New town employees were welcomed by the Select Board at Tuesday’s meeting: (from left) Select Board member Shahidul Mannan, Stephen Proctor, Mary Zenith, Elizabeth Rourke, Alfonso Lombardi III, Akil Reid and Select Board members Muriel Kramer (partially obscured), Amy Ritterbusch and Mary Jo LaFreniere. PHOTO/HCAM SCREENSHOT

At Tuesday’s meeting, the Select Board selected the local organizations and town departments that will receive a charity bib for the 2023 Boston Marathon.

The town received 50 invitational entries from the Boston Athletic Association and previously set its policy for the distribution of the numbers.

A total of 18 numbers were distributed to town departments: Police Department (7), Fire Department (1), Senior Center (1), Marathon Committee (5), Veterans Celebration Committee (1), Senior and Disabled Tax Relief Committee (1) and Hopkinton Public Schools (2). The HPS numbers will go to Hopkinton High School robotics and Hopkinton Middle School expanded arts opportunities.

The remaining numbers were assigned via a random draw to the following 32 nonprofits: Baypath Humane Society, Canty’s Underdog Scholarship Fund, Demons Youth Hockey Association, Dignity Matters, Friends of Hopkinton, Friends of Hopkinton Seniors, Friends of Hopkinton SEPAC, Hopkinton Area Land Trust, Hopkinton Boys Youth Lacrosse, Hopkinton Country Club Charitable Foundation, Hopkinton Education Foundation, Hopkinton Emergency Fund, Hopkinton Food Pantry, Hopkinton Garden Club, Hopkinton Girls Youth Lacrosse, Hopkinton Historical Society, Hopkinton Little League, Hopkinton Lions Club, Hopkinton Masonic Benevolent Fund, Hopkinton Music Association, Hopkinton Public Library Foundation, Hopkinton Public Library Friends, Hopkinton Youth Field Hockey, KeepSmilin4Abbie Foundation, Live4Evan, Mental Health Collaborative, Michael Lisnow Respite Center, National Brain Tumor Society, Project Just Because, Sharon Timlin Memorial Event to Cure ALS, Sophie’s Hope Foundation and the South Asian Circle of Hopkinton.

The Hopkinton Freedom Team, Hopkinton PTO and Hopkinton Women’s Club also applied but missed out via the draw.

Chair Amy Ritterbusch expressed her disapproval with the random selection process, noting that some organizations already are receiving numbers from other sources.

MassDOT to pay for Main Street adjustment

Addressing the recent controversy about narrow road width on the recently reconfigured section of Main Street just east of the intersection with Wood Street, Town Manager Norman Khumalo said the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) indicated it would fund the cost of the adjustment on the southern side of the road, and discussions are continuing about the northern side.

“We do not intend as part of this process to increase the cost of the project,” Khumalo said. “In terms of the timeline, the reason why were moving so quickly in our discussions with MassDOT was to literally respect the timeline that we had agreed to. As far as the southerly side is concerned, no impact on the timeline. As far as what could be done on the northerly side, we have not fully scoped that out. We will let the board know if that extends the timeline of the project.”

Khumalo said MassDOT, which is overseeing the project, initially was not receptive to the town’s request for a change but eventually acquiesced.

Said Khumalo: “When we met with MassDOT last week, the first response from MassDOT was, ‘A contract is a contract. There’s a contract in place. If you want to change the contract, you are on your own.’ However, through the meeting, everybody realized that this was the right thing to do.”

The town already has begun working to widen the road by a small amount so that emergency vehicles can more easily pass through traffic.

Short-term rental article reviewed

The board reviewed a proposed article for 2023 Annual Town Meeting that deals with short-term rentals of residential property.

Residents of Pike Street recently complained about a homeowner renting a home on weekends, with noisy parties being held there.

As per the proposed article, rentals of less than two days would not be permitted, and any short-term rental would be required to have an individual responsible to respond within two hours to any problem or complaint and within 30 minutes in an emergency. The article also places limits on how many people can occupy a short-term rental property and requires short-term rental property owners to obtain an annual license from the Select Board.

New town employees welcomed

The Select Board confirmed the town manager’s appointments of five new town employees: Akil Reid (Facilities Department custodian), Alfonso Lombardi III (DPW heavy equipment operator), Stephen Proctor (DPW heavy equipment operator), Mary Zenith (Human Resources/Town Clerk’s Office administrative assistant) and Elizabeth Rourke (senior accounting manager). …

The board accepted a gift of $3,000 from the Hopkinton Public Library Foundation to the library for the library of things, and a $200 gift from the Hopkinton Women’s Club to the library for books pertaining to women and abuse.