MONTAGUE – For eight hours, Town Meeting voters debated several items on the warrant’s 40 articles Saturday.
Votes approved the overall town budget of $9,828,399, which is a 4.49 percent increase compared to this year’s overall budget of $9,406,018. This amount covers “general town operations” such as general government, public safety, employee benefits and public works.
A $10,229,737 budget was approved for the Gill-Montague Regional School District, a 4.27 percent increase from this year’s amount of $9,811,160.
Voters debated whether to remove the salary and benefits from the Montague Police Department budget in an effort to eliminate the school resource officer position, but because the position is funded through the school district and the department, the funding couldn’t be approved at that time on the Town Meeting floor.
The school district spends $50,000 and the police department spends roughly $20,000 for the school resource officer position.
People expressed their concern about having a police officer in the school and were unsure of what role the school resource officer played.
Gary Earles said when he read the description of the school resource officer position, it sounded to him like a social worker.
“They’re going to get training in child and adolescent development, behavioral health disorders. They’re doing all kinds of things I did (as a social working) in my training years ago,” Earles said. “So to me to put a police officer in that position — if you want to be a social worker, be a social worker.”
School Committee member Jen Lively said she approved it in the school’s budget this year, asking for more information about the position.
Superintendent Michael Sullivan said the School Committee weighed the pros and cons about having an school resource officer with the previous Montague police chief.
“In our district, the main reason I have become an advocate for the SRO is safety and security,” Sullivan said. “It’s not about counseling benefits of the position. He’s not a professional counselor, but what he does provide is really valuable, it’s a measure of increased security in a country that has shootings becoming commonplace.”
He said the school resource officer is never involved in searches or disciplinary decisions.
Dan Miner, the school resource officer for the school district, spoke as well.
“I’ve put my hands on two students this year; one was a mental health issue with the assistance of a spotter in my office,” Miner said. “That student later went to the hospital. That was definitely a mental health issue and was for his safety. Then I was walking into the cafeteria when a fight broke out right in front of me with two females and I put my hands up underneath the girl. She was still fighting and I walked her out of the cafeteria. If you want to call that a restraint that’s fine.”
Finance Committee Vice Chair Michael Naughton, said it was clear the topic of the school resource officer position was a divisive one and if people were concerned, they should attend a School Committee meeting to discuss the matter.
“Whatever decision gets made today should not be the end. The people that decide whether to have a school resource officer are the School Committee and Police Department, and they’ve put it in their budget,” said Naughton. “We can do what we can to adjust the amount that we fund in the budget and the Police Department, but if people feel strongly about this issue, the proper forum to address it is with the School Committee.”
The budget for both the Police Department and the Gill-Montague School District were approved as presented.
Capital improvement articles for the school including $21,755 for the installation of columns at Sheffield Elementary School, $35,344 for a facilities truck for the district and $76,670 for replacing sidewalks and curbing in the front of Turners Falls High School were approved.
The wooden ballot boxes will be replaced with up to seven optical scanners after voters approved an article using $50,000 from free cash. With an amendment made to the article, the town will rent or purchase the number of scanners needed, because the Town Clerk Deb Bourbeau said she may try to reduce the precincts in 2021.
George Gajda asked if there was a way to keep using the ballot boxes because he found “there is just something visceral about voting that way.”
“I was thinking there are a lot of machine shops that would probably geek out at the opportunity to fix the mechanisms inside and I imagine it would be far less than $50,000,” Gajda said.
Bourbeau said the boxes jam consistently, the tops and sides don’t lock and the numbers don’t turn all the time.
“The integrity of the elections is on the line,” Bourbeau said. “These boxes are from the early 1900s and I get that it’s an old New England quaint tradition, but we have hit the proverbial wall.”
Selectboard Chair Richard Kuklewicz said despite the fact he enjoys using the wooden ballot boxes, it’s time for them to be replaced.
“The facts are – they’re getting old, they’re hard to maintain and typically, we’re one of the very last communities to get our information out in local or regional elections,” Kuklewicz said. “Enough people already question if your votes really count. When your votes don’t really matter because so many others have been counted, it makes you ask ‘why did I bother?’”
The article was approved by a majority.
Town Meeting voters approved the following budget items:
— $1,085,007 for Franklin County Technical School, an 11.36 percent increase from this year’s amount of $974,338.
— $53,078 for the Turners Falls airport, a 9.35 percent increase from this year’s amount of $48,539.
— $2,295,227 for the Water Pollution Control Facility, a 13.78 percent decrease from this year’s amount of $2,017,231.
— $50,000 to study to assess inflow and infiltration to the public sewer system in Millers Falls and to provide options and cost estimates for its removal to be raised from sewer user fees.
Voters approved a request of $10,000 from taxation, to modify the interior swinging doors, plus repairing and weatherizing the front doors of the Carnegie Library.
In a separate article, $22,050 from free cash, was approved by voters for the purpose of making building improvements to remediate moisture problems at the Montague Center Library.
Voters approved using $20,000 from free cash, to make building improvements to remediate moisture problems at the Millers Falls Library.
Reach Melina Bourdeau at mbourdeau@recorder.com or 413-772-0261 ext. 263.