We're Live at Town Meeting

9:05 p.m.: Article 20, rescind authorized, unused debt.

They are discussing $750,000 related to the Community-Senior Center.

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Article 19 is town employee and personnel board accumulation and utilization of sick leave.

Martha White and Finance Director Michael Young have been taking questions about this article. The member who has been asking questions wants a number- a dollar amount. Young says he has one for the way the law is written now, but he does not have the new number with him tonight.

Foss looks incredulous at that answer by Young. The Town Meeting Rep. who asked the question has used up her three questions (I believe her name is Kathy, but didn't catch a last name), but Foss said he sees such an obvious important follow-up question that he will allow her another question.

Someone stands up and states that people should still support this. Selectman Josh Ostroff has now made a motion to table this article. He doesn't want it rejected, but said they can get the correct information and bring it back another night so people can take a look at it.

A majority just voted to table the matter. It will be brought up another night when the information is prepared.

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8:41 p.m: Article 18, unpaid bills.

Town Administrator Martha White said the town has no unpaid bills from past years, so no action is needed. Motion to take no action is a majority pass.

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8:15 p.m.: Article 16- a feasibility study of the Kennedy Middle School.

Coburn has the floor and is making a presentation at the podium. He is talking about the Master Study in which they looked at the schools that most needed a new building or renovations. Memorial and Johnson were the other two schools that were mentioned.

One thing Coburn said they look at is enrollment projections.

• Retention of students
• Births of Natick Residents
• People who move to town

The method used for the new high school projected 4,577 students in Natick for the 2012-13. This was done in 2009. The actual number this year in Natick Public Schools is 5,100.

Coburn is now talking about the process that they have been doing so far this year about Kennedy Middle School. On January 28 the Natick Public Schools sent a Statement of Interest to the Massachusetts School Building Authority. It may have been sent in April. Unsure, the last slide went by fast. Either way, it has been submitted.

Coburn says they want to be up-front with the town: other projects will come. There are other schools that are not up-to-code.

Moderator Frank Foss has the floor as Coburn has finished his presentation (lasted 13-14 minutes, was very informative in helping people catch up with what the school committee has done over the past several months in terms of building/renovating the Kennedy School).

Foss explains that before people ask question to look at the article carefully. He mentioned something about the scope not being that clearly defined.

Someone asked when Kennedy was built. A Representative in the front, middle section shouted out '64-65.

Question: Did the Master Study make a recommendation for which of the three schools should be replaced/renovated?

Coburn said that the Master Study gave lots of scenarios, but did not make a recommendation.

Question: How do we have a confident knowledge that we'll hear about the feasability study in the fall when we're not a priority one but a priority two?

No one steps up to answer the question. There may be some confusion. This is the third question by the same member regarding the master study or feasibility study. Foss asked her to rephrase and ask again because maybe people didn't understand. She did so and now Coburn is receiving a microphone.

Coburn, in pary: You go through your facility and you point out which parts match their criteria. He mentions something about air quality. He said that priority one or two doesn't change the time that the decision is made.

It goes to a vote. A whole lot of hands and it passes in a majority.

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8:10 p.m.: Article 15 is about a School Bus Transportation Subsidy Article. A Town Meeting member made a motion that it be moved to May 7 after another article about budget-related matters. School Committee Chairperson Dirk Coburn responded by stating that the Committee supports the article but sees no reason why it can't be moved to May 7.

An overwhelming majority votes to support moving the article.

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7:57 p.m.: There were a number of question regarding Article 14 to open up tonight Town Meeting. The questions were mostly for clarification purpose, as opposed to Representatives wanting to question the need for particular items or whether other ideas were looked into.

Article 14 is about Capital Improvements. There are 23 appropriated items under this article. It is divided into Motions A-F.

Motion A passed.

Motion B passed.

Motion C passed.

Note, for clarification and to make it easier to follow along, the Town of Natick has all of the documents related to Town Meeting here. The specifics of what is in each of the different capital improvement motions is in the Finance Committee Recommendation Book.

Motion D passed.

In case you didn't know, these motions require a two-thirds majority.

All of the motions in Article 14 passed.

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We'll be bringing you coverage of the second night of Town Meeting right here live.

Town Meeting is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m., and we'll provided you updates throughout the night from inside the Natick High School auditorium.