Manchester Select Board Names Pierce Davis Co-Counsel to Control Legal Spending

MANCHESTER-BY-THE-SEA, February 2, 2026, Manchester Select Board adds co-counsel, appoints planning associates, and hears zoning briefing ahead of Town Meeting. The board voted unanimously February 2 to appoint the law firm Pierce Davis as co-counsel alongside existing town counsel KP Law, with Town Administrator Tony Mello citing a legal budget that "ran pretty hot" this year and saying Pierce Davis charges roughly $50 less per hour for routine municipal matters. The board also voted to appoint Nancy Garvey and Isabella Bates as associate members of the Planning Board, filling newly created seats designed to ensure a five-member supermajority for special permits, for terms through June 30, 2026. In a joint session, Planning Board Chair Peter Morton and member Chris Alney briefed the Select Board on five proposed Town Meeting articles: a downtown district restructuring into Town Center and Harbor's Edge zones, a senior housing bylaw allowing up to 10 units per acre by special permit, an inn definition limited to 12 guests, a driveway bylaw amendment, and a possible ADU expansion. The board received a lengthy but unresolved discussion of how to finance the $3.6 million Rotunda restoration, with $1.3 million already appropriated and the remaining gap subject to competing CPC and town-borrowing options, after new school budget numbers reduced Manchester's district cost increase from roughly $1.3 million to approximately $654,000, reshuffling the fiscal picture heading into spring Town Meeting.