Town vote may resolve Quabbin budget tangle.

Byline: Bradford L. Miner

HARDWICK - Selectmen have scheduled a special town meeting for 7 p.m. Oct. 28 in the elementary school auditorium and one request on the warrant could resolve the FY 2010 Quabbin Regional School District budget standoff.

The regional school committee voted a further $228,382 reduction in its proposed $32.6 million budget Sept. 17 after Superintendent. Maureen M. Marshall and district finance officer Cheryl Duval met with selectmen and the Finance Committee.

Based on revised budget figures, the town now has an assessment of $1,846,784 that is $16,231 less than voters had approved at the annual town meeting in June.

Coming nearly two months to the day from the town's most recent vote to send the budget back to the Quabbin for further review, a thumbs-up would give the district the four of five member towns needed for an approved spending plan for the current fiscal year.

Ms. Marshall told committee members at the last budget session she was confident that the Hardwick town officials would recommend approval of the compromise assessment figure.

If voters turn down this assessment request, and Oakham voters do the same, then time constraints would likely mean that as of Dec. 1 the commissioner of elementary and secondary education for the state Department of Education would establish a budget and issue mandatory assessments for the balance of the fiscal year.

Barre and Hubbardston voters approved Quabbin assessments at June annual town meetings. New Braintree came under the umbrella of "approved assessments" after the most recent budget vote.