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Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Southwick Town Meeting tackled 28 articles on warrant
SOUTHWICK — The auditorium at Southwick Regional School was packed last Tuesday for Town Meeting to decide on 28 articles on the warrant. The meeting, led by Town Moderator Celeste St. Jacques, kicked off with the 'housekeeping' articles, which included items like authorizing the Select Board to sell or trade obsolete equipment and allow the town trust funds to be invested according to the state's 'Prudent Investment Rule.' Requested by Town Clerk Christie Myette was Article 7 to allow her to revise the town's bylaws. The Pioneer Valley Planning Commission has suggested the town's bylaws be 'cleaned up' by shifting them in logical order and renumber. There will be no revisions of the bylaws themselves. All were adopted unanimously. Article 8 was approved, which was to rescind Article 22 of last year's Town Meeting related to a property on Berkshire Avenue a family trust in Connecticut offered to the town. It was found that resolving issues with the deed would cost the town too much. It was adopted unanimously. Article 9 asked Town Meeting to authorize borrowing $16 million to build a town-owned fiber-optic network. After a contentious debate that lasted nearly an hour, Town Meeting voted it down. The authorization needed a two-thirds majority. The vote was 353 for and 204 against. The article missed being adopted by 15 votes. Article 10 asked Town Meeting to approve the town's annual budget. It did. The final general government budget approved was $13.6 million which was a 2% or $238,514 increase from last year. It also approved the DPW Sewer Division budget of $1.4 million, which was a 4% increase from the previous year, and the DPW Water Division budget of $1.58 million, which was 2% increase from the previous year. Article 11 was a borrowing authority of $1 million for road repairs. It passed unanimously. However, before it passed Jeff Dunlap said the town should consider borrowing more next year because $1 million is only a band-aid for the extensive repairs needed. Finance Committee Chair Joseph Deedy said residents should be prepared to authorize a much larger amount in the next year or so. Article 12 was to create a revolving account for the Conservation Commission. It passed unanimously. Article 13 was to set the maximum amounts of various revolving accounts, like Local Lake Permitting and the Economic Development Commission. It passed unanimously. Article 14 was for the town to accept Revere Road and portions of Salem and Concord roads. There was one no vote. It passed. Article 15 was to approve $20,000 for the costs associated with the taking of easements for the newly accepted roads. It passed unanimously. Article 16 was to appropriate $737,164 to pay for the tuition of students who attend school out of district for vocational education. The town will get about $230,000 from the state's Chapter 70 funds next year. It was approved with a few naes. Article 17 was to approve appropriating $14.4 million for the annual assessment of the Southwick-Tolland-Granville Regional School District. District Superintendent Jennifer Willard said that six teachers and two coaches were laid off to balance the district's budget. It passed unanimously. Article 18 was a request by the school district for a borrowing authorization of $515,000 to design a new boiler for the Woodland School ($103,000), study and design a boiler for Southwick Regional School ($220,000), and $192,000 to rehabilitate the track. That amount was reduced by $100,000 after Town Meeting approved a Community Preservation Committee allocation of that amount for the track. The authorization passed with a few noes. Article 19 was a request by the CPC to approve its annual budget. Town Meeting authorized the reservation of $59,601 for funding Open Space projects, Historic Resources projects, and for Community Housing projects, respectively. It also asked Town Meeting to reserve $387,411 for the Community Preservation General Unreserved Fund, and to reserve $29,800 to cover administrative and operating expenses of the CPC. It passed unanimously. Articles 20, 21, and 22 were CPC-requested allocations of $66,650 to the alum treatment debt service, $670,000 to build six pickleball courts at Whalley Park, and $100,000 for the rehabilitation of the track. All passed with a smattering of naes for each. Article 23 asked Town Meeting to approve a new general bylaw to protect, preserve and enhance public parks, beaches, recreation, [and] conservation areas. It needed a two-thirds majority to be adopted. While 166 voters approved it, 70 voted no, which didn't meet the two-thirds threshold. Article 24 asked Town Meeting to adopt a new public nuisance bylaw. It needed a two-thirds majority to be adopted. After a voice vote, St. Jacques ruled it didn't reach the two-thirds needed. Article 25 as Town Meeting to approve a new accessory dwelling unit bylaw. Essentially, it established a bylaw that allows what are often called mother-in-law suites 'by right' in district zoned residential. It also needed a two-thirds majority to be adopted. St. Jacques ruled after a voice vote the article reached the two-thirds threshold to be adopted. Article 26 was an amendment related to the ADU bylaw involving site plan review. It passed unanimously. Article 27 was a citizens' petition asking Town Meeting to adopt a new bylaw to require hunters to get permission from the owner of property they hunt on. While 96 voters approved it, 71 voted no, which didn't meet the two-thirds threshold needed and failed. Article 28 was another citizen's petition, which asked Town Meeting to rescind the town's short-term rental bylaw, which was approved in at the May 2023 Town Meeting. Before the debate began, town counsel Benjamin Coyle ruled that if there was an attempt to rescind a bylaw, it needed to go through a formal process that involved the Planning Board and public hearings. No vote was taken. Read the original article on MassLive.
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
It took two votes, but Town Meeting decides against borrowing for fiber optic network
SOUTHWICK — For the residents who attended Town Meeting Tuesday, what happened inside the auditorium will not soon be forgotten after decisions were made on several contentious issues that included bylaws to regulate hunting on private property, adopting regulations for town-owned and private property, and borrowing millions to build a fiber optic network. Before the meeting even started, it was clear that residents wanted to participate in what is called the purest form of government as hundreds streamed into the auditorium at Southwick Regional School filling every seat and forcing dozens to sit in folding chairs brought in to allow everyone to participate. And they did. As the meeting got underway, moderated by Celeste St. Jacques, the seven 'housekeeping' articles on the 28-article warrant were quickly deposed of before the main event of the evening — Article 9 — asking residents to approve borrowing $16 million to build a town-owned fiber optic network. It failed during a voting process that can only be defined as unusual. Earlier this year, the High Speed Internet Committee, which was chaired by Select Board member Douglas Moglin, had agreed that the best way forward on building the network was to ask Town Meeting for a borrowing authorization of $16 million which would be drawn down as need for the network's construction over five years. The committee also adopted a monthly subscriber price of $90 and for the financials to work, it needed about a 50% percent participation — or take — rate. As St. Jacques opened up debate on the article, a former member of the committee was first up, and what he proposed surprised many. Robert Boyd took to the microphone and made a motion to postpone the vote. 'The numbers did not work in my opinion,' Boyd said, adding that despite his opinion, he was still in favor of the town building a network. Because Boyd had written the motion down and proposed it as an amendment, Town Meeting had to vote on his request. Moglin defended the article's intent and said it was the consensus of the committee to ask Town Meeting to vote 'up or down.' Before the vote was taken, Jim Putnam, the town's former Town Meeting moderator, asked if postponing it would be for 'indefinite' amount of time or 'time certain.' Before his question was answered, Juliet Hansen moved the question, which stopped debate and forced a vote on Boyd's amendment. It failed. Richard Holland then took the microphone and asked how much the network would cost. Moglin explained, as he has for the last year, that the borrowing for the network would be paid for by the subscribers to the service. Pete Reiser then asked Moglin what if there were 'zero' takers, and if the town had done a feasibility study to determine if there would be enough subscribers to finance the borrowing. Moglin said the town did send out a survey and that generally there was support for building the network. Following Reiser, another resident also was worried if the participation rate didn't get to 50%, the town's taxpayers would be on the hook to pay off the borrowing. 'It would then become a money-losing proposition for the taxpayers,' the man said. While there were negative comments, a nearly equal number of residents supported the project. Amber Bach said it would be a 'win-win' for the town, businesses, and schools, with Christian Bach adding, 'Let's get some competition in town.' Alex Liptak said his experience with the town's current internet provider, Comcast, was the 'worst he'd ever seen.' Kimberly Hatch made a point about how competition with Comcast would be a plus for the town. 'If there's no competition, what are the costs going to be?' she asked. Greg Burke went even further than Hatch, saying that Comcast and Eversource have been 'abusing' their customers for too long. As debate wound down, St. Jacques asked Town Meeting for a voice vote on the article. The article needed two-thirds of the total voters to be approved. The voice vote was inconclusive, so St. Jacques asked for hand count. Those voting yes held up green index cards and those voting no had yellow cards. After several minutes of tallying, St. Jacques announced the results. Of the 557 who voted, 353 voted yes, and 204 voted no. The article fell 15 votes shy of meeting the two-thirds threshold. With the announcement, the opponents yelled and applauded in celebration and many began leaving. That's when the voting process became unusual. As some of the victorious opponents were leaving, Maryssa Cook-Obregon stepped up to one of two standing microphones in the auditorium and asked for a vote to be held again, this time, with paper ballots. 'I think it would instill a lot more confidence if we went with paper ballots,' she said. There was an immediate reaction from audience members. Some began yelling the vote had already been taken. Others yelled that many of the people who voted had already left. However, because a motion had been made to use the ballots, it needed a vote of Town Meeting to allow the paper ballots to be used. There was some confusion about whether a two-thirds or majority vote was needed to have the paper ballots used. After consulting with the town's legal counsel, Benjamin Coyle, it was decided the vote to use the paper ballots would have to be approved by a two-thirds vote. St. Jacques called for a voice vote, which was, again, inconclusive. At that point, it was decided to use the paper ballot to vote on using the paper ballots for the revote on the article. It was announced, and employees from the town clerk's office and volunteers began coordinating the vote. It took about 45 minutes, but everyone in the auditorium filed to the stage to place their votes into a ballot box. It took another 10 minutes to tally the votes. Once done, St. Jacques walked to the podium and announced the results. Of the 488 who voted, 310 voted yes and 178 voted no. It missed passing by two-thirds by 12 votes, which meant the first vote was official and the article was not approved. On Wednesday, Moglin, who had been advocating for the town-owned fiber optic network for over five years, spoke of the outcome in an email. '[It was] great to see so much engagement — while I'm disappointed in the outcome, I respect the feedback we received and will factor that in to any future discussions around providing this important service to Southwick residents and businesses,' he wrote in an email. He also thanked the High Speed Internet Committee members who worked to bring the project forward, and the Whip City Fiber team that worked with us to present this option to our residents. Read the original article on MassLive.
