Marblehead Name Changes On Warrant For Town Meeting

MARBLEHEAD, MA — A town whose Board of Selectmen is made up of 60 percent women will this spring look to change the Board's name to a gender-neutral one.

Articles 40-43 in the newly released warrant for the May 2 annual town meeting address gender neutrality in town ordinances by proposing the Board of Selectmen be changed to Select Board and that all pronouns in zoning bylaws be changed as well.

Article 40 would officially change the name of the Board, Article 41 would change the Board's name in the zoning bylaws and Article 42 and Article 43 would make all pronouns gender-neutral in town bylaws and zoning bylaws.

Those four articles are among the 48 on the official town meeting warrant set for 7 p.m. in the auditorium of Marblehead Veterans Middle School.

Other warrant articles include the general budget items and contracts, a funding request to reconstruct the transfer station, land allocation for an off-road bike path, the adoption of an official town diversity statement and yet another attempt to ban gas-powered leaf blowers for at least a portion of the year.

This year's "summer break" proposal would ban the gas-powered blowers from June 15 to Oct. 15. A proposal to ban the blowers from Memorial Day to Labor Day failed last year, as similar proposals have for the past eight years.

The full town meeting warrant can be found here.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)