News from Monday evening's meeting of the Westport Select Board:

Westport hires highway foreman

Keven Colon has been named Westport’s highway department foreman, a new position created just before Christmas.

The position requires both a CDL (commercial driver’s license) and hoisting license, and town administrator James Hartnett recommended the new job description and $28/hour rate of pay, saying it been difficult in the past to fill similar positions.

Colon holds a CDL and has “done some work” at the highway department in the past, town administrator James Hartnett said Monday.

“I know Matt (Armando, of the Board of Health) has been very happy with the work he has done.”

Town passes

The town has declined its right of first refusal to purchase property previously held in the state’s 61A program, at 573 Horseneck Road.

The state’s program offers decreased taxes to those owners who keep their land for agricultural purchases, with the caveat that if they decide to take their property on 61A and sell, the town gets first crack at purchasing it. Town administrator James Hartnett said the town’s boards and commissions were notified of the change in status recently, and there was no interest. So he recommended passing on the town’s right of first refusal.

Insurance going up

As Westport continues to close in on a a proposed 2025-26 budget, Hartnett shared the news Monday that the town’s health insurance rates are set to jump by about 10 percent — $300,000 — this coming year.

He got the news during discussions with the town’s regional health insurance group recently. And while he anticipated it might rise and thus added the estimate into his preliminary budget figures as a result, “I was hoping that we’d be able to reduce that a bit and use that elsewhere.”

With the recent confirmation, “it does not look like we’ll be able to do that.”

Diman debt

Westport will be paying off its obligation for decades. But the overall cost of the town’s commitment to the Diman Vocational school project in Fall River will be less than originally projected, due to funding percentage changes on the state level.

Though Hartnett said there is a “small amount increase to he overall project,” that increase will be paid for under the town’s debt exclusion and not out of the operating budget.

“The overall amount that the town would be borrowing will actually be less than we originally anticipated, even with this increase,” Hartnett said. “It’s only $30,000 per year. But it’s still 30 that does not have to come out of the operating budget at this point.”