ROYALSTON — The Select Board and Finance Committee will meet separately this week to undertake their final review of the proposed warrant for the May 10 annual town meeting. Voters will face a number of spending articles.
Five articles call for spending just over $177,000 from the town’s stabilization fund to cover loans taken out by the town in recent years to cover several capital items. These articles, included in a draft warrant for the town meeting, include: more than $65,000 to make the sixth of seven payments for a fire department pumper; $49,000 to make the third of six payments for a public works sander; nearly $21,000 for the third of five installments on a DPW dump truck; more than $33,000 for the second of five payments for a DPW loader, and just over $8,300 for the second of four installments for a police department utility vehicle.
The town’s Capital Planning Committee is seeking passage of two Proposition 2½ debt exclusions of $200,000 each in order to “fund the FY20 Capital Spending Plan” and to pay for road improvements throughout the town. If passed at town meeting, both overrides would need approval at the ballot box.
In its report to selectmen, the Capital Planning Committee writes: “The reality is that Royalston is doomed to crisis management and eternal shortfalls when it comes to capital needs unless we increase revenue. The requested override(s) of $400,000 amounts to approximately $350 per tax bill; less than a dollar a day.”
The $200,000 sought for roadwork would supplement the $240,000 the town already receives in state Chapter 90 funding for road work. “This amount,” write the CPC, “would (also) allow for hiring out road work for additional projects. This request was generated…to respond to community concerns about roads.”
The second Prop 2 ½ override, according to the committee, is meant to fund a total of eight other expenses. These range from a $245,000 dump truck, with likely yearly lease-purchase payments of around $50,000, to $140,000 for Royalston’s share of the cost of replacing the track at Athol Royalston Regional High School. Yearly payments for the track are estimated at nearly $15,000. Other items covered by the override include painting the exterior and updating the windows at Town Hall ($12,000), restoration of the historic Hearse houses ($24,000), repairs to drainage at the Public Safety Building ($5,000), repairs to the Raymond School ($5,000), clearing and leveling of land at the Stewart-Maple Cemetery ($5,000), and, for the Sewer Dept., replacement of “malfunctioning electronic pressure switch controls and autodialers” at the Main and King street lift stations (nearly $8,700).
The Select Board will meet in its office Wednesday night at 7 p.m. to vote its recommendations on all of the warrants proposed articles, including the proposed overrides. The Finance Committee meets at 7 p.m. Thursday on the 1st floor at Town Hall. Both are open to the public.