The special Town Meeting will focus primarily on several purchases related to the East Longmeadow High School synthetic field turf project.
East Longmeadow Town Hall.EAST LONGMEADOW – This year’s annual Town Meeting will have a minor interruption from a special Town Meeting.
The Board of Selectmen voted to hold a special Town Meeting on May 16, which is the date of the annual Town Meeting, to discuss several projects that will need to be bonded.
“We did not want to continue tapping into our free cash so the Appropriations Committee decided to ask for a debt exclusion so they can bond the projects,” said Board of Selectmen member James D. Driscoll. A debt exclusion allows the municipality to raise property taxes long enough to pay off a project.
The special Town Meeting will focus primarily on several purchases related to the East Longmeadow High School synthetic field turf project. The town approved $1.5 million for construction of the field during the 2010 annual Town Meeting. Some of the money will go towards new bleacher seats.
The regular meeting will ask voters to approve the fiscal 2012 budget of more than $50 million.
One article will ask voters to consider merging the positions of fire chief and police chief to save the town money.
Fire Chief Richard J. Brady will retire next year. The vote would allow current Police Chief Douglas Mellis to become the public safety commissioner or administrator for the town.
“Instead of having to hire a new fire chief we could alter Chief Mellis’ position, so that he could run both departments. We want to know whether this is something the town is interested in doing,” Driscoll said.
Although the warrant for the annual Town Meeting is already closed, articles for the special Town Meeting are still being accepted. The deadline to submit warrant articles for consideration at this meeting is Thursday at 4 p.m. Petitioned warrant articles must include the signatures of at least 100 registered voters. Petition forms are available in the town clerk’s office.
Both meetings will be held May 16 at 7 p.m. in the East Longmeadow High School auditorium.
