STM October 27

I'm going to try live-blogging special town meeting tonight. Hopefully we'll get quorum or it will be a pretty brief post.

[To be continued later today...]

7:11pm: waiting for quorum, at 192

Article 8 from last week was approved by a majority.

Someone made a motion to reconsider article 8. That motion was deemed invalid because the person making the motion had voted against the article which had carried. Wow, cool rules of order already.

Article I is back on the floor for discussion. The issue seems to be the proposed renovation of Town Hall. The speaker at the mike (Ken? Kent?) is making the case that the historic town hall building is not worth the expense vs. cheaper more modern commercial real estate. The particular item is for the $31,000 for a design plan for the renovation of Town Hall.

Someone from the community preservation committee is speaking to the point that the money can only be used for a historic building, since it is "community preservation" money. If I'm understanding that correctly.

7:20pm

Paul (Culley?) is now making the point that the output of the design process would lock the town into any single design.

Someone asked the question if there is some kind of time window that the town hall could be considered abandoned. The town building inspector answered the question by saying the building is not abandoned because it is still being maintained and used even if not occupied.

There seems to be a faction that is opposed to proceeding with renovation at town hall. Huh.

It's now being discussed that a year ago the town looked into buying another property to use as town offices, but it didn't pan out.

Bob Jefferies is now speaking to the question of building/fixing town hall vs. buying/renting/building other commercial property. Bob says that nothing is ruled out, but the main focus is getting town hall fixed. We don't really know how big that is, he says.

7:30pm

Called to a vote. Carried by majority of a hand vote.

Thursday Nov 6 at 7pm the selectman will be holding a meeting at the JV Fletcher Library to discuss the town hall project with the public.

Article 4 is now before town meeting.

"Reduce Amount Raised by Taxes in FY 2009"

Called for vote: passed by non-unanimous vote.

7:35pm

Selectman move to dismiss Article 9. Bob explains that we don't need the appropriation because the money has already been approved by the CPC (community preservation committee).

7:39pm It's hotter than the surface of Mercury in here.

Article 9 withdrawn by non-unanimous vote.

Article 10 is now before TM.

Jodie Ross, our new(ish) Town manager is talking about Article 10. The proposal is to improve Trench Safety by giving the building inspector authority to regulate trenches. I'm sorry but if you're not in favor of Trench Safety you must be some kind of communist. Trench Safety and America will defeat terrorism, drugs and the scourge of poor quality burritos in central Mass.

Article 11: accept some streets. Unanimo, baby.

7:42 pm We are rolling now.

Article 12: Stepinski Land allocation. It's been 5 years that the town has been trying to get this land, we have it now. This article divides the authority over land among the Water Dept, the Recreation Dept and the Conservation Commission. Leslie Thomas is noting that the committee started 10 years ago to get all this rolling. There will be permanent restrictions on the portions of the land purchased with CPC funds and Water Dept funds.

7:47 "Our water in Nab tastes really bad."

There's a question about what is being done to protect the watershed. The answer is that any construction that must take place requires permitting process before the planning board.

Diane Weir is offering an amendment to split the question, splitting the question into Water Dept/Conservation on the one hand, and Rec Dept on the other hand. The motion has been seconded. Now discussing whether we should divide the question.

Motion to divide: fails by majority.

Back to main motion to divide the parcels. Voting to end debate: passes.

7:53: call for vote requires 2/3 majority. Voice vote first. Only heard 1 nay, so passed.

Planning Board Mtg at 8pm at Millenium; Selectman's meeting at 8:30 at Millenium.

That's all folks.