Published May 13, 2021
By MAUREEN DOHERTY
NORTH READING — Meet the new board; it’s same as the old board.
The Select Board held its reorganization meeting last Wednesday night, the day after an annual Town Election in which the voters returned incumbents Kate Manupelli and Stephen O’Leary to their seats on the board.
In the last week of the campaign the incumbents were challenged by two write-in candidates, Jeff Yull and John Barrette. Manupelli, with 958 votes, and O’Leary with 1,042 votes, easily withstood the challenge from Yull (175 votes) and Barrette (163 votes).
For the third consecutive year, Manupelli was handed the gavel to lead the board for the 2021-22 term as chair. She begins her third consecutive three-year term this year. Fellow board member Liane Gonzalez will once again serve as vice chair. She is entering the third year of her first term. Vincenzo Stuto, who is beginning the second year of his first three-year term, will hold the role of clerk again.
All of the votes were unanimous for each position as voted by Manupelli, O’Leary, Gonzalez, Stuto, and Rich Wallner, who, like Gonzalez, is beginning the third year of his first term.
The board has surpassed another milestone. Every meeting during the 2020-21 session was held remotely due to COVID-19, with the exception of their brief meetings held prior to the three Town Meetings in late June, August and October. The term was slightly shorter as the 2020 town election was pushed out an extra six weeks, to June 23, 2020, to prevent the need for an election during the height of the pandemic last May.
A priority of Manupelli will be for the board to hold its strategic planning session, which is typically held in the early fall but was skipped this year. The current plan is to hold that meeting on Monday, June 7, two days after the annual June Town Meeting. This meeting is when the board outlines and updates its priorities for long-range planning.
Liaison assignments will be made at a future meeting as well. The board’s next meeting is Monday, May 24 during which the informational hearings for the public will be held on the 32 warrant articles including in the June 5 Town Meeting, which is being held at 9 a.m. on the Arthur J. Kenny Field. The Select Board will also post a meeting for 8 a.m. at the field to tie up any loose ends related to the Town Meeting. Technically, if the weather is inclement, Town Meeting could be held inside in the gymnasium with overflow in other rooms, such as the school’s cafeterias, auditorium or distance learning lab.
The Select Board’s summer schedule to date includes meetings on June 21 and July 12. They will be discussing the possibility of beginning to hold in-person meetings as restrictions begin to lift although initially those session may only include the board members and other town officials, similar to how the School Committee has been conducting some of its meetings, with the remote ability remaining in place for the public. It all depends on decisions made by the Baker administration relating to the emergency order which has enabled governing bodies at the town, city and state levels to conduct the public’s business remotely throughout the pandemic.
