Comprehensive Patriot
Place Review
Committee Meeting
Minutes of November
27, 2006
Chairman Mark Sullivan opened the meeting at 7:05 p.m.
Members present: John Michelmore, Arthur Barrett, Neil Forster, Bert Delaney, Paul Feeney, Bill Buckley, Maryanne Baker, and Arthur Muldoon (alternates)
The minutes of November 21st will be reviewed and approved either via e-mail or at next meeting.
Chief O’Leary opened the Police Department presentation with his impact statement (attached). Sgt. John Hannon followed with a power point presentation (attached).
Sgt. Hannon related a discussion he had with Chief Gould of the North Attleboro Police Department. Chief Gould mentioned a few things that he wished he’d had in place before the completion of The Emerald Square Mall. Sgt. Hannon said a necessary addition would be a holding area for folks who need to be detained. Also, radio connection/communication should be discussed with the developer, as many of the department radios cannot penetrate the buildings. Another would be to have Public Safety Parking locations as well as multiple access points to the facilities.
Chief O’Leary informed the committee that the patrol force is the backbone of the department and needs to be increased. At this point we’re running with the same size force we had thirty years ago, we have three units and on the midnight to 8:00 a.m. shift there are only two cars and one supervisor. There should be four cars out at all times along with a supervisor, totaling 21 officers and adequate supervisors. The Chief also reminded the committee that time is a factor, to hire new officers you must interview them, complete a background check, and have them complete physical and psychological exams. The next enrollment for the Police Academy is April in Plymouth; after graduation there must be time for mentoring/field training.
Chief O’Leary stated that the folks who conducted the RKG Report did meet with him, however their calculations were not ones that he agreed with. The Chief believes these were not valid calculations to use since they did not account for the increase in population that will be entering the town to shop, eat, etc.
Randy Scollins remarked that he found the methodology used for the Report was valid however, it was not the correct methodology for this project. It was taken from a book written in 1970. He suggests that the case study method, or bottoms up method be used. He mentioned that a response to the R.F.P. was going to be followed up with a recommendation to the B.O.S. the following evening. Randy related that, when asked, the consultant said he would need approximately two months to complete a new study.
Neil Forster brought up the editorial from the November 22nd issue of the Foxboro Reporter and motioned that it be added to this weeks minutes, all approved and it is attached.
Paul Feeney stated that the RKG report has pretty much been rendered useless, and that the town needs to hear how this project will impact our town. The Kraft Organization should absorb all the increases to municipal increases due to their development.
John Michelmore agreed with Mr. Feeney and stated that the revenue of 2.1 million per year must cover the impact on the town departments. We should be able to show that the impact will cost us more than that and perhaps even then we’d be loosing money.
Bill Buckley questioned Gordon Greene about the traffic meetings. Mr. Greene reported that they are still in discussions with the Kraft Organization, Planning Board has asked for a revised Traffic study from the Kraft Organization. The Planning Board’s consultant found the original study to be substantially inadequate.
Chairman Sullivan reminded the committee that we’ll meet December 4th to pull together all of our reports and give a presentation to the Board of Selectmen on December 12th.
Motion to adjourn at 9:25, all were in favor.
Submitted
Lynda Walsh