Televising the School Committee, Mann site testing, tax rates discussed at Selectmen's meeting
Published on December 1st, 1999
•School Committee on TV
School Committee members will decide whether or not to televise their meetings after hearing input from the public next week. A public hearing is set for 7 p.m. on Dec. 9 at the high school library. The regularly scheduled meeting will follow.
•Testing at Mann
There will be more scrutiny of land around the Mann site on Central Street.
Parents worry that toxins in the ground will harm children attending the Middle School at 101 Central Street during construction of the Central School on an adjacent lot.
Selectmen voted unanimously to "have an engineering professional conduct an environmental assessment and testing, if required, of town owned land at the Middle School, including the railroad right of way..." The motion also stipulated that members of the Stoneham Parents for Healthy Schools group help select the expert. Group members Bob Weisbrod and Cheryl Walsh were tapped by selectmen to act as liaisons between the board and the parents group.
The Central School project, which is otherwise set to go out for construction bids, is already $508,000 over budget. The town wants to look carefully at the past 11 analyses before paying for more. The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has cleared the site.
The parents say past studies were based on incomplete information about the site. A chemical fire in 1910 and eyewitness accounts of people washing out railroad cars in the area were listed as part of a 100-plus year history of the site.
A spokesperson for the Toxic Action Center, a non-profit environmental watchdog organization based in Boston, said the DEP is under-staffed and relies on secondhand information such as the analyses the parents allege are incomplete. In this case, the DEP audited testing done by others but did none of its own.
•New tax rates
Elaine Moore, Director of Assessing for Stoneham, had good news and bad news about property taxes.
The good: the fiscal 2000 tax rate for residential property is $14.51 per $1000, down from $16.95 in 1999. The fiscal 2000 tax rate for commercial property is $16.57 per $1000, down from $19.37 in 1999.
The bad: property values are higher after the recent revaluation.
•Audit of Building dept.
A state audit of the town building department should be in the hands of town officials within two weeks, according to Com-munity Development Director Steve Sadwick.
•Boy Scout dinner
Selectmen will select a citizen for the Boy Scouts to honor at a special dinner designed to bring local scouts in contact with a role model in the community. Selectmen have until Jan. 15 to come up with their selection.
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