NAHANT — The Nahant Board of Selectmen met recently, where they first began by honoring Jon Lazar in his final meeting before he retires on January 28.
“The work that he’s done with veterans, the hard work that he did for the Purple Heart ceremony, just anything and everything to do with veterans and veterans’ benefits, he’s been a great advocate for veterans in town,” Town Administrator Allison Nieto said. “I wanted to wish him well on his next chapter and just recognize the work that he’s done for the town.”
The members then discussed upcoming announcements, including that the winter parking ban is in effect until March 20 from 12 a.m. to 6 a.m., which means that no vehicles can be parked on the street during that time. For those in need of a winter parking pass, contact the Police Department or visit their website.
Eric Kirton then joined the meeting to gauge interest in plans for the upcoming Sail250 Boston event, which will take place July 11-16. Kirton said the Nahant Sailing Program is thinking of moving the traditional harbor sail to that Friday “if the ships are actually resident in the vicinity,” while the Nahant Dory Club would also “like to host something,” and shared the idea of a barbeque. This depends on whether there is interest from both the town and the ships participating.
Julie Tarmy from the Nahant Historical Society, who is also considering hosting a lecture, then joined the call to further discuss how the Town of Nahant and the community can come together to celebrate.
“We discovered a Black resident of Nahant who joined the US Navy during the Civil War, and he served on two tall ships during the Civil War, the Colorado and the Ohio,” Tarmy said. “We’ve been focusing on doing something on the sailors of the Civil War and the tall ships on which they served, but I would love to see more of a townwide celebration for that weekend. We used to do square dancing and things like that down on the wharf… I think it’s something that if we get all the organizations in town, as well as the town involved, we could really do this up…We used to have such great events, summer events, communitywide, family-oriented music, Nahant vendors could come out and sell their wares. We can share certainly our history and I just think that it’s an opportunity we shouldn’t miss.”
Kirton then suggested putting a group together to lead the planning, as well as contacting the owners of the vessels to see if they’re interested in participating.
The meeting then proceeded to Nieto sharing the town administrator report, including that department heads submitted the FY2027 budget requests and that they are interviewing candidates for the finance director position.
The meeting concluded with Nieto wanting to get their thoughts on whether they should regionalize the veteran service officer position with Lynn and Swampscott, who both are currently regionalized, or to fill the vacancy with someone who is local to Nahant.
“My thoughts are that we want to avoid an interruption in service,” Recording Secretary Patrick O’Reilly said. “That’s the most important thing — to serve our veteran community here. So, whichever scenario plays out, if something were to come together with Lynn and Swampscott, that is a good approach. But also, if we can get a veteran service officer in place in short order, whatever works, in the short period we have to get somebody in place. And if it becomes an interim solution, I think that’s fine, too. If we can have that stopgap in place, that’s the most important thing, and then work on our relationship with our surrounding communities.”
Tibbo added that while he thinks “we can probably get there,” and was initially in favor of regionalization, he’s now “taking a step back” from that sentiment after a recent conversation he had with a veteran. “[He] was facing difficult times ahead from health reasons, surgeries and such and he was telling me about how meaningful it is to have the ability to have a close and almost personal relationship with our veterans officer, how much safer, more secure that makes him feel as he faces the challenges that he has coming up. That really touched a point with me.”
Tibbo revealed that they already have “a couple of good candidates” who have approached them about the position and that he’d like to see them continue to find someone local to Nahant, a view Vice Chairman Eugene Canty agreed with.
“Given the size of the town, the inventory of veterans that are here, I think not regionalizing and having a single individual handle this position would be the right way to go,” Canty said.
“I will march on with that direction,” Nieto said.
