Live blogging here from Spring Town Meeting. We’ve been here for close to two hours and are still snagged in debate of the first substantive issue: approval of a new stabilization fund for Minuteman Technical. The idea here is to give MMT the ability to aggregate money for capital projects in a revolving fund. We learn that MMT lacks the ability to do so currently and – not incidentally- that the school until recently had walls constructed of flammable material. Grand.
This plan is imminently sensible and has almost no chance of passing TM. For one thing, the Board of Selectman, Warrant Committee and Capital Budget Committee are all opposed to it – fearing it represents a loss of control for member towns and Town Meeting in general. “I dont see that there’s a problem with the system we have now,” says Ralph Jones. The other issue is that MMT is the Madwoman in the Attic of the Belmont public school system – strange, mostly invisible but always lurking and in danger of upsetting our fragile peace – usually with an eye popping annual assessment that upsets our best laid budgeting.
…and the motion is defeated, albeit in a close voice vote.
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Speaking of close voice votes, we vote almost unanimously to approve creation of a special committee to look into adoption of electronic voting technology for TM. Bring it on!!