EAST LONGMEADOW –  On Jan. 9 the Town Council met to discuss a series of issues including addressing a public comment regarding how information in town is dispersed as well as a potential amendment to Article 5 of Traffic Rules & Orders regarding the parking of commercial vehicles in residential areas.

An East Longmeadow resident expressed his concern to the Town Council regarding the dissemination of information in the town and how he would like to see progress with how the public receives notices.  He mentioned he, along with many other residents, have been experiencing trash pick-up issues, especially over the holidays.

“I couldn’t call anyone.  My [trash] day was Friday, it was going to be picked up Saturday, the town was closed, Sunday it’s closed, the next day was New Year’s and it got picked up four days later.  I thought it would be corrected and then it happened again,” he stated.

Town Council member Donald Anderson shared that the Council recognizes the importance of communication, which is why they’ve developed a Communication Subcommittee to discuss these issues.

“One of the best ways [to receive town information] is ‘Notification 911,’ it’s a new program I’m encouraging everyone to sign up for, it’s on the towns Facebook page and on the towns website.  When I signed up for it, it sent both to my phone and to my email the information about the trash being delayed,” Anderson said. “I noticed that on my street, nobody knew about the trash being delayed. This ‘911 Notification’ system that the town has put in, I think is very under utilized, but when it does work that information gets out.  We’re on it, we’re trying to work on it, and I encourage everyone to go to our towns website and sign up for it.”

For residents who haven’t signed up for the towns new notification system, all the citizen needs is access to the Internet.  By going to www.eastlongmeadowma.gov on the home page there is a large red square with a megaphone inside, advertising the “community alert system.”  By clicking on the link, residents are prompted to sign up for the “Town’s community alert system to receive important Town information related to emergencies, trash pickup changes and other reminders.”  Residents will be prompted to enter their first and last name, an email address, create a password and enter a phone number.  Then, they should be signed up to receive email notifications, phone notifications or both.

Later on in the meeting the Town Council discussed the possible amendment to Article 5 of Traffic Rules & Orders in regard to the parking of commercial vehicles in residential areas.  The Council discussed this in great lengths, as they felt the proposed amendment was not a viable option due to the wording.

The proposed amendment suggested that a commercial vehicle parking on any street or highway or portion thereof located in a residential zoning district for the purpose of making deliveries or pickup of items from a home, or constructing or making repairs to said home for more than one hour could be subject to a fine if they did not receive written approval from a police officer to be parked in that location for over one hour. The fine would be a sum of $50 if violated.

Town Council Vice President Michael Kane requested clarification on this, stating, “I mean, if a commercial vehicle were to show up at a residence and let’s just say it’s to put a new roof on that residence and they were going to be there for all of eight hours, is what this is saying is they’re going to have to go to the Police Department and get written consent from the Police Department for that contractor to be able to park in front of that house and work for an eight hour duration?”

Once Kane’s question was confirmed that he did understand what the amendment suggested correctly, additional members of the Town Council shared their thoughts.

“How are we going to get that message out to the vendor or a taxpayer?  If it’s not a project that requires a permit being taken out, for instance putting on an addition.  If it’s something as simple as your hot water heater needs to be replaced because it broke and the vendor is there for three or four hours, who is going to know enough to go to the police station?” Town Council member Kathleen Hill questioned.

Town Council member Joseph Ford asked the group whether or not they could put an allocated time restriction on the amendment, such as 8 p.m. to 8 a.m., 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., instead of making it a 24-hour issue.

“That just seems like a lot of work for an outside vendor who is not going to know the rule,” Ford said.

He continued to offer an example, stating that if he had a pipe burst or an issue at his home at 10 p.m. and a contractor could come out and fix it right away and they needed to park on the street, he wouldn’t wait until morning.

“If it’s there at 10 at night then I really don’t care what my neighbors think,” he said.  “It’s very cumbersome, we’re being very over officious here I think.”

He continued, “I think we’re trying to delineate between two different issues.  One is someone trying to do a temporary job versus somebody who is keeping a vehicle at their residence; those are two different things in my mind.  I don’t want to make it more difficult for a tradesman doing a job in town at someone’s house.  I think we need to separate these two and with the way that reads we’re causing a lot of just extra work, and I think that the chief would probably not want that,” Ford said.

The Council agreed that the amendment would have to be rewritten in a way that would be able to create a determination between an individual who is working on a home and an individual who is parking their vehicle “inappropriately.”

East Longmeadow resident and owner of Maybury Material Handling John Maybury came before the Town Council and offered the Council food for thought before they finished the conversation.

“I have over 40 vehicles that my employees drive home that do have lettering on it so when I go to my customers they realize which supplier is in their parking lot working on their equipment.  East Longmeadow, my hometown, is the only town that my employees can’t park in their driveway.  I just wanted to point that out that it’s kind of sad that we have people who can earn a living and go out and do good things, trades, and be productive, and the town of East Longmeadow says you can’t drive that vehicle home and park that in your parking lot,” Maybury said.

The Town Council stated that they would continue to talk about the subject at a future meeting.

To watch the Jan. 9 Town Council meeting, go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48MxeaV3zcQ&t=4092s.