Select Board Recap June 15, 2026

Hello, Dartmouth. Cody had town administrator here to give you an update from the June 15th select board meeting.

We had an event an eventful night where we started out with a change of manager for at the BJ's wholesale club. Pretty straightforward, standard process. The select board unanimously approved that.

Next, we had DNRT in to give an explanation of a conservation restriction that they were seeking uh for a property on Little River Road.

This property uh currently has a lot of other conservation land around it. Uh it's been important for DNRT to preserve this and so the select board unanimously signed off on the certification uh with DNRT. So, very exciting. There was a temporary trailer permit on the agenda, but it was withdrawn uh right before the meeting occurred. So, we skipped that item. Item D was the recognition of the

human resources department. We've been trying to recognize uh several of our departments over the past several months. We recognize our library department recently for all of their work in the Minute Madness Challenge.

And so, this month we wanted to recognize our human resources department twofold really. Uh the first being that the town, as many of you may be aware, recently transitioned to a new health insurance provider. Um and that with that comes a lot of work. Our our human resources department provides the benefits administration so health insurance administration to all general government employees all school

department employees and all retirees.

So in total it's it's somewhere in the range of 12 or 1300 employees that are HR department services. And so um a lot of work went into having to make that transition not just the individuals who wanted to make plan changes or um sign up for the insurance but really for for everyone. And so it was a lot of work.

So kudos. We only have a a two member HR department here. We have an HR director and a HR and benefits coordinator. Uh and they did an excellent job seamlessly transitioning everyone, answering questions, uh and really just being responsive. The second part of that recognition was our human resources director, Sue Cunningham, has announced that she will be leaving her employment with the town in early July. She's

accepted a position in another um another community working for a school district. And so Sue has been a great asset to the town of Dartmouth, working to support internally our departments, which has a direct benefit to our our residents. And so we're going to miss Sue. Um, and we wanted to thank Sue for all her service to the town over the last year or so. Item E was appointment

to the Russell Mills Historic District Commission. This was just to give the select board an update uh that we will be soliciting the appointment of members to the Russell Mills Historic District Commission. The bylaw sets forward a process for doing this. We have to send out letters to several different organizations and they can provide us with um their appointments essentially.

In the meantime, at the July 13th meeting, we may look to make some temporary appointments. And so if an application does come in to the district, we want to make sure that we have a quorum uh that can appropriately act on those applications. So you can look forward to uh more updates on this at our next meeting. there was a DPW business manager contract. And so we're um the town of Dartmouth has not

historically had a DPW business manager.

It's it's very um it's not it's not uncommon in a lot of communities to have a position like this, particularly with such large DPW operations. And so uh it was important that we create this position. Town Meeting approved the funding. It's funded 25. It's split four ways. So the general fund will fund 25% of it. our solid waste enterprise fund.

Uh water and sewer will fund each 25%.

So this position was created. We put an interview team together and um there was a candidate selected, Brandy Silva, and she is being recommended. The select board unanimously approved her contract.

We're very excited for Brandy to start.

Uh it's going to be very valuable asset down at the DPW. continue to help business operations down there, making sure that we're reviewing rates more often, making sure billing is getting out uh accurately and on time. And so, we're, like I said, we're very excited to have Brandy join the team. Next up was the town administrator's evaluation.

Uh very happy to share that I've been with the town as town administrator for uh almost a year now. I joined back in the town in July of 2025.

And so, um, as part of my process and my contract, I have an evaluation. And so, um, the board members provided a lot of, um, a lot of helpful feedback on my evaluation, which is which is a public document we'll be posting to the website. Uh, overall, the board gave high remarks. Um we certainly have a lot more work to do, but uh was very pleased with um the board's recommendations

um and and kind of the everything that we've accomplished over the last year from the health insurance uh to some reduction in legal costs uh to overall some operational efficiencies and really just trying to get the town back on track uh with steady leadership. We had a a year period prior to my tenure where we had uh two interim town administrators which were um great, Mr.

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 8:00 a.m.

to 4:30 p.m. and Friday, uh we will be open from 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. So, uh a condensed schedule on Friday, but we're going to be open um an evening, which is Monday, and then we're also also opening up a half hour earlier each of the days during the week. You know, with this, we're hopeful that we're able to um provide a little bit more time for PE residents to come in, those that may

work during the day. Our goal is is hopefully you're able to if you need to come by town hall, you can stop in uh in the evening on Monday or that extra half hour in the morning. Hopefully gives you a little bit of time to get in maybe on your way to work or something. So, we're uh we're going to do this as a trial period over the summer and we'll see if

it works. And then the select will revisit this subject um early fall to determine how we want to move forward.

And then last but not least, we had uh several board and committee reappoints.

The fiscal year ends June 30th. The new fiscal year starts July 1st. And so uh lots of boards and committees had reappoints that were up. Uh the select board went through the full list and made several reappoints. Um we have several uh positions that we're still recruiting for. We're looking for two new members of the DPW board. So, we're excited to um start that process. We have an opening on the Greater New

Bedford Vetek school committee in which we're soliciting applications for. We have several openings on the Russell Mills Historic District Commission. And so, I would encourage you if you have any interest in getting involved. Please um take a look at our website, submit uh an interest through the boards and committees. We also have a member uh seat on the finance committee that is open and so we're we're actively

recruiting for that. That's an appointment made that by the moderator.

So if you're interested, you can reach out to Melissa Haskell on that. Under town administrators update, we had the grand opening for the dog park, the Dartmouth Regional Parks and Trails opened the Dartmouth Regional Barks and Tales dog park. Uh and so that's officially open. We commend DD Dog, Dartmouth Dog Advisory Working Group for all of their work uh and finally getting that dog park open. And then under old

business, um the only thing worth mentioning that's important really to for the public to know is Bliss Corner.

Uh the town has been working through Bliss Corner uh EPA cleanup for a number of years. Um, we are excited to share that we have reached a tenative uh agreement with the EPA where um the $28 million that they've spent out there, the town will not be on the hook for and we will have to make a payment of $50,000 um for all of the work out there. And so that that goes to all the

negotiating that we have done through our team uh through our legal counsel to um essentially come to the settlement agreement. And so it's out for public comment right now through the EPA and we're hopeful that we'll get final approval here uh in the next month or two. And with that, our next Slackboard meeting will be July 13th. Uh and we hope to see you again soon. Thank you.