Cohasset Select Board appoints seven to Town Manager Search Committee

Select Board · Meeting of February 10, 2026

Cohasset Select Board appoints seven-member Town Manager Search Committee and approves new refuse permit fees in a wide-ranging joint session. Meeting Tuesday with the Advisory Committee and School Committee, the board heard Superintendent Dr. Sarah Shannon present a $27,021,099 FY27 school budget — an 8.82 percent increase over FY26 — while warning a roughly $1.3 million gap remains between the level-service request and available town funding, likely requiring 10 to 15 FTE in staff reductions and possible cuts to professional development.

Select Board member Paul Grady pressed repeatedly for a regionalization study with Hull; School Committee member Lance Dial said he is "strongly opposed" and member Corey Evans called it "a community decision." The board unanimously named Suzanne Averill, Bill Burnett, Jean Healey Dippold, Timothy Davis, Paul Grady, Leland Jenkins, and Sarah Shannon to the search committee, and approved a Town Manager advertisement setting a salary ceiling of $225,000 and a minimum of five years' experience. All Facilities Permit fees rise March 1 — first permit from $150 to $165, construction-and-demolition scale fees doubling to 30 cents per pound — generating an estimated $90,000 in additional annual revenue, with Town Accountant Beth Mosley reporting police and fire overtime accounts already 68 percent and 61 percent spent through December 31.

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Source: the Select Board meeting of February 10, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.