News

Finance Committee mulls future Danvers spending

By Ethan Forman
Staff writer
Published: April 28, 2008

DANVERS — Town Meeting members, get your score cards out.

Tomorrow night, the Finance Committee begins its heavy lifting, with a series of meetings to make recommendations on a total of 52 articles for the upcoming May 19 Special and Annual Town Meetings

The first of four Finance Committee meetings starts at 7 in Town Hall, 1 Sylvan St.

The Special Town Meeting, which can spend money this fiscal year, will face four articles, including a $500,000 request to pay for work at the Danvers landfill site.

The Annual Town Meeting, which follows the special meeting, appropriates money for fiscal year 2009, which begins July 1.

If all the spending is approved, the total cost of the warrant articles, excluding this year's operating budget, would be about $28 million, of which just $1.4 million would be supported by next year's taxes, Assistant Town Manager Diane Norris said.

Of that $1.4 million, $1.2 million would be the assessment for the 70 students who attend the North Shore Regional Vocational School District.

While money for big-ticket items like the 2009 budget, the hiring of an architect for the high-school renovation and proposed renovations to Town Hall have been in the spotlight, Norris said residents should know about some other projects on the warrant.

The largest bonding cost will be $6 million for electric system improvements in Article 25.

"It's a good financial tool to bond," said Norris as electric ratepayers would foot this cost over approximately 20 years.

The town needs the money to upgrade the Wood Electric substation adjacent to Route 1 south in the Danvers Industrial Park ($4.1 million); to fix up the storage yard of the Electric Light Building at 2 Burroughs St. ($1.5 million), and to replace the 40-year-old lighting at the Twi-Field at Plains Park ($400,000).

Article 2 has the town's operating budget up for a vote, and it now stands at a total of $82.4 million, with a portion of this budget offset by an education reserve fund, parking receipts, and the high school/middle school stabilization fund. The net appropriation for Town Meeting members will be $80.5 million.

Norris also pointed out other interesting articles, such as two citizens petitions in Article 8 and Article 9.

Article 8 would re-establish eight separate voting locations in Danvers, after the town consolidated its polls in the Vye Gym at Danvers High for the first time during the presidential primary in February.

There's also a citizens petition in Article 9 to require all town boards, committees and commissions to have a "citizens comment" period as the first item on the agenda.

Selectmen, during several meetings, have also discussed a $3,338,000 cost for architectural services and a project manager for the renovation of Danvers High, including the heating system, wiring, accessibility and technology. This cost is dealt with in Article 19. This money would be added to $1.46 million set aside in 2002 for the high school project, making the total design cost $4.8 million.

Town Meeting will also face a $6.375 million cost to repair the exterior of the 1855 Town Hall, the oldest municipal building in Danvers, in Article 20

Other items on tap include $50,000 to prepare engineering studies and plans to repair the Curtis Pond/Boston Brook dam in Middleton in Article 38. Town Meeting members also face bylaws to regulate burglar and fire alarms (Article 11) and taxi cabs (Article 12).

Money meetings

The Finance Committee meets to make recommendations on warrant articles to be presented at the May 19 Town Meeting on the following dates: Tomorrow, Wednesday, May 7 and May 8. Meetings begin at 7 p.m. in Town Hall, with the May 8 meeting following a selectmen's meeting.