On Monday evening, April 6, the Board of Selectmen will hold its regularly scheduled meeting at 6:30 p.m., but instead of meeting in person, the BOS members will meet via the Zoom online meeting platform.

Officials have decided that only BOS members and individuals who are presenting to the selectmen will be invited into the actual Zoom meeting. According to First Selectwoman Lynne Vanderslice, residents will not be allowed to participate in or join the Zoom meeting, in order to prevent the meeting from being disrupted by ‘zoombombing,’ or interruptions by unauthorized participants. In an update message to residents over the weekend, Vanderslice said that surrounding towns have experienced such inappropriate and offensive ‘zoombombing’ events during recent meetings, and she hoped to avoid such occurrences.

While residents will not be able to actively participate or view the meeting on Zoom, they will still be able to watch via a livestream on the Town’s website. In addition, residents can email comments or questions for the selectmen in advance or during the meeting, to be addressed during one of the meeting’s two public comment periods. Comments/questions for the meeting can be emailed to Second Selectwoman Lori Bufano (Include “public comment” in the subject line.)

Among the topics being discussed Monday evening are several having to do with town finances–how they have been impacted by recent events as well as how the town will approach the annual town meeting should social distancing and stay-at-home orders persist amidst COVID-19 fears.

In addition, Vanderslice will discuss executive orders she has issued as well as changes to town operations during the COVID-19 public health crisis.

The main items on the agenda are:

  1. Tri-Board Meeting, April 9:  a meeting of the Boards of Selectmen, Finance and Education  to discuss modified FY’21 budget approval steps
  2. Update Town Operations
  3. State Mandated Tax Deferment or Low-Interest Rate–Decision by April 24
  4. State Mandated–Authorize BOF to Set the Budget and Mill Rate
  5. Update BAA Hearing
  6. Update Senior Tax Relief
  7. First Selectwoman Executive Orders
  8. Financial Report
    • COVID Expenditures and Accounting