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Home My WebLink About1988-10-19-HATSII-min.pdf HATS II MEETING October 19 1988, 7.30 P.M. Selectmen s Meeting Room, Lexington Mass. { The first order of business was a review of the status of the HATS II proposal for a meeting between one selectman from each of the four towns and the heads of the major organizations at Hanscom Air Force Base. The Chairman, Jack Eddison, reported that he had not yet received a response from Col Seifert and asked the meeting for its view on how vigorously he should pursue the proposal. Selectman Betsy Anderson noted that Air Force representatives would be meeting with Bedford in mid November to discuss developments at the Base that could affect Bedford. It was agreed that a reminder letter should be sent to Col Seifert regarding the proposed high level meeting. The second item on the agenda was the HATS II response to the draft Master Plan for Minuteman National Historic Park. It was noted that the revised deadline of November 1 for submitting comments on the Plan to the Park Service was imminent. Since it did not seem possible for the respec- tive officials of the four towns to refine and clear their responses both inter- nally and with the other towns in the time remaining, it was decided that town responses would be submitted separately to the Park Service with copies to the other towns. The role of HATS would then be to incorporate the common elements from the three town submissions into its own report. The question of whether Route 2A should be rerouted away from the historic 'Battle Road' alignment was discussed. The Middlesex News had recently polled local residents for their views on: (a) full restoration of the Battle Road to 1775 conditions through a rerouting of Route 2A vs (b) a partial restoration of Battle Road while leaving 2A pretty much as is. The respondees were heavily opposed to (a) above while favoring (b) by large majorities. It was suggested that the high cost of rerouting 2A, estimated in excess of $20 million, might account in part for the widely different responses to the two questions. Robert Nash of the Park Service pointed out that the money would come from gasoline taxes accrued over several years and that the cost estimates were very rough. He said that the Master Plan would need some fleshing out, that decisions on the Plan would be made over the coming months; that the NPS was prepared to compromise and would not insist on any plan element that was strongly opposed by local residents; and that while all plan targets might not be achieved, the Plan would give the Park Service directions and goals to pursue. Bob Nash was queried over the implications for Lincoln residents of the extensive road closings proposed. z He was also reminded that Concord people have bitter memories of earlier land takings by the Park. Lincoln Selectman Warren Flint observed that, if further engineering studies of the possible rerouting of 2A are needed, it might be wise to approach Secretary Salvucci with a request that such studieds be expedited. He also invited HATS members to join their Lincoln colleagues on a bus tour of the Lincoln road system on October 22nd. Concord Selectman Bill Sullivan said that, in the view of his board, the NPS should be free to spend its money on rerouting 2A as it chooses, provided that the new road system works as well as the one we have today The third item on the agenda was the use and funding of consultants to HATS II in FY1990 Jack Eddison posed the question of what HATS would do if the Air Force should give us all of the information which we requested in our recent letter to Col. Seifert. How would we analyze and make use of that information unless we had professional help? Jack told the meeting of an offer from David Soule, Executive Director of MAPC. David said that he would look favorably on a request from the HATS towns to use a portion of their respective allotments of MAPC technical assistance time for HATS purposes. (Concord s allotment has already been committed to MAGIC ) He also offered to come to the next HATS meeting to discuss ways in which MAPC might be helpful to us. Town Manager Richard White noted that HATS II had taken on a big role and that we would need, not only the help of town professionals, but also the services of someone to pull together the requirements and to coordinate the activities of the four towns. Consultant services may be needed, for example, to analyze traffic data obtained from the Air Force and to integrate it with data from town staffs and from other organizations. HATS will need extra good staff work the first time around. MAPC should be able to help in putting together a statement of what we are trying to accomplish and how we would use consulting funds. Warren Flint said that he believed Lincoln would be willing to assign its MAPC time to HATS. He added that the Lincoln selectmen were willing to assign $10,000 to HATS for consulting fees on the understanding that the money would not be spent if not needed. Betsey Anderson and Bill Sullivan agreed to take the matter up with their respective Boards of Selectmen. It was agreed, that before the four town meetings were asked to approve consulting funds for HATS in their respective FY1990 budgets, they would need to have good examples of how the money might be used. We should make such information available before the end of 1988 The last item to be discussed was the frequency with which HATS II meetings should be held. There was general agreement that we should plan to hold monthly meetings, possibly on the third Wednesday or Thursday of 3 each month. If it should become apparent that there was no need for some of those meetings, they would not be held. The next meeting was scheduled for Thursday, November 17 at 7.30 PM in the Lexington Selectmen s Meeting Room. Respectfully submitted, } a dison o. MOg4r _1ri,,,. q0 t, 's ,a truant of Tiextnstan, _Massachusetts cexinc*o. OFFICE OF SELECTMEN JACQUELYN R SMITH, CHAIRMAN 1 PAUL W.MARSHALL JOHN C. EDDISON WILLIAM J. DAILEY.JR. LEO P. McSWEENEY November 4 , 1988 Colonel Charles W Seifert, Commander Hanscom Air Force Base Massachusetts 01731-5000 Dear Colonel Seifert I am responding to your letter dated October 18 which reached our office a week later, on October 25 There still seem to be some barriers to full and rapid communication be- tween Hanscom Air Base and the neighboring towns We are pleased to learn that the 35 percent drawings for the Hanscom Air Force Base Comprehensive Plan (BCP) will soon be ready for distribution We understand that, in accordance with an earlier agreement with Bedford town officials , you have arranged to present the 35 percent drawings of the Comprehensive Plan to them on November 14 We would like to make it clear that, while such presentations may constitute useful and informative supplements to the high level meeting which HATS II has requested, they are not acceptable as sub- stitutes for that meeting As I stated in my letter to you of September 30 , the Boards of Selectmen of the four towns wish to arrange as soon as possible a meeting to discuss proposed developments at Hanscom Air Base between one representative of each Board and top officials of the Base, ESD, Lincoln Labs and Mitre We are very concerned over possible adverse effects of projected new HAFB construction on the surrounding towns We wish to discuss these matters with key officials of the involved organizations well before the plans have been finally approved and prepared for implementation We do not wish merely to be informed of what has already been decided on Therefore, on the advice of the HATS II organization and with the concurrence of the four Boards of Selectmen, I now repeat our request for such a meeting at the earliest feasible date 1625 MASSACHUSETTS AVENUE LEXINGTON. MASSACHUSETTS 02173 BOX 446 TELEPHONE—{6-17)--082-0500 Colonel Charles W Seifert November 4 , 1988 - 2 - I should add that the Chairmen of the Boards of Selectmen of Concord, Lincoln and Lexington are not disposed to arrange for the 35 percent Plan briefings you have proposed until we have a firm commitment on the requested meeting of heads of organizations We do not wish an adversarial relationship to develop between the organizations on the Base and the HATS II towns We much prefer being friendly neighbors We believe that the best way to maintain good relations between the Base and the towns is for our respective senior representatives to get together very soon to discuss our concerns and potentially troublesome differences Sincerely, _ 4h �� ci — JoC dison, Chairman HATS II JCE/ad cc Lt Gen Gordon Fornell , Commander of the ESD Div Hanscom Field Walter Morrow, Director MIT/Lincoln Laboratories Charles A. Zraket, President Mitre Corporation