Town Council sets goals, discusses Heritage Park project

Feb. 19, 2020 | Dennis Hackett

EAST LONGMEADOW – The East Longmeadow Town Council met for a regularly scheduled meeting on Feb. 11 to host a public hearing about a license transfer, discuss the Department of Public Work (DPW)’s capital plan, and to set goals for the year.

One of the important talking points from the meeting was discussion surrounding the DPW’s capital projects including three projects for the replacement of water discharge meters that were initially approved in 1997, 2004 and 2012 respectively after councilor Ralph Page voiced his displeasure over the outstanding projects at the last meeting.

DPW Superintendent Bruce Fenney said it was important to get these projects done so the town knows the exact costs in what it pays in sewer discharge. “Currently the cost is just estimated, it is my plan to get all of our seven discharge points on a metering system so we know what we’re actually metering. We can use that information to better offset our water and sewer bills,” he said.

Fenney also gave an update on the DPW truck the council approved to fix at the last meeting and said that it was already back out on the road.

The council also hosted a public hearing for the transfer of a liquor license from GMRC Inc. currently doing business as Foguiera to Barrera Inc. who are planning to take over as Casa Valarta Family Mexican Restaurant. During the hearing the attorney representing Barrera handed out menus and showed a floor plan of the restaurant to give the council an idea of what the restaurant would look like when opened.

Councilor Marilyn Richards expressed her concerns over the transfer after issues in the past when the previous restaurant served minors on three different occasions. She said, “There was documentation of three violations previously with service to minors. Obviously that’s a concern for the town of East Longmeadow when it comes to protecting our minors.”

Page said that one of his concerns in approving the license transfer is the fact that Barrera Inc. had not yet gone to the planning board with a site plan. “I personally would have a hard time approving a liquor license when we don’t know if they’re going to approve the facilities,” he said.

The council ultimately decided to push off any decision until the next meeting on Feb. 25. Council President Kathleen Hill said, “I forwarded some of our concerns over to our attorney yesterday. And he needs more time to investigate those concerns and I agree it’s probably best to continue at a later date.”

During the meeting the council quickly approved a trio of one day liquor licenses, two for St. Paul the Apostle Church for a Valentine party and baby shower, and one for the Masonic Temple for a birthday party. The council also approved a pledge of license for Tudor House Discount Liquors after the owners transferred ownership to their son.

The council also discussed their proposed goals to be completed by July 1. Councilor Donald Anderson discussed how the council needs to be better about getting agendas out to the public on social media and said, “I think we can start with council, we can start with planning board and maybe school committee. It’s a very easily attainable goal just to get agendas out so we can get even better attendance at future meetings,” he said.

Along with social media outreach, the council also made goals to continue the master plan and finalize the 2021 fiscal year budget and council communication protocols by July 1.

The final order of business at the meeting was the discussion of a Heritage Park project proposal that was originally approved by the Town CPC in May of 2018. One of the representatives for the project, Tom Kay discussed his frustrations with the process and said, “I’m just a volunteer here and I’m frustrated with this process. We’ve tried and tried and tried, we’re just trying to improve a park here.”

The biggest issue with the project was that the town council never voted to appropriate the funds for the project. After hearing this, Kay stood up and left the meeting.

Councilor Patrick Henry said he was in favor of taking the project step by step and planning each step on its own. “We want to do something simple, we have enough detail here as to what we want for the first phase,” he said. “They’ve delineated exactly what they want, they want to take small bites at a time and I believe we should streamline that.”

The council unanimously approved the request of $113,000 from an undesignated fund to allow the recreation commission to begin looking for an engineer and start designing phase one of the project at Heritage Park.

The East Longmeadow Town Council will next meet on Feb. 25.

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