Newbury Senior Center Article Loses at Town Meeting by Just 10 Votes

NEWBURY -- May 18, 2026, Newbury's Council on Aging lost its Annual Town Meeting architect-funding article by just 10 votes, pivoting now to a combined senior center and Town Hall facility. Chair Damon Despres told the board Monday that roughly 280 of the town's 12,000 registered voters attended the meeting, about 7 percent turnout, and that the Finance Committee's unanimous opposition had made passage "a very hard burden to lift." Despres said he is in discussion with architect Jeff Shaw, who holds preliminary drawings from an earlier combined Town Hall project, and that the next step is circulating those documents to Town Hall staff before deciding whether to commission a new multi-site assessment or proceed directly to siting. The board also heard an extended liaison report from member Geraldine Mayo detailing governance disputes within the Friends of the COA, including allegations that the group's president excluded the COA Director and Chair from at least two meetings despite their ex officio standing under the Friends' bylaws, and that a $400 funding request for a St. Patrick's Day event was initially denied while the Friends held over $123,000 in assets. The board set its next meeting for June 8 and agreed to take up both Friends of the COA bylaw amendments and the question of offering van transportation to future town meetings.