MARION — Voters filed into the Marion Music Hall on Tuesday, May 3 to get the lowdown from town officials on what would be included in the upcoming Town Meeting scheduled for Monday, May 8.

This year’s Town Meeting agenda is made up of 34 items that range from standard “housekeeping” votes to allow the Marion Select Board to accept grants for the town, to items that ask the town to purchase new fire department equipment.

Residents will be asked to vote on Marion’s Fiscal Year 2024 town operating budget. The proposed $27,516,635 budget is a 4.6% increase from last year.

Mooney noted that one of the biggest pieces of Marion’s financial pie, the town’s $12.64 million education budget, has seen significant increases and decreases over the past year.

According to Mooney, the town no longer has any students enrolled in the Bristol County Agricultural High School, but has five additional students enrolled at Upper Cape Cod Regional Technical High School.

Mooney also noted that the town’s public safety budget has increased by 5.5%. She said this can be attributed to a new School Resource Officer position that was included in the police department budget.

Marion resident Alan Menard raised concerns over the cost of a new $1.2 million ladder truck that would replace the Marion Fire Department’s current 1991 model.

He asked if a ladder truck was necessary in Marion because the town has height restrictions on buildings.

According to Marion Fire Chief Brian Jackvony, a ladder truck is necessary because modern houses are set back further from the street, requiring a ladder to cover more horizontal distance in addition to vertical distance.

The truck, which is rolled into an item asking residents to vote on capital expenditures, is sorely needed, said Marion Fire Chief Brian Jackvony.

“We spent an average of just under $15,000 per year” for maintenance on the current ladder truck, said Jackvony. “It’s not feasible to continue to repair.”

Items nine through 19 ask the town to fund various Community Preservation Committee projects including the preservation and digitization of materials held by the Sippican Historical Society, the preservation of veterans’ gravestones, the construction of pickleball courts on Point Road and the funding of gardens and outdoor classroom space at Sippican School.

Marion Resident Stephen Nojeim asked if the town could save money on items 11, 18 and 19 by
“farm[ing] out” preservation work to volunteers.

“I’d like to understand how it’s being done, what the money is going to, and whether it has been considered to have volunteers do it,” said Nojeim.

Item 11 would allocate $35,000 from the Community Preservation Act fund to update and expand the Marion Historic and Cultural Resource Inventory. Item 18 would allocate $17,500 from the same fund to inventory collections at the Marion Natural History Museum. Item 19 would allocate $30,000 to preserve materials at the Sippican Historical Society.

“These people are professional archivists and they’re trained to do this,” responded Community Preservation Committee Chair Jeff Doubrava. “In some cases they’re dealing with items that are irreplaceable, old and have to be handled a certain way.”

Marion’s Town Meeting will be held at Sippican School on Monday, May 8 at 6:45 p.m. The complete agenda for Marion’s upcoming Town Meeting can be found online at www.marionma.gov.