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2020 Hopkinton Annual Town Meeting Updates

By Tom Nappi, News Director
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The 2020 Hopkinton Annual Town Meeting is live on HCAM-TV (Comcast: Channel 8, Verizon: Channel 30) and our youtube page! You can also follow along with what is happening at Town Meeting on this page!

Motion: Article Order Change - From Citizens Group to move Articles 19 and 20 to beginning of Warrant. (Article 19: Commercial Solar Photovoltaic Installations, Article 20: Lang Acquisition - Library Mutual Property).
Motion: Standing Count (Requires 2/3rds vote) - Passed 133-57

Article 19: Commercial Solar Photovoltaic Installations (No Action Recommended) (Required Vote: Simple Majority)
Motion by Resident for Town to Take Action - Standing Vote - Motion Failed 114-96, No Action Passes

-Construction and use of a commercial solar photovoltaic installation or any part thereof shall be permitted solely in areas within the CSPVOD and shall be governed by this article.

Article 20: Lang Acquisition - Library Mutual Property - Passed Majority

-Authorize the Select Board to purchase, on such terms and conditions as the Select Board shall deem to be in the best interests of the Town, a parcel of land, known as the Liberty Mutual property, located at 71 Frankland Road, as described in the deed recorded at the Middlesex South Registry of Deeds in book number 74323 at page number 518.

-Select Board and Capital Improvements Committee - Recommend Approval

-Simple Majority Required

-Article Gives Permission to negotiate price for land. To purchase it would need to come back to Town Meeting.

Article 1: FY 2020 Supplemental Appropriations and Transfers - Passed Unanimously

-The Town vote to transfer the sum of $62,000 from Certified Free Cash to supplement the FY2020 Snow and Ice Control Operating Budgets, $151,054 from Certified Free Cash to supplement the Parks and Recreation Enterprise fund, and $68,946 from Parks and Recreation Enterprise Fund Retained Earnings to supplement the Parks and Recreation Enterprise Fund.

-Select Board & Appropriation Committee Recommend Approval

Article 2: Unpaid Bills from Previous Fiscal Years - Passed Unanimously

Article 3: Excess Bond Premium - No Action Recommended - Passed Unanimously

Article 4: Personal Property - Passed Unanimously

-Massachusetts General Laws and (ii) established a minimum value of personal property subject to taxation in the amount of $1,000 (ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS), by modifying the threshold minimum value for personal property subject to taxation to $2,500 (TWO THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS) for all fiscal years beginning on or after July 1, 2020.

Article 5: Set the Salary of Elected Officials - Passed Unanimously
$71,385 for Hopkinton Town Clerk

Article 6: Fiscal 2021 Operating Budget - Passed Nearly Unanimously
(99,316,841)

-School Budget - $51,206,102

-Select Board & Appropriation Committee Recommend Approval

-GENERAL FUND $93,113,795
-COMMUNITY PRESERVATION FUND $380,003
-SEWER ENTERPRISE FUND BUDGET $2,751,385
-WATER ENTERPRISE FUND BUDGET $3,164,164
-PARKS & RECREATION ENTERPRISE FUND BUDGET $49,827
-PEG ACCESS ENTERPRISE FUND BUDGET $519,847

Article 7: FY 2021 Revolving Funds Spending Limits - Passed Unanimously

Article 8: Chapter 90 Highway Funds - Passed Unanimously
-Select Board, Appropriations Committee Recommend Approval

Article 9: Transfer to Other Post-Employment Benefits Liability Trust Fund - Passed Unanimously

Article 10: Lease East Main Street Parcel for International Marathon Center - Passed Clear Majority
-Select Board, Appropriations Committee Recommend Approval
-Select Board Chair, Brendan Tedstone - "At this point, the cost is $0.

Article 11: Community Preservation Funds - Passed Unanimously

Article 12: CPC Recommendations - Passed Standing Vote 156-11 (Requires 2/3rd Majority)
A-$20,000 - Preservation of Town Records
B-$3,800 - Preservation for a Historical Property Survey.
C-$400,000 - for improvements to the Exterior of the Hopkinton Center for the Arts, Terry Family Farmhouse, 98 Hayden Rowe.
D-$25,000 - reserved for Passive/Active Recreation for the construction of an Aikens Park Trail to Stone Bridge segment.
E-A sum or sums from funds reserved for Open Space for the purchase of a certain parcel of land and related interests for the continuation of the Upper Charles Trail.
F-$74,376 - Passive/Active Recreation for the construction of a Campus Trail Connector, located at 0 McDermott Lane
G-$20,000 - reserved for Passive/Active Recreation for the construction of Hughes Trail Phase 2, Located at the Western End of the Hughes Trail Property, shown as Assessors Map parcel R30-132-0.
H-$75,000 - reserved for Open Space for the construction of a Chamberlain to Center Trail segment, connecting the Center Trail Phase 2 at field 13 of the Chamberlain Street sidewalks.
I-$75,000 - Un-designated funds for a drainage study for a skate park located at 113 Hayden Rowe,

Motion to withdraw Item H - Passed Unanimously
Vote on All Items Except H - Passed Unanimously
Vote on Item H - Passed Standing Vote 156-11

Article 13: Car Washes, Downtown Business District - No Action Recommended: Passed Unanimously

Article 14: Industrial B District Housekeeping - No Action Recommended: Passed Unanimously

Article 15: Wireless Communication Facilities - No Action Recommended: Passed Unanimously

Article 16: Accessory Dwelling Unit - No Action Recommended: Passed Unanimously

Article 17: Nonconforming Lots, Uses and Structures - No Action Recommended: Passed Unanimously

Article 18: Temporary Signs - No Action Recommended: Passed Unanimously

Article 21: Street Acceptance, Legacy Farms North - Passed 137-11
-Motion to move question: Standing Vote - Passed 137-11
-To accept that street as and for public ways and to authorize the Select Board to acquire by gift, purchase or eminent domain any land or interest in land necessary for the laying out of that street as public ways, conditioned upon the execution, if determined to be in the Town’s interests by the Select Board in its sole discretion of an agreement, in a form acceptable to Town Counsel, indemnifying and holding the Town harmless against claims arising from pesticide contamination of land within that public way for a period of ten years from the completion of such acquisition.

Article 22: Amend Charter to Change Board of Selectmen to Select Board - Passed Unanimously

End of 2020 Hopkinton Annual Town Meeting