Middlesex Town Meeting Solutions Committee
Meeting Minutes
November 14, 2005

Present: Kelly Ault, Susan Clark, Ron Krauth, Dave Shepard

1. Approval of Minutes of Previous Meeting
The minutes for the October 17 meeting were not available for approval.

2. Letter to Non-Profit Organizations
Nancy Reilly and Susan Clark sent out 16 letters to the non-profit organizations that asked for or received money at Town Meeting in 2005.

3. Town Budget Information for Town Meeting
John Riley, Susan and Bill Callnan met to discuss presenting more information about the town budget for Town Meeting. A pie chart will be prepared showing school appropriations and the town operating budget. A second pie chart will present a breakdown of just the town portion of the budget that is voted by voice vote at Town Meeting.

As a visual aid, there will be a chart at Town Meeting that will show the amount of tax increase for each $1000 of spending referenced to a hypothetical $100,000 home.

4. Zoning
An informational article has been prepared for the Middlesex Monthly on the interim zoning vote. Greg has been putting a lot of zoning related information on the website. Susan asked if there were any suggestions on how to best organize the zoning material on the website.

Susan has met with the writers for the series of articles for the Middlesex Monthly on the town-wide zoning regulations.

5. Childcare for Town Meeting
Susan and Kelly will meet to discuss childcare for the 2006 Town Meeting. Susan has some ideas for non-Middlesex residents who might be able to help with childcare.

6. Involvement with Rumney School Regarding Town Meeting
Susan has made some contacts and has an idea of working with the art teacher and social studies teacher on a project.

7. Potential Legislation Relating to Town Meeting
Susan reported that there may be a proposal in the legislature for Town Meeting to be considered much like jury duty where employees must be allowed time from work to attend.

Adjourned at 7:43 pm.

The next TMSC meeting will be on December 12, 2005.

Minutes recorded by Dave Shepard