Marblehead needs two for housing board

MARBLEHEAD-Selectmen are looking for two local residents who can serve as at-large members on the town’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund Board.The board will oversee funds provided to the town by the Massachusetts Affordable Housing Trust Fund, which started with $52.5 million for local communities that want to create and preserve affordable housing. In the past five years bond sales were used to generate another $350 million.Marblehead’s share of those funds will be overseen by a board of nine trustees, including all five selectmen and one member each from the Fair Housing Committee and Finance Committee. All four of the selectmen’s appointees will serve two-year terms.Anyone interested may send letters of interest to the selectmen’s office at Abbot Hall, 188 Washington St. The deadline for those letters is noon on Friday, Dec. 5.Selectmen plan to interview candidates and make appointments when they meet Wednesday evening, Dec. 10.The trust fund news came as the town’s Smart Growth Committee is preparing to choose at least one site to study as a possible mixed-use building, stores on the first floor and apartments upstairs.Working with the Concord Square Planning and Development Group of Boston on a $40,000 study of Smart Growth, the committee will name its choice from a list that includes the General Glover Restaurant in Vinnin Square, the Village Plaza Shopping Center, the former YMCA building downtown and the Lead Mills.