A handful of Scouts missed the Lexingtonia Special Town Meeting–we will arrange a date for a makeup. If anybody needs this merit badge for advancement in rank, please let me know.

The meeting was first rate. I am sorry that a Scout could not be the presenter because I think that would have added a dimension, but it was a complex article which needed some specialized knowledge. After seeing what a great job everybody did, the next time around I think we would simply have a Scout presenter with a staff to answer some of the questions.

There were some problems with the article which were inserted on purpose. You discovered them all and that’s why, I think, the article was defeated 12-11.

Mrs. Briggs realized that no work was going to be done on the gravel path between the fields. The current path is in bad shape and provides walking access. It probably should have been in the plan.

There was going to be an impact on the baseball field and some of you didn’t like that. You didn’t want to sacrifice baseball for other field sports.

Not everybody believed the financials on field installation and maintenance.

There were some problems, some thought, with the field installation schedule which was going to have an impact on the field and the stated plan for using other fields some thought was inadequate.

There was not a clear picture of how the cost of the fields might be offset and how revenue from the fields could be realized to offset athletic fees.

At least one person bought the argument that the field should be inside the track, not where it is now.

A couple of you were unhappy with what you considered bad arguments which sounded good and may have swayed others. For instance, the argument that only four games a year are played there sounded so good and a couple of you were very impatient to get that out, but you had to wait your turn to speak.

There was more, but you did a very nice job of uncovering the flaws and highlighting the virtues of the proposed project.

Keep in mind that this sort of thing might well come before Lexington Town Meeting in the future, but also keep in mind that some flaws were built into our model to see if you would figure them out. Those flaws may not be in the Lexington version … or they might … or there might be others.

Thanks to the Board of Selectmen (2-1 against), our very able Moderator, Norm Cohen, our equally able Town Counsel (also Norm Cohen), our adjunct member of Town Meeting who suggested the amendment which was ruled out of scope, and the Chair of our Conservation Commission. And, of course, thanks to all of the Scouts who were our Town Meeting. You did a superb job!

-Hank Manz (Recreation Director)