Burlington Coronavirus: State Of Emergency, Town Meeting Delay

BURLINGTON, MA — The Burlington Board of Selectmen declared a local state of emergency over the new coronavirus, Monday. The Board also voted to delay the annual town meeting, to June 10.

Both actions came at the request of Town Administrator Paul Sagarino and other town officials. Sagarino said that there is not any significant impact of the declaration, but hundreds of municipalities have made the declarations statewide.

"We thought it was at least important to send the message to our community that the crisis is serious," Sagarino said.

Officials in other towns have said that declaring a state of emergency will give them easier access to disaster relief money or municipal funds.

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The town meeting was initially scheduled for May 11. The warrant had not been posted, so the Board had the authority to move the date, Sagarino said. The new date, June 10, was agreed to in discussion with the town clerk and the town moderator.

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Sagarino noted that because the town meeting needs to be completed by June 30, the town moderator "will be under the gun to keep our meeting moving."

He also said the town has a "very conservative budgeting process" to give it room to handle situations like the economic impact the new virus is having.

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Christopher Huffaker can be reached at 412-265-8353 or chris.huffaker@patch.com.