Annual Town Meeting today voted in favor of an article to borrow $3.97 million to fund the renovation of Town Hall. The measure passed, unmodified, by a two-thirds majority. A ballot question to exclude the bond from Proposition 2 1/2 must be approved by a majority of voters in Tuesday’s town election before the borrowing can go forward.
Article 36, of today’s Town Meeting warrant, to increase the Community Preservation Act property tax surcharge from 1.1 percent to 3 percent did not pass, with 81 voters against it and 75 for it.
Also defeated was Article 33, to use $2,500 of Community Preservation funds for the restoration of the front entrance columns at the Congregational Church of Harvard. Opponents cited the separation of church and state.
Other major articles Town Meeting passed include Article 27, $750,000 to finish repairing Littleton County Road; and Article 28, $100,000 for Phase II and the completion of the project to update the town’s Master Plan.
Town Meeting did not take a vote on several articles in the warrant for various reasons: Article 25, $75,000 to grade and pave the Pond Road parking area; Article 34, $11,500 for tree removal at the Shaker Burial Ground; Article 40, a means tested senior citizen property tax exemption; Article 44, to amend the protective bylaw to add a section regarding solar photovoltaic installations; and Article 45, to accept gifts of property as conservation land.
Article 11, $55,630 to contract a person or group to manage repairs to municipal buildings, was also passed over, but the funding was added to Article 12, $40,000 for the repairs themselves, for a total of $95,630.
All the other articles, not mentioned here, passed.
Find more coverage of Annual Town Meeting later on this site, www.harvardpress.com, or read it Friday in print in the Harvard Press.