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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2018-09-25 Select Board Minutes Town of Reading Meeting Minutes RECEIVr= I_i T 01,1 CI EEK LBoard - Committee - commission - Council: 2611 NOV 19 PM 2: 26 Select Board Date: 2018-09-25 Time: 7:00 PM Building: School - Memorial High Location: School Library Address: 62 Oakland Road Session: Open Session Purpose: General Business Version: Attendees: Members - Present: Andy Friedmann, Barry Berman, Vanessa Alvarado, Dan Ensminger, John Halsey Members - Not Present: Others Present: Town Manager Bob LeLacheur, Deputy Police Chief Clark, Superintendent of Schools John Doherty, Executive Assistant Caitlin Saunders, GIS Administrator Kim Honetschlager, Administrative.Services Director Matt Kraunelis; Linda Phillips, Gary Phillips, Gina McCormick, Tells Shores, Jamie Michaels, Linda Snow Dockser, Rebecca Liberman, Janice Grant, Mark Dockser, Heather McClean, Laurie Hodin Minutes Respectfully Submitted By: Topics of Discussion: Mr. Friedmann called the meeting to order. Liaison Reports Mr. Ensminger attended the Board of Health meeting at Parker about the rodents. They talked about potentially closing Washington Park to treat it. Mr. Berman attended the Korean War Veteran Ceremony for Reading residents who served. Earlier today he attended the MMA meeting regarding housing and economic development. He then reminded everyone of the downtown development/economic development forum coming up noting it will be held in the community room at the Library. Ms. Alvarado noted the Recreation Committee is getting complaints about the field lights staying on some nights. They are looking into getting automatic ones. Downtown trick or treating for the children will be held on October 24th. She also attended the Korean War Veteran's ceremony. Mr. Halsey wanted to thank both our Police and Fire departments for a job well done. They responded and helped out during the Andover/Lawrence explosions. ' Mr. Friedmann also thanked our public safety teams for helping out. He noted he attended the Board of Health meeting as well. He also made a plea to residents to please slow down on our roads around town. The board has been receiving emails about increased speeds creating dangerous situations for our residents. Page 1 1 Public Comment Gary Phillips from Willow Street stood up and requested the board intervene with the Trails Committee's plan to build a trail that will go thru their backyard. He wrote a letter to the board prior to the meeting and read it. He also mentioned the trail they are making is not a ' legal trail even though the Trails Committee claims it is already existing. Elizabeth Gomez of Haverhill Street noted she has safety concerns regarding Haverhill Street. She Is requesting the speed limit be lowered on that road. Deputy Police Chief Clark noted they are aware of the situation and addressing it. He has put more patrols out there and they will be looking into the speed limit with their safety task force. Another Willow Street resident has concerns about the proposed trail as it is very close to her property line. She also wanted to note Willow Street has a speeding problem as well. Town Manager Report Mr. LeLacheur first mentioned that after speaking with Town Counsel the trail the Committee is working on is indeed a legal trail and has been for many years. He also mentioned to the Board, if this is on conservation land, you have no authority over this at all. This Thursday will be RCASA's annual meeting. The board of Health meets tomorrow to approve the draft letter to the residents regarding the rodent problem. It will be going to roughly 1,000 households. Mr. LeLacheur then asked the board for their permission to shut down Washington Park to investigate the rodent issue. He feels this is important to do to see if that area is a real problem or not. Mr. Halsey noted he would be in favor of closing the park. Since the town doesn't have the ' legal right to treat residents property, we can however, take action on the towns property and they should to get this dealt with. Ms. Alvarado agreed and asked if we could notify abutters regarding the closing. Mr. Friedmann requested if they do find rats in the park he would like to talk about it and how we treat it before it actually gets done. Kim Honetschlager, the staff person for the Trails Committee, wanted to note that they held many meetings regarding building out this trail. They sent out abutters notices twice and an invitation to come to the Conservation Commission meeting when they were discussing it. Linda Phillips noted she is concerned with their process. She believes that there is no existing trail and the town is wrong. It is all wetlands out there; a trail wouldn't even work during half the year. Ms. Alvarado asked if there was any way to postpone work on the trail this weekend given the public interest all of sudden. Mr. Friedmann expressed he is uncomfortable asking two committees, which they appoint, to overturn a decision they already made. Mr. Berman noted it seems Conservation did what they have the right to do and he doesn't ' want to step on any other board's toes over this. Linda Phillips opined there is no existing trail. Close Warrant for November Town Meeting Mr. LeLacheur noted nothing has changed since the last time they saw this. Pa9e 12 Ms. Alvarado moved that the board close the warrant for the November Town Meeting consisting of the ten articles as presented, to take place on November 151M1, 2018 at Reading Memorial High School. The motion was seconded by Mr. Berman and approved with a 5-0 vote. Friends of Reading High School Baseball - Batting Cage Members of the Reading High School Baseball, a nonprofit organization developed to help raise funds to support HS baseball program, came to ask the board to accept a gift to the town. They would like to purchase and donate a new turtle batting cage at Morton Field. They noted they will maintain it and allow any program to use it. Mr. Ensminger thanked them for the gift noting it is a wonderful addition to the field. Ms. Alvarado made a motion to accept the gift of a turtle batting cage at Morton Field from The Friends of Reading High School Baseball as presented. The motion was seconded by Mr. Berman. Mr. Halsey noted he is not going to vote on this because he sits on this board as well. The motion passed with a 4-0 vote. Discover The Arts in Reading Dav Administrative Services Director Matt Kraunelis wanted to quickly mention to the board about an upcoming event to support local arts. They will be hosting a Discover the Arts of Reading day on October 13th at the town common. They have secured 12 vendors; a couple performing groups and other booths relative to arts. _ ' Stakeholders Meeting Mr. Berman made an opening statement noting the board came up with 4 questions to focus on answering; however they will let everyone speak what's on their mind as they see fit. Talia Shore spoke noting she is a Jewish student here at RMHS and was one of the students who found a swastika. She explained finding,that made her feel unsafe and scared to be at school. She also explained that other students don't think it is a big deal and we need to educate them so they realize it is a big deal and it hurts people. Rebecca Liberman spoke suggesting we stop calling these incidents 'graffiti' because they are more than that. We need to call them what they are, swastikas and they are hateful speech that needs to stop. She recommends sending out a reverse 911 call every time we have an incident so everyone knows about it. Deputy Police Chief Clark wanted to note that these incidents are hard to investigate because there is usually a lack of information, witnesses, and leads for them to follow. If an incident happens at a school, they let the school take the lead on investigating because it is more of an informal process. Once the Police come on school grounds to question students, Miranda rights and parents have to be involved, whereas a teacher or principal can talk to any student without all that. Mr. LeLacheur also wanted to note that a lot of these were found when a sweep of the school was done so they could be years old and we just never found until now. Gina McCormick of R.E.D noted they have been having many meetings with community members, police, the new principal and have compiled information they would like to share. Reverand Jamie Michaels thank you for your statement from June 191M1 condemning these hateful incidents. We would like to continue to encourage you to continue to condemn these symbols that keeping being drawn. We cannot dismiss the messages of hate but focus on impact they had on the people it affected. They asked if the Select Board could appoint a Page 1 3 point person to oversee the process and information of when these incidents happen to keep us Informed of what is going on. Janice Grant, a parent and a Jewish member of the community. She noted she met with ' Police and found out things that weren't released to the public that would have been nice to know. So we would like to increase better communication between the police and community and the groups (R.E.D and HRAC). Linda Snow Dockser, a Jewish member in the community and member of R.E.D would like to propose engaging In more education about Judaism. That would include informing people more on Jewish holidays and supporting the Jewish community by not holding meetings on Jewish holidays. Mr. Friedmann then noted Linda sent the board an email that also talked about incidents that have happened outside of Reading and asked her to speak on that. She explained that there were a couple incidents from a few years ago in Stoneham and Wakefield including a swastika found in a public bathroom and an incident of cars and golf carts being vandalized with swastikas. She explained that these incidents did not happen In a school, they happened right in public for everyone to see and it had a great Impact on the community. It's not just our town, It's all around us and it is scary and frightening to be Jewish. Laurie Hodin suggested getting training by the anti-defamation league to our town leaders. She spoke with the Police Chiefaboutit and he agreed to look into it and start with his high level officers. She also noted she is a Jewish mom and her daughter believes that comments from other students mostly come from Ignorance about the seriousness of the situation so she really believes education can help. Reverend Jamie Michaels just wanted to sum up all their thoughts and suggestions. Mostly a ' point person for students to go to if they're having an issue or find anything they would like to report, and review protocols for reporting incidents. They would also like increased communication between the Police Department and HRAC when incidents do happen as well. Deputy Chief Clark wanted to apologize to HRAC for not getting some information to them in a timely matter, noting he got the information late himself. They are working on fixing that and increasing lines of communication going forward and he does apologize for that. Mark Dockser wanted to explain it's really Important to'see something, say something'. This isn't something to take lightly and things need to be reported if you see them. He also noted there needs to be repercussions for these actions. People know they cannot do this bemuse they will be caught. Lastly, the town needs to continue to make affirmative statements and positivity in town with regards to the Jewish community and standing together. Heather McLean from HRAC noted they would like to do an educational/ stand with our Jewish community event. Perhaps an educational event with professional speakers held at the library. Another idea would also be a candle light vigil in the town common to stand with our Jewish community. We also think it would be a good idea to revisit a human rights resolution in town to make minority communities feel welcome in town. Gary Phillips feels he thinks a lot of these incidents were done by kids as a joke. I don't condone this behavior but I know when it's a joke or really serious. Mr. Berman noted whether it is a joke or not it had an impact on some of our residents and ' that is not ok. Gary Phillips explained what he is trying to say is we need to educate our students about swastikas and communism and socialism. Ms. Alvarado agreed that educating is important but not just for students we need to educate adults as well. Page 1 4 Mr. Berman then summarized the thoughts spoken tonight and the ideas the community has come up to move forward. I Town Manager Goals The board discussed goals for the Town Manager. Mr. LeLacheur came up with a set of goals for himself and staff. Mr. Friedmann noted he came up with a different set of goals outside of things that Mr. LeLacheur is required to do by charter; and then a set that are inside his duties as to differentiate between the two. The board discussed whether to keep two sets of goals or one and how many should he really have. Mr. LeLacheur explained how he came up with his set. The board also discussed their thoughts on the form to review the town manager. They all would like to move to a different form next year. The board decided to continue discussion at a future meeting. Letter to DPU The board drafted a letter to send to DPU to express their concerns in the current lockout of National Grid union workers. The board read the letter and agreed it was fine to send. Mr. Ensminger moved that the board authorize the Chair to send this letter to Mass DPU as presented. The motion was seconded by Ms. Alvarado and approved with a 5-0 vote. Select Board Goals Mr. Halsey read a memo who wrote to the board regarding capital project goals and assigning members to each project. He identified 5 areas or projects to be worked on; conveniently enough for 5 members. Here what was decided on: 1. School and Town Building Security - Alvarado 2. Elementary School Space Study - Friedmann 3. Community Center - Halsey 4. Recreation/ Athletic Repairs and Needs - Ensminger S. DPW Facility - Berman The board also briefly talked about Oakland Road and where that would fit into these categories if at all. On a motion by Mr. Ensminger the board adjourned at 10:46 PM, with a second from Ms. Alvarado and a 5-0 vote. Page 1 5