CC MTG MINUTES APRIL 20 2010 •
REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING OF THE AGAW"CITY COUNCIL
• April 20 2010
President Rheault—Good evening ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Tuesday,
• April 20`h City Council meeting.
Item Y. Citizen's freak Time
President Rheault—We have a few citizens wishing to address the Council this everting
and the first being, I noticed that they've all addressed the Council before so they know
• the rules of up to five minutes. State your name and address for the record please and the
item of discussion. Mark Del Negro?
Mark Del Negro—Mark Del Negro, 28 Losito Lane. Good evening. I would like to
speak in favor of sending a proposal to the Massachusetts School Building Authority for
• renovations to our current schools and a construction of a new high school. This proposal
is....and saves our community money. The economy is bad now...at no cost to the
taxpayers a plan to improve our school system. What I like about this plan is the fact that
as we wait for the economy to improve, we are currently paying off existing debt. We
must plan for the future of our children's education. To vote yes for this resolution costs
the taxpayers nothing. Why would any of you vote no? If you do like the economic-plan
down the road, then do not vote in favor of appropriating fiords. If you vote no,you are
voting no against ...educating and the future of our children. This proposal costs nothing
and should be approved for the sake of our community, our children and their education.
Thank you.
•
President Rheault—Thank you. Laurel Placzek?
Laurel Placzek--Hi. I'm Laurel PIaczek,the Treasurer/Collector for the Town. I live at
10 Stuart Circle in Westfield. In the last month or two, I've gotten questions from a few
Councilors in regard to our debt.rating and our debt capacity and I've handed out to the
Council that information this evening but I thought I would just go over it with you for a
moment. Our present debt capacity is $133,333,901.00. Our present outstanding debt is
$27,085,845.00. Debt that will be maturing out of the next several years includes the Jr.
High heat, the Agawam Country Club, Tuckahoe Turf Farm, the Fire Station, the Golf
Course Irrigation, the Westfield River Pump Station,...Storm Water and ...School
• Additions and Renovations. Those mature in September of 2017. Our present debt rating
from Moody's is Aa3 and Standard& Poor's Bond Rating is AA. That was last upgraded
in November of 2008 and reaffirmed in November of 2009. Those materials
were...if...any questions and 1....
• President Rheault—Thank you very much Laurel. Our final citizen wishing to address
the Council is Forrest Bradford.
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Forrest Bradford—Good evening ladies and gentlemen. My name is Forrest Bradford.
I live at 21 Oxford Street in Agawam. I want to say I was here at the last Council and I
• love ideas and I think ideas are always wonderful and it's hard sometimes to put together
ideas where they're fun to look at and make us think about possibilities in the future.
And sitting here listening to ideas, I thought they were pretty dam good two weeks ago
and hey, if we have more ideas down the road that we can compare which ones are the
better of those ideas, I think that's a great thing. So I would say let's keep our doors open
• to ideas and not say you hey, we don't like this. But anyhow I was here when the new Jr.
High was built. We were the first class that went into the new Jr. High and I know we
were all excited and how we found out about it was we were in the James Clark School
which was called South Street at the time and Julia Crawford had a way of announcing
herself to the students by saying "oh, oh, oh, I have something to tell you all today. You
s will no longer be going to South Street Elementary School"and suddenly you heard the
entire school cheering, yelling, screaming and then she said"you will be going to the
James Clark Elementary School"and suddenly you heard this "00000hhhhhhh"because
they thought they were staying and that's all I just say let's keep open to great ideas and
pool them together with other ideas and then you can select the best one. Thank you.
! President Rheault—Thank you.
Item 2. Roll Call
President Rheault—Will the Clerk please call the roll?
ROLL CALL—9 PRESENT,2 ABSENT (Councilors Rossi and Simpson)
President Rheault—Nine present, two absent? Who's the second? Oh, Jill, I'm sorry,
yes, Bob Rossi called a short while before the meeting and was having some stomach
distress and is gonna be seen and hopes to get here on time. If not, that's the reason for
his absence.
Item_3. Moment of Silence and the Plebe-a Allegiance
! President Rheault—Please rise for a moment of silence and Pledge of Allegiance.
Councilor Mineo has a few words to say.
Councilor Mineo—Before, if you could please remember Chaplain Gage Houdeling in
your prayers—he's in the hospital. He's a World War II Veteran. He fought in Iwo
Jima. He's 92 years old and he's from Agawam and I'd just like to make sure that he
gets recognized. Thank you.
President Rheault—Thank you.
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Item 4. Minutes
• (a) Regular Council Meeting—April 5,2010
President Rheault—Moved by Councilor Perry, seconded by Councilor Walsh. Any
corrections or additions?
Councilor Walsh—I had one correction on page 14,third line from the bottom, when we
went into Committee as a Whole, it said, we should have said `we are now in Committee
as a Whole' it says `we are not in Committee as a Whole' so that's the only correction
that I have.
President Rheault—Well, I guess we're in good shape.
Councilor Magovern—Council President I'd just like to make one more correction for
the record and that is Gage Houdeling was a minister, chaplain and he was the Chaplain
at Iwo Jima and officiated over the burial of all of our soldiers and veterans on Iwo Jima
which I think is even more significant and he gives a very good talk about the trials and
tribulations of burying all of our soldiers on Iwo Jima. So I'd like to have the in the
record so it doesn't get missed over next week's minutes.
President Rheault—All right. Thank you for that added information. Mr. Magovern is
our historian up here. Sorry, I'm losing myself up here. With the glare from all these
lights I can't see the date.
Councilor Letellier—Move to approve the meeting minutes as amended by Councilor
Walsh.
President Rheault—Moved by Councilor Letellier, seconded by Councilor Perry. Any
further corrections? If not, all those in favor? Opposed? Unanimous as amended.
Item S. Declaration from Council President
None
Item 6. Presentation of Petitions Memorials& Remonstrances
(a) Resolutions
• 1. TR 2010-17 -A Resolution Confirming the Appointment of Todd
Crevier,26 Yale Avenue,Feeding Bills,MA.to the Agawam Veterans
Council to a Term Expiring April 1,2012.(Mayor)
President Rheault—Moved by Councilor Perry, seconded by Councilor Mineo. Is there
any discussion? If not, Clerk please call the roll.
ROLL CALL — 1 YES (Councilor Bitzas), 8 NO, 2 ABSENT (Councilors Rossi and
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Simpson)
• President Rheault—One yes, eight no, two absent, you have defeated the confirmation.
2. TR 2010-18 -A Resolution Regarding the Extension of Keno To Go for
On The Way,301 Springfield Street,Agawam,MA.(Councilors Rheault
and Rossi)
• President Rheault—I'll move the resolution, seconded by Councilor Perry. Any further
discussion on it? If not, Clerk please call the roll,
ROLL CALL—9 YES,0 NO,2 ABSENT(Councilor Rossi and Simpson)
• President Rheault—Nine yes, two absent, you have approved the resolution.
3. TR-2010-19 -A Resolution Confirming the Appointment of Ralph
McEwan,70 Carr Avenue, Agawam,MA. to the Agawam Veterans' Council
as an Honorary Lifetime Member(Mayor)
0 President Rheault — Moved by Councilor Bitzas, seconded by Councilors Walsh and
Perry. Any further discussion? Councilor Bitzas?
Councilor Bitzas — Yes, I can see here that we have the three openings for the Veterans'
Council and we have the three names and we have of course to vote yes or no but this is
• appointments just to let you know, the people and the public, that these are appointments
from the Mayor. I have great respect those previous members that they were serving —
Mr. Mazzei and Chris Sanchez—they were great ...we went to Veteran's...we tried to to
and we succeed
• President Rheault—Councilor Bitzas we're on the Resolution confirming Mr. McEwan.
Councilor Bitzas—Yes, that's a point I'm going to make.
President Rheault—As an honorary lifetime member.
•
Councilor Bitzas — Yes, sir. If we have those members I would strongly support them
but they're not in here so we have three members with very, very, honorably serve our
country and I support those three applicants because they served our country. I give them
credit. They served our town and I will support those three names because no other
• names are in front of us. How can we do that? We have three names here, if we had
other names, I'd vote for the other names but I don't have here three names, three
veterans —they serve our country and I vote no for them? Are you kidding me? Thank
you.
President Rheault — Any further discussion on the honorary lifetime membership? If
not,will the Clerk please call the roll?
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ROLL CALL—9 YES,0 NO,2 ABSENT (Councilors Rossi and Simpson)
r President Rheault —Nine yes, two absent, you've approved the resolution making him
an honorary lifetime member.
4. TR-2010-20 -A Resolution confirming the Appointment of Rielly
Longtin,469 Corey Street,Agawam,MA to the Agawam Veterans' Council
to a Term Expiring April 1,2012 (Mayor)
President Rheault — Moved by Councilor Perry, seconded by Councilor Bitzas. Any
further discussion? If not, will the Cleric please call the roll?
ROLL CALL — 1 YES (Councilor Bitzas), 8 NO, 2 ABSENT (Councilors Rossi and
Simpson)
President Rheault — One yes, eight no, two absent, you've defeated the resolution for
the confirmation.
5. TR-2010-21 -A Resolution Authorizing Preparation of Statement of
Interest for a New Early Childhood Center and High School(Councilor
Bitzas)
President Rheault — Moved by Councilor Bitzas, seconded by Councilors Perry and
* Walsh. Is there any discussion? Councilor Letellier?
Councilor Letellier— Yes, thank you. I just want to say that I very much enjoyed the
presentation from Dr. Czajkowski and her willingness to answer our questions last
meeting and when we spoke at that meeting I was under the impression that the
Statement of Interest would be submitted for the Early Childhood Education Center but
• the Resolution is for both. So if we could go into Committee as a Whole and check with
Dr. Czajkowski and see exactly what we're submitting Statement of Interest (SOI), I'd
very much like to do that. I want to move to go into Committee as a Whole.
Councilor Bitzas—Second.
•
President Rheault— Moved by Councilor Letellier, seconded by Councilor Bitzas to go
into Committee as a Whole. All those in favor? Opposed? We are now in the
Committee.
• Councilor Letellier— And if you haven't had a chance to read that yet, please go ahead
and take your time and just look up when you're ready.
President Rheault—Councilor Bitzas?
Councilor Bitzas--Can I speak?
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President Rheault—No, we're waiting for them and Councilor Letellier has a question.
• Councilor Letellier—I'm giving them time to read the resolution.
Dr. Czajkowski — Thank you. I have read the Resolution. As part of the Long Range
Planning Committee, we met on two different occasions, the Statement of Interest
deficiency is surely within the Early Childhood Center and clearly it's the Early
• Childhood Center. In my conversations with MSBA, specifically with a woman by the
name of Diane Sullivan who I've been meeting with, I expressed to her that we had this
Long Range Planning Committee and that we're meeting and hopefully we're gonna
continue to meet and I indicated that part of our SOI might include also the plan for
reorganization around a new high school in the reorganization of our schools. She
indicated to me and forwarded her a copy of the PowerPoint and her comment to me was
that MSBA does look for creative long range planning and tying into the high school the
Early Childhood Center, they have some model schools that currently have similar
structures. So she encouraged me to long range plan and to bring it before the City
Council and the School Committee. However, if we would submit this as both Early
Childhood and High School, they may come back to us and say you need to separate
them and you need to separate, you need to submit a SOI for the Early Childhood AND
you need to submit one for the High School. However, when I forwarded to her she
indicated that they are looking for really the community to give input into this process.
So when the applications come out at the end of this summer and based on the direction
of both the City Council and the School Committee I might look after conversations, say
! we come back to the Council or come back to the Committee and say we need to separate
them but I felt that in the long range plan in looking at schools that have combined them
and also looking at the age of the high school, I felt it was necessary to combine them and
I think when the Resolution was drafted, the Long Range Planning Committee
encouraged or at least supported the combination of the two at the time but certainly if
• the Committee and the Council feels that they want them separated, I certainly can do
that. I want to make it clear that the deficiency certainly is the Early Childhood—
Councilor Bitzas—Point of information?
! Councilor Letellier—Can I finish my?
Councilor Bitzas—Point of information?
Councilor Letellier — Wait a second. The President decides whether you have a
valid...
President Rheault — Councilor Letellier has the floor. You can ask your question after
she's finished.
Councilor Bitzas — Yes, Mr. President. It's...along with Councilor Walsh resolution, I
would like it to be read for the people so people can know what we're talking about
because so...the resolution and also as a...resolution I would add before the high school
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the word `possible' and be possible...
• President Rheault — Those changes you can make when you have the floor, Councilor.
Councilor Letellier has the floor.
Councilor Letellier—Please continue. I'm sorry for the interruption.
• Dr. Czajkowski — That's okay, thank you. Certainly I think to be able to combine two
buildings in one in looking at long range planning, to not have to come back another year
or two or three or five and say oh by the way we also need a new high school. So I was
trying to think ahead and trying to do some planning and to really look at the future of
Early Childhood and the number of students at our high school that are looking to go into
those kinds of programs. So it's sort of killing two birds with one stone in looking at the
future, in looking at the age of the High School and I submitted to you a plan, or not a
plan, a school report, that's been put out and it talks about public education in the next
decade in that report. I want to bring to the attention of the Council, there's one school—
it's Shrewsbury—that is talking about doing sort of combinations and combining schools
and opening them up to the community and that was my thinking of the Jr. High School
• and the Community Center and the Park&Rec area and being able to utilize that Jr. High
School but we couldn't do that unless we had the High School available for Jr. High
School students. So the thinking along that was really to, to really look long term and
really plan for that. If we were just to build, so for example if I submit this SOI just for
the Early Childhood Center, they may come back and ask well where would you combine
• that with other grades? Or would you build a stand-along Early Childhood Center?
Would you combine that with Pre-K, K, 1 and 2 grades because most Early Childhood
Centers do not stand alone? They are either with a combination of kindergarten, first or
second grade. Hampden/Wilbraham has an Early Childhood Center which is comprised
of Pre-K to 2; East Longmeadow Pre-K to 3. So in then in the eastern part of the state
• there are some schools that have high schools and early childhoods combined. So the
stand-alone, I look at in short tern, whereas if you can sort of get more of a bang for a
buck in combining them and looking long tern, it would benefit the community.
Councilor Letellier — No, I'm not opposed. I guess I'm remembering our conversation
that all had in which I said are you going to do the ECE (ECC)? Are you going to
combine the two? What are you going to do? And so we had this before you and I had
the discussion so I didn't know if any of your thoughts have changed because the way
this reads now it says `submit Statements of Interest in regards to the ECE (ECC) and the
High School so to me Statements of Interest is two separate — one for each? Am I
• reading that—is that the same way you would read that and is that what you want?. Or do
you want one Statement of Interest for both combined?
Dr. Czajkowski— That's a great question. I'm sorry. It should be submit Statement of
Interest combined.
Councilor Letellier — That's what I kind of thought but I just wanted to make sure that
you knew exactly what - if my meaning was the same as your meaning. So if we were to
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amend it,we'd say submit A Statement of Interest.
Dr. Czajkowski—That's correct.
Councilor Letellier — And I won't do my motion until people have had their chance to
discuss it out of respect for my fellow councilors, so I wanted to make sure that you
wanted one statement that would cover both.
! Dr. Czajkowski—That's correct.
Councilor Letellier—Okay, thank you.
Dr. Czajkowski—Okay, I apologize.
Councilor Letellier--No, don't apologize at all.
President Rheault—Councilor Bitzas now?
Councilor Bitzas — Thank you. Mary, I know there's some questions about that, some
people they don't like the high school they place it will be or they like to combine here
the same thing, the same as the Early Childhood, they want the Early Childhood to be
first and then the High School, the first question is if we're to make this resolution which
I sponsored alone with Councilor Walsh and amend it and put a "possible" high school,
+� to put a word in here, "possible" high school and also with Early Childhood Center and
possible Agawam High School, does that make much difference to you?
Dr. Czajkowski -- If we were to separate it, they might force us into making a priority.
So for example if we had `possibly' they may say you need to make a decision. It's
• either gonna be an Early Childhood or it's gonna be, the priority is gonna be the high
school. Where I'm trying to combine them in order to sort of kill two birds with one
stone.
Councilor Bitzas —And we don't bond to build the Early Childhood and the Senior High
School together in Tuckahoe, do we bond it?
Dr. Czajkowski — Or they may come back and say that the priority is the Early
Childhood Center and that's the only thing we're gonna fund you 72% reimbursement for
in which case then that clearly is the deficiency and we would look to build a new Early
Childhood Center. Now they may say are you looking at grade reorganization? Can that
be combined with other grades? It may be—take the current enrollment in Early
Childhood and place them into one of our elementary schools.
Councilor Bitzas—So this way here it's not binding, it's nothing just we vote to —
• Dr. Czajkowski — All that is allowing me to do is to prepare a Statement of Interest to
submit for them to come out and look at our Early Childhood Center.
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Councilor Bitzas—And we put your ideas and of course we put our ideas and we have a
lot more discussion with the public and the parents and other School Committee members
• and everybody else before we decide to do anything. This is just the first step.
Dr. Czajkowski — Absolutely. This is really, it's non-binding. It doesn't require any
money. It doesn't require any state funding. The MSBA — the Mass. School Building
Authority — is not going to commit any funding to us just because we submit an
application so it really is a Statement of Interest to get them to come to Agawam to look
at our Early Childhood Center and say is that a priority? If it is a priority it would go on
a list. We would go on a list with 150 school districts that are on a list waiting down the
road to build something.
Councilor Bitzas — Okay, and the last question. The Early Childhood — what are you
planning to do now? Do we wait for six years to build Early Childhood — meanwhile
what are your plans for the problems they have down there? I'm not gonna give, even if
we pass this and we have some money from the 72% of the cost to...can we use this 72
cents to a dollar to renovate other schools?
i Dr. Czajkowski—No. No. We cannot do that.
Councilor Bitzas—It's only for new buildings.
Dr. Czajkowski — Right. It's only for new construction projects so we would not be
f reimbursed anything. However, the plan right now and I've been talking with Mrs.
Fernandez and once again we're very, very crowded there. One thought, she hates to
split up her staff as well as the children and I think that would be an upset to parents as
well —but one of the areas that we are looking at is possibly housing maybe a classroom
or two at Granger School temporarily but that still has not yet been decided. We're
hopeful that with the renovations to the parking lot area this June that will begin, it will
make it more safe as far as the outside but the inside it's just, it's very crowded. We have
137 children and we have many children right now that are physically-challenged and
need space to move for therapy, for occupational therapy so one thought is to split them
up but we haven't decided that. We have moved the Director of Early Childhood out of
i her office right now and she's in a hallway because her office is being used for a space
for a couple of children right now. So it's very crowded. Our only option is to move
them to Granger temporarily.
Councilor Bitzas — Okay, the last comment. I will support the Resolution because I
don't want to tie your hands to do nothing for education in towns,but there's not open me
to spend any money and not one cent of the taxpayers' money before we put these
discussions to the public later on so it's a smart idea and unwise of me to vote against it,
against something that we could get 72 cents to a dollar to build something new if we
decide and this will come later after we pay all the debt. So -
0 Dr. Czajkowski — Let me just give you a time line. The application for a Statement of
Interest will come out at the end of this summer. We will then have three months. I will
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sit down with our Director of Finance who has experience in developing SOI, Statements
of Interest, we'll sit down. We will submit our application. I will then forward the
application to you as a Council and to the School Committee so you're aware of what
we're including in the Statement of Interest. At that point in time, we have three months
in which to do that and then I will say at the beginning of 2011, the MSBA will come out
because they just won't respond by a letter, but they will actually come out and do a visit.
At that point, they'll look at our Early Childhood Center and then they probably would
i engage in discussion with the Council, with the School Committee and then we then are
gonna open it up to the community, to parents, to students to talk about the future and
what that would look like.
Councilor Bitzas -Thank you. That's a good point and thank you again, Mr. President.
• President Rheault — I have a couple of questions Mary. I thought you, I heard you just
say to Councilor Bitzas that it's for new construction only which would be contrary to
what you've got in your Resolution `and renovation projects'. It would contradict that.
Dr. Czajkowski — Yes, the Early Childhood Center could not be renovated using
• reimbursement from the state.
President Rheault—Can anything?
Patti Cavanaugh — Good evening Council. I'm Patti Cavanaugh, Director of Finance
• and Human Resources for the Agawam Public Schools. You're correct, Mr. Rheault, in
that yes you can submit Statements of Interest for additions and renovations to building
but it was our opinion that if they looked at the ECC, they would say there's no way to
renovate. It would cost just as much to renovate that to build you a new building. And
then they're gonna do that and tell us to build the new building cuz they'd rather see new
construction rather than trying to renovate. The only place to renovate would be up
which isn't ideal for a pre-K so they would probably look at that, that's an assumption
we're making,to come and look at that and say, no there's not enough money to renovate
or put an addition. You would need to build a new building. Now if we were to another
school like the Jr. High School or we're interested in a Jr. High School, we would
probably submit a Statement of Interest to renovate rather than build new. So it goes on a
building by building case but yes, you can definitely ...for a renovation or addition but it
was our opinion for ECC, it would require new construction.
President Rheault—How is ECC classified? Is that classified as a school?
Patti Cavanaugh—Yes, a pre-school.
President Rheault -- It is. Well school/pre-school I don't know if there's a defined
difference but as I was reading later on after I spoke with you Mary today, the
introduction for the application or Statement of Interest, it says here `a separate SOI must
• be submitted for each existing school for which the city, town or regional school district
may have interest in applying for a grant'. Then further down into the dialogue of the
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paper work, it says `note — only one SOI may be submitted to the MSBA for a school
during any fiscal year and a SOI must describe their perceived deficiencies of only one
school'. So our resolution is tying the ECC with the High School and I told you that the
problem I had at this point was with the people I've spoken to or have spoken to me with
regards to the little they know about what's transpired is that they don't feel at this time a
new high school is necessary so why should we tie it to that? And I have some feelings
as well. I know the needs at the Early Childhood as we spoke, but there's so much that
40 hasn't been done, I wonder what's gonna transpire while we're waiting for all this down
the road and as I probably told you that when I started years ago the Governor used to
give us 90 cents on the dollar for a sewer project and now gives us not a penny so what's
our assurance, you know we're predicating this on 72 cents but we still have to come up
with 28 cents on the dollar and people are very concerned in this economy as to where
we're going and I really have not really had a lot of positive about this program even
though that it may have some strong merit. So I guess my question goes back.to their
statement as you only can apply to one and if you agree with that or disagree with that or
do we—
Patti Cavanaugh - The reason we submitted the two for one because if you do submit
one SOI per school, then they can prioritize so then you have to choose which do you
wish. With Dr. Czajkowski's innovative thinking of combining the ECC with the High
School, we're saying to them yes we would like to have two buildings but we only would
like you to build one so they're killing two birds with one stone because they're looking
for us to look at our creative way of building the curriculum of actually setting up
internships with our area colleges, with our own students to provide the pre-school. So
we're saying we need a new ECC and what's your answer? Our answer is we'd like to
combine it with a new high school because eventually with our high school approaching
65 years of age in ten years we're probably gonna come knocking at your door again so
we'd like to say to them, we have two buildings in need, we're submitting one under the
* deficiency of ECC but our...curriculum would be based on that being tied to the High
School. So we're trying to get them to come in and then let them say to us, yes it's a
good idea, no it's not a good idea and let them separate and make us prioritize rather than
us getting in line twice.
Dr. Czajkowski — And let me say that if we were to submit this combined SOI and the
MSBA came back and said we can't do that. We can't do a combination. Okay? We're
gonna submit an SOI for the ECC but the way I look at it is let's start to look to the future
and let's not start to come back and piecemeal every time we have a project or something
that we want to do with our schools. This is a long range plan, something that we are
prepared for and will seek the community interest. This isn't something we're looking to
• do next year, the following year or even the following year. But when you look at the
library at the High School—that originally wasn't included with the additions of those 18
classrooms. We had to come back and...and renovate a new high school with the new
library because we didn't meet the accreditation. Two years from now, we're just
functioning at accreditation right now and ten years from now, will our high school be
accredited? I don't know that. I can't answer that but I think to look to the future in
looking at let them come up and tell us that an SOI can't be submitted combined, it can
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only be one.
President Rheault—What happens to the deficiencies that are there now?
Dr. Czajkowski —Currently right now I can tell you that we have an action plan and I'd
be happy to share that with the Councilors. It is chaired by Mr. Lemanski and Mrs. Fayre
that already have been addressed the areas around the handicap accessibility in the lunch
line. Mr. Albro has already completed and addressed that. The High School as you will
notice in the English wing, one of the concerns of the accreditation team is that there was
bottleneck because there was so much passing and kids are bottlenecked because of the
lockers in both the English wings and where that is. Mr. Albro had to remove the doors
so that we could expand that because of the lockers and the bottlenecks in those passing
areas because of the number of students that we have in the high school. That was a
problem that's been resolved. He's working at handicapping the accessible bathrooms
for students. The girls' locker room — he's already prepared and put together certainly
somebody to come in—an architect--to look at those bathrooms and make them equal so
that's been done. The auditorium at the High School — when that auditorium was built
the variance for handicap-accessible —you can't get a wheelchair up on that stage. Now
that auditorium was there at the previous ten year accreditation but it wasn't sited. Mr.
Lemanski had to go before the Board to suggest that we get a waiver for our variance, So
when we are looking at all these issues right now within the High School, ten years from
now it's only gonna get worse. So once again, I think that the issues are being addressed
right now. The nurse's office — we were sited for not having privacy. Mr. Conte was
i moved. His area's already been moved. It's actually where he originally started which is
the old teacher's cafeteria. And the new nurse's office is being renovated. It's in the
process and it's almost near completion. The High School cafeteria — there's all that
wasted space at the end. A wall's been put up, that's now the new teachers' cafeteria. So
I believe that a lot of the work that was sited in the accreditation report is already being
addressed or is certainly in the process and that report was given to us last June and
immediately following the report a committee was convened at the time — Mayor
Dawson, myself, Mr. Albro, Mr. Urbinati, Mr. Lemanski, Mrs, Fayer and we began
working on each of those action items around the facilities so I believe that regardless of
what grades are housed in that schools, it needs to be kept up. I think our buildings are in
great shape. I think the High School is in great physical condition but does it meet the
needs of the 21" century skills for students that we're trying to prepare in the areas of
STEM which are the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math? No and if you look at
that school report that I gave you, I want the best for our students. That's the hub of our
community is the high school and if we don't start planning now for the future, our
students are going to be left behind and we're not gonna be able to compete in the global
• economy with. other students that are walking out of schools with technology, with
wireless technology,with all sorts of opportunities that our students will not have.
Patti Cavanaugh — I just wanted to address the funding question that you had Mr.
Rheault. The funding isn't legislated, it written into the by-laws of the MSBA and one of
0 the reasons that the MSBA was created and taken out of the auspices of the Department
of Education was because there was no finalized funding plan or formula and they shut
12
the SOI's down for almost two years. So the Director...could assess what the projects
that were already on the pipeline and they shut it down for two years until they could
come up with a plan on how to address the current, to stabilize on these projects and the
future on how to go forward. So ...it's actually approved because even though Agawam
will have to pay the 28 cents on the dollar, they will reimburse us...rather than long term
borrowing without occurring interest so if we started the project and the first month we
spent $800,000.00 we're not gonna wait five years to get that $800,000.00. At the end of
the month we submit our bills for the $800,000.00 and they reimburse us automatically
within thirty days of the end of the month. So the whole system has changed. It is
legislated. Right now our reimbursement rate is 72%. In ten years, who's to say it won't
be 80%?
President Rheault— You're very optimistic in today's economy. Well, I'll give the rest
S of the Council some opportunity to speak. I have a couple more questions after.
Councilor Magovern?
Councilor Magovern — Mary, you know that I have been very, very pro-education over
the years. My sister was a school teacher, my mother was a school teacher, my
grandmother was a school teacher, I served for ten years on the Westfield State College
Board of Trustees and I'm very, very, very pro-education but I look at this program and
this proposal and I just think that we have to act now. I mean if our educational system
looking down the future is as bad as you say it is for technology, I think our kids need a
leg up right now and at the earliest that this could have happen — the six, ten years into
the future — I'd rather see money going into the high school where it is, expanding the
high school, modernizing the high school, doing what we have to do to bring it into the
state of the art. We have the town library is right next to the existing high school. This I
think is a major asset for that school. To take our high school and move it into the middle
of nowhere up in Tuckahoe I think would be a drastic inconvenience for people living
down on River Road trying to get their kids back and forth to the High School. I mean
right now the High School is the geographic center of Agawam and I think that counts for
a lot. I mean just the inconvenience of bussing the kids you're gonna lose a lot of the
supposed savings and so the placement of the high school is important. The track is
probably the same track I ran on when I was in high school. The track is has to be
addressed. You addressed very, very adequately the needs of the school in your eloquent
presentation and there are a lot of needs that should be addressed but as far as moving the
high school, I think that we can modernize it, do what we've gotta do. I mean with the
tax structure we are in right now, I for one as a Councilor could never vote for something
which is ten years down the road that's gonna saddle the seniors of this community plus
the regular families of this community with a tax base which we don't know what it is. I
think we should be putting as much thought and pining into bringing more business and
economy into this town so we can increase our tax basis, our business basis rather than
just the homeowners. You know I'm very, very much for it. I think that the pre-school I
don't know if I would wait that long I mean it's ...right now where it's located with the
cars getting in and out that we should try to come up with some solution which is more
immediate than six to ten years down the road. I mean one of the things that I had
thought as a part of the proposal that had come up was moving the town hall at another
13
•
location. i would like to see an annex off the back of the existing town hall with all the
modern, state of the art town hall there with a bridge going into the existing town hall,
moving the police station down to the old town hall and possibly taking the police station
and modernizing that into some type of a school facility for pre-school. I mean these are
just some of the thoughts that I've got and I think to look ten years down the road for a
tax base that we don't know where our taxes are going to be coming from at that point or
what it's gonna cost us, I just can't support it even though it's pro-education as I am.
Laurel Placzek — Councilor if I could just address some of the things that have been
touched on already...that is being addressed currently and will be completed this year—
the parking lot at ECC, the parking issue. The other thing is...if we're gonna do
something right away...and it's gonna require architectural plans, nothing can be done
immediately, it's part of the long range plan and as the Finance person in the town, I'd
much rather see us seek assistance from the state rather than pay 100%. One of the issues
in doing things piece meal was with the high school library when it was finally addressed
was not part of the renovations so for the high school library renovation, we footed
100%, or our taxpayers footed 100% of that rather than 28% so I think that's one of the
issues of doing a Statement of Interest is that we have an opportunity to get some
• assistance in making these expenditures.
Councilor Magovern—The only thing I'd like to add is that what kind of gets me a little
upset at times is when people say well it's not gonna cost us anything because the state
pays it. Where does the state get there money from? It's taxes! And it may not all come
out of the Agawam taxpayer but those are taxes and it's the citizens of this state that have
to pay the taxes into the state and I know the state is overtaxed, we have a deficit down in
Boston, this is one of our big problems. The state doesn't have the money to give to the
local basis and if anybody thinks that the state's gonna have the money in a few years,
unless we change things dramatically, they're misguided because I don't think it's gonna
be there. So you may think that 72% covered right now, it's not going to be 72%covered
in a few years. Look what's happened with...
Patti Cavanaugh - There's money put aside from the MSBA and...it coming from the
taxpayers and right now it's going to Wilbraham, it's going to East Longmeadow, it's
going to Chicopee, it's going to all the communities around us, now what's wrong with
us? ....for the next six years.....
President Rheault—Councilor Messick?
Councilor Messick—Thank you. I have three questions. This is an ongoing process and
what my question is is will be 150 some odd towns and cities who are in this line to get
these funds to do the same process, once we start to submit an SOI and get involved,
we're at the same spot in that cue? In other words it's an ongoing process and if they
come back and they say you have to split the two buildings up or you have to prioritize,
we don't get kicked down to the bottom again. Okay, good. At any point in time can we
opt out? In other words say we get the process going and we get into the planning thing
at what point, up to what point can we just say you know what? The economy has tanked
14
again or we just don't feel comfortable with the amount of money or the plan has gotten
too big or too small,what point?
Patti Cavanaugh -At any point before you take the vote to bond.
Councilor Messick—Okay, great. And is there any technical assistance for design?
Patti Cavanaugh -- As far as I know, it's just one big lump sum and I just wanted to
make another comment about a point that Mrs. Placzek made about all the towns around
us who are getting new buildings — Chicopee, East Longmeadow, Minnechaug — if
everyone around us has brand new high schools, the parents here could opt to school
choice their children out of Agawam which would then cost us more money. If they felt
that our high school is more deficient then all these brand new high schools in all the
surrounding communities, they could opt to school choice out and we have nothing to say
about that. It's just our tax dollars go to Longmeadow or East Longmeadow to pay for
their education there and I think that that really has to be at the forefront to understand
that if we fall behind in keeping up with even other communities, we may lose our
students there anyway.
•
Councilor Messick—Thank you for that point.
President Rheault—Councilor Letellier?
Councilor Letellier—Dr. Czajkowski has another point.
Dr. Czajkowski—Thank you. Just to give you an idea of the number of school districts
that have submitted Statements of Interest in 2008 and 2009. There were 422 SOIs
submitted in 2008 okay and of those 422, the districts that did not identify as a priority
SOI were 259. Now for 2009, there were 33 SOIs that were submitted and 25 of those
were new districts so once again many, many schools in the Commonwealth are
submitting these SOI's. Some get looked at and invite a feasibility study, that's the next
step, okay. If they came out and they identified the deficiency and looked at our plan,
looked at our long range plan they may say you fall at the bottom of the list and if your
feasibility study, maybe they would wait until the following year or the following year
after that. So there's, getting on the list doesn't necessarily mean that they're gonna fund
you. Getting on the list means that really as a community we have identified that we
have a deficiency and we want the MSBA to come out and took at that and I think you go
back to I think a comment that was made earlier—if you look at Chicopee, they have two
brand new high schools. One was built on 20 acres, I'm not sure exactly the footage on
that at Chicopee Comp and then look at Hampden/Wilbraham, you look at Longmeadow
— all of those high schools were built after 1955 and when you look at Agawam High
School, it was built in '55, it's one floor, it's the longest building probably in the state for
a high school, it has 235,000 square feet, 133 of those square feet were the original
building of'55. So once again looking down the road, a SOI is only gonna get them to
• come out. They may say you don't qualify. You don't qualify for the Early Childhood
Center either based on the priorities.
15
•
Councilor Messick-Now it strictly about the condition of the building or is it also about
! the financial strength of Agawam?
Dr. Czajkowski—The estimated reimbursement rate is 72% is what every school district
will get so it has nothing to do with the community's ability to pay.
Councilor Messick- All right. Thanks.
President Rheault—Councilor Mineo for the first time.
Councilor Mineo —Just and I know it's only a Statement of Interest and say somewhere
* down the road five to ten years we do build a new high school, what would happen to the
old high school?
Dr. Czajkowski —Well, I would recommend long range, once again, that this project be
done in phases. Phases in the sense that the high school would become the Jr. High
School for grades six, seven and eight. It's structurally a good building and if you look at
the Jr. High School, those children— 7 h and 8 h grade —the labs are deplorable at the the
Jr. High. Now that building hasn't been renovated in thirty years. Nothing, nothing has
been done. There's no ... for computers for ...computers,the electrical outlets need to be
repaired so the High School once again it would be done in phases, the Jr. High School, a
true Middle School which because we now have teaming for 71h and 81', it would become
• a six, seven and eight. And if you look at and once again it's putting the other pieces of
the puzzle together as you and I spoke Mr. Mineo on the phone, for the last eleven years,
this community wants a Community Center, some sort of a park and recreation area. The
Jr. High School has a pool, it has fields, it has basketball courts in the back, it has a
gymnasium that you could offer basketball games; you could open it up to the
community. You could open it up for volleyball games to the community, swimming
programs. You would have an area for fields, you could have...I mean there's a lot of
opportunity for a community center as part of the Jr. High School with separate entrances
and exits and locations, the handicap accessibility piece, parking is available and there's
expanded areas so once again the vision of long range of what we're looking at for all of
our schools, it would be done in a period of phases over a period of time.
Councilor Mineo — Well that you know I agree with you 100%. I would hope that
would be something that would happen. I think a lot of the projects since I've been here
in ten years to renovating the schools, our library, our DPW garage, we got a brand new
Senior Center that seems like we never our doing anything for our youth. Seems like a
good proposal to me. I got just one more question would there have to be any
renovations done to the Jr. High School?
Dr. Czajkowski — Yes, that's a good question and right now and I believe maybe Mrs.
Placzek could identify the areas that are in the Capital Improvement — a new roof,
i probably some new windows, but once again if you were looking at the building for
administrative offices, town and school combined, and a community center, it would be
16
less costly to renovate those than if you had to renovate them for a school. So yes, it
would require some renovations. Mr. Urbinati took the tour of the building as well.
There's some mooring that chipping on the outside of the building that would need to be
re-surfaced. So there would be some upgrades and some sort of renovations to the doors
and that sort of thing. But once again I mean as the educational leader of this
community, my job is to be proactive and to look at what is best educationally for the
needs of our community and I understand that we're in some very difficult fmancial times
but now is the time to plan. Now is the time to come together and not just put this on the
side and say we'll deal with it next year but to really get the community involved. To
start talking about the possibilities of what this could be for the community. That to me,
you know my job as the educational advocate for all 4400 students in our system from
pre-school to grade 12 and this is an opportunity to really look at some long range
• planning.
Councilor Mineo—Thank you. You've answered my question.
President Rheault--Councilor Letellier?
• Councilor Letellier — Thank you. I have a question that follows up with Councilor
Rheault's question, I think you were referring to the School Board Authority Statement of
Interest, if you look at the introduction on page 2 as Councilor Rheault had said, a
separate Statement of Interest must be submitted for each existing school. So my
question is this, if we submit the combined statement and they kick it out and say nope
sorry, you've gotta do two separate ones, are we missing a year or can we fix it and do it
all in one year?
Dr. Czajkowski—We can amend that.
Councilor Letellier—Great. Okay. Thank you.
President Rheault—Councilor Magovern?
Councilor Magovern—One last comment and a question. I don't think that anybody up
here wants to put this aside and not deal with the problem. I think we all want to deal
with the problem and my concern is dealing with the problem probably more
immediately than ten years down the road but you mentioned Minnechaug as one of the
schools built with this free money. Do you know how much this free money cost each
average tax payer in the Minnechaug school district per household?
Laurel Placzek — No I don't. I've read in the paper that they had an override and they
voted for it but I can ...28% ...
Councilor Magovern—Well I understand what I heard was mainly...but I've heard from
a fairly reliable source that this free money ended up costing each average homeowner
i $300 a year in increase in their home taxes. So that's the cost at least for the Minnechaug
school system. So it does equate out into real dollars not just 72% of state tax free
• 17
money.
• President Rheault -- That's an accurate figure and that's half a dozen or so people that
addressed the issue to me saying we can't afford any more taxes, we're on a fixed
income, what do we do? Progress has a price however what do you say to the elderly in
town that I face that says I can't afford $100 on my taxes?
• Laurel Placzek—We're not asking for funding at this point. We're asking—
President Rheault—Yes, but there has to be funding at some point, you know, you can't
bury it all under the rug. It's gonna come and it's gonna come as reality so all of these
things are nice and I understand why you have to plan but the point is that it also has to
. be paid for and I have to answer and I'm sure the rest of the Council does to their
constituents. Every single person that stopped me was very concerned when they read
the $300 for just a high school, how about all the rest of the things that have to be
addressed? So I think it needs a little more thought, it certainly needs though, I mean this
is an undertaking for the entire town, restructuring it really—
• Councilor Letellier—Mr. President point of order, we're still in Committee as a Whole
at this point?
President Rheault—I'm sorry.
• Councilor Letellier—I don't think we're at the discussion point yet.
President Rheault—Oh.
Councilor Letellier—I'm not trying to be disrespectful but-
•
President Rheault—No I understand. Who else? I'm sorry, Jack? Councilor Walsh
Councilor Walsh — My only thought on the whole thing is it's kind of like a there's so
many parts on it that it's moving and you can talk to ten people and somebody will say
• well I disagree with the high school or I disagree with the Jr. High, in other words you're
gonna find people that even if they're in favor of doing something, that are gonna
disagree with aspects. I've been involved with the committee, I disagree with certain
aspects but I think right now we're looking to summit this SOI, I'm looking at it from the
point of view we're gonna get some consultation from the state. They're gonna come out
and they're gonna say to us wrong, right, right, wrong. Now we can sit down again as a
community, as a Council so my particular feeling is I think it's something that we should
be doing.
Councilor Bitzas - I move to come out of Committee as a Whole.
• President Rheault—Councilor Messick had her light on.
18
•
•
Councilor Messick — I just have one more quick question as for this project we
mentioned there would be public hearings, yes?
•
Dr. Czajkowski — Absolutely, I mean, I think if we are able to submit the SOI and the
state then came and looked at our ECC and told us as Mr. Walsh said yes, no, we would
then hold public forums for parents and I agree, some are going to agree with this, some
are not gonna agree with it but what the good thing is, it's stimulated discussion about
education in this community and that's a good thing. I think that's positive for people to
begin talking and I'm not saying that we're gonna start digging the shovels next week but
it's got people thinking and talking about the needs of our community and the educational
needs of our community and I really think that any community—what attracts people to a
community? Schools. That's what attracts them to come to Agawam -- schools and
whether it's Agawam, East Longmeadow, Hampden/Wilbraham, Chicopee —the schools
are what attracts people to come to the community and if you have good schools and you
have good educational programs people want to come to the community.
Councilor Messick—Thank you.
• Councilor Bitzas—Make a motion to go out of Committee as a Whole?
President Rheault—Moved by Councilor Bitzas to come out of Committee, seconded by
Councilor Perry. All those in favor? Opposed? We're out of Committee. Councilor
Bitzas?
•
Councilor Bitzas — I, just to make sure the Council, most of the Council of course
understands, and the public understands that this Resolution costs the taxpayers zero.
Maybe six years from now when we start building, maybe it'll cost some money, then we
have no bonds to pay, they're all free of the debt. So what we're doing here, this is the
first...so I don't see the problem not to vote for something that's good for the town. Now
it takes good leaders with vision, courage, good plans for the future to make decisions, to
have the courage to make decisions. Look at the Senior Center— I'm on the Council for
ten years most of the Councilors remembers, how for ten years, at least ten years with
the...senior center...but we have people they complain, too big, too much money, now
we have those people that complain...right hand thinkers. Everybody loves it. Those
critics now they hear all the good things...come to the Senior Center....because they're
going to different schools...like the Superintendent talked to us...papers here, we have a
lot of information here for all of us to digest and I don't see the point to spend lots of
money now to renovate something that won't qualify for five or ten years, we're
throwing the taxpayers' money away. That's what we're doing. If we don't do this for
the future, we're going to spend the taxpayers' money for nothing —just go down the
drain...So do I want higher taxes? No. I have a house, a family, I pay taxes, just like
anybody else, nobody likes to pay taxes but this is nothing...but we build new high
school...architect.—making sure of plans, maybe a different place. We can all disagree
but the thing is we need the superintendents and the experts, the finance experts to tell us
• it's a good idea to do it. Thank you.
19
•
President Rheault—Councilor Letellier?
S Councilor Letellier — Yes, thank you. I have to admit that when we first got the
proposal I was a little skeptical because of the cost and I'll be frank. When you look at
the proposal as a whole, it's overwhelming and so I think that the way to approach this is
to look at piece by piece and this is piece one and even with regard to piece one I
personally was torn with do we just do the ECC cuz that's the most deficient area? Do
we piggyback them, do we do two? So when Councilor Rheault brought up the point of
you have to submit one per school that's why I followed up with the question if we
submit two do we lose a year or can we reapply? And knowing that I do feel more
comfortable doing the combined SOI which reminds me I do have to do a motion to
amend it if we are going to do it that way but I think what we also need to remember is
when you have an economy that's not good, home sales are going down, if we want to
0 compete with other towns, if we want our sale prices to go up, it's families with children
that are looking to come to Agawam and buying the nicer, bigger homes. There are
people with fixed incomes and I appreciate that. I'm a single parent. I know how money
is tight for a lot of people in this town but if we want to keep our home values up, we
have to offer amenities. We have School Street Park, we have a great library and I think
• if you look at this as word one to do a SOI for this one piece and like Councilor Walsh
said, we're gonna get feedback. They may say listen two pie in the sky, this is what we
need for the ECC great but if we don't make the effort then we do lose. I say we lose on
our future and we lose on our tax base because people aren't gonna be coming in and
they're not gonna be spend their money on houses so I'm gonna support this and then
after everyone had a chance to speak I will be doing a motion to amend to make it clear
that we want to do the one SOY. Thank you.
President Rheault—Councilor Mineo?
40 Councilor Mineo — I just want to say that I am gonna support this. I think we need to
start somewhere. I think we need to start planning now. We've done renovations in the
past. I think it's been a Band-Aid approach. I really think we have to move in a different
direction. Thank you.
President Rheault—Councilor Magovem?
Councilor Magovern — I could support this if the High School were not gonna be a
brand new high school up at 'fuckahoe which is the most inconvenient spot in the whole
Town of Agawam where it could be picked in order to locate. I think it's a wrong spot to
put the school for the reasons that I stated before which I think that the library that we
49 have in this town is an absolutely phenomenal library. I mean you go in there and I don't
think there's a better library anywhere around here in any surrounding town but I think
it's an inconvenience to the students to have to come down from a high school at
Tuckahoe down to a library down near the old school. I'd rather see something built
somewhere in the vicinity of where the high school is right now if in fact that were gonna
• be the case.
0 20
Councilor Bitzas—Point of information? Do you have that amendment?
Councilor Letellier- I do but I indicated that out of respect for my fellow councilors I'd
let everyone speak first and then I would make my motion to amend.
President Rheault—Councilor Perry?
Councilor Perry— Yes, thank you Council President. I've looked at this and I've talked
with a number of people and the presentation you gave us was beautiful but it was
overwhelming. Everyone looked at it and said oh my God we're changing the whole
school system. We're building new schools and things of that nature. I understand what
you're doing. You're looking at the long term of our community and our educational
systems. Mary could be coming before us next year saying we need five million dollars
to build a new ECC. Then what would be saying? Oh my God? Where was the
planning? What happened? Okay? She's here before us saying this is a step. This SOI
that we're going to submit is the first step in planning for the future of our community
and the good part about it is we're gonna get feedback from the state, their opinions, on
how to go about that but if they approve the plans that we look at, we're gonna get 72%
0 reimbursement instead of her coming before us saying I need five million. It's gonna be
a lot less. This is a first step in the process and I agree Bob, I understand what you're
saying in regards to location of the high school. That's all down the line and that's gonna
be up to all of us to decide but this Resolution is just the first step to get there it takes a
number of steps,this is the first one and I will be supporting this tonight because we have
to take that first step. Thank you.
President Rheault—Councilor Letellier?
Councilor Letellier— If there's no further discussion, I don't want to cut off discussion,I
would move to amend Resolution TR-2010-21 under the THEREFORE section that we
change the sentence,where it says Statements of Interest in regard to the Early Childhood
Center and Agawam High School, and we delete the "s" from Statements to make in
singular and add the word "a" so it would be submit a Statement of Interest In regard to
the Early Childhood Center and Agawam High Schooh
0 President Rheault — Moved by Councilor Letellier, seconded by Councilor Bitzas to
make an amendment to change the word Statements—
Councilor Letellier—Yea, and then the addition of the word"a".
0 President Rheault— and addition of the word "a". Is there any further discussion on the
amendment?
Councilor Bitzas — Great thought from Councilor Letellier and I agree with Councilor
Perry that we don't vote tonight for any location of any high school, if we were to vote
i tonight for any location, I would vote against it but this is different and I fully support
that and I hope that all the councilors support the first step. It's the right step, the first
21
r
step to the right direction. Thank you.
• President Rheault — The vote is for the Amendment, if no further discussion, will the
Clerk please call the roll?
ROLL CALL—9 YES,0 NO,2 ABSENT (Councilors Rossi and Simpson)
President Rheault — The motion as amended has passed. Now the main motion as
amended moved by Councilor Bitzas, seconded by everybody. Prior to the vote, that I'm
part of that Long Range Committee and I think that this has a lot of merit, from the early
discussion which is early only it's been overwhelming to try and digest everything to see
where it goes. Rather than to hold it up or to move to table it, I'm going to abstain
because in good clear conscience I honestly cannot vote the way it's worded. There's
0 still a lot of question still in my mind so the rest of the Council has the opportunity to cast
their vote and pass it. Will the Clerk please call the roll?
ROLL CALL — 7 YES, 0 NO, 2 ABSTAIN (Councilors Magovern and Rheault), 2
ABSENT (Councilors Rossi and Simpson)
•
President Rheault — Seven yes, two absent, two abstentions, you've approved the
Resolution.
Dr. Czajkowski-Through the Chair, Mr. Rheault?
•
President Rheault—Yes, I'm sorry? Oh, Mary, yes?
Dr. Czajkowski—I just want to say thank you to the Council for the courage to take this
first step and it is the first step and I will keep you informed of the process along with the
application and once again thank you. I appreciate it.
President Rheault—Thank you very much for coming—and your army.
6. TR-2010-22 -A Resolution Requesting Special Legislation Regarding
Drag Racing within the Town of Agawam(Referred to Ordinance
• Committee-vote ofUchange to an Ordinance)(Councilor Magovern)
President Rheault—Councilor Magovern do you have a short statement that you want to
remove this from the Agenda?
Councilor Magovern - I want to remove this from the Agenda and vote it off the
Agenda for the simple reason that when I initially spoke to them it was supposed to come
through as an Ordinance and because that's what is the only thing you can vote on down
for your legislation in Boston. It is a Springfield Ordinance and it was submitted to us as
a Resolution so we have to vote it off and bring it back on as an Ordinance and I hope
0 that you've all had an opportunity to read Lt. Gillis' letter because I think that really sums
up very well the reasons why I've put this on the Agenda in the first place. So I'd like to
make a motion that we vote off the Resolution.
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0
President Rheault — Moved by Councilor Magovern, seconded by Councilor Messick.
• All those in favor? Opposed? It's off. We can expect this to return.
Councilor Magovern—The legal department will have it back on with an Ordinance.
President Rheault—Okay.
Item 7 R
S2orf of Council Committees
..
(a) Council Sub-Committees (Tabled 4/5/10):
President Rheault—It was tabled. I'll entertain a motion to take it off the table. Moved
• by Councilor Magovern, seconded by Councilor Walsh. All those in favor? Opposed?
It's take off the table. Let's start from the top.
Rules & Regulations—Councilor Letellier
! Councilor Letellier—Thank you. Nothing was referred to the committee but if you have
any suggestions, I'm happy to have a meeting. Thank you.
President Rheault—Councilor Mineo anything?
Utilities & Street Accentance—Councilor Mineo
Councilor Mineo—Yes, actually we did meet once this quarter. Anew pole was put up
and it was unanimously approved to bring electricity to a new home. Thank you.
President Rheault—Thank you. Councilor Rossi is not here and we know how active
they've been.
Licenses--Councilor Rossi
President Rheault—Councilor Cichetti on Public Safety, anything?
Public Safety—Councilor Cichetti
Councilor Cichetti—Yes,the sub-committee did meet twice. We still need more
meetings to straighten out an issue in town and we will be meeting again soon hopefully.
• Thank you.
President Rheault—Councilor Magovern?
Ordinances —Councilor Magovern
•
Councilor Magovern—We had no Ordinances come before us as a committee but we do
have one in the committee at the time, will be having one. Thank you.
23
•
President Rheault—Councilor Messick? For zoning?
•
Zoning Review—Councilor Messick
Councilor Messick—Nothing has come before the Zoning Review during this period.
President Rheault—Councilor Walsh on Finance?
Finance—Councilor Walsh
Councilor Walsh—We met three times. First time was to amend the TR-48 and to add
Phases Il and III where it was only set up for Phase I and we voted unanimously to
0 recommend to the Council to accept that and we met again on two other issues and this
was to accept the Grant from the Commonwealth of Mass. for$75,000+to be utilized by
the Fire Department for payment of overtime. We unanimously recommended to the
Council to accept the Grant and we also had a Resolution to authorize appropriation of
$151,000.00 as the City's share to construct an emergency stream bank erosion protection
• tube to be paid from Waste Water Retained Earnings. This was also unanimously
approved and recommended for approval to the Council.
President Rheault—Thank you. Councilor Perry—Industrial Relations?
• Industrial Relations—Councilor Per
Councilor Perry—Nothing's been referred to our committee in this past quarter.
President Rheault—Nothing? Councilor Rossi on Ad Hoc Sewers—I think he's
• notified us all that he's currently emailing us with updates.
Ad Hoc Sewers—Councilor Rossi
President Rheault—Councilor Bitzas?
0 Ad Hoc Recreation—Councilor Bitzas
Councilor Bitzas --Nothing this winter but we're going to have a meeting very soon and
...Councilor Simpson not here to announce the date for the School Street Park, we have
some...shaped...down there so I'll let you know.
•
President Rheault—Okay. Councilor Mineo on condos?
Ad Hoc Condominiums —Councilor Mineo
• Councilor Mineo—Yup, we did meet once. We met at the library, I can't remember
where we met but I guess it was the library. I met with Diane Arventis (Corey Colonial)
24
0
and Brian Halla from Castle Hill. It was just basically a discussion to bring me up to
speed of what's going on. I am gonna hold another meeting and I'm going to invite our
State Representative and the Mayor and our Assessor to the meeting and so these condo
folks have a bunch of questions and I'm certainly not after one meeting, I'm gonna need
some help on this with the issues they have with trash pickup and getting their roads
plowed. So that's why I'm ordering another meeting and have the experts come to help
me out here. Thank you.
• President Rheault—Good luck.
Councilor Mineo—Thank you. I'll need it.
• President Rheault—Councilor Magovern? Personnel?
Ad Hoc Personnel—Councilor Magovern
Councilor Magovern—Personnel—everybody's happy. No problems.
• President Rheault--Good. Everybody's working and getting paid. Councilor Messick
—on the master plan—anything?
Ad Hoc CPA—Councilor Simpson
Ad Hoc Master Plan—Councilor Messick
Councilor Messick—I have nothing for this quarter.
President Rheault—It's not being mastered yet?
• Councilor Messick—It's an ongoing process. I'll be talking to Dr. Czajkowski very
shortly about expanding it. Thank you.
Item & Elections
• None.
Item 9. Public Hearings
None.
•
•
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•
Item 10. Old Business
1. TO-2010-14 -Transfer of$286.00 from Reserve Fund (16605-57300)
to Auditor—Regular Permanent Account (11341-51010) (Mayor)
President Rheault—To cover Dolores being out. Moved by Councilor Letellier,
seconded by Councilor Walsh. Any further discussion. Clerk, please call the roll.
ROLL CALL—9 YES,0 NO,2 ABSENT (Councilors Rossi and Simpson)
President Rheault—Nine yes,two absent, you've approved the transfer.
Item 11. New Business
1. TR-2010-23. -A Resolution Confirming the Reappointment of
Robert Swikalus,63 Clover Hill Road, Feeding Hills,MA to the Agawam
Liquor Licensing Commission to a Term Expiring the First Monday in June,
2015 (Mayor)
•
President Rheault—Next Agenda.
2. TR-2010-24 - (PH-2010-2) Suggest a Public Hearing of May 3, 2010
for a Resolution Adopting the"Stretch Energy Code" for the City of
Agawam (Councilor Messick)
President Rheault—Any question on that date? Barbara would you call that meeting for
May 3'9
Item 12. Any other matter that may levally come before the CUP Council.
President Rheault—Councilor Bitzas?
Councilor Bitzas —Yes, Mr. President and the Council,just keep your calendar open for
Wednesday, May 12th, and also for the people that are watching this, we have in this hall
here we have an anti-bullying forum with very, very interesting people coming to speak.
It'll be very interesting. I hope it'll have the same success we had with our drug forum so
I'd like everybody to come. It'll be great. Thank you.
President Rheault—Thank you. Councilor Magovern?
•
Councilor Magovern—As your resident historian I have to remind everybody about
Patriots' Day which we celebrated yesterday and just remember that if weren't for
Massachusetts with Patriots' Day we would not have our fh of July because it all started
here. Thank you very much.
•
President Rheault—Thank you for that wealth of information. Councilor Mineo?
26
Councilor Mineo—Nothing this evening.
•
President Rheault—Councilor Walsh?
Councilor Walsh —Mr. Magovern, does that mean we would go from the 3`d to the 5t'?
Nothing else.
* President Rheault—Councilor Cichetti?
Councilor Cichetti—No,thank you. Nothing.
President Rheault—You're welcome. Councilor Messick?
•
Councilor Messick—Yes, I have one item. Unfortunately due to the weather and the
uncertainty of the forecast we had to cancel Earth Day this past Saturday. We've had a
number of calls from people who are wondering when we're gonna actually do it. We
didn't really have a rain date set mainly because we couldn't find one that we could all
• get together and organize it but we will try harder and see if we can get that going for
people because they really were excited about it. So I appreciate your enthusiasm and we
will let everybody know via news outlets. Thank you.
President Rheault—Thank you. Councilor Letellier?
•
Councilor Letellier—Yes,just one thing. I received a call from Priscilla Peterson and as
you know she's a very active World War II veteran and she asked me to ask and to say
that she was very concerned that Chris Sanchez and Frank Mazzei were doing superb
jobs and was quite distressed that they were not reappointed to the Veterans' Council
when they wanted to be and she asked that I make that public. So I've done that Priscilla.
Thank you.
President Rheault—I'll second that because she called me as well.
Councilor Magovern —She called me also.
President Rheault—Councilor Perry?
Councilor Perry—Nothing this evening.
President Rheault—Nothing. Thank you. Then I will entertain a motion to adjourn. So
moved. All those in favor? Opposed? We're now adjourned. Thank you and good
evening.
Adjournment.
. 27