The Marion Board of Selectmen held their first meeting of the month on Tuesday, October 2. They began by hearing from Lt. John Garcia of the Marion Police Department, who requested the appointment of Robert Hoey and Scott Cowan as Special Police Officers. Their appointment would be for a one-year probationary period.
“These are just additional positions, part-time special officers,” Garcia said.
The Board of Selectmen then voted unanimously in favor of their appointments.
“Welcome aboard, gentlemen,” said Chairman Stephen Cushing following the vote.
The Board’s second hearing of the night, with John Ludes to discuss the parking lot of the Marion General Store, was cancelled. According to Town Administrator Paul Dawson, Ludes had called the Town Hall indicating that he was withdrawing his request for the painting and striping of the parking lot.
Then, Dawson submitted his Town Administrator’s report to the Board of Selectmen.
“You may recall we received correspondence from Verizon regarding the upcoming expiration of our existing license. We received correspondence from Comcast along the same lines,” Dawson said.
The licenses expire in two years, but the negotiation process for new licenses can take that long. Dawson requested the approval from the Board of Selectmen to advertise for a cable advisory committee to head up the licensing process. He said the committee should be either five or seven members and include a member of the Board of Selectmen.
“It really needs to be thoroughly thought out and negotiated to get the best deal possible,” said Dawson.
“Better start now than to try to play catch up later,” Cushing said.
Dawson then briefed the Board on the Town House Advisory Committee meeting from a few weeks ago.
“As you’ll recall, the Committee’s ultimate goal is to present a plan for what to do with this building. The sense of the town meeting last year was to narrow down the possibilities. I think the Town House Advisory Committee did a good job in its presentation in laying out how we got here today. There were 40 or 50 in attendance at the meeting,” Dawson said.
The majority of the voices from the meeting were in favor of renovating the existing Town House, rather than constructing a new facility.
“I attended the meeting and I thought they did a great job with the presentation they brought to the table, about five or six different possible scenarios,” Cushing said. “Kudos to that committee.”
In other business:
• The Board voted to table the review the Water Department rules and regulations due to typographical errors. Dawson said the changes made to the regulations would be non-substantive.
• The Selectmen re-signed the Handy’s Tavern Preservation Restriction Agreement.
• The Board signed the State Election warrant.
• The Selectmen received a letter, submitted by Building Commissioner Scott Shippey, denying the County Road solar farm proposal because the project is not a permitted use for a residential area.
The next meeting of the Marion Board of Selectmen will be on Tuesday, October 16 at 7:00 pm at the Town Hall.
By Eric Tripoli
