KENNEBUNK – Select Board – two words – it is. That is now the name of the panel of Kennebunk’s municipal officers.
“This is simple. Women got the right to vote in 1920; the change in the gender-based name is probably 100 years overdue,” said Blake Baldwin, chair of the newly-named Select Board.
There was no comment from the public and most of the conversation by the board itself centered around whether the new name should be one word or two.
Selectmen on Nov. 14 began a conversation about changing the name from Board of Selectmen to Select Board, and the six members present voted unanimously to make the change two weeks later – Christopher Cluff was absent.
The change in the name of the panel also brought up brief discussion on whether individual members should be called selectpersons or members of the Select Board. No action was taken on that matter.
The change is not considered substantive and so does not require charter action, the town’s attorney, Natalie Burns, told Town Manager Michael Pardue.
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