WHATELY — Paying off a Water Department loan, funding a feasibility study for a new Highway Garage and surveying the former Center School’s lot top Tuesday’s Special Town Meeting warrant.

The seven-article warrant will come before voters on Tuesday, Nov. 28, at 7:30 p.m. following — or during an intermission of — the Selectboard’s regularly scheduled meeting at the Town Offices, 4 Sandy Lane.

The top item on the warrant is Article 3, which asks voters to transfer $102,313 from the Water Department Enterprise Fund Retained Earnings to pay the remaining amount on a construction loan for the pumping station on Chestnut Plain Road. The station was built during the Water Department and Whately Water District’s 2022 merger.

“Everyone gave a little bit,” Water Superintendent Wayne Hutkoski said at the time of the merger in October 2022. “It’s a small community. It’s one of those things where they finally came together and did something to help people.”

The $220,000 project brought the more than 40 Whately Water District connections — including Town Hall, the Whately Inn and dozens of homes — under the control of the Water Department, which serves more than 400 connections in Whately. Part of that merger was building the pumping station on Chestnut Plain Road.

Prior to the Water Department matter, Article 2 will ask residents to transfer $26,000 from the Building Stabilization Account to pay for a feasibility study and master plan for a new Highway Department facility, a project the Selectboard and Highway Superintendent Keith Bardwell have been pursuing for a few years now.

Bardwell, the Selectboard and Town Administrator Brian Domina agreed to pursue funding for a programming study over the summer and were waiting for a fall Special Town Meeting to do so.

The town is looking at the former Villa DiMaio Restaurant lot on Routes 5 and 10 as a possible site for the garage. The property has been vacant since December 2000, when the restaurant burned down.

Articles 5 and 6 relate to the former Whately Center School, which is the subject of a request for proposals to sell the building and get the lot back on the tax rolls.

Article 5 seeks to transfer $4,500 from available funds to pay for a survey of and preparation of plans for the Center School’s lot at 218 Chestnut Plain Road. The town is seeking to define the exact boundaries of the lot, so it can determine where the Quonquont Milk Bottle sits.

The concrete, stucco and wire mesh bottle is owned by the Whately Historical Society and a survey will determine if the town needs to alter boundaries so it can stay there. Moving the bottle is also an option, but it is not preferred by the Historical Society.

Article 6 requests residents transfer “the care, custody and control of the property” to the Selectboard and authorize the board to sell the building.

Other articles include transferring $5,800 for unpaid bills to Cooley Dickinson Medical Group, W.B. Mason and Amazon; transferring $9,618 for weatherization improvements at Whately Elementary School, which will be fully reimbursed in the future; and amending the Recreation Commission’s bylaws to reduce the commission size from nine to seven members.

The town has a hired recreation coordinator who handles most of the heavy lifting and the Recreation Commission currently only has seven members, which means no one is “getting kicked off,” according to Domina.

The full Special Town Meeting warrant can be viewed at bit.ly/47L1HYq.

Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com or 413-930-4081.