EAST LONGMEADOW – The East Longmeadow Town Council met on April 10 where the Council discussed additional veterans’ services in the town, Training for Intervention Procedures (TIPS) certifications, an emergency funding request for a Department of Public Works (DPW) vehicle as well as the town’s budget.

Town Manager Denise Menard met with a Veteran’s Consortium that the town belongs to at which time she asked the chairperson how many veterans are serviced and what services the consortium provides. She said the chairperson stated they “didn’t really know.” Menard then explained that she met with a group and the chairperson to ask for an increase in services for veterans and to incorporate more outreach.

“I think we will see improved services,” Menard said. “They [veterans] certainly deserve our assistance, especially the younger veterans, those from Afghanistan and Iraq don’t seem to be accessing the benefits that they have.”

Moving on, the Council discussed the possibility of making TIPS certification a requirement for liquor stores in town to have all of their employees certified. According to gettips.com, TIPS is a skills-based training program that is designed to prevent intoxication, underage drinking and drunk driving.

Should the Council decide that this is something they would want to enact, it would not go into affect until January 1, 2019.  

Council member Kathleen Hill weighed in on the discussion stating, “I think it’s a prudent practice that helps us help the establishments do a good job with the use of their license.”

The other Council members chimed in, sharing that it is generally a one-day event that takes roughly five hours to become certified. Additionally, there are online courses to become certified as well.

Council member Joseph Ford stated that he thinks that it’s prudent to get feedback from owners of the establishments to see what they think of this. The group agreed that the issue would go to the licensing subcommittee for review, stating that this was an issue to discuss further in the future.

East Longmeadow  DPW Head Bruce Fenney came before the Town Council to request emergency funding for a new vehicle for the DPW for a new 2018 Ford F350.  The truck that this would be replacing was recently totaled in an accident.

“Our mechanic’s truck goes on the road calls on a regular basis,” Fenney explained. “The truck was totaled in an accident on Feb. 6 while the mechanics were going to pick up parts at a store. We were only reimbursed $4,683 for the vehicle.”

The totaled truck was a 1999 Ford F350, which had a utility body and a snowplow.  The truck had roughly 100,000 miles on it, and was on the five-year capital plan for replacement.

“So at some point, we’re spending this money, so now it’s just moving up on the priority,” Town Council Chair Kevin Manley said.

Fenney explained that he had wanted to salvage parts off of the totaled vehicle in an effort to lower the cost of the replacement truck, however the insurance company would not allow him to do so without significantly lowering the reimbursement money.  

The 2018 Ford F350 with a utility body and snowplow would  cost $44,383.85.

Ultimately, the Council voted to approve the allocation of $39,620.10 to fund the DPW replacement vehicle coming from the Town’s free cash account.

Menard along with Town Accountant Sara Menard presented the budget to the Town Council, sharing that it was a collaboration with all of the town departments.

Denise explained that departments were asked to stay within a two percent increase, “This will allow for employees contracted increase as well as a small amount of growth if needed within the departments budget,” she said. She also shared that she reevaluated salaries both high and low which, “led to shifts in some cost savings and some increases.”

She shared that a challenge for both the current and the 2019 budget has been addressing the plan to move the town’s emergency services dispatching to civilians rather than police officers.

“During the 2018 budget year, we investigated three possible partnerships for civilian dispatch. Having done thorough analysis of the best options for East Longmeadow, we’re now close to finalizing a plan with the joint dispatching service with the town of Hampden,” Denise said. “We met yesterday, I proposed an inter-municipal agreement with them that they seemed to think was a good plan going forward, they presented it to their Board of Selectmen last night. It has to go to Town Meeting for them on May 15, so it’s contingent on that.”

Sara took over the presentation, sharing the logistics and numbers behind the budget including the projected maximum allowable property tax levy at $43,142,369, the state school construction reimbursement at $668,807 and total projected local receipts at $4,015,000.  The total general fund budget shows a 4.37 percent increase.  

The Town Council plans to come back to the budget with questions for both Denise and Sara at the April 24 Town Council meeting.

For more information on specifics regarding the budget, tune into ELCAT’s YouTube page at minute 30, here.