Tonight at its annual Fall Town Meeting, the voters of Wareham, Massachusetts will be asked to once again confirm their desire to see our family's land conserved using a dedicated source of municipal funding. The warrant article "To see if the Town will vote to appropriate from Community Preservation Funds, under the category of open space, $400,000 for the acquisition of a conservation restriction" on 19.55 acres of our property." differs from that which the voters strongly supported last year in that there is no possibility of regaining the state Self-Help Grant money which the Town leaders declined to use to protect our land last June when they unanimously rejected the conservation restriction at the 11th hour. The full $400K, then, falls on the Community Preservation Act Funds of the Town, which can only be used for open space or recreation lands. The money is there. Will the voters be also?
We are the 11th item on the warrant and are not competing with a Red Sox world series game for voter turnout. If it passes once again, then the only obstacle to our concluding this transaction and saving Windrock for future generations is the formal approval of the easement by 3/5 of the Select-board. I will not hazard a guess as to how that might go, but I will be in the audience tonight to see the outcome of the Town vote firsthand. I'd like to drive home in the wee hours tomorrow morning with a big smile on my face. We shall see. Meanwhile the full warrant as it appears before the voters - with the Finance Commitee's faint praise endorsement - is below. I shall refrain from further comment until after the vote:
ARTICLE 11 To see if the Town will vote to appropriate from Community Preservation estimatedannual revenues under the category of Open Space and Recreation, the amount of$400,000 for Phase II of the Great Neck Conservation Project; the acquisition of aconservation restriction with respect to approximately 19.55 (+/-) acres (a plan ofwhich, titled "Plan of Land Showing Conservation Restriction to be Created at GreatNeck Road- Assessor's Map 27, Lots owned by the Barker Family Trust, as described onAssessors Map 27, Parcels 1000 & 1009 in Wareham, Massachusetts (PlymouthCounty)," dated May 30, 2008, prepared for Robert H. Barker, Jr. by J.C. Engineering Inc., is on file with the Town Clerk), being a portion of a 33-acre parcel of land identified as Assessor's Map 27, Lot 1000 and described in deeds recorded with the Plymouth County Registry of Deeds in Book 9983, Pages 292 and 294, owned by the Barker Family Trust, such real property to be jointly under the care, custody and control of the Conservation Commission of the Town of Wareham and the Wareham Land Trust, a non-profit organization, and to be managed jointly by said Conservation Commission of the Town of Wareham and the Wareham Land Trust; and further to rescind the Town's vote under Article 26 of the October 2007 Town Meeting appropriating funds and authorizing borrowing for such purposes, or to do or act in any manner relative thereto. Inserted by the Board of Selectmen at the request of the Community Preservation Committee OCTOBER 27, 2008 FALL TOWN MEETING WARRANT (CONT’D) The Board of Selectmen Voted: Favorable Action 4-0-0 The Finance Committee Voted: Favorable Action 6-0-1 Explanation: The intent of this article is to place a Conservation Restriction on 19+ acres which would be jointly under the care and custody of the Conservation Commission of the Town of Wareham and the Wareham Land Trust. The article further seeks to reverse the Town Meeting vote on Article 26 of the October 2007 Town Meeting. The Finance Committee Recommendation: The positive aspect of this article is that it would provide limited access to the area along designated paths and preserve it for future generations without development. The negative aspects of this article is it will provide inadequate parkingspaces and joint control, but not majority control by the Town of Wareham.
Thank you, dear friends. Once more...
Posted by: Tim Abbott | October 28, 2008 at 12:08 PM
Good luck, Tim. I'll be thinking about you folks, and hoping for the best.
Posted by: Jim | October 28, 2008 at 11:58 AM
ditto, fingers and toes crossed.
Posted by: theo | October 27, 2008 at 10:27 PM
Fingers crossed...
Posted by: frumiousb | October 27, 2008 at 04:43 PM