When Randolph voters hit the ballot box on Town Meeting Day, they will be deciding how to fill four spots on the selectboard and whether to boost the police budget to over $770,000 for the following fiscal year, up 121%.
Because the Orange County Sheriff’s Department pulled out of its contract with Randolph over a staffing shortage, town leaders want to resurrect the Randolph Police Department, which disbanded in 2018.
Residents of the Randolph Police District—roughly the downtown area—will vote on authorizing just shy of $499,500 to be raised by taxes for the revamped police force and the remaining $271,900 from non-tax revenue.
Since nearly $500,000 will be raised from inside the police district, property taxes could increase there. But that’s up to the assessor’s office, said Town Clerk and Treasurer Emery Mattheis, and the office likely won’t be releasing next year’s tax bills until the fall. Part of the re-establishment of Randolph’s police department includes hiring new officers and administrators and standing up the technical infrastructure for crime-related databases—acts that are not easy and do not come cheap. The investment could allay the community’s worries about relying on the short-handed sheriff’s department.
Voters will look to fill four positions total on the selectboard on Town Meeting Day. Selectboard members Perry Armstrong and Patrick French will be stepping down from their roles, leaving two openings for the remainder of their terms.
Currently, Stephanie Tyler, who owns Third Branch Pottery Supply, is running unopposed for the two years remaining in French’s three-year term on the selectboard. Having lived in Randolph for the past 13 years, Tyler said she hopes to bring to the board the perspective of a parent with three children in the Randolph school system. And, she said, “having some females on the board is positive” for the community. Ericka Grygowski and Mitchell Harrness are running for the one year remaining on Armstrong’s three-year term.
Another two routine openings will fill out the ballot. Selectboard chair Trini Brassard and Vice Chair Lawrence Satcowitz are both running for re-election unopposed.
The highway, library, water, and wastewater funds and the general fund are also set to see increases. But all those proposed expenditures are going up by less than 10%, a significant difference from the police budget request. The general fund request of $3,686,210 (of which about $1.9 million is to be raised by taxes) is close to $243,180 more than it was last year, about a 7% increase.
Mattheis said those increases were routine adjustments to account for general upkeep such as highway management and zoning work.
Articles 8 through 26 account for special appropriation requests by a number of area organizations, including the Clara Martin Center, Capstone, the food shelf, and many others. They are nearly all the same as they were last year. The only difference is that the Randolph Area Food Shelf has upped its request from $2,500 to $5,000. A public hearing and informational meeting on the town budget and articles is set for Monday, Feb. 27 at 5 p.m. in the town offices. Residents can attend in person or virtually through a link on the town website.
Residents will vote on Town Meeting Day, March 7, at the town offices from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., where they will decide on Articles 1 through 26 by Australian ballot.
Randolph’s town meeting itself will take place the Saturday before Town Meeting Day, on March 4 at 10 a.m. At Chandler Music Hall, voters will tackle Articles 27 and 28 on the warning. The former is to hear reports from town officers and committees.
After that, four vacancies on the town’s budgeting committee are to be filled from votes on the floor. These include a term of three years, a term of two years, the remaining one year of a three-year term, and the remaining one year of a two-year term.
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