ROYALSTON — Voters in Royalston will gather for their Annual Town Meeting on Saturday, June 11. A total of 28 articles are on the warrant, including a request for voters to approve a $310,000 Proposition 2½ debt exclusion. If the debt exclusion should garner the two-thirds majority necessary for passage, it would then have to be approved in a special election.
The article seeks $50,000 for painting and repairs to Whitney Hall in South Royalston, mainly to the building’s exterior. It also asks for $200,000 for a new dump truck/sander for the Department of Public Works and $60,000 for a new pickup truck for the DPW.
Town officials want to spruce up Whitney Hall with an eye toward marketing the building to a potential buyer. The structure, built in 1905, currently houses municipal offices but plans call for those facilities to be relocated to the former Raymond School once renovations to that building have taken place. When that will happen, no one can say.
In February, voters gathered at Special Town Meeting to consider acceptance of a $2.5 million U.S. Department of Agriculture loan for $2.5 million to complete the transformation of the Raymond building. Initially, it was believed more than $800,000 of that total would have come in the form of a grant that need not be repaid.
However, the article was tabled for possible later consideration after it was disclosed that the interest rate on the loan would be 3.25 percent and that none of the money would be provided as a grant.
So, with the Raymond project on hold, work needs to be done to Whitney Hall not only for marketing purposes but also to keep it usable as municipal office space.
A pair of articles also seek funding for projects at other town buildings as well. Article 19 seeks $16,000 to purchase and install a furnace at the town garage and at the Phineas S. Newton Library, while Article 20 asks for $7,000 in funding for “evaluation, design and repair of the Town Hall foundation.”
Town officials are also seeking approval of a FY23 municipal operating budget of just over $2.5 million, an increase of nearly $83,000 over the current year’s budget. That translates to a hike of about 3.3 percent.
Increases will be seen in Fire Department wages, with the total rising from $42,000 to $61,000, while total Public Works Department wages will increase from $274,585 to $283,943. Police Department wages will see a decrease from $100,030 to $89,341. The reason for the drop in PD wages is due to the Athol-Royalston Regional School District picking up $10,000 in wages for the school resource officer in the next fiscal year.
The town’s FY23 assessment for the Athol Royalston Regional School District is set at just over $631,000, about $40,000 less than this year. The Montachusett Regional Vocational Technical School assessment will also drop, from more than $84,000 in FY22 to around $57,000 in the new spending package.
At its meeting on May 24, the Royalston’s Selectboard voted to recommend passage of every article on the warrant. The Finance Committee recommended all but four of the articles. It made no recommendation on the first four articles on the warrant, which are basically housekeeping measures.
Saturday’s Annual Town Meeting gets under way at 10 a.m. at Town Hall.
Greg Vine can be reached at gvineadn@gmail.com