Pepperell Board Tables Three Warrant Articles, Recommends $30 Million FY2021 Budget

PEPPERELL — May 26, 2020 — Pepperell's Board of Selectmen voted to recommend a $30.3 million fiscal year 2021 general fund budget and stripped its annual town meeting warrant to budget-essential items only, citing COVID-19 social distancing limits that would restrict the Nisitissit auditorium to roughly 55 to 60 attendees. Town Administrator Andrew McLean told the board that the 502-seat auditorium could hold no more than 60 people under six-foot distancing rules, well short of the 100 to 150 residents who typically attend. Three articles — the 2019 annual town report, the outdoor lighting bylaw, and the Nisitissit Middle School ground lease — were tabled unanimously to a future town meeting, as was a prospective DPW equipment financing article. The water enterprise fund budget of $1,928,379.80 passed on a 3-1 vote after Selectman Joseph Raudonis objected to capital spending before completion of the Bemis Road well field project. The board also approved a $193,480 free cash appropriation for snow and ice costs and legal fees, authorized a special fund to receive a Friends of Pepperell donation for a Town Field walking path — bid and awarded to Cassidy for construction beginning in June — and appointed McLean as alternate representative to the Minuteman Nashoba Health Group.