Thursday, October 4, 2012
Also: Four town bodies to discuss upcoming projects that would affect taxpayers.
A second company has sent the town an overview of the services it could offer to help town officials hire a new town manager – and the price. The town’s first town manager, with tenure of 26 years, Peter Hechenbleikner, will retire this coming June 1. The selectmen plan to hire a new town manager by this coming March, to give time negotiate a contract with the chosen candidate. They expect the new town manager to start in mid-May. Municipal Resources, Inc., emailed the four-page document to Carol Roberts, the town’s human resources administrator. The Board of Selectmen met Tuesday specifically to talk about the town manager search. The selectmen wanted to meet with a representative of MRI by this past Tuesday night. A representative of …
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Selectmen grant exemption from amplified sound rules.
Music will play at the six remaining Saturday evening flag football games at Hollingsworth Field at Birch Meadow. By a 3-2 vote, the Board of Selectmen granted the league a waiver of the board’s amplified sound rules. The board approved the rules this past February. Three of the four residents who spoke at Tuesday’s hearing questioned the need for music at all the games for students in kindergarten through grade six and the amount of sound that emanates from the Birch Meadow fields, from sports to the RMHS marching band. Another resident emailed that amplified sound on seven Saturday evenings is “intrusive on the neighbors and setting a bad precedent.” Under the selectmen’s rules, “The use of amplified sound is not intended to be a …
Thursday, September 13, 2012
Selectmen take no action on article for fall Town Meeting.
Here’s the dilemma. People like the historic quality of Reading. But preserving that quality can cause “friction” for individual property owners. That’s how Selectman Rick Schubert summarized the input at a hearing Tuesday on proposed revisions to the town’s demolition delay bylaw. Some people have challenged the bylaw, under which the town’s Historical Commission can impose a delay of up to a six-months on demolishing a structure that’s listed on a town inventory of significant buildings. The current bylaw has no appeal process for property owners to challenge being listed on the inventory or having a demolition delay imposed on their property. No other communities with demolition delay bylaws offer an appeal, according to several …
Thursday, August 9, 2012
Hearing set for Ash Street-area traffic changes, as well.
Many moons ago, the Reading Board of Selectmen directed the Conservation Commission to defer to the Commonwealth’s wetland protection regulations, except for unique-to-Reading situations, to make applying for wetlands-related project approvals easier for both applicants and the conservation administrator and commission. Proposed new local regulations have been simplified and shortened from some 50 to 60 pages to 30 to 40 pages and would apply, commission Vice Chairman Jamie Maughan told the selectmen Tuesday, to most single family home-related wetland projects. The draft includes less-stringent rules for “minor projects;” state regulations do not offer that option. The commissioners did not present a side-by-side comparison of the state …
Thursday, July 26, 2012
Old licensing rule unearthed during project review; applies to several other Reading developments as well.
Based on a regulation written at the turn of the century – in the early 1900s, that is – the Board of Selectmen granted a license to the new housing and retail development on Haven Street for its underground parking. The buildings with this type of parking in Reading are safe, Fire Chief Gregory Burns told the selectmen, but, he said, they need correct permitting. The issue is storing gasoline in a building, he said. The regulation is not based on a number of parking spaces – in this case, 76 – Burns told the selectmen at the license hearing Tuesday night but, rather on the amount of gasoline in the cars that will park there. The figure is 15 gallons per car. The amount of regular gasoline that triggers the need for a license, Burns said, …
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Selectmen approved his severance package and raise Tuesday night.
With one eye on the severance package that Town Manager Peter Hechenbleikner will receive when he retires one year from this month and the other eye on the budget, the Board of Selectmen voted Tuesday to increase Hechenbleikner’s salary to $140,000 -- by five percent – for his last year on the job. Hechenbleikner is asking for three months of severance pay, the length that was given when he was hired, Selectman Ben Tafoya said, while the town manager is entitled to 12 months of severance pay. The town manager will also waive payment for any accumulated but unused sick leave and comp time, Tafoya said. Hechenbleikner’s five weeks of paid vacation will be prorated by 5/12ths, based on his retirement date of June 1, 2013. Selectman Rick …
Thursday, May 24, 2012
The selectmen will communicate that message to town staff and boards.
User-friendly customer service: that’s the mantra of the Board of Selectmen for the way the town should deal with its customers, whether they are residents or developers. The board also wants to grow the “vibrancy” of the business district and retain the town’s “small town feel” that Selectmen Chairman Stephen Goldy said is “why we moved here.” There’s still a lot of opportunity for economic growth in town, but not “substantial growth,” Goldy said at Tuesday's board meeting. “We’re trying to be business-friendly,” he said, but the town is not always perceived that way. Most of the properties the selectmen deem underutilized are small and harder to find, said Selectman Ben Tafoya. The town is 90 percent residential, 10 percent commercial, …
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Ash and Green Streets and South Street and Jacob Way are the problem streets.
Two groups of residents from different Reading neighborhoods are unhappy with the traffic flow in their neighborhoods. Some residents of the Ash and Green Street area want more traffic controls. Some in the South Street area are concerned about the new, curving intersection that is supposed to deter cut-through traffic from their neighborhood. More drivers are taking upper Ash Street since it became two-way to avoid the traffic lights on Main Street, Pamela Adrian told the selectmen Tuesday night and driving fast -- as fast as on Main Street. Adding to the problem: the width – or rather, the narrowness -- of Green Street, 19 feet at its most narrow, she said, for two lanes of traffic and parking. Further, with no sidewalks, some residents…
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Ralph Cecere is unable to open the Northeast Youth Ballet in the former Christian Science Church due to issues with parking.
The owner of a ballet school who wants to relocate to Reading appealed to the Board of Selectmen Tuesday night to help smooth his steps. Ralph Cecere told Board of Selectmen Chairman Stephen Goldy, by letter dated March 22, that trying to open the Northeast Youth Ballet in the former Christian Science Church on Lowell Street at Sanborn Street has been “disappointing and frustrating.” The Ceceres – Ralph and his wife, Denise, the ballet‘s artistic director -- bought the property this summer, Cecere told the selectmen. They tried to “accommodate town officials” over regulatory issues, Cecere explained to the board. The Zoning Board of Appeals granted the school a variance for parking this month; the board is requiring four parking spaces on…
Tom Jeffords
3:58 pm on Thursday, September 27, 2012
"Richard Schubert and Ben Tafoya voted against it." Of course they did. more ›