Residents Face Condensed Town Meeting Warrant
TEMPLETON Voters will be treated to a radically slimmed down Town Meeting warrant on May 16 when they take action on 23 articles and four citizen’s petitions that will guide town operations for the next fiscal year.
While previous warrants have topped out at more than 40 articles and continued for several nights, interim Town Administrator Bob Markel has said this year’s document has been streamlined for voters’ convenience.
Several items, such as appropriations for VADAR accounting software, that were once given their own separate articles, have been moved into the budget to save time and space.
Mr. Markel said he also gave articles covering assessments for both the Narragansett Regional School District and Montachusett Regional Vocational Technical High School the ax, as those amounts are already covered in the budget.
Approving the budget and later approving those articles, he explained, meant that technically they were appropriating the money twice.
The meeting will open with a series of financial transfers designed to fund various unexpected expenses incurred thr-oughout the year, including an increase in group insurance costs, veterans benefits, boosting the town accountant to 40 hours per week, and paying off the new playground. Those transfers are lined out in detail within the warrant to promote transparency for voters.
“It’s helpful for citizens so they can know exactly what we’re spending,” Mr. Markel said.
Next will come the appropriation of a $300,000 debt exclusion to purchase a new excavator for the Highway Department, should it pass the ballot on Monday’s town election. The debt exclusion will last five years, adding $0.12 to the town’s tax rate for that period.
In addition to the budget and other boilerplate items, voters will be presented with an article authorizing wage and salary increases for town employees, their first since 2011. The pay raise will be appropriated through the tax levy and will not fall outside Proposition 2 1/2.
Article 20 will ask voters to discontinue Freight Shed Road, Hill Road, Elliot Road, Norcross Hill and Fernald Road — which all run through the Templeton Developmental Center campus — as part of a continuing standoff between local officials and the state. By discontinuing the roads, the town will no longer be responsible for maintenance or repairs, and will be absolved of all liability for accidents occurring on those roads.
The meeting will round out with several citizen’s petitions, including one to accept and assume responsibility for the Cook Pond Estates pump station, and a request for the state attorney general to investigate the actions of the Municipal Build-ing Committee; law firm Kopel-man & Paige regarding a settlement with the Templeton Waste Water Treatment Plant; and the Templeton Light Department and Board of Selectmen to enact Chapter 99 Acts of 2000, which established the department as its own legal entity separate from the control of selectmen.
The annual Town Meeting will begin May 16 at 9 a.m. in the middle school auditorium.
Will this be the year that Templeton begins the process of getting the poison out of the water supply? Ch 111 sec 8C allows the Board of Health to reinstate fluoridation after a two year period should the town vote fluoride out of their water supply with a town wide vote. Because this action is so discouraging to the huge effort such a vote would take a Citizen's Petition has been brought forth for Special Legislation allowing town meeting to be the deciding body for decisions on fluoridation. It is hoped voters at Annual Town Meeting will support this measure. Water fluoridation has been all about the money. The big industries with their lobbies put this poison in our water without giving a damn about your teeth. Its all about the money. Somewhere I read that "the love of money was the root of all evil" perhaps it was in Timothy 6:10. Fluoride is not "safe and effective" it is poison. Come help get the poison out of the water supply by attending annual town meeting.
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