HATFIELD — A project to improve water and sewer service on Route 5 and a zoning amendment to limit where cannabis can be grown for medical or recreational use will be considered when an outdoor annual Town Meeting convenes Tuesday.
Town Meeting will begin at 6 p.m. at the Lions Club Pavilion on Billings Way to take up a 22-article warrant.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, voters will be required to wear masks and sanitize their hands, and will be encouraged to bring their own chairs if they don’t want to sit at the picnic tables.
The largest spending, aside from the $11.4 million fiscal year 2021 budget, is $1.6 million that will cover the town’s share of a sewer and water infrastructure improvement project on Route 5, with the remaining money coming from a $2 million MassWorks Infrastructure Program state grant.
The infrastructure improvements will extend sewer service on Route 5 from Linseed to Rocks roads, and water service for 2,200 feet along Route 5 south of Rocks Road.
This spending also will be on the June 23 town election ballot as a Proposition 2½ debt exclusion if borrowing is not done within the town’s levy limit.
Select Board member Brian Moriarty said the project will support economic development by local businesses and new housing growth.
The $11.4 million budget is $902,617, or 8.5% higher, than this year’s $10.5 million budget.
Town Administrator Marlene Michonski told the Select Board and Finance Committees at a recent meeting that every department budget is level funded, with exceptions for various assessments, contractual obligations, and retirement, health care and insurance costs.
The budget includes $4.68 million for the public schools and use of $348,000 in free cash.
The Planning Board-sponsored marijuana zoning bylaw is aimed at restricting outdoors and greenhouse growing of marijuana in the rural residential, outlying residential, town center and business districts within 500 feet of any pre-existing residential use that is not located on the same lot.
The proposal was drafted following the controversial proposal for an operation on Depot Road that was withdrawn after several hearings in 2019.
Other spending on the warrant includes $6,725 from the Community Preservation Act account for preserving and restoring historic vital town records under the care of the town clerk and $36,438 for constructing a new pavilion at Smith Academy Park, a project that began when Town Meeting approved the initial spending last year.
One of the other non-spending articles is to formally change the name of the Board of Selectmen to Select Board in the town’s general and zoning bylaws. Town officials made an effort to streamline the warrant by removing less urgent articles, including one that would establish a new annual date for when the annual Luminarium is held.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
