Select Board appoints Tespe to DEI Commission, allocates $15,000 for Holiday Village

SUDBURY -- August 13, 2024, Sudbury Select Board appoints DEI commissioner and faces a year-end ARPA squeeze. The board unanimously appointed Isaac Tespe, a longtime diversity officer at Worcester State, the Massachusetts Trial Court and Tufts Medicine, to a DEI Commission term ending May 31, 2026, after two other candidates failed to appear. Town Manager Andy Sheehan reported $191,379 in unallocated ARPA funds and previewed an Aug. 27 request for roughly $70,000 to $75,000 toward a $233,000 shortfall on Curtis and Haynes school HVAC replacements, where a base bid of $989,500 plus a $223,000 controls package must be ordered before a Jan. 1 federal refrigerant change that Combined Facilities Director Sandra Durand said could push costs "two to four times" higher. The board also allocated $15,000 in ARPA funds for the Dec. 7 Holiday Village, with member Charles Russo warning he would have "trouble voting in favor of individual project requests going forward."