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Date: 10/11/2023
LONGMEADOW — The Longmeadow Select Board reviewed draft articles for the fall Town Meeting warrant during its Oct. 2 meeting.
The first matter considered was that of where to place citizen petition articles. Traditionally, Select Board Chair Thomas Lachiusa said, those articles have been at the end of the warrant, but people have requested they be moved up. The Nov. 7 warrant has the two citizen petition articles in the first two positions. Lachiusa said many people come late to the meeting and may miss high-interest articles, which is why there are usually routine “warm-up articles” at the beginning of the meeting.
All of the board members were in favor of moving the up. Select Board member Dan Zwirko said he was OK with routine articles as the first matter of business, but said, “What I don’t want to see is we wait until three hours into the Town Meeting and people miss the boat” because they have to leave early, he said.
“When people want to vote and make their voice heard, I think we should make it easier for them,” said Select Board member Vineeth Hemavathi.
Select Board member Mark Gold also commented that voters usually request to take the articles out of order from the floor of the Town Meeting, anyway. “People say that these are the important things,” Gold said, referring to citizen petition articles. “Money is the important … there’s some really important other items … especially when we’re talking about $2 million in free cash that we’re looking to appropriate.”
Select Board member Josh Levine called Articles 7 through 10 the “sweet spot” for high-interest matters.
The board asked Town Moderator Rebecca Townsend for her opinion. She said Town Meeting “provides for issue education for all voters.” She added that new voters may come for high-interest articles and stay to learn about the process and the town can adapt to what voters are interested in seeing.
When going through the articles, some items received a significant amount of discussion. One article calls for $45,250 for “enhanced crosswalk safety.” Police Chief Robert Stocks explained that 17 of the town’s 22 crossing guard locations would be outfitted with “enlarged, double-sided crosswalk signs” for a total of $34,000. All crossing guards would be outfitted with lighted vests at a cost of $2,000, and would get electronic, lighted, handheld stop signs for $9,250.
Stocks said some crossing guards find the electronic signs heavy due to their battery packs. He also said the push for double-sided signs has largely been at the behest of one person. Resident Tom Shea had spoken at the Aug. 8 Select Board meeting and said that he had been asking for double-sided signs since April. He had also requested a turn signal at the north end of the Town Green, although that was not included in the proposed warrant article.
The other proposed articles were approved with little change. The warrant will be voted on at an upcoming Select Board meeting.
Another article asked for $1.7 million to address Reynolds Pool at Bliss Park. The funding would cover new electrical panels in the filter room, a new drainage connection, the replacement of one pump and installation of a back up unit, a pool liner and added accessibility improvements. DPW Superintendent Sean Van Deusen said there was a contingency built into the figure in case the bids came in unexpectedly high. He predicted the total cost would be lower than $1.7 million.
Gold said that in his time working for Monsanto, “almost never was an installed pump viable.”
Nonetheless, he said he supports the article overall.
A note on the warrant stated that despite repairs to the pool, it would only be able to open if there were enough lifeguards employed by the town to fully staff it. Finance Director Ian Coddington said there are “challenges with staffing” at Greenwood Pool alone.
Levine said people have been asking for the pool at Bliss Park to be reopened and that he supported the article, but said he was “very nervous about spending a million bucks and not having it open.”
Zwirko said he learned to swim at Bliss Park, and he did not want kids to grow up not knowing how to swim because the town did not want to spend the money. He said the board should work with Parks & Recreation Director Bari Jarvis to increase the number of lifeguards. Coddington said Jarvis would be offering a lifeguard certification course ahead of the next lifeguarding season.
On another topic, Levine said that he and Town Manager Lyn Simmons had met with Comcast representatives who explained that they are making upgrades to their system. “They also want us to know that it’s very hard to have a municipal [fiber-optic network], which they would say that which is fine,” Levine said. He noted that he had learned of a program that provides free Internet to people who qualify for federal assistance. If residents qualify for the supplemental nutritional assistance program or Medicaid, “you probably qualify for free internet, as well,” Levine said.
Gold shared that the Pioneer Valley Transit Authority is seeking public comment on the potential for free public buses in the Pioneer Valley. There is a comment form on the authority’s website at pvta.com.
During the public comment period, resident Larry Goldberg said that some of the bylaws are outdated and not equally enforced. Specifically, he referred to the rules around commercial vehicle storage and what constitutes a commercial vehicle. He said he contacted the Building Department about people not following the bylaw and had not received a response from code enforcement personnel. He said Simmons and Assistant Town Manager Corrin Meise-Munns responded to him but had not heard back from Building Commissioner Paul Healy.
“The town’s answer is, ‘OK, if I don’t like what the code said, file with the Zoning Board of Appeals for $100 to object to their decision,’” Goldberg said. He repeated that the rules should be enforced “fairly.”