Hopkinton Town Meeting Begins Monday: What You Need To Know

HOPKINTON, MA - Hopkinton's Annual Town Meeting will begin Monday night at 7 p.m. at the Hopkinton High School Athletic Center, the first time it will be held in person in its usual format since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

Traditionally held at the Hopkinton Middle School, the venue was changed to the high school gym at the recommendation of the Board of Health, Town Meeting Moderator Ellen Rutter explained at a 90-minute forum Monday night hosted by eHop, a community organization with the mission of increasing civic engagement and government transparency.

Because there are 53 articles on the warrant, it is expected to go until 11 p.m. Monday and resume Tuesday at 7 p.m.

“The reason they chose this spot is because we can do better social distancing and we also have better air handling than in the middle school. So it’s in the high school, in the field house,” Rutter said. “We are setting up 600 chairs. It would be awesome if we had that many people attend.”

A quorum of 128 Town Meeting members - which equals 1% of the town's registered voters - must be present for the meeting to go forward.

Here is a look at key items, ranging from the town budget to six proposed debt exclusions that will be voted upon at the May 16 election should they pass Town Meeting. More detailed information can be found on the town website.

Town budget

Approving the town budget is the essential function of Town Meeting. The proposed budget, which would go into effect on July 1, is just over $104 million. It would increase taxes over last year for residents and businesses by 2.09%. The average residential impact would be $241 next year for a homeowner with a property value of $681,100.

The school budget, which is included, is just under $55 million, a 2.88% increase from the previous year. The School Department expects 214 additional students to enroll for the upcoming school year.

Debt exclusions

There are six debt exclusions proposed that if passed also will increase taxes. If they advance, they will be voted on at the town election on Monday, May 16.

• The biggest-ticket item is the replacement of the turf field at the Fruit Street ballfields for $1,671,543. The need for the replacement and the type of turf to used has been discussed by the Parks and Recreation Commission during the past year.
• The replacement of Fire Engine 2 at a cost of $736,318
• Repairs to the Lake Maspenock Dam area costing $400,000
• Upgrades to Fire Station in the Woodville area 2 totaling $400,000
• Replacement of the air handling units in the Hopkinton Middle School and Hopkinton High School buildings equaling $475,000.
• There is a request for $695,900 to pay for the additional costs for the Marathon School building project to add four classrooms. The original amount approved at last year's Town Meeting was for $3,625,000, according to Superintendent Carol Cavanaugh. Because of the pandemic, the cost estimate is now 18% higher.

Articles related to PFAS situation

For several months, the town has been experiencing problems with PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances. PFAS are a class of thousands of synthetic chemicals used to make products resistant to water, heat and stains that do not easily break down in the environment and are difficult to destroy. PFAS can affect women who are pregnant or nursing as well as people with compromised immune systems.

The maximum level of PFAS in water set by the DEP last year when testing began is 20 parts per trillion. Last summer, Hopkinton's PFAS level was 20.9 parts per trillion, according to Department of Public Works Director John Westerling.

Article 22 requests money for a design study as well as engineering and construction costs to connect to the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority water supply via a pipe through Southborough. Article 23 asks for funding approval for a PFAS filtration system for Well #6, which supplies one-third of the town's water supply and is where the contamination was found.

Funding for HCAM

Two articles deal with funding for HCAM, the town's public access cable station. Town Manager Norman Khumalo explained that the state currently allows cities and towns to negotiate with cable providers to negotiate for money to support public access cable stations, but that the process for transferring money to the local stations has been complicated.

The state recommended two ways. One way is an enterprise fund that becomes a part of town government, which Hopkinton did a couple of years ago. The second is for the town to create a revolving account that HCAM could access, which is what the town is now proposing in Article 9. Khumalo recommended getting rid of the enterprise fund, which is the substance of Article 10.

Tax Increment Financing Agreement for Lykan Bioscience

Article 51, if approved, would allow the town to enter into a tax increment financing agreement with Lykan Bioscience, located at 97 South St. This would give the life sciences company a tax exemption for 25 years in exchange for the investments the company will make into the town.