By Meghan McPhillips-Jones

Voters at the Special Town Meeting on Monday approved all articles except Article 3, which was proposed by the Green Community Task Force to adopt the Stretch Energy Code. The meeting lasted about 90 minutes and approximately 70 people attended the meeting.
    Residents were concerned about the additional costs to build a home that will comply with the new Stretch Code, which holds a higher standard than current building codes.
    “The code is updated every three years,” said Building Official Mike Sauvageau. “Every three years there are codes that encourage a better way to build than we were three years ago. The stretch code is what the building code will be in three years.”
    With the new standard, a HERS Rater Inspector will be needed to inspect the quality of the work done on homes and town buildings.
    “My concern is that there will not be enough of these HERS Raters, and that will slow the time of construction down,” said Selectman Paula Bertram. “I understand and support the need, but I am concerned about the cost to residents.”
    “The government was already under a code and it’s already a government mandated process,” said Selectman Tom Alonzo.
    “We can also opt out of the stretch code after the fact,” said Green Community Task Force Chairman David Blatt. “If you are planning on building, or renovating, then this will make funds available to us through grant money. But if we don’t like the grant money that we are getting, or we don’t like how this plays out, we can come back to town meeting to remove it.”
    “This would bring us grant money to renovate the schools and town buildings,” he explained.
    “But with so many towns becoming a Green Community, the government only has so much money to disperse for it,” said Bertram. “I don’t think it would be worth it to our residents, but I appreciate the incredible amount of work that has gone into this.”
    Despite the encouragement of the Green Community Task Force, the Stretch code was not approved at Town Meeting. After a count of the votes, it was shown that 26 residents voted for the approval of the Stretch Code, but 35 opposed.
    Article 8 was proposed by the Planning Board at the May town meeting for design standards in commercial districts in town. After being rejected, the Planning Board re-worked the design standards and brought in the input of other town officials to help this article pass at this town meeting. After an explanation of the intent, the article passed unanimously.
    Article 10 was also proposed by the Planning Board to approve the design standards of the Summer Street Revitalization Project that will be re-vamping the entire route of Summer Street spanning three towns.
    “The Summer Street Revitalization project will encourage development along Summer Street and maintain the character of the town,” said Planning Board Chairman Toby Bakaysa. “Along with the design standards, we wanted to create a pedestrian friendly environment; we want sidewalks and bike trails,” he said. “That was one reason we wanted parking in the back of the buildings.”
    “Originally the Planning Board stated in the bylaw that all parking shall be in the back of the building, but now it states when practical and reasonable, which will bring in flexibility,” commented Building Official Mike Sauvageau.
    The Summer Street design bylaw also passed unanimously.
    Article One passed unanimously to transfer the sum of $26,485 to amend Article 20 of the May 7, 2010 Town Meeting which increases the line item 13A and bring the Salary Reserve line to $45,032.74.
    That money comes from prior year levy limit, and new growth of $3,503 and $95,111 respectively, as well as Supplemental state aid in the amount of $64,672 and Cherry Sheet Revenue of $29,108.
    “We have $195,394 available from these lines that we did not have at the time of estimation of the budget last year,” said Town Manager Kerry Speidel.
    Expenditure adjustments include the Cherry Sheet offsets of $7,519, State and County Assessments of $4 and Choice/Charter Assessments for the school system of $71,386.
    “Finally we have a court judgment between Balducci versus Lunenburg from the late 1990’s; the issue was there was work done to resolve drainage issues and the property owner believed that the drainage was made worse by the work done and filed against the town,” explained the Town Manager. “This case should have been settled years ago, and at the end of 2010 it was settled out of court. This has been paid but not accounted for.”
    Article 4, collective bargaining with the fire fighters,  was passed over by the Town Meeting because no agreement was reached.
    Article 5 was to amend the Article XV of the town’s bylaw entitled “Salary Administrative Plan of the Town of Lunenburg.” In updating the town’s bylaws old positions that are no longer in use have been removed from the roster and the updated list of current positions in town have been listed alphabetically. All jobs were also given a grade assignment for the Grades and Steps analysis, and in exchange all references to Points were removed.
    Job Titles removed are as follows: Board Secretary, Building Custodian, Cemeteries Superintendent, Clerk Typist, Construction Supervisor, Equipment Operator/Skilled Laborer, Heavy Motor Equipment Operator, Library Director, Motor Equipment Repairer, Park Maintenance Superintendent/DPW, Police Secretary/Rape Officer, Highway Supervisor, Secretary to Executive Secretary, Senior Building Custodian, Senior Equipment Repairer, Special Heavy Motor Equipment Operator and Work Leader (Highway).
    Article 6 was to rescind the sum of $456,927.87 which was the remaining authorization from Article 16 of the May 6, 2006 Annual Town Meeting. This money was for the engineering, permitting, and construction of drinking water and wastewater improvements at Meadow Woods Mobile Home Park. The project was fully funded with a federal grant for improving the water supply.
    “This project has been finished and closed out in excess of two years,” said Town Manager Speidel. “This remaining money cannot be used for any other project, and we ask that this be rescinded for housekeeping and bookkeeping matters.”
    The vote was unanimous to pass the article.
    Article 7 was to extend the sewer line east of Electric Avenue, north of Whalom Road and west of Carr Avenue. The area contains 224,094 square feet of land and is shown in the Sewer Service Area Map of Lunenburg as “Proposed Area to Be Added to the Sewer Service Area.”
    “At the request of the property owner, for the land which used to be Whalom Drive at 357 Electric Ave, they will be doing more work on this property and we feel they will need an extension of sewer there,” said Chairman of the Sewer Commission, Bob Ebersole.
    “This is not a presentation of the project there; we are only concerned with the sewer in that area. Their land could not have any other sewer besides the town sewer; it could not accept septic,” he said. “The sewer extension will only extend to this property.” This article was approved.