CHELMSFORD — Precinct representatives gathered at the Chelmsford Senior Center June 23 for a relatively brief special Town Meeting session where they passed articles relating to the former Koulas Farm property, school construction projects, collective bargaining agreements and family mausoleum regulations.
The first article of the evening was a vote on appropriating funds for the partial replacement of the South Row Elementary School roof. A $2 million grant for the project had been approved by the Massachusetts School Building Authority Board through the Accelerated Repair Program less than a week before. Town Manager Paul Cohen told The Sun earlier this month the roof was at the end of its useful life after being installed 26 years ago.
The grant will take the form of a reimbursement toward the town’s cost of the $4.5 million project, which will require the removal and upgraded replacement of the solar panels on the school roof.
Chelmsford Public Works Director Christine Clancy said the current panels, at 10 years old, have some “resale value,” but the intention is for the panels to be upgraded to models with a 30-year lifespan to match that of the new roof, so that the roof does not degrade in the process of replacing solar panels.
In response to a question from a Town Meeting member about when the solar panels generate enough electricity to break even on the cost of installing them, Clancy estimated it would be at about the 10-year mark.
Article 1 passed in a hand-raise vote conducted due to technical difficulties with the remote-control voting system.
Article 2 was also a school project funding article, this time for $700,000 in supplemental funding for the replacement of the elevators at Chelmsford High School, Westlands Community Education Center and McCarthy Middle School. All three projects were approved by previous Town Meetings. Clancy said the fiscal 2024 capital budget included $325,000 for the Westlands elevator replacement and $480,000 for the CHS elevator. The fiscal 2025 capital budget included $325,000 for the McCarthy project.
Due to further recommendations to the extent of the replacements, requirements for further electrical upgrades, code requirements and general inflation, the overall project budget for the three elevators now stands at $1.83 million, Clancy said. Crossing the $1.5 million threshold also means the project requires an owner’s project manager.
There haven’t been failures of the elevators yet, Clancy said, but they want to replace them before that starts happening, especially since many of the parts for the models are no longer made.
“They are dated, so if there is a failure, there is not an easy repair,” said Clancy.
The elevator replacement funding was approved 103-2.
Article 3 was a request for $33,600 in funding by the Community Preservation Committee to conduct a perimeter survey of the four parcels that make up the 41.91 acres of the former Koulas Farm. Town Meeting approved the $4.1 million purchase of the property in 2023 with the intent to make it open space. Now, Town Manager Paul Cohen said the survey is needed because the town placed a permanent restriction on the property requiring state approval in order to purchase the property, and that approval requires the survey.
The article passed 103-1.
Article 4 was a vote on whether to provide $55,388 in funding for a collective bargaining agreement for the Chelmsford Public Library employees’ union, for a term between July 1, 2025 and June 30, 2028. Cohen described the terms of the agreement, which includes a 3% wage increase in the first year, followed by 3.25% increases in the two following years of the contract. It also increases the longevity payment schedule by $250, accelerates vacation leave accrual by one year and increases the vacation carryover from five to 10 days. The article passed, once again with a hand-raise vote due to the malfunctioning voting system.
The final article of the evening concerned regulations of family mausoleums in cemeteries in Chelmsford. Finance Director John Sousa said the regulations were proposed by the Cemetery Commission.
These include a minimum plot size of 400 square feet with a 3-foot setback on all sides, mausoleum design approval by the cemetery superintendent, a requirement for the landscaping to return to pre-construction condition, a perpetual care agreement paid by the plot owner of 10% of the cost of the mausoleum’s construction and a maximum of one casket in each crypt of a mausoleum.
Sousa showed a blueprint of a planned mausoleum area in Section O of Pine Ridge Cemetery, which would fit 14 mausoleums with two caskets each.
“Depending on the number of sales, the next place the Cemetery Commission would consider a location would be Fairview Cemetery, because Pine Ridge and Fairview have the most land area available. The other four cemeteries would not be suitable for mausoleums,” said Sousa in response to a question from a Town Meeting member.
Article 5 passed 88-15.
