Fire station funding dominates Warwick Town Meeting

By BELLA LEVAVI

Staff Writer

Published: 05-03-2023 5:15 PM

WARWICK — While most of the articles presented at the Annual Town Meeting related to the formation of a new school district, it was a decision to appropriate $40,000 from the stabilization account to fund construction of a new fire station that generated discussion.

Seventy-four residents gathered at the Warwick Community School on Monday, May 1, and approved all 31 articles, tabling one petition article.

Two articles were presented to the town to appropriate funds for construction of the fire station. According to Fire Chief Joe Larson, construction of the new station, across the street from the old one, began in 2015 using volunteer labor. The complete construction was estimated to cost about $200,000. Currently, the station is 75% complete.

Resident and former volunteer firefighter William Lyman has been pushing town officials to complete the station. The new station is only partially completed. It is not weatherized, so it does not have a bathroom or other needed essentials to be fully functional. Firefighters go across the street to use both buildings, but they hope to have a timeline soon on when the new station will be completed and all the equipment will be moved over, according to Selectmen Brian Snell. 

Article 22 of the warrant, which passed, asked the town to transfer $40,000 from the stabilization account to pay for the completion of the station, and was recommended by the Finance Committee and Selectboard.In a petition article, proposed by Lyman, it asked the town to raise, appropriate or borrow $250,000 for the station.

Larson explained at the meeting he is 100% certain that the completion of the station can be done with the $40,000 requested, as well as $30,000 given to the town to support public safety in an Early Site Permit (ESP) from the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station.

“I don’t know where Bill’s number came from,” he said to the Recorder.

After many votes regarding the appropriation—including proposed amendments which resulted in several recounts and moving across the room to visually display how each person voted—the original article requesting $40,000 from stabilization passed.

At the end of the meeting, Lyman requested that voters table his petition article, citing that there was enough money appropriated to complete the project.

“I think we took care of this,” he said.

Several people, including Town Administrator David Young, thanked Lyman for bringing the issue of the incomplete station to the attention of residents.

State Rep. Susannah Whipps (I-Athol) has created an earmark for $50,000 on the State’s Fiscal Year 2024 budget for the station. The budget was passed by the House and needs to be approved by the Senate and governor. Whipps said she has created a similar earmark for Royalston last year, and knew that the Warwick station needed funds when she went there for an event commemorating a retirement.

“It was a healing process,” Snell said. “People on both sides did some handshaking.” 

The town also approved the $2.7 million omnibus budget for fiscal year 2024 with minimal discussion. This figure is $547,519 higher than the current fiscal year’s budget and includes an education budget of just over $1 million, an 8% increase from this fiscal year.

Article 17, which transferred $211,930 from Free Cash to the FY2024 tax levy, passed after some debate to move the question to the end of the warrant. Lyman requested moving this article in case the town wanted to use this Free Cash for the fire station project instead. The town decided to vote on the article in the order it was called because if the town did not use the Free Cash it would have resulted in a Proposition 2.5 override.

The town also passed 11 articles, about one-third of the entire warrant, with little to no discussion that created revolving accounts, bylaws and other actions needed from the town for the newly created Warwick Community School as an independent elementary school.

Reach Bella Levavi at 413-930-4579 or blevavi@recorder.com

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