Petition circling for special Town Meeting

Following the reconsideration vote for Town Meeting Article 30, displeased residents have voiced their opinion to town officials and are gathering the necessary signatures for a petition to call a special Town Meeting.

Article 30 moved to allocate $1.5 million in borrowed funds from the town’s coffers for the construction of two all-purpose turf fields on a wooded parcel behind Concord-Carlisle High School. The parcel of land borders Route 2, the bus depot and Bristers Hill Road. It also falls within the boundaries of Walden Woods.

On April 24, Article 30 initially failed to garner the necessary two-thirds majority of paper ballots. Within 20 minutes of announcing the outcome, Philip Swain of Pine Hill Lane requested a reconsideration vote.

 According to town bylaw and the Town Meeting procedure handout, a reconsideration of a vote can occur on “articles, which by vote of the Meeting were considered together with said article, or within 20 minutes thereafter.”

The motion to reconsider was later approved by a majority vote, and the second vote taken by paper ballots on Article 30 was called at 12:14 a.m. The meeting was adjourned shortly thereafter.

After the late-night results were released, Mark O’Lalor drafted a petition. And on Wednesday night, O’Lalor was collecting signatures to call a special Town Meeting.

At the Board of Selectmen meeting on Monday evening, newly appointed Chairman Peggy Briggs said she would prefer to not see a special Town Meeting on the matter because it “will just extend the situation that much longer and I’m not convinced it will make a change.”

According to Town Clerk Anita Tekle, a special Town Meeting can be called one of two ways — by majority vote of the Board of Selectmen or by a petition signed by at least 200 registered voters.

A special Town Meeting costs anywhere between $12,000 and $15,000 for one night.

O’Lalor said a third revisit to the article is necessary because “after Tuesday night’s meeting, my sense is given precedence and tradition, you don’t accept a reconsideration without any new information.” He said new information was not released to residents.

O’Lalor said he received a phone call only hours before the Wednesday night session of Town Meeting providing him with the instructions necessary to attempt to void the second vote.

The original draft of the petition, said O’Lalor, did not include the warrant article to be rescinded, and therefore the first 100-plus signatures did not count. After learning of the legal language to be included on the petition, opponents of the reconsideration hit the streets with the revised petition this past weekend.

Another petitioner, Nancy Haynes, said the signatures represent a “sense of outrage and the feeling that people had thought they voted one way and the way they voted was not the outcome of Town Meeting.”

At Monday’s selectmen meeting, Selectman Greg Howes said at the end of Tuesday night “there was one unanimous vote — citizens were all unhappy with how the process was managed and orchestrated.”

‘The greatest damage that came from that evening was lost faith in the process,” said Howes. “When you feel somehow the process wasn’t working in an open and fair way, you question those results.”

However, calling a special Town Meeting to “wipe out what was done” should be avoided, said Howes.

“I too felt very unsettled after Tuesday night,” said Selectman Virginia McIntyre. “I guess I was sort of expecting to be discussing a Special Town Meeting [tonight].”

However, added McIntyre, continually revisiting Article 30 is “a waste of citizens’ time and town resources.”

Briggs said, “At the end of the day I do feel there was strong support throughout the meeting as [Article 30] was proposed.”

At Monday night’s board meeting, Connie Levine informed selectmen that 200 signatures were collected on the new petition over the weekend. If delivered, a special Town Meeting must be held within 45 days of the receipt of the petition.

However, the petition was not presented as the board has anticipated.

“We need to understand what is going to happen,” said Playing Fields Committee member Dekkers Davidson.

Calling a special Town Meeting, said Davidson, “could potentially alter things.”

“The plan all along was to begin [construction] this summer,” he said. “That is still our hope and still our intention.”

Kerri Roche can be reached at kroche@cnc.com or 978-371-5796.