ROYALSTON – Voters will head to the polls Tuesday, Sept. 10 to decide the fate of two ballot questions which, if they pass, will fund what local officials believe are some important town projects.
Question 1 asked voters to approve a Proposition 2 ½ override to fund additional road projects in Royalston. The proposal calls for the appropriation of $200,000 to establish a Road Improvement Stabilization Fund.
At the annual town meeting in May, Finance Committee Chair Larry Siegel explained, “This $200,000 will occur every year. We’ll have to have an override every single year for $200,000 we’re spending on the roads. What we’re doing, essentially, is opening up a new account, aroad maintenance account, and it’s going to have $200,000 put into it every year; and if it’s not all spent that year, it’s going back into the treasury.”
The town does receive about $220,000 each year in state Chapter 90 road improvement monies but that, explained FinCom member Rebecca Kause-Hardie, that’s not enough to meet Royalston’s needs.
“The reality is our current town budget,” she told voters, “doesn’t pay for the roads. We get Chapter 90 funds. We currently have 80 miles of roads in town, and if you were to add $500,000 to a million dollars per mile to fix those roads, you’d need a budget of, like, $50 million to $80 million. Currently, we have $220,000. This is an attempt to put together a plan to start doing more work on those roads.”
If approved, the override would result in an 11.5 percent hike in Royalston’s property tax rate.
Voters next Tuesday will also weigh the pros and cons of a $145,000 debt exclusion to pay for hazardous material remediation at the former Raymond School. The school was constructed in the late 1930s by the Depression-era Works Progress Administration, and contains asbestos in roof shingles and several areas throughout the building. Normally, it would be the agency or business that constructed the building who would be responsible for asbestos remediation, but attempts by town officials to get the federal government to pay for even part of the work have proven fruitless.
The building has been vacant for the past two years, ever since the Village School moved to its new home on South Royalston Road. The Selectboard in December approved an expenditure of about $5,000 to patch the roof.
However, town officials want to refurbish the building to allow for the transfer of municipal offices from Whitney Hall in South Royalston to the former school near Town Hall. The cost of refurbishing Whitney Hall to the extent necessary to make it suitable for town offices has been pegged at around a half-million dollars.
It’s estimated the loan to pay for the Raymond School project will be paid off in about seven years.
Balloting next Tuesday in Precinct One will take place at Town Hall. Precinct Two voters will cast ballots at the Whitney Hall. Polls will be open from noon until 8 p.m.