Williamstown faces broadband, water, tax break issue at Town Meeting
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By David Delcore Times Argus Staff - Published: February 26, 2008
WILLIAMSTOWN – Voters here will be asked to look to the future and revisit the past during their traditional town meeting next Tuesday.
Among the forward-looking items on the Town Meeting Day warning is a proposal to enter an inter-local contract with other area communities for the purpose of establishing "a universal, open-access, financially self-sustaining broadband communications system." That system would provide residents of participating communities with services ranging from high-speed Internet access to telephone and cable television.
But before they get too far ahead of themselves, voters will also be asked to revisit their 2005 decision to grant a five-year property tax break to the Summit Lodge and decide whether to finance a $330,000 water line on Graniteville Road over 10 years instead of the five-year plan they approved last year.
The first of those two questions will be discussed and debated on the floor of town meeting. The latter, by law must be settled by Australian ballot.
Voters are also facing approval of municipal and school budget proposals, more than $30,000 in special funding requests and along with voting in the state's presidential primary, will confront a lengthy list of candidates who are all running unopposed for various local offices.
School Budget
School officials are heading into meeting hopeful voters will approve the $7.4 million budget that they have proposed to finance the operation of the town's K-12 school system during the coming fiscal year.
The budget reflects a spending increase of nearly $345,000 – 4.9 percent – and while much of that increase is driven by contractual obligations and the rising cost of utilities, Orange North Superintendent Doug Shiok said there are some new additions.
The budget contemplates hiring both an extra custodian and a new receptionist for the newly expanded middle-high school, while restructuring the administrative model at that school to include separate principals for the middle school and high school. The combined cost of those staffing adjustments is expected to be approximately $90,000.
The budget also reflects a $10,000 bump in the $2,500 stipend that has been paid to the school's athletic director and restores a nurse's position that was cut from the elementary school last year.
In an effort to limit this year's increase school officials agreed to pay for newly ordered textbooks over three years instead of one and to postpone a $15,000 flooring project at the elementary school, according to Shiok. He said the budget does include the second of three annual $105,000 installments to pay off an accumulated budget deficit.
Although the budget is up, Shiok said the tax rate needed to pay for it would actually drop several cents if not for a 7 percent dip in the town's common level of appraisal.
The common level of appraisal, or CLA, is a calculation the state uses to equalize property values from community to community for school funding purposes. If the state believes a municipality's valuation of its property isn't current, it raises the tax rate a corresponding percentage.
In Williamstown – a community that completed a reappraisal just two years ago – the CLA has slipped from 100 to 93 percent of fair market value. According to Shiok that turned what would have been a rate reduction into the 2.5-cent rate increase he is projecting. That estimate assumes the Legislature approves a 2-cent reduction in the statewide property tax rate – an adjustment that looked likely when the budget was prepared in January, but is now far from certain.
If the state rate remains unchanged and the budget is approved as proposed voters would be looking at a 4.5-cent rate hike to finance the operation of the local school system.
Shiok said that increase would be even more pronounced if Williamstown wasn't bucking a trend that has seen enrollment declining around the state. Enrollment has been steadily rising in Williamstown where officials expect an extra 13 students will bring more than $100,000 in new revenue into the school district during the coming fiscal year.
Town budget
Town officials are predicting a $5 million jolt to the Grand List, associated with the new VELCO substation on Baptist Street, will all but erase a tax increase needed to support their budget request this year.
Although the $1.87 million budget voters will be asked to approve reflects nearly $130,000 in new spending – an increase of 7.3 percent – Town Manager Ed Magee said raising the $1.4 million needed to pay for it should only require adding a tiny fraction of a cent to the municipal portion of the tax rate.
Magee said taxes generated by the new substation will largely finance any increases in the budget that covers the cost of running local government and maintaining town highways, as well as contributing to the operation of the volunteer fire department, a town-run ambulance service and the local public library.
Special articles
In addition to deciding the fate of the budgets, votes will debate whether to sign on to the regional broadband communications system and discuss whether they intended the 50 percent tax break they approved for the Summit Lodge in 2005 to extend to the Orange North Supervisory Union office that has since been built on the property.
Residents interested in learning more about the broadband proposal are encouraged to attend a public informational meeting that is set for 7 p.m. Wednesday at the high school.
Voters will also consider a number of other special requests. That list includes a school board proposal to allocate $15,000 to a capital improvement fund and the Williamstown Historical Society's request for $10,000 to finance renovations to its building and to preserve of local artifacts.
Although most of those questions will be discussed and decided on the floor of town meeting, Magee said that isn't the case with the $330,000 water line upgrade on Graniteville Road.
According to Magee, because the water line project was approved by voice vote last year the town was precluded from taking advantage of favorable longer-term financing. If the bond request that appears on this year's ballot is approved, he said the project would be financed over 10 years instead of five – effectively cutting the projected increase in water bills that will be needed to pay for it in half.
Local elections
There are no contested elections in Williamstown this year, though there will be some turnover on the town and school boards.
Selectman Stan Corneille is running for re-election to his two-year board seat, but Larry Hebert is the lone candidate for the three-year seat currently held by Morris Lasell.
The school board will also have a new member thanks to Matt Rouleau's decision to step down. Laura Thygesen is running unopposed for Rouleau's two-year seat. School Director Alvin Avery is running unopposed for another three-year term and Brenda Palin, who was appointed to fill the vacancy created by David Evans resignation last year, is running to serve out the year remaining on his term.
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