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Members present: Tom Alonzo, Chairman; Phyllis Luck, Vice Chairman; Katey Adams, Michael-Ray
Jeffreys
Member not present: Damon McQuaid, Clerk
Also Present: Heather Lemieux, Town Manager
The meeting commenced at 7:00 p.m. with the Pledge of Allegiance. Mr. Alonzo announced in
accordance with the requirements of the Open Meeting Law, please be advised this meeting is being
recorded and broadcast over the Lunenburg Public Access channel.
PUBLIC COMMENT:
Dave Passios, 56 Whiting Street, expressed dissatisfaction with the Town Charter still not being
approved by the state after being approved at Annual Town Meeting eight months ago. If the charter is
not certified by March, two Park Commissions slots on the election ballot will not be filled.
Ms. Lemieux stated she reached out to Town Counsel and he has prepared what's going to be filed.
Based on Mead, Talerman and Costa's experience of the same process with another town and their
Charter comments submitted back, he wants to prepare it with appropriate commentary so it doesn't get
returned to the Town.
Mr. Alonzo announced Unitil has filed for a rate increase for gas/electric billing. Public hearing filing
has been issued by the Dept. of Public Utilities for February 26, 2020 at 7:00 p.m. at Fitchburg Middle
School. Comments can be submitted until 5:00 pm on February 26". Mr. Jeffreys asked since we are
part of the municipal aggregation we have a reduced rate? Ms. Lemieux clarified this is for supply not
delivery.
INTERVIEWS/APPOINTMENTS/ RESIGNATIONS
Ms. Lemieux reported the resignation of Brian Clark as DPW heavy equipment operator two weeks ago.
There are currently three heavy equipment operator vacancies at DPW. When asked why, she responded
the rate of pay in town is not competitive and the private industry pays better. We have been actively
advertising.
Ms. Lemiuex annouced the retirement of Louise Paquette effective April 2020. She has worked for the
Town for over 31 years in various departments; 11 in the Assessors' office.
TOWN MANAGER REPORT
Announcement on Existing Vacancies:
The following is a list of vacancies on the following committees:
• Agricultural Commission (1 regularmemberand 3 alternate vacancies)
• Americans with Disabilities Act Commission (1 vacancy)
• ArchitecturalPreservation District Commission (1 design professional; craftsperson or building
contractor familiar with historic renovation)
• Finance Committee (1 position appointed by the Finance Committee Appointing Committee)
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925 Mass Ave Update (TM Goal #1, i, ii, ill):
As I provided in my Town Manager Report last week, I attended a meeting at MRPC on January 8th to see
if the Site Nomination Form that we submitted for 925 Mass Ave for Phase II site assessment costs would
receive funding through a Brownfields Grant being administered by MRPC. We were successful in
getting funding; the Montachusett Brownfields Group voted to proceed with an initial $20,000 and will
have a future meeting if additional funding is needed. Shyla Matthews of MassDevelopment was at
this meeting as well and she said that the Town would be eligible to apply for grant funding for any
potential cleanup costs for this project as well. Everyone seemed to think this was a great project for this
program and excited about the possibilities, as am 1.
Complete Streets Award (IM Goal #3, II, IIII):
I am very excited to relay that I was contacted by MassDOT on Thursday that we were successful in
getting the Complete Streets grant that we applied for this fall. The grant amount was for our full
request of $258,460 for the Main Street at Oak Ave sidewalk connection, an improved pedestrian
crossing from Ritterto Town Hall, and improvements to the Village Area and Memorial Drive. I want to
thank everyone involved for getting us to this point, especially the DPW Director and Rich and Bill at
WorldTech Engineering.
ADA Public Rights of Way Transition Plan (TM Goal #3, ii, iii):
As the Board is aware, the Town was one of three communities that was chosen by our regional
planningagency,MontachusettRegionalPlanning Commission(MRPC), to participate in a municipal
ADA Public Rights of Way assessment and creation ofa Transition Plan. Stantec, the engineering firm
that was hired by MRC through a competitive bid process, has completed the plan and it isavailable for
review and public comment until February 11th. The Board of Selectmen will hold a public meeting on
Tuesday, February 11, 2020 at 7:05 p.m. to review, discuss, and adopt the plan. All are welcometo
attend. Written comments can be sent to the emailed to the Town Manager at
hlemieux@lunenburgonline.com.
Recycling Public Forum (TM Goal #2, i):
The public forum on recycling will be held tomorrow evening at 5:30 p.m. at the Eagle House Senior
Center. The Executive Director from MassToss, our Regional Municipal Coordinator from DEP, the .
Recycling Supervisor for the Recycling IQ Grant program, a representative from Casella, and myself will
be present to discuss and answer all recycling related questions and to further promote proper recycling
habits to reduce contamination in recycling.
Clerical and Fire Collective Bargaining Agreements:
The Clerical and Fire Collective Bargaining Agreements expire at the end ofthis fiscalyear. Wehaveour
first session with the Clerical unit tomorrow and a date has not been set for the initial meeting with the
Firefighters. Labor Counsel willbeattending the Selectmen'smeeting in Executive Session on January
28th to prepare for negotiations.
Upcoming Meetings, Events and Other Announcements:
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file written comments no later than 5 p.m. on February 26, 2020.
Ms. Luck asked when the discussion or design for Complete Streets will begin. Ms. Lemieux stated
they should start immediately; she will work with Mr. Alonzo about placing it on a future agenda.
Ms. Luck asked how the flow of the fiscal presentations would go. Ms. Lemieux stated the Five
Year Financial Forecast and the Capital Plan presentation will be on January 21S and then
presented to the Finance Committee on next Thursday. The public forum will be on January 28th for
questions and answers after the financial forecast. This is also a follow up to the symposium hosted
by the Finance Committee last tall.
CURRENT BUSINESS
1. Minutes/Warrants/ Action Items
There were no minutes for approval this evening. An accounts payable warrant in the amount of
$42,367.19 was signed.
Action Item: Ms. Luck asked if the Senior Tax Work Off Program can bring the minimum wage
increase up to the current wage? She would like to see it increased each time the minimum wage is
increased. Ms. Lemieux believed the wording should go before the Senior Tax Work Off Program
Committee.
2. Committee Reports
Mr. Jeffreys reported he attended the Council on Aging Committee meeting. He was surprised how
enjoyable that meeting was. They are close to hiring a new van driver and wanted to thank Asst. Town
Manager Julie Belliveau for streamlining the process. The HVAC system is being replaced and paid for
with the state earmark funding. The Tax Work Off program has only had seven applicants so far
this year and the question arose can we contact people who are delinquent and and tell them about the
program?
They talked about other programs such as Armchair Travel- slides are shown and a sampling of the food
from the area is provided. Another is Care & Kinship, a program for grandparents who are raising their
grandchildren.
Ms. Luck attended the MART meeting today. They have received a $165,000 grant to work with
Councils on Aging to make transportation services more efficient. They are planning on meeting with
the councils to see what their needs are and set up a pilot program based on their input. They are keeping
the current van drivers and regionalizing trips to Boston.
Mr. Alonzo stated the Library Director is seeking another BOS liaison since Bob Ebersole left. Mr.
Jeffreys offered. Ms. Lemieux will inform the Library Director.
WORKSHOP:
Selectmen Objective 2:
To identify, define and propose at least one project to the 2020 Annual Town Meeting regarding the use
and/or re-use of the Old Primary School building, and/or the land on which it sits.
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potential variations as well as possible timelines.
iv. Action: Determine one (or two, if applicable) option(s) to be fully developed into a proposed project
for the building and/or site to be presented to the 2020 Annual Town Meeting for vote
Mr. Alonzo directed the board members to action ii. He referred to the tabulation of the town meeting
poll for choices for the old Primary School building and the land by rank choice voting of 1-6.
There were 100 votes so the first choice ranking showed;
Parking lot with the green space - 13%; Senior housing - 21%; Small business building - 10%; Town
Green - 31% ; New Town Hall - 9%; Town Hall renovation - 16%
None of these reached 50% so he eliminated the two choices that got the least amount of votes and went
back to the people who chose those to see what their second choice was after those:
Next ranking put the parking lot and green space - 17%; Senior housing 29%; Town Green 35%; Town
Hall renovation 18%
Following this round, he eliminated the lowest one which was parking lot with green space and got the
following: Senior Housing - 29%; Town Green - 45%; Renovated Town Hall - 18%
The final result after removing renovated Town Hall placed Senior Housing at 42% and Town Green at
58%.
He opened up the discussion to the Board. Ms. Adams wanted to focus on getting a hazardous waste
assessment on the old Primary School Building which we would have to do if it is either renovated or
demolished. Mr. Jeffreys believed people were frustrated including himself stating this speaks to a
bigger issue. How did we get here? There is the necessity of having professionals manage all the
buildings in town. We have maintenance but not professional staff; we need to develop that role/position
(Facility Manager) that creates a management structure for our buildings. We should first see if we have
consensus on pursuing the assessment. That seems to be a logical step.
Mr. Jeffreys asked thought about taking the funds we were going to use for closing up the building and
focus on the hazardous assessment. Ms. Adams noted those funds were for buttoning up the old Primary
building. Ms. Lemieux will see if there is funding (around $8,000) available in the DP W bullding
maintenance account. Ms. Adams suggested seeking permission from the Architectural Preservation
District Commission (APDC) to demolish the building as well. Discussion ensued about the issues and
possible scenarios involved with this. Mr. Alonzo stated he wanted to know from the APDC what they
want us to do if we cannot get anyone interested in renovating the building. Mr. Jeffreys asked if we
can't get them to agree with demolishing the building, how do we progress.
Land Use Director Adam Burney stated you only need to go to the APDC for demolition delay; the
bylaw gives them power to deny demolition. There are remedies through the courts but that is not
desirable. If you are going to approach the APDC, you should come up with multiple scenarios. Ms.
Adams suggested changing the bylaw as far as how it applies to municipal buildings. Do we have to
start throwing money at an empty building?
Mr. Burney gave a history of how the APDC was formed; to keep historical properties maintained to
avoid demolition. Mr. Alonzo agreed that they (APDC) are reasonable but wants them to recognize the
millions of dollars needed to fix this building. They are not telling us anything but I want to talk to them
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Housing but knew the Town could not do it alone, so a town green would be okay. Mr. Alonzo was fine
with demolishing the building and adding a town green, he could get behind that. We should work on an
article. He asked Ms. Lemieux what the best way is to compose this into the budget. Ms. Lemieux stated
we would need a definitive figure for demolition and site work. Mr. Alonzo asked could we structure an
article to get the town to commit on a price for structural analysis and hazardous waste assessment and
for a final design.
Mr. Jeffreys was thinking of Town Meeting and comments that will be made. If we push an article
before going to the APDC for approval, there could be a general suspicion of government. Ms. Luck
suggested it being contingent on APDC approval. Mr. Jeffreys stated Town Meeting should be the only
body that can approve or deny how we manage our town buildings.
Mr. Alonzo stated we want to talk to the APDC now so we have to have everyone pulling in the same
direction at Town Meeting. We need everybody to understand what is happening. The positive side of
this is we get to keep the land. Ms. Lemieux stated the problem is that we don't have a use for the
building and we didn't have one when we were given it. So it is a liability. Mr. Alonzo noted we did try
to do something with it before but it was a bad economy. He reminded the Board that the APDC
couldn't identify what architectural period the school was from. Not all old buildings are historic. He did
want an answer to that from the APDC.
Motion: K. Adams
2nd: M. Jeffreys
To request funding at ATM for hazardous waste assessment and an estimate for demolition and
future design of a green space.
Discussion: There was much discussion about whether a structural analysis was needed. Mr. Passios
suggested doing a hazardous assessment now. Ms. Lemieux would have to check the current DPW
budget to see if there was money available for it. She noted we usually fund our deficit spending for the
ice and snow removal at the end of the year with that account. She should have an update by the next
meeting. After more discussion, Mr. Jeffrey withdrew his motion and amended motion.
Motion: K. Adams
2nd: M. Jeffreys
To conduct a hazardous waste assessment on the old Primary School building
Discussion: Mr. Alonzo asked where are we getting the money. Ms. Adams suggested the DPW
building maintename buenct, Mer motion to gested adding "depend vain tity of indit,
Vote: All in Favor
Motion: K. Adams
To submit a warrant article to fund a demolition estimate of the old Primary School building and
and design of the future site of a town common
2nd. M. Jeffreys
Discussion: Mr. Jeffreys suggested amending the motion" to secure estimates for demolition of the
building and funding for future design of a town green." Ms. Adams amended her motion to use that
wording. Mr. Jeffreys amended his second.
Vote: All in Favor
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the Board completed action ii, so we are on to action ili. Action iv is a moot point.
Upcoming meetings:
The next Board meeting will be January 21, 2020 and the January 28' meeting will be a public forum as
described earlier in the meeting.
PUBLIC COMMENT
Dave Passios, regarding the proposed warrant article, suggested a hand count at any future town meeting
votes concerning the demolition of the old Primary School building. He agreed there is a flaw in the
APDC bylaw as there is no relief for an absolute decision by the APDC. Mr. Alonzo corrected, that by
default there is a court appeal. Mr. Passios stated there should not be one board pitted against another.
Mr. Jeffreys stated we should add a position for a facility maintenance person. He has seen this in other
towns. Mr. Alonzo asked do you know of a town our size that is doing that. Mr. Jeffreys believed Ayer
did, he will look into that and other comparable towns.
Motion: P. Luck
To adjourn the meeting at 8:56 p.m.
2nd: K. Adams
Vote: All in Favor
Respectfully submitted,
claire m. Peterson
Elaine M. Peterson
Executive Assistant to the Town Manager