Budget of $25M gets OK.

Byline: Mark E. Ellis

LUNENBURG - At the 9 a.m. start of the annual town meeting yesterday, Moderator Timothy W. Murphy announced doughnuts were available in the hall outside the auditorium, but lunch would not be. He had been assured the meeting would be over before lunchtime.

He looked doubtful.

A few minutes before 2 p.m., as the stomachs of the few dozen voters still in the hall rumbled, the last vote on the final article was taken.

In between, voters dispensed with 31 special and annual town meeting articles, including a $25 million fiscal 2010 budget that is slightly less than this year's, a zoning bylaw amendment doubling residential lot sizes to two acres in the outlying district and new benefits for nonunion employees, including a holiday the day after Thanksgiving and a third personal day.

Among the most debated articles was one on the special town meeting warrant to transfer ownership of the vacant primary school from the School Committee to selectmen and give them authority to sell or lease it.

Jon Juhl, president of JNJuhl & Associates of Holliston, presented a plan to redevelop the school into a 40-unit senior housing complex. He said the work would be done with a $6 million federal grant to cover 80 percent of the costOfficials said the town would retain ownership of the building and lease it to the developer. The lease would cost $150,000 over 40 years.

One resident said it would be better to sell the property so it would generate tax revenue, and another said a lease price of less than $4,000 a year was too low. Several residents, including some elderly, said there is a need for senior housing, especially downtown.

Voters approved a new sewer bylaw and map limiting areas where sewer service will be available to the town center and the Lake Shirley and Hickory Hills areas. Officials said action was needed because the town's sewage capacity is fixed. The area can be enlarged if capacity increases.

Voters also approved a capital purchase article for two police cruisers for $69,000, fire pagers for $33,000, Town Hall vault improvements for $10,000, school kitchen equipment for $85,900 and a tractor for the school district for $36,050. A motion by the School Committee to pass over the entire article because a grant may be available to pay for the kitchen equipment failed when the police and fire chiefs said they cannot wait for the cruisers and pagers.