Select Board February 9: Cybersecurity, Town Administrator resignation and more

On February 4, the Select Board met to rescind the Declaration of Emergency issued on January 28: https://www.townofmilton.org/home/news/declaration-emergency-january-28-2022.

The Select Board held a moment of silence for former Select Board member, Katherine Haynes Dunphy and Former Town Administrator, John Cronin.

Cybersecurity 

Major Blume of the Army National Guard and Senator Walter Timilty joined to discuss the issue of cyber attacks and forming a plan to investigate and mitigate cyber attacks from taking place in the community. Ransomware attacks are becoming very common and more sophisticated. For more information on this initiative, please click here: https://www.mass.gov/cybersecurity

Town Administrator resignation

Current Town Adminstrator, Michael Dennehy, has tendered his resignation effective February 25. The Select Board would like to have former Town Adminstrator, Annemarie Fagan act as interim Town Adminstrator during the search and hiring process. The plan forward will be addressed more in depth at meetings scheduled to take place on February 15 and 16.

Traffic Commission update

DPW Director, Chase Berkeley joined to discuss two recommendations. The first is to address access issues at 23 Avalon Road. The second is to address the intersection at School and Canton Streets, which has been labeled a ‘crash cluster location.’ Addressing both of these issues was approved to be supported by the Select Board. For more on the Traffic Commission, please visit: https://www.townofmilton.org/traffic-commission

Equity and Justice for All Advisory Committee update

The committee has chosen and is moving forward with a consulting group. The policy proposal was discussed with the intent that in moving forward means committing to future years of funding and making a permanent place in the budget.  The Select Board is in support of the policy proposal as well as future funding. For more on the Equity and Justice for All Committee, please visit: https://www.townofmilton.org/equity-and-justice-all-advisory-committee

Finance Committee update

The Finance Committee presented two recommendations for approval. The first is to appropriate ARPA money to the Milton Police Department to hire a mental health clinician, per the request from Chief John King. The costs would come out to about $105,000 per fiscal year. The second recommendation request is from the Milton Cemetery for $27,000 to go towards cremation internments. Both requests were approved by the Select Board. For more on the Finance Committee, please visit: https://www.townofmilton.org/select-board/finance-committee

The next meetings are scheduled to take place on February 15, February 16 and February 23.