Fencing to contain dogs forestalls fines
Tania Arndt of Glenview Drive could avoid fines by improving fencing to contain her dogs.
At a hearing, dog officer Paul Willard gave a report on continuing problems with Arndt’s dogs. Past incidents have resulted in a restraining order and a reduction in the total number of dogs from six to five. But Willard cited at least four new incidents of the dogs escaping and bothering neighbors. Arndt claimed, “We’re trying to do our best to keep them contained.” She added, “They’re golden retrievers: they’re really sweet and not aggressive at all.” Neighbors present agreed that there had been no threatening behavior from the dogs.
Selectman Randy Dean suggested a solution. He recommended finding a violation against the owner, charging $135 per incident, and then suspending the fine for a period of 90 days, during which time the owner would make improvements to her fence in lieu of payment. In addition, he recommended that Willard review and approve the fence improvements. The selectmen voted unanimously in support of Dean’s proposal.
Conservation chairman can OK grants
The Conservation Commission received the selectmen’s go-ahead to sign certain documents, including grant applications, without the selectmen’s approval.
Charlie Gorss of the commission presented a draft motion whereby the selectmen would give the commission chairman the authority to sign grant requests and other specified documents. He and commission member Jim Breslauer, who drafted the motion, explained that this would be more efficient than the current system requiring the signature of the chairman of the Board of Selectmen. After Breslauer and Gorss accepted some tweaking to the language—limiting the signing authority to grant applications and other related documents and putting an end date to the authority so that it would be reviewed each year—the four selectmen present voted unanimously to approve the motion.
