Westport Select Board takes up the Town Hall Annex well and Eversource's Hixbridge Road line work Monday
The annex has run on a temporary water system, about $8,400 to set up and $3,200 a delivery. Eversource's project puts about 3.4 miles of new underground lines along Hixbridge Road and new wires on Drift and Horseneck roads.
WESTPORT Westport's Select Board on Monday will consider an engineering proposal from Kleinfelder for a well at the Town Hall Annex, a building that has run on a temporary water system, with paid deliveries, under a state do-not-drink order. The board will also discuss an update on Eversource's Hixbridge Road project, which calls for about 3.4 miles of new underground power lines along that road.
The board meets Monday, Nov. 2, at 5:45 p.m. in the second floor meeting room at Town Hall, 816 Main Road. Its agenda also lists a possible vote on a home rule petition to change the town's recall election law, Town Administrator Chris Vitale's request for a one-time stipend payment for Deputy Chief Robert Rebello and possible action on the town's water enterprise.
The annex well
The temporary bulk water system at the annex cost about $8,400 to set up, and each added water delivery costs $3,200, Vitale told the board in an Oct. 16 report. The state Department of Environmental Protection's do-not-drink order was still in effect then, he wrote, and the town had hired Kleinfelder to study options for a permanent replacement well and to draw up a scope of work, a cost estimate and a construction timeline.
Monday's agenda lists a possible vote to approve Kleinfelder's well engineering services proposal for the annex building "and Consider Next Steps." Vitale wrote in October that once design and construction costs are known, "the Board will need to consider a reserve fund transfer to cover the temporary water system and permanent well replacement."
A separate item calls for discussion and possible action on the water enterprise's certified operator and its future operations. The board will also get an update on the master plan for the old high school property, with possible action on next steps.
SC360 reported on the annex water system and the former high school plan before the board's Oct. 19 meeting. Read that story.
Hixbridge Road power lines
Eversource lists the Hixbridge Road work as part of its Dartmouth-Westport distribution line upgrades, which the company says are needed to connect new clean energy sources to the grid and to improve reliability for customers. Its project page describes about 3.4 miles of new underground lines along the road between Drift Road and Division Road, with short segments on Drift and Horseneck roads.
The same project replaces wires on existing poles along about two miles of Drift Road, from Hixbridge Road to Soules Way, plus about a quarter mile of Soules Way, and along about four miles of Horseneck Road, from south of Hixbridge Road to south of Indian Spring Way. In Dartmouth, crews are to lay new underground lines on Gidley Town Road and Fisher Road, from the Division Road intersection to the Fisher Road Substation at 630 Fisher Road.
Residents may see temporary travel impacts while crews work in the road, the company says, with temporary restoration as the work moves along and final restoration once construction ends. Questions go to its project hotline, 833-836-0302, or ProjectInfoMA@eversource.com. On Monday's agenda, the update sits beside a discussion of clean energy siting and permitting.
Also on the agenda
The board will consider letting Vitale file a home rule petition with the Legislature to amend Chapter 86 of the Acts of 2019, the law that provides for recall elections in Westport, as Town Meeting approved under Article 36. It will also take up a Class II motor vehicle and repair license for J3 Auto Group at 1018 State Road, the resignation of the town's assistant planner and the board's 2027 meeting calendar.
The meeting opens with a closed session on strategy for negotiations with nonunion personnel over the assistant planner job. A second closed session, set for 7:30 p.m., lists two items under the open meeting law exemption for discussing the reputation, character, physical condition or mental health, rather than professional competence, of an individual, or the discipline or dismissal of, or complaints or charges brought against, a public officer or staff member. One item concerns a public officer and the other a staff member, and the agenda names no one.
What happens next
The Select Board, School Committee and Finance Committee hold a joint fiscal 2028 budget workshop Monday, Nov. 16, at Westport Middle-High School, planned as a hybrid meeting expected to start before the board's regular meeting that evening, Vitale wrote. The town's fiscal outlook, free cash and reserve policies, capital planning and major budget drivers are on the list. Department capital requests were due Oct. 31.
The school district has a well request of its own. Its fiscal 2028 capital request list, which was on the School Committee's Oct. 28 agenda for action, includes $1 million for an extra well at the middle-high school and notes that the backup well "is not designed to be adequately used for the two schools and library." The list also carries $1.25 million in bonding for a bus driveway from Old County Road through the campground to the elementary school, to ease congestion at drop-off and pickup.
The fiscal 2027 tax classification hearing, where the Select Board sets how the tax levy is split between homes and businesses, is set for Monday, Dec. 7. Proposed articles for the next annual Town Meeting are due Jan. 8, and the warrant closes Feb. 8, Vitale wrote in his Oct. 30 report.
How to weigh in
The meeting is in person in the second floor meeting room at Town Hall, 816 Main Road, and is recorded. Comments and statements are item 13 on the agenda. The Select Board office can be reached at 508-636-1006, which also takes requests for accommodations to attend.
Label: Reported by us, from the town's posted records.
Notes
Every fact comes from Westport's Nov. 2 Select Board and Board of Assessors agendas, the town administrator's Oct. 16 and Oct. 30 reports, the School Committee's Oct. 28 agenda and its fiscal 2028 capital request list, and Eversource's Dartmouth-Westport project page, listed below. We read them on Nov. 1. We checked each date and weekday against a calendar and checked each claim against the documents.
Corrections
No corrections to this story. If something here is wrong, tell us. Every correction is dated on the story and listed in our public log.
Sources (8)
- Select Board, Monday, November 2, 2026 (agenda, 3 pages)Town of Westport, clerk stamp Oct. 29, 2026, 3:18 p.m. Kleinfelder annex well proposal, water enterprise operator, old high school master plan, Eversource Hixbridge Road update, recall petition, stipend, license, closed sessions, place, time, office phone. Read Nov. 1, 2026.
- Town Administrator's Report for Select Board Meeting 10-19-2026Town of Westport, dated Oct. 16, 2026. Annex temporary water system, costs, do-not-drink order, Kleinfelder, reserve fund transfer, capital request deadline, Nov. 16 hybrid workshop. Read Nov. 1, 2026.
- Town Administrator's Report for Select Board Meeting 11-02-2026Town of Westport, dated Oct. 30, 2026. Annual Town Meeting article deadline Jan. 8, 2027; warrant closes Feb. 8, 2027. Read Nov. 1, 2026.
- Board of Assessors agenda, Monday, November 2, 2026Town of Westport, clerk stamp Oct. 29, 2026. Item 5, FY27 classification hearing Dec. 7, 2026. Read Nov. 1, 2026.
- Dartmouth-Westport Distribution Line UpgradesEversource project page. Purpose, the Hixbridge, Drift, Horseneck, Soules Way, Gidley Town and Fisher road segments, start dates, travel impacts, restoration, hotline. Read Nov. 1, 2026.
- Westport School Committee Special Meeting, Wednesday, October 28, 2026 (agenda)Westport Community Schools. Review and act on FY28 capital requests. Read Nov. 1, 2026.
- Westport Community Schools FY28 capital request listLinked from the Oct. 28 School Committee agenda. Extra well $1,000,000; campground bus driveway bond $1,250,000. Read Nov. 1, 2026.
- Wikimedia Commons, "East Branch Westport River, Westport MA" (John Phelan, July 4, 2010, CC BY 3.0)The story photo, cropped only. Read Nov. 1, 2026.
