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For immediate release: June 5, 2007
For further information, Contact -
Leon A. Gaumond Jr., Town Administrator at 508-835-3490
West Boylston Seeks Citizens to Serve on Community Preservation Committee and Affordable Housing Trust
(West Boylston, MA) Based upon the approval of the Community Preservation Act by the Town in April and the adoption of the Community Preservation Committee Bylaw at the May Town Meeting, the Town of West Boylston, through the Town Administrator, is seeking interested citizens of the Town to serve on a newly created West Boylston Community Preservation Committee.
Outside of the statutorily assigned positions, the West Boylston Town Administrator is seeking four (4) additional citizens to serve on this Committee. Among the Committee’s duties are:
1. The Community Preservation Committee shall study the needs, possibilities and resources of the town regarding community preservation. The committee shall consult with existing municipal boards, including the Board of Selectmen, the Conservation Commission, the Historical Commission, the Planning Board, the Parks Commission and the Housing Authority, or persons acting in those capacities or performing like duties, in conducting such studies. As part of its study, the Committee shall hold one or more public informational hearings on the needs, possibilities and resources of the town regarding
community preservation possibilities and resources, notice of which shall be posted publicly and published for each of two weeks preceding a hearing in a newspaper of general circulation in the town as well as the Town’s website. The Committee may, after proper appropriation, incur expenses as permitted by state law using funds from the community preservation fund to pay such expenses.
2. The Community Preservation Committee shall make recommendations to Town Meeting for the acquisition, creation and preservation of open space; for the acquisition, preservation, rehabilitation and restoration of historic resources; for the acquisition, creation and preservation of land for recreational use; for the acquisition, creation, preservation and support of community housing; and for the rehabilitation or restoration of open space, land for recreational use and community housing that is acquired or created as provided in this section. With respect to community housing, the community
preservation committee shall recommend, wherever possible, the reuse of existing buildings or construction of new buildings on previously developed sites.
3. The community preservation committee may include in its recommendation to the Town Meeting a recommendation to set aside for later spending funds for specific purposes that are consistent with community preservation but for which sufficient revenues are not then available in the Community Preservation Fund to accomplish that specific purpose or recommended action to set aside for later spending funds for general purposes that are consistent with community preservation.
Citizens interested in serving on this committee may complete an Application to Serve on a Town Board or Committee, which is available by calling the Selectmen’s Office at 835-3490 or in their office at the Mixter Building. The Town Administrator is hopeful to have a committee recommendation to bring forward to the Selectmen by the beginning of August so interested applicants are asked to submit their applications by June 29th to ensure proper consideration.
The Town is also still seeking applicants for the West Boylston Affordable Housing Trust. The purpose of this trust is to ‘provide for the creation and preservation of affordable housing in municipalities for the benefit of low and moderate income households.” The Board of Trustees must be chosen by the Board of Selectmen and shall be made up of at least 5 trustees, including one of the members of the Board of Selectmen.
Some of the duties the Affordable Housing Trust would have the power to do are:
(1) to accept and receive real property, personal property or money, by gift, grant, contribution, devise or transfer from any person, firm, corporation or other public or private entity, including but not limited to money, grants of funds or other property tendered to the trust in connection with any ordinance or by-law or any general or special law or any other source, including money from chapter 44B;
(2) to purchase and retain real or personal property, including without restriction investments that yield a high rate of income or no income;
(3) to sell, lease, exchange, transfer or convey any personal, mixed, or real property at public auction or by private contract for such consideration and on such terms as to credit or otherwise, and to make such contracts and enter into such undertaking relative to trust property as the board deems advisable notwithstanding the length of any such lease or contract;
(4) to execute, acknowledge and deliver deeds, assignments, transfers, pledges, leases, covenants, contracts, promissory notes, releases and other instruments sealed or unsealed, necessary, proper or incident to any transaction in which the board engages for the accomplishment of the purposes of the trust;
Any residents interested in serving the Town as a member of the West Boylston Affordable Housing Trust should address a letter of interest to the Board of Selectmen, 120 Prescott Street, West Boylston, MA 01583. The Board of Selectmen will be reviewing applications after the first of the New Year. For further information or questions, please feel free to contact the Town Administrator, Leon A. Gaumond Jr., at 508-835-3490.
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