WENDELL — Residents adopted all but one of the 12 articles at Wednesday’s Special Town Meeting, taking no action on the remaining article after it was revealed to have been worded incorrectly.
The article asked voters if they wished to designate the town’s website, wendellmass.us, as an alternative posting place for meeting notices so the town would have an additional method to fulfill the state Open Meeting Law’s meeting notice requirements.
Town Coordinator Glenn Johnson-Mussad said he initially believed the article should read as if the website would replace the official posting location, which is the outdoor bulletin board at Town Offices, 9 Morse Village Road. However, he then learned other posting locations are allowed as long as notices continue at the official spot.
Johnson-Mussad said the objective now is to make the website the official posting location and he has learned the Selectboard can make that change on its own.
“We will, as a courtesy, keep posting on the bulletin board,” he said after the Special Town Meeting, which was held inside Town Hall.
Among the 11 articles that were adopted, residents agreed to transfer $35,000 from the stabilization fund to the Capital Equipment Account to pay for a new Highway Department tractor.
Phil Delorey, a member of the town’s Road Commission, explained the existing John Deere tractor is 43 or 44 years old and on its “last legs.” He also said the tractor has no roll bar, designed to protect passengers in the event of a rollover. But resident Adam Zaykoski stood up to question whether the vehicle could get more life if better maintained.
“I run tractors from the ’40s all summer long,” he said. “Just because we have extra money doesn’t mean we have to go out and spend it.”
Delorey and Doug Tanner, chair of the Finance Committee, tried to assure Zaykoski the town will not spend money unnecessarily.
Voters also agreed to transfer $20,000 from the Rehab Loan Payback Account to pay for preserving and painting Town Hall’s exterior.
Resident Michael Idoine asked how long ago the building had been painted, but no one with the town had a precise answer. Zaykoski asked if this is a project that will go out to bid and Selectboard Chair Dan Keller responded that some bids have already been received. At least one was for less than $20,000.
Residents also voted to amend the Wendell General Wetlands Protection Bylaw — designed to build upon the protections state law affords wetland areas — by extending protected resource areas to include temporary wetlands and the buffer zone around wetlands. Areas subject to protection under this bylaw include any freshwater wetland, isolated wetland, spring, bog, swamp, lands subject to flooding and riverfront areas. Activities subject to regulation under the bylaw include those constituting removal, filling, dredging, building upon, degrading, polluting or discharging into or otherwise altering any areas specified as being under the bylaw’s protections.
Those in attendance also voted to transfer $637,656 from free cash to the stabilization fund; to amend an article of the 2021 Annual Town Meeting by increasing by $30,000 the appropriation to the Non-Snow and Ice Highway Expenses; to appropriate $40,000 from the MLP Enterprise Fund retained earnings for the Emergency and Unanticipated Fund; to transfer $30,745 from the MLP Enterprise Fund retained earnings to the Broadband Enterprise Capital Stabilization Fund; to appropriate $8,728 from the MLP Enterprise Fund retained earnings to reimburse the general fund for payment of the fiscal year 2022 debt service on the broadband project; and to transfer $20,000 from the Rehab Loan Payback Account, to use as a match for a grant the town is applying for from the Municipal Vulnerability Program, to pay for the cost of the installation of a solar and battery storage system at the town garage/fire station at 5 Jackie Lane.
Thirty-five residents showed up to vote on Wednesday. The quorum is 10 voters.
Reach Domenic Poli at: dpoli@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 262.