PETERSHAM — Petersham residents voted Monday to approve a total budget of $4,171,710 for Fiscal Year 2019, about a 5 percent increase from last year’s budget.
Community members gathered in Town Hall in front of the Selectboard, Advisory Finance Committee and Town Moderator for the Annual Town Meeting.
Before the meeting officially began. the town held a Special Meeting to decide whether to eliminate the Fiscal Year 2018 snow and ice account deficit. The voters agreed to appropriate the $29,272.47 needed to eliminate the deficit from available funds.
Ten percent, or 94 people, of the town’s registered voters were required for the meeting to be held. Similar to past meetings, residents waited while more voters filed in to meet the quorum.
“This is the purest form of democracy we have, but it isn’t perfect,” said Town Moderator Bart Wendell.
Ross France, chair of the Advisory Finance Committee, said the recommended budget maintains the town’s current leel of services and meets Petersham’s debt obligations, but sees an increase of $215,331 over Fiscal Year 2018’s budget.
“Unlike recent years, this budget is estimated to have a significant unfavorable impact on the tax rate. We estimate that our recommended budget will add about $1.83 to the tax rate,” he said.
Notable causes of the budget increase for Fiscal Year 2019 include an increase in the schools’ budgets, insurance increases, a need for capital expenditures and an increase in the Petersham Police Department’s budget due to a request to add two additional part-time weekend shifts next year.
Voters approved a proposed Ralph C. Mahar Regional High School budget of $768,307 (a 3.5 percent increase from last year’s budget), a $40,505 budget for the Montachusett Technical School and a Petersham Center School budget increase of 3.9 percent ($1,509,171).
The town voted to take no action to appropriate $4,850 for the repair or upgrade of the World War I monument on the Petersham South Common. Selectboard Chairwoman Nancy Allen said the board needs more time to collect estimates for the project.
“We here on the stage obviously all feel it is an important project. We did not want to come up with a figure that did not make sense when we went to execute it. We ask everyone to be patient and hold off, we will work on it this coming year,” she said.
The town decided to vote against four citizen petitions that would have appropriated stipends for local officials to attend trainings for their positions. The lead petitioners included the treasurer, tax collector, town clerk and the Board of Assessors. While the town approved one citizen petition — to allocate $1,000 for the Petersham Friday Market’s live music performances for their upcoming season starting June 8.
Chip Bull, chair of the Broadband Municipal Light Plant Board, updated the community on the status of broadband installation in the town. He said roughly 70 to 90 percent of the town will be connected by November and December of this year.
“We are on track, we are going to get this done finally after 10 years … we are solving this problem thanks to you,” he said.
Dana Cooley was present for his last Town Meeting in Petersham as police chief. Cooley plans to retire at the end of October. The community expressed gratitude for his service to the town.
“The Selectboard wishes to thank the chief for his service in the position of chief, and prior to that as sergeant and part-time officer. Thank you, Dana, for your work for the town,” said Allen.