Falmouth Town Meeting Postponed After Failing To Reach A Quorum

FALMOUTH, MA — Falmouth Town Meeting had to be postponed until January after failing to reach a quorum Monday night, with just 133 members of the required 124 present.

Moderator David Viera thanked the town meeting members who were present before adjourning the meeting until 7 p.m., Jan. 25 at the Falmouth High School field house. Town Meeting members were allowed to receive an excused absence if they were not comfortable attending the meeting amid the coronavirus pandemic.

"We will continue to monitor the health situation going forward," Viera told the Falmouth Enterprise. "Looking at the trends in the region, we know if we just try to adjourn for a week or a few days, we won't be able to meet the statutory requirements to do a remote meeting, and it would be futile to try to drag everyone back into here as things are not, quote-unquote, heading in the right direction."

Town meeting members were slated to vote on nine articles. Those articles included a pilot program for a solar array project at the Cape Cod Fairgrounds, transferring the land at the Mullen-Hall School from the school committee to the select board and funding $5.7 million in capital projects.

The biggest projects under consideration were:

• $925,000 for the final phase of the coastal erosion plan for Chapoquoit Road
• $1.1 million for a fuel tank removal and replacement at the Department of Public Works fuel depot
• $870,000 for a fire engine.