WHATELY — Residents will be asked to consider five articles at Wednesday’s special Town Meeting, including a proposal to allocate $116,928 to finish paying off money borrowed to renovate Town Hall.
“The real reason we wanted to call (a special Town Meeting) was for Article 1,” Town Administrator Brian Domina said at a March 7 Select Board meeting. “That will essentially pay off the borrowing for the Town Hall rehabilitation project.”
Special Town Meeting will be held at the Town Offices, located at 4 Sandy Lane, starting at 6 p.m.
In 2017, residents approved a combination of appropriations and borrowing for a $1.3 million Town Hall renovation project, which included accessibility and safety improvements along with a new plumbing and heating system.
Article 3 asks residents to consider a $60,323 appropriation from the Community Preservation Fund for work at Herlihy Park, which would include accessibility improvements to the restrooms and paving of the driveway and parking lot. Voters appropriated $107,911 from free cash for the project in November, which will be rescinded at annual Town Meeting because the town received a Parkland Acquisitions and Renovations for Communities grant for $62,588. A condition of the grant requires the town to appropriate the full amount before receiving the money.
“You’ll recall we had a special Town Meeting last fall where we needed to show that we had money available for this project,” Domina told the Select Board. “The idea was because this project was (Community Preservation Act)-eligible, we would do the vote to show that we had that money … and then the money was going to go back once that project wrapped up.”
Select Board Chairman Jonathan Edwards said residents were asked to allocate the $107,911 in November because CPA money cannot be appropriated until CPA applications are submitted and subsequently approved.
The other three articles include $13,530 from the Community Preservation Fund to repair and replace fences at Whately’s cemeteries as well as install granite benches similar to the ones outside Town Hall. Appropriations for the S. White Dickinson Library’s ongoing renovations are also on the table. Article 4 will have residents vote to appropriate $5,000 for the project, while Article 5 would reallocate an additional $16,000 of unexpended funds that were approved at annual Town Meeting in 2019.
“One of the purposes for the uses of that money is not construction, but we can change that through a special Town Meeting article,” Domina said. He explained that voters in 2019 approved money for the accessibility improvements’ designs, but the contract came in way under budget and money was left over.
All articles are approved by the Community Preservation Committee. The special Town Meeting warrant can be viewed at bit.ly/3IrvW9z.