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Date: 10/11/2023
SOUTHWICK — The Select Board agreed in principle on Oct. 2 to call a Special Town Meeting in the next two months, and reached a tentative consensus on who should sit on a screening committee to help chose a replacement for the town’s retiring chief administrative officer.
“We’re still waiting on different articles … we don’t even have everything in final form to even send to the [town] attorney … get to where we’re ready,” said current Chief Administrative Officer Karl Stinehart about where he was in the process of preparing a Town Meeting warrant.
A firm date has yet to be established, but later in the week Stinehart said it was expected to be sometime in early December.
Select Board Chair Doug Moglin tried to coordinate dates with Town Moderator Celeste St. Jacques during the board meeting, but the two could not make much headway, because no one was certain what sports or extracurricular activities were scheduled at Southwick Regional School. They did agree the meeting would likely be on a Tuesday.
So far, there are several articles that could be acted on at a Town Meeting: two zoning bylaw changes for recreational marijuana sales, and another related to a zoning change for a portion of the Crepes Tea House property on Feeding Hills Road.
The owner of Crepes Tea House has requested its zoning designation be changed from Agricultural/Conservation to Business Restricted to allow for the expansion of the building on the property, which is prohibited with its current zoning designation.
Town Meeting voters would also be asked to approve levying a 3% excise tax on recreational marijuana sales.
Also, in the past month the Community Preservation Committee approved a funding request from the Council on Aging to build six pickleball courts, two at Prifti Park next to Town Hall, and four at Whalley Park. The CPC authorized allocating $320,000 for the courts’ construction, but it must be approved by voters.
The Select Board also agreed to accept the donation of a 1.88-acre wetlands lot at 13 Berkshire Ave., where Great Brook meets Middle Pond. It would take a Town Meeting vote to complete the acquisition.
Screening committee
Over the past several meetings of the Select Board, there has been something of a dispute among the three members about who should be chosen to serve on a committee to help find a replacement for Stinehart, who will retire next spring.
Moglin initially suggested having the police chief, the chairs of Planning Board and Finance Committee, one or more members of the Select Board, and St. Jacques, as town moderator, appointed to the committee.
At a later meeting, Moglin said appointing Finance Chair Joseph Deedy was “open for discussion.”
Select Board member Diane Gale had a different opinion on who should serve. She said she was inclined to choose individuals who are not currently involved in the town’s operation.
She suggested Michelle Hill, the town’s treasurer-collector-clerk; someone representing town counsel; a retired or current member of Southwick-Tolland-Granville Regional School Committee; a retired member of either the Select Board or Finance Committee; and one current member of the Select Board.
Select Board member Jason Perron had largely stayed out of the debate until the Sept. 25 meeting, when he said he preferred not appointing a committee. Perron suggested that once the town contracts with an executive recruiting firm, it should let that group pick the finalists on its own.
On Oct. 2, Perron reversed his position.
“I’ve opened up my mind to screening committee,” Perron said, after a weekend of “soul searching.”
Perron suggested the police and fire chiefs, a local business leader, a citizen representative, the moderator, a representative of the Southwick-Tolland-Granville Regional School District, and a representative of unionized municipal employees, a suggestion that Gale and Moglin didn’t agree with.
Gale asked Perron about who might be the citizen representative, because most residents aren’t familiar enough with municipal operations to provide clear guidance on the committee.
However, she suggested as a citizen representative former long-serving Town Moderator Jim Putnam, and later Moglin suggested Steve Presnal, the former finance and operations director for the school district.
Moglin then began sifting through all the choices the board had offered and said there appeared to be a consensus forming.
All three agreed that the screening committee should include the Select Board chair, who is Moglin; Putnam; the current moderator, St. Jacques; Presnal; Planning Board Chair Michael Doherty; and Police Chief Robert Landis.
Needing a seventh member to create an odd number for committee, Moglin, Perron and Gale said a representative of the business community needed to be found.
Each said they would attempt to find someone to represent the business community and discuss it at the Oct. 16 meeting.
“I think this was progress and movement to get going in the right direction,” Moglin said.