The Community Preservation Committee has reserved space for eight articles including the reason for the Special Town Meeting: the $1.5 million conservation restriction to preserve the O’Neil Farm on Winter St. and Autumn Ave.

The other proposed CPC articles include $600,000 to purchase the Jaycox property, also known as the Christmas Tree Farm, on West St.; $50,000 to $80,000 to solve problems of ledge and low water volume at the new multi-purpose Keene St. playing field; $70,000 to restore a herring run/fish ladder along Island Creek; and $33,000 to study the historic preservation and handicapped accessibility of the Tarkiln building on Route 53. Also, there are two articles regarding the Wright building on St. George St. The first is to determine the uses of the building as recommended by the consulting architect. The second article will fund construction drawings.

The final CPC article seeks a transfer of $117,000 from the water enterprise fund to pay for a portion of the Delano land reserved for a new well site. This same article was indefinitely postponed at the Annual Town Meeting in March.

Selectmen will meet with the Community Preservation Committee during May to review all eight articles. Selectman Betsy Sullivan indicated that selectmen and the Finance Committee and Fiscal Advisory Committee have many questions about the O’Neil farm preservation article as well as the other CPC articles.

“There are a lot of questions we have on the table about the O’Neil property,” said Sullivan. “These articles are not housekeeping at all. There’s a lot of money involved.”

The current Community Preservation Act account totals $1.738 million, according to Town Manager Rocco Longo.{sidebar id=1}

The board of selectmen are sponsoring four of the other five articles on the Special Town Meeting warrant. Included among these are an article that would allow the harbormaster and his officers to use a non-criminal procedure against people who violate the town’s beach rules and regulations. This same article was proposed for the annual town meeting in March but indefinitely postponed after a review by town counsel. Town counsel determined that since the beach rules and regulations are not bylaws but are part of the selectmen’s policy manual that the article for the annual town meeting needed to be reworded.

Another selectmen-sponsored article is to fund two union contracts for dispatchers and DPW workers if settlements are reached by the Special Town Meeting. There are also two “housekeeping” articles: one to allow transfers of money within town department budgets and another to allow for a possible transfer to the health insurance trust fund in case there is a deficit before the end of the fiscal year on June 30. This is to avoid a similar scenario of what happened at the end of the last fiscal year when the health insurance trust fund had a deficit that could only be solved by action at both a fall Special Town Meeting and the Annual Town Meeting. There is currently no deficit in the trust fund. The article is a precautionary measure.

One other article is sponsored by the school committee. It seeks to amend the school transportation revolving fund by $112,800 to bring it to a total of $262,800. Annual Town Meeting voted to allow the revolving fund to take in no more than $250,000 in fees for busing students.