Home | About | Archives | RSS Feed |
BYOB, Appointments on North Adams Agenda
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — A local establishment is asking to go BYOB — as in bring your own [beer or wine] beverage.
The mayor's office is forwarding the request by Big Shirl's Kitchen to the City Council on Tuesday night, July 12, for review. Big Shirl's owners Renee and Mark Lapier are hoping the city will adopt a policy related to BYOB within the city's borders.
A number of other municipalities, such as Needham, Woburn and Westborough, allow the practice. According to an opinion from the city solicitor, establishments with liquor licenses cannot allow BYOB but non-licensed can, although the municipality has some control. They may not, however, "uncork" or otherwise handle the alcohol. BYOB is limited to beer and/or wine.
Mayor Richard Alcombright is asking the council to refer the matter back to his office and to the appropriate council committee.
City Councilor Marie Harpin will be sworn in as the governor's appointment to the Housing Authority.
Also on the agenda is a host of appointments and permission for a sewer connection. The mayor will present the final tallies on some accounts that will close out the 2011 fiscal year.
Tags: budget, appointments, BYOB |
Board Appointments on Council Agenda
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. - the City Council has a light agenda on Tuesday night, with several postponed communications - which may be postponed again - and a handful of appointments.
Mayor Richard Alcombright is recommending two new appointments and the re-appointment of Kyle Hanlon to the Planning Board; the reappointment of Paul Marino to the Historical Commission and the appointment of Councilor Michael Boland to the Human Services Commission.
Also on the agenda:
• A request submitted to the city late last year to eliminate the industrial zoning behind the former K-K Home Mart building. The 3-acre parcel owned by Curran Highway Development LLC is split into two zones - commercial and industrial - with the commercial zoning being the predominate. The council had submitted the matter to the city solicitor before making a decision.
• A communication from the mayor on a new ordinance and fees for hawkers and peddlers. The mayor is objecting to a suggestion for a separate panel to oversee events. "Another level of bureaucracy would only add steps to an already confusing process," wrote the mayor.
• A communication from former Councilor Gailanne Cariddi on a traffic concerns.
The full agenda and minutes from the last meeting can be read below.
Tags: agenda, appointments |
Two Vying for North Adams Council Seat
Robert Moulton Jr. submitted a letter of interest in rejoining the board when Cariddi resigns. |
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Robert R. Moulton Jr. and David A. Lamarre, runners-up in the last City Council election, are now vying to be appointed Councilor Gailanne Cariddi's seat.
Cariddi will be sworn in as state representative on Jan. 5 and will resign from the council at the following meeting on Jan. 11.
Council President Ronald A. Boucher said the council will move quickly and hopes to appoint somebody to the seat at the subsequent meeting on Jan. 25.
"I need to have that seat filled. We have a lot of important votes coming up and I need nine councilors," Boucher said after Tuesday's meeting.
Moulton and Lamarre, chairman of the License Board, were the two highest vote-getters not elected to the council last election in a race so tight that it triggered the city's first recount in a decade.
The initial count showed Lamarre beating out Keith Bona for ninth place by only three votes. After election officials spent two days hand counting the ballots, Bona claimed victory by only two votes.
David Lamarre lost the last election by only two votes but could soon be appointed to the board to fill the vacant seat. |
Moulton was the only incumbent beaten in the election. The top nine vote-getters are elected and Moulton finished at No. 11 behind Lamarre, one of eight challengers vying against seven incumbents.
The council was down two after Councilor Clark Billings resigned earlier in the fall and Richard Alcombright mounted a run for mayor. Billings' announced departure — he'd retired to Rhode Island in the spring but kept his address in North Adams during the summer — had prompted questions about filling vacant seats.
In the past, the council had appointed the 10th highest vote-getter but that appears to be more tradition than rule. Billings had said he'd delayed his formal resignation to keep politics out of the picture, considering it was an election year. No. 10 in the 2008 election was one-term councilor Christopher Tremblay who at first indicated interest in either being appointed or in running again, but changed his mind weeks later.
In the end, David Bond, the highest vote-getter of the challengers, was seated immediately after the 2009 election.
Candidates must submit a letter of interest and have an opportunity to give a presentation to the council before being appointed to the vacant seat, said Boucher.
Moulton has submitted his letter and Lamarre has verbally expressed interest, according to the council president, but has not filed a letter with the city yet.
Boucher called for interested candidates from the public at a previous council meeting.
"Everybody knows she is leaving. The word is out there," Boucher said about Cariddi.
Cariddi won election for the 1st Berkshire District in the state House of Representatives in November.
Attempts to reach both Moulton and Lamarre on Tuesday night were unsuccessful.
Tags: appointments |
|