Town Meeting: October 17, 2020

Transcript machine-generated with Whisper speech recognition (the source video has no caption track). No speaker labels; proper names and dollar figures occasionally misheard. Click any timecode to jump to that moment in the source video.

0:08 It is 9 o’clock and it’s time to call the meeting to order. We have a quorum, obviously, and people are still coming in, but let’s…we need to move forward. It’s a cold morning and we’ll try to get us in and out of here. We’re going to start with the Pledge of Allegiance. Dave Rogers, our Veterans Affairs Officer. Thank you, Dave. Before I really…we really get started at all, I wanted to take a moment of silence to remember our dear friend and colleague, Judy Jacobi, who passed away recently, all too recently. And we shall miss her dearly. She was a great citizen of Marblehead and a great friend to all of us. So let’s observe a moment of silence. Thank you.

1:55 Other thanks that are due. I’m going to start off because it’s not easy to arrange something like this. So I really wanted to commend a number of people. Our public safety officers, Chief Picarello, Chief Gilliland, Andrew Petty, the Board of Health. There’s a lot of hard work that goes into this and I appreciate you all doing that. It’s going to make this meeting work. Okay. Before we get much further, I want to outline the way I intend to run the meeting, which for those of you who are regular attendees is going to sound quite familiar. We have a mix of routine and non-routine articles and to save time with the non-routine, we will move quickly through the routine, often without discussion. I have the warrant in front of you. I don’t know what individual citizens have in front of them, but we will try to make it clear what articles we’re on and what they’re about. If an article does call for discussion, I will first recognize the relevant town official or citizen sponsor of the article. If it’s a citizen-sponsored article, and there are a number of those, I will then ask the relevant town official or officials to respond if they choose to do so.

3:39 We would then move on to questions and comments. If you wish to speak, go to one of the microphones, state your name and address. Please be concise and to the point, my stopwatch is informal, but does work. A person can say a great deal in a minute or two. All motions and amendments must be in writing, and all questions and comments must be addressed to the Chair. In order to expedite the business of the meeting, the Chair reserves the right to limit or terminate debate if comments are off the subject, become repetitive, or if all points of view have been expressed, or if the meeting becomes unruly. No personal attacks are permitted or inappropriate language. Calls in and out on your cell phones are prohibited, and then the rest of this, you need to be seated, unless you’re speaking at a meeting. I’m going to turn it over to the microphone. So those are the rules of engagement, and we can now proceed through the warrant. And I need also to remind ourselves that this is a half a town meeting. Last spring, we decided that our regular meeting couldn’t be held under the circumstances that with COVID and everything that were prevailing, and the selectmen determined to split, essentially to split the original warrant and took, on June 29, at a adjourned meeting,

5:29 and undertook all of the budget-related items, and we moved through all of those, and the point of all of that was to get a budget in place by the beginning of the fiscal year, which we accomplished. Now, there are a number of other articles, not budget-related, which we simply put aside and didn’t take them up. Many of those are with us today, although I’ve been informed by sponsors that a number of them will be indefinitely postponed. Nonetheless, we have the rest of the town’s business to attend to. So that’s what we’re doing. This is a special town meeting, but I think it is, I sort of think of it as the regular town meeting, part two. Okay, the first article on the agenda, articles in numerical order. See if the town will vote to adopt numerical order for the way to proceed through the meeting. As many favor that motion, please raise your hands. Those opposed, it’s a vote, and the motion carries. Reports of town officials and committees receive reports from many officials who wish to speak. We had a number of those in the spring. I don’t see any town official who wishes to make a report, so I’d like a motion that Article 2 be indefinitely postponed. Do I have a second?

7:04 All in favor? Article 2 is indefinitely postponed. Article 3, to see if the town will listen. I’m not going to read this whole thing. The gist of this article is if the Commonwealth of Massachusetts comes in to do highway work and they screw something up, we cannot sue them. This is consistent with the general laws of Commonwealth, and we routinely adopt this. As many as favor. Article 3, raise your hands. Those opposed, a vote and the motion carries. Article 4, accept trust property. This is a perennial opportunity to accept property that’s conveyed to the town by various trusts. We don’t have any, so I have a motion for indefinite postponement. As many as favor that. Raise your hands. It’s a vote, and the article is indefinitely postponed. Article 5, lease town property. This authorizes the town to lease some property. If that’s appropriate under the terms and conditions that they work out, there’s a lot of town property. So we need this authority. As many as favor, adopting the leasing of town property article. Thank you. It’s a vote, and the motion carries.

8:37 Similarly, contracts in excess of three years. We need to authorize the selectmen to enter into long-term contracts. This is a regular provision for us. And I have a motion to authorize the Board of Selectmen to enter into contracts longer than three years, if that is appropriate. As many as favor that motion, raise your hands. Those opposed, a vote and the motion carries. Walls and fences. We often appropriate a little bit of money for the construction of walls and fences. This year, we don’t have any, and I have a motion for indefinite postponement. As many as favor indefinitely postponing walls and fences. Raise your hands. Those opposed, a vote and the motion is carried. Article 8, Water and Sewer Commission claims to see if the town, and I’m going to read this one short, to see if the town will vote to authorize the Water and Sewer Commission and the Board of Selectmen acting jointly to compromise any claims for damages or suits pending against the town on a cot of acts which may have occurred during the construction of water, sewer, and the storm-stewer system, sponsored by the Board of Water and Sewer Commissioners. As many as favor the adoption of that article, raise your hands. Those opposed, a vote and the motion carries.

10:14 Article 9, Transfer of Funds to the Special Education Stabilization Account. There are no funds to be transferred around there, and I have a motion for indefinite postponement. As many as favor the indefinite postponement of Article 9, raise your hands. Those opposed, it’s a vote. Article 9 is indefinitely postponed. Okay, unpaid accounts. This requires a nine-tenths vote. And, Allison, do you want to come up? Allison Nieto, the town treasurer. So this article is for bills that were received past year-end, and it just allows us to pay out of current year funds. There’s no additional allocation of funds for this. There are a number of different expense accounts throughout various town departments. The total amount is $33,181. Further discussion on Article 10? These are small amounts of money. As many as favor the adoption of Article 10, raise your hands. Those opposed, it’s a vote and the motion carries. Article 11, Medicaid Reimbursement Money. There’s no money being transferred here, so the motion is for indefinite postponement.

11:48 As many as favor the indefinite postponement of Article 11, Medicaid Reimbursement Money, raise your hands. Raise your hands. Thank you. Those opposed, it’s a vote. And Article 11 is indefinitely postponed. Now we have Articles 12 and 13 intertwined in my mind, so Chief Picarello is going to address both of them at this time, and then we’ll vote separately. Good morning, Chief Bob Picarello, Marblehead Police. So for the past several years, there’s been an article proposed at town meeting by citizens to change the way we do off-street parking in the winter time. And last year we spoke to the proponents of that article and were able to talk to them, and we agreed to put together a committee that would look at the concept of how we do it and was there another way to do it. And it was indefinitely postponed last year. We did, in fact, Mr. Silva put together that committee, and we met several times, and I think we actually made presentations to the Board of Selectmen once or twice, actually, on our findings.

13:20 Everybody that all the town departments were represented, and we felt strongly that of all the challenges that existed within off-street parking versus the so-called blue light system, the committee was able to solve most, if not all, of those problems. The one thing that, and if anybody that’s on the committee has other ideas they can talk, but the one thing we were very strongly thinking was that the $25 parking ticket fee was not enough of a penalty to preclude people from potentially parking when they shouldn’t be. So the one thing that did come out of the group that met was that the parking ticket fee, the cost for parking when the so-called blue lights would be on where the town to agree to do that, would be needed to go up to $100 to make it work. So that’s the article you have in front of you. So for me anyway, as the Chief of Police, if I were going to recommend to the Board of Selectmen to change the off-street parking, I couldn’t support that without the parking ticket fee for violating it to be enough that I think it’s enough of a deterrent on its own. So you’re being asked to raise that fee to $100 in this article. That’s about it.

14:51 Thank you, Chief. Article 12 increased the fine for parking violations during a snow emergency, established by the Board of Selectmen, but up to $100. As many as favor that, please raise your hands. And those opposed? There are a few in opposition, but frankly not many. Okay, now, end current overnight parking ban. And is somebody going to speak to this? Jason, Sylvia, can you speak to this briefly? Chief, do you want to come back?

15:39 It was well covered, but let’s share it again. Yeah, so the Committee met. We went over all of the challenges that we thought existed for the potential to recommend to the selectmen that they would look at going to, you know, we keep calling it the blue light system. We think we’ve been able to work out all of the wrinkles that are involved in that, and we feel strongly, or did feel strongly coming out of that group that it was reasonable to recommend to the selectmen that they consider changing to a snow emergency type thing. So we’re going to look at the blue light system, the so-called blue light system, for a temporary trial basis and try it for a year and see how it goes. I think we need to try it. We need to see if it works. If everybody cooperates and it works, I think we could move forward with it. If everyone doesn’t cooperate, then, you know, we go back to the old way. So really it’s incumbent on the town to do this and do what we’re supposed to do when we’re supposed to do it. As long as we do that, I think the group felt very strongly we could support going to the selectmen and asking them to make that change, coupled with what you did in the previous article. Thank you. Thank you, Chief. We have a proposed amendment to this article, sponsored by Mr. Charles Gessner, who’s going to come forward to speak to that. And the procedure is that if there’s an amendment, we vote first on the amendment.

17:10 And if the amendment prevails, then we vote on the amended main article. It doesn’t. Then we proceed to the main article in any event. And I think the gist of Mr. Gessner… Well, I’m going to let you explain that. Charles? Thank you, Mr. moderator. Charles Gessner, 20 Gregory Street. The proposed amendment is designed to allow the town to experiment with a blue light or similar approach to winter parking without endangering residents of the historic district. What we’re suggesting is that the historic district be excluded from the experiment. And for those of you who aren’t clear on what the historic district is, it’s essentially roughly bounded by Marblehead Harbor, Waldron, Essex, Elm, Pond, and Norman Streets in Marblehead. And among its notable features are Fort Sewell, Coastal Deportification, two National Historic Landmarks, General John Glover House, the Jeremiah Lee Mansion, Simon Broad Street House, etc., etc. And my concern is that if people don’t cooperate, we will have some trouble. And I’ll give you a little history. I used to live at 151 Fun Street, which I used to tell people is the first stop for waves coming from the North Atlantic and Marblehead. In the early 80s, we had a budget crunch, and it was suggested that we close the Franklin Street Firehouse for efficiency reasons. And that proposal was defeated at town meeting because citizens realized that the historic district is very unique,

18:47 and it’s at risk if the first response came from the Central Fire Station during a nor’easter of lizard or whatever. Of course, at that time, we were very much in remembrance of the 78th storm. Some of you are old enough to maybe remember that. The concern was that many narrow, winding streets, often former cow paths, with the current banner system, residents of the downtown or historic area have to find off-street parking for the winter. And my concern is that if they don’t have to do that, in other words, plan ahead, where will they go when the proposed restrictions are put in place? And people want to talk about Salem. Salem has a couple of really large parking spots, as you know. If you’ve ever tried to go to the Peabody Essex Museum or visit Salem when there’s a snowstorm and try to go into the parking lots, forget about it. There’s no place to park. My question is, where will people go if they haven’t planned ahead to take this on? Here’s some data to think about. Marblehead is a population of around something between 19 and 20,000 people. We have over 21,750 registered vehicles. That is the number of motor vehicles excise tax bills sent out this year. So taking out plus or minus 3,000 children, there appears to be 4,000 to 5,000 more cars than there are drivers. What happens if people go on vacation and take a chance by leaving their cars in the street? Well, we have enough towing capacity to deal with that.

20:24 I am proposing what I thought was a two-year trial because I didn’t know that it was a one-year trial for the whole system. So let’s make it a one-year trial period that the historic district be excluded. I don’t want to lose a life or a home because the fire department or the ambulance can’t get down one of our former cow pass. And I suspect the mutual aid responders would be happy also to have a chance to get to a fire. I ask your support for the amendment to Article 13. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Gessner. Further discussion on the amendment? On the amendment, the gentleman over here. And I’m sorry, somebody’s already standing in a microphone, so I’m going to call on the first guy I see, and you can come up to this microphone. Go ahead. Robert Sharp, 22 Franklin Street. I’d like to speak in support of my friend, Mr. Gessner. Just a very quick point. Many of you may remember the storm of 2005. Very much snow. Trying to picture Darling Street in 2005 with cars parked on it that had been left there by people who couldn’t find a place to put them. Think of all that snow. It didn’t go anywhere. It would have been even more of a mess than it was. I wholeheartedly support the amendment.

21:58 Okay. Thank you. I’m going from the back forward. Okay. The gentleman in the middle. Now, Peter, there’s other people ahead of you, so a few of them just move aside. Yes, sir. Jack Buba of Five Palma Road. I was a member of the committee that helped put this together, and I’d like to give you a little background. The first point is, this is a trial, as the Chief said, and if people don’t follow this, it can be canceled. It could be canceled before the end of the year. One of the things I don’t think people realize is that if it snows and the town determines that there is still an emergency, they can keep the blue lights on until all the snow is gone. So this, what I would call a red herring about parking, this system is no different than the current system we have, except when there’s no snow or it’s safe, you can park on the street. That was the basis of the committee coming together in the first place. With regard to other towns, we talked to Swampskit, very similar to us. We talked to Rockport. In snow emergencies, the people cooperate, they have very small streets in Rockport. Rockport toes on average, zero. Swampskit’s toes on average, two people during a snowstorm. We were very surprised to find out that those are the statistics, but it turns out that in general, people cooperate.

23:36 And remember, as long as the streets are unsafe, the ban will stay in effect. If we need to tow, if it turns out that people don’t do a good job and get off the street in the first snowstorm, the town can put the blue lights on for the rest of the winter and essentially put the ban in place. This is a trial to see if people will cooperate. It does not need this special amendment to exclude the area. The town has the ability to exclude this area any time it wants with the blue lights by turning the blue lights on. I think we really should give this a chance. All the other towns know how to do this, and there is no, I repeat, no increase in danger by doing this, because we’ve gone through all the options in our local area. So cities and towns nearby show us that this is just a canard, and it just doesn’t happen. Thank you very much. Okay, thank you. I’m going to recognize the couple at the first microphone. Karen McMahon, 50 Lee Street. I’m so glad the committee has studied this so thoroughly, because we move our cars off the street 135 nights. It just isn’t that much snow that many days, and it’s not necessary. And I think it’s also harmful to the town, because if you have visitors coming for the Christmas walk, which won’t happen this year, but it does,

25:18 family has to park, you have to find parking spots for them, even if there’s no snow on the street. So I didn’t think other towns seemed to be able to do it, and I’m so glad the committee has looked at this and found it will work. Okay, thank you. Now, I’m going to take the gentleman at the middle mic, then I’m going to take the woman behind you, then I’m going to come back to Mr. Lake, and hopefully we’re getting to the point where all the views have been expressed. Yes, sir, the gentleman in the middle mic. Yes, yes, David Patton, 25 Lee Street. I am in the historic district. It is a hardship for us to be moving cars 135 nights on the wintertime, particularly when there’s no snow on the street. It’s a public resource, parking. We all need it in the historic district, probably in the historic district more than any other part of the town. And so it is very, very welcoming that this ban will become a temporary event-specific ban, as opposed to a permanent winter ban all the time when we look outside and see all those empty streets, and think about how far we have parked our cars away or how much, in some cases, we’ve spent to park our cars off-street.

26:50 So I oppose this additional amendment, but I certainly support the changing of the winter parking ban to a temporary, storm-specific one. And I think we talked about the blue lights, but as I understand it, they’re also going to use that telephone tree, which many of us got a call on to alert us to this town meeting. And I think that’s an outstanding way to notify the town in the event of a storm emergency. Thank you. Okay, thank you very much. The woman in the blue jumper. Hi, Kristin Pratt. It’s not a jumper, but you know who you are. Kristin Pratt, 48 Pleasant Street. I would just like to voice my support for Article 13, and thanks to everybody who came up with a workable solution. I am opposed to the amendment. I really think the historic district residents are the ones suffering the hardship for the most part. And if you’re going to trial something, include the whole town. I also don’t think it’s rocket science to put up a few signs and change where people are allowed to park in those tight corners so that people can’t park there when there’s snow. But the only other thing I’d add to it is for people who don’t live in a historic district, the amount of spots that have been available to park in or to rent have been declining. There’s an article later on the town warrant about the town appropriating a piece of land on Pleasant Street. There used to be 20-something spots that the neighborhood park did, and that was our benefit, and we were lucky to have it.

28:22 But the property got acquired, and those are no longer available. So you’ve already displaced 30-something cars, I would say, and it’s a real problem. Thank you very much. Mr. Lake. Peter Lake, 14 Mugford Street. I’ve lived in the historic district now about 20 years. I am opposed to this amendment. I see no point to it because people have to put their cars somewhere already now. And so the argument that is going to be difficult seems to be moot. Also, I’d like to say that there are certain properties as a real estate agent, and I’d like to say that there are certain properties downtown, and I think this is going to enhance the value of those properties that exist without parking at the present moment. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Lake. I think we’re getting to the point where the views that are going to be expressed have been expressed, but so I’ve got three people on their feet, and that’s all. And try to keep your comments non-repetitive. Start with the man in the back. Hi, how you doing? I’m Alex Pineda, 3 State Street. I think in regards to the fact that the gentleman with the orange jacket gave with the 21,000 cars, I mean, we have to think about two-thirds of the 21,000 cars have driveways. A lot of those families have two or three cars with driveways.

29:58 So excluding the historic district… This kind of makes no point. I mean, I don’t have a driveway, and I think the people living in the historic district are the ones that need it the most. So I’m opposed to this, and thank you for the blue light. Okay, further discussion? The woman in the middle. Good morning. I do understand all the concerns and respect and appreciate those concerns. My name is Lauren McKinney. I live on Washington Street at 160. I do believe in Old Town, the historic district. It would be our responsibility to make sure we have parking spots. I will continue to rent my spot as needed. But as I work at Mass General Hospital, sometimes I get home at 9 or 10 o’clock at night. It’s cold and windy, and I have to hike with my briefcases and all my bags back to home. If it snows, that’s fine. But doing that every single night seems a little silly, especially the winters where it hardly snows at all. So we just have to be responsible, make sure we have our spots in place for when we need them, when the blue light’s on. Okay, further discussion? I’m trying to close this down, because I have a feeling how this is going to go, but I’ll take the gentleman who’s right in front of me at the first mic. Chris Brol. And then the gentleman in the back, and then I’d like to see if we can get to a vote. Thank you. Chris Brol, 212 West Door Drive. I have more of a point of clarification regarding

31:34 each of these articles in terms of, we keep hearing about the term trial, but I’m just wondering how we determine whether or not the trial has succeeded or not. So I’m not speaking for or against either of the articles. I’m just wondering, are we talking about a certain number of toes or over the winter when the blue lights are on, or how we’re going to determine whether or not the trial has been successful? Okay, Chief Pecorone. Sorry, I can’t see. So that’s a great question. My assumption will be, it’s going to be based sort of intuitively on our parts as to how the compliance was. So if we’re towing two, three, four cars in a storm, that’s not probably so bad. If we’re towing 20, 30 cars in a storm, I think we’d all agree that probably isn’t compliance. But that’s a decision of the Board of Selectmen every time. So we as a group don’t ever determine anything solely. We recommend to the Board of Selectmen at an open meeting that we believe compliance is or is not happening, and that’s an open forum, and we discuss it with them, and the Board makes the decision. So I think it would be all open, but I think it would be based on compliance. Thanks for that. Thank you for that clarification, Chief. The gentleman in the back. Yeah, thanks. I just want to speak in favor of this amendment and say that if you are

33:06 owning several cars in the old historic district, it’s your responsibility to find a place to park them, not my responsibility, not the town’s responsibility, and not the responsibility. And destroying historical aspects to have more parking for you to be able to park your cars so you don’t have to walk every day of the year is not my problem. And so I’m strongly in favor of keeping the old historic district outside of the parking van. Thank you. Okay, thank you. I think it’s time to move to voting. I think we’ve had a good discussion. We’re going to vote first on the amendment, and the way I characterize the amendment is to exclude the old and historic district commission from this trial. As many as favor that amendment, raise your hands. Those opposed. It is not a vote, and the amendment is defeated. Okay, now we move to Article 13, which is the main motion, and that is, as the chief just explained, this establishes a framework, which the Board of Selectmen is responsible for administering for a two year trial period to see how this blue light system, for lack of a better word, will work out. We’ll see. As many as favor the

34:37 adoption of that blue light system, please raise your hand. Those opposed. It’s a vote, and Article 13 is adopted. Okay, Article, thank you. Article 14, financial assistance for conservation. Do we have a motion on that? Can I see that? Okay, and this, this again is sort of a standard motion, that the town vote to authorize the Conservation Commission and other town officials to apply for financial assistance from public and private sources to be expended by the Conservation Commission for the purchase of vacant land and any other purpose. This is authorized under Section 8C of Chapter 40 of the General Laws. So what this involves is enabling the Conservation Committee to accept gifts and grants. It’s as simple as that.

36:09 As many as favor the adoption of this article, raise your hands. Those opposed. It’s a vote, and Article 14 is passed. Article 15, ratification of salary bylaw. I have a motion for indefinite postponement. As many as favor indefinitely postponing that. Raise your hands. Thank you. Okay. Article 15 is indefinitely postponed. Article 16, the library, I have a motion for indefinite postponement, but I, it’s, it’s by the, by the library trustees, and I want to have them speak to that. Nancy. Thank you, Mr. Moderator. My name is Nancy Perkins-Arada. I reside at 10 Darling Street here in Marblehead, and I’m the chair of the Abbott Public Library Board of Trustees. We unanimously voted as a board in April of 2020 to withdraw our request for an override for the town’s library for this fiscal year. We did that because we were extremely aware that the impact of COVID-19 on our town and on our citizens, but I want to be extremely clear with the town. The critical needs of the library have not changed. We have failing mechanical infrastructure. It has

37:40 not been replaced in 30 years. It’s at the end of its span of life. Repairs and band-aids will no longer be acceptable. We will come back to the town in May of 2021 with our next request for support of this override, and we hope at that time we will have a positive response from the citizens. The library remains a great asset of the town of Marblehead and has been for over 142 years. We have one of the highest usage of public libraries for towns of our size in the Commonwealth. It needs and merits your support, and if you read the reporter this week, you’ll see that we are trying very hard to get the library reopened for browsing by appointment only by mid to late November. We have been in abundance of caution about safety for our patrons and our staff, and we really appreciate your patience and support. In the meantime, we have expanded our electronic services, and of course we have curbside collection and drop-off. Thank you very much. Thank you, Ms. Arata. We have indefinite postponement on this, which I think is a sort of wait-al next year. As many as favor, indefinite postponement of

39:12 Article 16, raise your hands. Those opposed, Article 16 is indefinitely postponed. Article 17, Pumper Truck. I have a motion for indefinite postponement on Article 17. As many as favor, indefinite postponement, raise your hands. Those opposed, it’s a vote, and Article 17 is indefinitely postponed. Now we have Articles 18 and 19, and I’m going to ask Ms. Cutting. This is the corner of Village and Pleasant Street, and it’s a little complicated, so I’m going to ask Ms. Cutting, who’s the town planner, to explain this, and I guess there are some videos you’re putting up. Okay, how are we doing, guys? By the way, okay, Becky, we’re good. Yeah, I’m speaking from here so that I can see the screen. So, Article 18 and 19 both have to do with the Village, Vine, and Pleasant Street intersection improvements. You can see on the screen is the project area.

40:47 There’s Village, Vine, Pleasant, and Roland, where the old gas station used to be, and a new restaurant is now. And I’m just going to briefly, this is a project that’s been around for a long time, so I wanted to run through the history. So this project was part of a larger project, which was known as the Pleasant Street Corridor Project, and it was an improvement on Pleasant Street from Smith to Village Street, including this intersection. And we had a public workshop on it in December of 2009, and again in January of 2010. And then that project came to town meeting in May of 2010 and was approved. Unfortunately, it didn’t pass the necessary proposition two and a half override to appropriate the $1.6 million to do it. So we had to look for other funding sources, and Representative Lori Ehrlich secured an earmark for it in 2014, but just for the Village, Vine, and Pleasant Street intersection portion of the project. So then in the fall of 2014, we initiated the project with MassDOT, which is the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, through their transportation improvement program known as the TIP. And the amount received for the project was $786,568. So the town is responsible, so that’s paid for by the state through a federal

42:26 program. The town is responsible for the engineering and the right of ways. So the engineering plans, we contracted with Phase Fofford and Thorndike, and now that company is known as Stan Tech, and we submitted the plans to MassDOT. The 25% design submittal was in March of 2016. And then the original plan included the whole gas station area. It had been a blighted area for more than 20 years. And then in 2017, the gas station was purchased and a developer developed it. And the new owner has generously agreed to donate a portion of the property, so the plans had to be revised. And in December of 2019, the revised 25% submission to MassDOT was submitted and then approved. The public hearing that MassDOT held was on a webinar due to the pandemic on June 23rd, 2020. And so today, these two articles are asking the town to accept the gift of land and obtain the necessary easements. So these are just a few photographs of the existing condition. What we’re fixing here is a lack of compliant wheelchair ramps, and on the left, you can see the narrow sidewalks. And then on Pleasant Street, there’s an expanse of pavement that you

44:02 can see, and then the long pedestrian crosswalks, which will be reduced. The project’s scope is to realign Village and Vine Street and their approaches to Pleasant Street, and resetting the curbs along Pleasant Street, ADA compliant sidewalks, repaving the roadway, and new signs and pavement markings. And this is a picture of the new design. I know a lot of you are familiar with it, but this is a color rendering of it. So, Article 18 is to accept the gift. There’s a portion of the property at 195 Pleasant Street. It’s 1,208 square feet, and this vote authorizes the selectmen to enter into agreements and accept that gift. Okay, as many… I’m going to vote separately on these. Thank you, Becky, for getting us so far. As many as favor the acceptance of the gift, set forth in Article 18, raise your hands. Those opposed? Well, we have two in opposition, but otherwise pretty strong. Okay, let’s go on to then keep going, Becky. Okay, so the easements, there’s two types of easements. There’s the temporary easements, and those are entered into just temporarily during construction. They typically go a few feet beyond the limits of the work,

45:35 so that the new construction contractor has a place to work while they’re doing the construction. And then the permanent easements are necessary to construct the project, and they’re small. They range inside from 2 square feet, size from 2 square feet, to 83 square feet. And this vote will authorize the Board of Selectmen to enter into agreements for those. There’s a list of the properties that are affected, and then the article further authorizes the appropriation from free cash of up to $200,000 to purchase these easements. And it’s up to, because we don’t know, we know it won’t be more than that, but it could be substantially less. So the town’s been in touch with the property owners, and they’ll continue to work with them through the Board of Selectmen. And this is a picture of the easements. You’ll see it’s kind of pinky-orangey. Those are the, that’s the piece of land and the permanent easements, and the yellow are the temporary easements during construction. Okay, thank you, Ms. Cutting. I’m advised that this, there is the possibility or probability of eminent domain for a portion of this, so this will require a two-thirds or unanimous vote. As many as favor of the adoption of Article 19,

47:09 please raise your hand. Those opposed? I see a few in opposition. I see three in opposition. I’m only looking at one side. Four, five, six. I’m afraid we’re going to have to have the tellers. Tellers come forward. Sorry to have to do this, but that’s the way it goes. Yeah, I’m going to do that. Now before we, before we do this again, if I have a, the other way I can do this, and I’m quite prepared to do it, is to take the total number of voters present at the meeting and subtract those who are opposed. That’s the way I would like to do it, and tellers, just stand by because I may have another solution to this. As many as favor of the adoption of Article 19, please raise your hand. Those opposed? Okay, I want to make sure I get this right. Tellers,

48:41 just get the, get the opposition here. All right, let me get away from the,

49:53 so I come up with the police.

50:01 Thank you very much. Now I want to, I want to make a, make a point. Gentlemen at the microphone. Mr. Chairman, I initially was abstaining. I would raise, I raised my hand to reject because there’s too much information. I have not received enough to be able to make a good choice, so I oppose it. Yes, what I was about to say is, yes, it takes time to have a counted vote, but people for a variety of reasons, sir, please sit down. I’m talking now. For a variety of reasons, may vote in opposition, and that’s, that’s fine. That’s what this town meeting is all about. So, no aspersions intended at all. So, you said 209, right? 269. Okay, so the final tally here is 246 in favor and 23 in the negative, and article 19 is adopted. Article 20, reduction of speed limits.

51:41 Chief Picarello. Good morning, Chief Picarello, Marblehead Police. So this is a, what we would refer to as an enabling article. So it doesn’t in itself change the speed limits. What it does do is give the authority to do that to the Board of Selectmen. So today, if we were to want to reduce the speed limit somewhere or town wide, it would require a speed study and involvement from the Commonwealth and Mass Highway. It becomes a bit of a process. This, this article shifts that, that ability to the Board of Selectmen to reduce the speed limit if they saw fit. And additionally, it allows them to create certain speed zones for certain special areas. An example might be near an elderly housing area where you thought the speed limit should be reduced even further to 20. And it gives them the authority to do that locally as opposed to needing to get state involvement and traffic studies involved. Thank you. Okay, thank you, Chief, for the discussion. The gentleman in the middle. Mr. Albert, Lester. 58, Lester Road. Chief, can I ask you one quick question first? Does this involve any additional signage off the bat or do we wait for the Selectmen to make any decisions? The question was, does this go into effect immediately or are there any decisions for the Board?

53:15 I’m sorry, let me just clarify. So we do have signage that says thickly settled, 25 miles an hour. Is there anything that will change? Will you add more signs? Will you do anything until the Selectmen make a move? Nothing happens until the Selectmen do something. To be clear, a thickly settled area is basically the entire town. So it would be effective. I can’t think of a place in town that may be the causeway. So nothing happens as far as speed limits or anything really unless the Selectmen vote to do that. Thank you. So if I could just make a quick comment then. Let’s make it quick. Yeah, very quick. It’s very clear that the town needs to reduce speed limits, not only in the thickly settled area, but in the trunk roads that come into town. This is something that Salem has moved towards, that cities throughout the state have moved towards. I’d encourage you very much to vote for this so we can move ahead with making traffic safer. Thank you. Okay, thank you very much for the further discussion. Yes, ma’am. It’s Cheryl Patton, 25 Lee Street. I am a big fan of if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. And I also like people who know their business, aka the speed studies, traffic consultants to remain in charge of traffic studies and speed limits. I am not in favor of giving this authority to the Board of Selectmen.

54:49 I think it should stay with the police and the traffic experts. Thank you. Thank you. Further discussion? Yes, the gentleman over in front of me. Mr. Lake. Peter Lake, 14 Muckford Street. This seems like a solution looking for a problem. And I’d just like to ask what problem is this meant to solve? Somebody want to speak, want to take that one on, Lisa? Lisa Mead, the town council, special town council. Thank you, Mr. Moderator. There was a set of statutes that the Commonwealth adopted a couple years ago, and this was one of them. And the idea was to give more authority to communities to control their own speed limits on their own roadways. Further discussion? Okay. As many as favor the adoption of Article 20, establishing a framework for the selectmen to take any further action with respect to speed limits. Please raise your hands. Those opposed? Let’s do this again. Those in favor, please raise your hands. Those opposed? The Article 20 is approved. There was substantial plurality in favor. So Article 20 is approved. Council on Aging? Yes, sir. Thank you, Mr.

56:35 Moderator. Yes, sir. My name is Edward Bell, 5 Elmwood Road. I am chairman of the Council on Aging, board of directors. I’m here this morning to present the town, Article 21, proposed by the COA board to reduce the number of members from 9 to 7. The COA is a voluntary board appointed by the board of selectmen. We see this step as part of a process that began in 2015, when under the direction of town administrator John McGinn and the Commonwealth, the board transitioned from an administrative board to an advisory board. With no fiduciary responsibility going forward, we eliminated the treasurer’s position but kept the seat. The fiduciary responsibilities now rest with the executive director and the town accountant. We no longer need to sign the billing sheets or the payroll. Also, we no longer evaluate the executive director so we no longer have a personnel subcommittee. Personnel responsibilities fall to the executive director and the town administrator. In the past 26 months, only one COA board meeting has had all nine members present. One meeting was recessed for lack of a quorum. Four others were

58:05 canceled in advance for the same reason. Some of this is due to the aging of our members. Some choose to spend more time in the warmer climates. But in November of 2019, we voted unanimously to decrease the size of our board, making it easier to seat a quorum. The board of selectmen endorsed it and we hope that town will approve. Thank you. Further discussion on article 21, reducing the size of the board of the council on aging from 9 to 7. As many as favor that, please raise your hands. Those opposed? It’s a vote and the article is adopted. Article 22, hotel tax. I have a motion for indefinite postponement. As many as favor the indefinite postponement of article 22, raise your hands. Thank you. Article 23, meal tax, indefinite postponement. As many as favor indefinite postponement. And it’s indefinitely postponed. Thank you. Now my pages have become disorganized. Bear with me a sec. Now here it is. Got it. Okay. Land acquisition. So we’ve indefinitely

59:43 postponed article 22 for the hotel tax, article 23 for the meal tax, article 24, land acquisition, 45 to 49 Pleasant Street. I have a motion for indefinite. Postponing as many as favor indefinitely postponing that article. Raise your hands, keep them raised. Thank you. Article 24 is indefinitely postponed. Article 25 leaf blowers. Ms. Grader or Mr. Grader want to come forward and address the town on Article 25. This is a fairly long article. But I’ll make it very short. Go ahead Buck. My name is Buck Grader, 9-mil pawn Marblehead. I was really surprised at the last town meeting how close town meeting vote was to ban leaf blowers outright. I got to tell you, I was privately opposed to that, which struck a lot of courage in my part because my wife thinks leaf blowers are the worst evil of the world. But I think it’s a useful tool for many landscapers, particularly in the fall and the spring cleanups. They’re tough jobs. It makes things a lot easier. I guess my problem is what happens in the summertime. And what I noticed, and I think most of you probably would agree with me in this, that as I go around in the summer, all I see are a bunch of guys running around

1:01:19 blowing driveways and walkways and putting them into your neighbor’s yard, into the street. They do it in the rain. They do it in windstorms. And I just shake my head and I ask, why is this happening? Is it because the homeowners are all OCD and insist on coming home for that day and seeing that the driveways are all nice and clean and the next day they’re not? And I’m thinking, how did this happen? Because we didn’t have this issue 20 years ago. And I think it’s only reasonable that we ought to look at some kind of a moratorium in the summer. So the rest of us that are walking around with our windows opening, now with grandkids, I just think it’s a real pain in the neck. And I’d have to ask myself, why is this so beneficial to landscapers? And I guess I came to the conclusion that when it got started, if you’re a landscaper and you’re not blowing at the end, your homeowner says, why the heck is my neighbor doing it? And you’re not. So you get kind of into this rut where you have to do it because everybody else has to do it. And I guess my feeling is I don’t know why the rest of us have to pay for somebody who wants to annoy the rest of us with their leaf blowers. And I wonder why I still use a broom. Well, I know why I still use a broom because I would probably get shot if I didn’t. But the reality of the situation is why do they do it? And I think we have an opportunity to at least find out and

1:02:52 try it, at least for this year. And if it doesn’t work, and these landscapers really say, hey, I need this, this is really important, then we can revisit it. It’s written in such a way that the Board of Health can have control over this sort of stuff. I just think it’s only fair that the rest of us shouldn’t have to put up with it. And the reality is you need to tell me why that summertime, that 90% or 80% of the thing is just blowing hardscapes around. It’s not healthy, and it’s annoying. And that’s my feeling why we have a broom. Thank you, Mr. Grader. Further discussion? The gentleman in the middle. 16 Warren Road. I was going to try to make a motion for the leap law for indefinite postponement on this. It doesn’t seem fair to me that we’re going to be sitting here at town meeting, and 200 people are going to decide how my business can run when a lot of people can’t get here because of COVID and everything else. That’s what I have to say. Thank you. The woman at the second microphone, and then the woman at the third microphone, then Roseanne, and then this gentleman. Myra Sussman, 24 Pearl Street. I’d like to make a few impact statements about how it affects the average citizen on a daily basis

1:04:23 under the category no peace, no quiet. If you’re working at home and trying to work in a quiet environment, it’s impossible. If you’re doing a business meeting on Zoom, it’s interference in the background. With the windows open, you close the windows. It makes no effect. The noise goes through. If you’re a teacher trying to do a remote instruction for a classroom, it interferes with it. If you’re a student at home trying to participate in a remote classroom, it interferes. If you’re a student trying to do your homework and you can’t concentrate, there’s a lot of background noise. If you’re hearing impaired, you have sensitivity to noise, and it adds to confusion with decoding of the sound. It makes it hard to hear conversation. If you have asthma, it aggravates it and could possibly cause an asthmatic attack. If you have migraine headaches, you have added stress, and it can really exacerbate your migraine.

1:05:56 You want to blow your brains out. You want to go for a walk during a normal day during the spring, summer, fall. You go outside. There’s no reprieve. The leafs are blowers are everywhere. You go on your bike. You go to the beach, and it’s constant. It’s every day. It’s everywhere. No peace. No quiet. Thank you. Thanks, Moses. I have no idea where anything is. Let me see. Is the woman in the far back? Hello again, Lauren McKinney with 160 Washington Street. Everything Myra said, and I just want to make one other point. As I mentioned, I work in the city, and it’s loud, and I appreciate the city for all it has to offer. But when I come home to Marblehead, it is so refreshing to just hear quiet and hear the ocean and the birds. I think that’s why we all live here. So one of the reasons why we all live here. But I just want to support just the relaxing feeling that we all get from the environment, and I really would hate this to be a loud city.

1:07:31 All right, Ms. McCarthy. Go ahead. Rose Wheeler McCarthy. I grew up in this neighborhood called a shipyard, and it’s a privilege to be here today because it’s 100 years that women have had the right to vote.

1:07:55 The League of Women Voters have given countless hours to counting, and also they perform pro- put pro-grams on at the library. And two wonderful people joined there, and attorney Peg Burke, one of the founders, and they’re still going. Oh, Peg, I see her all the time. But back to the gardeners. Oh, last year at town meeting, at the end of that film, tweak, tweak, tweak, and then the loud, loud sound of something that they’re calling a leaf blower. It was an insult to the citizens, and I wear an earring egg, and I thought they were going to blow me out of my seat, but it was insulting. But back to my talk. The gardeners need to work with their help and instruct them that they can’t blow the leaves and the stuff in the street, but they do in the street sweep it up. I had five gardeners come last year just before Labor Day, on the same day. It was quite a thing to see them all lined up getting ready for Labor Day. But the gardeners are working hard because last winter there was hardly any snow, and they count on the winters to feed their families and pay the bill. Then we had no spring in the summer we had the heat wave. You know, being a marble header in a shipyard,

1:09:30 but I’ve lived out in Robert Rhodes since 1960, but I’ve lived with the working men, look at the fishermen with their swollen hands, or the carpenters and painters. We’re just trying to make a living in this thing calling downtown, old town, coin, take it away. There are hardworking people that lived down there in the whole town that were kind of like making something that we’re really not. And I want to thank Mark Fader. Dean Cousin, if you see on his truck, it says whip. That’s an old marble head saying. I really can use it for happy times, sad times, angry times. Todd Norman that just spoke. Brett Monroe, Phil Summerby, who’s son is an Oakland professional hockey and Rob Carr, Scott Rodding and Mike Metta. These are young people that grew up here and went to school, so they hire a lot of the immigrants. Roseanne, Roseanne, can you wrap it up? We’ve got a lot of others. Just about one more minute. Well, all I can say is that these people that are working hard have families, children, and I’m going to go close with, I’ll say, whip and vote no one for this article. Okay, thank you, Roseanne. Okay, I’m going to move backwards

1:11:04 in a straight line, but I’m going to start with a gentleman at the first mic. Hi, Gary Gregory, 19 Mill Pond, neighbor of the sponsor of the article. And I have to say, rather surprisingly, I agree with just about everything in the article. I like the concept. I think it’s fair to carve out spring cleaning, ball cleaning. But I have one little problem that I am not quite knowledgeable enough to resolve. Firstly, I want to say the sound system here is great. Whoever these people are, you should do the sound and the screens for all the town meetings, because this is very good. On the subject of sound, measuring sounds of complex science, 65 decibels, doesn’t mean a damn thing. You need DBA, what’s the weighting, what’s the distance, on-axis, off-axis. Office buildings are designed for 70 dB, is what I believe. I’m not sure you can buy a leaf blower that only emits 65 decibels. I’ve already bought two battery-powered ones to try to keep peace in the neighborhood. I’m pretty sure they’re a lot louder than that. The speakers that I listen to at home, and these speakers, put out about 100 dB at 1 watt of input power. So could somebody tell me, can you buy one

1:12:36 that’s that quiet? If you took out that noise limit, I’d be all in. Thank you. Okay, Mr. Grader, do you want to address that one question? Yeah, I would like to just, Gary. The EPA, that 50, first off, you need to understand that that was researched, and this article was researched and written by the director of the Board of Health. And the EPA regulation, what was left out is it’s 65 dB at 50 feet. So it’s not, obviously, if you’re within 10 feet of it, you’re looking at probably 90 dBs. And we can get technical about what the dB is. Somebody’s not going around with a dB meter, but the reality is, this is about a common sense issue. Do we want to hear it in the summer for what benefit is derived by the landscapers, or do we not want to? I think we all pretty much know this article or this idea has been talked about a lot. I’m inclined to say, I think everybody here has got an opinion. I just want you to think about the practicality of it. And doesn’t it make sense to, one, give the landscapers a reason to say, no, I can’t blow it if you want me to make sure that your driver looks nice and neat, will sweep it, and it’s going to cost you 20 or 30 more minutes of time, and let the person pay for it, rather than the rest of us. I think this is really a personal view, and I think each of us has to make that decision. For me, I’d like to have a quiet summer. If it doesn’t work out, let’s come back and change it. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Grader. Yes, ma’am.

1:14:10 The first person in line, Dave Rogers, 164 Atlantic Avenue. I agree with some things Bark just said, but I also agree with Todd Norman. We’ve come a long way since push mowers and rakes. However, I don’t feel it’s fair to the hard-working guys, the landscapers, to make a decision on this today. This is a special town meeting, as you’ve been referring to, Mr. moderator. I don’t think there’s enough people here for a fair vote. I really feel anything can pass if you pack the hall, but really, I think I’d like to revisit this the next town meeting, so I support what Mr. Norman said, and I hope I didn’t offend any of my friends here today. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Rogers. Yes, sir. Gentlemen. Yes. David Patton, 25 Lee Street. I’d just like to say, yeah, I hear the leaf blowers sometimes in my house. It’s occasional. It’s not constant. It’s for maybe 15 minutes. It’s not all the time. I guess I can’t imagine how we’re going to differentiate between spring cleaning and fall

1:15:43 cleaning and summer and who’s going to enforce that and what are we going to do? Call the cops if a guy is using a power blower after some specific date where it wouldn’t be considered spring cleaning and it would be considered summer. I mean, what are we doing here? I mean, if you’ve really got problems with sound in your house, then I don’t know, where are your plugs? Wear a headphone when you’re on a Zoom call. We’re not all going to be working out of our homes forever. I just think that this is an unreasonable demand to make on landscaping companies and ultimately will cost homeowners more in the long run to take care of their properties. So I am in support of continuing to allow the gas powered motors. Okay. Yes, ma’am. With the Red Sox, Adam. Let me see in 9 Birch Street. I have a point of clarification. I would like more information down in section 10. Two points I want clarification on the time of day of use. Is this pertaining to landscapers that you want to reduce their hours of being able to do their work or is this for property owners as well? So a homeowner wouldn’t be able to do their yard work when they got home from work. It’s 6 p.m. and 5 p.m. That seems like if somebody works,

1:17:19 when are they going to get their yard work done if they’re not hiring a landscape company? I also am not understanding the language on employees must use air protection provided by the employer at no cost to the employee. I think my understanding of that is that they want the landscapers to provide their workers with air protection, but I would also read that as if I wanted to use my own air protection as an employee versus what the employer was offering me. I wouldn’t be able to do that. So I’d like clarification on that. Mr. Grader, do you want to address those questions? Yeah, I will try to. The issue of time, that’s pretty standard. If you’re in the construction business, most of us know that there are hours when you can start and can’t start. So that’s pretty much down wide. As far as the issue of air plug, the reason that I think was put in was because there are no regulations about this and the statistics for issues for people running them, particularly the guys you see around town are running them all the time. There’s no requirement to wear air plugs. There’s no requirement to worry about what you’re breathing in and all of that stuff. And I think it was an attempt to try to say, hey, there are health issues and they should be taken care of. I think it is kind of sad that that doesn’t exist. I think that’s extremely important. You look at these, most of these guys are immigrants that come here and they’re working their butts off and some people take care of them and some don’t. And it’s important for them to realize that it’s a serious issue. Thank you, Mr. Grader. Now, look, how many more people

1:18:51 want to speak? Boy, not everybody’s going to be able to speak at the meeting. So let’s see if we can avoid repetition. I’m going to put it that way. This gentleman here. Yes, you. David Reed, 112 Front Street, Marblehead. Just this week across the street, I live on 112 Front Street, across the street, Leslie Cove, blew everything out of their yard into mine. Not 20 minutes later, the neighbor on the back side of my property and my family was sitting there, by the way, there’s probably six of us in the yard, drove us out of the yard with dust and noise. And I can only tell you right now, if you look right over here, there’s leaves by the tennis court. If a leaf blower was working right there, you could not hold your town meeting. Thank you. Okay, next. Hi, Alexis Sowell, 110 Front Street. I have a question, a clarification. I read this earlier, but can you clarify the use of electric leaf blowers? And something that I haven’t heard anybody mention is how incredibly polluting these small engines are. So the gas ones. So can you clarify the use of the electric? Mr. Grader. The gas plow or leaf blowers are the real culprits here.

1:20:30 It isn’t the electric ones. Yes, they are issues, but they’re not as serious. And if you use an electric one, it doesn’t have the noise issues associated with it. And that’s the reason that it was put in there to exclude that. I’m really confused why the landscapers take this so personally, because they get to use it when they need it. And if they think they need it to blow around all these driveways, then I got a question that. And I also don’t know why we have to pay for it. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Grader. Look, folks, we can, I know many people want to speak on this, but please keep it short. So we don’t all freeze to death here. Yes, the gentleman closest to me, please. Hi, I’m Tom Regan, 11, Cloutmans Lane. This has been a topic of multiple town meetings. During those other town meetings have been references to what has happened in other communities in Massachusetts. I’m interested in understanding what other communities in Massachusetts have done and also what other boards of health in other communities have done and how this criteria compares with that. Okay, I’m going to insist on a couple of things here. We’re only going to use the first microphone. So don’t all rush up here.

1:22:02 You’re all going to get it and you man have got to go to the rear because you just jumped the line. No. So let’s get our act together. Social distancing is required. With the first person in the line who is walking away from me now, please come forward. No, not you. You I’m not in favor of line jumping. Okay, so get yourselves organized back there and come forward one at a time. Keep the social distancing. And we’re going to use this front microphone only. Okay, anybody want to come forward? Excuse me. We have a motion made from the floor to move the question. Now, what that means, what the move the question vote is motion is a priority motion. I have we have to hear it and vote on it. What that if we move the question, debate is cut off and we’ll proceed directly to votes.

1:23:33 I’d like to propose an amendment. I’m sorry, this is the rules that the town has. So the first question is as many as favor calling the question, which means proceeding to vote. Please raise your hands. Those opposed. The chairs endowed tellers tellers. Are you all still here? Come on. Every tellers come forward. Okay, as many as favor moving to the question without further discussion, raise your hands and keep them raised until you’ve been counted by the tellers.

1:25:00 I’ve got it. Yeah, it’s this one.

1:25:54 I do. Are those of you? Are those of you in the back with your hands raised? Voting to go to the question or not? Okay, we want to make sure they’re counted. Okay. What do we have? Okay, um, ladies and gentlemen, as many as are opposed to going to the question.

1:27:30 Okay, ladies and gentlemen, the vote on proceeding to the question was 155 in the affirmative

1:29:30 and 66 in the negative. We’re going to go to the question and the first, the first vote is a vote for indefinite postponement. Now, just to explain this, if indefinite postponement prevails, that’s the end of it. If it doesn’t, if it doesn’t, then we will proceed to the main question. So we’re going to vote first on indefinite post- indefinitely postponing article 25. As many as favor indefinite postponement, raise your hands and keep them raised until you’re counted. We need a physical fitness trainer. Lead us in some exercises and keep warm.

1:32:07 Okay, as many as are opposed to indefinite postponement, raise your hands and keep them raised until counted. Gosh, I thought the tellers were going to get a day off.

1:33:44 Okay. At least we get to do 20 in the negative. 80, 17, 21. Have you all included your own votes on your… Never mind. Boston, you’re the head. You’re the head.

1:35:21 Okay, ladies and gentlemen, I have your attention. On indefinite postponement, in favor 120 in the negative 111, the article is indefinitely postponed. Don’t everybody leave. Okay, article 26. Article 26, demolition by neglect.

1:37:04 This is a very long article, and the motion is for indefinite postponement, I believe. All those that are in favor of indefinitely postponing article 26, raise your hand. Those opposed. And article 26 is indefinitely postponed. Article 27, amend the bylaws of the old and historic district commission. And I have a motion for indefinite postponement on that as well. Many as favor indefinite postponement. Those opposed. Article 28 is indefinitely postponed. I’m sorry, 27. Article 28, a new provision for the old and historic district commission. Again, we have indefinite postponement. As many as favor indefinite postponement. Those opposed. And article 28 is indefinitely postponed. Article 29, sustainable marblehead greenhouse gas emissions. And article 30, sustainable marblehead sustainability coordinator. These are the motion is for indefinite postponement, but a spokesman for sustainable marblehead is once to address meeting.

1:38:35 So go ahead, Eileen. Thank you, Mr. Moderator. Eileen Haley-Muthu, 44 Longview Drive. Sustainable marblehead is recommending indefinite postponement on article 29 and 30. Article 29 asked the town to support the goal of bringing townwide greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2040. We have been proud to be part of the Green Marblehead Committee, which was created by the Board of Selectmen in 2019, to create a vision and action plan to guide the town in its carbon emission reduction, clean energy and sustainability efforts. In addition to two representatives from Sustainable Marblehead, the committee includes several town department heads, representation from Marblehead Municipal Light Board, Town Planner, Becky Curran Cutting and Jason Silva. The Board of Selectmen was represented by Judy Jacobi until her untimely death and is now represented by Jackie Belfecker. The committee encouraged resonance participation by conducting a climate visioning survey, which received over 400 responses and by hosting a climate visioning session by Zoom. As a result of the work over the past year and with community input, the Green Marblehead Committee is poised to present its final report, the Marblehead Climate Vision, charting a path to carbon neutrality by 2040,

1:40:06 to the Board of Selectmen at the end of October at an open Zoom meeting, which you’re all welcome to. We feel in Sustainable Marblehead that our goal of bringing townwide greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2040 is met in this document. We thank Jason Silva and the Board of Selectmen for their leadership in creating the Green Marblehead Committee. And therefore, we are recommending indefinite postponement on this warrant article because we feel that working with the town through the committee is very effective. And so I think that’s it for tonight. Let me do 29. We have a motion for indefinite postponement on Article 29, greenhouse gas emission. Those in favor? Those opposed? It’s unanimous indefinite postponement. Article 30, the Coordinator, Sustainable Coordinator. You want to speak again, Eileen? Okay, go ahead. So Eileen Mathieu, 44 Longview Drive. Article 30 asks the town to create and fund the position of a sustainability manager. The Green Marblehead Committee’s visioning document includes a recommendation to hire a sustainability manager or to distribute that person’s responsibilities to existing staff. While Sustainable Marblehead feels that this position is essential to helping the town meet its climate goals, we recognize the COVID-19 pressures on the town budget. And therefore, we are withdrawing this article to allow the Selectmen and the Green Marblehead Committee to discuss how to move forward.

1:41:38 Thank you. We have indefinite postponement on Article 30. Those in favor? Those opposed? It’s indefinitely postponed. So now we proceed to Article 31 to see if the town will vote to establish a general stabilization fund and essentially to fund it. Allison, you want to deal with this? Okay. Hi, Allison Mieto, Finance Director and Town Accountant. This article is to establish a reserve fund that the town currently does not have. Many towns do have this, and the purpose of a reserve fund is to be able to make appropriations from it for specific reasons that are voted on by town meeting. It’s a good financial practice, and it’s something that’s recommended by the GFOA or the government of financial officers. Two-thirds. Okay. Allison, you finished? That’s all. Okay. The vote here is to establish this stabilization account, not to fund it. Yes. There will be no, there’s no funding for this year, but we could fund it going forward. So this requires a two-thirds or unanimous vote. If any is favored in the establishment of a stabilization account, raise your hands. This is opposed to unanimous vote, and the stabilization fund is approved.

1:43:16 Okay. Security required for certain contracts. Becky, are you going to? Rebecca Curran, Cutting Town Planner. This is a provision in the bylaw that’s become obsolete. It was written before the procurement laws were written in the state, and it sets a much lower threshold for security to be required for contractors. It hurts smaller contractors, and it’s not necessary. We can waive it by town council, so, and we often do, so it’s not, no longer necessary. Okay. As many as favor of the adoption of Article 32, raise your hands. Those opposed? To vote, and Article 32 was adopted. Article 33, deed restrictions, picket house. Lisa? Thank you, Mr. Moderator. Special town council. Thank you, Mr. Moderator. Currently, there’s the picket house, which was set up via a bequest to the town, and it only houses people who fault, elderly women who qualify, but the town doesn’t get credit for it under its subsidized housing inventory. So, we’d like permission for the Board of Selectments to put an affordable housing restriction on it so the town can get credit for it under the subsidized housing inventory. Okay, further discussion? This, again, requires the two-thirds or unanimous vote.

1:44:48 As many as favor of the adoption of Article 33, deed restrictions, picket house, raise your hands. Those opposed? Each unanimously carried. Thank you. Article, let me see, Article 34, amend signed bylaws. Do we have indefinite postponement on this? Okay, amend the town bylaws with respect to signs. The motion is indefinite postponement. As many as favor, indefinite postponement. As opposed, Article 34 is indefinitely postponed. Article 35, supplemental appropriation for the schools. Again, there’s a motion for indefinite postponement. As many as favor, indefinite postponement of Article 35. Those opposed, Article 35 is indefinitely postponed. Article 36, supplemental expenses of the several departments. We have a motion for indefinite postponement. And if we do that, the meeting will be virtually over. So, as many as favor, indefinite postponement. Keep them up there.

1:46:19 Those opposed, Article 36, indefinitely postponed. Ladies and gentlemen, the meeting is adjourned.