LEVERETT — Addressing drinking water contamination at five homes caused by a plume from the former landfill, calling on town officials to fix a gravel road between Moore’s Corner and the Shutesbury town line and repairing the dam at Leverett Pond are issues that will come before annual Town Meeting Saturday.
The 44-article warrant will be taken up at 9 a.m. Saturday at Leverett Elementary School, beginning with the election of town officers and a vote on whether the town clerk should become an appointed position, rather than elected.
One of the major decisions facing voters will be how to address the continued problems caused by the capped landfill at the southern end of town, either through connecting the homes to an Amherst municipal water line, drilling new wells for each home or commencing the process of taking the dwellings by eminent domain.
At the other end of town, residents of Dudleyville Road have put forward a resolution that states it will be a “fundamental requirement that the town of Leverett maintain roads so that taxpayers can reach their property safely on all 365 days of the year.” This article also seeks $15,000 for an engineering study for the road.
Richard Natthorst, who lives on the street and worked with neighbor Ray Bradley on the petition, said Dudleyville, which has a lot of clay, was built with virtually no storm drainage, few culverts and a drainage ditch on the uphill side. Rain and mud created difficult driving conditions when warm weather arrived.
“The road absolutely failed this spring and was closed for three days,” Natthorst said, adding that it put residents out of reach of police and ambulance service.
One of the biggest spending items on the warrant is $160,000 from the Community Preservation Act account to assist the Friends of Leverett Pond to pay for replacing the failing dam at the pond.
Residents will be presented a $6.15 million budget that is $101,051, or 1.7 percent higher, than the current year $6.05 million budget.
Two articles seek additional funding outside the budget. The first would add $33,126 in operating expenses for the elementary school’s $2.54 million budget, though this will not be built into future spending. The second would add $33,093 to the municipal budget to hire a third full-time police officer.
Resolutions include ones asking for compassion toward refugees, having the United States join the treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons and supporting efforts to change the state seal.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
