Wrentham Select Board Creates Seven-Member Housing Production Plan Committee

WRENTHAM — March 19, 2026 — Wrentham Select Board forms housing committee, debates secret-ballot threshold, backs conservation agent deal. The board voted 5-0 at its March 17 meeting to create a seven-member Housing Production Plan committee — one representative each from the Select Board, Planning Board, Zoning Board of Appeals, and Housing Authority, plus three citizens at large — to guide development of a state-approved housing document funded at $55,000 by the Community Preservation Committee, replacing a plan that expired in September 2010. Chair Christopher Gallo and Town Manager Michael J. King disclosed they had independently recommended Selectman Roy Lamont for the Select Board seat. The board also directed King to draft warrant language for the June Annual Town Meeting raising the secret-ballot trigger for capital expenditures from $2 million to $5 million and replacing the current unanimous-waiver requirement with a simple majority vote, after King confirmed town counsel called the existing standard "unusual" compared with peer communities. In a separate item, the board expressed unanimous support for a proposed intermunicipal agreement with Norfolk to share a full-time conservation agent at 20 hours per week each, with Norfolk carrying benefits, beginning July 1; a formal vote is expected in April. State Representative Marcus Vaughn reported Wrentham had received $124,197 in body-worn-camera grant funding — the only community in the immediate area to be awarded — and estimated the town faces nearly $200,000 in FIFA World Cup public safety costs with a grant determination still pending.