‘Select Board’ prevails at Town Meeting
MIDDLEBORO — The biggest news coming out of the October 15 Special Town Meeting is that Middleboro will join at least 85 other municipalities in the state who have chosen to change the Board of Selectmen to the more gender-neutral Select Board.
The second town meeting to be held since the start of the pandemic was filled with numerous surprises, but the name change received the most amount of attention.
After a vote to postpone Article 20 indefinitely was shut down, Finance Committee Chair Paula Fay explained why she was one of the people to bring this before the BOS and Town Meeting.
“Changing the name of the Board of Selectmen to Select Board is a small and simple act. As society evolves, language evolves. Titles have evolved. This isn’t the boys club anymore. It’s not just male roles being occasionally filled in by women,” said Fay.
In addition to pointing out the evolution of job titles removing gender, like firefighters, mail carriers, and police officers, Fay also pointed to news from this past January when the Massachusetts Selectmen Association voted unanimously to change its name to the Massachusetts Select Board Association.
The Board of Selectmen, as a whole, did not endorse this change.
Selectman Neil Rosenthal referred to this name change as “political correctness run amuck” and emphasized that “women haven’t been denied being on the board in many years” and “at least five of the chairs in the last 20 years have been women.”
Selectman Mark Germaine stated he didn’t want the name changed because of its historical value to the town.
Despite the opposition against it, the majority of the room was in favor of the change.
The Select Board still needs to petition the state legislature in order to make the change official, as well as amend it in the Town Charter. Otherwise, no change is being made with regards to the responsibilities and powers of the board and its members.
Other Articles that passed that were of note:
Article 4: $300,000 to pay for sidewalk reconstruction of Center and Union streets.
Article 11: $154,715 for required expenses the Department of Public Works must accomplish for the DEP to be in compliance with storm water management.
Article 12: $90,000 so the School District can purchase two new transit vans for transport.
Article 18: Amends the general bylaws pertaining to delivery licenses for marijuana sales in town.
As explained by special town counsel, Jonathan Silverstein, the correction being added to the bylaw pertaining to retail eligibility has to do with keeping up to date with regulations adopted by the state’s Cannabis Control Commission.
Towns that allow retail sales aren’t allowed to prohibit delivery in town limits. However, the language in the current town bylaws caps the amount of retail licenses, which is what a delivery license classified as.
Without making this change, the law, as it is written for the town, can be interpreted as prohibiting a marijuana retailer or medical sales dispensary in town to deliver or have other companies deliver. The end result would be companies coming from outside town limits serving the public, and the town not receiving any of the revenue associated with having local retailers.
“We’d be putting our retailers in town at a terrible disadvantage by not passing this,” said Rosenthal.
Article 19: Amends a storm water management bylaw passed last year by adding a $300 fine each day for a violation.
Article 22: This Article proposed a ban within town limits of thin single-use plastic bags. The article ended up being postponed indefinitely because the language in the proposal failed to answer every question voters had. Multiple amendments kept being attached to the vote, and it reached a point where officials realized the text needed refinement.
“This bylaw needs a lot of work. It could cause problems down the road,” said Robert Nunes, Town Manager.
Much of the public in attendance was concerned with the timing of this proposal as more people have been using thin plastic bags during the pandemic.
The Article was sponsored by the Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle Study Group in town. Chair Jeff Stevens pointed out that neighboring communities Plymouth and Bridgewater have already instituted this ban.
Expect this proposal to return to Town Meeting in the spring.
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