Meeting Minutes October 12, 2009

Ward 3 Neighborhood Association
Minutes of Board Meeting
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
7 p.m - Bridge Street School Library

Present: Fred Zimnoch, Joanne Mackiewicz, Lola Reid, Bob Reckman, Owen Freeman Daniels, Jim Nash, Gerald Budgar, Gloria Parker, Marianna McKim, Lisa DiPiano, Jennifer Remillard , Madeline Weaver Blanchette, Tim Parshall

Absent: Tim Fisher

Members of the Public in attendance: Bill Mackiewicz

00:30
Minutes of September 8, 2009 was unanimously approved.

Treasurers report – October 2009
1. EXPENSES: Food for Annual Meeting $22.68
2. DUES: $145. One new member
3. BALANCES: Previous $659.71
4. NEW BALANCE: $782.03
5. LIST SERVE: for Ward 3ab = 168 added 1 member Joanne Hoyt
6. LIST SERVE MESSAGES: for this period = 8
7. MEMBERSHIPS: At last years annual meeting we collected $180 and 2 new members. We added quite a few members after last forum so we should be prepared with applications for 10/14, 10/19 and 10/25. I will bring them along with timer and buzzer. Also we should be prepared to man/woman the Ward table during the popular polls in 11/3/9, 12/8/9 and 1/19/10.

03:00
Waste Water Treatment Plant - Fred
WASTE WATER TREATMENT FACILITY (WWTF): George Brehm, Director of WWTF 10/6/9.
The manufacturer (moving water industries, Deerfield Beach, Florida) of our effluent pumps has delayed installation until 1/29/10. This was caused by dispute over what pump curves to use. (Pump curves characterize the pump. They are usually a graph with a curve of throughput in gallons per minute versus pump speed in rpm). The installation engineer’s sea (scientists-engineers-architects) consultants of 215 First Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts want to hasten the project. In any case the system should be ready before the next food season.
Storm water pump facility: George Brehm, Director of WWTF10/6/9. The Army Corp of Engineers inspected the storm water pump facility that they designed after the great flood of September 1938. It became operational in 1940 or almost 70 years ago. Ned Huntley was present at the inspection and told them that replacement diesel engines for the pumps have been budgeted for last five years. They may appear in next year’s final budget. George thinks the report will cite excess vegetation & brush around the facility. Plans now are to trim vegetation after the leaves fall off the trees.
10.14.09-Additional information on the storm water pumps from Bob
George Brehm explained that the pumps at the flood control station are all in good shape. The problem is with the engines that drive them. One is a relatively new diesel that is fine. The other two are very old gas engines for which it is increasingly hard to get parts. The WWTP is also dependent on good mechanics to keep them running. One of them retired last year so they are concerned about their ability to keep them running in the long run as they loose people who are good tinkerers. There have been requests to capital improvements for the last 5 years to replace the engines, which cost about $100,000 each. George said this is not an emergency now but if the City could buy one new engine that would provide a lot of peace of mind for the City. If both old engines failed in a flood we would have a real problem on our hands.

07:00
President’s Report
30 people at annual meeting; afterwards watched the grand opening of bike path.
Gerry welcomed Tim Parshall TimParshall@yahoo.com the new board member representing Ward3A and Jennifer Remillard, remillardj@comcast.net from Ward 3b.

Gerry announced that he does not want to be president next year.
Part of the president’s responsibilities are membership on the Mass Highway’s Exit 19 Advisory Board and the Three County Fairs Advisory Committee.

Neighborhood presidents met on the 29th at Florence Civic Center at 7pm.
• Zoning Revision committee will be meeting with all groups to review cluster housing regulations.
• Florence Civic Business Association meets with the mayor on a monthly basis. Gerry spoke with mayoral candidates about meeting with Ward 3 Board members on a monthly basis. After the election, a request to meet monthly with the mayor will be initiated by Gerry.

Exit 19 Advisory Committee will meet on November 16, 2009 at JFK at 7pm.

Meadows Cleanup will be held on Sunday, October 25th from 10-2.

Salvo House Watch Program- Gerry connected with the President of the Salvo House and Officer Victor Caputo. Reports are that their watch program have been successful.

The Complete Count Committee – Tim Fisher will serve on the City’s committee to ensure that everyone living in Northampton be counted in the census.

Farmer Charlie informed Gerry that he will not be grazing Angus cows because of the work entailed in keeping them. His cash crops will be corn and hay.

Gerry spoke with Angela Plassman because he was disturbed about how the conversation and discussion at our September meeting ended. She stated that if she was voted in as Ward 3 councilor then she would be a board member, but would not vote.


21:30
Dream Mural – Bob
Memo distributed to board got to the Gazette’s article. Private funding has been secured by the Arts Council and they will be handling this project.

32:30
Island Road
Planning Board continued the hearing until Jan 14th with four conditions to Clubs. Fall traffic count, number of games, number
Suggestions; A total # of games and practices per club should be determined. They’ll be a determination in January as whether or not to remove the condition of auxiliary lot. Enforcement of the amendment seems to be the real issue with this situation.
Impact of letter: Letter turned up the heat; ZBA made a decision.

50:20
Nomination Chair
3A will need an alternate when Tim Fisher becomes the school committee representative.
Christine Cahillane has expressed interest in filling this position. There will be a Secretary vacancy in January; Jennifer Remillard expressed interest.

53:30
School Committee Report – Gerry read Tim Fisher’s report to the Board.
Enrollment is down by 20 students. Per Mike Diemand, a Central Services employee said there are no such plans for a turnaround at Bridge Street School. He said that they had done a study several years ago. The results were that they are between the rock of the park and the hard place of the cemetery. He said that they stopped at that point and has not done anything about this issue since then.

57:40
Web Communication
Owen created a calendar on website that lists events on left hand side. Anyone can add a calendar event – following posting rules. Not profits, federal, state, local governments; committee meetings. Website can be more relevant if postings are placed in a timely fashion. It was decided that the web committee convened to further discuss posting rules and bring to board for more approval.

Another suggestion is to create a list serve just for the Board. This will Reduce inbox emails and provide a forum for discussion during Board meetings. It will be either Google or Yahoo.

68:18
Sustainability
Zoning Revision Committee is charged with ensuring that the sustainability plan is used as a framework for any zoning revisions. Jim has expertise with the help of Owen to the specifics of the plan which we feel needs to be brought to focus during this process. We want to avoid recreating the wheel. The Chicken and hen subcommittee seems to be a test case on how to apply the plan to zoning issues and how to notify and communicate with constituents.


72:00
Traffic Calming Committee
Lola gave a recap of what the committee has been doing for 2.5 years. They want to set up a clarification meeting with Laura Hanson. Area of concern map for Hawley-Williams area was revised by Lisa based on the input received from residents. This is creating a good framework for specific projects that they will request from the mitigation fund. Meeting at 10 on Thursday at Lola’s with committee members; meeting on the 20th with transportation and parking commission. Christine and Jennifer may want to join this committee.

80:00
Candidate Forums
There are plenty of questions for the candidates tomorrow. Name plates have been made for each candidate. We are looking for a microphone. School Committee candidates will go first. Folks can put literature on table. Candidate signs are outside. Candidates can use hallway for any campaign tables. People can stand up and ask 30 second questions from the room. Board members are non-partisan and will not show political favorites.

100:30
Exit 19
The Mayor has asked for another name to submit to Mayor for replacement of Mara. Six board members want to submit only the name of Frank Werbinski to the Mayor. It was decided that Jim would speak with the Mayor regarding her request.

109:30
Transportation Committee
The Department of Public Works (DPW) Parks' department takes care of the Northampton Bike Path. The Board of Public Works (BPW) tells the DPW what to do. So it is the DPW that plows the Northampton Bike Path. We should petition the BPW to get the new one plowed.

113:30
BID is up and running; Snow may be able to be pushed onto the street. Paradise City Tavern’s license is under review. They are applying for use of lot to have big events. Chamber will be hosting a debate at 8am on the 19th with a focus on economic development.

116:40
Bob is trying to schedule a meeting with councilors to discuss Best Practices.

117:00
Residents on Orchard Street would like to have a block party in the spring called Orchard Festival. Food, music, martial art demonstrated. A subcommittee was formed to plan this block party.

119:30
Police arrested person for a car fire on the corner of Pomeroy and Williams.
121:10
Lisa and Joanne continue to identify gardens for the Garden Tour scheduled in next summer.

123:00
New Business
Owen suggested that we sponsor a voter registration drive for the senate elections in December and January.

9:14
Meeting was adjourned at: 9:14 pm.