Neighborhood Council to Revise Election Bylaws

At the February 14 monthly meeting of the North End/Waterfront Neighborhood Council (NEWNC), members  explained and discussed revisions to the bylaws.

In addition, Stephanie Acquario, Disposable Bag Reduction Coordinator, for the City of Boston Environmental Department updated the Council on Boston Plastic Ban currently underway.

NEWNC President John Pregmon told the Review that, “Our bylaw changes basically cleaned up some ambiguous and grammatical inconsistencies.

NEWNC also plans to move up their community election format by moving up the nomination process to make it easier for people to pull out papers and get on the ballot for the 2019 election of members to the community organization.

Pregmon noted, “We have some revisions pending but nothing finalized yet.”

The last two elections did not have enough candidates, only six for the six seats open. There was no contest and all candidates won seats on the Council.

Labeled as, Hey Boston Bring Your Own Bags! The ban seeks to stop pollution on the streets, waterways and the coast to lower environmental impact by reducing single-use plastic bags at Boston stores to transition away from plastic bags.

New bags will cost five cents each, retailers can charge more and the charges subject to state sales tax and not refundable. Only applies to checkouts, carrying bags with handles.

The cost of the bags must be posted/advertise within five feet of the checkout location.

Basic information about the ordinance is available in several languages on boston.gov/plasticbags.

The City will monitor the program and issue violations. Initial violation is a warning the second violation is $50 fine with the third or more violations $100 fine. Apparently, the plastic bag ordinance will protect the ocean environment and waterways from pollution, reduce litter, greenhouse gases and solid waste in the waste stream.