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CC MTG MINUTES JANUARY 22 2008 MINUTES REGULAR MEETING OF THE AGAWAM CITY COUNCIL JANUAR Y 22, 2008 President Letellier—Good evening and welcome to the Regular Agawam City Council Meeting for Tuesday, January 22, 2008, Item 1. Citizen's SBeak Time President Letellier—Our first item of agenda is Citizen's Speak Time. For those of you that may not have spoken at Citizen's Speak Time, you are limited to five minutes and the Council Clerk will keep the time. Our first speaker is Jeannine Morin. Please state your name and address for the record and the subject on which you'll be speaking. Thank you. • Jeannine Morin—My name is Jeannine Morin. I live at 46 Main Street and for those of you who may not know exactly where that is, it's nestled between the Town Hall and the Middle School. Good evening to all present here and at home. As a Christian family,my children and I are aware of who is the source of the Agawam Town Paper and the article. As a family, we would like to publicly say that we forgive you for all the harm that you • have caused us as a family. That's all I have to say. Thank you and have a nice evening. President Letellier—Thank you. Our next speaker is Patrick Knowles. Patrick Knowles—My name is Patrick Knowles. Good evening and thank you for your time. Um, I live at 50 Main Street. Again, for those of you who haven't realized it, I am the other property that's nestled between the Middle School and the Town Hall. I was brought the newspaper article while I was in the hospital from a serious medical condition last week, stating that this town is now considering taking my property as an alternate for the municipal senior home. I brought that house four years ago in very• rough shape. I put over$50,000.00 in repairs already. Now I'm very hesitant to continue to make repairs to this property because now I'm not sure if it will even be mine. I moved from the City of Springfield into a town that I thought would be a much better place to live. And now I am regretting my decision. You have taken my only hope of owning a nice piece of property and I've been a good neighbor to this school. I have • classes there conducted in my backyard by music teachers and other teachers who don't even seem to think that that's not school property. I've had the auxiliary police who were allowed to park which I made no qualms about when this Town Council said we couldn't park cars in our yard last year. Have hundreds of people walk in my house and swear at me when I told them not too. I don't appreciate this backhandedness in finding out this way that my property is now being considered as a backup for this property. We should * have been told this up front. Thank you for your time. • • Item 2. Roll Call • President Letellier—Thank you and now please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. Oh, I'm sorry, roll call. It's been three years; you have to give me one night to get it back. Barbara, will you please call the roll? ROLL CALL-- 10 Present, 1 Absent(Councilor Simpson) President Letellier—Ten present, one absent. We have a quorum. Councilor Simpson called and she has the flu. • Item 3. Moment gLSilence and the Pledge of Allegiance President Letellier—Could you NOW please rise for a Moment of Silence and the Pledge of Allegiance? • Item 4. Minutes a. Regular Council Meeting—December 17, 2007 President Letellier— Do we have a motion? Moved by Councilor Perry, seconded by Councilor Young. Any discussion? All those in favor please say AY? Opposed? • Absentions? Unanimous. b. Regular Council Meeting--January 7,,2008 • President Letellier—Moved by Councilor Perry, seconded by Councilor Young. Any discussion? Seeing none, a voice vote. All those in favor please say AY? Opposed? Abstentions? Thank you that's unanimous. Unanimous. Item S. Declaration from Council President President Letellier—I think that because this is the first time we've had the revised Agenda, I'd just like to explain to the public some of the changes that Vice President Calabrese and I have made to the Agenda. You'll note that the Agendas now indicate how many votes are needed for an item to pass. Additionally, it indicates how many reading are needed by an item. Um, the uh,prior practice of posting a public hearing and if it happens two or three meetings forward, it doesn't appear on the agenda, it will continue to appear on the agenda to remind the Council and the public um,that the item • is going to appear. Since the swearing in, I've had three meetings with the Mayor. They've all been very cordial, a good exchange of information. The first meeting • Councilor Calabrese and I went and it was basically to share our concerns and wishes with her and the Mayor also shared some concerns and wishes with us. The Mayor asked me in on a personnel matter and I appreciated that she asked for my opinion and again it was a very candid discussion. And then again we had an Agenda meeting today so I think we're off on the right foot. Um, all the Councilors should have gotten their committee assignments by now. I haven't heard any objections so those committees will stand and I thank everybody for emailing me or calling Barbara with the list of committees that you wanted to participate in. I now move on to agenda items. Item 6. Presentation of Petitions,Memorials& Remonstrances (a) Resolutions 1. - TR-2007-43 -A Resolution Authorizing the Posting of the Warrant for the Presidential Primary Election on February 5.2008 by the Board of Registrars. (Mayor) President Letellier—Do we have a motion? Moved by Councilor Cavallo, seconded by Councilors Perry and Mineo. Do we have any discussion? Seeing none, Barbara, could you call the roll? ROLL CALL— 10 Yes, 1 Absent (Councilor Simpson) President Letellier—With ten yes and one absent, we have approved the posting of the warrant. Item 7. Report of Council Committees Item 8. Elections Item 9. Public Hearings 1. PH-2008-1 -A Resolution to Create an Enterprise Fund for the. Wastewater Operation of the City of Agawam by Adopting Chapter 44 Section 53FV2 of the General Laws of Massachusetts Entitled Enterprise Funds (TR-2007-42)(1/1)(Majority vote of those present and voting) alon with an Ordinance to Amend the Code of the Town of Agawam Water and Sewer Ordinances by Adding Article XII, "Special Sewer Improvement District". (TOR-2007-11) President Letellier—I call the public hearing to order. For those of you that may not have participated in public hearing before, this is the order in which it will go. Persons who wish to speak in favor of the item of agenda will have ten minutes per speaker. When those folks are done, we'll do persons who are against the items of agenda and again.each speaker has ten minutes. Then we'll have those persons wishing to come forward in name only and then those persons wishing to come forward in opposition. The Council may ask questions during the speaker's ten minutes,that will NOT take • away from the speaker's ten minutes. I remind the council that questions and answer session is just that--a question and answer session and that discussion will be held after • we have the sub-committee reports. Do we have anyone wishing to speak in favor of the Resolution to Create an Enterprise and/or the Resolution to Create the Special Sewer Improvement District? Came on up. I know we know who you are but could you state your name for the record. John Stone—Yes, uh, my name is John Stone. I am the Superintendent of Public Works for the Town of Agawam. We have brought these two items to the Councilors' attention following three years of work on permitting and preliminary design for the South West area sewer project. Project totals some $31.2 million in cost. We have all the environmental permitting in place and the Mass. Highway approvals in place to move this • project forward. The big stumbling block will be how we would be able to pay for such a large project. I believe and I've been here for like forty years, this is the largest project the Town may have undertaken. What we feel can be done is to, would require two actions. One is to make the Wastewater Operation and Enterprise Fund such as our Water Operation...There's not really a lot of change from how we operate now as a * Special Revenue Account with the one exception that we can carry funds that we...income we have in one year onward for future use. Currently with the Special Revenue if uh, Wastewater Fund comes up with a profit in the year, it goes to the General Fund. We cannot retain any earnings to pay bonds for example uh, or if there's a big development, it pays some assessment costs...the projects principle and interest that comes every year. Approving it as an Enterprise Fund would allow us to do that. It would allow us to set aside money for capital improvements for this one and for other, perhaps, rehab of our older systems in the future. This is not a new situation. A great many communities in the commonwealth have Enterprise Funds. I distributed for you today a bar graph showing that some 66% of the communities surveyed, and the 2006 Rate Survey by Tighe & Bonde and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts use Enterprise • Funds. There may be some concern but there may be a fund that will retain but the department or the administration cannot use this money without Council approval. So you'd still have to set the budget, you'd have to approve the project. This allows this money to sit there for capital projects...state rise the rates or be used to lower the rates. We feel we need to have this in order to set up the mechanisms to pay for the sewer project, the way it's put forward. I should go on on the second part of the thing at this point in time? President Letellier— Sure go ahead. John Stone—Okay. With the other item we think that's necessary, is to establish a mechanism to, to pass the cost along to those that are benefiting from the project. Years ago, there were a lot of federal dollars and state dollars, available grants, to construct sewer systems. That money no longer exists. A $31.2 million project would have a large impact on the sewer rate if we tried to do it under current ordinance. Sewer rates would go from$2.00 to $4.50. Our current Betterment Assessment Ordinance which was adopted at the time 2'/2 went into effect,would only generate some$4000 in payments from those directly benefiting from the project while the cost is up $24,000 per dwelling i • unit out there. You know, we in the administration don't feel that sewer users can afford that big a hike to pay for this project and the only way to go forward would be to assess • more of the project cost toward those directly benefiting. So we've set up a situation or an ordinance proposal where we would establish a Special Sewer Assessment District and it's pretty much the same as what's going on now as the old assessment system except that we've included the cost of the building sewers in the cost that would be assessed too so because there was some new technology being used grinder pumps and small pressure mains that...we wanted to equalize the cost for everyone. So we've included that in in the cost. So it'd be a general benefit assessment which would be applied to not only the 1,296 units that exist or could be built on existing road where sewers are going to be, uh, going to be constructed, but also against the rear lands that, where it's ended up. That general benefit assessment includes the costs of pumping stations, large collector sewers, • forcemains,the easements costs,things related that serve and benefit the whole large area. That cost is estimated to be in the order of$4,200.00 per existing or potential unit in the area. The other costs are the costs of local sewers; the Special Benefit Assessment . is the cost of local sewers that serve the houses directly. The building sewers connecting to that uh, and/or grinder pumps if certain areas require that. That's the Special Benefit Assessment. People have plans to be set up if you have preliminary assessment,people would have actually more than twenty years to pay if they choose to start making some payments early one while this project was under construction. The Special Benefit Assessment is estimated to be $19,650.00. I know that sounds like a lot but like I said the project cost is like $25,000.00 per unit. The town will still have to pay the cost of the deferred parts of the assessment to the general benefit where there's potential for getting the money for future growth in the area and that impacts the sewer rate charge $0.85. So the town and the other users of the system would still be paying a part of this thing about a fifth of the cost initially. Other communities have faced similar things and I've passes out a summary of costs experienced by other communities that I think range anywhere from $10,000.00 to $29,000 per dwelling unit cost. I think Agawam is in a good position • with the Sewer Use charge to afford the $0.85 increase. We, I distributed a breakdown of some twenty eight communities in western Massachusetts, uh, and their sewer use costs based on 12,000 cubic feet—the average use. Agawam is the fifth lowest at a cost of $216.00. If we go up $0.85, we will be the twelfth down at a cost of$308.00 per average household. Now that's a more reasonable type of fee to pass along than $4.50 and this is the way we think this massive project could be undertaken and financed. And the people out there with these problems, they've been suffering with for years and years would be able to have sewer service at a cost that's somewhat in line with what they would pay for septic systems, if they had to replace them, some cases cheaper, some places may be more expensive depending on the soil conditions they face. But at least with the sewers their problems are over with,they don't have to worry about a failing septic system Title 5 when they have to sell their house. We had public hearings during the development of the preliminary plans and it was a unanimous choice of all those in attendance at those meetings that people wanted to have public sewers out there. I'd be happy to answer any questions I can about these things. I've explained this to the sub-committees, I think at the meetings earlier. Thank you. • President Letellier—Thank you. Do we have any questions from the council? • Councilor Cavallo? • Councilor Cavallo—Yea, 1, could you clarify something for me, Mr. Stone? Because I'm reading the uh, document that I received a couple of weeks ago and you just said that the sewer rate would rise by $0.85 Correct? (Yes) Okay, it says here that you had mentioned that it won't be $4.50 because it says here the total sewer use rate would rise to some $4.50. • John Stone- That would be under the, if we were going to do this project under existing betterment assessment ordinance. That ordinance pegs a special benefit assessment to an...record index that existed in 1980 and that's suggested by the raise, rise in that index. And that would only generate in some $4,000.00 per unit...Before when we had that type • of situation the last time we did a project we had a fifty percent grant from the State for construction costs. So, this generated a situation for the people paid for about 25%of the cost, the town for usage charge paid for 25% and state grant paid for the other half. That's not available anymore so we ...people are basically with those...are paying 75%- 80%of the cost and sewer use users are going to pick up the balance. Councilor Cavallo—What do you anticipate for revenue raised with this increase? In terms of year? John Stone—Are you talking about the... • Councilor Cavallo—The raise in the, the hike in the sewer rate? John Stone—It would be about, the current rate is $2.00, and it would be about 42% increase in revenue. • Councilor Cavallo—Cuz I just checked, I just happened to bring my sewer bill with me, my water bill,just trying to compare it and uh, we're looking at doubling basically right? Well, you were at one point looking to double right? Now you're going up about fifty percent? John Stone—No, we were never looking to double. Let me explain why we didn't feel why we could bring the project forward under the current Betterment Assessment Ordinance cuz the impact on the rate would be more than double. It'd be going up 125%. • Councilor Cavallo—Can I ask one more question? A lot of the communities,their water rates are increasing. Do you anticipate an increase in our cost of water? John Stone-Uh, our rate is going up significantly from the City of Springfield plus we're faced with the fact that the State is mandating us to try to reduce the water consumption by each household. So we need to be looking at situations yes, I don't • anticipate there being this drastic an increase but over the years,we've tried to sell more product and therefore be able to keep the rates at, at a, at a really lower level for longer of 0 • time...the cost spread over more volume, you make more money at a lower rate. But with the push to lower consumption in the half systems and the rate structures that would encourage conservation for the people and there probably is gonna have to be some change to our rate structure. I would anticipate that perhaps non-essential water consumption such as water for the lawn or something above a set unit that people need to take care of their household activities might be being charged at a higher rate than the base of what you need to have to do you know your everyday functions like the house, wash and things like that. But we will be looking at something like that,we'll be forced to in the not too distant future. Councilor Cavallo—Thank you. President Letellier—Any other Councilors? Councilor Messick? Councilor Messick—Thank you. Um, I have two questions. The first one is um, if we take the money that um, I think you phrased as surplus income, from sewers, the sewers now, from the General Fund and put it into the, the Special Fund, what are we shorting the General Fund? Is there gonna be a shortfall? Is that gonna have a negative affect? • Could you explain that a little bit? John Stone—Well, no, we, we, we submit to you each year with the wastewater budget, income expectations or a report and we have to do this under the enterprise as well. We project what our incomes will be and our budget has to balance that. Uh, we cannot, you • know, we cannot,the State will not approve a situation where we are anticipating bigger incomes than we had the year before unless you can really justify through a rate increase or something like that. Problems come uh, and it's really more of a, a the other way around...the General Fund is at risk let's say if like the other year, we had a very wet year, our volume of water sales dropped cuz people weren't watering the lawns which is a great deal of water that gets used. The sewer use is based on a percentage of your water consumption. So that billable base dropped, our income dropped. If we weren't able to hold over some user fees, from an account from before to pay the sewer treatment costs, the General Fund would have had to make up that$200,000.00 shortfall at the end of the year. So we had to economize and live within our budget and try to you know use the prior year's surplus from wastewater treatment and hold that over to pay some of it until we could get by within our current rate structure because of that abnormal leap in usage. When the water department on the enterprise...when we have a surplus that offsets that so we didn't have to worry about the General Fund having to step up to the plate to bail out the Wastewater Operation. Councilor Messick—Okay, thank you. And um, here in the uh, letter from Tighe & Bond, saying there was a uh, wastewater disposal evaluation done in 2004 which uh, can you kind of synopsize that um,that report the one said about the problems in that area? John Stone—Well, it shows a variety of areas. It shows some, we did a survey of people's problems, we had mailings out to people and their responses and the report did show various areas where there are very severe problems, some with moderate problems • and some not with so severe, and actually had no particular problems. But, and they were spotted throughout the area which means that there's difficulties where we can't just • build this part because these people over here, they were scattered so you gotta build the whole thing to save everybody's problem. That report, also the State mandates to get the DEP approval, we looked at all possible forms of, of wastewater handling from community septic systems to uh, continued individual septic systems,to our own treatment facility out there. We looked at all those, presented costs and feasibility of those options where the soil conditions existed. For example, a community septic system where there'd be one big field and everybody would pump to that site. And it really did, but we presented this, as I was saying before, at a public hearing to the public and they really weren't interested in these alternatives. They really wanted to see the public sewers that some 80% of the rest of the town has public sewers. This would pretty much complete the sewering of the whole town with the exception of but a few little isolated spots. President Letellier—Any more Councilors with questions? Councilor Bitzas? Councilor Bitzas—Yes thank you. Jack,this is very important issue for us and for the • whole town and would affect many, many people...Uh, I think you tell me, I know the past administration was in support of this. Can you tell us, do you speak for the administration of just for yourself? Have you had any meetings with the new Mayor because we have to work together for this big issue? How did current mayor advise you? • John Stone—I've explained the program and project to Mayor Dawson. She understands the project. She wanted us to go forward with the project and probably would be the only way we could pay for this. She has interest in getting sewers out there to encourage perhaps some industrial development where the town has some land...up there and the only reason it can't be used is there are no sewers out there and it's not • available. There's some other properties that uh,that would go into development with sewers available. She has indicated to me that she supported and wished me well going forward with this. President Letellier—I can second that, Councilor Bitzas, in our agenda meeting this morning, she indicated that she was very much in favor of that and asked me to convey that to the Council and she though both items should pass. Councilor Bitzas--That's great, that's good. And the other question is how about the public and all those people involved? Do you have any negative comments? John Stone—I'm sure, you know, we haven't met with the public since then. And there were varying opinions depending on the severity of an individual's problems. So I'm that some that aren't having a problem may not be as interested as doing this but, as others, but if they have, they are farsighted, they'll see that this will take care of the issues when they want to sell their property, when they want a Title V. With twenty years or more to pay for this project, it's not an impossibility. It's the best thing in the value of your property for the future. You know, if this passes tonight, we would be • • coming back to you with several items, bond authorization, the actual betterment assessment package, a list of every property—like I told you there's like 1,300 individual property units out there to get this together. That's why we wanted to take this one step at a time because if we weren't gonna get approval of this, we didn't want the weeks of work of putting that together if it wasn't gonna have any consideration. So, they'll have a chance I'm sure then to have some input. Councilor Bitzas—Thank you John. President Letellier—Councilor Young? Councilor Young—Yes, Jack, can you,the latest proposal on the funding of the whole project--what did you say was the current estimate of what—for the new hookups? John Stone—It is estimated that if you have a house out there on the system,that your total assessment bill for anything except connecting on your property, it would be $19,000.00 approximately and change. Councilor Young—Okay, so that's still the figure. John Stone—Now that's based on you know,that's based on the engineering estimate for the work. Um, and it does include some contingencies and safeguards, you know, Tighe & Bonde is usually pretty accurate on their, on their project estimates. They do not • like to underestimate to come back for extra money and not have enough. Situations such as the economy if we go forward with the situation, we're a year in design, wouldn't be doing...until next spring at the earliest for even part of it. But could be cuz there's good competition out there at the time, the costs could be less than this. We tried to present the upper range of what you know we would expect for the sewers. • Councilor Young—So that's great. I think that's a good idea. And then that figure is high or not as it is, is based on going with having this, you know, this surcharge here, you know for all the residents that we just talked about, $0.85? John Stone—Yes,that would do because let's say uh,there's a condominium project out there that's got you know,that's gonna go and development some of that land,they aren't being served by the project directly in the frontage, but when they connect and they're gonna use those sewers, they would then pay that$4,000.00 per unit as they connect up upon that. But that money may not come for ten years. In the meantime we have to have a mechanism to pay the bills and that's why we need the sewer rate increase. But that money with the Enterprise Fund would come back into the system and benefit those rate users at that time. We need to stabilize the rates, lower the rates perhaps or meet payments obligations or handle other projects coming up. So,the part the town is using actual `upfront' the cost that we may not collect until later. And those users of the system will benefit from that income down the road sometime. • Councilor Young—Thank you. • • President Letellier—Thank you. Are there any other Councilors with any questions? • Seeing none, thank you very much. We'll continue with anyone else that wants to speak in favor of the project. Mr. Capuccilli , come on up. Please state your name and address and you have ten minutes. John Capuccilli—My name is John Capuccilli. I live on 50 Red Fox Drive in Feeding Hills. I'd like to congratulate the members of the new Council and I'd like to thank Joe Mineo. I'd like to think Dennis Perry and also CeCe Calabrese for their hard work on bringing this to where it is today. I am on the Ad Hoc Concerned Citizens for Sewers Committee. This started about four years ago at a meeting, at a town meeting. I sort of got on Jack Stone and challenged him to come up with a plan. We've worked very hard. Jack's worked very hard on coming up with a very comprehensive sewer plan for this South West area. I think we're at a turning point right here,right now. We've spent over $300,000.00 to get to this point for all the studies. Everything's in place. A lot of hard work has gone through like I said before and a lot of patience on everybody. It's a very expensive project, probably the biggest project the town's gonna see. But I urge you to pass these two resolutions tonight. It's not gonna cost the town any money to pass these resolutions. It's just gonna make us move forward in the right direction. I want to challenge this administration to as we say,there's no funds available. Well, let's work hard to find where those funds are available. There's plenty of money out there available, I believe, if we just have the right resources. If we challenge this administration, challenge this town council to move forward, find the resources and work • very hard, I think we can lower the cost to the average citizens out there in South West section, to get this job done. Again, I want to thank everybody very, very much for their hard work again on the sewer committee. I want to thank Jack Stone for his hard, hard work. I urge the Council to pass these two resolutions tonight. Thank you very much. President Letellier—Any questions for Mr. Cappuccilli? No? Thank you very much. Any one else wishing to speak in favor of the two items? Come on up, sir. Could you please state your name and address for the record and you'll have ten minutes. Dale Boglish - My name is Dale Boglisch, 202 South West Street, Feeding Hills. We've • been talking about this project for a long time. We've been down the Mayor's office of the past administration several times. Several of the councilors, which I thank you, Dennis Perry and Joe Mineo spent a lot of time talking to me about this. Uh, it's something that's been promised a long time, it's way overdue. I've lived in that area for twenty five years, it's not gonna get any better. The costs are only gonna get higher and the complications are gonna get more intense with the laws changing,the environmental issues and everything else and I think the longer it's procrastinated the problems are only gonna get worse especially when any developable areas out there, are getting developed. It's not gonna make it better farther on down the line so anything that could be done to move this along and any consideration to get it funded, I think should be put into effect to get this moved right along. Thank you. • President Letellier—Thank you. Any questions for Mr. Boglisch? No? Thank you • very much. Anyone else wishing to speak in favor of the two items? Come on up sir. If you could state your name and address for the record and you'll have ten minutes. Kevin Gaffney - Hi good evening. My name is Kevin Gaffney and I'm a twenty year resident at 11 Bradford Drive. And I just wanted to go ahead and thank the uh, I was here last week and Mr. Mineo updated me on the progress of what was going on with the sewer system down in the South West division which is you know, been greatly affected down there with the high water table content. And I just wanted to go ahead and thank the people who did work hard such as Mr. Stone and some of the other people on the Town Council. I'm not really that familiar with it but I just wanted to go ahead and thank those who went ahead and are seeing this project through and I just wanted you to go ahead and vote in favor of that. Thank you. President Letellier—Thank you, Mr. Gaffney, you said, right? Thank you. Any other questions for Mr. Gaffney? No? Thank you sir. Any one else wishing to speak in favor of the items? Going once, twice? Do we have anyone wishing to speak in opposition of the two items regarding the sewers? Seeing none, anyone who wishes to register their support in name only for the two sewer items? Seeing none, anyone who wishes to register their name in opposition to the two sewer items? No? Seeing none, I close the public hearing. Okay, what is the council's pleasure? Do you wish to discuss both items together and then hold separate votes? We have two items of agenda,the first is TR- 2007-42 a Resolution to Create an Enterprise Fund for the Wastewater Operation of the City of Agawam by adopting Ch. 44 Section 53F%2 of the Massachusetts General Laws entitled Enterprise Funds. That only needs this evening's reading and it will need six votes. The next item is an Ordinance to Amend the Code of the Town of Agawam Water & Sewer Ordinance by Adding Article XII, Special Sewer Improvement District , as TOR-2007-11. That's the first of three readings and it will need six votes. Perhaps we could first hear the reports of the Sub-Committees? We have the Finance Committee and 0 the Sewer Committee met. Can we first have a motion to move the item forward? Moved by Councilors Perry and Bitzas, seconded by Councilor Rossi. Which committee would like to go first? Councilor Mineo as the Sewer Committee? Councilor Mineo—Yea, um, we met a few weeks ago, and um, we really need to set this fund up to get us to the next step of this big project. And uh, everybody on my committee was in favor of this. It was unanimous that we pass this tonight. Thanks you. Both, actually both the resolution and the ordinance. President Letellier— Thank you. Do you wish to give a report from the Finance Committee? Councilor Calabrese---Yes I do. The Finance Committee also met with the Sewer Committee and uh, present at the committee were myself, and Councilor Magovern and we both voted to send a positive recommendation on both items. it was discussed at that meeting that we've spent approximately $200,000.00 on preliminary work to date • Councilor Mineo - $340,000.00 0 Councilor Calabrese - Thank you. And that uh, we wanted to see this project go forward. Thank you. President Letellier—Any other discussion from the Council? Councilor Bitzas? Councilor Bitzas—Yes, I think it makes sense for this Council to support this resolution, both of them because this is the right,the first step to the right direction. Because without these steps here we cannot go forward and ...the second part is the most important,to find the funding so of course we have to see if the funding's out there too. There are monies and we have to go for it. I read the papers and some of the town's they received funds from the state. We do the best that we can, and I know the Council and the old administration, but without these first steps you're not going go forward...you're not gonna go anywhere so we vote, I believe the whole council will support that. Thank you. President Letellier—Thank you Councilor Bitzas. I'm not sure who had their light on first. Councilor, we'll go with Councilor Rossi. Councilor Rossi—Thank you. I have just a couple of words. I don't, I'm not in... the enterprise fund in and of itself really doesn't bother me a whole lot although I think there's some abuses. But let's not kid ourselves. It's gonna cost the taxpayers some money on this in the event of cost overruns on this sewer...As Mr. Stone eluded to in his presentation over there, the Enterprise Fund every year they have to project what the • income is and it has to be offset by the budget and they're supposed to match. Well, if they don't, that has to be added to the tax. I hope everybody understands that. And all those shortcomings and cost overruns will have to be picked up by the taxpayers with that increased tax rate. So don't kid yourself by saying that this might not cost the taxpayers any money. But that aside, I don't think that they Enterprise in and of itself is a bad idea because I think we do need some place that—user fees, you know to draw on them as we go along to pay for our expenses. I think that's a good idea because it saves us from constantly appropriating every little penny that comes along when we can use those things for certain... and those types of things. Much the major appropriations I guess will still have to come back to the town. But the thing that bothers me about the Enterprise Fund is the fact that I've heard it by Mr. Stone, I've heard it by the Council President and others here, they said that the Mayor's in favor of this. Well, the Enterprise Fund has to be approved by the Mayor and I don't see anything in writing and I would like to see that. The proposal that we have in front of us here is signed by the former City Solicitor and does not have any input whatsoever from the current Mayor. I would like to see that redrafted and submitted back to this Council from the present City Solicitor and the present Mayor giving her approval of this Enterprise Fund and not giving our approval based on a Mayor that no longer exists. As far as the Sewer District is concerned, I think we need to establish a sewer district but I'm gonna say this is a very major undertaking by the community of Agawam. There's some 1300 homes that are gonna be affected. People have to realize that. Mr. Stone said that, the way the projection is right now, it's gonna cost $19,000.00 per unit and probably another $6,000.00 with other costs and hookup fees to a tune of about$25,000.00 per unit! That's a lot of units up there. That's a lot of units up there and I don't think the people living up there fully understand what it entails. If we go ahead and create this ordinance to allow this district, this sewer district, what that means is that everybody,those 1300 homes in that sewer project,the entire project, will be assessed $25,000.00 and that cost will be added to their homes. Now I grant you that that is over a twenty year period but I ask you to stand back and look at the window here. How many of these homes, how many of the residents of those homes are gonna be there for twenty years? Which means * if they sell in the meantime,that lien has to be satisfied? I hope everybody within the sound of my voice understands this. I hope everybody on this dais understands that, before they make that vote. We are asking 1300 units in this community to put up approximately $25,000.00 onto their homes,their most prized possession. Think about that. What I would like to say and I'm not here to beat down this project because I think sewers are very much needed in some of those areas. What I am suggesting, and we have come a very long way with this thing, I think we should just sit back a little bit and send out at least a brochure to those 1300 residents, to everyone who's gonna be affected by this, to give them an opportunity to digest this.thing, understand this thing and come back with some input before we could vote on this thing. Because for us to sit here and I don't know how many people are here, but I'm not affected by this, and I don't think very many, of the people sitting on this council are affected by this and I don't know how many of the people sitting in this room are affected by this, I know there's a few because they spoke, and I feel sorry for those people. And I'd like to do something to help them and I wish there was some way that the town could help offset the cost of fixing what you have right now until we can get underway. I think I suggested that about four or five years ago at a sub-committee meeting. I think that that should have been done. But I think we need to atleast make those, make sure that those 1300 units out there know perfectly clear that this council by passing this ordinance is subjecting those people to $25,000.00 in evaluation to their homes. My suggestion is let's move, let's get something out there, let's get these people aware, and make them aware of what's going on, there's feedback. If they want it, you've got my vote. I don't have a problem with that. But I can't in all good conscience do anything until I'm absolutely sure that I'm not locking the majority of people into this thing for more than they can possibly stand. At least not in this day and age. And as far as money...we know there is no state, there are no federal funds available now and it doesn't look in the very near future for this project. President Rheault--Thank you Councilor Rossi. Councilor Mineo? Councilor Mineo---Yes. It's,just to correct Councilor Rossi, it's not $25,000.00, it's $19,615.00. Tonight, this evening, we're voting on a resolution to create an Enterprise Fund. This has nothing to do with the bonding at this point. It's to get it the next step. That's ALL WE ARE VOTING ON, is to create the fund. We've spent$340,000.00. I've worked on this project for eight years to get it to this next step,thanks to Jack Stone who has done a great job at putting this together. We've spent a lot of time, a lot of time, eight years ago I remember walking into the DEP with Jack Stone, with Councilor Bitzas, former Councilor Servic, Councilor Bonavita, we had a plan, a plan,that was back from 1972 when we walked in there in the year 2000. I tell ya, this is 2008, in eight years we brought this project a long way. I urge you, I strongly urge you to support this to create r this Enterprise Fund tonight. This doesn't have anything to do with the bonding at this point. It's just to get it to the next step. I URGE you to vote for this. And if it gets voted down at the time of bonding fine, I'm just asking to get it to the next step and so is my committee. Thank you. President Letellier—Thank you. Anyone else for a first comment? Councilor Bitzas? Councilor Bitzas—Uh, I do agree with Councilor Mineo...it's a long, long, long project. Finally we have a vote in our hands here. The first step. Don't say this is the final...this is very simple to create enterprise fund and also we may a ...here to alert the people to be here the next meetings to have feedback for us, the next few weeks,the few months and I don't see any harm here if we pass this at all. You said about the Mayor's document,the past Mayor, or the present Mayor...I trust the Council President, the Vice President, when the spoke with her today. The Mayor told them and I believe it. I trust Mr. Stone that spoke also that the Mayor's in favor of it. I don't see any problem with that. I know that the document is signed by the previous Solicitor; it's not reason to delay any more. So I do agree with uh, Chair of the committee, Councilor Mineo and that committee has i done a great job and this is for us to prove that we care also. Thank you. President Letellier—Thank you, Councilor Cavallo? Councilor Cavallo—I had mentioned to Councilor Rossi in the interim was a survey ever done and I concur with Councilor Rossi. I think that if I were a resident of one of • those 1300 individuals, homeowners, I think I'd want to be briefed on it. I may not have attended any of the meetings if I were one of those individuals. I think a brochure, I think asking for all of them to come to a meeting is kind of, may not happen, may not come to fruition. But I think in layman's terms something should go out to those people that are gonna be affected by this project so that they can be aware of it. I think you know and I agree, when you're talking $19.000 whatever the amount is going to be, that's a big impact, okay on an individual and maybe Councilor Mineo I applaud you for all the work you've done but I think maybe this could be another step. I don't know where it would come from, who would initiate it but uh, we don't want anyone to fall through the cracks here okay? And I think everyone should be involved and be an active participant. So I think a survey might be in order. I don't know how you go about doing it but uh, I certainly would want to know the details if I were affected by the project. Thank you. President Letellier—Thank you Councilor Cavallo. Anyone else for the first time? No, Councilor Rossi? Councilor Rossi—Thank you. Just to clear up one thing. I'm not saying or suggesting that we don't pass the Enterprise Fund. That's fine. I'm talking about the Ordinance itself. The Ordinance is what I have the problem with and I think a mailing would probably be in order. We could probably get something—we do have the geographic locations ... I was with Jack this morning and we looked it over. We could probably put together a like one-page thing, mailing, get it out there to those residents and let them digest this thing. What would it really take? A few days, a week, maybe two weeks at the most with this thing? What are we really asking to do here? For something as significant as this, I don't think that's an unreasonable request to be satisfied in our mind • that those people fully understand the consequences of what we're doing and if they want it that's great. And I am fully in favor of putting sewers up there but I don't think that we should be blocking stuff. I don't think that we should be forcing somebody without them knowing. Now the people that are concerned about the sewers are the people that are here. The people that attend those sub-committee meetings and I know I've been there. r Those are the people that are affected by these problems. Those are the ones that are gonna be there, those are the ones that are gonna show up, those are the ones that want it. But they're far, far, far in the minority here. The majority of the people, I don't even know if they're paying attention. And all of a sudden they get hit with this $20,000.00 bill and I think as Jack said it's $19,800 plus the hookup fee to make the $25,000.00 if I remember what Jack said. That's my point. Let's just stand back a little bit. We could send out just one little mailing to those 1300 units and let's see where it takes us. Then we can vote. That's all I'm asking. President Letellier--Thank you Councilor Rossi. Councilor Mineo? # Councilor Mineo—Again, I heard what Councilor Cavallo said and Councilor Rossi said. They want to send something out to the residents, I don't object to that. I don't. But tonight we're voting on setting up this fund. That's all we're doing. If you want to do that, that's something that you wish to do after, before we go to bonding? I, I, if that's what you want to do, I agree with it. All I'm asking tonight is to pass this. That's it, let's get it to the next step. Construction is not gonna begin for I don't know how long, a year, or two years, but I think what's important tonight is to vote on what the Resolutions are and that's passing this Enterprise Fund. President Letellier—Thank you. Any other Councilors wishing to speak? No, we'll have two votes. The first, six vote needed is for the Resolution to Create an Enterprise Fund. Barbara, could you please call the roll? ROLL CALL— 10 Yes, 1 Absent (Councilor Simpson) « President Letellier—With ten yes and one absent, you've passed the Resolution to Create the Enterprise Fund. Next we have the TOR, the Town Ordinance, it's um, an Ordinance to Amend the Town of Agawam,water and sewer ordinances by adding Article XII "Special Sewer Improvement District". This is the first reading of three, six votes are needed. Could you please call the roll? ROLL CALL—9 Yes, 1 No, 1 Absent(Councilor Simpson) President Letellier—Thank you. A vote of nine yes, one no and one absent, we've passed the first reading of the Ordinance. Next move onto Old Business. • Item 10. Old Business 1. TO-2007-35 - Class 11 Licenses for renewal for Auto-Snort Distributors ear 2006 2007 2008 Al2plicant,Walter A. Meissner, Jr.,396 Main Street,Agawam President Letellier—Is Mr. Meissner here? I don't see him. Okay. Do we have a motion? Moved by Councilor Rossi, seconded by Councilors Perry and Cavallo, I believe. Councilor Simpson called me this afternoon to tell me that she'd be sick and to also indicate she'd be calling Barbara with a report from her committee. Is there any other member of the previous License Committee that wants to speak to give the Committee report? Councilor Rossi? Thank you. Councilor Rossi—Thank you. At the last meeting, Mr. Meissner was present and at that time we had a chance to review his application and we found that he had some shortcomings and one was that his tax bill hasn't been paid,he didn't acquire a bond to complete his application. Well, he has since submitted to the Council Clerk and to the Clerk's office proof that he had paid his 2006, 2005 taxes but he had not, he just submitted an application showing that he applied for a bonding but no bonding certificate came through. Councilor Simpson contacted the Clerk's Office this afternoon and uh, they didn't have a copy of the bond and I called them later on in the afternoon and they still hadn't received it. So to try to give Mr. Meissner every consideration that I possibly could because this has been an ongoing problem for so long, I called CNA Surety myself to find out if the bond had actually been processed and they find no record of Mr. Meissner being in their system. They explained to me that an applicant would apply to their agent, that agent would in fact fax or mail or however,that they would submit it to CNA Surety and upon arrival of that application from the agent, it would be processed. Well, that didn't happen here. Back in December when we talked with Mr. Meissner, Mr. Meissner assured the sub-committee that he would have no problem complying with our requests, become current in order for us to process his application for his Class 1I License and he hadn't done that. There's a notation that he submitted in his own handwriting that he applied for the bonding on January 11t'of this year. And he until the 15`h as a deadline. But with that aside, I don't know what happened, whether it was ever submitted or not. Well, he did not complete the process, he didn't do what he said he was gonna do and there in no way that I can recommend as part of the Licensing committee that we approve this license. I think Mr. Meissner's application in my view should be rej ected. President Letellier—Thank you. Any Councilors wish to discuss the matter? No, seeing none, Barbara, could you call the roll. It needs six votes. ROLL CALL—0 Yes, 10 No, 1 Absent(Councilor Simpson) President Letellier—With ten no and one absent, we've rejected the request for license renewal. • • 2. TO-200746 - Voucher List ($344.00) • President Letellier—Which I believe has been passed around. It is a monetary item so it does require a roll call vote. It requires six votes, Barbara, could you please call the roll? ROLL CALL— 10 Yes, 1 Absent(Councilor Simpson) • President Letellier—With ten yes and one absent, we've approved the voucher. 3. TO-2007-47 -Transfer$76,196.62 from Salary Reserve (16605- 57350) to the following accounts • President Letellier--It needs six votes, the majority of the full council. I would like to take a moment to indicate that I would like to see the matter referred to the Finance Committee but I'll leave it to the pleasure of the Council. Councilor Calabrese? Councilor Calabrese—Yea, that actually and the following item likewise does need review of the Finance Committee. President Letellier—Do we have a motion to table? Moved by Councilors Perry, Bitzas, and Rossi, and seconded by Councilor Cavallo. All in favor of tabling TO-2007- 47, say AY. Barbara could you please call the roll or YES? • ROLL CALL— 10 Yes, 1 Absent(Councilor Simpson) President Letellier—With ten yes and one absent, we've tabled the item and Barbara please note on the agenda that it's been referred to the Finance Committee. • 4. TO-2007-48 -Transfer$94115.00 from Salary Reserve 16605- 57350) to the following accounts President Letellier—Again, I think it's in our best interest to get this reviewed. Motion to table by Councilor Calabrese, seconded by Councilors Perry and Rossi. Barbara, could • you please call the roll? ROLL CALL-- 10 yes, 1 Absent (Councilor Simpson) President Letellier—With ten yes and one absent, you've voted to table the item and send it to the Finance Committee. 5. TO-2007-49 - Order Granting or Renewing a LICENSE forAutomatic Amusement Device(s)—Polish American Club of Agawam, Inc. P.O. Box 94, 139 Southwick Street Feeding Hills MA. President Letellier—The item takes six votes, do we have a motion? Moved by Councilor Rossi, seconded by Councilor Cavallo. Do we have a report by the License • Committee, Councilor Rossi? • Councilor Rossi—Yes, if I may for the sake of time, TO-2007-49;50;51, I've reviewed them all. I know no reason why they can't be issued so I will give my recommendation as part of the Licensing Committee to approve those licenses. President Letellier—Thank you. Any discussion on the license for the Polish Club? No, Barbara could you please call the roll? ROLL CALL— 10 Yes, 1 Absent(Councilor Simpson) President Letellier—With a vote often yes and one absent, you've granted the license for the Polish American Club. 6. TO-2007-50 - Order Granting or Renewing a LICENSE for Automatic Amusement Device(s)—RAY-MOR, Inc. d/b/a Elbow Lounge. 386 Walnut Street, Agawam, MA • President Letellier—Do we have a motion? Moved by Councilors Rossi and Cavallo, seconded by Councilor Bitzas? Any discussion? Seeing none, Barbara, could you plese call the roll? 'ROLL CALL-- 10 Yes, 1 Absent (Councilor Simpson) • President Letellier—With ten yes and one absent, you've approved the license for the Elbow Lounge. 7. TO-2007-51 - CLASS II LICENSES for renewal: Elias Auto, 1123 • Suffield Street,Agawam, MA., Langonet, Inc., 61 Ramah Circle, Astawam, MA., and Bear Auto Sales, 517 Springfield Street,Feeding Hills,MA. President Letellier—Do we have any discus...I'm sorry, do we have a Motion? Moved by Councilor Rossi, seconded by Councilor Cavallo. Any discussion? Seeing none, Barbara, could you please call the roll? ROLL CALL— 10 Yes, 1 Absent(Councilor Simpson) # President Letellier—With a vote of ten yes and one absent, we've approved the licenses for Elias Auto, Langonet, Inc. and Bear Auto Sales. 8. TO-2007-52 -Discussion of elimination of verbatim Council Minutes to outline form. Councilor Young) • President Letellier—That item needs six votes, do I have a motion? Councilor Young- I'd like to uh, make a motion to table. • President Letellier—Motion to table by Councilor Young, seconded by Councilor Rossi. • All those in favor? Barbara please call the roll, six votes needed to table. ROLL CALL— 10 Yes, 1 Absent (Councilor Simpson) President Letellier—For the public and the rest of the council's knowledge, when • Councilor Calabrese and I became elected, one of the first things we asked Barbara to do was to give us an outline or some samples minutes from other towns as well as from our own school committee, so that we can figure out a way to save the taxpayers' money,to save some trees, so we're not doing page after page after page. So that's the reason it was table until we have something in front of us to look at and review. And I would refer that matter to the Rules Committee. If you could note that Barbara, for the Rules committee. Item 11. New Business 1. TO-2008-1 - CLASS II LICENSES for renewal—Agawam Tire& • Auto d/b/a The Car Connection,820 Springfield Street, Feeding Hills, MA.; Motor City Car Co.,91 Ramah Circle, Agawam, MA. President Letellier—Refer those both to the License Committee and the next Agenda. • 2. TO-2008-2 - Order Granting or Renewing a LICENSE for Automatic Amusement Device(s)— Scoreboard Bar & Restaurant, 12 King Street, Agawam, MA. President Letellier—Next Agenda again referred to the License Committee. 3. TO-2008-3 - Order Granting or Renewing a LICENSE for Weekly Amusement Dev_ice(s)— Springfield Turnverein, 176 Garden Street, Feeding Hills,MA. • President Letellier— We'll ask the License Committee to look at that. That's next Agenda. 4. TO-2008-4 (ZC-2008-1)(PH-2008-2) - Suggesting a Public ` Hearing date of February 19 2008 for Zone Change for the Property known as 287 Sprinefield Street Feeding Hills MA. Petitioning the Town of Agawam to.Change from Zone RB to Zone BB as submitted by the Colvest Group,Ltd.,360 Bloomfield Avenue,Windsor, CT. President Letellier—We'll refer that to the Zoning and the Ordinance Committee and • also we need to refer it to the Planning Board first fora Public Hearing. We can't schedule our public hearing until after they've had theirs and we can't vote until we have • their vote. So, we will see when...Barbara do you know when the Planning Board public hearing is? Council Clerk—Yes, I believe it's the 3 1"of January. President Letellier—The 31"of January, okay? So about the second meeting in • 1 eebruary 19'h, again we have a Monday holiday. No objections we'll set it for February th 5. TO-2008-5 -Voucher List ($258.00) President Letellier—Next Agenda. 6. TO-2008-6 -Voucher List ($108.97) President Letellier—Next Agenda. 7. TO-2008-7 -Transfer$18,135.50 from Salary Reserve (16605- 57350) to the following accounts. President Letellier—Refer it to the Finance Committee and that's also next Agenda. 8. TR-2008-1 - A Resolution Appropriating from the Community • Preservation Fund and Authorizing the Expenditure of Community Preservation Funds for the Creation, Construction and Preservation of Land as a Park for Recreational use on Property Owned by the Cfty of Agawam and Located at Meadowbrook and Valle brook. (CPA) • President Letellier—I'll ask the Ad Hoc Community Preservation Act Committee to review that and that's next Agenda. Item 12. Any other matter that may lemally come before the City Council. President Letellier—We'll start with Councilor Mineo's side. Councilor Mineo—I would like to thank everyone here for supporting the Enterprise Fund. I'd like to thank my committee, John Cappuccilli, Ron LaRiviere, Lowell McLane, uh, I'd also like to thank Jack O'Neil, he passed away, he was a big part of my committee and I'd like to thank my committee members too on the Council, you've been very supportive, Jack Stone, who uh, worked with Tighe & Bonde over the last eight years. Again thank you for your support. President Letellier—Councilor Cavallo? • Councilor Cavallo —I have nothing. • President Letellier—Councilor Rossi? • Councilor Rossi—Yes one thing...(inaudible) President Letellier— ...(inaudible)All I know is that Councilor Bitzas had written a letter to the Council and to the Mayor and you can correct me if I'm wrong suggesting that there's some piece, a common, a town common area made, by taking those two houses. I don't believe it's an item that the council has ever voted on or one that the Mayor's proposed. I think the genesis of that was a letter from Councilor Bitzas. I can find out more or I can ask Councilor address it when it's his time to speak. Councilor Rossi— ...Do you understand better now? Is that what we're talking about the house next to the Town Hall, sir? President Letellier—Councilor Rheault? Councilor Rheault—Yes, I'd also like to have that information as well. I'm unaware of the town itself or the Council having any interest to pursue that. The second thing I'd like to do is to echo on what Councilor Rossi said earlier regarding that survey about the 1300 homes. I think it's important that the Council gets that information and receives it uh, from those home owners and I would suggest that Council President either draft a letter or, that can be mailed out to those people and we have, if I hear correctly, we have three • readings so that gives us another month to get it put back before the third and final reading, on the ...section of the Ordinance. So I would request that. Thank you. President Letellier—Certainly. You're welcome. Councilor Perry? Councilor Perry—Yes, thank you Madam President.. Yes, I too would, you know, like to...(inaudible)... I did receive a letter from Councilor Bitzas and I believe it was in the Agawam Advertiser also. That's probably where these folks heard about it also. Again, there's no formal plan of that taking place. It's been a suggestion. I think it's for a community center location and that stems from the committee that the prior • administration had put together and that may have been one of the suggestions. I'm not positive but again I want to assure these people that's not something that's come before this Council in any manner whatsoever. And I would not be in favor of it to be honest with you, I'm telling you right now up front. The second thing too and I understand where Councilor Rossi's coming from in regards to the homes that exist up in that area. * And you know we did vote on two separate issues tonight. One was to create an Enterprise Fund which has passed. Councilor Rheault mentioned that there's two more readings um, being on that committee I have no problem putting a letter together and having Barbara mail it out and try to get some feedback. I have no problem with that. Thank you. • President Letellier--Thank you. Councilor Messick? 0 Councilor Messick— I have nothing. President Letellier—Thank you. Councilor Bitzas? Councilor Bitzas— Yes. To answer Councilor Rossi good questions. I did send a letter to all councilors. Councilor Rossi and uh, it was in your package two weeks ago. And that letter was also sent to the Mayor and to Mr. Bonavita. So it was in your package. And the letter was described exactly what was an idea, a vision of the future of Agawam. If you build a community center, it was my idea to look into, not take the land tomorrow, into that possibility that we have a town hall which is an historic building, to have that Middle School, an historic building. And one home was for sale. I called the realtor and the home was for sale close to $200,000.00. I don't know which one of you homes is for * sale. Yours for sale? I don't know why you're concerned? If it's for sale, we can buy it. I mean I don't understand that. (Who's gonna want to buy it now????) 41 Councilor Bitzas—The other, my concern was for the second person who's home was not considered for sale. And I, the reporter asked me and I told the reporter, we would never force him out. We would offer them a very fair price for the house. Also, we pay him to relocate if the town decides to buy it and pay his expensive. It'd be very lucrative for him to have and also he can maybe he say okay if it's good for me, and the town, I do something good for the town to make it beautiful area for...it's a vision, it's something 0 for the future of town of Agawam. Because we don't have any town commons. And we can kill two birds with one stone. But that was the,just an idea and I was thinking if we had meetings in the future. But if the council and if the people don't like the idea, it's fine with me. I support any community center. I have no problem whatsoever. It just was an idea that I sent to the Mayor and council and if, how she feels about it. And some councilors they support the idea and Councilor, uh, Mr. Bonavita, School Committee member,he has ...to discuss it. And if somebody's house is putting for sale and come here and complain why we're taking the property. I ask you if we can buy the house, it's for sale, why not the town? Thank you. 0 President Letellier—Councilor Young? Councilor Young- Nothing this evening thank you. President Letellier—Vice President Calabrese? Councilor Calabrese--I have nothing this evening. President Letellier--I do have a couple things. This is the first meeting so there's a couple things I wanted to say. First of all, I'm not in favor of taking anyone's land by eminent domain unless it's for a true public emergency. So, I wouldn't be voting to take these people's land by eminent domain. • r Councilor Bitzas - ..... President Letellier—You had your chance to speak... Councilor Bitzas— I didn't ask for eminent domain. If they're willing to pay...I'm not in favor of eminent domain either. Otherwise don't worry about it. President Letellier—Thank you councilor. I will work with the Sewer Committee to get a letter out to the 13. I'm sure we can get the addresses either from the Assessor's List or the DPW, so I will work on that. I, one of the things, another thing that I've asked Barbara to do is to work on a check list for license, whether it's Class 11, Class 1, Automatice Amusement what have you, so that when the Council gets the licenses, • there's a checklist as a cover page as to what we have. And it's my opinion that a license should not be on our agenda unless the application is 100% complete. So that's something I'm working on with Barbara and will be working with the city Clerk about that. Um, I'm gonna ask Zoning & Ordinance to look at the parking issues. I already have had phone calls from Six Flags neighbors reminding me that the park opens in April and they'd like to know that their lawns and their property will be safe. So I'm gonna ask that the committees look at that. I'm gonna ask the Rules committee meet to discuss the creation of a Public Safety Committee. I know I emailed everybody and pointed to the fact that our time is better spent by maybe combining some committees and making a public safety committee. Reminder that we have an Executive Session before our next meeting which is Wednesday, the day after the Primary. That's an Executive session on r the South End Storage letter. And then I got a call from Bacon& Wilson wanting to set another Executive Session for the Mushy's cell tower. So that'll probably before the second February meeting. I prefer that executive sessions happen at 6:30 because as I put in my emails it doesn't make sense for us to pay the lawyers to sit around. But if people think 6:30 is a problem, let me know and we can do it for later. And that's all I have thank you everybody. And uh, have a good week. Do we have a motion to adjourn? Moved by Councilor Perry, seconded by Councilor Rossi. All those in favor, say so by saying AY. Opposed? Thank you. Adjournment • r • • i