Three more committee/board meetings were posted for this Thursday. So, I’m running an updated list of this week’s meetings.
I should also have noted that to participate in tonight’s Board of Selectmen meeting Those of you who haven’t used zoom before should take an advance look at the details and tips posted on the Town’s website.*
Based on the current guidelines for social distancing, the Town is limiting meetings to those considered critical by the boards/committees (either by topic or time sensitivity.) Below are the meetings currently scheduled, along with my selected highlights from the agendas.
Be aware that changes to the meeting schedule are known to happen throughout the week. For an updated list of meetings, visit the town website.
Tuesday, April 7, 2020
- Board of Selectmen Meeting, 6:30 pm @ Virtual Meeting* (agenda with packet) Agenda Highlights: State Senator and Representative Legislative Update; Interview for ZBA Alternate; Discuss date for postponed Annual Town Meeting; Update on Covid-19 impact; Discuss meetings of Town boards/committees during State of Emergency; Public Comment
Wednesday, April 8, 2020
- Southborough School Committee, 6:30 pm @ Virtual Meeting – not available live** (agenda) Agenda Highlights: COVID-19 Health Situation, NSBORO-CONNECT 2.0, April Vacation Discussion, Neary School Improvement Plan Update; 2nd Readings of policies on Disposition of Executive Session Minutes and Conflict of interest
Thursday, April 9, 2020
- Scholarship Advisory Committee Meeting, 6:30 pm @ Virtual Meeting (agenda) Agenda Highlights: Discussion of 2020 Scholarship Planning
- N/S School Committees, N/S Regional School Committees, N/S Superintendency Union #3 Meeting, 6:30 pm @ Virtual Meeting, (agenda) Agenda Highlights: COVID-19 Health Information Update; Discussion and Action on April Vacation; and Superintendent Illness Contingency Plan – to be live streamed***
- Southborough Master Plan Committee Meeting, 6:30 pm @ Virtual Meeting (agenda) Agenda Highlights: Review of survey, vote on content and distribution
*The Town intends to make each of its meetings available for viewing/listening via streaming live (and saved) video and audio on YouTube. But there is the caveat that there could be technical glitches that force them to take backup actions:
No in-person attendance of members of the public will be permitted, but every effort will be made to ensure that the public can adequately access the proceedings in real time, via technological means. In the event that we are unable to do so, despite best efforts, we will post on Southborough’s website an audio or video recording, transcript, or other comprehensive record of proceedings as soon as possible after the meeting.
Click here for info on viewing and/or participating. (If you plan to participate in public comment and haven’t used zoom before, I recommend checking out the Town’ s info in advance.)
**The Southborough School Committees’ meeting will be made available to view via Southborough Access Media. But it won’t be streamed live. A recording will be broadcast eventually on Verizon-37 and Charter-192. Click here to see this week’s schedule with rebroadcast times. It will also be made available through SAM’s YouTube channel.
***The Combined School Committees’ meeting will be live streamed and broadcast by Northborough Cable Access. That’s available in Southborough on Verizon-29 and Charter-194 or via NCAT’s live stream. The meeting will also be rebroadcast through NCAT’s YouTube channel and VOD player.
Just read minutes from prior B of S meeting. Mr. Stiver brought up the idea of expanding transfer station hours and days using hourly town employees being paid by the town during the crisis despite their jobs being shut down. Everyone I know is doing either significant yard work or garage/basement/attic cleaning while furloughed or working from home. Having the Transfer Station open on additional days would be both a nice expansion of services to the town but also help alleviate the too crowded conditions that now exist when it is opened. I tried to avoid taking the middle spot at the main hopper the other day to “socially distance” myself from the other two cars using that side of the hopper and clearly angered the guy waiting in line behind me. Expanding TS hours/days has been a discussion topic for a long time. Why not try it now? I didn’t find Karen G’s reason to not pursue the idea very compelling. If not, I would suggest the installation of cones to the middle spots to discourage 3 cars at a time from using each side.