Selectmen Agenda Includes Officer Elections, Board Appointments

The Salem Board of Selectmen will meet tonight for the first time since the town election to address a wave of agenda items, including the organization of the board.

Officers for the next year will be elected, including a new chairman and vice chairman. With incumbent Chairman Pat Hargreaves being re-elected on March 12, the board consists of the same five members as last year.

Selectman Jim Keller currently serves as vice chairman while Selectman Mike Lyons is secretary.

The board will also appoint members as representatives to various other boards and committees.

One item of note will be the board's appointment to the town's Budget Committee. Just one week before the election, current representative Selectman Stephen Campbell fielded criticism regarding his behavior on the committee. Also criticized in the letter was Hargreaves

The board will also review its bylaws and code of ethics.

Other agenda items include a status hearing on the Community Development Block Grant Bio-Concept Project. According to a public hearing notice from the town, CDBG funds were loaned to Bio-Concept in 2006. Bio-Concept's goal was to create an additional 25 jobs, of which 15 would be available to persons of low or moderate income. Bio-Concept did not create the additional jobs. A portion of the loan has been re-paid to date.

Other dicussions include the Lancaster fund and future reimbursements and a dicussion on the elderly exemption income limits and exemption amounts.

A $37,500 grant from the N.H. Emergency Management Performance Grant Program will also be accepted.

The meeting will take place at 7 p.m. in Town Hall.