Overview:
At the Special Town Meeting in Athol, voters unanimously approved six articles, including the transfer of funds to cover increased disposal costs, payment of prior-year invoices, and the purchase of equipment for the town's Advanced Life Support ambulances. The final article amended the town's zoning bylaws, changing the definition of "family" and "boarding house." The meeting was called after the original date was cancelled due to low attendance, but 154 registered voters attended the rescheduled meeting.
ATHOL – Voters took just under a half hour to decide on the six articles on the warrant for Monday’s Special Town Meeting.
The meeting had originally been called for Nov. 10, but had to be rescheduled when attendance fell well below the 97-voter quorum needed. That number was easily exceeded Monday as 154 registered voters showed up to participate. With the exception of one “no” vote on Article 6, which called for a change in the town’s zoning bylaws, each article was passed by a unanimous vote.
Article 1 sought the transfer of $30,000 from transfer station retained earnings into the transfer station enterprise fund budget in order to pay for “increased disposal and other costs.”
“This line item has almost doubled in the last couple of years,” Finance and Warrant Advisory Committee chair Ken Duffy explained. “It cost us, in FY24, about $360,000 to send our waste out of town. This year we budgeted $625,000 and it looks like we’re going to come up about $20,000 to $25,000 short. So we want to add another $30,000 out of retained earnings. This is a line item we’ve been watching because the cost of disposal just continued to escalate.”
Article 2 asked for the transfer of $20,000 from transfer station retained earnings into the enterprise fund’s budget to pay a prior year invoice from WIN Waste Innovations, the town’s trash hauler.
Articles 3 and 4 sought payment for bills from prior fiscal years. These included $105 to West Street Service Center for a front-end alignment, and $1,331,44 to Canon Financial Services for a photocopier lease.
Article 5 called for the transfer of $36,650 from the Ambulance Stabilization Fund to pay to equip the new ambulance and purchase two IV pumps for the town’s Advanced Life Support ambulances.
The final article on the warrant amended the definition of “family” in the town’s zoning bylaws. The new wording approved by voters Monday now defines a family as “a person or number of persons occupying a dwelling unit and living in a single housekeeping unit, provided that a group of five or more unrelated persons shall not be deemed a ‘family’ where not related by blood, marriage or adoption, including wards of the state.”
The previous definition did not require those living in a home to be related in any capacity to be considered a family.
The amendment also changed the definition of “boarding house” to read “any dwelling in which five (increased from three) or more persons not members of the family residing on the premises, either individually or as families, are housed or lodged for hire with or without meals. A rooming houser or a furnished rooming house shall be deemed a boarding house.”
Greg Vine can be reached at gvineadn@gmail.com.