Written by Barbara Smith,
Blogger and Social Justice
Activist
https://www.facebook.com/HWdemocrats/
Visit http://hwcam.org/ to see the upcoming meetings. Also click on the government access link to see the Board Meetings. The most recent ones appear first but you can access older ones from the Hamilton Town website.
The Select Board Meeting this past Monday is not, yet on Youtube….. but I heard it was a real doozy….
Look for:
Hamilton Select Board 5.1.23
At the 1:09:00 you can hear Select Board member Caroline Beuleiu talking about Bill Olson’s birthday….she will bring a birthday cake and some liquor….
New Business on the Agenda starts at 1:10:00 with Town Manager, Joe Domelowicz talking about how the Planning Board (PB) needs more time for the Zoning process…..there will not be a Summer Town Meeting. The town hall project is on hold until the Fall Town Meeting where the Zoning process update and the Town Hall funding request (from our “free cash”) will be on the agenda. All of this requires a simple majority vote at Town Meeting.
At 1:22:03 the video starts with “zoning stuff”….Marnie Crouch, (a well-respected and knowledgeable volunteer, as well as a lawyer) and her PB Vice Chair, Emil (who is a professional architect and an experienced planner) met with the consultant, John Witten who works for both the Town and the Seminary for this process. This teleconference was on April 29th a Saturday where all parties agreed that there was not enough time to get this on a warrant before Oct/Nov. The PB contends that If there is not enough citizen involvement in this process, the zoning overlay district for Gordon will not pass. Zoning is really a tricky needle to thread, and if the Gordons want public support, and a successful vote at our Town Meeting, they better be prepared and that means reaching out in multiple ways to get the public input.
I heard Joe D. at time: 1:24:34 admit that community input is needed. He said that the Joint meeting made that clear to him. Abutters came out loud and clear!! He is minimizing his errors and he seems to be saying he does not know how the misinformation got posted on the PB web page!!! He’s in charge of all this so this comment makes no sense.
I think that Joe probably knows exactly how that misinformation got out there because he had the Hamilton Town Planner, Patrick Reffett put it there!! Joe also wanted to have a big important meeting while the PB Chair, Marnie Crouch was unavailable…..
Bill Wilson Select Board member, Bill Wilson said that Marnie Crouch , the PB Chair, needs to be at that public meeting and therefore, they need to pick a different date to hold the informational meeting. Bill Wilson wants more than just one meeting, he said there should be MANY such outreach events to make sure abutters within a mile radius are invited to come to the meeting. He told Joe to do that……use the US Mail and postcards.
At time: 1:28:55, Bill Olson admits that he and the others got a LOT of angry emails and letters from abuttors. Board of Select , Chairman Shawn admitted that he got “slammed” with so many that he has not had enough time to respond to them all…..
Bill Wilson again wants to reach out to as many as possible……
A citizen, who is also a longtime Conservation Commission member, Virginia, told them there is nothing worse than an official not responding to a citizen who has reached out to them and she said putting out a “canned” response is a rapid way to lose your public.
Bill Wilson strongly suggested that they should keep a list of FAQ for the citizens on the Town site so they can stay updated…..
It really is all about communication…….I am glad that Bill Wilson is on the Board.