The Recorder – Funding for Police Station among 10 articles on Shelburne Special Town Meeting warrant

SHELBURNE — The town will hold a Special Town Meeting on Wednesday to consider several articles, including allotting money for unanticipated costs related to the new police station’s renovation.

The meeting will be held in Town Hall, 51 Bridge St., at 6:30 p.m.

The first article will ask voters for $4,110.94 from free cash to pay invoices left over from fiscal year 2019. These invoices include: $906.55 to Eversource for street lights; $80 to Silver Screen Design for the 250th celebration banner; $124.39 to the zoning clerk for payroll; and $3,000 to Advanced Restoration Group for mold encapsulation work at 623 Mohawk Trail, which is being renovated and will house the new Police Station beginning sometime this spring.

The second and third articles also pertain to the police station, with voters being asked to approve $33,000 in unanticipated costs related to the renovation and transfer $12,000 from free cash into the Police Department Facility Relocation Account to pay “soft costs,” like to purchase lockers, a desk, a conference table, chairs and a copier.

Voters will decide in Article 4 whether to transfer $2,250 from free cash to the EV Charging Station Account to pay monthly electricity and distribution charges associated with two stations on Baker Avenue and Cross Street at $250 per month.

A “yes” on Article 5 would authorize the Selectboard to apply for, accept and use a grant from the MassWorks Infrastructure Program in the amount of $1 million to reconstruct a 2-mile stretch of Little Mohawk Road. In a similar thread, Article 6 asks that voters transfer $5,000 from free cash to cover the cost of a part-time, per-diem grant writer who will research, prepare and submit an application to the MassWorks Infrastructure Program on behalf of the town.

Shelburne Highway Superintendent Mark Shippee said the project would include work on culverts and drainage, as well as possibly some ledge work, cutting of trees and paving.

“We’ve done work on the upper and lower parts of the road, and now we need to do the stretch in the middle,” he said. “We don’t get enough Chapter 90 to cover a project like that.”

Other articles involve: transferring $165 from free cash to cover a budgetary shortfall in the animal inspector’s salary account; transferring $158,710.06 from free cash to the Stabilization Account; changing the general bylaws to rename the Board of Selectmen the Select Board; and accepting a law that allows assessors or assistant assessors to receive additional compensation once they complete the required training and have obtained certification. Acceptance would allow eligible part-time assessing staff to receive $500 more annually.

Reach Anita Fritz at 413-772-0261, ext. 269 or [email protected].