Good Morning, Burlington!

At last night’s Select Board meeting, appointments were made to two of our town’s governing bodies. The Housing Authority and the Select Board held a joint meeting to select from three candidates for an appointment to the Housing Authority until April’s election. The Conservation Commission also came before the Select Board with a candidate to fill an empty seat.

Housing Authority is an elected Board, and you’ll see them on your ballot each April. When a member of an elected Board doesn’t finish out their term, that Board and the Select Board post the vacancy, gather applications, and then meet jointly to make an appointment. You might remember this happened several times in the last two years; Planning Board and Library Trustees both filled vacancies, and possibly more that I’m not remembering. The posting, which you might have read on the Buzz, and the letters of interest can be found in the backup to the Select Board meeting, pages 4-9.

From the three candidates, the Board selected Walter Decoste by a vote of 7-2 to join the Housing Authority until the election in April. The seat he is filling will then come up for election along with the other regularly scheduled seat(s). Jack Nagle, Executive Director of the Arlington Housing Authority, received the other two votes (from Select Board members Nick Priest and Mike Espejo).

The Conservation Commission is appointed by the Select Board, so no joint meeting was needed. Sarah Wolinski was appointed to fill this role.

Many more appointments were made last night:

• William Toland was promoted to Fire Lieutenant.
• Michael Donahue was promoted to EMS Officer.
• Retired Lieutenant Mark Saia and Firefighter Fred Williams were named Limited Assignment Firefighters.
• Henry Coady was hired as Special Heavy Equipment Operator/Laborer for the DPW.
• Christina Jaquez was promoted from part-time to full-time Building Custodian for the DPW.
• Shayla Ferren’s hiring as Social Worker for the Council on Aging was approved; she will move into the role vacated by the retirement of Brenda Pappas.

Also at Select Board:

• The family of “Mr. Burlington” Don Flaherty will be donating a bench for the Common.
• Police cruisers will be redesigned. (See backup p.32 for a visual.) We have some cruisers waiting for us, but they’re black, and rather than painting them to go along with the current cruisers, the department opted to redesign the look using the fully black base.
• Victualler License (a license for food service establishments) was transferred from Maki of Japan to Asian Chao at the mall.
• Liquor Licenses were awarded to Raja & Rana’s and Town & Country by a 4-1 vote; Mr. Runyan voted against these, stating he wanted to maintain consistency with his past votes and he didn’t know if Burlington was ready for alcohol sales in convenience/grocery stores. Raja & Rana’s will convert to about 30% beer & wine, and 20% of that 30% will be Indian beer & wine. Town & Country’s application mentioned their grocery business has had to pivot as a result of the shift to online shopping. As they’re selling specialty cigars, they wanted to offer beer and wine to complement those offerings.
• A grant of location was made to Verizon so they can run some conduit, with the condition they follow our regulations and refrain from opening the street between November 15 and April 1.

If you’re paying close attention, you’ll notice I didn’t say anything yet about School Building Committee’s appearance at Select Board. I’ll say more about that later in the week; this Buzz is already long, and it’s nothing that can’t wait a day or two.

Today in Burlington

Municipal Meetings and Community Events

Board of Health and School Committee are both back to meeting at 7:00 every other Tuesday after a slower summer meeting schedule.

• 6:00 PM - Cornhole Tournament at 3rd Ave.
• 7:00 PM - Board of Health will discuss a couple of food service variances, hold a public hearing about the nuisance report at 111 Middlesex Turnpike (the Complex where Staples is), introduce some staff, and discuss the risk management plan for Café Escadrille. (Town Hall and Virtual)
• 7:00 PM - School Committee has their final meeting before school starts (next week! *Gulp*). They’ll be discussing, among many other things, the Master Plan, the School Transfer Report, and adding a second crossing guard at Fox Hill. They’ll also give an update on the food service management company for the coming school year. (BHS and Virtual)

I’ll send you on your way now. I hope you have a lovely day!

Nicci

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