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Date: 3/17/2020
EAST LONGMEADOW – The East Longmeadow Town Council met for a regularly scheduled meeting on March 10 to continue discussions about combating the coronavirus, to discuss the current plans for the fiscal fear 2021 budget, and to set goals for the town manager.
The first major order of business during the meeting was a discussion with state Sen. Eric Lesser about the ongoing regional issue in regards to houses with crumbling foundations as a result of using stone from the J.J. Mottes Quarry in Connecticut. He said, “We passed legislation last year to set up a commission and they issued a report with a set of recommendations. Our hope is that in this coming budget year and in subsequent policy vehicles in the next few months implement some of those recommendations.”
He also urged residents to get their foundations checked and said, “People who are concerned should get their foundations tested, and we do have a fund for people to get reimbursed after the test. These are very painful decisions for a family, but I would encourage people to make safety their priority.”
During the meeting East Longmeadow resident Sean Callahan received an Eagle Scout citation from the Town Council for his work in the community by helping put exercise equipment in the Community Gardens.
In her regular report, Town Manager Mary McNally gave an update on how the town is actively fighting the coronavirus. As of March 10 there were no confirmed cases in East Longmeadow. “We are taking all necessary precautions and we are planning for the eventual spread of the virus into this community and taking as many precautions as we can in terms of a safer methodology for cleaning the Town Hall offices,” McNally said, “We are trying to maintain a balance of reasonableness and not encourage any sort of panic or frenzy over this.”
One of the orders of new business was a request from the Health Department and Fire Chief Paul Morrissette for a $30,000 free cash transfer for a disinfectant to help the town combat the Coronavirus. He explained that the issue with the current bleach the town uses to disinfect surfaces only lasts about 30 minutes while the new one lasts 24 hours.
“It has less of stay time, it’s easier to mix, and it’s not a bleach, ammonia, or alcohol-based product. It’s an anti-microbial germicidal solution and it has an effective stay time of over 24 hours,” Chief Morrissette said.
The Council unanimously approved the cash transfer to the Health Department to pay for the new disinfectant solution.
The second free cash transfer request of the meeting was a request from the School Committee for a transfer of $240,848 to help balance its budget for out of district costs. “This year we have an abundance of out of district students and we do anticipate $150,000 to $200,000 in new costs each year, but this year it was exceedingly high at $546,000,” School Committee Chair Greg Thompson said.
“We looked first at some of the ways we could mitigate some of those costs within our budget which we were able to do and after doing that we came up with a dollar amount that we were wondering we could do a transfer from free cash for,” he said.
The Council unanimously approved the free cash transfer to the School Budget.
During the meeting, the Council also discussed its direction and priorities for the 2021 Fiscal Year Budget. As part of the discussion, Councilor Patrick Henry suggested that the Council give McNally a specific dollar amount as a target for the budget.
One of the sticking points for McNally in creating the budget is leaving space for $100,000 to hire a new Human Resources director. She said, “The tangential effects of not having an HR Director have been enormous. Things are being overlooked, people aren’t being trained properly and matters are not being addressed promptly. And I haven’t quantified the dollar amount it has cost and we need to fix that.”
McNally also said that she did not want to cut jobs at all costs. “I want to prepare a budget that’s reasonable and honors the hard work of the town employees. Every week I work here I am more and more impressed with the department heads, who I see the most, and the rank and file employees as well,” she said.
The council approved to make a motion to direct McNally to make a level services budget with allowances for unfunded mandates.
The final order of business at the meeting was a discussion of McNally’s goals as town manager. Council Chair Kathleen Hill said that she wanted to be focused on the course of the next year. She said, “The landscape is changing as we inhale here, so I don’t want to get to far ahead or create a menu of goals that would be self-defeating for all of us.”
One of the short-term goals Councilor Marilyn Richards suggested was for McNally to make an action plan in regards to the coronavirus, which the Council immediately accepted. The council approved goals for McNally to find a new HR director, a potential successor to the town manager.