Meetings Ahead
From the town’s website, www.truro-ma.gov/, click on Remote Meeting Information for updated details on how to view public meetings.
Thursday, April 9
- Select Board, 10 a.m.
Tuesday, April 14
- Pre-town meeting and candidates’ night, 5 p.m.
Wednesday, April 15
- Planning Board, 6 p.m.
Conversation Starters
Coronavirus Update
As of April 7, Truro has had 9 residents who tested positive for Covid-19 and four of those cases “have been resolved.”
Town Manager’s Replacement on Hold
Town Manager Rae Ann Palmer is supposed to retire on June 30, but the work of finding her replacement has been delayed by the coronavirus. Palmer told the select board that there are 29 applicants for the job. The town’s search consultant, Bernie Lynch of Community Paradigm Associates, has told the candidates that interviews will be placed on hold because of the pandemic.
“Palmer thinks it’s safe to at least temporarily suspend the applicants, and she thinks there are some fairly good applicants,” according to the minutes of the March 19 select board meeting.
(All select board minutes are written in detail and posted within a few days of the meeting in order to provide a full public record of the meetings, which as of Tuesday are still not accessible live for people who don’t have a television with cable service in Truro. Audio recordings of meetings are posted after the meeting is over.)
The select board chair and vice chair will be meeting with Palmer to discuss terms to allow Palmer to work beyond June 30, Palmer said this week. Those meetings will probably be held in executive session, she said.
No Contested Races
Select Board Member Stephanie Rein will run unopposed for her first full term in this year’s town election. Rein joined the board in February to fill the last few months of the late Maureen Burgess’s term.
Other candidates who are all running unopposed are Kolby Blehm for school committee; Monica Kraft for moderator; Martha Magane and Margaret Royka for two seats on the library board of trustees; Marilyn Adams for the cemetery commission; John Reimer and Paul Kiernan for the planning board; and Elizabeth Gallo for the housing authority.
Due to the coronavirus, the election scheduled for May 12 will be delayed, though no new date was decided by the Independent’s deadline. —K.C. Myers
