MARION — From the appropriation of funds for a proposed harbormaster facility to stricter rules around picking up after a dog, Marion voters will decide on 12 items at the town’s Special Fall Town Meeting on Monday, Oct. 23 at 6:45 p.m. at Sippican Elementary School. 

The first item on the Town Meeting agenda would appropriate $922,000 for the construction of a new harbormaster facility on Island Wharf. 

Last May’s Town Meeting already allocated $700,000 to the project, and three grants from the Seaport Economic Council have funded the project for around $1.6 million. 

According to the Town Meeting agenda, the town will not borrow any money until the grant money allocated to the project has already been spent. 

The second article on the Town Meeting agenda asks voters to approve the appropriation of funds to support collective bargaining agreements and a 3% cost of living agreement for non-union town employees. 

According to Gorman, these funds will be transferred from line items in the existing town budget. He said that $75,000 will be transferred from group insurance, $10,000 will be transferred from water retained earnings, and $15,000 will be transferred from sewer retained earnings. 

Next, the town seeks to create an opioid remediation fund that will be used to pay for “future opioid-remediation programs,” according to the Town Meeting agenda. 

According to Gorman, the funds that will be contained within this account were paid out by the state after opioid manufacturers and distributors were sued in a class action lawsuit.

To date, Marion has received $30,864.97 from this payout that is currently sitting in the town’s “free cash” account. According to Gorman, Marion gets between $3,000 and $5,000 each month from the settlement. 

The fourth article will ask the town to appropriate $56,907 for the purchase and installation of a new communication system at Marion fire stations. 

“The current communication system that we have is obsolete, it’s over 20 years old,” said Gorman, who added that a project like this normally costs over $100,000 but an on-call communications specialist at the Marion Fire Department has managed to lower the price. 

The fifth article will ask the town to appropriate $12,000 for the purchase and installation of a new video and audio recording system in the Marion Town House. 

“We want to add video and audio capabilities back [to the Marion Town House conference room] so we can have meetings there,” said Gorman. Currently, the Marion Select Board holds the majority of its meetings in the Marion Police Station conference room. 

The sixth item on the Town Meeting agenda was proposed by the Marion Town Clerk and would require all elected or reelected, appointed or reappointed members of town boards or committees to be sworn in before they perform their duties.

Item eight on the Town Meeting agenda proposes that all citizens' petitions be delivered to the Select Board office no later than 60 days prior to a town meeting, unless otherwise established by the Select Board. 

The Select Board unanimously voted to recommend all articles on the Town Meeting agenda, expect for item nine, which passed, but received a dissenting vote from Select Board Chair Toby Burr.

Item nine on the Town Meeting agenda seeks to require “any person who owns a dog or has a dog under [their] care” in Marion to have a “means of removal of any fecal matter left by such dog.”

“I would vote against it because I think people who want to let their dogs out and let them poop are going to do it whether they’re required to have a bag or not,” said Burr. “I think … it’s an attempt to go after scofflaws and I don’t think it’s going to work and I think it’ll just create hard feelings.”

Items seven, 10, 11 and 12 all involve amendments to town bylaws. The Marion Special Fall Town Meeting agenda can be found online at marionma.gov.