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Charlton planning board debates scope and grant use as townspeople bid to update master plan
Summary
Planning board members disagreed over which consultant to hire for a new master plan after the town received a $100,000 grant; concern centered on whether CMRPC’s higher-priced, grant‑augmented proposal offered better outreach than lower-cost alternatives such as Barrett Planning Group.
CHARLTON, Mass. — Town planning board members spent the bulk of a lengthy Nov. 19 session debating which consultant should prepare an update to the town’s master plan and how to use a recently awarded $100,000 grant.
Board members compared three finalists — Barrett Planning Group LLC, the Central Massachusetts Regional Planning Commission (CMRPC), and a consultant group represented as Dodson/Fickler — focusing on differences in price, in‑person outreach and what each firm would include in the work scope. A recurring question was whether CMRPC’s proposal, which the board learned assumed the town’s $100,000 grant and therefore listed a much larger total project cost, created an uneven playing field.
"I just don't wanna spend a…
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