Orange voters reject Prop 2½ override by seven votes

ORANGE – Residents on Monday declined by seven votes to ratify a Proposition 2 ½ override seven weeks after a roughly $4.6 million budget for the joint middle/high school was adopted at Annual Town Meeting.

Residents voted 360 to 367 against ratification.

A vote in the affirmative would have provided funding for the Ralph C. Mahar Regional School assessment. A motion was made at the June 15 Town Meeting to increase the Finance Committee’s recommended budget by $339,722, but that vote was contingent on the override’s passage.

This rejection means there will be a reduction in the assessment.

There was a 14% voter turnout, according to Orange Town Clerk Nancy Blackmer.

Two-thirds of the school district’s towns — Orange, New Salem, Wendell and Petersham — must approve the district’s budget for it to be adopted. Wendell and Petersham approved it, while New Salem residents voted to reduce their town’s assessment by $123,680. If Orange voters had passed the override, however, three out of the four towns would have approved the budget, more than satisfying the two-thirds majority necessary for adoption.