Board of Selectmen agree to forgo special town election

The Board of Selectmen on Tuesday night formally decided not to call for a special town election to fill the seat vacated last month by Kevin Feeney and will instead await the town’s regular election in early April to fill the vacant seat.

Feeney formally resigned during an executive session on October 16 after being identified as an alleged source of information to former DPW Operations Manager Dan Teague, who filed suit against the town for wage violations and wrongful termination after his contract was not renewed by selectmen in the spring of 2018. The details surrounding Feeney’s departure were first reported in the Canton Citizen last week.

Selectmen Chairman Mark Porter said he recently spoke with Town Clerk Tracy Kenney about the cost and timing of a potential special election. According to Town Administrator Charlie Aspinwall, if the town were to hold a special election, it would be in either late January or early February and would cost between $13,000 and $15,000. A consensus of the four remaining selectmen agreed that it would be best to wait until the regular election as interested candidates would need enough lead time to file papers, hold discussions and debates, and campaign for votes.

As a result of the board’s decision, there now will be two BOS seats up for election in April — a three-year seat currently held by John Connolly and a two-year seat for the remainder of Feeney’s term. In the intervening months, if there is a tie vote among the four selectmen, then the motion would not pass. Selectmen also voted 4-0 to appoint Selectman Tom Theodore to the position of board clerk.

In other news:

* Selectmen approved asking Town Planner Laura Smead to continue to obtain formal engineering design plans for renovations to the Earl Waterhouse Waterfront at Reservoir Pond in accordance with a recently completed waterfront master plan. The entire cost of the renovations has been pegged at around $500,000 and a consensus of selectmen feel it is best to get firm construction costs for the project. The engineering plans are estimated to cost between $50,000 and $60,000. In the interim, Smead will look into applying for Community Preservation Act and state grant funds. It is possible that once the firm construction costs are determined, DPW and Recreation staff members could perform some of the labor, such as paving, although selectmen do not want the DPW taking over too much of the project at the expense of other DPW projects …

See this week’s Canton Citizen to continue reading this story and for more highlights from the Oct. 30 Board of Selectmen’s meeting. Not a subscriber? Click here to order your subscription today (also available in digital form).

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Posted by Mike Berger on Nov 3 2018. Filed under News, Town Government. Both comments and pings are currently closed.