LONGMEADOW – With the Longmeadow Annual Town Meeting quickly approaching on May 8, Reminder Publications sat down with Town Manager Stephen Crane to discuss the warrant, a few specific articles and what residents should know prior to attending the meeting.

Article Four

Warrant Article four is to see if the town will vote to transfer from available funds in the Treasury $50,000 to conduct a street light feasibility study.
    “That’s an issue we’ve been working on for quite a while,” Crane said of Article Four. “It’s to figure out are there alternatives to the street light purchase that we haven’t considered.”
    In the description for this article, it reads that the study would determine a “cost benefit assessment of the purchase and maintenance of any or all of the Town’s street lights. It will also identify where the street lights should best be placed and if replacement of the lighting heads should be considered in order to maximize the efficiency.”

Article Five

Article Five is to see if the town will vote to transfer from available funds the sum of $50,000 to supplement the Fiscal Year (FY) 2018 Police and Fire Department overtime budgets.  Crane explained that the overtime had to due a lot with vacancies and injuries that had occurred over the course of the year.

Article Seven

“It’s a super fiscally responsible budget,” Crane said of the FY 2019 operating budget that totals $66,524,677.  The FY 19 budget is the topic of discussion for Article Seven, where the town will have the opportunity to vote to fix the FY 19 salary and compensation of the Moderator at $100 and the Select Persons at $2,000 each, to provide for a reserve fund, and to approve the operating budget.  The warrant offers a specifically itemized list of how the funds are allocated.
    “This is a true base-level budget. The services we provided with the FY 18 budget are the same level of services that will be provided with the FY 19 budget,” Crane said.

Article 10

Article 10 would “authorize debt to finance the repair of the Morningside Drive culvert.” The 36-inch diameter pipe under the road has begun to collapse, which has caused sinkholes in the tree belt and undermined the drainage system.  The project would replace the current pipe with new pipe and replace the drainage infrastructure.  The sum of funds that up to vote is $520,000.

“Morningside culvert is the biggest project. It’s one street North of Crestview Circle, which we did basically the same project a few years ago, this is just deeper and more complicated so it’s more expensive,” Crane explained.

Article 14

“Article 14 is probably the biggest article in terms of community interest,” Crane said of the article that brings up the raise and appropriation of $14 million for the purpose of constructing and furnishing a new Council on Aging facility.

Reminder Publications reported on April 19 on an Over 60 Club meeting that took place in the current Adult Center.  At the meeting, the group discussed why a new Adult Community Center is necessary in their eyes, not only for the seniors, but for the community’s use as well.  With that, the club welcomed architect John Catlin of Catlin & Petrovick Architects PC who designed the blueprints for the new Adult Community Center. To read about the new center, go to https://www.thereminder.com/localnews/longmeadow/informational-session-on-new-adult-community-cente/.

Crane explained that at Town Meeting, Article 14 requires a two-thirds vote.  If it passes, it will go to a ballot vote in June, which must pass by majority.

Article 28

Article 28 is in response to concerns from residents regarding the towns zoning bylaws on commercial vehicles being parked in driveways as opposed to stored in garages. “The current bylaw is an enforcement challenge because not all lettered vehicles have commercial registrations and not all commercially registered vehicles are lettered,” the article explains.

Crane shared that at the time of Town Meeting there most likely will be a proposed rewrite of this specific article due to a verbiage change. He noted that it is likely new language will be handed out.

“We want to accommodate those people [who have commercial vehicles] but we also want to maintain the quality of life,” Crane said.

Articles 29 and 30

Crane explained that monument signs for non-residential use in a residential zone, which townspeople will often see at the start of streets or in front of Country Clubs,  is not something that is specified in the towns bylaws. Crane explained that they’re hoping to put monument signs into the towns bylaws so that monument signs are consistent with other signage bylaws.

“This proposed addition to the Zoning Bylaws would allow for non-residential uses located in residential uses to have entry signage subject to a special permit granted by the ZBA and subject to dimensional restrictions. Monument signs would improve way finding to non-residential properties and allow for decorative landscaping features,” the article description reads.

The Annual Town Meeting will take place on May 8 at 7 p.m. in the gymnasium of Longmeadow High School at 95 Grassy Gutter Rd.