October 27th Special Town Meeting Overview

Here's a look at what voters are being asked to approve at the meeting a week from Monday.

Special Town Meeting is coming up in 1½ weeks. Here’s my overview of what’s up for a vote. (And some logistics.)

Meeting Overview

The STM on Monday, October 27th is scheduled to open at 6:30 pm at Trottier Middle School, 49 Parkerville Road.

The Select Board is making a real push to encourage turnout for the first Article in hopes of attracting a Costco to Town (and the revenue that would bring in). But there are nine other Articles on the Warrant, and one or more of them could be of higher interest to you. So, scroll down to see what else voters will be deciding.

The meeting will again allow parents to bring children with them to sit in the cafeteria, where they will have full A/V access to the meeting in the main hall (the auditorium). Parents can vote from there, and even make comments which will be seen and heard by the audience in the other room(s). (An additional backup room with full A/V may also be opened in the gymnasium if the auditorium fills up.)

Town Clerk Jim Hegarty told the Select Board that he revamped the voter check-in process to be smoother and quicker. (He’s also bringing back the clickers for potential use on close votes.)

Warrant Articles To Be Voted On

The Special Town Meeting will be asked to vote on the following 10 Articles.

1. Amend Zoning Code – Add Highway Major Retail Use

I’ve covered this extensively, and will write more about this in the future. But here’s my high level recap:

This is the zoning change proposed by Atlantic Management (owners of 21 Coslin Drive in the old EMC complex) to allow Costco to apply for a special permit to open a store on the property. The amendment is to the Industrial Park zoning bylaw but is defined to only applies to their parcel.

The Planning Board intends to work on a future Article for other changes to modernize uses and attract appropriate businesses to the Industrial Park zone. That was temporarily tabled to avoid confusion with voters about this Article. (The Select Board urged the focus on getting this Article passed after being informed that if it isn’t passed this fall, Costco may move on to a location in a different town.)

If the Article passes as written, the business would be required to apply for a discretionary special permit and go through Major Site Plan Approval. That would be through a public hearing process in front of the Planning Board.

For more context, read my past coverage here. And you can watch the public forum held last week here. (And stay tuned for a future post on the forum and other recent public discussions.)

2. Amend Town Code – Golf Revolving Funds

The Select Board is asking Town Meeting to amend the revolving fund to allow the Town’s investment in the course to start paying off.

When the Town purchased the Golf Course and took over management, the revolving fund was created to specify that any user fees collected would be dedicated to the golf course (operations, maintenance, improvements, etc.). Now, the course is purportedly generating more revenue than needed to keep it going.

Fees collected into the revolving fund would still be “encumbered” to cover the costs budgeted for the course’s operations and Capital Plan, plus a $75,000 buffer. Each year, any amount collected above that buffer would be transferred into the Town’s general coffers to help offset other Town expenses and reduce the burden on property taxes.

3. Appropriation for former Atwood Water Tank Site Remediation

This is another Article I’ve already covered, and will need to post an update on. But here’s my high level recap:

Last year, testing of the site of the former Atwood Water Tower was tested for contaminated soil. The study confirmed high levels of lead in soil in the area where the tower used to stand. This Article calls for $100,000 to deal with the first 1-2 phases of addressing the issue.

The stated intent was for $85K to fund the feasibility study and documents needed to go out to bid for the eventual (and more expensive) cleanup project. (Funding the cleanup would need to be approved at a future Town Meeting.) Prompted by an abutter’s inquiry, the Select Board added $15K to also cover the cost of a temporary safety measure to contain contaminated soil.

I noticed that while the Summary for the Article describes both uses, the actual Article language wasn’t revised when the budget was increased and seems to be phrased to only cover “engineering, design and bidding of the remediation work.” Still, if I’m right, the Select Board can reword the motion made on the floor to cover both. (Allowing those kinds of changes, and other amendments proposed on the floor, is the point of legal boilerplate in the Warrant ending each Article with “; or do or act anything in relation thereto”.)

If approved, the $100K is specified to come from “Free Cash”, not add to taxes in the coming year.1

For more context, read my past coverage here.

The following three Articles are related to changes to the Salary Administration Plan (SAP) for non-union Town employees:

4. Amend Town Code – Personnel Bylaw, Consolidation of BA Classification

Currently, Business Administrator positions are split into two pay level classifications, Business Admin 1 & 2. This simplifies the Salary Administration Plan by combining them into one position. The lower level employees will get a “slight salary adjustment” retroactive to July 1st. (Unlike the prior Article, I presume this would apply to FY26 taxes, since it’s not otherwise specified.)

5. Amend Town Code – Personnel Bylaw, Vacation Accrual

The SAP currently designates 2 weeks vacation per year for employees who have worked for the Town for less than two years. The Personnel Board reports that 3 weeks is the default starting point in the current employment market. When recruiting to fill recent job openings, the board has had to continually vote to approve extra vacation time for the new hires.

They are now asking to make 3 weeks the default for employees for 0-7 years of employment.

6. Appropriation for Market Adjustment for Tenured Non-Union Employees

To retain and fairly pay employees, the Personnel Board is recommending that employees who have worked for the Town for 7+ years and still haven’t reached “Step 8” in the 15 step pay schedule, be moved up to that level. The adjustment comes with a $78,783 cost for the salary changes retroactive to July 1st.  (I presume this also adds to FY26 taxes, since it’s not otherwise specified.)

Both of the following Articles are to approve how to apply the funds already collected from the Town’s agreements with the cable companies (Verizon, Charter, and ComCast) designated to be dedicated to funding public access media:

7. Appropriation of Cable Funds for McAuliffe Hearing Room

This would allow the Town to use a portion of the funds to upgrade the A/V equipment used for recording videos of Town board and committee meetings in the Town House Hearing room, including hybrid meetings (allowing zoom participation).

The motion made on the floor (and hopefully shared on the Town website in advance) will include a cost figure that is still being calculated. But this won’t impact taxes (or increase customers’ cable fees.)

8. Appropriation of Cable Funds for SAM Operating Budget

After deducting the project cost from the above Article, the remainder of the money would be transferred into the budget for Southborough Access Media (which provides public media access for our town.) If the amount specified in Article 7 is amended or fails, it will impact the amount that would be included in the motion for this Article. (Again, the Select Board hopes to have a motion with the proposed figure posted to the Town website in advance of the meeting.)

9. Amend Zoning Code – Update ADU

As I’ve previously covered, this version of the bylaw is intended to simply update the Town’s bylaws to be consistent with the rights that have already been enshrined in state law. The Town’s bylaws are currently written to be more restrictive than is now legally allowed. The changes are made to make clear to the public what is and isn’t allowed, and the process.

The change also limits a cap (that hadn’t been properly tracked and enforced anyway) on the number of accessory apartments the Town can issue special permits for.

For more context, read my past coverage here. And you can read the Planning Board’s presentation that will be made at Town Meeting here.

10. Creation of Governance Committee

This Article would authorize formation of a committee to study Southborough’s Town government and make recommendations for improving its efficiency. The Article describes a wide range of topics the committee could assess. That includes significant potential changes like:

(a) expansion or reduction in the number of elected positions: (b) transitioning to a Town Manager form of government; (c) moving from open Town Meeting to representative Town Meeting; and (d) allowing remote participation and voting at Town Meeting.

The committee wouldn’t have the power to make those changes, just to make recommendations. And any significant changes to the Town’s elections and Town Meetings would need to be approved by Town Meeting. (Some may also require approval by the state.)

And the Article also calls for the committee to hold three public forums in addition to its public meetings.

Still just the concept of the Select Board forming a committee to research these types of major changes alarmed at least one resident, Karen Hanlon Shimkus, who wrote a Letter to the Editor to raise public attention to the Article, which she asked voters to turnout to oppose.

The Select Board planned for the Article to have the committee appointed by the Select Board. After Shimkus’ letter and comments were posted, Select Board member Al Hamilton re-raised making the Town Moderator the appointing authority. He reasoned that people would be suspicious of any recommendations made by a committee appointed by their board. They voted to make that change. (The change didn’t alter the opinion of Shimkus, who is still urging the public to vote no in her comments.)

It’s worth pointing out that in the past, there has been controversy about some appointment decisions by the Moderator, since those are made in private by one person. So, it’s hard to predict which appointing authority Town Meeting voters would be more likely to support. (That could depend on the mood of the voters who show up for the meeting that night.)

You can find the official Warrant and other details on the dedicated meeting page here. That’s also where the Town may post additional handouts prior to the meeting.

  1. At Annual Town Meeting in April, voters approved appropriating a certain amount of money for FY26. The use of Free Cash means that appropriation won’t be increased. So the new expense won’t impact the taxes that were forecast last spring. But that doesn’t mean that “Free Cash” is actually free. The funds are drawn from surplus tax revenue collected that could have been applied to reduce taxpayers’ burden the following fiscal year.

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