A single vote at Wednesday's special town meeting made the difference in passing a motion to appropriate $125,000 to move municipal employees during the Town Hall renovation.

A standing vote was taken after Town Moderator David Uminski determined he could not call a two-thirds majority by the voice vote. The vote, 101 to 50, appropriated enough money to allow town officials to relocate employees either to the VMS Building, the Stevens Municipal Building or a rented space under the hardware store.

Voters received a 30-minute presentation from Town Administrator Kevin Paicos outlining three options for the relocation.

"There are problems associated with all of the choices," Paicos said. "We own the VMS Building and we own the Stevens Building. We own the value of those repairs."

For employees to move into the Stevens Building -- which is being rented by E. Michael and Patricia  Fredericks to house the historic-piano museum -- the cost ranges from $47,640 to move in with minimal repairs and updates to the building, to $124,140 to move in with more in-depth repairs, Paicos said.

For the employees to occupy the VMS Building -- which would displace the senior center -- the cost would be between $70,818 and $90,818 depending on the level of repairs to the building, Paicos said.

"I don't know where we'll put the Council on Aging," he said.

And for the employees to move into the basement level of the hardware store the cost would be $106,140, Paicos said.

"For me logically it seems like the hardware store [is the choice] because we don't have to as anyone to move out," said town resident Bettina Donelson.

Uminski tried to keep the discussion focused on the need for the money instead of which option would be implemented.

"That decision is not going to be made tonight," he said.

The Board of Selectmen will take up the issue at the Tuesday, Feb. 5 meeting about where to put the employees during the 10- to 15-month renovation project.

Pixie Brennan expressed her concern that voters would not be able to make the decision. Brennan was one of a number of people to petition the town to postpone interior renovations at the Town Hall.

Jim Kreidler said voters have the chance to express their views through the selectmen.

"As the taxpayers we do have a say on this because you represent us," he said to the selectmen.

Kreidler urged selectmen not to consider the cultural or political impact of moving the employees but to simply look at "the dollars and cents."

Selectman Jonathan Dennehy disagreed with that statement.

He said if the job was that simple "we could have a computer instead of a live person as a selectman." 

Ashburnham Congregational Church Pastor Dale Proux asked Uminiski if voters could dictate the choice selectmen had by amending the amount of money approved at the meeting. Uminski said that was an option but no one proposed an amendment to the article.

Town Hall Building Committee Chairman David Sargent said the best case scenario would have construction start in April. The project has not gone out for bid yet. "We're running a pretty tight time frame here," he said.

The tight time frame could have been thrown off if a citizens' petition asking voters to support postponing the interior renovations of the Town Hall had passed. But the article never made it to the floor.

Kreidler raised a point of order immediately before and after a citizen petition article was read off the warrant. Kreidler argued that the article should be removed for the warrant list, calling it "frivolous, irrelevant" and was out of order.

Uminski asked Town Counsel Deborah Phillips to issue her opinion. She agreed with Kreidler focusing her opinion on two matters.

First, she said a town meeting cannot rescind an article that would cause a contract with a third-party to be voided. The town already has contracts with the architect and project manager for the work.

She also said the the article was incorrectly worded. The article called for action by the selectmen not the town meeting, which would be a legal issue as well.

The article had to appear on the warrant because the citizen's petition received more than 100 signatures.

Uminski ruled the article out of order and asked for a voice vote to affirm his decision. A majority of the voters affirmed that decision, discussion on the article was not heard and the meeting was adjourned.