Manchester Select Board Approves Verizon Conduit, Sweeney Park Sign, and Two Appointments

MANCHESTER-BY-THE-SEA — May 4, 2026 — Manchester-by-the-Sea Select Board approves Verizon conduit work and a softball field sign in unanimous session. The board voted unanimously May 4 to approve a Verizon New England petition to install 248 feet of 4-inch PVC underground conduit on Procter Street at the request of customers Carpenter and McNeil, and to allow the Manchester Athletics Softball Association to attach a permanent advertising sign up to four feet by four feet to the scoreboard at Sweeney Park, with a local bank set to sponsor the placement pending board approval. The board also unanimously appointed Jennifer Asimani — a former chief of staff at the state Executive Office of Aging and Independence — to the Council on Aging board through June 2029, filling the body's final vacancy, and appointed Elaine Parsons as the Housing Authority's representative on the Affordable Housing Trust through June 2027. Town Administrator Tony Monaco and Town Moderator Eli, who attended in person, called for publishing bond-counsel motion language on the town website and in print handouts before future town meetings, after a two-night annual session in which nested amendments created procedural delays; the board also agreed by consensus to remove the concept of "heritage trees" from the town's tree policy pending development of a public process and potential bylaw.