By design, Spring Town Meeting is meant to deal with town finances and items that require the expenditure of taxpayer dollars in the coming fiscal year. While the Select Board has ultimate say over the fiscal 2022 budget, the board looks to the Finance Committee for its recommendations.
The 23 articles on the 2021 Spring Town Meeting warrant include 17 that deal with the annual budget and other financial matters. In spirited sessions on March 31 and April 7, the Finance Committee deliberated and voted its recommendations—a notably livelier review than in prior years that included last-minute testimony by Planning Board Chair Justin Brown and Bromfield House Committee Chair Rich Maiore. Some articles proved controversial and will be reviewed in greater detail in forthcoming issues of the Press. Here’s a summary of the positions taken by FinCom on articles with a financial impact. The Select Board will weigh in with its recommendations on the entire warrant April 20.
ARTICLE 1: Annual Reports
Finance Committee makes no recommendation.
ARTICLE 2: Pay bills of prior fiscal year ($3,343.71)
Finance Committee recommends passage of this article.
ARTICLE 3: Omnibus budget ($33.9 million, with $35,400 surplus as of April 7, 2021)
Finance Committee recommends the total amount of the omnibus budget and enterprise budget for fiscal year 2022.
ARTICLE 4: Bare Hill Pond testing ($5,000)
Finance Committee recommends the sum of $5,000 be raised and appropriated to sample and test for cyanobacteria in the water at the town beach on Bare Hill Pond and to test the toxicity of the samples, alternate weeks, from August until mid-September, and to pay for signs at the town beach should testing reveal high levels of cyanobacteria.
ARTICLE 5: Maintenance of recreational resources ($20,000)
Finance Committee recommends the sum of $20,000 be raised and appropriated to pay for fiscal 2022 landscaping materials and services for the basic maintenance of the town’s recreational resources.
ARTICLE 6: Performance-based wage adjustments ($19,561)
Finance Committee recommends the sum of $19,561 be raised and appropriated to supplement the amount appropriated under Article 3 of the warrant for the 2021 Spring Town Meeting for salaries and wages of nonschool officials and employees in order to fund performance-based wage adjustments for fiscal 2022.
ARTICLE 7: DPW – Roadside tree maintenance ($20,000)
Finance Committee recommends the sum of $20,000 be raised and appropriated to contract with a professional company to trim trees and large brush along the town’s roadsides, with unexpended funds as of June 30, 2022, being returned to their funding source.
ARTICLE 8: Capital Planning and Investment Committee recommended expenditures from the Capital Stabilization and Investment Fund
- 8.1 Road Construction and Repair ($300,000)
- 8.2 Replace fire engine #3 with a hook truck ($262,000)
- 8.3 Repair fire ponds ($50,000)
- 8.4 Replace HVAC at Bromfield ($150,000)
- 8.5 Install card access system at Bromfield ($100,000)
- 8.6 Replace light duty dump truck ($85,000)
- 8.7 Commercial district planning ($300,000)
Finance Committee and the Capital Planning and Investment Committee recommend the passage of this article, all of the items 1 through 7, which are presented in ranked priority, and recommend that all of them be funded from the Capital Stabilization and Investment Fund.
ARTICLE 9: Capital Planning and Investment Committee debt payment ($270,794)
Finance Committee and the Capital Planning and Investment Committee recommend the passage of this article to allow use of $200,000 to directly reduce current year real estate tax bills and $70,794 to pay existing debt service, and that it be sourced from the Capital Stabilization and Investment Fund.
ARTICLE 10: Architect to assist the Permanent Building Committee and the Council on Aging ($45,000)
Finance Committee recommends the sum of $45,000 be transferred from certified free cash to be spent by the Permanent Building Committee to assist the Council on Aging in reviewing and providing schematic designs for properties that may be less expensive alternatives to providing adequate space for the COA and a less expensive alternative to the recent Phase 2 plans.
ARTICLE 11: Disposition of Bromfield House building and property ($50,000)
Finance Committee defers making a recommendation at this time and will make one at Town Meeting after receiving and reviewing more information regarding this article.
ARTICLE 12: Transfer from certified free cash to the stabilization account
Finance Committee recommends the necessary sum be transferred from the fiscal 2020 certified free cash account to the stabilization account as per the town’s bylaws.
ARTICLE 13: Transfer from certified free cash to the Capital Stabilization and Investment Fund
Finance Committee recommends the remaining certified free cash be transferred from the fiscal 2020 account to the Capital Planning and Investment Fund.
ARTICLE 14: Capital Planning and Investment Committee fiscal 2022 debt recommendation: Old library roof, gutters, and brickwork replacement ($876,134)
Finance Committee and the Capital Planning and Investment Committee do NOT recommend the passage of this article. There is a general agreement among the majority of the Finance Committee that the old library building should undergo a thorough public review of purpose before any additional funds are allocated to it or spent on it. Over the past few years the building has seen a continual increase in the scope and costs of required and/or desired maintenance. The building, as currently used, does not generate income, nor fully defray the expenses of regular, ongoing maintenance. The Finance Committee majority believes that a thorough, public examination should be done of both current estimations of required work and foreseeable expenses and scope for the next five years. The majority of the Capital Planning and Investment Committee wants to see a comprehensive list of all necessary repairs and costs for the building, and what alternative options exist for this historic, yet excess, town asset.
ARTICLE 15: Community Preservation Committee report
Finance Committee makes no recommendation.
ARTICLE 16: Community Preservation Committee grants
Finance Committee has no authority over use of Community Preservation Act money and makes no recommendation.
ARTICLE 17: Leasing of Harvard Elementary School roof for solar power
Finance Committee makes no recommendation.
ARTICLE 18: FY2022 Enterprise Fund budgets
Finance Committee recommends passage of this article.
ARTICLE 19: Revolving fund caps
Finance Committee recommends passage of this article.
ARTICLE 20: Amend protective bylaw chapter 125 section 125-18.1, accessory apartment use
Finance Committee makes no recommendation.
ARTICLE 21: Amend protective bylaw chapter 125 by adding a new section 125-57, senior residential development
Finance Committee makes no recommendation.
ARTICLE 22: Acceptance of gifts of property
Finance Committee comment: We encourage residents to consider a tax-deductible donation of land to the town. The town gives thanks to those who have made such a donation.
ARTICLE 23: Acceptance of highway funds
Finance Committee comment: We are pleased that these funds continue to be distributed and look forward to the release of fiscal 2022 Chapter 90 awards.
—Compiled by John Osborn
