Reviewing the warrant for the May 13 Annual Town Meeting, Rochester’s Select Board Monday paused longest over the one article it voted against recommending.
That article proposes approving a $12,000,000 debt exclusion for the Old Rochester Regional School District to make capital improvements around the school campus.
Select Board member Brad Morse motioned to not recommend this article, explaining, “The reason being it’s just an estimate,” he said. “I don’t know what it really funds.” Select Board member Adam Murphy elaborated that he has pressed the school superintendent to present to the board the study of the school district’s capital needs that has been prepared, but he has yet to see it.
“This is a 20, 22-year decision we have to make,” Murphy said. “A decision that will affect our grandchildren. Questions need to be answered: Who will be in charge of this work? Is it in a five, 10-year capital plan? Has there been public comment? The superintendent had explained the projects when he was here but without documentation.”
Even a member of the ORR School Committee, Joe Pires, said he had his doubts.
“It’s all in good intentions,” Pires said. “The school is old. Once we researched things, we found there was not enough substantial information for this plan. I’ve asked specific questions; I couldn’t get an answer. I voted no on this plan.”
Before the Select Board voted unanimously against recommending the article, Town Counsel Jay Talerman of Mead, Talerman, and Costa, LLC, explained that the article, however, must remain on the warrant because of the peculiar rules of membership in a regional school district. If all three towns in the district did not entertain this article on their town meeting warrants but “wash over it” instead, the measure would automatically be approved, he said. Only if the three towns actively disapprove the article would it be a dead issue.
Talerman added that was also true of the related question to approve the ORR debt exclusion that will be asked at the Town Election. That measure must also remain on that ballot.
In other warrant changes, the Select Board altered the proposed amount that would be spent for Capital Planning. Murphy recommended shaving $49,800 that would have been spent by the Rochester Memorial School for “asphalt repair and new sealant.” He suggested putting that expense on hold until after the installation of the solar canopy that is being proposed for the school’s back lot. His fellow Select Board members agreed to that deletion, leading to a new Capital Planning total of $121,180.
Elsewhere across the 21-article warrant, the Select Board recommended the proposed FY25 budget of $22,022,613. The Public Safety Stabilization Fund will receive an additional $140,000. The Road Improvement Stabilization Fund will gain an additional $100,000, the Capital Improvement Fund $300,000 and a Rochester Memorial School emergency Special Education funding account $300,000.
The board also recommended the Town Meeting proposal to spend $15,000 on repairing the Plumb Library roof after Town Administrator Glenn Cannon explained to Murphy why this expense was not a Capital Planning funding measure. Cannon said the request came late; the roof was damaged by a storm on March 19.
In other action, the board approved Building Commissioner Paul Boucher’s request to raise and add Commercial Building Permit Fees. Changes include a rise in the permit fee for new commercial structures and additions to $6 per $1,000 of cost, $150 for a mechanical inspection and $150 plus $1 per $1,000 of cost for fire sprinklers and fire alarms. Under electrical and plumbing inspections, the change is to $150 plus $1 per $1,000 of cost.
Boucher explained that new commercial development is coming to town. “We want to get ahead of the curve,” he said, adding that these changes are not to make more money for the town but to cover the increasing cost of inspection services.
The board then rescinded its vote of two weeks ago axing early voting hours for the Annual Town Election. Town Clerk Marjorie Barrows said the earlier proposal wasn’t worded correctly. It would be better to rescind the decision and allow early voting, she said.
The Select Board will meet next on Monday, April 29, at 6:00 pm at the Rochester Senior Center, 67 Dexter Lane. Cannon said this meeting will be for signing the Town Meeting Warrant.
Rochester Select Board
By Michael J. DeCicco