town meeting

It is probably an overstatement to say that tonight's vote will ultimately decide the fate of Westwood Station. Over the past several years, the project has been punctuated by a series of do-or-die moments, followed by periods of dormancy. All the while, there has been almost non-existent communication from the project to the residents except at these critical votes--although I must credit Chris McKeown, the project manager, with his willingness to discuss the project with me and others who have questions. I am convinced there is no active effort to hide anything and in fact, the people working on this are working tirelessly to deal with the complicated minutiae of the details and the constantly shifting economic and political climate. The volume of material released in the past few months is a sincere effort to provide residents with as much information as possible.

It is a great deal of information though. Perhaps too much information. Hours of presentations don't add up to more transparency, just more meetings to sit through waiting to speak. I'm sure tonight, we will have to sit for at least an hour to be educated on I-Cubed while many people are just sitting there waiting for a chance to ask questions like:

If the state is willing to contribute $49 million to get this project moving, how can it possibly stall based on a lack of an extra $6 million?

As far as I can tell the purpose of I-Cubed involvement here is more political than practical. It gives the Town some "skin in the game" so to speak. It provides an opportunity to launch an innovative program (I-Cubed has not be utilized anywhere else yet) with a high degree of leverage so that when the overall project is successful, the Governor can point to this initiative as having made the difference. It would make a great case-study in public-private partnership--and maybe it should--but that is not our concern.

Our concern is first of all whether we should use this vote to try and kill a project we don't like. Are we willing to walk away from this and hope we can find other sources of tax revenue in the future to prevent or lessen overrides? The vote is pretty easy if you make that choice first. After that, it's just a bunch of predictions, legalese, assumptions, and speculation to rationalize a choice already made.

I am not a person who just defers to authority...but it seems this kind of proposal is precisely what the Finance Commission was created to evaluate. There are 15 people on that Commission who reviewed this and have been involved in the process all along to varying degrees. The material that has been published sits out there for people with more time on their hands and a bigger axe to grind than I...and no one has presented a strong technical or financial argument against I-Cubed of which I am aware. Last year we argued about liquor licenses and fairness to Roche Bros.; this year, it seems there are many questions and suspicion/skepticism but not a strong argument against the program itself.

So to me, it comes back to Westwood Station itself. If you think what's currently proposed is going to be a net negative to quality of life in town, vote no. Otherwise, vote yes and let's get on with this thing.

Civic
Agenda

On Monday, the Finance Commission will hold a public hearing on the upcoming Annual Town Meeting warrant articles. If you've taken a look at the bright red flyer that was mailed to all residents, you will notice six articles have been withdrawn including the petition articles to rezone/vary the Lambert's property for selling beer and wine.

So what's left? Well, of course there is the budget and essentially that's the point of town meeting this year. Approve the budget so the Town can keep operating... Then, there are some planning board articles that apparently provided a bit of a mathematics comprehension challenge at the last hearing.

And there is the placeholder article for Westwood Station. I still have heard no new information on whether any progress is being made or if the I-Cubed funding is even still on the table. Since the Board of Selectmen are meeting in the Faculty room at the High School just prior to the FinCom hearing in the Little Theatre, it is possible the placeholder article could take on new life--just in time to be voted on by FinCom. Monday's hearing is the final public hearing related to Annual Town Meeting.

Expect a fast track and mad scramble on all fronts as life is breathed back into the Westwood Station project following Governor Patrick's announcement that the state is ready to spend up to $55 million to thaw the snow from the frozen mounds of dirt on University Ave.

Part of the funding now depends on Cabot, Cabot, and Forbes pursuing I-Cubed financing--which will require authorization from Town Meeting. The meeting warrant was closed on January 4, but the Board of Selectmen placed several "placeholder" articles in the warrant to allow for possible future Westwood Station-related issues. These will likely be updated to include whatever is necessary.

Last night's Finance Commission meeting began to consider annual town meeting warrant articles, but tonight, in addition to a Library presentation, the Commission will hear an update on Westwood Station. Future meetings will provide an opportunity to more fully discuss whatever measures come foward. At this point, CC&F must still re-apply for the funding, so discussion remains speculative at best...

There are no shortage of potential topics to discuss in this town. Ideally, each one would start as its own post, but I just wanted to list out some of the things I'm wondering about that are not being covered by the press extensively and/or are not in a finalized state where the town would have published anything.

Last night, the Economic Development Advisory Board met after being completely re-organized. Regardless of what is going on or not going on with Westwood Station, what is the purpose of that? What is the town doing to promote business development--both small and large? A few years ago, an economic development director was hired; then she left and went to Needham. Is there any kind of association of Westwood small business owners I could join? Or start?

The Pedestran and Bicycle Safety Committee is meeting tonight. I posted it officially at town hall as required by law and on the town website, but haven't even posted it here on my blog. We have a lot going on and I'm happy to respond to questions.

The Dunkin Donuts on Route 1 was robbed at gunpoint last Tuesday. Yes, there was a story in the Westwood Press but it would be good to learn more.

FinComm met on Tuesday night. Was that about the Library...or the budget in general...or prep for discussing the warrants for the town meetings coming up? There is a lot of specualtion but I would suspect the majority of residents are not paying attention yet--until the override campaigns start. There is a blog about the Library project and plenty of information and meetings going on, but it would be great to hear what people are thinking and start the discussion earlier before it turns into a campaign.

The challenge of municipal finance in general is a complex topic that could stand some reasonable discussion that is not framed in crisis. It sounds like the dire circumstances predicted at the last Board of Selectmen meeting I attended are less dire now, but I don't know.

The meeting warrants are open for two Town meetings. Last year I was criticized for observing that the warrant had closed in January and so no one could get anything on the agenda for the May meeting.  So if you have anything for next year...you have a few weeks now to either convince the Selectmen to include it or gather petition signatures. I'm not looking to re-open a debate on the process of Town Meeting, but now is the time to prepare so if you have something, it can be proposed, discussed, etc.

There is an active Government and Charter Study Task force meeting twice a month to consider improvements to town governance. So, for those who felt their efforts last year went down in flames...it's worth a look to see the work that is actually being done now.

In December, the Town will hold an "ascertainment hearing" to hear from residents what their needs are vis-a-vs the Comcast and Verizon television contracts. The hearing will concern, among other things, the amount of operational budget available for community access tv programming. The nonprofit WestCAT was formed almost two years ago (I'm on the board) and we have now hired a person to build out a station here in Westwood...