LONGMEADOW – The Longmeadow Select Board met for a regularly scheduled meeting on Feb. 18 to dive into preparations for the 2021 fiscal year with presentations from the school committee, community preservation committee and capital planning committee.

The first order of business at the meeting was the first of three FY 21 budget presentations, starting with the Longmeadow School Committee. School Committee chair Armand Wray stepped before the board and started the presentation with the six goals the committee came up with when creating the budget. “The budgetary targets call for an investment in safety, a response in enrollment shifts, and moves LPS toward a broader, renewed vision of student success, addresses district goals, is class effective and attentive to class size,” he said.

Superintendent Martin O’Shea then took over the presentation to discuss specific parts in greater detail. One of the bigger goals for the schools this year is an investment in cyber security. O’Shea said, “We think it will benefit the whole town and all departments, specifically with malware software. The IT budget resides within the school budget and we wanted to make sure we account for that, it was about a $50,000 increase.”

Wray added that technology director Nick George was a big help in determining the needs of the town when it came to cyber security. “Nick has done some really good work with our insurance company and looking for grants,” he said. “It was a little bit more of an emphasis this year but money well worth it.”

After the school committee presentation, Steve Weiss, the chair of the Community Preservation Committee (CPC), then gave an update on the projects for the 2021 fiscal year. One of the talking points from the presentation was a discussion about a proposal from last fall’s town meeting for a study to look into building a skate park in Longmeadow.

Select board vice chair Richard Foster voiced his displeasure over the CPC doing the study after it was rejected at the town meeting. “It seems extremely odd that we would have something turned down and then your group authorize that study,” he said. “I find that inconsistent with the values of your organization for taking care of unfunded needs in our community with a special tax base when you’re going against the wishes of tax payers.”

Select Board member Thomas Lachiusa agreed with Weiss and the CPC’s plan to study adding a skate park to the town and said, “When kids think the best ways to have fun are drinking and drugs, we’re in trouble. Skateboard parks are a good alternative and I think that’s the kind of money that should be spent in this town so I think you’re on the right track.”

With the CPC’s presentation out of the way, capital planning committee chair Steve Metz discussed the committee’s recommendations for the 2021 fiscal year. Metz explained that there were four criteria in determining the projects for the year. “The first one is we have to fill projects mandated by governing bodies, the next is if it involves safety it’s a high priority,” he said. “The next two are improving the efficiency of the town and finally things that people request that aren’t necessarily needs.”

One of the current projects Metz discussed is the replacement of boilers throughout the town and said that some flaws in the designs for the boilers has led to a significant effort in replacing them. “The company put in all the boilers in our major buildings here and they all had some problems with design and construction so they’re all failing at the same time,” he said.

Once the presentations concluded, the meeting jumped back into its agenda for the remainder of the meeting. The first order of business was discussion about closing a portion of Bliss Road alongside the high school on May 16 for a lacrosse jamboree, which board member Mark Gold voiced his displeasure to. He said, “These aren’t parks and rec fields, these are school fields. It’s a whole different ball game with school fields because we still have athletics after and if there are issues, the first one who is gonna get a call is the DPW and we’re gonna spend town money fixing up the fields.”

Ultimately the board motioned to hold off a decision until its special meeting on Feb. 24.

The board also approved two applicants for the conservation commission and parks and rec commission, who were Kiernan Mulcahy and Craig Pericolosi, while also approving the six applicants who applied for the Senior Housing Task Force.

The final order of business at the meeting was Town Manager Lyn Simmons’ regular report. She brought up the fact that the town is currently hoping to wrap up cable license negotiations soon, after a drop in the number of households that currently use cable. “The cable advisory committee is actively meeting right now. They’re hoping to conclude negotiations soon, the current license expires in June 2021. There are 4,967 cable subscribers which is down from 5,400 households that previously subscribed,” she said.

The Longmeadow Select Board will next meet on March 2.