Shirley

SHIRLEY – With 23 articles on the Annual Town Meeting warrant Monday night, 77 registered voters passed most of them with few questions and little or no debate, including the $15,705,300 budget, which quickly passed without a single “hold” placed on any of its 68 items.

Article 21, however, generated discussion. It came first, having been moved up on the warrant and passed by majority vote, as required. The article was a citizen’s petition that sought to amend the Ayer Shirley Regional School District Agreement — specifically, the section concerning incurring debt.

The proposal called for changing the language so that borrowing for major capital projects — like the $50 million-plus high school renovation and addition project and the $5.2 million fields project, currently on the table — filters through each member town before the School Committee can act.

For the amendment to be enacted, it must pass muster at town meetings in each member town — and in this case must still be approved by Ayer voters, who did not endorse the measure at the recent Town Meeting.

Required by the agreement to place the citizens’ petition on the warrant, not a single Ayer official made a motion to present the article. Neither did any of the residents present, so it never came to a vote.

As it stands, the School Committee has the authority to borrow for major capital projects approved by a districtwide vote. However, the current board had voted to tie its borrowing power for the high school renovation and later for the fields project, calling for debt exclusions to pass in both towns first.

The rub was not with the high school project, but with the fields project. The proposal passed in a districtwide vote but stalled after Shirley voters rejected a debt exclusion (temporary tax override) ballot question aimed at paying the town’s assessed share.

The measure passed in Ayer but failed twice in Shirley before finally passing last week.

The citizen’s petition article had sparked controversy and was summarily jettisoned at the Ayer Town Meeting. The main petitioner — James Quinty — a Shirley resident who serves on the six-member Ayer Shirley School Committee and had collected over 400 Shirley residents’ signatures to get the article on both warrants, couldn’t make the motion, since he is not an Ayer resident.

Quinty spoke up for the article when it came up in Shirley, however, disputing the notion the regional school board he’s served on since day one is at odds. “We do get along,” he said.

The proposed amendment, Quinty said, would ensure that each community is equally represented when it comes to borrowing for big-ticket capital projects. In his view, each town should review capital projects and come up with their own lists of constraints before the School Committee incurs debt.

School Committee Chairman and Shirley resident Joyce Reischutz saw it differently, citing last week’s town election, when the debt exclusion finally passed.

“Over 1,100 voters came out” and stated their view on this issue, she said, adding that the percentage of debt parceled out to each member town is proportioned based on the total population and student enrollment numbers.

Before anyone else stood to speak, a motion from the floor called for moving the question. It passed. The article then passed as well, by the required majority vote.

All but one of the remaining articles passed.

Article 15, a proposed bylaw amendment that dealt with dog licenses and called for creating a new category called “nuisance dog” based on the definition in state law, was tabled on a motion from former Animal Control Officer Jennifer McGuinness. “None of this… is in our bylaw,” she said. It should be set aside, pending review of the current, “grossly outdated” town bylaw, she said.

It was the only article that did not pass. None actually failed. Some sparked discussion, however.

Article 18 called for appropriating $15,000 for the Conservation Land Acquisition Fund. The Finance Committee recommended against it, arguing that with over $30,000 in the account already, the Conservation Commission had enough money to cover “due diligence,” expenses, such as land surveys, title searches and appraisals prior to purchasing land or accepting a donated parcel, which is what the nest egg is for. If more money is needed, they can ask for it, the FinCom said.

McGuinness, the Commission chair, said they might have grant deadlines to meet that don’t align with town meeting schedules. Besides, she said, the account was more substantial historically and the goal now was to build it back up. The article passed.

Article 20 also generated discussion. It called for creating a “Nuisance Bylaw,” to require owners of property and/or buildings in the town’s business districts to keep their properties up, citing “safety and sanitary maintenance” measures. It was championed by Selectman Debra Flagg. (Or, Select Board member now, since an article to change the board’s name passed earlier in the meeting.)

After a couple of residents raised concerns the new bylaw might target private homes or “criminalize poverty,” Flagg dispelled such fears. The intent, she said, was to fix up Main Street and get business owners and the railroad to clean up their properties. Her focus, she said, was on areas by the railroad tracks and overgrown, trash-strewn vacant lots. One property in particular spills litter onto the sidewalk, she said. The article passed by the required majority vote.

The meeting adjourned at 9 p.m., nearly two hours after it began. Moderator Chip Guercio, presiding for the first time after being elected last week, thanked the assembly for an orderly session. “You all went easy on me… I appreciate it,” he said.

SHIRLEY — The town’s newly elected moderator, Leonardo “Chip” Guercio Jr., beat opponent Enrico Cappucci by a more than 2-1 margin in Tuesday’s town election.

With a total turnout of 1,214, or 28.36% of the town’s 4,281 registered voters, Guercio garnered 740 votes to Cappucci’s 342 votes.

It was the only contested race on the ballot.

The candidates did not debate one another, but they did make their pitches in brief appearances on the town’s public access cable TV station and sat for interviews with the Nashoba Valley Voice.

Cappucci had said he would stay “out of Town Hall,” which was his advice for any moderator. He also said it made him uncomfortable that Guercio, who is also a longtime member of the Sewer Commission and serves as chairman of the Zoning Board of Appeals, had no plans to step down from those other posts if he was elected moderator.

Guercio confirmed he plans to stick with all three volunteer jobs, unless he learns there’s a legal reason to prevent it.

A top priority for him as moderator, he said, would be to fill two open slots on the Finance Committee, bringing that board up to its full complement. Appointing FinCom members is the moderator’s dual duty, along with presiding at Town Meetings.

Guercio will take the stage as moderator for the first time next week at the May 10 annual Town Meeting.

SHIRLEY – With a debt exclusion ballot question aimed at paying Shirley’s share of a proposed $5.2 million Ayer Shirley Regional High School fields project coming up at Tuesday’s town election, the school district held what will be its last public presentation Wednesday night.

Now smaller in scope and with a lower cost estimate than earlier versions that topped at $7.2 million, the pitch was mainly for Shirley voters whose rejection of previous debt exclusions derailed the project.

A previous vote of the School Committee had voluntarily tied its borrowing power to fund the project to passage of debt exclusions in both member towns. Ayer passed the measure on the first round.

Former Shirley Finance Committee Chairman John O’Keefe, who strongly opposed the previous proposal and spoke out against it, favors this one.

In a letter that Superintendent Mary Malone read at the recent event, O’Keefe noted that the district worked with town officials and the architects to come up with the new plan. “I staunchly support it” he said, citing three reasons. It costs $2 million less, will renovate deteriorated fields and eliminate safety issues.

Pro and con sentiments that have kept the project circling back to the drawing board for three years might be summed up by an emotional appeal from resident Tim Bresnahan to move ahead. He spoke at the end of the program, following an opposing view from James Quinty, one of Shirley’s three representatives on the six-member School Committee.

Quinty, who has spoken against mainstream plans before, had presented an alternative plan of his own that he said would work better and cost less. The board he serves on did not support it, but it gained some traction among townspeople and Finance Committee members, including O’Keefe.

At the recent session, Quinty again argued against the project as proposed. But he qualified his opposition. “The current situation is not OK,” he said. “This project is critical to the success of the district.” But he has “concerns,” about some aspects of it, he said. Artificial turf, specifically.

Quinty advised waiting until fall to decide on the issue. “I feel this is not the right plan for us,” he said. Citing his own research and “experts” he’s talked to, he said grass is best, for soccer, in particular. “I believe we can do it with natural grass,” he said, while improving stadium access and investing in “other items,” rather than a synthetic surface.

Bresnahan said the debate should be over. “I don’t know why you are so against this,” he said, addressing Quinty. “You have a different rationale every time.” Bresnahan and other proponents have said the fields project is not only much-needed but long overdue.

Malone said the fields are in “dire condition.” Most are unusable, she said.

Bresnahan said action to fix the situation can’t wait. “We built a beautiful high school,” he said,. “Let’s bring the fields up to the same standard. “Now is the time to… finish our school.”

As for the artificial turf Quinty objects to, he said it’s the preferred go-to for new school athletic fields and that it’s been used safely and successfully by other schools throughout the region.

“Folks, our kids are playing soccer in the outfield of a baseball field built 64 years ago,” he said. It’s unsafe, he said, especially after it rains.

It’s also a matter of school pride, he said, noting that students from other schools have noted the “awful” shape Ayer Shirley’s high school fields are in.

The project on the table now is a more modest version of the original, $7.2 million proposal, with some items sidelined, such as a bigger, better field house/concession stand with a new press box and bathrooms. For now, the building stays as is, Malone said, with a foundation for expansion later.

The proposed renovations — rebuilding and widening the running track, laying artificial turf in some areas, re-configuring some field areas, new bleachers and lights, providing handicapped access and other upgrades — are considered essential for safety reasons and to comply with ADA regulations.

SHIRLEY – With the town election set for Tuesday, May 4, the only contested race on the ballot is for town moderator, a three-year term.

The candidates – both former selectmen and well-known – are Enrico C. Cappucci and Leonardo M. “Chip” Guercio, Jr.

Cappucci has been moderator in the past. Elected in 2014, he quit to run for a seat on the Board of Selectmen, which he had served on previously. He won.

Now, he’s running for moderator again, in part because he thinks it would pose a conflict of interest for his opponent to hold the position.

“He doesn’t see it…so I decided to run,” he said.

According to Cappucci, Guercio, who is currently a sewer commissioner and chairs the Zoning Board of Appeals, has said he aims to stay on both boards if elected moderator.

A longtime town resident and former police chief who once held that job in Shirley and went on to serve in Duxbury before retiring, Cappucci was also a selectmen in Stoneham when he lived there and has attended many town meetings in all three towns, he said, in his official capacities and as a resident.

In Shirley, the first moderator he observed in action was Liz Noyes, he said, followed by George Knittel, each of whom set an example for him. Knittel, who authored a guidebook called “Town Meeting Time,” was a “model” moderator, Cappucci said, adding that both of them were impartial. “They never indicated support for an article,” he said.

He thinks his opponent might find it difficult to be”neutral” in some instances, Cappucci said, due to his commitments to other town boards, the Sewer Commission in particular.

“It could be a handicap,” he said. For example, if and when town meeting voters consider a request that hasn’t been made yet but which he thinks soon will be. It would be in the form of an article seeking voters’ approval to extend Shirley sewer services to a development in Lancaster, which would require a 2/3 town meeting vote to pass.

He questions whether Guercio might influence that decision, although he couldn’t say precisely how. Besides, Cappucci thinks it shouldn’t come up in the first place. His take on the matter is, “Charity begins at home,” he said, noting that there are at least a dozen roads in Shirley that don’t have sewer lines, which in his view should happen before offering service to another town.

On the positive side, Cappucci said he wants to be moderator because he liked it last time around. And he has a new idea to propose: establishing a class for Finance Committee newcomers.

In addition to presiding at town meeting, the moderator’s other duty is to appoint FinCom members. Cappucci said it’s challenging to find people who feel qualified to serve, but with an introductory course offered, it might be a different story. He even has someone in mind to teach the course, he said: a former FinCom member and retired university professor who taught finance and worked in the corporate sector as well. “He’d be perfect,” Cappucci said.

Cappucci said he wants to keep the moderator’s position free of politics. “My advice to the moderator is to stay out of town hall,” he said.

Guercio said his interest in becoming moderator was sparked when Karen Ludington announced she wouldn’t run again. It posed a new and interesting challenge for the lifelong resident and former multi-term town selectman, who now serves on the Sewer Commission and chairs the Zoning Board of Appeals. “I’ve been involved in town government…but I’ve never been a moderator before,” Guercio said.

Interviewed at the Bull Run – his family’s business for more than a half century and as a former innkeeper and current chef at the restaurant, his workplace for almost as long — Guercio said he plans to stay on the other boards he serves on, although he didn’t recall speaking to his opponent about it. If elected, he’d at least finish out those terms, he said, and he doesn’t know of any legal prohibition that would prevent him from doing so.

One board has key work in progress. The ZBA is in the process of reviewing a proposed townhouse condo development on Benjamin Road that’s been in the works for over two years. The board is currently holding a public hearing on the proposal that’s been ongoing for some time.

Guercio’s seat on the Sewer Commission dates back to 1998, prior to its formation. Tracing its evolution from study committee, to steering committee, to a commission as the town-wide sewer project moved forward, he said he is one of two appointed members. The other two are elected.

Asked what he’d do if a warrant article, possibly linked to one of those boards, posed a conflict of interest, Guercio said the moderator can temporarily step aside and an appointed alternate takes over. That’s how it’s been done in the past, he said. That option is available, he said. But in terms of when it is called for, if it’s not obvious, he’d turn to town counsel for advice.

As for Cappucci’s concerns about the Sewer Commission’s dealings with Lancaster, Guercio said that while the commissioners had considered the project, they didn’t propose it. “Lancaster approached us,” he said. “We said we’d discuss it.” Talks with the town administrator followed. “We told them there would have to be a clear benefit to Shirley users,” he said. “Our job is to serve users in Shirley.”

Besides paying a fee, the other town must cover all costs, for example. The takeaway was a memorandum of understanding, or MOU, which sketches what the proposal would look like. It was presented to the Lancaster Selectmen and the Shirley board would likely take it up soon, Guercio said.

If both boards agree, it would up to them to hammer out the details, he said. Then, it would go to a town meeting, with a 2/3 vote required to pass. “The selectmen would bring it forward…not the moderator,” he said.

Asked about Finance Committee appointments, the other duty in the moderator’s job description, he said the board is two short of a full table now, so his goal if elected would be to fill those positions.

His experience as a selectman could help with both aspects of the moderator’s job. “My background..is helpful to me,” he said, noting the administrators, accountants and Finance Committees he’s worked with over the years and the many town meetings he’s been part of.

Guercio served consecutive terms on the town’s top board, twice. First, from 1986-1993, then from 1998-2009. If elected on May 4, he aims to start work right away, Guercio said, so he’s fully prepared for the May 10 town meeting, the first he’d preside over as moderator.