TOPSHAM — The Board of Selectmen will meet Thursday for a short agenda that will end with an executive session so the board can review the town manager performance evaluation it conducted at its previous meeting Dec. 20.

The meeting will start at 7 p.m. in the municipal building located at 100 Main St.
Selectmen are slated to consider accepting a Maine Project Canopy Grant to fund a tree inventory in town.

Rod Melanson, the town’s assistant planner, said the grant is for $4,655 and requires a local match of $800 and in kind services worth about $3,800. The street tree inventory — trees along the road in or abutting the public right of way — will include volunteer efforts and be coordinated by the town’s tree warden.

Melanson said the inventory is encouraged by Project Canopy to take stalk of the trees the town takes care of. The effort will meet a goal of the Tree Committee and allow the Public Works Department to begin the process of creating a database of what trees it takes care of and having a long term plan for those trees and for future trees as part of development and redevelopment, Melanson said. The process will include integrating the tree nursery the Tree Committee established in 2011 at the transfer station into this inventory.

The Board of Selectmen will also consider updating the town purchasing policy to reflect how purchasing is being done now. The policy was last updated in 1998.

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