Norwood Select Board honors Vice Chair Plasko at his 53-year farewell meeting

NORWOOD — March 24, 2026 — Norwood Select Board bids farewell to Vice Chair William J. Plasko after 53 years of public service. The board voted unanimously at the March 24 meeting to allow Plasko to chair his own final session, after which Chair Amanda R. Groh read a formal proclamation crediting him with 30 years on the Select Board across two stints, service as town moderator from 1973 to 1978, and unbroken Town Meeting membership since 1982. In other business, Town Manager Tony Mazzucco warned that two Town Hall infrastructure failures — an elevator shaft repair estimated at roughly $150,000 and a 96-year-old failed steam pipe estimated at $160,000 — are headed to the special Town Meeting warrant, and disclosed that Norwood may also seek a special Town Meeting appropriation in the couple-hundred-thousand-dollar range to begin an eminent-domain process on the former Norwood Hospital if the state legislature misses a June deadline on its own takings bill. The board also approved a renewed hazardous-material storage permit for Whole Market Foods and voted to write off uncollectible utility debt from Norwood Light and Broadband. Plasko, elected to the Select Board 11 times, closed his remarks simply: "I'm going to say good night and good luck."