NEW VINEYARD – Voters have 43 articles to consider Saturday during the town’s annual meeting.
It begins at 9:30 a.m. March 11 in Smith Memorial Hall. The registrar of voters will be available at 9 a.m. to register new voters.
Nominations will be accepted from residents for a three-year selectmen’s seat held by Selectman Lowell Dubay Jr. and a one-year term left by the late Jerry Howard.
Voters also will consider nominations for road commissioner, to serve from April 1 to Oct. 31; two Planning Board members for two-year terms; and one Planning Board alternate for a three-year term.
If all articles are approved, the appropriations would be $138,179 for 2006, Town Clerk Arlene Davis said Monday. That reflects an increase of about $5,283 over last year, she said.
Davis said she doesn’t expect any of the articles to draw controversy.
“We never have much controversy,” Davis said
Residents will be asked to grant a waiver of the Resource Protection Ordinance to allow changing 200 feet of shoreline to limited residential status.
The waiver would change the setback requirements and allow Drake Daniels to build within 75 feet of the high-water mark, Selectman Fay Adams said Tuesday.
Details of the plan are posted with the warrant and can be seen at the Town Office.
A waiver was granted to the owner of the abutting property previously, Adams said.
She doesn’t see anything controversial on the warrant, she said, but expects some discussion on the article pertaining to Barker Road construction.
Voters will be asked to raise $20,000 from taxes and $20,000 from surplus to add to the existing capital reserve fund to do more work to rebuild the road in the future, Adams said.
Since 2000, the town has spent $80,000 on Barker Road, she said.
There is also an article, Adams said, that asks voters to increase the property tax levy of 4.2 percent established by the state for New Vineyard in the event the municipal budget approved results in a tax commitment that’s greater than the property tax limit.
Adams said it is difficult to predict what the costs of gas and fuel oil will be, and the article will just give some protection in case the budget goes over the limit.
She doesn’t believe it will, she said, but just in case.
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