FALMOUTH – Town Meeting in Falmouth made it through 8 of 40 articles last night, stopping at a self-imposed 11 p.m. deadline.
It will reconvene after tonight’s special town meeting to hash out the remaining articles.
The meeting was halted halfway through the capital improvements article, while members were hung up on the consolidated dispatch center line item.
An amendment to the item was made which brought the cost down to $578,500 from $700,000.
That reduction didn’t stop many from saying it was too expensive.
But town meeting member Donna Madison Earls argued in favor of it. “We are not experts in communication systems,” Earls said. “We need this, it’s only going to get more expensive.”
However, the item was ultimately left open, as discussion exceeded the 11 p.m. limit.
Before that, another amendment was made by resident Andrew Dufresne to strike the line of $300,000 for town hall design, which was addressed by a presentation from Assistant Town Manager Heather Harper.
Harper asked the town for the funds only to begin a planning phase of first floor town hall redevelopment. But several town meeting members shot down the idea, many of them claiming that town hall’s parking would be compromised.
“A building that is 50 years old and has functioned properly for the town of Falmouth I do not believe requires this kind of movement,” Dufresne said.
The line item was struck after over 15 minutes of discussion.
An article which asked the town to amend a zoning code was not passed. The zoning bylaw would have been edited to allow a 40-foot maximum building height in the Flood Hazard Overlay District.
The Board of Appeals was against the article; a representative said it did not reflect best planning practices.
The first article of the night, which allowed town committees and officers to make reports, saw the Solid Waste Advisory Committee urge the public to recycle correctly in order to ultimately save the town money in its recycling efforts.
They said residents can do their part by not putting plastic bags, liquids or grease in recycling bins.
Tonight, the town enters into special town meeting to focus on the operation of two wind turbines.
Voters will decide whether or not to approve spending $200,000 to cover the cost of shutting down Wind 1 after the Massachusetts Court of Appeals ruled it was built without proper zoning approval.
Another article consists of a petition sponsored by the Falmouth Climate Action Team. It would allow both turbines to operate without a special permit.
A third article would make Wind 1 and Wind 2 exempt from Falmouth’s current turbine law.
By ADAM FORZIATI, CapeCod.com NewsCenter
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