BUCKLAND — With town expenses rising and revenues staying flat in recent years, annual meeting voters will be asked to approve a local restaurant meals tax, a marijuana sales tax and to let the Mohawk school district borrow up to $230,000 for asbestos removal, floor replacement and other repairs to the Buckland Shelburne Elementary School.
The Annual Town Meeting begins Monday, May 7, at 7 p.m. inside the Mohawk Trail Regional School auditorium. A special town meeting, to pay a few expenses in the current budget year, begins at 6:30 p.m.
According to the Finance Committee, total town expenditures are up by $35,408 — for a total budget of $2.3 million. This 2 percent increase will add about 37 cents to the tax rate, or about $37 per $100,000 valuation.
School costs make up 52 percent of the town budget, and the assessment hike for the Mohawk Trail Regional School District represents a 4.5 percent increase of $97,828 this year.
Although Tropical Storm Irene happened seven years ago, Buckland is still paying off its flood repairs and will ask voters to take $140,000 from the Stabilization Account to pay toward a debt owed for repairs to the Clesson Brook Road section of town. Town officials are seeking about $500,000 in state reimbursement for the town’s out-of-pocket costs in repairing flood damage, but they don’t yet know if the full Legislature will approve the money.
Other town requests, to be paid for with money transfers from existing accounts, are: $140,000 for a highway truck; $15,000 for a transfer station compactor; and $15,000 for a new roadway into the Buckland Recreation Area, where plans are in the works for a new playground and pool.
The town will vote on regional agreement changes requested by the Mohawk Trail Regional School District Committee. One article is to remove Rowe tuition from the regional agreement, so that future negotiations between the Rowe and Mohawk committees can be reached without requiring approval from eight member towns. A second change is to allow Mohawk to negotiate vocational bus transportation for Smith Vocational and Franklin County Technical School students from Hawley, Charlemont, Ashfield and Plainfield. The third change is to move Mohawk’s sixth-graders out of their respective elementary schools and into a section of the Mohawk Trail Regional School.
Residents will decide if the town will adopt a local sales tax of less than 1 percent of gross receipts for restaurant meals within the town boundaries.
Also on the warrant is a proposal to levy a 3 percent sales tax on any marijuana retail products, should a retailer operate in town.
A “pooper scooper” bylaw would require dog owners to remove their pet’s poop from public property and from other people’s lawns and sidewalks or face a $25 fine for each offense. This would be enforced by the dog officer or his or her designee.
Selectboard Chairman Dena Willmore said she petitioned for this article, as a way to get people to pick up after their pets. “The last animal control officer had to speak to people about it, but there was no fine for repeated complaints,” she said. Willmore said businesses don’t like it in front of their shops; nor does the postmaster, who has to clean it up in front of the Post Office in Upper Buckland.