After improperly noticing the March Town Meeting, the town of Temple has scheduled a Special Town Meeting this Friday to ratify the results.
Temple Administrative Assistant Paul Clifton-Waite said the town was notified by the state Department of Revenue Administration by a letter dated April 11 of the error.
While the town posted the Town Meeting warrant and budget and noticed the meeting in several locations, including the municipal building, Town Hall, local store and in the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript within the proper time frame, the warrant was not posted or the meeting noticed at the Temple Elementary School, where the meeting took place, which is required by law.
“There was nothing wrong with the meeting itself, other than we failed to post notice at the place of the meeting beforehand,” Clifton-Waite said.
State law allows towns to hold a Special Town Meeting to correct procedural errors such as incorrect noticing. On Friday, Temple will hold a Town Meeting to take a single vote to confirm the results of the March meeting.
Until the meeting is held, and the original results ratified, Temple cannot raise or spend any of the funds approved in March.
Clifton-Waite said only the ratification article will be discussed, and no other new business can be introduced during Friday’s meeting.
In November of 2018, the town of Dublin dealt with a similar issue, after failing to post notice at the meeting place within the correct time frame for a Special Town Meeting to raise funds to fix roads damaged by rainstorms. In that case, the Select Board became aware of the noticing mistake before the meeting occurred, but decided to continue forward with the meeting as scheduled, and later ratified the results using another Special Town Meeting.
The Special Town Meeting is scheduled to be held Friday at 6:30 p.m. at the Town Hall.
Ashley Saari can be reached at 924-7172 ext. 244 or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on Twitter @AshleySaariMLT.