New Committee Would Focus on Youth At Risk

Lexington’s Board of Selectmen is scheduled to meet at 7 p.m. tonight at the Town Office Building, and toward the top of a dozen-plus agenda items is to review the charge for an ad hoc Committee on Youth at Risk.

Envisioned as an 18-member board, appointed by and with liaisons from the selectmen and School Committee, the draft charge suggests the ad hoc Committee on Youth would recommend goals, policies and programs to help the town help its young people.

The targeted demographic would be Lexington youth, ages 5 to 22, considered to be at risk due to stress from physical, emotional, social, cultural and academic sources.

“This is a community public health concern whose solution requires a collaborative approach involving the schools, students, parents and the broader Lexington community,” the draft charge says.

As such, the proposed composition of the committee would pull from each of those concerns, as well as local business leaders, concerned community groups, a local therapist and the Lexington Police Department.

Reviewing the charge for an ad hoc Committee on Youth at Risk is toward the top of the selectmen’s items for individual consideration. So if you’re interested in hearing the conversation, best bet is to drop by the Town House or tune in on LexMedia around 7:15 p.m. to catch the discussion.

Other items of interest may include:

• A liquor hearing on a transfer of license from Khushboo to Beijing Cuisine
• Presentation from LexHAB on a local initiative program (LIP) proposal for an affordable housing project on Fairview Avenue. The proposal, according to a June 18 letter to the selectmen, would be to rehabilitate an existing small house into a three-unit building in the style of a Greek Revival farmhouse with a “net zero attainable” level of energy efficiency.
• Sustainable Lexington’s update on a photovoltaic RFP
• And a Center Streetscape presentation