Planners to Appoint Replacement for Deceased Member in July

Town planners have a pair of candidates to choose from to fill the board vacancy left following the death of regular member Carolyn Webber.

Webber died on June 11 at the age of 72.

The issue was taken up during last week's Planning Board meeting.

According to Chairman Kristi St. Laurent, in past situations where seats have been vacated before a term was up, the board has looked to the pool of alternate members to fill the slot in the interim.

The alternate then serves out the term until the following March.

The board currently has three alternate members – Vanessa Nysten, Alan Carpenter and Jim Fricchione.

Fricchione, a newcomer to the board, reportedly does not want the regular member vacancy at this time.

Both Nysten and Carpenter have expressed interest, with Nysten being the senior board member while Carpenter has served as chairman of the board in the past.

In this case, since Webber had one year left on her three-year term, residents will be able to run for a one-year seat in March 2014.

St. Laurent explained that in the following year, the position would go back to three years.

Two other regular members will see expiring terms in March – Jonathan Sycamore and Vice Chairwoman Margaret Crisler.

At the request of Carpenter, the board will wait until their next meeting on July 10 to take up the issue. Nysten was not present last week to participate in the discussion.