CHESTERFIELD — Annual Town Meeting is set for Monday, where voters will decide on issues that include borrowing for new vehicles and raising salaries for town employees.
“I think it’s a pretty straightforward warrant,” Select Board Chairman Roger Fuller said.
Town Meeting will take place at 403 Main Road at the Town Hall building starting at 7 p.m. The warrant has 21 articles on it.
Among the questions voters will be asked are whether to approve borrowing for a $240,000 excavator, $65,000 for a fire chief’s vehicle and $300,000 for a 10-wheel dump truck.
There is also a request to raise and appropriate $75,000 to the School Building Maintenance Stablization Fund, as well as another to appropriate $180,00 to the Capital Projects Stabilization Fund.
“We’ve been trying to build those funds up,” Fuller said.
In the Finance Committee’s report for Town Meeting, the committee states that the town is in good financial shape, and that the $921,882 in free cash the town had in November of last year, when this free cash was certified by the state, was the highest it had been for years.
The Finance Committee’s report also notes the targeted salary increases voters will decide on for the town clerk, council on aging director, librarian, transfer station attendenant, treasurer, town custodian and tax collector, as well as the town’s highway workers and police officers. Additionally, a 3% cost of living increase is also being proposed for town employees who didn’t get targeted raises.
The total operating budget being reccomended by the Finance Committee for fiscal 2023, which begins July 1, is $4.54 million, up from the $4.23 million that was approved for fiscal 2022. It is also slightly bigger than the $4.51 million asked for by the departments.
Lee Manchester, Finance Committee co-chair, noted that reduced school assesments from Hampshire Regional High School and Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School gave the town more flexibility this year.
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