Pepperell board approves full liquor license for The Depot, authorizes town forest timber harvest

PEPPERELL — June 25, 2012 — Pepperell selectmen approve restaurant liquor upgrade, first town forest timber plan, and warn school committee after failed override. The Board of Selectmen voted unanimously Monday to upgrade The Depot restaurant's license to full all-alcohol on-premises for its new location at 112 Main Street, approved a wine-sales license for LaBelle Winery of Amherst, New Hampshire at the weekly farmers market, and authorized the Town Forest Committee to proceed with its first-ever forest stewardship plan — a selective-cut strategy projected by consulting forester Gary Goldrup of New England Forestry Consultants to generate $20,000 to $35,000 in timber revenue. A $14,498 Department of Conservation and Recreation grant funded the plan. Town Administrator John Moak reported roughly $27,000 in total reserve fund transfers against a $7 million budget for the fiscal year and said a Department of Revenue technical assistance team would arrive in October for a three-month finance review. Selectman Michael Hartnett pressed for commercial rezoning of the former Peter Fitzpatrick school property, noting a market study found $80 million in annual consumer spending leaving Pepperell and that a 50,000-square-foot commercial development on the site could generate approximately $40,000 in new property taxes annually. On the failed North Middlesex Regional School District budget override — rejected overwhelmingly in Pepperell, Ashby, and Townsend — Hartnett said the approximately 670 affirmative votes in Pepperell against a district parent population of roughly 2,000 showed the defeat was "bad policy and bad execution," not a generational divide, and warned he would not support another override using the same budget without prior outreach to member boards.