Selectmen Appoint New Board of Appeals Members

The Burlington Board of Selectmen appointed five people to the Board of Appeals during the meeting Monday night.

The appointments for were one five-year term, one four-year term, one three-year term and two alternates.

The board had met with the candidates, who all volunteered to be up for one of the positions, during a special meeting last week. During that meeting the selectmen interviewed 12 candidates, a higher-than-normal number of applicants for a town board.

"Thanks everybody for coming," Chair of the Board Ralph Patuto said after the interviews. "You bring a wealth of knowledge and education. We never expected to get this many candidates."

The twelve candidates interviewed were John Sullivan, Eugene Lane, Neil Kane, William Gaffney, Claudia Augustin, Charles Viveiros, James Halloran, Linda Keating, Kimberlyn Festi, Kevin Belmont, Frederick Pendleton and Ronald Perachi.

During this week's meeting selectman Walter Zenkin, who ran the interview process, said coming to a decision was difficult because of the high quality of all the candidates.

The board made the appointments by having each selectmen, in order of seniority except for Zenkin who went last because he was moderating, nominate his candidate of choice, followed by a vote by the whole board.

The appointees:

• Five-year appointment: Claudia Augustin

Augustin is an attorney who moved to Burlington a few years ago. While studying for the bar she did an internship for a commercial real estate attorney. She also had work experience with the Peabody building inspector.

• Four-year appointment: William Gaffney

Gaffney has a degree in electrical engineering and is currently the quality manager for a billion-dollar company in the high-tech industry. He also has a lot of experience dealing with business signage, something the Board of Appeals deals with frequently.

• Three-year appointment: Neil Kane

Kane has a BA in business management and a Masters in accounting and has been a small-business owner for decades. Kane has also been an alternate on the Board of Appeals for three years.

• Alternate: Kevin Belmont

Belmont is currently the director of marketing for a real estate developer. Before that he did 12 years working in development for shopping centers.

• Alternate: Charles Viveiros

Viveiros is the chief electrical engineer for Lahey Clinic and has past experience working on power plants. His job includes a lot of thought about safety, something he said he believes matches well with the considerations of the board.