Good morning!

I know you’re at the edge of your seat waiting to hear what was decided at Town Meeting last night, so I won’t keep you waiting.

As you might have seen on my Twitter feed last night, we passed lots of articles.

• Ratified the police contracts, which were the only ones whose negotiations had finished before the meeting. Notably, they had clarified nondiscrimination language as discussed with the DEI Subcommittee.
• We accepted $70k+ from the Will of Marshall Simonds. Treehouse, here we come!
• We are adding an Affordable Housing Coordinator, funding the entire Fourth of July Parade (rather than local businesses pick up half the tab),  getting a historical shed, and, after much discussion, apportioning funding to the Sculpture Park.
• The town will be buying 119 S. Bedford Street to keep in our affordable housing inventory.
• We adopted some state laws to protect the elderly and disabled from tax increases.
• We had a very lively and excellent debate on the Community Preservation Act. In the end, we voted to put it on the November ballot so the voters can decide. (Read more on my Tweet storm.)
• We made one quick correction to the general bylaws and adjourned a bit before 11.

Which means we will have one final night of Town Meeting, during which we’ll tackle the last 5 articles. (Article 40 has been withdrawn.)

Today in Burlington

Some super interesting items on the agenda tonight - particularly at the GBRC meeting at 6:30. Read on.

• 5:45 PM - Shawsheen Budget Subcommittee meets to interview candidates for the position of Business Manager.
• 6:30 PM - General Bylaw Review Committee meets to review how May Town meeting went, discuss articles that might be ready for September (they’re due by June 28, so not a ton of time!), and also to confer with town Counsel on the feasibility and process for two items that caught my attention: An update to the way the Town Moderator is chosen, as well as establishing a Hybrid Town meeting bylaw. Very interested to see how this goes. I’ll try and watch so I can update you! (Join via Zoom)
• 6:30 PM - Special Education Parent Advisory Council meets to discuss next steps regarding the middle school schedule as well as nominating and voting for new Board Members. (Join via Webex)
• 7:00 PM - Fair Share Amendment Forum - this is an amendment to the state constitution that would increase income taxes on the portion of someone’s income over $1 million per year in Massachusetts. Learn more here and at the forum.
• 7:30 PM - Board of Appeals will discuss proposed signage for D HIVE and Mom’s Organic Market. I don’t know what either of these businesses are, but I am forever in awe of the detail into which our zoning bylaws go about the signage that is allowed on businesses.

Alright, that’s it for today. Now to sleep for a week.

Not really. See you tomorrow!

Nicci