Transcript: Chicopee City Council Nov 19

 The text below is an unedited transcript created with automatic speech recognition software. It is based on the audio from a video recording of a Nov. 19 meeting of the Chicopee City Council. It contains numerous errors, primarily related to the spelling of the names of people and places. Do not rely on it for information without additional vetting.


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[Speaker 1]
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I'd like to call to order the November 19, 2024 City Council meeting to order. Please rise to the pledge to the flag.

And now we'll take a moment of silence for those who protect us home and abroad. Thank you. If everyone could mute your cell phone, it would be appreciated for tonight's meeting.

Let's see, is Sandra? Yes. I want to welcome our school liaison, Sandra Perret, for being here this evening.

Can we have the roll call, please? Yes. Yes.

[Speaker 23]
Here. Here.

[Speaker 27]
Here. Here. Can you put your mic on?

[Speaker 2]
Brooks? Here. Gahm?

[Speaker 16]
Here.

[Speaker 2]
Valakir?

[Speaker 16]
Here.

[Speaker 2]
Krampets? Here. Chomsky?

[Speaker 16]
Here.

[Speaker 2]
Kushain? Here. Labrie?

Binia-Costello? Here. Thirteen present.

[Speaker 1]
Thank you. Participating this evening on Zoom is Councilor Brooks. Okay.

In compliance with the open meeting law, the City of Chicopee is broadcasting live and for future broadcasts this meeting on Chicopee TV. Is anyone else in the audience or on Zoom video or auto-taping this meeting, please state your name and reason for doing so. Is there anyone?

Go ahead. Okay. Thank you, Glenn.

Is there anyone else recording the meeting? Is there anyone on Zoom recording the meeting? Is there anyone on Zoom seeing none?

We will move into the Mayor's remarks. Mayor, you have the floor.

[Speaker 6]
Thank you, President LaFlamme, esteemed members of the City Council. I have numerous orders for your consideration this night. I'll start with Mayor's Order One.

It's the appropriation of $75,000 to the following named account, wastewater expense account for special services from the available funds from the following named wastewater salary accounts. Chief Operator, $50,000. Assistant Chief Operator, $15,000.

DPW Operations Assistant, $10,000 for a total $75,000. As you can see from the background information, there's some work that we need to do. And let me just share that with you.

First, I want to say that the Water and Sewer Commission has voted unanimously six in favor of this proposal in front of you. And what this is, this is funding taken from these line items that are in their budget to cover the increased sewer charges paid to South Hadley and Springfield. It's no secret that some of our wastewater goes to those two municipalities, final engineering costs for the Jones Ferry Pump Station project, and some environmental services requiring cleanup of the septic and waste and polymer at the Water Pollution Control Facility.

The Superintendent, I believe, is joining us remotely. Hi, Superintendent, anything you would like to add to Mayor's Order 1? Any questions or comments about Mayor's Order 1?

I'll say thank you for your consideration. Move on to Mayor's Order 2. It's the appropriation of $35,000 to the following named account.

DPW Highway special account for street surveying slash legal description from the available funds, and the DPW Highway salary account for maintenance man. As you can see from the background information, and the Superintendent is also joining, like I had said, that there are numerous streets that are requested for road work, and those streets are not adopted by the City of Chicopee. And this would, the surveys would be necessary for us to adopt them, and this covers that expense.

And the saving grace about this is they are private ways now that would also be adopted as city streets, be added to our lane miles for Chapter 90 allocation. And I can just share the names of those streets for you. It's in the background information.

It's Anson Street, Litwin Lane, Old Byman Road, Peliquin Drive, and Telegraph Avenue. Superintendent, anything you would like to add?

[Speaker 28]
No, you pretty much covered it.

[Speaker 6]
Any questions? Yes, sure. Mary Beth Pina Castello.

[Speaker 4]
I just want to thank you and the DPW Superintendent for this work. The residents are very appreciative of getting this road work done. I did send out a mailer to Anson Street and to let them know the status of where we are.

So I thank you, Mayor, and I thank you, Superintendent Bautista, for getting this ongoing. I appreciate that. Thank you.

[Speaker 6]
Oh, you're welcome. And City Councilor Schumsky.

[Speaker 3]
Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just want to also echo my thank you for Liz Bautista, DPW, and your office for working on that project for me. I know President Laflamme and I met with Liz Bautista, I think, was it back in May or June, to try and get Litwin Lane paved.

And I was told that it's not a city-accepted street, so it can't be done except for potholes. So I'm happy this is now an accepted street and look forward to that being paved. Thank you.

[Speaker 29]
Thank you.

[Speaker 6]
Any other questions or comments? And thank you for your consideration. We'll move on to Mayor's Order 3.

Excuse me, it's the appropriation of $19,162.98 to the following named account. Human Resources Special Account for Indemnification of Police and Fire from the Available Funds and the Stabilization Fund. It's no secret to everyone that the City of Chicopee is self-insured, and these are for our first responders who are injured in duty, and this covers their medical bills.

Any questions about indemnification?

[Speaker 1]
Nobody on Zoom.

[Speaker 6]
Thank you for your consideration. We'll move on to Mayor's Order 4. It's the appropriation of $3,200 to the following named account.

Health Special Account for Wildlife Control from the Available Funds and the Stabilization Fund. As you can see from the background information, and our Health Director Lisa Sanders is here as well, they've run out of money in the account because of the increased calls regarding, quote, sick skunks. There's been many skunks that I'm understanding are rabid.

I've even seen a raccoon that was rabid, and those animals need to be addressed. So in addition to roadkill and other things, these sick skunks are also addressed, and again, this would replenish that line item.

[Speaker 1]
Director, anything you'd like to add? Any comments from the floor? Any comments on Zoom?

Seeing none.

[Speaker 6]
Okay, well thank you for your consideration. We'll move on to Mayor's Order 5. It's a new appointment.

You're hereby notified that I this day have appointed Denise Launderville of the City of Chicopee as a member of the License Commission to serve as a member of the term for six months, expiring on the 1st of June 2025, to which appointment I ask the confirmation of your Honorable Counsel. Denise is very excited about this opportunity to serve. I will share that she's going to be finishing off a term from, and I apologize for not knowing who she's fulfilling the rest of that term, and is again very interested in continuing service for the next five years.

So I'll be coming back in six months, but hopefully she agrees to continue on for the five-year term.

[Speaker 1]
Would that be for Mr. Goulet, Don Goulet, I believe it was? Who retired?

[Speaker 6]
I'm pretty sure it is, yes. Any questions about Denise Launderville? Thank you for your consideration.

Move on to Mayor's Order 6. You're hereby notified that I this day appointed Casey Croteau of the City of Chicopee to the License Commission to serve as a member expiring on the 1st of June of 2020-19. To this appointment, I ask the confirmation of your Honorable Counsel.

Casey is here tonight. He is a new appointment. He has a great background, just like Mrs. Launderville. Both very excited and willing to serve on the License Commission, and I'm thankful for their volunteering, so I appreciate that. Any comments? Any questions about the new appointment?

Casey's here if you want to just give away.

[Speaker 1]
Mayor's Order 7. Order that the City Council accept the FY20 formula grant in the amount of $222,675.00 from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Executive Office of Elder Affairs to the Chicopee Council on Aging. Said grant is acceptable in accordance with Mass General Law, Chapter 44, Section 53A.

I'm not sure if the Director is on. She's been trying to get on my phone. She's having problems.

Are you on, Chair? Seeing none. Okay, this money here is for a lot of programs and other items that she will use throughout the year.

We get this every year. Mayor's Order 8. Order that the City Council accept the donation in the amount of $8,101.00 to the Chicopee House Council on Aging for senior meals for the month of October 2024. Said donation is accepted in accordance with Mass General Law, Chapter 44, Section 53A. Again, this is what we once a month we do with this acceptance. Mayor's Order 9.

Order that the City Council accept the donation in the amount of $5,000.00 from Margaret and Haynes Zybala to the Chicopee Council on Aging. Said the donation is to be used for programming and acceptance with Mass General Law, Chapter 44, Section 53A. Any questions on that?

And I will send a letter out thanking them for that donation. Okay, Mayor, you want to comment?

[Speaker 6]
Yeah, I just want to take a moment to thank everyone for your consideration of these Mayor's Orders and also how grateful I am for everything I have in my life as we head into the giving season and wish all of you and your families a happy and healthy Thanksgiving. And lastly, simply hope to see all of you at the Sword Game. It's held on Thanksgiving morning.

I call that our alumni weekend. We're coming home for many people here in the city who come to visit and break bread with their families and certainly an opportunity to come support and show your pride for the Chicopee Pacers or the Chicopee Colts and everything's left on the field that day. So I'm hopeful you'll join me of this.

I'll call it a family fun day and hope to see you at the game. Thank you.

[Speaker 1]
Thank you. We will now move into public input. Public input is limited to three minutes or less.

Is anyone in the audience or here for public input? If so, state your name and address for the record, please. After that, we'll do anyone on Zoom.

You have three minutes. You can come up to Mike. No, we have to follow the agenda the way it's produced.

Okay, our attorney says it's an open meeting law violation, so we're going to go with our attorney's request. Okay, is there anyone here for public input? There'll be three minutes and three minutes only and the time is here.

[Speaker 9]
Lisa Bienvenue, 34 Everett Street. I came to the meeting last night and it was really uplifting to see the quality applicants who put in resumes for the at-large position that Mr. Zitteler resigned. And it was a cross-section of the population of the city of Chicopee, which was really nice to see.

There were a lot of people who have a lot of information to give and were willing to give their time. So that was really nice. It was nice to see new faces.

There were old faces and it's always good to see old faces, but there were a lot of new faces. And I do think we need to reflect on what's going on in the city. You know, in 2022, we had to pay the settlement for the gender discrimination lawsuit by a former firefighter.

That was $125,000. In 2023, we had the insurance reconciliation issue and we've never seen the report. We've heard anecdotal what that's cost the city, but I haven't seen pen to paper on what that amount really is.

You know, the proof is in the pudding and all we have is anecdotal. It would be nice to know more. In this year, we've got $680,000 that went out in settlements.

$215,000 went to the three clients of community legal aid for the discrimination with the Chigbee Housing Authority. And then another $435,000 had to be set up in a fund to compensate other residents who may have experienced discrimination by the Chigbee Housing Authority. And then $25,000 fine given to the federal government.

And I know that it has come up before to ask for reports on spending so that the city council could see before the budget hearings what's being spent in this city. And it would be nice if we actually followed through with any of this. We may not be politicians and we may not be experienced in the running of the city, but we're also literate and we can read what's going on and we'd like to know more.

Thank you.

[Speaker 1]
Thank you. Anyone else for public input?

[Speaker 11]
Good evening. Susan LaPlante, 71 Angela Drive in Chigbee. Back again about the truck stop.

I've lived at 71 Angela Drive and I've lived off Bernard Road for 55 years. My parents bought a house in 1965. My son owns a house off Bernard Road right behind us.

And I just can't even believe we're here again. With literally for us, it's only been four hours notice that we knew about this meeting. We had no knowledge of it from anybody until a Facebook post today.

I'm completely against the truck stop. I'm against the safety of it. I'm against the traffic.

We've had more accidents than you can imagine in that area. Just today at four o'clock p.m., there was another pileup right in front of the turnpike. A couple weeks ago, a gentleman was killed.

There was a six car accident outside of that. It's just nothing but traffic and problems in that area. I have nothing personal against trucks.

It's not about the trucks. It's about the traffic in that area. Bringing a second truck stop is going to do nothing but bring cars and trucks to that area.

They're going to advertise to come into that area. It's just going to create more traffic. There's been a moratorium for almost 30 years in that area because of traffic issues and the city of Chigbee has never done anything since then to alleviate that traffic problem.

We all know how there's a lot of traffic in that area. I know we can't stop the traffic, but encouraging a business that's going to bring that type of traffic to the area is not going to work. It's not going to work for the residents who are taxpayers in this city as well.

I'm concerned what a truck stop brings. They're known to bring prostitution. They're known to bring drugs.

They're known to bring human trafficking and all kinds of crimes. We've had reports for the last two years when we came here last time, there was over 620 calls just to the Pride station within three years. Those are only the ones that were not charged.

Things that were charged could not be on the report per the police report we were told. Chief Jebb, the former chief police, came and said at the last meeting that it was denied that it's not a good idea to put a truck stop in that area, a second truck stop. It's just the fuel issue is a big issue.

80,000 gallons of tanks of gallons of gas fuel they want to put, two above ground and two underground. You're right on the flight path of Westover. You have a school with disabled children.

You have a nursing home right nearby. And I'm not talking about Litwin School. I'm talking about right behind McDonald's is a school for disabled children.

You have many businesses and you have residents. Never mind the fact you're not far from Westover. It's just a dangerous area and another truck stop is not going to help.

Thank you.

[Speaker 1]
Thank you. Anyone else here for public input?

[Speaker 17]
My name is Eugene Prisbillowitz, 11 Caddyshack Drive, Chickpea Mass. I'd like to bring around a picture today if I could.

[Speaker 1]
You can leave it for us.

[Speaker 17]
It's on an iPad. This was taken today at Freeport. This is what you're doing.

[Speaker 1]
Okay, just address the chair, okay, and just show the picture, please. For what reason? You can't talk to you?

Okay, you can. That's fine.

[Speaker 17]
Right, we don't need any more trackers.

[Speaker 1]
She can show why you talk because your timing is if you wanted to speak.

[Speaker 17]
We don't need any more tractor-trailers in our neighborhood. You're playing with our lives if you approve this. You voted unanimously once to shut it down.

Mr. Patel took it to court. It was upheld that he wasn't to build it. He appealed and he lost again.

There is no reason for this to go any further. That accident today, when I went by at 349, I couldn't even get all of it. This accident took place right in front of the exit on an off-ramp.

There's at least three vehicles and two tractor-trailers. When tractor-trailers are going 70 miles an hour, there's no stopping them, okay, not on a dime. There's no stopping them.

And then you allow these tractor-trailers to come into our neighborhood. This accident backed up traffic all the way to Ludlow. Then these people get off at the Ludlow exit because they can go no further and they come down Burnett Road.

These accidents are at least an every week occurrence. There was one not this Friday but the Friday before. I believe it involved six cars right at the intersection of 291 and Mass Pike.

Then what irritates me is people talk about tax revenue from a gas station. How the hell do you people compare that to lives? I don't know if you have a conscience or not but if you do, you'll stop this tonight and let it go no further.

I think you have that option and that's what you should do. This is horrible, horrible. Thank you.

[Speaker 1]
Thank you. Anyone else for public input?

[Speaker 19]
Hi, my name is Kristen Risley, 19 Mark Street. I didn't prepare anything. None of us really had a lot of time but when I heard about the meeting tonight, just wanted to put out there a couple thoughts.

So I have two children that go to school here in the city, one that just left Litwin School. None of us in that neighborhood get buses for our children there because we live too close to the school. We live 1.9 miles so it's just under the two mile mark. No way in hell would I let my kids walk on Burnett Road to get to school because of the traffic, because of the trucks. Add in all these other trucks and traffic that this truck stop will bring and it's very disheartening to think that everybody up here would maybe pass that and put our kids in further danger. The second thing is that I have a son that will be driving soon and I don't want him going through this intersection when I don't want to go through this intersection.

I hop on the pike at exit five just to get to exit six because sometimes I'm too afraid to get onto the fuller road onto that part of 291 because of the traffic being so bad. When I'm trying to commute, I'm to carpool as a working parent, as kids that are active in this city, it's ridiculous the traffic that is already existing and how terrible it can become if this truck stop is allowed to pass. Just some food for thought for all of you that might be sitting up here and thinking of our future.

[Speaker 1]
Thank you very much. Anyone else here for public on the floor?

[Speaker 16]
I'm Bruce Socha, 149 LaBelle Circle in Chicopee. We've already been down this road once before. You voted no.

We thought the issue was over with. We made a good case and as the judges concurred with us. I want to remind you as I had sworn an oath that when you swore your oath to be a councilor for this city, you became representatives for us, the people, the citizenry.

That oath goes all the way back to the Magna Carta. Our founding fathers relied on the Magna Carta to give us our independence. Now, we as representatives of the Ward 6 who is being affected by this undue traffic, we have a right to protect ourselves, our homes, our properties, and our streets.

The power that you were given with that oath, you have magisterial powers if you don't know it. The number one power is to be able to say no to outside pressure. You represent us, not outside interests, us.

I just want to remind you of that. I didn't know that a long time ago, but I do know it now. I'm here on less than an hour's notice, but I'm sure that we'd have an awful lot more here from our ward had we known.

I'm going to leave it at that. If we have to come back, we'll come back in force, but please remember, you represent us, not outside interests. Thank you.

Thank you.

[Speaker 1]
Is there anyone else?

[Speaker 10]
Don't start the clock yet, Frank.

[Speaker 1]
I'll start when you say good evening.

[Speaker 10]
First of all, I just wanted to say... Name and address. Yeah, your name and address.

I want to make sure everybody... Name and address, please. Glenn LaPlante, 71 Angela Drive, Chicopee.

Thanks, Glenn. First of all, I wanted to just confirm with all the counselors that they received an email I sent to all of them. In the past, I've asked counselors if they received my emails, and they said, no, I have not received it.

But I just want to confirm that, obviously, you work for the city, you work for us, the taxpayers. I want to make sure you're reading your emails. I just want to kind of...

I'm going to jump around a little bit about this. Obviously, the city was taken to court. Pilot lost.

And I'm not going to repeat what Gene said. They lost. It got denied.

You denied it unanimously, 10 to nothing. I could even tell you some of the things I said. Counselor Roy said, if I lived up there, I wouldn't want a truck stop there.

Bob Zagorowski said, I wouldn't want to live in that area. All of you that are on this council before denied this once. So nothing's changed with what they're offering.

So there's no reason that this should even move past this. Because the only thing that's changed is traffic. More traffic, more accidents.

What they're offering hasn't changed. They're offering the same exact thing they were before. So how could you in just mind say tonight to these people who've had three days notice, okay, because this was only posted on the 15th, this meeting.

And these meetings are usually held the second Tuesday of the month. But because of elections, this was pushed back. So I had people call my house tonight.

They were upset because they found out about this meeting just recently. All of you that were on the council before knew we had almost 200 people here to fight this, okay? And we thought we were done with this, okay?

So my view is this. I'm a taxpayer. When they took you to court, they took all the city council, they took the city of Chicopee to court, okay?

They took us to court, the residents, because they tried to tie us in with you. So they were coming after us. We had to hire a lawyer.

We spent a lot of money representing the residents, okay? For you to come back tonight and say this is going to be good to go, that's a slap in the face. That's a slap in the face to all the people that vote.

That's a slap in the face to people that all pay taxes. If you're going to threaten people with taxes, raising taxes, because of the, you know, we need more money, I'm for safety first before I am anything else. I don't care what you build.

Safety should come first, and all of you should know that. And there's some instances where the judge even stated that the city had every right to deny that. Every right.

The lawyer that represented you was representing you with our tax dollars. We're taxed, okay, we use our tax dollars to pay the lawyer who had to represent you, the city councilors, in court. So now if you come back tonight and say this is good, how do you think that makes the city look?

Not just us, everybody in the city. Thank you, Glenn. This is DOA, dead on arrival.

Thank you, Glenn.

[Speaker 1]
Now it's here for public input from the floor.

[Speaker 21]
Clare LaBelle, 60 Post Road. I just wanted to say I attended the meeting at Litwin School. Two days later I came home from work and there was an accident.

[Speaker 8]
Excuse me, can you get closer to the mic so everybody can hear? Thank you.

[Speaker 21]
And I know there's no accidents, nothing happens up there, but 291 is not Burnett Road, we're told. So from the Turnpike entrance to my house, which is two miles, it took me from 320 to 410 to get home. I don't know in what world that is acceptable to anybody.

And this is not uncommon to have to sit in traffic on 291. Since they redesigned the Turnpike entrance, it has made it worse. People think coming off the Turnpike you can go 70 miles an hour.

Red light or not, you just keep flying because there's nothing to hold you back. It has been absolutely a nightmare and it's getting worse. And it's just got to stop.

I'm sorry that you all think we should have one, but put up something that doesn't need traffic. Put up a storage unit. I don't care what you put there that doesn't need traffic, but use the land wisely, not stupidly by putting up another pilot.

Thank you.

[Speaker 1]
Thank you.

[Speaker 25]
Yes, my name is Wayne Lozier. I live at 101 Carpenter Avenue, Tigard. One thing I'm sick and tired of hearing is that we're not, we're only fighting about the truck stop.

We're not saying we shouldn't develop that area, but it's all we hear is we're against truck stops and stuff. You go there at a certain time when the Pride is busy, those trucks are parked in the first lane and there's even bigger traffic. Well, that's one thing everybody's saying about us, that we're not here for development of that area.

We are, but everybody's, we just don't want the trucks there. Maybe you could have used the space for one of the car washes, because there's just a lot of space up there for cars, instead of having five on Memorial Drive.

[Speaker 1]
Thank you. Is it? Yeah.

[Speaker 12]
David A. Moore, I live at 72 Fairway Drive. You're right, we probably should have another car wash, because we have more car washes than anybody else in the state of Massachusetts in the city, so why don't we have another one?

Here we go again, round two. The issue I have tonight is a lack of communication from city government, and it's starting all the way from the mayor's office, all the way down to the city planner and to city councils. The residents were not properly informed with enough notice that this was going to be coming up tonight.

I'm all for discussion, good, bad, or indifferent, but to tell people an hour or two before a council meeting that this was coming up is unacceptable. I blame people who represent our ward for not getting the word out. Putting a posting on Facebook does nothing.

I don't have a Facebook, so how am I going to find out about this meeting? I have to hear from other people that something's going to come up tonight, there's going to be another meeting in another week or two, and then this is going to come back to the city council in December. During the holiday time, people are spending time with their families, Thanksgiving, Christmas.

I don't want to be thinking about the possibility of whatever's going to go up there. So I think there needs to be a lot more discussion. I don't think it's proper for this to be rushed through without getting more input from the residents.

Good, bad, or indifferent. But please give us a chance to voice our concerns. Again, whether it be good, bad, or indifferent.

But for this to be rushed through and not have a chance for the residents to have a proper meeting that we're all notified, whether it be a phone call, newsletter, or what, I think is unacceptable. And you people, as our representatives from the city, need to wake up and start notifying residents of something that can be catastrophic or could be good. But discussion is good and we need a lot more of it.

Thank you.

[Speaker 1]
Thank you. Is there anyone else in the audience for public input?

[Speaker 13]
Sue Nimchick, James Street. Score notebook. Abutters, they come from all parts of Chicopee.

Coming always, not necessarily always informed properly. Sometimes abutters are at even committee meetings and no information about a business going to withdraw a proposal. Can you imagine that?

Thank you, Gary, for noting at that time, even at a successive meeting, asking two department heads if it occurred again. And here you see, and you have every right to know. And I find, you know, I need to know or I don't know what I don't know.

And to me, that's what every single counselor should always be asking. And on Telegraph Avenue in 2015, we encountered, whereas twice before, it was defeated by two different councils in the early 80s and 90s. And then we were up at bat again, they came back.

And as you said, the conditions were worse than everything. But wherever there's a plot spot or parcel, it will be developed, that word, with no regard to mess or what? Public safety.

Because it's a finite city, and yes, it, you know, I've been self-employed since 1983, but I'm a human being. And I go with principles and service and what's right. And to me, the most important resource of any community is, guess what?

People. Especially what I call the resident taxpayer voter. You're all in one.

And the only reason we lost in 2015 is because the members of the council changed. And Michael Ludick, he says this to the gentleman who was bringing up the Magna Carta, okay? The vote of any elected official belongs to the voter, not to anyone else.

And therefore, is there service, is there representation? And there's a season coming up in 2025. It's called an election.

And that's where we've got to give voice, not about politics, it's about power. And who does the vote really belong to? Because to me, life is really important.

It snuffs out just like that, where the quality of life and public safety and everything. My request to the councilors is, you know, you don't know what you don't know. And it's the first principle you should be finding out.

But when a business or a player is coming up to the bat for the third time and they strike out, and then they're going to come again. And in 2025, you watch this, another business is going to come up again, and they've been struck out three times.

[Speaker 1]
Thank you, Sue. Is there anyone else here on the floor for public input?

[Speaker 14]
Brian Clark, 54 Dobeck Ave. Good evening. I missed the meeting the other day at Litwin School. I was working.

I've heard a lot about the pilot truck stop that wants to go in. The city needs businesses. And regardless of everything, I've been up there since 1979.

I moved back in 2000 by my own house up there. I enjoy it up there. But the problem is, is it busy?

It's gotten better. Are we going to stop Granby, Ludlow, Belchertown from building houses to come down Burnett Road? I just don't see it.

They just put 20 houses on in Granby, right down the street from the jail. They all come down Burnett Road. Burnett Road is not sacred.

It's not. It's a street. It's a public street.

And people may not like what I have to say, but it is what it is. I'm for that plot to be built, whether it is a truck stop, whether it is another business. But to shoo Tesla away, to shoo good businesses away, it's not what we need.

Our taxes went up. I'd like our taxes to go down, not keep going and going and going. It's been an old thing over and over and over again on Burnett Road.

No one represented me. I live up there. I didn't hire a lawyer.

A lawyer, I never talked to me. So I don't understand if it's 10 people, 15 people, there's more in the ward than just the 10 or 15. So that's all I'm going to say is I wish whatever you have to do to get a business up there.

I understand that the traffic, when they built that new exit on exit 6, is a little confusing. But that's where we should be fighting the battle with the state and saying what is going on there? How can we make it safer there?

But to deny businesses to come to the city of Chicopee is only going to bring our tax rate up more. Thank you.

[Speaker 1]
Thank you. Okay. Is there anyone else on the floor for public input?

Is there anyone on Zoom for public input? Is there anyone on Zoom for public input? Seeing none, I'll take a motion to close public input.

Motion to close public input. Motion made and second to close public input. Roll call, please.

[Speaker 2]
President Laflamme. Yes. Roy.

Yes. Wagner. Yes.

Zagorowski. Yes. Arriaga.

Yes. Brooks. Yes.

Gough. Valkier. Yes.

Trampets. Yes. Chomsky.

[Speaker 1]
Yes.

[Speaker 2]
Cushane. Yes. Labrie.

Yes. Pena-Costello.

[Speaker 1]
Yes.

[Speaker 2]
13 yes. Thank you.

[Speaker 1]
I'd just like to, as president of the board, like to take a minute to just talk about the issue tonight with the pilot. The city of Chicopee gets applications all the time, which happened to be this one here at a certain date. Our normal process is it comes before the city council.

We look at it. We send it to a committee. We have public hearings.

We would not have voted for this without people being public input. We do it all the time. This particular one, he just put it in.

I don't know the date he put it in, to be honest with you. But it would never have gone a vote tonight. All our things go to public input, always.

So we hear from the residents. Sam, I know he had one quick one. He wanted to have another one.

But just so you know, we don't try to do something where public don't at least have a public hearing. I'm a firm believer, even if I don't like it, we're sending it to public input, my vote, because everybody has the right to come to them. So this tonight, you came to public committee, but we were not going to be discussing it on the floor tonight where you could have more back and forth like you usually do.

So I just want to let you know that it was put on by the applicant, and then it comes before us to send it to a committee. That's where it was going. And then it would be, again, you can go on our website.

It's all there, in there, and look at it there. So I don't need to, I know how to do it, Glenn. I understand that.

But I would have sent it for a hearing, knowing there was, if there was no one here anyway. So I'm not going to debate it. I just want to tell you that.

[Speaker 5]
Point of order, Mr. President, we're not debating the public here.

[Speaker 1]
I already said that. But I want to clarify, I had the right, I talked to our attorney.

[Speaker 5]
It's not warranted that we clarify anything. We can do that after the fact, engage with the public, not during a public meeting.

[Speaker 1]
Okay. Let's go into now, we're closing public, we'll do communications.

[Speaker 2]
No communications. Okay. We have minutes.

Minutes, please. Minutes of October 1st and October 15th.

[Speaker 3]
Councillor Chomsky. Motion that the minutes of October 1st and October 15th be approved.

[Speaker 1]
Motion being seconded, the minutes of October 1st, regular meeting, October 15th, regular meeting be approved this evening. On the motion.

[Speaker 3]
Self-explanatory.

[Speaker 1]
Thank you. Any comments from the floor? Any comments from Zoom?

Seeing none, roll call.

[Speaker 2]
President Laflamme.

[Speaker 1]
Yes.

[Speaker 2]
Roy. Yes. Wagner.

Yes. Zagroski. Arriaga.

Yes. Brooks. Yes.

Gaub. Yes. Salkeer.

Yes. Krampetz. Yes.

Chomsky.

[Speaker 1]
Yes.

[Speaker 2]
Cushing. Yes. LaBrie.

Yes. Pena-Castro. Yes.

[Speaker 1]
13 yes. And the motion passes. Okay.

Mayor's orders, please.

[Speaker 2]
Order that the sum of $75,000 be in hereby appropriate to the following named account, wastewater expense account for special services. Set amounts be taken from the available funds in the following named wastewater salary accounts. Chief Operator, $50,000.

Assistant Chief Operator, $15,000. DPW Operations Assistant, $10,000 for a total of $75,000.

[Speaker 1]
Councillor Arriaga.

[Speaker 27]
Motion that the Mayor's order be received and passed through all stages on the written recommendation of the Mayor.

[Speaker 1]
Motion made and seconded that the motion be received and passed through all stages on a written recommendation of the Mayor. On the motion, please.

[Speaker 27]
This is to cover the increased sewer charges paid to South Hadley and Springfield.

[Speaker 1]
Thank you. Any other comments from the floor? Councillor Wagner.

[Speaker 5]
Thank you, Mr. President. I'm a little bit, I keep seeing these orders brought up and it's been happening all year and I just haven't really thought to ask. So before I comment any further, I'm going to make a motion to have this instead sent to Finance for a public hearing.

[Speaker 1]
Motion made and seconded to send to Finance for a public hearing. On the motion.

[Speaker 5]
Thank you, Mr. President. So I keep seeing expenses come out of salary line items that, frankly, we're just not filling positions for. So I wonder if it's possible to maybe have a sit down with the auditor and with the department and see, okay, why are we keep taking stuff out of stuff that's supposed to be a salary line item instead of something like free cash or stabilization if it's this large of an amount?

And if we're not filling these positions, why aren't we filling them? Is it because they're underpaid? What seems to be happening?

So I want to have a larger discussion on that and potentially related to this motion. Thank you.

[Speaker 1]
Is there any other comments from the floor? Is there any comments from Zoom? Is there any comments from Zoom?

Seeing none, motion to send it to public input. Roll call, please.

[Speaker 2]
So on the amendment to send to Finance. Correct. To call the amendment first.

Yep. President Laflamme. Yes.

Roy. Yes. Wagner.

Yes. Zagorowski. Yes.

Arriaga. Yes. Brooks.

Yes. Stahp.

[Speaker 28]
Yes.

[Speaker 2]
Falkier.

[Speaker 28]
Yes.

[Speaker 2]
Krampus. Yes. Chomsky.

Yes. Kushain. Yes.

LaBrie. Yes. Pena-Castello.

[Speaker 1]
Yes.

[Speaker 2]
13 yeses.

[Speaker 1]
And the motion passes.

[Speaker 2]
It's in Finance. Yep. Order that the sum of $35,000 be in hereby appropriate to the following name the count DPW highway special account for street surveying legal description said amounts to be taken from the available funds in the DPW highway salary account for maintenance man concert Costello

[Speaker 4]
motion that the mayor's order be received and passed through all stages on the written

[Speaker 1]
recommendation of the mayor motion made in seconds the motion be received and passed through all stages on the written recommendation the mayor on the motion please yes as i stated

[Speaker 4]
earlier um the city city engineering department has received numerous requests for road work on various streets these streets being anson street little on litwin lane old lineman road pelican drive telegraph avenue and they are not owned by the city or they are partially owned by the city a well-written letter has been received by a superintendent um liz batista and she states in order then to maintain these streets and add to the chapter 90 state program the city has received a quote from the land serving firm of derky white town and chapter lane to prepare street acceptance plans this is a big deal these some of these streets are not accepted as city streets and only some in some instances um only part of the street is accepted as a city street so i am extremely grateful because on in my ward we've got anson street old lineman road telegraph avenue and to have these streets fully accepted as a city street um is going to make it much more financial financially better for the city because now we'll be able to go for chapter 90 funds this is a real big deal and i thank the mayor's office and i thank the city engineer and uh the city dpw superintendent thank you thank constance i do want to thank um

[Speaker 3]
the mayor's office um superintendent liz batista and doug ellis for um all their work in this litwin lane is a street that i've been trying to get paved for a while and due to it not being a city conformed street we can only fill the pothole so as it is a um through way to go to litwin school kids walk there i think this is a big win for the neighborhood thank you thank you any other comments

[Speaker 1]
from the floor any comments from zoom any comments from zoom seeing none roll call president yes

[Speaker 2]
roy yes wagner yes zagorowski ariaga yes brooks yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes and the motion passes order that the sum of 19 162 dollars and 98 cents been hereby appropriate to the following named account human resource special account for indemnifications of police and fire set amounts be taken from the available funds in the stabilization fund concert crampets motion

[Speaker 15]
that the mayor's order be received passed for all stages on the written recommendation of the mayor

[Speaker 1]
motion may second the motion be received and passed to all stages under written recommendation

[Speaker 15]
the mayor on the motion please uh the city is self-insured for its uh public safety personnel so this is paying their medical bills thank you any other comments from the floor any comments

[Speaker 1]
from zoom any comments from zoom seeing none roll call president yes roy yes wagner yes

[Speaker 2]
zagorowski ariaga yes brooks yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes in a motion passes be ordered at the sum of thirty two hundred dollars being hereby appropriate to the following named account health special account for wildlife control set amounts be taken from the available

[Speaker 5]
funds in the stabilization fund concert wagner motion that the order be received and sent uh and pass through all stages on the written recommendation of the mayor motion may

[Speaker 1]
second the motion be received and passed all stages on the written recommendation the mayor

[Speaker 5]
on the motion on the motion this is a contractual obligation to cover uh extra wildlife control

[Speaker 1]
expenses thank you any other comments from the floor any comments from zoom any comments from

[Speaker 2]
zoom seeing none roll call president yes roy yes wagner yes zagorowski ariaga yes brooks yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes 13 yes and the motion passes the new appointment of denise

[Speaker 23]
launderville as a member of the license commission concert roy a motion that the mayor's order be received in the appointment of denise launderville sent to the human resource committee for a public

[Speaker 1]
hearing motion made in second the mayor's order be received and sent to the human resources for a public hearing on the motion the motion self-explanatory thank you any comments from the floor any comments from zoom any comments from zoom seeing none roll call president yes

[Speaker 2]
roy yes wagner yes zagorowski ariaga yes brooks yes yes yes yes yes yes 13 yes and the motion passes a new appointment of casey crotto as a member of the license commission uh consular

[Speaker 1]
labrie uh same course mr president motion made in second the order be received and sent to the finance uh for a public hearing on the motion please human resource i'm sorry on the human resources i'm sorry you may register for a public hearing on the motion please uh we'll take it up in committee thank you any comments from the floor any comments from zoom any comments from zoom

[Speaker 2]
seeing none roll call president yes roy yes wagner yes zagorowski ariaga yes brooks yes yes salk here yes crampets yes yes yes yes yes 13 yes and a motion passes or that the city council accept the fy25 formula grant in the amount of 222 675 dollars from the commonwealth of massachusetts executive office of elder affairs to the chicago council on aging said grant is accepted in accordance with mass general art chapter 44 section 53a motion made in the second

[Speaker 26]
that the motion be received and passed through all stages and a written recommendation the mayor

[Speaker 8]
uh the motion councilman bella care um okay uh this is uh this is a grant uh on the motion that's being received okay a motion that the mayor's order be received and passed through all stages on recommendation of the mayor and then on a motion um this is a grant for 222 675 dollars from the commonwealth of mass to from the executive office of elder affairs to the council on aging and this money is to be used for various expenses for the council on aging and i support it and it

[Speaker 26]
should be accepted this evening thank you any other comments on the floor anybody on zoom

[Speaker 2]
anybody on zoom follow all please president of flam abstain roy yes wagner yes zagorowski ariaga yes brooks yes yes salk here yes crampets yes yes yes yes yes 12 yes one abstention the order that the city council accept the donations in the amount of eight thousand one hundred one dollars to the chigbee council on aging for senior meals for the month of october 2024 said donations are accepted in accordance with mass general on chapter 44 section 53a

[Speaker 3]
motion that the mayor's order be received and passed through all stages and the written recommendation of the mayor on the motion um this is the donation to the senior center for 8100 for senior meals for the month of october any other comments from the floor

[Speaker 2]
president of flam abstain roy yes wagner yes warowski yes ariaga yes brooks yes god yes yes crampets yes yes yes yes 12 yes one abstention order that the city council accept the donation in the amount of five thousand dollars from margaret and hans zavala to the chigbee council on aging said donations to be used for programming and is accepted in accordance with mass general on chapter 44 section 53a

[Speaker 26]
motion motion that the uh councilman kushing motion that the mayor's order be received and

[Speaker 18]
passed through all stages on the recommendation of the mayor and the donation accepted this evening on the motion this is a donation from margaret and hans abala i'm hoping we can do a little something better than a letter uh considering the donation wasn't five thousand dollars which is up

[Speaker 26]
you know pretty substantial and appreciated anybody else on the floor anybody on zoom second

[Speaker 2]
time on zoom call the roll president of flam abstain roy yes wagner yes zagorowski ariaga yes brooks yes god yes falkeer yes crampets yes jumpski yes hussein yes labrie yes pina costello yes 12 yes one abstention motion passes okay reporters okay resolution of the chigbee city council requesting safety and traffic calming improvements at the entrance ramp onto the end of i-291 and schoenigan drive leading to bernet road whereas the entrance ramp onto the end of i-291 from schoenigan drive leading to bernet road and chigbee has become an area of concern due to excessive speeding and safety hazards and whereas residents commuters and local businesses have reported significant safety concerns related to high speeds near misses and traffic flow issues making this a critical area for improvement and whereas this entrance ramp serves as a significant access point for both local and interstate travel making its safety and accessibility a priority for the city of chigbee and whereas the city of chigbee is committed to ensuring the safety and well-being of its residents and those who travel throughout the community now therefore be it resolved that the city of chigbee city council formally request the massachusetts department of transportation to conduct a comprehensive safety review of the entrance ramp onto 291 and bernet road and evaluate potential improvements aimed at reducing traffic speeds and enhancing safety such as traffic calming measures signage and modifications as needed be it further resolved that the city of chigbee will fully support mass dot in efforts to assess and implement necessary modifications to improve traffic flow and reduce safety risks at this location and then it be it for be it finally resolved that it that copies of this resolutions be sent to the massachusetts department of transportation the massachusetts state legislature and the city of chigbee for any other relevant agencies to enlist their support on this matter constant shumsky thank

[Speaker 3]
you mr president thank you clerk ratel i think this is the fourth resolution i've had you read did a record this year um thank you president laflam and vice president zagrowski for co-sponsoring this with me as you heard from many i need a motion for motion to approve the resolution motion made in second to approve this resolution this evening on the motion please um so this is a resolution that i have filed in conjunction with president laflam and vice president zagrowski as you have heard from residents tonight and i'm sure you've heard and experienced them in the past this is a very dangerous intersection to the point where myself and many others and we heard again tonight too will go purposely around at times to avoid going onto this intersection my next door neighbor was almost killed twice at this intersection once last year he was in the hospital with three broken ribs and a punctured lung because he got hit by oncoming traffic because people fly going 65 to 80 miles trying to beat the light to go onto burnett road or onto the mass pike i don't know who designed this i don't know why it was engineered the way it was but it needs to be looked at and i'm hoping that my colleagues on the council will support the residents myself and trying to make this area safer for everyone not just the residents up on burner road but everyone who travels on the intersection thank

[Speaker 15]
you thank you concert crampets yeah i just also wanted to comment that when i go that way coming out of the falls it's also a little tricky to get onto the the pike when you're getting onto 291 because there is traffic that backs up kind of in the left lane if you're trying to go on the pike so i look forward to you know a review of this being done thank you thank you any other comments

[Speaker 8]
from the floor concert balik here yeah thank you mr president yeah i'm just kind of curious if if we can get this moving two questions how soon this would take place and how long the study would take do we would we have any idea okay through the chair yep so what i can tell you

[Speaker 3]
from what i've been trying to do i've been uh very busy with this issue and a lot of others i have spoken to senator olivera's office um jake's a friend and i'm his staff is incredible so we have worked and talked about this last week and the resolution when i suggested that i'm gonna have the council sign this and hopefully approve unanimously to show mass dot that something needs to be done here because one councilor saying something and one senator saying something it's not going to get the ball rolling but if we have a group of 13 of us sending a message to our state delegation and mass dot i am optimistic that someone will say well hey we have something here maybe we should look at it you know they work for the people just like every other elected official and department they're all taxpayer funded this is a taxpayer issue that's it any

[Speaker 1]
other comments from the floor any comments from zoom any comments from zoom seeing on roll call

[Speaker 2]
president yes roy yes wagner yes the grouse yes ariaga yes brooks yes golf falquier yes crampets yes jumpski yes yes labrie yes finnegan yes 13 yes and a motion passes we have a favorable report from the zoning committee for a special permit under for a special permit application under chapter 275-67 for the purpose of developing existing property for residential commercial use project shall include an additional 10 new apartments on the second level of the existing structure apartments consist of six one bedroom and three two bedroom and one studio units

[Speaker 8]
232 exchange street cons councilor balakir motion that the favorable zoning committee report be received and that the special permit application and waiver be approved this evening with conditions

[Speaker 1]
motion may be seconded that the application the zoning committee report be received a favorable report um that it be i'm sorry you wanted to waiver and what's the other one

[Speaker 8]
no well first of all mr president we need to approve the special permit a waiver and a waiver on the motion please okay on the motion um this is an interesting project that's going to take place on 232 exchange street uh as was read by the clerk this involves additional 10 new apartments and a second level of an existing structure however in our meeting we came across a snafu the application said 10 apartments and the odrc review report said nine apartments and this needed to mirror each other so therefore this was moved to another meeting and we had we had some discussion and in turn the planning department made the correction so that we could move forward and the consensus of the committee was to approve this project with the following conditions the applicant must comply with all requests and conditions of the odrc review regarding 232 exchange street the subject property and there was also a condition for satisfactory response letter from the planning director that all conditions have been met regarding the overlay district review committee report so that would be our first vote um mr president regarding the

[Speaker 1]
special permit okay any other comments from the floor any any comments from zoom any comments from

[Speaker 2]
zoom seeing them we'll take a roll call president yes roy yes wagner yes ariaga yes brooks yes gov yes valkier yes crampets yes chumsky yes cusheen yes labrie yes yes 13 yes and the motion

[Speaker 8]
passes and then uh mr president the other issue was uh regarding a vote of a waiver of the traffic impact study on the motion make a motion yes a motion that the waiver of the traffic impact study

[Speaker 1]
be approved this evening motion made in second that the waiver for the traffic impact study be approved this evening for item number 11 on the motion please on the motion um i had an

[Speaker 8]
interesting discussion again with the planning director with this and this is uh involving the property of 232 exchange street uh because of the uh smaller project uh the planning director and his infinite wisdom felt this was not warranted so therefore it was recommended to us that we um waive the traffic impact study and that was the consensus and this is a permit to run with

[Speaker 1]
the land thank you thank you any other comments from the floor any comments from zoom any comments

[Speaker 2]
from zoom scene on roll call president laflambe yes roy yes wagner yes yes ariaga yes brooks yes yes valkier yes crampets yes chumsky yes cusheen yes three yes yes and the motion passes be it order that the finance committee meet for an update on technology use in all city departments

[Speaker 4]
concert costello motion that the uh order be received and referred to the finance committee for a public hearing the issue would be an update on technology use in all city departments motion

[Speaker 1]
made in second the order be received sent to the finance committee for a public hearing on the

[Speaker 4]
motion please yeah this is uh something um that we've been discussing uh on and off for several years and how our city departments and our city department heads um and i'm not fingering anybody but um how they uh how are they progressing in regards to implementation of technology um are they behind on technology technology has been shown to become extremely efficient and since post-covid technology is more common now than ever so i just want to make sure that our department heads who are managers we forget that all our department heads are managers meaning they have to manage an office and part of that is to make sure they're up to date on technology so all our department managers have to make sure among other things with the manager's responsibility is to make sure that their technology continues to grow and meet the modern needs of the 21st century i believe councillor goff has also um commented in regards to this she co-sponsored this to make our government and our managers more efficient

[Speaker 3]
thank you thank you constant shumsky yes thank you mr president i have two quick one question one statement uh my first question is to through the chair to councillor peniakocella why is it

[Speaker 4]
going to finance because we have to see whether or not there's going to be extra money that we have to look at to upgrade our technology and as a taxpayer i want to know that okay but as a taxpayer i want to make sure our technology is in fact by our department managers updated okay thank you because if they're not updated we're going to fall behind and that's going to cost us more money

[Speaker 3]
in the long run okay thank you and my my statement is i'm actually not against this for one reason i think that this is a great opportunity i know president of flam and i met with our secretary agnes in regards to looking for a city-wide application i think that tonight is a perfect example of ways that we can utilize the 21st century to kind of bring the city up to the 21st century you know technology's evolutionary not revolutionary times are always changing and i think a city-wide app the possibility of a discussion would be great because you know if there's ever developments or meetings we can send push notifications out to residents to inform them of decisions that are possibly being made tonight or on any other night so i think this is um an idea that i'm kind of open to thank you thank you concert golf um i know that the city uses munis

[Speaker 22]
as an application but there's in the 21st century there's a lot more applications that can be used through munis and it's budgeting and the budget hearings are coming up you know i i don't know if every department uses munis to do their budget but it would give a more uniform and quicker response to doing budgets and everything else i mean so i'm not sure how how many applications we use with munis if we can upgrade to add more applications and when you do that munis will come in and train everybody that needs to use the system and maybe that's it we've had it for so long and people just not are are not trained on how to use it properly so i'd like to see the departments be able to push their information to the next department so they can do their job okay thank

[Speaker 5]
you uh concert wagner's next okay thank you thank you mr president yeah i've actually heard from a few former and current city employees that they they believe that the use of technology in city hall could could absolutely be improved so i'm wholeheartedly in favor of that and working for a company that does business regularly with municipalities uh i i can see firsthand uh you know that that getting behind on the technology can be very very detrimental to a municipality's operations um with with regards uh through you mr president to what councilor chomsky said there actually already is a system in place if residents didn't know where you can go and you can just input an email or a phone number and you can get text message notifications when the uh when when it's on the city website now it does work sporadically and truth be told i'm planning on trying to work with the i.t director on that one i'm going to be shooting an email over within the next couple of weeks because you know it's just stopped working for me again recently i'm not sure that the need for for an actual app is there that's very expensive to develop especially when you can just have a you know web web page be geared more toward mobile stuff but you know certainly we need to figure out ways to make our departments run more efficiently and to have the residents be able to be able to better connect with us as the representatives uh see what's going on in the city to get news and alerts so i'm wholeheartedly behind this order thank you councilor costello i want to thank councilor

[Speaker 4]
uh wagner and councilor chomsky for their support in this order to modernize our technology and to keep abreast i also want to thank councilor wagner uh for several months ago you talked about getting our budget uh in preparing it long before it's due and i'm hoping that this is something that um that we can use with modern technology to get us more informed on our budget long before the end of june i remember you talked about that i think that thank you councilor chomsky thank you

[Speaker 3]
mr president uh through the chair to uh councilor wagner i know there is an app one of the applications i was looking at called go gov they do offer i think a free year trial to the municipality to try it to see what it would be like for their municipality so i think it's worth exploring so i didn't want to address that to you thank you okay anybody else on the floor is there

[Speaker 1]
anyone on zoom is there anyone on zoom so uh if i can make to the uh to the maker it says here uh so i can set it up right for finance be it ordered that the committee meet for an update on technology you didn't put who who do you want or y'all work with the mayor's office to get the i.t people

[Speaker 4]
from both and that for you that is that okay people and uh councilor wagner or councilor chomsky or councilor goff do you have any suggestions besides other well i'm going to

[Speaker 1]
leave it up to the mayor it's he they work for them you know because these guys really know what's going on agree i'm not taking that away from them but we'll work with them uh with those folks so i'll have those people at that meeting because okay all right thank you any other comments from

[Speaker 2]
the floor seeing none roll call president yes roy yes wagner yes zagorowski ariaga yes brooks yes yes yes krampus yes chomsky yes kushain yes labrie yes kenya costello yes 13 yes and the motion passes be it ordered that nominations to the city hall phase 2 building commission be accepted and closed the following nominations be approved william boone linda maruk maureen kayer stephen morrow michael lempart and thomas costello

[Speaker 1]
constant zagorowski motion to close nominations motion made in second to close nominations

[Speaker 2]
roll call president of flam yes roy yes wagner yes zagorowski yes ariaga yes brooks yes yes valkier yes krampus yes chomsky yes kushain yes labrie yes kenya costello uh abstain 12 yes one abstention the motion passes

[Speaker 1]
motion made in second that we approve of all the nominations for the city hall phase two building commission be accepted this evening with any comments from the floor any comments from zoom any comments from zoom seeing none roll call president yes roy yes wagner yes zagorowski

[Speaker 2]
ariaga yes brooks yes yes valkier yes krampus yes chomsky yes kushain yes labrie yes 12 yes one abstention and the motion passes we have an ordinance to add to the following and schedule handicap parking 85 stonina drive consular brooks make a motion to refer

[Speaker 7]
this order to the city engineer and the commission on disabilities for evaluation

[Speaker 1]
motion made in second to this order be received sent to the city engineer and in the commission on this commission on disability to evaluate on the motion please uh this was a constituent request

[Speaker 7]
i'll wait to hear back from the engineer and the commission on disabilities thank you any other

[Speaker 1]
comments from the floor any comments from zoom any comments from zoom seeing none roll call

[Speaker 2]
president yes roy yes wagner yes zagorowski ariaga yes brooks yes yes valkier yes krampus yes chomsky yes kushain yes labrie yes kenya costello yes 13 yes and the motion passes we have an application for a new zone change from residential a to industrial for seven acres of property located at zero burnett road for the purpose of removing remnant residential a zoning within ever source power lines easement to make zoning consistent with industrial zoning designations or abutting properties petition is ufpt mass llc newberry port

[Speaker 8]
contrabellic here motion made to receive the new zone change application and refer to the zoning committee and planning board for a public hearing motion made in second that the application

[Speaker 1]
for a new zoning uh be accepted this evening and sent to zoning and planning for a public hearing

[Speaker 8]
on the motion please on the motion mr president we're going to take this up in committee okay

[Speaker 3]
any counselors uh chomsky i just wanted to uh talk on this a little bit i have very um a little information on it this is just for an expansion of a parking lot that's by the bowling alley from my understanding when i met with lee i believe this is the particular parcel of land i can get back to the residents on that information later but i'm pretty sure that's that's what this is thank you thank you any other comments from the floor

[Speaker 1]
any comments from zoom any comments from zoom seeing none roll call as a flam yes

[Speaker 2]
yes wagner yes garowski ariaga yes brooks yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes and the motion passes an application for an amended fuel storage license applied fight applied for by chickapee in 851 east columbus brickfield mass location of 357 burnett road total quality of all flammable fluid fluids stored 28,000 total quantity of combustible fluids stored 48,000 previous amount gallons 32,000 25,000 gasoline 7,000 council ballot here excuse me i think this oh i'm sorry council brooks

[Speaker 7]
council brooks sorry make a motion that the application for the amended fuel storage license be received and referred to the license committee for a public hearing motion made in second that

[Speaker 1]
the application for a fuel storage license for 850 851 east columb no i'm sorry 357 burnett road be uh sent to the license committee for a public hearing on the motion please we'll take up the

[Speaker 3]
committee thank you concert uh sumski thank you mr president i just want to uh first address this by recognizing that i didn't make a mistake and um not realizing that last week's statement that i put out did not have today's date and for that i do apologize to all the residents today who came here to all the residents who call me saying that they can't make it here and to all the residents who have yet to um have found out about this and it was a wake-up call for me in respect to um i guess i i realized that not everyone in the ward uses facebook so i'm really gonna have to work with my team to figure out a way that we can get broader communication out to the ward and everyone else and i truthfully i i was going back and forth on this but after hearing public input and hearing that and from residents today that i didn't you know they would they want to come speak on this and from what mr amos said that he's all for you know for communication um i think i owe it to all the residents up there who um don't know and found out late notice who couldn't come tonight to um have a discussion further in our subcommittee i i feel like i owe it to them and to the rest of my ward so the only reason i'm going to vote for this is for that reason to make it up to everyone who did it doesn't know and couldn't make it tonight i owe it to him thank you any

[Speaker 23]
other comments councilor roy yeah i was originally going to vote for this when i first saw it but after listening to the passionate pleas and and so forth from our burnett road area people i also feel this is going to be a public safety issue um i definitely want to see some kind of business go up there but i don't think that the gas station would be the answer to go into that area so i'm

[Speaker 5]
going to be voting against this thank you consular wagner thank you mr president i have the uh the proud honor of representing 55 000 uh good residents of the city of chicopee the taxpayers and their and rate payers and people who are just trying to make ends meet at this point when we're talking about safety concerns uh i completely do sympathize with those residents i have to walk out of my apartment every morning and have residents ask me what are we going to do about the safety issues on dale street not montgomery street uh because it's been several times in the past couple months where i've woken up and i've driven out onto the main road to go to work off of stephan street and there's been a cruiser there's been a fire truck there's been an ambulance it's it's a big deal for people i mean i i had a car crash into my residence at not two years ago after i came home from work it's not safe being on the roads anymore that that much is absolutely clear but what i have to balance is the need for public safety against consistent and substantial increases in taxes that are falling on residents and frankly for me it's it's a it's very conflicting when i have to to say to people who are already struggling to make ends meet because this is publicly available dls data division of local services the municipal finance trend dashboard you can all look that up chicopee's ability to pay these taxes isn't very good our residents are struggling it's hitting them close to home it's hitting them in their wallets and and people feel that i feel that i'm living on my own at 21 i'm absolutely feeling that so i have to say that i'm at least going to give this particular application a fair shake in committee i'm going to look over all the documents i'm going to listen to all the residents concerns and thank you all for coming out tonight but for me it's it's not as clear-cut as voting for or voting against because there's going to have to be a trade-off taxes uh over over traffic that's and that's that's we have to try and find that balance because i can't how many of us spoke publicly or privately about the need to to to bring up tax revenue so that our residents don't have to keep getting hemorrhaged it's year after year and maybe some of that's on us for bad budgeting practices like i said with mayor's item number one there's absolutely room for us to cut the budget and to get regular budget updates as required by state law but we're not getting them we're not cutting the budget so we have to try and find a way to to bring up taxes so that our residents don't absolutely get hammered every year by another 200 increase in their tax bill thank you

[Speaker 8]
councilman balakir yeah i think mr president um yes i'm concerned about uh public safety as well and i know that there were a lot of people that had an opportunity to speak this evening but for those who are not able to come tonight they will have another opportunity at the license committee meeting so we'll take this issue up and it will be an interesting meeting

[Speaker 1]
thank you thank you concert some concert uh crampets first okay uh through the president

[Speaker 15]
to our attorney um you know the last time we went through this you know it ended up in litigation and you know fortunately the the city prevailed um if we send it to committee tonight if we ended up in the same spot again does that damage us if we were to pursue litigation or would it be i'm just deciding whether going to committee weakens any potential legal litigation that may come up over this whether you know whether it be you know killing it tonight or sending it to

[Speaker 24]
committee so just so i'm clear so you're asking me if you vote against it if you vote it down tonight does that hurt you i mean that's that's i think a question for the litigation team for marco bono and the lytic and the solicitor i didn't handle litigation i wasn't here during the first

[Speaker 15]
um i mean i know you know we we have a process and you know my concern would be if we denied it tonight that would kind of weaken us if if you know there ended up being litigation so i just wanted to check to see if sending it to committee would put us in a weaker position on this if

[Speaker 24]
litigation was to come up down the road to be honest i think that'd be a question for the litigation team and you do that in executive session since it's a litigation strategy um i could i couldn't answer that question tonight okay all right thank you okay

[Speaker 1]
anyone else first time okay uh sam second time yeah thank you i'm gonna yield my time for uh

[Speaker 3]
george first i have to get my train of thought back consul bellick here i think he already did okay well i guess i mean i can kind of gauge so follow along with me real quick so my question is for in response to what fred said what i mean in response to what tim said what are our what's the procedure here we talked to mark albano and the litigation team about every anything and everything i'm not really following you um are you asking me so in response to what fred just said and there's like regards to the the legal legality issues and the suing and all that stuff that's the question that i asked mark albano in an executive session or i just call him up and ask him a question over the phone well i

[Speaker 24]
mean he can't give you he can only tell you what happened in the last go around in the last lawsuit yeah i've met with him about that he may be able to give you advice on how to handle this but like i said i'm not in the litigation team i couldn't tell you and okay thank you okay

[Speaker 20]
consulate labrie yes uh thank you uh i've been on the board 11 years uh and you know i agree that there's big safety problem there and uh you know hopefully they they rectify it but we've always as far as i can recall we've never not sent something to committee we never killed it that i can recall and i could be wrong uh on the floor we we have to give other residents a chance to come in here uh from other parts of uh the city and give their uh you know two cents uh for what that's worth and we got to hear everybody we just in my opinion i don't want to kill tonight i'd like to send it to committee we're going to have public hearing on it uh and uh we're going to see a presentation i'm sure uh and there's going to be a lot of discussion on it so uh i never you know stopped one like i heard one of the uh residents today say you know dod or doa uh you know i want this to go to committee so we can have some more discussion on it thank you consular kushain i'd

[Speaker 18]
like to make a suggestion that we do a robocall uh to the whole city notifying them of the date of the meeting so that everybody is well aware we do have things to get communication out to everybody in the city and this is a city issue because it revolves around the raising or lowering of the increase of taxes so i recommend that we do a robocall when the date's set okay thank you

[Speaker 1]
any other comments from the floor any comments from zoom any comments from zoom seeing none take

[Speaker 2]
a roll call to send it to license president with lamb yes roy no wagner yes zagorowski yes ariaga yes brooks yes yes yes yes a reluctant yes i'll need to make it up yes yes yes the motion passes we have an application for a new service station license applied for by

[Speaker 1]
pilot travel centers 357 bernard road uh concert uh brooks brooks make a motion to receive the

[Speaker 7]
application for a new service license and send to the license committee for a public hearing

[Speaker 1]
motion made in second did the application for a new station license approval be sent to the license committee for a public hearing on the motion please on the motion we are going to take

[Speaker 7]
this up in committee and there will be ample notifications and plenty of time for the residents to weigh in and to council agrees point there might be other residents outside of ward six who might want to weigh in on this because it does every time we turn down a new business and this this business would generate eight hundred thousand dollars in tax revenue it does adversely affect those on fixed incomes the majority of my ward who are mature homeowners who've been here for 40 50 years um in their ability to pay taxes and so we'll we'll hear from everyone and whether we're there for you know three hours or five hours we'll listen to everyone and we'll let them weigh in and that's we'll take into consideration thank you any other comments from

[Speaker 4]
the concert uh costello yes has there been a traffic study um through the chair to councillor chomsky has there been a traffic study in regards to getting a new service station license at three five seven burnett road you you did great work on schwinnigan drive in regards to looking at the safety issues in a traffic study um has any traffic study any safety issues done through the state or through the city the city does a great job in regards to doing traffic studies so that would guide us uh and guide the residents and and uh i don't know if it's been done

[Speaker 3]
so that's all i'm asking through mr president can i speak yes through the chair to uh councillor costello and the residents um at the meeting that he we had on november 6th um he i believe the attorney tom murphy did say that he has a traffic study he conducted one and he was going to have the results for um another meeting and okay i'm looking forward to seeing those results so to your question yes there was a traffic study done but we have not seen results

[Speaker 4]
if no no if i may i i want an updated traffic study yeah so i believe this is what this was i don't know if there was a little confusion before that some of these traffic studies were um done several years ago but i think a traffic study that's updated so there was one and and guide the residents and let them know what's what's the issue traffic studies are so important agreed um it's it's got to be done it's got to be updated and and and the residents should have input in regards to how recent they should be they shouldn't be six months ago or a year ago they should be as recent as we can get and it's got to be thorough it can't be something that somebody just puts together but in all fairness that when the city does a track of study it's thorough and the information is very helpful and it can tell us whether or not this is safety problems whether or not safety problems are going to occur or not but traffic study if it's not

[Speaker 3]
recent it's not done so the traffic there was a traffic study conducted i believe last month and we i'm waiting for the results as is everyone else okay we're gonna we're gonna debate this

[Speaker 1]
meeting please i just want to make sure it's done she wants to make sure it's done and you're going to make sure that we're not we're this is not a debatable thing on the floor right now it's supposed to go for all the public in here at that meeting it was sent to license so everybody

[Speaker 23]
is there any other comments from the floor councilor roy i just want to make it clear that i'm all in favor of increasing the tax base up there and burnett road with that land i'm just not in favor of the gas station period all right thank you

[Speaker 1]
any other comments concert roy i mean concert wagner second time

[Speaker 5]
thank you mr president is there any way to in the interim just to ensure that there is a completely thorough traffic study done ask either planning or engineering to conduct their own review uh just so we can see how what if i can ask i can ask them for you

[Speaker 1]
if it's possible if it's possible i will i'll call them tomorrow i'm not sure the legality of it you know but we'll we'll send it to them to ask uh the dpw thank you okay any other comments from the floor any comments from zoom any comments yeah go ahead counselor brooks i would say the

[Speaker 7]
traffic study the onus of responsibility is on the app and then that is the functionality of the license committee to judge the application based on the thoroughness and the completeness of any traffic study that's our responsibility as a licensing body is to look at the traffic study on its merit obviously the counselor costello's point if it comes in and you know it's dated in 2023 i would say that that would weigh in on our decision making process but the onus and responsibility should not be on the city it should be on the applicant to prove to us that there won't be a detrimental impact to that area of the city if they were to be allowed to develop that project and i only offer that up because again they this is a privilege to get a license to develop property so the bar is pretty high for them to have to meet to satisfy not only our board but the general public so i just i just point that out as a matter of clarification thank

[Speaker 3]
you second time thank you mr president i was wondering if that if there's a way that we as a council can send a letter to the company for this to send over the traffic study that they conducted and so we can have the information before a meeting per se is that are we able to do

[Speaker 1]
that i'm i'll check with the law department okay okay thank you i don't have that answers we'll check with the law department thank you okay no there's no point no order there's no public input sorry i will work with the with the law department on your request thank you is there any other

[Speaker 5]
comments from the floor councillor wagner second time thank you mr president just in regards to what councillor brooks said and uh yeah i'm i know that the onus of of the traffic study is on uh the developer i am aware that it is a privilege and you know that's that's not lost on me and i don't think it's lost on anyone else here but i understand that the residents had some concerns about the quality of the traffic study that was done last time i know that large businesses have a way of of skewing data and of presenting something that on the surface looks good but at its heart isn't so nice and as clean as they'd like to present so you know just in the event that anything like that does happen again i would like there to be some sort of a stop gap to see if we can use the resources that are at the public's disposal uh if you know what we what is there is deemed not sufficient so that way we can actually sort of measure up

[Speaker 1]
okay so i will work with the law department on this tomorrow thank you okay any other comments from the floor any comments from zoom any comments from zoom seeing none roll call president yes

[Speaker 2]
roy no wagner yes zagorowski yes ariaga yes brooks yes yes yes yes crampets yes chumsky yes yes yes yes yes 12 yes one no and the motion passes okay 18 through 23 are two 2025 class 2 license renewals auto techniques gino's auto service interstate towing jf reznick auto service madder brothers service inspection and auto sales and sandy's auto world consular

[Speaker 7]
brooks motion that the 2025 class 2 license renewals be received with current restrictions

[Speaker 1]
motion may second to 2025 class 2 license renewals be received and approved this evening with the restrictions on the motion on the motion unless there's any concerns any concerns from the floor no any concerns from zoom seeing none roll call president yes roy yes wagner yes zagorowski

[Speaker 2]
ariaga yes brooks yes yes yes yes crampets yes jumps yes couching yes labrie yes finia costello yes 13 yes and a motion passes okay 24 through 26 or 2025 class 3 license renewals center street auto parts of chigubi inc pasterzic welding and auto repair inc and sandy's auto world

[Speaker 7]
consular brooks make a motion that 2024 class 3 license renewal be received and approved this

[Speaker 1]
evening with current restrictions motion made exactly the 2025 class 3 license renewals be received and approved this evening with restrictions on the motion unless there's any concerns thank you any comments from the floor any comments from zoom seeing none roll call president yes roy

[Speaker 2]
yes wagner yes zagorowski ariaga yes brooks yes yes yes crampets yes jumps yes couching yes labrie yes finia costello yes 13 yes and a motion passes 27 through 29 or 2025 auto body license renewals chuck's auto body inc rogers auto body and glass stands auto body and glassing

[Speaker 7]
concert brooks make a motion that the 2025 auto body license renewals be received and approved

[Speaker 1]
this evening with current restrictions motion made second to 2025 auto body license renewals be approved this evening on the motion please on the motion unless there's any concerns any comments from the floor any concerns from zoom seeing none roll call president yes roy yes wagner

[Speaker 2]
yes zagorowski yes ariaga yes brooks yes yes valkyr yes crampets yes jumps yes couching yes labrie yes fina costello yes 13 yes and a motion passes okay 30 through 36 or 2025 auto repair license renewals auto techniques inc don's auto repair matta brother service station inc doing businesses raise vehicle raise vehicle state and inspection auto sales myers service station papaluga's motor cars sandy's auto world walmart store number 5278 concert brooks make a motion

[Speaker 7]
that the 2025 auto repair license renewals be received and approved this evening with

[Speaker 1]
current restrictions motion made in second the 2025 auto repair license renewals be received and approved this evening with the restrictions on the motion on the motion unless there's any

[Speaker 7]
concerns and i guess i would defer to councillor chomsky uh unless there's something with walmart that he might want to have addressed no concert something you know not at this moment in time

[Speaker 3]
i mean i hope to uh work with them in the future but as of right now i think everything's smoothly

[Speaker 1]
thank you any concerns from the floor any concerns from zoom any concern from zoom

[Speaker 2]
seeing none roll call president yes roy yes wagner yes zigurowsky yes ariaga yes brooks yes yes valkyr yes crampets yes jumpski yes couching yes labrie yes fina costello yes 13 yes the motion passes 37 through 39 of the 2025 auto body auto repair license renewals ernie's automotive geno's auto service inc jf rogues neck doing business as jan's auto service

[Speaker 7]
consul brooks make a motion that the 2025 auto body auto repair license renewals be received and approved this evening with current restrictions motion made second 2025 auto

[Speaker 1]
body auto repair license renewals be received and approved this evening with the restrictions on the motion please unless there's any concern any concerns from the floor

[Speaker 2]
any concerns from zoom seeing none roll call yes roy yes wagner yes zigurowsky yes ariaga yes brooks yes yes valkyr yes crampets yes jumpski couching yes labrie yes fina costello yes 13 yes and the motion passes 2025 auto detail license renewal sandy auto world concert brooks

[Speaker 7]
make a motion to approve the 2025 auto detail license renewal for sandy's auto world with

[Speaker 1]
current restrictions motion made second that the 2025 auto detailing license be approved this evening with the restrictions on the motion unless there's any concerns mr president thank you any concerns from the floor any concerns from zoom any concerns from zoom seeing on roco president

[Speaker 2]
laflam yes roy yes wagner yes zigurowsky yes ariaga yes brooks yes yes valkyr yes crampets yes jumps yes couching yes labrie yes fina costello yes 13 yes and the motion passes that's it

[Speaker 27]
um i just want to say happy thanksgiving um i can't believe we're already saying that that's next week um enjoy time with your family and be safe thank you counselor costello i agree with

[Speaker 4]
counselor ariaga happy thanksgiving and also i want to compliment the mayor and the council for the school department uh yesterday's meeting went very well and a lot of information was shared and people worked together and a lot of positive things happened as we heard from

[Speaker 15]
public input thank you concert crampets happy thanksgiving to everyone and don't forget about those that are less fortunate at this time of year thank you concert wagner also at this time

[Speaker 23]
thank you concert roy i want to wish a very happy healthy and safe thanksgiving to to everyone out there and remember what you're being thankful for and this is your city take pride in it

[Speaker 20]
concert labrie yes i'd like to wish everybody a happy thanksgiving and try to get to the football game and root for your alma mater thank you counselor zygorowski see something say something

[Speaker 26]
happy thanksgiving to everybody all over the world concert balik here yeah thank you mr president um

[Speaker 8]
before i wish everybody happy thanksgiving i just want to remind people to slow down with the time change is getting darker please watch out for kids people crossing streets people on bikes let's be safety conscious and a happy thanksgiving to all the colleagues in the room here all the city employees and all our good family and friends and we get a lot to be thankful for thank you

[Speaker 3]
consul shumsky thank you mr president thank you to all my residents who came out tonight and i again want to uh express you know take full responsibility i did not um i made a mistake and i did not address the meeting tonight in my last statement and i have been since my time on the school committee fully transparent and everything that i have done from a little order to a stop sign to a crosswalk or something like it's you know something along the lines of that and it won't happen again i'm going to um work with my team to expand the way i communicate with my ward my residents and hopefully at the when the next meeting comes we'll um no one will have any complaints by the lack of communication and i'm you know i'm not trying to hide anything it was a simple mistake i take full responsibility and i apologize for the late notice thank you

[Speaker 18]
happy thanksgiving concert cushing i do wish everybody a happy thanksgiving uh something we addressed at the last meeting i'm going to bring up again tonight is the chickadee housing authority is not a city entity it's a federal entity so any monies that was paid on any lawsuits had nothing to do with the city it didn't cost the city a dime so again it is not every housing authority in the country is a federal agency it's just the way they named it um i want to give my uh thoughts about councilor chomsky's courage tonight to do the right thing and not the easy thing because he understands the due process and having everybody's a voice to be heard and the only way to do that is by sending those items to committee um the safety concern is not lost on me i'm a first responder i can't count how many times i've responded to or helped at an accident scene i carry up thousands of dollars worth of medical gear in my truck for a reason um so that is not lost on me but i also have to explain to my residents why their taxes are going up every year so look i guess i'm fortunate i'm not at large so i have to worry about my people but i give uh councilor chomsky a huge kudos for the courage of doing the right thing even though the easy thing would be the bow to the few people that show up and scream at him so kudos to you for doing the right thing giving every one of your residents a voice tonight and

[Speaker 22]
the city a voice tonight concert golf i'd like to wish everybody a happy thanksgiving and and

[Speaker 7]
stay safe thank you concert brooks yeah thank you to kind of piggyback on what councilor for shane had said um i actually spoke with uh state rep ariaga about the vacancy now i think many of you know that what i do for a living i work for a front-facing non-profit that supports people uh with disabilities and who are in dcf care so i'd ask her to consider appointing and she's agreed to do that i will be happy to evaluate the accessibility needs of the housing authority because that is kind of in my wheelhouse i've been doing this for the last 30 years so i'm you know i'm happy to offer up my volunteer service for that and hopefully we can get that right um a compliance is is as many know a huge uh important issue for me and i want to make sure that all of our buildings whether federally managed or city operated are fully accessible for folks who have different abilities and then happy thanksgiving to everybody and i hope you're able to see family i hope you're able to see those you care about and it is there's a lot to be

[Speaker 1]
thankful for so thank you mr president thank you and i i too want to wish everybody a happy and healthy what's that did i forget something oh you had your hand i'm sorry i want to wish everybody a happy uh thanksgiving too and a healthy one and stay safe i'll take a motion motion to adjourn motion made in second to adjourn roll call please president yes roy yes wagner yes

[Speaker 2]
garowski ariaga yes brooks goff yes falk here yes crampets yes chomsky kushain yes labrie yes financastella yes