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Date: 10/13/2021
PELHAM – The Select Board and other town officials continued to finalize the warrant for the fall Special Town Meeting, but left the two controversial dog-related articles for voters to tweak on Oct. 23.
The first warrant article will ask voters to support an affordable housing project at 20-22 Amherst Rd. by authorizing the spending of $250,000 in Community Preservation Act funds.
“I feel very strongly about this project,” said Bill Pula, chair of the Board of Health. “The town has been moving in this direction … [and] this is the only time we’re spending money from the Community Preservation Act to generate future revenues. Correct?”
Tilman Lukas, chair of the Pelham Housing Committee, concurred. “That is probably correct,” Lukas said. “The amount of money generated from this property will be much greater than the profit generated by it right now.”
Lukas also reminded the board that a Town Meeting article last fall, passed by voters at that meeting, authorized $500,000 be spent on the project. Select Board Chair David Agoglia was absent. The vote to include the article on the warrant was unanimous.
The second proposed article will institute fines for uncontrolled dogs in conservation areas and public rights of way. After a question by Town Moderator Daniel Robb about sponsorship of the article – Conservation Commission member Dana McDonald sponsored it – the discussion turned to new language in the article.
Discussion with Susannah Carey, assistant to the Select Board, revealed that in reviewing the motion town counsel changed the language to indicate one incident will precipitate added responsibility for dog owners. Dog owners will be required to keep their pet perpetually on a leash after one incident, rather than one formal complaint.
Select Board member Tara Loomis questioned the change, asking, “What changed between Sept. 13 and today?”
Select Board member David Shanabrook questioned the change in the severity of outcomes that town counsel’s edits added to the article.
“It’s one thing if they have a complaint, then they have to have them always on a leash,” Shanabrook said. He added that requiring perpetual control of a pet after one incident, which may not have been serious, seemed too harsh.
Town counsel had comprehensively changed the language of the article, which left the Select Board with the daunting task of proofing the changes. Robb clarified that every ‘T’ didn’t need to be crossed.
“The warrant’s intent is to give a warning of the issues that will be brought before the town,” Robb said. “It’s not necessary that it follow the precise verbiage of what will be presented to the voters on the day of Town Meeting.”
The Select Board did not vote to recommend the item. Loomis and Shanabrook voted to take no action and leave refinement of the language of the article, and the details, to the floor of Special Town Meeting.
The third proposed warrant article calls for the hiring of an animal patrol officer, at an annual cost of $15,000.
“This is a contentious issue in this area,” Loomis said. “We saw this with Amherst, with Amethyst Brook … so this is an opportunity to offer more support and more education … I support it, so I would vote to recommend it” to voters.
Pula did not see the point of passing new fines without new enforcement. “If no one enforces it, it won’t matter,” he said. “It’s an exercise in futility.”
Shanabrook was undecided. He asked, “Is this a one year position, or would it be ongoing?”
Police Chief Gary Thomann confirmed the position would be ongoing, and that Nancy Long, current dog officer, has health issues that preclude her from patrolling conservation areas.
“We didn’t want to become another bad guy,” Thomann said. “So this is to hire someone to go out into the woods, on the trails, and the hourly rate and the schedule were left unclear.”
Shanabrook was still hesitant. The board voted to accept the changes in language made by town counsel, then voted to take no action on a recommendation for voters at Special Town Meeting.
The fourth article proposed for Special Town Meeting later this month authorizes the town to join the Pioneer Valley Mosquito Control Board. Pula, also chair of the Conservation Commission, spoke to the issue.
“We didn’t get the opt out exemption from any state spraying,” Pula said, “but with this we get tests. We’re at risk for triple E (equine encephalitis) and West Nile (virus).” Pula commented that $5,000 may not be the annual cost of being on the mosquito control board, and that it was a new entity. “This is the first board created in about 50 years. All the others are down in the southeast.”
The Select Board voted to approve the changes in wording recommended by town counsel and to forgo recommending any action by voters. Robb clarified that such a vote is not unusual and casts no negative aspersions on a warrant article.
“It’s very normal for the Select Board to not recommend action on an article,” Robb said, implying that no adverse consequences would result for the town. “It’ll all come out on the floor of Town Meeting.”