All articles approved at Special Town Meeting
By Melissa Muntz Community Reporter

Shrewsbury - Town Meeting members unanimously approved all five articles in under an hour at the Special Town Meeting Dec. 10.

One of the votes gave Town Manager Daniel Morgado the green light to extend the town's contract with Wheelabrator Millbury Inc. to no more than 40 years.

Town Meeting had voted in 2005 to allow Morgado to extend its contracts with Wheelabrator for up to 20 years, but Morgado said he needed an additional five to 15 years to be able to combine the town's disposal and landfill operation contracts into a single agreement.

Wheelabrator pays Shrewsbury to bury trash ash residue from Shrewsbury and several surrounding towns. Morgado said combining the contracts could increase this year's revenue generated by the landfill by nearly $100,000, and as much as double it to $1.2 million by 2009.

Town Meeting members also voted to allow the town to sell the former Fire Station #3 on Route 20, the proceeds of which would be used to off set the costs of the $6.5 million fire facility construction and renovation project.

The property is zoned limited business, and the town said the building may or may not be razed based on the conditions of the sale.

The one thing the town said it is not interested in doing is leasing the property to a business owner.

"The thought is to make the sale, get the revenue and put it back into the project, as opposed to getting a lease going and becoming a landlord for yet another piece of property," Morgado said.

Although the vote to sell the property was unanimous, there was some question raised as to how the sale would take place.

Former Selectman and Town Meeting member Thomas Fiore said he believed the building should be sold at public auction as it did with 52 Holden St. in 2005.

"The sealed bid process is bad for bidders," he said prior to the vote. "It's cumbersome and it distracts people who have serious intentions [to buy the property] but see the process as unfair."

The town would have to seek legislative approval to sell the property at public auction.

Town Meeting members also authorized the town to accept $723,655 in Chapter 90 highways funds, which Morgado said will be used in part for the town sidewalk program.

"We've really fallen behind on that and before we start building any new sidewalks, we've got to fall back and start maintaining the ones we have," he said.

The remaining two articles approved the transfer of $115,000 from free cash to cover additional costs associated with the town veterans' benefits, which Morgado said have been increasing as more people use the program.

An additional $3,570 from free cash was authorized to pay off remaining bills from fiscal year 2007.