Seekonk Fall Town Meeting Approves 17 Articles

Seekonk residents reviewed 18 articles at the Fall Town Meeting on November 28, approving $100,000 for the animal shelter and $72,000 for technology in the schools and postponing a decision on funding for the Senior Center, among other items.
Turnout for the meeting was low, at about 125 people, but moved relatively quickly with the warrant completed by 10 p.m.
Voters held a lengthy discussion on a request for $100,000 for the animal shelter. Animal Control Officer Sharon Hall explained that the shelter has not had any improvements in the past 30 years and there was an immediate need to bring the municipal building up to code - making it handicapped-accessible, upgrading electrical and ventilation and other repairs.
"Band-aids can't hold it together any more. The shelter is in desperate need of financial support from the town," Hall said.
The shelter is funded mostly through private donations and the fundraising efforts of the Save a Pet Society which has donated about $500,000 over the years.
Lauren Walsh, Chairperson of the Capital Improvement Committee, said the town should wait until they have the results of the building facilities study currently being conducted on all municipal buildings.
"Although it is well-intentioned, it's premature," said Walsh.
The finance committee said they wouldn't support it, not because there wasn't a need, but because they hadn't seen a plan on how the $100,000 would be spent. They also wanted to wait for the building study.
Residents who supported the proposal said the animal shelter requested funding from the Capital Improvement Committee in 2007, and the repairs and improvements weren't made.
"When the evaluation of the buildings comes back, this thing may get sidestepped again. I think that's unfair," said Arthur Foulkes.
The article was approved.
Another article, requesting $73,000 to upgrade technology in the schools, was also debated for some time. Superintendent Madeline Meyer outlined the technology being sought, including additional wireless access points in the school buildings, LCD projectors in the classrooms, wall-mounted FM systems and network storage units, as well as how it would be used.
"The district is trying to reach the top 10 or 20% of school districts in Massachusetts and in order to do that we need to continually move forward," said Meyer.
The finance committee did not support the article because they said it was an operating cost that should come out of the school department's budget.
Meyer responded that the budget had to be cut for the last two years, including 13 teachers two years ago and 5 or 6 last year and that she couldn't afford to continue the technology because of the budget constraints.
The article passed by a narrow margin, 64 to 41.
An article on funding for the design and construction of a Human Services/Senior Center was postponed. The article called for $2.5 million and would be contingent on the passage of a ballot question authorizing a temporary tax increase overriding Proposition 2 ½. The article was postponed for procedural and timing reasons. Approving it in the fall would require that a special election be held within 90 days and the intention was to put the question on the April ballot. The town did not want to incur the cost of a special election. Selectmen Bob McLintock apologized and said the matter would come before the town again within six months.
The town also approved a Zoning Bylaw amendment to develop an economic development area overlay district (EDAOD) along Rt. 6. According to town officials this is the first step in attracting more restaurants with liquor licenses to town. The town does not have any more liquor licenses and in order to apply for additional licenses this EDAOD district needed to be created, explained Selectman Chairman Dave Parker. He added that the process would take about a year.
Two articles involved building affordable housing in town. According to Town Planner John Hansen, only 1 ½ percent of the housing in Seekonk is deemed affordable housing and the state mandates that towns allocate 10 percent. One article transferred property at Gude Street and Taunton Avenue to Old Colony Habitat for Humanity for the purpose of building a single family home. The other article transferred $50,000 from the Community Preservation Fund to help with the cost of the project.
There were a lot of questions on this article, including whether a Seekonk resident would get the house. A representative from Habitat for Humanity, Claudette Peden-Tirschel, explained that a Seekonk resident could not be given preferential treatment because they couldn't guarantee a Seekonk resident would apply and meet all the criteria, but it was their hope that it would go to a Seekonk family in need.
"If no one comes forward in Seekonk to apply then it's hard for us to seek them out," said Peden-Tirschel, Vice President of Old Colony Habitat.
"If the need is in this town, that's where the people will be chosen," she added.
She said community meetings would be held at town hall and information also provided on cable access about the application process.
"I wholeheartedly support it. The citizens of Seekonk should be proud to have Habitat for Humanity building a project in our town," commented a resident.
The first article passed narrowly, with just the two-thirds majority needed. The second article was also approved.
Another article proposed that the town acquire a permanent Agricultural Preservation Restriction on 33 acres of land on South Wheaton Avenue. Willit Mason of the Seekonk Land Trust and Comm. Preservation Committee explained that an Agricultural Preservation Restriction is a perpetual contract between the landowner, state of Massachusetts and town of Seekonk agreeing to keep the land as a producing farm forever. The article was approved.
Other articles that were approved include:
-$4,000 to begin a project to organize and preserve historical records at town hall,
-$10,000 to replace carpets in the Town Hall,
-$35,000 to rent a Tub Grinder for Public Works to clean up debris from the recent storms,
-$13,000 to replace the computer server for the Board of Assessors,
-$50,000 to establish an Emergency Medical Dispatch as mandated by the state,
-$5,700 to repair the roof at the County Street Fire Station (this figure was reduced from the $24,000 originally requested in the warrant).