WORTHINGTON – Annual Town Meeting had a big turnout Saturday, with two articles being voted down and a third referred to the Planning Board for two years of study. Voters also approved money to make the police chief a full-time job and hire a full-time officer.

Approximately 140 voters participated in Town Meeting, which was moved inside the R.H. Conwell School due to high winds and low temperatures.

“Today was particularly well attended for a Town Meeting,” said Select Board Chairman Charley Rose, in an interview.

The meeting was originally scheduled to take place outside. However, the company employed to put up the tent was contractually unable to do so because of the wind. The town moderator, Board of Health and other local officials decided it would be best to have the meeting indoors.

Because of capacity limits inside the Conwell School, for part of the meeting some of the voters participated from outside the building, aided by a speaker system. The votes of those inside and outside the building were checked.

“We’re doing our best to accommodate a very difficult situation,” said Town Moderator Kevin O’Connor in the meeting.

The meeting lasted from around 9:40 a.m. to around 2 p.m.

In Article 15, which concerned the police department, funding for making the police chief’s position full-time and allow the employment of a full-time officer both passed by voice votes.

Prior to the vote, Worthington employed no full-time police officers.

Two capital expenses did not meet the approval of Town Meeting voters.

Article 4 would have transferred $18,052 from the Conwell Stabilization Fund to purchase ten 60-inch round, mobile tables for the school cafeteria.

“I actually have teachers that teach in this building that ate their lunches at those tables,” said Gretchen Morse-Dobosz, the superintendent and principal of the Conwell School, when answering a question on what’s wrong with the current tables being used.

The article failed, however, when the 82 in favor and 57 against failed to meet the required two-thirds majority.

Article 22, which would have transferred $119,450 from the general stabilization fund to purchase a new 310SL HL Backhoe, also failed to get the necessary two-thirds majority to pass.

A citizen’s petition to change the street frontage requirement to build a house from 400 feet to 280 feet prompted significant discussion for and against.

Tina McCarthy, the petition’s author, was spurred to bring the petition when she and her partner Alex Feinstein were prevented from developing a home on a lot owned by his parents due to the frontage requirement.

Joe Boudreau, who chairs the Finance Committee, said that the town’s zoning should not be amended by citizen’s petition, and that this should be the business of the Planning Board.

“Let’s do it the normal way, not this expedient slam-bam way,” said Boudreau.

Timothy Sena, however, spoke in favor of the change.

“Even 280 feet is a lot of space,” he said.

Sena said the frontage was originally changed from 200 to 400 feet because “hippies” bought a farm in town.

“They were going to wreck the town, and that’s the argument that was put forth when we went from 200 feet to 400 feet,” he said.

Ultimately, voters supported a motion from resident Evan Johnson to commit the petition to the Planning Board, charging the board with making a report on it by the town’s 2023 Annual Town Meeting.

McCarthy expressed frustration with the events of the meeting.

“I really hope that town does something good with what we’ve started here,” she said.

Rose said he thought it was unfortunate that the petition didn’t get a vote.

“I think it deserved a vote,” he said.

Bera Dunau can be reached at bdunau@gazettenet.com.