WENDELL — Residents will be asked to give their blessing to a proposed $3.7 million fiscal year 2024 budget when they gather for Annual Town Meeting on Tuesday.

Voters will convene at Town Hall at 7 p.m. to take action on 30 articles pertaining to issues ranging from budget figures to the town’s electric company to granting non-citizens the right to vote on town affairs.

The Finance Committee is said to be working on an itemized budget to distribute to voters.

“It’s always exciting to see people participating in town government and it’s an opportunity for people who really care about the town to come together,” said Town Coordinator Glenn Johnson-Mussad, gearing up for his second Annual Town Meeting.

Selectboard Chair Laurie DiDonato said she doesn’t foresee any warrant article being particularly contentious or controversial.

Non-citizen participation

One particular article asks voters if they wish to petition the state Legislature to grant the ability to vote in all town meetings and elections to Wendell’s permanent residents who are not United States citizens.

This article was the initiative of Dan Keller, who had been a Selectboard member for 20 years before opting not to run for reelection last month. Keller said he knows of several non-citizens who are active in town affairs, however they are barred from voting in elections or Town Meetings.

“We really felt that those people who don’t have U.S. citizenship should be allowed to participate,” Keller said, adding that it is difficult enough to get people to attend meetings or serve on boards or committees without disenfranchising non-citizens.

Keller explained the state Legislature can vote to allow Wendell to adopt a bylaw allowing non-citizens to vote and serve, as long as the non-citizens are 16 or older. The town voted in 2017 to lower the voting age to 16 for local elections and Town Meetings.

Citizen’s petition

The warrant’s only citizen’s petition was submitted by Nina Keller, the former Selectboard member’s wife. The article asks voters if they agree to adopt a resolution declaring an offer “to share the Town Common with related original Native tribes.”

The resolution would be largely symbolic, as anyone is permitted to use the common, including large events as long as the Selectboard grants permission.

The proposed resolution states that details would be proposed by a working committee comprised of three to five Wendell residents — appointed by the Selectboard — to organize meetings with Indigenous representatives who then can become partners in the committee.

“Initiating this exchange can start with Nipmuc and Abenaki representatives as those tribes were Indigenous to this area,” the proposed resolution states.

Nina Keller explained she attended a Native gathering in Turners Falls last year and guests were encouraged to “just do something” to help right the wrongs inflicted upon Indigenous people, who were slaughtered and had their land taken from them by colonial settlers. She said she received guidance from local historian David Brule, leader of the Nolumbeka Project.

Other articles

There are four articles related to the Municipal Light Plant, the first having to do with appropriating $477,610 for its operation. A separate article pertains to appropriating $132,084 from the plant’s enterprise fund to reimburse the general fund for payment of the FY24 debt service on the town’s broadband project.

Johnson-Mussad explained virtually all Wendell residents get their internet and phone service through the Municipal Light Plant.

The warrant also includes articles regarding $24,061 to pay debt service on a backhoe and $21,504 to pay debt service on a front-end loader.

The full Annual Town Meeting warrant can be found at bit.ly/43AeAT9.

Reach Domenic Poli at: dpoli@recorder.com or 413-930-4120.

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