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.