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town-meeting-2009

Dismal turnout at the polls, Dargan and Harragan win

May 11, 2009 10:22:37 PM

Only 397 Southborough residents showed up to vote in Monday’s town election. That’s a 6% turnout. Ouch.
It should come as no surprise that all the unopposed incumbents won their races. In the contested race for the two Southborough seats on the regional school committee, Susan Dargan and Kathleen Harragan won with 694 and 760 votes,

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Town meeting attendance ‘very low’

April 29, 2009 09:31:11 AM

I checked in with Town Clerk Paul Berry on the attendance numbers for town meeting this year. Turns out it was pretty grim.
On Monday night, 227 voters showed up. On Tuesday night it was down to 131. The quorum is 100.
Berry described the turnout as “very low.” He said town meeting normally sees 300-400 voters

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Northborough’s ‘warm spirit of compromise’

April 28, 2009 02:42:20 PM

The Metrowest Daily News reports Northborough Town Meeting last night approved the Algonquin debt reimbursement compromise rejected by Southborough earlier this month.
The compromise was proposed by the Regional School Committee as a way to resolve the dispute between the two towns over how to split mortgage payments for Algonquin over the next 17 years. Southborough

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Advisory Committee member disappointed in Town Meeting ‘foolishness’

April 22, 2009 11:58:31 AM

Advisory Committee member John Boiardi had a letter to the editor published in the Metrowest Daily News on Sunday. In the letter he admonishes town meeting voters for approving a higher assessment for the Algonquin budget when town officials recommended against it.
It is a sad situation when a relative handful of Town Meeting members can

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Town Meeting votes to dip into rainy day fund

April 21, 2009 09:41:17 AM

“If today isn’t a rainy day, I don’t know what one is.” That’s what a Clemmons Street resident said at town meeting last week, and he wasn’t talking about the weather.
Voters at town meeting decided to pull a total of $290K from the town’s stabilization fund, also known as the rainy day fund, to pay

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Town Meeting agrees to additional $67K for school technology

April 20, 2009 10:30:24 AM

Last-minute negotiations in the run up to town meeting helped the school district get an additional $67K to use toward technology purchases next year.
In the lead up to town meeting, the Selectmen and Advisory Committee both supported a mere $65K of the $205K requested by the Southborough schools for capital technology purchases. But in the

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Town Meeting rejects Algonquin compromise

April 16, 2009 11:42:17 AM

Town Meeting played nice with Northborough on Monday night when it came to budget assessments, but when the topic of debt assessments came up on Tuesday night, voters decided it was time for some tough love.
There were two articles on the warrant this year that talked about assessments. The first had to do with how

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Town employees to get raises next year

April 15, 2009 11:25:49 AM

I’m on forced vacation this week from the job that actually pays my bills (hint: it’s not this blog). Everyone in my company of over 6,000 was required to take the week off with pay as a cost-saving step. And as an additional cost-saving step, there will be no raises for any of us this

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Town meeting day 2: A recap

April 14, 2009 11:44:52 PM

Town meeting day 2 got started at 7:40 pm (scheduled was 7:30 pm), with a noticeably lighter attendance than the first night. The biggest shocker for me? No Girl Scouts selling snacks in the lobby like on day 1. And I was totally jonesing for a brownie.
The good news is voters made it through all

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Town Meeting agrees to pay higher Algonquin assessment

April 14, 2009 12:27:41 PM

Southborough Town Meeting took the high road last night, and it will cost the town more than $200K next year.
At issue was how to distribute a major portion of the $17M Algonquin budget between the towns of Northborough and Southborough. There were two methods on the table: the regional agreement that has been in place

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Town meeting day 1: A recap

April 14, 2009 12:02:52 AM

Town meeting adjourned just after 11:00 pm tonight, and frankly I’m exhausted, so I’ll offer you a brief recap until I have the energy to write more.
The meeting got going around 7:15 pm. I don’t have much to compare it to, but it seemed like a decent turnout. We worked our way through articles 1

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A town meeting preview and a new poll

April 13, 2009 09:18:14 AM

If you’re going to town meeting tonight (or even if you’re not), here are a few more articles from the local press to help get you prepped:

Southborough TM to consider police vehicles, school computers
Southborough Town Meeting will weigh in on Algonquin assessment
Four days until the most important meeting in town

Everyone I’ve talked to seems to

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7 reasons to attend town meeting

April 10, 2009 11:58:38 AM

On the fence about whether to attend town meeting on Monday night? Here are seven reasons why you should.
1. You get to decide what your tax rate will be
The more stuff that gets funded at town meeting, the more you’re likely to pay in property taxes. It’s as simple and as complex as that.
2. Not

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More on the PCE leak issue you’ll hear about at town meeting

April 10, 2009 09:46:36 AM

The DPW wants Town Meeting to approve $40K to study a PCE leak. The Advisory Committee has taken a stance against the request because they say the leak can’t be fixed and why study something you can’t fix? Yesterday I wondered aloud what this issue was all about.
DPW Director Karen Galligan read my post and

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