Thursday, July 20, 2000 Older Editions

Special Town Meeting set; Youth group will seek land

By Neil Fater

The Planning Board will have something new to plan for this November -- Special Town Meeting.

After talking about the possibility of creating two annual Town Meetings for more than a year, selectmen have committed to holding a Special Town Meeting 2000, on Nov. 14 or 15.

Selectman Chairman Brian Major says the meeting should be the first in a long line of fall Town Meetings.

Town officials have talked about creating an annual Town Meeting specifically for planning and zoning articles, because annual Town Meeting has been burdened with about 90 articles for several years now.

With so many articles, some residents feel it is too difficult for the average citizen to become an informed voter. So selectmen want to assign planning and zoning articles to the fall, to focus attention at the annual, spring Town Meeting on larger projects.

However, the Andover Youth Foundation, a private fundraising group focused on building a youth center behind the West Fire Station, had already said that it planned to call a Special Town Meeting 2000 if the town did not. The foundation plans to ask the town to give it land behind the West Fire Station on which it can build a youth center, says former selectman and foundation founder Larry Larsen. Larsen says the foundation would later give the youth center back to the town.

The youth center discussion is likely to be the big draw at Special Town Meeting.

However, Major says selectmen need to learn significantly more about the proposal before they can endorse it. Most of what Major's heard so far has been from the paper, he said.

"I'm not sure that it would be there as a public article," says Major. "My primary concern is there has been zero discussion with the Board of Selectmen. I hope there's more discussion so that all of a sudden it's not take it or leave it.

"I know very little about what they are planning," says Major, noting that there are still four months before Special Town Meeting.

"I would hate to have it brought up to the Board of Selectmen at the last minute. Are you a bad person if you say, 'I don't have enough information right now'?"

Special Town Meeting 2000 is expected to last one night, with less than a dozen town-sponsored articles.

"There are some Planning Board items that they want to bring up," says Major. "There were a number of them and we wanted to get into the rhythm of have those fall Town Meetings."