Grantham selectmen to review fire-EMS activity, routine town business

Grantham selectmen will take up a mix of routine government work and decisions that affect how the town grows, with a May 27 agenda that includes a full-member appointment for Ryan Lord, four building permits and a fire-EMS update tied to a recent rise in emergency calls.

The Board of Selectmen is scheduled to meet at 5 p.m. Wednesday in the Jerry Whitney Memorial Conference Room at the Grantham Town Building, 300 Route 10 South. The meeting packet also provides a public call-in and Zoom option, underscoring how the town continues to keep its regular business open to residents even when the agenda is mostly administrative.

Among the items with the most direct impact is the proposed appointment of Lord to the Town of Grantham Capital Improvement Projects Committee as a full member. Lord is already listed as an alternate member, and the move would put him in a larger role as the committee sorts through the town’s long-range needs. The April 7 committee minutes show members were trying to add missing capital items such as vehicles, IT infrastructure and generators to the master list, while also pressing for better communication with selectmen about what Grantham can realistically spend in a given year.

The committee has been in motion for months. On March 4, selectmen moved to appoint Larry Osmer and Caroline Shannon as full CIPC members and Bill Weeks and Ryan Lord as alternate members. The February 10 minutes show the panel discussing prospective candidates and role assignments before those placements were finalized, a sign that the town is still fine-tuning who will shape future capital priorities.

The agenda also lists four building permits that residents may want to watch closely because they show where private construction is happening in town: 23 Allens Drive for an extension on a shed, 758 Route 10 South for siding, 32 Jericho Road for a shed and 4 Beaver Fells Glen for a propane gas fireplace. Those are modest projects on their face, but they are the kinds of approvals that determine whether home improvements move ahead on schedule and within local rules.

That permit list comes on top of steady construction activity in April, when Grantham issued 15 construction permits. Recent examples included a $600 greenhouse kit at 455 Walker Road, a $21,451 rooftop solar array at 65 Woodland Heights, a $41,400 garage addition at 385 Cote Road and a $100,000 garage-plus-mancave project at 24 Bright Slope Way.

Selectmen will also hear from Grantham Fire-EMS, whose April 26-May 9 report says the town saw a noticeable increase in emergency activity, including fire alarms, medical emergencies, utility-related incidents, mutual aid and weather-related downed trees and wires. Dry conditions and gusty winds kept fire danger elevated across the area, adding urgency to a report that otherwise reads like a routine update but points to a period of heavier demand on local responders.