A petition submitted Monday will put a nonbinding referendum on the Erving town ballot in May asking voters if they would wish to retain the Turners Falls High School mascot, formerly the Indians.
However, in Gill, that same referendum proposal was turned down by the Selectboard.
Enough Erving residents signed the petition to automatically put the question on the ballot. The other option would have been to request the Erving Board of Selectmen put the question on the ballot without the required signatures.
Save the TF Indians Logo, the group behind the referendums, posted on social media about the Erving referendum.
“While we understand the Town of Erving is not an official member of the GMRSD (Gill-Montague Regional School District), we respect the long-time relationship the town has had with the district and the valuable addition their students bring to our school environment,” the post said.
The pro-mascot group’s post also thanked the Erving Selectboard for allowing the ballot question, but Town Administrator Bryan Smith said that since the required number of signatures were presented, it automatically went on the ballot. He did add the that Selectboard was notified of the ballot question during its Monday night meeting, but did not take a vote on it.
A request to Chris Pinardi, one of the leaders of the pro-mascot group, for clarification on the post went unreturned on Tuesday.
Last month, the group secured the placement of the question on the Montague ballot through a request of the Board of Selectmen.
The group wanted the Gill Selectboard to consider placing the question before voters. But the board denied the request by a 2 to 1 vote. John Ward and Greg Snedecker voted against the ballot question and Randy Crochier reluctantly voted for it, saying that since it was on Montague’s ballot, it should also be on Gill’s, considering the town’s share the school district.
“We thank the selectboard for hearing our request,” the same post from the group said. “For the residents of the Town of Gill we deeply regret their decision not to allow your opinion on this matter to be counted. As a member of the district we feel strongly that your vote on this matter should be allowed and counted with equal merit to that of Montague.”
John Ward, chairman of the Gill Selectboard, said that he supported the School Committee’s decision on the issue. “In this instance I did not want to second guess the school because I felt like they did their due diligence on this issue,” he said.
The requests for the referendum follow a vote by the school committee to change the mascot. However, the process to start these referendums started during the mascot debate which spanned September to February.
The School Committee voted to change the mascot in a 6 to 3 decision on Feb. 14.