James M. Battcock

James M. Battcock was for more than two decades one of Billerica's most steady volunteers on its land use and cemetery boards: a Cemetery Commissioner from 1969 to 1980, a member of the Board of Appeals from about 1970 to 1991, and a member of the Planning Board from 1980 to 1985. He served as a precinct three member of Town Meeting from 1964 to 1992.

Battcock was elected to the Cemetery Commission in 1969 to fill an unexpired term and was then elected to a full three-year term. He served as the commission's secretary under chairmen Frank T. Dignon and Andrew J. Bowen, signing its reports; the report for 1977 listed the now official names and founding dates of the town's six burial grounds, beginning with the South Burying Ground of 1663. He resigned from the commission on April 1, 1980, after his election to the Planning Board in March.

On the Board of Appeals, a quasi-judicial board of unpaid members that hears petitions under the state zoning act and the town's zoning by-law, Battcock was listed as an alternate in 1969 and was a full member by 1973 under chairman L. Gordon Buker. In 1977 he joined his colleagues in a resolution in memory of member Frederick H. Murray. He was vice chairman under Robert A. Dunstan in 1979 and 1980 and under E. Winona LaVigne in 1983, chairman in 1985, and vice chairman again under John F. Gray Jr. in the late 1980s, when the board met about twice a month.

Battcock also served on several study committees. He was secretary of the Senior Citizens' Drop-In Center Study Committee set up by a special town meeting in November 1975 and read its report to town meeting in 1977, and he sat on the Additional Municipal Space Committee from 1977 to 1980 and, as an appointee of the Board of Appeals, on the Town By-Laws Review Committee in the early 1980s. James M. Battcock died on June 26, 1998.

References

1. Town officers, 1969 (Board of Appeals alternates: Paul J. Kelley, James M. Battcock)
2. Annual town election, 1969 (Cemetery Commission, unexpired term: James M. Battcock)
3. Report of the Board of Appeals, 1973 (signed by James M. Battcock)
4. Department photographs, 1974 (Board of Appeals photo naming James M. Battcock)
5. Annual town meeting, 1977 (Drop-In Center Study Committee report read by James Battcock, Secretary)
6. Report of the Cemetery Commissioners, 1977 (signed James Battcock, Secretary; official cemetery names)
7. Elected town officials, 1980 (Planning Board, elected 3/8/80; Cemetery Commission, resigned 4/1/80)
8. Report of the Planning Board, 1983 (signed by James M. Battcock)
9. Boards and committees, 1985 (Board of Appeal, James M. Battcock, Chairman)
10. Memoriams, 1998 town report (James M. Battcock, died June 26, 1998; list of offices)