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On Wednesday, May 7, Sudbury Town Meeting rejected a Citizen Petition that would have cut the Community Preservation Act surcharge from 3% (the maximum) to 1.5%. The vote was 32 in favor and 163 opposed to the article. The vote came on the third and final night of Sudbury’s Annual Town Meeting.
With 84% of Town Meeting voters rejecting the petition, even with lower turnout than the first two days of Town Meeting, the Town’s legislative body sent a clear message. It supports this program enthusiastically. The hall was also tasked with voting on five CPA-funded articles, and all of them passed by similar or greater margins.
Discussion in the hall was robust. Multiple committees, commissions and boards had prepared formal statements opposing the article. Several residents weighed in as well. Two residents spoke in favor of the article, but they were vastly outnumbered by residents who offered impassioned pleas to defeat the article.
Sam Markuse is a member of the Community Preservation Committee in Sudbury, but spoke as a private citizen. His comment opened with a bit of humor, but turned serious quickly. He emphasized how little taxpayers would save with this cut, and how much they would lose in the types of projects that he felt made Sudbury the town that it is today. He evoked the character of the town, and cited how the Community Preservation Act funds help to preserve and advance it.
Select Board member Janie Dretler offered her thoughts as a resident, delivering unapologetically firm opposition to the article and total support for the Community Preservation Act. She explained what she saw as the negative municipal finance ramifications of the proposed cut in simple, clear terms.
John Drobinski, a former Select Board member and current chair of the Rail Trails Advisory Committee, told the hall that these funds were critical to making Sudbury look the way it looks today. He emphasized the importance of these funds in bringing the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail, a project that has been transformative for the town, to fruition.
Jan Hardenbergh, who serves as Town Historian, but was speaking as a private citizen, presented an exhibit of a muster roll of Captain John Nixon’s Company of Minute Men. He explained how CPA funding helped preserve it, evoking Sudbury’s sense of pride for its history and role in the American Revolution.
Cheers and applause bubbled up once the article was defeated. The energy in the hall made it clear: Sudbury is all-in on the Community Preservation Act.
