WHATELY – At the Special Town Meeting on March 23 about 20 residents came together to vote on motions to neaten up fiscal matters and make the town more accessible for the handicapped. The most expensive article called for paying off the loan for the Town Hall Historic Rehabilitation Project.

As Town Coordinator Brian Domina told the Selectboard at a prior meeting, “Special Town Meeting, the real reason we called it is Article 1.”

Article 1 asked voters to appropriate and transfer the sum of $116,928 to pay off the borrowing for the Town Hall restoration. Domina explained the funding – $67,292 from the unreserved balance of the Community Preservation Fund and $49,636 from the budgeted reserves of the Community Preservation Fund – have been approved by the Community Preservation Committee (CPC).

Article 1 passed with a unanimous vote, as did Article 2.

Article 2 asked voters to authorize spending of $13,530 to improve the town’s cemeteries. As Domina explained, the motion will pay for the installation of some new fencing, repair damaged fencing at the East Whately Cemetery, and underwrite granite benching at the cemeteries, similar to the benches installed at the veteran’s memorial in Town Center.

Article 3 also pieced together funding sources to install handicapped accessible measures at Herlihy Park. The article sought voter approval for the spending of $60,323 from two accounts of the Community Preservation Fund, $45,323 from the open space reserve account and $15,000 from the account for unreserved funds.

Article 3 passed with little discussion, as did Article 4 and 5.

Articles 4 and 5 were related. Article 4 asked residents to vote to appropriate $5,000 to pay for greater handicapped accessibility in the S. White Dickinson Memorial Library through the installation of a lift and related smoke detectors. Town Meeting appropriated $35,000 for the design work for the library improvements back in 2019.

“The contract that the Trustees entered into was for $21,000,” Domina said, “They confirmed for me … that they are going to only use $21,000 of this $35,000.”

Article 5 amended the vote at 2019 Town Meeting to include “the additional purpose of paying for the costs to construct and install handicapped accessibility improvements”. The amendment reallocated the funds to pay for construction costs, rather than design, which made it possible to access the unspent funds from the project.

Article 5 passed with the required majority. Voters did not need much discussion to complete the town’s business and the meeting adjourned after 10 minutes.