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Public Meeting: Compreshensive Plan for the Management of Morses Pond |
Tuesday, December 13, 2005 at 7:30pm in Police Station Conference root
The Morses Pond Ad Hoc Committee, which has been meeting for 18 months in an effort to arrive at a long-term plan for Morses Pond, has completed its primary mission. The Comprehensive Plan for the Management of Morses Pond has now been finalized by the Committee and approved individually by the three town boards (Natural Resources, Recreation, and DPW) that, together with FOMP, comprise the Ad Hoc Committee. The Plan is a refinement of the issues and recommendations that have been publicly presented by the committee's consultant, Ken Wagner, at several public meetings over the past year. The text of the Plan is too large (180 pages) to attach to this memo, but everyone can read it on the Town Web Site in the Natural Resources Committee (NRC) section.
The full Plan calls for the expenditure of $2.26 million over 5 years, so shepherding this Plan through the Town budgeting process is now the challenge. NRC is the "owner" of the Plan, and so will be taking the lead in presentations to the various Town committees, including Advisory, Community Preservation (CPC), and Selectmen, all in preparation for Town Meeting next spring. NRC has also scheduled a public presentation of the final Plan for Tuesday, December 13 at 7:30 pm in the Police Station Conference Room. This meeting will be a forum for asking questions about the content of the plan. FOMP members should plan on attending this meeting!
In addition to the public meeting, there is a CPC meeting in the Town Hall on Thursday, December 8 at 7:30 pm where the Plan will be discussed (CPC already heard a full presentation of the Plan by Ken Wagner last Tuesday). Since CPC contributed 50% of the funding for the Ad Hoc Committee's study, it is now critical that CPC been seen taking the lead in funding at least some part of the capital expenditures of the Plan. FOMP has already written a letter of support for the Plan to CPC, but FOMP members can reinforce that support by attending the Thursday meeting as observers.
Please see NRC's official announcement of the Dec. 13 public meeting. See you there!
Barry Herring FOMP Chairman
This was a very positive meeting, the plan generally speaks for itself and is quite impressive. FOMP will need to support the plan as it will be a warrant article at Town Meeting in March 2006.