Shutesbury Select Board Disbands Spear Library Committee, Restructures Lake Wyola Panel

SHUTESBURY -- June 9, 2026, Shutesbury Select Board overhauls Lake Wyola committee, adopts new personnel handbook, and hears Spear Library final report at packed June 9 meeting. The board voted unanimously to transform the Lake Wyola Advisory Committee from a roughly 35-year-old ad hoc body into a permanent standing committee of nine voting members, five town board representatives and four community members, effective July 1, 2026, following a recommendation from Town Administrator Haley Brunelle that stressed updated conflict-of-interest safeguards and a formal Select Board-controlled appointment process. The board also unanimously adopted a 77-page personnel handbook replacing a document dating to approximately 2012, and voted to disband the M.N. Spear Library Reuse Committee after 16 meetings, accepting its central recommendation to commission a sanitary engineer to assess bathroom feasibility at the vacant building on the town common, with costs potentially exceeding $100,000 if a change-of-use triggers full code compliance. A lengthy discussion of plowing on private Birch Drive near Lake Wyola produced no vote but directed staff to conduct a full assessment of all private roads receiving town service before next winter, with the town's insurer on record recommending against private-road plowing entirely due to rising liability claims. The meeting also marked the final session for Select Board member Rita Farrell after six years of service.