Politics & Government
Salaries for Elected Officials and Meal Tax Approved; Senior Center Passed.
Canton Annual Town Meeting to be continued on Wednesday night at 7pm at Canton High School.
Editor's note: Article 13, motion 9, allowing for a new senior center, was passed at ATM Monday night. An earlier version of this story wrongly stated that Article 23, allowing for a senior assisted living facility, was voted on at ATM on Monday night.
Monday night was the first night of Canton's Annual Town Meeting. Voters authorized $650,000 in funds for a new senior center, Article 13, motion 9 at the Knights of Columbus Hall, 500 Pleasant St. The town will purchase the K of C Hall for $450,000, from funds that were authorized for a new senior center at a Special Town Meeting in 2005. On Monday, ATM also authorized $200,000 to be transfered from the overlay surplus to be used to renovate the hall.
If you serve on the planning board, school committee or as a library trustee, you will not receive a salary in FY13, yet elected part-time officials to the board of assessors will receive $2,400 for each member; the members of the board of health will each receive $600 and selectmen will each receive $1400, with the chairman receiving $1600 in pay, as approved at last night's town meeting.
Find out what's happening in Cantonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Although the salaries are described as "low" in Warrant Article 7, part-time employees receiving a salary are able to qualify for the town's health insurance program. Currently two elected officials are participating in the town's health insurance plan at an annual cost totaling $10,000.
Town Meeting voted for the Local Option Meals Tax, Article 44, a .75 percent tax on the sales of restaurant meals that will take effect July 1, 2012. The town estimates that the tax would raise an additional $25,000 to $30,000 to Canton's coffers. On average, a restaurant patron would pay an additional 37 cents on a $50 check.
Find out what's happening in Cantonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Voters approved most of the 33 articles they voted on last night, tabling zoning articles and indefinitely postponing the vote on whether to accept Historical Way as a town road.
There are 13 articles left for town meeting to consider when it resumes on Wednesday night at 7:00pm at Canton High School.
Articles 20 and 21, the redevelopment of the Plymouth Rubber property on Revere Street into mixed residential and commercial use will likely come before voters on Wed. night.
