HOLDEN — Any concern about voter turnout evaporated as residents considered — and approved — the three articles on the special town meeting warrant Oct. 17.
The meeting started a little late, but only so that all the voters could get signed in.
The meeting drew 518 voters, Town Clerk Jeanne Hudson said. That figure put the turnout for the
town’s legislative body just short of that of a joint session of Congress.
“We usually wait for voters to come in and barely make a quorum,” Moderator Joe Sullivan said as voters gathered in the auditorium of Wachusett Regional High School.
As the seats filled up and Hudson informed Sullivan that 400 had already checked in and more were coming, Sullivan noted that the turnout is “a two-edged sword.”
But voters waited patiently as
their fellow citizens who turned out to do their civic duty were properly recorded.
Once the meeting started, voters approved allowing the Shrewsbury Street road improvement project to move forward with needed easements for the $12 million grant-funded work.
They then supported a recreation project that would add fields and facilities to the Dawson area and adjacent to the new DPW building. The project was passed contingent upon a ballot vote for approximately $5 million needed from taxpayers.
The final article approved funding for design of an inclusive access playground.
Recreation Voters passed an article that seeks to fund recreational upgrades at the Dawson playground area and build athletic fields and other facilities adjacent to it on the 18 Industrial Drive property that the town used to build the new DPW facility.
The final project approval is contingent upon a vote at the November election, when voters will decide on a planned $5 million debt exclusion borrowing.
If that passes at the November general election, taxes will be increased for the life of the 15-year borrowing. But the overall $7.7 million cost would be reduced by using ARPA funds. And various revenues are expected to reduce the amount taxpayers actually have to contribute.
“It has to pass the ultimate litmus test,” Paul Challenger of the Finance Committee told voters. “You’re all going to have to vote in November.”
Although other projects are in the queue, Town Manager Peter Lukes said, “This affects the most people with the greatest needs the earliest.”
The impact on the average home, valued at $380,000, would be about $38 a year, he said.
“If we don’t approve this now, it will probably be several years” before it could be reconsidered due to increasing costs, Lukes added.
Voters also approved spending $65,000 that had been planned for design work on the proposed inclusive access playground adjacent to the Holden Municipal Light Department at 1 Holden St. Shrewsbury Street work The road improvements along Shrewsbury Street passed after explanations, and some objections, mainly to including traffic circles — the dreaded “roundabouts” — but the benefits of the work were extolled.
Among them were the $12 million in funding the project would bring and safety improvements.
The town would likely spend $3 million of its own money and take several years to make lesser improvements or repairs along the corridor if the vote failed, town officials said.
Indeed, the plan had failed at the spring town meeting, but many attributed that to voters not having enough information. Bringing the issue back to voters was seen as an attempt to make sure the voters had all the information they needed. But some were concerned about bringing it back again after voters had already spoken, prompting assurances from town officials that if it were to fail again this time, it was dead.
The $12 million, however, would then go to another community.
Town Manager Peter Lukes said Holden had not gotten such an opportunity in about 25 years.
The project could take about $750,000 of town funds for design and easements, much of which had already been spent, in order to get the $12 million.
DPW Director John Woodsmall said that if it passed, the town would move forward and the state would likely start work in fall 2023, working for two construction seasons, expecting the project to be done by the end of 2024.
He said if it had not passed, the minimal necessary fixes would be broken into different segments. It would take three years to accumulate enough funds for the $3 million in fixes from yearly state road funds.
