Selectmen, COA official resign as bank corporators

By Jonathan L'Ecuyer
Staff Writer

August 27, 2008 05:35 am

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ROCKPORT — Selectman Charles Clark and Rockport Council on Aging Chairman Roger Lesch have submitted their resignations as corporators of Granite Savings Bank.

Last week, Clark removed himself from leading acquisition negotiations between the town and the bank over its building on Broadway citing his involvement with the bank as a corporator.

"I submitted my resignation as a corporator to the Granite Savings Bank today," Clark wrote in an e-mail to the Times on Monday.

Clark, who was elected as a corporator in 2001, still has no intentions of leading the negotiations, despite requests from his colleagues on the Board of Selectmen to do so.

"I do not plan to handle the negotiations," Clark said in an e-mail to the Times yesterday. "They will be handled by the (Board of Selectmen) Chairman (Sarah Wilkinson) and Town Administrator (Michael Racicot)."

According to Granite Savings Bank officials, corporators are elected to serve a 10-year term, are not paid and meet once annually for a dinner where sometimes votes on bank policies are taken.

Also Monday, Clark said he believed Selectman Armand Aparo had also submitted his resignation as a bank corporator. Attempts to reach Aparo, who announced last week that he would not seek a second term this spring, were unsuccessful yesterday.

Bank Assistant Vice President Deborah Ketchopulos provided a list of 60 corporators, dated October 2007, to the Times last week, but it did not include Aparo or Lesch.

Lesch, who had been a corporator since the end of last year, said he submitted his resignation Monday morning.

"I wanted to be able to speak about what we believe in," Lesch said, "and not put the bank in a tough position or the town in a tough position."

Lesch has urged the Board of Selectmen to acquire the bank building for use as a senior center, but had not been in negotiations with the bank regarding a selling price.

The Board of Selectmen, with the aid of Racicot and town counsel, worked to craft an article for the fall Town Meeting warrant seeking the town's permission to allow selectmen to acquire the Granite Savings Bank for "general municipal purposes."

Selectmen have repeatedly suggested the seniors could share space in the Community House.

The article will appear on the Sept. 8 Town Meeting warrant, but does not yet include a price offer from the bank. The warrant can be closed without a price being attached to an article but the price must be known when the motion is made on the article at Town Meeting.

Former selectman candidate Christopher Lewis plans to amend the article at Town Meeting so it seeks voters' permission for the town to acquire the 4,816-square-foot building for use as a "senior center."

Jonathan L'Ecuyer can be reached at jlecuyer@gloucestertimes.com.