On being a selectman

Long discussion yesterday with Mike Sullivan and his intern, Kyle Andrulonis, about Building Committee and town governance issues.

• garage site work being preformed by our own DPW is ahead of schedule
• huge amounts of underground infrastructure being installed, including what Mike described as several Olympic sized swimming pool holes to allow for on-site disposal of  the storm water run off
• DPW saving the town lots of money
• salt shed almost completed

The DPW will deal with the North Street paving before the start of school – it is greatly needed as soon as possible given how bad the hole at Green Street has become

I reminded Mike of my suggestion to have Ken Feeney lead a discussion about how our road maintenance efforts extend the life of our roadways and to confirm our use of best practices to extend road life.  The Massachusetts Municipal Association has been providing a lot of information about how ongoing maintenance is the cheapest route in the long run.  I also reminded Mike that Ken should publish his list of streets planned for repairs so pe0ple know just where their street stands on the list – that will give residents some idea of how long they will be waiting.  Giving the residents good data is what the town needs to be doing.

The DPW also needs to get to the Garden Club projects approved by the Board of Selectmen relating to upgrading the plantings at all four town signs and the Hospital Road at Rte 27 island.

The Affordable Housing Committee draft of its Affordable Housing Production Plan was put out last fall, but progress seems to have stalled.  In response to my queries, Mike mentioned that the consultant, Judy Barrett, we hired to write the plan, left the company with whom we contracted for that plan (specifically so we could get Judy to do it).

I have no town committee meetings this week, but I am still spending lots of time reviewing the draft legislation and documents about the transfer to the town of the Medfield State Hospital land for the water tower and the wellfields, as the details of the language are worked out to match the agreement with DCAMM that was part of the mediated resolution of the MSH environmental clean up.  I am told that we are now hoping that the legislature will take up that issue come September, given their light summer schedule.  The town owes thanks to resident volunteers Steve Nolan, Bill Massaro, and John Harney for shepparding that effort along.

Massachusetts Historic Commission 7/18/13 letter to DCAMM agrees to allow demolition of the stable and maintenance builds at the Medfield State Hospital, but refused demolition of the Odyssey Building across the street.  The stable is beautiful, but in danger of collapse.  The mainenance building needs to be removed so testing for the volatile organic compounds (VOC’s) can continue under the site of the building.  DCAMM had kindly agreed to demolish Odyssey house at the town’s request as part of the mediated settlement of the Medfield State Hospital environmental clean up, but now the MHC stands in the way of that happening.  There will need to be a long discussion with the MHC over the 1890’s building at the Medfield State Hospital, as it is expected that their condition will turn out to be so poor as to be uneconomic to rehab.  The MSH Development Committee is exploring undertaking condition studies to get better data.  The Town of Medfield also needs to know how its own Historic District Commission will react if the town asks to demolish those 1890’s buildings – Commission chair, Mike Taylor, at the MSH Development Committee meeting last week intimated that he preferred the buildings to be saved.  All mainly agree that is an admirable goal, but the real question is at what cost – if it costs too much to rehab the 1890’s buildings, it could make any redevelopment of the MSH site uneconomic.  Most are guessing that the poor, dilapidated conditon of those buildings will mandate their demolition.