HomeMy WebLinkAbout1982-11-29 Board of Selectmen MinutesNOVEMBER 15, 1982 (Continued)
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MERRIMACK COLLEGE WINE & MALT LICENSE (Continued):
they came on campus. Their policy at this time was to let college students
bring g~ests who had to sign a guest book; and if they weren't of drinking
age, they .weren't given alcoholic I.D. bracelets. The student had started
causing trouble and another student felt he had to get him out of the lounge,
and that's when the trouble started. Father Gillen noted that it wasn't the
first time they have had trouble with this student; and as a result of this
incident, he is no longer at Merrimack College. He stated that they do not
intendto tolerate this kind of behavior. He also noted that Perkins Lounge
was closed for the first 2 months this year so they could sit back and try to
work out a policy that would work for everyone. Since this incident happened
they are no longer going to allow quests in the lounge at all. Selectm~.
Joyce expressed his concern that an underage person is allowed in the lounge
at all. Father Murray stated that they rely on peer presure'to keep the
underage kids from drinking. He also noted that they plan on drafting more
stringent policies concerning the lounge. Selectman McEvoy made a motion to
suspend Merrimack College's liquor license for 2 weeks starting November 29,
1982. Selectman Graham seconded it. It was unanimously approved. Selectman
Joyce noted that he would like to see Merrimack College redraft their policy
and to submit it to the Board for their review before they begin serving
alcohol again. Selectman Graham stated that he hopes this action is brought
back to the students to let them'know that the Selectmen are very concerned
about this matter.
Karen A. Robertson,
November 29, 1982,
The Board of Selectmen held their re~tlar meet~ing on th/s date with all members present.
warrant was approved as submitted.
JURORS:
The following six persons were drawn for jury duty on January 3, 1983:
Salem (Grand Juror) Loretta Hayes, 89 Court Street.
Newburyport James Winning, 547 Salem Street
Lawrence George Rennie, 266 Lacy Street
Salem. Superior Ct. Muriel E. Lundgren, 444 Ss]em St., Santo Messina, 268 Mass. Ave. and
Jerry N. Kegley, 45 Kingston Street.
CHESTNUT ST. RT'~ 11~¢.
Acting Secretary*******~alph R. Joyce,
- 7/ ~.~ Clerk
The
Letters received from Bud Cyr, Highway Surveyor, contained recommendations on the
of Chestnut Street and Rt. 114 and the intersection of Mill Road and Chestnut Street. He ~..:~
recommended that the Town, or State, approach the owners of the triangle of land on the n.w.
corners of the intersection and try to obtain by purchase, easement or eminent domain, enough
land to redesign the intersection to make it safer and also have better visibility in both
The land required to dc this work would not be a great deal of square footage because it is at
narrow point of the trianglar piece, and it would not impose any hardship on the owner. He,
stated that he was strongly opposed to dead-ending or closing any streets intersecting with Et.
114. He recommended that stop signs be installed 6n Chestnut Street at both sides, of the inter-
section of Mill Road.because of the increased traffic at this intersection.
Letter received from th.~.State District Highway Engineer, Sherman Eidleman, stated that he was
improving the visibility' from Chestnut Street in to Rt. 114 and installing new road symbol type
signs;to alert motorists on Rt. 114 of the side road. (Chestnut St.) This location is not considered
critical therefore he will not consider any type of warning lights or signals at this time. He
does.agree, however, with Bud Cyr that a potentially hazardous situation exists at Chestnut St.
on the north side of Rt. 114 and r~commends that this location be closed off (with highway guard)
and'the few vehicles using this roadway use Mill Street. As noted above, Cyr is opposed to
closing off any intersecting with Rt. 114. Dr. Herbert Meyer thinks it is an excellent idead to
close off Chestnut Street on the north'side of Rt. 114. As Cyr was at another meeting in the
building, the matter was set aside until he was free.
POLICE MATRONS:
Letter'receivo.d from Police C..hief Donnelly requesting the following persons be appointed to the
position of Police Matrons. ~y unanunous vote the following persons were appoint'ed Polide'
Geraldine Bradley, Mary Hanover, C. Susan Northam and Beverly Reardon.
RESIGNATIONS:
Letters of resignation were received from E. William Hansen from the Cable TV Committee and
William Blaekstoek from the Personnel Board. It was voted to accept the resignations with regret
and have a letter of thanks and appreciation for their past sarviees sent to each one.
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT:
Allan Breen addressed the Board of Selectmen on the dismissal of Gayton Osgood, Community
Development Dire.trot. He.stated that after the last ten day.s, the .Board of Selectmen have
had the opportumty to realize what they have done to an individual m North Ando'~ar. ~
4~ November 29, 1982 (continued) Page 2.
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT (continued)
Allen Breen continued to say I hope you people are r~en enough enought to admit your mistakes
regarding Gayton Osgood. If you're not, I think /n the best interests of the Town that yourself,
Chairman McEvoy, Selectmen Graham and Selectman DiFruscio should resign from the Board of
Selectmen. Selectman Graham stated that since a week ago Thursday in which we dismissed Mr.
Osgood things have developed that have caused me severe pain to say the least. And one Of them
is an article that appeared in the local newspaper. The implicstion /n that article in the newspaper
is that three members of this Board evidently acted together in dismission Mr. Osgood. I find
that patently untrue. I'm going to read a paragraph out of that article and I'm going to ask the
Board for their comments." The two Selectmen in the minority, Charles A. Salisbury and Ralph R.
;royce were visibly shaken by the vote and procedure used by their colleagues leading up to the
meeting, salisbury charged that h.e had been lef~ out of deliberations before the meeting whic
included to unannouned secret sessions held. on a Saturday and Sunday two weeks ago. /
One meeting was reportedly held in D/Fruscm,s construction trailer." I will m~r State and ask
any member of this Board has any comment to make when I state that at those two meetings
called out there on Saturday and Sunday that all members of the Board of Selectmen were
present. In addition, Mr. Osgood was there at the Sunday Meeting'. Has anyone any comments?
Mr. Chairman I would like to say that I find that paragraph completely inaccurate. Ct. McEvoy
stated that there was no question that the paragraph was inaccurate, all five of us were at the
meeting, I called the meeting at the request of a member of the Board and I believe when an
emergency such as this arises that we have a right to have a meeting to discuss it if in fact it
is in the best interests of the Town. But all five members of the Board were present. Select-
man Graham stated that to me is very irresponsible reporting because what they have done
whoever wrote the artiale and I think we all know who did it is a reflection on three members
of this Board, I think it is uncalled for. There is one other question I wou]d like to clarify.
Ihm somewhat cOnfused because I do not know what Mr. Salisbury meant because I know he
had some comments in there and I was just remembering, Charlie, that you were h~ving a
discussion with the Chairman, !reaily couldn,t here what you were saying. Did you say, at
any time, that three members of this Board were meeting separately to discuss this issue?
Salisbury replied?Yes, I did.,, I would still say so, that there were two meetings to discuss
this issue. The subject of those meetings was to review Byron Matthews meetings with
two members of this Board and Brian Sullivan. That was the essential purpose of the
Saturday morning meeting, there was a brief discussion of Gayton Osgood. The meeting here
on Sunday , at the end of the meeting Mr. DiPruscion became very visibly upset With Mr.
Osgood and that Was the first indication that I had . Mr. Graham interrupted Salisbury to
say if you remember, Mr. MeEvoy and I had gone by that time ..... In your case, there must
have been~dise~ission between you to act, subsequent to those two meetings that I was not
told about. It was announced to me Monday night. Graham replied, "That is a very serious
char~,.e, Mr. Salisbury, Salisbury sa/d, "I made it, and IUd stand behind it." Graham replied,
"How can you possibly make that statement? I, for one, defy you to prove it because I
never participated in a meeting and don,t tell me I did! And don't you get up'here, and
claim you can say that because you are a liar! Chairman MeEvoy interceded and said hold it
charl:'e, I know you are upset. But I will repeat what you said, there was no meeting whatsoever
in regards to Mr. Osgood before Mr. Salisbury was notified of it and Mr. DiFruscio can
make a statement if he wants to and if he doesn't, fine. Mr. Graham said I just want tO
make it clear, Mr. Chairman, that as far as I was concerned I never participated in a dis-
cussion relative to Mr. Osgood's position in Town with any member of this Board. I made
that decision on my own and I would like to say in addition that I find it very difficult
knowing the personalities of yourself and Mr. DiPruseio and also knowing my position on
several issues coming to this Board that anybody is going to convince anybody about any-
thing if they don't believe it. ' Chairman MeEvoy said, in regards to Mr. Breen's statement,
said to answer you from my position that everytime we make a decision up here and we don't
agree with you does that mean, whether it's us three or the other two, whoever it happens
to be, does that mean we have to resign? Is that what youre saying? Breen replied, "It's
quite obvious you don't have the minutes to that meeting. Thursday night's meeting."
McEvoy stated that the young lady that was here is not working, so we don,t have them,
Alice is on vacation but we have the minutes to be written up. Breen, just a point of
clarification.. I realize that newspapers don't always print what is said but did you know
whs~you were voting for, Mr. McEvoy. MeEvoy replied, "Yes, I did. That statement
that I made in the paper I thought that Mr. Graham made the statement to ask for Mr/
Osgood's resignation, that is what I thought he said but he said, "dismissal.""That was
my fault~ I didn't know what I was doing, Mr. Breen." Mr. McEvoy stated that that was
enought of Community Deveiopement tonight; Ben Osgood asked if he could ask a question
and he asked, "Are there minutes of the meetings that are held in secret? There seems
to be discrepancy between two members of the Board that were both at the same meeting.
Are there records of those two meetings. McEvoy replied; "No, there is not." Then,
Ben said, it is admitted that there was two secret meetings not public. McEvoy,replied,
"There were two meetings but they were not secret. Five members of this Board were
there'.' Ben said that they were secret to the public. This is a 22,000 population town,
he went on. Peter Breen. stated The point is that anyone that has ever worked with
Gayton realizes what a great individual he is working for the town all the way from the
State on down for the elderly. Get him back, you need him. Mr. Friis asked, "Do
the records show that Mr. Brian Sullivan was not at those secret meetings, either.
McEvoy stated that that was true. Mr. Friis went on to say...And secondly, you
mentioned that someone called the meetings, I don't know whether you called as the
Chairman or whether Mr. DiFruscio called it, do the records show who actually called
those meetings? McEvoy replied, "Yes, I remember distinctly that DiFruscio had called
him and said things had got to the point where we should have a meeti i dit~~
e we had e from Mr. and Mr. who had ?nmte~ Y
November 29, 1982 (continued) Page 3.
to Mr. Matthews on a Wednesday and I believe met with you Thursday or Friday sometim~'~
we felt at that time things had got so far w~ong that we thought we should immediately meet
and we decided to have it and we had it.in Mr. DiFruscio's trailer and the next one we had
here. It was called without any posting of a meeting, whatsoever, I thought the thing was
such an interest to the Town and to the Board of Selectmen. we should do it without haste and
we did it. It seems as though some people disagree with the fact that we did have a meeting
of that sort and it was at Mr. DiFruscio's place of business but I thought it was important
enough to have it there and we did haw it there. Ben Os~ood asked Why did you think it
important endugh to have a meeting at DiFruscio's construction trailer about three miles from
the center of Town? Out next to the Town Dump. Why would you, as Chairman, think it
important to meet out there, that far away? McEvoy asked if Ben Osgeod thought that
there was womething wrong in being out there? Ben said I lust wonder why the Chair of a
Board could ask...he was interuppted by McEvoy who asked him. where he would'have had
the meeting. Ben replied Right here in this room, public and advertised so everyone could
know about it. McEvoy said how could it be publized when it was going to be the next day?
Ben said, You said you came back from the meeting on Wednesday. Selectman Joyce
told Ben to back off for a minute. Joyco said let me start by.making a statement to the
Board if you will. It. has become very, very obvious to .me over the course of the last ten
~ 'd~s that both the hearts and the minds of the people in this community are very, very
distressed and very, very upset at the way this sequence of events have transpired.
And for that reason alone I am going to ask this Board to strongly reconsider the action they
have taken and ! am going to put that into the form of a motion at the end of this speech.
To recap some of the events .... Mr. DiFruscio and I met in Boston on Thursday, I don't
recall the exact date but the sequence of the days are all in a row, you can pick the date out.
We met with Byron Matthews and Brian~ Sullivan in Boston. And, ~at that time, we were in-
formed of a status of events, a status of prolects we have scheduled in the Community Develop-
merit Department and it became obvious to both Mr~ DiFruscio and myself that we had some very
serious problems with the Community Development Department. We tried to get Mr. Salisbury
who was at the ~time in California and Mr. Graham who at the time was in New York up to date
on the sequence of events. The Friday next I had talked with Mr. McEvey who was determined
that we had to attend to these matters immediately. We met Saturday, the five of us .on Holt Rd.
in Mr. DiFruscio's trailer. Now, 90% of that discussion was on the status of the Senior Citizen
project and it also became obvious in the very ~ate moments of that meeting that there was some
serious consideration as to their confidence in Mr. Osgood to continue on in that department.
At the conclus/on of that lauder nauder, it was determined that no further action would be
with respect to it until we met with Mr. Osgeod. We met ~with Mr. Osgood on Sunday morning.
The following Monday night the Community Center Project was again on our Agenda, together
· with Mr. Pstsiata, Mr. Jones, Gayton on a regularly scheduled Monday night meeting. We met
the:following Thursday, the so-called, "B~oody Thursday," and you know the actions of the
Board at that time. Now, Gentlemen, what impresses me is that three members of this Board,
despite very, very rigorous public opinion have stood their ground and stayed to a very un-
popular position. For that, I admire you because I have been on the down-side of the
side of many, many votes and it is never easy. But in my opinion, I still think that a good
deal of the problem with~the Community Center project , with the whole project, is that this
Board did not stand pat and uniform against Byron Matthews and I think if we had put as much
effort in working against him as we did against GaY-ton Osgood, we could have resolved this
problem. Now again, as I said, the hearts and minds of these people are very, very upset,
there is enough question as to the legality of our meetings, as to whether they were properly
posted/as to whether minutes are being kept, as tO-whether Mr. Sullivan was present. So
if somebo, dy wanted to pick this up there is some potential exposure to this Town over what we
have done. I strongly urge this Board~to reconsider and if th~rposition is still out of it in
respect to Mr. Osgood then so be it but at least the people of the community will know then
that it has had the fuil and careful consideration of the Board. There is definitely a
skepticism in the public to date whether it is a valid skepticism or not it exists and therefore it
is realand I move for reconsideration of the issue Mr. Chairman. Is that a motion, Mr. Joyce?
the Chairman asked. Joyce replied, "Yes." Selectman Salisbury seconded it for discussion.
Selectman Salisbury I would ~'..like to clarify one thing because I have been sitt-"~ here the last
few minutes trying to sort out, I'm not used to being called a liar particularly when I'm not
sure on what I lied about. Mr. Graham, I clearly admit taking part in the Saturday and Sunday
discussions which I think were constructive. I think we were trying to operate as a Board and
to deal with problems that had been laid on us by the State and trying to deal with them in a
responsible manner. What concerns me is that after that Sunday meeting at the end of which
Mr. DiFruScio was visibly upset with Mr. Osgood and was prepared to take action on him, in
fact that was the first time that it had been raised very clearly that it was a possibility, l
heard nothing until a week from the foliowing Monday at the close of our meeting and that was
the meeting when Mr. McEvoy tried to figure out when this Board could next meet to deal with
I think the discussion was at that point, the dismissal of the Community Development Director.
At that time ! questioned why he was setting up on the Agenda a matter that the Board had
not discussed. In fact, I felt a little miffed that I had been ]eft out of that kind of a discussion.
I discussed with you the following items in respect to the Library. My concern was a board
member that started taking actions rather than a Board as sub groups within the Board.
In fact you said at that time that I had aright to feel that way.if I chose to. I deeply am sorry
that you consider me a liar. One of the traits that I value most highly and wish you would
identify for me exactly where you think I have been less than truthful. Graham said let me go
back. First of all there were a lot of meetings in there with Mr. Matthews. In between so-calle~
Sunday meeting and the so-cal~ed Thursday meeting. There were several meetings in there
I talked with Matthews and you on two separate occasions and I think that, as a matter of fact,
the person that I found out about the request for Gayton's resignation was Gayton, himself.
Louis DiFruscio never talked to me about that. I found that ou~ from Gayton. arid I think it is
November 29, 1982 (continued) Page. 4
very easy for those meetings to take place, we talked to Byron Matthews twice and without any-
body , three gentlemen getting together having side discussions with lets got r~d,'of Gayton Osgood.
I think the problem is it may seem inconceivable and it sure as hell happened in my case, that I
really never did have any side discussions about Mr. Osgood. In fact I tried to point out to you
that the meetings with Byron Matthews were extremely important in me making my decision.
It is plainly untrue that I got inot side discussions about Mr. Osgood. The decisions on that were
based on meetings of Saturday and Sunday, the meeting Byron Matthews the following Saturday
and the following Wednesday. I frankly heard nothing from you, Salisbury,said or from Mr.
DiFruscio other that at the Sunday meeting where we were looking at demanding the resignation of
Gayton. DiFruscio said I said I personally wanted his resignation that doesn't speak for anyone
else, Charlie. Mr. Graham went on to say .he makes up his own decisions without any help from
anyone else. He told Charlie that he has a right to assume things but I don't think you should be
coming out and saying things that implicate other members with his assumptions. That in his
case, it simply is not true. I never heard you generalize the discussion before the five of
Mr. Graham, Salisbury said, but that was what you were looking xbr to have happen~ Monday i
night when Mr. McEvoy was trying to arrange a meeting, and I expressed surprise at the fact
that the meeting was being held, the Agenda I thought should be discussed first before you
held the meeting, you in fact informed me that perhaps you hadn't discussed it with me but
you had discussed with other members of the Board and enough of them felt that the Board
should hold such a meeting. Graham said that as far as I am concerned as a member of this
Board, anybody has a right to vote the way they want to. I Wl~l never question the right of
any individual on this Board to. vote anyway they want, I don't get what it is on. Iwas the
lone voter on the McDonald matter, I never question the vote of the rest of the vote. It was
ther right, as was mine, to vote the way they;~feel they should.
Mr. Frils stated that it is the opion o'f many that their is a lack of management knowlege and
application and responslbn y, and your Board certainly does not contribute to that. Secondly,
when the Chairman of the Board isn't quite sure what he is voting for it implies that there is
a certain lack of knowlege on the Board, here, and it therefore I say with Mr. Breen in asking
and Mr. Joyce'in reconsideration of Mr. Gay-ton Osgood's dismissal. I think that the very least
you can do is get rid of that dismissal and if you are going to insist on his leaving,ask for his
resignation like you ~hougnt you were vo~h:g. McEvoy stated that everybody thinks we
stabbed Gayton Osgood in the back, I'm quite sure Gayton is very upset with Tom McEvoy
today. But I consider Gayton a friend of mine. I didn't do anything other than I thought was
good for the Town. We gave Mr. Osgood a budget and he didn't live within the budget. It may
not have been all his fault but he was the man in charge of the project. We are a year and a
half behind on the project now. We have an obligation here, also, but I know you don't want to
hear it, because you all like Oayton. I,cannot, in all honesty, put Gayton back because he did
not do the work he was supposed to do. It is as simple as that: He asked Joyce to repeat
motion. Motion was.to have the Board reconsider its prior decision and on the motion, Mr.
Chairman, I am not questioning the right of every member of this Board to vote his conscience
and do what he thinks right what I am trying to impress on this Board is the feed back that I
have got in the past ten days is something I have'never experienced in my 5 years tenure on
this Board. I have had people which have in the past 'totally and completely uninvolved
politically and community-wise asking me what this Board.~s. doing. There are people in this
Town that are upset, there upset in the way they have been led to believe this matter has been
handled, theyare upset in the manner that Gayton has been treated, they are upset to think
that somebody that they think and felt worked as hard for the Town as he has is being dis-
missed in the way that he is. I think the Board should reconsider if for no other reason to
assure the public that this is a carefully well deliberated decision on the part of the Board.
There are also some legal reasons why I am suggesting this. There is some questioning as to
the proprietary of some of our meetings. If those r~ugs come down against us,~ this Town
has some exposure in what they did and I strongly urge this Board to reconsider for both
those reasons but mot particularly to assure the people in this Town that this situation was
properly addressed by this Board and I think they could accept the decision of the Board
a lot more easily than they have to date. Vote on the motion to reconsider was 3-2. Motion
defeated.
LICE.~N.G COMMISSIONERs:
Application for Class II license from James Hogg, Jr. Rt. 125, at Hillside Rd.. Approved
Limit 5 cars.
APPROVED:
All liquor renewal applications for 1983.
SCHOOL COMMITTEE: SPECIAL NEEDS FUNDING:
Robert Maseola appeared before the Board to update the Selectmen on the request of the
School Committee to the Advisory Board for funding of $54,000 for the Special Needs
Course. Because of the deficit in Special Needs Expenses he wanted to advise the Board
that they will be asking the Advisory Board for $54,000 and if they are turned down they
wanted to advise the Board that they will request a Special Town Meeting for the funds.
State requires that they have this Special Needs program and they must anticpate more and
more services required that aren't apparent now. Parents can request that their children
get this Special Needs Program. Mr. Maseola was present just to acquaint and keep the
Board up to date on their needs for this program.
MAIN & SUTTON STREETS:
James D'Angolo appeared before the Board and explained the 75% .design .draw. ings for the
Main /sutton street U~ban Systems Project. To increase the tuenlng radius m the southeast
quadrant of the Main/Sutton Street intersection, the access drives to Cashman' Arco Station
were closed, thus .~ :ess and to the existing pumps and islands. On
the the totem ~ven will result in the loss of