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Date: 9/15/2021
LONGMEADOW – Longmeadow Pipeline Awareness Group Chair Michelle Marantz updated the Select Board on Sept. 7 regarding Eversource’s plans concerning the metering station and pipeline proposed to be built in town.
Marantz reported that an Eversource spokesperson told her on Sept. 3 that there would be two virtual open houses at the end of September that would feature a question-and-answer period. Stakeholders, property abutters and business leaders would be notified of the open houses, she said.
Eversource’s open houses are “not evidence of their desire to communicate with the public,” Marantz said, but a response to a state requirement for a public meeting on the proposed construction. Additionally, she said the virtual format might allow the company to filter comments and “cherry-pick” which questions to answer.
“The fact that [Eversource is] controlling who gets to ask the questions, the fact that they’re not releasing a list of participants, is a little fishy,” Select Board Vice Chair Steve Marantz said. He cited Eversource’s description of its “reliability project” states it would be “a new point of delivery installed in a non-residential neighborhood.” He called that language “extremely problematic,” because the Longmeadow Country Club land on which the company wants to build the metering station is in a residential neighborhood.
Select Board Chair Marc Strange asked that representatives from Eversource be invited to appear before the board to answer their questions. Steve Marantz agreed and asked to set the proposed meeting for Oct. 4.
Marantz then mentioned the calls he has received from Claremont Street residents unhappy with Eversource for tearing up the tree belt while replacing gas mains and not fixing the damage satisfactorily.
Town Manager Lyn Simmons noted there are sometimes “differences of opinion” in the quality of tree belt restoration, even in work done by the town. That said, she encouraged residents with concerns to contact her at townmanager@longmeadow.org with their address so the town can look into the problem.
Select Board member Mark Gold noted that the ordinance passed in November 2020 requires utilities to repave an 8-foot patch after making an incursion in the road. He said that was not complied with after the recent gas main work performed by Eversource and wanted them to fix it.
Flooding
Select Board Clerk Josh Levine asked Simmons how the Longmeadow sewer system had fared with the recent onsluaght of rain storms.
“We know our problem spots,” and are being “proactive,” Simmons said, but noted some residents who have never had flooding concerns are reporting it now. The change didn’t seem to be related to any one construction project or recent work done. “It’s just more water than our area has seen in quite some time,” she said.
Levine commented, “Climate change is wreaking havoc and we need to plan around it.”
Climate Change
One person who would like to plan for climate change is Andrea Chasen, a member of the Energy & Sustainability Committee. The state’s commitment to adress climate change requies municipalities to cut greenhouse gas emmission to 50 percent below 1990 levels by the year 2030. She said that statewide, communities had already missed to 2020 benchmark. Education abd policy approaches to limiting fossil fuels will be needed to meet the goal, she said. She quoted President Joe Biden, saying, “We’ve hit the red line in climate change.”
Chasen called for protecting the town from the Eversource pipeline and said residents should be reducing consumption of natural gas, rather than expanding its use. The state has a goal of converting 100,000 homes per year from fossil fuel heat to heat pumps or renewable energy sources. So far, only 461 homes have been converted in the state, she reported.
The Energy & Sustainability Committee is working on exploring solarization of the town and plans to offer quarterly education options for residents. She said residents “really don’t even know” what sustainable options are available.
Chasen asked the Select Board for its support and that of all other town boards and committeess. She said all town projects need to be designed with climate change in mind, rather than as an afterthought. Chasen asked the Select Board to create a committee to tackle this task. Additionally, she asked the board to fund future air quality testing quarterly at a price tag of $1,000 each. The Energy & Sustainability Committee offered to pay for the assessment in December.
Gold told her that the Select Board needs to balance “ideal versus practicality.” He noted heat pumps lose efficiency as temperatures rise over 95 degrees in summer or drop in cold weather months. He encouraged the committee to focus on saving money by spending a little now. In reagrd to her comment about sustainability as an afterthought, he told her that solar panels on the Department of Public Works building on Converse Street had been a part of the original design, but had been cut to save the town $700,000.
Chasen replied that she was not necessarily advocating all Longmeadow homes switch to heat pumps, but noted that Eastern Massachusetts is “using newer technology and information to incorporate “passive home development.”
“We’re not using the best information out there. We owe it to ourseves to make sure that whenever we are doing anything, we are up to speed,” she said. She also told the board that the committee has helped to secure grants for energy saving systems in town buildings, saving $787,802 in the process.
Assistant Town Manager and Planning and Community Development Director Corrin Meise-Munns informed Chasen that she hs been reviewing Municipal Vulnerability Projects from other towns and is working on resilient capital planning policies and a resilient master plan, which Longmeadow is due to update.
Crumbling Foundations
Resident Russell Dupere, a member of Gov. Charlie Baker’s commission on crumbling foundations, and state Rep. Brian Ashe asked the board to sign a letter in support of a joint bill, S548, an Act relative to crumbling concrete foundations.
The bill would require quarries test for pyrite or pyrrhotite, the mineral that has tainted concrete in several homes in the region and caused them to crumble. The bill would also waive building permit fees associated with contaminated foundation replacement, make homeowners within a 50-mile radius of the known tainted quarry in Stafford Springs, CT, eligible for a property tax abatement, establish an insurance company dedicated to covering crumbling concrete claims – which Ashe estimated can cost upto $300,000 – and require the disclosure of crumbling foundation issues when selling homes.
Ashe said that homeowners are often hesitant to test their foundations out of fear that their bank will not loan money for the issue or that insurance copanies will drop coverage of the home.
The board signed the letter.
Vaccine Mandate
Moving to the topic of COVID-19, Marantz asked if a vaccination mandate for town employees was possible.
“We are closely watching it and considering what our options may be,” Simmons told him. She explained that the municipalities that had so far enacted an employee vaccine mandate did not have union contracts to consider. She also stated she was looking into whether the town’s Board of Health could require vaccines.
Levine wondered if the vaccination rates among town employees would affect health insurance costs. Simmons had no knowledge of that at the time.
Hampden Country Retirement Board
Gold reported the Massachusetts State Ethics Commission had responded to a joint letter from the towns of Agawam, Brimfield, Chester, Hampden, Longmeadow and Monson, urging them to take action against Hampden County Retirement Board (HCRB) Chair Richard Theroux. Theroux was part of what the letter writers termed “a long-running scheme” of potential fund mismanagement found in an audit by the oversight authority, Public Employee Retirement Administration Commission (PERAC).
While the commission stated that the actions it undertakes are confidential, Gold said, “I think our voices are starting to be heard.”
Electronic Voting
During the resident comment period, Carla Gunn of the Longmeadow Rules Committee spoke about the body’s research on electronic voting systems for use at Town Meeting. The committee considered the “integrity, accuracy, speed, secrecy and security,” involved in using an electronic system to cast votes rather than raising physical voter cards as is currently done.
The study began in 2019, but was halted due to the pandemic. Work on the topic picked up again in April. Four vendors were originally vetted – Qwizdom, Option Technologies, Turning and Meridia Interactive Solutions. The committee selected Meridia Interactive Solutions, whose software is in use in more than 20 municipalities in Massachusetts, to present a demonstration, which was scheduled for Sept. 9.
Strange reminded residents that citizen petitions with 100 signatures or more must be submitted by Sept. 17 at 12 p.m. to be eligible for inclusion in the Special Town Meeting warrant.