Natick Report

The first night of Natick Fall Annual Town Meeting, on Tuesday, Oct. 20, consisted mostly of discussion about capital equipment and improvement funding requests—a total of up to $8.5m-plus to be spent on everything from new police and other vehicles to fixing golf course bunkers to replacing a turf field. (See Pegasus recording for all the action.)

There was enough discussion on these matters—capital spending took up about two-thirds of the roughly 3-hour session—to push Town Meeting to a second night on Oct. 22. The tentative plan for night #2 is to cover the remaining articles, numbers 7, 8, 13, 14, 15, & 16.

Jon Marshall, deputy town administrator for operations, was star of Tuesday’s show, introducing three motions under Article 6 covering some 25 projects. Marshall, who heaped praise on all involved along the way, answered many of the questions from Town Meeting members on these motions, and deferred to others such as Finance Director Ari Sky as needed.

Motion 1 featured a request for $3.6m from the capital stabilization fund to spend on sexy stuff like elevators, plumbing, landfill maintenance, and oh yeah, a couple of new police cruisers. It was those police cars that really got members revved up, with questions ranging from those about going green (the town looks at electric and hybrid vehicles first) to why a fire car might be pricier than a police cruiser (fancier radios, for one reason). The motion passed by a 120-0-2 vote.

Motion 2 featured a request for $3.9m via various borrowing mechanisms to pay for school technology, road and sidewalk work not covered by state funds, a sewer pump station rehab, and Sassamon Trace bunker renovation. Discussion included questions about the town’s debt planning, a request for better reporting on debt status, and another request to use override capacity rather than borrowing capacity when possible in light of some scary deficit projections.

One member wondered what the heck all the items on this shopping list even had to do with one another, suggesting that if you wanted to approve spending for some items you also had to agree to spending a quarter of a million dollars to fix golf course bunkers “that are supposed to be crappy” anyway. (Items are packaged based on funding type.)

A motion to postpone discussion of the Motion 2 failed to pass, and Motion 2 was approved by a vote of 109-8-4, easily getting the two-thirds result needed.

Motion 3 involved a request for $1.1m for replacement of the north field at the Cole Center. The playing surface is 12 years old, at the end of its useful life, Marshall said. The project could cost less depending on what sort of infill is chosen for this artificial turf surface. Research is underway to figure out which material might be best, as some freezes, some is rough on skin, etc., with bidding anticipated for the project early next year.

This topic naturally led to questions about how this project might relate to the Natural and Synthetic Turf Field Study Group, which is set to share an update later at Fall Annual Town Meeting. Marshall confirmed that staff has been meeting with that group, which has more broadly been researching the latest in natural and synthetic fields.

A motion was made to postpone discussion of Article 6 Motion 3 until after Article 15 on the study group’s report. This motion to postpone failed. However, another motion was submitted in an attempt to amend the main motion. This was the most mind bending part of the meeting, getting into the intricacies of how Town Meeting works.

That proposed replacement motion went back to earlier discussions at the Finance Committee, which wanted to put some restrictions on turf choices to prevent the town from possibly going with non-organic crumb rubber infill. Several Finance Committee members spoke during the Town Meeting session in favor of the replacement motion.

The amended main motion passed, and Motion C passed by an 87-6 vote to close the night.
 

Consenting adults

 
Moderator Jeff Alderson put forward motions under Article 11 to formalize Town Meeting procedures, including around the consent agenda concept, which lumps together noncontroversial motions so that members can vote on them all at once and save everyone significant time. Former town clerk Diane Packer stepped in to handle moderator duties while Alderson gave his pitches. The motions passed easily, and Alderson commented to Packer: “Your service to the town just doesn’t seem to stop…”

At this Town Meeting, 7 of 17 articles were ultimately bundled into the consent agenda.
 

Game show stars

 
The warm-up question at the start of the session, to make sure electronic voting devices worked, asked members if they’d ever been on a game show. Sixteen said they had… Not sure if some counted being at Town Meeting, which is shown on TV and streamed, as being on a game show.
 

Where was everyone?

 
There are more than 170 Natick Town Meeting members. Only about 120 votes were cast on most motions on night #1, down to 102 and 103 by the last couple of motions voted on.
 

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