ASHFIELD — Voters will be asked to address some housekeeping issues during a four-article Special Town Meeting next week, with a focus on budget transfers and prior-year bills that need to be paid.
The Special Town Meeting is slated for Monday, Nov. 16, at 7 p.m. at Town Hall. Only one article, Article 4, asks the town to appropriate money while the other three involve transferring funds from different accounts or using free cash.
“I think this meeting will be pretty simple since it’s mostly housekeeping actions,” Town Administrator Paul McLatchy III said. “It’s a fairly short warrant.”
McLatchy said that while he can’t predict what will inspire discussion at Town Meeting, he feels Article 4 would be the most likely to do so. This article, if passed, would appropriate money to put toward the solar array project at the Wastewater Treatment Plant.
The town had previously received an $870,872 grant for the purpose of installing solar arrays on the Highway Garage roof and the Wastewater Treatment Plant roof from the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources in November 2025. However, the initial engineering work did not adequately account for expenses for land preparation, which is why the town is asking voters to appropriate a sum of money.
The actual dollar amount was not specified on the warrant. Information posted to the town’s website notes that it is likely that grant funding can be identified and money can be transferred from the Highway Garage roof improvement project. The town, in its explanation of the warrant article, states that while it is working to reduce the footprint of the solar array, “it will nevertheless be more than the contingency budget is able to absorb.”
Articles 1 and 2 both relate to the Wastewater Treatment Plant, and both involve transferring money. Article 1 looks to transfer $5,000 from the Wastewater Treatment Plant Operational Expenses Account to the Wastewater Treatment Plant Salaries and Benefits Account. The $5,000 would get added to the plant operator’s salary.
According to the town, this change would make the salary for the plant operator more competitive with other municipalities, and would raise the salary to the level of other department heads.
Article 2 takes $41.68 from the Wastewater Treatment Plant Operational Expenses Account to pay an Amazon bill that was missed in the final days of fiscal year 2026.
Article 3, if passed, would transfer $5,000 from free cash to upgrade the assessors’ software. In the explanation for this warrant article, the town states that the Board of Assessors has known for years that the software would eventually need to get upgraded and has been trying to delay the change for as long as possible. However, further delays are no longer possible, so the article is being brought to Town Meeting.
