Hello, Busy Buzzers!

Here’s what I have for you today:

• Increased Outdoor Watering Fines?

• Start Planning Your Run For Office Now!

• Come Work With Me

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Increased Outdoor Watering Fines?

I promised you a slow re-entry, and I think that played out this week. No meetings were added to the town calendar, and the ones that did happen were pretty standard.

There was one exception, though, which I didn’t share with the whole network yet: The General Bylaw Committee on Wednesday had a lively conversation about whether or not to support an increase in fines for outdoor watering during a water ban.

The fines—written warning → $50 fine → $100 per day thereafter—have been static for a long time, and often the argument is thrown around that it is cheaper to pay the fines for watering during a water ban than it is to install a new lawn.

However, the last few summers have been exceptionally dry, and the water level at Mill Pond (where we get a lot of our water) has gotten critically low. Water is becoming an even more precious resource than before, and the town has asked residents to be mindful of outdoor watering for the benefit of the whole community.

Now, there is talk of increasing the fines for those who aren’t convinced by the collective responsibility argument. After the first written warning, the second offense would garner a $100 fine, and the third and subsequent offenses would rack up $300 per day.

The GBRC voted 3-3 in favor of supporting this article (Article 19 in the January Town Meeting Warrant), which is telling. As I understand it from following this situation for a very long time, here are some reasons people are/are not in favor of the fine increase:

In favor:

• People don’t want to run out of drinking water
• Fines aren’t painful enough yet (see argument above)

Against:

• We already don’t have clean drinking water*, so why should we pay more to use it on our lawns?
• We are still going to have outdoor watering bans after we are fully on MWRA water, and increasing the fines won’t change that. In other words, this isn’t a temporary situation.
• That’s a big increase, and financially people are finding themselves having to decide whether to let an expensive, freshly-installed lawn die or spend even more money on fines for watering illegally.
• The money collected from fines will be going toward the general fund, not toward education and helping residents figure out alternatives to a lush grass lawn.

*According to my many conversations with folks (including now-retired DPW director, John Sanchez) about water, the water coming from the MWRA does not contain PFAS above allowable levels, and the filters installed at Mill Pond should be active quite soon.

As far as I know, Article 19 is still set to go forward. I’ll be updating you as I know more, and we’ll hear more at Town meeting on the 23rd.

Start Planning Your Run For Office Now!

We talked a lot this week about the upcoming election (April 1) and the fact that you should just go ahead and pull your nomination papers (which you can do until February 8). Yesterday I laid out some barriers to running, and I’ll be updating that piece and going deeper soon.

If you’re already a member of local government, THANK YOU! Please continue doing what you do and also let your local friends and family know how important this work is and how approachable it can be.

If you’re not already in local government, please take a moment in the coming week to think of what is keeping you from taking that step. Is it time? The fact that many meetings are in the evenings and are precluded by your other responsibilities? Are you nervous because of the knowledge barrier? A language barrier? Some other reason? I would love to see if I can help you brainstorm ways you could become involved, while acknowledging the reality of each individual situation.

A reader mentioned on yesterday’s post that allowing hybrid participation can be really helpful for increasing involvement. While there are disadvantages to not having everyone in the same room, this reader has a great point. There are a number of people who would not be able to be involved in meetings (either as an elected member or as a member of the pubic) if not for hybrid participation. Most Boards and Commissions have permission from the state to hold hybrid meetings right now, but it is the opinion of our Town Counsel that this doesn’t apply to Town Meeting.

Currently, though, there is a set of articles on the January Town Meeting Warrant to allow permanent hybrid participation. This is probably one of the topics that will take a very long discussion, and I’m looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

Come Work With Me

Finally, I’m looking for a Puzzlemaster. This idea is in its infancy and is flexible, but it would pay a little and I think it would be really fun, both for you and for our readership. If you or anyone you know is interested, please let me know!

That’s it for today; I hope you had a great week and are looking forward to another amazing one.

Take care!

Nicci