Special Town Meeting

There are 6 items to be voted on. Article 1 - authorizing progress on getting high speed internet - is a no brainer. Only a neanderthal would vote no. Article 6 is a technical matter involving $1,020, and is hardly worth mentioning.

Article 4 seeks authority for the library trustees to start down the path for a new - and very expensive - library. It looks like it will go down to overwhelming defeat, but don't get complacent, come to the meeting to make sure.

Articles 2 and 3 propose two different versions of the regional school agreement. One of them is the version put forward by the school committee and the other is the version put forward by the selectboard. The only difference is that the former would permit a school in the district to be closed by the vote of 4 of the 5 towns, whereas the latter would preserve the right of a town to veto an attempt to close a school in that town. This has been the subject of very heated debate and strongly held views on both sides.

I have no strong feelings about either version. But I intend to vote "yes" on both versions, because there is a financial impact, albeit not a huge one. That impact is this: If there is SOME agreement, Egremont will pay about $12,000 less as its school assessment next year than if there is NO agreement. So some agreement is better than no agreement.

Incidentally, the warrant wrongly states that the finance committee recommends approval of the selectmen's version and disapproval of the school committee's version. I think the finance committee's position is the same as that outlined above, but they'll announce their position at the meeting.

I'll do a separate posting on Article 5, the police station, in a day or so. In the meantime, make your positions known and COME TO THE MEETING!!