Special Town Meeting set for Monday, Nov. 8

By Melissa Fales
Reporter

WARE – At their Oct. 12 meeting, the Board of Selectmen voted to hold the Special Town Meeting Monday, Nov. 8 at 7 p.m. in the Ware High School Auditorium. They also approved the placement of 14 articles on the warrant, including one proposing a local meals tax, one that asks voters for two new cruisers, and one for approximately $1 million for the construction of a new fire station. The board will hold a joint meeting with the Finance Committee and Moderator Kathleen Coulombe at their Oct. 19 meeting to review the articles. Town Manager Mary T. Tzambazakis said dollar amounts for each article won’t be announced until the town meeting because they may change before then.
Several of the articles are basic housekeeping matters, such as paying bills from the previous fiscal year. In most cases, the board voted unanimously to place the articles on the warrants.
Article Two asks the town to appropriate money for the Fiscal Year 2012 Revaluation in the Board of Assessors Office. Assessor Peter Harder explained that the town is mandated by law to do the revaluation every three years.
Article Three proposes that Ware adopt Massachusetts General Law 64L, Section 2 which authorizes the town to impose a local meals tax of .75 percent on top of the state’s existing 6.25 percent tax, with the extra money going into the town’s coffers. Selectmen John A. Desmond and Richard A. Norton Sr. voiced their opposition to the idea. “The taxpayers are in dire straights right now,” said Desmond. Chairman William R. Braman said the tax would help the town financially at a time when state aid has been drastically reduced. The board voted 3 to 2 to place the local option meals tax on the warrant for the voters to decide, with Desmond and Norton voting against it. “It’s up to the citizens of the town,” said Braman.
Under Article Four, residents will vote whether or not to appropriate approximately $1 million to construct a new fire station. The total cost for the new station to be built on town-owned property on West Street is approximately $7 million, but the town has received a $5 million FEMA grant and another $1 million from the state for the project. The board voted 4 to 1 to put this article on the warrant, with Desmond saying he thought such a big ticket item would have been more appropriate on a ballot.
With Article Five, the town will vote whether or not to appropriate money to conduct a Comprehensive Site Assessment of an old town landfill at the former Morin Farm on Upper North Street. The Department of Environmental Protection ordered the study in May.
Article Six asks voters to appropriate money to acquire a conservation restriction from the East Quabbin Land Trust, Inc. for 86 acres on Upper Church Street. The purchase is contingent upon receiving a grant from the state and the receipt of other funds in order for the town to be fully reimbursed.
The furnace at the Department of Public Works office on Church Street needs to be replaced and Article Seven asks voters to appropriate the money for a replacement.
Article Eight asks voters to appropriate money for the Finance Committee Reserve Fund.
The board unanimously rejected an article that proposed reducing the quorum at town meetings from 100 to 75. The town has struggled to meet its quorum, and has postponed town meetings more than once because 100 voters were not present. “Lowering our standards is not the answer,” said Braman. “One hundred people out of over 6000 registered voters should be interested enough in the town’s fiscal budget to show up,” said Selectwoman Nancy J. Talbot.
Residents will vote on Article Nine, to see if the town will appropriate money for a new ambulance. Fire Chief Thomas W. Coulombe said the money would come out of the approximately $144,000 in the ambulance receipt account. Ware typically replaces its ambulances every eight years, but the town is two years behind its regular ambulance replacement schedule. Coulombe said the town’s third ambulance, a 1999 model, did not pass state inspection. He said they “put a band-aid” on the ambulance so that it could get an inspection sticker, but that it’s only a temporary fix.
Article 10 asks voters to appropriate money for two new police vehicles. “We’re in very poor shape as far as cruisers go,” said Police Chief Dennis M. Healey, adding that the town has not purchased one in four years. He said the town got a cruiser last year, primarily through a special grant. He said two vehicles in the department’s fleet are having motor trouble. The board voted unanimously to place Article 10 on the warrant, with Talbot abstaining.
Under Article 13, voters will be asked to appropriate money for the demolition of the Casino Theatre at 121 Main St. The town has an Oct. 14 court date to secure a demolition order for the building. Norton asked how the town could move forward to tear the privately-owned structure down. “It’s not ours,” he said. Tzambazakis said it was a public safety issue and that the Casino’s owner, Fred McLennan of Holyoke, has defied a court order to make it safe or take it down . Tzambazakis said the demolition costs will be attached on the property as a lien, along with back taxes McLennan owes. McLennan won’t be able to sell the property without a clear title.
Norton encouraged all town residents to show up for the Special Town Meeting. Unregistered voters who want to be eligible to vote at the Special Town Meeting need to register with the Town Clerk at least ten days in advance.

School Committee votes to allow bus drivers’ non-school age children to ride on buses

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First Student bus driver Brandy Charron demonstrates to the school committee how she would cut the safety belt on her child’s car seat in the case of an emergency.

By Melissa Fales
Reporter

WARE – With a majority vote, the School Committee voted at their Oct. 6 meeting to allow First Student school bus drivers to bring their own non-school age children along on their bus routes. Bus drivers had crowded into the committee’s Sept. 29 meeting when First Student’s long-standing policy of allowing drivers’ children to ride along on bus routes in car seats was first challenged. Committee members said they had been unaware of the practice and expressed concerns about safety and liability. They also wanted to run the idea by school counsel.
According to the school district’s current contract with First Student, only students of Ware schools are allowed to ride on school buses. Any other riders need to have special authorization from the superintendent. Drivers have always been allowed to transport their children who are students in Ware Schools on their routes. When a concerned citizen notified Superintendent Mary-Elizabeth Beach that a First Student bus driver had her own young child riding along on her route in a car seat, Beach took it up with First Student. The bus company said they had a standing agreement with the district’s previous superintendent, Richard Holzman, to allow drivers to bring their young children along with them on the bus, with certain conditions. Finding no written record of the agreement, Beach put an end to the practice. Two drivers were immediately impacted by the change and on their behalf, drivers and Ross K. Kiely, Union Representative for United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1459, came before the committee to ask them to reconsider.
After reviewing the information, school counsel made several recommendations regarding the policy. The first recommendation is for First Student to submit written evidence that its insurance policy will cover the Ware Public Schools in case a non-student is injured while on the bus. If not, town counsel suggested that First Student provide a rider to cover the Ware Public Schools in that circumstance.
In addition to the insurance coverage, town counsel recommended that First Student sign an indemnity clause stating that if their drivers are allowed to transport their non-student children, First Student will hold the district harmless for any injuries and/or other claims. And lastly, town counsel recommended that drivers wishing to bring their non-school age children along on their route sign a waiver releasing Ware Public Schools and the Town of Ware from all liability. Member Brian Winslow questioned whether the district could force the drivers to sign that form. Committee Chairman Christopher Desjardins explained that the drivers didn’t have to sign the form, but if they didn’t, they wouldn’t be allowed to transport their children with them.
The School Committee had expressed concern about the safety of those young children on the bus, particularly how quickly they could be removed from their car seats in the case of a need to evacuate. At the committee’s request, Crowther brought in one of the seat belt cutters kept on all school buses so the members could see the tool and judge its effectiveness. Crowther said the cutters are kept in the buses near the driver’s seat and are a state-mandated part of the bus inspection. Also at the committee’s request, Brandy Charron, one of the drivers who wanted permission to transport her children with her, brought a car seat in. Committee member Aaron Sawabi asked Charron to show him where and she would cut the belt on the car seat in case of an emergency.
Winslow asked whether the car seats used were approved by the Department of Transportation (DOT). Charron’s car seat said it was approved by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), but Winslow questioned whether there might be different standards for cars and buses. The committee recessed the meeting for several minutes so Desjardins could do some online research on the topic. Desjardins’ research determined that the NHTSA is part of the DOT and that car seats with such certification on them are acceptable for use on buses.
Sawabi said he had researched the question of whether it was safe for drivers to bring their young children on the bus with them thoroughly over the past week, including informally interviewing several mothers for their take on the idea. The mothers Sawabi interviewed said they didn’t believe their children would be placed at additional risk if their bus drivers were transporting their own young children on the route. “It’s not a scientific survey, but it gives you a sense of the perception out there.” Sawabi said. Sawabi went on to say that while he thought the drivers were already very responsible, they would only be more likely to drive safely if their own children were on the bus. “Taking into account the needs of the drivers…, the concerns of the parents, and my own evaluation of the safety procedures with the car seat…it doesn’t seem like there’s an increased risk in my opinion,” said Sawabi.
The committee first voted 4 to 1 to amend the First Student contract to allow either the school committee or the superintendent to authorize additional riders on school buses. Winslow was the lone vote against the measure, saying he thought the committee should leave the decision solely with Beach, per the contract signed with First Student. Beach maintained her position against allowing the non-students on the bus, explaining that she wasn’t trying to be adversarial in her decision. “I’d rather have the weight of this on the entire school committee than on the superintendent,” she said.
Next, the committee voted 4 to 1 to allow drivers to bring their young children on the bus with them in car seats once the conditions recommended by school counsel were met. Again, Winslow was the lone vote against. “I still feel it’s a safety issue,” he said.
Desjardins said the next steps will be to change the contract, get the insurance paperwork from First Student, distribute the waiver forms for the drivers to sign, and have those forms on file with the district. Beach estimated that it would take a week or two for all the necessary paperwork to be in place before the drivers could resume the practice.

DiMarzio pleads case to selectmen for yes on ballot question two, repealing Chapter 40b

10-7-10

By Melissa Fales
Reporter

WARE – Resident Christopher DiMarzio appeared before the Board of Selectmen at their Oct. 5 meeting not as a Planning Board member but as a concerned citizen voicing his concerns about ballot question two. “It’s a complicated issue and I think the town really needs to take a stance,” he said, adding that the town’s leaders should offer voters some direction. “It’s a good law for the places that need it and a terrible law for the places that don’t. Chapter 40b should be repealed at this point.”
Often called the “anti-snob” law, Chapter 40b is part of the state’s affordable housing initiative created to prevent communities from creating exclusionary zoning bylaws. Under the law, if less than 10 percent of a town’s available housing stock is deemed “affordable housing,” developers are allowed to circumvent town bylaws and the normal permitting process, bypassing the Planning Board altogether, in order to construct affordable housing developments. Chapter 40b developments go straight to the Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) for one comprehensive permit. “There is very little you could ever do to stop a project in this track,” said DiMarzio. “It pretty much becomes a negotiation at that point, where the town is trying to mitigate the situation.”
DiMarzio, who has also served on the ZBA, has had first-hand experience with the Chapter 40b comprehensive permit process. “I’ve seen how some of this stuff does impact the town,” he said. “The way it’s written, this is one of those laws where you have to throw out the baby and the bathwater to start over.”
DiMarzio said Chapter 40b was supposedly put into place for wealthy towns that have very little affordable housing, particularly those around Route 128 such as Wellesley and Newton where large lots are required for home construction. He called the law “a failure”, noting that most Chapter 40b projects haven’t been built in those areas. DiMarzio said a town like Ware is particularly vulnerable to Chapter 40b misuse because it offers developers town water, town sewer and relatively inexpensive property costs. “We’re prime targets for this type of development,” he said.
DiMarzio said he contested the argument that Ware needed more affordable housing when the Hillside Village development off of North Street was created under Chapter 40b. “By the state’s definition of market-rate rents, every apartment in this community was affordable housing,” said DiMarzio. However, the law only counts those apartments that were constructed under Chapter 40b or other government-subsidized programs as part of the affordable housing stock. DiMarzio argued that rent for the 80 units at Hillside Village was higher than rent had been for the apartments available in town before. Therefore, the Chapter 40b project artificially raised rents across town and actually made housing less affordable for people.
Since residents of a town pay taxes in order to draw on its services, such as police protection and schools, DiMarzio said Chapter 40b has a financial impact on communities. He noted that the town would have received approximately the same amount of taxes generated by the 80 units at Hillside Village had 20 homes been built on the property, with a quarter of the demand placed on the town’s resources.
Executive Director of Community Development Paul E. Hills admitted he was undecided how he would vote on ballot question two, but pointed out that Chapter 40b can be used as a tool for the town to create housing or redevelop existing properties for housing. He said the developers of the Church Street School Senior Housing complex, a Chapter 40b project, have expressed interest in a similar project at the old high school on South Street. “That would be a Chapter 40b project because that zone does not allow the construction of multi-family housing,” Hills explained. DiMarzio suggested that if the town wanted to allow multi-family housing in a zone, it has the ability to revise its zoning bylaws to accommodate the needs of the townspeople while maintaining local control.
According to Hills, 10.4 percent of the town’s housing is considered affordable housing as of Sept. 28. “At present, no one can force a Chapter 40b housing project on us,” said Hills. DiMarzio noted that if the town were to dip down even slightly below 10 percent, it would be vulnerable again, adding that the bill allows for a certain amount of Chapter 40b development over the 10 percent in order to make the projects cost-effective to build.
Board of Selectmen Chairman William R. Braman urged all Ware voters to consider the Chapter 40 b issue as well as the other ballot questions carefully and to read the red Voter Information booklet mailed to all residents by Secretary of State William F. Galvin. Extra copies of the booklet are available at Town Hall.

Family challanged with three autistic sons

By Tim Kane
Staff Writer

WARE – Specialists initially thought delays in Luke’s gross and fine motor skill development would be obstacles never to be overcome. Now they call him a miracle.
For the Guertin family of Pine Street in Ware, treating and managing the complicated spectrum scales of autism has become a way of life. Three of Randy and Karen’s four sons have some form of the life-long learning disorder. A visit to their home last Friday evening revealed a family in the rare act of relative normalcy: Luke was donning his Spiderman costume; Gabriel was busy working on drawings; Edward was sporting hotwheels; and Sam eyed his favorite Toy Story figurines. As for Karen, a music therapist for Alzheimer’s patients, and Randy, an engineer, they were kicking back from a busy week of careers and family life.
Beneath the calm façade of this family tree, however, exists genuine pain, frustration, and fear, and a family stronger because of those challenges. Gabriel, 8, is their only son with no official diagnosis of autism, though Karen says he is showing a tendency toward Asperger’s Syndrome, which unlike other forms of linguistic and cognitive autism spectrum disorders, is characterized by significant difficulties in social interaction, along with restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior and interests. Gabriel’s three younger siblings all now attend SMK Elementary where they each have active individual education plans (IEPs) geared toward improving their autism challenges with regard to speech therapy from in-school specialist Loretta Green. Luke, 6, has the most severe form of autism in the family.
“Everything was delayed with him,” says Karen. “It took a long time for him to stand up and walk.”
Luke was 2 when he had his first early intervention evaluation with specialist Emily Sullivan from the Criterion Child Enrichment Program based in Palmer, which is designed to help get autistic children better prepared for family life and mainstream school Kindergarten and later grades.
And sometimes it can be difficult for parents to accept that a child is different, or even recognize symptoms. “We did not think about a lot of the sensory issues at first,” says Karen. “You don’t think about them not pointing, not making eye contact, or being very echolaliac [repetitive speech].”
Autism can just simply appear out of nowhere. That happened to the Guertins this past summer on a Maine vacation when Sam, 3, became very aggressive and defiant after returning home. “It took him out of a routine,” says Randy, “and he went for a loop.”
A previous autism evaluation for Sam at UMass was borderline, but he now shares social skills problems with his brothers.
Despite the better publicity and programs for autism today, the negative stigma still exists. The Guertins feel incredibly lucky to have such wonderful teachers, specialists and learning environment in Ware Public Schools. But the couple also feels a bit conflicted.
“I’ve always had a terrible fear of labeling – people looking at our sons differently,” says Karen. “We had to fight for some special services [a common challenge among parents of autistic children attending public schools].”
And the expense of treating autistic children would be overwhelming if not for state and federal grants that help fund the Criterion Center in Palmer. In light of last summer’s proposed drastic cuts to Early Intervention centers, a new law passed in August by Gov. Deval Patrick forces the state’s health insurers to now cover autism therapies, which in Karen’s mind will pay off down the road with fewer SPED program and transportation costs in later grades. “Randy and I certainly could not afford to pay for services out of pocket.”
Having three sons with autism is equally challenging for their parents as well. Karen says she has learned new levels of communicating with a low voice and Randy has mastered a penchant for patience.
“When people think of autism, they think of Rain Man or kids wearing helmets for protection,” says Karen. “It has become more prevalent in our society because of better diagnosis and treatment. It’s not just ‘he’s a slow learner’ or ‘a little quirky.’ You can’t cure it.”
But the Guertins are managing it well – one son at a time.

– Tim Kane is editor of the Ware River News.