'm the host. I'm going to make you a co-host, right? Great. But let me ask you, do you bring people in who are in the audience? On to, yes. Okay. Do you ask them, the way we do it in district two, we say, please raise your hand if you'd like to come in. If we see a suspicious name, we quiz them before we bring them in. That's fine. Okay. Great. So, Kathy, we're now going to do the thing on the 26th at the middle school? Yeah. I just, I'll need, I need to, Mike is, I think he's overwhelmed with other things, but anyway, that works well for me now. So even if Dorothy and Jennifer say yes to, you know, a 20 minute or 15 minute cameo appearance, I was only thinking of an hour and a half. This is Pam, we're talking about doing a town-wide kind of panel, but same presentation at the middle school during, in person, on a Sunday afternoon so that people who want to come rather than be on Zoom. Oh, good. Yeah. And it would be similar to what you're seeing now, but the, what I thought is I'd add someone maybe from ECAC if they wanted to talk about the school, the net zero, the climate side, and we'd make sure someone from the school is talking about the education side. So, you know, so, so it's, it's very similar. It's just a little bit more of a panel and come with questions. A couple of questions come with a discussion. So, Kathy, do you know what time's yet? Well, the, the, Dorothy and Jennifer had a two to four 30 slot set up. So, if they say, you know, if they said, for example, Kathy, why don't you show up at four, you know, at the end of our meeting that we could make that two to three 30. Okay. I was thinking no more than an hour and a half. I mean, unless you, no, I think that's perfect. And if they said they'd rather have me come at the very beginning, you know, I could flip it, but I'm thinking I would just propose to them, you know, so to, and Sean already had it on his calendar and Tammy had said she was going to try to come to them. So, I thought this, this actually is a convenient misunderstanding, because that afternoon wasn't available before. Does that, does that all make sense to you, Lynn? Okay. So I'm just writing it down March 26, two to three 30. Okay. And is that your open house meeting date is, is March 26. 26. Yep.  We, we get asked during the forum, whether we couldn't hold it in a physical space on the weekend. So families who work and have kids could come, you know, including the adult kids who would otherwise be feeding. You want to give a brief statement about that and then give the date so people know from this presentation. Sure. That'd be great. Yeah, I'll do it. If I forget, Pam, just remind me the very last slide of this pack and I will, I can now, by not including the video makes this a huge thing, but if I just save it as a PowerPoint chart, the video just becomes a picture that I can give you the chart pack, but I can add that when I do for more information go to this website and I said there's also going to be this townwide. It's not on the chart right now because we hadn't set it up, but okay. And what did you call it an open house? I called it an open house, but I didn't know if that's what you're, that's all right. Open house, a panel or whatever at the middle school. Okay. Good evening, Anika. Hi, Anika. Hello. I'm bringing Sean Mangano in. Super. Which of you, which of you wants to talk about budget? If Sean is here, he will, if not, either Paul or I will. Right? Sean. Hi, Paul. Hi, everybody. Welcome to District 4. Do we want- So nice here. I like it. Do you want me to bring people in as they show up or wait till we kind of are at the seven o'clock mark? We are already open to the public. We are already taping. We are? Yes, we are. Who hit record? Angela, before she turned the controls over to me. Wonderful. I was about to hit record and I would have stopped it. Yeah. Yeah. So we have Judy and we have Sandy Knightley in the audience. So the thinking is that I'm going to introduce Kathy and the elementary school program and the presentation. And then with questions afterwards, and we'll just raise hand, people can raise hands and ask questions about the school. And then I'm going to ask the question, would you like to be, you know, get your face up here on the screen and people can raise their hands and we can pull them in. And if you'd like to help with that, that would be lovely. I figured that was my job for tonight. But if you want to do it, I'm more than happy. I am here to help. I'm here to give Angela a break. Angela, I have to do that. Thank you, Lynn. Absolutely. And Sean and Paul for being with us. Thank you. Yeah, happy to. And of course, you have to do it in the rounds with everybody. Yeah. Perfect. Where would you host your meeting if it was in person? Is there a logical place you normally host them? Oh, we've done a couple places. We went to the History Museum and had a wonderful gathering there. Lynn was also there with us. No, the Senior Center. Senior Center. The Senior Center. And we're looking at the Amherst College Library for our next meeting, which happens to be coincidentally the host for Ancestral Bridges Exhibition. Oh, yeah. Oh, that's nice. What day are you looking at? Well, we haven't decided that yet. Not to change topics. We're getting through this meeting first, and then we'll talk about the next meeting. Not to change topics, but Anika, whatever happened to that bear situation. You're muted. I can't hear you. Oh, okay. I'm so excited. I didn't unmute. So thank you for asking. I actually have to reach out to Dave Waddles again and find out when is he coming, because it's getting warmer. Yeah. And warmer. And he did respond. I don't know if he saw it by saying that he couldn't confirm, but that they could very well be there because the yearlings were there last year. And so they would be two years and now dining by themselves. So it's unresolved as the current situation. It's unresolved, but I will certainly send out the memo when I hear the day that someone will come. Thank you. Anika, when you're talking with Dave Waddles, will you ask where he thinks that she dend over the winter? We would love to know. Yes. Oh, you mean in your backyard? Well, we didn't see her last fall the way we saw her several times before and we missed her. Is David the individual who tracks them, who has the... I remember I heard the presentation. I didn't see it when I heard about that. Yes, this is the same one. It's there. I would definitely recommend taking a look at it. It was pretty fascinating. I learned a lot. So, Pam, I don't know that... I thought I sent you that email. So, there are some interesting structures in my yard and it looks like they could be there. But I've made a sense with twigs and leaves and I may have unknowingly made a condominium for little big trees. I could send my resident bear biologist to go visit. That would be... Yeah, that's right. That's right. Okay, so it's about... It's just after seven and there are five people in the audience and so I'm going to start by saying welcome to District 4. I somehow got out of assigning myself a job to do tonight. So, I'm the facilitator. So, tonight we are going to have a couple of items of interest and the first one will be with Kathy Shane who is the chairperson for the elementary school building committee and she has a really great presentation on the elementary school schematic design what the building is going to be... is starting to look like. Then we're going to open it up for questions and answers relative to the school and so forth. And then we thought we would transition from that to talking about the... We have some folks that want to talk about the school from a parent perspective and they're from a group called Yes for Amherst School and at some point someone from that group will be asked to speak for a couple of minutes on the topic. Then we will transition to budget. We have both Lynn Grissomer who is on the finance committee, Kathy Shane who's on the finance committee and Shalem Angano who is the director of finance for the town. And we also have Paul Backelman, town manager who know the budget inside and out and can give a quick overview of what's happening as well as answer questions. So, after Kathy Shane gives the elementary school presentation we're going to open it up and ask if folks want to come in with their faces visible to the audience here and join in the conversation. And we would be very happy for people to, you know, just be here present in the conversation. So, we have six attendees and it's a little after three, I mean three after seven. I'm hesitant to have Kathy start her presentation too soon so that people don't miss it. Pam real quick, Kathy is Tammy Sullivan-Dailey part of the presentation tonight. Should she be a panelist? Yes. I did. I just promoted her. Thank you. Thank you, Lynn. Principal Tammy Sullivan-Dailey just to be official. Sorry. I didn't recognize the name. Permanent principal. Permanent principal. Forever. Congratulations. That means you're not allowed to lead by the way. It's a 10-year commitment so you're one. That's great. Nice to have you with us. Kathy, do you want to start your presentation? Sure. That would be great. And just so everyone knows you're, as I bring up the presentation, both Tammy and Sean will be joining me. Sean has a specific set of charts and Tammy, we haven't rehearsed this, but there's a point when we're doing the virtual tour if you can say a little bit about the way those classroom spaces, what's exciting about the design of the school, that'd be great. Okay. Okay. So I have permission to share. Does everyone see this? Yes. Thank you. I'm delighted to join you tonight. This is a series of presentations we're doing and I'll talk about an opportunity if you want to bring people with you to hear more at the about the new elementary school. And we really see this as that we're building for our future and as all emphasize it's all of our future. This is a rendition by Dinesco Design, who are fabulous architects for the school. I'm going to give a general overview of the elementary school, the building, the site and get into project costs and financing. And at that point, Sean will join me because although we are expecting a sizeable grant from the school granting authority, the Massachusetts School Building Authority, we have a large townshare to fund. That's scheduled for a May 2nd vote on a debt exclusion. If that moves forward, the school construction will start and we expect the school to open in 2026. And this is what I'm presenting tonight is the product of a large group of people, a building committee working with a designer and an owner's project manager. For an overview of what we're talking about when we say an elementary school, this new school will replace Fort River and Wildwood with one school. We're downsizing the number of elementary schools. It's going to serve 575 students, kids, kindergarten through fifth grade because the sixth grade is due to move up to the middle school. And you can see the configuration. It's we've got a very efficient building with a three-story building, two grades on each floor. And when you see the visuals, you'll see what I'm talking about with it. It's a design to have daylight filled classroom and activity room with a very flexible design that will allow the teachers and staff to be using it over time in different ways. It will be home to the dual language program and the special needs programs. It's going to be at the Fort River Stripe. And one of the advantages of that is we can build the school while the current school stays open. The site plans have a lot of outdoor learning space as well as play. And we'll be restoring and providing drainage for the community fields which are widely used. As importantly, this is a net zero school, the town's first building that will be net zero. Which this means is it's an all-electric system with ground source heat pumps, with solar panels generating renewable energy and a very efficient building. A few take-homes when we look at the whole project. The project is first and foremost an education project. It's a new elementary school that was student-centered. Teachers were very involved in informing the design. How are the classrooms laid out? How do we lay out the outdoor area? The three-floor layout supports, and Tammy is the one who made this point, supports cross-age and shared project space in a way that will be very flexible in daylight filled classrooms. This net zero design means it will be a model for the town, but also for elementary kids. They're going to be in a school that is new and different where they can study the environment by participating in it. Highly efficient building and we expect to get nearly 2 million, 1.6 million from ever source because we're using geothermal and we have targeted an energy efficient building. There are also new federal tax credits on the book. Throughout, there's been a focus on costs even though you're going to say it's an expensive school. The school has cost-conscious choices of materials, long-lasting, durable. The three-floor design itself is more energy efficient and is less expensive to build. As I mentioned, the site allows us to keep this current school open. There won't be disruption in classes. By combining two schools, we're going to lower operating costs and avoid very high repair costs. I'll only mention the number ones, but the estimate is about 40 million per school of Wildwood and Fort River, so 80 million dollars. This is because the roofs, the HVAC system, the plumbing, the electricity, safety, the basic systems are aging and are at risk of breaking down. We're expecting to get a facility grant, 43 million dollars toward this project, so it's big resources for the town, and it's a new community resource. We're upgrading the community fields, there'll be nature fails. The community will be able to use the school after hours and there's a backup generator. I've talked about the site plan a little bit and I'm just going to wear my pointer wrist pointing. If you can see it, there's a very shadowy line here. That's the existing Fort River School. We're able to, because the site is so large, 31 acres, we can build the new school a good 100 feet away and there'll be fences around it. To guard the kids and protect them and one of the people at a forum said, are the kids going to be able to see? We said, yeah, we can put some burl up sacks. They can lift up the flaps and take a look at what's going on so it can towns people. We're seeing a site circulation where the bus is coming in and out on the southern entrance. Up on the northern entrance, cars will be coming in and out, so the buses and cars won't be crossing over each other, so it makes for a very efficient way of bringing the kids in. And throughout this, these are circles and squares. There's community, there's children's gardens, there's play spaces, there's walking spaces, as well as this huge recreation field up north of the building. The building is, you'll see a layout and I'm going to go to the first floor in a second, but it's north-south, so this is when you see my pictures, this is going to be one side is the north side and one side is the south, and it has designed for safe entrance and exit. This is a layout of just the first floor. I'm not going to show you floor two and three. The classrooms are very similar. As I mentioned, there are two grades on each floor and they face each other along a corridor. So if you imagine the second floor, whoops, excuse me, the second floor has got the second and third graders and the privileged kids, the fourth and fifth graders get the top floor. This entrance, these are secure entrances that you will have to register when you come in if you're not one of the kids or the teachers, and this whole space can be shut off if we want to use it for after school activities. The rooms themselves can be shut off for safety. The doors can lock if the teachers want to lock them. So it's been, it's both a safety building and it's completely accessible. It'll be fully ADA accessible throughout the building. Now I'm going to take you on the virtual tour and we've had these very creative architects who have been able to give us a sense of what the building will look like as we get through the massing. This is as if you were coming in by car with the front entrance way here. You'll notice it says the Fort River Elementary School, but we've talked about if this moves forward as we could have a naming contest. It does not have to have that name. As we swing around to the north side, the cafeteria with a stage is located on this floor and the kids are going to be able to come outside and eat at picnic tables. Up above it is the library and both of them have big windows so the kids are connected to the outer doors while being indoors. This orange sticking out classroom, the kindergarten's have more square footage than the others and so they're a distinctive look on the building and all of this building is brick. It's not fancy. We pick the least expensive, longest durable materials. As I swirl around, some of these are play spaces and some of them are learning areas. They're designated and the teachers ask us to separate them. This is going to be gardens where the kids can be doing growing and what you can't see is out here are some rain gardens to take rainwater away but also to be able to have environmental studies. As I swing around to this other side, you're going to be able to see the gym. I'm just going to move it a little faster. The gym, there's an entrance when the buses come in. The kids will be able to come in either this door or walk around coming in the front door. This is the gymnasium and there's a lot of space here if we do public art and we commission some murals to do it. The school itself will have photovoltaic on its roofs up here and up here and on the parking lot that will generate renewable. Now I'm entering, this is coming through that front entrance way as we swing along. Tammy can talk about her preference. The principal's office is right up front so she can greet the kids. Turning, you're going to see a space. These are just space holders for murals, for artwork. As we swing around, the gymnasium is on the southern side and one of the things I saw in a school that Dinesco built in Lexington is that with this kind of glass and outdoor, the gym was lit without any electric lights on. That's one of this glass daylight. This is the cafeteria which is directly attached to the music rooms so that the musicians can come and practice or perform on the stage as they are in classroom. Now I'm swinging to the upstairs area and you're seeing, I may stop it here so Tammy can talk a little bit about these spaces. These are project area spaces where the teachers can bring the kids outside the classroom into small groups to work together with their lockers here and this is all storage area for the students. This is something that is starting to be built in quite a few schools to allow small group and projects and have not just sit in a classroom and this is a classroom view where each teacher is going to have a role in saying exactly where the white boards are. There will be sinks in the classroom. I'm going to do a quick pause here so Tammy can talk a little bit about this space. The way that each grade level is on one side is a younger grade and another grade with these project areas. Tammy do you want to say a few words about what you see as the usefulness of this design? Absolutely thank you. I just want to just do a brief thank you to everybody for your kind words. It really means a lot. I really do love being principal. It's certainly been a journey but I really am enjoying it. When I look at these learning spaces I'm really excited having been at Port River for I think I'm on my 20th year. I can really appreciate the support that the school committee has given and Mike in terms of thinking about co-teaching and really doing a lot of inclusive work over the last five to seven years and what this is going to really do is promote a higher level of collaboration and inclusion for all students. When I think about my students that are multilingual learners, when I think about my neurodiverse students, there are times when they're pulled out into separate classrooms because of how loud it might be or just you know things that might sort of drag their attention away from their learning. However these classrooms and being able to work in small group right outside the classroom I think is really going to allow for a greater level of collaboration and inclusivity for all of our learners. What I also like about the way the school is designed is it also allows for more grade level collaboration between the teachers as well as some vertical and horizontal alignment for the teachers. I think that right now is the way the schools are designed. It doesn't, while it kind of allows for that it's not always easy and I think too because each classroom will have a standard set of what the design of the classroom as well as furniture I think it will lead to less moving around which which can cause a lot of complete demyres of Fort River almost every year I moved as a teacher can be really challenging. So I you know I think it helps to reduce teacher stress but also in the long run will lead to greater collaboration and definitely less transitions and more on time learning for students. And this is as we continue the virtual tour this is the library and as I mentioned when I swirled around the outside this is on the second floor looking out. Again the emphasis is on bringing daylight in. All of these bookcases are movable so the teachers can decide I'm going to have a teaching area here a teaching area there the only ones that aren't are along the wall. So it's got a design design is an emphasis on flexibility. Whoops. Tammy already spoke about the advantages for kids. I'm not going to read off of this but education was really drove the design there was a lot of collaboration with staff on what are the classrooms look like where are they next to each other supportive design for the dual language program there's an emphasis on being able to go outside to learn not just inside as well as play with spaces designated for it and it's really an up-to-date technology for 21st century learning including a wiring system with safety so the other thing I think that's really important as I saw a video of a school that was a net zero elementary school is that the school itself this idea of net zero that it's electric no fossil fuels that we're using renewable energy that it's efficient it's a learning lab for the kids there's an opportunity here for our youngest kids to grow up in a school to learn about the climate by participating in it we're going to be reducing greenhouse gas emissions quite a bit by the shift to the school and as I mentioned earlier we expect about get rebates incentives for geothermal and their new federal tax credits I'm going to there's going to be a switch here in voices because we're going into the costs of the school with supply costs going up for virtually all parts of construction as well as labor costs the building a school today is expensive you can see the total budgets about 98 million I should say that there is underneath the 81 million but also in the 98 there's an allowance for inflation there's a lot of contingency money so that we're we're we have a we'll have a chance of hitting this target rather than exceeding it we're we've got an estimated msva massachusetts school building authority facility grant of about 43 million to help us pay for it um with but that leaves a town share of 55 million and shawn is going to take over here to describe how we are going to be funding the town share shawn thank you kathy um so that 98 million that kathy just mentioned it originally was five million dollars higher but the school building committee realizing that we have to do what we can to get the cost of the project down identified five million dollars worth of reductions that don't affect the overall quality of the building or the function of the building but but scale the back in a way to get it down to that 98 million figure and so the town share of approximately 55 million we're continuing to look for ways to reduce that amount but we are proposing a debt exclusion for whatever the town's net share ends up being so if we do find some other sources that can reduce how much we have to borrow for this project that will reduce the total amount of the debt exclusion but there will be some amount that that will have to go out for borrowing so a debt exclusion is a temporary increase in the yeah sorry stand aside so debt exclusion is a temporary increase in property taxes to pay for the debt of a specific project it is different than an override you may hear the term override or you may see that in other communities an override is a permanent increase in the levy limit to usually to pay for operating type expenses for the town but in this case we're proposing a debt exclusion which again is temporary it's only can only be used to pay for the debt service cost of this school project so the town council has already set the date for the special election and and settled on some voting parameters and so that date is set for May 2nd that will be the the date of the town wide vote and the there's really two votes that have to happen from this point forward there's the town wide vote which authorizes the town to exclude the debt the other vote is to authorize the debt this is about the town council must take and that is currently scheduled for April 3rd and that vote requires a two-thirds two-thirds approval of the town council to authorize us to go out and borrow the funds next slide so you can see at the top here the 55 million dollar sort of the share that belongs to the town after the MSBA grant is reduced there's an estimate for what it would take to add a half percent for art now that half percent for art would likely not come from the it wouldn't come from the debt exclusion that would come from some other source so the number we're really looking at here is the 55 million some of the sources that we've started to identify to reduce that 55 million dollars further is the 1.6 million dollars and rebates from Eversource that Kathy spoke about earlier this is largely related to the geothermal aspect there's very beneficial and new incentives related to geothermal that the timing of our project it works well with those incentives the town council has already authorized seven hundred thousand dollars from the community preservation act to support part of the field cost of the project so that seven hundred thousand would also reduce the amount that we would need the debt exclusion for so those two are are more firm in terms of savings and so when we've modeled the impacts of the debt exclusion we've reduced those two pieces so the net amount that we're projecting right now that we would have to borrow is about 53 million but as Kathy said we are still looking for other ways to reduce that 53 million dollars further so one source that is new was created by the inflation reduction act are these federal credits in the past towns could not get federal credits directly because we don't pay taxes so we'd always have to work with third parties to do solar projects and and other sustainability projects if we wanted to take advantage of the the tax benefits but with the new inflation reduction act the federal government has proposed actually making payments in lieu of tax credits to municipalities and so it's very new and the and the detailed regulations aren't out yet but the rough estimates of what the of what the payments could look like for this project are between two and three and a half million and there's other projects in town that might also be eligible for credit so this is this estimate is just for the school project and then I was just saying one other on that prior side one other thing that the finance committee has recently voted on is a recommendation to use five million dollars of capital stabilization funds to further reduce the project or the the borrowing for the project the council has not approved that yet but it has come out of finance committee as a recommendation and will be considered by the the town council at one of their upcoming meetings so the way we get to the impacts of the debt exclusion is we take the amount that we have to that we project we will need to borrow and we model out a debt repayment schedule sort of like a mortgage on a house we look at the principal payments that we're going to have to make over the life of the debt and then what the interests will also be and so when we did that for this project based on the 53 million it comes out to a dollar seven per one thousand dollars of assessed value of additional taxes that would need to be raised and so what that means is for an average single single family home assessed at four hundred forty seven thousand which was the average enough by twenty three it would mean an additional tax of four hundred seventy eight dollars for that year so this is the sort of the peak additional tax when we project the debt exclusion out we project it ramping up slowly over a couple years reaching a certain point and then staying at that point for the for the life of the borrowing so this 478 is that peak and we also anticipate that that peak will slowly drop over over the life of the debt as the tax base grows and the taxes are spread out over more people and more parcels that impact would slowly drop a little bit each year and so for anybody who wants to calculate this for their own property you would find your assessed value you can do it on the town's GIS system we're also putting a tool on the website shortly that'll be available to anyone who wants to look at their property you find the assessed value for your property divide it by a thousand and then multiply by that dollar seven and that will give you the annual impact of the debt exclusion and I think I'll turn it back to you Kathy okay thanks Sean um these are dates that you've actually we're already past one of them these are some key dates that we're we're keeping in mind and the one that we've emphasized more than once is this May 2nd vote where all of you will be voting on this um if that vote says yes which is a simple majority yes after the town has councils approved this we expect constructions to start in 2024 and the new school to open in 2026 um just these are just the closing it's the same take homes at the beginning um the school was designed with education first it's the kids our children it's climate action there's a new community resource and we focus throughout on costs we are putting up as much information as we can to make sure if people have questions that aren't that it didn't occur to you tonight or we didn't answer clearly we've redesigned our project website which you have on this with frequently asked questions with lengthy answers and I really thank everyone a lot of people who came to forums ask questions so we could think of what what design what kind of answers we could provide the town staff is working on an information sheet that will go with what Sean just described around the debt exclusion both to define it so people understand it um and we we're hoping to get that up soon and the two will link to each other and as I turn it back over to Pam she asked me to mention and I I think I'll just take this down I didn't put the date up yet because it's not a solid date but we are we are looking for opportunities to make sure we can be make sure anyone in the community who wants to learn more or be able to ask questions so we've got a tentative date for March 26 that's a Sunday afternoon and I have to work with Mike but talking about a panel similar to what you've seen tonight um but it would be in person at the middle school and we'll make sure we get that information out to everyone that has not been scheduled yet and Tammy if you're looking at your scheduling it turns out that one of the districts wasn't planning on having a full presentation so that afternoon that we had all penciled in is available so I'm turning it back to you Pam and to and to your district members thank you so much thank you Kathy for the presentation Tammy for weighing in on the educational benefits of it and Sean thanks for your explanation um I think I'm I'm going to ask if folks that are attending I see Judy, Kirsten, Matt, Sandy, Tracy and Trudy are the six folks in the audience if you want to join so we can see your faces and being able to ask questions to Kathy, Sean or any of us about the school raise your hand and we'll bring you in and I think Lynn you're going to help with bringing folks in and also uh Pam we have both Matt, Halloway and Kirsten, Hallibut excuse me if I'm butchering your names are our next guests as well. Excellent good I didn't know who was expecting to speak so let's bring everyone in if they want to um Matt and Kirsten so in the next three to five minutes do you want to give us an overview of of your um your position on all this? Sure yeah I'll start and Kirsten you can correct me as I veer off course which I I'm sure I will um we so Kirsten and I are co-chairs of um uh of a ballot initiative committee called Yes for Amherst schools um and our goal is to help mobilize the vote and and to get um two approximately 2,501 votes is kind of our target number in terms of of getting a yes for this for this uh debt exclusion um authorization and um we're both parents I'm a parent of two very young kids so I am sort of your core demographic uh Tamara like this is you know this is really near and dear to my heart um but you know for us it's really we focused on um kids climate and cost as being the the three you know major benefits of this school um kids obviously need to be served in a in a modern 21st century building that's you know there's no question about that this is a real leader uh climate wise for for us as a town and and really for a state and a nation and you know we had Ellen's story kick off our first event who is a um longtime supporter of education in Amherst and first thing she said was you know hey we need the school for the bragging rights you know we want to be the net zero school uh in the valley and and really kind of be a um and and frankly you know we're we're facing a real obviously climate climate cliff here and so we really do need this we need to take action um and then the cost thing you know I mean Sean and and Kathy covered it in much greater detail but you know the bottom line is that that saving a quarter million every year on utilities alone is a really significant boon to the um the operating budget of our schools and there's a lot of attention on those operating budgets right now we feel like this is even though it's it's a little bit counterintuitive you know this is a way to pump some money back into the operating budgets for our schools and and that's really important too um so that's real quick we have a um a website and you can take a pledge if you feel like you're going to take a pledge yes for the schools uh or and that's simply just to help us sort of track our progress towards 2501 votes in town um but there's also an opportunity if you want to be more involved in terms of um canvassing and and you know we have many ways that people can pitch in and help out and that website is yesforamherstschools.org that's yes for amherstschools.org um you can take the pledge on there and find much more information on there thanks i'll go look up the website uh kirsten you want to add something to that i think matt did a fine job um i'm not so sure i have much more to add so yeah i'm kirsten holliburton i am the co-chair with matt as he mentioned and um tammy my kids just left port river i have haddy holliburton sam will blonde so um yes i'm a parent here in fort river and have been very involved in the in this project for many years so really really excited to see it kick off and i love i love giving this after we get to see kathy's presentation because it's just so incredibly inspiring to uh to see what we could have and so um it's just really exciting and you know we got a lot of work to do between now and may 2nd but um you know feeling optimistic and yeah hope everybody can pitch in that that feels so um you know move to do that great thank you so much and thank you all we'll make sure to share your information uh and goes without saying kathy thank you so we still have a couple people in the audience if you want to join in and and have your faces shown that would be lovely um and in the meantime though i think we have been talking a little bit about budget and where we stand what the status is and sort of where we are in the budget cycle paul bachmann the town manager is also available to um address that and answer questions can i just ask if if anyone in your um group including you and anika have questions um because what one of the things i think i would uh we both tammy and i could exit at that point um you know but i want to make sure we we don't leave if there are any questions um and i will make sure that the just the chart pack with the video and all of this is going to be made available in some way that what you just saw but um but i just particularly letting tammy leave if um but if there are questions we want to answer them thank you thanks for reminding me yeah any any questions for the school committee i had a question so maybe i'll ask mine and that will prompt others so on the on the ground floor um it looked like some of the classrooms which are on the uh the right hand side of the picture uh some of the larger classrooms had exit doors to the outdoors and then there were several smaller classrooms next to it which didn't appear to have exit doors to the outside and i just wondered if that was expected i think it was about the time when you said they the teachers can lock doors um i started looking at the array of doors on that ground floor so somebody could explain why some of them seemed to have it and some of them didn't that would be helpful so right now i'll just jump in right now the design has the kindergarten's having the kindergarten rooms have a door to the outside none of the other classrooms do there's a secure entrance and there is some discussion of whether that's a good idea or not both for security reasons um but um and and just for flow so we have it on a list as a maybe we don't want to have that we're not required to have it so it's a it's a question of that's a choice so otherwise there's a entrance at the very front of the building there's one by the gym both going outside there's you can leave the cafeteria and go outside and you can leave at the far end by the classrooms and go outside so that we're trying to limit the amount that people can come in from anywhere or can leave from anywhere so you know tammy we we had that discussion and we didn't actually completely resolve it because there are uh there's the issue of whether the kindergarten we're not required to have a door going out of the kindergarten thank you any other questions for kathy and or tammy don't see any i don't see any so thank you really for spending another evening on the subject thank you thank you for having us and putting it on yes thank you very much yeah thanks appreciate it shon you're free to go as well i think if uh unless you want to answer budget questions i'm here i guess i'll stay for a little bit longer see if there's any budget questions great thank you lin turn it over to you so i want to talk about the preparation for f y 24 and i also want to talk about our capital expenditures so with regard to f y 24 we actually begin the budget process going early in the fall uh shon puts together a financial indicators presentation we usually have that during the first week or so of november and we hold a forum where we listen to what people in the public would like to see in the budget and then the finance committee issues and by the way matt holloway is a member of the finance committee so we're happily represented by finance tonight um and the finance committee then brings to the town council a set of proposed guidelines financial guidelines and the town council then passes those usually in december uh if we have to we can revisit them but most importantly they have to also be tied to the town manager's goals because we can't give the town manager goals money to do those goals and that's an ongoing question with us the um in this year's budget there just isn't wiggle room and that's a really tough thing last year we made a commitment uh to begin our new crest program and to also fund four additional firefighters and that alone is a lot of commitment to maintain we will maintain that or at least i have every expectation the town manager will present us with his budget on may 1st the finance committee will then begin a thorough and complete discussion of that budget during the month of may we usually meet twice a week and um we're talking about whether some of those meetings might be in the evening and some during the daytime uh and then sometime before the end of um june we have to pass a budget so we have a budget to run the town with that's the operating budget and the only thing that's a little awkward or if you will out of cycle with that is that we have to do the regional school budget earlier than that and the reason we have to do that is because of the regional schools having four towns the four towns the other three towns if you will have town meetings and so we need to act in accordance with their kind of timeline as well in addition to that as we look at this capital project i keep hearing a couple themes and so i just want to use the opportunity to address those some people suggest well let's not do the library because then we could put that money toward the school well i have very unfortunate news for you the town is only putting in about 15 million into the library and if we don't do the rest of the project and take the money from the mass board of library commissioners as well as the fundraising money we're going to be spending most of that 15 million if not all of it unjust repairing the existing library so in reality that money's not available for the school then i've also heard recently oh well i'm not going to vote for the school because i haven't gotten my fire station well the problem is if you don't vote for the school you won't get your fire station and the reason you won't get your fire station is because we will be spending all of our capital money on trying to keep two very very energy hog buildings going that are in need of major repair and with estimates in the millions in the tens of millions of dollars and so the plan that we are working on which is a plan that has been an evolution over the last four or five years is really the opportunity to try to move forward with each of these buildings and bring to Amherst what we have needed to do for a long time including get our other buildings in good repair as well as embrace sustainability so i really that's my pitch for voting for the elementary school it's fiscally very sound and it is educationally clearly quite sound so that's my fiscal speech for tonight there you go questions and you have the other two experts here i mean i don't know why i'm doing this tonight but there you go because we asked you first thank you we have we have three participants in the audience and you're again welcome to just raise your hand and come on into meetings so we can see you and share the the conversation with you and if any of the three of you have questions specifically on the budget or the budget cycle please raise your hand and ask not hearing any specific questions Paul or Sean do you want to add anything to that conversation yeah i mean i on the school project in particular i think this is a really important and unique opportunity for years we have had a plan for how to address these four major capital projects this we still have our plan it's still within the limits of proposition two and a half with the understanding that the school would have to be excluded from the debt we can't do the all four projects and that's always been the case from day one when we started thinking about this many years ago we've had to adjust some things because of the increase in costs and the increase of borrowing costs but we're still on track to be able to to work on all four of these things it might take a little bit longer than we initially anticipated but we understand the priorities of the town in terms of education fire and library and dpw these are four buildings that need investment one way or the other and that's what's going to be a focus for the town in terms of our capital we've done a really good job as a community and in building up our reserves to be able to help pay for some of these buildings as we move forward that's been really important for two reasons one is so we have money to set aside to help support the buildings but also so our bonding agency sees that we have adequate reserves in case something goes south that's really an important factor in what our bond rating is the bond rating is important because the better bond rating you have the lower interest costs you pay for borrowed money and that's real money over time and that's really important to us so unique opportunity for us to move forward we're you know working really hard Sean and Sonia Aldridge and the entire finance team have done tremendous job of managing the budget so that we're always within within our budget and returning funds back to the town every year it's a tough year though we all we acknowledge that it's going to be a tough year but this is a project that can't be delayed any further I had a question from somebody earlier this week and the question was about Centennial water plant or treatment plant and the question is why is that not being considered a typical capital project why is that not number five well it's the funding source for the Centennial plant is from the water and sewer fund so it's not from the general it's not going on the general taxpayers roles that will be built into the tax the water the water rates and so that's how that project gets gets paid for yeah just to add to that so the town operates a number of enterprise funds which are legal sort of instruments to track different activities the town engages in and so before that we operate our the water fund the sewer fund our solid waste fund which is primarily the transfer station and our transportation fund which is parking primarily in downtown and so when you set up these funds they're supposed to be self-sustaining whatever that operation is is supposed to be completely self-sustained by the the fees that that activity charges so in the case of Centennial it's it is a source for our water supply and so the water rates are supposed to support all the costs associated with with providing water to the community and so the as you mentioned the costs have gone up there but I think the thing I'll just put out remind everyone is that we were able to get the the state to kick in a greater share for that project as well it's not only the forgiveness that they're going to give the town in terms of sort of a direct contribution but the other big thing with that project is that they finance a large share of it and the rate that they finance is well below market rates right now market rates have obviously gone up quite a bit in the last year or so and they will they'll help finance the project so that's that's really the main reason why that project is funded through water rates as opposed to the our regular capital thank you that's essentially what I told them but I wanted to hear from the experts um in our audience in our small very small audience are there any questions on this topic at all before we move to the next one which is a conversation about the roads and sidewalks that were that were addressing this coming year we got Judy Tracy and Trudy and again you're welcome to just raise your hand and come on into the conversation so we can see you if you'd like Anika well I just wanted to add because we were talking about water so I have a little bit of wonky reception so I had to find another area so I just wanted to share that I am joined by district four residents Rod Anderson and Lily Wachik from Elatec who are we're so lucky to have amongst us they're doing amazing things with uh water and um I hope that you all if you have and I know most of you are aware to look at their company Elatec so I just wanted to share that we do have some other district four residents with us here thanks um can you explain where they are because I don't see are they with you personally like next sitting next to you they're across from me great do they have any questions not as of yet but they're um you're really interested in some of the items upcoming especially what Paul was here to speak to us about great sidewalks excellent so let's transition to that topic um there is always great interest in streets and sidewalks this time of year as we bump our way through town um we'd love to hear a little bit of that um and see some I wanted to thank Paul for joining us especially at such short notice um he's going to paraphrase as as best he can and within the time he has a wonderful we had a fascinating presentation that came to GSO that I learned so much about and we're going to be sharing that with everyone as well so with that thank you Paul thanks Anika um so if it's okay I'm going to I'm not going to show show the whole presentation but I want to race through it just so people see what so they can when they click on it um so if that's okay with you guys and before just saying before you start I see Tracy's hand up and I think that maybe means that she wants to come in Lynn you should come in yeah and Judy and Trudy are also welcome to just come in so we can see your faces if you'd like you don't have to but you're welcome to join us so are we seeing the pavement plan okay um so so we made this presentation last year but I just want to let people know this is available on the website and we can share it out to the counselors and they can share it out to their listeners as well so every few years we do a survey of all the town's roads that DPW does and they develop a list of roads that need to be repaved or treated so I'm going to run through this they actually do they drive every road in town with this little 3d camera outfit it's called street scan and this is a group out of northeastern university that started northeastern university and they I'm not going to go into all the details but DPW the town engineer has in the past they they look at all the different ways a street is wearing and they can categorize it and ultimately after looking at the road they give it a grade a PCI range of from zero which means it's undrivable to excellent we don't have many excellence so excellent is just like what you would expect an excellent to be it's beautiful roads freshly paved looks great good condition means that it's got some cracking but it's still you won't notice it we move to very poor you know poor very poor and you can see the worse it gets you know the lower the grade when we did this for the town of Amherst in 2022 this would these were the roads that were and how their color coded if you can see the colors and what conditions they were in and then they also identify various way where the roads are the most distressed this is an example of how every road is graded it has the street name it has the the proximity from amity street to university drive to northampton road and the PCI rating of it so that's how they they do every road in town and every road gets a PCI grade when we looked at this last year we showed a 49 million dollar backlog of road repairs that needed to be done now to put that in perspective we put almost two million dollars a year into roads every year about eight hundred and fifty thousand dollars comes from the state the rest has been appropriated by the town council to address roads even though it's it's all it's twice as much as what we have been doing in the past we put a lot of money in over the past five years it's not nearly enough to meet the the need and to put it in perspective 2018 when we did this last time the backlog was 27 million dollars so we're going in the wrong direction now when they look at a road and they determine what needs to be done they it can be from a full reconstruction to just sort of a crack ceiling which is when oftentimes the crack ceiling is where they put the sort of the black sort of stuff on the road that covers up the crack so water doesn't get in and it makes the roads last longer so there's different treatments to the roads depending on what the condition of the road is and they will not every road needs to be totally repaired and resurfaced and they and they try to extend the life of the roads as best they can so this is an example of the kind of repair construction like they'll say crack seal or surface treat and then they put an estimated cost on it this is just an example and every road gets some kind of assessment this way and whether it needs work or not so these are the repair table this is sort of hard to see but this is the outlines of the town of Amherst which looks like a number one so in spring of 2022 we have a list of all the worst roads and what the cost was this in this presentation it lists all the roads that were resurfaced in the last six years and what the cost was and different categories so we have these are all the things that were put that we have for 2022 and 2023 includes some sidewalk work the I'm going to just point out one so these are the roads that we had on the list for this year we didn't get to all of them because the contractors had it's really hard to get contractors right now but we if you look at the first one which is Bay Road from Holst Road to the Belcher Town line it was rated as a 46 it needed a full reclamation the cost for that one stretch of road which was 4,000 feet less than a mile was $853,000 and that was pretty much the entire chapter 90 allocation from the state that's the state those are the state funds that we get as a town our needs are way more than what the state is giving us and that's something we'll be testifying at the state and set up ways and means hearing on Monday to let them know that these are the crack sealing work that was scheduled to be done these were the sidewalks that were scheduled to be done I think almost all of them are completed or close to being completed we also get money in from different grants from the community development block grant which is money the town has where we did Mill Lane from West Street to the Gough Park entrance and we'll be doing Kellogg Avenue from North Pleasant Street to the bend in the road that will happen next year well this year actually we also get some MassWorks grant funded project we have a what we were able to obtain a $1.5 billion grant from MassWorks for the West for Pomeroy West Street intersection these are the so we have a list of the roads that we want to be able to do in 2023 they're finalizing the bid documents now to put this out there this is a preventive maintenance work so this is about 1.5 million dollars worth of roads for the rehab and reconstruction that's where you see the big equipment really like sort of what you think of as repaving preventive maintenance is the crack seal and that's about a hundred thousand dollar contract that we're estimating and that's sort of what the presentation is so I think really what we want to do is just have a conversation and about what your concerns are what you're hearing and we can sort of just talk it through but I want to let people know that this there's a science to how the town reviews roads it's it's based in data and then once we have this sort of review things change during the course of the year one road might just blow up suddenly and that's what happened with Bay Road a year ago and so it's like wow that one's going to zoom to the top because it's in such bad shape you know we're looking at heatherstone for instance right now that's that road has really fallen apart and that's something that we're looking at pretty seriously as well I don't know Tracy what do you what do you have to say Tracy well I did um I haven't seen I mean I had seen the presentation last year when after the inventory was on the PCI but I hadn't seen the list of the projects so I would like to and so where is that available is it did it go to TSO and now we're yeah it was it was in the original presentation okay it was all right I can send it to you I'll send it to you right now okay okay thanks um well I have a tag meeting tomorrow and I did ask gilford if he could speak to it briefly because um because I had seen that it was on the agenda here and I said district four is talking about it tax should talk about it too uh I I do have some questions just about with uh jcpc how they they were taking resident requests for road improvements and just um I have questions about that process but also you know given the budget constraints like do people understand you know the the constraints themselves those financial constraints themselves could determine whether or not things are getting funded and how like how that whole process works I don't know so it seems like it seems like there could be some confusion about it because I know people I guess they were allowed to submit requests up to $50,000 and some conversations I had heard people said well we have $50,000 so and then you know if each person submits and they think they have $50,000 um but also given the constraints like are any of them going to be funded and one thing that had come up too at the jcpc meetings which I've thought a lot about is just with the resident requests at least is that you know for example like the north amherst neighborhood came in and they had a number of requests for improvements for um you know speed humps and um and a crosswalk and things like that but I know that and they were concerned about cut through traffic that speeds and I know that there are other neighborhoods that have some of the same concerns um some of them have asked tack about them or I've heard about them at different times and um and so and none of those other neighborhoods also submitted requests so maybe people don't understand you know how to do it or things and is it just and I think and even the jcpc members were having conversations about you know if you like who hears the call to submit requests and who responds to it and I mean there's a lot of other neighborhoods that could have concerns too and how important is to have a comprehensive approach um and I suggested that actually to Kathy Shane just that um because I knew that there were other neighborhoods too so not just look at this one neighborhood and say we're going to do everything we can for because they were the ones who showed up but also think about the others too yeah I mean that's one of the things that tack thinks about a lot just to be comprehensive I think that's a really good point I think Sean may want to weigh on it initially the capital request form was to provide an opportunity for residents to submit projects that they thought should be attended to by the town it was not really anticipate to be a road request project someone did submit it that way and then the word got out and said hey we can and we didn't we didn't disqualify any projects it was really intended to be other sort of smaller capital projects that people thought like we need we want to put a playground in or we want a piece of equipment somewhere or something like that Sean you want to weigh on it yeah um Trace I think we tend to agree with you on the safety improvements in particular that that's really needs more of a comprehensive approach to the town as opposed to one-off speed humps here and there so um you know it's walking the fine line that we want to you know people took time to submit these requests and so we want to honor that and at the same time realize we can't just do one part of town and have this you know this safety program for this one particular part of town but not the rest of town so we're going to have to um you know it'll be I think we're working with jcpc um well to think about what type of recommendation they make related to those because I think we had eight requests I think six of the eight were some type of safety improvement um so ultimately we'll see what jcpc recommends but I think we agree with you that sort of a comprehensive approach is um is what we need to go with as well I wondered if if uh tack the um transportation advisory committee actually has a list a growing list of um safety issues things that you've been made aware of or anyone in town I don't know if dpw keeps a list of of safety issues that that come across well I think I mean this has come up a number of times that there's different ways that people report concerns and that um to my information there is no comprehensive list well I think dpw keeps somewhat of a list and sometimes our meetings go for it we'll pull it up but there used to be a submission form through tack and we would get some requests that way but it was actually like on paper and I'm sure that the town manager gets requests sometimes some counselors get requests dpw gets requests and they have c-click fix and and I've wondered sometimes like is there any kind of you know central clearinghouse for some of those I'm just so that we could see like all the lists together um and so I don't know if one um yeah there's I don't think there is one I think everything gets shut down to uh dpw but you know I think they're also working from this PCI index in their own sort of eyeballing things um so but that's I think it's a really good point Tracy well and I think too I mean so you know recently with the snow it came up about um sidewalks and I'm sure um Paula you had heard from some people about their sidewalks not being cleared and um so this is getting away from some of the capital projects but and and main it's projects but um it is still really hard currently like I'm really glad that gol was taking a look at the snow and ice bylaw um which is something I had requested they to do but just because it's really I mean I know as somebody who walks a lot like I have been frustrated that I I don't know how to actually get a response and that like last year I did put it in c-click fix and you know I got a response from dpw said oh not our you know that's not our thing like you need to contact the police they're the ones who enforce and so you know case closed and so then I kind of struggled to find somebody who to contact at the police department I contacted just a general email um and so this year you know there were a few sidewalks um were a few stretches of sidewalks including some commercial stretches um for example a long university drive where from um amity all the way to route nine on the west side of the street it was completely unshuffled for days um the big white plaza and everyone else and the only people who did shovel and I really appreciate it was pleasantries um but not nobody else did and actually some of the plows on the private road there they actually shoveled huge huge piles of snow into the sidewalk and into the curb cuts and things like that um and so I did call the police dispatch line as I've been told to do and when I called I'm not sure they I'm not sure what happened after that but they said well you really need to contact DPW so I just you know I still I still really do wonder like does do tickets ever actually get issued for snow and ice and and what do we do you know when I like I would love it if it was in C-click fix or something just because you know I called and then I wait a few days and I still think that they haven't really shoveled that and some of it's melted but what what's my recourse when nothing happens and yeah so the current bylaw allow the enforcement agent is the police department I don't think they really prioritize that you know no of course not yeah I didn't call them on saturday or sunday but but it ultimately ultimately I took pictures yeah go ahead and and it's not DPW's responsibility clear the ways they're in front of people's houses I mean they they do make the effort right one thing through on certain sidewalks based on historical sort of walking paths and things like that and that's way I'll tell you just from my personal experience that's way more than any other town does and you know we do I think they go way out and mostly for prime walking paths of kudos to them but they want to always communicate that they make one pass at it they're not you know it's really up to the property owners the budding property owners to clear the path in terms of enforcement I think that's what one of the things that GLL and the council is looking at is who should be enforcing and how and who has the authority to enforce I think pretty much people recognize the police are not exactly the ones and sometimes it's it takes some discretion you know because it might be someone who's elderly who doesn't have the funds or the wherewithal to be able to clean their path so we want to be able to be sensitive to it we can only just start putting out tickets clearing snow sidewalks is a thing in so many communities and it's really hard to manage because when there's a big snowstorm you have 24 hours you're supposed to clear it and there's so many places that don't it's like catching someone speeding on the highway everybody's speeding and it's just a matter of catching somebody right yeah yeah I mean so one thing I found is that so what dbw has said in the past is that if there is like a snow or ice event that's pretty minor and they don't plow then the streets then they don't do the sidewalks either and so I do think that of our various storms in the last few weeks like we did have that day that was basically just a bunch of ice you know it was like an inch or two of ice and they didn't go out that day and so there are some sidewalks that I walk on frequently where I think the town typically does do the sidewalks and they didn't do it in that case and so this whole stretch of sidewalk was not done at all and then they did do it in the last storm the storm over the weekend because because they were out plowing the street so then they did the sidewalk but at that point that stretch of sidewalk had been impossible for a number of days and also the layer of ice on the bottom didn't always come up when the plow came through um and so I mean so I mean I almost feel like you know if the town and it we're at the almost at the end of the season of course but if the town could do some major outreach and maybe not just through like the typical town channels in terms of like people who already are you know see the town's tweets and see the facebook page or get the emails and things because I'm not even sure that every all the owners realize like what their responsibilities are um and I actually talked just today actually to somebody who's lived in their home downtown and there's a sidewalk outside their home since like the 1980s and they said well you know the town does the town plows the sidewalk on Lincoln and they plow this other sidewalk and they don't come in front of my house but we don't shovel we don't think it's that important or you know whatever so I think that just really to it almost makes me want to go when you know after I talk to the police and I just know they're so busy with so many other things but go almost go you know put flyers or do some kind of mailing or just get the word out really broadly in the community that it is important yeah you know I think you bring it it's an interesting idea we could actually potentially put something in the tax bills that which plays every property owner in the like the December bill says especially if we pass a new bylaw to alert people that there is a new bylaw um be aware that you are responsible and you may not know this already but you are responsible for this or something like that the other point I want to make is that the DPW generally doesn't treat sidewalks we don't they don't put salt down or anything like that and so like for that day when it was really icy they did they may have treated the streets with just salt but they did there was nothing to plow speak right that's sure and but they wouldn't do that on the sidewalks I mean that would be a fury if they tried to do that on Paul I will say we generally like to send out positive information with the tax bills instead of that you get to you get to shovel your sidewalk yeah yeah so well we should think about that for our wellness program yeah I want to I want to go back to the conversation that that Tracy actually started about you know sort of the who to call um if if in the jcpc we're talking about um not just a sort of a actually not jcpc but in in thinking about roads for the upcoming year we have the pavement condition index if perhaps there was yet another category which is sort of the safety concerns the speeding the the whatever other safety concerns crosswalks that kind of thing um it may be that that ultimately that the selection of roads to be worked on is a combination of those two but it's made clear that that there may be in fact some it's not just the the condition of the pavement it's also maybe other factors and I'm sure I'm sure that is discussed but perhaps it could just be made a little clearer to people who say well why didn't you do my road well because you know there were five others that were really bad or very unsafe conditions so it may be something that it's kind of an and a couple of the questions from a from a town staffing standpoint we have a lot of the I don't know exactly the total dollar amount that is made available both from our budget but also from all the state and other uh sources does that cover any of our staff or is that strictly for contract almost all almost all of it is contract or material or material if our staff are doing something they'll take material out of that and do we know sort of the equivalent of how many how many full-time people actually spend time from town staff on road work road repair road maintenance kind of stuff so we have the highway department which is really but they serve our is our catch all department they they will also move election equipment on election day they do all kinds of things they'll help out on major water breaks things like that you know they're the ones who are doing the potholes and things and um but we've gotten them out of they were actually paving sidewalks and roads and things like that and I think we sort of moved them out of that because I think professional companies who do that are what a lot more efficient in terms of how they're they can mobilize the challenge we have for a lot of that is that there are only three paving companies in western massachusetts and as more a lot of cities and towns are experiencing and when the state comes in and they have a lot more money now they trump everybody because they pay a lot more than everybody so when they say we want to pay something they all go to them I just want to make one other comment the two biggest complaints that we have on roads is that the roads are in terrible condition I have to crawl through the roads because they're so in such terrible I have to go to five miles an hour and the second most frequent is people are driving way too fast the roads are nice and smooth and they're just cruising through which is it used to be in bay road we were getting complaints that like it was taking me forever to get through there and now we get complaints that their people are speeding so they're never and that's always a huge challenge because now people want us to do something about bay road because people are they can't stand in there they can't pull out of their driveway because people are going what they feel they can drive as a speed limit and that's not to I don't want to be make that lake light of that because those are very real concerns for everybody you know so we keep everything kind of at that nebulous middle ground where it's a little rough but not too bad Anika did you or your friends have any questions on this topic yes okay I'm sorry I was having a little my reception is walking even here um yeah so speaking of safety and walkability we will have our next neighborhood walk that's scheduled for Wednesday March 22nd at 6 30 p.m. and we'll we'll focus on the Lincoln Farron McClellan loop so again that's Wednesday March 22nd 6 30 p.m. we will meet at Conduct Park by the corner closest to the rotary for those of you who joined us before that was where the the tree that was lit up is I don't think that it is lit up any longer but we're right there so yeah we have so we'll have I'm sure some more sidewalks to look at and we will be focusing on you know safety you know there's so many reasons we're the downtown neighborhood you know lots of us walk and you know we have even more reasons we've just had an announcement today that there is a new casual burger restaurant that's opening up in the spring so we'll have even you know more reasons to be walking downtown and our support so again March 22nd 6 30 p.m. at Conduct Park let's walk down McClellan street we're proud of that one yeah yeah it's nice yeah so it's interesting too so that that's the week that um their spring break you know right or is that after spring break yeah yeah so it could be kind of quiet but be quiet you're right well it's not UMass spring break it is it is Amherst what elementary school spring break no no those they had their break in February so if UMass UMass last day of classes is the 11th or 10th so it's not it's after spring break then yeah after spring break yeah yeah yeah exactly yeah I need to reach out to Judy and Trudy as the as the two attendees to make sure that if you have any questions with this array of experiences available to you tonight do you have any questions for the town manager the town finance director the president of the council and your two oh and the tack chair and your two counselors do you have any questions Judy and Trudy seeing that so yeah I have a question just about budget and so at the last tack meeting and we're continuing the discussion tomorrow night is we were talking about the street lights proposal you know including the idea of having better smarter lighting fixtures um and including the technology or the capability to in the future like have smart lights that you can control remotely and you know set timers and all these different features so the thing that came one tack member asked just about the costs of all of that and Gilbert said that with the smart lights like that you almost you need to have a monthly subscription almost that you would need to log in like to each light and um and then you can control it and everything um so we're just curious about the total costs and I hadn't seen um anything on that yet and I'm sure gilford is putting together those estimates um but just in terms of and also too in terms of how those costs compared to like the other type of maintenance costs and things in terms of the different options for the town um yeah so that's a council proposal um and you know I think they're developing the costs of it and it seems like everything that we're getting into is a subscription model it's it's all software as a service and every department is facing something where I'd like to do this and it's an ongoing cost it's now one of our biggest budget challenges this year actually we're trying to budget for it but you know it's more and more things you know come online and people want to have the service and it's great to have but all these what they all these SaaS things software as a service are just ridiculous in terms of the actual cost I think the idea from the counselors is that we want to they wanted to have a plan that they would implement over time so it wouldn't be like an initial upfront cost but as you are replacing lights you would replace them with the newer technology and you would eliminate a lot of lights that's the intent of the proposals to eliminate a lot of lights and perhaps save money in the process we heard a lot about eliminating lights and this district did not like that idea primarily the in town you know people said well we're supposed to be walking these streets how do we do that if we don't have lighting so that was and we get requests for new you had requests for new lights all the time sorry Judy would like to come into the room and ask a question we got our attention now we get requests for new lights all the time too I can't seem to get her to come in I can get out there she is okay Judy you need to unmute here you go no you need to unmute again let me see if I control now thank you the group that Tracy keeps referring to 10 I don't know what that is it's a transportation advisory committee oh okay all right I hadn't she kept talking about it like this well that's all I had to ask very informative I there's a lot of things that I did not know I'm not that here in town that long so I'm learning I'm listening and learning what what made you us log on today how did you learn about this um Trudy actually who's also on there sent me a link and I said okay I'm always interested in hearing what's going on so I logged in and I it's been very interesting mostly but I don't really have a lot of questions yet because I don't know a lot to ask about can I ask you a question how do you get your information about the town typically I read the gazette which is pretty thorough when I get that other one to the reminder it always has things and tells you all the things that are are you on any listservs like the counselors have listservs and things like that no so Paul might be a good time to plug that there's um you can actually subscribe for updates from the town's website as well where um you know you can get information updates directly from the town um things going on events scheduled and so on yes you really want to get into it if you want to get direct direct from the source you know no no opinion and I was thinking about that too with the recent snow emergency like I noticed um when I was walking along north pleasant street west to Kendrick right after the snow that there had been this snow emergency and a lot of the student vehicles that are parked the tenant vehicles that are parked there had all been ticketed so I mean I'm assuming that you know again I think that just some property owners are not signing up for the listservs or but in the case of um the student I mean the these tenants is that if they perhaps like when they get their parking permits or something they could be you know encouraged or advised to like sign up for like the text alerts I don't know did you send out or when does the town send out text alerts I don't I used to get them but I haven't gotten them lately you have you can only opt in you go to notify me on the town's website you can you can check the ones you want to receive you know you can check all you can just check I just want to hear snow emergencies I don't hear anything else I think when people get their parking permits they do get a notification about how to sign up for alerts and things like that but do they do want to go right to your phone and not your email too yeah yeah okay Sean can you tell Judy and whoever else is listening um where on the town website she would go to sign up for something like that Paul maybe better and uh explain or actually Brianna Brianna our communications director which would probably be the best um is it under the calendar Paul no um I'm trying to remember too so I tell you if you if you go to the home home page oh stay connected under how do I yeah how do I do if you click on how do I at the top there's a um stay connected subheading and then under stay connected there's subscribe yeah and I think there's also a banner there's a lot of little buttons on the flow through that you just click stay connected as well yeah staying connected is important it's a good thing yeah so Judy since you got a link to this meeting from your friend Trudy um it means that that we don't have your email address so we can't include you when we notice people about this meeting and if you want to if you want to be included in our updates or whatever else information coming from Anika and myself you can write to our council address and it's um it's Rooney P at Amherst Mod.gov or Lopes A at Amherst Mod.gov just got a piece of paper coming and again please sure it's just my last name Rooney first initial P at Amherst MA.gov and just say Pam please put just please put me on your email list okay and then you get the link directly and you don't have to rely on anybody else okay that's thank you excellent do you have any questions about sidewalks or street lights or anything like that since we're here you mentioned Heatherstone Street I drive on that very often and it's horrible shape but it was not on the original list so that's one of the things that blew up pretty frequently but other than that I don't have any comments we're really glad that you stuck with us to the end um seeing no other hand yeah I think we should let everybody go home I think a lot of heavy hitters here I want to say thank you to Trudy and then thanks to Paul and Sean and Lynn for joining us thank you I feel badly that we had such a small audience but the people who did show up were interesting but I do appreciate that it is listed on the town calendar online yeah because I know sometimes the district meetings aren't there but again it's one of those things about people who know know and people so right anyway but thank you thank you both for having it so yeah thank you thank you Pam thank you Annika bye all all right good night good night Lynn before you leave um you do you hit the stop recording button no I just hit leave and that ends it okay it cuts all of you off and you're done okay


During these crazy times, I have a little motto going on.  What is up everybody? This is Chris from the Rewired Soul, where we talk about the problem, but focus on the solution. And if you're new to my channel, my channel's all about mental health.  So, if you're into that stuff, make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell.  It's a mental health podcast. And I have such cool guests coming up. Like you have no idea. I'm talking about psychologists. I'm talking about neuroscientists. I'm talking about therapists. I'm talking about authors. So many cool people. I am so, so, so excited. But anyways, it's released every Wednesday. I just did one this morning. It's so low. But anyways, go check it out. It's about the United States of Anxiety. All right? So go check it out. It'll be linked down below. It's on Spotify. It's on Apple. All that good stuff. Cause I'm here for you, baby. All right? So yeah, let's talk. Let's talk real quick. So in the current situation of social distancing, a lot of uncertainty, a lot of anxiety, a lot of depression, a lot of loneliness, we are in the perfect situation to make the dumbest decisions ever. So I wanted to make this video for all of you guys, although I am in a very loving relationship with my beautiful girlfriend Tristan. We've been together for over three years. But before I met the love of my life, I made the dumbest decisions ever. And I know how a lot of you feel right now, if you are single, if you're feeling lonely, and all that stuff. But right now is not the time to try to hook up with your ex, okay? So I made a video the other day about how social distancing, it can cause signs of depression, it can cause signs of anxiety, right? And we can feel very alone right now. And there's one of the reasons why I keep talking about staying in touch with your support group. But here's the thing. Like, so I used to get in terrible relationship after terrible relationship after terrible relationship, right? And I used to just get in this pity party, like, oh, why me? Why can't I just find a decent woman to date, right? And I was neglecting all personal responsibility, right? Although some of the relationships that I was in were verbally abusive, emotionally abusive, and even though I'm a guy, I was physically abused as well. But the thing was, I was making very dumb decisions, right? By getting in those relationships in the first place. All of the glaring red flags were there. But an even worse decision that I used to make was getting back with these people. And although the current climate is different right now, it's the same feelings and same emotions that we all get. So save this video and use it later, okay? Because when we're lonely, when we're sad, when we're depressed, we start to lower our bar. We start to lower our standards, right? Like being in that vulnerable state of, you know, not feeling good enough, wanting to feel loved, all of that stuff, like being in that state, like we make really, really dumb decisions. And I saw some people talking about this on Twitter. I'm like, this is some true stuff. So the first thing we'll talk about with the main reasons why you don't do this and try to hook up with an ex during this time is many years ago, before it really made sense to me, I had an older brother-like figure. He was almost like a mentor to me, right? And he told me about the spoiled milk philosophy, okay? Stay with me. So when you're thinking about an ex or getting back with an ex or texting an ex or hooking up with an ex, never forget the spoiled milk philosophy, all right? So what he told me is, getting with an ex is like drinking spoiled milk, okay?   Oh my God, this is spoiled, right? Well, the idea is getting back with an ex is like taking that spoiled milk, putting it back in the fridge, taking it out later and thinking it's gonna be better this time. Now, girl, it's still spoiled milk, okay? And I can tell you this from personal experience. Some of you might have this personal experience as well. And trust me, I know I'm gonna get some comments like, oh, I got back with my ex and we're married now and everything like that. That is the exception, not the rule from a lot of people's experiences, okay? So remember these things. Like, something that's really fascinating to me about the human psyche, especially when it comes to relationships, but you might even have this happen with like jobs or family members or friends, but we have this weird blind spot, this weird mental blind spot with our memory where we forget all of the terrible things, all of the terrible things and our brain focuses on the good times, right? We forget all of the fights. We forget all of the lying or cheating or the emotional or verbal abuse that they put us through. And we're like, oh, but what about that time we cuddled on the couch? What about that time when we first started dating, when they did this, right? It's such a weird blind spot. So before we make this decision to call or text an ex, right? It'd be like, yo, social distancing, but you want a Netflix and chill? Like we need to remember the whole picture, the whole picture of that relationship. Something we often forget is we broke up with that person for a reason. This relationship ended for a reason. But again, in that blind spot, we had this tendency to lie to ourselves about what actually happened. And sometimes it turns into this personal type of self-blame, right? Like, oh, maybe if I was a little bit more trusting, maybe if I didn't make them so mad all the time, right? Maybe I shouldn't have been doing that thing, you know? Like all these other things. And we neglect to realize that that was a very emotionally or even sometimes physically abusive relationship. And if you are not seeing in this blind spot, a great thing to do before you call or text that ex during this time is talk to your friends. Talk to your friends. Now, a lot of us don't do this because we know what we're gonna hear. Like some of you know, I'm a recovering drug addict and alcoholic, seven and a half years clean.  Call someone from your support group, call a sponsor, you know, whatever. And a lot of times we don't do that because we know they're gonna tell us not to do that thing. But again, like I said in the intro of this video, and I will say this until this whole thing is over, do not make a dumb decision today that you're going to regret six months from now. Right now, we are in a very difficult time that none of us have ever experienced, right? And we're freaking out. We are panicking and we're taking this day by day.  This is going to stop at some point, okay? There's different estimates of when it's gonna blow over, right? Some people are saying May, some people are saying August, you know? All these different estimates. But the thing is, this whole thing is going to pass. And one of the reasons why I've been making so many mental health videos during this time, like I dialed back on the content I was making. But one of the reasons I'm so active on this channel right now is because now we have to remember to take care of our mental and emotional well-being. And something that will knock us off course is reigniting a relationship with someone who is absolutely awful for us. And one of the worst case scenarios, one of the worst case scenarios is that you get back into like a severely abusive relationship. You know what I mean? I might make some more videos about how this period of time is, you know, it's a breeding ground for even more domestic violence and things like that, which is really scary. But just to touch on that real quick, if you're somebody watching this who was in that situation, like there are still resources available. Reach out to friends, reach out to family, leave that situation if you have to. Do not think that this current period of, you know, social distancing and isolation means that there's no way out because there is. But the worst thing that any of us could possibly do right now is to willingly get back into that relationship.  There are plenty of fish in the sea, although right now is not the time to be swiping over on Tinder, okay? Because you don't wanna catch nothing, all right? But like talk to people, build social connections, like again, loneliness makes us just lower our guards and lower our standards. I did that for a very long time, okay?  If you need some love, go adopt a cat, they're amazing or a dog, whatever you wanna do, they'll show you some love, okay? But anyways, that's all I got for this video. Remember, for the love of God, now is not the time to hook up with an ex.  But that's all I got for this video. If you like this video, please give it a thumbs up. If you're new, make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell. And a huge, huge thank you to everybody supporting the channel around Patreon, as well as everybody supporting the channel by buying my mental health books at therewiretole.com. And if you use code Rewired, you get 25% off any of my e-books or audio books at therewiretole.com slash shop, all right? Thanks again for watching. I'll see you next time.