GILL — Despite some residents feeling the article inherently called them a racist or an indirect supporter of a genocide that might have happened, the 30-or-so residents at annual Town Meeting narrowly voted in favor of a call to the state legislature to investigate the seal on the Massachusetts flag that features a Native American.
The decision to support a state representative’s bill that is moving its way through Beacon Hill at a time of heightened feelings on the relevance of native symbols in everyday culture came as the final article at an annual Town Meeting that also approved a $1.64 million operating budget.
The meeting was the continuation of the May meeting, which tackled the first part of the agenda. Tuesday’s proceedings also included a Special Town Meeting with capital requests.
Following just over half an hour of robust debate, residents slimly supported the measure.
There was the typical question of whether a couple of dozen people in a room are a good representation of what the town of Gill thinks on an issue.
“You look around this room and you can count on four hands the number of voters who will vote for it,” Peter Conway said. “I don’t think you have a fair representation based on the way the town of Gill feels on this.”
Finance Committee Chairwoman Claire Chang responded: “You’re always going to have people who are residents of the town who don’t voice their opinions, and that’s unfortunate and it shouldn’t be like that, but I don’t know how you get around that.”
Selectmen John Ward said, while noting he was in favor of the article, it is in the best interest of both people who feel strongly on both sides to let the question be further investigated by the state.
Finance Committee member Tupper Brown said even if a measure was to show Gill in favor of changing the seal, he wouldn’t want to vote it down.
“I think it’d be shocking to the legislature for a vote to suggest we don’t care,” Brown said. “I really think that’d be terrible.”
The Historic Commission’s Kit Carpenter urged residents to realize how infrequently the legislature moves a bill to Ways and Means, which would mean there is a chance for the seal to be readily discussed.
Cultural Commission Chairwoman Sue Kramer said residents should support it in part because if some Native Americans feel it’s not appropriate, then it should be investigated further.
“Let’s be respectful,” she said.
Selectboard Chairman Greg Snedeker said it’s just a matter of looking at the symbolism, saying the various elements to the seal are both “conflicting” and do not “jive” together.
Historic Commission Chairman Ivan Ussach, who introduced the resolution that had already been passed by Wendell and was up for a vote in Orange and New Salem the same night, said part of the timing of it is the revisiting of history with the 400th anniversary of Plymouth coming up in 2020. “What’s an appropriate way to honor that profound event?” he said.
“We see it as a chance for not just western Mass., but Franklin County, the region we live in, to really take leadership and say this is something we believe in strongly,” Ussach said.
Jim Bates offered another viewpoint on a potential change of the seal.
“It’s not going to change the past and I’m not responsible for whatever happened 400 years ago,” Bates said.
Gary Bourbeau added he didn’t want to “pay for something that none of us in this room was responsible for.” He said he “resents” that the article suggests he could be endorsing racism by not voting in favor of it.
After listing off things he cares about, like educating children, taking care of the elderly and veterans, he said about the seal and in part the general narrative these days around racism: “We’re told we have to worry about this and personally, I don’t care about this. I’m worried about all the other things.”
Bourbeau continued, saying resolutions like this are “a form of mind control” because otherwise “I’m a racist or genocidal.”
“How much money will it cost to change those flags and seals? Give it to disabled veterans and forget about it.”
The measure passed by majority vote and ended the 2018 annual Town Meeting.
The town’s $1.64 million budget, $1.54 million of it raised by taxes, was approved unanimously by the couple of dozen residents in attendance.
The budget was a 2.6 percent increase from this year’s budget.
From that budget, about: $497,000 went to public works, $318,000 to fixed costs including insurance, $286,000 to general government, $279,000 to public safety, $151,000 to education, $32,000 to culture and recreation including the library and $23,000 to health and human services.
At the first part of the annual Town Meeting in May, voters approved the Selectboard to add safety zones to control speeding, implemented a 3 percent local sales tax on retail marijuana and approved school spending for next year.
The remaining articles regarding money all passed unanimously at Tuesday’s second part of annual Town Meeting.
The special town meeting portion of Tuesday’s proceedings went without much of a hiccup. All eight articles, all of which for capital improvement, were unanimously approved.
The greatest question mark of the special town meeting was why it was needed in the first place.
Since the finance committee did not have its capital requests ready to-go by the annual Town Meeting, the articles were pushed to this later date, Purington explained.
Next year the town hopes the requests will “process in a more timely manner,” Selectboard Chairman Snedeker said, “so we don’t run into the same issue.”
A couple of questions were raised regarding the use of the Riverside Municipal Building. Part of it is used for the water department’s office space and files, while half of it is used and rented out to the Four Rivers Charter Public School at about $675 a month.
Members of the board and the finance committee both noted a need to continue to invest in a historic building that was originally built with the intent of housing a school, yet it does need significant upgrades.
The requests approved included: $32,000 to resurface the existing asphalt pavement at the public Safety Complex; $10,000 for the repair and refurbishment of a snow plow for the Highway Department; $8,000 to paint the walls, ceiling and install new carpet flooring in the Riverside Municipal Building; $16,000 to install commercial vinyl tile flooring in the office areas of the fire and police departments; $20,000 to install a second set of security doors in the foyer and a window and camera system for the main office at the Gill Elementary School; $8,000 for Gill’s 10 percent share of repairs to the HVAC system at the Great Falls Middle School and Turners Falls High School; $20,000 for a feasibility study and schematic design of a new roof for the elementary school; and about $20,000 to install a new roof at the Riverside Municipal Building.