Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.

Select Board and School Building Committee debate Special Town Meeting dates

Date: 12/14/2009

By Courtney Llewellyn

Reminder Assistant Editor



LONGMEADOW - Despite the budgetary woes the town is facing, the Longmeadow School Building Committee recently unanimously agreed to move forward with plans for the new high school by setting tentative dates for a spring Special Town Meeting for a vote on the project.

Those dates are April 13 or April 27, which were driven by the the Massachusetts School Building Authority's (MSBA) Board of Directors possible vote on the Longmeadow High School (LHS) project on March 26. If the project gets the greenlight at this meeting, the town has 120 days to host a Special Town Meeting and a ballot vote on the project. Both the meeting and the ballot question must be passed for the project to move forward.

Members of the School Building Committee presented this information to the Select Board during its Dec. 7 meeting.

"We were overwhelmed by the number of people that showed up for Minnechaug's vote," Christine Swanson, co-chair of the School Building Committee, said. Both Hampden and Wilbraham hosted Special Town Meetings that lasted several hours that's why Swanson and the rest of the committee are in favor of having a separate meeting for the vote, instead of combining it with the Annual Town Meeting.

With an already full spring schedule - with votes taking place in January, May (if a Select Board preliminary is needed) and June - Select Board Clerk Mark Gold wondered if another meeting and another vote are really necessary.

"Why don't we start the Annual Town Meeting an hour early and do it all at once?" he asked.

"An hour doesn't give the residents of Longmeadow enough time for due diligence and to ask the hard questions," Swanson replied.

Gold said he felt combining the meetings would ensure that one meeting wouldn't seem more important than another - one being for the school project, the other being for the fiscal year 2011 budget.

Robert Barkett, chair of the Select Board and co-chair of the School Building Committee, noted that he is advocating for two separate meetings because both issues will "need ample discussion."

Select Board member William Scibelli suggested that the Special Town Meeting be moved to a date in May so only one election date in June would be needed.