Truro is transitioning to in-person meetings, but remote access to all meetings continues. Go to truro-ma.gov and click on the meeting you want to watch for further instructions.
Tuesday, July 6
- Board of Health, 4:30 p.m.
Wednesday, July 7
- Planning Board, 5 p.m.
Thursday, July 8
- Housing Authority, 4:15 p.m.
Conversation Starters
Voters Like Old Ballot Box
During the over-four-hour annual town meeting on Saturday, Truro voters tackled a grab-bag of issues — affordable housing and child-care among them. But with so much on the docket, some less prominent articles deserve a mention here.
An advisory article seeking voter support for electronic vote counting machines failed. The select board wanted to ask voters whether they wished to replace the current hand-counting system. They did not.
Because the article was advisory in nature, the select board could still opt to implement the new automated counting system. The Truro Select Board voted in January 2020 to begin using an electronic tabulator but decided to reverse the decision and defer to town meeting after receiving a wave of emails in opposition to the change.
Select board vice-chair Kristen Reed said the results of the town meeting will likely be on the agenda of the next select board meeting, and that she would like to see a presentation on the advantages of the automated system.
For now, Truro will continue to use its traditional hand-cranked ballot box system, and volunteers will verify the count by hand.
Voters passed a petitioned article mandating the finance committee explain the tax impact of any future town meeting articles over $50,000. But there were a few problems: the article was nonbinding, and the finance committee chair said his committee already does it.
Cheryl Best, who was the petitioner of the article, said that she wanted to know more about how town meeting items will affect taxes — especially, she said, because her taxes have gone up 62 percent over the last decade.
Chair of the finance committee Robert Panessiti said his committee always examines financial warrant articles, which expend money outside of the yearly budget, and discuss tax impacts.
“While it’s great to hear from the citizenry that this is information you want, it is information that we always — as a matter of course — do provide,” Panessiti said. Still, the finance committee voted unanimously to recommend the article. —Ben Glickman