Pepperell Selectmen Vote on Nine Warrant Articles, Take No Action on School Property Sale

PEPPERELL — April 30, 2018 — Pepperell selectmen reorganize, shelve school property sale, and learn their town administrator is retiring. The board, meeting one week before the May 7 annual town meeting, voted Roland Sorrenti as chair and seated newly elected member Bill Greathead, then worked through nine warrant articles totaling roughly $5.5 million in spending and borrowing authorizations, including a $5 million sewer treatment plant upgrade and a fiscal year 2019 general fund budget that passed two to one. Town Administrator Mark Makant announced he has filed retirement papers with the Middlesex Retirement Board, with a target departure of June 30, and noted that Moody's Investors Service had that morning reaffirmed the town's double-A-3 bond rating, describing Pepperell's financial position as strong. The board voted unanimously to take no action on Article 15, which would have authorized Makant to sell the Peter Fitzpatrick School property, after residents and board members argued that a comprehensive feasibility study — estimated at $3 million in deferred maintenance as of 2015 — must come first. On recreational marijuana, Town Counsel advised that the Planning Board had missed the required zoning hearing deadline, leaving only a ballot initiative as the legally valid path forward; the board approved an amended article directing selectmen to place a prohibition question on the next available election ballot.