Turkey denied entry to safe house

We don't get many visitors at our front door. When we do, they are usually selling magazine subscriptions or soliciting help to save the environment. Today the tap, tapping was hesitant, unsure, but louder than the usual scratching made by ground squirrels.

I tugged the door open to find a wild turkey standing there.

Did it sense that we are vegetarians or detect by the aroma of nut loaf & marinara sauce that this was a safe house for Thanksgiving? Was it looking for respite from media coverage of the avian flu epidemic and looking for somewhere to go cold turkey?

Perhaps, but the next day 7 more turkeys glided in for a smooth touch down, before waddling off into the woods cackling with delight.

To hear and see more about wild turkeys go these excellent pages from Fairfax County Public Schools.

Tea leaves a bad taste

So what did we learn from Saturday’s State of the Town meeting?

Town meetings are run by well intentioned people, who are unable to start on time, have a tendency to talk at you and keep doing it for too long and have difficulty framing a yes/no answer question. Meetings are attended by polite, concerned people who seek in depth clarification, but generally have difficulty framing a coherent comment.

The ARP (At Risk Property) committee did a fine job of identify building plots and using consultants to describe what might happen them and consequently the positive or negative cost to the town, aka property tax payers.
The consultants massaged egos with observations on median property values, now over $1,000,000, and the Town’s creative land management policy.
Their cost models also appeared to be massaged and were taken to task by many, as was the probability of the plots current owner playing the 40B or any other Chapter 40 cards.

The ‘Town’ received a mandate by a scrappy vote, although it was made clear the meeting was for information only, to pursue modest ‘friendly’ 40B development now to buy time for similar modest development later, ultimately protecting the Town from aggressive Chapter 40B forever.

When I got home, I took a look into my drained teacup and saw the following:

1. The DeNormandie property will be purchased by the Town as open space and a corridor to Minuteman National Park.
   
2. The BIIC site on route 2 will become a commercial development of office and/or retail, with perhaps custodial accommodation.
   
3. The Kennedy site which straddles Lincoln and Waltham will be the focus of friendly 40B development.
   
4. It will take 5 years minimum for any of these things to happen, unless overlay/zoning districts are amended, which will take 2 years.

If any of these things happen, you know they were Accidentally Witnessed here first.

At risk properties - a burning issues.

The townpeople of this rural New England enclave will meet to today to discuss a burnining issue. One that raises the temperature of many for vastly different reasons. Some because they live next to an 'at risk' property and see their property values 'at risk', others because the recognize a softening up process leading to higher taxes and others because they just want an affordable home in the town they work in.

Yes, specter of Chapter 40B, the law that allows a developer to circumvent Lincoln's 2 acre (that's right, you need a 2 acre plot to build a house here) zoning is make an appearance again, too late for Halloween, but you might see some fireworks.

In 'Olde' England, people will gather tonight to celebrate a different burning issue. One that took place in 1606 long before 40B developments or even the founding of America. Guy Fawkes, the fall guy of the Gunpowder Plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament will be burned in effigy all over England and there will definitely be fireworks.