Town of Princeton, Mass., Selectboard Meeting Minutes
– June 26, 2018 – 7:30 PM– Town Hall Annex
Present: Chair Richard Bisk, Karen Cruise & Edith Morgan w/ TA Nina Nazarian along with Facilities Steering Committee Members Mary Jo Wojtusik, Larry Todd, Chris Conway, and Steve Mirick. Also in attendance was Judy Dino, Advisory Committee liaison to the FSC.
7:31 PM Richy opened the meeting in the Town Hall Annex.
Joint Meeting with the Facilities Steering Committee – The boards discussed 3 topics: results of election & possible reasons, options moving forward, and future Facilities Steering Committee.
Results of Election & Possible Reasons – The result of the election was 250 in favor, with 391 not in favor of borrowing $6.5 million (with an additional $500,000 to be transferred from the infrastructure stabilization account) for the construction of a new Public Safety Complex at the Princeton Center site. Reasons raised by the boards on why the vote did not pass included:
a) some voters cannot afford the tax increase,
b) some were suspicious of another big capital project,
c) some citizens felt that they didn’t have enough information,
d) some that felt that $7 million was not needed for the project,
e) some did not want to demolish the Princeton Center.
f) the ballot did not include amount of the project so some people believed they would be providing a blank check.
There were comments about misinformation which was spread about the effect on taxes. After town meeting, there was minimal promotion of the need for project and its cost by the Selectboard, the Faciltiies Steering Committee and the Fire Department.
Options Moving Forward – Mary Jo and Richy asked if the $500k approved at town meeting was available to be spent. Having checked with Bond Counsel, Nina responded that the funds technically could be spent. There was concern that this money should not be spent without explicit approval by the voters. Nina also checked the laws pertaining to debt exclusions/Bond Counsel confirming that the town could repeat the election question, as long as it was prior to September 15th. There was concern that asking the same question would not yield different results. The consensus was to hold a Special Town Meeting in the fall to request design only funds for the project. This would provide citizens with a better understanding of what the project
would entail as well as a better estimate of the cost. Having design and being “shovel ready” would increase the likelihood of our getting state funding.
Future Facilities Steering Committee – It was suggested that a 7-member committee would be best to shepherd the project through the Special Town Meeting. The Selectboard will meet on July 2nd at 10 AM to discuss the future FSC charge.
9:24 PM Facilities Steering Committee members adjourned. Nina provided the Selectboard a copy of the submitted information relative to goal setting. Nina asked the Selectboard to vote to make all FY19 appointments for Board and Committee positions contingent upon being sworn in, and the completion of the Open Meeting law and Municipal Ethics requirements as well as the return of a signed copy of receipt of the Town of Princeton’s Sexual Harassment Policy, given that at times in the past appointed individuals did not complete the necessary paperwork.
ACTION: The Selectboard voted to make all FY19 board/committee appointments contingent upon being sworn in, and the completion of the Open Meeting law and Municipal Ethics requirements as well as the return of a signed copy of receipt of the Town of Princeton’s Sexual Harassment Policy.
Adjourn 9:25 PM
Respectfully submitted, Nina Nazarian, Town Administrator
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