On July 5th Tom Hurley handed over the chairman’s gavel for the Warrant Committee to Ewan Innes. Lucky Ewan.

The Warrant Committee is a group of 15 residents appointed by the Town Moderator to review the articles in town warrants and make recommendations to Town Meeting as to how they should vote and why.

In September there will be a Special Town Meeting to decide 4 articles: 3 pertaining to zoning issues and 1 for a liquor license. Between now and then the Warrant Committee will by Mr. Innes estimate meet for 2-3 hours twice a week for 4 weeks. They will be interviewing vested parties (e.g. Director of Planning, Building Inspector,etc.), listening, asking questions, and eventually writing recommendations that will be given at town meeting.

These guys and their colleagues will take a week out of their lives to do this at no pay. Town Meeting rarely votes in opposition to a Warrant Committee recommendation. This group has significant influence on the town, its policies, and operation.

We sat down with then recently to discuss the committee and how it works. you can watch the show this Friday at 7:30PM on Milton Access tv (monday’s program was pre-empted by the Board of Slectman’s meeting). It will repeat the following Saturday, and Sunday @ 7:30pm and again Monday at 6:30pm.