Special town meeting scheduled

Special town meeting scheduled

Eryn Dion
News Staff Writer

TEMPLETON — The Select Board voted Monday to schedule a Special Town Meeting on March 29 in conjunction with the Narragansett Regional School District to vote on several important issues, such as a new boiler system at the school and a Proposition 2 1/2 town override.

The meeting — proposed by Superintendent Ruth Miller and paid for by the district — is needed to move forward with installing a new biomass heating system in the middle and high school, replacing the expensive oil boilers with a more energy efficient woodchips system. The system will be partially funded by a grant given by the U.S. Forestry Service.

Ms. Miller was pushing to hold a meeting in March rather than wait for the Annual Town Meeting in May in order for the system to be ready for next winter.


“If we don’t get this done sooner rather than later, the timeline is so tight that we would need to wait a full year to get this in,” said Ms. Miller.

Town officials still searching for a solution to their estimated $505,000 budget shortfall, discussed partnering the town meeting with the school’s meeting to avoid having several meetings in a short period.

Interim Town Administrator Bob Markel reported Fiscal Year 2013’s books should be closed by the end of the month — giving the accountant time to submit them to the Department of Revenue for review. By doing so, it is possible that  the town could receive a free cash figure by the end of March.

“If there’s a possibility that it will be done by the end of the month, we could piggyback off the school’s meeting, since they will be paying for it,” explained Vice Chairman Kenn Robinson.

BOS member Julie Farrell argued that it will be difficult for the board to present their solutions to the budget shortfall while sharing a meeting with the school district, but also agreed that having multiple special town meetings would not help either cause.

“In order to pass the override and get the money for the school, it’s going to take the whole town,” said Ms. Farrell.

Ms. Farrell supported holding a town meeting in early May in order to give the revenue department ample time to review the town’s finances and release the certified free cash amount.  In the past it has not been a speedy process, she said.   

Last year, the FY12 books were submitted at the end of February and the town did not receive their certified free cash until early spring.

Mr. Robinson noted that the board unanimously agreed that they should not rely on one-time revenue such as free cash as doing so has contributed to the fiscal issues at hand. He said waiting until the town has a free cash number to hold the meeting sends the message that the board is going to fall back on bad habits instead of moving forward with a more permanent solution. Mr. Robinson voiced his concerns that the town might not have enough time to raise the funds before the budget runs out.

“We cannot wait until May,” he argued. “We need to have time to make those cuts without the town shutting down.”

Selectman Doug Morrison supported Mr. Robinson’s idea.

“No matter what we do, we need to have the town and school special meetings together,” said Mr. Morrison. “If we do two separate ones, we’re shooting ourselves in the foot and perpetuating the idea that this is our thing and that is theirs. We’re one town.”

After much deliberation, the board voted 4-1 to hold the meeting on March 29, with Ms. Farrell voting against.

The meeting’s warrant was opened Tuesday and articles may be submitted until March 10.

The board will likely submit two override articles for different amounts — cuts to department budgets and the option to use free cash as solutions to close the shortfall.

The school district will put forward the biomass heating system article and could possibly ask for a vote on a $500,000 debt exclusion to pay for the schematic and design phase of a new elementary school building.