Cheshire Selectmen Set Special Town Meeting Warrant
CHESHIRE, Mass. — The Selectmen approved a special town meeting warrant on Tuesday with a single article on which hangs the fate of the $19.2 million Adams-Cheshire Regional School District budget.
Town Administrator Mark Webber said he crafted the warrant article that will give the town another chance on July 17 to pass its regional assessment of $2.7 million for fiscal 2018.
"I have been working with the Division of Local Services, the auditors and others to construct the proper warrant article," he told the Selectmen on Tuesday. "It is a little complicated."
Town meeting rejected its assessment — and essentially the budget — at town meeting on June 12. The disapproval was sparked by the closing of Cheshire Elementary School.
The School Committee has decided to resubmit the same budget that failed in Cheshire but passed in Adams. The Selectmen scheduled the special town meeting to try to pass a budget as soon as possible with nearing state deadlines that would negatively impact the school district.
Webber said there was some concern because the town did not have a separate article for the school budget and instead it was lumped into Article 2 — the entire town budget. Webber said initially he was unsure if the town officially had a budget.
"I think we are safe with what we came up with but it got to the point where they were nervous if we had a budget at all," he said. "I reviewed it again with [the Department of Revenue] and I think we are safe with this for now."
He said the DOR did sign off on the article, however, in the future, it may be worthwhile to separate the education budget from the town's operating budget.
Webber said it would have been beneficial to add in a free cash article to install LED lights in the town garage but not possible because the special town meeting cannot be held by end of the fiscal year on June 30.
Highway Superintendent Blair Crane said he received an estimate of $17,000 for an overhaul of the Department of Public Works' garage lights. The lights are antiquated and many do not work.
"That would pay for taking out all of the antiquated lights that are in the garage now and rewiring and installing ones that are up to code," he said. "I just wanted to bring it up so we can think about it a little bit."
He said the state would cover nearly 40 percent and it would actually cost the town around $10,000.
Webber suggested placing it on a future town meeting in the new fiscal year.
The special town meeting is Monday, July 17, at 7 p.m. in the Cheshire Elementary School cafeteria. Town meeting will not be held in the auditorium because it is not handicapped accessible.
The Selectmen also approved new cemetery burial rates of $200 on weekdays and $300 on weekends. Before the rate was $100 on weekdays and $400 on weekends.
"The Cemetery Commission did a very comprehensive survey of 13 towns and they compared rates for burials," Webber said. "This gets them more in line with some of the other towns."
The Selectmen brought this up to the Cemetery Commission after a complaint from a resident who felt $400 was too much for a weekend burial.
Tags: ACRSD_budget, special town meeting,
