The week in government: Select Board on Parkerville Rd speed limit, DPW Superintendent contract, Tree Warden, St. Mark’s St project; Police Chief recruitment

Here are the posted open, public Southborough committee and board meetings for this week* along with my selected highlights from the agendas.

These days, some meetings are over zoom, some in-person, and others are hybrids that allow both participation through both options.**

As always, be aware that changes to the meeting schedule are known to happen throughout the week. (Scroll down for details on meetings that popped up after last Monday’s post.) For an updated list of meetings, visit the town website.

Tuesday, June 14, 2022

  • Select Board Meeting, 6:00 pm @ Town House Hearing Room and over zoom (agenda and packet) Agenda Highlights: 2022 Scholarship Awards; Hopkinton’s request to Connect to MWRA Water through Southborough; Request to lower Parkerville Rd speed limit; Approve Transfer Station Rules & Regs; Open Warrant for October 13 Special Town Meeting; Approve interdepartmental transfers; Approve FY23 Board and Committee appointments; One Day Liquor License Application for Beer Truck Event June 23rd at 120 Turnpike Rd; Release several Executive Session Minutes; Appoint Senior IT Specialist; Approve DPW Superintendent contract; Consider $12K of ARPA funds for Taxation Relief Committee; Discuss Tree Warden position and appointment extension, St. Mark’s Street project and revised Working Group charge; Police Chief recruitment process; FY23 budget adjustments
  • Youth Commission Meeting, 6:00 pm (agenda and packet) Agenda Highlights: Budget update; Strategic Plan; Youth Council office position votes; posting commission vacancy; ARPA funding update

Wednesday, June 15, 2022

  • Personnel Board Meeting, 9:00 am (agenda) Agenda Highlights: Salary Survey Initiation; Employee Training; Tuition Reimbursement; Hirings and Departures; Update on Benefits Working Group; Vote FY22 Annual Salary increases eff. July 1st
  • Southborough Housing Authority Meeting, 5:30 pm (agenda) Agenda Highlights: text
  • Combined School Committees Meeting, 6:00 pm (agenda) Agenda Highlights: Reappoint School Physician; Strategic Plan Update; Personnel; 22-23 School Calendar Discussion and Vote; Superintendent’s 21-22 Evaluation and 22-23 Contract
  • Regional School Committee Meeting, 7:00 pm (agenda) Agenda Highlights: Athletics Update; Enrollments; Review of Covid Data; Vote on School Lunch price increase; Approve Student Handbook; First Reading of policy on Capital Stabilization Fund
  • Zoning Board of Appeals Meeting, 7:00 pm (agenda) Agenda Highlights: Approval of May 18 Meeting Minutes

Looking Back:

Below is a meeting from last week that was posted after I ran last week’s list:

Wednesday, June 8, 2022

  • Community Preservation Committee Meeting, 7:00 pm (agenda, video) Agenda Highlights: Update on accounts investment strategy; Finalize Recreation MOU Tennis/Pickleball Court; FY24 application process; Process for closing out projects; Consultant Update
  • Advisory Committee Meeting, 7:30 pm (agenda, video) Agenda Highlights: Updates on Neary Building Committee, possible reserve fund/inter-dept transfer requests, and St. Mark’s St Park project; Future budget planning & review process; Liaison roles; Discuss idea of increasing CPA surcharge

*I don’t include closed Executive Sessions unless the agenda indicates the possibility of some action in an open public session at the opening or closing of the meeting.

**Details on watching meetings remotely:

  • Southborough School Committee meetings are generally broadcast live by Southborough Access Media here and on Verizon-37 and Charter-192. (Video replays are also usually made available through their YouTube channel within a day or two.)
  • Regional School Committee meetings (or Combined meetings based at Algonquin) are broadcast by Northborough Cable Access here and on Verizon-29 and Charter-194. The meetings are also eventually rebroadcast and available through NCAT’s VOD player and YouTube channel (though that can take several days).
  • Town committees and boards that advertise remote meetings can be joined on zoom (details here). They are also streamed live and saved for replay via the Town’s YouTube Channel for Remote Meetings. (Though, occasionally there are glitches.) If they don’t advertise a remote option, assume that only in-person attendance is allowed.

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William
1 year ago

Jonathan Hostage, a twenty year Southborough resident, businessman and father of four children, will be on the ballot in November for the new seat in the State House which represents all of Southborough, most of Westborough, parts of Northborough and one precinct in Framingham.
I met him and know that he will be a voice of reason in the legislature once we elect him!

No, thanks.
1 year ago
Reply to  William

I noticed that this candidate has been quoted as saying that “Our public schools have become centers for indoctrination and not critical thinking”.

At this point, I am more concerned about our country’s democracy and election system being undermined by a subset of a political party than about our students learning about our country’s very real history of racism and slavery. Some of the statements made by this candidate don’t sound like a voice of reason to me (quite the opposite). My two cents.

EveryoneHasAvoice
1 year ago
Reply to  No, thanks.

The dpw I think does a fantastic job. They have been very responsive to my needs about things in town that had to be taken care of/fixed and in a timely manner. I have lived in other towns before and they have not been as receptive as Southboro DPW. I fully support the superintendents contract renewal. Everything else from critics is small town gossip.

Misspending and Mismanagement
1 year ago

Completely disagree. The facts speak for themselves. Spending public money on private property, such as the St. Mark’s fiasco, is illegal. Chapter 90 funds, public monies, cannot be spent on St. Marks new parking lot. The town road budget was depleted, spent on St. Marks. All the trees were taken down, with taxpayer dollars. Free gravel was given to St. Marks (spending $20,000 of taxpayer money). Free driveways, landscaping, and giveaways to all taxpayers! Not just St. Marks.

Misspending and mid management, with zero oversight, is not gossip.

northsider
1 year ago
Reply to  William

Jonathan Hostage’s homepage is extremely right leaning and wouldn’t get the majority of votes in a liberal area like this. He’s fighting against CRT and I imagine he hasn’t even looked at our school curriculum.

resident
1 year ago

Approve DPW Superintendent Contract. Is that Karen Galligan. The powers that be should be ashamed of themselves if they renew her contract with all the fiascos she has been involved in. Nobody is ever held accountable in this town. Shameful!

Townie
1 year ago

I take it everyone who complains will be putting in papers for the select board. In the meantime Karen puts up with a lot from crybabies. I fully support the contract renewal. I think the DPW does a fantastic job, working with what they have. Also just a PSA, Walmart has tissues on sale, it’s a BOGO deal.

resident
1 year ago
Reply to  Townie

Are you pulling papers? I can’t pull papers, I am already too involved in the town. We don’t need tissues, we need accountability for every single thing Galligan touches. When you work in the public sector you have to expect people will come to you with issues, that is part of the job. You can call them crybabies and sometimes that is accurate but you are getting paid by and spending the townspeople’s money. You don’t want to put up with it, then get out. I know exactly how Galligan reacts because I have had many discussions with her as a co-worker. You want to manage, then manage but do it above board and honestly and she seems to be missing a dictionary to know what that means. Perhaps you support her debacles so heartily because you are one of the DPW workers who sits or drives around all day, yes word gets around, doing little more than nothing and then whines when you have to work. If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. It is WAAAAYYY past time for her to get the heck out of here.

Accountability Now
1 year ago

The DPW contract renewal needs to be put on hold and other options explored. Also, this water deal with Hopkinton was negotiated by Galligan? Really? Or someone else? Who? Water and the future is a big deal. Southborough should be looking at its own interests and the future. Hopkinton already sucked the Sudbury River dry, before it’s ongoing mega developments. Do our residents know they are paying for a new water tower?? Yes? No?

No to Hopkinton. Accountability for all DPW debacles. Audit time. The taxpayers have a right to know fully what has been going on at the DPW.

bump on a log
1 year ago

I would like to know more information about how Hopkinton plans to connect to the MWRA, southboro water system? Seeing there no water mains on abutting streets on the town lines, Cedar street, Cedar street extension or fruit street Beth, Please keep us posted.

NO To Hopkinton
1 year ago

Hopkinton has already drained the Sudbury River dry, and this is before their huge developments. They are already development irresponsible, outstripping their existing infrastructure capacity. Southborough taxpayers don’t need to subsidize big development in Hopkinton. As importantly, we subsidize some private developers dreams of increasing their profits, while they send their TRAFFIC into Southborough?

Where is the tipping point? When is too much development too much, outstripping roadway, infrastructure, and future water supplies? Even the MWRA system can be reach its limits. All communities drawing off this system can diminish supply, especially during droughts.

Drive to Westborough. Mid afternoon. Sit in miles long traffic on Routes 9 and 30, stalled because the roads no longer fit all the traffic and development. That’s the west border of Southborough. Now clog the south side of town? No to Hopkinton. We should have said no to Ashland when they came knocking for water, but Brian Shea (then BOS) and his other BOS cronies slid the deal through with barely an awareness of the public. Never understood his and his company’s consulting (?) relationship with the MWRA. Southborough should mind its own future. NO to Hopkinton. And definitely NO to Purple and Galligan negotiating ANYTHING. These individuals should be removed.

bump on a log
1 year ago

Thanks, Beth, for putting out the link about Hopkinton’s water needs, the town of Hopkinton has over built, causing their water supply demand unreachable, what did they expect, nothing to go wrong? as a lifelong Taxpayer of this town, I am totally against giving them any water. They should have thought about this 20 years ago, Pluss all the million-dollar homes have sprinkler systems to feed their lush lawns. NO Water Connection. Live with their mistakes, a lesion has to learned here, we only have one earth, and if we run out of water, we are all history.

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