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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1979-12-10-BOS-min /c 3 SELECTMEN'S MEETING DECEMBER 10, 1979 A regular meeting of the Board of Selectmen was held in the Select- men's Meeting Room, Town Office Building, on Monday, December 10, 1979, at 7 30 p m. Chairman Miley, Mr Busa, Mrs Battin, Mr Kent, Mr Crain; Mr Hutchinson, Town Manager; Mr Cohen, Town Counsel; Mrs Banks, Assistant to the Town Manager; Mrs McCurdy, Executive Clerk, were present Mr Hutchinson discussed the list of streets and pointed out that FY 81 he had recommended $100,000 for Kendall Road and Rockville Avenue, and Streets would not consider putting in $340,000 for all the streets He recom- mended that the Board vote the intent to lay out the six streets, subject to other considerations to withdraw streets at some time Upon motion duly made and seconded, the Board voted the intent to lay out the following streets Garfield Street, Sunny Knoll Avenue, Kendall Road, Rockville Avenue, Sherburne Road, and Tower Road Mr Hutchinson informed the Board that he will draft a letter in DPW response to the communication from the Capital Expenditures Committee Policies - regarding DPW policies on sewers, drainage, and the Inflow/Infiltration Capital study Mr Hanlon, Town Engineer, would meet with the Board soon to Expend. explain the I/I study, and the Sewer Advisory Committee, Planning Board Committee and Conservation Commission would be invited to attend that meeting Chairman Miley read a request from Mr Hanlon, Town Engineer, to Banks Ave sign an order for construction of a water main Water Main Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to sign the order for construction of a water main in Banks Avenue Chairman Miley read an invitation from Senator Rotondi, Senate Civil Chairman-Special Commission on Civil Service, to attend a hearing in Service Arlington on December 13 Mr Hutchinson said that Mrs Banks will Meeting be our representative at the meeting Chairman Miley said that Sen Arlington Rotondi has said that 60% of the people working under civil service are not actually appointed civil service people, and he has feelings on moving tbese people over so they would be permanent civil service people; that worried her and she would like Mrs Banks to listen to that Chairman Miley recommended that the Board take a stand on whether County we should go along with Newton and others who feel they do not want to Assess- pay the county assessments and take the consequences Mr Robert Bond, ments 6 Demar Road, was present as he had sent newspaper clippings to the Board concerning Newton's refusal to pay the county taxes Mrs Battin said that thishas come up before and there is no way you cannot have 11/ them get the money Winchester did it and they were fined, and the money was just deducted from the cherry sheet She hoped we would not necessarily pay the money but it would initiate some protests about the way the money is being spent Chairman Miley said we are protesting all electmen's Meeting - 2 - December 10, 1979 the time There are meetings at the state house and as Vice Chairman of the Middlesex County Advisory Board, we will be in there pitching She hoped the local newspapers will be hammering away with us as the problem with county government is that it is buried and no one knows what is going on We do send word to our representatives and senators, and Senator Rotondi is now on the committee on counties and we hope that maybe his presence there will help Our assessment is about $728,000 Mr Busa said that through the democratic policy we are getting more and more legislators on the bandwagon to abolish some form of county govern- ment or to revise the process of expenditure, and probably that is the only route we could take But not to pay the taxes for the Town of Lexington at 14%, we would be in trouble Chairman Miley said that in listening to people in other parts of the state, she had believed that the people in the western part of the state felt it was very im- portant as a regional type of thing. However, she had received a copy of an editorial in the Berkshire Eagle in which the editor disagreed with the selectman from Lexington because they didn't need county govern- ment either She asked the newspapers to spread the word and the Board will do the same Chairman Miley read the list of applications for licenses to be re- newed for 1980 1980 Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to renew Common Licenses Victualler licenses for the following Common Sheraton-Lexington Inn; Peking Gardens; Chadwicks; Brighams at Vict Bedford Street and Mass Avenue, and Pine Meadows County Club The Board agreed to hold the license for Christo's pending further discussion. Entertain- Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to renew the ment Entertainment license for the Sheraton Lexington Inn Common Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to renew the Carrier Common Carrier license for the Bedford Local Transit, Bedford, Mass Class I Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to renew the Class I license of the following Lexington Toyota Motor Sales 409 Massachusetts Avenue Auto Engineering, Inc 436 Marrett Road Rowe Chevrolet, Inc 33 Bedford Street Liquor Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted 4-0 to renew the Common Bora Bora Victualler All Alcoholic Beverages liquor license for Bora Bora, Inc , 177 Massachusetts Avenue, under the present corporation The hearing for the new corporation is scheduled for December 17 and consideration will be given to the issuance of a license for the new corporation Mr Busa abstained from voting Selectmen's Meeting - 3 - December 10, 1979 Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to issue a new Common Common Victualler license to Ruth Benoit d b a The Kitchen (formerly Victualler Rosin's Kitchen) , 363a Massachusetts Avenue, with hours of l0.00 a m. to 7 00 p m ; closed on Sundays The Appropriation Committee met with the Board Mr Hutchinson pre- Manager's sented a proposed municipal budget that calls for total spending and pay- Budget - ments of $34,850,035 or a 6 2% increase Primarily, we are dealing with App Com a tax rate of $91 90 or an increase of $4 30, 4 9% on the existing tax rate of $87 60 He had tried to address some of the goals that the Selectmen, Town Meeting, Appropriation Committee and the Capital Expendi- tures Committee had outlined to the administration This is in light of a 13% inflationary rate that we are all experiencing The Board is familiar with the traditional problems of collective bargaining settle- ments and if we are unable to conclude negotiations, he would recommend not to provide any money and to have a special town meeting to review the collective bargaining agreements that affect those groups We are ready to bargain now and would not recommend allowing an estimate for the next year's budget unless we have the completed settlements The long range is bleak With the issue of tax reform and the long range issue of dealing with the County Government, it is difficult to him as the Manager to recommend paying $700,000+ to the County and $535,000 to the MBTA - they are giving us support on Lexpress He has recommended a substantial commitment of available cash to offset any increases that we have, and the increases we are facing are not one-time experiences We must continue to move forward on issues like school closings and cost reduction efforts in every area, including municipal budgets More importantly, the Legislature is going to have to address issues like County Government by working with us On a more positive note we have maintained stability There is a commitment to continue Lexpress, and a commitment to the senior citizens of the town for when you want to embark upon a human services center for the elderly and other appropriate interest groups Mr White, Chairman of the Appropriation Committee, said that the com- mittee will meet with the Manager tomorrow evening and we are going to work hard at the significant increase Mrs Battin said that the first meeting of the Municipal Associations with the Tax Policy Committee was this evening, and one of the things brought up was initiative petitions The one that has definitely made it is the teachers' petitions; Associated Industries made it with only 300 signatures and people are going to challenge that 300 signatures are not valid So, rather than three or four horrendous initiative petitions , we may end up with just one Mr Hutchinson said that the Board has authorized me to get :appropriate citizens to work on a tax policy committee to assess whatever is going to come out on the ballot in November, and people are going to be asking what does it mean to Lexington? We would hope that any committee we have would have the support from the Appropriation Committee or even recommendations for this because in the long range we have to come up with a system that doesn't look to the property tax We have an 11% increase in the taxable growth and our projections show it won't be any more than 2% over the next 5 years Your expenditures are growing on either side of the budget at dramatic rates even with cost containment, so this is important information as to what is going to be out there II)V Selectmen's Meeting - 4 - December 10, 1979 Mrs Battin said that the committee is going to work very hard and will meet every other week, and we are gding to address the whole issue of tax reform, expenditure control, etc Chairman Miley said that, last Monday, we were asked to send to Senator Rotondi any legislation we may wish to have As a Board, we did not come up with anything but, as an individual, she did make a call on having a 4% cap on all other governmental bodies in the state as well as the towns and cities; also , the open meeting law for all branches of the state government, including executive legislators as well as what the municipalities have Those two bills will be filed Appts, Chairman Miley dig:cussed appointments to the Personnel Advisory Board P.A B There are two openidgs and we are adding one member; to reappoint Neil Chapman, Elmer Guilmartin to fill Harold Page's term, and Gary Paulson Mr White, Chairman of the Appropriation Committee, said that it was not his iimtentionhto change his views about the action in his dis- cussions with the Board and the Manager about these appointments; we do not know these gentlemen. Going back to January 21, 1974, certain things were agreed to at that time, among which was that the appointments would be made from a slate of candidates submitted by the Appropriation Committee It may be that somewhere along the line, interpretations have changed and he asked for consideration of the original intent, and the committee would appreciate it if in the future they were given this op- portunity Mr Hutchinson said that the Appropriation Committee has always had the opportunity to submit candidates to this Board, and that opportunity still exists Mr Kent said that he hoped we would shortly distribute the complete final, revised charter for the Personnel Advisory Committee which we worked out last spring There is no question that there has inevitably been some movement of feeling regarding the nature, scope, and function of the PAB His recollection was that we don't have it in that charter that we would do our appointing only from such a slate, but he concurred with the Manager that not only wouldwe welcome such input but indeed if there was an interest in giving it to us, we ought to be sure that we don't do it without according that express opportunity We worked very hard to see that the PAB was put in place and we felt it had certain responsibilities, and we felt it should be comprised of certain people If you now feel differently, you ,should clarify it As we dis- tribute to you the revised charter - none of us believe it is written in concrete and like all our prophesies it is an evolving thing - we would hope it is certainly an indication of writing up where we think we are right now Mr Crain said that when we worked on that charter, to my knowledge, we in no way reflected on any change on the original approach; that the Appropriation Committee, if they had candidates, would make them available Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to appoint the follow- ing members of the Personnel Advisory Board Mr Neil Chapman, 6 Patriots Drive, for a term of office to May 31, 1982; Mr Elmer G Guilmartin, 16 Constitution Road, to fill an unexpired term of office to May 31, 1981; Mr Gary D Paulson, 29 Colony Road, for a term of office to May 31, 1982 Selectmen's Meeting - 5 - December 10, 1979 Upon motion dulymade and seconded, it was voted toapprove the Liquor q request of the Lexington Knights of Columbus for an extension of hours K of C of operation under their Club liquor license to 1 00 a.m on December 15 and New Year's Eve The Board discussed the request of Mr and Mrs Ronald Goldner, 27 Rockville Rockville Avenue, to purchase Lot #40 Rockville Avenue The Board agreed Ave Lot that the lot has been conveyed to the Housing Authority and, therefore, is not available Mr and Mrs Goldman are to be so notified by letter Mr Hutchinson informed the Board that he had sent a letter to Human Mr French, 40 Reed Street, advising him that the Human Services Com- Services mittee will be working on the concerns he has outlined on the institu- Committee/ tionalization of neighborhoods Reed St Mr Hutchinson discussed the letteLi rrom McCarthy Municipal Leas- ing Company requesting the opportunity to present the advantages of municipal leasing and municipal lease/purchase of equipment Mr Hutchinson said that we have pursued this before and it is not ad- visable, but he will review it with Mr McCarthy Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted 5-0 by roll call Executive vote to go into Executive Session for the purpose of discussing matters Session of real estate negotiation and litigation, with the intention of re- suming the open meeting After discussion, it was voted to go out of Executive Session and resume the open meeting Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to renew the Common Common Victualler license for 1980 to Christo's Restaurant, 1 Meriam Viet Street It was agreed that there would be no announcement on the developer Parker of the Parker School but, hopefully, a decision would be given by the School next meeting Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to adjourn at 10 00 p.m. A true record, Attest Executive Clerk, Se =ctmz, 1 VOID