Shuffle board

The Board of Selectmen has shuffled positions in its annual realignment. James Healy, who was serving as the board's vice chairman, has taken over as chairman. Daniel Matthews, the former clerk, is now the vice chairman, and John Bulian replaces Matthews as clerk. Rounding out the board are Gerald Wasserman, who is relinquishing the gavel as chairman after his recent reelection, and newcomer Denise Garlick, who won the race to replace John Cogswell after he decided against running again. - Laura Colarusso

ROSE MUSEUM GETS NEW CHAIRMAN - The Rose Art Museum's board of directors has named Jonathan Lee as chairman. Lee, who will serve a three-year term, takes leadership of the board at the cusp of a new building project and after a year that has seen the museum's endowment double to nearly $7 million. The museum, on the campus of Brandeis University, includes a significant collection of contemporary art. Lee, a Belmont resident, replaces outgoing chairman Gerald Fineberg, who held the position for six years. Lee's service on the board continues a family tradition; his mother, Mildred Lee, was its first president. - Stephanie V. Siek

PEDESTRIAN STRUCK - An 84-year-old Watertown man was struck by a large pickup truck while he was crossing Mount Auburn Street on Tuesday afternoon. The accident, which involved a 1994 GMC Sierra driven by a Newton man, occurred at 12:25 p.m. near Mount Auburn's intersection with Irving Street, just outside Watertown Square, said Police Chief Edward Deveau. The pedestrian was taken to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston for treatment of his injuries, which the chief said were not life-threatening. The Police Department was not releasing the identities of the men involved while the circumstances of the accident remained under investigation, Deveau said Wednesday. - Christina Pazzanese

SHARING PENSION INVESTMENTS - To beef up the performance of the town's pension fund, the Watertown Contributory Retirement Board agreed earlier this month to hand over half of its investments to the state. The five-member board voted, 3 to 1, in favor of having the Pension Retirement Investment Trust manage 50 percent of the estimated $90 million fund, a step supporters hope will help the town meet a 2017 deadline for fully funding the pension and save taxpayers money. Board chairman Thomas Thibaut voted against the measure, and member Domenic Arone abstained. "This is going to be good for the town," said board member James Bean. "The more money we make, the better off we'll all be." Last fall, the board came perilously close to seeing the state take over management of the fund entirely under a new law that requires local boards to nearly meet or exceed the state's average return rate over the last decade. From 1985 to 2005, Watertown's investment performance ranked in the bottom third of municipal pension funds statewide. - Christina Pazzanese

$95.5M BUDGET PROPOSAL - Town Manager Michael Driscoll unveiled his proposed budget for the 2009 fiscal year to the Town Council last week. The $95.5 million spending plan represents a $3.77 million increase over the current budget. Keeping pace with employee health insurance costs, union contract negotiations, capital improvement needs, and retirement expenses remains an ongoing challenge for the town, said Driscoll. The Police and Fire departments will lose a total of seven positions under his budget. The Police Department would have a $7.2 million budget, an increase of $163,000 that would allow for a force of 69 uniformed personnel, down from the current 73. The jobs will be eliminated through unfilled vacancies, Driscoll said. The Fire Department would get $7.5 million for the year starting July 1, up $591,000 from this year's spending, but three of its 92 uniformed positions would not be filled. Two of the slots would become vacant due to retirements, and the third represents a vacancy that won't be filled, he said. Budget hearings involving Driscoll, the Town Council and municipal department heads are slated to begin next month. - Christina Pazzanese

REVISITING APARTMENT COMPLEX - The town's Planning Board is preparing to hold a final hearing next week to review traffic and parking concerns about a proposed apartment and retail complex on Washington Street in Wellesley Lower Falls. Neighbors have raised considerable opposition to the scale of the 150-apartment project at the former Grossman's store site, saying it would exacerbate traffic and parking headaches in an already overburdened district. The Planning Board meeting is slated for May 4, beginning at 7:30 p.m. in Town Hall. - Lisa Keen

SEEKING DEEPER SHADE OF GREEN - How green can the town of Weston be? That's one of the questions to be considered by a committee recently created by the Board of Selectmen. The Environmental Baseline Committee will assess the town's carbon-emissions footprint and suggest ways to lessen its output of greenhouse gases. The volunteer committee and town engineer will use assessor's records, utility bills, transfer station records, and census data from 2001 through 2006 to figure out where the town stands as far as consumption of resources, efficiency, and waste production. The committee will then create a framework to evaluate the town's efforts to address its environmental impacts, research financially feasible alternatives, and keep a record of the town's progress. The aim is to have a draft report done by June 2009. The selectmen invite residents to apply to serve on the committee, particularly people with experience in database management software or Microsoft Excel. Letters of interest are due May 23. They can be mailed to the Board of Selectmen, PO Box 378, Weston, MA 02493 - Stephanie V. Siek

QUESTION THE CANDIDATES - The Weston League of Women Voters will hold a candidates night Wednesday, giving residents a chance to question and meet with the contenders for two contested races in this year's May 10 town elections. Incumbent Michael H. Harrity and challenger John J. Noone are competing for a selectman's seat, and caucus nominee Diana Chaplin and challenger Gary R. Lee are running for a five-year Planning Board seat. The event begins at 7:30 p.m. in Weston High School's media center. - Stephanie V. Siek

TWO-DAY TOWN MEETING - This spring's Town Meeting is expected to stretch over two evenings, according to the town clerk's office. The first session will be held May 12 at 7:45 p.m. in the Weston High School auditorium, and officials are hoping for votes on articles 2 through 19. The remaining 10 articles would be considered on May 14, when the session is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m. Article 1 covers the May 10 town election, which includes two ballot questions; one is seeking approval of a $1.2 tax increase to cover a slate of capital-improvement expenses, while the other would ratify last year's decision to allow wine sales at a food store. The entire warrant is posted on the town's website, weston.org. - Stephanie V. Siek

RACE ATTRACTS A CROWD - Precinct 1 promises another donnybrook of an election fight May 6. Overshadowed by an override vote and a contested race for selectman, the town's easternmost precinct is fielding 11 candidates for five Town Meeting seats. Two incumbents, Peter Ames and Michael Robbins, are joined on a fiscally conservative slate with former Town Meeting members Fred Lebow and Barbara Ludeke, and by Aborn Hardware's Gerold Katz. On the liberal Precinct One Coalition slate are five relative unknowns: Linda Beane, Anne Covert, Ellen Frank, Helen Herman, and Steve Zabak. Andrew Ghobrial, who has more than once pulled papers for selectman, is also running. - Andreae Downs

SALSA AND SCULPTURE - The Wightman Mansion will be rocking to the sounds of a local band Saturday when the Brookline Arts Center holds La Primavera Encantada, a party, art show, and silent auction for its annual fund-raiser. Although Ten Tumbao's tunes may be tropical, the band is fronted by Brookline native Kenny Kozol. Food and exotic drinks are also part of the mix, scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. at the mansion, 43 Hawes St. For tickets and information, call 617-566-5715 or visit brooklineartscenter.com. - Andreae Downs

NO JOKE; HE'S A WINNER -Newsweek's April 11 edition lists the Top 25 Pulpit Rabbis in America. Number 25 on the list, and the only rabbi from the Bay State, is Brookline's own Moshe Waldoks of Temple Beth Zion, which sits on the hill just east of Washington Square. Waldoks is probably forever linked to his first claim to fame, "The Big Book of Jewish Humor." But there's also the full-feathered Indian chief costume he wore once for a Megillah reading. - Andreae Downs

OPEN SPACE ON WARRANT AGAIN - Town officials say a proposal for voluntary land conservation is among a clutch of articles that will go before Town Meeting voters on May 5. Different versions of the bylaw failed to pass at Special Town Meeting in 2006 and at Town Meeting last spring, when it lost by just two votes. Unlike past proposals, this year's version would make open space preservation by developers voluntary, not mandatory. The bylaw would create a new zoning option to permanently conserve 50 percent of the land in new developments. In exchange, the bylaw would allow developers more design flexibility than under Dover's conventional zoning requirements. The proposal also would require new lots using the zoning option to be at least 1 acre, and setbacks to abutting properties to be increased, and includes provisions to ensure the bylaw could not be used to open up unbuildable land. The Board of Selectmen, the Conservation Commission, the Warrant Committee, the Long-Range Planning Committee, and the Open Space Committee have endorsed the article. - Anna Fiorentino

VOTE ON SCHOOL STUDY DELAYED - Town Meeting members agree a feasibility study to either renovate the existing high school, or build a new one, must be done. But because they couldn't agree on how best to raise the $250,000 needed for the study, a vote on the article has been put off until at least Tuesday, when the annual forum reconvenes. The Massachusetts School Building Authority named Natick as one of dozens of school districts around the state that are eligible for funding to either replace or renovate aging facilities. Among other problems, Natick High's roof leaks, it lacks modern technology and adequate science labs, and still uses one of the 54-year-old building's original boilers. Some Town Meeting members wanted to use the approximately $80,000 remaining in a school building account, supplemented by money from free cash, to fund the feasibility study. Town Meeting began on April 10, but did not meet last week because of school vacation. - Michele Morgan Bolton

READING BY CHILDREN'S AUTHOR - Author Susan Lubner will take part in Children's Book Week activities on May 14 at the Wayland Free Public Library, 5 Concord Road. Lubner will read and sign copies of her new book, "A Horse's Tale," at 7 p.m. For more information, call 508-358-2311. - John M. Guilfoil