$380,000

The amount of money above and beyond available CPA funds that Town Meeting is being asked to appropriate to purchase land/conservation restriction to preserve open space. Being new at reviewing the Warrant with a view toward having to vote on each article, I was initially confused about this item. In Article 20, part B in the section labeled 2) it states "raise, borrow and/or appropriate from available funds an additional $380,000 for the acquisition of said parcel of land and the conservation restriction, and to meet such appropriation with funds transferred and/or borrowed in accordance with M.G.L. c. 44B, the Community Preservation Act" This part B follows part A which states "To see if the Town will appropriate $150,000 from the Community Preservation Fund annual revenues or available funds for the purchase of land for open space purposes in South Amherst (Map 20D-51)."

After reading the very informative 2009 CPAC Report to Town Meeting, I understand more. The CPA fund will have $677,267 available in FY10. Of that amount, the CPAC is recommending the appropriation of $653,574 to be spent in FY10. $569,800 of that is requested in Warrant Articles 18, 19, and 20 Part A and another $83,774 goes to debt service on Plum Brook (still not available for play) and for the Town Hall masonry work. This report also contains helpful information that reminds us that 10% of new funds have to be spent each on affordable housing, historic preservation, and open space, has a map of the areas under consideration in Articles 19 and 20, and describes all projects in detail. It also mentions that Amherst only saw a 29% in matching funds from the Commonwealth in FY10. It does not, however, mention this additional $380,000.

Article 18 requests the appropriation of $344,800 from the Community Preservation Fund for a variety of projects, most of which fall under the category "historic preservation" and each project is described in the CPAC report. Article 19 requests the appropriation of $75,000 from the Community Preservation Fund for "the purchase of a Conservation Restriction in South Amherst(Map 23B, Parcel 45)."

The only related Article that is not well-defined is Article 20 which seems to require money from funds other than the Community Preservation Fund. Part B does go on to indicate possible methods of obtaining said money ("authorize the Treasurer, with the approval of the Select Board, to issue any bonds or notes that may be necessary for that purpose, as authorized by M.G.L. Chapter 44, or any other enabling authority"). I see that the April 27th Select Board meeting will include a discussion on their position on each of the articles and I look forward to the discussion of Article 20 so I can learn more.