Templeton Select Board approves appointments, converts senior-center activity coordinator to kitchen manager

At its March 2 meeting, the Town of Templeton Select Board approved multiple appointments and a personnel reclassification for the senior center and opened the annual town-meeting warrant.

Appointments and personnel changes: the board voted to appoint three candidates to the Parks & Recreation Commission to fill multiple vacancies (board discussion identified Heather Fischer, Amanda Iona and a candidate whose name was pronounced "Brianna" in the transcript). It also appointed Irene Murray and Mary Francis Miller to the Cultural Council for three-year terms. All appointment motions were seconded and passed by roll-call vote.

Senior center reorganization: Senior center staff presented a proposal to substitute the vacant activity-coordinator role with a kitchen-manager position at the same hours and pay to operate the center's nearly finished food service facility, manage culinary programming and address food-service liability and maintenance. "We have this beautiful state-of-the-art kitchen and we'd like there to be a person who's comfortable with the equipment," a senior-center presenter said, adding that the role would cover safe-serve, allergy awareness and schedule management. The board approved a motion to change the activity coordinator to a kitchen manager and authorized the town administrator to advertise the opening.

Warrant and petitions: the board voted to open the annual town-meeting warrant and set a deadline to close citizen petitions on March 23, 2026 at noon, giving advisory committee and pre-town-meeting posting time before the April and May schedules. The administrator said three citizens' petitions (relating to local waste-plastic/incineration concerns and proposed bylaw amendments) will be placed on the annual warrant after having been submitted after the special-warrant deadline. Members noted standard procedural requirements for placing citizen petitions on the warrant.

Next steps: the administrator will advertise the new kitchen-manager posting and return any requested documentation related to appointments and the warrant timeline; the board will handle candidate questionings and department budget reviews at scheduled hearings.