School Committee eyes free cash balance to fund amenities building
“It seems like the biggest concern people have is, they don’t want the town to borrow money.”
With just days to go before Town Meeting, School Committee members are looking for new ways to fund new bathrooms at Memorial Field: Instead of borrowing, some think an amenities building can be underwritten with leftover money in Acton’s free cash budget.
The current version of Article 13 calls for borrowing money to build a permanent restroom facility at the high school field. Supporters say the project, which would cost up to $1.85 million, would bring the school in line with state accessibility laws.
In a last-minute planning meeting Friday morning, some committee members pushed to use free cash instead in the wake of a new report from the Finance Committee earlier this week.
That report showed a higher-than-expected free cash balance in the town budget, driven by the use of finalized revenue and expense figures rather than the round-number estimates used in earlier projections.
School Committee chair Julie Viola said the change could help the article gain support at Town Meeting.
“It seems like the biggest concern people have is, they don’t want the town to borrow money,” she said.
Before Friday’s meeting, the committee and its legal counsel submitted revised language to Town Moderator Carmin Reiss.
But counsel Peter Sumners told committee members that Reiss said changing the funding source from borrowing to free cash would fall outside the scope of the original article and would likely be ruled out of order.
“Are we really going to be called out of order if our intent is to lower the taxpayer burden?” Viola asked.
Committee members floated other ideas, including adding a clause that would allow the borrowed funds to be repaid using free cash, requiring the town to pay back the loan as soon as possible, or calling a special town meeting later to authorize using free cash directly.
The committee meeting ended without a resolution, but members agreed to talk more before Town Meeting on Monday, when voters will consider Article 13.
