BELCHERTOWN — Town Meeting voters will be asked Monday to approve a $60,369,152 budget along with several other money articles and a change from town administrator to town manager.
Proposed expenditures are $2.78 million, or 4.8%, more than the current year’s budget. School spending, the largest portion, is up by $1.54 million, or 4.7%, at $34.03 million, while the $2.84 million sanitation and environmental account is increasing by 12.3% owing mainly to a jump in the sewer enterprise fund expenses.
The public safety budget is up by 6.2% at $5.41 million.
Projected revenues will come from $33.37 million in taxes, a 4% increase, along with state aid, special funds and local receipts.
The town also proposes to put $200,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funding toward the budget, less than the $500,582 that was used in this year’s budget.
The Finance Committee’s report shows the town has spent or earmarked all but $255,881 of its $4.5 million ARPA award. Expenditures include almost $942,000 on hazard pay for town and school departments, $500,000 on Chestnut Hill Recreation Area infrastructure, $427,000 for an ambulance, and $300,000 on school cameras and security.
Along with the town manager article, the warrant includes a few zoning articles, one of which calls for the creation of a new classification known as an Agricultural Value-Added District.
With small farms still a big part of the town’s economy, town planner Doug Albertson said, the idea is to create a zone geared toward businesses that are related to agriculture — for example, a commercial kitchen.
The proposed zoning change “is intended to support and promote local agricultural activity and the retention of active farmland, and farmland of local importance,” the narrative states.
Some parcels of the Lampson Brook Farm, formerly the State School farm, will become available with this year’s expiration of the New England Small Farm Institute’s lease on the property.
Under the proposal up for a vote at Town Meeting, the new designation would be applied to a 10.5-acre lot on Jackson Street.
Town Meeting begins Monday at 7:30 p.m. at the high school gymnasium. The town election is May 15.