News and events in Southborough, MA

Above: Only a few of the few voters attending last night supported the project brought by Recreation. The Recreation Co-Chair hopes the success of her following Article will result in more support of future projects at Annual Town Meeting.

Last night, irony seemed rampant as Recreation Co-Chair Kristen Lavault championed her Citizen Petition Articles for repairing Kallander Field and moving Annual Town Meeting.

The last Article of the night, well past 10 at night, was a bylaw change to time future Annual Town Meetings to be more accessible for parents of young children. Article 5 moves the opening of Town Meetings to a Saturday afternoon in March rather than a weeknight.

It was an issue that became important to Lavault after two of Recreation’s Articles were defeated in April. Afterwards, Lavault had lamented about the number of voters lost at the late hour and the number of people who told her they wished they could have been there.

In keeping with her narrative, the sparsely populated room was dominated by older voters during her presentations last night. Luckily for those who wanted to be there but couldn’t, the majority of those attending supported a change that would welcome them in the future. Article 5 easily passed.

(That means, next March, it will be up to those of you who have used the late weeknights as an excuse to prove naysayers wrong by showing up!)

Lavualt began her presentation of Article 5 by commenting that the failure of her prior Article was the reason she wanted the change. Article 4 to repair Kallander Field had just been soundly defeated.

Judging by the number of voters who left before the Article 4 vote (and those who never came), she may be right.

But counter claims over problems behind the drainage issues, with talk of silt-filled basins and erosion-caused trenches, muddy the issue. Even those who support Recreation could have ended up concerned that spending on the $248,300 project might end up wasted. And process issues raised questions about how voters want to manage Town expenses.

Lavault lobbied for the need to maintain and improve “sub-optimal” and worsening playing fields owned by the Town. The project to repair Kallander Field was pitched as an important part of that effort. Working with Rec’s consultant and Public Works, the commission believed that the issues raised at last Town meeting were researched and addressed.

But, once again, project proponents were confronted on the floor by contradictory statements from opponents including Southborough Open Land Foundation. [click to keep reading…]

Tagged as: special-town-meeting-spring-2018

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