Ashburnham Select Board Approves Warrant and Updates 28-Year-Old Recycling Policy

ASHBURNHAM -- April 21, 2026, Ashburnham Select Board approves May 5 town meeting warrant and replaces 28-year-old recycling policy. The three-member board voted unanimously Tuesday to execute the annual town meeting warrant, set for May 5 at Oakmont Regional High School at 7 p.m., and Town Administrator John Juros flagged that Planning Board Chair Dennis Marshall plans to offer a friendly floor amendment adding a waiver process to the lot-shape irregularity zoning article. The board also unanimously rescinded the town's 1998 buy-recycled policy and adopted a Massachusetts DEP model Sustainable Purchasing Policy, which Juros described as "all carrot, no hammer", a good-faith commitment to environmentally preferable purchasing that protects roughly $5,000 to $6,000 in annual state grant eligibility. The board agreed to revisit the creation of a formal vice chair position at its May reorganization meeting, after Jankowski noted that Westminster, Townsend, Royalston, and Barry, all three-member boards, already maintain the role.