By Elisabeth Strillacci

SPENCER — In a bit of a pleasant surprise, members of the Spencer Board of Aldermen were faced with a happy dilemma Tuesday night.

The board recently approved an ordinance that created a Parks and Recreation Advisory Board as part of the town’s overall plan for outdoor recreation. In 2023, the town adopted a strategic plan called Creating Outdoor Recreation Economies or CORE, and since then, leadership has worked on an ongoing basis to develop components.

But the town has no actual oversight position or board for such plans or projects other than Special Projects Coordinator Joe Morris, who has been at the center of all the plans the town has put forward to date.

Morris said he has no plans to leave, but the town would benefit from a person or group specifically assigned to Parks and Recreation.

The board agreed and created a five-member advisory board, and at the last meeting they called for applicants.

At Tuesday’s meeting, they had six.

“These are all wonderful folks who have stepped up,” said Mayor Jonathan Williams, who added that some are folks who have long been involved in the town and want to continue to be so, while others are new to the community and want to get involved. “It’s a nice cross section of our community.”

He went on to say the board could choose five of the six, or it could move to edit the ordinance to have a six-member board.

Andrew Howe said he had no problem increasing the size, but worried that an even number would affect tie votes. It was clarified that the board will be advisory only so votes would not be an issue.

Board member Erin Moody made the motion to adjust the board to be a six-seat board, but then Morris had another suggestion, since doing that would require a public hearing and another vote at a later meeting since the ordinance has already been passed.

“You could appoint five tonight with an alternate, and then when they meet, since you have given them the authority to decide their own process, they could make a change,” he said.

In the end, the decision was made to appoint five full members to the board with one alternate, and the alternate was to be the last to apply, and the aldermen would then have the opportunity to make changes to the ordinance. But in the interim, all six would be included.

“I’m glad, because I am so thrilled we had so many volunteer and I would not like to see one turned away,” said Moody.

New members of the advisory board are Dionne Dixon, Jim Gobble, Vivian Koontz, Jack Moore and Bob Pendergrass and the alternate will be Phip Sparger.