Dispatch from Williamstown - on lunch break

Argus reporter David Delcore just sent us this dispatch from Williamstown, where an earlier-than-usual lunch break was the only thing that prevented voters here from wrapping up the public portion of town meeting before the noon.
Both major municipal budget proposals, which total more than $1.5 million this year, were approved in a matter of minutes
Voters, who easily approved a $761,559 general fund budget and overwhelmingly rejected an attempt to trim $76,592 from the $776,592 highway fund budget, spent more time talking about a plan to finance a now-completed waterline project on Graniteville Road than they did either one of the town budgets.
Ultimately they approved a proposal, which involved reimbursing the town’s fire truck reserve fund $96,275 that was borrowed to buy an ambulance in 2008 and then turning around and loan $170,000 from that fund to finance the waterline project over eight years at 3 percent interest.
A proposal to forego the interest, which some viewed as an added burden for the town’s water users, was defeated and the plan advanced by the Select Board was approved.
During a particularly tame town meeting voters also agreed to appropriate $42,000 of a general fund balance to a public safety reserve fund, while using the balance to reduce taxes, and voted to appropriate $100,000 from a highway fund surplus to an equipment reserve, while earmarking the balance – more than $190,000 for future paving projects.
Voters agreed to recess the meeting at 11:30 a.m. though there wasn’t much in the way of business left to conduct.
Questions yet to be answered ranged from whether to appropriate $20,000 for the services of a part-time deputy sheriff to whether to grant a 100 percent tax exemption requested by the Loyal Order of Moose.
The meeting is scheduled to reconvene at 12:30 p.m., and the polls at Williamstown Middle High School will remain open until 7 p.m. Topping the list of questions voters will decide by Australian ballot this year is the fate of the $8 million budget proposed by the School Board.