SOUTHWICK — While the Select Board approved closing the warrant for the Special Town Meeting set for Jan. 13, a few of the articles have yet to be fully developed.
“It’s definitely still in draft form. I don’t have all the language,” said Chief Administration Officer Nicole Parker during the Select Board meeting Monday night.
Article 1 will ask residents if they will approve having the town pay more than 50% of employee health and dental insurance.
This was an issue that was raised in September by the Fire Department’s Fire Prevention Officer Brian Schneider, who presented a petition to the Select Board that was signed by 69 employees requesting that the issue be included as an article, and to call for a Special Town Meeting to have it decided.
An attempt to change the split that would have the town pay more than 50% failed during a Town Meeting several years ago, something that Select Board member Douglas Moglin referred to when Schneider made his presentation in September.
He said that the article didn’t fail by much, but there wasn’t a compelling argument of, “how are you going to do this and how are you going to pay for this?”
Residents who attend the Special Town Meeting will only be asked to vote to change the 50/50 split. The town doesn’t have to explain in the article how it might be paid for.
Scheider pointed out in September that the town has lost a few employees over the last year, in part, because of the unaffordable health insurance premium.
Article 2 is related to “Dispatch Communication Towers.” Select Board chair Diane Gale’s only explanation for the article was that “the dispatch communications towers need some cooper replacement issues.”
However, a meeting of the Capital Expenditures Committee has been called for Wednesday to “hear a request for $220,000 to complete the new public safety radio system.”
The chair of the Finance Committee said the details of the request would be discussed at the meeting.
Article 3 will ask residents to amend a town zoning bylaw to include in the town’s stormwater regulations the ability to retain an outside consultant for peer review of an application. The applicant would be responsible for covering the expense of the consultant.
Article 4 will ask residents to support a temporary moratorium on any renewable energy systems, like a battery electric storage system or the construction of large-scale solar array fields.
After Gale read the draft article, Select Board member Russ Anderson said that article would only be included if the Planning Board, after holding public hearings on the issue, supports the moratorium.
In other board business, it approved a request from DPW Director Rich Bosak to reallocate funds from other completed paving projects to finish paying contractors $756,000 for the repaving of Hillside Road and South Loomis Street.
The DPW asked that $4,024 from the Klaus Anderson Road project, $21,689 from the Feeding Hills Road project, $27,151 from the Kline Road project, and $255,109 of unallocated available DPW funds be reallocated to re-paving of Hillside Road and South Loomis Street.
The board also voted to place an article on the Annual Town Meeting warrant to change the alcohol license bylaw to allow any establishment that only has a permit to pour beer and wine to now include liquor.
There is only one establishment in town that would be affected: The Launch on Point Grove Road.
