Town Meeting could be asked for funds to finish school fields

Published in the September 1, 2016 edition

By BOB TUROSZ

NORTH READING – The annual fall town meeting will be held somewhat later than usual this year, on Oct. 17, just six weeks away. At this point it looks like there could be 16 warrant articles up for debate, including proposals for construction of restrooms at the Arthur Kenney Field and possibly a transfer of town funds to complete work on new athletic fields at the high school.

The Oct. 17 start date is two weeks later than usual, but necessary to avoid conflicts with Rosh Hashanah, Columbus Day and Yom Kippur.

Of the possible 16 articles, the first six are routine: To hear and act on reports of town officers and committees, to pay prior year’s bills, to appropriate money to the Capital Improvement Stabilization Fund, to appropriate money to the Stabilization Fund, appropriate money to the Other Post Employment Benefits (OPEB) Fund and any amendments, if necessary, to the fiscal 2017 town operating budget that was approved in June.

The rest of the articles shake out this way:

• Article 7, to appropriate money for special counsel legal services to continue the town’s law suit regarding the high school and middle school construction projects. The town has filed suit against the school’s architect and project manager stemming from cost overruns in the project. Selectman Chairman Robert Mauceri said the article is more of a “placeholder” than anything else, meaning additional funds might not be necessary at this time.

(Last week, the Selectmen voted to pay an $85,000 retainer request to Furman, Gregory and Deptula, the Boston law firm hired to represent the town in its legal proceedings against the architect and project manager. The costs were broken down like this: $15,000 to $25,000 for expert services; $10,317 for services rendered through July 31 and the remainder for future legal expenses.

• Article 8, to appropriate money for the construction of restrooms at the Arthur J. Kenney Field, most likely through borrowing. This follows a vote by June Town Meeting to appropriate $50,000 for design services for the restrooms, which are required by the state plumbing code.

• Article 9 is submitted by the Community Planning Commission for redevelopment of a wastewater plan for a section of Route 28 at Route 62. Town Administrator Michael Gilleberto commented this is an area of town where there’s been a significant amount of study in the last few months.

• Articles 10-14 are zoning changes submitted by the CPC, most of which concern the former JT Berry property, with the town hopes to develop. The idea is to ease restrictions on development of the property without having any particular development in mind, said Gilleberto.

• Article 15 incorporates an agreement in the recently settled contract with the town’s police patrolmen and sergeants and would rescind Civil Service for new employees and promotions.

Prisco suggests use of Free Cash

Selectman Michael Prisco said the town should make a commitment to invest in the completion of the athletic fields at the high school by providing about $30,000 in town funds to finish the fields. The Athletic Fields Committee has been raising funds for the fields but is about $30,000 short to get it done.

Project was split into two parts and rebid in an attempt to draw lower prices from contractors. This time the apparent low bidder, pending the process of checking references, was Weed and Feed, which bid $58,091 to install the irrigation and $83,137 to install the sod. This is about $8,000 below the original bid received.

Prisco brought up the possibility of using town funds to cover the shortfall at a previous meeting of the board and said he was disappointed to hear that Chairman Robert Mauceri and Vice Chairman Stephen O’Leary went to the Financial Planning Team and “shot down” the idea.

Prisco suggested the $30,000 be taken out of Free Cash. Mauceri said they need to look at the “whole big picture,” to which Prisco replied that Mauceri needs to look at the “big picture.”

Prisco said it was inappropriate of Mauceri and O’Leary to tell the Financial Planning Team they were unwilling to consider taking the money out of Free Cash.

“We’re missing out on the growing season,” said Prisco.

Mauceri denied that’s what happened. He said he can keep an open mind on the fields but pointed out the town is probably going to have to finance the Kenney Field bathrooms through borrowing, which is the more important and much more expensive project.

Mauceri said he felt the growing season has already been missed because the money would not become available until the end of October. “Don’t say we’ve missed the growing season, we missed that a long time ago,” He said.

Prisco replied there would still be time left for sod and he wanted the board to decide the issue “rather than you and Steve making an arbitrary decision”

“Of course the board makes the decision,” replied Mauceri.

After further discussion, it was agreed to include a placeholder article in the warrant to buy some time and the Selectmen will have the appropriate discussion at a later date.