Residents weigh in on 61 articles at Annual Town Meeting

May 18, 2017 | Dennis Hohenberger



WILBRAHAM – Town officials and residents mulled over, debated and voted on 61 warrant articles during the May 15 annual town meeting, which included topics like medical marijuana, zoning changes and the upcoming fiscal year budget.

The meeting was conducted in the Minnechaug Regional High School auditorium. Several hundred voters were in attendance.

Selectmen Susan C. Bunnell, Robert Russell and Robert J. Boilard present, along with town officials. The selectmen were joined by the Finance Committee onstage.

All attendees were given a voting card. The cards were held aloft until the voting finished on each article. Microphones were provided for those who spoke in favor or opposition to an article.

Residents were asked to identify themselves if they stepped up to the microphone.

Housekeeping items, mostly consisting of budget transfers, were voted on and accepted early in the meeting. Over $94,000 of previously appropriated but unexpended funds were transferred from the FY 2017 budget.

Voters approved to raise and appropriate $40,806,873 and transfer $26,000 from the dog officer expenses to cover next fiscal year’s capital expenditures and operating expenses. A motion allowed for forgoing reading all the expenditures related to the budget.

Nancy Piccin, vice chair of the Finance Committee provided an overview of the FY 2018 budget and the role of the committee. Committee members act as liaisons to the various town committees and departments.

She said department hirings generate the greatest debate when compiling a budget. Voters were given a full breakdown of the budget. Piccin said the town is in solid financial position, which resulted in an AA+ bond rating by Standard and Poor’s.

The Stabilization and Combined Stabilization accounts are also on solid footing. The committee recommended to pay down debt ahead of schedule, which began in FY 2010. The town currently has over $46.4 million in revenue and available funds.

The town has an allowable tax levy of $37,7 million, followed by $6.2 million in local and enterprise fund receipts.

The proposed budget falls the allowable levy by over $229,000. The education comprises 54 percent of the budget. Public works, safety, benefits and insurance top the budget.

The budget allows for expanding the hours for the town’s veteran’s agent, restoring the public library’s assistant director, supporting road paving, guardrails and sidewalks.

Future challenges included the whether to construct a new senior center and middle school, occupancy of town buildings and properties, encourage appropriate commercial expansion to increase the tax base.

School Superintendent Albert Ganem presented the School Department budget. The FY 2018 budget is $47,453,815 or a 1.17 percent increase from FY 2017. The proposed budget was $1.2 million less than the FY 2018 working budget.

Attendance trends for schools have shown an over 11 percent decrease in enrollment, resulting in less than 3,000 students in the district. The complete FY 2018 budget in on the School Department’s website.

The town’s contribution to the school budget is $15.4 million. The state budget has yet to be voted on, which could alter revenue forecasts for municipalities. Contract negotiations continue with all bargaining units.

Ganem said the department will examine class size, reintroducing the middle school model and reorganization of the district’s leadership team.

Voters approved the town and school budgets.

Fire Chief Peter Nothe requested $950,000 to purchase a combination ladder/pumper truck, which would replace two aging vehicles. He told residents the department needs to reduce maintenance costs over the coming years.

Parts for the existing trucks are hard to come by. The new pumper will have upward to a 23-year life span. Nothe thanked the Wilbraham-Monson School for donating $20,000 for the pumper purchase.

An additional $297,000 was approved for remodeling public buildings, including upgrades to clock systems, carpet replacement, new school cameras and $140,000 for a new fiber optic network at five locations.

The Planning Board asked for consideration on several zoning bylaws, including offering more time to restore nonconforming buildings damaged during natural disasters and changes that make Wilbraham more business-friendly.

Voters accepted Carla Lane as a public way. Resident Brian Cunningham said the road does not serve the “town on the whole.” Subdivision roads are built to local standards by developers with access granted later to all drivers.

Several articles were related to Community Preservation Act (CPA) funding and allocations, which included $9,254 to preserve town records, $44,180 to preserve the Country Club of Wilbraham’s Farmhouse and $61,541 to restore tennis courts at Minnechaug High.

In all, $414,725 was set aside for CPA appropriations.

The CPA funding will also help restore 30 colonial era tablets at Glendale Cemetery. Nearly $80,000 was set aside for landscaping and installing fencing around the Spec Pond basketball courts, the Picnic Grove and Pavilion.

An appropriation of $54,8000 to build an ADA accessible trail at Thayer Brook was tabled. The ADA (Americans with Disability Act) wording troubled several speakers who complained the proposed trail would not be compliant with the act’s intent.

Time was given during the meeting to review the article wording.

Voters approved $200,000 for the purchase of a parcel known as Mount Marcy. The property is located at 611V Glendale Road and is owned by Silo Farm Associates, LLC. The parcel consists of 47.31 acres.

In 2016, the town approved $150,000 for the purchase. An appraiser paid for by the owner was seen by the Commonwealth as a conflict of interest. The state will reimburse the Town of Wilbraham through a grant.

The parcel was recently appraised at $380,000.

Several residents waited hours on a motion that would let residents raise chickens on fewer than five acres of land. A few audience members wore knitted chicken hands in favor of the motion. The motion modified an existing bylaw.

The bylaw was introduced to town officials several years ago. John Broderick, vice chair of the Bylaw Committee, said current zoning forbids raising chickens on properties under five acres. “We really tried to make this a Wilbraham bylaw,” he said.

Permitting was excluded from the proposed bylaw. Inspecting chicken coops is considered illegal in Massachusetts, according to Broderick.

One speaker said a separate bylaw is not necessary and that existing codes should be sufficient. The keeping of roosters is not allowed under the proposed bylaw. The speaker added consumers are “disgusted” with factory farming or a number of antibiotics injected into the species.

Free-range chickens also consume ticks. However, the benefit is gone when chickens are housed full time in coops.

A resident, who opposed the bylaw, said he filed a complaint with the town concerning a neighbor’s chickens. One morning, he found a half-dozen chickens roaming on his front lawn, leaving behind a mess, which he had to clean up.

He recalled several chickens jumped over a six-foot fence and landed in his backyard. The neighbor, he said, did not help clean up the mess the chickens left.

Broderick said the chickens must be contained. Code enforcement can make a visit to the offending chicken owner.

The bylaw was overwhelmingly approved. A few audience members clucked approval.

Article 25 updated agricultural use regulations, which cleared up the five acres or less for raising chickens.

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