EAST LONGMEADOW – The East Longmeadow Town Council met for a regularly scheduled meeting on June 9 to approve a 1/12 budget for July and approve a motion to expedite outdoor seating licenses.

During her regular report, Town Manager Mary McNally announced that the town is slowly starting to bring its employees back to work. She said, “We have begun to recall some of our furloughed employees back to work. The Police Department staff is now fully back on site as well as the DPW administrative staff. The accommodations have been made to provide appropriate distancing between workstations and that was part of the issue not allowing people to come back to work.”

She added that there are currently no dates for the Town Hall and library to open up inside, but the library would begin curbside services soon.

After McNally’s report, Town Clerk Jeanne Quaglietti gave an update on the June 2 Town Election and said she was happy with the absentee ballot turnout. “There was a voter turnout of 9.5 percent, which I thought was pretty good. Over 49 percent of the ballots cast were absentee, so I was happy with that because we encouraged people to vote absentee,” she said.

She added that staff were taught how to sanitize and social distance during the election to make sure residents were safe.

During the meeting Town Council President Kathy Hill announced that the council had received a correspondence from a resident about the use of body cameras and that the police and public safety officials were already looking into purchasing the cameras.

The council also discussed an Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission Advisory regarding local licensing authorities’ approval of outdoor seating. As part of the advisory, the commission waived the requirement for a public hearing for license expansion. In order to speed up the process, McNally recommended that the council delegate one member to deal with the matters as opposed to waiting until the next meeting. Ultimately the council voted to authorize the council president and vice-president to approve temporary outdoor dining licenses set to expire on Nov. 20.

McNally also brought forward a request to authorize a 1/12 budget for the month of July.

She said, “The whole basis for this is because we do not have a budget in place. We do not anticipate that we will have a budget in place by June 30. This is a stop gap measure that if we do not have a budget in place, we have the authority to continue spending.”

The council unanimously approved the motion for a 1/12 budget for the month of July.

After a discussion about ways to reduce speeds on Rural Lane at a previous meeting, DPW Superintendent Bruce Fenney gave an update on his research into the subject. One of his suggestions was to install two speed humps that could be removed during the winter, which would cost around $3,500.

He said, “This is for two speed humps including signs. These are modular, rubberized devices that we actually affix to the asphalt. I’ve actually talked with the police chief and he agrees with putting two structures at this location.”

At the previous meeting he discussed looking into adding sidewalks to the area but said that after some research it would cost upwards of $175,000. The council unanimously approved to add the removable speed humps to Rural Lane.

As its final order of business at the meeting, the council agreed to keep its regular meeting scheduled for the summer months as its usually only meets once a month during the summer.

The East Longmeadow Town Council next meets on June 22.