The Archives

The Saugus Town Meeting concluded last night shortly before midnight. Much of the time was spent on the Hillside Protection article. In its own words its purpose is: "to preserve and enhance landscape amenities by encouraging the maximum retention of natural topographic features, such as drainage swales, streams, slopes, ridge lines, rock outcroppings, vistas, natural plant formations, and trees; to minimize the effects of grading to ensure that the natural character of steep slopes is retained; to minimize water-runoff and soil-erosion problems incurred in grading of steep slopes; and to encourage innovative architectural, landscaping, circulation, and site design". In its actual application, it will only apply to extreme slopes. There was lengthy discussion on the various ramifications of the Zoning By-laws change it proposed, and no fewer than three different amendments were made to it (one actually reducing the effects of another), and it was even suggested that it be bounced back to the Planning Board for further review. In the end, it was passed with ten Town Meeting Members voting against.

Other highlights include the passing of an article requiring people to display house numbers of not less than 4" in height on their homes to better enable emergency vehicles to locate particular addresses (one Town Meeting Member voted against it), the failure of the rezoning of a parcel of land on Warden St. from heavy industrial to single family residential (one Town Meeting Member voted for it), and the failure to accept a rezoning swap off of Route 1 behind the Ethan Allen Gallery. This last one is of particular interest as it divided Town Meeting almost in half but failed to get a majority.

Also, the Saugus Town Hall would like it to be known that there is a new job opening. Details can be seen on the Saugus Government Job Postings Page.

Saugus Town Meeting continues tonight at 7:30 PM in the Middle School. Saugus.net will as usual be there.

Saugus.net is now searchable! Look on the left hand side and scroll down to find the search window. For example, if you enter "Cliftondale" (without the quotes) in the window and press the "Search" button, you will get a listing of all the Saugus.net pages that contain the word "Cliftondale". If you select "verbose" instead of "terse" descriptions, the search program will attempt to display a portion of each matching page with the matching words in bold (the word "attempt" is used here because overly graphical pages will not get summaries). Also, multiple words can be entered, and you have the option of requiring all of them or any of them to satisfy a match. For example, the entry "zoning board" will get more results if "Any" is chosen instead of "All". Finally, note that this search facility is only capable of picking up pages directly hosted by Saugus.net -- it will not see off-site pages.

Over the next few weeks expect some changes in the Assorted Information pages. Some of them have so many entries now we're going to have to alphabetize the entries and/or separate them by category.

Also, remember that the continued Saugus Town Meeting is skipping this week and will be on next Monday (as listed in the Event Calendar).

We've added a page covering the Saugus Curbside Recycling Program. We'll remember the blue & green schedule so you don't have to. Its permanent home will be on the General Information page, along with the atomic clock, weather information, etc.

A new Search Interface has been added to our comprehensive glossary of Computer Terms and Filename Extensions. It should make looking up a specific topic much easier.

Highlights of yesterday's Town Meeting include the just barely passing of an article to raise and appropriate the sum of money required to pay the Northeast Regional School District (a.k.a. the "Voke") for fiscal year 1998-1999 (the dispute was over how much Saugus has to pay; Saugus is expected to pay $6,860 per student while all but two other member towns pay less -- in fact North Reading pays only $2,349 per student); the unanimous passing of an article to help participate in Help for Abused Women and Their Children, Inc. (HAWC); the unanimous passing of an article to repair the Saugus Tree Farm; the unanimous passing of an article amended to fund $5,000 toward the restoring and relocating the historic mural "The Founding of Saugus"; and the passing of an article to amend section 504.1 of the Town By-Laws to give the Building Committee the right to inspect construction in progress (while the walls are still open).

The Internet problems that started on the 11^th now appear to be mostly fixed. The term "mostly" is being used here because a couple of companies are still reporting residual problems. If you're having unusual difficulty connecting to the web or any specific pages, you might still be being affected.

Saugus Town Meeting continues tonight at 7:30 PM in the Middle School. Saugus.net will of course be there. Also, the New England area Internet problems persist.

One of the major ISPs covering the northeastern US had major problems with one of its backbone machines this morning at around 1AM. They patched it up at around 2AM but it's been a little erratic ever since. If you're from the northeastern US or are trying to view a web page based in the northeastern US (especially New England), you may experience some problems today.

The big issue of the Town Meeting was whether or not to appropriate $725,000 (to be transferred from the sum of money borrowed for the Capital Improvement Plan) for the purpose of developing architectural drawings for replacing the Veterans' Memorial School. Although many Town Meeting members questioned the demographic study presented to support the article (it predicts the school population will steadily decrease through 2007) it passed with only one vote against. Parents were however cautioned to watch the project closely as it goes through its later stages in order to ensure that the resulting school(s) will in fact have adequate capacity -- it is now out of Town Meeting's hands.

Other highlights include the unanimous approval of plans to renovate the Town Boat Ramp on Ballard Street, the temporary tabling of the article to appropriate a sum of money to pay the Northeast Regional School District (a.k.a. the "Voke") for fiscal year 1998-1999, and the referral to next year's Town Meeting of the article for passing the control of retired Town Employees' cost of living adjustments from the Town Meeting to the Town Retirement Board.

Town Meeting continues tonight at 7:30 PM in the Middle School. Saugus.net will of course be there.

The Town Hall wishes it to be known that there are two new job openings:

1. Town of Saugus - Public Library. Part-time libary assistant. Three evenings per week, 5:00 - 8:45 PM; alternating Saturdays (Sept. - May) 8:45 - 4:45 (with ¹/₂ hour unpaid meal break). $8.75 per hour to start (no benefits).

   Job includes working at automated circulation desk and assisting library patrons -- other related duties as assigned. Library experience, customer service, and computer skills a plus. Must be high school graduate or equivalent. Résumés / Applications will be accepted until 6/11/98 at Personnel Dept., Town Hall, 25 Main St., Saugus, MA.

2. Town of Saugus - Police Department. Full-time civilian dispatcher.

   Receive calls on regular and E-911 telephone systems, make calls over radio and telephone to service vehicles dispatching them to specific locations and situations to take corrective action. Will be responsible for maintaining proper records of messages received and sent. Will be expected to maintain good public relations when answering calls from citizens and expected to perform certain related clerical work. Will train for this position. Résumés / Applications will be accepted until 6/11/98 at Personnel Dept., Town Hall, 25 Main St., Saugus, MA.

The big issue during last night's session of Town Meeting concerned the request for more money by the schools. While most seemed generally in favor of supporting the schools, the problem was that no viable source for the additional money was suggested. The argument was presented stating that Saugus does not spend enough money on its children and was countered by the fact that Saugus currently spends over half of its total money on the schools, with most of it going directly to the School Committee for appropriation. The idea was presented stating that the money planned for the possible future Town Green could be used to help out the schools, but it was pointed out that no such money currently exists, and even if it did, it probably would not be a legal use of the funds under the guidelines of Proposition 2¹/₂. Furthermore, it was pointed out that the Town Green project is on indefinite hold anyway pending the resolution of the problems with the Veterans School; probably any capital improvement money will have to go to providing a replacement school. Other suggestions were made including an increase in the water / sewer bills and a Proposition 2¹/₂ override. In the end, the requested extra money was denied the schools although thirteen voted in favor.

There was also a smaller request for extra money for the Police Dept. to purchase two additional cruisers and replace some faulty computer equipment. This request had the same primary problem as the school one -- there was no additional money available to be so allocated. It too was denied; four voted in favor.

Also, our Calendar page is up in a fledgling state. We'll post every event that we're told about, so if you're running an event and want to let the world know when and where it is, please let us know the details either by our submission form on the page itself (preferred) or by e-mail, FAX, or phone and we'll post it for you.

Town Meeting continues tonight at 7:30 PM in the Middle School. Saugus.net will of course be there.