A Smooth Special Town Meeting

Under the guidance of temporary moderator Phil Pless, last night’s Special Town Meeting voted on all four warrant articles unanimously.

The only article that generated substantive discussion was Article Two, to fund the town street lights. In introducing the article, Select Board Chair Dave DeHerdt explained that the town had voted to turn the street lights off at Annual Town Meeting in May. Since then, the Select Board has heard from several residents who would like to see certain lights left on. Because it’s not yet certain how many lights will remain lit, DeHerdt proposed a successful amendment to return the street light funding to its FY 2010 level of $2,000.

When asked if the Select Board still had a commitment to turn off as many lights as possible, DeHerdt assured voters that it did. It simply wants to give the Street Light Committee, formed at last week’s Select Board meeting, an opportunity to make responsible decisions as to how to handle the street lights. DeHerdt said that the committee should have recommendations ready for the board by August.

The other three articles involved end-of-the-fiscal-year bookkeeping. The first appropriated funds to make the last payment for damage cleanup after the ice storm of December, 2008. The third, cleaning up an accounting glitch that came to light at May’s Annual Town Meeting, appropriated $6000 for the Belding Memorial Library from the Library Revolving Fund rather than free cash. The fourth article, referred to by Pless as “the last and least,” appropriated $74 to pay for repairs and inspection for the van operated by the Council on Aging.

David King