SUNDERLAND — The town approved an $8,564,902 budget at its annual meeting last Friday, among other articles.
The budget can only go ahead, however, if a vote to exempt the town from Proposition 2½ allowing the town to raise an additional $200,000 is approved at the annual election scheduled Saturday, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Sunderland Elementary School.
School officials and a handful of residents urged voters to approve the override, saying schools had made several cuts already to programs, technology and staff. Frontier Regional School District Superintendent Darius Modestow said the schools have no more “fluff” left to trim.
An article to loosen zoning bylaws as part of the Planning Board’s efforts to increase affordable housing received a degree of pushback at the meeting. After some discussion, the town voted to split up the item, approving the first three parts of the article while opposing the fourth section, which related to accessory dwelling units.
The town also approved borrowing $1,826,664, of which $630,000 would cover the costs of designing and constructing a new track at Frontier Regional School and $1,196,664 to pay for other improvements, including carpet replacement, roof repairs, upgrades to the building’s heating, ventilation and air conditioning, and the oversight costs associated with the projects.
The Frontier Regional School Committee authorized the borrowing by a two-thirds vote April 4. Bob Lesko, director of school facilities, previously said the track was built in 1996.
Modestow has said the money would be borrowed through notes, instead of all at once. He has said the interest rate would be determined at the time of the loan, though it was projected to be about 2.8 percent.
Results of other articles:
■The town supported an article to transfer from free cash $58,576 to the town’s Stabilization Fund.
■ The town supported an article to transfer from free cash $88,027 to the Capital Stabilization Fund, which Selectboard member Scott Bergeron described previously as a fund for important purchases of items with a life cycle of more than five years or costing more than $10,000.
■ The town supported an article to transfer $200,168 from the Capital Stabilization Fund to the fiscal 2020 capital budget.
■The town voted to transfer $25,481 from the CPA Open Space Reserve and $54,519 from the Undesignated Budgeted Reserve to the town’s Conservation Trust to acquire an Agricultural Preservation Restriction on a parcel or parcels of land in Sunderland, and to permit the Board of Selectmen or Conservation Commission to acquire land under such terms.
■The town supported an article to transfer or reserve amounts from the fiscal 2020 Community Preservation Fund estimated annual revenues in amounts recommended by the Community Preservation Committee for committee administrative expenses, community preservation projects and other expenses in fiscal 2020.
■The town supported an article to establish fiscal 2020 spending limits for revolving funds and to permit these limits to remain unless revised before July 1 for the next fiscal year. Spending for a wiring inspector is capped at $9,000, a plumbing inspector at $3,000, Board of Health at $16,500, Sunderland Public Library Community Room at $5,000, a fire inspector at $7,000 and the highway shared equipment at $23,000.
■The town supported an article to transfer $8,420 from free cash to fund the fiscal 2019 snow and ice deficit.
■The town supported an article to transfer $13,342 from free cash to fund Sunderland’s share of retirement pay-out costs at the Central Office of the Frontier Regional School District and Union 38.
■The town supported an article to simplify the Capital Improvements Plan4ning Committee’s permissible membership to “one member of the Selectboard, and at least four (4) but not more than eight (8) other members.” The town administrator would also be a non-voting member under the change.
■ The town approved a resolution in support of a bill at the state level that would create a special commission pertaining to the seal and motto of the commonwealth.
Reach Grace Bird at gbird@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 280.