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Date: 7/5/2023
LONGMEADOW — Longmeadow Select Board reorganized at its June 26 meeting.
Josh Levine nominated Mark Gold for chair, however, the other three members, Thomas Lachiusa, Vineeth Hemavathi and Dan Zwirko, voted against the appointment. Instead, they voted to appoint Lachiusa as chair. Zwirko was nominated for vice chair, but he said his duties on the Long-Range Planning Committee required too much of his time to also devote himself to being vice chair. Levine was appointed vice chair and Hemavathi was chosen as the clerk. Lachiusa announced that the air handler replacement at Longmeadow high school had forced municipal meetings to move to the Longmeadow Adult Community Center for the remainder of the summer.
Legal counsel
A discussion of legal counsel was continued from the board’s last meeting. At the previous meeting Levine had recused himself due to a conflict of interest. With four members in attendance, the board was evenly split between a decision to contract with Dougherty, Wallace, Pillsbury & Murphy, the law firm with whom the town has contracted for several years, or with Mead, Talerman & Costa, which had offered the lowest bid for services.
Once again, Levine recused himself. Town Manager Lyn Simmons said that she had contacted Dougherty, Wallace, Pillsbury & Murphy and that they had agreed to conduct one to two office hours per month. The firm also proposed a reduction in the hourly fee from $250 per hour per lawyer, to $200 per hour per lawyer. There would be no change to the paralegal or support staff rates. Simmons later clarified that the hourly rate would be different from the current contract, in which the firm operates under a $64,000 retainer. Mead, Talerman & Costa’s bid remained the lowest.
Hemavathi said a conflict of interest occurs with Dougherty, Wallace, Pillsbury & Murphy because they are a local firm that represents other area interests. He said a conflict has happened at least once a year for the past couple of years, including at the most recent Town Meeting, and it leaves the town “scrambling” to find replacement counsel.
“I don’t believe Dougherty, Wallace, Pillsbury & Murphy has the breadth we need to serve our needs in a timely manner,” Gold said, citing the firm’s “limited” staff that works on municipal matters.
Lachiusa, who said he was “glad to hear” that Dougherty, Wallace, Pillsbury & Murphy had lowered their bid, was in favor of contracting with the firm, specifically due to their location in Springfield.
Zwirko, who had supported a contract with Dougherty, Wallace, Pillsbury & Murphy at the last meeting, said neither firm was a bad decision, but he would rather Mead, Talerman & Costa had come before the board in person to answer questions. Simmons said that she could bring all eight bidders before the board if that is what the body wanted, however, she had not been asked to facilitate that.
Gold said that Massachusetts has what is known as the “rule of necessity,” and said that if there is a tie when someone has recused themselves, the tiebreaker should be unrecused. Because the current contract was set to expire July 1 and “the town cannot go without legal representation,” Gold said the rule of necessity applies.
The maneuver was not required however, as Zwirko changed his vote and the board voted 3-1 to contract with Mead, Talerman & Costa. Lachiusa dissented.
Tree inventory
Moriah Day, project manager for Davey Tree, presented the board with a hazardous tree assessment. She said a 2022 inventory of Longmeadow’s public trees was an update of the 2017 inventory. The inventories provide data on the number of public trees, their location, condition and needs. The information helps mitigate risk and liability, she said.
Day provided some information on the usefulness of trees in towns. She said one tree produces 260 pounds of oxygen per year. Urban forestry also helps to absorb stormwater runoff and reduce flooding and soil erosion. Trees reduce soil, air pollution, and absorb carbon dioxide, which reduces the heating effect in populated areas. They can also reduce noise pollution by up to 50%.
Day said that the inventory updated more than 9,000 sites and that in the five years between inventories, more than 1,000 trees had been removed.
Some of the data provided by the inventory logs the diversity of species and genera of the town’s public trees. A wide variety of tree types can help mitigate the risk of pest and disease killing off large swaths of trees, as happened in Worcester when the Asian longhorned beetle infestation was at its worst about a decade ago. She said the city is still recovering.
The industry recommends no one species comprise more than 10% of trees in a municipality. In Longmeadow, approximately 18% of trees are Norway maples, which Day said were widely planted in the Northeast during the early and mid-1900s. It is recommended that a single genus of tree should not make up more than 20% of all trees in an area. Maples, including Norway, sugar and red maples, make up 35% of Longmeadow’s trees, while oaks comprise 18%.
Day said the biggest threat to Longmeadow’s urban forest are pests that target maple trees. Sixty-eight percent of trees in town are susceptible to the spotted lantern fly, while 39% may be damaged by Asian longhorn beetles. Spongy moths, formerly known as the European gypsy moth, may be a danger to 31% of trees, and 18% are susceptible to oak wilt. She said this risk can be mitigated by diversifying new plantings in town.
The good news is that less than 1% of the town’s trees were found to be dead, while 91% of trees in town were found to be in “good” or “fair” condition. Day said that the town has an “aging canopy,” and an effort needs to be made to plant young trees as the older trees decline in health. She also said that the issues found in Longmeadow trees, such as dead and dying branches and defects due to attachment and tree architecture, are easily manageable.
Tree maintenance and contractor costs in 2022 were estimated to be $4.84 million over five years, or $967,000 per year. Levine asked Day how long it would take for a young tree to mature into a “shade tree.” While that depends on the tree’s care, location and species, she said a tree 6 to 8 feet tall when planted will be fully matured in about 30 years.
“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second-best time is today,” Day quoted an industry idiom.
Lachiusa asked Day why there were so few evergreens in town. She explained that “broadleaf” trees have a larger canopy, and the benefits are more substantial. That said, she noted evergreens have their “place in the urban forest” and can reduce wind speed during storms.
Gold noted that the town lost approximately 1,500 trees during the tornado in 2011, so the number of trees in town is substantially lower than it was 20 years ago.
Lachiusa suggested that the board meet with the DPW to review the existing tree plan and adapt it as needed.
Bliss Park
Levine said that he was “grateful to everyone in town who stepped up” when muriatic acid was found to have been splashed on a slide at Bliss Park. He praised Simmons, who “marshalled a lot of parties.” The town presented “a unified response to a really horrific event,” he said. Simmons said the investigation into the event is ongoing and a claim for the damage was submitted to the town’s insurance company. Quotes have been received for the cost to run fiber optic connections to the playgrounds at Bliss and Greenwood parks, to facilitate the installation of security cameras.
One-Way Brewing
Jason Tsitso, owner of One-Way Brewing, 807 Maple Rd., requested a change to the premises. A plan to install a patio at the side of the property had to be scrapped because the space was not contiguous to the brewery. Instead, Tsitso had modified the plan to place the warm weather-only patio in front of the building. The business owner assured the board that the other businesses in the plaza were amenable to the plan. The patio would occupy two parking spaces and Tsitso said he would cover the barriers to make it aesthetically pleasing. Tsitso said he went before the Planning Board with the new arrangement, and it had been approved.
Gold was reluctant to approve the change because he said he did not understand how the rectangular patio would fit within two angled parking spaces.
Hemavathi said he was glad Tsitso had not given up on the patio idea. He said that type of space was “something people in town are dying for.” The change passed with a vote of 4-1, with Gold opposed.
Simmons’ salary
The board voted unanimously to raise Simmons’s salary by the standard 2.5% for town employees. Based on her review, the members also voted to give her a bonus of $7,500 cash and $5,000 through a deferred compensation plan.