Select Board packet for December 8th
Contents of the packet received Friday, December 5th for the Monday, December 8th meeting:
• The agenda
• The motion sheet
• A cover memo from the Principal Assessor with attached information explaining the determinations the Select Board will make at the tax classification hearing: whether a single tax rate will be applied to all properties (current practice;) or whether exemptions should be adopted for residential, open space or commercial classes. The info provides explanations and examples of each, as well as recommendations from the Board of Assessors that a uniform tax rate and no exemptions be adopted.
• A packet of background materials for the tax hearing that I had compiled and e-mailed to the Select Board on November 25th, comprising the past two years of SB discussions on the topic: a December 2006 Bulletin column Gerry wrote, and the recaps of the 2006 and 2007 tax hearings, as well as the recap of a 2007 discussion of residential exemptions
• A list of all the annual license renewals the Select Board will vote on at the meeting
• An e-mail from Gerry regarding concerns about the Town's employee grievance procedure and a request for the Select Board to bring the issue to the attention of the Personnel Board
• A sheet with proposed revisions to the Special Municipal Employee status process, i.e., removing the statement that says the status must be re-approved annually, and replacing it with a statement about the status remaining until or unless it is revoked.
• An application for a Live Entertainment License for Michael's Billiards
• Special Wine and Malt license applications for a
fundraiser at
• Draft minutes of the December 1st Select Board meeting
• The FY09 (April 2008) Joint Capital Planning Committee report
• A sheet with the 2008 and 2009 calendars
• A binder with the full report of the Facilitation of Community Choices Committee
• A packet with the list of all Town board and committee vacancies, all the current Citizen Activity Forms currently on file, and the current membership list of all boards and committees
• A bunch of mail: a letter from State Senator Stan Rosenberg seeking input from local officials about municipal relief proposals and ideas; a membership proposal from Sister Cities International - $510 per year; Notice and agenda for the December 4th Pioneer Valley Planning Commission meeting; a notice of priority funding from the MassDevelopment Brownfield Redevelopment Fund for redevelopment of municipally-owned brownfield sites; the November/December issue of the Friends of the Jones Library News; a letter from the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles regarding increased attention to illegal parking in handicap parking spaces and the amendment and toughening of a Mass General Law on the subject; a letter from Comcast about changes to names of two cable programming packages; the Fall 2008 issue of the UMass alumni magazine; the December issue of the Massachusetts Municipal Association newsletter, The Beacon
• A copy of the letter sent to the dog owner regarding the dog hearing to be held December 11 at 4:00 p.m. in the First Floor Meeting Room at Town Hall, copies of the letters sent to those who had complained to the Police about the dog, and copies of the Police incident reports
• The agenda for
the December 10th Planning Board meeting and Master Plan Forum, to be held at
7:00 p.m. in the Pole Room at
• The agenda for the December 10th Conservation Commission meeting
• A letter of resignation from the Zoning Board of Appeals from Ted Rising
Where can we find the "15 page report with all the pretty colors" mr. Hayden referenced in the December 8 meeting? The one with all of the SB budget recommendations? That document will be of great interest to the community. Thank you.
That document is the result of Aaron more-or-less cutting and pasting by subject all the comments from the individual SB budget idea lists. The colors distinguish among the SBers. I don't think the document is readily available anywhere, but I may be mistaken. One thing we touched on last night and will deal with in more detail next week is a proposal to put all the meeting materials on-line -- whether we received them ahead of time in our packets, or at the meeting. If we do that, it will make stuff like this much simpler.
Can you just post it here now?
Sorry -- If I had the electronic version, I would. I had visions of turning all our individual docs into a PDF and posting it, but that never quite happened. Alas.