Voters Explore Spending Requests

     Exercising what planning board member Dudley M. Jensen, unopposed for reelection on May 20, suggested was democracy as it was intended, about 70 people crowded into the Pocasset Village Association’s candidates night to educate themselves about election issues.
     When the tables from the potluck supper were cleared away Wednesday evening, village association President Robert T. Nealon and Master of Ceremonies John A. Johnson took the floor.
     While attendees had the chance to ask questions of the candidates, a fair share of the evening was spent discussing the library debt exclusion and police department override proposed this year.  
     Library Debt Exclusion
     Voters will be asked if the town can raise property taxes to cover the debt required to expand and renovate the library at Town Meeting, which begins Monday, and on the May 20 municipal ballot.
     Anne E. LaPlante, chairman of the library’s board of trustees, said library supporters had been working on the project since 2003, and had secured a state grant for $2.8 million of the $9.16 million project.
     Library building committee Chairman Anne-Marie Siroonian noted that the library’s only other attempt at the ballot box ended in a heartbreaking loss by only four votes, making it easier for supporters to come back before voters a second time.
     That previous election took place in conjunction with the selectmen’s recall election of August 9, 2006, at a time when voters were still mulling over the cost overruns involved with the Bourne elementary school.
     Candidates night attendees heard that the cost would have been $7.5 million in 2006, but was up to over $9.16 million now. At the same time, however, Ms. Siroonian said, the state grant money had been increased by 15 percent, from $2.4 million to $2.8 million.
     Library supporters have increased to $500,000 the amount they intend to raise toward the town’s share to the project.
     Jonathan Bourne Public Library Director Patrick W. Marshall showed residents the plans for the library, noting that the library’s 14,000 square feet of usable space would double with the renovation and expansion without taking away from the building’s historic façade. All new fields would be created, configured in such a way as to be safer and more accessible, library supporters said, and increased parking would be provided.
     Speaking from the floor, Stephen Walsh asked why the emphasis was on creating one huge library and not several satellite libraries in the villages.
     Mr. Marshall explained that the new library had been designed to operate without added staff by increasing visibility from central areas such as the circulation desk. Extra staff, and much more expense, would be required under the village library concept. Most towns are closing village libraries, not wiring them for the 21st century, he said. Service are hurt by providing multiple locations, Mr. Marshall said. “You can do a lot more with less,” including providing space for programming, with the larger central location, he said.
     Robert Armour of Cataumet asked whether the library would have to be closed during construction. Mr. Armour heard that the architect had estimated that construction would last about 18 months, and that at least part of the library would have to be closed from 10 to 12 months of that time.
     Ms. Siroonian said that when they had last investigated the possibility of moving some of the library’s operations out of its Sandwich Road home, they were looking at empty storefronts near the Grand Union and warehouse space in Sagamore, something not easy to find at this time.
     Targeted General Public Safety Override
     Acting Police Chief Earl V. Baldwin, who was invited to speak about the targeted override going first to Town Meeting and then the ballot, said he had an easier job than the library supporters, since he was only asking for about $370,000. That amount would add five new police officers to his department over the next two years.
     What voters are being asked to approve is a general override, one that would result in an annual tax increase going forward.
     Chief Baldwin said if the department had the suggested 2.2 officers for every 1,000 residents, it should have 44 people, he said.
     The biggest of the police department’s problems are a consequence of the town’s growth in population and the amount of traffic traveling through town, the chief said.
     Everything built in Wareham and Hyannis, not to mention down-Cape, increases Bourne’s traffic, he said.
     The override would fund five officers, possibly experienced transfers, as well as their handguns, equipment, uniforms, and academy training. That training costs about $2,500 each.
     “Why can’t we get the rest of the towns on the Cape to chip in?” one meeting attendee asked, adding that Bourne gets the brunt of all increased Cape traffic, but when Bourne wants something built, the answer is Bourne has “too much traffic.”
      “How about a toll booth?” another attendee joked.
     Jennifer B. Donovan of Monument Beach asked whether the addition of the new officers would reduce overtime costs.
     Chief Baldwin said that, in the past, officers on family medical leave or with on-the-job injuries resulted in ordered or forced overtime, with some officers working 70 or 80 hours a week, something that was a safety issue.
     One audience member asked if adding the five new officers would help stop the string of burglaries the town has been experiencing.
     Most of those, the chief said, seem to be drug-related crimes of opportunity, with items stolen from mostly unlocked cars. Keeping cars on the road, he said, is helpful because knowing who is often out and about in the middle of the night for no specific reason can help expand the list of usual suspects.
     Chief Baldwin is proud of some improvements that he says are coming to the department’s website, mapping out recent crimes, including larceny and breaking and entering cases. That map, he said, will let people see what time of day and where the incidents are occurring and give citizens a place to go to provide confidential information about what they may have seen in conjunction with those incidents.
     Often, he said, incidents form a circle, with the offender living or working in the center.