Article 1 – Choose town officers
On the first night of Town Meeting, the Town Moderator split choosing town officers into two parts, to ensure that the budget articles were discussed and voted on in a timely manner. Part one included all of the uncontested positions, which was easily passed by voice vote at the beginning of Town Meeting. The election of the West Acton Citizens’ Library trustee occurred after the budget votes, just before Town Meeting recessed for the evening. The two candidates for the 3-year term, Linda Vieira and Annette Lochrie, each gave a two minute speech before the vote. The vote was 203 votes for Linda Vieira and 159 for Annette Lochrie.
Article 9 – Community Preservation Committee Program
At Annual Town Meeting 2024 on Tuesday night, Select Board Member Dean Charter introduced himself and other members of the Community Preservation Committee (CPC), and thanked Senior Planner Kaila Sauer for her work assisting the committee. He then explained Article 9, which asks for approval from Town Meeting members for expenditures recommended by the committee for Community Preservation projects in the four areas the Community Preservation Program supports: Open Space, Community Housing, Historic Resources, and Recreation. The Select Board and Finance Committee both recommended all of the expenditures. This year, a total of $3,225,161 was requested and only $1,674,971 was available. Both Theater III and Town Hall received less than half of what they requested, due to the shortfall. Some applicants were leveraging other funding, for example the dog park, with a grant from the Stanton Foundation, and the 53 River St. Park, which received state grants.
The CPC heard presentations by applicants for several months, asked questions, and made site visits, ultimately recommending $1,668,754 in appropriations, listed in the warrant. Each year, the CPC must set aside at least 10% of their funds for Open Space, 10% for Historic Preservation, and 10% for Community Housing. This year, they put a larger proportion than usual – one third – toward the Open Space set-aside fund. Charter explained that “land prices are increasing as the supply dwindles, and our feeling is that in the next ten years, the supply will dry up almost completely so it is important to build up the open space fund now. ”
The Select Board and Finance Committee had recommended all of the subsections of the article. Fourteen of the appropriations required no discussion and passed almost unanimously. The Jones Playground Shade Structure (item L) and NARA Sports Plaza Shade Structure (item M) were held by a voter who asked if the town has considered incorporating solar cells as roof panels in the shade structure. Charter said the stumbling block for that is that the cost of the canopies with solar panels would exceed the limited money within the CPC budget. He added that the Town is actively looking for locations for solar panels. Items L and M were then passed. A voter, John Peterson, also asked to hold item N, the direct expenses for reimbursing the Town of Acton for administrative services. Peterson asked about the amount of legal expenses within the administrative services; Charter estimated the fees at no more than one or two thousand dollars. Peterson then moved that the amount of money in this section be decreased to 3% of the appropriations, or $47,000. In opposition to the amendment, both Finance Committee and resident Bettina Abe, former employee in the conservation department, argued that the staff spend a lot of time on CPC applications and projects. Neither Select Board nor Finance Committee recommended the amendment. The amendment failed. The meeting then voted on the original Item N which passed nearly unanimously.
Article 9 is discussed at 10 minutes and 27 seconds on the ActonTV recording of Night 2 of Town Meeting.
Article 15: Tax Increment Financing – Natural Stonewall Solutions, Inc. – 42 and 48 Knox Trail
Tax increment financing, or TIF, is a procedure that encourages businesses to invest in communities by forgiving taxation on new investment for a limited time period; taxation on the improved property at the standard rate initiates at the close of the TIF. The owner of Natural Stonewall Solutions presented a proposal for TIF support of property development on Knox Trail to the Acton Select Board on March 18, 2024; the Board voted to bring the proposal to Town Meeting. Select Board member Fran Arsenault presented the proposal, Article 15, to the town, describing the project and the TIF process. After clarifying questions, Article 15 passed on a voice vote.
Consent calendar
The consent calendar includes a number of articles that are deemed to not require discussion. The title of each article is read aloud and any two citizens can hold, or remove, a consent article from the calendar. At this year’s Town Meeting, three articles were held to allow citizens to ask questions. After the questions were answered, the entire consent calendar easily passed by voice vote.
Tom Beals, Miriam Lezak, and Franny Osman are members of the Acton Exchange writing and editing team.
Please see next week’s Acton Exchange for further coverage of Annual Town Meeting 2024.