ORANGE — A global pandemic and unconventional voting location didn’t deter civic participation Monday evening, as 376 voters showed up to Annual Town Meeting at Ralph C. Mahar Regional School’s football field to have their voices heard on a range of issues that included funding for Mahar.
Residents adopted a roughly $4.6 million budget for the joint middle/high school after Peter Cross, chair of the Mahar School Committee, made a motion to increase by $339,722 the Finance Committee’s recommended budget, which was described as almost level-funded. Voters also passed a roughly $21.6 million omnibus budget.
Finance Committee Chair Keith LaRiviere explained the recommended budget had “virtually no changes” from the current fiscal year and the state requires a balanced budget. But Patricia Smith, vice chair of the Mahar School Committee, said the presented figure would result in school layoffs.
LaRiviere responded by saying he appreciates people’s concerns and passion, but amending the budget would likely mean layoffs in most town departments.
“Can we do with fewer police officers? Can we do with fewer firefighters and EMTs?” he asked. “The Highway Department has six employees — how many of those do you want to lose?”
After the public voted to amend the figure, a voice vote called by Moderator Christopher Woodcock to adopt the new budget numbers was not decisive. So Woodcock required voters to raise the blue cards they were handed at the front gate to indicate if they were for or against the new figure. However, the result still was not clear and Woodcock ordered a standing vote. But this had to be redone because the rows of voters were not orderly the first time around and an accurate count could not be obtained. After the second try, Woodcock announced the amended budget was adopted by a vote of 230 to 122.
Annual Town Meeting had been rescheduled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the football field was chosen due to its expansive space. Woodcock called the event a “unique and very important outdoor Town Meeting.”
By all accounts, the volume of voters was unexpected. The Special Town Meeting preceding the Annual Town Meeting was scheduled to begin at 6 p.m., but did not start until closer to 7 because it took some time for the two massive lines of waiting voters, wearing masks and spaced roughly 6 feet apart for social distancing, to be checked in at the front gate. They were flanked by people holding signs in favor of increasing the recommended Mahar budget. The two women checking in voters said they suspected the throngs of people were the result of the proposed school budget cuts.
Voters also approved a necessary debt exclusion as part of the plan to build a three-story addition onto Fisher Hill Elementary School, expected to house all of Orange’s elementary-age students for at least 50 years, and demolish Dexter Park Innovation School. The article was adopted by a 300-16 vote and now must be ratified at the polls at the school on June 22.
Dexter Park was built in 1951 and the Massachusetts School Building Authority, a quasi-independent government authority, designated it in its lowest rating, a “Category 4” school, in 2006. Voters approved funding a feasibility study in 2018 to study the Dexter Park problem and yield options for repair or replacement.
Voters also agreed to appropriate the money needed to remove asbestos from Dexter Park and repair a deteriorating concrete floor there. This solution will remedy the problem for the remaining three to five years the building is anticipated to be used.
When it came to the final warrant article, the only petitioned one this year, voters agreed to authorize the Selectboard to dedicate the town parking lot across from the Community Clothing Center on West Main Street to honor Hazel Lackey “for her decades of care and service to the citizens of Orange and surrounding towns.” A plaque paid for by donations was also included in the article.
At the preceding Special Town Meeting, residents adopted all five articles relating to current fiscal year finances, including one asking voters to transfer $83,211.14 from free cash to “Snow and Ice” to cover a deficit.