Selectmen Chair Christine Joy told her board Monday night she had heard back from Northeastern University Professor Mina Heidi about a potential partnership that would give the town assistance with writing grants. Professor Heidi is an acquaintance of former Selectmen Chair Colleen Thompson and passed the contact along to the current Board.
At the selectmen’s meeting on Monday, July 24, Joy told the Board that Heidi is willing to help the Board in one of two ways: either have a student work on a particular grant for the board as a class assignment or allow the Board of Selectmen to sit in on a class and get a better idea of the grant writing process.
Selectmen John Traynor said he’s more inclined to go with the assignment option, but would like to have Professor Heidi come to a meeting and talk to the board about its options. The board plans to reach out to Professor Heidi to see if she would be willing to come to a meeting.
Upcoming Changes to Meeting Notification Process
Town Clerk Tara Shaw briefly announced upcoming changes to the way the town notifies people about meetings at the Town House. The town will adopt the alternative method of posting which involves the notification of meetings online rather than in print. This means the posting box outside will be removed and no paper copies of meeting notifications will be made unless requested.
At most, Shaw said request will be granted within 48 hours if outside of town clerk office hours. She said she can do them within 24 hours though if it’s within regular hours.
Shaw said, “This was voted on at Town Meeting.” She wanted to notify the board that this will be going into effect soon.
Town Administrator Search Update
Bernard Lynch from the consulting practice Community Paradigm, will talk to certain members of the Community in order to get an idea of what they believe Plympton needs in a town administrator. Selectmen said they are deciding on those individuals and will reach out to them.
Some of the individuals mentioned included former Selectmen Chair Colleen Thompson and former Finance Committee member Susan Ossoff. Selectmen John Traynor said board heads and other members of the community will also be invited.
Other News
The Board received four applications for the open clerical position in the Fire Department. The Board and Fire Chief Warren Borsari plan to create a screening committee to do the interviews for this position. John Traynor said he wants to be a member of this committee.
The Board of Selectmen followed up on some recent complaints about after hours operations at Rocky Harvest, LLC, on Brook Street. Selectmen said they plan to send out follow-up letters to the abutters and owner, Ed Rose. The Board said this will be the second signed letter of complaint.
The next selectmen’s meeting is Monday, July 31, 2017. Open session starts at 6 P.M.