Archive 2008 - 2019

Board of Selectmen Meeting (07/27/2016)

by Ben Kaplan
7/28/2016

    Two major issues made up the bulk of the Board of Selectmen Meeting this past Wednesday night: the demolition of the building which formerly housed the Flagg School and the controversy surrounding the painting of double-yellow lines down Chamberlain Street. The first of the two was discussed between the board and the superintendent of the town’s schools, Dr. Bradford Jackson. Dr. Jackson, who had visited the school yesterday, wanted to address the issue of safety regarding the removal of asbestos in the school. After meeting with a number of officials, he had concluded that residents in close proximity to the demolition process (including the students and faculty of the nearby Robert Adams Middle School) would not be in any danger. Even so, it was of his belief that the perception of safety is as important as actual safety, and that, “convincing parents that everything is fine while there are men and women in yellow hazard suits removing debris less than one hundred feet away from where their children learn is unlikely even with the words of professional consultants.” Because of this, Dr. Jackson preferred that outside abatement of asbestos occur not during the school year. Both the board and Dr. Jackson agreed that the actual demolition would be the easy part and would only create minimal distraction during the school year, especially if it was early on (the demolition is scheduled to take place a year from this September). The selectmen also voted that they would reject the bids they had received for the project and would instead combine the demolition and abatement bids in a new one as the received ones had not been particularly competitive.

  

Members of the Board discuss the demolition of the Flagg School with Superintendent Jackson

 The main course of the night was the discussion of Chamberlain Street. For over two hours there was a back and forth, sometimes heated, conversation where the board fielded questions and statements from over 50 residents of the street and voiced their own thoughts. The overwhelming sentiment from the community was a strong dislike of the lines and in favor of having them removed. Peter Hendrickson, who lives on the street and is the unofficial leader of the movement, stated, “This issue has given me the opportunity to get to know the people of my neighborhood better. We could argue baseball, football, or politics, but we aren’t arguing about this. The lines are arbitrary, unnecessary, and unsafe.” Reasoning behind the dislike included: perceived increase in speeding and erratic driving due to the drivers being confined by the lines, a more dangerous environment for pedestrians and bikers, and a possibility of a decrease in realty value. The biggest question being asked though was: why were they put there in the first place?

    

A full house showed up to protest the double yellow lines painted on Chamberlain St.

According to the board, Chamberlain Street is considered a class A road, which means that it is a major road due mainly to the amount of thru-traffic it receives. The street is an extremely popular cut-through for people coming off of Prentice St. The lines indicate how busy the street can be. Besides the lines, Chamberlain also receives top-priority plowing in the winter and maintenance because of this classification. Other streets in the town with this classification include Washington and Central. Selectman Jay Leary believes that there should be some sort of uniformity in how street markings are handled.This classification does not necessarily align with the quaint neighborhood that many of the residents believe that the area is, hence why some believed that they would drive away interest in houses along that road and others nearby.

Chamberlain St. resident Diane Hendrickson poses questions to the board

According to the board, the main reason why the lines were put in place was safety. After the lines were put in place, many of the residents came forward with stories of being “buzzed” while walking or biking (where cars would fly by at high speeds with little regard for the pedestrian), others cited the recent accidents that occurred in that area. Jim Feltro, another Chamberlain resident, talked about how his children cannot even wait for their school bus because it is so dangerous. Chamberlain though has always been notorious for speeders and people taking wide corners, and it was the opinion of Leary that the lines have not increased either. All three members of the board have met with a number of safety officials at least briefly on this issue. Holliston Police Chief John Moore is in favor of the lines because “they provide proper confinement and visuals for vehicles at night.” In response to the public, there has been an increased number of patrols in the area but from their selective studying, no increase in speeding was found. Fire Chief Michael Cassidy is also in favor of the lines as well as the Chief of the Department of Public Works.

Another point the public raised was their lack of faith in the board itself. A large portion of those in attendance felt mocked by the lack of transparency from the the town and that their thoughts were not being heard by the board. They did not feel that it was fair that they just woke up one morning with a seemingly newly defined neighborhood. Resident Bernie Dickinson begged the board to, “weigh the opinion of the people that actually live on the street as heavily as your own.”

The discussion eventually turned towards possible solutions. The board, who had done some research at the request of the public, found that grinding the road up or power washing the lines off could be potentially be hazardous to the road itself, and using these methods according to Selectmen Jay Marsden, “would be a bigger curse than the problem at hand. The street would forever be one giant pothole.” It was of his and Leary’s opinion that it would be best to let the lines fade naturally and come to a decision when they needed to be repainted. Selectman Kevin Conley, who had been on vacation, requested for more time to do research on ways of removing the lines. The decision for the night was to put a hold on making any finalities on the lines so as to explore more possibilities of removal that would not harm the structure of the road.

Other topics covered by the board were the approval of a one day alcoholic beverage license and a discounted fee waiver for an event put on by the Knights of Columbus, and the approval of Robert Gossle and Caitlin Cooper to be appointed as two new E.M.Ts for the town.