Dalton Select Board Approve Town Meeting for June 26
DALTON, Mass.—The Select Board approved the warrant for the Special Town Meeting that will take place on June 26 at 7 p.m. at Wahconah Regional High School during its meeting on Wednesday.
Just days before, voters were prepared to reconvene for the meeting that was initially scheduled for Monday. However, on the afternoon of that day, town officials scrambled to postpone the meeting.
According to Town Clerk Heather Hunt, there were several deficiencies surrounding the warrant that resulted in Monday's cancellation, including it not being posted within the state-required 14 business days in advance, and the warrant not being posted at all six public locations listed on the warrant.
On Monday afternoon, there was a complaint that the town meeting warrant was not posted at Dewey's in time, Select Board chair Robert Bishop said.
The police department posts the warrant at specific public spaces, including Dewey's. But upon their arrival, Dewey's was closed. Bishop said because of this, it was not posted in time.
"The posting was legal because only five of the six needed to be posted. The police did nothing wrong on this. It was just because Dewey's was closed at the time they went to get that," Bishop said.
The town bylaws only require that five warrants be posted around town, Hunt explained in a follow up. However, town council said that the meeting could be contested because Dewey's was listed as a posting location.
"We had a conference call with our attorney [who] explained to me that if we went ahead with the meeting, it could be challenged and it was up to me to make that call. I chose to cancel meeting. It was on me," Bishop said.
"I canceled the meeting because I didn't want to take a risk to have to have that over again. We spent enough money on special elections and recalls and all that everyone had to go through all this over again."
Bishop acknowledged voters disappointment regarding the decision and highlighted the unproductiveness of playing the "blame game."
"You can't blame one person here. We all dropped the ball, every one of us, including the Select Board, all the way down through. We all missed it, pointing fingers at each other's not going to fix anything. All we got to do is make each other a little more defensive," Bishop said.
"We need to focus on the fix so this doesn't happen again. We're all one Dalton here. I don't care who we are. I don't care what side of the coin we're on here. They're all residents of Dalton. We all have a right to our opinions, and we should be respected for that."
During the meeting, voters will decide on six warrant articles, including the contentious police budget and an article to transfer free cash to fund professional and technical work to ensure Berkshire Concrete Corp.'s compliance with its special permit and town orders. The funding articles must be completed before the end of the fiscal year on June 30.
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