HomeMy WebLinkAbout2021-10-20-NAC-min Town of Lexington
Noise Advisory Committee(NAC)
Minutes of Meeting October 20,2021
A meeting of the Noise Advisory Committee ("NAC') was held via Zoom videoconference on Wednesday
October 20, 2021, at 7:00 PM. A quorum of three members was present.
NAC Members Present: Dan Koretz (Chair), Vicki Blier, Nick Afshartous, Stewart Smith, April Wang
Others Present:Joe Campbell,Judith Glixon, Mark Sandeen (Select Board)
1. Introductory Remarks
Dan convened the meeting at 7:00 pm and noted that the agenda would include an update on progress
by the Committee ahead of the November Special Town Meeting (TM).
Dan noted that he had a productive discussion with Interim Police Chief Mike McLean regarding the
potential enforcement of the pending noise bylaw. Mike was completely positive on the issue of
enforcing the bylaw and noted that it will amount to continuation of what the police department
already does in relation to construction noise. Mark suggested that the Committee may wish to defer
any questions on enforcement to Mike during its presentation at TM.
Dan also advised that he is scheduled to speak at the Board of Health during its next monthly meeting.
An endorsement of the proposal by the Board ahead of the TM would be helpful. Mark suggested that
Dan speak to Joe Pato on the issue of how a Board endorsement might be raised and incorporated into
the TM process in November.
2. Approval of Minutes
The Committee reviewed Minutes from the October 7, 2021 and October 14, 2021 meetings of the NAC
which had been posted on Slack in draft form. Stewart moved that both sets of Minutes be approved
and the motion was seconded by Dan. Following a roll-call vote,the motion was carried unanimously
with one abstention.
3. NAC Outreach Task List
Dan noted the urgency of outreach to TM Members and others ahead of the TM scheduled for early
November. Regarding TM Members this would mean each NAC member would be responsible for 49 TM
members.
After discussion, the Committee agreed on the following breakdown of responsibilities.
• April will contact the Chinese language speakers on the TM Members list
• Vicki will contact members from Precincts 8 &9 and make final adjustments to the draft email
letter to TMM's
• Stewart will contact members from Precincts 1, 2 &3
• Nick will contact members from Precincts 4, 6 &7
• Dan will contact members from Precinct 5 and will also separately contact individuals who had
raised noise complaints regarding this matter. Dan will also compile all of the resource
information and TM materials into one location and post on Slack.
The Committee discussed the steps needed in contacting TM Members and the need to update the
shared contact list to be used by the NAC which is available on Google Drive.
Nick noted that he had created a program which would import TM Member email addresses and
process a mass mailing at one time to each Member.The Committee discussed this approach. Several
members indicated that it would be their preference to send out individual emails. Nick indicated that
he would be available to help those wishing to avail themselves of the email program.
The Committee discussed the fact that attempting to contact all TMM's via phone following the email
may prove difficult with the present timing. It was agreed that the email letter would not indicate that
the NAC would be following up by phone. Instead, certain high-impact TMM's from each precinct would
be contacted via phone and those interactions would be noted on the Google Drive spreadsheet.
Concerning the content to be used in emails and during phone discussions, Dan noted that most
information concerning the warrant article had now been published on the Town Website and he
suggested that the links to this information be used in TMM communications.
The NAC then discussed several scenarios in respect of questions that may be asked by TMM's and
hypothetical responses.
Mark also suggested that the link to an article by James Fallows (Get Off My Lawn) be incorporated into
the outreach efforts due to the timeliness of the article and its persuasiveness.
4. Other Business
There was no other business.
5. Next Meeting
The Committee agreed that the next meeting of the NAC take place at 7:OOpm on November 4, 2021.
6. Adjournment
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 8:05pm.