Town Meeting to reconvene next month for more business

By Nick Grabbe
Staff Writer

Published on June 19, 2009

After multiple sessions this week and next, Town Meeting will be asked to reconvene in July, said Town Manager Larry Shaffer.

Among several items of business, the most pressing one relates to the budget debate taking place in the current sessions. Town Meeting could enact a local-option meals tax, if the Legislature votes to allow cities and towns to impose it.

Shaffer has estimated that Amherst would gain $550,000 in the fiscal year beginning July 1 from the meals tax, and this money is a key factor in his proposal to limit the damage of budget cuts.

"This is one item that keeps me awake at night," Shaffer told the Select Board Monday.

To gain maximum revenue, Shaffer would like to schedule a special Town Meeting as soon as possible. So as soon as the Legislature agrees to allow the local tax, a Select Board meeting will be called, and Town Meeting would reconvene at least 14 days later.

Another possible topic for the special session would be to ratify a deal Shaffer is negotiating to promote economic development on land between Sunderland and Montague roads in North Amherst.

The Patterson family owns 140 acres now zoned for a professional research park.

About half of the land could accommodate a 500,000-square-foot building for research and development businesses, which Shaffer is promoting to broaden Amherst's tax base.

He started talking to the Patterson family about an option on the site in early 2008.

"Those conversations are more promising than they have ever been," Shaffer told the Select Board.

Another possible issue at the special Town Meeting is a tax proposal for a planned expansion of Atkins Farms Country Market, he said.

Shaffer also said that Plum Brook Conservation Area on Potwine Lane will be open for full use this fall. This comes seven years after Town Meeting approved the financing and four years after a referendum on stopping the improvement project failed.

In discussion for at least 15 years, the project involves improved drainage and an expansion of the number of fields.

He also reported Monday that the Police Department spent $74,000 on overtime from March 13 to May 22, and during this time there were 260 arrests and 326 summonses.

The state police assisted the department during two weekends, saving on overtime expenses, and Shaffer said he hopes to expand this cooperation next spring.