EAST LONGMEADOW – The East Longmeadow Town Council met on Nov. 28, where they discussed the East Longmeadow High School’s stadium completion, the prohibition of marijuana in East Longmeadow, the East Longmeadow Veteran’s Memorial Committee’s Veteran’s memorial proposal and the Town Manager’s decision to withdraw the town from the regional dispatch agreement.

Resident Gary Destefano brought forth the issue of the incomplete East Longmeadow High School stadium, regarding a bathroom facility with combined concessions stand, as well as the need for visitor’s bleachers and continued upkeep of the turf field.  Destefano noted that in Spring 2018, the field will be seven years old and will still be incomplete.

“I know at the time there was talk in the field that it wouldn’t take long to complete that and to install a bathroom facility/concessions stand, and the bleachers to put us over the top.  A few years ago I approached and I had meetings with the superintendent of the schools, the principal of the high school, former athletic director, we sat down and we came to the conclusion that there’s a lot of things to be done to complete the project,” Destefano said.

He continued to note that recently the Department of Public Works put in a walkway, completed an additional set of bleachers, and toured the field with him to take note of his concerns.

“Joe Ford was very gracious to tour the field with me on Sunday because there’s also a lack of maintenance issue that’s going on there.  When you have a synthetic turf field, there’s actually more maintenance than a grass field,” he said. “So the magic word in maintaining a synthetic turf field is the word ‘bars.’  What that means is brushing, aerating, raking and sweeping.  It has to be on a pretty regular basis, and for the purpose of that is to allow the fibers to raise up, and if we need to install more filler beads we’re supposed to do that.”

Destefano stated that all of the maintenance is for the safety of the children that play on it.  He continued to explain that a few weeks ago when he went to the field, he saw filler beads were filling up drains that line the field and the beads were matted down on the field itself.

“The last time I looked at it, it was very matted down.  When it was put in, it was more grass-like, [when he last looked] it was hard, there was filler beads in one area, bare in the other,” he said.

Town Council member Joseph Ford stated that he believes there are two paths that the Council has to take moving forward.

“One is immediate maintenance.  I’ve spent a lot of time on turf fields, and that field’s gonna deteriorate very, very quickly if we don’t maintain it a little better.  The other thing is, I did briefly reach out to Gordon [Smith, school superintendent] and talk about this.  This has kind of always fallen on the School Department to kind of deal with this resolving of a project.  I’d like to take this off their plate and ask this to be more of a Rec Department, because the high school has first use, but that gets used by residents, that gets used by the youth programs.”

Following their discussion, the Town Council agreed that in January they will revisit the issue after talking with the School Committee.

The Planning Board presented to the Town Council a new proposed bylaw that would prohibit the use, growth, cultivation, manufacturing and or sale of marijuana for recreational use in the town of East Longmeadow.

“Basically, the Planning Board felt that this is what the town wants based on the vote that was held in town, and based on the fact that we had no opposition to the proposed bylaw when we held our hearing,” Planning Board Chair George Kingston said.

The Town Council reaffirmed that those who want to use legal marijuana within their residence under the new laws that’s being created is still allowed, and this does not affect residents abilities to have up to the maximum number of marijuana plants in their house and their ability to consume the products under the statues.

Terry Glasgow of the East Longmeadow Veterans Memorial Committee presented their plan for a memorial in town that would honor the military veterans of East Longmeadow and all veterans alike.

“It’s to memorialize the veterans and honor their sense of duty, courage and the commitment for answering the call when the nation called upon it,” Glasgow said. “It will be a place for former members to go and reflect, and a place where families can reflect on the sacrifices of their loved ones and for the community at large to assemble on Memorial Day and Veterans Day to pay tribute to all veterans.”

The specific site the group proposed is in front of the East Longmeadow Senior Center at 328 North Main St. Glasgow noted they chose the location because of its high visibility, ample parking and it is the ideal facility for both indoor and outdoor fundraising events.  The memorial will consist of 10 monuments; of which five will be dedicated for each branch of the service.  The other five monuments will be for World War Two, World War One, Korea, Vietnam, and Iraq and Afghanistan.  They will contain the names of Eat Longmeadow veterans who were killed in action.  Additionally, nine flags will fly: the American flag, a flag for each branch of the service, the Purple Heart flag, a Prisoner of War Missing in Action flag and the Massachusetts state flag.

Glasgow assured the Council that the East Longmeadow Veterans Memorial Committee will pay for the construction through funds they raise over the coming months, as well as potential grants received through state Sen. Eric Lesser.  The Town Council agreed that this is a beneficial project for the town, and they commended the Committee for their efforts.

Toward the close of the Nov. 28 meeting Town Manager Denise Menard updated the Council on the Regional Dispatch agreement. East Longmeadow was partnered with Longmeadow, Hampden and Chicopee to have a regional dispatch facility in Chicopee that would service the town.  Due to a lack of information, Menard has decided to withdraw the town from the agreement.

“We only received $1.3 million of a $9 million project, and maybe two months ago, three months ago, we found that out, but the state has not been able to tell us in that time what that represents, what they would be funding.  The longer we wait the more were scratching our heads that it sounds like an arbitrary decision that they just decided to do $1.3 million, they are talking about radios of a certain kind are not going to be grant funded, which then falls back on us.  It just seems that the plan we started with is not the plan that the state is willing to fund that would really give us the backing that we need,” Menard explained.  “In addition to that, there is the communication piece that just does not seem to be happening, both at the state level and other towns in the regional dispatch, we’re not hearing a whole lot of anything.”

Council Chair Kevin Manley interjected, “This was their [the state’s] idea to get the regional dispatches together to fund this thing, and now they won’t even call people back, even the mayor of Chicopee can’t get them to call back.  They can’t guarantee what we would get in the following years, they could turn around and say forget it, you know, we’re not giving you anything.  It doesn’t really seem like it’s a good idea to me.”

To watch the Nov. 28 East Longmeadow Town Council meeting, go to ELCAT’s YouTube page or to the following link, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCWlBwQlk6M&t=5485s.