AYER — Last week, two of the three members of the Ayer Board of Health resigned, leaving the board — with just one member left — without a legal quorum to meet and conduct business.
Mary Spinner remains aboard and serves as chairman. Both Marilyn McMillan and Margaret Kidder resigned last week. In Kidder’s resignation letter, she informed the Board of Selectmen, “Thank you for allowing me to serve faithfully since 1998. I have enjoyed my involvement with the Board of Health and the community.”
McMillan’s resignation comes mid-term. Last elected in 2011, McMillan’s term wasn’t to expire until April 2014.
Kidder, elected in 2010, would have seen her term expire in April 2013. Spinner was re-elected to a fresh three-year term on the board last April. Her term extends until April 2015.
Spinner has confirmed that one of two people who she’s been in contact with to fill one of the vacancies is former selectmen candidate Heather Hasz. Hasz has previously been employed as a health agent for the Town of Acton. Spinner also noted that she may have another interested citizen who’d be willing to fill the second vacant seat but declined to identify who they are at this time.
Selectmen helped the Ayer Planning Board two years ago in filling one of two vacancies on that board. At that time, the selectmen and planning boards jointly “elected” one new member to fill one mid-term vacancy; the other was filled in a spring election.
However, the five-member Planning Board maintained a legal three-vote quorum during that time of short staffing. That is not the case now with the Ayer Board of Health, which must have at least two of three members in attendance in order to legally conduct business.
The Ayer Board of Selectmen has placed an item on their Oct. 30 agenda to address the process on how to fill the empty Board of Health seats. A message to Ayer Town Administrator Robert Pontbriand was not immediately returned on Monday. Ayer Town Hall was closed on Monday due to Hurricane Sandy.
— Mary Arata
