Updated (4/15/25 5:38 pm): I just got confirmation that the Neary Building Forum focused on the project site will still take place on Wednesday night.
That event is scheduled for 7:00 pm in the Trottier Middle School auditorium. The topic is focused on Neary Building Project site selection and consideration of adjacent landfill; Q&A may include other aspects of project.
The Neary Building Committee’s official meeting is cancelled due to the Open Meeting Law posting requirements. But one member of the committee will host the forum which will include the Town’s engineering consultant from PARE. That will allow the public to have the chance to ask their questions. The meeting will be recorded by Southborough Access Media to be replayed on their channel and YouTube.
A technology glitch impacted the legally required posting of agendas for town and school committee meetings. As a result, all of the committee and board meetings scheduled for today through Thursday morning have been cancelled.
As of writing this post, the Town’s website just came back online 20 minutes ago. That could allow some committees who act quickly to reschedule meetings to Thursday night or Friday. (It also occurred to me that a certain “forum” could still be held if there isn’t a quorum. I’m waiting to hear what the Neary Building Committee’s plan is.) So stay tuned for developments on this week’s meetings.
As for what happened. . .
At around 2:30 pm this afternoon, Town Clerk Jim Hegarty emailed an “Urgent Notice”. In it, he explained:
I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news but because the town’s website has been down all day, all town AND Regional School Committee meetings scheduled for Tuesday 4/15 and Wednesday 4/16 , and one scheduled for 9:00am on Thursday are canceled.
The Open Meeting Law requires that meeting notices be posted on the town’s designated official posting location (Southborough’s town website and the hallway bulletin board) at least 48 business hours in advance of a meeting. The vendor who maintains our website experienced a problem early this morning when they were doing an upgrade to their system which unfortunately has prevented anyone from accessing the Southborough website all day. Since the public was prevented from accessing the town’s website for more than 6 hours, per the Attorney General, under these circumstances all meetings scheduled to be held within the next 48 business hours must be canceled. . .
When the website is accessible again, I will update the website to mark each meeting as cancelled.
The issue impacted all of the meetings that I had posted information about yesterday morning except the ones that took place on Monday. Cancelled meetings included ones by the Select Board, a Neary Building Committee, ZBA hearings and more.
But one agenda for Thursday wasn’t on Hegarty’s cancellation list. The Wastewater Study Committee posted an agenda yesterday to meet this Thursday, April 17th at 6:30 pm (in the Public Safety Training Room and over zoom). If the website doesn’t go down again, they should be all set to proceed. You can find that agenda here.
As for rescheduling meetings to next week, some boards/committees may not want to hold them over public schools’ spring break. But if they do, Hegarty’s message reminds Town officials that under Open Meeting Law, meetings next Tuesday will need to have agendas posted by tomorrow (since Monday is Patriot’s Day). And for meetings next Wednesday, agendas must be submitted by 11:00 am this Friday (since Town offices close at noon).
