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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2020-09-23-NAC-min Town of Lexington Noise Advisory Committee(NAC) Minutes of Meeting September 23, 2020 A meeting of the Noise Advisory Committee ("NAC')was held via Zoom videoconference on Wednesday September 23, 2020 at 7:00 PM.A quorum of four members was present. NAC Members Present: Dan Koretz (Chair), Mark McConnell, April Wang, Nick Afshartous, Stewart Smith Others Present:Jamie Banks (Quiet Communities), Rick Reibstein (Sustainable Lexington),Judith Glixon (Volunteer), Pamela Lyons (Town Meeting member) Opening Remarks 1. Approval of the Minutes Dan presented the minutes of the August 26, 2020 meeting.The committee voted to accept them. Review of Action Items/New Business 2. Replacement of Committee member Mark McConnell Dan brought up the replacement of Mark McConnell because his three-year term will complete at the end of September 2020. Dan indicated that Vicki Blier is interested in joining the committee and will submit her application for the position shortly. 3. Select Board meeting Dan Koretz and Nick Afshartous attended the Select Board meeting on Monday September 21, 2020 to discuss two issues that were still on the table: - Later start times for landscaping noise - Phase-out of gas-powered leaf blowers The overall response from the Select Board was positive. There was little feedback on the later start times issue and there were no objections to the idea. Much of the time was spent on the phase-out issue. Joe Pato liked the idea of a phase-out but felt that it should be kept separate from the start time issue. He thought that the motion should be either split into two separate motions or to keep it as a single motion with two parts that could be voted on separately. Joe also felt that it would be advisable to bring up the phase-out topic now to be more transparent to residents and to landscapers. This would allow people more time to plan for a transition to GLB alternatives. In the September 23 NAC meeting, Mark Sandeen suggested (before making the proposal)to take Joe Pato's suggestion of two separate parts in one article to Deb Brown (Town Meeting moderator) to see if it is possible to have two votes in one article. The committee deliberated about the pros and cons of submitting one vs two motions. Nick took action item to contact Deb Brown to ask the best way forward for submitting one vs two motions. In the September 23 NAC meeting, the committee reviewed the results of the GLB survey that had been posted to the Lexington List. Based on initial results,the committee decided to wait until more survey results are collected from other social media channels before deciding the best strategy for moving forward with how to include the ban in the motion. More information about the survey results are discussed in the "GLB Survey Results" section below. With respect to changing the start times to 7:30 or 8:00 am,the committee decided to wait to see if the NAC receives more complaints or feedback. Dan considered updating his stock answer document to ask people if they are interested in changing start times. In the Select Board meeting, Suzy Barry asked if the NAC had any national grants to cushion the blow of additional costs to landscapers if a ban is enacted. In the NAC meeting, the committee discussed the practicality of group purchasing and the idea of gathering a group of landscapers and then approaching a bank for incentives. Dan suggested contacting vendors/manufacturers to organize the bulk purchase of electric equipment at reduced cost. Dan also suggested working on securing bulk purchasing agreements that will allow all residents to get the same discounts as the landscapers and the DPW. Pamela Lyons (Town Meeting member) indicated that landscapers have been on notice for years that residents aren't happy about the noise. It has now reached a tipping point now that everyone is experiencing the noise at home due to COVID. She noted that there are nine pages of landscapers (twenty different companies) in the Lexington yellow pages meaning there is no shortage of landscapers and they want Lexington residents' business. It's not unfair to ask them to use alternatives to gas- powered blowers. 4. GLB Survey results The committee reviewed the results of the gas-powered leaf blower(GLB) survey that had been collected from people on the Lexington List message board. There were roughly 100 responses, and a majority of the respondents (86%) indicated a desire to limit GLBs in some manner. The committee decided to distribute the survey to other social media channels (Lexington Mavens, Chinese Association of Lexington, Next Door app) to get more feedback before proceeding with a decision on proposing a ban on GLBs. Mark S proposed posting the results of the survey on the Lexington List and to create a separate copy of the survey to submit to Town Meeting members to get their feedback. He suggested asking Vicki Blier to distribute the survey to the Town Meeting members. S. Slack administration Mark McConnell will be leaving the committee at the end of September, so administration of the NAC Slack workspace needs to be transferred to someone on the committee. Nick accepted the responsibility for Slack administration. The committee also discussed creating public and private channels to accommodate non-committee members in the Slack workspace. Non-committee members will be able to use the public channels and a naming convention will be used to easily differentiate between the two types of channel. 6. Fielding noise complaints Dan indicated that residents don't know how or where to submit complaints about noise. The committee discussed creating a page in the Noise Committee web site to instruct people how to file complaints. Rick brought up creating a central repository for collecting noise complaints. Dan indicated that this had been discussed before with the town and there is no central ticketing system at this time. The NAC doesn't have the bandwidth to tackle this problem at this time. The committee agreed to put a "File a Noise Complaint" link on the menu in the NAC web site on lexingtonma.org. The link would display a page that would instruct people how to file a noise complaint listing the appropriate contact information (police,fire and health departments,etc.) depending on the type of noise complaint. Dan will follow up with the lexingtonma.gov webmaster to create a page for this purpose. 7. Allocation of Tasks The Committee agreed on the following tasks: • Write a draft blurb for posting the survey on social media. Post the draft on Slack to get feedback and then finalize the blurb. In the blurb, include a request for people to forward it to friends and neighbors. (Mark M) • Research bulk purchasing options (Dan) • Update the NAC web site to include a "File a Complaint" link and page instructing residents how to file noise complaints. (Dan) • Contact Deb Brown about best way to proceed with start times and phase-out. (Nick) • Transfer administration of Slack to Nick. (Mark) • Renaming of Slack channels to indicate public vs private type. (Mark M) • Update and finalize slides for presentation (Stewart) Other Matters None Adjournment There being no further business the Committee agreed that the next meeting of NAC would be at 7 pm on October 28, 2020.The meeting was adjourned. Action Items: Action Items Person Responsible Due Date 1. Review and update our list of towns that have Dan/Stewart Ongoing regulated lawn equipment. Make calls to find success stories that can be presented to the Select Board and TM. Jamie can probably help with this. 2. Reorganize and consolidate the information we have Stewart Complete collected over time on health effects, etc. 3. Craft one or more short blurbs and slide presentations Dan Complete based on#2,for use in approaching the groups noted below. 4. Contact the Board of Health to ask for support. We Nick(with assistance Pending should do this ASAP as soon as we have#2 done (as we from Mark S.) should reference specific studies on health effects in approaching Wendy Heiger-Bernays. 5. Request opportunities to present to Lexington civic Throughout groups, including: October a. Sustainable Lexington a. Mark S b. Lex GWAC b. Judith C. Citizens for Lexington Conservation c. Judith d. League of Women Voters d. Judith e. Lexington Mavens e. April f. Mothers Out Front f. Judith g. Lexington Green Teams (Cindy Arens) g. Judith 6. Create and distribute survey to collect usable data on Mark M In Progress GLB public opinion April 7. Decide whether to contact people who participated in Dan Pending earlier threads. Note that this is easier if we have something like a survey,which gives us a reason to contact them. 8. Obtain MA Medical Association resolution on leaf Stewart Completed blowers (Wendy Alker?) 9. Plan one or two virtual public meetings. Deferred Pending 10. Plan contact with TM members Deferred Pending 11. Do additional social-media work(not entirely specified Stella to assist Pending yet).