Town sets date for Special Election

At tonight's selectmen's meeting the board will vote to ratify the date for this year's Special Town Election as Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2007. The one question on the ballot asks voters to approve or disapprove a debt exclusion override to pay for the town's purchase of the William and Carol Reith Island Spirits property at 10 and 12 Washington St. for use as a shuttle bus hub.

The override amount may be up to $1 million because the town anticipates receiving $2.5 million from the Land Bank for the purchase of 30 acres of town-owned property in Surfside. The Reith's selling price for the property is $3.5 million.

The proposal to buy the Reith property was one of three warrant articles at the July 26 Special Town Meeting, and only passed by two votes above the necessary two-thirds majority after about half the meeting attendees left following the defeat of Article One which sought town taking of the Dreamland Theater.

Now it is a question of whether a sufficient number of voters will turn out at the high school polls between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m. on Sept. 11 to authorize this purchase, with the plan to have seven NRTA buses now parking on Washington and Salem streets move to the Reith location and free up about 10 citizen parking spots in the process.

If supported, the town will need to gain HDC permission to demolish the property's free standing shed and the now closed liquor store. The estimated $60,000 to $80,000 for that work is already within the town's budget, according to Selectman Brian Chadwick, the sponsor of the proposal. Once the buildings are removed the plan would entail constructing a shed roof off the end of the English Trunk Show store for passenger shelter and creating five bus parking lanes with one passing lane exiting onto Washington Street. The buses would enter the property from Candle Street.

The sticking point on the project for some voters is the fact that the property was once a gas station and garage, so there is an unknown financial element involved with cleaning up potential residue pollution if the town eventually decides to sell the property. The plan does have the support of the Finance Committee, Transportation Planner Mike

Burns and NRTA director Paula Leary. I