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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1980-05-12-BOS-min / SELECTMEN'S MEETING MAY 12, 1980 A regular meeting of the Board of Selectmen was held in the Selectmen's Meeting Room, Town Office Building, on Monday, May 12, 1980, at 7 30 P M Chairman Miley, Mr Busa, Mrs Battin and Mr Kent; Mr Hutchinson, Town Manager; Mrs Banks, Assistant to the Town Manager; Mrs McCurdy, Executive Clerk, were present Mr Crain was absent Chairman Miley opened the hearing on the petition of the Boston Edison Conduit- Company to install 10 feet of underground conduit in Spring Street Notices Spring had been sent to the abutters and also filed with the Public Works Depart- Street ment Mr Malis, representative of the Boston Edison Company, requested that the petition be tabled as conditions at the site and the plan as submitted do not correspond A new petition will be submitted at a later date Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to table the petition of the Boston Edison Company for the installation of 10 feet of underground conduit to service #39 Spring Street Chairman Miley opened the hearing on the petition of the Boston Edison Conduit Company to install 6 feet of underground conduit in North Street Notices North had been sent to the abutters and also filed with the Public Works Depart- Street ment Mr Malis, representative of the Boston Edison Company, said that this work is necessary in order to provide electric service to a new house owned by Hall & Company Chairman Miley read a report from the Acting Director of Public Works recommending that approval be granted Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to grant permission to the Boston Edison Company for the following location of conduit North Street, easterly, approximately 555 feet north of Carl Road, a distance of about 6 feet - conduit Chairman Miley read a request from the New England Telephone Company Poles - and the Boston Edison Company for approval of a joint pole relocation in Hancock Hancock Street A report from the Acting Director of Public Works recom- Street mended that approval be granted as this work is necessary due to recon- struction work in Hancock Street Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to grant permission to the New England Telephone Company and the Boston Edison Company for re- location of poles in Hancock Street on the southerly side, approxiimately 229+ feet west of Hayes Avenue, one pole 42/16 Two poles, 42/16 and 17 to be removed Mr Michael Hanlon, Town Engineer, met with the Board Mr Busa said I/I that a subcommittee met last Friday to select an engineering firm to go Study forward with the second phase of the Inflow/Infiltration Study, to be known Phase II as the Sewer Systems Evaluation Survey (SSES) Fifteen to eighteen pro- posals were received and although all were similar in detail, there were three outstanding finalists The Manager, a member of the Sewer Advisory Committee, Laura Nichols and I recommend an award to LEA - Linenthal Eisenberg Anderson Inc - for approximately $250,000 We have $75,000 appropriated and we have funds allocated in the vicinity of 90 percent of the original contract, and we hope to have it awarded and go forward as soon as possible Mr Hutchinson said the only thing that is firm is our own Selectmen's Meeting - 2 - May 12, 1980 $75,000; 75 percent up to 90 percent will be federally funded. Mr Hanlon said that the estimate contained in the proposal for $250,000 is just that, an estimate, and it is based on the scope of the work defined by Whitman & Howard when they finished their I/I Study That could significantly change upwards, partly based on the Millbrook Valley sewer; the scope of the work may change and probably increase We have made a recommendation that LEA is the firm to do the work. They would then find the scope of the work but will not be able to proceed until we get the grant Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to designate LEA Group Engineers-Linenthal Eisenberg Anderson Inc as the Consultant with respect to the second phase of the Inflow/Infiltration Study, subject to negotiation of the full contract and the availability of federal funding Millbrook Mr Hanlon, Town Engineer, reviewed the proposed MDC Millbrook Valley Valley relief sewer The MDC is preparing the Step 1 facilities' plan through Relief their consultant, Weston and Sampson, and the last public hearing is to Sewer be held on May 15 at Cary Hall Our Phase II Sewer System Evaluation Survey will help us with our problem with excessive infiltration/inflow, but also contributing to this problem is the lack of adequate downstream capacity in the MDC interceptor system. We feel that the ultimate solu- tion to our problems is twofold First, the Town of Lexington should eliminate all excessive infiltration/inflow that can be cost effectively removed; second, the MDC should construct the proposed Millbrook Valley relief sewer to provide adequate downstream capacity Mr Hutchinson said that we have not heard anything at this time to make us oppose it; we all benefit and we need this as much or more than anyone, and will help us with our problems in 'thL 'Saddle Club area The Board agreed to write a letter to the Metropolitan District Com- mission in support of the recommendations contained in the "Draft Facility Plan, Millbrook Valley Interceptor Sewer, Sections 2-9, April, 1980, Part I and Part II" and would urge the MDC to proceed with the final design and construction phases as soon as possible. Contract Mr Hutchinson recommended approval of awarding the contract to the 80-2-E lowest qualified bidder for sanitary sewer construction Sewers Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to award Contract 80-2-E to Charm Construction, Inc , Westwood, in the amount of $407,312 21, subject to the approval of Town Counsel as to bid form. Authorization is contained in Article 19, 1978-Sewer Mains This contract is for the construction of sanitary sewers in North Street, Maple Street, Somerset Road, Oakland Street, Meriam Street, Lowell Street, Grant Street, Glen Road South, and Edgewood Road 80-1-E Mr Hutchinson recommended that the Board approve Extra Work Order #2 Patricia under Contract 80-1-E for the re-laying of pipe on the Patricia Terrace Terrace sewer project According to the Town Engineer, an error had been made in Sewer establishing the invert elevation in the existing sewer manhole in Arlington and we are unable under current conditions to make the connection in the manhole We have negotiated with the contractor to remedy the problem. Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to authorize Extra Work Order #2 under Contract 80-1-E in the amount of $7,000 for the re- laying of pipe on the Patricia Terrace sewer project ) 'r Selectmen's Meeting - 3 - May 12, 1980 Mr Neil Cronin, Director of Guides, met with the Board Mr Hutchinson said he had talked with Mr Cronin and minor changes will be made on the ap- plication form to conform to town standards and affirmative action standards Guides Mrs Battin asked Mr Cronin if he had given any thought to hearing the guides' presentations orally as this is often helpful Mr Cronin agreed to the suggestion, and when the guides bring in the written tests, he will spend some time with them on their presentation to the visitors Last year, there were 21 guides and 15 were renewals We expect to have be- tween 20 and 25 guides this year The examination covers all the spots in and around the Green The rules and regulations for licensing and conduct of guides are rather simple but necessary The selection of fees is always a problem but that is the way they get paid; at the end of the tour, the trico me hat is put down for anyone who wishes to make a donation. Mr Cronin thanked the Board for his appointment and he retired from the meeting Mr William Page, Chairman, and members of the Cable Television CATV Advisory Committee met with the Board Mr Page said that the target is to report to you on June 9 and we hope to get our report in to you the weekend before that, and you will issue your report on June 23 Time Then, we would have a public hearing on July 17 In our report we are Schedule recommending that you ask for amendments on the original proposals to be submitted on August 28; that gives two months from the time of 111 issuance of the report The public hearing on those amendments would be on October 9; that gives 7 or 8 weeks before the official state man.- dated anndated date for a decision by the Board towards the end of November Mr Page had talked to the State CATV Commissioner about the fact that Lexington had been coming into the process when there was some ambiguity between old and new regulations, and the comment was if Lexington wishes to submit a proposal for an extension, it would probably be well received in the light of that transition from the old to the new In talking with Mr Buse, the timing would be good to get this in before the budgets start In preparing for the report by you, we have been getting the clear Report signal from the State Commissioner that in several instances this report had proven to be very important, and Lexington has to be very clear about what it wants It does have a heavy influence on what the town gets, so it isn't just a routine thing Mr Page said that the committee is getting around to the various Input - appropriate people to get comments and we would like to get the report Boards to the police and fire departments and other agencies such as the CoA Agencies so they get the flavor of what is going to be showing up To get some of the thinking out of the way before our report gets submitted, and to be able to pass along to us by May 29 any comments they consider to be pertinent to the clear statement of what Lexington would like for CATV We have three task forces to provide input to the report to the CATV Board, a proposal evaluation group, an access center group, and a local Task programming group; each has five to eight members Selectmen's Meeting - 4 - May 12, 1980 Key Some things to be taken into account in the Board's report Issues On the key issues, it is obvious fram the present financial circum- stances that we will need to consider very carefully the question of how can there be adequate financial support for local use of CATV We have some options to propose that would bring in income, and we have some pro- posals from the cable companies covering the cost of operating corporate facilities On regional collaboration, we have shared a commission back and forth between several cable committees and there could be sharing of information about future plans An important question is on how many channels can be effectively used One of the companies proposed 104 channels available for home use and other companies limited it to 52 If the contract is going to be let for 15 years, as these companies are probably going to be requesting, a lot of things can happen in that time, especially on the 2-way aspect An important con- sideration is hOw do we provide for something we can live with for a period of time which needs to cover a payback time to the cable companies, which is 7 or 8 years to get their capital investment back and then some time to make some progress We have provided copies of the Winchester report and under duration of license Winchester did have some way of thinking about it that is interesting Mr Page said that he had talked to Mr Cohen and he felt it would be important to have some legal help to review the Winchester report and point out the places where we need to be careful in the statements in our report The committee would like to get some guidance on a draft of their report so that it comes to the Board in a way that is usable On conflict of interest, we have lot two of our members because of the concern that everyone has of there being no possibility of being accused later on of some double interest (Winchester had some flak on it and it turned out to be resolved ) It is a sensitive subject and the committee would like guidance from the Board CATV Mr Page said on the item on the advisory committee's role in the Committee selection process, depending on what you expect from us we will proceed Role in one way or other ways We have had seven applicants and there is a good choice and obvious competition We have been asked by several cable companies for an opportunity to come to the committee meetings and give some of the background on those companies (which doesn' t appear on the reports) , and to have the opportunity for the cable committee to ask questions ab out the proposals We have tentatively scheduled those for May 27 and June 3 We have cable committee meetings scheduled through the first of September on Tuesdays evenings and we plan those on a week-to- week basis Mr Page said that he did not want to ask tonight for an answer to the advisory committee's role but would put the question and then come back on June 9 when hopefully the Board would have the committee's report The committee would appreciate some guidance at that time about what the Board expects from them on a selection process An option would be for the committee to sift through the applicants and pick two or three that they considered to be appropriate for candidates or the Board could ask them to go further than that Selectmen's Meeting - 5 - May 12, 1980 111 Mr Page said the committee is thinking of having three or four of the cable companies in on May27 and June 3, and the Selectmen could mp attend.. After discussion, it was the consensus of the Board not to attend the committee meetings Mr Page said that the committee's function is to serve as advisory and they would be perfectly comfortable if board members do not attend; however, the official representative, Mr Busa, should be there The officially required time for the companies to be heard is after the amendments have been submitted - after the August date Mr Kent said that, as he understands it from the literature sent, the standard for making a designation has got to be that approved report and that we are .not permitted to conduct any sort of a post-report auction amongst the companies in which they accelerate their offers as to what they set forth in the report, and ultimately the contents of that report that goes out to them as the standard, the ultimate responsibility for those standards rests with the Board of Selectmen rather than with the committee. So that when the committee submits this report, its ultimate adopted con- tent is going to depend upon the judgment of this Board In the literature submitted, there was a suggestion that in some communities the community aspect of cable television had not worked well; do you plan on reporting to us in some detail to indicate what appears to make that aspect of it work well and what appears to be a hindrance? Mr Page agreed on all points, and added that the chief ingredient is money Mr Kent said that before the report is made final, the companies would have a crack at us in terms of requesting us to eliminate certain portions of your recommended report or add factors that you had left out Is this within the contemplation of the scheme of things? Mr Pages said yes, they can do that under the amendment process Mr Kent said befiore we finally fix on that, so they do have a crack at us independent of these meetings which your committee is having Mr Page said it has to be in writing by August 28 Mr Busa said that there is a public hearing after rafter the .report has been received from the Selectmen The cable companies have three opportunities for input (1) At the hearing in July after the Board has issued its report; (2) once in the amendment process ; amendments are done the last week in August; (3) an opportunity at the public hearing in October Mr Busa said that the Board should give the committee some guidance on the;,selectien parotess,, although they are not looking for the final one now He had informed Mr Page that the Board of Selectmen usually forms a committee and it reports to the Board as it is the license granting authority to accept their recommendations on 1, 2, and 3; then, we will make a final judgment on the committee's recommendation of the finalists Mr Kent said it was his understanding that we do everything in open session and not in executive session We have found it useful to have them here so that we may ask them questions about those recommendations; unless there is a difficulty, he would like to hold that open as a rather attractive option Selectmen's Meeting - 6 - May 12, 1980 Mr Page said that they had inquired about executive sessions and the State Commissioner couldn't think of any good reasons, and we did check with Town Counsel It just has to be an open process - even though we had some things we wanted to compare notes on - what we had heard from other towns and what other town officials had said about other companies - but there is no way that Mr Cohen could see that we have it in executive Mr Page said, regarding the selection, if you were asking us for a recommendation, if we have to select three of the seven, would you want any ordering of the recommendation or strictly that these are the three? Would you want pros and cons from the committee? Mrs Battin said that if not actually ordering them, we would want the pros and cons Mr Kent said that he would like to leave the answer to that question until a subsequent meeting at which all the members of the Board are present He would be interested in Mr Crain's reaction to both questions, particularly the ordering The Board agreed There were no further questions from the Board or the audience and Chairman Miley thanked Mr Page and his committee for the work in- volved in cable television Reed St Residents of Reed Street met with the Board Chairman Miley said Residents we are all concerned about the bill S 1113 which we hope will be going through Mr French said that he had asked for Town Counsel's legal opinion and he wanted it in writing Mr Hutchinson said that he had written to Mr French that Town Counsel has been instructed by the Board to deliver an opinion regarding the impact of the Harbor Schools v Board of Appeals of Haverhill and the opinion that tthe tawnowould_give would be supportive of the residents Mr Jackson asked if the town would be prepared to stand its ground and say we will not grant occupancy for those residents; a reasonable guarantee that the town would have some say, and that there be a program developed by the town that would see to that Now we have no tools and rules to work with, and that we might want to more adequately define the Haverhill case. Mrs Battin and Mr Kent said that we would work to get that law changed and would hope you are working as hard as we are Mr Jackson said that Sen. Rotondi made it clear that there are many things a town can. Chairman Miley said that Mr Cohen was pretty definite that weihave .no legal means whereby we can do that Mr French said that they could deal more effectively with ego et1:dny Sen. Rotondi if they had a statement from the town The promise of the 41,., ,,; .. town is open-ended. Mr French said that the residents have asked questions of the Housing Authority and they have indicated they would like to open up a dialogue We have written to Dr Harris of MVMH telling him, that we do not feel that management of M V M.H. lives up to its promises In the letter we also said that we will make it clear to the Selectmen that we cannot negotiate with M.V M.H and we will seek an immediate moratorium on any and all funding which the town provides to M.V M.H. ; we will recommend that this moratorium be continued until such time as the town arrives at an equitable plan for the coordination and distribution of institutionalized housing throughout the town Also, we will recommend that any and all build- ing permits taken out by M.V.M.H for the expansion of any existing structures owned by M.V.M.H be denied /r Selectmen's Meeting - 7 - May 12, 1980 Mr French said on December 18 we had attended a meeting of the Human Services Committee and we formed the opinion then that the committee was basically an advocacy group and therefore not obviously appropriate for considering issues for the potential negative impact on the continuing growth of human services We asked for time on the committee's agenda specifically to reach a decision whether they felt the issue was appro- priate for its action The reason being if they did not, we would come back to the Manager or Selectmen and ask for a different approach We did in fact provide another summary of the total issue to the Chairman of the committee on December 21 and we have heard from the committee requesting yet another summary, which we have provided Mrs Perez, Chairman of the Human Services Committee, said that the committee will consider it at the meeting tomorrow evening Mr Busa said regarding Mystic Valley funding, we sent a letter re- quiring further information on their procedures and management, and asked for answers to questions of the Human Services Committee before we allo- cate any more money We asked M.V to meet those qualifications and if they do not, we can take steps at that point in time not to appropriate any more money In his opinion, that is the only time we could hold up the money appropriated by the last town meeting They will respond to the Board of Selectmen on a quarterly basis before we advance funds to them; that was the recommendation of the Human Services Committee Chairman Miley said that was the qualification at Town Meeting when that money was voted Mr Kent questioned a statement in the neighborhood summary report on events leading to the issue of saturation of a residential neighborhood with institutionally supported dwellings, "As of January 1, 1979 our neighborhood included 6 dwelling units owned by Interfaith Churches, 4 units administered by the Lexington Housing Authority and 1 unit owned by the MVMH which is itself located on a thoroughway between Bedford St and Reed St In addition to those presently located, the town plans to locate 6 of its 17 scattered site locations in this neighborhood; and when the Parker School is converted, 25% of its units will be subsidized housing, again all in our neighborhood These dwellings all represent different housing programs " Mr Kent said said that he •was aware of a total of 6 units at Interfaith and he was not aware of 6 Interfaith and 4 Housing Authority units Mr Scanlon, Director of the Housing Authority, said that 2 of the Interfaith units are under the 707 program; 1 unit is under Section 8 Federal; 1 unit is under the 707 subsidy in that area Mr Kent said that basically these 4 units with which the Housing Authority has a connection are included in the 6 units that belong to Interfaith; making a total of 6 not 10 units Mr French agreed it was an error in the statement Mr Jackson said that in the process of talking about these numbers, we are losing sight of something that felt very strongly about and that is we are already over- burdened in Precinct 8 whether we are subtracting or adding Mr Kent said that the precincts are a necessary division of the town into units for purposes of conducting elections He thought they had legitimate concern in relation to the proliferation of two facilities was an apparent lack of communication sensitivity by M V M.H , which the Board has to get into, but they have tied that into something he found troublesome, and that is there is no reference to Greeley Village, which is three times as close to Reed Street as the Parker School Mr Kent did not understand the emphasis upon these geographical lines.for holding elections r' 9 Selectmen's Meeting - 8 - May 12, 1980 Mr Jackson said we are alluding to some program on the part of the Board of Selectmen or whatever body it is within this town that basically tries to create an equity base, based on the taxes that one pays; to recognize some means or some formula of spreading the involvement of the total town not just in dollar contribution but in actual participation Mr Kent said he would suggest that he not make that case stronger by alluding to subsidized units in the Parker School which is six-tenths of a mile away from Reed Street Mr Kent referred to a statement in the neighborhood proposal "which was created to head off saturation of any part of the town with institution- ally supported housing We do not distinguish between programs with dif- ferent purposes " Mr Kent felt that there is a difference between single family residences, multi-family residences such as the Interfaith housing, and the kind of housing that is represented by the two facilities which are in proximity in this particular neighborhood Mr French said you jump from deferentiating between programs to deferentiating between types of housing They are single family residences vs condominium complex. Mr Kent said that those are different things, and Mr French said that he would not argue with that Mr Kent said that the nub seems to be that you are talking about any form of supported housing, be it single family housing, multi-family housing, or anything else It seems that you do not want us to distinguish, for example, between single family housing units and the institutional type of arrangement such as the two Mystic Valley related houses represented in the community These are very distinct, separate things With respect to the scattered sites houses in the area, this took place at the end of an exhaustive process involving the fullest kind of community hearings and at the end of a policy developed and articulated by the Town Meeting relating directly to the subject of tax title lots Mr Kent said that they are lumping separate things into the same barrel and he found it difficult to deal with it on those terms Mr French said that one of the reasons they lumped those things together was although they may be distinguished one from the other in several ways, they turn out to have certain acquisi- tion powers that are above and beyond the ordinary individual, yet they are competing with the ordinary individuals for space, for titles, etc He would not have the privilege of getting a tax title lot and putting a house on a sub-size lot, and he would not have the same type of privilege as the Deptartment of Mental Health enjoys under the current court case toward entering a body of unrelated people into a single family dwelling So they do have certain privileges accorded to them that are not given to an ordinary individual We felt strongly that there was a wide open avenue for abuse of the privileges, and in the Mystic Valley cases, they had over- stepped and that was the issue we are trying to address Mr Kent said in the last respect, he was very much in agreement with their concerns With respect to the Parker School, even if it were directly in the im- pacted neighborhood (whish he had trouble with assuming that it is) the Parker School designation of those units to be transferred to the Housing Authority was made at the end of a painstaking process, with public hearings and ultimately a vote of the Lexington Town Meeting The process has been completely open. Mr Kent agreed that on the other matters to which they have been referring, it has not been, and it is incumbent upon this Board to take things into account in determining 11, whether we support M.V.M.H He was prepared to take up the responsibility S 7 Selectmen's Meeting - 9 - May 12, 1980 of having a dialogue with M V.M H with a view to suggesting that there are needs for community sensitivities here whether they have the legal right to go ahead without our permission or not; he would be surprised if they are not somewhat responsive to that kind of dialogue Mr Mackay said the question is at what point does a community no longer become a community It is not a matter of being for or against a particular program. Mrs Feakes said when Safehouse was going to be set up, they went to the Board of Selectmen and there were very specific needs that were written We thought it would be good to have it in Lexington and the youngsters could go to school easily from there Safehouse is meeting a tremendous need Legalities aside, we felt they have been open and have gone to the community Mr Busa said that we should make it very clear that the neighborhood is not objecting to houses put there but the satuaation In Precinct 1, we have the largest saturation of nursing homes We don' t have an immediate solution Mr Jackson said that he had counted, including the 28 units of the Parker School, 335 mailingaddresses 28 of which are institutionally supported; that is 7 7% of the neighborhood, and to him that constitutes saturation enough We hear you saying let's kick it upstairs and hope that the legislature does something for us What are you going to do for us? Mr Kent said at the moment, all we can do is exert an element of suasion with respect to people who want to open institutional arrangements over which we have no legal control In terms of your request of the Manager that there needs to be served advance notice of programs planning to enter the town and provide time for coordination to the element that we are talking about our own programs, and that includes scattered sites housing, we have that procedure in place and we intend to keep it in place What we intend to do in that area is listen to you with respect to specific proposals that may come before this Board We can't do any more than that Mrs Battin said on the permit granting proposal that you made to us, you felt that a permit granting authority would be developed and then you had what it would do to serve advance notice of programs; insure the plans set forth are properly carried out with a reasonable balance of dis- tribution of programs throughout the town. We are saying, at least from Town Counsel verbally, that we do not have the authority now to establish a permit granting procedure We have the power of moral suasion; we have the power of coordinating; Mystic Valley I'm sure hears us and is going to notify us as they have in the past of things they are planning, and we are going to try and coordinate it informallLbyt we cannot now set up a formal procedure until those statutes, at leastuthe community siting one is passed; then, we have the the power by by-law which would have to be passed by Town Meeting There are two important ingredients - the Human Service Committee and one of the things we gave them as a charge is to develop processes for handling things such as this There is also a new Planning Director We have two groups and once we have the authority to develop processes probably together we are going to be able to develop one that is going to take care of future situations The problem is, as you said, those that are about to be signed now Mrs Banks said that the process exists for us now to identify them in that they do go through the Building Commissioner's office and through the Manager we have worked out a system whereby we are notified when an application under this law has come in; in fact since this, to her knowledge, none have come in Selectmen's Meeting - 10 - May 12, 1980 Mr Hutchinson said it has been done in writing by a written order to the Building Commissioner but to ask that we create a special permit process internally, the answer is we did not; we have no legal right based based upon our Counsel's advice to do so Your question is legitimate of what are you doing for us? These meetings are not an exercise in happiness some- times In addition, the legislators have been asked and the Board has sup- ported this We are not buck passers here but there are some times, as we have said, that we administer many laws that we have nothing to do with There is a problem throughout the Commonwealth about this saturation question and we should ask our legislators, as this Board has done, is this bill going to make it or not, so we can institute the procedures that you want But in the interim, to ask us to do something that would bring potentially a suit or to treat somebody in a discriminatory way, that is something that we cannot be a party to Mr Scanlon said that the Housing Authority would like to have a better definition of the phrase institutionalized use and subsidized We consider ours as subsidized and we have the rent subsidy available throughout the Commonwealth available to those people who need it, with no regard for the location; it is the need. Ckai `man:Miley said_that Mr. Scanlon had explained to her that the Housing Authority does not assign the locations to the people; the person either has or finds a rental and then the subsidy comes after that So it is not a case of finding something in a certain location - they are all over town. Mr French said that the Housing Authority program is a program by sub- sidy, and to them it is an institution. Mr Jeff Strahfi, Associate Minister of the Church of 'Our Redeemer, said that he is concerned with people falling through the cracks Again and again we have heard that it is not a quarrel with the program, Safehouse as a most recent example One of his parishioners lives next door and they are one of the biggest supporters of the "institution" and have said that they are better people than lived there before What concerns him is that pressure be brought on Mystic Valley which would cause them to withdraw their support and the program will fall apart or they will have to find some other place in the interim. An abutter of Safehouse said that there should be some con- trol of placement by Mystic Valley because they have not been honest with the neighbors, but if Safehouse gets closed down because of these discussions, it is a crying shame. You should be careful that this doesn't become a factor Ms Althea Korde, M.V M.H Board of Directors, said she was concerned about what she had heard and that the integrity of a lot of people is being discussed As a Lexington resident, she was concerned about institutions in neighborhoods ; however, she sensed here that in many cases with their dealings with us that they have not been dealt with honestly She was not sure that they hear .every- thing that is being said, only what they want to hear You really have to hear the whole story about what was said, what was not said, and what actually was passed in the resolution; not what I thought or what was implied She thought that has to be dealt with at some other time The residents of Reed Street and other interested persons retired from the meeting 59 Selectmen's Meeting - 11 - May 12, 1980 IIIMr Zabin, Chairman, and melbers _of the, Fair Housing Committee met Fair with the Board Mr Zabin said that the committee has prepared a question- Housing naire as one of the first issues we are required to address as part of our Committee agreement with MCAD is to determine if any discriminatory practices exist in Lexington and if any practices do exist, the extent and nature of such practices The committee is then charged with recommending actions to the Selectmen which they feel will reduce and eliminate future discrim- inatory actions The committee proposes as one means of assessing this issue to do a survey of minority residents in Lexington, utilizing the resources of community groups such as the Lexington Concerned Black Citizens In addition, the committee plans to meet with the realty companies and local banks Mrs Battin said that the clergy seems a good source as they often identify problems before other people do and she would suggest to the Manager that they be included Mr Hutchinson and Mr Zabin agreed Mr Zabin said that when he met with the Board before Town Meeting, he raised the possibility of a resolution before Town Meeting and the Board felt it would be better to put it off to 1981 We understand the charge that we are to develop a fair housing plan for the town, and the problems we dealt with are basically in two areas, the public housing area and the private housing area To give some idea of the dimention 3 of the problem, in public housing if we exclude St. Brigid's and Inter- faith subsidized housing, there are only two black families in subsidized housing in all of Lexington, no Spanish, 2 orientals, no Asians In private housing, according to 1970 census figures, school statistics have not changed very much In greater Boston, the number of black families is 4 6 percent and in Lexington 9 percent; I don't know why this is so because of no supporting data but we can speculate We thought it would be useful to try and get a handle if we can on the cause of these disparate statistics, to find out from minority families who do live in Lexington what problems, if any, they have had in order to give us some clue to the problems for others who are looking for housing in Lexington who have not been able to come in So at least we have a starting point to attempt to address the problems and if there are problems, that they can be handled on the local level Mr Busa asked him where he thought the problem lies? Mr Zabin said that it is his guess that the problem is primarily economic but ha Would avoid pre-judging the actions before we have asked the right questions of the right people He hoped there aren't patterns of racial Segregation and discrimination carried out either privately or publicly or by private realtors or others, or by any public authority, and he would suspect that is the case. If we are going to come up with any answers that we have credibility either with your Board, with the town, or with state and federal agencies We have to do as good a job of re- search as we can Mr Busa said that he had never seen that problem in Lexington of definite patterns of shutting out people from coming into town, and he would be surprised if that happened; if it did, it happened n the last decade Ill Mr Kent recommended that Mr Zabin proceed Mr Busa said that he had no problem The Board agreed that the Fair Housing Committee is to proceed as Mr Zabin recommended Selectmen's Meeting - 12 - May 12, 1980 The Board approved the following agenda items 1-Day Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to issue a 1-Day Liquor Liquor license an. June 7, 1980 for a fund-raising dance at the Lexington License Armory for Mr Thomas Larkin, candidate for Misslesex County Commissioner Resigna Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to accept with regret P.A B the resignation of Mr John Butler as a member of the Personnel Advisory Board Town Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to accept with regret Celebra. the resignation of Ms Margot Tutun as a member of the Town Celebrations Com. Committee Minutes Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to approve the minutes of the Selectmen's meetings of April 14 and April 28, 1980 Permit Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to approve the request Elks of the Elks Lodge #2204 for the use of the Battle Green on June 11, 1980 at Flag 7 00 p m for the Flag Day ceremony Day Chairman Miley said that we have receivedy.Tcorrespondence from the Appts Massachusetts Special Commission on the Performance and Visual Arts re- Arts garding the appointment of five qualified private citizens to a Local Arts Council Council We have received applications from ten persons who are interested in serving on this council Mr Kent recommended that the Board appoint the ten applicants Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to appoint the fol- lowing members of the Lexington Arts Council for a two year term to May 31, 1982 Molly Nye, Tine Nemiccolo Forbes , Marion Colette, Donald Gillespie, Jr Nancy Gordon, Judith S Greenwald, Yvette Kaplan, Ann M. Parks, Judi Ozuransky, Natalie Warshawer liO#Transfer Mr Hutchinson requested approval of a transfer of $5,000 to Professional #1090 Services for consulting services for a resolution of the Cary Library stucco Prof es, problem. Servs Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to request approval of the Appropriation Committee for a transfer from the Reserve Fund to Account 1090-Professional Services in the amount of $5,000 Senior Mrs Battin said that she had referred the question to the Human Services Center Committee for professional guidance in developing a needs assessment for the senior citizens center Most of the committee members have connections with. the various universities and people on their staff and they should be able to come up with names and suggestions on how to proceed with professional guidance That is well under way Proclama- Chairman Miley informed the Board that Dan Fenn requests approval of tion the issuance of a proclathation encouraging the preservation, restoration and reuse of our historic houses Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to proclaim the week of May 11 through May 17, 1980 as Preservation Week in Lexington. ' Selectmen's Meeting - 13 - May 12, 1980 Mrs Battin discussed the Center Revitalization Plan She said that Center the plan to revitalize the Center was to include methods of achieving Revitaliza- commercial diversity, achieve social and cultural activity, improve tion - traffic flow and increase parking We said that we wanted a plan to be MAPC completed by December 1 She pointed out that previous studies sup- plied some of the data that is needed; however, there really are im- portant pieces missing and some data is out of date We are not plan- ning to study it completely again but will try and fill in where there are missing pieces and updating the data To date, there has been no attempt made to critically analyze what exists, identifying discrepan- cies, fill in the missing pieces and update in terms of what the com- munity wants and would support in the Center So what we have done is to start and establish the Planning Committee The Selectmen specified who they would like to see on it and it was also elected by the Planning Board and the Chamber of Commerce that there be such a committee to develop a plan, establish goals and then short and long-term strategies for achieving the goals Committee members to date are Mrs Battin, Mr Sorenson, and Mr Sacco and two members Of the Chamber representing Banking and Industry The committee has aot convened yet as we have to have the two members from Mr Sacco We did review the possible technical assistance available and we did establish the fact that MAPC appears to be capable of carrying out the missing study piece which we feel was crucial in the market analysis to have some proven experience and staff in the area; in it an area in which we have no in-house capacity Based on that, we wrote the letter of intent to MAPC and of the 23 applications received, only 8 were invited to file formally with MAPC Five will be approved, whole or in part, three will get the total package for what they do for center revitalization and two communities will get a partial We have a pretty good chance of getting what we are looking for The Manager has given the lead responsibility for carrydng out this application to Mr Bowyer and he is naw preparing the proposal to MAPC, which will be given to the Board for review Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to adjourn at 10 50 p m A true record, Attest Executive Clerk, Selectmen ( n �i