LANESBOROUGH — Lyndon Moors, chairman of the town Finance Committee, was appointed Monday to the Baker Hill Road District's Prudential Committee, which oversees the district’s finances and the Mall Connector Road. He attended his first committee meeting later that day.

The district is a special taxing authority that owns and maintains the Mall Connector Road. It was also designated an economic development district through a 2018 amendment to state law.

Earlier this year, the Select Board agreed to pursue the district’s dissolution if JMJ placed $1.1 million in escrow and submitted a signed development agreement. JMJ missed the May deadline, preventing the town from bringing a dissolution proposal to its annual town meeting.

Moors served on an ad hoc committee that examined how the loss of Baker Hill Road District revenue would affect town finances. He said his priority as a member of the Prudential Committee is to see the redevelopment of the mall through a long-term arrangement that protects the town's ability to provide public works, police and fire services.

Moors replaces John Goerlach, whose three-year term ended this summer. Lori DiLego also applied for the position.

Without discussion, three of the five members of the Select Board attending Monday's meeting confirmed Moors' appointment: Juli Baker, Michael Murphy and Chair Deborah Maynard.

The Prudential Committee hasn’t had a new member in years and has operated in a relative vacuum up until recently.

Moors will continue as the Finance Committee chair, an unpaid position, and without a perceived conflict of interest among the Select Board, he said.

The Baker Hill Road District Prudential Committee has a new member in Lyndon Moors.

Moors wants to cut in half the $10,000 annual stipends paid to each member of the district’s three-person Prudential Committee. And while he believes there would be support for that in town, he said it will take at least one other Prudential Committee member to agree to that change.

“That has been a hot-button issue for the reputation of the road district,” he said. The stipends “do not reflect the nature of the work anymore.”

The Baker Hill Road District was created in 1989 as a special taxing authority to own and maintain the Mall Connector Road. Its role expanded in 2018, when the Legislature designated it an economic development district.

Its future has become tied to the proposed sale and redevelopment of the largely vacant Berkshire Mall. Mall owner JMJ RE Holdings has a purchase and sale agreement with developer Cypress Equities that depends on the district being dissolved.

Moors said eliminating the district without a long-term financial plan could leave the town struggling to pay for services it now provides under contract.

The district pays the town for public works, police and fire services while also maintaining the mall property, Moors said.

“It feeds our DPW, our police department, our fire department, and at the same time, it maintains the integrity of the mall property,” he said.

The district has also sued JMJ over unpaid taxes used to cover those contractual services.

Moors said dissolving the district before those financial and contractual issues are resolved could expose the town to additional costs or legal disputes.

“We still have to honor the existing contracts and the obligations of those existing contracts,” he said.

Baker has suggested keeping the district intact as part of a compromise. Moors said he has considered a similar approach.

“A one-year solution is never really a solution,” he said. “I’m looking for a solution that will maintain and preserve the town’s ability to pay for its services five years from now.”

Moors said he ultimately wants to see a credible redevelopment plan for the mall property.

“I’d like to see something happen there that isn’t just a joke,” he said.