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Date: 6/15/2022
GRANVILLE – Voters at the Annual Town Meeting June 6 in Granville approved all but one of the 25 articles on the warrant after the meeting was postponed a month from May 9 due to a COVID-19 outbreak in the town.
The first major article to be passed by the voters was Article 2, which was the town’s fiscal year 2023 budget of $2,126,840: $841,136 for general government, $454,459 for public safety, $757,244 for public works, and $74,001 for culture, recreation, and conservation. The major increases in the budget come from the rising costs of energy and fuel. The Fire Department also sought a $56,000 line item to hire a deputy EMS chief.
Article 3 was a vote to spend $1,954,108 for the Southwick-Tolland-Granville Regional School District’s required local minimum contribution, to which each of the three communities in the district must contribute. The voters passed this article.
Stephen Presnal, the district’s finance and operations director, said to the voters that Granville has 161 students in foundation enrollment in the district, which has steadily fallen over the last decade over the district as a whole.
Article 4 was the first vote on the warrant requiring a counted tally. Residents voted 48-35 to accept part of the $200,000 in debt being incurred from fiscal year 2022 by the regional school district for paving the Southwick Regional School east student parking lot.
Article 15 was a vote to spend $250,000 to purchase an 18-acre property at 144 Barnard Rd. to build a Department of Public Works garage to replace the current garage at 69 Old Westfield Rd., which was built sometime in the 1940s. Because it was a land purchase, the article required a two-thirds majority to pass. The measure was the only warrant article to have failed. Though 66 voted in favor, 58 against, it required a two-thirds majority to pass. Those who spoke against the land purchase mainly cited its proximity to residential properties.
Article 16, a measure to spend $24,264 as Granville’s 5 percent share of a new engine for the Fire Department, passed. The rest of the cost will be borne by a grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Voters approved article 17, which will now spend $25,000 to upgrade the existing communications link between Granville and Northampton’s regional dispatch center.
Article 18 was passed by voters to spend $25,000 in free cash from the current year’s budget to immediately begin tree maintenance and cutting.
Article 19 deposited $100,000 into the capital projects stabilization account.
Article 20 used $35,000 in free cash from the 2022 budget to lower the town’s tax rate.
Article 22 spent $20,000 in Community Preservation money – $10,000 each from the historic preservation account and the undesignated account – to preserve, restore, and stabilize historic grave markers in the Main Road and Northwest cemeteries.
Article 23 spent $12,500 from the budget reserve account of the Community Preservation Fund to remove and dispose of floor tiles and adhesive mastic that are likely to contain asbestos in the basement of the Granville Public Library.
Article 24 inserted a section on accessory agricultural uses to the Granville zoning bylaws. The bylaw is intended to promote opportunities for Granville farmers to diversify their operations and work with other local businesses.