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CC MTG MINUTES APRIL 19 2011 REGULAR MEETING OF THE AGAWAM CITY COUNCIL • April 19, 2011 President Rheault — Good evening ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the April 19th City Council meeting. You can't hear me? Hello? I couldn't hear myself. All right. • Welcome again to the April 19th City Council meeting. Item L Citizen's Speak Time President Rheault -- We have a citizen, a very distinguished citizen wishing to address the Council this evening—Mr. Joe Conte. • Joe Conte—Are you giving me the privilege to speak? President Rheault—You may speak. Joe Conte—You giving me the privilege to speak? President Rheault—Yea. Joe Conte—Listen. I just had a tooth out. How do you expect me to speak? You're • lucky! President Rheault—You're the one that signed up. Joe Conte—Yes, I did. I just want to say that I'm proud to be an Agawam citizen. I'm proud that I've been in Agawam all of my life. I married an Agawam girl. We had three Agawam boys. They married three Agawam girls. They had 9 Agawam grandchildren. They got went to the school so you see Agawam took pretty good care of us. In return we tried to do what we could do. When you wanted a batting cage, we put it up. When the door's broke in the front of the storage room, we replaced them. When the steps at the High School broke, we fixed them so we tried our best to do what we could do for • Agawam. But all I want to say is thank you Agawam. Thank you Agawam. Sempre Fi, okay? President Rheault—Thank you Joe. • Item 2. Roll Call President Rheault—Barbara would you call the roll please? ROLL CALL— 10 PRESENT, 1 ABSENT (Councilor Mineo) • President Rheault—Ten present, one absent. We have a quorum. i 1 • Item 3. Moment o Silence and the Pledge o Alle iance. • President Rheault—Please rise for a moment of silence and Pledge of Allegiance. Item 4. Min utes (a) Regular Council Meeting—April 4,2011 • President Rheault — What's the Council's pleasure? Moved by Councilor Simpson, seconded by Councilor Letellier. Any discussion or corrections? If not, voice vote is sufficient. All those in favor? Opposed? Unanimous. • CounciIor Letellier—Council President? I believe we missed Item 3? President Rheault — I'm sorry, you are absolutely right. Thank you. (Councilor Mineo arrived 7:1Opm) Item 5. Declaration &om Council President • President Rheault — Thank you. I was so anxious to get to Item 6. Five we have already done. I'm sorry, Item 5 not 6. 1 would like to at this time ask the Council to join with me to come done to the podium for a moment. Mr. Conte, would you please join me at the podium? In recognition of this distinguished gentleman's excellent career with the • Town of Agawam on behalf of the City Council we would like to give him a little remembrance from the City Council for his years of service and I'd like to present him with this plaque for lasting memories. It's a little surprise to him because he spoke at Speak Time and didn't realize he may have to speak again. Joe Conte—I didn't expect this? President Rheault — It reads: The Agawam City Council hereby congratulates and recognizes Joseph J. Conte on his retirement from the Zoning Board of Appeals. We thank you for thirty-two years of dedicated service and commitment to the Town of Agawam and its citizens. April 4'h — this was going to be given to you two weeks ago — 2011, signed over my name as Council President. Congratulations. (APPLAUSE) Joe Conte — You know coming from the Council that's terrific. Coming from the Council I feel very proud because they're the body, they're the people that speak for us . and I've never gotten an award from the Council similar to this before and I, I want to thank you. All I can say is believe it or not I'm lost for words. Thank you very much. (APPLAUSE) • • 2 • Item b. Presentation of Petitions, Memorials & Remonstrances (a) Resolutions 1. TR-2011-22 -A Resolution Authorizing Conservation Restriction WMECO to Massachusetts Audubon Society,Inc. (Councilor Messick) President Rheault-- We're back. Moved by Councilor Messick, seconded by Councilor • Perry. Did you want to say something? Councilor Messick — I want to make a motion to go into Committee as a Whole — representatives from Mass Audobon and Western Mass are here tonight and can make a little presentation and answer any questions that we have. • President Rheault — Move to go into Committee as a Whole, seconded by Councilor Walsh. All those in favor? We are now in Committee. David Lukehart — Good evening. Dave Lukehart from Western Mass Electric. I did bring some maps and it might be easier if I could hand a few of those out to Council members. I made four of each. Yes, it's the same as what you were given but larger. You'll see what's being passed around is basically maps of two separate parcels or areas in Agawam. What we're asking tonight by resolution is that you support Western Mass Electric put conservation restrictions on these properties. The first one is the former Boglisch Tree Farm which was an active nursery. It's, the address I believe is 180 South West Street. We, Western Mass Electric purchased that farm, former farm, it's 110 acres and we are going to preserve thirty acres there for a wetland mitigation project permanently under conservation restriction. The second map you'll see is two different parcels over by the Berkshire Power plant. It's near Moylan Drive and what we're doing there is we're proposing to set aside roughly 35 acres and this is to protect for endangered species habitats for the Eastern box turtle and the Eastern worm snake and again these projects are to make up for impacts from the overall overhead projects called the Greater Springfield Reliability Project. It's basically a project going through five towns in Massachusetts. Do you have any questions? President Rheault—Any questions from the Council? Councilor Messick? Councilor Messick — I do have one question what will your role be versus Audobon's role in the conservation of these areas? • David Lukehart — Right, thank you. Mass Audobon is our partner basically and I have here tonight Charlie Wyman from Mass Audobon and he can maybe speak to what the role is going to be for Mass Audobon. Charlier Wyman —Mass Audobon will be the holder of the conservation restriction and • as the holder of the restriction, it's our obligation to monitor, enforce and defend the terms of the restriction essentially forever. So practically speaking we will walk the property at least once a year, inspect it and make sure that Western Mass Electric is 0 3 abiding by the terms of the restriction. If they're not, we'll bring that to their attention and seek to resolve it. If necessary, going to court. We try to avoid that but our role is to make sure that the owner of the property, Western Mass Electric, abides by the terms of the restriction. Councilor Messick—Thank you. President Rheault—Thank you. Any other questions? Councilor Perry? Councilor Perry — Yes, thank you Mr. President, through the Chair, now this land is being set aside for conservation. That doesn't mean that Western Mass as they continue to build on their grid is interfering with any other wetlands in this project, correct? I mean this land is being set aside— David Lukehart- Right. I think what you're getting at is—if I could describe it this way — the Boglisch site what we'll be doing there is we'll be expanding on an existing wetland. We'll actually be creating six acres I believe, 6 %2 acres of new wetland and really what that is is to make up for the project impacts. What we do is we design our projects to have as little impact as possible and we can do that because we can move our poles around and make spans between the poles but if we encounter large pieces of wetland — we can only span so far — so we have permanent impacts from poles being placed in wetlands. So to make up for that that's what we're doing — creating wetlands essentially in another site. • Councilor Perry—That are close to where the affected area is? David Lukehart— Exactly. Agawam is one of the town's we're going through so what we did is we initially went through and we looked at a bunch of candidate sites and the y Boglisch tree farm was the best site. So essentially the Town of Agawam is getting the one project, the one mitigation project, to make up for all the impacts of the larger project that's going through the five towns. Councilor Perry—Okay,thank you. President Rheault—Councilor Bitzas? Councilor Bitzas —Just a question. This land, I think it's very very good project you are doing and we appreciate that. I think it's a win/win for the Town of Agawam but is be 41 able the people of Agawam to go there and have some passive or recreation or schools or clubs or scouts go there and see the nature? Will they be able to do that? David Lukehart — Yes, one of the terms of the conservation restriction is to allow that very thing—for special groups to go in. What we're doing though right now anyway, the short term for Boglisch since it will be an active construction site, we're essentially going to be creating a large pit there with construction equipment and we'll have to monitor for up to five years the actual revegetation and to make sure the wetland has in fact taken, if 4 you will. We can't allow the public on the Boglisch site just to roam around or just have active use of this site at least right now. Over at the other parcels in South Agawam, the ones I was talking about by Berkshire Power, those are already being used as some may know by the Crowley Horse Farm and others. It's been within the WMECO system for quite some time and we do have a transmission right of way that goes through that property and it will be going through that property ongoing. So we are reserving the utility rights, if you will, for that property. Our hope is that in the future we'll be able to possibly open up these parcels for recreation. We do have like a, within WMECO, we open up our properties for things like hunting, when it's responsible, whether it be bow hunting or whatever, that's not allowed with the parcels right now, like in South Agawam parcels because of the horse use but some of those uses maybe contemplated in the future. Councilor Bitzas —Thank you sir. President Rheault—Councilor Letellier? Councilor Letellier — Yes, thank you. In terms of for instance the Boglisch property where you have five years of construction, where are these species gonna go until that additional space is available or is that space gonna be unaffected by the conservation, I'm sorry, by the construction and they could sort of go around it? David Lukehart — Well, the, it's the other parcels in Agawam, the ones over by w Berkshire, that have the endangered species habitat so we're doing protective measures there even as we're updating the project we'd be very careful. Over at Boglisch, what we'll be creating is a better habitat essentially for normal wetland creatures so you're right though, there will be a time there where there's construction activity going on there. It will be something less than five years. The five years is the monitoring but I think it's r gonna be a better part of a year, year and a half, that we'll be doing work there. Councilor Letellier — Oh, all right, but there's no endangered species over on the Boglisch just over on Moylan Lane by Berkshire Power? David Lukehart -- No that actually, I believe there's some turtle habitat, but it's away from where we're going to be expanding the wetland. Councilor Letellier—Okay, thank you. President Rheault—Anyone else have a question? If not, I'll entertain a motion to come out of Committee as a Whole. Move by Councilor Rossi, seconded by Councilor Messick. All those in favor? Opposed? Thank you gentlemen. Back to the main motion, moved by Councilor Bitzas, seconded by Councilor Rossi. All those in favor of moving the question? Any further discussion? No? Barbara, please call the roll? ROLL CALL — 11 YES, 0 NO � 5 President Rheault—Eleven yes, we have approved the resolution. 2. TR-2011-23 -A Resolution Adopting Massachusetts General Law Chapter 32B,Section 18(Referred to Ordinance Committee)(Mayor) President Rheault — Council's pleasure? Moved by Councilor Rossi, seconded by Councilor Simpson. Any discussion? This went to the Ordinance Committee. Councilor Letellier, I'm sorry. Councilor Letellier — Yes, thank you. The Ordinance Committee is chaired by Councilor Magovern who has a direct conflict because it affects him and additionally as I reviewed it, it may affect a member of my family as well so I'm gonna need to get an opinion from the City Solicitor or from the state as to whether I can vote on it. So we're gonna have to table this item to determine who actually can be in on a meeting for this. President Rheault—All right. Move is to table, seconded by Councilor Perry. Barbara, please call the roll? ROLL CALL—8 YES, 0 NO, 3 ABSTENTIONS President Rheault —Eight yes, three abstentions. We have tabled the item. Just for the Council's information, I checked with the Ethics Commission on myself and they have no problem with my voting or Councilor voting so there's two that can vote. Each councilor has to call for themself on the other. 3. TR-2011-24 -A Resolution to Borrow and Appropriate funds for Construction of a Storage Building at the Building Maintenance Facility at 1347 Main Street(Referred to Finance Committee)(Mayor) President Rheault — I'll entertain a motion to put it on the floor. Moved by Councilor Simpson, seconded by Councilor Perry. Councilor Walsh? Councilor Walsh—(off microphone) • President Rheault—Do you want to put your light on please? Councilor Walsh — Oh, I'm sorry. The Finance Sub-Committee meeting was held on April 13'' and present were myself, Councilors Dennis Perry, Robert Rossi, Joseph Mineo and Gina Letellier. Also in attendance was Anthony Albro, the Director of • Maintenance and Councilors Donald Rheault and George Bitzas. The meeting was called to order at 7pm at the Agawam Library at the Peirce Room. The discussion was about TR-2011-24 which is the Resolution to Borrow and Appropriate funds for Construction of a Storage Building at the Building Maintenance Facility at 1347 Main Street. The building is being built at a cost of$129,465.00. Mr. Albro stated that the building will only be a shell and the Building Maintenance Department will be doing the heat and electric themselves. Councilor Perry inquired if this has been before the Planning Board and Mr. Albro responded that he did not know but he would look into it and did indicate 6 i that the plans had been drawn up by Reinhart & Associates. The town buys its supplies through a regional consortium under the Lower Pioneer Valley Collaborative for better pricing but the supplies are purchased once a year and storage space is needed. Councilor Perry asked if the supplies could be purchased elsewhere as needed. Mr. Albro said they have looked into other alternatives but the cost is significantly higher. Even if we bought more frequently we would still need storage space. The Building Maintenance Department must relocate from its facility at the high school by the beginning of July. Mr. Albro stated that part of the high school accreditation process requires that the Building Maintenance and Park & Recreations departments be relocated. The School Department intends to use the space for school needs including a television studio. The Treasurer anticipates borrowing funds in June of 2011. She provided a worksheet showing payments over a ten and twenty year schedule at an anticipated rate of 4.25%. A vote was taken and it was 4 to 1, Councilor Perry being opposed and the vote was in favor of recommending to the Council to approve the borrowing of the funds. Respectfully submitted, John Walsh, Chairman of the Finance Committee. The meeting was adjourned at 8pm. President Rheault — Thank you John. Gina did you have your light on? No? Anyone else have any comments? Councilor Bitzas? Councilor Bitzas — Yes, I went to the meeting and I'm very impressed with Councilor Walsh. He did a very good job and I think his report is excellent. It clarified some of my questions about spending money especially in these difficult economic times when • schools and the budgets are pretty tough but this money is like an investment well spent money and Tony Albro very well explained to us the reason why we should support that and after the report and after attending the meeting, I am in favor and I hope you support it. I think it's in the best interests of the town. Thank you. • President Rheault—Councilor Magovern? Councilor Magovern —I just wanted to say that I was unable to make the meeting but I have discussed it with several people and I did take a drive down by the building and for what was there when the DPW had to relocate — it was really a mess — and I want to • commend Tony Albro for the work that he's done on repairing the facility that's there. It's great to see an old, historic structure in Agawam being rehabbed again with new windows and the yard picked up and again as much as I hate to see any money spent in these hard economic times, I think that the savings incurred at being able to buy at a discount is far offset by any cost that we might have in building the structure and I'm • sure that the Building Maintenance will give us a$1.20 for every dollar spent as far as the work that they've got to do to prepare the inside so I will be supporting the measure. President Rheault—Councilor Mineo? Councilor Mineo —Yea, basically, I was at the meeting and basically they are being told to vacate so they really don't have anywhere else to go. So I think at this point we don't have a choice. I mean, well, we have a choice, but I don't know where they're gonna be 7 i relocated to so I think there's already been, we've already done some work to the building so 1 think at this point it makes a lot of sense to complete, add onto this building M and have them move. I think it makes a lot of sense so I'll be supporting it. President Rheault—Councilor Walsh? Councilor Walsh — Yes, I just wanted to make a couple of continents. I know at the meeting we brought up the fact that we are facing difficult times and potential lay-offs could happen and why should we spend money on the building and the one thing I wanted to bring out was the fact we're really dealing with two separate budgets. We have our Operating Budget which we're going to be coming up with to discuss and vote on later in the next month or so but this is part of the five year Capital Improvement i Budget and we can't just abandon the five year Capital Improvement Budget because we are having difficulties with the Operating Budget. We don't know two or three years down the road, maybe our Operating Budget will be fine and if we abandon our Capital Budget then we're going to pay the price several years down the road for the things that we have not done so I think from that perspective I just wanted to say that I would be in favor of borrowing the funds for building this building and the second item is that the Building and Maintenance Department with the building that they have basically refurbished down there, they're going to be using that to store the vehicles. The new building that they will be putting up will be storing the supplies so that the building where they now have the supplies or would be having the supplies if they weren't building this building, they'll be able to put the vehicles inside which should help to preserve their life so in the long run, this would be also good for our budgetary process. So that's what I have to say and I am in favor of borrowing the funds to build this building. Thank you. President Rheault—Councilor Letellier? 0 Councilor Letellier — Thank you. I don't want to be redundant but I do want to follow up on what Councilor Walsh said and that is not only will this allow the vehicles to come in but all the materials that are in the building won't be exposed to the elements either and that'll help preserve the cost of materials as well so I think all of us were i questionable as to whether or not we need to spend this money but as Councilor Walsh typed up in his report, it's an issue of accreditation. Building Maintenance and Park & Rec are both leaving that high school building in order for the high school to regain, not regain, but to continue on with its accreditation and that's an important piece too. They have no where else to go. We have to give them a new building and it makes sense to let * the vehicles and the materials have a longer life. President Rheault—Councilor Cichetti? Councilor Cichetti —I spoke to many people in town about this. Nobody that I spoke to gave me any positive feedback, that we're spending more money in tough fiscal times. I 0 know it's being borrowed. It's being paid back over some time but again we're asking people to forego raises, we're talking about laying people off and it's just not a good 0 8 fiscal time to be looking to spend 5129,465.00 in these tough fiscal times. I understand that we are having issues with storage but there's got to be other ways and other places that we could store some of this material. We do have a Fire Department if they're looking for storage, Police Departments; maybe we need to look in some of those buildings for storage room also. So at this time I will not be supporting this resolution at this time. Thank you. President RheauIt—All right. Councilor Perry? Councilor Perry—Yes, thank you Mr. President. I was in the meeting and as was stated in Chairman Walsh's report that I was the lone person against this and I still feel the same way for a number of reasons. One I did question Tony in regards to the type of contract that is used in regards to purchasing these goods that will be stored in this potential building that we're voting on this evening and typically it's the paper supplies for all the schools, the police, the fire department, all the buildings in our community. They purchase it on a yearly annual contract. It's delivered to the town in one shot and that's why they need this building for the storage. I did question in regards to negotiations of contracts and how could we possibly have this delivered to us on a monthly or quarterly basis to eliminate the need for constructing this building for storage. Anthony, Tony at that point in time said that this is the best price that we can get and this is the reason why we're doing that. I also questioned the timing in regards to moving them out of their current home at the high school which they have been there for a number of years. Park & Rec and the Building Maintenance Department and the storage there, we're pushing forward due to an accreditation audit and I understand that there's recommendation that come down to maintain our accreditation. There are findings and you have to have correct actions to move forward to eliminate the findings of the accreditation board but in fiscal times I'm sure the accreditation board would understand that it's looking at what the School Committee's done and projected to us in their budget with lay-offs, fees for athletics, things of that nature, they're moving out of that building to add a studio. At what cost? We don't even know that at this point. The storage is in what used to be the auto shop and the garages down there, that's gonna all have to be re-furbished so there's more costs that are beyond what we're looking at at this point in time and I feel in these economic times that we need to Iook at the whole picture. I know Chairman Walsh of the Finance Committee mentioned the Capital Improvement Plan which yes, we approve one every year. It's a wish list. It's things that we hope to do. We're saying to the state, this is what our plan is, this is what we feel we are going to need over the next five years but does it always happen? No. This is part of it and I strongly feel at this point in time with not even seeing the town side of the budget as a Council to go ahead and bond out, granted it's only $130,000.00 and we've got the payout from Laurel over a ten and twenty year period, it's not a huge amount of money but it's still an expense that I feel at this point in time, the timing is off on this to ask us to go ahead and bond when we are facing possible cuts on the town side also. So to me, I feel as a Council, it's my recommendation that we vote this down and let it come back to us after the budget is done and over with in June. Thank you. President Rheault—Councilor Rossi? 9 Councilor Rossi — Thank you. I know that these are very difficult times and I don't • really know that there's a good time to ever spend money. I examined the cost worth factors on this very carefully in my own mind and I felt to some degree held hostage on this simply because I thought that mismanagement perhaps made somewhat of a crisis here that I don't think we're absolutely responsible for but nonetheless we have to find a solution for. Tony has to move. I think everybody agrees on that. The schools, whatever they decide to do with their project up there, that space that they want renovated, that's a whole separate issue. I think we could discuss that at a separate time but for our purposes right now I think Tony explained quite well that his buying power for all of our maintenance facilities, all our schools and other buildings allows, requires us to have a larger storage facility and I think that's where this building comes into play because he • has to move it somewhere and his trucks have to be under cover because in his maintenance vehicles, he has things that are very weather sensitive so they have to be in an area that is not gonna freeze so I mean he's under kind of the gun here and which kind of puts us under the gun cuz we have to make a decision what we're gonna do and as I said I weighed things very carefully in my own mind and I felt as though that this is an investment that we really need to make here because it's gonna allow us to save money in 0 the future because it's gonna give us that buying power and the ability to store large amount of materials to be used throughout the year. So I think it's gonna pay us dividends in the future and secondly as I understand the position with the Treasurer, that she's gonna incorporate this into a bond that's already in process or in the process of going out so I think it's gonna be a little bit easier for us to digest that on a financial side • so I think I'm, as I said I wrestled with this for a long time and I'm not happy with the way things turned out here with the whole project never mind just the maintenance thing but I think with the position that we're forced to be in at this point in time, I don't see any way around not building this thing and I think it's gonna cost us as I said in the long run if we don't support this building. • President Rheault—Councilor Bitzas? Councilor Bitzas — Thank you Mr. President. This is not a luxury. It's a necessity building and the points that Councilor ferry, with all respect, I did talk to Tony again. I was in the meeting, Councilor, about monthly versus the yearly supplies and he said it would be a lot more expensive and I believe my company too, we buy weekly and monthly but we pay a lot more compared to the other stores we have in Syracuse who buy yearly. It's completely, very, very much difference. The savings are there — not a little but a lot. The accreditation of the schools is another thing that we should think about because we would be in trouble and those committees they don't care how economic times are better or not bad, they're going to try to make us find the money and the studio — good point there — I believe it is funded partially I believe with Comcast — some money that comes from Comcast — and hopefully maybe it's not the city of the school budget be affected for that and I hope Comcast will pay enough money and help us. I believe we're working now I believe the committee is working on that and if we 0 build that later, everything going up. The cost now with oil it goes up and up and up so we like it because we have our building department they can help to put the air 10 conditioning and heating and electricity. I think, I understand your point, tough times, but better now than later because it would cost the town more money and I think we do • this, as I said before, we're doing our town a favor by supporting that. I know it's tough but I think it must be done and we have to do. We have no other choice. Thank you. President Rheault—I'd like to turn this over to Councilor Rossi just for a few comments of my own. • Vice President Rossi—Thank you. Councilor Rheault? Councilor Rheault — Yea, I attended that meeting as well and labored quite frankly about doing this at this particular time. There is not easy time no matter if things were • good. I wouldn't want us to spend money if we don't have to. They have been given an ultimatum. They've got to get out. It's that simple. There is no other place for them to go. There is no other facility that can handle in one location the amount of supplies that the entire town's supplies are going to be in this one unit and there will be a set up of inventory control for the first time in ages, it won't be piece-mealed all over town, wondering who's, we used to put stuff on the stage up here, that's how bad things were. The concern on my part is the accreditation and I spoke with the Mayor at length today regarding that. That's not going away. That impact state aid so they're serious about the facility moving out of there and that's why the school gave them the ultimatum. It would be up to the School Department to be conservative as they can with the finances as to what's gonna go in the studio and that expense but after weighing everything over my • main concern is accreditation. I think that it's important because it would have an impact on every single child that comes out of that school system when you go to college application or what, if they say that you've got an un-accredited school, that doesn't give a good impression so I think that as difficult as it might be, the amount is small. It's gonna increase the volume buying and we'll ultimately in time offset the cost of that construction which is gonna be very plain and just service the needs so I plan on supporting it. President Rheault —Thank you. Any other comments? If not, Barbara, will you please call the roll? • ROLL CALL—9 YES,2 NO (Councilors Cichetti and Perry) President Rheault—Nine yes, two no, you have approved the resolution. Item 7. Report of Council Committees None. Item 8. Elections 1. TE-2011-3 -Election of a Member of the Zoning Board of Appeals to an Unexpired Term Expiring January 1,2013 (Council) • 11 • President Rheault—FIoor is open to nominations. • Councilor Walsh—I'll nominate Gary Suffriti. President Rheault—Gary Suffriti's name has been placed. Any others? Councilor Bitzas —Move to close the nominations. • President Rheault — Move to close, seconded by Councilor Magovern. For the record, Barbara, please call the roll. The name of Gary Suffriti has been nominated. ROLL CALL— 10 GARY SUFFRITI, 1 ABSTENTION • President Rheault — Ten for Gary Suffriti, one abstention. For the record also, I forgot to mention that Mr. Suffriti apologized for not being able to attend this evening but he was detained up in Tolland on extra work but did submit his letter to serve. Item 9. Public Hearings None. Item 10. Old Business • None. Item 11. New Business 1. TR-2011-25 -A Resolution to Promote Economic and Environmental + Health in Agawam through the Design, Construction, Operations and Deconstruction of Town Facilities by Designating Agawam as an "Energy Smart Community"and Supporting and Endorsing an Application to be Designated a Green Community(Councilor Rossi) President Rheault—Next Agenda. • 2. TR-2011-26 -A Resolution Adopting the Fiscal Year 2012-2016 Capital Improvement Program (Set Public Hearing Date—Suggest June 6,2011) (Mayor) • President Rheault—Public Hearing date will be set for June 6`h with no objections from the Council. Any problem? No? And that also will go over to the Finance Committee for a review. 3. TR-2011-27 -A Resolution Accepting a Grant from the Federal . Emergency Management Agency and the United States Department of Homeland Security Pursuant to Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 44, Section 53A to be Utilized by the Agawam Fire Department for the Purchase of Emergency Rescue Equipment(Mayor) 12 President Rheault—Next Agenda and also to the Finance Committee. • 4. TO-2011-11 -An Order Granting or Renewing a LICENSE for an Automatic Amusement Device(s)—Six Flags New England, 1623 Main Street,Agawam, MA. (Clerk) President Rheault—Next Agenda and also over to the License Committee. Item 12. Any other matter that may legally come before the City Council. President Rheault—Councilor Bitzas? ♦ Councilor Bitzas — Thank you Mr. President. Two things. I spoke today with the Superintendent of Public Works about the problem with the pot holes and he realizes that and it's hard to keep up with them so those people that call me and if they didn't do it already, it will be done soon and any other people they have a problem they should call the DPW. The other thing is probably you have it --Barbara did a great job —we have an * email from Boston that the resolution that we had for the local aid and the Council passed 11 — 0 and also the Mayor and the School CommitteeBonavita representing the School Committee and also passed unanimously. The state and I have it here but for the public but Barbara emailed to all of us, it says "On April 14, 2011 the Senate approved a resolution declaring it's intent to fund Chapter 70 an Unrestricted General Government • Aid at levels not less than the amounts appearing in the House Ways and Means Committee's budget." That's a little good news so I hope we continue working together because all the politics are local and I hope our voice went to the right ears. Not going to say that we did it, no, but we were a little part of it so thank you again for your support. ♦ President Rheault—Thank you. Councilor Simpson? Councilor Simpson—Nothing tonight, thank you. President Rheault—All right. Councilor Magovern? Councilor Magovern — Very quickly I just wanted to say I'm pleased that the old Agawam DPW building has been preserved and for those of you who aren't aware of the fact that Agawam had a little bit of history long before Six Flags and we were very famous around the country and even in Europe for a little product that we made here in Agawam called the Agawam gin. Agawam had the best gin that you could possibly find • and it was manufactured in what is now our new Building Maintenance Department. So the building which is our new Building Maintenance used to be the Agawam Gin Mill so again we were famous many years ago. President Rheault—I'll drink to that. Councilor Mineo? Councilor Mineo—Nothing tonight but I'll drink to that. r 13 A President Rheault—Councilor Rossi? Councilor Rossi — Maybe if they still manufactured it, we'd be in pretty good shape today. President Rheault—Councilor Walsh? Councilor Walsh — Yes, at our Finance Committee Sub-Committee meeting on April 131h when I drew up the minutes I was a little negligent in that it was kind of rushed and we did under "any other business that would come before the committee" we did have a discussion on the local option for the state meals tax and as you might be familiar at least in our neighbor West Springfield, they have % of a percent that they add on to the state 0 meals tax of 6 '14 % so over in West Springfield when you buy things at the Big E or in any restaurant in town you're paying a 7% meals tax. So we had this discussion also should Agawam be considering this. We do have Six Flags in town which is a fairly big draw and there are a lot of meals that are consumed there for which they are charged 6%4% and we did not arrive at any conclusion but merely brought this up for discussion and this is something in the future that might be considered. Just thought I would add 0 that on at this time. President Rheault—Councilor Cichetti? Councilor Cichetti —Nothing this evening. w President Rheault—Councilor Messick? Councilor Messick — Earth Day, April 30th, at the School Street Park, 11 to 3. We still have some spots available but they are going fast so if you'd like to reserve a spot you can contact me 786-8125 or Tracy DeMaio at the DPW at 821-0624. Thank you. President Rheault—Thank you. Councilor Letellier? Councilor Letellier — Yes, thank you. I have two things. 4n the new resolution sponsored by Councilor Rossi, it talks about having Agawam designated a green community and I know Councilor Messick had sponsored something similar to that and the town did not adopt the green building code and therefore we could not be designated a green community so I'm confused how we could still be designated a green community if we don't adopt the building code. You don't have to address it now. That's a question I'm going to have at the next meeting so if you want to provide something in the packet ahead of time. I read your personal note but I don't, we tried this before and the Council voted not to endorse the building code which at that time was a mandatory step to be a green community and I believe, yea, it still is so I don't know how we can get this designation without adopting the Stretch Energy Code so I'd like to see that addressed before the next Council meeting and I know you, Council President, referred the Capital Improvement Budget to the Finance Committee but we do have a Capital Improvement Budget Committee— 14 • President Rheault—Oh, that's right. • Councilor Letellier— Of which I am Chair. I'm happy to have a meeting, a co-meeting -- with the Finance Committee, that's totally okay. We can all coordinate with Barbara. Thank you. • President Rheault — A joint meeting? Okay, that's right, you met with the Mayor this past week. Councilor Letellier—Yes,thank you. • President Rheault—Councilor Perry? Councilor Perry—Nothing this evening,thank you. President Rheault — Nothing? Well, nothing by here, and I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. Moved by the Council, seconded by the Council. All those in favor? Opposed? Thank you and good evening. We've adjourned. Ad'ournment. • • • • 0 15