Dudley Select Board Defers Vote-by-Mail Decision Until Registrars Weigh Early Voting

DUDLEY -- February 9, 2026, Dudley Select Board defers vote-by-mail decision and demands accounting of $1.2 million school field pledge. The board voted 4-1 on Monday to delay action on opting out of vote-by-mail for the June 15 annual town election, instructing Town Clerk Lori to convene the board of registrars within two weeks to determine whether early voting will be available as an alternative. Members Jay Johnson and Gary Sikinivich also secured unanimous board support for two motions directing Shepherd Hill Regional School District to report how much has been collected from a non-binding $1.2 million private sponsorship pledge made around 2013, when the multipurpose athletic field was built, and to account for annual bleacher rental costs, "that's $1.2 million that the people in our communities didn't think they were going to spend, that they're spending," Sikinivich said. In other action, the board voted 4-0-1 to authorize the board chair to sign documents designating the Merino-Jericho neighborhood as a substandard area under MGL Chapters 121A and 121B, a step that opens a 10-year window to compete for federal Community Development Block Grant funding, and unanimously retained labor counsel Mark Terry as he transitions to Stoneman, Chandler and Miller, LLP. Town Administrator John Ruta reported the highway snow-removal account, budgeted at $110,000, had already reached $112,573 spent as of early February, before the season's most recent storm.