COLRAIN — The three-article warrant to come before Special Town Meeting voters on Thursday includes two financial transfers and one article that will likely be passed over.
The meeting will be held at 7 p.m. at Colrain Central School, located at 22 Jacksonville Road.
Article 2, which was scheduled to be a vote to impose a 3% excise tax on the retail sale of marijuana for adult use, was added to the meeting’s warrant by mistake, according to Town Administrator Kevin Fox. He explained a 3% tax on retail marijuana was already passed at Colrain’s Annual Town Meeting in 2018.
“We all forgot about it,” Fox said. He expects the Selectboard will make a motion to pass over the article.
Articles 1 and 3 address the use of free cash. If approved, Article 1 will allow the transfer of $15,500 from free cash to pay for a financial statements audit for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2021.
Article 3, if approved, would allow the town to transfer more than $228,600 from free cash to pay the remaining balance of a loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The 15-year loan was approved in April 2013 to finance the purchase of a new fire pumper, which Fox believes was bought in the fall of that year. Approving the transfer will mean the loan’s balance — including the principal cost and accumulated interest — will be paid off seven or eight years ahead of schedule.
“They’re pretty straightforward,” Fox said of the three articles.