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On Feb. 23, Special Town Meeting approved cutting $290,000 from departments and reserves to cover a portion of the cut, but there was no article at the time proposed to expend free cash.
The article for Annual Town Meeting would use $100,000 from free-cash reserves, which are currently around $490,000, Hurley said.
Another $75,000 would come out of the reserve fund.
The Selectmen included another article that would spend the remainder of free cash to cover the current-year snow-and-ice deficit, which has reached $638,000.
Only a little over $100,000 was appropriated for snow-and-ice removal for fiscal year 2009.
But even if the article passes, the town would have to absorb $115,000 of the deficit into next year’s budget, Hurley said. The Warrant Committee has included a set-aside for that amount in their FY 10 budget proposal.
At their meeting, the Selectmen also approved a change of language on an article that seeks zoning for a wind turbine on town-owned land in Quarry Hills.
The original article including zoning for a single turbine and the new language would make a second turbine possible, Town Administrator Kevin Mearn said.
He said the Planning Board proposed the new language after hearing from the Wind Energy Committee, which has been reviewing the proposed site for the turbine.
The town has a $65,000 grant from the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative to do a feasibility study of the site, which is near Granite Links Golf Club.
The new language has the turbine being built as high as 480 feet, 80 feet higher than the initial zoning proposal. Mearn said one turbine would have to be built higher than the other to achieve the most energy savings, based on wind sharing.
He said each turbine would save the town up to $700,000 annually in energy costs, and two turbines would cover the town’s entire energy bill, including the school buildings.
“The amount of energy that could be generated is substantial,” Selectman Marion McEttrick said. “It’s a substantial amount of revenue.”
Selectman Chair Kathy Fagan said the zoning article is a first step. She said there is stimulus and grant money available if the town gets to the point of installing turbines.