WESTFORD — The Select Board on Tuesday is slated to discuss and potentially support the Municipal Empowerment Act, as well as accept the town’s strategic plan.
Municipal Empowerment Act
The Municipal Empowerment Act, which was recently filed by Gov. Maura Healey for the second time after the bill failed to pass in the legislature last year, would make permanent the Covid-era policy of allowing public committees to host remote and hybrid meetings, as well as allow communities to levy additional taxes on lodging and meals.
The proposal would also allow communities to adopt new property tax exemptions for seniors, streamline procurement regulations, update borrowing rules for school projects, and add a new local option surcharge of up to 5% on motor vehicle excise bills that could be dedicated to stabilization funds, which provide for emergencies and unforeseen expenses.
Strategic Plan
The five-year strategic plan helps to identify clear strategic direction and guide framework to align efforts and resources with long-term goals, according to Town Manager Kristen Las on Jan. 28.
As only WestfordCAT reported, the board in 2023 approved $95,000 in federal funds for the project.
Through such planning, the town is now set to address current challenges, take advantage of new opportunities and “build a sustainable future for all.”
The process to create the five-year strategic plan began with an community survey through ZenCity that had over 800 responses. The town also held individual interviews with members of the Select Board, a focus group, workshops with the town leadership team and members of the Select Board, as well as an online survey distributed to town staff they received 132 responses.
There are seven strategic outcome areas: responsive and responsible town government, caring and engaged community, opportunities for recreation and preservation of open space, quality educational opportunities, commitment to environmental sustainability and climate action, diverse and attainable housing options, and intentional and approachable economic growth.
Next steps in the process include implementing key strategies and priorities with the existing daily operations.
“This is all the data we’re capturing now, we haven’t done a great job of reporting it out, so we’re going to be using this to tie into the individual outcome areas,” Assistant Town Manager Mike Edwards said, “We’ll end up having this kind of set up with each outcome area over the next hopefully six months to a year to give you an idea on some of the different databases that we’ve got out there.”
The board is slated to provide feedback and possibly accept the plan during Tuesday’s meeting.
Other items
The board will hear an update on the investment grade audit from Ameresco, as well as set the order of the March 22 Annual Town Meeting warrant.
Capital Strategic Solutions will also present an update on its communications plan for the town. The town has previously used $145,000 in federal funds for services.
How to watch
Residents may attend the meeting in person in Meeting Room B in the Millennium School at 23 Depot Rd. at 7 p.m. Residents may also participate remotely via Zoom.
Those who wish to tune in may watch the meeting on YouTube, Comcast channel 9, Verizon channel 34 or via Castus.
The meeting may also be accessed via WestfordCAT’s app, which can be downloaded from the App Store, Google Play Store and Roku.
Tuesday’s agenda and packet can be found here.
