Pepperell Select Board Waives Farm Parcel Rights, Approves Main Street No-Parking Zone

PEPPERELL — August 14, 2017 — Pepperell Select Board names first full-time building inspector and splits on regional planning alternate. The board voted unanimously Monday to waive the town's Chapter 61A right of first refusal on a 3.85-acre parcel at 13 Maple Street, clearing the way for Don Fitzgerald to build a family home on a portion of Maple Metal Farm, with Conservation Administrator Paula Tarassi noting in writing that a pond on the lot triggers Massachusetts Wetland Protection Act review and a local 50-foot buffer bylaw. Town Administrator Mark Andrews introduced two charter appointments: Jeanne Savelle as town clerk, following more than seven years as assistant clerk, and Robert Kelly as the town's first-ever full-time building inspector, with 30-plus years in construction. In a two-to-one vote, the board appointed Stephen Themelis — a former selectman with 13 years on the Northern Middlesex Council of Governments policy board — as the board's NMCOG alternate over a sitting selectwoman; Selectman Roland Nutter argued that naming a second board member would fail to solve scheduling conflicts since both would be absent for the same reasons. The board also voted unanimously to authorize a roughly 500-foot no-parking zone on Main Street fronting the police station and a new Dunkin' Donuts, a preemptive move the sign and safety committee recommended to keep emergency-vehicle access clear.