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Date: 11/27/2023
SOUTHAMPTON — As towns complete projects and their boards and committees finish tasks, monies small and large are stranded in accounts and budget line items. About half of the 20 articles for the special Town Meeting slated for Tuesday, Dec. 5, at 7 p.m. at the William E. Norris School will take care of those housekeeping items before turning to capital purchases and other motions.
Article 1 seeks allocation of monies to pay outstanding bills totaling $11,918 that came in late or were not paid in fiscal year 2023. Funds from the current budget will be used, if voters agree to it. Article 2 looks to pay operating expenses for the Police Department of $119,766 through an internal transfer from the communications wage account to the departmental operating budget. The transfer will cover six items.
Article 3 seeks to transfer monies from ambulance receipts and EMS standby accounts to pay for an ambulance inspection and tires for two fire apparatus. Article 4 will transfer $36,000 from the operating budget of the assessor’s office to the assessor’s salary budget line. Article 5 is a motion to transfer $21,227 from the general highway wage line item to general operating expenses to pay for a culvert assessment and a wage correction for the department’s administrative assistant.
“Before you can have a conversation about adjusting someone’s compensation you have to identify the funding source,” said Select Board member Jon Lumbra.
Article 6 requests a transfer of $6,000 from the group health insurance account to the unemployment operating budget. Article 7 deals with operating expenses for the Health Department of $19,195 to be transferred from health agent wages and group health insurance budget lines to cover health agent expenses.
Select Board Chair Christine Fowles noted that money was earmarked for health agent wages that was not used.
Article 8 will transfer out of free cash monies to cover the school levy for Hampshire Regional School District, a total of $350,387 going to the stabilization account. Article 9 will also move $96,564 from free cash to the capital stabilization account.
The town balance for free cash must be certified correct by the state Department of Revenue. Line items involving that account will be passed over if free cash has not been certified by the time of the meeting.
Article 10 is a motion to transfer $82,769 from free cash to the operating budget. Article 11 will also mobilize funds from the free cash account to the account for other post-employment benefits, also known as OPEB.
Article 12 will create an account for funds coming to the town from settlements levied against opioid manufacturers.
“Have those guidelines been established yet?” asked board member Steven Johnson of the allowed uses for opioid settlement funds. Fowles said the list of allowed uses is primarily limited to substance abuse prevention efforts. Funds are already available for those uses.
Article 13 will devote $98,000 toward the purchase of a new 7D student transportation van for the William E. Norris Elementary School. Lumbra explained the 7D designation refers to vans with the yellow Massachusetts pupil plate. He also clarified it will be a larger van than the last vehicle, which transported seven to eight students.
“This is a little bigger van, a 9/10 rather than a 7/8, but that should cover it,” said Town Administrator Ed Gibson. The available quote is $78,000 for the smaller van. “What’s borrowed will not be any more than what it costs … Any time we borrow money it requires a vote by the capital committee.”
The Norris School has dire needs for a new van, hence the purchase comes before voters this fall, rather than at Town Meeting in the spring.
Article 14 will budget $17,339 for a Ford F350 1 ton truck, with sander, for the Highway Department.
“This is the utility trailer for the DPW, which never seems to get purchased,” Lumbra said. “This is the third appropriation for it.”
Gibson said the purchase was originally authorized at annual Town Meeting in June 2021.
“Ford actually canceled the order on us,” Gibson said. “The original appropriation was for $44,000 … so this is the inflationary factor on this truck.”
“Article 15 has also gone to the Capital [Improvement] Committee,” Fowles said, referring to the replacement of ceiling tiles at the school that were damaged by water leaks. The article earmarks $6,500 from the capital stabilization account for the repairs.
Article 16 commits money to the Mountain Waters project. The motion authorizes the purchase of conservation restrictions on two parcels of land, 19 acres on Wolcott Road and 158 acres on Fomer Road, for a total expense of $97,588.
Article 17 will devote Community Preservation Act funds of $323,100 to secure conservation restrictions for six parcels of land on Fomer Road, Cold Spring Road, Maple Street and Glendale Road.
“Those two articles total about $420,000,” Fowles said of this contribution by the town to the Mountain Waters project.
Article 18 will create a new bylaw about membership on boards, committees and councils, how residents join committees and how committees are created. Article 19 also reworks the bylaws on boards, committees and councils and how they operate.
“The Bylaw Review Committee … felt that there’s been so much turnover on committees … that we aught to have things in writing about how things should be done,” Fowles said.
Lumbra suggested an amendment to the regulations included in the motion to stipulate that committee chairs be notified of any failures to comply with the required ethics training. The amendment received a unanimous vote.
Article 20 will allow voters to authorize a change in the bylaws. Gibson told board members the new language will better address current municipal practice, that the bylaw language and tenets had become outmoded.
“This is basically to bring the statute up to date,” Fowles said.
The Select Board voted unanimously to approve the warrant for the special Town Meeting, as amended.