Minutes of Meeting – April 13, 2011; meeting called to order at 7:00 pm.
Present: L Messana; KR Flynn; D Trancynger; K Fowler; J McNinch.
Citizen’s Participation: Jamie McLaughlin appeared before the Board to inform them of an employment situation she has encountered with the School Department. While she understands that the School Committee has authority over the matter, she wanted to let the Board know how unprofessionally she feels she was treated.
MOTION by LM, seconded by DT to accept the Minutes of March 30 as presented. 5/0 vote.
Father CJ came before the Board to announce upcoming celebrations to be held surrounding the church’s 100th anniversary. Activities will be held over seven days during the month of July, 2011.
DT read the advertisement for an annual A/A Innholders license request from The Frederick. MOTION by JM, seconded by LM to open the public hearing on a request received from The Frederick Food and Beverage, Inc., d/b/a The Frederick to obtain an Annual A/A Innholders license. 5/0 vote. Attorney Nicholas Persenios gave a brief explanation as to what the establishment is planning. MOTION by LM, seconded by DT to close the public hearing. 5/0 vote. MOTION by DT, seconded by LM to grant an A/A Innholders license to The Frederick Food and Beverage, Inc. 5/0 vote.
DT read the advertisement for an annual A/A General on Premise license request from Eastover Hotel and Resort. MOTION by JM, seconded by LM to open the public hearing on a request received from Eastover Hotel and Resort to obtain an Annual A/A General on Premises license for Tally Ho and the Mohawk Room only. 5/0 vote. The owner and proposed manager gave a brief explanation as to what the establishment is planning. MOTION by LM, seconded by KF to close the public hearing. 5/0 vote. MOTION by KF, seconded by LM to grant an A/A General on Premises license to Eastover Hotel and Resort for Tally Ho and the Mohawk Room only 5/0 vote.
DT read the advertisement for the transfer of an annual A/A restaurant license. MOTION by LM, seconded by DT to open the public hearing on a request received from the Lenox Restaurant Group, Inc. to transfer the Annual A/A Restaurant license currently held at 65 Church Street. 5/0 vote. Everything appeared to be in order. Clayton Hambrick, the current owner of the property, spoke in support of the transfer. MOTION by JM, seconded by LM to close the public hearing. 5/0 vote. MOTION by JM, seconded by LM to grant the transfer of an A/A Restaurant license to the Lenox Restaurant Group, for property located at 65 Church Street. 5/0 vote.
DT read the petition received from Verizon. MOTION by LM, seconded by KF to open the public hearing on a request from Verizon to install conduit under Main Street just north of the entrance to the Church on the Hill. A representative from Verizon appeared before the Board to explain that the work is to accommodate an upgrade request for the Church on the Hill. KRF read a letter from abutter Robin Friedman requesting that the work not be done between July 10 and August 20 as her family will be visiting at that time and they have small children that will be playing outside. MOTION by DT, seconded by LM to close the public hearing. 5/0 vote. MOTION by JM, seconded by LM to grant permission to Verizon to install conduit under Main Street just north of the entrance to the Church on the Hill provided that the
work is completed before July 1 or after September 1. 5/0 vote.
Farmer’s Market: Rose Levine appeared before the Board to inform them that she has finalized a deal to relocate the market to Shakespeare & Co. on Kemble Street. She would like to request that she be allowed to erect temporary signs at Triangle Park, the monument and near the Community Center to direct people to the new location. MOTION by LM, seconded by KF to grant permission for the Farmer’s Market to install a temporary sign at Triangle Park for the season and to have directional signs at the monument and near the Community Center on Fridays beginning on May 13. 5/0 vote.
STM/Outdoor Dining Town By-law: KF explained that the proposed town by-law would put the authority for approval of outdoor dining with the Board of Selectmen rather than the ZBA. He then went briefly through the various minor zoning by-law changes on the upcoming STM warrant.
West Street Sidewalk: A decision as to whether to put in 5’ or 6’, concrete or asphalt sidewalks is needed. JM read a letter from Olga Weiss requesting that the sidewalks be 5’ or less made from asphalt. A letter from Harvey Green agreed. KRF read a letter from Jim Biancolo suggesting that a 5’ asphalt sidewalk would look better. Judy Moss briefly went through the various letters that she has received since this project began in 1999. Carolyn Barry stated that having sewer was important to her. Jeff Vincent stated that 5’ concrete sidewalks would last 15-20 years; 5’ asphalt would only last 5 years, 6’ a little longer. LM stated that she feels that concrete would be more visible at night. Both DT and KF agreed that they would like to see 5’
concrete. After hearing that there would actually be a mixture of concrete and asphalt required in order to protect the roots of the various trees, MOTION by LM, seconded by DT to approve a 6’ asphalt sidewalk for the West Street project. 5/0 vote. The Board felt that to have the two types of elements mixed together would be unappealing aesthetically.
Ralph Petillo updated the Board on progress to date on the British Motorcar Festival planned for June 17-19: 12 lodgings are offering package deals, the band Satisfaction has been booked for Friday night in the Reading Park. He would like to see the dumpsters relocated so that access could be obtained from Main and Housatonic Streets. There will be signage requesting people to park in the lot behind the bank. He asked if banners/flags could be hung off of the new light poles, but the Board felt that there was not enough time to coordinate it. Ralph stated that he should have the food vendors all signed up by April 15. He will have another update at the April 27 meeting.
Annual Town Meeting Warrant Articles: MOTION by DT, seconded by KF to approve the ATM warrant as presented, with a possible amendment of Article 14 by Town Counsel 5/0 vote.
Building Department Fee Structure: The Board would like to have the Building Inspector attend the April 27 meeting to review increasing his fees.
Consent Agenda items: MOTION by LM, seconded by KF to approve the following items: keep Lenox a one precinct town for voting purposes; one-day W&M license to Ventfort Hall for May 14, 7-11pm. 5/0 vote.
Old/New Business: KF announced a vacancy on the Economic Development Action Plan Steering Committee, and suggested that the Board appoint Mike Coggins from an alternate to a full member. MOTION by KF, seconded by JM to move Mike Coggins up to a full member. 4/0 vote (LM stepped out of the room briefly). It was agreed to accept letters of interest from anyone interested in serving as an alternate member. KRF reminded everyone that we also have vacancies on the Finance Committee, School Committee, Community Center, Americans with Disabilities Act Commission and Cable Advisory Committee. DT asked if anyone knew if the students had begun any fundraising for a skateboard park. KRF reminded everyone that there will be another Economic Development forum on Wednesday, April 27 at 5:30 in the Town Hall
auditorium. GTF mentioned that the Environmental Committee will be showing the movie Carbon Nation on April 22 as part of Earth Day activities. KRF went through the various employee anniversaries. MOTION by JM, seconded by KF to approve a temporary sign for Lenox Valley WTF to be placed where the permanent sign was approved. A new location for the permanent sign is being sought on private property. 5/0 vote.
By roll call, LM, DT, KRF, JM and KF voted to go into Executive Session at 8:55 p.m. to discuss negotiations, and to not return to open session.
Minutes Taken By: ______________________ Minutes Accepted By: ______________________
Mary Ellen Deming Clerk
Director of Administrative Services Board of Selectmen
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Mary Ellen Deming
Director of Administrative Services
Town Hall - 6 Walker Street
Lenox, MA 01240
phone: (413) 637-5500
fax: (413) 637-5518
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