A decision on whether Rochester will hold a Special Town Meeting was delayed at Monday night’s Selectmen meeting.

The draft Special Town Meeting agenda contains two items: the $603,000 bond (Rochester’s share is $224,124) to fund the Old Rochester Regional School District’s five-year capital improvement plan, and a second article that would reinstate the required Town Meeting quorum from 100 to 75 registered voters.

At Monday’s meeting, the Finance Committee endorsed proceeding with the bonding process for ORR’s capital plan, which would allow the town to borrow funds over a five-year period to pay for improvements, something Marion and Mattapoisett have also agreed to do. The Finance Committee has received assurances from ORR Facilities Manager Gene Jones that the capital plan was thoughtfully conceived, and that ORR would not come back before the board for additional capital spending requests for some time.

Jones, in fact, told Finance Committee members that he feels the plan is good for 10 years.

But with the absence of Selectmen Chair Richard Nunes at the meeting, Selectman Naida Parker did not support going ahead with the lending process that will be used to pay for the plan in coming years. Without that decision squared away, the Selectmen could not vote on the Special Town Meeting agenda.

The other item on the Special Town Meeting agenda addresses an issue that came up at year's Annual Town Meeting. In 2014, the required number of Town Meeting voters was raised from 75 to 100. The 2015 annual meeting only had 91 participating residents, something that was not realized until after the meeting.

Once the error was found, the town had to petition state legislation for a waiver to uphold the votes.

Since then, the Special Town Meeting had been postponed twice – first from its original scheduled time of Nov. 30, 2015, and again in March because the 2015 Annual Town Meeting votes hadn't yet been ratified by the state.

Town Administrator Mike McCue, who previously recommended that the town forgo the Special Town Meeting, stressed the need to make a decision urgently, noting that it would need to take place before May 20.

After some discussion, the board tentatively agreed that it would reconvene with the Finance Committee on Thursday.

A meeting has been posted for Thursday, April 14 at 11 a.m. to discuss the ORR issue again.