Innovation Award winners highlighted

The winners of the annual Kenneth Pickard Municipal Innovation Awards were recognized at the MMA Annual Meeting on Jan. 21.

This year’s awards went to a regional approach to monitoring affordable-housing inventories; a summer-recreation program created on short notice for children of homeless families living in motels; and an effort to revitalize a historic, mixed-use neighborhood.

Judges for the awards were Richard Kelliher, a senior fellow at Suffolk University’s Moakley Center for Public Management and a former Brookline town administrator, and Robin Wilkins, a former Harwich selectman who was a member of the MMA Board of Directors from 2006 to 2011.

The award is named in honor of Kenneth Pickard, the executive secretary of the Massachusetts League of Cities and Towns from 1969 to 1973.

The winners are:
• Bedford, Concord, Lexington, Lincoln, Sudbury, Weston: Towns formed coalition to monitor affordable housing
• Danvers: Summer program created for homeless kids
• Leominster: Effort to revive historic district nears fruition

• More information about the Pickard Municipal Innovation Award