Essex Select Board Approves Licenses, 5K Race Permit, and $155K Weekly Warrant

ESSEX — July 21, 2025 — Essex Select Board approves licenses and race permit, tables Town Landing parking dispute to August. The two-member board — Chair Alva Ingeharo and Selectman Annie Cameron participating remotely, with Selectman Peter Phippen on vacation — approved a $155,283.30 weekly warrant, a one-day wine and malt license for a tented wedding at Rivers Bend, 35 Dodge Street, on September 13, and a conditional entertainment license for an amplified solo guitarist at the same venue on August 2, subject to ratification at the August 4 meeting. The board unanimously approved the Friends of the Essex Elementary School's 17th annual Happy as a Clam 5K on September 12 over Western Avenue, Belcher Street, and Story Street. Town Administrator Brendan Zewicki briefed the board on a non-urgent DEP-ordered removal of recycled asphalt from the Centennial Grove parking lot and outlined a two-phase plan to address excavation materials at the DPW yard, with new consultant Weston and Sampson developing an engineering proposal for fall Town Meeting and a disposal-funding request targeted for the May 2026 annual Town Meeting. The Finance Committee flagged ClearGov budgeting software as a fall Town Meeting appropriation item, and Council on Aging Director Tess reported 11,682 senior center attendees in FY25 — representing 33 percent of Essex's senior population — and warned that seniors will constitute 40 percent of the town's total population within approximately three years.