SHUTESBURY – Residents at Shutesbury Town Meeting Saturday unanimously approved a new way of paying for their share of the Amherst-Pelham Regional Schools system budget, a change projected to save the town about $27,000 in the coming year.
Four towns educate children in the district: Shutesbury, Amherst, Pelham, and Leverett. Under the new plan, which was crafted by the school district’s finance director and has now been approved by all member towns, 90 percent of each town’s budget will be the average of their last five annual budgets. The remaining ten percent will be based on taxable property values in each town.
The new approach departs from a formula that had left Shutesbury, which has numerous students but less property wealth than its neighbors, contributing what some considered an unfair portion of the district budget. Town officials complain that Shutesbury has paid $1.3 million more over the last decade than it should have.
Amherst and Leverett had earlier approved the new formula, and Shutesbury and Pelham joined the other towns in approving it Saturday. It will remain in place one year while officials consider longer-term options.
George Arvanitis, co-chairman of the Shutesbury Finance Committee, noted that the adoption of the new plan is the first step in the process to stabilize the budget assessment. Before the vote, he said, “That’s what we’re voting on today – that stepping stone – the stop gap.”
The fiber optic broadband article, which passed unanimously with two abstentions, calls on Gov. Charlie Baker to do more to bring broadband internet service to underserved communities.
Gayle Huntress, of the Broadband Committee, cited the importance of internet access for both small businesses and from-home businesses. She said, “Fiber optic broadband will help our community thrive.”
One option was to move forward with a broadband initiative without a guarantee of state financial help, but residents worried they might not be able to go it alone.
“Leverett went it alone,” Huntress said, and Massachusetts retroactively gave the town financial assistance. Forty-four towns including Shutesbury have lined up behind WiredWest, a collaborative to bring broadband to underserved communities in Western Massachusetts.
One Shutesbury citizen noted the necessity to politicize the issue, even if a little bit.
“Charlie Baker doesn’t even know where Shutesbury is,” he laughed, “he’s always mixing us up with Shrewsbury!”
Voters approved a new bylaw, proposed by Jeff Lacy of the Planning Board, for ground-mounted solar electrical installations. Under the measure, any solar field above the size of one and a half acres is considered “large-scale” and will be prohibited within 500 feet of a road and 100 feet from property.
The center of town and Lake Wyola will be off-limits for large-scale systems. Also, if there are found to be remnants of Native American cultural and historical artifacts on the site, the concerned tribe will have 35 days to weigh in.
In order to limit alteration of the land, no solar project work will be allowed on ground of a slope of 15 percent or greater. The measure required a two-thirds vote and was conducted by paper ballot. It passed with 105 yes votes, eight no votes, and one abstention.
Town Meeting also elected a variety of town officials. The contested campaigns were for library trustee, with Michele Regan-Laad winning with 164 votes to Bradley Foster’s 153; Planning Board, with Linda Feduik-Rotondi winning 155 votes, edging out Jeff Lacy at 152; and School Committe, with Lauren Thomas-Paquin besting Matthew Galman 99-45.
In uncontested races, voters confirmed Melissa O’Neil on the Board of Selectmen, Penelope Kim as moderator, Marilyn Tibbetts on the Cemetery Commission and as constable, and Catherine Hilton on the Board of Health.
Geoff Dempsey can be reached at geoffrey.i.dempsey@gmail.com.
