Voters pass seven articles

Voters passed seven articles in less than 10 minutes during the special town meeting on Saturday morning after waiting for a quorum to be achieved.

The special town meeting started about 10:15 a.m. after the fiftieth voter entered the Ashby Elementary School gym on Oct. 21. The meeting scheduled to start at 9:30 a.m. was delayed because town bylaws require 50 voters to be present to conduct business at a town meeting.

These voters passed all seven articles that transferred funds within the town budget unanimously and with minimal discussion.

Voters approved the transfer of $14,760 from additional state aid money the town received this year into the police chief's salary line to fund a 25 percent higher salary for the new chief. The finance committee and the selectmen both recommend this article after discussions this summer before advertising for a new chief.

Voters also approved transferring $33,830.20 from state aid and $1,094.80 from money in the insurance line items of the budget into the police wages account.

The increased salary money is needed to fund coverage of the town's police department.

The group health insurance account was also used to fund additional money, $13,150.80, in the legal services budget. The insurance funding was higher than it needed to be because of changes in municipal employees and a lower than expected increase in costs, according to town officials.

The legal account was under-funded in May during the annual town meeting, so town officials asked voters to supplement it at this town meeting.

Voters also approved the transfer of $606.65 to buy a radio antenna for the fire department's emergency management, $4,556 to pay for unemployment compensation, $750 for the assistant collector wages and $364.80 to pay a prior year's bill.

- Compiled by Caitlyn Kelleher