Special Town Meeting 1/30 – Town Charter Changes

The Hopkinton Board of Selectmen has called a special town meeting to be held on Monday, January 30, 2017 at 7:00pm in the Hopkinton Middle School Auditorium. Residents will consider changes to the town’s charter as proposed by the Charter Review Committee. All articles or petitions proposed to be included in the special town meeting warrant must be received at the Board of Selectmen’s office no later than 2:00 PM on Friday, January 6, 2017. We will not have a full list of articles on the warrant until after January 6.

The Charter Review Committee held a public hearing on their recommended changes to the charter on December 7.  A YouTube video of the hearing is available on the Committee’s website.  Additional information is available in previous eHop posts tagged Charter Review Committee. The committee is recommending three significant changes to the charter.

Watch the Public Hearing on YouTube

Four More Classrooms for the New School:

At their meeting on January 5, the School Committee voted to put a placeholder article on the Special Town Meeting warrant appropriating up to $3 million to include 4 additional classrooms (and associated redesign costs) to the current school building project on Hayden Rowe Street. When the new school was proposed Hopkinton and the MSBA agreed in the fall of 2014 on an enrollment projection of 395 students. New enrollment projections from November 2016 now anticipate an enrollment of 485 students for the foreseeable future.

Hayden Rowe Street / Route 85 Traffic Study:

In November, the Selectmen & School Committee each voted to fund $20,000 in order to have technical studies done looking at how to improve traffic safety on Hayden Rowe Street, between the high school and Chestnut Street. If the study is completed in time, they may bring forward an article to implement any recommended traffic safety improvements at the January 30 Special Town Meeting. Read more on the MetroWest Daily News website.