FinCom Resumes Article Recommendations

            On April 24 during the Marion Finance Committee’s first television performance, the committee continued its Town Meeting Warrant article recommendations, beginning where they left off: Article 23 to appropriate $30,000 to replace the tank on the Fire Department’s brush breaker, which it voted to recommend.

            Article 26 would appropriate $582,090 to buy a new front-loading rubbish packer and rollout trash and recycling carts, should voters prefer keeping their trash collection provided by the Town as opposed to outsourcing to a trash collector. The committee took no action, still, because the amount for outsourcing curbside trash collection was not yet known, so no recommendation was made on Article 25, either. But the committee discussed the matter with soon-to-be Town Administrator Jay McGrail and Selectman John Waterman.

            The Town will put the amount $470,000 on Article 25 as a placeholder, only because, with the bids not due until that following Friday, that dollar amount on the warrant better be big enough to cover the cost, since sums can be reduced, but never increased, on the Town Meeting floor.

            The Board of Selectmen and the Finance Committee hope to know by May 9 which article they will recommend ahead of Town Meeting on May 13.

            Also during the meeting, the committee couldn’t make any recommendation on Article 34, either, since no figure was yet available. The article would transfer an as yet unknown sum of free cash to the Capital Improvement Stabilization Fund.

            “It’s gonna have to be on the fly,” said FinCom member Alan Minard.

            After an explanation from the engineering firm Tata & Howard about Article 11, the Mill Street water main project to replace a six-inch water main with a 12-inch water main, the FinCom voted to recommend the $2.8 million appropriation.

            The committee did also recommend Article 17 to appropriate $105,000 for the engineering for the Point Road water main project to replace 6,300 linear feet of 12-inch pipe.

            The Annual Town Meeting is on Monday, May 13, at 6:45 pm at Sippican School.

            The next meeting of the Marion Finance Committee is tentatively scheduled for May 7 at 6:00 pm at the Atlantis Drive facility.

Marion Finance Committee

By Jean Perry

Leave A Comment...

*