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Town reallocates $1 million from fund balance and adopts amended solid-waste ordinance
Summary
The meeting approved using up to $1 million from the fund balance—$250,000 earmarked for the solid-waste and recycling department and $750,000 to reduce taxes—and adopted changes to the town's solid-waste ordinance that move fee-setting to an administrative schedule.
At the meeting the town approved taking an amount not to exceed $1 million from the fund balance and applying $250,000 to the solid-waste and recycling department while using $750,000 to reduce taxes. Town officials said the $250,000 is intended as a transitional measure to cover disposal costs; unspent money would roll back into next year’s surplus.
Separately, the meeting adopted an amended solid-waste ordinance (Article 61) that removes line-item fee listings (tires, light bulbs, furniture, refrigerators, electronics) from the ordinance text and allows the selectmen or administrative software to manage the fee schedule. Staff explained the update is meant to clean up outdated ordinance language and to allow flexibility because the software now manages fee schedules.
Supporters said the ordinance cleanup reflects long-running administrative updates; speakers asked questions about whether the change effectively delegates fee-setting authority to the selectmen. Staff responded the change is procedural and that fee amounts are still controlled through the administrative processes and would come back to the body if necessary.
The fund-balance allocation and the revised solid-waste ordinance were both approved by voice/hand votes. The transcript records one explicit recorded tally earlier in the meeting (an unrelated amendment) but does not provide a roll-call tally for these two votes.
