Select Board recommends 14 articles for Fall Town Meeting

Fourteen articles will appear on the Fall Town Meeting warrant after Select Board members recommended all but two of 16 proposed articles.

Among the recommended articles includes allocating funds from the water enterprise fund, supporting a roof feasibility study at Dartmouth High School and forming an advisory board at the Dartmouth Council on Aging.

Town Meeting will vote to allocate $102,823 from water enterprise contained earnings  for the Fiscal Year 2025 deficit, though Town Administrator Cody Haddad said there are some financial concerns with the water enterprise fund.

He explained that while enterprise funds are supposed to be self-sufficient with revenue covering costs annually, the town will have to dip into its savings account to cover the 2025 operating budget.

The Department of Revenue requires this to be done because the town went into a deficit, Hadded said.

He stated that this would leave the water enterprise fund retained earnings at around $140,000, noting that within the past five or six years earnings were over $2 million.

The deficit in the water enterprise funds stems from the amount of water bought from the City of New Bedford.

“We purchased almost 50% of all of our water from the City of New Bedford last year,” Haddad said.

Town Meeting will also vote to approve to appropriate $250,000 from surplus revenue for a Dartmouth High School roof feasibility study. The town may also be eligible for a grant through the Massachusetts School Building Authority, which would be based on need.

Conducting a feasibility study is a requirement of the Massachusetts School Building Authority program if they accept the town for a grant.

The Dartmouth Council on Aging is looking to form an advisory board with the goal of better identifying the needs of aging adults. Nine residents would serve on the board for three-year terms, with at least one member required to be at least 65-years-old and at least 51% of residents 55-years-old or older.

There will also be an article regarding the elderly tax exemption to increase the real property tax exemption allowed for certain senior citizens. The tax exemption would increase from $500 to $1,000. Roughly 90 people currently qualify for exemption. 

Town Meeting will vote on allocating $22,800 from the community preservation historic preservation reserve to fund a cellar water and moisture mitigation project at the Akin House. This is the only article being recommended by the Community Preservation Committee this year.

Board members didn’t recommend an article to expand the Board of Assessors to five members nor an article to expand the Board of Health to five members. Both articles weren’t approved because both the Board of Assessors and the Board of Health don’t support expansion.