2020-09-23-NAC-min - Laserfiche WebLink

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single motion with two parts that could be voted on separately. Joe also felt that it would be advisable to bring up the phase-out topic now to be more transparent to residents and to landscapers. This would allow people more time to plan for a transition to GLB alternatives. In the September 23 NAC meeting, Mark Sandeen suggested (before making the proposal)to take Joe Pato's suggestion of two separate parts in one article to Deb Brown (Town Meeting moderator) to see if it is possible to have two votes in one article. The committee deliberated about the pros and cons of submitting one vs two motions. Nick took action item to contact Deb Brown to ask the best way forward for submitting one vs two motions. In the September 23 NAC meeting, the committee reviewed the results of the GLB survey that had been posted to the Lexington List. Based on initial results,the committee decided to wait until more survey results are collected from other social media channels before deciding the best strategy for moving forward with how to include the ban in the motion. More information about the survey results are discussed in the "GLB Survey Results" section below. With respect to changing the start times to 7:30 or 8:00 am,the committee decided to wait to see if the NAC receives more complaints or feedback. Dan considered updating his stock answer document to ask people if they are interested in changing start times. In the Select Board meeting, Suzy Barry asked if the NAC had any national grants to cushion the blow of additional costs to landscapers if a ban is enacted. In the NAC meeting, the committee discussed the practicality of group purchasing and the idea of gathering a group of landscapers and then approaching a bank for incentives. Dan suggested contacting vendors/manufacturers to organize the bulk purchase of electric equipment at reduced cost. Dan also suggested working on securing bulk purchasing agreements that will allow all residents to get the same discounts as the landscapers and the DPW. Pamela Lyons (Town Meeting member) indicated that landscapers have been on notice for years that residents aren't happy about the noise. It has now reached a tipping point now that everyone is experiencing the noise at home due to COVID. She noted that there are nine pages of landscapers (twenty different companies) in the Lexington yellow pages meaning there is no shortage of landscapers and they want Lexington residents' business. It's not unfair to ask them to use alternatives to gas- powered blowers. 4. GLB Survey results The committee reviewed the results of the gas-powered leaf blower(GLB) survey that had been collected from people on the Lexington List message board. There were roughly 100 responses, and a majority of the respondents (86%) indicated a desire to limit GLBs in some manner. The committee decided to distribute the survey to other social media channels (Lexington Mavens, Chinese Association of Lexington, Next Door app) to get more feedback before proceeding with a decision on proposing a ban on GLBs.