Thank you to all who attended the two sessions of Town Meeting this year. There were 507 ballots cast on March 12 and the town clerk received 36 absentee ballots. All the warrant articles passed at the Second Session on Friday, which was well attended. The results of both sessions are available on the town website. A heartfelt “Thank You” to Cheryl Gordon for all her years of dedicated service to Canterbury as Town Clerk/Tax Collector from 1980-2011 and for the last 12 years as a member of the Board of Selectmen.

As mentioned at the Town Meeting, Comcast has been working on infrastructure to increase services to Canterbury. They were awarded a BMGI grant and are predicting that all addresses in Canterbury will have broadband access in the next six months. I want to thank Bryan Christiansen, who is the director of government and regulatory affairs for the Greater Boston area, for all his assistance on this over the last few years.

With the retirement of Police Chief Mike Labrecque, the Board of Selectmen have posted the position and will be conducting interviews to fill the vacancy.

We have experienced malfunctions with the solar generation arrays at both the Town Office/Library and Municipal Buildings this past year. Issues with the electrical connections have caused reduced generation and in the case of the Municipal Building an electrical short that caused a small fire in a junction box. Repairs have been done at the Town Office/Library and are underway at the Municipal Building. Thank you to Jim Snyder for assisting with the repairs.

The final electrical work was completed at the Transfer Station. A new 400 amp meter socket was installed and the new upgraded service entrance connected.

Our Highway Department has been working hard to keep our dirt roads passable for all traffic during the mud season. Please let them know if there is a road that needs attention.

The April Board of Selectmen’s meetings will be on April 1 and April 15.

~ Ken Folsom, Town Administrator