Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout1981-02-02-BOS-min 41 �� 0\0 3\1 ' SELECTMEN'S MEETING 7 February 2, 1981 A regular meeting of the Board of Selectmen was held in the Selectmen's Meeting Room, Town Office Building, on Monday, February 2, 1981 at 7 30 p m. Chairman Miley, Mr Busa, Mr Kent and Mr Crain; Mr Hutchinson, Town Mana- ger; Mr Cohen, Town Counsel; Mrs Banks, Assistant to the Town Manager; Miss Casey, Executive Clerk were present The Chairman opened the hearing on sub-division streets - Apollo Street Circle and Kendall Road Hearing The Manager stated that the Director of Public Works/Engineering had Sub-Div reported that both streets meet with the Town standards for sub-division Apollo Cir streets and recommended acceptance Kendall Rd Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to lay out sub- division streets as follows Apollo Circle -- From Kendall Road a distance of 483 feet, more or less, to the end Kendall Road -- From the existing Town layout, which is 50 feet northeasterly of Grapevine Avenue, a distance of 190 feet, more or less, to the existing Town layout beyond Apollo Circle Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to approve the re- One Day quest of RAEDACC Association of W R Grace & Co for a One Day Liquor Li- Liquor 111 cense for Feb 11 &12, 1981 until midnight Licenses Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to approve the min- Minutes utes of the Selectmen's Meetings of October 6, October 20, 1980 and January 5, 1981 Representative Doran met with the Board to speak briefly about some Rep Doran of the current issues He stated that he will meet with the Board on a monthly basis to "keep the channels of communication open and the flow of information moving " He stated that he would make every effort to work with the Board, Manager and other Town Boards in a spirit of cooperation during these difficult times Mr Doran announced that he will be at the Town Office Building on the first Friday of each month from 8 30 a m until 10 00 a m and at the Council on Aging office the same day from 10 00 a m. until 11 30 a m He expressed appreciation for the office space made available to him for the time he is in the Town Office Building Mr Doran stated that he campaigned against Proposition 2 1/2, but will attempt to implement the law in a reasonable manner There are four amendments currently before the legislature that would make it a more work- able law He mentioned that the committee on counties, of which he is a member, will be holding hearings this week on bills to abolish county government, to strengthen county advisory boards, to create a blue ribbon commission to investigate Middlesex County and to establish charter com- missions within each county and other cost saving measures He invited the Board to submit written or oral testimony and pledged to do whatever he could to remove the burden of county government from Lexington property taxpayer 7 - 2 - Fair Housing The Board discussed the Fair Housing Resolution draft to be presented Resolution to Town Meeting at the recommendation of the Fair Housing Committee Sug- gestions made by the Board was in the realm of the wording rather than the intent of the resolution A redraft of the resolution will be presented to the Board at next week's meeting for approval Test Boring The Manager recommended that the Board award the test borings contract Contract to Soil Exploration Corp 81-5-E Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to award the contract for test borings to Soil Exploration Corporation, 425 Taylor Rd , Stow, Mass Contract 81-5-E in the amount of $7,350 00 Hanscom Field The Manager requested the Board to sign the Hanscom Field Sewer bill Sewer Con for the use of the Town's 14 inch sewer This represents a provision of a contract amended in 1970 requiring payment, upon billing from the Town, of - quarterly charges totalling $3,000 per year There is no record that this has been billed by the Town The problem has been discussed with the con- tracting officer and staff at Hanscom on January 9, 1981 The current bill- ing represents back payment to 1970 and arrangements have been made to bill the quarterly amount in the future Mr Busa will be talking with officials at Hanscom regarding the matter Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to approve the billing of the quarterly charges for the use of the Town's 14 inch sewer from 1970 to the present time in the amount of $30,000 to the Hanscom Field under the Sewer Contract F-19650-71-C00381 Youth Com- The Manager informed the Board that he had appointed Il Song Ahn to mission Appt the Youth Commission subject to the Board's approval Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to approve the appoint- ment of I1 Song Ahn to the Youth Commission Adams School The Manager ] esp etktd&_thatthe Board and the School Sites Conversion Com- mittee, who were in attendance, go into Executive Session to discuss the use of Adams School Mr Arthur Smith, Chairman of the Town Meeting Members Association and Moderator of the Follen Church, questioned why it was necessary to go into Executive session He stated that he understood why amounts or details of proposals were not disclosed before negotiating details with an individual, but did not see why the use of the building fell into the category of execu- tive session The Manager explained that the Board would be dealing with a piece of tax exempt property and that there were two issues One an offer of payment in lieu of taxes and the other was dealing with condominium developers who were going to offer so much per unit and one dealing with low and moderate income housing who were going to offer so much per unit and the acquisition price were all subjects for executive session Mr Smith stated that he understood that the use was going to be de- cided on the basis of the value of the offers that are now before the School Sites Conversion Committee Mr Kent stated that he felt that this was a factor Mr Cohen stated that the Board would be discussing factors that have a bearing on how much would be obtained for the property and that it was a proper executive session item. - 3 - 7g Selectmen's Meeting February 2, 1981 Mr Smith asked at what point the records of the executive session would be available to the public and Mr Cohen replied that they would be available after the transaction was completed Mr Smith stated that once a developer was chosen the Board would be presenting it to Town Meeting and he felt that the results of the executive session should be in the public's domain He stated that, as Moderator of the Follen Church, he had interest in the discussion of the proposal and many of the issues were of concern to the church, particularly the school use of the property vs housing He stated that he understood that there were price tags attached to both and it seemed to him that the details of the offer were not development issues He felt that the Board was not com- paring two people who were making different offers but were deciding how much they would settle for as the use was decided He stated that it seemed to him that the question of whether the property might remain tax exempt and what the implications of that would be for the Town was somewhat independent of what the particular proposal of the Waldorf School is and the one the Board wished to accept and what the Board would ask them to do He stated that he was very concerned that the use, insofar as possible, be settled in public and in open session. Mr Kent stated that he felt that there was a great deal in what Mr Smith said and that it had been helpful for him to have spoken He said that he felt it behooved the Board after the executive session was held to come into open session and to discuss the question of policy judg- ment with respect to use openly in open session He stated that the prob- lem of doing it in the first instance was the difficulty of entirely elim- inating the competitive aspect that exists between the people who are in- terested in acquiring the property He stated that the Board must be very careful as to how it handles that in relation to the other factors, which he agreed, ought to be in the public domain He stated that the Board did have a problem in relation to this competitive aspect which did call into play the precise reason for going into executive session and why it would be uncomfortable not being in executive session Mr Smith stated that he hoped that the Board understood that he did not wish anyone inferring things regarding what he expected the Board to do He expected that the Board would take a full and fair consideration of the problem and reach the best decision it could He stated that he felt it was necessary for many who were concerned both as Town Meeting Members and concerned neighbors to understand what factors the Board took into consideration so that they could be assured that the things which were important to them were important to the Board He stated that, as Modera- tor of the Follen Church, that group had met and discussed at length how they felt, as nearest abutters,to the projected use of the building and had conveyed their feelings to the School Sites Conversion Committee He said he would like to be assured that the information was clearly presented and available to the Board of Selectmen if it chose to use it He stated that that was his concern as to what the process was Mrs Miley informed Mr Smith that the minutes of the School Sites Conversion meetings had been sent to all the members of the Board and that they were very much aware of what his church was concerned about CI - 4 - Exec Session Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted 4-0, by roll call vote, Mrs Miley, Mr Busa, Mr Kent and Mr Crain to go into Executive Ses- sion, with the intention of resuming open session, to discuss matters of real estate negotiations After discussion it was voted to go out of executive session and resume the open meeting Adams School Mr Kent informed those present that he could now identify the reason for executive session was that the Board had received a specific economic dollars reference regarding the building He stated that the Board did not, and still does not, believe at this time it should be discussed in public He stated that the Board was in full agreement that the discussion relative to the use should be held in open session prior to making a decision He sug- gested that the Chairman might want to announce what recommendations the Board had received from the School Sites Conversion Committee and then have the recommendations discussed The Chairman stated that the recommendation of the School Sites Conver- stion Committee was for housing Mr Busa supported this recommendation and reminded the Board that one of its goals had been to provide low and moderate income housing in Lexington Mr Crain asked the Chairman, as a point of information and clarifica- tion, in no way did she mean to imply that the use of other schools presently being considered or scheduled to was predetermined Mr Miley replied the answer was "No" and said that the same thing was done with every other school and that was to take the suggestions, crea- tive and otherwise, and if housing did not seem to be the right thing, then, obviously, it wouldn't be housing Mr Kent asked the Chairman if the recommendation of the Committee had included else they would like the Board to do tonight beyond the designation of the use Mrs Miley said that all requested of the Board tonight was a designa- tion of the use Mr Crain asked if it was stipulated who a firm proposal was expected from was announced at this time when designating the use of other schools Mrs Miley stated that, mainly, thewholeprocess was gone through un- til it came to the final developer before the developer was identified Mr Kent stated that it was his understanding that the Committee was asking the Board to leave with the Conversion Committee the task of develop- ing specific proposals for submission to the Board and not asking the Board to get involved in it at this time Mrs Miley stated that he was correct Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to designate the use of Adams School for housing Recreation Ms Joan Halverson, Recreation Coordinator presented to the Board a Fees proposed fee schedule for the Board's review Basically, the recommended changes were an increase in the pool and Res Season Passes family increase of $6 00, individual adult increase of $2 00 and youth and senior citizen by $1 00 It recommended elimination of the tennis ID card and increase the reservation fee to $1 00 No changes were recommended for the winter field house A new recommendation was a charge of $2 00 for the use of the ball field for an individual and $20 00 charge for leagues per team per season There will be no charge to youth leagues - 5 - go Selectmen's Meeting February 2, 1981 duly made on motion p and seconded, it was voted to approve the recommended changes in the user fees presented by the Recreation Committee Mr Clifford Prentiss, Director of Conservation met with the Board Wetlands to present proposed fee schedule for the Conservation Commission under Prot Act the Wetlands Protection Act, G L Ch 131, Sec 40 and the Town's By-Law Fees XXXIII After discussion, the Board approved the following fee schedule Wetlands By-Law Hearing - $25 00 (i e dwelling, tennis court, swimming pool, bridge, etc ) Multiple dwelling units shall be charged $25 00 per dwelling unit Commercial and industrial projects $25 00 plus $5 00 per $10,000 of established general construction cost over $100,000 Chief Bergeron of the Fire Department presented proposed fees in Fire Dept connection with Fire Department services The question of the increase Fees in ambulance fees was discussed in detail and Mr Kent stated that he was reluctant to approve increases of this magnitude unless there were two things clarified 1) We should have a basically effective, efficient way of collecting this money and really pursue it so that it isn't money that is collected simply from people who respond readily to the receipt of a bill 2) Have some mechanism for dealing with hardship cases The Manager is to file up-dated information on the collections Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to table the re- quest for increases in ambulance fees Other fees were discussed and approved as follows Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to approve the following fees charged by the Fire Department Oil Burner Permit $5 00 Blasting Permit $5 00 Tar Kettle Permit 5 00 Propane Permit/ Model Rocket Permit 5 00 Black Powder Strg 5 00 Fireworks Permit 5 00 Oil Tank Truck Per 5 00 Flammable Storage Per 5 00 INSPECTIONS Quarterly Nursing Home $50 00 Quarterly Theatre $50 00 Quarterly Lumber Yard 50 00 Quarterly Motel 50 00 Quarterly Private School 50 00 Periodic Commercial/ Industrial 50 00 MISCELLANEOUS FEES Stringing Flag Pole Pipes $50 00 Fire Alarm Master Box Annual Hooking 50 00 Fire Alarm Initial Hook-up 250 00 Other suggested fees discussed but not approved were Cellar Pumping $30 00/hour (first call per property - free) ; Quarterly Day Care Center Ill Inspections - $50 00; Alarm Malfunctions, False Alarms at Master Boxes $50 00; Telephone Dialers False Alarms $50 00 i - 6 - Warrant The Manager referred the Board to its copy of a letter from Sellew, Special Doherty & Sheskey, Inc relative to the scheduling for the bidding and Tn Meet contract award for the restoration work at Cary Library The schedule set and forth in the letter called for a special Town Meeting within the Annual Annual Town Meeting on April 8 The Board agreed and the following votes were Tn Meet taken Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to set the date for the Special Town Meeting within the Annual Town Meeting of April 8, 1981 Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to sign the Warrant for the 19.81:Annual Town Meeting and the Special Town Meeting within the Annual Town Meeting State Mr Hutchinson referred the Board to its copy of the letter from the Level Town Manager in Arlington requesting the Board's endorsement of the pro- Funded posal of the Mass Municipal Association of a level funded State budget Budget with new revenues to be distributed to cities and towns to assist in dealing with Proposition 2 1/2 Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to support the re- quest of the Town Manager of Arlington and endorse the concept of State level budget for the next fiscal year Mr Marquis is to be so notified Mrs Miley abstained from voting Conserv Land Mr Cohen asked the Board to sign a deed for the transfer of land to the Conservation Commission under Article 41 of the 1980 Town Meeting Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to sign the deed for the transfer of land to the Conservation Commission under Article 41 of the 1980 Town Meeting Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to adjourn at 10 45 p m. A true record, Attest at6" (717 Executive Clerk I