[0:05] Hello everyone and welcome to FYI
Oxbridge, a program about the people,
[0:09] places, and events that occur here in
our town of Oxbridge. My name is Barry
[0:14] Giles. I'm the station manager here at
Oxbridge Community Television. Today,
[0:18] uh, I have my once again returning
guest. It's that time of the year in
[0:22] spring town meeting is coming up and my
guest today is town manager Steven Si.
[0:27] Steve, thanks for joining us. Thanks,
Barry. thanks for having me again. So,
[0:30] we're doing our annual uh review of the
town warrant, going over um the articles
[0:35] and giving the community an idea of
what's going on. So, um let's dive right
[0:40] into it. You know, once again, spring
annual town meeting will be Tuesday, May
[0:43] 13th and Thursday, May 15th at 7 p.m. at
the Valley Chapel, which is on 14 Hunter
[0:49] Road here in Oxbridge. So, let's start
with um why two dates? Okay, there's a
[0:56] combination of things in this this
warrant. The majority of things that'll
[1:00] be taken up on day one on the Tuesday
are all the financial articles, budget,
[1:04] you know, capital spending, all those
kind of things, any borrowing
[1:08] authorizations that we normally would
do. Uh the second part though has
[1:12] there's a number of zoning issues, a
number of other things that need to be
[1:15] addressed. Some that might take more
time than others. So we decided rather
[1:19] than uh get to a point at the end of the
meeting where you know people want to go
[1:24] home and those are just going to be
rushed through we decided to just
[1:27] separate it on two days so that so that
all those articles can get the time that
[1:31] uh they deserve as well. Okay. So that's
the reason for the two days. Do you
[1:35] think there's a possibility we could get
it done in one or I don't think so. I
[1:38] think the moderator is probably going to
call a break. Okay. Anyway, um now that
[1:43] doesn't mean that somebody can't make a
motion or move something up in the in
[1:47] the meeting and as long as enough people
say yes they want to do that that gets
[1:50] done. Uh which will kind of adjust some
things for that next night. But um but I
[1:55] do think if everybody kind of sticks to
the way everything's broken out, you'll
[1:58] see that there's a um a definite break
point. Okay. That makes a lot of sense.
[2:03] Okay, great. All right, let's um let's
get into it. It looks like we have uh 27
[2:08] articles. Yes. And starting with article
one. Okay. The the first few articles
[2:12] are are the normal articles that we
always have. Any bills of prior year
[2:17] that we need to pay. Those are bills
that come in after the close of the
[2:21] prior fiscal year that we have to wait
until you this the the next town meeting
[2:26] to be able to pay because of because of
the fact they came in late. And any
[2:30] supplemental budget things. So anything
monies that we need to uh put into this
[2:34] year's budget because either we didn't
put enough money in a budget line or
[2:38] overexpended because of a particular
instance or whatever. Uh that's why we
[2:42] have you know article two to supplement
the fiscal 25 budget. Uh starting at
[2:47] article three that's when we really get
into the the spends for for this
[2:51] upcoming year. Uh, article 3 has both
the Blackstone Valley Regional School
[2:56] District and off also Northark County
um, uh, school district as well. We're
[3:01] voting both of those separately. Uh,
gives the gives the uh, voters an
[3:06] opportunity to uh, you know, to approve
those budgets or or decline them for
[3:10] some reason. Uh, but also gives us a
little bit opportunity to explain what
[3:14] goes into those budgets as well. So
people know the, you know, combined
[3:18] you're talking about three million or
three to four million dollars that we're
[3:21] spending, you know, on those type of
that type of um education. And uh it's
[3:27] probably a good idea for people have an
understanding. The other thing with
[3:30] article 3, it's we we called it out a
little bit um uh separately as well, is
[3:36] because this is going to be the last
year that Dr. Mike Fitzpatrick Yes. is
[3:40] going to be the superintendent of the uh
uh Blackstone Valley uh Tech. And I
[3:45] think it's a nice opportunities for us
to recognize Dr. Fitzpatrick and all
[3:50] that he's done for BBT over the over the
years. So, it'll be a nice uh a nice way
[3:54] to uh have some recognition for him.
Article 4 is the is the the main town
[4:01] budget. So, that's that includes both
the um Oxbridge Municipal Society and
[4:06] school Axbridge public schools as well.
Uh I'll probably do a presentation
[4:10] before the budget just to give people
some highlevel um uh understanding of
[4:15] what went into the budget, what we did,
what we didn't include, those kind of
[4:19] things. And I believe um uh Dr. Dwire is
going to do the same for the uh Oxford
[4:23] schools as well. Okay. So people have an
idea of um basically how fiscal 25 went
[4:28] and what the ask for fiscal 26 are. Um
and I think that's also, you know, makes
[4:33] a lot of sense that that we do that. And
again, one of the other reasons why we
[4:38] separated the meeting out over two
nights, so it gives an opportunity to
[4:41] have some good discussion, good
understanding of what people are voting
[4:46] on. Article five and six are uh both
wastewater and water enterprise funds.
[4:51] Um the only reason we separate that out
from the town budget uh is because of
[4:56] the uh the fact that we run those as
enterprise. Those are uh feebased. Those
[5:01] are only the uses users of the system is
you know what goes into paying for that.
[5:05] So that's separate from the town budget
you know which is all all-encompassing.
[5:09] I'm familiar with enterprise budget
which no longer right will be taking
[5:14] care of my department right and we'll
we'll talk about that in fiscal 26 that
[5:18] now um you know cable enterprise is no
longer an enterprise fund. it's now a
[5:22] department in the town. Makes great
sense to do that. And um you know and I
[5:27] think going forward it it basically
solidifies and and ensures that uh the
[5:32] same kind of coverage that people are
getting now with cable TV they'll
[5:36] continue to get right which is a really
good thing. Um article seven uh this
[5:41] again separate article. This is a
stabilization fund request from
[5:45] Blackstone Valley uh tech. Uh what this
does, it creates a fund for them to use
[5:51] for things that may be o over and above
what they budgeted for. Um you know,
[5:56] people have pro and con on that as to
whether or not that's a good thing or
[6:00] not, but this allows the uh the people
of the town to vote for it after they
[6:04] get some more information on what type
of things that might be used for. Um
[6:09] article 8 and nine have to do with
capital. Uh, article 8 is, you know, uh,
[6:14] Kurt Gintwwayne, who's our, uh, finance
director in the town of Oxbridge, uh,
[6:19] has done a really good job over the last
few years of going back through all the
[6:22] prior capital improvement articles and
anything that has monies that have not
[6:27] been expended yet once the projects have
closed out. He's beginning to sweep
[6:31] those back into the U capital uh,
capital stabilization account. Okay. He
[6:36] did it again this year and I'm pleased
to say that
[6:41] $235,000 that had just been sitting out
there unused is now going to go back
[6:45] into capital stabilization which can be
reused for other capital projects,
[6:50] right? Uh so and we do have a number of
capital projects that we're going to be
[6:54] um looking for um some approvals on. you
know, they they go from, you know, DPW
[7:03] uh projects to projects that are uh uh a
little bit different than we we may have
[7:08] approved in the past. You know, we have
um you people are going to see there's a
[7:13] $420,000 request for for an ambulance
from the fire department. And I know the
[7:18] first question is going to be, well,
didn't we set up a fund for that? Well,
[7:21] we did. and the department of revenue
for the state basically told us we we
[7:26] can no longer have the funds set up that
way you know for that purpose all those
[7:30] funds should be general fund general
fund monies or monies that go into
[7:34] capital stabilization and need to be
voted out so we did so we made sure that
[7:38] everybody's going to be aware of the
fact that how much money was in that
[7:42] account previously now part of capital
and on a regular basis or when we need
[7:46] an ambulance we'll we will uh vote the
money out to be able to do that Um, so
[7:52] that's what that 420,000 is. There's
some other um school department items in
[7:57] here ranging from um creating a quiet
corner at the um uh Whiten school
[8:04] playground uh area for for some students
who just might need some, you know, time
[8:09] to to kind of, you know, be away from,
you know, the nor the the things that
[8:13] are are going on in the playground and
so forth. Um there's some safety
[8:17] lighting type things and uh uh some uh
architectural plans that need to be
[8:23] drawn out for the secondary egress from
the high school. There's some funds
[8:26] being allocated towards that. And then
we began a transition or the school
[8:30] department began a a systemwide
transition to touchscreens that uh we're
[8:36] funding through capital as well.
continuation of that. Uh I've made a
[8:40] request for $200,000 for the McCcluskey
school and that's going to replace the
[8:44] bleachers in the gym and also redo the
floor. The floor hadn't been done in
[8:48] over 25 years. So it's going to be back
brought back to natural and then you
[8:53] know lines repainted and so forth so
that it'll really stand out and that's a
[8:58] facility that's being utilized right to
today. Right. Quite a bit for a lot of
[9:02] different senior center so many many
more. Exactly. And then and the
[9:06] bleachers too. I think the bleachers are
a little bit dated and the fact that you
[9:10] know many of the folks that come and
watch uh uh the games are more like me
[9:16] in the fact that uh we need to make sure
that um you know people are going to be
[9:20] able to get in and out of those
bleachers safely and so we're going to
[9:24] redo the bleachers and then I believe
the other side of the gym floor that'll
[9:29] be to the left as you walk in. Those
bleachers I believe might be removed as
[9:33] well. The plan is by I know Oxbridge
Spartan basketball is to have instead of
[9:38] having benches and along the sides,
they're going to actually have like the
[9:42] kind of what you see in a college gym or
folding folding chairs and so forth with
[9:47] with a logo on and so forth. So, when
it's all all said and done, I think it's
[9:51] going to look really nice and anybody
that goes over there will really really
[9:54] um appreciate that. We also have
$140,000 at McCcluskey for uh some heat
[10:00] exchanger and so forth. And people say,
"Why are we spending money on on the
[10:04] McCluskey building? What are we going to
do with it?" Well, that's I I'm pleased
[10:08] to say that that's in the process now. I
have an architect and an engineer uh
[10:13] that'll be doing a walk through. Uh they
took the plans that were done a number
[10:17] of years ago, you know, on basically a
$70 million project and I've asked them
[10:21] to kind of pair that down a little bit
as best they can. So, they're going to
[10:25] begin that process. So hopefully, you
know, potentially as early as the
[10:30] October meeting or shortly thereafter,
we'll have something to report back to
[10:34] say this is what if we're going to do
anything with that building on a on a
[10:39] major renovation, we'll have have some
plans in place. And any other things are
[10:43] more DPW related with respect to uh
equipment type purchases.
[10:48] Um the next the next three or four big
articles that we'll have some discussion
[10:54] on I know are going to be from article
11 through article 14. They're borrowing
[10:59] authorizations for the most part well at
least three of them. U one is for school
[11:04] safety. Uh Chief Monty is going to have
a presentation uh with respect to what
[11:10] will go into what that expenditure is.
It's uh a significant amount of money
[11:14] about
$600,000 that we're looking to expend on
[11:17] on that. Uh there'll be a borrowing
authorization for a fire engine. Um you
[11:23] know, this is just to replace a an
engine that's over 25 years old. So the
[11:28] upside is when we do buy these this type
of equipment, it lasts quite a bit of
[11:32] time. So that's why we're going to
borrow for it rather than excuse me try
[11:36] to through to the capital process. uh it
will will outlast whatever kind of loan
[11:42] that we we take out on it. Uh and Chief
Dion will will speak to that. Uh article
[11:47] 13 is a borrowing authorization for the
uh water treatment plant. Now we did
[11:53] authorize some funds at a previous town
meeting for this project. Uh and that
[11:58] was so that we would have um a
submission to go to the uh state
[12:03] revolving fund. uh so we'd be able to
apply to get funding for this project at
[12:08] basically 0% interest. Um we were
successful in doing that. Uh I just got
[12:14] word uh within the last week that we uh
we were selected our project was
[12:18] selected. So that's a good thing. The
only negative though is the uh when the
[12:23] things went out to bid, things came
back, they came in higher than what we
[12:26] had originally anticipated. So, we need
to to look to um uh fund some more money
[12:33] for this. Uh you'll see it's going to be
three different uh options that people
[12:38] will have. One will be the base bid
option which is to build just the
[12:42] treatment plant. Um the second option
will be to to do a uh base plus, you
[12:48] know, one section which is an add-on
section for office space and so forth
[12:53] there, you know, versus, you know,
continuing to use the other building
[12:56] that we currently have. And then uh uh
adult two uh which will be the third
[13:02] third vote if people uh so choose will
be the vote to to do the base the office
[13:07] space and also uh garaging and so forth
for the equipment that we have. So any
[13:12] one of those three you know options will
be you know what people could vote for.
[13:17] Um we we definitely need though the um
the base bid which is to do the
[13:23] treatment plant right. Uh the other
thing we will be doing and we'll talk
[13:27] about this a little bit is we got
involved with some of the PAS
[13:31] um lawsuits that have been going on
around the country. We got in early as a
[13:35] matter of fact and it all had to do with
well testing and whether or not our
[13:38] wells had any contamination. We did find
one of them, you know, or a couple of
[13:42] them did. So, you know, we were part of
this class action suit. uh uh 3M, one of
[13:49] the companies that was involved in
producing these type chemicals, um did
[13:53] just settle their suit and payments had
begun being made to the communities. Uh
[13:59] we will be we're receiving a check
probably before town meeting for
[14:04] $256,000. That's the first payment of
five that we're going to receive on uh
[14:09] receive on this program. Uh we'll
probably receive another 45% of what
[14:14] we're owed in the summer. Mhm. So we'll
have about
[14:17] 750,000 of of what the of what our
payment will be uh that will go towards
[14:22] this project as well. So that will
reduce the amount of money that we need
[14:26] to borrow and then over time there's
three other suits that'll be deter to be
[14:30] decided and what we get out of those
will also go to this. So you know
[14:34] there'll be other things that go in to
to reduce the u impact to the rateayers.
[14:40] So we're we're you know those are things
we'll discuss as well. Uh article 14 is
[14:46] uh one that I'm sure there'll be a
little bit of discussion on. You know,
[14:50] this has to do with um what the town sub
uh subsidy for um insurance for our
[14:56] retire retired employees are. Right now
there's an 8020 split where the town
[15:00] picks up 80% of that. The retirey picks
up 20. Mhm. Uh there's a uh chapter 32B
[15:07] in Mass General Law was passed after
this came in effect and basically what
[15:14] the town needs to do is either adopt
either chapter 32B, section 9A or 9E.
[15:21] Now, if we decided to go to section 9A,
it would be an automatic 5050 split. So
[15:27] the retirees would go from paying 20%
all the way up to 50%. Right? if we if
[15:32] we um adopt 9E, which is what we we're
recommending here, is that we could go
[15:39] anywhere from 50 plus. So, we could
still move it up up the scale versus
[15:45] staying at 50/50, right? So, we can go
to, you know, we're at 8020, we can go
[15:50] to 7030, we can go to 65, you know, 35,
whatever, whatever we want to do. But
[15:55] that gives us that flexibility. The
thing that people need to understand
[15:58] though is if this doesn't pass
automatically it's 100% on the uh on the
[16:04] retiree. Okay. So one of these two
options needs to pass. Right. Right. And
[16:09] the option in the and the best option in
our opinion is the one uh to adopt 98.
[16:14] Right. Because that gives us more
flexibility.
[16:17] Um the other articles uh 15 161 17 are
you know one has to do with fiveyear
[16:25] valuation. We have to make an
appropriation for for the assessor to be
[16:28] able to do that. That's mandatory by
state law. Not the most pleasant thing
[16:33] I'm sure people are going to want to
hear because it has to do with valuation
[16:36] of their their properties, but needs to
be done. The D lane appropriation. This
[16:40] dual lane is a road that 20 plus years
ago at a town meeting was accepted as a
[16:45] town road. Mhm. But through the fault of
the town at the time, folks at the town
[16:50] never uh recorded it at the uh registry
of deeds and the um lack of better term
[16:57] statute of limitations has run out. So
that can't be recorded with that data.
[17:02] So what we have to do is go back and do
you know some survey work to make sure
[17:07] nothing's changed and so forth. and then
we can uh in in October ask the town to
[17:12] uh accept this as town road again and
then we'll we'll make sure it gets
[17:15] recorded. But but it meets all the other
specifications. Um and so, you know,
[17:21] we're looking to do that. It's a small
amount of money that we're asking for to
[17:24] uh to do the uh to do the survey and so
forth. Uh article 17 allows us to
[17:31] increase from $1,000 to $10,000 the
amount of personal property exemption.
[17:36] This is more more business related. Um
it's something even if we do it, it does
[17:42] doesn't amount to a lot of revenue loss
on the town's part, but it also helps
[17:47] some of the smaller businesses in town
as well. And that's, you know, the
[17:51] reason we're doing it as we get to
article 18, that's going to start day
[17:55] two. Okay. Okay. The meeting, as I
mentioned, those are mostly zoning
[17:59] articles. Mhm. Uh art article 18 is a
bylaw amendment for the flood plane
[18:05] overlay. Obviously the as we all know
the rainstorms and stuff we've been
[18:09] having you know used to be considered
hundred hundredyear storms right. Well
[18:13] it seems like those hundredyear storms
are hap happening every 5 years now. Uh
[18:17] and more and more area has become
flooded. Uh so FEMA has a new uh came
[18:22] out with a new flood uh map and it allow
this allows us to amend the flood plane.
[18:27] So people that hadn't been getting
flooded or never had to worry about in
[18:31] the past or are now will now be part of
the flood plane to allow them to get
[18:35] flood insurance. Okay. So we're we're
looking to do that. The second one uh
[18:40] you know was a a controversial issue
during the past year and that's adopting
[18:44] battery energy storage system bylaw
which will restrict these type of
[18:50] um uh this type of development to
certain areas uh and and won't allow it
[18:56] in other areas primarily residential
areas. But uh we think we have a a
[19:02] strong bylaw that'll pass the uh
attorney general's um uh uh test as well
[19:08] which they look at. So we don't want you
don't want it to be so restrictive right
[19:13] that it's uh exclusionary and we don't
feel that it is. So uh we're able to do
[19:18] that. The uh last one is to amend u the
accessory dwelling unit bylaw. the state
[19:24] came up with some language that um you
know basically allows these type units
[19:30] to happen. We need to put a bylaw in
place as well so that you know it's
[19:34] consistent with state law but also
doesn't allow you know um things to
[19:39] happen so that you know people will have
uh um Airbnb those type units. These
[19:46] will be strictly for you know that
people will live in on a regular basis.
[19:50] Won't be transient housing that kind of
thing. So, we're we're putting the bylaw
[19:54] changes in. I think the zoning board,
planning, conservation, building,
[19:58] everybody who had to have a a say on
this did a really good job of of of
[20:03] working through that. Uh, article 21 is
a street acceptance for Campanelli
[20:08] Drive, Campanelli Drive extension. Um,
we're ready to accept that. We're to
[20:13] town standards. There were some things
that needed to be done prior to to that.
[20:17] Um, all that work got done. So there's
both the select board and the finance
[20:21] committee represent um recommend
favorable action on that one in on Elm
[20:26] Street. Uh same thing. Uh article 23,
the developer withdrew. Article 24 and
[20:34] 25 we're just going to pass over at this
point. You might see them again in uh
[20:39] October. And then article 26 and 27 are
uh citizens petitions. you know, one
[20:45] having to do with um resend the
borrowing authorization for the the uh
[20:51] it says Bernett well project, but it's
really it's should have read Blackstone
[20:56] well project. That's the project um that
we're we spoke about earlier with the uh
[21:01] treatment plant. Um again, you know,
that's a a question as to whether or not
[21:06] it'll stay here at the end of the
meeting or it'll or be moved up earlier.
[21:09] That's that's really up to town meeting
as to how they want to do that. and also
[21:13] the the moderator if the moderator
thinks that while it's what it's
[21:19] supposed to be for right and the
commentary does reflect that the title
[21:24] of it is isn't exactly what it is. So
could that be ruled out of order? That's
[21:28] really up to it's moderator's
discretion. And then on the uh article
[21:32] 27 will be more for um you know to to
have more study on this. You know
[21:37] whether or not that you know again that
gets done but and how it's done. It's
[21:42] it's asking to set up a committee to uh
to to look at those kind of things. And
[21:47] um you know, we already had the water
and sewer commissioner, so it's really a
[21:50] town meeting decision how they how they
want to move with that as well. Uh and
[21:55] that would be the the um warrant for uh
this this town meeting. Uh like I said,
[22:02] some things should flow pretty easily,
but other things definitely we'll have
[22:06] some discussion on. Uh we're trying to
anticipate where those things would be
[22:09] to try to get as much information out as
possible. If people go to the town
[22:14] website now, there's a lot of
information on there, especially with
[22:17] respect to the budget. Uh made it a
point this year to put everything uh
[22:22] there. So no question about trans.
Exactly. We even have a line item by
[22:27] line item budget, you know, that was up
there for all the departments that won't
[22:31] be part of this warrant because it'll
end up being, you know, a book, right?
[22:35] Basically encyclopedia. Yeah. And I
don't think people will remember those
[22:38] things, right? I don't think there'll be
something people will want to be lugging
[22:41] around town meeting, but all that
information is available beforehand. Uh
[22:46] all the and thanks to to you and your
staff, all the all the public hearings
[22:51] on the budget uh and and actually on
this entire warrant uh were all uh uh
[22:56] televised and rebroadcast and are
available for people to watch. Uh, so
[23:01] there's lots of ways for people to get
information and then pick up the phone,
[23:05] call my office, you know, if they want
have if they have more more questions,
[23:09] but all in all, I think um everything's
out there for people to see. Great. So,
[23:13] and hopefully uh we get a good turnout
town meeting flows pretty well.
[23:17] Absolutely. Great. All right, Steve,
thank you very much for your time and
[23:21] everything else. So once again, a
reminder that spring annual town meeting
[23:26] will be on Tuesday, May 13th and
Thursday, May 15th at 7 p.m. at the
[23:31] Valley Chapel here in Oxbridge, which is
on 14 Hunter Road. Um once again, if you
[23:37] want more information in regards to the
uh warn articles and so on, you can go
[23:42] to the Oxbridge town website at
Oxbridgea.gov. And if you'd like to
[23:47] review any of the information for from
the meetings that were covered in the
[23:51] hearings, you can go
xbridgeetv.org and go to our archive
[23:55] page and those meetings are there for
your review. So once again, thank you
[24:00] very much for watching. I appreciate it.
If you have uh any questions, you can
[24:04] also contact me. You can find my email
uh on the town website. And if you know
[24:09] anybody that's interested in coming on
the show to promote an event or somebody
[24:13] that's got something going on, you can
reach out to me again and uh we could
[24:18] schedule time here in the studio. So
that's going to do it here for FY
[24:21] Experts. Thank you very much for
watching.