MONTAGUE — Town Meeting members approved several significant articles, from the Police Department’s departure from the Civil Service system to an allocation of $152,261 to meet a revenue shortfall at Turners Falls Municipal Airport, at Thursday’s Special Town Meeting.

In total, Town Meeting members voted in favor of all 14 articles. The passage of Article 4 by majority within the first hour of the meeting separated Montague from the state’s Civil Service process, 92 years after Town Meeting approved it in 1932.

The Civil Service system sets a statewide standard for the training, testing, and hiring of state and local public servants, such as police officers and firefighters. Under Civil Service, Police Chief Christopher Williams explained to the crowd at Turners Falls High School, all police officers hired in town must complete the system’s 800-hour training curriculum. Williams said few officers trained through the system seek employment in small towns like Montague, leaving the town’s Police Department with perpetual staffing shortages and a narrow candidate pool under Civil Service.

“Being removed from Civil Service, we have a much broader pool of candidates to choose from,” Williams said.

Town Administrator Steve Ellis also spoke in support of the article, insisting that conversations with town counsel proved the departure to be legal.

“There’s no way to recruit and hire an effective diverse workforce under the Civil Service system, so we strongly urge everyone to vote in favor of this,” Ellis said.

Article 4 passed by majority, with only one member voting “no.”

While voters breezed through passing most of the 14 articles with little questioning or debate, members spent roughly 45 minutes discussing Article 9, the passage of which appropriated $152,261 — $128,000 from free cash and $24,261 from the Real Estate Sales Account — to meet a revenue shortfall at Turners Falls Municipal Airport.

The shortfall, which Ellis referred to as a “huge stumbling block,” was caused by the lack of anticipated revenue from a planned solar array on the property that would have provided at least $151,962 in solar lease revenue. However, the project hit a roadblock after the proposed interconnection cost from Eversource was estimated at $16 million, which is “far more than the solar company had planned and far more than past interconnection agreements in the town,” according to a Special Town Meeting information sheet on the town website.

Town Meeting member Michael Naughton expressed concern about the airport’s need for additional funding after Town Meeting voted to approve the airport’s $426,965 budget. Referencing Article 10, which appropriated $152,315 from the Capital Stabilization Account to repair pavement, parking lots, utility connections and loading docks at the airport, Naughton argued that there was a mistake on the airport’s part he wished to see acknowledged.

“I’d just like to hear some acknowledgment that we can do better,” Naughton said. “We’re being asked to spend over $300,000 at this meeting to keep an airport running, that I was told would support itself.”

In response, Airport Manager Bryan Camden said that Turners Falls Municipal Airport has been “historically underfunded and understaffed.” He reminded Town Meeting members that the solar array project’s costs were unforeseen, but that the airport’s budget cannot be spread any thinner.

“We’ve seen anywhere from a 10% to 50% increase in our fixed costs, such as utilities, equipment maintenance, equipment repair, insurance — it all went up a tremendous amount,” Camden said. “The FY24 budget was crafted at the point where everything was at the correct level to operate the facility in a functional manner. It has always been under-budget. There was never a point since I’ve been here where there was an adequate staffing and finance budget. This was the first time in the seven years I’ve been here, that we’re actually able to craft a budget with expected revenues to offset and efficiently operate the facility.”

Article 9 passed by a majority vote. Town Meeting also voted to pass Article 1, to create a truck driver laborer-in-training position at the Department of Public Works; Article 2, to add a town-appointed cemetery sexton at a rate of $100 per burial; Article 3, to increase pay ranges for part-time police officers from $25 to $28 per hour to $29 to $35 per hour; Article 5, to repay $1,974 owed to a union employee; Article 6, to appropriate $300 to a library employee’s longevity fund; Article 7, to increase the building inspector’s budget by $8,481; Article 8, to increase the Selectboard’s budget by $23,000; Article 11, to allocate $125,000 to the Sewer Commission to fund a wastewater asset vulnerability study; Article 12, to allocate $90,000 to the DPW to buy a skid steer; Article 13, to allocate $222,880 to the DPW to replace a culvert on South Ferry Road; and Article 14, authorizing the Board of Health and Selectboard to oversee spending of the town’s Opioid Stabilization Fund.

Anthony Cammalleri can be reached at acammalleri@recorder.com and 413-930-4429.