ASHFIELD — Voters at a roughly 45-minute Special Town Meeting unanimously approved all six warrant articles on Tuesday, including requests to increase Park Commission membership and allocate up to $40,000 toward buying a new police cruiser.
The majority of participation at Town Hall consisted of clarifying questions from attendees. None of the articles were contested by anyone in the crowd, which consisted of around 20 people.
The Selectboard requested that $1,000 be appropriated to provide a bonus for Town Collector Lynn Benson, who recently became certified by the Massachusetts Collectors and Treasurers Association, according to Selectboard member Steven Gougeon. Although the town adopted a law that allows for a $1,000 annual bonus for a certified collector, money was not budgeted for that bonus this year.
“Not until this time of year when the assessors have gone through all the valuations and gyrations of trying to figure out how much we actually have to appropriate — how much the town can raise — do we know if we’re over the levy or under the levy,” Selectboard Chair Tom Carter said, explaining why the town had not budgeted for the $1,000 bonus. “When we’re budgeting in April, we always choose to try and make sure we’re under the levy because I get really red-faced if I have to call you all here tonight to repeal something because we spent too much money.”
Approval of Article 2 allows the town to set aside up to $40,000 for a new police cruiser, adding to the $25,000 that was already allocated at Annual Town Meeting in May.
The plan in the spring was to appropriate the money to purchase the cruiser over two years. However, due to supply chain shortages and price hikes, the town decided to purchase the cruiser before the next Annual Town Meeting.
“It’s been difficult to find them right now and the price is going up,” Selectboard Vice Chair Todd Olanyk said.
The town’s two cruisers are replaced in cycles on an eight-year basis, with one being replaced every four years.
“We find at that point, the mileage and wear and tear of the vehicle gets high enough where the maintenance costs start to not make sense for the town anymore,” Olanyk said.
Buying a 2022 model slightly ahead of schedule would save the town around $14,000 compared to what it would likely pay next year had the purchase remained on schedule, Olanyk explained.
Article 3 allocated $25,000 to pay out unused vacation time for employees.
Previously, there was unlimited vacation time rollover allowed year after year. A change to the employee handbook is intended to incentivize employees to take vacation by limiting vacation rollover to two weeks. However, longtime employees have saved up more than this two weeks of vacation time. This article’s approval enables the town to pay the employees who have extra vacation time they will not be able to use.
“This is to pay out, basically, that banked time people had had, and that vacation time so we are starting with a clean slate going forward,” Gougeon explained.
Administrative Assistant Paul McLatchy III explained that this is a “pretty standard” practice embraced by other local towns.
Article 4 requested $5,000 to purchase all the streetlights in town from Eversource.
The Selectboard hopes to secure grant funding to change the light bulbs on the streetlights to LEDs that would save energy and money. To qualify for a grant, however, the town must own the streetlights themselves, which are owned by Eversource.
“We buy the old junk fixtures and then when the grant comes, it’ll all be updated to the new fixtures,” Carter said.
According to McLatchy, the town would experience a 69% drop in energy prices, or $2,000 per year, with the switch to LEDs. Officials plan to buy approximately 21 streetlights, but the exact number is still being determined.
Article 5 allocated $30,000 to pay the cost of tuition for students attending Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School and Franklin County Technical School. Gougeon explained that Annual Town Meeting allocates funding before final enrollment counts exist for each school. The enrollment of Ashfield students was underestimated this year, and the town’s total is now 14 students between the two schools, according to the Finance Committee.
“Every year we set the annual budget, it’s a guess as to how many vocational ed students we’re gonna have throughout the year,” Olanyk said. “Sometimes, we hit the nail on the head. Sometimes, we come up a bit short.”
The Park Commission will expand from three members to five with Article 5’s approval amending the town’s bylaws.
The warrant explains the Park Commission’s workload has increased over the last few years, but with no corresponding increase in membership. The change serves “to basically spread the load out” across a larger number of people, Gougeon explained. Members are slated to be elected to the new seats in May.
Reach Julian Mendoza at 413-930-4231 or jmendoza@recorder.com.