HUDSON – At his last meeting with the Select Board, Town Counsel Aldo Cipriano was recognized by Select Board Chair Scott Duplisea and Select Board member Shawn Sadowski.
During the June 26 meeting, Duplisea recognized his “over 37 years of service to the town.”
“I’d like to thank him personally on behalf of the board. Thank you, Mr. Cipriano,” Duplisea said.
“Your opinions and insight have been valuable,” Sadowski said. “Thank you very much for that.”
On April 10, the Hudson Select Board voted to end town counsel services with Cipriano and consider the appointment of new counsel with the start date of July 1. The vote was made after a lengthy process to find another firm that began May 2022 and stalled briefly in August. Cipriano remained as town counsel after that occurred.
No new counsel was announced at the June 26 meeting, but Executive Assistant Thomas Gregory said at the April 10 meeting that the idea was to allow the board to explore alternate opportunities for counsel as the “complexity in municipal law has grown in the last 30 years.”
Other news
Also at the meeting, the Select Board accepted a Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation MassTrails Grant.
The $119,000 award will fund the project to design an extension of the Mass Central Rail Trail from the Assabet River Rail Trail trailhead through Hudson to the border of Berlin with several trail connections added.
There are matching funds of $41,000 provided by a Community Preservation Committee appropriation of $36,000 and a donation by the Downtown Business Improvement District (BID) of $5,000, both amounts of which were approved at the Annual Town Meeting this year.
Duplisea applauded the efforts of Bike and Pedestrian Committee Chair Tom Green, who wrote and submitted the grant application.
He acknowledged Green’s hard work in writing the grant and his success in being “awarded that much money.”
He added, “I’d like to thank you personally.”
The Select Board also heard an update about the Bruen Road property, an 86-acre parcel that once served as housing for civilian workers assigned to do work for the army, specifically for the United States Army Garrison.
The army was interested in divesting 46 acres from the parcel, Gregory reported on Feb. 27.
After that meeting, Gregory said that he and Director of Planning and Community Development Kristina Johnson spoke with the Army Corps of Engineers through Rep. Lori Trahan.
“We had a good discussion. … The Army Corps will be issuing [a request for proposal] to dispose of the property in the spring of next year,” said Gregory.
He noted that 42 acres of the parcel will be part of the solicitation for disposal. Gregory said the town has no special standing for a right of first refusal, in which it would vote whether to acquire the parcel for any use.
The Army Corps of Engineers would be looking for the most money it could get for the acres, said Gregory. He noted he would update the board if he learned more about the property.
“Their timeline is putting out the property RFP in spring of next year and then hoping to wrap up the sale by the fall,” said Gregory.
Select Board member Judy Congdon believed that whether the town decides to acquire the 42 acres or not, someone would want to develop that property.
She said, “It is important that we consider public safety down in the east end of town.”
In other news, Department of Public Works Director Eric Ryder said the department will be installing a signalized crosswalk and sidewalk extension from the end of Santos Drive for the Quinn Middle School.
He added, “That will be going in at the end of the summer.”
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