HAWLEY — Voters adopted a $977,257 general operating budget for the budget year that begins in July.
They defeated adopting a Stretch Energy Code town bylaw by a two-thirds majority, but voted for all requested changes to the Mohawk Trail Regional School District regional agreement at Monday’s annual town meeting.
The largest budget increase this year is in school costs. The town’s vocational school costs dropped by $25,000, but the Hawlemont Regional School assessment went up from $210,731 to $240,876. Also the town’s Mohawk assessment will go up from $133,894 to $152,223.
Mohawk/Hawlemont Superintendent Michael Buoniconti said the overall budget increase for Hawlemont was only 1.5 percent, and the budget hike for Mohawk was an overall 3.3 percent. He said state aid has been flat for the past decade, but cost-of-living and other fixed costs were rising.
He said Hawley’s costs have spiked because of the state’s minimum required contribution formula for education spending. Also, he said, the school district has less rainy day savings than it has used in the past to offset assessment increases.
He said school increases like Hawley is seeing this year “is not the plan for the foreseeable future.”
Hawley approved three proposed changes to the eight-member towns’ regional district agreement. The first amendment includes adding preschool costs to Mohawk’s operating assessments and it cleans up obsolete language. A second amendment would allow Rowe to join the district as a secondary school member (grades 8 through 12). A third proposal would change a requirement that all district changes must be unanimously approved by all towns to a two-thirds majority vote required. Currently, any regional agreement changes require unanimous approval from its member towns, and Heath defeated this article Saturday.
Voters agreed to take $100,000 from its “free cash” reserves to pay down its storm damage loan. Also, $30,000 from free cash was used for the annual payment on the purchase of a used fire pumper and one-ton truck.
Adopting the state Stretch Energy Code Bylaw building standards would help Hawley secure a $130,000 grant for Green Community projects, including energy-efficiency improvements to town buildings. This was the most debated issue, as several residents said they didn’t want the state to dictate what they could build on their own property.
Ed Brady said building permits require people to meet state building codes, which are not that different from the new stretch codes proposed. Suzanne Crawford said the $130,000 grant could generate a lot of utility savings for town buildings for years to come. The article failed because the 22-13 vote — was not the required two-thirds majority needed to pass.