Special Town Meeting warrant articles pertaining to spending money in town have received the blessing of the Sandwich Finance Committee, including capital expenditures for new fire department apparatus and golf
SANDWICH A new budget, a commercial plastic water bottle ban and a request to help restore a historic meetinghouse are among the items that passed muster with town meeting voters Monday.
Just over 200 residents showed up to this year s spring session, held Monday night in the Sandwich High School gymnasium. COVID-19 safety measures were in place, including mask-wearing and social distancing.
Fiscal 2022 budget
Voters approved an $82,431,491 budget for the coming fiscal year, which starts July 1.
Town Administrator George Bud Dunham said town officials adopted an approach of “patience, prudence and, most importantly, flexibility in preparing the new budget, which represents about a 3% increase over the current fiscal year.
Staring in January, the retail sale of water in single-use plastic bottles will be forbidden in Sandwich.
That is what voters at Town Meeting decided Monday night, May 3, after what amounted to the only lengthy debate of the evening.
âI am beyond thrilled,â said Mary Cote, Sandwich spokeswoman for the environmental group sponsoring the bottle ban. âI had a feeling it would pass when I saw all the people coming in with their reusable water bottles.â
The ban applies only to single-use, personal-sized plastic bottles of water. More specifically, it will curtail the sales and distribution of all plastic bottles that contain less than a gallon of non-carbonated, unflavored drinking water, according to the petition re-filed this year by the Brewster-based group Sustainable Practices.