Getting Ready for Town Meeting - Part II

From the April 9 BOS Meeting:

3-5 election voted for.  Mike Troiano sat in front of me and was straining under the weight of the 1200 signatures he was carrying. Nice job Mike and the Open Sudbury group!

June Town Counsel Selection - the BOS read a legal opinion from the same lawyer they use for employment law, stating that the Town Manager agreement (when we went to a town manager form of government in 1994), voided the Town Charter that required an RFP for town legal services every three years.  Of course this raises two issues: 

1) What other parts of the town charter are now void?  BOS? Please explain.
2) What type of fiscal sense does it make to renew a legal services agreement every three years without competitive bidding?

On the warrant articles, the format proved to work very well for questions and answers.  More residents should look to attend or watch on TV.  Next meeting is April 23. If there are enough TV watchers, we can set up an email for those people to submit questions. 

Tonight, we covered the following articles.  I listed my opinion for some of the articles.

#25 –Senior Housing One Bedroom Units - Amend Zoning Bylaw, Art. IX – sec. 5336 (d) and 5435 ©, to increase the maximum allowable number of one-bedroom units in Sr. Residential Developments

Vote FOR: Apparently 80% of the seniors in our senior housing projects move from out of town, which is great, but this is due in part to the high expense of the developments.  By allowing more one bedroom units, the hope is that there will be more less expensive senior housing in town for all.

#26 - Site Plan Review - , Art. IX, sec. 6330, Site Plan procedures to change the voting requirement from unanimous to majority.

Vote FOR: Pat Brown presented that with the coming change from 3-5, it was too onerous for site plan reviews to require a unanimous board vote.

#27 - Amend Zoning Bylaw, Art. IX, Replace Board of Selectmen Site Plan authority with Planning Board – Refer to Planning Board. 

The planning board voted to remove this from the warrant. 

#28 - Big Sheds to Play in , Art. IX, sec. 2326, Accessory Structures (sheds) – Refer to Planning Board

Vote For - Everyone needs a bigger shed to hang out in.

#29 - Wastewater -  Art. IX – Section 4500 – Wastewater Facilities Bylaw – Deletion - Refer to Planning Board

Vote For - This was enacted prior to more recent bylaws.

#30 - No Ganja Centers  – Art. IX – Temporary Moratorium on Medical Marijuana Treatment Centers - Refer to Planning Board

Vote For - Pat Brown presented. The state regs for medical Marijuana are not finalized, so until these state regs are finalized,  we don't want to open any treatment centers. 

#31 - No Weeds in the Pond - Community Preservation Fund – Amend Art. 38 of the 2006 ATM – Carding Mill Pond/Stearns Mill Pond Invasive Weed Removal

Vote For - Similar program to years past.

#32 - Walkways - Community Preservation Fund – Town-Wide Walkways

Vote For - Similar program to years past.  Question I did not think to ask -- is the town building these walkways or is this outsourced to a paving company?

#33 - Cemetery - Community Preservation Fund – Amend Art. 27 of the 2004 ATM – Revolutionary War Cemetery

Vote For
 
#34 - Sudbury Housing Trust - Community Preservation Fund - Sudbury Housing Trust 10% Allocation

I have been studying the trusts financials and have questions about the lack of audited detailed audited financials for 2007 - 2009 , and differences I see between the town's financials and the SHT detailed financials for 2010 - 2012. I am going to connect with Beth Rust to review.

Other information that came out - if we don't vote for the 10% allocation to SHT, then the money will sit with the CPC for affordable housing and be reallocated next year. So we are not in jeopardy of being in violation of the CPA law.

The SHT is still working to move forward with the Maynard Rd development and has already spent $550K or so for the property, demolition, site plans, and to get out of the contract with the original developer ($100K+ expense)

#35 - Community Preservation Fund – Historic Projects

Vote For

#36 - Community Preservation Fund – Town Center Landscaping Restoration

Vote For - Building stone walls center of town.

#37 - LS Softball Field Reconstruction  -  Community Preservation Fund – LSRHS Softball Field and Davis/Featherland Field Design

This proved to be the contentious article of the night.  The LS softball field is not usable as is.  Park and Rec wants to repair it, and also look into reconfiguring Featherland in addition to some work on Davis field.  If we vote the money, LSRHS School Committee won't accept the money unless we agree to reopen the regional agreement and allow Lincoln more playing time on the stadium turf field.

I don't quite understand why these two are related, but the LS School Committee apparently voted unanimously to not accept the money without a change to the regional agreement.

A few residents and Selectman Haarde were a bit surprised by this. It seemed odd to those assembled that softball field safety is being linked to us providing Lincoln access to the turf field that they didn't pay for, for use for another sport.

Perhaps someone from the LS School Committee could comment below and enlighten us.

Next up is April 23rd meeting where the BOS will review Articles 16 – 21 & 24. In addition, the citizen petitioners for Articles 39 - 43 have been invited to present.