Hospital, veteran banners, and Town Meeting at Selectmen

It was a chock-filled meeting on Tuesday night at the Norwood Board of Selectmen’s first meeting in the Harry Butters Chambers of Norwood Town Hall.

The meetings were being held in the Robert Thornton room – which is smaller and more modern – because the building’s elevator broke down four years after it was installed.

Norwood Town Manager Tony Mazzucco gave an update on the Norwood Hospital eminent domain process and the Norwood Hospital Task Force’s work in that process during his Manager’s Update. He said he and task force members met with the head of the Massachusetts Division of Capital Asset Management, the entity that would take over the Norwood Hospital land in November if the current owner, Medical Properties Trust, fails to find a buyer by that time.

“Just to get an understanding what their process is going to be once they get started,” he said. “I met with several members of the task force, and with the State Inspector General to get where they’re coming from and sort of share our knowledge, and make sure we’re coalescing to make sure action can be taken as soon as it reasonably can. We just want to make sure we’re all coalescing around what needs to happen, how it has to happen, and make sure the state keeps us in the loop.”

Mazzucco said the Task Force is also working on a new report analyzing the requirements of a state Determination of Need (DON), which is the first legal thing an entity needs to open up a hospital. The DON outlines the coverage area, the population and the distribution of health services around that area. Mazzucco said it hasn’t changed too much since the hospital closed in 2020, but there have been changes that need to be included, if only small ones.

Also, the Board mentioned that a public hearing on Flock Cameras with the Norwood Police Department is scheduled for Sept. 30 at 6 p.m. at the Norwood Senior Center.

In other news, the Board voted to accept the Town Meeting Warrant for the Nov. 16 meeting. The articles and a brief description are listed below:

First Docket:

Article 1 is a report of Town Meeting Rules Committee asking for several small changes. The Committee actually gave a report to the Board before the Town Meeting warrant vote, and these changes include grammar fixes and the inclusion of more pronouns within the rules to allow for things like a female Town Moderator, like Town Moderator Gerri Slater (who was also at the meeting). The other big changes revolved around moving Town Meeting along and limiting the expected time for each session to three hours, with the option to extend given to the Town Moderator.

Article 2 is a request for more funds in the pension reserve fund, which is currently 78 percent funded.

Article 3 is a request to change the name of the Board of Selectmen to the Norwood Select Board. Mazzucco said Norwood is an outlier now in this naming convention.

Article 4 is the Capital Improvement Plan, which will be gone over in further detail at the Board’s next meeting. Included in the plan, now, is the Norwood Public Schools Building Assessment Study, which was also submitted as its own article previously by the Norwood School Committee.

Article 5 was that study submission from the School Committee and is expected to be removed.

Article 6 is an unpaid water sewer bill.

The Land Use docket articles of the meeting are as follows:

Articles 1 and 2 are for adding a definition for urgent care to the use tables of the Norwood Zoning Bylaw.

Article 3 is regarding zoning incentive bonuses.

Article 4 involves parking waivers.

Article 5 is a moratorium on data centers.

Articles 6 through 8 regard additional parking definitions.

These articles for the land use docket were brought forth by the Planning Board. Town Moderator Gerri Slater said during the meeting she had concerns about having the land use portion of Town Meeting in this Fall Special Town Meeting, rather than the March Town Meeting, which was originally set aside for land use issues.

“I just question whether we’re truly ready to go through some pretty extensive zoning articles when I don’t know that there’s a real rush to do it,” she said. “What was voted at the (spring) annual Town Meeting was to report back in the fall. So, I just want to make sure these articles are truly ready, that there are questions that have been answered, and that Town Counsel has reviewed these so we don’t have to end up doing a redo and potentially confusing and frustrating our town meeting membership.”

Mazzucco agreed, and said that this would allow for further public hearings to make sure residents understand the changes and have had ample time to comment on them.

“I think extra time is always good,” he said. “This runway is probably better for Town Meeting members and better for the process overall.”

Selectmen Chair Matt Lane said he would like both Town Counsel and at least a representative of the Planning Board at the Board’s next meeting to discuss this.

Mazzucco also updated the Board on upcoming night paving work on all of Norwood’s section of Route 1. The work will start at the end of September and go through at least November, Mazzucco said.

“Route 1 is in terrible condition so it’s about time the state stepped up,” he said.

The Board voted to accept both dockets and will go over each item of each docket at its next meeting on Oct. 13 to vote on its recommendations.

Following up on Town Meeting, the Town Meeting Rules Committee presented its findings. Among recommendations listed previously, some of the more notable issues are limiting group presentations to 10 minutes from 20 minutes (all speakers have the right to request more time from the Moderator), allowing at least five unregistered speakers before the Moderator would allow a vote to move the question, replacing terms like “mailed” with distributed to account for digital media, and other such changes.

Norwood Veterans Agent Derek Wennerstrand also stopped by and announced the Norwood Hero Banner program will be restarting next year and expanding by 64 banner locations. He said applications will be accepted starting in November and going until they run out of spaces or March 2027, whichever comes first.

Norwood Cultural Council (NCC) Chair Jonathan Cardoni came to the Board to give an update on the group’s efforts on a Cultural District in South Norwood, which, if granted by the state, would allow the NCC to apply for and receive grants. The Board of Selectmen approved a request to continue that endeavor. The Board also approved an application from the NCC for a new member, Jamie Osborne.

The Board also voted unanimously to approve an application from Gemma’s Kitchen to use the patio space behind the building, which was previously used by the Old Colonial.