Northfield voters approve $3.5 million budget, establish cruiser fund

NORTHFIELD — Voters approved a $3.48 million operating budget, along with other spending articles, during Saturday’s Town Meeting. They also agreed to establish a capital reserve fund to set aside money for new police cruisers.

The budget article called for using $100,000 from the town’s unassigned fund balance — the amount of money remaining from previous taxation — which leaves about $3.4 million to be raised by new taxation.

The police cruiser capital reserve fund would allow the town to set aside money toward the purchase of cruisers “as needed” rather than appropriating money each time the department is looking to purchase a new vehicle. The article included an initial appropriation of $30,000.

Voters amended an article seeking $104,000 for highway equipment without changing the amount. Instead, they increased the amount to come from highway equipment capital reserve fund from $92,000 to $98,000, and decreased the amount coming from the sale of replaced and surplus equipment from $12,000 to $6,000. The article never sought any new tax money for the purchase.

All other articles passed as proposed.

Voters had previously elected Kevin Waldron as selectman, defeating Wayne Crowley and Manuel Pimentel Jr. by votes of 238-138-59, respectively. Uncontested races elected Margaret LaBrecque as supervisor of the checklist for six years; Scott McGuffin as moderator for two years; Cindy Caveney as town clerk/tax collector for three years; and Michael Murphy as trustee of trust funds for three years.