During Monday night’s Erving Special Town Meeting, the town passed all 11 proposed spending articles, with 10 passing unanimously.
The town authorized $50,000 for hazardous material clean up at the IP Mill site, $60,000 for new siding on Town Hall, and $20,000 for the open space and recreation plans, according to Bryan Smith, the administrative coordinator for the town.
The additional appropriation for siding on Town Hall was the only item that passed with a majority vote, and not unanimously, with some town meeting members concerned that the town should possibly look into a larger renovation of Town Hall, which was originally a brick school building, and some members wanted it to be restored to its original brick.
Others called for a feasibility study on the building to learn how the town uses it and how to best use the building in the future, according to Smith. He said the study is something the town is exploring now.
“It makes sense to further look into how to best use town hall in the long term,” Smith said.
The engineers hired by the town for the IP Mill site estimated the cost for removing hazardous materials to be about $200,000 to $250,000. Smith said the town has applied for a grant from the EPA that would cover $200,000 of the clean up, so the $50,000 appropriated on Monday would cover the difference.
Smith said that if the town does not get the grant, the $50,000 would go into an account that the town would start to go toward the project eventually.
The town also approved $10,000 for safety speed monitoring equipment for Church and North streets, $15,000 for new voting equipment, $15,000 for the final portion of the IP Mill feasibility study, as well as about $14,500 for paying for a fiscal year 2016 invoice for new lighting at the publicly owned Treatment of Waste facility, as well as several smaller ticket items.
Reach Miranda Davis at
413-772-0261 ext. 280 or
mdavis@recorder.com.