Special Town Meeting scheduled for Oct. 7
Date: 7/18/2013
By Chris Maza
chrism@thereminder.comEAST LONGMEADOW — At its July 9 meeting, Board of Selectmen voted to schedule a Special Town Meeting for Oct. 7.
Town Administrator Nick Breault said the Oct. 7 date was when the Town Moderator James Sheils was available and “seems to fit well with other financial considerations for the town.”
After the board unanimously approved the date, Breault asked Chair Paul Federici if the selectmen planned to include any warrant articles regarding municipal building space.
Reinhart Associates of Agawam completed on April 15 a $29,400 municipal space study that was approved by residents at the 2012 Special Town Meeting and presented those findings, which included additions to the Town Hall building and the relocation of several town departments, including moving Information Technology Department out of Town Hall and into the former Shaker Road Fire Department.
The total estimate of the proposed changes is $2.4 million.
Federici agreed that discussion on that matter would be included on the agenda for the board’s next meeting, scheduled for July 23.
Selectman Debra Boronski also stated her intentions to revisit a personnel policy warrant article.
“I will be visiting other department heads prior to my desire to resubmit a re-drafted personnel policy, so I will get to work getting together with all of those who had some comments or concerns prior to that,” she said.
Boronski originally drafted a warrant article that would create a Personnel Policy Committee that would develop policies for compensation and classification of the town’s non-union, non-school employees.
The original proposal called for the committee to be made up of a member of the Board of Selectmen, Board of Public Works, Planning Board, Board of Assessors, Board of Library Trustees, Recreation Commission and Council on Aging, plus two at-large community members appointed by the moderator and a non-voting member from the Appropriations Committee.
Several residents said they believed a policy for performance reviews and compensation was needed, but the article should have been structured differently and it was voted down.
The final deadline to submit warrant articles was not set and would be determined at the July 23 meeting.
Petitioned warrant articles must include the signatures of at least 100 registered voters and forms are available at the Board of Selectmen’s office at Town Hall. Completed articles with signatures should be returned to that office.
