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Town Meeting Fallout: Where to now?
-- by Jim Farrell

"Reconsidering" our quorum

If the motion to reconsider the "Village project" had come up ten minutes later, the outcome might have been different. By then, all the people who voted against it and bolted out the door would have been gone. The vote came quickly enough so that most of the opponents were still within earshot.

Special interest or one-issue groups are so predictable, aren’t they? Whether it’s the playground issue or anti-zoning, once the vote is cast and the reconsideration put aside, it’s a stampede for the doorway.

Our town meetings would be better with a zero quorum. And maybe no "reconsideration," but that’s so imbedded in our ‘parliamentary procedure’ that it might take an Act of Congress to remove. The zero quorum, however, has been proposed before and is worth revisiting.

It wasn’t true...
The rumor that approving the "Village project" would have re-opened Copper Beech Drive was just that — a rumor. It was also an extremely effective piece of propaganda.

To the Copper Beech Drive residents who worry that their street may be re-opened, a quick reminder: When the road was approved by the planning board in the 1980’s, it was never designed as a dead-end street. A petitioned article and a sympathetic Board of Selectmen is what allowed that to happen.

Although the Copper Beech story was only rumor, it does give rise to an interesting question. Why shouldn’t that street be re-opened to accommodate some of the traffic flow? Why should Smith’s Lane get 100% of the traffic coming from the station? The Copper Beech route would be ideal for commuters heading north, wanting to reach Route 3A at the Bickford’s exchange. That percentage is likely less than half the traffic from the train station, since much of it heads south.

Although our Town Moderator did a better job at crowd management on December 5, the November 28 meeting had some painful moments. When Fran Botelho-Hoeg told selectman Olley DeMacedo "come up here" and then reprimanded him, it was as though Madam Moderator forgot which job she was working at the moment — teacher or moderator.

Officer Tom Kelley raised an interesting point when he asked what effect spending would have on employee layoffs in the near future. He didn’t get a definitive answer, although hearing that departments are being asked to develop contingency plans for budgetary reductions is a good bet that this year’s spending spree, coupled with the last few years, will cost jobs. And, no matter how you define where the money comes from, people will still view it as a choice of projects over jobs.

Let’s hope the town doesn’t ‘strike out’ with the ball fields.

Although the voters agreed to "play ball" with the proponents of the new ball fields, this is as much a "minefield" issue as one about ball fields. Don’t get me wrong. I support and endorse youth sports. My nine-year old nephew, who lives in a nearby town, plays hockey and baseball and I go to most of his games. What I oppose is an ill-conceived plan that asks taxpayers to fork over $697,000 for a project with a few very important, unanswered questions. We are on the verge of approving (December 15 ballot) this expenditure of nearly three-quarter of a million dollars and we don’t know what it will cost to build the road to access the Pottle Street fields. Nor are we 100% certain we’ll be able to do it without a fight. There’s still the matter of whether and how the Hilltop Athletic Association will relinquish its access. In a worst case scenario, the town could be forced to choose between abandoning the project and taking land by eminent domain — a long, costly proposition.

We need to be careful about the money we spend. In the last few years, we’ve built or approved building a sewer project, new town hall, new elementary school and more — all worthwhile projects, but where will this end? Let’s not create a town too expensive for people on fixed incomes, or adult children who grew up here and want to return, to call home.

-- by Jim Farrell