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Tax hike on Foxboro ballot




FOXBORO - Foxboro voters on Monday will elect two new selectmen, two school board members, two new Boyden Library trustees and a new town moderator.

Voters also will decide if they are willing to pay about half of the $20 million cost to repair Foxboro High School, which would trigger a $9.4 million state contribution to the long-planned project.

The ballot question will ask voters to approve a debt exclusion, which is a form of an override of the state's Proposition 2 1/2 tax-limiting law.

The polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the Ahern Middle School on Mechanic Street.

Town Clerk Robert Cutler - working his first annual town election since his election to that position last May - is expecting a roughly a 25 percent turnout among Foxboro's 10,572 registered voters. Cutler based this estimate on past voting patterns, the four contested races on the ballot, and the interest in the high school repair and renovation effort.

The candidates are:

Board of selectmen - Advisory Committee Chairwoman Lorraine Brue, 126 Mechanic St.; and School Committee members Larry Harrington, 39 Shoreline Drive, and Martha Slattery, 2 Joseph Road.

For school committee - Bruce Gardner, 1 Gilbert Lane; incumbent Kate Kominsky, 2 Farwell St.; and Ann McGrane, 31 Granite St.

Boyden Library Trustees - Kevin Penders, 2 Highland St.; Ellen Pillsbury, 20 Faxon St.; and Frances Theby Spillane, 11 Country Club Lane.

Voters will pick two candidates, for three-year terms, for each of those boards.

For moderator, Ellen McCarthy Garber, 3 Tara Ann Drive; Janet Kennedy, 45 Cocasset St.; and Francis J. Spillane, 11 Country Club Lane. Voters will pick one, for a one-year term.

School project

The school project has received widespread support and little public opposition. Superintendent Christopher Martes has continued a schedule of more than a dozen presentations, detailing the calculated energy savings - $129,000 per year - and many construction and financial details.

"These are all essential elements of a great high school (building)," Martes said during the last school board meeting. The work will take 30 months spanning three summer. It will include replacing the roof, windows, exterior doors, HVAC upgrades, new fire alarms and electrical, accessibility improvements, asbestos removal, installing a new gym floor and science lab renovations. Martes said taxpayers have the additional assurance that the Massachusetts School Building Authority's grant approval came only after its own standards for a building's needs and construction solutions were met.

The ballot question asks residents to pay the town's share of the costs to repair and/or renovate FHS. To be approved, the $10.4 million debt exclusion needs a simple majority on the ballot and a two-thirds vote at the May 11 annual town meeting.

Six candidates are unopposed.

Seeking three-year seats are: board of assessors, Michael K. Laracy, 91 Chestnut St.; water and sewer commission, Michael P. Stanton, 10 Shepherd St.; board of health, incumbent Paul A. Mullins; planning board, incumbent Kevin P. Weinfeld, 43 Granite St., and Gordon W. Greene, 23 Villa Drive.

Housing authority incumbent Harold H. Donnelly Jr., 6 Carmine Ave, is running unopposed for a five-year term.

 


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