Updated (5/10/25 4:35 pm): I received a question from a reader that I assume others have as well — Is Tuesday’s ballot question now irrelevant?
Here’s why I believe that voting on Tuesday’s ballot measure is still important for all Southborough voters.
Very soon, Town and school officials will have to decide what steps to take now that the vote failed at Special Town Meeting. The results from the Town election are bound to play a role in that discussion.
If the majority of ballot voters approve a debt exclusion for the project, one of two required approvals will have been met. The Select Board could decide that if they take another shot at another Special Town Meeting (with communications geared at overcoming objections/concerns they heard today or improving turnout of supporters) they could win 2/3 approval and move forward with the project. (The over 1,100 voters who showed up today was a big turnout, but still just a fraction of Southborough’s over 7,000 voters.)
So for those who support this project, a Yes at the ballot improves your hopes of keeping the possibility alive.
Technically, if the ballot fails, the board could still decide to pursue both another TM and another ballot question. But how close the ballot decision is and low/high the turnout is will likely be part of their consideration.
So for those who oppose the project, a large turnout and strong No vote would be the best way to convince officials that repeating Town Meetings and ballot questions won’t work. And the sooner they decide that, the sooner their work on what other path to take can begin.
So either way you are leaning, there is good reason to carve out a little time on Tuesday (far less than voters committed to today) and weigh in on the question. Make clear to Town officials where you stand on the project. Besides, it’s the Annual Town Election and there are candidates on that ballot!
Click here for the details on voting (and the candidates).
For those who didn’t attend the meeting today and still haven’t made up their minds, click here to read more about the project. You can also watch the Special Town Meeting with the presentation (and a counter-presentation), questions and answers, and voters’ comments here.
I will post more details in the future, but the quick update is — the meeting took over three hours and ended without the required supermajority vote of support.
Reminder, there is still a ballot question as part of the Annual Town Election this Tuesday. For details on that, click here.
👍🏻
Such a big disconnect between the citizens and the elected/appointed governing of the town. So much work to promote a construction project that was not wanted by the citizens. This is a constant problem in Southborough. Park Central, the St. Marks School land taking, the now closed Cannabis sales shop near the schools, too many other developments and construction projects to mention. Perhaps some new regulations can force a voter pre-approval process system to put a stop to projects that don’t meet a certain level of approval by citizens. Clearly, we don’t need to approve a new purchase of brooms and shovels but perhaps 5 million dollar or greater ideas need an early vetting process. This is a system used in the private business world.
There was an overwhelming vote of no at the meeting and that should be the end of it. The room was packed in. both rooms more then ever before at any meeting. Stop this ongoing attempt to get their expensive agenda passed. If this continues there should be something done about this occurring time after time. Also an audit done on how much of taxpayer dollars are wasted on project studies time after time!
Voters approved spending money on studying the project at the 2022 Annual Town Meeting.
Not just this project Beth a multitude of studies done on other ones some never coming to life!
First, I want to thank Jim Hegarty and all those that organized the Special Town Meeting. It was not a small undertaking. I was particularly pleased with the “Noisy Room”. I loved seeing the kids play in the background while their parents participated in the meeting.
Secondly, the meeting met our usual high standard of decorum, debate, and questioning.
The other piece of good news is that the vote was not close there should be no question one way or the other about the outcome. I know from personal experience that losing can be a bitter pill but you can’t like democracy just when you win. I sat in the auditorium. It held about 2/3 of the people that attended. The vote was not close in the auditorium. The “Yes” side did not achieve a majority let alone 2/3. In fact, I suspect that the “No” side was close to 2/3. I understand that the Gym vote was closer probably close to 50-50.
My very rough guess is that over 60% of the attendee’s vote “No”. That would work out to about 650 No vote and 450 Yes. A 2/3 vote is a very high bar, particularly if there is a well organized opposition. Basically, you need 2 yes votes for each no. If my guess is correct the yes voters needed about 1300 yes votes but only got about 450 that leaves a gap of about 850 or roughly twice the number of yes voters that the number that attended. Both sides worked hard to turn out their voters I doubt that there are another 850 yes voters out there that will attend a second Special Town Meeting if one is called.
The alternative is to try and switch roughly ½ of the No voters to yes. This again is a very very tall order given that a significant number are concerned about tax impact on their personal budget.
If this vote fails at the ballot, then this should be the end of this proposal. Even if it passes, I think a sober assessment of the prospects of get int 2/3 at a Town Meeting should be made. The town’s leadership will almost certainly be asking for a Prop 2 ½ operating override in the spring. This program will make that proposition much harder.