East Longmeadow hosts public hearings on solar farm moratorium and budget

July 22, 2020 | Dennis Hackett
dennis@thereminder.com

EAST LONGMEADOW – The East Longmeadow Town Council met for a regularly scheduled meeting on July 14 to reorganize its positions and hold two public hearings.

As part of the council’s annual business, during its first meeting of the fiscal year the council is required to elect a president and vice president for a one-year term.

Former Council President Kathy Hill reflected on her time as council president and said, “I loved every minute of it and there are some excellent, loyal people working for this town to deliver a great service. My colleagues come to the table every meeting to do their best and deliver the very best product of town service for everyone.”

The council voted to name Michael Kane the new council president and Thomas O’Connor the new vice president.

As the first public hearing at the meeting, the council had a second reading for a bylaw creating a moratorium on ground mounted photovoltaic systems.

One of the recommendations from the town attorney as brought forward by Councilor Ralph Page was a recommendation to hold the moratorium for a year from the first reading, which would be June 23, 2021.

Page said, “The attorney had made a suggestion that we change the effective date, which was originally Oct. 22, 2020, to something close to what a year from the first reading is because he didn’t feel this gives us enough time from July to October to be able to do this.”

During the hearing Councilor Patrick Henry said that he was not comfortable making any kind of vote on the moratorium. He said, “It seems to me that it’s incumbent on the Planning Board to present to us their suggestion and if this presentation means they have submitted something they and the lawyers have disagreed with then we really have nothing to vote on. I feel uncomfortable passing this along to the Planning Matters Subcommittee.”

Ultimately, the council agreed to continue the public hearing until its Aug. 11 meeting.

The second hearing was a review of the proposed fiscal year 2021 town manager’s operating budget.

As a part of the operating budget, Town Manager Mary McNally said only the School and Human Resources departments saw increases in their budget.

She said, “This budget is a mere skeleton, if you look through the departmental uses, I don’t think there is a single department that shows an increase with the exception of schools, and even that increase was a significant reduction from what was suggested, and our Human Resources Department.”

McNally said that while she is hoping for an economic recovery, she does not expect it to happen, but the town is in good shape financially.

“I hope I’m wrong and when the economy rebounds, we get a bump here, but I wasn’t born yesterday,” she said, “I don’t expect to have a sharp economic recovery immediately, I think the town is in good shape based on the fact our receipts are keeping pace and we don’t have a deficit for Fiscal 20.”

The council ultimately agreed to continue the hearing to its July 21 meeting.

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