Select Board reviews Town Meeting articles

Thirty articles are expected to appear on the June 2 Town Meeting warrant, and while many are routine items, Town Meeting members will also be asked to appeove the town's Fiscal Year 2027 operation budget, which currently sits at $113,389,515, and vote on topics like  whether to ban crypto ATMs and adjusting the town's snow removal bylaw.

The first seven articles will center around allocating money from the Community Preservation Committee to town projects, including continued renovations to the DCTV building, creating a conservation restriction on Davoll Field near Davoll's, installing new lighting at Crapo Field and renovating the Dartmouth Cultural Center. Town Meeting members will also be asked to set aside funds for the agricultural preservation fund, which would make it easier for the agricultural commission to purchase land for preservation.

Two articles will also address the $278,309 deficit in the Dartmouth Public School's Fiscal Year 2027 budget. Members will be asked to permit the allocation of $100,000 from the Collective Bargaining Fund and $178,309 from the district's kindergarten stabilization fund.

Town Administrator Cody Haddad said, "This is a very good short term, quick solution, and I think logical" but also noted that having to use money from a one-time use source isn't a practice Dartmouth should start falling back on.

Also appearing on the warrant would be a vote to band crypto ATMs, change the snow removal bylaw to give residents 24 hours to clear snow after a storm rather than the current four, a tree bylaw and to expand on veterans' tax exceptions.

Besides giving residents 24-hours to shovel the snow off their sidewalks after a snowstorm, the snow removal bylaw would also state that if a commercial property located within one mile of a school doesn't comply with the requirement then they would have to reimburse the cost of clearing the snow to the town.

"It goes back to our number one priority for this, [which] is public safety," Haddad said.

The Select Board will be voting on Monday, May 11 to approve the Town Meeting warrant and on May 27 will be hosting a "pre-town town meeting," which all residents can attend to learn more about the items that will be voted on prior to the June 2 Town Meeting.