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Select Board member seeks release of data-center documents; chair and another member say NDA timing and lack of proposal limit disclosure
Summary
Select Board member Heather Jones requested unredacted data-center documents be released; Chair Alissa Eason said no unredacted documents exist to release and Sarah Whitfield read a statement denying secret negotiations and calling accusations of misusing ARPA funds "unequivocally false." The board decided Jones will meet with the Town Attorney prior to a full-board attorney meeting.
Select Board member Heather Jones asked the board on July 7 to release unredacted documents related to a previously discussed data-center inquiry, prompting a public explanation from other members and a commitment to legal review.
"Heather Jones requested that unredacted documents regarding the data center be released," the minutes record. Chair Alissa Eason responded that "there were no unredacted documents to release."
Select Board member Sarah Whitfield read a prepared statement into the record defending the board's process and denying allegations of secrecy or improper use of federal ARPA funds. Whitfield said the board met once with an interested party but that "no proposal was presented, no commitments were made, and no decisions were made," adding that "the NDA that was signed did not authorize a project or allow decisions to be made in secret" and that "the accusation that there was even any suggestion of the misuse of funds is unequivocally false."
Whitfield told the meeting that the NDA "becomes public next month, and releasing it before then would violate its terms." After discussion, the board agreed that Heather Jones would meet with the Town Attorney before the attorney met with the full board to address concerns and any possible release.
The minutes also record a public comment earlier in the meeting from Marty Foxx seeking greater transparency about the data-center status; the board advised there had been no action on the data center. The minutes do not show a formal motion to release documents; any release appears contingent on attorney guidance and the NDA schedule.
What happens next: Heather Jones will meet with the Town Attorney; the NDA is recorded as becoming public next month per the minutes. The board did not vote to release documents at this meeting.
