ROYALSTON — At its meeting Tuesday, May 24, Royalston’s Selectboard voted to recommend passage of each of 28 articles on the June 11 Annual Town Meeting warrant.
Among the articles is a proposal to borrow $310,000 via Proposition 2½ debt exclusion for repairs to Whitney Hall in South Royalston, purchasing a new dump truck/sander cab and chassis for the Department of Public Works, and purchasing a new pickup truck, also for the DPW. If approved, the package would set aside $50,000 for Whitney Hall, $200,000 for the cab/chassis, and $60,000 for the pickup. If approved at Annual Town Meeting, the debt exclusion would need to be considered as a ballot question in a special election. The likely date for that vote has not yet been determined.
At a recent board meeting, board Chair Deb D’Amico suggested including it on the ballot for the state primary in September. However, she was told by Tax Collector/Finance Director Rebecca Krause-Hardie that local ballot questions could not be considered at a state election.
One article that generated a bit of discussion asks voters to “appropriate a sum of money to operate the wastewater treatment plant and sewer system.” The amount of the budget settled on by voters will determine the user fees to be paid by those businesses and households tied into the system. The current proposal calls for an FY23 budget of just over $96,000, an increase of about $3,350 over the FY22 spending package. That translates into a rate hike of 3.6 percent for ratepayers. The rate is determined based on the number of toilets in a specific building or dwelling.
One change in the budget first proposed for the sewer system was the removal of $2,300 for sludge removal.
“Athol, under the IMA, is removing sludge,” said D’Amico. “At the time this (budget) was put together, the IMA had not been renewed, and so in case it was not renewed the money was put in there. It had included 2,300 dollars, so I took it out because, as you can see, last year we didn’t need it. Athol takes the sludge, so I removed that.”
The IMA is an intermunicipal agreement between Athol and Royalston under which Athol’s sewer department operates Royalston’s sewage treatment plant. Royalston’s Selectboard recently voted to renew the agreement.
Last year, Royalston paid Athol $60,000 to assume operation of the treatment plant. The recently signed agreement increases that amount to $62,460 for FY23.
“Do we have to do a census every year?” asked board member Rick Martin, who had served on the now-defunct Sewer Commission. “How do we know how many users are on the system in order to figure out a per-toilet rate? Do we just go by last year?”
D’Amico responded that Krause-Hardie, who collects payments, provides that number.
“But that’s a good question,” she added, “because how do we know — we don’t know whether people have put in a second bathroom.”
Board member Chris Long wondered aloud whether Building Inspector Geoff Newton advises Krause-Hardie when changes take place.
“We should check with Geoff and Becky on how we can flag those,” she said.
At last count, Martin said, the system was accommodating 96 toilets in 53 houses.
Voters at the Annual Town Meeting will also be asked to approve an overall FY23 municipal budget of $2,547,905. That represents an increase of about 3.4 percent over the current year’s budget of 2,465,078.
Some of the largest increases come in a jump in Fire Department wages from $42,000 to $61,00 and Public Works Department wages from $274,585 to $283,943. Police Department wages will actually drop from $100,030 to $89,341.
Asked the reason for the drop in the Police Department salary line, D’Amico explained that the Athol-Royalston Regional School District is picking up $10,000 in wages for the school resource officer.
Royalston’s annual town meeting will be held at 10 a.m. on Saturday, June 11, at Town Hall.
Greg Vine can be reached at gvineadn@gmail.com