Town meeting results

It was an interesting night, and shorter than I had thought. I'm in the midst of battling a cold but showed up anyway, hacking my way through ;).

Some major issues were deferred like the sign and landscaping by-law changes.

The library issue passed to the extent that the BOS will take it up and probably place it on the ballot for next year for an override vote. I know many folks expressed concerns that it's too much money and the town has enough problems meeting basic infrastructure needs now, how can we take on another $12M? My opinion in the end was that we should enable the towns people to speak on this. I have a problem with spending the money, but I voted to let the process proceed to the next level. I think we could benefit from a new building, if we can find the money somehow. The process has been ongoing for 7 years or so and to shoot it down without a vote of the people of the town I felt was out of line.

On the $135000 for the dam, I voted against it because as a few folks pointed out, we have only about $3000 right now. Because it was raised as an appropriation (unlike the library, which is a borrowing issue) we have to look at where we can get the money now from the existing budget. The answer is we don't have it and we'd have to make cuts and such to get the money. The other thing is basic questions were not addressed about who would administer the money, are there liability issues, will it need to go to prevailing wage bids etc. Before spending the money I think we need to address this. The dam item was postponed because of these issues - I think we should stay on this for the next meeting though.

Ms Lanciault (sp?) brought up several good points. The dam was raised as an issue for many years. Because the town wasn't proactive on fixing it, we're now behind the 8 ball. Contrast this with the planning of a new library for instance where all the ts have been crossed and is dotted along the way. It's a fair criticism though that we opt for the new sexy buildings and ignore something as boring but potentially vitally important as a dam when it comes to planning.

The aquifer overlay passed unanimously although I can't say I understand the difference between the two zones. US res is in a Zone 2 watershed.

Another item - about $350K for storm water development was passed, in light of a federal mandate and potential fines incurred if we didn't. This issue points out a basic issue though - who will administer the money - who owns the $350K? The storm water management will involve several departments, including sewer, water and highway as well as the town engineer. Once again, if we had a common DPW or at least town manager I think deciding who gets the money in which order would be more apparent. I'm not confident in the process at this point although I voted for it to avoid fines.