Barre Select Board splits 2-1 on Quabbin school budget, rejects all marijuana zoning bylaws

BARRE -- June 17, 2019, Barre Select Board split 2-1 on the Quabbin Regional School District's $5,679,580 operating budget assessment and voted unfavorable on all three competing marijuana zoning bylaws at its June 17 pre-Town Meeting session. Select Board member Mark Regienus cast the lone unfavorable vote on the school budget, calling the roughly 4 percent assessment increase unaffordable and pledging to bring a floor motion at the June 18 Annual Town Meeting to cap the increase at 1.58 percent, a figure Regienus said reflects what neighboring Hubbardston determined it could sustain; the other two members voted favorable on procedural grounds, arguing a vote against would risk a costly re-vote if arbitration lowers the number anyway. On marijuana, the board rejected the Planning Board's zoning bylaw (Article 27), a prior-version citizens' petition (Article 28), and a Bylaw Review Committee-adjacent citizens' petition (Article 29) as all too restrictive, with members urging Town Meeting attendees to bring stripped-down amendments permitting outdoor cultivation in the agricultural zone. A local host-community-agreement holder warned the board that failure to pass any bylaw would likely kill his development project and leave the town ungoverned as the state's legal marijuana market expands.