In Plymouth, in a historic move, the Planning Board elected the first woman to serve as Chair.
At their meeting on June 1st, the board reorganized and in a 3 to 2 vote, with members McAlduff and Grandy not in support, Birgitta Kuehn took over the gavel.
WATD’s Bobbi Clark files this report:
Birgitta Kuehn did serve on the Planning Board before her election to that board just a year ago:
“I was an alternate before I was elected as a member of the Planning Board with voting rights.”
And before that, Kuehn chaired the Board of Health, leading a move to regulate the short-term rental industry in town. Also, possibly history-making as well, at one of the Board of Health meetings, Kuehn denied then Town Manager, Melissa Arrighi, an opportunity to speak:
“What I had learned about Open Meeting Law is that public comment is at the discretion of the chair,” said Kuehn. “The Board of Health was trying to remediate the problems with some of the town buildings that we thought were not a good environment for town employees. The Town Manager didn’t want to see that happen at that time—it wasn’t within her schedule.”
Looking ahead Kuehn says:
“We have three things that are important for us to focus on. The Master Plan is the Planning Board’s responsibility and the state requires the Master Plan to be updated—which we are in the process of doing. We have a committee that started and that’s beginning to move forward.”
Kuehn notes, attention must be paid to the Charter Commission and the Select Board:
“…because the Charter Commission has some plans to change the responsibilities of the Planning Board. And we also have a new Select Board now that has goals that they want to accomplish—and those goals, many of them will be accomplished through the efforts of the Planning Board.”
