Southwick Master Plan Panel Reports 17 of 20 Action Items Approved, Confronts Records Gap

SOUTHWICK — June 2, 2026 — Southwick's Master Plan Implementation Committee reviewed historic preservation priorities and confronted a years-long gap in its official meeting records at its June 2 meeting. A member substituting for regular chair Dave Spina reported that 17 of the first 20 master plan action items have been approved and 19 of 24 lead organizations have submitted completion plans, with the town council among four groups still outstanding. The committee worked through a multi-year schedule for eight historic preservation priorities, placing an oral history project and digitization initiative in year seven after members found Community Preservation funds cannot be used to produce new recordings — only to preserve existing ones. Most urgently, members acknowledged that audio recordings of past meetings have gone missing and that few approved minutes appear on the town website, with one member identifying March 3, 2025, as the most recent session with confirmed posted records going back to at least 2023. The committee discussed having a volunteer reconstruct brief minutes for past sessions so the full record can be ratified at the September meeting, and agreed to notify the town clerk that the recording device is missing.