Adams Finance Committee Approve Warrant, Reserve Fund Transfer
ADAMS, Mass. — The Finance Committee voted to recommend all warrant articles for special town meeting and a $43,500 reserve fund transfer.
The special town meeting will be held on Monday, March 5, at 7 p.m. in the Hoosac Valley Elementary School auditorium.
The committee reviewed and approved Thursday eight warrant articles for special town meeting, many that will put the town in line with Municipal Modernization Act
The first two articles spelled out what town employees have specific spending authorities for various revolving funds, revenue stream in which the spending authority can draw from, what the funds can be spent on and spending limits.
Accountant Mary Beverly said the articles do not really change anything the town would do but instead of making yearly appointments, the spending regulations are written into bylaw.
"It doesn't change at all ... instead of the revolving funds being an annual authorization article this makes them into actual bylaws," Beverly said. "They are exactly the same as in past town meeting warrants we just convert them to bylaws."
The third article the Finance Committee approved was also in accordance with the Municipal Modernization Act and would amend a bylaw that would shorten the period in which the treasurer/tax collector could act on delinquent taxes.
"It will tighten up the time the treasurer-collector has to stop permit or issue licenses," Beverley said. "It used to be they had to be delinquent for more than 30 days."
Article 4 will make changes to the town's snow and ice removal bylaw and instead of stating that only certain sidewalks in the fire district must be cleared, all sidewalks be cleared.
Committee member Craig Corrigan was the only member to vote against recommending the change because he did not think it was fair.
"There are numerous sidewalks where the town loader piles snow," he said. "The people on Howland Avenue, there is no way they can shovel two lanes of snow off of their sidewalk. It is physically impossible."
Beverley noted Howland Avenue is already in the fire district, therefore, the current policy already applies.
Selectman John Duval said the change would make it fair for everybody and allow equal enforcement.
The committee also recommended Article 5 that spells out the town's new marijuana establishment zoning bylaw the Planning Board crafted a few months ago.
Committee member Jeffrey Lefebvre said he was glad the town will have something on the books.
"I am just happy that we got a bylaw because many towns when it got implemented didn't have one," he said.
Corrigan was the only hold out on the vote and commented that he felt the establishment should be more than 200 feet away from where children congregate.
The Finance Committee also approved Article 6 that puts the town in line with state laws. The bylaw states that money collected from parking meters be put in a specific account and spells out what it can be spent on.
Beverly said this is something the town already does but that article would put it in line with the law
Article 7 also brought the town in line with state law and will allow the Selectmen to put a speed limit of 25 in any thickly settled area.
Beverly said the Selectmen would still work with the Traffic Commission but this would streamline the process.
"Right now it is very cumbersome to change speed limits on roads. You have to do a speed survey, you have to pass it on to MassDOT," she said. "This is a nice tool ... that gives local authorities the power to take care of roads in their own community."
The committee recommended Article 8, which would grant a sewer easement for a landowner on Gould Road. This would be at no cost to the town.
In other business, the Finance Committee recommended a reserve fund account transfer of $35,100.
The bulk of the transfer was for the Memorial Building, for which $25,800 was requested. This will fund shortfalls in the natural gas line item as well as the rented auxiliary heating system that was taken out of the budget.
The building was also hit with a $9,000 elevator repair bill to avoid state fines.
The Finance Committee also approved $5,300 to make repairs to the Harmony Street Pump station and $4,000 to close out the Hoosac Valley Elementary School boiler room roof project
A separate $8,400 was needed for elections.
Some committee members had no qualms about the costs but felt the reserve fund was the wrong account to pull some of these amounts from.
"We have started voting on transfers that aren't true emergencies," Corrigan said. "We aren't doing our jobs."
Lefebvre agreed and felt the town should pull from free cash instead of pulling money that could eventually be put into the stabilization account.
Beverly said it was a good idea but this was just the route they took and in the future, this can be done instead.
Chairman Tim Burdick said they can make a transfer from free cash to stabilization at a future meeting.
Adams STM March 5, 2018 by iBerkshires.com on Scribd
Tags: special town meeting,
