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The Marblehead Public Works Committee opened the town's first public meeting of the year Monday with a vote about its own future, approving a warrant article for Town Meeting’s consideration in May.
The interdepartmental group — made up of department heads responsible for the town's roads, utilities, buildings and public spaces — voted to expand its membership to include the director of community development and planning and to advance an updated description of its coordinating role for consideration by voters this spring.
The vote marks one of the first warrant articles to move toward Town Meeting as town boards and committees begin preparing proposals for the spring session.
The committee voted unanimously to add Community Development and Planning Director Brendan Callahan to its membership and to submit the revised bylaw to Town Meeting. The article will be reviewed by legal counsel before final submission.
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Department of Public Works Superintendent Amy McHugh revived the committee, which had been dormant, before it began meeting again in recent months to coordinate departmental work and review major infrastructure projects.
Callahan said Monday his department will lead several infrastructure projects in the public right of way, including the rail trail and the Five Corners intersection project.
"I think this would be a good committee where I'd be attending and listening to your projects, and you could hear my projects, and if there are any conflicts, if you're saying our department wouldn't be able to manage that, our department won't be able to maintain that in the future, that would be good information to have," Callahan said.
The proposed article removes functions that are now handled by other departments or through human resources and focuses the committee's work on project coordination, labor management and centralized vehicle maintenance. The article retains language directing the committee to coordinate equipment and manpower, make recommendations on proposed projects within public ways or on public land, review warrant articles involving public buildings and accept public comment on infrastructure proposals.
Current committee membership includes the superintendents of sewer, water, recreation and parks and cemetery departments, the general manager of the municipal light department, the director of public works, the health director, the town engineer, the wire inspector, the tree warden, the building commissioner, the fire chief, the police chief and the town administrator. The town administrator remains a voting member and may designate representatives to attend meetings.
At a meeting in December, Recreation and Parks commissioners Shelly Bedrosian and Chris Kennedy outlined a three-phase project at Reynolds Field that includes a refrigerated ice rink, field improvements and accessibility upgrades funded by a $3.3 million bequest from Lars Anderson.
The committee also reviewed in December a draft plan to reduce municipal energy use by 20% over five years to qualify for the Green Communities Program, which would make Marblehead eligible for $150,000 to $170,000 in designation grants and up to $250,000 in competitive grants.
The committee's next scheduled meeting is Feb. 2.
