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Date: 6/1/2021
WILLIAMSBURG – On June 7, residents of Williamsburg will convene at the Anne T. Dunphy School for the town’s Annual Town Meeting to vote on 22 warrant articles.
Article 1 is a request to transfer $90 from available funds to pay Glen Goebel for work done at the Senior Center during fiscal year 2020.
Article 2 would allow the Boards of Selectmen, Water and Sewer Commissioners, the Board of Assessors, Board of Health, Board of Appeals, the Finance Committee, and the Trustees of the Libraries to appoint their members to positions under their respective jurisdictions.
Article 3 would allow the moderator to choose a committee to expend the income from the Whiting Street Fund, Article 4 is a request to improve the Capital Improvement Plan, and Article 5 is a request to transfer $1,224 to the School Department.
Article 6 is a request to fix and pay the salaries of all elected officials while Article 7 is a request to allow the town to accept any Chapter 90 funds for the maintenance and reconstruction of roads and bridges in town.
Article 8 is a vote to set limits on Williamsburg’s 12 revolving funds including a $30,000 limit for the Transfer Station Open Box revolving fund, the Planning Board Revolving Fund, and the Recreation Commission revolving fund.
Article 9 is a request to use $211,100 from the Water Enterprise Revenue fund to pay the costs for maintaining the town water system and Article 10 is a request to spend $224,800 from the Sewer Enterprise Revenue fund to pay for maintaining the town sewer system.
Articles 11 and 12 are both requests to match Assistance Fire Grants, the first for $20,500 to purchase and equip a pumper truck while the second is for $2,500 to purchase a fill station.
Article 13 is a request to purchase and equip a new police utility vehicle and to allow the Board of Selectmen to apply for a Green Communities Grant to defray the cost of the purchase.
Articles 14 and 15 both deal with the town’s internet service and are for $19,734 to replace the town’s server and for $3,500 to set up multi-factor authentication for administrative accounts that have access to town data respectively.
For Article 16 residents are asked to vote to appropriate $20,792 from available funds to replace the overhead garage doors at the highway garage.
Article 17 is a vote to raise and appropriate $12,500 to replace the North Street entrance walkway at the Meekins Library.
Article 18 is a request to accept the provisions of Chapter 44 of Massachusetts general law to set up a public, educational, and government (PEG) access television fund.
Article 19 is a vote that would authorize the Board of Selectmen to acquire a parcel of land on Goshen Road for general municipal purposes by gift, purchase, or by exercising the right of eminent domain.
Article 20 is a request to transfer $150,000 from free cash to the town’s stabilization fund.
Article 21 is a request to amend the town’s Ground-mounted Solar Photovoltaic Installation Requirements zoning bylaw to add more language about restrictions, including preventing arrays from being built on a 15 percent or greater slope over 50 horizontal feet and adding a requirement for storage systems to be above the floodplain.
Speaking on this article at its May 24 meeting, Planning Board Chair Amy Bisbee said it was a straightforward article with the biggest change coming to energy storage.
“I think the private property is the most important part, that people can manage their forest however they like. Other than adding in the energy storage, and I don’t see how that could be controversial, we did not make any new giant additions,” she said.
Article 22 is a request to amend the town’s Accessory Apartments bylaws to add language for detached accessory apartments, including requiring them to be more than 40 feet away from a house on an abutting lot and clarifying that it is a separate house and the owner must live in the detached apartment or main house.
Bisbee said of this article, “Given that there are so few changes, I feel like it would be straightforward to say exactly what they are. We have a new use in the use table, it is a special permit in every zone, it is a detached accessory apartment with a limit of 900 square feet of floor space, it must be 40 feet from another dwelling unit or abutting building lot,” she said.