Sunday Delivery

Welcome back!

It has been quite the week over here. We’ll get back to “business as usual” next Friday. For this week, and this rare Sunday edition, we’re keeping things high level.

What is Annual Town Meeting?

By the League of Women Voters of Sudbury

Town Meeting is the legislative body of Sudbury, and the registered voters who attend are the legislators. Town Meeting votes on bylaws, spending (including budgets and borrowing), resolutions, and more.

During Town Meeting, the Town Moderator is your guide, and the Warrant is your guidebook. The Warrant lists the basic rules and procedures for conducting Town Meeting and provides information about each of the articles – including article sponsors, what the article would do, the vote count required to pass the article, and whether the article is supported by the Select Board and Finance Committee.

Every household in Sudbury will be mailed a paper copy of the Warrant, and a digital copy is available here. Review the information in the Warrant carefully prior to the meeting and make a note of any questions or comments you have. The sponsor of each article will make a presentation at the meeting and take questions and comments from the voters. You can find a table of all the articles with supplementary information, if available, here.

Sudbury has an “open” town meeting, which means that all Sudbury registered voters are eligible to vote at the meeting. You must be present to vote; there is no remote or absentee voting. The deadline to register to vote for this meeting is Friday, April 26. Check your voter registration status or register to vote here.

You can learn more about town meetings in the Citizen’s Guide to Town Meeting and here. Recordings of Sudbury’s past town meetings are available on demand on SudburyTV. Sudbury’s Annual Town Meeting will begin in one month on Monday, May 6 at 7:30 p.m. in the auditorium of Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School, 390 Lincoln Road.

Committee Roundup

By Kevin LaHaise

Select Board

• They voted to sign the warrant for Annual Town Meeting.

• The LED lighting retrofit project got the green light when the Select Board voted to approve the award of the contract. More on that project here.

• They allocated $100K in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to Sudbury Public Schools for the interactive screens. This likely means the SPS School Committee can scrap their warrant article for this project at Town Meeting, but it will be discussed at their next meeting according to Town Manager Sheehan.

• The Town got some ARPA money back because the Park and Recreation department was unable to procure a hybrid van with previously-allocated ARPA money. A gas version is cheaper, and that’s the direction they are heading. The van will facilitate transportation for Park and Recreation programs, and will be shared with other Town departments according to comments in the meeting.

  • Summary of ARPA allocations on page 27 here.

• There was more discussion about the Firearm Business Safety Zoning Bylaw. Specifically, discussion about removing the word “safety” from the name of the bylaw to minimize confusion, and potentially hosting another information session. They opted to keep the name the same and there will not be another public information session due to limited staff resources leading up to Annual Town Meeting.

  • As one might expect when an elected board is talking about guns late at night, the discussion was about as cuddly as a cactus.

Park and Recreation

• They had a long discussion about the Atkinson Pool renovation, which is on the warrant for Annual Town Meeting. Members have varying perspectives on the pool, though the consensus opinion seemed to be quite supportive of the article. Opinions in support pointed out that the pool is a much-valued resource for local swim teams. However, there were concerns raised about the financial viability of operating the pool long-term.

• We learned that the Park and Recreation summer camps will be happening across the street at Haskell Field one more time this summer, as the landscaping warranty could be voided if they conduct the camp on the grounds around the soon-to-be completed Fairbank Community Center. In prior years, that also meant the SMILE playground is closed for a portion of the day when camp is operating. Prepare yourself for residents to share their very big feelings about a temporary playground closure on social media for much of the summer.

Goodnow Library Trustees

• There was vague discussion about an incident at the library during last week’s information session on the Firearm Business Use Bylaw. They discussed potentially reviewing their existing policies on political activities and solicitation, and potentially bringing in some outside experts to assist them.

• They’re anxiously awaiting the Finance Committee’s position on their warrant article to fund the installation of electric vehicle chargers at the library. The Combined Facilities Director has explained that this project is already underway, and Town Manager Sheehan has explained that the Town wants to use a combination of existing energy and sustainability funds and potential incentives/grants to fund the project.

• The Trustees thought it was best to keep the article on the warrant, as they felt it would make sure that the project goes forward. That’s an odd way to take “yes” as an answer from Town staff, though they seemed to be frustrated that the chargers couldn’t be installed sooner.

• The article itself doesn’t dictate where the funding for the project would come from, and Town Manager Sheehan has noted that this was a capital request that didn’t making the cut for the Town Manager’s Capital Budget because there was money available for the project elsewhere. That led some members of the Finance Committee to raise questions about the process used and general approach of the article. The next Finance Committee meeting is your best bet for tracking this one, if you’re interested.

Finance Committee

• They spent most of their meeting live-editing their annual budget report That’s not exciting to watch, and we can only imagine how much fun it is to be a participant. But they worked their way through it dutifully and efficiently.

• They did, however, rescind their vote not to recommend approval of the Parkinson Field Driveway project, which is a Community Preservation Committee article, and they will be discussing that at greater length at their next meeting. Some members voiced concern that they were not made aware of how the project related to accessing the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail.

• On Wednesday, the Community Preservation Committee (CPC) voiced concern that both the Finance Committee and the Capital Improvement Advisory Committee didn’t have complete information prior to their votes not to support the project.

• They noted that the information was all available, but perhaps they would need to take additional actions in future cycles to ensure the relevant committees received all the information before they took votes on CPC articles.

Parting Thoughts

Next week we will get back to our usual format. Thanks for your patience!