Politics & Government
Town Manager's Tuesday: Finding a Fire Chief and Special Town Meeting
While the Nov. 14 special Town Meeting went smoothly, finding a new fire chief is proving more difficult than anticipated.
Fire Chief Search: Many of you know that . Retired has been doing a fabulous job as the interim Lexington Fire Chief, while we search for a permanent replacement. Unfortunately, our search for a new Chief has gone more slowly than anticipated. Our recruitment effort yielded only a small number of qualified candidates. We have reopened the search, therefore, to see if we can expand our pool of applicants. Stay tuned.
Special Town Meeting – On Monday, Nov. 14 there was a special Town Meeting that took the following actions:
- Approved funding for the . This action, however, does not guarantee that these projects will go forward. Voters will next be asked to approve a Proposition 2 ½ debt exclusion to allow the Town to temporary increase property taxes to pay for these renovations. That special election will take place on Jan. 24, 2012. Also at this special election, voters will be asked to approve a temporary tax increase for the construction of a new Estabrook School.
- Approved funding to make improvements to our Fire Department radio system. Firefighters have been experiencing ‘dead zones’ in two parts of Town. These improvements will address this important safety issue.
- Made a variety of changes to the fiscal 2012 operating budget including adding $200,000 that the town has estimated it will need for the October 29-30 storm clean-up.
- Approved additional funding to finish capital projects at the (paving) and (archives room).
On a positive note, the town’s FY12 revenues are expected to be $1.5 million greater than projected when we went to Town Meeting in the Spring. I have recommended to the Selectmen that these funds be reserved for future capital projects.