WORTHINGTON – Voters Saturday will consider a $3.4 million budget and decide a contest for Select Board.
The annual Town Meeting will start at at 9:30 a.m. in the R.H. Conwell School, and polls will be open for the annual election between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. at the Town Hall.
The proposed budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1 is $3,367,173, which includes $1,017,887 for the Worthington School District, $315,335 for vocational education and $307,338 for general government.
School Committee Chairman John McDonald said the Worthington School District budget would increase by $32,975 from this year.
“Part of the budget are costs that we can control directly, mostly associated with the elementary school, and that part of the budget we cut by $45,937 from last year,” McDonald said. “The other part is essentially non-discretionary, including tuition to Hampshire (Regional School District), transportation costs, and special education costs.”
According to McDonald, when compared to the School Committee’s first year estimates, tuition came in a bit lower than expected, but transportation and special education costs were significantly higher.
The School Committee is also requesting $25,000 to be placed in the preschool revolving fund next year.
In 2015, the town voted to have the school district operate a tuition-based, standalone preschool, instead of a combined kindergarten and preschool classroom as originally planned. The voters appropriated $27,000 for a revolving fund to help defray costs, until tuition payments began in the fall, and to partially subsidize the program.
The preschool has been drawing down some of the revolving fund each month and the School Committee is requesting the additional money.
“We don’t anticipate needing all the money in FY17, as we expect we will be eligible for some grants and we look to have higher enrollment next year, so more tuition. But, that revenue isn’t in hand,” McDonald said.
This is the first year of operation for the newly created Worthington School District and the reopened R.H. Conwell School as a public school.
“With almost a year of real costs to review, and other costs like transportation fixed, we were able to work with our principal and superintendent and come up with realistic needs assessments,” McDonald said. “Thus, we made cuts where we could do so without affecting what happens in the classrooms.”
Residents also will be asked to approve spending $33,785 for the purchase of four sets of personal protective equipment for firefighters, as well as two sets of self-contained breathing apparatus to replace obsolete gear.
Voters will also consider a resolution to approve the building of a broadband network.
There will be child care available at the school during the meeting provided by Susan Warner beginning at 9:15 a.m.
Voters will decide one contested race on the ballot as two candidates run for a three-year seat on the Select Board left open by incumbent Richard Wagner’s decision not to run for re-election.
Harriet Plehn, 76, is a retired immigration judge who has lived in Worthington for 20 years. She has served as president of the board of the Hilltown Community Health Centers, the Hilltown Community Development Corporation and the Worthington Library. She has also served on the boards of Safe Passage and the Old Creamery Co-op.
Through her community volunteer work Plehn said she has come to know many residents.
“There are so many hard-working, creative, and generous people working to make Worthington a wonderful place to live,” Plehn said. “If elected, I will do my best to listen carefully to members of the Worthington community and to work with the other members of the Select Board to arrive at informed and considered decisions about matters affecting Worthington.”
Plehn said that now that the new school district is operating, the biggest issue facing Worthington is acquiring access to broadband Internet service.
Plehn lives at 287 West St. with her two dogs.
Willard L. Brown, 52, a landscaper and lifelong resident of Worthington, said he would like to see changes made in town spending.
“I believe in controlling spending. It is a real burden on a democracy when taxes climb so high, especially on people in small rural towns where there is not a lot of income,” Brown said.
With roots that go back in town to his great-great-grandfather who owned a family farm in town, Brown said that his mother was active on the Board of Health in the 1970s.
“Its time I got involved,” he said. “It’s my turn to do something for the town before I’m too old to do it.”
Brown noted that he would be new to town government but said that everybody is a novice at some point and that he feels up to the task.
“I know that there will be a lot of on-the-job learning and I am not afraid of that,” Brown said. “I am familiar with the town and the townspeople and I would like to see Worthington continue as a nice rural farming community.”
Brown lives at 111Huntington St. with his partner Diana Noble.
The following incumbents are running unopposed: John Fosnot, 168 Indian Oven Road, assessor, three years; Camille Smith, 25 Witt Hill Road, Board of Health, three years; Paul Dunlevy, 291 Huntington Road, Finance Committee, three years; and Alison Todd, 39 Goss Hill Road, Worthington School Committee, three years.
The following new candidates are running unopposed: Antonia Lake, 494 Kinne Brook Road, Worthington School Committee, three years; and Kevin O’Connor, 7 Cummington Road, moderator, one year.