Annual and Special Town Meetings, Spring 2022
At their meeting last Tuesday, the Select Board set a deadline of Monday, February 14th for submittal of any article requests for proposed inclusion on the spring Annual or Special Town Meeting Warrants.
Town Departments, Boards, Commissions and Committees may submit article requests to the Town Manager (townmanager@wnewbury.org), to the Town Clerk (townclerk@wnewbury.org), and/or to the Board (selectboard@wnewbury.org); or may submit hard copy article requests to any (or all) of the three offices. The Board will meet the evening of February 14th to vote to formally close the warrant, and (unless it votes to reopen the warrant, which is not expected) will not consider requests received after this date.
Instructions and the template for Citizen Petition warrant articles are posted to the Town Clerk's webpage, here, along with a link to the Citizen's Guide to Town Meetings published by the Secretary of the Commonwealth.
While article requests may be submitted as late as Feb. 14, if sponsors would like their submittal(s) included in the Board’s meeting packet for that evening, it is requested that they be sent no later than the prior Thursday, Feb. 10th.
The Board has already begun preliminary discussions of known/anticipated warrant articles, and will continue to consider information as it becomes available. Once the warrant is closed, the Board will schedule review of proposed warrant articles in the months leading up to Town Meeting so that it may ask questions, initiate research, and eventually make its recommendations to Town Meeting voters.
As with prior years, the Finance Committee will schedule its meetings to review the proposed FY23 operating budget, and proposed warrant articles with a financial impact, over the course of February and March, or (if needed) April. Once those meeting dates are set, they will be posted to the Town calendar on the website.
The normal date for the Annual Town Meeting would be the final Monday in April, in the evening. However, the Board will review this at its next meeting on January 31st, and may consider setting an alternate date (such as a Saturday in May) if needed to accommodate another outdoor Town Meeting due to COVID-19.
Please feel free to contact Town Manager Angus Jennings, Town Clerk Jim Blatchford, or any member of the Select Board with any questions.
Thank you.