Melrose Board Tables Outdoor Seating Ordinance After Permit Debate

MELROSE — June 20, 2019 — Melrose Select Board tables outdoor seating ordinance and commits $700,000 to dam removal project. The board voted to table Ordinance No. 6-2019, which would have regulated sidewalk seating by downtown businesses, after a motion to strip the permit requirement failed on a 2-1 vote Thursday; members debated whether requiring business owners to obtain a permit and add the city as an additional insured was, as one member put it, "ratcheting the screws down on business." The board separately approved Resolution 2019-37 committing a $700,000 local match toward the Sauk River Dam removal and Lockhart Rapids replacement, an amount staff said mirrors what the city would spend anyway to relay the river channel. Jennie-O Turkey Store and State Farm presented a combined $77,500 in grants for the County Road 65 sidewalk project. The city's new administrator, four days on the job, flagged that Jennie-O's wastewater flows into the treatment plant are running significantly higher than 2018 projections, with a detailed follow-up meeting set for July 8.