Above: The committee looking into uses for the golf course will discuss final recommendations at the Senior Center tonight. The Chair will then head to a Selectmen’s meeting already in process at the Community House to present their findings. (image left from Google Maps, photo right by Susan Fitzgerald)
There was some confusion over the process for tonight’s meetings on the St. Mark’s Golf Course. I already updated yesterday’s post. But given the importance of these meetings to so many readers, I thought this deserved a post of its own.
Yesterday, I posted that the St. Mark’s Golf Course Master Plan Committee would present their findings to the Board of Selectmen at their meetings tonight. That was inaccurate, though close to the truth.
The Master Plan Committee is scheduled to meet at the same time as Selectmen are meeting. And both agendas indicate Selectmen will receive the recommendation from the committee. But, it was pointed out to me that they are meeting in different places!
The committee will again be meeting at Cordaville Hall, 9 Cordaville Road (the Senior Center). And Selectmen will be at the Community House, 28 Main St, where the “Save Our Golf Course” folks are holding a meeting.
The committee Chair Brian Shifrin cleared up the confusion for me.
Shifrin explained:
The St Marks Golf Course Master Planning Committee is meeting at 7pm at the senior center. One of the first things we will do is have a discussion which I hope will result in a recommendation to the Board of Selectmen. The meeting will then either adjourn or continue without me and I will head to the Community House (@ 8pm) to present our recommendation to the Board of Selectmen (and any others present).
I’m sorry, but this is ridiculous. This is no way to run a public process. The confusion is created by poor planning and rushing on the part of BOS. Two meetings on the same issue scheduled at the same time in different buildings? Both meetings announced on 2 days notice? (I checked the town website for the agendas.) And the chair of the golf course Site Plan Committee has to leave his meeting early to walk up the street to join a BOS meeting already in progress? That’s unfair to the volunteers on the committee, but more importantly, where does this leave citizens? This whole golf course issue is being rushed through on such a short timeline, and it’s impossible for citizens to keep up with all the conflicting meetings by different committees, all the different reports and recommendations and disagreements and warrant articles.
This is a major decision we need to make for our the future of our town. It’s about a huge, complex real estate transaction, a costly new public safety building, and future use of the land. Big questions are unanswered as far as I can tell, and I have been trying to stay informed. Actual costs of the land swap deal and the Main St. property being traded away? Costs of public safety building? Costs of dealing with septic, wetlands, access roads, etc. on the golf course? Impact on Choate Field and Woodward School access roads? Conservation restriction or future development? Voters need to be able to attend meetings and be informed, and cannot attend multiple committee meetings in the same week! This is too much to squeeze in before the March 8 vote.
Booking meetings on top of each other and cramming at the last minute is no way to approach a major decision that impacts our future. The BOS has no business bringing this to a vote on March 8. Our town would be better off if everyone, especially BOS, took a deep breath, slowed down, and spread out the process on a more reasonable schedule.
Hi Kelly,
I agree that the way these meetings were scheduled is confusing and impossible to keep up with. I do believe that all the questions you mention have been answered by the various committees. There are multiple presentations on the town website – http://www.southboroughtown.com/public-safety-study-committee and there is a Facebook page that presents facts about the issues – https://www.facebook.com/friendsofsobops/. With three little kids myself, I don’t have the flexibility to attend meetings. I don’t believe that the BOS has the luxury of time – if we don’t move ahead with the land swap ASAP, St. Mark’s will move on to the highest bidder for the golf course land.
The majority of the meetings you mention are available on SAM and posted on YouTube.
Also, a lot of the questions you mentioned as being unanswered are given out by the Public Safety Committee on their page. They also have another information session next week at Woodward. I would assume that also will be recorded.