Select Board Weighs Bikeways Charge Rewrite

Select Board · Meeting of August 5, 2026

Orleans Select Board reviewed a rewrite shifting bikeway project work from volunteers to staff. Chair Mefford Runyon, Vice Chair Michael Herman, and members Mary Wright and Kevin Galligan spent the August 5 workshop on a redlined Transportation and Bikeways Advisory Committee charge that would trim the panel to seven members and move implementation duties to staff. Committee members Stephanie Gaskill, Joel Porton and Bob McDonald pushed for clearer minutes rules, explicit "micro mobility" language and earlier access to development site plans.

Herman said he didn't want Orleans to fall behind as "100 towns" adopt the stretch code Orleans rejected at Town Meeting. The board also worked through a dozen-plus town policies and FY27 goals, including a stalled 150-unit affordable housing target, without taking any substantive votes; a final charge vote is expected August 26.

In the full story:

• Transportation and Bikeways Advisory Committee Charge Review
• Review of Select Board Policies, Sections D through K
• Review of FY27 Select Board Goals
• Procedural Outcome and Adjournment
• Who Was There
• Organizations And Documents Referenced
• The complete report: 2,697 words

Source: the Select Board meeting of August 5, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.

Checked against the record: before publication this article was automatically compared with the meeting transcript.