Here are the posted open, public Southborough committee and board meetings for this week* along with my selected highlights from the agendas.
As always, be aware that changes to the meeting schedule (and agendas) are known to happen throughout the week. (Scroll down for details on any meetings that popped up after last Monday’s post.) For an updated list of meetings, visit the Town website.
These days, most (but not all) meetings, can be participated in, watched live, and replayed from home.)**
Monday, March 31, 2025
- MetroWest Regional Transit Authority Meeting, 11:00 am @ 15 Blandin Avenue, Framingham and zoom (agenda) Agenda Highlights: Fixed Route & Demand Response Contract Award; Draft FY26 Budget
- Wastewater Study Committee Meeting, 6:30 pm @ Public Safety Building and zoom (agenda) Agenda Highlights: Discuss state’s One-Stop Grant Application, and financing options including District Improvement Financing
- Neary Building Committee Meeting, 7:00 pm @ zoom only (agenda) Agenda Highlights: Review and vote on updated cost projections; Update letter to community on project; calendar for public outreach
- Neary Building Committee Finance Subcommittee Meeting, 8:00 pm @ zoom only (agenda) Agenda Highlights: [Editor’s Note: This meeting is specifically about the financial impacts. Other aspects of the project will be discussed at a big meeting on Thursday, April 3rd.] Public forum to present all financial aspects of proposed Neary School building project including current project estimated cost and the updated Town six year budget projection. Will include Q&A with public.
- Neary Building Committee Meeting, 8:00 pm @ Neary Building Committee Finance Subcommittee Meeting (agenda) Agenda Highlights: Participate in discussion at Finance Subcommittee meeting
Tuesday, April 1, 2025
- Select Board Meeting, 6:30 pm @ Town House Hearing Room and zoom (agenda with packet) Agenda Highlights: Liquor License Hearing for Southborough Golf and Practice Learning Center at 22 Turnpike Rd; Appoint Senior Center Director; Logistics for Town Meetings and Election; Review of Interim Report from 21 Highland Future Use Committee; Request to expand Tricentennial Committee membership
- Recreation Commission Meeting, 7:00 pm @ zoom only (agenda) Agenda Highlights: Updates on Lunblad Field, Repair Capital Fund, 21 Highland Street, Trottier Track Accessibility, Tricentennial Committee, and Fayville Hall Parking; CPA; Discussions on Field closure, 25-26 School Calendar, Choate Field/Artificial Surface, Signage at Trottier Track, SYBA (Southborough Youth Baseball Assoc) wrap up, and ADA fields
Wednesday, April 2, 2025
- Cable Television Committee Meeting, 9:00 am @ Town House Hearing Room (agenda) Agenda Highlights: Elect officers; Activities related to renewal of Charter Communications cable tv license
- Taxation Aid Committee Meeting, 4:15 pm @ Town House Hearing Room (agenda) Agenda Highlights: Discuss applications received in Feb
- Municipal Technology Committee Meeting, 7:00 pm @ zoom only (agenda) Agenda Highlights: Tech status & 5 yr plan (top metrics to track); Updates from depts/boards; Potential upcoming surveys (satisfaction, Town Meeting improvement, Town services feedback)
Thursday, April 3, 2025
- Neary Building Committee Meeting, 6:30 pm @ Public Safety Building and zoom: [Editor’s Note: Despite what the agendas below posted last week state, the location won’t be at Trottier Middle school. (They can’t conduct a hybrid meeting there as advertised.) NBC’s agenda for this advertised meeting hadn’t been posted yet at the time I wrote this. (Look for their agenda to be posted here.)
- Select Board Meeting, 6:30 pm @ Neary Building Committee Meeting (agenda) Agenda Highlights: Discuss all aspects of proposed Neary School Project and May 10th Special Town Meeting
- Advisory Committee Meeting, 6:30 pm @ Neary Building Committee Meeting (agenda) Agenda Highlights: Discuss all aspects of proposed Neary School Project and May 10th Special Town Meeting
- Southborough School Committee Meeting, 6:30 pm @ Neary Building Committee Meeting (agenda) Agenda Highlights: Discuss all aspects of proposed Neary School Project
Saturday, April 5, 2025
- Neary Building Committee Finance Subcommittee Meeting, 9:00 am @ Trottier Middle School auditorium (agenda) Agenda Highlights: Public forum to present all financial aspects of proposed Neary School building project including current project estimated cost and the updated Town six year budget projection. Will include Q&A with public. (The location has moved since the original agenda was posted.) [Editor’s Note: This meeting is specifically about the financial impacts. Other aspects of the project will be discussed at the big meeting on Thursday, April 3rd.]
Looking Back:
Below are meetings from last week that were posted after I ran last week’s list:
Thursday, March 27, 2025
- Neary Building Committee – Communications Subcommittee Meeting, 8:00 am (agenda, video) Agenda Highlights: FAQs and approach to replies to community questions
- Open Space Preservation Commission Meeting, 1:00 pm (agenda) Agenda Highlights: CPC representative; 118/120 Turnpike Road 40b Permit and Easements Overview; 25 Middle Rd Building Addition; 2 E Main St bldg, 26 Meadow Ln development; Winter Sow next steps; Golf Course Audubon management plan and invasive project; upcoming projects
- Stewardship Committee Meeting, 7:45 pm (agenda, video) Agenda Highlights: Attend Conservation Commission Meeting
*I don’t list meetings that are only closed Executive Sessions unless the agenda indicates the possibility of some action in an open public session at the opening or closing of the meeting.
**Details on watching meetings remotely:
- Town Committee/Board Meetings:
- If in-person meetings don’t also advertise a zoom option, assume that it won’t be broadcast or captured on video.
- To remotely participate in meetings that allow zoom, click here.
- To live stream (or view later) remote or hybrid meetings (even those covered by Southborough Access Media) over the internet, use the Town’s YouTube Channel for Remote Meetings. (The meetings covered by SAM can also be streamed on their website here, and eventually on SAM’s YouTube Channel.)
- Cable Access — Southborough Access Media broadcasts the regular evening meetings for the Select Board, Planning Board, and Zoning Board of Appeals that take place in the Town House Hearing Room. (Those meetings will still allow zoom participation.) View SAM’s live and replayed broadcasts via their Government cable access channel (Verizon-37 and Charter-194).
- School Committee Meetings:
- Subcommittee meetings and some special meetings are only available to attend/view live (in person or by “webinar”) with no later rebroadcast.
- Regular Southborough School Committee meetings are generally broadcast live by Southborough Access Media here and on Verizon-37 and Charter-192. (Video replays are also usually made available through their YouTube channel within a couple of days.)
- Regular Regional School Committee meetings (or Combined meetings based at Algonquin) are live broadcast by Northborough Cable Access here and on Southborough’s Education Channel (Verizon-29 and Charter-194). The meetings are also eventually rebroadcast and available through NCAT’s VideoOnDemand player and YouTube channel (though that can take several days).
- Other:
- Southborough does participate in some regional collaboratives hosted in other towns. Those committees follow their own rules and may not offer a way to re-watch zoom meetings.
Updated (3/31/25 1:53pm) : I accidentally listed the wrong time for the Saturday meeting. That meeting on the Neary project finances is in the morning at 9 AM.
Beth, thank you for these important updates. I would not know what is going on without you!
I am just curious why the April 3rd Neary Building meeting was scheduled in a relatively small space? If Trottier was not feasible, is there not another alternative that could accommodate a larger crowd? My understanding is that the meeting room at the Public Safety Building does not have a large capacity. I realize that the second meeting (Sat. April 5, 8:00 PM, to discuss “financial impacts”) is scheduled for Trottier. But as I see it, the “financial impacts” are not really a separate category, they are the end result of decisions that have been made by the committee along the way decisions that are presumably going to be part of the April 3rd discussion. IMO, you cannot really separate “financial impacts” from other aspects of the project. Both meetings would seem to deserve a larger space for public attendance.
My understanding is that they chose Trottier to accommodate more in person attendees but also wanted to include hybrid participation for people who can’t be there in person. Unfortunately, they apparently can’t make a hybrid meeting work in the Trottier auditorium, so they chose the largest meeting room they have with that capability.
But – following up on your point, the room does have much more limited capacity. When the Planning Board held a hybrid meeting there on MBTA Communities zoning in Sept. 2023, they advertised a “limited in-person capacity” and that only 49 people could be in person. (I assume that was based on the Fire Code.) I wasn’t clear if that was including or in addition to the 8 people involved in running the meeting. (5 board members, 2 staff, and the consultant.)
It might be even tougher this time since the meeting is meant to be a joint meeting of four committees. I counted, and (including ex-officio members) that totals 30 people. I highly doubt that all 30 will attend, especially in person, but I have no idea how many will.
I should also add that the hybrid discussions in the Public Safety Room, which makes use of the Owl technology rather than dedicated microphones, can often be difficult to hear. That’s especially true of comments and questions made from people in the audience.