HomeMy WebLinkAbout2019-09-24 Select Board Minutes Town of Reading
x Meeting Minutes t P, E IV
CLERK
R E;DING, PAA.
eoard - committee - commission - council: Xlf OCT 22 PM 2: 32
Date: 2019-09-24 Time: 7:00 PM
Building: Reading Town Hall Location: Select Board Meeting Room
Address: 16 Lowell Street Session: Open Session
Purpose: General Business Version: Final
Attendees: Members - Present:
John Halsey, Anne Landry, Mark Dockser, Vanessa Alvarado, Andy
Friedmann
Members - Not Present:
Others Present:
Town Manager Bob LeLacheur, Executive Assistant Caitlin Saunders, Phil
Pacino, Virginia Adams, Mathew Holmen, Ace Foulds, Alan Foulds, Paula
Rochelle, Everette Blodgett, Virginia Blodgett, Megan Fidler Carey, Peter
Fuller, Thomas Wies, Hamid Jahari, Coleen OBrien, Brian Crosby, Tom
Coffin, Joe Leto, Michael Flynn, Boriana Milenova
Minutes Respectfully Submitted By: Caitlin Saunders
Topics of Discussion:
Ms. Alvarado called the meeting to order at 7:00 PM.
Liaison Reogrts
Mr. Friedmann explained the Wakefield Board of Assessors is expecting to approve the
Tarrant Lane project on October 9th. He attended a multi-town meeting on gas leaks and
found it very informative. Mr. Friedmann explained he would like to attend another meeting
on October 15th with National Grid. He asked if the board is okay with him attending as the
Board's representative. The board indicated their approval. Over the weekend he helped the
Trails committee build a bridge over a new trail they approved on the Mallet Land.
Mr. Dockser went to the Downtown District Kick off Meeting last week and asked everyone
to go fill out the survey if they haven't already.
Mr. Halsey attended the Reading Rifle and Revolver Club's annual meeting with the Police
Department. The PD thanked the club for their continued support and letting their officers
use their facility.
Ms. Landry noted HRAC reached out to her for help. They are having issues meeting due to
quorum problems and didn't know if they board had any solutions for them.
Ms. Alvarado attended the Finance Committee meeting and Climate Advisory Committee
meeting. She also went to the Friday night football game to honor Nelson Burbank.
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Town Manager's Report
Mr. LeLacheur noted Governor Baker put a temporary ban on vaping products; there will be
more to come on that as more information becomes available. Town Accountant Sharon
Angstrom needs the boards approval to continue working with the Retirement Board to
discuss increasing the COLA. RCASA's annual meeting is tomorrow night. A Matter of Civility 1
Community Conversation is Thursday night at the Library. Town Assessor Victor Santaniello J
informed him that 186 seniors qualified for senior tax relief. He then informed the board
that some Walnut Street residents are having an issue with new lights that were put up over
the weekend. He explained MassDOT put those up without telling the town.
Public Comment
Megan Fidler Carey wanted to let everyone know cultural council grants are due October
15°h.
Virginia Adams stood up for Walkable Reading and stated that Walkable Members were at
the meeting and available to answer any questions on the memo that they sent to the
Board. She expressed her suppose for trying out a road diet on South Main Street.
Virginia Blodgett also stood up for Walkable Reading to voice her concerns about the loss of
crosswalks if a road diet is not implemented.
Mr. LeLacheur clarified that the Town recommended the road diet and that the State
opposed it. He indicated that there had been a previous meeting two years ago with Mr.
Friedmann in attendance as the Board's representative. During this meeting, at Senator
Lewis's request, it was almost unanimous to proceed with the paving project lest the
funding be lost and to do the road diet in the future should it be available.
Michelle Freeman wanted to let the board know Air BNB has been a positive experience for
her family.
Megan Fidler Carey agreed with Ms. Freeman about Air BNB but also stated the town does
need some restrictions regarding short term rentals.
Dave Talbot asked the board to encourage MassDOT to do a road diet on South Main street.
Arts Reading
Joe Letto from Arts Reading just wanted to stop by and let everyone know about the annual
Arts Festival which will be taking place this year on October 5th on the Town Common. He
invites everyone to come and see all the wonderful performances and art groups in town.
Air BnB and Absentee Owners
Phil Pacino came to the board to give them some things to think about regarding Air BnB's
in town. He, and many others, are worried about absentee owners. With all the new
developments going into town they are worried about people buying units with the sole
purpose of using them for air BnB and never living there. They are no problems with owner-
occupied air Bnb. He mentioned it may be a zoning issue for someone to be an absentee
owner because it may be considered a business in a residential area. He also noted that the
state has a short-term rental tax we could charge people who do air bnb.
Mr. LeLacheur recommended they go to CPDC with these concerns because it is more under
their purview.
Mr. Halsey agreed and noted they should get on this immediately because units will be
available all over town soon.
Mr. Friedmann noted he would like to work collaboratively with CPDC on this.
Climate Advisory Update
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David Zeek gave the board a short presentation on what the committee has been up to and
some of their future projects. They would like to start working more with RMLD and getting
more solar programs going like solar panels and electric vehicles and stations. They are
looking into and standing behind the gas leak petition.
Mr. Friedmann mentioned it would be good to start requiring the town to use heating and
cooling pumps in town buildings going forward.
New Crossing Road Redevelopment
Assistant Town Manager lean Delios noted the town received a grant to study this area and
they hired Gamble Associates to draw up some plans of potential redevelopment ideas.
Mr. Gamble gave the board a nice presentation complete with pictures of how unique and
purposeful they could make this area. It could include a new cultural/arts center and keep
some existing business in place. It could connect the Walkers Brook development and bring
people closer to the downtown. This would be a long-term project and would be best done
piece meal. This, of course, would take a lot of collaboration from RMLD and the existing
businesses.
RMLD General Manager Coleen O'Brien noted they are happy to move if they can find
another suitable space for them and all their equipment. She noted they have been mindful
of possible redevelopment for that area by not putting a lot of work into their building.
However, she did mention the parking lot is set to be repaved next week.
Boriana Milenova noted it would be wonderful to be able to connect Market Basket lot to this
new area.
Mike Flynn asked what steps other communities have taken to help big redevelopments like
this move along.
Ms. Alvarado asked for examples of other communities that have done this successfully. Mr.
Gamble did show a lot of redevelopment projects around the US but will find some closer to
home.
New 'Economic Development Committee'
Mr. Dockser and Mr. Friedmann explained their plans for a new EDC. They noted it would be
set up similar to the PBC in that every member on the board would be an expertise in their
own field that is needed on the committee. They created a mission for the board with 7
concepts.
Concern was expressed that the new EDC would duplicate work of staff. Dockser explained
that the proposed EDC is not designed supplant Town staff but rather to support and help
them.
The other Select Board members asked about staff involvement noting this committee
seemed similar to the newly hired Economic Development Director position.
Mr. Dockser explained this committee would be there to help the director.
Ms. Delios noted a lot of the mission concepts of the committee are already being done
because we have the staff that is hired and specialized in those areas.
Economic Development Director Erin Schaffer hopes the board wants to utilize her as a
professional staff person that was hired to do all of these things.
The board seemed happy with having an EDC but wanted to make sure staff was involved
so that staff and volunteers aren't working separately on the same things.
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Liquor Policy Discussion
Town Counsel Ivria Fried was present to go through the proposed changes to the boards
liquor policy. She noted through-out the whole document they are changing "Board of
Selectmen" to "Select Board" to reflect that change. The board currently has a 30-day policy
for a new person to be hired and get tips certified. The tips training is readily available
online at any given moment so a proposed change is to make that 7 days instead of 30.
Ms. Alvarado noted 7 days seems a little short and she would be happier somewhere in the
middle, like 14 days.
Mr. Dockser thinks 7 days is fine to get tips certified but he feels no one should be serving
alcohol at any point if they are not certified. He feels they can shadow someone and 'train'
at the store but should not be serving alcohol at all until they have taken that course.
The board agreed noting if the course is available at any time online, it makes sense to not
allow someone to serve until they have been trained.
Another proposed change would be that all tips certifications must be on file at the Town
Manager's office at all times. If a certification expires in the middle of the year, the
employee must bring their new certification to Town Hall and have it on record. Currently
the town only collects tips certifications annually at the end of the year during renewals.
The next question for the board was whether or not they wanted to separate club and war
veteran club licenses. Right now, they are lumped together just simply as a 'club license',
but talk about separating them as come up before and now would be a time to do it if the
board had any interest.
Separating them would allow them to charge different fees and set different regulations if
the board wanted to, i.e. the hours of service. The board seemed to agree separately them
into two categories would be okay but had no interest in changing the hours. They did talk
briefly about charging a lower fee for the war veterans clubs as they tend to be much
smaller in size than other clubs.
At their next meeting they will review a new draft of the proposed changes hold a public
hearing to approve them or not. They will also be asking liquor licensees to attend the
meeting for the discussion.
Town Manager Review Format
The board had a brief discussion on this noting they liked the old format better than the one
they used last year.
Mr. LeLacheur agreed to do a new outline with the old format for them to review at their
next meeting.
Select Board Hours
Mr. Dockser will hold Select Board hours this Saturday at the Library in the History room
from 9:30 - 10:30 am.
Mr. Halsey will be picking a date in October to hold office hours at the Senior Center.
Mr. Dockser moved to adjourn at 11:09 PM. The motion was seconded by Mr.
Friedmann and approved with a 5-0 vote.
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