1992-02-18 Board of Selectmen Minutes

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Minutes of the Board of Selectmen Meeting February 18,1992 The meeting was convened at 8:00 p.m. in the Selectmen's Meeting Room, 16 Lowell Street, Reading, Massachusetts. Present were: Vice Chairman Dan Ensminger, Secretary Sally Hoyt, Selectmen Russ Graham, Town Clerk Catherine Quimby and Town Counsel Ted Cohen. Selectmen Nigro and Hines were on vacation as was the Town Manager Peter I. Hechenbleikner. Public Comment The Chairman recognized Fred VanMagness who indicated that he was speaking as a citizen as well as a Town Meeting member and a mem- ber of the Finance Commitee. He specifically expressed his con- cern over the possible privatization of the Grant Pool. He presented a brief history of the pool and how the facility was presently being utilized by the citizens of the community. He felt that privatization would not be beneficial to the citizens of the Town and further expressed his concern over the process that had been utilized by the Town Manager embarking on this en- deavor. Fred Van Magness specifically asked the Board of Selectmen what their position on this issue was, and commented that the issues had never been reviewed by either the Finance Committee or Town Meeting. He felt that review by both bodies was necessary in this matter before a final decision could be reached. Steven Thomases was recognized and noted that it would be quite possible that the budget article would not be voted by Town Meet- ing until May or June and he asked the Selectmen to outline the various possible scenarios that would be available to Town Meet- ing because of this. He felt that a Special Election should be included in the Town's calendar .to bring the issue of trash to the public once again. Nate White was recognized and again asked the Selectmen to con- sider the possiblity of a Special Election for an override, specifically noting that he felt the citizens should have an op- portunity to decide whether they wanted the trash cost to be in- cluded in the tax rate or as a user fee and asked that they con- sider putting this question on the March 24th local election bal- lot. At this time, Sally Hoyt read the warrant for the Presidential Primary Election for the March 10, 1992 . On motion by Hoyt, seconded by Graham, the Board voted to close this Primary Elec- tion Warrant by a vote of 3-0-0. The articles on the Annual Town Meeting warrant were reviewed by the Board with Ted Cohen speaking to each one briefly. Mr. Ensminger specifically commented on Articles 6 and 7 which speaks to the Northeast Vocational School articles. Ted -Cohen noted that Article 21 could be used for capital projects. Regarding Article 22, Phil Pacino indicated that the Light Board had not taken a final vote on this Article and therefore requested that this article be placed on the warrant by the Board of Selectmen rather than the Light Board. He expressed his concern that the Light Board had just been made aware of this warrant article