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Date: 11/26/2019
LONGMEADOW – The Longmeadow Select Board met for a regularly scheduled meeting on Nov. 18 to discuss the fallout from the Special Town Meeting on Nov. 4, which included the citizen petition to build a sidewalk near Wolf Swamp School.
One of the first issues discussed during the select board comments portion of the meeting was the issue over a new gas metering station in Longmeadow. Board member Tom Lachiusa brought forward a letter from Congressman Richard Neal about a halt to any action or legislation involving Columbia Gas.
The letter read, “The Massachusetts Department of Public utilities recently issued a moratorium on Columbia Gas distribution as a result of a recent gas leak in Lawrence, MA.” It also included a suggestion from Neal to wait to approve anything revolving around the gas metering station.
After the comments from the board and a brief Town Manager’s report, the board skipped ahead to new business and discussion of two change orders. The first change order revolved around the DPW building but had to be tabled for a later date. Mary Beth Bergeron, who represented the DPW at the meeting, said they were still waiting on a report from their contractor.
Bergeron also discussed a change order around the Adult Center about unsuitable soil in the construction area and a request for $30,100 from the fund for the construction to replace the soil. She said the project would be to excavate and replace the unusable soil with construction fill. She added that they would not need additional funding for the excavation because there is still about $1 million leftover for the project. The board unanimously approved the motion.
The second order of new business was the discussion of an Infiltration and Inflow or I and I study. Dave Pricket, who brought the study before the board, explained that I and I is the rain and ground water that enters sewers, which then affects how much the town has to pay in sewage fees per gallon of water.
He explained that Longmeadow has one of the lowest rates in the state in regard to I and I at 36 percent of all of the sewer water that flows through the town, and credited the sewer’s infrastructure. “Our system’s not perfect but because most of Longmeadow is well-drained sand, I think that really helps us. If that were not the case and we were in a poorly drained aquifer, that would not be the case,” Pricket said.
The board also discussed the citizen’s petition from the Special Town Meeting that was approved to build a new sidewalk near the Wolf Swamp School on Norwood Road. Mario Mazza, the DPW’s director came forward to discuss a timetable for the planning and potential construction for the sidewalk. However, the board urged him to get a public safety opinion before moving forward on figuring out when to begin the construction.
Select board Chair Marie Angelides was worried about the students’ safety and said, “It sounds like a disaster now, I can’t imagine what’s gonna happen when you start digging in front of the school. I’d like to hear a report from our public safety officer, especially if we have to do some serious transportation of kids.”
Gold argued that they needed to find out the cost for two ongoing sidewalk replacements at Lynwood and Woolworth. “I think people oughta know what they cost. You can’t make a decision based on a vacuum. On the other hand if it’s an absolute danger you say we don’t care what it costs, let’s do it,” he said.
Mazza also discussed a motion for a trash amnesty for the holidays that would last from Dec. 30 to Jan. 10. He and the council explained that the amnesty would allow residents to put out one additional trash bag out on their trash collection day to accommodate for different holiday festivities they may have during those weeks. The board unanimously approved the amnesty.
The select board also unanimously approved two sign requests, one for the St. Mary’s craft fair on Dec. 7 for two weeks prior to the fair, and a second for a week prior to the Longmeadow Gardeners poinsettia sale on Dec. 6 and 7.
After the sign requests, the board jumped back into old business to discuss the purchase of the new street lights in town. During the discussion, Gold explained how the planning was going and what the next steps were. He added that the project currently has two phases, the first of which is a bidding phase where Metropolitan Area Planning Commission is bidding on cobrahead and decorative lights in December, before construction would begin in February or March, with a deadline for May of 2020.
Gold added that the original pricing did not include the conversion cost or savings for the decorative lights but between the savings from the decorative and cobrahead lights, there was no need for any extra money for the project.
The meeting concluded with discussion to create a new task force for senior housing and transportation, brought forward by Vice Chair Richard Foster. He said, “It’s almost impossible to find reasonably updated housing for a single senior citizen. There’s very few places that have been renovated or up to standard. We have plenty of property left to develop.”
Select board Clerk Marc Strange agreed with Foster in putting together a task force to help with senior housing and recommended that they should have nine members on the task force. However, Gold urged the board to get the Housing Authority’s opinion before moving forward with the task force. The board agreed to table any type of recommendation for the task force for the next meeting.
The Longmeadow Select Board’s next meeting is on Dec. 2.