Budget, capital projects lead Templeton’s annual Town Meeting warrant
TEMPLETON — The annual Town Meeting is coming up on May 15,
and with time closing in, the town will have a few more public meetings
to go over different topics covered in the 41-page warrant.
Residents will vote on numerous big topics in town, such as the fiscal 2020 budget, the Narragansett Regional School District budget, a number of capital projects and more. On top of this, this will be the first Templeton Town Meeting that comes before the town election, so officials intend for Town Meeting floor to be more of a place for debate to help voters make more educated decisions at the ballot.
This change, voted on at a previous Town Meeting, was made in part because officials wanted those who worked on the budget to be the ones discussing it at Town Meeting. In the past, if a selectman lost an election or didn’t run again, his or her successor would have just joined the board and perhaps be less able to discuss the thought process or reasoning behind certain budgetary measures.
“The meeting will be more of a debate floor and in this case. The normal order of the warrant has changed to bring the budget for the school up front and center,” Town Administrator Carter Terenzini said.
The 2020 school budget has been the center of talks over the past months as Narragansett has requested more money from Templeton than previous years, and in turn there will be an override on the ballot looking to add an additional $1.50 per $1,000 valuation increase for the average Templeton taxpayer to help cover the growth in the school budget that the town cannot afford.
Narragansett is requesting $6,332,751 from Templeton, a 2.5 percent increase from last year.
Phillipston is also facing a similar deficit and plans to have an override as well, but they were recently able to lower the override in Phillipston to about $.40 per $1,000 valuation increase, a smaller number than the initial projection of a $1.50 in Phillipston.
“It’s a question looking to raise $988,000 or so, and town counsel has been formally reaching out to residents for comments,” Terenzini said.
The deficit is a mix of a number of things, such as school spending, a lack of state aid and increasing transportation costs for students, something that the state had initially vied to cover if schools were to regionalize like Narragansett had.
According to Terenzini, transportation costs for the two towns alone are somewhere around $900,000 per year, and a lack of school funding from the state has pitted towns against their school districts for money they both need. In the past, Terenzini has encouraged members of the school district as well as the Board of Selectmen to lobby to state for an increase in financial aid sent to schools, especially in rural districts where transportation carries heavier costs.
This override would also come on the heels of when the town
began to absorb the school debt for the new Templeton Center Elementary
School, as well as a previous override a year back for maintaining
Advanced Life Support services and the fire/EMS budget.
Town counsel will be coming to a public meeting at Town Hall, May 7, at 6:30 to discuss questions about Town Meeting warrants, but mainly a number of bylaw changes and codifications. More information on the override and codifications can also be found in recent reporting by The Gardner
Codification, which will be voted on at this year’s Town Meeting, is essentially cleaning up bylaws in terms of style and format, as well as cleaning grammatical errors or dated language. This makes rules less confusing, takes out conflicting bylaws and makes them easier for the general public to research or sort through.
Changes proposed in the codifications can be viewed on the town website, https://www.templetonma.gov/, and the grammatical changes are marked.
Bylaws that were changed outside of small grammatical fixes will have their own separate votes aside from the vote on the overall codification. These bylaws include an update to the alcohol open container law, marijuana open container laws, the establishment and terms of a Veteran’s Advisory Board (an existing bylaw that was not being acted on), and a bylaw to set a fine for engine braking.
“Engine braking is a way for a truck driver to slow down their truck using their engine,” Police Chief Michael Bennett said. “It is also known as Jake-braking. The bylaw would add fines for doing it through public ways in town; we have received a lot of complaints about it as it is very loud.”
The bylaw would only permit engine braking in town in case of an emergency.
Residents will also vote on the town’s fiscal 2020 operating
budget. The article asks for an appropriation of $9,690,274, as well as a
transfer of $250,000 from ambulance receipts reserved for appropriation
to meet the budget appropriation.
Another topic voters will weigh in on are amendments made to the zoning map, concerning parcels of land along Baldwinville Road, and changing the zoning from Residential-Agricultural One to Commercial-Industrial A.
“The majority of those parcels already have commercial businesses on them with the highway barn all the way down, so we are zoning more for commercial industrial tax revenue, so that’s what it boils down to. We aren’t going and putting factories up, that is not the case at all,” Planning Board Chairman Kirk Moschetti said.
The businesses that are already there are legal, as they had been grandfathered in some time ago, but the idea is to bring the road into more compliance and get at that tax revenue.
“The main thing was its proximity to Route 2, and not to mention the majority of the land is already being used for commercial purposes as it is; they are grandfathered in but it would be more compliance,” Moschetti said. “It won’t be anything really different.”
The parcels of land being spoken about start at the highway barn on Baldwinville Road, and continue to just right before the schools.
Also to be voted on is a capital project for the Sewer Department, to pave the road to the waste water treatment plant and the interior roadway. The $80,000 for the project would come from the Sewer Fund directly.
On the warrant is an article looking to appropriate $204,989 to the Cable Department, a fully funded budget.
Voters will also weigh in on whether or not to transfer $52,000 from Open Space and Recreation Reserve out of the Community Preservation Act, to make improvements to Gilman-Waite Field, including the relocation of the baseball field and fencing.
One article is also looking for money to set salaries of elected town officials, including $58,143 for the town clerk, $2,000 to each sewer commissioner each year, and a $500 stipend to the Board of Selectmen.
“Having that I believe would keep people participating in the board and running,” Selectman Julie Richard said. Richard has been advocating for the stipend at meetings.
The town is also looking to lease an ambulance for five years, with installments of $56,000 over the five years. The ambulance would come with a Stryker loading system, which automatically loads stretchers into the back of the ambulance. This helps preserve the literal backs of EMS employees, as well as making for a safer and smoother transition into the ambulance. Another article in the capital budget is looking for $60,000 to retrofit an existing ambulance with this system.
Also in the capital budget is $42,000 for a new police cruiser, $67,500 for a Ford F550 dump truck with a plow and salt shed for the Department of Public Works.
“We are making the switch from sand to salt, and naturally you need a place to put it,” Terenzini said.
There is another $100,000 to replace a street sweeper that the
town needs to replace, $20,000 for a hotbox that keeps tar hot, $77,500
for a new wood chipper, $25,000 for a truck lift, $15,000 for vehicle
repair, and a number of other smaller appropriations for different items
such as rolling ladders and pavement saws.
Fire and EMS will also be looking to get $37,500 for a vehicle exhaust system to avoid carcinogens and other toxins in the workplace, and about $5,000 worth of tanks and gear.
The town clerk is also looking to replace the outdated voting machines, which would cost $20,000.
In total, the capital budget is about $574,250.
The town’s share of the Montachusett Regional Vocational Technical School budget will also be up for consideration, asking for a little less than $650,000, down $50,000 from last year.
The town is also looking for voters to appropriate $17,500 from free cash to cover legal fees that are specifically in connection to the sale of the Baldwinville Elementary School, and for planning, review and support of potential zoning amendments and work on a Host Community Agreement for marijuana in general. This article would allow the town to come up with the arrangements for the marijuana cultivation company interested in buying the Baldwinville Elementary School, as well as other prospective marijuana companies.
The actual sale of the school is slated for the fall Town Meeting. The idea is to have these votes to gauge voter interest in hosting marijuana businesses.
“This is a community that voted in favor of legalization,” Terenzini said. “Still, if they do not want it in the town, we would want to gauge that before sale of the building or other steps are taken.”
The Town Meeting warrant can be found on the town’s website or at Town Hall. Town Meeting is set for May 15 in the Narragansett Middle School auditorium.
Residents will vote on numerous big topics in town, such as the fiscal 2020 budget, the Narragansett Regional School District budget, a number of capital projects and more. On top of this, this will be the first Templeton Town Meeting that comes before the town election, so officials intend for Town Meeting floor to be more of a place for debate to help voters make more educated decisions at the ballot.
This change, voted on at a previous Town Meeting, was made in part because officials wanted those who worked on the budget to be the ones discussing it at Town Meeting. In the past, if a selectman lost an election or didn’t run again, his or her successor would have just joined the board and perhaps be less able to discuss the thought process or reasoning behind certain budgetary measures.
“The meeting will be more of a debate floor and in this case. The normal order of the warrant has changed to bring the budget for the school up front and center,” Town Administrator Carter Terenzini said.
The 2020 school budget has been the center of talks over the past months as Narragansett has requested more money from Templeton than previous years, and in turn there will be an override on the ballot looking to add an additional $1.50 per $1,000 valuation increase for the average Templeton taxpayer to help cover the growth in the school budget that the town cannot afford.
Narragansett is requesting $6,332,751 from Templeton, a 2.5 percent increase from last year.
Phillipston is also facing a similar deficit and plans to have an override as well, but they were recently able to lower the override in Phillipston to about $.40 per $1,000 valuation increase, a smaller number than the initial projection of a $1.50 in Phillipston.
“It’s a question looking to raise $988,000 or so, and town counsel has been formally reaching out to residents for comments,” Terenzini said.
The deficit is a mix of a number of things, such as school spending, a lack of state aid and increasing transportation costs for students, something that the state had initially vied to cover if schools were to regionalize like Narragansett had.
According to Terenzini, transportation costs for the two towns alone are somewhere around $900,000 per year, and a lack of school funding from the state has pitted towns against their school districts for money they both need. In the past, Terenzini has encouraged members of the school district as well as the Board of Selectmen to lobby to state for an increase in financial aid sent to schools, especially in rural districts where transportation carries heavier costs.
Town counsel will be coming to a public meeting at Town Hall, May 7, at 6:30 to discuss questions about Town Meeting warrants, but mainly a number of bylaw changes and codifications. More information on the override and codifications can also be found in recent reporting by The Gardner
Codification, which will be voted on at this year’s Town Meeting, is essentially cleaning up bylaws in terms of style and format, as well as cleaning grammatical errors or dated language. This makes rules less confusing, takes out conflicting bylaws and makes them easier for the general public to research or sort through.
Changes proposed in the codifications can be viewed on the town website, https://www.templetonma.gov/, and the grammatical changes are marked.
Bylaws that were changed outside of small grammatical fixes will have their own separate votes aside from the vote on the overall codification. These bylaws include an update to the alcohol open container law, marijuana open container laws, the establishment and terms of a Veteran’s Advisory Board (an existing bylaw that was not being acted on), and a bylaw to set a fine for engine braking.
“Engine braking is a way for a truck driver to slow down their truck using their engine,” Police Chief Michael Bennett said. “It is also known as Jake-braking. The bylaw would add fines for doing it through public ways in town; we have received a lot of complaints about it as it is very loud.”
The bylaw would only permit engine braking in town in case of an emergency.
Another topic voters will weigh in on are amendments made to the zoning map, concerning parcels of land along Baldwinville Road, and changing the zoning from Residential-Agricultural One to Commercial-Industrial A.
“The majority of those parcels already have commercial businesses on them with the highway barn all the way down, so we are zoning more for commercial industrial tax revenue, so that’s what it boils down to. We aren’t going and putting factories up, that is not the case at all,” Planning Board Chairman Kirk Moschetti said.
The businesses that are already there are legal, as they had been grandfathered in some time ago, but the idea is to bring the road into more compliance and get at that tax revenue.
“The main thing was its proximity to Route 2, and not to mention the majority of the land is already being used for commercial purposes as it is; they are grandfathered in but it would be more compliance,” Moschetti said. “It won’t be anything really different.”
The parcels of land being spoken about start at the highway barn on Baldwinville Road, and continue to just right before the schools.
Also to be voted on is a capital project for the Sewer Department, to pave the road to the waste water treatment plant and the interior roadway. The $80,000 for the project would come from the Sewer Fund directly.
Voters will also weigh in on whether or not to transfer $52,000 from Open Space and Recreation Reserve out of the Community Preservation Act, to make improvements to Gilman-Waite Field, including the relocation of the baseball field and fencing.
One article is also looking for money to set salaries of elected town officials, including $58,143 for the town clerk, $2,000 to each sewer commissioner each year, and a $500 stipend to the Board of Selectmen.
“Having that I believe would keep people participating in the board and running,” Selectman Julie Richard said. Richard has been advocating for the stipend at meetings.
The town is also looking to lease an ambulance for five years, with installments of $56,000 over the five years. The ambulance would come with a Stryker loading system, which automatically loads stretchers into the back of the ambulance. This helps preserve the literal backs of EMS employees, as well as making for a safer and smoother transition into the ambulance. Another article in the capital budget is looking for $60,000 to retrofit an existing ambulance with this system.
Also in the capital budget is $42,000 for a new police cruiser, $67,500 for a Ford F550 dump truck with a plow and salt shed for the Department of Public Works.
“We are making the switch from sand to salt, and naturally you need a place to put it,” Terenzini said.
Fire and EMS will also be looking to get $37,500 for a vehicle exhaust system to avoid carcinogens and other toxins in the workplace, and about $5,000 worth of tanks and gear.
The town clerk is also looking to replace the outdated voting machines, which would cost $20,000.
In total, the capital budget is about $574,250.
The town’s share of the Montachusett Regional Vocational Technical School budget will also be up for consideration, asking for a little less than $650,000, down $50,000 from last year.
The town is also looking for voters to appropriate $17,500 from free cash to cover legal fees that are specifically in connection to the sale of the Baldwinville Elementary School, and for planning, review and support of potential zoning amendments and work on a Host Community Agreement for marijuana in general. This article would allow the town to come up with the arrangements for the marijuana cultivation company interested in buying the Baldwinville Elementary School, as well as other prospective marijuana companies.
The actual sale of the school is slated for the fall Town Meeting. The idea is to have these votes to gauge voter interest in hosting marijuana businesses.
“This is a community that voted in favor of legalization,” Terenzini said. “Still, if they do not want it in the town, we would want to gauge that before sale of the building or other steps are taken.”
The Town Meeting warrant can be found on the town’s website or at Town Hall. Town Meeting is set for May 15 in the Narragansett Middle School auditorium.
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