Adams To Consider 30 Articles At Monday's Town Meeting
ADAMS, Mass. — Town meeting will be asked to consider 30 articles Monday.
The annual town meeting convenes Monday, June, 24 at 7 p.m. It will be held in the Hoosac Valley Elementary School auditorium.
The first 15 articles are a mix of annual procedural articles along with a block of articles that build out the fiscal year 2020 budget of $15.8 million.
Article six sets the compensation for all elected officials and article seven represents the operating budget of $2,229,143.
Article eight is the capital budget of $533,779. This is mostly driven by debt service and building upgrades to the wastewater treatment plant.
Article nine is the capital infrastructure and equipment outlay budget of $281,850 to be pulled from free cash. This includes the purchase of a new one-ton truck with a plow and funds for a matching grant to rehabilitate the town common for the Susan B. Anthony celebration in 2020.
Article ten is the education budget. The Adams Cheshire Regional School District assessment is $5,792,649 and the McCann assessment is $1,010,634.
The next run of articles represent transfers to special funds.
Article 12 asks town meeting to use $250,000 from free cash to offset the tax rate and article 13 moves the reserve fund balance of $135,000 to the stabilization fund. Article 14 moves $175,000 to the reserve fund account and allows the town to draw from this fund with Finance Committee approval.
Articles 16 through 19 are annual authorization articles.
Article 20 starts a set of bylaw amendments that will ask town meeting to accept a state general law establishing limitations on expenditures from revolving funds.
Article 21 amends the town’s compensation plan. More detail can be found in the town meeting packet available online.
Article 22 represents the Adams Cheshire Regional School District agreement amendment which will change the districts name to the Hoosac Valley Regional School District among other things.
Article 23 begins the special articles and will ask town meeting to appropriate $82,600 from the Economic Development Fund for economic development expenses including $37,000 for the senior planner and $25,000 to rehabilitate the town common.
Article 24 is the special tax assessment agreement between the town and B&B Micro Manufacturing. Adams will forgo collecting property taxes for seven years. The first year will be a 100 percent exemption but this percent changes as the agreement matures. B&B Micro Manufacturing must create an additional 16 jobs and make improvements to their property on 201 Howland Ave.
Articles 25 and 26 will allow the town to take easements to accommodate the Route 8 improvement project.
Article 27 will ask the town to appropriate $425,000 to rehabilitate the town common. This is contingent on a PARC grant the town hopes to receive. Ultimately the town would only be responsible for the $127,500 balance which will be taken from free cash and other funding sources.
Article 28 just dedicates the town common as active and recreational use only for the purposes of the grant.
Article 29 works towards the creation of the Greylock Glen Commission to act on behalf of the town as the master tenant and developer of land at the Greylock Glen. The commission will provide extra resources to the project and the new structure would welcome private investment.
