Quick town meeting in Sharon passes all items

SHARON — A special town meeting was held Friday, April 1, to vote to accept the town report, establish a land acquisition fund and approve expenditures. The meeting was attended by 23 people, most of whom are members of various town boards and commissions. The meeting was quick and efficient, due mostly to the experience of the voters present. At the beginning of the meeting, Tom Bartram was elected moderator, and the five items of discussion were voted on in 17 minutes. The first item on the agenda was approval of the town’s annual report. The report was accepted unanimously with no discussion. The second item was the acceptance of an Ordinance to Establish a Town of Sharon Open Space and Land Acquisition Fund. Developers will have the option of paying fees to bypass the requirement to preserve open space when developing properties larger than four lots. The fee will be 10 percent of the value of the subdivision.The fund will also accept donations. The balance will be used to purchase open space for agricultural or passive recreational purposes. After a five-minute discussion of the ordinance, it was passed unanimously by the voters. The third item on the agenda was a vote on the plan of the Sharon Board of Education to spend up to $17,000 of their portion of the Capital Nonrecurring Expenditures Account for the school roof project. The expenditure was passed unanimously after Principal Karen Manning spoke about the difficulty of determining the exact cost of the project from the bids of contractors. The fourth item was the appropriation of $82,000 from the Undesignated Fund for the purchase of extra highway salt. “We used a tremendous amount of salt on different storms,” First Selectman Bob Loucks said. He noted that the town garage now has between 400 and 500 tons of salt stored for next winter. The appropriation was passed unanimously. The fifth item on the agenda was “to take any further action in connection with any of the foregoing matters.” Town Clerk Linda Amerighi made a motion to amend the second item on the agenda, the Ordinance to Establish a Town of Sharon Open Space and Land Acquisition Fund, to allow the fund to pay for the maintenance of any open space. This amendment passed unanimously.

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