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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1979-10-14-BOS-min III SELECTMEN'S MEETING OCTOBER 15, 1979 A regular meeting of the Board of Selectmen was held in the Selectmen's Meeting Room, Town Office Building, on Monday, October 15, 1979 at 7 30 p m Chairman Miley, Mr Busa, Mrs Battin, Mr Kent and Mr Crain; Mr Hutchinson, Town Manager; Mr Cohen, Town Counsel; Mrs Banks, Assistant to the Town Manager; Mrs McCurdy, Executive Clerk, were present Chairman Miley welcomed members of the League of Women Voters who were present at the meeting Mr Fred C Bailey, Chairman, and members of the Burglar Alarm Com- Burglar mittee met with the Board to discuss the report submitted bythe committee Alarm P Mr Bailey gave an overview and said that after town meeting it was appar- Committee ent to everybody there were three areas giving difficulty, (1) technical Report understanding, (2) what the legal implications were, what the town should or should not do, and how should the town approach it; (3) the political overtones, how does it affect town meeting, the town as a whole, town departments, and is it fair to charge for the use of the services? Howard Cravis summarized the report and we had help from Palmer & Dodge on the legal implications The route to go is to have a simple by-law, follow that up with regulations, and then require permits, a 3-stage operation instead of trying to cram all of it into either a longer by-law or to go only to the regulation of permits The committee members didn't feel they had any difficulty at all by levying fees on the people that want to use this service The town has to inspect and there should be a fee assessment but if a person wants to be tied into a town telephone that there should be no reason why they should have to pay a fee to do this After going through all three areas, the committee came up with a total of ten recommendations To have a modified version of the by-law that was on the warrant last year; we suggest if anyone has a device in his home, it should be inspected; we suggest the current voice tape should be permitted after the by-law goes into effect, but only after they have been inspected and only after they have been adjusted to dial new numbers, not any of the emergency numbers We think those should be kept virgin clean for people to use when they want to call the police or fire departments, but any other devices that go on should go to new and separately designated numbers; this would be part of the new regula- tory process After the by-law is adopted, we suggest that all of the new devices going in cannot be of the voice type They should then switch over immediately and have a high speed digital dialing system which requires a new kind of receiver equipment at the fire or police department Mr Bailey said the only item remaining, and we pass it along to the board, is how long after you adopt the by-law do you let the old voice dialers continue to operate? A number of the members of the committee wanted them to be blocked out after six months; others said they should never be forced to switch over to high speed devices We thought to let it go until after the by-law is adopted and you and the department heads then decide; then you can set a timetable It may not become a burden Selectmen's Meeting - 2 - October 15, 1979 as it will become apparent to most people that using a digital high speed device is going to be far more effective in getting attention at either station than is the old voice type, and there will be in- centives for them to switch over If the voice dial continues to be a problem after the by-law we propose, then you can set a timetable for phasing those out, requiring people to switch over Our suggestion is that the town should seek bids for installing equipment at both the police and fire stations and maintaining telephone lines into this equipment and into a special phone to receive both the dedicated line type of device, whether a phone line from your business to the station or the new digital dialer types of device or another telephone number(s) which would be utilized only for the remaining voice type dialers; this would provide for all kinds of signals to come in completely independently of 862-1212 or 0270 series of numbers The basis for evaluation of these bids is going to have to be on what somebody perceives as the ultimate cost to the users of the service because all of this will be done at no cost to the town. We expect there will be an addition to the hookup charge of $40 00 for a $34 to $60 per year service fee, to be payable to the contractor selected by the town. The final point was how do you deal with chronic offenders? If you inspect these systems and establish that they have the technical devices which can insure you are going to have the minimum number of false alarms, what do you do with the people who one way or another are still sending false alarms? There was some feeling that maybe we ought to a recommended system of fines, but we backed off on that; perhaps there could be an administrative procedure sending out notes, as the police do now, saying your system is con- tinuing to send us false alarms Mr Roy Weinstein objected to the costs involved to approximately 1,000 users of voice dialers, and Mr Kent explained that the committee's position is open as to whether those currently having voice dialing would be required to convert after a period of time or not be required to convert As he understands the report, the committee's unanimous view is that any connection from this point forward ought to be required on the high speed digital arrangement Mr Bailey agreed Mr Kent discussed the proposed By-Law, "No person shall install, maintain or use a mechanical protection device that is automatically keyed to or activates the telephone numbers or lines controlled by or listed to the Police Department or Fire Department, without written approval of the Department Head All such devices shall be removed, or appropriate written approval obtained within 60 days of the effective date of this by-law " Mr Kent felt there should be some reference in the By-Law as to the regulations; there is a question as to whether those regulations should be promulgated by the department heads and, if so, he would like it to be at least subject to the approval of the Manager or, if not, subject to the Board of Selectmen - whether the Manager should be the promulgator or the Board of Selectmen should be she promulgator of the regulations In the Committee's report, it wasstatfiat this should be in the unguided and unreviewable control of the department head in question Selectmen's Meeting - 3 - October 15, 1979 Mr Hutchinson said that any regulations proposed by department heads would come to his office and be filed with the Board as a matter of information. The department heads would be willing to work with him and approved by his 1 office The Board agreed that the Manager is to submit additional information within the next two weeks Chairman Miley thanked the Burglar Alarm Com- mittee and the members retired from the meeting The Board discussed a change in the Precinct 3 polling place from Prec 3 the Bridge School to the Clarke Junior High School Mrs Martha Wood, Polling Chairman, and members of the Executive Board of the Town Meeting Members Place Association were present and were unanimously in favor of the change Mrs Erna Greene, Precinct 3 Town Meeting member, stated that the residents were also in favor Mr Hutchinson said the only problems to be resolved were parking and the storage of the voting machines at Clarke Miss McDonough, Town Clerk, had submitted a recommendation on the change and informed the Board that if approved the Selectmen must notify each registered voter by mail Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to change the location of the Precinct 3 voting place from the Bridge School to the Clarke Junior High School, subject to a request to the School Committee for permission to store six voting machines permanently at the Clarke Junior High School Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to table the request Lex Golf of the Lexington Golf Club for further deferment of sewer betterment assess- Club Sewer ments pending receipt of a letter from the Golf Club regarding litigation Bttrmnt against the Town Chairman Miley read a request from the New England Telephone Company J/0 Poles and the Boston Edison Company for the relocation of joint-owned poles due Carville- to road construction. Baker - Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to approve the re- Banks Ave location of joint-owned poles on the following streets Carville Avenue on the southeasterly side, approx 4+ feet east of Banks Avenue, one pole; one pole to be removed Baker Avenue on the northwesterly side, approx 5+ feet west of Banks Avenue, one pole Banks Avenue on the southwesterly side, approximately 300+ feet east of Carville Avenue, one pole Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to approve the Minutes minutes of the Selectmen's Meeting held on August 20, 1979 Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to confirm the Community appointment of Dr Martin K. White, 50 Bloomfield Street, as a member Health of the Community Health Committee for a term expiring May 31, 1980 Committee Selectmen's Meeting - 4 - October 15, 1979 DPW Con- Mr Hutchinson recommended awarding the contract for miscellaneous tract work on Earl and Avon Streets in connection with the Lexington Housing 80-5-E Authority's scattered sites project Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to award Contract 80-5-E to the lowest bidder, Somerset Paving Corp , Somerset, Mass , in the amount of $27,875 00, for construction work on Earl and Avon Streets Woodpark Mr Hutchinson informed the Board that a petition was filed with the Circle Planning Board by the residents of Woodpark Circle area concerning problems Subdivi- with rodents in the area, specifically asking that the ditch or brook running sion through the subdivision be considered a health hazard because of stagnant water, mosquitoes, and rats A $61,000 bond is being held and Mr Lane, the developer, agreed to do some additional work at the brook. We will not conduct a program of rodent control on private property but will do so on a one-time basis There have been recommendations from some of the citizens to pipe the brook but we do not feel it should be done We are prepared to give the residents all the technical assistance we can on the extermination of rodents Mr Williams, Chairman of the Conservation Commission, said that the problem is the pond as it has a very slow pitch. We had a Hatch Act hearing and the developer complied with the conditions Mr Hutchinson stated that we ought not to be in the position of redesigning subdivisions Mr Crain recommended that the Manager research the whole question with the advice of Town Counsel Mrs Battin agreed and added that Conservation or the Planning Board could give relevant opinions Mr Hutchinson said that we would encourage the residents to deal with the exterminator the town is doing business with. Residents of the area were present and expressed their concern about the problems Gift of Mr David Williams, Chairman of the Conservation Commission, informed Land the Board of a gift from an anonymous donor to the town of a 1-acre parcel of land off Hancock Street near Coolidge Avenue for recreation/conservation purposes Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to accept on behalf of the town the gift of a 1-acre parcel of land off Hancock Street near Coolidge Avenue for recreation/conservation purposes Conserve Mr Williams informed the Board that the Conservation Commission is going Land Pur- to use the Conservation Fund to purchase a 1-1/2 acre parcel of land located chase near the Bowman School at an agreed upon price of $4,000; this transaction does not require Town Meeting approval Conserve Mr.. Williams announced publicly that the Conservation Commission has re- Reimburse- ceived a reimbursement check for $560,417 ment Funds Chairman Miley thanked Mr Williams for meeting with the Board and he retired from the meeting Hanscom Mrs Jacqueline Smith and Mr Fred Bailey of the Hanscom Field Advisory Field Committee; Mrs Angela Frick, Lexington's MAPC representative, met with the Board to discuss Hanscom Field Mrs Smith said there was a meeting on Selectmen's Meeting - 5 - October 15, 1979 I IIIOctober 9 of the Hanscom Field Advisory Committee at which Massport and Cosmopolitan Airlines and Great American Commuter Services gave a pre- sentation on a commuter service which Cosmopolitan was asking Massport to permit at Hanscom Field with service between 7 00 a m and 9 00 p m ; consisting of four round trips to Newark daily This means ten operations of the airplanes because they will be based in Farmington, New York They will be using a Convair 440, which is the noisest airplane in this category There are fourteen jet operations at Hanscom per day now and adding these ten operations would essentially double the noise Everyone from Massport agrees that we will indeed notice the change in the noise structure at Hanscom if this service begins Should this ser- vice be successful, it would mean approximately 350 vehicle trips per day Massport, in this permitting, has to go through an environmental process; it will be published in the newspapers and Massport will decide at their November 15 meeting whether to give the permit There is a great deal of pressure coming from the PAB and the FAA to get the smaller services out of hub airports like Logan, and the best equipped, smaller airport in this area is Hanscom Since Lexington's policy was instituted in 1977 and the Hanscom Field Master Planning process was completed in 1978, there has been an increase in noise around the airport If we don't have standards for noise on noisier planes, it is time to ask Massport and perhaps we should be looking at our own policy to see whether we want to leave our own policy of just no certificated air carriers or whether we want to include commuter service If we have standards for noise on various planes and say these noisier planes can- not come into Hanscom, then you won't have to worry about the policy on the types of services use the airport Mrs Smith recommended on the Cosmopolitan proposal that Lexington inform MEPA and the Massport Authority that we are in opposition to any such service going in until such standards are in place Also, to recom- mend that Lexington take legislative action to ensure Town involvement in Massport decisions by making the Hanscom Field Advisory Committee not just a gentlemen's agreement between the Town and Massport but make it a legislative body on an advisory level; we need to be part of a decision making process Mrs Frick said she had noticed on the MAPC environmental form that they did not check the long-range traffic impact; on the MAPC A-95 review form, they did not think noise was a problem. It was agreed that Mrs Frick is to work with Mrs Smith and return the forms to MAPC stating that Lexington is interested in MAPC doing more studies Mr Hutchinson said the Planning Board is also concerned about noisier planes It was pointed out by Massport that there are no regulations cur- rently regulating Hanscom and they, in fact, were going to work on those themselves It does seem that substantive proposals that impact on the region should not be allowed to take place until logical regulations can be put in place Massport is going to work on information meetings at some subsequent time They further indicated they would work with the Hanscom Advisory Committee at an information session about current and III future plans, but the whole impact on regulations was referenced in effect that there are none That is something this Board and others should be concerned about Selectmen's Meeting - 6 - October 15, 1979 Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to approve the following recommendations submitted by Mrs Jacqueline Smith, Lexington's representative to the Hanscom Field Advisory Committee 1 To inform the Massachusetts Port Authority and the Mass Environmental Protection Agency that Lexington is in opposition to the proposal of the Cosmopolitan Airlines primarily on the basis of the noise which will be generated by the service; secondarily, by the impact on our ground transportation problem of an additional 352 vehicle trips per day Also, to request MPA to defer a decision on this service or any others until noise emission standards and a redefinition of acceptable services at Hanscom are set, and that these be done in cooperation with the com- munities To request that a more in-depth environmental report be done by the MEPA Unit of the Executive Office of Environmental Affairs on the commuter service being proposed by Cosmopolitan Airlines, Inc and the Great American Com- muter Service for Hanscom Field 2 That Lexington take legislative action to insure Town involve- ment in the MPA decision making process for Hanscom Field Mr Kent, as legislative liaison, volunteered to contact one of our legislators relative to introducing the bill 1 LEXPRESS Mr Rosenberg, Chairman, and members of the Transportation Advisory Terminal Committee; Mr Sacco, President of the Chamber of Commerce; Police Captain Lima met with the Board to discuss the LEXPRESS mini-bus transfer station Alternate locations were discussed and decided against the area on Edison Way behind the Harvard Trust Co , the Visitors' Center, and the Town Office Building Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to move the LEXPRESS mini-bus terminal to the left side of Depot Square adjacent to Emery Park on a temporary basis until experience is gained Mr Hutchinson requested time to work out the details of marking the street and placing barriers for the protection of the passengers Mr Rosenberg said the committee is considering a long-term location by using a piece of the railroad right-of-way, and he pointed out that legalroceedin s are involved P g Fare Mr Rosenberg recommended approval of operating an extra mini-bus on Increase Saturdays and an increase from 25 cents to 50 cents for the trip to the Burlington Mall; however, passengers who travel only in Lexington will continue to pay 25 cents Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to increase the fare on the LEXPRESS mini-bus to the Burlington Mall to 50 cents, and to add :a bus to this route on Saturdays Mr Rosenberg said the committee is investigating ways to increase ridership and additional information will be submitted in two weeks The Transportation Advisory Committee, retired from the meeting 5 Selectmen's Meeting - 7 - October 15, 1979 Mr Robert Sacco, President of the Chamber of Commerce, and Mr 1980 William Fitzgerald, Chairman of the Town Celebrations Committee, met Patriots' with the Board to discuss the 1980 Patriots' Day celebration The Day State holiday is to be observed on Monday, April 21, and April 19 falls on Saturday The Board wished to have the views of both groups as to the preference of which day to schedule activities Mr Fitzgerald said his committee favored a town celebration on Saturday; however, the committee realized that Saturday is usually a busy day for the merchants and they would like an opinion from them. Mr Sacco said he had polled some merchants, who were opposed to Saturday, but he was unable to contact the majority of the merchants The Board agreed to table the matter pending a further report from Mr Sacco A later meeting will be scheduled for a decision The Board approved Mr Hutchinson's recommendation to defer Wilson Rd discussion of the petition from the Wilson Road residents for two Traffic weeks Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to table the Permit request of Mrs Bagy of 11 Castle Road for permission to hold a Request crafts sale in her home, pending a report from Town Counsel re- garding the zoning by-law Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to sign the Preclama Proclamation declaring the week of October 29, 1979 as United Way United Way Week. Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to approve Appt - the recommendation of the Town Manager that he appoint Mrs Carolyn Recreation Wilson, 23 Pleasant Street, a member of the Recreation Committee for Committee a three year term expiring April 1, 1982 Mr Hutchinson recommended approval of the request from the West- Recreation bridge School to use the Adams School field,with payment of a user fee Permit - Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to approve the Westbridge request of the Westbridge School to use the Adams School field during the fall of 1979, subject to payment of a user fee of $5 00 per day and $10 00 per day when lines are required on the field Mr Hutchinson submitted additional material to the Board on the All American Cities Award Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted 5-0 by roll call Executive vote - Mrs Miley, Mr Busa, Mrs Battin, Mr Kent and Mr Crain - to Session go into Executive Session, with no intention of resuming the open session, for the purpose of discussing matters of litigation and real estate Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to adjourn at 11 10 p m A true record, Attest 4i2cG_Cy Executive Clerk, Selectmen V}