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The Select Board has appointed Michelle Prior as its representative to the Committee on Names, filling the board’s seat on a five-member panel that members say is working to codify its procedures for naming public buildings, parks and other property.
The vote was 3-0, with member Bill McGonigle abstaining. Member Michael Bettencourt made the motion, naming Prior as the board’s liaison, and Prior seconded it.
Select Board Chair Anthea Brady, who ran the brief meeting and cast the deciding yes vote, had held the seat for the previous four years.
McGonigle said he would have preferred Brady continue, arguing the committee needs institutional memory while it writes procedures for the first time.
“I would prefer to have her on the committee again to have that experience, so that they can form reliable protocols as they do try to move forward with some sort of organized procedures,” he said.
He also said he had asked the town clerk’s office for a copy of the 1977 Fall Town Meeting article that created the committee and had not received it.
“I really wish I had that documentation so I had a more informed vote happening right now,” McGonigle said. “It’s just I really wish I had had that before trying to make this decision because it seems like they’re doing something big, and I don’t want to rush into anything.”
Brady said she believed the request could be routed through town administration but that it should not delay the appointment.
“I don’t know that it’s going to hold up us voting on this,” she said.
The town traces the committee’s authority to Article 21 of Fall Town Meeting on Nov. 14, 1977. Its five members are all appointed by the Select Board to one-year terms: two voters at large and one representative each from the Planning Board, School Committee and Select Board.
The town’s description says the committee evaluates suggestions for naming public places and structures. Street names fall outside its jurisdiction.
The panel has become more active this fall. Its Sept. 2 agenda called for discussion of committee policies and potential recommendations for Fall Town Meeting, and a Sept. 10 agenda listed proposed bylaws, naming proposals and actions for Fall Town Meeting.
Prior, who joined the committee’s work earlier this month, described the group as trying to modernize a process that has operated largely ad hoc.
“It’s a 1970s committee updated in the 1990s that has the Select Board making the decision and Town Meeting ratifying the decision,” she said. “I got grabbed outside of election day on Sept. 1 and asked to join a meeting on Sept. 2.”
She said members have researched how other communities handle naming requests, including signature requirements and waiting periods.
Brady said the committee met infrequently during her tenure, but that she was willing to serve again if the board wanted her.
“We met twice in my four years as the member of the Committee on Names, so I’m happy to do it,” she said.
Will Dowd is a Massachusetts journalist who covers municipal government and community life for Winchester News. He is also the founder and editor of The Marblehead Independent, a reader-funded digital newsroom.
