COLRAIN — Voters can weigh in on 37 items at Tuesday’s Annual Town Meeting including an operating budget of $1.7 million for fiscal 2020. The budget increased by roughly $50,000 from fiscal 2019.
Following the town budget is a vote on education expenses. Mohawk Trail Regional School District’s operating budget for fiscal 2020 is roughly $1.9 million, while Franklin County Technical School District’s operating budget is nearly $320,000. The town will also vote on capital expenses related to education: $58,946 for Mohawk Trail and $5,994 for Franklin Tech.
In addition, Mohawk Trail submitted an article to see if the town will transfer a maximum of $30,596 in underspent funds from prior capital improvement projects at the Colrain elementary and Mohawk middle and high schools to the building subcommittee. Funds may only be used for capital projects at Colrain Central School.
The town will also vote to approve $11,000 to fund its share of the county’s cooperative public health service, managed by the Franklin Regional Council of Governments. Colrain joined the shared service this year.
The final warrant item asks the town to adopt a state law imposing a 6 percent lodging tax on short-term rentals.
Other items up for a vote include:
— Raise $17,000 for interest fees on short-term indebtedness.
— Raise $11,262 for its share of statutory charges and core service assessment of the Franklin Regional Council of Governments.
— Raise $88,269 for its share of the Franklin Regional Retirement System.
— Approve $5,414 to fund a regional animal control officer.
— Transfer $47,000 to buy a new Fire Department pickup truck.
— Transfer $16,000 to buy and install a new IT Network Hardware and Software.
— Spend $194,013 in free cash on several town expenses for general costs, assessor’s, transfer station, highway, police, technology, fire department and Griswold Library capital.
— Transfer $50,000 to the post-employment benefits liability trust fund.
— Accept provisions to establish a Broadband Network.
— Vote whether to permit the Selectboard to enter a 10-year contract with a recycling vendor selected by state Department of Environmental Protection.
— Approve $88,269 for the Franklin Regional Retirement System.
Citizens petitions
Four citizens petitions are on the warrant:
— To see if the town will support a state bill that would create a commission concerning the state flag and seal.
— To see if the town will support naming a meeting room in the Highway Department Garage the Judith Sullivan Meeting Room.
— To conduct a straw poll to gauge the views of voters on finding a different use for the Arthur A. Smith Covered Bridge, a historic structure that was restored and reopened to pedestrians in 2007. The town has $25,000 in leftover bridge funds from the state. Proposed options include: allowing vehicular traffic on the bridge; continuing pedestrian and bicycle use and building a park on one or both ends; to landscape the bridge; renting the bridge for gatherings; approaching one or both landowners on both ends of the bridge for permission to use their land for town or any proposal that may be suggested at Town Meeting.
— To see if the town will support a resolution calling for U.S. leaders to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition on Nuclear Weapons, making it illegal under international law to develop, test, produce, possess, stockpile, transfer, use or threaten to use nuclear weapons. View the treaty here: https://www.icanw.org/status-of-the-treaty-on-the-prohibition-of-nuclear-weapons/.
Colrain’s Annual Town Meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, May 7 at 7 p.m. at Colrain Central School, 22 Jacksonville Road. View the warrant here: https://colrain-ma.gov/news/newsfile_276_ATM_WARRANT__FY20_final.pdf.
Reach Grace Bird at gbird@recorder.com or 413-772-0162, ext. 280.