Whately Select Board approves three-year contract for Town Administrator Cimini

WHATELY — May 27, 2026 — Whately Select Board approves three-year contract for Town Administrator James Cimini Jr. and takes up Swamp Road speeding. The board voted unanimously Wednesday to approve the employment agreement with Cimini effective July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2029, after conducting contract negotiations in executive session. Earlier in the meeting, Police Chief Jim Savini told the board that informal officer-logged data shows average speeds of about 38 miles per hour on Swamp Road, posted at 35, and that stationary radar enforcement over the past two to three weeks has not captured the extreme speeding residents describe — "which usually doesn't happen when we're sitting there," Savini said. The board agreed to place a formal MassDOT traffic study request on its next agenda, while the highway superintendent described a shorter-term option of repainting the road from 12-foot to 10-foot travel lanes to encourage drivers to slow. The board also unanimously approved appointments of Melissa French to the Housing Trust and Jim Selman to the Center School Committee 2, approved two grant applications — one for an Emergency Management laptop and one for an ADA-compliant ramp at the Memorial Library — and approved an interdepartmental transfer to address a roughly $32,000 Snow and Ice account deficit.