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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1979-09-10-BOS-min SELECTMEN'S MEETING SEPTEMBER 10, 1979 A regular meeting of the Board of Selectmen was held in the Select- men's Meeting Room, Town Office Building, on Monday, September 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, Assist- ant to the Town Manager; Mrs McCurdy, Executive Clerk, were present Chairman Miley opened a hearing on the N.E T &T Co petition for NET&T Co two manholes on Massachusetts Avenue, one 80+ west of School Street, Manholes- and one 20+ west of Paul Revere Road Notices of the hearing had been Mass Ave. sent to the abutters, and filed with the Public Works Department Mr Pinault, Telephone Company representative, said that this revised petition had been reviewed on location with Mr Coscia, DPW Manager, and he has no objections. Chairman Miley read a report from Mr Empey, Acting Director of DPW/Engineering, stating this work is necessary to consolidate two existing telephone conduits and approval is recommended Mr Thomas Anthony, 2561 Massachusetts Avenue, spoke in opposition as an abutter He said there are two existing manholes within 18 feet of the center of his driveway and he questioned the need for an additional man- hole. There is the problem of blocking off two driveways during in- "' plus a safety factor when repairs are made on an existing terminal located on a pole in the immediate area Mr Pinault said the new manhole will accomplish a .separate, system and we are in the process of recabling the whole area In the immediate future, there is going to be some work done to eliminate that particular box No one else appearing in favor or in opposition, the Board voted to table the petition pending further investigation and information from the Telephone Company Chairman Miley opened a hearing on the Boston Edison Company Bos Edison petition to install 6 feet of conduit in Liberty Avenue Notices of Conduit - the hearing had been sent to the abutters, and filed with the Public Liberty Ave Works Department Mr Robert Malice, Boston Edison representative, said this work is necessary to provide service to 90 Hancock Street Chairman Miley read a recommendation from Mr Empey that approval be granted. No one else appearing in favor or in opposition, Chairman Miley declared the hearing closed. Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to grant per- mission to the Boston Edison Company for the following location Liberty Avenue, easterly approximately 720 feet north of Revere Street a distance of about 6 feet - conduit I Selectmen's Meeting - 2 - September 10, 1979 NET&T Co Chairman Miley opened a hearing on the N E T.&T Co petition to in- Conduit- stall 495 feet of conduit and one manhole in Hartwell Avenue west of Hartwell Maguire Road Notices of the hearinghad been sent to the abutters and � Avenue filed with the Public Works Department Mr Pinault, Telephone Company representative, said this request had been reviewed on site with Mr Coscia and he had no objection as this work is necessary to service a new building presently under construction. Chairman Miley read a recom- mendation from Mr Empey that approval be granted. No one appearing in favor or in opposition, Chairman Miley declared the hearing closed Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to grant permission to the New England Telephone Company for the following location Hartwell Avenue, on the northerly side, approximately 1085+ feet west of Maguire Road, one manhole 54/128; also, on the southerly side from existing manhole 54/300 located approximately 650+ feet west of Maguire Road, westerly approximately 400+ feet, thence sweeping to the northerly side approximately 75+ feet to new manhole 54/128, thence northerly approximately 20+ feet to private property, a total of approximately 495+ feet of conduit Public Mr Gaynor Rutherford, Chairman of the Trustees of Public Trusts, Trust met with the Board regarding an accumulation of monies in the trusts Funds administered by the Trustees A summary of the trusts and available funds had been submitted and Mr Rutherford recommended that the Selectmen request the Trustees for expenditures from the appropriate trusts as some had not been used for some time The Board agreed that the Manager is to consider the available re- sources and requirements and make recommendations for future requests for the use of trust funds Better- Chairman Miley read a request from Mr Warren Empey, Acting Director ments - of Public Works/Engineering, to sign the lists of betterment assessments Street Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to sign the follow- Sewer ing betterment assessments STREET Briggs Road, Crescent Road, Great Rock Road SEWER Crescent Road, Barnes Place, Bennington Road, Eliot Road, Briggs Road, Garfield Street, Stedman Road, Gibson Road, Great Rock Road, Green Lane, Marrett Road Cert Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to table the re- Incorp quest from the State Secretary to approve 37 Grove Street for a Certificate of Incorporation for Lexington Child Care Cooperative, Inc Traf Saf Chairman Miley read a request from the Traffic Safety Committee re- Com - garding a stop sign at Preston/Simonds Road Preston/ Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to refer to the Simonds Traffic Safety Committee the request from Mr Bruce Adams , 12 Linmoor Rd Sign Terrace, for consideration of the stop sign at Preston and Simonds Road being converted into a yield sign Selectmen's Meeting - 3 - September 10, 1979 Chairman Miley read a report from the Traffic Safety Committee re- Wood St garding requests to reduce the speed limit to 30 MPH, and to prohibit Traffic through truck traffic on Wood Street The report stated that the cur- rent speed limit on Wood Street is 35 MPH in both directions from Old Mass Avenue to Hartwell Avenue; the process by which speed zones are established under Chapter 90 of the General Laws involves radar speed studies conducted by the Registry of Motor Vehicles and Mass D P W to determine the _85th Percentile Speed, and that speed becomes the posted speed From past experience, it is a fact that where speed studies have been performed on already posted roadways, the 85th Per- centile Speed has increased, and if the roadway were to be re-posted, the new speed limit would be increased, as required by law Therefore, the Committee recommends not seeking to re-zone Wood Street to a lower speed since in all likelihood the current 35 MPH would be increased. To institute a through truck ban on Wood Street, Mass D.P W must issue a permit to the Town, subject to the most important condition that the Town provide a suitable alternate route (1) which must not be circuitous and more than slightly longer than the original route; (2) must not force the truck traffic to leave the confines of the Town to reach its destination A suitable alternative to Wood Street does not exist at this time and, for this reason, the committee finds it highly unlikely that Mass D P W would issue a permit Therefore, the Traffic Safety Committee recommends that the request be denied Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to accept the recommendations of the Traffic Safety Committee concerning the speed limit and through truck traffic on Wood Street The Board discussed a request from the Minuteman Regional School Min.Man for immediate consideration of the use of red/green lights at the inter- School section of Marrett Road, Mass Avenue, and the current school entrance Intersec- Mr Hutchinson said he had discussed the matter with the Police Chief tion and the Traffic Safety Committee and we all agree it is a very difficult intersection The new entrance/egress should provide some assistance, and impact of that assistance should be assessed during the school year We support the widening of Marrett Road between Route 128 and the bluff to allow for better traffic flow, and we will work with State officials on any reasonable alternative. The town is not going to support solu- tions that present problems, especially when we counseled against the current entrance/egress and it was put in despite our recommendations The lights were apparently approved by the state in error and have been remanded to a flashing status by the state as traffic problems are considerable when the light is on He pointed out that the light serves the school but also thousands of motorists Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to accept the recommendation of the Town Manager, and to inform the Minuteman Regional High School that the Board supports the widening of Marrett Road, to assess the impact of the alternate road on the accident situation, and to work with state officials on any reasonable alternative. 3° Selectmen's Meeting - 4 - September 10, 1979 Gasoline Chairman Miley read an application from the Mobil Oil Co for increased Hearing gasoline storage of 4,000 gallons at 269-277 Bedford Street, and the Board voted to set the hearing date for September 24, 1979 Abatements Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to approve the Water request of the Acting Director of Public Works for abatement of water bills in the amount of $424 35 Fair The Board discussed nominees for appointment to the Fair Housing Housing Committee and agreed to appoint six members Committee Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to appoint the Appts following members of the Fair Housing Committee. Robert Pressman, 22 Locust Avenue; Natalie Miller, 18 Liberty Avenue; Albert Zabin (Planning Board Member), 1 Page Road; William Sullivan (Housing Authority Member), 6 Ross Road; Leona Martin, 468 Lowell Street; Jonathan Doran, 153 Grant Street Sanitary Mr Hutchinson recommended an amendment of the sanitary landfill Landfill regulations by approval of closing the landfill on Sundays This would Regs be consistent with the proposal at Town Meeting for a reduction of hours at the landfill The Board agreed, with the understanding that the Town Manager maintain a record of pertinent data; also, to investigate the possibility of the landfill being open on Veterans' Day, November 12, to accommodate the citizens for fall clean-up Mr Hutchinson agreed to report back within sixty days Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to amend the Sanitary Landfill Regulations by closing the landfill on Sundays Sewer Mr Hutchinson discussed the formula used in calculating sewer better- Assessment ment assessments, and recommended that the property owner be assessed based Formula upon the average of the last three years ' construction costs rather than the last five years' costs This makes it more current, especially during an inflationary period and what is going on in the marketplace Ideally, the Town would wind up picking ,up 50 percent of the costs with the home- owners bearing the other 50 percent; it does not always wind up that way, and the Town ends up bearing the heavy costs The homeowners are still in very good shape under these proposals, depending on the type of con- struction involved An assessment is a matter of benefit to the property and, as a practical matter, the remaining 5 percent to be sewered are the most difficult to serve because of ledge, etc The change would allow for this modest increase of about 15 percent and we hope you will favorably consider using the three years rather than five years Mr Peter Chalpin, Acting Town Engineer, briefed the Board on the current system and recom- mended a change in the formula In response to a question posed by Mr Kent, Mr Chalpin said that sewer construction costs could drop in the next fiscal year because contractors will be anxious for the work and could submit lower bids Mrs Battin and Mr Crain were in favor of the Manager's recommenda- tion; Mr Busa and Mr Kent were opposed; Mrs Miley voted in favor Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted 3-2, Mr Busa and Mr Kent in the negative, to change the sewer betterment formula; specific- ally within that formula, to change the method of arriving at the average construction cost by using the previous three years' construction costs for the purpose of calculating the betterment rate Up to the present time, the average of the previous five years' construction costs were used as a base 3/ Selectmen's Meeting - 5 - September 10, 1979 Mr Hutchinson asked for direction on the designation of a Precinct 3 Prec 3 polling place, The Board agreed to arrange a meeting with TMMA members Polling P1 and residents of precinct 3 for their input on the possibility of chang- ing from the Bridge School to Clarke Junior High School Mr Hutchinson discussed the letter from the State D.P W concerning Traffic the Right Turn on Red Lights, which will go into effect on January 1, 1980 Light Based on the warrants set forth, none of our signalized intersections will Signs permit the Right Turn on Red provision to be used in Lexington Mr Hutchinson recommended an amendment to the Traffic Rules and Orders, with a request to the State D P W for the necessary signs to prohibit the turns Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted that the Traffic Rules and Orders of Lexington, adopted by the Board of Selectmen November 13, 1967, are hereby amended as follows By deleting Sub-section (d) of Section 9, Article VII, which refers to obedience to traffic control signals, and in- serting in its place the following d) (1) RED - Traffic facing a steady CIRCULAR. RED signal alone shall stop at a clearly marked stop line, or if none before entering the crosswalk on the near side of the intersection or if none before entering the intersection and shall remain standing until an indication to proceed is shown except as allowed by Chapter 89, Section 8 of the General Laws (2) No driver of a vehicle facing a CIRCULAR RED signal indication shall make a right turn where official traffic signs are installed and main- tained prohibiting such turn at the following intersections East Street, Eastbound-Westbound at intersection with Lowell Street Lowell Street, Nortlbound-Southbound at intersection with East Street Worthen Road, Northeastbound at intersection with Bedford Street Camelia Place, Southeastbound at intersection with Bedford Street Bedford Street, Northwestbound-Southeastbound at Worthen Road Waltham Street, Northbound-Southbound at Concord Avenue Concord Avenue, Eastbound-Westbound at Waltham Street Mass Avenue, Eastbound-Westbound at Worthen Road. Worthen Road, Northbound-Southbound at Massachusetts Avenue Worthen Road, Northwestbound-Southeastbound at Waltham Street Waltham Street, Northeastbound-Southwestbound at Worthen Road Waltham Street, Northeastbound at Massachusetts Avenue Massachusetts Avenue, Northwestbound-Southeastbound at Waltham Street Locust Avenue, Northeastbound at Massachusetts Avenue Massachusetts Avenue, Southeastbound at Locust Avenue The Board approved the following recommendations of the Town Manager Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to sign Contract Contract 78-6-E, awarded on August 20, 1979 to J J O'Brien & Sons, Inc , Waltham 78-6-E for Street, Drain and Sidewalk Construction on Banks Avenue, Cushing St , Tucker Avenue, and Wood Street, in the amount of $157,367 00 Selectmen's Meeting - 6 - September 10, 1979 Contract Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to sign Contract 80-3-E 80-3-E, awarded on August 20, 1979 to Sarao Bros Inc in the amount of $98,290 00 for resurfacing Massachusetts Avenue from Pelham Road to Woburn Street; Hartwell Avenue from Bedford Street to the Railroad tracks; Forest Street; Middle Street Block Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to approve block Parties parties being held on Dewey Road on September 15 from 4 00-8 00 p m with a rain date of September 16; Longfellow Road at Hawthorne Street on September 14 at 6 00 0 m with a rain date of September 15 Bond Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to approve the bond for Constable John J Shine, Jr in the amount of $5,000 Appts Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to appoint the Insurance following members of the Insurance Committee Paul W Marshall, Committee 6 Chandler Road; John H Dyer, 24 Oakland Street; Daniel Lucas, 3 Tower Road; Elaine M Sullivan, 34 Baker Avenue. Drainage Mr Hutchinson and Mr Chalpin, Acting Town Engineer, discussed a Project - drainage problem on Laconia Street, and recommended the extension of an Laconia St existing drain approximately 100 feet to beyond the property line at #92 Laconia Street and the construction of a manhole; estimated cost is $3,000-3,100 under available funds in Article 16 of 1977 Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to authorize the Town Manager to proceed with the drainage project on Laconia Street Mini-buses Mr Hutchinson recommended that the Board approve the rules and Taxicab regulations for LEXPRESS, which would establish standards for the Spaces in contractor's performance Mrs Banks reported that mini-bus passes Depot Sq went on sale this week, and the buses will start to run after the opening ceremony on Saturday, September 15, at 10 00 a.m Mr Crain asked about the taxicab parking spaces in Depot Square, which are not always occupied by the taxicabs Mr Hutchinson is to have a recom- mendation next week. Vandalism Mr Hutchinson discussed vandalism to public property and informed the Board that there has been considerable window damage to Parker and Munroe Schools He suggested that the Board encourage citizens to work with us in reporting violators, and that parents should be re- minded that they share financial responsibility for the action of children who cause damage to our buildings The Board agreed, and Mr Crain said we should watch the situation closely and be ready to board those buildings New Members of the Board agreed to attend the ceremony on September 16, Bandstand 1979 dedicating the new bandstand at Hastings Park 3. Selectmen's Meeting - 7 - September 10, 1979 Mr Cohen requested the Board to sign the order of taking for slope Easements- easements on land abutting Wbod Street Wood St Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to sign the order of taking for slope easements for the sidewalk to be constructed within the location of Wood Street as shown on a plan entitled "Plan of Temporary Construction Easements in Wood Street, Lexington, Mass. May 1, 1979, Whitman & Howard, Inc , Engineers & Architects, Wellesley, Mass " Members of the Board agreed to attend the hearing on cable tele- CATV vision to be held on September 20, 1979 at 8 00 p.m. in Estabrook Hall, Hearing to be chaired by Selectman Busa A brief discussion was held on the composition of the Traffic Traf Saf. Safety Committee, and it was agreed to schedule a meeting in a few Committee weeks with the committee to discuss the matter. The Board approved advance payment of fees for Chairman Miley and MMA Meeting Mrs Battin to attend the first annual meeting of the Massachusetts Municipal Association to be held in Danvers on October 26 to 28, 1979; $30 00 registration fee and $10.00-lunch for Mrs Miley; $30 00 regis- tration fee for Mrs Battin The Board discussed an invitation from the State Ethics Commission Ethics for the Board's comments on proposals for financial disclosure by municipal officials. Mr Kent said he would be willing to draft a statement and submit it to the Board for discussion at the next meeting Mr Busa said that some months ago he was assigned to study methods Center of relieving traffic congestion in the Center He had received a call Traffic today that Representative Shannon is going to look into the possibility of the postal employees using the parking lot behind the Post Office, and to investigate the feasibility of the Postal Department leasing and surfacing the piece of land behind the Boston Edison Building. Rep Shannon will also look into a 1976 or 1977 proposal by the Post Office for one distribution center for Waltham, Belmont and Lexington, to be located on Lexington Street and Waltham Street near Route 2. This required rezoning, which was not approved. Perhaps this project could be regenerated as this would relieve traffic congestion in the Center Rep Shannon will have more details for us after he has talked with the Postal Department Mr Hutchinson reported to the Board on the tax rate, the upcoming Manager's 1981 budget, and the demographics of the town. The 1978 tax rate was Report $88 40, 1979-$90 20, and the Assessors have filed a rate of $87 60 for the approval of the Office of Revenue We have $1,576,000 in free cash for next year's budget By the end of September or the middle of October, he hoped to have data on refined numbers for the Board The tax base looks relatively stable for the next couple of years, and looking at the character of our population, we are reflect- ive of the national trend. We have the issue of social concerns from Selectmen's Meeting - 8 - September 10, 1979 the human services studies, and our ability to pay for them; we are still working on housing and affirmative action. We have the closing of the landfill and the solid waste solution, the whole issue of tax reform, and the financial matter of unfunded pensions The Board agreed to schedule a joint meeting next week with the Appropriation Committee, Board of Assessors, Capital Expenditures Com- mittee, and the School Committee to review where we are and where we are going It was also agreed that each Board member is to submit four or five of the Town's most pressing needs and problems Executive Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted 5-0 by roll call Session vote - Mrs Miley, Mr Busa, Mrs Battin, Mr Kent and Mr Crain - to go into executive session, with no intention of resuming the open meet- ing, to discuss strategy with respect to matters of litigation After discussion, it was voted to go out of executive session Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to adjourn at 10 05 p.m A true record, Attest xecutive Clerk, Selectmen