Text Box: TOWN TO O.K. ENGINEEERING PLAN FOR STREET REPAIR By Jerry Bodlander The town council is poised to approve a bid by engineering firm A. Morton Thomas to study needed street repair in the town. The $9,200 dollar bid would include taking four core samples from various locations around the town in order to determine what sort of repairs will be needed. Council members agreed that more core samples will probably be needed, and wanted to know how much each additional test would cost. But they stressed that a key factor in deciding to award the bid to A. Morton Thomas was its willingness to oversee the bidding process for the street repair work. The other company bidding on the job, EBA Engineering, proposed taking 26 core samples, but the proposed cost was more than double and it wouldn’t oversee the bid process. Text Box: COUNCIL DOESN’T SUPPORT REQUEST FOR PARKING SPACES By Jerry Bodlander The town council at its Nov. 12 meeting declined to support resident Phyllis Daen’s bid for a waiver of the parking requirement for a home office permit for her Harvard Ave. residence. Montgomery County requires four off-street parking places in order to approve such a request. Don Dworsky, a resident of Columbia Ave., urged the council not to support the request, saying the town should oppose anything that increases traffic and parking problems. He said that with Mrs. Daen seeing patients in her home, there have been ‘’numerous’’ instances of cars sitting in the street, their passengers either early for an appointment or waiting to pick someone up. He said there have also been instances of the street being blocked by cars driven by people not known to him. He said it has ‘’changed the whole gestalt of our neighborhood.’’ Ms. Daen said she asked people not to park on Columbia Ave., and Mr.Dworsky acknowledged that the situation in the last three or four months hasn’t been as bad as before. The council noted that one option is for Ms. Daen to create some parking spaces on her own property, although she said to do that she would have to give up her garden. She also told the council that she has purchased office space in the Westbard Shopping Center which she will begin using in January, and so won’t be seeing patients at her home except possibly in inclement weather. Mayor Debbie Beers said it would be premature for the council to support the request. She added that the council might be more inclined to support it if Ms. Daen took steps to create a few off-street parking spaces that could be used for her patients. Ms. Daen is a psychologist in private practice. Text Box: wHO IS A RESIDENT? WHO CAN VOTE IN TOWN? By Jerry Bodlander The town has asked its lawyer, Norman Knopf, to draft an amendment to the town charter to clarify who is a resident, and therefore eligible to vote in town elections. The move comes after questions were raised about the eligibility of some voters during the last town election. Mayor Beers said Mr. Knopf has been asked to come up with a definition that is consistent with state law. She said the goal is to make sure there aren’t people voting ‘’who don’t really have stake in the election.’’ The mayor said it is clear that au pairs and others who might be living in the town on tourist or other temporary visas aren’t town residents.