BUCKLAND – The date of a Special Town Meeting has been changed to Saturday, Nov. 10, to decide whether to spend $2.7 million on a new highway garage and partial demolition of the old Mayhew Steel building on Sears Street Extension.
The meeting will begin at 10 a.m. in Town Hall at 17 State St. If at least two-thirds of the voters approve the garage article, they will be asked to support a Proposition 2½ debt-exclusion override at a special election on Nov. 14, with polls at the Town Hall open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. A majority vote only is required for this approval. A debt exclusion temporarily raises the tax rate for the specific project, until it is paid off.
The meeting date was changed from Nov. 13 to Nov. 10 to accommodate residents who want to attend a party for retiring legislator Stephen Kulik, which was also scheduled for Nov. 13.
In moving the meeting to a Saturday, the Selectboard hopes more residents will be able to come out to vote on what they consider an important town issue.
The town’s Selectboard said Tuesday that the low bid for the highway garage project, including money for a project manager/clerk of the works and incidental costs would be about $2,775,000. The town would borrow the money to build a roughly 5,000-square-foot municipal highway garage, demolish the south section of the Mayhew plant and replace it with a 5,000 square foot pole barn for vehicle storage. The new plan recommended by the Highway Garage Building Committee is about $800,000 less than a proposal that voters defeated in February 2017. That proposal had been for $3.5 million, requiring a two-thirds approval. Townspeople defeated it in a 41-41 tie. The town does not have an occupancy permit, because the structure doesn’t meet state codes for a municipal garage.
“We can’t keep operating the way we are,” said Selectman Zachary Turner. “We need to make a move.”
Another warrant article requests $30,000 to finish equipping a new highway truck the town wants to buy. Annual Town Meeting voters OK’d spending $140,000 for the truck, believing that another snow plow from a town truck would fit on it. The plow didn’t fit, however, and according to Highway Superintendent Steve Daby, the addition of a wing plow reduces the time required to clear all the town streets by several hours.
The town is requesting $29,800 to design and make repairs to the Transfer Station. To pay for this, $9,000 will be taken from Transfer Station Stabilization and $20,800 will come from General Stabilization.
Unpaid bills left over from the fiscal year that ended in June include $320.42 for streetlights, $1,375.20 for road machinery maintenance bills, $724.66 diesel fuel, $115.36 trash hauling for the Recreation Department and $244.87 for internet services. These bills will be paid for by money in the current fiscal year budget.