LEVERETT — Selling a former library building to a nonprofit, renaming the Transfer Station’s entrance road to honor a former employee missing for more than a year, and showing support for the Fair Share Amendment are actions to be considered at Annual Town Meeting on Saturday.
The meeting to consider a 29-article warrant, including elections for town officials and a $6.83 million fiscal year 2023 budget for town and school operations, begins at 9 a.m. at Leverett Elementary School.
The budget is $246,199 or 3.7% higher than this year’s $6.59 million spending plan and, if adopted, would add about 77 cents per $1,000 valuation to property tax bills. Town employees would get a 3% cost-of-living adjustment, with most departments holding to 3% guidelines issued by town officials.
But outgoing Selectboard member Julie Shively, in the election newsletter report, writes that increases to costs for goods and services are driving up some budgets. Specifically, she cites both bulky waste, rising by $8,280 or 59% to $22,287; and trash hauling fees, going up by $5,109 or 37% to $18,811.
The biggest part of the budget, accounting for 63% of spending, is for the public schools, with $2.77 million for the elementary schools and $1.53 million for the Amherst-Pelham Regional Schools’ assessment and debt. School spending overall is going up by 1.8% or $77,094 from $4.22 million to $4.29 million. Leverett will also be the first of the four towns that make up the regional district to take up a new assessment formula.
Leverett’s budget includes $33,157 to provide police services to Wendell. That is reimbursed by the neighboring town.
Two articles are related to the future of the former Bradford M. Field Memorial Library at 1 Shutesbury Road, built in 1916 and used for library services until the Leverett Library opened in 2003. Now home to the Leverett Family Museum, $30,000 in Community Preservation Act money would pay for a building condition assessment and historic structures report and plan.
The second article would authorize the Selectboard to sell the building later this year to a nonprofit educational and historical organization, which will use the site to store artifacts and archives of town history.
Meanwhile, a petition article seeks to honor Richard Drury, missing from his Dudleyville Road home since December 2020, by naming the entrance road to the Transfer Station Drury Lane. Drury ran the Transfer Station for several years and this recognition would be for the “memory of his creative spirit, commitment to the community and helpfulness to others.”
The Fair Share Amendment, a proposal to amend the state Constitution, seeks to impose a 4% levy on the portion of personal income that’s over $1 million and direct the revenue to public education and transportation projects statewide. The warrant article in support of the so-called “millionaires’ tax,” which is on the November state election ballot, states that “those investments are needed more than ever to lift our economy into an equitable and long-lasting recovery,” and cites structural deficiencies and overdue bridge repairs in Leverett.
Vehicle purchases, using stabilization account money, will include a $55,000 hybrid electric and gas police cruiser and $77,000 for a medium-size dump truck.
Free cash will be used for other spending, with $66,000 to match a Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness grant to fix a culvert on Shutesbury Road at Number Six and Old Mountain roads. Other free cash would go to buy tax collection software, do preventive tree work along roads, and repair a 2013 dump truck and concrete floor drains in the Fire Station’s vehicle bays.
As is customary, and a process that remains unique to Leverett, town elections will be held from the floor of Town Meeting, with registered voters to be nominated and then elected by those present at the session. Should there be more nominees for a panel than positions available, ballots will be handed out to residents in attendance and then counted.
No contested elections are yet known, based on information in the election newsletter. Announced candidates include newcomer Patricia Duffy for Selectboard, who is seeking the three-year position held by Shively; newcomer Jya Plavin for one of two, three-year positions on the School Committee; incumbent Jean Bergstrom for a five-year term on the Planning Board; newcomer Judith Davidov for one of two, three-year positions as a library trustees; incumbent Phil Carter for one of two, three-year terms on the Finance Committee; incumbent Tom Masterton for a three-year position as constable; and incumbents Cat Ford and Samuel Black for the positions on the Board of Assessors, with one- and three-year terms available. There are no announced candidates for a three-year term on the Board of Health.