Town Meeting is set for August 15

By Sarah M. Corigliano

Assistant Managing Editor

EAST LONGMEADOW Last Tuesday, the Board of Selectmen set the date for a Special Town Meeting Aug. 15 at East Longmeadow High School. This Special Town Meeting has been called due to a petition signed by more than 1,000 registered voters calling for such a meeting relative to the new waste reduction program.

Executive Secretary for the Board of Selectmen, Nick Breault, told The Reminder that the validity of any article on the Special Town Meeting warrant will be subject to the discretion of Town Moderator Jim Shields, not the Board of Selectmen or any other body.

Beginning with a public hearing at 6:45 p.m. residents' concerns at last week's meeting included the newly-adopted waste reduction program and the recent sewer assesment given to residents of Redstone Drive.

Town resident Al Celleti addressed the board about his concerns regarding the way the new trash collection contract was planned and carried out.

One resident, Keith Lindner, spoke to the Board about his sewer assessment bill, with charges he said did not fall in line with what the Board of Public Works and residents of the street had agreed on at a meeting in April 2001. Lindner's phone number is unlisted and could not be contacted for further comment at press time.

Breault said the Board has no authority to take any action on Lindner's complaint and Selectmen Chair John Claffey said the Board would forward a copy of Lindner's statement to the Department of Public Works.

Arlene Miller, of the Springfield Materials Recycling Facility, presented the Board with an update on the town's new waste reduction program two weeks after its inception.

She said calls to the program's information hotline, which was opened June 27, have gone from about 55 calls a day to about 19. She explained that about half of the calls require a call-back to answer residents' questions. The other calls, she said, are probably mostly residents seeking information that they get from the outgoing message on the line.

She also said the recycling decals which have been made available to residents so that they can label their recycling containers properly have been very popular.

"The second week is going much smoother and people are very appreciative to get the information," she added.

She also said that, while she did not have any figures yet to compare last year's waste tonnage for June, her figures did show an increase in recycling from June 2004 to June 2005.

"One hundred fifty-eight tons were delivered in June 2005, that's the highest we've seen in 18 months I've been observing the town [recycling output]," Miller said.

She added that she checked the eight town merchants who have offered to sell the official town trash bags (at no profit to themselves) and they all currently have bags in stock.

East Longmeadow's Dog Officer Martylee Caramante also met with the Board to discuss hiring an on-call dog officer for instances when she is not a short drive away.

She used the example of a day when she was out-of-town and a dog had been hit by a car. It took her quite a while to get back to town when, if an alternate dog officer had been available, the issue could have been taken care of sooner.

Claffey said the Board would consider the position and the applicant, Jessica O'Brien, who was present at the meeting.

Caramante also presented her recommendations to the Board regarding repeat complaints about loose dogs at one property in town and a possible incident where a loose dog attacked a neighbor's dog.

All parties involved in the above incident will attend a hearing with the Board of Selectmen on July 26.

The Board of Library Trustees met with the Board to discuss their concerns about library staffing.

According to Breault, Trustees were concerned that, in cutting the budget for the library, personnel might also be cut.

"The Library Trustees were seeking a guarantee that none of their employees would be laid off ... what the Board indicated is that they don't expect that the library would lose any positions overall," Breault said. "But, should layoffs occur within the Town Hall collective bargaining unit, which library employees fall under and is subject to control of Board of Selectmen, what could happen is a senior employee who could be laid off in, for example, the clerk's office, could use 'bumping rights' and the Board could make a decision for deployment for a junior employee at library."

Breault added that the Board would have to make sure the employee who would do such a bumping would be qualified to fill that position. Another possibility Breault mentioned was such a staff member taking furlough.

Breault said the Board understands the Trustees' concerns that the library is only $1,000 from not meeting certification standards and said the Board would be conscious of that when making cuts or adjustments.

"The Board of Selectmen also did say repeatedly to the Trustees that Town Hall union employees are working diligently to [prevent any staffing problems at the library]," he added.

The Senior Center Study Committee met with the Board for the first time since the Special Town Meeting where their building project for a new Senior/Community Center was denied by voters.

Members present asked the Board what their next step should be, since their studies are complete.

The Board recommended that the Committee meet again with the Long Range Planning Committee (LRPC) to determine their new goals, if any. The Board of Selectmen will also seek new members if there are any vacancies on the Study Committee or the LRPC.