Voters defeat override for bus hub
BY MARY LANCASTER INDEPENDENT WRITER
Residents yesterday rejected a tax override request to allow the town to buy 10 and 12 Washington St. for shuttle bus parking. The ballot result was 759 against the purchase and 454 in favor, with 1,213 registered voters, or 14.9 percent, turning out at the polls either in person or through absentee ballots.

The override amount of $1 million was to be added to $2.5 million the town will receive from the Land Bank when it acquires 10 contiguous parcels in Surfside stretching from South Shore Road to the beach. According to Land Bank Executive Director Eric Savetsky, his examination of assessor's records indicate the parcels add up to about 30 acres. Regardless of the ballot question defeat, the Land Bank still intends to make the purchase.

With the override rejected, the $2.5 million is slated to go into the town's free cash fund for allocation at a later date. Selectman Allen Reinhard, who with fellow selectmen Brian Chadwick and Patty Roggeveen supported the Washington Street purchase, said there is no alternative plan for the NRTA bus parking. If the ballot question had succeeded the town would have bought the property from William and Carol Reith for $3.5 million, demolished the current liquor store and shed on the land and prepared it for lane parking for seven shuttle buses now parking along Washington and Salem streets. That action would have opened 10 citizen parking spots in the area.

"I thank the voters for coming out. That's what makes this town run," said Chadwick, the only selectman at the polls when the ballot count was read. "The Board of Selectmen put this to the people and the people have spoken. We will look to some other answer for the buses in the downtown area. It is still very important to have a location on the skirts of town where buses can stop and let people off."

Carol Reith, who closed the Washington Street Island Spirits liquor store last year, said there are a couple of private parties interested in the property and that there is no plan to list it with a realtor. The Washington Street purchase was not favored by selectmen Michael Kopko and Whitey Willauer as well as several citizens. Besides questionning whether $3.5 million was too much to pay for the property, they also voiced concern that ground pollution from the land's previous use as a service and gas station would have limited the town's use of it and possibly prevented the town from selling it at a later time if another bus hub

alternative was developed. I

RESULTS
No
759
63%
		Yes
		454
		37%
Total Turnout
14.9%
1,213	of	8.112
registerd		voters