Lexington’s 2024 Annual Town Meeting held its first session on Monday night at Cary Hall. Members voted on a range of topics, including noise bylaws, gas-powered leaf blowers, and online legal notices. The William Diamond Fife & Drum Corps made a guest visit in the opening ceremonies and presented the national anthem. Following a brief explanation of operating procedure and parliamentary rules, the meeting commenced with the election of a deputy moderator and a report on the Cary Lecture Series.
Following these procedural motions, Article 32, a proposal to change the name of a portion of Spring Street to Old Spring Street, was put forth with unanimous approval from the Select Board and without any questions from the floor. The article was proposed to remove any ambiguity between a section of Spring Street that diverges from the thoroughfare, and the road proper. A citizen’s statement was submitted in opposition, which cited the unnecessary burden that it would put on residents to alter their address information. Nevertheless, the article passed with broad support; the final vote tallied 132 in favor, 17 against, and 20 abstaining.
Following Article 32, the assembly moved on to Article 42, concerning the “Digital Publication of Legal Notices.” Currently, the Town of Lexington is required to publish legal notices in a “newspaper of local or general circulation.” Traditionally, the newspaper of local circulation has been the Lexington Minuteman. Citing falling readership amid a general national decline of print media, the motion moved to give the town more options in posting legal notices beyond print publications, outlining a wide range of avenues, including a town-wide or statewide website and websites that report on local news (LexObserver, for example).
Questions concerning the language of the law and inclusivity of online media for older generations were addressed, with multiple Town Meeting members standing in support of the article. With no voices standing in opposition, the motion was carried by a vote of 164 in favor, 3 against, and 5 abstaining. As a next step, the Select Board will petition the Massachusetts General Court to allow the Town of Lexington to adopt this manner of publicly displaying legal notices. If this approval is given from the state, it could enable the town to use websites as one medium for communicating legal notices.
The meeting then proceeded to Article 29, which dealt with changes to the Town noise bylaws, and a proposed extension to the prohibition date for gas-powered leaf blowers. Motion A clarified a couple of issues with the bylaws for noise reduction, including clarifications about dates for major holidays, as well as an increase in fines levied for noise violations. In the proposal, it was noted that there were ambiguities that “led to interpretations by the public that differed from what was enforceable.” The tightening of the language was approved by a broad majority of the assembly.
Following the first vote, Matthew Daggett of Precinct 2 brought an amendment to 29(a) that also passed with wide support and without significant debate. The amendment expanded the language in the law to define specific types of noise involved in construction, such as “rock breaking,” “percussive hammering,” and “blast-hole drilling.” The approach solidified the language around definitions and implementation of the noise bylaws.
Following the majority approvals of 29(a) with amendments, the meeting moved on to its final and most controversial topic of the night. Motion B of Article 29 proposed an extension of one year to the current deadline for the use of gas-powered leaf blowers by commercial landscapers throughout the town, citing the fiscal challenge of eliminating these tools and replacing them with electric leaf blowers.
Many Town Meeting members spoke, both for and against 29(b). A common theme among supporters was that the extra time the article would afford landscapers would help protect their operations. Dawn McKenna of Precinct 6 stood in favor of the motion, advocating compassion for business owners in town who are struggling with the financial costs of the transition away from these machines, a sentiment that was echoed from the public by Jim Shaw, Chair of the Lexington Chamber of Commerce. Lauren Black of Precinct 8 also supported the motion, noting that local landscaping businesses tend to have low profit margins that restrict their ability to make large expenditures on new equipment. Avram Baskin of Precinct 2 noted that, though gas leaf blowers have a negative impact on our environment here in Lexington, producing lithium-ion batteries — necessary for electric leaf blowers — has detrimental effects on communities in places like Democratic Republic of Congo, Argentina and Chile, where cobalt and lithium are mined. Baskin voted “yes” to the extension.
On the opposition side, Eran Strod of Precinct 6 argued in favor of maintaining the current deadline, citing the high levels of noise and dangerous particulate matter that operators of this type of equipment endure, at considerable risk to their health. Strod also brought an example of a local landscaping business that has already successfully transitioned from gas to electric-powered blowers. Michael Boudett of Precinct 4 noted how gas-powered blowers routinely violated noise bylaws and reemphasized the risk that workers experience, also claiming that the economy had reached an inflection point towards electric-powered leaf blowers. Robert Rotberg of Precinct 3 reiterated some earlier positions and emphasized that this was a decision that both Town Meeting and referendum voters had previously decided, and said that the current deadline had been given with fair advance, warranting no change in the deadline.
Despite the Select Board being 3-2 in favor of the resolution, Motion B ultimately failed to pass by a floor vote of 69 in favor, 96 opposed, and 3 abstaining. As a result, the final cutoff date for gas-powered leaf blowers will be unchanged and prohibited town-wide as of March 15, 2025. From that date on, all leaf blowers operated by commercial landscapers in town must be electrically powered.
Lexington’s Town Meeting will resume Wednesday night, March 20, at 7:30 pm. On the schedule are Articles 2 and 4, with 5, 7, 8, and 9 as available alternatives if time permits. Article 2 includes reports from the Town Manager, the budget of Minuteman Schools, the Lexington Schools Superintendent, and both the Appropriation and Capital Expenditures Committees. Article 4 sets out the appropriation of the 2025 Fiscal Year Operating Budget.
Leave a comment