Adams Committee Endorses Special Town Meeting Warrant
.jpg) The Finance Committee recommended all three warrant articles for the Oct. 29 special town meeting. |
The special town meeting will be held Monday, Oct. 29, at 7 p.m. in the C.T. Plunkett School auditorium.
Town meeting members will be asked to authorize $191,000 left from emergency borrowing required last fall after flooding from Irene washed out roads and banks.
Town Administrator Jonathan Butler said the bill is what's left after federal agencies reimbursed most of the $793,000 in emergency spending.
The state last fall allowed towns and cities in Western and central Massachusetts enter into deficit spending as they faced millions of dollars in damage caused the historic storm. Butler said the state left a one-year window to enter into a borrowing without going through the normal approval process but the town had not closed its books in time in September on projects with the Federal Highway Administration, Federal Emergency Management Agency and Natural Resources Conservation Service.
"We were still working with those three entities on the East Street and Lyme Street projects, the slope by the Susan B. Anthony House, Columbia Street and Pine Street brook drainage," he said. "Those were all pretty massive in scope."
Committee member David Allen questioned why the warrant article authorized borrowing or appropriating, since they were very different in meaning, and if the Selectmen wanted support one way or the other.
Butler said town counsel had written the warrant article and thought it should offer both options. However, the town's preference is to borrow, he said. "That's what going to happen unless something else happens on town meeting floor."
"You know the free cash portion best but I don't want to handcuff us if that's what town counsel suggests," said Chairman Timothy Burdick. "I can make a statement that the committee strongly supports borrowing if that's what the committee suggests."
Butler said the expectation was that the town would take out a five-year, one percent State House note for the borrowing. He said more borrowing would be needed for the $295,000 Tophet Brook project, and both would likely be rolled into the current note taken out for the Registry of Deeds renovation.
The committee also swiftly endorsed changes in the Adams Retirement Board pension system that would raise the minimum retirement allowance from $250 to $500 for surviving spouses of employees who die before retiring and the benefits for surviving spouses of disability retirees from $6,000 to $9,000.
The actions were approved by the Retirement Board on Jan. 31, and on Sept. 25, respectively, under Chapter 176 of the Acts of 2011. The changes are being made on the recommendation of the Public Employee Retirement Administration Commission. There are 102 employees covered by the pension system.
In answering how the increases would affect the town financially, Retirement Board member Allen Mendel said there should be no significant impact.
No one has ever applied for the surviving spouse retirement allowance, he continued. "It hasn't happened since the board's been in existence."
He did anticipate one person applying for the disability benefit, but again, said the impact would be negligible.
The Finance Committee voted to recommend all three warrant articles. The meeting lasted 15 minutes but started 15 minutes late for lack of a quorum.
Adams Warrant 20121029
Tags: Irene, pension, special town meeting,
