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Date: 5/3/2022
GRANBY – With the annual Town Meeting approaching on May 9, this year’s warrant has been posted and shows a variety of upcoming decisions for the town populous.
This year’s Town Meeting, which will be hosted at the East Meadow School for the first time, will see two of the biggest funding requests to the town both coming from the schools.
The first request from the schools is to seek town approval of $1.3 million, for the purpose of funding the renovation of the Junior-Senior High School gymnasium HVAC and boys and girls locker rooms. The other item of funding is a request for $1.05 million for the purpose of funding the renovation of the Junior-Senior High School kitchen and cafeteria rooms to be expanded upon.
Superintendent Stephen Sullivan said these two requests are more layered than what you see at first glance.
“At the Junior-Senior High School there’s a number of facility priorities and I think sometimes it’s difficult to say which ones should move forward,” Sullivan said. “The reason that we put these two forward is that both are needs of the school, but right now the Granby Junior-Senior High School is the designated town shelter.”
Sullivan said with this in mind having a working kitchen and operable showers would be something that the schools would need to provide the community and they don’t have that right now. All meals for students at the high school, Grades 7-12, are currently prepared at East Meadow School’s kitchen before being transported across the parking lot daily.
Sullivan said this started when COVID-19 began and has stayed the norm for students as they seek to update and renovate the kitchen within the high school.
“There’s layers to the need as well. It’s not just hey we need this because we want better kitchen facilities or hey we want our gym to have better ventilation, it’s not just though things,” Sullivan said. “We are trying to be thoughtful about it and we also recognize that the town doesn’t have a bottomless pit of money either, but there’s these things that we just think need to be prioritized.”
Sullivan added if he had to prioritize one request over the other, he would lean towards the kitchen project over the gym.
“I hope that the town can see the need for some facility upgrades. I know there’s a lot of discussion about that and when it should happen and what it should look like. I think that’s a fair conversation to have, but I think every time we wait on something, we do run a potential risk of having an emergency event where something needs to be done right away without that plan.”
Sullivan hopes both pass but understands they are big asks.
One of the larger requests to the town is for $305,000 to purchase a street sweeper for the Highway Department. Another noteworthy article in this year’s Town Meeting warrant is to see if the town will vote to approve $175,000 for the purpose of funding the town’s other post-employment benefits.
The Fire Department has two requests in this year’s warrant, one for $36,440 for funding the replacement of a hydraulic rescue tool, and another request for $59,000 to fund the purchase of a car for the fire chief.
One request for the town is for $41,316 for funding the construction of an equipment storage structure for the Public Buildings Department.
Another school related request is for $57,000 for the purpose of funding the tuition for Smith Vocational Agricultural students. This money would support the program at Smith and allow for this area of the vocational school to continue growth.
To view the full draft warrant of this year’s Town Meeting, visit the town’s website.