BELCHERTOWN — In response to resident concerns and pleas from an April 1 listening session, the Select Board on Thursday voted to lower the Proposition 2½ override request from $3.3 million to $2.9 million in hopes that a more palatable number will pass at the ballot box.

“There’s one (comment) in particular that stood out to me. I forget which resident said it, but she was like, ‘We don’t need a perfect number. It’s not a perfect number, but it gets us closer to our collective goals than not.’ So I can get behind this,” Select Board Chair Ed Boscher said during an April 7 meeting.

With reassurance from Superintendent Brian Cameron and School Committee Chair Heidi Gutekenst that Cold Spring School will close in the next couple years, the board decided that the override question should fully fund the School Department’s $1.7 million request. Members, did, however, remove several requests from other town departments.

“I think the listening session was really important for me,” Select Board member Lesa Pearson said. “I went in thinking that I wouldn’t be swayed all that much, but it made a big impression on me. For that reason, I think we need to lower the number so that the override might pass.”

The tax rate of the new override number is estimated by Select Board member Jennifer Turner to be at $1.23 per thousand of assessed valuation, so an owner of a house valued at $400,000 will pay an estimated $492 extra on their property taxes each year.

Residents will vote on the Proposition 2½ on May 12. The board also decided to move Town Meeting from May 12 to May 31 to avoid confusion with the budget residents will approve at the annual meeting.

The $2,947,400 on the ballot includes the school department’s ask, $198,244 for the town’s level-service budget, $437,000 for the wages of six firefighters, $57,000 for a grant manager, $65,000 for an ambulance lease, $47,000 to bring a part-time information technology position to full time and $500,000 for capital projects.

While the additional capital money has not been allotted to specific projects, it will help whittle down the estimated $18.7 million of capital planning needs, although Boscher predicts the number is much higher.

“We cannot go again next year, and next year will be worse,” Turner said. “We need some sort of a cushion here. We can’t go bare bones. If we go bare bones and it passes, then we’re back here next year. We can’t be back here next year.”

Town Manger Steve Williams asserted that the town’s most critical needs are the firefighters, grant manager and IT position, especially since the last month of municipal meetings were rife with technology issues. However, he said that all the town department requests were reasonable and he will revisit the additional police lieutenant, deputy fire chief and assistant town manager of finance in later years. 

“Ironically, up until the point where I asked for a financial director, people were all over social media saying the town needs a financial director,” Williams said. “But as soon as it came to pay for it, (it changed to) maybe Mr. Williams doesn’t know how to do his job.” 

Belchertown is currently in the middle of a Division of Local Services audit and human services review. The board felt that until the DSL report is in there hand, they will wait to add any more municipal positions and instead focus on keeping what the town already has.

“It took us many, many years to get into this predicament, we knew this financial cliff was coming. Well it’s here. I inherited a mess,” said Williams, who became town administrator about two years ago.

The School Department will hold a final budget presentation on April 15, and the town will hold its presentation at a later date.

If the override fails, residents will vote on the preliminary budgets presented with the original cuts. The School Department will need to cut 22.5 positions, close Cold Springs School next year and reorganize grade levels. Other town departments will also reduce service. 

Emilee Klein can be reached at esklein@gazettenet.com