ANDOVER — Voters will decide at Saturday’s annual meeting on whether to fund town office renovations, a fire equipment account and a public handicap bathroom at the Fire Station.

Action on the 68 articles begins at 8 a.m. at the Town Hall.

One article asks to spend $50,000 of the expected $87,766 from American Rescue Plan Act to remodel the Town Office Act. Another $25,000 would be used for tree removal at the local cemetery, and $6,100 would be use for a metal cargo container for the waste Transfer Station.

Treasurer Amber Cooper said in April that the proposed Town Office renovations would include creating  separate areas for the public and for staff offices, making the entryway handicap-accessible and having it face the street, and creating a separate customer waiting room.

The proposed Fire Department equipment account would have an initial $10,000 for a future tanker. A Fire Department reserve account of $10,560 would be for portable air packs.

“What I’m trying to do is get the account set up so that we can slowly put money in and take care of the issues that we need to take care of without hitting the town all at once in one year,” Fire Chief Jim Adler said in April.

The air packs must be replaced every 20 years at an estimated $1,100-plus per bottle. He said the town has until 2026 to replace 44 bottles, which are expected to cost $52,800.

The vote on designing an all-gender handicap-accessible restroom for the public at the fire station calls for spend $10,000. Last year, voters approved $11,400 to build two public restrooms, but bids were four times what the town had for them, Planning Board member Peggy Madigan said in April.

“So, we’re asking to keep that money that the townspeople gave us last year and ask for a little more this year,” she said. “And we’ve downsized our project a little to include just one public bathroom.”

If the article passes, one of the two restrooms at the station would be renovated for public use.

Writing in the annual town report, Selectmen Brian Mills, Joe Luce and Jeff Elkie said there were no road projects for 2021 “but there are some on the warrant for 2022. We will be looking to fund these projects with COMSAT Trust funds and establish the repayment as directed by the COMSAT Trust fund ordinance.”

Residents will be asked whether to borrow from fund at 2% interest to pave sections of East Andover Road, Wyman Hill Road, and South Arm Road.

The fund was established in 1984 with money from a tax settlement from the satellite Earth Station built by AT&T in 1961. As of June 2021, it had $759,515.

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