Loading...
CC MTG MINUTES NOVEMBER 16 2009 i REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING OF THE AGAWAM CITY COUNCIL November 16, 2009 Vice President Calabrese—Welcome to November 161h meeting of the Agawam City Council. My name is Cecilia Calabrese and I will be chairing the meeting this evening. Council President had a little dental work done today and is kind of numb so I told her I'd run the meeting for her. So Gina hope you rest up. I'd like to welcome our councilors- elect —Mr. Cichetti, Mr. Magovern, Mr. Walsh ---welcome. Item 1._Citizen's Speak Time Vice President Calabrese — We have one citizen wishing to address the Council, Alan Griffen. Please step to the microphone, state your name and address. Thank you. Alan Griffen —Hi. My name is Alan Griffen. I'm here to talk to you guys about the farmers in the area and different things and so forth. You know I'll tell you what, I see a lot of stuff in this town that's going on which is really you know pitiful to the farmers. You know they're losing their farms,just losing this, why don't we do something to help these people out? Hey we work for our animals in our town you know people, the town it's not right taking farm animals away from people and hurting people, tearing up farms and all this stuff, building houses and all that stuff, well there's a time that we got to learn to wake up and stop a lot of this building because we're building a lot of houses and what are we gaining out of this? More people moving into our town. We're turning into a City of Springfield. Well why don't we clear it up and do something right and keep our farms in town and do something for the farmers you know instead of going against the farmers. We're making a bad move, tearing the farmers apart you know. This is 10 definitely wrong and as far as farms having animals and so forth, I feel they should have animals. You know they should have what they want. You know I had goats at my house, the only reason I had goats because my wife had colitis real bad. She was very, very sick and you guys you know I ain't gonna say what name the councilor is but you know I've done a lot of checking and so forth and you know certain councilors did a lot of talking behind my back and I'm just very, very upset you know and so forth but you • know, like I said, you know I don't want to downgrade a councilor. I'm not gonna mention no names or what not but you know I just feel that this guy's got a little authority that he shouldn't be having and so forth and this oughta be looked into. You know what I mean? So you know why don't we wake up and save our farms and not get rid of our farmers, not get rid of our farmland. We're building too many damn houses in this town. M There's a time to stop and change the world a little bit. So open up your hearts to the farmers man it's about time you do that, you know cuz these farmers are out there bustin' their pardon my language they're out there bustin' their cookies, doing the best they can do to hold onto their farms and here we are we're taking them away, we're turning them into real estate. But what are we gaining? Nothing! So think about that! I mean I definitely want you to think about and this is something that's got to stop and this is something that should be brought a long time ago to the Council. Nobody went up and talked about it. Well I'm talking about it. So you think about it and it's up to you not me • l to decide. You're the ones on the Council that make the Council so you're the ones that's got to decide so you think about it. That's something that you've got to look forward into. You know you want to lose our farms, have no food, people starving, keep it up, you will and it's a pitiful site to see that. So you know I mean for all you people on the Council think twice about building more houses and more houses and more houses because I tell you what, that's not gonna get anything done in this world. It's creating a nuisance problem. It's creating problems with everybody. I mean that's something that you've got to wake up so it's up to you all. Thank you very much and that's all I got to say. Vice President Calabrese—Thank you Mr. Griffen. Item 2. Roll Call i Vice President Calabrese—Clerk please call the roll? ROLL CALL— 10 PRESENT, 1 ABSENT (Councilor Letellier) • Vice President Calabrese— With ten present, one absent, we have a quorum. Item 3. Moment of Silence and the Pledge ofAllegiance Vice President Calabrese—Please stand for a moment of silence and the Pledge of ! Allegiance. Item 4. Minutes .Re ular Council Meeting—November 4 2009 Vice President Calabrese —Thank you. Moved by Councilor Simpson, seconded by Councilor Perry. Any comments, corrections or amendments? All those in favor of approving the minutes, signify by saying Ay? Opposed? One abstention. Council you have approved the minutes. VOICE VOTE— 10 YES, 1 ABSENT (Councilor Letellier) and 1 ABSTENTION (Councilor Cavallo) Item S. Declaration from Council President Vice President Calabrese— I actually do have one. In front of you, you will see the United Way fundraiser and it is my understanding that we have a little friendly competition with our friends to the west in West Side, the Terriers, and there may be certain incentives and advantages to participating in the United Way so I hope that you will all consider that. • • Item 6. Presentation of Petitions, lllemorials di Remonstrances (a) Resolutions 1. TR-2009-47 -A Resolution Confirming the Original Authorization of the Use of Free Cash and Retained Earnings in the Fiscal Year 2010 Annual Operating Budget(Mayor) (Referred to Finance Committee) (Majority of those present and voting) • Vice President Calabrese —Do we have a report? Councilor Young— Yes, we do. The Finance Committee met this evening at 6:30pm. Present were the committee members, myself, Councilor Mineo, Councilor Rossi, Councilor Perry and Councilor Calabrese. Also in attendance were Cheryl St. John, the City Auditor as well as Christopher Johnson, the City Solicitor, who was representing the Mayor and the administration on the matter. Also in attendance were Councilors Messick, Rheault, Bitzas and Councilors-elect Walsh and Magovern. After much discussion again Solicitor Johnson explained that due to the back in, we didn't approve • the 2010 fiscal budget until after July 27'h, if you may remember we approved an appropriation budget to cover the month of July because we were waiting for the final numbers from the state. At one point the DOR advised us that our vote on that at that point was good enough to cover the free cash appropriation of$2.5million which was used to balance the budget overall....$65,000 in the golf course. After further review some new folks in late October from the DOR came back and advised that we just to be • safe we reaffirm or re-vote on this matter for our own sake. So that item was reviewed after much discussion a motion was made by Councilor Mineo to go with a favorable recommendation from the entire Council, seconded by Councilor Perry and with a unanimous 5-0 vote, the Finance Committee is recommending a favorable recommendation that we pass that item. Meeting adjourned at 6:55. • Vice President Calabrese—Thank you. The motion has been moved. Do I have a second? Seconded by Councilor Perry. Any discussion? Seeing none, please call the roll? ROLL CALL — 10 YES, O NO, 1 ABSENT (Councilor Lefeliier) Vice President Calabrese— With ten yes, one absent, you've approved the resolution. Thank you all and I thank Solicitor Johnson and for our Auditor for being here this evening. • Item 7. Report of Council Committees None. • Item 8. Elections None. 3 • Item 9. Public Hearings • None. Item 10. Old Business • 1. TO-2009-33 - Order Granting or Renewing a LICENSE for a Weekly Amusement Device(s)—KD Realty—Take Five Restaurant,944 Springfield Street, Feeding Hills,MA. 01030 (Referred to License Committee) (Majority of those present and voting) Vice President Calabrese—Do we have a motion? Moved by Councilor Simpson, • seconded by Councilor Rossi. Do we have a report? Councilor Rossi— We do. The Committee and I all reviewed this, Councilor Simpson and Councilor CavalIo and myself and we decided to send a positive recommendation for Take Five for this amusement license. This, what he is asking for here is have a piano bar...so we send a positive recommendation to the Council. Vice President Calabrese—Thank you. Any discussion? Seeing none, Clerk, please call the roll? ROLL CALL — 10 YES, 0 NO, 1 ABSENT (Councilor Letellier) Vice President Calabrese-- With ten yes, one absent, you've approved the license. 2. TO-2009-34 - Order Granting or Renewing a LICENSE for a Class II Dealer's License—Agawam Auto Mall, Inc,825 Springfield Street, Feeding ! Hills, MA. 01030 (Referred to License Committee) (Majority of those present and voting) Vice President Calabrese — Do I have a motion? Moved by Councilors Simpson and Rossi and seconded by Councilor Cavallo. Do we have a report? • Councilor Rossi — I do. Again, we agreed to send a positive recommendation from the Committee and if I could make a motion to have these things grouped --the Agawam Auto Mall, 825 Springfield Street which is TO-2009-3A, Falcor Auto Sales, 373 Springfield Street, item TO-2009-35 and Parrotta's Auto Service, 357 Main Street, TO- 2009-3 6. Vice President Calabrese —Thank you. We have a motion to consolidate those three items. Do I have a second? Seconded by Councilors Bitzas and Simpson. I'm gonna do a roll call vote on this consolidation, please call the roll. This is to consolidate those . three items. ROLL CALL— 10 YES, 0 NO, 1 ABSENT (Councilor Letellier) Vice President Calabrese-Ten yes, one absent, you've consolidated these three items. Is there any further discussion on these three items? Seeing none, will the Clerk please call the roll? ROLL CALL— 10 YES,0 NO, I ABSENT (Councilor Letellier) Vice President Calabrese—Ten yes, one absent, you've approved the licenses for Agawam Auto Mall, also Falcor Auto Sales and Parrotta's Auto Sales. 3. TO-2009-35 - Order Granting or Renewing a LICENSE for a Class II Dealer's License—Falcor Auto Sales, Inc,373 Springfield Street,Feeding Hills, MA. 01030 (Referred to License Committee) (Majority of those present and voting) Vice President Calabrese— See item 2 above_ 4. TO-2009-36 - Order Granting or Renewing a LICENSE for a Class II • Dealer's License—Parrotta's Auto Service, Inc.,357 Main Street,Feeding Hills,MA.01030 (Referred to License Committee) (Majority of those present and voting Vice President Calabrese—See item 2 above. • 5. TO-2009-37 - (PH-2009-6)Public Hearing set for December 7,2009 for GAS STORAGE LICENSE Application for Speedy Co.,Daya Singh,332 Suffield Street,Agawam,MA. 01001 (Clerk) (Referred to Public Safety Committee and License Committee) (Majority of those present-and voting) • Vice President Calabrese—Does anyone have a problem with the date of December 7"'? Okay. Do we have a report at this point? Councilor Perry — Yes, Madam Chairlady. We did meet last Thursday in regards to this issue. We really don't have a recommendation yet for the full Council. The Planning Board has not met and solidified plans. The site plan that we received in our packet isn't • the final plan at this point in time so we're going; to probably wait until we get the information from the Planning Board before we send a recommendation to the Full Council. Vice President Calabrese—Thank you. • 6. TO-2009-38 - Order Granting or Renewing a LICENSE for a Class II Dealer's License—Dina Carando d/b/a Euro Imports, 175 Main Street, Agawam, MA. 01001 (Referred to License Committee) (Majority of those present and voting) • Vice President Calabrese—Do we have a motion? Moved by Councilor Rossi, seconded by Councilor Cavallo and Councilor ferry. Do we have a report? 5 i • Councilor Rossi -- Yes, the report from the committee is to send a positive recommendation and again for expediency and convenience I would like to group these things and that's Dino Carando d/b/a Euro Sports, 175 Main Street, that's TO-2009-38, Langonet, Inc., 61 Ramah Circle South, TO-2009-39 and Zielinski Brothers, 218 Shoemaker Lane, TO-2009-40. Vice President Calabrese—Thank you, I have a motion to consolidate those three items, do I have a second? Seconded by Councilor Perry. Any discussion? Okay, Clerk, please tail the roll on consolidating those three items? ROLL CALL— 10 YES, 0 NO, I ABSENT (Councilor Letellier) • Vice President Calabrese-- Ten yes, one absent, you've approved the consolidation of those three items. We are now going to be voting on those three items, will the Clerk please call the roll? ROLL CALL — 10 YES, O NO, 1 ABSENT (Councilor Letellier) • Vice President Calabrese—Ten yes, one absent, you've approved the licenses of Dino Carando d/b/a Euro Sports, 175 Main Street, Agawam, Langonet, Inc., 61 Ramah Circle in Agawam and Zielinski Brothers, 218 Shoemaker Lane in Agawam. • 7. TO-2009-39 - Order Granting or Renewing a LICENSE for a Class 11 Dealer's License—Langonet, Inc., 61 Ramah Circle South,Agawam,MA. 01001 (Referred to License Committee) (Majority of those present and voting) Vice President Calabrese— See Item 6 above. ! 8. TO-2009-40 - Order Granting or Renewing a LICENSE for a Class II Dealer's License—Zielinski Brothers, II,218 Shoemaker Lane,Agawam, MA. 01001 (Referred to License Committee) (Majority of those present and voting) • Vice President Calabrese — See Item 6 above. 9. TOR-2009-6 - An Ordinance to Amend Certain Fees in the Building Department(Councilor Rossi) (1/2) Vice President Calabrese— Do I have a motion? Moved by Councilor Rossi, seconded by Councilor Rheault and Councilor Cavallo. Do we have any discussion? Councilor Rossi? Councilor Rossi—Thank you. The Condominium Committee met, Councilor Bitzas and myself and while I'm at it I just would like to point out that Councilor Bitzas did want to • co-sponsor this, he agreed to co-sponsor this and his name was inadvertently left off of this so I wanted his name too on this. The purpose of this thing was to give some latitude 6 • to the Building Inspector. Currently under our fee structures there is no option for the Building Inspector to use his discretion when it comes to condominiums. They're all grouped together under multi-family units and we all know it's not just that simple cuz some of them are taller structures than others, some have one others have multi-families in them and some are just garden type...So the structures could have eight units in their structure so what we did is we had met with the Association of some of the Condominiums and we did take a look at it and we came up with a definition of semi- detached units that will allow the Building Inspector to take those individual units and apply a fee to each unit. The current fee for a single family dwelling right now is $30.00, So if you take $30 times S that's $240 per unit and in the view of this committee and others it was generally agreed that they were being a little bit over priced because they're charging by the square foot and...a lot more money when the detailed work wasn't as extreme as it was in other cases. I had spoken to Mr. Urbinati about this thing and he agreed totally but in no way does this take any discretion from Mr. Urbinati who still has the final say as to what fees he will place out there in the community. So it is still totally up to his discretion so we did not remove that from the item. It is simply added under miscellaneous as you can read in Section 103-3 entitled Building Department is hereby amended to add the following miscellaneous semi-detached structures, additions and ! alterations $30.00... Vice President Calabrese --.Thank you. Any discussion? Yes, Councilor Bitzas? Councilor Bitzas— Yes, we did have a meeting with the chair, Councilor Rossi, and representatives from the Condominium committees and I think it was in agreement there with Councilor Rossi and all of us and I think it was very, very good meeting and was fair adjustment to $30 per unit I think is very fair for them. Before it was unjust, it was too much money for them to pay and I believe that's a good ordinance and 1 hope the full Council will support that. Thank you. Vice President Calabrese —Thank you. Further discussion? Yes, Councilor Cavallo? Councilor Cavallo —Yea, I think you did a wonderful job. I just have one comment to make to the President of the Bar Association said that he had already sent the check in for ! the other amount of money. I hope that he'll be reimbursed the difference between? (off microphone) Councilor Cavallo — Why wouldn't he be reimbursed? (off microphone) Councilor Cavallo —Well, the reason why he did that is he didn't want to be in any trouble with the town. To me, it would be...he sent the check in simply waiting to hear what the outcome would be here. Why wouldn't he be reimbursed? That's not fair at all. • Councilor Rossi —May I address that? 7 • • Vice President Calabrese—Please. • Councilor Rossi —Through the chair, that did come up and unfortunately there can't be any reimbursement. The way the Building Permits work as most of you know, the builder has to apply for the Building Permit, the person who is actually doing the work applies for it. That Building Permit application and fees are charged or passed on to the • consumer so that is included in the price. Now we went across, I looked at all of the records and happened to look up Castle Hill because there's a question about that and I looked at what fees were paid to the City and the amount of work that was actually done and if you'd like to discuss this, I'd be more than happy to do it later on, Councilor Cavallo but I can tell you this, it was a fair assessment made to Castle Hill. Castle Hill was very satisfied at least as said by the association or the representatives of the • association were very satisfied with the outcome of that. So but to get back to answer your question, once the fee has been paid, the fee has been paid...we can't reimburse that but what we can do and what we did do is we made adjustments to future assessments and I think that everybody was pleased as a result of that. • Vice President Calabrese--Thank you, Any further discussion? Seeing none, Clerk, please call the roll —this is gonna be the first of two readings. ROLL CALL— 10 YES,0 NO, 1 ABSENT (Councilor Letellier) Vice President Calabrese—Ten yes, one absent, you've approved the first reading. Item 11. New Business • 1. TO-2009-41 - Order Granting; or Renewing a LICENSE for a Class I Dealer's License—Sarat Ford Sales, Inc.,243-249 Springfield Street, Agawam,MA. 01001(Majority of those present and voting) Vice President Calabrese---Next agenda. I'll refer that to the License Committee as well as the next several items. • 2. TO-2009-42 - Order Granting or Renewing a LICENSE for a Class I Dealer's License—Sarat Ford Sales, Inc., 250 Springfield Street,Agawam, MA. 01001(Majority of those present and voting) Vice President Calabrese—Next agenda, refer to the License Committee. 3. TO-2009-43 - Order Granting or Renewing a LICENSE for a Class 11 Dealer's License —Chris Auto South, Inc.,207 Main Street,Agawam,MA. 0 100 1(Majority of those present and voting) • Vice President Calabrese —Next agenda, refer to the License Committee. 8 • 4. TO-2009-44 - Order Granting or Renewing a LICENSE for a Class II Dealer's License-- LaFleur Auto Exchange,374 Main Street, Agawam,MA. 01001(Majority of those present and voting) Vice President Calabrese—Next agenda, refer to the License Committee. 5. TO-2009-45 -Order Granting or Renewing a LICENSE for a Class 11 S Dealer's License— E. Wayne Smith Used Car Sales, 1016 Springfield Street, Feeding Hills, MA. 01030 (Majority of those present and voting) Vice President Calabrese—Next agenda, refer to the License Committee. • 6. TO-2009-46 - Order Granting or Renewing a LICENSE for a Class II Dealer's License—Town Motors I1,393 Main Street, Agawam, MA. 01001 (Majority of those present and voting) Vice President Calabrese—Next agenda, refer to the License Committee. 7. TO-2009-47 - Order Granting or Renewing a LICENSE for a Class 11 Dealer's License-V & F Auto, Inc.,7 Harding Street,Agawam,MA. 01001(Majority of those present and voting) Vice President Calabrese—Next agenda, refer to the License Committee. q S. TR-2009-48 (PI-1-2009-7) (Set a Public Hearing Date—Suggest December 7,2009) A Resolution Adopting a Residential Factor of.817547 Pursuant to Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 40, Section 56 (Mayor) (Majority of those present and voting) Vice President Calabrese—Next agenda. We'll refer that to the Finance Committee. 9. TR-2009-49 - A Resolution Authorizing the Mayor to Allocate Funds from the Cable Account (Council) (Majority of those present and voting) Vice President Calabrese--Next Agenda. We'll refer that to the Finance Committee and I'm assuming we'll want to contact someone from the Cable Commission, that would be appreciated. 10. TR-2009-50 - A Resolution Requesting Governor Deval L. Patrick to • Restore the State Funds Budget Cut from the Holyoke Soldier's Home (Councilor Bitzas) (Majority of those present and voting) Vice President Calabrese—Next agenda. 11. TOR-2009-7 - An Ordinance to Amend Chapter 103 of the Code of the Town of Agawam Conservation Commission Fees (Mayor) (Two Readings) 9 0 Vice President Calabrese -Next agenda. We'll refer that to the Ordinance and the Finance Committees. Councilor Messick do you feel that any of your committee needs to address that item as well? No? Okay, fine, thank you. Item 12. Any other matter that may Lgally come be are the City Council. Vice President Calabrese- I will begin on my right with Councilor Perry. Councilor Perry-Yes, thank you Madam President, one quick item tonight and i just want to send my condolences out to the Comee family. They lost their son last week. Again I just want to publicly say that I am very sorry for their loss and I just wanted to let you know that this evening. Thank you. Vice President Calabrese-Thank you. Councilor Messick? Councilor Messick- Yes, I would like also pay my condolences to the Comee family. What a terrible tragedy and one that should never have happened. I also have, we received a memo about the Perry Lane issue about the parking and that type of thing and one of the things that it said in here is that we have a temporary certificate of occupancy? Is that still correct? Could we find out why we are operating on a temporary certificate at this point in time...so if we could send a letter to the Mayor or to Mr. Urbinati asking for more information about that? And also I believe Thanksgiving is coming up soon so I would like to say Happy Thanksgiving to everybody and enjoy your families... Vice President Calabrese-Thank you. Councilor Bitzas? Councilor Bitzas-- Yes, I also would like to express my sympathy. I know the Comee family; it's a tragic loss along with many in Town of Agawam, tragic losses. This year we must do something to correct the problem. I spoke with one member of the family who lost his daughter to the drugs about a year ago and I asked him do you need the parents help? We should have the DA involved, we should have the federal agencies, the FBI, everybody, councilors, we must do something. I know every city and town,they have their problems but it seems like it's so close to us and those families are very close to me-the three families, the last few months_ We cannot put our heads under the sand. 1 have some ideas. We should, fifteen years ago, previous councilors should know we had a forum, for drugs and the gangs to keep them out of town. It was very successful. We did it here; we did it in different schools that was fifteen-sixteen years ago. We must do it again. We must do a forum to show the kids at a younger age the danger of those drugs, show them the suffering of those people they leave behind. So I'm not • gonna go into detail but I'm going to invite you as a Council we will sit down and find some ideas, invite the parents, invite the kids and we've got to get involved. We cannot, we must....unfortunately we have to be, to punish those dealers so severe, not just slap their hands and let it go, we must fight for it. Really, we must do something about it. Thank you and Happy Thanksgiving to all and happy holidays. Vice President Calabrese-- Thank you. Councilor Young? 10 Councilor Young—Just Happy Thanksgiving to the citizens and to my friends and family and colleagues. Vice President Calabrese—Councilor-elect Walsh? Councilor-elect Walsh —Well, I would like to thank the voters of Agawam for having elected me a few weeks ago and I'm going to do my best on your behalf. My condolences to the Comee family and Happy Thanksgiving everybody. Vice President Calabrese—Thank you. Councilor-elect Magovern? Councilor-elect Magovern—Thank you. Again, I'd like to thank the voters of Agawam for their faith in reelecting me back on the Council again. I'll do my best to represent the M residents of Agawam and I'd just like to say very quickly on George's comment about the drub problems in Agawam. I spent some time while I was campaigning talking with some people and I was in some very, very nice neighborhoods and one woman I was talking to and she was talking to her children and within a few blocks of where she lived in a very nice neighborhood, there were six kids that were strung out on heroin. They ♦ were all addicted and these are problems that we...and I really agreed with Councilor Bitzas and I think our next Council we should really take a strong attack on this particular problem and say enough is enough. And on the brighter side...in a letter I published in the paper on Sunday because I was very proud of our Veterans' Council — down on the green we had on Veterans' Day a wonderful celebration recognizing the veterans of Agawam and I thought that was really one of the finer moments of Agawam...and Happy Thanksgiving to everybody and I hope everybody ...thank you very much. Vice President Calabrese—Thank you. Councilor Simpson? Councilor Simpson —Thank you. Just a couple quick things. First of all, we do have on our next agenda a Resolution sponsored by Councilor Bitzas regarding funding for the Holyoke Soldier's home also I would like to tag into that that the fact that funding was cut and the Governor has given $9 million down to Foxboro for a foot bridge and can't seem to find money for the VA? So I think we're doing our part with doing the resolution but I think it's absolutely appalling. I ask the citizens to make phone calls to their public elected officials down Boston way and let them know that this is just terrible. It's a terrible thing to be giving $9 million to the traffic committee where I'm sure they have plenty of money that they could build a bridge and then start cutting the veterans' funds at that Holyoke Soldier's Home which is a wonderful facility. And on a lighter note than that Happy Thanksgiving to everybody and also my condolences to the Comee family. It hits home when you have a child the exact same age as that. It's a terrible tragedy and hopefully they will heal and something will positive will come from that tragedy. Thank you. Vice President Calabrese —Thank you. Councilor Mineo? 11 i • Councilor Mineo—My condolences also to the Comee family. One of my sons, Luca, was actually an Agawam Cheetah and played for Chet. .He was a good kid. He really was. He will be missed. Nice, nice young man, it's too bad. I agree with Councilor Bitzas, we need to explore some different avenues and be a little more creative. I think what we need to do is we need to take a look at what programs that we have in place at this point,whatever is outdated,at budget time; we need to start looking at some different avenues at how we can stop these tragedies, and drub problems in Agawam. Thank you • and have a nice thanksgiving. Thank you. Vice President Calabrese—Thank you. Councilor Cavallo? Councilor Cavallo— I think your suggestion is well taken Councilor Bitzas but I suggest that you confer with the School Department and meet with them as well because they do « have programs in place and I think it would be good to find out what they're doing and maybe invite them to your meeting as well and members of the School Committee because they are the ones of course are part of the budget process when it comes to them and also Councilor Simpson you mentioned the foot bridge and how long have we been waiting for Route 57 extension to be completed and where are all the stimulus funds that • President Obama has allocated for the State of Massachusetts? It appears that none of that money is coming west and I think we'll all be dead and buried before that project is completed and if stimulus funds aren't gonna help then I'm sure we're not gonna see that for a long, long time. And again my condolences to the Comee family as well. I had the father as a student, the father now, many years ago in East Longmeadow cuz that's where he hails from to begin with and thank you and I lappy Thanksgiving to everyone. Vice President Calabrese —Thank you. Councilor Rossi? Councilor Rossi —Thank you. My condolences go out to the family as well. It's a heartache that no one should have to endure. Also, I would like to express my sentiments on the VA and I think it's a good idea that we do our bit by sending this Resolution down...I'm not happy with what he's doing especially in light of the fact that he's pouring all that money down in Foxboro. But as a veteran I take exception to that, I don't, I think it's terrible for what they're doing, for all the vital services they provide for • those veterans. Those people go over there and put their lives on the line and now we're turning our backs on them. Now when they need those services, I think it's a tragedy and this little bit that we can do here, I don't know what it'll accomplish but at least it's something but I do agree with Councilor Simpson...I think we really need to get the people out there and get the message, maybe someone should...let's put this money where it belongs...and I think that really needs to happen..,we really need to have a much stronger showing down there saying enough is enough and again a Happy Thanksgiving to all. Vice President Calabrese—Thank you. Councilor-elect Cichetti? • Councilor-elect Cichetti --Thank you. I'd just like to offer my condolences to the Comee family also and also wish everybody a Happy Thanksgiving. 12 • Vice President Calabrese—Thank you. Councilor Rheault? Councilor Rheault—Yes, thank you. I'd like to commend Councilor Bitzas for putting that on the agenda and an additional short explanation as to why we can't act on it this evening because our Charter says something has to appear once before we can vote on it the second time so we could have voted on it tonight but that's the reason why we're not and my condolences to the family and I think George that that is something that you can • Iook into. It's long overdue and I wish everybody a Happy Thanksgiving. Vice President Calabrese--Thank you. I too want to send my condolences to the Comee family on their terrible loss. On a slightly more positive note though however I do also want to send personal congratulations to the Mr. John Gibbons, he's a friend, a • neighbor and he's no stranger to those involved in law enforcement and I'm sure no stranger to everyone here on the Council. I am very proud to see that he was nominated as our next U.S. Marshall and if people aren't quite sure what that is, he's gonna be the go to guy as far as security in our federal court system and as far as I'm concerned, we couldn't be in better hands in Agawam with John Gibbons and I'm very proud to see that • he got that nomination. I do also want to send along my Happy Thanksgiving to everyone out there. Hug your families and thank God for our freedoms and for everything that we have here. Kudos to the Council for stepping up and wanting to take a leadership position in the issues that we have here in town and 1 know that come January I'm gonna be a private citizen. I'm gonna have time on my hands so if you're looking for • any help, I'm your gal. At this point, I'd like to entertain a motion to adjourn. All in favor? Ay. Have a good evening everyone. Adjournment. • • 13 •