Accountability posts

📋 AMHERST BOARD OF SELECTMEN — MEETING RECAP: September 22, 2025

Most votes were 5-0 and routine, but a few items from Monday's meeting deserve wider attention.

🔴 IMMEDIATE FINANCE VACANCY: Deputy Treasurer Kristen Lambros resigned effective immediately to accept a position elsewhere. The board voted to accept her resignation, and administration is now searching for a replacement — with one potential candidate under consideration but no timeline confirmed. This is the second significant finance department vacancy in a short period. Until the role is filled, the town is operating with a gap in a position responsible for financial oversight and controls. Residents should watch for updates at the October 6 meeting.

🔴 ROUTE 122/MERRIMACK ROAD — NO FIX UNTIL 2036: The intersection of Route 122 and Merrimack Road has a documented record of ongoing accidents. The state-funded improvement project is not scheduled until 2036 — eleven years away. The board voted to send the issue to the Highway Safety Committee and directed the DPW Director to contact NHDOT Region 6 about possible interim safety measures. Because this is a state road, Amherst's direct authority is limited. But residents who use this corridor daily are being asked to wait over a decade for a permanent fix, with interim measures that are not yet identified.

🟡 COMMITTEE FRAMING OF DISSENT: The Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee presented its strategic plan, which apparently characterized community members who have opposed certain trail and bicycle infrastructure projects as 'vocal opponents' — language that frames public disagreement as a threat to be managed. Board Chair publicly and directly cautioned the committee against this approach, stating: 'I just hope that none of our boards think that someone with a different view has no voice... I just want our boards to respect those voices because not everybody agrees with you.' This is the right standard. Advisory committees are public bodies — their job is to weigh community input, including opposition, not treat it as an obstacle.

🟡 FY27 BUDGET WATCH: The current FY27 budget placeholder uses a 3% cost-of-living adjustment for employees. Current CPI data is 3.2% for the Boston area and 3.3% for the Northeast region. The board has also set a goal of keeping the overall tax rate increase to 3%. These two targets are in tension, and the first full budget draft is due at the October 6 meeting. Also: the board's chair acknowledged the required annual review of the impact fee schedule was skipped last year and committed to completing it — impact fees are how the town charges new development for its share of capital infrastructure costs, and a lapsed schedule means those fees may not reflect actual costs.

✅ STRAIGHTFORWARD WINS: Don Waldron was appointed Fire Rescue Chief 5-0 at $116,001/year, starting October 6. He began as a volunteer firefighter in Amherst in 1997 — a genuinely local appointment. A 34-acre conservation land donation on Green Road was accepted unanimously. A DPW employee promotion and a trailer donation for Parks & Recreation were approved without controversy.