Office of Outdoor Advertising
Public Meeting
May 14, 2015
11:00 AM
Ten Park Plaza
Conference Rm 5 & 6
Boston, MA 02116
Present:
John Romano, Executive Director
Chris Quinn, Esq., Counsel
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P R O C E E D I N G S
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JOHN ROMANO:
Good morning everyone.
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Thank you all for coming.
My name is John Romano; I
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am the Head of Outdoor Advertising for MassDOT.
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is May 14, 11 o’clock, our public hearing for the
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month of May.
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today.
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quickly.
Today
We have a pretty light agenda here
So hopefully we will get through it pretty
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If you haven’t signed in, we have a
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sign in sheet there.
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from the last meeting are also there.
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get a chance to sign in on your way in, please do so
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on your way out.
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case the principal calls later on.
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The agenda is there and minutes
If you didn’t
We try to keep good attendance in
So the meeting minutes from March 12
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were approved.
The minutes for April 9, are there.
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Do we have any questions, comments, or concerns on
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those minutes?
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(No response)
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JOHN ROMANO:
Seeing none, we will mark
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those as approved.
So Item 3 we have one application
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for a new permit.
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is an application for a new bus shelter structure.
It is CEMUSA, Cambridge Center this
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It
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is application number 2015004.
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CEMUSA?
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BRIAN ROWE:
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JOHN ROMANO:
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Can you identify
BRIAN ROWE:
Brian Rowe, I am the
Contract Manager.
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Yes.
yourself?
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Is anybody here for
JOHN ROMANO:
very much.
Okay, great.
Thank you
We reviewed all the paperwork.
Everything
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seems to be in order.
I’m going to have -- first of
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all is anybody here from the Town of Cambridge?
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(No response)
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JOHN ROMANO:
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Anybody here from the
MBTA?
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(No response)
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JOHN ROMANO:
I did speak with Eric
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Shire of the MBTA and he has assured me that
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everything is in order on his end, and that he has
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spoken with Cambridge and they are okay with this as
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well.
My inspector Chris Chavez did an evaluation on
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this.
Chris, can you give us a rundown of your
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inspection, please?
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CHRIS CHAVEZ:
As you mentioned this is
a proposed new build bus shelter to be located at an
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existing MBTA bus stop.
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Square T Station.
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COOP and Chipotle Restaurant.
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bus shelters aren’t subject to spacing.
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a public service to commuters.
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only one side can be advertising copy the other side
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of the bus shelter must be some sort of public
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service, map, or what have you.
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It is outside of Kendall
It will be situated between the MIT
JOHN ROMANO:
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CHRIS CHAVEZ:
JOHN ROMANO:
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much.
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from anybody?
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Other than that, there
Great.
Thank you very
You didn’t receive any complaints or concerns
BRIAN ROWE:
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us.
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construction projects.
No because they came to
They asked us to put it here.
JOHN ROMANO:
Great.
They are doing new
They are doing
that whole section over, right?
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BRIAN ROWE:
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JOHN ROMANO:
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Yes.
are no issues with this site.
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Just a reminder that
Brian?
BRIAN ROWE:
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It serves as
You are all set with that
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These street furniture
Yes.
Any comments or concerns
from the public in attendance?
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(No response)
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JOHN ROMANO:
Seeing none, we will take
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that under advisement.
I see no issues there.
Under
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3B is application for an amendment of two current
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permits, permit number 2005028 and 2005029.
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both also in Cambridge in the same area.
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moving some existing structures, moving two existing
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bus structures.
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He is fully aware of both of these, as is the City of
They are
These are
I did speak to Eric Shire on these.
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Cambridge.
They are okay with these.
It is the same
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CEMUSA. Brian is here.
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paperwork.
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Chris, you didn’t have any issues with these right?
I reviewed all of the
I didn’t see any issues with these.
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CHRIS CHAVEZ:
No.
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JOHN ROMANO:
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from the public on these two in attendance?
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(No response)
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JOHN ROMANO:
Any comments or concerns
Seeing none, we will take
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these under advisement, as well.
Again, there doesn’t
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appear to be any issues on the surface.
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We did have an application for renewal with Titan.
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This was a renewal, last year’s permit it was expired
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and license and they were renewed.
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care of on April 15.
That’s great.
That was taken
That one is all set.
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The
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license and permit have been renewed and issued.
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Next thing is for the record.
Does
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anybody have any questions or concerns on anything for
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the record listed here today?
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(No response)
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JOHN ROMANO:
Okay seeing none.
The
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last thing is vegetation removal issues.
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under there is still under investigation by our team.
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Is there any public comment on anything on the agenda
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That one
or anything else?
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EDWARD O’SULLIVAN:
Edward O’Sullivan,
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Cove.
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materials that is on the permit applications?
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Are we going to discuss any of the inside
JOHN ROMANO:
Not unless anyone has an
issue with them.
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EDWARD O’SULLIVAN:
I appeared here in
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March for a public hearing, if I may.
Edward
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O’Sullivan from Cove Outdoor regarding item C1 on page
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two.
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application process and we had a lively discussion
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about whether or not public comment had been received,
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whether or not public notice had been given.
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time, I had discussed that the City had made notice
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and the Board in its wisdom indicated that the
I appeared here in March to further the permit
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At that
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regulations required now the applicant do the same for
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the abutters.
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show that.
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white receipts from certified mail as well as postal
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certified mail invoice, which lists all the titles.
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also have the green cards with me to show the response
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in the last few days.
I have done so.
I have also scanned and sent in all the
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I have my materials to
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In that meeting as well, it was
determined by the traffic engineer that a traffic
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study would be required for the site.
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had a prior billboard on it, a static board
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nonetheless, and certainly we had hoped that we would
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not need to do a traffic study.
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happy to do it.
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As a site that
We understand and are
Subsequent to that, I received a letter
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from your office, John, and it laid out the terms and
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conditions for the study which seemed reasonable until
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I dug into the letter and realized the letter had
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some, frankly, unclear on what needs to be done.
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past practice of the office had been when there was a
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requirement for a traffic study that the office issued
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the permit, the traffic study was done, you still hold
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the ultimate card to have the board dealt with at a
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future date.
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The
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So we have retained an engineer and I
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would like to discuss, if not here then privately.
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do find concerns with the letter.
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engineer for the traffic study but I would hope that
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we could issue the permits so we can get along with
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the balance of the work while the traffic study, the
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preconstruction traffic study could begin.
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JOHN ROMANO:
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points.
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We have retained an
I will address all those
So I did get your email.
The major point
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that Mr. O’Sullivan is bringing up and he is correct
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the past practice has been that the office issues the
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permit first.
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review a few things.
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first one that a traffic study was required.
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Upon me taking over this office, I did
Yours just happened to be the
I feel that in my position that a pre-
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installation study should be pre and before the permit
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is issued.
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issuing one of my first letters there are a few
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inconsistencies there.
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detail about it and we will issue the permit, and
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allow you to continue, as has been the practice.
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However, Mr. O’Sullivan is correct, in
I will talk to you in more
However, going forward we will take a
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little bit better look at that policy and we will most
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likely be requiring the pre-installation study to be
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done before the permit is issued.
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couple of inconsistencies in the letter and those need
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to be addressed before I fully implement that.
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won’t hold you to that at this one.
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EDWARD O’SULLIVAN:
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JOHN ROMANO:
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Thank you.
little more after the meeting -EDWARD O’SULLIVAN:
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JOHN ROMANO:
I appreciate that.
-- how we can get that
moving very soon.
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EDWARD O’SULLIVAN:
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JOHN ROMANO:
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Thank you.
Any other comments or
concerns?
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(No response)
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JOHN ROMANO:
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meeting is adjourned.
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have a great day.
Great, seeing none the
Thank you all very much and
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We
I will talk to you a
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Again, there were a
(Whereupon, the proceedings were
concluded on May 14, 2015 at 11:10 a.m.)
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Office of Outdoor Advertising May 14, 2014
C E R T I F I C A T E
I, Tammy A. Hillery, do hereby certify that the
foregoing record is a true and accurate transcription of
the proceedings in the above-captioned matter to the best
of my skill and ability.
_________________________________________
Tammy A. Hillery
**All names not provided were spelled phonetically to
the best of my ability.
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