Town Meeting this year enacted a remarkable panoply – some of them perhaps even milestones

The list is extensive. We voted:

  • A bus facility, finally
  • Also, to broach putting buses back to the high school, in some configuration (Article 16)
  • To send remediation of the landfill back to the drawing board (Article 14)
  • A moratorium on (Town) synthetic turf fields

also

  • To work to protect pollinators
  • To begin banning polystyrene
  • To correct the sign bylaw
  • A de-mansionization measure
  • Several housing measures

A letter in the Concord Journal speaks to our – now so effective – town legislative process. Particularly, also: note the responsibility highlighted, of elected neighbors entrusted for a time with the execution of Town Meeting votes.

Here, please enjoy a few highlights of the meeting.

The video is – much – thanks to concordtv.org, the remarkable public studio we are so blessed to have in town. Thanks!

A tribute begins

Carmin Reiss and Steven Ng launch a tribute to the departing Moderator with a delightful, oh-so-inventive two-minute skit. Enjoy!

Article 16 - Buses back to the High School

The Select Board and the School Committee demur. Then Bill Plummer puts the facts on the table.

Article 16 – doubt is raised

David Garrison raises a question about the numbers.

→ Here also, we get a moment with Mark Hanson, the originator of the Article.

Article 16, a wrap

David Allen wraps it with a summation, then comes the tally. Town Meeting enacts Article 16.

Mark Hanson's citizen petition creates an advisory that the Town look into putting the buses back to the High School – finally.


Mark Hanson has worked prodigiously over years on this and related matters. And this year, for instance, he also initiated the successful citizen petition Article for protection of pollinators.

Thanks so very much, Mark!

Article 14 - Landfill remediation

Switching gears now ... back to the earlier Article, about remediation. Potentially related to the buses, but different:

Terry Rothermel expresses what becomes the position of Town Meeting: remediation goes back to the drawing board.

Which then a paper ballot at the polls shortly – and handily – confirms (and by so doing pointedly turns back the effort of some School officials to subvert the will of Town Meeting ...)

Tribute to Eric Van Loon

Carmin Reiss crystallizes the tribute she and Steven Ng began with the skit. At the end (and in the beginning as well...), our Moderator of six years is feted with a standing ovation.