Pepperell Select Board Appoints Registrar, COA Member, Approves VFW License Change

PEPPERELL — May 20, 2013 — Pepperell Select Board fills registrar seat, hears high school cost warning topping $100 million. The board, reorganized at its first post-election meeting with William Green as acting chair, Michael Green as clerk, and newly elected Michelle Gallagher as Selectwoman, unanimously appointed Catherine P. Fries to the Board of Registrars through March 31, 2016, and Lori Durno to the Council on Aging through June 30, 2016. The board also approved a change of manager for VFW Post 3291, replacing 18-year manager William Farnsworth with board president Michael Flaminio. Two reserve fund transfers were recommended — $459.48 to cover a Planning Board advertising overrun and $485 for a deferred town administrator salary increase. A selectman on the North Middlesex Regional School District building committee briefed the board on a feasibility study weighing renovation and new-construction options for the high school, with projected costs described as potentially exceeding $100 million and a joint tri-town meeting of select boards, school and finance committees planned for approximately June 4 through 6. The Peter Fitzpatrick School, currently costing Pepperell roughly $60,000 more annually than it generates, faces a December 2013 lease expiration with no clear reuse plan in place.