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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2020-01-21-NAC-min Town of Lexington Noise Advisory Committee Minutes of Meeting of January 21,2020 A meeting of the Noise Advisory Committee was held on Tuesday,January 21, 2020 at 7:00 PM in the Parker Room of Lexington Town Hall. A quorum of four members was present. Members Present: Dan Koretz (Chair), Mark McConnell,April Wang, Nick Afshartous, Lee Minardi (former member) Dan presented the minutes of the previous (December) meeting.The committee voted to accept them. The committee accomplished the following items: • Decided to do no outreach for construction noise by-law proposal. • Discussed current Lexington construction noise penalties. We felt the current penalties to be small and considered revising them. Dan discovered that the Health Director does the enforcement of these violations and it would be more appropriate for the Health Director to make a recommendation to revise the penalties. We will follow up with Jim Malloy to inquire about the results of his comparative fee analysis with other towns. • Agreed to put on our spring agenda to review and propose improvements for reporting and tracking of noise complaints. • Agreed to put on our spring agenda to look into having a fixed standard for general noise limits (based on Belmont's standard) • Discussed the idea of securing a sound engineering firm for any future noise complaint decibel measurements. We decided to do this on an as-needed basis. No further action on this is required. • Discussed adding more green landscapers to the list on the Noise Committee web site. • Discussed the public awareness campaign including the following: o Nick talked about DPR event in spring. We should attend and used this event as an outreach opportunity. o Groups to target on social media including Facebook, Lexington List, Next Door app, Chinese American Association of Lexington (CAAL), Indian Americans of Lexington (IAL), Church groups, INS o Discussed the idea of making announcements on Social Media about initiatives and progress that the Noise Committee is making as a means to raise public awareness. We should ask Mark S if this is acceptable. • Suggested and agreed to use Slack as a central repository for campaign content docs. Mark M volunteered to post content to Slack although any member can post to Slack. At our next meeting we should discuss our approach to posting content in Slack. Noise ConimitteeTiniefine The timeline was not reviewed or discussed during the meeting. An updated version of the timeline will be posted in the Noise Committee Slack site. Action Items: Action Item Person Responsible Due Date Research other towns'general noise ordinances for comparison April Feb 25 purposes to Lexington's current noise penalties Gather information about how noise complaint reporting and Dan Feb 25 enforcement happen. Check with: - Police - Health Department - Determine to whom the submission form on Town web site gets sent Organize library of content in Slack Mark Feb 25 Submit names of more green contractors to Dan. Dan to Nick/Dan Feb 25 contact the contractors for information. Wait until further notice-Contact Jim Malloy(Town Manager) ? On Hold about changing noise penalties/fines Ask Mark Sandeen if the Noise Committee can make Mark Feb 25 announcements about initiatives and progress on Social Media A tentative date of Tuesday February 25, 2020 was set for the next meeting.