Letter from the Selectboard: August 2019 Updates

Dear Residents,

Quite a bit has been going on during these lazy days of summer. Work on Calamint Hill Rd North and Route 140 is underway, testing the patience of residents and others trying to pass through. Our new digital speed signs have arrived and are being used by the police to raise awareness of speeding and remind people to slow down. One sign is placed to help with people speeding along the Route 140 detour.

Glen Lyons has given notice that he is retiring after more than 30 years working for the Town. Though we will all miss Glen, the department is in good hands with Interim DPW Superintendent Ben Metcalf. Town resident Melissa Hawthorne was recently appointed to be Assistant Treasurer/Collector and Executive Assistant. Congratulations to Ben and Melissa on their new positions.

The search for our new Town Administrator has yielded several good candidates that will be interviewed by the Selectboard later this month. These interviews will be public meetings and we encourage you to attend.

Interim Town Administrator Rick White, Selectboard member Karen Cruise, former Facilities Steering Committee member Ian Catlow, Chief Powers, Chief Bennett, and Deputy Chief Tim Kelly have been preparing an RFQ to go out to hire a designer/architect to develop the next phase of designs for a new public safety center. This was approved at Town Meeting in the spring. The intention of the group is to come before a Special Town Meeting over the winter with three design options and cost estimates. The Town will be asked to vote on one of the three designs and to approve the funding of design and construction documents. Senator Chandler and Representative Ferguson have made it very clear to the Selectboard that we will not receive State bond bill money without design and construction documents and our best chance of getting assistance from the State with our public safety building is to move quickly and not let the bond bill funds expire in three years.

To keep up-to-date on these and other projects in Town, check out the Projects page on the new Town website. The Selectboard is keeping this page up-to-date.

Please feel free to reach out to any of us with your comments or concerns. Our contact info is on the Selectboard page of the website.

Respectfully,

Karen Cruise, chair

Richard Bisk

Matthew Moncreaff