Good Morning, Burlington!

I have a smattering of updates and announcements today, so I’m going to get right to it.

Select Board Recap

The Select Board meeting last night did end up being shorter than usual; here are some highlights:

• Assistant Fire Chief Andrew Connerty will be moving into the Fire Chief role following Chief Patterson’s retirement in January.
• Health insurance rates for active town employees are going up by 4%, which is less than market rate and less than inflation. Rates for retired employees are going up, as well, and while I missed the details there those increases were low, too.
• Lahey Health 5K will be back in person on June 11.
• Al Maidah Indian Cuisine (the Indian food vendor that has been at each Beer Garden) is changing management and corporate structure.
• The working Town Common Use Policy has been updated (p.35 of this document) and will be discussed more in a future meeting. There was no flag/flagpole discussion, though, which makes me wonder where that slipped away to.

Route 3A Paving and Restriping

I’ve gotten some questions (and, of course, seen the debate on social media) regarding the anticipated Route 3A (Cambridge Street) project and can provide some clarification, courtesy of Town Administrator, Paul Sagarino.

As you might know, 3A is owned by the state. As you might also know, it’s not a particularly safe place to drive/walk/bike - not in small part, because it is unclear whether it is one or two lanes in many places. (Actually, there are signs, but not everywhere, and not everyone observes them, anyway.) Anyone coming from out of town can be rightly terrified with local folks crowding them out in the narrowest of portions.

A few weeks ago, it was reported at Select Board that the state is planning to repave (yay!) and restripe (uh-oh) the section of 3A starting at the high school and going into Billerica. And at that point, the state plans to make the street one-lane on each side with potential turning lanes and bike lanes.

Lots of opinions were shared, but the biggest question has been: When do we get to express these opinions to the state?

According to Paul, the state plans to present their plan to the Select Board later this month (this is anticipated for October 24) for the Board to provide input. Mass Highway also plans to do a public information session, which has not yet been scheduled. I’ll be sure to pass along any information I get about this.

Today in Burlington

There is quite the mix of events going on today:

• The Pumpkin Patch at St. Mark’s to benefit People Helping People is off and running! As of yesterday, they were looking for volunteers to help sell pumpkins on Tuesday, October 11, and Wednesday, October 19. If you can spare a few hours, head out to help!
• 11:00 AM - Third of nine Foreign Affairs & Current Events Forum sessions through the Library
• 6:00 - Shawsheen Special Education Parent Advisory Council (SEPAC) will review their bylaws and the processes for communicating with the school community.
• 7:00 PM - Board of Appeals holds 3 hearings about signs for businesses in town - two continued from previous meetings (AWARE on Blanchard Road and Dr. Lili Tayari on Winn Street) and one is new, for Eastern Mountain Sports, which is  going in at 90-92 Middlesex Turnpike.

Also,

• The Farmer’s Market at Wayside that was going to be held tomorrow has been postponed for a week and will happen on 10/12.

Sports

While our Varsity girls and JV boys fell to Wakefield in cross country, Varsity boys came out on top with Eric Sekyaya setting a course record of 15:31. Congrats, Eric!

I don’t see scores for the rest of yesterday’s games, and there’s nothing on the calendar for today, so I’ll see what I can scrounge up for yesterday’s results for tomorrow’s Buzz.

For now, I’ll say goodbye.

Have a wonderful day, Burlington!

Nicci