Archives | Buy Photos | Subscriptions | Submissions | Advertise | Contact

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Published: April 30, 2009

In this excruciating economic moment, level-funded municipal budgets, or budgets that rise by barely measurable amounts, have been the aim of town selectmen and finance committee members.

But in Chilmark, level funding wasn't good enough. Voters at Monday's annual meeting, presented with a FY2010 budget that was lower than the spending plan for the current year, chose to take it lower, by nibbling at it here and there.

They spurned a three percent cost of living (COLA) pay hike for town employees, as recommended by the finance committee and selectman Warren Doty. Chilmark's FY2010 proposed payroll had been budgeted at $1.9 million before any town meeting action.

Then they rejected a proposal for no COLA at all, made by selectman Riggs Parker and forcefully supported by former town treasurer and perennial budget watchdog Judy Jardin. The difference between the three percent COLA and no COLA would have amounted to a savings of about $50,000.

Then, voters agreed to a two percent COLA, the favorite of selectmen chairman Frank Fenner. That meant a savings of $17,550.

Voters followed Ms. Jardin's lead and struck $2,600 from a line item for data entry, to force a change from weekly to every-other-week payrolls, a savings, Ms. Jardin argued, of both money and time now wasted by town personnel preparing payroll every seven days. Another $8,000 or so was nipped from the Up-Island Regional School District expense, on an amendment by school committee member Susan Parker.

In the end, voters gathered in unimpressive numbers - just 107 of 838 registered, or 13 percent - at the Community Center, whooshed through the budget and then through the non-budget warrant articles, approving $6,633,783 in spending on town operations, $47,616 below its FY2009 counterpart.

Voters approved every warrant article calling for the appropriation of non-budget dollars without amendment or discussion.

After the budget slog, town moderator Everett Poole declared a time out, and the selectmen took turns acknowledging the contributions of six longtime Chilmarkers, each different from the other but each a committed longtime volunteers in the interest of the town.

Selectmen asked for a moment of silence for David Flanders, who died Thanksgiving Day after shifting his beef herd from one pasture to another. Mr. Flanders had served for years on the town conservation commission, the Land Bank advisory board, the planning board, and as town fence viewer and surveyor of wood, lumber, and bark.

Tall Tim Rich, retiring this summer after 30 years as town police chief, earned a standing ovation from the town meeting crowd. When the voters quieted and sat, Mr. Rich rose to say his own thanks to his Chilmark flock. He said he believed everything, everyone, has a shelf life, and his has ended as chief. But he promised that he and his wife will not leave town. He said he intended to become Tim Rich, Chilmark citizen.

Voters acknowledged the work of Jackie Sexton on the Chilmark Library board over many years, as well as her work as Chilmark affairs chronicler in the Martha's Vineyard Times. She's just passed along her town news column to Katie Carroll.

Voters saluted Albert O. "Ozzie" Fischer Jr. for long years of service as fire chief and animal inspector. They acknowledged Ray Kellman, who has served on the conservation commission for 26 years.

And, the selectmen thanking Basil Welch, retiring cemetery commissioner after 23 years, recalled a characteristically straight from the shoulder annual report Mr. Welch had written, admiring the peaceful beauty of the town property he safeguarded and managed, excepting only "those damn Russian olives."

Voters approved an amended zoning proposal that would govern noises made by air conditioning systems, generators, swimming pool filter/heating systems, and other mechanical systems that support houses. Approval required a two-thirds vote, which it received after five amendments to the proposed rules were also approved. The final vote on the amended version of the zoning rule was 52 yes, 26 no. By their amendment, voters adjusted the rule to tighten it by eliminating language that might have allowed for greater discretion in the application of the new bylaw or ambiguity in its enforcement. For instance, they eliminated the word "perceived" from language that referred to noise levels "as perceived by neighbors and the general public." And, they eliminated the final paragraph of the proposed rule that would have exempted wind energy conversion systems, "only as regards the sound made by the rotor blades as they pass through the air." This was the only article to inspire extensive debate.

Voters escaped wrestling with an extensive zoning bylaw amendment, proposed by the planning board to govern the installation of windmills and wind turbines and their associated machinery. The planning board asked that their proposal be postponed, probably to a special town meeting in the fall.