Board appointment
Ann Taylor of Still River Road was appointed to the Elderly and Disabled Taxation Aid Committee. Speaking to the selectmen, Taylor said that she would like to be of service on this committee and that her past experience on a school scholarship committee prepared her for matching need with resources. On a side note, when asked if there had been word from the state on the proposal to change the membership makeup of the tax aid committee to have the COA director replace the town assessor, a change proposed by then-chairman Rick Maiore, Town Administrator Tim Bragan responded that he has heard nothing yet.
JBOS report
Chairwoman Lucy Wallace gave an update from a JBOS meeting she recently attended. Harvard had stopped going to these meetings because basically “nothing was happening,” she said. To Wallace’s surprise, although the agreed-upon rotation of chairperson would fall to Harvard this year, the group chose Ayer to head the committee, saying Harvard had not attended meetings. The confusion continued as Wallace said that Harvard was being asked to sign an amendment to a 2011 Memorandum of Understanding about town representation on JBOS. None of the selectmen could figure out what was different or what the amendment was trying to accomplish. So they opted not to sign. What did make sense to the board was a request to support Ayer in a proposal to make Vicksburg Square a campus for the University of Massachusetts at Lowell. The selectmen unanimously agreed to support Ayer by sending a letter to Marty Meehan, chancellor of the University of Massachusetts.
New utility pole approved
A Verizon representative presented a petition to place a utility pole on Whitney Road in order to extend services to a newly constructed house. Rich Nota, director of Department of Public Works, had added a stipulation that the pole be set no closer than three feet to the pavement. The unanimous vote was taken quickly; the signing of multiple copies of the agreement by all board members took a bit longer.
