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Date: 7/13/2022
LONGMEADOW – When opening the July 5 Longmeadow Select Board meeting, board member Steve Marantz announced that he would be leaving the board after the July 18 meeting as he was relocating out of town. A special election will be conducted to elect a replacement.
As it was the first meeting of the new fiscal year, the board reorganized, with Josh Levine voted in as chair, Mark Gold as vice chair and Dan Zwirko as clerk.
Former Town Accountant Paul Pasterczyk asked the board for “reassurance” that the practice would continue of charging residents the new fiscal year’s water and sewer rates for months in the billing cycle that fell in the previous fiscal year. He explained that all three months of the first quarter of the newly implemented quarterly billing cycle fell in fiscal year 2022 (FY22). If the board had decided to change this practice, it would have a “small financial impact” as the water and sewer rates had been set with the expectation of four quarters at the FY23 rate and would come up short. The board decided to stay the course and charge the FY23 rate for the latest billing cycle.
Pasterczyk also spoke with the board about an overcharge of the stormwater rate that Gold had noticed in June. Residents were charged for 14 months in FY22, rather than 12, but the town issued residents a credit to address the problem.
Marantz shared that the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act (MEPA) visited the proposed sites in Longmeadow and Springfield for Eversource’s proposed pipeline and metering station and it was “very-well attended,” by residents. MEPA will be accepting comments from residents pertaining to the project until July 28. Comments can be directed to MEPA Environmental Analyst Alex Strysky at alexander.strysky@state.ma.us or selectboard@longmeadow.org.
Levine said this is a rare chance for residents to speak directly to the government and express their opinions.
Select Board member Thomas Lachiusa said the Longmeadow Police Department had shared that there had been delays in responding to emergency calls and said calls in the area of town in which he lives are re-routed to Enfield, CT. He said he hopes the cellular tower at the Bliss tennis courts will rectify this problem.
Lachiusa also brought up what he called the “great resignation” happening around the country, in which many people are leaving positions, and said Longmeadow is no different. Town Clerk Kathy Ingram is leaving her post and Town Accountant/Chief Financial Officer Jennifer Leydon recently left her position. “It isn’t anything the town is doing wrong,” Lachiusa assured, and encouraged people to apply for vacant municipal positions.
Levine told the board that Greenwood Pool now has enough lifeguards employed and that it will open seven days per week. The pool had temporarily been running on a six-day schedule as the town grappled with a nationwide shortage of lifeguards.
Signs have been placed at Turner Park and The Meadows to deter littering and dumping. Levine said the Department of Public Works does not have enough staff to clean up after residents.
Finally, an alternative source electrical inspector called 911 when he saw a contractor at a job site in medical distress. The person was pulled from their car by the inspector and received emergency treatment. Levine said the inspector saved the contractor’s life.