Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.
Date: 4/6/2023
CHESTER — Town Moderator Barbara Pease Huntoon convened a Special Town Meeting on March 27 at 6:30 p.m. in Chester Town Hall. Most agenda items were financial, including unpaid bills from the previous fiscal year and corrections of certain audit items. All of the items passed, with some discussion, by the approximately two dozen residents in attendance.
The regular Selectboard meeting started before the Special Town Meeting at 6 p.m., and reconvened after it closed. Selectboard Chair John Baldasaro said there was $357,000 in free cash, expected to be reduced to $246,000 after expenditures in the warrants.
The majority of bills from the prior fiscal year involved transfers to be paid from free cash. These included just over $40,000 for highway, salt, snow and ice, and transfer station expenses.
A motion to transfer the sum of $8,270 for property tax insurance on the old school building from free cash was amended to transfer the fund from the maintenance account on the building, which had $12,000 remaining in the account.
Some discussion followed a motion to transfer $43,720 from free cash to pay for elevator repair in Town Hall, which was inadvertently charged to the insurance revolving account, according to the town warrant.
Town Administrator Donald Humason Jr. was asked to look into the bill, which he said was from a prior year. Humason said he called Associated Elevators, which did the repair, who said the money was almost entirely for the electric control panel.
When asked who authorized the payment, Humason said Huntoon did when she was a Selectboard member, several years ago.
Finance Chair Andy Myers said the bill was paid out of revolving accounts.
“We have to clean up a negative balance,” he said.
A resident asked what would happen if they voted no.
“We shouldn’t vote no. A negative balance will lead to an audit problem,” Myers said, adding it should have been charged to the Town Hall repair account, but would have had to come out of free cash either way, because there was not enough in the account.
Another resident asked if the town needed the elevator in Town Hall. Selectboard member Jason Forgue, who is also the building inspector for the town, said once it’s there, the town can’t remove it. The vote to approve the transfer was unanimous.
Also voted was another $15,000 transfer from free cash into the Community Compact grant account. Myers said the funds were needed to pay for work done by the treasurer to reconcile the books, that were expected to be covered by a grant which the town did not receive.
Residents also amended and passed Article 9, which asked to transfer $20,000 from free cash into the Board of Health revolving fund. Forgue amended the motion to move the funds into the building inspector revolving account. He said the $20,000 came from fines collected from a new bylaw passed at the Annual Town Meeting in 2022, and incorrectly deposited into free cash.
In other business, a motion was made to initiate the process for Chester to become an aggregator of electric power on behalf of its residents and businesses near the town’s borders that are not served by the Chester Municipal Electric Light Department, but are instead served by Eversource. The question also authorized the Selectboard to negotiate and enter into contracts for the power supply, with the understanding that individual customers would retain the option not to participate in the aggregation plan.
During the discussion, Myers said the question was put on the warrant by the Chester Energy Committee, and only affects the 50 households in North Chester on Eversource. He said Eversource is required to offer the program to customers.
A resident served by Eversource asked if the whole town was going to vote for 50 residents.
He said customers can choose individually, or as a whole town, and Eversource customers will realize further savings.
“No one in the town, nor the town, has to pay anything,” he said, adding that signing up is optional for customers.
Myers said the consultant broker is Colonial Power. He said Becket and Huntington are locked into a three-year plan in the aggregation.