Marblehead wraps up meeting in one night

MARBLEHEAD – Like Scrooge’s spirits of Christmas, Marblehead voters did it all in one night – including a $66.6 million Fiscal 2010 budget that will not require a general override.Finance Committee Chairman David Harris received a round of applause when he stated that fact early in the marathon meeting, which began at 7:45 p.m. and ended at 10:35.Voters will face two bonded indebtedness overrides later this spring under Articles 41 and 42, both connected with clean-up of pollution from the former town landfill: $127,800 to monitor water and soil quality and $505,000 to remediate property on Stoneybrook Road. Another $242,400 for the monitoring program will be raised from the tax rate.Town Moderator Gary Speiss kept voters on track as they worked their way through the 50-article warrant, keeping discussion of a new marijuana use fine to 17 minutes and a fine for not removing snow from sidewalks to 20 minutes. It was the first one-night Town Meeting in nearly a decade.The only discussion in the budget came when Town Administrator Tony Sasso put a hold on the police department budget so that he could describe the history of the town’s civilian police dispatch.That history was questioned when the voters indefinitely postponed participation in a regional dispatch plan under Article 32, which was opposed by the Finance Committee and selectmen, and Sasso did not have a chance to respond at that time.In the last half-hour of discussion the voters declared a 1.1-acre parcel on Litchman Road as open space and indefinitely postponed purchase of the former WESX property on Naugus Avenue (no agreement has been reached), school technology expenses, school construction expenses and funding for deficits in the current budget, since no monies were requested.They approved a $4.2 million transfer from free cash and a surplus in the municipal electric company budget to defray the tax rate.Selectman James Nye recognized two departing town administrators, Town Engineer Doug Saal and Public Works Director Dana Snow. Board of Health members Helaine Hazlett and Todd Belf-Becker and former member David Becker all recognized retiring 23-year board member and chairman Carl Goodman.