ill way more community conversation to be had and constructive Debate across that spectrum of opinion. So So we'll commercial It is an important vote. It is one that will have significant impact regardless of how it turns out You know as we encourage people to vote all the time obviously For a lot of things and we have a lot of things that come to our ballots, you know, they're You know financially important to people we ask for overrides at times. We ask for Other kinds of significant things. This is is is On a par with those as far as importance Not, you know There is there are concrete consequences to this choice. And so people's informed Vote is is You know important to to uh to be To be had so it's important for people to do that research and figure out what they hold you know As it has how they want their town to function from a governmental standpoint Um, are there any other comments on this particular topic? If not, then we'll move on to Our next one, which is the town manager goals review progress report And there was a memo in our packet to that effect Um Which hopefully you had an opportunity to read over the weekend. Mr. Bachman, do you want to Yeah, so When we were setting the goals last time You had suggested and I thought this was a good idea that we I update you on a more frequent basis So this is the first cut of the two months update and After this when you when I will update you next time, I'll highlight the things that are different So you don't have to plow through everything Some of these things will be repetitive But it's a good way for me to capture things that we're doing around town And and how they're matching up with your goals And then also what you what I anticipate coming forward with in the future, which is on the last page moving going forward. So If there are comments or suggestions, I'm open to them Uh, I think I will suggest one thing So on page three under number Four under managing fiscal 18 year budget. Yep, I think we're in the second line of the first bullet I think that should say Managing its fiscal 18 approved budget. I think it's just a sort of typographical that's Good one really Not that's a good one substantial thing, but it does Provide a right there. I think that's what you want. But anyway some Notes and bolts kind of thing but Questions or comments for the manager regarding this Just the global comment that I really appreciated having the opportunity to Read your review of all that has been accomplished so far in the year and I uh, thank you for your hard work as it's shown in the document and the Steps that have been taken towards achieving goals that I think that You were very Much consulted about and I think we're all we were all involved in developing in the public format But I really appreciated this document And for what it what it communicates about what you've accomplished. Thank you. Thank you Yeah, I often says it's partly for us to sort of be reminded of of things But it's also I think it it serves a really public purpose and sort of outlining sort of Kinds of things towns up, you know the town as a whole is up to because I think it's It's easy to not recognize that there's so much sort of going on On a sort of day-to-day basis these are not often things that sort of you know You put a new Swathe of black top down or you put up a new traffic light that's pretty obvious that something's happened But but many of these things are much more subtle in there in their uh in their visibility Um, but nonetheless are very important to us and and so it's great to get this is sort of out into the public so they can see You know the great work that's getting done on our behalf Thank you for that. Let's go to that. Yeah, I think it is it is really helpful and just Appreciate the amount of work it takes just to stop what you are doing which is gigantic and write it all out um I did have I did you know Highlight a few things, but um when I got to page nine the going forward and I read that bullet Bulleted a list. I thought that was really helpful. I'm not something they're not necessarily in an order of priority But they're there and I my note from earlier today when I was reviewing this was Yes, yes to all explanation mark and because I think this reflects Um, not just what you've picked out as priorities, but things we've talked about We've talked about this at our board retreat and trying to you know have the discipline to prioritize of You know, there's more that we want to do and could do then is humanly possible With the people and the resources we have and so this is is kind of pulling out things We've all identified collectively that we think needs work coming six months. So I I think that was uh a good Summary of that you further comment from the board Um, I actually just have one, you know, you had done and again on page three not to be stuck on page three But there's an emerging issue. So so far you've got No, I got further than that But I just happened to notice it again and wanted to ask the question You're talking about under sanctuary communities and the possibility of grant funds for police department And you were suggesting that we've received a word Any expectation of when you might or will you just we won't receive the funds on january 1st? And that's how we'll know or right. I mean, I think it's The chief has a good relationship with the executive office of Public safety and you know the last time I spoke with him He did not have insight into if funds would be released or not We're sort of we're basically operating under the assumption. They won't be so Because he uses this to support his budget and so he has to be taking steps now To manage that over the course of six months And I guess this subsequent question which is you know, and so it's not ours to hold but Sort of what actions might we take or be partner with other communities to take? Regarding this, I mean, you know, there's there's some things that you know, the state's attorney generals Kind of get together and and take action sometimes if they feel they're being sort of, you know, unjustly sort of Selected or you know singled out and and denied certain things So I didn't know if you knew of what's on the horizon there in a broad sense It'll be a really important question for the town because it's one of these things where do we want to create a high-profile response to this? or do we want to Follow sort of our legislative delegation say this is unfortunate or do we want to bring lawsuit? You know, there are law firms out there who have reached out to us Out of new york and other places who said if you have a cause we'd like to Part of our mission as a law firm is to take these things Make make cases out of these things at pro bono They would they were looking for opportunities Like this and whether that's something I've been I've shied away from that at this You know in the past just because there weren't any sort of consequences If this grant doesn't come through it'll be the first real consequence to our adopting the sanctuary community Bylaw and at that point I wonder if we I mean that'd be a discussion we would want to have whether we want to Take a high profile on this and make it a more public position on Being proud of where we what we take the position we've taken and the law that we've passed and The consequences and why that's unfair But I you know, I think the attorney general we for our fortunate have an attorney general who's pretty active on this area And until we know for sure one way or the other then I don't think it's relevant But I think that would be a conversation we certainly have to have as whether that's something because it will Reflect the town and you would be responsible for saying we want to do this or we don't want to do this When it's the right time I look forward to having that conversation because I think it's an important one and You know, there's there's a lot of facets as you just pointed out, but I think I wouldn't If once we do know for sure, I wouldn't want to wait too long to have the conversations You know, I'm assuming you'll bring it to us Any other questions or comments for the for the manager, Mr. Wall Totally minor, but since we're doing this on page eight where you're talking about our community partners with the five colleges I mean, it's it's good, of course Do you that you've established relationships with Amherst and Hampshire, which has been basically lacking in previous years I had one question about point number two. It says Improved communications among our institutional partners has enabled the town to not be surprised by development such as the university's rfi However, since the rfi was issued. We've not heard much of substance and so forth. This has been disappointing Does that mean we were not surprised by the rfi or we've not been surprised since the rfi And what do we do about the lack of subsequent communication? So this is this is an interesting topic. Um, we weren't surprised that an rfi was going out Once the rfi hit the streets. It's been pretty, um Quiet coming from university umass amherst They, um, we actually had a meeting with the Chancellor today and we talked about this and they Um, did two things one is they recognized they want us to recognize that this is something at the umass building authority Which is a separate entity that's driving this But also, um, they left to claim that Yeah, uh, they also said that they it's a very it's it's a and they actually educated us a little bit about They're working a very complicated environment Where they have a lot of on-campus constituent groups who They are also being and we're we're one of the groups Um, because as they start looking at all these different things There are lots of moving parts and I think they were just asking us be sensitive that Um, just and this has been really relevant to me as we've been talking about health insurance because we're doing a lot dealing with a lot of collective bargaining groups and trying to manage Expectations and communication They felt like they had on-campus groups that they had not communicated With on some certain things and they didn't want to put us out in front of any of those groups And that was actually we walked out of that that mean thinking oh that make I understand a little bit better We still want them to be better communicators on this, but um They're working at a fairly complex environment dealing with the state legislature the umass office is the president's office and then also on campus and If they are saying we're gonna we want to put this thing here all you know Everybody sort of can get upset and say they were hesitant to get out there too far On some of these things that's the explanation they used for us Can I ask you mr. Bauchleman because when I read this, um, it's kind of Kind of a forceful statement And I made a note about well, you know then you know talk to Our partners which you've done if you might want to think about Tempering this statement because this can get seized on by people and used In a way and it sounds like you became more informed and I might suggest Since this is a public document that And maybe want to leave it the way it is but um, I I think It's become sort of an when they said be sensitive this can be also sort of used in so this this is written December 14th And that's what I'm asking you that that's why I'm asking for 18th. We have a different I have more information So this is a time, you know, so I would write that differently if it were to write it today But you're happy leaving it that way. Okay. It's what it is. Yeah. No, I know that it's it is public It's also we also revise documents when they sure this will get revised the next time I presented to you Exactly. That's when I think it gets revised. Is that wow, then that's new Is that's good that we've learned more about that since then that makes us more sensitive to the issue Although people are still mad that they want more. So, you know, it still doesn't really solve the problem We just understand it better. Sometimes feels a fire that's already burning. Maybe for good reason Are there further comments? So Not hearing any I suggest we move on to community board appointments and reappointments Which we have one off and so if someone would like to make the motion This is the For five You why don't you make that? No, go ahead All right, um I move to appoint marianne adams to the local historic district commission through june 30th 2019 Second and there's a second. Is there further discussion or any explanation that wants to go with this? Hearing none all those in favor, please say aye Aye Opposed that's unanimous All right, so now we'll go into section seven which has licenses public way and metered parking reservation We have a consent counter which we plucked one piece out of Um So if someone would like to Make a motion or or are there any items within that that need to be pulled out? Well, we did pull one out We did pull one out so it would be I think that what I had rewritten it is as I move to approve the items listed on the Consent calendar for december 18 2017 as presented except for item 3d Is there a second There is Uh any further discussion on these? Hearing none all those in favor, please say aye. Aye Opposed I am not opposed. I did not raise my hand I just want to make a comment If if you would ask miss pupill if she hasn't already and I'll bet she has just in case she didn't get a chance If she would add that earlier opening time for big guy to our list of Our liquor license quota report She has been carrying forward on our liquor license quota report which ones are opening earlier And we know that it's just a thing they tell us we don't get to choose whether they do it or not But she's been keeping track of which ones are opening then. Yeah, thank you She probably already did it Good reminder all the rushing with all these licenses of the last minute They do a great job. They did a great job this year and um Both debba and jennifer have done spectacular work on this this year. They've worked very well together Great, that's great to hear So next up is a is a topic we took up a while ago, but I think we're going to finish up tonight And that's uh under the alteration of premises I think we just have We got some additional refined and updated information on the particular page within the application from the applicant Which they brought to us the night we spoke to them before But they more formally sort of brought that to us around Number of people square footage etc etc Story spaces and that and the light Can I ask a question about that so I'm not going to bother explaining it for the folks at home if they weren't paying attention last time too bad Is that I don't think the motion actually scans in a way that makes sense to me And so for future reference, I wonder if we might fix that a little Because I think I understand what it was trying to say, but it doesn't actually make sense So to say what it currently says is into the adjacent space at 35 east pleasant street for a total of 2667 square feet not including 530 square feet for the patio deck Which would imply that we are not licensing the patio deck which we are licensing Assuming that the building commissioner and everything else does that So are they saying with an additional 530 square feet for the patio deck? What's the right phrasing there? Because we are that is absolutely what we have to do we have to do both inside and outside the words not including in What I would suggest there for someone who might make emotions We're total 266 267 square feet inside and 530 square feet for the patio deck with one entrance three exits Perhaps that works for everyone Square feet inside and 530 square feet that works I could read that and we can see if it works Please do I move to approve the application of the spoke llc doing business as spoke for the alteration of premises for license 0 3 1 1 4 dash r s dash 0 0 2 4 For the expansion of the premises into the adjacent space at 35 east pleasant street for a total of 2667 square feet inside And 530 square feet for the patio slash deck with one entrance Three exits and proposed seating capacity of 97 and occupancy of 180 shadow work member manager Is there a second? There he is. Is there further discussion or questions? A little bit on syntax, it looks like the patio has one entrance and three exits Can we put is there a way to fix it with a comma or something? I'm sorry. I follow what you're saying. The interior doesn't have three exits. Well it does but it's just the order of the sentence right The way to fix that would you take that whole width and extend me a call. I'll move that. How about a comma after the word deck? Yeah, something because it implies it's the patio that has the exits It's actually the indoor space I think that however Whatever Fix it. It's fine. We know what we mean. Oh so long as it's clear. We're licensing the patio as well, right? Is there further discussion? Hearing none all those in favor, please say aye Aye opposed That's unanimous as well So next up is the Hartford half marathon 2018 request for road closures, and I believe we actually have some material in our packet from From the folks from the Hartford marathon foundation Etc. So Mr. Bachman, do you want to give us a little framing of this? Sure So as you recall the very first amherst half marathon happened on Veterans Day weekend, and it was very successful And they did not exactly hit the target did number of runners, but they do Find that this community is a very receptive community to Road races and they want to make this race one of a trifecta of races in three different states Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts, and this would be one of them There before you early because they would like to start advertising that this is one of the three races that they want to Host three half marathons, and I think the logic of that is that many people come January 1 make New Year's resolutions to say let's do this and let's run these three races over these this period of time They had suggested Another a different date not the Memorial Day weekend This time a veteran say weekend. Yes. Thank you And so they were looking because that weekend I believe is a There's an event at Amherst college that they wanted to Avoid so they moved it a week earlier to November 4th So so I guess the the The one complaint I've heard is that they that the donation that they made to the survival center wasn't as As generous as they thought that as many people felt like this Company which is it is a company that puts on these races I could provide to the to the survival center the survival center was grateful for the donation It's they would not have had this money had they not offered it There are people who run other races in town who Generate a lot more money for a lot smaller races and they felt that wow they're coming in They could do a lot better and You know if you Um So I don't think it says a monetary donation. I mean that's something that I would want to push on In terms of how much they're giving out of their age registration That's exactly what I was going to say is if there was some way we could phrase this to say show us some more money Because that that's not enough for the for these types of races and That we appreciate that it was their first year and they were figuring it out but they can do much better than that and I would want I wouldn't want you to feel like you were in the position of well they approved it So I guess if they say 36 is the best we can do it's the best we can do I would say no I think they can do better than that I would suggest we defer action. I understand they want to get their stuff out but I think if we defer action it gives the manager some Leverage to have the conversation and I don't think the difference between now and january 9th or The january is that critical. I know they want it, but I think it's more meaningful to leave the negotiation open So given that they would like to put it on their list and they can't if well, I mean they could They could put it on as a tentative obviously on their list Um, and so that could be their solution to it and then like you say you need some more Leverage to have the conversation But how much direction do we want to give the manager at this point in terms of when he brings it back to us? Because I mean he's got a thousand other things to do. So, um, just in terms of what our expectation is And what seems reasonable to you I think they'll be anxious to do this and it's you know, the economic development director has been the main Interread area between the two So they need us So what I'm saying is are we going to talk about it again in january? Yeah, okay Yeah, I think it's likely if we don't if we don't take action this evening, you know Hopefully we can't on the 8th when we come back. Oh, that's useful. I mean, I think that's you know, that's I mean we want to be, you know, uh Understanding of their their need to get their marketing materials out and that benefits us as well And so it gives us a greater opportunity to to to generate food donations and that sort of thing Certainly, I mean, I think we should also, you know, encourage them to Encourage their participants to stay in Amherst proper and go to dinner in Amherst proper and if they work with the chamber or the bid or Whomever to to you know, sort of actively promote some of the local businesses as a part of it That would be great. Obviously a greater financial donation to the survival center would be Additionally fantastic as well. So Yeah Press the flesh All those things could be beneficial to us as our side of the you're inclined to approve it if the circumstances are right basically Okay, let's get to know feedback from our constituents that they For this for year number two, they could do a little better. Okay, great. Thank you. All right so We have remaining on our agenda um Some minutes which we may want to do Because they won't shouldn't take long We have the 10 minutes report in the select board member reports and I know I have a member report I'm sure some others have as well. Um, so why don't we do why don't we take up the minutes? Um Did Clark wish to mention anything to us about them? Although I think we all got I think that they're quick and they're short enough that you could probably read them by now So I'm going to approve the minutes of the december 11 2017 select board meeting as written Is there a second second Is there a discussion hearing none all those in favor, please say aye Aye opposed abstaining We'll take that as unanimous All right, so next up is The managers report so So I just have a few things I want to update you on next time you'll get a full written report the um Uh, Ms. Aldridge already updated you on the North Amherst fire station the boiler Failed we had to Do emergency procurement procedures with the state in order to purchase a new boiler Um, they didn't get involved removing the old boiler, which was original to the building and oddly enough We had it on our capital improvement list for Um Not this year, but next year because a year ago Ron Bahana once had estimated Oh, you can get two or three more years out of that. He was off by a year Um, and that sort of shows how tight he has How accurate he's been to be off one year on a 47 year old boiler is pretty good Um, but it did have asbestos in it. So we had to have remediation Company come in and remediate the asbestos and disassemble the boiler because it was Installed in place and then other equipment was put in it couldn't just be picked up and moved out So made it more complicated um I think I updated you that the the fire chief secured a lot of other material to make sure that the Bays were kept warm and it worked out fine. So everybody worked together. We appreciate Anthony Delaney our procurement officer Rob Mora Our building commissioner who sort of headed this up and um the Fire chief and the assistant fire chief Lindsay who did a lot of work on this as well um sticking with public safety I interviewed six sergeants who are vying to become lieutenants in the police department to replace jerry malar who retired and they the thing that We haven't made any decisions on that yet, but the thing that strikes me is that Our six really well qualified You know leaders in that department who are all very capable of stepping up and to become lieutenants um One of the dangers for us is that they are we only have so many slots and they may seek other employment because they We are we are a real incubator for strong leaders. So Um, that's the dangers, but we'll pick the best and they'll be very excited It's just encouraging to hear them talk about working for the town of Amherst and the pride they take to be part of this department in particular It's really terrific. Um we um the uh A good news bad news story the good news is that um, we there's we were told there to be in holy oak tomorrow morning at 9 30 for a important announcement on Funding for an affordable housing project, which we're looking forward to hearing about what that is um the bad news story is that our application for mass works was not approved and um, that's Just means that um, well, we're going to communicate with the funding agency to determine What we could do to make the the Application better what they basically said to us is that we weren't generating enough jobs Because there's a job creation program Therefore you have to if you want to strengthen your application you have to create more jobs And we'll have to go back to the drawing board on that one um uh A couple other things, um We had the town's annual employee party at the red barn on Friday afternoon three o'clock and Ms. Kruger was there representing the board and we had members of the personnel board there It was a really good turnout really great venue people were in high spirits and um, it was good we do this Do something in the summer we do something in around this time of year and it was really people were really buzzed about it for some reason this morning because They felt like it was one of the better ones that we've had for a long time Yeah, it was a great venue and people are really positive and things so Mr. Bachman, I just said for people who are watching the employees Pay for the party and manage the whole thing. It's not yeah, so it's it's 100 percent employee paid There's a tradition that I learned is that department has kick in extra money to help pay for it And then employees are held their their contributions held pretty low so Yeah, not a dime of town funds goes into that The um It was a lot of fun. It was good. Yeah Yeah, miss brewers Necklace would have fit in oh some of the other modest Yes, that's dope. So I mentioned that I had We had a meeting with the chancellor at UMass today and with the two teams and Talked a lot about a lot of different items in terms of Um Relations between the university and the town Preparing, you know, I'm identifying the the Renewal of the strategic partnership agreement, which is not until 2019 But we want to start thinking about that because we know budgets get set in advance Alert him to some things that we see on our side asked them and they're alerting us to some things on their side Generally, there's really good communication between the university and the town right now. I think We have a couple levels with tony morales and Nancy buffoon over there talking with jeff and with dave zomac There's a lot of back and forth and they they call each other a lot to keep everybody A prize of what's going on. So I think the communication is at a very high level for almost anything that happens Um, and they're you know, so it's really helpful for us to know what's going on over there There are some things that we can get better, which we've talked about already and um You know, it's helpful to start thinking about What we see is the challenge for us is that we don't have a clear vision of what we want our downtown to be Moment that we have the master plan, but it's you know, this these these sort of planning sessions are supposed to be helping us Be more clear The university on the other hand has a broader mandate They look at the town, but they also look at all western massachusetts You know, they have a springfield connection and they see themselves as a major And they have very they're very ambitious about their major footprint that they want to have on the region um And how they're they see their competitors as Cambridge and boston and that's that's and they want to create an equal weight out here And it's it's an ambitious agenda. I think the chancellor is very smart about how he's gone about that But it's just great. We agreed that we would have another meeting immediately after the charter vote So we could understand what happened and what that means for the university and for the town and just to stay in better communication So uncertainty creates Nervousness and we want to allow any of that There's not a whole lot that will happen between now and then but It's it's just good to have had that conversation The north amherst library we're moving forward with the rfp on that that was supposed to go out last week, but Our procurement officer got sidetracked on a lot of work on the north amherst fire station And then he was out for training so that we are scheduled to look at the documents tomorrow So our goal is to get an rfp out before christmas Um, well our time frame will still be around the same Same fright same time um What else Winterfest was coming up. That's you know, you probably got something in the mail about that or something February 3rd of a week coming forward The there's a community solar meeting coming up um on january 9th Um at 6 30 here in this room. So as people want to talk about what's going on with the solar project on the One of the landfills The newer land the newer landfill old landfill the old landfill And then the um, other thing I wanted to mention was the uh craig's doors Loss of funding and that might be on your agenda too to bring up. So that's something for the board we've been asked to Write a letter to the legislature and I think that was happened last year. Ms. Brewer wrote a letter On behalf of the board So whether you want to do that again or not is up for question. So I'll just preface or piggyback on that a little bit um The municipal affordable housing trust at the meeting on last thursday did Vote to send a letter. Um, I believe copies got sent to us as as a board or maybe Mr. Hornick just shared some proposed texts in that letter I can't remember if it was just addressed to me or if it was addressed to the group as a whole Yeah, um, but I can certainly share that out. It Articulate sort of, you know, how craig's doors works and what role it serves in our community and Uh, I think it's very similar to the letter from a year ago. And so the the affordable housing trust Um, sent the letter thought it would be wise for all of us to to to you know To select board and and other, you know Concerned parties within town to to send similar letters To the governor and and copies to the legislative representatives, etc And so one thing is whether or not, um, I'm certainly happy to do it. I think it can be beneficial I don't know if it will have the impact it might have had last year Just because I'm not sure the governor from From West Role Aquinas reported whether or not the governor is amenable to releasing any of those those sorts of funds, um At this point the the really critical thing is, you know, if even if he releases it, but he releases it in April That doesn't do us much good. Um, so it's really a matter of timing is a critical piece with regard to this um It is money that has been budgeted theoretically there's revenue resources available to To send it out. So, uh, I think we can we are within our right to sort of press for that release of funds So I'm certainly happy to take, uh, on the task of of composing a letter on our behalf If that's amenable to the to the group and I will Share that out before it goes out Um And obviously take edits individually from each of you. So if that's okay with with the board as a whole, I'll do that um, because I think it is worth our time and and it is a Uh You know a valuable resource within our community to help those folks that are without Without resources to provide housing for themselves. So I think it's worth worth our effort I'm so I'll take that on Did anyone have questions for the manager on other points? or Things that you mentioned. Yes, I didn't get a chance because I was looking at the remote participation part About the um, yes, that will be a recurring theme for the rest of the meeting tonight is the a little trailer the ever sweet Um is associated with community meeting on solar has that been added to the news and announcements Part of the website because if it hasn't I think that would be a really good idea In fact, I was disappointed that the select board wasn't on the initial mailing list for that because We should be so that we can be reminding people. So when they say hey, what have you heard about that? It's like being we forward that email and say here it is Um, I appreciate that bcc was used that was very clever But um, the select board was not on the initial announcement of that january 9th meeting We got it from mr. Bachman, but we didn't get it from staff And so um, we should be added to that email list But also if it's in then if it's not in the news and announcements I know it's we're about to move into the holidays But so if they want to wait and do it like right after the first I can guarantee that people know about it. There are neighborhood listservs that have this already Well, but I think it's important that the entire community know that it's happening Not just the people who feel directly impacted because it's not just a neighborhood thing That's a nice way. So as a butter, I know that I've received a postcard Relative to the fact that there was a meeting on the night you got a postcard from this I got that one right there nice Very nice Yeah, this is the this is we didn't realize it was postcard, but we saw this as the attachment that you sent us. Yeah Excellent So I got one because I'm like I said, I went to butter and not Not because I was a select board member. I don't think Right Which, you know, of course jade's my feel No, but it is it is a community-wide thing because it does you know as we talk about Both with actions at last time meeting specifically, you know, the resolution relative to you know renewables and also the net zero energy That sort of raises the importance of pursuing this or or looking at this as as an option for the town So it's it's Right New The new old ample the the transportation. Yeah is is much closer to my property So if there aren't other questions or comments for the manager I would turn to the members for their own reports And so I know mr. Steinberg had something because he only he hinted at it without actually giving any details The other thing For the dac will come back to the other issue at some future date Is They also talked about The loss of bustard 43b and their interest and concerns about that And I happen to notice that this evening they The chair of dac sent the select board and the town manager a Memorandum about the concerns of the dac in that issue Um, could I address that just so yes, so that is was an initiative of the department of transportation not by pvta a department of transportation Is looking how looking at route 9 that route 9 quarter between northampton and amherst and how to speed traffic Their logic was if we get more people out of cars and on to express buses or buses that move faster If buses move faster people will take them more likely take them and their people fewer people will be in cars So they did this on their own With little with no consultation with towns did not Understand for instance that we have our ambulances serving, you know making 5 000 runs to Cooley dickinson on that road For some reason and then the chair and I were at a pvta meeting last monday and brought it up with the head of The pvta and she basically was saying um, we've given them and given the department of transportation information But um, we're not necessarily recommending this From the pvta's point of view and they would have they have a very extensive process. So And now the department of transportation has gotten enough flak where they're sort of pulling back and saying we may not have had all the information We needed to make these recommendations. So I think getting a lot of feedback from people Has been very beneficial Well, I'll let the chairs the dac chairs letter stand for itself So I just want to add one of the quick little item regarding that so So the pvta process anytime they change a route of a significant nature There's a formal process they go through some of that. It's federally regulated It's not even state regulation with regard to how they do it Some of that's federally regulated about impacts on community influence. So so they have a real Process they're going to have to go through I'm not sure to what extent or whether it was a factor for the mass stop planning that was going on at that point And and it may not have been necessary to have it as part of their factors At the time they were Thinking about that But I think that they also, you know, there were some other You know items of That they were operating in a bit of isolation I guess would be the simplest way or maybe the fairest way to describe it Not understanding that like we're on an academic calendar. And so, you know, trying to take a survey They'd send out, you know a request for for people to fill out a survey But they'd send it out in the middle of december for a, you know Relatively late december feedback and it's like, well, you know, all the students are out of town and when they before they leave town They're all taking finals surveys about buses aren't first on their agenda. So so understanding that understanding how we serve You know area communities and go up and down that corridor for EMS service Is another where I think that they were not They were not or are not aware of how that operates. And so Impacts of some of the choices they're they're thinking about are going to be pretty profound on us and our ability to provide that service So I think, you know, they're they're going to have to kind of climb the learning curve a little bit I mean, I think we're all appreciative of their desire to Improve traffic in that corridor But same time they they're hopefully getting enough Feedback that that they understand they're gonna have to do a little deeper dive on some of the nuances of how it works Um, so that we can get it right Anyway, so that's all I'm gonna say about that for now Exactly So the other two committees that I wanted to report on really, you know, try and be as quick as I can um I did go to the inaugural meeting of the regional school district planning committee And um the committee that was appointed by the moderator of Peter Demling who was elected as chair by at that first organizational meeting Joan Tempkin Who had served many years ago in a previous regional school district planning? effort in mary le talman and I That it was just an opening discussion on their part um As uh This brewer reported at a prior previous meeting of this board She and I had served previously both on the prior regional school district planning committee and planning board. I Offered to be of whatever assistance that I could to them and I also said that The select board does have a continuing interest in what they're doing and While we don't have an officially designated leis on that for the time being that they're welcome to Treat me as leis on and let me know and I would appreciate receiving any communications from them so in the third meeting that I attended is the Most recent meeting of the community preservation act committee And I think there's been some reference already that mr. Rocklman has made and some of the written material that he's presented but They are underway for the season. They have received their proposals One of the things that I think has always been a little bit of misunderstanding in difficult relationship as a result is the relationship between the affordable housing trust and the community preservation act committee and Mr. Hornick his chair of the Affordable housing trust came and made an excellent presentation explaining the differences between the roles and therefore Really kind of created a dialogue that hasn't existed before and I thought that that was very helpful In general terms There were 14 new proposals in addition to nine continuing obligations from prior votes that we've taken where there was Bonded items that then get funded over a period of years and the total I believe is One million if I'm not reading my writing I think it's one million nine hundred thirty eight thousand nine hundred eighty eight dollars That includes an amount Well, then but there's only one million six hundred and thirty thousand two hundred and fourteen dollars available Which includes three hundred and seventy five thousand dollars that was reserved for community housing in a prior Town meeting valid. So it's a carryover amount. So that's We'll present them with the need as always to make some difficult choices on what they are going to recommend We'd like to go next I'd mentioned in recent meetings that there's been some confusion or controversy about the building inspector's handling of Uh, what was considered demolition request which was being sent to the historical commission and it was causing some Puzzlement on the part of the historical commission on the part of homeowners and contractors and so forth and So planning director chris breastrip and building inspector rob moorock came to the historical commission last week Had a very productive conversation And then we had a conversation this morning Those parties that share of the commission I was there and mr. Zomek and further tried to discuss ways to move forward So I think we're all in agreement that things used to be simpler and someone got complicated And we're trying to find a way to make them simpler again, and that's that'll be In part just in understanding what everybody wants, but there'll also be some Long plan changes underway to clean up the bylaw a little bit to make the language clearer and fix the rules and regs And we expect that miss breastrip mr. Moore will attend this stroke commission meeting In january also for a follow-up, so that's very good news that you know everybody is on the same side and has good Well and is intelligent so it's it seems soluble And then just to pick up on cpa that the dog park task forces Has a sort of placeholder cpa proposal and and so it's been shopping that around to conservation commission and so forth On the assumption that land purchase might be necessary I'll leave it at that for now I just I just will report on the personnel committee personnel board Um, there were two meetings back to back last wednesday. Um I think um Mr. Bakum on you at the first one, which was uh the um said Chance for the personnel board to hear from the non-union staff and this happens annually and um the the main topic was a presentation of the proposed changes for the personnel uh policy procedures document And so they uh There's a pretty good discussion back and forth and people had found certain things that were like new language You know that wasn't clear or what about this and made some really good points and then that meeting adjourned in the personnel board net um To discuss that feedback and decide what they wanted to go ahead with whether they would Make a change or not make a change and they Discussed a few things mostly um I'm not going to go into the substance But they will be coming the personnel board will be presenting To the select board and I now I forget if it's January 22nd, that's what I remember. Yes, January 22nd. So um It most most of it is not our um Per view, but it's kind of it's a courtesy and then there's some things that have to do with Dollars that I think we do need to hear about more formally. So um I wasn't quite clear about what was ours and what was not ours But in any event they very much want the select board to see the work In the changes and have that presentation and have our involvement in that way so They're the personnel board is pretty excited that they it's a it's a huge task. There was a employee Working group that worked on it like I think it's been about a year and people have taken it really seriously and I think made vast improvements in The procedures personnel procedures that we now have and so I was just modernizing like, you know laws have changed But part of the overall idea was to have the tone of the document be Um We're welcoming and not sort of chastising if you do this then this will happen Um, just just sort of a carryover. I think we've heard some of that already here and I kind of enter them But I just I'm looking at my calendar and that's pretty much the only thing I have to report forward Did you have anything you want to share with us? You're watching me make this long list to go really How short can you be so Hampshire county select boards association? Some of you might have remembered we sort of thought about doing a december event Which is when the annual meeting is supposed to happen and according to the bylaws yet and no that's not happening So we are struggling to figure out how to keep that organization afloat So any ideas, please feel free to send them towards your but it's president of Hampshire county select board association being me Since I guess if we don't ever have an annual meeting then I guess we don't have an election So I guess I stay by president for a while longer Thank you to nancy talbot for being president and to the other members one from pelham and one from comington Who are trying to figure out how to make continue our relevance, but in a busy world. It's difficult to figure out how to do that um speaking of things that that are Kind of in fits and starts The state if you'll recall in its wisdom had an alcohol working group under dev goldberg's treasurer's department and It had many members. They had hearing in in north hampton that I attended got myself put on a They're called the working group whatever doesn't matter Task force and there are several task forces a couple of other local people have been on the other task forces and in fact, I guess some of them are going to be reporting out to the campus community coalition in march and Hopefully by then we'll know something about what we did in september When I followed up with the member of the task force who had been my Chair of my working group. She was saying they were hoping by the end of the year They'd have a final report But the reason you haven't seen anything is because there hasn't put anything to see This is a very different process than something that's very visible like cannabis control commission This has been very small uh very small in comparison But it's possible that something that the alcohol task force comes up with as recommendations may influence what we do associated with our alcohol policy So maybe our timing will be perfect. We'll see but um, we haven't heard anything yet And I wouldn't expect to hear anything any next minute In terms of one item that might be on your desk like mine tonight Is we usually try and have a table at the martin luther king breakfast now I mean table two different ways one is miss radway and miss pup will always arrange for a place for us to sit Dev breakfast, that's one kind of table and the other kind of table is the tabling in the hallway where I have this Theory every year that i'm going to recruit more people to committees But I don't have any pretty pictures to like draw them in like big brothers big sisters does so If you want to stand around at a table and talk to people about the zoning bylaw and committees So we can do that again on january 13th and then shortly after that is mma. It's always that week Are we all going is my question? And then my and then my comment associated with that is Probably you might not want to volunteer to judge the annual reports if you were ever asked Because it turns out to be a really complex and long task. There were lots of choices And so yeah, that was wicked time consuming but super interesting I was like, do I get to keep these so I could like look at them and and you know learn more things about stuff So it's very interesting. And in fact, I thought I was going to bring them back tonight, but I didn't so I have them to get They need to somehow possibly get back to Boston, but I'm not taking them with me in january. I don't know. I don't know if they need the copy Well, they need one to put out on the table Yeah, so at any rate I worked with another judge in another community and that that was really interesting who was actually Also a representative on the mass selectments association. So that was really that was good times and the Community development block grant advisory committee is working hard at this point in time is when there is their busiest time You've seen meeting notices their community development strategy And oops, they're about to lose quorum again. So they don't even they only have three Members as of their next meeting out of seven. So we have We have a problem and it's complicated because So many people who are interested in block grant are interested in the social services aspect Which of course is tiny money in comparison to the money we spend on capital But the tiny money that we spend on social services so many people who are interested You're either already serving on a board or working for one of those organizations And so there's an obvious conflict and so you can't put those people on CBVD advisory So if you find somebody who's retired from a board, but hasn't joined another one yet great, but Encouraging the community to consider If you're not serving on a board or working for one of those agencies right now And it's a very interesting process and it's time limited. And so it's something that you can say Hey, I made an impact. I informed the town manager We have a process and then you can stop doing it for several months at a time That would be really helpful. But unfortunately, they're headed into their busy season and they're about to lose quorum So that's something to think about as you were going around talking to our community members I'll say yeah, okay So I just have two things one is I'm going to sort of add on to you know the The comments I made about a municipal housing trust Meeting last week. I've informed you that they wrote a letter Related to the craig stores You know, they had a pretty robust conversation around the Property disposition policy and I would suggest that they have a tremendous urgency around that topic. I think there's some Then some things that They would like to pursue And so having having that policy in place would be very very helpful to them So I think it's who's us to to move along with that Yeah, because we're One way or another it's going to come up. So if we have a policy in place it serves us all better. I think Same thing just a touch base on the pvta meeting that mr. Bachman I went to was legislators meeting So we came in several legislators from western mass that are in member communities were there It was mostly to inform them about the nature of the budget situation for pvta is as they can sort of read the tea leaves It's much like Our circumstance in october They're looking at What what they foresee is the the potentials for a state aid that they're going to get and and it looks like it's going to be a Very tough budget year for them and they want to Get the legislators, you know on board and aware of, you know, the issues that they face and then also, you know Work with them to advocate for more funding for all the regional transit authorities Not just their own but all of them will be struggling with with tough budgets as a result of that So it's productive and then of course we met afterwards to talk about The mass op project that involves the b43 and so we got a little clarity on on some timelines and sort of how they were Fitting into that process at this point The only other thing I have is that I wrote out to The membership of the bcg to inform them that we will meet at 8 30 on the 4th of January And so we will begin our coordinating the budget on that day and so we'll we'll get some You know beginning conversations regarding regarding the struggles we're going to have with fiscal 19 and getting, you know, the revenues and expenses to match up And at this point, I think that's That's all I had so if There are yes, mr. Those that want additional piece of business, please We received a letter from of the chair of the bicentennial Committee of the town of amherst new york on friday and For those of you who are not familiar amherst is a suburb of buffalob in his home of the state university of new york at Buffalo so that they also are home to a big state university I also had the delight of About a year ago staying at a motel in that happened to be an amherst and turning on the television And finding on the community channel The opportunity to watch their council meeting I said that was a way to start a vacation. What can I say? But in any event, um, they are celebrating their 200th anniversary and they're trying to get 200 greetings from to For january 2nd when they start off their Bicentennial event And just of greetings and congratulations kinds of things So, um, I think that it would be a nice thing to do as a fellow Community that's a town of amherst only pronounced slightly differently and home to a major state university So I'll make a motion if somebody seconds it fine and if not so be it I move to authorize The chair to issue a resolution or Another form of congratulations to the town of amherst new york and recognition of its 200th anniversary So we have a motion a second so further discussion I love the some other form. We need to save that word for something we do Hi, well, I want to give full discretion to the a postcard. Good luck Another 200 years Awesome, I was thinking in my mind, oh, they're like a sister city You were saying fellow and it's just like Gender thing what can you say? That's true If there's not further discussion on that then uh, all those in favor, please say I Post that's unanimous. So I will Crap something in the next few days among other crafting of letters So unless there is any other business And I move to adjourn move to adjourn all those in favor, please say I And we're adjourned at 10 or 9


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