Pre-Town Meeting goes over what to expect for Town Meeting

The Town of Dartmouth held a pre-Town Meeting meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 7 to go over how Town Meeting works and what will be voted on during Fall Town Meeting. 

Town Meeting is a form of legislative body that gives town representatives a chance to vote on funding and other local issues. The town follows the third edition of Massachusetts Town Meeting format, which is available at the library for those who want to know more. Only elected town meeting members can vote, and an elected moderator oversees the process. 

During Town Meeting, members can vote to amend a question or “call the question” to end the discussion and vote. An amendment takes a simple majority, and ending the discussion takes a two-thirds vote. 

The town of Dartmouth publishes a “warrant” prior to Town Meeting, which lists all the questions, which are called “articles.” 

This year, there are 17 questions that members will vote on. Some are “housekeeping,” which Town Administrator Cody Haddad defined as measures that are debated each year. 

The housekeeping articles mostly move surplus revenue, or leftover revenue from other projects, into other funding accounts for specific purposes. These include union and non-union bargaining, a stabilization fund and a long term capital planning fund for long-term projects. 

The town is also voting on approving townwide purchases. These include $352,876 for the police, $530,000 for the public schools, $163,500 for general town purchases, $108,700 for Parks and Recreation, $710,000 for the highways and $491,160 for the sewer systems. ‘

Some of these requests are to replace totalled town vehicles, purchase new police equipment, renovations to the schools and pump station upgrades. 

The full list of requests can be found on the town website. 

The funds are split into two funding accounts: the general surplus fund which the police, public schools, Parks and Recreation and general purchases come from; the water enterprise fund and the sewer enterprise fund. 

There are a number of other funds that are not being pulled from this Town Meeting, such as the Waterways Management Enterprise Fund, Dartmouth Community Television Retained Earnings and the Solid Waste Enterprise Fund. 

There will be some other articles. The town is voting to buy a $1 million Conservation Restriction for the land where the Hawthorne Country Club was, with the rest of the land being used for 55+ housing. The ballot question for the November election, Ballot Question 7 about allowing housing on 5,000 square feet lots, could increase the amount of housing on the rest of the lot. 

There is also an article to potentially raise the escaped animal fine from $25 to $300, due to a number of cows that have escaped from one farm and had to be euthanized for public safety. 

The article for snow removal fines being raised to $25 for the general public, or $300 for those within a mile of a public school or contractors. This would apply 24 hours after the storm finishes. 

Another article will create non-criminal fines of $300 for selling tobacco and restricted products, selling inhalable products, or breaking public water system rules. 

The town is looking to borrow up to $5,500,000 for upgrades at the sewer system, which include aeration upgrades. This would make it more effective and efficient, potentially cutting costs for the consumer as well. This is necessary for the incoming housing projects. 

There are also articles to create a new part-time summer position of beach manager, create a revolving fund for fixing police cruisers from funds the police collect, allowing the water department to create their own rules and change the membership for the soil board to only members of the Board of Health. 

The pre-Town Meeting meeting was streamed on DCTV. The full list of articles can be found on the town website.