From Edmoore4@aol.com Thu Jul 14 12:54:57 2005 Date: Thu, 14 Jul 2005 12:12:20 -0400 (EDT) From: Bob Moore To: Framingham Neighbors Subject: [frambors] JULY 14 MOOREccl.07-14-2005 . . . . . . . .48 Hed : The tortuous trail To making changes By BOB MOORE A month ago, things appeared so settled and immovable in that summer heat that more of the same old seemed in order. Strengthen the Board of Selectmen? Move the Salvation Army to help get something doing Downtown? Another fruitless debate over SMOC's invasion of Winter Street? Forget it. Well, a month has passed and action on non-profit social services has ballooned - in Town Meeting and in action facing selectmen, as more facts come to the fore in the wake of SMOC's plan to site a center for recovering addicts at 517 Winter St., in the heart of a prime residential neighborhood. For one thing, a move is underway to call a Special Town Meeting on Aug. 3 - with only one article on the agenda. That article would amend town bylaws to restore provisions in state law that requires a Planning Board review of SMOC's Winter Street plan and all other proposals involving use of the Dover Amendment to block local review. This action is just one step that opens up action on the Board of Selectmen's goal to direct a revitalization of Downtown. At Tuesday's meeting the board learned for the first time that the Salvation Army's prime location in the heart of Downtown is locked into that former retail site because of what could be called an unimaginable mess. Leave that for a moment and return to the Winter Street neighborhood's battle with SMOC and unimagined problems. Until sometime in the Nineties someone slipped through Town Meeting a local bylaw. That change erased state law - POW - that said any proposal employing the Dover Amendment had to be reviewed locally - no free pass. Through that one article Town Meeting is being asked to restore the [local] power to have a say in Chapter 40A proposals. The discontent with the free pass moves of non-profits has grown to the point where selectmen called for a summit meeting of social agencies to what could be done to reach an agreement. Say. a Pilot Program - Payment in Lieu of Taxes? To ease the local burden? But the agencies - SMOC, Advocates and Wayside - all declined. In their refusal to attend, they let it be known that they had the law on their side. >From Jim Cuddy, SMOC's reply was especially sharp : SMOC will not and cannot participate in any attempts to regulate the sighting of homes for individuals in recovery from substance abuse, etc. In effect, bug off. Cuddy attacked objectors charges that SMOC's absorption of properties was causing a decline in neighborhood values and adding to the town's must-give services tax burden. He cited spending more than $3 million in rehabbing rundown properties. He did not mention that the service of 15 families was being moved from Downtown to Uptown - properties that brought in considerable tax revenue. PILOT? - But it is a little-noticed addition to the budget passed by Town Meeting last month that is raising interest still further. Proposed by Ted Cosgrove of 597 Winter St. that is heightening concern in Town Meeting, selectmen and free pass objectors from all sectors Cosgrove won authorization of $1,000 to the budget to study the cost effect on all departments of the benefits accorded to non-profits [SMOC, Advocates and Wayside]. One by one. Also, a special 10-member committee to make a determination of the viability of a Pilot Program and report at the next Town Meeting [not on Aug. 3, more likely in November]. Members to be named - five by the Board of Selectmen and five by Moderator Ed Noonan. If you witnessed Tuesday's meeting you'll remember that the debate on this measure from Town Meeting drew spirited discussion. Mostly on recognition on how much power this would give the 10 Framingham residents. And how much it had a chance to awaken thinking among officials and voters. Noonan outlined the measure and its reason, and pointed out that it was not a TM resolution. It is part of the budget and calls for serious consideration. Noonan pointed out that he and Cosgrove conferred on its careful wording before it was offered at TM. Noonan offered to chair or co-chair with Katie Murphy and to call the committee together until they elect officers. ARMY'S MESS - So much for that discovery of facts unknown and unexpected. Now to the unbelievable stumbling block in revitalizing Downtown. Wow - what we don't know. When selectmen decided that one way to enhance Downtown Revitalization would be to find new quarters for the Salvation Army, right in the midst of what is intended to be an inviting Downtown Retail District, they needed to tidy up the untidy, often unruly gathering clinging to the front at Concord and Howard streets. The roof fell in. Ask that help agency to get lost! Why couldn't this be done quietly? The answer is selectmen did not know who to approach. Two branches of the agency are located in the building once occupied by Gilchrist's retail didn't cross paths. Seems the doors that connect front and rear at kept locked at all times. The front section is devoted to the free meals served daily to the homeless who await the evening meal on the street outside glass doors. And the rear section handles the thrift shop where people can dump off the goods that are then sold. Selectman Ginger Esty, whose family has been for generations strong supporters of the Army, wanted to know why the meals couldn't be served at the kitchen to the rear and display the thrift shop in the retail front? Esty pointed out that it is the crowd in front that is the sore spot. Not possible. The locked doors divide the two branches and the drop-off spot has the only dock. The final blow. Neither local major can make any move. Deciding to sell and move could only be done in Boston, the majors agreed. Or New York, they hastily added. Agreed, that the Army does great thing nationwide, but here, making a move lies with selectmen or entrepreneurs. If someone can find a buyer then maybe the site can return to retail after 25 years. If someone can find another Downtown site for the Army it can do the help that it does best. Uh, making changes is not that easy. ______________________________________________________ You can reach Bob Moore at _edmoore4@aol.com_ (mailto:edmoore4@aol.com) or at 1-508-620-1449.