Cohasset Select Board Hires New Auditor, Raises Cemetery Fees After 24 Years

COHASSET — December 16, 2025 — Cohasset Select Board wrapped its final 2025 meeting with unanimous approval of more than a dozen license-renewal bundles, a new audit contract, and a long-overdue cemetery fee increase. The board voted to hire Roselli Clark and Associates to replace CBiz as the town's auditor at a cost of approximately $14,000 after three firms were solicited and two responded. Cemetery burial lot prices, unchanged since 2001, will rise effective January 1, 2026, under a new fee schedule tied to actual labor and equipment costs; the board declined to adopt an automatic 2.5 percent annual escalator, preferring to keep fees cost-based. The board set May 4, 2026, as the Annual Town Meeting date and May 16 for the Annual Town Election. On the stalled 135 King Street public safety campus, working group chairman Glenn Pratt reported that architects have been directed to model cost savings from eliminating a planned fire substation, while a fresh look at the Elm Street headquarters — including space for a second ambulance — begins January 8. The board also agreed to interview two town manager search firms, MRI and the Collins Center, at its January 6 meeting, with the chair flagging reservations about the Collins Center's process after reported complications in Marshfield.