Select Board appoints Valley as Clerk; hears police staffing concerns
Monson Select Board reorganizes, names Valley as Clerk; approves committee appointments and changes voting location. The board appointed R. Keith Valley as Clerk while formalizing Chair Patricia A. Oney and Vice Chair John R. Morrell. The board relocated fall elections from Memorial Hall to Quarry
Select Board · Meeting of June 23, 2026
Monson Select Board reorganizes, names Valley as Clerk; approves committee appointments and changes voting location. The board appointed R. Keith Valley as Clerk while formalizing Chair Patricia A.
Oney and Vice Chair John R. Morrell. The board relocated fall elections from Memorial Hall to Quarry Hill Community School, requiring notification postcards to all 3,700 households at approximately $2,257 cost.
In routine appointments effective July 1, the board confirmed Christopher Howard to the Planning Board, Hope Bodwell and Carol Strum to the Cultural Council, and four members to the Agriculture Commission and Community Preservation Committee. Police Chief Gasperini warned of mounting operational pressures from 2020 criminal justice reforms that reduced part-time officers from nine to one, and from the sheriff's discontinuation of weekend regional lockup coverage.
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Source: the Select Board meeting of June 23, 2026, compiled from the official minutes.
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