United Way fund-raiser

TOWN JOB STILL OPEN - Oct. 27 is the deadline for individuals interested in applying for the long-vacant economic development director’s position. The position pays between $51,645 and $56,439, depending on experience. The person selected will work with Town Administrator Shaun Suhoski and the Board of Selectmen in preparing a wide range of development plans. Resumes and cover letters should be sent to Suhoski at Town Hall, 1 Main St., Ayer, MA 01432. - Davis Bushnell

TWO NAMED TO BOARDS - The Board of Selectmen has made two appointments to town boards. Timothy Gray, who recently moved to Bedford, was appointed to the Conservation Commission. Mary Seymour, a 30-year resident who is a registered nurse at Emerson Hospital, was named to the Board of Health. The selectmen thanked both applicants for their commitment to town service and asked them to study the state Conflict of Interest Law, the Open Meeting Law, and the Rules of Civil Discourse as they begin their terms. - Nancy Shohet West

LIBRARY EXPANSION ON TRACK - The Bolton Public Library’s expansion and renovation project is more than 75 percent finished and is expected to be complete in December, library officials say. Updates on the project and construction photos are available at the library website, www.boltonpubliclibrary.org. The $7 million project began last November. The state is expected to kick in $2.4 million of the cost. - Matt Gunderson

CLASS SIZES ON TARGET - Despite the difficult economy and tight school funding, class sizes at the Tahanto Regional Middle/High School remain relatively low, according to Tahanto principal Mike Barth. Barth stated in his most recent newsletter that the average class size at the school is 18 students. “Maintaining well-subscribed classes is critical, but making sure the numbers don’t get too high is also important,’’ he wrote. - Matt Gunderson

OPEN HOUSE TODAY - The town’s Police and Fire departments are holding a public safety open house from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. today at the stations off Massachusetts Avenue. Personnel will be on hand to give tours of public-safety vehicles and equipment and answer questions about the departments. There will also be demonstrations showing how to safety evacuate a smoke-filled house, proper use of fire extinguishers, and auto-extrication equipment. - Jennifer Fenn Lefferts

QUICK ACTION ON FUNDS - With a new town moderator, Wayne Davis, presiding and new Town Administrator Timothy Goddard in attendance at the recent Special Town Meeting, voters approved two articles in 17 minutes. The first article involved transfers of funds, including moving $16,000 saved from police salaries to the town’s general government budget, lowering the overall police budget, and reducing long-term debt by $197,030, the amount that the Massachusetts School Building Authority will now cover for school construction costs. The second article called for $4,046 to be transferred from the debt reserve account to the debt service account. - Nancy Shohet West

REQUESTS FOR PRESERVATION FUNDING - The town’s Community Preservation Committee has received 12 applications from groups seeking funding for next year. Groups are seeking a combined $2.5 million, while the town is expected to have just over $1 million to distribute for eligible projects, officials said. The committee will spend the next two months reviewing each proposal to determine which ones should go before Town Meeting for approval. The review will include a public hearing at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 16 in the Alcott School auditorium, where the public can ask questions about the projects and look at how they meet the town’s needs for affordable housing, historic preservation, open space, and recreation. The groups that submitted applications include the Concord Free Public Library, Concord Art Association, Concord Housing Authority, Concord Housing Development Corporation, Concord Scout House Inc., Louisa May Alcott Memorial Association, and Peter Hutchinson House/Concord Civil Liberties Museum, as well as the town. - Jennifer Fenn Lefferts

NEW LEADER FOR TRUST - After three decades of not having an executive director, the Harvard Conservation Trust has appointed Marylynn Gentry of Wayland to oversee the group’s day-to-day operations. Most recently, Gentry was president of the Sudbury Valley Trustees, a regional land trust. She has also been a member of Wayland’s Conservation Commission and Community Preservation Committee. - Davis Bushnell

FLU CLINIC FOR RESIDENTS - Hudson’s The town’s Health Department will hold its second seasonal flu clinic Oct. 27 from 4 to 7 p.m. at Town Hall. The town’s first seasonal flu clinic was only open to senior citizens, but at next week’s session vaccines will be available to all Hudson residents age 10 and over. Seniors will receive the shot for free, and those under age 65 will be charged $10. The seasonal flu vaccine does not protect against the H1N1 virus. Health agent Sam Wong said a clinic for the swine flu strain is tentatively scheduled for Nov. 7. - Calvin Hennick

FIRST GOAL: BALANCE BUDGET - As part of the State of the Town report, the Board of Selectmen announced its goals for next year, with a renewed effort to rebalance the town’s budget at the top of the list. The board will also place special focus on revisiting this fiscal year’s spending plan and adjusting it for cuts in state aid. Also on the to-do list is an analysis of needed renovations in town buildings, submitting a request for funds for a redesign of the town’s website, and examining the feasibility of a regular survey of town residents. - Adam J.V. Sell

EIGHT ARTICLES ON WARRANT - At its last meeting, the Board of Selectmen approved the warrant for Special Town Meeting, to convene Nov. 9 at 7 p.m. in the Littleton Middle School gymnasium. The warrant’s eight articles include amendments to the current fiscal year’s budget, capital improvements to the production facilities and distribution system of the town’s Water Department, and reclassification of Sleigh Ride Way from a private road to a town way. - Nancy Shohet West

DEADLINE FOR FIRE CHIEF’S JOB - City officials hope to hire a replacement for Fire Chief David Adams, who is retiring around the end of the year, before he leaves. “We’re optimistic that we’ll be able to fill the job in the time frame,’’ said David Brumby, the city’s personnel director. Brumby said he has received about 30 resumes for the job. Resumes will be accepted until Friday, and candidates will be interviewed early next month, he said. - Calvin Hennick

NEW MONEY STEWARDS - Two new sets of eyes will watch the town’s cash after selectmen approved two hires last week. The board approved Town Administrator John Curran’s choice of Juli Colpoys, the town accountant in Dover, to become the new finance director and town accountant. Teresa Ambrosino, an assistant tax collector in Bellingham, will become the town’s treasurer and collector. Ambrosino will start in the position Oct. 26, and Colpoys will begin Nov. 9. - Calvin Hennick

CHANGE OF PLANS FOR LIBRARY - The trustees of the Shrewsbury Public Library have withdrawn their request for a vote on library renovations at next month’s Special Town Meeting. Laurie Hogan, chairwoman of the Board of Trustees, said a new round of state construction grants would instead be the focus - potentially more than doubling a $3.9 million state grant already in hand. “We felt it was the right thing to do for the town,’’ Hogan said of the request, and of seeking the larger grant. “It would lessen the tax burden on the town.’’ Library officials want to nearly double the size of facility to about 46,000 square feet, improve handicap accessibility, and generally renovate the building. Last year, the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners awarded $3.9 million toward the estimated $19 million project cost. The grant is set to expire on Dec. 31; Hogan said the library has requested an extension. The library commissioners is holding statewide public hearings on the new grant program this month and next. Hogan said Shrewsbury officials will be seeking a “streamlined process’’ for facilities like theirs in an advanced planning stage, hoping to avoid starting a second grant application from scratch. - James O’Brien

ABSENTEE BALLOTS - Residents have until Oct. 28 to submit applications for absentee ballots to participate in the Oct. 29 special election, at which voters will weigh a request to raise property taxes for the elementary school addition and renovation project. Residents can contact the town clerk’s office to have the absentee ballots mailed to their homes. Absentee ballots are not available for tomorrow night’s Town Meeting; residents must attend to cast a vote on the proposed debt-exclusion override of Proposition 2 1/2 there. - Matt Gunderson

FORUM FOR LOCAL LEGISLATORS - All three of Sudbury’s representatives in the state Legislature will be on hand tomorrow for a question-and-answer forum at Town Hall. The forum, which begins at 7:30 p.m., will start with a report from Senators Susan Fargo and James Eldridge and Representative Thomas Conroy on the upcoming legislative session and the state of the economy in Massachusetts. Following the report, the floor will be opened to residents to ask questions. The event will also be broadcast live on Comcast and Verizon’s public-access channels. The forum is sponsored by the League of Women Voters. - Adam J.V. Sell

TALK FOR SPECIAL-EDUCATION PARENTS - The Wayland Special Education Advisory Council will host a talk on “Being a Parent of a Child with Special Needs’’ on Wednesday at Wayland Middle School. The event, which begins at 7 p.m., will feature Maria Trozzi, director of the Good Grief program at Boston Medical Center. The Good Grief program is designed to help children and adults cope with illness, loss, and crisis, and coordinates the Family Support Assessment Clinic, which assists doctors in identifying causes of stress in children and helping to ease that stress. - Adam J.V. Sell

DOCUMENTARY ON ECONOMIC CRISIS - “Capitalism Hits the Fan: Richard Wolff on the Economic Meltdown’’ will be shown Oct. 27 at 7 p.m. in the community room at Ashland Public Library as part of the Friends of the Ashland Public Library’s Documentary Film and Discussion Series. Wolff is an economics professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. The screening is free; viewers are invited to stay for a discussion afterward. For more details, visit www.friendsoftheapl.com or www.capitalismhitsthefan.com. - Rachel Lebeaux

CAMERAS UNCONTESTED - Opponents of police surveillance cameras at the town’s busiest intersections have withdrawn their Town Meeting article proposing to cut funding for them. The discussion of cameras has become too “passionate’’ following a sexual assault in August in Coolidge Corner, according to a statement released Oct. 6 by the cochairs of PAX, Marty Rosenthal and Frank Farlow, and an American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts lawyer, Sarah Wunsch. A truck driven by suspects in the assault was caught on town cameras, and police said the evidence was critical in making arrests. PAX, formed by a group of town residents, expects to file the article again in the spring, according to the statement. - Andreae Downs

PROGRESS ON SOLAR PANELS - A project to install electricity-generating solar panels on the rooftops of Hopkinton’s public buildings is progressing, with the entire system set for completion by Dec. 17. Both the high school and middle schools have their panels up and ready for use, while work is scheduled to begin at the police and fire stations on Oct. 30. A ribbon-cutting ceremony is expected to be held early next month. The project was financed with a $1.5 million grant from the Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust’s Commonwealth Solar program. The panels could save the town up to $25,000 per year in electricity costs, according to facilities director Brian Main. The town signed an agreement with Lowell-based Borrego Solar Systems Inc. to install the panels and oversee their operation. - Megan McKee

CASINO ON AGENDA TOMORROW - Representatives from Las Vegas-based Warner Gaming will join David Nunes of Ajax Gaming Ventures LLC before the Board of Selectmen tomorrow evening to present their proposals for a casino complex in Milford. Town Administrator Louis Celozzi said the public hearing will begin at roughly 7:30 p.m. in Town Hall. Celozzi said Nunes first approached the selectmen with the idea about a year ago, but that few details were available at the time. - Kathleen Moore

SHUTTLE TO RAIL CONSIDERED - A new shuttle service providing connections with a commuter-rail station in Natick will be discussed by the Board of Selectmen next month, after the MetroWest Regional Transit Authority investigates some alternative parking and drop-off arrangements. Selectmen have asked MWRTA representatives to consult with the town’s Disability Committee and Conservation Commission to make sure the plan has adequate provisions for handicapped riders and does not harm conservation land adjacent to the proposed commuter parking lot. They also encouraged representatives to investigate using church parking lots, instead of the one at Ward Park. Selectmen said they would take up the matter as early as Nov. 3, if the new information is available. Representatives from MWRTA told selectmen that the proposal will be financially viable if at least six residents commit to riding the shuttle, at $1.50 per trip or $11 for a 10-trip pass. - Kathleen Moore