Sharon voters unanimously passed all warrant articles at Town Meeting Thursday night, including the operating budget, a $60,000 legal expense fund tied to an ongoing court case and funding for a survey of the McCoy Road Cemetery.
The meeting began with an amendment to the proposed operating budget to fix a discrepancy between the amount printed on the warrant and the amount listed in the town report.
While the warrant listed the proposed budget as $517,653, the town report listed it as $560,298.
Selectman Richard Dufresne moved to amend the warrant to reflect the correct amount of $560,298, seconded by Selectman Jonathan Shomody.
Town Administrator Deb Harling explained the difference was due to a typographical error on the warrant. Voters approved the amendment.
Harling said the operating budget includes several increases, primarily in contracted services such as police and fire services provided by Peterborough. However, she said the total requests this year, including warrant articles, are lower than last year.
Among the increases are police services, up about $5,000; ambulance services, up about $8,000; and sanitation, up about $6,000.
Some residents asked whether the town had attempted to renegotiate the contracts or explore other service providers. Select Board members said those options have been explored previously, though Shomody said he would be willing to revisit the issue in the coming year.
The amended budget passed unanimously by voice vote.
The largest spending article before voters was a $60,000 request for the town’s legal expense fund.
Selectman Chet Bowles said the request is largely tied to an ongoing dispute with Harris Construction of Peterborough. Sharon and Peterborough have issued a cease-and-desist order to the company regarding excavation work on a property that straddles both towns, alleging the work was conducted without proper permits and without paying excavation taxes.
The dispute has been ongoing for about two years. Bowles said Sharon spent $23,000 on legal fees related to the case last year, and costs are expected to be more this year, as the matter is now in court.
“We hope that this is enough money, but as you know legal expenses and going to court can tend to be expensive, but we think it’s an important thing for the town to do,” said Bowles.
Bowles said the town has asked the court to require Harris Construction to cover the town’s legal costs, though that decision will ultimately be up to the court.
Voters approved the legal fund unanimously in a voice vote.
Voters also approved $4,800 for a survey of the McCoy Road Cemetery.
Dufresne said the survey would establish property boundaries and current conditions while creating a digital map showing purchased plots, available spaces and future grave locations.
Voters approved the article in a unanimous voice vote.
Voters also approved several smaller funding requests with little discussion, including $1,000 each for the technology upgrade expendable trust fund, the emergency management communications expendable trust fund and the town building maintenance, repair and capital improvement trust fund. Voters also approved $5,000 for the assessing capital reserve fund.
Officer elections
Election results from Tuesday’s ballot voting were announced prior to the start of Town Meeting.
All races were uncontested. Joel Patterson was elected to the Select Board with 71 votes. Susan Bowles was elected treasurer with 73 votes, and Tim Conner was elected by write-in to the audit board with 12 votes. Jeff Osgood received 72 votes for trustee of the trust funds, Beth Fernald received 72 votes for moderator and James Fredrickson received 72 votes for Sharon’s School Board representative.
Voters also approved a zoning ordinance amendment, 73-4. The amendment adds a table of contents and makes clerical corrections to formatting and grammar. It also updates the town’s accessory dwelling unit ordinance to comply with new state law requiring towns to allow detached accessory dwelling units.