Of COURSE you’re going to Grafton Town Meeting Monday!

Town Meeting returns to the Grafton High School auditorium Monday night with a $72,953,856 operating budget for FY2023, a time-saving consent agenda, and the return of the ever-popular voting “clickers.”

Doors open for registration at 6:30 p.m. in the lobby, with the meeting set to convene at 7:30 p.m.

Town Administrator Evan Brassard noted last week that he and assistant William Blake spent considerable time replacing the batteries in the voter remote controls, which have been out-of-service since 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With Town Meeting now back indoors, the remotes are back in play and tested for accuracy,

While masking is optional, masks will be available for residents who request them and hand sanitizers will be placed at the microphones.

For the third time, a consent agenda will be used. A consent agenda’s purpose is to act expeditiously upon certain types of articles that historically have generated no controversy and can reasonably be voted upon without debate. With a consent agenda, several articles can be addressed with a single vote, thereby ensuring that a greater proportion of Town Meeting’s time is dedicated to articles that are the subject of genuine debate. 

When the Consent Agenda is called, the moderator will read out the number of each article, one by one. If one or more voters object to any particular article being included in the Consent Agenda, they may say “hold” in a loud voice when that article’s number is called. That article will then be removed from the Consent Agenda and restored to its original place in the Warrant, to be debated and voted upon in the usual manner.

The full Town Meeting warrant is below.

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