What was said

Select Board, August 18, 2026

the recording · 1:22 long, about 12,644 words spoken · captions carried this meeting moderately well

lunenburgbudgetproject.org — written by the Lunenburg Budget Project, an independent tool for residents. Not affiliated with the Town of Lunenburg, the School Committee or the school district. The data this page is computed from: /data/recording-minutes.json

The town published an agenda, an agenda, an agenda for this meeting. No minutes have been published; the recording is the only record, and what follows is a guide to it.

The short version

  1. ▶ 1:18:26Select Board voted unanimously that the dog is not a nuisance dog, ending the hearing.
  2. ▶ 6:37The complainant declined to testify; the detective, animal control officer, dog owner, and an HOA trustee all said they found no nuisance behavior.
  3. ▶ 1:18:05Board members said informally that the bar for allowing a nuisance-dog hearing to proceed should be raised going forward.
  4. ▶ 1:19:47Town counsel will draft the board's written decision and raised bifurcating dangerous-dog and nuisance-dog hearings, with nuisance cases possibly handled by staff instead of the full board.

Why it matters — our reading

  • This sets how the town currently handles a nuisance-dog complaint under state law, including who testifies and what evidence is required for the board to rule against a pet owner.
  • Town counsel's proposal to screen complaints or delegate nuisance-dog hearings to staff would change that process for any resident who files or responds to one in the future.

Watch next

  • Town counsel's written decision in this case
  • Any future proposal to bifurcate dangerous-dog and nuisance-dog hearings or delegate nuisance cases to staff

legalpolicypublic commentpublic safetytown departments

Present: Madam Chair (chair, Select Board); Tom (Select Board member (referred to by a colleague as "Tom")); the clerk (clerk (read the hearing notice)); Adam Costa (town counsel, firm heard as "Tyler and Costa"); the town manager (town manager (name not stated; referenced as having made comments on hearing procedure)); Detective McNamera (Lunenburg Police detective, investigating officer (witness)); Kathy Kimo (animal control officer (witness)). Names are the caption model’s hearing and may be wrong.

Votes

  1. ▶ 1:11:50Close the testimonial portion of the public hearingpassed unanimously
  2. ▶ 1:12:10Reopen the hearing for the limited purpose of hearing public comment (from a Zoom participant identified as "JB")passed unanimously
  3. ▶ 1:14:38Close the public hearingpassed unanimously
  4. ▶ 1:18:26Find as a board that the dog is not a nuisance dog — moved by a Select Board member, as heardpassed unanimously

And 1 procedural: adjourn the meeting (▶ 1:21:50).

The money

  1. ▶ 47:15Prior lawsuit by George Burton against Cordmash and others

    The dog owner testified that the complainant had sued him, his wife, former neighbors, and the former police chief for this amount in Barnstable Court, and lost.

    as heard:$375,000

  2. ▶ 47:36Legal fees ordered against Burden in that lawsuit

    The dog owner testified the complainant was ordered to pay this amount in legal fees after losing the suit; later in cross-examination a figure of $51,000 was also mentioned by the complainant.

    as heard:$60,000

  3. ▶ 28:53Payment related to an unrelated prior court docket

    The dog owner stated he was eventually paid this amount related to a mortgage-insurance collection matter that the complainant had mischaracterized as a dog-related case.

    as heard:$25,000

  4. ▶ 52:06Cost of arborvitae planted along the property line

    The dog owner testified he spent this amount planting 43 arborvitae trees so his dog and he would not have to see the complainant.

    as heard:$23,000

Settled without a vote

  • ▶ 9:44Board agreed to hear from the investigating police detective (Detective McNamera) first.
  • ▶ 45:28Board's preference set to hear the dog owner's testimony before the HOA neighbor witness.
  • ▶ 1:18:05Board members informally agreed the standard for allowing a nuisance-dog hearing to proceed should be raised in the future so a respondent is not put through a hearing without supporting evidence.
  • ▶ 1:19:47Town counsel Adam Costa will draft the board's written decision.
  • ▶ 1:19:47Town counsel raised, for future consideration, bifurcating dangerous-dog and nuisance-dog hearings and delegating nuisance-dog hearings to staff rather than the full board.

Public comment

  1. ▶ 1:13:11Argued the board gave too much latitude to the dog owner and did not consider whether the complainant (Mr. Burden) himself is a "sick person" under the nuisance-dog standard. — John Bowen, as heard, resident, 162 Highland Street

Where the time went

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

The whole meeting, in order

  1. ▶ 0:03Meeting opening, recording notice, and reading of the public hearing notice for the nuisance dog complaintinformational · 1:45 long · legal
  2. ▶ 1:48Chair explains hearing process and reads the Mass. General Law definition of a nuisance doginformational · 2:09 long · legal
  3. ▶ 3:57Town counsel Adam Costa opens the hearing and swears in witnesses present in the room; no Zoom participant identifies to testifyprocedural, completed · 2:40 long · legal
  4. ▶ 6:37Complainant George Burden, participating by Zoom, states he and his wife will not testify, citing alleged persecution by the townno testimony given by complainant · 2:46 long · legal
  5. ▶ 9:23Testimony of Detective McNamera: reads the Burden complaint aloud, describes his investigation, concludes the complaint contained falsehoodstestimony given · 10:51 long · legal, public safety
  6. ▶ 20:14Town counsel's follow-up questions to Detective McNamera confirming no evidence of nuisance behavior was foundtestimony concluded · 2:23 long · legal
  7. ▶ 22:37George Burden's cross-examination of Detective McNamera regarding disputed court docketsno further questions, witness excused · 6:57 long · legal
  8. ▶ 29:34Testimony of Animal Control Officer Kathy Kimo: fencing inspection, neighbor interviews, no evidence of barking from the subject dogtestimony concluded, no board questions · 7:19 long · legal, public safety
  9. ▶ 37:13George Burden's cross-examination of the ACO regarding fence-testing methods and an unrelated phone-call incidentno further questions, witness excused · 7:55 long · legal
  10. ▶ 45:08Board confirms remaining witnesses (dog owner, an HOA neighbor) and sets orderinformational · 0:44 long
  11. ▶ 45:52Testimony of dog owner Charles/Chuck Cordmash denying any nuisance and describing a history of litigation with the complainanttestimony given · 7:36 long · legal
  12. ▶ 53:28Town counsel's follow-up questions to Cordmash confirming no excessive barking and no other complaintstestimony concluded · 1:25 long · legal
  13. ▶ 54:53George Burden's contentious cross-examination of Cordmash, repeatedly ruled off-topic by town counselconcluded, chair moves on · 9:10 long · legal
  14. ▶ 1:04:03Testimony of neighbor/HOA trustee Ned Pratt that the condo association received no pet complaints in about three years, followed by Burden's cross-examination alleging coordination between witnessesno further questions, witness excused · 7:27 long · legal
  15. ▶ 1:11:30Board confirms no further witnesses are availableinformational · 0:20 long
  16. ▶ 1:11:50Vote to close the testimonial portion of the hearingvoted, passed unanimously · 0:20 long · legal
  17. ▶ 1:12:10Vote to reopen the hearing to hear a public comment from a Zoom participant ("JB")voted, passed unanimously · 1:01 long · legal, public comment
  18. ▶ 1:13:11Public comment from John Bowencomment heard · 1:27 long · public comment
  19. ▶ 1:14:38Vote to close the public hearingvoted, passed unanimously · 0:20 long · legal
  20. ▶ 1:14:58Town counsel answers a board question about legal attachment/trustee process related to older, unrelated court casesinformational, partly garbled · 1:42 long · legal
  21. ▶ 1:16:40Board deliberation: a member ("Tom") summarizes that no evidence supports the nuisance dog complaint and recommends dismissalinformational, leads to motion · 1:24 long · legal
  22. ▶ 1:18:04Other board members concur and comment that the bar for future nuisance-dog hearings should be raisedinformational · 0:22 long · legal
  23. ▶ 1:18:26Motion and vote finding the dog is not a nuisance dogvoted, passed unanimously · 1:01 long · legal
  24. ▶ 1:19:27Board thanks town counsel and asks him to draft the written decisionagreed informally · 0:20 long · legal
  25. ▶ 1:19:47Discussion of a possible future process change: bifurcating dangerous-dog and nuisance-dog hearings and delegating nuisance cases to staffno vote taken; noted for future consideration · 2:03 long · legal, policy
  26. ▶ 1:21:50Motion to adjournvoted, passed · 0:20 long

What the captions could not carry

  • Extended crosstalk between George Burden and Charles Cordmash (roughly 3293-3843) is heavily garbled and hard to attribute line by line.
  • The legal explanation of the trustee/attachment process for old court judgments (~4559-4600) is garbled and the speaker is not clearly identifiable.
  • The investigating detective's name is rendered inconsistently in the captions ("McNamera" and, once, "Nightmare") and is not confirmed spelled.
  • No formal roll call of Select Board members was captioned; individual board members other than one referred to as "Tom" are not identified by name.
  • Exact vote tallies are never stated; all votes are captioned only as unanimous by voice ("aye").

These are ours, and they are not the record

OUR MINUTES OF A RECORDING, written by a language model from machine captions. Two derived layers stand between this file and the meeting. Cite the video at the timestamp, never this file. Figures are as heard and may be wrong; names may be wrong; where the town published minutes, those are the record.

Written 2026-09-11 by scripts/write_recording_minutes.py (sonnet) from sources/data/youtube-transcripts/select-board/2026-08-18-revUfCcR4IU.json — 2,288 caption segments, sha256 7b246f61e345…. All recorded meetings.

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What changed

Version 15 — updated September 20, 2026