West Newbury Select Board Re-elects Reed, Backs $2.5M Whittier Feasibility Study

WEST NEWBURY -- May 15, 2025, West Newbury Select Board re-elects Reed, advances Whittier study funding and road race permits. The board unanimously re-elected Wendy Reed as chair at its May 15 meeting, with Christopher Wile named vice chair, after Member Barry Fogel declined the role, saying Reed performs it at a level he "couldn't do." The board also voted unanimously to authorize the town manager to sign a statement of interest letter committing the town to a share of a $2.5 million Whittier Regional Vocational Technical High School feasibility study, West Newbury's portion estimated at roughly $80,000 over two fiscal years. Special event road-race permits were approved for You Can Sports on July 20 and September 28, conditioned on resolution of a police detail discrepancy between the two applications. The board voted to continue pursuing a Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness grant while requiring that any awarded scope be negotiated to fit actual staff capacity, a condition that emerged from weeks of tension with the Climate Change Resiliency Committee over how much of a local road corridor the study would cover.