PLAINFIELD – On Saturday, 95 of the town’s 454 voters passed a $1,979,687 budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1, adopted a new solar bylaw and accepted the town of Rowe into the Mohawk Regional School District.

The 2017 budget is up by $89,877 from this year’s budget, and includes $711,024 for the Mohawk Regional School District and $178,473 for vocational education.

The original budget request had been $1,983,895, but was cut by $4,208 when a requested 3 percent raise for town employees was reduced to 1.5 percent.

The town took one step closer to becoming a member of the state’s Green Communities program with passage of a bylaw establishing a “Solar Photovoltaic Overlay District” that will identify a location where certain large-scale ground-mounted photovoltaic installations will be allowed by right.

The solar bylaw article passed by a required two-thirds vote.

Now that the bylaw has been established, to qualify for Green Communities status, the town must also pass a “stretch code” that would require that all new residential, commercial and municipal construction be 20 percent more energy efficient than the current state building code.

Voters unanimously approved accepting the town of Rowe back into the Mohawk Regional School District.

A former member of the district, Rowe was asked to voluntarily withdraw in the early 1980s, due to its thriving industrial tax base, due to the presence of a nuclear plant, which prevented the district from getting more state funding and grants, based on the district’s average property valuation. That plant has since closed.

Also, with changes in state funding over the last 30 years, there is no longer any financial benefit to the Mohawk district for Rowe to remain a non-member town.

Now that Rowe has joined the district, it will pay an annual assessment for its 7th-12th grade students, and share in future capital costs for the high school.

The Mohawk district includes the towns of Ashfield, Buckland, Charlemont, Colrain, Hawley, Heath, Plainfield and Shelburne.

Voters also approved spending $116,000 on the purchase of a $216,000 fully equipped dump truck for the Highway Department, and funding the remaining $100,000 from free cash.

Town election

Howard Bronstein, of 44 South Union St., was elected to a one year-term on the Select Board.

Bronstein is filling the remainder of a three-year seat on the board left open by the resignation of former Select Board member Judy Feeley.

Peg Keller, of 48 Summitt St., was elected to a three-year term on the Hampshire Council of Governments.

The following candidates were all re-elected:

Phillip S. Lococo, 44 Bow St., Select Board, three-year term; Dudley D. Williams III, 525 West St., Board of Assessors, three-year term; Ellen M. Dupont, 91 North St., Board of Health, three-year term; Merton D. Taylor Sr. 120 South Central St., 1st Constable, three-year term; Edward E. Morann, 55 Bow St., 2nd Constable, three-year term; Ann M. Kohn, 242 South Central St., Library Trustee, three-year term; Laurie Israel, 27 South Union St., moderator, one-year term; Heather Davis, 3 South Central St., School Committee, three-year term; Ruth E. Osgood, 64 North Central St., town clerk, three-year term; Winton Pitcoff, 24 South Union St., tree warden, one-year term; Robert L. Persing, 12 North Central St., Whitings Street Fund Disbursement Committee, three-year term.