NEW SALEM — Voters at Tuesday’s Annual Town Meeting will be asked to adopt a roughly $3.2 million budget that includes $1.9 million for schools.
The meeting is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. behind Town Hall at 15 South Main St. Voting will take place outdoors to accommodate social distancing protocol amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The warrant consists of 33 articles.
The proposed budget includes $890,708 for the town’s assessment for Swift River School, $753,996 for its assessment for Ralph C. Mahar Regional School in Orange and $107,270 for its assessment for Franklin County Technical School in Turners Falls. The remainder of the proposed education budget includes $177,438 for Swift River Transportation and $1,762 for debt service for Mahar.
The proposed non-school budget is about $1.3 million. This includes $189,357 for Highway Department salaries and $67,750 for its expenses, as well as $117,625 in insurance costs.
If voters adopt the proposed budget, they would be giving the nod to $81,707 for Police Department salaries and $34,990 for department expenses in addition to $52,525 in Fire Department salaries and $47,590 for department expenses.
One of the warrant’s articles asks voters to appropriate $57,000 to be used by the Highway Department for snow removal and winter road maintenance. Another pertains to $6,000 to replace all police and fire department radios and add-on equipment for vehicles and stations. Still another asks voters to allocate $50,000 for the Vehicle Replacement Stabilization Fund.
“There’s not a lot of spice to the meeting,” Selectboard Chair Randy Gordon said, meaning there are no particularly contentious articles on the warrant this year. “I think the meeting will run smoothly. I don’t expect many, if any, issues.”
Gordon said the trickiest part of the Town Meeting will likely be running it successfully while maintaining social distancing to help curb the spread of COVID-19. He said consideration was given to holding it indoors, but that idea was nixed because Town Hall is too small.