MATTAPOISETT — The Mattapoisett Select Board and Finance Committee voted to recommend the first 23 of 31 items that will be on the Town Meeting agenda on May 8. 

The first 23 items include votes to approve raises for elected town officials, the town’s general operating budget of $32,405,674, a $160,000 appropriation toward the school assessment stabilization fund and a $1,176,650 appropriation for capital plan funding.

Of the appropriation for capital plan funding, $961,650 will come from the town’s free cash, $180,000 will come from the water retained earnings account and $35,000 will come from the sewer account.

Some of the larger capital plan expenditures include $250,000 for road improvements, $170,000 for a CAT backhoe and $85,000 to restore the library’s slate roof.

Items 24 through 29 on the town meeting agenda did not require a recommendation by the finance committee because they did not involve money. 

The Select Board chose not to make a formal recommendation of these items because they were put on the Town Meeting agenda by the Select Board themselves. 

They included amendments to Town General Bylaws that would see alternate members to the Capital Planning Committee, Finance Committee and Conservation Commission.

Item 25 would establish a Cemetery Commission that would be responsible for the “care and oversight of town cemeteries.”

Item 30 is a citizen’s petition to ban the sale of “nips,” which are defined as “alcoholic beverages in containers less than or equal to 100 milliliters.’

Item 31 is a citizen’s petition to encourage the Mattapoisett Select Board to “exit the unsigned agreement to place a photovoltaic system on the [town] landfill.”

According to Mattapoisett Town Administrator Mike Lorenco, an informational video going through each item on the Town Meeting agenda will be posted on the town website prior to May 8. 

This year’s Town Meeting will be held on Monday, May 8 in the Old Rochester Regional High School auditorium at 6:30 p.m.