Voting on the Charlestown Town warrant and the election of officers will be on Tuesday, March 13, from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Charlestown Senior Center on Springfield Road.
Charlestown
The pool on East Street will need to have its interior renovated in the next two to three years with an estimated cost of $100,000, town officials have said.
A volunteer group, Save The Charlestown Pool committee, said the process to “resurface, rebond and rescope” the pool has to be done every 15 years and the time for the work at Charlestown’s pool is approaching.
The committee was formed before the Selectboard put the article for a reserve fund on the ballot; committee members have said they plan to continue fundraising activities to reduce the cost to taxpayers as much as possible.
The proposed town operating budget of $4.45 million represents an increase of 6.5 percent, or about $275,000, compared to the fiscal year that ended on Dec. 31.
Finance Committee Chairman Roger Thibodeau said the increase is mostly for police funding, which is up seven percent, and capital expenditures, which are up $161,000, or 89 percent.
“There are some things the town needs in the Public Works Department that weren’t in there before,” Thibodeau said.
The increase in spending for policing is related to “special duty” that will be needed during the planned reconstruction of portions of Route 12 later this year, Thibodeau said. The town eventually will be reimbursed for those costs.
Other budget increases include higher projected legal expenses. In total, the public safety budget, which also includes fire, ambulance, building inspection and emergency management, has an increase of $82,000, or 7.4 percent.
The overall budget of $5.1 million includes water and sewer spending, which is funded by users fees, not tax dollars.
The default budget, if the main article fails, is $4.7 million.
There are separate articles to put $25,000 each in three capital reserve funds, and another article would pay $41,500 for the first year of a five-year lease-purchase agreement for a new roll-off truck to carry waste from the transfer station.
Voters also will be asked whether they want to allow the state’s new lottery game, keno, in approved establishments.
The last article, which is advisory only, is meant to measure residents’ attitudes toward allowing off-road vehicles on town roads.
“The Selectboard wants to poll the town and see if the town thinks it is a good idea,” Thibodeau said.
He said it would be on all roads, including the main ones.
State law allows OHRVs (off-highway recreational vehicles) on town roads, and Thibodeau said there are towns up north that allow it.
There also is an article that would establish a school research committee, appointed by the Selectboard, to produce a report by October on future options for educating Charlestown students.
Thibodeau estimates the tax rate would increase about $1 per $1,000 of assessed valuation, adding $150 in town taxes to a property assessed at $150,000.
In the only contested race on the ballot, incumbent Selectboard member Arthur Grenier is facing a challenge from Albert St. Pierre.
Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com.
