Tonight (2019-03-11) was a meeting of the Mendon Town Board.
As the Village Trustees had moved next weeks meeting to tonight, I had to pick one to attend. As this posts title gives away, I picked the Town. Which means I couldn’t listen to the Village talk about Festival on the Green or the new lights in/around Harry Allen Park. As I was unable to find an Agenda, I can only assume those topics were on it. Which is fine, I was going to visit the office tomorrow anyways. I can ask about them then.
7PM March 19th at the Mendon Community Center (aka former legion hall) there will be a public workshop to discuss updating Mendon’s Comprehensive Plan. Sounds like they are looking for comments/thoughts from anyone in the community.
On the topic of repurposing the former Library (15 Monroe street), the Board reached out to the School and Renee (Assistant Superintendent) might be doing some more ‘focus groups’. From other meetings, she does seem to enjoy doing those. Hopefully the results will be useful here.
There was talk about an amazingly informative recycling pamphlet. The challenge was getting it to people. If the topic interests you, perhaps give the Town Environmental Conservation Board‘s page a look in a week or two.
Furniture for the Library‘s construction project has been ordered. I didn’t hear an arrival date mentioned, apart from ‘soon‘. Once that happens, the actual ‘work’ is expected to take 2-3 weeks. I’m sure the Library will be glad once that is done, they have been working on this for a while.
A bid for renovations to the Ambulance lighting system was approved tonight, and presumably a matching action was taken by the Village. This is for electrical work at the building itself, not on the vehicles. I do find the reoccurring discussions about the ratio of Town/Village costs amusing. While the Village manages the program, they pay ~20% of the costs, while the Town pays ~80%. Mind you, that is after any income from users of the Ambulance are factored in. While it is a useful service, and I only hear good things about those providing it, the administrative side of it makes for amusing observations.
Community Choice Aggregation was discussed, with no action being taken (as tonight was for discussion only). Put simply, a CCA changes the electric provider for an entire area (Town in this case) in order to get better prices. A number of questions came up, but the biggest concerned seemed to be the ‘opt-out’ nature. In other words, if the Town decided to do this, and you didn’t want it to impact you personally, you would have to deliberately ‘opt-out’. I was glad to hear Board members express displeasure with this ‘government knows best’ approach. For now, no action is being taken, which seems like the appropriate step for now.
As the local school is in the process of replacing their tennis courts, they can’t practice on campus. So they requested usage of the Town’s courts. As would be expected, the Town agreed to this plan. Not even worth noting, except for how it shows the ripples one municipalities Capitol Project can have on other parts of the community.
And on a more personal note, the meeting dates of the Mendon Zoning Board of Appeals (of which I Chair) have been moved back to second and fourth Thursdays (as needed, ie when there are applicants). Takes effect April 1, so next weeks meeting still happens on the third Thursday. I am glad this change was able to be made, as it should improve the odds all ZBA members can attend the meetings.
And those are my Observations From Audience Land for the March 11, 2019 meeting of the Mendon Town Board.
Link to agenda on Town website until they update it, losing the past.