Voters had few things to say about the Rindge warrant this year, offering only a few amendments to warrant articles. They also heard big-money articles such as bonding for fiber internet, fixing the Wellington Road bridge and the budget with little comment.
Town Meeting is planned for March 10 this year.
The Select Board was enthusiastic about the first article on the warrant, a $5 million project to build a fiber network which could provide broadband internet and phone service to every address in Rindge. The town would bond about half the cost – $2,579,125, while Consolidated Communications would provide the remainder. The bond is not paid back through taxation, but a $9.50 service fee attached to the bill of those who choose to sign on for the service.
“It’s the best thing to come down the pipe for Rindge in a long time,” Selectwoman Roberta Oeser said of the project.
Oeser said that while she is probably among those with the highest internet speeds available, living near the town center, she will be among those who sign on to receive speeds as high as 1 gigabit.
“I will be buying into this, hopefully, when it passes and is installed,” she said.
If passed, the infrastructure would be built within two years.
The town is also looking to spend money it has been saving for several years to replace the bridge spanning two culverts on Wellington Road. The town is expecting to receive 80 percent of the funds from the state’s bridge aid program, and pay the remaining 20 percent – about $250,000. The town has a capital reserve account for the replacement of the bridge, which contains $146,000, and the remainder is expected to be taken from the unreserved fund balance, or monies not spent from the previous year.
“This is a big number, but there is no tax impact,” Oeser said of the $1,250,000 project. “We’ve been saving for this for eight years.”
The town is anticipating a 3 percent increase in its proposed budget of $4,161,167. The default budget is about $14,000 lower.
The budget includes adjustments to the pay for multiple town employees. Instead of a wage pool, which is the method the town has used in the past for salary increases, the town has developed a pay scale based upon experience.
“We’ve got to get going and get our employees properly paid,” Select Board chairman Bob Hamilton said. “The wage market is terrifically competitive.”
The new wage scale adds about $57,000 to the budget. Other areas of increase are health insurance costs, and an extra payroll period in 2020.
In one of the only substantial amendments made during Saturday’s deliberative, the voters agreed to increase a request for a new backhoe for the highway department from $92,840 to $112,840, on the suggestion of the Select Board, who said the number printed on the warrant was an error. Also included in the amendment was an intent to use $20,000 from the sale of the town’s 2006 backhoe and $23,500 from the transfer station revolving fund to offset the cost.
More than a third of the warrant this year were submitted by petition.
The first requests the town raise the tax credit for people with a total disability related to their military service from $2,000 to $4,000. The budget committee did not unanimously support the article, and when asked why, committee member Phil Motta said the board wasn’t necessarily against the increase in tax credit, but did not like that the article didn’t include the value of the increase of burden on the tax base.
Other warrant articles refer to building growth in Rindge. One would return the right to accept roads as public highways to the voting body, as opposed to the Select Board, who has that right now.
Two other petition articles, which the town’s lawyer has said are not enforceable, seek to slow growth in town, one by re-implementing a growth management ordinance, which would limit the number of building permits issued every year, and one re-instating impact fees, or a fee assigned to new developments to offset increased burden on town departments. According to the town’s lawyer, the articles do not contain the specifics or follow the proper procedure to be considered enforceable.
Another petition article requests the town adopt a noise ordinance, based on the town of Hinsdale’s ordinance, limiting noise disturbance between the hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. when created by farm equipment or trash loading and unloading. Construction and forestry vehicles would be limited between 8 p.m. and 7 p.m. on all days but Sunday, when it would be limited between 8 p.m. and 9 a.m. Amplified music and fireworks would be banned between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m.
Evie Goodspeed, who submitted the article, said she’s been disturbed by construction and forestry projects near her home, which she said have in the past continued work past midnight. She’s called police, but has been told there is nothing they can do without an ordinance to enforce.
Voters will cast their ballots for all Rindge issues on March 10 at the Rindge Memorial School gymnasium.
Ashley Saari can be reached at 924-7172 ext. 244 or asaari@ledgertran script.com. She’s on Twitter @AshleySaariMLT.