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Date: 5/25/2022
SOUTHWICK — Voters in Southwick gathered indoors on May 17 for the annual Town Meeting for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic began, and decided on 21 warrant articles for the town.
The first major article considered by voters was Article 6, which was a vote on whether to fund the Town Hall roof redesign project with $2,663,259. The Town Hall roof has deteriorated to the point of needing to be replaced, and has sprung leaks, along with regular failures of the HVAC system. The measure was accepted by voters 106-27, and was one of only a few to require a numerical count of the vote.
The Select Board had requested $830,000 to partially fund the project with community preservation funds, but the Community Preservation Committee rejected the request 5-3 last month.
Article 9 was a vote to accept the fiscal year 2023 (FY23) budget as recommended by the Finance Committee. The total budget is $16,160,099 for the year that begins July 1, and was accepted unanimously by the voters at the Town Meeting. The fiscal year 2022 budget was lower, at $15,760,88.
Article 13 was a request for $28,000 in community preservation funds for the Brass Rail Meeting House to construct a permanent handicap accessible ramp that would make the restaurant compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). This was the first article on the warrant to be rejected, with a vote of 31 in favor, and 110 against it.
Opponents of the measure argued that the town should not be paying for privately owned businesses to come into compliance with laws like the ADA.
Article 15 was a vote on Southwick’s portion of the budget for the Southwick-Tolland-Granville Regional School District. Southwick’s portion of the budget is $12,252,012, and was approved unanimously by the voters. The total budget for the school district for FY23, including from Tolland and Granville, is $26,678,162, an increase from the previous year’s budget of $25,822,130.
Article 16 was a vote for the school district to incur $200,000 in debt for the installation and paving of the Southwick Regional School parking lot, which was approved unanimously.
Article 19 was a vote to implement a new planning bylaw for the town that would change the process of development proposals and inquiries seen by the Planning Board. Drafted by resident Diane Gale with the Planning Board in response to the controversy over the proposed Carvana development last year, the bylaw would “frontload” a lot of pertinent information about a development proposal so that it is known by the public before Planning Board hearings begin.
The bylaw would apply to development proposals that meet certain size and community impact thresholds. It was approved by voters convincingly with only a few people voting against it.
Article 20 is another amendment to the town’s planning bylaws as requested by the Planning Board, which concerns wireless communications infrastructure. It was passed unanimously by voters, and will update the existing bylaw from 2001. The measure will allow the Planning Board to consider eligible sites for wireless communications infrastructure using a less rigid overlay map and will allow the board to provide responsible permitting for smaller pieces of infrastructure that can fit on utility poles. It would also put Southwick in compliance with state and federal regulations on wireless communications facilities.
Article 21 was paired with Article 20, and was simply a vote to discard the wireless overlay map established in 2001 to make way for the system as voted on in Article 20. Both articles were passed unanimously.