By Mary Macedo, Neighb News Correspondent
At its meeting on Monday, 10/21/19, the Fairhaven Board of Public Works accepted a few driveway waivers, and the new water and sewer abatement policy. The board also discussed the possibility of cameras at the town parks.
The board met with Antone Medeiros about a driveway waiver on 68 Weeden Road. Mr. Medeiros explained that his brother Bob Medeiros and himself were the contractors for the driveway.
He explained that the property has two driveways and they would be widening one of the existing driveways by about three feet.
The board approved the waiver unanimously.
In another matter the board met with John Hindes and Sharon Labonte about a driveway waiver for 130 Ebony Street.
Mr. Hindes explained that they would be tearing the down the current cottage that and would be building a 1600 square foot ranch.
Mr. Hindes said that they would like to widen the existing driveway from 14 feet to 20 feet.
The board voted unanimously to grant the waiver.
In another matter the board reopened their discussion about the new water and sewer abatement policy.
In recent meetings the board has dealt with a few water and sewer abatement issues. The board was advised by a small claims court judge that the BPW should come up with a water and sewer abatement policy.
At previous meeting the board discussed the possibility of creating a system allowing residents to view what can and cannot be abated, creating an application, and including a list of documents needed to successfully get an abatement.
At the last BPW meeting the board met in an executive session to discuss and finalize the new abatement policy.
At Monday’s meeting the board wanted to have a final discussion and vote to implement the new policy.
After looking through the policy board members Frank Coelho and Robert Hobson suggested that they put the date on the top of the revised policy.
Superintendent Vincent Furtado agreed and said after the board votes he will add the date to the final policy.
Mr. Hobson explained that for future abatement issues he would like the Water Superintendent to attend BPW water and sewer abatement appointments at meetings.
Mr. Hobson said it would be helpful to have the superintendent there to explain the issues about the sewer and water abatements to the residents.
He also said it would also be nice to have the water superintendent there to help make a recommendation to the board on whether to grant the abatement or not.
Mr. Furtado explained that the written water and sewer abatement policy says exactly what can and cannot be abated, so they will not need the recommendation of the water superintendent, but Mr. Furtado agreed that it would be nice to have the water superintendent there to explain water meter readings and other issues to the residents.
The board voted unanimously to adopt the abatement policy.
The board also met with Christine Parks about adding a security camera at Joshua Slocum Park.
Ms. Parks explained that at her residence on Lafayette Street she has had issues with children at the park and most recently has sustained $1300 worth of damage to her stone wall.
Ms. Parks told the board she did not know if it may be that some kids were on the wall or jumping on it, but it got damaged. She said she had no way of catching the kids and spoke to the police about the issue as well.
Ms. Parks explained that she did not just want the camera for the sake of her yard but also to have surveillance at the park because people hang around there at night sometimes.
She suggested possibly putting a security camera on the pump station that is across the street.
Mr. Hobson agreed that maybe putting security cameras on all the pump stations or at all the parks would be a good idea.
He said there are security cameras at Hoppy’s Landing and at the tow beach, so why not add some cameras at the parks for extra safety.
BPW Chairperson Brian Wotton said that it is something they can definitely look into. He said that they would have to look into the cost of adding cameras to all parks and talk with the town, as well as the police department.
BPW member Cameron Durant agreed that they should discuss where they want cameras to be put as well as looking into seeing if there would be any grants to help mitigate the cost.
The board agreed to table the discussion and do some research on the topic.
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