West Newbury Select Board Sets Five Priorities for FY26, From MBTA to Water Supply

WEST NEWBURY — August 14, 2025 — West Newbury Select Board outlines five priorities anchored by a hard MBTA zoning deadline and an expired water agreement. At a goals-and-priorities session Thursday, Chair Wendy Lemay and Town Manager Angus Rola presented a tiered FY26 project list and named MBTA Communities zoning compliance by December 31, comprehensive planning, service regionalization, the future of Page School, and long-term water security as the board's top five concerns. The water supply discussion drew the sharpest debate, with attendees on private wells questioning why they should bear costs for the municipal system while Rola warned that the town's intermunicipal agreement with Newburyport expired in 2005, leaving no contract governing supply or price, and described a capital program with roughly 20 projects ahead and no debt relief in sight for decades. Rola also told the assembled board and committee chairs that any new project requires Select Board approval before it is added to the town work plan, and that advocacy for new priorities should go to the relevant Select Board liaison rather than directly to staff.