Planning Board, July 13, 2020

The town published minutes (text) and an agenda for this meeting. Those minutes are the record; what follows is a guide to the recording.

legalpersonnelplanning and zoningpolicypublic commentwater sewer

Present: Matthew Allison (chair); Tanner Cole (member (vice chair elected)); Paulette Bertram (member (clerk elected)); Matthew Brenner (member); Eric Torgerson (member, remote); Adam Burnie (staff (town planner)); Brian Marchetti (presenter (engineer, Accardi Engineering)); Jacqueline (JC) Nichol (presenter (Economic Development Committee applicant)); Kathy Clark (presenter (Economic Development Committee applicant)); Lynn Mann (presenter (Open Space applicant)); Michael Cohill (presenter (Open Space applicant)). Names are the caption model’s hearing and may be wrong.

Votes

1. ▶ 11:19Nominate Matthew Allison as chair — moved by a member, as heardpassed (roll call, all ayes heard)
2. ▶ 12:19Nominate the vice chair (Cole) by roll callpassed (roll call, ayes heard)
3. ▶ 13:26Nominate Paulette Bertram as clerkpassed (roll call, ayes heard)
4. ▶ 24:41Nominate Matthew Brenner to MRPCpassed (roll call, ayes heard)
5. ▶ 27:30Appoint a member to MJTC (Brenner)passed (roll call, ayes heard)
6. ▶ 30:04Appoint Eric Jorgensen to capital planning committee — moved by a member, as heardpassed (roll call, ayes heard)
7. ▶ 31:38Appoint Paula Bertram to open space ad hoc committeepassed (roll call, ayes heard)
8. ▶ 32:19Appoint Matthew Allison to stormwater task forcepassed (roll call, ayes heard)
9. ▶ 33:03Appoint Mr. Cole to TCP building design committeepassed (roll call, ayes heard)
10. ▶ 1:12:57Accept withdrawal of the common driveway application at 68 Elm Street — moved by a member, as heardpassed (three eligible members voting)
11. ▶ 1:21:39Appoint JC Nichol (one-year) and Kathy Clark (two-year) to Economic Development Committeepassed (roll call, ayes heard)
12. ▶ 1:30:14Appoint Lynn Mann and Michael Cohill to the Open Space committeepassed (roll call, ayes heard)

And 3 procedural: approve june 22, 2020 regular meeting minutes (▶ 1:32:05); approve second set of minutes from june 22 (▶ 1:33:06); adjourn (▶ 2:00:20).

Against the town’s minutes

The town published minutes (text) for this meeting; ours were compared item by item. 9 agree, 3 caption errors resolved by the official reading, 5 substantive differences. The town’s minutes are a full record.

1. differsCapital Planning Committee appointment▶ 30:04

   recording Appoint Eric Jorgensen to capital planning committee — passed (roll call, ayes heard)

   town’s minutes “t. cole made motion for matthew allison; motion not seconded.”

   The official minutes show a motion for Allison that died for lack of a second, then Erik Torgersen appointed 4-0. Ours has a single vote passing. Jorgensen is probably a misheard Torgersen, but check the recording for the failed Allison motion.

2. differs68 Elm Street common driveway withdrawal▶ 1:03:48

   recording Accept withdrawal of the common driveway application at 68 Elm Street — passed (three eligible members voting)

   town’s minutes “p. bertram made motion to accept the withdrawal of the common driveway at 68 elm street, t. cole seconded”

   The vote is the same, but our decision says the applicant will redraw the driveway to straddle the lot line with no further Planning Board approval. The official minutes record no such decision, so check the recording.

3. differsOpen Space Committee appointments: vote count▶ 1:30:14

   recording Appoint Lynn Mann and Michael Cohill to the Open Space committee — passed (roll call, ayes heard)

   town’s minutes “lynne man and michael toohill to the open space committee, t. cole seconded”

   Both record the appointments passing. The official minutes give the count as 5-0 although only 4 members voted on the other appointments. Check who voted. The names are caption variants (Lynne Man, Michael Toohill).

4. differsAgricultural Commission liaison▶ 35:09

   recording Agricultural commission liaison position to be dropped as a formal appointment; reports to come through committee reports

   town’s minutes “board consensus was not to vote on this position.”

   The official minutes say the Board reached consensus not to vote, because Allison is Chair. Ours says the position is dropped as a formal appointment. Check whether the position was eliminated or only not voted on.

5. differsEngineer's firm▶ 0:00

   recording Brian Marchetti (presenter (engineer, Accardi Engineering))

   town’s minutes “brian marchetti, mccarty engineering, represented the applicant ron koivu, harbor classic homes, llc.”

   The firm differs: Accardi in ours, McCarty in the official minutes. Check the recording or the application.

Compared 2026-11-03. Neither record is treated as the referee: a caption error is the same fact heard badly; a difference is for a person to check at the timestamp.

The money

1. ▶ 17:37Capital planning committee

   Described as ranking capital items with a life of five years above a stated value, and recommending them to selectmen and Town Meeting.

   as heard:ten thousand dollars

2. ▶ 19:43TCP building design

   The town allocated money for a preliminary design and cost estimate for converting the former school to town offices.

   as heard:200,000

3. ▶ 1:37:03TCP project funding path

   A member said the project would likely need an override on a ballot if it reached fall Town Meeting.

4. ▶ 1:39:12MRPC cloud migration

   MRPC's move to the cloud would cost an upfront amount and save monthly vendor subscription costs.

   as heard:$1,500$300 a month

Settled without a vote

• ▶ 9:10Board reorganization for committee appointments deferred earlier; officers then elected the same night
• ▶ 35:09Agricultural commission liaison position to be dropped as a formal appointment; reports to come through committee reports
• ▶ 1:03:48Applicant to redraw the 68 Elm Street driveway to straddle the lot line, which needs no further Planning Board approval
• ▶ 1:56:01Stormwater bylaw kept on ongoing agenda items so new members can review it before fall Town Meeting
• ▶ 1:31:22Staff to tell the open space chair the board wants the committee to meet as soon as possible

Documents and exhibits

In the minutes’ list and not identified in the recording: Minutes 06.22.2020; Minutes 06.22.2020, 190 Electric Avenue; 68 Elm Street, Common Drive Plan.

State law asks minutes to list the documents and exhibits used at a meeting (M.G.L. c.30A §22(a)). Names from the recording are the caption model’s hearing; the two sides are matched by name, by script, so a document named two different ways can be missed. A place to look, not a finding.

Public comment

1. ▶ 9:31Call for public comment not on the agenda; a caller on the phone said he was present and ready.
2. ▶ 37:03Second call for public comment; no hands raised.

Where the time went

Minutes of recording by subject, from the topic spans below. A topic with two subjects counts toward both.

• planning and zoning58 min · 48%
• legal52 min · 43%
• personnel46 min · 38%
• policy33 min · 27%
• water sewer16 min · 13%
• economic development13 min · 11%
• town departments6 min · 5%

The whole meeting, in order

1. ▶ 0:00Roll call and remote meeting ground rulesinformational · 4:30 long
2. ▶ 4:30Board reorganization timing discussionofficers elected anyway later · 5:01 long · policy
3. ▶ 9:31Election of officers and committee appointmentsvoted · 27:32 long · personnel, policy
4. ▶ 37:03Common driveway at 68 Elm Streetapplicant withdrew · 36:41 long · planning and zoning, legal
5. ▶ 1:13:44Economic Development Committee appointmentsvoted · 12:54 long · economic development, personnel
6. ▶ 1:26:38Open Space committee appointmentsvoted · 5:07 long · personnel, planning and zoning
7. ▶ 1:31:45Approval of minutesvoted · 2:04 long
8. ▶ 1:33:49Committee reportsinformational · 6:06 long · town departments
9. ▶ 1:39:55Director's items: Electric Avenue monitor and stormwater bylawno vote; kept on agenda · 15:45 long · planning and zoning, water sewer, legal
10. ▶ 1:55:40Next meeting, board comments, adjournmentadjourned · 5:21 long

What the captions could not carry

• Some roll call votes have names and responses garbled, so exact counts are not clear.
• Parts of the driveway discussion around 3700 to 3800 seconds were broken up by connection trouble.
• Who made some motions and seconds is not clear.

Written 2026-11-03 by scripts/write_recording_minutes.py (sonnet) from sources/data/youtube-transcripts/planning-board/2020-07-13-maWezFWEDig.json — 2,279 caption segments, sha256 3624e54b5fe1…. All recorded meetings.