By Scott Calzolaio

Amongst funding for a few town projects, renovations, and other items, the town of Upton approved an operating budget for fiscal year 2024 of $27,831,289 - a 4% increase over FY23 - during its May 4 Annual Town Meeting.

With the exception of two citizens’ petitions at the end of the warrant, Town Meeting was about paying bills and moving things further along in the downtown area.

To assist in moving things along, Article 35 addressed how many members were allowed on the Zoning Board. The article proposed changing the local zoning bylaw to raising the number of members from three to five. This was put forth by the Zoning Board with favorable action from the Planning Board. 

Planning Board member Paul Carey said this was proposed because they “were having trouble doing the job correctly” with just three people, and so much happening around town. The motion passed unanimously. The goal is to stagger the terms so there’s never an entirely new board elected at once. It’s unclear when two new members will be appointed to the new seats.

Funding was also approved for a much-needed walking bridge for public use across Warren Brook on the Robertson Family Conservation Restriction Area trail easement. The $120,000 allocation will be transferred from Community Preservation Act funds to the Land Stewardship Committee where the design phase is set to begin in 2024. 

There were two citizen petitions at the end of this year’s warrant, one was rejected and one was voted to be passed over.

 Article 36 was a citizens’ petition for the town to maintain possession of the Knowlton-Risteen building which has historically been home to the town museum and library, and was submitted by resident Linda Gay. Gay took the microphone making a motion to pass over the article “with regret” when it came up. She did not disclose the details but said those involved have been in touch with her on social media. The petition’s goal was to ensure the town maintained ownership over the building, and for it to continue being used as a place of community enrichment. It is unclear what the future of the Knowlton-Risteen building will be at this time.

The final citizen’s petition, put forth by resident Laurie Wodin, was to stop the town from investing and installing 5G wireless receivers across town, as well as halting other “small cell” technology, alleging the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has not done its due diligence in researching the effects of this technology on humans, born and unborn.

The idea was not to halt the barrage of new technology, but to slow it down so there is more time to understand the effects it might have, Wodin said during her presentation.

Some Massachusetts towns like Waltham and Lexington have already taken similar actions, halting the progress of 5G through their communities until more research can be presented. The motion was met with unfavorable action by the Technology Committee, and it did not carry. 

To see descriptions of all the town’s warrant articles, visit bit.ly/UptonATM2023warrant. To see the meeting in its entirety, visit bit.ly/UptonATM2023recording.