Boxborough Select Board approves $125,000 business grant program, elects new chair

BOXBOROUGH — May 22, 2023 — Boxborough Select Board reorganizes under new leadership after founding chair resigns citing cancer treatment. At the May 22 meeting — the first to seat newly elected members Kristen Hilberg, Dave McKinnon, and Priya Sundaram — the board unanimously approved a $125,000 American Rescue Plan Act-funded business grant program offering awards of up to $20,000 to local businesses, with a required 100 percent match and a forgivable-loan structure. Economic Development Committee Chair Rich Guzardi and Town Planner Alec Wade, who agreed to administer the program in-house rather than spend an estimated $20,000 on outside administration, said they expect funds in applicants' hands by fall. The board also voted unanimously to place a sense-of-the-meeting warrant article supporting the redesign of the Massachusetts state flag on the fall town meeting warrant, following similar actions in Acton, Harvard, and Bolton. Hilberg was elected chair by a 3-1 vote over Wes Folks, and Sundaram was elected clerk unanimously. Immediately after, outgoing Chair Diana LaPari read a prepared statement disclosing that she had begun treatment for recurrent cancer the morning after the election and resigned from the board effective at the close of the meeting.