Fall Town Meeting wrapped up Monday night after its fourth session, one of which was a separate Special Town Meeting devoted entirely to national and international issues.

The meeting began Monday, October 30th. That evening, the Town Meeting approved a transfer of $166,087 from the Town’s general fund to the Town’s Health Care Trust Fund, to make up for a deficit in FY06. The general fund will be reimbursed by a surcharge on employee health care premiums.

Town Meeting then agreed to transfer $85,853 from the sewer fund surplus to the sewer fund, to make up for an FY06 deficit in that account. The money will not be reimbursed for that transfer, because covering operating shortfalls is among the duties of the surplus. However, with further shortfalls to the sewer fund projected, Town Finance Director John Musante says that an increase in sewer fees is expected, perhaps as soon as January.

The final FY06 wrap-up accounting required Town Meeting to transfer $10,742.69 from the Golf Course fund surplus to the Golf Course fund, to make up for a revenue deficit at the Town’s Cherry Hill Golf Course in North Amherst. And due to a change in how the Golf Course is now accounted for in the Town budget, the Golf Course enterprise fund was then dissolved and its assets – including the golf course, all its equipment and the last three thousand dollars or so of the surplus fund – were then transferred to the Town’s general fund.

As a final accounting task, Town Meeting rescinded three previous borrowing authorizations for money that was never borrowed. This resulted in no actual gain or loss of dollars, but was rather a cleaning-up of the Town’s books and clarification of its debt capacity.

Town Meeting authorized the Select Board to enter into an intermunicipal aid agreement, formalizing the process for Amherst and other towns to share resources during periods of emergency and to arrange for reimbursement of those services.

A non-binding vote of support was taken for the future funding and improvement of the PVTA bus route that serves the Echo Hill and East Amherst area.

The final action of the October 30th session was to transfer land on Olympia Drive to the Select Board’s care for the purpose of creating affordable housing. This step was largely a technicality in an ongoing process to develop affordable housing on this Town-owned land.

November 1st was technically a separate Special Town Meeting – all Town Meetings other than the “Annual” meeting held in the spring are designated as “Special.” The four articles on this meeting’s warrant could have been part of the warrant for the Fall Town Meeting – itself a “Special” – but deadlines for submitting signatures precluded that, and hence the articles comprised a separate warrant. It was determined that this warrant would be dealt with on November 1st, rather than being put off until the conclusion of the other warrant’s business.

That evening, Town Meeting voted in support of adopting a resolution that urges the President and Congress to: apply pressure to the government of Sudan to end the genocide in Darfur; to seek immediate deployment of UN peacekeeping forces to that region; and to increase and ensure the delivery of humanitarian aid to that region. The resolution also urges the State legislature to pass laws divesting from companies doing business in Darfur. Town Meeting’s vote also supported sending a copy of the resolution to the President, our Congressional delegation, House and Senate leadership and committees with jurisdiction over foreign policy and commerce, the Governor, the leadership and our delegation in the State legislature.

Town Meeting voted in support of adopting a resolution opposing the United States’ occupation of Iraq in violation of the UN Charter and international law, and imploring the President and our Congressional delegation to: develop a plan to remove U.S. troops from Iraq; to bar any future funding of military action in that country; to reverse any previous steps toward creating a permanent U.S. military base in Iraq and to prevent future funding of a permanent U.S. presence there; to take the necessary steps to allow the Iraqi people to resume control of their internal affairs; and to redirect U.S. funding from those war efforts to instead fund urgent domestic needs including health, education and housing. Town Meeting’s vote also supported sending a copy of this resolution to the President and our Congressional delegation.

Town Meeting voted in support of adopting a resolution imploring the President and our Congressional Representatives to: promote direct negotiations between the U.S. and Iran; to guarantee Iran that the U.S. and the world community won’t threaten its security; to urge Iran to allow inspections of its nuclear program; to urge Iran not to build nuclear weapons; to insure that the American public is being given accurate information on Iranian nuclear issues; and to refrain from any military action toward Iran. Town Meeting’s vote also supported sending a copy of this resolution to the President, our Congressional delegation, the Iranian Ambassador to the United States, the Iranian Embassy and the United Nations Security Council members.

Town Meeting voted in support of adopting a resolution detailing actions by the President and Vice President that warrant their impeachment, and requesting our Senators and Congressional Representatives to institute impeachment proceedings against George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney so that they might be removed from office. Town Meeting’s vote also supported sending a copy of the resolution to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, requesting that it be entered into the United States Congressional Journal.

This article concluded the warrant for that Special Town Meeting.

November 8th Town Meeting resumed with the warrant for the original fall Special Town Meeting. That evening, Town Meeting voted to allow the Select Board to enter into a compensation and mitigation agreement with the State’s Department of Agricultural Resources that obligates the Town to pay $228,000 in cash, land, or a combination thereof over the next five years in return for the State releasing a parcel of land from its Agricultural Preservation Restriction status. This action by the Town will protect the exterior and much surrounding landscape of the historic Kimball farm house at 575 North East Street, allowing the property owners to build a new house on the released land, instead of demolishing the farm house and building on that site. Community Preservation Act funds are expected to pay the obligation.

Town Meeting voted to create an Agricultural Commission to replace the Farm Committee, because Agricultural Commissions command more respect within the State government, and are eligible for more grants. The Commission’s function and advisory role in local issues remains unchanged from that of the Farm Committee.

Town Meeting voted to change the zoning bylaw by removing the Wetlands District designation, which was determined to be unused, obsolete, and in the opinion of Town Counsel Alan Seewald, illegal. Planning and Conservation officials assured the body that removal of the designation would have no effect on the protection of wetlands, as the actual determinations and requirements related to those are robust and unchanged.

On November 13th, Town Meeting met for the final session of this meeting. The body voted to receive the report of the Fire Station Study Committee and to charge the Town Manager with creating long range financing plans for two of the options contained within the report – one of which would seek to better cover the Town’s fire and emergency response needs with two fire stations; the other would do so with three stations. No money was appropriated for either plan – those details and recommendations will be presented to Town Meeting in the future, after the Town Manager fulfills this charge.

Town Meeting voted to create an emergency access bylaw requiring new and renovated buildings with supervised alarm systems to have an exterior lockbox containing the keys or security codes necessary to allow entry to the Fire Department. The requirement does not pertain to single family dwellings.

Town Meeting voted to adopt an open burning bylaw that makes illegal burning punishable by a ticket and $300 fine. This bylaw is an attempt to deter and punish illegal student bonfires.

The final act of the fall Town Meeting was to grant an easement to Verizon to install underground lines and other telecommunications equipment connected to the new cell phone tower on Pulpit Hill Road. The tower itself had already been approved, but the easement was previously overlooked.

Several warrant articles were dismissed or referred back to committee for additional work.

To view the fall Special Town Meeting warrant, click here.
To view the November 1st Special Town Meeting warrant, click here.
The attendance and tally vote results from these two special Town Meetings are available, sorted by name, by precinct and by vote.
For this reporter’s extensive blog coverage of this and last spring’s Town Meetings, click here.

-- Stephanie O’Keeffe