TURNER – The town will go without a new zoning ordinance for another year following a vote at the annual town meeting Saturday.
Citizens expressed frustration with what speakers described as the lack of both public notification and the lack of information made available during the ordinance formation, as well as with an ordinance proposal that, in their opinion, still contains too many questionable aspects.
“This is still a work in progress,” Neal King said in his presentation.
Several Zoning Review Committee members and Planning Board Chairman Jeff Timberlake told citizens that the ordinance still had areas that needed to be clarified or changed, “but this happens with every ordinance,” he said.
On the only written ballot of the day, residents turned down adopting the ordinance on a vote of 84 to 38.
Citizens approved all the day’s fiscal articles at the levels recommended by the Board of Selectmen and Budget Committee, which were not necessarily the requested amounts. Several of those articles dealt with flex benefits for town employees; the boards’ recommended amounts of increase in those benefits was lower than the amount requested by Town Manager Jim Catlin.
Only two money articles drew discussion. A request for $100,000 for the town office reserve account was approved overwhelmingly, rather than an amendment seeking to change the amount to $50,000.
The request led to a discussion about the relative merits of a proposed addition to the current town office or an entirely new one.
Citizens approved the $100,000 and were told they would be asked to consider an addition or a new location at another meeting. It was emphasized, however, that a larger town office was needed soon since the current office is not compliance with federal law on handicap accessibility, and town workers are out of room in the current building.
“We are behind in complying with the ADA law which was passed in 1998,” Paul Bernard said. “It is sad that a disabled Vietnam vet would not be able to be accommodated at our town office in 2005.”
The meeting lasted almost five hours and included presentations for the Volunteer of the Year Award to Rescue Chief Laurel Gagne and a posthumous award for Lifetime Service to Rufus Prince, who served Turner in many appointed, elected and volunteer positions throughout his life.
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