Voters send Forbush project to ballot
By Caitlyn Kelleher JOURNAL REPORTER

Voters passed the money for a proposed renovation project at the Forbush Memorial Library on Tuesday night with an 84 percent majority.

The Westminster voters approved the $2.04 million project, which will also have to go to a ballot for some $490,000 of it to be approved as a debt exclusion. The project "systematically deals with all of the water issues" from the roof to the foundation, said Dana Altobelli, a Forbush Library Trustee and the chairman of the Building Committee.

Westminster resident Donald Barry raised the question about dealing with groundwater, suggesting the plan wasn't comprehensive enough.

"The design includes a perimeter design system," said Maury Wolfe, the project's architect. "There is no groundwater coming into the building through the slab. It's coming down through the walls."

The approximately 90-minute meeting began slightly late after waiting for residents to drive through snowy roads. There were 89 residents in attendance at the Special Town Meeting at Westminster Elementary School.

The question needed a twothird majority because part of the money will be used as a debt exclusion. In a 17-53 vote, attendees rejected a motion to use a paper ballot to make the vote anonymous.

Selectmen proposed that more than three-quarters of the cost - $1.55 million - gets paid for from the town's approximately $3.4 million free-cash fund. This would require $490,000 to be borrowed above the town's Proposition 2 1/2 levy limit, and requires a ballot election for approval.

"If they say no to borrowing the money, it seems to me they are saying no to the project," Board Chairman John Fairbanks said at a Selectmen's meeting held last Thursday.

A special election will be held on April 1, at Westminster Elementary School from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Construction Dynamics was the lowest bidder on the project, with a $1,547,300 general bid, as well as the three alternates which include changing the flooring in the children's room for $20,100, painting the interior of the interior walls for $53,200, and a rough finish of the attic for at $40,000. These alternates take the total construction costs to approximately $1.6 million.

The approximately $2 million cost also includes a contingency budget, a clerk of the works and other associated costs.

In a related article, voters also approved $65,000 to move the library into "the old Digital building," which is on the same property where Tyco/Simplex-Grinnell is based, off Route 140 on the western edge of town.

"(National Industrial Portfolio Borrower of Los Angeles) are leasing us the building at a very reasonable price," Altobelli said.

The agreed rent is $2 a square foot, which totals $7,000 for one year.

Barry asked why the library cannot simply be shut down for the months of construction. Altobelli said the town would probably lose the staff, which would have to be laid off; there is a need for the library for residents; and if the library closes it loses it certification, which means the other area libraries won't recognize Westminster library cards.

In other business:

• Three votes separated a move to transfer the Treasurer-Collector position from an elected position to an appointed position.

The 27-30 vote came after much debate on the issue. Many residents expressed concerns about a lack of oversight if the position becomes appointed, and about relinquishing their right to vote.

Proponents for the change said the position is highly technical and should have job requirements instead of simple be open to all and only Westminster registered voters.

• Voters approved an article that allows the Selectmen to sell or lease the land around the Upton Building, which is a former schoolhouse along Academy Road. Previous town meeting votes had allowed the sale of the building but not the land on which it sits.

Resident Walter Haney expressed his concern about removing the building from the town's ownership because of a concern that the Massachusetts School Building Authority will not approve of the move. But town officials said three separate school committees have approved the sale.

The Selectmen accepted a proposal for reuse of the building by the Historical