Hingham Select Board Recommends Seven Town Meeting Articles, Pulls Four Others

HINGHAM — February 25, 2025 — Hingham Select Board recommends seven town meeting articles and pulls four others amid capital funding warnings. Meeting jointly with the Advisory Committee, School Committee, and Capital Outlay Committee, the two-member Select Board — Chair Joe Fischer and Elizabeth Klein, with Bill Ramsey absent — approved favorable recommendations on articles covering election-hour reductions, harbor revenue transfers, legal-notice publication reform, easements, two revolving fund updates, and a $687,000 borrowing authorization for South Shore Country Club equipment. Capital Outlay Committee Chair Michael Donovan warned that the town's $3.5 million tax-levy capital allocation is insufficient without an additional $1.6 million draw from unassigned fund balance to replace deteriorating DPW and transfer-station vehicles, some more than 15 years old and costing a quarter of a new vehicle's price in annual repairs. Town Administrator Tom Mayo presented FY26 municipal budget adjustments closing an $810,022 gap to meet the 3.5 percent MOU spending cap, including shifting Recreation Director Mark Thorburn's salary into the department's revolving fund — a move Recreation Commission Chair Vicki Donlan called "a very sad precedent" for future hiring.