Select Board Chair Phil Crawford presented a list of town goals and priorities at a meeting Monday night at the Merritt Center.
“As we know we have a lot on our plate as a town,” Crawford said in an opening statement. “A tremendous amount of projects have begun over the last few years, so what I would like to put out there is really not to add too much of anything more, but to finish what we already have.”
Number one on the list was the completion and opening of the public safety building and town hall projects currently under construction, followed by preparing for the start of the rail trail construction which is scheduled to commence in 2026.
A complete streets project starting with a $500,000 grant-funded redesign of the Salem and Summer streets intersection across from the new fire station is also a top priority. Crawford said that the project “will certainly improve that area both for the residents and for our public safety building.”
The Sagamore 55+ senior housing development is also on the Select Board’s radar. The project calls for the construction of 66 detached luxury units. A groundbreaking ceremony hosted by Toll Brothers took place in January 2025.
“We need to finish the management of that and what it means to the town,” Crawford said. “There will be months of construction going on there that will have to be managed.”
Crawford said he’s asked the schools to provide quarterly reports “on both operations and capital. They will be in front of us along with our DPW to go over how they’ve done up to that point.”
The board is also looking into the formation of a golf management committee to consider conditions at Reedy Meadow and King Rail Reserve.
“We want to look at what we might want to do to improve that as far as maybe improve the building at Reedy Meadow and what they might need for improvements along the golf course,” Crawford said.
Crawford noted that the town has seen several “key retirements” recently, one of them being Assistant Town Administrator Bob Curtin, who is retiring at the end of June.
“He will be here from time to time but is retiring from day-to-day operations,” Crawford said. “We have to have some discussions on (all of) their replacements.”
Another pressing issue concerns the town’s budget. Crawford said the board will be discussing a balanced budget and override budget, the latter which will be the subject of a Special Town Election on June 4.
“Even though we don’t know what the vote is going to be, we still have to pay attention to what it will look like depending on how that goes on June 4, so, we’ll be talking about that,” said Crawford, who in an interview prior to the meeting said “we will need to look at further cuts if it doesn’t pass.”
The board has asked DPW Director John Scenna to report on current road projects and lay out a two-year road program at its next meeting.
“He will list the streets for the next two years that will be paved, subject to funding,” Crawford said, adding the projects will take place in the fall of 2025 and summer of 2026. “Even though I say two years, it will get done in a 12-month period.”
Crawford also addressed the The stadium field at the high school (field one) is being replaced with construction beginning at the end of the school year and conclusion of the sports tournament season. Crawford said the project has already been approved and funded and has gone out to bid.
“That should be done this summer,” Crawford said. “We just have to follow that and make sure it’s done properly.”
The final item the board is considering is continuing the upgrade of the town’s social media and website. A new website was launched in early January/late December.
“We’ve been talking about this for years,” Crawford said. “Now, we’ve finally started that so you will see continued improvement to both the social media piece and the website with the town hall and we’ll be tweaking that as we go along. That’s pretty much it. I don’t want to add too much to our plate.”
The only other order of business taken up by the board, was an order of taking for a portion of property on Ford Avenue to allow pedestrian access to the rail trail at the end of Ford Avenue at its intersection with Perry Avenue. At the April 28 Town Meeting, residents approved acceptance of the parcel as a public way.
