This coming Wednesday evening, we need your support at the:

Advisory Committee Public Hearing
February 8th, 7:00pm
Main Library, Wakelin Room

This is an important meeting for FOMP. We are asking people attend to show support for Morses Pond. This is the last meeting before the Morses Pond warrant article is presented at Town Meeting in March. A lot of work has gone into creation of a compressive management plan for Morses Pond and we need your help to ensure success.

At the public hearing Advisory receives citizens' input on any of the warrant articles that will come before Town Meeting at the end of March. These articles include the Morses Pond management plan. Advisory will not be discussing budgets or other actions, but will be listening to the speakers' points of view. Therefore having FOMP make a good impression is important.

Subsequently, the Advisory Committee (as advisors to Town Meeting Members) consider/discuss each article and vote to recommend or not recommend favorable action. This is ultimately published in a book that it mailed to all Town residents before Town Meeting.

A lot has happened in the past few months. The Comprehensive Plan for the Management of Morses Pond was completed in November 2005. It is quite extensive (186 pages in 13 Meg).

The full Plan calls for the expenditure of $2.26 million over 5 years. The NRC, DPW and Recreation committees have already made their presentations to Advisory and CPC. The CPC, in December 2005, after a public hearing, voted to fund a new harvester ($250,000) pending that the full plan passes town meeting. Several FOMP members attended this meeting and we believe our presence helped persuade CPC to support the plan.

The next major milestone will be the public hearing before Advisory, where we'd like to get FOMP members and people interested in Morses Pond to speak to the value of Morses Pond for Wellesley and why Advisory should recommend at Town Meeting that the Plan be funded. Even if you do not plan on speaking, your presence will be valued as most likely Advisory will ask for a show of hands as to how many people are in attendance for a particular article. Those who would like to speak, please e-mail fompofficers@morsespond.org, to help coordinate on speaking points.

After the Advisory public hearing, there will be no more meetings or presentations until the article (Article 21 on the Warrant) is put forth at Town Meeting.

There are actions that FOMP can take in the interim between the Public Hearing and Town Meeting in March. These include contacting Town Meeting representatives, writing an article and/or letter to the Townsman, sending mailings, contacting the town departments (wellesleyadvisory@comcast.net, cpc@ci.wellesley.ma.us, nrc@ci.wellesley.ma.us), or whatever. However, anything we do should be organized and a coordinated effort. If you'd like to help with this, please e-mail fompofficers@morespond.org.

Thank you

Meeting notes

Four FOMP members spoke (Barry Herring, Erin Reilly, Frank Hays, John Ciolfi).