by Anonym ·
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
by John Osborn
The Finance Committee voted tonight to support the request before tomorrow's Special Town Meeting to borrow an additional $540,385 to pay for the town center sewer system authorized by voters in 2009. The vote was 5-0-1, with acting chair Marie Fagan abstaining because she lives within the boundaries of the new sewer district. Chairman Bob Thurston was absent.
The three groups most responsible for managing town finances and infrastructure have now spoken out in favor of moving ahead with the project. The Capital and Finance Committees voted unanimously today – with abstentions – to support the Town Meeting article. The Selectmen indicated Monday that they were “favorable” through an informal polls of its members.
Town Administrator Tim Bragan and others have also made progress in calming town center residents who fear that should the parameters of the project change, they could be forced to pay substantially more for their 62 percent share of construction than the maximum of $18,700 per single family home promised by the Selectmen in 2009. George McKenna, who chairs the Capital Committee and is sympathetic to those concerns, has urged selectmen to commit themselves to the $18,700 “circuit breaker” in a signed memorandum that could be handed to the sewer commissioners when they are appointed.
Bragan told the Press later Wednesday evening that should the sewer commission decide to set a higher betterment fee, for whatever reason, the Selectmen have the power to call a town meeting to override their decision and would do so.
The selectmen will have the opportunity to consider such a memo when they meet tomorrow evening at 6 p.m. before the Special Town Meeting. The town meeting itself will convene at 7 p.m. in Cronin Auditorium at Bromfield School.