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NORTHBRIDGE, Mass. – The fall session of the annual Town Meeting in Northbridge will be held Tuesday beginning at 7 p.m. in the Northbridge Middle School auditorium, 171 Linwood Ave.
There are 17 articles on the warrant.
Questions range from routine budget adjustments to a controversial $1.8 million proposal to build a new Department of Public Works.
Two warrant articles deal with the DPW, but the Board of Selectmen will ask that voters pass over article 4, which is a request for $995,000 to purchase a building on Douglas Road for use as a DPW.
The plan initially was to purchase the property now and ask voters in May for $2.1 million to retrofit the building for DPW use. The Finance Committee suggested instead that selectmen schedule a special Town Meeting and election in December and present that plan to voters as a package deal.
The second DPW proposal, article 17, was petitioned by a citizens group in support of a DPW plan designed for free by local engineer Neal Mitchell that they say can be built for $1.8 million.
The wording of the article is questioned. The proponents say they are seeking construction money, but the Northbridge town counsel says it is worded to “procure the services of an engineering firm,’’ not for construction.
Mitchell has said his design can be built at either town-owned land at the wastewater treatment plant on Providence Road or at the current DPW site on Fletcher Street.
Several warrant articles deal with the planned reconstruction of Sutton Street, which will require temporary and permanent property easements. The $7 million construction project is expected to begin in the fall of 2013.
Property easements also are needed for reconstruction of Douglas Road and the Douglas Road bridge, which begins this year.
Voters also will be asked to support special legislation to establish a building maintenance fund, into which money collected in lieu of taxes on a proposed solar farm would go.
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