ERVING — All 12 articles presented at the Erving special Town Meeting were approved unanimously by voters on Wednesday night. 

The meeting at Erving Elementary School was scheduled to cover a variety of town matters. One of the main articles up for vote was increasing the stipend and changing some policies for the Senior Citizen Property Tax Work-Off Program. The article was adopted unanimously with no discussion or amendments made.

A meeting of the Erving Selectboard prior to the Special Town Meeting saw a second reading of the policy aspect of the program where some amendments were made to the bylaw. These amendments covered outdated aspects of the program, including the maximum tax benefit of $750 being raised to $2,000. A voice vote was taken with no discussion. 

Articles five through 10 regarding the Church Street Bridge Project were approved by voters. The articles contained easements of property for temporary use during construction, or permanent use relating to the “air rights” for utilities above the project site. Some amendments to wording and square footage of easements were proposed with all of them approved by voters.

Town Administrator Bryan Smith explained that approval of these articles brings the project to a 75% benchmark for completion by Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) project standards. 

Article 11 for a capital improvement and the citizens petition in Article 12 related to voting procedures for annual town meetings. Article 11 was to approve the town to spend $12,000 on an electronic clicker system, and voters approved it unanimously.

The citizens petition brought by Dana Dodge with 127 signatures asked voters to consider mandating the town moderator to accept requests for paper ballots in a two-thirds vote. This article raised questions, mainly as to whether the citizens petition is needed now that the electronic voting system was approved.

Discussion on if the electronic voting system counted as a secret ballot took up the last half of the meeting, and the decision was made to adopt the citizens petition as written as an option for town meeting. 

The meeting took a little more than an hour with about 30 residents in attendance. 

 Erin-Leigh Hoffman can be reached at ehoffman@recorder.com or 413-930-4231.