PHOTO BY PAULA MULLER
Lissa Keane, collects votes on the issue of whether to raise the salary of the town clerk at the annual Town Meeting in Nahant.
BY LEAH DEARBORN
NAHANT – Town Meeting postponed a $3 million expansion of Greenlawn Cemetery amid budget worries.
“It’s clear that we are not in an imminent crisis to move forward,” said Ken Carangelo, a Finance Committee member.
When the cemetery expansion was introduced a decade ago, it came with the expectations of state and federal funding. But the money never materialized.
Retiring Selectman Michael Manning said while there is still plenty of room for cremation burials in 5.7-acre site, space is running out for caskets.
By Manning’s estimate, the cemetery will be unable to accommodate more caskets by 2021. He urged voters to reconsider a solution at future town meetings.
Questions about spending and sustainable budgeting, which the Finance Committee defined as not spending more than the town takes in and not using every cent of free available cash, were cause for debate.
When Town Clerk Margaret Barile was granted a 69 percent raise by Town Meeting, a number of voters questioned where the money would come from given the tightly balanced budget.
Selectman Richard Lombard defended Barile’s $23,133 raise as “well-deserved and overdue.” He recommended Barile’s original proposal to take the money from the pension annuities expense fund.
“The pension annuities fund has never, ever gone over our estimate,” he said.
Despite objections, residents supported the bid to boost Barile’s salary to $56,709, up from $33,576.
Barile cited an increased workload and higher pay in comparable town clerk positions as motivation for seeking a raise.
Manning spoke at length about the importance of responsible spending and the dangers of relying on free cash to finance routine expenses.
“It’s like telling your kids ‘it’s okay, you’ve got a good job…It’s okay to go and spend more money than you actually make.’”
He added that the amount of money in the free cash fund changes annually and is meant to be used on one-time capital projects.
In response to the issue, the Financial Advisory Board created a plan to decrease Nahant’s free cash spending by $1.3 million over the next five years.
Voters also supported a measure to install a new security door at the Johnson Elementary School. They also unanimously moved to ban smoking from Nahant’s beaches.
Heather Goodwin of the Committee Towards Zero Waste supported the smoking ban, noting that there are hundreds, if not thousands of cigarettes on Nahant’s beaches. She said that 52 other towns in the state have already implemented some form of ban.
Despite the bright spring weather, Town Meeting and the Nahant Public Library book sale drew sizable crowds.