Bellingham Select Board fills Planning Board seat, awards $1.24M paving contract

BELLINGHAM — April 28, 2025 — Bellingham Select Board appoints Planning Board member, awards $1.24M paving contract, and calls emergency special town meeting. The board unanimously appointed Elizabeth Berthilet, current Zoning Board of Appeals chair, to fill a Planning Board vacancy through the June 2026 election, after debating whether to seat her for the full unexpired term. On paving, the board awarded Contract 2025-RIV-SMPB for Broadway and various streets to A.F. Amorello and Sons of Worcester after low bidder PJ Keating was disqualified for exceeding a 3 percent mobilization fee cap — a threshold DPW Director Jesse called "extremely clear" in the bid specification. The board also voted to schedule a special town meeting five minutes before the annual town meeting to accept two parcels tied to the Maplegate land donation, a roughly 25-acre gift town counsel Sharon Everett warned could be lost if action waited until November. A new three-year AFSCME clerical contract at 3 percent, consistent with other municipal agreements, was ratified, settling all municipal-side labor deals through 2028.