Select Board Member Clay Launches Multi-Group Civic Engagement Initiative in Westford

Other Committee · Meeting of July 21, 2026

Westford Select Board member Tom Clay outlined an expanding community engagement initiative on the DEI Committee's podcast on July 21. Clay, the immediate past chair of the Select Board and the board's liaison to the DEI Committee, told co-chairs Joe Diamond and Anjali Rajput that the effort has completed one listening session with Indian American community leaders and is preparing a second session for parents of school-aged children, with the Finance Committee and School Committee also involved. Participants at the first session proposed adding cricket and badminton to town facilities, establishing a citizen communication committee to distribute civic information through trusted community networks, and expanding the town's existing field-rental model to generate partial cost recovery, a mechanism Clay said currently covers only about 50 percent of field costs through softball league fees.

Clay said he expects to request a Select Board agenda slot to report findings once both sessions are complete, noting that any follow-up requiring town staff resources will need board approval. Westford's roughly 1,000 Town Meeting attendees represent a fraction of the town's approximately 18,000 registered voters, a gap Clay described as the core motivation for the initiative.

In the full story:

• Who Was There
• Organizations And Documents Referenced
• The complete report — 1,892 words

Source: the Other Committee meeting of July 21, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.