Norwood Select Board Unanimously Approves Veterans Banner Program for Memorial Day Launch

NORWOOD — January 27, 2026 — Norwood Select Board approves a new veterans tribute banner program and accepts an $85,000 youth donation. The board voted unanimously Tuesday to authorize Veterans Service Agent Derek Wernerstrand's Military Banner Program, which will place 24 tribute banners on electrical poles surrounding DAV Memorial Park at Walpole and Burrowes Streets in time for a Memorial Day weekend unveiling. Banners cost $105 each, with Gold Star Family banners provided free by program vendor Military Tribute Banners; locally raised funds held in the town's Military Family Relief Fund will offset costs for others. Applications open February 9 at a Norwood-specific website and close around April 17. The board also accepted an $85,000 unrestricted gift from the William and Carol Haskell Living Trust for youth programming — the first half of a $170,000 anticipated total — with Town Manager Anthony Mazzucco proposing the funds be structured as a perpetual endowment spending roughly 5 percent annually. Separately, auditor Terenzio Vopicelli of Roselli Clark and Associates reported a clean, unmodified opinion on the town's FY2025 financial statements, with $37.3 million in combined reserves and an S&P credit rating of AA-plus.