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October 19, 2009

Hamilton Town Meeting OKs Cutler boiler

Secret ballot proposal rejected

Steve Landwehr

HAMILTON – “The facts and the finances are incontrovertible.”

That was Finance Committee co-Chairman Bob Bullivant's assessment of a proposal on yesterday's Hamilton Special Town Meeting warrant to replace an aged heating system at Cutler Elementary School.

And with a degree of unanimity rarely seen on a Proposition 2 ½ request, all but four voters agreed with him.

As an exclusion from the debt limitations of Prop 2 ½, the measure required approval by two-thirds of those present, but upon seeing the paltry opposition, Moderator Bruce Ramsey counted only the negative votes. When it was clear everyone else supported it, he declared the victory.

The cost of the project, which involves replacement of the entire 57-year-old heating and ventilation system at the school, is pegged at $1,531,720 million. Of that, the state's School Building Authority has pledged to reimburse $652,206.

Hamilton's share of the remaining $879,959 would be $595,959, which would see the average property tax bill increase by between $25 and $35 annually over the 10-year length of indebtedness.

The project now needs approval by Wenham voters at their Special Town Meeting next month, along with approval at the ballot box in both communities after that.

Any suspicion the vote would be preceded by lengthy and emotional debate largely evaporated when a spokesman for Enough is Enough, a grass-roots group frequently at odds with school supporters, urged approval, albeit reluctantly.

Although he suggested the group thought there could be better management of the school budget in the future to forestall these requests, spokesman Jay Burnham said the group supported the article.

“Unfortunately, we find ourselves in crisis mode,” he said.

Several other speakers objected to what they felt was a project proceeding too quickly, but school backers replied the SBA is running the show.

Oddly, some of the most pointed barbs were unleashed on School Committee member Jack O'Keefe, who was making various arguments for the project.

Several audience members indicated he didn't need to say anything at all, and could halt his presentation, and when a hiss was heard from one side of the room O'Keefe reacted.

“Excuse me?” he said, a note of irritation in his voice.

The meeting was held on a Saturday for the first time in nine years, following a bylaw change approved by voters at last spring's Annual Town Meeting.

The last time around the experiment didn't go well, with fewer than a quorum of voters turning out.

That wasn't a problem this time, when 518 voters signed in, an unusually high turnout for a fall meeting.

Besides the school boiler, another hot-button issue appeared to be behind those numbers.

Originally a citizen's petition later adopted by the selectmen, it proposed allowing paper, or secret, ballots at town meetings if 25 percent of voters approved. That would have been less than half the number Ramsey typically requires, 51 percent.

Supporters said some people feel too intimidated to vote in public when those seated around them are in opposition.

They didn't garner much sympathy from School Committee member Richard Boroff, and several others.

First, Boroff said, 25 percent is a minority and minorities don't rule in this country, and second, for those who were uncomfortable stating their opinions publicly, he had this advice:

“Get over it. You're adults.”

While supporters argued that whatever question was being decided would require a majority of secret voters, that didn't satisfy Selectman Bill Bowler, who has opposed the article right along.

A minority of voters would be telling Town Meeting how to conduct itself, he said, and he was opposed to that.

Although the show of hands was close, Ramsey declared the nays carried the day.

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