Francestown voters passed all of the town’s warrant articles by unanimous voice vote, ending the Town Meeting within the hour Saturday.
“I move that all Town Meetings take us less than 60 minutes, given what we’ve accomplished here today,” said Moderator Paul Lawrence, noting that he had never seen a Town Meeting involve attendees agreeing unanimously on the warrant.
Approved articles included the town’s operating budget, which was amended up by $6,000 to be $1.9 million. Road Agent Gary Paige said the amended amount represented necessary increases to spending for the Highway Department.
“It’s just for diesel,” he said, adding that inflation and economic volatility were presenting challenges to the department.
Another approved article was a $1.5 million measure for the replacement of town bridges, with funds to be raised from a $1.2 million grant and a $300,000 withdrawal from the town’s brides capital reserve fund. Select Board Chair Henry Kundhardt explained that of the town’s bridges, 10 were put on the state red list in 2014.
“In that time, we have fixed nearly all of them,” he said, and these funds would allow the town to finish the work.
Another article taken out of the overall budget, according to Select Board member Marsha Dixon, was to raise $4,500 to hold a hazardous waste collection event at the town transfer station. Removing it from the budget would allow it to be funded by money from the American Rescue Plan Act instead.
“We were trying very hard to keep the tax increase as low as possible,” Dixon said, adding that once the program is established, the town intends to only hold it in off-election years, as the amount it costs to hold elections and to hold the hazardous waste event would be comparable.
The town’s other articles included additions totaling $571,800 to the town’s various capital trust funds, including for police and fire vehicles and road improvements, as well as $3,800 for the town’s master plan update trust fund and the cemetery maintenance trust fund.
All other financial articles involved money to be raised from capital reserve funds, such as a measure to purchase and outfit a new dump truck for the Highway Department, another to rehabilitate the pavement at the town’s transfer station and another to replace the Fire Department’s radios.