SUNDERLAND — The town will have $8,564,902 for general municipal purposes if voters at Friday’s annual town meeting adopt a budget article as proposed.
The article asks if residents will raise and appropriate an $8,564,902 expense budget that includes a total operating budget of $7,841,007. The proposed expense budget also includes $53,000 for Frontier Community Access Television’s operations, $388,492 for a wastewater treatment plant sewer fund, $5,063 for a town fund set up for inspections and improvements on septic systems, and $277,340 for free cash. This article, which requires a two-thirds vote to pass, is contingent upon a Proposition 2½ override vote allowing the town to raise an additional $200,000.
One article on the warrant asks if voters will approve borrowing $1,826,664, of which $630,000 would cover the costs of designing and constructing a new track at Frontier Regional School and $1,196,664 to pay for other improvements, including carpet replacement, roof repairs, upgrades to the building’s heating, ventilation and air conditioning, and the oversight costs associated with the projects. The Frontier Regional School Committee authorized the borrowing by a two-thirds vote April 4. Bob Lesko, director of school facilities, previously told The Recorder the track was built in 1996.
Superintendent Darius Modestow previously said the money would be borrowed through notes, instead of all at once. He has said the interest rate would be determined at the time of the loan, though it was projected to be about 2.8 percent.
The annual town meeting is slated to begin at 7 p.m. in the Sunderland Elementary School at 1 Swampfield Drive on Friday.
Voters will also be asked to:
■ Adopt an article transferring from free cash $58,576 to the town’s Stabilization Fund, which Board of Selectmen Clerk Scott Bergeron described as a “rainy day fund” of sorts.
■ Adopt an article transferring from free cash $88,027 to the Capital Stabilization Fund, which Bergeron described as a fund for important purchases of items with a life cycle of more than five years or costing more than $10,000.
■ Authorize the Board of Selectmen to petition the Massachusetts General Court for special legislation to formally change the governing body’s name to the Selectboard.
■ Simplify the Capital Improvements Planning Committee’s permissible membership to “one member of the Selectboard, and at least four (4) but not more than eight (8) other members.” The town administrator would also be a non-voting member under the change. This vote requires a two-thirds majority.
■ Adopt a resolution in support of a bill at the state level that would create a special commission pertaining to the seal and motto of the commonwealth.
Reach Domenic Poli at: dpoli@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 262.