LEVERETT — A legislative petition seeking to allow permanent noncitizen residents in Leverett to help make local government decisions, a requirement that all future Town Meeting sessions begin with an acknowledgment of the community’s Indigenous history and a project for a new heritage trail associated with the North Leverett Sawmill will come before voters at annual Town Meeting Saturday.

Action on the 30-article warrant, including a $7.17 million fiscal 2024 budget, begins at 9 a.m. at Leverett Elementary School, with the day’s proceedings commencing with a custom unique to Leverett in which the town election is staged from the floor of Town Meeting. Candidates for office, both incumbents and newcomers, will be nominated and voted by those in attendance. Should there be contested elections for any seats, paper ballots are then distributed.

Like other communities, including Amherst and Northampton, Leverett could ask for legislative support so people who make their homes in town, but aren’t U.S. citizens, can vote at town meetings and at elections, and serve on elected municipal boards and committees.

Another article is a resolution that would require the town to begin all town meetings with an acknowledgment of the Indigenous history, culture and land, and for a discussion to occur about actions, programs and proposals that address this topic.

Before voting on the municipal spending, up $333,291, or 4.9%, from this year’s $6.84 million budget, voters will be asked to amend the assessment formula for the Amherst-Pelham regional schools. For Leverett, the way the spending is calculated protects the assessment from more than a 4% increase, using what is termed a guardrail system. Leverett’s assessment is expected to go up from $1.48 million to $1.54 million, a $59,269 increase, in support of a $33.7 million regional schools budget.

At a combined $4.5 million, education is the largest portion of the town’s spending. There is $2.92 million for the elementary school, a $152,391, or 5.5% increase, from the $2.77 million spent this year.

The budget includes 4.5% salary increases for all employees, though Fire Chief Brian Cook will move from 25 hours per week to full time, with a corresponding boost in pay from $45,440 to $75,978. Town Administrator Marjorie McGinnis will see her salary go up to $71,883, a $10,000, or 16.2% increase, based on a Personnel Board recommendation. But there is a $6,997 reduction, or 22% cut to $24,795, for a reconfigured accounting services.

Spending decisions outside the operating budget include money that would be drawn from the Community Preservation Act account, which is collected from a surcharge on property taxes.

The first is $82,082 for the Friends of the North Leverett Sawmill’s planned Heritage Park and Nature Trail on nearly 5 acres of land next to the historic Slarrow Mill in North Leverett. The other is spending $81,000  to assist Kestrel Land Trust in conserving 91 acres of land located between Depot and Long Hill Roads, to be known as the Heronemus Forest Conservation Project.

There are also articles that take money from the stabilization account, each of which needs a two-thirds majority of voters to pass. They include $140,000 to repave the parking areas near and around both the public safety complex and the Leverett Library, $86,000 to buy and equip a new or used brush truck for the Fire Department and $39,000 to buy and equip a new exhaust system for the Fire Department truck bays.

Several articles involve free cash spending, including $26,700 to buy municipal accounting software, $11,000 to complete mosquito control activities in town, $6,760 to support activities that will help mark the town’s 250th anniversary next year, $2,359 for a new fire alarm system at the Leverett Library and $1,000 for the purpose of heating the Field Building, the former town library.

Other articles include creating the Opioid Settlement Stabilization Fund and rescinding $150,000 in borrowing from April 2019 for installing new wells at the East Leverett homes affected by contaminants from the former landfill, a situation that was addressed by extending a municipal water line from Amherst.

Seats up for grabs

For the election, positions that are on the ballot include a three-year seat for Select Board held by Tom Hankinson, who is running for reelection, a three-year seat for School Committee held by Craig Cohen, who is not seeking another term, and a five-year seat on the Planning Board held by Ken Kahn, who is also not running again.

Other positions include a three-year seat on the Board of Assessors held by Cat Ford, who is running again; two three-year seats on the Board of Health, with Lizzie Alwan seeking reelection but Pete Sylvan opting to step down; a three-year position as constable held by John Swartz, who aims to remain in the role; three-year seats on the Finance Committee held by Jed Proujansky, who is running again, and Ann Delano, who is not; and three-year positions as library trustees, with both incumbents, Joan Godsey and Chris Condit, running again.

Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.]]>