The following summary of the June 22 Board of Selectmen meeting (which is available online on WayCAM) was prepared by Town Administrator Fred Turkington:
The Board of Selectmen met on Monday (June 22nd) evening and took the following action:
- Selectmen made several appointments to various town boards and committees. Paul Grasso was appointed to fill the unexpired term of Susan Pope as a member of the Finance Committee. Bob Lentz and Richard Stack were reappointed. Michael Thomas, Eric Goldberg were reappointed to three year terms to the Zoning Board of Appeals and Linda Segal was reappointed as an alternate member. Meaghan Winokur and Desmond McAuley were reappointed to the Historic District Commission and Barbara Howell will serve another term on the Conservation Commission.
- Preliminary discussions with the Massachusetts Highway Department revealed requirements revealed requirements for additional traffic studies to show the impacts of phasing construction of the development while requiring each of the improvements along Route 20 and 27, except giving town officials discretion on the traffic signal at the intersection of Route 126/27. The Historic District Commission will meet Monday night to consider certificates of appropriateness or hardship for the work in the public ways in the historic district in light of the impracticality of phasing the traffic improvements.
- Members of the Septage Committee and committee counsel reviewed with the Board recommended language changes to the proposed administrative consent order by MassDEP to be negotiated. The Board of Selectmen authorized Town Administrator Fred Turkington to negotiate with DEP after hearing there is no credible evidence to support the assertion that pumping charges to residents will increase.
- Selectmen discussed proposed recommendations to be incorporated into a report to Town Meeting in the fall relative to motions to be made under the traditional article recognizing citizens for extensive service to the town. Preliminary recommendations include: adhering to the original intent of the article to recognize at Annual Town Meeting those volunteers with at least 25 years of service, employees retiring with at least 20 years of service, and honoring with a moment of silence volunteers who have passed away since the previous Annual Town Meeting; encouraging boards and committees to recognize volunteers for their contributions within the area of cognizance or jurisdiction of the committee at forums other than town meeting; and if establishing annual awards for specific contributions, committees should use objective criteria whenever possible and provide some form of process to gather public input into the selection of recipients.
Note: The Board of Selectmen have set a tentative meeting schedule for the summer months to accommodate vacation schedules, holidays, and deadlines for town business. The Board will meet the following dates in July and August:
Monday, July 6
Monday, July 20
Thursday, July 30
Monday, August 17
Monday, August 31
A reminder that no meeting is scheduled on Monday, June 29th. The schedule will be adjusted as appropriate.
Fred Turkington
Town Administrator
