https://www.masslive.com/news/2020/07/seek-alternative-transportation-mandated-social-distancing-to-limit-how-many-students-massachusetts-districts-can-transport-on-school-buses-this-fall.html

The Senate on July 16 passed a $17 billion five-year bond bill to fund a wide range of transportation-related projects, though the bill does not establish future funding levels for the Chapter 90 road and bridge program.

Because the Legislature had already passed a standalone fiscal 2021 authorization for Chapter 90, the Senate opted not to take up Chapter 90 again in its comprehensive transportation investment bill (S. 2813).

The MMA, with the support of Sen. Adam Hinds, filed an amendment to the Senate bill that would have funded Chapter 90 for five years at $300 million per year, indexed to inflation, but the amendment was withdrawn before the Senate debated and voted on its bond bill.

The Senate bond bill includes funding for several municipal transportation grant programs, including $20 million for the Complete Streets program, $70 million for the Municipal Small Bridge program, $50 million for a new Local Bottleneck Reduction program, and $100 million for a new Municipal Pavement Partnership program.

The bottleneck program would fund changes to address “operationally influenced” impediments to traffic flow, which cause safety issues and excessive idling that boosts greenhouse gas emissions. Changes would include redesign, re-striping, lane and shoulder width adjustments, addition of auxiliary, collector and distributor lanes, signal improvements, ramp adjustments, signage and other infrastructure improvements.

The competitive pavement grant program would be for the construction, reconstruction, resurfacing, repair and improvement of pavement and surface conditions on municipal roadways. Expenditures may include the costs of engineering, design, permitting, climate change adaptation and resilience, and other services essential to the projects.

The MMA has long advocated for an increase in Chapter 90 funding, which represents the only source of unrestricted and non-competitive state funding for local road maintenance. Chapter 90 has been level-funded at $200 million since 2012, with a few one-time exceptions.

from Wicked Local North - April 30, 2019:

What Town Meeting could be, perhaps.

(TNS) — For this year's annual Town Meeting, Town Moderator Mark DiSalvo has launched his newest initiative: remote voting.

DiSalvo teased the idea last month and has now launched the page (in Google form) on which voters can chime in from home — albeit with votes that won't count in any official capacity — from home, or work, or the grocery store or wherever they have Internet access.

"North Andover continues to be a laboratory for what Town Meeting may be like in the future. One sometimes hears that Town Meeting does not represent the opinion of the citizenry at large," DiSalvo said in a statement announcing the new idea. "In order to test this presumption, I will be conducting a survey inviting the public to state their opinion on each article whether they attend Town Meeting or not. Comparative results will be published post the adjournment of the meeting."

You can find the form at northandoverma.gov/tmsurvey. Just put in an email address, click "yes" or "no" on each warrant article, and submit. The survey will be available on the town website until Town Meeting adjourns.

from the Association of Town Finance Committee Handbook:

Town” means town meeting. Section 16, quoted above, is contained within the “Town meeting” section of Chapter 39 between two sections on the town moderator. Most finance committees are appointed by the town moderator, an official of the legislative body, town meeting.

Section 16 goes on to read:
 “In every town having a committee appointed under authority of this section, such committee, or the selectmen if authorized by a by-law of the town, and, in any town not having such a committee, the selectmen, shall submit a budget at the annual town meeting”

In other words, unless no finance committee exists, or a by-law of the town specifically authorizes the selectmen to submit the budget, the budget shall be submitted by the finance committee.

The Department of Revenue, Division of Local Services, reinforces this with an “In Our Opinion” 93-310 issued on April 27, 1993 titled -
“Role of Finance Committees and Boards of Selectmen in Budget Preparation and Submission to Town Meetings.  A board of selectmen in a town with an elected or appointed finance committee has no statutory role in the preparation and submission of the annual budget, unless it is expressly given a role by bylaw. If not, the finance committee is responsible for preparing, submitting and distributing the budget under G.L. Ch. 39 S16 and Ch. 41 S59 and S60.”

This does not mean the finance committee should have an adversarial relationship with the board of selectmen or town administrator. In fact, the finance committee should develop a good working relationship with both. By being open to suggestions and other opinions and working out compromises on key issues, the finance committee can be more effective in presenting its recommendations to town meeting. When compromises cannot be made, the issues should be narrowed to provide town meeting with a clear choice.

Town has by-law specifying budget preparation and presentation, passed at town meeting. Perhaps we need to change or adjust by-law to lower advisory committee membership to five and make clearer who may serve.

from the ole selectmen email box:

: Terenzini, Carter <cterenzini@TempletonMA.gov>
Sent: Thursday, July 16, 2020 8:37 AM
To: brucewmarien@gmail.com
Subject: Fw: [Templeton MA] BiLaw written with respect to sludge in town (Sent by Bruce Marien, brucewmarien@gmail.com)

(M)Good Day Mr. Marien:

This rumor, like all bad rumors, is unfounded. The appearance of the Casella truck had to do with the driver introducing someone they knew to the farmer, Mr. "Red" Tolman. At this time no materials were spread.

That said, Mr. Tolman will be spreading an organic fertilizer after his first cut of hay. That material has been reviewed by - and approved by - the State both as a product in general and by the State staff who are responsible for managing all of the agricultural contracts on state land in specific. Finally, while this product is not in conflict with the local by-law and the state has actively responded to all of our inquires, you must understand that they are exempt from local regulation should they choose to do so.

I do believe the attached memorandum from Ms. Wiita may provide further information on this that you find useful.
Please feel free to reach out to me if you have any additional inquires I might respond to.

Many Thanks
Carter Terenzini

Town Administrator

On July 10, Gov. Charlie Baker rescinded an executive order he issued in March that had temporarily suspended both the use of reusable bags in stores and local bans on single-use plastic bags in place in 139 cities and towns.

Consumers can now resume bringing reusable bags into stores and restaurants, and municipalities with local plastic bag bans can once again enforce those measures.

from the Gardner News;

WINCHENDON — There are many streets that have not been accepted by the town. Some are subdivisions where the roadways needed a little work to pass required specifications, and others were built long ago and just never went through the process. It was a surprise when the town discovered that parts of Central Street in the center of town were not an accepted way.

As part of the project to reconstruct Central Street, one of the checklist items the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) requires is an accepted layout of the road that they are working on. The town has been able to determine that a portion of Central Street was never accepted by the town of Winchendon. The reason is pure speculation.

Department of Public Works Director Al Gallant and the town clerk have been working with the engineering firm Tighe & Bond to view the information available.

“It appears that only portions of Central Street have not been accepted,” said Town Manager Keith Hickey. “There are also small portions of Summer and Railroad Street that abut Central Street that also were not accepted”

Selectmen received a copy of the layout on Central Street for approval coinciding with the existing layout of Central Street as it appears today. Hickey and Gallant asked the board to accept the layout as presented. The layout would then be moved to the Planning Board for its consideration. If approved by the Planning Board, it would go back to selectmen by Aug. 10 for a final vote to be placed on the warrant for the annual Town Meeting — the town would ask residents to vote to accept the layout of Central Street.

Selectman Audrey LaBrie asked Hickey for a more specific identification of the parts of Central Street that were not accepted by the town. Hickey said they were seeking approval for the total layout as presented. He said different portions were accepted by the town at different times in the past.

“This will allow for a clean process to allow people doing reviews in the future to be able to determine that this roadway was essentially approved in 2020,” he said.

Selectmen Chairman Michael Barbaro asked if the work recently approved for Railroad Street would be slowed by the fact Central Street had not received acceptance.

Hickey said that work would not be held up.

The board voted to approve the Central Street layout.