Danvers Town Meeting: Budget, School Repairs, Water Projects Pass

DANVERS, MA – Funding for school repairs, technology improvements, emergency water connections and the Danvers Rail Trail extension were approved — along with the annual town budget — during a tidy Danvers Annual Town Meeting Monday night.

Twenty-nine articles passed at the socially distanced meeting held at Danvers High School — including a $106.8 million annual town budget.

Among the articles passed was the Article 7 Technology Plan for $250,000 toward computer upgrades in Danvers Schools and the town. The $100,000 for schools includes desktop replacements, an auditorium projector replacement and the replacement of outdated smartboards.

The $137,000 for technology allocations for the town includes $30,000 for upgrading the phone services for the senior center and archiving social media.

Also approved were $150,000 for a new school phone service to replace one that will no longer be supported and $65,000 for two school passenger vans.

Town meeting members approved $412,000 for what the warrant termed "necessary improvements" to the town's emergency water interconnections with Beverly and Peabody as well as $345,000 for an updated water reservoir valve at Danvers State Hospital to prevent overflow.

Article 19 will allow funds previously approved to extend the Danvers Rail Trail to Middletown to be diverted to other Rail Trail needs since grant money has been secured to support some of the original mission to extend the trail.

Repairs approved included $50,000 for copper roof replacement at the Holten Richmond Middle School, $27,000 for resurfacing of the Danvers High tennis courts and $27,500 of supplement funds to go toward a $177,000 project to renovate the Children's Barn at Endicott Park.

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(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)