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Date: 8/17/2021
WILLIAMSBURG – During the Williamsburg Board of Selectmen’s Aug. 12 meeting, the board approved the warrant for a Special Town Meeting on Aug. 31 and discussed new mask requirements inside town offices.
To start the Special Town Meeting warrant discussion, Town Administrator Nick Caccamo went through and explained the four questions planned for the meeting, starting with Article 1 which is a Water Department bill for fiscal year 2021 that was received after the year ended.
“Article 1 was a bill that arrived at the Water Department after July 15 from the previous fiscal year, it just happened to get here late. It requires a nine-tenths vote per Town Counsel for the Water Department to pay that bill out of the enterprise fund,” he said.
For Article 2 Caccamo said the request was to pay the annual sewer enterprise bill to Northampton, which he said Town Clerk Brenda Lessard said it made sense to do it at the Special Town Meeting as opposed to the Annual Town Meeting next year.
“Article 2 is the sewer enterprise bill for Northampton, from what Brenda has mentioned this bill always comes well after the end of the fiscal year. Because we were having the Special Town Meeting, Brenda thought it was a good idea to get this done now and not worry about it at the Annual Town Meeting,” he said.
For Article 3 Caccamo said the town will be requesting to transfer $217,872 from stabilization to cover for a shortfall in the project to repair the Depot Road culvert, which is on hold, but Caccamo said the final contracts would be signed the week of Aug. 16.
“Article 3 is the transfer of $217,872 from stabilization to cover the costs of the Depot Road culvert. This number includes the shortfall as well as a 10 percent buffer of the total project cost to give us a little breathing room. The total project is $516,248 and our current shortfall is $166,000 and I added 10 percent in case anything unforeseen comes up,” he said.
The meeting’s final request is to transfer $81,282 from stabilization to cover the shortfall for the repairs for the HVAC system at the Anne T. Dunphy School.
“Article 4 is the transfer of $81,282 from stabilization to cover the shortfall for the HVAC replacement based on the July 19 quote from Jamrog, which was $165,720, within that the town is dedicating about $86,000 in CARES Act funding, the School Department has $15,000 in ESSER 2 funding, and the shortfall puts us at $64,720 and again I added the 10 percent buffer in case there are any changes,” he said.
The board unanimously approved the Special Town Meeting Warrant, which is set for Aug. 31 at 7 p.m. at the Anne T. Dunphy School.
With COVID-19 cases on the rise across the country, Caccamo also reported that the Board of Health established a mask mandate in town offices at a meeting on Aug. 10.
“The Board of Health met on Aug. 9 to update COVID precautions based on a positive case coming into the building and interacting with employees. They met and decided it would be best at this time given the rise of the delta variant that members entering town buildings should be wearing masks,” he said.
He added that as of the Aug. 9 meeting there were 2 positive cases for the delta variant in town.
During the meeting the board also approved extensions for outdoor seating licenses through April 2022 for Bread Euphoria and Dot’s Golf.
The Board of Selectmen next meets on Aug. 26.