Pepperell Selectmen Name Search Committee Rep as Town Administrator Announces Retirement

PEPPERELL — July 14, 2014 — Pepperell selectmen launched a town administrator search and left a $1.152 million override amount unresolved Monday, setting up a critical July 28 deadline. The board voted unanimously to appoint Selectman Michael Green as its representative on the search committee for a replacement for Town Administrator John Moak, who plans to retire at the end of July; the charter requires a seven-person screening committee assembled within 21 days of formal notice. Finance Committee Chair Melissa told the board the committee would not change its original override recommendation, warning that any reduction would shorten the town's five-year fiscal stabilization plan — built on a core operational shortfall of $623,653 — to three years or fewer. "Our recommendation stands at what we had provided," she said, adding that the committee "can't recommend an alternative number because that's not what the town needs." Green indicated he was still weighing a reduced figure ahead of the July 28 deadline, the last date the board can submit a levy amount to the town clerk for the September 9 vote. Separately, the board heard Beaver Brook Association of Brookline, New Hampshire, present four alternate pipeline routes for the Kinder Morgan project, including a green route that would run through Pepperell along Elm, Park, and Prescott streets and Route 122 — drawing sharp public criticism from Pepperell residents who called the alternate-route strategy an exercise in displacing the problem rather than defeating the pipeline.