WESTHAMPTON – Town Meeting voters on Saturday authorized the Select Board to seek special state legislation to allow the town to issue a permit to Outlook Farm so that it can serve beer and wine at its Main Road location.
Voters also passed the bulk of the town’s $5.21 million budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1. Of the town’s 1,247 registered voters, 109 turned out for the annual Town Meeting.
In a 63 to 30 vote, residents authorized Outlook Farm to apply for a “Farmers Services Pouring Permit,” which marks a first for the town. Select Board Chairman Art Pichette said could it take up to a year to be approved by the state.
Westhampton is a “dry town,” which means that the Select Board must petition the state Legislature to enact a law authorizing the town to grant Outlook Farm such a permit. The legislation will be specific to Outlook Farm and does not apply to any other establishment nor will it change the town’s “dry” status.
“An affirmative vote today means that this will be able to go through the legislative process,” Pichette explained. “Once that is complete, it comes back to the town and then we can hold a hearing as to whether or not to authorize such a permit, and discuss restrictions that would apply.”
Finance Committee Chairman Thomas Cleary Jr. questioned the current laws involving the permit and said he feared the town could possibly face costly litigation.
“This is plunging us into a legal black hole,” Cleary said. “There is a saying don’t buy a pig in a poke, this is a pig in a poke.”
Others disagreed and said it was merely the first step in a process.
“All we are voting on is giving them permission to apply to the state, this is not about the town granting the license right now,” Peter Ignatovich said. “If the state says ok, then everybody can go to the hearing to issue the license and talk about the these things then.”
In a presentation to the town, Outlook Farm co-owner Brad Morse said that asking for the special legislation would not be costly to the town and that the town would benefit if he was allowed to expand his services.
“If we upgrade our brewing system that will cost about $150,000 to $200,000 generating roughly $20,000 in additional tax revenue for the town,” Morse said.
“It will also keep my business viable, help me to stay in town and keep farm land and open land in town that is a benefit to everybody,” he added.
Morse said that at this point, his proposed hours of operation would be Friday through Sunday from noon to 6 p.m.
In other action, voters passed the majority of the town’s $5.2 million budget, the bulk of which was $3.27 million for schools, including approximately $1.1 million for Hampshire Regional, $360,710 for vocational tuition, $55,820 for vocational transportation, $1.6 million for the elementary school, and $89,544 for the library.
The budget represents a 1.15 percent increase over this year’s budget.
Voters put off setting salaries and compensation for employees and elected officials until the annual Town Meeting reconvenes in June when the full budget will be put to a vote. The proposed budget for next fiscal year calls for a 1.5 percent salary increase.
“We thought it was rational to come up with a 1.5 percent increase,” Cleary said. “Yes, this is lower than the traditional 2.5 (percent) rate, but it is based on facts of what the economy is doing at this time, and we feel this is appropriate.”
Select Board member Phil Dowling was in favor of waiting to set the salaries for town employees so that there might be more time to find the approximately $2,000 needed to bring salary increases up to 2.5 percent.
Voters also approved spending $30,000 from free cash to paint the exterior of Town Hall.
The meeting will be continued on June 20th at 7:30 p.m.