LEVERETT — New vehicles for the police, fire and highway departments, amendments to zoning regulations governing solar projects and accessory apartments and funding programs that give people of all income levels an opportunity to make their home in Leverett will be decided at annual Town Meeting Saturday.
The 35-article warrant, to be taken up beginning at 9 a.m. at the Leverett Elementary School, also includes three citizen petitions. One seeks an investigation into whether there are grounds to impeach President Donald Trump, another suggests the town achieve 100 percent use of renewable energy and a third encourages state and federal representatives to pursue single-payer health care legislation.
Select Board Chairman Peter d’Errico said he doesn’t anticipate any major points of contention at the meeting.
“The budget seems to be in hand, and we have a really good basis for doing capital planning over the next several years,” d’Errico said.
The $5.97 million budget represents a $102,083, or 1.7 percent increase, from the current year’s $5.87 million budget, with the bulk of the spending for the public schools.
Like the other three towns that make up the Amherst-Pelham Regional School District, Leverett is being asked to vote for a modified regional assessment formula that is based 10 percent on wealth factors — the ability for residents to pay the assessment — and 90 percent on the rolling average of pupils the town sends to the regional schools.
Sean Mangano, finance director for the regional schools, said he anticipates hiring a consultant to work with representatives from the towns to find a long-term solution to this formula.
Under this formula, Leverett’s assessment will drop by $29,745, or 2 percent, from $1.52 million to $1.49 million.
Spending on the elementary schools, though, is going up by $67,089, or 2.9 percent, from $2.33 million to $2.4 million.
Other changes in the budget include an increase of $16,360 in fire department training, from $22,032 to $38,392, that will ensure an expanded call force is ready to work for the town; an additional $5,661 in materials for the Leverett Library, from $9,811 to $15,472, to meet financial requirements for participating in the C/W MARS digital catalog; and an increase in salaries for the highway department by $4,010, from $72,412 to $76,422, for the promotion of one driver.
Other departments were able to keep increases at or below the maximum 2 percent increase requested by the Finance Committee and Select Board.
Capital purchases will come from transfers from the stabilization fund, with $37,000 used for a new police cruiser, $45,000 for a new 1-ton highway truck and $175,000 for a new or used fire rescue truck.
Free cash transfers include $27,950 for purchase and installation of dry sprinkler heads at the elementary school and $8,000 for a new thermal imager to be used by firefighters.
Town Meeting will be asked to re-designate the $14,000 appropriated last year for a 2,000-gallon fire tanker truck, which went unused when a grant was not received. Instead, the department would use $5,600 for multigas meters, $4,650 for a new hose and helmets and $3,750 for 5 percent match for a federal grant to buy a brush truck.
Community Preservation Act spending includes $150,000 to continue the Leverett Homeownership Assistance Program, which helps families purchase affordable homes in town, and $100,000 for the Leverett Down-Payment Assistance Program that helps people buy dwellings by providing low-interest loans.
Another $10,000 will be used by the Conservation Commission to pay for building bog bridges, benches and signs on town-owned trails, and $2,542 will go to pay for 11 signs that will mark the entrances to the National Register Historic Districts, designated in 2014, of North Leverett, Moore’s Corner and East Leverett.
Several zoning amendments are on the agenda, including changing the special permit granting authority from the Planning Board to the Zoning Board of Appeals, providing more flexibility in the accessory apartments bylaw, deleting the rate of development bylaw, and adjusting rules for ground-mounted solar to allow panels that are taller than 20 feet with a special permit.
Leverett is the only town in Massachusetts that still nominates residents to boards and committees from the floor of Town Meeting. All incumbents are seeking re-election on Saturday.
They include Cat Ford for a three-year position on the Board of Assessors, Fay Zipkowitz for a three-year seat on the Board of Health, John Swartz for a three-year position as constable, Ann Delano for three-year term on the Finance Committee, Joan Godsey and Chris Condit for three-year posts as library trustees, Larry Farber for a three-year term as moderator, Jean Bergstrom for a five-year position on the Planning Board, Craig Cohen for a three-year post on the School Committee and Tom Hankinson for a three-year term on the Select Board.
Challengers interested in running can request to be nominated at the meeting.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com
