GRANBY — Concerns over the town’s finances, the school budget, post-employment benefits, and pending lawsuits will be addressed at annual Town Meeting that starts Monday and continues in June.
The meeting will take place at Granby Junior-Senior High School Monday at 7 p.m. and will address the first 18 of 24 articles on the warrant. The remaining six articles, including the town’s overall budget and the school budget for fiscal year 2019, will be discussed when Town Meeting resumes on June 11.
When the first session of Town Meeting ends on Monday, town officials have called for a special Town Meeting to consider another 11 articles.
But first, Monday’s annual Town Meeting will include discussion on several financial items, including two school-related articles.
The first article asks voters to decide whether to authorize spending $307,795 to pay the tuition of Granby students attending Pathfinder Regional Vocational School next year.
Another article asks for $34,532 to fund tuition for a student to attend Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School next year.
In the meantime, the school district is struggling to plug a $297,000 gap in next year’s budget. The School Committee has indicated it may, at Monday’s meeting, ask Town Meeting members for the money to cover the gap.
If officials fail to close the gap, Superintendent Sheryl Stanton said the district could face drastic cuts to core curriculum programs, teaching staff and sports and music programs, among other cuts.
Other articles proposed for Monday’s meeting include a request for $175,000 to be earmarked for a post-employment benefit account, to pay the health insurance of retired municipal employees.
As of July 1, 2017, the post-employment benefit liability for Granby totaled an estimated $23 million, according to Town Administrator Christopher Martin, who said small communities have trouble keeping up with rising health care costs.
“We try and make a stab at it to try to at least fund part of it, and this is why we have this article at $175,000,” Martin said.
New municipal vehicle purchases to be borrowed or bonded include a new $44,022 marked police cruiser, a $225,000 rescue vehicle for the Fire Department, a $150,000 new dump truck for the Highway Department and $80,500 for a road patching equipment for the Highway Department.
The special Town Meeting includes 11 articles, including two school-related articles for this fiscal year that were rejected at a special Town Meeting in February.
One would authorize using $49,163 from reserve funds to pay the salary of an additional second-grade teacher, hired after the school’s current fiscal year budget was finalized.
Another asks voters to reconsider using $16,728 to fund the tuition for a student attending Smith Vocational school this year.
Additionally, the town is asking voters in a separate article to use $1.4 million in free cash to replacing a roof leaking in the high school gymnasium for the past three years.
Ongoing lawsuits against the Granby Bow and Gun club have cost the town $20,000 so far this year, Martin said. That, on top of a $13,000 legal expense for a lawsuit against a former town employee, prompted the town to include in the special Town Meeting warrant an article asking for an additional $18,000 for the Legal Department.
Other items on the warrant include an article authorizing the Select Board to enter into a contract with Granby Solar LLC to install a 3.98-megawatt solar array on the corner of Morgan Street and New Ludlow Road. In 20 years time, Martin said, the array will generate $821,982 for the town in taxes.
After the police union negotiated a new contract last June, the town will vote to move a total of $21,500 into the account to cover the difference in personnel expenses and salaries for the town’s officers.
Another article authorizes the town to appropriate, borrow or transfer from available funds $35,000 to pay for unanticipated expenses to the town’s Ambulance Department Personnel Services.
Sarah Robertson can be reached at srobertson@gazettenet.com.