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.