ROYALSTON – Voters will gather at the Royalston Community School at 7 p.m. on Friday, May 10, for the community’s annual town meeting. With 39 articles on the warrant, it could prove to be a long night, especially since several proposed Proposition 2 ½ overrides will be debated.

In addition, voters will be asked to approve a fiscal year 2020 town operating budget topping $2.3 million, about $93,00 more than the FY19 spending package. The total includes nearly $609,000 for the town’s share of the Athol Royalston Regional School District budget and a Montachusett Regional Vocational Technical School District assessment of just over $90,000.

These figures translate into an increase of about $50,000 for the town’s share of the ARRSD budget, and a drop of more than $31,000 in the town’s bill for Monty Tech.

Article 27 asks voters to endorse a plan by the ARRSD School Committee to borrow $1.5 million for the construction of a new track at Athol High School. The loan would be paid back over a period of 10 years. If approved, the article would use $14,700 from Royalston’s Capital Stabilization Fund to cover the town’s share of the first year’s payment on the loan.

In the next article, voters will be asked to establish a new Road Improvement Stabilization Fund.

Initial monies for the fund would come from a proposed $200,000 Prop 2 ½ override. The fund would be used to supplement the Chapter 90 funds the town receives annually from the state.

That figure is generally somewhere around $240,000 a year.

The town’s Capital Planning Committee also wants to see passage of a $200,000 Prop 2 ½ override to pay for the FY20 Capital Spending Plan. That plan includes $50,000 for the first of five payments for a DPW dump truck, $12,000 for painting the Town Hall, $15,000 for the restoration of the Riverside Hearse Home, $9,000 to restore the Center Hearse Home, $5,000 to improve drainage at Fire Station #1, $5,000 to improve drainage at the Raymond School, $5,000 to prepare land donated to the Stevens-Maple Cemetery, and nearly $8,700 to replace controls at two pumping stations tied into the town’s water treatment plant.

The loan proposal and all of the proposed overrides require a two-thirds majority vote to move forward. If the overrides are approved at town meeting, they will need to go before voters at a special election

Without passage of the overrides, said the Capital Planning Committee in correspondence to the Select Board, “The reality is that Royalston is doomed to crisis management and eternal shortfalls when it comes to capital needs unless we increase revenue.” The CPC said the overrides, if approved, would add about $350 to the average property tax bill.

The final article on the warrant calls on voters to endorse a resolution calling for a change in the state flag and seal. The seal, says the resolution, “(D)epicts an image of a white hand brandishing a Colonial broadsword over the head of a Native American man” along with the phrase “Peace Under the Sword, but Peace only with Liberty” spelled out in Latin.

The resolution goes on to state that the image “symbolizes a long history of organized violence against Native people.” It urges state Rep. Susanna Whipps and state Sen. Jo Comerford to support legislation filed on Beacon Hill to create a commission to review the seal and motto of the state and suggest changes.

The Select Board voted to support the resolution, with two votes in favor and one abstention.