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Date: 12/22/2021
EAST LONGMEADOW – A public hearing was hosted on Dec. 14 on redirecting funding from a Community Development Block Grant from Fiscal Year 2018 (FY18).
John O’Leary of the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission explained that, so far, the grant had provided $50,000 for an accessibility study of the town hall, $140,000 for replacement of the roof at the Inward Commons housing complex, $70,000 for a mobile food pantry for the Pleasant View Senior Center and $200,000 the rehabilitation of nine units, including roofing, siding and weatherization.
Money remains in the grant for the Housing Rehabilitation Assistance Program, but O’Leary said, “There just doesn’t seem to be any interest in the program.” He urged the council not to “underutilize” the money available.
Instead, O’Leary and the Community Development Advisory Committee recommended redirecting those funds to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Sidewalk Improvement Program. He said the money can be used for the program and it can be accomplished in the necessary timeframe. The use would be “impactful” for the town, O’Leary said. The entrance ramps at 40 sidewalk locations would be brought up to compliance with the ADA.
Bids on the project would go out this winter, with construction running from spring to June 2022. The project would exhaust the grant and the town would be eligible to apply for another one.
While there were no comments from the public, Councilor Marilyn Richards clarified that the sidewalk improvements would not be made at locations where new sidewalks will have recently been installed. The council approved $1.2 million to be borrowed for the project at the same meeting. O’Leary said he will be coordinating with East Longmeadow Department of Public Works (DPW) Director Bruce Fenney on that.
The redistribution was approved.
Funding
Several other items were funded by the council through free cash or through borrowing. The council approved $13.3 million be borrowed by WestCOMM to renovate and remodel the former Salter College building on Shawinigan Drive in Chicopee. Town Accountant and Finance Director Stephan Lonergan said the town will not be liable if WestCOMM defaults on the bond.
A new ambulance was funded for $136,000. Lonergan explained the new emergency vehicle will be added into the ambulance rotation, while the one that had been donated to the town and currently has 188,000 miles on it will be pulled off the road.
Two new modular classrooms at Mountain View School will replace existing modulars. The town will borrow $950,000 for this. From free cash, $6,000 was approved to fund the ice rink and $10,000 for three electric vehicle charging stations were approved. Fenney said they each have two charging ports and will be placed at the southwest corner of the library lot. Drivers will have to pay to use them, but Lonergan said the town is only charging enough to recoup the cost of the electricity.
Finally, a vacuum truck for the DPW will be purchased. The $524,530 truck will be paid for with $250,000 from the town’s vehicle reserve fund and the remainder will be borrowed.
Fiber
East Longmeadow Community Access Television Director Don Maki and IT Director Ryan Quimby made a case for the town to invest in fiber optic connections throughout the town. A Broadband Committee was created in September 2020, after two years of Maki researching the topic.
“It’s the consensus of the committee at this point that broadband should be considered a critical infrastructure for the town moving forward,” Maki told the council. He suggested the town decided within the next two months whether to employ a municipal broadband option.
Maki and Quimby ran down some of the reasons for their position.
Fiber can offer what other technologies don’t. Quimby explained that cable connections are designed to send most of the data to the customer and have much slower speeds for customers sending data back to the provider. In the past, this worked, but with the proliferation of streaming video, working from home and remote schooling, all of which required high-speed data transferred both ways, that model has lost some functionality, Quimby said.
“Video streaming devours bandwidth. Cable is obsolete technology. Satellite is more expensive,” Maki said. He added that the rollout of 5G cellular infrastructure stalled this spring because towns are reluctant to allow companies to erect more towers.
Fiber optic technology, on the other hand, allows signals, carried on different frequencies of light, to move up and down a line without interfering with one another. In that way, it can offer the same speeds for uploading and downloading data at the same time.
Another issue with the options currently available to residents and businesses is the way signal is sent out from a provider. Maki said more devices connected to a tower means less bandwidth for each of those devices.
Spectrum has 15 fiber optic “nodes” that splits the signal among 350 customers, resulting a similar dilution of the bandwidth.
East Longmeadow has a fiber network already installed for municipal facilities and has 20 nodes for just those buildings, Maki said. He said individual connections could be built from there to each user, with no dilution of the bandwidth.
Yet another potential benefit of fiber Maki pointed out was that it would be installed underground, as opposed to overhead lines. This could make it much less vulnerable to weather-related outages.
Earlier this year, Wilbraham released a broadband masterplan, which Quimby said contained an option for fiber infrastructure that had not previously been considered by the town. He said the municipality could build the fiber optic infrastructure to serve residents and businesses, but instead of becoming an internet service provider (ISP), it would merely act as a middleman between customers and ISPs.
“It gives us open-market competition,” Quimby said. Any provider could offer its service through the town’s connections. Third-party software would allow customers to choose their provider and switch between them.
Funding through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) can be used to install a municipal fiber system. The first step, however, would be for the Town Council to approve the creation of a municipal light plant (MLP), a legally required entity for municipal utilities. There is no funding required for an MLP. The council must approve a municipal light plant with a two-thirds vote twice in two consecutive fiscal years. After that, the question is sent to voters at a town election. Council President Michael Kane said a vote on the MLP will be a priority in the new year.
Green Community Criteria
Department of Energy Resources (DOER) Regional Coordinator Mark Rabinsky laid out the town’s next steps in becoming a Green Community. He said adopting the Stretch Energy Code in the fall was one of the five criteria. The town can make the changes in whatever order it desires.
Criteria 1 and 2 involved expedited permitting and “as-of-right” siting. As-of-right siting means that “development may proceed without the need for a special permit, variance, amendment, waiver or other discretionary approval,” according to www.mass.gov. It would apply to facilities for alternative or renewable energy and energy research and development. It would also designate areas of town for these facilities.
The town is already working on this issue and will need to submit a letter to the DOER attesting to this, Rabinsky said.
Criteria 3 requires the town calculate an energy baseline at which town owned buildings, vehicles, water and wastewater facilities and streetlights are functioning and then conduct audits to measure whether the town reduces its consumption. The reduction goal is 20 percent within five years.
Councilor Connor O’Shea asked if there is a penalty for not reaching that goal. Rabinsky said instead of a penalty, the DOER would work with the town to see what areas could be improved and where the state-provided money is best spent.
Councilor Ralph Page asked if the energy savings can retroactively apply to recent improvements the town has made. Rabinsky said it can consider the two previous fiscal years.
The last criterion involves switching all the town’s vehicles to fuel-efficient models. Vehicles with a gross vehicle weight of 8,500 pounds or greater would be exempt, as would emergency vehicles if fuel-efficient models are not available. DOER provides fuel-efficiency standards for vehicles, with different miles-per-gallon thresholds for cars, vans and pickups, as well as two-wheel and four-wheel drive.
Both the Town Council and the superintendent or School Committee must sign off on these policies if they are to be adopted.
COVID-19, Funding and the Veterans Service Officer
In the Town Manager’s Report, Mary McNally said the new Health Director Tammy Spencer had arranged a vaccination clinic on Dec. 21 in which residents could get either dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, or their booster shot, if eligible. At the time of the report, 87 people were in isolation after testing positive, 24 of them under the age of 18. The town’s positivity rate was 5.91 percent. Sixty-six percent of East Longmeadow is vaccinated.
McNally shared that Bay Path University donated $1,000 to both the East Longmeadow Fire Department and the East Longmeadow Police Department. Deputy Town Manager Karen Korpinen received $114 for a Disaster Relief Backup System.
The Eastern Hampden County Veterans’ Service District has been certified by the state after a months-long wait. This step allows the Veterans Service Agent, Michelle Barrett, to access the state’s software and more efficiently serve veterans seeking benefits. Barrett has also moved into a new office at the Pleasant View Senior Center. The door of her former office was not wide enough to accommodate wheelchairs.
John Petrin from Community Paradigm will be aiding the town in its search for a town manager to replace Mary McNally when she leaves the post Jan. 3.