Natick has released its Fall Annual Town Meeting warrant, a list packed with 39 articles to be discussed starting on Oct. 19. The Select Board signed off on the warrant at its meeting on Monday.
As usual, the warrant features lots of obligatory budgeting and appropriation articles, plus proposed zoning and bylaw changes.
Among the newer material:
- Article 19: Creating and funding a chief diversity officer (or similar title) position.
- Article 22: South Natick Dam Mitigation Alternatives. A citizen petition “to fund an investigation into any feasible alternative mitigation solutions for the South Natick dam, beyond the two proposed (removal of trees on earthen dam, or breach of spillway).”
- Article 23: Revisiting the town’s options for the site of the former Eliot Elementary School.
- Article 25: Hire a consultant to come up with a fresh Golden Triangle plan.
- Article 36: “To hear a progress report from the Town Seal Review Committee, and to see what sum the Town will appropriate for design and associated services for a new Town Seal, or otherwise act thereon.”
Some in Natick also seem to like this newfangled hybrid option for Town Meeting in light of the pandemic and convenience of it all. Article 35 seeks to allow the town to hold hybrid in-person and remote town meetings.
One close call was for what would have been Article 40, a plan to give seniors a new tax break option. The committee working on this asked the Select Board not to sponsor an article, as administrative, equity, and other issues still need to be hashed out, according to Select Board member Sue Salamoff, who also chairs that committee.
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