NORTHFIELD — Two debates on the Pioneer Valley Regional School District dominated Northfield’s Town Meeting Monday night: one on a $44,406 payment toward repaying a debt the district incurred through its school lunch program; the other, an amendment to the school district agreement that would have reduced the size of the School Committee, added term limits and restricted district employees from serving. The supplemental appropriation passed 81 to 76. The amendment failed unanimously.
Also, an article designating the second Monday in October as Indigenous Peoples’ Day rather than Columbus Day was voted down in a vote of 77 to 79, with multiple residents suggesting that it would be wrong to completely replace Columbus Day with a new holiday, even though Columbus’s legacy has been re-evaluated in recent decades.
The annual operating budget of $8,474,599, a 4 percent increase over the current fiscal year’s budget of $8,148,298, passed after some discussion, with some residents suggesting that the town could be more conservative in its spending, and that voters have been inconsiderate of Northfield’s residents who live below the poverty line.
An article to change the date for Town Meeting to the last Saturday of April in the morning failed. Senior Center Director Heather Tower said she hoped a different time would allow more residents to participate, but many residents suggested that the new time may be just as exclusive for different reasons.
All other articles on the warrant passed either unanimously or with minimal dissent. Those articles were:
To aggregate residences and businesses in Northfield and other towns to jointly contract for electricity supply.
To negotiate a payment in lieu of taxes for the solar energy facility at Mount Hermon Station Road.
To reduce requirements for residents who are veterans to qualify for tax exemptions.
To continue the employment of Fire Chief Floyd “Skip” Dunnell.
To allow the Emergency Medical Services Department to use its enterprise fund.
To allow the Sewer Department to use its enterprise fund.
To establish revolving funds for a Highway Department bucket truck, a summer playground program, the Council on Aging’s breakfast and lunch program and recycling.
To move money from the Recreation Commission’s revolving fund to the Summer Playground Program fund.
To purchase a police cruiser and related equipment.
To purchase new police radios.
To make appropriations to begin phase II of design work for a new emergency services facility.
To buy a ladder truck for the Fire Department.
To spend a total of $146,000 on repairs and replacements at Northfield Elementary School.
To allow the town to take ownership of the land at the intersection of Main and School streets where the fire station is and where an emergency services building may be in the future.
To establish a trust fund for post-employment benefits for town employees.
To undergo a financial audit.
To provide payment for EMS workers who are unable to work due to injuries sustained on the job.
To make appropriations for the maintenance of the transfer station.
To allow the Conservation Commission to hire a forester.
To increase the surcharge on real property from 0.5 percent to 1 percent.
To make appropriations to the stabilization fund.