Hamilton Select Board Sets Water, Town Hall, and School Agreement as Top Year Goals

HAMILTON -- June 29, 2026, Hamilton Select Board sets water, Town Hall opening, and school agreement as year's top goals. The board met June 29 in an annual goal-setting workshop facilitated by Town Manager Joe Doyle, working through a spreadsheet of carryover and new priorities without taking any formal votes. Water infrastructure led the discussion: Doyle said a nearly $1.1 million federal grant is ready to fund an improved interconnection with Wenham, whose potential $12 million PFAS treatment problem could be solved for as little as $8 million by routing water through Hamilton's existing plant, and a Crowns Hill storage tank estimated at 80 years old faces a five-to-seven million dollar replacement. On Town Hall, Doyle said the elevator is on track for a July 23 completion, with partial occupancy of the first floor possible before the end of July, the project described as on budget and on pace to be the first zero-carbon town hall in Massachusetts. The board also targeted the April 2027 Annual Town Meeting for a vote on a revised Hamilton-Wenham regional school agreement, with cost apportionment, a third-party audit clause, and school committee seat allocation still unresolved. New goals raised include a bylaw on e-bikes and motorized devices, a dark skies ordinance, a downtown sidewalk phasing plan, and a part-time communications hire at $50,000 whose first assignment would be developing a town-wide communications strategy.