Some prominent land-use boards and commissions in Bedford have incomplete memberships or have members who are not authorized to serve.

This finding was the result of a survey requested by Town Council Chairman Mike Izbicki. He had asked Town Manager Russ Marcoux to review major boards after the council realized that a member of the Planning Board was serving as a voting member of the Historic District Commission without the authority to do so.

The council has already ended that tradition, but the membership of the commission remains incomplete, said Marcoux. The town manager and town clerk uncovered several other inconsistencies. For example, a town councilor has been sitting and voting on the Zoning Board, even though neither the town charter nor board rules of procedure give the councilor that authority.

Likewise, Town Council liaisons have been voting members of the town Parks and Recreation Commission, again without the explicit sanction of the charter. In addition, several boards and committees do not have as many members as they should, according to Marcoux.

“We have some work to do,” Izbicki said. “The reaction is that we need to be in compliance with the charter.”

In the wake of the report, which the council discussed at its May 28 meeting, Izbicki said the council will schedule a nonpublic meeting with the town attorney before taking any action on the report. “We have a lot of questions we need to ask him before we make a decision,” Izbicki said.

Bids OK’d
In other business, the Town Council approved three bids, including the replacement of a street sweeper at $161,710 and $4 million to Continental Paving Inc. to reconstruct Hardy Road and North Amherst Road.

A third bid was awarded to a new recycling contractor, Cocoran Environmental Services Inc. Under the former recycling program, the town paid $50,000 for the service and received $10,000 in revenue, for a net cost of $40,000. Now, the town will not see any revenue, but will not pay for the recycling, for a savings of $40,000 a year, according to Marcoux.

Also, the council suspended its payments to the Manchester Transit Authority, which has several stops in Bedford. Manchester is cutting its MTA budget by 25 percent but has not explained how that would affect the town, Izbicki said. In the meantime, he said the council will not make any more payments, which are about $43,000 a year.

“We don’t want to pay for something that we’re not getting,” Izbicki said.