By Katie Farrell Lovett
NEWBURYPORT — From A-frame signs to outdoor alcohol service, wind turbine rules to demolition delays, when the new City Council takes its seat next session, councilors will likely be very busy, very quickly.
A series of measures and ordinances died in committee during the session that ends today. At the council's last meeting of their term on Monday, 21 items were never removed from the subcommittees that they were sent to for review.
Returning councilors, some of whom noted they didn't want to rush items based on an end-of-year deadline, have already pledged to resubmit some of those measures early in the next term.
Ward 4 Councilor Ed Cameron, chairman of the Planning and Development subcommittee last session, has said two items that committee wasn't able to resolve will return: the wind turbine ordinance and a measure that will impose new rules on movable mobile signs.
Ward 2 Councilor Greg Earls first asked to re-examine the wind turbine ordinance in December 2008 in the wake of complaints from neighbors of the new turbine on the property of Mark Richey Woodworking.
Council subcommittees spent months reviewing the ordinance and holding hearings with neighbors to gain their input and feedback. They had hoped to make a recommendation before the end of this year, but time ran out when a joint public hearing with the council and Planning Board couldn't be scheduled in time.
Earls said yesterday that he wasn't disappointed that the council didn't get to change and vote again on the ordinance to improve it.
"I didn't want anything rushed," he said. "It shouldn't have an artificial time line, like the end of the session, to get pushed through."
Other items that were not voted on and could return again include: A-frame sign requests, petitions from restaurants to serve alcohol outdoors, a measure that would increase the local meals tax and room occupancy excise, a bill that would change the civil service positions for the fire and police chiefs, and a demolition delay amendment.
Earls said he is also ready to file some new bills, one of which addresses parking for school buses in front of the Brown School, during the first meeting of next term on Jan. 11. Another will address parking on Hill, Cherry and Birch streets. That neighborhood will be affected by the recent council vote to ban parking on areas of Parker Street near the commuter rail station, Earls said.
At-large Councilor Tom Jones said he was surprised at Monday's meeting to see that none of the committee chairpersons were removing any items for a vote. All that remained in the committee he chaired, Rules, was a procedural letter, which was appropriate to die in committee, he said.
Jones said the councilors will still face certain items for debate and vote, such as the petitions for outdoor serving of alcohol. The measure will never get his vote, he said.
"I was going to be a negative no matter what," he said. "There's no way I want to turn Newburyport into Mardi Gras."
The city can't just give certain eateries a license without having all restaurants and businesses seek the same, he said. "Think of the consequences of that," he said.
Kathleen O'Connor Ives, chairwoman of the Licenses and Permits committee, said she will resubmit the bill for the outdoor serving of alcohol for eating establishments.
The council had a lot of questions that require public meetings and conversations with the police marshal and License Commission, O'Connor Ives said.
Another issue that has long been a topic of discussion in the city is the presence of A-Frame signs downtown — it's something O'Connor Ives wants to continue to work on.
"I'm still interested in the North Pole signs, but since funding dried up for something like that, we would really have to have a system where participants would contribute," she said. "It's a pretty involved initiative. It could always get worse: We could have A-Frame signs with North Pole signs. There are issues now, but we could have additional signage on top of what we already have, if it's not done right."
As a member of the Licenses and Permits committee, O'Connor Ives said she thinks the work councilors have already done on the wind turbine ordinance and mobile sign ordinance will help councilors during the next session.
"All of the people that participated on that committee will remain on the council next term with that knowledge," she said. "I think it's fine not to force something to take place just because of a City Council calendar."
Left In Committee
Below are the measures left in the City Council subcommittees at the end of the session. Councilors will need to re-submit any measures they still seek to review and vote next term:
Budget & Finance
1. Mayors Capital Improvement Stabilization to DPS-DPW Repair/Replace Equipment ($60,000)
2. Room occupancy excise to 6 percent
3. Local meals excise
Joint Committee on Education
None
General Government
1. Residential Handicapped Parking Spaces
2. City Council committees
3. Local meals excise
4. Room occupancy excise
5. Civil service home rule petition
Licenses & Permits
1. Rocas Moveable Sign Request
2. Pralines Moveable Sign Request
3. Historic Places Signage, CEB submission
4. Oregano's letter regarding visible barrier with plan
5. Outdoor Seating Port Tavern
6. Amendment to Section 10-8 (and committee of the whole)
7. iSee Salem Historic Walking Tours podium
8. Letter from Improper Bostonian re: boxes on sidewalk
Neighborhoods & City Services
1. Letter Regarding Community Gardens
Planning & Development
1. Harbor — Water Sheet Ordinance
2. Demolition Delay amendment
Public Safety
1. Middle Street Parking
2. Residential Handicapped Parking Spaces
3. Civil Service home rule petition
Public Utilities
1. Resolution — Brown Square Utilities
Rules
1. Letter from Councilor Ives re: Rules Change
Adhoc Committee
1. Independent Counsel Crow Lane landfill
