NEW SALEM — Voters approved the smaller $3.7 million budget on Monday, following the failure of a Proposition 2½ override, but will be asked to return to the ballot box to approve a different override for a $260,000 bucket loader for the Highway Department.
All 36 warrant articles passed at Monday’s Annual Town Meeting at Swift River School.
Back to the ballot
While inspiring limited discussion, Article 31 was approved by majority, giving the Highway Department the first nod in the process of getting a new bucket loader. The article authorized the town to borrow $260,000, contingent upon a Proposition 2½ override vote.
Finance Committee member Claire McGinnis clarified that although voters turned out to the ballot boxes on May 4, this spending question pertaining to the bucket loader was not included on that ballot. The exact date and time for the next override vote at the ballot box was not discussed at Monday’s Town Meeting.
The bucket loader would be paid off over a 10-year period, at $26,000 per year.
“We recommended this to you as debt service, because we just finished paying a $50,000-a-year school loan, and that creates a little capacity in this budget in that way,” McGinnis said of the Finance Committee’s recommendation for the warrant article.
Highway Superintendent Colin Killay, giving voters an idea of the existing bucket loader’s condition, said it’s a John Deere 444 bucket loader from 2008 with 7,400 hours logged. Although the lifespan of this equipment is around 20 years, Killay said that based on the condition of the cab, transmission, hydraulic system and more, replacement is necessary.
“I would like to try to get two more [years] out of it, but there’s no way, and the [trade-in value of] the loader is $20,000, so we would end up putting far in excess of what the value of the machine is worth,” Killay said, referring to repair costs.
The new machine would be a Komatsu bucket loader. The bucket itself would be larger than the department’s current loader, and it comes with a sweeper with a water kit to minimize dust during roadway sweeping. The manufacturer will pay for three years of maintenance.
FY27 budget
The $3.7 million budget for fiscal year 2027 was another discussion point of the evening, and passed by majority.
The bare-bones budget came to Town Meeting voters following the failure of a Proposition 2½ override on May 4 that would have allowed the town to assess an additional $185,500 in real estate and personal property taxes, bringing the total budget to $3.9 million. This additional funding would have supported legal expenses, the Highway Department, the library, Old Home Day festivities, technology, the tree warden, the Police Department, the Fire Department and Swift River School, among others.
After representatives from the Ralph C. Mahar Regional School District, Swift River School and Franklin County Technical School spoke about their budgets and programs, voters asked clarifying questions, including the reason behind New Salem’s increased assessment for Union 28. This comes from a “baby boom” of New Salem students attending Swift River School, as Union 28 Director of Finance and Operations Caitlin Anderson May described, with additional increases to the school budget attributed to rising health insurance costs.
Other discussion points included a $25,000 increase to the landfill monitoring budget due to continued per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) contamination monitoring; the separation of the tree warden’s expenses from the Highway Department line item; increases to the Board of Assessors’ budget due to equipment costs and revaluations; and if additional money from a Union 28 audit could be used to fund teaching positions that were cut from the budget, which Anderson May did not recommend as a sustainable source.
Other noteworthy articles
Other articles on the warrant generated debate about whether certain expenditures were necessary during a particularly tight fiscal year. Two of these included Article 28, to transfer $65,000 from Capital Stabilization to fund repairs on the 1794 Meetinghouse steeple, and Article 26, which called for using $8,400 from free cash to buy and repair equipment at the town playground.
1794 Meetinghouse Executive Director Matthew Duncan said the steeple is in “imminent danger” of falling down. Concerns centered around the value to the town of removing and repairing a steeple, and how this money could be otherwise used, while the New Salem Public Library is experiencing cuts in the budget, as resident Mary Ashburn pointed out.
Town Coordinator Emily Hill explained that the town has applied for a matching grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council for $60,000 to fund the project, and the town will find out at the end of the month if this match is successful. If that match is made, then removal and repair can be done in full, but if the grant is not awarded, then this $65,000 would be enough to remove the steeple until more funding can be made secured.
The Historical Commission pointed out the opportunity to secure the matching grant from the state when money is often allocated to municipalities in eastern Massachusetts.
Efforts to support what is expected to be a $100,000 project for removal and restoration have been ongoing, with money raised at an April benefit concert, $30,000 in existing donations and $10,000 from the Old Academy Building’s board of directors.
After a quick recess to count the vote and make sure it had achieved a two-thirds majority, Moderator Cameron Dunbar announced the motion passed by majority.
Additional articles that passed include:
- Transferring $8,500 from free cash for the construction of a shower room for the Fire Department.
- Using $17,240 from free cash to buy eight automated external defibrillators for the Fire Department.
- Using $13,000 in free cash to repair solar equipment in the town solar field.
- A bylaw revision stipulating that Annual Town Meeting “shall be held on the first Monday in June of each year, unless otherwise set by the Selectboard, at such time and place as the Selectboard shall determine and as set forth in the warrant.”
- A resolution in support of “An Act Relative to the Quabbin Watershed and Regional Equity” (S.546/H.1042), legislation that seeks better compensation for communities for their roles in protecting the Quabbin.
