Capital Budgets, Property Transfers Top Town Meeting

Voters will decide on capital expenditures and who should control two pieces of property taken by the town for unpaid taxes at the special Fall Town Meeting on Oct. 24.  

Among the items voters will take up is a capital budget article that impacts the schools--including r starting next September-as well as the parks, water, police and fire department. 

Also up for consideration is the disposition of two of three pieces of property the town has taken due to unpaid taxes. While the Board of Selectmen approved the selling of all three at auction, town departments later stepped forward to express interest in taking over two of them. 

One is a condominium at 44 Burnap Road that the Housing Trust has asked to have transferred to its control, in the hopes of creating a qualified affordable housing unit. One complicating factor in that transfer: Some $19.000 in unpaid condo fees that must be brought current, regardless of who ends up owning the unit. 

The second parcel is a piece of vacant land off Shaw Farm Road , about 1.2 acres in size. The Conservation Commission has asked to have the property brought under its control, noting that it already oversees nearby land. 

Voters will also be asked to support additional funds for the personnel study that the town is now seeking to engage a firm to conduct. Town Meeting approved $30,000 for the project in May, but indications are that that will not be sufficient funds to complete the survey, which will look at pay and benefits of both current workers and retirees.  

In all, voters will decide 19 articles. Other items include: 

- Funding of a "pilot pipe condition assessment survey of asbestos cement water pipes" for the Holliston Water Department. 

- Acceptance of two new streets: Indian Ridge South--which was finished by the town after the developer defaulted on the construction bond--and Springdale Circle.