COLRAIN — Townspeople will weigh in on 29 articles on the Annual Town Meeting warrant on Wednesday, including a resolution against state subsidies for biomass plants, capital projects at Mohawk Trail Regional School and a proposed $1.75 million town operating budget.
Scheduled for 5:30 p.m. at the Town Offices, the warrant has numerous financial articles. Article 4 seeks approval of the operating budget for fiscal year 2022, which is a 2.9 percent increase over this year’s approximately $1.7 million budget, according to Town Administrator Kevin Fox.
Near the end of the meeting, Article 28 will ask voters to adopt a “Resolution in Opposition to State Subsidies and Incentives for Biomass Plants.” Should the town adopt this resolution, it would join a series of other towns, including Leverett, Montague and Springfield, in opposition. The resolutions argue that wood-burning biomass facilities are a highly polluting form of energy generation, known to release pollutants including fine particulate matter, volatile organic compounds, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide.
Colrain resident David Greenberg, along with other members of Franklin County Continuing the Political Revolution’s Climate Task Force, have been including the resolutions in opposition to biomass plants on their respective Annual Town Meeting warrants through citizen’s petitions. Greenberg said language for the petitions was drawn from the Springfield Climate Justice Coalition, which formed to protest a proposed Springfield biomass plant.
On April 2, the state Department of Environmental Protection revoked the approval necessary for the construction of Palmer Renewable Energy’s proposed 42-megawatt biomass electricity generating plant in Springfield. Palmer Renewable Energy has since filed an appeal looking to reverse the decision.
While the Springfield plant has been halted, Greenberg said there is still work to be done to ensure the state doesn’t provide subsidies for these plants. The state Department of Energy Resources is pushing for a change of rules that would qualify biomass energy to receive subsidies that are intended for real clean energy alternatives like wind and solar. Such a rule change could possibly give the Palmer plant new life and would encourage development of other wood-burning biomass plants in Massachusetts.
Regarding finances, Article 8 asks to approve $336,561 for the Franklin County Technical School operating assessment, while Article 9 seeks $4,786 for the tech school’s capital assessment. Article 10 seeks $2.16 million for the Mohawk Trail Regional School District’s operating budget and Article 11 requests $54,176 for that district’s capital assessment.
Voters will also be asked to allow the Mohawk Trail Regional School District to borrow up to $665,000, divided among member towns, for work at Mohawk Trail Regional School in Buckland. This work includes replacing the heating boiler control system, resealing parking lots, and replacing the fire alarm control panel and related sensors.
“Under our regional agreement, the cost of capital projects at the Mohawk Trail Regional School are shared by all eight district towns based on each town’s proportionate share of the school’s enrollment based on a five-year rolling average,” Mohawk Trail Regional School Committee Chair Martha Thurber explained via email.
Based on this five-year rolling average for the period Oct 1, 2016 to Oct. 1, 2020, each town’s estimated share of the $665,000 debt authorization is as follows: Ashfield, $117,306; Buckland, $151,407; Charlemont, $48,439; Colrain, $119,102; Hawley, $10,447; Heath, $55,960; Plainfield, $42,095; and Shelburne, $120,245.
Other notable articles include Article 21, which asks voters to raise and appropriate $459,812 for an enterprise fund to pay to operate and maintain the Colrain Broadband network. Fox said the town is nearing completion on the buildout, and is signing up customers on a daily basis.
“Last I heard we were at a little over 200 customers who were installed and had paid,” Fox explained. “We have about a 70 percent-plus take rate right now.”
The final article on the warrant, Article 29, asks voters to amend the town bylaws to change the name “Board of Selectmen” to “Selectboard,” and the words “selectman, selectmen or selectwoman” with the words “Selectboard member(s)” or “member(s) of the Selectboard.”
To view the full Annual Town Meeting warrant and budget, visit bit.ly/3cHJT6l.
Zack DeLuca can be reached at zdeluca@recorder.com or 413-930-4579.