Rauseo Creates Comprehensive Guide For Special Town Meeting
The Town Moderator has once again crafted a matrix for Tuesday's Special Town Meeting to make every article easy to understand.
As has become his custom, Town Moderator Keith Rauseo has drafted a comprehensive guide to this week's Special Town Meeting.
The matrix breaks down each of the 19 articles on the warrant, making it easy to understand the language and implications of each. He also includes information on whether or not the Board of Selectmen and Finance Committee endorsed the article.
The complete guide is attached to this article as a printable PDF document.
The Special Town Meeting is schedule for 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 2 in the McGrath Performing Arts Center at Tewksbury High School. The Special Town Meeting will not be broadcast live on public access. However, Tewksbury Patch will be blogging live throughout the meeting.
Karyn
2:24 am on Sunday, September 30, 2012
As usual, our new Town Moderator goes 'above and beyond' his duties on his own time to provide our residents with as much information as possible to make educated decisions at Town Meeting and has done so in a clear and concise manner. We are very lucky and fortunate to have him in this position. Thank you, Keith.
Mary
7:17 am on Sunday, September 30, 2012
Great job, Keith! It is very concise.
Steve Deackoff
10:06 am on Monday, October 1, 2012
I would like to quell a rumor that I have heard.
FACT: Article 19 to change the Wetland Bylaw is NOT needed for the Tennis Courts nor the Turf Field.
We have a waiver clause for public projects. For example, the new Tewksbury High School was permitted and built under the provisions of our current Wetlands Protection Bylaw.
Sean Czarniecki
6:18 am on Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Krissy Polimeno asked me if I would post on her behalf to clear this up a bit more for everyone. Article 19 was submitted based on personal experience and has nothing to do with tennis courts and/or the turf field. As the Conservation Commission has placed this on their agenda in order to properly review/discuss/research buffer zone distances in the by-law, the proponents plan to withdraw the article.
Carlos Amaral
9:54 pm on Monday, October 1, 2012
CA
Keith,
Thank you for helping the translation needy like me.
Please tell me if article 12 is authorizing the town manager to raise taxes if he deems necessary?
Thank you
ARTICLE 12
To see if the Town will vote to raise and appropriate or transfer the sum of $750,000 to be expended by the Town Manager for the cost of constructing an all-purpose artificial turf field at the Tewksbury Memorial High School, including the payment of all costs incidental and related thereto, and to determine whether such amount should be raised by taxation, by transfer from available funds, by borrowing pursuant to Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 44, Section 7(25), Section 8C and Section 12(a) of the Massachusetts General Laws, or pursuant to any other enabling authority, and to issue bonds or notes or by any combination of the foregoing, and further to authorize the Town Manager to seek reimbursement under the Massachusetts Division of Conservation Services PARC Grant Program and enter into all necessary agreements relating to the Grant Program and further provide that no such monies appropriated shall be expended unless the town receives a grant from the Commonwealth and further categorize the land as dedicated park land in accordance with Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 45, Section 14; or take any other action relative thereto.
TOWN MANAGER
Karyn
12:19 am on Tuesday, October 2, 2012
My understanding is that the money needs to be borrowed up front but is contingent on receiving the PARC grant. However since even if the grant WAS received it would not be more than $500K and most likely a lot less, the taxpayers would be on the hook for the rest to cover the expense of the turf including its future maintenance. Nothing can be done without the authorization of the voters at Special Town Mtg. by an affirmative vote so the simple way is to attend STM and just vote NO. More can be found in the comment section here:
http://tewksbury.patch.com/articles/19-articles-on-oct-2-special-town-meeting-warrant
Keith Rauseo
12:55 am on Tuesday, October 2, 2012
My quick answer is: No, this does not allow the Town Manager to raise taxes. Proposition 2 1/2 puts tight controls on how a town can do that.
If you have detailed questions about how the grant process works, your best bet would be to contact the Town Manager, as he could explain it in detail. I tried to write up my understanding of the process, but I couldn't fit it into Patch's tiny character limit for a Comment. :-) Probably better for the Town Manager to supply that information anyway so that you are hearing it from the person most involved in the process.