Pepperell Selectmen reorganize, appoint fire engineer and rename youth soccer fields

PEPPERELL — April 26, 2011 — Pepperell Board of Selectmen reorganizes after election, elects Green chair and appoints fire engineer. At its April 26 reorganization meeting, the newly seated board elected Michael Green as chairman and appointed Joe Sergi as clerk before interviewing two candidates for the Board of Fire Engineers, ultimately voting unanimously to appoint senior Captain John Rose over EMS veteran Jim Cassidy, with Green citing Rose's in-town availability as decisive. The board honored retiring volunteer Lou Shattuck for 31 years of service and read a MassDEP letter recognizing the Pepperell DPW Water Division as ranking in the top 5 percent of 526 community water systems statewide. The board unanimously renamed the upper Varnabrook soccer fields the Leo Fields in honor of Patty Leo, a founding member of Pepperell Soccer in 1982, with a granite marker to be funded by Pepperell Soccer at a cost of roughly a couple thousand dollars. Town Administrator John Moak presented financial charts showing a projected structural deficit of $315,000 for fiscal year 2013 driven by a $410,000 drop in state aid since 2009, with the annual town meeting set for May 2.