Chilmark is asking voters to return for another round of voting, just weeks after their five-hour-long annual town meeting, in order to cover certain costs in the town budget.
The town scheduled a special town meeting for June 29 at 7 pm at the Chilmark Community Center to cover various pieces of funding. The decision was made during the Chilmark Select Board meeting on May 26.
Chilmark Town Administrator Tim Carroll said while the town does have the funds needed to cover the necessary “current and projected costs,” not all of it is accessible until approved during a town meeting.
“The opportunity to do that is limited by the fiscal year calendar and election calendar laws,” Carroll said.
Voters will be asked to consider a fund transfer and various expenses:
- $120,000 for the legal budget over a denied permit for a proposed development of a building lot on Menemsha Pond (Carroll said “is driving the shortfall in our budget.”)
- $62,105 for snow and ice from the storms in the winter (Carroll said “the town has ways to cover that expense under normal situations” and wouldn’t have triggered a special town meeting alone.)
- $9,000 for damages at the town cemetery (Carroll said would normally be covered by the reserve fund, which is overseen by the Chilmark Finance Advisory Committee.)
- Addition of $200,000 to the current reserve fund of around $61,000. (Half of the additional funds are being transferred from the remaining certified free cash and the other half from “an old warrant article that is no longer needed and was going to be closed out on June 30th,” according to Carroll. But Carroll said the town might not end up spending all of the $200,000 “if all town departments are successful in saving 10% of their remaining expense balances.”)
If approved, Carroll said the reserve fund will “either be used in the first two weeks of July to cover shortfalls, or closed out and returned to the town’s undesignated fund balance on July 15th to eventually become certified free cash again in the fall.”