Hello, Party People!

I slacked last weekend (actually I was both ill and very busy and it was kind of a slow news week, so I took a few minutes off), and this past weekend was also super busy, so I apologize for being a little haphazard with the Hive Roundups.

Last week, quite a bit happened/didn’t happen, so we’ve got plenty to talk about.

The Town Meeting That Never Was

Town Meeting didn’t happen, but last week did see several articles withdraw—particularly those having to do with permanently extending the option for members of Town Meeting and other Town bodies subject to Open Meeting Law. According to General Bylaw Review Committee Chair, Scott Martin,

The decision was a difficult one.  The members of the General Bylaw Review Committee (GBRC) have been working on this for about 6 months now in order to have something in the works when the Legislatures emergency order that allowed virtual meetings expires on March 31, 2023.  The members expressed their regrets that the GBRC will now have to go back to the drawing board to work on compromises to accommodate those members of other committees and Town Meeting Representatives that felt that the proposed articles were “not ready for prime time.”

The articles will hopefully be ready to make their appearance in September.

Town Meeting is on for tonight, where I believe the only two potentially contentious items will be at the beginning (Article 2 - Electronic Sign on the Town Common) and end (Article 19 - Increasing Outdoor Watering Fines) of the meeting. We’ll see how all that shakes out. I’ll be live-tweeting as Town Meeting goes on, and tomorrow’s Buzz will summarize the big results from today.

Select Board Indecision

After much community input, the Select Board voted 2-1-1 not to write a letter of support for the Winn View Heights II development that has been proposed over in the Winnmere neighborhood off Mountain Road. This is the second time this development has come before the Board, and they got the letter of support they were looking for back in 2019. But this time around, community members voiced many concerns about safety, access, traffic, and more. This doesn’t mean this “friendly 40B development” won’t happen - it just means the state won’t see a letter from our town’s Select Board saying they think it’s the right thing for our town right now.

Something else the Select Board didn’t decide on last week was the future of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Committee. This Committee was formed by the Select Board at the end of 2021 and was entangled in drama after, upon the delivery of their first quarterly report by Chair Dr. BJ Addison Reid, then-Select-Board-Chair Bob Hogan responded antagonistically and other Board members added to the tumult. Since then, the committee has been received more positively and its work has resulted in updates to union contracts and town departmental mission statements (ironically, the very items that were scoffed at by some members of the Select Board last February).

At last week’s meeting, though, the Select Board was unwilling to commit to continuing the committee. Though some members recognized the importance of DEI and the embedding of culturally sensitive practices on an ongoing basis, they didn’t have many ideas of how to proceed. Should they have a different focus? Should they bring in an outside consultant? The conversation will be continued to the next meeting.

Track Champions in Our Midst

We’ve had a couple pretty strong weeks in sports, with both our Boys’ and Girls’ track teams ending the seasons as champions. Lots of records have been set, too—both PRs and school records. The BHS Boys’ and Girls’ Track Twitter feeds are great places to see all the great things that are going down—because I can’t keep up!

Our Girls’ Gymnastics team won last week, bringing their record up to 5-1, and the boys are heading into the state championships this weekend.

All in all, it’s been an interesting couple of weeks in Burlington, and I’m looking forward to seeing what this week has in store.

See you soon,

Nicci