“It’s that time of year again,” said Board of Selectmen Chairman Stephen Cushing as he picked up a copy of the draft town meeting warrant.
The fiscal year 2017 budget is now balanced and the articles for the 2016 Annual Town Meeting listed, and selectmen on March 22 voted to close the annual and special town meeting warrants for the May 9 Town Meeting date.
The town had faced a roughly $1 million shortfall at the beginning of budget season but as of this week, as Finance Director and acting Town Administrator Judy Mooney reported, this budget is balanced.
“We have been working diligently with the Finance Committee,” said Mooney, and the result is Article 2, a $21.1 million balanced total operating budget, up just 3.23% from FY16. “We’ve been very conservative in our estimates, as usual. You don’t have a lot of extra revenue in there.”
There are 32 articles featured, along with one question for Town Meeting approval to be placed on the election ballot that requests a debt exclusion to offset the Old Rochester Regional School District’s capital improvement costs. If approved by Town Meeting, Marion voters would decide whether Marion would be exempt from Proposition 2½ to pay for its share of a grand total of $603,000 to be split between the three towns.
Starting at the beginning, the draft warrant Article 1 features no pay increase for Marion elected officials, followed by Article 2, the operating budget.
Articles 3 and 4 pertain to Water and Sewer Enterprise Funds money for appropriation for salaries, debt, and the reserve fund for each respectively.
Articles 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 are to appropriate sums of money into various stabilization and reserve funds, but most notable are Articles 6 and 7, which will appropriate $50,000 and $200,000 of free cash towards accrued benefits for retiring employees and “other post-employment benefits” (OPEB), respectively.
Capital Planning articles follow, with several big-ticket items, but none bigger than the $1.5 million requested in Article 12 for the design and permitting for lining the three wastewater treatment plant lagoons.
Article 10 requests $12,265 to buy seven Automatic External Device (AED) defibrillators for the Police, Recreation, and Facilities Departments, while Article 11 is for $6,194 to repair the Silvershell Beach House roof.
Article 13 is for $630,000 to replace the Mary’s Pond well, and Article 14 requests $120,000 to develop and implement a CMOM program that is the EPA’s approach for managing and maintaining collection systems, which would be transferred from the Sewer Enterprise Retained Earnings account.
Article 15 is for $55,000 for the harbormaster to buy two outboard motors paid from the Waterways Account, and Article 16 is for $150,000 to develop an Asset Management Program using money from the Sewer Enterprise Retained Earnings account.
Article 17 is to fund the Fire Department ventilation system at Station 1 for $81,804. Article 18 appropriates $50,000 in free cash for the DPW for the MS4 Permit Needs Assessment that is mandated by the state.
Article 19 is for $25,000 to replace vinyl tile at Sippican School, Article 20 for $92,400 for insulation at the Taber Library, and Article 21 would appropriate $39,905 for repairs at Fire station 1.
Article 22 begins the Community Preservation Committee-funded projects, with $2,000 for CPC administrative expenses. Continuing with CPC, Article 23 is for $84,300 of estimated FY2017 revenues to fund future projects according to the Community Preservation Act, along with $194,700 from revenue to the CPA Budgeted Reserves. Article 24 would appropriate $111,950 to restore the historic windows at Pythagorean Hall. Article 25 is for $65,000 to purchase 114 acres of open space land within Mattapoisett for the permanent protection of Marion’s drinking water supply.
Article 26 would establish a revolving fund for various recreation programs, not to exceed $150,000.
Article 27 would transfer $2,000 from the Chester A. Vose Fund to be used by the Board of Assessors for the reduction of taxes.
Article 28 authorizes the Board of Selectmen “to institute, defend, or compromise suits of law…”
Article 29 authorizes the Board of Selectmen to sell Town belongings once there are no further uses for them.
Article 30 allows selectmen to sell or transfer taxation possession properties, Article 31 pertains to town officer reports, and Article 32 is to accept the ballot.
The Special Town Meeting Warrant’s only article is for a $50,000 budget transfer to supplement snow and ice removal budget.
“A hell of a lot better than last year’s,” said Cushing.
Also during the meeting, selectmen signed a letter of support for Fire Chief Brian Jackvony to apply for the Massachusetts “Staffing for Adequate Fire & Emergency Response” (SAFER) grant that would pay the wages and benefits of a full-time on-call firefighter for a two-year period, provided the Town does not lay-off the worker within those two years.
“[Jackvony] has a lot of … trouble getting that daytime coverage,” said Mooney. “It’s an ongoing problem with all on-call firefighter towns.”
The next meeting of the Marion Board of Selectmen is scheduled for April 5 at 7:00 pm at the Marion Town House.
By Jean Perry