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CC MTG MINUTES OCTOBER 1 2007 REGULAR MEETING OF THE AGAWAM CITY COUNCIL • OCTOBER 1, 2007 President Rheault—Good evening ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the October I" City Council meeting. We have a few citizens wishing to address the Council this evening. Just to announce before we do, from this evening forward, our Town, uh, City, uh, Council Clerk will be the timer from now on and will notify the speaker when you have one minute to go and she will be the official timer. So this relieves the Chair from that responsibility. And the first speaker we have is Rose Palazzi. Rose Palazzi—Rose Palazzi, 36 Trinity Terrace, Agawam. Mayor Cohen is working extremely hard to prevent the businesses in Six Flags area from parking cars and he's succeeded. Do you realize that we're the only city or town that has this type of parking ordinance? We, people at the South, Main Street and the residents of Suffield Street are the only ones that the new parking law has affected. Without going into detail,the bairn'-+ ;y • was never enforced for the parkers for the Big E as some parking occurred without permits and without meeting the necessary criteria. If safety is the main issue,then why n was it not addressed at that time? We live in a country of democracy and according to W 3 the dictionary, the definition of democracy reads, `social and political equality and -o respect to the individuals within the community.' I truly believe we were not equality. n C. We as small business owners have no power to enforce democracy but you, our town leaders, do. So I humbly ask you to use your power and with clear conscience, revise t t�c' parking ordinance with fairness, equality and respect for ALL, and Iet democracy reign in our community. Thank you. President Rheault—Thank you. Michael Palazzi. Michael Palazzi—Michael Palazzi, 1670 Main Street, Agawam. Good evening Council. It is blatantly obvious tome that the Mayor has joined with Six Flags in their request to . stop the parking in the Six Flags area. At the meeting held last week, one of the Mayor's suggestions was to keep the new parking ordinance AS IS for the area around Six Flags, but make some changes for the area north of Six Flags. Does anyone else, other than myself, think this is bizarre? As we have seen, the Mayor's concern to cease parking at Six Flags area has created chaos in the whole town. As this point in time, he is still aggressive in supporting this amendment. As of this morning, I had a visit from the Rick Bosini from the Building Department requesting another city review of my property. This has been three since I started for this permit. This process has been going since June it is now October and I'm still dealing with the obstacles every step of the way. I'm asking the Council to rewrite the parking ordinance in a fair and equitable manner. Thank you. • President Rheault—Thank you. Terry Letellier. • • Terry Letellier—Thank you. Terry Letellier, 150 Maple Street, Agawam. I... to start • off this little note, bear with me, cuz I'm sick of hearing our town become the laughing stock of the area. Even Wayne McCarry says don't go to Agawam. Well, you know that's because of the parking but...it's getting out of hand. You ask what has happened to our little farming town where everyone says hello and—now we're a city and the laughing stock of the area. This parking crisis which has many residents mad because of big business is favored over the little business man and now all over the residents of Agawam. I hope it was worth it, Mr. Mayor, but to hear from persons who were at the Senior Center as you were blaming it all on Gina, who is my daughter, but she doesn't know I'm saying this. Please stop putting yourself in deeper doo-doo. You have a....style of recommendations. Either you are not listening or he is making the wrong decisions. For example, the recent police overtime case which could have been settled • for nothing by just starting to pay the rate that was due them. But now it only cost us $400,000.00 roughly. Even past matters,now the Depalma settlement against Agawam, the farm in Feeding Hills, who's making these decisions that's costing me as a taxpayer money? How many cases are there that's coming up that we haven't heard of? You get sick of this stuff. You can go to a coffee shop...I don't think, George, you can walk r down over there, with them ready to argue with you on something. But anyway, its...we've gotta start by correcting this situation. Yes, what it cost us, all well and good, live with it, it's over with. Sure,the tax rate won't go up. If you check your assessments, tax payers catch it in the end. I'm sick of hearing Mr. Litton come in from Six Flags, come and whine, "I didn't mean it all to happen this way."....Well, let me tell you something the worst safety is walking through that parking lot by not enforcing people to back into those slots but backing up in an SUV, but backing up in a little car. They can't see! They go by sound. When you hear a kid screaming under the car, let me tell you something, it's a little late then. So they should be backing in people, but that costs time and that costs a little bit of money...time. So come on,let's get realistic, this whole matter down there wasn't a matter of maybe, sixty to eighty parking spots that were on Main Street, it's for the dollar. There's no question on it. Listen to the people. Listen to the people from Agawam. They'll let you know. But the other thing is,there is no safety on Main Street. For years, have walked the treebelt. It's because down there, you're going to see a well worn path, that's a good eight feet from the travel lane atleast plus over the curbing. Maybe some of you people haven't seen it, it's been there for long • time. People walking Us, uh, all the way down, there's a whole path. Plus to get to Riverside, you gotta stay on that side of the road, you don't cross it. You gotta use that overhead bridge to get into the park. There's no safety problem. The only safety problem is for the poor guys that have been doing traffic duty. And what happened? A couple of them got hit in the past. You've got poor lightning there. I remember old Don there was squawking about it. Bob Marsh the last one that got hit. Thank God it wasn't as bad as it is. He's able to ride a new Harley and all... But anyway... Clerk—Mr. Letellier, one minute. Terry Letellier—Then I'll have to skip a lot of what I got to say. Last Sunday when a plane flew overhead from Agawam, the pilot didn't know he was in violation of our sign ordinances. People on Main Street are saying,how's a $24,000.00 signman gonna grab • r that sign? Twenty four thousand car, phone, radio, whatever, I thought this was done by the Building Inspector, it was his job. One trip around town and it would be good for six months. One of the officers who retired wanted the job, but apparently, he wasn't qualified. Now, I got another personal thing. A year I was told that I could not work traffic details cuz I'm too old by a state law. The state law if the attorney had read it so specified it was only for full time police and fire. I got opinions from the Retirement Board; I got opinions from the State, the State's attorney. Here Mr. Attorney of the town, "Oh no, that's not the way I see!" I says good,the attorneys that have advised me of all this says you might as well start a discrimination suit, we'll be glad to handle it for you. This is unnecessary, it's stupid. The arrogance in this town really shows. I think it's about time we had some changes and starting right at the top. I mean it. Where's the goat man when we need him? 0 President Rheault—James Marmo James Marmo---James Marmo, 130 Main Street, Apartment A. Mr. Litton keeps saying someone is going to get hit be a car at 159 and Six Flags is gonna be responsible for it. Now, does he think everybody was born yesterday? If somebody gets his in front of Dunkin Donuts, is Dunkin Donuts responsible for this? No, they're not. If he is so worried about safety, why doesn't he put a sidewalk in down there? People that work there walk down an eighteen inch breakdown lane on the road to get home. But they aren't worried about those kids that work there. But yet he's worried about the people parking. Chief of Police in 2004 said"You don't need a sidewalk." Well, I'll tell you what. The Chief of Police was wrong. They need a sidewalk there. You put in a housing development, you need a sidewalk. The Mayor picks where he wants to park, he parks the town hall, no restrooms, poor lighting, no walkways, but that's okay,the Mayor said so. Food Mart,poor lighting, no walkways,no restrooms, but the Mayor okayed that. And the Food Mart does not own Ames property,but yet they let them park there. Rocky's got a permit, no restroom, no walkway, no six foot fence around the dumpster, which all these other people are required to do. The Planning Board doesn't have any standard rules. Every place is different; it varies from place to place. The Board of Appeals gives permits to the people who the Mayor says so. People on Suffield Street use money from parking to pay their taxes and their taxes go up. Most of those people f are older people and they need it. Yet they were denied. They've parked cars for many years with no safety problems. There's never been an accident there. The Mayor wants to change parking only for Six Flags area. That's discrimination to only put it down there. Is Six Flags calling the shots? The other week of the Big E, the traffic jam,they say the traffic jam wasn't due from Agawam not parking. It WAS due from Agawam not 0 parking, believe me. Traffic going into West Springfield had no place to go so they stop in the road,tie up the traffic. There was no flow of traffic. There was no parking places over there. Some people were getting...at the end of the day, were getting $60.00 a spot, which is ridiculous but they wanted to go to...to get that entertainment, you had to go and pay the $60.00. The average was twenty, thirty and forty, but at the end it was sixty because there was no parking places. And he says five hundred cars in Agawam. That's baloney;they could have parked at least fifteen hundred or better cars in Agawam. I 0 • think the Council ought to really look into this parking bit and consider parking for the people that did park before and the people that use this parking for revenue. Thank you. President Rheault-Thank you. Will the Clerk please call the roll? Item 2. Roll Call ! Eleven present. President Rheault—Eleven present. We have a full quorum. Item 3. Moment of Silence and the Pledge ofAlleQiance President Rheault—Please rise for a moment of silence and the Pledge of Allegiance. Item 4. Minutes President Rheault-We have the regular Council minutes from September 17, 2007. So moved by Councilor Simpson, seconded by Councilor Bitzas. Any corrections or additions? If not, voice vote is sufficient. All those in favor? Opposed? Unanimous. Jost to inform you that the minutes of the Council minutes, of the Council meeting are now posted on our website and will be for the future. Item 5. Declaration from Council President None. Item S. Presentation of Petitions, Memorials and Remonstrances • (a) Resolutions 1. TR-2007-33 - A Resolution Authorizing the Order of Taking Under the Authorily of Section 14 of Chapter 40 and of Chapter 79 of the • General Laws for the Tracy Drive Drainage Outfall Project. (Mayon President Rheault—Moved by Councilor Simpson, seconded by Councilor Magovern. Any discussion on this? Uh, its an Order of Taking, so we need eight votes, will the Clerk please call the roll? • ROLL CALL— 10 Yes and 1 Abstention President Rheault— 10 yes and 1 Abstention, you've approved the resolution. Item 7. Report of Council Committees None. • Item 8 Elections None. Item 9. Public hearings None. Item 10. Old Business 1. TOR-2007-7 - An Ordinance to Amend the code of the Town • of Agawam Chapter 49, Entitled "Personnel" to Update the Wages for Certain Unclassified Positions (Mayor) (Second Reading) President Rheault—Moved by Council Simpson, seconded by Councilor Carr Bitzas. Any discussion? If not, will the Clerk please call the roll? • ROLL CALL— 11 Yes. President Rheault— 11 Yes. You have approved the Ordinance. Second and final reading. • 2. TOR-2007-8 - An Ordinance to Amend the Code of the Town of Agawam Zoning Ordinances Article XVIII 180-131. Refer to Planning Board as Petitioners (Mayor) (Tabled 9/17/07) (Withdrawn by Mayor) Mr. President—The item is on the table, I'll entertain a motion to take it off. Moved by Councilor Simpson, seconded by Councilor Magovern to take it off. All those in favor? Opposed? Voice vote is sufficient. The Mayor has asked that this be withdrawn. All those in favor? Opposed? VOICE VOTE—Unanimous. • President Rheault—Item is off. 3. TO-2007-23 -CLASS I & CLASS II LICENSES for renewal— Sarat Ford Sales, Inc.,243-249 Springfield St.,Agawam; Sarat Ford Sales Inc_,250 • Springfield St.,Agawam; Agawam Auto Mall, Inc., 825 Springfield St., Feeding Hills; Falcor Auto Sales, Inc.,373 Springfield St.,Agawam; Joseph J. Polys d/b/a Joe's Truck Repair,97 Ramah Circle South,Agawam; and V&F Auto,Inc.,7 Harding St.,Agawam • President Rheault—Moved by Councilor Simpson, seconded by Councilor Bitzas. Anything on uh, Councilor Simpson? Councilor Simpson—Yes, I just wanted to um, ask, last year when we went through all these, I had received fromA believe it was from Treasurer's Office, um, a listing of back, um, people who owed back taxes so I could do a check against the people applying for their licenses to make sure. Um, these people I know last year, there was not an issue and never has been, so I feel safe in saying that it's okay. But I was wondering if our Council Clerk could ask for that report to be sent to me for the next packet? President Rheault—Okay. Clerk has acknowledged. Anything else? Councilor Simpson- No that's it. I went through these. We did not have a committee meeting on these. These were pretty self-explanatory. If anyone from my committee has any questions or concerns, they could voice their opinion now but I feel that these should • be approved with no issues. Thank you. President Rheault- All right. No other discussion, will the Clerk please call the roll? ROLL CALL— 11 Yes. President Rheault— 11 Yes, you've approved the Class I & II Licenses. 4. TOR-2007-9 -An Ordinance to Amend the code of the Town of Agawam, Chapter 149, Entitled "Smoking" by adding Article III, 4149-10 "Sales to Minors" (Count. Bitzas) President Rheault--Moved by Councilor Calabrese, seconded by Councilor Magovem. Councilor Bitzas? • Councilor Bitzas—Yes, Mr. President. I would like to read it for the record so that people they know what we're voting for. The TOR-2007-9, it's an ordinance to amend the Code of the Town of Agawam, Chapter 149 "Smoking" by adding Article III "Sales to Minors"....tobacco use, is a leading public health problem in the United States, whereas there exists conclusive evidence that tobacco smoke cause cancer, respiratory diseases, various cardiac diseases, negative birth outcomes, allergies and irritations to the • eyes, nose and throat; and whereas, a majority of all smokers begin smoking before age eighteen and more than 3,000 young people begin smoking every day in the United States; and whereas, tobacco use by minors is a continuing problem with grave public health consequences; and whereas in recognition of the Surgeon General's conclusions that nicotine is as addictive as cocaine or heroin, action is needed to curtail the easy • access of tobacco products to minors; and whereas it is in the best interests of the Town of Agawam to implement a strict and enforceable system to prevent minors' access to tobacco and illegal sale of tobacco products to minors; now therefore, the Agawam City Council hereby resolves, ordains, enacts and amends as follows: The City Council hereby votes to amend Chapter 149, entitled"Smoking"by adding Article III, §149-10, • as set forth on the attached "Exhibit A". It is signed by the legality of the Law Department and the Exhibit A. I'm not going to go through all of this but I would put up all this for the record. It's very self explanatory and I would hope that the Council will • support that because that would make um, in my heart, for the clerk's to sell • cigarettes...the fine for...the clerk the pocket book, they probably think twice. Springfield has the same ordinance about a month ago and the City Council unanimous vote support that. So, thank you, Mr. President. President Rheault—I should have acknowledged Councilor Magovern's Committee Report from the Ordinance Committee. • Councilor Magovern—Oh, we had a discussion amongst the Ordinance Committee members, we didn't have an official meeting cuz everybody was basically in agreement with it's a...uh, win win situation as far as an ordinance is concerned. Springfield has adopted it, it's worked very very well over in Springfield. I have heard from some • merchants that are affected by this ordinance and they were very much in favor in seeing its passage as it will help them enforce their own regulations within the store. When a clerk has got to be fined for selling cigarettes to under-aged minors, they're going to think twice about it and they are going to check those ID's a lot more carefully. So, I think it's a win win for the town. I'm very pleased to see that it's come forward and the • Ordinance Committee is uh, in favor of the passage of this ordinance. Thank you. President Rheault—Councilor Rossi. Councilor Rossi—Yea,just a...briefly..I...maybe for further clarification. Prior, the law prior to this did not allow for the clerks themselves to be fined. It put the oneness on the owners of the store. This now puts it onto the clerk who actually makes the sale. So that's uh, I think it's much stronger that way. Just so you'd understand. Thank you. President Rheault—Clerk please call the roll. ROLL CALL.— 11 Yes. President Rheault— 11 Yes. You've unanimously approved the ordinance amendment. 4. TO-2007-24 -Voucher List($157.66) President Rheault- We have enough signatures. Voice vote is sufficient. All those in favor? Opposed? . VOICE VOTE—Unanimous. Item 11. New Business 1. TO-2007-25 -Voucher List (85.86) • 2. TO-2007-26 -Voucher List($447.00) President Rheault—These will go on next agenda. Two voucher lists. • 3. TO-2007-27 -CLASS I & CLASS II LICENSES for renewal— G&T Beaver Inc. d/b/a Beaver Camper Service 721 Springfield St. Feeding Hills; LaFleur Auto Exchange,374 Main St., Agawam; Malkoon Motors, 1039 Springfield St., Feeding Hills; Parrotta Auto Repair,Inc., d/b/a Parrotta Auto Sales,357 Main St., Agawam; RNK Auto Sales, 28 Moyjan Lane,Agawam; E. W_ayne Smith Used • Cars, 1016 Springfield St., Feeding Hills President Rheault—This is some more Class I & II licenses to appear on the next agenda. 4. TO-2007-28 (PH-2007-11) - Suggesting a Public Hearing for a • License Application for Storage of 4,000 gallons of Propane at 113 North West Street, Feeding Hills, by CJA III,LLC, Calvin Arnold,Jr., 113 North West St,, Feeding Hills (Clerk) President Rheault—Public hearing, suggesting a public hearing. We don't know the date though. I don't know the quickest we can...I think it could probably be the first meeting in November, would probably the quickest handle that. So we'll set that as the uh, unless that doesn't comply with the lave,but I think it should. So, you can get together with Pam and uh, okay? Thanks, Barb. • Item 12. Any other matter that may legally come before the City Council. President Rheault—Let's start tonight with Councilor Magovern. Councilor Magovern—Uh,just very quickly, I am promoting our Harvest Festival. You'll see some of these posters around town. It's a festival sponsored by the Rotary and the Phelp's Green, on October 201h and is going to be a fun day. We're gonna have colonial re-enactors, it's going to be for crafts. Anybody whose got tag sale items, you can have tag sale items, uh, rent a space. Give either myself a phone call 786-0244 or Gina Letellier and we will have applications. Hamburgs, hot dogs, apple pies, ice cream, • it's gonna be a fun, old-fashioned town fair. And that's really all I have for this evening. President Rheault- Councilor Calabrese. Councilor Calabrese—I have nothing this evening. • President Rheault—Councilor Mineo Councilor Mineo—Nothing tonight. President Rheault—Councilor Letellier. • Councilor Letellier--Just a couple of things. We need to have a zone, zoning review committee on the zone change that's coming before, if you recall,they want to move out • ! r r of one zone and back into their original zone. So I'll confer with people, and uh, I don't have my calendar with me, I'm sorry. We'll pick a time. I think that will be fairly quick. I don't think there's going to be much objection to returning to the original residential use. So I'll set up a meeting for that, sorry. Um,another reminder to Councilors up here, anybody running for office, anybody that wants to go, we're having our Democrat of the Year Brunch on November 4, 2007. If you'd like to place an ad,please get in touch with me. If you want tickets, you can get in touch with me. Our guest speaker this year is Lt. Governor Tim Murray, and our honoree is Asst. District Attorney James Goodheims. Thank you very much. President Rheault—Councilor Perry. ! Councilor Perry - Yes,thank you Mr.President. Just real quick, I did want to acknowledge I did get your email in regards to...ftom Gina, and I will be calling a Committee Meeting for Traffic & Safety to address the issues that you sent to me. Thank you. ! President Rheault—Thank you, Councilor Carr Bitzas. Councilor Carr Bitzas --Thank you. I'd just like to express my thanks and appreciation to the Beautification Committee for the beautiful perennials and the evergreen plants that were planted behind the new honor roll in Veterans' Green so that those will grow up and that'll much more pleasing to the eye when driving to the south of Agawam toward the Veterans' Green. So there are beautiful perennials in there if you haven't seen them. Take a walk and see and that's why the Beautification Committee is one of my favorite committees. Thank you. President Rheault—Councilor Bitzas. Councilor Bitzas—Yes, Mr. President. Just to announce,to remind you Council and the people of Agawam that uh, the ground breaking ceremonies for the Agawam Senior Center will take place Tuesday, October 9"', 10:00 A.M., everbody's invited. It's a dream come true for many many years have passed. Finally, it is reality. So, it's a good ! for the seniors, for many many seniors for many generations to enjoy not just only for one year, for two years, ten years. It'd be hundred years so it be a beautiful building and uh, all invited to come. It's a great day for Agawam. And also another event at Clark School uh, the committee there, they've planned a fifty year anniversary of the school. That will take place Friday, October 121h, 9:30 A.M. You're all welcome to come. ! Thank you. President Rheault—Councilor Simpson. Councilor Simpson—Nothing tonight other than I was just thinking when George was making those announcements, sometime maybe people should suggest some of these major activities, if they could be a little later in the day, so that those of us who work full time or can't take the time off from work, could enjoy coming to them. But ten in the • • y r morning is pretty tough for a lot of people. It would be nice once in a while if they varied it up and had it, you know, mid to later afternoon. That's it. President Rheault Councilor Rossi. Councilor Rossi—Nothing. President Rheault—Councilor Young. Councilor Young—Nothing, thank you. President Rheault—Nothing from myself. Entertain a motion to adjourn. Moved by the • council to adjourn, seconded by the council. All those in favor? All of the Council. Thank you very much and good evening. Adjournment. • • • • • • •