1985-Annual Report - Laserfiche WebLink

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overview Lexington, 1986 It was a year of high adventure tempered with trag- edy for residents venturing beyond the town's bor- ders: a year of high achievements for young and old ... and another good year to sell a house. Two young residents were murdered in nearby towns, one was slain on business in E1 Salvador; one died in a boating accident, another in a mountaineering mishap; two survived a terrifying hijacking aboard ship in the Mediterranean. The achievement record was awesome. In the schools, both students and faculty earned awards and champi- onships too numerous to list here - see the Superin- tendents Report. August Schumacher, Jr., was appointed the State's Commissioner of Food & Agriculture; Bill Barnstead was named to the National Commission on Innovation and Productivity; drummer Alan Dawson was honored by the Boston Jazz Society; Susan Lehotsky, the State's Director of Child Benefits, won an Outstanding Per- formance Award from the governor; Helen Chang, 11, played solo violin with the Boston Pops; Robert Alexander Anderson designed an 11 cent stamp for the post office; Paul Vinger was honored by the National Society to Prevent Blindness; Mary Conceison jour- neyed to Russia to compare music here and there; Rebecca Davis went to Costa Rica with the Peace Corps and dug latrines; Ellen Goff went to St. Croix to spy on leatherneck turtles for Earthwatch. The Council for the Arts launched a new periodical, The Arts Calendar, so people could keep up with all the cultural events being staged in town. 2 Overview The scramble for homes sent house prices soaring and the hunt for developable land sent town meeting mem- bers and lawyers to battle. 1985 passed without a resolution to the town's plan to buy the 100 -acre Pine Meadows golf course, and Minuteman Tech was beaten back in its plan to develop an on- campus hotel. But other new commercial structures sprouted to ominous warnings of further unresolved traffic woes. Between development and other complexities of the times, it took 14 sessions of town meeting to dis- pose of the warrant, sparking talk of somehow stream- lining town meeting procedures. The elderly were presented with handsome new quar- ters in the old Muzzey School, alongside rental and condominium housing units which were quickly filled. A September hurricane blew down trees and blew out the lights for many residents for up to three days, but caused no serious injuries. High tech businesses in town suffered some layoffs, but firms with defense contracts prospered. On the other side of that coin, more was heard from local members of the Nuclear Freeze Movement and Interna- tional Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War. Residents lugged over 35 barrels worth of assorted noxious materials to the DPW for disposal in the fourth annual hazardous waste collection. A Revere Street pet gander took on traffic for days (he survived), the town's dog population continued to dwindle, and a Fox, Kathy P., was named the new Animal Control Officer. Credits for this volume. Planning, editing and design by Town Report Committee: Erna S. Greene, Chairman; Ruth Karpinskil Robert Morrison; Elaine Sullivan; Hermon Swartz; Fred Wischhusen; Louis A. Zehner, Emeritus. Staff and editorial liaison by Susan P. Adler, Assistant to the Town Manager. Typesetting: Erna S. Greene. Word Processing: Elizabeth Adam and many department secretaries. Printing: Town Printing, North Andover, Massachusetts.