1966-Annual Report - Laserfiche WebLink

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BOARD OF SELECTMEN To the foregoing description of the changes which the years have brought to Lexington we add a brief reference to developments which occurred in 1966. 1. The state highway department has dropped its proposed plan to construct Route 3 through East Lexington and to tie it into Route 2 in the area of Watertown Street. There exists in other parts of the state so many traffic problems of higher priority that the state is no longer actively pushing the project. 2. After some initial delay due to need for title clarification the re- construction of the Hunt Block began in 1966 and is now well under way. What started as a proposal by the selectmen to widen Massachusetts Avenue, broadened under recommendations of the Planning Board into a plan for more dramatic changes. The intent was both better to enable Lexington Center to meet the challenge of outside shopping plazas and also to make it worthy of the town, forward looking and attractive. With this program the selectmen heartily concurred. We are confident that when the dust of reconstruction settles and the completed program is seen in its entirety the beautification program will stand as a monument to vision and to desirable village renewal. 3. To minimize expensive personnel turnover and to bring the town's three year old salary schedule abreast of competition, the selectmen appointed a salary review board to study the problem and to bring in recommendations for 1967 that could form a basis for policy decisions. 4. The selectmen appointed a committee to study and report upon: the needs, a pro- posed location, and the estimated costs of new facilities for town office personnel. This report will be ready for the 1967 town meeting. 5. At the town meeting the voters authorized construction of the enlarged public works building on Bedford Street. At the June meeting funds were appropriated. Work is progressing satisfactorily. The completed building should be available early in 1967. 6. We have entered into a "sister city" relationship with the Mexican city of Dolores Hidalgo. That community is an historical counterpart of Lexington in that in 1810 it re- volted against Spain. Representatives from Dolores Hidalgo attended our Patriots' Day Celebration last April. In September, three official and two unofficial representatives returned that visit when they attended the anniversary of the 1810 uprising. As part of this same "sister city" program Lexington has also exchanged teachers at the high school level. We think of this project as building one more bridge between nations. Of itself its value is infinitesimal. But in a world where the airplane shrinks so dramatically the distance between nations it is infinitely important that Lexington join with other towns and cities in America in constructing its own bridge to increased international understandingL 7. The new Visitors' Center near Buckman Tavern was completed and opened to the public for Patriots' Day. Lexington has thousands of tourists, many, many of them children, who visit the town to learn American history first hand. As host to this growing number of visitors the town owes it to these guests to offer the fr'endliest possible welcome and to pro- vide comfort facilities....and we hail the action of the t wn meeting which made these facil- ities possible. 8. It required permissive legislation and the approval of the governor but this year witnessed a major fiscal and accounting improvement in the appointment of a town comp- troller. Long needed, this has resulted in a great gain from strengthening and coordinating the accounting aspects of town government. 9. Not as an accomplishment of 1966 but rather as a project that ought to be under- 7