Live blogging Town Meeting: 300 people, 27 articles — Fun!

7:45PM live blogging here– starting a bit late here and with a different feel under new moderator Mike Widmer, with both an ecumenical prayer (not sure how I feel about that), the saying of the Pledge of Allegiance (eh) and a rousing rendition of God Bless America (love it!) Mike’s now introducing himself to the body and laying out his new approach — including brief descriptions of each article before Town Meeting. Mike said he will also limit discussion on the article — not allowing discussion to wander off topic. (Thank God!) One example: tonight’s vote on a change to the bylaw governing window signs. Mike says he’s going to try to be fair and balanced (but not in the Fox News sense of that word 😉 ).

8:00PM Ralph Jones (new BOS member) is reading a proclamation in honor of Liz Norris, longtime planning board member and educational activist in town. A standing ovation for Liz.

8:04:PM Dan LeClerc is reading a proclamation in honor of Dr. Paul Solomon for his service to the town as a Selectman. Another standing O! Dr. Solomon is commending the assembled for being Town Meeting members and saying we need community involvement and that current levels of involvement is not what it should be (hard to argue given the slate of uncontested town races in April.)

8:08PM There’s a motion now to mix up the motions. Don’t ask. We’re now skipping over Article 1 to wait for Will Brownsberger to show up. On to Article 2 — a housekeeping matter. We all vote “aye,” and its on to Article 13, concerning the transfer of some $530k from the sale of cemetary lots to a Cemetary Perpetual Care Fund, which gets 50% of all sale proceeds. We all vote “aye,” and its on to Article 14…firehouse money ($615k) to go to the Senior Center fund. Not much controversy here. This will

Joe White, precinct 4 is up and at ’em — will this reduce what the tax payers have to pay? Short answer: yes — the remaining cost goes from $6.3m to $5.7m. Joe is asking about parking construction around the Senior Center. Angelo Firenze is addressing this: Board of Selectmen has taken money from existing funds to pay for senior center parking. We almost all say “aye,” and its on to Article 16…appropriating $375k for evaluation of sewer and storm drain systems and GIS based model of sewer and storm drains.

Barbara Passero, Precinct 3 is asking, basically, what this gets us — whether we’ll have better information about modeling the impact of new developments in town, a la McLean. Barbara is concerned that we make decisions now with better information and not do another McLean, which Barbara thinks sucks. Joel Samuels, Precinct 6 is asking about how long it will take to pay off this loan. Selectman Ralph Jones says 5 years, and that it will be a minor increase to the sewer rates, which are set to increase by 5% this year and every year thereafter. This includes this borrowing and a much larger sum (Article 17).

We all vote “aye” (almost) on 16 and its on to Article 17, which is asking the town to pay $11.6m to improve the town’s sewer and storm drain system — including new pipes, relining existing pipes, etc. etc. Town Meeting member Anne Mahon is asking whether the town coordinates sewer repair with repaving operations to make sure that we don’t dig up new roads to repair sewer issues. Short answer: kinda. Anne’s asking whether there’s a hard set rule about when the town does/doesn’t replace sewer mains. Short answer: no. Not a wise use of town funds. Anne asks how old the avg. sewer line is. Answer: most sewer lines in town done between the 20s and 50s.

Mary is asking how much the debt burden on the town will be for this. Ralph is explaining that the planned 5% increase in sewer rates will cover MWRA costs and this debt and Article 16. Ralph’s looked out 5-6 years, anyway. But says the costs of point repairs could bust that estimate. Hard to know till you open the roads. Another TM member is asking what percentage of the way the town is towards having an up to date and stable sewer and storm water network? Are we 5% there? 95% there? Glen Clancy of the Property Management Committee is responding that we’re 15%-20% there. This will address problems in Wellington and Wynn Brook areas that will get us most of the way there — asked whether this is a $50m bill over the next few years, Glen says he’s not ready to say that.
Penny Shafer: TM member from Precinct 7 — how long will the $11m last us? Ralph: 2 years but for pump replacements. Penny: how can we spend this money so fast? Are sewers really that expensive? Ralph: basic idea –we’re assigning ind. eval to a contractor and pay for these out of the fund. This is a 20 year loan, btw. Penny seems skeptical of the costs, but it passes unanimously.

On to Article 19. Martha Brown town meeting member from Precinct 5 to enter into a partnership with Lexington to share nursing services through the Board of Health. Warrant Committee advises for it (unanmiously — as they have all motions thus far). Tom Younger is speaking now, noting that this position has been vacant for a number of years. Can’t fill it. Been looking at regionalized services. Public Health is one area where they can combine. Shared service. Barb Pasaro (sp?) precinct 3 is speaking — are we allowed to have a 1/2 time person or do we have to have a full time person by law? Public Health Nursing Association — says every town should have one nurse — Lexington had a 30 hour position, we asked them to go to full time and share it with us. We have a 10 hour position. Hard to fill that position — no benefits. Not able to attract anyone since then. In an emergency will need more. Regional agreement — 26 other communities in emergency planning region. Members of medical reserve corps. We’ll have 14 hours and Lexington will have 21 hours.
Joe White asking who will employ this nurse. Answer: Lexington. This is akin to animal control officer sharing with Watertown (where Belmont insures them). We’ll pay proportional share to Lexington for the cost of position. Article passes unanimously.

Back to Article 1 now that Will B. is in the house. Rudy Montenga reads. Rep. Will B. TM member at large, is now going to address the body. Has a resolution honoring former moderator Henry Hall. Henry’s service went beyond what was necessary. Brought enormous amount of expertise to the job. Projects working: local aid — relatively good for Belmont. Affects arrangement done by Anne Paulsen. Commits legislature to give five years of steady growth to towns with low levels of education aid. Lottery revenue will be smaller. But we’ll see growth rates above inflation. See B2’s interview with Will B. here. Article 1 gets a unanimous approval.

On to Article 15, regarding the ability of the town to force utility companies to properly repair roadways that they rip up. A big AYE! on this one from anyone who’s ever driven over the moonscape that is most patched work sites. Question from TM members: what are the costs for permits to dig going to be? Currently 0$ (amazing) but we’ll start charging: $100 for utility permit and $50 for trench permit for digging more than 3ft. Amen. We also want to start inspecting these sites to make sure roads are repaired well. TM member from Precinct 3 — definition of a trench — where is it? As written, digging a flower bed could require a permit. Chapt 82A — gardening with hand tools. But if dig hole deeper than 3 ft, need a permit. (Didn’t know this.) There’s now a question on the floor about which of the new proposals are new and which are existing regulations. The question is now:will these prohibit landscaping along the property line? Answer: Yes — those are kind of illegal anyway (though mostly innocuous.) Question from the floor: is a hole dug for a porch post technically a trench requiring a permit? Answer: Yes! (Yikes). Joe White: How will the Dept. of Public Safety going to inform homeowners about the permitting guidelines? Answer: public education. This is all in Mass General Laws, Chapter 82. Check it out.

Article 21 on quarterly tax billing. Passes unanimously. On to Article 26 on granting a liquor license for the VFW. The Vets want a club license that will allow them to serve liquor. This authorizes the Selectmen to grant a club license, though doing so would be up to the Selectmen to decide at a subsequent meeting. Club license for VFW would be much less than $4,000 paid by Belmont CC — instead, it would be a nominal fee. License authority will make that determination. Vincent Precinct 3 — has the VFW represented to the town what kind of activities would be taking place and how different from current activities at the VFW. Answer: the Vets want to rent out hall for events to raise $$. Hmm… Angelo Firenze is talking about negotiations between the VFW and town on the town’s land lease for the land on which the building sits. Those negotiations are contingent on them following State laws, basically. Not very comforting. TM member Joe White asks how the guest and members rule will work for events. By statute: has to be club members and guests. Pat Scully is now saying that this is just to give authority to put this to a vote by the town on a ballot. TM member Brian Shafer Precinct 6: Does one day license law exist for other organizations? Yes. We vote: almost unanimous “aye” to put this one to a vote by the town.

On to Article 27: Water Pipeline Easement — giving the town the green light to purchase a Water pipeline easement for service to the McLean development. This was part of the McLean project but somehow omitted from that item.