Wicked Local
KINGSTON – A date for the Fall Town Meeting has been set in anticipation of a decision about the future of the Winthrop Street property as conservation land and for passive recreation.
The Board of Selectmen set Tuesday, Nov. 16, based on the availability of the Kingston Intermediate School auditorium. Otherwise, the intention is to set a new date that same week.
The proposed purchase of the Winthrop Street property, referred to by supporters as the Blackwater Memorial Forest, was a motivating factor for the setting of the date with the board planning to vote on the right of first refusal to purchase the land by a Sept. 15 deadline or risk losing it to a developer.
Dennis Harwich Yarmouth Clean Waters Community Partnership The breakdown of Dennis sewer plan. The town hopes to start to address nitrogen pollution in the southern part of Dennis.
Dennis voters rejected a more than half-a-million dollar funding request to begin designs for a sewer project at Saturday s Town Meeting.
The proposal needed a two-thirds majority vote to take $660,000 the town has set aside for wastewater initiatives, and put it toward the design of a sewer collection system in the southern part of town.
Select board member Paul McCormick says the no vote pushes back the town s already overdue goal of reducing nitrogen pollution. And he s disappointed.
Wicked Local
KINGSTON – Only one collective bargaining unit will go to arbitration, with the police union representing Kingston’s six sergeants at an impasse with the town.
Jack Parlon, labor specialist for the national Fraternal Order of Police representing the Kingston Superior Officers Association, said it’s particularly frustrating because the town acknowledges that their salaries are 6 percent below the average, and he believes the unit is owed an explanation.
He said he questions whether it’s lack of respect and worries about the impact on retention and recruitment as well as morale. Their contract expired two years ago.
“They supply the most important service to a municipality,” he said. “They’re absolutely being mistreated.”
Wicked Local
KINGSTON – The Board of Health adamantly opposes the passage of special legislation that would give the Board of Selectmen appointing authority over the town’s health agent.
Not only would the special legislation give the selectmen appointing authority, the health agent would be under the supervision of the town administrator.
The Board of Health unanimously opposed the proposal when discussing the it Monday night, with the newest board member describing it as “a power play.”
Board members voted 5-0 against recommending approval of the warrant article at Town Meeting May 22 that would grant selectmen the authority to pursue the special legislation and will ask to amend the article on the Town Meeting floor to exclude the changes relative to the health agent.
Engaged Citizen Corner: FY22 – The Recovery Budget
League of Women Voters of Brookline, Diana McClure
Finances are always on our minds, and it’s no different for the town as it considers its FY22 budget in the midst of multiple COVID impacts. Town Administrator Mel Kleckner and Deputy Town Administrator Melissa Goff followed up on their Brookline Budget Forum held for the general public on Jan. 14 with a presentation on the impacts of COVID on the FY22 budget, presented on March 19 as a League of Women Voters of Brookline Friday conversation.
The Feb. 8 Engaged Citizen Corner article What about the Money? summarizes Brookline’s budgetary process. The emphasis here is on the impacts of COVID and the anticipated benefits that the estimated $34.2 million from the American Rescue Act, signed into law March 11, will bring to Brookline.