Amendment-free town meeting backs the schools.

Byline: Michael Kane

BOYLSTON - After hearing lengthy explanations from town officials and being prohibited from making amendments to articles, voters at special town meeting approved transferring $158,000 to the schools from other departments' budgets Monday with few questions. Officials did face more scrutiny later in the meeting, however, when it came to eliminating mosquito control.

Among the items reduced by the town were half of the streetlight budget, half of the Parks and Recreation budget, the Memorial Day celebration budget and amounts ranging from $500 to around $5,000 from many departments.

Another $60,000 came as a reduction in the town's insurance and workers' compensation after the selectmen sent the plans out to bid earlier this year.

The largest cut outside of that, however, is the one that received what little conversation there was.

"I don't think there is a department or program that, in some way, has not been affected or reduced in some way," School Superintendent Dr. Joseph Connelly said during a PowerPoint presentation Monday.

The library budget was reduced $15,000 by the town, but that will equate to about $20,000 because of an additional loss of state aid, trustees have said. Library supporters handed out fliers as voters entered town hall, but the voice vote later in the night showed a large majority in favor of moving the money.

The cut puts the library in danger of losing certification, Library Trustee Susan Therriault said. That means, without a state waiver, Boylston's library could lose certification, Therriault said. If that happens, Boylston residents cannot borrow materials from other libraries or request books through inter-library loans. Certification, once lost, is lost for the entire year, Therriault had said at previous meetings.

While Therriault acknowledged West Boylston has received the waivers in recent years, there is no guaranty Boylston will receive one, she said.

Connelly found himself defending the lack of cuts to the school district office, which Library Trustee Letty Ridinger called "top heavy."

Not so, Connelly argued, saying the district's staff has already been cut down to its bare minimum. The main office consists of the superintendent, business manager and special needs director, two secretaries and two part-time employees who work on payroll and other financial matters, Connelly said. Those employees are responsible for three school districts.

He made a similar defense for teaching staff, noting the current staff at the high school is just enough to meet the state mandate 990 hours in a classroom. At the elementary school, the cut of a teacher in some grades could raise some class sizes to about 30 children, he said.

"If we thought we could (cut administration), it would have been our first action," Connelly said. "Over the years, you've already made the cuts. There is no one left to cut."

Selectman James Stanton found himself answering the same questions about the police department, noting that in the days of three officers, the department was run out of a house, and one of the officer's wives would get up from whatever she was doing to answer the calls now handled by dispatchers.

Dispatchers are scheduled one per shift, Stanton said, and Chief Anthony Sahagian is one of the few chiefs who is required to patrol the town as part of his duties.

"Somewhere along the line we decided we wanted a more professional police force," Stanton said. "It wasn't until 1990 that (the police station) moved out of a three-bedroom apartment and into a station."

Although Monday's articles were worded so specifically they could not be amended - an intentional move by selectmen to prevent more disruption to the budget - there is some possibility money could be restored at a later town meeting.

The School Department was notified that one less student than previously thought has filed paperwork to attend Assabet Technical Vocational High School next year, Selectman James Stanton said. That meant the schools actually needed about $11,000 less at town meeting than was needed when the warrant was printed. That could change if the student does end up at Assabet, if not however, that money could be allocated to the library or other departments at a special town meeting, Stanton said.

The left-over money was just one of the discussion points when it came time to eliminate mosquito control.

Supporter John Lazar, who said he had contracted a mosquito-borne illness in the past, told selectmen he was ashamed to say he knew them for putting the health and safety of its residents at risk, saying that if one person contracted an illness, the board was "letting them down for $22,000."

"We're talking nickels and dimes here while they're talking millions," Lazar said.

Health Agent Dennis Costello also defended the program, saying that like the School Committee and selectmen, the Board of Health had a responsibility to protect the residents of town.

While rare in recent years, mosquito-borne illnesses are cyclical, Costello said. Since 2000, there have been 54 known cases in Massachusetts when a person has gotten ill from a mosquito bite, Costello said. Six people have died as a result.

Answering selectmen's criticism of lack of action in town, Costello said the program differs from the 1980s version in that emphasis has gone from blanket spraying to prevention by eliminating source water, Costello said. The cleaning of culverts and freeing of blocked streams are activities few see but are important, Costello said.

"The program is very hard to measure, but we feel it is money well spent," Costello said.

Selectmen said they were not singling out mosquito control in opposition to the program, but that it is one of the few line items with a large amount of money that could be reallocated.

"It came to a point where we had to look at all of these budgets," Stanton said. "Hopefully, next year we can re-address all the cuts we have made and re-establish our priorities."

Roger Deal said selectmen sometimes made the wrong choice, but in this case the board was presenting the townspeople with options, and that the choice was theirs to make.

"We are custodians of your money," Deal said. "What you do with it is your decision

...

it is your responsibility to respond and to determine if our judgment is correct."

Selectman Kenneth Sydow said he favored keeping mosquito control before calling the question, a move that was quickly seconded and forced a vote that was closer than the first set of transfers.

Apparently, the vote caused confusion among some voters, who thought the program had been saved. However, the meeting adjourned immediately after the vote and no further action was taken.

After the meeting, Stanton said he had been somewhat surprised by the reaction, given that prior to town meeting only Lazar had spoken to him about mosquito control. Most of the comments he had heard were about the library, Stanton said.

"In a perfect world, I would have liked to keep it," Stanton said. "But we had limited resources."