Manchester sets its Nov. 16 warrant but holds back on the $95 million school article

Manchester's Select Board voted Monday to approve the warrant for the Nov. 16 special town meeting and the special town election that follows. It recommended every article but one. On the Essex Elementary School borrowing, the board will say where it stands at town meeting itself.

What happened

• The board signed the special town meeting warrant with eight articles and the special town election warrant, all by roll call votes of 5 to 0.
• It recommended seven of the articles: the fire engine, the water meter paydown, the senior and community center borrowing, the town meeting start time, two articles on the town's ballot rules and the sign bylaw.
• It took no position yet on the Essex Elementary School article. Vice Chair Catherine Bilotta said she cannot support it as written because it has no firm dollar limit for Manchester. The board will make its recommendation at town meeting.
• The board sent a sign bylaw change to the Planning Board for a Nov. 9 public hearing and named the new field on Pine Street Volunteer Field.
• The town administrator got high marks at his quarterly review. The next regular board meeting is Nov. 23.

The school article: no limit, no recommendation yet

The warrant asks voters to approve the regional school district's borrowing for the new Essex Elementary School, a project of about $95 million. The state school building authority is expected to pay back about $20 million to $21 million. Manchester's share of the rest is set by the regional agreement at 66.64 percent, which works out to about $50 million. If the state paid nothing, the town's share would be about $68 million.

Bilotta said that gap is the problem. As written, she said, the town is asking taxpayers to authorize about $68 million, and she wants a lower limit so that if the state's grant comes in short, both towns' select boards and the finance committees meet with the School Committee to decide what to do, rather than leaving it to the building committee. She said she looked for another regional district that went to town meeting before it had its state number and could not find one.

Town Administrator Tony Barletta said the article's wording was approved by the state authority and bond counsel and cannot be changed now. He said the town could work on the wording of the motion made at town meeting, and could ask the School Committee for a commitment to come back to both boards if the reimbursement drops. The district expects to sign its agreement with the state on Dec. 9, which sets the grant.

A second board member said he agreed with Bilotta and would rather wait until spring, when the town would know its number and would have a fuller picture of its finances. He also raised the higher yearly cost of running a bigger building and more fields, which he said has not been discussed.

Lindsay Torres Banks of the regional School Committee, joining by Zoom, said the superintendent has repeatedly said the state rate should not move more than a tenth of a percent. She said the committee would hear the board's concerns at its own meeting Tuesday night and asked the board to think about what it would mean for the district if Essex put the article on its warrant and Manchester did not. Essex selectmen were meeting the same night.

Bilotta said she supports the project and understands the cost is driven by state requirements and construction prices. She asked the School Committee to consider offering a level or zero based operating budget option next year to build a cushion for the big expenses coming.

The board voted 5 to 0 to recommend articles 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7 and 8, with Brian Sollosy voting "reluctantly yes," and then voted 5 to 0 to make its recommendation on the school article at town meeting. If voters turn the article down, the district has 120 days to bring it back.

The other money articles

Fire engine. The new engine is arriving by the end of the year, about two years early, so the town needs to pay the rest now. The article uses $710,927 in free cash plus the $300,000 already saved in the fire engine replacement fund, a total of $1,010,927. Barletta said the town is probably 10 years from its next big fire purchase, so whether to pause payments into the fund is a question for the spring. The engine being replaced goes to reserve, and the reserve engine, bought from Lynnfield for $100, will be declared surplus.

Water meters. The article pays $192,605 toward the short term loan for the town's water meters. It is the second paydown. One more comes at the annual town meeting, and the rest goes to a long term bond.

Senior and community center. The article lets the town borrow up to $7.5 million for the center at the former Masonic building. Nothing can be borrowed or spent until voters pass a Proposition 2 1/2 debt exclusion at the ballot and until $3 million in gifts or donations is raised. As the Finance Committee asked last week, the word "grants" is out, so any grant the town wins would lower the amount borrowed rather than count toward the $3 million. One member wanted grants put back, saying the change adds time and sends a poor message to seniors and donors. Others said the committee's point was that taxpayers should get the first benefit of any grant. The wording stayed as written. Barletta said a $1 million to $3 million federal grant application is pending but hard to win.

The article also says donated money is applied first to the building's common areas, meaning the outside shell, which the town and the Masons own together. Barletta said bond counsel wrote it that way so tax dollars are not spent on the roughly 15 percent of the building the town does not own.

Ballot rules. A draft article that did two things was split in two. One asks the state for a home rule petition so a single project does not need two ballot questions, as the senior center does now. The other raises the borrowing amount that sends a question to the ballot, set at $1 million in 1972, to $5 million. The sign bylaw became article 8.

Start time. Article 1 removes the 7 p.m. start time for annual town meeting from the general bylaws and lets the Select Board set it.

Sign bylaw goes to a hearing

Christopher Olney of the Planning Board said the town's sign rules do not apply to the two new downtown zoning districts, and the bylaw has no permit process, so no one approves new signs outside the historic district. The change would apply the rules downtown and have the building inspector approve signs, with the Planning Board able to waive a rule for a business. Existing gas station signs would be grandfathered.

Board members asked how holiday displays and other non business signs would be treated. The board voted 5 to 0 to send the article to the Planning Board for its Nov. 9 hearing, then voted 5 to 0 to ask the Planning Board to add a clear definition of a sign as a commercial advertising sign.

Volunteer Field

The board voted 5 to 0 to name the new field on Pine Street Volunteer Field, one of the names submitted by the Parks and Recreation Committee. A sign for Reed Park is still coming.

Town administrator review

Board members praised Barletta's quarter, in particular the union contracts he finished and the way he handled the trash changes. One member gave him an "A+." Members asked that meeting materials arrive before Monday and that he keep doing open searches for jobs instead of promoting from within without one. Barletta said the credit goes to the town staff. The town is hiring a full time finance clerk and a part time land use clerk and must find help in the assessor's office before the tax rate is set.

Also discussed

• A liaison said Essex North Shore Agricultural and Technical School is weighing six plans for next year's lottery seats that would give Manchester anywhere from three to eight. The town had 10 seats this year and filled six. The school committee there votes next month. Each student costs the town about $25,000.
• Data on the parking kiosk contract, enforcement costs and tickets comes to the board in two weeks. Barletta said the contract has minimums the town has had to pay when they were not met.
• Manchester Marine wants to build an 8,000 square foot boat building on Ashland Street in the historic district, and the Historic District Commission is looking at how it could fit.
• A community meeting on the Bennett Street and Pine Street intersection is Nov. 4. Utility work on Tappan Street and Atwater Avenue starts next month, and the culvert project goes out to bid again next month for construction next winter.
• The town has 750 voting clickers for town meeting and cannot rent more.
• The Council on Aging director is now a certified SHINE counselor with 22 appointments booked before the Dec. 8 Medicare deadline. Saturday brings the shred day at Town Hall, the Wobgoblin, the police drug take back and early voting.
• Town Clerk Christine Dixon marked 10 years and joined the executive board of the state clerks' association.

What was decided

• Sign bylaw to the Planning Board for a public hearing: 5 to 0.
• Ask the Planning Board to define a sign as a commercial advertising sign: 5 to 0.
• Approve and sign the special town meeting warrant (article 6 split in two) and the special town election warrant: 5 to 0.
• Recommend articles 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7 and 8: 5 to 0.
• Make the board's recommendation on article 5, the school, at town meeting: 5 to 0.
• Name Pine Street Field "Volunteer Field": 5 to 0.
• Consent agenda (DiPietro memorial bench at Day's Creek, Friendship Tree Lighting on the Town Green Dec. 6, gift of a storage shed): 5 to 0.

What happens next

• Tuesday, Oct. 20, 6 p.m.: the regional School Committee takes up the school borrowing at the high school media commons.
• Thursday, Oct. 22: the Finance Committee votes on the senior center article. The warrant book goes to the printer Friday.
• Monday, Nov. 9: Planning Board public hearing on the sign bylaw.
• Monday, Nov. 16: special town meeting.
• Monday, Nov. 23: next Select Board meeting, with the tax rate hearing if the timing works.
• Thursday, Dec. 10: special town election on the ballot questions.

Where to find the records

• Select Board agenda, Oct. 19
• Meeting video, posted by the town
• Select Board page, where minutes are posted when approved

Earlier coverage: Manchester backs fire engine money, delays senior center vote (Oct. 17), the Finance Committee's review of the same articles. Essex school building committee OKs $95.4M design, 10 to 0 (Oct. 17), the design vote. Manchester's share of the new Essex school would be about $50 million after state aid, boards are told (Oct. 9), the joint boards meeting. Monday on Cape Ann (Oct. 16), the preview.

How we did this: Cape Ann Current watched the meeting online and checked names against the agenda and the board's roster on the town website. These are our meeting notes, not the town's minutes.