PELHAM — While many residents understand that dogs not under the voice control of their owners are a growing problem on public and private trails in Pelham, voters paused at revising the town’s leash law at Saturday’s annual Town Meeting.
Voters spent 45 minutes discussing whether to modify the leash law to require that dogs be on leashes after 10 a.m., but those who brought forward the petition agreed to pull the article after Conservation Commission members said at least one hearing would be held on the matter this spring before changes are made, Select Board Chairman Robert Agoglia said on Monday.
The meeting, which lasted just under three hours, approved all the remaining 19 articles, most unanimously, Agoglia said. Most of these were spending articles, along with one opposing the biomass power plant that had been proposed in Springfield.
Residents adopted a $4.85 million budget, which is $171,721, or 3.7% higher, than this year’s $4.67 million budget, and covers spending for the Pelham Elementary School and the assessment for the Amherst-Pelham Regional Schools.
The only controversial spending article was whether to use $70,000 from the capital stabilization fund to repair and paint the exterior of the Museum at the Old Town Hall Complex, with some residents suggesting that money from the Community Preservation Act account be directed toward that. Others said the CPA money needs to remain available to fund planned affordable housing projects.
Agoglia said the Select Board could appoint a committee to make recommendations on leashing dogs if the Conservation Commission does not act.
“We will want to see what they do,” he said.
The commission’s jurisdiction, he added, doesn’t extend to some public trails, including those in the state’s Cadwell Memorial Forest and on watershed land owned by the town of Amherst to protect its drinking water supply.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
