Dighton Historical Commission Approves Walking Tour Brochure, Faces $600 Budget Year

DIGHTON -- June 10, 2025, Dighton Historical Commission approves walking tour brochure and confronts a $600 annual budget for FY26. The commission voted unanimously at its June 10 meeting to approve a finished brochure for the town's wharf National Historic District walking tour, with a companion Corum shipyard brochure still in progress pending additional content about the Taunton Yacht Club building and Charles White Wharf history. Chair Patricia Gails said the FY26 budget, approved the prior evening at Annual Town Meeting, reflects the town's view of the commission's spending patterns, but argued that project-based costs like a pending mapping invoice from contractor CI, estimated between $350 and $550, can skew those patterns. The commission also discussed the recent demolition of the Hathaway House at 2120 Water Street, a property within the National Register Historic District, with Gails noting the commission has no authority to regulate demolitions or new construction absent a local historic district bylaw, "there are no guidelines that can tell the homeowner what they can do with their property."