Posted on October 19, 2017 at 10:20 AM by Melanie Oldeman
It is time for a number of updates.
First, thank you to all those who attended the Town Meeting
held last Monday. We had a good turnout
with over 300 registered voters, comparable to Annual Town Meeting
attendance. There was thoughtful debate,
including proposed amendments to various motions, and conclusive decisions
made. The many bylaw changes that were
approved need to be sent to the Attorney General’s Office for final approval before
the changes go into effect. This should
happen by the end of the year at the latest.
Our Moderator, Alan Wilson, not only works hard during the
meeting to ensure a fair and orderly process, he also spends significant
time leading up to a town meeting researching the legal background on proposed
articles and working with the various boards and petitioners on fine-tuning
motions to ensure they are in proper form. His efforts go a long way to help make our Town Meetings productive and
accessible to all.
One of the themes of the night was managing our community
environment, whether it be how we permit expansion of undersized lots to
regulating construction noise, and from traffic/parking management to
preserving open space. This same theme
is central to the work of the Master Plan Committee. The Committee’s work is entering a critical
stage of formulating specific action steps that will guide the work of town
boards and set budgeting priorities. An important survey, seeking input on future areas of development and preservation
as well as how to balance the need to grow our tax base while maintaining the
current character of the community, is now open. Please take time to complete the survey and add your voice to how we should best shape the future of our
town.
A priority concern identified by the initial survey
conducted by the Master Plan Committee is the condition of our infrastructure
and how we can pay for a long list of needed improvements. This summer good progress was made on
improvements to our water and sewer systems as well as roads. However, the projects got bunched up due to weather
and other delays, and at times it felt like everywhere one turned there was a
detour or delay. Better scheduling of projects
and stronger communication efforts to alert residents of what is happening will
take place going forward. Still to come
this fall are needed waterline valve replacements at the Pleasant and School
Street intersection.
One of the more frustrating projects for all concerned
involved the changed road striping on School, Bridge and Beach Streets. The push to create more on-street parking and
to slow traffic led to decisions that were counter to staff recommendations
regarding the road markings. The
original lines reappeared as the cover paint wore off leaving us with two sets
of yellow lines. By the end of this
month we will bring in a specialized machine that will essentially power wash
away the lines and new striping will be professionally applied. New lines throughout town will be applied
prior to the onset of winter.
Lastly, the development of the FY19 Budget (which begins
July 1, 2018) is getting underway. The
best time to make suggestions about possible changes in our municipal spending and
service delivery is in these early stages of budget formulation in order to
have the time to fully review new approaches or changes to service levels. Have an idea of how to save money? Do you see an unmet need that we should be
addressing? I would love to hear from
you – stop by Town Hall or drop me a note.