The Selectmen appointed a new relief firefighter and set the annual town meeting warrant.

LENOX, Mass. — The president of the Lenox Land Trust is calling on the Selectmen to schedule a special town meeting to vote on community preservation funds for Undermountain Farm.

Thomas Romeo, speaking during Wednesday's open forum, called the March 21 tie vote by the Community Preservation Committee that killed the farm's application "the result of a deeply flawed and self-contradictory process."  

The committee had voted 4-4 on an application for $250,000 that would have seen the town partner with the Berkshire Natural Resources Council to preserve 146 acres of the farm under a conservation restriction.

The town would have owned 63 of the acres neighboring Parson's Marsh that would have been maintained by BNRC. The BNRC is currently raising $700,000 by October to complete the purchase of the acreage, which will preserve open space and allow the 42-year-old farm and stable to continue operating.

The Community Preservation Act adopted by the town allows it to institute a 3 percent surcharge on property taxes for use toward historic preservation, open space and affordable housing.

Romeo cited three reasons the application was denied: that "the town was not involved from the beginning and did not have a chance to shape this project;" that "$250,000 is too much money to devote to this project"; and that "the proposal included misinformation and unanswered questions."

He denied all of those assertions made by the CPC, and said he felt the application simply needed revision and another chance – though the ZBA had no problems with clarity, he emphasized. All meetings with the CPC had addressed money and town input to what Romeo understood to be everyone's satisfaction.

"This is a great opportunity for Lenox," said Romeo. "I urge the Board of Selectmen to work with the CPC to revisit this issue and to submit an improved application before a special town meeting so that the town residents can examine and vote on this project with all the facts plainly and fairly on the table."

The matter cannot be put on the annual town meeting warrant because that deadline has passed.

Selectman Chairman Channing Gibson reassured Romeo that the Board of Selectmen "would like to see this land preserved."

"We are working to come up with a plan," said Gibson. "We're doing that right away."

The board had better news for another Romeo: Joshua Romeo, the town's newest relief firefighter and emergency medical technication

"One of the most pleasant things I get to do as town manager is recommend the appointment of public safety officials," Town Manager Christopher Ketchen said, segueing into his manager's report which began with Romeo's appointment to part-time fire relief and EMT.

"In review I've found Mr. Romeo to be not only an exceptionally qualified candidate for the position ... but also to be an outstanding young man in general."

Fire Chief Dan Clifford shared that Romeo had been a member of the department for two years and recently completed his EMT basic certification, while spending the past few weeks training and studying policy and procedure at the department as well as "the nuances to actually working in Lenox."

"I can highly recommend Joshua," said Clifford with confidence.

Romeo shook the hands of each board member after their motion to approve his promotion.

Ketchen's report also addressed the town budget, with board members Channing Gibson and David Roche expressing their hope that last week's budget discussion had influenced some necessary changes in the final draft.

Roche summarized their discussion by explaining his suggestion for funding the snow and ice budget: that all of the required $90,000 in overages come from Lenox's stable free cash account, rather than pressuring departments such as the DPW or School Committee to find contributions from their already stretched budgets.

Lenox Land Trust President Thomas Romeo calls for a special town meeting to vote on partnering in a purchase of Undermountain Farm.

"We've been through such a stringent budget process over the course of the year that I think the department heads have pretty much squeezed every dime they possibly can out of their department budgets," said Roche. "The department heads have worked hard ... to keep level services at a price the town can afford."

Ketchen said nothing officially needed to be changed in terms of the wording of the budget, but that the issue would be part of Article 3 of the warrant and would be addressed during May's town meeting.  

He noted since that the Capital Appropriation in Article 9 of the warrant (dealing with the appropriation of $650,000 toward the town's new fire truck) would need a 2/3 vote in order to appropriate monies into funding for the fire truck instead of toward the fire truck stabilization account, a separate article would be created in the warrant solely for the fire truck appropriations vote.  

The Selectmen unanimously approved the warrant, subject to review by town counsel, and set the annual town meeting for May 1.

In other business, the board:

Set, at Ketchen's request, a public hearing about changes to downtown parking regulations for Wednesday, April 29, at 7:15 p.m.

Appointed Marybeth Mitts to the Affordable Housing Trust and Charlene Rosen to the Affordable Housing Committee.

Approved a $1,000 toward the Rhubarb Festival. Suzanne Pelton, festival chairman, said the group "actually [does] have almost $1,000 from the seed fund" that her committee had previously raised.

The board also reassured her that the town's insurance would cover any liabilities that might take place at the Rhubarb Festival – even if, as Pelton put it, "someone runs into a tent pole or slips on a piece of rhubarb and falls." Ketchen chuckled, but was confident that any possible mishap would be covered.

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