WESTPORT — A most difficult budget year, marijuana once more and new rules for floodplains are among the many issues awaiting voters when they gather indoors in the high school auditorium this Saturday, June 5, for Westport’s annual Town Meeting.

The decision to move the meeting inside came just days before the meeting and reflects more relaxed state rules regarding gatherings (see related story).,

This year’s session will actually be two meetings in one, Town Moderator Steven Fors said.

“We will convene the Annual Town Meeting at 9 am.  At 10 am, we will recess the Annual Town Meeting and convene the Special Town Meeting. We will address the single article of the Special Town Meeting warrant, dissolve the Special Town Meeting and resume the Annual Town Meeting where we left off.”

That one item on the Special Town Meeting warrant is actually one of several times voters will face a. Marijuana question. This time they will be asked whether they wish for the town to impose a 3 percent “excise tax on the retail sale of marijuana for adult use.”

The Annual Town Meeting’s main event comes at Article 5 when voters will be asked to approve $45.2 million in taxation for the next fiscal year was the main source of revenue for the town budget. That plan also calls for the town to dip into its Free Cash account for $108,935.

The spending plan will likely bring protests and perhaps proposed changes from the town schools which say the town plan cuts over $800,000 from the “level service” budget they need to prevent layoffs and elimination of buses for grades 9-12 (see separate story). 

The plan submitted by the schools calls for a spending increase of 6.3 percent.

Finance Committee members said that crafting a workable budget was especially challenging this year.

“I have reviewed revenue and expense projections, and multi-year capital planning, and the numbers keep adding up to the same thing – a growing structural deficit, underfunded capital needs, and the inability to build adequate cash reserves,” said Vice Chairwoman Karen Raus. 
“While voters will see  that this recommended budget is balanced, the challenge is making everyone aware of what you ‘don’t see’ in the budget, and how pervasive and systemic the underfunding is in all departments. Westport needs to think beyond the needs of right now, beyond what we need today.  If we don’t look ahead, we will never get there.”

Added Buzzy Baron, “"Early on, our town administrator at the time, Jack Healy, warned us that the drastic reduction in state aid resulting from the 2008 economic crash left us suffering from a structural deficit could not be cured by playing games with free cash and that we had to face up to passing an appropriate Prop 2.5 override like other municipalities.  By 2009, almost 1,800 overrides were passed by Massachusetts towns and cities."  

Other meeting highlights

Among other items of interest on a packed warrant are …

• Article 3: A call to combine the offices of Town Treasurer and Town Collector of Taxes with one director appointed by the Board of Selectmen.

• Articles 6, 7: A request for approval of big ticket purchases as part of the town’s Capital Improvement program (most of the funding would come from the Free Cash account. Due to the pandemic, most such spending was eliminated last year. These items include:

 — Telephone replacement (town/schools), $275,000

 — Two replacement police cruisers, $100,000

 — Fiber optic cable communications, $265,000 (plus $221,135 in Article 7 from other sources)

 — Fire Dept. extrication equipment, $75,000

 — Highway Dept. heavy truck replacement, $153,250

 — Cemetery equipment, $40,000.

• Article 15: Seeks voter approval of Community Preservation Fund expenditures (funded by a surcharge on property sales).  These include:

 — Council on Aging historic building roof, $85,000

 — Historic gravestones restoration, $55,000

 — Pietrzyk Conservation Project (Walt’s Farm), $150,000

• Article 20: Asks to petition the General Assembly to allow Westport to change the name of the Board of Selectmen to Select Board, thus removing the gender reference.

• Articles 21-25: Questions seek to amend the town’s marijuana Zoning By-laws  — Voters can choose to limit all establishments (non-medical sales included) to two small districts on Route 6, they can ban non-medical sales outright, they can opt to allow only non-medical facilities approved before May 4, 2021 …

• Article 26: Creates new set of Floodplain Districts and Regulations aimed at public safety, protection of property and threats to water quality and utilities among other things. It also addresses construction permits, recreational vehicles, protection of dunes and drainage and seeks to align with state and federal rules.

Articles 28 and 29: Seek to set up funds to finance the repair, replacement and/or upgrade of septic systems with nitrogen reducing systems.

• Article 30: Asks voters to appropriate $350,000 to fund the design and engineering of a sewer and water line in north Westport so that the town might then qualify for available construction funding.

• Article 31: Seeks to transfer the care, maintenance and operation of the Westport Senior/Junior High School (the old one on Main Road) form the School Committee to the Board of Selectmen.

• Article 32: Seeks to transfer the care, maintenance and operation of the new Grade 5-12 School open Old County Road from the Board of Selectmen to the School Committee.

• Article 33: Seeks to transfer the care, maintenance and operation of the Westport Camping Grounds property from the Board of Selectmen to the School Committee.

• Article 38: The final article on the Warrant seeks to appropriate $211,000 for the acquisition of 25.6 acres owned by Carricorp Industries (the action would hinge on receipt of reimbursement from the state of not less than $105,000. The measure is sponsored by the Buzzards Bay Action Committee.