Five Things You Missed at the Selectmen’s Meeting

Here are five things you missed at the Selectmen's meeting on Monday, Feb. 7:

• Data from the Deer Hunt: Town officials and bow hunters updated the town in regards to the success of the recent deer hunt to thin the growing population in Andover.
  Conservation Department director Robert Douglas said that, in short, the deer hunt turned out to be a success, in relative terms.
  This past fall 25 bow hunters were given the authority to hunt deer in specific tracts of town-owned conservation land.  By the end of the hunt on Dec. 1, Douglas said hunters nabbed 13 deer.
  While the number doesn’t sound like much, Douglas and other hunters at the meeting said the program doesn’t work in just one season but takes many season to eventually thin the deer population.
  Douglas told the Board of Selectmen Monday night that an excessive deer population will cause over-grazing in the town forests and will stifle growth. Also, as deer rise in number, more tend to show up on the roadways with the potential to cause serious motor vehicle accidents.
  Selectmen commented that town officials should wait until after Town Meeting, where a citizen petition article will address the deer hunt issue, to decide whether the hunt should continue next year.
  Hunter and firefighter Bob Dalton also added that this year’s season was cut off by 30 percent and next year will allow for more preparation and a longer hunting season.

• Fire Department Grant Award: Andover Fire Chief Michael Mansfield announced that the Fire Department is receiving federal funding from Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for new firefighting equipment.
  He said that FEMA recently awarded Andover a $210,708 Assistance to Firefighters grant. The town is using the grant for new self-contained breathing apparatus, which allows firefighters to breath while inside smoke-filled structures. The grant will allow the department to replace 17 and 18-year-old pieces of breathing equipment that are already two or three years past their typical life expectancy.
  As part of the grant, Andover must spend $21,000 to cover 10 percent of the costs.

• Roof Response: The Fire Chief also spoke about the department’s response to concern over roof collapses with the high amount of snow received recently.
  He said that the department has been fielding many calls with residents concerned about their roofs collapsing and fire officials have been assisting them as much as possible.
  He said that houses with potential roof collapses were located in certain areas of town and said that there were several properties with damage. The Andover Fire Department is suggesting that residents remove snow from their roofs as soon as possible to prevent collapse. Mansfield said that 90 percent of roof collapses can be prevented by removing the snow off your roof.            

• Andover Youth Football's Finest: Andover Youth Football League coach Kevin Lynch was recently awarded the State Junior High Football League Coach of the Year recently, selectman Ted Teichert announced at the selectmen’s meeting on Monday.
  Teichert said that High School football coach E.J. Perry nominated Lynch for the award. Lynch was one of 100 other coaches throughout the state that were also nominated for the award. As the news was still fresh, Teichert said that more details were still unavailable but did say that Lynch will be honored in a celebration sometime in March at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough.

• 9/11 Memorial: The Andover Board of Selectmen unanimously approved the installation of a  memorial plaque on the Andover Town Offices for the 10^th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks in New York City, Washington D.C and Pennsylvania.
  Veteran’s Agent Mike Burke told the board that the plaque will honor the four Andover residents were killed on Sept. 11, 2001. Two residents, Mllie Naiman and Betty Ong, were on Flight 11 and Len Taylor was on Flight 77.  Andover resident Christopher Morrison was in the World Trade Center.
  Burke and a group of mostly veterans of the United State military made the effort to design and request the proper approvals to install a plaque in an area of the Town Offices building with other plaques.