PLYMPTON– On Monday, June 13, Selectmen held an at times emotional meeting where many residents expressed further concerns regarding Carver’s “Urban Redevelopment” plans.
“Urban Redevelopment” appears to move ahead
At a meeting held in Carver the week before, without public comment, according to a video record of the meeting, the Carver Redevelopment Authority voted to move another step forward with its “urban redevelopment” plans, sparking renewed outrage from the public.
The project, affecting North Carver and Plympton abutters along the Plympton/Carver line in the area of Montello Street and Heather’s Path, near Route 44, would see a mixed-use development and even has plans for a hotel in the industrially zoned area.
To date, the plans appear to be preliminary at best, where the hotel is shown on a river that doesn’t exist, or there is no hotel at all on various iterations of the plans. Several residents from Carver or who are landowners in Carver but have Plympton addresses have had their properties threatened to be taken by eminent domain for the commercial development.
This had Plympton residents back before the Board Monday, begging them to do something. Despite the apparent unanimity of the Selectmen against the project, the Board has little authority to do anything but attempt to negotiate with Carver to mitigate the impact of the development on Plympton residents, which they vow to do.
“They said they are going to ‘move’ my well. Where to? My front yard is septic,” said Melissa Singletary, whose property may be one of the most affected if the project were to move forward. “They are going to take my whole back yard…I’m going to have to walk away from that house.”
The Board has said that they are going to meet with Carver selectmen to discuss the project, and as well look into asking Carver to mitigate the project so that it doesn’t become a cost to Plympton tax-payers– through traffic calming measures, or signage, or whatever they can come up with.
When asked if traffic mitigation would really solve the problem, Selectman Christine Joy said she didn’t know, but that they are going to try to work something out with Carver to help the affected Plympton residents.
(Lack of) Town House Security
Officials have given out too many keys to Town House, and the time to change the locks is here, say Selectmen.
The practice of giving out keys to whole committees or casually copying keys is now a relic of the past as security concerns over Town House are prompting the re-issuing of keys. No specific incident was mentioned, just a generally “loose” policy on who has keys.
In the future, only those who work in the building or chair a committee will be given keys that will be expected to be turned in at the end of a chair’s tenure on a committee or an employee’s work with the town.
The idea of a more modern card reader, such as one found at hotels, or an RFID card reader that one might find in a workplace, was floated. Dale Pleau, Town Coordinator, will look into the expense of such a system.
The advantage of such a system would be that keys could easily be deactivated without an employee or chairperson having to physically turn in the key, and that access can be logged on a computer.
The Board of Selectmen will next meet on Monday, June 20, at 6 p.m., Town House.