Editor’s Note: On Page 18 of the May 26 Wanderer “Rochester Town Meeting,” the approved FY23 operating budget was incorrectly reported. The correct number approved by voters was $24,174,626. The report also incorrectly implied FY22 and FY23 salary figures for Town Accountant Suzanne Szyndlar and Building Commissioner Carl Bizarro. The figures discussed on Town Meeting floor applied to the entire Accounting and Building department budgets. Szyndlar earned $55,202 as town administrator/accountant in FY22 and will earn $80,000 in the newly created role of Finance Director in FY23. Bizarro will earn $80,000 as a full-time Building Commissioner in FY23, an increase from $49,358 (part-time) in FY22. Below is the story with the correct information.
Monday night’s Rochester Town Meeting saved the drama until close to the end, as it took under an hour to pass all but two of its 27 warrant articles.
The first negative vote came with Article 24, a move to change the “Arbor Fund” bylaw that requires solar-facility developers to estimate the value of the trees they are clear cutting on their property and submit to the town a payment that will then be used for tree-regrowing purposes. Town Meeting was being asked to apply this requirement to any subdivision or a commercial/industrial that cuts trees as part of its project.
Planning Board Chairman Arnold Johnson reported that at that panel’s public hearing on the article on May 10, it voted unanimously to recommend it be withdrawn. Town Meeting attendees agreed and indefinitely postponed the change.
At the May 10 hearing, Johnson explained he considers the proposed change “too cumbersome, too onerous. We want this fund confined to solar projects. The townspeople won’t like it. I don’t like to lose the town. They’ve grown to trust us. I don’t want to lose that.”
Article 27 failed to pass as well. It was a citizen’s petition that would have authorized the town to enter into a 99-year lease agreement with a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization to build affordable housing on 4 acres on the south side of Perry’s Lane. The lease price tag would be for $1, and the units would be limited to Rochester seniors and veterans.
Proponent Richard Cutler said it would be a proactive move to help the citizens of Rochester who are seniors and veterans with finding affordable housing before housing quotas came down from the state. “I strongly feel is the right move for Rochester,” Cutler said. “Is it like putting the cart before the horse? Well, the cart is affordable housing for our residents that needs a little push from behind. It will send a message to officials that we should be doing something about this and now.”
Town Counsel Blair Bailey pointed out that any non-profit, not just the local petitioners, would be able to bid for this project under state law. Perry Lane resident Michele Gagne noted the street is an unpaved road down which a school bus regularly travels. Four acres there would be a very limiting housing project for its residents, she said.
Select Board member Woody Hartley noted this is “a long, skinny piece of property. There are other town properties for something like this.” Referring to the entire Select Board, he added, “We’re not opposed to housing for our seniors and veterans. We’re not sure this the best place for it.”
The article failed by vote of 72 against and only 14 in favor.
Under positive moves, the FY23 operating budget of $24,174,626 passed with little resistance.
A Town Meeting voter questioned what she called the “dramatic” salary increases in the Accounting and Building departments. The Accounting Department budget increased from $131,622 in FY22 to $162,851 for FY23, and the Building Department budget increased from $144,168 in FY22 to $184,161 for FY23.
Select Board Chairman Brad Morse explained that the Building-commissioner position was boosted from part-time ($49,358) in FY22 to full-time ($80,000) for FY23 because of an increasing workload and that Suzanne Szyndlar, who is earning $55,202 through FY22 as town administrator/town accountant, will earn $80,000 in FY23 in the newly created role of Finance Director. Glenn Cannon was recently appointed as Rochester’s new town administrator.
The other major moves that the 101 residents who attended the Town Meeting approved included: $380,000 to borrow for a new ambulance; $110,000 for a feasibility study on possible public safety department improvements; $12,000 for engineering and surveying to renovate the town hall parking lot; $35,000 to site a transfer station building at the Highway barn; $41,000 for a new animal control vehicle; and $49,500 for a Highway Department dump truck and sander.
Voters also endorsed changing the solar bylaw to state that such projects be designed to better minimize their visibility from residences and public ways.
Rochester Annual Town Meeting
By Michael J. DeCicco