In a meeting last night of the Board of Selectmen they reviewed the status of Article  2 of the Special Town Meeting Warrant which pertains to the height of accessory structures such as garages. They also went into executive session for purpose of reviewing the bidders on the Ulin Rink RFP, Curry College and the Ulin Rink Management Corp.

Regarding article 2, Mr. Mearn reported that Alex Whiteside, chairman of the Planning Board, appeared before the Warrant Committee Wedneday. Whiteside is revising his recommendation. Initially, the Planning Board was going to recommend to town meeting that the article be referred back to the board with no vote taken. Now Whiteside recommends a yes vote to limit the structures to 14′ and will take issue under advisement to be reviewed again at the Annual Town Meeting. There are two issues; one is that the 14′ height is restrictive given that accessory structures can have different footprints (eg a 1 car garage vs a 3 car garage), second, is that that the article is not comprehensive (i.e. it only covers structutes abutting side lots, not back lots). However, there are at least two court cases pending and others pending. Whiteside favors passing the recommendation and having a more comprehensive, fleixible article avaibable for Annual Town Meeting. The selectmen are going to wait and see what the Planning Board as a group decides to do on this. The Planning Board meet on 8/26.

The board went into executive session and is likley to award the bid today. Mr. Sweeney raised the issue of notification. He believed that the firms that bid needed to be notified and the decision be made public given the time, energy the firms put in and the fact that there had been so much public discussion to date. McEttrick and Shields did not disagree and Mr. Mearn will be calling the principals with the Selectmen’s decision this morning asssuming a decision was made. McEttrick noted that any award will be pending a signed contract. That is, the firm that wins the bid will not be the firm of record until a sigend agreement is in place. The two firms are both non-profits; Curry College and the Ulin Rink Management Corporation.