Residents of Adams, Massachusetts will gather at 6 p.m. Tuesday at the former Adams Memorial Middle School building for the annual town meeting. On the 26-article warrant are issues ranging from a new enterprise fund for the town’s sewer system to possible amendments to marijuana bylaws to accommodate deliveries. Town Administrator Jay Green spoke with WAMC about what to expect.
GREEN: Our headlines for this year are somewhat a little bit of housekeeping, but also a couple of exciting ones. We have the opportunity to purchase a parcel adjacent to the existing property that makes up Greylock Glen. There was one privately owned parcel just at the entrance corridor going into the Glen proper area, and we were able to come up with a purchase and sale agreement in principle to acquire that property. So we're really excited about that. Also, similarly, we have another article on the warrant where we're asking town meeting to authorize the disposition of a long held town property known as the former community center, located at 20 East Street. We have a developer ready to turn that into housing, market rate housing. So those are really the highlights this year, which I think just highlights, frankly, the interest in Adams and the development potential here.
WAMC: Now, looking at that housekeeping work- Tell me about the budget for the upcoming fiscal year. Are there any major changes that folks in Adams are going to have to approve or reject at the meeting?
No significant changes. We've attempted to keep our spending at historic levels or level funded. This was a tough year to do that. I would anticipate tougher years ahead as well with inflationary costs. But some of our fixed annual costs such as insurance, personnel costs, health benefits, you know, all went up. So that really reflects the increase. In fact, our personnel costs went up 8% for employee health insurance alone. The budget reflects a 10% increase in retirement benefits. Every community is having to deal with that. And we did our best to manage it. I don't necessarily think it's controversial. Unfortunately, it's just the cost of operating a municipality in this day and age.
Where do you foresee the most debate or conversation to happen during the meeting?
There could be some debate over the adoption, the proposed adoption of what we call an enterprise fund. Enterprise funds are set up by Massachusetts General Law to operate certain enterprises. For us, in this case, we're asking to create one for a sanitary sewer enterprise fund. Almost all municipalities across the commonwealth has one, and most people pay into that using a sewer user fee. The Town of Adams is not at the point where we're asking to adopt the sewer user fee, unlike every other community. Adams is still archaic in that we pay for our sewer wastewater system cost from the tax rate. That actually adds $2.40 to our tax rate, keeping it artificially high when you compare it with other communities. What we're asking town meeting to do this year is adopt the use of an enterprise fund. What that means is, is that funds could either come in from the tax levy as we do now, or a future sewer user fee, and that money is kept separately in order to operate the sewer user system. When you go to look for loans to improve the capital plant that you have, or any other sewer aspect of it that involves the state, they want you to account for those costs using the enterprise fund mandate. So I don't think it's a controversial issue. I think it's more of just an educational issue. And we're prepared to do that.
Can you walk me through article 20, which will possibly amend sections of the town's licensed marijuana establishment bylaws?
Absolutely. So, article 20 is the only bylaw amendment that we have this year. And it's one of those situations that come up as businesses start to operate in Adams and you realize that the way you may have looked at something three or four years ago just needs to be updated. What we learned was, is that we had a few businesses, potential businesses that have come to town, and they're interested in doing marijuana delivery. Not necessarily delivery, say to homes, but delivery to other businesses or could be residential delivery. The way that we had drafted our earlier bylaw, that function or that business function of cannabis hadn't really been thought through. So what we wanted to do is put a bylaw amendment in front of town meeting to just clarify that it isn't retail usage. Delivery is not retail. Yes, it's a form of retail, but it doesn't have the same level of community impact that a retail establishment would have. So what you see in article 20 is a clarification of our marijuana bylaw that clarifies, that will allow a business owner to come in and operate a delivery business, but clarifies that it's structured separately from a retail establishment.
