The Select Board will take up a mix of familiar and new matters at their July 17 meeting. Among items are an RFP for a new command vehicle for Fire Rescue, revised bylaws for the Library Board of Trustees, the status of the Public Safety Committee and a possible alternative advisory group, and the make-up of the Land Management Planning Committee.
The board will also finalize the warrant for the July 31 Special Town Meeting and discuss the Town’s parcel at the old Public Works site in the Upper Village. Find the full agenda packet at this link.
The meeting begins at 7 p.m. in the Meetinghouse and will be broadcast on local cable and live-streamed on Castus at this link. The board’s meeting will follow a special public Q & A session on the Town’s new charter, starting at 6 p.m., also at the Meetinghouse and on cable and Castus live-stream.
New fiscal year: new purchases and projects. The board is slated to push along several items, including some in the new fiscal year budget approved by voters. They include:
— reviewing a draft RFP for a Fire Rescue command vehicle (pp. 6-11 of the agenda packet);
— considering the purchase of radios for the command vehicle (p. 12); and
— an RFP for painting and staining the exterior of buildings in the Town Hall Complex (pp.19-22).
Revised bylaws for the Library Board of Trustees. The Trustees have proposed two Youth Trustee positions for high school students. The board wanted clarification about how these young trustees would be appointed and for legal guardian permission. A revised draft is before the board and on pp.23-26.
Expand LMPC? The board will discuss the size and composition of the Land Management Planning Committee, which develops land use and related ordinances. According to the agenda, through an oversight, an eighth at-large member was recently appointed to LMPC; the committee’s charge calls for seven at-large members (p.27). The board will consider what to do, including whether to expand to nine at-large members.
Warrant for July 31 Special Town Meeting. The briefer than brief warrant for the July 31 Special Town Meeting is ready for board approval. Read the two articles—to cover modest departmental budget overruns and to take $500,000 from the Undesignated Fund Balance to reduce taxation—at pp. 29-31.
Returning topics. The board is slated to return to the status of the Public Safety Committee and perhaps consider an alternative or additional advisory group. Possibilities were discussed at a recent meeting and deferred. Also on the agenda is discussion of next steps for the site of the former Public Works building in the Upper Village. The Town owns the property, and past boards have wrestled with possibilities for the parcel.
There’s more. Read the full July 17, 2023, agenda packet, including an update from Town Manager Bill Kerbin on the search for an Assistant Librarian and plans for the Administrative Code required by the Charter, at this link.
Public comments can be submitted by email before 10 am on Monday, July 17, to townmanager@newgloucester.com and smyers@newgloucester.com. If you want your comment read aloud, please indicate that in the subject line.
Find Select Board agendas, related documents and meeting minutes at this link.
— Joanne Cole
