By Gretchen Wehmhoff

Mayor Sam Bass introduced a newly created Housing Task Force Ad Hoc committee at the Feb. 17 meeting. 

The names were not included in the agenda item for approval.

“The purpose of this committee is to research, develop and review concepts that will help alleviate our housing issue,” said Bass during his mayor’s report. 

“I believe [housing] is a crisis, especially for those that are being removed from their year round homes or for people who cannot find adequate housing, whether it’s year round or seasonal. Housing is a basic necessity and any community that cannot provide that necessity will either grow or flourish. But this is something we can fix,” Bass said

Prior to the announcement, Bass appointed Charles Dolan, Mike Healy and Charity Pomeroy to the task force. He hopes to appoint six more members to the group.

“I want a big, diverse group that can bring new ideas to the table and convert existing ideas for their applicability,” Bass said.

Bass introduced a parliamentary note that the assembly does not confirm appointments, but may veto them. 

“If there’s no motion and the item isn’t made active then the appointments will stay in and we’ll move to the next item,” Bass said

The motion was not made active and the assembly moved on to the next order of business.

 Assemblymember Alex Weddell made a call for members of the audience to consider joining the task force.

“There are a lot of people with opinions on the subject, who come to speak regularly at citizens present and I would love to see their community involvement,” Weddell said.

Anyone interested in serving on this committee should submit a request to the borough clerk’s office.