Fall Town Meeting warrant takes shape

There will be 17 articles that Town Meeting members will vote on during the Fall Town Meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 20. All of these articles were approved without dissent by the Finance Committee, with the Select Board approving 16 of them without dissent. 

A number of these articles will be “housekeeping,” according to Town Administrator Cody Haddad, such as approving funds for negotiating town contracts and transferring money to and from the stabilization fund. 

Others include updating the fines like the escaped animal and snow plowing fines, authorizing $5.5 million for sewer aeration, creating a seasonal beach manager position and allowing the Board of Public Works to create their own rules and regulations. 

Only one article caused debate from the Select Board, the article that would transfer funds from one fund to other departments for upgrades. 

A total of $1,865,076 is requested from the Surplus Revenue for the Police Department, Parks and Recreation, the highways and the public schools. These upgrades include upgrades for the schools, new cars and tasers for the police, replacing the damaged animal control van, road maintenance and a new sidewalk snow machine. 

Four of the five Select Board members approved this article. Select Board member Nathan Silva did not, as he wanted the $400,000 request from the DeMello School for a safer and ADA-compliant playground included. 

This also included requests for $1,645,000 from the Water Enterprise Fund and $491,160 from the Sewer Enterprise Fund. These funds would help rebuild and upgrade the pump station, replacing a water main and more. 

One of the other articles would create revolving fund where the newly updated police cruiser fee would go, which would be used to purchase new police cruisers. The new fee would follow FEMA regulations rather than be set by the town, which doubles the current fee from $10 an hour to $20. 

The Paskamansett Valley Conservation Project will also be voted on during the meeting. This would request $1 million to purchase a conservation restriction for 970 Tucker Road, which is currently owned by the developers for the Hawthorne. If this passes, the land would be turned into age-restricted housing rather than a 40B development. 

The town will be hosting a Pre-Town-Meeting-Meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 7 at 6 p.m. in the Dartmouth High School auditorium. During this, the town will review how Town Meeting works and go over all of the articles. 

Town Meeting will be held in the High School auditorium on Oct. 20 at 7 p.m. The High School is located at 555 Russells Mills Road.