Friday, October 5, 2012
Residents voted to create additional parking spaces at the Third Meeting House at Town Meeting.
This is the last in a series of articles that will be posted about Town Meeting: Residents voted in favor of a parking lot expansion at the Third Meeting House Monday night at Town Meeting. Both the Board of Selectmen and Finance Committee unanimoulsy recommended the article. According to Selectman Steve O'Leary, due to the recent improvements made to the Third Meeting House including the new rain garden and new curbing, parking spaces were lost. The town would like to construct new parking spaces on the east side of the building. Member of the Community Planning Commission Patricia Romeo asked that the parking spaces not be built, "because we keep eating away from the little bit of town common that we have left." Several residents agreed …
Thursday, October 4, 2012
Town Meeting voted to repair the wall at the Little School.
This is the third in a series of articles that will be posted about Town Meeting: Residents voted to repair the retaining wall at the Little School at Town Meeting Monday night. The Board of Selectmen, Finance Committee and School Committee recommended the article. According to Selectman Joe Foti, the wall is located in the back of the parking lot near the softball fields. The wall was constructed in the mid-1990's and it separates the softball complex from the school. The total length of the wall is about 300 feet and it ranges in height from 3 to 10 feet. The bleachers were originally built next to the wall and had to be moved because the wall is unstable. The School Department has safety concerns and would like the wall to be replaced…
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
North Reading Fall Town Meeting was Monday, Oct. 1.
This is the second in a series of articles posted about Fall Town Meeting: Residents gathered at North Reading High School for Fall Town Meeting Monday night at 7 p.m. In case you missed it, here are some things you should know: 1. Article 3, Amend FY2013 Operating Budget, passed. Residents voted to amend the FY2013 Operating Budget. Both the Board of Selectmen and the Finance Committee unanimously recommended the article. The town will now add money to the budget, here are some of the items and amounts: "There's a lot of items here, a lot of it was driven by the fact that at June Town Meeting we had scheduled a Special Town Meeting and we didn't achieve a quorum. And as a result we made some budget adjustments with the intention of …
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Residents voted in favor of the Civil Fingerprinting bylaw.
This is the first in a series of articles that will be posted about Town Meeting: North Reading residents voted in favor of the Civil Fingerprinting town bylaw at Fall Town Meeting Monday night. According to the warrant, the purpose of the article was to establish a local bylaw to enable the police department to do fingerprint based criminal history checks for those applying for positions such as a door-to-door sales person, livery driver and others. According to Police Chief Michael Murphy, fingerprint based background checks are accurate and thorough. They also allow police to find out if the applicant has a criminal record in a state other than Massachusetts. "Under the current system, the Federal law prohibits the police department …
Friday, June 8, 2012
We want to hear your thoughts about whether to change government and/or how to improve attendance.
North Reading Town Meeting started nearly an hour late on Monday because there weren’t enough residents to constitute a quorum. Because only about half of the 150 voters required were in attendance at the scheduled time of Town Meeting commencement, town officials needed to perform some fancy financial footwork. Being so far short of a quorum, there was little chance there would ever be enough people for special Town Meeting to start, which meant North Reading couldn’t start the regular session after that. The issue was that the town needed to fund $600,000 via special Town Meeting before being able to start the regular session. Town officials worked together to use reserve funds to help bridge the budget gap and avoided holding a special …
Thursday, June 7, 2012
In a quick night of work, Town Meeting approved a $50 million budget.
Town Meeting met for less than an hour on Monday (after a nearly hour-long delay because there wasn’t a quorum and town officials). Though it was a quick night of work, Town Meeting did approve the town budget for fiscal year 2013 as well as approved capital items and performed other miscanellous business. Here’s seven things that you missed at Town Meeting: 1. Town Meeting approved an approximately $50 million budget. In its report to Town Meeting, the Finance Committee said North Reading will receive $1.3 million under Proposition 2 ½ and new growth. Most of that money though will go to maintain services at current levels, according to the Finance Committee. The schools received slightly more than $25 million in the budget with the …
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
The Board of Selectmen, Finance Committee and town officials devised a plan to transfer $600,000 in reserve funds to help offset money needed for special Town Meeting.
Town Meeting completed its business within an hour on Monday, but not before the session was delayed by nearly another hour because it fell well short of the quorum needed to start a special Town Meeting. Town Meeting needed 150 voters to start the special session, which was needed to fund about $600,000 to pay for budgets amendments, funds and accounts. Seeing that there was little chance that Town Meeting would reach the quorum, the Board of Selectmen sprung into action with the Finance Committee and town officials and devised a plan to move money around. Town officials spent more than a half hour working on a plan that included transferring money from the town’s debt stabilization fund and the free cash account, said Town Administrator …
Monday, June 4, 2012
North Reading Town Meeting is Monday, June 4 at 7 p.m.
Community members will gather at the Daniel H. Shay Auditorium inside North Reading High School on Monday, June 4 at 7 p.m. for Town Meeting. If you haven't registered to vote yet, you won't be able to participate in this year's Town Meeting. The deadline was May 15. There are 23 articles on the Warrant, and five on the Special Town Meeting Warrant. Warrants were mailed to residents' homes earlier in the year. Here are some items listed on the warrant that you may be interested in: Residents will be asked to vote for the FY2013 Operating Budget. The budget goes toward the compensation of elected officials, reserve fund and expenses for the town. The proposed budget for FY2013 is $56,499,194. The selectmen recommend a budget of $55,836,914…
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Find out when Town Meetings will be held this year and how the town plans to prevent schedule conflicts.
Town Meetings are held annually on the first Monday in June and October. This year, Annual Town Meeting will be held on June 4 and October Town Meeting will be held on Oct. 1. Resident Deanna Castro attended the Selectmen's meeting Monday and asked if the board would consider approaching other organizations in town, including youth sports, the Parks and Recreation Department and churches, to see if they would consider canceling practices, classes and other events on the days of Town Meeting in order to get more people to attend. "Will you enteratin a communication moratorium so that we can maximize participation in our communities efforts?" Castro asked. She mentioned that last year, on the night of Town Meeting in June, there were other …
Friday, October 14, 2011
How often, if ever, do you attend Town Meeting?
Did you go to Town Meeting this month? Do you always make it a point to attend whether it's in the summer or fall? Do you attend only if there is an article on the Warrant that concerns you? Today we are going to poll our readers to find out if they attend Town Meeting. If you have a different answer than the ones listed below, let us know in the comments section.
Janine Largent
4:33 pm on Thursday, October 4, 2012
I am sure that it is possible that a potential future citizen may possibly be protected by this bylaw; it will however occur at the expense of loss of privacy and essential liberties of citizens who have not been charged with any crime. Is there some evidence that people with the above mentioned job titles are a greater risk to North Reading citizens? I have no specific statistics but I do watch … more ›