WESTHAMPTON – Residents will vote on allowing recreational marijuana businesses to open shop, the town’s proposed $6.3 million budget and funding engineering designs for a new public safety complex at the annual Town Meeting on Saturday.
The meeting will take place at Town Hall starting at 9 a.m. There are 33 articles on the warrant. There will be a ballot election for several town official positions, and there are two ballot questions. Residents will vote by ballot on whether to change the town’s bylaws to allow for recreational marijuana sales and on a Proposition 2½ debt exclusion to fund an engineering design for a new public safety complex at 48 Stage Road.
A “yes” vote on ballot question 1 would result in the town prohibiting all sales of recreational marijuana. A “yes” vote on ballot question 2 would allow the town to use a Proposition 2½ debt exclusion to fund the engineering study.
Articles 3 to 8 pertain to changes of the town’s marijuana bylaws for sales and consumption and would be dependent on the outcome of ballot question 1.
Article 22 would allow the town to spend $236,000 on engineering design for a new public safety complex if passed by a two-thirds majority. Fire Chief Christopher Norris will give a presentation during the meeting, according to the town’s administrative assistant Cheryl Provost.
The town’s proposed $6.3 million budget is a 2.73 percent increase from the previous year and residents will vote on it in Article 12.
Articles 13 to 18 would fund the town’s share of capital assessments for Hampshire Regional School District, the operating budget for Westhampton Elementary School, and funds for vocational school tuition and transportation if passed.
Residents will vote on authorizing a payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) program for CVE, a solar company building a large scale solar array on Montague Road, that would last up to 20 years. There is a verbal agreement between the Select Board and CVE where the solar company would pay $13,000 per megawatt annually, according to a May 1 letter to CVE from the Select Board.
The final two articles are to allow the town to acquire portions of Kings Highway for the purpose of fixing the bridge.
Luis Fieldman can be reached at lfieldman@gazettenet.com