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Selectmen’s Meeting – February 9, 2009 State Tourism Representative Ms. McKenna, Chair of the Tourism Committee, introduced Ms. Belanger, Executive Director of the Greater Merrimack Valley convention and Visitors Bureau, and Connie Morris, Visitor Service Coordinator, who gave an overview of tourism in Massachusetts. The state is divided into 13 regional councils and Lexington is part of Greater Merrimack Valley Council, which rd represents 28 towns and cities. Tourism is the 3 largest industry in Massachusetts and generated over $15.1 billion in economic impact in 2007; $13 billion was generated by domestic visitation and $1.8 billion was generated from international travelers. MOTT estimates that the Greater Merrimack Valley area generates $560 million in economic impact and estimates that $9 million is generated by Town of Lexington visitors. International travelers continue to be a growing market share that visit Massachusetts, and Lexington/Concord is ranked in the top 4 of places to visit. Primary reason to come to Massachusetts is to visit friends and relatives. The top 10 activities include: shopping, dining, rural sightseeing, historical places/churches, museums, urban sightseeing, state/national parks and art galleries. Forty-four percent of overnight domestic visitors stay in hotels and forty-one percent stay in private homes. Most domestic visitors travel to Massachusetts by auto and airplane. Four percent of hotel taxes go to the local communities. Lexington has collected over $1 million in hotel taxes since FY2003. The opening of Aloft and Element last July will help increase the hotel taxes. Battle Green Master Planning Process The Tourism Committee held an initial meeting with the stakeholders of the Battle Green Master Plan and they developed a proposed agenda and timeline for coming to agreement on a plan. The Selectmen requested that the Battle Road Scenic Byway Group be an entity included in the process. Mrs. McKenna also plans to include the Freedom’s Way group. Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted 5-0 to endorse the proposed timeline and process for a Battle Green Master Plan. Solid Waste and Recycling Report Mr. Beaudoin, Superintendent of Environmental Services, provided an overview of solid waste and recycling tonnage for the first 6 months of FY2009. Solid waste was reduced by 109 tons (or 2.37 percent) compared to same period in FY2008. Recycling consists of items collected at the curbside and the cardboard recycling containers. Total Recycling was reduced by 45 tons (or 1.71 percent). The reasons that solid waste is down may be because of the economy and the 25 percent reduction in the size of newspapers. Another reason for reduction may be the success of selling compost units (680 units so far have been sold) to residents and that 750 pounds of organics are removed from the waste stream each year for every compost unit.