COLRAIN — Residents approved the entire Annual Town Meeting warrant Wednesday, including a citizen’s petition in opposition to state subsidies and incentives for biomass plants.
Gathered outside the Town Offices, voters passed “A Resolution in Opposition to State Subsidies and Incentives for Biomass Plants,” which states wood-burning biomass plants are harmful for the environment. With the approval of the petition, Colrain now joins other Western Massachusetts communities such as Leverett, Montague and Springfield, which passed similar resolutions.
The petition was one of few articles that generated discussion at the meeting.
Resident Jonathan LaGreze voiced approval for the environmental considerations behind the petition, but noted that “curtailing use of this renewable resource” could hurt the forestry industry in Colrain.
“I am very much in sympathy of the environmental concerns,” LaGreze said. “We have a number of people involved in the forestry industry.”
Selectboard member Thomas Griffin voiced concerns about “inflexibility” of the resolution. He said technology improves quickly and pollution rates could go down within a few years.
Resident Betsy Browning said biomass plants anywhere in Western Massachusetts would damage the environment and beauty of Colrain.
“There’s massive amounts of clear-cutting in areas with biomass plants. Can you imagine that hillside clear-cut?” Browning asked while gesturing at the hill behind the Town Offices. “All day long we’d have huge trucks with logs coursing through our neighborhoods.”
Resident Nancy Turkle asked voters to think about the town’s neighbors and how they would feel if a biomass plant was built in Colrain.
“If the biomass plant would be in our backyard here in Colrain, you’d be against it,” Turkle said. “Think of our neighbors in Springfield.”
The citizen’s petition passed easily, although it did require a hand-count instead of a voice vote.
In other business, voters approved a town operating budget for fiscal year 2022 of $1.75 million, which represents a 2.9 percent increase over the current budget, and $2.16 million for the Mohawk Trail Regional School District’s budget.
The school district also received the OK from Colrain voters to borrow up to $665,000 for a litany of repairs, including a new boiler control system, heating system valves and replacement of the fire alarm control among other things. A town vote will be held within the next 90 days to decide on if any money borrowed will be exempt from Proposition 2½.
School Committee member Toby Bassett said the school district wants to borrow the money now because “the interests rates are low.” He also added the boiler system at the regional high school in Buckland is so old that it stills runs on a disk operating system (DOS), which was used in the 1980s and ’90s.
Voters also approved a second citizen’s petition requiring the use of the gender-neutral term “Selectboard” in the town’s bylaws, rather than “Board of Selectmen.”
An article to provide $459,812 for the Colrain Broadband network’s operating costs also passed.
Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com or 413-930-4081.